Alex Kassian's extended rendition of E2–E4 promises a 12-minute electronic odyssey, tailor-made for diverse dancefloors from it’s spiritual home Ibiza and beyond. On the flip side, Mad Professor embarks on a club-oriented version excursion, a rare gem in its own right. This reimagining breathes new life into the classic, offering fresh perspectives for music aficionados everywhere. Hot tip for release of the Summer!

TRACK LISTING

A1. E2–E4
B1. E2–E4 (Mad Professor’s Qantas Crazy Remix)

After a 10-year hiatus, Balearic Mike and Kelvin Andrews return to continue the journey of the Balearic Beat with another edition of their distinguished Down To The Sea And Back compilation series, presenting a formidable new set of rare and obscure records.

With Vols. 1 and 2, the well loved duo showed us that not only are they serious collectors but chroniclers of a scene, assembling lost gems and unheard marvels into Balearic mythology. Reaping, along the way, accolades such as Piccadilly Records’ Compilation of the Year, and featured on Lauren Laverne’s BBC6 Music show. For Vol. Tres, Mike and Kelvin team up with Copenhagen-based Music For Dreams label – themselves no strangers to the Balearic archives. The compilation features 16 tracks, every selection accompanied by an essential background story in the liner notes of the gatefold vinyl and CD booklet.

As fellow comrade and beloved friend Luke Una puts it: “From Greek acid folk, Balearic bossa, outsider pop and electronic chug, to cosmic machine soul, majestic songs, odd numbers, proto-techno new wave to dubbed out 5am technoid, bass buggin deepness and ethereal outer-space Detroit via San Francisco. This album is a story. A story from the heart, with over three decades digging and grafting in the trenches. In a world of faux, pastiche, counterfeit and aggrorhythm fakes, it oozes a wholesome intuitive authenticity. Majestic songs, odd numbers, cosmic dreaming and late night astral travelling as we all hold on together.” 

TRACK LISTING

A1 Josete Ordonez - Objetos Perdidos (Dagobert Böhm Version)
A2 Robert Williams - I Believe You're The One
A3 Lee Ryda - Electro Eyes
A4 Francisco - Heal Yourself
B1 Vidderna - Villfarelser
B2 Meo - Cikuana
B3 The Emperor Machine - Dying By Wits (Original Mix)
B4 Tri Atma - Yummy Moon (Long Version)
B5 Pressure Drop - Unify /Rip Up (instrumental)
C1 Enzo Carella - Malamore
C2 Ad Vissar & Daniel Sahuleka - Giddyap A Gogo
C3 Le Couleur - Underage (Original Mix)
C4 Sunshine Jones - Fall In Love Not In Line (Extended Vocal Version)
D1 Car Crash Set - Fall From Grace
D2 Len - Steal My Sunshine (Version Idjut)
D3 Mcraft - She Sells Sanctuary

LAST REMAINING COPIES!!

The Flightpath Estate in association with the Golden Lion have compiled a double vinyl album.

'Sounds From the Flightpath Estate'

9 exclusive tracks plus a previously unavailable Two Lone Swordsmen track. An exclusive cover of 'Smokebelch' by Andy Bell plus one-off recordings by Hardway Bros, Timothy J. Fairplay, Justin Robertson, Richard Sen, Sons Of Slough, Rude Audio, 10:40 and a world renowned Belfast based DJ and producer.

The Flightpath Estate is a Facebook group dedicated to the music, art and work of Andrew Weatherall. It began life in 2013 and has become a virtual home to his fans, friends and family. It is also the host of the Weatherdrive - thousands of hours of recordings of Andrew Weatherall’s DJ sets, mixes and radio shows.

'Sounds From The Flightpath Estate' is a compilation celebrating people and places, the outlook, aesthetic and music Andrew Weatherall was known for, and the sense of community and love of music centered around The Golden Lion.

The sounds are forward thinking, created with a deep understanding of the music of the past but future facing, dance floor oriented and made with love.

----------

Limited edition double black vinyl, 500 copies only. Gatefold jacket with notes.

----------

Mastered by Andrew Liles

Sleeve art by Personality Crisis

Labels by Walter Russ

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: The first full length compilation to arrive from the creative hub / musical ashram that is The Golden Lion in Todmorden. Working with Andrew Weatherall’s friends, family and collaborators (plus two large online communities), the compilation even includes an unreleased Two Lone Swordman track and will likely be one of the most sought after releases on this incredibly strong and prolific label.

TRACK LISTING

A1 - Two Lone Swordsmen - The Crescents
A2 - Sons Of Slough - Red Machine (GL Soundcheck)
A3 - Timothy J. Fairplay - Centurion Version

B1 - Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33's - Curtains Twitch On Peaks
B2 - Richard Sen - Tough On Chug, Tough On The Causes Of Chug

C1 - Rude Audio - Running Wild
C2 - 10:40 - Three Rings

D1 - Hardway Bros - Theme For Flightpath Estate
D2 - The Light Brigade - Human : Remains
D3 - Andy Bell - Smokebelch II

Beth Gibbons releases her debut solo album Lives Outgrown on Friday the 17th of May 2024. Featuring 10 beautiful new songs recorded over a period of 10 years, the album was produced by James Ford & Beth Gibbons with additional production by Lee Harris (Talk Talk).

Lives Outgrown is, by some measure, Beth’s most personal work to date, the result of a period of sustained reflection and change — “lots of goodbyes,” in Beth’s words. Farewells to family, to friends, even to her former self. These are songs from the mid-course of life, when looking ahead no longer yields what it used to, and looking back has a sudden, sharper focus.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning selection of downbeat-infused instrumentals, woozy psychedelic folk and Gibbons' unmistakeably emotive vocal prowess. It's brilliantly composed, deeply personal and impeccably sequenced. It's a big relief honestly, because this further cements Gibbons as a musical legend in her own right.

TRACK LISTING

1. Tell Me Who You Are Today   
2. Floating On A Moment        
3. Burden Of Life        
4. Lost Changes          
5. Rewind
6. Reaching Out          
7. Oceans          
8. For Sale        
9. Beyond The Sun  
10. Whispering Love 

25th Anniversary Edition of the pioneering Bristol trio’s album, Roseland NYC Live; recorded and filmed at New York’s Roseland Ballroom with a 28-piece orchestra in 1997, and released in 1998.

The live album and concert film combined have sold over 1 million copies to date, and features performances of the most acclaimed tracks, ‘Glory Box’, ‘Sour Times’, and ‘Roads’, from their debut and sophomore albums, Dummy and Portishead.

Newly remastered, the tracklist has been expanded to include ‘Undenied’ and ‘Numb’ from the concert film, as well as the full length performance of ‘Western Eyes’, which played in part over the credits of the film.

‘Sour Times’ and ‘Roads’ are also now the original Roseland versions (previously substituted on the album release with recordings from other performances). All 5 of these tracks will be on CD and vinyl for the first time.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
Side A
Humming
Cowboys
All Mine
Side B
Mysterons
Only You
Half Day Closing
Over
Side C
Glory Box
Sour Times
Roads
Side D
Strangers
Undenied
Numb
Western Eyes

CD Tracklisting:
Humming
Cowboys
All Mine
Mysterons
Only You
Half Day Closing
Over
Glory Box
Sour Times
Roads
Strangers
Undenied
Numb
Western Eyes

From the psychedelic soaked streets of Stretford and the mind of Lewis Olsen aka Psychederek comes his next Sprechen E.P. as everyone's favourite cosmic cosmonaut returns with ALT! 4 tracks of spaced-out sound collages where electronic & rock music meet in the middle to create an explosion of avant-garde hypnotic rave soundscapes.

Title track ALT! has a massive doff of the cap to the driving forces of Krautrock, where Lewis' vocal soars atop stacks of guitars & synths and a solid drumbeat keeps you on track.

'Nowhere To Nowhere' breaks out of the gate with a full spin of the private psychedelic reel, a track that seemingly has no beginning, middle or end but which draws you in from the get-go with stacked guitars & synth lines, a thumping one note bass line, snappy percussion, and a totally far out vocal breakdown.

'Hapi' is a stunning stripped-back big bag of blissfullness with soaring synths & arp lines buddy up with a heart tugging 4 note key lines & guitar plucks alongside a reverb drenched vocal sound from heaven.
Coming across like the soundtrack as you reach the pearly gates whilst also harking back to the true balearic sound of the 70's. There are not enough sunsets in the world would do this justice.

What better way to finish things off than with a cover version of what is probably one of THE staples of the acid house 2nd Summer of love era as Psychederek gives the 808 State classic a full psych rework!
A fave from his live performances, the Manchester anthem is ripped right up to deliver a swoosh filled assault on the senses where pads, synths, guitars & even more synths all stacked and set firmly to 'wow man!' and kept tightly on track by the sublime drumming of Donald Johnson from A Certain Ratio.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Already causing a big stir on the local scene with DJs gifted upfront promos. It's all about that cover of "Pacific State" - absolute genius from this wildcard Stretford maverick. Get them orders in quick!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Alt!
A2. Nowhere To Nowhere
B1. Hapi
B2. Pacific State

Khruangbin’s fourth studio album, A La Sala (“To the Room” in Spanish), is an exercise in returning in order to go further, and doing so on your own terms. It continues the mystery and sanctity that is the key to how bassist Laura Lee Ochoa, drummer Donald “DJ” Johnson, Jr. and guitarist Mark “Marko” Speer approach music. If 2020’s Mordechai, the last studio LP Khruangbin made without collaborators, was a party record that enhanced the band’s musical reputation far and wide, then A La Sala is the measured morning after. It’s a gorgeously airy record completed only in the company of the group’s longtime engineer Steve Christensen, with minimal overdubs. It’s a window onto the bounties powering Khruangbin’s vision, a reimagining and refueling for the long haul ahead. A La Sala scales Khruangbin down to scale up, a creative strategy with the future in mind.

The trio’s collective musical DNA, the years spent constructing it in Houston’s local-meets-global cultural stew, ensures the band continues to sound like no one but itself. A cascade of crisp melodies emanates from Marko’s reverb-heavy electric, dancing gently around Laura Lee’s minimalist almost-dub bass triangles, while DJ’s drums serve as the tightened-up pocket and unwavering dance-floor on which all this movement takes place. Yet there’s a freshness to A La Sala’s instrumental interactivity, less concerned with getting further out than going deeper in, a profound desire to celebrate the world’s external wonders. Where prior albums strived towards music’s polyglot edges, such inquiries now sound like beloved intimacies. Here, Khruangbin’s sonic touch-points — whether spaghetti-western film scores (on “Fifteen Fifty-Three”), West African discos (on “Pon Pón”), G-funk fantasias (“Todavía Viva”), living room dancing moments (the first single, “A Love International”), or even ambient found-sounds (on “Farolim de Felgueiras and throughout the album”) — are ingrained characteristics. This is who they are! Unique and huge (and growing), ambitious and driven.

Khruangbin’s aspirations and commitment to playful creativity even extends to A La Sala’s vinyl packages, of which there will be seven distinctive covers and color-sets. Designed by the band using Marko’s multitude of travelog photos, the images are windows from the band’s living room onto a set of daydreams, scenes of impossible skies, external glances that illuminate what is going on inside. Each cover image comes with a matching color vinyl. These too are all about looking out and looking back, in order to better look ahead.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: The inimitable Khruangbin bring us another slice of beautifully rendered, loungey ambient jazz. Swimming with atmosphere and as perfectly performed as you'd expect from the Texan trio. Beautifully evocative and warmly hazy instrumental business.

TRACK LISTING

1.Fifteen Fifty-Three
2.May Ninth
3.Ada Jean
4.Farolim De Felgueiras
5.Pon Pón
6.Todavía Viva
7.Juegos Y Nubes
8.Hold Me Up (Thank You)
9.Caja De La Sala
10.Three From Two
11.A Love International
12.Les Petits Gris

Jason Boardman's Before I Die are back with a new selection in a relaxed & spectacular fashion.

Introducing KlangKollektor aka Lars Fischer, a solo project by the drummer with the Psychedelic Cumbia band Trak Trak from Nurnberg. This debut release from KlangKollektor has been developing for some time, liberated from Lars' hard drive and mastered by the Franconian Conny Plank - Frank Mollena (Bambi Davidson) the release channels the pioneering spirit of dub and places it in a present context. 

A stellar collection of seven dubwise tracks over 4 sides with a techno and Balearic influence that's been on eagerly awaited by all who caught onto the label head's contagious enthusiasm. 

All synths, programming, pianos, bass, percussion, dub mixing, editing & mixing by Lars Fischer.
Cover image courtesy of renowned German photographer - Thomas Bergner @thomas.bergner
Sleeve Design by Yasmin - Small Press @smallpressstudio
Final Mix and Mastering by Frank Mollena

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Another heartfelt release from BiD. Klangkollektor take King Tubby's to the White Isle / Adriatic via the echo chambers of K&D or the futurist studios of Düsseldorf or Detroit. An intersection of sonic ley lines delivered in a languid, dreamlike state that takes you on a real head trip.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Garden Pond
A2. Lake Lounge
B1. Midnight Express
B2. Tabarca
C1. Evening Post
C2. Globulus
D. Baund

The now infamous, still anonymous Soup cartel return with volume three of the cult series. 

Four more cuts that delve deep into low slung discoid deviance. Never letting the tempo dictate the energy, instead relying heavily on mood, obscurity and rhythm. The only one I recognize out of this lot is the Greg Wilson favourite "XR7 - xr7 instrumental"; but the other three cuts are equally enticing.

Essential stuff for those who like to get closer to the edit - RIYL: Andi Hanley, Greg Wilson, COMBI,  Eros etc etc. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Swiftly onto their third dish, the illusive Soup collective dish out four more well blended bowls of sonic goodness. Tweaks and re-edits for the more adventurous DJ!

Fontaines DC, Massive Attack and Young Fathers have announced the pre-order release of an exclusive, limited edition vinyl record in support of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) emergency operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

*The 12” vinyl only release, features material from Fontaines DC, and Massive Attack/Young Fathers, and a ceasefire sleeve design by 3D of Massive Attack. 

The reverse sleeve of the 12” features words written on a hospital whiteboard in Gaza by Doctors Without Borders medic Dr Mahmoud Abu Nujaila – words which went viral on global social media - depicting the desperation of medical professionals and civilians in Gaza. Tragically, Dr Nujaila was killed in a strike a few weeks later.

"WHOEVER STAYS
UNTIL THE END
WILL TELL THE STORY,

WE DID WHAT WE COULD.
REMEMBER US"

Despite repeated deadly attacks on its staff, medics, surgeons, and aid conveys, Doctors Without Borders volunteers continue to offer critical support to the civilians of Gaza.

Fontaines DC, Massive Attack and Young Fathers have donated their music in full support of the incredible Doctors Without Borders staff working in Gaza today, as a statement for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the West Bank, and in solidarity with the Palestinian people living under a brutal military occupation.

Fontaines DC, Massive Attack & Young Fathers will donate 100% of the profits from this promotional venture to Médecins Sans Frontières (UK - charity number: 1026588) emergency operations in Gaza and the West Bank. The total donation is expected to be in excess of £150,000.

3D (Massive Attack) said: "The hourly scenes of horror in Gaza, with hospitals and schools bombed to dust and innocent civilians, journalists and doctors killed in unspeakable numbers has been made so much worse by more than ten weeks of abject political failure.
We're in awe of the Doctors Without Borders medics who place their lives on the line to help innocent civilians in Gaza. The ceasefire EP is a tribute to them, and their incredible ongoing work in truly indescribable circumstances. We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine”

Fontaines DC said: “Fontaines DC join millions across the world in demanding an immediate ceasefire and a permanent end to Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine. Since October, Doctors Without Borders have been on the ground in Gaza, where every human is an IDF target, risking their lives to give vital care to the thousands injured by Israel's indiscriminate attacks on the starving and defenceless. We feel utterly helpless in what we can do at this point however we do hope our small contribution to this record can raise some desperately needed funds for Doctors Without Borders in Gaza. Ceasefire Now. Free Palestine”

Natalie Roberts, MSF Executive Director said: “After more than two months of war, Israel’s unrelenting and indiscriminate strikes on Gaza have caused unprecedented and catastrophic levels of civilian harm. Nowhere is safe. Hospitals that are overflowing with the sick and wounded are coming under fire or being raided by Israeli forces, killing doctors, health workers, colleagues. Our teams continue to do what they can without even the basic guarantees of safety. We desperately want to do more, but for that we need an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Huge thanks to Massive Attack, Fontaines DC and Young Fathers for all their support.”

*Copies have been packed using different combinations of coloured vinyl and sleeves. All orders are selected at random.

A relentlessly curious DJ, producer, radio presenter, curator, remixer, audiophile and host, Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy is unquestionably dance music’s renaissance woman. This third instalment of her hugely acclaimed compilation series is another sunshine-soaked homage to that most amorphous of aural outposts – Balearic. Here there are no rules, just an ever-shifting musical essence that echoes Jose Padilla’s assertion that Balearic is not a sound, but rather a way of life. A spirit.

Most of these tracks have never been available on vinyl before, the others are long out of print. 

TRACK LISTING

1.Jonathan Wilson - Desert Raven
2. Jacob Gurevitsch - Elevation In Minor (Cosmodelica Remix)
3. Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra - San Diego (Tour Werks After Hours Mix)
4. Quintus Project - Night Flight (Original)
5. Pigeon - Infinity (Josh’s Extended Disco Mix)
6. Shunt Voltage - Generator
7. Mildlife - Return To Centaurus (Prins Thomas Diskomiks)
8. David Holmes Featuring Raven Violet - Stop Apologising (Cosmodelica Instrumental)
9. Zero 7 - On My Own (12" Version)
10. Primal Scream - Uptown (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Angels With Dirty Faces is a haunting album from a tortured soul. Unrelenting oddly enough itís a beautiful albumî PITCHFORK (8.2/10) ìTricky has been redefining his rhythms, adding skittering jungle loops and hardcore hip-hop beats to his trademark dub-warped trip-hop. On top of that, heís expanding his sonic palette, adding cheap synthesizers and avant-garde guitarists to create a nightmarish junk-pile of hip-hop, dub, electronica, rock, and gospelî ALLMUSICìA renegade Brit B-boyís caustic, lyrical declaration of selfÖ. trip-hopís mongrel daddy found his hip-hop soulî ROLLING STONE Trickyís 2nd most sought-after vinyl LP, repressed for the first time, exclusively on orange coloured vinyl. The 2LP includes 2 tracks not included on the original CD release: Peyote Sings + Taxi. Martina Topley-Bird is once again on vocal duties but also featured are English singer-songwriter PJ Harvey (on ìBroken Homesî), Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian (on ìCarriage for Twoî) plus Marc Ribot adds his twisted guitar lines to a number of tracks. Continuing Trickyís penchant for covering hip-hop tracks ëAngelsÖí features a cover of Slick Rickís ìThe Moment I Fearedî. A success across Europe, in AUS and NZ, it also sold over 100,000 units in the USA.

Great music is often about chance meetings and impromptu creative sessions and so it is that Hell Yeah proudly serves up Sensory Blending, a new collaborative album from Italian collective Aura Safari and Finnish musician Jimi Tenor. The nine-track record is a lush and luxurious fusion of jazz-funk styles.

This glorious record came about after Tenor was playing a Hell Yeah party at Tangram in Perugia. Aura Safari were local and, in some free time the day before the gig, everyone jumped in the studio together. They had never met before but soon found plenty of free-flowing common ground and the result of that one-off session is now served up on this vibrant new album that brims with musicality, indelible melodies and subtly uplifting vibrations.

Tenor has toured the world and previously collaborated with the likes of Japanese master Calm. He is a psychedelic space-jazz-funk king, skilled musician, composer and producer who, since the mid-nineties, has released more than 25 albums and 45 EPs. Aura Safari is made up of bass, synth, guitar and keys players Lorenzo Francioli, Ruggero Bonucci, Nicola Pitassio Andrea Moretti, Lorenzo Lavoratori, Daniele Melloni and Nicholas Iammatteo, and they are label regulars who served up their sublime Island Dreams album here last year.

Says Jimi, who enjoyed his time in Perugia and adds that 'the studio session was 100% efficient. I showed up and we started to play. Almost all that was made was material that we could use for the album. I love to work fast. Quick brushstrokes. Finish! I was amazed at how intuitively the Aura Safari guys could come up with new parts for songs. I mentioned some feeling or approach and they seemed to find it just like that.'

'Bodily Synesthesia' is the seductive opener with steamy sax notes and gentle grooves that are topped by aloof vocal whispers. 'Lunar Wind' is another slow and steamy mix of jazzy keys and soulful vocal hooks, 'Bewitched By The Sea' is a more tropical and percussive number with majestic melodies and 'My Bluebell' picks up the pace with jazz-funk grooves and hustling chords. 'Last Waltz In Perugia' has freeform sax lines soaring over meticulous drums that ebb and flow and 'Gimlet' brings a playful, samba-tinged rhythm and sunny flute leads straight from South America. There's a laidback, carefree mood to 'It's Too Easy To Love You' while 'Your Magic Touch' is a dancey number that exudes melodic joy, and 'Indigo' closes in dramatic fashion with a conversational sax that sticks long in the memory.

Sensory Blending is a seamless fusion of collaborative minds from Aura Safari and Jimi Tenor and it could well be performed live at some special select shows later in the year.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Bodily Synesthesia
A2. Lunar Wind
A3. Bewitched By The Sea
A4. My BlueBell
B1. Last Waltz In Perugia
B2. Gimlet
B3. It's Too Easy To Love You
B4. Your Magic Touch
B5. Indigo

Especial Specials has recently helped to take the Japanese label Chill Mountain Record into the world of wax after it previously operated only in the digital world. Now it carries on with a similar MO as it works with Multi Culti label head, DJ and producer Dreems on a new set of limited-edition EPs. He has already landed on the likes of Kompakt, Pinchy & Friends and Futureboogie and now digs into his vaults to serve up some edits and dubs that are hard to pin down but often doused in psychedelic overtones, acid and dub. Each one is a unique work in its own right but they all add up to one helluva good EP.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Dreems provides all your psychedelic dancefloor needs across two new aurally and visually pleasing 12" compilations on Especial. This one is worth it alone for the addictive groove of 'Battaki'.

TRACK LISTING

An Ancient
Piska Power - Dumm Dumm ~ Ex Riemen (Dreems Rebirth)
Un Peu Sage
Eye-Mah, Yeah-Mah
Umeko Ando - "Battaki" (Dreems Luv It Dub It)

Music for Swimming Pools has put together their first-ever compilation here and it's a self-titled series that launches with Volume One. It's an assembly of their friends and label family members in with newly discovered gems. Some cuts are exclusive and some of them hint at projects to come, while some are making vinyl debuts. Pete Herbert kicks off with a seductive downbeat jam, Max Essa's 'Sacaton Skylines' is a new age delight and Gafas Du Soul lays down deep sunset house vibes on the gorgeous 'Embers' amongst many other highlights. A fine first collection for sure.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Pete Herbert - Legzira Sunrise
2. Fabulous Lover - Note To Self
3. Uj Pa Gaz - Lulu (Pete Herbert Remix)
4. Gafas Du Soul - Embers
5. DSD - Canto Recanto

Side 2
1. Pete Herbert - Far Flung (Goldsuite Restring)
2. Fernando - Venus Banfield
3. Max Essa - Sacaton Skylines
4. Pete Herbert - South Seas (Rudys Midnight Machine Reprise)

The Wrekin Crew is back for a seance outing on the peerless Is It Balearic? This new offering rather continues where the first one left off with two tracks of immersive sonics for sunny days. First up is 'Vapour Trails' which melds lush Italo disco melodies and nice emotional pop of the sort you would expect to hear in this duo's DJ sets. Goldsuite also step up with a remix to smooth the edges and lay down moon-lit Balearica then closer 'Broken Wings' has more meaningful vocals but this time over grooves more suited to a late-night setting. Cosmic arps finish it in style with plenty of dubby undercurrents.

TRACK LISTING

Vapour Trails
Vapour Trails (Goldsuite Remix)
Broken Wings
Broken Wings (Woolfy Rub Dub)

"It’s True What They Say" is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah / Shaun aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan

'Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,' explains Shaun. 'We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.'

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

'Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,' says Sarah. 'It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music. Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made. We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…'

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score…

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Beautifully formed dream-pop here from this husband-and-wife duo. There's an astral projection at play which, combined with the detailed instrumentation and skilled song writing; makes for a highly evocative listen which has already got plenty of tastemakers, DJs and producers clawing after copies. Don't sleep!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Dust Tears
A2. It's True What They Say?
B1. Keep Your Eyes Closed
B2. Starbed
B3. Dust Tears (Instrumental) 

Ohhhh Shiiiiiiii...After a triumphant reception, ALMACKS return for a third sortie...

Hit-n-run blends and vinyl only amends. L I M I T E D !!

ALMACKS provides community in secret spaces.
The sublime liminal.

Check for pleasure... 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: ALMACKS return with a five track smorgasbord of soulful, slow house offerings. We still don't know who's behind these edits, but on this outing we get authentic beatdown styles somewhere between Amp Fiddler, Andres and Peven Everett. Mega!

TRACK LISTING

A1
A2
B1
B2
B3

Co-written and produced by Zero 7.

Embracing the enigmatic as a canvas for sonic storytelling, Zero 7 unveils captivating new music alongside collaborator Swim Surreal.

Swim Surreal's debut album, 'In the Half Light,' transports listeners to another time, place, and mental space. Nine songs telling a tale that begun in the half light and, somehow, resides there still.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Crowd
2. Bloom
3. Say Nothing
4. Don't Call It Love
5. Back To Earth
6. Less Talk
7. Masquerade (feat. Lou Stone)
8. Exile
9. An Endless Wave

Three years after he released the incredible "New Experience EP" (picking up plaudits from Bill Brewster, Tim Sweeney, Laurent Garnier, Horse Meat Disco, Leo Mas & 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft, among many more), Tokyo’s Kota Motomura returns to Hobbes Music for his debut LP, "Pay It Forward". This is the first vinyl release on Hobbes Music since the much-loved "Aranath" EP by Leonidas & Hobbes last Spring. While the label maintains the level of quality control for which it has become recognized, the artist continues to subvert electronic and dance music norms in his iconoclastic way on this extraordinary record.

He’s a mysterious character with an ear for idiosyncratic music that runs the gamut from ambient, exotica and jazz to disco, house and techno via post punk, new wave and funk. It’s highly original and all adds up to a confection perhaps best described as Balearic, despite how tumultuous that word has become of late!

Album opener "Paradise" is a certified jazz-funk jam. Destined for dancefloors worldwide, this one’s been dropping well with DJs, Motomura demonstrating his piano chops alongside Mutsumi Takeuchi’s sax. "Tropical" pushes the boat in a more rhythmic direction, some pretty wild drum programming laced with more sounds of the, um, tropics, before mad vocal yelps suggest something yet more tribal. "To Be Free" initially resembles early 90s progressive house (pulsing bassline, synth-driven melodies), before the arrival of some new wave guitar licks a la classic Talking Heads / David Byrne and ooh ooh vocal chants take it to another dimension altogether.

B-side opener "Emotion" features Takeuchi again (on flute this time) and more vocal chants before things take a dramatic turn, threatening to open up into a full fanfare before calming and then bursting into wild life again. Rhythm flirts with an energy and pace more akin to a techno record: drums, drums, more drums plus a fair few yelps and chants - the kind of DJ tool that will send a simmering dance floor wild in the right hands. "Flower" closes things in a more melancholy style, familiar to fans of "Aboy" from the "New Experience" EP, with plaintive acoustic guitar (performed by Akichi), birdsong and big piano chords.

Support from Bill Brewster, Leo Mas, Al Kent, Red Rack’em, Nick The Record, Phil Mison, Phat Phil Cooper, KZA, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), S/A/M, Dribbler, Joe Muggs, Monolith Cocktail and more… 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Paradise
A2. Tropical
A3. To Be Free
B1. Emotion
B2. Rhythm
B3. Flower

Numero’s second bundle of cover 45s is all things soulful. This, the first in the series sees Rotterdam-based Another Taste electrify Maxx Traxx’s 1984 Chicago boogie grail “Don’t Touch It,” which makes its debut on the 7” format here.

Later in the series we have Colemine Records’ Say She She delivering a glamorous rendition of Jim Spencer’s yacht-disco hit “Wrap Myself Up In Your Love.”

And even later Columbia Recording artist Leon Bridges effortlessly transforms Pastor T.L. Barrett’s “Like A Ship,” updating the 50 year old gospel soul classic for the 21st century.

All include the OG and cover version on one side each, and all three are housed in a newly imagined Numero custom sleeve, reflecting the many shades of our ongoing Eccentric Soul 45 imprint.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Another Taste's cover of "Don't Touch It" caused an almighty rukus on Space Grapes earlier in the year. Mega that Numero have licensed it alongside the original in tidy 7" format. First of three in what's looking like a very promising and collectable series of records.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Another Taste - Don’t Touch It
B1. Maxx Traxx - Don’t Touch It

French producer Jerome Barresi assumes his Robert's Diary Palais here for a new outing on Is It Balearic that offers something a little adjacent to the norm. Opener 'Dinky Bird' is a mix of tender keys and hand claps with a soulful vocal sample that reminds of early-era Moby. Norse mainstay Bjorn Torske appears then to remix and brings some scuttling percussive sounds and watery effects over four-four drums. 'Six O Six' is a yearning dub cut packed with wild FX and 'KXP' is a zoned-out and tinny retro-future nu-disco cut that is a perfect B-side.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: This one is already a winner in my book! Even though 'Dinky Bird' is the one that's getting the royalty remix treatment, I personally think the b-side is the star of the show. Can already see myself playing KXP on repeat... ultra dreamy!

TRACK LISTING

Side A
Dinky Bird
Dinky Bird" (Bjorn Torske Remix)

Side B
Six O Six
KXP

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2024 EXCLUSIVE AND WILL BE AVAILABLE INSTORE ON SATURDAY APRIL 20TH ON A FIRST COME FIRST SERVED BASIS, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

IF THERE ARE ANY REMAINING COPIES THEY WILL BE MADE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT 8PM ON MONDAY APRIL 22ND.

Son of Todd Osborn (Soundmurderer/Ghostly) Kaito Ian makes a hugely impressing first outing on the Galaxy Sound Co label with a series of lo-fi hip-hop beat-strumentals that cannot fail to get your head nodding. He is a dedicated music lover and skater with a deep knowledge of his craft and that shows here with some refined sounds starting with the soul drenched 'Revert', then on to the warped angelic vocal samples of 'Sequoia' and the percussive jumbled and scratching of 'Trek'. 'Wait Up' is another excellently blissed out joint and 'Sloan' is a sunny, laid back, lazy vibe to close down a superb EP.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Phwoooar 'ave some of THAT! Todd Osborn's son (!!) drops a tidy package of hip-hop instrumentals which lands somewhere between DJ Dez (Andres), Madlib and some of the beat tapes we've had through Fat Beats. You'll be clambering after a whole LP once you've digested this 7"!

TRACK LISTING

Revert
Sequoia
Trek
Wait Up
Sloan

Another soundtrack from the IDIB camp, this time for Fien Troch's 'Home'. The first side features a number of feels-heavy synthy outings, kicking things off with 'Magazine'. Starting subtly enough with gently phasing guitar line, almost instantly augmented with an ethereal vocal, shimmering and echoing over the top, before launching into neon synths and snappy Linn drums, lending an aura of melacholic introspection, but remaining driven enough to keep things upbeat. 

'The Magician' goes a little further down the Italo wormhole with a throbbing single-note synth riff being joined by clattering reverbed percussion and swirling lead lines, keeping true to the upbeat neature of this first half, but expanding things into slightly more dancefloor territory before taking it back into ambient territory with free-roaming LFO'd oscillator swells and delayed melodic stabs. 

It's when we flip over that we see the other side of the record both literally and figuratively, with the Linn Drums being traded out for a twenty bag and a massive stack of oscillators, all working together into a crescentic drone, both beautiful and haunting. 'Home' is heavy on the pads, swirling and swelling into a heart-aching cacophony of tentative hope and brittle euphoria. 

And so it continues, 'Remorse' takes things a little more slowly, with infrequent bass drums and reticent mid-heavy synths taking centre-stage like the 9-minute intro to a Pink-Floyd outtake, brilliantly engrossing, and feeling decidedly more brief than it's four and a half minutes. 'Endless' is not in fact endless at all, but feels like it easily could be with the chilling introduction of some gloriously dusty Rhodes keys, lending melody and a perfect amount of forward motion into an otherwise completely laid-back backdrop. 

“76 In The Shade” follows in the footsteps of Bob Stanley’s hugely successful comps for Ace, including “English Weather” and “The Tears Of Technology”. It suggests bright yellow sunshine, hot plastic car seats, cats lolloping on the lawn. A few tracks (Smokey Robinson, Cliff Richard, David Ruffin, Carmen McRae) act as necessary splashes of cooling water; most of them sound like it’s just too hot to move. Luckily, you don’t need to.

The months without rain and airless days and nights might not have been something out of the ordinary in the Algarve or the south of France, but it was without precedent in Britain. The Summer of 1976 has remained a benchmark for long, hot summers – there may have been scorchers since, but none have seemed quite as relentless or enervating. The country melted into a collective puddle. “76 In The Shade” probably wasn’t anyone’s real life soundtrack of the year – that could have included Bowie’s “Station To Station” and Abba’s “Greatest Hits”. Instead, Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley has put a compilation together that sonically evokes the summer of 1976 itself, its sweet heat and almost narcotic lethargy.

Getting out of the sun, you might have sat inside with the radio on, and heard the dreamy wooziness of Liverpool Express’s ‘You Are My Love’, 10cc’s ‘I’m Mandy Fly Me’, or the Emotions’ ‘Flowers’. Or maybe you flopped out in front of the telly, where you heard an alternative summer soundtrack – the music libraries that provided the bulk of the testcard’s music gave us Simon Park’s minimal ‘Stoned Out’ and John Cameron’s deeply immersive ‘Liquid Sunshine’; the Californian jazzer Spike Janson provided the wordless vocal harmonies of ‘Walking So Free’.

“76 In The Shade” follows in the footsteps of Bob Stanley’s hugely successful comps for Ace, including “English Weather” and “The Tears Of Technology”. It suggests bright yellow sunshine, hot plastic car seats, cats lolloping on the lawn. A few tracks (Smokey Robinson, Cliff Richard, David Ruffin, Carmen McRae) act as necessary splashes of cooling water; most of them sound like it’s just too hot to move. Luckily, you don’t need to.

TRACK LISTING

1. WALKING SO FREE - Spike Janson
2. SUGAR SHUFFLE - Lynsey De Paul
3. MIRACLES (SINGLE VERSION) - Jefferson Starship
4. GET OUT OF TOWN - Smokey Robinson
5. I’M MANDY FLY ME (ALBUM VERSION) - 10CC
6. STONED OUT - Simon Park
7. NOTHING TO REMIND ME - Cliff Richard
8. DISCOVER ME - David Ruffin
9. YOU’RE THE SONG (THAT I CAN’T STOP SINGING) - Hollywood Freeway
10. YOU ARE MY LOVE - Liverpool Express
11. LIQUID SUNSHINE - John Cameron
12. NOT ON THE OUTSIDE - Sylvia
13. STAY WITH ME - Blue Mink
14. WILD MOUNTAIN HONEY - Steve Miller Band
15. FALLIN’ IN LOVE - Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
16. FLOWERS - The Emotions
17. MONTREAL CITY - Azimuth
18. ROCK’N’ROLL STAR - Barclay James Harvest
19. MISS MY LOVE TODAY - Gilbert O’Sullivan
20. MUSIC - Carmen McRae

###### COMPETITION TIME!!!!!######
Preorder the album on any format and you could win a pair of tickets for their show at New Century on Saturday 4th May.
NPN*

##################################################

The Sunset Violent began in a disused frat house in the American Yucca Valley. Kimbie’s founding members Dominic Maker & Kai Campos began work on their first proper album together since 2017’s Love What Survives – the decision was made to leave London. Campos and Maker relocated for a month to a town in the middle of a desert. The resulting album, finished in London with longtime confidante Dillip Harris and their band mates Andrea Balency-Béarn and Marc Pell, is 37 minutes of Mount Kimbie at simultaneously their most daring and their most giddily infectious.

*NPN - drop us an email - mail@piccadillyrecords.com with 'Mount Kimbie Comp' in the subject title.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Mount Kimbie have taken a little swerve with 'The Sunset Violent', taking their usual sound and injecting it with a concept that's both perfectly conceived and accomplished. While all the usual MK sounds are in-situ here, there outer reaches of their sound swerves into synth-pop, gritty electronics and moody post-punk.

TRACK LISTING

1. The Trail
2. Dumb Guitar
3. Shipwreck
4. Boxing (Feat. King Krule)
5. Got Me
6. A Figure In The Surf
7. Fishbrain
8. Yukka Tree
9. Empty And Silent (Feat. King Krule)

A counterculture movement united by an expansive, experimental and deeply soulful sensibility, Japan’s rebel protest music challenged the status quo and changed the country’s music industry in the process.

The birth of Japan’s nascent acid folk scene was rooted in the messy and invigorating political climate of the late 1960s. It is a story of Dadaists, communists, pharmacists and cult leaders, led by a young generation of upstart students, artists and dreamers hellbent on turning their world upside down.

Born on the campuses of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and centred around newly formed independent label and left-wing stronghold URC, this uniquely Japanese form of folk expression provided an outlet for musicians who were tired of aping Western sounds and instead found ways to sing in Japanese and integrate traditional forms in new ways.

At the forefront of this movement was Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haroumi Hosono, a polymath innovator whose band Happy End released the first Japanese language rock album, and whose influence would go on to be felt across Japanese music for decades. Alongside, and informed by the Kansai scene’s Takashi Nishioka and Happy End collaborator Ken Narita, they experimented with cadences and accents of the Japanese language to open the door for others to experiment with their own forms of psychedelic folk too.

Some, like Nishioka, were more inspired by Dadaism than drugs, while others, like Kazuhisa Okubo, would ultimately find work as a chemist, having founded two further folk groups that flirted with varying levels of success. Obstinately uncommercial, relentlessly creative, the music featured on Time Capsule’s Nippon Acid Folk represents a broad church of influences.

Perhaps the wildest addition to this congregation however was Hiroki Tamaki, a classically-trained violinist and committed iconoclast, whose synth-prog odysseys hinted at his obsession with the divine. Subsumed by the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, he penned an album in praise of the infamous religious leader of which two superbly mind-bending tracks are featured on this compilation.

Charting the decade from 1970 to 1980 as the dreams of political and spiritual liberation seeded in the ‘60s turned to dust, Nippon Acid Folk surveys a little explored corner of Japanese music history, but one which ultimately laid the foundations for an independent music industry, launching the careers of Hosono and others in the process.

Nippon Acid Folk 1970-1980 is pressed on 12” vinyl and represents the start of Time Capsule’s deep dive into Japan’s rich history of folk and psychedelic soul music.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Hiroki Tamaki - River
A2: Happy End - Kaze Wo Atsumete
A3: Takashi Nishioka - Manin No Ki
A4: Ken Narita - Gingatetsudo No Noru
B1: Hiroki Tamaki - Beautiful Song
B2: Niningashi - Hitoribotch
B3: Tokedashita Garasubako - Anmari Fukasugite
B4: Akaitori - Hotaru 

Bullion is Nathan Jenkins, an enduring cult figure of electronic music. A producer and songwriter quietly to be found connecting artists, genre and UK subculture. His credits range from Carly Rae Jepsen, Ben Howard, NilüferYanya and Avalon Emerson’s breakout album & The Charm to records for Westerman and Joviale. Bullion’s celebrated solo releases, meanwhile, have run parallel on Young, The Trilogy Tapes, Jagjaguwar and his own DEEK Recordings. It’s a creative red-thread Bullion ties together on his surprise new album, Affection - a warm, occasionally off-kilter and beautifully realised pop record that’s bold enough to step from behind-the-scenes and show affection in public.

Affection started life upon Nathan’s move back to London from Lisbon, where he relocated in 2018. Back then, the comfort of the crowd suited him: self-confessedly passive and faltering by nature, the opportunity to exist somewhere without any personal history proved liberating. Returning home, Nathan increasingly found himself reflecting on his place in the world, seeking affection in place of cynicism.

Bullion’s music has always been difficult to pin down, but entirely distinctive - and on Affection, its rich pleasures are in hearing how this uncompromising approach is strengthened, in part, by softening. The album wonders-aloud about the meaning of intimacy, in relationship to others and the self. Masculinity and other contemporary concerns are punctuated by old-world charms, found in the ‘hat stands and watches’ of World_train. Influences stretch from morning swims to adolescent fears and a book of poems his Dad wrote as a young man, in songs that are tender if not always true of Nathan himself. Affection ultimately asks how we understand people, but in being more vulnerable at least attempts to care a little less about what they think, too.

Taking your own advice is integral to Bullion’s latest album, where Nathan applies what he’s encouraged fellow artists to do in the studio for years: be open to adventure. Affection steps into a more emotionally-present, often playful space, with collaborators Carly Rae Jepsen and Charlotte Adigéry gracing songs that prioritise feeling over fixed meaning. Rare, for instance, emerged during sessions for Jepsen’s recent album in Toronto: high energy turning coy to express something ‘deep in the heart’. World_train, meanwhile, is an eccentric and brilliantly odd angle on Bullion’s love of pop, its locomotive power summoning a lost past amidst the uncertainties of the everyday. ‘I can hardly understand what it takes to be a real man’, Bullion sings. ‘…and nobody can’, Adigéry confirms. Still, connections - missed, imagined, or still possible - cocoon much of Affection, with Panda Bear collaboration A City’s Never emerging after Noah and Nathan lived in Lisbon at the same time but never actually met. For Bullion, the willingness to allow others into his songwriting process is as much about opening up the world of the album as it is about bettering the work and the person.

In blurring the observational with the introspective, Affection’s avant-pop touch abandons categorisation. The albums lyrics are as unguarded and devotional as they are inquisitive of alternative ways of being, signing off with ‘being still is hard to do’. Nathan has mastered his sound, but life - in its expectations, contradictions, impulses and desires - remains impossible to control.

TRACK LISTING

1. A City’s Never (ft. Panda Bear)
2. Affection
3. Rare (ft. Carly Rae Jepsen)
4. Your Father
5. The Flooding
6. Cinch
7. World_train (ft. Charlotte Adigéry)
8. Cavalier
9. Once, In A Borrowed Car
10. Open Hands
11. 40 Waves
12. Hard To Do

Following on from 2019's 'The Unforgiving Current', Horsebeach's Ryan Kennedy returns with his fifth record 'Things To Keep Alive'. With 'The Unforgiving Current' exploring the themes of isolation whilst living in Tokyo, Kennedy has since returned to the perpetual grey of Mancunia. But rather than viewing his return to Manchester as a step back, Kennedy has used Horsebeach as a catalyst to explore and make positive strides within his mental health.

From Beatles-esque balladry, fuzzed out shoegaze and a lavish cover of a 00s pop classic, 'Things To Keep Alive' still importantly retains the Horsebeach DNA and even has moments that will take fans all the way back to Kennedy's C86 inspired debut LP. In turn, this results in Horsebeach's most varied and rewarding album to date. A record that inspires and shows growth; a record that makes you appreciate the things you help to keep alive.

Here’s what Ryan (Horsebeach) had to say about the album."I always treat each album as a snapshot of a certain period of my life and Things To Keep Alive is no different. However, it's less of a measure of time and more a snapshot of the mental space I've come to occupy over the past few years.

Fundamentally, this album is about my own struggle with one particular side effect of my mental health. Especially my propensity to long for the sweet release of death. I've come to learn how to deal with these things over time and I have always cared for my many cats, plants and important people close to me. These things bring me great joy and through the fog of my depressed haze I have finally learned to water, feed and care for myself as well. These are the things I keep alive. Musically I've decided to revisit themes from my earlier work but allow myself to open up to sounds I might have restricted from the Horsebeach palette in the past. It's quite a simple album thematically but perhaps the one I'm most proud of to date. I've given myself much longer to write this album and I hope the extra time I’ve spent nurturing each song comes through in the end."

Ryan

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: After an unbearable wait, Horsebeach finally return, and guess what, it's their best album so far! Fabulously varied and with tunes to die for, this record will jangle and sigh its way straight into your hearts.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Friend By The Lake
2. In The Shadow Of Her
3. A Fault In All Of Us
4. Things To Keep Alive
5. Let Me Stay In Tonight
6. Until You
7. Cinnamon Challenge
8. Pure Shores
9. Colourless
10. Tradition 

Since launching in 2020, Claremont 56’s Claremont Editions series of compilations has delivered a trio of must-check collections featuring a mixture of unheard gems from the label vaults and brand-new, previously unreleased tracks. Label founder Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy continues with this blueprint on 2024’s instalment, the fourth in total.

There's naturally some genuinely headline grabbing highlights amongst the nine tracks on display, starting with opener ‘Crossing’ – a fresh cut from C56’s in-house super-group Hillside (AKA Paul Mudd Murphy, Alex Searle and Patrick Dawes), featuring lead vocals from long-time friend of the family Quinn Lamont Luke. The track is prime Hillside: all rolling hand percussion, warming keys, simmering synth-strings, sun-splashed solos and blue-eyed soul vocals from the effervescent Quinn.

It sets a high bar, quality wise, but predictably the rest of the collection hits similarly heady heights. Mudd contributes two other tracks of note: a first collaborative outing with long-time creative partner Ben Smith for five years, Smith & Mudd’s ‘Journey Seven’ – a languid, slow-motion affair that hints at what we can expect from their forthcoming album – and a typically rich, jazz-fusion influenced solo excursion, ‘Massimo’s Steps’. As vivid, emotive and detailed as you’d expect, the track explores similar sonic territory to Mudd’s recent album, In The Garden of Mindfulness.

It's usual for Claremont Editions collections to include tracks from new members of the Claremont family. Editions 4 is no different, with Danish producer Fureby – a close friend of fellow Danes Mike Salta and Peter Visti – joining forces with Guy Moscoco and Brian Faber on ‘Halcyon (Extended Mix)’, a gorgeously kaleidoscopic Balearic groover rich in fluttering flute solos, simmering disco strings and sun-bright electronics.

Elsewhere, a few familiar favourites contribute suitably stellar tracks. Mai Fujinoya dons the Yamp Kolta alias for the first time since appearing on the first editions compilation in 2020, serving up the languid Japanese language Balearic pop brilliance of ‘Saturate’, featuring beautiful lead vocals by Yuzz. Krautrock-influenced duo Neumayer Station – who made their C56 bow on last year’s Editions collection – lay down a typically stretched-out, dubbed-out groove with Spaghetti Western soundtrack flourishes (the lilting and atmospheric ‘Bassrutscher’), while Ferdi Schuster invites us to dive into the immersive depths of ‘Resonance’ – a lightly art rock and progressive rock-influenced soundscape best enjoyed while lying flat on your back.

Slow-motion house specialists Hear & Now continue to join the dots between tactile Balearica and pitched-down Italian ambient house on the stunningly gorgeous ‘Chimaera’, while there’s a surprise return for a Claremont 56 favourite: Mudd’s sought-after extended mix of Bel’s 2018 single ‘Ready To Die’, a sing-along modern Balearic classic. This time round, it has been re-edited by Blank & Jones, who teases out the sun-soaked instrumentation before finally dropping the original’s emotion-rich lead vocals.

It all adds up to another must-check instalment of the indispensable Claremont Editions series. As usual, the vinyl version has been pressed in limited qualities and comes housed in a deluxe gatefold sleeve, complete with another stunning cover painting by illustrator Mark Warrington.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Hillside Feat. Quinn Lamont Luke – Crossing
A2. Mudd – Massimo’s Steps
B1. Bel – Ready To Die (Mudd’s Extended Mix) (Blank & Jones Edit)
B2. Fureby, Moscoso & Faber – Halcyon
C1. Smith & Mudd – Journey Seven
C2. Neumayer Station – Bassrutscher
C3. Yamp Kolt Feat. Yuzz – Saturate
D1. Ferdi Schuster – Resonance
D2. Hear & Now – Chimaera

What does it mean To Belong? Cynthia Bernard aka. Marine Eyes only begins to scratch the surface of this question on her latest ambient record (yet leaps a great deal forward in wrestling with it nonetheless), following up her prior effort 'Chamomile' with a distinctly beauteous fortnight of forenoon drones, all of which spur the realization that "belonging is everywhere and nowhere". Belonging is indeed a kind of ephemeral longing of being that can only ever be partly grasped, attained. Through its looping washes of warmed, brackish, padded backwash - not to mention its many bass-undergirded angel choirs - the likes of 'Timeshifting', 'Bridges' and 'Mended Own' stand out as such revelatory highlights, all contributing to an incredible album of sonic diaristic reflection, in which every sound sticks out clearly yet plays its proper part in a humble, rose-smelling gestalt.

TRACK LISTING

To Belong
Hushed
Timeshifting
Bridges
Cemented
Of The West
Suddenly Green
Mended Own
All You Give (For Ash)
Bluest
Night Palms Sway
In The Spaces
To Belong (Reprise)
Call & Answer

Slip this delirious disc out of the lime/slime green sleeve and you're up close and personal with the new chapter in the TD saga.
A dance floor triptych of such seismic scale that the crew spent two years trying to wrangle the tracks on wax, finally finding a plant with the power to press them up.

Sprawling across the A-side is the devastating 'Doner Summer', an instrumental extension of some lost Munich disco masquerading as an Anatolian excursion. Ditching the vocals and cutting the kase, the crew lay down a galloping groove topped with Turkish licks and disco strings, take us into the psychedelic swirl of a tumbling drum breakdown before hitting the big red button marked banger for a searing second half. Firing up the hardware, TD blast this one further into the Phuture, dropping technoid sequences, nagging 303 and Cowley-style FX fuckery for a full on club assault.

In the alternate B-side universe, Hans Zimmer lost his dread note and Denis Villeneuve was forced to turn to Talking Drums for the Dune soundtrack. They obliged with the sci-fi rai of 'Chaba Ranks', reshaping an Algerian OG with a dancehall kick, off beat vamps and star-crossed synths, then letting loose with a heavy bass tone.
|In time honoured fashion, the team also drop a dub version, cutting out the vocals and focussing on those additional elements for the wildly cosmic 'Chaba Skanks'.

Now who's getting the spice in?

Limited Press - Numbered Insert - Drum Fun Guaranteed !

TRACK LISTING

A. Doner Sumer
B. Chaba Ranks
B2. Chaba Skanks

If you have had your ear to the Balearic underground over the summer you might well have heard some high-profile selectors dropping cuts off this latest missive from US label Just What The World Needs. It is another sublime three-tracker that kicks off with the string-laced and upbeat disco delights of the A1. Second up is a much more slow and sensuous sound that sinks you in deep to a beach lounger as the sun fades into the sea and the sky turns flame red and orange. Things pick up again with the third and final cut - a percussive jumble of organic hits and drums overlaid with a heart-melting vocal sample and deft melodic details that drift by like wispy clouds.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Possibly the best label name of all time? Pete Blaker does it justice with three very different edits and I'm very much here for Track 2... absolute cosmic bliss!

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Untitled
Untitled

Side 2
Untitled

Love Makes Magic, the debut LP by JIM - aka Jim Baron of Crazy P & Ron Basejam notoriety - was released in June 2023 and the album has connected with an ever growing number of fans; lured in by great songs, Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter acoustics, 60’s psychedelic folk-rock, a dash of Balearic, discoid funk and a healthy dose of yacht-rock. The album was voted Album of the Year in the Bill Brewster Furtive 50 chart for 2023 - like a Balearic BAFTAs - and Still River Flow (Generalisation Dub) came 2nd in the tracks of the year... which was nice.

Disco Pogo, Piccadilly Records and Mr Bongo all gave the LP honourable mention in their end of year charts too. As you’d expect with an artist who has 25 years of dance music connections the accompanying remixes weren’t bad either... Crooked Man, Ruf Dug, Flying Mojito Brothers and Generalisation all came up with fine reinterpretations. Luke Unabomber hailed The Crooked Goth version of Phoenix as his track of the year. The vinyl run of the Crooked Mixes sold out in record time.

As the remixes racked up we considered collecting them together for a remix LP. And so here we are... presenting Love Makes Magic - The Remixes.

The five aforementioned mixes will be joined by five brand new ones from X-Press 2, Mang Dynasty, Chris Coco, Begin ( James Holroyd) and Brown Fang. Spanning pumping club bangers, perfect sunsets soundtracks and left-field electronica.

We love them.
We hope you do too..

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A stunning set of remixes from some of the hottest names in the electronic music world, for Jim's brilliant 'Love Makes Magic' LP, one of our collective favourites of 2023. Basking in the relaxed, Balearic waters of the original but twisted and coaxed around a variety of grooves, these pieces shine in a whole new light when viewed through a different lens, and show the talents of remixers and Baron alike. Brill.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Still River Flow (Generalisation Dub) Phoenix (Crooked Goth)
A2. Oxygen (Ruf Dug Remix)
B1. Ballad Of San Marino (Mang Dynasty Remix) Still River Flow (Begin Remix)
B2. Where The Leaves Are Falling (Brown Fang Remix) Across The Street (Generalisation Dub)
C1. Phoenix (X-Press 2 On Fire Remix)
C2. Oxygen (Flying Mojito Bros Refrito)
D1. The Ballad Of San Marino (Chris Coco Extended Dub Version)

Coyote is back with a third volume of its Special Editions series and once again it is one that will transport you to some steamy dance floor by the Med at sundown. The opener 'Ritter' is a glorious mix of downbeat chords and Balearic beats with 80s synths and an exotic vocal. 'Takin It' then slows things down to reevaluate some lush acoustic guitar frets and languid funk grooves, then 'The Woman' gets even more deep, more seductive, and horizontal. It's got a fat, lazy bassline and go-slow grooves that cannot fail to reduce your pulse before 'Dover' picks it up again with some more psyched-out and cosmic disco-funk sounds.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Magic Wand and Coyote once again prove what a dream team they are. The 10th edition of the Magic Wand Special Editions marks the third invitation for Coyote and the four edits on offer are every bit as addictive as the ones on the previous two 12"s - I might even go so far as to say this one's the best. Do yourself a favour and snap up a copy of this dreamy record, you won't regret it.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Ritter
Takin It

Side 2
The Woman
Dover

Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, the group’s 1991 final album, took a year to make, and yet it has required decades to fully appreciate. Following up on the abstract 'Spirit of Eden', which sufficiently alienated pop fans of the band’s earlier material, 'Laughing Stock' took spaces in recorded music to new extremes, with layers of silence breathing through strings, woodwinds, percussion and Mark Hollis’s delicate vocals.

The record exists as one complete thought, albeit with jagged diversions and tangents. Hollis’s and producer Tim Friese-Greene’s goal from the beginning was to create an album that completely enveloped the listener. During recording, microphones were placed at distances as far as 30 feet from the instruments they were recording, and passages were captured with no clear intention as to where they would finally be placed. Before ProTools made the cut-and-paste, drag-and-drop process standard in songwriting, Hollis and Friese-Greene were in the studio with flugelhorn and viola players, capturing notes and phrases they collected and combined into the six tracks that became 'Laughing Stock'. Everything was recorded straight from the original instruments, as Hollis continued reacting against the synth artificiality of his past. It was released on jazz label Verve, further declaring that 'In A Silent Way' was a greater influence than any pop group to which Talk Talk had been compared in the past. 'Laughing Stock' grows like vines in a garden out of any speakers. The full power of the music is as engrossing as it is oblique, like wrapping oneself in a blanket of thoughts. Talk Talk’s music is unapologetic in its obscureness, caressed in the gentle beauty of subtlety and warmth.

TRACK LISTING

1 Myrrhman 5:33
2 Ascension Day 6:01
3 After The Flood 9:27
4 Taphead 7:01
5 New Grass 9:46
6 Runeii 4:59

Yeah x 3 - Sonic Boom and Panda Bear Reset Remix & Instrumental Remix:
Two masters of modern day psychedelia fire the original into outer space to create a head spinning, foot stomping analogue space walk of a track.

Yeah x 3 - The Vendetta Suite:
On the Reason to Live mix, Belfast’s Balearic producer The Vendetta Suite turns back time and turns Yeah x 3 into a brilliantly shimmering ’80s pop anthem from an alternate universe.
Elsewhere, the Reason to Drift version is a gorgeous beatless ambient track that sounds like first light through stained glass windows.

TRACK LISTING

A1/ Yeah X 3 - Sonic Boom & Panda Bear Reset Remix
A2/ Yeah X 3 - Sonic Boom & Panda Bear Reset Instrumental
B1/ Yeah X 3 - The Vendetta Suite Reason To Drift Mix
B2/ Yeah X 3 - The Vendetta Suite Reason To Live Mix

Naya Beat continues to champion South Asian musical heritage with the aptly titled "Bhangra House Xtc" EP featuring music from the late great Manjeet Kondal with remixes from Mr. Scruff and new tracks from label heads Filip Nikolic and Raghav Mani aka Turbotito & Ragz. It celebrates the overlooked influence of late 80s dance and dub music on Bhangra and comes complete with over-the-top artwork, an ode to Bhangra sleeves from the era.

This EP pays homage to a special and relatively untold time when Asian and Western producers collaborated to bridge musical cultures on the dancefloor and when British Asian youths were finding their own space at daytime raves. It is in part a tribute to Bhangra innovator Manjeet Kondal, who passed away late last year, and part a tribute to the forgotten yet scintillating confluence of acid house and dub music with late 80s and early 90s Bhangra, now highly sought after as long out of print 12”s.

Kondal, a founding member and percussionist of the legendary band Alaap, left to pursue his solo career as a vocalist. He helped broaden the Bhangra sound by incorporating elements of dub and house into Punjabi folk and traditional instrumentation. His first album, "Holle Holle" became a household hit, and it is from there that the originals for this package are taken.

The famously deep digging and eclectic selector that is Manchester's Ninja Tune regular Mr. Scruff remixes Kondal’s proto-house banger "Ishkaan De Mamle". He first became a fan of Turbotito & Ragz after their label’s superb "Naya Beat Volume 1" release and doesn’t disappoint here with a sublime acid house-inspired take with the most infectious and bounciest of basslines. He also serves up an Instrumental Dub that twists the original into subtly different moods.

Next up, Turbotito & Ragz deliver a dub tribute that works with Kondal’s vocal stems from an assortment of tracks from his album "Holle Holle". It's a compelling and vibrant sound with exotic instrumentals and dubbed-out low ends, all held together by hooky Punjabi vocals. It also comes as a Lovey Dubby Dub version.

With dance music now coming full circle and South Asian DJs increasingly regular faces on the mainstream festival, club, and underground circuit, this release is a fitting and timely modern tribute to the pioneers that came before.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Mr. Scruff dives back into the world of bhangra, remixing a well regarded high watermark of the genre. We get the richly scented, ethno-dubwise joint "Pyaar" alongside the heel kicking wild bhangra of "Ishkaan De Mamle".

TRACK LISTING

A1. Ishkaan De Mamle (Mr. Scruff Remix)
A2. Pyaar

B1. Ishkaan De Mamle (Mr. Scruff Instrumental Dub)
B2. Pyaar (Lovey Dubby Dub)

As the first-ever album composed entirely of sampled material, "Endtroducing" is a landmark in the history of electronic music.

its influence reverberates through the years, inspiring countless artists and solidifying DJ Shadow's place as a visionary in the realm of sample-based production. Each track tells a unique story, from the hypnotic groove of "Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt" to the cinematic atmosphere of "Midnight In A Perfect World." Shadow's meticulous craftsmanship shines through, showcasing his unparalleled skill in constructing beats that resonate with both intensity and emotion.

TRACK LISTING

Best Foot Forward
Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt
The Number Song
A - Changeling
B - Transmission
What Does Your Soul Look Like , Pt. 4
Stem / Long Stem
A - Transmission 2
B - Mutual Slump
Organ Donor
Why Hip-hop Sucks In '96
Midnight In A Perfect World
Napalm Brain / Scatter Brain - Medley
A - What Does Your Soul Look Like Pt. 1 / Blue Sky Revisit
B - Transmission 3

Ned Doheny’s Hard Candy, originally released in 1976, is widely considered the finest blue-eyed soul album of all time. It has long been a source of great frustration then, that this perfectly-formed Southern California masterpiece has been unavailable on vinyl for almost 40 years.

Be With Records continues apace by marking its third release with the first officially licensed reissue of Doheny’s nautical classic. Perhaps most famously, this impeccably smooth set features the timeless “Get It Up For Love”, a wonderful example of mid-70s mid-tempo white-(hot)-funk.

Produced by the legendary Steve Cropper, it featured a veritable who’s-who of the Laurel Canyon soft-yacht sound (JD Souther, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the entire horn section for Tower of Power!) yet bombed mysteriously. It’s been a cult record since.

Pressed on audiophile 180g vinyl and featuring the original artwork for both jacket and full colour inner sleeve, this limited reissue is one not to be missed.

TRACK LISTING

A1: Get It Up For Love (4:42)
A2: If You Should Fall (3:36)
A3: Each Time You Pray (3:39)
A4: When Love Hangs In The Balance (5:12)
B1: A Love Of Your Own (3:46)
B2: I’ve Got Your Number (3:15)
B3: On The Swingshift (3:03)
B4: Sing To Me (3:37)
B5: Valentine (I Was Wrong About You) (5:07)

Be Strong Be Free debuts a new series here, Mellow Magic Worldwide, which will offer up a series of DJ weapons that have been produced by "worldwide studio buds." The first one opens with some superb tackle from Gold Suite whose brilliant 'Crush' is a slow-burning 80s jam and emotive rollercoaster that has made a real impact during road testing experiments. On the flipside is the mysterious Mancunian Visions Of Eden who debuts on vinyl with a lush deep house jam 'When It Has Past' that has a subtle Balearic charm. Lastly comes Murrin who heads up the Puca Sounds label and co-runs Berlin party Fandango. His 'Maybe Tonight' is a late-night cosmic delight.

TRACK LISTING

Gold Suite - "Crush"
Visions Of Eden - "When It Has Past"
Murrin - "Maybe Tonight"

The only proved efficient time traveling method to date is through listening to music, particularly evident when indulging in Jona Jefferies' latest EP released by Spanish house specialists Apersonal Music. It's a refreshing nod to the golden era of 90s electronic music. Across its three tracks, Jefferies masterfully blends elements of ambient, downtempo, and electronica, evoking a sense of nostalgia as if plucked from a bygone era. In contrast to today's TikTok-dominated landscape of short, immediate singles, this EP harkens back to a time when music was crafted with depth and complexity. Drawing inspiration from legendary acts like Boards of Canada and Underworld, it seamlessly transports listeners to the Gen-X decade, when acts like Daft Punk, Orbital and The Chemical Brothers reign supreme and exploited the electronic scene during the MTV era.

On the A side, "Es Camp" embodies the seamless influence of British electronic music on the Balearic scene of the 90s, and viceversa. Feels like Moby’s “Porcelain” if the film "The Beach" had been set in Ibiza. Max Essa's "Romantic Breaks Mix" elevates the track to pure Balearic bliss, setting the perfect mood for any sunset terrace around the globe.

Side B, tailored for the dancefloor, runs through “Lost in Paradise”, a track that channels euphoria reminiscent of the underground rave culture during the final years of the 20th century. Apersonal's trusted remixer, Eddie C, delivers an extended rendition of the track that continually evolves, echoing Jim Morrison’s words: 'the music was new, black polished chrome, and came over the summer like liquid night.'

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Two pastoral electronica bliss-outs, reminiscent of a weekend spent in the back of some Welsh hippy's camper van on a cocktail of drugs visiting various free parties along the way. Eddie C and Max Essa do their thing - moulding them into more typical dancefloor movements. Nice to see Apersonal back in the fold too.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Es Camp
A2. Es Camp (Max Essa Romantic Break Mix)
A3. California Sunrise… Do You Remember?
B1. Lost In Paradise
B2. Lost In Paradise (Eddie C Remix) 

Temples of Jura enlist long serving Croatia polymath Ilija Rudman for his ninth LP entitled ‘The Great Beyond’. The concept of the album is the afterlife with words from Nikola Tesla, Slavoj Zizek, Jim Morrison, JF Kennedy, Charles De Gaulle, WH Auden, Azar Nafisi and Eleanor Roosevelt woven together to tell the story of ‘The Great Beyond’ and what may lie ahead for us all. The voice itself was created by AI (let’s call him ERIC) and is set beautifully to music that has a timeless cinematic quality. Ilija only uses pure analogue equipment in the creation of his music, resulting in a rich tapestry of basses, drums, chords and lead sounds. He’s been a prolific producer for over 20 years now with a discography that runs deep with more than 100 vinyl EP releases and 8 studio albums, but we feel he’s reached the pinnacle with this concept album. We’ll leave the final word to ERIC “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Philosophic musings merge with AI and lush, dreamy instrumentals in an ambitious concept album from Rudman. I'm sure there's some Timothy Leary titbits in there...

TRACK LISTING

Anas Theme
River Cant Wash My Tears Down
In The End (Intermezzo Theme)
Heroinas Atom Heart
Dreams (Part I)
Dreams (Part Ii)

"Pockets Of Light" is the first full release from the London / Edinburgh duo since 2021's acclaimed "Aranath EP" and Bill Brewsters 2017 ROTY the "Rags Of Time EP". 

"Pockets Of Light" finds the duo deploying wavy, spellbinding neons for the suitably titled "Magik". Twangy leads and dipped red lights further the mellow enchantment as the tracks gentle propelled by classic electronic drum boxes. 

"Reboot" begins with a more Detroitian flavour, with synth patches that'd make Martin Bonds blush hightened with an inviting spoken word snippet before dropping into a very Model 500 esque groove. A formular expanded on through next track, "Reality 2.0" which adds swirling dub delays to the mix and plays with drama and dynamics through stop-start arrangement with cinematic qualities and great textures throughout - a real winner that'll find favour in a variety of environments.

"RSVP" deploys perfectly aligned bleep-n-squelch; in a nod to both Sheffield and Detroit but with its own unique squiggly flair. Again, there's some underfloor neons lighting the way; with some staccato leads and constantly morphing bass underpinning it all. A real tour de force of production prowess that's remained the Leonidas & Hobbes trademark throughout their discography. 

"Keep Livin'" concludes with a nicely low-slung, syncopated beat and bass pattern accompanied by toybox piano melodies, blue sky synth licks and general sense of rising optimism to get us through these troubled times. It makes for a childlike, fairytale quality; sumptious and redolent of running across daisy-laden fields in the late afternoon sunshine as a carefree younger... or maybe that's just me! 

Anyway you look at it - it's a delightful return from the treasured duo.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Pairing intricate programming and synthesis with captivating arrangements and a decidedly humane touch is no easy feet. But our sonic shamans Leonidas & Hobbes have done just that on their phenomenal new EP which plays like an enchanted garden of rhythm, texture and sentiment.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Magik
A2. Reboot
A3. Reality 2.0
B1. RSVP
B2. Keep Livin'

Special Poolside Analogue Synth and drum machine session recorded live in Ibiza. Bearing in mind the setting this beautiful album was recorded in and the calming album cover, the whole thing evokes a sense of relaxation. Greg Foat is a master of the combination of Ambient, Balearic and Funk.

TRACK LISTING

1. Pool Side Part 1 (Live)
2. Pool Side Part 2 (Live)
3. Pool Side Part 3 (Live)
4. Pool Side Part 4 (Live)
5. Dining Table Grooves (Live)
6. Sunset Part 1 (Live)
7. Sunset Part 2 (Live)

The visionary electronic music producer team Arnau Obiols and KAYYAK, known for blending cultural influences into captivating soundscapes, present two new tracks seamlessly fusing afro-inspired rhythms with groovy organic beats. Splendid remix works by the masterminds Prins Thomas, Medlar & Dele Sosimi and Rahaan are the icing on the cake.

Arnau Obiols and KAYYAK return to Compost Records with their third release for the esteemed German label. Following their debut EP, 'Chang'an', and the single 'Tunacheza', which was also featured in the compilation 'Future Sounds of Jazz Vol. 15', the duo presents their latest offerings: "Faith" and "San Diago". Recorded between Zurich and Barcelona, these tracks embody a fusion of disco, funk, and jazz infused with a strong West African influence drawn from genres such as highlife, afrobeat, and juju. Their passion for psychedelia and krautrock is evident in the recordings, characterized by raw tape echoes, primitive drum machines, heavily processed analog synthesizers and dream-like atmospheres. While the original tracks maintain an organic vibe, the remixes offer club-ready versions tailored for the dance floor. Featuring outstanding remixes by the Norwegian space disco pioneer Prins Thomas, the Chicago legend Rahaan, and the British house producer Medlar, along with Nigerian musician Dele Sosimi, renowned for his work as a keyboard player for Fela Kuti in the late 70s and early 80s. Don't miss your chance to experience these captivating tracks. Grab it while you can, as this release is expected to go fast!

TRACK LISTING

1. Faith
2. San Diago
3. San Diago (Prins Thomas Remix)
4. Faith (Medlar & Dele Sosimi Remix)
5. Faith (Rahaan Remix)

Dramaboy's self-titled LP is a modern yet nostalgic soundtrack layering ambient pads, dreamy melodies and hero basslines with soulful boogie, city pop and leftfield analogue rhythms. The album also features Kristian Hamilton's voice on the second track "Stargazer", a LA-based singer who previously collaborated with the likes of Steven Julien, Theophilus London, Tom Trago & Fredfades. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Intriguing little nugget taking on city-pop / Balearic-house, modern boogie and more. Dramaboy is the solo project of Greg Tallon (previously of Mcbaise and The Dead Pirates), and this debut LP shows plenty of promise.

TRACK LISTING

Take Off
Stargazer (Ft Kristian Hamilton)
Goddess
Taurus Constellation
Planet D
City Drama
Mind Controlled
Close Encounter
Stargazer (Instrumental)
Close Encounter (Instrumental)

- Portable LP record storage carry case
- Robust vinyl covering
- Protective chrome effect trim on corners and all edges of the box
- Hinged lid with 2 closing clasps and carry handle in matching colours
- Holds approx up to 50 LPs / 12"s in their sleeves
- 3.8 KG

Madres is, unsurprisingly, dedicated to Kourtesis' mother. More surprising though it is also dedicated to world-renowned neurosurgeon Peter Vajkoczy. The story of how a world-renowned neurosurgeon came to appear in the liner notes of this record is one of tenacity, miracles, all-consuming love and ultimately, of hope.

When she began work on her debut, Kourtesis was seemingly unstoppable. A string of rapturously received EPs and singles made her one of the fastest rising stars in the electronic world and beyond.

She has already graced the cover of Mixmag, released a brilliantly energetic and moving Resident Advisor ‘RA Session’, appeared on ‘End of Year’ lists from the likes of The New York Times, Pitchfork, DJ Mag and Spotify (#6 Best Electronic Song) and played instant sell-out early shows at London’s Lafayette and Manchester’s YES as well as standout performances at Glastonbury, Green Man, Wide Awake and Primavera and tours supporting Caribou and Bicep.

Recommended if you like… Daphni, Logic1000, TSHA, Joy Orbison, HAAi, Jacques Greene

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A thoroughly captivating move through hazy lo-fi rave, rich rhythmic electronica and skittering IDM from Sofia Kourtesis and the ever-reliable electronic bastion Ninja Tune. It's beautifully produced, warmly dedicated and full of some of the most memorable electronic pieces i've heard in years. Superb.

TRACK LISTING

1. Madres
2. Si Te Portas Bonito
3. Vajkoczy
4. How Music Makes You Feel Better
5. Habla Con Ella
6. Funkhaus
7. Moving Houses
8. Estación Esperanza
9. Cecilia
10. El Carmen

Blind On A Galloping Horse serves as David Holmes’ first solo album since 2008’s The Holy Pictures.

A 14-track interrogation of the last decade, time spent watching a decaying, fraying Britain visibly buckling in real time while tending to his own battles with mental health. Holmes’ soundtrack to this inquiry is at times claustrophobic, often euphoric, driven by the rattle and snap of analogue drum machines, wild oscillations of droning analogue synths and the voice of Raven Violet which beguiles and commands in a way that could part oceans.

On this record, there are songs of hope for an age of uncertainty; love songs to leap the barricades to and, on ‘Necessary Genius’, a comprehensive roll call of the great and good - those ‘dreamers, misfits, radicals, outcasts’ that we’ve lost and just a few who’ve managed to cling on in the churn of the 21st century. And there are elegiac electronics evocative of an endless Europe where pulsating, crackling rhythm tracks fuse with dreamlike textures and the underground pulse of psychedelic therapy to form something unique that feels nothing less than radical. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It's no wonder we (the shop) or we (Manchester) have taken to David Holmes, with the snappy post-industrial synth-gloom of 'Necessary Genius' referencing Tony Wilson by name and by design. It's yet another bit of evidence that Holmes' musical skills know no bounds. Rich, evocative works throughout and produced as you'd expect, perfectly.

TRACK LISTING

1. When People Are Occupied Resistance Is Justified
2. It's Over, If We Run Out Of Love
3. Emotionally Clear
4. Hope Is The Last Thing To Die
5. You Will Know Me By The Smell Of Onions
6. Necessary Genius
7. Yeah X 3
8. I Laugh Myself To Sleep
9. Too Muchroom
10. Agitprop 13
11. Stop Apologising
12. Tyranny Of The Talentless
13. Love In The Upside Down
14. Blind On A Galloping Horse 

Who doesn't love a good edit, some nice Balearic, and especially some mystical Balearic edits? Well, that's just what we have here from Matsoaka who taps into several worldly flavours on this new six tracker courtesy of Magic Wand. 'Parlband Utmed Kusten' starts slow and steady, wet and dubby. 'Jah Banana' is a supremely horizontal and sun-kissed beach groove and 'Alligator' cuts loose on glistening melodies and playful chord vamps. Gentle breakbeats power the seductive 'Shish Balearic' and 'Asian Dance Groove' closes out with loose, percussive rhythms and funky guitar rifts. A truly global sonic trip.

TRACK LISTING

Parlband Utmed Kusten
Jah Banana
Alligator
Shish Balearic
Asian Dance Groove

Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 9 2022) is the third in his series of Actual Life albums, which saw Fred again.. resume his diary-esque approach to production using intimate use of voice notes from friends, videos found whilst scrolling on Instagram and samples from important records in his life.

It was an autobiographical chapter of work that pushed forward the heritage of UK electronic music while standing as testament to the power of music in facilitating catharsis, healing and celebrating the realities of friendship, love and life.

4 years in the making, this surprise collaboration between Drop and Ashong fuses soul and psychedelia with downtempo beats.

Ashong’s continuing mission to subvert expectations manifests greatly here, but the album is full of melodic hooks, layered to infinity alongside his acoustic guitar. Meanwhile Jonny Drop quietly flips samples unrecognisable from his extensive vinyl collections and once again makes a leap forward in his production identity.

Stand out single Puzzle Dust is a perfect slice of UK soul and jazz that sets everyone up for a unique sonic experience.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A beautifully laid-back fusion of mid-tempo Baleraric percussion and rich hazy reverbs. Dreamy, scattered soulful vocal snippets and swooming, opening pads. A perfectly paced, summery party piece.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lightgeist
A2. Ephemera
A3. One To Free
A4. Blood
B1. We Are Here
B2. Puzzle Dust
B3. Sun Sailing
B4. Outsighed

Emotive, break-beat minimalist trio GoGo Penguin are back, with their brand new album “Everything Is Going to Be OK”. Bursting with the optimism of new beginnings, with a new drummer, their new record label, (Sony Records' electronica and classical imprint XXIM Records), and a subtly updated and developed sound, the band are ushering in a more ambient era.

“Everything Is Going to Be OK” is born from a time of turbulence and loss. During an oppressive grieving period, the studio offered the band a sanctuary from real life. The resulting project, given such vibrant life here, draws its strength from a shared understanding and empathy. Life has many great aspects to it and despite the lows, we should be mindful and grateful to celebrate the highs at every turn. Through our hardships, we will emerge stronger - everything is going to be ok.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I've loved GoGo Penguin in every iteration of their sound thus far. Minimal loungy jazz business, flickering electronica and grooving soulful instrumentals, they've all been brilliant. It's a big thing then, when I say with some confidence then that the optimistic melodic turns and perfectly produced hazy flicker of 'Everything Is Going To Be Ok' is by far my favourite GGP sound yet. Lovely.

TRACK LISTING

You’re Stronger Than You Think
Glimmerings
Saturnine
Glow
Friday Film Special
Soon Comes Night
An Unbroken Thread Of Awareness
We May Not Stay
Everything Is Going To Be OK
Last Breath
You’re Stronger Than You Think (Revisit)
Parasite
Sanctuary

A post-modern mixtape of 12 microgenres created by The Numero Group. Bending the rules of the compilation with a selection of songs bound by their soaring spirit and adventurous approach, REACH is inspirational living for algorithmic times. The only LP guaranteed to save your life during humanity’s apocalyptic demise.

TRACK LISTING

1. Lenny White - Enchanted Pool Suite: Prelude & Part 1
2. Masumi Hara - To Live In The Sea
3. Alex Johnson - The Kiss
4. LaRhonda LeGette - Thou Art With Me
5. Ascending Wave - Modulation Del Sol
6. A.R.T. Wilson - Past Life Regression
7. John D. Curnow - Wisconsin Bird Songs
8. Calvin Keys - Touch
9. Suse Millemann - Open Heart-Hawk Belly
10. Batang Frisco - Myth
11. Bob Siebert - Rain
12. Reach - Gold Dust Twins

For the 15th anniversary of this timeless classic, !K7 Records are re-issuing Tosca’s seminal album ‘No Hassle’ in an audiophile 3LP format. Multi-instrumentalists Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber have been friends since their Vienna schooldays. Richard later became half of the globally acclaimed DJ-producer duo Kruder and Dorfmeister, while Rupert worked in piano composition and sound-art installation. ‘No Hassle’ is Tosca’s fifth studio album. A luxurious tapestry of analogue and digital sounds, submerged samples and live instruments, it evolves and expands into an hour-long ambient symphony. The title reflects not only the duo’s laidback approach to making music but their whole philosophy of life. ‘No Hassle’ is all about contemplation and concentration. While recent Tosca releases like J.A.C. (2005) and the remix collection Souvenirs (2006) were a move towards classic song structures and club-friendly grooves, their latest is a much more introspective journey into inner space. It was conceived as a single seamless sea of sound, deeply layered with liquid rhythms and tidal melodies. Warm and enveloping, each leisurely track flows gently into the next, a musical ocean moving in slow motion. This is an album to plunge deeply into and get lost inside. 

TRACK LISTING

1. My First
2. Elitsa
3. Springer
4. Birthday
5. Oysters In May
6. Joe Si Ha
7. Elektra Bregenz
8. Fondue
9. Rosa
10. Raymondo
11. Mrs. Bongo
12. No Hassle 

Remixes not from, but of the entire outstanding Khruangbin album, "Mordechai"! Personal as ever, the list of remixers has been hand picked by the band, not simply a whose who of hype and click bait.  All have some connection to the band, sometimes personal friendships, musical connections, or simply mutual musical appreciation. Harvey Sutherland and Ginger Roots have both toured with the band, Kadhja Bonet and Ron Trent had their own mutual fan club going on, Knxwledge sampled "White Gloves" on a recent mixtape, Natasha Diggs and Soul Clap’s Eli’s are recent buddy-ups, Quantic is a mutual friend of Bonobo (crucial in the KB origin story), while Laura is also godmother to one of Felix Dickinson’s kids. 

It would be tiresome to detail each and every mix, but rest assured this is an exceptionally executed project. Bolstered by the sincere and detailed sleeve notes, which journey each artists' relationship with their band, a bit about their musical legacy, and why they were chosen. 

'A good remix is when the remixer's sonic fingerprint is present, without sounding forced. It should feel like its own story, with at least some of the same characters as the original' - Khruangbin state on these highly impressive sleeve notes - and each and every track on the album represents such forethought. Very few remix albums are put together with such love, dexterity and sympathy as this one - so much so it's bound to stand as a masterpiece in its own right, just as many of the classic 'dub' LPs did from Jamaica (an influence the band themself have highly creditted in informed their sound). 

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A: 
1. Father Bird, Mother Bird (Sunbirds)
2. Connaissais De Face (Tiger?)
3. Dearest Alfred (MyJoy)
4. First Class (Soul In The Horn Remix)
SIDE B:
5. If There Is No Question (Soul Clap’s Wild, But Not Crazy Mix)
6. Pelota (Cut A Rug Mix)
SIDE C:
7. Time (You And I)(Put A Smile On DJ’s Face Mix)
8. Shida (Bella’s Suite)
 SIDE D:
9. So We Won’t Forget (Mang Dynasty Version)
10. One To Remember (Forget Me Nots Dub)

THE PICCADILLY RECORDS ALBUM OF THE YEAR 2015.

'Have You In My Wilderness' is the fourth full length album by Los Angeles artist Julia Holter and her most intimate album yet. Recorded in her hometown over the last year and once again crafted with Grammy-winning producer and engineer Cole Greif-Neill, the album follows 2013's 'Loud City Song' and two much-lauded previous titles - 'Ekstasis' (2012) and 'Tragedy' (2011).

'Have You in My Wilderness' was written from the heart - warm, dark and raw - and explores love, trust, and power in human relationships. While love songs are familiar in pop music, Holter manages to stay fascinatingly oblique and enigmatic, with some of the most sublime and transcendent music she has ever written. Like Holter's previous albums, 'Have You in My Wilderness' is multi-layered and texturally rich, featuring an array of electronic and acoustic instruments played by an ensemble of gifted Los Angeles musicians.

'Have You in My Wilderness' is also Holter's most sonically intimate album, with her vocals front and centre in the mix, lifted out of the layers of smeared, hazy effects. The result is striking: clear and vivid, but disarmingly personal.

STAFF COMMENTS

David says: 'Have You In My Wilderness’ is Julia Holter’s fourth and most accessible album to date, but given that previous records have looked to Greek Philosophers and French novelists for their inspiration, this perhaps isn’t the boldest of statements.
Holter, a music and composition graduate, approaches her craft in a cerebral, conceptual way that is still very much apparent on the album’s arrangements and time signatures. However, on ‘Have You In My Wilderness’, her more exotic tendencies have been tamed by producer M Cole Grief-Neill. He’s convinced Holter to shake off the shackles of reverb in which her otherworldly voice has always been chained and let it take centre stage on the record. It’s a master stroke that’s culminated in a sonically direct, shimmering, leftfield pop classic that everyone at Piccadilly Records has been willing her to make since first hearing 2013’s ‘Loud City Song’.
Dark and lovely, exploring pop’s universalities of love and relationships, ‘Have You In My Wilderness’ is the perfect soundtrack to winter’s long nights. Where previously Holter could be accused of being cold and aloof, she now revels in a new found warmth and intimacy. It’s like the girl on the bus that’s been ignoring you for months suddenly walking over and saying “hi, fancy going for a drink later?” - Completely unexpected and all the more wonderful for it.
But wait, don’t go! I know what you’re thinking. ‘Love and relationships? Surely ballads are the end credit to a thousand, desperate Saturday nights; certainly nothing new in pop music?’ BUT, and it’s a big but, Holter’s take on this, the most clichéd of pop clichés, is brilliantly oblique. Flitting from orchestral chamber music to Laurel Canyon introspection, it’s a schizophrenic record, whose many competing voices have combined to make ‘Have You In My Wilderness’ Piccadilly’s favourite album of 2015.

Andy says: Finally Julia Holter does what she's been threatening to do for ages: combines all her arty, classical, jazzy, ehtereal, avanty otherness into one near-pop masterpiece! Definitely one of the best records this year.

TRACK LISTING

1. Feel You
2. Silhouette
3. How Long?
4. Lucette Stranded On The Island
5. Sea Calls Me Home
6. Night Song
7. Everytime Boots
8. Betsy On The Roof
9. Vasquez
10. Have You In My Wilderness

Especial Specials always deal in releases with a story often as interesting as the music itself. This time out they enlist DJ and producer Dreems for a fine collection of limited-edition 12"s. Angus Gruzman aka Dreems is the man behind the vital Multi Culti label and has dropped his own wares on the likes of Kompakt, Pinchy & Friends and Futureboogie but somehow remains rather in the shadows. This deep dive into his vaults should change that - these are edits and dubs that come doused in psychedelia as they trip through several genres. There is off-kilter dub, melon-twisting dub, intensely percussive and tribal dub, and more across the five fantastic tracks.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Part 2 of a collection of shamanic edits and dubs by Dreems. A bit more on the dubbier side and every bit as good as Vol. 1... Nice to look at too!

TRACK LISTING

Jungle Gym
Peter Power - Adamo Waro (Dreems Horn Dub)
Zulu For Who
Ground & Kabamix - 2099 (Dreems Acid Dub)
Simonas & Gustavas - Undubbed (Dreems Redub)

Magic Wand welcomes Baz Bradley for a series of Special Editions that keep blissed-out late summer dancing sessions alive and possible even as days shorten and the sun fades away. He opens up with 'Soul Boys' (Acetate edit) which is an 80s disco jaunt with superb vocals and noodling funk rifts. 'Super Maxi' is a more stripped-back and aloof groove with sung-spoke vocals and hook melodies making for a weird yet wonderful vibe. 'Flight 207' (Gate One) is another slow-motion and dubbed-out disco funker then 'Burn The Candle' has a raw percussive twist.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: I'm more than partial to the odd edit and I have to say Baz Bradley has knocked it out of the park here. Weird but catchy is my jam!

TRACK LISTING

Soul Boys (Acetate Edit)
Super Maxi
Flight 207 (Gate One)
Burn The Candle

É Soul Cultura Vol. 1 seemed to land at exactly the right moment. Post-lockdown, optimism was back on the rise and the dance floors swelled again. For many listeners, Manchester based DJ Luke Una's intriguingly woven pattern of new, old, rare and under-discovered music from around the world became the soundtrack to rejuvenated positivity. Piccadilly Records (that's us!) made the release their top compilation of the year, with Rough Trade placing it as their number two. The enthusiasm from the industry was mirrored by record buyers and demonstrated that in the right hands, moving through genres, tempos and decades can make perfect musical sense.

This second volume gives another opportunity for Luke to share his journey of the past four decades of staying up late and getting transcendental whilst listening to holy grail music as the city slept. It at times ventures into the deeper, spiritual, soulful, downtempo, experimental aspects of his tastes. From the conscious, street soul fusion gospel of Veronica Mickie's 'Lost Children', to an excursion into Swiss, psych, progressive rock in the form of Pyranha, then onto the classic Indian music-inspired electronic workout of Andi Otto's 'Bangalore Whispers'. Luke hints at his softer side in Avis; a sweet, obscure cover version of Minnie Riperton's 'Baby, This Love I Have', as well as championing local heroes in the shape of Manchester's Yargo and their driving, obscure, proto-house belter, 'Marimba'. There's also Japanese, electronic, slo-mo heaviness from 1979, courtesy of Bach Revolution. House music is integral to the É Soul sound and is represented by Nav Aktah's deep remix of Mr Scruff, and then there's Isis 'In Essense'; a track of such majestic brilliance that it has never left Luke's record bag.

The selection is eclectic, global, and plucked from different times and spaces. In theory, perhaps they shouldn't work together, but there is a mysterious link that makes them gel as a whole. That's what Luke does best. He creates a sort of musical alchemy, unifying the diverse.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: There's a reason Luke's first compilation was such a massive hit in the shop, and Volume 2 takes all of the afterparty energy of the first and stretches the outer limits of the sound field into more spiritual, off-piste excursions. Perfectly collated, researched and presented.

TRACK LISTING

Real Thing - Children Of The Ghetto
Avis - Baby, This Love I Have 
Veronica Mickie - Lost Children
Rare Silk - Storm (Arp Duppy Chip Mix)
LFO - Shove Piggy Shove
Bach Revolution - D.E 108
Andi Otto - Bangalore Whispers (feat. MD Pallavi)
Unnayanaa & Irfan Rainy Feat Ibtisam - Taht Min Aini (Alberghina Remx)*
Michael De Albuquerque - We May Be Cattle But We All Got Names
Pyranha - Clepsydre
Yargo - Marimba
Okyerema Asante & Black Fire - Play A Sweet Rhythm On Them Drums (feat. Plunky)
Mr. Scruff Feat. Nke - Giffin (Taken Re-edit Speechless Dub Mix)
Isis - In Essense
Frank Hatchett - Malibu Nites

* Vinyl Only Track.

A glorious 2x LP / 2x CD gatefold double album resplendent with OBIs featuring some of the best examples of, until recently, a very underrated genre. Now of course, it's the hippest sound around.

Curated from the extensive Nippon Columbia catalogue by Japanese renaissance man Cunimondo Takiguchi, this compilation chronicles the hottest cuts from the most innovative originators of the City Pop genre.

It's the best bits from 70s and 80s funk, soul, disco, AOR, R&B and Pop; Tokyo's tastiest cocktail. Add to this Gearbox's famed high production values and quality control, and you have an early contender for Compilation of 2024.

"A deeply glamorous combination of penthouse glitz, exquisite studio smarts and razor-sharp musicianship...A glut of sophisticated pop pleasures" THE WIRE MAGAZINE, MARCH 2024.

TRACK LISTING

1. CARNATION - Edo River
2. Yakushi Nakanishi - Futari Bun No Atsui Yume
3. JADOES - STARDUST NIGHT
4. Keiko Kimurai - Don't Call Me On The Phone
5. Tomoki Kikuchi - Samugari
6. Yumi Seino - Mayonaka No Denwa
7. Takaki Horigome - Fuyu Kitari Naba
8. Midori Hara - Spacewalk
9. Emi Necozawa - Me Ni Mienai Mono
10. Nanako Sato - Umi Ni Ukabu Piano
11. Kyoko Furuya - Harumi Futo
12. Escalators - Fly High
13. Mitsuko Horie - Weekend Night
14. Namihiko Ohmura - Moonlight, Starlight
15. Chikako Ueno - Nostalgic Spaceman
16. Hiroshi Sato - F.W.Y.

In what must be one of the most sought after edits 12" we've had in for some time, Wrekin Havoc announce their arrival on the scene with the in-demand "Playing With Fire EP". Three friends - collectors and diggers - based somewhere around Birmingham and finding mutual appreciation at a mushroom fuelled romp somewhere around the boarders.

On this first release, they extend and buff-up some quite under-the-radar source material - leaving much of the original vibe intact. Three bonafide Euro chuggers are the main dish. Primed for early doors / early morning, although the cosmic and exotic flavours will lend themselves to alternative plays right across the board. Final track "Catch Me If You Can" is aimed at that perfect Balearic sunrise, bringing optimism for the day ahead atop of rising strings, emotive guitar picks and breath taking chord progression. You can almost smell the sea air!

Amazing stuff from this emergent firm - RIYL: Talking Drums, DJ Harvey, Ruf Kutz, Andi Hanley, Neil Diablo etc etc. Limited copies too so don't dilly dally.

Oh! And apparently the trio are donating any profits from the record to charity - so that's another reason to love 'em! 

TRACK LISTING

A1. Oh La Lover
A2. Love Shock
B1. We're Truckin'
B2. Catch Me If You Can

222 Units Ltd as F*K.

Abstract wonky vibes from the mountain peaks with Luv*Jam & Maria Slovakova

++Plus++ Ridiculously advanced reversions from the one and only Ruf Dug

(as Ruffy himself says “Detroit going off in ya caravan for the weekend”)

++Plus++ A spaced out to the high hills take from sound pioneer Special Characters


3000.10 is the 10th instalment of 14 highly collectable records.

Carnedd Dafydd (David’s Cairn) - 3425ft (1044m).

OS grid SH6628 6305.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Everyone's favourite Welsh nipper, Luv Jam is joined by Manchester's No. 1 tropical cyberpunk for an exclusive mission into the mountains of Snowdonia. It's had a long hiatus, but the Legend Of Gelert series is back with a bang.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Mind Floating - Ruffys Pagan Renip
A2. Chcem Strongly - Ruffys Surf N’ Turf
B1. Mind Floating - Special Characters Peaky Renip
B2. Mind Floating - Original 2010 Secret Version

Nothing But Net presents “Perceptions”, the debut LP from Los Angeles producer/beat maker Jamma-Dee aka Dyami O’Brien. Jamma-Dee has been a figure in the west coast modern funk and boogie scene, both as an accomplished DJ and music producer, having released records under his own name and producing for the likes of Joyce Wrice, Mndsgn and others.

From a musical upbringing in Los Angeles, Dyami’s adolescent obsession with record digging and beatmaking eventually led him to Dam-Funk’s renown Funkmosphere parties where he built friendships with key players in the LA funk scene and began to make a name for himself as a DJ and producer. In the second half of the 2010’s he released a series of EPs on Arcane and hosted the legendary Soul In Paradise show on NTS radio.

His first full-length, “Perceptions” is a long time in the making. Beginning with studio experiments nearly a decade ago, a version of the album found its way to producer and Nothing But Net label boss Onra, who helped guide the project to completion. The album artwork was created by outsider soul music conceptualist and painter, Mingering Mike, whom O’Brien felt compelled to reach out to after discovering his work years earlier. Thematically, the artwork, record, and its title touch on very modern themes: the alienation of life in a world of instant-gratification, an overly-connected society of masks, distorted realities and shifting identities.

Musically, “Perceptions” is the culmination of a life lived under the groove. Featuring a long list of collaborators, including Benedek, Mndsgn, Koreatown Oddity, the legendary Craig T. Cooper and fellow NBN labelmate, Devin Morrison, the double album touches on all of O’Brien’s musical influences. Album opener “Up N Down” sets the scene with it’s syrupy g-funk impressionism, before “Jamma’s Jam” bounces out of the speakers through an auburn-colored sunset haze of lush Rhodes chords and sparkling vibraphones. “It Takes A Freak” and “Datafile Groove” shuffle westward, re-imagining New Jack Swing grooves through a distinctly Californian lens. Elsewhere, the album touches on classic deep house rhythms (“Tic Toc” and “Silly”) and crystalline, downtempo R&B and UK street soul (“Joy”, “Saturday”).“U.R.” features legendary L.A. guitarist Craig T. Cooper laying down a network of stunning, silken guitar lines with absolute class.

Over the course of these 15 tracks, Jamma Dee consolidates, renovates and perpetuates the sound of his influences. “Perceptions” is a masterclass in modern funk and soul production.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Nice selection of stoned head nodders, wavy RnB and wonky-boom-bap from this LA based beatsmith.

TRACK LISTING

Up N Down
Jammas Jam
Spellbound
Dee Joy
It Takes A Freak
Tic Toc
Saturday
Baad
Every Morning
Datafile Groove
Silly
Ur
Opening Gates
Take Me Home
Its A Blessing

Music From Memory cap off a pretty neat 2016 with a reissue of something unique, unusual and largely unheard outside of elite digging circles and the Wuppertal town hall. As key figures of the Wuppertal jazz scene, trumpetist Heinz Becker and painist Karl-Heinz Stegmann were well acquainted by 1987 when they met the actress Isabel Zeumer at an exhibition opening. Soon after this chance meeting, the trio were asked put together a programme on Else Lasker-Schüler. A unique figure in her time Jewish poet Lasker-Schüler embraced a bohemian lifestyle and became a leading exponent of Germany’s expressionism and avant-garde poetry movement before fleeing the country in 1937. Becker, Stegmann and Zeumer’s programme would combine readings of Lasker-Schüler’s works with experimental music and imagery. These performances were met with great enthusiasm at the time in Wuppertal and were even televised. Following on from the strong response to the music and performances, the trio were invited to release the material on local label ITM Records. Embracing Lasker’s avant-garde sentiments within their own musical compositions, Becker, Zeumer and Stegmann’s album "Ich Träume So Leise Von Dir" LP blends jazz and electronics to create a wholly unique sound. "Mein Tanzlied" opens this reissue with precision drum programming, thrusting sequences and fat fusion bass, packing the dancefloor before the spoken vocal, glassy keys and muted jazz trumpet erupts overhead. An undeniable NDW killer, this sounds like a Germanic, avant associate of James Mason's "Nightgruv", Enzo Avitabile's "Blackout" and Hugh Masekela's "Don't Go Lose It Baby", but much weirder than that sounds. Essential deep dancefloor bizniz. "Dir" takes a different approach to audio enlightenment, transporting us into a North Rhine film noir with swelling synth tones, muted jazz trumpet and sultry spoken vocals from Isabel Zeumer. If you got lost in Vangelis' Blade Runner score, then you should seriously check this unsettling vision of atmospheric ambience. B-side opener "Der Schnupfen" sees the trio layering Isabel's spoken vocal and Becker's trumpet over a bubbling boogie rhythm section, before Stegman fully freaks out on the synth in the second half. "Abends" closes the set in subdued fashion, gentle Rhodes motifs creating a watery calm while the sustained synth drones and moonlit trumpet wax and wane around the intimate vocal. Embracing and experimenting with elements of ambient and even new wave, the four tracks selected here, seem to take music and spoken word into an entirely unique musical realm. It's yet another gift from Music From Memory.

For the past 10 years, all roads Shepherd has followed have been slowly leading to 'Elaenia' - an album with roots deep in his formative years, and one that draws upon everything Shepherd has done so far. An album that provides context to the music that Shepherd has been making to date. Every DJ set he’s performed, every talent he has produced, every composition he has written are thought of as precursors to 'Elaenia' - a dazzling score which puts Shepherd in the spotlight as a composer who has produced an album that bridges the gap between his rapturous dance music and formative classical roots. Drawing inspiration from classical, jazz, electronic music, soul and even Brazilian popular music, 'Elaenia' - named after the bird of the same name - is the epitome of the forward-thinking Floating Points vision in 2015.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A big hit in the shop this one, and rightfully so. I remember first hearing the soaring arpeggios and jazzy twists, and being thoroughly hooked. Known to use a Buchla 227 and an Arp Odyssey, Sam Shepherd has really shown that there is no need to shy away from melody whilst utilising patchable synths, and Elaenia is all the better for it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Nespole
2. Silhouettes (I, II & III)
3. Argenté
4. Elaenia
5. Thin Air
6. For Marmish
7. Peroration Six

Guests are Jessica Higgins and Matthew Walkerdine of Glasgow, UK, both formerly of the bands Vital Idles and Mordwaffe. They have been closely tied with DIY music, art and publishing for over a decade. Using (amateur) electronics, singing, speaking and field recording they make songs which blend the rhythms of popular music and contemporary approaches to collage, sampling, improvisation and repetition. As inspired by film and art as they are the legacies of twee underground and avant garde experimentalism, their loose, domestically twinged compositions explore feelings, atmospheres and moments which are hard to articulate and the quite literal notion of being a “guest”.

“I wish I was special” is their debut record, and with it a chance taken to explore terrain not previously covered by their other groups. The ideology of DIY practice appears integral to these eleven compositions, side-stepping virtuosity in favour of instinct and impression, unafraid to press unknown buttons and walk head first into mistake, finding inspiration where convention might not otherwise allow one to tread. The results are confoundingly fresh, sharp-of-mind, and unusually intimate. There’s an obvious intelligence at play here, and no little humour of course, but crucially there’s also a sense of the personal, a first-thought/best-thought (auto)didacticism that celebrates shared understanding and implicit trust. What, ultimately, we might view as the fearlessness in radically being yourself around another. It’s an approach that draws some comparison with the private musings of Flaming Tunes, Idea Fire Company’s domestic electronics, or perhaps even Annea Lockwood’s framing of emotional connection within avant garde structures. More so, Guests represent a compelling continuation of DIY post-punk experimentation that values intuition over prowess, and with it guides the listener into unexpected spaces that somehow comfort as much as they challenge.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: World Of Echo are fast becoming one of the most creative cult labels of recent times. After discovering the mighty Tara Clerkin Trio, they introduce to use this beguiling new act. Imagine if Dry Cleaning quaffed a load of Quaaludes and tried their hand at DIY electronix, and you might get the idea behind Guests.

TRACK LISTING

Talking About Talking
A Veneer, A Promise, Whatever
(my Cooperation)
Arrangements, As In Making Them 
(something Romantic)
(anemones)
Terrazzo
Melodrama
(glossy!)
Chalky Outline
(ha Ha Ha)

Belgian DJ and producer Gratts have joined forces with London-based vocalist Mr. Beale to follow up on to success of their well-received 'Sun Circles' release last year. Here, on the sublime 'Submerge Me', they are in fine form once more with a brooding sound that features the uniquely mesmerising mantras of Beale and plenty of raw, compelling and percussive grooves that fully lock you in and get you going. Versatile Records' own Gilb'r then steps up on the flip and manages to take things even deeper with some fine liquid dub excursions to complete a top 7"

TRACK LISTING

Submerge Me (Original Version)
Submerge Me (Gilb'r Remix)

Belgian artist Gratts wrote 'Sun Circles' as an empowerment anthem for his two sons and it dropped to plenty of acclaim last year. In its wake, Gratts DJed with Adelaide's multi-talented Alexander Flood on percussion and after some conversations he was enlisted to bring his jazz background to a remix of the original. He did so live as part of a quintet and the result is a super summery, airy rework with soulful vocals that linger long in the air. Detroit-based techno and ambient maestro John Beltran appears on the flip to bring a classy Balearic remix that will have you dreaming of longer, warmer nights and plenty of sun-kissed dancing fun.

TRACK LISTING

Sun Circles (Alexander Flood Live Rework)
Sun Circles (John Beltran Project Remix)

In anticipation of the 35th anniversary next year one of electronic music´s most influential recordings, the legendary "E2-E4", from 12.12.1981 gets an official rerelease by Manuel Göttsching on his own Label MG.ART... Carefully overseen by the Master himself.

One of the few records Gottsching released under his own name, "E2-E4" has earned its place as one of the most important, influential electronic records ever released. What sets it apart from music that came before is a steadfast refusal to follow the popular notions of development in melody and harmony. Instead, "E2-E4" continues working through similar territory for close to an hour with an application to trance-state electronics missing from most of the music that preceded it. Though the various components repeat themselves incessantly, it's how they interact and build that determines the sound -- and that's the essence of most electronic dance music, that complex interplay between several repetitive elements. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Patrick says: On the evening of December 12th, 1981, Manuel Göttsching took to his home studio, hit record and jammed his way through one hour of flawless electronic composition. Minimalist yet expressive, this hypnotic arrangement of circular drum programs, overlapping sequences and dreamy pads completely envelops the listener in pure transcendental beauty. Evolving at its own pace, the piece drifts through a series of mesmeric motifs before bursting into widescreen brilliance at the avian flutter of Manuel’s warm and bright guitar. Recorded live to tape with no overdubs, ‘E2-E4’ is a stunning marriage of inspiration and expression, truly perfect.

TRACK LISTING

Ruhige Nervosität 13:00
Gemäßigter Aufbruch 10:00
... Und Mittelspiel 07:00
Ansatz 06:00
Damen-Eleganza 05:00
Ehrenvoller Kampf 03:00
Hoheit Weicht (nicht Ohne Schwung...) 09:00
... Und Souveränität 03:00
Remis 03:00

What better way to celebrate 100 releases than with a handmade box containing soul expanding music!? Höga Nord Rekords have reached an important goal and releases a rare box set containing all 12” from the HNRUK-series plus a new record from Birds, unique for this box. Except Birds, this compilation includes Dark Strands, High Boys, Vox Low, Timothy J. Fairplay, Fontän, Bird Of Paradise, Mythologen, Jamie Paton and Frak.

The music is of course the main focus of all releases on Höga Nord Rekords but what birthday gift comes without a proper wrapping? This exclusive handmade box made in Norrmalms kartongfabrik in Stockholm, is a celebration to the Scandinavian Bronze age. You’ll find rock carvings like those on the artwork scattered over the land but mostly near Gothenburg, home of Höga Nord Rekords on the Swedish west coast.

Archaeological evidence proves similarities in ornaments and pictures between the Nordic and European Bronze age, just like you find common features in the music released on our label. Though the acts in this compilation box come from all over Europe and beyond, they stem from an obscured and mysterious common source of escapism, purity and creativity.

TRACK LISTING

Dark Strands - The Last Ride
Dark Strands - We Own The Night
Dark Strands - Black Dog
Dark Strands - Wandering Star
Vox Low - I'll Save You Anyway (Evelyne)
Vox Low - I'm Coming To Your House (feat. Tarik Ziour)
Vox Low - Loving Hell
High Boys - Drunken Master
High Boys - Down With Chaos
High Boys - This Is The Captain Speaking
High Boys - No Hope For A Sexual Revolution
Timothy J. Fairplay - Mindfighter
Timothy J. Fairplay - Nightmare City
Timothy J. Fairplay - Lost In The Mirror Maze
Timothy J. Fairplay - Jennifer Has Some Strange Ideas
Fontän - Sen Sen No Sen (Red Axes Remix)
Fontän - Mangsebung (Timothy J Fairplay Remix)
Fontän - Gangri (Khjinda Remix)
Fontän - Bardo (Mythologen Remix)
Fontän - Shadows (Pardon Moi Remix)
Birds Of Paradise - Tito
Birds Of Paradise - Joy-Rides
Birds Of Paradise - Smoking Holiday
Birds Of Paradise - Breather Resist
Mythologen - The Joy I Feel
Mythologen - Canavan's Peckham Pool Club
Mythologen - Blackheath
Mythologen - House Of Parakeet
Jamie Paton - Enhance 224
Jamie Paton - State Line
Jamie Paton - Disk Memories
Jamie Paton - Leviathan Aftermath
Frak - Corridor
Frak - Stetoskop
Frak - Micro Fisson
Frak - Arcitect
Birds - Solitary Dancers
Birds - Night Time Life
Birds - Dont Drink The Acid Water
Birds - Young Blood

The music of Washed Out has always levitated over a timeless frontier. You can sense it in his immersive, amorphous vocals, the expansive soundscapes, the wistful storytelling. It’s a sweet spot where, says its creative force, Ernest Greene, “any sort of association or memory from the past can transport you instantly. I love that.”

Greene’s transcendent output has earned him the moniker of “Godfather of Chillwave” by Pitchfork and a co-sign from Portlandia, which borrowed his track, “Feel It All Around,” for its utopian theme song. His latest, 'Notes From a Quiet' Life arrives after delivering more than a decade of distinct and disparate creative re-imaginations at a remarkably high level (five albums, two EPs). Notes is bold in its intuitiveness: Greene has left the treadmill of music-as-a-business, instead letting his artistic interests lead the way. “Each album,” says Green, who also paints and sculpts, “is a world-building exercise.”

The Georgia native left Atlanta in 2021 to move back to the countryside he knew growing up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today he is preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him. He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion” (after the pastoral John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd — its opening line: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”), and it has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large scale visual-art experiments.

“I’ve read that every five, maybe 10, years, you’re practically a different person — like literally, on a cellular level,” Greene explains. “The things that you’re going through will end up changing you, and you’re kind of a different person. This album is a reflection of that. Experimenting with painting and sculpture helps my music. They influence each other. That was a kind of realization for me. I don’t want to look back on my life one day, and be like, ’Oh, it was all about maximizing productivity,’” he says. “I want to enjoy this.”

That purity of vision is what makes 'Notes From a Quiet Life' so potent. It’s the first album Greene wholly self-produced, with some mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy (James Blake, Mura Masa) and David Wrench (Caribou, Florence + the Machine). “Early in my career, I had a lack of technical skill, and there were some things I wasn’t 100% enthusiastic about,” he says, noting Jean-Michel Basquiat’s distinct, self-driven method as an inspiration. “Something that I was looking for was...I didn’t want any illusion of anyone else’s influences. I wanted to see this through to the end. And honestly, that was a big challenge.

Illustrating that, Greene’s list of influences for 'Notes From a Quiet Life' are mostly sculpture icons: minimalist legend Donald Judd, abstract expressionist Cy Twombly, and modernists Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. Of the latter, he observes, “The majority of his working life was spent on his country estate, and he wasn’t living a cosmopolitan lifestyle. He was focused on just making good work, you know?”

TRACK LISTING

1. Waking Up
2. Say Goodbye
3. Got Your Back
4. Hardest Part
5. A Sign
6. Second Sight
7. Running Away
8. Wait On You
9. Wondrous Life
10. Letting Go 

Lips & Rhythm sails into summer 2024 with a fresh EP from Residentes Balearicos. The Ibiza-based duo of Alessandro Doretto and Luca Avera have been turning out sun-soaked dance music for several years now from their studio in the islands.

The title track 'Paraiso' is a timeless tune with just the right blend of slowed down acid and Flamenco guitar plus plenty of claps. 'Polvo Mineral' is a bit mysterious with ethereal pads, big drum fills and chanting.

'I Wanna Dance' harkens back to the beautiful Italian dream house era from the early 90s with lush chimes and driving synth lines over pitched down vocals and uplifting backing harmonies.

The remix of 'Paraiso' is from Brazil-born, New York formed, Gaspar Muniz, who reworks the title track into a breaky electro number fit for a late night in Rio De Janeiro.

A summer record that's been dancefloor tested and receiving rightful praise. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Tropical disco, star-lit chug, Balearic boogie and hammock house for your paradise trip this party season.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Paraiso
A2. Polvo Mineral
B1. I Wanna Dance
B2. Paraiso (Gaspar Muniz Funky Fresh Remix)

Ali Farka Touré trekked the world, bringing his beloved Malian music to the masses. Dubbed “the African John Lee Hooker,” one could hear strong connections between the two; both employed a bluesy style of play with gritty textures that elicit calm and fury in equal measure. While the influence of Black blues music prevailed, Touré created a West African blend of 'desert blues' that garnered Grammy awards and widespread reverence.

Though he transcended in 2006, Ali’s musical legacy lives on through his son, Vieux aka “the Hendrix of the Sahara,” an accomplished guitarist and champion of Malian music in his own right. On Ali, his collaborative album with Khruangbin, Vieux pays homage to his father by recreating some of his most resonant work, putting new twists on it while maintaining the original’s integrity. The result is a rightful ode to a legend. Ali isn’t just a greatest hits compilation. It’s a lullaby, a remembrance of Ali's life through known highlights and B-sides from his catalog. It is a testament to what happens when creativity is approached through open arms and open hearts. “To me, music is magic, it is spontaneous, it is the energy between people,” Vieux says. “I think Khruangbin understands this very well.” The genesis of the album dates back to 2019, when Khruangbin, coming off their breakthrough album Con Todo el Mundo, was beginning to play to bigger crowds. The record was finished in 2021, as a global pandemic shuttered businesses and forced us to take stock of what Earth was becoming. Indirectly, Ali captures this as a moment of peace within a raging storm, a conversation between past and present without allegiance to suffering. Now, given Khruangbin’s reach as a unit with legions of fans (including the likes of Jay-Z and Paul McCartney), they’re poised to bring Malian music to broader groups of listeners. Ali is a masterful work in which the love surrounding it is just as vital as the music itself, driving it to unforeseen places; Vieux and Khruangbin are spreading the good word to a completely new generation. “I hope it takes them somewhere new, or puts them in a place they haven't felt or heard,” Lee says. “It is about the love of new friendship and making something beautiful together,” Vieux continues. “It is about pouring your love into something old to make it new again. In the end and in a word it is love, that's all.”

I was tardy with my introduction to the genius that is Dean Blunt, ignoring the Hype Williams and Babyfather brilliance and only encountering the minimal magic of the first 'Black Metal' during my second year at Piccadilly. Shown the way by Ryan Horsebeach, Mike Riley Jones and Matt Ward, I bought the cryptic release and well and truly lost my shit...over and over again...for years. To say I'm excited by the appearance of a second instalment from the reclusive musician would be a wild understatement. 

The LP opens with strings and solemnity via 'Vigil', a sparse and beautiful reminder of Blunt's trademark sound - intimacy bordering on claustrophobia, nocturnal and emotive. The chiming guitars join the poised drum patterns for 'Mugu' and 'Dash Snow', a pair of bedsit vignettes which Javi just described as a London cabbie's reaction to Drill while Vini Reilly tunes up - this is a good thing by the way. Blunt's is a music of longing, vulnerability and beauty, presented as concise and considered songs which combine to form their own sonic landscape. Referential (the cover blacks out all everything from Dre's 2001 but the 2) but never reverential, Blunt, aided and abetted by Joanne Robertson somehow beats his personal best, and we should all be grateful we get to hear it.

TRACK LISTING

1. Vigil
2. Mugu
3. Dash Snow
4. Sketamine
5. Semtex
6. La Raza
7. Nil By Mouth
8. Zaza
9. Woosah
10. The Rot

For 'Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours Volume Two', Paul dives back into the vaults for more seriously good, rare cuts for all to enjoy. Spanning seventeen tracks, the new compilation represents his continued journey with the Folk Funk & Trippy Troubadours sound. Think of heady sounds to soundtrack balmy English summers and Balearic poolside drops, the compilation includes a huge slab of privately pressed obscurities with some previously unreleased material.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: From horizontal ambient folk business to head-nodding Balearica, the wonderful Paul Hillery once again raids his vaults for a unique selection of the finest gems. This time sees more drifty numbers like Len Udow's gorgeous “Beauty Raise The Tree” joined with some more upbeat numbers, like Grand Union's funky odyssey, “Morning Brings The Light”'.

TRACK LISTING

1. Morning Brings The Light - Grand Union
2. Undone - Tasha Lee McClunney
3. Olivia - Lucy Kitchen
4. Beauty Raise The Tree - Len Udow
5. Wild Canada - Dan Donahue
6. The Ballad Of Ho Chi Minh - Mike Glick
7. Song Of Creation - Chris Rawlings
8. Bamboo In The Wind - Gary Lapow
9. Turn On Your Lovelight - Summer Rain
10. Rainfall - Jennie Rylatt
11. Prospect Of Wealth - Henry Parker
12. Teardrops Lost In The Rain (Stallions Remix) - Findlay Brown
13. Change Is Me, Change Is You - Harris And Crane Band
14. Waco - Frank Pyne & Loon Saloon
15. Theme IV _A Detective KJAMM1644 D1 - The B.B. Jackson Band
16. Weepin' - Cascada
17. Let Me Ride - Peter Campbell 

In 1984, Jasper Van’t Hof, a prominent European jazz pianist, propelled to fame with the energetic ‘Pili Pili’ a 15-minute trance collaboration with Guinea's Isaac Tagul Group. Inspired by a fiery red pepperoni, the track sold over 100,000 copies, leading the group to adopt the name Pili Pili, becoming a hit in the club and disco scene.

Pili Pili's musical roots trace back to Van’t Hof's 1982-83 tour in Central Africa, where he discovered a love for African music. The band embraced authenticity by collaborating with diverse African musicians from Mali, Congo, Senegal, and Guinea. In 2000, Van’t Hof initiat-ed a project with the young Zulu choir Phikelela Sakhu-la from Durban, South Africa.
Pili Pili's style, described as experimental fusion, blends intricate African rhythms with jazz, fusion, funk, and dance. Van’t Hof emphasized the importance of groove over complex solos, stating that intellectual approaches are lost in their music.

The band's performances, marked by their energetic fusion of jazz and African rhythms, gained acclaim across Europe. Regular tours and festival appearances, such as the Jazz Festival of Montreux, solidified Pili Pili's reputation as an excellent live band. Reviews praised the band's dynamic and explosive music, turn-ing every performance into a rhythmic and fiery expe-rience.

Pili-Pili is essential, every home should have one, and to that end NuNorthern Soul are doing a legit reissue (the album and 12 have been out of print since 1984). On the A-side of the new single is an edit from the mid-90s, which does a terrific job of tightening up the OG album mix, losing the Burundi breakdowns and fuzz guitar washes, but still rolling and building beautifully for over 15 minutes. That’s backed by a Coyote remix, which is full of subtle twists to keep old heads on their toes. The cowbell and chants are dropped into echo, the drumming further doubled by delay. Loops, filtering and phasing, adding to the track’s trance-inducing properties. The duo’s dubwise trickery pulling in favourable comparisons to Adrian Sherwood’s seminal seismic shake of the aforementioned Unknown Cases’ Ma Simba Belle.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Real deal cosmic musica here, with the original penned at the peak of Baldelli-era afro funky, whilst the edit (from '95) sets itself amongst the sunshine and sun loungers of the Balearics - expanded on by Coyote who drops a brand new edit for 2024.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Original New 1995 Edit
B1. Coyote Double Drop 2024 Edit

The Avalanches’ era defining debut album ‘Since I Left You’ has finally come of age. Now 20 years old, ‘Since I Left You’ gets a timely reissue along with an additional record of fifteen remixes from the likes of MF DOOM, Stereolab and Carl Craig. The Avalanches made ‘Since I Left You’ out of hundreds of vinyl samples, the grand finale and biggest climactic triumph of the Sampladelic Decade. Containing classic singles ‘Frontier Psychiatrist’ and ’Since I Left You’, the reissue’s remixes give each track a new lease of life, while still maintaining the sunny disposition of the originals.

Do you remember what you were doing twenty years ago? I do. I was a fifteen year old kid from the burbs, spending my summer playing football and recreating WWF classics in the back yard while dressed like a nerdish Eminem (bleach blonde hair and everything). Then a wacky-ass radio track packed with film snippets and horse noises worked its way into my teenage brain and changed things for good. The Avalanches were insane, inspired and in full effect; following the 'horse song' ("Frontier Psychiatrist") with a soulful and swooning summer jam ("Since I Left You") which has played in my head ever since. Family Allowance firmly in hand I took my privileged ass off to the Market Hall, picked up a CD copy of this album and spent the whole bus journey home feasting my eyes on the liner notes and sleeve artwork. As I hit the play button on my naff home stereo, I was whisked away Dorothy-style and taken on a head spinning journey through 50 years of popular music. Leaving the monochrome mundanity of Bolton behind, I soared through technicolour stage sets of paradise islands, Brooklyn block parties and countryside BBQs, Sci-Fi spectaculars and rewired romances as 3,500 samples were sticky taped together before my very ears. The plunderphonic sound of six men who spent their adolescence rummaging through the bargain bins of Melbourne's record shops, "Since I Left You" applies hip hop's cut'n'paste mentality to the full gamut of weird and wonderful pop, from exotica to erotica, disco and funk to lounge and psych. Unlike anything I'd ever heard before, and better than any imitators I've heard since, The Avalanches are truly in a class of their own. 

TRACK LISTING

4LP
Disc 1
Since I Left You
Stay Another Season
Radio
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Avalanche Rock
Flight Tonight
Close To You
Diners Only
A Different Feeling

Disc 2
Electricity
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
Pablo's Cruise
Frontier Psychiatrist
Etoh
Summer Crane
Little Journey
Live At Dominoes
Extra Kings

Disc 3
Since I Left You (Cornelius Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)
Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
Close To You (Sun Araw Remix)
Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
Radio (Sinkane Remix)

Disc 4
Since I Left You (Prince Paul Remix)
Electricity (Harvey's Nightclub Re-edit)
Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
Extra Kings (Deakin Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)

2CD
Disc 1
Since I Left You
Stay Another Season
Radio
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time
Avalanche Rock
Flight Tonight
Close To You
Diners Only
A Different Feeling
Electricity
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life
Pablo's Cruise
Frontier Psychiatrist
Etoh
Summer Crane
Little Journey
Live At Dominoes
Extra Kings

Disc 2
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (MF DOOM Remix)
Summer Crane (Black Dice Remix)
Frontier Psychiatrist (Mario Caldato Jr's 85% Remix)
Electricity (Dr. Rockit's Dirty Kiss Remix)
Electricity (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
Thank You Caroline (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
Thank You Caroline (Andy Votel Remix)
So Why So Sad (The Avalanches Sean Penn Mix) – Manic Street Preachers
The Shining (The Avalanches Good Word For The Weekend Mix) – Badly Drawn Boy
Pablo's Cruise (Original Avalanches Demo Tape)
I'm A Cuckoo (The Avalanches Remix - DJ Edit) – Belle And Sebastian
Chico (The Avalanches Wernham Hogg Mix) – The Concretes
Fade Together (The Avalanches Remix) – Franz Ferdinand
Since I Left You (Stereolab Remix)
Flight Tonight (Canyons Travel Agent Dub)
Radio (Sinkane Remix)
A Different Feeling (Ernest Saint Laurent Remix)
A Different Feeling (Carl Craig's Paperclip People Remix)
Two Hearts In 3/4 Time (Jackson & His Computer Band Remix)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Dragged By Leon Vynehall)
Tonight May Have To Last Me All My Life (Edan Remix)

Music From Memory is delighted to present ‘Elevations’, a new album from Manchester based artist Tom Burford, aka Contours.

Drawing heavily on his background as a drummer and percussionist, ‘Elevations’ began as an exploration of the Balafon, a Malian tuned percussion instrument, before organically growing into its final form; a delicate suite of compositions centered around rhythmical interactions of percussion, synthesizer and strings.

Recorded during the pandemic and the period following, the album reflects a desire to lose oneself in the expanse of nature - the title ‘Elevations’ being a direct nod to the mountainous area of Cumbria where Tom grew up. The album also represents the joy of creating with friends; it features performances from several of his musical contemporaries, many of which were recorded at his home in Manchester. Slowly taking shape, the final result is a record that seamlessly blends electronic and acoustic, operating at the intersection of minimalism, jazz, fourth world and contemporary classical music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Serenity, decadence and Reichian repetition combine when Manchester whizz kid Tom Burford tinkers with his instruments. A widely educated and well travelled muso with a keen love of nature - all these influences and inspirations combine to a natural zenith on "Elevations" which finds a spiritual habitat on the esteemed Music From Memory. Magical.

TRACK LISTING

Bike Shed
Elevation 2
Elevation 2
Elevation 3
Balafon C
Pots
Arp Phase

Oro Azul‘s debut offering, "Water Seeds", takes us through 4 shades of an aquatic garden. Dembow floats underneath the waves while woodblock melodies bubble up through the weeds. Sub bass shifts the tide. Some sounds are moss-like, a protective balm. Other tones come through as minerals and metals, shining in the refracted light from above.

A collaboration between Ultima Esuna and Michael Red, the music of Oro Azul took shape over the course of a year of purposeful and transformative studio sessions. This release follows the pair’s solo releases on DJ Python’s Worldwide Unlimited, Nervous Horizon, and Isla.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Lemuria
A2. Atlantis
B1. Mantarraya
B2. Eros

Celebrating twenty-five years of Aficionado as a place to play away from suffocating mainstream club culture, DJs Jason Boardman and Moonboots have compiled a contemplative set of 16 tracks that holds a deep meaning to both themselves and attendees of their now legendary parties. The compilation includes two new tracks exclusive to the release: J-Walk’s ‘Cool Bright Northern Morning’ and Begin’s remix of Canyons ‘Akasha’.

Reflecting on how it all started 25 years ago, Moon considers their no-plan-plan to be a makeshift plateau which evolved organically: “All we did was try to play good records one after the other without any consideration for fashion. And people wanted that”. Alternative approaches were not unknown at the time, but Aficionado, as Jason and Moon’s Sunday sessions became known, pressed the reset button with unique resolve.

Jason elaborates: “It was 1998 when we started. It was our own 'fuck you’ to the Super Club regime - almost everywhere then. The ‘anything goes’ Balearic ethos was in abeyance. It wasn’t cool at the time, but we both just wanted to keep that original spirit alive. ‘Keep it open’ had always been my approach to DJing - even from playing at Youth Clubs as a teenager. No rules or generic constrictions. Play anything that you like from any era, any style from any time. We always encouraged our guests to dig deep and play outside of their comfort zones, their usual styles”.

Regular contributors quickly realised there was a freedom here which expected exploration of the most cobwebbed corners of the collection. The trick was to do something that hadn’t been done before - to play a record which might make these genuinely genre-less sonic adventurers double take. Aficionado reserved the right to apply the brakes and offered the same opportunity to their guests in terms of avoiding stultifying ‘sets’ and routine dance floor button pushing. At the same time, Jason and Moon were also adept in responding to the hedonistic excess that often erupted by playing music likely to facilitate random outbursts of dancing on tables on a school night. Aficionado never settled or coalesced into something readily identifiable and easy to sell.

While there were many Manchester venues, for Jason Sundays at Zumbar were special: “It would get very deranged. A cranky Citronic double deck console and very lo-fi, but a real vibe. Free pizza! At Fat Cat we got offered a proper wage - credit in the straight world! A basement by the Canal”. Moon concurs: “Zumbar was crackers - Sunday became the essential day to go out for our lot. But my two favourite ’Nado venues were Arch in Hulme and Fat Cat. People who’d been up all weekend would turn up spangled. Some bods stopped going out on Saturdays and made Sunday their big night out. Did these people have jobs? Very, very funny times…”.

The lovingly crafted musical mystery tour of this compilation, considering its pleasantly hypnagogic intent, may not reflect the madness of these now distant memories. This is an older and considerably more responsible collection and this is what we need right now - a temporary respite from a world almost capsized. A mood, a meditation created by masters of their craft. Odd socks from disparate global locations making new sense side by side. An assemblage, if you like. A thread through many different kinds of thinking. A new picture pieced together from the lost pieces of many jigsaws. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Aficionado is a cult. A nod-and-a-wink into cryptic catacombs of musical discovery. A paradoxical combination of Moonboot’s hushed mythical reverence and the contagious sense of enthusiasm and adventure from Jason Boardman.

A club night that’s uniquely Mancunian in spirit yet has gone on to inform and inspire a whole global network of record obsessives. A label that spins on a different axis to the mainstream, yet evolves and adapts in natural cycles in harmony with the growing maturity of its founders. Which is why we find ‘25 Years Of Aficionado’ in a decidedly unhurried and meditative mood - showcasing sounds that are at home amongst sun-blushed beaches, English countryside and the relaxed contentment of a free weekend afternoon. Rather than re-hash the hits that soundtracked their debauched Sunday sessions back in the day, the pair have curated a contemplative set that reflects the unwinding of pace that undoubtedly comes with age – in turn delivering something that’s unequivocally relevant to the listeners it's aimed at.

I’ve had both the joy and pain of playing at ‘Nado. Forced to spend most of the evening wearing record sleeves on my head as my ill prepared set contained bootlegs, edits and, the biggest rule break of all – beat matching! I was young and ignorantly unaware of these basic fundamentals, but it was a beautiful schooling. To some this might seem like a militant and contrary manifesto; but it serves to highlight the purity of spirit that can easily be lost in today’s modern age, where digital versions of most songs can be acquired at the click of a mouse and true undiscovered rarities come few and far between. JB & Moon epitomise the excitement of the hunt, the joy of eclecticism; and I think it's due to this immovable and uncompromising passion for unearthing true vinyl gems that goes someway to explaining the pair’s universal admiration and acclaim as DJs and label curators.

TRACK LISTING

Vinyl Tracklisting:
1. Held By Trees - In The Trees - Ambient
2. Stanley Clarke - Desert Song
3. Jan Akkerman - Ode To Billy Joe
4. Alain Debray - Concierto De Aranjuez
5. The Hightower Set - Departure Lounge (Nothing To Declare)
6. J-Walk - Cool Bright Northern Morning
7. Canyons - Akasha (Begin Remix)
8. Waves - Summer Sunday
9. Mudd - Summer In The Wood
10. Trevor Heiron - Love Chains (Instrumental)
11. Korallreven - Honey Mine (Lissvik Remix)
12. Giorgio Tuma - Through Your Hands Love Can Shine (feat. Laetitia Sadier)
13. The Superimposers - Seeing Is Believing
14. Teacher - Can't Step Twice (On The Same Piece Of Water) (New Version)
15. Kalima - Shine (Gilles Peterson Vibrazonic Dub Mix)
16. The Haggis Horns - The Traveller Part Two 

CD Tracklisting:
1. Stanley Clarke - Desert Song
2. Jan Akkerman - Ode To Bellie Jo
3. Alan Debray - Concierto De Aranjuez
4. High Tower Set - Departure Lounge (Nothing To Declare)
5. J-Walk - Cool Bright Northern Morning (Exclusive)
6. Canyons - Akasha (Begin Remix)
7. Waves - Summer Sunday
8. Mudd - Summer In The Woods
9. Trevor Herion - Love Chains (Instrumental)
10. Korallreven - Honey Mine (Lissvik Remix)
11. Georgio Tuma With Laetitia Sadier - Through Your Hands Love Can Shine
12. Superimposers - Seeing Is Believing
13. Cecilio & Kapana - Someday
14. Teacher - Can't Step Twice On The Same Piece Of Water
15. Kalima - Shine On (Vibrazonic Dub Mix)

Sampha releases his highly-anticipated, sophomore album LAHAI. Taken from his paternal grandfather’s name, which is also Sampha’s middle name, LAHAI revels in the awe and magic of our existence, synthesizing the exquisite chaos that one experiences confronting the cycle of life and the beyondness. Spanning 14-tracks, with contributions from some of Sampha’s closest friends, peers and collaborators including: Yaeji, Léa Sen, Sheila Maurice Grey (Kokoroko), Ibeyi, Morgan Simpson (Black Midi), Yussef Dayes, Laura Groves and Kwake Bass, LAHAI, in contrast to Process, is a communal affair seeing Sampha explore the many ways in which we as humans connect to each other, and to something bigger than ourselves. On the album’s latest single “Only,” premiering today via a new music video directed by Dexter Navy in collaboration with Sampha, which follows the recent “Spirit 2.0,” we meet a newly energized Sampha, as he spits melodically over a fragmented hip-hop hued beat with co-production from El Guincho.

Not unlike its maker, LAHAI defies clear categorization. Spanning jazz, soul, rap, dance, jungle and west African music, LAHAI sees Sampha elevating his production and vocal ambition to great new heights. A notable singer, songwriter and producer, it’s no wonder that artists like Kendrick Lamar, Stormzy, Travis Scott and previously, Drake, Solange, Frank Ocean, Beyoncé, Lil Wayne and Alicia Keys have all tapped the artist for his inimitable voice plus songwriting and production contributions to their music. His work expands across multiple disciplines, with previous creative partnerships including the fashion designer Grace Wales Bonner, the Shy Light zine with Durimel (who also shot the LAHAI artwork) his Process film with director Kahlil Joseph, and most recently creative director Jonny Lu, with whom Sampha worked to create the LAHAI album artwork and logo.

If Process, Sampha’s 2017 Mercury-Prize-winning debut album, was an artist figuring out his own place in the world, engulfed in the shadows of grief and loss, LAHAI is an exercise in the radical acceptance and joy in the human condition, and the beauty in the journey itself. Welcome to Sampha’s next musical chapter: LAHAI.

TRACK LISTING

1. Stereo Colour Cloud (shaman’s Dream)
2. Spirit 2.0
3. Dancing Circles
4. Suspended
5. Satellite Business
6. Jonathan L. Seagull
7. Inclination Compass (Tenderness)
8. Only
9. Time Piece
10. Can’t Go Back
11. Evidence
12. Wave Therapy
13. What If You Hypnotise Me?
14. Rose Tint

76:14 is the 1994 second studio album by Global Communication, an English electronic music duo consisting of Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard. The title of the album was intended to correspond to the record's total running time in minutes and seconds, though the actual runtime is shorter. Likewise, each track on the album is correspondingly titled after its respective length. The duo has stated in the sleeve notes that this was intended to avoid implying any specific meaning to the music, thus leaving the listener completely free to interpret the music according to their own imagination. 76:14 is featured in The Guardian's 1,000 Albums to Hear Before You Die list, where it is described as an "unfathomably beautiful out-of-time masterpiece". In 1996, Mixmag ranked the album at number 11 in its list of the Best Dance Albums of All Time.

Rodion-Ladislau Rosca spent his lifetime creating music that was ambitious, groundbreaking and innovative. He was a pioneering composer, a talented multi-instrumentalist and producer. He pushed musical boundaries to their limits. This he did as a solo artist and with his group Rodion G.A.

Despite being popular in their native Romania, Rodion G.A. had to work under an oppressive Communist regime only releasing two tracks that appeared on a compilation album in 1981. Rodion, however, made extensive recordings in his home studio. This new collection of material recorded between 1981 and 2017 is taken from that archive. Rodion died in 2021 aged 67. He has also been described as “the Godfather of Romanian electronic music.”

Rodion G.A.’s music has been curated on a number of releases “The Lost Tapes” (2013), “Behind The Curtain (The Lost Album)” (2014) “Delta Space Mission” (2014) and “Rozalia” (2018).

This new collection – compiled by Derek Anderson – draws on unreleased material from his personal archive. Some tracks sound like a metallic Foxx-era Ultravox! Others showcase electronic melodic pulsebeats and psychedelic workouts. We also see the first release of ‘Acolo Unde E Mister’ plus ‘Aminitiri’ originally released in 1981 on the “Formatii Rock 5” LP compilation and ‘Stele Si Lumini’ best-known for being performed on Romanian TV on New Years’ Eve in 1981.

Rodion G.A.’s music has been critically acclaimed in the music press and this new collection will be welcome amongst his international legion of fans. 

TRACK LISTING

Side One
1. Acolo Unde E Mister
2. Lupta Lui Thibald
3. Ciuperci Otrăvitoare
4. Un Pahar Cu Apa
5. Intervale

Side Two
1. Punct
2. Balkan
3. Joc
4. Stele Si Lumini
5. Poftiți La Control

Side Three
1. Halou Cosmic
2. Tu Rea Ce Esti
3. Cz 5000 Tragedy
4. Vine Iarna
5. Talk To Me
6. The Journey (Del's Edit)

Side Four
1. The Final Farewell (Del's Edit)
2. Catacombe
3. Final Journey (Del's Edit)
4. Amintiri
5. Goodbye (Fade Away) (Del's Edit)