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This is the legendary Byron Lee and his Dragonaires carrying the flag of Jamaican Ska and Calypso! First released in 1964 on Kentone label this fine album sees the so called Jamaica's no1 band offering their special mixture of caribbean flavoured sounds. The album consists of a string of hits enhanced by a bunch of Kingston's Top Ska Singers such as Stranger & Patsy, Eric "Monty" Morris, The Charmers, Keith & Ken, The Maytals, Roy And Yvonne.
Last spotted on production duties for Yungwesbster’s ‘II’ as well as turns for Nostalgians and Dj Loser’s Magdalena’s Apathy.. Seattle-based Jaqueline Lawson aka Matryoshka shows serious emotional range on her debut album, channeling Burial, Shinichi Atobe, Space Afrika, Malibu and Surf Gang, seemingly all at once…. Matryoshka has already built a reputation as a producer for DJ Loser's Magdalena's Apathy imprint as well as work for the Nostalgians, an under-the-radar ambient rap collective featuring Yungwebster, Mdb, tnotsobad, Nopaprr and ogpra1. Her musical roots - dubstep, trance and hard dance - tell some of the story here, but she transmogrifies those influences into haunted, Basinski-esque memories like the gaseous traces and decelerated remnants of the club. On album opener 'Lifelover’, Burial's hazed interludes spring to mind, or perhaps the 4am cityscapes of Space Afrika's now mythical 'Somewhere Decent to Live’. Background ambiance simmers below Lawson's pensive FM pads, but once she establishes the mood, things take an unexpected turn with a pitch-bent bassline that might have been lifted straight from a 6LACK loosie, and a rhythmic pulse that traces the thin red line of Shinichi Atobe. If it's dub techno, it's a strand that hasn't been codified quite yet. 'Surface Tension' uses deep, Maybach Music-coded bass womps to twist through her skittering slow rhythms and sadcore pads. But it’s Matryoshka’s harmonic instinct that stands out; if you heard the airy 'otr' or 'fantasize' from Yungwebster's 'II' you'll know exactly what we mean, and she takes it even further here, weaving cinematic, languid harmonies that bridge the gap between Steve Roach and Future. Check 'Where the Dancers are Spinning' with its levitational, almost orchestral sweeps that Lawson counterbalances with thudding subs, or the brief title track, an Akira Yamaoka-style save room loop that dissipates into a dreamy, dissociated fog, for further proof. Then there's the second side's centrepiece 'Parted by the Sea', where a ratcheting Chain Reaction-style rhythm builds to a tense crescendo only to get splintered unrecognisably in the second half, its broken pieces pillowed by Lawson's billowing time-stretched chords.
Sofia Jernberg was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Vietnam and Sweden, a background that feeds directly into a practice defined by flexibility, range and curiosity. Trained in jazz and composition, she has worked across jazz, free improvisation and contemporary art, collaborating with figures such as Stefan Schneider and Mats Gustafsson, and appearing in stage and screen projects including Matthew Barney, Erna Ómarsdóttir and Valdimar Jóhannsson’s ‘Union of the North’. Voice serves as a focused entry point to her work: a solo document that treats the human voice as a full-spectrum instrument. Across the album, Jernberg explores non-verbal vocalisation, split tones, distortion, toneless singing and multiphonics, all produced without electronic effects. The results range from clipped, percussive pops and rasping noise to dense, phased tones that feel closer to wind instruments or analogue synthesis than conventional singing. At its core are the multiphonic pieces, where Jernberg layers pitches into unstable, spiralling forms that blur the line between human and machine. Elsewhere, single-note studies, quivering drones and bubbling textures test the physical limits of sound production. Unsettling, precise and deeply absorbing, Voice presents a veteran improviser redefining what solo vocal music can be.
Goth and synth-pop legend Annie Hogan yields a gorgeously unexpected new album of smouldering chamber dirges suffused with a damaged, downbeat energy that’s quite distinct from anything else in her five years of work with Regis’ Downwards label - RIYL Rowland S. Howard, Jonnine, Leonard Cohen, John Duncan, Leslie Winer, Mark Lanegan, The The. On ‘Tongues in My Head’ Hogan naturally slips into a style of eerie reverie that effortlessly steers her celebrated piano & keyboard chops into deeply woozy, swaying styles of downbeat songcraft. Recorded in mostly single-takes with Annie playing an array of instruments and just her recording engineer for company, the poised and bittersweet songs here betray a near half-century of close work alongside some of contemporary music’s greatest troubadours with a timeless grasp of haunting melody and elegant slow-burn arrangements. It clearly marks a switch from the atmospheric sorcery of much of her recent work, turning to intimate presentations of voice and wheezing electronics wreathed into a beautifully wilting bouquet. At a near deathly heart rate, Annie attends to her most gothic, romantic urges with a dose of heavy blooz that slowly colour proceedings. Stark drum machine backbones slowly measure the pace of a detuned, prepared piano iced with her steady but shivering vocal presence. It’s one to get wrapped right up inside, opening with wistfully cinematic keys, strings and a soulful shuffle reminiscent of Barry Adamson in ‘Alles int Veloren’, and keening ever so gently from the screwed chamber folk of ‘Deadly Night Shades’ to dwell on common obsessions in ‘Death Rituals’ with a northern gothic appeal shades away from Dickon Hinchcliffe’s Red Riding OST. It’s not hard to hear the pall of Nick Cave loom in the sustained low end keys of ‘Safe Hands’ (co-written with Karl O’Connor, who provides the lyrics), obscured by Annie’s coarse patina of bittersweet distortion, while closer ‘The Conjurer’ most subtly weaves her atmospheric alchemy into a sort of dusty modal dirge, where all her colours bleed into a blue-brown as deep as the Mersey, just beyond her studio. A quiet triumph.
Athens-based percussionist and sound artist Yorgos Stavridis makes a stark, physical debut for Heat Crimes with Solo Percussion, a set of one-take improvisations that approach percussion as a field of friction between body, objects, space, and sound. Working with membranes, metals, found objects and feedback systems, Stavridis foregrounds timbre, texture and spatial presence, collapsing distinctions between instrument, environment and recording apparatus. Microphones and speakers are treated as unstable instruments in their own right, introducing opaqueness, resistance, and feedback into the performative chain. Scrapes, low-end pressure, brittle metallic chatter, and sudden bursts of resonance emerge through close bodily engagement with surfaces and materials, each piece documenting a specific configuration of objects, gestures, and acoustic conditions. Performed and recorded live, Solo Percussion captures sound in its most contingent state; situational, physical and irreducibly present. Eschewing narrative, pulse or formal development, the record sits squarely in Heat Crimes’ lineage of process-led, uncompromising sonic research, where listening becomes an active, tactile act and sound itself is the primary event.Eschewing narrative, pulse or formal development, the work reframes listening as a tactile encounter, foregrounding sound as contingent material rather than structured musical form.
Known world-round for his classic work with Sergio Mendes and Weather Report, percussionist Dom Um Romao is one of the greatest Brazilian musicians of all time, and this compilation of 1976 recordings for Pablo has him playing in a nice raw groove. The tracks have a beautifully jazzy sound, and feature lots of great Latin players, like Claudio Roditi, Ronnie Cuber, Dom Salvador, and Mauricio Smith. The group's joined by Sivuca, who adds his usual delightful tone to a number of tracks on the album. Titles include "Spring", "Cisco Two", "Piparapara", "Tumbalele", "Escravos De Jo", and "Mistura Fina".
Mostra Collettiva by Complesso Gisteri—the elusive 1972 gem born from the inspired partnership of Alessandro Alessandroni and Oronzo De Filippi—returns to vinyl for the first time ever. Originally released in microscopic quantities and long considered a holy grail of Italian library music, the album has now been lovingly restored and reissued in its most faithful analog form.
Under the alias Complesso Gisteri, Alessandroni and De Filippi explored a warm, pastoral palette that distills everything collectors cherish about early-70s Italian soundtracks and library sessions. Alessandroni’s unmistakable guitar style—lyrical, shimmering, instantly evocative—sets the tone throughout, weaving effortlessly around De Filippi’s expressive keyboards, from rich piano passages to the crystalline touch of spinet and harpsichord, an emblematic signature of the era’s finest Italian productions. The duo enriches these intimate arrangements with flute flourishes and the ethereal vocal textures of Giulia De Mutiis, whose wordless melodies elevate several pieces into dreamy, almost cinematic vignettes. The compositions radiate joy and romanticism, painting images of pastoral calm, sun-dappled landscapes, and rustic Italian charm. A long-hidden treasure, rediscovered and made available to collectors and music lovers for the very first time.
Anichy & Lyemn reduce electronic sound to patient, glowing essentials: slow harmonic rhythm, canons, repetitive phrases and gently shifting layers, across two unreleased remix pieces that treat minimalism less as a genre tag than a way of feeling time stretch and fold.Tip! Rather than chasing maximal impact, Anichy & Lyemn opens in a low glow, letting electronic minimalism breathe through slow harmonic rhythm, canons and looping cells, as layers slide over one another in patient, hypnotic shifts that prize focus and detail over spectacle.The opening track takes its cue from the glassy, urban side of minimalism - the world of long, bright arpeggios, additive patterns and quietly insistent pulse that once colonised loft spaces, galleries and, later, cinema screens. Here those ideas are rerouted through contemporary electronics: stacked keyboard figures become soft-synth constellations, their outlines blurred by filter movement and subtle modulation. As the canons unfold, each entry is processed differently so that the same phrase appears as a series of related but not identical voices. The effect is like watching a skyline through passing weather systems: the architecture remains, but its emotional charge keeps changing.The second piece turns toward the earthy, process-driven strain of minimalism that grew out of tape experiments, hand-played percussion and non-Western rhythmic thinking. Instead of directly echoing that history, Anichy & Lyemn translate it into a digital ritual of offsets and micro-shifts. Short electronic cells - clicks, muted mallet tones, distant pads - are set running in overlapping loops of slightly different lengths, so that the resulting pattern is never quite the same from one minute to the next. Phase-like relationships appear and dissolve; accents migrate; what began as a simple lattice of pulses gradually thickens into a dense but breathable web of sound. Underneath it all, the harmonic pace remains unhurried, each change arriving like a new room opened within the same building.Crucially, Anichy & Lyemn is not a technical exercise but an emotional one. By committing to repetition and restricted materials, invite listeners to tune into nuance: the way a delayed entry in the canon can feel like an echo of a thought, or how a tiny detuning between layers can introduce a note of unease.
Premier, remastered reissue of a legendary mid ‘90s kwaito classic, mirroring US hip house at a suppressed tempo and setting the cool pace and vibe for South African styles such as gqom and amapiano to follow. Doctor House is a key pioneer of the balmy kwaito sound, who established himself as a session player for Volcano, Senyaka and Obed Ngobeni in the ‘80s, before shifting to programming for La Viva and Jivaro, and coining his own sound, melding slow rap and treacly beats on a string of ‘Mix To Groove’ albums in the mid ‘90s. This first volume has since become a sought-after gem, packing 8 proper slow burners between the quaalude sway of ’Nkwesheng’ and relatively uptempo house banger ’Show Me Love’ riffing on a classic. Fair to say it’s all killer no filler for discerning kwaito fiends, with wicked FX and female vox on the cruise-mode gangster house of ‘Gunman’, fruitiest Korg M1 riffs in ’Sososo,’ and another slow-mo standout in the groggy ‘Nandos’, whose charmingly naïf vocal harmonies really hit the spot, as they also do on the hip-house nursery rhyme cadence of ‘Tlo Kwano’ Surefire ‘floor winners start to finish.
I-Robots presents Echoes Of Italy - The Age Of Voom Voom Music - Turin Dancefloor Express, on Space Echo Records. "Voom Voom Music was an independent Italian record label based in Turin, founded and managed by record producer Ivo Lunardi (Turin, December 6, 1940 – December 9, 2010). A pivotal figure in the Piedmont music scene, Lunardi was active both as a DJ and as the owner of several disco clubs. The label operated for several years in the latter half of the 1970s, releasing mainly productions connected to the Italian dance and pop scene. Since 2016, the original master tapes from the Voom Voom Music catalog have been owned by Gianluca Pandullo (I-Robots), a close friend of Ivo and Luca Lunardi. Through his labels Opilec Music and Turin Dancefloor Express, Pandullo oversees their preservation and historical enhancement."
Isle of Jura is proud to present the first reissue of 1992 Digi Dub heater ‘Slow Down’ by Villette Holmes. Produced by the late Cedrica Anthony Hamilton, better known as Soljie, this release captures a master at work. A veteran engineer at the iconic Channel One Recording Studio, Soljie’s innovative approach at the mixing desk made him a giant of the reggae and dancehall scenes. He was the sonic architect behind many hits of the era, notably serving as the mixing engineer for Shabba Ranks’ seminal Grammy winning albums As Raw As Ever and Xtra Naked. In 1990, he launched his eponymous label, Soljie Records, which became a vehicle for his own distinct productions. ‘Slow Down’ is a quintessential Digi Dub production, balancing a heavy, driving rhythm with strong melodic hooks and a dreamy crossover feel that transcends the genre. Licensed from Soljie’s son, Chioke Hamilton, this reissue comprises the original version and Dub, alongside a previously unreleased Extended version. Pressed on 140g vinyl and housed in a striking 3mm spine, full colour disco sleeve designed by Bradley Pinkerton.
Running Out Of Time return with a bass-heavy desert combat 12-inch. It's time for cashing back, no more BS.
DON'T MISS!
A landmark debut released in 1976, Jaco Pastorius’s first solo album forever changed the history of the electric bass. Featuring an all‑star lineup including Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, David Sanborn, and Don Alias, it remains a timeless masterpiece that continues to be regarded as the ultimate bass bible.
Noborikawa Seijin, known as Okinawa's Jimi Hendrix, delivers a powerful performance singing “Hiyamikachi-bushi,” one of the representative Ryuka songs.
A legend in Okinawan folk music, Noborikawa Seijin gained national recognition through his appearances in the films “Nabii's Love” (1999) and “Hotel Hibiscus” (2002), as well as his collaborations with Soul Flower Union and Takashi Nakagawa in 1999. Building on traditional folk songs, he made great contributions to Okinawa's music scene through various innovative endeavors. This marks the first 7-inch cut of “Hiyamikachi-bushi,” originally included on his acclaimed 1998 album “Howling Wolf” released by Omagatoki. The B-side features the folk song “Harikuyamaku” from Ayano Uema's 2012 major-label debut album “Uta-mono,” a highlight showcasing her status as a diva of the contemporary Okinawan folk music scene.
Representative Okinawan melodies “Haisai Ojisan” and “Toyonen Ondo” by Deigo Musume are reissued from original Marufuku Records sources.
“Haisai Ojisan,” an early masterpiece attributed to Shōkichi Kina at age 13, remains a quintessential Okinawan melody to this day, famously heard at Koshien Stadium. Behind its humorous lyrics and melody lay the harsh realities of post-war Okinawa, still bearing the scars of defeat. This release features not the widely known 1977 Philips version with its rock arrangement, but the original, simple, and fresh-sounding version released by Marufu Records in Okinawa, 1972. The B-side features “Hounen Ondo,” a 1976 hit by Deigo Musume, one of the leading family groups that shaped Okinawan music, also from the original Marufu Records master.
This is NEW MANUKE's first album. Shake your hips, shake the world, keep on movin', Maximum volume!
For the first time in Nø Førmat’s history, the CD and vinyl editions of ‘A Touma’ will be available exclusively to Nø Førmat! subscribers. Subscribe to the PASS and get all of our productions of the year! After the success of Djourou, the Malian virtuoso returns for an intimate tête à tête with his kora – intimate yet simple and majestic. Taking time off from the Djourou sessions, Ballaké recorded these eight instrumental pieces in the intimate confines of the Chapelle Sainte-Apolline in Belgium. Together they proclaim, without need for further evidence, the heights of mastery and freedom that this discreet giant of global music has scaled in his forty-year-long career. Though two of the pieces also feature on Djourou, the new album gathers together all eight of them in a musical conversation between a master, made of flesh and spirit, and his ‘double’, made of string and wood. It’s a captivating, intimate and authentic testament, recorded in one afternoon, in which Ballaké takes us on a journey, a meandering trip full of majesty that borders on the sacred and touches serene meditative uplands as well as plains criss-crossed by Manding warriors straight out of the epics of a country of whom they are the pride. As for the title ‘A Touma’, take it to mean ‘this is the moment’: the moment for Ballaké to share the fruits of his maturity, and for us to discover and be blown away.
The legendary singer Salif Keita makes a grand return with So Kono, an acoustic and deeply intimate album. Salif Keita, "the golden voice of Africa," reveals himself for the first time in a stripped-down acoustic format, reconnecting with his roots and his guitar, his long-time companion instrument. The idea of an acoustic album had long been dismissed by the artist himself. "I’m not a guitarist; I use the guitar to compose," he used to say, reluctant to expose this level of vulnerability. However, in 2023, during the Kyotophonie Festival in Japan, organized by photographer Lucille Reyboz and encouraged by producer Laurent Bizot (Nø Førmat!), something changed. Surrounded by the spirituality of a Zen temple and supported by his loyal musicians – Badié Tounkara on ngoni and Mamadou Koné on percussion – Salif agreed to bare himself like never before. The title So Kono, meaning “in the room” in Mandinka, reflects both the simplicity and depth of this album. Recorded in the intimacy of his hotel room in Kyoto, 'So Kono' captures the very essence of Salif Keita: a powerful voice, shaped by trials and travels, elevated by minimalist arrangements. Blending reimagined classics and new compositions, this album resonates as a sincere and timeless work, reaffirming why Salif Keita is considered one of the greatest living singers, across all cultures and continents.
Extra Stars is a deeply beautiful expression of Gregory Uhlmann’s ever-evolving sound world, and comes at a pivotal juncture in the LA-based composer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist’s musical journey.
Following a long run of supporting work with artists like Perfume Genius, Tasha, and Hand Habits, alongside an eponymous recorded output largely focused on his more singer-songwriter oriented music, Uhlmann has spent the better part of the last couple years trotting out album after album of groundbreaking instrumental modern music. From the sparse melodies and hushed ambient soundscapes of Small Day, to his much-lauded duo outing Doubles with Meg Duffy, to his perhaps lesser-known but no-less-brilliant duo record Water Map with Dustin Wong, to the lush chamber-jazz interplay of his trio recording with saxophonist Josh Johnson and bassist Sam Wilkes, to the two genre-breaking albums he released as a co-leader of synth-laced trance-jazz quintet SML (2024’s Small Medium Large and 2025’s How You Been), Uhlmann has subtly, if not quietly, established himself as an essential presence in some of the most progressive recordings of our time.
Extra Stars encompasses all he’s learned through all the above. A radiant sidereal serenade, the album’s fourteen miniature infinities swirl serendipitous synthesis and measured, melody-rich song into a panoramic menagerie of sound. For a record that seldom incorporates percussion instruments, the music is distinctly rhythm-forward, while Uhlmann also leans heavily into swaths of pastoral beauty. Extra care was clearly poured into the kind of harmonic depth that’s often missing from vibe-only “ambient” music, making for a delightfully refreshing take on the electronic, processing-heavy 'quiet' sound.
The compositions and production techniques here reflect Uhlmann’s musicality perfectly, surely the result of him being as much a seasoned practitioner as he is an avid listener. If there is a middle ground between Cluster & Eno, Terry Riley’s Shri Camel, and Yo La Tengo’s There’s a Riot Going On, it’s somewhere nearby. Lofty comparisons aside, Extra Stars seems to look beyond reference or imitation. Even the album’s title indicates as much—inspired by a trip to California’s Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, where the reality of the night sky’s starry expanse stretches beyond the boundaries of belief.
We can feel Uhlmann’s gaze past the horizon line from the jump. Album opener “Pocket Snail” kicks off with a slow-ambling synth bass line before opening up into a richly processed, reverberating cacophony of beautiful sliding melodies. Eyes wide open, the small world of the pocket snail begins to burst with new color after a fresh injection of sunlight, but the tonality is more akin to something of a simple torch ballad. It’s an immense clash of big and small, and sets the stage nicely for the delightful vantage point shifting to come throughout the record.
“Lucia” is named after a quaint lodge nestled amongst the cliffside drama of Big Sur, and the tune’s musical rendering of an intimate yet expansive perspective perfectly fits its namesake. The steady thump and chime of Uhlmann’s guitar repetitions sit atop a field recording of the distant, heavy-winded ocean crash of the Cabrillo Highway coast, held even steadier by harbor bell metallic clank percussion and a firm yet pillowy cluster of electric organ chords and mellotron-like leads. Enter saxophonist Alabaster DePlume, the track's lone feature, with his signature breathy reed work. Here DePlume’s vibrato-heavy tenor sax wandering adds a secret-among-friends intimacy to a sonic scene that could go for miles. DePlume hums low in multitrack as Uhlmann leads the steady pulse on, encountering syncopated harmonic pings, fluttering recorder flourishes, and the little bustling sounds of the rural Pacific shoreline. Earworms must live in the ocean air, because it’s tough to get any element of “Lucia” unstuck once it’s in, and the whole thing is all tied up in a bow in just under three and a half minutes. Equally playful and introspective, “Lucia” is the potential soundtrack to a close reading or a thousand yard stare. If Jim Henson dreamt Link’s Awakening this would be the sound he heard.
“Burnt Toast” is an essential example of Uhlmann’s penchant for using the guitar to make non-guitar sounds. That’s not to say that what is occurring here is a simple act of processing. Rather, Uhlmann has a distinct and instantly recognizable ability to play the instrument itself in a way that lends to drastic and realtime tonal transformation. Clocking in at a lean 1:25, it’s a quick and lively skip through a blend of complimentary and warring syncopations—another hallmark of Uhlmann’s style—topped with synthetic glissandos and stereo-image warbles placed just so. What really makes it gel, though, is the harmonic simplicity that the transformative madness is serving. At the end of the day, the basic structure of “Burnt Toast” is an uncomplicated chord progression.
That essential simplicity, leaning into tonal expressions of quiet joy and deep longing, could be the most relevant throughline in Uhlmann’s work. On Extra Stars it’s likely best exemplified on “Days,” a serene 7+ minute track born in the nerve shattering confusion of 2020. “It was made in my old apartment and felt like a way of self soothing by playing the same chords over and over again,” says Uhlmann. The result is a wisping, languid, near free-time drift through a progression that manages to maintain its directness despite its slow-building reverberated accompaniment. Like a Harold Budd take on the somber fingerpicked elegance of Frantz Casseus, “Days” wanders through the speakers with an almost nostalgic air. A grandmotherly wall organ melody sings around dancing piano notes as chattering synthesis renders itself percussive amongst the steel string comfort of Uhlmann’s electric guitar. It’s the kind of recording that could go on forever and maybe, somewhere, it’s doing just that. On Extra Stars, though, it acts as a spiritual centerpiece, rejuvenating the listener as it fades out slowly, cleansing and leaving us ready for more.
“Back Scratch” is collage-cut from a series of piano improvisations and post-composed with pitch-shifted percussion contributions from Uhlmann’s SML bandmate Booker Stardrum. Uneven loops syncopate in chance mode while the barrage of high-register notes conflate with Stardrum’s stickwork to cement a rhythm dense enough to nearly become a drone. The impulsive comparison to the intensely rhythmic zither dance of Laraaji would be understandable, but mostly inaccurate. “Back Scratch” is produced in a markedly raw, un-reverberated manner—and it’s precisely that stark wonkiness that separates it from something like Day Of Radiance and makes it more akin to a basement DIY crack at Reich’s Drumming. That said, its brevity and singularity among the wildly diverse Extra Stars tracklist means that it might be (just maybe) more actual fun to listen to than both of those records.
The guitarless moments on Extra Stars shine as brightly as those that highlight Uhlmann’s primary instrument, but even those departures display themselves distinctively, especially when he invites and directs a collaborator. The labcoat synth silliness and percussive b-ball bounce of “Dottie,” for instance, contrasts sharply from the unbridled beeswarm rhythm composite of “Worms Eye” despite the implementation of the same tools and techniques—likely due to the co-production presence of synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (another SML bandmate) on the latter. Regardless, there’s no mistaking an Uhlmann composition and there’s no mistaking when he’s at the helm. For instance, while Chiu’s presence can certainly be felt on “Voice Exchange,” its outlandish rhythm focused take on the pitch-shifted vocals of longtime Uhlmann collaborator Tasha couldn’t be further from the other Chiu co-productions on Extra Stars.
The ability to maintain a recognizable voice across vast stylistic shifts, while employing the talents of those who also possess singularly recognizable voices, is not something that is heard often and it’s Uhlmann’s ability to recognize what makes each collaborator unique that makes it work here. A great example is “Bristlecone,” which finds him directing the powerful low-end command of Anna Butterss’s bass and the multiphonic mystery of Josh Johnson’s processed alto. The composition and arrangement are supported at every turn by Uhlmann’s SML bandmates without the result ever wandering away from something we can hear as distinctly his. Like David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, or Miles Davis, Uhlmann uses collaboration to both support and transform. To reinforce and evolve. With Extra Stars he has delivered such a promising collection of instrumental concepts following an extended period of vast, high-level artistic output. There’s no doubt that it will continue to be a joy to experience that evolution in real time.
Retrieved from long-forgotten reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes, this collection of prehistorical traces unveils some of the meanders which eventually led to the inception of legendary experimental pop outfit Aksak Maboul, founded in 1977 and still active in 2025.A bildungsroman of sorts, the story begins in 1969, when 19-year-old Marc Hollander and Paolo Radoni form a band to play a strange mixture of psych rock and free jazz. Called Here and Now (no connection to the later UK band of the same name), the band soon becomes a wild tentet and, after winning an amateur contest and being involved in the whirlwind around the mythical Amougies festival, lands a record deal with then-prestigious French label BYG Records (but ends up not releasing anything).More musicians join the collective (including future Aksak Maboul members Vincent Kenis and Denis Van Hecke), which dissolves in 1972.From 1973 to 1977, Marc Hollander engages in a series of solo recordings and collabs, in which further threads which will make up the fabric of Aksak Maboul’s music are explored.In the course of seventeen tracks and 80 minutes* of music nurtured by the fertile upheavals of that era, we are taken for a stroll through moments of free rock, improv, quasi-kraut, modular and ambient electronics, piano pieces, percussion and various experiments and sketches, which hint at what Aksak Maboul later became, and at what it has not (but could have) become…*on the digital and CD versions. Two tracks, as well as the two additional excerpts of a 1969 live set by Here and Now, are left out of the vinyl format.All tracks recorded in and around Brussels, 1969-1977Assembled & edited by Marc Hollander, 2025Restored and mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung MasteringFeaturing Marc Hollander, Vincent Kenis, Paolo Radoni, Chris Joris, Pico Berkowitch,Denis Van Hecke, Stefan Liberski, Somore Sainte-Jules, John Van Rymenant and others.
A eulogy to a band and a millennium, the year 2000's collaborative Macha Loved Bedhead has been remastered from the original analog tapes and finally makes its way to the mother format. Recorded long distance by Wichita Falls-born brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane and Josh and Mischo McKay, this five-song, 34-minute EP combines gamelan, slowcore, and a cover of Cher's "Believe" pecked out on a touch tone phone into a seamless meditation on life at the end of the American century.
Groggy, engrossing new work from Ulla under their newly minted U.e. tag, riffing to the sublime on a set of (mostly) acoustic reveries that tap into the kind of smokey vapours favoured by the likes of Vincent Gallo, Voice Actor, Jonnine. Oh aye, it’s a special one.
A new year, label, album and handle for Ulla, a multifaceted artist who has draped our pages with wonder, under numerous aliases and collabs, for almost a decade. On ‘Hometown Girl’ they distill transience and flux into a quiet set of chamber works subtly resembling the room recorded nuance of their ‘Jazz Plates’ side with Perila - here taken a step further into more elusive, low-lit dimensions.
In a mode that’s wistful and melancholic, listening to the album’s dozen discrete pieces feels like leafing thru a journal of hand-written notes, reflecting on the feelings that come with separation from loved ones and displacement from familiarity. Ulla performed and recorded all of the instruments themselves, lending a tangible tactility to layered arrangements of woodwind, keys, strings, drums and voice, lightly speckled with electronics and perfused with open window field recordings.
They locate a crackling frisson of personality in the voice notes and day-dreaminess of their mottled inscapes, gauzily demarcating lines between past and present selves. In that aesthetic and approach we can also hear similarities to Jonnine’s blue-skied ‘Southside Girl’ or crys cole’s poetic sensuality, often leaning into the domestic surreal.
A frayed, opening salutation ‘Good Morning’ signals a delirious half hour in Ulla’s company, variously swaying to the downstroked jazz swing of a ‘Lavender (NF)’ spritzed with clarinet, whilst ‘Froggy Explorer’ stirs the air like Jan Jelinek on a barely-there tip. The Basinski-esque fritz of degraded loops really snags the imagination along with a twinkling nightlight ‘Ball’, as the album opens out into its most fully resolved songs with a closing couplet of disarming wonders ‘Drawing of Me’, and a blurry ‘Mute’ that feels like Ulla 〜almost〜 reveals too much before retreating back into the shadows.