New Vinyl pressing! The Dap-Kings’ electro-sax space warrior returns with a groove-heavy sequel to All My Relations, Vol. II: Baca Sewa, an expressive, transcendental voyage through the archives of his indigenous roots and beyond. Drawing on ancestral memories and family histories to wrap new flesh around the bones of history, this album is a bold, semi-autobiographical work that leads us deeper into the annals of family histories, mythology and the cultural imaginary.

“Baca Sewa” is Cochemea’s original family name prior to Spanish colonization. The melody was composed by Anthony Gastelum and features vocals and drumming by the Baca Sewa Singers- a group composed of several generations of family members. The album runs thick with sonic tributes and remembrances. “Chito’s Song” is a contemplative, ethereal tribute to a beloved uncle. “Curandera” conjures the memory of the irrepressible healing power of medicine women. “Black Pearl” recalls his great grandfather, heir to a legacy of indigenous peoples enslaved as pearl divers in the Sea of Cortez.

Leading a 7-piece ensemble composed of New York’s top percussionists and members of Daptone’s rhythm section, Cochemea has created his own world of emotional textures and rhythmic possibilities, a musical and spiritual synthesis made possible through his deep reverence of the horn and the music and traditions preceding him. Vol II: Baca Sewa – is an offering and continuation of Cochemea’s explorations, part of a musical process of cultural reclamation and healing through connection, relations, memory and imagination.

Pre-order from Daptone today! Vinyl pressing by Gotta Groove Records.

New independent artist vinyl pressing! Alexandra Riorden’s debut LP Angel City Radio is an abstract chronicle of the tumultuous healing process one endures after experiencing trauma, wrapped in a smoke-scented velvet curtain of shimmering indie-rock. Progressing like a Lynchian dream sequence, each song on the record takes the listener down a different hallway in the labyrinth that is recovery; some dark & menacing, others somber & reflective, but all moving towards empowerment and self-reliance. “The process of healing is not linear, it’s cyclical,” says Riorden. “You experience a trauma and then a lot of different things come up and you hopefully make progress, but it’s not just like it’s over and you’re done. Things come up again and again, but every time they do you’re getting stronger and making strides towards healing.”

After tracking the record with co-producer Max Collier Goldenstein, Riorden worked with mixing engineer Jason Quever (Beach House, Mikael Cronin, Cass McCombs) and mastering engineer Timothy Stollenwerk (Kevin Morby, Haley Heynderickx, Grouper) to smooth the edges and shape Angel City Radio into an ethereal psych-pop masterpiece.

While healing inherently stems from a place of darkness, Riorden navigates the process with an air of hopefulness throughout Angel City Radio, never lingering in the dark too long and always moving towards something more empowering. The album is less despairing and more a journey of self-love, reassurance, and finding trust in the world.

Vinyl pressing 12″ on random color vinyl!

Vinyl pressing alert! All the news on the mighty Kvasir from Portland! New song release, new art & record release show info! The full album “4” will be released June 28 and LPs will be ready to ship right away… or better yet go watch these guys rock out and grab an album while you’re there! Live music!!!

Slime green color vinyl pressing! On Blind Obedience we find Taphari on a journey of self-actualization, transcending suffering through the power of self-love and authentic musical expression. This hard-hitting, confident debut centers the skilled rapper’s syllable hopscotch over mutating beats. Staying in a lane he’s forged for himself, the rap alien’s rage is explosive out the gate. On lead single “Table 42” featuring seasoned rapper Pink Siifu, Taphari sings of lost love and the end of the world over drum ‘n bass beats. “Back Soon” featuring label mate Benét is a generous breath from this kinetic collection of bangers. 

Preorder from Bayonet Records now!

180 gram vinyl pressing! Since making her debut with the 2008 album Tea Bye Sea, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Becca Stevens has tested the limits of musical identity, mining everything from jazz to Irish folk to indie-rock in her striving for complete and authentic expression. In her latest musical endeavor—WONDERBLOOM —the North Carolina-bred, Brooklyn-based artist again defies all expectation, this time dreaming up a groove-heavy, dance-ready sound infused with elements of pop and funk and R&B. But despite its brighter textures and uptempo rhythms, WONDERBLOOM finds Stevens achieving a profound complexity in her lyrics, ultimately redefining what’s possible in creating music that elevates and edifies. 

Centered on the captivating vocal presence she’s showcased as a member of David Crosby’s Lighthouse Band, WONDERBLOOM telegraphs an unabashed joy that Stevens partly attributes to the project’s production. In a bold new turn for her musical career, Stevens co-produced and co-engineered WONDERBLOOM alongside Nic Hard (Snarky Puppy, Ghost-Note, The Church), overseeing every aspect of the recording and claiming a sense of agency that had long eluded her in the studio.  “Nic and I truly worked as equals, trusting each other to get the job done, and it was an incredibly empowering experience for me,” she says. 

Available soon from GroundUP Music.

New Vinyl Pressing!

Palette is inspired by Nicadrio Lee’s musical journey, which began in Honolulu, Hawaii, and has brought him to study in New York City.

Nicadrio’s own encounters in music and interactions with people prompted a question: “What makes a song sound and feel good?” He discovered that a song is not labeled “good” simply because of who is playing the music or because of how well an instrument is being played, but because an artist is able to inspire emotion through vibration, mood through sound, and life through music.

Palette tells a complete story of Nicadrio Lee’s experiences to date. It marks the beginnings of the journey in music that awaits this young musician.

Now in its sixth year as a fully fledged record label, Aloha Got Soul enters new territory with teenage guitarist Nicadrio Lee and his self-produced Palette, a bedroom city pop, math rock album of original songs recorded and performed entirely by the 19-year-old guitarist.

Available from Aloha Got Soul!

Deluxe vinyl pressing limited to 500 copies!

Evolfo’s homegrown musical universe is forever expanding.

If the Brooklyn-based pysch rockers felt pressured to repeat the successes of their 2017 album Last of the Acid Cowboys, they certainly didn’t show it. One might think a band that racked up 6 million plus streams on their debut record would try to capitalize on this by doing more of the same. But when the 7 members of Evolfo piled into the tiny, sweltering, attic-turned-recording studio of band leader Matt Gibbs’ Ditmas Park home, they intended to spring confidently forward into fresh sounds and more vivid conceptual subject matter. They have flipped the world of the Acid Cowboy on its head, departing the earth bound adventures in melting landscapes, rat cities, and desert sojourns for metaphysical territory and the mountains of the mind. On their brand new album Site Out of Mind, Evolfo reaches far beyond the confines of genre to create a colorful echo drenched psych rock dream all their own.

Partially inspired by concepts pulled from science-fiction and one group psychedelic drug trip, Site Out of Mind is a thrilling spiral into the depths of the spiritual mind and the afterlife. During late-night overdub sessions, the band would tweak lyrics line by line until it resulted in poetic verses like those of “In Time” and “White Foam.” Composed of one-take recordings and produced by Evolfo co-founder Rafferty Swink, the album features organ-heavy songs like “Orion’s Belt”, which makes you feel like you’ve walked into a mind-exploding jam session where everyone is so in tune that they don’t even need to make eye contact. Or heavy, rhythm-driven cuts like “Strange Lights”, which jolts with an energy akin to Can. Evolfo don’t just channel ‘60s psychedelia on Site Out of Mind, from saxophone electronics to droning violinists, they warp the genre with experimental flair. The resulting album is a collection of songs that are unexpected, absorbing, and blissfully tripped out, all topped off with a vivid album cover by visual artist Robert Beatty.

Manawave is now presented on three color vinyl variants via Channel 3 Records.

It’s 1993. 3 years into the 16-bit era, Squaresoft releases Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Mana is a top-down multiplayer action role-playing game, offering a distinct, vibrant art style, strategic real-time battle system, and memorable soundtrack, all encapsulated in a high-fantasy world driven by themes of magic, nature, and life-giving “mana”. A young Natsukashii is taken in by its vivid colors, animated characters, and engaging gameplay… but its rich, varied soundtrack by Hiroki Kikuta leaves the strongest impression. As he plays, Natsukashii often places his character standing in Mana’s world in order to listen to the looping themes again and again, filling his young heart and mind with Kikuta’s masterful music.

It’s 2020. The world is gripped by a pandemic. As economies are shaken and self-isolation becomes the new reality, a cultural gravitation towards nostalgic comfort grows. An older Natsukashii shares this longing and revisits Secret of Mana once more. While some aspects of the game have not quite stood the test of time, its soundtrack remains largely lauded. As he plays, Kikuta-san’s timeless melodies again stir Natsukashii with that same fervent essence he knew 27 years before, filling his spirit with inspiration. Heartfelt and determined, he begins to create Manawave.

Kikuta’s compositions provide the foundation for this modern homage, as Natsukashii infuses 12 selected tracks with crafted downtempo beats, lush synth instrumentation, textural ambiance, and dottings of environmental sounds and vocal samples. Lending serendipity to the project, Hiroki Kikuta himself generously provides liner notes, and art from legendary Secret of Mana artist Hiroo Isono is featured on the cover. Sometimes pensive, sometimes playful, always impassioned; Manawave is a genuine love letter to an enduring classic.

First Ever Vinyl Reissue of this title!  Officially licensed reissue courtesy of Real Gone Music and pressed by Gotta Groove Records on high-quality 150 gram vinyl, in GGR branded rice paper innersleeves.  Lacquers cut by Clint Holley and Dave Polster at the Well Made Music studios.

With long-standing stints in Tower of Power and Santana, Chester Thompson just might be the most decorated and distinguished keyboardist in all of rock and R&B, let alone of the Bay Area musical scene. It’s little wonder that this 1971 album, then, is one of the rarest and most coveted albums on the highly collectible Black Jazz Records label

This is Thompson’s debut record, cut a couple of years before he joined Tower of Power, with a smokin’ band featuring fellow Black Jazz recording artist Rudolph Johnson on sax along with ace drummer Raymond Pounds (Pharoah Sanders, Stevie Wonder, Pointer Sisters) and trombonist Al Hall (Johnny Hammond, Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris). And, yes, Powerhouse comes by its title honestly – it’s jazz, all right, but injected with a jolt of electricity courtesy of Thompson’s Hammond B-3, and with just four tunes spread out over two sides, it’s pretty much a nonstop groove.

Newly remastered, and with liner notes featuring quotes from fellow Tower of Power member Dave Garibaldi and Bay Area keyboardist Todd Cochran a.k.a. Bayeté that testify as to Chester Thompson’s greatness, this is another long-lost triumph from the Black Jazz label.