New vinyl pressing — Scott Clark – Dawn & Dusk.
New vinyl pressing — Scott Clark – Dawn & Dusk.
Eraserhood Sound’s mysterious, intergalactic house band Fantasy 15 are finally ready to unleash their debut LP, Zoltandia. After years of rising anticipation which saw the group release a handful of now-sold out, highly sought-after 45s, Fantasy 15 have delivered a modern synth-funk opus. The album, named after the group’s remote home planet, is a dazzling display, and features an audacious blend of soul, funk, disco, boogie, house, hip hop, New Wave, and much more. Zoltandia is a true sonic journey, a concept album that tells the fantastical tale of the beloved freedom fighters Fantasy 15. The group, whose true identity has always been a mystery, push the limits of their musical experimentation further than ever.
Leading single “Interplanetary Lover” features the show-stopping Kendra Morris on lead vocals, and serves as the group’s first proper love song. Elsewhere, the title track “Zoltandia” features chanting group vocals and a disco-boogie groove that nods to legends like William Onyeabor and Kiki Gyan. As always, the group’s material was recorded and produced at Eraserhood Sound’s in-house analog recording studio in Philadelphia. Words can only do so much, however, to fully describe the scale and beauty of Fantasy 15’s story. Pick up a copy of their debut LP today, and prepare to enjoy the journey of a lifetime.
Releases August 25, 2023.
New vinyl pressing! Black Market Brass is proud to present Hox, due out on Colemine Records on September 8, 2023. Their third LP is a new take on afrobeat that combines traditional grooves with heavy, hypnotic, sci-fi sounds that reflect the band’s myriad of influences as record collectors across genres. “We didn’t leave the traditional afro-beat sound behind, but we did allow ourselves to pull from different places with less hesitation,” shared saxophonist Cole Pulice.
Like their previous albums, the 9-piece band recorded Hox live to tape. “The sound and aesthetic of the analog recording process is important for this kind of music,” Pulice explained. “We’re looking to capture lightning in a bottle.” With that, the album features several sections of heavily processed synthesizers, harsh glitches, fuzzed out guitars, and a burning percussion section that pays homage to the traditional drumming cultures of Nigeria and Ghana. The performances are dynamic and confident. The grooves are infectious and hypnotic. BMB has pushed further into musical experimentalism, but at the end of the day, they’re still making dance music.
Krautrock, free-jazz, doom metal – the inspirations for Hox stem from all kinds of musical backgrounds, but the sound is far from scattered. It’s a polished, innovative record that’s sure to exceed expectations and keep the listener engaged from start to finish.
For Lutalo, creating music is an act of hope in and of itself. Throughout their meticulously crafted folk, rock, and soul, on which they sing and play all the instruments, the Twin Cities-raised, Vermont-based musician embeds golden lines of poetry that inspire curiosity about the world and empathy for everyone searching for a way through it. On the ambitious AGAIN, a collection of kinetic indie rock tracks, Lutalo makes bold critiques of systemic oppression, capitalism, and the digital attention economy. Though these topics are heady, their writing always sits at an accessible place of personal introspection.
Release courtesy of Winspear, August 25, 2023.
New vinyl pressing — Beth Bombara – It All Goes Up.
Beth Bombara – vocals, electric guitar, classical guitar, acoustic guitar, keys
Kit Hamon – bass guitar, vocals, synth, percussion
Mike Schurk – drums
Samuel Gregg – pedal steel & electric guitar on “Moment”
Sam Golden – strings, electric guitar, mellotron
John Calvin Abney – Rhodes piano and electric guitar on “Fade”
Karl Kling – production, 12 string guitar on “Get On”
Eric Henry – pedal steel on “Get On”
Recorded at Midtown Sound House, Lemp Electric and Holiday Heart
Produced by Beth Bombara & Kit Hamon
Engineered and mixed by Dan Mehrmann at Jettison Studios
Mastered by Kim Rosen at Knack Mastering
Art design by Kit Hamon
All songs written by Beth Bombara, except Curious & Free, Carry the Weight, Everything I Wanted, Give Me a Reason by Beth Bombara & Kit Hamon.
New vinyl pressing! Kibi James – Delusions. Out August 25th on Bayonet Records. Mari (guitar, keys), MJ Corless (bass) and Pomi Abebe (drums) join forces in crafting intoxicatingly dreamy melodies, their soft, siren-like voices sweeping you into their world as they bilingually share reflections on love in its many forms – romantic, familial, self – but most prominently the love that comes from their friendship. Co-produced, recorded and mixed by Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, SPELLLING, Toro y Moi) at Chase Park Studios in Athens, GA, and mastered by Heba Kadry, delusions is laden with vividly lush portraits of the places they call home – Atlanta, their music community, their physical house, and the sense of home they have in one another.
New vinyl pressing! Welshpool Frillies finds the gang back together, in a Brooklyn basement with producer Travis Harrison. Much of it was recorded live to tape. The catchy ear worms in these new songs are undeniable, as the kinetic energy of the band is captured in its most raw and pure form. The album is brash, no-frills, and punky, inspired by the wiliness of 90s-era GBV.
PRE-ORDER! The Welshpool Frillies release date is July 21st.
New vinyl pressing – Officially licensed from the custodians of Yuzuru Agi’s Vanity Records archives, this edition has been fully remastered from brand new transfers of the original analog tapes by Stephan Mathieu.
New vinyl pressing! Transmitted directly from the scuzzed Appalachian wastes outside Pittsburgh, TOBACCO is back with a new rotten IDM fantasy. Skids and Angels is a beige shower of deranged data beamed straight into your boombox. The palettes are familiar – syruppy synths, fuzzy drum samples, garbled tape hiss – all shattered and fractalized on the tile floor. Cobbling together disjointed breakneck braindance notions with signature Allegheny analog waves, Skids and Angels is a certified headphone freakout. This collection of (mostly) instrumentals shoves the classic TOBACCO production methodologies to their twisted, chopped, and warped limits. Far from the more pop-oriented spaces TOBACCO has gone, Skids and Angels spelunks deep and dank downtempo into the beatmaker cave system and opens up its own high fructose boutique.
A collaged smear of sneering melodies, kaleidoscopic drum and bass fragments, enchanting murmurs, and ratched hi hats, all coated in a charred sugarcrust gloss. Fans of classic electronic backpack pioneers like Boards of Canada and Cheetah-era Aphex will recognize the jargon and vocabulary, but TOBACCO injects this collection of beats and ambient drifts with his signature sibilance and slime. Pushing the envelope directly onto your tongue, Skids and Angels is a flash of glitched out wizardry; spun out and strange, arpeggiated and ready to be dunked directly in your deck.
New Vinyl Pressing! The garage-y psychedelic outsider pop band Being Dead shines bright with their distinctly right-brain songcraft, mischievous humor, and implausibly great vocal harmonies. As they’ve graduated from curiosity to cult favorites, we’ve yet to encounter a single person who dislikes Being Dead.
Recorded at Radio Milk, producer Jim Vollentine (White Denim, Trail of Dead, Spoon) spit-shines Being Dead’s sound without diminishing their weirdo-best-friend vibes. Their penchant for idiosyncratic lyricism and musical unpredictability shines throughout the album as the duo moves between everything from garage rock and pop to Laurel Canyon-style folk.
Available courtesy of Bayonet Records.