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“Garrett III is more of a swan project. A final installment, if you will. Garrett is now retreating more deeply, as evident by the album cover by @GangCulture into obscurity. The time has come for a landing via this 3rd installment of his ‘private life’. After surviving a lockdown x worldwide pandemic in 1 piece, without going insane, he has finally decided 2 conclude this phase of his tightrope walk between lush Ambient touched Modern-Funk & the choice of no vocals / strictly instrumental aural experiences, for listeners of all hues, backgrounds & taste. The hope is that it’s enjoyed in whatever way feasible for all human (& alien) kind.” – Music From Memory

Such was the warmth of reception granted NuNorthern Soul's debut EP of Ryo Kawasaki music, the label's Phat Phil Cooper has decided upon a follow up. And having made over 25 albums in his almost five decade long career, there's plenty of Ryo's music to choose from. Once again, Phil Cooper has chosen to concentrate on Kawasaki's mid 1970s to early 1980s period, a time which saw the guitarist living in New York, surrounded by and often playing alongside some of the finest jazz players of the era. It was a time of much experiment with jazz music and few things propel Kawasaki more than experimentation.

His mid 1970s period saw him explore what was to become known as jazz fusion music, a sometimes heavy-sounding variation, wild with revolutionary, new electronic sounds and steeped in funk and rock influences. From that period Kawasaki lead several album projects and the band Golden Dragon, upon whose recordings Kawasaki's famous, personally modified guitar synthesizer really comes to the fore. – Bandcamp

The Richest Man in Babylon is the third studio album by American electronic music duo Thievery Corporation. It was first released on September 30, 2002 in Belgium and on October 1, 2002 in the United States by ESL Music. The album features contributions from Emiliana Torrini, LouLou, Pam Bricker, and Notch, and features both electronic and live instrumentation. The album combines influences such as dub, jazz, dance music, rap, reggae, and Indian music, and incorporates protest music into the group's sound. A remix/dub version of the album was released in 2004 titled Babylon Rewound featuring the unreleased track "Truth And Rights". - Wiki

Bottom line: a trip with Thievery is always worth taking, if only because their relaxed musicianship offers a potent counterpart to a culture that is becoming faster and more aggressive by the day. But The Richest Man in Babylon is one of their more intriguing works to date, capably blending vocal theatrics, spritual exploration and subtle songcraft in one sitting. They might not be the Bomb Squad, but they still carve out significant space in a crowded electronica landscape. – Pop Matters

Acid bass, slow funk and cosmic energy make for a mind expanding trip in the Liquid Canoe.

Load up on edibles, make it a macro-dose and let the music lead the way.

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Whether you’re hard at work on a Hamburg allotment, basking in the heat of a Balinese beach or enjoying the cool waters of the Salish Sea, remember that the same sky stretches over all of us. And if you forget your finger for a minute and soak in the heavenly beauty instead, you might just catch the cosmic vibrations of Liquid Canoe, the latest members of the Growing Bin family.

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A loose ensemble, Liquid Canoe is the brainchild of Wolfgang Matthes, a lost Angelino who’s swapped the rush and push of a mega city for the space of the Pacific Northwest - and listening to this eight track offering, you’ll realise that space is the place. Armed with an array of vintage synths and programmed rhythms, Wolfgang sketched out a slew of inter dimensional transmissions, inspired by the commune electronics and space rock of 70s Germany and inhabited by the spirit of the boogie. Inviting friends to drop by and lend their own instrumental skill, Wolfgang quickly turned Liquid Canoe into a true collaboration. Finalised in a converted stable on Galiano Island, the LP is a perfect marriage of the electronic and organic, shimmering arps and spheric synth bass intertwined with American primitive guitar, nuanced hand percussion and glassy chimes. As this mind expanding collection stretches out towards infinity, you’ll hear Floyd-ian funk, cosmic dub, tangerine daydreams and micro-dosed ambience, all imbued with the memories of New York lofts, Bay Area warehouses, skyscraping pines or the world wide web of fungi. Liquid Canoe taking you on an oarsome trip.

(Patrick Ryder)– Bandcamp

As PG Sounds, Philip Gelberg and Sven Reigler have delivered some of the most eccentric, interesting and off-kilter music on the SUED catalogue. On this much anticipated debut album, the pair continues in a similar vein, flitting between curious ambient experiments, sparse and ultra-dusty deep house, blunted instrumental hip-hop beats, mind-altering acid electronica, squelchy beat-scapes, rubbery techno wonkiness, deep space jack-tracks, twisted and brain-melting club stompers, and the kind of blink-and-you-miss-them interludes that will make you instantly rewind the vinyl to try and work out what's going on. It's the kind of set that defies easy categorization but is all the better for that. Recommended. – Juno

Emotional ambient, soft focus synthesis and pastoral programming from German duo Cass. & Gianni Brezzo on Hamburg‘s Growing Bin. Hopeless romantic with GSOH seeks open minded audiophile for lifelong companionship.

The style might change, but the quality remains the same in the Growing Bin. For this autumnal edition, the Hamburg label looks South West to Osnabrück and Cologne, home to Cass. and Gianni Brezzo respectively. Sharing an appreciation for emotive tonality and expansive texture, the two musicians make the perfect partnership on ‚Masala Kiss‘, Brezzo‘s timeless melodies only serving to intensify the signature sensuality of the Cass. sound. Despite the occasional polyrhythms, you‘re hearing two hearts beat as one... 

Insistent and expressive, well travelled opener ‚Jaybo‘ joins the ethnic and esoteric with a new age optimism before giving way to the detailed ambience and good nature of ‚Umberella‘, a brief pitstop on the road to the meditative ‚Imence Sense‘. Alive with layered guitars, this opiated raga dances like hashish smoke in the evening sky, and then its up into the cloud forms of ‚Instabubu‘ and ‚Autoscooter Love‘, celestial serenades both off and on beat. Cass. and Brezzo set controls for the heart of the sun with the Froesean ‚Out Of Mind‘, a cinematic exercise in precision sequencing and frequency control then start the journey home with the dewy bells and delicate waveforms of ‚Koli‘. If you‘re in need of a little new age funk for your poolside playtime ‚Helge‘ and ‚Der Däne‘ are on hand with the chunky bass and languid grooves, while a last minute interlude provides a prenatal comfort and womblike warmth. I always cry at endings, and ‚Paterson‘ provides pure emotional release in utterly Balearic fashion. Pensive guitar and euphoric synths meet on the waterfront as you stare over the ocean with all the people you love. – Growing Bin | Soundcloud

Dva is a return to the music of her roots, a triumph of keenly felt and brilliantly expressed reflections of oppression and freedom, be it political, sexual or artistic. Dva is an exploration of self-expression and sound, taking dark dub pop, sound design inspirations and melding them with classical music of her upbringing, taking Emika's production a giant step forward. – Ninja Tune

.gif have earned critical comparison to the likes of Bjork, Yukimi Nagano, The xx and Portishead, but the illustrious pair have managed to retain a fresh and unique dynamic to their chimerical sound, one that proved so compelling that the pair began filling a void of their own making within the Singaporean music scene. 

Following the acclaim of their past releases, .gif's sophomore LP HAIL NOTHING still showcases the haunting vocals, deft lyricism and obsidian production that has become their distinctive sound. The album is named after a line in Ernest Hemingway' s A Clean Well Lighted Place - "Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee." 

The duo digs deeper on HAIL NOTHING; an ode to chaos and nothingness, a love song to the void. Expanding on their synth-driven soundscapes, haunting vocals and poignant lyrics, the album also features guests Bani Haykal and Usaama Minhas. 

The Analog Vault is supremely honoured to be working with .gif for their first-ever vinyl release on TAV Records. 

 A great Mr. Scruff set is like a living, dancing history of black music from around the world, from jazz to techno and beyond, with any number of stops in between. The length—the immersion, the trust—is part of the satisfaction of a great Mr. Scruff set. 

Not so on this great Mr. Scruff set. Concentrating 31 tracks into 73 minutes, his DJ-Kicks installation forgoes sonic stamina for condensed power. Many tracks were short to begin with—Rosa Maria’s three-minute froth bomb “Samba Maneiro” is just one delightful example—but the groove he builds has a coiled power that’s unusual for him. It can make you move a dozen different ways, but it feels aimed at the ear specifically. (The release’s timing is sadly appropriate on that front.)

If anything, this is a left field showcase, right from the start—the mix’s opening roundelay is mostly newer tracks with a freewheeling sense of auditory trickery, from Iona Fortune’s springy ambient to Sudan Archives’ plucked-string meditation. Another highlight, Archie Pelago’s “Brown Oxford,” reconfigures a walking stand-up bass and smeared brass as the basis of a trick-heavy house track that disguises its deeply psychedelic properties with a straight face. Remember the old term, “home listening album”? That’s what Mr. Scruff has made here. – Bandcamp Daily

DJ, record label impresario and former Swedish champion b-boy, Mad Mats knows a thing or two about finding good music. As well as iconic underground imprints Raw Fusion and GAMM, Mad Mats is a partner in the highly regarded Local Talk label, making it highly probable that most of the world’s influential DJs have at least one of his discoveries in their record bags.

For his first compilation on BBE, Mats has put together a diverse selection of cuts; from reggae, hip hop and soul to boogie, electronica and house, reflecting his open-minded approach to DJing. “The compilation is very mixed, just like how I like to DJ...all freestyle. Yes, I play a lot of house clubs nowadays because of Local Talk, but at heart I've always been a so called "eclectic" selector. Most of these tracks are tunes I’ve played all over the years, sprinkled with some brand new discoveries.”

Coming from a strictly vinyl background, when Mats embraced Serato around 2005, he carried his crate digger’s mentality with him. Believing firmly that digging should always about the discovery of great music regardless of the format, the concept of ‘Digging Beyond The Crates’ was born.

Ranging far and wide in terms of genre and tempo, the album is tied together by one common factor; this is feel-good music made for dancing. “I'm just as hungry (probably even more so) to find my personal gems as I was back in the day, I just look for them with more variation. This album is dedicated to those select few individuals, just like myself: highly driven music lovers, collectors and DJs that truly are DIGGING BEYOND THE CRATES!” – BBE on Bandcamp

"Cream of the crop, the crem'e de la creme." - Guru of Gang Starr

Alpha Pup Records is ecstatic to announce the signing of Crem’e to the family roster, scheduled to drop his debut full-length, Close Up, on August 26. Hitting both vinyl and digital formats upon release, Close Up is a highly personalized vehicle of sound, created over the last few years as a response to the passing of his mother. Crem’e summed up this transition in his life with the following, “It’s like getting rid of a scar and then feeling naked without it.”

Close Up is music that represents the very essence of human connection and particularly the relationships Crem’e fostered over the last two decades. The detail and dynamics of the LP were amplified with the mixing and mastering work of Alpha Pup label head and Low End co-founder Daddy Kev at Cosmic Zoo. Close Up is the fullest realization of Crem’e’s creative path, standing as a formidable debut from a rising visionary in the LA beat scene. – Bandcamp

As the title suggests, Magnetic Syndromes is the sonic description of a life filled with unpredictable changes, carved out from the lens intensive view of Gypsy Mamba’s life. It can also be seen outside of the artist, defining the inner conflicts many conquer in their lifetime. Gypsy Mamba finds a battleground between the darkness and the light in Magnetic Syndromes. A unique music environment where tracks fluctuate between the frenetic and the subdued. It’s all pulled off with a wild array of colors and rhythms that can’t be associated to any other artist. - Alpha Pup Records

Belt up for a mind-altering journey through time and space stopping by Japanese enka, 8-bit psychedelica and mutated digi dub on this genre-defying long player from King Midas Sound’s Kiki Hitomi and Jahtari bossman disrupt.

TRACKLIST

• A1. Endless Memento
• A2. Regression
• A3. Wading Through The Underworld
• B1. The Future Is Hurt
• B2. Dirt And Fields
• C. Hinter Der Vitrine
• D1. Our Sharpened Blade
• D2. Rid Yourself Of The Parasites
• D3. Endless Longing

Born in Assam, Gauhati, in Northeast India, but currently based in New York’s storied borough of Brooklyn, jitwam spent his formative years in New Zealand and Australia, before living in monasteries in Thailand, orphanages in South Africa, and washed out apartments in London. Of everywhere and nowhere, his music draws influence from a litany of iconoclasts including, but not limited to RD Burman, Moondog, The Velvet Underground, Yayoi Kusama, Jay Electronica, Jay Dilla, Moodymann, Leon Thomas, Madlib and Asha Bhosle.

Across the album he utilises knowledge acquired through years spent digging through dusty crates, and talents honed as a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist. A series of stumbling, jazz/soul-rooted beat sculptures, each buried beneath a haze of fuzzy psychedelia, broken microphone blues, and articulated through a freestyled process he describes as “first thought, best thought”, ज़ितम सिहँ solidifies jitwam's spot as a major emerging talent.

Recalling the fourth world dreamscapes explored by oddball songwriters like Connan Mockasin, Clarence Clarity, Jai Paul, Silicon, and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, it represents a time of transition and remembrance for jitwam, while still fulfilling the core qualities he looks for in song. In his words, “Music is a refuge. A shelter from the storm. A place you can go to close your eyes.” – Jitwam | Bandcamp

Coastlines are a new production unit formed by DJ/ Producer, Masanori Ikeda and keyboard player from the group, cro-magnon, Takumi Kaneko. In 2018 and early 2019, they made their debut releasing, 2 well received and quickly sold out 7" singles from Flower Records. Although both Masanori and Takumi are renowned for being active in the Japanese dance music scene for many years, they also work together to produce music for video works and that is where their Coastlines project was born. Their musical vision is focused on creating a laid back, for listening, modern library music-like musical sceneries that one can imagine a beautiful & breathtaking "coastline". On top of the down tempo, balearic, jazz fusion and other various musical vibes that Masanori creates, Takumi layers his beautiful, melodic keyboard solos to grand effect. Coastline’s music is all about presenting, a joyous, relaxing, summery soundtrack for everyone's after hours wind down. – Bandcamp

“A Grand Love Story is an irresistible romp through the lighthearted, pastoral side of trip-hop by way of orchestral pop paragons like Bacharach, Gainsbourg, and Love. Songs like the single "Relaxin' With Cherry" and "She's My Lover" are beautiful pop songs, constructed mostly from sampled material with a few live guitar and basslines plus vocals by Prieur and the Pastels' Katrina Mitchell. If the '70s fixations of Air were shifted back a decade, the results would be quite close to A Grand Love Story.” – All Music

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“In 2003 Kutmah started Sketchbook as a radio show on Dublab in Los Angeles and a year later Sketchbook became the city’s first all instrumental beat night. This was the breading grounds for the already flourishing beat community in Los Angeles. Artists would bring beat cd’s to showcase their talent whenever they pleased and Kutmah always got their cd at the end of the night. Often the party was outside the club because Dibia$e’s boombox was always knocking. Sketchbook Radio Archives is a compilation the dates back to this era and the present day.” – Bandcamp

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Ten years after his first release, UK artist Lone is putting out his 
first ever commercial mix CD. His entry into the celebrated 
DJ-kicks series lands on 29th September and features four of his 
own new and exclusive tracks. 

Lone’s DJ-kicks very much feels alive, lived-in and authentic. It is 
a hugely personal view into his unique musical world and marks 
another landmark entry into !K7's long running series – Bandcamp

“Tapping Detroit techno, IDM, and boom-bap hip-hop, Lone’s horizontally inclined DJ-Kicks mix uses expert selection and programming to highlight his own distinctive musical sensibility.” – Pitchfork

“Unlike his productions, it's not a seamless weave of trends, genres and ideas. Instead, DJ-Kicks lays out each of his influences piece by piece, almost like listening to a deconstructed Lone album. For fans of Cutler's singular music, it's an essential entry in his discography.” – Resident Advisor

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A 2009 release, Declaration of Dependence is the third album from the Norwegian pop/folk duo Kings of Convenience. Consisting of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, the musical group is known for their delicate tunes, calming voices, and intricate and subtle guitar melodies. Øye and Bøe both compose and sing the songs.

Declaration of Dependence is the story of two people living two very different lives sensing that they are immensely more powerful together than apart. In that sense it is the most adult, the most mature record Kings of Convenience have ever made. That it is their most gripping, their most revealing is, if anything, just a by-product of that honesty and their endeavor.

"Erlend is a very stubborn individual with extreme belief in his own ideas," says Erik of his partner. "He's very free and creative and his access to unusual and fresh ideas is very good. I find that quite unique. For some reason they are very similar to my ideas on music - we like the same unusualness."

“Ignoring calls to fold Erlend Øye's hushed beats into their hushed folk, the Kings of quiet return with their most whisper-soft-- and graceful-- record yet.” – Pitchfork

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