JAWBREAKER - 'UNFUN'

Formats

• BB007 - LP (COLOURED)

  759718089714

• BB007CD - CD

  759718089721

Details

**ON COKE BOTTLE CLEAR VINYL** Blackball Records presents the 20th anniversary edition of Jawbreaker's beloved 1990 debut album Unfun--twelve groundbreaking tracks (sixteen on the CD) that captured the very inception of emo's big band and launched a galaxy of young, earnest bands and the scenes that love them. Unfun has been remastered by John Golden from the original analog tapes; the increased sampling rate boosts some of the bottom end and mid-range. It sounds fucking awesome. The vinyl version is available for the first time since 1992, and the CD and download versions of the record include the three-song Whack & Blite EP, as well as the 7-inch mix of "Busy" as an unlisted bonus track. This reissue features restored original artwork, and all formats include additional band photos from the time of recording. The CD comes with a 24-page booklet with the Whack & Blite insert reproduced in its entirety. "Want" and "Fine Day" were in heavy rotation on college radio back in the day, and remained set list staples throughout Jawbreaker's run. Unfun wound up on a lot of fanzine top ten lists, and even the mainstream press took notice. Rolling Stone called it "a feast of heavy melody and righteous braying that roars along with all the spit and spirit of Husker Du's New Day Rising."

Tracks

1. Want 2. Seethruskin
3. Fine Day 4. Incomplete
5. Imaginary War 6. Busy
7. Softcore 8. Driven
9. Wound 10. Down
11. Gutless 12. Drone
(CD / Download Only):
13. Lawn 14. Crane 15. Eye-5
16. Busy (7? Mix)

Press

N/A

Audio & Video

BILL ORCUTT GUITAR QUARTET - 'FOUR GUITARS LIVE'

Formats

• PAL080 - 2xLPs

  843563172933

• PAL080CD - CD

  195269347666

Details

As Bill Orcutt’s most mature and exhilarating LP to date, Music for Four Guitars was a slab of undeniable Apollonian beauty. Its approachability and obvious novelty landed it not only on the year- end lists of every key-pushing codger in the underground in 2022, but also on NPR in the form of the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet, an ensemble assembled to perform this music and featuring Wendy Eisenberg, Ava Mendoza, and Shane Parish in addition to Orcutt. But while their Tiny Desk Concert gave a whiff of the quartet’s easy intimacy, the sterile confines of the virtual recital medium still left a puzzle unsolved: how might these brutally mannered bricks of minimalist counterpoint sound on a stage in front of actual breathing bodies?" "This was the question foremost in my mind when I first saw the quartet in San Francisco a few months before this double live LP was recorded. I was already familiar with the prowess of Eisenberg and Mendoza, two of the most technically intimidating shredders to blast out of the noise/improv underground, and knew Parish as the mastermind behind the epic translation of Orcutt's quartet recordings into a fully notated score. I was ready to be 'blown away'—and I most assuredly was. The quartet navigated Orcutt's jaggedly spiraling right angles into the shining core of the compositions with joyous ease, faithful to the originals in nearly every way (though their tempos were slightly ramped up, Blakey style, to communicate their breathless rush). The renditions were flawless, stellar and inspiring. I had expected nothing less." "Which leads us to this album, Four Guitars Live, recorded in November of 2023 at Le Guess Who? festival during the quartet’s first European tour. The true essence of this set is not simply in its faithfulness to the source compositions, but in the group's easy familiarity (no doubt the result of weeks on the road) and the generosity of their improvisations, both collective and solo. Orcutt, clearly cognizant of both the caliber of his collaborators and the singularity of their voices, has given everyone room to stretch out, and all have delivered some of their most moving passages to date." "One of this record's great thrills for me is imagining a listener, perhaps unfamiliar with the outer limits of contemporary guitar improvisation (or the Tzadik catalog), slammed into catatonia by Mendoza's liquefying lines on Out of the corner of the eye, then revived and healed by the languid, breathy lines of Parish's unaccompanied, spaced-out breakdown of the track's main theme, finally only to be crushed by Eisenberg’s staggering extended solo on Only at dusk (somehow channeling both Eugene Chadbourne and Buck Dharma)." "There's another peak, which begins at the end of side B, in Orcutt's own languid solo, encapsulating the flowing focus of his recent solo LPs, and serving as an introduction to the next side's ensemble tour de force, the psychic heart of the album, On the horizon: its melodic core passing first to Orcutt, launching into a sublime solo turn by Eisenberg, a duo of Parish and Mendoza, before parachuting back into the ensemble for a smashup rendition of Barely visible and Glimpsed while driving (renamed Barely driving) knitted together with an softly bubbling ensemble improvisation. The transfer is orchestrated yet seamless, its tonal form undeniable even in the presence of obvious dissonance." "The breadth of Four Guitars Live gives lie to the false notion that agile, polytonal improv is necessarily without soul, is necessarily inaccessible. Rather, Four Guitars posits a human avant-garde music that the most conservative will recognize as virtuosic and revel in its classic intervals, boiling counterpoint, and precisely- layered facets. Even the rockers in your life might dig it, so why not pass it on?"—Tom Carter

Tracks

1. A Different View
2. Seen From Above
3. At A Distance
4. In The Rain
5. Out Of The Corner Of The Eye
6. Or From Behind
7. Only At Dusk
8. Talking 9. Bill Solo
10. On The Horizon
11. Barely Driving
12. Talking And Tuning
13. In Profile 14. From Below
15. Or Head On 16. Encore

Press

Audio & Video

HAN-SHAN - '8-SONG EP'

Formats

• LG-10 - 12"

  711574960118

Details

Not much has been written written about the conceptual hardcore band inspired by and named after a 9th century antisocial loner monk-poet of China’s Tang dynasty. Han-shan [the band] existed from 1991 to ‘93 in California. Their lyrics covered themes of solitude, mystery, poverty, and discord, directly inspired by the verses of the titular poet. Han-shan’s music was psychopathic, with blood-curdling vocals, and messy but powerful, in the vein of Void, Siege or Septic Death. The band played to the absolute limits of their physical ability and then some, with a sound that complemented their West Coast contemporaries—bands like Heroin, Mohinder, Second Story Window, Antioch Arrow and Angel Hair. Recorded in San Diego by Matt Anderson in late 1993 and originally released posthumously in early 1994 on the tiny Soledad record label, Hans-shan’s eight song seven inch EP came packaged in a manila envelope, each one hand-printed with a woodcut block and roller, with the art and insert referencing both the poet and Tang dynasty China. LG Records has carefully reproduced this cover art and returned to the original multitrack tape. Tim Green has remixed the recording at Louder Studios for a significantly more powerful, and yes, LOUDER, 12” 45rpm release. Members of Han-shan had previously been in Suckerpunch, Brain Tourniquet, End of the Line, and John Henry West; and went on to play in Behead The Prophet NLSL, Solid Gold, Drunk Horse, Astral, Tight Bro’s from Way Back When, Sex/Vid, Very Paranoia, Low Plateau and Nudity. For fans of fast, out of control hardcore with a raw emotional edge. And saxophone.

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video

SWAMI JOHN REIS - 'TIME TO LET YOU DOWN'

Formats

• SWA163LP - LP (COLOURED)

  657628451914

Details

**LTD YELLOW MARBLE VINYL** Celebrating 55 years in the music business! Swami John Reis is back with his second LP in eight months. Time To Let You Down is a savage blast of junk shoppe punk that kicks you in the ding ding. This eleven track LP is chock full of fist pumpers, head bumpers, stinky dumpers, meaty thumpers and toe stumpers. The tempos are often breakneck and the dense arrangements tumble like bricks into hot cheese. The undeniable sonic girth barges at will into lathered ear tubes allowing these barbaric anthems to echo in hollow domes. Feel the whip crack break skin on the acne scarred backs of our cultural oppressors. The sound is tough. The songs are a bitch. Incite your expectations with the single “Fed To The Dogs” or the title track. Salty leather and wobbly chain link fences can’t contain its rebel intent. These recordings took place Oct. 2024 and features Swami John Reis on guitar and vocals with contributions from Jason Sinclair (Hot Snakes), Joey Guevara (Swami and the Bed Of Nails), Jacob Turnbloom (Mrs. Magician) and Glen Galloway (Truman’s Water). The record was produced by John Reis, engineered and mixed by Ben Moore and mastered by Dave Gardner. Time To Let You Down is pressed on virgin, Egyptian pellets and available in limited, colorful vinyl that have been hand-swirled. You’ll not only clearly hear the difference, you will see it as well.

Tracks

: 1. Time To Let You Down 2. Basement Envy 3. Boomer Rang 4. King Of The Jungle VS 5. The Boogie Man 6. Fed To The Dogs 7. Prince Of The Parade 8. Radio Silence/Radio 9. Vengeance 10. Kamen Rider Theme 11. Because I Stink 12. Cold Feet 13. Heartbeats

Press

Audio & Video

BILL LASWELL / PETE NAMLOOK - 'PSYCHONAVIGATION'

Formats

• IF-124 - 5xCDs

  8016670162087

Details

Infinite Fog Productions is thrilled to announce the long-awaited reissue of the legendary Psychonavigation series in a 5CD Box format! After countless delays in recent times, we are excited to break the silence and kick off a series of announcements! First up is the long-awaited reissue of the outstanding Psychonavigation series, created by the legendary artists Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook. From 1994 to 2002, the brilliant producers Bill Laswell and Pete Namlook released a series of five works titled Psychonavigation—a rare gem for fans of heavy ambient collaboration. Masterfully playing with genres and refusing to be confined by any boundaries, they were mutually in awe of each other's talents and delivered numerous significant projects, including the iconic Outland, The Dark Side Of The Moog, and of course, Psychonavigation. This stunning palette of musical styles ranges from Space, Dark, and Drone Ambient to Electro and cosmic Downtempo, through dense layers of Dub to almost industrial, mechanical techno spaces. These five albums are like personal spacecraft traveling at faster-than-light speeds, carrying five keys to eternity and infinity. The reissue anthology comes in a 5CD box set, with each disc housed in its own envelope, featuring a brand-new design and a complete set of audio materials. The package also includes an exclusive poster with an essay about the project, written by Bill Laswell in Winter 2024. Now, 30 years after the release of the first part of Psychonavigation, the anthology is available in a single box! ~ More about Psychonavigation: The Psychonavigation series, originally released between 1993 and 1999, marked a milestone in the world of ambient and electronic music. Each album in this series represents a unique journey into soundscapes, creating deep and immersive atmospheric textures. The creative genius of Bill Laswell combined with the innovative approach of Pete Namlook made this series a remarkable achievement in electronic music.

Tracks

CD I: Psychonavigation I (1994): The beginning of the collaboration between Bill Laswell and Peter Namlook. Melancholic and introspective compositions, the endless solitude of space.

CD II: Psychonavigation II (1995): The second album continues the exploration of atmospheric sounds and electronic landscapes. This release features more complex textures and more clearly structured compositions while maintaining the characteristic ambient and experimental electronic elements of the series.

CD III: Psychonavigation III (1997): The third album delves deeper into atmospheric sound and offers even more diverse sonic palettes. The mutual understanding between the musicians became even deeper, and it seems that on this album they found their unique language of communication. Rich and multilayered compositions where Laswell and Namlook continue to explore the boundaries of ambient and electronic music. Bold decisions on "Reentry", "Dark Matter", and "Event Horizon", boundless experimentation, and creative freedom.

CD IV: Psychonavigation IV (1999): The fourth album continues the theme of deep and introspective soundscapes, but with the addition of new elements and experimental approaches. The sounds become even more complex and mesmerizing, faster-than-light speed, and worlds of other dimensions.

CD V: Psychonavigation V (2002): The fifth album concludes the series with a focus on a more structured approach to ambient music creation. The endless depth and cosmic melancholy remain but with a more pronounced sense of completion. This is the fifth key to eternity? not a landing, but a final transition to a new universe.

Press

Audio & Video

PAUL SCHUTZE - 'NEW MAPS OF HELL'

Formats

• AKT23 - 2xLPs

  0710473185882

Details

One of the very best ever Tribal Ambient Dub albums, originally released on the famous Australian Extreme label. Brilliantly new mastered, sounds way better than the original recordings. Includes bonus songs from other Extreme releases. For fans of early WARP, Muslimgauze, Future Sound Of London, The Orb, Rapoon and alike.

Tracks

Press

Audio & Video

TOBACCO CITY - 'HORSES'

Formats

• SCTR069 - LP

  657628451532

Details

Tobacco City is a Chicago-based band that blends cosmic country with a mix of psychedelic rock and honky-tonk soul. Their sound captures the essence of small-town nostalgia while embracing modern-day themes, exploring heartache, longing, and the bittersweet nature of life. With their uplifting energy and authentic songwriting, Tobacco City continues to carve out a unique space in the countrytinged Americana scene. On Horses, the highly anticipated follow-up to their critically acclaimed debut, Tobacco City, USA, the band takes listeners on a nostalgic journey through the haze of youth, where time feels suspended and plans are nonexistent. The album’s lyrics conjure vivid images of small-town life—smoking schwag behind the grocery store, drinking cream from a gas station with your first love—capturing that carefree, uncertain time when the future felt distant. The music channels the spirit of ’70s country with influences from legends like Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, bringing a timeless, uplifting energy to each track. At the same time, the lyrics intersect with modern-day themes, blending the beauty and innocence of youth with the harsh realities of life. Horses feels like a contemporary take on classic country, merging a nostalgic past with the complex world of today, all while remaining undeniably authentic and heartfelt. This follow-up to Tobacco City, USA—which received high praise from NPR and Rolling Stone— cements the band’s place at the forefront of a new wave of countrytinged Americana. “...Like the Chicago band’s namesake, a slow smoke hangs in the air, heavy with heartbreak and feather-blue eyeshadow, but puts a brave face on. Lexi Goddard sings with a far-away look over a pedal-steel cry, a melody that sways to country songs on jukeboxes of yore...” —NPR “Chicago’s Tobacco City do more with less... spacious grooves as pedal steel wafts through like a gentle breeze. Vocalist Lexi Goddard and Chris Coleslaw sounds simultaneously wistful and playful throughout...” —Rolling Stone

Tracks

1. Autumn
2. Bougainvillea
3. Horses I
4. Time
5. Way To Get Out
6. Fruit From The Vine
7. Buffalo
8. Horses II
9. Colorado
10. Blue Deja Vu
11. Mr. Wine
12. Horses III

Press

Audio & Video

DANIEL BRANDT - 'WITHOUT US'

Formats

• ERATP173LE - LP (COLOURED)

  3700551786183

Details

The Doomsday Clock currently sits at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest the big hand and the little hand have come to signalling our total destruction since the conceptual chronograph was incepted back in 1947. If we’re dancing on the brink then we might as well make sure that the music is great. Step forward Daniel Brandt, of lauded German electroacoustic outfit Brandt Brauer Frick, who leads the apocalyptic rave with his third solo album Without Us. “The idea for this project began with a small but unsettling experience in South London,” he remembers. “I was looking to buy a single avocado, but every store I went into only seemed to offer them in plastic wrapping, packed in pairs with a little cardboard base. I remember thinking: ‘but the avocado already comes in its own perfect packaging? And I only want one.’ It struck me as absurd that, despite our awareness of the damage plastic causes, unnecessary packaging like this still persists.” The scenario turned into a farrago - Brandt went from store to store discovering the same nightmare in every shop where every avocado was wrapped in superfluous packaging: “As a touring musician, maybe I have to admit my own carbon footprint is questionable,” he admits, “but it’s countries and corporations that need to quit with the half measures that avail the planet nothing, usually under pressure from powerful, short-termist lobbying groups.” He continues: “Without Us is about the helplessness of the individual in the climate crisis and the apparent need to take radical global action to change the trajectory of the current threat of a climate disaster. It’s about the despair and inability to be able to properly contribute to change as an individual, even though the general idea is that everybody can play their part. But this part that each individual is supposed to take responsibility for is so small compared to the scale of what is needed. The responsibility must not be with the individual when we’re suffering from decisions by global corporations aiming to get rich quick.”  If South London provided the impetus then it was the Joshua Tree in California where the record began to take shape against a mise-en-scene of staggering vistas and eerie quiet. Brandt spent the week recording mostly percussion with barely anyone around, and that feeling of deserted landscapes and unspoiled natural beauty translated itself throughout the rest of the process back at home in Hackney Wick, London and the studio in Neukölln, Berlin, where he completed the album. To help us visualise, Brandt has even made a 20 minute film of the same name with Anthony Dickenson, shot in the searing heat of Athens in 2023, a microcosmic reflection of climate chaos, offering extreme solutions and a large helping of hyperbole. Brandt, as you might have gathered, isn’t on this mission alone: Anne Müller brings staccato cello bass to ‘Addicted’ and more thorough strokes throughout; French multi-instrumentalist Akusmi aka Pascal Bideau interjects arpeggios that teeter on the edge, and Florian Juncker’s manipulated trombones bring sinister shadows to sprawling soundscapes. Without Us feels like Brandt’s most focused and expedient offering to date: Bideau and Junker both played on the brighter, Steve Reich-inspired Channels from 2018, while Brandt’s celebrated 2017 debut Eternal Something had started out as “a cymbals album” that developed into something else when he discovered Ryoji Ikeda was making 100 Cymbals at the same time. If he didn’t get to join the niche drum album club alongside artists like Babatunde Olatunji, Tito Puentes, Dave Lombardo and Jim White, then rhythm itself is always front and centre of what he does. Without Us the full project—album, film, and live performance—will premiere as an immersive experience at Barbican Hall in London on April 24th, 2025. The event will combine live music, the film and an “apocalyptic rave” where we’ll be able to explore our collective anxieties in a multi-dimensional way. It’s time to mobilise and hope against hope that the Doomsday Clock knows how to move in an anti-clockwise direction.

Tracks

1. Paradise O.D. feat. Hatis Noit 2. Lucid 3. Addicted 4. Steady 5. Soft Rains 6. Resistance 7. PNK 8. Persistence 9. Nothing to Undo

Press

Audio & Video

CROSS RECORD - 'CRUSH ME'

Formats

• BING211 - LP

  600197021118

Details

Cross Record's new album, Crush Me, is steeped in the pressures and wonders of existence—a profound statement, especially coming from artist and death doula Emily Cross. A two-and-a-half-year gestation period offered challenges, disappointments, and joys reflected in the cramped space of the album, which explores how we handle the weights we carry. Emily Cross had held hundreds of Living Funerals and was as many episodes deep into her podcast, What I’m Looking At. She was five years into serving clients as a death doula and fresh off a tour with Loma, her band with Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski, when she began work on her fourth album. After moving from Austin, TX to Dorset, UK, she established the Steady Waves Center for Contemplation (named after a track from her second record, Wabi-Sabi ), where she hosted Living Funerals, met clients, scheduled mindful tea sessions, and showcased experimental music nights. All the while, she was scribbling down song ideas. Cross’s Tascam four-track demos finally reached readiness, and she sent them to an interested major independent label. She was encouraged to push her imagination to the limits of what a record could be. So, unlike her usual process of recording as inexpensively as possible, she prepared a two-week recording session in Germany with a group of skilled musicians from around the world. True to her previous work, Cross left plenty of room in her demos for experimentation, collaboration, chance, improvisation, and complete obliteration, then resurrection when necessary. Comfort and traditional structure were eschewed in favor of unaccountable magic, prayers whispered into The Void. Cross is comfortable with the chaotic and unpredictable, a perspective demanded by her work and writing style. The Berlin Airbnb was packed with people, instruments and luggage. During a ride down in a tiny elevator to the studio, Cross realized how central the sense of being crushed was to the album. “I thought of it later and it dawned on me that ‘Crush Me’ perfectly embodied the record,” says Cross. Yes, the weight of a body laying limply atop yours, or the tight squeeze of a hug, can be pleasant. Go too far, and you’re in the hands of a cruel, adolescent god. Upon leaving Germany, the record was unfinished, and without a roadmap. As passages were recorded as isolated parts, Cross and musician Marcin Sulewski collaborated, facing a haphazard brick pile, waiting to be assembled. Work dipped in and out of view like a buoy bobbing in a violent sea over many months. During that time, the aforementioned interested label went radio silent, suddenly not seeming so sure of a thing. Collaborators disappeared, continuing the themes of abandonment, surrender, and disarray that followed the project. Cross physically felt her entire body go numb: In a twist of fate, the record was rescued by long-time friend and supporter Ben Goldberg at Ba Da Bing Records who was eager to help realize the project. Cross worked for months on the album, all the while nursing a pregnancy and continuing her full-time funeral work. The last minute participation of Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets, who mixed and mastered, was an essential liferaft. He gave true final form to the abstracted songs. Crush Me has the effect of a spell being cast, with songs balancing heaviness and levity. Vocals, guitars, and keyboards float above, as drums and upright bass (often bowed) lurch beneath. On “Rolling Backwards” percussion wanders about while feedback squeals and persists in the distance. “Dorset Area Of Natural Beauty” starts with a thick, unhinged church organ progression punctuated by the disquieting sounds of laughter reaching the point of hysteria. “God Fax” is a slow-moving panic attack, with shallow breaths in and out framing a guttural cacophony like a wooden freighter encountering increasingly turbulent waters and vocals struck emotionless by autotune. The album ends with “Twisted Up Fence,” a reflection on life from outside the wall--wistful, warm, and comforting. Cross, likely with a smile on her face, sings: “You say it’s an endless abyss” “And I say the abyss is the best”

Tracks

1. I Can Lie 2. Rolling Backwards 3. Charred Grass 4. Right Thing By Me 5. God Fax 6. Cutting A Cake 7. Led Through Life 8. Dorset Area Of Natural Beauty 9. Pearl Through A Funnel 10. Designed In Hell 11. Crush Me 12. Twisted Up Fence

Press

Audio & Video

MOHAMMAD MOSTAFA HEYDARIAN - 'NORR - E VOJOOD'

Formats

• CFUL0308 - LP

  N/A

Details

*LAST REMAINING COPIES - ONCE THEY ARE GONE... ETC* Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian is a young Kurdish tanbur player from Kermanshah, a city in the mountainous western Iranian region of Horaman. Mohammad Mostafa Heydarian was born on the first of January, 2002 in Kermanshah, a city in western Iran. Kermanshah is the home of the tanbur, a pear shaped lute whose origins can be traced in the region for more than 5000 years. The Yarsans, a millennium sect of Kurdish people, have long made this region of the country their home. Their mystic rituals (jâm) are performed with tanbur, and the sacred music they play is a heritage that is steeped in one thousand years of tradition. Mostafa's father, Morteza, was a percussion player whose main musical instrument was the dâf, a frame drum. At the age of twenty, Morteza started learning tanbur crafting, and it is in these overlapping worlds of tradition, family, faith, and culture that Mostafa is born. There are pictures of Mostafa holding a tanbur before he can even walk. At around seven years old Mostafa began to learn Yarsan's maqams (modes/scales). Also around this time the family moved to Karaj, a city located one hour west of Tehran, a move that provided more opportunities to meet musicians that regularly drop by Morteza's tanbur studio. It is here that Mostafa takes lessons from a number of master teachers (Ostads) and absorbs the sounds of the tanbur on the many cassettes in his father’s cupboard. Everyday after school he rushes to his father's workshop and allows himself to drop the tanbur only for dinner. His mind is obsessed with playing and listening. In his dreams he sees the late tanbur master Seyyed Amrollâh giving him advice. His path is clearly on the tanbur side. When Mostafa was a teenager he met Valentin Portron, a traveling French musician, who, upon watching videos of the famed tanbur master Seyyed Khâlil Alinejad, had travelled to Karaj to acquire and learn tanbur. Alinejad just happens to be one of Mostafa's favorite tanbur players, and thanks to their mutual knowledge of English and common love for sacred music, a new brothership is born. In early 2020, Valentin asked Mostafa to record some tanbur for his rock band, Portron Portron Lopez. Mostafa rushes to a small studio in Karaj and improvises three tracks. A new idea comes to his mind, and with the help of Behzâd Varâshte, a dâf player living in front of Morteza's studio, they record three more tracks. The result being Mostafa’s first album, Songs of Horaman. Mostafa was excited, but he also shared his concerns about releasing an album at the young age of 18. “I'm not a master!” he argued. After some reassurance, the album was shared on Bandcamp in 2021. Almost immediately, Mostafa and Valentin were contacted by NR Safi from Radio Khiyaban, and soon thereafter the album was made available via a partnership between Radio Khiyaban,Cardinal Fuzz (UK) Centripetal Force (USA), and Ramble Records (AUS). Songs of Horaman was released on cassette and vinyl in 2022 and received wide acclaim from the likes of Gonzo Magazine, the BBC, Mojo, WFMU, and the French television program On connait la musique. The origins of this new album from Mostafa date back to 2021, when Valentin and Mostafa booked the famous Bell Studio in Tehran, Iran’s oldest recording studio and one of the most respected studios in all of Asia. It was here that Mostafa started developing new ideas and a new dream. His main goal was to be more precise and intentional with his playing. He wanted to tighten his compositions while still including some unexpected moves. Every year Mostafa’s father gifts his son a newly crafted tanbur, each new instrument even more spectacular than the previous. As Mostafa rehearsed for a second recording session on his newly born tanbur, appropriately named Mostafa, a beautiful suite of songs started to take form. In March of 2023, the month of the Persian new year, Mostafa and Valentin returned to Bell Studio, this time with dohool (cylinder drum) player Morteza Rezâei. In only two days, Mostafa recorded the rest of his dream in one take, communicating what was in his heart through his instrument. The name of the album, Noor-e Vojood, the light of existence, holds deep meaning for Mostafa. His love for life, music, and creativity has led to his songs being heard around the world. He considers his music a light for others and an offering from himself. He knows that in these times of trouble and turmoil, his musical contributions can help ease tensions and anxiety. The tanbur delivers love and understanding to the people who hear him, an experience as intimate as a face-to-face encounter. Nothing seems impossible to Mostafa, knowing his music touches people's hearts and spreads unconditional love. Noor-e Vojood is simply the next chapter in what is shaping up to be quite an extensive body of work. Mostafa currently attends Tehran University and studies Persian classical music. His focus is on studying râdif, melodies that have been handed down by the masters to the students through the generations, for both setâr and târ (both are stringed lute instruments) with the best teachers in the country.

Tracks

Press

I'm New Here feature UNCUT. 8/10 'Elemental and beautiful'

Audio & Video

THEE OH SEES - 'MUTILATOR DEFEATED AT LAST (2025 REISSUE)'

Formats

• DG001 - LP

  657628451815

Details

First release on the band's newly formed DEATHGOD CORP label Here we have a new batch from Thee Oh Sees for your absorption—nine muscular tunes primed to pummel. Last year’s Drop was more schizophrenic, ranging from heavy to whimsical and back; Mutilator Defeated at Last has more in common with the monolithic hugeness of Floating Coffin. With only two brief reprieves from its onslaught, this record is made to be played loudly and demands bodily sacrifice. Despite the plutonium heavy feel, Thee Oh Sees continue to be omnivorous. Synths and acoustic guitars wind throughout the album like veins of gold through granite. Any and all that stands in its way will be devoured and assimilated. This is the sound of a band doing what they do best.

Tracks

1. Web 2. Withered Hand 3. Poor Queen 4. Turned Out Light 5. Lupine Ossuary 6. Sticky Hulks 7. Holy Smoke 8. Rogue Planet 9. Palace Doctor

Press

Audio & Video

HAROULA ROSE & OLIVER HILL - 'CYCLES'

Formats

• BING216 - LP

Details

ONLY GETTING 50 COPIES FOR UK. The world of Cycles is supine and aquatic. Sounds echo within sounds, which encircle melodies like small creatures gathering. As both a record and a series of short films, Haroula Rose & Oliver Hill have created a friendly, multi-faceted planéte sauvage. Written & recorded in one torrentially rainy week at home in Los Angeles, the music explores the acoustics of the tactile world - sounds coarse and smooth, heavy and light, the smell of wet terrain after a long drought, a long deep breath coming up from dark water to the surface. Cycles presents earthy, bubbling spaces which are womblike and nourishing - not surprisingly, Cycles was conceived and completed in tandem with the birth of their first child. Instruments were splayed on the rug and a set of creative constraints were put into place: no words, no drums, no guitars, yes dynamics, yes field recordings around the house, yes fades and slowly overlapping layers. And of course, bells. The result is a series of mercurial and cinematic scene changes - stepping through doors, popping out windows, crossing into and out of interior and exterior settings. Haroula & Oliver bring together dovetailing artistic histories across media - as a filmmaker, Haroula’s feature directorial debut Once Upon a River went to over 40 festivals internationally taking home 19 awards, and her sophomore feature All Happy Families, starring Josh Radnor and executive produced by Michael Shannon, saw a theatrical release in AMCs last fall. Oliver wrote the score and original songs - that soundtrack will be released later this year. Oliver has written string arrangements for artists such as Magdalena Bay, Dirty Projectors, Helado Negro, and Broken Bells, and has released critically acclaimed records with his bands Pavo Pavo (“quietly poetic … exploring the stuff of life, love, and loss with a clear head,” Pitchfork) and Coco ("bold, striking pop that seems to be filtered in from another dimension," CLASH.) Haroula & Oliver’s accompanying films move through a variety of animation techniques, from the maternal figure that floats through the air in Swarm, to the morphing psychedelia of Humanist and the abstracted sonograms of Elemental - what wraps all these elements together is a sense of birth and regeneration. The charcoal artwork and vinyl packaging was made by Haroula & Oliver the same week as recording. Please enjoy the record in headphones or however will most immerse you in its three-dimensionality.

Tracks

A1 Lifeblood A2 Swarm A3 Embers A4 Saltrise A5 Dear soup B6 Elemental B7 Up to harbor country B8 Dear soup octagon B9 Humanist B10 Epilogue

Press

An ambient soundtrack to the gestation process. For fans of Seefeel, Mort Garson, Raymond Scott, and Brian Eno.

Audio & Video