scissor and thread is proud to present leland the debut album by francis harris. this long anticipated lp is a requiem to the artists father, released to coincide with the second anniversary of his passing. the album, harris most expansive work to date, features danish vocalist gry on three tracks including lostfound, the first single and video which was remixed by mathew herbert and debuted on pitchfork. also featured throughout are emil abramyan, whose poignant performance on cello evokes comparison to arthur russell, and greg paulus (no regular play/matthew dear band), whose improvisational free jazz inspired trumpet accents converse thoughtfully with harris own tonal melodies performed on piano and guitar. determined to produce electronic music with warmth and true dynamic range, harris recorded and mixed leland at jsm studios on an analog ssl and then enlisted legendary engineer joe lambert to master the project. leland has been featured on pitchfork, magnet, ghetto blaster, aol spinner, urb, mixmag, yourstru.ly, and the village voice, amongst many others. leland will be available in a limited edition triple lp set with free mp3 download!

this is a masterpiece. beautiful, golden-era soul written by leon sylvers iii, produced by jerry butler and keg johnson. . the sylvers were a family from los angeles who were very successful during the 70’s and into the early 80’s, with chart hits – deep into pop-disco territory by then! – including ‘boogie fever’, ‘hot line’ and ‘high school dance’. this is the groups second album, from 1973, and is one of their strongest. opening with the awesome mid-tempo ‘we can make it if we try’ the record moves through funk, boogie and deep soul moods, finishing on a hazy, acapella version of the beatles ‘yesterday’.

brilliant funk-soul from 1973. written by leon sylvers iii, produced by a heavyweight line-up comprising jerry butler, keg johnson and michael viner.

the remarkable thing about belp s new album is its two-dimensional function. it works both on a loud and a quiet volume. some tracks would go down well as a club track, like opener travelling thru galaxies . this track brings back memories of the best work released on the hyperdub label, with it s fine combination of synths and irresistible, dubby beats. elsewhere, off ending might start off as dancehall-but-not-quite dancehall track but when half way the synths kick in they change the feeling of the track to a more cerebral level.

new blundetto 7inch. the second from his new album “slow dance” . after ken boothe, blundetto invited another legendary jamaican singers : little harry (dancehall figure and burner of dubplates) and cornell campbell (whose reggae falsetto can be heard on island productions from studio one to bunny lee) to add their voices to his burning riddims.

four cuts of stringladden modern funk with an eighties feel and a house cut on the b1 !