after retiring from the jamaican police force arthur duke reid established his treasure isle liquor store and sound system in pink lane kingston and was crowned the undisputed king of sound and blues in 1956, 57 and in 58. the duke then moved into record production and after relocating the store to 33 bond street, he then built a recording studio on top of his new premises in 1966. according to the musicians and singers the wooden construction of the treasure isle recording studio gave the music a distinctive warmth and richness and with resident engineer byron baron/smithy smith at the controls, the sound of a bond street recording was immediately recognisable.
but the studio one sound is different to the treasure isle sound! the people have to know. - bunny striker lee
a glittering selection of strikers treasure isle recordings are featured on this compilation. so please sit back and enjoy the set!

please allow us the pleasure of introducing axel willner s loops of your heart. hailing from sweden, the man behind this record alone needs no introduction, as he is already well known in the electronic music scene for his project the field. loops of your heart reflects axel¼s experience in germany, where during his lengthy stays, his mantra-like arpeggiators contributed to the first manifestation of the sound of cologne tape, a group that formed while he was staying there. you can also hear this on the much sought after debut render, which came out on magazine last year. only a foreshadow for what was to about to come, willner has been living in berlin and letting his creativity go crazy. with an arsenal of special synthesizers and guitars he has put together and never ending nights . after touring worldwide with the field for the last 10 years, and never ending nights is like coming home again. you can hear german children speaking outside his studio in berlin (on the track neukšlln ) and it is not only the track titles which tell of things that have come to an end and or are about to happen. the old german musical tradition of letting yourself go (holger czukay, you, anima, cluster, you name it) is in the air, and willner breathes it. his highly personal approach to music and composition leads to nothing less then a matchless album that embodies beginning anew

gem club is an exclusive society: two people, a piano, and a cello. vocalist christopher barnes sings in a quivering whisper, and these minimal accompaniments assure that their sound never becomes louder than a hush. but the massachusetts duo s debut ep, acid and everything, showed just how much emotional intensity you could pack into compositions so spare, and how much could be suggested with so little. everything on breakers, their first full-length, sounds frozen over: icy, quiet, austere. you know that eerie feeling when you find yourself alone in a huge public place that s usually crowded-- maybe a shopping mall or a playing field- but at that moment is totally empty? this record sounds like a sustained version of that feeling. -i heard the party- juxtaposes echoing piano chords and a general sense of unease (-no one could have told you / your body would fail you-) with the refrain -i heard the partys here- floating across the track like the sound of dried up laughter. the word -party- feels so out of place in a song so pensive and lonely that there s something jarring about the experience. the feeling crops up repeatedly on breakers: a sense of slow-motion detachment, a suggestion that there were signs of life here once, but you ve arrived a couple of hours- or maybe a couple of weeks- too late.

2011 release, the follow up to 2010s successful first volume of bangs & works. the carefully curated compilation showcases chicago footwork, one of the most forward-looking, innovative new styles of electronic music on the planet. footwork is beginning to spread outside of chicago, influencing productions around the world. bangs & works vol. 2 brings the focus back onto chicagos own producers, showing where the real innovation still lies. while its predecessor sticks mainly to the more hallucinatory and left-field elements, this one has a wider remit, ranging from mad techno-style tracks to those that sound like musique concrete gone footwork.

before he made his breakthrough with 69 love songs, stephin merritt was a little-known songwriter signed to merge records. the label reaches into its own archives for this rarities compilation, which features 14 songs recorded between 1994 and 1999. full description1999. some of the tracks were originally released as 7 inch vinyl singles by the magnetic fields, others are unreleased rarities, including three cuts from merritts unfinished science fiction musical and one outtake from the 69 love songs sessions.

the new album, liquorice, from martin stimming wasnt initially planned to be an album. there was an intrinsic need for him to express what was going on in this period of life. relationship problems led to a very punk, off-whack attitude to his producing. with seven tracks done and dusted, he figured the work was more than just a collection of weird shit, it was a whole new music experienceÉ add another 5 months of studio work, he named it liquorice. definitely hard to pigeonhole - call it minimal, stripped back, dub, experimentalÉ we think >electronic free jazz< comes the closestÉ no sign of a typical 4/4 bass drum at all and stimming has incorporated his trademark use of field recordings, from a marble run, a pizza slicer, a trashcan, a coffee machine, and an ice train shuttling past to name a few. the stimming esque percussion, which is even more radical this time, has been thrown in with all these facets in his massive melting pot, coupled with some dark emotions to create this liquorice. >this time i didnt use all the main events a groove normally has<, recalls martin

we find our way to the title track,>problems< a meditation on many of the trials and tribulations that lee himself has had to overcome over the years. tip!