big sean is due to release the lp for his recent release, ‘idecided.’ via kanye west’s g.o.o.d. music and def jam recordings / virgin emi. in recent months big sean has been announced as puma’s global ambassador and creative collaborator. prior to this, big sean lit up 2015 with ‘dark sky paradise’ which featured the likes of drake, ariana grande, kanye west, chris brown, john legend and more. ‘dark sky paradise’ spun off the smash hit single, ‘i don’t f**k with you’ featuring e-40. sean was also a major collaborator on kanye’s ground-breaking ‘cruel summer’ album in 2012, and shared multi-platinum success with kanye on the grammy®-nominated ‘mercy’ (also featur¬ing pusha t and 2 chainz), and ‘clique’ (with jay z). released on 2lp translucent blue vinyl, gatefold sleeve, sticker.

welcome shmlss to the oye edit family. these dudes deliver proper mid tempo dancefloor fillers. when delfonic got the demos through soundcloud (sic!), he was totally on it and now finally we have the final version on a limited recycled vinyl!

across the street from where trouw used to be, lies a nice little hotel. it was in the basement of this hotel, where a curious meeting happened. something so coincidental and so unassumingly trivial, that even the slightest event of randomness could have prevented this from ever happening, yet it did happen and here we are. this curious meeting was the result of an open studio door of nachtbraker, and the hint of disco coming out the door, where dr. san proper just happened to pass by in search of whatever it is he searches for at 10 am on a tuesday.

raoul k is known for blending the sounds of real westafrican instruments and modern electronic clubsounds into one mesmerizing soundscape. this time, he takes a new approach: the original mix is produced without the use of any electronic instrument. just pure african sounds, chopped and melted together into one groovy slice of contemporary clubmusic. this is the first release in a series celebrating the tenth year of baobab music… which will lead to a new raoul k album. electronics aren’t completely left out. the blending, however, was left to the remixers this time: irfan adds a good measure of energy in his mix, setting up some analog synths with raoul’s beats. watch out for the break… kaito delivers a very dreamy remix which seems to lose its kickdrum but does not lose its groove. dance into the sunrise. choose vinyl, please

reissue of the 1989 bob dylan album on 180 gram vinyl

hidden fire from the ra archives! a double 10” set featuring sun ra recordings from the outer limits and the underground. initially released on2 seperate 10-s back in 2010/13 respectively and both quickly became collectors items. don t miss them this time around...tip! . volume 1 features ‘along came ra’, was a previously unissued live track recorded in paris in 1983. with june tyson in full voice, the arkestra announce sun ra’s arrival on a sleeping planet. the flip features two previously unreleased cuts from the legendary disco 3000 concert tapes, a mind-blowing quartet session that releases the full power of sun ra’s crumar mainman synth. volume 2 lifts three fine selections from the ultra-deep sub-underground series of saturn lps. the transcendent ballad ‘love is for always’ and the driving, rootsy ‘the world of africa’ come from 1974’s live at temple u, while the myth-science poetics of ‘space is the place/we roam the cosmos’ is beamed down to earth from the 1975 what’s new set.

the most influential of all the blues forms, delta blues laid the foundations for what was to become rock and roll. born in the punishing and poverty-stricken environment of the mississippi delta, this rough guide traces its early origins with classic tracks by many delta legends as well as lesser known artists shrouded in mystery.includes download code

schuttle makes a sublime and sludgy debut with this cassette for paris/peckham label, panatype. all of the tracks are made using astronomical data in some way, a passion for the young newcastle-based producer over the years that he was putting the release together. predominantly a beatless record, and certainly intended to be listed to as a whole, schuttle uses the art of the loop to provide the listener with “an inner peace in outer space”

the trickfinger project was recorded 10 years ago with no intention of being released at the time, made purely for discovery and learning experience. in my opinion, making music with no intention of releasing it is the best thing a musician can do for his own development in this day and age. the trickfinger lp was made in that mindset, and it was the beginning of a new musical life for me. when i hear it, it sounds like i am opening up doorways to new worlds, and i never have had that feeling listening to music i made for the purpose of releasing it and selling it.

osf is happy and proud to announce a new 12-inch by its founder, nur jaber. the label was conceived by the staub resident as her very own creative platform, a place for her to not just release uncompromising music, but also to print poems, letters and in the case of this record, even direct a video. based in berlin, the young producer who was born in beirut remains very attached to her roots. this background partially explains why she can be inspired by tragic events happening regularly in the middle east - making brave statements in the mostly apolitical electronic music environment. the past years have seen nur embrace a career as a music producer, seeing her slowly and steadily become an original new voice in the techno landscape. this ep showcases nur s ability to create and combine daunting atmospherics and frantic paces. it is dark and twisted, with its vocals and screams, but always driving. weapons of mass destruction is meant for banging crazy dance floors, but it is also personal and almost cathartic, especially in the current political situation surrounding all of us. the artwork, as always, is put together by osf family members the beholder and beauty&machines.

it has been eleven long years since urbs dropped his last album which was called “toujours le meme film”. back then, the musician, dj and producer created the soundtrack to a fictitious film noir, which was released on kruder & dorfmeister‘s g-stone label, but after touring europe he almost completely retreated from public life. he does not consider his creativity as being his career, but rather as a part of his life which rarely is subject to concrete planning, and that is why urbs quite consciously took his time to create his latest –untitledalbum.

coalmine records is pleased to relaunch ‘land of the crooks,’ the collaborative extended play project from the late sean price and melbourne’s go to producer, m-phazes. the project finds the longtime underground legend lending his distinctive, brownsville-bred grimy vocals over phazes’ rich tracks full of dramatic pianos, rich bass-lines, swinging horns and hard drums. the a-side includes the main passes, comprised of four original tracks with the addition of the small professor remix for ”murdah type thinkin (feat. guilty simpson).” for this special edition rerelease, coalmine has also added the divided souls ent. & dj pain 1 remix of “land of the crooks,” which was only previously made available on the label’s remix compilation, ‘remineded,’ which first dropped back in january of 2015. the b-side includes the instrumental passes of all of the original tracks, as well as the small pro remix, in addition to the “crookapella,” which includes various scratch stems taken from the ep, in addition to various isolated drum sounds, sound effects, and acapella of the “land of the crooks” single. additional features on lotc include roc marciano, billy danze (of m.o.p.), maffew ragazino, loudmouf choir and the dilated junky, dj babu. vinyl is manufactured on classic black discs, and comes complete with the andres guzman designed artwork, inspired by the vintage ‘80s movie, ‘crocodile dundee.’ sean price was hip-hop’s gray hulk, a barbarian with the pen, with the sharpest of wits. a true brooklyn legend...rip!

emotional response starts 2017 with a mini-album of ambient-equatorial enlightenment by australia s mysterious tropical hi-fi. the final record from an artist appearing on the label s first schleiben series, this also points to the future. based somewhere in the far flung northern territories, the music of hi-fi s pre-incarnation electric egypt was first discovered via the note-worthy airwaves of l.a s outstanding dublab radio station.

2 years ago, we celebrated our 10 years with 5 anniversary eps entitled 10 by ten, where we asked 10 of our favorite artists to write an exclusive track for the occasion. two of the stand out tracks were martin iveson - aka atjazz - leave me here as well as art of tones, koniokola, which we thought deserved a second life. freerange and delusions of grandeur boss, jimpster, blesses us with his deep yet driving rendition of leave me here, while fred everything chooses to update koniokola with a more dance floor approach and a strip down dub. we also included the original of leave me here which was never available on vinyl.

auf *hardcourage* führt faltydl konsequent weiter, was auf den singles bereits angekündigt wurde: atmosphärische reisen zwischen house und elektronic. besonders beeindruckend führt dies der hit *she sleeps* vor, ein feature mit ed macfarlane von den friendly fires. doch neben euphorischer elektronik (bells), widmet sich lustmann auch tiefgehendem bass (finally some shit / the rain stopped) und verspielten elementen, wie beispielsweise mit der aktuellen single *straight & arrow* inklusive fantastischem four tet mix. am ende des albums merkt man vor allem eines deutlich: dj-sets im berghain, remixe für the xx, scuba und viele weitere, sowie supportslots für radiohead und damit auch thom yorkes liebe haben faltydl auf seinem dritten album reifen lassen. *hardcourage* ist ein exzellentes werk zwischen tiefgang und tanzfläche geworden, welches jederzeit spannung und intensität offenbart.
doppel 12 inch vinyl im klappcover, inklusive download-code.

for the third and final part of jerome.c, dubfluss - friendship connection we invited julian alexander and guy from downstairs to join our artist roster. a lot of hard work was made into this 3 part lp by our good friends and we hope everyone enjoys it as much as they did producing it. lots of melodic grooves and solid bass lines, proper house music dance tracks on this release. cheers from berlin!

stale releases st151, st163 and st153 all bundled up for one special price!

iury lech is a transdisciplinary artist of ukrainian origin part of the few pioneers in the spanish electronic and digital audio-visual scene that began to develop during the 80s. his open and unclassifiable style made of eerie sonic atmospheres, arrhythmic structures and dense textures create hypnotic ambiance and a new way to conceive experimentalism. wrongly described as new age music at that time, musica para el fin de los cantos is a stunning and deeply emotive ambient work, that stares down at the eternal enigma, giving a glimpse of iury lech s classical music of the future. iury recorded this blissful masterpiece in his barcelona s studio in 1989. it was then published in 1990 by the unique spanish label hyades arts. its 2017 and its time to unearth this magical piece of vibrating chords to please your sensitive yet hungry ears. sit back and enjoy the meditative state.

whispered words from the ancient earth. the biosphere metaphorically battered by dusty drum machines, synth swept landscapes, industrial hooks that ring out from the barren outback. was is das? die orangen are australian-expats kris baha and dreems, and together they have crafted a genre: krautback rooted in indigenous psychedelia, resonating the vast expanses of the island of gondwanaland, turnt up by progressive cultures, and multiplied by the logic of the german mind. hear the sound of the southern sun melt genres, feel it flow downstream into a languid ocean of sound. beware the punch of the red kangaroo, a bite from the deadly taipan, the neon stare in a tree-frogs eye, and the bleached siren call of the coral reef - these wild sonic reveries ominously soundtrack the future that nature has in store.

first time reissue of the very first dub lp released in nyc, 1975! part of the genesis of the jah life label! first time reissue of kaya dub from 1975, noted as the first ever proper dub lp pressed and released in new york city. the eponymous lp is among the first set of releases on the kaya label. this imprint was the first to showcase the partnership of percy chin and hyman jah life wright as producers and cornerstones of the burgeoning nyc reggae scene of the day. though these tracks originate from jamaica thru a connection with pat jah lloyd francis and have also been released elsewhere, this is none the less a killer selection of dubs from tubby s and randys. in sound and visuals, kaya dub serves as a fantastic snapshot of the music and vibes of roots reggae in the mid 70s, among the best dub lp s of its time.

official re-issue of bermudian disco record! 1000 copies initial pressing. big tip! in 1981, bermudian band paradise recorded sizzlin hot, a flawless album of original material in the disco, boogie and aor style. producer, writer and pianist grant williams formed several bands before becoming the fourth member of paradise, alongside bassist wincy woolridge, drummer ronnie lopes and singer june ventzos whose voice commands the album. for five years, the group regularly performed in hotels before hitting the local z.b.m. studios to record their sole album. sizzlin hot is inspired by the sound of earth, wind & fire. the album delivers several blistering tracks that could have been huge club anthems if the record had been promoted outside of bermuda. since bermuda is a fairly remote island, its no wonder that paradise remains virtually unknown to this day. it is all the more reason why this album stands-out and has universal appeal though it was only ever intended as a local thing as grant williams says.

this is a must have record and supplies are extremely limited. long out of print and extremely sought after, david porter’s “i’m afraid the masquerade is over” gets a proper re-issue on 45, but with a special twist. first released in 1972, this groundbreaking masterpiece was mostly overlooked by the masses of that generation. however, twenty plus years later, hip hop producers would revive newfound interests in this cut (and porter’s other works) after sampling bits & pieces of it for some of the most defning songs of the mid 90’s and early 2000’s (who shot ya, duel of the iron mic, it’s over, etc). for this special edition, the original multi-track session was resurrected from the archives, re-polished and re-edited into a brand new mix for your listening pleasure. familiar fans will go emoji crazy once they get a taste of the exclusive new version that boasts new breaks, alternate takes and a louder, fuller instrumental presence among other goodies, creating fresh opportunities for beats and lives mixes. pushing the 9 minute mark, parts 1 & 2 are presented between 2 sides, presenting the all of music in it’s entire glory. original pressings of “i’m afraid the masquerade is over” are not easy to come by. own this collector’s item while you can. “must have” vinyl for dj’s, producers and anyone else on the hunt

official re-issue of danish electronic music from 1974! vinyl lp comes with booklet and limited to 500 copies - no repress. frederiksberg records announces the first re-issue of stoned which is exclusively licensed from the artist and has been carefully restored from the original master tapes. it comes with a booklet of liner notes by thomas knak. stoned by gunner møller pedersen is a pioneering partly-electronic composition from denmark. gunner believes that its musically out of category. it was created for a slide show with focus on sculptures by the late american photographer stuart fox. gunner self-released the record in minuscule numbers in 1974. the music on stoned has an original and meditative quality which transcends time and should appeal to today’s music lovers with a taste for something different.

ltd repress --- after his comeback album on morphine in 2014, sote marks his return to rhythm by taking part in repitchÆs 10inch series with a banging twotracker extracted from his more than 20 years old unreleased archive. ôneuroenhancerö produced in 1995 is a heavyduty techno drilling machine, pairing an oldschoolmillslike groove with a throbbing mass of modular synths. on the other side ôin music i trustöÆs main engine is an incandescent hardcore/jungle beat, haunted by spacedout vocals in the darkness. the track was produced in 1997 with friend æsafarÆ a san francisco based dj/producer, shortly after sote&#835,,,,s initial experiments with jungle and drum n bass pre his warp ep in 2002.

debut release on houseshoes s street corner music from the ct based producer. foisey s music got into my hands thru mutant academy. i became aware of these rva kids last year and told them to send a pack. what initially stood out was the beats from foisey, a young cat from connecticut. he kept sending packs and i put together a dope collection of his instrumentals. laid back vibes with a punch. you won t be disappointed. beats.

dj harrison is richmond va-based producer and multi-instrumentalist devonne harris. the son of a radio dj who introduced him to the world of record collecting, harris grew up with music, progressing from violin, to high school drum-line, to the jazz studies program at virginia commonwealth university. he also continued working with other instruments and developed an interest in sampling. his development as a producer at first, without a computer or sampler came first learning to replay samples on the drums, piano, bass or guitar. dj harrison finds himself inspired by local musicians in the richmond scene thats as diverse and nonexclusive as they come. among rappers, producers, punks and bluegrass bands, he falls within reach of an expansive pool of musicians to collaborate with. he lives and works in jellowstone, a house turned recording compound occupied by his band mates in butcher brown, a garage punk jazz funk group. hazymoods, dj harrison’s stones throw debut, was recorded there completely on tape, where the living room functions as a communal recording studio

one of the more unsung talents that came out of the gang starr foundation was the brooklyn-based duo group home, consisting of mcs lil dap and melachi the nutcracker. dap was first showcased on the gang starr posse cut “i’m the man,” on 1992’s daily operation, melachi appeared on “words from the nutcracker” from 1993’s hard to earn. the early group home song “so called friends” was also featured on 1993’s now-legendary gangstarr foundation sampler, which also gave the world jeru’s “come clean.” by 1995, dap and melachi had paid their dues and finally got their own full-length: livin’ proof. and it was everything that gang starr and any true school hip-hop fans could have wanted, produced almost entirely by dj premier (with two exceptions: “serious rap shit” helmed by guru himself, and “4 give my sins,” produced by jay-z mentor jaz-o (aka big jazz). beyond the album’s classic singles – “supa star,” “livin’ proof” and “suspended in time” – there are premier-overseen classics all over, including “the realness,” “inna citi life,” and “sacrifice.” in fact, many gang starr scholars agree that the beats on living proof are in the top 5 of all premier-produced albums – no small boast, but certainly hard to disprove.

dj windows xp s highway route from the strange deserts to the over-the-top underground clubs somewhere deep in your imaginative 18 karat gold vinyl players. straight debut fire on who s susan. wait, who is susan?

after the acclaimed release of nature boy s ruff disco volume one, frame of mind is back with another re-issue of a 25 year old record. gerd s very first house release called afterglow, produced under the alias of it s thinking together with two of his (highschool) friends mark and dirk-jan, was picked up by john acquaviva for release on the short lived plus 8 subsidiary called malego back in 1992. the ep features five warm and atmospheric house tracks recorded at a dark attic room somewhere in the west of holland in 1991. these days afterglow is quite a sought after record that rarely turns up cheap on discogs. we are proud to be able to offer you limited copies of this re-mastered package.

producer and dj from cantabria pablo bolívar signs the new release in his very own seven villas, in which he takes the chance to interpret --remixwise-- the tracks on the album traverse -by sensual physics which was originally released in 7v in 2016.

we are facing a very special project for pablo bolívar this time. his admiration for the veteran german producer joerg schuster -one of pablo s musical heroes- gets highly reflected in each one of the eight revisions which form this traverse (reprise) . what pablo exactly does is to respect the original escapist, dubby and ambient spirit of the original trip proposed by traverse , by means of adding a soft, deep and sophisticated club aura. he turn that the album sensual physics takes into the most characteristic bolívar style is tasteful and subtle, therefore it seems a sequel of the original one. no crashes, no harshness. here everything flows simply in a natural way, especially that ambient-deep and tech fog which just adds a punch in any case. tunes as mondragon , málaga or miracle -among others- acquire a new dimension when touched by pablo bolívar s hands: always looking to their origin with respect to the original producer and the delicacy of a revised piece of work.

nep was a loose multimedia collective formed in 1982 zagreb, ex-yugoslavia. the founder dejan krsic collaborated with various artists in a quest of re-thinking the stale concepts of art history, position of the author and the barriers between pop and elitist high culture. heavily influenced by walter benjamin and andy warhol in theory and brian eno and kraftwerk in music, krsic created nep as an umbrella term (meaning nova evropa) of diverse rule-breaking activities, covering graphic design, music, photography, video, news-media and theoretical work.

before there was a man in black, there were the sun records years, when cash began defining his peculiar and witty version of country music. born in arkansas in 1932, cash began recording as a top artist for sun records, for which he released his first full-length lp. this double lp set documents all the hits from 1955 to 1958, before cash signed to columbia records. these 35 “first steps” helped build the legend and are considered the milestones of an incredible career that ended with those passionate and soulful albums on the “american recordings” series released between 1994 and 2003, the year jr cash died on sept 12.

was auch das neue kammerflimmer-werk wieder auszeichnet, ist der leichte umgang mit den schweren dingen, den grenzgängen und stilistischen erprobungen. in webers kollektief spielt die musik so sicher, so schön neben den zeichen und buchstaben, dass der hörer das andere schon aufgenommen hat, bevor er überhaupt darüber nachzudenken droht.

nature documentaries of the 1970s used synthesizer music to score messages about species endangerment and environmental disaster prevention. electronic instrumentation was in itself an ominous warning of the reckless advancement of technology and an effort to audition a utopian harmony between people and machines and nature.

part ii - operated under extreme psychosis, performed live in the dead of night at the studio of the hague s pirate radio tonka , these two records contain an apocalyptic selection of the very darkest moments of its maker, an anglo-french bruxellois driftwood expat washed ashore on the west holland wasteland just to get even more lost in its empty shadow chessboard grid of luscious ghost town smoke screen structures built on nothing but loose sand, to get even more entangled in its reef-like vortex of the fleetwood parkland dune estates artifice of ugly evergreen high-tech verdure of rose and thorn , oh, yes, its many, many flowers sans mercee , red and white carnation, asphodel, or fleur de lys and fleur du mal , all awaiting, lurking gentle softness of the flesh, perfumed for luring prey, yet strikingly hard-wired through the courtly appearance and the troubling foliage of the count s many hidden pleasures, his many secret palace garden hedges, his royal seal concealed behind, oh, yes, its many, many spines, all hiding midst the ticket, like cloak and dagger, that poisoned slip of tongue, or poisoned tip of blade, and all s so easy to slip away and disappear into the vine and creeper, to make one trip and fall in smear of mud or was it blood?

reissue of the highly sought after nigerian funk-rock album, moving effortlessly between reggae, jazzy afrobeat and psych rock. soundway fans first got a taste of jay-u’s infectious beats with the track ‘some more’, featured on the soundway compilation “nigeria disco funk special: the sound of the underground lagos dancefloor 1974-79”. originally released by emi nigeria in 1977, this now-rare album was written by jay-u and engineered by disco-boogie artist goddy oku. opening with the up-tempo reggae number “reggae deluxe”, the album descends into mind-blowing jazz-funk featuring several killer saxophone solos. the journey ends with a trip into psych-prog rock, with a sound not dissimilar to that coming out of the early 70s british rock scene.

the house band of bunny ‘striker’ lee was formed in the mid-1970s by some of jamaica’s most prominent and musically expressive session players. the shifting core line-up spun off from the soul syndicate and thus typically featured earl ‘chinna’ smith and tony chin on guitar and bernard ‘touter’ harvey on organ. carlton ‘santa’ was the main drummer, but carlton barrett of the wailers band and ‘benbow’ creary were sometimes featured. most crucially, on bass, aston ‘family man’ barrett shifted to fully fullwood (and occasionally, earl ‘bagga’ walker), until robbie shakespeare took over, becoming the bandleader. the band was responsible for the popular ‘flying cymbal’ style that took jamaica by storm, and you can hear it in abundance on this killer dub set from 1975, its excellent cuts of cornell campbell and johnnie clarke material mixed at king tubby’s studio - a must for all serious fans of dub.

copenhagens music for dreams comes with yet another strong release - a double album of personal favourites compiled by jan schulte. according to all maps and witness accounts, germany does not officially have any tropical forests. this is of no concern to schulte however, who has unearthed many stunning examples of tropical drum music recorded there. perhaps the number of botanical gardens and palm houses in germany confused musicians into mistaking the climate, or maybe it was just a happy blend of escapism and multi-cultural integration within musical scenes that spawned such a curious output of undefinable tribal folk jazz. most of the tracks picked by schulte were released on small labels in the late 80 s. the musicians involved were mainly traditionally schooled, born and raised in germany. at that time to be interested in foreign folk music might have seemed a gimmick to some, what with the emerging -world music boom- already snowballing into the mainstream. but these songs, while they may be based on musical traditions from foreign lands, deal much more with introspection than exploitation. schulte himself points to his -general fascination for music that describes places where the artists have never been. songs about the jungle or the rainforest made by people that know the rainforest only from television and books. somehow i think you can hear their mythical imagination and fantasy in those tracks,- he explains....

debut lp on street corner music from the ct based producer. -while preparing for my radio show about a year ago, i put a kite out to the kids that i was looking for some heat to play. this kid sent me a 20 second clip of a work in progress. it was sublime. he kept sending beats per my request. it was exciting how consistently good the shit was. blissful, downtempo escapism. his production took me somewhere else, in a time where a retreat from the increasingly stressful day to day is more than welcomed. that first track he sent, -huey-, starts off balloons, wowflower s debut lp on street corner music, just as it started the dialogue between the two of us. the street corner faithfuls will not be disappointed. this shit is fantastic.-

re-release of beverly glenn-copeland’s rural canadian new age suite for dx7 and tr707 …keyboard fantasies… with new carefully reconstructed glasswork design by alan briand beverly glenn-copeland is already known amongst collectors and music heads for two sought-after albums of folky jazz in the key of joni. but it was this album, originally self-released on cassette in 1986 that really caught our attention. the album, entirely recorded on dx-7 and tr-707, lies somewhere between digital new-age and (accidentally) early detroit techno experiments. the inimitable style of bgc here is both peaceful and meditative while simultaneously rhythmic and bass heavy. the album was recorded in the northern canadian town of huntsville where bgc was living at the time and is a beautiful fusion of personal vision, technology and place.

although not a band in a traditional sense of the word, this record was created by a rotating ensemble of players: for a brief moment, musicians from different backgrounds (in this iteration: preslav, kenny peagler, waajeed, joe defazio and phil boyd) became a band and then went their separate ways. rhodes, funk basslines, neo-soul chords and tight drum programming are the lingua franca of the 24 hour band. the title of each song represents the time of day that inspired it and collectively, they point to the goal to create records that can be enjoyed not just in a club, but throughout the day, at home, or in your car. this is the 24hr band.

matter of the heart! district 66s co-owner clark davis established with the labels 3rd ep a symbiosis of the past, present and future. the a1 and b1 reduced and functional original tracks are remixed by two of davis respected producers. in the late 90ies, alexander kowalski was one of the key artist which influenced him and still remains with his very own signature sound. nowadays state-of-the-art markus suckut reflects with his minimalism and on the point grooves the artistic present and future of davis definition of techno.

utter presents rgbpm, trevor jackson s four piece audio-visual work originally commissioned for a live performance at the optronica festival in 2007, on london s imax, the biggest screen in the uk. optronica, programmed by addictive tv/cinefeel in collaboration with the british film institute, held its second festival over five consecutive days at the imax, ica and bfi southbank in march 2007. a showcase of the most exciting talent working in visual music, optronica s 2007 event was a platform for live performances, talks, screenings and workshops from the likes of fennesz, peter greenaway and ryoichi kurokawa. jackson s piece took over six months to develop and yet was performed only once. on march 14th the premier of rgbpm opened the festival in spectacular fashion, jackson performing the music live with its accompanying hd visuals generated in real time using custom-built software created especially by weirdcore. a powerful multi-sensory experience, the event remains one of the defining moments of jackson s lengthy career. the visuals consist of abstract shapes synchronised perfectly to jackson’s soundtrack. choreographed to represent musical elements within each track, they explore the relationship between melody, colour, rhythm and form. the diverse soundtrack combines magical motorik experiments, demented acidic jams, melodic subterranean techno and dark discordant electronic soundscapes. it s a timeless selection of music that holds its own to this day. a decade on from rgbpm s lone airing, utter is proud to release all four parts together for the first time as a special 12- package, mastered and cut by helmut erler at d&m and housed in a sleeve designed by jackson himself.

the story of the great roots reggae harmony trio black uhuru is one defined by many unexpected twists and turns. in its best known form, led by michael rose and with founding member duckie simpson and the black american female vocalist, puma jones, the group would enjoy the greatest popularity of any act in the wake of bob marley’s untimely death in 1981, but the origins of the group lay in the turbulent waterhouse district during the mid-1970s. duckie first formed the group as uhuru, the swahili word for unity, with garth dennis as lead singer and don carlos to join him in harmony, after cutting an adaptation of the impressions’ “romancing to the folk song” at dynamics, “time is on our side” at randy’s for clive chin, and “slow coach” for raymond “benno” anderson, dennis drifted into the wailing souls and don carlos went solo, leading duckie to recruit rising waterhouse vocalist michael “tony” rose as lead singer, and errol nelson from the jays for harmony. their debut album, love crisis, was produced, voiced and mixed at king tubby’s studio by prince jammy and remains and outstanding example of jammy’s roots reggae production phase. the song “hard ground” vamps on a similar theme to marley’s “talking blues”: rose sings of a life of everyday hardship, with destitution and homelessness the pervading factors. on the extended dub portion and dub the instrumental cuts that follow the alternate vocal take of this enthralling 12-inch ep, you can hear the non-standard instrumentation that helps make the work so innovative, with winston wright’s harpsichord melody emphasising the hopelessness of rose’s emotive lyrics, the commanding rhythm and understated bass and guitar from robbie shakespeare and chinna smith completing the picture.

roots vocalist barry brown has an inimitable style that has long made him a favourite of reggae enthusiasts. drawing from the popular phrasing of horace andy, but morphing it into his own delivery through the kind of wordless slurring that occasionally resembles the sound of a quacking duck, brown found his way into the jamaican music scene through the many amateur west kingston talent contests of the early 1970s, along with fellow aspiring talents such as johnnie clarke, sugar minott and the african brothers, and the mighty diamonds. he also honed his vocal skills on local west kingston sound systems such as tape tone, together with other young dancehall-oriented youth such as barrington levy, sammy dread, roy taylor and tristan palmer. there are still conflicting claims as to who was the first to record brown, with production veteran bunny ‘striker’ lee and sugar minott among the contenders, but in any case, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, he produced a range of captivating work for various producers, much of which is rightly coveted today. ‘ital rock’ appeared on barry’s 1983 lp i’m still waiting, issued by rocktone international, a spin-off of sugar minott’s black roots outfit, based in queens, new york (with a further branch in toronto), the b-side has dean fraser’s previously unreleased electrifying saxophone cut, rescued from dub plate obscurity by jah fingers.

as is the case with fellow ‘enforcers’-turned-producers, henry ‘junjo’ lawes and philip ‘fatis’ burrell, george phang had been involved in the internecine street battles that had split kingston into rival politically-aligned zones during the 1970s, when the broader effects of cold war politics were played out in jamaica. following some encouragement from sly and robbie, phang changed focus, putting the politics aside to concentrate on music production, becoming one of the most important producers of the early 1980s in the process. phang took over the rhythm twins’ power house label around 1982, and with the duo forming the mainstays of his productions, the result was guaranteed audio dynamite, as this killer devotional track by barrington levy from 1983 so amply suggests—a beautiful extended slice of late roots, heading towards the emerging dancehall style.

drummer and music producer desmond mahoney is another of the unsung heroes of british reggae. born in jamaica, he moved to the uk in 1967 and began his professional career playing drums in a band called young ones from zion. he was a founding member of black slate when the group formed in 1974, played with them through their glory years and after running a sound system in north london for many years, returned to the fold when the group reformed a few years ago. his first foray in music production probably came during a brief period in toronto in 1978, working with a band called the ishan lions, but he was back in the uk in time for black slate’s breakthrough material, which brought them onto ensign in the uk, barclay in france and alligator in the usa. at the same time, he continued to arrange and produce for a number of british reggae artists operating in both the roots and lover’s rock modes, female duo nya & natty’s ‘one love stylee’ seemed to bridge the two styles quite successfully on this greatly sought-after 12-inch, first issued in 1981 on the s&g label, then based at a record shop in bow.

played on bbc radio london tony blackburns soul on sunday , bbc radio 2 trevor nelsons rhythm nation , a listed on mi-soul, the divas got soul album was #1 on the uk soul chart for 6 weeks. played globally on radio stations from la to ja and in between.

cosmic bridge welcomes yet another new talent to the roster: uk producer jordan parsons aka crypticz, who for the past few years has been distilling influences from drum & bass, dubstep, and footwork into a deeply personal sound. following eps and singles for different music, inflect audio, and doc scott’s own 31 records, crypticz delivers a personal, emotive release for cosmic bridge. forever was put together over the past year by om unit and crypticz — with the label boss inviting parsons “to take more risks and guiding him into the fog.” as a result the ep offers a distilled, more refined take on the dub aesthetic that has powered the young producer’s music to date.