[engl] "Sometimes sultry, sometimes fiery, sometimes rocking, sometimes rapping and sometimes she sounds like one of the old soul divas. It's amazing what this woman can get out of her throat. She seems to be able to do almost anything. Strange guys, those Greeks. A beautiful album indeed". OOR, Alex van der Hulst. Produced by Blend Mishkin.

[engl] The compilation to 20 years of Tapete Records

[engl] Philadelphia death rock/dungeon punk band Poison Ruïn consolidate their two EPs into one ten-song, self-titled album. Brained, fleshed, and recorded by Mac Kennedy, this effort is one of a personal nature. The sonic nature of the album has a human looseness, apparent like a cassette tape warbling from being wound and rewound. At times the songs sound thin and brittle, as though they are breaking apart simply by being played. The lyrics walk the same path and describe a world of cosmic horrors and environmental disaster. With their soft, eerie, medieval-hall introductions, each song transports the listener to a world of runes and swords, but staves off dorkiness with the relevance of a chewy post-punk center. Rife with sweetly stark guitar hooks and drums that flail like a death march, this self-titled LP gives off black metal at first glance. On further inspection, there is a gradation of inspirations ranging from pond-hopping blues guitar solos, heavy-handed punk drumming, gothic ambiance, and progressive song structures.

[engl] Durham indiepop-punks Martha return with their fourth album, and it might just be their best one yet. With their endlessly radiant hooks dialled up to maximum setting, paired with another heart-rending and relatable lyric sheet that reflects on the universal scars of the pandemic years, Please Don’t Take Me Back is the work of a band in the form of their life. It’s also an instant classic - one that’s both smartly prescient and warmly addictive.

[engl] For their second foray into the fringes of German pop, Bureau B delve deeper than before, raiding cassette culture, 7" obscurities and overlooked album cuts to further frame this free-thinking strain of sonic expression. Starting the count from punk’s year zero, this set sees a newly liberated generation get weird and wild with anything they could lay their hands on, delivering demented, detuned and disorienting tracks brimming with DIY spirit. Where their kosmische predecessors preferred immersive, expansive compositions, these artists opted for immediacy, quickly capturing one idea before moving on to the next. Exploiting advances in home recording to say outside of industry confines, these art-school extroverts and commune drop outs often came together in unplanned collaborations and one off projects, capturing their whole creative lifespan on one side of a C45. As such, there’s a youthful charm to the sounds found on this compilation – an infectious combination of energy, expression and naivety running though each unlikely melody. This shift in approach and outlook even informed established acts, as evidenced by the perverse pop curiosities from Cluster and Moebius & Beerbohm lurking on the line up beside unreleased and unremembered gems from the likes of Maria Zerfall and E.M.P. Once again those expert selectors at Bureau B have done the hard work, digging deep to deliver a disparate, different and dissident side of German Pop Music. All you have to do is press play. The sparse drum machine of ALU’s »Aludome« opens proceedings, laying the foundation for wavy guitar chords and simple melodies on this tender 1980 composition, which only came to light in 2005. From there we sink into the watery electronics, free jazz bass and abstract guitars of Detlef Diederichsen charmingly abrupt »Pissnelke 2000«, before Maria Zerfall moves us into the shadows with the dark and punkish dirge »Der Mond«, a haunting track with double tracked and distorted spoken vocals. Butzmann / Kapielski’s avant-dance masterpiece »Do The VoPo« diverts us to the dance-floor, where the oddball synth sounds and skewed sampler vox of Rüdiger Lorenz’ »Francis & Friends« traps us in a strange slow motion groove. The tempo raises via E.M.P.’s dubbish sabotage of 80s smooth jazz, turns inside out on Vono’s charming interlude “Der Zauberer”, then finds its feet again via Reichmann’s ’78 composition »Wunderbar« taken from the Sky LP of the same name. This frazzled fusion of cosmic country and Asiatic melody shares a widescreen worldview with Deux Baleines Blanches’ »Draht 9«, on which post punk electronics and chiming guitars combine with bittersweet beauty. The time-travelling Rolf Trostel takes us to the midpoint with pulsating chords which predate Basic Channel by a decade, while Phantom Band’s »Dream Machine« stitches together two decades of the psychedelic continuum in a riot of tumbling toms, panning sequences and brain melting waveforms. »Glucose« sees Moebius & Beerbohm unleash their strange music at a delinquent tempo, before Jimmy, Jenny + Jonny offer a second subversion of smooth jazz with their skronking Mediterranean fantasy »Salome«. Thomas Dinger’s frosty music box romance »Alleewalzer« and The Wirtschaftswunder’s stomping ska-like »Television« follow in quick succession, leading us into Cluster’s narcotic fairground »Oh Odessa«, a queasy assemblage of detuned FM bells and percussive piston bursts. From there, the dubbed out post punk of Sprung Aus Den Wolken, experimental dance of Notorische Reflexe and unhinged disco of Günter Schickert capture different ends of the alternative dance floor, before the pastoral outsider pop of Lapre’s »Septer« signs off in a swell of yearning melody.

[engl] A unique longplayer by Germany’s Funk champions The Mighty Mocambos: ‘Scénarios’ is a wild journey through iconic performances captured on 8-track tape, including celebrated versions of breakdance favourites like ‘Axel F.’ And ‘Let The Music Play’ as well as brand new original material composed especially for recordings in unusual settings. Hamburg’s deep funk chefs are known for their intuitive recordings that capture the energy of a live performance, and with this record they go all the way. Just before the pandemic, the group recorded an in-store live session at legendary Hamburg record shop Groove City and taped an impromptu performance at JAM PDM! breakdance battle in Potsdam. Both were released on vinyl 45s, quickly sold out and became secret weapons for DJs. While most bands shifted their stage to the studio in 2020, producing an abundance of isolated lockdown-inspired material, the Mighty Mocambos – never shy of an antidote – took the mobile version of their recording studio on the road. With no audience allowed at the Pitt Hopkins Music Session charity concert, the group used the occasion to compose meditative folk-soul instrumentals to be performed exclusively on stringed instruments. Sweaty funk does not work via video stream, but the format provided a welcome opportunity to create something entirely different. Even without electricity and drums, the cinematic “Four Two Three” and “Silent Heroes” are unmistakably recognizable as Mocambo themes. When you follow Nina Simone’s credo that an “artist’s duty is to reflect the times”, it became evident that once the world slowly started opening up again, further concerts would be captured on the group’s portable Fostex R-8 tape machine. Luckily, restrictions fell on the very evening that the band hit the open air stage at the Import Export in Munich on September 11th 2021. The extended afrobeat-inspired jam on J.J. Cale’s “Carry On” witnesses people celebrating and dancing together again for the first time after a year and the manic “Munich Psycholympics” unleashes all bottled-up energies that had being lying dormant. The slightly kafka-esque “Ghost Walk” was taped during a soundcheck for a concert that was eventually called off for safety reasons, reflecting once more the uncertainty of the time. The last scénario sees the Mighty Mocambos returning to a packed indoor venue, playing “Let The Music Play” to a audience of b-boys and -girls – a testament to the sheer power of music. Featured as an encore here, an acoustic version of “Where Do We Go From Here?” (originally recorded with Lee Fields) closes the record and its restless voyage through unusual recording situations. “Scénarios” differs drastically from other live albums as it does not seek to replicate existing material from studio albums. All songs were written or arranged especially for the live recordings in order to combine the group’s DJ-friendly trademark sound with added vibes and momentum from the audience. Most of them were recorded while they were performed in public for the first time ever.

[engl] new album!

[engl] What do the new Dun Field Three record and a trip to the open sea have in common? You never know what’s coming next. And that’s exactly how you want it. “His Royal Fishness” drives you into post-punky-rocky waters, whips you through, only to glide along again clearly and gently, almost melancholically. Always with a wise feeling that the next abyss is already opening up beneath you. So “Supersurprise” is not only the name of the first song, with this EP you are surprised throughout. And that’s great!

[engl] "„What does this industry live on if not passion?“ Passion they have the three middle-aged gentlemen who, after a 15-year band break, strapped on their instruments again in 2018 to bring their melodic version of hardcore punk back to the stages of the Alpine Republic. After the split 7“ with „Hella Comet“ (2018) and the spit LP with the Viennese of „Dim Prospects“ in 2020, here come two new, usual political tracks from „Flowers in Concrete“ - again pressed on vinyl (and all digital platforms). Chorus vocals, melodic voice and scream vocals alternate just as groovy parts with genre-standard thrashing. „Alte Freundschaft wird zu Schmerz. Getrennte Wege anstatt Nähe.“ says the chorus of „Propaganda“. A sentence that probably applies to most of us in recent years. A situation that almost all of us have experienced. So - as always with „Flowers in Concrete“ - they work through current affairs, social criticism, but also personal issues. What is seen is packed into catchy slogans. Sing-along factor guaranteed."

[engl] Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Hi-Life Jazz is the new album from revered Ghanaian highlife and Simigwa Do exponent Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, known for his deep, soulful, and funky highlife sound and sometimes referred to as the “James Brown of Ghana.” A 360-degree musical tour de force as evidenced by his impressive and eclectic back catalogue, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Hi-Life Jazz makes his 35th album release to date. His third release on the German Agogo label, the release sees him breathing new life into some jazz classics, revisiting works by John Coltrane (Love Supreme), Thelonius Monk (Round Midnite), Wayne Shorter (Footprints) and Miles Davis (All Blues) alongside some brand new compositions, powered by polyrhythms and his signature highlife style. The record coincides with multiple live dates through October visiting Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Brussels, Gothenburg, Malmo, Saubriges & Mugron. Since his breakthrough in the early 1970s with his own Simigwa style he has shared stages and studios with some of Ghana's greats like Ebo Taylor and Sammy Larteh with whom he played In the Uhuru Dance Band. Together they founded the Apagya Show Band in 1974. He has since continued to push back boundaries, embrace, explore, create and cultivate an impressive catalogue of work. In recent times, he has become a go-to example of Ghana's rich traditional music form, so much so that he has performed tirelessly through Europe and US and most notably at Utrecht's Le Guess Who Festival and the Montreux Jazz Festival. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Hi-Life Jazz jumps right out of the blocks with 3 straight-up, groove-laden highlife numbers in Sankumagye, Yekor Ye A Yea and Enyidado, a spontaneous mix of Afro-soul and groove with Ambolley's deep tonal and vocal interventions giving a sense that the influence of Afro-American soul music is never far away. Things continue to heat up as the maestro and bandleader approaches various songs from the songbook of classic modern jazz. The rhythmic pulse within each standard is pushed and pulled, ensuring the original is recognisable yet rooted in Ambolley's ancestral home. In John Coltrane’s Love Supreme he proclaims “John Coltrane said love is supreme & we heard him in Africa very loud and clear.” Taking a very different but direct approach filled with Ghanaian swing Ambolley matches the colours and energy with a rhythmic dexterity and an African spiritual sensitivity that immediately draws you in, allowing a space for the spiritual to rise. The Wayne Shorter classic Footprints receives a similar treatment - it's a toe-tapping workout that leaves you wanting more. Round Midnite, a Thelonious Monk staple, has been covered so many times as a ballad yet here Ambolley gives things an uptempo re-work, a wholly unique inception that makes total sense when you hear it. All Blues by Miles Davis is a well-loved staple of jazz players the world over and is known as a vehicle for endless improvisations and here, in the hands of this master craftsman, is a mesmerising and unapologetic dance floor journey. Polish, panache, melodic and harmonic invention run riot throughout Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and Hi-Life Jazz. It's so much more than an experiment in bringing a Ghanaian pen to jazz standards rather a wonderful collision of Ghanaian roots, highlife and Ambolley's Simigwa stylings with Afro-American jazz, soul and funk.

[engl] The hotly-anticipated new Pinch Points album Process was recorded with Anna Laverty (Courtney Barnett, Nick Cave, The Peep Tempel) and is a momentous leap forward into full-force post-punk empowerment, with 10 songs engaging with the fractures in so-called ‘Australia’ -- from catastrophic bushfires, gendered violence, mental health struggles to First Nations incarceration and deaths in custody -- with clear-eyed directness, along with an uncommon nuance and empathy. As the album title suggests, Process is a commentary on structural collapse; the systemic failures and baked-in inequalities that are ravaging ecosystems, the mental health system, the gig economy workforce and all aspects of our lives. The title Process also recognises the emotions processed and channelled in the songs, as a collective expression of empathy and shared grief. A true collaboration, finding consensus from the experiences of four individual humans, Pinch Points embody music-making as an act of friendship and community, upholding the band’s shared belief in the music scene as a real-life platform for connection, strength and solidarity. Nothing is normal -- but PINCH POINTS are here.

[engl] Garage lo-fi bedroom punk homework is done. Another banger from Down Under! Very Jay, is there something better? Catchy af - love it. This whole album is super charming, lovely. ETT has never been shy about showing the love for well done pop-garage sounds. Shit, it's impossible not to, considering just how nice 1-800-Mikey is and how sweet he sounds. With a crisp power pop punk sound and riffs as sharp and concise as the legend Jay, 1-800-Mikey is the perfect answer to anyone looking for songs with the astute hooks of memphis finest, perfect songwriting and the punk formula of 2022. All of these songs are filled with distorted voices, noisy synthesizer sounds, robotic beats and modern monotony. Brilliant. The songs are top notch and the recording is raw in all the right ways. A furiously raucous blast of pure go-for-it hard-crunching dynamic rock'n'roll powerpop garage, done with a stirring sense of sheer fun and aggressive vitality that's impossible to either resist or dislike. It's all kills and thrills, fired by a furious pace and hooks galore. Oh, I wanna go to a house party!

[engl] made by dylan mccartney at the attic in the village by the cemetery. with ancient tapes, several drums, two or three synthesizers, a bass guitar, shakers of a few sizes, a cowbell, a century old bugle, a broken melodica, two tambourines, the "thing", a harmonizer, a destroyed contact mic, barely functioning buzzing amplifiers, sounds of the 1401, two warped electric guitars, a hand drum from my late uncle Gordon, a computer on the brink of a fatal crash, consumer grade microphones, a truculent flanger, a few bottles of ouzo, a bevy of self-induced paranoid delusions, bridges between Cincinnati and Kentucky, the companionship of a frightful cosmic tale, the solitude of the forsaken spot, vivid and visceral nightmares, red lights, night rides and poisoned air.

[engl] Go Lamborghini Go is a 6 piece band from Berlin and Leipzig. What started spontaneously as a stand-in for a missing band, grew into a improv-band with more or less fixed line-up. Logically, this record is also all-improvised, only vocals were added afterwards.

[engl] Five new Ostseetraum songs can be heard on Mondmenschen EP. This time you can also hear a real drum kit, a bass guitar. A guitar is also included. In one of the songs you can also hear synths and a drum machine. In the first song you are not seen and in the second song you are trapped. In the third song you are a moon man and there is no more pain. In the fourth song you are empty and the little people are spreading in the last song. Die Mondmenschen EP as 7"!!!

[engl] two new post-punk Banger Songs by Pigeon now available on 7"

[engl] Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones on the first instalment of the long awaited ‘Plastic Legacy pt II’ from transcontinental punk trash band Pale Angels. The album boasts soaring melodies and tortured guitar tones anchored by a fuzz bass guitar that sings uniquely yet thumps rhythmically. ‘Plastic Legacy pt II’ sees Pale Angels’ Jamie Morrison and Michael Santostefano joined by Jerome Westerkamp (songwriter for Cincinnati, Ohio’s Vacation) on drums. Returning after 6 years to longtime friend and producer Benjamin Greenberg (uniform, Christfucker, danny elfman) to create a masterpiece of gut wrenching sinceri

[engl] Conrad Schnitzler liked to embark on daily excursions through the sonic diversity of his synthesizers. Finding exceptional sounds with great regularity, he preserved them for use in combination with each other in subsequent live performances. He thus amassed a vast sound archive of his discoveries over time. When the m=minimal label in Berlin reissued two Conrad Schnitzler albums at the outset of the 2010 decade, label honcho Jens Stru?ver was granted access to this audio library. Stru?ver came up with the idea of con-structing new compositions, not remixes, from the archived material. On completion of the first Con-Struct album, he decided to develop the concept into a series, with different electronic musicians invited into Schnitzler’s unique world of sound.

[engl] How many hardcore, let alone metal, bands exceed all previous efforts on their third LP? Some might argue that ‘Feel The Darkness’ was Poison Idea’s prime. You could present ‘Master Of Puppets’ and ‘Reign In Blood’, if you’re so inclined. Let’s face it, these are a dying breed of exceptions to the rule. And yet, like an icepick in the eye socket of logic, here stands Foreseen with ‘Untamed Force’. In the landmine ridden field that is crossover, where bands can all too easily get it so wrong, Foreseen not only survive the death sentence of their sophomore record “Grave Danger” (2017), but head out on a blunt force killing spree. ‘Untamed Force’ indeed. Rarely has a record title been more fitting. Vocalist Mirko Nummelin sounds more pissed off than ever, 12 years on. Drummer Mårten Gustafsson’s arms and feet generate enough power to make Finland energy self-sufficient. And finally, pushing the band over the edge, separating Foreseen from us feeble bastards, we have new member Ville Valavuo joining Jaakko Hietakangas to form what is arguably the scene’s deadliest six string tag-team. Foreseen’s power is untamed but at the same time borne from hard work, a love for the craft and their musical community, and absolutely no excuses. Dig in, endure, stomp out, shoot to kill. Foreseen are for headbangers who haven’t been brainwashed by click tracks and digital recordings. Foreseen are for punks who can deal with a synth intro and harmonised solos. In 2022, ‘Untamed Force’ is the guiding principle that can inspire, but not be replicated, by the Kings of Hardcore Thrash.

[engl] End of 2019, while the scene Oi! in Paris is in full swing, and has never, in this already well-stocked decade, experienced so many groups, the epidemics of COVID are hitting and putting a brake on this whole new generation. Hence the idea of making this compilation gathering a good part of these groups and which gives a precise capture of the state of the scene at this period. This compilation is, like other projects, our will to continue to make Oi! live in one way or another during these times of forced silence. More than a simple compilation, it is good to know that most of the bands featured there recorded together, during a weekend in the mythical studios of the Frigos in Paris 13th, which gives this album a unity in sound and spirit. At the end of September 2021, there are 13 Oi! bands of Paris and its suburbs that join our call behind the label Une Vie Pour Rien to present Paris On Oi!

[engl] After their demo, released in vinyl, the first real record of Parisians. A breath of fresh air in the Parisian oi scene! a rich band and varied in its influences, to look for as much as Criminal Damage or Blitz and the Cult.