[engl] Marisa Anderson continues her streak of amazing solo guitar LP's. On first glance of the track listing you may feel like you've heard it all before - classic folk songs and anthems - but trust me, Marisa takes these tunes to places they have never been. The vibe is heavy on this one. The guitar playing is beautiful at points and intense at others. Not for the faint of heart. Comes with 12-page booklet of liner notes written by Marisa herself!

[engl] Stunning compilation of great soul songs. The third in a six part series of compilations following a similar logic as Harry Smith's Anthology Of American Folk Music - only where Smith covered folk, blues, gospel and old timey, this compilation covers just American soul music recorded between 1962 and 1975. Many deep ballads and a few rockers. Features extensive 12 page liner notes with lots of photo's as well as a real special bonus insert. Cover has gold foil printing, and the records are housed in classy black sleeves. . Super fancy limited edition double LP not to be missed.

[engl] With their first two albums "West End Coast" (2015) and "AM Waves" (2018), Andy Platts and Shawn Lee, better known as Young Gun Silver Fox, formulated a modern version of the classic West Coast and soft rock sounds. The third album "Canyons" consequently develops the formula with ten well thought-out compositions, wonderful harmonies, incisive brass and inimitable sound images. Young Gun Silver Fox's approach has worldwide respect. They played well-known European jazz festivals (North Sea Jazz, Überjazz or Pori Jazz), sold out several times the Amsterdam Paradiso and were the only current band to feature in the soft rock TV documentary "I Can Go For That" on the BBC. Like the two predecessors, "Canyons" was once again composed, recorded and produced by Platts & Lee in their London studio. A striking feature this time is the brass arranged by Nichol Thomson (Incognito, Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Gregory Porter). The ten new songs are an incredible journey through all facets of the golden era of soft rock between 1974 and 1984. "Who Needs Words", "Long Distance Love Affair" or "Things We Left Unsaid" could also be found on albums by genre heroes like Pages, Stylus and Player. "Dream Woman" has a Chicago touch, "Danny Jamaica" is perhaps the crazy theme music of a lost TV series from the 1970s. A real AOR album includes the great ballad ("All This Love") and top pop hits ("Kids", "Private Paradise"). "Canyons" refers to the importance of the valleys around Los Angeles to the West Coast sound: Some of the most important albums of the 1970s were created in Topanga and Laurel Canyon, they were simply mystical, magical places. Even if Platts & Lee were not there, their "canyons" transport this magic into the present.

[engl] The weekender is a very British thing, particularly combined with that other very British subculture: northern soul. When the first National Soul Weekender took place in Caister in 1979, some ways of celebrating the rare soul music scoring the scene had already been well established: sweaty all-nighters happened all over the country, where dedicated dancers and collectors met and kept the fire burning. And all-dayers came into being, allowing the people to indulge in their passion in different places, with less strict licensing obligations. The clues were all there. British people liked the idea to escape their urban working lives to the seaside on weekends. And the mod culture, always strongly related to soul music, followed suit, partying (and sometimes fighting) on coastal promenades, beaches and clubs, as immortalized by tabloid headlines, and a certain rock concept album plus movie. The brilliant idea in Caister, however, was to combine all-nighters and all-dayers, and given the unreliability of the British weather, the concept was due for success. If it rained, you just danced in a club, and other places. If not, you had fun at sea, and then danced, day and night, the whole weekend. Across the North Sea in Germany, it seemed like only matter of time that all this would catch on. And indeed, when the British mod revival of the late 1970s hit continental shores, it ran through open doors, and the soul part established itself as a subculture as stubborn and ardent. The German weekenders followed a different path though. Starting in 1990 in Berlin and then led by annual events in Nürnberg and later Bamberg, Dresden, Leipzig, Bremen, München, Aachen and more, the locations were in cities. Hamburg is located very near to the UK and accordingly anglophile, and came fully equipped with a sizeable harbour and airport, and so what happened in the UK arguably left a quicker and bigger mark there than elsewhere in Germany. The city also had a long tradition of dancing to soul music to rely on, and a vital club culture, with a long string of cherished soul nights like the Soul Allnighter at Kir, Shelter Club, For Dancers Only and more recently The Soul Seven, Motte Allnighter, Cole Slaw Club, Cool Cat Club and 45 Degrees, just to name a few. But, strangely enough, it had no soul weekender. In 2007 this changed, when Ralf Mehnert and Jan Drews Tarazi established the Hamburg Soul Weekender, with Tolbert taking care of the all-dayer part. As the three of them were longtime respected DJs and collectors, the weekender had notable line-ups right from the start, and every year a thousand international, national and local soul enthusiasts gather in the storied venue Gruenspan in the seminal Reeperbahn area, to dance and party to the finest 60s and 70s northern soul, modern soul, funk, r&b and other related trends within the scene that were always spotted early on, and with a keen eye. The music has been played by over 120 top of the league DJs from all over the globe so far, and it was always spread across a long weekend of two all-nighters, one all-dayer, a boat cruise through the harbour and an after party. This schedule surely gives leeway to play a whole lot of music, and this compilation can only offer a mere glimpse of all the tunes that got the loyal crowds moving, but it is a heartfelt thank-you to all the dancers who have attended so far, however often they return. And for those who have not witnessed the magic of the Hamburg Soul Weekender yet, please consider this an invitation. 500 handnumbered copies, limited edition

[engl] Untouchable early ’80s Power Pop from Milwaukee, WI. They only released one 45 during their existence (and reissued by Bachelor Archives), but it stands up as one of the top tier Power Pop singles of all time. This collection plays like a long lost album or maybe even a collection of classic, lost 45s. Timeless, perfect pop songs that echo the Raspberries as much as they do Brill Building hits. Almost every number sounds like it could have, should have been a hit single.This release is a new and improved issue of the collection that Sing Sing Records released in 2014. The LP comes with a 12"x36" double-sided insert with photos, liner notes, etc. and a replica of the original Shivvers bumper sticker.

[engl] Cumbia is a Latin Americana traditional music form that originates from Colombia and has ever since spread across the whole Spanish speaking sub continent. It blends elements of indigenous South American melodies, African rhythms and European ways of developing harmonies and progress chords. With that style in mind as model nowadays many young artists from the Western hemispheres begin to develop an electronic variant that brings new life to the dancefloors of the old ghost town. Among these Danish electronic artist and DJ Kenneth Rasmussen and his band JUNGLELYD formed in 2015 explore the pathways of modern South American electronic music. Digital cumbia, Tropical bass, Zouk, Moombathon, modern sounds based on traditional Latin music for dancing purposes, all that had a slight impact on the creativity of JUNGLELYD which combine digital devices and analogue instruments in their music. The delicate flute playing adds a touch of souljazz to the hypnotical mix. All rhythms are a perfect blend of electronic beats and live percussion, while guitars, bass, brass and wood wind instruments build a rather vivid melodic superstructure. After two EPs in 2017 the band will release their debut album in 2020 on SOUNDS OF SUBTERRANIA, a label that explores the adventurous paths in music. The album begins with a relaxed cumbia styled tune that is an anthem to the greatest life elixir I personally know. Coffee. The lightweight guitar harmonies develop, float upon spacey synthesizer waves and follow rhythmical patterns that just intrude your locomotor system where they cause ongoing dance moves. Slightly more complex in its rhythmical structure, still as groovy as a cool piece could be „Boots“ comes jumping up and down from your speakers. Tropical island images enter your mind but still the electronic elements and fantastic melodies keep this song from being just a typical Latin music tune. They add the psychedelic expression of spacerock to the haunting music from the Andes. And haunting is the best adjunct to descripe the third tune „Lucerito de la Manana“ which prominently features singer Luna Ersahin on lead vocals and mystical South American pan flutes. I am not certain if that keeps the guinea pig invasion away, to point at my favorite episode of South Park, but anyway, this song with even comes up with a touch of psychedelic jazz at the end due to freaky saxophone lines. Dub, psybient, cumbia join together for the next tracks and in opalescent colours JUNGLELYD play their mostly instrumental music to their audience, which consists of psychedelic fanatics, cumbia lovers and electronic music aficionadoes. One can find a whole new spiritual world in this futuristic exotica style. The jungle to which it drags the listener exists only on giant computer screens all around the listener’s mind. I can see the dancefloors in todays clubs steam and boil while dance hungry souls float through the night. The musicianship of this collective is extraordinarily high, the wind instruments showcase an unusual dedication and determination for additional colour effects on mainly electronic sound creations. And the sweet twangy guitars here and there bring back memories of times when the ideal world also found its expression in dreamy sounds. This album is an ongoing dream and you can make it yours if you dare to explore the digital jungle created by JUNGLELYD.

[engl] Debut LP from The Mark Vodka Group, Nova Scotia delivers again. FFO Coneheads, DLIMC, Buzzcocks and sunshine in the city. More effortlessly catchy brilliance from Nova Scotia, Canada, that your ears, speakers and shelves simply cannot live without. You want a quality guarantee? Well, howsabout if I told you that The Mark Vodka Group includes members of the Booji Boys? Their 2019 opus ‘Tube Reducer’ should still be rattling the walls of your house and making your neighbours question the wisdom of moving next door to one of those ‘punk rockers’ the newspapers warned them about. This is a different prospect to the Boojis, of course. While that group buries deceptively tasteful hooks in clouds of ear-lacerating distortion, The Mark Vodka Group opt for a more immediately accessible level of audibility, while still keeping things firmly in the box marked ‘lo-fi’. They sound like a bare-bones Descendants at their most irritably bratty, stealing the Oblivians’ homework and doodling stupid faces all over the most insightful parts. Or maybe the other way around. Point is, they do smart and stoopid simultaneously and they’ll make you wanna dive onto a dancefloor to revel in both sides. As they’re not ashamed to tell you, however, the band have been around this music long enough to grow pissed off with… well, what have you got? Scenester elitism (‘Big Time Rocker’), the sudden trendiness of punk among previously sceptical normies (‘Everybody’s Punk Now’, which also boasts a killer Buzzcocks homage at its peak) and everyone dumb enough to cross them. Truth be told, punk rock doesn’t come out of these lyrical screes too well, but the Mark Vodka Group are too in love with the stuff to truly let go. Besides, as ‘Mark’s Blues’ laments at the album’s close, even when the rest gets you down, there’s always booze to keep us going: “The drinking hasn’t let me down yet.” Hey, Mark Vodka ain’t just a clever name. This is a damn fine record, though. Will Fitzpatrick.

[engl] Meet Ditches, from Stockholm coming straight out the gutter and speeding into the part of your brain where all the catchiest melodies lurk for the rest of time. This is their debut LP, a frantic collision of powerpop, garage rock and the most addictive of yer favourite punk classics. Think the snot of the Adolescents with JJ O’Neill’s natural way around a melody, or simply recall Jeff Burke of The Marked Men/Radioactivity’s knack for invoking the tartrazine high and the sugar crash at exactly the same time. All these things can be found here, and plenty more besides. Burke actually shows up on production duties, lending backing vocals where necessary, although while it’s evident that Ditches’ approach shares a certain something with his outfits, they also very clearly sculpt their own universe. Songs like Stitch Me Up owe as much to high speed pub rockers like The Boys as to the Denton, Texas sound, while there’s a gentle nod to the endlessly memorable hooks of Pete Shelley in their plaintive melodies, as well as a whole lotta stuff that’s fundamentally their own. Mainly though, this is just a thrill ride from start to finish. Get it on your stereo, start pogo-ing and accept you’ll be repeating this for the rest of forever. The best band to come out of Sweden since… ooh, I don’t know. Ebba Grön? Yep, probably. Will Fitzpatrick.