Orpheu the Wizard has a magic touch at finding records that fall between the gaps in music - oddities, curios, the weird, the wonderful. But that's just half the trick. It takes a sensitive and selective ear to construct a coherent, accessible narrative from them. So you get DJs who can play for the crowd and "selectors" adept at mining the black gold. In Orpheu, you've got yourself someone who can do both. On a festival main stage, he can keep it weird enough for the heads. In an audiophile setting, he'll keep the flow. These skill sets come into play on the fifth The Sound of Love International compilation. Jumping between genres, decades, continents, the truly rare, and many B-side cuts that passed you by. But never eclecticism for its own sake; this collection makes sense. Orpheu never loses sight of the listener - he's a friendly and knowledgeable guide to the cosmic outer reaches. He opens his account with the warm, psychedelic electronics of Drawing Future Life, with ‘1969’. Tucked away on the B-side of an LP of ambient/trance hailing from Fukuoka, this is a very pretty piece of music on a truly rare piece of wax. Then, leapfrogging a couple of decades and timezones, we have Rutuu Poiss' "IHATSIN." Off-kilter, experimental sounds with an endearing melodic hook, followed up by the with lethargic ambient breakbeat of Digital Distortion's "Mellow Bug". On the B-side, things start to get lively. French Audacity featuring Valerie's "That Fine One" is Gallic garage that has simultaneously got it hugely wrong and mas­sively right. Owing as much to new wave as New York house, this is propulsive and quirky dance music at its finest. Next, we're on a ferry over the channel for DJ Spike and "Gaps In Space." Up-tempo electro with a fondness for sampled vocal cut-ups, like its predecessor. lnterdance's "Kurz" (another B-side) is the perfect segway - house from 1990 with that sweet, slightly goofy naivete. Things move toward the gnarly with Bad Behaviour and "Living on Smoke," a lesser-known cut on the legendary Atmosphere records. The tempo edges upward on "Systematic Input" by Frequency, hectic hardcore techno that still retains a lightness of touch
"Lushes" by Diffusion spins us off into space, filigree techno with an emotive trance edge. The chiming intro of "Blue to Be Happy" by MFA lulls us into a sense of false security before massively putting the boot in with a pounding kick drum, bassline, and arpeggiation. From there, it's a sharp left turn into the urban psychedelic dub of R.I.P's "E.O Pan" on cult label Digi Dub. Sticking with UK sound system music but taking it down a notch, Orpheu closes proceedings with a leftfield reggae excursion from the master of the mixing desk, Mad Professor’s"Oh Hell". It's a compilation as varied as the many moods and grooves of Love International itself - from sun-dappled olive groves to moments deep in the strobes. This is serious music for party freaks or party music for serious freaks. Tisno is calling. More

LIXTP, the collaboration between Love International Recordings and the Test Pressing website, yields its second release following 2021’s label debut from Fantastic Man.This time it falls to Test Pressing founder Paul Byrne AKA Apiento to open 2023’s account with the simmering ‘Escape Reality’ EP.Having carved out a prestigious career over the years, as A&R for Junior Boys Own, International Feel and Test Pressing labels, and releasing his own Apiento productions on Music For Dreams, World Unknown and World Building, Apiento goes in deep across six tracks of esoteric electronica and transcendental dance.The influence of Detroit techno can be found in the complex drum work and dreamy synths of tracks like ‘Those Busy Circuits’ and ‘Axis’, whilst hedonistic dance vibes are served up on ‘Everything Move’. Presenting a broad palette of moods and tones, Apiento delivers an allencompassing release for lovers of the real electronic groove.‘Escape Reality” by Apiento is released on Love International Recordings/Test Pressing from 10th February 2023. More

Shanti Celeste is a vibe. She’s got that magic lightness of touch even when things are getting Jacques Cousteau deep or panel beating heavy. This makes her the perfect candidate for the Sound of Love International 3, channelling the spirit of both those after-hours sessions and the more frivolous daytime boat parties. This is serious music for serious music heads but, after all, everyone is still on holiday. It’s linear and cohesive but plays with the emotions -carnivalesque fun, psychedelic flow-states, heads-down rhythm trax, playful skipping garage, and more abstract moments. Deep joy to deep space and back, often in the space of 3 or 4 well-selected records. TRACK LISTING:: A1. Shanti Celeste & Saoirse - Solid Maass, A2. Persian - Morning Sun feat. Hannah Small, A3. Seekers International – FurdaMurda, B1. E.B.E. – Thinking, B2. Gideon Jackson - Taj-Mahal, C1. Perpetual – Awakenings, C2. Mark Seven – Crank, C3. Paco Pack - Slap That Bass, D1. Cari Lekebusch - Output 2, D2. Pauline Anna Strom - In Flight Suspension More

After signing on with Gatto Fritto’s mind-melting Sound of Love International Volume 1, we’re back, we can smell summer and we’re putting you in the capable hands of festival favourites, Washington DC’s Beautiful Swimmers. A beautiful swimmer is a small blue crab. The Beautiful Swimmers are Ari Goldman and Andrew Field-Pickering (AKA Max D). And you, my friend, are about to get high on the happy. They’re here to take you on a gleeful joyride around their collective musical imagination. The Swimmers are full-bore record enthusiasts you see, but whereas you might associate this with squirrelly, exclusive and crabby sorts, they are inclusive, human and warm. It’s a wide-eyed ebullient romp and the joy of discovery is one to share. And to see them DJ IS a joy - they’re having at least as much fun as anyone else in the room, locked together tight, riding the same wave. A precursor to the full compilation album due in April, this 12” sampler contains two tracks plucked from the main selection. An extra special Swimmers ‘Mega Remix’ of Foe’s 1995 Baltimore house jam “Are U Da Bomb / Blow Up Girl”, and the smooth and soulful early 90s British classic, “More Than You Can Wish” from Harlem Gem, lovingly re-mastered from original tapes especially for this release. More

a collection of tracks that Gatto Fritto aka Ben williams played across his last two sets at Love International’s open air club Barbarellas. There’s a dubby wildness in the stereo field that sounded good on the soundsystem. The clever part is how well suited these sounds are to the balmy outdoor vibe and where and when this music comes from. You can’t copyright these emotions, it would seem and no-one told them in Cologne, Sheffield, Jamaica that the music they were producing would soundtrack a blinky-eyed sunrise in Croatia. So we get Mad Professor’s son, Joe Ariwa’s, demented Gabber tempo stepper played on 33. Which is about as House as Reggae is ever going to be. A crash course in Skwee’s year long diversion into afrobeat turned out the cream of the crop in Anaalivaihe’s 10.11.2012 or Mi Ami’s outlier release on Pure Silk that sounds like, in Ben’s words, “Francois K being forced to make a record with a Juno 60”. Or crazy vari-speed tape dubbing from Sonny Okosun in the dub version of ‘Highlife’ – the kind of record that Ben loves, where the end result is a happy accident. The original intention of the maker some distance from the reasons for our enjoyment. Musically adventurous, disparate yet harmonious and dance floor friendly. Clever trick, clever bloke. Ladies and gentlemen this is the sound of Love International. More