Noise, art, experimental music band Gray, founded by Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1979, has released their 2nd album titled, “Last of the Beats,” a reference to the lyrical poetry featured on the album, inspired by the likes of Allen Ginsburg and William S. Burroughs (Gray's first album was “Shades Of…,” released in 2010, a true collector's item today). Original Gray members Nick Taylor and Michael Holman conceived of this sonic and verbal work of conceptual and intellectual beauty, knowing they would be collaborating with a variety of celebrated musicians and lyricists, including: James Lavelle of U.N.K.L.E. (and Mo'Wax Records); writer and Downtown New York editor Glenn O’Brien of GQ and Interview magazines; Spike Lee actor and spoken word artist Roger Guenveur Smith; music producer and Digable Planets' DJ King Britt; John Cale Band and Andre 3000 drummer Deantoni Parks; legendary Hip Hop music producer Arthur Baker; “The Widow Basquiat” Suzanne Mallouk; 1970s New York scenester and poet Victoria Galves; with liner notes written by famed American art critic Carlo McCormick

Carlo McCormick Liner Notes:

These grooves are the product of stealth engineering, improvised like an assassination five years in the planning, a conspiracy of creativity meant to slip in the truth while savoring the fiction. It's impossible to fathom just how hard it is to make something so easy, to instill endless complication within eloquent simplicity, to tear the whole damn thing down so that the jagged broken parts actually fit back together, but the slack laidback beauty of Gray is that they are not in any rush, like the slo-mo suspension of time in our hyperaware perceptions before sudden and inevitable impact, this is the sound of deceleration, an unwinding that takes your breath away.

To the last of the beats, here's the last of the at last, the song of the swan to the unborn, the clinging desire of the last dance, the just deserts of a last meal, what adheres grasping and gasping at the edge of forgetting like the muscle memory of a dream. Track by track, Gray excavate the senses and sensibilities of forlorn fables, the heroic slipping off crumbling pedestals, a city of need revamped as a city of greed, the light flickering, overcome by shadows, places and times conjured like a sonic psychogeography of passing and absence.

Their music has traveled a very long way to reach our ears, rewritten, rerecorded, recollected, remastered and renegotiated over and again by two artists, in constant dialog, spaced out in deep focus, a four-legged split personality in dogged single pursuit to somehow get it right. You can hear that distance in these songs, the harmonics of process like a reverberant echo, the undertow of an undertone, the taste of ripening.

Only the truly young can hear the ghosts singing, but it takes an old kind of wisdom to make out their words. That's the post-modern contradiction of this band; where novelty sounds classic and stories unfold as allegories of metaphors, landing from far away with undiminished urgency. Two guys, Michael Holman and Nick Taylor, stubborn enough to forge their own musical tempest apart from the meddling, marketing and machinations of any music industry, yet slick enough to enlist an unimaginably brilliant cast of collaborators, Gray is the carefully curated composition of a community, the common sound of disparate voices, the mix of the melting pot, the noise of incompatible agreements. Pastiche and pluralism, it's a collage cut up and still bleeding, the angry graffiti on a wall of sound, the melodies that linger like a sweet aftertaste of lazy pleasures, the battle cry of the vanquished sounded in the survivors' silence, the dance of the reckless to the tempo of an impending disaster, the tone of resistance in a note of rebellion, the voices of visionaries talking over, and under, the din of time's cruel march, correspondences rich and textured in a lost chord yet to be fully decoded. The references are dizzying, disorienting and defiant to the reductions of genre, chaotic and unruly dissonance given rhyme and reason, blues with a beat, art with a purpose, lyrics that bruise, the sound of repercussion struck with a vengeance. This music is so stone cold cool it's hot to the touch;deep downtown and dirty like a lethal seduction, a collective memory that needs no introduction. More

A Powerful Dancefloor Anthem Unleashed.
For Promotion Lemon Use Only. Only Vinyl. More

Big tip!
Revised 8 track version of Maria Somerville's much lorded debut album. Features and additonal cut 'Lakes' - a 5+ minute blown out instrumental record live on tour in 2019.

" Stirring and beautiful songs, with a consistent optimism underlying even the murkiest of moments."

Recorded in Connemara and Dublin. Mixed by Brendan Jenkinson. Mastered by The Bastard. More

Javi, a Spanish producer based in London, has predominantly kept his work under wraps bar a digital self-release and a few dub plates sporadically hand-distributed to a select few friends. His first physical release takes the form of a biopic in sound, encapsulating the past decade he spent in London across four distinct tracks.Side A opens with Medway to Old Ford, inspired by early 2000s tech-house; the rhythm and bass set the mood for a solid warm-up. Followed up with Eyelash (Electro Mix), a versatile DJ tool combining breakbeat and electro with a cheeky twist. On the flip side, Future Drive is a bouncy number with swirling arpeggiated melodies and a deep, pulsating bass. The EP closes with Shifting Reality, an Italo-disco tune with melancholic harmonies that pays homage to the early electronic scene of Valencia, Spain. More

The follow up to Deep Heavy Fear's Saâda Bonaire-produced single Dark Days, Doorway sees the group continue its hand-played versus programmed journey into the realms of dance pop. The title track takes a non-linear venture into 9/8 to the floor vocal Balearic/dub territory, via impressions, illusions and misrepresentations, to the reverse - Cherries delivers a simpler, but no less appealing cut, down a classic pop path with tolling guitars and striking percussion. Once again self-pressed & presented in a hand-printed & numbered multi-colour sleeve, designed by vocalist Chloe Grove. More

A modern day mashup classic from AMERIGO GAZAWAY that takes the Afrobeat rhythms and music of FELA KUTI and mixes it with the rap stylings of DE LA SOUL. Awesome. More

New MIDEX EP - a no label release linked to John T Gast's 5 Gate Temple BUT NOT out on 5 Gate Temple More

A collaboration between Mindseyerecords.xyz and SELN Recordings More

«I am the bridge between the day and the night that never ends, I am the acid drop that beads on your dancing body, I am the metallic breakthrough that crosses your being when I catch your wet hands, I am the brutal wave that grazes your dark gaze and your tired eyes, I am the titanium and the cyprin, I am the adrenaline, I am that being that invents, desires and revolts, I am that jolt of desire that tears me when it is dark, I am a psychoactive substance diluted in honey, I am the back that you caress, I am our first and last dance, I am the one who seduces you, I am the one who obsesses you, I am the solitary dance that bewitched me the first time we met, I am the cry muffled by our restless bodies, I am the movement that pierces and unfolds as if it were the last. I am solid and liquid, mechanical and organic, I am your first and last time, I am Baraka.»

French duo Baraka present their first eponymous EP.
Dive into their cathartic universe in which they celebrate their love for club culture using powerful TR8s, incisive break beats, synthetic layers inspired by trance and trip-hop as well as cavernous female voices.

This alliance of electronic music, 90’ aesthetics and dreamy undulations intertwine like the yin and yang and promise a mystical universe with futuristic imagery. More

Light the fire, pour up the eggnog and listen to this must have hip hop holla-daze mash up repressed on wax again. Featuring 2 PAC, ERYKAH BADU, BUSTA RHYMES, JAY-Z, OUTCAST and NOTORIOUS B.I.G. Red vinyl with full color sleeve. Limited repress in time for the 2022 holiday season. Don't sleep. More

blue marbled vinyl / single-sided

Tracklisting
A1 Unknown - Sinnerman

More

2LP Gatefold (featuring liner notes). Limited Edition. Artwork by Meeuw.

A collection of personal recordings made on various synthesisers between 1989 and 2017, by Telesoniek Atelier. Huge Tip on this one!

Early feedback:

"Fascinating improvs. I loved 'Gruesse'. " Suzanne Ciani (Atmospheric)

"Beautiful music with real subtlety and depth” Anthony Child (Surgeon, Transcendence Orchestra)

"Lovely, pure synth music." Mark Pritchard (Warp Records)

"Chateuroux is mighty... A proper zoner. Flung on earth." John T. Gast

"This is a great release by Telesoniek Atelier - a musician unknown to me before now. I've been thoroughly enjoying playing this double vinyl release since i got it. Both discs are filled with amazing music that moves between abstract electronic experiments to melodic, DMT bent sounding, classical contemporary music and futuristic soundtracks from non-existing Sci Fi movies you'll wish you could see. It time-warps you from here to there then freezes the moment. It all sounds like its been taken straight from the ancient room .. you know, that one where the spirits of the great teachers live. This is very focused, unpretentious and highly emotive music . A wonderful and dreamy sound garden coming from what I imagine to be a beautiful mind . These discs will be camping out on my turntables for a while."
Tako Reyenga (Music From Memory)

"A deep sense of the symphonic permeates this record. While synthesizers form the basis of its sound, Hans Kulk shapes their timbre into uncanny acoustics and weaves them together like an orchestra. Just when you think you have understood what is happening, another layer reveals itself. Yet it keeps a floating sense of lightness throughout. A truly rewarding listening experience."
Hainbach More

Lunar3 means handcrafted liquid drum & bass, jungle, dub played live on stage. We are back with lots of new music and take you into the universe of Lunar3. You can be curious and look forward to what music we will be releasing in the near future. More

Dark Days is the debut offering from Berlin-based Anglo-American trio Deep Heavy Fear. A twelve inch of glimmering pop melodies with a portentous undercurrent, comprised of two tracks from a batch of songs co-produced with cult Bremen synth-pop allies Saâda Bonaire. The A-side's serpentine synth bass and sub-100 bpm mark it for downtempo dancefloor consumption, while the B-side charts a tentative homeward retreat through twilit murmurations. Self-pressed & presented in a hand-printed and numbered multi-colour kraftpak sleeve, designed by band vocalist Chloe Grove. Limited edition of 137 copies. More

Repress!
Small run 45 with live recordings from two of their trio concerts, coming with artwork by Carsten "Erobique" Meyer himself. Having been studio neighbours for 5 years and musical collaborators ever since, an actual live show by Session Victim & Erobique as a trio sees both acts diverging from their usual ways just as much as combining what each of them is best at - although it has been and most likely will always be a rare thing to happen. This record includes an intense rendition of Session Victim 's "Good Intentions" at London's Jazz Cafe and a beautiful cover version of The Emperor Machine's "The TV Extra Band" at Berlin's Prince Charles as part of the XJazz Festival 2017. More

Repress!
Session Victim and Erobique join forces once again for a beautiful cover version of Mark- Almond's "The City", starring Jamie Lloyd's enticing vocals and featuring Linnart Ebel's subtle rhythm guitar. Ever since Hauke Freer stumbled over Mark- Almond's final studio album Other People's Rooms at Montreal record store Death Of Vinyl a few years ago, the pair would regularily finish DJ nights with this 1978 recording of their hit single "The City" - and since then, the idea of recording their own rendition had been tossed around frequently. Carsten "Erobique" Meyer was not the first but really the duo's only choice to see this through and well, just listen to the impeccable Rhodes/Clavinet combination he came up with. However, it is Sydney's Jamie Lloyd who steals the show and takes the song into his realm, putting his very own stamp and character on this certified classic. Long time collaborator Linnart Ebel complete's the band with his ever subtle rhythm guitar. The two, three, four, five man house, not house band branches out for all the right reasons and this is the result. More

Volume 2 from mash up master AMERIGO highlights the often over- looked accomplishments of MARVIN GAYE's role as the producer. Not only do we get MARVIN and MOS DEF, but also CHUCK BERRY, TALIB KWELI, and THE TEMPTATIONS. 18 tracks. Full picture sleeve, double vinyl. More

Recorded live during Nuits Sonores, Brussels, 2022. Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is a theory initiated and put into action by late Afro Beat creator and Nigerian Drummer Tony Allen and Deroit Techno’s Jeff Mills. Each belonging to a long tradition of using music to reach higher levels of consciousness, along with veteran keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary, the three toured internationally until the untimely death of Tony Allen in 2020.



TRACKLISTING

A. Tomorrow Comes The Harvest - Metamorphosis
B. Tomorrow Comes The Harvest - Words Of Wisdom

C. Tomorrow Comes The Harvest - Peace Pipe
D1. Tomorrow Comes The Harvest - Rising Water
D2. Tomorrow Comes The Harvest - Rising Water (Reprise)


INFO

Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is the accumulative efforts of talented musicians and their visions about what makes the art form of music so special.

A theory initiated and put into action by late Afro Beat creator and Nigerian Drummer Tony Allen and Detroit Techno's Jeff Mills. Each belonging to a long tradition of using music to reach higher levels of consciousness, along with veteran keyboardist Jean-Phi Dary, the three toured internationally until the untimely death of Tony Allen in 2020. However, the foundation of the concept was cemented and ready for continuation.

Mills reconfigures the concept to function as trio once again and invites Tabla virtuoso Prabhu Edouard to join the concept.

Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is about exploring the unknown, transcending by the way of intersecting sounds and rhythm through an array of improvisational movements.

More

R.A.N.D. Muzik Recordings welcomes a joint record by Sascha Funke &
Niklas Wandt to the label with their take on House, IDM and Balearic. More