2025 repress

Format Notes: 140g vinyl, remastered from the original tapes

Territories:
Worldwide no restrictions

Track List:

A1 : Flying High (3:35)
A2 : Going Home (2:46)
A3 : Walking In The Dark (4:42)
A4 : Fighting For Life (3:37)
A5 : Feeling Tense (4:05)

B1 : Running Fast (4:42)
B2 : Loving Tenderly (3:27)
B3 : Fearing Much (3:35)
B4 : Being Friendly (2:54)
B5 : Having Fun (4:00)

Release Notes:

More than once Jay Richford and Gary Stevan’s Feelings has been described as the greatest library record ever released. Of course Be With can’t be seen to be playing favourites, but we have to admit, it’s pretty good. Insanely rare and immensely sought-after, it’s a tough funk, street jazz masterpiece coveted for many years by collectors of all musical genres.

Since its original release on Italian label Carosello in 1974, Feelings has appeared on several labels with different sleeves and even under a different artist. Indeed cult library label Conroy put it out in one of their iconic red sleeves in 1976 and yes, Feelings has indeed had more than one modern re-issue since these “original” releases. But a record this special deserves to be kept in press and we think it deserves the Be With treatment.

No, Jay Richford and Gary Stevan aren’t two of the most Italian sounding names. As the story goes these were the pseudonyms adopted by Stefano Torossi and Giancarlo Gazzani who wrote the album but couldn’t use their real names on the original release for legal reasons. But Stefano Torossi himself later both clarified and confused the tale further by explaining that Feelings was the work of four people not just Gazzani and himself. Fellow composers and musicians Sandro Brugnolini and Puccio Roelens also worked on the album and as Torossi himself explained “we all worked together”, with all four gents “dividing the royalties in equal parts… that’s the story.” Right, so, with that all sorted out let’s get back to talking about the music. And what music it is.

Long hailed as a holy grail of library music, Feelings is the epitome of the sort of cinematic orchestral jazzy funk that is “that 70s library music sound”. Infectiously funky, deliciously melodic and with impeccible, elegant production, this record is the showcase for a stunning set of compositions and arrangements and with performances that are nothing short of virtuoso.

The record’s first side lifts off with “Flying High”, soaring brilliant and shimmering. Funk licks, menacing strings and swaggering horns combine for an ice-cold intro groove that Isaac Hayes would surely have envied, before the steady-paced drums deliver the slo-mo TKO. The string-drenched cop-funk of “Going Home” raises the tempo. All funky quick-fire bass lines and killer electric guitar soloing. A real thriller.

“Walking In The Dark” positively drips in blaxploitation-funk drama strings and horn struts, all laced with delicate drums, velvet piano and more filthy wah-wah. “Fighting For Life” is another funk-fuelled workout built around an effortlessly relentless drum track that refuses to give up until even the stiffest-necked head is nodding.

The loping, open drum break that guides the much-loved “Feeling Tense” through its early stages would be good enough on its own. The heavy bass gloss, swirling strings and ominous horns that follow take things to the next level.

The second side opens with another favourite “Running Fast”, and the track does precisely that. This is one fine rollicking chase theme underpinned by frenetic (yet funky) Fender Rhodes and skipping bass and drums. Those sweeping strings are a gorgeous extra. It’s a deliciously feel-good groove that sets the heart racing.

“Loving Tenderly” envelops us in warm, velvety night-time vibes with easy listening horns and slinky strings dialing up the seduction. Definitely one for the lithe lovers out there. The pace picks up on the electrifying “Fearing Much” where strings dart around deep bass, buzzing guitars and another funky drum break. The lush, melancholic “Being Friendly” is another easy beauty, all warm Rhodes and strings. Majestic stuff that puts an aural arm around you. The climactic “Having Fun” rides a pulsating, bass-heavy drum break with snatches of a funky guitar refrain, some luxurious keys, sweeping strings and triumphant horns. Sensational.

“Feelings” is a profoundly appropriate title for such an emotionally funky and genuinely affecting record. Groove-laden bass, irrepressible horns, sweet flute lines, warm Rhodes, lush string arrangements, blaxploitation-styled wah-wah guitars and so, so much more make this one of the finest instrumental soul LPs of the 70s, if not of all time.

The audio for this re-issue of Feelings comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis and cut by Pete Norman. The same care has been taken by the Be With team to restore that glorious original Carosello sleeve. Feelings is almost too good to be true. Feels good all over.


Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

SPECIAL PRICE OFFER

Territories: World excl. France & UK,US

Deluxe 3LP+2CD edition with double black vinyl album in gatefold sleeve with printed inner-sleeves and CD included, plus a single black bonus EP vinyl in single sleeve with 3mm spine, printed inner-sleeve and CD included. Both vinyl sleeves are hold together with an obi stripe.

Tracklist:

Champion Versions EP
A1. Dry The Rain / A2. I Know / B1. B + A / B2. Dogs Got A Bone

The Patty Patty Sound EP
A. Inner Meet Me / B. The House Song / C. Monolith / D. She’s The One

Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos EP
A1. Push It Out / A2. It’s Over / B1. Dr. Baker / B2. Needles In My Eyes

CD+ EPCD =2 CD features the same tracklist in the same order.

Short info:

Arguably one of the most acclaimed and loved bands of the past 20 years, by both fans and their musical peers alike, The Beta Band formed in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1996. Innovative and singular, their unique musical and aesthetic approach to everything they did set them far apart from their musical contemporaries. Together for a relatively short period of time, the three albums and three EPs they released between 1996 and 2004 would nonetheless help define them as one of the most exciting and cherished bands of their generation.
After acquiring the Beta Band’s catalogue last year, Because Music will reissue their releases, starting on September 14th with a deluxe vinyl edition gathering in a slipcase the EPs ‘Champion Versions’, ‘The Patty Patty Sound’ and ‘Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos’ with remastered tracks and coloured vinyls, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1998 compilation. Because Music will release at the same time a double CD Best-Of compiling all their best hits and a live show recorded at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (London) in 2004.





Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

Rights: World excl. FR, UK & US

Packaging: 2 x 180 grs Black Vinyl, 5mm spine sleeve, 2 x printed inner sleeve, marketing front sticker

TRACKLISTING - DOUBLE VINYL.
Exclusive 2025 repress - Double Heavyweight black LP , printed inners

A 1 Dry The Rain
A 2 I Know
A 3 B + A
B 1 Dogs Got a Bone
B 2 Inner Meet Me
B 3 The House Song
C 1 The Monolith
C 2 She's the One
D 1 Push It Out
D 2 It's Over
D 3 Dr. Baker
D 4 Needles In My Eyes

BIOGRAPHY BY IRVINE WELSH
I discovered the Beta Band, like I discovered a lot of great music, basically through eventually surrendering to the enthused urgings of a mate who was cooler than me. He continually evangelized about the EP's. I was lost to the concert hall and firmly ensconced on the dancefloor by then and highly resistant, but quite taken by the idea that a band would bring out extended plays rather than singles. When I did check them out, I was instantly smitten by their originality and power.

The band, therefore, were pivotal for me in terms of my own musical journey, in that they represented a gateway back into indie guitar music, which I'd basically given up since becoming obsessed with rave and acid house.

The Beta Band were definitely a band for the cool cognoscenti- like my buddy- the ones you make a bit of a tit of yourself trying to convert quite straight boring people to.

The emotions they induced were a kind of throwback to school days when you were very pompous and prescriptive about what you liked, and derisive towards non believers. It's a testimony to the power of the music that they could take me to the raw state of the younger man.

I took it personally that they didn't hit the mainstream commercial base. At least two of the three albums they made deserved quadruple platinum status. Hot Shots II and Heroes to Zeros are permanently lodged very high in my top one hundred albums of all time.

So, the return of the Beta Band has me moving into the same mode of immature, adolescent anticipation. Everyone should have the Beta Band albums and EP's in their collection. It still kind of annoys me - in fact it bugs the shit out of me - that most of them don't.

And that really is something.


Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

Vinyl Only!

Genre: Techno / Acid

Third radioactive batch of untitled, previously unreleased techno from the 1990s and 2000s on the vinyl only imprint Kilotoni. From minimal acid techno funkiness to Detroit influences on the flip side.

Tracklisting:
A1: Untitled
A2: Untitled
B1: Untitled
B2: Untitled

Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More

Continuing the series of reissues from the Tresor catalogue, Tresor Records announces an updated version of the classic Regis and Female long-player, Againstnature.
Originally released in the year 2000, the album represents a pivotal moment in the emergence of the "Birmingham Sound"; a stripped-back sub-genre of Techno, pioneered around this time in the English hub by artists such as Regis, Female, and Surgeon.

Influenced more by Industrial, Music Concrete, and EBM than from the melodic sounds of its Detroit predecessor, Regis later described the music as being made with a fractured pop sensibility which created a sound that may be faceless but by design loses none of the soul of its American counterpart.

Nowhere is this sonic changing of the guard more apparent than in opening track, Washing My Hands, which sets the stage with a vignette of field recordings: arc welders, water boilers and other sounds reminiscent of industrial workshops reframe your senses, placing your mind into a familiar yet unsettling dreamlike space. From this sound- scape emerges a high-pitched, vitreous noise heralding the jarring introduction of Let Them Bleed, the first of several trance-inducing tracks on the album such as Join Us In Paradise, and Guiltless, which layer percussive and sampled loops creating what Peter Sutton (aka Female) described as exotic hypnotics.

This remastered edition of Againstnature also features the additional track, Theme From Streetwalker, previously only available on Volume 6 of the Tresor Compilation series.

Collected together the album is a key work in the progression of this sub-genre to the dominant form of Techno heard in clubs in Berlin and around the world today.


Sicherheits- und Herstellerinformationen / safety and manufacturer info (GPSR)
WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More