Preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3erN6dtoDUE

Your Grandparents are fascinated with time. It can neither be created nor killed; there’s never enough of it, but it can stretch on forever. Time is a form of currency that can be saved, spent, and gambled away. It can be wasted. Wounds heal, the flocks march from field to fold, and, in the end, it makes fools of us all. “I think time is a circle, infinitely repeating itself,” says producer Cole Thompson. “And there’s a bunch of smaller circles within the larger one. Everything we experience is cyclical in the micro and macro.”

On their drink sum wtr debut, The Dial, the Los Angeles trio — producer Cole Thompson and vocalists DaCosta and Jean Carter — deeply consider these disparate ideas. The record works as a meditation on time, but posits that in order to truly grasp the concept and all of its ambient qualities, one must remain rooted in the present. The group, who met in middle school in Culver City and are now in their mid-late 20s, has been making music for a decade, patiently watching the pieces of their career fall into place. They seemed to snatch their genre-agnostic but hip-hop-rooted songs from the cosmos, seizing on a moment of inspiration — a loop here, a turn of phrase there — and proceeding in a stream of consciousness. “We’d link up in the studio, and whatever anyone experienced in a week is what ended up on the track,” says Thompson.

The Dial took shape more slowly, the result of what DaCosta calls “focused intentionality.” “There was a shift in our mindset,” he explains, “We wanted to be more comfortable going back to the drawing board and refining.” All told, the album took shape over the course of more than two years. After some initial sessions in Joshua Tree, Your Grandparents chipped away at The Dial, careful not to rush any one element into place. The result is stunning: a kaleidoscopic trip through heartaches and joys, moments of frustration and hope. Cole Thompson’s production reaches through time, gathering up influences from divergent eras and meshing them into a singular whole. There’s the house-meets-G-funk slink of “Be Cool,” the smooth Dilla-time boogie of “Down,” and the ESG-informed dance-punk of “BAD NEWS.” DaCosta and Jean Carter are deft performers, effortlessly switching from elastic band rap flows to golden-hued melodies.

Album opener, “The Dial,” establishes the theme. By the time the trio sat down to complete the song, they’d landed on their time motif but needed a way to fully express it. “We wanted to relay that message that things will work out when they’re supposed to,” says DaCosta. “The best way to get the most out of hard situations is to keep your head down and work with integrity.” Jean Carter and DaCosta float over Thompson and Josh Conway’s breezy funk instrumental, singing, “Now when my sun sets, and I look at the dial/ I wanna surely say I wasted no time.” It’s a warm, inviting tune, one that came together over the course of only a couple days and, as Thompson says, “sounds exactly like how it felt to make it.”

Over the dreamy '90s pop sonics of “Ali & Jen,” the vocalists ruminate on life’s harder lessons, understanding that with time comes wisdom, recognizing the necessity of more painful moments. “Conversations,” a late album highlight, is an exercise in vulnerability. “It’s very therapy-inspired,” Jean Carter reveals. “I was trying to take more of an initiative toward bettering my mental health. It was another pocket of purpose we could tap into: People are feeling these things, but not nearly enough people are getting help. We wanted to normalize those emotions and offer something people can jam when they feeling that type of way.”

Your Grandparents’ songs are big-hearted and welcoming, filled with the wide-eyed wonder of youth and the sobering wisdom of aging. They’re writing about the ethereality of it all, the moments that contour your existence, the things you’ll look back on when doing that final assessment. The Dial is a beautiful, empathetic piece of work that understands the contexts from which it came and builds upon them, walking that fine line between contemporary and timeless.

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"Pretty Close", Ethel Lindsey's debut LP, marks the beginning of a new musical journey, showcasing the talent and heartfelt nostalgia of this gifted singer-songwriter. Deeply rooted in the sound and spirit of the 1970s, her work draws from the golden age of Soul, Funk, Disco, and AOR, blending these genres with elegance and authenticity. Her songwriting and vocal delivery are so true to the era that one could easily imagine this album emerging straight from a California studio in 1976.

Entirely composed, written, and performed by Ethel Lindsey, Pretty Close is a deeply personal and cohesive body of work. From lush harmonies to groove-driven arrangements, the album captures the warmth and depth of vintage recordings while offering a fresh and intimate take on these timeless sounds.

Once again, Favorite Recordings brings its signature dedication to the project, ensuring every step of the process—from production to final mix—remains faithful to the sonic and aesthetic codes of the era. The album was produced using a maximum of vintage analog equipment, staying true to the texture and character of original 70s productions.

This is not merely a nostalgic tribute—it’s a sincere continuation of a musical tradition. With a deep respect for the past and a forward-thinking spirit, Ethel Lindsey breathes new life into classic genres, reaffirming their relevance in today’s musical landscape.

As Ethel himself puts it:
"The songs on this album offer but a fleeting glimpse into the whimsical, melodic reveries that may have danced through the mind of a young girl growing up in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France during the early to mid-1980s. They are, perhaps, the earliest echoes of a fraternal musical upbringing—an inheritance both consciously absorbed and unconsciously imprinted—shaped by shared moments, half-remembered sounds, and the mysterious alchemy of childhood imagination. This collection is, in essence, a first distillation of that early inner world: playful, imperfect, sincere."

A1 - Pretty Close
A2 - Sore In Your Eyes
A3 - Your Winner
A4 - Together Again
B1 - Day Dream
B2 - Love Paved The Way
B3 - Hold On
B4 - Make You Mine

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Repress!

South London favourites Chaos in the CBD come back to Rhythm Section International one year after their breakthrough EP ‘Midnight in Peckham’. The original EP captured a moment in time in a way few songs can manage. It was hailed as a masterpiece, capturing the attention of all who listened, as evidenced by the unquenchable demand for the 12”.

This follow up EP is an equally sublime collection of tracks that revel in the late night soulful feel that Chaos in The CBD have been honing over the past two years. The music’s strength lies in it’s subtlety - the tracks demand your attention in an effortless fashion and hold it, right ‘till the last beat. Another unbelievably powerful record from RS INTL, who are proving to be unstoppable of late. BUY ON SIGHT!

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Repress!
One of the finest soul and funk releases of the past 18 months.” Clash Magazine

“Soothing, atmospheric, disquieting.” MOJO Magazine

“Wonderful deep grooves.” Shindig

There is something simultaneously both brand-new and retro about 'All News Is Good News’ - the debut album from Melbourne's instrumental soul group Surprise Chef. It sounds like something dreamt up by lo-fi cousins of David Axelrod and Janko Nilovic, with dramatic Library-music-esque cinematic arrangements echoing both light and dark, delving into moments of dissonance and positivity. There is a meticulous education of 1970’s soul on display that touches on the legacies of the great composer / producers, yet at the same time, this is a truly contemporary record that could have only been made now.

The first limited pressing of 'All News Is Good News’ was released on the band's own 'College Of Knowledge' imprint in November 2019. It slipped rapidly into the collective consciousness of underground music lovers around the world, with all copies selling out within a week and becoming a firm favourite at Mr Bongo HQ in the process. We felt Surprise Chef had made something very special, a future-classic, and that needed to be heard well beyond those lucky enough to have bagged those limited first copies.

Formed at the end of 2017, Surprise Chef have grown within the fertile, creative, and supportive Melbourne music scene. Whilst the band is comprised of four core members, the album features friends and family as guest instrumentalists on flute, saxophone, vibraphone, congas, and assorted percussion; all adeptly recorded by engineer Henry Jenkins from the band Karate Boogaloo. The warm-raw-authenticity of the album was captured in the recordings live to tape over a handful of sessions in the band’s home studio in Melbourne’s inner-northern suburb of Coburg. As band member Lachlan Stuckey explains “All of the music we record is tracked live to tape, simply because so many of the records we love most were made that way".

The results are a captivating journey of instrumental cinematic-soul that will connect with the hardened Axelrod, Truth & Soul, El Michels Affair, and Daptone's fans, as well as the open-minded first-time listener. We are very excited to share this first slice of Surprise Chef’s world, with plenty more magic from these guys coming around the corner very soon.

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It's time to set those jaws to wobble mode as this funky favourite label is back with more serious sounds for the disco, this time from Hysteric. 'Italo Mystery Theme' is a brilliant timewarp to the 80s with its overtly streamy and seductive vocals over neat guitars and stepping disco drums with lush chords. 'After Dark' is more breezy and hip-swinging with its airy vocals and wet claps, then 'Sugar Daddy Again' brings rugged analogue bass sounds and snappy drums under some erotic vocal work. 'All Right' shuts down with a UK street soul-cum-disco groover that's lit up with nice neon chords.

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WAS - Word and Sound Medien GmbH
Liebigstrasse 2-20
DE - 22113 Hamburg
Germany
Contact: [email protected]More