Mancunian pianist and producer Matt Wilde prepares to release his debut album 'Hello World' via Band on the Wall Recordings. With a slew of hotly tipped projects released over the past two years via Root Records & Inner Ocean Records- Matt has been steadily gaining support from the likes of Jamie Cullum, Gilles Peterson, Jazz FM & many more. With his name firmly cemented as one to watch in the Jazz / Beats landscape, 'Hello World' promises to be his most expansive body of work to date. 'Hello World' is an audio catalogue of personal experiences, thoughts and feelings, shared with honesty and curiosity for the human condition. Matt crafts emotive and uplifting compositions denoting a tender illustration of the human experience, finding and celebrating the simple and beautiful moments of life.

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Band on the Wall Recordings unveil its fourth release from The Singles Club, their 7" series supporting a selection of Manchester most exciting rising artists. Following support from the likes of Jamie Cullum (BBCR2), Jazz FM & more, Manchester keyboardist, composer and producer Matt Wilde steps up with his debut physical release, having spent much of his early years laying the foundations of his musical development through workshops at Band on the Wall. A truly feel-good slice of musical goodness centred around Matt's lyrical, virtuosic and jazz-leaning keys, 'Every Story / Pivot' delivers wondrous blends of hip-hop and jazz elements.

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Transparent Vinyl!

** 2LP gatefold sleeve with printed inners

An opening of the portal, Friend is the culmination of a decade of K’s work; the gates of which gleam like a slow drip of melodic infusion, at once a remedy and an inquiry. Friend encapsulates a lifelong praxis of intuitive music making, delivering a more precise and controlled sound, with versions of songs shifting into focus like recovered memories. Feeling her way through textures, a return to an intimacy and clarity of voice with a melding of refined technique, these soundscapes lay down a framework over time that traces the history of her practice.

james K has been a cosmic point of the aesthetic underground across the world, as a vocalist, producer, artist and collaborator. Her breathy, lilting vocals have floated across some of the past year’s best music. Expanding and ethereal, they make you feel like the call is coming from inside the house. You can trace touch points across her lengthy catalogue, spanning from the foundational urgency of 2013’s debut Rum EP, to the prismatic elasticity of PET (She Rocks!/Dial), to the strange-faced, visceral and, at times, sepulchral intoxication of Random Girl (Incienso), to the universal ecstasy of trip-hop lullaby ‘Scorpio’ (AD 93). To this day, her ??transmutative career has led K to amass a bouquet of collaborations with artists like Heith, Moin, Fergus Jones + Huerco S., Priori, Yves Tumor, Drew McDowall, LEYA, and others.

Friend is K’s return to the core; each song anchored by the past, present and future: all inherently connected, yet each compressing its own raw emotion, transmuting across a spectrum of fully realized manifestations. K holds a prism to the personal and reflects it outwards, illuminating her blues with a vibrant acceptance of love. Based in New York where she was born and has lived most of her life, there is a constant evolution of the city which she embodies sonically, like the growth, decay and push, pull of relationships and spaces. At the crux of these crossroads is the homespun and ever-evolving DIY rave culture which continues to embody and cycle through lives of its own. This ecology spans across geographical lines and remains the touchstone and core of the james K vocation: the backbone and infrastructure from which her distinctive command of interwoven guitar and electronic arrangements ultimately coalesces. Grafting fragments of the real and the surreal is the provenance she draws from in her thoughtful and emotive international performances including Dekmantel, Sustain Release, Mutek, iii Points, and more. Her international recognition has guided her to the stages of both her contemporaries and pioneers: some of these including James Ferraro, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Morton Subotnick, Nick Leon, Arushi Jain, Malibu, and Priori, among others.

Friend was written and produced in studios between New York and Montreal; featuring collaborations with contemporaries and friends, Special Guest DJ, Francis Latrielle, Ben Bondy, Patrick Holland, Hank Jackson, and Adam Feingold. The new record is anchored by K’s penchant for melody at the forefront, which feature her ‘heavenly vocals. Her delivery glistens with the Elizabeth Fraser effect: carried foremost by feeling, the curvature of her indecipherable lyrics capture the fleeting moment in which euphoria sinks into quiet melancholy,’ and a dreamy flow-state of softly-textured, finitely detailed hi-fi production. K’s willingness to be vulnerable - to delve into/feel her way through rangelessness is her signature: exploring the contours of all genres, and laying the framework for new conversations between artists.)

Listen: https://s.disco.ac/mlslyxaszdiq

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Over the course of 2025 IARC will be celebrating their eleventh year of existence by revisiting some of the most celebrated (and hard to find) entries in their decade of releases. These LP packages will be presented with new liner notes, new insert booklets, and the fresh 2025 redesign of their iconic obi and dome logo. They will also be at a price point intended to help make it easier for stores to stock and sell these essential pieces of their catalog.

TRACKLIST
Side A
1. Visit Croatia
2. What’s Missing
3. Song of the Foundling
4. Whisky Story Time
5. Not Now Jesus
6. If You’re Sure You Want To
Side B
7. The Lucky Ones (feat. Danalogue)
8. Why, Buzzardman Why
9. Not My Ask
10. Turpentine
11. I Hope


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Double Black BioVinyl, in printed sleeve, with printed insert and packed in a resealable protective sleeve.

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Cosmic Romance proudly presents "Amour Propre", the new album by Berlin-based multinational band Stella & The Longos and 5 release on the label.

Following the acclaimed 2022 release "Détends-Toi", the first electrifying collaboration between lead singer Stella Zekri and producer Ed Longo, "Amour Propre" crowns two years of relentless touring, growth, and evolution. On the road, the duo forged a powerful live ensemble of Berlin’s finest musicians. That synergy now explodes onto record, expanding Stella & The Longos’ sound into something more organic, daring, and deeply alive.

On "Amour Propre", Stella’s sultry, magnetic voice weaves through lush layers of live drums and percussion, funky guitar riffs, shimmering keyboards, intricate brass lines, and the unmistakable hi-fi production flair of Ed Longo. The rhythms oscillate in a melting pot of musical styles, where Afro-Caribbean influences overlap with vintage boogie beats and quelching synths flirt with smoky Parisian midnight moods. Stella’s voice remains the heart of it all, sensual, husky, and brimming with raw emotion. Her lyrics explore love, longing, and reflection, while also capturing moments of dancefloor euphoria and universal connection.
With The Longos as her powerhouse backing band, every track radiates the energy of a live performance: intimate, enchanting, and unforgettable.

TRACKLIST:
A1. La Flamme
A2. En Retard
A3. Insupportable
B1. Patience & Respect
B2. Oublie Tout
B3. Besoin De Toi

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The newest release by NYC Soul Singer Carlton Jumel Smith, and the first time collaborating with London's own Wax Preachers on this double A-sider single, 'Gotta Go Home' & 'Loud & Clear'. Produced by Fergal McBride, the single showcases the uplifting harmonies conducted by Carlton Jumel Smith, a well-versed showman when it comes to all things soul with a deep discography through Timmion & Colemine Records, backed by The Wax Preachers, a self-coined heavy instrumental funk band, with a string of releases on Funk Night Records.

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This record is a Chicago collaboration between Vick Lavender and a legendary singer and producer, Ron Carroll. Ron is best known as the voice of timeless winners like Back Together, Angel and Lucky Star. Vick Lavender is a high profile producer and remixer and a regular on Cataleya Music. He runs his own Sophisticado Recordings label and has recently released two LPs, Beyond and Time Traveler. All I Got For You (Is Love) is a proper vocal anthem. It features funky guitars, star kissed keys and a committed vocal delivery. This is classic Soulful House from Carroll and Lavender! Paint A Picture is a key driven winner that will put you in a positive mood. Modern House songs that really deliver like the classics are rare, but Vick and Ron are on point with the memorable All I Got For You (Is Love).


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"Greg Foat takes jazz to places where genres cease to matter and the music soars for the sake of it." - Ian Rankin, author Greg Foat's newest project '6 Days in Leysin' is yet again, highly anticipated amongst his loyal fan base. With over 100k monthly listeners on Spotify, and over 6k Instagram followers - each Greg Foat album exceeds the last. Greg's last release, 'Midnight Wave' has hit 50k streams in it's first 3 weeks. '6 Days in Leysin' is an experience in it's entirety. A New Age, Spiritual Jazz journey for Greg's listeners who are always expecting, and waiting for something new.To build excitement leading up to the release, Greg is performing at Ronnie Scotts's in London, on the 1st August. Greg is also in the midst of organising a 10 day tour of Japan, scheduled for late September - garnering worldwide outreach.

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Khruangbin did not know if they were actually making an album. All they knew in the first frigid days of 2025, as they shivered in the Central Texas barn where they’ve recorded almost all of their music, was that the 10th anniversary of their debut, The Universe Smiles Upon You, was steadily approaching. Months earlier, they’d bandied about ways to mark the occasion, debating orchestral arrangements or compendiums of bonus materials and alternate takes. Thing was, back before Khruangbin helped establish a new modern idiom of semi-instrumental and gently psychedelic American music, there had been no bonus material, no unused songs. And how interesting would alternate takes or symphonic extravagance really be for a band whose aesthetic—essential vibes, infinite grooves, riffs that rippled across the horizon—seemed so direct and pure, anyway? What if, they had instead wondered, they went back to the barn where it all began and recut the record that had started it all, on the actual 10th anniversary of those sessions? They decided, at least, to try.

It did not take long for Laura Lee, Mark Speer, and DJ Johnson to know that the idea was indeed a good one, that in holding up a mirror shaped by the past 10 years to their formative set of songs they could feel and hear how they had changed as people and players. The result is The Universe Smiles Upon You ii, 10 entirely new renditions of the songs from Khruangbin’s oldest album, played and sequenced in a way that works for them now without being strictly allegiant to who they were then. Watchful eyes, for instance, will notice that “Bin Bin ii”, a bonus track back in 2015, has moved toward this album’s center. More importantly, attentive ears will hear how liberated Khruangbin sound from any expectations rendered by their own success, how this is once again the sound of three longtime friends deciding how this material might move in real time.

The barn is an essential piece of Khruangbin lore. In 2009, many years before Khruangbin’s early singles started to shape their course or even before they were really a band, they began to head to the barn, bought by Speer’s parents in the ’80s on a modest cattle farm midway between Houston and Austin. They’d been looking for a place to rehearse in Houston when Speer’s parents volunteered the spot and the small house next door—three bedrooms downstairs, dorm-style bunks above, a century-old stove in a small kitchen. The process was so consummately D.I.Y. that, when they convened there in January 2015 to make what would become The Universe Smiles Upon You, Speer and Lee rushed to remove a nest of bees by playing bass and smashing cymbals loudly before Johnson (famously not into bees, mind you) arrived. They made the record for $1,500.

This time around, Khruangbin decided to try a few functional updates. They finally ripped out the plywood dancefloor that had been installed for a wedding nearly two decades earlier but had since become something of a sanctuary for critters that would inevitably destroy any gear left behind. They rented a new floor, then bought silent new space heaters and boxes of hand warmers that they’d stuff into gloves during sessions. The first day was Central Texas paradise—T-shirts in January, the sun shining as they set up their instruments, ran cables, and even recorded the seven-minute version of “Two Fish and an Elephant” that appears here, the rhythm that Lee and Johnson built offering a welcoming group hug for Speer’s flickering lead. But then the cold set in, a cold so gripping that they stuffed bits of construction flotsam into every crack and crevice they could find inside the barn. They moved closer and closer as the four days progressed, as if trying to absorb one another’s radiant heat.

Perhaps, then, that’s why The Universe Smiles Upon You ii feels so warm, as if they were tending a fire simply by playing together. Early into “August Twelve ii,” Johnson watched an eastern meadowlark sing just outside the barn, its song picked up by the microphones. It wasn’t their favorite performance, but they knew it captured the magic of the time and place, the yellow beauty’s melody calling these six gorgeous minutes to order. They are likewise jubilant during this very extended take on “People Everywhere (Still Alive),” applying the lessons about pace, momentum, and dynamics they’ve learned during a decade on the road to start and sustain this dance party. It is an immaculate map of the moment.

Funnily enough, while on tour with this electric trio during the last several years, Speer became fascinated with early European instruments that could sound full without being loud—the viol de gamba, for instance, or the clavichord. He imported that enthusiasm into these sessions, not only often playing acoustic guitar alongside Lee’s hollow-body Höfner bass and Johnson’s brushed drums but also covering instruments in contact mics, so that they sounded close and real. You can hear that pursuit clearly on “White Gloves ii,” a song that has become such a Khruangbin staple they initially struggled with how to remake it here. When Johnson suggested it become “country disco,” though, the track suddenly unlocked. A rural-funk canter buttresses the bittersweet vocals and twilit guitars; the recording makes it feel as if you’re sitting in the center of the barn, head pressed between the bass amp and bass drum as Khruangbin drift away.

In many ways, The Universe Smiles Upon You ii represents the close of Khruangbin’s first chapter, the complete culmination of the music they made when they arrived at the barn in January 2015. During the last decade, they have reached an apotheosis of sorts, their love of Thai pop and heavy dub and American soul and Ethiopian haze perfectly crystallized in a string of splendid records and live shows that have hypnotized massive theaters and festival crowds alike. They’ve repeatedly sold out the United States’ most famous venues, from Red Rocks and Forest Hills to the Hollywood Bowl and Radio City, and they’ve crowned festivals from Glastonbury to Bonnaroo. Paul McCartney plucked them to reimagine one of his songs, while they’ve collaborated with Mali legend and band inspiration Vieux Farka Touré to honor his late father on 2022’s Ali. After more than a decade of relentless touring and recording, their expertly polyglot 2024 album, A LA SALA, helped earn a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. Not bad for a band that recorded its debut in a barn of bees and mice for a grand or so.

So, then, what is next? The Universe Smiles Upon You ii provides a point of pause for Khruangbin, a chance to step back from a sound they now know so well and figure out where it may go from here. They talk about woodshedding, about spending a few hours every day with their instruments to see what new shapes they can make. Khruangbin’s splendid next run, then, begins where the first one did, too—in the barn, finding their way into the world through the songs of The Universe Smiles Upon You, second time even more absorbing than the first.

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A native of Shreveport, Louisianan, Fred Moss has been a lifetime professional musician, doing Session work and touring with many large artists, teaching and mentoring other artists. Surprisingly, During Fred's time working it turns out he was recording some rather brilliant unreleased Modern Soul music, the first single of which Athens of the North is very proud to present here.'Stay Away' is a gospel-tinged floater of the highest order, up there with the finest modern spins of the last 40 years, essential. On the flip, a funky 70s syncopated dancer that's going to be a big hit with forward-thinking northern crowds. Two brand-new mixes done in the Athens of the North studio from the original multitracks. This one is a little pricier than usual, but a lot of work went into getting it right, and we all gotta eat. This one is worth every penny, as good as any £1000+ modern rares and a two sider was well.

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