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HFN 037CD
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Kasper Bjørke returns with an exquisite new album, After Forever, the Danish producer's boldest and most elegant statement to date. The scene has been set by two lead singles: "Rush," featuring Tobias Buch -- and "Sylvia" featuring CTM. Moving away from a previous '70s disco-inspired sound, Kasper explores new terrain in contemporary, melancholic synth pop; his productions merging themselves into a multi-colored soundscape with echoes from post disco/punk, Kraut and new wave. "After Forever is good for dark, sad dancing -- or a headphone journey inwards," says Kasper. "I feel like I really went somewhere else on this album, to a place where I haven't been before. Out of my safety zone and into a darker space." The fourth album by Danish producer, DJ and all-around music entrepreneur Kasper Bjørke is his boldest and most elegant statement to date. For After Forever managed to acquire some brilliant collaborators: Kurt Uenala is known for his releases as kap10kurt, but became famous for his songwriting and production for bands like Depeche Mode, Moby, Dave Gahan, The Black Ryder, etc. New York icon Nomi Ruiz is best-known as a former member of Hercules & Love Affair and for vocals on the last album as well as her new band Jessica 6. Tobias Buch is also known as The Red Baron and as the lead singer of the new hippie band The Late Great Fitzcarraldos. CTM is Caecilie Trier, the singer of successful bands Chimes & Bells and Choir Of Young Believers. Soho Rezanejad is a promising new talent from the Copenhagen underground and known for her band Gold Lip. Finland's Jaako Eino Kalevi has just been signed to Domino Records and recently released an EP for Beats In Space. According to The Guardian he is "the most impressive 'rock'n'roll' artist with an alternate simultaneous 'proper' job that we've heard of since Vic Godard the post-punk postman. The Finnish 29-year-old has been releasing records back home, while being a tram driver in Helsinki." Icelandic pop band Sisy Ey rounds off a brilliant set of contributors. Cover artwork based on the painting After Forever by John Copeland.
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N 037CD
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Ever the loose cannon, the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra remains reliably unpredictable with their third album for Alien Transistor: renowned for their elaborate and intricate studio recordings, the genre-smashing 18-piece Orchestra didn't even set foot in a studio this time around, but instead returns with a live album, recorded in May 2012 at Berlin-Neukölln's Heimathafen. The new album marks a distinct stylistic departure for the Orchestra: instead of presenting the kind of sonic splatter/comic styles they're known for (as showcased on Bum Bum [N 029CD/LP]), bursting at the seams with new bits of information at every turn, the album opener features a surprisingly coherent and steady layer of sound that's more reminiscent of ambient music. The Orchestra's last album was all about clashes of polar opposites: Live on Planet Earth leaves decidedly more room for individual statements, for ideas and textures to emerge; in other words: It's a lot easier to tell what's actually going on in the new songs. That's not to say that Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra -- part avant-garde salon orchestra, part alternative jazz big band, part audio logistics center -- want to revoke or amend the bold grandeur of their earlier material; instead, it's simply a new and more collective-minded direction. Despite its inconvenient size and refusal of genre-labeling, the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra has been a steadily working band since its inception in 2006. Of all their releases, Live on Planet Earth probably showcases best how this group of musicians deals with its own unique diversity: highlighting the individuals' approaches and statements, but working together, as an entity. It is thanks to this emphasis on a truly collective approach that the new album sounds more "symphonic" than its predecessor (which daringly veered towards techno or musique concrète at times). However, when Glatzel mentions the band's "organic interplay," this doesn't mean they lost their sense for eccentric, shrill and humorous ideas; neither does it mean they didn't use electronic instruments while recording Live on Planet Earth. They did, but the various electronic elements are more subtly interwoven into the tracks, not at all sounding like anything you'd expect from electronic music. Live from Planet Earth is a live album that not only documents a huge logistical challenge: here, the Andromeda Mega Express Orchestra leaves the safe studio environment behind and enters the stage to underscore and reaffirm its position as one of the leading large ensembles for extravagant soundscapes of everyday life.
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JMAN 037CD
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Of all the Holy Grail LPs that Jazzman Records has reissued so far, this is quite possibly the rarest of the rare, with a miniscule 50 copies of the original album having been pressed up 40 or so years ago. It's a miracle that any copies at all have survived since then, but Jazzman has jumped through hoops to ensure that not only have they faithfully reproduced the original, but they have done it with a quality that cannot be rivaled. Marvin "Hannibal" Peterson will be a familiar name to '70s jazz enthusiasts, but his career started with the Soulmasters in Texas back in the '60s. As bandleader and trumpeter, they were a popular outfit around the Texas nightclub circuit with their own brand of funky jazz, soul ballads and Rn'B showmanship. This album manages to squeeze in all three, including the extended funky jazz workout "Our Groove," the haunting ballad "Five Foot Even" and finishing off with a cracking version of James Brown's "I Can't Stand It." For lovers of soul, jazz, funk and all things in between, this album is for you. Includes a 6-page color booklet with extensive notes, interviews and previously-unpublished photographs.
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