Rock & Indie 261 Items

Instead of distorted guitars and thunderous drums, we've used mellotron, glockenspiel, and chimes to highlight Tool's dreamy melodies on ROCKABYE BABY: LULLABY RENDITIONS OF TOOL. These incredibly lush lullaby versions of Tool's best known songs will captivate and engage your baby while they drift off to slumberland.

The lullabies on this album use the airy melodies and beautiful imagery of Coldplay's best material, cutting to the heart and soul. Whether your little one is just plain Jane or sweet little Apple, these beautiful lullabies will warm their hearts and put a smile on their faces.

Radiohead weave worlds of incredible sounds, design and imagery. Lush arrangements combine with epic performances. Their album KID a imagines the scope and power of music created by a newborn child. What will you baby dream about while drifting off to these seren interpretations of Radiohead's best-loved songs.

Rockabye Baby! transforms timeless rock songs into beautiful instrumental lullabies. The soothing sounds of the glockenspiel, vibraphone, melltoron and other instruments will lull your baby into a sweet slumber.

On this album, they’ll enjoy Metallica’s biggest anthems without the pesky earplugs you didn’t bother to wear growing up. We’ve turned down the volume from an eleven to a two, and made the bed ourselves. Say your prayers little one. Tonight the sandman will be gently rocking you to sleep with these essential masterpieces of rock n roll.

A couple years back here in Richmond, VA, a group known as Invertebrates emerged from the river sludge, dropping an absolutely scorching demo AND promo tape in conjunction with the pulverizing of many a gig audience fortunate enough to witness them. While the Inverts have stayed the course on the latter, continuing to belt out the hits in the live setting the hardcore punk faithful have been hungry for more, and folks, am I excited to let ya know the wait is over! Featuring a handful of tunes from those aforementioned tapes that many have surely worn out by now, Sick To Survive is ten tracks of perfectly executed "45 RPM on a 12" style hardcore punk"—meaning that while it doesn't overstay it's welcome you will be left with a few sonic rage induced lumps as a reminder of the time spent together. Truly a slab for those who love the genre yet refuse to allot time for any of the extra bullshit that comes in tow with it at this particular point of the dystopian nightmare we find ourselves in. Each record comes in a jacket with a huge fold out newsprint poster and insert, all of which were designed by singer Max Mattoon.

No Atlanta punk record from the 1980s creates such a lather as the debut single by DDT (except maybe Neon Christ's single, but I digress). Self released in 1983, merely finding a copy would put you into serious debt. That is, until now. Audio was restored by Jason NeSmith at Chase Park from a spotless copy of the record given to Chunklet by Joe Perry who recorded the single at his Bombay Studios in Smyrna. Never before reissued until right now. Get in on the ground floor of Atlanta's punk scene from 40 years ago

After several years of relentless travel up and down the West Coast circuit, Oakland’s Smokers has finally completed their blistering 15 song debut album The Rat That Gnawed the Rope. Inspired by favorite bands like The Stranglers, Minutemen, and early Replacements, Andy Asp (Nuisance, The Pattern), Cyrus Comisky (Black Fork, Drunk Horse), Jim Nastic (Talk is Poison, Year Future) and Omen Starr (St. James Infirmary) met up with lead engineer Phil Becker (Pins of Light) at San Francisco’s historic El Studio to put together the songs that became The Rat. The sessions progressed swiftly, and sonically define the band’s tough but thoughtful compositions. Highlight tracks include the driving ‘The Irish Tenor,’ ‘East of Oakland,’ and the reflective Covid-era song ‘The Strand.’ Fans of garage rock, East Bay punk, pub rock, and vintage street rock will find something here in this succinct, powerful collection. Smokers have played with The Avengers, Jawbreaker, Samiam, Subhumans, Murder City Devils and countless others.

What Kind of Human Have I Become is a new vehicle helmed by Matt Plunkett (Cuticles, The Trendees, etc.). Conceived as a solo endeavor, the designation got a bit blurry following an invitation to record his new songs with Stefan Neville (Pumice, etc.) at the studio he shares with Ben Holmes (Oksun Ox, etc.) in Auckland.

Once in the studio, Plunkett’s songs puffed in a wholly new way with Neville at the controls, and backing and bits from both Neville and Holmes perhaps channeling Nag and Bendie. Fans of Matt’s past and current activities will find much to rejoice in here; Avoiding The Diggy Diggy Dogs plucks three songs from the sessions. More to come in due time.

As subjects of a recent career spanning vault-clearing anthology, the likelihood that more old recordings by The Strange Girls might surface was an unlikely one. Thankfully it’s just what happened. Culled from leaky audience video recordings, Truly & Lyric features two Clayton Noone songs that never surfaced elsewhere. These date from around 2002 and feature the core duo of Kaaterama Morehu and Noone. Draped in artwork by Mark Anderson (Greymouth), Truly & Lyric offers another fleeting glimpse at The Strange Girls’ downcast beauty in action. Limited to 200.

Perennial is an art project: Mod pop, post-hardcore, 60s soul, ambient electronic music, midcentury design, abstract expressionism, French New Wave cinema; it’s all collage material for Perennial. The band—electric organist Chelsey Hahn, guitarist Chad Jewett and drummer Ceej Dioguardi—is equal parts manic basement show bombast and studio-as-instrument headphone listening. To see the New England three-piece in person is to experience a 20-minute burst of kinetic energy: dynamic, reckless, electrifying. To put on one of Perennial’s records is to spend almost the same amount of time with impeccably layered studio-as-instrument punk modernism. Art History, the band’s newest full-length album (out June 7 via Ernest Jenning Record Co.), finds Perennial further experimenting with their angular cut-and-glue aesthetic. An adventurous 20 minutes of impressionist punk energy, British Invasion guitar pop chic, and Mod-inflected rhythm and noise rave-ups, Art History is both Perennial’s most giddily accessible and most artistically daring record to date. Edition of 275 copies pressed on clear with black and green splatter vinyl.

Recorded over the course of 1993-1994 in the band’s own "Acre" home studio, the Templars' debut full length, The Return Of Jacques De Molay, introduced the lo-fi DIY sound that would serve as the band's sonic signature over the coming decades. This decision was as pragmatic as it was artistic: the band having endured the loss of their previous master recordings to a failing studio/record label only a year prior. Determined to never again find themselves in that position, the Templars opted for self-recording, and the rest, as they say, is history. The Return Of Jacques De Molay has gone on to influence and inspire generations of Punk & Oi! bands worldwide. While the Templars debut album is held up as one of the the crown jewels of the band's discography, The Return Of Jacques De Molay, is something of a white whale among the fans of this very vinyl-orientated band. Outside of a few limited German pressings, The Return Of Jacques De Molay had previously only been available widely on CD—until now. TKO is proud to present the 30th Anniversary "Grandmaster" edition of The Return Of Jacques De Molay. Featuring painstakingly remastered audio, completely reworked packaging and the overall attention to detail that you've come to expect from TKO / Templecombe reissue collaborations, we can say without hesitation that this new versions presents The Return Of Jacques De Molay as it always should have been. Of course, the Templars lasting legacy arose from more than just the charm of their recordings. The Return Of Jacques De Molay crystalized the songwriting style established on the band's earlier EPs—A sound rooted in Oi! tradition, but unafraid to explore beyond that genre’s boundaries. Oi!’s familiar pro-labor / anti-bullshit approach is on full display, but songs like “The Sixties Are Over” show a willingness to go outside the lines with acoustic guitar and shockingly tuneful songwriting that few of their peers ever matched. Paired with the album's signature fuzz guitars, warmly saturated drums, and deft, melodic basslines, it’s clear why The Return Of Jacques De Molay continues to resonate after the last 30 years.

SECOND ATTACK was CROSSFIRE’s second album

Theme: collaboration. Or how to remain creative in the modern world. Nanocluster started as a bespoke one off pop up gig that turned into an album series. Built around Colin Newman from acclaimed UK post-punk band Wire and his partner in life and sound Malka Spigel from Minimal Compact with various guests, they define collaboration. Colin met Malka when he produced her band in 1985.The collaboration started there. They became a couple and created their own projects like the instrumental electronic duo Immersion in 1994 and Githead in 2004 - spaces where they both 'feel really comfortable.' Growing out of Immersion, Nanocluster was birthed as a series of one-off gigs at the Rosehill in their new hometown of Brighton in 2017 with an added cast of influential and cutting edge musicians. These were not ad hoc jams. The songs had been written and rehearsed prior to each performance. This adventure led to a debut album, Nanocluster Vol 1, released in 2021 with Stereolab singer/guitarist Laetitia Sadier, German post-rock duo Tarwater, electronic musician Ulrich Schnauss and experimental artist Robin Rimbaud (Scanner). Released again as double 10 inch with each collaboration taking up each disc, the new album Nanocluster Vol 2 has further developed this idea with a stark beauty that sounds like a future pop with sleek lines and unexpected great melodies. Disc one is built around Thor Harris, the charismatic percussion player from Swans and many other projects, who they met and performed with at South By South West in Austin, Texas in 2023. Thor adds ideas, his tuned percussion instruments, clarinet and trumpet to the sessions. Disc two is built around Cubzoa (Jack Wolter from the band Penelope Isles) who brings his musical craft, beguiling voice, guitar and much more. Meanwhile Matt Schulz from Holy Fuck plays drums across both combinations helping the resulting music become a third entity. What results is a true collaboration that, enhanced via Immersion's production, merges its elements to develop a new har...

"In July 2022 I was invited to open for the band Low who specifically wanted 'something weird'. I only had about 24 hours to come up with a set but decided to take up the generous offer. Recorded live to Tascam 8-track at the High-Noon Saloon in Madison, WI. Gear: Waldorf Quantum, Roland Rs202, Arturia Polybrute, Waldorf XTK, DSI Poly Evolver, and Korg Mono/Poly." - Vincent Presley (Those Poor Bastards, Zebras, Logan 5, Secret Creeps, etc). Live ambient, drone, experimental electronic. Side 2 can be played at 45rpm (how it was performed) or 33rpm (ultra slow gloom version). Hand-numbered edition of 115 copies.

Back in 1996 Swans released what was supposed to be their final album and declared themselves "dead". While Gira focused on Angels Of Light, Norman Westberg, Algis Kizys and Vinnie Signorelli paired up with Dan Joeright (The Rentals) and Kelly Burns for a project of "rock type music" under the name A/N. This project was recorded in 96-97 has never been released in any format. Limited hand-numbered edition of 275 copies on oxblood and black swirled vinyl.

“The origin of this record is a weird one. In 2019, we had just returned from two long European tours when we decided to take a ‘little break’ from the road. You all know what happened next. That ‘little break’ turned into a couple of years and during that time Dane, our drummer, decided to quit the band and music in general (no hard feelings). Sean [Hoffman] and I had a discussion and thought about ending the band as a whole, but I knew I had to go out on my own terms. I had an ace in the hole, though. Jeff Murray, drummer from LA rippers The Shrine. I had been friends with Jeff and The Shrine’s founder, Josh Landau since our ‘Scavenger’ 7-inch came out, around 2012. We had run into them in Berlin a few months back and I knew they weren’t playing anymore. I called Josh first, ’cause asking a dude if you can take his drummer, is like asking your girlfriend’s dad if you can marry her. And Josh said ‘go for it.’ And Jeff was in.

“Honestly if he had said no, that would have been the end. I had written a ton of stuff since our last album but I had shelved most of it. I was trying too hard—basically. Eventually Sean, Jeff and I said, ‘Fuck it, let’s make a ‘Fake Live’ record—like Kiss or Slayer did. John Dwyer from Osees was opening his new studio, Discount Mirrors, and it seemed like the perfect place to record it. We settled on re-recording a bunch of old stuff while simultaneously demoing our new material, as the three of us were now starting to really get in the groove. The result is Strange Masters Vol. 1.

“These are not new songs. These are Zig Zags classics re-recorded with a ripping-ass band that’s old and angry and just wants to get on with it. We are already on to recording the next album of new songs. That one is coming soon, but in the meantime, enjoy this one…while you still can!” —Jed Maheu (guitars/vocals for Zig Zags)

Over the course of a couple of years in the mid-1970s, several musicians from the St. Louis, Missouri area gave notice to club and festival crowds that they were there to rock the house down. Their cover and original songs were accentuated by a bedrock rhythm section, heavy guitar riffs and tasty solos, topped off with powerful vocals. Rockers that witnessed them agree—Back Jack created solid songs and high-energy performances.

Beginning in 1971 as Trellis, the band members changed their name to Back Jack when they saw the bumper sticker that Kim McKinney’s dad, Jack McKinney, distributed during his election bid for the Mayor of Pacific, Missouri, home of the core three-piece band: Kim McKinney, Mike Collier, and Hans Myers (rip).

The 1974 version of Back Jack was active from very early 1974 to late-fall of 1974. The core three-piece band, Collier, McKinney, and Myers, recorded several tracks during their tenure and four of those tracks are included on this release. Temporary band members not on the recordings were Gary Reed (piano, Rip), Greg Witt (guitar, keyboards), Paul Cockrum (guitar), and Bill Niehoff (drums).

The four-piece, 1975 version of Back Jack was a merging of members of Back Jack 1974 (Mike Collier and Kim McKinney) and another local band, Osage Lute (Jeff Ballew and Mike Lusher). They were active from late-fall of 1974 to late-summer of 1975. Four of the tracks on the Back Jack LP were recorded by these four musicians.

As corny as it sounds, you can’t help but describe Bermuda Squares as a Minneapolis supergroup. Ringleaded by singer/guitarist Tony Milek, the band comprises members of Sinks, Neo Neos, Citric Dummies, Color TV, green/blue, Retainers, Dummy, the Soviettes, IV, and Awesome Snakes. That pedigree alone provides a good idea of where you’re heading here. Clever pop for dumdums. Well crafted knuckledragging catchy fuzz hammered out meticulously by idiots.

"Toujours l'été" is the very first Les Négresses Vertes Best Of on Vinyl. 12 classic track on white vinyl edition fairly priced , from" Sous le soleil de Bodéga", "Voilà l'été" to "Zobi La mouche " and Massive Attack's cult remix of "Face à la mer " .
Les Négresses Vertes are a cult french alternative band formed in 1987 with a unique sound. The original line up was a group of 9 friends, some of them never played music before : we can say they very quickly improved . They can be best described as a fusion of world music and alternative rock. Their particular music influences were Raï, Mediterrean music and French café / chanson française up to lyrics. They were in the same time a big band & a rock band with tremendous concerts throughout the UK & Europe . After two first and cult albums "Mlah" & "Famille Nombreuse" and the death of the former charismatic singer Helno, the band decided to keep on playing with Stéphane Mellino & (Matias) Canavese replacing Helno as the main songwriters & singers. After "Zig-Zague" & "Trabendo" albums, they disbanded in 2001.
Following a few live reunions , Stéphane & Iza Mellino ,original members, reformed the live band in 2018 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of cult debut album "Mlah" with an intensive French tour. They have kept playing since and will be back onstage from late spring 2024 for a 30 dates new tour visiting a few countries and very likely to be extended in 2025. Longue vie aux Négresses Vertes !

The pack is back with six scorching new Oi! infused American hardcore tracks that will boil you over and leave everything in your path a smoldering wastepile. Denver has never been known as a mild place and “Endless Siege” reflects Direct THREAT’s harsh environment to a tee, tackling subjects ranging from a monotonous reality sparking violence to hopeless futures to threats and paranoia. To say life is uneasy is putting it mildly and mild is something DT just doesn’t fuck with. Our favorite lyric line on the record sums it all up nicely: “We are the hammer and they are the nail.” If you let these sounds fuel your fight, you cannot lose. 500 on black 70gr vinyl housed in a 350 gsm reverse board glue pocket sleeve with lyric sheet included.

The legendary, influential, celebrated and inarguably smallest release by I Hate Myself. First pressing in twenty-four years housed in pocket sleeves from the original source artwork and pressed on limited edition glow-in-the-dark vinyl.

Must we bleed to buy a bridge? A life led punk takes a left turn to there and back again lane, and we find Soup Activists. This is St Louis’ new mutant pop, Martin Meyer’s solo studio project (and ensemble live band). Mummy What Are Flowers For?, the act’s new LP on Inscrutable Records, is punk’s gift back to pop. Friends, penpals, and mail order maniacs will all be told, a princely player with a heart of gold journeyed to Lawrence Kansas to record and rock. With Sweeping Promises, MM ignored the studio clock. SP’s Caufield Schnug behind the board and Lira Mondal in front of the mic, providing supporting vocals.

Songcraft has always been an essential part of Marty’s world (Lumpy and the Dumpers, the Wad, Cal and the Calories, Fried E/m) and special care is provided on Mummy. There’s the crackle and verve of Dolly Mixture, the slyness of Television Personalities, and the pure fun of the Freshies. The pogo is an apt dance for album openers 'Jeffrey Jarvis' and 'Boys With Plants.' Curiously dressed adolescents lay the groundwork for 'Matching Teens' and its swinging organ and crunching guitar. Lira’s singing is furiously focused and fulfilling on “The Times,” bottled fun. 'It’s a hit! It’s a hit!' These are the screams I hear each night in the Soup Activists concert audience. Let 'Some Doves Don’t' be your introduction to new wave. 'Chaos Girls' is an anthem for the apocalypse that dances dangerously in a zone of perilous joy.

Martin has worn many hats, and now we are closer to the dome than ever before with this guitar-pop project. Big, freaky-beefy, and beautiful, Soup Activists’ new LP is personal. It’s strange when you’re living the dream. We are lucky to live in this wonderful world and to have Martin Meyer making it more wonderful."—Reese Higgins (Gentle Reminder Records)

Heaven is the culmination of many years hard work and careful consideration of all the modern methods of outsider and extreme music being funneled into one comprehensive overview of Japan’s underground culture as Klonns sees it. Since their 2016 inception, they have drawn inspiration not only from their allies in the punk/hardcore scene, but also their friends from other scenes such as techno, experimental music, industrial/noise, hip-hop, etc. A united creative community of forward thinking maniacs centered on pushing culture in a positive direction. The “new Wave OF Japanese Hardcore” has never sounded more necessary.

Portland, OR's Long Knife have spent the last 10+ years turning out some of the most well-crafted and unrelenting hardcore punk in North America, fusing the speed and ferocity of first wave Ushc, the barely restrained chaos of Japanese hardcore, and the guitar heroism of classic Hard Rock to devastating effect. And with three albums, numerous 7"s and compilation appearances to their name, this is a band that's never been content to rest on their laurels. If you, woefully ignorant poseur that you are, somehow missed the memo, and are now desperately clamoring to own the band’s long out of print EPs, TKO Records has got you covered. Rip City Bonerpunk Classics Vol. 1 compiles all of Long Knife's 7” tracks, including 'Possession,' 'Sewers of Babylon,' and 'Night of the Hunter,' as well as songs from their split 7” with Japanese Hardcore legends Forward and several previously unreleased covers. The assembled material featured on Rip City is some of the most incisive, hard-hitting, and musically interesting Hardcore Punk available today. Whether you pine for the unhinged guitar wizardry of G.I.S.M., the pummeling neanderthal churn of Motörhead, or the frenetic lunacy of United Mutation, Long Knife delivers. Grab a copy while you can, or don’t and wish you did later.

Escape Forever is a signal from the past, a loose thread that pulls us from our nostalgia filled bedrooms into our present moment. Both a loving homage to teenage memories and an intense response to our current milieu. Soft Kill’s Escape Forever is thirteen raw tunes, musings and samples with Chicago artist RBTayskii as the spiritual tour guide. The record is delightfully centered around just the painful and joyful moment of creation, where guitars and melodies are supreme. Soft Kill attempts to grapple with the chaos of the world coming back to harmony, to reconcile with the past, to embrace it. A reverie on how to remain humble and intentional in an ever more complicated world. As Emerson once said we are artists because we are unsuccessful people living in an unsuccessfully realized world. Escape Forever tries to find transcendence in the knuckle bruising nightmare we came from instead of the realm of the phenomenal, praised and often overreaching. It harkens back to another era, but Escape Forever is decidedly the sound of us now. Edition of 500 copies on gold vinyl.

The 9th studio album of the band tumido features trumpet player Alex Kranabetter (Soap and Skin, Vodoo
Jürgens). For more than 20 years Tumido has been on the lookout for something new, always on the move,
focused on energy in any form, driving rhythms, powerful bass, spacey drones. Trumpet has always been a big
part of their sound universe, so it felt very natural to collaborate with a master of trumpet sounds, Alex
Kranabetter and record an album together.
Lithox - a maelstrom you can't escape, sucked in by a hypnotic bass & driving rhythms into a trance world you
don't want to leave
Dwa - a summer hit out of Hades on the slide to hell.
180° - a volcanic eruption on a lonely island - pure energy;
Dirt Rodeo - the branches of the fire tree dance with laughter, clouds of smoke cloud the senses and the landing
is a success.

tbc

While their first two releases (Prequel and Space Mirror) saw these veterans of post-punk, new psychedelic noise, and 1990s garage rock expertly navigate the murky waters of Covid isolation with yoga-worthy ambient excursions, on their third record the quartet slides into fifth gear and terraplanes toward a fresh take on instrumental prog-rock. It’s not entirely unexpected, but there’s rapid accelerated growth at play on Tabula Rasa.

Infinite River is composed of Gretchen Gonzales (Universal Indians, Slumber Party, Terror at the Opera), Warren Defever (His Name is Alive, ESP Beetles, Ethan Daniel Davidson), Joey Mazzola (Detroit Cobras, Sponge, Sugarcoats), and special guest drummer Steve Nistor (Sparks, Ural Thomas, Seedsmen to the World). These instrumental recordings were tracked between the end of 2022 and the start of 2023 in Warren Defever’s new loft studio space in glorious Hamtramck, MI, where the sessions were supervised by Defever’s cat, Brother James. “My apartment is a big, echoey room; previously we were close together in a tight space,” Defever explains. “The other studio is cozy; this is an art gallery. So it’s a really different vibe.”

Tabula Rasa is closer to what the band is like live now. It highlights the point at which new age type music can become biker rock—which at times approximates Hawkwind or much German music from 1976, while rarely sounding like anything but itself. Tracks like “Around the Sun” and

“Sky Diamonds” definitely have evolved out of the group playing new age type music together. But here, the melodies are more pronounced; the chords and harmonies are more like pop music. Drone-based elements remain, but the pieces are shorter and far more propulsive.

Gonzales shows off her noise-guitar pedigree with both subtlety and aggression. Defever has largely ditched his tanpura for a bass synthesizer. It’s a joy to hear Nistor, who’s been a member of Sparks for close to two decades, open up, and just go gonzo on his kit. Mazzola’s songwriting has followed suit; these are great (and often lovely) compositions here. And his practice in playing with the band, especially Nistor, allows Mazzola to open up new possibilities for downright prog than he’s ever shown before.

A highlight has to be their crunchy and multi-part take on “Favorite Things,” which truly shows off Infinite Rivers’ diverse backgrounds. Defever relates that “Gretchen only knew the song from Coltrane’s take, while Joey only knew it from Sound of Music.” If that’s not worlds colliding, what is?

- Mike McGonigal

Matt Loveridge is a prolific multi-instrumentalist condemned to Bristol, UK. He has over sixty solo records under various monikers, done before and after his time in Beak>, none of which appear on major streaming platforms, nor get much attention. His work as Mxlx is a miasmatic fog, and he tosses the listener deep into it. Kicking Away At The Decrepit Walls Til The Beautiful Sunshine Blisters Thru The Cracks is his most celebrated release (if one counts hate mail), and it appears here for the first time both on vinyl and somewhere not on his own site.

Songs swerve between ambient, electronic ambient noise, metal, and industrial. Vocal harmonies ride arpeggiated basslines and shimmering synth lines, ascending upwards before plummeting into distorted screams. And yet, Loveridge’s aggression does not overlook introspection. He faces one stripped of all pretense, creaking “I’ve got that dumb skull of yours locked in place,” apologizing, “I’m sorry for all that I’ve done in the name of myself” and laughing in one’s face, “Just kidding, I hope you rot in the ground.” Drawing from an obsession with literature, he’s converted a life stricken with bouts of depression and homelessness into febrile sonic turbulence. He channels the intensity of groups like Pharmakon and The Body, while embracing compositional noise like Colin Stetson. With droning organs, emotionless chanting, and fleeting walls of sound, his results have more to do with cosmic futility than petty score-settling.

Mxlx produces barren liturgies of raw emotion, like a fallen medieval monk given a synthesizer. He pulls the listener from comfort, spits in their eye, and abandons them as roadkill. An explosive catharsis not for faint hearts or distracted minds.

As a true Brazilian music aficionado, Skinshape was naturally captivated by Pedro Mizutani's charm. So, when Pedro visited Europe in the summer of 2023, Skinshape invited him to its London studio. Together, magic effortlessly unfolded. Pedro sets the rhythm, while Skinshape sets the grain. With Skinshape weaving in basslines and other arrangements around Mizutani's mesmerizing guitar playing, the collaboration was a breeze. The two musicians understood each other in the blink of an eye. Together, they crafted a true homage to bossa nova. Without overshadowing Mizutani's style, Skinshape brought out his full musicality. It was a seamless symbiosis. The duo created a one-of-a-kind work. In the spirit of the Afrobeats movement, one could even describe it as "bossa-pop," maintaining the essence of the genre while incorporating British aesthetic elements under Skinshape's discerning ear. A sprinkling of shimmering bells here, kicks dipped in reverb there, and jazzy basslines for that extra touch of groove. As for Pedro Mizutani, he excelled in delicacy as always and did not lose altitude, soaring to even greater heights.