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Over a catalog of six albums, Native Harrow have produced a discography of “rich, engrossing records” and “instant classics” while single-mindedly following their own artistic code, acquiescing only to the exigence of the song: each song its own world with its own rules. Formed a decade ago, Native Harrow spent their first five or six years crisscrossing the United States and Canada on numerous tours, averaging more than 150 concerts per year in 47 states and 4 provinces, on the back of two self-released albums, Ghost (2015) and Sorores (2017). In 2019, they released Happier Now, partnering with London alt-country stalwarts Loose Records. The record garnered glowing reviews, with Rough Trade selecting it for its album of the month, writing “Beautifully soaring... rolling grooves ground languid and dreamy clearwater shimmers of sound.” The critical acclaim and Americana chart success of the album prompted three back-to-back UK tours in 2019 and early 2020, ultimately leading to a three-year stint living and touring in the UK and Europe. In this time, Native Harrow released two more critically acclaimed records with Loose; Closeness (2020) and Old Kind of Magic (2022), playing for audiences ranging from rock clubs in Norway and Sweden to opera halls in Portugal, and every stop in-between, as well as performing at festivals such as BST Hyde Park (supporting the Eagles and Robert Plant & Alison Kraus), Greenman Festival, Black Deer Festival, The Great Escape, Celtic Connections, Moseley Folk Festival, Sxsw, and many more. Following the eruption of its title track, Side A of “Divided Kind” transitions nimbly through hazy tremolo-laden dusty canyons, past an intimate soulful love letter, and towards a moody anthem of devotion buoyed by propulsive grooves, before ultimately settling on a gentle bird’s-eye-view of love and transcendence. Side B opens with the debut single, “Goin’ Nowhere” a soul transmission over incendiary bass and undulating layers of guiro, congas, tambourines, shakers, and handclaps that sidesteps into moments of infinite dial-toned burnished, Rhodes-propelled soul-jazz and self-assured blues rock à gogo before ending in a spectral folk reading on celestial meditation. “Divided Kind” was produced and recorded by the pair, in their home studio surrounded by the vintage acoustic and electric guitars, dusty semi-functional amplifiers, and out-of-date Rhodes, B3, piano, and assorted percussion they’ve grown accustomed to. Chicago-based Alex Hall was again drafted to add drums and to mix, and Philadelphia drummer and engineer Joshua Friedman mastered the record. London-based musician Joe Harvey-Whyte added the pedal steel to “Borrowing Time”, with all other voices and instruments being performed by Tuel and Harms. “Divided Kind” is available everywhere September 13 on Different Time Records.

*** LP with CD in cardboard sleeve & 8 page CD booklet incl. liner notes by Steve Barker & DL Code ***

Ulrich Troyer has been producing music now solidly for over twenty years within a largely genre free framework, but whilst navigating forms such as avant-garde, techno, leftfield, field recording, electronica, glitch and ambient it is the aesthetics of dub that guide his creative direction. Not really recognisable in an orthodox form as remixed versions of roots reggae songs but in the way sonics are manipulated with space, the application and layering of delay, reverb and echo that fixes his output well within the scope of what might be called futurist dub.

The nearest comparisons to his new album Transit Tribe can only be established by a synthesis of some of the more adventurous explorations in modern music such as African Head Charge, Jon Hassell, Pole (Stefan Betke), Bill Laswell or even Miles Davis; featuring a diverse selection of artists and friends not only from Vienna and environs but also from around the world, sounds are not so much fused but allowed to float along the continuous flowing tide of warm waves of bass.

Rather than to allow the names of Ulrich Troyer's collaborators be merely listed in the album credits, what they bring to this joyful affair needs to be outlined, albeit briefly: Co-producer credits go to Osman Murat Ertel from Istanbul, who employed a variation on the old foolproof Nick Lowe method for checking out the impact quality of his own sound productions by playing tracks through his car sound system speakers!
Murat is a member of the electro-psych-folk group Baba Zula where he plays electric saz, oscillators and theremin and played a key part in the creative development of the album. Mamadou Diabate, the balafon master originally from Burkina Faso and now resident in Vienna, has developed his own unique technique of playing solos that replicate the sound of three instruments playing in unison; however the multi-talented Mamadou is engaged here on singing and playing the talking drum. From South Tyrol Reinhilde Gamper is a member of the experimental trio Greifer who are bringing the sound of the zither into the twenty-first century using new playing techniques and electronic gadgets. Susanna Gartmayer is an Austrian composer and bass clarinetist specialising in improv and multimedia sound research. Diggory Kenrick has been engaged with creating new dub fusions and also re-energising classic rocksteady and roots reggae classics, renowned for his interventions on flute. Didi Kern is an electronic dance musician and drummer from Vienna with a focus on free improvised music. Hamidou Koita, a singer and multi-instrumentalist, is from a traditional Griot family in Burkina Faso but now resident in Vienna and a regular musical partner of Mamadou Diabate playing drums and calabash. Austrian Lukas Lauermann is both a studio and live musician playing cello, also working on electronic sound design and writing string arrangements. He has recorded extensively and appeared on stage with both Mark Lanegan and Hans-Joachim Roedelius. Martin Mallaun is a Tyrol-born specialist in both the development of the zither in modern music and also as a researcher in the effects of climate change on the vegetation of Alpine ecosystems. After studying classical percussion Flip Philipp is now a jazz vibraphone player and member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Wolfgang Pfistermüller is a member of the Vienna Trombone Quartet and the developer of the incredible bass-trombone Aurora with its uniquely warm and resonant sound. Roger Robinson is a renowned British poet, winner of many contemporary poetry prizes and member of the experimental music group King Midas Sound. Kwame Yeboah is a Ghanaian born UK based keyboard wizard who tours regularly with Yusuf / Cat Stevens, Ms. Dynamite and Pat Thomas.
So contained on the album is an astonishing mix of musicians and instruments: sounds of cowbells recorded in the South Tyrolean alps processed by modular synthesizers and heavy analogue bass synths combined with instruments such as zither, bass-zither, electro saz, flute, talking drum, trombone, cello, marimba, djembe, contra-alto clarinet, Farfisa - all bound together by organic live-drums and dub effects.
Liner notes by Steve Barker
(DJ, Radio Presenter - On the Wire, BBC 1984 – 2023, now Slack City Radio & reggae/dub columnist and contributor to The Wire)

Credits:

Mamadou Diabate: vocals (3) & talking drum (3)
Osman Murat Ertel: electric saz (6, 7) & guitar (7)
Reinhilde Gamper: zither & bass-zither (9)
Susanna Gartmayer: contra-alto clarinet (8)
Diggory Kenrick: flute (2)
Didi Kern: drums (1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8), percussion (3, 6)
Hamidou Koita: vocals (3), djembe (3)
Lukas Lauermann: cello (1)
Martin Mallaun: zither (9)
Wolfgang Pfistermüller: trombone (1)
Flip Philipp: c-marimba (1, 9), percussion (6)
Roger Robinson: vocals (4)
Ulrich Troyer: analog synthesizers (1-9), analog drum-machines (1-9), e-bass (1, 5, 7), sampler (1-9), prepared zither (1), field recordings (3, 6, 8), dub effects (1-9)
Kwame Yeboah: rhodes (5), vox (5), farfisa (5)

Written & arranged by Ulrich Troyer except 2 written by Diggory Kenrick & Ulrich Troyer / 3 written by Mamadou Diabate, Hamidou Koita & Ulrich Troyer / 4 written by Roger Robinson & Ulrich Troyer / 5 written by Kwame Yeboah & Ulrich Troyer / 6 & 7 written by Osman Murat Ertel & Ulrich Troyer

Recorded by Ulrich Troyer at 4Bit Studio & 4Bit Bungalow, Vienna - except: electro saz on track 6, 7 & guitar on track 7 recorded by Osman Murat Ertel at Saniki Studio, Istanbul / flute on track 2 recorded by Diggory Kenrick at Holloway Studio, London / vocals on track 4 recorded by Roger Robinson at Dog Heart City Studios / c-marimba recorded by Ulrich Troyer at Konzerthaus, Vienna / rhodes, vox & farfisa on track 5 recorded by Kwame Yeboah at Kwashibu Music Studio, Accra

Mixed by Ulrich Troyer at 4Bit Studio & 4Bit Bungalow, Vienna
Produced by Ulrich Troyer & Osman Murat Ertel / kindly supervised by Diggory Kenrick
Cover Artwork: Ink drawings & design by Ulrich Troyer / kindly supervised by Eva Kelety
Mastering & Laquer-Cut: Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin

Kid Simius is back with his third full length album, this time via Bristol label Shall Not Fade.

Jose LP is 10 tracks of high-quality dance music, delving deep on all things jazz, house & disco, showing with Kid Simius is one of the most innovating producers in the current dance music scene.

Svart Records proudly present Winter’s most classic, gloomy and crust laden doom EP “Eternal Frost” for the first time as a vinyl version on its own

”Eternal Frost” is an EP by New York’s cult death doom band Winter. Never before released on vinyl as its own release and only included in the deluxe edition of ”Into Darkness” released by Svart Records in 2020, ”Eternal Frost” will finally be available on wax in August 2024.

Formed in New York circa 1988, Winter played slow, deep and hard nuclear doom with a crust punk rawness, that came across like Hellhammer jamming with Amebix. Their penchant for mammoth sized and funeral-paced, wasteland droning has become a touchstone reference for bands across the whole spectrum of underground metal.

Originally released only on CD by Nuclear Blast in 1994, ”Eternal Frost” is a reissue of the 1989 eponymously titled demo tape with an additional track “Manifestation I”. Winter’s pre-internet infamy led to their demos being tape- traded in hallowed adoration by fans and bands alike, gaining notable fans such as Fenriz from Darkthrone.

“Eternal Frost” is available on Svart exclusive white/red/gold/orange marble vinyl, limited clear/green marble vinyl, and classic black vinyl. Release date August 2nd.

Svart Records is proud to reissue the production of Argentinian blues rock legend Pappo's Blues as vinyl versions. Guitarist-singer Pappo aka Norberto Aníbal Napolitano (1950 – 2005) is one of his country's biggest rock legends, who also managed to make a career outside his home country. He was there right from the beginning of Argentine rock, as guitarist of the first version of Los Abuelos de la Nada, Conexión Nº 5, Engranaje and Los Gatos, the band that made Argentine rock a household name thanks to the success of their first single, “La Balsa”, which sold more than 200.000 copies in 1967.

Jorge Álvarez (co-founder of the first Argentinian independent rock label Mandioca) encouraged Pappo to develop his own music. What followed was the formation of the first version of Pappo’s Blues in 1971, a trio that had Pappo himself on guitar and vocals, David Lebón on bass and Black Amaya on drums. Their self-named debut album was an unqualified success among the ever-growing audience of Argentine rock. It contained a bundle of all-time classics such as “El hombre suburbano” (The suburban man), “El viejo” (The old man) and “Adónde está la Libertad” (Where is freedom?).

Pappo’s Blues (1971, also known as “Volume One”) introduced a new element to Argentine rock: a harder rock and blues sound, combined with intelligent and sensitive lyrics with centered on the vicissitudes of a typical young man trying to live life according to his own rules, surrounded by the mores of an intolerant society. The arabesques of Pappo’s guitar, complemented by a solid and yet elastic rhythm section, made for an exciting and daring sound, where his trademark rock and blues sound also extended to embrace blues ballads and even excursions into psychedelia.

Svart Records proudly present the vinyl reissue of Grave Pleasures’ modern classic album Motherblood

There are still those rare bands out there in the world that have a unique ability to combine macabre, mystifying rock with a more pop-oriented flare, a la early Bowie or early The Cure. Grave Pleasures are such a band that is equally suited for playing on a stadium stage, or in some Lynchian nightmare. It’s that duality and electrifying contradiction that makes their music so exhilarating.

Lead guitarist Juho Vanhanen (Oranssi Pazuzu) steps up to write the majority of the songs together with British-born outcast Mat McNerney (Hexvessel, ex- Beastmilk/DHG/Code). His screaming telecaster and unique interplay of discord and harmony has become a trademark of the band’s sound. Together with guitarist Aleksi Kiiskilä (ex - Kohu 63), their strings shimmer, hammer and howl out a web of sound which is distinctly Grave Pleasures. Fleshed out by the hypnotic signature rhythms of Valtteri Arino (ex- Beastmilk) on bass and Rainer Tuomikanto frenetically pounding the funeral drums (Ajattara, ex- Shining Swe), this group of well-established punks have started to reach up to their zenith on their sordid testament Motherblood.

Motherblood was recorded at Orgone Studios in the UK with Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Ulver, Paradise Lost) in March 2017 and originally released by Century Media on the same year. The studio was suitably situated on the site of an old WW2 coding bunker and brought with it the isolation of the bleak British countryside. The setting helped give the album an intense and smiling urgency that picks up where 80s UK bands such as Magazine, The Wire and Echo And The Bunnymen left off, but never stopping long enough to look back too much into the past. Featuring guest vocals from David Tibet from Current 93, the band sets the tone for their inspirations, from the esoteric underground of England’s hidden reverse to Manchester’s sound of misery. With their own metallic raw tone clashed with pop hooks, Motherblood is a furiously passionate and contemporary record, which re-defines post-punk as a “war-cry for the eternally doomed.”

They have been described as "A post-punk wet dream," or perhaps more honestly as "bat-shit lunatics," and their music is in a funereal world of its own. Motherblood is a truly danceable, pop-feast of raw, banging pleasure – in all its primitive, gothic tribalism. Dance-floor death rock that brings with it an uncanny sense of inspired song craft that made Bowie’s Berlin era sound so fresh and revolutionary, Killing Joke’s tribal anthems so desperately ominous and dark throbbing melancholy of Depeche Mode’s atmospheric pop so damn sexy. Just about every part of this record bleeds menace, or emanates nuclear fumes. It’s unsafe territory which in turn makes it thrilling, sexy and most dangerously of all, catchy.