Back catalogue: Funk Soul & Jazz

Review: Spiritual flute jazz by the mastermind Antti Vauhkonen aka. Oiro Pena. Coming only to a limited edition lathe-cut 10'', of which only 20 copies exist, there's something in the ultra-exclusivist approach to release and distribution here that seems to mimic and or bottle the sentiment of the record. Oiro Pena, first released via Ultraaani in 2019, was made after the Finnish musician found solace and inspiration in the question: who was the first person to create instrumental music? Arriving at the conclusion that this person was probably alone, the ensuing LP is an engaging testament to the idea that wellsprings of spiritual, flauting sonics might gush forth from such thought experiments. Through four pieces of rippling flute-jazz, backed by free-strained piano and double bass accompaniments and sprinkled thereover by keyboards, drums, strings and reams of percs, all of which were at some point played by Vauhkonen himself.

Review: Renowned reeds player, composer, and producer Finn Peters unveils his latest offering Red, Green and Blue and it is a vibrant fusion of global influences condensed into three potent tracks of what Peters dubs 'ancient techno'. This solo endeavour continues Peters' sonic exploration and expands upon the palette he began with his Purple and Yellow EP nearly a decade ago. MPC3000 and SP12 percussion intertwines with cosmic flute choirs and transcendent saxophone, guided by analogue synths that bridge eras past and future. Inspired by dreams of the Miraculous Mandarin, an immortal mystic from the future, Peters crafts musical resonance here, awash with alchemy and timelessness.

Review: For a project that has taken thirty years it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown a lockdown-project. There's a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

The one remaining untapped energy source here is perhaps FEAR, refreshing when used correctly, but never imposter syndrome. As maligned and mutated as this British Hip-Hop might appear to be, it could not be more pure. Each member of all of the Hypocritical Beatdown crew were committed to this cause as soon as the doors opened. They rapped on stages before they had even tasted beer or lost their virginity and the curse had already taken hold in the years when these youngsters still had to be back home before dark and it has never left their bloodstreams.

That's why this record NEEDED to be made. Completed, recorded, exorcised, committed to vinyl, rotated and liberated. Not unlike the VHS tape in a well known Japanese horror film, every listened copy, complete with its broken beats, old-school sensibilities and Marmite Mancunian accents, adds to the mystic circle... breaks the dream... some people might even like it. If you were given a chance to go back and meet your teenage self, wouldn't you?

Review: Some 25 killer library music cuts by the German film music maestro Peter Thomas, on audiophile pressing, in a deluxe 2×10? set. Uber-rare, never-before-released material spanning 1968-1976 - and sourced from Thomas' personal reel-to-reel tape archive - this bombastic instrumental set spans a whole range of quirky overseen by the composer himself, documenting an approach to composition that essentially augurs electronic music production as we know it today. Prolific in scope, the 25 pieces here rival the sheerly industrious proliferations of many of today's artists, and even outstrips them in quantitative ambition; but then again, what less might one expect from a soundtrack artist by trade, whose work spanned over 600 films? Best of this bunch have to be 'Meeting Palermo', whose brushes revel in a beaucoup frisson, and 'Astral Snow' - a whacked-out absurdist electro-disco frazzler for the most frenetic out there. This one also comes with four recently unearthed 'lost' tracks from Warner Chappell's CPM Archive series, which have never been released on vinyl before. We'll hazard a quip: the word 'timeless' often doesn't come to mind, yet it has done here.