Leaving US Schallplatten & CDs

Review: This official reissue of Bela Lugosi's Dead: The Bela Session comes on black and red splattered vinyl this time around and includes previously unreleased tracks that have been mastered from the original demo tapes of their first ever recording session together. The post-punk outfit's debut single was released initially in 1979. Bela Lugosi's Dead is not only their first single, but also often gets mentioned as the first goth record. It has since been covered by Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack and Nouvelle Vague. The rest of the tunes from the demo session remain hugely innovative, reflecting their post-punk and dark-glam style with dub reggae influences that would further evolve in their output that followed and explain why the band went on to such cult status.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


This official reissue of Bela Lugosi's Dead: The Bela Session comes on black and red splattered vinyl this time around and includes previously unreleased tracks that have been mastered from the original demo tapes of their first ever recording session together. The post-punk outfit's debut single was released initially in 1979. Bela Lugosi's Dead is not only their first single, but also often gets mentioned as the first goth record. It has since been covered by Nine Inch Nails, Massive Attack and Nouvelle Vague. The rest of the tunes from the demo session remain hugely innovative, reflecting their post-punk and dark-glam style with dub reggae influences that would further evolve in their output that followed and explain why the band went on to such cult status.

Review: Leaving Records continues to gift us the most blissful sounds from parts unknown, or more specifically the LA underground, with this album from Fabiano Do Nascimento. The Brazil-born guitarist carries his roots through into his playing, gently folding samba and choro influences and a rich background in Brazilian classical into compositions embellished with the lightest touches of electronics. It's a resolutely soothing listen, as you would expect from Leaving, but it's not a static field of ambience. Rather, there are hidden treasures and intriguing pathways Nascimento leads us down, always finding a sense of resolution even the surroundings shift before our ears.

Review: Experimental saxophonist Sam Gendel has been gifting us with reams of golden material in the past few years, from collaborative wonders to solo reflections, but this Fresh Bread will keep us chewing for days. Clearly Gendel can't help but make incredible music, and this collection is pulled from his personal archives of skits, sketches, unreleased pieces and more in between. It sounds shockingly complete for what is meant to be a gathering of offcuts, but the diaristic quality does feel like getting closer to the inner workings of the artist. If you appreciate beats, loops and experimental vignettes with an organic quality, you'll find a lot to enjoy in here.

Review: Back in 2018 Leaving Records first released this low key gem from Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, which blended the natural lull of live saxophone and bass guitar with considered FX processing to create some spellbinding grooves somewhere on the outer periphery of soul jazz. It's totally fresh, totally chill, and bursting with soul thanks to the impeccable playing from Gendel and Wilkes. It's gone through a number of iterations including previous tape issues and a white label private press run of 50, and now it's finally getting a repress so the latecomers can cop a wax edition and shirk the scalpers. Music this warm and fuzzy deserves to be heard on wax.

Review: Green-House is the handiwork of Olive Ardizoni, who finds a sympathetic ear in Leaving Records for her delicate, pastoral strains of ambient reflection. Rather than being static, these are charmingly alive pieces that quiver with sensitivity and plaintive melodies that suggest some inspiration from the iconic Mort Garson record composed for houseplants. If you enjoyed that wobbly ride through sweet-natured synth refrains, you'll love this album too as it interweaves warm tones around bucolic field recordings. This comes highly recommended - a record that leaves you feeling nourished after listening.

Review: Non-binary Los Angeles-based artist Olive Ardizoni aka Green-House serves up gorgeously pure and innocent sounds on this debut ambient album. It is filled with awe and wonder that will clean your brain and sooth your soul. It was written during the pandemic and continues plenty of whimsical melodies, distant bird sounds and a comforting lo-fi hiss. Ardizoni says of the record, "I'm trying to hit that part of the brain that's affected by the emotional state that you're in when you perceive something as cute." Mission accomplished.

Review: Ground Groove is the third album from LA-based, Iranian-American producer and DJ, Maral. It begins with the sprawling, achingly heavy 'Feedback Jam', dense enough to distort reality crushed beneath the track's lumbering heartbeat and waves of distortion. As each wave recedes, samples trickle forward in the mix, voices and instruments rising and falling in uncanny reverse. 'Feedback Jam' serves both as an initiation ritual, and a thesis statement for the record that follows.
Composed largely on Ableton, Ground Groove features frequent 'live recordings from Maral on guitar, bass, and vocals - but to say it's a huge step up in mixing and audio quality is an understatement. The attention to detail is immense. 'Ground Groove's eleven tracks are 'grooves' in the obvious sense, each being driven by a persistent, propulsive rhythm, but the album's title may just as well suggest the glacial passage of time that standout voices like these emerge as landmarks.

Review: No prizes for guessing the source of inspiration behind Leaving Records founder Matthewdavid's latest psyched out ambient odyssey, On Mushrooms is an immersive trip in itself but actually serves as precursor to the producer's forthcoming album, Mycelium Music, due to arrive in the coming months. An homage to the natural phenomena not just of hallucinogenic shrooms, but the bond between people and the natural world, and the hidden connections of that world. "When you go out for mushrooms in the hills of California there is an experience in which you wander for hours, scanning low until your eyes are fatigued and then suddenly there is a break in the chaparral and a cluster of immaculate King Boletes appears before you, posed with an almost hieratic intensity," says Matthewdavid. If you pay close attention to that moment of perception, it is almost always accompanied by a telepathic whispering voice that says: 'Oh hello, we've been waiting for you'."

Review: 'Cutetronica' (for want of a better pun, perhaps) has been making recent waves in experimental electronic music circles, with artists like Boy Lucid, Toiret Status, Dialect or any other number of net-bound trailblazers building convincing, glitzy-shiny soundworlds. Mari Maurice, aka. More Eaze, is another expert in the field. Her latest eight-track LP nods to something between acoustic folk and slippery-plastic fantasy; from the off of 'Gentle Pets', it's as if a small child had gone wandering in a field and dropped their Nintendogs cartridge with such force that it caused the game's virtual universe to spill over into our world, with veritably soul-quelling results. The album errs off into darker and more emotive moments, as on 'Suped' or 'Goodnight', but this is for the most part a light-hearted yet emotionally complex LP, neither for the faint or the heavy of heart - it strikes just the right balance.