Amelia Harmony Ramon Judah Jah 93 Simon Nyabinghi
Lessons Learned

New World is the fourth album from Nipaluna (Tasmania) via Meanjin (Brisbane) based artist Scraps. Over the past ten years, Scraps has proven to be one of the biggest unsung heroes in the Australian music underground. Her sound draws links between 80s and 90s synth pop and club music whilst remaining firmly set in the contemporary Australian underground. Her first album since 2016’s highly regarded “TTNIK” - New World takes us deeper into her infectious universe of abstracted wave classics, free form humour and contagious songwriting. These are charming pop songs with a certain indistinguishable glow floating around them. This album sees Scraps distilling what we love about her sound even further to produce one of her most realized albums to date.

COGNITIVE DISTORTION by RVRSRVR

New York’s indie disco funk crew is back with a new album. And it’s the right moment: With new acts like Toro Y Moi, Sault, Parcels, The Internet around… the funky, disco, old school vibe is big in 2020. And The Phenomenal Handclap Band fits perfectly. Probably all these new artists are fans of the Phenomenals. Because The PHB popped up for the first time 10 years ago. Some top knotch musicians from NYC’s funk scene playing dirty discofunk. Some of the bandmembers played in Mark Ronson’s projects and in Amy Winehouse’s backing band. Head of the band: Daniel Collás. Their self-titled debut album on Gomma records 2010 made them many fans in the music scene. A nasty fusion of forward-thinking disco, psychedelic prog rock, and classic soul with a splash of yacht rock. Back then the band took the road, supporting Bryan Ferry and Franz Ferdinand, playing shows at Glastonbury, Wireless, and Latitude… as well as getting praise from Sir Paul McCartney about their album! After the album Collás began to produce other artists in Brooklyn. The band paused. Now they are back. With Daniel Collás in the centre, along with new members multi-instrumentalist Juliet Swango, and vocalist and synthesizer wizard Monika Heidemann. Their sound is still essentially analog dance music, with an emphasis on raw soul, vocal harmonies, African percussion, fuzzy guitars and analog synthesizers.Toy Tonics · Phenomenal Handclap Band - PHB [TOYT110]

Having previously celebrated the deep and colourful world of late ‘80s and early ‘80s Italian house via the popular Welcome To Paradise compilation series, Safe Trip has now turned its attention to the roots and formative years of trance music.Planet Love: Early Transmissions 1990-95 showcases the roots and formative years of trance via 13 loved-up, psychedelic, colourful, melodious and surprisingly varied dancefloor experiments from Europe, Australia and the United States.The compilation includes pioneering proto-trance and early trance tracks from the likes of Hawke (AKA influential San Francisco producer Gavin Hardkiss), Epilson 9, Spooky, Oliver Lieb, Holy Ghost Inc, Morgan Wild (an outfit whose members included early NYC techno titan Damon Wild), Mijk van Dijk, Glam and Paul van Dyk.Packed with must-have cuts, slept-on gems and sought-after rarities, Planet Love: Early Transmissions 1990-95 maintains the loved-up, listenable vibe of Welcome to Paradise while broadening its musical horizons. It is not a definitive history of trance music’s early years, but rather a colourful, life-affirming celebration of the varied strands that came together to create one of dance music’s most popular and enduring styles.