[engl] BMX Bandits are back with their twelfth studio album, their most musically ambitious so far - 'Dreamers On The Run'. An album dedicated to all the outsiders out there.

[engl] „If I could be in any other band, it would be BMX Bandits" Kurt Cobain allegedly said. A great artist with excellent taste. The BMX Bandits have been around in varying formations since 1986 and come from great Scottish guitar pop lineage. Something must be in the drinking water in and around Glasgow, the density of legendary, fantastic bands is striking; Teenage Fanclub, Belle & Sebastian, Primal Scream, Vaselines, Pastels and... the BMX Bandits. With Duglas T. Stewart as the focal point, the band has been releasing great indie pop albums irregularly since 1989. Their first album "C86" is a classic and since then the band has had a worldwide fan base, be it in Tokyo, Hamburg and...well of course, Seattle. Deeply rooted in the golden era of pop - the 60s - as well as the DIY indie pop scene of the 80s, Duglas and the Bandits created their own sound and style. Humorous, heartfelt and always featuring great melodies. Humorous, heartfelt, great melodies...that's exactly our field of expertise! And so it was surely only a matter of time until we, Tapete Records, finally had the honour of releasing a BMX Bandits album. Welcome aboard!

[engl] What's the point of recovery if we were never really healthy to begin with? I started working on this record about four years ago, thinking of the American obsession with self-help, self-care and self-empowerment as a cruel and cheap substitute for helping each other. It's a concept that rewards those that have the money to help themselves, and blames those that don't for not trying hard enough. Then there were some elections. Now there is a narrative of "recovering" our stronger, bolder, racially pure, cultural and economic glory days. And then some of my friends started getting sick, or dying, or committed suicide. So it got real. But don't worry – the record doesn't sound depressing!

[engl] 12 tracks of the best bits by Australian Underground Legends BORED!. Geelong's most raucous guitar led rock action destroyers, whom started a whole scene back in 1987, 12 tracks picked by a long term fan/friend of the band as a tribute to Dave Thomas, leader of Bored! who passed away in early 2020. Dave Thomas from Bored! is widely regarded as a legendary riff master, a "scene" definer; many of the second (third?) wave of garage rock and roll noise from 1996 onwards owe many a debt, and a riff or two. All monies raised from this release to be passed to his surviving family. Its loud, and it rocks.. join in!

[engl] Borghesia’s new album is a free-floating retrofuturist industrial art rock epic based on Sre?ko Kosovel’s modernist poetry that sits somewhere between an alternative soundtrack of Blade Runner, the uncanny ambience of Coil, melancholy of Berlin era David Bowie and immediacy of Nine Inch Nails.

[engl] Tip-top of our osmosis list is the first quiver of tunes from Brigid Dawson and her newly minted Mothers Network: wise warnings dyed in dark hues, knotted and hard-won torch songs from the edge of a turbulent sea, bittersweet balladry spun in defense against evils familiar and unknown. Lovely though it may seem from a distance, the striation of loss quicksilvered throughout provides weighty balance to her contralto lilt. Those familiar with her harmonic counterpoint from her time in Thee Oh Sees or in OCS know she can belt as well as lullaby but there’s a fresh and smolderingly heavy swing in her step on display here that we mightily dig. “Ballet of Apes” tapestries together sessions that read like a who’s who from outside our own castle walls - in Australia with Mikey Young (Total Control/Eddy Current Suppression Ring), in San Francisco with Mike Donovan (ex Sic Alps), Shayde Sartin (ex Fresh & Onlys/lifetime ringer) and Mike Shoun (ex Oh Sees/Peacers), and in Brooklyn with instrumental heavy-weights Sunwatchers - and the results are spellbinding. At the focal point of this maelstrom, our lady, as if illumed by candlelight, intones, pleads, consoles - white magic perhaps but it carries with it the anodized tang of blood.

[engl] Art is a matter of different phases and influence. The artists' core reaches out like heat waves. And very rarely do these artists' core merge like Brigitte Fontaine and Arseki Belkacem have. Their Saravah Era lasted ten years (1969 to 1979), ten years of "folle sagesse" (crazy wisdom), above all genres and song limitation. « Le plaisir secret que donne une chanson, dessin à la craie sur le mur de tes sons » (the personal delight within song, a chalk drawing on your wall of sounds) whispers Areski, right after Brigitte's voice on the penultimate song of the double album "Vous et nous". Released in 1977, this free flowing record contains 33 songs, it's their 6th album after « Comme à la radio », « Brigitte 4 », « Je ne connais pas cet homme », « L'incendie » and « Le bonheur », and it continues to spread the wide and generous spectrum of the couple fully blossoming talent. Electronic experiments, North African trance, refined acoustics and medieval drones gracefully blend with the acid and candid tongues of the singers, surprising us each step along the way. The making of this record was also full of twists and turns. It started out as a solo effort by Areski at Jean-Pierre Chambard's studio. Little by little, as Areski was filling tapes with poems and improvised skits, Brigitte would sneak into the studio at nightfall, adding her voice here and there, her whispers then became screams, giving fuel to the fire in a total blaze, a surreal blaze. The solitary work ("je") thrived to become us ("nous") and you ("vous") …

[engl] Swedish alternative rock group Bring the Hoax are set to release their debut studio album ”Single Coil Candy” in May 2023. Combining sweet melodies with fuzzed out guitars into colorful, energetic, and dynamic rock music, the album contains the four tracks from Bring the Hoax’s self titled EP from 2022 (previously only released digitally) plus six new, until now unreleased songs. Produced and recorded by the band members themselves, the album offers massive soundscapes inspired by the punk-, indie- and grunge-era of the 90s’. Perfectly capturing the dynamic nature of the Stockholm based band, ”Single Coil Candy” hits the sweet spot where nostalgia meets modern expressions, and where unpolished, distorted, and riff-based rock meets beautiful, bittersweet vocals and delicate nuances - it’s everything you want in an action-packed 2023 indie rock record.

[engl] A follow up to 2012's widely-praised Tempest, Olympia, Washington favorites BROKEN WATER’s new album was recorded and mixed with STEVE FISK (Nirvana, Soundgarden) and features a mix of noisy, fuzzed-out guitars and melodic vocals. Features a guest appearance from LORI GOLDSTON (EARTH) on cello

[engl] "It’s 2019 and the planet is a mess. But back with a lightning flash and new tracks are the three enigmatic individuals collectively known as Burning Alms — Thomas Whitfield, Sebastian Lenton and John Biggs, formerly of Calories and Distophia, with 'Afternoon Sass'. Captured during a bleak English winter by recording engineer and long-term collaborator Tom Livemore, the resulting album fuses punk noise and lo-fi pop with ornate jazz flourishes, garnished with the occasional Derek Bailey-esque skronk. 'Afternoon Sass' is being released in Europe by Croatian label Geenger Records. Reminiscent of the likes of Superchunk, Sebadoh and Jim O'Rourke, the record is made up of nine songs including imminent single releases 'Every City' and 'Everyone You Know'. The album is a follow up to their previous recording, 'In Sequence'. "

[engl] The second album from 2000 vinyl for the first time in 20 years and this time it’s got extra tracks. Hits galore! Punkrocker, Crackin’ Up, From The Bughouse and even a Lee Perry-cover.

[engl] Their third album from 2002 vinyl for the first time since it came out and this time it’s got extra tracks. Jerk It Out, Over ’Fore It Started, Candy Cane and more!

[engl] Their glorious 1997 debut album on vinyl for the first time in over 20 years. Filled with hits like Sort It Out, (I’m Gonna) Kick You Out and You’re My Favourite.

[engl] The Stockholm-based psych/60s/garage/indie-act Caesars had a wild ride around the turn of the century. Their three first albums, released in Sweden under the moniker Caesars Palace, were riddled with hits like Jerk It Out, Punkrocker, From The Bughouse, Sort It Out and more, but they only had limited release outside Sweden. The ultra limited vinyl versions of the albums have been highly sought after collector items for 20 years now and even if you’re lucky enough to own originals, these new editions have superior quality pressings, bonus tracks and better sleeves. Limited editions will include fanzines made by bass player David full of pix and trix. Classic 1996 ep for the first time on vinyl with lots of extras including their 1995 debut 7” and other rarities. Caesar’s Palace (aka Caesars) in their infancy was a screaming mess of garage, psych, beat, lo-fi and cycledelica with great pop sensibilty.

[engl] 200 copies. Hand screen printed sleeve.

[engl] San Francisco tripmakers-supreme Carlton Melton return with a new 25 minute-plus three track 12" EP for Agitated Records, their first release since their widely received 2LP "Out To Sea" in 2015 and ,indeed the accompanying 2016 RSD "Aground" 12" release.. Hidden Lights is the first missive from recent recordings undertaken once again at El Studio with the watchful engineering and collaboratory help of Phil Manley (Trans AM / Lifecoach / Fucking Champs).. Phil throws in some slinky guitar moves that help make the Carlton Melton Magick Karpet soar…. John McBain (Evil Acidhead /Monster Magnet /Wellwater Conspiracy ) also guests on guitar, and has once again mastered the ’Melton’s sike-adelic-drone to perfection…Released on 500 12”’s or unlimited DL!!! Take a trip to the hidden lights.

[engl] This will be their first full length release since 2015’s widely lauded “Out To Sea” double opus, itself a languid drifting of drones and psychedically enhanced riffmongering. Sure, there’s been some long EP releases since.. Hidden Lights in 2017 (featuring the immeasurable drone sike float on “Rememory”) and Aground in 2016 (a companion, the Desert Island weather beaten psych-flow follow up to Out To Sea), now its time to soak up.. Mind Minerals. Mind Minerals finds Carlton Melton in fine fettle, all the songs were recorded and engineered at El Studio in San Francisco by Phil Manley on September 3rd and 4th 2016 (except 'untimely' - recorded at the Dome by Brian McDougall), the studio setting suits them -- a logical progression from a weekend’s recording out at the Dome. Under Manley’s watchful ear/eye, Carlton Melton have created a futurescape soundtrack.., a “3001 Space Odyssey”. The drums are more pounding and direct than before, the constantly re-assuring bass creates a helping hand to propel you through the clouds of static and shards of electrifying guitar dazzling your horizon. Synths help soothe the sharp edges and lull you into some out of body experience whilst and orchestrated calamitous scree pulls you back…. This is a breathless, yet deep breathing album. It demands full immersion.. Searing guitar piercing the drone with relentless power, the core trio of Carlton Melton; Andy Duvall (drums/guitar), Clint Golden (bass guitar), and Rich Millman ( guitar/synth), have some alchemical bond that’s helped them create a post –rock / psychedelic / freeform organic slab of American Primitivism / space drift , this is unashamed head-music from the melting pot of Northern California.. 5 decades ago this album would have been released on the ESP Disk Label or even Apple.. there would have been no helter skelter if the desert Hippies had locked onto these vibes, plug in, turn on, tune out..float free.. Carlton Melton can provide your own aural microdose to reset your Mind / Psyche!! Andy Duvall plays juno synth on 'the lighthouse' special guests - Phil Manley - juno synth on 'snow moon' and 'sea legs' / Guitar on 'eternal returns' and 'psychoticedelicosis'. John McBain - guitar on 'electrified sky' and 'way back when' / synth/mellotron/guitar on 'atmospheric river'. All songs mastered by John Mcbain at JPM mastering. Cover artwork is “Walls” (2013) by Andy Vogt

[engl] Carlton Melton, from Northern California, are now a practising fourpiece in the arts of melted-minds psychedelia. With the added kraut-oomph and sike-flutter of fellow Californian Anthony Taibi (whom you may know as being a member of White Manna, and also DDT with Andy) Rich Millman, Andy Duvall, and Clint Golden have now embellished the Carlton Melton sound. Pushing forward as a fourpiece, the band recorded Resemble Ensemble in July 2021 (just before Andy moved back over East!) at Anthony’s home studio, 3D Light in Freshwater, CA. Anthony did all the recording and mixing. The Melton Magick Karpet settled, and our favourite contemporary sikedelic warlods plugged in, amped up and let it flow.. and flow it does. .from the krautrock fuelled pszych-raga of Prescribed Skies, the fluid dronescape of Elsewhere that welcomes you into its arms with a warming tone, almost a missing Spacemen 3 demo at the feast here… So The Story Grows has the drone scraping through a murk of dazzling feedback and pummel, with the fuller sounding Melton giving the genre a proper wobble, hold on to your brains people… High Alert.. whas this? Synth and guitar interplay jambusting, this is the Melton wigging out and almost interweaving 70s high table rock with some odd and downright perverse synthfunkpunk rhythms.. get weird.. or get wired..or both.. easily done here.. Closing out the album with Route Thirteen is the road trip home.. they’ve been, they’ve massaged and mangled your synapses, plug in the satnav and take the higher-route home.. if you get our drift.. Carlton Melton, starting 2023 in a better place than most, soaring high on their synaptic-dazzling magick karpet…

[engl] Northern California psychedelic sorcerers Carlton Melton are brain surfers, mind trippers, … “psychlists,” if you prefer. The band will take your head for a ride, occasionally rushing at superluminal speeds through a wormhole or gliding softly on a gentle breeze in a leafy glade. Sometimes your brain needs to rage, and sometimes it needs to repose. For a decade and a half, the band has yo-yo’ed, almost schizophrenically, between these two modes: walloping space jams with furious guitar solos in one hemisphere of the brain and ethereal, feather-light splashdowns in the other. Not to mention a track here and there that builds from the latter into the former. But with two new releases in 2023, the band has evolved. Whether psych rock or ambient trance, their sound remains driving, organic, and flowing. With the addition of Anthony Taibi (White Manna, DDT), however, the group’s metal freak-outs are Hawkwindier and their droning kraut trances are Spacemen 3-er. In January, the quartet released the playfully spacey Resemble Ensemble, recorded in Taibi’s home studio 3D Light. October now sees the band Turn To Earth, a work with scents of Autumn, a season of death and transition. The cover art evokes a vine-covered, electric crucifix. The sound is, well, earthy but also gritty and striving towards change. The album was recorded in Fall 2022 and now harvested in Fall 2023. Phil Becker (Terry Gross, Pins Of Light) contributed drums and percussion to a few tracks on Turn To Earth, recording the album at El Studio in San Francisco. With Becker at the helm, the synths have become more prominent (“Cosmicity,” “Roboflow,” “Migration”) and the tone heavier on the doom (“Cloudstorming,” “Unlock The Land,” title track): several moments could even serve as background music for epic dark fantasy films like Conan the Barbarian, Fire and Ice, or Heavy Metal. As exquisite as Turn To Earth is, Melton are best appreciated as a live act: their recordings as well as their gigs are largely improvised – not so much composed as birthed. And yet their most recent tour ended abruptly and perilously. The group had to cancel its final three shows once members were admitted to Arnhem hospital in the Netherlands. Five years later, reinforcements have strengthened the band and restocked its arsenal of great tracks. Turn To Earth, sure … but keep your head in outer space.

[engl]  Nestled deep in the forests of Mendocino County in Northern California, huddled under the protective shade of towering redwoods and within earshot of frothy waves crashing against the Pacific coastline, squats a geodesic dome that has served as crucible for the experimental genius of Carlton Melton. Nature and Man operate under different logics. But here, Carlton Melton wholly entrusts this idyllic environment with the task of inspiring and guiding their musical improvisations. The Dome has been the ideal setting to facilitate their creativity. Without forcing a specific dynamic or theme, the band inhabits its womb-like confines to improvise, explore, dream. Their music draws on psychedelia, stoner metal, krautrock, and ambient atmospherics to convey, above all else, a mood. A prickly guitar melody will float lazily, a wall of dissonant feedback will resolve into a hypnotic drone, or a colossal riff will exhume the soul of Jimi Hendrix. One hears Hawkwind or Spacemen 3 jamming with Pink Floyd at Pompeii. Indeed, Carlton Melton have one foot in the ancient world and one tentacle in deep space. They are both the pack of proto-humans drumming with femurs in Kubrick’s 2001 and the film’s inscrutable monolith hinting at the universe’s mysteries. The “Stoned Ape” theory holds that early hominids ingested psychedelic mushrooms that provided an evolutionary boost to their brains, helping them blossom into Homo Sapiens. Imagine such cavemen trippin’ balls, their nightmarish visions sending them into feverish bouts of rage and then gentle moments of introspection. They very well could have heard the music of Carlton Melton rattling inside their skulls, first driving our ancestors mad then upward into a higher realm. Andy Duvall (drums, guitar), Clint Golden (bass), and Rich Millman (guitar, synths) have yet to play Pompeii, but they have already wowed crowds at European festivals such as the Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia, Roadburn, and Desertfest Antwerp. Live, they are jaw-dropping. On record, mind-altering. In fact, with each album, Carlton Melton adds a subtle new element, synapses firing new neural connections. In 2020, they release new full-length Where This Leads, marking ten years of the band’s working relationship with their UK label Agitated Records and five years of recording with Phil Manley in his El Studio in San Francisco. With Where This Leads, the band rewires the listener’s mind. “Smoke Drip Revisited” is a ticklish acid flashback, “Porch Dreams” a dabbling in country psych, and “Closer” a driving, freak-out of guitar heroics. One senses that the group is conveying a message that cannot be expressed verbally but only suggested through synth sighs, walloping rhythms, and soaring solos. Would Carlton Melton therefore be a group of stoned apes dizzily grasping for meaning or telepathic futurists communicating to us through crude man-made instrumentation? Well, lower the stylus to find out. - Eric Bensel, Paris July 2020

[engl] In the days of conscious jazz (music done by those who know way too much about it) & pale idols (Bon Iver, James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, people nobody wants to look like), sorting through the new releases is a dirty job. Then comes the day you stumble upon Amazon Hunt, Catholic Spray’s first album, and everything suddenly gets faster, louder and weirder. The year was 2011, the record label was Teenage Menopause, and the record sounded like one of those days made of nothing but raw, naked truth when you wake up shirtless at 5.am, stuck in a building devastated by flames, slowly remembering the atrocious rumble between two transsexuals in the lobby hall that started it all. You know that kind of record. You also know the kind of band who makes such records: their story usually ends in ugly fights after 6 or 8 months and you’re left with rage, regrets and infinite blabbering. Well, it appeared Catholic Spray wasn’t one of those bands. Reminding the indie peasants they are the band responsible for making the 18th district of Paris cool again (“Hustling In Barbès”), Catholic Spray charges right on with an array of mongoloïd hooks thrown at maximum speed (“Masterchief Of The Foxes”, “Drift With Satan”), hitting harder and meaner when necessary (“Black Cat”), just to remind they definitely own the race, even though they still drive with eyes closed, guided only by Pierre and Cyprien’s voices, both singing like rats fighting against the wind, screaming for a smoke and a piece of ass, legal or not. The kind of guys who, when you meet them face to face, pass their whole life on to you, just like a disease. And with a record like Earth Slime, that shit could spread faster than rabies. ”Youth can suck my dick”, they say.