Brainfeeder 黑胶唱片和CD

Review: Japanese Wunderkind Hakushi Hasegawa made their Brainfeeder debut back in 2023, dropping the incredible Somoku Hudo after a slating of similarly super jazzbreaks released independently until that magical moment. Having not yet made their mark with a wider international audience, it was up to impresario FlyLo and co. to 'break' Hasegawa, resulting first in an infamous Fuji Rock festival appearance and now a resultant repress of the initially digital mini-album. Somoku Hudo is a surreally intense jubilant jaunt through hallmarks of J-pop, neo-jungle and cutecore, ever veering on the chromatic and rhythmically errant. A crude comparison would be if Mario Kart met Tennyson met Sunik Kim, though even this is just a first-listen comparison; an auditory encounter with the Real, if you will, it's difficult to capture Hasegawa's music totally in words except for its seeming invitation to make references to other sources - which, huzzah, indicates new experimental electronic ground has been trodden!

Review: Brainfeeder looks back to Japanese hybridist Hakushi Hasegawa's first album Air Ni Ni here and reissues it on limited grey marbled vinyl. Although on the surface it might be thought of as pop, get in between the beats and you will find a challenging record that fused everything from bubblegum pop to breakcore, prog jazz to video games and much more besides. The record first came in 2019 and remains astonishingly diverse and new in the way it mashes up traditional genre boundaries and draws on alt-rock. Fans of label head Flying Lotus are sure to love it as is anyone who heard it first tie round.

Review: Seven years since its initial release, this is the deluxe repressing of 'Choose Your Weapon' by Australian jazz/funk band Hiatus Kaiyote. The Grammy-nominated four-piece's second LP returns to stereos with this 18-track, 70-minute odyssey that takes listeners on a journey through the group's self-created ecosystem, populated with songs each embodying its own mini-cinematic sonic soundscape. Pressed on gorgeous photoluminescent vinyl, paired with a bonus 7" featuring a Roman Soto Cello rework of side B's 'Breathing Underwater' and a genius club mix of 'Making Friends with Studio Owl', the second half of the interlude from the original - a highpoint in sound.

Review: Legendary Norwegian eight-piece Jaga Jazzist are back with a new album that takes a plunge into myriad musical worlds. Post-rock, jazz and psychedelia influences all abound across the four lengthy pieces that make up the Brainfeeder released LP. It was recorded in just two weeks of focussed sessions with plenty of impromptu jams and never too much over-analysis, but plenty of experimentation. It is the band's first self-produced album and overflows with musical stories form the off with synth heavy pieces and afro tinged drum rhythms. Bandleader Lars says: "I felt that this album is a small symphony, each part containing its own rooms to explore."

Review: When Nostalchic was first released in 2013, Lapalux was already well established as a central figure in the booming LA beat scene orbiting around Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label. Given how entrenched in the 2010s that whole movement was, the music itself has matured beautifully over the past decade to become a heartfelt benchmark in a sub-genre that thrived on innovation and unexpected swerves. It helps that there are some choice detuned synth lines which fold time across the ages on the likes of 'Guuurl', proving Lapalux was always about the feels more than the shock and awe of the beats. Having only a modest run the first time around, now the album has been repressed for the first time as a limited edition on clear vinyl.

Review: Austin Peralta's 2011 album Endless Planets has never before been available on vinyl and now gets pressed up as a special Deluxe Edition by Brainfeeder. Peralta really crafted something special here when the label made its first moves into the world of jazz. He is a prodigious piano-playing talent who uses that as a vehicle for his inquisitive futurism while never forgetting the heritage of original jazz. In this special version, four previously unreleased tracks are unveiled. Among them is a live rendition of 'DMT Song' from FlyLo's 2012 album 'Until the Quiet Comes,' which Austin collaborated on. Wonderful stuff.

Review: Lo-fi house hero Ross From Friends presents his debut album for Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder imprint - this follows up the terrific Aphelion EP he presented on the label earlier this year. Like the title suggests, Family Portrait refers to a very specific personal aspect of Felix Weatherall's life: the influence of his parents. Dance music was always around during his childhood, where he grew up learning about music from his dad - who apparently had a penchant for banging out hi-NRG tracks on the decks. It's a riveting listen from start to finish: from the the intensely vivid groove of "Pale Blue Dot" to the moody "Project Cybersyn" with its tunnelling aesthetic - perfectly geared for those heads-down moments later in the night.

Review: Flying Lotus collaborator Thundercat returns to Brainfeeder with his first full album since 2013's superb Apocalypse. Presented over four coloured pieces of 10" vinyl, Drunk is a thrill-a-minute, mix-tape style trip through the multi-instrumentalist and beat-maker's various inspirations (think skewed hip-hop, jazz, soul, funk, left-of-centre electronica, and so on), all of which have been fused and mutated to fit his unique musical perspective. His high standing within the leffield hip-hop community has allowed Thundercat to snag some impressive guest stars, too, including Kendrick Lamarr, blue-eyed soul legend Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Pharell and jazz man Kamasi Washington. Old pal Fly-Lo also lends a hand.

Review: Virtuoso bassist & singer Thundercat releases a very special deluxe edition of his album Apocalypse, ten years on from its original release in 2013. Packed with gems including the certified classics 'Heartbreaks + Setbacks', 'Lotus and the Jondy', 'Tron Song' and the all-out cosmic funk bullet 'Oh Sheit, It's X', Thundercat brings a fusion of pop, soul, electronica, prog rock and funk into an unexplored dimension, with his signature basslines gliding sky high to meet Executive Producer Flying Lotus' astral touch. The new edition also contains two previously unreleased tracks, 'Before I loved myself 'I' pooped my ankles (true)' recorded with Austin Peralta and Taylor Graves, and 'Paris' (with Mono/Poly). The deluxe LP also features special rainbow holographic artwork housed inside a transparent PVC outer slipcase complete with 'x-ray' holographic skull print.

Review: Already out in the ether since the summer, Kamasi's sprawling three-part jazz opus finally sees the light of vinyl day. Presented on heavyweight vinyl with his striking signature artwork, its delivery befits the album's rave reviews on its original arrival. Highlights, in case you haven't heard it yet, are the awe-inspiring switch from fusion to swing on "The Next Step" the album's overall sparing inclusion of vocal that make "The Rhythm Changes" really stand out and sparkle and the attention to detail on the narrative structure on reprise notes such as "Re Run Home". A must-have for any jazz/Brainfeeder fan.