Discus Music

09/04/2025

Yes, The Exu album really is this good. Check it out, buy the record etc etc .
"Drawing on an admirably broad range of influences “The Exu” is an excellent saxophone trio recording that manages to bring something new, raw and exciting to the format without sounding anything like Sonny Rollins. It’s that rare beast, an avant garde jazz record that is actually highly accessible and I predict that the band will make a lot of fans on their forthcoming tour. That accessibility comes without any hint of artistic compromise from the band. They avoid the idiomatic pitfalls of free jazz by keeping things tight, lean and sharply focussed, there is no musical flab on the bones of these small but perfectly formed pieces. The playing is steely eyed and dynamic but the band members also sound as if they’re having terrific fun and that ‘punk jazz’ attitude really does shine through. In the sometimes po faced world of avant garde jazz The Exu really are a breath of fresh air." - Ian Mann, JAZZ MAN

12 track album

29/03/2025

Come along to the listening party - starts in a few minutes at 6pm GMT today!

Listening Party from Discus Music.

16/03/2025

Fjall – the old Norse word for “rough hill”

Martin Archer – concert flute, Bb clarinet, bass clarinet, recorders, harmonicas, melodica, sopranino saxophone,
Hulusi flute, harmonium, percussion
Jan Todd – baritone psaltery, electric Harp.E, cross strung harp, tagelharpa, waterphone, Hulusi flute, cello, electronics, looping,
field recordings, voice.
Fran Comyn – frame drums, tablas, gongs, cymbals, bells, bowls, hand percussion, field recordings.
Richard Jackson – drums and percussion.

A quartet formed with a view to making improvisations and instant compositions which avoid the highly active language of free improvisation and tends more towards ritual or even contemporary classical music. The result is atmospheric and occasionally unsettling, as the music ripples between spacious, metallic and otherworldly soundscapes to earthy, rhythmic and strident, yet melodic tones. The use of unusual/ethnic instruments married with two percussionists gives a distinctive flavour of the unexpected.

“An inland journey for the head and for the heart.” – Mr Olivetti, FREQ

Tickets are now available for FJALL at Sidney And Matilda, Sheffield on Sun 27 Apr 2025 at 8:00PM. Click the link for further information and to secure your tickets now!

10/03/2025

March 16th 7pm UK time, we're holding a Das Rad listening party for Funfair. If you want to chat with the band, ask questions or simply listen to this classic, please tune in!
https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/funfair-180cd-2024

09/03/2025

New Discus Music release - 7" vinyl plus DL, limited to 150 copies.

Pre-release purchase plus DL available now, vinyl 7"due for release 23rd May 2025. Grab yours while you can!

When Das Rad toured across the north of England in September 2024, our take on the old psych garage classic Buzzsaw by The Turtles proved to be a popular live number - so much so that we decided that while it might not fit on an album, it would make a great vinyl single. So here it is!

The single B side has new Das Rad music Babbit & Rat, and the DL also includes Dubsaw, an extended dub rework of Buzzsaw.

You can also watch Buzzsaw live on video here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7FpAhpdtps

https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/buzzsaw-500v-2025

3 track album

03/03/2025

"With Red Hot Ice saxophonist Paul Dunmall has come up with an approach to (fairly) big band composition that probably deserves its own genre, so if I invoke a heady combination of Graham Collier, Globe Unity and Sun Ra then it's more a mark of articulacy-stretching critical panic than any implication that this music is in any way derivative. Should you feel alarmed at the prospect of why-had-nobody-thought-of-that-hook-before melodic riffs, permutable dollops of bouncy swing and rocky funk, free and free-ish sections of the best kind, near-ambient futuristic tribal marches (bear with me...) and occasional snidey organ huffs all co-existing in an extraordinary celebration, don't be; it all absolutely works." FIVE STARS - Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine

5 track album

20/02/2025

Daniel Spicer writing in Jazzwise this month - "The final track on this new trio's impressive debut is dedicated to saxophonist Tim Berne, which gives a pretty good idea where it's coming from: much like the downtown NYC scene that Berne was part of at its apex in the late 1980s, The Exu specialise in sprightly, genre-blurring music that keenly explored diverse influences and methods. Another of bassist Dave Kane's compositions is dedicated to Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, presenting a grungey rock plod with James Mainwaring letting rip some meaty squeals on baritone sax. Elsewhere there are hints of math-rock in the bullish stumble of 'Bug Glass', and some light-footed free bop on Mainwaring's 'Waffles', with his sax sliding around over a buoyant walking bass and nippy swing. While these are all interesting compositional gambits, there are also a handful of group improvisations and it's here that Norwegian drummer Emil Karlsen injects a certain urgent energy. An increasingly in-demand figure on the UK free-improv scene, Karlsen unfurls a satisfyingly lithe and fluid exuberance on pieces like 'Pancakes', while the simply named 'Ballad' is a slow and stately meditation with sighing barely-there brush work lending it a hushed fragility. Across these dozen short tracks, there's a lot to savour."

12 track album

04/02/2025

A recent Das Rad review in the Prog mag...

Check it out https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/funfair-180cd-2024

30/01/2025

"Will the real Martin Archer stand up? The head honcho of the Sheffield-located Discus imprint appears in such a variety of guises that one never quite knows what to expect from his name on the sleeve. However, as the press materials make clear, this unadorned saxophone and drum duo finds Archer in his natural habitat, channelling influences derived from the early releases of Chicago's AACM in an equation he defines as blues + abstraction. That sums it up nicely, although anyone hoping to occasionally tap along to the changes over twelve bars will be disappointed. Nonetheless, in Archer's hands the combination proves an attractive proposition, as poised phrases and willful distortions vie with brief passages which possess an innate swing. Even so, his partner in crime, Derby-based drummer Walt Shaw avoids a regular beat in favor of a stream of percussive flurries, like a latterday Tony Oxley, in which metallic clatter and plump tympani-like resonances are prominent. The sole compositional gambit is Archer's decision to play a different horn on each piece. Otherwise, although clearly responsive, the pair's dialogues are oblique. While both utilize repeated patterns, it is rarely at the same time ...... Such intrepid and empathetic performances make for an exhilarating and enjoyable trip. Perhaps it is one that Archer should take more often."- John Sharpe, ALL ABOUT JAZZ

5 track album

24/01/2025

This new release from Inclusion Principle ( Hervé Perez and Martin Archer ) is a thing of real beauty . It uses a wonderful sonic palette to create colours and textures that draw the listener in. This is electronic music that feels really organic, full of breath, warmth and humanity. - Bandcamp UK Jazz & Improvised Music

5 track album

24/01/2025

New Discus Music release from THE EXU!

James Mainwaring - saxophones
Dave Kane - double bass
Emil Karlsen – drums

The trio brazenly draw their musical influences from the worlds of free jazz, grunge, death metal, hip hop, bebop, & experimental music. Kane says ‘we are the sum of our record collections, the films we have seen, the books we have read. It all goes into the mix to make our music.’
Kane & Mainwaring share the compositional duties while young Norwegian drummer Emil Karlsen brings versatile, intricate textures and groove. Mainwaring (of Mercury Prize-nominated Roller Trio) blends fiery and sensitive saxophone approaches with playful edge, while double bassist Dave Kane ignites each performance with cathartic, heartfelt energy that lingers long after the final note.

12 track album

24/01/2025

New Discus Music release from Eclectic Maybe Band!
This fifth EMBand release from the studio of bassist / composer Guy Segers continues his concept of working with a huge pool of creative progressive musicians, with each track featuring a different combination.
Somewhat more introspective and textural than its predecessor, Cosmic Light Clusters builds steadily from an opening trio of mood pieces through increasing activity and complexity as the album moves forward. Particularly engaging is Segers' use of voices and poetry on this recording.
A body of work is being build across these CDs which stands as some of the finest progressive music emerging from Europe in the last period.

10 track album

23/01/2025

Put this listening party on Bandcamp for the new Eclectic Maybe Band album in your diary now. Free admission for this chat with Guy Segers as we listen to this great new release!

Listening Party from Discus Music.

12/01/2025

"Recording Rites is a sublime example of improv players working together, adding just enough to keep the listener intrigued. Perfectly weighted, it is a joy from start to finish." - Mr Olivetti, Freq

6 track album

10/01/2025

New release from Inclusion Principle on Discus Music!

Martin Archer - organ, electronics, bass recorder, flute, tenor saxophone
Hervé Perez - laptop [field recordings, processing, electronics], beats, shakuhachi, alto saxophone, scores for all winds

During 2025, Inclusion Principle celebrate their 20th anniversary as a group by releasing a series of download only EPs - of which this is the first. The duo will be working with maximum spontaneity in this series of releases, which showcase their trademark combination of electronics, field recordings and woodwinds.

The call of a crumbling world is a single session live improvisation for organ and laptop recorded at the Discus hub, with subsequent arrangements produced at nexTTime studios. Woodwind parts scored by Hervé and recorded at Discus Music Studio.

5 track album

09/01/2025

I just found this online comment: "I could tell you all about the album, song by song, but I'll just say that from this swarm of waste and interferences of all kinds, killer pieces continue to emerge throughout the album: sumptuous dark ballads, shadowy technopop simulacra and compositions that are really difficult to frame, like the spectacular song sung by Mallinder. It's an album in which genres and styles that are very distant from each other converge, and yet you never get the feeling of a patchwork or a compilation, everything sounds homogeneous and perfectly in focus. What a strange, very strange, great album.” - Michele Meozzi

17 track album

06/01/2025

On Friday 10th January there will be a new Inclusion Principle download only release on Discus Music - a 40 minute work "The Call Of A Crumbling World". Here's a short extract with video by Hervé Perez.

During 2025, Inclusion Principle celebrate their 20th anniversary as a group by releasing a series of DL only EPs - of which this is a short extract from the...

06/01/2025

"Fanfares & Freedom exudes a warm atmosphere, the festive energy is ideally combined with the avant-garde improvisations led by Laura Jurd and Paul Dunmall." – Mario Borroni. CITIZEN JAZZ

6 track album