Buscar:2 mad

Matt Gold and Dustin Laurenzi present Devotional Fade, a collaborative record of electroacoustic rhythmic improvisations – equal parts meditation and dance, released on We Jazz Records, 24th April. Laurenzi and Gold, key collaborators in the Chicago creative scene and with genre spanning artists such as Bill Callahan and Makaya McCraven, step forward here with a major artistic statement, a product of extended improv sessions capturing the duo's hypnotic interplay. This is the sound of two of Chicago's most vibrant instrumental voices listening deeply, communing in sound.

Recorded in Laurenzi's attic studio, Devotional Fade emerged from a series of weekly sessions over the course of a single month. The duo kept the tape rolling continuously each day and selected a number of immersive sonic worlds to present, oscillating between patient, sacred minimalism and wild, dancefloor-worthy combustion.

The pair set two parameters to heighten the sessions' stakes: editing would be kept to a minimum, and a rule of "no pitched overdubs" was put in place – ensuring that all melodic and harmonic gestures would have to be committed in real time. Laurenzi and Gold held true, only sparingly adding a stray shaker or brush to these already largely complete improvisations. Devotional Fade is imbued with quiet propulsion and ecstatic repetition.

Matt Gold is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer based in Chicago, IL. His work pulls from diverse traditions of electric and acoustic music. Matt has performed across six continents and contributed to over fifty recordings as a collaborator and instrumentalist, garnering critical praise from Pitchfork for playing "one of the most exhilarating guitar solos of recent memory, in any genre." Gold has several long-running collaborative bands spanning jazz, folk, experimental, and chamber music including Sun Speak, Storm Jameson, and Tin. He performs and records with an array of creative artists including Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill, Jamila Woods, Natalie Merchant, and Greg Ward. Gold co-curates the record label and concert series Flood Music.

Chicago saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Dustin Laurenzi has developed a personal approach to improvisation and composition that has garnered the attention of the city's creative music community. Laurenzi's music is inspired and informed by jazz, folk, and improvised music. His inventive improvisational sensibilities have made him a sought-after musician in many circles of Chicago's vibrant music scene and beyond. Laurenzi has toured extensively with songwriter Bill Callahan and is featured on Callahan's 2024 release Resuscitate! He has toured with Grammy award-winning artist Bon Iver and appears on the band's critically lauded 2016 release 22, A Million. Laurenzi has also performed with Jeff Parker & The New Breed, Marquis Hill, Makaya McCraven, Matt Ulery, Japanese Breakfast, and This Is The Kit.

XKatedral Anthology Series II (An Anthology Of Slowly Evolving Timbral Music), featuring exclusive music from Kali Malone, Jessica Ekomane, Mats Erlandsson, Theodor Kentros, Wilma Hultén, and Maria W Horn.

"XKatedral Anthology II is the second instalment in a series of archival releases dedicated to presenting music by composers affiliated with XKatedral working within the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral music. This double-vinyl set contains an array of pieces dating from 2018 - 2020. This collection of pieces focuses on the use of synthetic sound and algorithmic composition languages as tools for precise work within the realm of spectral exploration. In addition to this, the electronic instrumentation in many of the pieces is augmented by acoustic instruments.

The first piece on side A is Kali Malone’s Music for Low Quartet. This piece is an adaptation of the composition “Rose Wreath Crown” originally released on The Sacrificial Code in 2019. In this iteration, the music is scored for two double basses played by Vilhelm Bromander and Zach Rowden, and sine tone electronics performed by Malone herself. The recording of this piece was made at EMS in 2019.

Closing side A is Jessica Ekomane’s ‘First Light’. This computer music piece focuses exclusively on digital sound, layering razor sharp synthetic textures into an otherworldly dynamic weave. The music heard here is a reworked version of a piece originally commissioned by Semibreve in 2020.

Side B contains the work ‘Hands Melt In The Sun’ by Mats Erlandsson. This composition is built from electronically processed tuned zithers and synthetically generated tones arranged in a series of chordal inversions over a sustained fundamental tone. This music, written as a love-letter to the localized drone tradition of Stockholm in the years 2008-2012, was composed and recorded in seven days while in residence at Ställbergs Gruva in Bergslagen, in the summer of 2018.

Opening the second half of the collection is Rough Draft v.7 by Theodor Kentros. Kentros’ compositional practice usually combines acoustic and electronic source material and in this piece he molds the sound of the Buchla 200 and a collection of recorded wind instruments into a molten mass of sound. In its original form, this music was presented as a multichannel immersive work and even in the current stereo configuration it retains some of that enveloping sense of depth.

The second piece on side B, Inertia, is by Wilma Hultén, who makes her debut on record here. An exclusively synthetic piece, Inertia utilizes internal digital feedback in a sealed synthetic system to manifest a harmonic field that swells and abates throughout the length of the piece, interspersed by small gestural elements.

Closing Anthology II is Maria W Horn's work ‘Dies Irae’ for female vocal quartet, pitched glass and synthesis. ‘Dies Irae’ uses a modified form of traditional tonal harmonic language to invoke an uncanny and restless middle ground between the classical western polyphonic vocal tradition and contemporary electronic music. The version heard here is a live recording from Eric Ericssonhallen in Stockholm on May 30th 2020. Performing the piece here are the vocalists Katarina Henryson, Lisa Holmgren, Vilma Ogenblad and Paula Wegmann, as well as Maria herself on glass and electronics."

Dancing Waters is a musical fusion where the Mediterranean soul meets the deep-rooted mysticism of Cental Asia. Inspired by the surprising resonance between the work melodies of Balearic Islands and Pitiüses Islands and the haunting beauty of Persian and Byzantine melodies. QANAT weaves together the rich traditions of the Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Persia. The project blends old Balearic work songs with the modal textures of Middle Eastern and Central Asian music -including influences from Iran, Turkey, Tajikistan, and the ancient region of Khorasan. At the heart of the project is the remarkable melodic kinship between Balearic field songs-once sung during rural labor-and the ancient echoes of Byzantine chant. QANAT bridges these traditions, crafting new musical landscapes through original compositions, instrumental dialogues, and vocal ornamentations that celebrate the shared soul of these distant-yet-connected cultures.

O.B.F x Dubkasm.

Bristol, 10 AM. At the end of a garden, sub bass spilling out of a shed, the Dubquake crew had just stepped into the Dubkasm studio.

Rico jumped on the desk with Digistep, building riddims on the fly while Stryda and the crew bussed out some ninja moves. From that session, two raw dubz were born: Momentum and Shaku Dub.

Built for the dance, played on dubplate for a minute, it felt just right to press them onto heavyweight vinyl for the Teachings in Dub x Dubquake weekender that took place in Bristol and London last weekend.

Strictly dubplate pressure!

Hatchback is the alias of Samuel Milton Grawe. Sam creates music that sings of the Cosmos, full of deep resonant tones, glistening arpeggios, lush pads and harmonic motifs. ‘Phaser For The Ocean, Chorus For The Moon’ is his magnum opus, a sprawling masterwork that encompasses ambient, new age and environmental music to wondrous effect. Soaked in Californian consciousness, the album is a balm like no other for these troubled times.

When I first was getting into the creative side of music making in my teens, I was heavily influenced by concept albums like ‘Quadrophenia’ and ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’, as well as epic pieces that took up an entire side of a record: Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes’, Yes’ ‘Close To The Edge’, Klaus Schulze’s ‘Nowhere Now Here’, Miles Davis' ‘Shhh/Peaceful’ and ‘He Loved Him Madly’. In the extreme, these ideas coalesced in double albums where each side of each record is occupied by a single title - Yes’ ‘Tales From Topographic Oceans’, and Tangerine Dream’s ‘Zeit’ being primary examples. When I returned to making music after moving back to Northern California in 2020, the first piece I recorded landed around the 20-minute mark, and the idea of creating three other long pieces to realize a full album felt like a natural - if indulgent - goal. From there, each new piece followed sequentially. Four songs. My fourth album. - Sam Grawe

‘Phaser For The Ocean Chorus For The Moon’ is a pure expression, informed by a lifetime of deep listening unbound by algorithms or AI.
These are songs for the sunrise and the sunset - and every colour in between.

[a] 01. And The Walls Became The World All Around [18:53]
[b] 02. Phaser For The Ocean, Chorus For The Moon [21:48]
[c] 03. Other Desert Cities [20:19]
[d] 04. Friendship Fountain [18.33]

Psychedelic MasterpieceOriginally released on Capitol Records in 1969, Euphoria’s debut album A Gift From Euphoria is an unsung album; one with incredible sonic radiance, masterful songwriting, and everlasting harmonies—with their fantastical combination of psychedelic, folk, country, and hard rock. The 15 songs set up a journey through the best of what had been happening within modern music by 1969. Comparisons to The White Album are apt as it leaps from genre to genre with shocking confidence, as if they knew this was their only chance to say it all on a record. But it was too good to last as this was the only album Euphoria made, one that is critically championed in hindsight and highly sought after nowadays, and it is Jackpot Records honor to be able to bring it to you. Now reissued from the original analog master tapes with the original cover artwork exclusively for RSD 2026.

Cathartic avant-rock, literate DIY folk & experimental composition exploring displacement, love, climate change, belonging & the places we call home - RIYL Jim O’Rourke, Richard Youngs, This Heat, Richard Dawson, Flying Nun. ‘Real Home’ is the new album by the Manchester-born, London-based artist Kiran Leonard. His sixth album proper (not including innumerable tour-only CD-Rs and short-run cassettes), since his precocious debut in 2013, ‘Real Home’ finds Leonard invigorated by inspiration and experience, making passionate, literate, and mercurial music that explores displacement, love, memory, climate change, connections to home and more. Encompassing songs recorded after moving to South London, ‘Real Home’ reflects on ideas of belonging and domesticity through folkloric, stream-of-consciousness songwriting. Across nine tracks, Leonard traces lived impressions of the household and the city, expressing sentiments of dislocation, alienation and stasis, but contentment too. Infusing the avant-rock effervescence, terraced dynamics and visionary lyricism of his music with what he defines as a greater sense of openness, Leonard is as versatile, fervent and imaginative as ever on ‘Real Home’, yet his music is somehow more intimate, affecting, and acutely expressive. Shaped by dual considerations of simplicity and formalism, ‘Real Home’ is by turns beautiful, allusive, and ruminative, an album on which Leonard considers what his songs have resembled in the past and what they mean now. In recent years, Leonard has crafted eloquent chamber music inspired by the likes of James Joyce and Clarice Lispector (‘Derevaun Seraun’), responded to contemporary politics and communication breakdown in the digital age (‘Western Culture’), and compiled solo works and ensemble recordings for a longform ode to Jonas Mekas and to one of Leonard’s enduring themes; home (‘Trespass On Foot’). On ‘Real Home’, Leonard reiterates this abiding thematic focus yet ascends to new, different heights, in music of cathartic delicacy and dissonance where all the myriad dimensions of his work to date seem to crystallize. There are sinuous songs about struggle and defying the pace of city life through drift and diversion (‘Pass Between Houses’), stirring songs of intense feeling and crescendo, described as a form of speculative detective fiction (‘Theatre for Change’). There are touching solo piano ballads (the title track), symbolic contentions with carbon capture and climate change (‘Utopia of Bog’), modes of experimental minimalism (‘Void Attentive’), and other profuse feats of compositional range, embroidered with wild tendrils of narrative and lyrical depth. A record to pore over, and get lost in. Exemplifying the vast aesthetic scope of Leonard’s music, lead single ‘My Love, Let’s Take The Stage Tonight’ is inspired by country lodestar Hank Williams, Russian poetry and a late period love poem by William Carlos Williams. Yet for Leonard, the song signals a sense of accessible materiality, and is the product of a more linear approach to writing songs: “My imitation of the great Hank Williams, in spirit if not in substance…This is one of the best efforts on Real Home at a song-as-object. Looking at it now I realise I was trying to write a song that made itself known as a song to the listener, and I wonder whether that’s crucial if you want a song to transcend its context. And that this is either accomplished through a total openness – by being inviting, by laying the tricks of the song out plain to see, as Williams and his many ghostwriters did so well – or by adopting a knowing aloofness, positioning oneself against the listener but letting it be known that that’s what it’s doing. In this song I try both, but mostly the former: as in, I wanted to write a song where every line follows on from the next.” Imbuing the endlessly elaborate and inventive qualities of his music with a newfound streak of candid, clear-cut melodicism, Leonard has reached a special place in his artistry, on a record that feels familial, and expresses closeness. Assembled with affiliates including Lauren Auder, Otto Willberg, Jasper Llewellyn (caroline), Tom Hardwick-Allan (Shovel Dance Collective), Magda McLean (caroline, The Umlauts), Alex Mckenzie (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective), Isabelle Thorn (Dear Laika) & more, the recording process had a significant influence on the subject matter of ‘Real Home’, in sessions defined by close-knit camaraderie and artistic eccentricity: “The theme of the home obviously recurs throughout the record; the album was mostly recorded in domestic spaces with friends, and the name of the album is Real Home. I like the qualifier ‘real’, like you’re getting past the cloak of the word and towards the thing-itself…also nearly all the percussion in this record was recorded on items from my dad’s shed (jam jars, sandpaper, blocks of wood, etc). Real home record!” ‘Real Home’, like anything by Kiran Leonard, is a record of dazzling multiplicity. Yet it’s a companionable prospect with a central premise; a collection of songs where listeners old and new can find a home. An album led by a scene; of Leonard standing at the threshold, ready to welcome you inside. “Exceptional songs that linger” - The Guardian // “An autodidact of amazing talent & energy” – Pitchfork // “A ridiculous amount of talent…confrontational, celebratory, provocative or perverse – he manages all of these emotions & more” - The Quietus /

With one exception, this disc is a recording of a concert given at the Ateliers Claus in Brussels in March 2024. It was preceded by three short hours of improvisation the day before and the day before that, during which ErikM and I made a series of careful observations of each other's playing. It must be said that neither of us had skimped on transporting a few cases, the contents of which would have allowed us to play several concerts in a row without ever repeating ourselves. Erik had brought his turntables to Brussels, as well as sophisticated electronic machines, accompanied by a virtually infinite sound bank. For my part, I had both a mechanical orchestra and a range of acoustic instruments at my disposal. In two sessions, we eliminated the superfluous and the ineffective. On the evening of the concert, it was through close observation-of each sound, each direction taken by one or the other, each intention, each break-that we composed this record in the moment: vigilant and scrutinising, like the pairs of eyes on the cover of this album.

SRC were no strangers to the Detroit Grande Ballroom live scene (that also featured The Stooges, MC5 & Alice Cooper), but SRC’s anglophile-leaning compositions made their records stand out from that pack. Beloved and championed by GENESIS' PETER GABRIEL & DJ JOHN PEEL, SRC were a band that sonically was a cross-section of the UK pop of The Zombies and the inventive, garage rock leanings of The Pretty Things (with a healthy dose of Blue Cheer thrown in!). For their second album, Milestones, SRC added new, ambitious sonic elements, creating a high-wire act that now encompassed funk, prog, and heavy rock. Anchored, as always, by the stun-ray lead guitar playing of Gary Quackenbush and keyboards of his brother Glenn, the band finds themselves still able to crush the listener with unforgettable hooks, but now with an added healthy side of sonic theatrics. This new re-issue joins our trio of other late 60s Capitol re-issues, including the original SRC S/T LP, the reverb-drenched debut masterpiece from Gandalf, and Europhia’s Abbey Road-produced genre-hopping A Gift From Euphoria. Now reissued from the original analog master tapes with the original cover artwork, exclusively for RSD 2026.

An album that calls forth urgent desires, bold claims and the right to dream in the face of a reality that stifles hope.
Because Camp Claude never stands still, because the trio always wants more, it ignites with Diane's fire, Mike's freedom and Léo's conviction, and with NEVER SAY NEVER bets on 14 tracks that are electric, powerful and lightning-sharp.
Plural and perfectly eclectic, NEVER SAY NEVER inhabits an intangible musical and temporal space.
Like a mixtape, this new album reveals new sensations with every track, a prayer to be played on repeat, a kind of magic formula made of electro rhythms, retro synths and shoegaze guitars.

* Regrooved Company Outer sleeve
* Analogue Remastered
* Limited Edition 250pcs made

First Word Records proudly present the second single from Above The Clouds (aka kidkanevil & Magic Manfred), taking on another underground hip hop classic, 'Change'.

'Change' was originally performed by Shadez of Brooklyn, produced by Da Beatminerz and most notably appeared on DJ Premier's legendary 'New York Reality Check 101' mix compilation back in 1997.

This 7" vinyl release follows on from last Summer's MF DOOM cover 'Arrow Root', which received strong support from the likes of Japan's DJ Koco and Philadelphia's DJ Jazzy Jeff.

This new instrumental reinterpretation also features cuts by Leicester-based turntablist, Jon1st - a DMC World Online Champion, as well as being a producer & musician in his own right, collaborating on music with a number of hip hop, D&B and electronic artists.

One of the original First Word roster, UK Producer/DJ and all-round laptop music geek kidkanevil has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years, gleefully exploring the beats and bleeps of the electronic music universe to international recognition. Leeds born, sound system bred and raised on a (un)healthy diet of video games and anime, his solo work inhabits the curious space between bass frequencies and otaku culture. But as a devoted teenage backpack rap nerd, somewhere in the back of kid's mind was a lingering desire to reconnect with his first love, hip hop.

Not long after moving to Berlin he joined a studio space in graffiti plastered Kreuzberg, where he met multi instrumentalist wizard Magic Manfred; a disciple of all things boogie, disco, funk and soul. Born and raised in Berlin, and currently a touring musician for many an act, Manfred's musical map joins the dots from piano lessons at four, to starting a band with his teenage friends, leading him to his true calling - the bass - via the club vibrations of his hometown, which introduced him to the world of DJing and production, and a stint studying in the explosive London jazz scene to finalise his Jedi training.

Bonding over their mutual love of '90s hip hop, a friendship and musical kinship developed, coupled with a desire to honour past eras but push things forward, Above The Clouds was born; named after their joint favourite DJ Premier beat, with a touch of irony regarding their basement based studio of a windowless variety.

kidkanevil explains further "We started the project with a few covers, just as a way to get warmed up and in a certain creative headspace, of which 'Change' by Shadez Of Brooklyn was one. We both loved DJ Premier's 'New York Reality Check 101' mix when we were teenagers and this track was a favourite. The elements really lent themselves to live interpretation, and as an instrumental there was space to bring some nice movement with the bass and stuff. Hopefully we found the balance between paying tribute and finding our own pocket. For the final seasoning we hit up the homie and turntable wizard Jon1st to recreate the cuts, of which he did an immaculate job of course.

The b-side 'Urgh' is one of our favourite beats we've made so far; the title is just how it makes us feel! We actually recorded the piano with two iphones as left and right and it sounded kinda cool so we went with it..."

'Change / Urgh' is released on limited 7" vinyl & digital platforms, April 24th 2026.

2026 Repress!

Om Unit says of this release 'For me it's another milestone as a DNB fan.. Being allowed to come back to 31 again with another shadow boxing version, being one of only a tiny handful of people being allowed to remix this classic truly is an honour, let alone twice! Also working with Thing on "something ancient" was a real blessing not only because he's original and convincing with his own work but also I think he's like me, he does his own thing without adhering to too many of the insular rules that have made dnb such a closed room over the years, and so creating this cinematic piece just happened naturally and I really love the results.

Through her work across five Vastum albums, Leila Abdul-Rauf has been a sonorous contributor to 20 Buck Spin’s discography for more than 15 years now. Concurrent to that she’s also amassed an impressive body of solo work whereby she could showcase the full range of her multi-instrumental artistic and vocal talents. We now bring that part of Leila’s output to 20 Buck Spin showcasing her darkest and most confrontational material to date with new album ‘Andros Insidium’. On ‘Andros Insidium’ Leila draws us into a ceremonial descent, through the architecture of shadow itself. Unfolding like a ritual text etched in obsidian, each movement traces the violent and sacred geometry of transformation. The presence and wisdom of the feminine divine looms throughout, as an ancient and uncompromising force, in conflict with everything buried, exiled and made monstrous by the machinery of societal pressures and unrealistic expectations. The album delves deep into the dark vastness of the psyche of woman: wild, ugly, vulnerable and powerful. Sonically ‘Andros Insidium’ is a mutation of the cinematic dark-ambient, industrial and ritual folk expressed in prior releases, now sharpened into something far darker, more narrative and intimate. Leila’s vocal work becomes a new focus with a wider variety of styles and characters, exorcising the demons of patriarchal fragmentation and revenge fantasy as lived myth. In its most potent moments, ‘Andros Insidium’ suggests that wholeness is not purity or light, but the terrifying act of reclaiming everything that was discarded, and learning to speak with its voice. * New solo album of Leila-Abdul Rauf of VASTUM (also has played in Amber Asylum, Hammers of Misfortune, and others) * Dark and heavy mix of Dark Ambient, Industrial, Ritual / Neo Folk, Electronic

* FFO: Dead Can Dance, Diamanda Galas, Arcana, Amber Asylum, Jarboe/Swans, Chelsea Wolfe, Cold Meat Industry

Vienna sludge doom masters TARLUNG return with their most focused and destructive statement to date. Axis Mundi is a massive slab of low tuned heaviness forged in the darkest corners of sludge and doom.
Built on suffocating riffs, dragging tempos, chugging grooves and feral vocal delivery, TARLUNG create a sound that feels both crushing and hypnotic. The band move between oppressive sludge weight, bleak doom atmospheres and abrasive noise soaked tension, shaping long, immersive compositions that pull the listener into a collapsing sonic landscape.
While rooted in nasty, direct sludge doom, TARLUNG also explore experimental textures, subtle dynamic shifts and rare moments of contemplation within the chaos, only to be swallowed again by waves of uncompromising brutality. This is an album made for listeners who want weight, tension and depth, not just volume.

For Fans Of: YOB, Crowbar, Weedeater, Iron Monkey, Dopethrone, Thou, SUMA

Manilla Road's »The Courts Of Chaos« album was originally released in 1990. It was the band's last release for Black Dragon and also the last release before the band temporarily split up (if we do not take 1992's »Circus Maximus« into account, which was actually supposed to be a solo album). All in all it was a very tough time for Manilla Road. When he was still alive, Mark Shelton commented in an exclusive interview: "Yes, you are correct with all of that. Our releases were not selling as well as they had years before and it seemed like metal in general was having a hard time surviving the times that followed the conversion to CD technology. Right after Manilla Road broke up, I started putting together a solo project that accidentally turned into a band. So we named it Circus Maximus and signed a deal with Black Dragon but they decided to release it as a Manilla Road album because they thought it would sell better. »The Courts Of Chaos« was the last album that was a real Manilla Road project on Black Dragon." “»The Courts Of Chaos« was a tough album to get done because the atmosphere within the band was tense, to say the least”, continued The Shark. ”We all knew it was going to be the end of an era and that this line-up would most likely never do another album.” Although »The Courts Of Chaos« might not be the strongest Manilla Road effort, Mark did not consider it a “throwaway album” whatsoever: “It does not seem to get mentioned as much as many other albums of The Road. But when it does come up, it seems like that person is really sold on the project being one of our better ones. It does, in my opinion, have some really killer songs on it. 'Dig Me No Grave' is still in our show. It's always a challenge to play but I love doing that one live and it still seems to appeal to our audience. “ Another highlight on »The Courts Of Chaos« is "DOA", a cover of a Bloodrock number. Manilla Road were not known for playing too many covers. Mark Shelton explained: "I grew up in that era and yes, I love that old stuff and could be called a collector of sorts, I guess. This was the only cover song that Manilla Road has ever put on an album. We chose this song because it was the only one that all three of us could agree upon. I wanted to do some obscure hit from the old days and turn it into a Manilla Road style song. I'm still fairly fond of the version and still like to listen to it every once in a while."

Havukruunu's KUU ERKYLÄN YLLÄ reissued in April Svart Records continue to reissue the albums of Havukruunu, bringing their highly sought after 2021 EP KUU ERKYLÄN YLLÄ back on the market in April 2026. Statement from the band: "There has been a lot of rumors and mystery surrounding the album cover art for Kuu Erkylän Yllä EP. Why was the album cover art different on the cassette version and the Vinyl/CD version at the time of release? The most well-known theory is probably that the original cover art was destroyed with an axe, which is why "the blue cover" ended up only on the cassette release and the damaged artwork could no longer be transferred to the CD/Vinyl versions. We completely deny this rumor: "the blue cover" was not destroyed with an axe, but was run over by a car, and we also confirm that "the blue cover" was not even the original cover art. The original cover art has now been found from the archives and the reissue published by Svart has now been made for the first time ever with the cover art that the release was originally intended to have." The Quorthonian homemade assault Kuu Erkylän Yllä contains Havukruunu‘s earliest and, at the time on recording, latest compositions combined, reworked and finished finally to do justice for the original vision of the band. Journey to the pitch-black star-night of Erkylä, where the Night Tower stands ever vigilant under the sign….. Presented for the first time with the original, previously unused album art by Heidi Kosenius, Kuu Erkylän Yllä is available now on new limited vinyl colours and housed in a gatefold sleeve. Kuu Erkylän Yllä was performed during first four full moons of MMXXI by Stefa - Voice, Guitars, Synth Bootleg-Henkka – Guitars Sinisalo - Electric Bass Guitar Kostajainen - 125 INTERCITY EXPRESS

Havukruunu's KUU ERKYLÄN YLLÄ reissued in April Svart Records continue to reissue the albums of Havukruunu, bringing their highly sought after 2021 EP KUU ERKYLÄN YLLÄ back on the market in April 2026. Statement from the band: "There has been a lot of rumors and mystery surrounding the album cover art for Kuu Erkylän Yllä EP. Why was the album cover art different on the cassette version and the Vinyl/CD version at the time of release? The most well-known theory is probably that the original cover art was destroyed with an axe, which is why "the blue cover" ended up only on the cassette release and the damaged artwork could no longer be transferred to the CD/Vinyl versions. We completely deny this rumor: "the blue cover" was not destroyed with an axe, but was run over by a car, and we also confirm that "the blue cover" was not even the original cover art. The original cover art has now been found from the archives and the reissue published by Svart has now been made for the first time ever with the cover art that the release was originally intended to have." The Quorthonian homemade assault Kuu Erkylän Yllä contains Havukruunu‘s earliest and, at the time on recording, latest compositions combined, reworked and finished finally to do justice for the original vision of the band. Journey to the pitch-black star-night of Erkylä, where the Night Tower stands ever vigilant under the sign….. Presented for the first time with the original, previously unused album art by Heidi Kosenius, Kuu Erkylän Yllä is available now on new limited vinyl colours and housed in a gatefold sleeve. Kuu Erkylän Yllä was performed during first four full moons of MMXXI by Stefa - Voice, Guitars, Synth Bootleg-Henkka – Guitars Sinisalo - Electric Bass Guitar Kostajainen - 125 INTERCITY EXPRESS

Acclaimed harpist and songwriter Mikaela Davis’ new album, Graceland Way (due TK via Kill Rock Stars), builds an expansive, kaleidoscopic neo-western dystopia from the cozy origin point—that duality compounded by a subtle exploration of light and dark, grace and struggle, rose and thorn, as well as the mystical power found at their meeting points. The “canyon country” epic born of that work is indebted to the titular street in Chevy Chase Canyon where she recorded the album, the lineage of Laurel Canyon, the mythos of Elvis’s Graceland, and Paul Simon’s restless reinvention. “At the end of the journey, the place you were destined for all along isn’t even a place, it’s a state of mind: Graceland Way,” Davis says. Featuring an unreleased Cass McCombs track (Mizmoon) as well as contributions from Karley Hartzman (Wednesday), Tim Heidecker, Madison Cunningham, Neal Francis, James Felice (The Felice Brothers), Clay Finch (Mapache) & Hannah Read.

Regal delivers his first full EP on Backspin, marking a defining moment for the label he founded. More than just another release, the Forgotten Heroes EP captures the essence of Regal's vision: groovy, forward-moving techno that balances raw club energy with atmosphere, emotion and narrative.

The title track 'Forgotten Heroes' sets the EP in motion with a sense of controlled urgency. A rolling, slightly breaktinged groove pushes forward relentlessly, while an eerie, almost nostalgic synth melody hovers in the background, giving the track an emotional pull. 'Concentrate' shifts the focus inward_ bleeping motifs, tight claps and restless hihats circle around spoken fragments that feel like thoughts caught between the peak of the night and the quiet hours before sunrise.

On the B-side, 'Forte' accelerates into pure momentum: sharp, bleep-led sequences and forward pressure combine into a rush that feels like racing through the city at night. 'Soft Killer' deepens the mood with a darker, dominant edge, its stripped back power and razor-sharp sounds cutting clean through the mix. Closing track 'Wild Magic' offers a final release of tension, slowing the pace into a lighter, more house-leaning groove. Warm pads and a catchy, uplifting melody bring a sense of air and openness, letting the EP drift out on a hopeful, almost euphoric note.

Regal's comeback EP 'Forgotten Heroes' stands as a personal statement and a cornerstone release for Backspin. It's techno built on groove, contrast and character, made to leave a lasting impression on the dancefloor.