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Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

Forever Records

Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.

Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.


The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.

Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.

Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:

“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.

"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.

Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992

"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.

"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.

"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.

2026 REPRESS + DOWNLOAD

Years Of Denial is back on Veyl with their second LP 'Suicide Disco Vol. 2'. The follow up to 2019’s 'Suicide Disco', the duo makes a triumphant return, elevating their distinct sound which fuses dark wave, goth, newbeat, post-punk, EBM, and techno. The LP features 12 tracks all written and produced at Ark of Noise studio, located miles away from the polluted noise of social turbulences, immersed in isolation, creative indulgence, and poetic writing.
From the start, 'Art Break' provides the perfect warm-up, gently cleansing the palette and re-introducing us to Barkosina’s lustful vocals with a slow-burning pace that only marks the beginning. 'Wrong' picks things up, injecting a dose of body music for an infectious piece that bleeds into 'La Pendue' which keeps the energy rising. Next up, 'Mr. Guillotine' delivers a razor sharp edge, carving out a fresh post-punk feel which then brings us to the brooding, 'Never Satisfied'.
'Lover’s Crime' marks the halfway point of the record and one of the album’s standout tracks. Undeniably seductive with an ominous feel, the pair keep this mood going with 'City Lights' and then smash things open with 'Dancing With Demons'. After the devious message sent with 'The Letter', we are submerged in the romantic melancholia of 'Death Of A Lover' and 'Regarding the Pain of Others' before closing things out with 'Social Anxiety' which features vocals by longtime collaborator Broken English Club. The result is an immersive journey through the pair’s self described, Suicide Disco sound, and further builds on the Years of Denial form and legacy.

Justin K Broadrick (GODFLESH) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death) drop militant, hard techno on split LP.

New album doubles the track count (and runtime) of the duo's last collab.

Stalwart Birmingham, UK innovators Justin K Broadrick and Mick Harris have connected again as JK FLESH and MONRELLA to deliver the warehouse-destroying hard techno LP SHOUTING THE ODDS, five years after their last EP, SEE RED.

Featuring four tracks from each artist, SHOUTING THE ODDS invokes both the feeling of listening to late night pirate radio and sweating in a darkened warehouse as the rafters shake, complete with the perfect amount of analog wow and flutter. Brimming with gnarled, unrelenting kicks hovering between 130–140bpm, the split format deftly showcases both artist's individual strengths, while displaying undeniable commonality.

Broadrick's side leans traditional hard techno, filled with mesmerizing, minimal synth arpeggios and contrasting toplines, all aligned and maligned by shrewd transitions. Harris' section presents more experimental and house influences, using bright, distorted synth hits and a touch of forlorn melody. The tracks take on a life of their own through expert use of filters and just the right amount of delay, stutter, and glitch.

Never before has an album filled with such shining, shimmering synths been so black and threatening. JK FLESH and MONRELLA have hard techno down to a science.

“No-nonsense old school flavoured techno bangers. We're flying the flag for outsider techno." - Justin K Broadrick

Take Me, I’m Yours is the first collaboration album between Alan Abrahams and Jan Jelinek. Released through the latter’s faitiche, it builds upon multi-layered vocal sketches by the former. The Paris-based artist, primarily known for his work as Portable and Bodycode, supplied Jelinek with multi-layered song sketches that the German artist subjected to a rigorous process of manipulation, excavating the ambiguities of the original material and transforming its rhythms into subtle pulses. Take Me, I’m Yours is neither a typical Abrahams record nor a classic Jelinek album—it is something third, mediating between the physicality of the voice and the abstraction of electronic sound design.

The two had crossed paths before really getting to know each other after Abrahams invited Jelinek to play at one of his Süd Electronic parties. The idea of a collaboration emerged slowly. “It started as an experiment, and over the past few years grew from a few tracks into this album,” says Abrahams. He describes recording the basic material as a “tantalizing” process, not knowing how Jelinek would transform his material, some of which was based on wordless chanting, while other tracks were working with lyrical content. However, their mutual trust allowed Jelinek to remove the harmonies, radically reduce the rhythms, and concentrate on Abrahams’ voice.

Jelinek heard something “fragile” in this voice, “moments of doubt and dark premonitions.” He points to Forever as an example. “Alan’s original song reminded me of classic vocal house, but his voice seemed to almost break,” he says. “This contradiction made the piece even bigger, because we hear a singer in the moment of an awakening.” He further accentuated such tensions through arrhythmic synth modulations and time-stretching algorithms, while also adding concrete sounds from a variety of sources. With its dedication to both transforming and amplifying the emotional qualities hidden within Abrahams’ pieces, Take Me, I’m Yours functions as a dialogue between those two singular artists.

Shadow Child’s ‘Say It Now’ is an ode to the Portsmouth producer’s rave-heritage and how it has inspired him.

· Featuring a soaring vocal sample, ravey piano stabs and a dangerous bassline, this is a release that tells the story of Shadow Child’s music journey.

· London Records have pressed four mixes onto wax, including a thumping techno cut from Dusky, a floaty progressive house interpretation from Cinthie and asoundsystem-ready, jungle banger from S.P.Y, as well as Shadow Child’s original mix.

· This 12” features artwork from renowned print artist and designer Jimmy Turrell, who has worked with names such as Chanel, Adidas, Apple, Rolling Stones, Dazed and Chemical Brothers, just to name a few

Mutant Volt emerges from the depths of the underworld with Bona Vista, a six track EP built from unreleased DAT recordings made during the early 90s. Drawn from a vast archive, much of the material had been long forgotten, written at a time when electronic music moved fast and rarely looked back.

Mutant Volt is one of several aliases used by Dan Piu, whose roots sit firmly in early European rave and club culture. The name was originally used to explore a stripped, machine driven sound shaped by early trance structures and bleep influence. Aside from a single release on Superluminal in 2020, much of this material has remained unheard. Recorded on a hardware setup that has changed little since 1991, the tracks were made instinctively and left behind to gather dust.

Today the tracks carry a different kind of weight. What was once made quickly and left behind now feels immediate, proof that some music does not belong to the past, it simply arrives there first.

repressed !

It's been a busy 3 years since Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em released on his own Bergerac imprint.

Since then he's toured relentlessly, released a whole album of live music based disco/punk funk for Sonar Kollektiv as Hot Coins, managed to completely update his biggest track 'In Love Again' to make it a hit the second time around plus released spaced out, wonky party smashers on Wolf Music, Phonica, City Fly and Telefonplan.

While all this was going on Bergerac was largely on ice but now Berman is turning his energy back to the label with a vengeance.
Wonky Bassline Disco Banger is accurately titled. An uplifting intro breaks down into a slamming disco house number and just when you think you know what's going on...
Then the trademark Red Rack'em wonky bass drops in. 150% Guaranteed party smasher... Jazzy House Extension is super vintage Red Rack'em from around 2004 - something for the jazz heads out there - cracked out piano and far too loud double bass come together to birth a euphoric yet banging snapshot of a producer learning his chops. Destined is a slightly demented leftfield house number featuring mangled, pitch shifting fretless bass and vocals samples discussing someone's destiny.
A woozy end to the EP.

■ The latest installment in the popular ocean themed compilation series “SALT... meets ISLAND CAFE”, curated by the beach life magazine/media SALT...,
is DEEP BLUE the series’ first ever ambient music compilation. Centered around the title concept inspired by the deep, tranquil blue of the ocean, the album
presents soothing music tailored to modern lifestyles, spanning chillout, Balearic, meditation, and healing sounds.

■ Ten artists each highly trusted by discerning listeners across the ambient, chillout, Balearic, and surf‑music scenes have created brand‑new, original ambient
tracks inspired by the theme. From pioneers active since the ’90s to cutting‑edge trackmakers, this compilation brings together a stunning collection of
ocean‑themed ambient music.

■ Mastering is handled by ambient/Balearic maestro Calm, who is also featured as one of the contributing artists, delivering an exceptional sonic experience.
Enjoy all ten tracks, each expressing its own unique interpretation of DEEP BLUE.

■ The artwork features an artistic photograph by Pedro Gomes, a Brazil born, Japan based surf photographer, with design by Masato Maekawa (tAnkers inc.),
known for his work across apparel and outdoor brands. Under the supervision of SALT..., the visuals perfectly capture the compilation’s immersive world.


[b] a2. [.que] / deeply

Limitiertes blaues 12“ Vinyl mit Siebdruck auf B-Seite inklusive 12“ Stickerbogen.
Artwork von Christopher Ian Macfarlane

Flying Lotus, der Produzent – auch bekannt als Steve Ellison – veröffentlicht Anfang März seine neue ‘BIG MAMA’ EP auf Brainfeeder: dem Plattenlabel aus Los Angeles, das er vor fast zwei Jahrzehnten gegründet hat und das seitdem Alben von renommierten Künstlern wie Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote, Kamasi Washington und vielen anderen veröffentlicht hat.
BIG MAMA fängt Ellison in einem Moment spontaner, ungezügelter Dynamik ein. Die EP ist dicht gepackt mit unterschiedlichen Sounds, Rhythmen und Effekten und liefert, wie er es selbst beschreibt, „experimentelle, maximalistische, hyperschnelle, elektronische Energie“, wobei sieben dynamische Tracks zu einer einzigen durchgehenden Komposition zusammengefasst sind, in der jeder Takt einzigartig ist und es keine Loops gibt.

Die EP, die innerhalb von zwei Monaten fertiggestellt wurde, zeigt Ellison mit einem deutlich anderen Ansatz bei seiner Produktion. Anstatt sich hinzusetzen und an einzelnen Tracks zu arbeiten, stattete er sein Studio mit einer Vielzahl neuer Tricks und Spielzeuge aus, nutzte Software-Synthesizer, um FM-, Wavetable- und Granularsynthese zu erforschen, sowie Second-Hand Drum Machines und verbrachte den ersten Monat damit, ein Skizzenbuch mit einzelnen Sounds für die nächste Phase des Prozesses zu erstellen. Von dort aus begann er, die akribischen Details der BIG MAMA-Welt aufzubauen, wobei er täglich nur 10 bis 15 Sekunden Musik fertigstellte, bevor er die Fragmente zu ihrer endgültigen Form zusammenfügte: ein mehr als dreizehnminütiger Strom des Bewusstseins, der weder durch Tempo noch Stil eingeschränkt ist.

Guided By Voices’ last album Thick Rich And Delicious (October 2025) was lauded by NPR’s All Things Considered and picked #1 on Magnet Magazine’s Best Albums Of 2025. The single “We Outlast Them All” from this latest, Crawlspace Of The Pantheon, is an anthemic victory lap on album #44 from the indie rock stalwarts. Robert Pollard told Rolling Stone: “ ‘We Outlast Them All’ could be our ‘We Are The Champions’ but it’s not necessarily about us.

It’s about anyone who perseveres over a long period of time.” On Crawlspace Of The Pantheon: “I worked much more diligently on this set of lyrics. I chiseled away at lines and sections and phrasings...I wanted them to have an overall emotionally conceptual feel. At times it feels somewhat autobiographical.” Guided By Voices will not be on tour in 2026. Pollard recently told Magnet: “Why would we stop playing live and make these kinds of records? I don’t know. We do what we wanna do.” “Pollard is the greatest rock lyricist of all time.” —Dennis Cooper

Produced by Masters At Work (Kenny Dope and Louie Vega).

'Collaboration is stimulating, it's in my blood.' Thus speaks Brian Jackson and his philosophy for making music and it's indeed collaboration that runs through this amazing album of reimagined and revisited songs from his artistic past. Featuring artists such as Black Thought, Rahsaan Patterson, Josh Milan, Moodymann, Omar, J. Ivy and others and being produced by Masters At Work, Now More Than Ever takes the enduring classic tracks that Brian made with Gil Scott-Heron and places them in the now over nineteen tracks and across a triple vinyl LP or double CD.

Songs such as Lady Day & John Coltrane, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Home Is Where The Hatred Is, Winter In America, The Bottle and more soundtracked a generational movement of Black Consciousness in the 70s and 80s. As Brian says, 'This album is one way to connect to what we were about in the 70s; we were about change and this is part of the lineage of resistance. These tracks mark a period of time when resistance was essential and now a younger generation has picked them up.'

'As young men in their twenties we (Brian and Gil) just wrote about what we saw and were feeling and people interpreted these songs in ways we never thought about but as Sly stone said the song comes from me but it's for you.' This statement from Brian perfectly sums up the collaborative nature of Now More Than Ever and the relevance of these songs in a contemporary perspective can be perfectly summed up by the songs themselves. The formidable stable of artists contributing to each track and the excellent production from Louie Vega and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzalez make this album an event in itself. However, these songs are there to be enjoyed as a canon or as individual masterpieces, whether on the dancefloor or on a home system. ‘Now More Than Ever’ just has to be in everybody’s music collection.

Zum 60-jährigen Jubiläum von Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion erscheint die siebte Veröffentlichung unserer Peter-Thomas-Reihe als erweitertes, klanglich überarbeitetes Reissue auf CD und LP. Der ikonische Soundtrack gilt bis heute als einer der prägendsten der deutschen TV-Geschichte - futuristisch, rhythmisch, wagemutig. Peter Thomas verlieh der Serie eine einzigartige Klangsignatur, deren Strahlkraft weit über das Bildschirmformat hinausreicht. Der legendäre Vocoder-Countdown und Titelthema wurden zahllos gesampelt, gecovert und neu interpretiert - u. a. von Pulp, Pizzicato Five, Die Fantastischen Vier und Mousse T. In Zusammenarbeit mit Philip Thomas konnten vier bislang unveröffentlichte Stücke aus dem Nachlass des Komponisten ergänzt werden. Die LP basiert auf der Philips-Originalausgabe von 1966, erweitert um die neuen Titel - und enthält ausschließlich Musik, die in der Serie zu hören war, mit einer Ausnahme: "Bolero on the Moon Rocks", dessen Sample Pulp 1998 zu This Is Hardcore inspirierte. Die CD bietet über 60 Minuten Originalmusik, inklusive rarer Outtakes, ohne später hinzugefügtes Füllmaterial.

Zum 60-jährigen Jubiläum von Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion erscheint die siebte Veröffentlichung unserer Peter-Thomas-Reihe als erweitertes, klanglich überarbeitetes Reissue auf CD und LP. Der ikonische Soundtrack gilt bis heute als einer der prägendsten der deutschen TV-Geschichte - futuristisch, rhythmisch, wagemutig. Peter Thomas verlieh der Serie eine einzigartige Klangsignatur, deren Strahlkraft weit über das Bildschirmformat hinausreicht. Der legendäre Vocoder-Countdown und Titelthema wurden zahllos gesampelt, gecovert und neu interpretiert - u. a. von Pulp, Pizzicato Five, Die Fantastischen Vier und Mousse T. In Zusammenarbeit mit Philip Thomas konnten vier bislang unveröffentlichte Stücke aus dem Nachlass des Komponisten ergänzt werden. Die LP basiert auf der Philips-Originalausgabe von 1966, erweitert um die neuen Titel - und enthält ausschließlich Musik, die in der Serie zu hören war, mit einer Ausnahme: "Bolero on the Moon Rocks", dessen Sample Pulp 1998 zu This Is Hardcore inspirierte. Die CD bietet über 60 Minuten Originalmusik, inklusive rarer Outtakes, ohne später hinzugefügtes Füllmaterial.

Emotional Rescue returns after a much-needed year hiatus, refreshed and ready, as it moves into its 15th year, to further explore the environs of oft-forgotten musical secrets and present them to new heads and minds.

To celebrate, the label looks back to one of its favourite collaborations, the music of French ‘Ethno-Industrialists’ Vox Populi! in presenting a truly unique EP of “In Dub”, inspired remixes by 4 fellow Paris based artists of today in Full Circle, Froid Dub, Krikor and Shelter.

“In Dub” takes a selection of songs from the series of albums reissued or compiled on Emotional Rescue and sister label, Platform 23, and gives the Master tapes to this talented ensemble to offer their own, unique dub reworks. The project explores the on-going advances in technology offered, mixed with pure talent and a respectful homage.

Formed by Axel Kyrou and including wife Mitra, as well as long-term music and art partners Pierre Jolivet aka Pacific 231 and Francis Lafont aka FR6 Man, they forged a path from obscure, drum and drum-based cassette releases on to fully realized albums and compilations on their now cult Vox Man Records.

Alexis Le Tan and Joakim’s Full Circle project starts, with their electronic dub remake of Soleyman Dub from the ‘Alternatif Réalisme’ compilation (ERC079). With releases on Good Morning Tapes, Offen and their own “Released” label, their plaudits as master diggers and producers of dubby tripped-out inspired electronics – releasing slowed Trance some 10 years before anyone else – is inspired. Tuning in and turning on the original dub into a mantra style slow-breaks (Digi)dub is the perfect experimental flavour.

Jube Man is next, a twisted, psychedelic dub out by rising stars Froid Dub. The stand-out from the ‘Magiques Creations’ release (ERC052), an album that explored Vox Populi’s furtive post-industrial period of 1984 to 1988, Jube Man was the perfect selection by the duo of François Marché and Stéphane Bodin.

Froid Dub have steadily developed their “cold” Digidub style to acclaim –

releasing a steady flow of dub inspired electronics on their own label Delodio, as well as recently appearing on sister label Emotional Response’s 10th year anniversary collection, ‘All Trades’. Their haunting, shuffling and murky acid / piano dub, with the drifting “Space Echoing” of Mitra’s vocals from the live desk mix, creates a ghostly version to effect.

Next, master mixer, producer and engineer Krikor serves a steppers remake with his “OverDub” of Zen-Dub. With a career that spans releases on Tigersushi, LIES and Soul Jazz, his sound has developed from Electro, House and Techno, to Acid, Bleep, Dancehall, Dub and touches of Gabba.

Taken from Vox Populi!’s master-opus Aither (ERC030), the first of our reissues dating back to 2016, Zen-Dub’s pacey, lo-fi dub experience is transformed and overdubbed into an incessant sound system throb, a true bass quaking “steppa”.

To close, Micro Climax is put through Shelter’s increasing avant dub exposition. Appearing on the likes of Growing Bin, Emotional Response and his own Protopost, as well for – and being in-house designer – on the much-missed Séance Centre, Alan Briand aka Shelter productions have developed from Balearic, Edits and House to explore Avant, Raga and live Dub productions.

Appearing on the recent ‘Ethniques Pyschedeliques’ compilation on Platform 23 (PLA032), in original form Micro Climax is a sprawling 10-minute ethno-dub of whispered vocals, drone and sub bass. Shelter strips it back, keeping background effects, adding live bass and percussion to create a wonky, slow, shuffling ska-lite excursion to complete a true “In Dub”.

When funk music exploded onto the global pop scene in the late sixties, many of Jamaica's leading music-makers were inspired to incorporate elements of the exciting sound into their work. The result was the fascinating and compelling funky reggae style that proved immensely popular with record buyers on both sides of the Atlantic throughout the early ‘70s.

Pioneers of the sound included such celebrated producers as Lee ’Scratch’ Perry and Lloyd Charmers, whose recordings are heavily represented on both the CD and LP versions of this irresistible collection.

Collected here are some of the finest examples of the funky reggae, performed by some of reggae music’s most accomplished artists, from Ken Boothe and Lee Perry’s Upsetters to British-based acts, Greyhound and The Marvels.

Sometimes the title of an album tells you everything you need to know. Laurence Pike’s Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is like that: The music within represents a search for freedom, potentiality—liberatory strategies that transcend the ego and the solitary, atomized figure.

But in this case, the album title is also a red herring, because there is no jazz quintet here—just Pike, his drums, and his machines, not so much an ersatz ensemble as a purely notional one, a thought experiment equipped with drumsticks, circuitry, and the desire to go beyond hardwired limits.

And the results, strictly speaking, aren’t really jazz, though they incorporate the vocabulary of jazz, along with that of ambient, electronica, and post-rock. They are some other thing, cognizant of genre but never beholden to it. Again, we’re talking about a search for freedom here.

The Sydney-based musician has a long history of coloring outside the lines, not just in his solo recordings—including four albums for the Leaf label between 2018 and 2024—but also in the trio Pivot (later PVT); Szun Waves (alongside saxophonist Jack Wyllie and Border Community’s Luke Abbott); Triosk, which recorded an album with Jan Jelinek in 2003; and even post-punk titans Liars, whom he joined in late 2018.

Of his first album for Balmat, Pike says, “My loose concept was: What does music sound like when the expectations of late capitalism are removed from it? How might a jazz musician from an idealised culture of the future, or even another world, utilise musical language when the conventions of style and marketing are no longer a factor in music making?”

That inquiry, he says, connects to his “guiding principle: that the purpose of music is to access something bigger than the individual, and reveal a sense of possibility and freedom in the world to the listener. To create an understanding that the future can be something other than what we imagined or expect, even unconsciously.”

Heady ideas, but plug into his stream-of-metaconsciousness flow and you may start to intuit what motivates him. There is a deeply lyrical expression in these pieces—in the ruminative piano of opener “Guardians of Memory,” for example—but also a sense of exploded perspective, of ideas approached from more angles than any one mind could dream up. Of a collectivized consciousness, of mycelial networks branching across tone and rhythm and timbre, of ideas articulated in distributed fashion, nodal points dancing across drum heads.

Pike’s imaginary quintet is hardly without precedent; it’s a continuation of concepts floated across Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, Burnt Friedman’s many guises, and much of the recombinant improv of the International Anthem roster, not to mention the far corners of ECM’s catalog in the late 1970s and 1980s, which Pike says have been integral to his development since he was a teenager. Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is a point in a continuum, a voice in a conversation, a question with no obvious answer: How can the search for otherness in music manifest something true about ourselves?

W.R.F. was formed in 2015 by Nina and late studio partner Andrew Weatherall to help wrangle the vast output recorded together beyond his solo releases.
Spotlighting nine tracks from the Apparently Solo series of EPs recorded between 2016- 2019 and released on Bandcamp in 2023, this lustrous time capsule marks the culmination of Walsh and Weatherall’s creative relationship born after they clicked at London’s earliest acid house clubs, becoming partners then managers of their Sabres Of Paradise/Sabrettes labels before taking different paths by the late '90s.
An accomplished musician, Nina had learned the art of studio technology by the time they reunited and started working together in 2012. Created at her Facility 4 Studio situated in the dangerous, gang-ridden no man’s land between Streatham and Mitcham, Anamchara captures the super-prolific creative stretch starting in 2015 that produced Weatherall’s Convenanza and Qualia solo sets, W.R.F.’s The Phoenix Suburb (And Other Stories) plus a whole lot more. According to Nina, Andrew envisioned the spectacular ‘Borderland’ as natural successor to ‘Smokebelch’, his most revered track. When it came to his remix, Nina enlisted renowned viola virtuoso Sarah Sarhandi and composed new harmonies with Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor in mind.
The set also catches the breakthrough period when, through Nina’s careful coaxing, Andrew started using the computer system she’d set up to better express his musical visions by arranging the elements, grooves and melodies she sent him. Still considered the UK’s greatest DJ-producer, Andrew’s arrangements were inspired by his club-igniting sets. “This allowed me to mix the colours for his palette whilst he was painting the picture,” says Nina. Anamchara straddles the gamut of musical styles explored by W.R.F. at this time, from slower paced psychedelic “drug chug” outings ‘We Two’. ‘Heat To Meat Ratio’, ‘Hidden Watchers Part 1’ to banging acid house and techno sometimes inspired by the violence outside the studio door, including ‘SCHLAP’, ‘Crack-Ed’ and churning acid juggernaut ‘Yacidik’ (“After much dangling of the acid carrot, Andrew took a bite and, after one familiar raised eyebrow, never looked back,” says Nina).
Many tracks fly elements from the enormous sonic library Nina inherited from late partner Erick Legrand that she called The Akashic Library of Sound. Marking Andrew’s 2016 admission into the vault, ‘Rattly Old Puffin’ boasts Erick’s psychedelic guitar and tumbling drum loop Weatherall would run with, including on ‘Borderland’. “Erick was like our third member,” says Nina.
Bringing down the curtain, ‘Alma’’s exquisitely poignant melody that unfolds over thirteen time-stopping minutes was composed by Nina while navigating Erick’s birth and departure date anniversaries to accompany Andrew’s reading from Gordon Burn’s 1991 same-named novel at 2018’s Durham Literary Festival. Burn’s novel imagines early 60s popstrel Alma Cogan, who succumbed to cancer in 1966 surviving to reflect on fame. “Now it just makes me think of Erick. And every time I hear those well-placed cymbal crashes I can only think of the Captain himself.”
A beautiful grand finale for this astonishing selection of pure gold from the vaults.
Kris Needs / 2026