quête:bona fide

Bona Fide & Luka Sambe deliver us four beautiful tracks for our second release on their Lost Orchestra EP.

With its cinematic mood and compelling groove, “Bona Fide" is a fitting title track for the debut album from the duo Michael Leonhart (producer/multi- instrumentalist) & JSWISS (emcee). The high level of lyricism and dynamic feel are key characteristics of the work they create together. "Bona Fide" is defined as “genuine"and “real", an apt description of the partnership. Leonhart & JSWISS come together from two different musical worlds, organically intersecting at a place where their outlooks and backgrounds create genre-bending music. It's the type of record that's gold for a pure hip-hop head, but also has an energy and groove that anyone with a heartbeat can get into. The Side B “Instrumental” showcases the rock-solid swagger of Nicholas Movshon (drums), Elizabeth Pupo-Walker (congas) and Leonhart (bass) with flourishes of harpsichord and upright piano along with dusty choir and strings courtesy of Leonhart’s mellotron. TRACKLIST: 1. Bona Fide 2. Bona Fide (Instrumental)

Bona Fide makes his triumphant return to Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream label to release the Entropy double-EP.

For his debut EP release on All Day I Dream, Bona Fide showcases a diverse repertoire of sounds across the eight tracks. The record kicks off with the title track, where Bona Fide eases the listener in with soft percussion before incorporating fluttering melodic textures. Another highlight from the A-side is ‘Kikiri’ - a mesmerizing composition spanning nine and a half minutes which features filtered chanting over an enduring drum pattern, balanced out by mystical synth harmonies. On the B-Side, Bona Fide recruits Zone+ to collaborate on ‘Alter Ego’, a stripped-down groover with an infectious bass-line, and Wassu to collaborate on ‘Love Sparkles,’ a joyous track with maximum danceability.

Entropy may sound familiar to some, as unreleased cuts from the record have been staples of Lee Burridge sets worldwide over the last year and a half. Bona Fide’s main stage performance at the inaugural All Day I Dream Festival in Northern California left fans wondering when he would next be featured on the label. Delivering the eight track Entropy EP to be released in both digital and physical format, Bona Fide makes a massive contribution to All Day I Dream, as the world-renowned label adds another wonderful EP to their catalog.

***
We listened to the breeze,
tempting us to fly.
Like the crawling wolves,
shadowless we lie.
Doomed.
***

eloelo recordings returns with its most assured release to date: ‘FREAK’, an original cut from label head ELODIE, backed by a club-ready remix from Parisian heavyweight DJ W!LD, and rounded off with the vinyl-only bonus ‘Carla’.

Championed on BBC Radio 1, ‘FREAK’ arrives with momentum firmly behind it. This is a hypnotic, slow-burning seducer rather than a blunt-force club tool - restless, wriggling textures crawl through the mix, weird and tactile, shifting constantly around the listener, while ELODIE’s own hand-built percussion keeps everything taut and unmistakably her own. Equally immersive through headphones as it is over a club sound system, the track reveals new details with every listen without ever losing its dancefloor drive. Sultry vocal hooks thread through the groove, and in the breakdown a trippy, melodic rhythm coils and builds before the track snaps back open. Classy, controlled and seriously sexy.

On remix duty is DJ W!LD, a bona fide legend of the underground. The Paris-based artist, longtime Circoloco resident at DC-10 and founder of W Label and Spit&Die, has long been one of underground house music's most respected figures. Long a torchbearer for deep, dark, sexy house, he flips ‘FREAK’ into a pumping, peak-time cut. Built for the floor and armed with a gloriously warped breakdown, his rework has already been tearing up the dancefloor, causing serious damage wherever it's played.

A long-standing digital favourite finally committed to wax, ‘Carla’ closes the vinyl release: a cult cut long adored by those closest to the label and to ELODIE’s music. Timeless, seductive and deceptively powerful, it has always deserved its place on vinyl — and here it finally gets it.

Refined, seductive and unmistakably her own, ‘FREAK’ is another forward-thinking, groove-driven statement that pushes eloelo records' distinctive, timeless sound further still.

Cold, Bold & Together (CBT) CBT was founded in Bellingham, Washington in 1971 by percussionist Tony Gable and musicians Solomon Harris, Keith Hooks and twin brothers TC & Jamar Jenkins. It soon became evident that Bellingham was not a particularly welcoming environment for R&B music, so they moved to Seattle to try their luck and plumb the rich supply of venues, which they successfully did until disbanding in 1978. They spent their early Seattle years playing a combination of covers and originals in clubs, later becoming the "go to" opening act for various nationally known artists, such as Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire. While they were paying their club circuit and opening act dues, they squeezed in recording sessions whenever they could and released their own material, which was well-received and got strong regional airplay. However, because of the feudal nature of the music business at the time, they just couldn't break out, and like a lot of Northwest bands with great potential, they inevitably broke up and went their separate ways. Upon disbanding, they left behind a collection of original recordings at Seattle's legendary Kaye-Smith studios.

Unfortunately for CBT, the studio passed through several owners and at some unknown point in time, one of them did the unforgivable and destroyed the storied studio inventory of two-inch tapes and quarter-inch masters. Unknown to the band, a copy of their masters was smuggled out by their producer who added them to his legacy collection of cloned quarter-inch masters. After several years and many moves, he became concerned about the tendency for magnetic tape to deteriorate over time.

He sent the tapes to a Seattle lab to be restored and digitized, with the hope that perhaps, some day, they might be made available for the listening pleasure of R&B fans. The hoped-for day has finally arrived. Russell Paine and Super Disco Edits has pressed two of the Kaye-Smith CBT tracks: "Go For It", a jazz-influenced instrumental, featuring Kenny G, and "Unity", sung by the group en masse with Tony Gable singing lead. The musicians on these tracks are: Tony Gable, leader, vocals and percussion Harry Alexander, drums Kenny Gorelick (now world-renowned "Kenny G"), sax, flute and horn arrangements Chris Ishi, trumpet Michael Young, Trombone Jamar Jenkins guitar, vocals TC Jenkins bass, vocals 1 Philip Woo, keyboards Footnotes: CBT gave legendary saxophonist Kenny G his start in the music business. Kenny was still in high school when he was recruited to play sax and write horn arrangements. Kenny co-wrote, arranged and played sax and flute on the instrumental "Go For It." He rips a smoking tenor sax solo in the middle, which showcases his already masterful technique and solidifies his R&B bona fides. He went on to have a spectacular career recording for Clive Davis and Arista Records. Before his untimely passing in 2016, Tony Gable went on to found contemporary Jazz group, "Tony Gable and 206" (206 being Seattle's then only area code). With songwriting, performance and production help from Kenny G.

20/20 Vision continues to flourish even well into its third decade. For its next trick, the Leeds label welcomes back Brett Johnson, who was last here 20+ years ago. Releases on Classic Records, DJ Heather collaborations and Derrick Carter championing his work all make him a bona fide house hero and 'Broken Machine' confirms it. 'Unstuck' opens with a mutating disco bassline that refuses to settle, while 'Juiced' dives deep into his signature boompty swing with a drop designed for pure devastation. The title track is the centrepiece - a trippy trip that stretches time entirely before 'iRemember' closes with starry-eyed ambient pads laced above a deep, slow, gorgeous groove. Sophisticated, playful and musical as always.

Excited to share this bomb new release from Scottish techno/house legend Stephen Brown, whose discography reads like a Who's Who of classic techno labels: Transmat Detroit, Djax-UpBeats, Cocoon, Subject Detroit, Theory...

With its instantly recognisable vocal hook, Test 1 is a bona fide, party-starting hand grenade of a tune and destined for track ID requests wherever it drops. Backed by the raw, Chi-town groover Move It (which wouldn't have sounded out-of-place on one of Brown's Djax-up-Beats releases: all off kilter pads, detuned hats and a slamming kick) plus the deeper Tell Him, itself a masterclass in subtlety and groove, this 3-tracker really is quite a package.

All killer: no filler, The Safari EP is essential for fans of proper underground house & techno. Stephen Brown's releases have been falling into the "buy-on-sight" bracket for DJs in the know for many moons now. This release is no different! High quality from Edinburghs finest.

Nickodemus is a traveler at heart—a connecter of worlds, scenes, and people since the mid-90s. Over his extensive career as a touring DJ and producer, including five albums, hundreds of remixes in his “Remix Machine” and two dozen compilations of cutting edge up incoming producers from around the World, remains one of the most important leaders of global fusion and the heavy beats we yearn for in the club. His music has long thrived on the close relationships and mutual respect of friends he’s built across the continents, felt through the worldly potions he cooks up in the studio, and spanning electronic sounds rooted in Latin, African, and Eastern instrumentation. His latest album, Soul & Science is a collaborative effort between old and new friends, recorded in several countries while touring as well as his home studio / record room / memorabilia museum.

This limited 7” pairs two standout remixes from Nickodemus’ 2023 album Soul & Science, bridging deep-rooted collaboration with modern dancefloor energy. On the A-side, Ben Gomori reimagines “Rumba Tobacco y Ron”—a trans-Caribbean production born between Puerto Rico and Cuba, featuring contributions from Tempo & The Candela All-Stars and Haydee Soul—into a chopped, electronic club cut that retains its original horns, piano, and vocal spirit. On the B-side, Tigerbalm delivers a driving, four-on-the-floor remix of “Mama Tchipp (Follow Me),” flipping the Afro-disco anthem with steady basslines, punchy drums, and Pat Kalla’s infectious vocals primed for peak-time play.

With a career spanning over 25 years, Nickodemus remains a globally recognized force in eclectic, genre-blurring dance music, boasting 60k+ Spotify followers, 811k+ monthly listeners, and over 350 million streams across his catalog, alongside more than 20,000 physical records sold worldwide. His breakout collaboration with Quantic and Candela All-Stars, “Mi Swing Es Tropical,” became a bona fide international hit with over 75 million cumulative streams and a key placement in the Chef soundtrack directed by Jon Favreau. On remix duties, Ben Gomori—founder of the UK-based Monologues Records—brings his signature touch, having previously reworked artists including Oby Onyioha, Segun Adewale, Dawda Jobarteh, and Amadou Balaké. The release is already receiving strong international radio support, with airplay and tastemaker backing from Gilles Peterson, BBC Radio 6 Music, FIP, RFI, Radio 3 (Generación Ya), 2SER, KCRW (Top Tune of the Day), and KEXP, signaling strong demand and cross-market appeal for DJs, collectors, and global music audiences alike.

a A1: Rumba Tobacco y Ron (ft. Haydèe Soul) Ben Gomori Remix
b B1: Mama Tchipp (Follow Me) [Tigerbalm Remix] [feat. Pat Kalla]

[a] A1: Rumba Tobacco y Ron (ft. Haydèe Soul) [Ben Gomori Remix]
[b] B1: Mama Tchipp (Follow Me) [Tigerbalm Remix] [feat. Pat Kalla]

[a] A1 | Rumba Tobacco y Ron (ft Haydèe Soul) [Ben Gomori Remix]
[b] B1 | Mama Tchipp (Follow Me) [Tigerbalm Remix] [feat Pat Kalla]

[a] A1 | Rumba Tobacco y Ron (ft Haydèe Soul) [Ben Gomori Remix]
[b] B1 | Mama Tchipp (Follow Me) [Tigerbalm Remix] [feat Pat Kalla]

Astropolis Records, the label born from the legendary Brest festival, marks a decade of electronic devotion with a sprawling, heartfelt anniversary compilation — slightly belated, but executed with undeniable flair.
It also comes in two EPs, showcasing the many facets of the Astropolis universe: in-house artists, long-time festival collaborators, and fresh talent from France’s ever-bubbling scene. Eighteen artists guide us through a sonic journey where rave heritage, electronic dreamscapes, and collective fervor intertwine — true to the spirit of a festival that has never recognized borders



The first EP bathes in warm tones across electronica, house, g-tech, old-school rave, and melodic techno.
It opens with grace and magic via Rone, whose electronic touch conjures the intimate and the infinite. Between electronica and downtempo, The Dolphin Ambassador delivers luminous melancholy, offering a gentle calm before the storm.


The unlikely pairing of Mézigue and Swooh catapults house into a g-tech vortex with the unrestrained Broken Roll To Venice, a compact fusion of groove, hybrid sounds, and playful inventiveness.
Belaria & Madben continue this alchemical thread on Into The Void, an incendiary anthem where 90s rave, EBM, and modern intensity collide in hypnotic trance.


For old-school dancefloor loyalists, KiNK finally resurrects a cult live set staple: Give Me, a bona fide banger merging breakbeat and vintage house, engineered for late-night sweat sessions.
Oniris & Benjamin Rippert revisit the melodic techno roots of the label on Sonate, demonstrating a masterful command of harmony.



This anniversary compilation underscores the label’s openness to new generations and recent sonic hybrids, while paying homage to the techno scene that shaped its early days. Much like the festival itself, it embodies the same sincerity and collective energy: a small manifesto connecting generations, aesthetics, and territories — celebrating roots without nostalgia, and the future without bowing to trends.

US label Lovers Rock Recordings is back with more sophisticated soul sounds from bona fide legends. There is no deep digging involved for the source material here, but that's not to say the results aren't still essential. First up are the beautifully horizontal grooves of 'Hang Onto Your Love (instrumental)' with dancing keys adding a little playfulness up top and syrupy bass melting the heart from below. On the flip is 'No Ordinary Love (instrumental)' which is an even more slow, immersive sound with gloppy bass and drawn out chords all slowing time and softening reality. No brainers for late night lovers.

Waves Within is a genre-blending triumph from Mexican producers Luca Ferrand and Selva in which they serve up sounds that evolve through deep house, broken beat, jazz, nu-disco and hip-hop. Opener 'Bona Fide' pairs dusty jazz and disco-house with a slick hip-hop switch and some superbly sunny melodies. 'Zarapes (After the Rain)' marries Mexican folk and broken beat, then 'Back To That Thang' twists jazz guitar into a genre-fluid ride and the title track evokes tropical 90s house. Closer 'Lynx' is a shapeshifting house cut with bulbous bass and sophisticated sound design that really brings it to life.

naemi follows last year’s excellent Erika de Casier-starring »Dust Devil« with a genius new album of ultra-catchy, perfectly executed shoegaze diamonds, powered by Ulla on drums and additional vox, flutes and extra vocals by Baptist Goth, and fuzz guitar by Kouhei.

»Breathless Shorn« is the Berlin-based Kansas-born producer's most compelling move thus far, featuring 11 perfectly fuzzed songs that almost completely shake off any electronic remnants in favour of a light-touched act of MBV worship. naemi has long nurtured an obsession with vintage dreampop and shoegaze, but until now they mostly blurred those influences with dubby ambience and delicate, heart-slicing production. On »Breathless Shorn« they completely re-draw their outlines, bristling with a much looser energy in a mode that feels like a big step up - more impactful, full of easy swagger and a bona fide emotional resonance.

Distorted, tremolo-bent guitars, boxy drums, electric bass and delirious multi-tracked vocals are the backbone here, mostly sounding like they could have been lifted off Kevin Shields' »Ecstasy and Wine« sessions. naemi's attention to detail is remarkable; no longer leaning on electronic masking or the influence of '90s British slacker rawk or twee pop, instead deploying the genuine article, with ambient music left as just a faint note wafting in the background.

Find Your Own Records recently launched with a sold out first release; Ceri's 'Life Holstee E.P.' which included a timeless Fred P Reshape. Fusing the sounds of Berlin, Detroit, Chicago and London, the release was supported by everyone from Midland, Move D, Ben UFO and Fumiya Tanaka, to Steve O'Sullivan.

The second release, the 'I Need You To Make Me Sweat' E.P. also draws inspiration from the classic sounds of Chicago and Detroit, and features none other than a remix from bona fide Dance Music Legend, Mr. G.

The title track 'Need You' is a Juno bassline driven, classic sounding 'proper' deep house track, raising in energy as it peaks, with vocal snippets and modulated analogue drums building throughout.

Mr. G has taken Ceri's title track, 'Need You', and twisted it into a harder, faster 'Jaded Dub', capturing a dark and driving energy, tantalising and adding to the drum grooves with his trademark swinging rides and industrial synths, adding his infamous MPC swing to the vocal snippets, and building the tension throughout, as the one and only G can.

The B side 'Sweat', draws inspiration from 80's and 90's house with a modern dark twist, mixing variating funky drum machine rhythms, classic house vocal samples and pulsing sub-bass to.

The first release was quickly repressed, but there will be no repress on 002, so grab it now before it sells out...

Early support comes from K-HAND, Ryan Elliot, Paranoid London and many more.

Mint Condition - A record label focused on excavating the outer fringes of classic House and Techno. Unreleased mixes, classics, overlooked gems and never heard before material, mined from the last 30+ years of contemporary dance music are the order of the day. From Chicago, Detroit and New York to London, San Francisco and beyond. Mint Condition have got their digging hats on to bring you exclusive heat and those rarer than rare jams that have been in your wants list for years. Dig in!

A serendipitous encounter at an SF record store in the early 90s brought together local music aficionados DJ Dan and Jim Hopkins. Their collaboration birthed the legendary Electroliners project, channeling their shared passion for underground and funky sounds into the iconic left-coast rave anthem, 'Loose Caboose', now firmly nestled in your hands. Pooling their musical prowess, Dan and Jim embarked on a journey of sonic exploration, meticulously crafting their signature sound by dissecting samples and breakbeats, infusing the musical landscape with a revitalizing energy. As their reputation grew within the local scene, they found themselves tasked with supplying a track for a promotional CD-ROM by a burgeoning software company.

Through marathon sessions of digging, slicing, sequencing, and exchanging snippets over phone calls, Electroliners hit their creative stride. It was only natural to unveil their creation in the raw intensity of a live rave setting. Thanks to a connection with DJ DRC, they seized the opportunity, and the rest is history. Copies of the record flew off the shelves by the thousands locally, and its overseas acclaim, spearheaded by licensing through XL Recordings in the UK, cemented its status as a bona fide underground classic. But what exactly is an Electroliner you might ask? Jim sheds light on the inspiration: “I delved into books on trains at the public library,” he reveals. “Among them, 'Electroliner' caught my eye, a train line in the Midwest. Given the track's pulsating train horn, 'Electroliner' and 'Loose Caboose' simply clicked.”

'Loose Caboose' is an all-time classic, and still causes much damage on the dancefloor today. Yet another unmissable addition to the MC reissue catalogue, fully licensed from the artists, mastered and cut by Curve Pusher, and available once again available for purchase. Do not sleep.

Faith presents the second volume of ‘Ain’t That A Groove’, a series of 12” pressings collating current and forthcoming productions and remixes from the London label. Originally launched in 1999 by Boy’s Own legend Terry Farley alongside Stuart Patterson and Dave Jarvis, the cult label relaunched in 2020 after renewed interest from house heads and Faith fanzine readers. Opening up this collection, one of Chicago's finest house producers and songwriters Robert Owens and his 2023 collab with Nolan ‘I’ll Be Your Friend’, a bona fide house classic reignited for audiences of today. Hilit Kolet’s ‘POV Siren’ follows, a stomping club cut that received support from the likes of Carl Cox and TSHA. The four-track press also includes New Zealand talent Philippa’s remix of ‘The Night’, originally by Pete Heller & Terry Farley as Roach Motel, as well as Terry’s latest release with frequent collaborator Wade Teo spotlighting Kameelah Waheed on vocals with the TDK 90 Dope Mix of ‘Dancing After Dark’.

The latest edition in the Summer Sampler series offers 12 tracks from an assortment of global artists who are all connected by their chilled-out styles.

1982 4-Piece Demo' is the first official, fully-licensed and unreleased material to be released under the name Strawberry Switchblade in 30 years. Since disbanding amid major record label acrimony and personal differences in 1986, the already-cult band have since grown in stature and legend. Trailblazers in many ways, the band's mythology justifiably centers around the charismatic duo of Jill Bryson and Rose McDowall, but that isn't a complete picture. Bryson and McDowall's growing friendship, having met some years earlier on the punk scene, became a creative partnership: Bryson's art school background and McDowall's history in avant-punk group The Poets meant Strawberry Switchblade was a band pitted against many established norms. The band's very first incarnation, an all-female 4 piece, recorded one demo at Glasgow's Hellfire Club and played a handful of gigs. Friends Janice Goodlett and Carole McGowan completed the line up on bass and drums respectively. Strawberry Switchblade would eventually pair down to a duo and go on to chart success but it's in these raw, passionate recordings that the songwriting and vocal elements were being hammered out and explored in real time.


Spanish Song' is a previously unreleased song. With Rose McDowall's instantly recognizable lead vocal dovetailing with Bryson's harmonies and lead guitar, it's the first glimpse at an alternative history of Strawberry Switchblade. This incarnation could easily have been featured on a Nuggets compilation or a precursor to the indie-pop revolution that would take over British bedrooms a couple of years later. "Trees & Flowers" is instantly recognizable, a bona fide classic that would earn the band its first record deal. Here it's given a more forceful rhythm section: Goodlett and McGowan's playing is in fact accomplished and doesn't hint at the bands' youth. "Go Away" would also surface later on the band's debut LP but here it is a moody-garage stomper with a psychedelic, haunting refrain. These 3 songs point to a tantalizing future of the band that was never realized.


Remastered and restored by Sean Pennycook from the original cassette, with artwork based on a single photographic contact sheet (the only visual evidence of the band in this form) and with a booklet of photographs and new text. Pa

2026 Repress

DJ Support from Luke Una, Colleen 'Cosmo Murphy' and Greg Wilson.

Two bona fide classic 70s cuts reworked for now.

‘Papa Stoned’, Ian Ossia’s driving take on one of disco’s seminal tracks, the Norman Whitfield masterpiece, ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ by The Temptations, relentlessly hammers the groove home, leaving the dance floor no option but total surrender.

‘Dream A Dream’ sees a 1994 Ian Dewhirst re-edit of the glorious ‘Dreaming A Dream’ by Crown Heights Affair respectfully retouched by Ché & Matica, who bring the beats into time, overdub additional elements and create a DJ friendly intro/outro for what is an essential update.

American hard rock band Alcatrazz once featured legendary musicians like singer Graham Bonnet as well as guitarists Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai. With their current line-up of guitarist Joe Stump, keyboard player Jimmy Waldo, bassist Gary Shea, drummer Mark Benquechea and new singer Giles Lavery, Alcatrazz re-recorded nine songs of their back catalogue. In addition to well-known numbers like “Hiroshima Mon Amour”, “Island In The Sun” and their biggest hit “God Blessed Video”, »Prior Convictions« also features two brand-new numbers, “Transylvanian Requiem” and “Stand And Wait Your Turn”. The release embodies how Alcatrazz sound today. Guitarist extraordinaire Joe Stump can barely hide his excitement: “Something old is something new and these new versions of some of the old Alcatrazz classics are killer and 100% metal.” “The new line-up is firing on all cylinders,” enthuses keyboardist Jimmy Waldo, while his colleague on bass, Gary Shea”, adds: “My prior convictions have always remained true, step up and rock hard. »Prior Convictions« continues the Alcatrazz saga with a 21st century twist of classic songs and new music.“ Although »Prior Convictions« is not a new studio album, it’s a clear sign that Alcatrazz are continuing the legacy, giving new fans the chance to get familiar with a whole bunch of bona fide hard rock classics from the eighties. Old fans, on the other hand, will quickly learn that the new line-up is every bit as potent as past incarnations of the band. »Prior Convictions« was originally issued exclusively on CD in 2025 via Brave Words Records. Thanks to High Roller Records, it’s now also out on high-quality vinyl.

Grammy award-winning titan of dance music Purple Disco Machine joins the illustrious list of Defected House Masters with a celebratory compilation. The German producer, DJ and global household name Tino Pointek, AKA Purple Disco Machine, is the blueprint for what makes a successful dance music artist in the modern age; respected on the underground scene while achieving major crossover success with remixes for the likes of Sir Elton John, Dua Lipa and Mark Ronson. The crate digging kingpin of house and disco first landed on Defected over a decade ago, and has since delivered remixes of iconic tracks like Fatboy Slim’s ‘Praise You’ and the London label’s top tracks including Shakedown’s ‘At Night’ and ‘Coma Cat’ by Tensnake – as well as striking originals like ‘Beat Fantasy’. From edits of the classics to remixes of the modern, as well as uplifting originals, Purple Disco Machine has birthed a distinct sound that is instantly recognisable, one that is not afraid to reference or not reference and is always bursting with joy. Across Defected presents House Masters: Purple Disco Machine, the full breadth of the iconic German selector’s sound is felt from the 2019 smash hit ‘Dished (Male Stripper)’ to deep cuts like his re-work of Fallout’s ‘The Morning After’ as well as remixes of legendary tracks like ‘Lola’s Theme’ by The Shapeshifters and Spiller’s ‘Groovejet’ featuring Sophie Ellis-Bextor. Defected presents House Masters: Purple Disco Machine is here to showcase the sound of a bona fide electronic maverick in full.

Tom Gillieron’s It’s Alright arrives on Studio Barnhus in triplicate: one original, two remixes, no weak links. A UK producer with a fierce command of high-pressure club dynamics, leads with a version that comes big, busy and blazing, brimming with glorious noise, swift movement and late-night intent.
Afriqua brings his trademark musicality to the second version, turning the lights up enough to let some melody through, adding bounce, swing and a touch of house warmth, never loosening the grip.
Bona fide UK underground originators Horsepower Productions lower the ceiling again, rebuilding the track for the darkest of basement clubs in the form of a low-slung bruiser with broken edges and proper bass weight.

BLARF is comedian and actor Eric André’s musical project. Most people know Eric as an actor (Bad Trip, Happy Gilmore 2, and The Righteous Gemstones), and for his surreal, boundary-pushing comedy career, with an eponymous Emmy Award-winning show on Adult Swim and standup shows toured around the world. But few know Eric André as a bona fide musician who attended the prestigious Berklee School of Music, where he specialized in standing bass.
BLARF brings his disruptive energy to a new body of work that is both an extended comedic bit and entirely, unironically serious: Film Scores For Films That Don’t Exist. Inspired by composers like Ennio Morricone and Vangelis, whose signature sound is as iconic as the films they soundtracked, Eric enlisted a full orchestra to bring his compositions to life, recording in Los Angeles and Budapest.

Let's see now – you just love that hugely fertile foundation period of Jamaican pop music from the birth of ska, through the spectacularly brief two year heyday of rocksteady up to and including the arrival of the first incarnation of reggae a.k.a. early or 'boss' reggae. But you're also aware that the pioneers of these sounds (including The Pioneers!) won't be creating music in these styles or touring forever – so what do you do?

Well, if you're Neil Anderson, owner of Original Gravity Records, the creation bit isn't a problem. You put forth period-authentic style material from a 'roster' of acts – such as Junior Dell & The D-Lites - that in reality consist mostly of yourself (you are a multi-instrumentalist and lyricist after all!) and whichever extra musicians and session singer you rope in for a given track. In the case of Junior Dell & The D-Lites that singer was Adrian Dell – soon to be dubbed (no pun intended) 'Junior' - first appearing on 2021's uptempo ska tribute to Salvadoran retro-dancing internet sensation Aranivah, entitled Miss Aranivah. And you keep putting out stuff so profusely and effectively that there are clamours for you to tour 'the band' which - er - doesn't really exist. What a botheration! Still, maybe your session singer could become – well - a permanent singer? Maybe you can rustle up assorted bredren to become the rest of the band and...you know what? That might just work!

And so, in the blink of an eye, Junior Dell & The D-Lites becomes a bona fide actual live band fronted by a young Jamaican singer playing fresh 60s/70s-style Jamaican music with an energy last seen and heard in, well, the 1960s and 70s. And it tours so effectively that there are clamours for 'the band' – or more accurately, now – the band - to release an album. Wait...what now? And, by the way, you've got a European tour coming up in April wouldn't it be great if the album was ready to tour by then? Pressure drop? Pressure rise more like!

Then again, Junior Dell & The D-Lites have done so many sure-shot singles to date that assembling them along with a new cut, an extended version of one of the singles and re-recordings of two of the label's previous singles that were originally by 'label mates' The Regulators should be a cinch. So expect all the hits: bluebeat banger 20 Flight Ska, the euphoric ska bounce of the aforementioned Miss Aranivah and the title track, a de rigueur smattering of covers (opener Jump Around, midway markers Praise You and Just Can't Get Enough, and one of the re-recordings, closer Don't Look Back In Anger), early reggae groovers Cool Right Down, Last Night Reggay, Can't Stop The Reggae (in a new extended form) and crowd-pleasing new one Mi Try along with the other Junior Dell re-recording - the gorgeous Why Why Why which nods to the period of reggae between the sound of '69 and the arrival of roots.

Don't you brag and don't you boast but that's a Whole Lotta Skankin' going on! Do the ska, do the rocksteady, do the reggay, why– it's another scorcher!

UILTY RAZORS, BONA FIDE PUNKS.



Writings on the topic that go off in all directions, mind-numbing lectures given by academics, and testimonies, most of them heavily doctored, from those who “lived through that era”: so many people today fantasize about the early days of punk in our country… This blessed moment when no one had yet thought of flaunting a ridiculous green mohawk, taking Sid Vicious as a hero, or – even worse – making the so-called alternative scene both festive and boorish. There was no such thing in 1976 or 1977, when it wasn’t easy to get hold of the first 45s by the Pistols or the Clash. Few people were aware of what was happening on the fringes of the fringes at the time. Malcolm McLaren was virtually unknown, and having short hair made you seem strange. Who knew then that rock music, which had taken a very bad turn since the early 1970s, would once again become an essential element of liberation? That, thanks to short and fast songs, it would once again rediscover that primitive, social side that was so hated by older generations? Who knew that, besides a few loners who read the music press (it was even better if they read it in English) and frequented the right record stores? Many of these formed bands, because it was impossible to do otherwise. We quickly went from listening to the Velvet Underground to trying to play the Stooges’ intros. It’s a somewhat collective story, even though there weren’t many people to start it.
The Guilty Razors were among those who took part in this initial upheaval in Paris. They were far from being the worst. They had something special and even released a single that was well above the national average. They also had enough songs to fill an album, the one you’re holding. In everyone’s opinion, they were definitely not among the punk impostors that followed in their wake. They were, at least, genuine and credible.

Guilty Razors, Parisian punk band (1975-1978). To understand something about their somewhat linear but very energetic sound, we might need to talk about the context in which it was born and, more broadly, recall the boredom (a theme that would become capital in punk songs) coupled with the desire to blow everything off, which were the basis for the formation of bands playing a rejuvenated rock music ; about the passion for a few records by the Kinks or the early Who, by the Stooges, by the Velvet mostly, which set you apart from the crowd.
And of course, we should remember this new wave, which was promoted by a few articles in the specialized press and some cutting-edge record stores, coming from New York or London, whose small but powerful influence could be felt in Paris and in a handful of isolated places in the provinces, lulled to sleep by so many appalling things, from Tangerine Dream to President Giscard d’Estaing...
In 1975-76, French music was, as almost always, in a sorry state ; it was still dominated by Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. Local rock music was also rather bleak, apart from Bijou and Little Bob who tried to revive this small scene with poorly sound-engineered gigs played to almost no one.
In the working class suburbs at the time, it was mainly hard rock music played to 11 that helped people forget about their gruelling shifts at the factory. Here and there, on the outskirts of major cities, you still could find a few rockers with sideburns wearing black armbands since the death of Gene Vincent, but it wasn’t a proper mass movement, just a source of real danger to anyone they came across who wasn't like them. In August 1976, a festival unlike any other took place in Mont-de-Marsan – the First European Punk Festival as the poster said – with almost as many people on stage as in the audience. Yet, on that day, a quasi historical event happened, when, under the blazing afternoon sun, a band of unknowns called The Damned made an unprecedented noise in the arena, reminiscent of the chaotic Stooges in their early adolescence. They were the first genuine punk band to perform in our country: from then on, anything was possible, almost anything seemed permissible.

It makes sense that the four+1 members of Guilty Razors, who initially amplified acoustic guitars with crappy tape recorder microphones, would adopt punk music (pronounced paink in French) naturally and instinctively, since it combines liberating noise with speed of execution and – crucially – a very healthy sense of rebellion (the protesters of May 1968 proclaimed, and it was even a slogan, that they weren’t against old people, but against what had made them grow old. In the mid-1970s, it seemed normal and obvious that old people should now ALSO be targeted!!!).
At the time, the desire to fight back, and break down authority and apathy, was either red or black, often taking the form of leafleting, tumultuous general assemblies in the schoolyard, and massive or shabby demonstrations, most of the time overflowing with an exciting vitality that sometimes turned into fights with the riot police. Indeed, soon after the end of the Vietnam War and following Pinochet’s coup in Chile, all over France, Trotskyist and anarcho-libertarian fervour was firmly entrenched among parts of the educated youth population, who were equally rebellious and troublemakers whenever they had the chance. It should also be noted that when the single "Anarchy in the UK" was first heard, even though not many of us had access to it, both the title and its explosive sound immediately resonated with some of those troublemakers crying out for ANARCHY!!! Meanwhile, the left-wing majority still equated punks with reckless young neo-Nazis. Of course, the widely circulated photos in the mainstream press of Siouxsie Sioux with her swastikas didn’t necessarily help to win over the theorists of the Great Revolution. It took Joe Strummer to introduce The Clash as an anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-ignorance band for the rejection of old-school revolutionaries to fade a little.

The Lycée Jean-Baptiste Say at Porte d’Auteuil, despite being located in the very posh and very exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris, didn’t escape these "committed" upheavals, which doubled as the perfect outlet for the less timid members of this generation.
“Back then, politics were fun,” says Tristam Nada, who studied there and went on to become Guilty Razors’ frontman. “Jean-Baptiste was the leftist high-school in the neighbourhood. When the far right guys from the GUD came down there, the Communist League guys from elsewhere helped us fight them off.”
Anything that could challenge authority was fair game and of course, strikes for just about any reason would lead to increasingly frequent truancy (with a definitive farewell to education that would soon follow). Tristam Nada spent his 10th and 11th unfinished grades with José Perez, who had come from Spain, where his father, a janitor, had been sentenced to death by Franco. “José steered my tastes towards solid acts such as The Who. Like most teenagers, I had previously absorbed just about everything that came my way, from Yes to Led Zeppelin to Genesis. I was exploring… And then one day, he told me that he and his brother Carlos wanted to start a rock band.” The Perez brothers already played guitar. “Of course, they were Spanish!”, jokes their singer. “Then, somewhat reluctantly, José took up the bass and we were soon joined by Jano – who called himself Jano Homicid – who took up the rhythm guitar.” Several drummers would later join this core of not easily intimidated young guys who didn’t let adversity get the better of them.

The first rehearsals of the newly named Guilty Razors took place in the bedroom of a Perez aunt. There, the three rookies tried to cover a few standards, songs that often were an integral part of their lives. During a first, short gig, in front of a bewildered audience of tough old-school rockers, they launched into a clunky version of the Velvet Underground's “Heroin”. Challenge or recklessness? A bit of both, probably… And then, step by step, their limited repertoire expanded as they decided to write their own songs, sung in a not always very accurate or academic English, but who cared about proper grammar or the right vocabulary, since what truly mattered was to make the words sound as good as possible while playing very, very fast music? And spitting out those words in a language that left no doubt as to what it conveyed mattered as well.
Trying their hand a the kind of rock music disliked by most of the neighbourhood, making noise, being fiercely provocative: they still belonged to a tiny clique who, at this very moment, had chosen to impose this difference. And there were very few places in France or elsewhere, where one could witness the first stirrings of something that wasn’t a trend yet, let alone a movement.

In the provinces, in late 1976 or early 1977, there couldn’t be more than thirty record stores that were a bit more discerning than average, where you could hear this new kind of short-haired rock music called “punk”. The old clientele, who previously had no problem coming in to buy the latest McCartney or Aerosmith LP, now felt a little less comfortable there…
In Paris, these enlightened places were quite rare and often located nex to what would become the Forum des Halles, a big shopping mall. Between three aging sex workers, a couple of second-hand clothes shops, sellers of hippie paraphernalia and small fashion designers, the good word was loudly spread in two pioneering places – propagators of what was still only a new underground movement. Historically, the first one was the Open Market, a kind of poorly, but tastefully stocked cave. Speakers blasted out the sound of sixties garage bands from the Nuggets compilation (a crucial reference for José Perez) or the badly dressed English kids of Eddie and the Hot Rods. This black-painted den was opened a few years earlier by Marc Zermati, a character who wasn’t always in a sunny disposition, but always quite radical in his (good) choices and his opinions. He founded the independent label Skydog and was one of the promoters of the Mont-de-Marsan punk festivals. Not far from there was Harry Cover, another store more in tune with the new New York scene, which was amply covered in the house fanzine, Rock News (even though it was in it that the photos of the Sex Pistols were first published in France).
It was a favorite hang-out of the Perez brothers and Tristam Nada, as the latter explained. “It’s at Harry Cover’s that we first heard the Pistols and Clash’s 45s, and after that, we decided to start writing our first songs. If they could do it, so could we!”
The sonic shocks that were “Anarchy in the UK”, “White Riot” or the Buzzcocks’s EP, “Spiral Scratch” – which Guilty Razors' sound is reminiscent of – were soon to be amplified by an unparalleled visual shock. In April 1977, right after the release of their first LP, The Clash performed at the Palais des Glaces in Paris, during a punk night organised by Marc Zermati. For many who were there, it was the gig of a lifetime…
Of course, Guilty Razors and Tristam were in the audience: “That concert was fabulous… We Parisian punks were almost all dressed in black and white, with white shirts, skinny leather ties, bikers jackets or light jackets, etc. The Clash, on the other hand, wore colourful clothes. Well, the next day, at the Gibus, you’d spot everyone who had been at this concert, but they weren’t wearing anything black, they were all wearing colours.”

It makes sense to mention the Gibus club, as Guilty Razors often played there (sometimes in front of a hostile audience). It was also the only place in Paris that regularly scheduled new Parisian or Anglo-Saxon acts, such as Generation X, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Johnny Thunders who would become a kind of messed-up mascot for the venue. A little later, in 1978, the Rose Bonbon – formerly the Nashville – also attracted nightly owls in search of electric thrills… In 1977, the iconic but not necessarily excellent Asphalt Jungle often played at the Gibus, sometimes sharing the bill with Metal Urbain, the only band whose aura would later transcend the French borders (“I saw them as the French Sex Pistols,” said Geoff Travis, head of their British label Rough Trade). Already established in this small scene, Metal Urbain helped the young and restless Guilty Razors who had just arrived. Guitarist for Metal Urbain Hermann Schwartz remembers it: “They were younger than us, we were a bit like their mentors even if it’s too strong a word… At least they were credible. We thought they were good, and they had good songs which reminded of the Buzzcocks that I liked a lot. But at some point, they started hanging out with the Hells Angels. That’s when we stopped following them.”

The break-up was mutual, since, Guilty Razors, for their part, were shocked when they saw a fringe element of the audience at Metal Urbain concerts who repeatedly shouted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. These provocations, even still minor (the bulk of the skinhead crowd would later make their presence felt during concerts), weren’t really to the liking of the Perez brothers, whose anti-fascist convictions were firmly rooted. Some things are non-negotiable.
A few months earlier (in July 1978), Guilty Razors had nevertheless opened very successfully for Metal Urbain at the Bus Palladium, a more traditonally old-school rock night-club. But, as was sometimes the case back then, the night turned into a mass brawl when suburban rockers came to “beat up punks”.

Back then, Parisian nights weren’t always sweet and serene.

So, after opening as best as they could for The Jam (their sound having been ruined by the PA system), our local heroes were – once again – met outside by a horde of greasers out to get them. “Thankfully,” says Tristam, “we were with our roadies, motorless bikers who acted as a protective barrier. We were chased in the neighbouring streets and the whole thing ended in front of a bar, with the owner coming out with a rifle…”
Although Tristam and the Perez brothers narrowly escaped various, potentially bloody, incidents, they weren’t completely innocent of wrongdoing either. They still find amusing their mugging of two strangers in the street for example (“We were broke and we simply wanted to buy tickets for the Heartbreakers concert that night,” says Tristam). It so happened that their victims were two key figures in the rock business at the time: radio presenter Alain Manneval and music publisher Philippe Constantin. They filed a complaint and sought monetary compensation, but somehow the band’s manager, the skilful but very controversial Alexis, managed to get the complaint withdrawn and Guilty Razors ended up signing with Constantin with a substantial advance.

They also signed with Polydor and the label released in 1978 their only three-track 45, featuring “I Don't Wanna be A Rich”, “Hurts and Noises” and “Provocate” (songs that exuded perpetual rebellion and an unquenchable desire for “class” confrontation). It was a very good record, but due to a lack of promotion (radio stations didn’t play French artists singing in English), it didn’t sell very well. Only 800 copies were allegedly sold and the rest of the stock was pulped… Initially, the three tracks were to be included on a LP that never came to be, since they were dropped by Polydor (“Let’s say we sometimes caused a ruckus in their offices!” laughs Tristam.) In order to perfect the long-awaited LP, the band recorded demos of other tracks. There was a cover of Pink Floyd's “Lucifer Sam” from the Syd Barrett era – proof of an enduring love for the sixties’ greats –, “Wake Up” a hangover tale and “Bad Heart” about the Baader-Meinhof gang, whose actions had a profound impact on the era and on a generation seeking extreme dissent... On the album you’re now discovering, you can also hear five previously unreleased tracks recorded a bit later during an extended and freezing stay in Madrid, in a makeshift studio with the invaluable help of a drummer also acting as sound engineer. He was both an enthusiastic old hippie and a proper whizz at sound engineering. Here too, certain influences from the fifties and sixties (Link Wray, the Troggs) are more than obvious in the band’s music.

Shortly after a final stormy and rather barbaric (on the audience’s side) “Punk night” at the Olympia in June 1978, Tristam left the band ; his bandmates continued without him for a short while.

But like most pioneering punk bands of the era, Guilty Razors eventually split up for good after three years (besides once in Spain, they’d only played in Paris). The reason for ceasing business activities were more or less the same for everyone: there were no venues outside one’s small circuit to play this kind of rock music, which was still frightening, unknown, or of little interest to most people. The chances of recording an LP were virtually null, since major labels were only signing unoriginal but reassuring sub-Téléphone clones, and the smaller ones were only interested in progressive rock or French chanson for youth clubs. And what about self-production? No one in our small safety-pinned world had thought about it yet. There wasn’t enough money to embark on that sort of venture anyway.

So yes, the early days of punk in France were truly No Future!

Shall Not Fade welcomes Pugilist for SNF140 "Maternal".

If you don't already know (and love!) Pugilist's prolific output, you need to get to know! The Naarm/Melbourne based DJ, producer and Rinse resident has released on Martyn's 3024, Melbourne's killer Modern Hypnosis, Silent Era's Of Paradise, Samurai, Rupture, ZamZam, J:Kenzo's Artikal, Sub Basics' Temple of Sound, Whities/AD93, Al Wooton's Trule, Banoffee Pies, Best Intentions and now his own buy on sight Ruff Kutz imprint.

'Maternal' is four blissey dubwise house blurring cuts. Embracing, medicinal, lush & corrective. Vibrations for heads and feet.

'Title track 'Maternal' is deep grooving infectious and honeyed house. Hypnotic, pulsating with head-meltingly warm padwork. 'Bona Fide' sees Pugilist team up with UK duo Mystic State. Drums sidestep with jazz swing while graceful piano and an ensemble of pads are topped with an introspective vocal sample dialing for your subconscious. The B1 'Anomaly' is a stepper - FWD charging drums backed with sub low pulses all brought together by trumpet echoes and woozy melodics. Finally comes 'Marigold', a soulful jungle excursion > early hours business, caressed nostalgic percussion, brushed rhythms, fleeting guitar licks and undulating vibes.

Dino Lenny debuts on Rekids with the ‘Not About The Volume’ single. The bona fide legend arrives backed with a remix from Rekids regular Tiger Stripes.

Dino Lenny debuts on Radio Slave’s Rekids with ‘Not About The Volume’ on 5th December 2025 alongside a remix from label regular Tiger Stripes. Active for over three decades, Italian/UK DJ, producer, singer, and Fine Human Records label owner Dino Lenny has released on R&S, Diynamic, Innervisions, and Bedrock, while working with artists such as Underworld, Missy Elliott, Wu-Tang Clan, and Madonna on remixes and collaborations. Since 2021, he’s hosted Tomorrowland’s Core, the festival’s alternative electronic stage's radio show, which has featured Nina Kraviz, Ellen Allien, DJ Tennis, and more.

Lenny’s ‘Not About The Volume’ boasts a loopy groove that forms the base for impactful, jazz-infl ected hits, and at the centre, a quirky, party-starting vocal that’s sure to cement itself in the minds of the dancefl oor. Tiger Stripes reworks ‘Not About The Volume’ with a fresh new bassline, quicker drums, and amplifi ed synth elements for a more hypnotic take on yet another Rekids anthem.

Switch is the tenth studio album by Dutch rock band Golden Earring, released in 1975 as the follow-up of the band's international
breakthrough album Moontan and their bona fide classic track Radar Love.

All tracks have been 24 bit/192 kHz remastered from the original master tapes.
Last but not least: the original IBC Studios master tapes of Switch reveal the legendary ’50 Hz roll off’ note.

On request of executive producer Freddy Haayen, the cutting engineer @ IBC was commissioned to cut all frequencies below 50 Hz,
which meant that a large chunk of low-end frequencies was eliminated from the final mixes during vinyl cutting.

So, for the very first time, on LP1 of this remastered issue,
Switch finally sounds as it was recorded and mixed – with all (full range) frequencies intact.

Switch (remastered & expanded) is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on white coloured vinyl,
it's housed in a gatefold sleeve, 2 printed innersleeves and includes a lyric sheet.

Long-time NuNorthern Soul contributor, B.J. Smith is a man in demand, dividing his time between solo work, playing guitar in Crazy P man James Baron’s popular JIM outfit, collaborating in a variety of well-regarded projects (Smith & Mudd, Bison and White Elephant amongst them) and composing for TV. Due to this impressive list of musical commitments, solo releases have been few and far between of late, with Smith’s most recent NuNorthern Soul release, a stripped back version of his Big Sur single, dropping late 2023.

It's been ever longer since he delivered a volume in his popular and ongoing Dedications To The Greats series, where the singer-songwriter and composer successfully turns his hand to other people’s songs. Since debuting the series on NuNorthern Soul in 2013 via revelatory and inspired covers of tracks by Mos Def and the Pharcyde, Smith has covered cuts by Outkast, Prefab Sprout and Soul II Soul.

On volume four, Smith’s first volume in the series for five years, he delivers a “cover of a cover” – a revolutionary and imaginative interpretation of Billy Swan’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’, itself a version of a song first made famous by Elvis Presley. It was their mutual love of Swan’s version that brought Smith together with the release’s most prominent guest artist, Joe Harvey-Whyte, whose lilting, bittersweet and deeply emotive pedal steel performances can be heard across the EP.

Smith provides three contrasting takes. The EP is led by the ‘Mother Earth’ version, a slowly unfurling epic in which waves of effects-laden pedal steel and sun-splashed picking acoustic guitars usher in Smith’s eyes-closed vocalisations, settling into a groove reminiscent of his collaborative work with long-time friend and collaborator Paul ‘Mudd’ Murphy that showcases Harvey-Whyte centre stage to joyful effect. As the 14-minute epic progresses, we’re treated to long, languid electric guitar solos, percussion-laden slow-motion builds and hazy, stretched-out organ solos. It’s a breathlessly brilliant concoction that’s a million miles away from either Swan or Presley’s versions.

In contrast, the similarly epic ‘Earth Heart’ version – available in full vocal and instrumental takes – pushes the song front and centre. Following an extended build up, where Tamar Osborn’s gorgeous and fluid flute motifs rub shoulders with languid guitar solos and Harvey-Whyte’s pedal steel, Smith takes to the mic, delivering an emotive performance of the song’s heartfelt lyrics over a hushed, slow-motion groove. The track builds in waves as it progresses, with Smith layering up instrumentation as it rolls towards a fine conclusion.

Completing a superb package is the ‘Root Heart Version’, a Balearic-meets-Americana take built around shuffling drums, toasty bass guitar, extended pedal steel instrumentation, flashes of flute and Smith’s sun-bright acoustic guitar. Loved-up and more than a little saucer-eyed, it’s a bona-fide sunset delight.

Originally released on Mon 22 August 2005, the Furries’ third and final album to be recorded by Epic Records, Love Kraft is to be reissued on double vinyl, 2CDs, including the 22-track bonus CD, Kiss Me With Apocalypse and digital formats on Fri 24 October 2025 via the Cardiff-based independent label, Strangetown Records. Four previously unheard tracks are drawn from the vaults, including the squidgy ELO-stomp of drummer, Daf Ieuan-led Rock ‘N’ Roll Flu, plus the distorted space-jam of Cae Marw, the band’s deep-bass sketch of Palo Alto and ghostly, percussive morsel of Bedw Arian.

The album followed six previous albums by the band, including their statement debut album, Fuzzy Logic in 1996, melding an attention-demanding mix of literary, narcotic and musical influences. Maintaining a shape that was ill-fitting in the jigsaw of other 90’s guitar bands, their follow-up, UK Top Ten album, Radiator brought the hooky squelch of the bona fide indie dancefloor classic, The International Language of Screaming. The next decade saw the release of the first Top 20-charting, Welsh language album, Mwng (2000), followed by further experimentation and commercial success with Rings Around The World (2001) and Phantom Power (2003).

Love Kraft’s sense of cohesion, collaboration and free-flow of rich harmony has been credited to the five-piece escaping Wales to record in the shimmering heat of Figueres, Catalunya. Bringing famed Beastie Boys producer, Mario Caldato Jr along with them for the ride, the travelling band’s stay in the Catalonian hometown of Salvador Dali included found sounds, boozy petrol stations, gastronomic revelations and, finally, a rich album of strings, synths and opulent vocal harmonies.

While eventually finding their way to Baha, near to Rio di Janeiro to mix the album Love Kraft’s story began in Wales and Pleasure Foxxx Studios, where the band began to craft the album’s songs. Embracing the landmark of a seventh album, notably coming after the 2004 release of their first ‘best of…’ package, Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1, Super Furry Animals pooled ideas and affected further democracy in their songwriting, taking a load off traditional lead-writer and front man, Gruff Rhys, and sharing in lead vocal duties (aside from the microphone-averse bassist, Guto Pryce).

Love Kraft was the first Super Furry Animals album recorded to hard disc instead of multi-track tape, and found the band typically explorative and open to happenstance. Zoom’s opening splash into the recording studio’s swimming pool is accompanied by the on-location, pool table samples found elsewhere on the album.

Updated packaging features the original, meticulously built diorama design by long-time collaborator Pete Fowler. Constructed by hand in his studio, complete with bulb-lit illumination, then photographed, the sleeve’s depiction of a monolith-rich desert landscape reflects the sense of other space and time depicted by Love Kraft’s woozy songs. The final sleeve design again comes courtesy of Mark James.

ALL DAY I DREAM COMMENCES THE NEW YEAR WITH A BANG, RELEASING A WINTER SAMPLER VI COMPILATION
Lee Burridge’s All Day I Dream imprint is thrilled to kick off 2024 with the latest addition to its semi-annual compilation series, A Winter Sampler VI, releasing January 26.

Serving as a testament to the label’s commitment to fostering emerging talent and highlighting the cutting edge of melodic house music, A Winter Sampler VI is a curated selection of tracks that showcase the diverse and vibrant sounds within the All Day I Dream family.

A Winter Sampler VI brings together an impressive consortium of artists from around the globe to put together a 12 track offering. The compilation kicks off with Simon Vuarambon's remix of St Germain’s 2000 hit ‘So Flute’, the euphoric and driving track setting the tone for a journey through the innovative and cutting-edge sounds of the compilation. From Wassu and Bona Fide’s deep yet playful collaborative track ‘Threshold’ to Nathan Katz’s serene and uplifting ‘For You’ to Seth Schwarz and Solidmind’s beautifully spiritual collaboration ‘Create The Universe’, each contribution adds a unique flavor to the sonic tapestry, resulting in a must-listen body of work from beginning to end.

A Winter Sampler VI serves as a testament to All Day I Dream's dedication to providing cutting edge melodic house from select talent across the globe, providing a platform for both emerging and established artists to shine.

All Day I Dream invites music lovers to dive into the next edition of their compilation series with A Winter Sampler VI

Released in 1996 at the height of Britpop’s cultural takeover, Free Peace Sweet saw Dodgy break into the mainstream with a sun-drenched sound that set them apart from their more angst-ridden peers. Bursting with optimism, melody, and a touch of psychedelic sparkle, the album became the band’s biggest commercial success. Its lead single, "Good Enough", was a bona fide anthem, climbing to No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart—Dodgy’s highest-charting track to date. Follow-ups "In a Room" and "If You're Thinking of Me" also struck a chord with listeners, hitting No. 12 and No. 11, respectively. Even "Found You", the album’s final single, secured a strong No. 19 spot, solidifying the band’s chart credentials. Free Peace Sweet reached No. 7 at the UK Albums Chart and later achieved certified platinum. Dodgy's Free Peace Sweet includes a 4-page booklet.

The quietest voices can be the most durable.

American Football’s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it.

Like Slint’s Spiderland, or Codeine’s The White Birch, even Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn’t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on its release.

Fifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016’s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.

‘I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,’ says Nate. ‘For me, it wasn’t quite done. I knew there was still more.’

Enter American Football (LP3). ‘We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,’ says Mike. ‘We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like – Ok we have these arms, let’s use them.’ The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor – yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.

As a result, LP3 is less obviously tethered to the band’s past than the second album. An immediate contrast between LP3 and its two predecessors is its cover. The two previous albums featured the exterior and interior of a residence in the band’s original hometown of Urbana, Illinois (now attracting fans for pilgrimages and photo opportunities), by the photographer Chris Strong. But American Football knew that LP3 was an outside record. Instead of the familiar house, this time the cover photo (again by Strong) features open, rolling fields on Urbana’s borders. It is a sign of the album’s magnitude in sound, and of the band’s boldness in breaking away from home comforts.

American Football also joked that LP3’s genre was ‘post-house’, because of this very conscious visual break. But, in a strange way, there are links in LP3 with an actual post-house genre: shoegaze. The more exploratory members of the original British shoegaze scene were inspired by the dreamtime and circularity of house music (ambient house in particular), cherishing its sonic possibilities. That spirit drips into LP3, most obviously on ‘I Can’t Feel You’, a collaboration with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive.

The album also features Hayley Williams from Paramore on the album’s catchiest moment, ‘Uncomfortably Numb’, and Elizabeth Powell, of the Québécoise act Land Of Talk. Mike wrote lyrics in French especially for her.

LP3 is contemplative, rich, expressive, yet with a queasy undercurrent. It is heavy with expectancy, revealing its ideas slowly, eliciting the hidden stories people carry around with them. ‘I feel like my lyric writing has changed a lot over the years,’ says Mike. ‘The goal is to be conversational, maybe to state something giant and heavy, but in a very plain way. But, definitely in this record, I keep things a little more vague.’ As on the first album, the lyrics on LP3 may seem confessional and concentrated, but the more you scrutinize them, the further their meaning slinks away. Or, as Mike tellingly sings on ‘I Can’t Feel You”: I’m fluent in subtlety.

‘Somewhere along the way we moved from being a reunion band to just being a band,’ says Steve Holmes. American Football is now a bona fide ongoing focus, and they are making some of the best music of their lives. American Football (LP3) stands with two other rare reunion successes – Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine’s mbv – as a fine example of how a band refinding one another can augment, rather than taint, their legacy.

‘I think that there are those albums, or the music that you heard when you were younger, and they imprint on you,’ says Nate. ‘And no matter where you go, or what you do they’re always there.’ He is talking of Steve Reich – an early and ongoing influence on American Football – but he might as well be reflecting what is said of his own band, and the ardent following they inspire. American Football stands as an enduring symbol of elusive emotional landscapes, where introspection can be as dramatic as confrontation

Colored vinyl repress of last Pinback album, originally released in 2012. On one hand, their fifth album, Information Retrieved, is the logical and accessible realization of a sound Pinback have been developing and refining for over a decade. However, that consistency that we've taken for granted is what makes Information Retrieved such a euphoric surprise; their finest and most fully realized album, a dozen years deep into a career that includes bona fide modern classics like "Good To Sea" and Summer In Abaddon. Simply put, this is better than we ever could have expected. They could have coasted on automatic pilot to another lauded album that likely would have made it onto plenty of year-end lists, but instead they shot the moon, and the result is a major triumph. The touchstones are still there: Zach Smith's stunningly unique bass guitar acrobatics driving both rhythm and melody in lock-step unison; the incredible immediacy of Rob Crow's voice that could make a phone book sound compelling; and the musical and lyrical interplay between the two of them that made Pinback so special in the first place. The difference now is their exquisite control over dynamics and a greater emotional resonance throughout. It's the most complete and soulful Pinback album by a fair distance, the finest moment in the career of a band whose unfettered brilliance we've come to count on, but will never again take for granted. For Fan of The xx, Deerhunter, Built To Spill, Broken Social Scene

"The Millennium's Begin can truly be described as a bona fide lost classic. On Begin, hard rock, breezy ballads, and psychedelia all merge into an absolutely air-tight concept album, easily on the level of other, more widely popular albums from the era such as The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The songwriting, is sterling and innovative, never straying into the type of psychedelic overindulgence which marred so many records from this era. At the time the most expensive album Columbia ever produced (and it sounds like it), Begin is an absolute necessity for any fan of late-'60s psychedelia and a wonderful rediscovery that sounds as vital today as it did the day it was released. Begin is available as a limited edition of 1000 numbered copies on yellow & orange marbled vinyl and includes an insert."

"The journey from Belfast to Los Angeles, entwined with a lifetime spent at the coalface of bona fide rock n roll, has made for a heady cocktail of creativity and popularity. Ricky Warwick, founder of The Almighty, Black Star Riders, The Fighting Hearts, acclaimed and respectful frontman of Thin Lizzy since 2011, remains unstoppable.
This time he’s on a solo run with the release of his new album Blood Ties. "

DETROIT ASSEMBLY LINE
......the dawning of a successive genealogy of Detroit’s underground rhythm science and technology.

Two mainstays in the fabled legacy of Detroit’s authentic electronic music birthright, align to unleash 4 tracks of undeniable pure techno intensity.

This is the first of the Detroit Assembly Line series; a music manifest to the world, calculated and anticipated to affirm the bona fide noise from Detroit.

It’s a tough call which is the bigger cult classic, the Tank Girl movie or its accompanying soundtrack, but on balance, we’d have to go for the soundtrack. Yeah, the film had a cast composed of some of the most colorful characters (Iggy Pop, Ann Magnuson) and character actors (Malcolm McDowell, Ice-T, and of course the almighty Lori Petty!) in show biz.

And, its dystopic, resource-starved desert setting, intense action sequences, and lead female character mark it as a feminist (albeit funnier) precursor to Mad Max: Fury Road. But check out the soundtrack’s bona-fides: assembled by Courtney Love herself, it features a Who’s Who of ‘90s female rock including Hole, Björk, L7, Veruca Salt, and Belly among others. Plus, it even has tracks that were exclusive to its release, like a unique version of Devo’s “Girl U Want,” “Mockingbird Girl” by The Magnificent Bastards (a side project of the late Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots), and a duet of “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” between Joan Jett and The Replacements’ Paul Westerberg. In short, if there ever was a score that needs to be on wax, this would be it. We’ve done it right, too, with a gatefold jacket featuring the trademark comic book art and stills from the film, and neon coral vinyl pressing for its 30th anniversary!

It’s safe to assume no one in the audience at Carnegie Hall on March 30, 1974 anticipated what Miles Davis would play at the concert documented on Dark Magus: Live at Carnegie Hall. Recorded near the tail end of his electric period, the double album remains the darkest, most ferocious statement of Davis’ career — a visionary effort that foresaw developments in jungle, noise-rock, funk, and drum ‘n’ bass.

Initially issued in Japan in 1977, Dark Magus waited two decades for U.S. release. Now, more than 50 years after Davis and his ensemble blew minds at the famous New York venue, it gets its first-ever domestic issue on vinyl — and on a definitive-sounding pressing at that.

Mastered at Mobile Fidelity's California studio, housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, this numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set of Dark Magus invites you to pull up a seat and wrap your head around an exhilarating performance that simultaneously functions as an audition, experiment, release, and magnificent explosion of jazz-rock fusion. We hope your turntable and speakers are up to the challenge.

This collectible reissue presents the improvisational magic that unfolded onstage — the skronking tonalities, wah-wah-pedal bluster, acid-washed effects, furious drumming, run-the-voodoo-down grooves, menacing riffs, crashing cymbals —with incredible detail, color, and pace. It also captures the band’s unbelievable energy, rendering both instruments and on-the-fly changes with revealing depth, definition, and dynamics. At its core, MoFi’s audiophile set takes you deep into the boundless mystery, promise, and uncertainty of Davis and company’s efforts like never before.

The story behind Dark Magus is nearly as unbelievable as the spur-of-the-moment compositions that resulted when Davis brought drummer Al Foster, bassist Michael Henderson, percussionist James Mtume, horn virtuoso Dave Liebman, and guitarists Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas together, and, in a new twist for the concert’s second half, added guitarist Dominique Gaumont and tenor saxophonist Azar Lawrence to mix. That the latter two instrumentalists had never seen each other until that night adds to Davis’ legend — and penchant for bold, unorthodox moves.

Ditto Davis’ own actions that spring evening, which reportedly included showing up to the show an hour late and taking the stage with his back facing the crowd. The strategy worked. Davis inspired the group to play in a bold manner that few, if any, had heard before. Dark Magus is a rhythmic bonanza. Rooted in Afro-centrist techniques, avante-garde sensibilities, and exploratory moods, the songs eschew set arrangements and solos, and, for the most part, melodic devices.

For Davis, Dark Magus represented a personal triumph amid a period marked by health issues, addictions, and critical decline. The latter slight would be corrected, but not until decades later when Dark Magus saw Stateside release in 1997 via a CD reissue. Of course, the free-form patterns, unpredictable passages, dense structures, and distorted blues that course through the songs — titled after Swahili numerals — are not for everyone. And certainly not for the fainthearted. Though Dark Magus contains majestic moments marked by quiet restraint and something on the level of balladry, its rich and radical concoction of tormented thwacks, thumps, cracks, clatters, wails, bleeps, burbles, stomps, and enigmatic beats remains its adventurous heart and soul.

Primal and enigmatic, fierce and jagged, forceful and revolutionary, jolting and terrifying, Dark Magus seemingly attacks from any and all directions. Turn it up loud and let the prophetic brilliance of this inimitable and relentlessly funky album wash over you.

Debut LP from David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol), Wendy Eisenberg, and Kramer. Includes free download of an additional 15 minutes of music. Squanderers are the glowingly new 2024 vintage trio of guitarists Wendy Eisenberg and David Grubbs alongside multi-instrumentalist and legendary producer Kramer. The group sprung into action as the duo of Kramer and Grubbs with the single 'Congress of Poodles' b/w 'Lendrick Muir Bible Study Weekend,' part of Kramer's 2023 Shimmy-Disc box set Rings of Saturn. Squanderers now enter the arena of live performance with the addition of bona-fide guitar slayer Eisenberg, a dream of a foil to Grubbs's grubbslike guitarisms, setting the scene for Kramer to follow his musical divining rod. Divining urges not dirges. In Grubbs's book-length poem, The Voice in the Headphones, 'Squanderer' is the nickname that most deeply troubles of the book's unnamed protagonist: "Hang your head, Squanderer. You'll never darken the doorway of Studio A." Will this trio of inveterate Squanderers redeem themselves?