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'A Necessary Escape' ist der Soundtrack zum demnächst erscheinenden Film 'Dakar: Race Against The Desert'. Die physischen Formate umfassen CD, Vinyl und eine limitierte Farbvinyl-Edition in Curacao-Blau. Es ist der vierte Album-Soundtrack von M83 und wurde in Frankreich und den USA von M83s Anthony Gonzalez zusammen mit den regelmäßigen M83-Mitwirkenden Joe Berry und Clement Libes aufgenommen. Der Film erscheint am 12. Mai digital bei Universal Pictures und feiert seine weltweite Kinopremiere am 26. Juni in der MK2 Bibliothèque in Paris. Unter der Regie des französischen Schauspielers und Regisseurs Jalil Lespert wird hier die weltberühmte Rallye Dakar begleitet - ein Event, das seit 45 Jahren die ultimative Bewährungsprobe für Belastbarkeit, Können und Ausdauer im Motorsport darstellt. Das 9.000 Kilometer lange Rennen dauert 14 strapaziöse Tage durch raues Wüstengelände. Mit beispiellosem Zugang taucht dieser Film in das härteste Autorennen der Welt ein. Begleitet wird dies von einem wunderbaren Score den Gonzalez perfekt auf den Film zugeschnitten hat. Ambient trifft auf sphärische Klangcollagen und ist damit der perfekte Ausgleich zu den im Film dokumentierten Strapazen um die berühmte Rallye. Nach dem fantastischen 'Fantasy'-Album von 2023 oder dem 2011er Klassiker 'Hurry Up, We're Dreaming' ein weiterer Geniestreich des französischen Sound-Magiers und seinem M83-Projekt!

IMPROX - Starlit Rebellion is the compilation of the previous 3 IMPROX vinyl releases. The physical release comes as a deluxe gatefold sleeve with a sci-fi techno comic inside which tells the story of Hacoki, Cohaki, Ferce and Lely and their battle for Eridania.
Starlit Rebellion is an adventurous ride through industrial tinged sci-fi electronics, covering ambient, bass music, drum & bass, electro, IDM, industrial and techno, all on the unusual and experimental side of the spectrum. IMPROX is a full on DIY project with a free spirit where no boundaries exist, just pure freedom in artistic expression. Call it leftfield techno?
All music made by Delta Funktionen & Napirelly. Comic written and designed by Niels Luinenburg.

LTD Repress !

LIZZ is back on PlayedBy with Chapter II, a compilation of new and unreleased artifacts and other treasures from his dense catalog. Diverse and expansive, it captures his versatile musicianship and ever-evolving production style.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of tracks produced by LIZZ: on one hand rallying for the right to party, and on the other, nostalgic odysseys, sometimes lustful and sometimes wistful. Chapter II has a bit of everything. Thirteen tracks of club heat varied narrative that is worth listening to carefully.

Opener "Seamless" and its steady snare keep spirits high while the spacey keys provide a trippy, out-there vibe. On the flipside, "Clasic Dewan" uses elements we've heard before - warm pads, a percussive organ, and a looped vocal sample - but still makes for a great dancefloor track. Both tracks are a throwback to LIZZ's tried and true Terrafirma.

"Cynelmoon" unravels a labyrinthine universe twisting in and out of misty existence, with its snake-like rattles winding through a maze of synth bleeps.

Refreshing and zippy, "Dip Si M" stands out as a gritty reinterpretation of a great space and sounds like the most fun he's ever had on record. On the other hand, "Chemical Chords" is ethereal, meditative, with a hushed musicality that is almost stoic.

LIZZ takes the listener on a journey of vertiginous peaks and deep valleys as he leads "Round Around" into spiraling locked down looped club music.

Listening to "Nothing with Nothing" feels like a video-game on its own. It’s a bundle of joy and energy, peaking with a crescendo of color.

On "69" the energy builds with such careful, gradual restraint that even the most active listener might wonder how they ever got to this point. Chopped up shards of melody and vocals combine to create a kaleidoscopic funhouse with a strong Perlon-esque flavour.
"Roaki" is the dreamy track with an irresistible groove, where LIZZ combines smooth synth pads with dubby and distorted electronic drums that add a sense of cyberpunk feel, reconfirming's Playedby's fanaticism for this project.

A bubbling, percussive roller marks the beginning of "Jazzohub" and skyrockets from there. The track hits with an inviting vocal that dissolves into a fluid swirl of layered hand drums.
"No More High" is a a real banger. This one bounces hard with a bass-heavy beat and a military snare, leaving you no choice but to tip-toe with its groove all night long.

Chasing an ever-vivid muse,"Electronic World" hits with its drumming rhythms, labyrinth of synth bleeps and bold vocals reminiscent of tunneling club nights.

Closing track "I Am Cross" brings an unusual kind of dark atmosphere to the fore: it's cavernous and enveloping, almost as if the rhythm was an afterthought.

Chapter II is every bit as ambitious as its predecessor. Across thirteen tracks, LIZZ approaches the dancefloor forms of his earlier work with a fresh and voluptuous groovy attitude. Somehow, individually, we must reclaim our own experience.\5

Influential hardcore innovators Botch have delivered their electrifying new live album 061524, recorded at the iconic Showbox in Seattle on June 15, 2024—exactly 22 years to the day after their original farewell show at the same venue in 2002. 061524 captures a band still pushing sonic and emotional boundaries, now sharper, louder, and more dynamic than ever. Botch’s impact on aggressive music is undeniable. Their chaotic, math-laced brand of hardcore helped shape the genre’s landscape well after the band’s abrupt breakup in 2002.

For years, a reunion seemed unlikely—until a chain of unexpected events brought the original lineup back together for the band’s first new recording in over 20 years: 2022’s “One Twenty Two.” The song was released to critical acclaim, building into a frenzy of anticipation for Botch to reunite. What started as a nostalgic experiment quickly became a full-circle celebration, with the band reconnecting both personally and musically. That spark unleashed a wave of activity: secret warm-up shows, sold-out headlining gigs, and eventually a carefully curated international reunion tour, culminating in their hometown return at the Showbox—where 061524 was recorded in front of a packed, exhilarated crowd. 061524 is a blistering, unflinching document of a band reawakened—not as a legacy act, but as a vital force.

The album captures the energy, grit, and heart of a group that’s not only older and wiser—but more rehearsed and way more ambitious. The performances are tight but still full of the raw unpredictability that defined their early years. Fan favorites like “To Our Friends in the Great White North” and “Transitions from Persona to Object” are more complex and invigorating than ever before. Other songs, like “Afghamistam” and “Oma,” never considered feasible to pull off live previously, are delivered with the intricacy and intensity that has earned the band a lasting legacy and fresh legion of followers.

Influential hardcore innovators Botch have delivered their electrifying new live album 061524, recorded at the iconic Showbox in Seattle on June 15, 2024—exactly 22 years to the day after their original farewell show at the same venue in 2002. 061524 captures a band still pushing sonic and emotional boundaries, now sharper, louder, and more dynamic than ever. Botch’s impact on aggressive music is undeniable. Their chaotic, math-laced brand of hardcore helped shape the genre’s landscape well after the band’s abrupt breakup in 2002.

For years, a reunion seemed unlikely—until a chain of unexpected events brought the original lineup back together for the band’s first new recording in over 20 years: 2022’s “One Twenty Two.” The song was released to critical acclaim, building into a frenzy of anticipation for Botch to reunite. What started as a nostalgic experiment quickly became a full-circle celebration, with the band reconnecting both personally and musically. That spark unleashed a wave of activity: secret warm-up shows, sold-out headlining gigs, and eventually a carefully curated international reunion tour, culminating in their hometown return at the Showbox—where 061524 was recorded in front of a packed, exhilarated crowd. 061524 is a blistering, unflinching document of a band reawakened—not as a legacy act, but as a vital force.

The album captures the energy, grit, and heart of a group that’s not only older and wiser—but more rehearsed and way more ambitious. The performances are tight but still full of the raw unpredictability that defined their early years. Fan favorites like “To Our Friends in the Great White North” and “Transitions from Persona to Object” are more complex and invigorating than ever before. Other songs, like “Afghamistam” and “Oma,” never considered feasible to pull off live previously, are delivered with the intricacy and intensity that has earned the band a lasting legacy and fresh legion of followers.

The Modern Jazz Quartet, known for its sophisticated and elegant approach to jazz, consisted of pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath, and drummer Connie Kay

Here are Some key points about the album: "Fontessa" is regarded as one of the Quartet's essential recordings, praised for its elegant performances and refned compositions. The album refects the commitment to creating jazz that is both accessible and artistically ambitious. Critics and jazz enthusiasts often highlight the interplay between Milt Jackson's vibraphone and John Lewis's piano, supported by the solid rhythm section of Percy Heath and Connie Kay. The title track "Fontessa" is a suite in several movements, showcasing the band's ability to merge different musical themes seamlessly; the album includes notable covers such as "Angel Eyes," "Willow Weep for Me," and "Over the Rainbow" all of which are given the Modern Jazz Quartet unique treatment with a mix of lush harmonies and sophisticated improvisation. The album, released in 1956, signifcantly contributed to the evolution of jazz by demonstrating that it could be a serious, artful genre capable of sophisticated expression. The Modern Jazz Quartet infuence extends beyond jazz to classical and popular music, and "Fontessa" remains a testament to their innovative spirit and enduring appeal, a key album in their discography, exemplifying their unique sound and artistic vision.

This fourth EP in the Time Crystals series sees Troy returning to the label with a low-key driver, carried by sharp percussion and filtered chords that keep the attention locked in before Ukrainian Svarog and Ma-gooch take over, delivering their signature sound - evolving pads, dreamy soundscapes - resulting in yet another beautiful early hours piece of music.

Wonderchild Luigi Tozzi proves once again that he is a master at blending ambient-influences with dubby atmospheres, resulting in music that fits both dancefloors and living rooms. For the EP's forth track Jonas Korbl, who you might remember from his debut album in 2017 on Dynamic Reflection LTD, combines energetic percussion patterns and synth rhythms.

His Primal Grade is a seemingly perfect successor to Tozzi's Haboob, as both artists obviously take pride in their carefully arranged and modestly performed pieces of techno.

Equilibrium is part of Dynamic Reflection's 15 year anniversary celebration: Time Crystals. This is the fourth of five EP's. Own all five and an all new, visual piece of art will appear.

Intricate club weapons created by Rob Amboule on his Craigie Knowes debut. The ‘ Siltie ’ EP Bridg es the gaps between electro, house and techno across 4 foggy cuts. A varied package arming the DJ for a spectrum of murky dancefloor outcomes – o ne for the DJs.

The Temple Ov Ghosts is not down in any map, true places never are. Tyler Ov Gaia explores the depths of club, ambient, leftfield, new beat and progressive mutations with complete freedom, generating a musical realm that’s entirely his. Limited copies.


>> limited to 150 copies <<

Monde UFO follow the celebrated ‘7171’ album with a trip to the mysterious ‘Flamingo Tower’. In the shadows of the Los Angeles bustling music scene, the enigmatic collective led by visionary Ray Monde create a trance-like fusion of psychedelia and avant jazz, mantra-like evocations, brash moody ambience and passages reminiscent of long-lost library music.

Magnifying Monde UFO’s idea of musical chaos, their early sonic escapades into off-kilter exotica is now elevated with sweeping atmospheric waves of sound inspired by an eclectic brew of Arto Lindsey, Khan Jamal’s ‘Drum Dance To The Motherland’, Keith Hudson, Milford Graves, Marion Brown, Don Cherry and Lennie Tristano.

Cast deep into number theory with occasional quasi-religious touchstones, ‘Flamingo Tower’ bustles with background sounds overlaid with intimate melodies conjuring plenty of suitably strange illusions; a synthetic orchestra plays baroque pop, a guitar is set to auto destruct and Ray Monde’s hushed vocals carry a bracing narrative. It’s an evocative album, one for the heavy music nerds, sprinkled with ear candy and proliferated by mysterious numbers which litter the song titles.

“Monde UFO wander through a humid mist of exotic samba shuffles, shamanic whispers, and reverberating laser beam synthesizers.” New Commute

Peaceful electronic ambient and tribal echo environments. Music that explores feelings of calm, spirituality, and ceremony. Long-form voyages to temple meditations, “trips in search of something,” looking in as looking out.

The artist himself says: “This is an attempt to look into the heads and souls of "unnecessary" people, inconspicuous people, but striving to make the world a better place. People who have lost the horizon and the outlines of reality are desperate and stuck in the middle of nothing... people who cannot accept the rules of this world and unpleasant aspects of daily life, boring and unfair into unreality, other existence... it's all about escapism, rethinking their inner world, and discovering new facets of the soul.”

FFO Jon Hassell, O Yuki Conjugate, Bitchin Bajas, Laraaji, The Chi Factory…

"soft brushes of undefinable sounds and tropical field recordings that almost create ASMR-inducing vibrations in the minds of the listener" - Simon Eliasson

Black Hole Superette, the latest album from Aesop Rock, delves into the invisible forces that shape our lives and psyches. It's about the small, often overlooked moments_the everyday experiences that blur the lines between the real and the unreal, waking and sleeping. Aesop's signature gift for transforming the mundane into something dreamlike gives the album a surreal quality, leaving listeners questioning what's truly real as they navigate its vivid, half-remembered imagery. Entirely self-produced, Black Hole Superette is one of Aesop Rock's most technically accomplished works to date. The album's intricate beats and complex structures provide the perfect backdrop for his expansive lyricism, balancing cerebral exploration with emotional depth. From the reflective 'Movie Night' and the eccentric 'Send Help' to the wistful 'Black Plums,' Aesop channels the spirit of a mad scientist, experimenting with sound and concept in ways that defy the ordinary. With a stellar lineup of collaborators that includes Lupe Fiasco, Armand Hammer, Hanni El Khatib, Open Mike Eagle and Homeboy Sandman, Black Hole Superette is dense and kinetic, an album that deftly navigates between complexity and instinct. It's clear this project stands as one of Aesop Rock's most multifaceted and ambitious works yet.

Way back when, Upgrade & Afterlife was the umpteenth release from the individual and collective forces of David Grubbs (known then for Bastro, The Red Krayola, Codeine, Squirrel Bait) and Jim O"Rourke (known for O"Rourke), whose further history has since numbered at least another umpteen or so essential listens. What is it though, wrapped up in delectable sonic amber here, that defines this Upgrade? To be sure, we hear these young men dashing through the joys of youth-their actual young youth-as well as a version captured in memory and relived with a performative touch. Time remembered as tones, with gravity gained via perceptions. The stuff of memory and sentiment as selective and potentially deceptive in their nature. Who needed "em? As part of its time-traveling function, Upgrade & Afterlife is a return to roots, but not always necessarily Gastr"s. They were more than happy to stand on branches up above other folks in order to see any next thing worth leaping for. In addition to the elder-statesman Conrad, Gastr del Sol drew upon a memorable spectrum of players for the sounds of Upgrade & Afterlife, including Anthony Burr, Steve Braack, Gene Coleman, Mats Gustafsson, Terri Kapsalis, John McEntire, Günter Müller, Jerry Ruthrauff, Ralf Wehowsky and Sue Wolf. When issued, this combination of players, parts and play - packaged in an impressively broad tip-on Stoughton gatefold sleeve emblazoned with Roman Signer"s instantly iconic "Wasserstiefel" image - became the fastest-moving Gastr del Sol record to date. A delightful result, to our way of thinking, of the band"s ability to push at the far boundaries of their music while consolidating upon pleasure points within sounds and songs. Gastr used these polarities to compulsively draw the listener intimately close with sudden injections of g-force and an uncanny interpolation of space.

Facta and K-LONE’s Wisdom Teeth imprint returns to the V/A format with ‘Pattern Gardening’: a new collaborative project that leans head-first into the label’s love of minimal-, micro- and tech-house, carving out the label’s distinct, contemporary take on the sound - one that swims between warm, bleepy, rolling, dubby, psychedelic and bass-heavy channels across its duration. The vinyl sampler brings together 6 highlights from the wider 22 track digital project. Wisdom Teeth heads Facta and K-LONE appear alongside longtime label associate Lurka and new signees Polygonia, rRoxymore, Sub Basics and Jichael Mackson.

By now, Wisdom Teeth and its founders are well known for their unabashed love of minimal and tech house, which - alongside ambient, UK club music, experimental electronics and a broad palette of other influences - makes up a key cornerstone of their distinctive sound. The duo’s DJ sets often see them mixing ‘00s gems from labels like Perlon, Mosaic, Minibar and a:rpia:r with more contemporary club sounds, creating a hybrid style that sits somewhere between Balearic terraces and dark UK club basements. Likewise, the label has become known as a go-to outlet for artists occupying a similar crossover space, with names like Jorg Kuning, Parris, Steevio, Duckett, Leif and LUXE all known for pushing house and techno into experimental and refreshing new territories.

‘Pattern Gardening’ follows loosely on from the label’s previous V/A releases ‘To Illustrate’ (2021) and ‘Club Moss’ (2023), which explored downtempo (100bpm) and uptempo (150-170bpm) styles respectively. Here, the focus is fixed on lush, groovy, quirky 4x4 jams, joining the dots between a global spread of producers that bring new energy and perspective to these well-explored frameworks.

As is always the case with Wisdom Teeth’s output, the results fit somewhere between the club and a more contemplative, home-listening headspace, with texture, melody and mood afforded as much significance as rhythm and functionality.

The artwork features photography by Hong Kong-based photographer Jimi Chiu, who captures seemingly ordinary corners of city life in glossy, cinematic detail.

3XL’s first new release in 2025 by Italian trio Cortex of Light is a synapse-tickling dose of classic FSOL-era world-building that takes in gloopy trance cooked down with sub-heavy, vaporous dub, mutant acid, breakbeat rave, Artificial Intelligence and a Mark Fell-style algorithmic brainmelt.

You'll know if you've spent any time following Piezo's output that the Milan-based producer and Ansia boss has a knack for lysergically enhancing any club template he sets his sights on. With releases on Idle Hands, Wisdom Teeth, Loefah's 81 and most recently Dekmantel, Luca Mucci has blottered up dubstep, hard drum, 2-step and minimal techno, here re-convening with fellow Milanese journeymen Aitch and primordial OOze/xàr num as Cortex of Light to blur those edges even further

'ILLUMINOTECNICA' isn't the trio's first release, but it's their most substantial and easily most developed. If 2024's 'Aeon Is A Child At Play With Colored Balls' showed off their aptitude for threading their luminous soundscapes into a horizontal soundtrack, then this album is a proper chance for Cortex of Light to show off their versatility in a different setting, matching dancefloor hallucinations with expertly sculpted sound design.

Psilocybin-tainted soundscapes scrape into breathy flute sounds and chest-thumping bass drops on the opener, haunted by a vision of electronic music that's been contrived in back rooms, squats and outdoor raves for decades at this point. Like so much of the rest of the 3XL catalog, there's a drive and coherence here that comes from classic dub techno and chill-out room fodder (think The Black Dog or Pentatonik), but always infused with something that dates it to the present era, be it a tactile sliver of Visible Cloaks-style neo-new age ambience, or a sort of mescaline-dipped take on Photek's bass-heavy, meticulously hazed 'Solaris' period downtempo gear, chopped 'n screwed into the uncanny.

EB-REX, a Berlin-based Techno label founded by Estella Boersma in 2024, stands as a testament to versatility and artistic freedom. Drawing inspiration from the halcyon days of old-school rave and the relentless drive of Techno's present, each release embodies a synthesis of the past and the future. The Sophomore release, EB002, delivers a driving, high-energy techno experience - taking you on a journey through rolling grooves that culminates in a surprising ambient rework. Written and Produced by Estella Boersma. Mastered by Manmade Mastering. Pressed by Intakt!.

First 2x12" record with UPR by Le Talium.
The tunes were too good not to press them all !!
LIMITED QUANTITIES.

A familly story... sound is as noise as clear, and ritch as minimal...
Industrial Hardcore (end speedcore) is the thema, Even if industrial could be the domain.

Hypnofreak : un bon speedcore mental, très fin, qui embarque dans des vagues acides longues en bouches, soutenues par un kick de moins en moins discret :)

Go HardCore : si je ne me trompe pas on dirait du vieux Epiteth, avec une petite pointe d'indus à la Test-Dep dans les sons.. (mais là faut chercher longtemps avant de tomber sur "Brith Gof Goddodin" ^^).

Last Chance : Le kick sec, sans reverbe, dur dur ! Hardcore encore :)

Digital Error : Allez, on y va dans le noiseux speed, marque de fabrique du Talium :) Et son gros kick qui vient vous récupérer après des drops glissants...

No Planet : Dédoublons les kicks et voyons ou ça nous mène :)

Non Conforme : Prenez un kick et mettez le dans shaker. enregistrez les bruits du moteur. Et vous obtiendrez un truc dans le genre.

Quad Grinder : Une fois encore, le dédoublement de kick est au centre de l'affaire, ce morceau me semble dans l'esprit du
01100010 de No Name sur Fischkopf 16).. Mais c'est un feeling de Deejay ^^

XB09-Part One : toujours dans l'esprit du shaker, avec de grosses nappes ambient qui posent grave... Un contraste qui peut faire penser à du Flashcore... mais ou est la part 2 ? ^^

En gros ce skeud est une balle, ça pourrait bien être un des meilleurs skeuds de speedcore indus depuis un sacré bail !

BIG UP UPR !

By the composer of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 2, City Hunter: The Movie, Soul Eater, and Black Butler.



Yato dreams of becoming a famous and respected god, but his reality is far from that dream. One day, his fate takes a turn when he saves Hiyori, a high school girl, from a car accident. In return, he asks for her help to achieve his grand ambition. Together, with Yukine, a spirit who serves as his sacred weapon, they navigate the world of humans and deities, where Yato must prove his worth and divine heritage.



This vinyl record features several BGM tracks from the series. Taku Iwasaki, a renowned composer in the anime industry, has created a vast array of background music, blending numerous styles—from traditional music infused with electronic elements to rap, as well as dark and melancholic piano pieces. Through this musical variety, the composer perfectly captures the anime’s atmosphere: comedic and joyful moments, intense action sequences, and much darker themes that reflect the protagonist’s past.

Die Ära der Mix-CDs mag schon lange vorbei sein, doch wenn man sich 'Midnight Ragas' anhört, das neue Album des legendären Downtempo-Produzenten und Thievery Corporation Mitbegründers Eric Hilton, könnte man der Meinung sein, sie wäre nie weg gewesen. Man stelle sich Khruangbin vor in noch entspannter, wie sie einen alten Billy Dee Williams-Werbespot für Malt Liquor vertonen, neu abgemischt von Zero 7, und man kommt der Sache schon sehr nahe. 'Midnight Ragas' - ein süchtig machendes Hörerlebnis.Auf dem Album sind auch die Thievery Corporation-Mitglieder Natalia Clavier und Puma Ptah zu hören.'Midnight Ragas' ist Erics 8. Solo-Studioalbum und der Nachfolger von Sound Vagabond und seinem Ambient-Album Out of the Blur.- Ltd. Col. LP: (Bone Color Vinyl)Tracklist LP:A-SeiteA1. Life (In The Deep End)A2. Leave It All (feat. Puma Ptah)A3. Je ne t’aime plus (feat. Natalia Clavier) videoA4. Behind My Eyes (feat. The Infinite Daisy Chains)A5. All I Want (feat. Puma Ptah)A6. Burkina FasoB-SeiteB1. Midnight RagaB2. Sol Interior (feat. Natalia Clavier)B3. Galactic ShineB4. Madame AshaB5. L’Ocean (feat. Natalia Clavier)B6. Beautiful Moment (feat. The Infinite Daisy Chains)

Als Erbe der Tradition der Griots - Geschichtenerzähler, Dichter und Musiker, die jahrhundertelang als Hüter des westafrikanischen Kulturerbes fungierten - war Ousmane ein Wegbereiter des modernen elektrischen Mandingue-Sounds. An der Seite von Mory Kanté & Kanté Manfi la bei Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako und später bei der in Abidjan ansässigen Band Les Ambassadeurs Internationaux schmiedete Ousmane seine Karriere, bevor er dem malischen Sänger Salif Keita mehr als drei Jahrzehnte lang als dessen Gitarrist diente. Unzählige Jahre des Tourens brachten Ousmane dazu, sich auf seine eigenen Kompositionen zu konzentrieren. „Kefi mba“, benannt nach dem schwarzen Stier aus seiner Kindheit, mit dem er sein Maniok-Essen geteilt hatte, und „N'Ny“ wurden im renommierten JBZ Recording Studio in Abidjan aufgenommen. Sie wurden zunächst auf Kassette veröffentlicht und kamen 1982 und 1983 auf Vinyl heraus. Nur wenige Monate nach der Leon Keita-Veröffentlichung präsentiert Analog Africa nun Ousmane Kouyatés zwei funkgetränkte Mandingue-Perlen aus den frühen 1980er Jahren, sorgfältig restauriert, gepresst auf pink gefärbtem 180g-Vinyl und in einer wunderschönen Siebdruckhülle.

Diese EP ist weltweit auf 2000 Exemplare limitiert und verspricht, die Tanzflächen mit ihren ansteckenden Rhythmen ordentlich zu rocken!

LERA is a brand new sardinian quartet forging a unique blend of post-rock, post-metal and doom,weaving hypnotic and heavy riffs with atmospheric soundscapes.
Their music thrives on contrasts--crushing, repetitive riffs that spiral into obsession, dissolving into delicate ambient textures that evokes a dreamlike state.
Their debut album, Reverie, is set for release in May 2025 via Subsound Records.


ABOUT REVERIE
"Reverie" thrives on contrasts-crushing, repetitive riffs that spiral into obsession, dissolving into delicate ambient textures that evokes a dreamlike state.
If you're looking for hypnotic and heavy riffs, slow arpeggios and crushing crescendos, powerful rhythms and ethereal vocals, just go for it - you will not be disappointed.

LERA is a brand new sardinian quartet forging a unique blend of post-rock, post-metal and doom,weaving hypnotic and heavy riffs with atmospheric soundscapes.
Their music thrives on contrasts--crushing, repetitive riffs that spiral into obsession, dissolving into delicate ambient textures that evokes a dreamlike state.
Their debut album, Reverie, is set for release in May 2025 via Subsound Records.


ABOUT REVERIE
"Reverie" thrives on contrasts-crushing, repetitive riffs that spiral into obsession, dissolving into delicate ambient textures that evokes a dreamlike state.
If you're looking for hypnotic and heavy riffs, slow arpeggios and crushing crescendos, powerful rhythms and ethereal vocals, just go for it - you will not be disappointed.

Black Truffle is pleased to announce a new edition of Kassel Jaeger’s Fernweh, returning François J. Bonnet’s electroacoustic project to the label five years after the acclaimed Meith (BT069). Originally released on Giuseppe Ielasi and Jennifer Veillerobe’s impeccably curated Senufo Editions in 2012, Fernweh stands near the beginning of the gradual expansion of Bonnet’s approach after the austere acoustic textures of Aerae and Algae (both released on Senufo), leading to the lush, layered environments of recent solo works on Shelter Press and the epic electronic expeditions undertaken in duo projects with Stephen O’Malley and Jim O’Rourke.

A major work in the Kassel Jaeger oeuvre, stretching over two LP sides, Fernweh draws together synthesized and musique concrète materials into a drifting assemblage. Its title’s meaning is close to the concept of ‘Wanderlust’, fitting for this music that moves freely and unexpectedly between what Bonnet calls ‘climates’. Beginning with fizzing electronics whose rhythm of gradual approach suggests breaking waves, the clinical atmosphere is soon haunted by intangible traces of lived reality. Textures call up wind, water, insects, the crunch of feet on sand or the clinking of glasses, yet they can never be identified with any certainty. At times these concrete elements possess a vivid ‘closeness’; at others, the sounds shade into a formless distance. Though the listener forms no clear picture from the concrete sounds, these elements aerate the music, lending it their space.

Drawing from the rigorous formal language and conceptual apparatus of the French musique concrète tradition—with which Bonnet, as director of the GRM and researcher into its deepest archival recesses, is intimately familiar—the music of Kassel Jaeger is equally informed by how underground experimental music has rethought electroacoustic techniques, with Fernweh at times calling up the grit and grime of para-industrial eccentrics like Maurizio Bianchi or the Toniutti brothers, and at other moments suggesting the slow-moving grandeur of early Olivia Block. Subtle features of dynamics and rhythm act as connective tissue between the numerous ‘scenes’, with wave-like envelopes, rapid pulsations, and short, tape-loop patterns all recurring throughout the piece, shared ambiguously between electronic and concrete sounds. Amid these shifting, often inharmonic textures, the electronic elements sometimes cohere into melodic shapes and chordal patterns, cutting through the fog in distorted arcs or underpinning the layered surface with slow-moving harmonies. Like his friend and collaborator Jim O’Rourke, Bonnet displays a radical openness at odds with academic tradition, allowing unabashed emotion to coexist with rigorous experimentation. As Fernweh dies away with mysterious shudders, listeners are left at once moved and unsure of exactly what they just heard.

These new collaborations follow the mesmerising 'Dissolve In the Rain' in 2022 where Calibre leaned into the blues of Chelou.

Belfast-born Dominick Martin has spent the last 30 years creating. With over 100 Singles and 25 albums, encompassing a myriad of tempos and genres. Painter, Multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer, producer and DJ.

Chelou is the moniker of London-based artist Adam Gray, a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer known for his psychedelic blend of folk, blues, and indie electronics. Raised in Camden and influenced by a musically rich environment, Chelou developed a reverb-soaked, dreamlike sound that combines minimal vocals, distorted guitar, ambient textures, and offbeat lyricism. His name, "Chelou," is French slang for "bizarre" or "strange," reflecting his enigmatic and unconventional identity.

He emerged in 2014 with the DIY EP The Quiet, gaining early support from BBC Radio 6 Music DJs like Lauren Laverne and Tom Ravenscroft. Tracks like "Halfway to Nowhere," "Out of Sight," and "Garden" drew attention for their raw, intimate tone and distinctive visual accompaniments. His debut album Out of Sight (2018) expanded his sound and artistic reach, featuring a popular animated video created by Robin Eisenberg.

When Alanis Morissette took direct aim at an ex who wronged her on the eviscerating “You Oughta Know” in 1995, everything about the Top 10 song communicated it wasn’t the usual narrative about love gone south. Or the typical wounded singer wallowing in self pity. Morissette, and both the lead single from and her entire American major-label debut — the profoundly personal Jagged Little Pill — represented a sea change. They kickstarted a movement, one whose impact continues to echo throughout the mainstream nearly three decades later.

Ranked the 69th Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 200 Definitive Albums, and featured in several books about essential albums, Jagged Little Pill remains more than a blockbuster that has sold more than 17 million copies in the U.S. and 33 million units worldwide. It’s a statement, an attitude, a soundtrack for anyone seeking inspiration, an outlet, or permission to be themselves.

Sourced from the original master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing on MoFi SuperVinyl, and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP box set of Jagged Little Pill presents the landmark effort in audiophile-grade sound for the first time. A key part of the record’s appeal and accessibility — Glen Ballard’s smooth production, touches that help Morissette’s exposed-nerve fare seem more accessible and melodic — comes through on this special 30th anniversary edition with an openness, presence, and dynamic explosiveness that make the vocalist’s songs that much more real and visceral.

The singer’s distinctive mezzo-soprano deliveries — the octave-rippling highs, dark-hued lows, dramatic crescendos, belted choruses, wispy reflections, occasional yodels — resonate with full-range ardor and depth. As crucial as anything on the record, Morissette’s confessional words take center stage like never before. Ditto the instrumentation and atmospherics that form the magnetic backgrounds of the songs. Key in on the contributions from Red Hot Chili Peppers Dave Navarro and Flea on “You Oughta Know” to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' co-founder Benmont Tench’s organ playing on six tracks.

The deluxe packaging of Mobile Fidelity’s Jagged Little Pill UD1S set underscores the work’s distinguished status. Housed in a slipcase, the LPs come in special foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. Benefitting from an ultra-low noise floor, superior groove definition, and dead-quiet surfaces, this UD1S reissue is for listeners who prize sound quality and desire to engage themselves in everything involved with the album, including the now-iconic cover art that juxtaposes two portraits of the then-21-year-old singer-songwriter and features typewriter font.

That script — which suggests a raw, blood-on-the-floor document created without modern aids like spell check or language correction — hints at the heightened level of unvarnished intimacy, honesty, and catharsis Morissette offers throughout Jagged Little Pill. Named after a phrase uttered on the astute “You Learn,” the album explores the frank emotions, inherent contradictions, and wishful desires people feel everyday but are often too afraid to express. Morissette displays no such fear or shyness.

Akin to a woman reading from a diary, Morissette leaves nothing to the imagination as she skewers hypocrisy during the poignant “Forgiven,” seeks recompense on the vengeful “You Oughta Know,” and spills her guts on the soul-purging “All I Really Want.” For all the anger and bile ascribed to the singer and record, Jagged Little Pill is incredibly healthy and upbeat. Morissette uses the catchy pop-rock frameworks and moody ambience to suss out situations, to learn, to give hope. There’s the clever yearning of “Hand in My Pocket”; wry contrarianism of “Ironic”; kind-heartedness of “Hand over Feet”; the live-and-let-live spirit of “You Learn” – all positive and amiable.

Throughout Jagged Little Pill, the ever-approachable Morissette connects with listeners who recognize themselves in her — and has an intelligent conversation with anyone who wants to participate. It seemed almost everyone did. In addition to the mammoth sales that make the effort the 17th-best-selling album in American history, Jagged Little Pill collected four Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, three Billboard Music Awards, and eight Juno Awards. In 2018, the record became the basis for a musical that netted 15 Tony nominations on Broadway.

Ironic? Anything but. Jagged Little Pill transcends generations, gender, and trends. As Morissette sings on the opening “All I Really Want,”, the album represents “deliverance” — “a place to find common ground.”

Underground Pacific is back with a new double vinyl compilation titled ‘The Only Good Wave is a Dead One’ that confirms, once again, its uncompromising taste for bold electronic music, psychedelic textures, and raw, electrified rock ‘n roll. This release brings together a varied group of artists, each of them adding something special to the journey.

The trip begins with “Excursions” by Gregory Moore, a piece that floats into a humid sonic world, between the nostalgic tones of vintage video game soundtracks, the Fourth World atmospheres of Jon Hassell, and the shimmering calm of ’90s Japanese ambient à la Takashi Kokubo.

Next comes Talee, the Rotterdam-based regular of the label, with “Makes Me Wonder”. Here, grunge-soaked vocals meet a tight dark disco groove, pierced by crystalline guitar chords that shimmer at the track’s heart. A song with its soul in the past and its feet in the club.

Label founder Cantor teams up once again with German duo New Hook on “Achtung! Achtung!”, an homage to the eponymous track by Italian producer Black Saagan. Fueled by vintage drum machines, punk-infused vocals, and melodies echoing the krautrock minimalism of Cluster, the track channels pure Cold War disco energy.

On “Scavengers”, Berlin based World Wild Web and Rasp Thorne deliver a pure mix of electro-rock noir – Suicide by way of David Lynch. Picture a never seen before episode of the series where Martin Rev and Alan Vega are playing live at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks, while Laura Palmer slowly moves her head to the music, with a devilish smile on her face.

All the way from Grenoble to Berlin, H.L.M. deliver a dirty bass-driven anthem called ‘Fronde’. French spoken vocals spitfire over layers of distorted drones and hypnotic rhythms. The result is rough, hypnotic, and brings to mind the grooves of Death in Vegas.

New Hook return, this time solo, with ‘Unity’: a blend of groovy downtempo percussions, melancholic guitar riffs, and their signature brand of spoken word, a style that’s quickly become their sonic fingerprint.

Then it’s the turn of mexican-wave exponents Montessori featuring Vongold on “Ad Libitum”: a techy sunrise piece with soft pads, subtle build-ups, and an ecstatic sense of endlessness. After-party music for vast, open spaces.
Next up are SX2 from Ireland with their ‘Buttons’, offering a rolling tech-house banger laced with desert guitars. Psychedelic FX’s and whispered vocals drenched in delay slow the pace in a breakdown full of tension, preparing the floor to an euphoric release.

A dream from the pandemic era reappears: Cantor’s “Hannett’s Dream”, originally released in 2020 by Modular’s Project’s imprint ‘Nothing Is Real’ together with their own reworked version present also in two very limited vinyl-collector editions released by Underground Pacific. The introspection and hypnotic structure of the original cut here is replaced by a more stripped down arrangement, with a four-to-the-floor groove that is perfectly crafted for peak-time ignition.

Closing out the release is “Carissima” by the man behind iconic label Wonder Stories, Aimes – a Moroder-esque bassline and sensual vocals play on top of a warm groove that suddenly fractures into jazz-tinged, breakbeat mood, in the style of early Warp Records, just in time to get back into its disco-ish swing.

Contrary to what the title of this release might suggest, the wave isn’t dead at all. It’s well alive in the underground, reanimated by labels like Underground Pacific who are always ready to welcome artists who aren’t afraid to crash genres together and, above all, who are driven by the desire to make free-form, inspired pieces of music.

Aiko Takahashi is a Nova Gorica-based musician, a spirit that has released albums on various labels. Just like the line that separates the two cities where Aiko lives, Gorizia and Nova Gorica, divided between two countries yet united as one, Aiko’s music exists on a boundary. A line that separates silence from peculiar, almost imperceptible sounds. Too quiet to be Ambient, too Ambient to be Sound Art.

Two years ago, after a first complete release on IIKKI with "It Could Have Been A Beautiful", Aiko Takahashi comes back with a second complete album, this time, on LAAPS.

"This album is a delicate, meditative collection recorded between March and November 2024 in Aiko's former studio, a secluded spot near the River Isonzo, between Gorizia and Nova Gorica in Slovenia. The Grass Harp was made specifically for LAAPS, who asked Aiko to create a new complete piece of sounds. As always, it was largely recorded using dense layers of manipulated loops that weave in and out of the recordings, shaping them in a singular way through effects pedals, tape decks, and tape loops. The Grass Harp is a meditation on decay and silence, blending warm soundscapes with soft, playful melodies. That’s Aiko’s signature sound."

Having crested the west coast modular-ambient wave in just a few releases - including 2018's Sharing Waves on the influential LA experimental imprint Leaving Records - Sean Hellfritsch has swapped the mossy analog synth improvisations of his prior output for refined melodic arrangements dressed in sprightly dawn-of-digital textures. Big Earth Energy plumbs the depths of Hellfritsch's multimedia mind and naturalist heart, spinning an impressionistic narrative world off of cultural touchstones like the PC game MYST, and the work of Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi. Inspired by the aforementioned, and guided by Hellfritsch's experience as an animator and filmmaker, Big Earth Energy is the soundtrack to a hypothetical video game with a pointedly ecological premise, and a twist of psychedelic charm. In Hellfritsch's imagined virtual journey, the player assumes the perspective of a treefrog sixty-five-million years ago, hopping epochs with each new level, forming a comprehensive picture of the massive changes the planet has gone through over the eons. The ultimate goal of the game is not to amass resources, defeat enemies, or gain power, but to fully witness the unfolding of one of the biggest systems of energy imaginable - or as the album's creator puts it - "to explore the incomprehensibly vast energetic expression and mystery that is Earth." Big Earth Energy is steeped in exploratory RPG intrigue, possibility, and contemplation, lovingly overlaid with Miyazaki-an sentiments and aesthetics. The through-composed, organic, meandering synthesis heard on previous Cool Maritime albums has been fully replaced by meticulous polygonal arrangements that recall the computerized sheen of late 80s work by composers like Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Yoichiro Yoshikawa - using true-to-period gear no less. Even given its referentiality, Big Earth Energy comes off as forward-facing where so much reminiscent music remains fixed to a bygone moment in pop culture. Hellfritsch has created a musical world where the endless verdancy of the biosphere finds its parallel in the golden age of early 1990s video games, and late 80s Japanese environmental music, all while pointing to a hopeful planetary and artistic future that vindicates the motives of all of these muses.

Efficient Space charts Ghost Riders’ North American roadmap, crashing into 1973 New York to ignite the unfiltered teen dreams of Dennis Harte.

In the late ’60s, 11-year-old prodigy Dennis Harte was handed a Sears-bought Silvertone 1448, its in-case amplifier primed for street-level incantations. Recruiting two neighbourhood friends, the trio hammered out raw rhythms, drawing in Brooklyn’s wandering bohemians, keen to glimpse a prepubescent Alex Chilton in the making.

Also jamming with his older brothers, Bart and John, a family friend introduced the siblings to budding music exec Carl Edelson, who had spent the better part of two decades hustling through a string of local labels. A father figure of sorts, Edelson backed them immediately, facilitating sessions at the famed A-1 Sound Studios and Sanders Recording Studio and pressing four 7”s on his newly minted Roundtable Records. To maximise his chances of courting major labels, he strategically assigned each release a different artist name - Dennis Harte, Pure Madness, Harte Brothers and the wryly titled Harte Attack.

Dennis’ emotional maturity and sheer talent bleed into the defining ‘Summer’s Over’, penned by Edelson and once recorded by mid-'60s New Jersey garage vocal group The Wouldsmen. Morphing into an unfathomably teenage, blue-eyed soul/psych lament, it aches for a season slipping away forever. Its Harte Attack edition counterpart - the candied ballad ‘Running Thru My Mind’ - delivers unison harmonies and kinetic guitar interplay with a streetwise punch, channeling the spirit of NYC-area icons The Rascals, The Lovin’ Spoonful, and The Youngbloods.

Roaring like the Spencer Davis Group, Pure Madness’ organ-driven bruiser ‘Freedom Rides’ screams of biker gangs, yet its true subject - ’60s civil rights activists the Freedom Riders - looms as another towering theme for an adolescent perspective. Meanwhile, the loose, bluesy ruckus ‘Treat Me Like a Man’ digs back into Edelson’s catalogue, covering the Beatles-inflected Levittown group The Shandels.

Though Dennis later found success touring with Wilson Pickett and now doubles as a piano tuner to the stars, these four snapshots frame ambition on its outer edge - a heartfelt homage to an unbreakable brotherhood.

Originally published by Tomlab in 2001, “Seleya” is the second full- length issued by Kristian Peters’ Novisad project. Twenty-four years after its initial release, the album’s thirteen loop-based arrangements continue to resonate with striking clarity. Keplar presents Seleya with a previously unreleased bonus track from 2004 and a fresh vinyl cut by LUPO.

These evocative miniatures feel haunted with the passage of time, bearing traces of the exploratory studio workflows, tactile imperfections, and emerging technologies that would have given birth to them: plain DAW manipulations, aliasing digitalia, the tones and timbres of the “misused” equipment ambient musicians utilized before Ableton, Eurorack, and the rise of the boutique electronics that have streamlined electronic music production.

In our present epoch, these compositions feel almost eerily nostalgic, documenting the sort of trembling, wide-eyed spirit and enviable naivety that characterizes cultural production as it ventures into new waters, unfettered by the sediments of established methodology and trend. This tendency to avoid aesthetic orthodoxy results in music that refuses to settle into predictability. Subtle frequencies drift and collide, counterpoint loops run in quiet opposition, and elegant dissonance gives rise to unexpected harmony. The album’s emotional power lies in these tensions, in the way it balances melancholy with beauty and familiarity with complexity.

After several killer EPs and tracks on labels such as Tresor, Multi Culti, Hard Fist, or Playground Records, Antonio De Oto aka A-Tweed finally delivers "Spring Music" his first solo LP via Abstrakce Records, changing perspective on his music and way of producing. A minimal approach, where echoes and reverbs become some of the main characters of the full journey, mixing up weird acid, experimental downbeat, electro, dub, and tribal vibes across a wide range of tempos.

Slow-motion beats pulse beneath swirling acid lines, while dubby echoes and reverberations sculpt a landscape that is both immersive and mysterious. A-Tweed’s meticulous production draws from the label’s tradition of organic textures and ambient vibes, yet carves a distinct path balancing deep bass, shimmering synths, and a subtle sense of psychedelia that lingers long after the needle lifts.

A cohesive journey, crafted for those who seek introspective voyages without giving up new forms of dancefloor communion. A manifesto about the power of slow rhythms, dub sensibilities, and acid-tinged experimentation, out of any hype and trend, aiming for a distinctive sound. An essential addition to the ever-evolving Abstrakce catalogue. The spring has just arrived.

“We go through life. We shed our skins. We become ourselves.”

This line from Patti Smith was going round and round Felix Manuel’s head as he gradually constructed Under Tangled Silence, his first album in six years and a record of a literal creative rebirth. Felix originally began it in earnest in 2020 Covid lockdown, but a catastrophic hard-drive meltdown destroyed almost all his work and sent him close to psychic collapse himself. However, ultimately this pushed him to rebuild from scratch and in so doing to confront and reassess every part of his musical and psychological processes.

The result is utterly extraordinary. Felix was a child prodigy as an instrumentalist and his advanced musicality has always been prominent in his music, but here he has put himself front and centre as pianist, harpist and more. And this sense of exposure as a performer interweaves with an unflinching emotional openness too. Where sometimes electronic production as advanced as this can use intellect and techniques as shields from soul-baring, this is the sound of someone who can boldly say “I feel things, I cry all the time, and I'm not afraid to say it or show it in the music.”

But this doesn’t mean there’s a move away from the soundsystems and dancefloors where Felix made his name as a uniquely innovative vinyl DJ. Even just in the opening track “A Tune for Us”, minimalist piano ripples and jazz drumming flow into the breaks of vintage jungle – and as the structure of the LP unfolds, a deep ambient meditation like “Hold” can sit very naturally in between the futurist dancehall of “L’Ancienne” and the high-definition acid house mind movie of “Galaxy in Silence”. In fact, as with the hands-on musicianship, that gutsy big-speaker electronic impact is delivered with more certainty, more expertise, more personal flourishes than ever. And all of those elements are more integrated than ever too: the sound of a total musical personality emerging afresh is truly something to behold. An already remarkable talent has been refreshed, reborn and is making the music of his life.

Disco Mind founder and Italian mainstay Paul Older and Melbourne's Brother Julian are back with a second volume of the AMBO series after the first one did so well to launch this label last year. Older's 'Keep Dancing' is an electric and peak-time disco cut with string stabs and hard-hitting drums that sweep you off your feet in an instant. It's a real disco inferno then Julia's 'Satisfaction Guaranteed' reworks an old gem into another fast-paced, melody-packed disco stomper. Two very useful disco bombs indeed.

Motor City great Omar S is not just a don when it comes to programming drums and laying down his irresistible synth lines and heart aching melodies. He can also play a wide array of instruments, and in fact does just that here as he plays all instruments played you can hear across all three cuts of this new one on his FXHE label. Things kick off with the wonderful 'Featuring Omar S (instrumental)' and then 'Sayoungaty Nig' is a hazy, lo-fi ambient sound with occasional synth smears and a barely-there rhythm implied by the odd kick drum sound. 'Featuring Omar S' is a signature deep house joint with bristling metal hi-hats, rickety drums and edgy drones that keep you on edge as more soulful chords rise up through the mix.

There are imagined landscapes we all carry within us—dreamed,
half-remembered, or just beyond reach. Lofoten, the new album by
Cate Francesca Brooks on Clay Pipe Music, is a musical reflection on one such place.
Located above the Arctic Circle, Norway's Lofoten Islands are known for their dramatic peaks, open seascapes, and distinctive red fishing cabins dotting the shoreline. Though Brooks has never visited this remote northern region, it became an unexpected source of inspiration.
The project began when Cate listened to a narrated "sleep story" set in the islands. Intrigued, she researched the region and found herself drawn to its stark beauty."I fell in love with creating an impression of somewhere I would probably never visit, but felt a real affinity with," she explains.
This ambitious album translates that connection into sound. Through carefully crafted electronics, melodic themes, richly layered textures and big production, Brooks captures the essence of Lofoten—its icy light, vast horizons, and profound quiet."The other thing that happened around the same time was the first lockdown here in the UK. I had taken the opportunity of having some extra time to learn a new (to me) method of synthesis; that of the Synclavier, which uses one aluminium wheel and an array of buttons to control every parameter of the sound.
"I took to it with intrigue and before I knew it, I had built up hundreds of original sounds, many of which were perfect for the textures I could hear in my head for Lofoten. So that (along with a Prophet synth and a TR-808) became the sound world." Lofoten stands as an evocative testament to how music can transport us to distant places, transforming geographical limitations into imagined creative possibilities.

Here we have a new four track EP from ddwy following two acclaimed EPs on Public Possession. ddwy (pronounced d-why) is the Welsh word for “two” — a nod to Naomi and Ronan, the duo behind the project. It’s a four track EP ranging from dancefloor moments such as ‘Beaming Backwards’ and the dubwise ‘Peak Smile’ to the more ethereal ‘Stars Stars’ and the ambient tone of ‘Heuldro’r Haf’. A beautifully rounded EP showing a quiet potential for a broader audience. The echo continues.

Superb new EP from Bas Punkt.
A crazy travel into acid machines... with a brutal cave ambiance.
Back to the roots !

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Nuke Watch stretch out and zone in on “Wait For It…”, two side-long jaunts that run their freeform M.O. to their own illogical ends. Following on from recent excursions on The Trilogy Tapes and Impatience, they revel in the long format for Patience, crafting a steady assault of haywire rhythms and swampy, off-world ambience.

On the A-side’s Supersonic Percussion Anagram, a battery of electronic and sampled drums - from window-shaking subs to melodic subcontinent percussion - shift from one bar to the next, a continuously morphing, snake-charming ruckus confirming their status as Bushwhick’s finest rhythm purveyors.

For the B-side Nuke Watch mind-meld with fellow NYC phreq Bryce Hackford for Think Peace, a disorienting lurch through the knotty depths of free associative modular synthesis, unraveling spools of intrigue that goes deep into the unknowable.

Nuke Watch is Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos.. They’ve released records as Nuke Watch on The Trilogy Tapes, Commend, Impatience and Moon Glyph. As Beat Detectives they’ve released records on Not Not Fun, 100% Silk and their own studio imprint NYPD Records.

“Wait For It…” was written and produced by Aaron Anderson and Chris Hontos. Electronic drum pads on Supersonic Percussion Anagram by William Statler. Additional instrumentation on Think Peace by Bryce Hackford. It was mixed by Chris Hontos and Justin Randel, and mastered by Justin Randel. Art and design by Luca Schenardi..

RIYL - tabla, meandering, beat tapes, swamp jazz.

WRWTFWW Records is very happy to release Swiss cult band Grauzone’s recording of their April 12th 1980 live show at Gaskessel in their hometown of Bern. The 9-track album, documenting the very beginnings of the group, is available as a limited edition white vinyl LP in heavy 350gsm sleeve with special artwork by band member Stephan Eicher.

Experience the early Grauzone days, live from Bern, Switzerland, with a concert recorded at legendary local venue Gaskessel, with Martin Eicher on guitar and vocals, Christian G.T. Trüssel on bass, Marco Repetto on drums, Stephan Eicher on synth, and Claudine Chirac on saxophone. The performance is a true time capsule of the early 80s underground, showcasing the punk side of Grauzone with renditions of songs that were never officially released, as well as future fan-favorite “Moskau”. A piece of Swiss music history, This limited release is a must have for all Grauzone fans and DIY archivists.

About Grauzone:

The pioneering band from Bern (Switzerland) had a short-lived but highly-regarded career which birthed a cult discography that still fascinates and resonates today. Consisting of core members Martin Eicher, Stephan Eicher, and Marco Repetto, and on-and-off participants Christian GT Trüssel, Claudine Chirac, and Ingrid Berney, the elusive group broke new grounds in the early 80s, experimenting with punk and industrial music, early techno sounds, minimalism, new wave, pop, and various electronics. With an innovative and polished approach to design, visuals, performance, and all around style and philosophy on top of their superb music, the constantly transforming unit developed a whole experience - the Grauzone experience: wild and unpredictable, yet sophisticated and cohesive, or as Swiss music historian Lurker Grand would call it, "an Art band with a Punk attitude".

Completely rejecting the music industry rules and refusing to play the game of promotion, touring, release schedules, and TV appearances even though they had a multi-platinum international hit with the song "Eisbär", the band quickly disintegrated in full convention-defying glory, leaving behind an inspiring music legacy for the world to discover and discover again, one generation after the other.

Stephan Eicher went on to be, arguably, the most successful Swiss musician ever, with an international career extending from pop chanson to experimental escapades and collaborations with Moondog, artists Sophie Calle and Sylvie Fleury, and author Martin Suter among many other luminaries. Marco Repetto flourished as a techno and ambient producer, releasing multiple projects including releases on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label.