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IF I WERE BRITTANIA I'D WAIVE THE RULES IS BUDGIE'S SIXTH ALBUM, RELEASED IN APRIL 1976. THE TITLE IS A PUN ON THE CONCEPT
OF BRITTANIA RULING THE WAVES. BUDGIE ARE DESCRIBED BY AUTHOR GARY SHARPE-YOUNG AS ONE OF THE EARLIEST HEAVY METAL BANDS AND A SEMINAL INFLUENCE TO MANY ACTS OF THAT SCENE WITH FAST, HEAVY ROCK - AN INFLUENCE ON THE NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL (NWOBHM) AND ACTS SUCH AS METALLICA - BEING PLAYED AS EARLY AS 1971. THE BAND HAS BEEN NOTED AS "AMONG THE HEAVIEST METAL OF ITS DAY". INCLUDES ANN NEGGEN, SKY HIGH PERCENTAGE AND MORE.

Le Chatroom, a record label established in 2016 by the English producer Kouslin, searches for the missing link between underground bass music and outer national sounds. Its music is defined by the blend of synthetic and organic tones, modern / classic instruments and low- end heavy percussive rhythms.

Pushing artists from all around the globe that share the same love for this newfound sound, Kouslin's aim with Le Chatroom is to promote musical diversity, open-mindedness and experimentation at a time when unity between cultures is crucial. With 'LCR001' the label advances into a new physical environment from which this release should be experienced.

Real talk and native percussion establish the steady climax of 'Brothers', the A-side of Le Chatroom's inaugural wax release. Kouslin cuts through this sediment with a bright flute, before the state of the sound switches into something far darker and meditative. By placing several samples at irregular intervals, the Londoner achieves a fascinating charm that'll unite us all.

Booming bass in 'Gyals' lingers with a steady pace while percy tribal hits forge a raw groove that's far from common. With this movement, the producer from Bristol disintegrates the sense of a generic production and sticks to his true nature. Through this it becomes clear that Galtier has his polyrhythms down to a science.

Londoner Sheik clinches the B-side with a craze that unveils a nearly psychotic sense of sample architecture. Pushing crystal clear 808 kicks in- between the haunting atmospheres and a wall of pressure simply becomes one of his most inventive takes documented on wax. If you love to swerve through a minefield, the odd 'Oxram' would be your favourite pick off this first outline.

The three producers that feature on 'LCR001' pass on their fundamentals to conjure Le Chatroom's philosophy red-handed. Together they do the imprint's name justice by handing over critical bass repertoire that'll excite many!

A young doctor on the verge of greatness finds his career and life shattered after choosing to treat two children rather than the town mayor. The deaths of one of the children are inexplicable. What if he had saved a monster?

Monster, the manga created by Naoki Urasawa, is an acclaimed psychological thriller that has been a huge critical and commercial success. The complex and gripping story, which follows the moral choices of a surgeon confronted with a serial killer he has saved, has attracted a wide international audience. Monster has won several awards and is regarded as one of Urasawa's major works, affirming her place as a master of suspense in the world of manga.

Kuniaki Haishima is a Japanese composer best known for creating the soundtrack to the anime Monster. In addition to his contribution to Monster, Haishima has also composed music for TV series (Terra Formars and S-CRY-ed) and films (Tokyo Tribe and Helter Skelter).

Listening to CD3, I'm reminded of how the Vincent Over The Sink record '22 Coloured Bull Terriers' made me feel all those years ago. There's a free ranging quality to it.

It feels calmly capable of doing whatever it wants. It feels mysterious and self-generating, almost aloof to the humans who made it. I adored that record; it cascaded into so many epiphanies.

I don't want to implicate Cooper and David's music in any fleeting desire towards currency, but listening to this CD3 record over the last few weeks has felt weirdly, thematically correct. There's an echo-ey kind of referentiality to it. Not to particular styles of music, but to the recently elapsed histories those styles of music evoke. It's something that Th Blisks kind of gestures towards, but which this project seems to own entirely.

It's a kind of melted reconfiguration of popular (occasionally popular-on-the-fringes) styles. These familiar sounds are reconfigured and muddied. Hindsight frames the sources in an almost primordial light, to the extent that they feel like folk art.

Glyphted and Franzbranntwein sound like pop songs stripped to their bones and distorted, as if the styles they vaguely recall are as old as time. It's a stunningly weird effect. Songs like The Duchess and Farmhand exacerbate this impression. The record comes to feel yearningly ahistorical. But in a way that feels pertinent?

It might just be where my head is at, but the implacable nature of the record feels important to me, somehow. It's something far, far north of post-modern but... ancient too. - Shaun Prescott

Following the contemplative explorations of previous works in the series and hot on the heels of the beautiful Cosmos from E Ruscha, Stella Z's "Figs" emerges as a delicate meditation on growth, patience, and the hidden life of fruit.

Recorded in London yet deeply inspired by distant memories from China, the album is a musical documentary that explores the fig—a plant with a profound personal significance to Stella. "The fig tree was the big, generous presence in our old home, feeding my family and neighbours every summer," Stella shares. "When we moved to an apartment, we thought we had lost the fig tree. But my mum took a cutting and planted it at our new place. To our surprise, a small fig tree started growing again, as if it had never left."

Early support from Vladimir Ivkovic, DJ Harvey, Jaye Ward, Laurent Garnier.

Murder by Death has earned a much needed break. The 25 years the band has spent on the road have been catching up to them lately, so they’ve decided to take a step back from touring before it grinds them to dust. This year, they’ll be embarking on a massive farewell tour, hitting more than 50 cities in the US, UK, and Canada. And as their parting gift, they are leaving behind their tenth album, Egg & Dart. Murder by Death has accomplished more than they’d ever dreamed since forming in Bloomington, Indiana, in 2000, when Turla and cellist Sarah Balliet started the project with fellow college dorm-mates under the name Little Joe Gould. They traveled the world several times over, released ten studio albums, built an intensely dedicated following, and shared stages with artists from a wide array of genres.

Welcome to the ancient Disboard where the 10 rules of the game did not yet exist. War consumes the world, splits the heavens, destroys the stars and even threatens the human race. In the midst of this chaos, a young man named Riku tries to lead humanity towards a tomorrow he firmly believes in. One day, in the ruins of an Elven city, he finds Schwi, an "ex-machina" android who wishes to understand the heart of Man. Their meeting will change the course of history...

Music composed by Yoshiaki Fujisawa, arranger and composer. He is a member of the group Franz Maxwell I. He worked on the anime of LoveLive!, Issekai Cheat Magician and GATE.

He knew, through his music, to transport us in the universe at the origin of this "Issekai" to make us feel all the emotion of a meeting between two completely different beings.

Pat Boone or Elvis Presley? That was the burning question on
the lips of Fifties teen America. Certainly, the two were the most
successful solo artists of rock’s breakthrough years. But while
Presley was the good-looking ‘white kid who sang black’, Boone
was married, God-fearing and covered hits by African-American
artists to chart-topping if unthreatening effect. Elvis, of course, is
no longer with us though his image and influence will never fade.
Pat Boone is still alive and there’s no doubting he was
responsible for some of the best-remembered classic pop of the
era.

Sam Tinnesz is a Nashville based singer-songwriter whose debut album 'Babel' was originally released in 2017 and includes the Gold-certified streaming hit "Legends Are Made" (#1 song on TikTok, multiple major sync placements including a TV commercial for Jeep) and "Wolves" (used in the video game "Apex Legends")

REPRESS of the debut full length. Even if the music is not very complex, you can see from miles away that Orchid are fairly good musicians. "Capricorn" is not only very different from the modern metal albums, but also has a character of its own. You would be able to say which song is which after just one listen. Recommended for fans of Black Sabbath, Graveyard, and Saint Vitus.

Olive green vinyl, limited to 200 copies. REPRESS of the debut full length. Even if the music is not very complex, you can see from miles away that Orchid are fairly good musicians. "Capricorn" is not only very different from the modern metal albums, but also has a character of its own. You would be able to say which song is which after just one listen. Recommended for fans of Black Sabbath, Graveyard, and Saint Vitus.

José James just can’t leave the ’70s alone. Or maybe it’s the other way around. The singer, songwriter, bandleader, and producer was born in 1978, after all, but over his past 17 years of fundamentally forward-looking, blessedly mercurial music, he keeps getting pulled back in. His 2013 Blue Note breakthrough No Beginning No End revisited the hooky, funky, jazz-streaked songcraft of the time through a modern crate-digger’s ears. On 2020’s No Beginning No End 2 — James’ debut on his own Rainbow Blonde Records — he went back through the portal with a small army of fellow celebrated eclecticists. Just last year, there was the album 1978, a richly layered love letter to said year that felt deep, luxe, and cool. It’s as if — vested with the restless fluidity of jazz, the tuned-in sensitivity of soul, and the revisionist grit of hip-hop — he is trying to play his way into the exact moment when, culturally speaking, everything was about to change.

“I'm still so fascinated by the tension in that era of all these seemingly clashing things happening at once,” says James. “The loft scene, the jazz scene, Elton and Billy, Bob Marley, the Isleys, Funkadelic, disco being this behemoth in a way I don't think we even understand today… And then there’s where everybody went from there — into hip-hop, into punk rock, exploding jazz. It's like a summation of the ’70s, and it's about to transform. It's the peak of the rollercoaster.”

Literally breaking into history is impossible, of course, but James’ new LP, 1978: Revenge of the Dragon, does feel like breaking through or bursting out. In loving contrast to its predecessor, the fresh set plays hot, like a Friday night out at the Mudd Club in its prime. Though he’s dreamt up albums with collaborator counts approaching the dozens, James gathered a tight crew for this one. Himself and Taali on vocals. BIGYUKI on keys and analog synth. Jharis Yokley on drums. Bass split between David Ginyard (Blood Orange, Terence Blanchard) and Kyle Miles (Michelle Ndgeocello, Nick Hakim). And an all-star brass lineup: Takuya Kuroda on trumpet, young lion Ebban Dorsey on alto sax, and genre-spanning ronin Ben Wendel on tenor sax. They set up in Dreamland Studios near Woodstock, a restored 19th century church, and recorded live to tape, two tracks, drums pushed to the max — “a small homage to the rise of punk,” says James.

In that place out of time, the band laid down a handful of choice covers and some wild originals, like the single “They Sleep, We Grind (for Badu),” a decades-collapsing cut powered by an ugly groove. Steeped in dub, funk, and sampledelia, James chants an artists’ mantra (“They sleep, we grind / Man, f--- your nine to five”), makes lyrical callouts to Marley and Nas, and channels everything from George Clinton to J Dilla, not to mention the earthy mysticism of Erykah Badu. In 2023, James released and toured his Badu covers LP, On & On. “Living in her musical house for a year was transformative,” he says. “This is my summary of everything I learned through her, tying it to this idea that artists move differently. We are in society but we are outside, too, looking out and in at the same time. Our hours are different, our schedules are different.”

To that point, James and co. actually began each day in the woods, filming the album’s visual companion piece, Revenge of the Dragon, an honest-to-God kung-fu short complete with bad overdubs, training montages, camera tricks, and plot twists. The film pays tribute not only to the genre’s greatest year (1978, of course), but also its cinematic exchange with Blaxploitation, plus James’ own recent Shaolin training and admiration for Bruce Lee as a culture-bridging force (the LP’s cover recreates an iconic shot of Lee). On top of that, says James, “We had this immediacy in the studio. Live, one take, no overdubbing. I feel like that's where the martial arts piece comes in, where it's about being relaxed but also aware, and there's immediacy in your movements.”

Across the project, tribute takes that refracted, multifaceted form. From his personal late-’70s playlist, James chose four covers reflecting the era’s disco-fied churn: the MJ-meets-Quincy dancefloor masterpiece “Rock With You”; Herbie Hancock’s prescient vocoder fever dream, “I Thought It Was You”; and a pair of Black-radio hits from two bands whose fans typically wouldn’t have been caught dead in the same stadium: “Miss You” by the Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees’ “Inside and Out.” All of it gets filtered through a contemporary Black (and beyond) lens, coming out loud, free, funky, and buzzing — dynamic, yes, but also of a joyous piece.

1978: Revenge of the Dragon transports you to a crowded room where all this is playing out in real time. That feeling is helped out by opener “Tokyo Daydream,” a bass-driven swan dive into a neverending night of boutique bar-hopping and neon revelry. Later, “Rise of the Tiger” finds James bringing rare braggadocio to a propulsive track with growling synth lines and a hunger for whatever comes next. And then there’s the closer, “Last Call at the Mudd Club,” which with its upbeat energy and string of Stevie-inspired pickup lines, evokes the sort of unabashedly elated track the DJ throws on at 3:56 a.m. before everyone is kicked out. “I wanted to leave the album on that note,” says James. “If this was a night out in New York, this would be the last thing you hear before you get in that taxi and go back to your apartment.” Or, perhaps, back to 2025.

What do you get if you put two synthesizer sorcerers in the same room? In the case of Skatebård and Lauer, the answer is Trollkraft. Between them, the Norwegian-German partnership have hundreds of releases, run record labels and have wowed crowds across the globe. In short, the two tracks of Trollkraft are the product of some serious electronic talent. Rich and textured drum layers give way to strings and a vibrating bass for the title piece. Twists and turns abound, elements of disco and house brush shoulders with indie and italo as the pair tear down genre divisions. A 90s heyday influence that runs through both offerings, with “One Night In Geilo” taking its cue from house rhythms and a two-stepping melody adopted from that emblematic decade. Reimagining rave in their own effervescent and playful style, these strobe and fog veterans serve up a fat slice of glow-stick elation. Strings weave high into the dawning sky, bongos and toms reveling next incandescent synthines with just a touch of trance thrown in to add spice to this heady and euphoric mix.

Two tracks from two true masters.

Voidless Records debuts with Tectonics, a four-track EP by Barcelona-based producer Cyberdom, where Electro collides with a narrative of collapse and transformation.

What if collapse isn’t the end, but the beginning?

The main theme of the release draws inspiration from the natural forces that shape our planet. Plate tectonics. This cycle of breakdown and reformation becomes a metaphor for social crises, collective uprisings, and personal processes of transformation.

The journey begins with ‘Mariana Trench’, a dense ambient piece evoking a descent into the deepest ocean trench. ‘Collapse’ follows with tight beats and simmering synths building slow-burning tension. The title track ‘Tectonics’ delivers syncopated basslines, robotic patterns, and vocoders that encapsulates the concept of the release. The EP is brought to a close with ‘System Strikers’ a four-on-the-floor weapon driven by heavy kicks, vocoders, and sharp arpeggiated basslines.

This first release lays the foundation for Voidless Records — a forward-thinking imprint rooted in concept, where each work carves its own path, unbound by genre and driven by deeper artistic intent.

Originally released in 2001 on the Muller offshoot Lifetime Music and has been under the radar ever since, we are happy to offer the last remnants right now. Three perfectly executed Deep and Dub Techno influenced tracks by Pink Freud that stood the test of time if you ask us. This is your chance to get some copies at an affordable rate again! In memory of the beloved and recently deceased Brazilian artist Renato Garga.

2025 Repress
OSLO is happy to welcome new artist Federico Lijtmaer to the family with his wonderful EP Impermanencia.

Inpermanencia on the A-side is a superb deep house track with the right kind of funkyness for the cool. Federico combines smooth bass with shifty drums and classy synth action. This track will conjure a smile on your face and we are happy as hell to be able to release this little gem.

Unselfish on the B-side is as funky as its big brother on the flip-side. A throwback to bygone times in a way, if you consider labels as Mosaic or Trelik. However, Federico definitely succeeded in terms of a modern interpretation. The inclined listener will recognize his musical roots anyway.

The Ottawa composer/performer and head of Black Bough Records plays every instrument on his CST debut: an accessibly avant-garde work of dark/ambient modern chamber music. Mark Molnar has been a linchpin of the Ottawa experimental music scene for over two decades, spanning contemporary classical, electroacoustic, industrial/noise, and improv. As a string player in a wide range of projects, an organizer and curator of innumerable shows, and via his own avantgarde label Black Bough Records, Molnar's unflagging contributions to independent music culture in Canada's capital city have been significant. EXO is his Constellation debut: a remarkable and bracing suite of post-classical composition on which Molnar plays every instrument. Meticulously self-recorded, primarily with strings, harp, and piano, EXO balances thematic melodicism, polytonality, and dissonance across three elegiac pieces of exquisitely expressive dynamism. This is exacting modern chamber music that blends formal and harmonic complexity with a solemn emotive sensibility accessible to a broad audience. Listeners that yearn for some edge and disquietude in a landscape of often all-too-approachable post-classical music should find EXO eminently worth their time and attention. While Molnar is a highly trained string player, and studied music under Aubrey Wolfe, microtonality with James Tenney, and composition with R. Murray Schafer, his trajectory has been entirely and intentionally outside the academy, signalling a socio-artistic commitment to DIY culture, forged from an early passion for the sonic worlds of post-hardcore, post-punk, no-wave, free improv, power electronics, and other independent/underground musics. His classically-informed works have been described as "tense currents of musical modernism invigorated with punk's raw vitality." EXO carries an undercurrent influenced by dark industrial and ambient metal in particular, with microphones purposely placed to pick up the low-end frequencies of the piano body, and of a bass drum positioned as a resonant skin in the acoustic space; an electroacoustic strategy organically meshed to the crisply defined and pristinely recorded pointillisms and polychords of strings, harp, and piano, which feed into this noisefloor of crepuscular sub-bass disquietude and decay. It's a production aesthetic that lends EXO a distinct undertow of tension and feeling, a sort of roiling maximalism where the chamber instrumentation traces arcs and waves of form and flow as if drawn from a dark, impervious ocean below. It also reinforces the profound hermeticism of Molnar's process, as a forbiddingly solitary creative act of immersion and navigation. The album artwork, featuring semiabstract stills of the sea by British photographer Ed Allen, further reifies this metaphor. The album's opening piece 'Sub Luna' (and its shortest at 8 minutes) showcases Molnar's adeptness at naturalistic and flowing complexity: tight cascades of climbing and descending chordal clusters hold their polytonal densities for various durations, yielding to more clarified harmonic suspensions and motifs, as melodic themes led primarily by violins in the higher registers provide a fractured lyricism. Molnar says: "the opening and closing figures of this piece act as opposing shorelines; the shorelines provide a reliable expression of range and key signature, and the tides come in and swallow them up, the motion of a body that addresses the relationship between states of lucidity and melodic figures." On 'Terre Sacer' everything happens in soupier waters, as a slow and doleful theme, anchored by grinding bass notes, circles in a gyre of dark resonances, until glistening strings gradually ascend to enrobe a plaintive and gently harrowing single-voiced ostinato over the composition's final third. Molnar's drone, ambient, minimalist, and goth-industrial influences are on display here. Side Two of EXO features the 18-minute multi-movement 'pallida Mors' (pale death): a waterfall of heterophony introduces dense chordal movements where strings are recorded and mixed to evoke pipe organ, in the album's most overtly dissonant and (anti)liturgical sequence. This gives way to ever more open and fragile spaces, before a resurgence of dark clusters and noise treatments introduces a final repeating piano coda, shrouded in devastated bass resonance, settling into what Molnar calls "a meditative hollow." Constellation is honoured to release this work by Mark Molnar, a longtime fellow-traveler whose selfless and boundlessly generous activities as an independent arts enabler sometimes obscure his own accomplished and uncompromising artistry. We trust EXO can help shed some much deserved light on this fine composer. Thanks for listening.

here may still be electronic music artists in this age of overflow and convenience who follow their own artistic vision regardless of what attention it might bring, if any. With an output that shows individualism, ideas and a signature sound. An ongoing creative process, uncompromising and adventurous, even eccentric, with results of consistent quality and determination. Dennis Busch aka James Din A4 is an archetypical example for this type of artist. He flooded the scene with releases in the 00s with numerous monikers, mostly on his own Esel imprint, and they were all great. On the outside you had his singular artworks (he is also a very accomplished collage artist) and quirkily humorous titles, and on the inside you had his music, also seemingly informed by a collage approach (only with samples), managing to sound focussed and out of focus, often at the same time. If you listen to a James Din A4 track it probably is simultaneously playful and disciplined. Anything can happen, and a lot if it actually does.

For quite some years, music releases by James Din A 4 were scarce. Jan Jelinek, an ardent fan, re-interpreted some of his favourites from the vast back catalogue as an album in 2014, then ten years later the album „Ins Licht“ appeared, and it quite nonchalantly continued what seemed to have stopped, right on the same level of greatness. And now we know that it still continues, as the label Live At Robert Johnson releases the new album „Never Look Back“. Its title should not be taken too literally, as all the trademarks of his musical legacy are perfectly intact. You will find the light and air that seems to seep through the sounds, the frisky structural details, the jolly melodies, the subtle deepness, the minimalistic yet not too strict grooves.

But do not be mistaken, this album is not looking back too much, of course. After all, this is music that is still evolving. Let’s hope for more glimpses of James Din A4‘s special and spacious world, they are ever
needed.

I must admit to being a sucker for two-guitar bands. Ok, Hendrix pulled off a trio. But I don’t care what anybody says: The Yardbirds were a better band than anything that came out of them (Ok, maybe not Zep. But Cream?).

Maybe the reason I go back so far in my references is that, within the two-guitar band format, original new roles are difficult and rare. There’s the classic (socially problematic and often boring) “rhythm/lead” solution. There’s the JB’s or Nile Rodgers’ chicken pickin’ vs comping solution (which avoids chordal clashes by relegating one of the guitars to the role of single-note percussion instrument). There’s Ornette’s Prime Time division between Bern Nix’s rolled-off “jazz” tone and Charles Ellerbee’s trebly wah. Almost everything else is a variation on one of these.


In Ches Smith’s record Clone Row, each piece is built around a different concept for guitar interaction. The delightful and gifted weirdness of Mary Halvorson’s playing is counterpointed, contrasted, unisoned with, played off, juxtaposed (that is to say, enters every relationship possible) with Liberty Ellman’s equally amazing sound palette, chops, and imagination. This definitely ain’t your father’s guitar band.
The overall vibe of the record—despite Halvorson’s occasional noise outbursts or Ellman’s distorted guitar lines (see Mixed Fridge) is neither punk/funk, nor Zorn-ish metal—and certainly not the looser parameters of Ornette’s improvised harmolodics. Smith’s vibraphone playing, Halvorson’s guitar tone (whammy pedal squiggles aside), the brilliant electronics, and (most of all) the compositions themselves are somehow strangely West Coast cool. It’s as if I’m hearing a Jim Hall concert in which one of us did a lot of mushrooms, or (dare I write this?) some post-punk post-Dave Brubeck post-trip-hop experiment with classical form.

This recording is, most of all, about Ches as composer. He’s picked up a lot on his long, strange trip of the last few decades. The Haitian funkiness of his work with We All Break is audible—but deeply buried, encoded in the polyrhythms (check out Heart Breakthrough). His long-running side musician collaborations with John Zorn and Tim Berne are also evident but sublimated here into something new.

Not that improvising is absent. Check out the compelling collective statements in Sustained Nightmare and Ready Beat. Check out the brilliant interplay and bass soloing on Abrade With Me (a Weather Report for the age of extreme weather?) Nick Dunston is my favorite bassist of the new generation, and he plays brilliantly throughout. And Ches’ drumming here has all the groove, energy, and incredible range that have kept him in demand from Saturday night Vodou services to jazz and new music recording sessions (…the thinking man’s rock barbarian?).
The sus chords in Abrade With Me do build, for a moment, towards a fusion type of climax...but just at the moment I was gritting my teeth in anticipated defense against some horrible synth solo, the drums drop out, and we’re transported to the ambient lounge at the rave, and we suddenly understand we’re in the hands of a composer with the power to transport us just about anywhere.
So, this is a composer’s record most of all; a composer’s record performed by musicians who happen to be great improvisers. Ches Smith builds here on his reputation as a gifted new voice with an important vision, while showcasing some of the most creative musicians of our time.

o encapsulate the themes. “Aseurai means around you in the atmosphere, hard to reach, fading away,” Choi says. “It’s a poetic expression. You wouldn’t say it in normal conversation, but I like that.”

Following the four-piece band’s 2024 self-titled EP, Aseurai adds disco and city-pop influences while staying true to dream-pop roots. While Phoebe Rings was originally a solo project of Choi’s, Aseurai marks a shift with contributing songwriting credits from the whole band. The four musicians cut their teeth working on other notable NZ projects such as Princess Chelsea, Fazerdaze, Tiny Ruins, AC Freazy,, Sea Views and Lucky Boy.

With a more ambitious collection of instruments, Choi says this album heralds the start of true collaboration: “I feel more precious about this LP because it includes everyone’s gems.” Guitar/synthesist Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent spearheads unexpected arrangements, with bold fuzzy guitar textures, to spice up the mix. Benjamin Locke adds maturity to the lyrics, paired with perfectionist bass lines. And drummer Alex Freer’s slick production soars Aseurai to diverse and synergetic heights. The broth is richer with more cooks in the kitchen, and the brewing of textures creates a distinct ‘Phoebe Rings’ sound.

If the EP was spacey, then Aseurai settles on earth, rooted in tangible moments. “Without getting too gloomy, it’s a weird world out there. A lot has changed in the world since the EP came out,” says Kavanagh-Vincent on this transformation. The album delves into hope and longing across all possibilities, and this exploration of holding on and letting go is organically threaded throughout. Across ten songs, Phoebe Ring’s storytelling ranges from tongue-in-cheek musings on gentrification to tender autobiographical memories.

아스라이 흩어지는 하늘의 별이 (May the falling light of faraway stars) / 그대의 손 끝에 닿아 숨이 돼주길 (Reach your fingertips and let you breathe),” Choi sings in the title track “Aseurai.” Imagined as a breezy track inspired by a 90’s Korean pop band, Choi discovered, when fleshing out the lyrics, that it was about yearning for people she couldn’t see anymore. In the old-school disco track, “Get Up,” Locke addresses struggles with mental health in a Matrix-inspired driven mantra:  ‘Just get up / Just get up.’ The groove persists with ‘Fading Star,” a quirky ballad filled with steely jazz/rock guitar solos dedicated to a suburban aging musician. Kavanagh-Vincent’s lead single ‘Drifting’ is an unrequited celestial love song with bouncing bass and playful synths.

The band wrote, produced, and engineered the album across studios and band members’ homes in 2023/2024 in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland). It features mixing/mix production by local legend Jeremy Toy (Bic Runga, Aaradnha, Princess Chelsea) and mastering by Kelly Hibbert. With Aseurai, Phoebe Rings mark out a brilliant new constellation in their sky, bringing their individual compositions to the fore whilst seamlessly threading them into one celestial body - launching skyward on Carpark Records in June 2025.

A timeless rock & roll band for the modern world, The Prescriptions sharpen their sound with Time Apart. Produced by Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) and Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs), the album funnels a half-century of American and British influences including taut power pop, explorative indie rock, jangling heartland hooks, and New Wave nuances into something sharp and singular. The result is a warm, widescreen follow-up to The Prescriptions' 2019 debut, Hollywood Gold, its songs balanced halfway between classic craftsmanship and progressive exploration. Fiery and forward-looking, Time Apart explores both sides of the pop/rock divide. It's a 21st century album rooted in everything that made the classic stuff so compelling sharp songwriting, ringing refrains, percussive stomp, and guitars that chime one minute and churn the next. Time Apart is an album for the heart, head, and hips. The Prescriptions have been never been shy about nodding to the hook-driven rockers who came before them, but here, they carry those influences into uncharted territory, uncovering something that's truly theirs along the way. It was time together that created Time Apart, and The Prescriptions have never defined their ambition or abilities so clearly before. Tracklist: 1 April Blossoms 2 Long Past Tonight 3 Love is Red 4 I Get Lost 5 Compartmentalize 6 Fire Moon 7 On Satellite 8 Not The Issue 9 I Might Try 10 Baby Be Nice 11 Camp Hill

A timeless rock & roll band for the modern world, The Prescriptions sharpen their sound with Time Apart. Produced by Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) and Brendan Benson (The Raconteurs), the album funnels a half-century of American and British influences including taut power pop, explorative indie rock, jangling heartland hooks, and New Wave nuances into something sharp and singular. The result is a warm, widescreen follow-up to The Prescriptions' 2019 debut, Hollywood Gold, its songs balanced halfway between classic craftsmanship and progressive exploration. Fiery and forward-looking, Time Apart explores both sides of the pop/rock divide. It's a 21st century album rooted in everything that made the classic stuff so compelling sharp songwriting, ringing refrains, percussive stomp, and guitars that chime one minute and churn the next. Time Apart is an album for the heart, head, and hips. The Prescriptions have been never been shy about nodding to the hook-driven rockers who came before them, but here, they carry those influences into uncharted territory, uncovering something that's truly theirs along the way. It was time together that created Time Apart, and The Prescriptions have never defined their ambition or abilities so clearly before. Tracklist: 1 April Blossoms 2 Long Past Tonight 3 Love is Red 4 I Get Lost 5 Compartmentalize 6 Fire Moon 7 On Satellite 8 Not The Issue 9 I Might Try 10 Baby Be Nice 11 Camp Hill

Now is a DIY recording & performing pop group from the SF Bay Area with a predilection for 80s UK cassette culture, pulp novels, beat groups, and b movies. "Now Does the Trick" all too well. With balance, harmony, and simplicity, Now slips their hand into the pocketbook of modfathers without being nicked by nostalgia. Harmony on every corner. "Beat Girl" playing on late night TV. The fantasy soundtracks People doing handstands at a party with Syd Barrett. Where the Soft Boys play in the background and no one crosses a picket line. Like a long walk next to the train tracks on Ringo's day out with Sunlight Bathed in the Golden Glow: A little blood in your teeth of an Andy and Edie bubblegum Dream. RIYL (Recommended If You Like): Big Star, Feelies, Felt, Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock, Sharp Pins.

Domino hat heute die Wiederveröffentlichung von Pete Shelleys ersten beiden Soloalben "Homosapien" und "XL-1" für den 6. Juni 2025 angekündigt. Beide Alben erscheinen in einem Gatefold-Cover mit dem restaurierten Original-Artwork, einer zusätzlichen Disc mit B-Seiten, Dubs und erweiterten Mixes sowie neuem Bildmaterial und Sleeve Notes vom renommierten Autor Clinton Heylin. Beide Alben werden erstmals seit 2006 wieder auf CD veröffentlicht.

Die Alben markieren einen entscheidenden Wendepunkt in Shelleys Karriere, als er sich nach den Buzzcocks musikalisch neu erfand. Mit Produzent Martin Rushent entwickelte er einen elektronisch geprägten Sound, der sich radikal von seinen Punk-Wurzeln unterschied. "Homosapien" wurde 1982 veröffentlicht und sorgte für Kontroversen: Die BBC verbannte den Titelsong aus homophoben Gründen, doch in den Gay-Clubs wurde er zur Hymne. 1983 erschien "XL-1", auf dem Shelley noch weiter in elektronische und experimentelle Klangwelten vordrang. Er blieb zeitlebens ein Künstler, der musikalische Grenzen auslotete. Seine Soloalben zeugen von einem unermüdlichen Innovationsgeist, der weit über die Punk-Bewegung hinausging.

Rascal Flatts’ Album LIFE IS A HIGHWAY: REFUELED DUETS enthält zehn neu interpretierte, geliebte Rascal Flatts-Hits - darunter das fan-favourite „Mayberry“ mit Blake Shelton und das ansteckend gefühlvolle „I’m Movin’ On“ mit Kelly Clarkson - sowie einen rekordverdächtigen neuen Song, „I Dare You“ mit den Jonas Brothers. Die vielseitige Auswahl an Gastkünstlern vereint ihre individuellen Musikstile zu völlig neuen Arrangements der zeitlosen Hits aus dem gefeierten Katalog des Trios.

Oh yes, we love it when Theo represses some of his most sought after tracks and this one is particularly well-timed. Leron Carson is still an unknown figure, a kid who used to make viciously raw and futuristic techno tracks in the late 1980's! "China Trax", alongside the rest of his tracks on a different Sound Signature double 12", is totally ahead of its time and if it was truly made in 1987 then it is nothing short of amazing. Of course, it's not just the year it was made in that's interesting but also the fact that it's music without an age, able to be appreciated by any generation of techno freaks. Theo's own "Insane Asylum" on the flipside is also pretty monumental; rigged beats, off-kilter grooves and that familiar spontaneity so heavily associated to the label. RECOMMENDED.

"The meaning of this concept (Space Outside :Space) lies within your answers to these questions. Providing the questions are considered with honesty, the true meaning of what "Space" refers to becomes revealed.
There are no right or wrong answers, just reactions based on your view and angles on the mechanisms of life."

- Millsart aka Jeff Mills


What becomes a person that doesn't dream? What happens when we get all that we ever wanted? Do we know too much? Can we truly justify pessimism?
What are you planning on leaving behind? If given more life, stay the same or change? Life is more about giving or taking? Good fortune is based on what? What's more effective, love or hate? Do we care enough? Are we OK?
Life is mostly about ? Is there a end to this? Knowing that it propels, are we capable of critical thinking? Who is more important then yourself? What is worth dying for?

The Understated Debut That Launched a Peerless Career: Bob Dylan Is the Clearest Connection to the Singer-Songwriter's Folk Roots
Pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl for Reference Playback: Mobile Fidelity 33RPM SuperVinyl Mono LP Features the Direct Sound Dylan Intended

1/4" / 15 IPS analogue mono master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe

Bob Dylan's self-titled 1962 debut is as understated of an entrance as any significant musician as ever made. Well-versed in American roots music, Dylan simultaneously pays homage to tradition and extends it by putting his own stamp on classic material that metaphorically functions as the soil of contemporary songs and styles. Free of ego, and performed with masterful conviction, Bob Dylan ranks with the initial efforts of giants like Elvis Presley and the Rolling Stones.

Nodding to Woody Guthrie and re-imagining Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," Dylan straddles the past and future. He authoritatively displays the ability to handle weighty topics such as death, sorrow, and lamentation with the vaudeville flair, bluesy mannerisms, and poignant command of an artist three times his then-20-year-old age.

Sourced from the original master tapes, housed in a Stoughton jacket, and pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM mono SuperVinyl LP brings the contents of this seminal release as close as they've ever come to live-in-the-studio quality. Transparent to the source, Dylan's voice, acoustic guitar, and harmonica come across with exceptional realism — the "husk and bark" to which Robert Shelton referred in his legendary New York Times review of a Dylan appearance at Gerde's Folk City — courtesy of the format’s nearly non-existent noise floor, groove definition, and quiet surfaces.

Heard in the original mono configuration, Dylan’s vocals are in the heart of the musical action and as one with the accompaniment. This reissue paints an incredibly accurate portrait of the concrete mass of sound that features no artificial panning and offers a straight-ahead immersion into the music producer John Hammond recorded in just two days in November 1961.

Though much has been made of the commercial indifference that greeted the album upon its low-key release, focusing on sales figures and the reaction of a public not yet hip to Dylan's name miss the forest for the trees. Distinguished from the era's other folk efforts by way of the singer-songwriter’s determination, brazenness, and lived-through-this worldliness, Bob Dylan lays the groundwork for the path he'd soon trailblaze and everyone else would follow.

As Dylan scholar and pop-culture critic Greil Marcus observed in 2010: "Everybody knew Joan Baez and the Kingston Trio; if you knew Bob Dylan, you knew something other people didn't, something that soon enough everybody had to know. Within a year, an album could put an adjective in front of the singer's name as if it were already common coin."

Mono is how almost everyone first heard Dylan’s opening salvo. A career like none other starts here.

MoFi SuperVinyl:

Developed by NEOTECH and RTI, MoFi SuperVinyl is the most exacting-to-specification vinyl compound ever devised. Analog lovers have never seen (or heard) anything like it. Extraordinarily expensive and extremely painstaking to produce, the special proprietary compound addresses two specific areas of improvement: noise floor reduction and enhanced groove definition. The vinyl composition features a new carbonless dye (hold the disc up to the light and see) and produces the world's quietest surfaces. This high-definition formula also allows for the creation of cleaner grooves that are virtually indistinguishable from the original lacquer. MoFi SuperVinyl provides the closest approximation of what the label's engineers hear in the mastering lab.

"Nilam" folgt auf das letztjährige Album "Daughter Of A Temple", das von Gilles Peterson zum BBC 6 Music "Album of the Year" gekürt wurde. The Guardian erklärte es ebenfalls zu einem der 10 besten Alben des Jahres 2024 und lobte GANAVYAs Fähigkeit, "die Kraft der gemeinschaftlichen Harmonie zu nutzen, um etwas Tieferes als den Gesang zu berühren". Wenn man sich das bemerkenswerte "Nilam" anhört, scheint es unwahrscheinlich, dass jemals Zweifel an seiner Entstehung bestanden haben könnten. Die Stille ist so erstaunlich, die Vermittlung von Gefühlen so tiefgreifend, dass man das Gefühl hat, dass es schon immer so gedacht war. Es ist eine Feier der Bande, die uns verbinden, und möglicherweise die zärtlichste Musik, die wir dieses Jahr hören werden. Sie ist intim und ehrlich, ein ergreifender Ausdruck der Dankbarkeit für die Segnungen, die uns auf dem Boden halten, wenn wir sie nur erkennen und willkommen heißen. In der Tat könnte es direkt von der Seele auf die Stereoanlage übertragen worden sein, von der Art und Weise, wie "Not A Burden" eine Last von den Schultern der Welt nimmt, bis hin zum friedlichen "Sees Fire", mit dem sanften Groove von "Land" voller Raum, dem heiteren "Nine Jeweled Prayer" und durchweg GANAVYAs Gesang wie Wellen in einer Lagune. New York-born, Tamil Nadu-raised singer and transdisciplinarian GANAVYA - "among modern music"s most compelling vocalists," according to the Wall Street Journal - has announced details of a new album, Nilam, due May 23, 2025. It follows last year"s Daughter Of A Temple, Gilles Peterson"s BBC 6 Music Album of the Year, similarly declared one of 2024"s Top 10 Best Global Albums by The Guardian, who applauded GANAVYA"s ability to harness "the power of communal harmony to touch something deeper than song." Co-produced by Nils Frahm at LEITER Studio in Berlin"s Funkhaus complex, the new album by "the singer whose work," says the New York Times, "feels like prayer...with listeners hanging onto her every word" will be released by LEITER on vinyl and via all digital platforms. Listening to the remarkable Nilam, it seems implausible now that its inception might ever have been in doubt. So astonishing is its stillness, so profound its communication of sentiment, it feels as if it was always meant to be. A celebration of the ties that bind, and possibly the most tender-hearted music we"ll hear this year, it"s intimate and honest, a poignant expression of gratitude for the blessings which keep us grounded, if only we"ll recognise and welcome them. Indeed, it could have been transmitted directly from soul to stereo, from the way "Not A Burden" lifts a weight off the world"s shoulders to the peaceful "Sees Fire", with "Land""s gentle groove full of space, "Nine Jeweled Prayer" serenely precious, and, throughout, GANAVYA"s vocals like ripples on a lagoon.

Corrosiv, the sophomore album from Orchestroll, reveals the duo at their most mature and vulnerable. Originally conceived as a reflection on hybridity and bastardization, the album deploys New Age and ambient compositional tropes as a launchpad, exposing their trite sanctity to the realities of corrosion. Having come of age in the 1970s and 1980s, the New Age movement perdures today as a domain of contradictions; its promise of transcendence riddled with the very commercialized dogma from which its adherents claim to flee. Healing modalities such as reiki, crystal therapy, and sound baths are simultaneously pathways to solace and sites of exploitation; their sonic counterparts—ethereal synth pads, shimmering textures, celestial drones—claim to facilitate meditation and enlightenment while devolving into empty signifiers of vitality. With Corrosiv, Orchestroll displays neither reverence nor disdain toward New Age: they exhume it instead, revealing the saccharine effervescence and commodified murk undergirding its aesthetics. The result is intoxicating—disquieting.

Born from a two-week residency at EMS Studios and expanded through a performance at MUTEK Montreal’s 25th anniversary, Corrosiv has since outgrown its original conceptual nucleus, taking on a broader scope. Its inquiry into New Age ideology’s voided rhetoric and aesthetic mysticism now informs a broader interrogation of cultural mediocrity, anti-authoritarianism, gatekeeping, music industry toxicity, and the crumbling edifice of late capitalism and techno-feudalism—all the mechanisms by which meaning is stripped from ceremony, and once-potent forms of knowledge are subsumed into the machinery of economic extraction, severed from their original essence, and transformed into hollow simulacra. Corrosiv distills these themes through a loose narrative: a soul, fixated on wellness as dictated by cosmetic economism, becomes ensnared in an endless afterlife, unable to transcend and shed its dilapidated consciousness.

Framed as an act of audio dissolution, the album thus engages in an alchemical process, whereby complex waveshaping, morphing synthesis, and distortion enact a ritual of fragmentation. There is also friction: between the rigid, mechanical imposition of systematized order and the untamed, chaotic force of organic metamorphosis. Here corrosion and confinement are not solely conceptual motifs; they are enacted in real time, sculpting the album’s terrain. Scraping, tarnishing, degradation—the languid wear of form and substance—become instruments in their own right: buffing as abrasion, entrapment as transformation, corrosion as a means of reconfiguration. The ‘protagonist,’ if there must be one, is the listener, caught within the throes of structural determinism and the potential for emancipation, unable to pass into something greater as the specters of collapsed futures accumulate in the margins.

Corrosiv extends its reach through collaborations with familiar voices: Heith (PAN), VISIO (Haunter), Femminielli (Drowned by Locals), Habib Bardi (Interzone), and Jiyoung Wi (Enmossed, Psychic Liberation, Doyenne) each leave their imprint on its sprawling landscape. At 1h16m, it is a procession, dense with earworms that burrow into the listener’s unconscious.

Misshapen, broken-down metals leach copper into blood, acid reflux burning through the core. Psyche disaggregates into cosmic turmoil, drifting between planes—tongue on rustline, gullet laced with solvent hymns, molars unlatching, bitcrushed to marrowspill. A spasm of brine, ferrous scripture, venomtext blooming in leaden rivulets, cartilage smoldering in phosphor decomposition, synapses drowning in a quicksilver choir. Crest of bile, churning ore, breath clotting into arsenic mist, vein-thread cinched, a corrosive gospel, limb by limb, oxidized to silence.

Ultimately, as the music exhales its final breath, its residue refuses to dissipate—and stillness alone remains. There are no conclusions here—no resolution, no collapse—only the slow drift outward of a vessel unmoored, lost in the sea of symbolic souring. Corrosiv sings the song of a world barren of prophecy, littered with aesthetic detritus. Whether this magic has been transfigured or simply worn away is unclear: the last breath dissipates, but the oxidation does not stop. The silence, too, will decay.

Conceptualized, composed, performed, recorded, mixed, engineered and produced by Jesse Osborne-Lanthier, and Asaël Richard-Robitaille in 2023 and 2024 at Elektron Musik Studion (EMS) - Stockholm, Sweden and Landsc8pe Studio - Montréal, QC, Canada.
Artwork by Jesse Osborne-Lanthier.
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu @ Schwebung Mastering.

A bit of background on how this release came about: I was touring Australia & New Zealand and for one of the shows, I was performing in Melbourne, which is where Kloke is based. I finally got the opportunity to meet him in person for the first time ever, after many years of collaborations with him online and having supported/enjoyed a lot of his music.

I got to visit his studio where we worked on a tune together and afterwards, he was playing me some of the music he had been working on recently and I noticed that they were all in one big folder, where he explained that every time he works on music, he exports what he's done so far into this one folder with multiple versions/iterations of each track he does. There were 1000s & 1000s of files in this folder... ????

Of course, I was insistent on taking this folder away with me haha, and even though I didn't get everything off him, he was generous enough to give me a lot of what was in there. After the tour was done and I was back home, I listened through everything I had from him, which took weeks (if not months) of ploughing through it all, with the aim of putting together an album of my favourites and after a lot of back & forth between us, we were able to come up with this release, On Rhythm, which I'm really pleased with & I hope he is too!

Anyway, big respect to Kloke for consistently creating some amazing music, thank you to my girlfriend Marta who handled the design for this release & a special mention to Nergal who brought me to Australia & New Zealand, which led to me meeting Kloke in person, visiting his studio and then putting this release together.

COMPUMA's new new album “horizons”now available on vinyl via his own label Something About!

The album “horizons” is a further development of COMPUMA's “horizons EP”, which was released in July 2023 as a digital-only EP on his Bandcamp. The songs are inspired by the scenery and environment of Lake Ezu, Kumamoto, where the artist's roots lie, and by his walks in various places around Japan.

Horizons 1”, in which the undulations of electronic sounds seem to represent a leisurely walk across a clear expanse of sky and lake scenery, and the vocoder voice somewhat reminds us of people's activities, and the piece changes to a more minimalistic play of rhythms and electronic sounds, as if focusing on introspection in the midst of walking. The album also includes “horizons 2,” which changes with exquisite salinity, “horizons 3,” which pays homage to early electronic music, and “horizons 4,” a more stoic minimal electro-dubwise piece that seems to be immersed in the act of walking, The last track on the album, “horizons 5,” is a non-beat ambient track with a hint of the waterfront, as if the artist is gazing at the vast sky, as if the steps of the first half of the album are expanding into a faint memory, and is accompanied by a field recording. The album includes “horizons 5”, a non-beating ambient taste that is covered by field recordings and depicts the atmosphere of a wandering waterfront, and five versions of “horizons” that remind us of the days of “walking”, sometimes immersed in the scenery and walking, sometimes lost in thought, with “horizons interlude” in between, which reminds us of the surface of a bobbing lake, and is a self-titled version of “View 2” from the previous album, “A View”. The album contains seven songs in total, including a self-remix of “View 2” and an electro version of “view 2 electro”, reminiscent of the shimmering surface of a lake.

Personally speaking, this work reminds me somewhat of Kraftwerk's “Autobahn,” which depicted the countryside of West Germany with minimal electronic sounds, and this work also seems to depict a scene of a “walk” with electronic sounds. However, what is different from “Autobahn” is that there is an element in the middle part of the album that seems to go into introspection in the midst of walking, and it is a work that shows various views (including feelings) throughout the album. From a macro perspective, this album is a new response to the recent environmental music revival and generalization of ambient music, which he has introduced as a DJ and record buyer for a long time.
The album was co-produced by hacchi, who also works with Deavid Soul, Urban Volcano Sound, and as a recording/mastering engineer, and mastered by Nakamura Soichiro of Peace Music, a studio that has produced many masterpieces, including Shintaro Sakamoto's solo work. The package artwork is by designer Seiichiro Suzuki. The package artwork is by designer Sei Suzuki. （The package artwork was designed by designer Sei Suzuki.)

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Compuma is a Tokyo-based log-serving DJ whose extensive knowledge of obscure and left-field music across so many genres and different regions of the world established himself as one of the most respected record buyers in Japan,
a country well known as record collectors’ paradise. While he built his career in record business over decades, he has also been sharing his expertise in music as a DJ just as long. Not only the breath and the depth of where his selection derives are hard to compete, the way he blends them all together is also a state of art. Often intricately layered and collaged, Compuma is capable of sculpting something entirely new with bits and pieces of existing tracks in various forms such as ambient soundscapes to dubbed out club sets. In 2017, his unique ability caught the attention of Berlin Atonal directors and he was invited to play at the festival in Berlin.

He extends his skills into remixing which can be heard on the released from EM Records - “Compuma meets Haku” (2015) and “Bangkok Nights” (2017.) In June 2022, he released his first solo album, A View.
He is also an active member of a DJ trio called Akuma No Numa (which translates to “devil’s swamp”) in which he explores darker and more psychedelic periphery of dance music.

Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 is the first ever archival release from Repetition Repetition, the “two-man electric minimalist band” consisting of Ruben Garcia and Steve Caton hailing from Los Angeles in the mid 1980’s. Repetition Repetition’s unique blend of cosmic art-rock minimalism / maximalism was self-released across a series of cassettes produced in micro editions, and while garnering the attention and participation of luminaries such as Harold Budd, remained under the radar during the band’s existence. Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 collects select material from across the duo’s catalog.

It was over a plate of Mexican breakfast food when Ruben Garcia and Steve Caton first told Harold Budd of Repetition Repetition and the worlds they intended to explore by respective way of synthesizers and guitars --- a rendezvous instigated by the former’s fan mail to the legendary composer. If the upstarts entered this restaurant from a one-way street of admiration, they would leave with not only Budd’s interest but, sometime later, a blessing in the wake of many hours shared by the three in Garcia’s Los Angeles home recording studio: “This is going to be difficult, but God help them, I think they’re great,” noted Budd in a USC lecture in 1985. Now several degrees removed from prior rock music aspirations, the real game was afoot.

Between 1984 and 1988, Repetition Repetition operated within something akin to the underground of the experimental underground, although even that designation perhaps overstates the case. The duo’s sparse output consisted of three cassettes self-released on Garcia’s Third Stone Music label: Repetition Repetition (1985), Lakeland (1987), and The Machinist (1987). Their songs would also be included during this period on Trance Port Tapes’ vital scene-scanning compilations assembled by A Produce. Live performances occurred with similar infrequency, but Garcia and Caton counted converts in quality over quantity, numbering among them the aforementioned Budd, a Chambers Brother, and, judging by a memorably drop-jawed reaction following a rare Repetition Repetition gig, Jackson Browne.

Likewise, critical support materialized in the form of KCRW deejays Brent Wilcox and Dean Suzuki, whose steady airplay positioned Repetition Repetition’s music amidst fearless company like Jon Hassell, Hiroshi Yoshimura, and Richard Horowitz. Yet, to hear fellow Trance Port featured players like Tom Recchion and Bruce Licher of Savage Republic tell it, Garcia and Caton moved as ghosts --- a notion more vexingly endorsed by the silence of record companies that failed to come knocking --- and therein lies an overarching truth to the work itself.

Journey to the heart of Repetition Repetition and one discovers a collective ear impossibly attuned to the hypnotic possibilities of stylistic convergence, the resulting music possessed of seamless multimodalities which beckon to a glimmering plane of the disembodied. Where Caton sought his artistic fixes at an intersection of popular genres, Garcia zoned in on the sonically spare, drawing from the same wellspring as the Enos and Rileys of his personal avant-garde pantheon, and in their coming together the two tapped into a deeper cosmic source. Synthetic walls of keyboard sound in forever states of reprise met waves of shimmering --- and at times even punishing --- guitar in reply, their soundscapes hovering convincingly between, as suggested in fittingly dualistic fashion in a press kit assembled by Garcia, such disparate sensations as bird flight in one song and oil drilling in the next.

But don’t call it a push-pull dynamic, as this was a creative partnership founded upon fluidity and organicism by way of, naturally, repetition. In contrast to, say, the Bressonian ideal of repetitive motion as a great stripping away, the concept in the hands of Garcia and Caton equated to ascendancy via continuous unfolding, a maximal route to minimalism. To be sure, their recording philosophy morphed over the course of the act’s short history, and what started as a process defined by consistent in-person interplay developed into a more isolated method formulated by Garcia, who eventually took to his own one-man bedroom-studio sessions in order to fully chart any and all potential ostinato-loaded paths which he could travel down, the Tascam-captured resonances subsequently provided to Caton as blueprints from which to take flight himself, adding layer upon layer of steel to the proceedings.

If the practice and execution changed, however, the evidence certainly didn’t rest in the results: The seamlessness remained, and, despite the brevity of their time together, so has Repetition Repetition. With this finely calibrated collection of songs in Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987, Freedom To Spend sees to it that the private worlds of Garcia and Caton can now be visited by all rather than just the count-‘em-on-both-hands lucky few whose musical endeavors or collector vocations carried them into this once-distant dimension.

Repetition Repetition’s Fit for Consequences: Original Recordings, 1984–1987 will be released on Freedom To Spend in vinyl and digital editions on May 30, 2025. The collection includes extensive liner notes from Bill Perrine, and wil be offered alongside Over & Over, a supplemental collection of music available exclusively as a mail order cassette from Freedom To Spend and RVNG Intl.

"In a world where it is easier than ever to say something, it is actually the hardest time to be heard.
We are constantly bombarded by so much information and/or distractions that people can hardly be blamed for not tuning in.
The box has been constructed to be safe, so why step outside it?

The vibe shift is undeniable but everyone is free to choose which frequency to tap into.
Music can be nourishment for the soul if you have the right ingredients. Even then you need the right chefs to cook it properly to be served.
Meftah and Ideeyah have taken their time to create something that feels complete.
Something intentional. Meditative.
Another piece in the great chain of the African Diaspora.

Where else but Detroit could something like this come from?
A complete concept that is unabashedly of the present but still honors the past. This is Soul music. Crafted with love for community, for heritage, for fulfillment.
There was a method to the madness, a reason for the gradual formation of artistic merit that is presented to you now.
This music contains a universal message if you can open your eyes and mind to it.

Less talking, more doing.
Go out there and be somebody again.
Reclaim your light under the sun.

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
For Funk is it’s own reward,
if you want it to be.

- Turtle Bugg"

"How do I know if my cat likes me?" ist die erste Zusammenarbeit der Organisten Ellen Arkbro und Hampus Lindwall mit der bildenden Künstlerin Hanne Lippard, eine existenzielle Meditation über die leeren Weiten unseres automatisierten Alltags. Das Stück entstand während Arkbro und Lippards Residenz 2023 im La Becque in La Tour-de-Peilz, Schweiz, Das Album persifliert die lähmende Ästhetik des Geschäftslebens, von der Warteschleifenmusik bis zum Onlinebanking. "How do I know if my cat likes me?" führt die Linie von Roberts Ashley von Roberts Ashley und Barry fort und hämmert auf die Klänge der Sprache ein, bis sie alle Bedeutungen durch angenehm betäubende Wiederholungen verdrängen. Die Platte zu hören ist, als würde man ein Captcha wieder und wieder lösen bis alle Zeichen zu Hieroglyphen verschwimmen, oder man findet sich in einem tautologischen Kundendienst-Argument verstrickt, nur dass man, nachdem man in der Sackgasse des Unsinns gelandet ist, eine unerwartete transzendente Schönheit findet, in der die Sprache von der reinen Funktion zur reinen Ästhetik umschlägt und vor Möglichkeiten schimmert. Selbst subtile Brüche in lyrischen oder musikalischen Mustern können eine grundlegende Veränderung in der Welt des Songs auslösen. Auf der gesamten Platte begründen strenger Formalismus und Minimalismus eine Erzählung. ,The Long Goodbye" stellt sich einen quälenden Dialog zwischen Bekannten vor, die sich nicht höflich voneinander lösen können: ,It's my pleasure!", stöhnt Lippard, die sich selbst antwortet: "Pleasure is all mine! / See you soon! / See you next time! / See you then!". Obwohl die Zeilen immer wieder dieselben wenigen Abschiedsworte wiederholen, akkumuliert sich eine geheimnisvolle Kausalität in den winzigen Variationen, die einen erzählerischen Bogen kreieren, weniger für die Figuren des Liedes, sondern für den Zuhörer, der sich mit Verzweiflung, nihilistischem Humor oder tiefer Dankbarkeit über die Fähigkeit der Kunst konfrontiert sieht. An anderer Stelle, als ,Modern Spanking" sich frei assoziierend von der Phrase "Online-Banking" in Richtung "breathing down your neck banking" und ,sexy but bankrupt banking" wandelt, wird eine ganze Welt oberflächlicher Vergnügungen ins Blickfeld gerückt. Während minimalistische Bewegungen in der Musik und der bildenden Kunst eine gewisse Situiertheit des Blicks fördern, erinnert ,Modern Spanking" an den glatten, reibungslosen Minimalismus eines gehobenen Einkaufszentrums: eine Menge wahlloser Passanten, die sich zwischen Sex und Geld, Fantasie und Realität, zerstreuter Aufmerksamkeit und intensiver Ablenkung befinden. In einer Welt wie dieser ist der Unterschied zwischen Bankgeschäften und Prügelstrafe zu vernachlässigen.

In 2021, Luke (aka Lukid) recorded a mix for Dekmantel, which had some of his jungle tunes (under his Refreshers alias) featured in the set, including an unreleased tune of his called Crumbling Down. I couldn't find any information about this tune anywhere and was unsure if it ever came out or if there were ever any plans to release it.

So out the blue, in 2023, I reached out to him about this track to find out about what the situation was with it, and he replied saying that there were no plans for it to come out. I offered to release it on Future Retro London, which Luke was thankfully up for & here we are!! It was quite a gamble considering I'd never seen any Refreshers tunes released anywhere else besides on his own label (which I have all the releases of and can recommend strongly) but I'm grateful that he was willing to work with me on putting this one out.

Big thanks to Luke for allowing me to have put out Crumbling Down, to Andrew (aka Yedsy, who does all the artwork for Refreshers) for the design of this release's artwork and to Phineus II for his heavyweight remix on the b-side.

David Lowery (Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven) to release his new 28-track solo album. "Fathers, Sons and Brothers" is David"s musical autobiography, celebrating his youth, family, friends and the highs and lows of his lengthy 40-year career in the music business. The album combines three of David"s previously online-only released autobiographical solo albums "In The Shadow of the Bull", "Leaving Key Member Clause", and "Vending Machine", and also includes four new previously unreleased songs, as well as four newly re-recorded tracks: He"s been writing songs about people on the fringe for damn near a lifetime. 40+ years of detailing the idiosyncrasies of outcasts, losers, freaks and outliers in society in his two acclaimed, if not totally different, bands - Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven.

Planning For Burial is the solo project of Thom Wasluck, emerging from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It’s Closeness, It’s Easy is the long-awaited follow-up to 2017’s Below The House. If Below The House was about returning home, following in the footsteps of one’s father and joining a union, and leaving behind youth’s wild days, It’s Closeness, It’s Easy embraces what comes next—the weight of all years, the quiet shifts, the reckoning with what remains. This record is many things. It captures the slow drift of time, the unnoticed shifts in a loved one—the creeping changes in mental health, the quiet pull of addiction, the kind of grief that settles in the bones rather than announces itself.
At its core, It’s Closeness, It’s Easy is about stepping into middle age and taking stock. It confronts the reality of living with the hand that’s been dealt and searching for meaning in what remains. It speaks to loss—the crushing weight of saying goodbye to a beloved 17-year old cat, the slow-motion grief of watching friends self-destruct, the inescapable passage of time as it bears down on aging parents and the self. But it also reflects the warmth of reconnection, the kind of love that never burns out but instead deepens. The feeling of picking up where things left off, untouched by the years in between.

While written over the course of two years, the recording process reflects a sense of immediacy. Rather than assembling songs piece by piece over time, the album took shape in singular, immersive sessions—less an act of construction, more an unveiling of something already waiting to take shape.
Rooted in a staunch DIY ethos, Wasluck handles every aspect of Planning For Burial project himself—recording the music, designing the artwork, and performing live as a one-man band. He books his own tours, ever and independent creative. This hands-on approach has led Planning For Burial to play hundreds of shows solidifying his place in the underground music scene. A defining moment came in 2018 when he performed at the Meltdown Festival in London, curated by Robert Smith of The Cure.