Search:b4

Recital releases The Holy Restaurant, the new full-length album by Derek Baron, and their first solo LP since Curtain (Recital, 2020).

The album is built from years of miniature transcriptions of improvisations, functioning in many ways as a sister to Curtain. Half-thoughts and mistakes are revisited, gilded, and illuminated. The floorboards of the album are laid with piano, organ, string pads, while serrated accruements (distortions, flourishes, and recording interferences) step and drop overhead. The resulting conflux, as Baron notes in the accompanying booklet “becomes the point and the problem to explore.”

The second track “Oven Girls” opens with us galloping on a horse in some video-game meadow on a bed of MIDI strings. Abruptly, a helicopter soars over us and we transition to a latticed guitar and woodwind exploration. The album rolls on in this fashion, juxtaposing musical half-sentences within a museum of sounds rag-picked from history and daily life. Emotional interviews with Midwestern friars who build and sell caskets are set against gothic piano and guitar duets. On “Music in the Casket,” A disorienting and hilariously epic guitar solo erupts. The penultimate titular piece, “The Holy Restaurant,” sets a text written by Baron’s grandfather. A small chorus voices his words, echoing the humanistic storytelling of “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s A Letter From Home. Under sunlit piano progressions, a fleet of smokey trumpets emerges.

Running throughout the album is a series of “traces”: short melodic phrases painted over again and again with different real and MIDI instrumentation. The “luxurious asceticism of doubling” as Baron puts it. They explain, “Part of the allure for me is that the ‘original’ material is itself kind of thin, sketchy, meaningless, maybe calling attention to itself only by way of a felicitous mistake. Hearing, transcribing, and learning what was basically only ever played first on accident becomes the guiding concern.”

The album’s shifting, variegated forms and voices pass quickly; the record feels both comforting and elusive, suitable for any hour of the day.

The Holy Restaurant features guest players Ed Atkins, Lucy Liyou, Quentin Moore, Emily Martin, Dominic Frigo, Jacob Wick, and several of Baron’s family members. It is released in a limited edition vinyl pressing of 200 copies, accompanied by a booklet of effusive program notes by the composer, alongside an assemblage of photographs, scores, and artwork.

For the third time, they had been sent to this forsaken land. It was neither east nor west, neither north nor south. They said it had once been a kingdom, somewhere in the heart of the old continent, something they had pieced together from the ruins scattered across jagged hills sprouting here and there from the ground. Everyone else went islands, dived to the seabed, drilled at the poles, and explored waste in the east, but these two were sent here again, as if someone were trying to get rid of them, just to keep them out of the way.

What were they really supposed to find here? They wandered the land, aimless and bored, like the last bird watching from the sky. Sometimes they landed, took samples for the lab, and then caught a nap by the river bend. They avoided the hot fumes of active volcanoes. Compared to those on other planets, these were more like small, whispered fumaroles, but even so, they had to be careful.

They felt as if they had stepped into a scene from a movie they had once glimpsed. A mad and exhausted conqueror screamed and wildly flailed his arms on a ridiculous wooden raft in the middle of a raging river. It was somewhere in the south of this planet, deep in the jungle. There were many movies made on this planet, but only fragments of the reels survived, and this one quickly became iconic.

When a trumpet sounded in the distance and flooded the land with a booming murmur, when all the fumaroles hissed together, and when wind rolled in, covering the land in heavy fog, both of them knew the third expedition would not be like the previous ones.

At that moment, Kult Masek and Petr Vrba were flying over the land that was once called České středohoří.

Downwards present Alexander Tucker in metamorphosis from psych folk to techgnostic bard, aided by notable guests – Justin K Broadrick, Regis, Phew, Karl D’Silva, JJOWDY, and Elvin Brandhi – in a quest for disordered convention and new thrills. One up to Tucker’s outings for Alter and The Tapeworm, and spiritual successor to his »Nonexistant« trio on Downwards, »Clear Vortex Chamber« is an enigmatic take on the brownfield edgelands where the eldritch intersects electronic heck. Decades of work spread between hardcore punk, psych rock, folk, and drone — including work with Stephen O’Malley (Ginnungap) and Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club, ESP Kinetic) — feed forward into this album’s unsteady machine rhythms and cranky junkyard atonalities, where Tucker panel-beats aspects of his previous sound with a newfound industrial thrust and cyber-punky lust that suits him dead well.

A crafty example of how to mutate without losing sight of yourself, the album’s eight parts feel like a cyborg patching itself into modernity. On opener »Udug« Tucker’s signature falsetto peals from a A Scanner Darkly-style scramble suit of stereo-strobing electronics, setting a melodramatic, neo-gothic tension that riddles the album thru the knotted, fractured industrial dancehall bullishness of »Mallets« with Yeah You’s feral gob Elvin Brandhi, via a pair of standout »Fedbck« parts with Tucker’s personal idol, Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, and the rest), featuring the Brum deity’s claw-handed riffs and howl on the first, and smeared with Karl D’Silva’s brass in its noctilucent second part.

Regis also proves a staunch foil for the album’s most robust, club-ready cut »Zona«, hammered out from buzzing metallic drums and monotone bass drones, and pitting his severed vox against Tucker’s own androgynous harmonies to recall aspects of The Ephemeron Loop via British Murder Boys, whilst scene legend, Can and Ryuichi Sakamoto spar Phew (aka Aunt Sally) ideally tempers the flow in a relatively soothing »Sansu«, sharing more cyber-romantic, recombinant sentiments with the channelling of Robert Wyatt gone Funk Bruxaria on »Folded«.

Thank You For Almost Everything is the sophomore album for Headache, a collaboration between writer and poet Francis Hornsby Clark and music-producer Joseph Thornalley aka Vegyn. This new album follows on the surprise underground success of their debut: The Head Hurts But The Heart Knows The Truth (released 31 May 2023) releasing on Vegyn's own PLZ Make It Ruins label. The debut record has streamed over 19.4 million times on Spotify alone and sold over 8,000 physical copies worldwide. The debut gained its popularity entirely organically with zero marketing or PR spend. Since its release, Headache has built a dedicated global fanbase, with several fans even going so far as to get lyrics or the project's logo tattooed on themselves. Thank You For Almost Everything continues the original's distinct style of Trip-Hop / Downtempo Electronica but combining with its own unique (and now imitated) AI-voiced spoken word. For this new album, Headache steps away from the hum-drum of Blighty and instead focuses his gaze to sunnier shores. Recalling personal histories of ruffled hair and school cafeterias, ancient unsolved Albionic riddles, Rome's changing seasons and its poignant graffiti, arguments with girlfriends at luxury hotel beachfront restaurants, and what it truly feels like to be alive in this inscrutable but beautiful world. The project features a further collaboration with artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt who returns to design the packaging and cover for this new album. This double 12" vinyl release, like the first, includes the instrumental versions exclusive to the vinyl version. The album, mixed and mastered by Margo Broom at RAK Studios, will use a similar surprise drop strategy as with the first album. "Follow up to the 2023 debut that gained its popularity entirely organically with zero marketing or PR spend. "Total Streams Since Release (31 May 2023): 19,413,173 (Spotify alone) "Previous vinyl album sold over 8,000 physical copies worldwide. "2nd Disc contains instrumental versions exclusive to vinyl format

Die Nine Mile Section in der Gemeinde Saint Ann ist die Geburts- und Ruhestätte der Reggae-Legende Bob Marley. Das Mausoleum, das seine sterblichen Überreste beherbergt, ist eine wichtige Pilgerstätte für Fans aus der ganzen Welt. Nine Mile wird oft mit der Rastafari-Kultur in Verbindung gebracht, die die Reggae-Musik stark beeinflusst. Die Gemeinde spiegelt das langsamere Lebenstempo, die tiefe Verbundenheit mit der Natur und das afrozentrische spirituelle Ethos wider, das dem Roots-Reggae zugrunde liegt. Dies inspirierte Alborosie zu seinem neuesten Album, das seine persönliche Hommage „Trench Town Legend“ enthält.
„Come My Way“, die erste Single aus dem Album, ist eine Neubearbeitung von „King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown“, einem weiteren Markenzeichen von Roots Reggae und Dub.

Die kommende Single „Calling Selassie“ liefert einen einheitlichen Roots-Sound und eine inspirierende Botschaft.
Alborosie ist im Frühjahr und Sommer 2025 auf Tournee und wird diese Songs bei seinen Live-Auftritten präsentieren.

Zum 50. Jubiläum von Bad Company und anlässlich ihrer Aufnahme in die Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2025 erscheint am 24. Oktober das erste von der Band autorisierte Tribute-Album:
„Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company“

Diese besondere Veröffentlichung vereint namhafte Künstler*innen aus Rock, Country und Americana – darunter The Pretty Reckless, Charlie Crockett, Slash, HARDY und Def Leppard – die Bad Companys Klassiker auf persönliche, frische Weise interpretieren.

Ein echtes Highlight: Frontmann Paul Rodgers und Drummer Simon Kirke wirken selbst an mehreren Songs mit – in Kollaboration mit den teilnehmenden Künstlern.

Ein Must-Have für Fans von Classic Rock und eine ehrwürdige Hommage an eine der einflussreichsten Rockbands der Musikgeschichte.

Broken District presents Theoric Proximity, the debut album from French producer and label co-founder Jus Jam. Known for his blend of dreamy atmospheres and groove-driven productions, Jus Jam delivers a 12-track journey exploring the subtle balance between introspection and the dancefloor.

The record flows between ambient textures, deep and leftfield house, broken beat, hip-hop, and jazz influences, creating a cohesive yet versatile soundscape. From late-night moods to club-ready moments, Theoric Proximity reflects the artist’s unique approach: instinctive, emotional, and personal.

A milestone release for both the artist and the Bordeaux-based label, Theoric Proximity positions Broken District among today’s forward-thinking electronic imprints.

In between the folds of ceremony and commonality lies a perennial spring of musical expression.

A statement along the time continuum, or a testament to the resilient resourcefulness embedded in that truth, forms the philosophical approach of this album – the first outing of Dídac.
Studying an extensive archive of instruments, artifacts, and field recordings at the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève—a space steeped in folkloric gesture – Dídac encountered a cosmos of liturgical music and folk song. Anchored in reverance for tradition and transformation alike, this album navigates the old-world Mediterranean lore through a post-modern ambient lens, threading drone, gentle rhythm, electroacoustic textures and the crude tactility of archival material into one woven tapestry.

Under the guidance of Dr. Madeleine Leclair, Dídac was invited to work within one of the world’s most extensive ethno- musicological archives—L’AIMP. In the saturated basements and tape-lined backrooms of the museum, he submerged himself in the sounds of ritual and rural life: wax cylinders from the Eastern Mediterranean, tapes of liturgical hymn, the worn edges of communal song.
In a makeshift studio on the fourth floor of the museum, he sifted through the hours of material he collected, gradually discovering that the archive was no static source – It did not dictate; rather, it served as a companion—offering not answers, but questions. Not a beaten track, but a cluster of sonic clues and riddles. Samples do appear occasionally, tenderly interwoven into the dialogue of the songs. In Dídac’s self-titled debut, the past is not worn as ornament or kitsch; it is listened to and responded to. The museum, its archives, and the visit to Geneva became a foundational culisse of sorts, igniting a myriad of rough cuts and improvisational outtakes.
Dídac, or Diego Ocejo Muñoz, was born in Madrid in 1994 to a family of both Catalan and Castilian origin.

Brought up in a religious household, the influence of the Catholic Church innately shaped the social fabric, schooling and daily life. This lingering dominance led the adolescent Diego into a path of rejection of everything sacramental, promptly resorting to subversion in the shape of grafitti, skateboarding and underground music. Only later in life, after a rigorous venture as an acid and electro producer, the Church re-emerged before him in new light, invoking a deep fascination for its mysticism, iconography and choral tradition.

Spain in general and Catalonia in particular, has long served as a crossroads of the eastern–western Mediterranean continuum, with many of its cultures sharing aspects of way of life and ceremony. At the MEG, Diego found himself puzzled with this realization, resulting in a sonic amalgamation that reaches farther away from the rugged mountains of Catalonia than you might perceive at first encounter.

The deeply embedded memory of rite and public ceremony, religious hymn and landscape—sieved through the undercurrent of personal re-emergence, forms the emotional topography of this album. The record does not trace this landscape; it inhabits it. Its repetitive mysticism and ambient, wide-eyed gaze could possibly evoke (perhaps redundant) comparisons to artists such as Dimitris Petsetakis, or Popol Vuh’s late 70’s cinema scores.
The delicate lines between the sacred and the secular – between memory and re-invention – serve as a cipher to understanding this album in its entirety. Titles like Malpàs Mines or Pantocrator’s Portal Outro nudge toward a folkloric and devotional bedrock—places where labor and spirituality coexist, where names preserve both dust and veneration.

Nevertheless, this is far from mere nostalgia. It is a reclamation — singing alongside the spirits of the past, nurturing what still hums beneath the soil. It is an intimate reflection on tradition, rebellion, adolescence, ceremony and fantasy – a pastoral contemplation on what once was and what is to be.

Ein unverzichtbares Album von Roy Ayers, das soulige Jazz-Wurzeln mit knackigem 1970er-Jahre-Funk verbindet. Mit Ayers' charakteristischen Vibes, präzisen Arrangements und herausragenden Tracks wie "The Boogie Back" (gesampelt von NWA, 2Pac, De La Soul_) und "Change Up the Groove" ist diese LP ein Muss für jeden Fan von Jazz-Funk und Vintage-Grooves, ein etwas verstecktes Juwel aus Roy Ayers Ubiquitys frühen Polygram-Jahren. Dieses soulige Album, das oft zugunsten von Ayers' größeren Hits übersehen wird, ist eine Meisterklasse in Jazz-Funk-Fusion und fängt die Essenz von Ayers' sich entwickelndem Stil ein, als er die Lücke zwischen seinen Jazz-Wurzeln und dem rhythmischen Snap der Funk-Revolution der 70er Jahre überbrückte. Vom ersten Track an steht Ayers' charakteristischer Vibraphon-Sound im Mittelpunkt, der vor Emotionen und Groove nur so sprüht. Das Album besticht durch seine instrumentale Vielfalt, zu der Jazzgrößen wie der legendäre Bernard Purdie am Schlagzeug einen herausragenden Beitrag leisten. Streicher verweben sich subtil und unterstreichen Ayers' ohnehin schon tiefgründige und strukturierte Arrangements. Zu den Höhepunkten gehören der unverkennbare Funk von "The Boogie Back", ein Breakbeat-Favorit für Crate-Digger und DJs (der oft gesampelt wird, um andere Tracks zu garnieren), und eine üppige, elektrifizierte Interpretation von "Feel Like Makin' Love", die vor sanfter Soul-Musik nur so glüht. Der Titeltrack "Change Up the Groove" liefert den typischen, emotional aufgeladenen Funk, der diese Ära geprägt hat. "Change Up the Groove" ist nicht nur ein Album - es ist eine Momentaufnahme von Roy Ayers' künstlerischer Entwicklung, voller Rhythmus, Herz und zeitlosem Groove. Egal, ob Sie ein langjähriger Fan sind oder nun neun entdecken. Essential listening!

Turbostaat - Role Model für eine ganze Generation deutschsprachiger Post-Punk-Bands - feiert das 25-jährige Bandbestehen mit der Wiederveröffentlichung ihres Katalogs über das bandeigene Label 18Null9. 'Flamingo', das ursprünglich 2001 veröffentlichte Debütalbum, erscheint auf 180g schwerem Vinyl mit großem Textheft im Orginal-Artwork.

Turbostaat - Role Model für eine ganze Generation deutschsprachiger Post-Punk-Bands - feiert das 25-jährige Bandbestehen mit der Wiederveröffentlichung ihres Katalogs über das bandeigene Label 18Null9. 'Schwan', ursprünglich 2003 veröffentlicht, erscheint auf 180g schwerem Vinyl mit großem Textheft im Orginal-Artwork.

- Ltd LP: (180g, inkl. Textheft im 7" Format)

Reissue 1986

Repress 2025

The King of K-Pop Returns!

To those unfamiliar, G-Dragon is regarded by many as the Godfather of K-Pop. Rising to fame in the mid-00’s with his group, Big Bang, that later went on to become one of the world’s biggest selling boy groups. He quickly stood out with his unique and intricate songwriting as the leader of the group. A talented songwriter and trendsetter within the youth culture and fashion space, G-Dragon has received a bevy of awards, nominations for his music and fashion sense from the World Music Awards, to Hypebeast’s 100 list, to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, it’s apparent that G-Dragon has cemented his place in cultural relevance.

After serving his mandatory South Korean military service and a brief hiatus from music, the global superstar, G-Dragon has returned! He announced that he signed with indie-powerhouse, EMPIRE, and released his first comeback single on October 31, 2024 with POWER to immediate global fanfare and buzz, with the music video garnering over 44 MILLION views in a month and over 115 MILLION global streams. He soon followed that up with an electrifying performance at the 2024 MAMA Awards show in Osaka coupled with the release of his new single, Home Sweet Home which has garnered 100 MILLION global streams since release.

2025 will see the release of his first full length album since 2017 entitled Übermensch along with global tour dates. The album is expected to make a huge impact globally and further cement his place in music history!

Domino Records haben mit Upchuck eine rohe Punk-Wucht aus Atlanta unter Vertrag genommen. Die fünfköpfige Band um Sängerin KT entstand 2018 aus der lokalen Skater:innen-Szene – laut, wild und kompromisslos.

Mit „Plastic“ legen sie nun ihre erste Single beim neuen Label vor: ein wütender, knapp zweiminütiger Ritt durch schrammelnde Gitarren und aufgeladene Vocals. Produziert wurde der Track von Ty Segall, gemastert von Heba Kadry und visuell in Szene gesetzt von Ian Cone. Inhaltlich dreht sich alles um den verzweifelten Versuch, in einer künstlichen Welt echte Verbindungen zu finden.
Der Rolling Stone brachte ihren Sound nach einem SXSW-Gig auf den Punkt: „Everything explodes.“

Arriving two years after the first chapter, Absurd Matter 2 isn’t just a sequel, it’s an evolution, redrawing the boundaries established by its acclaimed predecessor. The Berlin-based Italian producer tempers his confrontational sonics with rare moments of introspection, shifting seamlessly between blown-out noise, warped hip-hop, mutant club experimentation, and weightless ambience. Textures disintegrate and reassemble, rhythms flex and crumble, and every detail balances on the edge of fantasy. It’s a poetic, layered response to Nino Pedone’s changing physical reality: the gradual hearing loss and perceptual renegotiation triggered by Ménière’s disease, which struck him in 2022. At first, the experience felt like betrayal, a brutal disconnection from the very sense that had shaped his life. But over time, the disorientation turned into a strange kind of focus. The silence between sounds became as expressive as the sounds themselves.
The first Absurd Matter was a visceral reaction to trauma; the second is more reflective – an ambiguous chronicle of sensory recalibration. Pedone doesn’t represent his altered inner reality through extremes, but through depth, zooming in on illusory distortions, tense rhythmic fluctuations, and fragmented sonics. Dense, immersive, and mystical, the album mirrors Pedone’s evolving relationship with perception itself.
Tinnitus-like feedback wails and noir-ish strings introduce “Repeater”, making it immediately clear that Pedone is painting a more delicately finessed image this time around. Fleshed out by raps from cult MCs billy woods and E L U C I D, the track is marked by subtle, sophisticated contrasts: the blurred, inverted rhythms that couch Armand Hammer’s haunted back-and-forth, and the glitchy interference that offsets the lavish orchestral phrases. Backwoodz associate Fatboi Sharif lends his Lynchian drawl to “Bandage Chipped Wings”, grounding Pedone’s lysergic rhythmic distortions with syrupy, horror-inspired couplets. Pedone also invites discomfort into “Crash Landing”, with droning, metallic tones that contradict South Central rapper ICECOLDBISHOP’s elastic flow. “Bitch, I don't give a fuck about anybody,” he squawks over Pedone’s incongruous rasping textures and time-warped beats, “cash out at any party.” Working alongside London’s Loraine James on production, Pedone reunites with Moor Mother on “I Saw The Light”, blending James’ soft-focus atmospherics with soundsystem-damaging, overdriven bass hits and rusted percussive snips. Moor Mother’s assertive words hover over the wreckage, tightening Pedone’s themes of overstimulation and altered awareness as they stutter and veer off course, vanishing into the backdrop.
Contrasting his more pensive experiments, Pedone’s dancefloor deviations are more concentrated on Absurd Matter 2 than ever before. He torches a stuttering dembow structure on “X”, obfuscating the rhythm’s familiar energy with disturbing audio hallucinations. On “Splintered”, he reunites with Kenyan prodigy Slikback, mangling neon-lit trance arpeggios with dissociated trap rhythms. He sharpens his skills to a fine point on “Oblivion Step”, observing 2- step through a lens of distortion and personal abstraction, shaking blipping synth leads over neck-snapping drums and counteracting the momentum with airless sci-fi soundscapes.
Perhaps the album’s most surprising moment arrives with “Viel”, which features vocals from Los Angeles-based composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Together, Pedone and Smith chance upon their notion of dub techno, fogging synth stabs and ghostly vocal traces into eerie harmonic distortions. On some level, it’s almost pop music, a far cry from the bleak dissonance of Absurd Matter and a hopeful way to reframe turbulence as transformation. Absurd Matter 2 doesn’t simply document a process; it enacts one. It doesn’t offer clarity; it invites disorientation. It’s not a map of the labyrinth, but a foghorn piercing the darkness.

The Dead 60s seminal self-titled album gets a timely Deluxe edition reissue on Vinyl for its 20th Anniversary, on Deltasonic Records



“Back in the day, punk and dub weren’t just sharing space—they were smashing into each other headfirst. Late '70s Britain was a pressure cooker, and for kids like me, growing up between Brixton’s bass bins and the chaos of King’s Road, that collision was everything. Jamaican sound system culture met punk’s raw spirit in a haze of smoke, sweat, and feedback. It wasn’t about genre—it was about energy. Identity. Defiance. so when The Dead 60s came along, post-Britpop and post-bullshit, it felt like someone had dusted off the blueprint and run it through a battered old tape echo. These weren’t just lads with good taste—they understood the assignment. They took the DNA of two rebel cultures and mutated it into something that could stand tall in the 21st century. Dub-soaked, punk-fuelled, dripping with that Liverpool attitude. I remember first hearing them and thinking—yeah, here we go again. Not in a retro way, but in a real way. Guitars that cut like sirens in the night. Basslines fat and warm, straight out the Channel One playbook. Lyrics that painted the grey corners of Britain like CCTV poetry. It was the sound of youth under pressure. The sound of not fitting in—and not wanting to.

Their debut album dropped in 2005, and it hit like a flare in the dark. “Riot Radio” was a pirate broadcast from the concrete frontlines. “Control This” swaggered with menace and reverb. It was like someone opened a time capsule from the punky-reggae party and rewired it for a new generation.

Now, with this 20th anniversary vinyl reissue—complete with the full dub companion produced by Central Nervous System—we get to hear the bones and blood of it all. The dub versions pull the tracks apart and let the ghosts speak. Reverb, delay, space—it’s not just production, it’s meditation. Revolution slowed down to a heartbeat. It’s music that makes you move and think. What they’ve done here is more than remix a record—they’ve revealed its soul. That’s what dub does when it’s done right. And The Dead 60s, they got that. They weren’t tourists in the culture—they were students of it, shaped by it, and ultimately, contributors to the legacy. Liverpool’s long had a love affair with Jamaican music—you can hear it in the streets if you’re really listening. The Dead 60s tapped into that lineage, but they brought their own thing to the table. Punk's fire. Dub’s depth. Ska’s bounce. All filtered through a Northern lens and blasted out like protest graffiti. This 20th anniversary reissue ain’t about nostalgia. It’s a reminder. A celebration. A call to arms. Music like this doesn’t belong in a museum—it belongs on a system, shaking walls and waking minds. Crate diggers, completists, young punks, old heads—this one's for all of you.

So put it on and turn it up. Let the punk edge sharpen your thoughts, and the dub shake your bones ‘cos this isn’t just a reissue - it’s resistance on wax.....”

In the magical kingdom of Fiore, Lucy Heartfilia, a celestial spirit mage, joins the legendary guild Fairy Tail, renowned for its eccentric members and explosive adventures. Alongside Natsu Dragneel, a fire-powered Dragon Slayer, and his friends Happy the flying cat, Erza, and Gray, the adventure is only just beginning!



This double vinyl will feature a selection of the best opening and ending themes from the series, transporting you back to the enchanting world of Fairy Tail as if by magic.

"I live in the arcades. Reality was never an option!"

The 85-year-old video game queen and film composer pdqb (born on November 14, 1939) delivers a beautiful love letter to your boomer childhood, a wild ride through the golden age of video gaming. Hear how she dodges bullets, jumps over cosmic chasms, beats bosses, reaches bonus stages, uses cheat codes and even her last continue...just to stay in a world of pixels and vectors forever. pdqb will bring you back all those fond memories of unburdened joy that you might have lost while growing up. She could be your savior.

Synaptic Cliffs is filled with otherworldly pride to present these 14 timeless masterpieces to its beloved listeners.

Charmaine Lee ist eine in New York lebende Sängerin, Komponistin und Elektronik-Künstlerin, die für ihre furchtlosen Erkundungen von Stimme, Geräuschen und Improvisation bekannt ist. Zu ihren Kollaborationen zählen Ikue Mori, Conrad Tao, JACK Quartet, Spektral Quartet und Wet Ink Ensemble, mit Auftritten im Lincoln Center, MoMA und Storm King Art Center. Nach ihrem von der Kritik gefeierten Debüt KNVF (Erratum Musical , 2021) kehrt Charmaine Lee mit Tulpaa zurück, einem kühnen neuen Statement, das das Ausdruckspotenzial der menschlichen Stimme und der Elektronik bis an die Grenzen treibt. Während ihre früheren Arbeiten ruhige Texturen und gestische Nuancen erforschten, ist Tulpa viszeral und unmittelbar und verbindet rohe Stimmkraft mit dichten Schichten analoger und digitaler Bearbeitung. Inspiriert von der Körperlichkeit des Rock der 70er Jahre und den esoterischen Eigenschaften von Hochspannungs-Röhrengeräten, schafft Lee eine Klangwelt, die sowohl wild als auch futuristisch ist. Tulpa pulsiert mit gesättigten Obertönen, mikroskopischen Details und dynamischen Verschiebungen in der Skala, die zwischen Intimität und Unermesslichkeit hin- und herpendeln. Produziert und aufgenommen von Randall Dunn (SUNNO))), Kali Malone, Anna von Hausswolff), wurde Tulpa mit einer einzigartigen räumlichen Technik erstellt: Lees Stimme wurde in ein direktes Signal und mehrere Vintage-Röhrenverstärker aufgeteilt, die als Lautsprecher dienten, wodurch eine feedbackreiche, dimensionale Umgebung entstand. Das Ergebnis ist eine Aufnahme, die sich taktil und immersiv anfühlt - gleichzeitig geerdet und spektral. ,Ich war fasziniert von diesem Sound der 70er Jahre - wie lebendig und unvorhersehbar er sich anfühlte und doch so tief verkörpert war", sagt Lee. ,In Tulpa geht es darum, Grenzen aufzulösen: zwischen Körper und Maschine, Raum und Wahrnehmung, Klang und Illusion." Der Titel bezieht sich auf ein Konzept aus der tibetischen Mystik: Ein Tulpa ist ein Wesen, das durch konzentriertes Denken heraufbeschworen wird. Lee verwendet diese Idee als Metapher für ihre Praxis, in der Klang zu einem materiellen Akt der Vorstellungskraft wird, der zwischen Präsenz und Erscheinung wechselt. Das Album endet mit einem meditativen Duett mit dem weltberühmten Reed-Spieler Ned Rothenberg an der Bassklarinette , einem spärlichen und weitläufigen Track, der vom Noh-Theater inspiriert ist. Es bietet einen Moment der Stille, der noch lange nach dem Ende des Albums nachhallt.

Her New Knife ist eine Shoegaze-/Alternative-Band aus Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Zu den Mitgliedern der Gruppe gehören Edgar Atencio (Gitarre und Gesang), Ben Kachler (Gitarre), Carolina Schooley (Bass) und Elijah Ford (Schlagzeug). Die Band veröffentlichte letztes Jahr ,chrome is lullaby" über das einflussreiche Label Julia's War Recordings. Die EP besticht durch ihren rohen, verletzlichen Charme und bietet Fans von Shoegaze und Post-Punk eine tiefe Verbindung zu ihrem einzigartigen Sound. Nach einer einmaligen Björk-Coverversion (,Pagan Poetry") kehrt die Band nun mit einer 6-Song-Remix-EP zurück, die Remixe von TAGABOW, Sword II, Frost Children und anderen. Die physische Version der Veröffentlichung ,Chrome is Lullaby Deluxe" enthält auf Seite A die EP ,Chrome is Lullaby" und auf Seite B die entsprechenden Remixe.

Her New Knife ist eine Shoegaze-/Alternative-Band aus Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Zu den Mitgliedern der Gruppe gehören Edgar Atencio (Gitarre und Gesang), Ben Kachler (Gitarre), Carolina Schooley (Bass) und Elijah Ford (Schlagzeug). Die Band veröffentlichte letztes Jahr ,chrome is lullaby" über das einflussreiche Label Julia's War Recordings. Die EP besticht durch ihren rohen, verletzlichen Charme und bietet Fans von Shoegaze und Post-Punk eine tiefe Verbindung zu ihrem einzigartigen Sound. Nach einer einmaligen Björk-Coverversion (,Pagan Poetry") kehrt die Band nun mit einer 6-Song-Remix-EP zurück, die Remixe von TAGABOW, Sword II, Frost Children und anderen. Die physische Version der Veröffentlichung ,Chrome is Lullaby Deluxe" enthält auf Seite A die EP ,Chrome is Lullaby" und auf Seite B die entsprechenden Remixe.

Der düstere Zauber von Ritual Howls sechstem Album ,Ruin" entfaltet sich bereits in den ersten Momenten der ersten Single ,Follow the Sun", wenn der klare Ruf von Paul Bancells hallender Gitarre von Chris Samuels pulsierendem Kick und flirrenden Drum-Programmierung sowie dem knurrenden, verzerrten Bassgroove von Ben Saginaw untermalt wird. Mehr als ein Jahrzehnt nach ihrer Gründung verfeinert das Trio seine nuancierte Mischung aus Industrial, Goth und Post-Punk auf ein neues Niveau vollendeter Fülle, und die Ergebnisse verkörpern mehr denn je die Gegensätze, die sie ausmachen. Mit ,Ruin" kehren Ritual Howls zurück zu ihren düsteren Wurzeln. Mehr als ein Jahrzehnt nach ihrer Gründung verfeinert das Trio weiterhin seine nuancierte Mischung aus Industrial, Goth und Post-Punk zu einer neuen Ebene von alles verzehrender Fülle, und mehr denn je verkörpern die Ergebnisse die Kontraste, für die sie bekannt geworden sind: auf einmal eindringlich düster, aber kinetisch eingängig, intim roh, aber verlockend geheimnisvoll. Seit ihrer Gründung in Detroit hat die Band immer lose Elemente der Old-School-Rave-Kultur in ihre Arbeit einfließen lassen, was zu einer zutiefst physischen Erfahrung ihrer schweren, düsteren, melodischen und akribischen Konstruktionen führt. Nach ihrem letzten Album (Virtue Falters, 2023) zog Bancell nach Los Angeles, und ein Großteil von Ruin entstand über das Internet, gipfelnd in einer Reihe intensiver Aufnahmesessions mit dem langjährigen Toningenieur Adam Cox in Michigan. ,Es begann damit, dass Chris musikalische Ideen präsentierte - Beats, Melodien, Sounds, Riffs - und ein paar fertige Tracks; er und Ben trafen sich zum Jammen, und ich steuerte aus der Ferne einige Gitarrenparts bei ", erzählt er. Von der Entfernung grundlegend unbeeindruckt, funktioniert Ritual Howls als echte kollaborative Einheit, und Ruin ist ein reichhaltiger, unbestreitbarer Beweis dafür, dass sie weiterhin an der Spitze ihrer Kunst stehen.

A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim is the new album by Australian atmospheric pop trio Hydroplane, the storied 'offshoot' formed by three quarters of independent pop group, The Cat's Miaow. On this, their first music after two decades plus of radio silence, Andrew Withycombe, Kerrie Bolton and Bart Cummings return to the gentle, close-quarters musical world they shared around the turn of the century.

Recorded during 2024 in Melbourne and Ballarat, A Place In My Memory… picks up the thread Hydroplane set down with its precursor, 2001's The Sound Of Changing Places, though you can hear echoes of their other releases, too, with Withycombe noting a through-line from the group's 1998 "Failed Adventure" single. There's little quite like A Place In My Memory…, then or now, though. Maybe you can draw some connections between Hydroplane and their sister group, The Cat's Miaow, while fellow travellers might include Empress, The Ah Club, and further back, Young Marble Giants, Veronique Vincent (the muffled, ticking drum machine also makes me think of Robin Gibb's Robin's Reign).

There's also an umbilical to the bedroom-crafted electronica doing the rounds in the late nineties and early noughties. Hydroplane hint at this through their approach to songwriting, which often builds creatively around loops as structural devices. Through all this, the trio achieve an effortless, organic weightlessness across these nine lovely songs. Many feature Bolton's clear singing voice, drifting along, while guitars, keyboards, drum machines and loops tickertape away. The constituent parts fit together, but they also have a curiously detached quality - think of abstract cloud formations sharing the same sky.

Hydroplane and The Cat's Miaow often dealt in emotional ambiguity and uncertainty, and the uncertainty of the nostalgic. This was always one of the most appealing facets of their music, and A Place In My Memory… is thus named perfectly. I couldn't dream up a better title for the album and its reflections on history, lived experience, and the inevitable tangle between these two phenomena. These reflections variously address such concerns as human cruelty, flight, space travel, adventurism and spiritualism. There's also "To the Lighthouse", not a direct reference to the Virginia Woolf book, but a great title, nonetheless. (They've always had excellent titles, often borrowed, for songs and albums.)

A beautiful collection of drowsy, sleepy pop, humble and quiet, but resolute in its craft, A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim is dream work in practice; a lovely reintroduction. Welcome back, then.