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Killer Groove Records proudly presents the debut 45 by Italian cinematic funk trio Atabasca. A syncopated journey where funk, psychedelia, and cinematic groove merge into a timeless narrative suspended between rhythm and vision.


"Cacopoulos" and "Kundela Mawedi" mark the birth of Atabasca's sonic universe: the first two singles from the upcoming self-titled debut album,which will be released on March 27 in limited-edition LP, CD digipack, and digital formats.

On the A-side, "Cacopoulos" is an impetuous, visionary ride that fuses the power of instrumental groove with the evocative imagery of library music and Italian golden-age soundtracks. From the first beat, listeners are drawn into a dry, dusty landscape driven by a primal drum groove and the acid twang of a guitar that evokes the spirit of classic Westerns. Indeed, "Cacopoulos" pays homage to I Quattro dell'Ave Maria (Ace High) and to the legendary Eli Wallach, the sly outlaw who turns deception into revenge, a subtle yet powerful nod that ties the trio's sound to imagery steeped in dust, dreams, and redemption.


On the flip side, the sound of an old lap steel guitar evokes the gentle waves of the sea, opening the doors to "Kundela Mawedi", a dreamy track with exotic tones and heavenly atmospheres. The sonic journey unfolds through hypnotic rhythms and echoes of ancient cultures, where ethereal voices and warm, entrancing bass lines intertwine with psychedelic riffs and evocative guitar melodies, merging into a soundscape rich in warmth and mystery. The chorus, with its unexpected choral chant, adds a spark of magic. An elegant twist that gently stirs the dreamlike mood and transports the listener into a new sonic dimension, steeped in mysticism and tribal vibrations. "Kundela Mawedi" is more than just a song: it's a sensory experience, a musical ritual where tradition meets psychedelia, sand meets sea, and the soul dances upon the waves of time.


Recorded in a single take, the session captures the raw energy and natural atmosphere of the performance. Artistic production was handled by the trio alongside Andrea Fabrizii (digger, musician, producer, and catalogue curator for CAM Sugar), while Riccardo Ricci mastered the tracks at Velvet Room Mastering Studio in Brighton.


A killer double-sider, blending psychedelic and funk moods with percussive, jazzy textures. A must-have gem for every groove-loving DJ.


Like a desert blooming within the evergreen forests of the planet's far north, a unique, alien, disruptive environment: this is the vision behind Atabasca, the project of Luca Mongia (guitars, lap steel, keyboards, vocals), Paolo Mazziotti (bass, keyboards, vocals), and Valerio Pompei (drums, percussion, vocals). Individually active for over twenty years on both national and international scenes, the three musicians came together in 2023 to create a project that merges experience, experimentation, and creative freedom. Their music is imaginative and at times dreamlike, blending the classic concept of the instrumental trio with the worlds of film scoring and sound design.


Atabasca's sound moves through jazz-funk, world, and cinematic territories, weaving together afrobeat, desert, and psychedelic influences into a personal and timeless language. Each piece is a scene; each sound, a fragment of a world, a journey between reality and imagination where groove, texture, and organic timbre merge into a singular sonic ecosystem: a perpetually shifting balance that generates new inner landscapes.


Fans of Khruangbin, Surprise Chef, and instrumental psych-funk, take note!

From time to time Fortunea Records gives us the chance to highlight and welcome new faces. And this one is Petals In Sound!

Louise Baldwin is a UK-based producer and DJ. After over a decade of living, working and partying in South East London, she relocated to Crosby in Liverpool. Following a number of years experimenting with music production, she finally found her groove during the 2020 Covid lockdown. In October 2020, she released under her moniker the well-received debut EP 'Palace’ on Boyanza Records, gaining support from the likes of NTS Radio and the Sloth Boogie Radio Show. Many releases on labels such as Closer To Truth, Dirt Crew and Inhale Exhale followed.

Louise playfully attacks the fabric of deep house, pushing and pulling the genre into modern territory with clever and precise production techniques. And now she will release her first vinyl record on the Austrian imprint. The ‚Days‘ EP includes 4 original tracks and a remix by the Vienna-based dj and producer Dzc.. Hypnotic rhythms and well crafted deepness defines this record.

Petals In Sound’s ‚Days’ EP will come out on december 19th. All tracks have been mastered by Patrick Pulsinger. The vinyl is limited to 200 copies and there will be no repress!

Raxon makes slammers. Always has and always will. Simple as that.
He’s your favorite producers favorite producer.
We're thrilled to have him landing on Turbo, with a loooong-overdue debut EP.

Techno pioneer Robert Hood debuts on Rekids with a blistering release entitled ‘Nothing Stops Detroit’ ahead of an album this winter.

Over the last three decades the Underground Resistance alum has continually been at the forefront of the techno genre whilst releasing on many of electronic music’s finest labels to boot. In recent years his solo outings have appeared on a select few labels such as Dekmantel, Music Man Records, not to mention his very own M-Plant. Having made appearances on Rekids in the past remixing label boss Radio Slave - both as Robert Hood (‘Don’t Stop No Sleep’) and Floorplan (‘Feel The Same’) - the Detroit originator now drops a four track release in his official debut on the label.

With its machine aesthetic, ‘Nothing Stops Detroit’ is unmistakably Hood from start to finish. Precision kick drums propel the title track forward as stuttering effects and deep stabs work alongside a march band rhythm. ‘7 Mile Dog’ is next with its grainy synths and scintillating pads, making way for the meandering bassline, rattling atmospherics and trippy, oscillating top line of ‘Ignite A War’. Finally, ‘The Cure’ is a cacophony of twisted percussion and rumbling low-end that energetically concludes matters.

Originally formed in the early 1990s, Tadpoles earned a reputation as a neo-psychedelic rock band known for their impressionistic textures and adventurous sound.
After a 25-year hiatus, the band has reunited, now working across Sacramento, New York City, and Basel. They collaborate remotely to create new music that expands into unexpected genres, including jazz, ambient, country noir, and ambient shoegazer rock, all while maintaining their core psychedelic essence.
In this new chapter, the Tadpoles have teamed up with legendary producer and mixer Sonic Boom, known for his work with Spacemen 3, Panda Bear, MGMT and Beach House, to sculpt their evolving sound. His influence helps weave those new layers of psychedelia, ambient, and even jazz into the band’s signature adventurous spirit.”
This release reflects the band’s evolution and continues their legacy of blending noise, melody, introspection, and a bit of sly humor.

Viktoria Tolstoy, celebrated for her expressive voice, emotional storytelling and cross-genre artistry, seamlessly blends jazz, pop and original songs.
Her standout tracks ‘Autumn Breeze’ (4.6M streams) and ‘Calling You’ (6.5M streams) have reached millions of listeners worldwide.
Collaborations with top Scandinavian and European jazz artists, including Nils Landgren and Esbjörn Svensson, have positioned Viktoria as one of the leading female voices in European jazz.
Jacob Karlzon, renowned Swedish pianist and composer, is recognized for his virtuosic technique, cinematic soundscapes and inventive harmonic language.
Their collaboration began in the mid-1990s, forming one of the most enduring and successful partnerships in Scandinavian jazz.
Their music bridges Nordic lyricism and modern jazz sophistication, appealing to both jazz and a wider crossover audience. A trusted name on the European scene, they continue to tour internationally and attract strong streaming and media presence.
Their new duo album reflects and renews that bond - an intimate conversation shaped by time, friendship, and change. The world has shifted since their last recording and so have they. Yet their shared musical language endures - evolving, deepening, and gathering new shades of emotion. There is a rare ease between them: two Artists who no longer need to explain, only to listen and respond.
The result is music that feels unforced, sincere and alive - born of trust and the courage to explore the unknown. In the end, it’s the simple beauty of reunion: two musicians meeting again, with everything they’ve lived and everything still to discover

Belia Winnewisser and Fatuma Osman have known each other since childhood, a friendship rooted in shared afternoons of music and late 90s/early 00s girl core. Their first joint debut EP Vertex, released through the Swiss label Light of Other Days, emerges as both a continuation of that bond and an exploration of process, weaving together collective memories with their present-day musical language.

Resisting polished closure, the record circles around the idea of limerence in sound: suggesting rather than declaring, outlining atmospheres that leave room for the listener’s imagination to fill out the blanks. Across its five tracks Belia and Fatuma oscillate between the personal and the universal, immediacy and nostalgia. The opening track Emerald rises like morning light; fragile, blissful, and quietly radiant. Covering Madonna’s 80s single Angel feels natural and slots seamlessly into the EP’s arc: as a defining pop presence of the last four decades, she embodies less an idol than a subtle compass. Surrender, the first track on the B-side, draws you into the club, vibrating between vulnerability and release. Each step extends their vision further, revealing a cohesive body of work.

Vertex holds opposite poles in tension, creating a space where vulnerability and intensity create dialog. What lingers is a realm of possibilities: a conversation between two friends and collaborators who understand that sound can be as much about what is left out as about what is expressed. Vertex documents their progression, marking a milestone without concluding it.

The Ruins Of Beverast narrate fables of the darkest secrets in human history and present. ‘Tempelschlaf’ is The Ruins Of Beverast’s seventh full-length output and sees the band continue with their sonic morbidity, noises and melodies of a human habitat in its sunset era, while maintaining and refining the widescreen low end that has been sustaining their sound from the beginning. On the instrumental side, ‘Tempelschlaf’ is stripped of some fat, forging the songs with a reduction in length and layers, cautiously leaning towards the stage part of things. While synths and samples have always played an adamant role in The Ruins Of Beverast’s sound, they reach yet another level of psychedelia and insanity on ‘Tempelschlaf’. The Ruins Of Beverast were formed in early 2003 and named after the most bloodcurdling occasion of the collapse of the giant bridge Bifröst. This incident bears analogy to the musical aura of The Ruins Of Beverast, which builds a sonic landscape of massive, surreal, barren mountain formations. Seven full-length albums and several EPs, splits and compilation releases have been published through Ván Records so far. As a live act, The Ruins Of Beverast became a strong force after Roadburn 2013, a festival the band have played again since with exclusive shows. The Ruins Of Beverast have embarked on several European tours with acts like 1349, Grave Miasma and King Dude, as well as a highly acclaimed US tour that eventually concluded with an iconic show at Fire In The Mountains festival. The band have played such well-established club shows and festivals as Hellfest, Inferno, Incubate, Party.San Open Air and Beyond The Gates, to name just a few.

Waiting is the essence of travel. Patience is its own reward.

Two people. A Telecaster guitar with a few effect pedals. A drum machine. An audio interface is connected to a laptop. The ingredients are simple yet effective.

But any suggestion of four-track cassette machines and vintage bedsit productions is quickly dispelled by digital dubbiness and refined arrangements. A tail of reversed echos. The crystalline flourish of octave-pitched delays. Riddled hi-hats tickle and taunt. A bass drum asserts its space.

Winkler's guitar patterns have a fragmented, almost haphazard connotation. Searching in a shimmer of reverb. Until the beat, the framework, sets in to reveal structure. Intentionality. Reihse's programmed rhythms go just to the point of a groove, holding the moment of tension, knowingly delaying the gratification. Beats that have scratchy patina anda subtly playful edge; their crispness stands in contrast to the contemplative drift of the guitar. Is it a trance? Or a dance? Yes.

There are some apparent references here: a good portion of Les Disques du Crépuscule, some kraut-esque electronica, even a smidgen of Morricone / Spaghetti Western, blending into a kind of Musique Noir – yet these serve as a set of orientational coordinates, rather than quotations.

This is so far the most assured release by Periode, perhaps eschewing some of the naiveté that was wilfully cultivated in earlier output – there is no cheeky cover version this time. And no singing either. The nine pieces have the quality of a series, a variation on a mood, or a subset of moods. What emerges is an inviting swagger in the face of bleakness. There is a profound melancholy, but it is not the darker kind, and does not exclude humour.

First impressions may suggest that this is purely nocturnal music. Yet it equally evokes the harsh sunlight and baking summer heat. Or a rainy day. And transportation: the music suggests the motion of travel, even if that travel only happens within the mind. And waiting. Waiting while doing nothing much. Because that's all you can do. (Alexander Paulick)

Following our first LP of Tom Jones’s finest soulful performances on the radio, “Soul Man”, we present a second album of soul songs that we think he should have released but never did. This time we concentrate on his TV performances, the bulk of which come from 1969 and reflect his personal preference for covering Stax, Atlantic and Motown material. So put aside your preconceptions if you have any and listen to his collaborations with Aretha, Smokey, Janis, Cher, Dusty and don’t forget that Wicked Wicked Pickett. With a tight, funky band led by Herbie Flowers, this is Big Band Soul at its very best.

“The music of Season 2 of SEVERANCE is true to what came before in Season 1, while also developing new themes, new sounds, and new variations,” says Shapiro.

“The season's bold expansions into new storylines and new locations, along with the incredible filmmaking and performances, provided plenty of inspiration.”

“We are beyond thrilled to head back to Lumon with our Season 2 vinyl package,” says Mutant Co-Founder Spencer Hickman. “Working alongside Ben Stiller and his team, Fifth Season, and Apple has been an absolute honour and a joy.

Greg Ruth and I are obsessed with the show and the chance to play in this sandbox again. Creating original art alongside in-show ephemera is like receiving a gift. I couldn't be prouder of the package we have crafted for Season 2, blending the Innie and Outie worlds just as the season itself felt instinctual. I really hope fans feel we have done it justice. PRAISE KIER.”

Single LP with obi strip and a 16-page booklet featuring portraits of the main cast.

Half-Speed Remaster des 2012er Albums

Anlässlich des 40-jährigen Jubiläums des Albumklassikers "Thick As A Brick" erscheint am 30. März 2012 eine Fortsetzung zum Originalalbum mit dem Titel "Thick As A Brick 2".

1972 hatte Ian Anderson mit dem Jethro-Tull-Album "Thick As A Brick" einen Klassiker des Progressive Rock aufgenommen. Im Mittelpunkt der Songtexte stand die fiktive kindliche Hauptfigur Gerald Bostock. Das Album avancierte zum Spitzenreiter in den Billboard Charts und zu einem beachtlichen Erfolg in etlichen anderen Ländern.

Vierzig Jahre später: Was würde Gerald Bostock, der nun 50 Jahre alt wäre, heutzutage machen? Wie wäre es ihm in all der Zeit ergangen? Der "zweite" Teil des Albumklassikers zieht die unterschiedlichsten Möglichkeiten in Betracht, was aus dem frühreifen Schuljungen Gerald Bostock hätte werden können, welche Wege er hätte einschlagen können. In den diversen Songs nimmt die Hauptfigur verschiedene Alter Egos an, um die Vielzahl der möglichen Wendungen zu verdeutlichen, die Schicksal und Zufall in einem Leben bereit halten. So illustrieren die Songs nicht nur Geralds Leben, sondern auch die Entwicklungen unserer eigenen Biographien, die nicht selten durch zufällige Begegnungen und Eingriffe völlig neue Wendungen annehmen, auch wenn sie manchmal zunächst noch ganz nichtig und unbedeutend erscheinen.

Ian Anderson über sein neues Album: "Wenn unsere Generation auf ihr Leben zurückblickt, überkommt sie sicherlich gelegentlich dieser 'Was wäre wenn'-Moment. Wären wir, wie Gerald, statt dem, was wir sind, vielleicht Prediger, Soldat, Penner, Geschäftsinhaber oder Finanztycoon geworden? Und all jene, die der Generation des Internet und der sozialen Netzwerke angehören, mögen darüber sinnieren, was mit den unzähligen Möglichkeiten ist, die sich bei jeder Gelegenheit anzubieten scheinen."

Im Rahmen dieser Veröffentlichung wird Ian Anderson erstmals seit 1972 "Thick As A Brick" gemeinsam mit seinen Bandkollegen John O'Hara (Keyboards), David Goodier (Bass), Florian Opahle (Gitarre) und Scott Hammond (Schlagzeug) - sowie einigen musikalischen Gästen - in kompletter Länge live spielen. Zudem präsentieren Ian Anderson und seine Band im zweiten Teil der Show auch die Fortsetzung des Albumklassikers live.

Whitelands' second album Sunlight Echoes builds on their elemental debut - that won them fans from Slowdive to David Jonsson - with a more expansive sound that takes them out of the shoegaze shadows to somewhere bigger, better and brighter. Produced by long-time collaborator Ian Flynn and mixed by double Grammy Award-winner Eduardo De La Paz (New Order, The Horrors, The Charlatans, The KVB, Drug Store Romeos), there are soaring string arrangements (by Iskra Strings) and Lush guest vocals from labelmate Emma Anderson. "We're coming back with a lot more maturity and realness," says singer and guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio of their step up. "It shows in how much more emotional our music has become." With maturity comes a newfound confidence, so not only are there stunning melodies everywhere, but Etienne's vocals are front and centre throughout. "It's been really cool to watch Etienne push through boundaries," adds bassist Vanessa Govinden. "I like the direction we've taken on this album. We're taking a risk. It's half and half." She's right - the first half of the album has an almost Britpop breeziness, that belies the serious subject matter that inspired the songs, while the second half gets heavier, in all senses, with added grit and gravitas."This album is one of enduring," says Etienne of the overarching theme. "We had family that were dying, I was broke, there was a shortage of my ADHD medication_ I was suffering, but not just me, everyone around me was too." "The last two years have been challenging," concludes Vanessa. "The universe really fucked with us. That's why there are themes of loss, disconnection, fragmentation and yearning, but on the other side there is also unity and hope." Sunlight Echoes is a poetic, melodic statement of intent from this formidable band. Whitelands have fought back and triumphed in the face of adversity.

Since their formation, The Hirsch Effekt have carved out a unique niche in the German-speaking music scene. Yet, despite—or perhaps because of—their elusiveness, the band has captivated a devoted audience. Musically, The Hirsch Effekt have always embraced limitless possibilities. Acoustic, introspective moments—where bassist Ilja John Lappin brings out his cello or guitarist Nils Wittrock returns to his classical roots—sit naturally alongside massive progressive metal onslaughts. The band is equally at home on intimate club stages as they are at international festivals, evidenced by repeated appearances at Euroblast and numerous events across the UK. Recently, they toured Germany alongside scene giants like Leprous, Tesseract and traversed Europe with Caligula’s Horse. Yet between these extremes, The Hirsch Effekt continually create songs that flirt with radio accessibility—almost—because the band steadfastly resists any form of standardization. With their seventh album, Der Brauch, they continue this course uncompromisingly. While earlier works, despite their diversity, were still labeled “metal albums,” this new record explores paths first hinted at on the multilayered second album, Holon : Anamnesis—the same album that fans of VISIONS magazine voted the only German-language entry among the 20 best albums of all time. Der Brauch can be seen as a return to that pivotal point—and simultaneously as a bold step forward. Drummer Moritz Schmidt doesn’t entirely forgot blast beats, but the record demands a new heading. In the end, though, there is only one truth: it unmistakably sounds like The Hirsch Effekt.

haruka nakamura has released two new albums simultaneously.
Titled "ALL DAY" and "ALL RAY," the two albums total 16 tracks, a series of beat sounds.

"ALL DAY"
Scenery of the four seasons in the light, scenes of everyday life passing.

"ALL RAY"
A journey wandering in search of hope, a longing for light from the darkness.

It's been two years since haruka nakamura released the "Light Years" series, a four-album series spanning the four seasons, in collaboration with
THE NORTH FACE Sphere.
In the two years since, while working on films and various other projects, she has continued to create beat sounds by self-sampling melodic sketches
that suddenly pop into her mind in the course of everyday life, as her life's work.
These tracks, "ALL DAY" and "ALL RAY," will be released as a culmination of her collaboration with THE NORTH FACE Sphere, spanning two albums,
totaling 16 tracks. These songs feature even more striking melodies and beats than her previous work. While both works focus on the light of the four
seasons, they each have a different expression.
On the path to the album, eight singles will be released in advance over eight consecutive weeks.
The artwork was created by Suzuki Takahisa (16 design institute) using photographs taken by Haruka Nakamura, with a watercolor-style arrangement.
All ten jackets, including the eight singles, are decorated with beautiful, unified artwork that adds to the album's unique worldview.

Known for their warm harmonies, live energy, and poetic lyrics, Boy & Bear explore on Tripping Over Time themes such as embracing life's journey and its contradictions: "It's about the subtle lessons of life. Often you don't realise you've gone through something until you've truly experienced it. You keep learning, stumbling forward, and embracing the chaos with a smile. It's optimistic, nostalgic and playful, just like life itself," says frontman Dave Hosking. The record feels like one big celebration of joy, laced with a bittersweet, happy-sad energy. Since their breakthrough with the double-platinum debut Moonfire, Boy & Bear have released multiple #1 albums and earned a reputation as one of Australia's most compelling live acts.

New FLEE publication focused on Arabian Gulf's pearl divers, their culture through their soundscape, traditional songs & rhythms. Including archival recordings and reinterpretations by moderns electronic artists such as Joakim, Tomaga, Ben Bertrand, Conny Frischauf, Hieroglyphic Being .....

Available as 2LP, black vinyls & 2LP+258p book (English & Arabic text) bundle.

The pearls of the Gulf have stoked the imagination and desire of people around the world for centuries, their magnificence matched only by the courage of the divers who found them. This project aims to honor the memory of these valiant free-divers, their culture and their music by the means of a 2XLP compilation with undisclosed original recordings of pearl divers and inspired modern-day compositions by artists like Tomaga, YPY, Ben Betrand, Tarek Yamani or Hieroglyphic Being. Along with that record, a 258 pages long book in Arabic and English is available featuring contributions from regional experts and artists to contextualize the tremendously rich theme that is pearling and its music.

2025 Repress

From the opening bars of this debut album you instantly just know it's going to deliver the tunes, and it doesn't let up until the last note. The Allergies' modus operandi is taking vintage sounds and reshaping them for modern dance floors, and they go about it with style.

Effortlessly fusing Funk, Soul, Disco, Hip-Hop and Breaks, DJ Moneyshot and Rackabeat provide the perfect brand of feel-good, energetic ear candy that will leave a smile on your face and give you happy feet. But that's not all..., they have teamed up with some top MC's in HypeMan Sage and BluRum13, as well Andy Cooper of Long Beach's world-renowned rap group, Ugly Duckling.

Audio taken from a live performance by Anar Band (Jorge Lima Barreto and Rui Reininho) with E.M. de Melo e Castro in November of 1978 at Cooperativa Árvore, Porto. The performance was filmed. A segment was included in »Obrigatório Não Ver«, a weekly programme presented by Ana Hatherly on Public Television’s Second Channel. It was not possible to determine the exact date of the event, and no documentation seems to be available in the relevant archives.

»Encontro que Tenho« and »Profissões«: these titles are specific to this release. Having failed to locate the respective poems after a thorough search in E.M. de Melo e Castro’s body of work, it was deduced both texts were created for the occasion.

Even without a full contextualisation, the sound transmits the spirit of cultural agitation proper to these sessions. When this show happened, Anar Band were Jorge Lima Barreto (ARP Odyssey synthesizer) and Rui Reininho (Ibanez double-neck guitar), with the addition of E.M. de Melo e Castro, whom we shall call a poet but whose creative intervention was far reaching. Besides poetry, also continued his efforts in linking up diverse artistic areas (painting, drawing, collage, performance, video) and his official training in textile engineering. He was one of the artists featured in Henri Chopin's »OU Revue« in 1966, establishing his natural connection to the European concrete/visual/sound-poetry avant-garde. Melo e Castro was also proficient in the agitation of minds and political awareness. A good example in »Profissões«, where initially separate professionals (an intellectual, a fisherman, a soldier, a factory worker) are gradually mixed in a show of interdependency. Symbolically, through his words one listens to a transformation of society, although the same conclusion arises twice: surplus always finds its way to the hands of the capitalists.

That was the state of affairs many were looking to change, an economic and social malaise that the 1974 Revolution in Portugal fully uncovered, when dissident voices could finally be heard in public. Each in his own way, all three participants in this recording were non-believers in the structure of society such as it was presented. Through his books and press writings, mainly concerned with Jazz, Jorge Lima Barreto pushed his way into Portuguese artistic and critical circles since the late 1960s. Consciously and unwittingly, he collected enemies and pointed them by name, people he labelled as reactionary, people who delayed progress, social and cultural mixes, the avant-garde; they even delayed the chaos from which new forms and attitudes arise.

Rui Reininho, a non-conformist by heart, experienced incomprehension from an early age. His anarchic ways, a tendency to baffle others, were revealed through the choice of clothes and accessories, public behaviour, and »real life« performances. Just as Lima Barreto, and even together with him, he enjoyed provoking the extremes: Maoists on one side, right-wing conservatives on the other. He translated leftist books and joined Anar Band precisely on the day a duck or swan or goose (one of them) was thrown on stage in Porto, 1976.

This record documents a concrete action, a snapshot of the agitation, something we have no problem calling punk activism, something which allowed two people with little to no musical training to play and record music. By then, Anar Band had managed to release their only LP in 1977. It’s this performance, however, that reveals the naked rawness of the music: improvisation, mutual listening, and choice of intervention between both musicians and Melo e Castro, clearly sensing when the synth has to change tone, the voice has to make pauses, the guitar punctuates both and finds the space to… scream. The sound was captured by the film crew, adding to the rawness: the instruments are palpable, the voice often too close to the mic. Everything was preserved. First time on disc.

Although they emerged from Melbourne bayside outer suburbs onto the local live scene with their fresh and spirited indie-rock update of the garage-beat sounds of The Easybeats, Kinks and early Beatles only a year or so ago, Gnome actually started out as a bedroom solo project for teenaged singer/songwriter/ guitarist Jay Millar a few years back. Jay, playing everything himself, started recording and releasing a steady succession of material - quite a few albums' worth - on his own Goblin Records label via Bandcamp. Realizing he needed a band to start playing out, Jay approached some like minded players from Frankston's rehearsal hub Singing Bird, and with Jay on lead vocals and lead guitar, Ned Capp on guitar, Olly Katsianis on bass, and Ethan Robins on drums, Gnome became a band.

Early in 2025, the last solo Jay recordings released under the Gnome name caused something of an international underground sensation when the Bandcamp only I Like It EP - four songs of kranked up Kinks-style mono riffage - was posted by a Spanish garage-punk YouTube page and quickly clocked up over 50,000 views.



At the same time, the band quickly began gaining attention on the thriving Frankston scene and around Melbourne. They started breaking out, sharing bills with the likes of Drunk Mums, Skegss, Split System, The Prize, The Unknowns, Cosmic Psychos, Hockey Dad, Guitar Wolf, The 5.6.7.8's, The Breadmakers, Loose Lips, fellow Frankstoners/Singing Bird alumni The Belair Lip Bombs, and, on a quick trip to Sydney, Cammy Cautious & The Wrestlers.

And now, finally, we have The Gnomes' debut album. Twelve killer tracks that combine the best of the '60s with the best of today. Twelve killer tracks that show off assertive and accomplished songwriting, singing and playing and an explosive and authentic swinging group sound. Twelve killers slices of raw rock'n'roll running the gamut from the savage Rhythm & Blues of "Play With You" and “Better With You” to the vibrant beat pop of "I'll Be There" and "I'm Not The One", with forays into the heavy reverb psych of "Stung", the Cavern/Star Club stylings of "Flippin' Stomp" and the first flyte jangle of "Time Will Tell" along the way. There’s more of course, including a new version of that Kinks-style kranker “I Like It” for good measure.

Frankston’s Fab Four are taking their sound to the world. Join them for the ride!

“Yeah Yeah Yeah just arrived out of the blue. I just took a chance. I had some ideas for a new album I’d been working on, but we weren’t planning on recording until the year after. It all happened very fast. There was a window of opportunity- youth was free, the studio was free, and the band were free- and I thought, let providence prevail. No one had heard the songs apart from myself and Alan McGee, but we both thought that we had something. You could feel it, even though none of the songs were really finished, and so we decided to roll with it and go and record them. I think with Yeah Yeah Yeah it was more than just trying to capture a vibe- it was about trying to record something majestic, which is how youth describes the record. There are gospels and strings on tracks like Free Love and don’t look away, which have kind of turned into these massive anthems. It has P.P. Arnold as a featured vocalist on a couple of tracks- the first, the single poison vine, which has a groove and a blistering chorus. She’s also on another song that’s a psychedelic funk track: the way it’s gotta be (oh yeah). Songs like Teardrops or Birds Heading South- we’ve tried to capture that classic, slightly
Wistful theme- whereas the weight of the world just rocks out. There’s also a little acoustic track to break it all up called the devil and the deep, which is a favourite of mine. We recorded the album over in Spain at space mountain, Youth’s studio, way up in the mountains, just as the almond trees were in blossom- which I took as a good omen for the session”.

“Yeah Yeah Yeah just arrived out of the blue. I just took a chance. I had some ideas for a new album I’d been working on, but we weren’t planning on recording until the year after. It all happened very fast. There was a window of opportunity- youth was free, the studio was free, and the band were free- and I thought, let providence prevail. No one had heard the songs apart from myself and Alan McGee, but we both thought that we had something. You could feel it, even though none of the songs were really finished, and so we decided to roll with it and go and record them. I think with Yeah Yeah Yeah it was more than just trying to capture a vibe- it was about trying to record something majestic, which is how youth describes the record. There are gospels and strings on tracks like Free Love and don’t look away, which have kind of turned into these massive anthems. It has P.P. Arnold as a featured vocalist on a couple of tracks- the first, the single poison vine, which has a groove and a blistering chorus. She’s also on another song that’s a psychedelic funk track: the way it’s gotta be (oh yeah). Songs like Teardrops or Birds Heading South- we’ve tried to capture that classic, slightly
Wistful theme- whereas the weight of the world just rocks out. There’s also a little acoustic track to break it all up called the devil and the deep, which is a favourite of mine. We recorded the album over in Spain at space mountain, Youth’s studio, way up in the mountains, just as the almond trees were in blossom- which I took as a good omen for the session”.

Berlin-based Swiss vocalist Lucia Cadotsch returns with her celebrated Speak Low trio for their second album, released by We Jazz Records on 27 Nov. "Speak Low II" features Cadotsch on voice, Otis Sandsjö on tenor saxophone and Petter Eldh on double bass, and introduces guest artists Kit Downes on hammond organ and Lucy Railton on cello. "Speak Low II" picks up where their genre-bending and forward-looking debut album left off, introducing new shades into the band's sound and also diving even deeper into the songs they tackle. What makes Speak Low special is their approach to really get to the heart of each composition with seemingly minimal means, yet generating a sound which is both instantly recognisable and remarkably impactful.

"Speak Low II" comes almost five years after the band's lauded debut, and proves the depth of the band's approach right from the start. At the core of the trio's operation is an openness to their love of the music and to their surrounding scene(s). The album comes across as a unified collection of songs made truly theirs and found through listening to records and spending time with their musician friends, often on the road. The highly evolved band sound and the equality of the musicians shines through on the Speak Low sound, as the group uses their 100+ performances together as a vehicle for the development of their music.

"The first album was filled with pretty famous songs, but that was actually not at all intentional" explains Cadotsch. "Those were just my favourite songs of the previous 10 years and we started working on making them ours, musically. We were playing around with concepts for the second album, but soon realised that we just needed to find the right songs and adapt them organically, which comes through in how we interact with the songs and each other. This time around, we wanted to dig deeper and made finished arrangements of around 20 tracks, half of which we ditched in the process. The ones that made the cut have been through a lot and they just felt right for us."

In a way, the Speak Low approach could be described as archaeological. Three music lovers connecting with songs found at various sources, readily throwing away any ideas that don't seem natural to them, and hanging on tight to the ones that do.

Turns out there is a concept to "Speak Low II". It's the band itself, their shared musical development and their love of music.

"Speak Low II" will be available on We Jazz Records on vinyl (PURPLE and BLACK editions), CD and digitally. The vinyl versions come with a heavy duty tip-on sleeve and a printed inner sleeve. CD in digisleeve with no breaking plastic parts.

Noctourniquet And then everything went black, at least for a while, at least for The Mars Volta. In the months and years following their fifth full-length, Octahedron, Omar kept on at his usual fearsome creative pace. In fact, he ramped up his output considerably, starting up his own Rodriguez Lopez Productions label and releasing a slew of solo albums. It was a practice he’d begun shortly after De-Loused’s release, with his solo debut A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume One, but as the decade reached its close, Omar grew to rely upon his solo recordings as an outlet for his prolific creativity, these albums often exploring musical pastures far beyond even The Mars Volta’s wide-ranging parameters. Before choosing to release music under his own name, Omar would always play it to Cedric first, to see if the frontman thought it had potential to become Mars Volta music. Shortly after Octahedron’s completion, Cedric flagged one batch of tracks Omar had cut with Deantoni Parks, a brilliant drummer and composer who’d briefly occupied the Mars Volta drumstool in-between Jon Theodore and Thomas Pridgen’s tenures, and whose volcanic creativity and unique, unpredictable approach to rhythm and composition had quickly made him one of Omar’s favourite artistic foils.

As with the music that made up Octahedron, the new tracks Cedric had optioned for The Mars Volta often veered far from the riotous, Grand Guignol visions of their earlier releases. It possessed the punchy, song-based focus of Octahedron, though this was a considerably darker, more menacing strain of pop, with synthesisers figuring heavily in the productions. Cedric took the tracks in 2009 and set about writing songs to the music. But no more new Mars Volta music would be heard until 2012. The years that passed in-between were nonetheless momentous, and busy, witnessing an unexpected reunion of the members of At The Drive-In, and Cedric joining his own side-project, Anywhere. But there wasn’t any sign of life within the Mars Volta until Omar, Cedric and their bandmates took to the road for a series of live shows in the spring of 2011, billed as The Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group, debuting the songs that would become Noctourniquet. The album followed the next year, and it remains one of The Mars Volta’s finest, its electronic textures staking out unfamiliar but fertile new ground.

An unsettling, subtly turbulent listen, Noctourniquet found Cedric sketching out a story about “some sort of device that stops the darkness from bleeding”, drawing influence variously from the nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy, the Greek myth of Hyacinthus and the song Birth, School, Work, Death by British underground rockers The Godfathers. It was an album of dystopian futurism, signalled by the paranoid cyber-rock of opener The Whip Hand and its unnerving chorus, “That’s when I disconnect from you”. But it was also an album of inspired, unexpected moves and uncanny invention, like how Dyslexicon seemed to eerily evoke Blondie’s Rapture, before rushing headlong into its bruising chorus, tempos shifting restlessly throughout like quaking earth beneath the listener’s feet, or how Aegis put a brave new spin on The Mars Volta’s trademark rewiring of salsa’s overdriven passions, or how Cedric had never sounded as scary as he did on The Malkin Jewel’s mutant burlesque shuffle. Tracks like Molochwalker were sleek and concise in a way The Mars Volta had never really attempted before – which was all part of Omar’s plan.

“It had all been guitar, guitar, guitar, overdubs, everything fighting for space in the same frequency,” he explains. “So for Noctourniquet, it was all about subtracting elements, of sticking to how I made demos.” Deantoni’s presence helped revivify the group, playing against cliché and expectation, and taking each song in unexpected directions. “I’d beatbox a rhythm for him to play, to go with my guitar part, and he’d come back with three or four alternate options. It was so great.” Similarly, Cedric had never sung better than on Noctourniquet, staking out a fearsome spectrum from the chilling Tom Waitsian growl of The Malkin Jewel to the keening, beautiful vocalisation on Vedamalady, rising to match some of Omar’s most deft, most immediately effective and melodic songs yet. Indeed, Noctourniquet is the sound of a band discovering new ways to do familiar things, renewing their commitment to their mission, finding fresh inspiration a decade in, and shaking off any complacency that might have come with ten years of acclaim and success.

2026 Repress

Whether in the studio or the club, Daphni has always been a pursuit where Dan Snaith lets the music find its own path. With Cherry this is more evident than ever, this sense of the tracks as objects with life and desires outside of Snaith’s control has now become a driving force in their creation. "There isn't anything obvious that unifies it or makes it hang together" Snaith says, "I think it was good that it was made without worrying about any of that. I just made it."
Recorded over a prolonged period, Snaith let the music go where it wanted to go. It wasn’t until he put everything he’d been tinkering with together that he realised what he had. "It's weird that when the tracks were put in what felt like the right order it took on a new coherence" he says, "where it pings quickly from one idea to the next and, at least for me, hangs together in way that feels unified. Maybe because it's hard to avoid the musical fingerprints I leave on the music I make, whether I want to or not."
The component parts have this same sense of independence, the essence of Daphni always present over music that is more free-wheeling than it’s ever been, almost escaping Snaith's grasp as it tumbles and spirals. "As is often the case when you're working quickly and intuitively, new pieces of equipment played a part" he says.
New gear and ways of working meant Snaith was able to sit at the centre of the music but let things get away from him a bit more as equipment began to make its own decisions before reeling it back in to suit his purposes, or as he puts it "getting the snake to eat its own tail".

British singer-songwriter Lucy Kitt unveils her highly anticipated second album, Telling Me, a deeply personal collection that shifts focus from introspection to storytelling, capturing the lives and struggles of those closest to her. Drawing from her love of 70’s Laurel Canyon folk, 90’s indie rock, and country music, Kitt crafts narratives that blend her own experiences with compassionate observations of loved ones. Based on a raw acoustic “three chords and the truth” style of songwriting that ripples throughout, the album expands with full-band arrangements that give a huge range and richness to the sound.

Though influenced by American musical traditions, the Essex-native maintains her distinctive voice and authenticity, ensuring the music remains unmistakably her own. Following her 2018 debut Stand By, this new record represents a more mature approach to songwriting, written during her early 30s and completed in the 2021 lockdown – a storybook of songs capturing that moment in time.

Musically, Telling Me showcases Kitt's stripped-down acoustic foundations, while incorporating fuller arrangements that blend her love of Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Gram Parsons, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez, with music she loved as a teenager such as The Lemonheads and Veruca Salt. The album features collaborations with an impressive roster of musicians, including Jay Starkey on drums, Nashville-based pedal steel virtuoso Spencer Cullum, Treetop Flyer’s Sam Beer and longtime collaborator Pat Kenneally on drums and piano.

Recorded between 2021-2023 at London's Lightship 95 studio at Trinity Buoy Wharf, the album was co-produced and engineered by Dave Holmes, with some musicians contributing remotely from Nashville and London.

Kitt's commitment to authenticity extends to every aspect of the album, from the down-to-earth, home-based album artwork which represents her life right now as a musician and a working mum, with all the wonderful chaos that comes along with it. Also her decision to maintain her natural accent throughout her vocals. "I have always retained my authentic self in my songs," she explains. "Always singing with my own accent, despite the influences of all the bands and artists over the years."

Kitt has been songwriting and performing for over 20 years, starting in a riot grrl band in her teens in her hometown of Romford, Essex, before evolving into the thoughtful folk storyteller she is today. A semi-finalist at the BBC Young Folk Awards in the early 2000s, she has performed at major festivals including Glastonbury and Cambridge Folk Festival, building a reputation for intimate, lyrically-focused performances.

Telling Me is a resplendent collection of songs, capturing the human experience with great empathy, honesty and musical sophistication that has become Lucy Kitt's signature.

Two years have passed since haruka nakamura released the “Light years” series, a four-part project created in collaboration with THE NORTH FACE Sphere,
tracing the cycle of the seasons. During the two years that followed, he continued to produce beat-based sketches — melodies and fragments born in daily life,
films, and other creative projects — sampling and reworking his own material as an ongoing personal practice.

These works now come together as the culmination of his collaboration with THE NORTH FACE Sphere: the twin albums “ALL DAY” and “ALL RAY,” featuring
sixteen tracks in total.
Compared to his previous works, the melodies and rhythms here resonate more vividly and memorably. Both albums gaze toward the light of the seasons,
yet each expresses a distinct tone and atmosphere.

As a prelude to these albums, eight singles will be released consecutively over eight weeks.
The artwork combines photographs taken by haruka nakamura with watercolor-inspired designs by suzuki takahisa (16 design institute).
Together, the eight singles and two albums create a cohesive visual and sonic world through ten unified jacket artworks.

The label ORED Recordings was founded in 2013 by Circassian friends and fellow musicians Bulat Khalilov and Timur Kodzoko, in order to start an activity which is dedicated to documenting and preserving the traditional and post-traditional music of the North Caucasus. Khalilov and Kodzoko, were just as excited about this music as it sounded like a force that transcends borders and in which time dissolves and community becomes the only compass.

Through hundreds of field recordings, which have been made at communal gatherings, local festivities or family meetings, the label has captured a wide range of individual voices and their unique acoustic manifestations. All recordings on this album capture the raw expressiveness of the mountainside villages. Music performances being played by people who dedicate their love to music and an additional willingness to share intimate emotions.

Whereas most academic ethnomusicologists travel around the world in order to study foreign cultures, Bulat Khalilov and Timur Kodzoko were fascinated by what they just heard in the familiar regions of their then home town Nalchik. In resolute contrast to Russian academic circles, they soon developed a DIY Punk ethos for their far reaching work, beginning to formulate their own language in the field of ethnomusicology and to push the traditions forward.

However, the label’s work goes far beyond mere preservation. »We started traveling around the North Caucasus and did recordings with people from many different ethnic groups. In the North Caucasus, our work had a political dimension because there used to be (and still are) a lot of conflicts between different ethnic groups. We quickly understood that our work is not just about music and art,« states Bulat Khalilov.

The work of the label aims to reflect not only the great music of the Caucasus and its various communities but also to tell the stories behind it. They are stories of struggle, of independence, of working with historical memory in the present times of the 21st century.

Since Bulat Khalilov and Timur Kodzoko are now based at the University of Göttingen, we were able to meet each other many times and to eventually exchange ideas which resulted in the release of this collection of recordings. The compilation »Music from the Caucasus« provides a first introduction to the comprehensive work of ORED Recordings. For this collaborative release on TAL the recordings are being made accessible for the first time ever on vinyl, CD and various digital formats, all coming with extensive liner notes and yet unpublished photographs.

Bulat Khalilov and Stefan Schneider, November 2025

Ace’s small but ever-evolving “Black America Sings…” series has been quiet of late, but it springs back into action this month with the 2-LP and CD releases of “Highway Of Diamonds” – a second dip onto the catalogue of Bob Dylan, as reimagined by some of the foremost African-American artists of the 20th century.

From almost the start of his songwriting career, Dylan’s words and music have impacted on black American music, with ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, speaking to an America that was still mostly segregated and becoming an anthem for all colours and creeds. As Dylan’s own career progressed, so did the number of covers he received, with a significant amount coming from what might be termed ‘non-traditional’ sources such as those heard here.

The 20 songs on “Highway Of Diamonds” continue the story that was told in part on the earlier “How Many Roads” compilation, with an almost entirely different selection of artists lending their voices to some of the best songwriting of the 20th century, and an almost entirely different selection of songs (with the exception of ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ itself, which provides a common thread linking the story told across the two sets).
Big names from the worlds of soul, gospel and jazz, timeless songs and, for many, new ways of appreciating ever-durable material make “Highway Of Diamonds” as essential a purchase as its predecessor.

As ever, the great audio is complemented by a handsomely illustrated package on both CD and double vinyl, with a plethora of illustrations and in depth song-by-song-and-track-by-track annotation by Ace legend Tony Rounce.

Since 2018, BBE Music’s J Jazz Series of compilations and album reissues has been at the forefront in focussing attention on the hitherto cloistered and rarified world of Japanese jazz. True to the ethos of the series, curators Tony Higgins and Mike Peden have once again dug up a truly rare gem in the form of a 45 from the mysterious Christal Zone, originally released in 1971 only as a promo and reissued here for the very first time. Several years before pianist Tohru Aizawa and brothers Tetsuya and Kyoichiro Morimura formed the now-celebrated Tohru Aizawa Quartet — whose 1975 private- press spiritual jazz LP Tachibana Vol 1 has become a cornerstone of the J Jazz canon and previously reissued by BBE — they were already venturing into bold, experimental territory. Their 1971 single Rai Rai, released as a promotional 7-inch on Liberty Records under the short-lived moniker Christal Zone was written and arranged by koto player and composer Hideakira Sakurai. An almost unclassifiable hybrid of jazz, Japanese folk, Algerian raï, and free improvisation. Sakurai’s visionary approach dominates the track, blending traditional Japanese instrumentation with a dense polyrhythmic groove that evokes not only avant-garde jazz but also the raw street energy of Algerian raï — celebratory, unfiltered, and joyfully unrestrained. The story behind the recording of Rai Rai is as spontaneous as the music itself. While casually rehearsing at Sakurai’s villa, the group was overheard by producer Kunihiko Murai, who was so stunned by what he heard that he arranged a studio session for them the very next day. The resulting 7-inch — Rai Rai / Kanashiyana, released under the one-off Christal Zone name — is now one of the rarest artefacts in Japanese jazz, with original copies fetching astronomical prices among collectors. BBE Music has faithfully reproduced the original artwork and packaging to celebrate this extraordinary and super rare piece of J Jazz history. A piece that bridges the ancient and the future, Japan and North Africa, in under four minutes of controlled chaos. A truly one-of-a-kind artefact, Rai Rai is a manifesto from a generation unafraid to rip up the rulebook and follow their own path.

This release resurrects a long-lost cornerstone of Seattle's early grunge history, showcasing Bundle of Hiss, featuring future Mudhoney and TAD guys and singer Jamie lane, one of the genre's missing links. Between 1986 and 1988, when Seattle was still a circuit of small clubs, four-track tapes and bands sharing drummers and singers, Jack Endino went in to record one of the most solid - and most unfairly invisible - outfits of that scene: BUNDLE OF HISS. Two sessions (1986 at Reciprocal and 1987/88 at Audio Design) fell into limbo, stored in the basement of Mudhoney-Drummer Dan Peters and for years they were a kind of pre-grunge legend, everyone knew they existed, but there was no record, until Loveless Records from NYC released both on CD. The second one, Audio Design Sessions, now sees the light of vinyl for the first time, just as it should have come out in the late '80s: a basement document turned into a collectible artifact. For those who want real grunge, not the domesticated version. It gathers the core of those 1987-1988 recordings done by Endino: the moment when the band is tighter, darker and closer to what the press would later call the "Seattle sound": minor-key melodies, thick fuzz, vocals on the edge, and that mix of hard rock, punk and Sabbath-like heaviness we'd later hear in Mudhoney, TAD or early Soundgarden. And Jack Endino himself summed up these sessions: "Vintage Seattle grunge from one of the original practitioners_ I always felt sad that this hard-working band never managed to get a record out and was almost lost to history. It was a pleasure -and a technical pain!- to resurrect all this." Kinda key release of the early grunge days, first-generation material, recorded by the scene's producer, at the exact moment Seattle was shifting from noisy punk to that heavy, shadowy rock that later blew up. It sounds raw, young and dangerous: this is not a polished compilation, it's a snapshot of the scene.

Originally released in 1999, Everything Is Green is the debut album from Brooklyn based The Essex Green, a seminal band within the Elephant 6 collective. Combining chiming guitars, warm harmonies, and subtle psych-pop textures, the album stands as a timeless document of late-90s indie pop creativity. This official vinyl reissue brings back the band's beloved debut in a beautiful transparent lime pressing, giving fans and collectors a chance to experience its delicate, sun-drenched melodies on wax for the first time since their original release in 1999. A must-have for those discovering the Elephant 6 universe or revisiting a modern classic of indie pop. For fans of: The Apples in Stereo, The Olivia Tremor Control, Camera Obscura.

Following their successful comeback, they dropped another album featuring a variety of country and pop songs, as well as covers of artists such as Jimmy Cliff and Randy Newman. The album is a stylistic follow- up to No Regrets , where the group blends their pop songs with romantic orchestral arrangements. The singles "Lines" and "We're All Alone" became firm favourites with fans, and the album is widely regarded as a hidden gem among fans of country pop and yacht rock

Five years after legendary Dutch rock band Golden Earring called it a day (after 50 years of recording and touring), their ten most loved songs and worldwide biggest hits have been brought together on one album: Essential Earring

2026 Restocked!

If you've been following the Payfone story over the last 13 years, you'll know that Phil Passera and Jimmy Day's long-running collaborative project has specialised in one-off musical morsels - sublime songs cooked up in cahoots with all manner of guest musicians and vocalists. Never ones to rest on their laurels, Day and Passera have now delivered a full six-track tasting menu in the shape of Lunch, their hotly anticipated debut album.

Recorded over an 18-month period at Passera's Barcelona studio and Day's studio in Brighton, Lunch is an unsurprisingly assured and musically detailed affair that's entirely made up of previously unheard songs. Unlike acid-flecked recent single 'Volt To Volt', which delivered a tweaked take on late 1980s house music, the album's six tracks showcase the trademark sound the duo has been developing since first joining forces 13 years ago.

Trawl back through Passera and Day's high-quality catalogue, which includes outings on Leng, Golf Channel Recordings and Defected as well as their own OTIS imprint, and that distinctive musical recipe becomes clear. Rooted in their love of classic drum machines and their trusty JUNO-60 synthesiser, the Payfone sound combines equal amounts of electronic and organic instrumentation, warm and inviting downtempo and mid-tempo grooves, and pertinent and thoughtful lyrics delivered with panache by an impressive roll call of guest vocalists.

Lunch, then, is a standalone sonic statement - an initially vinyl only album on their own OTIS imprint - that continues this impressive lineage. Like all Passera and Day's collaborative work, it is free of samples, with the pair preferring to create their own sounds from scratch. Opener 'Movin' On', featuring the honeyed vocals of former XL Recordings artist Willis Earl Beal AKA Nobody and slap-bass from Jo Gabriel Harris (who also features on three other songs across the album), is a deep and effortlessly evocative mid-tempo delight that perfectly sets the tone for what's to come.

Brooklyn-born April Pittman and Russian/Armenian vocalist Zara Kian lend their talents to woozy, sun-baked shuffler 'Paperman' before regular Payfone collaborator Ludmilla Rodriguez headlines 'Joan of Arc', a veritable Mediterranean breeze rich in tumbling analogue synth synths, elastic bass and tumbling guitar solos. Those yearning for a touch of lightly disco-flecked dancefloor heat will savour 'Spend The Night', where Los Angeles singer Collette Tibbetts AKA Carmella The Balls, accompanied by virtuoso keys courtesy of Parisian pianist Gabriel Cazes, rises above a sweet, melodious, dub disco-adjacent backing track. In contrast, 'Pamela' is low-slung and hypnotic, with 'Sofian' vocalist Barbara Alcindor ushering us through a deep, heady groove-scape.

Fittingly, Passera and Day round off Lunch via a vibrant and potent sweet treat, 'Pony Bar'. Headed up by the J.J Cale-esque lead vocals of man of mystery Leon Lace, the pedal steel-sporting song joins the dots between dusty Americana, kaleidoscopic Balearic beats and lilting, slow-motion disco. Like the rest of the album, you'll be thinking about it long after you've washed down the last few musical mouthfuls.

A rich and varied selection of tracks from veterans of the Italo Disco scene and talents who have established themselves in recent years, with one common goal: the dancefloor. Each track follows a distinctive path, reflecting the broad developments of the

SPIRIT!, the third LP from HUNNY, is about embracing the weird-an album born from uncertainty and built on instinct. It"s a testament to breaking free, starting over, and tuning out the noise. Now the sole project of longtime frontman Jason Yarger, HUNNY has shed its past shape to become something more fully itself. SPIRIT! doesn"t reinvent the wheel so much as keep it spinning forward. Across 15 tracks, the album-co-produced by Yarger and former bassist Kevin Grimmett with drums by former drummer Joey Anderson-leans into the sounds that have always lit HUNNY"s fuse: hooky post-punk, gleaming synths, and shout-along choruses praised by Alternative Press, Kerrang!, and Rock Sound. But it also pushes further-into abstraction, playfulness, and freedom. It"s the latest turn for HUNNY, a band long celebrated for shapeshifting through genres and decades with style on fan-favorite releases like Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. (2019) and new planet heaven (2023)-always evolving, yet unmistakably themselves. That dynamic energy carries into their high-voltage live show, sharpened on tours with Joywave, Mom Jeans, Waterparks, and State Champs.

,Warmer Than Gold", das neue Album von Ben Cooks Projekt GUV, ist ein Dokument eines Lebens in der Musik, ein kritischer und feierlicher Reisebericht, ein Versuch, die homogenen und statusbesessenen Zustände der heutigen Welt durch den Einsatz von großen Beats, großen Refrains und Verzerrung zu überwinden. Es ist ein Album, das unterwegs entstanden ist und überall Sinn ergibt. Vor allem aber leitet es mit seiner erweiterten Klangpalette und der Betonung von Breakbeats eine neue Ära eines Künstlers ein, der nie aufgehört hat, sich weiterzuentwickeln. Cook, der zwischen Toronto und England aufgewachsen ist, verfügt über eine angloamerikanische Authentizität, die ihn von der wachsenden Schar von Hardcore-Kids mit Windjacken und Pilzköpfen unterscheidet. Zwei der ersten Konzerte, die er im Alter von 12 Jahren besuchte, waren Oasis und Neil Young. Nach dem Konzert, erinnert er sich, dachte er: ,Ja, ich werde für immer Musik machen." Kurz nachdem er Hardcore und Punk für sich entdeckt hatte, ging es los, zuerst mit seiner geliebten Hardcore-Band No Warning (mit der er bis heute spielt), dann als Mitglied der Punk-Experimentalisten Fucked Up, die er 2006 gründete. Er war ein Teil der Underground-Szene, die sich in den 90er Jahren in Kanada Kurz darauf entdeckte er Hardcore und Punk, und schon ging es los, zunächst mit seiner geliebten Hardcore-Band No Warning (mit der er bis heute spielt), dann als Mitglied der Punk-Experimentalisten Fucked Up von 2007 bis 2021 - und währenddessen baute er sich ein umfangreiches und beeindruckendes Repertoire an Soloarbeiten auf, zunächst als Young Governor, dann als Young Guv und jetzt einfach als GUV (,Ich bin nicht mehr so jung, Drei-Buchstaben-Bandnamen sind cool, und ich bin es leid, mit einem Rapper verwechselt zu werden", bemerkt Cook). Warmer Than Gold ist die großformatige Krönung all dieser Stränge. Die Musik des Albums behält den eingängigen Geist von Cooks früheren Alben bei, wie den gefeierten Doppelalben GUVI & II und GUV III & IV, fügt jedoch ein ausgeprägtes rhythmisches Element hinzu, das von klassischem Madchester und Britpop geprägt ist. Es verschmiert und schwebt, es fühlt sich an, als würde man um Mitternacht die Autobahn M1 entlangrasen, angetrieben von einer Dringlichkeit, die in Cooks anderen Werken nicht zu finden ist. Was jedoch von diesen früheren Power-Pop-Veröffentlichungen beibehalten wurde, ist das ausgeprägte Gespür des Künstlers für eingängige Melodien. In Kombination mit einer neuen Produktionssensibilität, die von den Beastie Boys über The Field Mice bis hin zu Primal Scream inspiriert ist, gelingt es Cook, die zentralen lyrischen Themen des Projekts musikalisch zu untermalen: die globale Verflachung der Kultur, das Vergehen der Zeit in der materiellen Welt und die Rolle des Künstlers in all dem.