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First Word Records is extremely proud to welcome back Kaidi Tatham, with a brand new 12-track album entitled 'Don't Rush The Process'.

This is Kaidi's 4th solo album under his own name, following on from 'An Insight To All Minds' (2021), 'It's A World Before You' (2018), and 'In Search Of Hope' (re-pressed in 2020), all released on First Word, along with several EPs from 2017 onwards.

To bring you up to speed, Kaidi Tatham is a legendary multi-instrumentalist born in the Midlands and based in Belfast. Once dubbed "the UK's Herbie Hancock" by Benji B, he's a virtuoso on the keys and a true innovator in sound production as one of the original creators of the Broken Beat sound. Over the years his musical prowess has blessed numerous projects, recently with the likes of DJ Jazzy Jeff, Andrew Ashong and with longtime accomplice, Dego. This in addition to session and remix work for artists such as Mulatu Astatke, Slum Village, Marcos Valle, Amy Winehouse, Soul II Soul, Nubya Garcia, Rosie Frater-Taylor and Leroy Burgess, along with First Word label mates Eric Lau, Children of Zeus, Allysha Joy and Darkhouse Family. Kaidi is also a revered DJ known for rocking parties globally, whilst his solo catalogue spans tons of EPs and releases for labels such as Dego's 2000 Black, Alex Nut's Eglo Records and Theo Parrish's Sound Signature.

This new album 'Don't Rush The Process' opens with an intro of sweet strings on 'Mystery Solved', ahead of lead title track, which is on a mid-tempo boom bap vibe, before switching to a more uptempo boogie vein, with the assistance of The Easy Access Orchestra, who also appear on 'We Chillin' Out', which is on a similar boogie tip. 'All I Need' is some gospel flavoured hip hop, whilst 'Knocknee Donkey' steps things up in a jazz-funk fashion. The second half of the album takes on a very Brazilian flavoured stance, with a set of delicious latin flavoured grooves on 'Any Flavour', 'Runnin' Tru', 'What A Dream' and 'Sooretama', the latter featuring the additional prowess of pianist Robert Mitchell. There's a touch more of the hip hop beats thrown in via 'Funky Fool' and the album closes out in inimitable Kaidi style with a short message: 'Mind Yourself'.

A hugely prolific artist, here he adds to an already impressive catalogue, a body of work that falls within the cracks of jazz and dance music, exemplifying modern British black brilliance; uncompromising, innovative, groundbreaking, intricately sophisticated and deeply funky. His fanbase expands on every release and it's no surprise that that fanbase includes a diverse set of peers such as Madlib ("ahead of his time"), Gilles Peterson ("a key part of an entire movement"), K15 ("a limitless source of inspiration") and Kyle Hall.

'Don't Rush The Process' is released on vinyl & digital worldwide, July 2022 via First Word Records.

The year that NOW’s story began, and where we started our ‘Yearbook’ series back in 2021. An incredible year in Pop music, and a fabulous selection of the years’ hits have featured on that first ‘Yearbook’, and on the ‘80-84 Final’ as part of our appreciation of 1983. Those tracks were generally the bigger hits of the year, with their Chart achievement a factor in their inclusion. However, that’s not the whole story, and our celebration of 1983 wouldn’t be complete without shining a light on some of the year’s singles that have been compiled much less frequently over the past 40 years. Welcome to the THE VAULT for 1983…Some of the tracks were Top 40 hits, some missed the Chart completely, and some were huge in the U.S. and not in the U.K. – but all are part of the wonderful Pop story of 1983. Released as 80 tracks across 4-CDs, available as a standard 4CD and as a a special edition 4CD in ‘hardback book’ packaging featuring a 28-page track by track guide, original singles artwork and a quiz and 45 tracks across 3-LPs, pressed on stunning translucent red vinyl -

Ever since the late 1950s bossa-nova revolution, Brazil’s influence on French music has been undeniable. Pierre Barouh, Georges Moustaki and a vast array of lesser known artists, all made the Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) an axis of promotion at the service of a cool and metaphysical, modern and mixed Brazilian lifestyle. Some were seduced by the poetic languors of the bossa, some were looking for fun, and others just loved the American hybridization of jazz-bossa, jazz-samba.



What is bossa nova? One of its creators, Joao Gilberto said: "Its style, cadence, everything is samba. At the very start, we didn't call it bossa nova, we sang a little samba made up of a single note - Samba de uma nota so .... The discussion around the origins of bossa nova is therefore useless”. It is nevertheless useful to remember that these magnificent Brazilian songs, which the guitarist describes as samba, were shifted and balanced around improbable chords. "I like things that lean, the in-betweens that limp with grace," said Pierre Barrouh, quoting Jean Cocteau.



With emotion, arrangements for violin and supple guitar licks, bossa nova rapidly changed. A transformation that can be heard in the Tchic, tchic, French Bossa Nova 1963-1974 compilation, the result of a cultural reappropriation, which traveled through the United States and supplemented itself in France.

A musical revolution that has remained significant, bossa nova was born in Rio. From 1956 to 1961, Brazil lived through its golden years. In five years, the country had invented its modernist style. Elected president in 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, an elegant man with a broad forehead, brandished a promising slogan: "Fifty years of progress in five years". He quickly got to work. Not worried about increasing debt, he launched the project for a new federal capital, Brasilia, designed by the communist architect Oscar Niemeyer. Volkswagen opened state-of-the-art factories and created the “fusquinha”, the Beetle. In Rio, the Vespa made its first appearance. The Arpoador Surf Club crew run into the “girl” from Ipanema, Helô Pinheiro - the tanned garota ("chick"), between a flower and mermaid, who at 17 walked by the Veloso bar, where the fiery author and composer, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, were getting drunk on whiskey. From then on, bossa symbolized cool.

In 1958, Joao Gilberto recorded Chega de Saudade, which the directors of Philips denied, calling it "music for fagots". The marketing director, who believed in it, secretly pressed 3000 78-inch vinyls and distributed them at schools around Rio, creating a tidal wave.

American jazzmen then took over. In particular, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Byrd. In November 1962, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a "Bossa-Nova" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, inviting the genre’s pioneers. Unprepared, the show soon turned to disaster. But the troupe was invited to the White House by Jackie Kennedy. The first lady loved "the new beat" and in particular Maria Ninguem, a song by Carlos Lyra, later covered by Brigitte Bardot.

In Brazil, the 1964 military coup quickly ended this euphoria. The destructive atmosphere that ensued pushed many Brazilian musicians to leave, if not to exile. Thus, Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Joao Gilberto arrived to the United States. In New York, Joao Gilberto met saxophonist Stan Getz. At the time, he was married to the Bahianese Astrud Weinert Gilberto, who had a German father. She had never sung before, but she knew how to speak English. Getz therefore asked her to replace her husband on The Girl From Ipanema. The Getz/Gilberto record with Tom Jobim on piano, was released in March 1964. Phil Ramone, the "pope of pop" was in charge of sound.

Bossa nova arrived in Paris through the classic “guitar-voice” channel (Pierre Barouh, Baden Powell, Moustaki…) But France loved jazz and Paris had already welcomed its American contributors. All these good people were to pass through Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The cabaret l'Escale became the Mecca of Latin American sound where one could find Pierre Barrouh and his friends, such as the Camara Trio, samba-jazz aces, whose only record was published by the Saravah label. With a band strangely called Les Masques (a band that included Nicole Croisille and Pierre Vassiliu, among others), the Camara Trio recorded an interesting Brazilian Sound, including the track Il faut tenir which is present on this tasty compilation of rarities.

Other enlightened musicians can also be found on the compilation, such as Jean-Pierre Sabar (songwriter for Hardy, Auffray, Leforestier ...) and the French pop rock organist Balthazar. In 1975, Sabar recorded Aurinkoinen Musiikkimatka on a Finnish label, which featured the crazy Vai, Vai, included on this record. We are now following the footsteps of Brazilian electronic musicians such as Sergio Mendes, Eumir Deodato or Marcos Valle who created funk and disco sounds on their keyboards and synthesizers. A style that influenced Véronique Sanson when she wrote Jusqu’à la Tombée de la nuit in 1969 for Isabelle de Funès, the niece of Louis and a great friend of Michel Berger - Sanson did end up singing this track on her 1992 Sans Regret record.


The pinnacle of exoticism and travel, Sylvia Fels’ Corto Maltese includes bongos, sea mist and ocean sounds. The title was taken from Jacky Chalard’s concept album written in 1974, Je suis vivant, mais j’ai peur (I am alive, but I am scared), based on Gilbert Deflez’s science fiction novel.


However, bossa nova extended the scope of popularity. "In the 1970s, I was a fan of Sergio Mendes, Getz / Gilberto. I fell in love with this music that I knew because I had been an orchestral singer, " explained Isabelle Aubret, who in 1971 delivered a composite record of covers by the very funky Jorge Ben, Orfeu Negro, Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Morais and Jean Ferrat. "I recorded this album for Meys Records in Paris, far from Brazil, with wonderful musicians, François Raubert, Roland Vincent, Alain Goraguer...". The latter wrote the arrangements for Casa Forte, a very percussive title borrowed from Edu Lobo, one of the initiators of the bossa who spent time in California. "Jazz and bossa came together and produced very rhythmic music. I love singing, it allows me to dream, to have fun, to feel a high on stage, and these songs brought me joy, made me swing, my singing felt like a dance.”


The world tours of French singers and their desire for the tropics, often brought them to Rio with its hills, forests, caipirinhas and tanned bodies. There are surprises though, like this Iemenja (Iemenja is the goddess of the sea in the Afro-Brazilian candomblé religion). Not unlike the composer and musician Jean-Pierre Lang, based in Sao Paulo, Claire Chevalier taught Brazil to Brazil. In 1970, the singer and painter published a 45-inch vinyl, Mon mari et mes amants (My husband and my lovers), under the improbable pseudonym of Clarinha (little Claire). She was then living in Rio, with her husband, Joël Leibovitz, who founded a band called Azimuth, and who owned a record label specialized in "sambas enredos" songs for samba school parades.


For its B side, she asked Pierre Perret to come up with lyrics for a song composed by Carlos Imperial: "Oh goddess of the sea, o goddess Iemenja, I bring a white rose to adorn your long hair ..." . "Perret came to see us, and we had fun, remembers Joël Leibovitz. We wrote Lemenja for fun, we recorded it at the Havaí studio, behind the Central do Brasil the central station. Erlon Chaves, the arranger who worked with Elis Regina, joined us" adding his share of Afro-Brazilian percussions and funky brass to the mix.

There is a common misunderstanding in Franco-Brazilian history: that bossa, admittedly hedonistic, is perceived as funny, even though the poets who wrote the texts are often philosophizing on the human condition. Its French interpreters pull it towards a carnival inspired universe, far removed from its fundamental essence. Thus, Jean Constantin covered the famous Samba da minha terra, an ode to the art of samba written by the classic Bahian composer Dorival Caymmi, renaming it with the enticing title of Pas tant de tchi tchi pompon: "On your pier there is no tchi tchi / when you arch your back, you know everything is alright ”(lyrics by Gérard Calvi). This expedited bossa aims for the absurd, but retains a certain elegance.

Indeed, Jean Constantin was not an idiot, the rather large man had a huge mustache and liked fantasy, (Les pantoufles à papa, Le pacha, inspired by cha-cha-cha-cha, salsa and jazz) but he was also the lyricist of Mon manège à moi interpreted by Edith Piaf, the composer of Mon Truc en plume by Zizi Jeanmaire and the soundtrack of François Truffaut’s 400 Blows. Le Poulpe, published in 1970, from which this bossa is extract, was arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier, an accomplice of Serge Gainsbourg’s Melody Nelson. In short: "There is enough of samba / By looking at the parasol / Because my poor cabeza / Is going to die in the sun".

Even the American actress Marpessa Down, who was at the heart of the bossa nova revolution with her role as Euridyce in Marcel Camus’ film Orfeu Negro, winner of the 1959 Cannes Palme d'or, fed the clichée with Je voudrais parler au petit cuica - "Tell me how you manage to always make people want to dance / It's true, I must admit that I cannot resist your magic" - in consequence, once can hear the cuica, a little drum inherited from the Bantu.


But bossa nova had many angles. Societal, of course, pushing actresses who were symbols of women's liberation like Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, or Sophia Loren to engage in the exercise of accelerated bossa. In February of 1963, Sophia Loren made a record in French in Rome, Je ne t'aime plus, featuring the song De jour en jour, a bossa written by two Italians, Armando Trovajoli and Tino Fornai, which was released a little later by Barclay. Bossa accompanied the 1960s, a decade of moral liberation. Ann Sorel, who interpreted La Poupée des favellas, caused a sensation with L’amour à plusieurs, a provocative song written by Frédéric Bottom and Jean-Claude Vannier. As for the actress Andrea Parisy, she displayed her bourgeois cheekiness in Marcel Carné's Les Tricheurs before interpreting Les mains qui font du bien. And Magalie Noël, the friend of Boris Vian, who sung Johnny fais-moi mal, was hired to sing Une énorme Samba, composed by Alain Goraguer (arranger to Gainsbourg, Bobby Lapointe and Jean Ferrat) with lyrics by Frédéric Botton.

But in the end, of what wood is bossa nova made of? The answer is given by Christianne Legrand, daughter of Raymond the conductor, and sister to Michel the composer: "With me, with jà" - jà means "immediately" in Portuguese. In 1972, the singer, an expert in vocal jazz and a member of the Double Six, published Le Brésil de Christianne Legrand. Two songs included on the Tchic Tchic compilation that demonstrate how bossa, jazz, funk, rock, etc. work like a swiss army knife: the music is used to denounce broken systems, or miracles, HLM et ciné roman, Cent mille poissons dans ton filet, two songs from the O Cafona soundtrack, a successful telenovela broadcast, at the time in black and white, on TV Globo. The first was adapted in French by the fighter and friend of the Legrand tribe, Agnès Varda. The second is content with a play on words, jostling them into a summer fun.



Véronique Mortaigne

In the spring of 1977, Millie Jackson was in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, laying down tracks for what became “Feelin’ Bitchy” with co-producer Brad Shapiro. Released in August 1977, the album reached #4 and #34 in America’s Billboard’s R&B and Hot 100, going gold with over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson’s cover of ‘If You’re Not Back In Love By Monday’ – already a hit for Merle Haggard in March 1977 – also reached #5 R&B and #43 in the Hot 100 in August. Although the album did not chart in the UK, “Feelin’ Bitchy” sold strongly to a dedicated fanbase who had voted her the #1 female singer in the Blues & Soul magazine annual poll. Jackson also performed much of the material on her sold-out UK dates in early 1978.

“Feelin’ Bitchy” was not only a commercial success, cementing Jackson’s no-nonsense reputation, but is now considered an all-time classic. Her rap on Benny Latimore’s ‘All The Way Lover’ stretched the original out like chewing gum to 10 minutes. “’Back In Love By Monday’ is a great song an’ that,” she told Black Echoes, “but it didn’t sell the album. ‘All The Way Lover’ sold the album.” Indeed it did, but other tracks like ‘A Little Taste Of Outside Love’ ‘Lovin’ Your Good Thing Away’, ‘Cheatin’ Is’ and ‘Feelin’ Like A Woman’ show that while Jackson’s tongue – front and centre on the LP cover – was always ready to hand out a lashing, it also helped her sing beautifully.

Ace are delighted to reissue “Feelin’ Bitchy’ on vinyl and Millie Jackson spoke to Ian Shirley about the recording of the album. This interview runs on an inner sleeve along with classic photographs of Jackson from this period.

Nicaraguan-American artist Dagmar Zuniga makes music that feels both intimate and expansive: songs drift like disrupted signals, carried by harmony, tape hiss, and a strong sense of touch. Her debut solo album in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music — written and recorded in New York, Norway, and Athens, Georgia over a period of five years on her longtime companion, the Tascam 424 — was uploaded to Bandcamp and YouTube in January 2025, quickly garnering over two hundred thousand views and the attention of artists such as Mount Eerie, who invited her to tour with them that summer. This year, what was once a jewel of tapped-in algorithms and message boards will meet the world at large, with in filth arriving digitally on March 4, and physically on April 10, via AD 93.

in filth is an atmospheric, devotional collage where one voice multiplies into a chorus of selves, sometimes delicate, sometimes severe; an effect created by Zuniga’s masterful layering of texture and complex harmonies. Synths glitter out like spears of sunlight from beneath clouds of moody, time-distorted guitars, and songs spin about themselves like tightly-wound music boxes, making use of a kind of hypnotic repetition, before melting apart into their components or slipping into the following track.

Zuniga began recording to tape as a teenager, drawn to the physicality of the medium — how a tape recording is fragile, mutable, and alive. Though her ethereal sound may draw easy comparisons to other female pioneers of psychedelic folk, she is influenced just as much by the darker sounds of Syd Barrett and The Fall. Like Barrett, Zuniga is a painter, and she is interested not only in recording music but in creating a full, self-contained artistic universe: she creates her own artwork, merchandise, music videos, and bootleg tapes of new and unfinished music that she exclusively sells at live shows (“If something is not material, it does not exist,” she insists). Her world has not gone unvisited, garnering her a monthly show on NTS Radio ‘World of Pain’, as well as a forthcoming appearance at Rewire Festival in April 2026.

Though Zuniga’s work explores themes of solitude and suffering, the suffering in her songs is not borrowed or displayed; it is held, then opened outward through empathy — an exacting practice of attention that insists on shared ground. Solitude, in her work, is not withdrawal but a starting point for connection. Likewise, over time, her recording process has become increasingly communal, with in filth featuring musicians Hayes Hoey, Austyn Wohlers (Tomato Flower), and Zach Phillips (Fievel Is Glauque). Newer recordings widen the circle even more. For Zuniga, collaboration is a way to “find a place between worlds,” echoing Badiou’s idea of love as a vision refracted through the prism of difference. Meaning emerges there — in the space between voices, between artist and listener. “I hope my music helps people work through difficult experiences,” she says. “The same way it helps me.”

Nicaraguan-American artist Dagmar Zuniga makes music that feels both intimate and expansive: songs drift like disrupted signals, carried by harmony, tape hiss, and a strong sense of touch. Her debut solo album in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music — written and recorded in New York, Norway, and Athens, Georgia over a period of five years on her longtime companion, the Tascam 424 — was uploaded to Bandcamp and YouTube in January 2025, quickly garnering over two hundred thousand views and the attention of artists such as Mount Eerie, who invited her to tour with them that summer. This year, what was once a jewel of tapped-in algorithms and message boards will meet the world at large, with in filth arriving digitally on March 4, and physically on April 10, via AD 93.

in filth is an atmospheric, devotional collage where one voice multiplies into a chorus of selves, sometimes delicate, sometimes severe; an effect created by Zuniga’s masterful layering of texture and complex harmonies. Synths glitter out like spears of sunlight from beneath clouds of moody, time-distorted guitars, and songs spin about themselves like tightly-wound music boxes, making use of a kind of hypnotic repetition, before melting apart into their components or slipping into the following track.

Zuniga began recording to tape as a teenager, drawn to the physicality of the medium — how a tape recording is fragile, mutable, and alive. Though her ethereal sound may draw easy comparisons to other female pioneers of psychedelic folk, she is influenced just as much by the darker sounds of Syd Barrett and The Fall. Like Barrett, Zuniga is a painter, and she is interested not only in recording music but in creating a full, self-contained artistic universe: she creates her own artwork, merchandise, music videos, and bootleg tapes of new and unfinished music that she exclusively sells at live shows (“If something is not material, it does not exist,” she insists). Her world has not gone unvisited, garnering her a monthly show on NTS Radio ‘World of Pain’, as well as a forthcoming appearance at Rewire Festival in April 2026.

Though Zuniga’s work explores themes of solitude and suffering, the suffering in her songs is not borrowed or displayed; it is held, then opened outward through empathy — an exacting practice of attention that insists on shared ground. Solitude, in her work, is not withdrawal but a starting point for connection. Likewise, over time, her recording process has become increasingly communal, with in filth featuring musicians Hayes Hoey, Austyn Wohlers (Tomato Flower), and Zach Phillips (Fievel Is Glauque). Newer recordings widen the circle even more. For Zuniga, collaboration is a way to “find a place between worlds,” echoing Badiou’s idea of love as a vision refracted through the prism of difference. Meaning emerges there — in the space between voices, between artist and listener. “I hope my music helps people work through difficult experiences,” she says. “The same way it helps me.”

Time Out, a pause, like an injunction to suspend the course of events in order to project oneself into a more serene future, is the title of Malted Milk's eighth album. From the haunting Afro beat of the title track to the decadent boogaloo of "I Feel Numb", via the ballad "What a Night" and the funky "It's Alright" , the band demonstrates i ts mastery of arrangements, its creative ability and its talent for revisiting the soul/funk genre. As with the previous album, 1975, Marco Cinelli is back on writing and production duties, bringing undeniable added value to the band's sound and aesthetic. The live translation of this album bears Malted Milk's trademark precision, energy, instrumental talent and group cohesion. Malted Milk once again demonstrates its musical strength and affirms the special place the band occupies on the current soul scene.

After two co-headlining tours over the past decade, (the) Melvins are continuing their long tradition with us of teaming up with another band on an album. Next up – Napalm Death! This isn’t just some split release with the bands each getting a side. Savage Imperial Death March is a full collaboration with both Melvins & Napalm Death playing together on all the tracks.


This release originally came out on super-limited CD and vinyl via AmRep in 2025 (tour and AmRep store only). This will be an extended version with 2 extra songs, brand new artwork from Mackie Osborne, new vinyl variants, and will be the official release for the first time at record stores, DSPs and more.


Napalm Death are credited as pioneers of the grindcore genre by incorporating elements of crust punk and death metal. Even after exerting an indelible influence on the entire world of heavy music for nearly 40 years, there is still no band on Earth that sounds like Napalm Death. Not just pioneers, but an enduring benchmark for invention and fearlessness in heavy and experimental music of all kinds, the Birmingham legends are still hurtling forward at full pelt.


The Melvins are one of modern music’s most influential bands. Having formed in 1983, the group — founded by vocalist/guitarist Buzz Osborne, with drummer Dale Crover joining a year later — has been credited with merging the worlds of punk rock and heavy music, forming a new subgenre all their own. Over their 40-plus-year career, they’ve released more than 30 original albums, numerous live records, and far too many to count singles and rarities.

Scorsese Sounds - A Tribute To Martin Scorsese - The Finest Selection of Martin Scorsese"s Soundtracks Martin Scorsese ist nicht nur ein Meister des Films, sondern auch ein Virtuose der Musikauswahl. Mit "Scorsese Sounds" erleben Sie die unverwechselbare Klangwelt seiner größten Werke - von epischen Gangster-Sagas bis hin zu psychologischen Dramen und zeitlosen Klassikern. Diese exklusive Doppel-Vinyl vereint die Essenz der Soundtracks, die Scorseses Filme zu Kult gemacht haben. Jeder Track ist sorgfältig ausgewählt, um die Atmosphäre und Emotionen der legendären Szenen einzufangen - von der rauen Energie des New Yorker Untergrunds bis zur eleganten Nostalgie vergangener Zeiten. Ein Muss für Cineasten, Vinyl-Liebhaber und alle, die die Magie von Bild und Ton schätzen. Tauchen Sie ein in die musikalische DNA eines der größten Regisseure unserer Zeit.

SY3 (pronounced ‘sigh’) is a new project from LA-based Chinese-American artists Kelly Guan, Alex Ho, and Phil Cho. The trio started working on music together in 2023 after connecting over a shared love of Hong Kong New Wave cinema, Cantonese pop songs, r&b, and melody-driven dance music. Singer Kelly Guan aka Jia Pet has been independently releasing ‘bubbly’ pop music since 2022, and recently toured with the genre-bending indie artist Sasami. Multi-instrumentalists Ho (keyboards, saxophone) and Cho (guitar, bass) have collaborated frequently over the past decade, most notably on Ho’s 2021 debut album 'Move Through It' for Music From Memory.

Lead single ‘Tell Me,’ the track that initially caught the ears of MFM's Jamie Tiller and Tako, nods to the hazy downtempo explored by Chinese pop stars like Faye Wong and Zhou Xun in the ‘00s, while also recalling Japanese producer Yoshinori Sunahara’s iconic album 'Lovebeat'. Beyond musical influences, SY3’s neon-drenched pop songs draw from a cinematic language, particularly y2k-era films like Made in Hong Kong and Suzhou River, which speak to a generation of disillusioned youth in an increasingly fast-paced world. Guan’s lyrics depict characters caught in bittersweet love affairs (‘dial tone, when I’m alone, you promised we’ll be in touch') forever looking towards an escape from their current realities (‘I know the walls are high, these graceless hands are slipping’). Title track ‘梦游 Sleepwalker’ features a Cantonese spoken-word story about a sleepwalking young girl who sits alone on a balcony wondering where she might have gone the night before. The drifting ambient production loosely references a traditional Chinese folk melody, and closes out the EP with a delicate, layered saxophone solo from Ho.

Balancing intimacy with a wider emotional and visual language, SY3’s debut unfolds as a series of nocturnal pop vignettes shaped by memory, cinema, and place. Released digitally and on vinyl through Music From Memory on March 25th. Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.

This double LP yellow vinyl 20th anniversary release of G. Love's "Lemonade" celebrates one of his most beloved and successful records. The release accentuates G. Love’s unmistakable blend of blues grit, hip-hop cadence, and sun-kissed songwriting and captured a creative peak that welcomed an all-star cast of collaborators including Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Marc Broussard, Blackalicious and more. Critics praised its warmth and ease, often calling it one of G. Love’s most effortlessly joyful projects, and fans have carried its songs with them for two decades.

Special Friend have become the masters of weaving elegant and sophisticated pop musical webs while staying true to their low-fi indiepop roots. The French/American duo (Guillaume on guitar and vocals, Erica on drums and vocals) manage to create a sound like no other band. When they play live, audiences marvel at the huge, intricate structures the band construct, while falling in love with the crystal-clear vocal melodies that are threaded in between the shards of guitar and the rattle of the drums. How can a duo achieve so much? UK audiences will be able to ponder this question in March: Special Friend are coming over from France to do a substantial tour of the UK. These shows are highly recommended!
The new album is more diverse that the last, with the high-tempo indiepop of first single ‘Breakfast’, the majestic, Yo La Tengo-like dreampop of ‘Clipping’ and the country-ish, gentle, homesick melancholy of ‘Isolation’. Final track ‘OOO’ is a bold piece of Krautrock-inspired experimentation; ‘Mold’ is a beautiful slice of slowcore and opener ‘Paint A Picture’ is modern pop at its catchiest and most direct.

‘Clipping’, the album title, refers to the discipline of pruning growth back, removing dead wood to create a perfectly shaped tree with abundant blossoms: an accurate description of the album, and of the songs that hang from its elegant branches. The album artwork is by Erica: Special Friend are in control of every aspect of this elegant artefact.
‘Clipping’ was recorded in 2025 at Studio Claudio by Alexis Fugain and Margaux Bouchaudon. Set in an isolated rural environment conducive to immersion, the band had seven days in the studio—significantly more than for previous records—allowing for greater care in the recording process, particularly for vocals and arrangements. Several tracks feature synthesizers and organs, acoustic guitar, and even an electric bass on “Sanctuary,” a first for Special Friend. Overall, the record benefits from a more developed and detailed production while preserving the band’s direct approach and spontaneity.

The album was mixed by Syd Kemp, who has worked with artists such as Thurston Moore, Ulrika Spacek, Caroline, Crack Cloud, and Vanishing Twin.
Special Friend’s previous album on Skep Wax, ‘Wait Until The Flames Come Rushing In’ was an underground hit, with a significant amount of airplay in the UK and in the US.
‘Clipping’ is a co-release with Howlin Banana Records and Hidden Bay Records (both in France). Skep Wax is proud to present the album in the UK and in North America.

After the storm of their self-titled debut, Geneva duo Bound By Endogamy return to Pinkman with an album that trades brute force for precision. The rage remains, but it's sharpened, disciplined, and driven by melancholy rather than rupture. Their minimal synth and industrial instincts rise to the surface, carving out room for melody without softening their confrontational edge. Angular basslines coil beneath Kleio Thomaides' voice, at times detached and at times devastating, while Shlomo Balexert's drum programming and synth work build a taut metallic tension. The result is both intimate and mechanical: love songs for disenchanted souls, post-punk electronics stripped to the bare wire. Bound By Endogamy have always blurred the line between performance and survival, and here they do it with minimal gestures and maximum impact.

MTY-3.14 “π”, released on March 14, 2026, is the fifth and final chapter of a journey begun fifteen years ago.



This standard edition presents the final form of Polar Inertia across three 12" vinyl records, featuring 11 tracks. Nothing added, nothing removed—only the music, unfolding in full.



Images dissolve, words fall away. What remains are faint echoes, like footprints slowly erased in fresh snow.



This final opus does not close the path. It fades into it. π is not an ending, but a state: the moment where movement continues, even as the world turns silent.



A last step.
A final trace.
Still moving, beneath the cold.



POLAR INERTIA



We are no one because we want to be no one,
And to be no one we have to be everywhere and nowhere- Polar Inertia examines the enigmatic and blurry realms, embracing the art of obscured vision.


Encountering the collective Polar Inertia is much like being absorbed by fog and captivated by its ever-shifting forms and densities, with things being as indistinguishable as in a whiteout.



Formed in 2010 by a group of artists, Polar Inertia transcends visibility, delving into structures that lie beyond the public gaze. Layers upon layers intertwine within the fabric of Polar Inertia, extending beyond their profound electronic compositions and live performances. It manifests as a conceptual universe, where sound, monochrome aesthetics, and elusive narratives converge, much like trying to grasp the intangible fog. The entity that is Polar Inertia is involved in installations, print- and video work and texts created for different contexts and live in different spheres such as Palais de Tokyo in Paris or the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art. Still, clubs and festivals are perfect spaces to experience these nebulous soundworlds and immerse in them. Fittingly, some of Polar Inertia’s appearances include the colossal halls of Berghain and Bassiani and at experimental festivals like Mutek Montreal and Atonal Berlin, that like to break with the classic club conventions.



Polar Inertia's sonic landscape unfolds with wafting textures accompanied by resonating beats and drones, reverberating through empty spaces, merging with the vast expanse of nothingness. Their sound exists at the crossroads of ambient, experimental, and deep techno, interwoven with vocal narratives. Since their inaugural release “Indirect Light“ on Dement3d Records in 2011, they remain a stronghold of relevance and captivation in the electronic domain.



Mastered by sixbitdeep, with artistic direction by Diplomatie Studio.

Field Green Vinyl. Big Crown Records is proud to present the instrumental version of El Michels Affair's 2025 instant classic 24 Hr Sports. The roster of vocal features on 24 Hr Sports is amazing, Clairo, Norah Jones, Florence Adooni, Shintaro Sakamoto, two different choirs, and even some singing from the man himself, Leon Michels. The background vocals contributions are amazing; Lady Wray and Kevin Martin from Brainstory to name a few. But alas, there's a new energy that shows up in the listen when you pair it down to the impeccable musicianship and Leon's tried and true "Midas Touch" production. Leon plays a ton of instruments across the album and is joined by the regular cast of heavy hitters; Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon, Dave Guy, Marco Benevento, Hether, and more. There is even a saxophone solo by the late, great Rahsaan Roland Kirk.Some would argue this is some of the best music being made by some of the best musicians of our time. We wouldn't argue with anyone...we let the music do what it does.

Brendan Eder follows up minimalist 70s-jazz concept with new ambient-classical album, THERAPY. Brendan Eder is a Los Angeles composer and drummer best-known for his eponymous genre-bending ensemble of woodwinds, drumset, and bass; as well as his film scoring work, most notably on four short films for director Ari Aster. On March 3, 2023 Eder released his third album, THERAPY, a collection of meditative woodwind arrangements recorded primarily at Church of the Good Shepherd in Arcadia, California.

The quest for THERAPY came during a period of deep spiritual curiosity. Eder was avidly watching testimonies of near death experience survivors (NDEs), pouring over books of Theosophical artwork and philosophy, and
processing experiences of grief, uncertainty and spirituality.

Eder wanted to explore the threshold between the spiritual and physical dimensions, and create music that could evoke its shape and texture — a theme further illustrated in the original album artwork and single covers by Adam Rabinowitz. Eder felt he must be on to something when, on a whim, he looked up the tempo of a piece he was calling “137 Riddle.” Turned out to be “the most important number in the world” in theoretical physics, as well as a provocative number in Jewish mysticism.

Since 2020, Eder's cover of Aphex Twin's “#20 (Lichen)” has garnered over two million streams. Appropriately, THERAPY delivers two new Aphex Twin arrangements alongside eight original pieces.

Maintaining his track record of recording the best musicians Eder can find, THERAPY features special guests Nailah Hunter (harp), Henry Solomon (saxophone), and Ethan Haman on The Newberry Memorial Organ at Yale University.

Celebrating the first year of ‘NOW That’s What I Call Music’ – 1983. ‘Now Yearbook’ presents a stellar selection of 1983’s biggest and best hits… 80 huge chart hits from the year, alongside enduring and well-loved classics on 4 CDs. 1983 saw British artists achieving unprecedented success across the world with ‘Every Breath You Take’ from The Police being the year’s biggest seller in the U.S., and ‘Karma Chameleon’ from Culture Club being the top seller in the U.K. Breakthrough acts, achieving their first big hits – all here – include a staggering line-up of future superstars: U2, Eurythmics, Wham!, Paul Young, The Style Council, Marillion and Thompson Twins, to name a few..' Released on a LTD 4CD SET: This will be a limited run of 5000 4CD units housed in ‘hard-back book’ packaging and featuring a 28-page booklet that includes an overview of the chart music of 1983, a track by track guide including chart stats and fun facts, a selection of original picture sleeves and a quiz. 2CD Standard set and also a limited edition of 3000 units, pressed on 3LP translucent red vinyl...

Have Isaac Carter & Callum Asa made the most tasteful tech house EP of recent memory? The short answer is
yes....

Isaac and Callum, known for their respective club nights: OCHI and Planet People have been quietly chipping away at the coalface of underground dance music for quite some time now.

Isaac - perhaps known more widely as a regular at Circoloco & Phonox has shared bills with the likes of Moodyman, DJ Bone, Kai Alce, Laurent Garnier and Marcellus Pittmann whilst being championed by Joy Orbison, Ben UFO, Moxie, Seth Troxler, Raresh and Floating Points to name but a few. With such an impressive CV and wide ranging support, it’s wild to note that the first EP released on his own label, OCHI only came out in 2023. His star is clearly ascending with rapidity - so when we throw long term collaborator Callum Asa into the mix, things start to get really interesting. Calum has been running Planet People for the last couple of years, welcoming incredible names such as Shed, Surgeon, Willow, Ploy, Cooly G, Rroxymore and so many more. Steel sharpens steel and having been surrounded by such esteemed talent, it’s clearly rubbed off on the pair who present 4 polished, meticulously constructed, club ready masterpieces, each with their own distinct feel and an insatiable groove.

‘Feel Me’ sets the scene with a descending baseline that would eek a wiggle out of the most reluctant spectator. The twisted dub eeks out even more groove, locking in a more sinister bounce for the heads. By The time ‘Understand’ get’s into full swing, we’re already under the spell of Carter & Asa, this is the kind of roller that could go on forever and ever. The synth embellishments and washes of analog synth pull us deeper and deeper in, prepping us for the finale , ’Try You’ which simmers with deep, brooding intensity.

The magic of the dup’s appeal is that this EP will find its way into the bags of the deepest diggers and also appeal to a new generation of house fans. Elements of it are accessible , but in the right hands - the EP will open a portal to new worlds.