This debut album, by prodigious keys player, composer and producer Joe Armon-Jones, is buoyant, celebratory and welcoming. With a background in jazz, he draws from influences in dub, hip-hop and soul. Different traditions are infused and commingled together. Soulful brass arrangements are coloured with carefully-tuned atmospherics, individual flashes of brilliance are bound into the album's bigger picture.
He's part of London's young, jazz-influenced music scene. Drawn from that same close-knit circle, the album features the likes of Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Oscar Jerome. It's playing with those - along with Ezra Collective, which he co-founded, and touring with the likes of Ata Kak and Pharoahe Monch - which has honed his playing and grown his ideas.
It's made for a record with an unmistakable depth. He draws on deep musical understanding, making music which is warm and has a feeling of joy. A document of his vision for bringing together his different influences, it's also a testament to hard-earned, head-turning musical virtuosity.
non in magazzino
Ultima consegna 4 anni fa riordinabile senza garanzia
Classic funk-soul album, featuring "Misdemeanour". Sampled by Madlib, Black Milk, Pete Rock, Big Daddy Kane, Danny Krivit and more.
Brilliant funk-soul from 1973. Written by Leon Sylvers III, and produced by a heavyweight line-up comprising Jerry Butler, Keg Johnson and Michael Viner.
Alien Ensemble's trombone man Mathias Goetz caused quite a splash when he released his eponymous debut LP under his Le Millipede moniker back in 2015: The multi-instrumentalist's initial offering was clearly something else, impossible to grasp, a musical vessel beyond genre, beyond style or era, seemingly beyond space and time even, a vessel that carried an almost cosmic kind of song-craft - music with no fixed stamp of origin, though it did somehow feel like an Alien Transistor release. Followed by remix album Mirror Mirror, which comprised reworks by 1115, Protein, LeRoy, Olaf Opal, and Saroos, to name a few, it's now time for album #2: The Sun Has No Money.Let's face it: There's nothing as majestic as the sun. At least not in our world. If it runs out of juice one day, it's game over: The End. Light's out. For everyone. At that point, it wouldn't even matter if you're rich or poor. We're all equal under the sun. Same level. And yeah, this might not be major news, but then again... we're talking about the sun. The sun! Guess it's about time to acknowledge its power and superiority, right In fact, you can feel it on your bicycle: pedaling at night, when it's on duty in other hemispheres, and you're working hard at the dynamo, sweating, you can actually feel how powerful it is. In the end you get off the bike all recharged, a tune on your lips - and somehow feeling like a miniature version of the sun yourself. And whenever you feel like that, that's exactly the right moment to grab a melodica and get to work.Following an initial warm-up round sans electricity, this new album soon begins to glow: Mathias Goetz aka Le Millipede doesn't need pedals, he boosts circulation by single-handedly* playing tons and tons of different instruments - it actually feels like thousands, easily. And thus begins a show that has countless levels to it: There are various sonic illusions... and yet Le Millipede doesn't hide anything: He's also willing to show the inner workings, the actual recording process and everything else. In short: he goes meta. Makes songs about making songs. That's right: why not use all these beautiful means to address the issue of money It's not the sun that casts shadows, all it does is recharge, fuel: growth & thriving, that's the sun's area of responsibility. And yet there came a man whose plan was simple: steal the fruit from your garden, only to sell it right back to you, for money. We can hear the sea gulls crying in the distance, as somebody is throwing breadcrumbs up into the wind that carries their voices...It's not the sun that casts shadows - all it does is radiate light. And yet there came a time when someone blocked those rays of light. Now if you're some kind of Diogenes, you'll simply say, Move at least a little out of the sun.' But if you're a teacher, you'll maybe light up your pipe and use that to lighten up. What matters is that the percussion parts, in this case, resemble some serious musique concréte. The sun doesn't know shadows - all it knows, is itself. And yet somebody entered the picture and built an entire city. A city full of streets, so that houses can cast shadows into these avenues. Plus, there's music in the streets, music originally written inside the walls of said houses.One of those streets is known as the Tin Pan Alley: a place that got its name from a music writer who compared the sound of so many pianos to the banging of tin pans. That sound: that's one side of the road that is this album. Some of these melodies appear to be shadows of earlier tunes, dating back to, say, 1898 or even before that, melodies that were first registered in the Tin Pan Alley publishers' offices back in 1912 or 1917. We actually get to see this Alley at that point in time. We see the ropes, the workings. How things come together, the actual act of creation. Suddenly, we can hear the shadows!
Okay, so one side of this street is America. The US of A. The opposite side: Russia. And smack dab in the middle: Europe. A pothole in the center. All the back-and-forth that occurs between these two poles ultimately depends on the movement of the sun. Night and day, taking turns, commuting in and out of sight. We get to meet Prokofiew's and Scriabin's ghost, among other spirits, reframed and published by Le Millipede's own imaginary label imprint on the historic Tin Pan Alley. Indeed there are moments on this album when Le Millipede seems to be playing Scriabin's clavier a` lumie`res (tastiera per luce), when his performance seems to be based on synesthesia, a wild cross-pollination of colors and sounds. In case you didn't know this: In the States, Prokofiew goes by the name Brian Wilson, and Scriabin's also known as Sun Ra - yet another guy who's usually broke, but gets to spend a lot of time out in the sun. Together, these assorted protagonists ask the people of the Antilles for Mutabor dance-tokens and send postcards to Moondog in Germany, right back into the darkness. On the postcards you can see people dancing the Biguine...Firing foreign fossil fuels from all pipes (Brennelementsteuer!), Le Millipede controls the very center of this hustle and bustle: going as far as to employ some southern Chopped & Screwed styles, he's 100% current and zeitgeisty! Houston, we've got a problem: there's some kind of myriapod, centi- or millipede on the loose! Well, give me another sip of lean, sizzurp, dirty Sprite, and on goes the journey in the Pullman coach. Let's follow the sun! Keep on moving, keep things motorik! Here comes the Trans-Eureka-Express. Cherish the backpacking days! A piercing rhapsody of sound (bohrende Rhapsodie), we'll remember them fondly! And thus things move on, the sun, the days, the earth: rise, set, action, round and round... onwards eternally. The sun: the biggest loop known to mankind. As if it was some kind of sonic Rube Goldberg contraption, time seems to be stretching out while listening to that hmmm. After all: time is a lot (a lot!) more than just money. And yeah, the sun is the real big shot on (or rather: above) Planet Earth. Le Millipede's live line-up also includes Markus & Micha Acher (The Notwist etc.), Nico Sierig (Joasihno), and Manuela Rzytki (G. Rag & die Landlergschwister, Kamerakino etc.).
*sole exception: Evi Keglmaier (Zwirbeldirn, Hochzeitskapelle) plays the viola. Words/sun worship: Pico Be
Described by Clash Music as one of America's best songwriters', Brendan Benson has consistently unfurled unparalleled melodies and lyrics in his acclaimed career. Over twenty years in, he's still wowing folks and Half a Boy, Half a Man' is a powerful dollop of power chords wrapped into a tale of split personalities. Backed with an astute cover of Jules Shear's Big Kid Face' from his 1989 album The Third Party' in which Benson helps shine a light on this oft-overlooked but seminal songwriter.
Best known as half of the songwriting team at the heart of the Raconteurs (along with Jack White) Brendan Benson's career has never slowed across six solo albums, two Raconteurs full-lengths, countless collaborations and placements and a seat as one of the most respected and reliable writer, performers, producer, engineer and musical jack-of-all-trades.
Following the success of two collaborative releases (EMC “The Show”/2008 and Ace & Edo G “Arts & Entertainment” /2009), Masta Ace joins forces with the metal faced MF Doom for Son of Yvonne, a highly personal concept album that celebrates the life and legacy of Ace’s recently departed Mother. Like his 2004 landmark Disposable Arts, Son of Yvonne is meticulously constructed with stories, settings, and characters that resonate with flesh and bone humanity. Interstitial vignettes provide a thematic backbone to the experience, and each track complements and completes the previous to form a narrative whole: a sometimes visceral, sometimes nostalgic slice of Ace’s young life in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Entirely underscored by MF Doom’s iconic Special Herbs instrumentals, Son of Yvonne features the Juice Crew general Big Daddy Kane, new comers Pav Bundy (The Bundies), Reggie B and even MF Doom on the mic. It’s Masta Ace’s no frills flow, however, that looms largest above the dusty samples and digger loops that define Doom’s production. Ace’s photo-realistic rhymes about stick-up kids, spraycan artists and wack emcees add extra gravity to his already celebrated reputation as “truly an under-appreciated rap veteran and underground luminary” (Allmusic Guide). Like Eminem recalls in his 2008 autobiography The Way I Am, “Masta Ace had amazing storytelling skills. His thoughts were so vivid.” TRACKLIST: A1. DJ Ski's Intro A2. Ninteen Seventy Something A3. Son Of Yvonne B1. Da Pro B2. Store Frontin B3. Me & My Gang B4. Crush Hour feat Pav Bundy C1. Think I Am feat Big Daddy Kane & Mf Doom C2. Fresh Fest Reggie B C3. Hoe-Tel-leftovers C4. Slow Down D1. Home Sweet Home feat Pav Bundy D2. Dedication D3. I Did It D4. In Da Spot feat Milani The Artis D5. Outtakes
A collection of vinyl and limited digital releases, curated by Millsart, an alias of Jeff Mills, of his most eclectic and transcendent compositions that derive from his Every Dog Has Its Day project as well as new unreleased works. Vernacular creations that fall off from the "other side" of the Electronic Music tree, this project is designed for the experienced Techno music listeners, and its goal is to reflect upon the pure artistry of the craft of storytelling. A realization between music and life. Whereas "dancing" is the goal of Dance Music, the goal of this music is about "reflecting on the complexity and simplification of life".Soundtracks for people in their evolutionary process.
This release 'Drifter' is about 'Hype'.
Hype
An animal that prowls on the vulnerable - it excites those who might be looking the other way or with their eyes and minds wide shut.
What is life without hype?
As a transitional tool, hype can be most effective especially when impulse reactions are at play. Something of a psychological currency, there is a lot to gain by giving people what they want - the rush that comes with taking part in a process of making something bigger, more successful and more preferred. Even if there is nothing there.
What's wrong with getting exciting about something?
There are only a few rare masterclass cases that have lasted a lifetime.
As Andy Warhol proclaimed that "everyone will be World famous for 15 minutes" rings darkly true in an era when each one of us can be the talent scout, artist, critic, audience.......and then a revisionist, hoping to bring hype back again by reminding people how great the first round felt.
We are all free to use our attention and time anyway we please. This is the freedom we have, right?
In most cases, we wake up and at some point, the question of justification becomes a debate between those who found unconditional solace and those who re-discovered the subject of substance and "kicked the tires".
Should I care if others like or dislike something?
For some, the hype of something never ends. It hardens and becomes part of a foundation like a cement podium. Something to be stood on to speak over all dissenting voices.
Tommy Lefroy has never been afraid of existential questions. From their critically acclaimed debut EP, Flight Risk, the band has captured audiences with their candor wrapped in wit. Both lyrically intimate and sonically vast, the band’s catalog is confessional and commentative, balancing irony with sincerity. They broach their biggest subjects yet on their first full length album, The Precariat. An economic term, the precariat refers to a growing class of people facing increasing instability. “Most people we know are experiencing an unprecedented level of precarity, permeating into the collective psyche. We feel like the best we could strive for in a body of work is an unflinching capture of the moment. The Precariat felt like the perfect title, and emblem of how it feels to be alive these days.” Recorded in Los Angeles at Blue Canyon Studios, The Precariat was produced by band members Wynter Bethel and Tessa Mouzourakis, with co-production from Stephen Sesso, and executive production by Mike Crossey (The 1975, Wolf Alice, MUNA). The album’s songs were written by Bethel and Mouzourakis, over the tenure of their friendship, across apartments and tour vans, phone calls and late night conversations. With themes of friendship, coming of age, personal and collective grief, environmental uncertainty and political decay, The Precariat offers a sonic landscape in which to contend with our rapidly changing world. The album’s title track (largely inspired by Springsteen’s critical narratives mistaken for bleeding heart patriotism) grapples with constant exposure to global suffering, and feeling entrenched within systems that fail us. “The Precariat” disintegrates into the ‘American cities’ outro, an idea started while the band lived in London, about missing home while watching it destabilize from afar. The Precariat faces this head on – all the sheen of the American empire has worn off, and there is much work to be done. “We hope to foster an antidote to precarity – community.”
Celebrating 50 years of dancing, Amnesia represents the heart and soul of electronic music in Ibiza. Telling a story that spans five decades, the 50th anniversary vinyl/CD compilation is a window into a legendary venue that has helped establish some of the world's biggest tracks.
From the iconic piano riff of Eric Prydz' 'Pjanoo' to the laid-back groove of 'Benediction' by Hot Natured. A club that spans eras and genres - the disco of Chic's 'Good Times', the synth-pop of New Order's 'Blue Monday', or the gritty electro of Alter Ego's 'Rocker'.
The soundtracks of 50 summers are represented across 50 tracks spanning 10 vinyl/5 CDs. A hand-picked selection that reflects the incredible breadth of Amnesia's cultural influence, featuring music from Calvin Harris, Donna Summer, Paul van Dyk, Candi Staton, Fred Again.., Robert Miles, Laurent Garnier, Binary Finary, and many more.
Anna Almani might be your new favourite producer. IFYKYK.. If you don't, then let's get to know..
Anna Almani is a Berlin based “Drag-DJ & Fun-House-Queen”. She is “Big Sister” at ‘Love Letter’ an imprint “for flinta & queer sonic goodness” and she is the alter ego of deep house producer and Poker Flat & Watergate artist ‘Iorie’.
Anna says “This EP is part of my queer expression. It’s all about the attitude to resist, it’s about being yourself unapologetically. It’s a big hug to the queer community and a love letter to resistance on the dancefloor. Be radical, have an attitude and lose yourself.”
When we picked the tracks for this EP we were completely spoiled for choice. There’s so much personality in Anna’s music that every track list made sense. And that’s because there’s a common thread that runs through all of Anna’s music - Balance. Ying & Yang. Dark & Bright, Passive & Assertive, Masculine & Feminine, Fun & Depth all in kept in amazing dynamic balance.
This is Share Now & Save for Later… Gratification immediate and delayed. .. . four tracks to take you through from open to close. From Berlin to NYC and round again
‘See Me Walk’ is gonna be the track that grabs the attention and connects with dancers everywhere. Fast, fun and full of attitude it’s a 909 workout with the energy and syncopation of Ballroom Vogue aaaaand a fabulous diva vocal to match. ’Tender T’ counters the audaciousness with some tenderness. Energetic yet embracing, this introspective proggy, dubby afterhours roller is a proper trip! Full of colour but hazy af.
On the flip ‘Gimme Some’ ramps up the tempo. Fast, urgent and cyclic grooving techno - with a strut - that’s both dubbed out and in your face. ‘Anladın mı’ is a collaboration between Anna and German/Turkish producer Zettka. Low slung house that both jacks and grooves. Rolling basses balanced with playful chords. “Anladın mı” it translates as “Do you understand? or “Got it?”. By now I think we do understand.. That certain je ne sais quoi… Anna Almani has definitely got it.
God of War is Douglas Dulgarian (They Are Gutting A Body Of Water), Scott Turner (hooky) and Sam Silbert (hooky, circle of fire).
It's 2007. You’re watching your older cousin play SSX tricky. How is he such a monster at this game. Dude for real what the fuck. Such style, such finesse. I know he smokes weed. Should I tell Aunt Vicky? No no no- that would ruin this moment. He is racking up points that were formerly unheard of, and with such grace. There’s no expression on his face. And considering that he just sat open mouthed at the dinner table staring into nothing for forty minutes, this revelation is more than remarkable. It seems as if he has always existed in this moment. As if his very essence was plucked from the ether. And perhaps he has. He was made for this moment.
God of War is Douglas Dulgarian (They Are Gutting A Body Of Water), Scott Turner (hooky) and Sam Silbert (hooky, circle of fire).
It's 2007. You’re watching your older cousin play SSX tricky. How is he such a monster at this game. Dude for real what the fuck. Such style, such finesse. I know he smokes weed. Should I tell Aunt Vicky? No no no- that would ruin this moment. He is racking up points that were formerly unheard of, and with such grace. There’s no expression on his face. And considering that he just sat open mouthed at the dinner table staring into nothing for forty minutes, this revelation is more than remarkable. It seems as if he has always existed in this moment. As if his very essence was plucked from the ether. And perhaps he has. He was made for this moment.
Priding themselves in having cultivated a community and culture at their club nights, they play some of the best music ever cut to wax. It might not be quite what you’d expect from a typical northern soul night, it isn’t stepping back into the past, it’s the music stepping forward into 21st century.
“We’re not interested in nostalgia – we love soul music because it’s brilliant. It probably still resonates with young people because it has a message of something bigger than what’s inside your own head – that what really matters resides in relationships with other people, not material things. We think that is beautiful” – DNSC.
“Deptford Northern Soul Club have emerged as the new faces of northern soul” – Yuck.
As featured in Alan Byron’s documentary Northern Soul: Still Burning (2026).
“By recontextualising northern soul in a modern context, they empower the genre to continuously evolve, imparting new meaning to younger, perhaps previously unaware audiences” – Pilot magazine
Josh Ludlow - one half of MAKE A DANCE - one of London’s most beloved duos - steps out on his own for a rare solo outing on legendary London imprint Rhythm Section International.
A late contender for EP of the year - the record meanders menacingly across four tracks of mind-altering, dissociative Brain Music, precision engineered to transport a listener and hypnotise a crowd without losing any dancefloor impact.
Interestingly, Bradley Zero (RS label boss) and Mr. Ludlow have a connection dating back to the late 2000s, when they were both drummers in rock and roll bands...almost 20 years later - a shared love of experimental electronic music has brought them back together, resulting in this spellbinding EP.
Channelling a much darker, heads down, aggressive sound than the uplifting house M.A.D have become known for, the record begins with 'Brain Music’, which serves as a Detroit techno-inspired wormhole of a track, guiding us into a parallel, inner dimension.
Time Upside Down is next up and it becomes apparent we have entered another realm entirely. The introductory bars of the song feel like a long journey down a dark tunnel. The sound design and acoustic backdrop are so evocative you can almost see it. Obnoxious bass notes reverberate through the space created by the track, slowly giving way to flurries of high-pitched, resonant acid lines - the sum of which escape easy classification. It would be lazy to call it house music, misleading to call it techno - but it’s definitely not tech house. Elements of disco, electro, post-punk, balearic and Weatherall-esque chug are all in the mix but essentially, this is its own thing - this is Brain Music.
The record continues to the penultimate track “The Kettle”, which starts off in more familiar upbeat, bongo-house territory before the calm is betrayed by a hovering intensity which grows out of nowhere before making space for a humungous bass synth melody - so big in fact that it has never once failed to elicit club-wide bass-face; which for a mid-tempo track is no mean feat. We round things off with ‘Mean Mother’, the most playful of the bunch: a Chicago house-indebted workout reminiscent of Paranoid London at their most visceral. The track feels familiar and almost safe until the synth-work is cranked up to 11, creating a cacophonous SH-101 build-up into a disco-esque drop that would get even the most reluctant raver jumping up and down for more.
Besides all the theatrics and acoustic world building, the evocative sound design and the insatiable, no-nonsense grooves - the thing that makes these tracks stand out is the attention to detail. No two fills are alike, every embellishment is EQ’d and polished to perfection - yet no immediacy is lost. The tracks feel alive, intentional and constantly evolving. Hyperbole aside - we have a serious, generational talent on our hands whose mastery of the equipment, understanding of the dynamics of the dance and unabashed
playfulness is being harnessed into something that stands out head and shoulders above the crowd.
Limpe Fuchs performs a live improvised score to an almost-lost silent western action film in a darkened Brussels theatre, continuing the tradition of the silent film pianist. Intimate and poetic: moonlight, projected images reflecting on the audience's faces, and a family connection (her grandfather once played violin for silent films) make this a uniquely personal recording.
DJ Support: Ben Wal, Lammer, Helena Lauwaert, Kyle Starkey, Two Faced, OLLIE LISHMAN
Smoke Signals is a cornerstone release in my discography — five tracks that trace the arc of the biggest run of my career to date, from the closing weeks of his second European tour through into an Australian summer that felt like a genuine turning point for me personally. The A-side carries three of the biggest tracks from that run, road-tested in front of crowds from Europe to home soil long before they ever had a release date. The B-side turns inward, a more introspective look at his sound and the world behind it. Five tracks, one defining period of my life.
NOW Music proudly presents the next release in the ‘ERA’ series with NOW That's What I Call An Era - Ballroom Blitz: 1967-1976 celebrating the colourful world of glam rock, pop and unforgettable chart hits that defined the early-to-mid 1970s, with a selection of pop gems from the late 1960s. Pressed across three stunning coloured vinyl LPs – red, white and gold – showcasing the era’s biggest stars, instantly recognisable anthems, novelty favourites and enduring singalongs from one of the most distinctive periods in UK pop history.
It all started with a small party in 2006. Peter Invasion simply wanted to create a home for his band. That small party grew into something bigger, and eventually Riotvan became a record label in 2012 — a home for many different people, all brought together by a shared love for music and art. When Panthera Krause joined the journey in 2017, Riotvan evolved once again, adding a new perspective and another creative force to what it had become. The journey began 240 months ago — or, for those too lazy to do the math, 20 years. A lot has happened since then, but one thing has never changed: the passion. People have come, gone, and stayed. And here we are, celebrating 240 months of Riotvan with our friends, our loved ones, and ourselves. To mark the occasion, we're hitting the road on tour and have put together an extended edition of our Familiar Faces series. It's a colorful collection of music that brings together everything we love and everything that makes sense to us. It couldn't represent the Riotvan spirit any better. We'll definitely see each other somewhere along the way. Here's to the next 240 months.
Fully licensed from Public Radio of Armenia, with additional clearance from all composers or their living descendants / estates: Yerevan Nights (Soviet Armenian City Pop 1986-1992) features 16 tracks remastered from the original reel-to-reel tapes by award–winning Osiris Studio, accompanied by liner notes containing historical analysis and a digital download card.
Yerevan Nights honors the simple pleasures that saturate the senses to make such a relatively small city feel so big in perception, and illustrates Soviet Armenian life outside of daily service to the greater good – moments caught in the twilight hours that follow the calming sunset behind the mountains, crescendo up and down Yerevan’s bustling city streets, and peak at the glorious dawn that paints the sky with pink and lavender brushstrokes. This compilation captures the pace of Yerevan throughout all times of the day and is tailored for the occasions dedicated to friends and family that constitute an individual’s shrjapat (“social circle”). The rhythms and melodies of these songs go perfectly with a cocktail of sidewalk strolls alongside honking car horns, toasting glasses raised over boisterous laughter, and meeting familiar faces in the most unexpected places, all wrapped up in a tranquil haze of cigarette smoke that lingers until the morning light breaks and garnished with a sprinkle of sentimental heartache.
[a] A1 - Tatevik Hovhannisyan / Oor E Ayn Lapteruh? ("Where Is The Lamp?") [1988]
[b] A2 - Georgi Minasyan / Karnaval ("Carnaval") [1988]
[c] A3 - Gayané Tunyan / Bari Luys, Yerevan ("Good Morning, Yerevan") [1988]
[d] A4 - Mikayel Zakaryan / Zartonk ("Awakening") [1988]
[e] B1 - Nadezhda Sargsyan / Moshahav ("Blackbird") [1988]
[f] B2 - Ashot Ghazaryan, Margarita Avanesyan / Yerevanyan Meghedi ("Yerevan Melody") [1989]
[g] B3 - Zara Tonikyan / Yes Chem Karogh Ayspes ("I Can't Go On Like This") [1989]
[h] B4 - Elvina Makaryan / Kez Hamar ("For You") [1986]
[i] C1 - Nariné Harutyunyan / Garnan Khostoum ("Promise Of Spring") [1988]
[j] C2 - Samvel Danielyan / Yerazank ("Dream") [1991]
[k] C3 - Garry Ayvazyan / Mysteria ("Mystery") [1989]
[l] C4 - Anzhelika Topalyan / Ashough Em Ko Sev Acherid ("I'm A Bard For Your Black Eyes") [1989]
[m] D1 - Raisa Mkrtchyan / Anound Vakhov Em Talis ("I Utter Your Name With Awe") [1989]
[n] D2 - Artashes Avetyan / Voske Ashoun ("Golden Autumn") [1988]
[o] D3 - Anzhelika Topalyan / Lusabatsn Aydpes Kga ("And So The Dawn Will Come") [1988]
[p] D4 - Aspram Khizandyan / Chem Hishi ("I Won't Remember') [1992]
Channeling his honed sample craft towards the ominous portent of modern times, Romare returns with his fifth album Oblivion, with the previous 3 out of 4 LP's appearing on Ninja Tune. Across a suite of downtempo, broken beat, bubbling grooves and brooding reveries Archie Fairhurst threads a narrative that wrestles with the big questions of the present moment — the tipping points of the planet and technology, the fight for social justice and the power structures that govern our existence. While his trademark source material continues to cast a long line back through recorded history, this is Romare at his most contextual.
Nothing is placed by accident. 'Machines' hums its throbbing 4/4 pulse along to a German language recital of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 'Blessed Longing' — an enduring reflection on the human condition that rings true from way back in the 19th Century when it was written. 'Computer Love' slinks into a sumptuous trip-hop lull laced with sci-fi flourishes sculpted from samples of old computer documentaries — a bittersweet romantic backdrop to our complicated situationship with the devices in our lives. 'Take Us' goes one step further on its hard-stepping boom-bap strut as a subtle tale of possession by screens unfolds around Romare's signature strain of technicolour mutant funk.
There is space for optimism in the message on Oblivion as well — the strength of the suffragettes as a benchmark for social justice and activism amidst the speakeasy slink of ‘Deeds, Not Words', and spring-loaded acid house joint 'Change' pointing to the need for positive action in the face of imminent calamity.
The artwork for the album follows Fairhurst's thought process, drawing on Edvard Munch's iconic 'The Scream' along with Philippe Halsman and Salvador Dali’s ‘Voluptuous Death’ to help render the ideas of the album visually.
The wild ride of Oblivion races towards a final beguiling opiate on 'The Last Lullaby' — the perfect sedative after the rush of information and emotion that comes with a full-length trip through Romare's vivid, uniquely creative world of sound.
Semi Delicious’ second instalment of its three-part VA series continues the journey with another carefully curated selection of cuts. Chapter two brings more essential sounds to the table, building on what came before.
Semi Delicious closes out a standout year with Café Gelato, a sprawling new VA compilation bringing together 17 tracks from the label’s extended family and wider orbit.
A&R’d by head honcho Demi Riquísimo, this three part collection captures the broad, playful club sound that has become central to Semi Delicious.
Across the compilation, familiar faces sit alongside new additions, with contributions from Kamma, Regularfantasy, Big Miz, Retromigration, BELLA, Manuel Darquart, DaisyBelle & Medlar, Baldo & Revivis, Kepler and Demi himself among a 17-track cast.
Landing as the label’s final release of the year, Café Gelato puts a full stop on a major chapter for both Semi Delicious and Demi Riquísimo in 2026, celebrating the community of producers that has grown around the imprint while maintaining the musical pillars at its core.
Big, colourful and built firmly for the dancefloor, Café Gelato closes the year by taking stock of where Semi Delicious is now, while offering a taste of where it heads next.
Semi Delicious brings its three-part VA series to a close with one final selection of carefully curated cuts. The closing chapter completes the series in style, rounding off a collection built for those who know.
Semi Delicious closes out a standout year with Café Gelato, a sprawling new VA compilation bringing together 17 tracks from the label’s extended family and wider orbit.
A&R’d by head honcho Demi Riquísimo, this three part collection captures the broad, playful club sound that has become central to Semi Delicious.
Across the compilation, familiar faces sit alongside new additions, with contributions from Kamma, Regularfantasy, Big Miz, Retromigration, BELLA, Manuel Darquart, DaisyBelle & Medlar, Baldo & Revivis, Kepler and Demi himself among a 17-track cast.
Landing as the label’s final release of the year, Café Gelato puts a full stop on a major chapter for both Semi Delicious and Demi Riquísimo in 2026, celebrating the community of producers that has grown around the imprint while maintaining the musical pillars at its core.
Big, colourful and built firmly for the dancefloor, Café Gelato closes the year by taking stock of where Semi Delicious is now, while offering a taste of where it heads next.
Semi Delicious kicks off a three-part VA series, bringing together a carefully curated selection of cuts that set the tone for what’s to come. The first chapter in a series built to deliver something special.
Semi Delicious closes out a standout year with Café Gelato, a sprawling new VA compilation bringing together 17 tracks from the label’s extended family and wider orbit.
A&R’d by head honcho Demi Riquísimo, this three part collection captures the broad, playful club sound that has become central to Semi Delicious.
Across the compilation, familiar faces sit alongside new additions, with contributions from Kamma, Regularfantasy, Big Miz, Retromigration, BELLA, Manuel Darquart, DaisyBelle & Medlar, Baldo & Revivis, Kepler and Demi himself among a 17-track cast.
Landing as the label’s final release of the year, Café Gelato puts a full stop on a major chapter for both Semi Delicious and Demi Riquísimo in 2026, celebrating the community of producers that has grown around the imprint while maintaining the musical pillars at its core.
Big, colourful and built firmly for the dancefloor, Café Gelato closes the year by taking stock of where Semi Delicious is now, while offering a taste of where it heads next.
Limited Edition 2026 Black Vinyl Repress.
Up in Flames is Dan Snaith's second album, originally released under the Manitoba moniker on March 31, 2003 .
Made with the same modest home setup as its predecessor, it nonetheless sounds like a different artist entirely - a kaleidoscopic rush of sun-bright melodies, tumbling percussion, and psychedelic pop that traded the hushed intimacy of Start Breaking My Heart for something warmer, bigger, and more joyfully overstuffed, encompassing 1960s psychedelia, Madchaster swagger and shoegaze swoon.
Snaith was later forced to change his artist name after a well-documented lawsuit, and Up in Flames stands as the final album released under the Manitoba name - a high point to go out on. The record was met with widespread critical acclaim, and has since been recognized by Pitchfork as one of the standout albums of the 2000s. It remains, by most accounts, one of Snaith's finest and most beloved records.
Ruf Kutz reaches release twenty-two with something close to heart...
Mike Kee is a face from the early days - red-lit rooms of the Bodega mushroom squat parties in Sydney. This is a second release for Mike Kee on Ruf Kutz since 'Seeing Crystals' on RK2 in 2010.
Recorded in the rainforests of Bundjalung Country (northern NSW, Australia). Making good use of a Fender Rhodes and a JX-8P synthesiser.
WHITE CLOUD PLACE is a destination that doesn't exist. Glimpsed once on a street sign, filed away in the imagination and allowed to bloom into an imagined geography of warmth and weightlessness.
The music is lush dream house that elicits euphoria out of the speakers and into the body. Mike Kee has been chasing this feeling across his music and here it lands cleanly.
Flip the record and the temperature ratchets up. BANANA MOON is one for the dancers - shuffling congas push the pace while Rhodes chords and those big analog synth strings hold the whole thing aloft.
Where the A-side invites you to float, Banana Moon keeps it pitched up and jazzy.
Peppermint Jam Allstars Vol. 7 is here! Featuring some big names in the way of label boss Mousse T. & Birdee, NYC legend Matthias Heilbronn alongside Ibiza royalty DJ Pippi who collabs with Kiko Navarro & Willie Graff. Cassara rounds off the All-Star lineup for Vol 7.
A fresh Various Artists selection built for the dancefloor – bringing together longtime PJ family names and a new face stepping into the mix. Four cuts, one 12", all killer, no filler. House music the Peppermint Jam way.
In continuation with the “Untitled” series, it is time to unveil the fifth chapter. 9-tracker with the talented artists which have gathered to make this disc come to life with the broad spectre of dancefloor ready frequencies that it contains. With some familiar faces and some new comers this is ready to be presented to the world of us music lovers that have big lust to non-standard beats. This LP is destined to land in the right persons hands who will treat the speakers rough and loud just how they should be treated with the material presented on it. The “Untitled” series continue thanks to the professional audio trips creators the spaceship sets space sails for the new edition soon.
The Doobie Brothers faced a serious predicament as they prepared to record Takin’ It to the Streets. That the group navigated a potentially serious personnel problem that would’ve tanked lesser bands and scored its fourth straight Top 10 album — while again expanding its range — speaks to the collective’s chemistry, broad-mindedness, and songwriting abilities. Known as the effort on which vocalist-keyboardist Michael McDonald makes his debut, the 1976 set stands as an all-encompassing representation of the various styles the Doobie Brothers explored during their heyday.
Sourced from the original analog master tapes, mastered by engineer Krieg Wunderlich, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP presents Takin’ It to the Streets in definitive sound. Given the luxurious room of a 45RPM version for the first time and benefiting from the wider grooves, the music unfolds amid large soundstages replete with ultra-quiet backgrounds, big dynamics, and accurate imaging. By then a key component of the Doobie Brothers' success, Ted Templeman’s production is brought to light with stellar clarity and definition.
As is the case on Mobile Fidelity's four other acclaimed Doobie Brothers 45RPM reissues, myriad facets that help make Takin’ It to the Streets timeless, natural, and organic — minimal overdubs, voices that realistically rise and fall, notes that properly carry and decay, warm tones, bass lines that pop with color, well-placed percussive accents, defined separation between the players — emerge with incredible presence, openness, and fullness. Nothing is overdone or out of place. No small feat given Templeman and company didn't know how everything would unfold when they first met up in Southern California.
Confronted with a change in plans by co-founder Tom Johnston, whose contributions to the band up to that point in its career identified him as an indispensable member, the Doobie Brothers were thrown for a loop when he curtailed pre-planning work and retreated home to deal with ongoing health problems. Thankfully, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, the group's newest full-time recruit, had a possible solution in his former fellow Steely Dan colleague McDonald. The singer-keyboardist had already sat in with the Doobie Brothers on their recent tour. So, why not give it a shot?
McDonald's prodigious talents notwithstanding, he couldn't technically replace Johnston. For starters: McDonald's soulful timbre bore little resemblance to Johnston's grittier voice. And McDonald played keyboards, not guitar. No wonder Templeman initially expressed reservations. He also knew the Doobie Brothers needed additional material before they could consider wrapping the record. Yet the skepticism began to dissipate on the first day of the sessions. Still waiting for second drummer Keith Knudsen, the band gathered in the studio with former roadie Bobby LaKind on congas and Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward for a live run through "Wheels of Fortune." The instrumental parts of that take landed on the record. Johnston would even return to share the lead vocal duties with Patrick Simmons.
Those magical results, and the experience of hearing McDonald woodshed the title track at the piano, turned Templeman into a believer and cheerleader. Spurred by their veteran producer's encouragement and McDonald's ideas for songs, the Doobie Brothers embraced new directions just as they did after their debut LP and on subsequent efforts with orchestral and horn treatments. The latter return on Takin’ It to the Streets courtesy of the five-piece Memphis Horns. Yet outside of viola accompaniment on "Losin' End," string elements step aside in favor of McDonald's pianos, synthesizers, and clavinet. And, on five cuts, lead singing.
As the new face of the band, McDonald ended up crafting all or portions of four tunes. His fingerprints are all over two of the singles, including the jazzy, blue-eyed-soul delight “It Keeps You Runnin’” and irresistibly melodic title track, which cracked the Top 15 and became one of the Doobie Brothers’ signature numbers. He and Baxter’s penchant for smoothness, and a precursor to the band’s coming transition into rhythmically oriented yacht rock, informs the brassy sway of “Carry Me Away.”
Further enriched by Tiran Porter’s gorgeous, time-signature-shifting ballad “For Someone Special,” Simmons’ peppy, spring-loaded “8th Avenue Shuffle,” and Johnston’s “Turn It Loose” — the move-your-feet boogie serving as kind of apt farewell to the band’s prior rock ‘n’ roll sound — Takin’ It to the Streets spun uncertainty into gold. Altered yet unbowed, the Doobie Brothers once again offered countless listeners “the best kind of remedy” with feel-good music that holds up amid any era.
Move in Stereo: The Cars’ Eponymous Debut Album Functions as a Greatest-Hits Set with Classics Such as "You're All I've Got Tonight," "Good Times Roll," and "Just What I Needed"
Experience the Six-Times-Platinum Record in Definitive Sound on
Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP Box Set:
Strictly Limited to 4,000 Numbered Copies,
It Plays with Reference Definition and Presence
1/4” / 15 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe.
Among the most critically and commercially successful debuts in history, the Cars' eponymous album doubles as a greatest-hits collection. Not one song on it is widely unrecognized or unknown. Consider the list: "You're All I've Got Tonight." "Good Times Roll." "Just What I Needed." "Moving in Stereo." "My Best Friend's Girl." "Don't Cha Stop." “Bye Bye Love.” Just call The Cars the best new-wave rock album ever made. And a natural candidate for preservation on a Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc One-Step pressing.
Sourced from the original analog tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, mastered by engineer Krieg Wunderlich, and strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, MoFi’s UD1S 180g 45RPM 2LP box set presents the six-time platinum record in the most vivid, wide-spanning, three-dimensional sound it has enjoyed on vinyl. Compared to the label’s outstanding and out-of-print 180g 33RPM version, this collectible edition features richer textures, broader openness, greater presence, and bigger dynamics.
Benefitting from the extra groove space on 45RPM by playing with enhanced definition, deep-black backgrounds, and ultra-quiet surfaces, this reissue portrays the band’s oscillating rhythms, futuristic keyboard passages, and panned images with stunning realism. Songs take on an absolutely surreal quality. The Cars and producer Roy Thomas Baker manipulate arrangements at will to mesmerize listeners' senses. The concept of "moving in stereo” has likely never been truer.
The industry-leading packaging of the UD1S set gives fans another reason to gravitate towards the 1978 album. A deluxe slipcase, two foil-stamped jackets, faithful-to-the-original graphics, and MoFi inner sleeves make for a premium tactile experience. It invites you to immerse yourself in everything about the record, including the now-familiar cover art depicting Nataliya Medvedeva behind the wheel. Enhanced by her glistening ruby-red lips, her face flashes an expression caught between surprise, ecstasy, and disbelief — an apropos way of responding to The Cars whether you’re hearing it for the first or 1,115th time.
Introduced in 2024 into the National Recording Registry for its significance, and ranked the 353rd Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone, The Cars explodes with emotion, energy, and hooks. Its songs unite then-disparate styles: bubblegum melodies, art-rock angularity, progressive structuralism, terse minimalism, and power-pop sheen. The stylish arrangements also benefit from a laidback cool and understated irony that remain uncommon in the world of contemporary mainstream music.
Equally rare is the deep chemistry the members shared before they entered London’s AIR Studios and knocked out the record in less than a month. Benjamin Orr and Ric Ocasek began their first band together in the early ‘70s. A subsequent group with future Cars keyboardist Greg Hawke preceded Orr and Ocasek bonding further by temporarily performing as a duo. One final pre-Cars ensemble, Cap’n Swing, brought guitarist Elliot Easton into the fold. A decision by Ocasek to take the band in a rock direction, a crucial lineup shuffle, and a name change begat the Cars so many listeners know and love.
Already a going concern in Boston, the quintet cut its teeth and woodshopped songs for nearly a year and a half before signing with Elektra and partnering with Baker. The Cars enjoyed success right out of the gate, hitting No. 18 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and netting a pair of Top 40 singles in the form of “Just What I Needed” and deceptively happy “My Best Friend’s Girl.” The sarcastic “Good Times Roll” climbed to No. 41, but soon enough, almost every track on The Cars became a radio staple — an honor far more meaningful than chart positions.
Obsessed with incorporating the latest technologies and sounds into its palette, the band spiced tunes with delightful and quirky accents — country-tinged guitar fills, echoing Syndrums, reggae splashes, hard-rock tones, robotic pulses. Orr's low, nuanced deliveries and Ocasek's cool, detached vocals lend shades of doubt and double meaning to the lyrics, which are further counterbalanced by synthesizer flourishes and electronic beats.
Accessible and eccentric, edgy and catchy: The results comprise a landmark whose characters come to vivid life with nuclear boots, dry-drip gloves, ribbon-festooned coiffures, suede-blue eyes, and rock ‘n’ roll hair. It's practically impossible to avoid humming along to every song, all enhanced by Baker's stellar production. Best known for his work with Queen, he ensured the record packed a punchy midrange, opened up with instrumental and vocal separation, and breathed with airy harmonies.
Indeed, from the timeless music to the sleek production and sonic restoration, The Cars on UD1S is just what you needed.
Younger Than Me announces his debut full length "The Golden Age Of Love", to be released on 90's Wax this coming March 2024. The record is the perfect example of the breadth of his irrepressible and unique sound. Featuring collaborations with Massimiliano Pagliara, Brame & Hamo and Pablo Bozzi. The artist is an Italian native known for a modern interpretation of '90s club music' - a dynamic blend of Progressive House, Trance, EBM, Breakbeat, and Techno ideas. This first album is a love letter to a deep-rooted passion for the idiosyncrasies of rave culture and the crossover points with contemporary electronic music.
Younger Than Me, an artistic project by Francesco Mingrino that is steeped in the nostalgia of ‘90s rave, yet not at all trapped in that past. A project that has cemented a special place in the electronic music scene with a string of records on labels like Bordello A Parigi, Amsterdam-Utrecht based platform XXX, Rotterdam’s Bar and Jennifer Cardini’s Dischi Autunno. To this point Francesco has pushed his fun yet forceful sound, with many releases on his own 90's Wax, and collaborations with people like Skatebård, Francesco Farfa, Timothy Clerkin and Curses (as Y2C).
"The Golden Age Of Love" as a package is curated in Younger Than Me's characteristic style. Opening with "Long Life Death", a track that sets the stage with a cinematic soundscape in a classic Carpenter vibe. Picking up the tempo "Zarathustra Dance" takes you right into the golden age itself, its low slung beat and carefully sequenced lead line pushes an ever building tension designed to crack any dancefloor. The track with Massimiliano Pagliara, "Eternal Sunshine Of Solitary Mind", is one of the highlights, perfectly building around a catchy lead with tight arpeggio and sequenced acid. Leading us into the 2nd half of the record "Sadness Is The Only Way To Happiness" is a proto-trance beast, inspired by that period in the early 90s when Trance was less bright lights and big stages and more dark rooms and smoke filled spaces, an ever building progressive run of haunting vocals, rave stabs and rolling bass.
Whilst YTM is at home presenting dancefloor focussed material, we see him explore the other side too, with "Memory Is A Clock" like the earlier "Vortix", he ditches the 4x4 for breakbeat territory. Whilst the bass keeps the solid metronome you would expect, "Memory Is A Clock" is a track that takes a few moments, contemplative melody and trademark arpeggios take the lead. When it comes to the other collaborations on the record, the appearance of Brame And Hamo on "Raver's Heart Is A Mess" sees them lean into the Progressive nature both artists love so much. Then Pablo Bozzi lends his own unique outlook to "We Don't Know The Way, We Just Stay" in one of the standout tracks, epitomising Younger Than Me’s ability to create profound experiences.
The album concludes with "Music Will Never Stop, Heartbeat Will Never Fade, Party Will Never End", less of a title and more of a personal philosophy – the perpetual essence of rave culture and its timeless impact on music. A rhythmic belter, juxtaposed with incendiary synth-lines and staple catchy sequence work, finishing the record with one of the true highpoints. In addition the release also features four digital bonus tracks, including "The Other Face Of Loneliness" and a Prog Dance Reshape of one of the records more eclectic cuts "Zarathustra Dance" all offering an extended exploration into the creative landscape YTM inhabits.
"The Golden Age Of Love" is a debut album that ticks all the boxes; it's a celebration of a bygone era through the lens of the contemporary. Younger Than Me stands as a testament to the enduring spirit and evolving nature of the music that began in the ‘90s rave scene, with an LP that pushes Love, Progression and Fun to the forefront.
,Rainbow Body" ist das Debütalbum einer außergewöhnlichen musikalischen Zusammenarbeit mit Taylor Goldsmith und Griff Goldsmith (Dawes), Rick Mitarotonda (Goose), Eric Krasno (Lettuce, Soulive), Ross James (Phil Lesh & The Terrapin Family Band) und Adam MacDougall (Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Circles Around the Sun), mit Gastauftritten von Oteil Burbridge (Dead & Company, The Allman Brothers Band) und Nicki Bluhm. Das in Island aufgenommene, selbstbetitelte Album verschmilzt nahtlos Psychedelic Rock, Americana, Soul, Folk und Improvisation zu einem Sound, der sich zugleich zeitlos und abenteuerlich anfühlt. Getragen von Taylor Goldsmiths ausdrucksstarkem Songwriting und bereichert durch die Chemie der versierten Musiker ist ,Rainbow Body" ein facettenreiches Debüt, das den Raum zwischen Americana und Alternative Rock ausfüllt.
Drumcode returns with its flagship A-Sides series, featuring an exciting mix of established heavy-hitters, alongside a slew of new faces set to make their mark on the genre.
V4 features big names like DC regular Oliver Huntemann, Bulgarian DJ and producer known for his energetic techno-trance style JackRock on the flip we have DC Radio regular Alex Stein and rounding off with new Romanian artist Tao Andra, who shares the celestial ‘Unity’.
INDUSTRIAS MEKANIKAS is back with the third instalment of the ANTIKHRIST VISIONS saga. This release is particularly symbolic: it’s the ninth in the catalogue, marked by the infernal numerology that runs right through the whole series. It’s a descent into a sonic underworld, where noise becomes ritual and pleasure is just pure agony.
The artist tasked with opening this new chapter of the saga is the mighty Óscar Mulero, an essential figure on the national electronic scene and one of our biggest international ambassadors, whose career has left a deep mark on contemporary music. Here, with Faceless, he delves into dark, precise, and devastating electro territory; a spiritual machine that dictates the pulse of chaos.
Next up, we’ve got Pressurized Modulator with Reddrum: hard, crunchy, industrial electro, absolutely buzzing with electrical tension and twisted sonic matter.
Closing out the A-side is Jacko Volvone (aka Hoax Believers) with Quieren Cerrar Las Fábricas: a track that expertly blends electro, techno, and post-punk echoes, resulting in a tense, distorted, and combative sound, like a working-class echo shouting from the abyss.
Flipping over, the B-side opens with Hanging Nuts (made up of Waje Martín, Fake Robotik, and Ruben Montesco). They unleash a murky descent of filthy, distorted, primal electro, slashed through with guitars and raw, guttural vocals: a genuine chant from beyond the grave. The second cut marks the debut of Techselektah & Phil Fork with Champagne No Potable: a raging street anthem packed with fury, energy, and social criticism, where Spanish vocals emerge amidst EBM structures that have that ‘80s spirit, reinterpreted with today’s raw edge. And the big finish is down to HBK1 alongside Rigor Mortis, with Instinto Caníbal: a full-on explosion of electro-industrial and EBM that awakens the body’s most primitive urges.
Antikhrist Visions Vol. III is a sonic summoning from the lands of Hades: ritualistic matter, organic sound, and primal force. A testament to pleasure and torment—Tormento do Gostar—etched into the vinyl as if it were molten iron.
As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes. The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process. Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever. The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before. ‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms. In a world where music has increasingly become background content, making albums remains lifeblood for Fake: “It makes me realise how long; twenty years is ages! It’s weird to see how much the world has changed. Release day back then you did fuck all, now you spend all day on socials. When I grew up the people who made the electronic music I was into were quite mysterious, and the artwork was very abstract. There was a massive distance between you and that music, and that was a key part of it, really. Now it helps to be an extrovert, and I'm just not, but the album marks the first time my face has graced the cover art. I’ve never wanted to do this before, I'm very shy, and generally I don’t like being seen,” he professes. “But, twenty years in, I supposed I could try something new. I'm very lucky that I'm somehow surviving in this world, where the media world favours extroverts and interesting looking people. It’s not my world but somehow I’m still in it.” Evaporator continues to prove Nathan’s necessary presence, with some of his most engaging, varied, and magical music yet.
Pixl has been sending me so much of the music that he's been doing solo as well as his collabs with Duburban, Ark X & Peeb. I've been playing quite a few of them on my shows on NTS Radio & it only made sense to eventually put together a full release of them, so here is Old Citrus by him & Peeb, representing the atmospheric style of jungle that they are both excellent at.
Big up to both of them on this release & to Equinox for his fantastic remix of Old Citrus.
He runs a label called Western Lore which I've featured on previously, with 2 different remixes I did of Plastic Face by Response & Pliskin, as well as a track featured on the first Blunted Breaks compilation. It only made sense to eventually work on a joint label project as his label is a key figure in the current wave of jungle music, plus I hadn't put any music from him on Future Retro London yet so now I can finally tick him off the list!
Big up to Dead Man's Chest for his work on the collaborations & for his involvement in making this release a reality.
Hiver completes a trilogy of EPs on Gudu with ‘Blue Hell’, another transmission of space-age machine funk from a duo who are truly shaping their own soundworld.
If you’ve followed Hiver, you should know the deal by now: they’ve spent the last decade honing a sound that draws heavily from dance music history – namely the starry-eyed synthesizer funk of classic techno and electro – that drips in colour and emotion without ever feeling retrograde. ‘Blue Hell’ is their third EP for Gudu, and maybe their most accomplished yet.
In Hiver’s words, “this EP was shaped by a mix of late night club energy and the more introspective, melodic ideas we’ve been exploring in the past years. A big part of it also comes from the tension between how people connect today. This constant, hyper-connected flow of networks, media, and online exchanges and our own way of creating music, which is very physical and personal. We’re always bouncing ideas through messages and files, but the real magic still happens when we meet in the studio, face to face. That contrast between digital connection and human presence became a sort of hidden theme behind the EP.”
“With Blue Hell, our third chapter on Gudu, we wanted to capture a moment of clarity, something direct yet still drifting. In a way, this release completes the excursion we began with the first two records: three points that trace the contours of the sounds we’re drawn to. Each track feels like a fragment of that journey, grounded in rhythm but always leaning toward depth and escape.”
Rising multi-media artist Shaboozey intends to build his own world.
Determined to carve his own lane in the Alt-Country / Hip-Hop space; he crafts a sound that pays homage to a cast of traditional Western influences, such as Bob Dylan, Lead Belly, Johnny Cash, and Leonard Cohen, while looking into the future of what the two genres have yet to introduce.
Remaining true to his Virginia roots, Shaboozey hopes to continue the region’s long-standing tradition of producing some of the most prolific creatives of the new millennium. This time through elevating the scope of contemporary hip-hop and introducing a modern Americana culture to a global audience.
Fresh off of his inclusion in the groundbreaking Beyonce album, Cowboy Carter, of which he was the only featured artist to appear twice, Shaboozey is set to release his own album, Where I've Been, isn't Where I'm Going. An album that has been years in the making, it includes standout singles “Let It Burn,” “Vegas,” “Anabelle,” & the infectiously fun singalong anthem “A Bar Song (Tipsy).” Millions of streams later, and appearances on esteemed programs such as COLORS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Shaboozey is set to become the new face of modern American country music.
Another DINTE tape curated by cult WFMU show and blogger Bodega Pop; Gary Sullivan's long-running project rooted in a passion for digging for music in bodegas and cell-phone stores across NYC's boroughs. This edition focuses in on late 1990s and early 00s hip-hop & rnb from across Southeastern Asia.
"While on a work trip to Chicago in the mid-2000s, I was craving a bowl of pho. A bit of sleuthing led me to hop on the red line "L" up to Argyle Street, ground zero of Chicago's Little Saigon. In the 1960s, Chicago restaurateur Jimmy Wong invested in property on Argyle Street with a vision to build the city's new Chinatown, a kind of mall with pagodas, trees, and reflecting pools. In 1971, the Hip Sing Association, a labor/criminal organization, established itself in the area, and along with Wong, they bought up 80% of the buildings on a three-block stretch of the street. Wong reportedly broke both hips in an accident, leaving his dream to wither; in 1979, Charlie Soo of the Asian American Small Business Association brought it back to life.
Soo expanded the area into a vibrant mix of Chinese, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asian businesses, pushing for renovations, including an Argyle station facelift and the Taste of Argyle festival. At the time I exited the station and crossed the street to get a better look at a shop with a poster for A Vertical Ray of the Sun in the window, the area was home to some 37,000 Vietnamese residents.
Opening the door, I was gobsmacked by a cavernous Southeast Asian media store, bigger than any I'd been to in Dallas, Montreal, New York, or Seattle. I spent some time at the bins, pulling out collections by some of my then-favorite singers — Giao Linh, Khánh Ly, Phương Dung — before approaching the register to ask the young woman behind the counter if the they carried any Vietnamese rap. It was a longshot, I knew, but if such a thing existed on physical media and anyone carried it, it would be this place.
'Have you heard Vietnamese rap?' she replied, her tone of voice and facial expression betraying a comically exaggerated level of distaste. I admitted my ignorance but assured her that I had long cultivated a high threshold for cheesy pop music of all kinds and genuinely tended to like hip hop from around the world.
She rolled her eyes and pointed to an area I had missed. I walked toward a far corner of the store and knelt over a small box on the floor sparsely populated with CDs, VCDs, and cassettes. I pulled out half a dozen Vietnamese hip hop compilations and a strange-looking CD with a cavalcade of odd typefaces in a queasy multitude of colors: THAILAND RAP HIT, it boasted, with 泰國 "燒香" 勁歌金曲 below it. The information on the back provided an address in Kuala Lumpur and the titles in Thai and English translation. The first track included three simplified Chinese characters after the English-language version of the title, "The Chinese Association": 自己人.
WTF was going on here? Walking back to the register, I waved the CD, asking "What's up with this one?" She gave me a look. I placed it on the counter so she could bask in the cover's full glory. She shrugged. "I'm guessing it's Thai rap?" She looked disappointed in me when I said I'd take it.
It turned out to be a Malaysian pressing of half-Chinese Thai hip hop artist Joey Boy's third album, Fun Fun Fun from 1996, and it completely changed my sense what the genre could sound like. The rapper's self-assured, effortless, silly-but-cool rapid-fire delivery weaved in and out of the most bizarre, antic beats I'd ever heard. The six Vietnamese hip hop CDs were a mixed bag, mostly "serious" sounding mimicry of US rapping over predictable production, but the highs were very high. When I got home and listened to it all, I made a point to find as much hip hop from this part of the world as I could.
The tracks collected here provide a limited but potent reflection of the two-decade ascendency
and ultimate world-takeover of hip hop, as it displaced rock and its endless variants for millions of listeners. This not a fair and balanced overview of regional production: I've only included tracks from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Nor is this a biggest or most important artists collection; instead, I've tried to recapture the pure visceral thrill of that first time I heard Joey Boy, choosing bangers that sound like nothing else, from nowhere else."
The Éthiopiques series returns! Essential archive recordings from an extremely fruitful period in Ethiopian music.
Before “Swinging Addis” took over the world, there was Moussié Nerses Nalbandian — the Armenian-born composer who shaped modern Ethiopian music. Mentor, arranger, and pioneer, he laid the foundations of Ethio-jazz.
This Éthiopiques volume revives his forgotten legacy, recorded live by Either/ Orchestra First issue ever with new exclusive photos and in depth liner 8-page insert.
“Ethiopian jazzmen are the best musicians that we have seen so far in Africa.
They really are promising handlers of jazz instruments.”
Wilbur De Paris
(1959, after a concert in Addis Ababa)
አዲስ፡ዘመን። *Addis zèmèn* **A new era.**
The time is the mid-1950s and early 1960s, just before "Swinging Addis" bloomed – or rather boomed – onto the scene. Brass instruments are still dominant, but the advent of the electric guitar, and the very first electronic organs, are just around the corner. Rock’n'Roll, R’n’B, Soul and the Twist have not yet barged their way in. Addis Ababa is steeped in the big band atmosphere of the post-war era, with Glenn Miller's *In the* *Mood* as its world-wide theme song, neck and neck with the Latin craze that was in vogue at the same period. Life has become enjoyable once again, with the return of peace after the terrible Italian Fascist invasion of Ethiopia (1935-1941). The redeployment of modern music is part and parcel of the postwar reconstruction. *Addis zèmèn* – a new era – is the watchword of the postwar period, just as it was all across war-torn Europe.
The generation who were the young parents of baby boomers** were the first to enjoy this musical renaissance, before the baby boomers themselves took over and forever super-charged the soundtrack of the final days of imperial reign. Music is Ethiopia's most popular art form, and very often serves as the best barometer for the upsurge of energy that is critical for reconstruction. Whether it be jazz in Saint-Germain-des-Prés or the *zazous* who revolutionised both jazz and French *chanson* after the *Libération*, be it Madrid's post-Franco Movida, or Dada, the Surrealists and *les années folles* that followed World War I, the periods just after mourning and hardship always give rise to brighter and more tuneful tomorrows. Addis Ababa, as the country's capital, and the epicentre of change, was no exception to this vital rule.
**Two generations of Nalbandian musicians**
Nersès Nalbandian belonged to a family of Armenian exiles, who had moved to Ethiopia in the mid-1920s. The uncle Kevork arrived along with the fabled "*Arba Lidjotch*", the** "*40 Kids*", young Armenian orphans and musicians that the Ras Tafari had recruited when he visited Jerusalem in 1924, intending to turn their brass band into the official imperial band. If Kevork Nalbandian was the one who first opened the way of modernism, pushing innovation so far as to invent musical theatre, it was his nephew Nersès who would go on to become, from the 1940s and until his death in 1977, a pivotal figure of modern Ethiopian music and of the heights it. Going all the way back to the 1950s. Nothing less. And it is Nersès who is largely to thank for the brassy colours that so greatly contributed to the international renown of Ethiopian groove. While the younger generations today venture timidly into the genealogy of their country's modern music, often losing their way amidst a distinctly xenophobic historiographical complacency, many survivors of the imperial period are still around to bear witness and pay tribute to the essential role that "Moussié Nersès" played in the rise of Abyssinia's musical modernity.
Given the year of his birth (15 March 1915), no one knows for sure if Nersès Nalbandian was born in Aintab, today Gaziantep (Turkiye/former Ottoman Empire) or on the other side of the border in Alep, Syria... What is certain is that his family, like the entire Armenian community, was amongst the victims of the genocide perpetrated by the Turks. Alep, the place of safety – today in ruins.
Before Nersès then, there was uncle Kevork (1887-1963). For a quarter of a century, he was a whirlwind of activity in music teaching and theatrical innovation. *Guèbrè Mariam le Gondaré* (የጎንደሬ ገብረ ማርያም አጥቶ ማግኘት, 1926 EC=1934) is his most famous creation. This play included "ten Ethiopian songs" — a totally innovative approach. According to his autobiographical notes, preserved by the Nalbandian family, Kevork indicates that he composed some 50 such pieces over the course of his career. This shows just how much he understood, very early on, the critical importance of song as Ethiopia's crowning artistic form. Indeed, for Ethiopian listeners, the most important thing is the lyrics, with all their multifarious mischief, far more than a strong melody, sophisticated arrangements or even an exceptional voice. (This is also why Ethiopians by and large, and beginning with the artists and producers themselves, believed for a long time — and wrongly — that their music could not possibly be exported, and could never win over audiences abroad, who did not speak the country's languages).
Last but not least, one of Kevork's major contributions remains composing Ethiopia's first national anthem – with lyrics by Yoftahé Negussié.
Nersès Nalbandian moved to Ethiopia at the end of the 1930s, at the behest of his ground-breaking uncle. Proficient in many instruments (pretty much everything but the drums), conductor, choir director, composer, arranger, adapter, creator, piano tuner, purveyor of rented pianos,... he was above all an energetic and influential teacher. From 1946 onwards, thanks to Kevork's connexion, Nersès was appointed musical director of the Addis Ababa Municipality Band. In just a few years, Nersès transformed it into the first truly modern ensemble, thanks to the quality of his teaching, his choice of repertoire, and the sophistication of his arrangements. It was this group that would go on to become the orchestra of the Haile Selassie Theatre shortly after its inauguration in 1955, which was a major celebration of the Emperor's jubilee, marking the 25th anniversary of his on-again-off-again reign.
At some point or other in his long career, Nersès Nalbandian had a hand in the creation of just about every institutional band (Municipality Band, Police Orchestra, Imperial Bodyguard Band, Army Band, Yared Music School…), but it was with the Haile Selassie Theatre – today the National Theatre – that his abilities were most on display, up until his death in 1977. To this must be added the development of choral singing in Ethiopia, hitherto unknown, and a sort of secret garden dedicated to the memory of Armenian sacred music, and brought together in two thick, unpublished volumes. Shortly before his death (November 13, 1977), he was appointed to lead the impressive Ethiopian delegation at Festac in Lagos, Nigeria (January-February 1977).
His status as a stateless foreigner regularly excluded him from the most senior positions, in spite of the respect he commanded (and commands to this day) from the musicians of his era. Naturally gifted and largely self-taught, Nerses was tirelessly curious about new musical developments, drawing inspiration from the very first imported records, and especially from listening intensely to the musical programmes broadcast over short-wave radio – BBC *First*. A prolific composer and arranger, he was constantly mindful of formalising and integrating Ethiopian parameters (specific “musical modes”, pentatonic scale, and the dominance of ternary rhythms) into his “modernisation” of the musical culture, rather than trying to over-westernise it. It even seems very probable that *Moussié* Nerses made a decisive contribution to the development of tighter music-teaching methods, in order to revitalise musical education during this period of prodigious cultural ferment. Flying in the face of all the historiographical and musicological evidence, it is taken as sacrosanct dogma that the four musical modes or chords officially recognised today, the *qǝñǝt* or *qiñit* (ቅኝት), are every bit as millennial as Ethiopia itself. It would appear however that some streamlining of these chords actually took place in around 1960. It was only from this time onward that music teaching was structured around these four fundamental musical modes and chords: *Ambassel*, *Bati*, *Tezeta* and *Antchi Hoyé*. A historical and musical “details” that is, apparently, difficult to swallow, especially if that should honour a *foreigner*. Modern Ethiopian music has Nersès to thank for many of its standards and, to this day, it is not unusual for the National Radio to broadcast thunderous oldies that bear unmistakable traces of his outrageously groovy touch.
Astropolis Records, the label born from the legendary Brest festival, marks a decade of electronic passion with a sprawling, heartfelt anniversary compilation — slightly delayed, but still delivered with flair.
It comes in two EPs, spotlighting the many facets of the Astropolis universe: in-house artists, long-time festival collaborators, and rising stars from France’s ever-bubbling scene. Eighteen artists guide us through a sonic journey where rave heritage, electronic dreamscapes, and collective fervor converge — true to a festival whose DNA has never recognized borders.
The second EP dives into darker territories, spanning original electro, multifaceted techno, and sunlit vibes toward the close.
Astropolis has always thrived on happy collisions, and this EP is a perfect demonstration.
For synth lovers, Legowelt & Cuften revive the spirit of early electroclash on Liar, a carnal fusion of analog synths and DIY attitude.
Zaatar & Trunkline inject raw energy on Come Into The Light, a sweaty, visceral banger bridging techno, dark disco, and EBM.
French scene stalwarts Scan X & Electric Rescue deliver a masterclass in elegant techno on Lost In Time.
When Manu Le Malin meets Kmyle, the result is as sharp as it is cinematic: Little Big Man builds dramatic tension, balancing raw emotion with contained fury.
On a more contemplative note, we’re thrilled to unveil one of the first productions from our dear Célélé with Théo Muller: the subtle Drum and Drift, threaded with dubby vibrations and sun-drenched bursts.
This anniversary compilation reaffirms the label’s openness to new generations and recent sonic hybrids while honoring the techno scene that shaped its beginnings. Like the festival itself, it embodies the same sincerity and collective energy: a small manifesto connecting generations, aesthetics, and territories — celebrating roots without nostalgia, and the future without bending to trends.
