quête:casta

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the iconically brutal-yet-stylish Hotline Miami, the head honchos at Devolver Digital, Dennaton Games and Laced Records picked up the phone and made the call to bring back two killer soundtracks to vinyl.

This Standard Edition of the Hotline Miami 1 & 2: The Complete Collection 8LP box set includes traditional black vinyl.

Every in-game track from Hotline Miami and Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is present and correct, including Castanets’ “You Are The Blood” (not previously available via the HM2 Steam soundtrack release.) 76 tracks remastered for vinyl will be pressed to heavyweight LPs that come in spined inner sleeves, contained in a rigid board lift-off lid box with spot UV highlight.

Also included in the box are two 12” art prints of the front and back cover pieces, and a 50 Blessings symbol felt slipmat and metallic sticker.

The box set features brand new eye-exploding artwork by long-time Dennaton collaborator Niklas Åkerblad — aka El Huervo aka Beard — alongside illustrator -IZMA-. El Huervo’s grisly covers depict contradictory accounts of a berserk face-off between Jacket and Biker, replete with entrails. -IZMA-’s disc sleeves explore scenes from the series’ lore, tapping into the violence, psychedelia and nihilism that pervade its characters and themes.

10 years on, neon-soaked indie hit Hotline Miami has become a cultural touchstone in a way that few video games ever achieve — and the electronic soundtracks for both series titles are held up as modern classics that have transcended gaming. At turns brutal and laid-back, pulsating and aimless, coked-up and checked-out, these two ultracool compilations were at the heart of the retro-’80s synthwave scene that swept the Internet over the 2010s.

"Malwen and Haŵs co-founder Tywi join forces for a varied 4 track EP."

On Lila, his debut LP, Moroccan artist Karim presents a series of undulating electronic rhythms laser-etched into tessellated form: drumless techno from the pre-Sahara, built for communal psychic expansion.

Drumless, yes, but not percussionless. There are shakers, castanets, stabs, plonks, thuds. There are insistent basslines propelling forward, pulsing with energy, rippling in time. There are tones interlocking, rolling, fluttering, pattering. Dancing within, around, between each other. Considered in terms of sheer geometry, Lila is a techno record, unmistakably. But it sounds quite unlike any other techno record you've heard lately.

To write the album, Karim borrowed from the music of the Gnawa, a religious-spiritual musical tradition descended from West African peoples brought to Morocco as slaves hundreds of years ago. Now integrated deeply into Moroccan culture, the centerpiece of Gnawa music is the lila—or "night," in Arabic—an all-night-long ritual of rhythm designed to induce participants and musicians alike into a healing trance state. Which, if you're a dedicated raver, may sound familiar, yes?

Crafted entirely with modular synthesizers, Lila conjures a range of textures and moods. The show opens with "Bakh," a blissful exercise in beatlessness, clear and crystalline. On "Philipoussis," "Kiyex," and "Sonic," arpeggiated synths approximate Gnawa chants while interlaid percussion keeps time in multiple meters. "La" and "Kille" pulse in half-time, ideal for creative mixing. "Joul à lèvre" bristles with electricity, the sound of a charged lightning rod. "Pamil," woozy and lurching, feels like being shipwrecked on a forgotten island. Last and absolutely certainly not least, on the final track, "Miloir," Karim faces West and unleashes the album's only kick drum for a ten-minute psychedelic techno masterpiece. The mind warps; the body moves. 

Lila is released on Tikita, Karim's own record label, founded in 2014. Tikita's discography, spare but tightly curated, features artists from across the globe pushing outwards into techno's deepest reaches. Karim's album pushes even farther. Listen for yourself.

RITUAL is a poetic and political gesture by Antonio Marotta: a sonor resurrection where archaic meets electronics. Drawing on Campanian roots and European club culture, the album blends the trance of Ritual with the ecstasy of the dancefloor.
Seven beats and seven loops inspired by the Seven Madonnas of Campania, where the drum remains the visceral beat that connects the earthly to the divine.
An act of resistance that delivers new life to tradition.
The limited edition Vinyl LP contains a special insert with the visionary graphics conceived by Andrea Maddaloni, the lyrics of the 8 songs and Marotta's personal manifesto.
Grab your copy before it's too late.

Written & Created by: Antonio Marotta
Tammorra, Chitarra Battente, Chitarra Elettrica, Voci, Scetavajasse, Castagnette, Tromba degli Zingari & Live Looping by: Antonio Marotta
Lyrics Transcription & Dialect Revision by: Alessandra Ruggiero
Mixed & Mastered by: Antonio Marotta and Peter De Girolamo
Mask Artwork by: Atelier Antise
Photography: Let's Pic Studio
Art Direction & Design by: Andrea Maddaloni
Club Consulting by: Alfredo Maddaloni
Produced by: Antonio Marotta and Maledetta Discoteca
Executive Production by: Maledetta Discoteca

Unic presents the sixth installment of its vinyl series with Transparency EP by Romanian producer Faster, now back in stock as a 2 x 12" pack, combining the original releases.

Breaking ground with this release, the Ruere Records head showcases his detailed production approach across four cuts. Blending German and Romanian influences, Transparency EP unfolds as a rhythmic and carefully constructed journey, built for impact on and off the dancefloor.

With intricate structures and a strong sense of flow, the record highlights Faster’s ability to craft precise, driving Minimal House and Techno with depth and clarity.

Toxy Kated is a free-spirited, chameleon-like band that produces different styles of music without labeling them. Dani Casarano, Camilo Castaldi, Kitty, and Galo Akun—who have known each other for over two decades—decided to join forces to create something new, without rules. Everything happens collectively, in sessions where emotion intersects with sensitivity, and improvisation coexists with intention. Their upcoming EP is a testament to this unique sonic journey, a defiant refusal to conform and a bold declaration to expand the boundaries of music.

Do you remember Cush?
A nod to the enigmatic Danakil warrior from Corto Maltese — wise, fierce, and fiercely free. That spirit is back, and this time, it speaks through sound.

Welcome to Cush — a bold sonic territory where the elegance of myth meets the urgency of noise.

Across 14 tracks, this power trio delivers a raw, immersive journey that bends genre boundaries and stirs the imagination. A soundscape emerges, somewhere between dystopia and liberation: windswept grooves, fractured brass, buzzing machines, explosive drums. Think improvisation at its most daring, textures at their most tactile, and themes that haunt like echoes from the future.

Cush is a cry. A rebellion. A pulse.
It’s where musique concrète collides with free jazz and industrial atmospheres — and something new is born.

For listeners drawn to Pierre Henry’s audacity, Alain Damasio’s visions, industrial ASMR, or sonic voyages à la Corto: this is your next deep dive.

Unbuckle your seatbelts. You’re in Cush territory.
An album that demands to be heard — and experienced — live.

Hyldon, Brasiliens hochverehrter Sänger, Musiker und Produzent, hat sich mit Adrian Younge zusammengetan, um ein neues psychedelisches Soul-Album, HYLDON JID023, zu kreieren. Das Duo, das sich von Hyldons bahnbrechenden Arbeiten der 60er und 70er Jahre inspirieren ließ, lässt den Geist dieser Epoche wieder aufleben und schafft gleichzeitig einen modernen Klassiker. Hyldons einzigartige Stimme und lyrische Tiefe, kombiniert mit Younge's innovativer, analoger Produktion, sorgen dafür, dass dieses Album nicht in Vergessenheit geraten wird. JID023 ist eine der letzten Aufnahmen mit Hyldons langjährigem Mitarbeiter und Freund, dem verstorbenen Schlagzeuger Ivan ,Mamao" Conti von Azymuth.

360 mcn white-white light cardboard paper / one side only hand plasticization / 2 separated parts prints / hand gluing / PVC outers / original artwork / gatefold sleeve / Bandcamp limited edition 30x60 cm insert with extended liner notes by Tony Higgins and Interview with Babs Robert and Sébastien Gorlé with exclusive pictures and self-portrait by Babs Robert himself printed on GF Smith "Takeo Tant Select" Canvas Paper tip-on left jacket panel / Exclusive never released Memorabilia from Babs Robert's vault.

Personnel:
Babs Robert - alt sax, tenor-sax, electric tenor-sax, Bin Recorder, Acme siren, Chinese-bell, sleigh-bells, maracas, tambourine,hand-rattle,claves)
John Van Rymenant - baritone-sax, fluegelhorn, Bala, tambourine, sleight-bells, cowbell, triangle, claves
Johnny Peret - vibes, bongo's, cowbell, maracas, castanets, rattle-snakes, tambourine, drums, woodclock, trinagle
Johnny Brouwers - piano, prepared-piano, triangle, cowbell, sleigh-bells, maracas, caves,hand-rattle, guiro, woodblock, tambourine
Paul Dubois - bass, triangle, cowbell, claves, rattlesnakes, hand-rattle, woodblock, tambourine
Michel Gobbe - bass,Chinese-bell, claves
Robert Pernet - drum, tambourine, seven-notes M'Bichi, guiro, alarm-siren, home-made metal xylophone, African telephone-drum, triangle, sleigh-bells, Siku

Notes:
Despite its modest role on the world stage, Belgium has produced a number of internationally renowned musicians and composers. There is the iconic gypsy jazz guitar maestro Django Reinhardt, whose position remains unassailable, and guitarist/harmonica player Toots Thielemans, who became an internationally renowned artist performing and recording with Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Shirley Horn and Quincy Jones. The other key Belgian figure is composer/arranger Francy Boland, co-leader with US bebop drumming legend Kenny Clarke of Europe's leading big band of the 60s, the Clarke-Boland Big Band.

The Love Planet performed in the main clubs of Brussels, such as Blue Note, Pol's Jazz Place, and Smog as well as in major musical events throughout Belgium including to big festivals in 1969 - the Avant-Garde Festival in Ghent and the First International Jazz Event in Liege – where the Love Planet shared the bill with Miles Davis - and the Bilzen Jazz Festival in 1970. The contrast between the musical architecture of the themes and sonic freedom in the improvised playing perfectly illustrated the polymorphism – an order within disorder – which the Love Planet aimed for.

The initial original quartet line-up was Babs Robert (sax), Paul Dubois (bass), Johnny Brouwers (piano), and Johnny Peret / Robert Pernet (dru- ms). On the album session, the quartet was augmented with the addition of John Van Rjimenant (saxes) and Michel Gobbe (bass). As well as their main instruments, the band members also played an array of unusual instruments, principally percussion. This is the first official re-release
of the 'Babs Robert and the Love Planet'. Original copies of the album fetch many hundreds of Euros on the collecting circuit and it remains a curious and fascinating window into a moment in time that still resona- tes some fifty years later. Come with us to the Love Planet. (Tony Higgins)

Modbox returns with a fresh release on his own label, Castanea Records, delivering the Cosmic Wind EP. This release moves through the realms of tech house, acid, neo trance, and broken beat, creating a textured sound that reflects Modbox’s forward-thinking approach to electronic music.

The EP opens with'Cosmic Wind,' where atmospheric layers float over a steady groove, setting a hypnotic, introspective tone. 'Acid Galaxy' follows, bringing sharp acid lines and raw energy to the forefront, offering a punchy, floor-focused experience.

On the B-side, Arno reworks 'Acid Galaxy' into a deeper, more hypnotic journey, adding subtle shifts in rhythm and expanding the track’s immersive qualities. 'Flow' rounds out the release with its broken beat structure, delivering a refreshing change in pace and a more experimental, layered vibe.

The Cosmic Wind EP showcases Modbox’s ability to blend rhythmic complexity with atmospheric depth, making it a versatile addition to any DJ’s collection.

Debut album of heavy Colombian salsa by the obscure and short-lived El Clan Antillano. Founded in 1975 by singer Jacky Carazo and radio personality / composer Mike Char and backed by a studio orchestra comprised mostly of Fruko Y Sus Tesos band members. The record has been remastered from the original tapes, with an additional three bonus cuts taken from two rare 45 singles, including the sought after track ‘Alma’. First time reissue. 180g Vinyl.

El Clan Antillano was an obscure, short-lived salsa group started in 1975 by singer Jacky “El Caballo” Carazo, originally from Cartagena, and radio host / song composer Mike Char, from Barranquilla. The band was active only until 1977, with a mere two albums to its name. Carazo and Char, “los amigos costeños” (friends from the Caribbean coastal area) created El Clan Antillano as a fresh start after the previous group Carazo had been the lead singer for, El
Afrocombo, had become inactive.

Char primary passion was music, especially songwriting. One of his skills in this area was adapting foreign songs, often in a different language, rhythm, arrangement or genre, and refashioning the tune in an uptempo Caribbean dance mode as a salsa or cumbia. This formula, as well as his own original compositions, soon brought him success not only with costeño friends like Carazo and Vicentini, but also with Medellín’s Fruko, allowing him to make a name for himself with record labels in that city. It was at this juncture, in 1975, that El Clan Antillano was born. This is their first album and was recorded with local studio musicians. It’s been said that most on the first album were from Fruko Y Sus Tesos (the voice of Joe Arroyo can be heard on coro) as well as others involved with various groups like La Protesta (de Colombia) and Juan Piña’s La Revelación.

The album kicks off with ‘Donde ‘sta? Donde ‘sta?’, a medley of costeño lyrical phrases quoting various popular porros. Gradually changing the vibe, this is followed by Enrique Aguilar’s ‘El baile del
ratón’, a humorous cumbia that changes into a salsa halfway through. As if El Clan Antillano were not entirely confident about featuring purely salsa from the start, the same cumbia/salsa hybrid formula is used in the third piece, a faithfully rendered version of Eddie Palmieri’s ‘Mi cumbia’.

‘Estás equivocada’ rocks hard like the best Venezuelan salsa of the time. ‘Esta mañana’ is a cover version of an obscure bolero from Curaçao’s Erwin Castaneer with Super Combo Castaneer. ‘En la oscuridad’ is an interesting mashup of Puerto Rican bomba and New York style pachanga. ‘El despertar’ is a sunny sounding pop song reinvented as a Nelson y sus Estrellas style salsa/cumbia hybrid with a fantastic ‘montuno’ section.

Up next is a hard salsa jam in the ‘pregón’ (street vendor’s cry) genre, written by Fruko Y Sus Tesos percussionist Álvaro Velásquez (composer of ‘El preso’). The original album track list closes out with a fantastic rendition of Puerto Rican singer/composer Bobby Capó’s classic ‘El negro bembón’ that the world first leaned to love through Cortijo y Su Combo. Three bonus tracks have been added to the album as it was originally very short. Interestingly, there were four songs from two 45 singles cut by the band that were never included on either long play. While the ephemeral El Clan Antillano may not be as well known as the groups it’s related to, namely El Afrocombo and Fruko Y Sus Tesos, it certainly deserves credit as a worthy participant in the historical evolution of salsa colombiana.

At times where technology inexorably infuses into humankind, Ammar808’s next adventures lays within the realms of Stambeli’s invisible creatures, an old genuine Tunisian tradition that has roots spreading out within the depths of the African continent.

Stambeli is a Tunisian musical therapeutic ritual that was implanted by afro-descendant communities. During the ceremonies, music, dance and chants are blended so as for some participants to reach the alternate state of trance while they are possessed by super natural entities. It is a syncretism between Islam and animist Yorisha religion’s voodoo beliefs, that has been disseminated during slave trade by Yoruba populations originating from current Benin’s gulf. Stambeli is a precious legacy the symbolizes the outstanding diversity and complexity of the North-African identity.

Using drum machines and analog synthesizers, he summons super natural creatures to visit our material world and taste human incarnations, form the audience’s collective experience. The album features vocals and gumbri from Bellassan Mihoub, who inherited his father’s knowledge and mastery, and currently embodies the avant-guarde of Stambeli’s revival. Two additional choristers round off the stage band, also playing the krekebs: these are pairs of large castagnet-like instruments oscillating in the limbo between binary and ternary rhythmic patterns. They breathe life and motion into this pagan communion, blessed by VJ Sia original visuals synchronized to the thundering music.

Super Stambeli is a contemporary interpretation of the Stambeli traditional repertoire, processed through a time-travel washing-machine, a parallel-dimension earthquake portal, that aims to echoes ancestral ceremonies through sub-harmonic speakers. It’s a dialogue between the wailing of the gombri, known to call for the spirits to descend into the bodies of the participants, but this time AMMAR808 directs them straight into the digital circuits of his clockwork-crafted machineries.

Originally released on Island Records in September 1998, the soundtrack to the box-office smash film, written and directed by Guy Ritchie, quickly became a must-own album, and is frequently cited as one of the best movie soundtracks of all time.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels redefined the British gangster film and established Guy Ritchie as one of the greatest directing and writing talents of his generation. Using a frenetic mixture of filmic styles, humour, violence, breakdown of the fourth wall, narration, and vast amounts of swearing, it is hard to imagine a time when this film and its influence was not around. It made a star of the-then unknown Jason Statham, and, amazingly, hard man footballer Vinnie Jones, who as Big Chris, had several scene-stealing moments. Taking his cue from Quentin Tarantino, who had been meticulously curating his film soundtracks since the early 90s, Ritchie made the music to his film tell its own story, complete with memorable snatches of dialogue between many of the tracks.

It offers a beautifully eclectic selection of songs from the preceding three decades, plus then-current artists providing some of their best material, such as Hundred Mile High City by Ocean Colour Scene or E-Z Rollers' drum'n'bass masterpiece Walk This Land. Of the heritage tracks, Dusty Springfield sings her sultry take on Spooky; James Brown appears twice with The Boss and The Payback; The Stooges with I Wanna Be Your Dog, and two versions of Pete Wingfield's masterful one-hit-wonder 18 With A Bullet; in its 1975 original and a contemporary cover by Lewis Taylor and Carleen Anderson. And this is only half of it.

Castanea Records returns with its seventh release, we are talking again about an LP this time signed by Paradroid. The artist is the new entry in the label and returns after a long time with an album that draws a definitely microhouse sound which characterizes him being a pioneer of this genre.
An old school sound unique and characteristic perhaps missing in the market since long. 8 tracks cared in minimum and the high quality details mixed and registered 100% in analog tape.
This icing cannot miss in the disk bag of any connoisseur in gender or non. There will be a novelty even on artwork level, this time we have decided to adapt to release a beautiful gatefold rough collectible cover.

Vinyl Only

Castanea Records present its sixth release by Pressure Point.
The vinyl includes 3 original rhythmical glitch/micro tracks which juxtapose to the melodic synthesis tending to housemusic noteworthy to the expansion of some modular randomized sounds .
A complete Ep in every respect which also includes a remix by TC80 targeted to the dancefloor .
Do not forget that the release will be only on vinyl

Walk Don't Run ist ein Buddy-Comedy-Thriller, der sich über zwölf nächtliche und nostalgische Stunden erstreckt und die Auflösung einer lebenslangen Freundschaft erzählt, die durch eine manische Flucht aus einem Diner, die Entführung eines Woodie Wagon, eine Fahrt mit der Big Dipper-Achterbahn und eine Surf-Session um 3 Uhr morgens ausgelöst wird. Unterlegt mit Demos aus dem Ry-Ko-Ausschussstapel, ist Moodys instrumentale Abkürzung eine Momentaufnahme des Surf-Musik-Crashs Mitte der 1960er Jahre. Passend zum Nacht-Thema des Films tauscht Walk Don't Run die schlurfenden, verträumten Balladen der Ära ein und filmt die echoartigen Wellen des privaten Strandes lange nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit.

Walk Don't Run ist ein Buddy-Comedy-Thriller, der sich über zwölf nächtliche und nostalgische Stunden erstreckt und die Auflösung einer lebenslangen Freundschaft erzählt, die durch eine manische Flucht aus einem Diner, die Entführung eines Woodie Wagon, eine Fahrt mit der Big Dipper-Achterbahn und eine Surf-Session um 3 Uhr morgens ausgelöst wird. Unterlegt mit Demos aus dem Ry-Ko-Ausschussstapel, ist Moodys instrumentale Abkürzung eine Momentaufnahme des Surf-Musik-Crashs Mitte der 1960er Jahre. Passend zum Nacht-Thema des Films tauscht Walk Don't Run die schlurfenden, verträumten Balladen der Ära ein und filmt die echoartigen Wellen des privaten Strandes lange nach Einbruch der Dunkelheit.