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Human Potential Movement

DOGMA marks a new beginning for Coloray. As the name suggests, the project explores the endless search for meaning in a world that does not always offer one. Across 11 tracks, the artist reflects on queer romance, grief, youthful hope, and melancholic joy. Emotional, chaotic, and imperfect, DOGMA mirrors both the artist and the messy reality of a life unfolding. Rather than forcing rigid structures, the album embraces looseness and human presence. Live recordings and improvised songwriting take center stage- every lyric was written in the moment, and the tracks remain intentionally raw to preserve their imperfections.

In this way, the album is both personal and political. It calls for belief in keeping humanity alive and for dismantling the societal dogmas that push artists away from the core of their creative identity. DOGMA is an honest journey of self-authorship, unfolding through the sounds of new wave, disco-punk, electro, and ambient music.

Focusing on bringing people some fresh air from the island that we produced with its own unique character. Our artists provide an escape to somewhere full of energy to drag you back from the so-called chaotic world. There are plenty of spaces, it’s a sharing for everyone!

As you may know, Koh is a word in Thai that means ‘island’. We want to represent the sound of our characterized island and tell the story through it. For this collection, we want to present the island under the ground which represents the different perspective of life reflecting our music scene in reality.

We gave the word “Clockmaker” as a hint to the artists.
It’s a simple, even mundane concept—something easily overlooked and not immediately eye-catching. It also suggests waiting, as it often takes time for people to return to the shop. But time itself holds meaning, and the clockmaker always has something hidden beneath the surface.

With that in mind, “The Photo Sticker Machine” and “Chucheewa” present their first original track: “Galactic Love.”

Alongside it are five vibrant remixes by artists we deeply admire—from Mogwaa (Korea) and Retromigration (Germany) to three incredible talents from Thailand’s local scene: Kova O’ Sarin, Chalo, and Saranmy.

dxrvo, hailing from Hannover, Germany, has made a name for himself in the electronic music scene by creating hypnotic, minimalist, and atmospheric techno sets. His music takes the dance floor on a captivating journey, characterized by driving beats, rhythmic basslines and repetitive sounds. With performances at renowned venues such as Tresor Berlin, PAL Hamburg, Doka Amsterdam, Watergate Berlin, and Terminal Lyon, he showcases his presence in theinternational techno landscape. As a founder of the Kollektiv Synergie, dxrvo is committed to inclusive events and the promotion of diverse artists. His production skills are evidenced by successful releases on labels like SYXT, Room Trax, Modern Minimal, and NYXII. More than just a DJ, dxrvo is an architect of sonic experiences, continuously redefining the boundaries of electronic music.


Linear Phase
With a two-decade career in music production, Carlos, better known as Linear Phase, has become an established artist in the global techno scene. His eclectic sound proposal, ranging from ambient / drone, through minimal / deep / hypnotic, to raw techno, has earned him the recognition of both critics and the public. His prolific career is reflected in the more than 50 releases under his belt in the last 5 years on several internationally renowned labels such as Molecular, Planet Rhythm, Newrhytmic, Drumcode LTD or Edit Select, to name a few, thus consolidating his presence in the global scene. His 5 years of experience in the world of modular eurorack has allowed him to develop a unique and personal sound, characterized by its depth, textures and enveloping atmospheres. In addition to his role as a producer, Linear Phase is co-creator of the Barcelona Modular Society, a space dedicated to the exploration and dissemination of experimental electronic music. Linear Phase is currently developing the creation of both its own label and its new studio, which will become a creative hub oriented to host all kinds of activities related to techno production. This space will feature the participation of renowned national and international producers, consolidating his commitment to the scene and his vision for the future.

Innmenal
Innmenal is a DJ and producer from Pinamar, Argentina. Resident from FAS Producciones he focuses into hypnotic sounds and chaotic rhythms. He has been playing across the Argentinian coastline spreading his sounds characteristics. With continous work and dedication Innmenal's tracks can be found in labels such as Concepto Hipnotico, Apical Records and Diffuse Reality. His first album called Metatron's Cube was released this year on the Diffuse Reality's Label. Another album is planned over this year along other releases on other labels. His last track Winds Of change was released on the label Modern Minimal with some support coming from Rødhad, Svreca, Developer, Richie Hawtin, Slam, Justine Perry, Arnaud Le Texier, Distant Echoes, Dax J, Hugo Rolan and more. He has shared the decks with Mariano DC doing warm up during last year. With more than 10 years behind the decks he's still digging into the deep hypnotic sounds with some agressive percussions to give the listener a journey through his cosmic sounds. So far Innmenal has been active in various labels like Diffuse Reality, Modern Minimal, KPLR, Space Travel, Rowan Underground and Habitat Musical.

Qaypz
Qaypz is a DJ and producer hailing from Arlon, Belgium. As a child of the 90s dance music era, his journey into electronic music began in 2000, ignited by his first I Love Techno Festival experience in Belgium and the underground rave scene that was thriving in his hometown Liège, where Jungle and D'n'B from UK were dominating. This era made Qaypz start mixing on turntables and embracing vinyl culture in 2003. Today, he's versatile, seamlessly transitioning between turntables, CDJs and DAW-based setups, incorporating hardware and controllers for a hybrid mix performance style. In his early years, he organized local rave parties and later moved to Eupen, the capital of East Belgium, where he founded the collective Krank'm'Haus. Qaypz's passion for underground sounds is evident in his productions. He crafts dark, industrial tracks characterized by powerful kicks, somber melodies and a driving rhythm. His performances have graced notable locations such as The Ground Club in Luxembourg, The Liquid Club in Malta and The Kulturzentrum Alterschlachthof in Eupen as well as underground events like La Nature, Eupen Musik Marathon Festivals in East Belgium and the Rummelstilzchen’s illegal rave party in Berlin-Rummelsburg just before the building demolition the day after. Qaypz is currently focusing on his label development and continue producing and mainly releasing his music on Krank'm'Haus Records.

The landscapes of Orlan 19 resembled the dream of a mad cartographer: cliffs were floating above the surface, horizons were bending and vanishing into infinity, and energy vortices were flaring up beneath their feet in psychedelic patterns. The familiar laws of physics didn’t apply here — gravity shifted chaotically, and time flew with unpredictable intensity. As Spacelunch, absorbed in thought, stroked the ground which distorted like a mirage under his touch, Cat’s grumbling echoed simultaneously from the past and future:

— Doc, don’t you think we’re just walking in circles?
— No wonder. That’s how inverse modelling works. Every action we take reshapes the surrounding space.
— Can you explain it in simpler terms? There’s only one genius here.
— Ever heard of the Philadelphia Experiment?
— Of course! You know how much I love sushi rolls!
— Well, I set myself up for this predicament… Back in my university days, we experimented with magnetic fields trying to program them by thought. You get where I’m going, don’t you? The planet is reacting to our intentions. So, focus on visualizing the portal.

The confusion on Cat’s face gave way to a mask of detachment. Clusters of matter began to tremble pulling the threads of reality to their breaking point before finally forming a vortex. Having devoured as much as it could, the vortex snapped shut with a loud pop and dissolved in a blinding flash.

As the scene began to take shape, silhouettes emerged under the soft glow of a desk lamp, evoking an overwhelming sense of nostalgia. A worn desk and a small bed stood by the wall adorned with faded photographs, while the floor let out a gentle creak underfoot. The clearer the interior came to be, the more paralyzing the realization, and the more elusive the explanation for what had happened became.

— Holy…! Cat, are we looking at the same thing?
— Yeah, but… This can’t be real.

Spacelunch slowly approached the window and froze still. A single thought raced through his mind: “The only force strong enough to pull me this far… was love.”

Astral travel with Cybotron into the meta-narrative of the Parallel Shift, a new sonic fiction that raises many questions about military science of the near-future and the possibility of other worlds.
Descending backward through the rhythms of time, the Skynet module retracts from the hyper-structural society of 2100, edging toward the mid-century modern age teetering on the brink of what was then the frontier of “the future”. The system boots the Infiniti process, morphing into a cosmotechnic vessel coursing the superhighway of burgeoning general intelligence, seeking data from just before “the overshoot and collapse.”
R&D methods, rhythmanalytically applied, dissect the aftermath of an industrial society that burst through the ecological capacity of Spaceship Earth. Fractal visions of war and innovation spike and recede from and into the surfaces of reality being bent and guiding the eyes, ears, touch towards a laboratory in the year 1961. A nuclear expert, Don Lewis, receives orders to decrypt the mysterious black dodecagonal disc known as Fortec and the extraterrestrial biology unearthed in Roswell. He joins a team disassembling Fortec and studying the recurrent dodecahedral patterns linked to the human nervous system.
Through dismantling and probing, the team cycles through a saecular search devoid of finite conclusions, limited by Earth’s intellectual and technological prowess. One 1960s night, Lewis, while meddling with Fortec’s cyborganic innards, accidentally electrifies himself. His cyclotron and missile experience guides him to circuit-bend Fortec, stirring the entity from a mechanical slumber. Lewis and Fortec communicate in resonances, until it drifts back into a tranquil stasis.
The US Defense and contractors, unbeknownst to them, observe this breakthrough. They later permit Lewis to exit military service as the Air Force forms the Foreign Technology Division. Concurrently, MJ12 evolves into CY12, delving into second-order cybernetics. Lewis clandestinely keeps working on Fortec fragments, transitioning from military engineer to musician, pioneering the LEO module, a fusion of Fortec’s essence and audio engineering.
He shares his insights with Roland founder Ikutaro Kakehashi, aiding the creation of the iconic TR-808. Meanwhile, Fortec branches out, coining “Cyberspace” – a collective illusion of liberty unshackled by physical, political, or spiritual bounds, anchored in the equitable distribution of The Golden Ratio across realities. Yet “Cyberspace” morphs into a chaotic truth reservoir, spilling over into deception.
The Parallel Shift manifests in the perpetual “Now,” a collapsed event horizon where past and future are ensnared in a relentless present, unfurling along a dissolving timeline, overseen by a monolithic simulation under ceaseless watch…
— The Rhythmanalyst aka DeForrest Brown, Jr.

John Ghost (Ghent, Belgium) is the sextet led by guitarist/composer Jo De Geest. As a group, they draw influences from jazz, rock, and contemporary classical music. Minimalism, electronics, and an overall cinematic quality characterize their instrumental sound. The ensemble's sound can be described as a symbiosis of Hidden Orchestra, Portico Quartet, and James Holden.



After the critically acclaimed “Airships Are Organisms” (4-star reviews in The Guardian and Financial Times, as well as airplay on BBC 6 and Worldwide FM) John Ghost is back with “Thin Air . Mirror Land”, to be released on October 6 via Sdban Ultra, the label of ECHT!, Black Flower, Glass Museum, STUFF. and more.



For this album, they continued their fruitful collaboration with legendary producer Jørgen Træen, known for his work with Jaga Jazzist, Electric Eye, Kaizers Orchestra, and numerous projects on the Hubro Record Label. The result is an album with a slightly more somber tone, focussing on a broader range of instruments and an emphasis on percussive elements."Thin Air . Mirror Land" unfolds as an aesthetic refuge in stormy times. It is a musical urge for introspection in a chaotic reality, and a longing to reconnect with a natural environment.



During the creative process, Jo drew inspiration from the music of artists such as Hans Zimmer, György Ligeti, Magma, The Residents, Disasterpeace, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Do Make Say Think, William Basinski, and Jóhann Jóhannsson. The album title "Thin Air . Mirror Land" and the song titles are driven by a fascination with the artwork of Edvard Munch. Jo found inspiration in Munch's painting "The Storm" (1893) as a catalyst for the writing process, exploring a dystopian backdrop and the intriguing interplay between comfort and unrest. Heavily inspired by the music, Jaak De Digitale created the gloomy artwork for the album.



Members of the band are Jo De Geest (Endlingr), Rob Banken (Rapidman, HAST), Wim Segers (Compro Oro, PAARD.), Karel Ceulenaere (Black Flower), Lieven Van Pée (Echoes of Zoo, De Beren Gieren) and Elias Devoldere (Nordmann, Elias) who went through a thoughtful studio process, with the result being a conceptual and slightly dystopian atmosphere.

There’s an alternate reality where everyone makes a living wage and the cleanest buses you’ve ever seen arrive every other minute. Where the most intense songs are about confessing your love to a crush at the apple orchard, and where gentle feelings and chaotic energy are inseparable best friends. This is the timeline where Cootie Catcher is right at home. This Toronto based four-piece exudes both vulnerability and unbridled excitement, creating a sound that hypercharges the open-hearted tenderness of twee pop with spiraling synths and giddy electronics. New album Something We All Got is the clearest and most vibrant reading of Cootie Catcher’s vision yet, with songs of sweetness, nervousness, and expectancy that beam out unguarded.
After releasing music made primarily in basement recording environments, Something We All Got is the band’s first flirtation with studio recording. The edges are still sharp, however, with some parts assembled from time-honored lo-fi methods and fun, personally-sourced samples seeping into the production. The sound is explosive and upbeat, with euphoric guitars, bubbly synth lines, speedy drums both played and programmed, and all other manner of sound constantly colliding. Cootie Catcher has three songwriters, Sophia Chavez, Anita Fowl, and Nolan Jakupovski, all of whom have distinctive voices but still manage to overlap in their writing on shared concerns like navigating the lines of romantic and platonic relationships, their city’s social scenes, and struggles in both the microcosmic experience of playing in a band and the zoomed-out challenges of living through late-stage capitalism.
Joy still touches every surface of Something We All Got. “Quarter Note Rock” bounces around the room in a fit of jangling guitar chords, scratched samples, and interplay between breakbeat loops and somersaulting live drums. It’s a blast of positivity even with lyrics about how disappointing it can be to meet your heroes. A smiling electro pop instrumental supports lyrics about having to step painfully away from an almost realized love on “Gingham Dress,” a song that subverts themes of domesticity as a backdrop for the dashed wilt of hopeless devotion.
Cootie Catcher rolls down hills and jumps through flaming hoops throughout Something We All Got without ever dumbing down the visceral emotions that drive these songs. There’s a palpable tension between the band’s exhilarating sonics and the raw, often uneasy sentiments expressed, but it’s an integral part of what makes them unique. Rather than hide behind the kind of calculated vagueness that plagues so much of the indie rock landscape in the time of cursed algorithms, Cootie Catcher runs full-speed toward every confusion and excitement, fearlessly direct and embracing the reality they’re in.

There’s an alternate reality where everyone makes a living wage and the cleanest buses you’ve ever seen arrive every other minute. Where the most intense songs are about confessing your love to a crush at the apple orchard, and where gentle feelings and chaotic energy are inseparable best friends. This is the timeline where Cootie Catcher is right at home. This Toronto based four-piece exudes both vulnerability and unbridled excitement, creating a sound that hypercharges the open-hearted tenderness of twee pop with spiraling synths and giddy electronics. New album Something We All Got is the clearest and most vibrant reading of Cootie Catcher’s vision yet, with songs of sweetness, nervousness, and expectancy that beam out unguarded.
After releasing music made primarily in basement recording environments, Something We All Got is the band’s first flirtation with studio recording. The edges are still sharp, however, with some parts assembled from time-honored lo-fi methods and fun, personally-sourced samples seeping into the production. The sound is explosive and upbeat, with euphoric guitars, bubbly synth lines, speedy drums both played and programmed, and all other manner of sound constantly colliding. Cootie Catcher has three songwriters, Sophia Chavez, Anita Fowl, and Nolan Jakupovski, all of whom have distinctive voices but still manage to overlap in their writing on shared concerns like navigating the lines of romantic and platonic relationships, their city’s social scenes, and struggles in both the microcosmic experience of playing in a band and the zoomed-out challenges of living through late-stage capitalism.
Joy still touches every surface of Something We All Got. “Quarter Note Rock” bounces around the room in a fit of jangling guitar chords, scratched samples, and interplay between breakbeat loops and somersaulting live drums. It’s a blast of positivity even with lyrics about how disappointing it can be to meet your heroes. A smiling electro pop instrumental supports lyrics about having to step painfully away from an almost realized love on “Gingham Dress,” a song that subverts themes of domesticity as a backdrop for the dashed wilt of hopeless devotion.
Cootie Catcher rolls down hills and jumps through flaming hoops throughout Something We All Got without ever dumbing down the visceral emotions that drive these songs. There’s a palpable tension between the band’s exhilarating sonics and the raw, often uneasy sentiments expressed, but it’s an integral part of what makes them unique. Rather than hide behind the kind of calculated vagueness that plagues so much of the indie rock landscape in the time of cursed algorithms, Cootie Catcher runs full-speed toward every confusion and excitement, fearlessly direct and embracing the reality they’re in.

Shadows fold into colour. Memory dissolves into noise. You brush up against the walls of the mind. Touch is soft as breath. On ‘B side’, Areliz Ramos follows her work’s current into its more “fantastic and elusive… and even romantic” side; a place where fantasy loosens the bolts of reality and memory, and emotion is alluringly refracted into musical collages and loose-strung compositions. Across the album, voices drift in and out of an intimate space, while pensive guitar lines stumble and bloom like scribbled unresolved notes in a diary. Beneath its icy, often chaotic surface, ‘B side’ radiates a deep sense of joy and fragility. Ramos sketches out an entire world by free association, collaging notions and echoing quiet thoughts into deeply honest snapshots of daydreams.

Areliz Ramos is a Peruvian producer living in London, recognized for an evocative palette weaving lo-fi and downtempo threads into dreamlike, abstract emo narratives. While her debut ‘Frío’ (Where to Now?), orbited around homesickness and estrangement, ‘B side’ embraces imperfection, incorporating her guitar (named "Frank"), pedals, synthesizers, and her own vocal textures for the first time, privileging emotional immediacy over technical precision. The creative process behind this album reflects a conscious decision to let go, loosen control, let intuition lead, and engage her own ‘B’ side.

Rather than constructing a safe haven from hardship, Ramos offers a cracked mirror, staring right at it, embracing that vulnerability. The gentle and beautiful ‘B side’ explores fleeting satisfaction, or the elusive comfort sitting just out of sight.

Folk isn"t exactly a genre and it isn"t always an aesthetic, it"s the lore that"s curled around the roots of myths, ballads and anecdotes, burying itself just inches beneath the surface of contemporary culture. On their debut album, Canzonieri brush away some of the dust from Western civilization, excavating forgotten sonorities, philosophies and motifs to figure out what impact this knowledge might have on a chaotic, apocryphal modern reality. Processing familiar acoustic instruments and utilizing an arsenal of idiosyncratic self-built devices, acclaimed artist Emiliano Maggi and musical artist Cosimo Damiano - both members of Italian surrealist quartet Salò - survey the uneven, challenging landscape that surrounds them, calling attention to the conflicts and illusions that underpin art in all its forms. They take a widescreen view of centuries of musical evolution, juxtaposing simplicity and complexity, past and present, city life and the pull of nature to distill the essence of folk - emotional histories that are whispered from person to person.

Scratching and clanking, cold and hypnotic, equally suitable for dancing and crying, this release was and remains a reflection of the harsh and magical Siberian reality.
Two great artists worked on the design of this release. A chaotic punk collage by Antonio Carrau as the cover art, a poster with broken сyrillic calligraphy by Marina Leonteva, and a bilingual inlay layout in a neat book style by me. All together, they reflect the different facets and depths of the musical and lyrical content of the album.

Where stars drench the sky in hues of infinity, amidst the chaotic waves of supernovas, Sleem Gleam emerges from the abyss to debut a fusion of electronic rhythms and reverberated riffs that crash against the shores of reality.

Riding on a hot acid groove and descending into an electric whirlpool, “Lava Barrels at High Tide” is a stripped-back oceanside bop that epitomizes the swell. Up next, “Totally Pitted” hits maximum wetness with an iconic bass line and blazing flanged-out hats guaranteed to jostle a noggin.

On the flip side, the upbeat electro jam “Cosmic Rip Current” presents a hazard to beach-goers in the form of a thick and psychedelic stellar blip-swirl. Lobotomy Party sends it home at high speed with twacked-out vocal samples and surreal pulsating bass.

Sleem Gleam is the new surf-inspired alias of Minneapolis-based Kajunga co-founder Ry Johnson, aka Ryote. He has been making and releasing electronic music since 2007 and DJing since 2011.

London noise-rock quartet USA Nails have announced their upcoming album Feel Worse’, out March 22nd 2024. It’s the first album on their new label One Little Independent Records (home to anarcho-punk bands both old and new; Crass, Bad Breeding and more). The band have forged a considerable reputation since their formation in 2013 from their South London base, comprising of members of Kong, Future Of The Left, Blacklisters, Death Pedals and Silent Front.

‘Feel Worse’ explores schadenfreude; the pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune. With this, they use new material to attack austerity and UK authoritarianism, consumer culture (particularly the consumption of quick fix reality TV and hyper-capitalist agendas), youth culture and bullying, and more. They do so with their intense and unmistakable brand of abrasive, chaotic post-hardcore. There’s a raw and uncompromising energy to USA Nails, and ‘Feel Worse’ is their most powerful and vital album to date.

London noise-rock quartet USA Nails have announced their upcoming album Feel Worse’, out March 22nd 2024. It’s the first album on their new label One Little Independent Records (home to anarcho-punk bands both old and new; Crass, Bad Breeding and more). The band have forged a considerable reputation since their formation in 2013 from their South London base, comprising of members of Kong, Future Of The Left, Blacklisters, Death Pedals and Silent Front.

‘Feel Worse’ explores schadenfreude; the pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune. With this, they use new material to attack austerity and UK authoritarianism, consumer culture (particularly the consumption of quick fix reality TV and hyper-capitalist agendas), youth culture and bullying, and more. They do so with their intense and unmistakable brand of abrasive, chaotic post-hardcore. There’s a raw and uncompromising energy to USA Nails, and ‘Feel Worse’ is their most powerful and vital album to date.

teen suicide's first & only proper album, `i will be my own hell because there is a devil inside my body', has been a sought after release for many collectors after it's ultra-limited vinyl release in 2012. Now, Run For Cover Records will be reissuing my own hell, with remastered audio, expanded artwork and 8 never-before-issued bonus tracks. Across the album's 10 songs, the band displays a knack for different sounds and styles. Intimate, keyboard driven tracks like `cop graveyard' and `grim reaper' sit beside more energetic full-band outings like `dead bird skeleton and `give me back to the sky', the latter even adding an evocative viola, piano and choral arrangement to it's chaotic center. It's to the band's credit that their more outré moments feel necessary, not distracting. What becomes clear upon listening to `my own hell' is that beneath the dreamy haze & noisy apathy of teen suicide's recordings exist ernest, extremely well-written pop songs that reflect and express the uncertainty and desperation of reality

Channeling the speed of youth and the heaviness of a fleshy, lived life in equal proportion, Upchuck’s second LP, Bite the Hand That Feeds, is a Trojan Horse par excellence, craftily smuggling in waves of sentimental emotion and clever pop songwriting under a veil of pulsing rhythms and scorching riffs. What binds Upchuck together is a purity of intention, an organic loyalty to a thick knot of uncalculated friendships, struggles, and desires. These are songs about the joy of continuing to live, songs that find each other in the rush of a crushing reality, propelling the listener onward towards a collective release, however brief it may last. Themes of surviving through the night, youth-blinded love, cheap champagne soaked back-alley parties, and chaotic street protests are subsumed under a single unifying thread: the needs we have for one another, our shared hunger for connection. In a world saturated with arbitrary rules and paper-thin moralism, Upchuck offer free¬dom through sensation, a type of unserious transcendence found through the swirl of bodies melting into one another in the passion of dance. With Bite the Hand That Feeds, Upchuck isn’t trying to tell anyone how to live. Rather, they are simply trying to find a way to make life more worth living for both themselves and their friends—if the music compels you to move, you might as well consider yourself their friend too. Shortly after the release of their debut album Sense Yourself, Upchuck absconded to Southern California to record Bite the Hand That Feeds, enlisting the production talents of Ty Segall and the airy reprieve of his secluded Topanga Canyon home studio. Upchuck credits Segall, who recorded the entire record live to tape over the span of five days, with helping to elevate the arrangements of their second record to bold new heights—fans of Segall’s extensive catalog will undoubtedly recognize the shadow of his creative touch in Bite the Hand That Feeds’ commanding, layered drum polyrhythms, tasteful use of oddball effects, and fuzzed out, every-guitar-pushed-into-the-red ethos. All the same, final credit for Upchuck’s evolution from Sense Yourself to Bite the Hand That Feeds must be paid to the band itself. Following the release of their debut LP, Upchuck embarked upon a break-neck string of live shows, touring alongside the likes of Segall’s Fuzz, Amyl and the Sniffers, Negative Approach, OFF!, and Sub¬humans. The razor tight focus of Bite the Hand That Feeds was forged in the fire of these live shows, speaking directly to the power of their in-person presence—these are songs meant to be heard pressed up against a barricade, blasted through dimed guitar amps placed so close to your ears that you can practically reach out and touch them. In its totality, Bite the Hand That Feeds offers a sonic portrait of what it feels like to be young and caught up in the thrill of it all, coursing between ripping dance grooves and thundering dirges, anti-self-serious crowd anthems and charming pop hooks.

El Nido: a welcoming embrace in uncertain times. The world changed forever in the second quarter of 2020. The life we were used to ceased to be, as we were overcome by constant fear, distrust in all that surrounded us and a fatalist attitude towards the world we lived in. With the pandemic came lockdown, mandatory isolation for months, empty streets, face masks, hand sanitizer, the fear of going out, an absurd roll call of Covid fatalities, the daily tension of not knowing when it would all end and the urge to "get back to normal," something that certainly never happened. Out of that pandemic saturation and that urge for "normality" came El Nido ("The Nest"), the third album by Italy-based Colombian producer Montoya, who describes this record as "becoming virgins of destiny again, facing up to that fatalist world and creating that longing for tranquility. Savoring that moment prior to the pandemic, that instant when the most important thing wasn't the immediate reality or the global situation." Montoya sees El Nido as that quiet place that you think of when you close your eyes; it is a beach or a mountain, a sunrise or a sunset, a wave in the sea refreshing your body, or an almost-whispering wind that immediately silences everything around you. On his previous records, Iwa in 2015 and Otún in 2019, his work as a producer prevailed, feeding the growing wave of Latin American electronica, fusing IDM and techno with indigenous root music, Andean folklore and rhythms from the tropical Caribbean coast and ancestral Pacific in terms of instrumentation. But on El Nido Montoya splits the balance, offering us five merely instrumental tracks and six collaborations with Latin American artists, including Colombians Nidia Góngora on "Soñé," Montañera on "Sierra" and Pedrina on "Nubecita." It also features Mexican artist Pahua on "Flor del Mar," the Peruvian Lara Nuh on "El Faro" and the Franco-Venezuelan La Chica on "Palosanto." Starting from the name itself ("The Nest"), an evocation of home, El Nido is also a Filipino municipality on the island of Palawan, a place that turned out to be Montoya's last live experience before the pandemic. That place with crystal clear seas and white sand became the scene and starting point for this work, reflecting on the abstraction of a chaotic world and proposing blurred destinations with each song, like places that exist within memories when we close our eyes, letting us inhabit them, for a couple of minutes at least. On the other hand, it's a record that approaches love; as a yearning and a refuge, as a guide and an anchor, but also as a rhetorical figure that makes us vibrate and elevates us, while at the same time keeping us grounded and letting us settle in the place that we can use as our shelter.

Eric Emm and Jesse Cohen of Tanlines are indie-rock lifers turned reasonable, happy middle-aged fathers of two, figuring out their place in a chaotic culture and industry that can no longer command their full attention. They are emblematic of a particular time and place that doesn't really exist anymore, yet here they are existing, and thriving, in 2023. The Big Mess came together when Emm and his family moved from Brooklyn to rural Connecticut, while Cohen launched a marketing career and a successful podcast and stayed in the city. Emm continued writing songs_hundreds of them _ through all the weirdness of the past few years, but he wasn't exactly sure who he was writing them for. "I spent years figuring out in my mind, `What is my musical life going to look like?'" he says. "I just kept writing." Cohen gave Emm his blessing to continue Tanlines, even if his own contributions would be limited due to his own non-musical obligations. "I'm like, `Whatever you can do to keep this thing going, do it,'" Cohen says. And with that, Tanlines was reborn. By January 2022 Emm felt he had a body of work that made sense as a Tanlines album. Cohen spent ten days with Emm at his Connecticut studio, along with unofficial third Tanline Patrick Ford (!!!). This was tied together with a sleek final mix from Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) at his famed Tarquin Studios, resulting in a clear vision of what Emm's musical life was going to look like: The Big Mess. The first sounds on The Big Mess are the title track's coiled guitars and thumping drums, building into the kind of outsize, choral rock anthem artists like Tanlines were almost a reaction to. It is warm and nostalgic, and Cohen likens a lot of the prevailing mood to "a sepia filter on a digital photo." He continues, "we were pretty intentional about making this the first song on the album, underlining the way that this is a new phase of the band." Cohen says. The moody, scintillating "Burns Effect" serves as one of the biggest pushes forward for the Tanlines sound, and for Emm as a lyricist. He says that the song is "deep and dark and dangerous, but in a fun way. It's one of the more personal tracks on the album where this ungrounded part of my personality surfaces, but with an over-the-top machismo, almost an ironic character." Other tracks like "New Reality" and closer "The Age of Innocence" are also demonstrably guitar-forward in ways that wouldn't seem obvious for Tanlines (despite Emm's pedigree in austere avant-garde math-rock outfits Storm & Stress and Don Caballero), but Emm is less sure The Big Mess is a total departure. "I'm trying to make these absolutely simple things," he says. "I think of these songs as Rothko paintings: They're big and they're bold and they're seemingly straightforward, but they have a lot of depth and they engage with you and make you feel something."