quête:charged g b h

With Stronger, her third EP, Mira Ló continues her rapid ascent within the French electronic scene. A cathartic project born from a period of personal upheaval, this EP is both a cry of resilience and a celebration of club culture as a space for healing. The Paris-based queer producer and DJ turns pain into creative force, and the dancefloor into refuge, release, and rebirth. Across four emotionally charged tracks, Stronger traces the contours of a club where one rises through the energy of the beat, the warmth of a caring community, and the affirmation of self through sound and movement. “This EP is my response to a very dark period in my life. I chose to turn pain into strength, to stand back up through music, and to reconnect with joy, intensity, and the collective. Each track follows a movement, of a body rising, a heart beating stronger, a soul regaining its light. Stronger is also a tribute to those who carried me when I could no longer stand on my own. It's proof that even in chaos, we can rebuild together.” Mira Ló The first chapter of this inner journey, “Riser” is a house track filled with enveloping melodies, ethereal pads, and organic chords that create a suspended sonic space. Its steady pulse and warm basslines evoke a rising from within. “I wanted this track to feel like a build-up, like breathing again. It's about that moment when you feel you're ready to rise once more, even after a fall, like a gentle but powerful wave,” says Mira Ló. With its R&B textures, pop-infused touches, and radiant production, “Brighter” glows with warmth. It captures the return of inner clarity, the rediscovery of joy and ease. Made to bring people together, it’s Instagram | Youtube | TikTok | SoundCloudboth immediate and heartfelt. “It’s a song about shining again, after the dark. I wanted something full of light and simplicity, a track that speaks to the heart and makes you want to dance without thinking.” A personal and introspective nod to the French Touch, “Higher” is driven by filtered basslines and hypnotic grooves. It channels a sense of euphoria that builds gradually, almost meditatively, like a joyful vertigo. “This track is about finding euphoria again, that moment when music lifts you beyond yourself. I grew up with the French Touch, and this is my way of coming back to it with my own voice.” Closing the journey, “Louder” is the most assertive track on the EP. Inspired by the UK bassline and garage scene, it bursts with percussive, punchy energy. This is where everything comes into full light, bold, unapologetic, and free. “I wrote Louder as a statement: I’m here, I exist, and I won’t stay silent anymore. It’s about partying as self-affirmation, as a joyful, powerful scream of identity. Meant to be played loud. Very loud.” Mira Ló, born Ana Lopez, is a queer producer and DJ based in Paris. Drawing from the full spectrum of club music, her sets and productions blend melancholic emotion with a unique, high-energy, euphoric touch - inspired by artists like Disclosure, salute, and Sammy Virji. From her early days playing in Parisian bars and intimate clubs, she quickly rose to the lineups of top French venues and festivals such as Peacock Society, Marvellous Island, and Lollapalooza - extending her reach across Europe and even to Chicago. She’s carved out a strong place for herself within the new wave of the French electronic scene, leaving a lasting impression with every appearance. In 2023, she released her debut EP Memories and was featured in Apple Music’s “Women In Electronic” series. That same year, she became a resident at Sacré in Paris, before unveiling her second EP Tribute To Chicago in 2024. She returns in 2025 with her third release, Stronger - once again proving she’s one of the most promising artists shaping the future of electronic music.

Lapalux (Stuart Howard) is a UK-based experimental electronic music producer known for his emotionally charged sound design, intricate textures, and immersive sonic storytelling. With releases on Brainfeeder and widespread critical acclaim, Lapalux has built a loyal global following and earned consistent airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, and NTS. His work has been championed by DJs including Mary Anne Hobbs, Benji B, and Tom Ravenscroft, and praised by outlets such as The Guardian, Resident Advisor, XLR8R, and Clash. Lapalux's music occupies a unique space between IDM, ambient, and leftfield electronica — rich in atmosphere, detail, and feeling.

On the Grid is Lapalux's latest EP — a deeply intricate, hardware-driven exploration of rhythm and emotion that fuses fragmented IDM with warm analogue tones and deep dynamics. The EP showcases Lapalux's continued evolution as a producer, balancing intricate sound design with powerful melodic undercurrents. It follows years of refinement in the studio, drawing on his signature use of modular synthesis, Digital and analogue hardware and organic imperfections. With a limited vinyl pressing and strong fan demand, On the Grid stands as a key release in Lapalux's catalogue and a compelling addition to any store's forward-thinking electronic selection.

El Elektro Compilado Padrísimo Vol. 1 is a double 12” compilation curated by Spanish artist Elektro’s Grandfather, Dark Vektor featuring his personal selection from today’s scene. A fearless snapshot of the Spaniard national electro scene. Established figures stand shoulder to shoulder with new blood, generating a current where tradition and innovation collide in sparks. Every track is a charged fragment of a collective identity, soldered into one unstoppable groove. A declaration that the Spanish electro underground is alive, mutating, and absolutely padrísimo. Presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

Across the past decade, KAS has established herself as a unique voice in experimental electronic music, a composer and synthesist whose work dissolves the boundaries between ambient electronica, contemporary classical, composition, and immersive sound design. Her new album “Ruin: It’s Not Just Music” arrives with a distinctive gravitational pull. The record moves with greater physical force, placing rhythm and impact at the centre of its architecture, revealing a more confrontational and embodied dimension of KAS’s musical language.
The first single “Ruin” arrives May 22nd, with the full album released October 2nd via SOMEONE SPECIAL the new label co-founded by KAS.
Where much of KAS’s earlier work explored harmonic environments, the forthcoming album is built around tension and release. Inspired by the sound of drum and bass, breakbeats fracture through dense fields of synthesis, percussive patterns and her signature melodic fragments – motions that feel closer to the kinetic language of club music than the meditative spaces often associated with her past catalogue. The result is a body of work that feels both recognisably hers and newly charged, music that moves through the body as insistently as it engages the mind.
For listeners who first encountered KAS through the glowing synthesis of “Ears” (2016) or the intricate experimental pop of “The Kid” (2017), this direction may feel initially surprising, yet the shift has been quietly unfolding across the past several years. KAS’s practice has steadily expanded beyond the expectations placed upon experimental electronic artists, moving between orchestral composition, audiovisual installations, film scoring, and large-scale commissions while retaining the unmistakable sonic signature that defines her work.
The 2022 albums “I Could Be Your Dog / I Could Be Your Moon” (2022) and “Let’s Turn It Into Sound” (2022) explored a deeply immersive approach to composition, expanded her reputation and instinct for constructing detailed sonic ecosystems while continuing to blur the lines between experimental electronics and contemporary pop structures. KAS’s most recent output has continued to widen that field including the rhythm oriented electronic album “Gush” (2025) and her return to more orchestral roots with “Thoughts on the Future” (2025). Together these releases underscored the breadth of her practice.
Her prolific collaborators and creative partners have ranged from Patti Smith and Suzanne Ciani to Danny Elfman, Tycho, Glass Beams, RY X, Caribou, Four Tet, Reggie Watts, and Max Richter, while her compositions have appeared in projects with Apple, Chanel, Meow Wolf, the BBC Orchestra, and major film and television productions.
On “Ruin: It’s Not Just Music”, that vocabulary becomes more kinetic than ever before. The record draws energy from jungle, drum and bass, and dance-floor focused electronic music while retaining the intricate synthesis and tonal curiosity that have defined KAS’s work from the beginning. The result is a record that feels equally at home within club culture, contemporary composition, and the experimental spaces that have long championed her artistry.
On May 27th KAS will present a major performance at London’s Barbican Centre alongside the London Contemporary Orchestra, marking the ten-year anniversary of her landmark album Ears. The evening will trace the arc of her creative evolution while also introducing material from the new album.

Benedikt Frey supplies the aid kit. Sonic remedies for the night.

4 transmissions for after-dark navigation. Remix from Carl Finlow.

For its third release, Club Blanco welcomes German producer Benedikt Frey. Aid Kit delivers three original pieces of shadowy club machinery - tense, wonky and charged with late-night atmosphere and rugged vocals. Electro veteran Carl Finlow reassembles the parts with clinical precision, crafting a remix that hums with circuitry and steel. Together they form four doses of deep club music.

After several remixes for the label, Sestrica returns with her first solo EP — A Way to Ananda. Across three emotionally charged compositions, Sestrica unfolds an intimate sonic journey that mirrors her own path of transformation.

From the raw energy of “Intuitions” to the emotional depth of “Letting You Go” and “Way to Ananda,” the EP captures transformation, freedom, and bliss.

“This EP is my experience of coming back to life after divorce,” says Sestrica. “Intuition was knowing it was the right decision. Letting You Go was leaving my past behind. Ananda is the new bliss I’ve found.”

Closing the release, Not Even Noticed deliver a sophisticated remix—minimal yet powerful, sharp drums and refined sound design perfectly sealing this chapter.

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.

El dúo NX1 colabora con Sunil Sharpe, Oxygeno, Rommek y Unhuman en cuatro tracks para la octava referencia de su propio sello.

Nexe Records marks its return by reconnecting with the core idea that first defined its identity — being a true nexus between artists, techno lovers, and the label’s vision. NX1 leads this new chapter with Core VA I, a project built around four collaborations with producers who share the same commitment to authenticity and forward motion in techno. This first volume sets the tone for what’s to come, creating a dialogue between distinct voices while preserving a unified aesthetic.

Opening the record, NX1 and Oxygeno pay tribute to loopy, hypnotic, and driving techno — groovy yet serious, perfectly crafted for deep and focused dance floors. Following up, the collaboration with Rommek delivers an intense, bleepy, and atmospheric track, infused with subtle sci-fi undertones and tension-filled layers that evolve naturally.

On the flip, NX1 and Unhuman explore a more classic but forward-looking take on techno. Clean percussion, dynamic progression, and precise energy shifts give the track a refined sense of movement, balancing power and clarity. Finally, Sunil Sharpe joins to close the release with a bold and energetic piece that captures the raw essence of the club — rhythmic, metallic, and charged with movement.

Overall, Core VA I stands as a statement of Nexe Records’ renewed identity: connecting artists through a shared vision of pure, functional, and evolving techno. Each collaboration offers a different voice, yet all converge in the same pulse that defines NX1’s sound and philosophy.

2025 Repress

In 2013 Voyage Direct released Tom Trago’s ‘Hidden Heart of Gold’, an expansive trip into intergalactic deep house territory that ranks as one of his most emotionally charged moments to date.

Hidden Heart Of Gold is undeniably special. A typically spacey and quietly soulful dancefloor epic that stretches out majestically over 13 spellbinding minutes. It was a highlight in many of Trago’s club sets for the best part of 12 months prior to release..

Virtual waves of ambient chords shimmer between the speakers, rising and falling as if drifting through time and space. Meanwhile, eyes-closed melodies reminiscent of classic stargazing techno and disembodied vocal samples ride a tough but unfussy machine drum rhythm and addictive bassline. There are well-timed breakdowns and a gradual, enveloping build towards a heart-breaking climax. Many listeners may feel contrasting emotions; a sense of undiluted joy while dancing, perhaps, but also the odd pang of melancholy when listening on headphones. It's that kind of record.

The tracks intergalactic, emotion-rich inspirations are explored further on the flipside Ambient Mix, a winding, beatless excursion brimming with hazy, late night beauty. Gentle and immersive, it offers a grandiose, never-ending world in which to shed your inhibitions. Shorn of the originals dancefloor paraphernalia, Tom's emotive, wide-eyed vision comes to the fore ¿ all sensual chords, far-sighted pads and gentle, outer-space melodies. Like the A-side club version, it may just take your breath away.

Vel initiates the «Cuddle Protocol», her first ambient album, set for release on October 17, 2025 on PURR.


Vel, recognized for her striking presence in the contemporary techno scene, steps into new territory with the release of her first ambient album, Cuddle Protocol (P:\URR(3)_Cuddle_Protocol), the third outing on her own label PURR. Out October 17, 2025, the 9-track record is a personal and intimate statement, delivered on vinyl and digital formats.


With Cuddle Protocol, Vel explores the paradox of intimacy in a coded world. “I like the idea of a protocol for softness,” she explains, “of codifying something that should be intimate and spontaneous.” This tension runs through the album: fragile voices and soft layers unfold against serious, carefully structured arrangements, balancing tenderness with rigor.


Ambient music has always been Vel’s “first love.” Before producing techno, she composed ambient exclusively, and this album marks a return to the form in its most sincere expression. “I know this music will follow me all my life. It’s not a phase. It’s how I express myself most truthfully.”
Cuddle Protocol is about slowing down, embracing sincerity, and reaching for deeper connection. “When I listen to ambient, I access another world. It’s charged with emotion, it makes me drift and forget everything. That’s the feeling I wanted to share.”
Mastering: Sixbitdeep / Artwork: Adone Giuntini

To celebrate two decades of passion, innovation, and dedication to underground music, Playbeatz Labels Network proudly launches "Tribe", a new compilation project that pays tribute to the artists and sounds that have shaped its journey.
For over 20 years, Playbeatz has been a platform for creative freedom and genre-crossing experimentation—championing independent voices and uncovering unique talents from across the electronic music spectrum. "Tribe Vol. 1" is the first chapter in a special series of releases that reflect the label family’s diversity and forward-thinking spirit.
Kicking off with a limited edition vinyl, Vol. 1 features four carefully curated tracks by long-time Playbeatz affiliates —each bringing their unique sonic identity, from house to melodic textures, tech tools to soulful grooves.

A1. Erly Tepshi – Dreamer Emotionally charged and atmospheric, a deep dive into the melodic house realm, “Dreamer” wraps a haunting male vocal around lush synth lines and hypnotic rhythms.

A2. DJ Simi & Antonio Grassia – Nuestro Fuego With its driving groove and minimal yet powerful arrangement “Nuestro Fuego” is crafted as a peak-time tech and house tool. The track is all about raw energy and club efficiency.

B1. Mind The Gap DJs – Eclipse Of The Soul This old-school house jam delivers uplifting piano riffs, classic drum programming, and a timeless sense of groove. A heartfelt homage to the golden era of house, reimagined for today’s floors.

B2. Giomini & Marcus Raute – Tape Sweat A fresh and summery house cut with shimmering grooves and playful percussion. The track recalls the clean, infectious style of Deetron, blending crisp drums with melodic finesse. A pure dancefloor delight for the warmer seasons.

Trudge "First Session" EP is a cohesive exploration of dark, bass-driven techno. The EP creates a tense and immersive atmosphere where minimal elements, hypnotic breaks, and futuristic synth textures converge into a raw yet emotionally charged sound. Built for peak-time impact, it reflects Trudge's uncompromising vision of techno, intense, powerful, and deeply emotive.

Making his debut on Depth.Request, Duellist delivers Intensive Living - a fierce three-track statement inspired by the restless energy and chaos of modern city life. Reinforced by remixes from industrial heavyweights Orphx, Statiqbloom, and label co-founder G.xist, the EP captures the tension between control and collapse - where rhythm becomes ritual and distortion takes on a human pulse.
'Burn Your Way Out' opens with offbeat crunch and abrasive energy, setting a volatile tone. The title track 'Intensive Living' moves with rhythmic swagger and pounding drums, its momentum unwavering. 'Ritual Component' closes the originals with throbbing low-end pressure and hypnotic drive - the sound of machinery breathing.
On remix duty, Statiqbloom transforms 'Intensive Living' into a desolate, melodic descent, Orphx expand its framework into a widescreen rework charged with cinematic tension, and G.xist pushes 'Burn Your Way Out' into industrial hypnosis, fusing intensity and groove in equal measure.
Intensive Living stands as a hard-edged introduction to Duellist's world - precise, forceful, and fully alive in its urban grit.

A song about Colostomy - from the opening bars you might think so. but it gets worse. 'X rated' stuff.
the label say 'Djoko is no stranger to Voyage Direct. Having first appeared on the label way back in 2012, he's returned numerous times since, becoming an integral member of the imprint's growing family of artists. Elsewhere, he's delivered material on Tuskegee, Mobilee and Leftroom, amongst others, developing an approach that takes inspiration from numerous styles of house and techno. However, little he's previously released can match the raw, eyebrow-raising lust and sexually charged funk of Dirty Talk'.

Driven forward by Djoko's sleazy, whispered spoken word vocal, the original version combines the rubbery, bass-heavy rhythms of classic, Dance Mania-style ghetto house, the delay-laden guitar flashes of vintage NYC proto-house, and the kind of darting, funk-fuelled keys - provided by fellow Dutch producer Kid Sublime - that recall the glory days of '80s electrofunk. Djoko provides an alternate version in the shape of the thrusting, stripped-back Club Dub', with his breathy Accapella' rounding off the A-side.

On the flip, two Voyage Direct stalwarts take it in turns to rework the track. First up is label boss Tom Trago, who builds on Djoko's elastic percussion with some dense new drum hits of his own. These are combined with spacey synths and sharp string stabs, giving Dirty Talk' a more classic techno/house fusion flavour. In contrast, Werner uses the opportunity to turn in a triple-X-rated interpretation full of bounding, Chicago-influenced beats, intergalactic pads, sleazy acid lines, and sweaty, surging drum fills. It's a fittingly breathless remix.'

Following a string of acclaimed collaborations, including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles and Mapambazuko alongside Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta, Peruvian artist Alejandra Cárdenas (aka Ale Hop) returns with her most personal work to date yet, A Body Like a Home. Marking her first album under her birth name, the project is a sonic memoir exploring the tangled realms of trauma, recovery, and love through autobiographical soundscapes.
A Body Like a Home is the artist at her most exposed. Comprising 13 songs and 15 poems, the album sees her set aside collaborative fusions for solo catharsis, channeling years of turbulence - intergenerational scars left by colonialism, racism, domestic violence, and alcoholism - into a work that oscillates between brutality and tenderness. Cárdenas states: “I grew up under Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship, when a veil of hopelessness seemed to settle over everything. This is the backdrop of the album. The songs and poems trace the inevitable loop between private wounds - addiction, domestic violence, fractured intimacy - and Peru’s national scars, carved by colonialism. It’s not a straight story or a resolution. Writing and composing became a ritual of digging for meaning, into what’s buried, disguised, or renamed, until the body itself became a living archive.
” At the heart of the album is Cárdenas’s own voice - part witness, part confessor - reciting over layers of electric guitars, electronic textures, the haunting violin of Mexican musician Gibrana Cervantes, and a collage of field recordings, from rainfall, muffled whispers, broken glass, to archival protest footage from Peru. The result is a work that resonates like a diary written in sound.
The first single, "Motherland", is a searing testimony where Cárdenas voice cracks under the weight of history and personal loss. Amid a storm of distorted guitars, she traces the cyclical legacies of colonialism, from state massacres branding Indigenous bodies as “terrorists” to the spiral of addiction as an unavoidable future. The lyrics draw parallels between political and domestic violence: a mother’s drunken knife pressed to her chest, and a motherland where racism is currency. She utters: “sacrifice demands a body.” Yet, amid the wreckage, a willful grip on love and faith persists. Ultimately, A Body Like a Home is a document of transformation. Tracks like "Evangelina" and the title piece "A Body Like a Home" hold space for resilience, spirituality, and love, while "Early Road" and "Going South" thread subtle nods to Peruvian folklore, opening up bright vignettes into a sense of belonging.
The poetry chapbook accompanying A Body Like a Home (five of its pieces are also recited on the album) extends the work, building a parallel architecture. Oscillating between the documentary and the mythic, the intimate and the forensic, the profane and the oniric, these poems practice a theology of the ordinary, where everyday objects - cameras, knives, moth-eaten cotton - are charged withspiritual and historical weight. Here, the body is land, house, battlefield, collective pain, geological territory; and trauma is, in contrast, archival, cellular, ritualistic, inherited. Read alongside the music, the stories refract across two mediums: songs give them breath and poems give them bone.

FNS007 — a collaborative EP by Oslo-based producer and founder of Boring Crew Records Anders Hajem and Berlin-based Ukrainian Koloah, founder of Salon Imaginalis delivering a cinematic, dubbed-out club record charged with Electro arp’s breaks and basslines.

A meeting point between Anders’s bold rhythmic palette and Koloah’s intense precussions.

Mastering : Incision Mastering
Artwork : Wrongmeow & Mariam Kantaria

SiriusB002 is here—deep, raw, and full of soul. This time we welcome Albert Azar, a Lebanese producer based in Spain, known for crafting emotionally charged soundscapes that blur the line between rhythm and melody.

From bass guitar beginnings to cinematic electronic journeys, Azar brings a timeless touch to minimal music. Influenced by Pink Floyd and classic ’70s rock, his sound tells stories that stay with you.

Backed by Jay Tripwire and Herman Saiz, curators of SiriusB, this release keeps the bar high—stripped-back, expressive, and cut for the vinyl selectors.

This exciting new collaboration between Cara Tolmie and Rian Treanor is a highly kinetic and playful endeavour. Body-centric vocal explorations merge with intricate rhythmic systems forming a deliciously disorientating, hypersurreal space of semantic modulations, concrete poetry, cut-up beats and mimicked samples. Their sound is singular and tactile: dissociative dance music that reassembles contorting vocal lines and knotting biomechanics in an explorative network of unstable forms. It's a blur of bodily fragility and ecstatic disruption, where swells of meaning rise and fall through clouds of synthetic buzz, fleeting breath, and stream-of-consciousness imagery.The duo first performed together when Counterflows Festival paired them for a new commission at the historic Arches venue in 2023. Glasgow-born, Stockholm-based vocalist and performance artist Cara Tolmie brought her hypnotic vocal technique, Internal Singing _ an intimate practice using breath, movement, and touch that explores the subtle binds between voice and body in an unsettling, engrossing sonic space. Treanor's richly innovative work provided a compounding counterpart: radical, rave-infused structures that bent and contorted around Tolmie's incantation.Growing out of a series of charged, improvisational performances, Body Lapse was recorded between Stockholm and Rotherham in 2024. Echoes of their live energy run throughout _ a voice shaking through the body, responding to touch and physical modulation, translating performance into something tactile and immediate. Body Lapse marks their debut release together, it conjures a sound of unsettling beauty and frictional intensity _ a playful, physical mesh of computer music, voice, and speculative storytelling. In this gnawing, dreamlike space, breath and body become sites of both connection and disruption, sparking thrilling encounters with the unexpected, the playful, and the decisively weird

Physical format only. No digital. Limited to 100 copies.

After a long break from the 12" club format, Pedro Vian returns with a four-track EP aimed at the dancefloor. One of the key cuts is a club version of "I am OK", originally released on his latest album The Addiction (2025).
The EP also includes an additional track, "Teresa (Comelade's Piano Redubbed)" - a reinterpretation that samples Pascal Comelade's version of a song by Ovidi Montllor, the iconic Catalan folk singer known for his poetic, politically charged work during the post-Franco era. Vian reshapes this reference into a meditative ambient piece.

SLOW3 ‘Pleasure Dome’ b/w ‘After Death’ by System Disorder, a.k.a. DJ Nephil. Two highly charged pieces of minimal synth-punk, or whatever you want to call it.

Out on Slow Process, available on 7” and digital formats.