Releasing as a vinyl 45, Bad Night is the lead offering from The Cromagnon Band's new album Mode. This is the band's second LP and the first of theirs to be released on BBE Music. Mode itself is an album of cinematic and psychedelic dark Funk tinged and tinted with Nordic psych/jazz, classical, boom-bap Hip-Hop breaks and riff heavy rock. Bad Night is backed with Quadrant, a stand alone track that won't be on the album, thus making the vinyl single release a unique addition to the music lover's record collection. That said, these are are two tracks which give both a genuine flavour of the forthcoming album as well as the band's own musical influences and heritage as instrumentalists and producers. The Cromagnon Band's recording technique of taking breaks, riffs and melodies from favourite tracks and then improvising from there with completely live jam sessions in the studio allows them to record in their distinct and trademark 'reverse engineering' style. The trio of Drummer Tom Watt, Bassist Lenny Walker and multi-instrumentalist Bert Page work by making music as a team, playing for hours and united by a love of Hip-Hop breaks and psychedelic Jazz/Rock/Funk and classical music. They choose to record only instrumentals which allows space for Bert to weave intricate soundscape with Fender Rhodes, Moog, Sax and Clarinet over the beats and breaks they have written from their improvised jams. Bad Night b/w Quadrant are the lead releases from The Cromagnon Band's new album Mode. They will be released as a 7" vinyl and digitally.
A sonic portal to a parallel universe where neon-soaked dreamscapes transform the stark realities of a post-pandemic world. Music for a forgotten future, where echoes of the 80s cast long, enigmatic shadows through a rich tapestry of emotion that charts a journey from isolation and fear towards healing and hope. This is the journey of Season One and Season Two, the debut companion albums for the solo project of Italian composer Battaglia, both out this fall on Four Flies Records.
In 2020, as the world retreated onto itself due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Battaglia entered the recording studio. Driven by a desire for experimentation, she decided to focus on the classic synths that have made history to create a sonic and emotional alchemy that reimagines the 80s to resonate with our current experiences and sensibilities.
Drawing inspiration from the cinematic magic of iconic early-80s films, and especially the haunting soundtracks of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, she crafted a soundscape that goes beyond nostalgia to capture the spirit of a generation navigating uncertain times.
Season One and Season Two explore the complexities of a world grappling with lethal pandemics, climate catastrophes, and nuclear disasters through themes such as longing, fear, and hope, set against a scenario that blends elements of dystopian and post-apocalyptic science fiction and, at times, horror.
Season One delves deeper into the darker aspects of this new reality, evoking a sense of unease and uncertainty, occasionally interspersed with soothing flashes of light. In Season Two, while darkness still lingers, the sonic landscape is infused with a sense of optimism and determination, offering glimpses of a possible salvation.
With Battaglia's signature blend of dark wave, synth-pop, suspenseful electronica, and cinematic vibes, Season One and Season Two create a sonic world that is at once hauntingly familiar and utterly captivating -- the perfect soundtrack, one is tempted to say, for the countless sci-fi/horror-fantasy series that have been flooding streaming platforms in the last decade.
The covers of both albums were designed by Eric Adrian Lee, who conceived them as two sides of the same image, two versions of a world in crisis but whose ruins contain the potential for rebirth.
Battaglia's Season One and Season Two will be available on black vinyl LP starting from October 25th. Digital versions of both albums will also be released on the same date, featuring five bonus tracks (two on Season One and three on Season Two).
A sonic portal to a parallel universe where neon-soaked dreamscapes transform the stark realities of a post-pandemic world. Music for a forgotten future, where echoes of the 80s cast long, enigmatic shadows through a rich tapestry of emotion that charts a journey from isolation and fear towards healing and hope. This is the journey of Season One and Season Two, the debut companion albums for the solo project of Italian composer Battaglia, both out this fall on Four Flies Records.
In 2020, as the world retreated onto itself due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Battaglia entered the recording studio. Driven by a desire for experimentation, she decided to focus on the classic synths that have made history to create a sonic and emotional alchemy that reimagines the 80s to resonate with our current experiences and sensibilities.
Drawing inspiration from the cinematic magic of iconic early-80s films, and especially the haunting soundtracks of Tangerine Dream and John Carpenter, she crafted a soundscape that goes beyond nostalgia to capture the spirit of a generation navigating uncertain times.
Season One and Season Two explore the complexities of a world grappling with lethal pandemics, climate catastrophes, and nuclear disasters through themes such as longing, fear, and hope, set against a scenario that blends elements of dystopian and post-apocalyptic science fiction and, at times, horror.
Season One delves deeper into the darker aspects of this new reality, evoking a sense of unease and uncertainty, occasionally interspersed with soothing flashes of light. In Season Two, while darkness still lingers, the sonic landscape is infused with a sense of optimism and determination, offering glimpses of a possible salvation.
With Battaglia's signature blend of dark wave, synth-pop, suspenseful electronica, and cinematic vibes, Season One and Season Two create a sonic world that is at once hauntingly familiar and utterly captivating -- the perfect soundtrack, one is tempted to say, for the countless sci-fi/horror-fantasy series that have been flooding streaming platforms in the last decade.
The covers of both albums were designed by Eric Adrian Lee, who conceived them as two sides of the same image, two versions of a world in crisis but whose ruins contain the potential for rebirth.
Battaglia's Season One and Season Two will be available on black vinyl LP starting from October 25th. Digital versions of both albums will also be released on the same date, featuring five bonus tracks (two on Season One and three on Season Two).
On their debut EP 'Trainwrecks at the Seaside', Gos Rosling delves deeper into harsh and ironic songwriting. These songs showcase everyday joy, the cruel pain life throws at you once in a while and the irony of being good to the people around you.
With their singles 'Caroline (I should've known better)' and 'Somehow/Somewhere', Gos Rosling managed to show people that feeling blue but wanting to jump from excitement are emotions that are not contradictory at all, they go hand in hand.
'Trainwrecks at the Seaside' throws you around the room with upbeat indie bangers like 'Caroline (i should've known better)' and songs like '(Not) A Slow Song' that will get you to your knees, making sure you'll feel what you need to feel.
Produced and recorded by Koenraad Foesters (Jupiter Studios), this EP combines UK upbeat indie nuances with melancholic and 'to the bone' lyrics. Gos Rosling delves deep into that sound, tearing their hearts open and treating you with a real emotional rollercoaster.
Danny Blackburn has mastered their EP at The Nave (Leeds, UK) who also worked with Snarky Puppy, Bill Laurence, Adult DVD and many more.
Catchy indie pop for fans of Bombay Bicycle Club and Two Door Cinema Club.
Kerri Chandler joins forces with Nae (SA) for new single ‘Caged Bird’, accompanied by remixes from the widely beloved Atjazz, and Moplen.
Leading the release is the ‘Full Vocal Media Mix’ of ‘Caged Bird’, which sees Kerri Chandler lay down emotive piano melodies, organic drums and atmospheric strings alongside soulful vocal stylings from South Africa’s Nae.
Up next is Italy’s Moplen, producer for the likes of G.A.M.M. and Lumberjacks In Hell delivers his twist on ‘Caged Bird’, shifting gears into more classic house realms, infusing drifting keys, weighty lowend tones and heavily swung drums and violin melodies with the original’s smooth house aesthetic.
On the flip side is the first ‘Atjazz Remix’ of ‘Caged Bird’, a nine minute cinematic excursion from the British composer, embracing the soulful fragments of the original and twisting them into a slow burning, subtly evolving nine minutes delicately detailed with sweeping echoes, reversed reverberations, crisp percussion and choppy stab sequences. An ‘Atjazz Remix Instrumental’ follows, as the name would suggest stripping away the vocals.
A sense of destiny hangs over Sentir Que No Sabes, Mabe Fratti’s fourth solo-credited album released in a five year span. Her work has always possessed a finely tuned sense of drama capable of expressing a range of emotional states, and across this new album, she conveys the struggle to process various relationships or situations–and the actions that come next. Sentir Que No Sabes is urgent and clear, poppy, generous and approachable, while showcasing a considerable emotional hinterland. It is also, as Fratti is quick to mention, “groovy.”
Written and recorded with her partner, multi-instrumentalist, and co-composer Héctor Tosta (I.La Católica, Titanic), Sentir Que No Sabes is the result of an intense, detail-oriented process. Fueled by a new confidence gained in their collaborative project, Titanic, and its critically acclaimed 2023 LP, Vidrio, the two hunkered down in the familiarity of their studio (aka Tinho Studios) to bash out the initial sonic coordinates of her new record. “We talked and talked, and discussed ways of playing and recording, until things became inevitable,” Fratti explains. “We recorded a bunch of demos at our home studio and that meant we had a lot of time to re-edit and experiment. We really dug in. We were super focused on detail.” Tosta also took up the controls as producer and arranger-in-chief for all additional instruments. The album was later completed at Willem Twee Studios in Den Bosch in the Netherlands, and Pedro y el Lobo Studios and Soy Sauce Studios, in Mexico City.
For the final studio recordings, the pair were joined by drummer Gibran Andrade and trumpetist Jacob Wick to fill out and expand on Tosta’s percussion and brass arrangements. This small group of friends were able to work quickly and openly, and without fear: a testament to the exhaustive groundwork put in at Tinho Studios. This can be heard in three short, intermediary tracks that also manage to be the most aggressive on the record: “Kitana” (a scratch-laden instrumental that acts as a strange prelude for the last track, “Angel nuevo”) and a pair of two-minute instrumental interludes, “Elastica” I and II. None are throwaway mood pieces; rather they act as emotional cue cards, and hint at the way Fratti and Tosta created the overall atmosphere of Sentir Que No Sabes.
A strong sense of rhythm irrigates the sound from the jump, as heard on the glorious opening track, “Kravitz.” Here, the brilliant plucked cello line acts as a bassline and props up the steady thump of the kick drum. The cello’s growl serves as a conduit for a set of slightly paranoid lyrics that tell us “Quizás haya oídos en el techo” (“maybe there are ears in the ceiling”), while the song also introduces another staple of the record: the clever brass stabs, whistles, parps, and other interjections that paint a canvas of traffic in a city. It’s a postmodern, widescreen sound that for some might recall The Blue Nile’s Hats.
Sentir Que No Sabes is a record full to the brim with a modern pop sensibility, invoked by the sort of magpie spirit that ensnares anything it can find, repositioning sounds for the here and now. The keys and melody on the melancholy “Pantalla azul” (“Blue screen error”) transport us back to the glossy mid-1980s. “Oídos” (“Ears”) is a beautiful slice of contemporary, hybrid pop, in which Fratti’s vocal lines delicately spin themselves around the lean structures erected by the brass and drums, and the descending “plink” of a set of piano chords. Then we have a gloriously strong ending with the swell of “Angel nuevo” (“New angel”), another cinematic track full of gentle, instrument-rich swells and eddies that manages to be almost endless in its range–and yet intensely personal, as Fratti’s voice is close, almost whispering in your ear. A much needed lullaby for our fractious times.
The lyrics, for their part, have a stop-start quality to them, and hint at the small, incremental emotional taxes we pay through just living our lives. They circle around the music like birds waiting to swoop. There is something of the spiritual in all of Fratti’s work that expresses itself in a form of yearning: she looks to new horizons while personal dramas find themselves internalized, contextualized, and then dealt with through metaphor. Here, she was keen to mention Tosta’s constant encouragement in her finding a path to best sing or phrase her words to impart their maximum effect. “Hector was super inquisitive about my lyrics and asked me questions about what I meant, which sometimes is something you don't wonder so much about in isolation,” Fratti explains. “Besides, he is a great poet, and you can see that in what he did on the Titanic record. This made me go deeper into my lyric writing and definitely transformed it into something that I feel super happy about now.”
Take “Enfrente” (“In Front”), a track that initially comes across as a languid, glossy number, with plucked cello strings standing in for a bass line and brittle synth parts. Soon we catch on to a brilliant minor chord switch, which mirrors the fear and doubt expressed in the lyrics as someone “trembles up to the podium” in a “search for meaning.” There’s also the startling introduction of a vocoder in “Quieras o no” (“Whether you want it or not”); it comes precisely at the point Fratti sings “Quieras o no es un desastre” (“Whether you want it or not, it's a disaster”). Moments like these leave room for interpretation and, over time, create a strong bond between the listener and the record.
In fact, across Sentir Que No Sabes, each phrase–whether instrumental or vocal–becomes at some level emblematic of acts and moods that impart deep emotional significance. We see this best on “Intento fallido” (“Failed attempt”), which could be the score to feeling trapped in self-doubt, only to suddenly be sprung free by the song’s gloriously upbeat ending. On “Márgen del índice” (“Index margin”), the quicksilver switch between initial disharmony and a beautiful melody is breathtaking, all augmented by evocative arrangements, textured production, and the slightly playful, gnomic lyrics. The track’s emotional ecosystem allows another brilliant ending, which uses the simple repeated phrase, “Cómo lo va a ver?” (“How are you going to see it?”).
So what to make of Sentir Que No Sabes? High gloss Pastoralism? The sound of a city-bound, post-post modern soulscape? No matter the emotions evoked, it's the work of an artist coming into their own, and creating a benchmark record.
Lab Music’s latest release presents an EP from various artists, each offering a unique perspective on electronic music. This release showcases the label’s commitment to experimentation and innovation, allowing artists to freely explore their sound. Side A sets the stage with “Cylinder,” a collaborative effort between Slak and Stephanie Sykes. This track takes listeners on a journey into ambient-rooted breaktechno, featuring cinematic pads and powerful drums. Appleblim follows with “Every Blade Of Grass,” a wild break-electro beat that combines ferocious reese bass and solid synths. Side B begins with Datafive’s “My PC Is Not Political Correct,” delivering his personal take on low-tempo drum and bass merged with wistful idm melodies, and the usual dose of sound design. The compilation concludes with Anna Kost “W03 X” delves into the world of futuristic electro, with accurate sound design and drum programming combined with spiritual atmospheres. This EP offers a diverse listening experience, showcasing the talent and creativity of the artists involved. Mastered by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven. Artwork by Geso.
All lights reserved. Lab Music 2024
Exploration, collaboration and curiosity define the rhythm at the beating heart of Mehmet Aslan’s exemplary compositions. The Swiss-born producer of Turkish heritage has already forged a singular path through production, DJing and full-band performances, navigating the more esoteric corners of Berlin’s club culture without sacrificing his musical heritage or innate creativity.
A conceptual new LP ‘Auguri’ follows on from 2021’s gnomic, ornate ‘The Sun Is Parallel’, which saw Aslan musically associate with the likes of Valentina Magaletti and Niño De Elche. ‘Auguri’ also has its foundations in collaboration, born out of a musical lab at Lyon’s annual
Nuits Sonores, the forward-thinking festival with whom Aslan has maintained a lengthy creative relationship.
The resulting audio-visual performance, ‘Bird Signals For Earthly Survival’ introduced Aslan, to the Greek filmmaker Stratis Vogiatzis. Drawing on the philosophy of Donna Haraway and envisioning new ways of being, of living on earth, Aslan and Vogiatzis crane their necks to the sky to witness flocks of birds performing spectacular movements in unison. Fluid and ancient, their organic waltz provides inspiration for Aslan’s extension of the project, spanning sonic shades of electro, ambient and modern folk psychedelia.
On the coastline of Vogiatzis’s home country of Greece, as in many places across the world, climate change threatens to effect the ancient migration pattern of millions of birds, just as their fellow beings on terra firma become increasingly entangled in a man-made disaster of their own creation. In unison, ‘Auguri’ is adorned by artwork from designer Xavi Bou. Known for his ‘ornithographies’, this striking visual captures avian life not only as a force, but a wry observer.
“We need to transform our connections with other living beings to protect the Earth and live together harmoniously”, reflects Aslan. “Personally, this project has made me more sensitive to this issue. I wanted to give back in return for the inspiration I've received."
Perhaps upending expectations of a more traditional ‘ambient’ album, Aslan commits some of his finest compositional work and understated songwriting to this urgent imperative, creating original music that nonetheless, has nature flowing through it. ‘Critters’ presents a spectral sound collage on which Aslan himself speaks from the texts composed at the residency, conjuring visions of “the birds flying… shape of the future”. Meanwhile, the undulating, psychedelic ‘Pigeon Blinks’ takes inspiration from more domestic scenes, charting the unexpected roosting and hatching of an egg on a kitchen window, while ‘Auguri’ gives the album it’s title in connecting to a higher plain, demonstrating Aslan’s ability to lure melody and catharsis from looping hypnosis.
Opener ‘Spectra’ provides a forceful, almost industrial breakbeat that establishes the exigency of the album as well as its sense of wonder, while ‘Euphoria’ reaches the potency of its promise slowly, with Aslan’s modular melodies meeting the flourishing percussion of guest player and multi-instrumentalist, POPP. Finally, ‘Aura’ delivers a cinematic conclusion, mixing an elegiac organ motif, haunting guitar chords and the prophetic sense of a scorched earth. Here, with patience and soaring production, Aslan once more makes the abstract and the unthinkable somehow tangible, mixing in sampled birdsong.
Accordingly, ‘Auguri’ is being released in accordance with EarthPercent, the music industry’s climate foundation, co-founded by Brian Eno. A portion of the album’s publishing will be credited as part of ‘The Earth As Your Co-Writer’ initiative, allowing artists to directly credit The Earth in their new compositions. Here, streaming and publishing from Aslan’s recorded sounds are automatically paid back to a number of vital initiatives worldwide.
Leaning into some of the most vital questions and anxieties of our time, ‘Auguri’ is not a project without a sense of hope. From studio to sea, Mehmet Aslan continues to look to the skies and beyond.
An album inspired by childhood culinary experiences, where memories and fiction mix in an explosive cocktail of cinema, rock & roll and psychedelia.
The album sounds rough, as if it were played live by a band, even though it is instead a one man session. The skeleton of each track is characterized by the most classic of drums, bass and guitar combos.
Berlin-based Small Great Things boss Luca Olivotto inaugurates his new sub-label At A Glance imprint this August with his own ‘Over & Out’ EP, comprising four original cuts.
Born and raised in Italy before relocating to Berlin in 2015, Luca Olivotto has since become a staple of the underground House scene in recent years through the establishment of his Small Great Things imprint and accompanying events series Small Great House. Now Luca marks another new chapter in his career with the launch of his new sub label of Small Great Things, At A Glance, kicking off with a project from the man himself.
Title-track ‘Over & Out’ leads with Olivotto offering up a classic slice of House via a Hammond organ bass groove, choppy chords and cinematic strings, underpinned by crisp raw drums and soulful vocal lines.
‘Brace D’ then shifts gears towards a Disco House tinged aesthetic with guitar licks, bell chimes and tension building strings ebbing and flowing amongst fluttering bass notes, airy chords and swinging percussion.
Up next on the B-side is ‘I’m Gonna Stay’, a groove-drive House track fuelled by an amalgamation of intertwined chords and vocals which steadily build towards a jazzy, atmospheric breakdown before the bouncy groove kicks back in to carry out the rest of the composition.
‘World Wide’ then concludes the release on a deeper tip with hazy keys and pad swells floating atop organic percussion, organ tones and a bouncy bass line.
“Extrasensory” is the first full length album of Human Performance Lab, a duo consisting of longtime collaborators SARIN & Matt Cangiano. Produced over the course of 4 years their first LP ties together & builds on the foundation of their previous releases, combining rich cinematic & other worldly soundscapes surgically woven into the cold precision of the percussion & rhythms anchoring each track. All these elements come together to create a pulsating, laser focused album imbued with sci-fi cyberpunk overtones well suited to decrepit & dimly lit underground clubs world wide. Available as a limited run of 200 vinyls + digitals, released by X-IMG
Making her return to the stage after 44 years, with tour dates across the US, Australia and Europe, as well as iconic performances at Glastonbury and We Out Here, Asha Puthli’s lifelong career as an inspirational trailblazer has taken on a magical new chapter. We can’t think of many artists that have had as distinctive and diverse a journey as Asha, nor who have been involved in as many different genres of music as her. A musical pioneer who forged a path through ‘60s psych, free-jazz, pop, rock, disco, and more. To mark this golden hour in her stellar career we have repressed her legendary album, ‘The Devil Is Loose', on gold vinyl. Maybe her most well-known record, the 1976 LP features the psychedelic disco-funk-classic 'Space Talk’, where Asha's soaring vocals take listeners on a journey that mirrors her eclectic career. Championed by a wide range of musical scenes and movements, over space and time it has been commandeered as their own. Casting a unique spell on its listeners, each track on the album showcases Asha’s majestic, celestial style and sumptuous vocal range. Backed by breathtaking orchestral-infused, disco-enhanced instrumentation, it’s cinematic and captivating throughout. From the infectious funk of ‘Flying Fish’, to the cosmic transcendence of ‘The Devil Is Loose’ and the choir-channeling ‘Say Yes’, this album is a true masterpiece. At Mr Bongo we are thrilled to be releasing records by such an iconic, musical maverick as Asha. She has blazed a trail so that others could follow. Whether you are buying this album as a replacement for your worn-out original copy or it's the first time you've heard of Asha Puthli and you're just intrigued and drawn in by the cover, we hope you enjoy this quintessential slice of Asha's world.
Markus Guentner returns to his longstanding label, A Strangely Isolated Place following the triptych of ‘Theia’, ‘Empire’, and ‘Extropy’, presenting eight inspiring collaborations on ‘Kontrapunkt’.
Collaborations are nothing new to Markus, but it’s hard to see beyond his strong singular presence as a pioneer of long-form ambient and drone. Collabs have punctuated his albums in various places over the years, and he is no stranger to working as a duo amongst other projects, with such a strong conceptual thread throughout his prior ASIP releases, Kontrapunkt represents a literal pivot and counterpoint in his production approach. Instead of music encapsulating a strong conceptual narrative, Kontrapunkt sees Markus create a dialogue between himself and a collection of inspiring production partners.
Kontrapunkt opens with ‘Vanish’, a widescreen cinematic odyssey created in collaboration with fellow German and Affin label-head Joachim Spieth, forming the perfect opener with its modest subtleties. Australian-born Karen Vogt, renowned for her voice layering and looping, brings a beautiful, and natural addition to ‘All Light Will Remain’.
Sonae, who appeared on ASIP’s early digital releases, demonstrates her evolution into experimental flourishes with ‘Farbe Der Nacht’, adding pulsating techno tendencies and a menacing, metallic approach to Markus’ foundations. Multi-instrumentalist Pepo Galán harmonizes beautifully with Markus on ‘Ancestral Images’, adding complex nuances to a slowly evolving euphoric piece.
A master of synthesis, Arovane delivers a powerful display of supercharged electronics and coils of energy on ‘Utopian Fragments’. Benoît Pioulard's renowned expertise with guitars and tape distortion become a perfect counter to the electronics of Markus, blending styles seamlessly on ‘Father Of Waters’.
‘An unstoppable force meets an immovable object’ on ‘While Hunting Nightmares And Dreaming For Peace’, as Abul Mogard adds powerful restraint in a meeting of two drone titans. The album concludes with ‘Presence’, where Hollie Kenniff’s uplifting vocals provide a shimmering finish, perfectly bookending an album of perfected counterpoints and evolutions on the Markus Guentner sound.
Kontrapunkt will be available on Gatefold Black/Grey/Blue marble 2LP, digital and streaming on August 30th 2024. Mastered by Gio at Artefacts Mastering, Berlin, and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding.
DJ support: Tim Sweeney, Make A Dance, Parris, Pleasure Voyage, Camillo Miranda
Back yard - Back yard is the first single from the new Teen Daze album, Elegant rhythms, and features singer-songwriter Andy Shauf on drums, and LA jazz staple, Sam Wilkes, on bass. This is a stark change in sound for Teen Daze, who’s last album Interior was an exploration of neon-lit House music. Back yard is a mellow groover, conjuring up images of Laurel Canyon in the 70s, yet still with its flourishes of contemporary sounds.
We’re out of phase again - We’re out of phase again is another vulnerable glimpse into the inner world of Teen Daze, and marks the release of his most personal album to date, Elegant rhythms. In contrast to the synthesized, digital world of his prior album, Interior, here we’ve been brought into a lush, organic arrangement, brought to you in large part to the stunning bass playing by Sam Wilkes. While the verses pulse forward, the chorus slows things down, and evokes the sophisti-pop sounds of The Blue Nile. This track is a stunning showcase of the world of Elegant rhythms.
Nothing’s gonna change my love - Teen Daze returns with his second single of the year, Nothing’s gonna change my love. The stark change in sound, as heard on previous single Back yard, is on display here again: a smouldering, 2 and a half minutes of slow jazz-pop, indebted to the great Sade, or perhaps the feeling of leaving downtown LA at 2 AM. Lyrically, we hear a story of a love, challenged by the unpredictable nature of our lives. This may be Teen Daze’s smoothest song to date.
Neighbourhood - Neighbourhood is the third single from the recently announced LP from Teen Daze, Elegant Rhythms. Along with Andy Shauf on the drums, and Sam Wilkes on the bass, Teen Daze gives us a languid tour of his quiet neighbourhood. The sun has set on the pleasant, tree-lined streets, and a stranger, more surreal environment presents itself. The song plods forward at an extremely comfortable pace, held down by the paradoxically loose-yet-tight rhythm section. Lyrically, we walk around the Neighbourhood at night, and while the chorus reveals a type of sobriety, the vibe of the song makes it easy to feel a little…effected.
Fade away - Fade away sets the tone for Elegant Rhythm’s side B: a deeply personal, though somewhat veiled, confession of loss. How does it feel to grieve something that was never really here? A smouldering, slowly progressing first half erupts in synthetic noise, and then fades into the ether with it’s repeating refrain, “I can feel you / feel you fade away / when there’s nothing / nothing left to say”.
Fall ahead - A sweet piano tune which serves as a quiet break in the record, intended to help the listener reflect and take a moment of pause before we reach the final two songs on the album.
HST underwater - The penultimate track on the record tells a story where the narrator finds themself in an alien, yet oddly familiar place. Arpeggios soaked in crystal blue water flow through the stereo field, while the narrator, vocoded and drenched in autotune, searches for meaning and purpose in a confusing world. This is one of Teen Daze’s most cinematic, emotional songs yet.
In the rain - It’s never really made explicitly clear on this record, but a lot of these songs find Teen Daze wrestling with life as a new father, and this song, the final on the album, expresses the fears of generational trauma. A touching, tender ode to his children, we hear Teen Daze at his most personal and vulnerable. The falling rain surrounds some absolutely breathtaking bass playing from Sam Wilkes, and Teen Daze’s signature ambient keyboard sounds.
It is on dark and sweaty dance floors that we get inspired, connect and leave our differences away to live in the present. With this compilation of music pressed in two parts and written by a set of artists from very diverse horizons, it is Polychrome’s perspective on the rave that we want to share. One where sound and light are the only points of reference, opening the space for liberating experiences.
The dance floor is also a space of self-reflection. The A-side is catered by two artists from one of our favorite collectives, De Lichting. With “A Reflection”, RDS opens up and shares a beautifully crafted house gem, providing for a soft and introspective yet groovy “eyes closed” dance. Nathan Kofi takes on the A2 with his unique deep house sound, layering sweet and cinematic synth sounds over an Afro-induced drum sequencing, creating a warm sonic envelope. On the B-side, James Free mixes acid synthesis, roaring bass line, and breaks to create a progressive and subtly melodic dance floor track, one that leaves you positively triggered. With the final track of the record, Rotterdam’s Mata Disk offers a glowing light over polyrhythms and very electronic noises, offering this body of work a deserved radiating curtain close.
Romania’s Floog has grown to become a reputed figure in the microhouse scene for his releases on the likes of Visionquest, TARTOUFFE, Moscow, Enfasi and Atipic among many others and here we see him teaming up with Brizman the minimal alter ego of Techno stalwart Gel Abril, his music under this guise has found a home on the likes of Caprices Records, Subtil Records and SCI + TEC. This new collaborative project however will see its release via Adam’s Bite and follow recent output from IULY.B, Lumieux and Audio Werner.
Title-track ‘Lose Connection’ leads, laying down a bouncy sub bass line underneath a crunchy saturated drum groove, twitchy synth licks and glitched out vocal lines before ‘That Hook’ edges into more dynamic and meandering realms, fusing an amalgamation of synth lines, modulating flutters and vocal whispers atop a heavily swung rhythm section.
‘True Believer’ then rounds out the EP, featuring Stockholm, Sweden’s Linn Stern, the powerful collabrative closing cut embraces a more anthemic feel with cinematic atmospherics, robotic voices, fluttering arpeggio licks and skippy, raw drums intertwined with powerful vocal lines.
YARN Records welcomes veteran Anton Kubikov for the imprint's eighth release. The "Attic Eccentric EP" features two deeply musical, exquisitely detailed arrangements by Kubikov drenched in emotion and, on the flip side, a 13-minute monster remix by Sleep is Commercial luminaries Andrea Ferlin.
'Last Days' (A1) is a lustrous, sophisticated, deep ride through dubby cinematic spaces where abstract sounds, grainy voices, melancholy, and rhythm coexist in harmony. 'C'est Anna' (A2) continues the cinematic exploration further, expanding the soundscapes through mysterious melodies, grainy atmospheres, and elastic piano echos topped with slightly acid bass stabs, resulting in an elegant, murky dub groover for those looking into music with sonic depth. On the flip side, Andrea Ferlin remixes 'Last Days' (B1), twisting and mutating it into a rolling techno groover of pure dancefloor shamanism. With razor-sharp drum programming, stomping acidic bass, heaps of atmosphere and a barrage of micro-detail, Andrea's rendition of Kubikov's 'Last Days' ends the EP in style.
Initially released exclusively in digital format two years ago, the already cult favourite Whispers Of An Ancient World finally makes its way to vinyl courtesy of Mystic & Quantum but in highly restricted numbers. Featuring artwork by Kilian Eng, this red edition offers a mesmerising auditory journey. Ambient landscapes and evocative ancient ceremonies coalesce with explorations through lush jungles, tranquil acoustic melodies, and edgier dub motifs hinting at a looming dystopian future. Contributions from artists such as Diagonal, Mason Bee, and State Azure enrich its allure as the whole thing adds up to a cinematic tapestry that captivates with atmospheric depth.
Upon examining the eventful life of Can bassist Holger Czukay,
one might conclude that this intrepid musician was a loner. His
turbulent career exuded an enduring eccentricity governed by a
boundless free spirit. Yet Czukay, who passed away
unexpectedly last year at the age of 79, constantly emphasized
that his creativity was always contingent upon a musical
partner, whether that was a skin-and-bones counterpart or an
anonymous manifestation that interacted with him through
radio waves or, as happened later, the internet. Nonetheless,
most of his partners were of flesh and blood.
His oeuvre, which is in itself cinematic in nature, boasts a cast
worthy of a Martin Scorsese film. Only the most interesting
character actors were cast: Brian Eno, Phew, Rolf Dammers,
David Sylvian, Annie Lennox, Jah Wobble, his Can bandmates...
the list could go on and on.
Many of these masterpieces are now out of print, so Groenland
Records, who already released the highly acclaimed
retrospective 'CINEMA' to mark the occasion of Holger's 80th
birthday at the beginning of the year, has taken it upon
themselves to release reissues of Holger's music in order to
make it accessible once again.
Acclaimed Canadian electronic producer Francis Latreille, known as Priori, unveils his new singles "Learn To Fly" and “Segue” today, marking the first releases from his upcoming third album, This But More. "Learn To Fly" offers a taste of the album's lush, dubby techno soundscapes, while "Segue" showcases the album's ambient side. Arriving May 24th via NAFF, This But More marks a sonic departure for the artist, exploring a richly textured landscape of electroacoustic compositions inspired by literature, cinema, and the transformative power of nature.
Priori delved into This But More from September 2023 to March 2024, drawing upon archival recordings and fresh ideas. "This album is about healing," Priori explains. "Not necessarily 'music that heals', but about the process in its ups and downs, its beauty and uncertainty." Themes of protection, healing, sleep, and decay naturally emerged during the creative journey.
To craft this immersive world, Priori collaborated extensively. Writer and musician Devon Hansen penned a series of "Suggested Stories" to accompany the album, adding depth to its lore. Musically, Priori teamed up with James K, Ben Bondy, Sabola, Adam Feingold, and Jesse Osborne-Lanthier, infusing the album with diverse instrumentation, including violin, guitar, software instruments, and field recordings.
This collaborative spirit extends to the album's striking visuals. Jesse Orsborne Lanthier designed the main and single artworks, while Ulysse De Lezenne crafted a unique jewel, both pieces seamlessly connected to the album's narrative.
The intricate world-building sets This But More apart. "It's the biggest collaborative project I have tackled so far," Priori notes. This spirit of exploration extends to the second single, “Wake”, featuring Priori's first vocal collaboration with close friend Jamie Krasner (James K).
Priori's artistic process is grounded in self-awareness and intuition, asking vital questions about how each element serves the greater purpose of the music. Swimming sessions between studio work provided clarity and focus throughout the album's creation. These meditative moments reflect in the music, inviting listeners into a contemplative, dreamlike state.
Beyond music, Priori draws inspiration from the literary worlds of Gene Wolfe, Ursula K LeGuin, China Mieville, Brian Caitlin, the evocative games of Hidetaka Miyazaki and Yoko Taro, as well as the ever-evolving beauty of myths and nature.
ETC Records proudly presents the official follow-up to RADIUS’ highly acclaimed limited 7”, Infinite Roots Vol.1. Chicago-born worldwide documentarian & respected producer/performer, RADIUS unveils Infinite Roots Vol.2, produced and recorded from 2015 to 2023. This volume showcases his diverse range of styles: Chicago Jazz roots, bboy/hip hop & house music lineage, Detroit techno connections, dub/Rastafari dissporic expansions, and cinematic soundscapes.
Infinite Roots Vol.2 features heavy hitters from RADIUS’ previous digital only releases, live performances, dance competitions, and unreleased gems. Created within Brooklyn where he was based early pandemic time, as well as throughout Mexico, Detroit, Barcelona, Berlin, Rotterdam, and of course Chicago. These diasporic roots run deep and are a reflection of everything: as above so below, as within so without, infinite. The sounds are meant to be Banged loud and proud!
BSS is more than ever crystallising the distinctive palette that forms the microcosm of its sound, with an increasingly refined sound design.
‘Tofani’ holds many elements of his signature sound, creating a hypnotic realm with cosmic overtones. A refined electro fused with dreamy, melodic hints. A journey through cinematic adventures and experimental outbursts.
Los Angeles-based video artist and producer Laskfar Vortok makes his first appearance in the EVAR catalogue with "Erbsat Esrhosc." An unusual title that reflects the artist's interest in the bizarre, whether he's making music or producing videos and visuals, "Erbsat Esrhosc" bristles with erratic patterns, anarchic atmospheres and glitchy soundscapes. The Mexican-born talent explores ideas based on the hypothetical concept of a planetwide city, otherwise known as an ecumenopolis, weaving such ideas against a cinematic backdrop, nodding to his long-running love for cinema. Across the five-track EP, he also draws inspiration from the heated and hectic energy of L.A, where he's resided most of his life.
Produced in memoriam of Michael Gregory Harrison, aka Bad Timing, and following a period of introspection and creative and personal challenges, Laskfar Vortok began work on "Erbsat Esrhosc" in 2018. The EP honours Michael's brilliance as an artist and a friend;the title being an anagram of a phrase that they shared between them.
"Eclipse" opens the EP on a haunting note. A spidery melody and chilling pads punctuate the witchy soundscape before syncopated sequences collide with snafued textures, signifying a sharp left turn into breakcore. With its nebulous atmosphere, this track offers the first glimpse into the concept of an ecumenopolis. On "Hyperdrive", frenetic percussion dominates while zappy noises and a doomsday melody slink in and out of earshot. Bursts of broken wub exacerbate the uneasy mood while cinematic, almost ethereal chords twinkle in the background.
"Base" offers a moment to recover one's brain cells after the nosedive into the near future. A lugging kickdrum and broken, woody percussions swirl around the troposphere while creepy pads convey a sinister aura. "Mutation" catapults us back into chaos with claustrophobic polyrhythmic structures, smatterings of kickdrums, and a sporadic mad-scientist-type synthline, adding a jittery layer. An unexpectedly orchestral outro completes the bizarre nature of the track.
Closing out on "Send Off", Laskfar Vortok blends freezing-cold chords with snaggy synth notes and a tangle of drum constellations tied up with a gossamer melody and splattered across an eerie terrain.
Using Bitwig Studio, orcλ, TidalCycles and Renoise as his modus operandi, Laskfar Vortok produces a trip that intrigues but disturbs, serving a shimmering yet terrifying squint into a technoid-led utopia. And we're only just getting started.
Anonymous British funk studio outfit Ultrafunk was spearheaded by Blues & Soul magazine proprietor John Abbey, who ran a fashionable record shop and label called Contempo in London’s West End during the 1970s; he conceived of the group as the UK counterpart to US studio bands like Mfsb. Arranger Gerry Shury, who had worked with Barry White and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, drafted guitarist Chris Rae and bassist Frank McDonald (who often composed library music together) and future Rubettes drummer John Richardson to form the group, in situ. A lack of band photos, suggestive song titles and a predilection for American cover tunes led many to believe the band was US-based. Their self-titled debut LP is where the myth all begins, with a number of truly atmospheric and cinematic hard funk instrumentals, given added textural depth through full orchestration, including covers of Bill Withers’ “Use Me” and Stevie Wonder’s “Living In The City.” Though not quite as compelling as the better-known follow-up set, Meat Heat, there is still plenty to savour on Ultrafunk, making this debut companion disc a must-have for all true funk aficionados.
New Release "Gypsy Heart / Beautiful Lies SKYLINE RECORDINGS Is proud to be release another OG banger from the wonderful Ms Betty Black "Gyspy Heart" is a driving dancer with sassiness and flair, just how Betty like it. Power vocals with a punching back beat, screaming for the dance floor. Betty goes back to the beginning when Rhythm met the Blues under the watchful eye of Gospel and the African-American Spiritual. It's mystical and cinematic but gutsy, and funky to boot! Roots Revival Soul with a sophisticated twist. On the flip "Beautiful Lies" Perfect song, uptempo dancer - which throws you staright into a story, where Ms Betty Black takes you into another world, but one that so many women, in particular, can relate to - another strong vocal mover, with a motown overtone. Summer fun. SL45030 x400 copies includes paper insert slv "I always expect excellence from her and she's delivered again" - Craig Charles, The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show, BBC Radio6, 01.06.24...
Glockoma 2 is the third studio album from Memphis rapper Key Glock, and follow-up to the wildly successful mixtape, Glockoma. The deluxe physical release sees the addition of 8 new tracks, and includes 3 singles released shortly after the digital deluxe release. As we’ve grown accustomed to with Key Glock’s solo albums, Glockoma 2 features all material written and performed by Key Glock, and only Key Glock. Standout tracks from the album include “Work,” “Dirt,” “Chromosomes,” “Presidential Rolex,” & the explosive single, “Let’s Go,” which saw its own moment of virality upon its cinematic music video release and was recently Certified Gold by the RIAA. The 2xLP deluxe vinyl release is pressed on Cobalt marbled vinyl with Red Splatter, and housed in a gatefold jacket with poly-lined sleeves.
Mannequin Records is proud to present the official reissue of Caroline K's outstanding 1987 album, "Now Wait For Last Year."
This haunting, wistful work of post-industrial synthesizer music sees the late Nocturnal Emissions co-founder only solo record, which has accrued a fervent cult following over the past 40 years, and copies of the original pressing are today extremely rare and sought-after.
The music on "Now Wait For Last Year" seems to exist firmly outside of it. Tags like industrial, minimal synth or proto-techno can't really do justice to the richly cinematic sound-world that Caroline K describes: from the sustained ambient tension of sidelong opener "The Happening World" to the future-primitive rhythms and stately piano flourishes "Animal Lattice", and the melancholic, deep-frozen synth sequences of "Cheart".
For fans of Throbbing Gristle, Chris Carter, Nocturnal Emissions and even early Detroit techno lovers should pay special attention to it.
All selections composed, arranged and played by Caroline K
Recorded and produced by Caroline K
Photograph by Jake Kirkwood
Original design by Nigel Ayers
The first five tracks of Now Wait For Last Year were originally released as a vinyl LP by Earthly Delights in 1987
Maceo Plex’s taste-making Ellum Audio serves up a sizzling EP from Madben, featuring a remix from men of the moment Brame & Hamo.
Frenchman Madben has a healthy reverence for Jeff Mills and Detroit techno that infuses all his work. He has been mentored by Laurent Garnier and released on a wealth of quality labels from Bedrock to Suara. A resident of the Rex Club in Paris where he puts on his MAAD parties, he is now a regular in the best clubs around Europe where he serves up his always profound sounds, something he does again here.
First up is the fantastic ‘Blooming’, with its old school rave styles and dusty breakbeats. Euphoric chords light up the whole thing and it’s a tune that is sure to get hands in the air. Brame & Hamo are Irish sensations who are based in Berlin and known for big tunes that range from house to techno to disco. After establishing their own label they step out with a remix that is superbly stripped back. On deep rolling drums, sleek synths unfold and take you on a cosmic adventure that is well paced and cinematic.
Madben’s ‘Enjoy Yourself' is well crafted techno with a sense of progression in the ever evolving lead synths. Rumbling drums provide the power below and filtered, whispered vocals are an intriguing detail up top. Last of all, ‘Haze’ is a prickly track with snappy mental drums, off kilter synths that twist and turn and a dark energy that is tinged with industrialism.
This is a fresh techno offering that comes with plenty of new ideas that are all
expertly executed.
‘Inevitable Incredible’ is a brand-new studio album that sees Kelly writing primarily on the piano for the first time. Recorded on a remote island in Norway, the forthcoming album sees Kelly step away from the comfort of Stereophonics and explore emotion and vulnerability. The album features 8 incredibly evocative cinematic songs, all with live vocal & piano plus stunning orchestral strings. Available on deluxe book bound CD and heavyweight vinyl with stunning artwork by artist Christine Clark.
Fata Morgana's concept draws from Ispirian ́s live sets in the USA. Then, back in Europe, Vasco refined his performance and the live takes were finally mixed and mastered in Madrid. The project sees the light in 2023, after the global impasse the world went through, as a two EP installment: Fata Morgana I & II.
Fata Morgana ́s second installment is a 4 track EP that kicks off with a bass- driven cinematic promise (Ohdee) which unfolds in titillating layers, crafting a superb lushness and building up momentum (Flashing on Flushing) and then, fiery reaching climax in a vague, abstract electronic background (Escape into the Sunset) only to usher the shape-shifter (My Pleasure), an edgy alt-ambient closer with a grounding dialogue on pleasure and pain which is Ispirian ́s reflective statement.
BRYZ shines on Storytellers' 3rd vinyl only episode, boasting stunning unmatched cinematography and a memorable soundtrack with the delightful presence of Ioana.
Bad Info is a new label set up primarily to reissue the music of Corker Conboy released first in the early 2000's mainly on London's Vertical Form which also released music by Pub and Pan American.
"Rich with cinematic overtones. 'Light...' carries echoes of tortoise, Ennio Morricone & Talk Talk, but its hardly just another remake, Slip into a world where the screen never goes dark"-XLR8R
"I discovered this album in 2007..The instruments felt small and delicate but collectively they elicited a heavy emotional response: a seductive moodiness, a soporific joy, soundtracking both post-party mornings and late night writing. it remains a record that still inspires me to this day." Adam janota Bjowski ( Composer- Black Mirror, Saint Maud, Femme, Out of Darkness)
Post-rock.electronic duo Corker Conboy aka Adrian Corker & Paul Conboy announce a newly remastered reissue of the project's debut album 'In Light Of That Learnt Later'.
Originally released in 2003, and available for the first time digitally, featuring new artwork by graphic designer Joe Gilmore. Alongside the reissue, Corker Conboy will release a limited edition 12" /digital single featuring a track from the album, backed with a new remix, sampling multiple tracks from the album, by acclaimed New York-based ambient dub trio Purelink (The 50 Best Albums of 2023 Pitchfork,'Ambient Dub that glows from within 'Philip Sherburne).
The album is remastered by Paul Conboy, with the remix single mastered/remastered by Stephan Mathieu.
April 2024 sees the launch of the Stratasonic imprint with the four-track ‘Accidental Effects’ by ANiML, a collaborative guise for the members of the collective behind the label.
Stratasonic is a new label founded by a German/Canadian collective operating out of LA whose roots dig deep into electronic music. By collaborating with artists new and legendary they’ll push the boundaries of the traditional music space into visual arts, video, events, digital and beyond. The collective’s philosophy is to reimagine the music, masters, and methods of the past in a modern context, exposing the world to the stuff they like. Here to inaugurate the label is ANIML, the project whose members will remain anonymous is inspired by the classic era of vinyl and analogue production with hints of 90’s nostalgia.
Title-cut ‘Accidental Effects’ leads the EP and lays down twitchy bass grooves, crisp, crunchy breaks and an amalgamation of hip hop vocals all dynamically pieced together and processed to create a raw, fluid dance floorworkout. ‘Mementos’ follows next and veers into a more immersive, cinematic electronica realm via subtly unfurling synth textures, murky bass swells, bumpy breaks, squelchy acid lines and hypnotic brass licks.
Opening the flip-side is ‘Day Dreaming’, shifting focus back to a raw off-kilter rhythm at its foundation while haunting synth lines ebb and flow amongst hooky vocal chants and bubbling echoes. ‘Formulaic Appeal’ then concludes the original material, a three minute ambient darkwave excursion through brooding analogue bass drones, heavily reverberated atmospherics and a ticking clock like percussive effect.
Introducing Small Great Beats, an exclusive series following the principal release series, Small Great Things (SGT). This limited edition collection will showcase 1 or 2 releases annually, featuring a blend of anthems, melodic tracks, and dance floor-oriented tunes.
Limited to just 200 copies per release, Small Great Beats offers collectors a rare opportunity to own something truly exceptional. Additionally, the series will be digitally available on all major platforms and Bandcamp.
Kicking off the series is Luca Olivotto's mesmerizing 5-track EP, "Kind Of Lovin´", pressed on captivating light blue vinyl.
Opening the release is title-cut ‘Kind Of Lovin’’, an anthemic slice of classic house fuelled by a swinging 909 drums groove and bouncy bass line in combination with intertwined piano keys, strings and vocal hooks before ‘Blue’ follows and lays down a 90’s rave-tinged piano melody, cinematic string flutters and crisp saturated drums across five minutes. ‘Hear My Call’ comes next and infused a more funk leaning aesthetic with organic percussion, jazzy keys and a walking bass line, intertwined with wandering strings and choppy vocal chants.
Opening the B-side is ‘Sun After Dark’, as the name would suggest a more peak time groove with glimpses of brightness via a circling bass line, raw, heavily shuffled drums and gritty stab sequences. ‘My Soul’ then rounds out the EP, again aptly titled as the composition fuses soulful cinematic strings, bright keys and an amalgamation of soulful vocal stylings all dynamically evolving and unfolding throughout.
(comes with a poster) The Klein blue horizon, gliding seagulls, a ferry purring between two languid islands, dotted with ultra-white villages and ancient ruins... These idyllic visions run through Glika, the ultimate musical project of Les Cyclades. An exciting electronic odyssey from West to East, from Belgian effervescence to Greek mysticism.
In 2020, confined to the neighborhoods of Yser and Mystère in Brussels, Alex and Ludo dream of Greek islands, of scorching sun on their skin, of salty baths, chilled ouzo and braised octopus. But everywhere, time stands still. Must one necessarily move to travel? To levitate? In the absence of Elsewhere, the Franco-Canadian duo will compose the imaginary soundtrack to their escape.
Glika (which means "sweet" in Greek) perfectly synthesizes the musical influences of Les Cyclades: a cosmic saxophone inherited from Alex’s dub and free jazz past, an architect-pastry chef-botanist from Normandy, and Ludo’s "Balearic" tracks, a musician-performer-wine lover who frequented his first raves in 1995 in Houston, Texas.
From a hedonistic encounter on a friendly terrace in the 19th arrondissement of Paris to their chosen exile in Brussels, these hypersensitive jacks-of-all-trades first danced and mixed records. Before creating their own phantasmagorical sonic territories, where cinema and poetry meet more or less human voices, brass instruments, synthesizers and analogue drum machines.
A searing fragment of Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos's "Eternity and a Day" preludes Glika. Then, on Yser Mystère - the names of the two stations on tram 51 that physically linked Alex and Ludo's psyches during the lockdown - Alex's astral sax balances out the industrial mechanics of a locomotive, against a backdrop of urban soundscapes.
And then a rising bpm dominates Alocasia, with its deep and sensual light foot. So sunny. From one track to another, there are interludes influenced by Xenakis, Vangelis and Jean-Michel Jarre. Seminal heroes of the Cyclades... But soon, the duo unleash hostilities at the helm of Epigone, their meta-techno anthem. "I know", "You know", echoes Alex.
Laughs of friends, "mouth noises," and "bizarre rhythms" still dominate Parc Fou, while DRAM eyes the minimalist techno of Detroit. So dear to Ludo's heart... And what about PAME, that post-modern Greek epic.Or Glossa, a timeless track that finishes with a fascinating - because diffracted - elegance, this multi-sensory journey through Les Cyclades. Let's close our eyes. Silencio! Hay Banda!
Standard version on 2LP black vinyl in gatefold sleeve. ‘Lefto presents Jazz Cats' is back with volume 3 and still doing what it does best: putting you in the front row of what the thriving Belgian jazz scene currently has to offer and revealing a melting pot of the musical talent.
'Lefto presents Jazz Cats' is back with volume 3 and still doing what it does best: putting you in the front row of what the thriving Belgian jazz scene currently has to offer and revealing a melting pot of the musical talent coming out one of the smallest countries in Europe. Never change a winning team they say, so we're happy to have Belgian DJ and eclectic connoisseur Lefto on board again.
Although you expect thecompilation to be talking jazz, volume 3 explores a broader array of styles, genres, and sounds than ever before, arriving at a point where the 'young cats' of today don't bother no more. It may focus on the Belgian scene, but let's face it, seeing the influences, this one could be compiled from all over the world. From the empowering and bittersweet voices of Oriana Ikomo and Adja, over the more acoustic-electronic productions of Moodprint, Ciao Kennedy, Kassius and echofarmer. It's even expanding the Jazz Cats universe to dub and bass-heavy tracks with Kin Gajo and Le Ministère, Ethio-jazz from Azmari, while sending you back to earth with bodies' swirling sax and drums. That saxophone still rings in your ears when you end up in the orbit of the march-like drums of Bodem, Orson Claeys' piano testing your ability to follow him, slamming the breaks to go smooth cruisin' with HONEY (Morricone meets Khruangbin, anyone?), to crashing in a raging tempo on that last track of Bruno x Soet x Moene. And there you are, back with us.
2018's 'Lefto presents Jazz Cats' included tracks from some of Belgium's biggest hitters, including Black Flower, STUFF. De Beren Gieren and Glass Museum who have all gone on to receive global acclaim. The album was given the accolade of 'Album of the Week' on Worldwide FM and also received further radio support from Jazz FM in addition to numerous glowing reviews. The 2022 follow-up 'Jazz Cats volume 2' paved the way for a new generation inspired by its peers, entering another era of very talented individuals and collectives. Maybe even more so than 4 years before. It uncovered a beautiful balance of more established but also obscure musicians and artists. Opening up to electronics and dance, enter bands like ECHT!, Stellar Legions and TUKAN. Thrilling innovative soundscape grooves and jazz fusion with Bandler Ching and L?p?GangGang, not to forget about the weaving musical odyssey that is M.CHUZI. In addition, there's the balanced unease of One Frame Movement, the laidback 'acoustic electronica' of Boombox Experiments, the classic funky jazz stylings of Cargo Mas and cinematic The Brums, all of these have set volume 2 on the map as an essential release for any jazzhead with a passion for new sounds.
Tastemaker, selector, curator, DJ and producer, these words often get mentioned when Lefto's name pops up in discussions. And rightly so. If you've ever had the pleasure to listen to one of his incredible Boiler Room sets or one of his many radio shows, you'll know why. Famed for his gloriously eclectic taste on the decks, he switches effortlessly between hip hop, funk, breaks, neck-snapping beats, future bass, South-American influences, bruk riddims, some wild African rhythms and of course, jazz.
Growing up as a child, his father would have the sounds of jazz flowing through the speakers. Which led him to bars around town to hear the latest jazz ensembles. Falling in love with the genre, he would later refine his knack for record digging and fine ear for music working at Belgium's legendary Music Mania record store in his hometown Brussels. Which makes that Lefto is consistently a couple steps ahead. He doesn't wait for the next thing to land in his lap, but actively seeking it out.
Lefto on Jazz Cats volume 3:
"Another release in less than two years! I am very impressed by the amount of creative "jazz" talent we've managed to compile over the last couple of years. Thanks to the internet, young musicians find inspiration from around the globe and incorporate diverse influences into their work. Given the history and heritage of jazz in this country, it has managed to create a healthy jazz scene supported by festivals, venues, press, and labels. Therefore, I am very proud to present to you the thirdinstallment of Jazz Cats. This compilation is dedicated to the young and hardworking musicians who are the present and the future of Belgium's jazz scene."
Twin Cities duo Feel Free Hi Fi return to their in-house imprint Digital Sting with their first full length entitled “I was so far in I was out.” After two prior EP's and collaborations with Equiknoxx and Duppy Gun Feel Free Hi Fi deliver 8 new tracks of their distinct but eclectic digital dub. Amalgamating many of the sounds, sonics, and aesthetics of prior releases into these eight percussive instrumentals. The industrial dub and weirdo dancehall remain but the focus is further refined while also exploring environmental and cinematic sounds to create often dark and heavy versions that are as singular as they are collective, as introverted as they are expansive.
The records come in double sided silk-screened printed custom DJ Jackets, with Obi Strip style stickers and hand stamped white labels created and printed by Digital Sting.
London producer Kel McKeown celebrates the release of his tenth album as Kelpe, with a vinyl edition of uncategorisable dance music on Kit Records.
Kelpe's work combines live drumming with synthesis and guitars. Like the nine records that came before it, LP10 treads the line between gauzy melancholia and bustling, dancefloor-ready energy.
Listening to Kelpe's music can feel like fluttering through a photo album at speed. Familiar faces and locations are revealed, nostalgic scenes assembled then scattered by unruly rhythms and samples.
Analogue percussion takes centre stage on LP10. This restless drumming - gear-shifting from hip-hop through to jungle - showcases McKeown's chops as an instrumentalist, while harking back to the scrambled beats that were a hallmark of his early releases.
Kelpe has worked closely with the visual artist Nikita Iziev on this record. Inspired by pioneering film director John Schlesinger, the serendipitous geometry of new wave cinema is mapped out in fractured moments across the music and artwork.
While the track 'Schlesinger' echoes the bouncing unpredictability of the sleeve, 'The Palace Guard Loop' pours neon fertiliser over fender rhodes jazz keys. Adrenalin reaches a zenith on 'Events Proved Me Wrong', as Kelpe hits his stride for a homespun drum and bass workout.
“Songs to Make Love To” is the 10th studio album by The Dining Rooms (Stefano Ghittoni and Cesare Malfatti), extending the Milanese duo’s classic sound legacy among psychedelic folk, cinematic atmospheres and hip hop-inspired downtempo rhythms. As always divided into instrumental and vocal tracks, it is entirely played and produced by Stefano and Cesare and features guest appearances on vocals by Chiara Castello (I’m Not a Blonde), Egeeno (of the Roman collective Tropicantesimo) and labelmate Tomaz Di Cunto aka Toco. “Songs To Make Love To” talks about love and relationship dynamics in every aspect, but also explores anthropological and ethnomusicological themes by making use of field recordings. “Songs To Make Love To” talks about love and relationship dynamics in every aspect, but also explores anthropological and ethnomusicological themes by making use of field recordings. “Songs To Make Love To”, whose artwork was made with works by artist Tatjana Zonca, talks about love and the explicit act of loving each other, but also and especially about the construction of love, the dynamics of love relationships inside and outside the couple, free and liberated love, without constraints and outside the concept of possession. A further peculiarity that contributes to the uniqueness of “Songs To...” is the in-depth exploration of anthropological and ethnomusicological themes, particularly dear to Alan Lomax: the classic TDR sound therefore blends, especially in the instrumental tracks, with classic field recordings of sounds from the Genoese carruggi, the Milanese dockyard, the Spanish quarters of Naples and cities such as Istanbul and São Paulo.
To be released on Ransom Note Records and marking the debut album of Wave Arising project , "(The) Rooted Sky" is an invitation to an initiatory journey where intuitions are channeled into grooves and otherworldly sonic landscapes . A sound where intense rhythms meet circular expansions .
From various improvisations, the experienced & avant-garde musician Sebastian Vaughan decided to take a fresh look and avoid the use of sampling third parties by crafting compositions. An approach to music as a spiritual path driven all the way long by psychedelic dubby vibes , acidic frequencies & hypnotic repetitions coming from his sound-system culture heritage .
While the tracks "It Comes and Goes" , "Ronde Cinétique" , "Electric Shrine" and "Golden Black" draw contemporary almost cinematic ambiences with vibrant and spacious feelings , "Monin Yiri" , "Sound Loves Dance" & "Grow with the Flow" represent a series of energetic deconstructed leftfields , with the omnipresence of a singular tribalism that emphases the african side of Wave Arising .
On its own "Music without chains" is , as the title underlines , a joyful jam free from any boxes or attempts at confinement .
Finally "Subconscience" arrives like a probe , a dreamlike piece full of endless reverbs from Kynsie's voice ; generating mysterious environments and resonating directly with "Soul Whispers" .
Taking on the challenge of fusion , "(The) Rooted Sky" asks the listener to open up through a collection of progressive tracks reflecting the core of Wave Arising’s spirit : Music & Body as a portal . Through this consciously chosen wide range of dynamics , the producer shows his musical ability to create an unique sonic palette yet staying true to his own personality .
Regarding the cover, the outside is a minimalist yet symbolic photograph of the duo’s hands. As for the interior, Wave Arising is very grateful to welcome primitive artworks by the talented artist Rapoon , one of the founder members of the legendary group Zoviet*France . Continuing with this global vision of intertwined arts, the videos accompanying this record are created by Wave Arising .
Ultimately , the recurrent animistic vibes of "(The) Rooted Sky" give to the album a spiritual ethos directly driven by the book of Nature reminding us that, we are all connected to the Source .
It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).
“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”
The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.
“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”
“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”
The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).
Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”
The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…
REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:
“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)
CREDITS:
Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)
MORE INFO:
Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…
Danieli presents his new ep on Alpenglühen.
Berglüster is an emotional high-concept EP with 4 tracks that work well together or individually.
The artist from Aachen, owner of whispering signals, transports us into his sonic realm and offers us probably his most mature and honest work to date.
Berglüster is not typical club music, we actually found ourselves facing contemplative lab techno.
The hazy atmospheres, the lowpassed kickdrums and the cinematic pads reminds of the golden years of intelligent dub techno but with a more sophisticated and modern approach.
Those who love the music of Deepchord, GAS or Porter Ricks will find here a delight to be added to their collection.
As usual, this is an only vinyl release. 200 copies pressed.
Diogo Silva, Nuno Fulgêncio and Rui Martins collectively go by the name Bardino. With their sound consisting of an inventive mix of
electronica, rock, jazz, the Porto-based trio are pushing their sound into unchartered waters. A feeling that will be reinforced after
experiencing their new album, ‘Memória da Pedra Mãe’.
Their enthralling music draws upon the imagery of the beautiful and rugged scenery of their home country. ‘Centelha’ , their previous
album (released by Saliva Diva in 2020) was recorded in Chaves,
in the very remote region of Trás-os-Montes. Their 207 EP of the same name was created in the rustic heart of Serra das Meadas. In this
latest offering, the mention of "Pedra Mãe" (Mother Stone), refers to a rare geological phenomenon popularly known as "breeder stones"
found in isolated, deserted, and inhospitable places. On the inspiration of the new album, they explain that they want to refer to "the
importance of collective memory in the cohesion and identity of communities and the process of creating new memories, a process that
is both natural and conflicting, since it mirrors a tension between past, present and future".
The album was recorded in the summer of 2023 at Arda Recorders in Porto and produced by João Brandão and Rui Martins. In this
new material, Bardino's resources expand: Nuno Fulgêncio's drums, Diogo Silva's bass and Rui Martins' veritable arsenal of keyboards
(acoustic and electric piano, various synthesisers) are augmented by the alto and tenor saxophones of Brian Blaker (who stands out in
"Memória" and "Black Mica"), the guitar of Leonardo Outeiro (who features on "Punctum No 2") and, already indicating their affiliation
with the Porto label Jazzego, Hugo Oliveira, who records as Minus & MRDolly (and is a guest on "Pedra Mãe") and Sérgio Alves, aka
AZAR AZAR (who plays piano and Moog on "Tília"). Bardino's entry into the increasingly unavoidable Jazzego catalogue also reinforces
their obvious links to a new wave of projects that have been experimenting with different tangents to the notion of "jazz", taking this
music as part of a wider set of coordinates.
Over the course of eight tracks, and clearly benefiting from the distinct imprint of the recognised quality work of João Brandão, one of
Portugal's current best producers, Bardino presents dense, deeply cinematic music of the highest definition, in which the different
instruments translate a broad emotional and visual landscape, with solos of enormous elegance arranged over grooves that induce the
idea of movement. All the musical coordinates mentioned earlier are present, but perhaps in this new material you can feel a greater
fluidity, certainly the result of honing the vision of the central trio through a vast experience collected on stages all over the country. And
there are even echoes of a decidedly Portuguese songbook, as is so clearly felt in "O Semeador", something new in the range of aesthetic
references embraced by Bardino. This is, in fact, music that thrives on a benign tension between past, present and future, in the sense
that it embraces traditions and history, seeks a new framework in this diverse now and dares to project itself forward. Because the future
is the best of all locations.
The scenic artist and multi-instrumentalist CLARAGUILAR moves from performing arts to cinema as a composer and live performer. Over the last few years he has created soundscapes that blend electronics and sampled elements with orchestral arrangements, becoming one of the main names of the Spanish theater scene when it comes to soundtrack and sound design creation.
After her acclaimed EP 'Mystery is All' Lapsus is proud to present 'Figura', CLARAGUILAR's debut album, a heartfelt tribute to her connection with the scenic world, and especially with the operatic universe. The starting point of this project was born with the concept of an "invisible orchestra", an imaginary that aesthetically becomes a reality on stage thanks to the collaboration with the Barcelona studio Oscila, as well as with the help of the stylist Joan Ros, who has been in charge of the costume design.
'Figure' is a space in which electronica, ambient, and chamber-pop coexist; all under an operatic halo full of drama. Once again, the producer locked herself down from late 2022 to the beginning of 2023 to compose all the tracks in a very intimate and closed composition process. The album dives into the melodic landscapes, merged with orchestral samples and chopped voices containing mysterious messages inside.
Each track is a pixelated lightshow and a live electronic instrumentation, presented onstage as an elegant performance with an expansive emotional range
A collection of music for the various films and theatre plays by Mirko Krsticevic, Croatian and Yugoslavian composer and musician active since 1970s. All and Nothing at All (Film and Theatre Music 1978 - 1988) focuses on his work for the underground and avantgarde cinema from the era: directors Ivan Martinac, Svemir Pavic, Lordan Zafranovic, Aleksandar F. Stasenko and Vanca Kljakovic are all part of the Split Cinema Club association; their work explores art, death, sexuality and eroticism. Pavic's portrait of surrealist painter Ljuba Popovic, made in the same year as its counterpart by Walerian Borowczyk, features scenes form Beaubourg Gallery in Paris and Udo Kier as a guest. Side B of the record is all about theatre: plays by Sam Shepard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jean Giraudoux were all produced in Sarajevo and Split in the 1980s, with the rare electronic takes by Mirko Krsticevic and his subtle minimalist soundings of the themes from the Cold War era. This unique and diverse compositions by founder of the rock band Metak and sound studio Tetrapak from Split, are document of the time that is, especially in the closing Chernobyl theme, relevant again. Composer, musician and musical arranger Mirko Krsticevic was born in 1948 in Sibenik. He graduated in music theory at the Pedagogical Academy in Split and then at the Music Academy in Sarajevo. He studied composition with Josip Magdic, Mladen Pozajic and Miroslav Spiler. He is the co-founder of the Tetrapak music studio in Split, where numerous performers and musicians have recorded (Animatori, D'Boys, Haustor, Oliver Mandic, Gibonni, Srdjan Marjanovic, Stil, Trotakt Projekt and others). The first group he founded was the rock group Che, which performed his own songs, in which he played bass guitar. It was founded in the summer of 1969. Together with Ranko Boban and Momcilo Popadic, he founded the Metak group in the spring of 1978 in Prigradica on Korcula. In the group, he is the author of songs and lyrics, and he also plays the bass guitar. "Da mi je biti morski pas" is the group's most successful single, which in 1980 became one of the most played songs on radio and television. Metak performed in Belgrade in front of 70,000 people, and the media declared them the best group along with Macedonian Leb i sol. In compositional work and arrangements for other pop and rock artists, Krsticevic had high commercial success with Tutti Frutti Balkan Band, Biljana Petrovic, Seid Memic Vajta, Pepel in kri, Osmi putnik, Oliver Dragojevic , Djordji Peruzovic, Henda and others. Parallel to his pop and rock career, Krsticevic composed stage and film music for 45 films, mostly collaborating with the circle of experimental and amateur directors of the Split Cinema Club (Kino klub Split) as well as the rest of the local underground scene. He is the author of stage music for 130 theatre plays, and also records his own compositions in the field of contemporary music. He wrote over 30 works for solo instruments, chamber and symphonic music. At the end of 2007, he founded the Split society for contemporary music and the contemporary music ensemble Splithesis. In 2015, he founded his own orchestra The Highway to Well Family, composed of fourteen musicians and three singers. In 2021, he founded Arthesis, an artistic organization for contemporary music and visual arts. He is the author of four operas: "Krvava svadba" (1997), "Halugica" (1999), "Atlantida - Legenda o Dan'zoru" (2018) i "Atlantida II - Lu'blis Kaoamos" (2020). He is the winner of numerous awards, lives and works in Split. Gatefold LP with extensive liner notes, Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) from original tapes, pressed at Record Industry. File under: Soundtrack, Stage, Electronica
Your Old Droog recently delivered one of the most impressive runs hip-hop has ever seen, releasing seven expertly crafted, thematically distinct projects over a span of only thirteen months. Now, the final two albums in this historic creative flurry are available in physical form for the first time ever, with this unique joint release of "The Yodfather" and "The Shining". With both collections inspired by classic films, this physical release is being presented as a "double feature" in the style of vintage movie screenings, with "The Yodfather" on the front cover and "The Shining" on the back. Originally released only on digital outlets, these deeply cinematic collections strike a perfect balance of soulful and sinister, with beats supplied by the likes of Madlib, SadhuGold, Fortes, Wino Willy, and more. While Droog’s mind-bending wordplay takes center stage, the set also features appearances by Che Noir, Tha God Fahim, and Rockness Monsta, along with the unreleased bonus track “North Face With The ACGs”.
After over a decade as a digital-only album, Larry Manteca's Zombie Mandingo gets its first vinyl release, making a fresh comeback in a completely renewed version.
Like Manteca's previous full-length releases, this album too is conceived as a soundtrack to a non-existent exploitation film, drawing inspiration from the classic Italian B-movies of the 1970s. This time, cinematic references encompass both the zombies found in Lucio Fulci's horrors and the cannibalistic adventures directed by Umberto Lenzi, creating a strange mash-up between Jacopetti's Mondo Cane and Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust.
The setting is an unspecified island in the Atlantic Ocean, nestled halfway between equatorial Africa and the Caribbean. A handful of Western tourists, having miraculously survived a plane crash, collide with the age-old rituals of an indigenous tribe who perform human sacrifices to appease their local god—the Zombie Mandingo of the title—a monstrous creature with superhuman strength, half Haitian zombie, half African cannibal.
This fusion of genres and cultures is reflected in the music. Manteca creates horror-tinged exotica that evokes and re-imagines the soundscapes of distant lands and dreamlands, from Africa to South America, to the mysterious islands in the Bermuda Triangle. He boldly and brilliantly combines Les Baxter with Fela Kuti, Joe Zawinul with Piero Umiliani, Janko Nilovic with KPM libraries, sprinkling the mixture profusely with psychedelia, Afro-groove, and Italian soundtrack vibes.
The album's nine tracks, recorded between 2013-2019, were meticulously remixed and remastered in 2023. This process made it possible to add new solo instruments, including the Fender Rhodes on the title track. The result is a captivating, kaleidoscopic journey taking us into the sonic depths of the tropical jungle to unveil its dark secrets and surrender to the primary emotions behind every B-movie: action, adventure, erotic desire, and fear.
The album is embellished with a 650-gram hardcover sleeve featuring breathtaking artwork by Matteo Fumagalli.
black.round.twelve is expanding its world and creating a new series focused on releasing long cuts of music spread over an entire record, appropriately named E X T E N D E D. Berlin-based Polish artist Maki Polne opens the project with two intensely hypnotic minimal tracks brimming with detail and production value.
Highly influenced by Berlin, CdV-rooted Maki Polne‘s acute love for quality sound is evident in “Don Joy´s Magic Sunday”, as both ‘Magic’ (A) and ‘Sunday’ (B) sound clear as crystal, with a frequency spectrum that’s both wide and colourful. With a strong focus on psychedelic sounds, ‘Magic’ is built around a breaky, half-time beat filled with slightly shuffled drums. A collage of warped textures, vocal snippets, synths and quirky bass stabs fill the remaining space with class, making it easy to imagine the cinematic soundscape working its on any bold dancefloor. ‘Sunday’, on the other side, is a more functional, 4-to-the-floor bass-heavy roller full of bright colours. Echoed vocal loops and rising pads create a particular vibe that would sound totally at home on a Sunday morning at CdV. Extended tracks for extended mornings, no doubt.
Nous'klaer Audio and Sound & Vision's RE:VIVE initiative have teamed up for the third and final LP in their film scoring trilogy. Capping off with a soundtrack made for a progressive, angular take on a color-soaked, geometric educational archival film. Combined with a soundtrack for a film that is a personal intensifier to the city of Rotterdam, which is the home of Nous'klaer Audio. The collaboration invites two musicians to compose for these archival films from the collection of Sound & Vision, the national media archive of the Netherlands. This final instalment features through and through Rotterdammer, Kems Kriol and the Amsterdam based Turkish composer, pianist and DJ Loradeniz. Kems Kriol accompanies the amateur documentary collage film "Rotterdam in de Jaren 90", a dark period of strife, economic and social crisis for the now booming metropolis, with the compassion and empathy of someone who experienced those years first-hand but with enough time removed to reflect with heart. Loradeniz angularly and precisely moves her way through the delicate film "Tegenlicht", a surprisingly colorful and fluid educational film about painting, a bold juxtaposition that propels the film into the 2020s. Extended info: Side A, Tegenlicht (English: back lit) is a 1969 education film by Ton Gramsbergen. The short meditative film, follows stained glass artist Leo Hofman through his entire workflow to create beautifully abstract stained glass window panes. Loradeniz?angularly and precisely moves her way through the delicate Tegenlicht creating a bold juxtaposition that propels the film into the 2020s. Employing processed vocal work, deep dry kicks, and jarring percussion-- reminiscent of scratching glass-- Loradeniz's haunting modernization suits the cinema and the club equally, a testament to the rising composer's fluid versatility and creative prowess as a musical pantomath. Side B, Rotterdam in de Jaren 90 directly contrasts the zoomed in artistry of Tegenlicht. The amateur documentary Super 8 footage captures Rotterdam in one of its most tumultuous times from police brutality, poverty, drugs, violence, racism and the city's ongoing architectural modernization. Kems Kriol, who lived in Rotterdam during this time period, brings a deeply emotional weight to the Ed Millecam amateur documentation, as an artist with the compassion and empathy of who experienced those years first-hand but with enough time removed to reflect with heart. Kems Kriol's influences from modern and avant garde composers, jazz, acid bass lines and field recording Kems Kriol made at different locations featured in the film equate to a musical collage wholly comparable to the city's diverse population. The prior installments in this series featured Nous'klaer Audio staples, Ranie Ribeiro, Mattheis, Thessa Torsing (upsamy) and Tammo Hesselink.
With their new EP on their own label, Italian duo Orion deliver a record full of lowkey atmospherics, textures and sublime frequencies. 2 original tracks and 2 remixes from italian artists Primal Code and Luigi Tozzi.
“Lie” opens the record with those classic emotional elements coming out from a long cloudy day in the studio.
As previously heard on their Smoke Machine live podcast “Orange” plays with layers, cinematic pads and hypnotic drums.
On the flip Primal Code’s “Lie” version encapsulates their dreamy and tribal approach with an intricate acid bassline that will take you on a journey.
Luigi Tozzi’s dark and loopy remix is something for your brain. Subtle hypnotic melodies and roaring low frequencies are the main elements for this club version of “Lie”.
Longtime D&B producer Submorphics launches his new imprint Rosebay Music with a 2 track single showcasing the modern-yet-timeless soul sound that he is known for. Fusing elements of Motown, deep house, footwork, 80s & 90s, funk and orchestral film soundtracks, the nomadic producer displays his love of emotive, eclectic D&B in signature form on this first single.
Rosebay Music releases will connect the dots between disparate styles of soulful music, with unexpected collaborations, remixes and genre hybrids - focusing on melodically strong D&B, adjacent forms of dance music, hip hop and modern soul. Cinematic, visceral, heartfelt music; Rosebay will be a place for honest musical expression.
DJ Support:
LTJ Bukem, Bryan Gee, High Contrast, Logistics, Lenzman, Bredren, Sustance, Satl, DJ Marky, Doc Scott, Bailey, Technimatic.
Before New Angels is the debut album by Swills & Phil Mills, a Dutch mixed electronic duo in which vibrant talent and solid experience swirl together in a hazy cloud. Ten cinematic ambient tracks that combine the imaginative power of Biosphere and the hallucinatory club DNA of Huerco S and GAS.? Take for instance a track like Common Parlance. It's a centerpiece and forms the beating heart of Before New Angels. With its elongated, shuffling chords and deadpan kicks it seems to come from an early Wolfgang Voigt recording.?? Utrecht-based Sabine Willems is the newcomer of the two. Her work is experimental and does not conform to any genre. She likes to challenge herself by keeping her instrumentation to a bare minimum. Phone recorded samples of the world around her sometimes serve as a building block. But where her earlier tracks still contain rhythm, Before New Angels is virtually beatless.? Phil Mills is the experienced side of the duo. He's from the North of The Netherlands. Anyone who dives into his musical past will come across dance productions that date as far? back as the early nineties. Mills' experience pays out on Before New Angels, where its layered melodies and slow evolving arrangements never smother the minimalist compositions.?Is this one of the better ambient albums of 2023? We tend to think so.?You better lie down and feel for yourself.?
WOLFDRIFTA steps up to his own Wolves That Drift label with another stylish fusion of sounds that stand him out in a class of one. The London based artist has a fresh sound and is really making waves with his own platform which evokes real emotion and brings innovative sounds to the underground. The title cut pairs dubby bass with snappy electro-style percussion and sci-fi melodies. It's a distinctly futuristic world of cinematic designs and immersive atmospheres. Remixer Theo Nasa has credits on the likes of Rekids, ASPX and We Are The Brave and flips it into a double time and bass heavy stepper with compelling rhythms and tribal percussion. Tekdroid then layers up crispy drum programming with swirling pads for a twisted and acid laced techno workout. Glitch Overdrive has a future sense of soul over hunched drums and rasping bass.
Phuture Shock is a game-changing EP from this crucial producer.
Over the past few years, we have strengthened our ties with photographers to showcase music we stand for.
Art Curation is deeply rooted in Délicieuse’s DNA. It all started with our Youtube channel where we have been showcasing the music we love for 10 years now. Parallel to music curation, our curiosity and appeal for aesthetic imagery brought us to enhance the music with photographs, illustrations or cinematic scenes. As a result, our Youtube channel has been the laboratory of our collaborations with photographers from all horizons such as Yosigo, Victor Costa or George Natsioulis.
Following that path, the Chambre Noire Compilation tends to expand the synergy between music & imagery. The idea is to highlight a photographer’s work & make the compilation a gallery in itself. For this first episode we are collaborating with Yosigo, a well established photographer from Barcelona. The art direction and graphic design side is imagined in collaboration with Brazilian art director Hermes Miranda.
The compilation contains 12 exclusive tracks released digitally and physically across a double vinyl edition. The physical edition includes an A6 photo booklet aiming to highlight Yosigo’s work while exploring the compilation concept.
Musically speaking the compilation follows Délicieuse’s travels and features a blend of established & emerging artists from all over the globe featuring the likes of Tell, Domenique Dumont, Fertita, Logh, BowAsWell, Pool Boy, Scissorwork, Jesper Ryom, Marvin Horsch, Jah One, Brothers of Eternal Love, and Golf Trip oscillating between Balearic, Deep House, Electronica, Electro & Indie Pop.
Get ready for an immersive and captivating musical experience with Chambre Noire.
Quoth is proud to present its second EP of spectral dance music, following Coralie’s 'Barney’s Maze'.
Coming from the third mind of Pearl River Sound and The Horn, two artists with illustrious solo back catalogues, the 'Top Shelf Material EP' is a kaleidoscopic trip into the timeless psychedelia of UK rave music. Highly referential, but never pastiche, the sound world draws from IDM, mutant hardcore stylings, grime, 80s fantasy, and pulp cinema.
‘What the fuck?’ moments of full throttle breakbeat pressure are counter-poised with the liminal robot romanticism of heart-rendingly detuned electronica. Eschewing refinement and polish for raw sensibility, the 'Top Shelf Material EP' is emotive and propulsive, playful and tragic, wistful and optimistic. We couldn't recommend it more.
SULPHUR AEONs neuestes Werk ist gesegnet mit Kontrasten, klanglicher Ebbe und Flut. Ein Taifun kantiger Riffs und wilder Blastbeats, raffinierte Melodieschichten, dichte Atmosphäre und triumphal gesungene Refrains reißen dich mit. Ätherische Akustikgitarren, subtile Synthesizer, einen Hauch von Gothic ('The Yearning Abyss Devours Us'), satte Leads, E-Bow-Parts, heftige Aggression ('Arcane Cambrian Sorcery'), monumentale Schwere, die in hypnotische Gesangsmuster übergeht ('Seven Crowns And Seven Seals'), und ein großes Finale ('Beneath The Ziqqurrats') - "Seven Crowns And Seven Seals" überschreitet Genres; es wütet und zerstört, lullt dich im nächsten Moment in gefährlich täuschende Ruhe, nur um dich unwiderbringlich in den dunklen Strudel des Ozeans zu reißen. SULPHUR AEON meistern ihren durchdringenden Cinematic Death Metal der Extraklasse, gehen über sich hinaus und klingen dabei doch unverkennbar kohärent - perfekt eingefangen und verfeinert von den langjährigen Mitarbeitern Simon Werner und Michael Zech (Secrets Of The Moon, Bølzer etc.), während das Mastering von V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress) übernommen wurde. Was das Artwork betrifft, so haben SULPHUR AEON diesmal mit der Tradition gebrochen, wieder mit Ola Larsson zu arbeiten, und sich mit dem Italiener Paolo Girardi zusammengetan, um eine Lovecraft'sche Apokalypse darzustellen, die der Opulenz und Dynamik des Albums einen raueren Stil entgegensetzt.
The Stallions compilations have become a benchmark of Bosconi's position as one of the leading house and techno labels operating out of Italy. This third instalment marks a shift in sound which also comes full circle to the music that first inspired founder Fabio Della Torre as a DJ and producer around the turn of the millennium, when punchy electro production was driving European house and techno into new zones.
All the artists featured on Vol. III are Italian, holding true to Bosconi's commitment to supporting local talent from Florence and across the country. Amongst the familiar faces is Della Torre's own Minimono collaboration with Ennio Colaci, which indulges a proudly manic palette of tweaked bleeps and dirty low-end. Elsewhere, recent additions to the Bosconi fold include veritable legends Alexander Robotnick and Marco Passarani, who infuse their unpredictable approaches to electro-techno and italo disco with ear-snagging synth-pop and driving analogue box jams respectively to create vibrant, impassioned dancefloor monsters.
The Mechanical Man is an alias from Nicola Altieri, who leans in on a classic Italo arpeggio to create a seductive club sound which builds on his recent Bosconi EXV EP, while Cixxx J switches from the mood of his own Bosconi appearance for a new alias Queen Of Coins and a pivot towards heads-down electro-techno-trance with a whiff of International Deejay Gigolos. Lapucci builds on the promise of his 2021 Bosconi 12" with a sentimental fusion track which lands somewhere between old school Italo house, the snappy pulse of EBM and crisp 00s-era electro house. Meanwhile modern day Italian techno legend Lucretio of The Analogue Cops makes his first appearance on Bosconi with the playful video game stylings of 'Gradius'.
A great deal of space on Vol. III is given over to emergent talent, ranging from Miguel Herr's twitchy detroitian synth-pop braindance and Twovi's vocoder-charged electro funk to DJ Rou's jacking ghetto house flavour. Giammarco Orsini and Jacopo Latini appear as Data Memory Access and deliver an emotive, punchy strain of machine soul. Feel Fly rounds the compilation off in bombastic style with an epic, cinematic workout which draws on Moroder-inspired drama without losing the forthright peak-time focus which binds the whole collection together.
Even the artwork on Vol. III serves as an opportunity to celebrate Italian creativity, as pioneering crypto artist Niro Perrone builds on his accomplished work in the field of NFTs and a background in music production to respond intuitively to the vibrant, synthetic sound of the compilation. For all the futurism in the music though, there remains a strong sense of human feeling which has marked Bosconi out since the beginning. The label remains as inspired and inspiring as ever, celebrating the fertile crossover when people manipulate technology to express themselves in an honest, playful way. Independent of wider trends or fashions, Bosconi remains true to its own idiosyncratic passions, and so Bosconi Stallions Vol. III stands proud as a compilation like no other.
‘Apathy Is Death’ is a precisely engineered, restless and longing work of experimental bass music. Tinkah has created a sonic landscape that is both mesmerising and haunting.
The fundamental note is tension as he speaks a tale of ego and its myriad manifestations.. highs & lows. Climax & anticlimax. Adoration & pity. A 12” quest through the taverns of retrospect.
The 6 tracks, live arranged on a MPC alongside a whimsical bounty of synths & effects, are packed rich with cinematic soundscapes, driving rhythms and an ever evolving temper.
Inspired by true events and adorned with sounds from his world. ‘Apathy Is Death’ tells the parable of being jointly lost and found in the intensity of life.
The latest by New York-based producer Lamin Fofana further refines his cinematic dialect of fractured soundscapes, displaced rhythms, and tectonic unease. Unsettling scores aptly describes itself: grainy, bristling, and bruised, rippling with dread disguised as grandeur. The collection emerged from an extended reworking of his 2016 composition, “A Symbol of the Withdrawn God,” mining deeper into the piece’s “unvoiced fragments, shards, and utterances.” Other tracks were inspired by recent readings on climate emergency and its “specific implications for Black life, from hurricanes in the Caribbean to mudslides in West Africa.”
Fofana has spoken of his music as part of a “legacy of resistance,” spanning the roots of Detroit techno to the outer reaches of contemporary sound art as championed by his labels, Sci-Fi & Fantasy and Black Studies. His work here vividly embodies that spirit, seven hyper-textural transmissions of rumbling lament, shifting sands, and restless innovation, tracing jagged silhouettes of indeterminate futures: “The instability is worldwide.”
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.
twelve.to.zero is back with its second release, signed by Crihan. "While You Sleep EP" finds Alin shaping three slow-burning and hypnotic pieces of minimal dance music brimming with detail deeply rooted in the early years of organic micro-house.
A-side's 'The Visitor' (A1) opens the EP emersed in engrossing, cinematic textures and heavy doses of syncopated acoustic drum samples. Elements ebb and flow on top of a highly minimalistic 4/4 structure, creating a contemplative locomotive composition reminiscent of the a-rpia-r school.
Flip-side's 'Lust' (B1) feels like a continuation of the previous track - driving, mysterious, mesmerizing - bubbling with vocal samples, orchestral textures, and a distinctly subtle micro-house swing. 'The Chase' (B2) closes the EP with a fresh rhythmic flavour: odd drum arrangements and melodic sequences take centre stage, flowing on top of rolling basslines of deeply enigmatic character. Introspective piano chords razor through its swingy rhythmic patterns, folding the sonic space with elegance, proving Alin's innate talent for avant-guard minimal music.
After our debut vinyl release “Cosmic Vibrations” with Rush City x Handerk we are ready to present our second vinyl release. This time one of our label founders Jonathan Lopez A.K.A Jonahlo wants to take you in a psychedelic journey on his new EP “ACID DAYS”; a four track EP where each track gets you through a different state of mind.
Jonahlo is an amazing musician, jazz bass player and producer from Bogotá, Colombia. He has released music on labels such as Nomada Records, Night Young and Otayana Records.
This trip starts with “Acid Days”; a superb Deep House anthem with layers of evolving sounds, exquisite melodies and uplifting chord progressions that make us take off and start feeling 100% positive. You can hear samples from cinema describing how it feels when you start connecting and being one with nature.
The following track is “Particles”; on this track Jonahlo goes deeper, evoking hypnotic and far-sighted moods of melancholy. At this point we start pondering about the universe’s infinite dimension and imagining particles vibrating as we fall into our deepest thoughts.
On the flip- side we bump into “Lost Mind”, a percussive deep techno with spacey and bleepy sounds reminding us that 90’s uk old-school style. Now is the time to get lost in the moment after going through the trip’s hard peak where you really start letting go.
The release closes with “It’s Alright”; a good vibe deep sampled house track that tell us to take it easy, to just relax and appreciate life.
The Album cover was disigned by incredible Colombian artist Jose Mejía which represents a flower going through the process of questioning oneself and coming out transformed on the other side. It is a process of exploration, discovery, and rebirth.
Josh Butler joins Kerri Chandler’s Kaoz Theory imprint with the ‘Piranha’ EP, featuring a collaboration with Josh Daniel and two further original compositions.
Northern England’s Josh Butler has been at the forefront of the contemporary house scene over the past decade, racking up releases for the likes of Defected, Rejected, Solid Grooves, Hot Creations, Crosstown Rebels, MÜSE and many more. Here though we see Josh returning to Kerri Chandler’s Kaoz Theory following 2023’s ‘Sunday Club’ with some fresh, dub house leaning material.
Opening the release is ‘Be There’, a collaboration with Josh Daniel, laid out across five and half minutes with dubbed out piano chords, crisp drums, a bouncy bass line and Daniel’s soulful vocal stylings.
A dub mix is offered up to follow, laying focus solely on the groove. On the flip side we have ‘Piranha’ up first, a hazy journey through dubbed out synth swells, airy vocal chants, skippy low-slung percussion and snaking sub bass tones.
‘Chess’ then rounds out the EP, laying down heavily swung minimalistic percussion, fluttering low end pulsations and ethereal atmospheric textures to create a subtly unfurling, cinematic dance floor groove.
DJ Feedback:
Junior Sanchez – Dope freshness!
Dennis Quin – Nice EP, feel the tracks
Lele Sacchi – All good deep rollers
Alexander Maier – Superb deepness in all
Ruff Stuff – Great EP! Love it!
Danny Howells – Loving this, all four tracks totally worth of support
Milos – Amazing EP, great tracks
Chris Brennan – Supremely smooth tunes, lovely lovely
“This device isn’t a spaceship, it’s a time machine. It goes backwards, and forwards… it takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel, it’s called the carousel. It lets us travel the way a child travels - around and around, and back home again, to a place where we know we are loved.”
(Don Draper)
Call Back Carousel is an audio time-travelogue, a slideshow of the mind’s eye - projecting Kodachrome memories directly into the listener’s mind by means of sound alone. It is a way of travelling without ever having to leave the home. A vicarious vacation for the imagination. Pure audio escapism.
Each episode is based on a found tape of a pre-recorded slideshow commentary. Most of these tapes were made by amateur tape recording enthusiasts and hobbyist photographers of the 60s and 70s. Their recorded commentaries would at one time have been used in conjunction with a sequence of 35mm slides but only the taped voices now remain. The recordings themselves come from Vernon's own archive of found reel-to-reel tapes that he has collected over the past twenty years.
Using these found slideshow commentaries as a framework, a series of musical soundscapes have been created to bring the absent images to life, activating the listeners’ imagination in the classic tradition of ‘cinema for the ears’. It’s a little like looking through a family photo album where only the hand written captions and mounting corners remain; the photographs themselves have all been removed. The evocative rattle and clack of the projector shuffles through different slides as the fragile voices of our tour guides accompany us on a sonic journey that fractures time - and through the cracks, the past bleeds through into our present.
Under the name Matsutake, saxophonist Côme Rothé and producer Jérémy Vieille (2/3 of Zerolex Trio) collaborate with French ethnologists and the Echo System concert hall to create a book-record around the theme "Making materials sing".
The album 1538 dresses this project with an immersive and cinematic jazz, tinged with ambient and experimental music.
The organic and metallic sounds come into harmony with a rare sensitivity to illustrate this study on objects and their history.
Sampled by Jay-Z and Dr Dre, Italian band Calibro 35 announces the release of the new album NOUVELLES AVENTURES. The album will be available abroad on limited edition Crystal Clear vinyl next June 30th via Record Kicks.
Italian cult cinematic combo Calibro 35 are back with their new studio album NOUVELLES AVENTURES. The new album will be available abroad on a limited edition Crystal Clear Gatefold LP on June 30th, distributed worldwide via Record Kicks. The crystal clear vinyl edition is a Record Kicks exclusive and is limited to 1000 copies, which makes it an instant collector's item.
After last year's Scacco Al Maestro, the 2 tribute-albums dedicated to "il maestro" Ennio Morricone, followed by the "Calibro 35 plays Morricone" tour and the releasing of the ost of TV drama series Blanca, Calibro 35 are back with NOUVELLES AVENTURES, a new studio album of original material. NOUVELLES AVENTURES was recorded in Naples at Auditorium Novecento, the former Phonotype Records, one of the most legendary and fascinating Italian recording studios. The new LP sees the group making full use of their knowledge and resources, refined and enriched over the years, back to making "Calibro's music": a unique mix of funk, progressive rock, alternative jazz and wide-spectrum cinematic music the public has known them for in fifteen years of career.
"After a couple of intense and stimulating years playing Morricone and writing music for the TV drama Blanca", Calibro 35 said, "we had a great desire to make new inspired music. To do so, we left home and we shut ourselves up in the splendid space-time capsule that is the Auditorium Novecento studio. The result is a series of musical voyages in which we concentrated all our artistic and human experiences. As in Verne's imaginary and extraordinary journeys, we explored distant places where we had never been before. We then happened to return to more familiar shores and discover them with new eyes without realizing it. We borrowed the title NOUVELLES AVENTURES from György Ligeti, precisely because after fifteen years of building ourselves, we are ready for new adventures".
NOUVELLES AVENTURES was anticipated by the first extract "EXTRAORDINAIRE", an almost 6-minute song that once again confirms the band's aptitude for the exploration of unpredictable sound territories: a music that, on one hand sounds liquid and abstract, while on the other, it cuts through the psychedelic mists, with a complex architecture.
Described by Rolling Stone as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that has happened to Italy in the past few years", Milan-based Calibro 35 enjoy a worldwide reputation as one of the coolest independent bands around. Active since 2007, during their long career they were sampled by Dr. Dre on Compton ("One Shot One Kill" feat. Snoop Dogg), Jay Z ("Picasso Baby"), The Child of Lov & Damon Albarn ("One Day") and Demigodz ("The Summer Of Sam"). They played major venues and festivals all over Europe and as unique musicians they collaborated with, amongst others: PJ Harvey, Mike Patton, John Parish, Stewart Copeland and Rokia Traoré.
Returning to Lisbon’s Light Channel Recordings, DJ Silver mines the rich seam of techno’s late-century flourishing into diverse forms – from stern 4/4 to reflective electro to gorgeous, cinematic ambient. ‘P World’ takes (and merits) the whole A-side: what starts as an unadorned piano solo unfurls into a mélange of sunburnt synth washes and hazy arpeggios, as if Detroit Escalator Co. went to the beach for a day. On the B, ‘Cell’ takes us on a nostalgic flight through Incunabula-era electro, here with a remarkable melodic lead line, while ‘Future Domination’ sheds the introspection and drops us straight into the ritual pressure of a packed techno floor. It’s a timely reminder that, even during a time of confinement, music can transport us to far-flung places.
Over three years after the release of his latest record, Belgian singer-songwriter Bram Vanparys finally returns with breathtaking new music. His songwriting has often drawn comparisons to the music of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, but the new record 'Silent Days' reveals that Vanparys has been on a journey into new musical territory.
After 'Wild Flowers' (2015), which he recorded in Los Angeles with Ray LaMontagne's former live band, Bram Vanparys kept his guitars locked away in their cases for months. Too many questions had been bothering him and soon he found himself struggling with his musical direction and his artistic integrity. Partly so because he felt that his almost archaic approach on songwriting was pushing him down a dead end street and partly because his interest in rich and complex arrangements started to grow stronger. In 2016 he bought an old trailer and went living in the countryside to work on his new sound. A harsh winter and a tragic breakup with his wife set the mood for a new set of songs and soon Vanparys started recording again.
'Silent Days' comprises both classic songwriting reminiscent of the old masters such as Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan and on the other hand dark, complex arrangements that refer to late Talk Talk and even Radiohead. Guitars were played with kitchen knives and the heavily manipulated acoustic sounds reveal that Vanparys might have been listening to Kurt Vile. Bram's lyrics are deeply honest, touching, but never sentimental and his once so angelic voice now sounds hoarse and mature.
The Bony King of Nowhere is the pseudonym of Belgian singer-songwriter Bram Vanparys. He released his debut album 'Alas my love' to critical acclaim in 2009, which was followed by his second and most celebrated album 'Eleonore' in 2011. In the aftermath of 'Eleonore' he was asked to write the film score for the movie 'Les Géants', for which he was awarded by Les Magritte du Cinéma for best original soundtrack.
Hatıralar was Anadol's second album, originally composed between Berlin and Istanbul around 2012 and released years later only in digital form on the Istanbul based label Inverted Spectrum. The title Hatıralar ("Memories") turns out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Anadol recalled and revisited the music in 2023, gently editing and mixing the compositions for the newly mastered LP format in which they now see the light of day. Hatıralar represents an early version of the melodic, instrumental synth-pop that Anadol refined on her album Uzun Havalar (2019) before exploring the more free, krautrock-inspired musique concrète of her last album Felicita (2021). Here is the text that accompanied the original 2017 release:
Anadol, named after an old-fashioned Turkish automobile brand, is an instrumental synth-pop project by Gözen Atila, an artist, dj and keyboard player. She records with mini organs manufactured during the 70s and 80s, the built-in rhythms and arpeggios of these machines provide the backbone of her sound, and her melodies are influenced by pop music and soundtracks from France, Italy and Turkey from the same period. The music is awash with allusions to the moods of old Turkish and European cinema, from the erotic to the melodramatic, and with a reminiscence of the sound and spirit of so-called "tavern music" popular in Turkey's urban nightlife in the 1980s, a flexible pop style usually performed by a solo keyboardist-singer. Anadol is a continuation of the tradition of lone synth experimentalists like Bruce Haack and The Space Lady with their childlike curiosity for electronic sounds, and of the keyboardists pushing the boundaries of minimal equipment to entertain middle aged drunk couples in pubs and wedding parties of Istanbul.
We are proud to present the Mr Bongo pressing of Guilherme Coutinho E O Grupo Stalo's self-titled mythical album. Blending lo-fi, Brazilian tropicalia, jazz, funk and MPB with a unique aroma, this record is pure perfection.
It was originally released in 1978 on Erla - Estudio Rauland, an obscure record label from Belém in Brazil, that only released 7” singles, with this album being one of two exceptions. During the 1970s, Belém had a thriving nightclub scene, but it is thousands of miles away from the music industry hubs of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, making this record insanely difficult to find, even in Brazil. Added to the scarcity factor is the magical nature of the recording, which has naturally resulted in a hefty price tag to match. Original copies have become a prized, collector’s item.
The elusive Brazilian band leader and keyboard player, Guilherme Coutinho is a true cult artist. He passed away in 1983, at the age of just 41, and during his career he only seems to have appeared on a handful of marvellous records, which makes them all the more special. This album feels individualistic and distinctive from other albums of the day. Listening back to vocalist Elinho’s (aka Hélio Rubens de Oliveira) delivery, it sounds not too dissimilar to some of Belle & Sebastian’s songs. ‘Guilherme Coutinho E O Grupo Stalo’ is rich in charm, quirky and playful. It feels cinematic, soothing and benefits from being heard in its entirety. A proper album experience.
Tapping into the seductive unease of the unexplained, Modula lands on Tartelet Archives with Paranormal Phenomena – The Icelandic Expedition, a nine-track album that evokes alien synth- electro and New Age soundscapes.
During a trip to Iceland in February 2020, Naples native Filippo Colonna Romano (Modula) experienced the raw power of the island’s otherworldly natural forces. Inspired by his field recordings and a rekindled interest in sci-fi, Paranormal Phenomena – The Icelandic Expedition was born. Steeped in haunting LA synthesis and cinematic tension, the album is an imagined soundtrack to a supernatural thriller, cast in the icy tones of the Roland JD-800.
“When I went to Iceland I was so excited about the ambience and sounds,” says Modula. “I felt everything was stronger than normal; the wind was brutal, the waves fast and noisy. I came to the conclusion that what I had captured all sounded strangely eerie and otherworldly. I decided to compose music that had the same vibe as the field recordings – cold and strange, mysterious and alien.”
The album includes nine tracks each representing a scene in the “movie” ranging from alien synth-electro to New Age ambient moods and soundscapes, inviting the listener on a journey through cold landscapes and into dark caves where unknown creatures lurk in the shadows. Paranormal Phenomena leads logically on from Modula’s previous work for Bordello A Parigi and Firecracker, not to mention his Alba – Tempesta – Notturno EP on Tartelet Records which drew on field recordings from the jungles of South America. Merging extreme environments with a rich palette of classic outboard gear, Modula’s music transports listeners through space and time. Given the heavy motion-picture theme present in Paranormal Phenomena – The Icelandic Expedition, the album is a fitting release to inaugurate Tartelet Archives, a new sub-label to Tartelet Records focusing on electronic obscurities and sounds from the past.
yet is a slippery word in English. Amorphous, these three letters in dierent contexts can define contrast or emphasis, set a place in time, show an expectation that something will occur or, paradoxically, that it is likely to stop.
It is this mercurial nature that makes yet the perfect title for Tresor’s latest compilation: the label follows on from the more explorative sections of 2021’s landmark Tresor 30 boxed set with a compilation, featuring 13 artists making music that resists easy definition.
Every track hints at and borrows from the familiar yet none follow the expected path: halfway through Deserto, Nandele & A-Tweed dramatically reveal a very dierent sonic landscape that was initially suggested; DJ Sotofett collaborates with Sri Lankan artist Kavadi with results that are unlike anything in the Norwegian producer’s catalogue as yet.
Further invention can be found as Jean Redondo’s Hypersonic moves across spaces inhabited by digital hardcore and hyperpop before swerving o-road and into a futuristic hip-hop section; on No Longer Human, Ireen Amnes takes a dierent path at the crossroads melding hyperpop, trance, and sci-fi soundtrack atmospherics, Significant Other heads towards UK Bass and Dubstep, and France’s Willis Anne skims by the outskirts of footwork with a piece that is almost completely uncategorisable.
Yet more sonic experimentation comes from E-Saggila, Nadia Struiwigh, NVST, Solid Blake, and Viikatory who oer unique takes on the well-established electro blueprint, while Ryan James Ford, and Nit. both find ways to blend elements normally found in ambient pieces with those heard on a dancefloor.
The feel of the compilation is yet again reflected in the enigmatic artwork by Malik Arbab, where shapes and colours suggest animals and plants but in a world that appears to be transient and constantly evolving.
Futuristic electronics by Niels Luinenburg (Delta Funktionen) under his new guise Immediate Proximity - in collab with Diana Napirelly. Ambient, Bass, Electro and Techno are the main identifiers for their output. Deep and emotive is the mood, but at the same time the music is playful and has a robust and confident character. This distinct direction, which was laid-out on the pair's debut LP '2334', has now led to the start of their own label: IMPROX - on which they'll release a series of EPs. On IMPROX, the duo experiments vivaciously with color, rhythm, space and tempo. Hi-tech, yet tribalistic rhythms are interlaced with elusive sci-fi themes. Big stage anthems are comfortably combined with cinematic ambient excursions. And through self engineered audio-gen modules, backed by a stark focus on sound design, the IMPROX series marks a powerful upgrade to Luinenburg's production capabilities.
Dune Castle Records Presents… For Private Use Only by Cantrips, two heaving psychedelic funk pieces composed by Cantrips' Patrick Ryan and recorded over one day by a studio band including members of Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo.
Cantrips is a Melbourne psychedelic funk and cinematic soul group led by multi instrumentalist and studio producer Patrick Ryan. With heavy groove sensibilities, Ryan composes head nodding psychedelic funk music from the Dune Castle Throne Room, a DIY studio in Thornbury, Melbourne, from where he operates the label Dune Castle Records. Ryan composed two tracks in homage to David Axelrod's work with Psychedelic Pop band The Electric Prunes in the late 1960s. Ryan performed these pieces with members of Surprise Chef, with Henry Jenkins (Karate Boogaloo, Surprise Chef, Emma Donovan and The Putbacks) producing the two pieces.
This release follows a psychedelic funk LP composed by Ryan under Dune Castle named Dark Age Martial Arts. A self released record; it was nominated for the Australian Music Prize 2022. It received airplay and support from Radio DJs around Australia on stations such as PBS, RRR and FBI, as well as featuring on radio shows across England, Scotland and France. It also received considerable support from record stores in Australia and the UK.
Angelo is an LP, named after a car, featuring nine songs Brijean have crafted and carried with them through a period of profound change, loss, and relocation. It finds percussionist/singer Brijean Murphy and multi-instrumentalist/producer Doug Stuart processing the impossible the only way they know how: through rhythm and movement. The months surrounding the acclaimed release of Feelings, their full-length Ghostly International debut in 2021 which celebrated tender self-reflection and new possibilities, rang bittersweet with the absence of touring and the sudden passing of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents. In a haze of heartache, the duo left the
Bay Area to be near family, resetting in four cities in under two years. Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and these tracks, along with Angelo, became their few constants. Whereas Feelings formed over collaborative jams with friends, Angelo’s sessions presented Murphy and Stuart a chance to record at their most intimate, “to get us out of our grief and into our bodies,” says Murphy. They explored new moods and styles, reaching for effervescent dance tempos and technicolor backdrops, vibrant hues in contrast to their more somber human experiences. Angelo beams with positivity and creative renewal — a resourceful, collective answer to “what happens now?”
Angelo the car is a 1981 Toyota Celica they got off Craigslist during their first stint in Los Angeles, where Murphy and Stuart have since settled. “Such a bro-y, ‘80s dude car, it’s been super fun to drive around in a new town,” Murphy says. “He’s older than us, he’s a classic, he’s got a story.” It is a spiritual vehicle with a cinematic appeal, first dropping them off in an alleyway for the scene-setting intro, “Which Way To The Club.” The question is quickly resolved by “Take A Trip” as a cruising bassline mingles with crowd sounds, hand-claps, cuíca hiccups, whip-cracks, even a horse neigh. Brijean have found some club on this cross-dimensional trip — the kind of
imagined space or chamber within one’s self capable of “shifting a fraction of who you are,” says Murphy. They wrote the track with the simple intention to be “as free as we could be,” adds Stuart, likening the flip on the B section to a realm unlocked: ”What if the world changed completely? You open the door to a new room.”
Next is “Shy Guy,” a motivational anthem for the wallflowers among us. Murphy sets up the daydream: “We are in junior high, we’re on the dance floor, what’s going down, who is dancing, who is not, how are we gonna make them dance?” The narrator, the MC, hypes up the room as conga-driven rhythms bounce between languid synth and guitar lines. “Show me how to move...I feel something...I know you feel it too,” Murphy sings sweetly, calling back to the opening lines of Feelings, and this time the audience chants it back. It is easy to picture Brijean performing this one — something they only got to do a handful of times until more recently, opening shows for Khruangbin and Washed Out, an experience they found informative. Murphy explains, “It was inspiring to be out there and let loose more. To see how people can expand their expression on stage gave me more liberty with how I viewed my musicianship. My role for so long was to be a backup percussionist, so why would I ever leave the drums, you know? But then after playing all these runs, you see these artists and realize you can, you have permission.”
“Angelo” and “Ooo La La” deliver the danciest stretch in Brijean’s catalog to date. The title track adopts a deep house pulse replete with strings, hi-hats, and kicks. The latter opts for a funkier groove that foregoes verses in favor of warbled hums and extended breakdowns. What follows is perhaps the duo’s dreamiest run, a comedown initiated with the honey-hued interlude “Colors” drifting into “Where Do We Go?”, a tropicália reverie where Murphy contemplates the passage of time and space.
It all culminates in “Caldwell’s Way,” a fond farewell to their Bay Area community — “a part of my life that I knew couldn’t come back,” says Murphy. Above shimmering organ sounds, lush strings, and the birdcall of their former neighborhood, she wistfully articulates the uncertainty of moving on by remembering the characters dear to them. There’s the wisdom of their neighbor, Santos, who refused payment when helping them move out: “I’d rather have 100 friends than 100 dollars.” And the song’s namesake, Benjamin Caldwell Brown, a friend and club night cohort for many years. “I’m only miles away, maybe I’m just feeling lonely,” the line resigns to warm nostalgia, and “Nostalgia” runs the closing credits to this healing and transportive collection.
Psycho 2000 - A dark but funky theme that begins with an occulting Italian echo-oscillator drone that is soon followed by pulsating bass and breakbeat drums, leads to tremolo guitars, an ostinato on electric mandolas, strings climbing eloquent ladders, otherworldly electronics, and a cinematic finale.
An evocation of a parade of wooden nutcracker soldiers elaborately dressed in gold-trimmed black uniforms down a wide avenue decorated with mardi gras beads and animal skulls upon golden cobblestones toward a tornado spiralling out purple-hued glissandos and curlicues of elephant smoke.
White Spiritual - Head nod action, the twinkling of a late 60’s Vox Continental II with sickly transistors, the noodling matrix of an intergalactic telephone exchange carried on a bed of bouncy bass with a firm backbeat.
The Johnny Guitar Watson-esque bite and sting of a ‘67 Teisco guitar preludes slabs of unison dark brown moog and organ giving way to the dance of fingers over the black naturals and white sharps of the Continental II.
The batteries are charged again! After an adequate summer break the Fortunea Records crew continues its mission to bring out extraordinary compositions with a brand-new EP by Moff & Tarkin.
The Icelander is currently living in Vienna and presents on this record his multi-variant taste in music. Poems of Soy starts with the cinematic opener ‚Sting’. Playful arpeggio synths dive headfirst into an hypnotic shuffle beat which is companied with siren-seeming vocals from the distance. The follow up ‚Love or Something‘ takes that groove and expands it with more pressure and a snappy baseline.
The B-side starts with an acid injected rave bomb called ‚Dating on LinkedIn‘. A track of sublime quality featuring 909 driven beats merged with acid bass lines. And with ‚Great Tan‘ M&T takes us back to the glory days of the big beat movement.
Elements. is back with its third release signed by Crihan. 'Recurring Figures' finds Alin right in his element, showcasing three purely minimal tracks rich in detail and deeply engrossing textures reminiscent of the golden ages of (organic) minimal circa 2010.
A-side's 'Periodic Arrangement' kickstarts the EP in distinctive, contemplative tones. Drum samples meticulously syncopated amongst a canopy of modulated noises, bass bleeps and dramatic piano chords - they keep the groove moving amidst cinematic soundscapes reminiscent of dark fantasy scenarios.
Flip-side's 'Regular Intervals' (B1) moves closer to micro-house realms. There's plenty of swing and playful sampling while maintaining the same cinematic deepness introduced before. 'Again & Again' (B2) sits perfectly as the EP's closing track, merging swingy, dance-focused drum arrangements with dramatic atmospheres and picturesque tones.
Stunning big band music from Finnish composer Kerkko Koskinen with saxophonist Linda Fredriksson and UMO Helsinki Jazz Orchestra. "Agatha 2" is an album that continues the saga from "Agatha", released in 2007. Koskinen composes highly dynamic, emotive and expressive music for Finland's premiere jazz orchestra UMO. Linda Fredriksson (lately present due to their very successful album "Juniper" on We Jazz Records) shines as the soloist, who understands Koskinen's vision in its entire potential. This is cinematic, moody music for of the large canvas. The album also marks the first new release for Helsinki's Ricky-Tick Records (in collaboration with We Jazz Records and Grotto Editions) for over a decade.
Native to Sweden, the Manchester based artist Bobo has set out to free himself from the terrestrial bonds of earth and explore the ephemeral sounds of the outer atmosphere.
Leaning into this stylistic predisposition, Contact takes characteristic elements from the worlds of dubstep, ambient, breaks, electro and techno to create bold, cinematic textures and otherworldly imagery.
Featuring music from a lost tape of devotional keyboard jams, field recordings of migrating birds, mysterious bells, meditative noise and crooked new beat/EBM, made god-knows-when and subsequently discovered in a Thessaloniki charity shop years later. It now somehow finds its way to vinyl, newly mastered by Rashad Becker, and sounding like a lost Hype Williams x Muslimgauze madness.
Originally discovered in a musty charity shop by Live Adult Entertainment, and issued in minuscule numbers on CD in ’21, Christian Love Forum’s raverential debut ‘Naked Light’ documents the fraternal post-church jams of siblings, Scott, Kiro and N•X, plus their mate Steve, who would regularly channel the light and pain of Sunday mass sermons into their ecclesiastic crud.
As previously heard on their blink ’n miss ‘Unconditional Love’ tape, the trio express their higher purpose thru ribboning microtonal keyboard jams that sound like Gurdjieff with a Casio and a knackered drum machine after too much sacramental wine. They hit the strangest, most affective seam of religious cinematic epic soundtracks, gnarled noise and clandestine Belgian new beat that seriously pushes our buttons, sounding quite unlike anything in the contemporary sphere, but eerily also echoing sentiments explored on record by James Leyland Kirby or Bryn Jones.
Now reshuffled and clad in custom artwork, ‘Naked Light’ is unveiled to believers and skeptics as a definitive article of faith. The lord works in mysterious ways within, manifest in stages of sun-bleached post-church field recordings, whirligig melodies, blown-out bouzouki and choral tape howls and a Béla Tarr soundtrack-like campanology on the A-side, before letting their passions flow in ‘Wicked City (Parts I-IV)’; a spellbinding side-long collage of slurred synths, neo-noir hardbeat rhythms and speaking-in-tongues vox recalling V/Vm’s new beat apocrypha as much as bits from Hype Williams’ hypnagogic ‘One Nation’, thee dustiest gooches of Dirk Desaever’s archive, or even aspects of Rat Heart at his cruddiest.
‘Naked Light’ rarely fails to induce uncontrolled eye movement in susceptible skulls, destined to become an occult hit with lapsed churchgoers, new beat fiends and anyone missing the enigma and ineffable flavour of ‘00s underground noise tapes in this auspicious year of AD2023.
International Chrome continues its Data Planet cassette series with a cinematic long-player by The Thousand Order, a collective comprising Detroit's Francois Dillinger with British producers Cyphon and Obzerv.
A darker offering than standard International Chrome releases, The Thousand Order follows classic sci-fi themes of assimilation and networked hive minds across ten tracks of upfront electro.
Last year the Atlanta artist releaed her debut EP Swan, made with producer Marshall Vore who is known for his work with folk dynamo Phoebe Bridgers. The five song col¬lection found a supportive home with Royal Mountain Re¬cords, and drew remarkable acclaim for a debut EP, earning praise from outlets like NPR, FADER, Nylon, Paste, Under The Radar, Coup De Main and Line of Best Fit among many others.
When I’m Alone is the debut album from Girlpuppy. Across the record, Harvey weaves in several cinematic allusions: a Keanu Reeves look alike pops up in “Teenage Dream,” named for the alternate title of an ‘80s movie he stars in;
A release that doesn't bow to genre conventions, deeply emotional at its core. Sometimes cinematic, often infectious, and always loosening limbs on the dance floor. This is Man Power music.
Geoff Kirkwood's first vinyl release of 2023 comes courtesy of Helsinki's Echocentric Records. Kirkwood is just as comfortable writing and presenting experimental symphonies, ambient hauntology, and audio-visual orchestral performances as Bed Wetter or delivering raucous kinetic techno as MPX. For everything in between, he is Man Power
Wax Tailor announces the release of his new album "Fishing For Accidents" on February 10th, 2023, accompanied by a new international tour.
"The starting point of this record is a quote from the film director Orson Welles, which evokes the notion of accident in the creative process. I always thought that accidents were an integral part of creation and the job of a film or music director is also to know how to capture them in order to make the accident an artistic intention. I decided not to follow a well established concept but this more instinctive guideline and to go fishing for accidents".
In this new opus, Wax Tailor explores with his sampler a world of vinyls and cinematographic references, brandishing as a flag a stamped musical culture and multiplying references to the 7th art in a music written in 33 rpm and 24 images seconds. After the dark "The Shadow Of Their Suns" released in 2021, Wax Tailor takes us with "Fishing For Accidents", on a brighter and more colorful side without ever betraying his universe and his convictions.
A multi-recidivist talent scout, he gathers around him a prestigious cast ranging from hip hop (Mick Jenkins, Mr. Lif, Kuf Knotz, Lojii, Napoleon Da Legend, Ill Conscious, Voice Monet, David Bars, Mattic) to the indie rock scene (Jennifer Charles, singer of the legendary band Elysian Fields and Victoria Bigelow).
With one eye on the past and the other on the horizon, Wax Tailor instills the incandescence of an organic sound and distills his art of sound anachronism in a wide gap between nostalgia and modernity that has made him one of the leaders of the international electro hip hop scene for over 20 years.
Utter presents the extraordinary audio-visual project 'SuperEverything*' by multi-media artists The Light Surgeons.
'SuperEverything*' is a live cinema performance piece that explores identity, ritual and place in relation to Malaysia’s past, present and future. Commissioned by The British Council in 2011, it was created in collaboration with a group of Malaysian audio and visual artists. Over the past decade, the project has toured to various film and new media arts festivals internationally.
'SuperEverything*' is a fusion of music, field recordings, documentary filmmaking and real-time moving image manipulation that together transports its audiences through a series of universal narratives; exploring themes of tradition and modernity, globalisation and development, race and national identity, to consumer culture and belief.
'SuperEverything*' surveys our human condition to reveal what unites and divides us. It weaves together a rich kaleidoscope of stories, sounds, images and smells live on stage. It is a truly immersive, cross disciplinary performative artwork that reflects on how our complex identities are formed through ritual in relation to our rapidly evolving physical and psychological environments.
'SuperEverything*' poses many questions about how people form a sense of identity in a world increasingly dominated by information networks and fast changing social and economic landscapes.
This limited edition vinyl and digital album features the nine original tracks that make up the musical score to this groundbreaking live cinema project, fusing traditional South East Asian instruments with field recordings, electronica and western classical string instruments.
Accompanying the record is a 24 page full colour booklet and double-sided poster, housed in a gatefold sleeve. The booklet contains quotes from the narrative interviewees whose voices are interwoven throughout the performance. These quotes accompany images from the production and performances to help illustrate the musical journey and allow you to contemplate the themes and ideas explored in this work. The poster design features a collection of filmstrips taken from the video material in the show with a single striking album image photo on the reverse.
The release is also accompanied by a previously unavailable film of the full live cinema performance recorded at Hackney Empire in collaboration with The Barbican in 2013.
Charlotte de Witte, without doubt one of Belgium's fastest rising talents in the techno circuit, and known from two strong EP's on Tiga's Turbo label, makes her debut on OFF.
The EP starts off with 'Trip', aptly name due to its cinematic sound design and arrangement. Charlotte's trademark use of vocals ooze character, and haunting synths complemented by a laidback but steady drum-foundation are the ingredients of this track.
Sweden's Techno-legend Cari Lekebusch delivers the first remix, a functional and linear interpretation, which is sure to be heard on festival dancefloors during the late summer.
TWR72 of Amsterdam, themselves very much what you would call a 'current breakthrough act', are responsible for remix number two, a contemporary interpretation based on syncopated rhythms.
The EP is completed with 'Repeat', a reduced drum-tool built around a repetitive vocal hook.
Altogether a strong statement of a promising young artist and another proof of the ongoing evolution of OFF Recordings.
Ava Max is ready to take her already extraordinary rise to the pinnacle of pop success to even greater heights with her first new single of 2022, “Maybe You’re The Problem,” and her upcoming album DIAMONDS AND DANCEFLOORS. With over 11B worldwide streams, an array of smash collaborations, and multiple RIAA gold and platinum certifications in the US alone, the first-generation Albanian American artist has fast proven a true pop superstar, hailed for her seismic voice, idiosyncratic high fashion mindset, and undeniable knack for cinematic, theatrical popcraft. 2018 saw Max make her explosive arrival with the blockbuster success of the RIAA 3x-platinum certified hit, “Sweet but Psycho.” Currently boasting more than 3.5B global streams, the track took the world by storm, spending three weeks in the top 10 on Billboard’s “Hot 100” while reaching #1 in more than 20 countries around the world and earning diamond certification in Brazil, France, Poland, as well as multi-platinum certification in Australia (5x), Austria (3x), Belgium (2x), Canada (6x), Denmark (3x), Germany (2x), Italy (3x), the Netherlands (2x), New Zealand, Norway (9x), Portugal (2x), Spain, Switzerland (4x), and the United Kingdom (3x). Joined by an official video that has now garnered over 770M views, “Sweet But Psycho” further earned Max a long string of international honors, including the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards’ coveted “Best Push Artist” award, “Best New Artist” nominations at both the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards and the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards, and an iHeartRadio Titanium Award marking over 1B spins in 2020 alone.
Max kept up the pace with a series of smash singles, including the RIAA gold certified “So Am I,” “Salt,” and “My Head & My Heart,” as well as the platinum certified title track to her acclaimed full-length debut, Heaven & Hell. The RIAA gold certified album made spectacular chart debuts around the globe, earning over 11B worldwide streams and gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications in over a dozen countries. 2021 saw Max unveil “EveryTime I Cry,” declared by PAPER as “an undeniably uplifting banger.” What’s more, Tiësto & Ava Max’s worldwide hit anthem, “The Motto,” has proven an undeniable international blockbuster since its November 2021 release, reaching the top 5 on Billboard’s “Dance/Electronic Songs” chart while earning close to 500M worldwide streams thus far.
Named to Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list in 2021, Ava has been feted with a wide range of media attention from such high profile outlets as VOGUE, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Billboard, PAPER, to name but a few, while also delivering a long run of show-stopping performances on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden, NBC’s TODAY, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Good Morning America, and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2020, the MTV Europe Video Music Awards, and more. A truly international artist, Max has teamed up with a stunning assortment of diverse musicians around the world, spanning Norwegian DJ/producer Alan Walker and Spanish superstar Pablo Alborán to David Guetta, Jason Derulo, AJ Mitchell (for the RIAA gold certified “Slow Dance”), and country stars Thomas Rhett & Kane Brown (the RIAA gold certified “On Me”). Now, on “Maybe You’re The Problem” – and more exhilarating new music to come – Ava Max is poised to push pop even further, setting a direct course toward the top and beyond with her newly announced upcoming album DIAMONDS AND DANCEFLOORS, out January 27th2023.
Franco Esse is the moniker of Francesco Semproni, who in the late 60s began working as a music and recording assistant in major recording studios in Rome, Italy. He started out at Dirmaphone (then located in Via Pola) under sound engineer Gianni Fornari, before following him to the Emmequattro studios in Viale Mazzini, which at the time were the headquarters of Edipan, the record label founded by composer and conductor Bruno Nicolai after parting ways with friend and fellow composer Ennio Morricone.
Semproni tried to become a singer-songwriter in the early 80s, when he recorded a number of demos with the session musicians who gravitated around the studios. None of these demos was ever released though, for reasons that are still unclear today – his thorny and stubborn personality may have been a factor, since it apparently made him reluctant to compromise with the major record labels of the time.
The unsuccessful efforts to launch his solo artist career led to a personal crisis, and Franco Esse eventually quit music to go to work as a sales assistant in a toyshop in Rome's Prati neighbourhood.
Today he seems to have vanished without a trace, but after extensive research, we managed to dig some of his demos out of an abandoned archive and miraculously bring back to life two semi-instrumental tracks he recorded in 1983.
Both of them reveal Franco Esse as a refined musician with a reserved personality, an almost minimalist approach to lyric-writing, and a strongly cinematic synth-pop style that is in line with the musical trends of the time and gives a nod to the soundtracks of Fabio Liberatori, falling somewhere in between slow-wave and new-romantic.
These two ballads would have been the perfect soundtrack to cold winter nights in the early 80s, with snowflakes floating down on ski slopes, people clad in puffy down jackets, and music pouring into headphones from walkmans kept in back jean pockets.
After successful releases on Transatlantic and Monnom Black, German FM synthesis wizard Luca Daniel Schwarz (aka LDS) presents his latest record ‘algo5’. The EP captures a wide range of sonic ground with innovative and futuristic edge.
’nbdfoil’ the opening track starts the voyage with mesmerising awe before sliding into ‘kizzt_VF’ where reality distorts and mind-warping events unfold. Closing out the A side the interlude ‘<13’ stumbles along with playful weirdness and explorative sonic gestures. Back in more familiar territory the B-side’s ‘fl+’ and ‘Vone’ propel dynamic rhythms through the ether until arriving at the final track, ‘mfäg’ where fragmented arps and cinematic ambience give an emotional sense of closure.
LDS’s ability to compose to a high level of depth and intrigue is unmistakably a significant feat for any electronic dance music producer and testament to the possibilities of modern sound design.
Following their iconic remix of ‘Space Date’ in 2019, the classic collaborative work of Adam Beyer, Layton Giordani and Green Velvet, we are thrilled to have Pleasurekraft back on Drumcode for their debut solo release on the label.
Not keen to colour within the lines, the production duo caught Adam Beyer’s ear as they carved out their self-dubbed ‘cosmic techno’ niche within the techno genre. Conceived as a musical vision that attempts to go beyond mere hands-in-the-air moments, Pleasurekraft incorporate a cinematic soundscape as a canvas for philosophical themes regarding humanity's place within the cosmos. Their 2020 album, ‘Love in the Age of Machines’ explored the myriad and often dystopian relationships we have with the ubiquitous technologies that pervade our every interaction.
The new two-tracker ‘Sex and the Machine’, continues this thematic trajectory in considering the role machines will increasingly play in satisfying the more carnal desires of our species. The title track considers questions such as, will machines of the future have the capacity for thoughts and feelings? Will our answers to such questions be forever tainted by our singular perspective, unable and unwilling to grant future silicon entities such capabilities? The EP’s second track, ‘Body Horror’, with its repeating refrain, “You are changing”, considers the manner in which future technologies will continue to merge with biological entities giving rise to all manner of unimagined consequences. Both tracks showcase the tough, yet still melody-driven cosmic techno sound Pleasurekraft has become synonymous with. However, despite the cerebral content that inspired the music – the form is still pure dance floor muscle.
After a long hiatus, Rotate is back for its 8th release. "Inner Space EP" by the duo Abé & Lowris as Labello is a three-track 12-inch with a strong focus on psychedelic sounds, warped vocals, hypnotic synths and finely-tuned drum programming.
Like yin and yang, both tracks on the A-side of the EP display exquisitely opposed tones crafted for distinct dancefloor moments. The bright, funky and appropriately named 'Goodtimes' stands very different from the dark, cinematic and thrilling 'Invisible Red'. Still, ensembled, they serve as a statement on the raw potential of sonic hypnotization, where shuffling grooves, wacky melodies and cinematic atmospheres work together to set the dancer's minds into a seemingly perpetual state of flow. B-side's extended cut 'Pkaila' is one of the deepest arrangements here, reminiscent of the golden age of techno minimalism where dancefloors needed little more than a rolling groove, shuffling drums and impeccable sound design slapping from its sound systems.
Bandcamp buyers also get "FCT", an exclusive downloadable bonus 18-minute jam that further showcases Labello's explorational side, rounding off "Inner Space" in a delightfully varied manner.
Four Flies Records is proud to present its brand new imprint Edizioni Della Notte, which expands the label's musical range. The sound of Edizioni Della Notte is a sound of twilight atmospheres and moonlit nights, traversing genres from disco-funk to soft rock, jazz-fusion and city pop. It's the music that creeps out of smoky nightclubs and car cassette radios, breaking the silence of empty streets and offering an escape from metropolitan reality into cosmic-exotic dreamlands.
Quite fittingly, the first official release on Edizioni Della Notte is called By Night. It's the debut EP of Scerida, a solo project of musician and singer-songwriter Daniela Resconi, and a perfect match for the sound that the new imprint intends to represent.
Its four tracks explore the idea of night as a time of ecstasy and torment, as a land of freedom and imagination but also of delusion, as an accomplice, a friend and an enemy described through feelings and mental states that range from expectation and euphoria to disillusionment and resignation.
Resconi, who hails from Brescia, northern Italy, formerly released music under the moniker Cara and as part of the duo The Loud Vice. Her new alias Scerida, which combines the French term chérie with the Spanish word querida, signals both a revolution and an evolution. "Scerida is a dive into the exotic side of my imagination, into mischevious thoughts, into a crazy night where I lost and found myself again," she explains. "She is still me, Daniela, but she keeps her eyes wide open on this restless, troubled world to write songs that try to ward off the horror vacui of everyday life."
By Night celebrates the dark hours as magical and mesmerizing, even when mysterious or dangerous. It evokes images and scenarios cinematically – a taxi passing by and fading into the distance, ice-cold Martinis during a party, whirlwinds of emotion, psychedelic sunrises and neon sunsets – through a stream of consciousness filled with noir-inflected pop, lo-fi vibes, slow hypnotic rhythms, suspended grooves and swelling atmospheres.
Oliver Johnson alias Dorian Concept veröffentlicht am 28. Oktober 2022 sein neues Album, „What We Do For Others“, auf Brainfeeder. Es ist das dritte Studioalbum des österreichischen Produzenten und Synthesizer-Experten, der für seine einzigartigen, wunderschön detaillierten Klangteppiche und wilden, gar euphorisierenden Live-Keyboard-Jam-Videos bekannt ist.
„What We Do For Others“ ist ein entspanntes, ruhiges, selbstbewusstes und intimes Album, das auf herrlich lockeren Arrangements und rückgekoppelten Klanglandschaften basiert und mit Fetzen seines eigenen verfremdeten Gesangs unterlegt ist, der eher als zusätzliche Instrumentierung denn als lyrische Phrasen präsentiert wird. Alle Elemente und Schichten wurden ohne Unterbrechungen aufgenommen und absichtlich nicht bearbeitet. „Ich glaube, deshalb hat diese Platte so etwas wie einen ‚Bandsound‘.“, erklärt Johnson. „Ich spiele alle Arten von Tasteninstrumenten, singe und benutze Effektgeräte, um diese freien Kompositionen zu schaffen.“ Der in Wien lebende Johnson ist ein fester Bestandteil der experimentellen Jazz-/ Elektronik-Szene, die im Umfeld von Brainfeeders Aushängeschild Flying Lotus floriert und sich diversifiziert hat. Mit frühen Veröffentlichungen auf dem Kindred Spirits-Label Nod Navigators und Affine Records spielte Johnson bei den ersten internationalen Label-Nächten von Brainfeeder im Jahr 2009 (Off-Sónar in Barcelona und die berüchtigte Hearn Street Car Park-Session in London) und bildete eine starke familiäre Bindung mit der Brainfeeder-Crew, die auf der gemeinsamen Liebe zu freaky Elektronik-Jazz-Fusion beruht. Johnson war an der Produktion von Thundercats „The Golden Age Of Apocalypse“ beteiligt, spielte die Tasten auf Flying Lotus' bahnbrechendem Album, „Cosmogramma“, und tourte mit den Live-Bands von FlyLo und The Cinematic Orchestra. Außerdem steuerte er die Tasten auf MF DOOMs „Lunchbreak“ bei, das von FlyLo und Thundercat produziert wurde. Kürzlich arbeitete er mit Kenny Beats an dessen Debütalbum, „Louie“, zusammen, wobei er bei drei Stücken die Tasten beisteuerte, und tat sich mit einem weiteren Pionier zukunftsorientierter Elektronik - Mark Pritchard - zusammen, um Musik für Damien Jalets zeitgenössische Tanzperformance, „Kites“, an der Göteborger Oper zu komponieren. Im Jahr 2020 arbeitete Oliver mit einem der weltweit führenden Ensembles für zeitgenössische Musik zusammen, dem Klangforum Wien, und komponierte ein Stück namens „Hyperopia“, das beim TRANSART Festival in Österreich aufgeführt wurde. Johnson veröffentlichte sein Debütalbum, „Joined Ends“, 2014 auf Ninja Tune, bevor er 2018 auf Brainfeeder landete, um „The Nature Of Imitation“ zu veröffentlichen: ein Album mit schwindelerregenden Partituren, kakophonischen Breakdowns und formidablen Rhythmen, von denen Pitchfork schwärmte: „Dorian Concept schafft etwas, das Elektro-Funk-Autoren der 70er und 80er Jahre wie Kraftwerk, George Clinton und Roger Troutman angedeutet haben: Computermusik, die den Funk unverhohlen imitiert, anstatt ihn nur zu faken.“.
Initially released in 2006, ‘Revep’ is the third collaboration album between Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto and the third installment of V.I.R.U.S.’s five albums series.
Remastered in 2021 in collaboration with Calyx Studio, the album’s recordings are accompanied by three new compositions titled ‘City Radieuse’, ‘Veru 1’, and ‘Veru 2’.
‘City Radieuse’ was composed for the 2012 short cinematic essay titled ‘Cité Radieuse’ and part of Carsten Nicolai’s ‘future past perfect’ series.
The video shot at le Corbusier’s Unité D’Habitation in Nantes (called ‘cité radieuse’) takes the viewer through the modular system and design applied to the residential buildings. The film’s narrative unfolds
through a sequence of images tracking the apartments’ indoor space and details, and points to the different benchmarks of standardized production as they correlate to their environment and its inhabitants.
The album’s original recordings resulted from musical exchanges that began with ‘Vrioon’ and revolved around a collaborative arrangement of Sakamoto’s classic ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence,’ the theme music
to the 1983 movie starring David Bowie, Takeshi Kitano, and Ryuichi Sakamoto himself.
In ‘Revep,’ the piano takes the lead while the padded bass and pitched electronic frequencies mark sudden change. Deeply evocative and effortlessly colliding worlds of analog beauty and digital mastery,
this album is considered another indispensable record from the duo’s ongoing collaboration.
Group Modular is celebrating 10 years of cinematic space age funk with a new double-sider on Delights.
The new 45 is a follow-up to the duo's highly-acclaimed second full-length "Time Masters" and sees Markey Funk and Mule Driver exploring and expanding their sonic palette even further. The result is two drum-heavy cuts, that take their inspiration from the synth-driven sci-fi/horror sound of Goblin, John Carpenter and the late great Vangelis: the sinister and spiky "Per Aspera" ("Through Hardships") on side A and spacy and dramatic "Ad Astra" ("To the Stars") - on the flip.
All comes together to present the 3rd release on La Rama Records. Nahash provides five pieces of varied influence for a cohesive effect, downtempo dance steppers to cinematic breaks for raw human motion.
After releases on Shanghai’s SVBKVLT and Lyon’s POLAAR, Nahash goes local with brick and mortar operation La Rama. Working with New Jack samples and obscure orchestral Jazz, ‘Stockpiling’ is Nahash in a dance floor style, providing discerning DeeJays a tune for every moment of the night.
In his foundational essay on Los Angeles, L.A. Glows, the essayist Lawrence Weschler speaks on the city's uncanny, immediately recognizable light; "The late-afternoon light of Los Angeles—golden pink off the bay through the smog and onto the palm fronds." Weschler traces the city's mysterious refracted light from the iconic paintings of David Hockney through the city's frequent portrayal on film and TV, noting its ability to put residents into a state of "egoless bliss."
Similarly, Alex Ho's new album for Music From Memory, 'Move Through It', radiates with the unmistakable LA glow. While the Pasadena native's studio work is just now coming to light, Ho has long been a fixture in the Los Angeles dance music scene, throwing what are perhaps the city's most musically expansive warehouse events and carving out a singular voice as a DJ, as heard on his brilliant Moony Habits show for NTS. The eight-track record, however, lands in a more contemplative zone, better suited for a golden hour drive than a night out.
Though it's his first record, 'Move Through It' is the accomplished work of a fully-formed artist, produced patiently between 2017 and 2020 with help from friends including Baba Stiltz, Phil Cho, Damon Palermo and John Jones. "Mark," the Koanic track conclusion side A, is an arpeggiated slow burn reminiscent of Pino Donaggio's brilliant score for Brian De Palma's 1984 film Body Double. Ho's stunning, pure falsetto soars above gentle melodies. "Miss Suzuki," the piece that originally caught the ear of MFM's Jamie Tiller and Tako, opens the record with a blue, cinematic sway. Ho's facility for poignant melodies—easily conveyed through saxophone, vibes, various keyboards and his own voice—shines on "College Crest Drive," as well as the title track. The lyrical "Move Through It" and the restrained and beautiful closing cut, "TYFC," are abetted by glimmering Kraut guitar figures courtesy of John Jones.
While Ho's rhythms and melodies paint a crystal-clear musical vision, the music's emotional centre is more elusive, indicative of a yearning feeling synonymous with the City Of Angels. Hitting these hazy and subtle notes, Move Through It falls within a canon of sun-addled records spanning from Herb Alpert's "Rotation" to Dam-Funk's Private Life trilogy as Garrett. An immersive and concise statement, Alex Ho's 'Move Through It' is as warm and uncanny as the city that inspired it, a definitive LA album.
Piano, synthesizer enthusiast, composer, and arranger, Eric Borders aka Captain Supernova, makes first release under new moniker, E. Lundquist. Pushing the boundaries of funk fusion, it’s as much 70s library music, as it is Pink Floyd and The Flaming Lips at times. It often feels as if the planet is going to unfold.
Borders, born and raised on the westside of Los Angeles, is known for his cinematic and cosmic compositions that push jazz into a different time and space. ‘Multiple Images’, the debut release as E. Lundquist, is the composer's first attempt at making a Library Style record. A genre that lends itself well to the Sci-Fi and Jazz Fusion vibes that Borders has been known for in the past. The music often plays as if it is the soundtrack to something happening both simultaneously in and out of this universe.
“As we finished the record it sort of evolved from a library piece into a full fledged album with a mix of different inspirations from blaxploitation, 70s funk, soundtrack, themes, cinematic, and contemporary jazz-funk. It only felt right to break away from the fictional character and give this music a composer name as if you read it on the back of a KPM record. Then E. Lundquist was born.”
The new name pays homage to old family bloodlines, and is the last name of his biological grandfather. While Eric Borders was his given name, Borders has no actual blood relation to his family, it was the name his father had adopted from his Step-grandfather. The name of the album “Multiple Images” is an ode to one of Lundquist’s favorite Library tracks by Brian Bennett “Images”.
After an excursion through deeply introspective sonic lands, Subtil is back to their usual club-oriented business, introducing Romanian artist Leanca for a two-track EP of minimal-leaning yet distinct moods.
The A-Side "Bra Manika" is a straight-to-the-point albeit hypnotizing dancefloor tune where the groove is king. Its leading hook revolves around a wonky bassline and a handful of quirky synth stabs, coupled with a trippy vocal sample that creates the perfect atmosphere for dancing hypnotism. The B-Side "I Know You", which carries the name of the EP, explores a much darker and experimental vibe while retaining the same rolling groove from the flipside of the EP. Synth noises are replaced by authentic sampled sounds, programmed in detail, giving it an almost cinematic touch.
The mysterious trio Pandilla LTD provide the first release on Ozy, a new sub-label run by Miguel Melo from Lisbon’s Carpet & Snares family. Never ones to tread the easiest path, Pandilla show off their full range of moods and tempos on this 4-tracker, opening with the jazzy and glitchy breaks of vignette ‘Beat Untitled’. This leads into ‘aWARe’, a downtempo epic of cinematic ambience and released tension that contrasts with the more dancefloor-ready cuts on the B. With its patient dubby tick-tock, ‘Mind Trick’ feels like a long-lost Basic Channel side-project, while the more extrovert ‘Trying To Go’ closes things in style with a shimmy and a shake.
We welcome back our good friend Karotte with his first release on Break New Soil in over a decade! „XTC“ is pure Karotte dancefloor fire - weird, powerful and beautiful! On remix duties, we are psyched to have our good friend Jeroen Verhej aka Secret Cinema, who really needs no introduction to techno heads around the planet, and he delivered exactly what we've been hoping for: A relentless big-room Techno rework - boom! The second original track by Karotte is called „Drive“, and it's on the deeper side of things, yet not less intriguing at all. Welcome back home, Peter!
Kerri Chandler returns to his own Kaoz Theory label with ‘Prayer’, featuring the vocals of F L Brown, and in true Chandler fashion comprised of a variety of mixes on the single
Over the past twenty releases Kaoz Theory has showcased material from the likes of Ben Rau, Satoshi Tomiie, DJ Sneak, DJ W!ld, Art Department and DJ Deep as well as of course material from the label-boss himself, Kerri Chandler.
Here the latter deliver his latest single, entitled ‘Prayer’ and as the name would suggest channelling gospel house influence in varying forms.
The ‘Media Mix’ leads the way over choppy bass stabs, cinematic piano lines and shuffled 909 drums. Followed by the instrumental for those who like to get the heads down, and just groove.
The ‘623 Again Vocal Mix’ on the flip, shifts things into Dub Techno realms courtesy of a bumpy, driving rhythm, unfaltering stabs and robust low-end tones.
To wrap things up the ‘Feel Mix’ follows next, stripping things back to crunchy drums, airy chords and a snaking bass groove.
After several years of silence, Schema Records co-founder Luciano Cantone in collaboration with Gianluca Petrella and a new group of musicians, present The Invisible Session's second album "Echoes of Africa" on the newborn Space Echo label. This new chapter is borne out of afrobeat, Africa 70's records and Tony Allen's drumming; furthermore, other influences come into play, with melodiescentred on Eastern pentatonic scales, as well as funk, afrobeat, psychedelia, modal and Ethio jazz, plus forays into pop and cinematica. Ancestral melodies intersect and weave, encouraging escape and deeper feelings. Conceptually, "Echoes of Africa" deals with pacifism, human rights, anti-racism, nature and ecological themes. This is an album to be absorbed in its entirety – have a good listening!
Special Request continues his impeccable run of form with a typically fervent entry into the DJ-Kicks mix series. His adventurous 25 track mix takes in personal favourites, new school classics and of course a selection of his own brand new and exclusive edits, dubs and reworks next to some overlooked gems. Leeds based Paul Woolford dares to go where few others do. He can do face-melting underground bangers, peak time piano anthems, ambient cinematics or chart climbing crossover hits. What unites his work as Special Request across labels like Houndstooth and R&S, though, is precision engineering, but never at the expense of real, raw emotion and visceral impact. He is an artist who very much pours his heart into everything he does, and has been on such a prolific run in recent years that it has been impossible to keep abreast of all his many projects. Even in this mix, he hints at yet more new sides and sounds. As always with Special Request, this is an emotional, full spirited ride through the musical mind of one of the most accomplished artists of the day.
Informed by a highly influential early 1980s electronic music classic, the title track literally mind-sets the theme of Llewellyn’s latest release, kicking off with a euphoric vibe and drums shimmering with digital artifacts. At times almost dreamy cinematic pads, upfront with energetic Moroder-esque propelling bass lines, are the sound signatures of Llewellyn’s journey through a warm and synthesizer laden EP, reviving the sound aesthetics of both the post-discoid VHS and today’s club era with a contemporary touch. Finishing off with a laid-back facet, this four track EP contains enough warmth and drive to get you safely through the cold months, into a warm and promising future.
Llewellyn is one of Martin Enke’s producer’s monikers, who is closely associated with the Riotvan crew and also known as Lake People. Past releases can be found on labels like Riotvan, Uncanny Valley, Permanent Vacation, Mule Musiq and others.
The sublime songs comprising Los Angeles-based musician Ana Roxanne's second release, Because Of A Flower, germinated gradually across five years, inspired by interwoven notions of gender identity, beauty, and cruelty. She describes her process as beginning with “a drone element and a mood,” then intuiting melody, syllables, and lyrics incrementally, like sacred shapes materializing from mist.
The experience of identifying as intersex informs the album on levels both sonic and thematic, from spoken word texts borrowed from tonal harmony textbooks to cinematic dialogue samples and castrati aria allusions. It's an appropriately interstitial vision of ambient songcraft, a chemistry of wisps and whispers, sanctuary and sorrow, conjured through a fragile balance of voice, bass, space, and texture.
Despite a background studying at the prestigious Mills College in Oakland, Roxanne's music rarely feels conceptual, instead radiating an immediate and emotive aura, rooted in the present tense of her personal journey. She speaks of the flower in the title as a body, singular and sunlit, as many petals as thorns, an enigma beholden only to itself. But whether taken as surface or subtext, Because is a transfixing document of a rare artist in the spring of their ascension.
Wu Hen is the sophomore album from Peckham visionary Kamaal Williams -- an invitation to elevate to a higher state Cinematic strings from Miguel-Atwood Ferguson and virtuoso saxophone from Quinn Mason are textural additions that make for a deeper, multi-layered experience than previous releases.
Bringing groove back to the forefront, Wu Hen oscillates between celestial jazz, funk, rap and r&b reinforced with the rugged beat-heavy attitude of grime, jungle, house and garage - a self-styled fusion Kamaal describes as Wu Funk.
New players on this record include LA’s Greg Paul on drums (of Kalayst Collective), Rick Leon James on bass, Quinn Mason on saxophone alongside vocal features from cult rapper Mach-Hommy and Kaytranada collaborator Lauren Faith. Multi-talented renaissance musician Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (who has worked with Ray Charles, Flying Lotus, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, and Seu Jorge) contributes signature strings, which add vivid colour and rich depth, evoking vintage David Axelrod.
Kamaal rose to prominence with the hugely acclaimed Yussef Kamaal alongside drummer Yussef Dayes and a catalogue of 12”s for imprints such as MCDE, Eglo, and Rhythm Section as Henry Wu that became essential DJ tools. In 2018 he launched Black Focus Records with the Kamaal Williams debut The Return, which charted in the UK and saw sold out shows and festival appearances across Europe, North America and Asia.
Straight out the gate, Nas dropped a classic. Since the release of the seminal ‘Illmatic’ album in 1994, critics and fans have been wondering if Nas peaked too early and if anything in his subsequent catalogue could be held up against this masterpiece. To be fair, it’s hard to follow up something this flawless, a project that allied his most insightful, pitch-perfect heartfelt rhymes with the work of the best hip-hop producers on the east coast.
DJ Premier, Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest and Large Professor all take their turns on the album, along with the unsung L.E.S., but it’s Pete Rock in his prime who provides the stunning backdrop for the cinematic ‘The World is Yours’. It’s a perfect nugget of a single, weaving in the brashness of Scarface, the repetition of a snatch of T La Rock’s early Def Jam gem ‘It’s Yours’ and piano courtesy of Ahmad Jamal’s ‘I Love Music’ from his own timeless ‘The Awakening’ album (1970).
Presented for the first time on 7”, the vocals of the album version and the instrumental on the flip provide the perfect opportunity to enjoy and compare the work of two masters at the top of their game. Pete Rock’s seamless weaving of disparate samples into a compelling whole, the then little-known Nas’ statement of intent. With a maturity beyond his tender years, Nas put himself straight at the top of the pile, this Queensbridge chronicle hinting at the ambition and greatness he harboured within himself.
Phil is welcoming us with a repress of three collectors item tracks by Klovn - the studio partners of Trentemoller & one half of the most successful Danish electronic live act 'Lulu Rouge'.
'Cover Up' is a tough club track which drifts to a subtle, 'less is more' principle, where PF blends the organic sounds into the dreamy electronics but yet qualifies as a very functional opening anthem.
Melvins Beats rounds the release off with it's cinematic & shoe-gaze approach. Yet another, meticulously composed repress from this label with an idealist character, a must have.
Magical cinematic jams from ION LUDWIG and multi-instrumentalist TWAN SALLAERTS.
A mysterious and peaceful sounding, beautifully vibrating LP.
It presents compassionately played and carefully recorded electroacoustic-ambience pieces.
Part of the Meander Horizon Pi Series.
'World' is the debut album dreamt up by Barcelona based DJ / Production duo Memorial Home. Comprising of Paul Roux (France) and Jeremy Pinchasi (Belgium), 'World' is the exciting result of their shared desire to push the limits of their own brilliant musical foresight. It's an ambitious 20 track longplayer which effortlessly showcases the incomparable sonic space shared between both musical masterminds.
Sitting somewhere just to the left of Nicolas Jaar, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Mike Dehnert and Ostgut Ton, Memorial Home has managed to craft an album absolutely unique to their sound, impossible to categorise and sure to catch the attention of music lovers of all shapes and sizes. Techno without a dancefloor, experimental electronica fit for the warehouse raves. It's an exciting, perfectly confusing album which simply works wonderfully.
Heavily textured in incredible atmospherics, dub effects and crisp, clear percussion, 'World' spreads over an excellent array of individual tracks full of groundbreaking musical magic. Incorporating a stunning fusion of live instrumentation and electronic craftsmanship, 'World' is an audio adventure into emotive soundscapes, with a clear focus on the subtle saturation of melancholy. It's a soundtrack for a dystopian film yet to be written. A sonic painting for the coming winter months where the trees are all but dead and frozen; and the ground a thick layer of glowing white snow.
Memorial Home are the founders of the independent label Rapid Eye Movement, which has seen a breadth of incredible EPs riding the balance between experimental Techno and introspective electronica. They first met by random chance in their newly adopted home of Barcelona, Spain. This unexpected encounter quickly developed into a full-fledged musical kinship through their shared interest in crafting cinematic, experimental techno music. Each release from the label and duo showcase their clear passion to unearthing sounds beyond the expected. With their debut LP about to drop, the future is looking certain for the duo, the label, and the changing face of modern day electronic music.
Australia's Nightime Drama welcome Steven Tang and label associate Trinity for a new collaborative EP that comes with two originals and remixes by Basic Soul Unit and Daniela La Luz.
Tang has long been serving up space age techno sounds on his own Obsolete Music Technology and the likes of Smallville, and Trinity is a DJ, live act and producer from Sydney who plays key clubs around Europe and releases on Counter Pulse and Coincidence as well as this one.
Innermost Search opens the EP with supple and rubbery drums carrying you off into the cosmos as spaced out pads bring real scale and emotional depth. It's a cinematic house track with vivid imagery. Then comes a remix from Dekmantel's Toronto mainstay Basic Soul Unit that is much more busy and robust. A wide lead synth line sprays about above drums which are much bigger and heavier. It's prime warehouse material to get people marching.
Tang & Trinity's Adrifting Voyage then slips back into a deep, cerebral house groove with oodles of reverb and dubby chords cut though by icy hi hats and transcendental pads. Last of all, Berlin's Daniela a La Luz (who has released on the likes of Cocoon and !K7) remixes this one into a lively, nimble house track with curious melodic riffs and tough drums appealing to both head and heel. It rounds out a fresh and powerful EP of futuristic house music.
Solkyss are back with a four track blender. On the A side are two thumping tracks from the Stockholm based duo Subdued Camel - one rolling deep and one soaring airily. On the B-side we find Solkyss regulars with two tracks that differ in character. Lonely Shark is an afterglow tune with a driving beat set under an experimental soundscape. From Ensam comes another sun struck, funky piece with that signature cinematic dreaminess he showcased on his debut EP Eee.
For the second release on Alex Bradley's Utopia Records we see the return of London based producer Dominic Jacobson aka 'Modaji'. Dominic's initial Modaji and Harvey Lindo releases garnered acclaim from luminaries such as Francois Kevorkian, Derrick May and Gilles Peterson and after 10 years away from releasing to concentrate on composing music for film and television, Jacobson returns to the studio to delve further into his deep house and ambient soundscapes.
The first of two EP's, Belle Epoque touches on a more cinematic approach to production and showcases a warmer, more expanded sound.The aim is to create music that is as listenable during the dusky twilight hours as it is at sunrise. The rest we leave to your imagination and trust you will enjoy our offering.
For release #5, Resista welcome another new face to the family; ex-Detroit resident and seasoned techno producer North Lake, who delivers two tracks that are quite a departure from the label's recent output. Starting life as a cacophony of string chords, 'Journey To The Centre of the Sun' gradually appears from this hazy mist, slowly picking up pace and blossoming into a cinematic, house-not-house epic and gently working its way around repeated 'to the centre' chants.
On the flip 'Insomnia' is the complete antithesis to it's a-side counterpart from the off. Opting for a dancefloor friendly tempo, North Lake crafts a moody and bass-heavy symphony of organic loops, subtle percussive samples, that will pull you in for the entire six and a half minutes.
the iconic project returns late September with its milestone 10th studio album, ‘I Wrote You A Letter’.
Twenty-five years after his debut, M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) stands as a genuinely era-defining electronic act, renowned for pushing indie-electronic into the mainstream while maintaining absolute critical credibility. With a massive catalog compounding billions of streams—anchored by the timeless “MIDNIGHT CITY” (1.5B streams)—the iconic project returns late September with its milestone 10th studio album, I WROTE YOU A LETTER’.
Recorded between Los Angeles and Paris alongside BENOIT DE VILLENEUVE, this new record follows the highly acclaimed ‘FANTASY’ (2023) and features striking artwork by celebrated Australian photographer BILL HENSON. This release marks a historic chapter, encapsulating a quarter-century of sonic evolution.
Commercially, M83’s power lies in an unmatched ability to transcend generations. Synonymous with cinematic emotion, nostalgia, and immense scale, M83’s sound is virtually a genre of its own, heavily sought after for film, TV, and sync. Live, the act holds top-tier global status, proven by headlining slots at major festivals like Coachella, Glastonbury, and Primavera.
‘I WROTE YOU A LETTER’ delivers exactly what M83 does best: big emotional scale, breathtaking cinematic atmospheres, and sharp hooks, all pushed into a fresh, modern palette.
Fünfundzwanzig Jahre nach seinem Debüt gilt M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) als ein wahrhaft epochaler Elektro-Künstler, der dafür bekannt ist, Indie-Elektro in den Mainstream zu bringen. Mit einem riesigen Repertoire, das Milliarden von Streams umfasst – angeführt von dem zeitlosen „MIDNIGHT CITY“ (1,5 Milliarden Streams) – kehrt das ikonische Projekt Ende September mit seinem wegweisenden zehnten Studioalbum „I WROTE YOU A LETTER“ zurück.
Das neue Album, das gemeinsam mit BENOIT DE VILLENEUVE in Los Angeles und Paris aufgenommen wurde, knüpft an das hochgelobte „FANTASY“ (2023) an und besticht durch ein eindrucksvolles Cover des gefeierten australischen Fotografen BILL HENSON.
Diese Veröffentlichung markiert ein historisches Kapitel und fasst ein Vierteljahrhundert klanglicher Entwicklung zusammen.
Kommerziell liegt die Stärke von M83 in der unübertroffenen Fähigkeit, Generationen zu verbinden.
Als Synonym für filmische Emotionen, Nostalgie und immense Größe ist der Sound von M83 praktisch ein eigenes Genre, das für Film, Fernsehen und Synchronisation sehr gefragt ist.
Live genießt die Band weltweit Spitzenstatus, was durch Headliner-Auftritte bei großen Festivals wie Coachella, Glastonbury und Primavera unter Beweis gestellt wird.
„I WROTE YOU A LETTER“ liefert genau das, was M83 am besten kann: große emotionale Bandbreite, atemberaubende filmische Atmosphären und eingängige Hooks, alles verpackt in einer
frischen, modernen Klangpalette.
Rome, late afternoon, 1974. The light comes in over the colossal hills, the way it only does for an hour before the city forgives itself for the day's noise. Axefield is on an urgent quest to create cinema in the form of sound as a romantic alternative to disposable tools. He is looking for a sound so effortless he is not sure it can truly exist, but only be felt - somewhere between a film score, a heartbeat and a late night dinner at his favourite trattoria.
Ostuni Bound, NOW! is the debut album from Amsterdam-based electronic artist and composer Axefield, bringing club-heavy bass music together with the drama and romance of 70s Italian cinema. The narrative and emotions within the record stem from a romantic setting in Southern Italy that unexpectedly turned violent, forcing Axefield to flee the city after receiving the death threat "non provocare morte".
At its heart is the belief that romanticising life can lead us towards deeper human meaning, offering a different route from the hyper-capitalist pursuit of efficiency that increasingly shapes how we live and create. Throughout the album, Axefield worked through three characters representing innocence, control and destruction, using each as a framework for decisions in production, composition and mixing.
The album features Amsterdam-based rising UKG talent DANN and Johannesburg-based Kamohelo, frontman of Swedish electronic group Off The Meds. It's all starting to feel like cinematic time travel in which beauty is reintroduced in the realm of contemporary dance.
Released on Intercept alongside a beautifully crafted vinyl edition, Ostuni Bound, NOW! feels like the soundtrack to a film that was never shot. Somewhere behind him, a projector he cannot see begins to turn, playing a film for an audience that has not arrived yet.
As they arrive, he is the one who ultimately presses play.
And just like that, Ostuni Bound, NOW! Begins where Rome has always begun: beyond function and beauty and all that lingers in between.
Woxow's The Tape Reset Vol. 2 is out now on Little Beat More!
Composed during the same sessions that gave life to The Tape Reset Vol. 1 in 2021, Woxow’s The Tape Reset Vol. 2 emerges only now, five years later. A second chapter that remained quietly on the shelf, completing the sonic path opened by the first volume and revealing another side of the same creative moment.
The EP is largely built around organic samples, arranged with a restrained and precise approach. Subtle instrumental appearances shape the atmosphere along the way. A vibraphone introduces the opening moments, setting a cinematic tone that gradually unfolds through layered textures and steady beats, while the record closes with a clarinet solo, a final gesture that echoes the instrumental heard in the intro of the first volume, subtly bringing the journey full circle.
Essential and evocative, The Tape Reset Vol. 2 expands the universe of the project while preserving its core language: beats, samples, and carefully placed instrumental voices moving together in a quiet, cinematic flow.
Woxow's The Tape Reset Vol. 2 is out now on Little Beat More!
Composed during the same sessions that gave life to The Tape Reset Vol. 1 in 2021, Woxow’s The Tape Reset Vol. 2 emerges only now, five years later. A second chapter that remained quietly on the shelf, completing the sonic path opened by the first volume and revealing another side of the same creative moment.
The EP is largely built around organic samples, arranged with a restrained and precise approach. Subtle instrumental appearances shape the atmosphere along the way. A vibraphone introduces the opening moments, setting a cinematic tone that gradually unfolds through layered textures and steady beats, while the record closes with a clarinet solo, a final gesture that echoes the instrumental heard in the intro of the first volume, subtly bringing the journey full circle.
Essential and evocative, The Tape Reset Vol. 2 expands the universe of the project while preserving its core language: beats, samples, and carefully placed instrumental voices moving together in a quiet, cinematic flow.
We are celebrating 25 years since the release of Jaga Jazzists “A Livingroom Hush” with a reissue in 140g orange vinyl as a 2LP!
Originally released in Norway in 2001, with Ninja Tune coming on board to release it internationally the following year, Jaga Jazzist are a true musical one off.
Formed in the mid-Nineties around the nucleus of percussionist Martin Horntveth, his multi-instrumentalist brother Lars (who was 14 at the time), tuba-playing sister Line and an expanding coterie of musicians, they were determined to make a big, joyful sound that knew no boundaries of genre. 'We wanted to have a big, big band, but not one playing big band jazz,' as Lars Horntveth once put it.
Comparisons reached for by the press at the time were as broad - from Talk Talk, Soft Machine, Eric Satie, John Coltrane and Don Cherry to acts like Aphex Twin, Stereolab, Squarepusher and Tortoise. This range summed up the breadth and originality of the group's sound. Combining trumpets, trombone, electric guitar, bass, tuba, two bass clarinets, fender rhodes and vibraphone, and it is the mixture of these instruments with an electronic edge that really made it stand out.
The album is a journey that manages to sound both classic and contemporary and an oasis to anyone interested in music which combines iconoclasm with beauty, melody with avant gardism and, in general, a complete lack of interest in anything other than good music.
Product Specs:
Limited edition 2xLP on 140g orange vinyl in gatefold sleeve.
Diffuse Reality and Periphylla present Catastrofe Club - Un futuro tranquilo. With electric songs, sharp messages, and a touch of dark humor, Catastrofe Club deliver a record that is both caustic and deeply enjoyable. The album imagines a future where humanity has disappeared and, at last, a radiant peace reigns. Across 10 tracks, they combine post-rock, post-punk, darkwave, and electronic textures with cinematic atmospheres, rugged spoken-word vocals, and their signature blend of darkness and elegance.
Brazilian artist Rubel isn’t one to be pigeonholed and typecast into staying in one sound. Casas, the follow-up to his debut album Pearl from 2015, brought a bigger, more epic, and richer production quality to the table. Fusing the worlds of MPB and hip hop, Rubel’s sophomore LP built on the momentum of its predecessor, gaining a Latin-Grammy nomination along the way. Mr Bongo is proud to be giving Casas its first worldwide release on vinyl and CD outside of Brazil and Japan.
The cliché they say is that the second album is always the trickiest; however, Rubel doesn’t seem to have had any problems on Casas. It’s a fountain of creativity and originality, marking an artist in full flow.
Conceived after Rubel spent six months living in Los Angeles, Casas is MPB-leaning at its core but is also driven by a hip hop inspired pulse. There is a clear influence from hip hop’s aesthetic across the 2010s woven subtly but fundamentally throughout. Nods to Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar and Tyler, The Creator can be heard across an album full of playful edge and personality. Luscious string-led arrangements and tracks that explore the rich folkloric rhythms of Brazil, sit next to songs with low-fi drum machines and features from acclaimed Brazilian rappers.
One of the highlights of the album, ‘Mantra’, starts with a traditional Brazilian rhythm that morphs into a hazy hip hop beat. A sublime song with a hooky call and response chorus, it features a guest appearance and verse by the Brazilian MC Emicida. Another highlight is the epic ‘Colégio’ (College) which further showcases the melding of stripped back drum machine beats with cinematic, sweeping arrangements. Elsewhere, ‘Partilhar’ is a swaying, heartwarming hug. A tale of longing and love that has become a singalong fan favourite at Rubel’s concerts.
Casas also shines a light on a string of key players in Brazil’s new vanguard, such as Pedro Fonte, Gus Levy, and Brazilian rapper / poet Rincon Sapiência to name a handful. The record has pop sensibilities yet also feels underground. It beats with the heart of a singer-songwriter, a feeling that was felt so strongly on Pearl, yet this time is bolstered by a level of arrangement and richness of sound that take it to another dimension - soaring horn and string sections elevating the songs from home recording to stadium-ready anthems. Keeping that intrinsic beauty and simplicity of a well-constructed song yet reframing it within a pop context is the true gift of this album.
Casas cemented Rubel’s status as one of Brazil’s leading contemporary talents and a key figure enriching the country’s already effervescent scene.
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Concrete Noir, the project of composer, sound designer, and educator Piero Fragola, returns with Blades of Grass, a new EP released on Italian label Deset, following the acclaimed Romance Ruins.
The record develops Concrete Noir’s atmospheric and cinematic approach to electronic music, combining dense textures, sustained rhythmic tension, and immersive sound design. Side A features “Density,” “Pure,” and “Sleepless Eyes,” while Side B presents two reinterpretations: Legowelt’s electro-driven remix of “Rain On Me,” which emphasizes its synthetic and nocturnal qualities, and Caruan’s dance-floor reworking of “Sleepless Eyes,” preserving its atmospheric character.
Conceptually, Blades of Grass shifts from the themes of transformation and decay explored on Romance Ruins toward resilience—the ability to bend under pressure without losing identity or coherence. The EP reflects Fragola’s broader artistic language, shaped by more than two decades of experience in electronic music, audiovisual arts, sound research, and modular synthesis, including his work as a designer for Tiptop Audio and previous releases on international labels.
"Cinematic Visionaries Calibro 35 and Noir Master James Ellroy Pay Homage to L.A. with a Pure Crime-Funk Original Soundtrack. Out October 9" There are collaborations that feel inevitable like they were waiting to happen in some shadowed corner of culture. The union between Italian cinematic funk visionaries Calibro 35 and internationally acclaimed master of noir fiction and New York Times bestselling author James Ellroy is undoubtedly one of them. When Calibro 35 were invited to compose the original soundtrack for Francesco Zippel's documentary Ellroy vs L.A., they didn't simply write music for film. They stepped directly into Ellroy's universe the most dangerous corners of American crime fiction and discovered, to no one's surprise, that its darkness felt strangely familiar. The result is Ellroy vs L.A., the band's new album out October 9 on Record Kicks. Twelve brand new tracks of cinematic crime funk, psychedelia, and hypnotic groove that don't accompany Ellroy's world so much as inhabit it. The soundtrack's move through Ellroy's fictional and real-world mythologies with deliberate precision. Stylistically, the album finds Calibro 35 in their most natural yet most cinematic state: crime funk, psychedelia, and hypnotic groove pushed into darker, more narrative-driven territory by the weight of Ellroy's world. From the gloomy, suspense-laden groove of the opener Black Dahlia to the evocative closing piece Moonlight Sonative, the album unfolds as a complete cinematic arc, showcasing Calibro 35 at their very best. L.A. Confidential delivers a super-suspenseful, thrilling tension that feels like a chase through neon-lit streets, while Riots erupts into explosive cinematic funk, capturing chaos and urban unrest in full force. LSD on Sunset Boulevard drifts into a hazy, instrumental soul journey psychedelic, warm, and disorienting, like a late-night hallucination of the city itself. The Big Nowhere (Part I & II) expands the narrative into a slow-burning, atmospheric descent, unfolding like a two-act crime saga. Welcome to the Land of Vacation and Probation hits with kick-ass, uptempo crime-funk madness, urgent and relentless in its propulsion, while White Jazz is a mood of suspended, noir-infused jazz tension cool, shadowy, and unresolved. Together, the tracks map Los Angeles as a fractured yet hypnotic landscape suspended between glamour and violence, beauty and decay, myth and reality Born in Milan in 2007 with the mission of excavating the golden age of Italian film music Morricone, Piccioni, Trovajoli, Calibro 35 have spent nearly two decades transforming that initial obsession into a singular artistic language. Their work bridges vintage Italian soundtracks with contemporary jazz and cinematic funk, earning them a global following rare for an Italian instrumental act. Their music has been sampled by Dr. Dre (Compton, "One Shot One Kill" feat. Snoop Dogg), Jay-Z ("Picasso Baby"), and Damon Albarn's The Child of Lov. Rolling Stone described them as "the most fascinating, retro-maniac and genuine thing that has happened to Italy in the past few years," while Far Out Magazine called them "one of the most skilful and innovative instrumental outfits on the planet right now." The band (Enrico Gabrielli, Massimo Martellotta, Fabio Rondanini, and Tommaso Colliva) continue to evolve without losing their core identity. In 2025 they released the critically acclaimed Exploration, further expanding their sonic universe, and were invited to perform at the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games at the Arena di Verona, confirming their growing international stature. With Ellroy vs L.A., Calibro 35 don't just compose a soundtrack they translate a mythology into rhythm, tension, and groove. Between fiction and reality, they find a city that never truly sleeps, only pulses in darkness. Press play, and Los Angeles begins to unfold in sound.
With Lost Lost Lost, Pratt & Moody gather the defining moments of their journey and package it with fresh soul gold into one cohesive, slow- burning statement. What began as a series of cult 7” vinyl releases – often mistaken online for forgotten soul classics from another era – now finds its natural home in album form. Written and recorded with Timmion’s trusted house band Cold Diamond & Mink, the record captures the duo’s unmistakable chemistry: emotionally rich songwriting wrapped in warm, analog textures that blur past and present.
From the velvet sway of “Addictive Touch” to the cinematic tension of “You Bring Me Joy” and the beat ballad ache of “Hard Way To Live,” the album moves effortlessly between bedroom-soul intimacy and widescreen drama. “Hang Tight” opens with a blissful piano figure that nods to gospel-tinged 1970s soul before unfolding into a full-bodied groove, while “Hooked On Your Love” glows with golden-age group soul harmony sweetness. Across both sides, Pratt’s finely tuned vocals and Moody’s expressive guitar work anchor songs that feel timeless rather than nostalgic.
At its core, Lost Lost Lost is an album steeped in atmosphere – lush downtempo moments sit alongside sweet harmony-driven soul, cinematic builds dissolve into dark restrained grooves. Analog string synthesizers, vibraphone accents, tremolo guitar, and deep-pocket rhythms create emotional tension without excess. Pratt & Moody’s strength lies in their melodic instinct: songs that feel big without being pompous or losing their human quality. The result is a record that feels cohesive, immersive, and that real thing – reaffirming the duo as key architects of the contemporary lowrider soul revival.
With Lost Lost Lost, Pratt & Moody gather the defining moments of their journey and package it with fresh soul gold into one cohesive, slow- burning statement. What began as a series of cult 7” vinyl releases – often mistaken online for forgotten soul classics from another era – now finds its natural home in album form. Written and recorded with Timmion’s trusted house band Cold Diamond & Mink, the record captures the duo’s unmistakable chemistry: emotionally rich songwriting wrapped in warm, analog textures that blur past and present.
From the velvet sway of “Addictive Touch” to the cinematic tension of “You Bring Me Joy” and the beat ballad ache of “Hard Way To Live,” the album moves effortlessly between bedroom-soul intimacy and widescreen drama. “Hang Tight” opens with a blissful piano figure that nods to gospel-tinged 1970s soul before unfolding into a full-bodied groove, while “Hooked On Your Love” glows with golden-age group soul harmony sweetness. Across both sides, Pratt’s finely tuned vocals and Moody’s expressive guitar work anchor songs that feel timeless rather than nostalgic.
At its core, Lost Lost Lost is an album steeped in atmosphere – lush downtempo moments sit alongside sweet harmony-driven soul, cinematic builds dissolve into dark restrained grooves. Analog string synthesizers, vibraphone accents, tremolo guitar, and deep-pocket rhythms create emotional tension without excess. Pratt & Moody’s strength lies in their melodic instinct: songs that feel big without being pompous or losing their human quality. The result is a record that feels cohesive, immersive, and that real thing – reaffirming the duo as key architects of the contemporary lowrider soul revival.
"Guitarize the World" lässt die außergewöhnliche Erfolgsgeschichte des genreübergreifenden Gitarrenduos Café del Mundo erstmals auf einem Album erklingen und versammelt einen Querschnitt der mitreißenden Arrangements aus Klassik, Filmmusik und Pop, mit denen Jan Pascal und Alexander Kilian ihr Publikum weltweit bei ihren spektakulären Live-Auftritten begeistern. Aufgenommen in legendären Studios wie Abbey Road und in Zusammenarbeit mit renommierten Ensembles wie dem Royal Philharmonic Orchestra oder dem Deutschen Filmorchester Babelsberg, präsentiert "Guitarize the World" den unverwechselbaren Sound des Duos in mehr als 20 Tracks. Von reduzierten Gitarren-Miniaturen bis hin zu opulenten Orchesterarrangements umfasst das Album eigene Kompositionen wie "Dance of Joy", "Space Gitanos" und "Smile", Adaptionen klassischer Titel wie "Clair de Lune" und "Air on a G-String", Arrangements von Filmmusiktiteln aus "Interstellar", "Cinema Paradiso" oder "Forrest Gump" sowie bombastische Cover von Pop-Hymnen wie "Viva la Vida", "With or Without You" und "Smooth Criminal". Darüber hinaus enthält das Album exklusiv ein Arrangement von Beethovens Klavierkonzert Nr. 5 für zwei Gitarren. Die 180-g-Color-Vinyl-Edition beinhaltet 23 Titel auf 2 Schallplatten in Grün und Pink im hochwertigen Gatefold. Exklusiv in diesem Format enthalten sind die Aufnahmen von "Blessing", "Easy" und "Smooth Criminal". Die limitierte 2-CD-Edition enthält die 20 Titel des Albums sowie als Bonus-CD "80s Unplugged" mit 13 Gitarrenarrangements legendärer Klassiker der 1980er-Jahre, darunter "Everybody Wants to Rule the World", "Time After Time" und "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For".
The title of Ghost Bridge, the East-Coast-spanning chamber ensemble Hour's fifth record, is less metaphorical than one might expect. Bandleader Michael Cormier- O'Leary repurposed it from an unrealized movie concept about a bridge that inexplicably starts disappearing. On the nearly-ten-minute title track of this richly imaginative suite of songs_written for a 13-piece ensemble that includes woodwinds, strings, and vibraphone as well as a rock rhythm section_Hour conjures up this central image with spectral string harmonics and free-time percussion gestures. While writing the keyboard pieces that became the takeoff point for the album, Cormier-O'Leary also found himself reflecting on the loss of loved ones or even his own mortality. The six kaleidoscopic instrumental pieces on Ghost Bridge, though, feel more cosmically inquisitive than straightforwardly elegiac, sketching a progression from existential doubt toward understanding and acceptance. Ghost Bridge forms a contrast with Hour's art-rock-informed, more improvisatory early releases, representing a step further into intricate chamber orchestration. Known for his work with Friendship, Wendy Eisenberg, and 2nd Grade, Phillybased multi-instrumentalist and Dear Life Records founder Cormier-O'Leary has made Hour a home for increasingly cinematic instrumental compositions since the mid-2010s. With dazzling production by Lucas Knapp, Ghost Bridge delivers plenty of the live ensemble's trademarks, especially cyclically developing guitar and keyboard melodies. However, even more than on Hour's last studio album, unconventional harmonies and sophisticated counterpoint take center stage here. These emotionally multifaceted compositions feel as rooted in contemporary classical and film soundtrack music as in indie rock. One of the most striking elements of Ghost Bridge is the more significant developmental role the orchestral instruments assume in each piece. Instead of underscoring Cormier-O'Leary's central hooks, there is a new mesmerizing level of detail to the group's conversational interactions and kinetic energy. "Centralia" is a stately and idiosyncratic fugue built from repeated and overlapping phrases, while Ghost Bridge's compositions are full of unexpected pivots in harmony that allow recurring melodic motifs to sound continually reshaded. On "Pearls," the chords modulate drastically around Cormier-O'Leary's inviting central melody in a way that emulates cuts in a film telling several parallel stories. There is an unsettled quality to the chords on Ghost Bridge, with Cormier- O'Leary's progressions avoiding firm grounding in either clearly sunny or melancholy tonalities. This mood is made more concrete by the record's sole vocal track, the jazz-inflected "Sky is Blue," featuring an uncannily gorgeous performance by Heeyoon Won. The song seems to be a communication from a person who has departed, offering consolation or perspective to someone left behind. Though its sonic palette is often tranquil, Ghost Bridge explores heartbreak, grief, anger, and helplessness in a distinct and pretense-free way. The project represents a bold step forward for Cormier-O'Leary as a composer and arranger, and on Ghost Bridge Hour reaches its most fully realized form to date, connecting soaring themes with an inventiveness that perfectly suits the searching nature of the subject matter.
South Asian super-producers Lapgan and Baalti – the former a Madlib-disciple spinning hip-hop grooves out of dusty desi samples, the latter duo purveyors of intricately tapestried dance music – holed up in the California desert in early 2024 for a songwriting session to blend their complimentary styles. They ended up with several albums worth of club material built upon decades of Indian music history – floor fillers that move like early Four Tet meets The Avalanches. They’ve been teasing this material around the world during live sets – from Paris Fashion Week to Glastonbury, London Clubs to BK Warehouse parties, sessions at Lot Radio and Karachi Community Radio, and anywhere else they find an aux. The result has been endless ID requests for unreleased gems like “Ipa Ma” and “Lime Tikka”, calls which should finally be answered with the release of Threads.
Lapgan Bio
Chicago-based archivist and producer Lapgan has become renowned for his signature style: unearthing rare and forgotten Indian & Pakistani sounds and recontextualizing them into hip-hop and dance beats that evoke J Dilla and Madlib. He has cultivated a reputation for quietly revolutionary sample-work across his beloved solo projects History and Duniya Kya Hai, as well as LAFANDAR, his critically acclaimed team up with Heems (of Das Racist / Swet Shop Boys). He has worked with a range of artists from both the West (Your Old Droog, Saul Williams, Cool Calm Pete, Kool Keith, Open Mike Eagle, Blue, Quelle Chris) and the East (EXCISE DEPT, Baalti, Sid Sriram, Sid Vashi, Dynoman), and has been featured in global media including Pitchfork, FADER, Stereogum, Passion of the Weiss, Mixmag, Homegrown, and Vinyl Me, Please. Over the past year he has headlined clubs and performed at festivals across the world from Chicago and New York to London and India, and was personally invited to soundtrack back to back Paris Fashion Week shows for the similarly norm-shifting designer Kartik Research. In 2026 he will soundtrack his third Kartik Research runway show, as well as reissue Duniya Kya Hai for its five-year anniversary alongside a companion EP featuring remixes from peers and supporters Arushi Jain, Loris, Mera Bhai, Malkfunktion, and Maral.
Baalti Bio
Baalti makes electronic music built around rhythm, pressure, and collective release – weaving through leftfield bass, dusty hip hop, tripped out dub and raw house all while maintaining a throughline rooted in South Asian culture seen through the lens of a sweaty dancefloor. In the last year they have experienced a whirlwind rise and growing global recognition: from their EP Mela vividly evoking West Bengal’s sound system culture to their Tamil-cinema-infused filter-house project with Anish Kumar Stunt Doubles, in addition to wide-ranging collabs and remixes alongside DJ ADHD, Naya Beat, and A.R. RahmanThey have also built a reputation for their frenetic live show, with appearances at international festivals like Glastonbury and MELT, headlining shows across Australia and Europe and supporting influences turned peers like Four Tet and Disclosure across North America. Their explosive, percussion-heavy sets have been platformed by Rinse FM, NTS, The Lot Radio, Beats In Space, and Refuge Worldwide, and their music has been renowned by publications including Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, RA, and MixMag. Their forward momentum continues into 2026 with slated headline tours in India, Australia, and Asia along with appearances at Coachella, Party in the Paddock, Fvded in the Park, and We Out Here festivals.
Nach „Révisé“ kehrt The Offline mit „Les derniers jours de juin / Marées“ zurück – einer neuen, limitierten 7"-Vinyl, inspiriert von einer Reise nach Biarritz an der französischen Baskenküste. Der Hamburger Produzent Felix Müller verbindet auf zwei neuen Stücken Cinematic Soul, Vintage-Library-Musik und moderne Instrumentals mit psychedelischen Surf-Gitarren, tiefen Grooves und nostalgischen Melodien. Mit weltweit über 3.000 verkauften Exemplaren von „La couleur de la mer“ und mehreren ausverkauften Vinyl-Veröffentlichungen hat sich The Offline bereits erfolgreich im internationalen Markt etabliert. Die limitierte 7" führt seinen charakteristischen warmen Analog-Sound konsequent weiter.
On her first Harmony Index album, multi-instrumentalist and producer Nico Leibman spotlights the feelings that are most difficult to express, bringing out the friction between her dreamy hooks and harsher sonics. Written almost like a DJ set, the album shifts intentionally between piano-led trip-hop, lounge, dream pop, 2-step and breakbeat house, not languishing in nostalgia but defining a language that's rooted in desire, surrender and forward motion.
Until now, Leibman has been best known as a touring musician, working alongside artists like Jessica Pratt and Ana Roxanne, while slowly putting together new solo material in-between frequent tours. The album was written in bursts over the course of five long years and provided Leibman with a much-needed outlet - a chance for her to lock into her personal musical preoccupations, like Janet Jackson's 'The Velvet Rope', Everything but the Girl's 'Walking Wounded' and Prefab Sprout's 'Jordan: The Comeback'.
It's this era of pop - when nascent technology collided at force with skillful, soulful songwriting - that provides the album's backbone, fleshed out by Leibman's potent meditations on a spectrum of experiences in Los Angeles. And as the record was evolving, Leibman let long night drives crack her creative world open. Embracing the city's notoriously cinematic romantic side, she used the car as a "little chamber of limerence," in her own words, enabling her fantasies and acting as a test system for each song. "If it wasn't hitting in the car," she says. "It wasn't going to be on the record, period."
This sense of motion is evident almost immediately on 'Recognize', when Leibman's breathy words are carried into the night by choppy, uptempo breaks and resonant pads. So even when she simply coos over chugging guitars and bass on the first half of 'Enough', the drop into a low-slung breakbeat is implied. "Another digression, a break in this tension," she sings. "Was I foolish to believe that this was never your intention?" Leibman's tales of disillusionment are imbued with power, buoyed by her pitch-perfect production, with additional help from co-producer Cesar Maria.
On 'Don't Pretend', she sings softly and soulfully over decelerated Timbaland-inspired beats and a dubwise bassline, aided by additional production from Purelink. And 'If' marks the point where she lets go, infusing her euphoria with melancholy as her voice soars alongside the album's most infectious piano riff. Fittingly, the album concludes with 'Trust', a song about surrendering to the possibilities of love that works as a potent metaphor for the album's evolution. Over the course of five years, Leibman learned to let people in, finally trusting the process. "It's also a fantasy of what it would feel like to finally be in love again," she laughs, accepting that it's still just a fantasy. But it's this hope in unfulfilled longing that gives the album its unique character, defining a bold, unguarded voice in LA's experimental pop landscape.
Pleasurewood return with 'Electric Telepathy', their second full-length LP offering Simla Space Funk, Psych-Library and Vintage-Cinematic Raga-Rock grooves.
This new offering from the band embraces more of their vintage Hindi Cinema soundtrack influences — "Chump Change", "The Hoverfly" and "RAMMM" could easily fit into the middle of an R.D. Burman score, each with their incongruous synthesis of different genres, infectious percussion, classical modes and funk chops.
There is also a slight sweep across a too-slow-to-disco tempo and feel with the moody Johnny Guitar Watson-esque slow burn of "Good Falcon" up to the nonchalant four-to-the-floor of "Last Dance Saloon" with its lyrical warning of digital over-saturation in our social-media saturated world and a foreboding of the mini-monoliths sat in the palms of our hands that in a Kubrickian way threaten to cosmically absorb us all as a species into their individual jet-black abysses.
And then, coming into focus like a sweet slice of disjointed, lo-fi, 8 bit space disco, "Mojave Desert" is a slacker-strut with telephone vocals dub guitars, dry cosmic synths and futurist Farfisa organ driven by an almost Acid-Jazz meets Post-Punk Bass line. The song is autobiographical in its account of an excursion along the 29 Palms Highway reflecting on an escape from the City of Angels not so far away, up into the stark psychedelic desert realm.
There is a lot to unpack in this record and yet more to discover so it will be best to allocate 40 minutes in a comfortable dimly-lit room with eyes closed and maybe a cognac in hand, to have a deep-dive into its well-travelled and esoterically funky grooves.
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Italian producer Stefano Tirone aka S-Tone Inc. and Brazilian singer-songwriter Toco join forces for DONA DIVA / FUNKY GAFIEIRA, an exciting two-track project celebrating the golden era of Brazilian soul-funk from the 1970s. Released by Schema Records, the project will be available digitally and on limited 7-inch vinyl from 26th June 2026.
DONA DIVA, released as a stand-alone digital single in May, is built around Tirone’s infectious bass lines and guitar work; it pays tribute to the golden era of the late ’70s and early ’80s Brazilian funk and soul music, and to Rio de Janeiro’s vibrant spirit party scene. This record’s B-side FUNKY GAFIEIRA dives even deeper into the duo’s rich tropical groove, a lush, cinematic journey straight into the heart of Rio — evoking smoky dancefloors, tropical nights and the timeless spirit of Brazilian dance parties.
Both tracks benefit from Tirone’s warm production and feature Toco’s silky melodies, the captivating vocal colours of Priscila Ribas and special contributions from trombonist Gianluca Petrella, creating a warm groove-laden atmosphere where retro flavour blends with contemporary production, creating a sound that feels both timeless and fresh.
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Belgian artist Jennifur announces MAZDA, an album inspired by long car rides, emotional transitions, and the strange beauty of existing between places, people, and versions of yourself.
Musically, MAZDA moves fluidly between genres and emotional textures, blending electronic love songs, indie rock structures, UK bass influences, cinematic electronica, and flashes of classical composition.
The project began when Jennifur's brother sent him a playlist called MAZDA, filled with songs their father used to play in the car. What started as a nostalgia gesture quickly became the emotional blueprint for the album.
While writing MAZDA, Jennifur realized he was unknowingly creating the soundtrack to a fictional romcom film that existed only in his imagination. Rather than avoiding clichés like love, heartbreak, growing older, or transition, he chose to embrace them wholeheartedly.
"In a car, you exist in a kind of in-between space," Jennifur explains. "You've left something behind, but you haven't arrived yet. That feeling became the entire record."
The album opener, From A to B, sets the emotional framework for the entire project. Its extended introduction mirrors the exact moment you pull out of your street and realisethat something new has begun.
Highlights include "I Need You To Hold On", written for Jennifur's brother as a message of encouragement. The song "I Once Had a Dream Where I Could Fly" originated from a conversation with his father about recurring dreams of flying. Meanwhile, "From The Sideline" confronts a quieter existential fear, becoming a coming-of-age anthem for anyone who suddenly realizes they have become more of a spectator than an active participant in their own life.
Tracks like "In The Sun" bring a softer, almost cinematic intimacy to the album. Written around the image of spending one final Sunday at the seaside with someone who is seriously ill, the song captures the beauty and fragility of fleeting moments. The closing track "The Dialogue Before We Left" serves as the emotional final scene of the album.
"For me, it's the moment after a long drive when you turn off the engine but stay seated for a minute," Jennifur explains. "You realise something happened. You listened to my story, and we travelled from A to B together."
Swedish metalcore visionaries Imminence return with their highly anticipated new album Axis Mundi via Sumerian Records. Following the breakthrough success of The Black, the band's latest full-length expands on their signature fusion of cinematic orchestration and modern metal across 11 powerful tracks, delivering their most ambitious and emotionally resonant work to date. Featuring the singles "The Sword That Never Bends" and "Crestfallen," Axis Mundi stands as Imminence's boldest work to date.
Maria Taylor is a singer-songwriter and founding member of Azure Ray, known for her hushed vocals, cinematic arrangements, and emotionally intimate songwriting. Her new album Story"s End unfolds like a reflective narrative, shaped by years of writing and profound personal change, where sweeping strings and quiet melodies trace loss, resilience, and transformation.
Swedish metalcore visionaries Imminence return with their highly anticipated new album Axis Mundi via Sumerian Records. Following the breakthrough success of The Black, the band's latest full-length expands on their signature fusion of cinematic orchestration and modern metal across 11 powerful tracks, delivering their most ambitious and emotionally resonant work to date. Featuring the singles "The Sword That Never Bends" and "Crestfallen," Axis Mundi stands as Imminence's boldest work to date.
“One day, I’ll be a ghost, a spirit, that moves with you along the winds,” pines Twin Atlantic’s Sam McTrusty on the beautiful and cinematic ballad ‘Your, The End’, the fitting opener to the Scottish alt-rockers’ eighth album ‘Separation From The Animals’. “It’s about the responsibility I feel around being a parent,” he says, revealing that he cried while recording his vocal over bandmate Ross McNae’s tender Beatles-y piano part. If the album says anything, it’s ‘All You Need Is Love’, told with maturity and reckoning with the past to make sense of the present. ‘Separation From The Animals’ is an album born of two tales of triumph and perseverance – one of McTrusty grappling with his own ghosts, and the other of their finest album to date coming after a time when band morale was at an all time low. When their friends’ bands and peers were all calling it quits, words of wisdom from those close to the band were urging them to take time off. The album started out as a McTrusty solo effort, isolated in his new home. The day the band finished work on their last album, 2024’s ‘Meltdown’, was also the day McTrusty packed up his entire life and studio to start a new life in Toronto with wife and two kids, unaware of the rich seam of songwriting that it would inspire.
Frequency of Love, out October 2nd, marks a new chapter for Victoria Monét - timeless, elevated, and utterly commanding. Weaving R&B with the romance of classic cinema and the energy of the dance floor, the album is a sensory experience that speaks to love, vibration, and the full breadth of who Victoria is as an artist. Victoria Monét is a multi-hyphenate superstar and 3x Grammy Award winner whose debut album JAGUAR II made her one of the most celebrated artists of her generation - earning seven Grammy nominations, placement on Best of 2023 lists from Barack Obama, Jay-Z, Rolling Stone, TIME, and Vogue, and praise from Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Bruno Mars, and more.
Hippotraktor, the progressive metal band from Belgium, combining the best of prog, groove and post-metal return with new album! Wmerging from Mechelen, Belgium, to the joy of ear-splitters and deep-feelers of post rock, Hippotraktor release their third studio album Annihilist. "A good blend between the vibes of Meridian and the technicality of Stasis." (Verheyden), that exhibits once again the band's ability to balance crushing physicality with emotional nuance, whilst pushing further into highly cultivated experimentation. For Hippotraktor, immense sonic weight coexists with remarkable clarity and depth, and through the many shifting passages and moments Annihilist becomes a journey of awe, dissolution, melancholia and rampaging power. At the heart of this album is a sense of collective inspiration. Verheyden's compositional vision provides the framework for music that is both intricate and instinctive, yet Hippotraktor's identity is forged through the dialogue between all five musicians. Although often associated with progressive metal, post-metal and sludge, Hippotraktor resist classification. Their music draws freely from multiple traditions while remaining unmistakably their own, blending rhythmic complexity, cinematic atmosphere and deeply human expression into a sound that feels both expansive and immediate. As an album Annihilist is not only gripping in every moment and turn, but their balance of the intimate and titanic feels deceptively effortless; a testament to their galvanised abilities. FOR FANS OF Psychonaut Mershuggah Dvne Vola The Ocean Hypno5e Sikasa Blackshape
Hippotraktor, the progressive metal band from Belgium, combining the best of prog, groove and post-metal return with new album! Wmerging from Mechelen, Belgium, to the joy of ear-splitters and deep-feelers of post rock, Hippotraktor release their third studio album Annihilist. "A good blend between the vibes of Meridian and the technicality of Stasis." (Verheyden), that exhibits once again the band's ability to balance crushing physicality with emotional nuance, whilst pushing further into highly cultivated experimentation. For Hippotraktor, immense sonic weight coexists with remarkable clarity and depth, and through the many shifting passages and moments Annihilist becomes a journey of awe, dissolution, melancholia and rampaging power. At the heart of this album is a sense of collective inspiration. Verheyden's compositional vision provides the framework for music that is both intricate and instinctive, yet Hippotraktor's identity is forged through the dialogue between all five musicians. Although often associated with progressive metal, post-metal and sludge, Hippotraktor resist classification. Their music draws freely from multiple traditions while remaining unmistakably their own, blending rhythmic complexity, cinematic atmosphere and deeply human expression into a sound that feels both expansive and immediate. As an album Annihilist is not only gripping in every moment and turn, but their balance of the intimate and titanic feels deceptively effortless; a testament to their galvanised abilities. FOR FANS OF Psychonaut Mershuggah Dvne Vola The Ocean Hypno5e Sikasa Blackshape
When The Rain Stops is the forthcoming indie pop LP from LA duo CD Ghost and marks the band’s most mature work to date. Balancing two sonic palettes — in-your-face dance beats and glossy synths alongside warm, dreamy guitars and laid-back acoustic drums — the album explores themes of fate, love, and disaster while grasping for something to hold onto as everything falls apart. Ethereal and cinematic yet vulnerable and grounded, When The Rain Stops finds CD Ghost with their head in the clouds but feet still firmly planted on the ground. For Fans of Toro Y Moi / Washed Out / Neon Indian / Beach House Nation Of Language
Since the release of DAMAGED in 2024, Michael Fiedler aka GHOST DUBS has been surfing intensifying waves of adulation, earning praise from such diverse underground legends as Justin Broadrick (Godflesh/Jesu), Regis, Stefan Betke (Pole) and Steve Von Till (Neurosis). With second album Oblique, his mastery of sculpting sound waves results in a spellbinding set of alien soundscapes: larger in scale, richer in tone and considerably more cinematic than its predecessor. Lower, deeper and moodier, its cloudy abstractions, shadowy pulsations and submerged rhythms find Fiedler reaching further into his own sonic void, crafting blurred melodies and addictive narco loops into something simultaneously heavyweight and hypnotic. Album opener "Low Times" sets the atmospheric pressure to maximum, resembling a dream date between prime dirt-house era Andy Stott and Berlin dub-tech pioneers Basic Channel. From there, Oblique descends into a series of enchanting mood scenes: the furtive, balletic gyrations of "After All", the haunting ambience and buried heartbeat throb of "Soft Collapse", and the noirish atmospherics of "Blackout Dust", which worms its way into the mind like some forgotten David Lynch scene. The spirit of reggae is more distanced here than on DAMAGED, but the ghost of Jamaican dub still permeates these foggy soundscapes, particularly on "Bombed Suburbs", where Augustus Pablo-style melodicism is chopped, screwed and slowed into a magnetic lock groove. Superficially minimal but maximal in its minute detail, Oblique is a record of contorted reflections, mesmeric echoes and tantalising audio mirages. By the vaporous mist of closing track "Almost a Structure", obvious rhythm has been craftily filtered away, leaving a blurred and blunted residue full of mystery and implied narrative. Dense in the best possible sense and crushing when played loud yet equally potent played quiet, Oblique imagines dub techno burning its own rigid rulebook: sensual, funky and concussive rather than dry or alienating. "Second album from electronic producer Michael Fiedler's GHOST DUBS project. "Follows up from the highly-acclaimed 'Implosion' album with The Bug from 2025. "Debut album 'Damaged' sold out its three initial pressings and has just been repressed "Michael Fiedler recently scored 'Sound of Falling' which won a Cannes award in 2025 and made the shortlist for an Oscar, too.
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Flug brings his singular vision to Backspin Records with 'From My Soul', a 7-track EP that marks a powerful new chapter for both artist and label, rounded out by a remix from Kashpitzky. Moving between deep emotional techno, raw percussive functionality and high intensity, the release showcases Flug's signature precision and narrative depth while keeping things classy and never falling for overused tropes. Kashpitzky completes the package with a remix that reinterprets the source material from a darker, more straight-forward angle. ??
Opening with the title track 'From My Soul', Flug sets off on an epic 8-minute journey built on reverberating melodic layers, shimmering chord pads and a strong low endthat unfolds slowly and deliberately, balancing emotional weight with a hypnotic drive. 'Make It Loud' follows with a more stripped, functional direction, where warm low-end energy, minimal percussion and reverb-drenched sine wave synth hits create a tight, circular groove anchored by a subtle but sinister vocal presence. ??
On the flip side, 'Human Instinct' turns the energy more direct and physical, driven by a saturated kick drum, looping synth motifs and sparse vocal cuts that heighten tension without disrupting the flow. 'The Awakening' expands the emotional scope with a deep kick and tom-driven bassline, expansive droning pads and dragging percussion that build a rich, cinematic atmosphere. Kashpitzky's remix reimagines the original at a faster BPM with distorted chord stabs, off-grid hi-hats and layered synth work creating a tense, industrial atmosphere that breaks into a spacious breakdown before dropping back into a stripped,high-impact groove. ??
With the 'From My Soul' EP, Flug marks a strong first statement on Regal's Backspin Records, delivering a cohesive body of work that balances depth, emotion and dancefloor utility, reinforcing the label's dedication to innovative techno.
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The long-awaited vinyl re-issue of ‘Hawk’ from Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.
Isobel Campbell (ex-Belle & Sebastian) and Mark Lanegan (ex-Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) third album Hawk, will be reissued on November 6th on LP and CD.
Hawk builds on the critical acclaim of 2006’s Mercury Prize-nominated Ballad of the Broken Seas and 2008’s Sunday at Devil Dirt, solidifying the duo's signature dynamic—Campbell’s ethereal, whispery arrangements juxtaposed against Lanegan’s deep, gravelly baritone. Written, arranged, and produced entirely by Campbell, Hawk was recorded across studios in Scotland, England, and the United States. The 13-track record expands their sonic palette far beyond classic country-folk, venturing into dusty Southern soul, garage-rock stomps, and soaring gospel arrangements. "With this record, I wanted to stretch the canvas further," says Isobel Campbell. "Mark and I have built a true shorthand together over the years, which gave us the freedom to push into heavier grooves, raw blues, and sweeping orchestral textures while keeping the core intimacy intact. Album Highlights & Key Collaborations "You Won't Let Me Down Again" — The album’s lead single, driven by a hypnotic rhythm and featuring a searing guitar solo from former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha. "Come Undone" — A moody, slow-burning Southern soul ballad showcasing Lanegan at his most vulnerable. Townes Van Zandt Covers — Faithfully rendered versions of "Snake Song" and "No Place To Fall," the latter featuring guest vocals from American singer-songwriter Willy Mason. "Lately" — A cinematic album closer that swaps the pair's vocal interplay for a rousing, brass-tinged gospel choir.
PRAANA unveil their highly anticipated album Insight Out on Colorize, a deeply immersive body of work that explores reflection, connection and emotional growth through the duo’s signature cinematic lens.
Built around themes of reflection, presence and human connection, Insight Out creates a rich sonic landscape where atmospheric textures, subtle rhythms and emotive songwriting coexist with effortless grace. Featuring collaborations with Susie Ledge, Tina Parol, Freddie Elmberg and Courtney Storm, the album showcases PRAANA’s ability to create music that feels both intimate and expansive. An alias of Tritonal, PRAANA have amassed over 30 million streams, earned sustained support on SiriusXM Chill and recently completed U.S. tour dates in Chicago, Denver and a sold-out Elsewhere Rooftop show in Brooklyn.
Insight Out stands as a fully realised artistic statement, offering a space for stillness, reflection and meaningful escape through sound.
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the iconic project returns late September with its milestone 10th studio album, ‘I Wrote You A Letter’.
Twenty-five years after his debut, M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) stands as a genuinely era-defining electronic act, renowned for pushing indie-electronic into the mainstream while maintaining absolute critical credibility. With a massive catalog compounding billions of streams—anchored by the timeless “MIDNIGHT CITY” (1.5B streams)—the iconic project returns late September with its milestone 10th studio album, I WROTE YOU A LETTER’.
Recorded between Los Angeles and Paris alongside BENOIT DE VILLENEUVE, this new record follows the highly acclaimed ‘FANTASY’ (2023) and features striking artwork by celebrated Australian photographer BILL HENSON. This release marks a historic chapter, encapsulating a quarter-century of sonic evolution.
Commercially, M83’s power lies in an unmatched ability to transcend generations. Synonymous with cinematic emotion, nostalgia, and immense scale, M83’s sound is virtually a genre of its own, heavily sought after for film, TV, and sync. Live, the act holds top-tier global status, proven by headlining slots at major festivals like Coachella, Glastonbury, and Primavera.
‘I WROTE YOU A LETTER’ delivers exactly what M83 does best: big emotional scale, breathtaking cinematic atmospheres, and sharp hooks, all pushed into a fresh, modern palette.
Fünfundzwanzig Jahre nach seinem Debüt gilt M83 (Anthony Gonzalez) als ein wahrhaft epochaler Elektro-Künstler, der dafür bekannt ist, Indie-Elektro in den Mainstream zu bringen. Mit einem riesigen Repertoire, das Milliarden von Streams umfasst – angeführt von dem zeitlosen „MIDNIGHT CITY“ (1,5 Milliarden Streams) – kehrt das ikonische Projekt Ende September mit seinem wegweisenden zehnten Studioalbum „I WROTE YOU A LETTER“ zurück.
Das neue Album, das gemeinsam mit BENOIT DE VILLENEUVE in Los Angeles und Paris aufgenommen wurde, knüpft an das hochgelobte „FANTASY“ (2023) an und besticht durch ein eindrucksvolles Cover des gefeierten australischen Fotografen BILL HENSON.
Diese Veröffentlichung markiert ein historisches Kapitel und fasst ein Vierteljahrhundert klanglicher Entwicklung zusammen.
Kommerziell liegt die Stärke von M83 in der unübertroffenen Fähigkeit, Generationen zu verbinden.
Als Synonym für filmische Emotionen, Nostalgie und immense Größe ist der Sound von M83 praktisch ein eigenes Genre, das für Film, Fernsehen und Synchronisation sehr gefragt ist.
Live genießt die Band weltweit Spitzenstatus, was durch Headliner-Auftritte bei großen Festivals wie Coachella, Glastonbury und Primavera unter Beweis gestellt wird.
„I WROTE YOU A LETTER“ liefert genau das, was M83 am besten kann: große emotionale Bandbreite, atemberaubende filmische Atmosphären und eingängige Hooks, alles verpackt in einer
frischen, modernen Klangpalette.
Welcome to Somewhere Else Entirely – a cinematic road trip to the sea, picking up traces of Indie Folk, Dream Pop and Neo-Soul along the way.
Floatist's debut explores finding connection in uncertain times through playful yet driving grooves, cinematic strings and hazy analogue soundscapes - embracing the unknown with curiosity, courage and joy.
Somewhere Else Entirely brings together twelve tracks that drift between worlds. Gentle, intimate voices tell stories and merge into immersive choirs, floating on airy grooves. The music invites the listener to sink in, get comfortable, roll down the imaginary window and lean their head into the warm rush of air, while sun-drenched maritime landscapes pass by and the salty breeze announces the approaching sea.
For fans of: Helena Deland, Nick Hakim, Puma Blue, Feist, Konradsen, Clairo, Alice Phoebe Lou, Lianne La Havas, Lutalo, Klangstof, Sam Evian, Hannah Cohen, Rosie Lowe
After releasing two EP, Charles Dollé reveals an ambitious and cinematographic album with his label Tricatel. He reinvents his musical language, undulating across ethereal sound landscapes in a style bordering film music. The self-titled "singing composer" lets his dreamy lyricism lead his creations: at the crossroads between indie pop, soft rock, electronic music, and ambient, Charles bends music genres with subtlety and contrast.
The Veils' first three albums are returning to vinyl thanks to Rough Trade Records.
The Runaway Found (2004), Nux Vomica (2006) and 2009's Sun Gangs established the New Zealand band as purveyors of lush, romantic indie, able to sweep through cinematic vistas into intimate emotional corners, via gothic orchestration and atmospheric driving rhythms.
Founded and fronted by singer-songwriter Finn Andrews while still a teenager, over their first three albums, The Veils carved out a musical landscape of their own that was in turn deep and enveloping yet emotionally raw and direct.
Having only enjoyed a limited vinyl run on their releases, due to the format's neglected commercial status during the 2000s, the repressing of The Runaway Found, Nux Vomica and Sun Gangs, offers audiences a fresh opportunity to enjoy these records with the full depth, fidelity and artwork they deserve, and reminding listeners of the musical secrets The Veils revealed to the world.
“It is a sincere joy to see these records that are so important to us and to so many others reissued on vinyl by the label that nurtured us right from the start. I remain hugely grateful to them and to all the songs on these searching, impassioned, and magnificently youthful first attempts.” - Finn Andrews, The Veils
Courant Zéro is the new moniker of Montréal multi-media installation artist and Kohlenstoff label co-founder Maxime Corbeil-Perron, signalling his return to purely recording-based electronic music production following several years focused on award-winning experimental film and audio-visual works. Solari channels his cinematic sensibility and decade-long exploration of sound art and electroacoustic counterpoint into deep cuts of maximalist ambient electronica. Drawing on his early background as a pianist and jazz drummer, Corbeil-Perron weaves a fabric of melodic and rhythmic vectors with his unique timbral palette, intersecting modern composition, IDM, ambient, glitch, and noise on a debut album brimming with sonic detail and emotive resonance. A fixture of Montréal’s sound art community as both creator and curator since the early 2010s, Corbeil-Perron’s work has ranged from “hypnotic A/V onslaught” (FACT Magazine) to the “richly nuanced acousmatic journey” of his 2018 EP Polychrome (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Classical Of The Month), with earlier electronic and techno-adjacent projects like Political Ritual, Dresden, and Le poisson d’argent garnering accolades from avant-music outlets A Closer Listen, Silence and Sound, and Musicworks, among others. Courant Zéro mobilizes this cumulative wealth of explorative sonic experience in the service of distinctive compositional architectures and electronic music pathways that fans of Floating Points, Jan Jelinek, Squarepusher, Tim Hecker, and Oneohtrix Point Never should find compelling.
Courant Zéro’s debut is a vibrant sonic rebus at the junction of electronic, electroacoustic, noise and ambient music that resists easy categorisation. Solari strikes a compelling balance of unsettled disorientation and hospitable warmth, teeming with real feeling throughout. The album’s cover art painting Cryptography I by Yen-Chao Lin represents this prevailing sensibility, its mazelike circuitry distinctly carved and crisply rendered, while filigreed with handmade detail and artisanal patina. Thanks for listening.
Courant Zéro is the new moniker of Montréal multi-media installation artist and Kohlenstoff label co-founder Maxime Corbeil-Perron, signalling his return to purely recording-based electronic music production following several years focused on award-winning experimental film and audio-visual works. Solari channels his cinematic sensibility and decade-long exploration of sound art and electroacoustic counterpoint into deep cuts of maximalist ambient electronica. Drawing on his early background as a pianist and jazz drummer, Corbeil-Perron weaves a fabric of melodic and rhythmic vectors with his unique timbral palette, intersecting modern composition, IDM, ambient, glitch, and noise on a debut album brimming with sonic detail and emotive resonance. A fixture of Montréal's sound art community as both creator and curator since the early 2010s, Corbeil-Perron's work has ranged from "hypnotic A/V onslaught" (FACT Magazine) to the "richly nuanced acousmatic journey" of his 2018 EP Polychrome (Bandcamp Best Contemporary Classical Of The Month), with earlier electronic and techno-adjacent projects like Political Ritual, Dresden, and Le poisson d'argent garnering accolades from avant-music outlets A Closer Listen, Silence and Sound, and Musicworks, among others. Courant Zéro mobilizes this cumulative wealth of explorative sonic experience in the service of distinctive compositional architectures and electronic music pathways that fans of Floating Points, Jan Jelinek, Squarepusher, Tim Hecker, and Oneohtrix Point Never should find compelling. Title track "Solari" opens the album with a cavernous ambient glitch-drone soundscape that envelops ever-shifting timbres of modular arpeggiation, serving as introduction to the clarion call of "En deçà du réel", an homage to video artist Manon Labrecque, where layers of interweaving melodic counterpoint played on Buchla and other synths slowly build to widescreen immersive intensities; "I have this vision of Labreque vibrating eternally between two frames of magnetic VHS tape_ the slow pace of the piece also inspired by Tarkovsky's approach to scenography" says Corbeil-Perron. "Strange Aorta" is ectoplasmic ambient with wistful melody lines transmuting along a central filament, awash in shifting waves of low-end and ricocheting tonal glitch, the title a reference to "the thumping rhythm beating around the main melody_and the heavy remnants of grief related to my father's passing and a brutal confrontation with my own mortality a few years back." Tracks like "La peau des dents" and "Eroding Us" are more firmly rooted in electroacoustic and aleatory systems music, where colliding loops are shaped into unstable flows of deconstructed slippage and reconvergence. Those two pieces bookend the album's pivotal center: the gorgeous piano digitalia of "Horizon n'arrête" and the skittering electronica of 9-minute opus "Unyeldd", its loping broken beat and cascading melodic glitter like a cluster of wind-up music boxes in a dappled forest _ and for Corbeil- Perron also partly inspired by now fellow Constellation labelmates Do Make Say Think: "I spent a lot of time rediscovering their records after seeing them last September 2024 which definitely influenced this piece." Courant Zéro's debut is a vibrant sonic rebus at the junction of electronic, electroacoustic, noise and ambient music that resists easy categorisation. Solari strikes a compelling balance of unsettled disorientation and hospitable warmth, teeming with real feeling throughout. The album's cover art painting Cryptography I by Yen-Chao Lin represents this prevailing sensibility, its mazelike circuitry distinctly carved and crisply rendered, while filigreed with handmade detail and artisanal patina. Thanks for listening.
HOL1D4Y’s debut album "Topology" explores the invisible connections that bind us together in an increasingly fractured world. Created by Scott Holiday, lead guitarist of Rival Sons, The record blends dreamlike textures with cinematic psych-rock, while embracing dance rhythms and free-form instrumentals, themes of love, technology, identity, and healing. Both expansive and intimate, Topology looks for meaning and human connection beneath the noise of modern life.
A Flower to Water, the staggering new album from Greek Progressive-Post Metal outfit Playgrounded, finds the five-piece pushing their boundaries even further; welcoming the unquantifiable depths of loss, grief and finitude into their meticulous, fractal process as friends in defiance of neglect. Hailing from Athens, Greece but predominantly based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Playgrounded have never ceased to push the envelope of Post Metal with genre-defying contemporary electronic and cinematic neo-classical elements since the band's inception almost two decades ago. A Flower to Water is Playgrounded's third full-length offering and sees the band thriving in their creative relationship with Pelagic Records. Recorded and produced by the band across multiple studios back home in Athens and Rotterdam, Playgrounded enlisted the help of longtime collaborators C. Cederberg (Leprous, Anathema) who mixed the album at Cederberg Studios in Kristiansand, Norway and George Tandero (Madrugada, Satyricon, Jaga Jazzist) who mastered it in Oslo. A profound sense of patience is keenly felt throughout the album. The deliberate spaces between each hammerblow guitar riff, pulsing bass line or hypnotic drum groove; each heavy, breathless pause and fizzing glitchy whisper all tell of unspoken loss and absence as an indelible part of A Flower to Water and indeed of Playgrounded forever more. In marking this absence however, in embracing loss head on, Playgrounded reify memory in defiance of neglect. By extracting such a colossal, breathtaking piece of work from a seemingly unassuming collection of sounds, clips and sonics; the quintet slow time to a standstill to present grief in bloom; a beautiful, perpetual flower with its roots in loved ones lost. FOR FANS OF Karnivool, Katatonia, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Moderat, The Ocean, Vola, Leprous, Skyharbor, Anathema
A Flower to Water, the staggering new album from Greek Progressive-Post Metal outfit Playgrounded, finds the five-piece pushing their boundaries even further; welcoming the unquantifiable depths of loss, grief and finitude into their meticulous, fractal process as friends in defiance of neglect. Hailing from Athens, Greece but predominantly based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Playgrounded have never ceased to push the envelope of Post Metal with genre-defying contemporary electronic and cinematic neo-classical elements since the band's inception almost two decades ago. A Flower to Water is Playgrounded's third full-length offering and sees the band thriving in their creative relationship with Pelagic Records. Recorded and produced by the band across multiple studios back home in Athens and Rotterdam, Playgrounded enlisted the help of longtime collaborators C. Cederberg (Leprous, Anathema) who mixed the album at Cederberg Studios in Kristiansand, Norway and George Tandero (Madrugada, Satyricon, Jaga Jazzist) who mastered it in Oslo. A profound sense of patience is keenly felt throughout the album. The deliberate spaces between each hammerblow guitar riff, pulsing bass line or hypnotic drum groove; each heavy, breathless pause and fizzing glitchy whisper all tell of unspoken loss and absence as an indelible part of A Flower to Water and indeed of Playgrounded forever more. In marking this absence however, in embracing loss head on, Playgrounded reify memory in defiance of neglect. By extracting such a colossal, breathtaking piece of work from a seemingly unassuming collection of sounds, clips and sonics; the quintet slow time to a standstill to present grief in bloom; a beautiful, perpetual flower with its roots in loved ones lost. FOR FANS OF Karnivool, Katatonia, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Moderat, The Ocean, Vola, Leprous, Skyharbor, Anathema
"The grass is greener_ elsewhere_" Brain Damage told us with their debut album, released in 2002. Yet here, they've reached full maturity. Rarely has a "made in France" dub album strayed so far from the Jamaican model while still harboring, in every detail, so many references and tributes to the inventors of the style (King Tubby / Lee Perry), as well as to many of the key figures in its evolution (Tikiman / Rhythm & Sound, Dub Syndicate, etc.). The recording studio, 7/11 Laboratory, is used here as a true musical instrument. The optimal use of three-dimensional stereo effects will immerse the listener in soundscapes ranging from classic space echoes and Mont Blanc tunnel-style reverberations to crackles, electronic interference, exogenous samples, and other parasitic noises coming straight from Babylon. For this album, continuing in the vein of his previous collaborations with the international dub scene (Zion Train, Alpha & Omega, Disciples, Spectre, Lab°_), Brain Damage traveled to London to record two tracks at Conscious Sounds Studio with Jamaican-born singer Tena Stelin. With the melancholic "Spirit World," one is reminded of the fruitful collaborations between Massive Attack and Horace Andy, while on "Genetic Weapon," the tone becomes more overtly assertive. Two vocal tracks, then, woven into these ten compositions, where the emotional moods and atmospheres will shift with each listen. "Always Greener (On the Other Side)" emerges as the manifesto of music conceived as cinema for the ear...
Featuring Nicholas Semrad (Empire of the Sun), Stu Brooks (Nine Inch Nails, Danny Elfman), Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie) and vocalist Gretchen Parlato, this new hardhitting, synth-fueled album distills Guiliana's vision into eight cinematic compositions that fuse retro production with futuristic playing. Transmitted through an original 8-bit visual universe created by artist and long-term collaborator Steve Wall, BEAT MUSIC 2.0 draws inspiration from early gaming culture and electronic music, looking both to the past and the future for answers. Guiliana's compositional voice is on full display alongside the energetic and precise grooves that define his singular approach. In an age increasingly shaped by automation, BEAT MUSIC 2.0 keeps its focus on human connection and collaboration.
As always at U JAZZ ME Records we have limited edition (100 numbered copies) of 180g black vinyl with insert.
Astrocyrk (Astrocircus) is the next chapter in a story that began in 2123, when Captain Harrison Focus, after an emergency landing, finds himself on the mysterious planet Carmin. Following the events described in the previous album, the main character – Triceradiplodocus – leaves the planet's surface, following Ropuch’s instructions. However, the light on the horizon turns out to be the beginning of a new nightmare, and the dinosaur is trapped in the Astrocyrk. Under Klown’s guidance, he begins exploring this dark place. Only the finale reveals the true history of the Astrocyrk and
surprisingly intertwines Triceradiplodocus's fate with events from years past and the character of Captain Harrison Focus.
Musically, the album develops Twoosty Mayonez's distinctive style – one that focuses on improvisation and cinematic storytelling. Each composition represents a new chapter in the story, creating a cohesive musical journey through the world of Astrocyrk. Subsequent tracks lead the listener through the ship's dark attractions.
The new album is a natural continuation of the story from planet Carmin, while also opening a completely new chapter in the Twoosty Mayonnaise universe – one that is bigger, darker, and even more unpredictable.
The album features guest appearances by Szymon Białorucki (oud), Marek Konarski (sax), and Bartłomiej “Eskaubei” Skubisz (rap). The recordings were made at the Twoosty Room studio in Warsaw by the band's drummer.