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Children of Zeus return with their third studio album ‘As The World Burns…’

Five years on from their highly-acclaimed sophomore album ‘Balance’, Manchester’s kings of hip hop soul, Tyler Daley and Konny Kon, bring us a brand new 16-track opus.

Sonically the duo continue their story where they left off; crafting an amalgamation of street soul, alternative r&b and boom bap hip hop, with a sprinkle of flavours taken from their original multi-genre pirate radio influences, and a dash of forward-thinking new sounds, ensuring all tracks are destined to become future classics.

The features are sparing but powerful, enlisting the talents of revered UK rapper Knucks (‘Before We Drown’), Colorado-native Young Old Soul (‘Dopamine’), MCR family K S R (‘Do You Want To Get High’, & Australian/Mauritian up & comer Anieszka (‘Water & Vibes’).

As with previous projects, this album is largely produced by the duo themselves, though there are guest productions from previous collaborators too, including Grammy Award-winner Beat Butcha, Grammy-nominated Teo, and broken beat pioneer K15, along with an assortment of new players making moves in the underground neo-soul & beats circuit.

Conceptually, this project continues on with the story to date. An eternal search for sunsets and soulfood, as a respite to the anxieties of the modern world; personally, professionally and globally. Assertive swagger is matched with brutal but sincere candidity. As ever, it encapsulates the rough with the smooth, with reflections on where they’ve been, where they’re at and where they’re headed. There’s no preaching to be found here; just an acceptance of things as they are, an embrace of the environment and people they were nurtured by, and a celebration of some of the finer things in life; slow jams, weed & rum, water & vibes. Raps for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners. All packaged together as another perfect sonic love letter to sound system culture. 50 minutes of big people music.

Since the release of their anthemic debut single ‘Still Standing’ a decade ago, to the subsequent EP ‘The Story So Far’, and their critically-lauded debut album ‘Travel Light’, the duo have received numerous accolades, including nominations for AIM Awards & Worldwide Awards both, along with tons of ‘Album of the Year’ nods care of Clash Magazine, Bandcamp, Complex, Wordplay and many more. This along with huge swathes of support from DJs, radio stations, press outlets, tastemakers, luminaries & fellow artists across the globe.

Children of Zeus have performed sessions for COLORS, Soulection (Apple Music), DJ AG, Boiler Room, BBC 6 Music and at the infamous Maida Vale studios for BBC 1Xtra as well as touring across Europe, Australia and South Africa. This is in addition to collaborating & touring with Mercury Award Winner’s Ezra Collective, including a Wembley Arena show. Other collaborations over the years have included Shy FX, Juls, Goldie, Black Milk, Kofi Stone and the late great Lenzman.

From the Broke ’n’ English / Hoodman-era, to the present day, Children of Zeus have been omnipresent in the fabric of British black music. Proud ambassadors of Manchester music, and of UK soul, it really is “Zeus to the world”.

Children of Zeus have been adorned with plenty of flowers over their career. The unbridled quality and poignance of the music and the message on display throughout this project will see the algorithmic needle move some more. It’s undoubtedly set to be a Zeus Summer. As the world burns…

Available on all digital platforms and physical formats, Friday September 4th 2026.







t 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. K S R ) - Children of Zeus03:26







t 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. K S R ) - Children of Zeus03:26







[t] 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. [ K S R ]) - Children of Zeus03:26







[t] 07: Do You Want To Get High? (feat. [ K S R ]) - Children of Zeus03:26







[g] B3 | Do You Want To Get High? (feat [ K S R ]) - Children of Zeus03:26

The intriguingly named Pigeon Steve joins Especial for an EP of trippy, psychedelic electronic dance music that goes far beyond its origin – a thirst for all forms of movement – a struggle filled with all possibility.

Since its inception, the label has sought to take inspiration from a wide range of music genres – new wave and new beat to disco-not-disco, post punk and proto-house – never looking for a trend. This belief system expressed is human; intimate and authentic, dissolving and uniting around shared truths and universal values.

Music as ecstasy, the flux of rhythm and sound, to find and be yourself; no guilt, no competition, no games. It is phenomenon – magick – that short circuits through human (emotional) response.

Relocated to South-East London, Glaswegian DJ and producer, Pigeon Steve aka Adam Low, showcases his talent. A dubby, trippy approach to DJing mirrored in his productions; the recent, well-received EPs on the esteemed Offen Music and Weirdos Inc lead here – an EP of sample heavy cuts, wrapped in echo-laden grooves, the beats dripping in psychedelic, new beat and steppers electronica.

Dialect locates us, through its cadences, inflections and intonations we journey through life. Language allows us to escape the lion in a cage. The moment we forget ourselves, we can reach joy and clarity. To live is to exist, the struggle against controls, fighting for an individual destiny.

Year 3673. The frequencies have taken hold. What began as scattered transmissions from the underground has become an infection. Across the dead zones, abandoned receivers flicker back to life. Forbidden rhythms bleed through the static. Citizens once numb to the Global Order's neural grip are beginning to move again. But something else has awakened with them. Deep beneath the ruins, an unknown signal has begun answering SHIFT's transmissions. Its origin is untraceable. Its frequency predates the network. Those exposed report visions, lost time and an uncontrollable urge to follow the sound. The Global Order calls it contamination. SHIFT calls it evolution. A new generation has been born into the resistance; raised on distorted circuitry, machine funk and frequencies never meant for human ears. The signal is spreading. Do not adjust your receiver.

The tracks on the upcoming Boysonic release are a snapshot of a period largely absent from the discussion around Romanian electronic dance music: the first half of the 1990s.

Boysonic’s music was made in the face of considerable adversity, in a Romania still reeling from the aftermath of the 1989 revolution, spiralling inflation of over 200%, and the violence of the early-1990s Mineriads. In the gatefold photos, one of the band’s members can be seen performing live wearing a miner’s safety helmet, a piece of stagewear, but also a charged symbol of the period.

The original music on Madhouse was made in Bra?ov during 1993–1994. Situated away from Bucharest’s political and cultural centre, Bra?ov gave the project its own slightly detached rhythm. Classically trained in piano and active in local radio, Mihai Barb developed Boysonic as a largely one-man act, often joined live by a changing cast of dancers and vocalists. In the absence of a developed club circuit, early performances took place in pre-1989 concert halls, seaside resorts and local entertainment circuits organised around regional radio stations.

Agnostic in genre and unusually fluid in approach, Madhouse moves through downtempo pop burners, KLF-type UK house, boomy breakbeat, new beat and acid-leaning experiments. The material reflects a short-lived moment before the Romanian mainstream/underground divide had fully taken shape, when electronic music lacked infrastructure but not imagination.

Sampling was used generously, with drum loops, vocal fragments and preset banks repurposed through software such as ProTracker and further processed outboard.

The release comes as a 2xLP gatefold.

Remixes are from Benedikt Frey, Boysonic, Cosmin TRG, Flore of Khidja, Romansoff, and Tankwart.

Katsunori Ishida’s vision of true crossover music reaches its peak. Powerful grooves and striking sound define the resurrection of Zerosen’s legendary first album.

Zerosen was a group led during the 1970s by Katsunori Ishida, who would later gain recognition as a producer, composer, and arranger of numerous television and film soundtracks. With a fluid lineup and only a brief period of activity, the group disappeared almost as quickly as it emerged. The only recordings left behind were two albums originally produced as audio component test records. Yet these recordings would later gain worldwide attention as landmark examples of Japanese rare groove.

Remarkably, this debut album already presents a fully realized concept and sound. Highlights include the rolling groove and vibrant keyboard work of “Scramble”, the hard-driving beat of “Circuit”, and the mellow Caribbean-infused groove of “Majo no Sasayaki”. There is not a weak moment to be found.

Outstanding arrangements and performances generate a groove of exceptional power, while the album’s origins as an audio component test record contribute to its vivid and dynamic sonic character. Here lies crossover music in its truest sense—a timeless fusion of musicianship, groove, and sound quality.

2026 Repress

Irish techno producer, Kerrie, returns to Tresor Records on the 24th of October 2025 with her second EP for the label. Entitled Echoes Of The Live Wire, this collection captures the beauty and essence of live performance; a moment in time never to be repeated.
This fixing of time is also given a different meaning as the EP explores the ways in which intense moments in our lives, both joyful and painful, are crystallised into memory, both beautiful and haunting, lingering long after they've passed.
Layered meanings are employed throughout as Kerrie explores this idea: Live Wire draws connections between circuit boards and the human nervous system, whilst also toying with multiple meanings of the word “live”.
Echoes Of channels classic Detroit techno influences, resonating with the distant hum of memories that refuse to fade, while Moment To Memory is a beatless, floating piece which slowly builds to an ecstatic crescendo.
Digital bonus tracks Recircuit and Reclaim add further depth to the core metaphor: the former a driving, minimal yet building techno work-out, and the latter a cathartic and emotionally open track that delivers intensity with vulnerability.
Echoes Of The Live Wire reflects on memory as a complex, dual-sided force where joy and pain coexist with equal weight. Her creative process becomes a form of meditation and emotional processing, using machines to process, reflect, and let go. The result is a body of work that loops back on itself, telling a story of fleeting moments and their lasting emotional imprints.

Land of Talk is still here. That wasn’t always a guarantee. Over the multi-faceted twenty year history of their project, Lizzie Powell has drifted from and back to music, always interrogating their role as an artist. In the time since 2023’s Performances, they found themselves utterly worn down by the vicissitudes of the music industry and wracked with worry around their aging parents. Yet the music didn’t stop: Powell heard songs in traffic and in birds chirping, in their downstairs neighbor’s daily prayers and in the babble of children on the street. Melodies slowly cohered over time. “Life can become so unbearable, and music is where I go to metabolize it,” they explain. “I know the music was the only thing that was going to help me.” Soon Powell reemerged with the sixth Land of Talk album, LASTS.

LASTS is full of double meanings — both resilience and finality, acting as a noun and a verb. Though LASTS is haunted by crises including climate collapse, political upheaval, and genocide, the mangitude of global turmoil led Powell towards smaller, humane depictions of suffering and grief. As both their parents became ill, Powell reflected on the last time a person might walk, might talk to a loved one. Yet watching their parents near the other side of life’s arc also made Powell consider all they had survived across their own decades on this earth, their new songs channeling both gratitude and rage. LASTS became a phrase, honoring Land of Talk’s circuitous route and all Powell’s reckoned with through the years. “I think of this record as a love letter to life,” they say.

The end result is an album both lean and winding, allowing Powell’s words and melodies to take centerstage, uncrowded in visceral, shot-no-chaser arrangements. LASTS jumps right in with “Broken Tongue,” a wiry track built on thrumming electric guitar and ghostly synths as Powell rails against the lack of justice for victims of abuse. The trio’s interplay is readily evident in “Saffron” and “4:44,” two earworm songs that also allow themselves to unspool into extended instrumental codas. Early in the record, there are seething tracks like “Dogs” — “Just your basic instinct / Even dogs know better,” Powell growls in the chorus, before the song quiets into a plaintive plea of “Leave us alone now” — and later there are more vulnerable, wandering moments. In “Projections” and “Cedars,” Powell ventures deep into their head, inviting their co-conspirators and listeners alike to follow the songs wherever they meander.

Celebrating 30 years since ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ was released, this classic will be made available on limited edition pearl vinyl and features the remastered audio and bonus tracks released as part of the album’s 25th Anniversary in 2021.

Masterminded by the trio of Cuban bandleader Juan de Marcos González, American producer and guitarist Ry Cooder, and British producer and label owner Nick Gold, 'Buena Vista Social Club’ is both the name given to this extraordinary group of musicians and the album they recorded in just seven days in 1996 in Havana’s 1950s vintage EGREM studios. It was clear from the atmosphere of the recording sessions that something very special was taking place. However, no one could have predicted that Buena Vista Social Club would become a worldwide phenomenon – awarded a Grammy in 1997 and, at over 8 million copies, outselling any other record in the same genre.

The acclaim of the original album elevated the artists (including Ibrahim Ferrer, Rubén González, Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo and Omara Portuondo) to superstar status, inspired an award-winning film by Wim Wenders, a Tony Award-Winning Broadway Musical and contributed to popularising Cuba’s rich musical heritage. Produced by Ry Cooder and Executive Produced by Nick Gold for World Circuit, the timeless quality of the music and the sheer verve of the veteran performers have ensured that this album will go down as one of the landmark recordings of the 20th century.

"Once Turin-based producers Mattia and Massimo joined forces under the Voodoos & Taboos moniker, they quickly became a notable force in contemporary club music. A crafty take on house music, combining groove with sculpted production work and a bent for lush melodies, drawing from a wide range of influences - anything that borders on the electronic genres really, and beyond - fueled their own namesake imprint with 6 EP's and landed them spots on a variety of top-tier labels. We have been keen to work with these artists for a long time, and are thrilled this finally materializes with the release of ALT027. Title track "Sempre Sognar" immediately sets out the duo's floor-focused intentions. Breakbeat-laced drums gradually build momentum before a formant lead drops in. It trades phrases with an equally infectious organ that's eventually joined by a 303 pattern for the track's finale. Similar vibrating, buzzy leads thrust "Take Me" forward. Amid heavily delayed vocal samples, the proggy beat takes a more trippy turn however. Synthesized idiophone interludes create room for moments of repose, although not entirely unambiguous ones. A subtly detuned lead and more sleek acid lines are supported by the type of arp bass that characterizes Voodoos & Taboos' sound on the B-side's "Revolution". A collage of broadcast and war-movie lines alike not only adds color, but underlines the sense of indeterminate imminence that looms throughout the track. B2 "Afterhouse" sees the BPM drop a notch, yet the palette shows no signs of winding down; it is downright exuberant. As different arpeggiated melodies play call and response, tape-delayed chords, alarm-like risers, and sprinkles of guitar add extra flavor. This does not lead to excess, however. Everything is carefully measured and kept in check: after all, at the helm are two artists who understand that perfection lies in getting a great many small things exactly right."

Following acclaimed releases on Permanent Vacation and Shall Not Fade, as well as their Panorama Bar debut, Rhode & Brown return with their second album, Multitudes.
Across nine tracks, the Munich-based duo showcase their signature versatility, moving seamlessly between dubby tech groovers, bouncy house cuts, and sleek, 90s-inspired downtempo. The LP features collaborations with Italian producer Ferrari (Faith Beat) and London-based Braga Circuit (Rinse), alongside vocal appearances from UK rapper RONNI and Munich/ Mexico-based artist Sianza.

Chris Liebing's collaboration with Daniel Miller, Pascal 'Stubbleman' Gabriel and Terence Fixmer, aka The Alte Stuben Modular Ensemble, 'Entangled Circuits', has been remixed by Hayden Payne, better known as Phase Fatale. Originally released on Chris Liebing's 'Evolver' LP earlier this year, the remix will be released via CLR 20th November 2026. The original track is a collaboration between Liebing and The Alte Stuben Modular Ensemble made up of Mute founder Daniel Miller, Pascal 'Stubbleman' Gabriel and Terence Fixmer. New York-born, Berlin-based Phase Fatale has held residencies at Berghain, Brooklyn's Merge and Tbilisi's KHIDI, and has built a catalogue across Ostgut Ton, Dekmantel, Jealous God and his own BITE imprint, carrying a lineage that runs from New York's cold-wave underground through to the sharper industrial edges of Berlin's club circuit.

Phase Fatale rebuilds 'Entangled Circuits' around a hypnotic bassline, pitching the original's synth stabs up a notch.
Weighted kick drums, relentless repetition, and industrial texture anchor the rework in techno mastery, delivering a peak-time weapon without loosening its grip on the source material.

The original version of 'Entangled Circuits' appears on 'Evolver', Liebing's first solo techno LP, released 27th March 2026 on CLR. 'Entangled Circuits' was composed on a skiing trip to Oberlech, Austria with The Alte Stuben Modular Ensemble, Mute founder Daniel Miller, Pascal 'Stubbleman' Gabriel and Terence Fixmer, blending dark, modular synth textures with driving rhythmic sequencing. Marking a distillation of over three decades at Techno's core, the album pairs introspective depth with immediate, floor-driven impact, bringing together contributions from the likes of Luke Slater, Charlotte de Witte, Speedy J and The Advent, while ultimately remaining rooted in Liebing's singular vision.

Cold, Bold & Together (CBT) CBT was founded in Bellingham, Washington in 1971 by percussionist Tony Gable and musicians Solomon Harris, Keith Hooks and twin brothers TC & Jamar Jenkins. It soon became evident that Bellingham was not a particularly welcoming environment for R&B music, so they moved to Seattle to try their luck and plumb the rich supply of venues, which they successfully did until disbanding in 1978. They spent their early Seattle years playing a combination of covers and originals in clubs, later becoming the "go to" opening act for various nationally known artists, such as Ohio Players, Kool and the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire. While they were paying their club circuit and opening act dues, they squeezed in recording sessions whenever they could and released their own material, which was well-received and got strong regional airplay. However, because of the feudal nature of the music business at the time, they just couldn't break out, and like a lot of Northwest bands with great potential, they inevitably broke up and went their separate ways. Upon disbanding, they left behind a collection of original recordings at Seattle's legendary Kaye-Smith studios.

Unfortunately for CBT, the studio passed through several owners and at some unknown point in time, one of them did the unforgivable and destroyed the storied studio inventory of two-inch tapes and quarter-inch masters. Unknown to the band, a copy of their masters was smuggled out by their producer who added them to his legacy collection of cloned quarter-inch masters. After several years and many moves, he became concerned about the tendency for magnetic tape to deteriorate over time.

He sent the tapes to a Seattle lab to be restored and digitized, with the hope that perhaps, some day, they might be made available for the listening pleasure of R&B fans. The hoped-for day has finally arrived. Russell Paine and Super Disco Edits has pressed two of the Kaye-Smith CBT tracks: "Go For It", a jazz-influenced instrumental, featuring Kenny G, and "Unity", sung by the group en masse with Tony Gable singing lead. The musicians on these tracks are: Tony Gable, leader, vocals and percussion Harry Alexander, drums Kenny Gorelick (now world-renowned "Kenny G"), sax, flute and horn arrangements Chris Ishi, trumpet Michael Young, Trombone Jamar Jenkins guitar, vocals TC Jenkins bass, vocals 1 Philip Woo, keyboards Footnotes: CBT gave legendary saxophonist Kenny G his start in the music business. Kenny was still in high school when he was recruited to play sax and write horn arrangements. Kenny co-wrote, arranged and played sax and flute on the instrumental "Go For It." He rips a smoking tenor sax solo in the middle, which showcases his already masterful technique and solidifies his R&B bona fides. He went on to have a spectacular career recording for Clive Davis and Arista Records. Before his untimely passing in 2016, Tony Gable went on to found contemporary Jazz group, "Tony Gable and 206" (206 being Seattle's then only area code). With songwriting, performance and production help from Kenny G.

Elypsia Records presents A Future Tribe, the new album from Italian electronic music producers CEM3340 & 2030. Rooted in the formative language of electro and early techno, A Future Tribe channels the past through a lens very much focused on the future. Across the album, analogue warmth, machine-driven funk, synthetic textures and futuristic atmospheres come together in a sound that channels the pioneering spirit of early Detroit while remaining unmistakably connected to the present. For CEM3340 and 2030, machines are not simply tools, they are central to the creative process. Both producers have spent years immersed in the culture of electronic hardware. They've been carefully building and refining their own approach to production through an extensive collection of synthesisers, drum machines, sequencers and studio equipment. Based in Bari, southern Italy, their work reflects a deep fascination with the physicality of electronic music: oscillators, circuitry, voltage, rhythm and the unpredictable character of machines programmed and played with a human touch. That philosophy is deeply embedded in A Future Tribe. Rather than treating the early years of techno as a museum piece, CEM3340 & 2030 approach its foundational ideas as a living language - one that can be stripped back, re-translated and taken somewhere new. The influence of Detroit's first generation of electronic innovators is unmistakable. There are echoes of the futuristic electro and techno pioneered by artists including Juan Atkins and his contemporaries, where funk, science fiction, machines and the possibilities of tomorrow became part of a new musical vocabulary. It is an approach that has already earned the duo recognition within that lineage. Their previous Machines Awake EP, released through Atkins' Metroplex Records, was described as paying homage to the classic foundations of the genre while pushing them into new territory. Juan himself gave the release his sonic approval. But A Future Tribe is not an exercise in retro-futurism for its own sake. The album comes from two producers who understand the history, have the hardware to explore it and, crucially, are interested in what happens when those influences are given space to evolve. The result is electronic music that is full of funk, groove and a kind of nostalgia that is pure and intentional without being a pastiche. Together, they make music that is rooted in one simple truth: machines can't come to life without human creativity.

Erol Alkan returns to his vinyl Reworks series for ‘Part 6’ the first new pressing since 2017. A long-awaited addendum to a series that has previously encompassed artists including Daft Punk, Justice, Hot Chip and Tame Impala, Alkan delivers two club-friendly tracks from his own Phantasy Sound imprint, both previously only available digitally.

For a propulsive take on Josh Caffe’s emotionally defiant, warehouse-bound ‘You’, originally produced in collaboration with Quinn Whalley of Paranoid London, Alkan delves deep into a lifelong appreciation of Chicago house. Stripped, spacious and tough on the drums, Alkan keeps Caffe’s demands front and centre while riding out an irresistible bassline and conjuring a brooding, typically psychedelic atmosphere.

Flipping from minimal jack to maximal funk, Alkan pays a visit to the esoteric archives of Cowboy Rhythmbox, the partnership of much-loved London DJ Nathan Gregory Wilkins alongside pop-provocateur Richard X. ‘Rock Music’ arrives rescued from a dormant hard drive of demos, its frenetic collage of samples stitched back together and fully recharged for a circuit-frying electro workout by Alkan, operating here at full tilt for the dancefloor.

Juan Atkins returns as Model 500 with I.D.L.E., a transmission rooted in Detroit's original machine language. Pulsing basslines and crystalline sequences unfold with the precision and restraint that have defined the Model 500 signal for decades. The package expands with two reinterpretations from different corners of the electro-techno continuum. DJ Stingray pushes the track into high-velocity orbit, sharpening the rhythms into a relentless futurist propulsion. FJAAK reshape the material with their unmistakable Berlin energy, driving the groove deeper into warehouse territory while keeping the circuitry alive. A meeting point between generations, I.D.L.E. continues the Metroplex tradition: forward motion, mechanical soul, and signals from the future.

Nobody knows who Transpac is.

The project first appeared as an anonymous transmission: a folder sent through the network, containing music, instructions and a name - Transpac. No photograph. No biography. Just the request to use the name and let the music speak.

There have been several transmissions since. Still no interviews, no confirmed identity, no explanation of who - or what - is behind the name.

Some say Transpac is a person. Others insist it is a machine. A few believe it is simply a data packet that escaped the network and somehow learned how to make music.

The name itself offers a possible clue. TRANSPAC was once the name of a French public data network, launched in 1978 and built around X.25 packet switching - breaking information into packets and moving them across a network long before the Internet became what it is today.

Perhaps Transpac has been travelling ever since.

Packet Switching EP is the latest intercepted transmission: six packets of pure machine music, assembled somewhere between circuitry, communication protocols and whatever exists on the other side of the network.

Whilst the packets have been received, the sender remains unknown.

Synaptic Cliffs is particularly pleased to have brought Transpac into its network - a feat made possible, not least, by its principal operative, pdqb. Through communication channels inaccessible to ordinary Earthlings, pdqb was able to locate Transpac with remarkable ease and secure its transmission for the label.

The artwork, rendered in yellow and black and largely composed of binary code, echoes the visual language of the early machine age - a world of geometric systems, electronic signals and human beings beginning to communicate with machines. Created by the legendary Infamous Image Division.

Damage Code is the result of the convergence of two long-standing figures from the underground industrial and EBM scene: Carlos Grabstein (89s✝) and Ben Bunzen (Hammershøi). Released in partnership with Miseria records, their first collaboration unfolds through proto-industrial sequences, oppressive atmospheres, repetitive structures, and distorted transmissions, all wrapped in body-driven percussion that pulls the listener into a controlled state of sensory overload. Harsh yet precise, ritualistic yet futuristic, the record advances with relentless intensity while maintaining a raw, physical energy throughout. Somewhere between the diseased electronics of Front Line Assembly and the primitive industrial tension of Esplendor Geométrico, Digital Slave channels a sound that is both confrontational and hypnotic. With “Digital Slave”, Damage Code opens a new portal into industrial body music: dense, punishing, and engineered to trap the mind inside its circuitry. Presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered and mastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

Always lurking amidst the underground Porto music scene is Spitbender, the most stable moniker of the ever-morphing Francisco Antão. Spin gathers a collection of tracks that demonstrate his experimentalism & coy sonic precision. Spitbender takes cues from Jungle & Hip Hop producers to create his own unique blend of Downtempo. What becomes clear throughout the album is the attention to detail: it is infused as much by Industrial's red-line spectra as it is by the dubplate logic of the Darkside Continuum, yet it does so at its own tripped out speed.

Spin begins with the laid-back but constantly shifting 'Global Overgroove'. Its breakbeat science moves in & out of DSP glitch-work & dub reflections. When its slinky bassline melody arrives, a certain dread sets in.

'Weyward Fold' drops into a driving, hard-edged chug, threaded with snippets of Malcolm X's disobedient pedagogy. The momentum carries into 'Headnod Doctor', where the bass distortion thickens & the cymbal circuit is overloaded, landing somewhere between Hip‑Hop grit & metal weight.

Side A ends with the downtempo roller 'Dogs and Moles (Skylurk Mix)'. The familiar break drifts into new territory, pulled along & wrapped in a slap-back echo. A quirky melody cuts through the haze, giving the track a fresh tilt. The mulch of the track forms a steady, unhurried pulse.

Spitbender's spacious atmospherics & groove-focused approach comes further into focus on 'Nothing Here But the Recordings'. Creating his own chapter in the book of Trip Hop, his minimalist touch is laid out in full.

'Force the Hand Ov Chance' pulls Boom Bap gently into dub mechanics, letting space do the heavy lifting. Its simplicity hides a deep pocket.

Returning to broken-up distortion, 'Mirrors of Flesh (Dub Mix)' finds Spitbender using the mixer as an instrument to push & pull the heavy drums of Benjamin Brejon of Méchanosphere alongside the voice of Rui intoning the title phrase.

Sitting between the album's two poles, 'Out Take Dub' fuses the clipped‑obsession timbres of Spin's heavier moments with its blissed out flow. Feedback & distortion are welcomed & drawn long.

In the end, Spin hits like a fully formed statement—lean, focused, & unmistakably Spitbender. Every track pushes its own angle, but together they land with a clarity that feels earned. It's a sharp marker in his trajectory, & it leaves a charge in the air.

Haute Tension 09 arrives
Les400Coups, a duo made up of Akouphen and Damage Circuits, are back on the grooves to delight us with their very own style! They'll be joined by 2 talented artists, La Tartine and La Gazel.
Tribe fans, this record is for you!

Bruno Berle is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and figurehead of a contemporary Brazilian music movement. With a quiet mastery of songwriting and an astonishing voice, his music has won hearts around the world. Since the release of his debut album No Reino Dos Afetos (2022), Berle has performed across the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and China, only leaving his home country for the first time in 2023. Shaped by these journeys, Berle’s third studio album, Sem Fronteiras (Without Borders), reflects a utopian vision of a unified world.

Recorded across London, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Germany, and Maceió, the album–co-produced alongside his longstanding musical partner Batata Boy–is the most expansive canvas Berle has worked on to date. Shot through with the imagery that has always animated his songwriting: open skies, morning light, vivid colours and the magic of human connection, Berle’s carefully crafted poetics and warm, delicate instrumentation drive this vivid body of work.

“I came from nothing”–Berle doesn’t take his rise to global prominence for granted.

Born to a working class family from Brazil’s northeastern Alagoas state, one of Brazil’s most economically deprived, Bruno moved frequently in his youth to follow any job opportunities his parents could find, before eventually settling in the coastal capital of Maceió. “I used to travel to Caruaru, Santa Cruz, Recife, Garanhuns, Arapiraca, which I loved and feel it made me ready to be in this rhythm i’, but at the same time I think not having friends from childhood and being in constant change made me a little numb to the constant upheaval”. On Sem Fronteiras, there is a similar duality at play. The album celebrates the collective joy and human connection that live touring brings, but it also sits with the darker realities of crossing borders. While music moves more freely around the world than ever before, our bodies are not granted the same privilege.

Though he’s never lacked self-belief, Berle recognises that talent alone doesn’t guarantee opportunity. “Before my second album No Reino Dos Afetos 2 everything I had ever recorded was made with the help and kindness of people who believed in my ability”. Determined to pay that kindness forward and help others from the sharp end of Brazil’s desperately unequal society, Berle produced and featured on the recent self-titled albums by his northeast Brazilian compatriots, Nyron Higor and Phylipe Nunes Araújo (both 2025), helping propel both onto the international stage. In turn, following the successes of Nyron & Phylipe’s albums alongside his own, Bruno finds himself at the forefront of a thriving community of artists now based in São Paulo, but primarily originating from northeastern states like Alagoas and Pernambuco.

Much like the famed Clube Da Esquina movement that spawned in 1970’s Minas Gerais, they operate with a free-exchange of ideas, writing songs with and for each other, performing on each other’s albums and on the live circuit together. Lead single ‘Manha’ flows from this ethos. It was written by Berle’s friend and fellow Alagoan João Menezes (writer of ‘Ate Meu Violao’ and ‘Te Amar Eterno’ from Bruno’s previous albums) and Marvin Viera, and originally recorded on their 2018 album Areia e Mar.

Sem Fronteiras opens with ‘Você Já Sabe Que Eu Te Amo’, just six beats of one nylon guitar chord ring out before changing key, paving the way for the gentle strike of fender rhodes and the arresting call & response duet between Berle and Higor. On ‘Amor Inteiro’, the album reaches a celebratory burst of catharsis, with the punch-packing drums of Pedro Lacerda and Nina Maia’s joyous backing vocals encapsulating the live energy that Berle and his band bring to the stage.

With the abundant talents of this musical community at its heart, Sem Fronteiras releases 10th July 2026 via Far Out Recordings, supported by a summer tour across Europe. Bruno Berle will perform in a four-piece band alongside Nyron Higor, Phylipe Nunes, and Batata Boy, culminating in an appearance at Roskilde festival, Berle’s biggest live show to date. He’ll continue to carry a hopeful vision of a world where artists and musicians can move as freely as their music flows.

Tracklist:

A1 “Você Já Sabe Que Eu Te Amo”
(Nyron Higor / Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – drums, bass, acoustic guitar, electric piano, synthesizers, vocals
Bruno Berle – piano, vocals
Batata Boy – piano
Jorik Bergman – score preparation and conducting
Klara Gronet – violin
Ségolène de Beaufond – violin
Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – viola
Ilektra Stevi – cello

A2 “Não Posso Viver Sem Você”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Batata Boy – electric piano, organ, synthesizer
Bruno Berle – drums, bass, synthesizer, vocals
Jorik Bergman – score preparation and conducting
Klara Gronet – violin
Ségolène de Beaufond – violin
Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – viola
Ilektra Stevi – cello

A3 “A Noite de Estrelas”
(Nyron Higor / Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – synthesizers
Bruno Berle – bass, drums, vocals

A4 “Outra Noite”
(Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – drums
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, bass
Felipe Berle – congas
Lucca Francisco – guitar, vocals

B1 “Amor Inteiro”
(Bruno Berle)
Pedro Lacerda – drums, choir
Nyron Higor – bass, choir
Batata Boy – guitars, organ, electric piano, choir
Nina Maia – choir
Bruno Berle – guitars, acoustic guitar, congas, vocals

B2 “Ideias Mágicas”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Heloisa Alvino – trombone
Batata Boy – synthesizers, beats, electric piano, organ, bass
Bruno Berle – synthesizer, vocals

B3 “Vim Dizer”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Batata Boy – electric piano, organ, synthesizer
Thomas Stankiewicz – synthesizer
Nyron Higor – synthesizer
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, bass, vocals

B4 “Tô Assim”
(Bruno Berle)
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitars
Batata Boy – synthesizer
Nyron Higor – bass, synthesizer

B5 “Manhã”
(João Menezes / Marvin Silva)
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, vocals, congas, shaker
Batata Boy – piano, shaker, electric piano, vibraphone, synthesizers
Nyron Higor – drums, bass

B6 “Sem Fronteiras”
(Bruno Berle)
Filipe Mariz – guitar
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, vocals, bass
Jennifer Souza – vocals, acoustic guitar
Rudson França – drums

Credits:

Produced by Bruno Berle and Batata Boy
Mixed and mastered by Bruno Berle, Batata Boy and Felipe Berle

Audio engineering:
Nyron Higor (track 1 – production; track 4 with Felipe Berle)
Joe Osborne (tracks 7 and 9)
Victor Gelling (strings on tracks 1 and 2)
Filipe Mariz (track 10)

Photography: Claudio Virgínio
Design: Minchai

Recorded in:
Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil
Tamandaré, Pernambuco, Brazil
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
London, England
Cologne, Germany

Transparent Green Vinyl Repress

The Sound of Love International 008 curated by Ivan Smagghe.

The next chapter of Love International's compilation series with Test Pressing arrives through the lens of Ivan Smagghe. Guided by his long-standing mantra, “the style of no style,” the 12-track selection drifts effortlessly between shadow and light - a reflection of the festival as he knows it.

This is Smagghe’s version of Love International: unpolished in the right places, intuitive, and deeply attuned to the stranger corners of the Adriatic experience. The compilation captures the balance at the heart of the festival: connection, curiosity, and a shared rhythm that holds it all together. Slightly out of reach yet exactly where it should be.

Logout Record Shop Firenze is happy to present its first official release: LGT 001, signed by Novosti Kulturi. Known for his raw blend of electro, raw synth and underground industrial textures, Novosti Kulturi has been active within the darker electronic circuit through the Waveform community — a cult underground platform and party series connecting artists and dancefloors across Europe and beyond. Alongside connected to legendary German coldwave label Kernkrach, Berlin-based cassette label Detriti Records and London’s Meta Moto. Widely associated with contemporary electro, dark disco, techno and EBM-oriented dancefloors, Novosti Kulturi continues to shape a personal sonic language balancing cold machine-driven rhythms with saturated synth pressure, cinematic atmospheres, tape saturation and distorted nocturnal nostalgia. Built around classic TR drum machines, VCO and DCO synthesizers, 12-bit sampling and tape recordings, Novosti Kulturi operates like a transmission from an unidentified place — where past and future dissolve into raw sonic waves and frequency distortions.

This debut EP delivers five tracks moving across sharp electro rhythms, stripped techno structures and darker EBM-infused territories. Cold machine grooves, industrial tension and late-night melancholia define the release, balancing dancefloor functionality with a distinctly cinematic approach. Influences from electro-industrial, new beat and dark synth-driven club music emerge throughout the record’s sonic palette. With LGT 001, Logout Record Shop introduces a vision centered on artistic identity and storytelling, embracing a broad sonic spectrum rather than a fixed aesthetic direction. The label’s first release reflects this approach through Novosti Kulturi’s personal language — crossing styles, moods and textures while keeping a strong connection to modern underground dancefloors.

Fausto returns to the Carpet family, this time with three tweaked out jams perfect for the Circuits series. Spread across the A-side, the 9-minute ‘Moonland’ evokes its title with driving acid and cosmic Detroit atmospherics. On the B, ‘Nacho’ is a classic mood builder, tempering its own acid lead with expansive bass and a rolling groove. The EP closes with the stepping ‘Nirvana’, perfect for closed-eyes reverie at the afters.

Founded in Puebla City in 1998 by Alberto Tlahuetl, Grupo Soñador played a key role in shaping a distinct regional take on cumbia at a time when the genre was largely dominated by Mexico City and the coastal scenes. Working with minimal resources, home recordings, cassettes, and affordable keyboards, the group developed a clean, melodic, and dance-driven sound that resonated deeply within the sonidero circuit. Their breakthrough track El Paso del Gigante (2001), spread organically through DJs and street dances, establishing Grupo Soñador as a cornerstone of Puebla’s emerging musical identity. Without a formal label structure, their music travelled hand to hand, from local fairs to migrant communities in the United States, becoming part of a wider underground network of circulation. Blending electronic instrumentation with sonidero rhythms, Grupo Soñador helped place Puebla on Mexico’s cumbia map, not through industry infrastructure, but through the dance floor.

Derek Kamm is the American producer behind the Kidislive project and brings more than two decades of experience.

The Long Island-raised DJ and producer has previously received support from the likes of Richie Hawtin, Marco Carola and Carl Craig, while releasing on Visionquest, but now hones his craft, combining influences from micro house, minimal and experimental. Fresh off a third outing on 8 Head Records, he is back on his own new label to explore more compelling grooves.

Opener 'Down To The Penny' has a lively carnival feel, with an excitable mix of shimmering synths and subtle guitar riffs bursting through the mix. Sweeping filters ramp up the scale as more delicate melodies hang in the air, helping to hypnotise the dance floor. There is plenty of sunshine in the rich, multilayered instrumental 'Never Stop Reaching', which builds through rousing chords and florid flute lines. Vocals arrive with an empowering message that will bring real rapture. The fantastic 'Dipper Fox' is a rugged rhythm with chunky bass and a muscular feel that's softened by wispy, swirling synths and soaring choral vocals. Last but not least, 'Shorty Circuitry' is a study in emotional soundscaping - a warm, effervescing brew with strings and breathy vocals, long-tailed chords and a sense of joy all swarming around a subtle bass guitar that moves things onward and upwards.

'Electronic lullabies and folk songs from Ethiopia! A landmark recording from Ethiopia’s vibrant cassette era of the 1980s, Resonance of Time features pioneering composer Wesenyeleh Mebreku reimagining Ethiopian folk melodies through the humble circuitry of an early Casiotone keyboard.
'Historically, the works featured on Resonance of Time (የጊዜ ቃና Yegizie Kana) stand as quiet documents of Ethiopian musical memory. Many of the original songs included in this release emerged during important moments in Ethiopian history when music carried the collective emotion of the nation - love, loss, resistance, dignity, and hope. By arranging these pieces from Ethiopia’s musical heritage instrumentally, Wesenyeleh Mebreku aimed to preserve their essence while protecting them from being confined to a single era or performance style. In doing so, his preservation of Ethiopia’s musical heritage became a contribution to his country’s musical legacy itself, as Resonance of Time serves as an important musical milestone of this composer’s innovative recordings and musical developments in the prolific era of Ethiopia’s 1980s cassette tape culture.
'On Resonance of Time, Wesenyeleh made use of the first Casio electronic keyboard - the Casiotone CT-201 - to arrange and perform Ethiopian folk songs in his own unique style. Implementing the soulful, lo-fi character of the keyboard, Wesenyeleh’s interpretations of these works take on a life of their own. Charming analog tones interpret swirling sounds of organ and piano in kignit modality to the beat of a nostalgic rhythm machine while twinkling synthesizer sounds carry the melodies drifting out of time. The recordings reflect a watershed moment in Ethiopian musical history - when traditional melodies started being interpreted on electronic keyboards, and the advent of cassette tape recording allowed for music to be transmitted more accessibly than centuries-old oral traditions. During this time, Ethiopian musical modes were syncretized with new technology and budding musical experimentation, and Wesenyeleh’s interpretations on Resonance of Time are a landmark recording of this era, following in the tradition of reflecting upon and re-interpreting historical Ethiopian music for a new generation.
'Featured on the release are timeless Amharic folk songs and lullabies, Tigrinya love songs, Gurage and Oromifa popular songs, and even works closely associated with performers from Ethiopia’s 1970s popular music era such as Tiz Alegne Yetintu (ትዝ አለኝ የጥንቱ) which was famously performed by Tilahun Gessesse. Each piece, thoughtfully chosen by Wesenyeleh, is beautifully transformed into instrumental music of his own style - allowing these worlds of song to echo into the future while they are synthesized with the electronic innovations of the 1980s and Wesenyeleh’s own musical history.
'Wesenyeleh says this about his musical approach - ”Instrumental music, for me, is a space of reflection. Without words, the listener is invited to remember, imagine, and feel freely. In Resonance of Time, I hear my own musical philosophy: respect for Ethiopian kignit, careful dialogue with Western harmony, and a deep trust in melody as a storyteller.”
'Each piece performed on Resonance of Time speaks to a time when Ethiopian music was shaped by oral transmission through live performance and communal listening. In today’s fast-moving musical environment, revisiting these works is an act of cultural responsibility. These works remind us that melody once traveled slowly, settling deeply in the listener’s heart. The instrumental format allows these works to cross linguistic and generational boundaries, making them accessible to audiences who may not know the original lyrics but can still feel their spirit.
'Resonance of Time also reflects a broader historical dialogue: the meeting of tradition and adaptation. Ethiopian music has always evolved while holding onto its core identity. These arrangements affirm that evolution does not mean abandonment. Instead, it can be a form of safeguarding - ensuring that the musical wisdom of the past continues to resonate in the present and inspire the future.
'In this sense, the album is both personal and collective. It carries Wesenyeleh Mebreku’s own musical fingerprint, shaped by decades of practice, but it ultimately belongs to a wider cultural continuum. It is the artist’s contribution to keeping time audible so that memory, history, and sound may continue to speak to one another.'

In a dystopian universe where elites manipulate memory to control the population. Vibracid emerges as a technique of liberation through sound: a method for erasing induced memory.

THE RHYME marks the counterattack phase. The insurgents infect the system used by the elites for control and reprogram it from within: patterns, voices and sequences as active code.

Contemporary bass, electro, breaks, acid and rave converge as transmission vectors. Each track operates as a unit of intervention within this science fiction scenario.

At this stage, new signals are incorporated. Power, with a solid trajectory within the underground circuit, opens the EP in a forceful way, with an acid, surprising and spectacular impact. Exieve, a young producer from Chernihiv, continues the attack with a raw tension where vocals cut through the signal like sharp fragments. Alongside them, Lups Digga, Atix, Parand and Calagad 13 continue expanding the system’s reach.

Frenzy steps back into the warehouse fog for FRNZYREC012, marking the arrival of Mees Javois with the Eyes Without A Face EP. This six-track collection functions as a raw blueprint of the early hours, where the steady pulse of hardware meets a stripped-back, mechanical soul.

Already turning heads in the underground circuit, Mees brings a fresh yet timeless approach that feels equally suited to intimate basements and peak-time dance floors. His debut on Frenzy introduces an artist with a clear vision and a deep understanding of club music's darker edges.

FRNZYREC012 is a singular vision of the dancefloor, a deliberate sequence of sound that balances cold precision with a visceral human touch.



c A3: Mees Javois - Reflection Matrixxman Remix

DMA & Friends returns with a four-track EP from Groningen-based producer Mathijs Smit, one of the most interesting names emerging from the new wave of the Dutch underground scene.

Known for his hybrid approach between modern techno, progressive influences and intelligent club-oriented dance music, Smit has been steadily building a strong reputation through releases on labels such Superlux, alongside appearances across the Dutch underground circuit.

Built around hypnotic grooves, soaring melodies and emotionally charged atmospheres, the EP creates a constant sense of tension and release while moving between modern techno pressure and progressive inspired dancefloor moments.

Hyperdreams returns with Caim — Dream Ritual, a transmission pulled from a forgotten exoplanet where forest and machine have fused into a single ecosystem. Synthetic vines wrap through dead circuitry. Somewhere inside it, an alien tribe is still performing rituals to keep the system alive.

Six tracks. Six undeniable hits. Science can't explain it.

Four dazzling pdqb originals: pop-infused disco house transmissions where retro dreams collide with absurdly modern groove technology and hyper-modern circuitry. Hooks everywhere. Basslines that flirt shamelessly with eternity. Rhythms that know exactly what they're doing.
And then Roman Flügel arrives at the party. With two remixes of such dubby, technoid magnificence that they bend the laws of physics wherever they're played.
The cover? Pure gold. A radiant golden surface punctured by bullet marks - courtesy of world-renowned artist Maurizio Cattelan. When the music hits this hard, the artwork should too.
And the vinyl itself is no less extravagant: it reveals a dramatic close-up of the Direct Hit - a colossal crater surrounded by smoky burn marks, gleaming like a tiny golden monument to impeccable taste.
A small but undeniable upgrade to the cultural history of planet Earth. Play loud. Repeat often. History will thank you.

P.S. Real-world violence is neither glamorous nor welcome - this record stands firmly for peace, joy, and the radical idea that the only explosions worth having happen on dancefloors.

White Mechatronica returns.
Introducing Cold Voltage - a new series wired for tension, circuitry, and raw machine emotion. This first volume sets the tone: cold, direct, and built for dark rooms.

On the A-side, Elena Siziva opens with "The Balls", an experimental descent of bouncing basslines and cavernous synth textures. Filmmaker follows, delivering his unmistakable dark wave electro signature - sharp, shadowed, and hypnotic. Violet Position & Echo Protocol close the side with "Into the Silent Blue", an electro vocal cut designed to ignite the floor.

Flip to the B-side: Jennifer Touch strikes with "Don't", a rolling, snare-driven machine track that hits without warning. Mr. Funghi pushes further into EBM/Techno territory with "Off for the Weekend", a relentless piece built to tear down walls. Closing the release, The Spy delivers "Track Reaper", a dramatic Italo wave finale that lingers long after the last note fades.

"Over the past three decades, Philipp Lauer has produced an incredible body of work, deploying a myriad of aliases, both as a solo artist and as a part of collaborative projects. From his hardware-steeped Frankfurt studio Pyramide 2, he has built this catalogue through original material and remix commissions, taking on the full spectrum of electronic music while retaining an unmistakable signature. He combines a hands-on approach to rhythm and composition with a DIY MO and a love of big hooks. The level of expertise at hand seems to facilitate a playfulness that subtly permeates all layers of his work. He's a pop melody natural who just so happens to love fiddling with synthesizers, drum machines, and effects an equal amount. All of these qualities are exemplified on "Embalmed In Martino": Lauer's four-track ode to the Belgian Martino sauce, a spicy tomato-based condiment, and arguably the essential ingredient to top off the namesake raw meat sandwich. On "Embalmed", which makes use of instrumentation that would fit right in on an early eighties Manchester cut, and "Martino", where a sturdy, electroclash flavored arp bass provides the stamina, a slew of big and small riffs easily work their way in, thirsting for our ears. On the other side, "Transactional" combines Miami basslines and similarly electro-fundamental twinkling synth work with a flanger-laced 4/4 beat, while "Don't You Know" features soaring synthwave patterns and the only vocal samples on the EP. Both sport rich arrangements as well, right down to the cowbell overdubs. Lauer's often lauded for his "summery sound". In this light ALT026 lands right on time - yet we might disagree here, as it's suited for all seasons, and all terrains, both the shiny festival grounds and the dim-lit club floors."

Sometimes the title of an album tells you everything you need to know. Laurence Pike’s Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is like that: The music within represents a search for freedom, potentiality—liberatory strategies that transcend the ego and the solitary, atomized figure.

But in this case, the album title is also a red herring, because there is no jazz quintet here—just Pike, his drums, and his machines, not so much an ersatz ensemble as a purely notional one, a thought experiment equipped with drumsticks, circuitry, and the desire to go beyond hardwired limits.

And the results, strictly speaking, aren’t really jazz, though they incorporate the vocabulary of jazz, along with that of ambient, electronica, and post-rock. They are some other thing, cognizant of genre but never beholden to it. Again, we’re talking about a search for freedom here.

The Sydney-based musician has a long history of coloring outside the lines, not just in his solo recordings—including four albums for the Leaf label between 2018 and 2024—but also in the trio Pivot (later PVT); Szun Waves (alongside saxophonist Jack Wyllie and Border Community’s Luke Abbott); Triosk, which recorded an album with Jan Jelinek in 2003; and even post-punk titans Liars, whom he joined in late 2018.

Of his first album for Balmat, Pike says, “My loose concept was: What does music sound like when the expectations of late capitalism are removed from it? How might a jazz musician from an idealised culture of the future, or even another world, utilise musical language when the conventions of style and marketing are no longer a factor in music making?”

That inquiry, he says, connects to his “guiding principle: that the purpose of music is to access something bigger than the individual, and reveal a sense of possibility and freedom in the world to the listener. To create an understanding that the future can be something other than what we imagined or expect, even unconsciously.”

Heady ideas, but plug into his stream-of-metaconsciousness flow and you may start to intuit what motivates him. There is a deeply lyrical expression in these pieces—in the ruminative piano of opener “Guardians of Memory,” for example—but also a sense of exploded perspective, of ideas approached from more angles than any one mind could dream up. Of a collectivized consciousness, of mycelial networks branching across tone and rhythm and timbre, of ideas articulated in distributed fashion, nodal points dancing across drum heads.

Pike’s imaginary quintet is hardly without precedent; it’s a continuation of concepts floated across Jan Jelinek’s Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records, Burnt Friedman’s many guises, and much of the recombinant improv of the International Anthem roster, not to mention the far corners of ECM’s catalog in the late 1970s and 1980s, which Pike says have been integral to his development since he was a teenager. Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet is a point in a continuum, a voice in a conversation, a question with no obvious answer: How can the search for otherness in music manifest something true about ourselves?

/// First track, Symmetry, debuted on BBC Radio 6 New Music Fix, 10th February: "A beautiful, beautiful album" /// I got my life back. On 17 February 2025, 1024 rays of ultra sound converged at an operation table in Bern, Switzerland, and disconnected a noisy circuit on my brain. 90% of the manifestation ceased – of a disease that I no longer wish to mention by its name. During the same period, I completed my new album: Self Help Manual. I’ve read more current research about the nameless disease than my neurologist, who despite that I didn’t follow his advice on suitable treatment, called me after the successful operation: a brave, brave man. I have composed the music in the same way as in my previous album – Songs for the Nervous System – through layers upon layers of improvisations in dialogue with my synthesizers, most of which are the same age as me. I made the majority of the songs in my studio in the remains of Old Hagalund in Solna. I edited the recordings in my bed during the waking hours of clarity at night. Some songs – NAC, Ketosis, Overkill – were recorded in the basement of my childhood home in Skutskär, in Norduppland, where I’d returned to be nurtured by my retired parents – who during a night when I couldn’t turn over in bed, or pull the blanket over me – made a list of what would happen to my belongings. To my friends who have stood out with me despite my disease, I want to state: you will not inherit me yet. On the new album, the electric bass takes on a leading role. ESG and Liquid Liquid have been important when I reinvented my baselines, limited and liberated by my poor fine motor skills. Plasma is my homage to Summertime Rolls by Jane’s Addiction, that I listened to frequently in my youth. I guess that no one will hear the resemblance. In several songs, the Fender Rhodes plays an important role, a magical instrument that I bought shortly after my diagnosis over a decade ago, and for a long time didn’t dare to touch out of respect for Herbie Hancock and Fela Kuti. A couple of songs draw inspiration from the Horn of Africa – Inner Nile and Delta. At first, subconsciously in the reverb-drenched Inner Nile, then more consciously in Delta. I’m sorry it doesn’t swing the right way, but it was my attempt to return to the cradle of humanity. Longevity is possibly my favourite. The melody is played by an arpeggiator that I controlled by pressing down different keys in an exhilarating sense of freedom. One song in particular, the second track – One – has caused friends to associate freely: one thought it sounded like Patrick Cowley, another like Sly & Robbie meets Kraftwerk, a third like Air – Moonlight Safari. I made one song just before the surgery: opening track Symmetry. It’s the mightiest and most minimal song. I made one song after the surgery: finishing track Self Help Manual. My previous medication pump is heard through the microphone of my Ovation Magnum. It’s the most hopeful song on the album. I took the cover photos with my Hasselblad during walks in Tokyo suburbs of Ōmori and Kamata more than ten years ago. It was something about the faith of the traffic cones that fascinated me – born in the same streamlined form, they had over the years become increasingly individual and lovable. The mixing was finalized by Christoffer Roth in the newly built Studio Dubious in Nacka. Rashad Becker, who in an interview said that he listens as much with his mouth as with his ears, mastered the album at Clunk in Berlin. Right now it feels like anything is possible. My recovery is perhaps a small step for mankind, but a giant leap for me. I hereby leave the music to you. Joakim Forsgren

A dynamic DJ and producer, the Galway-born, Berlin-based artist is driven by mood not genre, gleefully scribbling outside the lines to craft rhythmic, high-vibration dancefloor cuts that make them a delicious match for the Chunkers. Just reference their pin-sharp releases on Radiant, Punctuality, Planet Euphorique and their own World of Worlds imprint. While anyone who’s caught their throwdowns at Draaimolen’s legendary forest stage, Horst Festival or London’s infamous queer party Club Are already knows what’s up.

Their contribution to the BSC catalogue is bang on. Lead cut ‘Track Like’ is a straight-up Chunker. Beginning life as an instrumental, it’s a pumping house cut marked by a grooving bassline, tight drums and a contained ravey energy, before Eoin DJ added that vocal that took the production into peak-time party territory.

A producer who requires no introduction – Jennifer Loveless join the Chunkers fold with a full-bodied remix of ‘Track Like’. Lock in for a funky maximal re-rub with the attitude turned up to 11. Back in Eoin DJ’s corner, the crisp ‘n’ punchy ‘Pure U’ is driven by fat kick drums, euphoric chords and a chunky rolling bassline. Exquisite stuff. A tight Dub version is included in the pack. The EP rounds out with the perky ‘Feel Deeper’, which channels ‘90s New York house and circuit sounds and is built around a hooky vocal line and rhythmic drums.

Eoin DJ follows BELLA, Eliza Rose, Papa Nugs, Paperkraft and remixes Peach and CARISTA in joining the Big Saldo’s Chunkers family as Sally C delights in growing the label via a carefully curated roster of artists.

“I loved the label already, so I was super stoked when Sally asked me to do a release. Chunkers is always

so on-point and consistent with its output. All of the releases are certified party starters – fat basslines, catchy vocals, full of energy and tuned to perfection to hit on the soundsystem. I used that as a jumping off point when making the EP. You could say it’s Chunkers – Eoin DJ style.” – Eoin DJ

“I was hooked on Eoin’s sound since they released ‘Ode to Beachball’ in 2024 on Punctuality Records. I love their ability to weave emotion and groove so seamlessly. It’s been a pleasure working on this EP – I’ve been endlessly rinsing all of the tracks. Such a great producer!” – Sally C

4/5 Mojo review: ‘Sparse, hypnotic big-room techno that builds from the bass drum up

Double LP is released on 140gm black vinyl in a transparent gloss foil sleeve, artwork and design by Ian Anderson for Designers Republic. Circuitry Electronic launches with a release that stands as a statement of intent - an artist with few true peers within English electronic music, with an album that jumps out of the speakers and slaps you around the chops. G-Man is Gez Varley - one half of Sheffield pioneers LFO, and thirty years into his solo career, with his first vinyl album release since Avanti on Force Inc way back in 2002. Speaking to DJ magazine in 2014 Gez recalled his early days working with Mark Bell as LFO: “We were influenced by groups like 808 State. Unique 3, Nightmares On Wax and also stuff like Kraftwerk, Detroit techno and early electro. So when we first hooked up and made tunes together we just wanted to rock the dancefloor at our local club The Warehouse”.

Their eponymous track ‘LFO’ – a classic of the bleep and bass techno movement – was one of the first releases on the Warp label, gate- crashing the UK’s Top 20 whilst annoying Simon Mayo along the way. Having worked with the likes of Richie Hawtin, Karl Bartos, Laurent Garnier, Art of Noise, Radiohead, YMO and Alan Wilder, in addition to the LFO output, you'd expect Gez to know his way around a techno dancefloor rhythm and drum pattern, and this is an inventive funk-filled journey that never veers too far into experimental territory yet avoids the cliches and generic tropes that too often lose the listener when techno manifests in album form.

Decibel Place arrives on Dorbachov's Scrap & Delete with the 'Swarm' EP landing on 8th May 2026, coming with a remix from Belgium's Steve Redhead. Known for navigating the darker, more experimental edges of the genre while maintaining driving, floor-focused energy, the Liverpool-based Decibel Place has previously delivered on labels including Materialised, Transition, MASS, and Khazad Records. As a DJ, he continues to earn attention with his tightly constructed sets across the hardgroove circuit, a sensibilitycarried through this latest body of work. The EP opens with the title track 'Swarm', setting the tone through immersive, tension-building arrangements. Undulating sound design and tightly interlocked rhythms draw the listener into a dense, atmospheric space, rich in detail and forward motion. Steve Redhead steps in on remix duties, reworking 'Swarm' into a stripped-back, percussive cut defined by clarity and control, where subtle shifts in rhythm and texture drive a deeper, hypnotic propulsion. 'Infection' follows with a shift into more industrial territory, introducing broken rhythms and raw, mechanical textures that sharply punctuate the groove. Closing track 'Smoking Kills' leans fully into hardgroove territory, with driving drums and visceral energy bringing the EP to a powerful, club-ready finish.
Decibel Place's 'Swarm EP' comes via digital and vinyl on Scrap & Delete on 8th May 2026.