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Dez Andrés, Detroit’s underground legend and genre-blurring maestro is back with another batch of reworked old skool bangers.

Since the late '90s, Dez has built a respectable catalog that blurs the boundaries between genres. One of motor city’s most prolific artists, his music can be summed up in one word: quality. Now he returns to DFM with a two-sided heater.


Dez flips Odyssey’s classic Native New Yorker into a gritty dembow style club weapon. With iconic vocal lines and signature piano riff, Dez injects his signature bounce and percussive punch, turning this disco anthem into a raw dancefloor destroyer.
Diving deeper, Dez revives Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band’s classic Sun Showers, transforming it into a rhythmic, power groove tailor-made for sweaty basements, rooftop sets and smoke filled dance floors on red-lit nights that refuse to end.

RANDY'S 50th ANNIVERSARY CHAPTER ONE / VARIOUS - First time on vinyl for Chapter Two second part of the acclaimed previously CD only set that was released to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Randy's Records. From Augustus Pablo's groundbreaking 'Java' to Carl Malcolm's UK pop crossover hit 'Fattie Bum Bum' Chapter Two showcase classic after classic from a all-star line up of the 70's reggae music greats including Black Uhuru, Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, The Heptones & Big Youth. Beautifully packaged with inner sleeves featuring rare photos and liner notes by reggae historian, Dennis Katz.

Apex militant late '70s style here, if you think you are into steppers you should have this one firmly in your sights. One of Mr. Smart's hardest records, this originally appeared only as an album track, but also had some fame as a dubplate played at the time by Jah Shaka and others. We've long had that cut in our sights, and while some nice new re-mixes of this tune appeared in the last few years, here is the real thing from '79 steel. The A-side features the raw dubplate cut vocal, no horns or other adornment, HARD to the point stepping drum and bass style. The B-side features the original Gussie Clarke dub mix aptly titled "Hot Steppers", also previously released only on album. This cut as well was run on dubplate back at the time, a killer mix with full horns but no vocal. Leroy Smart is one of our all time favorite artists and we take pride in having re-released a handful of his all time best records, this one now added to that list.

Podcast platform and event promoter based in Milan since 2019, Clausura now launches its label imprint with a vinyl-only four-track VA. The release features contributions from the label’s founders, Brolpi and THEOREM, alongside guest artists who embody the project’s musical vision.

This first record sets the tone for the label’s future direction, shaped by its community, a spirit of musical exploration, and a strong focus on the dancefloor.

Repress 2026
Two years after releasing the acclaimed Crash Recoil, Anthony Child aka Surgeon returns to Tresor with new LP, Shell~Wave. Retaining the minimal equipment list and studio-version-of-live-show-sets approach of the previous album in order to focus on the work itself, Shell~Wave is a deeply personal document of both where Surgeon is and has been, converging three decades of experience with a continued curiosity in the untested.
“To make this project, I had to dig really deep in terms of what my relationship was to techno; I’ve been involved with it for a really long time and there’s a lot about it I feel dislocated from, so I had to really think hard about what techno is to me. I often get asked “what is techno to you?” but I can’t answer that with words; this album is the answer.” From the complex, twisting track Infinite Eye to the caustic Soul Fire, the eight tracks that make up the body of the album are single-take explorations of the vast, hard yet minimal techno Child is synonymous with.
Neatly dividing the record in two, the emotional centre of the record comes in the form of Dying, a vibrating, beatless piece that with a mantra-like vocal loop steeped in reverberating effects. Further echoes of dub production appear throughout the record as tracks like Divine Shadow, and Empty Cloud have an almost ever-present mist of reverberation, driven by the appearance of a new delay unit in the equipment list; while much of the philosophy of Crash Recoil’s creation is present, the process and the instruments have changed as Child again switches up his approach to studio work.
This insistence on trying novel techniques doesn’t preclude returning to old ones, as this use of modern digital machines with live, hands-on takes that are as inspired by 60s producer Joe Meek and 70s reggae as they are by this year’s synthesiser expos.
“For me, it’s an interesting experience returning to old techniques again after 30 years. I’m always exploring and finding myself back at the beginning. Connecting the present with the past.”
This philosophy of ‘time travel’ is inherent to the music itself as the synchronised loops repeat while the delay and effects branch out, forming unique eddies; distinct quantum moments within the circular whole; the future leaking through the spaces between the sounds. All of the concepts on the album are perfectly communicated through the painting by Taiwanese artist Jazz Szu-Ying Chen which suggests the movement of water, sound waves, and the chitinous shells of sea creatures.

Cari Lekebusch is an enigmatic figure but was a key early player in the Swedish techno scene with a big say in the wider evolution of European techno. 'Fred 2' is one of his most sought after records from those early years and this reissue features three massive tunes written back in 1993. The EP opens with the deep and funky techno rhythms of stone cold classic 'Nightshade', before 'Prototype' brings a trippier vibe with manic synths darting around a booming kick. The 10 minute behemoth 'Mono Flight' closes out the record with a lesson in classic dance floor hypnosis, its swirling layers gradually building and growing over deep and throbbing bass. Three cuts that very much make their mark, even three decades on.

A Modern Revisit to a Cult Classic: A fresh "Twentysix Mix" of the 2016 underground staple In Your Body, updated for 2026 dancefloors with contemporary BPM and sharp remaster.

Ten years after defining the early sound of his own label, Berlin-based electronic explorer Cosmin TRG revisits a cornerstone of his discography. In Your Body (Twentysix Mix) sees the Romanian-born producer breathe new life into the 2016 underground anthem that helped cement the Sportiv label's reputation for high-end, functional techno.

This updated iteration retains the propulsive, hypnotic spirit of the original while sharpening the edges for a contemporary club environment. The package is rounded out by the driving, industrial-tinged cuts "Erodat" and "Iradiat," plus an exclusive digital remix by mysterious newcomers TRYL. Delivered as a classic hand-stamped white label, this release continues the Sportiv tradition of marrying stripped-back, high-impact club aesthetics with meticulous sound design.

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

2024 Repress

PLEASURE ZONE PRESENTS ANOTHER TREASURE FROM THE PAST: IT'S PETER F. SPIESS - LUNAR SPECIMEN PART1 - ORIGINALLY RELEASED IN 1998 ON ALPHA! BACK IN SOLID BLACK VINYL END OF SEPTEMBER. DON'T MISS!

The roots of hard rock act Tucky Buzzard lie in psychedelic group, The End, who supported The Rolling Stones on an early tour, leading Bill Wyman to produce their sole LP. The band then morphed into Tucky Buzzard, now with scorching lead guitar licks and Hammond organ parts to the fore, and Wyman still on board as producer and manager. For their final album, Buzzard, released on Deep Purple’s Purple imprint in 1973, there is a mix of hard-edged blues rock, with a fine interpretation of perennial classic, “Who Do You Love,” and wistful originals like “Hanging On In There.” As ever, Wyman’s sterling production and presence on acoustic and electric piano makes this one a must for all Stones fans.

George Otsuka (or Ohtsuka), sadly passed away in March 2020, was one of Japan’s most renowned jazz drummers. ‘Sea Breeze’, released in 1971on the Union label, is his first record in quintet formation and is reissued here on a single LP housed in a gatefold sleeve.

And we can say that George Otsuka knew how to surround himself: Shunzo Ohno is on trumpet and Flugelhorn, Takao Uematsu on tenor sax and soprano, Takashi Mizuhashi on bass and Hideo Ichikawa on electric piano.

If all the tracks on this album are solid, included the astonishing cover of “Fool on the Hill”, it is especially “Sea Breeze”, the eponymous track opening the album that will make an impression. A super and long jazz-funk track where the five musicians, in perfect osmosis, leave each other enough space to express the full extent of their talent.

Recent copies of the original vinyl,which were only released in Japan have sold for £200-300.

NOAHFINNCE’s ‘STUFF FROM MY BRAIN / MY BRAIN AFTER THERAPY’ is a collection of songs written before and after therapy.

The debut double EP collection features guest vocals from Chris Freeman of Hot Mulligan and builds the world of NOAHFINNCE’s unique, hyperactive brain.

The project tackles issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, past trauma and the path toward prioritizing mental health.

Deeply personal, but always expressed with a cheeky, quirky, not-so-serious sense of humour, NOAHFINNCE showcases the big personality that has amassed a huge YouTube following and led
him toward being a leading voice in Trans/LGBTQ+ youth issues.

With songs like ‘AFTER THERAPY’ and ‘LIFE'S A
BIT’, NOAHFINNCE is poised to break out as this
year’s new star of the new wave of pop punk.

For fans of YUNGBLUD, Waterparks, Set It Off.

LP pressed on cloudy blue vinyl.

High Focus Records are proud to present the latest collaboration from Verb T & Illinformed. ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ both continues and completes the trilogy that began back in 2015, with ‘The Man with the Foggy Eyes’, before broadening the horizons with last year’s release ‘The Land of the Foggy Skies’. This final chapter returns to the same conceptual landscape as its predecessors, but also sees Verb T & Illinformed returning to a more classic approach to album making. In spite of its concept, the Foggy Trilogy is something of a personal outpouring for Verb T, with the original aim being to vicariously discuss the trials and tribulations that play a part in his life, including his struggles with chronic illness and the feeling of alienation from leaving his hometown, while also reflecting on the state of the world as a whole. Their approach to making the album meant taking it back to the most natural form, where the idea for the track would be outlined, Illinformed would make the beat, Verb T would write to it and then they would tweak and adjust accordingly. The result is 19 of the most finely crafted tracks to emerge from the UK shores this year. As with the previous albums, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ finds Illinformed moving away from the more rugged sound that has shrouded the British scene over the last few months, thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Datkid and Wish Master, instead providing Verb T with an arguably more mellow backdrop. From the string and piano driven introduction on ‘Legacy’, to the blissful head-nod vibes of the closing track, ‘Blind Faith’, the union between beats and rhymes sits at the perfect level. The album also boasts one of the most impressive guestlists of the year, one that is very much a product of both players’ worlds. Thanks to Illinformed’s Bristol connection, there are features from the likes of Res One, Datkid, Leaf Dog, Smellington Piff and Chillman, as well as some locally sourced cuts from DJ Rogue. While on Verb T’s side of the fence, we have features from Rye Shabby and Moreone, along with a collaboration that reignites the same creative spark he found in his early days, as King Kashmere steps into the booth on Feeling Strange. All in all, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ does exactly what it sets out to do, by drawing the trilogy to a close while also providing insights into Verb T’s personal world and the world at large. The fact that it also happens to be one of the strongest rap albums of the year is the icing on the cake

Vinyl Packaging: Gatefold LP + download card. Indie Exclusive Transparent Orange vinyl in gatefold jacket Limited to 1000. CD 6 panel Digipak. Gnosis is the highly anticipated 8th full length from Russian Circles. Across the span of their previous seven studio albums, Chicago-based instrumental trio Russian Circles traversed a diverse topography of sounds, moods, and approaches with their limited armory of drums, bass, and guitar. It’s difficult to chart an evolution in their sound when their records have always felt like well-curated playlists. It wasn’t uncommon to hear drone-heavy meditations, dazzling prog exercises, knuckle-dragging riff-fests, haunting folk ballads, and tension-baiting noise rock all within the span of one album. Still, it’s difficult to ignore the progression from the pensive and intricate melodies of Enter (2006) to the layered distorted dirges of Blood Year (2019). It’s been a gradual sonic shift owing to the band’s rigorous tour schedule and a predilection towards playing their more authoritative material on stage. But with their latest album, Gnosis, Russian Circles eschew the varied terrain of their past work and bulldoze a path through the most tumultuous and harrowing territory of their sound. As was the case for so many artists in the age of COVID, the obstacles of geography and isolation forced Russian Circles to reevaluate their writing process. Rather than crafting songs out of fragmented ideas in the practice room, full songs were written and recorded independently before being shared with other members, so that their initial vision was retained. While these demos spanned the full breadth of the band’s varied styles, the more cinematic compositions were ultimately excised in favor of the physically cathartic pieces. Gnosis was engineered and mixed by Kurt Ballou. Drums and bass were tracked at Electrical Audio in Chicago to maximize the natural room sounds of the rhythm section. Guitar and synth overdubs were conducted at God City in Salem, MA to take advantage of Ballou’s vast inventory of amps and effects pedals. Despite the entirety of the album being written remotely, the songs were recorded with the full band playing together to retain the live feel of the material. Owing to the climate of the times and a new writing method, Russian Circles created their most fuming and focused work to date—an album that favors the exorcism of two years’ worth of tension over the melancholy and restraint that often colored their past endeavors. European Co-Headline tour with Cult of Luna slated for Marc 2023 (Dates TBA). Russian Circles have received coverage from most notable press including Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, FADER, AV Club, Consequence, Decibel, Revolver and much more.

Split System, the Aussie group featuring Jackson Reid Briggs (Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters) on vocals and Arron Mawson (Stiff Richards) on guitar, took the punk world by storm with its debut EP this past spring. That was hardly surprising given the talent involved. But whatever my expectations were for Split System, the Melbourne-based outfit far exceeded them. Not just another "super group" (also on board are guitarist Ryan Webb Speed Week, bassist Deon Slaviero, and drummer Mitch McGregor [No Zu]), Split System is straight-up one of the most powerful and exciting punk rock and roll bands of recent memory. The band's EP was a smasher, and now debut album Vol. 1 emphatically follows suit. My god, this record is a monster! Essentially Split System's sound is classic Aussie punk. That may sound like nothing new, but this band executes the style with a force and fury rarely heard these days. It doesn't hurt that Jackson Reid Briggs is one of the best rock and roll screamers going. He's got a fire inside of him. Meanwhile, Mawson and Webb form one hell of a guitar tandem. And that rhythm section is insane. These are all brilliant players who come together to make an extraordinary band. Vol. 1 comes storming out of the gates with "The End" and never lets up. Of course we knew some of the previously-released tracks ("Hit Me," "Demolition," "Climbing") were going to rip. But the newer material is just as good and will just about melt your face off. Songs like "Ringing In My Head" and "Grip" are pure energy and ferocity, while closing track "Feelings" has a mellowed-out Saints feel. This band knows how to rock and roll, and there are literally no songs on this album that don't entirely kick ass. Sometimes we think of these all-star groups as "side projects," but such categorization would sell Split System woefully short. If we're talking about the top three or four punk bands in Australia right now, this has to be one of them! Josh Rutledge/ Faster and Louder

The first Jet Set series is back in print and now repressed on colored vinyl. St. Louis producer Bonus Points scores high with Off Topic, an outstanding four-song EP for the Cold Busted label. With previous appearances on Chillhop Records, Sundae Sauuce, Horizon, and others, Bonus Points delivers a dazzling take on boom-bap beats and future funk. Bonus Points is a graphic designer by day and, in turn, his musical compositions reflect attention to color, form, and detail. These beats are visual. The release’s title cut opens things with a spacey intro before delving into some serious sunshine lounge vibes. A cool breeze wafts through these melodies. “Zoned Out” follows with a distant, romantic guitar and a lonesome, pensive feeling that’s perfect for seaside pondering. Next up is the old-timey jazz bop of “Coffee Lounge,” recalling the St. Louis swing of yesteryear over some phat beats. Off Topic closes with “Back And Forth