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One Believer, the Elektra debut by the late bluesman John Campbell, was outside of virtually every trend on major labels and in pop at the time. Other than Chris Whitley's Living with the Law, it was the only roots record issued on a major label in 1991.

A deeply atmospheric record full of subtle shimmering organs and warm guitar textures that accent the dreamy spooky side of the blues more than the crunchy stomp and roll that Campbell was known for in the clubs and displayed on his follow-up Howlin' Mercy. Tracks like "Angel of Sorrow," "World of Trouble," and "Wild Streak" offer shimmering ambient textures from which the blues emanate from the ether. Campbell was living and working in New York and his music was certainly influenced by that late-night environment. These are beautiful songs, tempered in shadow and restraint while baring their teeth at all the right moments. On "Couldn't Do Nothin'," "Devil In My Closet," and "Person to Person the roadhouse magic comes out. The album's last two tracks "Take Me Down" and the title track are menacing in their conviction and creepy swampy in execution.

One Believer is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on blue vinyl and contains an insert.

Taking the exploratory spirit of groups like Polar Bear and Malija (both also featuring Mark Lockheart ) the trio move together through a common language of jazz, rock, classical and free improvisation exploring dark textures and dramatic musical shifts as they revel in the unexpected. High energy jazz improvising combined with spatial and ambient sounds gives this trio its unique and bold concept. The music shifts effortlessly moment to moment, gracefully and spontaneously stitching together sound landscapes and grooves. The subtle use of electronics (particularly on the saxophone), fat rich bass lines and tantalising drum rhythms give his band a unique sound that although firmly rooted in jazz has rock, folk and classical influences too. The album's specially commissioned artwork by Tim Edgar perfectly reflects the shifting shapes of Shapeshifter

Following a successful first volume of the newly launched DC4 compilation this summer, Volume 2 arrives featuring four on-point singles from the label’s extended family of artists, alongside a string of label debutants. Heerhorst & PETER PAHN return to the fold following their contribution to ‘Dark Clouds’ with Teenage Mutants, a former Beatport no.1 and highlight of 2023 for the label. Continuing the celestial themes ‘Crystal Sky’ feels like part 2 to ‘Dark Sky’, a lively electro-tinted record driven by dreamy melody lines and chanting vocals that has plenty of peak-time energy. Italian behemoth’s Mind Against debut on Drumcode in collaboration with Tharat, ‘Cloud’ is one of the most interesting releases we’ve heard on the label in recent times, marked by a head-spinning flurry of stuttering, distorted sounds, all the while maintaining a rolling,

intoxicating groove. Rising German artist Kos:mo mints his first release on DC with ‘Samsara', a fierce acid techno cut that takes on a life of its own in the second stanza, equally fit for a film soundtrack as a dancefloor, such is its dramatic arc. OZBEK & Zafer Atabey are mainstays of the Turkish techno and tech house scene, ‘My Culture’ is drenched in attitude, a slick slice of punchy dancefloor grit, with a foot in house, techno and electro, driven by a rapped vocal line.

‘Shaking Hips and Crashing Cars’ is the debut album from Wrexham band The Royston Club. The album was recently recorded at the famous Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, where the band spent two weeks with fast-rising producer Alex Quinn. The album was mixed by Tom Longworth and mastered by Robin Schmidt and released on June 2nd, 2023, due to high demand from our fans we have decided to do a limited edition clear vinyl.

From its instructive title to its unapologetic sound, 'Louder, Please' is Rose Gray powerfully - but with quintessential, British politeness - backing herself (who she is, what she wants, and the artist she's always had the potential to become). It's a statement of intent reflected in the record's breadth of collaborators, which span legendary pop kingpins Justin Tranter (Lady Gaga, Chappel Roan) and Zhone (Troye Sivan) to underground electronic heroes like Seda Bodega, Uffie and Alex Metric. Throughout 'Louder, Please' pairs home truths with dance hedonism, summoning not just a transformative night out - the new faces and chosen family, ecstatic highs and crushing lows - but also telling Rose Gray's story: a life lived through club music, and always to its fullest.

Die aufstrebende Singer-Songwriterin waterbaby aus Stockholm, Schweden, sieht alles durch eine romantische Brille. Das hört man in der Musik der aufstrebenden Künstlerin, die nostalgisch, zart und so fließend ist, wie ihr Künstlername schon sagt. waterbaby wuchs in einer musikalischen Familie auf, von ihrem Urgroßvater, einem Jazzpianisten, über ihren Onkel, der in Clubs arbeitete, bis hin zu ihrem eigenen Bruder, der unter dem Namen tt auftritt. Schließlich fand sie ihren eigenen Weg und Sound und veröffentlichte 2023 ihre Debüt-EP ,Foam" bei Sub Pop. Produziert von ihrem Hauptkollaborateur Marcus White (YG, Anna of the North), enthielt das spritzige, bekennende, gitarrenlastige Projekt die Singles ,911", ,Airforce Blue" und ,Wishing Well". Nach den 2025 veröffentlichten Singles ,Amiss" und der preisgekrönten Zusammenarbeit mit Hannes ,Wish" bereitet sich waterbaby auf die mit Spannung erwartete Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums ,Memory Be a Blade" vor. Dunkler und üppiger als ihre EP, entspringt waterbabys neue Musik einem Ort unbewusster Herzensqual, an dem sie über eine vergangene Trennung nachdenkt, während sie kurz davor steht, eine neue zu erleben. White holte ein hervorragendes Team von Musikern an Bord, um dem Sound Tiefe und Vollständigkeit zu verleihen, was waterbabys klassischen Musikhintergrund widerspiegelt. ,Es nahm quasi vor unseren Augen Gestalt an", sagt sie über den nahtlosen Prozess, diese emotionalen neuen Songs zum Leben zu erwecken. Diesmal waren die Texte eher improvisiert, was waterbaby mehr Freiheit gab, das auszudrücken, was sie sagen wollte. ,Ich habe das Mikrofon genommen, ohne zu wissen, was ich tun würde", sagt sie, ,und das ist zum ehrlichsten Ventil in meinem Leben geworden."

Elliott Smith's 'Division Day' is not only one of the late artist's most beloved fan favorite songs, it's also one of Smith's first departures away from the soft-spoken melancholy of his first two albums and into the more sophisticated pop that led to his breakout success. B-side 'No Name #6' is a classic in its own right, encapsulating the humble brilliance of one of our generation's greatest singer-songwriters.

With Late Bloomer, Belgian-Cameroonian rapper, composer and multi-instrumentalist Kunde delivers a work that is both deeply personal and socially charged. The album forms a diptych with his previous release, Dandelion(2024). In Late Bloomer, Kunde pays tribute to his mother, who largely raised him and his sister on her own, using pivotal personal moments as a mirror through which he reveals the world from his perspective.

Composed and arranged entirely by Kunde and brought to life by his live band, Late Bloomer unfolds as a rich, layered universe where jazz, R&B, hip-hop, samba and touches of psychedelic rock intersect. Whereas his first album emerged mostly from the home studio, the new work is driven by live energy, collective interplay and a broader sonic scope. The album is further enriched by guest contributions from Helena Casella, Fred Gata, Okon and Tennishu (US), frontman of the Anderson .Paak-supported jazz-fusion band Butcher Brown.

Late Bloomer cements Kunde's reputation as a storyteller, composer and musical director. The album is both intimate and expansive, rooted in personal history while offering incisive reflections on the human condition. Like his inspirations, ranging from Coltrane and J Dilla to D'Angelo, Don Blackman and Arthur Verocai Kunde crafts a distinctive sound that is at once deeply personal and universally resonant.

Here we have two luminaries of contemporary music, vocalist Audrey Chen and iconoclast guitar player Tashi Dorji, who both have proven themselves as key representatives of idiosyncratic music for the past 20 plus years.

Audrey, born into a family of material scientists, doctors and engineers, channeled those family genes through un-processed hyperextended voice, consequently transmutating her family's DNA into her very own sonic language of equal precision, discipline and creative power as her kins' professions.

Tashi, on the other hand, carries the mountains in his spirit: born in Bhutan, Southeast Asia, now residing in Ashville, North Carolina, close to the Appalachians. That earthly power is unmistakably present in his energetic guitar playing, which also incorporates folkloric elements of both his native country, and his homeland since 2000.

Those two strong musical personalities met on stage in the late summer of 2023 at Morphine Raum, Berlin. The fact that it took place in one of the birthplaces of techno music, seems to have pushed their performance towards an industrial, repetitive aesthetic of, at times, almost dancelike quality. However, as the track titles suggest, that classic forward pulsating rhythm, associated with electronic dance music, is bent at their heart's content, as are its appertaining clean melodies gnashed to smithereens.

Following Léve Léve Vol. 1, this second volume continues a long-term exploration of the popular music of Sao Tomé and Príncipe, with a clear focus on rhythm, movement and dancefloor energy. Curated by Tom B., Léve Léve Vol. 2 brings together emblematic recordings from the 1970s and 1980s, carefully restored and remastered, designed as much for close listening as for DJ use.

Taupe’s latest album release, waxing | waning delivers jazz experimentalism, ‘skronk’, avant-rock, and electronics, by the Glasgow-based trio, due out via Minority Records. Across its seven tracks, waxing | waning captures Taupe’s approach – bold and boundary pushing – shaped by a fresh shift in the band’s dynamic and compositional approach.

Taupe’s waxing | waning, co-composed and realised by its players in a studio that was once an undertaker’s premises in Glasgow, is an absolutely affirmative album, an act of cultural defiance in desperate times.

Comprising Mike Parr-Burman (guitar, bass guitar, electronics), Jamie Stockbridge (alto and baritone saxophones) and Alex Palmer (drum kit, percussion), Taupe work up a storm of skronk, free jazz and harmolodic frenzy whose closest relations include Zu, Melt Banana and John Zorn. However, waxing | waning is from its opening, stuttering blasts, an exercise in seeking out and claiming new territory, finding unique and novel permutations in which jazz, rock, electronics interbreed at breakneck pace. Here is a group determined to say and do things they don’t get to say and do elsewhere in their musical lives.

‘Lemonade Tycoon’ hits the ground skronking. It’s cubistic jazz, cumulative in its impact, avoiding the white lines of the conventional freeway, bridling, bustling, coming at you from all angles – a three way conversation of astonishing rapidity, fast track, telepathic communication – everyone from James Chance to Albert Ayler coming at you at once, before morphing in to a spidery scrawl of electronics and furious percussion. ‘Anti-Bird-Spike BirdNest’s‘ title somehow sums up the sort of mental images evoked by the music – its sheer creative disobedience, as if being chased in vain, like a delivery rider evading capture by ICE agents -– shapeshifting, assuming different shades, sprouting metal quills and, in its midsection, seeming almost to swallow itself alive, before regurgitating itself in a sublime mess.

‘Interlude (Stride)’ is not exactly ambient, more a horizontal enmeshment of percussion, drones, reverberant noise, electronics, a sonic mulch. ‘allcapsallbold' reminds of early Aksak Maboul, in its playfulness, a haywire series of short phrases, subject to mechanical interference, a complex weave of irregular rhythms, increasingly eloquent sax phraseology and caustic guitars, which land heavier and heavier. ‘Pet Boss' is the new jazz equivalent of a highly evolved, mature conversation among brilliant equals, sharp, empathetic, complementary, rising to a collective, joyful noise. On the title track, electronics descend like a shower of bright particles, intensifying in their luminosity, whitening the skies, as sax and drums kick up a tempestuous, spontaneously sculpted noise that summons the ghosts of the great free jazz players, before a dark calm descends slowly. Finally, ‘Turn Push Kick’, a burgeoning chatterstorm of electronics, before the group kicks in, at angles to one another, led by abrasive guitars, reminiscent of Sunn O))) in their ritualistic concussion, riffing, digging deep amid squealing sax and piledriving percussion.

Norwegian hard rock band Gjenferd returns with their second album, Black Smoke Rising. Black Smoke Rising takes the band to a new level, building on the strengths of their debut while pushing the sound in a more direct and accessible direction. The album delivers stronger songs, sharper hooks and a tighter overall approach, without losing the darker edge that has defined Gjenferd from the start. Guitars and organ are at the core of the sound, driving solid riffs and catchy vocal lines with a clear pop sensibility beneath the heaviness. The band's debut album received strong reviews both nationally and internationally, including 4. place on Doom Charts in May 2024. Gjenferd draws inspiration from classic heavy rock acts such as Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, combined with a modern hard rock approach influenced by Ghost and Hällas. They're known for energetic live performances, including appearances at festivals such as Desertfest Oslo.

S urrounded by the DIY-scene around their own self-founded recording label new basement, plainhead tries to introduce an ethos uncommon to the local music landscape in their hometown Munich (DE) and interacts between the boundaries of experimental rock and pop.

You Are More Than A Thousand Words‘ is a romantic gesture dedicated to the stars and the people we hold close to our hearts, a subtle mix of chamber pop, experimental acoustic indie and 00s indietronics.
(FFO: Phil Elverum, The Notwist, The American Analog Set)

Das bisschen Totschlag’s new LP 0dB Headroom drifts through a cathartic kind of vulnerability—telling stories of losing, larking, and feeling everything all at once. Its soundscape echoes the act of remembering: manipulated samples and floating guitars bent through distorted electronics embody memory not as a fixed archive, but as something alive: tender, fractured, shifting. Moments come back in flashes—sometimes radiant, sometimes aching, always familiar, yet blurred and distorted. A beautiful mess that you can’t ever fully capture.
(FFO: Alex G, Wednesday, Maria Somerville)

Luciano Cilio was born in Naples, Italy, in 1950. He studied music and architecture and, in the late '60s, collaborated with local artist Alan Sorrenti, American expat Shawn Phillips and various avant-garde theater groups. A virtuoso guitarist and self-taught composer, Cilio released only one LP before his untimely death at the age of 33.

Dialoghi Del Presente (1977) is a work like no other, one that sounds both ancient and ahead of its time. Produced by Renato Marengo, it features a series of muted tableaux for strings, woodwinds, guitar, chorus, piano and percussion. Cilio carves out a space where subtle, repetitive phrases yield – almost imperceptibly – to breathtaking silence.

As Jim O'Rourke writes, "These recordings sound as if they were to please no one but himself; they feel self-contained, introspective, and determined ... You can feel in the music a sort of necessity that can be rarely found, like in This Heat's debut or Nick Drake's Pink Moon."

While each subsequent "quadro" grows slightly more abstract, Cilio draws the listener into an expansive, pastoral soundscape. The closing piece, "Interludio," begins with a plaintive guitar, which is joined by haunting strings and woodwinds before concluding, poignantly, as the album began, with Cilio and his guitar, alone once more.

Superior Viaduct's edition reproduces the original sleeve design. Recommended for fans of Johann Johannsson, Talk Talk's Spirit of Eden, Arvo Part and Popol Vuh.

Released in February 2002 on PlayStation 2, Xenosaga Episode I marked the beginning of an unforgettable video game saga created by Tetsuya Takahashi, accompanied by a majestic soundtrack composed by Yasunori Mitsuda.

The latter is still considered an essential milestone in video game music. We wanted to pay tribute to these cult classics with Across the Kosmos ~ Xenosaga Piano Collection and Jazz in Kosmos, two albums of officially licensed arrangements featuring the best tracks from the game.



This album was created in collaboration with some of the most talented figures in Japanese video game music. It includes 17 piano tracks arranged by Mariam Abounnasr, Akio Noguchi, Hiroyuki Nakayama, and Benyamin Nuss, carefully recorded on a Steinway D Grand Piano.

Super-rare Stax funk masterpiece, a big favourite of Pete Rock who sampled it on his classic ‘Let’s Straighten It Out’.

When we started the BGP Funk & Jazz Classics series earlier this year we had an idea that we would put a few albums out, and that would be that. But as we reach our third batch of five we have found that there is a whole world of sought-after original albums, which for a myriad of reasons have failed to turn up in the reissue racks. This time we have come up with something very special, digging deep into the Stax Records vaults to rescue five of the most collectable albums on the label.

Ernie Hines “Electrified” was recorded for Stax’s We Produce subsidiary. Hines had been signed to the label by Al Bell on the recommendation of the publisher of Jet magazine. The album is a fantastic piece of southern soul, with a couple of funk tracks, including ‘Our Generation’, a politically-edged call to arms, that became very sought-after when it was sampled by Pete Rock. (Dean Rudland)

Super-rare Stax funk masterpiece, a big favourite of Pete Rock who sampled it on his classic ‘Let’s Straighten It Out’.

When we started the BGP Funk & Jazz Classics series earlier this year we had an idea that we would put a few albums out, and that would be that. But as we reach our third batch of five we have found that there is a whole world of sought-after original albums, which for a myriad of reasons have failed to turn up in the reissue racks. This time we have come up with something very special, digging deep into the Stax Records vaults to rescue five of the most collectable albums on the label.

Ernie Hines “Electrified” was recorded for Stax’s We Produce subsidiary. Hines had been signed to the label by Al Bell on the recommendation of the publisher of Jet magazine. The album is a fantastic piece of southern soul, with a couple of funk tracks, including ‘Our Generation’, a politically-edged call to arms, that became very sought-after when it was sampled by Pete Rock. (Dean Rudland)

Jay-Jay Johanson returns with his new EP Where's the Cat?, a 7-track project featuring unreleased and reworked material from his latest album Backstage. Highlights include an unexpected collaboration with New York rapper LoftBlue, an extended version of Trompe L'oil featuring actor Harry Goaz (Twin Peaks), a refined remix by Alex Gopher, and two dub versions. The EP closes with Voice Memo No. 234, an intimate recording that offers a glimpse into the Swedish artist's creative process.

Bryce Dessners Original-Soundtrack auf einem dunklen, dämmerungsblauen Vinyl gepresst.

One of the UK’s most singular voices, Murkage Dave has spent the last decade crafting a body of work that refuses to fit neatly into any genre box. His music, loosely pop but informed by indie, outsider art, and an instinct for storytelling, is built on honesty, empathy, and fearless social commentary. Across his career, he has earned a cult following and praise from Pharrel Williams, Iggy Pop, BBC Radio 6 Music, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Clash, Complex, Highsnobiety, and Vogue. His debut album Murkage Dave Changed My Life (2018) amassed over 12 million Spotify streams, while follow-up The City Needs A Hero (2022) reached #10 on the UK iTunes Chart and #15 on the UK Independent Chart.

On his new album, the Ivorian balafon virtuoso Aly Keïta explores new horizons for his instrument in improvised music. Together with his Berlin-based trio, he conquers the peaks of balafon possibilities one by one, wandering between groovy African rhythms, spectacular polyphony and elements of jazz, and combining them into a fusion that is both futuristic and deeply in roots. In Balafon Evolution, Keïta establishes a new level of balafon artistry, creating universal, contemporary soundscapes that transcend cultural boundaries. The Aly Keïta Trio embodies the pulsating spirit of the Berlin jazz scene. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, the three musicians found a common language on stage as they explored the metropole, one of the most active, buzzing jazz hubs of Europe. Aly Keïta and the Dutch drummer Marcel van Cleef, began playing together in 2008, forming the core of the trio"s future "groove machine". As a part of the "Aly Keïta and Magic Balafon" formation, they shared a prize of the Global music contest "Creole" in 2009. Recognised as one of the most intriguing and innovative bass players among the new generation, the Italian bass player Roberto Badoglio, joined trio in 2014, becoming a true "fusion reactor" of the band.

On the release of his debut EP, aldn shares, “‘greenhouse’ represents my mind and thoughts. The individual songs represent the different plants within that greenhouse. Each song gets its own special attention and dedication just like a plant would. Everything on this EP was written and produced by me which makes them extremely personal to me, I’ve grown them all from a simple melody into what they are today. I want all of these songs to be put into your own interpretations to make them more personal to you.”

Through the interwoven storylines and soundscapes of greenhouse, aldn’s experimentation with a broadly sculptured experimental palette shares a snapshot into the worldbuilding he has created over the past two years, an honest representation of the thoughts you only feel comfortable sharing through the lens of your phone, and a therapeutic diary entry set to the dim lights of the corners of the club. As the world moved online in the past year, this new music became even more of a crucial component as a direct means of communication where crossed wires connect the dots more than ever.

Critically acclaimed Death Metal force TEMPLE OF VOID return with their new album, The Crawl. The caveman brawn of previous albums, namely Summoning the Slayer (2022), remains, but there’s a wider dynamic on the group’s fifth full-length album at play. Now a quartet—featuring guitarist Alex Awn, drummer Jason Pearce, vocalist/guitarist Mike Erdody, and bassist Justin Malek—the Michiganders aren’t shying away from their non-metal influences, seeking greater integration of grunge and post-punk with their brutish signature. Singles “The Crawl” and “Soulburn” demonstrate the proficiency of TEMPLE OF VOID's death-cloaked, spearheaded attack. From the high intensity of opener “Poison Icon” to the granite wall of “The Twin Stranger,” The Crawl isn’t just TEMPLE OF VOID evolved, it’s a harbinger of death metal to come. “The biggest shift for me on this record was not feeling like we had to fly the ‘death-doom banner’ as part of our identity,” says Alex Awn. “Death-doom, as a genre, gave us something to anchor our sound around when we started. It was always a reference and touchstone. At the same time, we always wanted to make sure we had our own spin on it. We’ve always been adding to the conversation, adding to the genre, giving our point of view. A huge part of what makes a Temple of Void record is the non-death-doom influences that make up our DNA. And on album five we never once asked ourselves, ‘Do we have enough death metal? Do we have enough doom metal?’ We simply wrote a heavy-ass record—let the chips fall where they may.” For lyrics, Erdody built on the psychology and fear themes of Summoning the Slayer. The overarching theme of The Crawl is, put rather simply, an “allegory about life, choices, and consequences.” It’s a qualitative view on the horrors of the human condition and the contemplation of our monstrous capabilities. “The Twin Stranger,” for example, is about being stalked by a person’s doppelganger; “Godless Cynic” draws on a short story by sci-fi author Harlan Ellison; and “Poison Icon” tackles the crushing effects of mankind’s intrinsic nature to deceive and control.

KALEIDOBOLT’s fifth album is pungent to the ears – KARAKUCHI out in March Karakuchi is one record you can judge by its cover. The first time Kaleidobolt’s faces have adorned an LP, they have been fused into a torpedoing biomechanical vehicle. Echoing The Birthday Party’s Junkyard or Motörhead’s Orgasmatron (…on acid?!), the illustration epitomises perfectly Kaleidobolt’s agenda of “hyperkinetic rock”. Their feverish, psych-prog sound is full of motion. It jerks around at different speeds, threatening to spin out of control and crash into flames at any given moment. What’s more, it isn’t taken too seriously. This is heavy and intricate music, yes. But as bassist and co-singer Marco Menestrina puts it, the Kaleidobolt attitude is “an ugly smirk more than an angry face with a fist.” On their fifth album since forming in 2014, the Helsinki-based outfit lean into their strengths as a formidable power trio. With their previous two records, 2019’s Bitter and 2022’s This One Simple Trick, they had thrown everything at their disposal into the recording with no expense spared on overdubs, effects and kitchen sinks. Produced again by Niko Lehdontie (Oranssi Pazuzu), Karakuchi comes from tightly rehearsed, live-in-the-studio takes. Kaleidobolt realise that greater sparsity can be a strength, and they’ve allowed their instruments extra space to breathe. It makes for their earthiest, purest and perhaps most authentic record to date. Karakuchi’s exuberant style emerges from the individual members’ contrasting listening habits. These span classic prog, Japanese city pop, noise rock, post-hardcore and historical podcasts. One record they can all agree is a masterpiece, the centre of the Venn diagram where all three members meet, is King Crimson’s Red. As for their new album’s title, that’s as suitable as the cover art. “Karakuchi” is the slogan of the Japanese beer brand Asahi Super Dry. Translated literally, this means “pungent to the mouth”. As drinkers of that product, Kaleidobolt acknowledge its parallels to their songs. “It’s very intense, right at the front, like at the first bite,” explains Menestrina. “And then it leaves your mouth feeling refreshed. The flavour doesn’t linger in your mouth, basically. It has a quick, hard finish. With a bit of a stretch, we thought that that could also be said of our music.” Karakuchi is Kaleidobolt at their hardest, fastest, tightest and super-driest. Pungent to the ears. -JR Moores, November 2025

KALEIDOBOLT’s fifth album is pungent to the ears – KARAKUCHI out in March Karakuchi is one record you can judge by its cover. The first time Kaleidobolt’s faces have adorned an LP, they have been fused into a torpedoing biomechanical vehicle. Echoing The Birthday Party’s Junkyard or Motörhead’s Orgasmatron (…on acid?!), the illustration epitomises perfectly Kaleidobolt’s agenda of “hyperkinetic rock”. Their feverish, psych-prog sound is full of motion. It jerks around at different speeds, threatening to spin out of control and crash into flames at any given moment. What’s more, it isn’t taken too seriously. This is heavy and intricate music, yes. But as bassist and co-singer Marco Menestrina puts it, the Kaleidobolt attitude is “an ugly smirk more than an angry face with a fist.” On their fifth album since forming in 2014, the Helsinki-based outfit lean into their strengths as a formidable power trio. With their previous two records, 2019’s Bitter and 2022’s This One Simple Trick, they had thrown everything at their disposal into the recording with no expense spared on overdubs, effects and kitchen sinks. Produced again by Niko Lehdontie (Oranssi Pazuzu), Karakuchi comes from tightly rehearsed, live-in-the-studio takes. Kaleidobolt realise that greater sparsity can be a strength, and they’ve allowed their instruments extra space to breathe. It makes for their earthiest, purest and perhaps most authentic record to date. Karakuchi’s exuberant style emerges from the individual members’ contrasting listening habits. These span classic prog, Japanese city pop, noise rock, post-hardcore and historical podcasts. One record they can all agree is a masterpiece, the centre of the Venn diagram where all three members meet, is King Crimson’s Red. As for their new album’s title, that’s as suitable as the cover art. “Karakuchi” is the slogan of the Japanese beer brand Asahi Super Dry. Translated literally, this means “pungent to the mouth”. As drinkers of that product, Kaleidobolt acknowledge its parallels to their songs. “It’s very intense, right at the front, like at the first bite,” explains Menestrina. “And then it leaves your mouth feeling refreshed. The flavour doesn’t linger in your mouth, basically. It has a quick, hard finish. With a bit of a stretch, we thought that that could also be said of our music.” Karakuchi is Kaleidobolt at their hardest, fastest, tightest and super-driest. Pungent to the ears. -JR Moores, November 2025

On her new album, Land of the Forgotten, Brit Taylor takes us to her much discussed and misunderstood homeland, Appalachia, with songs that reveal the complex heart and complicated people of the place. Taylor is an accomplished singer-songwriter who has been performing professionally since she was a child. She has always taken the bull by the horns; Taylor has spent seven nights a week singing on Broadway, cold-called record execs, and she even formed a cleaning business to help finance her first album, Real Me, on which Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys) co-wrote five of the songs. Only three years later she found herself being produced by two of the most sought-after producers in Nashville: Grammy winners Sturgill Simpson and David Ferguson. Since then she has made her Grand Ole Opry debut, gained a devoted following as she toured the whole country, and garnered praise from the likes of NPR, Billboard, Rolling Stone, and American Songwriter.  Land of the Forgotten will be released March 6th 2026 by RidgeTone Records, LLC Under Exclusive License from Cut A Shine Records, LLC Marketed and Distributed by Thirty Tigers

In the pantheon of classic free jazz, Noah Howard's The Black Ark looms large. Recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in 1969 – just prior to the alto saxophonist's relocation to Europe – the album was eventually released in 1972.

The Black Ark exhibits not only the power and imagination of Howard's playing, but also his breadth as a composer and bandleader. Listeners expecting unrelenting blasts of "energy music" might be surprised to find a cohesion atypical of free jazz; amidst the wild, impassioned solos, Howard weaves in Latin rhythms and fat-bottomed grooves.

The first side, consisting of "Domiabra" and “Ole Negro,” sets the album's tone. Both tracks sound as if they could have appeared on some of Blue Note's proto-spiritual jazz, groove-heavy releases – evoking the likes of Lou Donaldson or Horace Silver – before ceding the floor to the horn players' anarchic firepower.

As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "Two players stand out. Bassist Norris Jones – who would soon consolidate his name into a one-word reversed amalgamation/permutation of the two, Sirone – is given ample room, largely unaccompanied; his corporal approach foreshadows later work with the Revolutionary Ensemble. But the secret weapon on The Black Ark is Arthur Doyle. Straight from basement rehearsal sessions with Milford Graves, whose ensemble he had joined and who remained a favorite of the drummer for decades, Doyle is a human flamethrower."

Trumpeter Earl Cross' guttural, vocal effects complement Doyle's take-no-prisoners approach, while the estimable combination of Muhammad Ali (Rashied's brother) on drums and Juma Sultan on congas adds an ever-shifting propulsion. The septet is rounded out by the enigmatic pianist Leslie Waldron, who anchors the group with imaginative accompaniment and occasional boppish flourishes.

Every bit worthy of its reputation as an "out-jazz" holy grail, The Black Ark only sounds better with age. It remains the ideal record to convert the remaining free-jazz skeptics.

Julius Hemphill's debut record, 1972's Dogon A.D., was self-produced for his Mbari imprint, and it was issued with a beautiful black-and-white cover. Very DIY. The label's name writ large along the bottom edge, like it was the band's name. It's a quartet record featuring Hemphill on alto and flute, with Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Phillip Wilson on drums – a classic jazz front line/rhythm section format, but nothing conventional about the way the music sounds.

The long track – from where the LP takes its title – is one of the key epic statements of new jazz in the era. Among its remarkable distinctions, it manages to draw on Wilson's schizoid experience having been a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the first drummer for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, in making an 11/8 rhythm into a staggeringly funky thing of joy. Over the course of fourteen and a half minutes, Hemphill builds a nearly continuous solo, his spiritual blood brother Wadud sawing the cello with a deep blues soulfulness that is raw and mantra-like in its repetitive incantation. It feels right and wrong in equal measure, the theme carrying its own piquancy with honked barnyard dissonances and some contrary motion between the horns and string. Most of all, it takes its own sweet time, in no hurry to get anywhere in particular, but out for a righteous stroll. – John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)

Decca Classics präsentiert Lise Davidsen: Live at the Met - aufgenommen während des bahnbrechenden
Soloauftritts der Sopranistin an der Metropolitan Opera im September 2023.
„Es kommt selten vor, dass die Met einen Künstler zu einem Solokonzert in ihrem Auditorium mit 3.800
Plätzen einlädt. Und noch seltener ist es, dass diese Sängerin ihr Debüt in New York City gibt. Aber
Davidsen ist etwas ganz Besonderes: eine echte dramatische Sopranistin.“ (The New York Times). „Keine
Kulissen, keine Kostüme, kein Orchester: Aber die ganze Oper war da.“ so die Zeitung weiter.
Davidsen hat eine enge Beziehung zur Met, wo sie seit ihrem Debüt 2019 regelmäßig in Hauptrollen von
Tschaikowski, Wagner, Strauss, Verdi, Puccini und Beethoven auftritt. „Ich betrachte die Met als mein
zweites Zuhause“, sagt Davidsen. „Aber um so etwas gebeten zu werden, war etwas ganz Besonderes.“
Zu den Höhepunkten zählen Wagners „Dich, teure Halle“ aus Tannhäuser, Amelias Arie aus dem dritten Akt von Verdis ”Un ballo in maschera” und Puccinis „Vissi d’arte“. Dazu kommen Lieder von Schubert
sowie Musik von Grieg und Sibelius als Hommage an Davidsens skandinavische Herkunft.
Die Veröffentlichung folgt auf Davidsens gefeiertes Wagner-Album ”Der fliegende Holländer”, welches den
Gramophone Award 2025 für die beste Opernaufnahme gewann und von Kritikern weltweit hoch gelobt
wurde.