Cerca:clear

Formed in 2009 by guitarist Jari, Helslave are a Rome-based death metal band taking their influences from the 1990s Swedish (melo-)death scene, crafting a perfect mix of brutality and melody.

After releasing a demo and two EPs, their first full length album, ‘An Endless Path’ (on Revalve Records), saw the light on CD in 2015 and got raving reviews by the metal underground press.

The second album from the band, ‘From The Sulphur Depths’ (mixed and mastered by Swedish metal-wizard Dan Swano), came out in 2021 via Pulverised Records, and this album also received enthusiastic reviews from fans and critics.

These Italian youngsters play their music like it’s the thing they need to do to survive; it’s energetic and powerful - this is melodic death metal as it is supposed to be.

The much praised debut album was never released on vinyl, so Doc Records present this gem in three different LP versions - Clear Smoked,

Dark Hell Marbled and black vinyl.

For fans of Children Of Bodom, At The Gates, Scar Symmetry, Edge Of Sanity, In Flames, Callenish Circle, Dark Tranquillity

Punk pioneers Crass continue their vinyl reissue series, repressing their limited releases by adjacent artists through Crass Records, in association with One Little Independent. The series, including over twenty bands and solo artists recorded at the legendary Southern Studios and produced by Penny Rimbaud, continues with two more historic pieces from the Crass Records catalogue; ‘Farce’ by Rudimentary Peni and ‘Can’t Cheat Karma’ by Zounds.

Zounds are an English post-punk band from Reading, Berkshire, formed in 1977. Originally, they were part of the cassette culture movement, releasing material on the Fuck Off Records label, and were also involved in the squatting and free festival scene. The name of the band is derived from the old English ‘zounds’, a contraction of ‘God’s wounds’, referring to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, formerly used as a mildly blasphemous oath.

The band met up with fellow anarchists Crass when, legend has it, their van broke down on the road. They made their way to nearby Dial House, where Crass were based, who helped them with repairs. The two bands became friends, and although musically very divergent, they shared many common political views. Zounds shortly afterwards released their first EP, ‘Can't Cheat Karma’, on the Crass Records label in 1980. The EP featured possibly their most well-known track ‘Subvert’, a call to arms against the grind of daily life. The release of this EP and association with Crass led to an increase in the band's profile in the embryonic anarcho-punk scene, touring with both Crass and Poison Girls. They split in 1982 but reformed in 2007, and remain active today.

Penny continues; “Zounds could have made a fine pop group, but they were far too socially sassy to fall for that one. No, their commitment to radical political change, so abundantly clear in their lyrics, set them apart from the commercialism that had so blighted the likes of The Clash and other punkish pretenders. Having been drawn from the ranks of hippy bands like Here and Now, Zounds encouraged dissent and personal change, and, at their own cost, to pursue and promote them as ideologies. Can't cheat karma? No, nor ever beat it. Zounds were hip to this fine point. Want a better life?

Then make it for yourself. Ain't no one gonna help you out on that one. Find your own way, it's the only way there is.”

First released on 7” vinyl, limiting the sound, the new series has been remastered for 12” by Alex Gordon at Abbey Road Studios, allowing them to be heard as never before. This, plus enlarged replicas of the original covers, brings new gusto to their already radical sound.

Now in its eleventh year and following hype for recent releases from Osaka's Kiji Suedo (Hosek EP & Riot album) and Edinburgh's George T (Roll On, King's Cross single), Edinburgh's Hobbes Music label burrows deeper into experimental ambient terrain with brand new signing Galun. With a discography over 15 years deep, Galun brings no shortage of his own props.

Galun is the solo project of Moscow musician, artist, and producer Sergei Galunenko (currently based in Tallinn), who has performed at numerous prestigious Russian events and collaborated on projects internationally in a career spanning more than 15 years, with a discography to match, turning his attention to myriad styles: IDM, funk, techno, juke, post rock, beatboxing, free improvisation, drone.

“In my project, Galun, I do not use musical instruments,” he explains. “All the sounds are produced with only the use of my voice through beatbox and special vocal skills. Some effects are used to produce electronic sounds.”

Hot on the heels of the new Golos album (out now via Berlin's One Instrument) plus a remix for US collaborator Alek Finn via Nevada's Mystery Circles label, Galunenko’s eighth studio album, Glagol (or Glagolь / Глаголь in Russian) is an ambient collection, recorded between 2013 and 2022. The title is an old Russian word which translates as ‘Speak’.

"This album consists of tracks written in different periods, so it turned out to be diverse," he says. "There are classic ambient tracks, as well as experimental ones in search of new possibilities for voice processing."

Why "glagol"? “Since the music on this album is 90 percent processed voice, it's a form of conversation for me," he reveals, “where I talk about my thoughts and mood, so speak music, while using my voice, is an amazing way of expressing.”

Five singles will be released on streaming platforms only, at intervals, over summer, with the full album released on digital 25.8.23 and a limited edition cassette plus lathe cuts out from 8.9.23.

"How gorgeous is that?! I have heard the rest of the LP and it is all equally gorgeous" DEB GRANT played ‘Mirror’ (New Music Fix show, BBC 6 Music, 17.8.23)

"'Glagol' translates as 'speak', an apt title when you consider 90 percent of the noises contained on it originated as recordings of his own voice, and that lends the ambient experiments here a very human, tactile feel. Closing tune 'Mirror' is a serene masterpiece, '1981' is an evocative phase-fest, the stuttery 'Stone' is endearing and enrapturing and Galunenko generally displays a knack for communicating clear emotions through abstract sounds. Recommended." ELECTRONIC SOUND
‘Really beautiful’ AVALON EMERSON (US)
‘Really loving the Galun tracks!’ INTERGALACTIC GARY (NL)

‘Super!’ JD TWITCH (Optimo, UK)
'Wow, this sounds amazing. Loving the atmosphere here, ambient with some groove somehow, really feeling this one.' DAN CURTIN (US/DE)

"Sounds great. Looking forward to getting into this properly" LORD OF THE ISLES

‘Wicked. It’s great stuff’ DRIBBLER (Pikes, Ibiza // Paradise Lost, Red Light Radio, Pure; SP)
‘Very nice, will play on Cashmere Radio here in Berlin. Keep up the good musical works x ALEX VOICES (DE)
‘Sounds really nice. The sort of thing I’d absolutely listen to on streaming etc’ AUSTIN ATO (UK)
‘Excellent stuff as always’ PAT BENSBERG (The Eccentric Selection, Phonic FM, UK)
‘Digging this one! Right up my street and just the ticket for my Radio Buena Vida show’ TOM CHURCHILL (UK)

Hive Mind and Sing A Song Fighter are delighted to present to you their first collaborative release, the amazing solo guitar album from legendary Congolese guitarist Kahanga Dekula aka ”Vumbi”.

Swedish producer Karl-Jonas Winqvist (founder of Sing-A-Song Fighter and member of Senegalese/Swedish act Wau Wau Collectif) has been a longtime fan of Vumbi Dekula’s artistry which led to him releasing The Dekula Band's debut album ”Opika” in 2019 with the Dekula Band.

While watching the band perform was always a blast, says Karl Jonas, his desire to hear Vumbi play on his own, without the thunderous drums, wailing saxophones and chanting vocals grew in his mind, “Because, in a way, Vumbi’s guitar playing is like an orchestra on its own. And the idea of just concentrating on all the amazing riffs and beautiful, uplifting melodies was just so appealing”. Karl-Jonas proposed the idea of producing a solo album to Vumbi, and within a week the production process began

Recorded in two days during lockdown at the Helter Skelter Studios in Stockholm, Karl and Vumbi allowed the music to guide them. Vumbi was inspired to play 2nd guitar adding some harmonies and melodies here and there, and on the final track (”UN Forces Get Out of the DR of Congo”) he introduced a banjo into the world of ”Congo guitar”. Karl Jonas started up his old rhythm box machine to some of the songs to see how Vumbi and his playing would react to it. Elsewhere, wordless backing vocals from Karl-Jonas and Emma Nordenstam were added to Maamajacy, bass melodica by Karl-Jonas appears on Weekend, and a little piano tinkering from Emma adds some sparkle to Zuku. But clearly, Vumbi's virtuoso playing remains the star of Congo Guitar.'

The Keplar label presents the next instalment in a series of reissues from the catalogue of Sasu Ripatti’s seminal Vladislav Delay project. Originally released on Mille Plateaux, the vinyl edition of »Entain« from 2000 omitted two shorter tracks and included all others in an abridged form. With this reissue, the full album as it was pressed on CD is finally made available on vinyl. Besides a new remaster by Kassian Troyer, it was also given new cover artwork by Marc Hohmann that picks up on that of the »Whistleblower« reissue, released in early 2023 by Keplar. This serial visual approach highlights the conceptual continuity between those masterful explorations of the interplay between dub techniques, noise, and repetition.

Ripatti himself had reworked material from 1999’s »Ele« album for the release of »Entain,« which means that it can be considered the debut album proper of his Vladislav Delay project. It saw the Finnish artist aim more vigorously for abstraction than in his earlier releases as Vladislav Delay for labels such as Chain Reaction, which were collected on the iconic »Multila« compilation in 2000; another milestone from his back catalogue that has been reissued by Keplar in recent times. To mark this special occasion, »Multila« will be repressed by Keplar with a new artwork that matches the new design of »Whisteblower« and »Entain«.

»Multila« and »Entain« correspond with each other conceptually as much as they seem to differ on a musical level. The material on »Multila« was clearly indebted to the Berlin dub techno sound, marked by its grainy and at times abrasive sonic aesthetics. From the very first moments of the 22-minute long opener »Kohde« however, it becomes clear that »Entain« takes things further away from the dancefloor, aiming less for physical impact than for intellectual stimulation. A sort of electronic minimal music, it was primarily interested in letting discrete elements freely come into play with one another.

Much like »Multila,« however, »Entain« highlighted the subtle differences embedded in what only feels like repetitive music. Of course the massive bassline and ghostly dub riddims that permeate »Notke« as well as the deconstructed beat at the core of »Ele« still hint at Ripatti’s roots in beat-driven music. However, they also make his artistic transformation audible by turning their sources of inspirations into something entirely unheard of. »Entain« took the dub techno formula further than any other record before it—onwards into the realms of pure abstraction.

Longtime friend of the Sweet Sensi Crew, Rumbleton brings his distinct style of Amenism, dubwise, bass RUMBLE junglism. For side A we get the future classic Codex Indica; a deep meditation on dub and junglism. On the side B, Rumbleton meets DJ Clear for Sweet Sensi Records first foray into true Drum Funk. Here we have a taste of what it would be like if soundclash met drum funk junglism.

DJ Support
Mantra, DJ Trax, Double O, Coco Bryce
Yorobi, Ben LQ (Australia), Tim Reaper, Kid Lib +More

Factory Benelux presents a limited crystal clear vinyl edition of Dark Light, the eighth studio album from post-punk trailblazers Section 25, originally released in 2013.
Recorded in 2012, Dark Light would be the band’s first collection of new material since the tragic loss of founder Larry Cassidy in 2010, and marked a return to the smooth electro and synth-pop textures first explored on their seminal 1984 album From the Hip. These echoes are amplified by the presence of co-vocalists Beth and Jo Cassidy, as well as a sublime cover image by iconic artist/designer Peter Saville.
Much of Dark Light was produced in collaboration with remixer Derek Miller (aka Outernationale), and includes new versions of single tracks Colour Movement Sex & Violence and Inner Drive. Other stand-out cuts include future pop classic My Outrage, also released as a single on Record Store Day.
“A revelation. The group were once doomy post-punks whose 1984 electronic album From the Hip anticipated house music and thrilled New York clubland. Now the deaths of singers Larry and Jenny Cassidy have inspired their daughter Bethany to carry on the family business and give the band a makeover. The collision of the original members’ brittle rhythms and the angelic voices of Bethany and similarly fresh-faced co-singer Jo takes recent material into shimmering club-pop heaven” (The Guardian, 2014)
Now released on vinyl for the very first time, FBN 145 is limited to just 500 copies pressed on crystal clear vinyl. The digital copy contains several bonus tracks.

Cypress Hill’s self-titled debut album was hard as nails, with very few pop concessions. There was humor, but it was laced by cackling, homicidal sneering. Not well known outside of the hardcore hip-hop scene at first, faces of the three group members weren’t usually shown clearly in press photos; they preferred the shadows. As their first singles began hitting the airwaves and record racks, the press and music fans started to take notice.


From the opening notes of the group’s first single, “The Phuncky Feel One,” to deeper album cuts like “Stoned Is The Way Of The Walk” and “Tres Equis,” it was clear that Cypress Hill was something different. And very, very dope. The world Cypress Hill espoused was gang-ridden and far from cheery, but they managed to laugh through the pain. Lead rapper B-Real took each fuzzed-out, rock-hard DJ Muggs beat as a challenge, jumping around it like a spark off a joint as it makes its way to the concrete. MC Sen Dog always had B-Real’s back, to bring intensity and a no-bullshit gruffness that made the group both menacing and unpredictable.


When they introduced percussionist Eric Bobo to the mix in the early 90s, it brought new dimension to the band, making their live performances one of the most unique and accomplished shows in hip-hop. Journalist and author Chris Faraone highlights the group’s relationship in the reissue’s liner notes (which is included only in limited edition Skull) saying, “By the late ‘80s the undisputed Cypress unit finally formed. B and Sen realized that their diametric styles - the latter’s deep wrangle, the former’s inimitable high notes - complemented one another righteously. By then Muggs had bangers in the bag, as well as industry experience from a jaunt with the New York duo 7A3. B and Sen waited while Muggs messed with 7A3, and in that time began to build the blueprint for their raucous and weeded no-holds-barred style. Besides getting schooled on industry pitfalls, Muggs had also grown into hip-hop’s most formidable young producer, while straddling the bi-coastal gap.”

Cypress Hill’s debut went gold by the end of 1991 and has since pushed past double platinum status, making it the first album for a Latino-American hip hop group to do so. The album received raves from the likes of Rolling Stone and the Los Angeles Times, saw a #1 Hot Rap Single with the release of “The Phuncky One” and helped the band win Artist Of The Year at the 1992 Source Awards. After 25 years, it should come as no surprise that Cypress Hill is a cornerstone of the group’s live set to this day.

On Rock Island, their second LP, Palm produces evidence of a distinct musical language, developed over time, in isolation, and out of necessity. On the island, melodies are struck on what might be shells or spines. Rhythms are scratched out, swept over, scratched again. Individual instruments, and sometimes entire sections, skip and stutter. There is the sense of a music box with wonky tension or a warped transmission in which all the noise is taken for signal.

Like other groups so acclaimed for their compulsive live show, Palm has been burdened by the constant comparison between their recorded material and their touring set. On Rock Island, they render this tired discussion moot, using the album form to present that which could never be completely live, reserving for performance that which could never be completely reproduced.

Despite appearing behind the instruments typical of rock music, Palm trades in sounds of their own making. On these songs, one of the guitars and the drum kit are used as MIDI triggers, producing an index that can be combed through later and replaced with new information. The percussion is sometimes augmented so as to suggest a multiplication of limbs. The strings are manipulated to choke, crack, and hum like other instruments, or other bodies, might.

Working again with engineer Matt Labozza, the band spent the better part of a month in a rented farmhouse in Upstate New York. With the benefits of time and space, Palm recorded the various elements piecemeal, only rarely playing together in groups larger than two or three. While some members tracked, others holed up in the next room, experimenting with quantization, beat replacement, and other methods borrowed from electronic music. Even accounting for the many labors that brought them to be, these materials seem produced by an organic logic. Their complex friction forms a habit of thought, scores a network of grooves on the floor of the mind.

This is music with dimensionality. Sonic objects are deployed, developed, and dissected in various states of mutation. The listener flits about between the field and the lab. The tone is warm in a way only the sun could make, the pace as forceful and as variable as a gale. Whether one locates Rock Island in a sea or in a refinished attic (as in Greg Burak's album cover), whether one escapes to there or is banished, its psychic environs are charted clearly enough. Only at this remove from the mainland can we sense the conditions necessary for such a strange species of sound.

CLEAR VINYL. LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!


Suzanne Ciani’s Improvisation On Four Sequences somehow represents the complete histo- ry of electronic music, as the enthusiastic audience at Week-End Fest 2021 were lucky enough to experience. From the awakening of American avant-garde music at the end of the 1960s, right through to the development of the electronic sound of the club scene in L.A. and New York. But above all it is the dialogue between artist and machine, which simply ends when the concert is over, that comes across. Laconicism, precision, sound sensitivity and the weight of a tradition that Ciani was instrumental in founding all come together. It is spectacular precisely because it is so unexciting.

Geoff Downes ist ein legendärer Keyboarder, der das Genie hinter einiger der denkwürdigsten Pop-Rock-ProgSongs der letzten 40 Jahre war. Chris Braide ist einer der größten Songwriter, die Großbritannien je hervorgebracht hat. Er hat mit Sia, Hans Zimmer, Nicki Minaj, David Guetta, Paloma Faith, Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Kylie Minogue und Lana Del Rey gearbeitet. Zusammen bilden sie die Downes Braide Association - eine Kreativpartnerschaft mit einem Stammbaum wie keine andere.

From the intricate fictional details packed into the cover art (cocreated by Palomo and designer Robert Beatty), to the lyrical collage
of pop culture and political references, to the music’s early-digital
sheen, the album evokes the 80s golden age of rock stars like Bryan
Ferry and Sting leaving their own breakthrough projects to strike out
as jazzy solo musicians. It’s parody, sure - of rock star ego trips, the
mall-ification of America, and our own self-obsession, even on the
brink of apocalypse - but it’s also dead serious, the sound of history
repeating itself as the Doomsday Clock clicks past its Reagan-era
maximum and nuclear anxiety comes back into style along with digital
synthesizers and sax solos. The deeper it pulls you into its own
uncanny reality, the clearer it becomes how thin the borders are
between Alan Palomo’s ‘World of Hassle’ and our own.

'Ascending to the apex of an eight-year grind, the band reached critical mass on 2018’s DISPOSE. The standout “FEEL NOTHING” exploded with 31.4 million Spotify streams, while the project eclipsed 60.7 million streams on the platform. Billboard raved, “DISPOSE is the band’s most polished and cohesive work to date,” and Alternative Press noted, “DISPOSE makes it clear that TPIY challenge both the listeners and themselves more and more with each release.” Grading the album “9.0-out-of-10,” Rock Sound predicted it “should finally – and deservedly – make The Plot In You a name that everyone knows.” They supported the record by hitting the road with Underoath, The Amity Affliction, Like Moths To Flames, Sum 41, and more. The album racked up over 100 million streams and received praise from Billboard, Rock Sound, Alternative Press, and more.

Tony Bennett, who sadly passed away recently, is one of the most popular artists and entertainers of the USA.

During his magnificent career, he sold more than 50 million records and won 19 Grammys.

Thanks to his collaborations with artists such as Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett is also very well known among the younger generations.

The compilation „Have A Good Time With Tony Bennett“ displays the many facets of the singer and makes clear how many hits he had.

„I Left My Heart In San Francisco“ , „Rags To Riches“ , „Blue Velvet“ , „Cold Cold Heart“ to name a few.

The fans of Tony Bennett can look forward to a vinyl featuring 18 tracks and almost 50 min. running time.

The house of Sakskøbing is witnessing a spawn of a sub label with the catalogue code RVZ. This is a coastal part of the main city, with abundance of nature & clear water, the rhythms in Zealand as one may say. The number one comes together as a four track Various Artists and consists of long-term friends of Sakskøbing as well new faces welcomed to the label.

The side A comes from a hardware live project Cattle Freq consistent of three musicians SIL, Keroz and BRTS. The trio have launched the project called Cattle Freq with performance of all original material recorded & rehearsed in the outskirts of their hometown in the end of 2021. Following up is the close friend of the label the Tommy Vicari Jnr, an artist highly praised not only in his native city Sheffield but is consistently played by hard working dj’s in the whole world. With “No matter what” the gentleman returns to label for the second time since 2016 which marks for a special date.

Will Johnson of Centro Matic's ninth solo album. No Ordinary Crown, hums with palpable motion. Travelers, runners and conductors fill its lyrics, and gesticulating storms and emotional highs and lows seep through the instinctual quality of its rock ’n roll performances. It’s also cabled by ephemeral momentum. The songs were conceived in stolen moments and brief windows of time between the responsibilities of family and a multi-hyphenate career. The singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, painter and novelist describes the demo process as “fairly jagged,” a gathering and stitching of audio snippets recorded via cell phone and dictaphone over a year and half. “I finalized the songs on short tours where I could hear my thoughts a bit more clearly,” he says. “Somewhere along the line someone advised me to never be afraid to hurt my characters, that I will always be able to get them out of it,” he says. “I do want there to be these small victories and small portals of hope.” With No Ordinary Crown, people may behave badly, and the road may get rough, but the reward is in the journey. Released via Austin label Keeled Scales (home to Katy Kirby, Buck Meek of Big Thief, Why Bonnie, Twain, Sun June

Toronto-based producer and DJ Ciel is renowned for a style of dancefloor material that’s as heady as it is visceral. The Xi’an-born artist’s ascendant profile has seen her cutting- edge and club-ready EPs released on UK labels Peach Discs and Coastal Haze, as well as Stateside imprints Spectral Sound and Mister Saturday Night.

As a member of the renowned collective Discwoman and the creator of femme-forward party Work in Progress Ciel’s thoughtful narratives are clear, running in parallel to the perception-altering sounds that are consistently woven deeply into her wide-ranging sets, beloved mixes and inventive collaborations. Now the Parallel Minds label co- founder is crystallising her imaginative and omnivorous sound with her !K7 Records debut, ORLANDO.

Written during her emergence from an uncharacteristic bout of writers’ block, the three original tracks of Orlando chart a return to the musical self, spurred along by a cinephile’s embrace of film, a love of classic literature, and a curiosity for the oddest corners of popular culture. “SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE” might share a name with the episodic series, but is rather a nuanced critique of the modern rite of union, moving through structured chapters, and mirroring the un-static nature of longtime love.Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s radical novel, and its superphysical protagonist, “ORLANDO” considers the cult literary figure who lived from the renaissance to the modern age, and embodies both sides of the sex binary.

The thrown sounds and aural illusions of “EL CALIFA” create the effect of a beckoning, beguiling psychedelic experience. To complete the EP, Ali Berger, Ciel’s recent collaborator on the Jacktone Records’ release Damn Skippy! repurposes the mind-bending flourishes of “El Califa” into a noodly and spacious deep house production, replete with pillowy, gauzy pads.

As a band, Taryn and Austin’s journey happened both unexpectedly and fortuitously. At the start of the COVID pandemic, Austin and his wife moved back into his parents’ house, where Taryn was also living at the time. Faced with nothing but time, he got back to songwriting, regularly asking Taryn for input — or as the two playfully put it, “Gen Z quality control.” The immediate result of their musical partnership was the pop-punk/alternative anthem “Who’s Laughing Now,” which leads with wry, tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the futility of young adulthood in 2023. After posting an unfinished version of “Who’s Laughing Now” on TikTok, it swiftly took off, galvanizing thousands of viewers who shared their coming-of-age frustrations. Clearly, the song’s sentiments - which land somewhere between a shrug and a clenched fist - resonated with millions of listeners, and today Durry have recorded a fully fleshed-out version of “Who’s Laughing Now,” which is set to appear on their riveting, perfectly sardonic debut LP, Suburban Legend. Whether Suburban Legend is tackling romantic love, late-stage capitalism, mental health woes, or teen nostalgia, the thread tying it all together is its utter relatability. Regardless of where you are in life — city or suburbs, school or work, or pursuing a creative dream of your own — Durry will meet you there with a wink and a high five.

Clear Vinyl

Repressed! Get On Down proudly present Mecca And The Soul Brother, the critically acclaimed 1992 full-length debut from Pete Rock & CL Smooth. The album is considered as one of the greatest Hip Hop albums of all time. Boasting tracks such as the first single, “They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)”, a dedication to their deceased friend; “Trouble T-Roy”, which went on to become not only their signature hit, but also one of Hip Hop’s all-time great songs. The album is propelled forward by Rock’s quick, soulful interludes; usually bits of old R&B tunes layered with his signature trumpet and sax loops. Smooth’s liquid freestyle delivery pieces together the perfect vocal match that, together, creates a sprawling, nearly 80-minute-long album on which not a single song or interlude is a throwaway or a superfluous piece.
Mecca And The Soul Brother has stood the test of time. The release has been named one of the essential recordings of the 90s by Rolling Stone, appears on Ego Trips listing of the Top 25 Hip Hop albums released from 1980-1998, and appeared on The Source’s 100 Greatest Rap Albums of all time.

You can't get Deeper if you're standing still. That's intentional, says the Chicago quartet's Nic Gohl. "Does it feel good when you're listening to this song? Does your body want to move with it?" These are the questions he asked himself as he and bandmates Shiraz Bhatti, Drew McBride, and Kevin Fairbairn were writing and recording Careful!, their third record and Sub Pop debut. "I wanted these to be interesting songs, but in a way where a two-year-old would vibe out to it," Gohl adds.

"It's pop music, basically." That "basically" qualifier is working pretty hard, as fans of 2020's Auto-Pain might suppose. On Careful!, they're not reimagining their sound so much as testing its limits. If you want to, you can hear echoes of David Bowie's Low in the snapping rhythm and gray-sky synths of "Tele," but you can also hear a bit of Auto-Pain in the nailed-in, stippling lines being spit out by Bhatti's drum programming and McBride's synthesizer.

"Fame" seems to stumble together and nearly fall apart, the dialed-up noise making the beat feel maniacal and a little invincible, the whole thing a series of short, snipped, autonomous gestures that are by now Deeper's trademark. "Build a Bridge" pushes in the opposite direction, using a prickly guitar line to launch into big, smeary art-pop, its emotional palette clear, well-defined, and easy to latch onto.

On "Sub," Gohl sings above and below the melody like Ian McCulloch, bellowing and wondering and ruminating and rounding into swaggering confidence that the band rises to meet. It's festival headliner music that still feels like it was written in a garage. That fraternal interdependence is near the center of Deeper's music. The musical and lyrical devotion to mutuality makes this restlessly curious, stylistically broad album feels like the most coherent portrait of who Deeper is. Or, as McBride ultimately frames it, "Careful! is about looking out for one another."