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Kindred spirits Passepartout Duo and Inoyama Land embody the essence of play - charting a new chapter and reinvigorating the environmental music and electronic landscape.

Passepartout Duo is formed of Nicoletta Favari (IT) and Christopher Salvito (IT/US), who since 2015 have been on a continuous journey travelling the world's corners, engaged in a creative process they term "slow music". Having been guests of many notable artist residencies and with live performances in cultural spaces and institutions, their evocative music escapes categorisation. With no fixed abode their musical pilgrimage brought them to Japan first in 2019, which prompted a deep connection to Kanky? Ongaku 'environmental music', a genre in which Inoyama Land is often associated with, soundtracking the duo's first immersive experience. In 2023 the duo revisited Japan and set out to reconnect in particular with the music of Inoyama Land, performed by Makoto Inoue and Yasushi Yamashita. The highly revered album 'Danzindan-Pojidon' (1983) produced by Haruomi Hosono amongst other well publicized and acclaimed reissues (Light in The Attic Records' Grammy-nominated compilation 'Kanky? Ongaku'), produced a global resurgence and admiration of the environmental music movement. Nicoletta took the lead to seek out Inoyama Land and in making contact successfully their intrigue and eagerness to meet was warmly reciprocated, and the group scheduled to meet in the form of a spontaneous improvisation session. "We're deeply concerned with what it means to be a duo, and what it means for people to connect through music."

Radio Yugawara is a unique one-off transmission from a specific place and point in time, unlikely to ever occur again. The respective duo's approach can really be described as "tuning in", a tuning into each other, to themselves, and to the surrounding nature of Yugawara. Like waves that travel off-world, sounds travel through the universe and can be lost forever if we don't seek them out. In finding a harmonic affinity within their instruments and a spiritual kinship in their interwoven performance, Radio Yugawara at its core is an interpretation of feeling, of close human interaction and the true essence of discovery.

"The album is both a transmission from a location, but also a tuning into the surroundings and to each other. Music in this kind of ephemeral moment is much less about active creation and more about discovering something which is already there in the air."

Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn share a common collaborative ethos, a genuine sense of musical curiosity, and a cosmopolitan eagerness to escape the conventions of genre. That shared vision first brought them together on 2022's Pigments_icy and warm, stripped-down and grand, familiar and otherworldly_and now it has reunited them for Quiet in a World Full of Noise. By turns intimate, soul-baring, spectral, and startling, Quiet in a World Full of Noise blends atmospheric and orchestral soundscapes with mellifluous soul, jazz, and journalistic vocalizing_driving it all home with stark, confessional lyricism. The new album finds Richard at her most raw and exposed. This year, Richard's musician father experienced mini strokes while being diagnosed with cancer; and last year, her cousin Cisco was fatally shot seven times in New Orleans. Richard channels the emotional impact of these traumatic experiences of loss into her lyrics and vocal performances, which are left bare and human here, raw and unprocessed across the album. Quiet expands the definitions of what constitutes progressive, avant-garde R&B by rewriting them altogether. On paper, Richard and Zahn's audacious, impressionistic musical collaborations feel like a surprising match. Richard, a New Orleans-reared visionary, has had an improbable journey from late 2000s reality television and mainstream pop with girl group Danity Kane to become one of the most prolific, experimental, and visible indie R&B singer-songwriters of the last decade and a half, with seven solo albums under her belt. Zahn is an East Coast-raised multi-instrumentalist and composer working at the intersections of jazz, Americana, classical, and ambient pop. His growing solo discography includes People of the Dawn, Sunday Painter, Pale Horizon, and Statues I & II, as well as the duo's first release, Pigments. "Pigments was one of the best projects I've ever made," Richard says, "and the furthest I've ever been pushed as an artist." The album was a critical hit, hailed as Best New Music by Pitchfork and receiving praise from Stereogum as Album of the Week, NPR Music, Bandcamp Daily, The Fader, Bitter Southerner, and Edition, among many other publications. The making of its follow-up, Quiet in a World Full of Noise, began in 2023 in upstate New York. Fresh from a break-up, Zahn sat at his piano and poured himself into writing and recording instrumental compositions. "I wrote all these stream-of-consciousness pieces on piano, and they were eerie, spacious piano tracks," he said. He used a piano that had been unconventionally tuned to the room rather than to standard pitch. These oddly-tuned, eerie instrumental recordings were never intended to be an album. Six months later, he listened to the recordings again and sent them to Richard who immediately recognized their potential and said, "Oh, this is the next album." Richard went into the studio the next day and wrote and recorded melodies and lyrics to Zahn's piano recordings. Zahn brought in gifted musicians like Bryan Senti on strings (violin, viola, and violoncello da spalla) and CJ Camerieri on brass (French horn, flugelhorn, and trumpet). In some cases, like on the track "Life in Numbers," Zahn used only the original first-take piano recording and scratch vocal, resulting in an intimate close-up of both Richard and Zahn.

RAT BOY have recorded in Los Angeles with T im Armstrong of Rancid, played festivals as far afield as Japan and China, and toured North America with The Interrupters. Yet for all those globe-trotting adventures, there"s no place you know quite as well as home. That"s the central topic that R AT BOY explore on their upcoming third album "SUBURBIA CALLING", which will be released on October 4th via Hellcat. "SUBURBIA CALLING" sees RAT BOY exploring stories from their roots in Essex. It"s the land of wheeler -dealers and dodgy geezers, and home to nosey neighbours, rowdy clubs and Joey Essex. For readers outside of the UK, it"s the land of Blur, Depeche Mode and The Prodigy: a place not so far outside of east London, but in other ways it"s a world away. And it"s not only an immense font of inspiration for RAT BOY, but the place where ever ything happens for them.. Just outside of Chelmsford sits a converted barn where the band can jump in and be creative whenever the mood takes them - a HQ that is a recording studio, a rehearsal space, an art studio, a storage space and a hangout spot all-in-one. Frontman Jordan Cardy says, "I wanted to sing about Essex. Essex is where we live and when you"ve grown up somewhere you notice things about it. There"s so much to draw on. Essex is really close to London but it"s different in a lot of ways. We"ve got a lot of freedom here, we built a place where we can record and rehearse and hang out, somewhere you wouldn"t be able to have in London." RAT BOY - completed by Liam Haygarth (bass), Harr y Todd (guitar) and Noah Booth (dr ums) - approached the making of the al - bum in unorthodox fashion. They recorded a home demo and a live performance of each song, which were then sent to producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) to edit together like a tapestry puzzle.

RAT BOY have recorded in Los Angeles with T im Armstrong of Rancid, played festivals as far afield as Japan and China, and toured North America with The Interrupters. Yet for all those globe-trotting adventures, there"s no place you know quite as well as home. That"s the central topic that R AT BOY explore on their upcoming third album "SUBURBIA CALLING", which will be released on October 4th via Hellcat. "SUBURBIA CALLING" sees RAT BOY exploring stories from their roots in Essex. It"s the land of wheeler -dealers and dodgy geezers, and home to nosey neighbours, rowdy clubs and Joey Essex. For readers outside of the UK, it"s the land of Blur, Depeche Mode and The Prodigy: a place not so far outside of east London, but in other ways it"s a world away. And it"s not only an immense font of inspiration for RAT BOY, but the place where ever ything happens for them.. Just outside of Chelmsford sits a converted barn where the band can jump in and be creative whenever the mood takes them - a HQ that is a recording studio, a rehearsal space, an art studio, a storage space and a hangout spot all-in-one. Frontman Jordan Cardy says, "I wanted to sing about Essex. Essex is where we live and when you"ve grown up somewhere you notice things about it. There"s so much to draw on. Essex is really close to London but it"s different in a lot of ways. We"ve got a lot of freedom here, we built a place where we can record and rehearse and hang out, somewhere you wouldn"t be able to have in London." RAT BOY - completed by Liam Haygarth (bass), Harr y Todd (guitar) and Noah Booth (dr ums) - approached the making of the al - bum in unorthodox fashion. They recorded a home demo and a live performance of each song, which were then sent to producer Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) to edit together like a tapestry puzzle.

Haunted Presence ist ein bis zum Rand gefüllter Kissenbezug mit köstlichen Halloween-Leckerbissen aus dem Numeroverse und eine unterhaltsame Mischung aus schaurigem Garage-Rock, skelettartigem Soul, mutiertem Protometal und gruseligem 60er-Jahre-Kitsch. Mit einer Spannweite von 20 Tracks wird diese Doppel-LP mit Sicherheit jede Kostümparty, Séance oder Monster-Mash beleben. Warnung! Längerer Genuss kann Gehörschäden verursachen.

Haunted Presence ist ein bis zum Rand gefüllter Kissenbezug mit köstlichen Halloween-Leckerbissen aus dem Numeroverse und eine unterhaltsame Mischung aus schaurigem Garage-Rock, skelettartigem Soul, mutiertem Protometal und gruseligem 60er-Jahre-Kitsch. Mit einer Spannweite von 20 Tracks wird diese Doppel-LP mit Sicherheit jede Kostümparty, Séance oder Monster-Mash beleben. Warnung! Längerer Genuss kann Gehörschäden verursachen.

Four years after their Discrepant debut - 'OOOO' -, Lisbon-based travellers Jibóia return to the fold with another offering of globetrotting psychedelia with 'Salar'. With the core trio of Óscar Silva, Ricardo Martins and Mestre André augmented by a stellar parade of collaborators on various roles, 'Salar' further expands on the transglobal visions by now pretty trademarked by the band. Intersped among shorter vignettes for drums, saxophone and bass, each of the more fully fleshed tracks casts a guest to elevate Jibóia's music to uncharted realms - both in a mystical and geographical sense.

Opener 'Selar' summons the cello of songstress Joana Guerra for a skewed dialogue with Silva's guitar, propelled by Martins' drums and percussion and André's electronic textures into 4 minutes and 20 seconds that feel epic - if there was any psychedelic numerological symbolism needed. On 'Solar', Silva's non-western plucking rides on for Yaw Tembe's trumpet to veer in a multitude in directions, while the mysterious 'Sitar' conjures the voice of moroccan musician Ayoub El Ayadi for a contemplative nighttime prayer. Elsewhere, guitarist Rui Carvalho aka Filho da Mãe injects dissonant guitar lines unto 'Sarar's pummelling dance and Pedro Augusto's electronics hover below the shapeshifting dynamics of 'Sonar', among mesmerising keyboard lines. 'Salir' featuring Daiyen Jone enchanted flute brings the album to a close at its most reflective, all crepuscular synth lines and reverbed handclaps.

RARE & PREV. UNRELEASED PSYCH-FUNK AND GARAGE ROCK !!!

Say hello to Down & Wired Vol. 7 as Perfect Toy Records unleashes yet another instalment in its long-running compilation series! Once more, the label provides a delectable selection of obscure funk and soul-influenced psychedelic and garage rock tracks to delight even hardcore collectors of both genres.

And make no mistake, there is plenty to discover among these eleven tracks. At the funkiest end of things, Function's Free Style morphs from West Coast psychedelia to country funk to swamp rock and back again in its sub-three minute length, Dandy King provide psychedelic funky-soul and The Whiz Kids take a heavy dose of funkiness with them into psych-rock territory – sample fiends watch out for the fat twenty-second drum break towards the end of the latter! Purer psychedelia can be found in the offering from Third Stone while Würzburg band Prisma provide all-out epic psych-rock carnage. And if rock carnage is your thing, you'll be feeling the dirty garage rock onslaught of The Comin' Generation and a previously unreleased cut by Synod - soon to be a 45 single on Perfect Toy. That just leaves The General Store, The Soul Society, The Vestells and another unreleased cut from The Villagers (from whom the label will be dropping more unreleased material soon!), to close the circle by adding a heavy dose of garage soul.

A worthy successor to the previous volumes, Down & Wired Vol. 7 is once again accompanied by an insert containing detailed information and photos of the bands and a download code is also included with every vinyl LP.

with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip’s Memory Music, it’s the band’s first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open.

with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip’s Memory Music, it’s the band’s first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open.

Cloudy Baby Blue Vinyl. with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip's Memory Music, it's the band's first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open. It's an intensely self-reflective record for vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, an uprooting and examination of the supports on which a life is built. Preemptive grief, wrestling with god and faith, familial responsibility, familial mortality_these are the things Simmons was carrying while writing this material. They're also things he was trying, for better and worse, to avoid_ hence the record's title. with you in spirit feels like the work of songwriters reaching new heights, exploring new depths. Sometimes, the record itself feels like a band grappling with its own avoidance, its own mortality, and deciding to face these things the only way they know how. Balance and Composure are with us in spirit, yes, but in the flesh, too, for now.

Twenty years ago, mclusky released their third album, The Difference Between Me and You Is That I"m Not On Fire via Too Pure. In the years since, their legend has only grown, proved by their recent sold-out tour dates. Alternative Press described them as "a smash up between the scabrous rock noise of the Jesus Lizard and the jagged rhythms and open spaces of Gang Of Four". Originally produced by the late, great Steve Albini, this reissue has been remastered by his close friend and Shellac bandmate, Bob Weston and is pressed on 180gram black vinyl.

Three years after appearing on Doom Sessions Vol 5 split, High Reeper are back with their most ambitious album yet,"Renewed By Death". A true heavy metal assault of eight tracks that take you on a journey to the darkest depths and leave you there to rot. Featuring monolithic riffs that pummel you from the opening of the album to the close, guitar solos reminiscent of George Lynch and Dave Navarro, and powerful vocals that deliver a knockout blow. This album showcases the band's desire to keep evolving and exploring new sounds and ideas. "Renewed By Death" was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Shane Trimble at the band's brand new studio Sletner Sound, in Wilmington Delaware with Justin Di Pinto also engineering. The cover was done by Solomacello and photos of the band were done by Drew Wiedemann.

Neon yellow vinyl, limited to 350 copies. Three years after appearing on Doom Sessions Vol 5 split, High Reeper are back with their most ambitious album yet,"Renewed By Death". A true heavy metal assault of eight tracks that take you on a journey to the darkest depths and leave you there to rot. Featuring monolithic riffs that pummel you from the opening of the album to the close, guitar solos reminiscent of George Lynch and Dave Navarro, and powerful vocals that deliver a knockout blow. This album showcases the band's desire to keep evolving and exploring new sounds and ideas. "Renewed By Death" was produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Shane Trimble at the band's brand new studio Sletner Sound, in Wilmington Delaware with Justin Di Pinto also engineering. The cover was done by Solomacello and photos of the band were done by Drew Wiedemann.

Cindy is to release a new six song EP called Swan Lake on 4th October via Tough Love. The title isn't a nod to the folktale or ballet in any real way, but to the fact that it all has ended up in the collective imagination as an object, vaguely recognizable, a little suggestive, and mostly blank. Karina Gill, Cindy's songwriter, likes to make use of that kind of resonance to connect sound and experience. The six songs on this EP continue the stripped-down habits of previous Cindy releases, while adding a few departures and left-turns. Cindy likes to work at the essentials and the elements here say exactly what's needed. In other ways, these songs present a soft filigree that's unusual for their recordings. Oli Lipton (Now, Violent Change) on guitar and Will Smith (Now) on bass play counterpoint melodies to Gill's structures. Staizsh Rodrigues (Children Maybe Later, Almond Joy, Peace Frog) sings vocal harmonies that both offset and deepen Gill's voice and delivery. There are playful drums by Mike Ramos (Tony Jay, Sad Eyed Beatniks) and coolly elaborate guitar lines from Stanley Martinez (Famous Mammals, Violent Change, Non Plus Temps). Gill's songs strike this balance too: almost nonchalant reporting tied up in unexpected knots. A ride in an elevator connects up with questions about peace and/or the nature of things; the title track wonders about associative thinking and associative feeling; The Bell is an account of one of those times when everything makes sense but you can't explain it; and there's the scene of a party viewed with admiration for how friends can love each other. As Gill herself says: "People have told me that they can't quite identify my influences. Me neither. The foundational layers of music of the past and my past have been metabolized like breakfast and turned into more me, sorry to say. But I experience the music of people I'm connected with and it impacts me in the moment. There's the music I'm around - April Magazine, Sad Eyed Beatniks, Violent Change, Katsy Pline, collaborating with Mike on Flowertown - that I can feel a direct line from. Then there's music that is being made far away but feels close, like Lewsberg, specifically, for this EP. "

with you in spirit, the fourth Balance and Composure LP, is an arresting, atmospheric collection of melodic post-punk and towering rock. Due out October 4 on long-time collaborator and Grammy-nominated producer Will Yip's Memory Music, it's the band's first LP in eight years, and a thrilling full-length comeback after their four-year hiatus. It thunders and stirs, dipping between beautiful, crystalline arrangements and punishing, earth-shaking climaxes; in between all, a gripping, near-physical tension crackles and growls and grooves, waiting to rip open.It's an intensely self-reflective record for vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, an uprooting and examination of the supports on which a life is built. Preemptive grief, wrestling with god and faith, familial responsibility, familial mortality_these are the things Simmons was carrying while writing this material. They're also things he was trying, for better and worse, to avoid_hence the record's title.with you in spirit feels like the work of songwriters reaching new heights, exploring new depths. Sometimes, the record itself feels like a band grappling with its own avoidance, its own mortality, and deciding to face these things the only way they know how. Balance and Composure are with us in spirit, yes, but in the flesh, too, for now.

Following up on last years debut release, Chontane returns with Manx, the second EP on his label, TANE. This five-track collection continues his exploration of sound design, moving into fresh territory while retaining the distinctive energy that marked TANE001.

With TANE002, Chontane invites listeners into a diverse sonic landscape, emphasizing mood, texture, and the subtle intricacies of rhythm.
Manx marks a significant progression in Chontanes artistry, expanding on the
foundation set by TANE001, which echoed the nostalgia of 90s and early 2000s rave culture. While his first EP blended old-school, rave-inspired techno, atmospheric tracks, and a touch of jungle, TANE002 boldly ventures into new, uncharted territories. It challenges traditional genre boundaries, delving deep into the potential of sound design, and offering a forward-thinking perspective that feels attuned to the future.

The EP highlights Chontanes dedication to capturing a wide spectrum of moods and textures within a single record. The title track, Manx sets the stage with a dark, hypnotic presence. Rich in layered textures and atmospheric undertones, the track fuses a powerful kick with resonant toms, deep subs, and eerie pads. Haunting, glitchy vocal snippets add an extra dimension, making Manx a compelling, immersive experience.

On Gazebo, the EPs A2 track, Chontane shifts the energy, delivering a composition that balances driving rhythms with a melodic core. The combination of dynamic drums with an epic, mystical theme creates a piece thats both uplifting and introspective, standing out for its ability to evoke grandeur while maintaining a sense of optimism.

The B-side leans into a more shadowy atmosphere, with Oolean blending metallic
percussion and a throbbing bassline. The tracks ominous pads and powerful kick drum propel it forward, creating a narrative thats intense and captivating.
B2 offers a fitting conclusion to the vinyl release, presenting a track that blends dreamy, atmospheric melodies with a robust kick and driving sub-line. The mystical qualities of this composition make it an evocative and memorable closer.
The digital-only track, Thumb Print, rounds out the EP with a relentless, peak-time experience. Its hypnotic rhythm and expansive sense of scale make it a standout track, perfect for igniting dance floors and capturing listeners attention.

Hailing from the southern edge of Finland, BATTLE BEAST were founded in 2008 and soon established themselves with their trademark of pure crunching riffs, high screams, blistering solos and strong choruses. “I thirst to go further as a human being and the music on this album represents a part of the ongoing spiritual journey - that's what I tend to I call it - which is my road onward. Music-wise the songs have been expanded to a wider area as an effort to call out emotions close to those I myself had during the times of birth of these songs,” commented guitarist & vocalist Anton Kabanen about »Unholy Savior«. “Like always, I wrote songs about the series "Berserk", as well, and the reason behind writing songs about that particular series is that I can strongly relate to that, especially to certain characters and to their way of thinking and feeling,” Anton adds.

Amputechture Beneath the technical flash, the fury, the fearless creative brinkmanship of the first two Mars Volta albums lay a potent seam of the blues, an existential vexation that powered every twist and turn of Omar and Cedric’s imaginations. That mournful vibe would come to the surface of the group’s third full-length Amputechture, a simmering/blistering set that was unquestionably the group’s darkest yet. There was no overarching theme here, no interlinking concept binding the songs together, though Cedric concedes that, lyrically, the album was influenced “by a lot of stuff I was going through, a really bad break-up and a lot of other crazy stuff, and trying to put that feeling into the record.” But Amputechture – its name another of the late Jeremy Michael Ward’s invented words – was no downbeat bummer. Opener Vicarious Atonement might’ve been a deliciously gloomy, slow-burning thing, capturing Cedric in delirious duet with Omar’s swooning guitar lines, accompanied by squalling saxophone by Adrian Terrazas-Gonzales and dream-frequency fuckery by the group’s new sonic manipulator, former At The Drive- In member Paul Hinojos. But second track Tetragrammaton swiftly set pulses racing, an epic-in-miniature and containing more ideas within its 16 minutes than most bands manage over an entire career, its proggy, complex guitar figures tessellating in infinite configurations and converging as if conforming to mathematical formulae from another reality. The raw material Amputechture was hewn from started life on the road. Omar now travelled with his own mobile recording studio – a little Neve ten-channel tape recorder and an array of microphones – and was able to work on new ideas on tourbuses, in hotel rooms and during soundcheck (and, occasionally, after the show was done). After touring for Frances The Mute was complete, Omar relocated to Amsterdam, staying with his photographer friend Danielle Van Ark and her partner, Nils Post. It’s here that he demoed Amputechture, flying in engineer Jon DeBaun, drummer Jon Theodore and his brother, Chino, to work on these raw sketches. He later returned to Los Angeles, where the album was finally recorded. Omar ceded guitar duties to his dear friend and kindred spirit John Frusciante, instead assuming the role of musical director. “I wanted to hear the sound of the band,” he says. “I thought, I’ll be able to sit at the console, feel the air of the speakers moving, the unified sound of everything, and not feel distant from it. It was fun, but it was also challenging.” Part of Omar’s new method was to teach the musicians their parts only moments before the tapes rolled. “To keep things fresh, and to keep everyone on edge,” he says, before chuckling. “No, not on edge – on their toes. Amputechture would prove The Mars Volta’s most diverse set yet, drawing into the group’s tornado of influences moments of fiery jazz spirituality and esoteric folk introspection, finding space for passages of devastating subtlety and also their most fierce and full-on moments to date. The aforementioned Vicarious Atonement found its meditative mood echoed by Asilos Magdalena, an intimate, acoustic piece that invoked traditional Latin folk music, as Cedric sang in Spanish a sorrowful tale of a lost soul’s quest for sanctuary within a Magdalen Asylum, a refuge set up by the Catholic church for “fallen women”. The shadowy, sinister closer El Ciervo Vulnerado, meanwhile, tapped into the darker side of spiritual jazz to further explore the album’s themes of redemption and religious myth and magick. Elsewhere, the interplay between guitar and clarinet on Viscera Eyes created complex, unsettling counter-melodies, while the coiling, ornate Meccamputechture – Cedric’s wild fusion of sacred texts, occultism and dystopian science fiction – proved a great showcase for Ikey Owens’ swarming, infernal organ runs, in concert with Frusciante’s arcane guitar-play. But it was Day Of The Baphomets that would prove Amputechture’s most ambitious and most defining epic. Cedric’s lyrics tore into the hypocrisy of religious cant and myths of sin and punishment. “I wanted to make a song that was like the movie The Believers, where this cabal stole kids and did some occult shit with them,” he explains. “But I wanted it to be like, ‘What if the people you hire to do jobs you don’t wanna do rise up one day and then pull some shit like that?’ Like it was the guerrilla warfare, them taking over – wouldn’t that be some fucked up shit? And the music just lent itself to that – the big intro, the bass solo, and all of the ruckus that occurs.” That ruckus was some of the most thrilling Mars Volta music yet, as Omar directed his musicians to rumble through fiery modes of wild tribal groove, ransack-the-palaces riot- rock and supreme progressive experimentalism. Amputechture, then, is the sound of The Mars Volta in imperial mode: fearless, insatiable, unstoppable.

A1 - Consensus Reality
JLM opens another stellar EP for Spatial with Consensus Reality, acheery, optimistic track which opens with lush keys, and filtered breaks. Soon we are treated to long synths brimming with optimism while melodies are formed from a slew of elements entangled in joyous harmony. This is a special track before we even mention the amazingly crisp apache breaks which are introduced and toyed with to the conclusion in JLM's inimitable style.

A2 - Salva Veritate
An eerie vibe immediately grips the listener for a remarkably intense atmospheric journey in the shape of Salva Veritate. Whooshing, reverberating synths punctuate a dense soundscape laced with tensionand intrigue. The hefty Hot Pants breaks drive the track perfectly with atuneful 808 rumbling below, as blippy sub-melodies and keys add further texture to the mix to complete an immensely memorable production from JLM.

AA1 - Hotspot
Mellow keys with a hint of jazz open Hotspot, as JLM adds further flex tohis repertoire in another impressively detailed journey through sumptuous atmospherics. The track quickly bursts into life in full flow with chunky breaks driven by juddering snares nestling over smooth 808 basslines andswathes of strings & pads that swoop across the mix to create a dreamy paradox of lively calm.

AA2 - Nova
A soothing way to close the EP as JLM opens Nova with long, relaxing synthwork before the delicate beat patterns begin with a symphony offiltered effects and soft notes punctuating the soundscape. Extended reverse cymbals and subtly used reverberating vocal samples add textureto proceedings as the cosmic breaks flow, as we have become accustomed to from JLM's exceptional output on Spatial.
Words by Chris Hayes (Spatial / Red Mist)