Buscar:cold dust

M_Step's roots go back to the heyday of Vienna's Cheap Records, and the echoes of that label's seminal style can still be heard on his TRUST debut: Stone-cold electro funk meets the kind of low-slung basslines and laid-back jazz chords that the Viennese producer, DJ, and (double) bassist contributed to classic releases of 550 Rondy, Pulsinger & Tunakan, Sluts 'n' Strings & 909, and even Kruder & Dorfmeister remixing Madonna. Fourth release in the 'Covert Systems' series

After considerable speculation since Record Store Day, it's now been revealed that the new album by Boards of Canada 'Tomorrow's Harvest' will be released on Monday 10th June 2013 on Warp Records

Time spent drifting from the northwest to Mexico to New Orleans and now to Montana has kept her off of the industry's radar until recently. Now, following her Newport Folk Fest appearance, she opened concerts for Big Thief and the Deslondes. Her performances on the Western AF have combined to garner over 200k views with the tastemaker site calling her "the GOAT." Cavazos' fans include Esther Rose, Benjamin Todd (Lost Dog Street Band), Riley Downing, Chris Acker, and Luke Bell. She collaborated as a member of a band (called Sundown) with Alynda Lee Segarra (of Hurray For the Riff Raff) and Sam Doores (of The Deslondes), the latter of whom produced this album.

Contemplating the role of the album format in an attention-deficient society, Speedy J presents Walkman -- a constantly shifting, 90-minute soundtrack to a journey of your choice. Jochem Paap's first solo album in over 20 years is a freewheeling, 20-track testament to his decades-deep studio skill and sonic versatility, running from skewed rhythmic rabbit holes to exploratory tonal abandon. For Paap, the traditional idea of the album had become obscured by listening habits and the non-stop information barrage of our digital lives. Having moved on from his breakthrough years releasing LPs and touring off the back of them, he was more inspired to develop his many-sided STOOR project and feed into a bigger artistic body of work than the temporary shelf-life of a single release. As is natural for any artist, his perspective shifted over time and he found himself drawn back to the idea of an album, realising he connected best with longer releases while he was on a walk, out for a run or generally in transit one way or another. With an endearing call back to the humble Walkman, he selected an hour and a half of material created during studio sessions at the beginning of 2025, perfectly sized to fit on two 45-minute sides of a cassette tape. As has long been the case for his studio practice, there were no fixed intentions when sitting down in the STOOR lab to start making noise -- just a wealth of experience and an expansive set of tools to start exploring with. From hours of jams Paap pulled together standout moments and moulded them into a mixtape-like narrative ranging from two-minute beat nuggets to full-tilt techno workouts and immersive ambient drops. Every sound is intentional, but the overall delivery is instinctive and curious, showing multiple new dimensions to Paap's sound and offering unpredictability at every turn. 'Arp Amp Chasm' opens the album up in a thick blanket of humming, harmonic waves with an electric emotional charge, while 'Ctrssalms17 (Cold Render)' journeys through evocative blooms of melancholic, gritty pads and rugged, half-submerged tech funk. 'Modern Birds (Origin Edit)' reaches skywards with grand sweeps of dynamic, brilliantly rendered synthesis. From the dexterous drum science of 'Drift Vector' to 'Osc Hop (Slow Collapse)'s lurching, beatless swamp of synths, on Walkman even the briefest snapshots leave an impression that lasts beyond the quick-scan cycle of the modern music experience. With his return to the album format, Paap's message is clear --put your headphones on, get outside and lose yourself in the sound of an artist constantly committed to moving forwards.

You can always rely on Burnski and his many labels to keep DJs and dancers well-oiled with plenty of fresh house and garage tackle in various different guises. Constant Black keeps it stripped back with this new one from Rotterdam resident Fabio Santos. 'Midnight Protocol' is an ice-cold stepper, and 'Duster' gets more sleazy and raw with a heavy house foundation. There's wub-wub filth underpinning the garage shuffler 'Breather', old school ragga vibes on 'Request To All Junglist' and 'Conspiracy' is a light-footed hot-stepper with mutant energy. An absolute no-brainer that will become a go-to for months to come.

Burnski's agenda-setting garage label Instinct is back with killer new beats from Mance. 'Atmos101' gets things underway with sparking melodies zipping about the stereo field over chunky drums and with a filthy bassline. There is more of a throwback feel to the dusty drum loops of 'Stone Cold, Baby' complete with great vocal samples and spiralling pads. 'All Night' shows another look again with dry, stripped-back beats and big hits under warped synth stabs and more brain-melting bass. 'I Can't Help It' shuts down with silky pads work and soulful vocals.

Die dritte LP des Ishmael Ensembles, "Rituals", stellt eine bedeutende Entwicklung für die Musiker aus Bristol dar. Mit Live-Instrumentierung und elektronischer Stilverschmelzung war die Band schon immer breiter aufgestellt als das Etikett "New UK Jazz", das ihr gegeben wurde, aber hier sind Umfang und grenzüberschreitender Ehrgeiz deutlicher als je zuvor. Obwohl das Ensemble seinen Mix aus spirituellem Jazz, Dub, experimentellen und elektronischen Klanglandschaften beibehält, werden diese Elemente hier kräftig zu riesigen Soundyklonen aufgepeitscht, die wesentlich songbasierter und zugänglicher sind, aber auch fast psychedelisch in ihrer wohlklingenden Mischung aus Farben und Texturen, Facetten und Stimmungen.

Bedroom Talks, hailing from Ukraine, is a gifted solo artist whose music, delves into an eclectic blend of genres including coldwave, darkwave, synthwave, post-punk with touches of EBM. “Call Me Malespero,” produced during Ukraine’s shelling, captures the essence of his art in a unique and moving way.

It’s a powerful testament to human resilience and the ability to find beauty even in the darkest moments, evoking a range of emotions from pain and anger to palpable sweetness, all woven into poetic lyrics and enveloping melodies. Presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially mastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany). inc

DOJO ZONE, a local lurker of the backstreets of Santa Catalina. When he’s not eating tapas, sipping on cold cañas or digging through our dusty record boxes, he’s producing strange wonky house beats for the weekend shenanigans. Expect sounds from the past, feelings of the present, movements of the Mediterranean Express…



Recorded, mixed and arranged by Todd Gartland at The Castle Studios, Mallorca.

Mastered by Justin Drake at The Bakehouse Studio, London.

Special vinyl re-issue of Trentemøller's groundbreaking debut album. Includes all of the 13 songs on vinyl for the first time. Triple-vinyl in gatefold sleeve.

Trentemøller's debut album remains one of the few genre-defining and groundbreaking albums in many regards. It's still being praised for its composition and sounddesign alike and sounds as fresh and breathtaking today as it did when it was originally released in 2006.
The Last Resort - a beautifully crafted, astonishing masterpiece, that will leave you breathless. The 13 instrumental tracks together form a wordless musical story, almost like the soundtrack of a movie. It
manages to capture a whole range of emotions in subtle melodic miniatures, dreamy ambiences, dusty beats, deep dub-tracks and driving groove-excursions. An ever-changing kaleidoscope of colours and moods. Although it's an electronic album, it also incorporates live-drums, guitars, bass and other acoustic instruments like celesta, glockenspiel, melodica and even DJ scratching to create a more organic feel. The album received fantastic acclaim from both music fans and journalists around the world and made it into the top-lists of the month, the year, the decade - alongside an array of awards for best production or best album.

Back in 2006, the original pressing only included a selection of songs from the original 13-track album release. It missed out on songs which had been released on singles or didn't "fit" on the so called "vinyl edition". Due to 'public demand' and simply because this album deserves a proper vinyl release we are happy to finally present, for the first time, the full album on vinyl. It spans of three vinyl discs and is packed in a beautiful gatefold sleeve which also holds a download-code. The recut has been carefully crafted from first generation, orignal masters by Calyx in Berlin. Since the album has been praised for its fantastic sound the primary directive was to cut the lacquers for the re-issue so that they would sound exactly the same as the original release, which has been the CD version of the album. No 'digital remastering' or any other alterations have been applied.
All 13 songs of the classic album on one vinyl release for the first time. Triple-Vinyl edition. Gatefold sleeve. download code. original sound-quality. NO digital remastering.

Esbe returns to Cold Busted for a phenomenal new four-track EP, Sunset Girl. With previous releases on Dusted Wax Kingdom and Cult Classic, as well as his acclaimed Bloomsday and Late Night Headphones albums for Cold Busted, the Los Angeles-based multi-genre beat-maker is riding a wave. Sunset Girl is another exciting moment in Esbe's musical progression. The release starts quietly with the gentle, muted piano chords of "Special." A sparse hip-hop beat and subdued melodic layers round out the tune, cutting away to reveal a lonesome vocoder vocal. "Again" is as close as Esbe gets to a pop song, as a carefree male vocal and twinkling pianos ride over a crisp, solid rhythm track. More delights await on "Sunset Girl" with its simple piano line, reverby percussion hits, distant sax solo, and splashes of vocal collide in a sonic daydream. "I Want Love" closes things out on a vintage flavor, with echoes of a mid-century school dance reverberating into a modern day beat battle. Potent vibes all around.

Hot off the griddle, Cookin' The Books is the long awaited new album from Australia's kings of Hammond soul, Cookin' On 3 Burners. Their first studio LP in six years finds the trio in top form - deep in the pocket, wide in scope, and stacked with heavyweight collaborators. With a 27-year legacy, global tours, and over 2 billion streams (including the international smash This Girl), Cookin' On 3 Burners remain a defining force in vintage soul, funk, and groove.

Cookin' The Books features a collection of killer collaborators including electrifying live vocalist Stella Angelico, acclaimed soul artist Natalie Slade (Steve Spacek, Katalyst, Simon Mavin), hip hop mainstay Mantra alongside Jane Tyrrell (The Herd), rising alt-soul voice Wilson Blackley, and a sweeping string arrangement from composer/violinist Tamil Rogeon (Aloe Blacc, The Dandy Warhols).

Across the record, the group shifts seamlessly between gritty instrumentals and lush vocal cuts - from the cinematic funk of "Only Words", to the break-beat heavy title track "Cookin' The Books", the bumping bounce of "No Bread For You", and the introspective soul of "Phoenix". Every track reflects the group's deep funk DNA while carving out bold new territory.

With airplay from BBC6's Craig Charles, support from tastemakers (Wax Poetics, Dusty Groove, Rolling Stone Australia), and a world tour booked for 2026, this release is a must-stock for deep funk, soul, and cinematic groove audiences.

From the humdrum to the huge; Tiia explores heartbreak, disappointment, climate change, and dying house plants. The record plays with contrasts, light and shadow, fizz and gloom. Keys melt into darker textures before guitars and drums lift them back into sparkle. It's heaviest moment is the title track, written in an airport bathroom after Tiia's father passed, yet even here, hope breaks through in irresistible vocal harmonies and inventive melodies. "To me, 'Kind Eyes' is a feelings record," Tiia says. "The grief for my dad passing sits at the centre and expands towards the edges, but there's a range of other feelings too. Sometimes they're hard to pin down and navigate but the songs are my map, trying to chart where you are and where you're going. And listeners should remember that sometimes X does mark the spot."

Lead single 'Healing' hits like a mascara- smeared midnight drive through Lynch's America. First sketched with Prince in mind, it finally found its teeth on a long, lonely walk in north-east London: a rock song hiding in plain sight. Tiia says "As soon as I had a rough idea for the driving beat, I knew I had to get Sean Berry (fellow bandmate from the once mighty Comet Sands) involved on the guitar, and the hooks all fell into place". Dusted with plush keys, on 'Numbers Game', Tiia leans into classic rock drama - warmth turning suddenly cold, the floor falling away from underneath you. "The lesson here is don't spy on your exes, but when you do, be prepared to write a song about it. It was the first track I asked Paul Rains (of Allo Darlin' fame) to play guitar on and he instantly got where I was trying to go with it. Now he's my partner, I have no idea how he feels about the lyrics!" Tiia laughs. Having also worked with Tiia's previous cult all-girl indie band The Minor Characters, Seb Kellig lent his trademark dub- inspired production influences at the legendary sonic heaven of Sausage Studios, east London, which Tiia calls "My happy place".

Tiia will again be playing keys for Allo Darlin's four UK tour dates this October followed by tour dates as Count Jaakola. 'Kind Eyes' is set for release 21st November 2025 via Tip Top Recordings (Mandrake Handshake, Japanese Television, Pearl & The Oysters, Golden Toad).

Bilders new album, Neverlasting is a mix of psychic adventures, hard psychedelia and commentary with a bite. Bilders have always sung outliers with a heap of empathy—exploitation of migrants, unmitigated killing and the state of our depleted planet. This album maintains an analog feel with technical finesse as it casts a cold eye on uses and abuses of power in the higher echelons. It is pure Bilders. Surprise collaborations bring in fresh tangents of colour and emotional edge. “We are the Neverlasting renter-squatters of Earth exhausted”. The band is once again the voice/guitar of Bill Direen, bass of Matt Swanson and near everything else by Alex McManus, with guesting by former Bilders. It’s the same lineup as last year’s acclaimed Dustbin of Empathy, released by Grapefruit and Sophomore Lounge, and the first ‘core’ Bilders lineup to remain constant for more than one album. The new compatibility shows. It’s an album that builds on current strengths. Notable guestings include Athens Georgia lights Claire Horne of 1980s BBQ Killers, and Curtiss Pernice, guitarist of heavy vanguard Porn Orchard, with a snook-in from experimental and electronic prince Todd Gerber. Two never-released tunes by vintage Bilders (Stu Page and Greig Bainbridge) sit perfectly with the new material. This is quite simply the strongest Bilders album ever.

Reissue auf kristallklarem Glitzervinyl: "Cherish The Light Years", das zweite Cold CaveStudioalbum 2011 bei Matador Records erschienen, ist ein mutiger Sprung in düsteren
Stadion-Pop, auf dem Post-Punk-Intensität auf melodischer Noise, Industrial-Beats, ItaloDance-Euphorie und Momente purer Pop-Glückseligkeit trifft. Aufgenommen in den
Plantain Studios von Electric Lady und DFA in New York City, kanalisiert die LP das Drama
von Siouxsie and The Banshees, den Puls der frühen Depeche Mode und die emotionale
Schwere von Liebe, Reue, Triumph und Versagen. Mit Tracks wie "Confetti", "The Great Pan
Is Dead", "Underworld USA" und "Villains Of The Moon"brillierten Cold Cave in einem
Moment ohne offensichtliche Szene und schufen einen ganz eigenen Sound und Raum.

Reissue des Debütalbums der US-Dark-Wave-Band Cold Cave aus Philadelphia auf Ruby Red Glitzervinyl. "Love Comes Close" (2009) entstand aus späten Nächten, Second-Hand-Synthies und der stillen Dringlichkeit selbst gebastelter Schlafzimmeraufnahmen und erschien zunächst bei Heartworm Press, um später bei Matador Records neu aufgelegt zu werden, als die Band langsam Kultstatus erlangte. Elf düstere Popsongs für Einsame und Suchende – zerbrechlich, romantisch und von kaltem Licht erfüllt. Mit Anspielungen auf die frühen Experimente von The Human League, Throbbing Gristle und New Order verbindet das Album Gothic-Untertöne mit Indie-Charme und Loft-Synth-Pop. Eisolds Gesang ist distanziert und intim zugleich – poetisch, verletzlich und durchdringend. Vom stechenden Puls des Titeltracks bis hin zu den zeitlosen Live-Klassikern "Life Magazine", "Heaven Was Full" und "Youth And Lust" fängt "Love Comes Close" den seltenen Moment ein, in dem Isolation einer Verbindung weicht und Einfachheit auf emotionale Schwere trifft.

"Nu Vintage returns with his highly anticipated new album, The Beat Bodega, a follow-up to his acclaimed 2023 release Vibrations In Color.

Like a crate-digger’s dream corner shop, The Beat Bodega offers a vibrant assortment of beats and textures, stacked high with dusty samples, laid-back rhythms, and head-nodding vibes. Adding to the flavor are collaborations with fellow beat luminaries Pat Van Dyke, Emapea, and MichRyc, each bringing their own distinct flair to Nu Vintage’s finely tuned production.

True to Cold Busted’s dedication to high-quality physical editions, The Beat Bodega will be available in carefully crafted formats: a limited run of 500 copies on 180-gram white vinyl and 100 copies on baby blue cassette tape, alongside its digital release.

With The Beat Bodega, Nu Vintage reaffirms his place in the modern instrumental hip hop movement while pushing his artistry forward, offering listeners a richly detailed soundtrack that feels both rooted and refreshingly new."

"Nu Vintage returns with his highly anticipated new album, The Beat Bodega, a follow-up to his acclaimed 2023 release Vibrations In Color.

Like a crate-digger’s dream corner shop, The Beat Bodega offers a vibrant assortment of beats and textures, stacked high with dusty samples, laid-back rhythms, and head-nodding vibes. Adding to the flavor are collaborations with fellow beat luminaries Pat Van Dyke, Emapea, and MichRyc, each bringing their own distinct flair to Nu Vintage’s finely tuned production.

True to Cold Busted’s dedication to high-quality physical editions, The Beat Bodega will be available in carefully crafted formats: a limited run of 500 copies on 180-gram white vinyl and 100 copies on baby blue cassette tape, alongside its digital release.

With The Beat Bodega, Nu Vintage reaffirms his place in the modern instrumental hip hop movement while pushing his artistry forward, offering listeners a richly detailed soundtrack that feels both rooted and refreshingly new."

A muffled cry into the technological darkness, Contemporary Movement slid into the world right as the MP3 was seeping out of college dorms. A 39-minute drift into the void, drenched in Cold War-era reverb and then submerged in four track hiss for good measure. Duster constructed a Brutalist masterpiece on the outskirts of a suburban mall, as if to say, "We were here." This numbered 25th anniversary edition is pressed on 180G vinyl and comes with a lyric sheet and poster.

A muffled cry into the technological darkness, Contemporary Movement slid into the world right as the MP3 was seeping out of college dorms. A 39-minute drift into the void, drenched in Cold War-era reverb and then submerged in four track hiss for good measure. Duster constructed a Brutalist masterpiece on the outskirts of a suburban mall, as if to say, "We were here." This numbered 25th anniversary edition is pressed on 180G vinyl and comes with a lyric sheet and poster.

Limitierte Reissue des 2021er Minialbums "Fate In Seven Lessons" der US-Dark-Wave-Band Cold Cave auf neonviolettem 180g Glitzervinyl. "Fate In Seven Lessons" ist ihre bisher härteste und romantischste Arbeit – Gitarren treffen auf Synthesizer in einer Flut grüblerischer Klänge, dezenter Psychedelia und düsterem Pop, eingehüllt in minimalistische Poesie. Das gelungene Werk bescherte ihnen einen Support-Slot auf Depeche Modes Europatournee 2023. Singles wie "Prayer From Nowhere", "Night Light", "Psalm 23" und "Promised Land" erforschen Sehnsucht, Liebe und die Räume dazwischen – eine stille Intensität, die nachklingt. Gemastert und für Vinyl geschnitten von Bob Weston beim Chicago Mastering Service.

Limitierte Reissue des jüngsten Coid Cave-Albums aus 2024 auf schwarzem 180g Glitzervinyl: "Passion Depression" ist ein düster-leuchtendes Werk voller romantischem Synthie-Pop und poetischer Intensität. Geschrieben, aufgenommen, produziert, gemischt und gemastert von Wesley Eisold und Amy Lee, verbinden die acht Songs kraftvolle Elektronik mit melodiegetriebenen Hymnen, die Sehnsucht, Entschlossenheit und Hingabe ausstrahlen. Vom spannungsgeladenen, flackernden Rhythmus von "Shadow Dance" bis zum treibenden, hymnischen "Hourglass" bewegt sich das Album zwischen starkem Minimalismus und überwältigender Emotion – und spannt den Bogen von Einsamkeit zu Hingabe. Hallgetränkte Vocals schweben mit ruhiger Intensität und bewusster Kontrolle über gleichmäßigen Synthklängen. Mit den Singles "She Reigns Down", "Shadow Dance", "Blackberries" und "Hourglass".

'exclusive tour tapes' limited quantity available for distribution

Limited split tape collaboration between like-minded pranksters Lagoss & Babau. Co-released by Sucata tapes & Artetetra in July 2025.

‘’The chars were emerging as some chunk of makeshift swamp coolers blasted the soil surrounding our motorbikes. Sunburn vapours floating grey all around, licking our necks with heavy hazy tongues. Just oppressive and gross. Blah.

Someone says heat waves are among the most dangerous natural hazards. I guess that the magnetic tides did not help at all. For sure, recreational sleep deprivation aside, it was days of relentlessly documented tipsy headaches, thermometric cicada noises and weird-ass hallucinations. It is what it is. The age of earthquakes. We drink from our black plastic bags with a straw pushing a bit of oxygen thru our reptile brains. Just half a pack of synthetic tobacco for the ride. No internet. Whatever.

She looks at me behind the war metal glasses and the silicone frog mask high on desert dust. Sweaty pools on her shoulders. Eyes purple with adrenaline. Map on the scratched screen. “It says that at this point we should be hearing that fucking flute”. We stop amidst the geysers. We can see the monoliths and stone gods ready to eat up all the solar storms and the thunder. Towards the horizon, second moon is up. Damn. Water rises to our knees, green with bloating sounds. Just what we needed. We’re stuck. "Turn up the radio. Let’s hope it lasts five minutes." After trashing a bunch of fake subtropical signals, the radio plays a flute. She takes off the mask and explodes in a grin: “This is it man, we made it! No man’s land. The real fucking thing.” I light one up and let the sight get blurred: “You betcha.”’’

A self-described chronically-sincere farm girl, Emily Hines grew up on a farm in rural Ohio before moving to Nashville where she played in other songwriters' projects before recording her own songs on a 4-track cassette recorder. Hines worked with producer Henry Park. Together they drew inspiration from acts like Duster, Laura Marling, and Karen Dalton to record simply and add layers one at a time. The resulting collection makes for something truly special; rich and decadent but also earthy and cracked. Emily prioritized creating a recording that feels human and present, and the outcome is palpable throughout These Days. At times we're right there in the room with Emily, up close and deeply personal, at other points it's as if you're straining to hear from the outside listening in; ear to the wall, notes carried and caught in the breeze. "We were drawn to the 4-track because it constrains the urge for perfectionism and encourages authenticity to the moment," Emily explains. "What you get is what you get, the 4-track doesn't afford you to get surgical about the details - and that can be really freeing." "Listening to Emily Hines' lo-fi folk ballads feels like discovering a cult hero's lost demos-these gentle, heart-mending recordings crackle with intimacy and seem to unfold as you're listening.' Paste Magazine 'Hines sings plaintive and romantic acoustic ballads, small moments of a life that build to something far greater within the woozy timber of her voice." - Gold Flake Paint

"Wind, Again" is Sary Moussa’s fourth studio album and second album on Other People. Based between France and Lebanon, Moussa returns with a riveting electro-acoustic album informed by his ever-changing relationships to space, listening, and resonance as well as his growing interest in the study of harmonics in electronic and electro-acoustic music.

Years in the making, “Wind, Again” approaches distinct musical worlds and languages by bringing together improvisations by musicians performing on Western and West Asian instruments such as the Hammond organ, clarinet, saz, and buzuk with electronic arrangements and textures. Rather than force a rapprochement of these musical worlds through the instruments, and keenly aware of the weighty sonic histories they carry, Moussa proposes another way through which they can exist together in contemporary electronic composition.

Composed of six tracks, each of which demonstrate an array of recording and processing techniques, the album generates moments of tension produced by the synthesis of textural, tonal, and harmonic encounters that Moussa calls “shadows”, which outline an impressionistic musical language, existing at the edge of familiarity. Such moments permeate tracks like “Everywhere at once” and “Violence” that open with the Hammond organ and the saz respectively and slowly reveal an expansive field of sounds that showcases each of the musicians’ characteristic performances and Moussa’s densely layered textures. It is a latent yet unrelenting tension through which the composer invokes rather than represents a collective experiential state, especially familiar to those who know his environment. In “Wind, Again” these shadows are articulations of sounds steeped in traditions they are never quite tethered to. Such articulations are implied and alluded to, they play within a musical reference without the latter explicitly existing in the recording, always teetering, never completely here nor there.
Sonically and musically, the album is fueled by the cultural, social, and personal realities that Moussa was brought up and lives in.

Both personal and musical ties with the musicians who feature on the album is central to Moussa’s practice. In the title track “I will never write a song about you”, musician Julia Sabra opens with rolled piano chords, followed by Paed Conca on clarinet and Abed Kobeissy on buzuk, before Moussa’s electronic processing pieces together, lifts, and sustains the melodic direction of the track that emerged from the musicians’ separate improvisations. For Moussa: “The initial connection between the three performances was made on a track that no longer existed, the original recording was both an obstacle and necessary step for the track we hear on the record. It’s as if we were all telling different stories and I pulled on the thread that held them together”. The track, and more generally the record, is tinged with a melancholy of things lost, though it never fully succumbs to it.
“Everything inside a circle”, Moussa’s most personal track and for which he provides the only vocals on the record, harkens back to a childhood memory of listening to music with his mother in a car: “There was a sound I was looking for — a memory of a sound and how I first heard it. This track is a hybrid of that memory and what I wanted to make of it”. The track relies heavily on generativesystems and perhaps embodies most the ambiguous quality of the record’s music in its refusal to be pinned down by one musical tradition or another.
“Wind, Again” is both familiar and alien, cold and warm; it pays homage to the mechanics, materials, and tactility of the instruments and converges acoustic and synthetic spaces. What anchors the sound of the album are the elements of a whole that cannot find its own idiosyncrasy and that is precisely why Moussa’s album is a tour de force.

We always knew we would return to this project because Brutalism remains a profound part of our lives, something we cherish deeply. Inspired by the photographs we have been capturing for a new book, the music emerged effortlessly. Documenting these buildings feels instinctive; this is where we belong.

Our unwavering fixation on symmetry, synchronisation, and repetition endures, but this time we believe the music reveals a more emotional depth. That is the direction we have been moving towards. Some things simply take time, yet this album seemed to take shape of its own accord.

Join us as we walk through these modern day cathedrals, monuments to the people.

This is not the end of a dark alleyway in some US city, this is not the bottom of a platform heel in England, this is not the back corner of some dusty drawer at a record fair in Holland. These are not the places you’ll find rock and roll. This is Quebec: A different sensory perception of rock and roll. A heightened awareness of the highest highs and the lowest lows. This is Belgium with snowmobiles, Catholic Texas, Ugly France. All the crumbling highways, the coldest beers, and the loudest joints. Guitars do different things in Quebec. PUFFER shimmy across the invisible barricade between Montreal and the rest of the world not just as another crop of punks but as the great descendants and inheritors of modern greats like INEPSY’s “Rock and Roll Babylon” and ANNIHILATION TIME's “II.” Loud, brash, unrelenting. You’ll go deaf before you get bored of it.
Self produced, self recorded, and mixed by the band, this is the vanguard of punk that has lived long beyond it’s moments of origin. This pure blast of 1979 by way of the hellish weimar end-times of 2025 never made the necessity of punk rock feel so real.
FFO SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS, the 222s, THE DISCORDS, MOTORHEAD, INEPSY, AA Restaurant, Montreal pool room, Katacombes, and the eternal flame of punk in La Belle Provence.

Scruniversal's sub label Tunes Delivery invites Moscow scene veteran Leonid Lipelis to don his Beard In Dust moniker for their third instalment, one which dips into various different eras of dance history for inspiration. There's a distinctly late 80s feel to opening tune 'Music of the U', complete with sampled bell stabs and the kind of beats that wouldn't be out of place on an S'Express or early Coldcut house affair. 'The Armenian Break' and 'City of Love' look back even further, back to the female-fronted disco efforts of the 70s, the latter adding a touch of Balearic flourishes. 'Abstractish P' circles around some serene arpeggios, with rave whistles and, as it progresses, twisting guitar notes, lending it an individual air, while closer 'RoRyaRe' nods to ExCel-era 808 State with some nice bleepery before settling into more progressive headnodding territory and some distinctive synth play.

'the fun years', comprised of multi-instrumentalists Ben Recht and Isaac Sparks, have been making music together since the turn of the century, producing intriguing interrogations of ambient, drone, post-rock, and turntablism. Originally released in 2008 on the now-defunct Barge Recordings, 'baby it’s cold inside' is perhaps the high watermark of their discography. Equally concerned with microtonal nuance and harmonic intensity, it is both a product of its time and something well past it. The chief protagonist is surely the turntable, deployed to create woolly, evocative loops from unidentifiable source material that recall, at times, the work of Philip Jeck or Jan Jelinek—churning, roiling, hissing, atrophied textures further articulated with nuanced processing and buoyed by baritone guitar drones and anti-riffing.

The title of opener "my lowville" feels like a wink to the famed slowcore duo, with spare post-rock motifs hovering in a dusty ether, slowly consumed by distorted washes of rich, harmonic sound. One of the most satisfying aspects of the album is that despite the recumbent nature of most of their sound design choices and compositional proclivities, Recht and Sparks are loath to sit still. "auto show of the dead" is a serpentine piano/guitar exploration full of subtle detail, preceding the immaculately titled "fucking milwaukee’s been hesher forever," in which the tactile delights of clicks+cuts are liberated from the laboratory and allowed to slum it in the world of tape gunk and '90s plate reverb. Later, "re: we’re again buried under" presents an inky black ambience that feels truly expansive and almost overwhelming, and closer “The Surge is Working” tears apart an anthemic shoegaze dirge at the seams, leaving only billowing filtered noise and negative space in its wake.

Presented here with a brilliant remaster by LUPO, 'baby it’s cold Inside should be considered alongside records like Belong’s October Language and Polmo Polpo’s Like Hearts Swelling—an arresting early aughts ambient marvel that warrants ongoing investigation.

In 2012 Gruff Rhys embarked on a solo 'investigative concert tour' through the heart of America following the route taken by his distant relative John Evans. Every night he presented songs augmented by a power point presentation that detailed his relative's unbelievable history, along with any new piece of information that had come his way during the day. He was ultimately looking for Evans's lost unmarked grave. Along with many major cities, the tour took him to play shows at the Mandan and Omaha tribe reservations, a Missouri vineyard, villages that no longer exist and lay at the bottom the Mississippi river and a New Orleans bordello. What transpired from that ‘investigative concert tour’ was a 2014 album, American Interior, plus a book, film and exhaustive tour of the same name. With the aid of the dusted-off power point presentation, Gruff Rhys and a full band revisits the project in 2025 to perform the songs that formed both the album, and the soundtrack to the film.

Gruff says of the reissue -

“Revisiting American Interior 11 years later, feels very prescient. In following the unusual story of explorer John Evans (1770-1799) it becomes clear that faked narratives can have profound and unpredictable consequences in real life. His barely believable journey of verification in searching through continental scale wilderness for a fictitious Welsh speaking tribe believed to be living on the Great Plains of North America (an ancient folk tale perpetuated by the Elizabethan court following the subjugation of Wales, to make colonial claims on behalf of the British on the Americas) had a dramatic political effect on the fledgling USA and a devastating impact on himself and some of those who helped him on his way. I wrote an album of songs inspired by his life; American Interior, which also served as a soundtrack to a documentary film based on a book that detailed his journey, intertwined with my own investigative concert tour, all three of which I worked on simultaneously during a 2-year fever 2012-14. By far the most ambitious undertaking I’ve ever attempted. Living with one foot in the 18th century, wearing the same clothes (for cinematic continuity) for that entire period, left me pretty exhausted. (Imagine a cold extra from The Revenant movie). It took me a while to process the whole experience and its lessons and feel I owe it to my former self to take these songs back on the road for a couple of months and re-tell the story for a new decade. To celebrate it further Rough Trade will reissue a remastered version of the album with previously unreleased tracks.”

In 2012 Gruff Rhys embarked on a solo 'investigative concert tour' through the heart of America following the route taken by his distant relative John Evans. Every night he presented songs augmented by a power point presentation that detailed his relative's unbelievable history, along with any new piece of information that had come his way during the day. He was ultimately looking for Evans's lost unmarked grave. Along with many major cities, the tour took him to play shows at the Mandan and Omaha tribe reservations, a Missouri vineyard, villages that no longer exist and lay at the bottom the Mississippi river and a New Orleans bordello. What transpired from that ‘investigative concert tour’ was a 2014 album, American Interior, plus a book, film and exhaustive tour of the same name. With the aid of the dusted-off power point presentation, Gruff Rhys and a full band revisits the project in 2025 to perform the songs that formed both the album, and the soundtrack to the film.

Gruff says of the reissue -

“Revisiting American Interior 11 years later, feels very prescient. In following the unusual story of explorer John Evans (1770-1799) it becomes clear that faked narratives can have profound and unpredictable consequences in real life. His barely believable journey of verification in searching through continental scale wilderness for a fictitious Welsh speaking tribe believed to be living on the Great Plains of North America (an ancient folk tale perpetuated by the Elizabethan court following the subjugation of Wales, to make colonial claims on behalf of the British on the Americas) had a dramatic political effect on the fledgling USA and a devastating impact on himself and some of those who helped him on his way. I wrote an album of songs inspired by his life; American Interior, which also served as a soundtrack to a documentary film based on a book that detailed his journey, intertwined with my own investigative concert tour, all three of which I worked on simultaneously during a 2-year fever 2012-14. By far the most ambitious undertaking I’ve ever attempted. Living with one foot in the 18th century, wearing the same clothes (for cinematic continuity) for that entire period, left me pretty exhausted. (Imagine a cold extra from The Revenant movie). It took me a while to process the whole experience and its lessons and feel I owe it to my former self to take these songs back on the road for a couple of months and re-tell the story for a new decade. To celebrate it further Rough Trade will reissue a remastered version of the album with previously unreleased tracks.”

Ziúr lines up with The Tapeworm for an exclusive cassette-only release featuring Kenichi Iwasa, exploring the electroacoustic realms.

Invited to perform solo at Tarek Atoui's performance series at Kunsthaus Bregenz in October 2024, Ziúr decided to write a new piece for the occasion. This composition, 'Turn Liquid Into Dust', was then performed within the framework of Tarek Atoui's 'Waters' Witness' exhibition as an 8-channel spacial audio piece, transmitting sounds through the installation's structure – metal bars, stones, compost piles… Composed in London in autumn 2024, its principal source of sonic material is recordings of Atoui's instruments which Ziúr had recorded in his studio in Paris during the summer of 2024. In addition, she invited the Japanese woodwind player and virtuoso Kenichi Iwasa to join on all pieces, his contribution providing a binding element, tying the pieces together.

Opener 'A Cold Drip' consists solely of Iwasa's spectral squalls. The tense noir drone of 'Long Call' features a string instrument built by Atoui. For the airy yet dense title track, Ziúr recorded an organ named The Reed Box, with Iwasa floating atop its smoggy soundbed. Closer 'Chips 'n' Crumbles' echos and reverberates with the rattles of household items Ziúr found around her home.

Driven by a relentless appetite for boundless experimentation, Ziúr has been subverting expectations since she was a teenager, corkscrewing through hardcore, metal and punk before veering towards electronic music's turbulent fringes. She produces just like she DJs, gathering a wide variety of ingredients and figuring out the most intriguing, unexpected ways to simmer them into a coherent narrative that helps listeners synchronize the conflicting messages that surround them. Genre isn't a fixed point for Ziúr, but a colour in a vast palette that stretches across history and borders, helping illustrate music that's powerfully subversive. Her The Tapeworm edition follows acclaimed recordings for Planet Mu, PAN, Objects Limited and Hakuna Kulala.

Kenichi Iwasa is a London-based improviser and multidisciplinary artist from Japan, also known for his legendary Krautrock Karaoke night as well as collaborations with visual artists and musicians such as Beatrice Dillon, Maxwell Sterling and Linder Sterling. He currently performs with Naima Karlsson under the name Exotic Sin.

Repress!

Echospace Detroit is the label launched by Rod Modell (Deepchord) and Soultek's Steven Hitchell, two leading lights of the minimal dub techno scene. And as with anything Deepchord, the entire release has an air of mystery to it. Previously, as a near-mythical vinyl pressing with minimal packaging and restricted pressings, everything about Vantage Isle was geared toward the underground, or 'those who know.' However, there's nothing but love of craft driving these grooves, and now a lot more people will finally be able to hear this absolutely brilliant collection of spacial dub wonder on CD. Vantage Isle Sessions consists of a whopping 13 takes of the title track, reworked by Modell and Hitchell in various guises (cv313, Deepchord, Echospace, Spacecho), as well as a guest spot (and first ever remix) from Gerard Hanson (Convextion). Across their 13 versions, Modell and Hitchell manage to take the Deepchord template (analog synths, deep bass, gently throbbing beats, bursts of static and noise, and deep, deep chords) into a surprising variety of directions, akin to looking at the same giant glacier from a helicopter from every angle possible: some are beatless and undulating, some are pulsing and dynamic, some are looking up from under the ice and some are towering overhead. The aforementioned Convextion version is revelatory. It's built on cascading and echoing pieces of the original that are layered like shifting sands, for a distinctly dark and shimmering journey to the bottom of the frozen ocean and back. It's remarkable enough to get all these takes on one basic template to sound somewhat different, given that the source material is really just a skeletal array of sound sheets. Vantage Isle Sessions is for anyone looking for the logical successors to the Basic Channel throne, or just looking for something mellow for those steamy late summer nights. A stone-cold classic of the genre. Don't miss it." -Todd Hutlock, Stylus Magazine/Beatz by the Pound

"Steeped in mystery, Detroit musicians Rod Modell and Mike Schommer (aka Deepchord) are legendary for their hard to find twelve-inch dub techno releases. Their sound is heavily influenced by Berlin dub techno producers like Maurizio, Basic Channel, Chain Reaction, Rhythm & Sound, Blue Train and Pole. While the German sound often has a futuristic metallic edge, Deepchord are known more for the rust and grease, which is part and parcel of those metal parts. Static, analog sounds, deep bass thumps and, of course, deep chords blend in a timeless minimal manner. However, the real gems on this disc are the drifty ambient cuts devoid of beats. This is an excellent album that is on par with the classics from a decade ago!" -Exclaim


"In terms of ambient dub, if Basic Channel is the Father (the source, remote and inaccessible and very powerful) and Pole is the Son (dazzling but ultimately stranded halfway between man and the divine), than Rod Modell’s Deepchord and his Echospace label he run with Steve Hitchell is definitely the Holy Spirit." -Popmatters


"Deepchord’s dub-techno stealthily peels away melody, leaving a bare chassis of beats to ghost-ride down Woodward Avenue. Vantage Isle Sessions, which collects remixes of a 2002 Detroit Electronic Music Festival performance, finds the duo swerving through empty, neon-smeared streets, and recalls Berlin’s Chain Reaction label, minus the anemic minimalism." -XLR8R

"The album scales a magnificent peak in “Spacecho Dub II - Extended Mix” when smeary chords ricochet over a massively deep, bass-heavy pulse, and Hanson's light-speed missile of vaporous propulsion (“Convextion Remix”) is beautiful too.
Long may they run." -Textura

‘Vantage Isle’ is a tremendous achievement that will most likely be held up as a high water mark of the genre for years to come." -Resident Advisor

"My favorite mix is by Convextion (his first remix for another artist). Reedy, distant synth tones sound like a science fiction soundtrack overheard rooms away. An undercurrent of echoes, many difficult to describe, drift in a sonic syrup." -Gridface

"Modell’s music always seems to be in this suspended animation, adrift and afloat in a majestic emptiness." -Dusted Mag

CREDITS:
Written & Produced by Deepchord. Redesigned and Reshaped by Convextion (Gerard Hanson) cv313 (Stephen Hitchell) echospace / spacecho (Rod Modell + Stephen Hitchell)
Additional Mastering, Mixing and Engineering by Ron Murphy @ NSC Mastering, Detroit, USA. Side E/F Remastering and Lacquer cutting by Dietrich @ Complete, NYC, USA. (2018)

Bria Salmenas Solo-Debütalbum "Big Dog" erzählt eine Geschichte der Transformation - eine zutiefst persönliche Erkundung der Widerstandsfähigkeit und eine Erklärung der künstlerischen Unabhängigkeit, die durch Zusammenarbeit geschmiedet wurde. Lange Zeit als Frontfrau der kanadischen Post-Punk-Band FRIGS und als Sängerin in Orville Pecks Live-Band gefeiert, erreicht Salmena mit "Big Dog" den vorläufigen Höhepunkt ihrer künstlerischen Entwicklung. Getragen von ihrer souveränen Stimme, die abwechselnd zart, rau und trotzig ist, durchquert das Album das Terrain der Verletzlichkeit und Verbundenheit und markiert die Ankunft einer Künstlerin, die mutig zu sich selbst findet. "Big Dog" ist ein Album mit großen Gefühlen und großen Ambitionen. Musikalisch vereint es Elemente von hypnotischem Krautrock und schimmerndem Shoegaze, opulentem Gothic und pulsierendem Darkwave mit einer Mischung aus elektronischen Texturen zu einem ausgefeilten und oft unheimlichen Sound. Inmitten dieser weitläufigen Klanglandschaft stehen Salmenas kraftvolle lyrische Bilder und ihr großartiger Gesang im Mittelpunkt. Für Salmena ist es unmöglich, die persönliche Reise, die "Big Dog" darstellt, von der Zusammenarbeit zu trennen, die zu seiner Entstehung führte. Salmena arbeitete mit dem Produzenten und Multiinstrumentalisten Duncan Hay Jennings zusammen, der sowohl bei FRIGS als auch in der Band von Orville Peck spielte. Vor "Big Dog" gaben die beiden auf Brias zwei "Cuntry Covers" EPs klassischen und modernen Americana-Songs eine Gothic-Dream-Pop-Behandlung. Jennings, der nicht nur Salmenas engster kreativer Mitarbeiter, sondern auch ihr engster Freund ist, schrieb "Big Dog" mit Salmena über mehrere Jahre hinweg, in denen Salmena in LA und Jennings in Toronto lebte. Graham Walsh (Holy F**k, METZ, Debby Friday, Alvvays) half den beiden, ihre aufkeimende Mischung aus Rock und elektronischer Musik weiter zu verfeinern, während Meg Remy (vom von der Kritik gefeierten experimentellen Pop-Projekt U.S. Girls) sich vor allem auf Salmenas Gesang konzentrierte. Remy half dabei, die unvergesslichen Darbietungen, die im Mittelpunkt von "Big Dog" stehen, durch eine Reihe von kathartischen Treffen herauszukitzeln und drängte Salmena dazu, noch tiefer in die Bedeutung ihrer Texte einzudringen und wirklich über verschiedene Möglichkeiten des Einsatzes ihrer Stimme nachzudenken. Als "Big Dog" zusammenkam, wurde deutlich, dass Salmenas Songwriting eine rohe und intime Wendung genommen hatte, die weit über die Arbeit von ihr und Jennings auf ihren vorherigen EPs hinausging. Der Sound von "Big Dog" schwebt zwischen zwei Welten, düstere Punk-Ehrlichkeit, die immer unter einer glänzenden Atmosphäre brodelt, die man nicht ignorieren kann. Es gibt Anklänge an den Alternative Rock - man denkt an Holes "Live Through This", The Distillers, Mazzy Star - und mit Lee Ranaldo von Sonic Youth steuert eine echte Alternative-Rock-Ikone die Gitarre zu "See'er" bei. Aber es gibt auch eine Geschmeidigkeit, die ebenso sehr an den Coldwave der 80er Jahre erinnert wie an ekstatische Formen der Tanzmusik. Salmenas satte Stimme ist allgegenwärtig, ein konstantes warmes Glühen in einem Geflecht aus mechanischen Klängen. In seinem Kern ist "Big Dog" mehr als nur eine Platte über die Entdeckung, wer man ist, indem man schmerzhafte Erfahrungen verarbeitet. Es ist eine Platte über die Entdeckung, dass man nie wirklich allein ist.

NOW Music proudly presents NOW That’s What I Call Gold – The Ultimate Hits – this essential 3-LP set brings together 46 tracks by legendary artists with timeless anthems, celebrating some of the greatest hits of all time, including chart-topping classics and enduring favourites.



LP1 sets the stage with Queen’s electrifying ‘A Kind Of Magic’, followed by Philip Bailey & Phil Collins’ #1 ‘Easy Lover’. The Police feature with their #1 smash ‘Message In A Bottle’, while The Killers follow with their record-breaking anthem ‘Mr. Brightside’. The massive ‘Stick Season’ from Noah Kahan is up next before the first side finishes with Lana Del Rey’s stunning ‘Video Games’. Flip the LP over for contemporary classics from Coldplay and Duran Duran. Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ still sounds raw and breath-taking and is followed by classics from the Pretenders, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, and Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’, one of the best-selling UK singles of the ‘80s, whilst another of those closes out the first LP: Ultravox with their masterpiece, ‘Vienna’.



LP2 delivers a legendary lineup, including Billy Joel with his Grammy-winning ‘Just The Way You Are’ and Céline Dion’s powerful version of ‘All By Myself’. John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ and Paul Simon’s groundbreaking ‘Graceland’ are featured along with the pop genius of Electric Light Orchestra with ‘Last Train To London’. While on the other side timeless ballads from Elton John with ‘Tiny Dancer’ and Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ come ahead of Wings, Simply Red and ‘60s gems from Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and the peerless ‘Walk On By’ from Dionne Warwick.



LP3 opens with Neil Diamond’s universally beloved singalong anthem, ‘Sweet Caroline’ and Cliff Richard’s mid-70s classic, ‘Devil Woman’. Disco legends Donna Summer (‘MacArthur Park’) and Gloria Gaynor (‘I Will Survive’), lead into Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ which became a smash for the second time recently. Ed Sheeran and Pharrell Williams had enduringly popular hits with ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Happy’, and the side closes with the harmonic vocals of All-4-One and their beautiful signature song ‘I Swear’. The final side is packed with anthemic and uplifting classics kicking off with Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’, Survivor’s ‘Eye Of The Tiger’, and Take That’s soaring ‘Rule The World’. The remainder of the collection celebrates and showcases some of the ‘70s greatest tracks including Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Lost In France’, Marianne Faithfull’s poignant ‘The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan’ and Blondie’s era-defining and genre-defying #1 ‘Heart Of Glass’.



NOW That’s What I Call Gold is a must-have for all music lovers —packed with legendary artists, timeless hits, and unforgettable moments in pop. Don’t miss out on this golden treasure trove of musical brilliance!

Following the success of the limited edition ATARI 50 vinyl, Microids Records and ATARI are teaming up for a new limited edition vinyl featuring ATARI Recharged.

The Recharged collection is a series of video games by Atari, Inc. that are remakes and reimaginings of classic Atari franchises. The series launched in 2020 with Missile Command: Recharged as the first title and has completely revived several franchises. Berzerk: Recharged, released on November 8, 2023, is the first game in the Berzerk series since the 1980s.

It also includes titles such as Asteroids: Recharged, Caverns of Mars: Recharged, Centipede: Recharged, Yar’s Revenge: Recharged, Gravitar: Recharged, Breakout: Recharged, Black Widow: Recharged, and Quantum: Recharged. A new soundtrack has been created for each game by Megan McDuffee. This vinyl includes the complete soundtrack collection: 40 tracks across 2 colored vinyl records, presented in a gatefold edition.

Who is Isabelle Lewis, anyway?

What kind of music does she make? Is she an opera singer? Does she write pop songs? Does she compose ethereal ambient soundscapes? Does she play chamber music on the violin? Is she producing dark, electronic beats?

Well… yes. But Isabelle Lewis is not so much a person as a project. Isabelle’s debut album, Greetings, credits a trio of composer–performers at its heart: producer Valgeir Sigurðsson, vocalist Benjamin Abel Meirhaeghe, and violinist Elisabeth Klinck. The sound of the elusive Isabelle Lewis is heard most clearly in the push and pull between them, the three-way tension that gives the album its musical and emotional drive.

Each of the three brings more to the collaboration than those epithets might imply. Elisabeth’s solo performance practice incorporates composition, improvisation, live electronics, and a close command of bowing and fingering techniques that make her fiddle sing, whisper or whistle as required. Benjamin is a self-taught countertenor - keening, crooning, and swelling to a voluptuous sensuality—but also an interdisciplinary stage director and performer. Well known for his work as a producer and studio collaborator, and as a composer of scores for film and stage, Valgeir’s solo discography interweaves meticulously crafted electronics, drones, noise, and other digital elements with acoustic instruments and vocals recorded with naked, unflinching clarity.

But the extravagant theatricality Benjamin brings to the aptly titled “Drama”—also featuring a heroic violin solo from Elisabeth—grapples against the thudding bass of the implacable digital backdrop. On “Mother, Shelter Me” Valgeir’s austere and detailed production throws the hushed violin and vocals into stark relief. The result is an exquisitely uncanny juxtaposition of past and present, human and mechanical, like a Rococo treasure viewed under cold fluorescent lights, or an 18th-century automaton slowly opening its clockwork eyes.

Even the lyrics seem somehow out of time. On “O Solitude,” Benjamin goes so far as to quote an entire song by the first great English opera composer, Henry Purcell, verbatim. No stranger to Purcell’s music, which has made its way into Benjamin’s theatrical productions as well, here Isabelle Lewis removes Purcell’s melodies and harmonies and sets the text, Katherine Phillips’s 17th century translation of a poem by Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, to new music whose heightened, archaic character nevertheless seems haunted by Baroque ghosts.

Throughout the album, the outsized emotions and timeless archetypes of Benjamin’s lyrics feel like relics from some half-forgotten past—from the neatly rhymed couplets of “Fisherman,” a seemingly straightforward (but still somewhat askew) character study, to the abstraction of “Moonshell,” whose words seem like the fragments of some ancient, lost lament. It is just another of many ways in which Isabelle Lewis carefully distorts the listener’s notions of time. On a more micro level, time can stop for a moment of weightless, drifting ambience, and then plunge forward as the cloud of harmonies suddenly lock into tempo with the drop of the bass or the change of a chord. Or else that weightless moment is allowed to be, as in the aptly named prologue and epilogue to these Greetings (“Voicemail”/“…and farewell”), or in the interstitial tracks that bind the album together, connecting its dramatic peaks with expanses of meditative stasis.

The album as a whole is elegantly shaped, swelling from an intimate, interpersonal statement into something deeper and more spacious. The first half of the album leans slightly towards self-contained pop songcraft and ticking beats, while side B jumps off from “O Solitude” into the almost symphonic grandeur of songs like “Moonshell” or the instrumental “Not the water, air, or the dirt.”

But as it progresses, the contrasts only grow more sublime: antique and postmodern, human and machinelike. The ominous weight of the droning sub-bass and trombone (guest player Helgi Hrafn Jónsson) only makes the interplay between vocals and violins (guest player Daniel Pioro joining Elisabeth) seem more delicate and vulnerable. The ethereal string tremolos of “Moonshell” seem to pull against the heavy, shuddering electronics and layers of crooning vocals.

And that, in short, is where you will find Isabelle Lewis. Like an ancient stone archway, or a delicate house of cards, the architecture of Greetings is held together by the tension between opposing forces. Not just in Elisabeth’s playing, Benjamin’s singing, or Valgeir’s arrangements and production but in the conflict and contrast that generates the synergy between them.

Oh—Isabelle says hi, by the way. She’s looking forward to meeting you.

Pøltergeist haben bei Bad Omen Records (Watch Hazel, Satan's Satyrs) unterschrieben, und die Kanadier veröffentlichen ihr Debütalbum. Pøltergeist wird als eine Mischung aus Post-Punk, traditionellem Metal und Shoegaze aus den frostigen Ebenen beschrieben und spielt treibenden Coldwave, der einen Weg von den Katakomben in den Kosmos zeichnet. Die vielleicht prägenste Destillation des Pøltergeist-Stils kommt mit der Vorab-Single 'Children Of The Dark', einem eingängigen, stürmischen Rocksong, der auch thematisch auf einer doppelten Ebene funktioniert. Sänger Kalen Baker hegt seit langem eine Vorliebe für die mystischen Metal-Klänge von Angel Witch, Cauldron oder Blue Öyster Cult und war sowohl von der zeitgenössischen Post-Punk-Band Spectres als auch von der britischen Melancholie von 'Script From The Bridge' der Chameleons berührt. Ganz zu schweigen von Gothic- und Post-Punk-Legenden wie Sisters Of Mercy, The Sound und Paradigmen des Himmlischen wie Cocteau Twins, Slowdive und My Bloody Valentine. Gestärkt durch den lyrischen Einfluss spiritueller Vorläufer wie Moorcock, Lovecraft, Poe und David Lynch von Twin Peaks wurde der Sound von Pøltergeist geboren; ein düsteres, aber magisches Reich, in dem dämmrige Intensität in einem psychischen Kampf mit metallischer Stärke verbunden wird. 'Nachtmusik' bleibt Bakers Vision eines "Kaleidoskops aus Emotionen, Klängen und Ideen" treu. Dies ist eine Platte, die sich im Herzen nach dem spirituellen Reich der 1980er Jahre sehnt, aber mit den Füßen fest im Hier und Jetzt des 21. Jahrhunderts steht. Während sich am Himmel Gewitterwolken zusammenbrauen, beginnt Pøltergeists Reise in die Dunkelheit gerade erst.

Deaf Forever
8/10
"'Nachtmusik' alles mit, was eine gute Postpunk-Platte braucht: eingängige, gekonnt komponierte Songs, schwermütige Atmosphäre, guten Gesang mit klassisch monoton-melodischer Stimme und einen Spritzer Shoegaze"

Metal Hammer
5.5 / 7
"NACHTMUSIK fa?ngt die Sehn- sucht und dunkle A?sthetik des Achtziger Jahre-Deathrock fu?r die Gegenwart ein - ohne zu kopieren. Ganz ohne Zwang, dafu?r mit jeder Menge emotionalem Tiefgang und einem gewissen Gruselfaktor. Ein starker Auftakt und definitiv ein of- fenes Ohr wert - nicht nur an regne- rischen, euphorieberaubten Herbsttagen".

Rock Hard
8/10
"Wer auf Unto Others, In Solitude, Lunar Shadow oder Tribulation steht, wird mit ziemlicher Sicherheit auch Gefallen an der Musik von PØLTERGEIST finden, die für ihr Debütalbum "Nachtmusik" Elemente aus Gothic Rock, Heavy Metal, Post-Punk und Hardrock in einen Hexenkessel schmeißen, einmal kräftig durchrühren und die Suppe mit einer kräftigen Geisterbahn-Lyric-Würzmischung (in Anlehnung an weltbekannte Horror-Autoren wie Edgar Allan Poe und H.P. Lovecraft) abschmecken".

Orkus
"Dieses Debütalbum wartet auf mit charmanter Dunkelheit, gehüllt in einen intensiven Sound, der über Post-Punk-, Metal- und Death-Rock-Ein-Aüsse hinausgeht. Stimmungsvolle Vocals, starke Atmosphären und eingängige Dynamiken tragen Arrangements, in die man nur zu gerne versinkt".

Aus den Tiefen von Post Punk, Cold Wave und Dancefloor meldet sich Levin Goes Lightly mit neuem Album zurück: Numb ist der Titel des mittlerweile fünften Longplayerst. In den für ihn so charakteristischen schrägen Bildern erzählt Levin Goes Lightly von toxischen Beziehungen, dunklen Lebensabschnitten und der großen Liebe. Der melodische Gesang wechselt zwischen Deutsch und Englisch, das musikalische Grundgerüst sind treibende, elektronische Beats, kühle Synthesizer, und gleichzeitig warme Orgeltöne und wavige Gitarrenparts. Im Song "Headbanging" fragt er "Is it beautiful when it"s sad? / Ist es so schön, weil es so traurig ist?" - und liefert doch selbst den Beweis, dass bittersüße Traurigkeit schön und trotzdem sehr tanzbar sein kann. Die Songs handeln von tief im Meer lebenden Liebenden (oder Seeungeheuern?), die gemeinsam nur zum Licht streben oder die so lange in die Sonne blicken, bis sich ihnen ein gemeinsamer Fleck ins Auge einbrennt - "damit man sich an diesem Fleck für immer erkennt". Darüber, dass man einsehen muss, dass man selbst das Chaos ist, auch wenn man noch so sehr dagegen ankämpft und über Hände, die nur dann nicht taub sind, wenn sie den andern berühren. Engel, die doch nur schrecklich sind und sich auflösen im Rausch. Levin Goes Lightlys Musik ist sophisticated und treibend, seine Auftritte immer schweißtriefend und glamourös. Bei einigen Songs denkt man an die frühen New Order, Boy Harsher oder Grauzone und an die Wärme von Beach House. Das Songwriting ist wie bei den vorherigen Alben geprägt von musikalischer Vielseitigkeit und tiefgründigen, aber auch merkwürdigen Texten. Mit seinen melancholischen Melodien, oft begleitet von kraftvollen Beats, gelingt es ihm tiefe Emotionen einzuweben. Über fünf Alben hat er seinen Sound weiterentwickelt: Vom Lo-Fi zu Postpunk, von Englisch zu Deutsch und wieder zurück. "Numb" ergänzt seinen musikalischen Kosmos um Stücke, die sich nun wieder eher beim düsteren Dance- und Electronic-Sound eines John Maus ansiedeln. Die von ihm entworfenen Klangwelten sind dabei immer treibend und hypnotisch - eine Art Cold Wave, bei dem einem warm ums Herz wird.

Distangled brings you another gem of a re-issue. Barfly, a one-off by Wringler, is a little known and obscure Dutch release from the mid 90's and changes for quite some $ among those who know. Six cleverly produced house and techno tracks, raw and sometimes even with a hint of disco too. Including 3 previously unreleased tracks found on the original session tapes. Big tip!

It has now been four years since our return to earth in "2020 back to earth". There we had found a cold and inhospitable place, humanity was inexorably channeled on the path to extinction. We therefore decided to flee immediately in search of another planet where we could dwell.
We therefore came to New Babylon, a planet inhabited by humanoids but also by monstrous and ravenous creatures. There are "giants" that march about raising immense clouds of dust, stealing and plundering everything from people. Giants much like our corporations, they know no defeat and have no weaknesses, at least apparent ones.
There are old warriors like jarek who wait for war to feel like heroes, to feel alive. They find their dimension within the battle, where the line between hero and assassin magically blurs.
There are pyramids erected by men who think they are gods and turn the things life gives them into weapons and death, changing their use and meaning. Little men who think themselves omnipotent, burying knowledge of how life works under piles of lies.
We find a myriad of slaves, surrendered to live in huge troughs. They toil at nothing and find meaning in nothing. They prefer a convenient lie to an inconvenient truth.
In short, we realize that we have arrived in a world very much like earth. We are aliens but in a certain way we feel at home. We want to know, to understand, to evolve. We don't recognize ourselves in this deceived humanity, we don't give in, we believe. Nature, life is wonderful but when one thing loses its usefulness life gently explains to it that it is time to make room for something else. This existence has already explained to the dinosaurs.
Kayleth continue their journey, never stopping because who seeks will find itself.

"New Babylon ranks next to Space Muffin as Kayleth’s best album for me and one that contains some of their best grooves of their career to date." - Outlaws Of The Sun
"Sit down and really take in We Are Aliens as it’s a joy to listen to, but are the aliens we think exist, just like us? Let Kayleth take you on their journey of discovery." - The Sleeping Shaman
"On this album the Italian five manage to translate heroism into wild and wonderful sounds, often sounding even more like a grungier, metal version of Monster Magnet, mixed with mix a definitive love for Kyuss, Orange Goblin and a prog rock outfit like Riverside." - Stoner Hive
"It’s a call to arms for the dreamers and the rebels, a reminder that no matter how dark the journey, there is always light to be found. This album is a must-listen for anyone into psych stoner rock!" - Witching Buzz
"New Babylon is a triumph. It’s an album that demands to be listened to in full, each track a journey through heavy riffs and cosmic themes." - Iron Backstage
"Listening to a piece like 'New Babylon's Wall,' you can appreciate the richness and sonic fertility of the group, with beautiful melodies enriched by the right amount of electronics, starting from a psych conception of the stoner sound, and there is no lack of prog elements, all with beautiful melodies. As mentioned earlier, a sci-fi band in both approach and essence." - InYourEyesEzine
"KAYLETH doesn't reinvent anything, but they absolutely crush it by the rules!" - Rock'N Force
"Stoner rock has rarely sounded as original, diverse and intoxicating as it does here!

Since first splashing on to the Southern California circuit in the mid-aughts, Geneva Jacuzzi (née Garvin) quickly cemented herself as the queen of the Los Angeles underground. Her immersive and unhinged multimedia performances are the stuff of legend, a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation, and massive art installations. Jacuzzi’s recordings are equally revered, catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit. The arrival of her third official full-length, and Dais Records debut, is cause for such celebration. Triple Fire vividly expands and crystallizes Jacuzzi’s signature fusion of midnight melody and mutant aerobics across a 12-track hit parade of wildcard synth-pop and sly post-apocalyptic camp. Her enthusiasm for the album is as bold as her body of work: “Halfway through, we started calling this the record of the prophecy, the record that’s going to save mankind.”



Opener “Laps of Luxury” sets the template – a strobe-lit dreamer’s delight of swaggering synth bass, Haçienda drum machinery, and sultry vocal spellcasting (“Tragic mysteries I’ve known for centuries / I burned all memories and turned to fantasy”). The collection burns through shades of sardonic strut (“Art Is Dangerous,” “Nu2U,” “Keep It Secret”), coldwave kiss off (“Speed Of Light,” co-produced by Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty), retro-futurist body music (“Dry,” “Scene Ballerina,” “Bow Tie Eater”), and cheeky glitterball pop (“Take It Or Leave It,” “Heart Full Of Poison” co-produced by Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs). She likens the eclectic spectrum of moods to the continuum of human emotions: “Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually it deconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft.”



Taken as a whole, Triple Fire comes as close as any document yet to capturing Jacuzzi’s kaleidoscopic alchemy of pop sugar and chaos energy, flickering between icy and ironic, chic and surreal, hungry and heartsick. Hers is a muse as rare as it is regenerative, forever reborn at the precipice of the next chorus: “Someone said that Alcatraz had fallen into the sea / Almost sounded like an angel calling me in a dream / I felt an electric shock when I picked up the microphone.”

The follow up album to 2019's Dusted Jazz Volume 3. Pressed on 180 gram, White & Orange Marbled Vinyl. Jenova 7 emerges once again as a beacon of auditory innovation with his latest opus, Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes. Released under the banner of Cold Busted, this collection of 16 tracks serves as a time machine, whisking listeners away on a journey through dimensions both familiar and uncharted since his last foray with 2019's Dusted Jazz Vol. 3. Jenova 7 has meticulously crafted an album that resonates with the essence of ‘90s trip hop nostalgia while propelling us into the cosmos of futuristic soundscapes. The album's standout tracks—“The Future 1995,” “My Zero G Love,” and “Downtown Lost In The City Of Lizards”—are masterclasses in genre-blending and atmospheric storytelling. "The Future 1995" envelops one in a nebula of boom-bap beats, cosmic sound effects, and b-movie vibes, creating a sonic experience that feels like intercepting radio signals from a distant, funk-infused galaxy. Meanwhile, “My Zero G Love” floats the listener through the velvety darkness of space with its sexy lounge feel, portamento synth lines, and the undeniable funk that glimmers under starlight—evoking the sensation of grooving in weightlessness. Then, there's “Downtown Lost In The City Of Lizards,” a track that saunters through the urban jungle with sparkling keys, evocative guitar spurts, and strutting jazz bass, painting a picture as vivid and surreal as its title suggests. Jenova 7's skill lies in his ability to fuse moody, jazz-inflected samples with grooves that draw one into a distinctly atmospheric sound—a cinematic journey through time, space, and emotion. His tracks are experiences, wrapping the listener in a cocoon of vibrant soundscapes that are both introspective and expansive. Lost Sci-Fi Movie Themes is an invitation to explore the unknown, to lose oneself in the depths of imagination and emerge on the other side transformed. For DJs looking to transport their audience to another dimension and for music fans yearning for a taste of nostalgia wrapped in the allure of the future, Jenova 7's latest release is a must-discover treasure. Dive in and let the odyssey begin

Since first splashing on to the Southern California circuit in the mid-aughts, Geneva Jacuzzi (née Garvin) quickly cemented herself as the queen of the Los Angeles underground. Her immersive and unhinged multimedia performances are the stuff of legend, a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation, and massive art installations. Jacuzzi’s recordings are equally revered, catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit. The arrival of her third official full-length, and Dais Records debut, is cause for such celebration. Triple Fire vividly expands and crystallizes Jacuzzi’s signature fusion of midnight melody and mutant aerobics across a 12-track hit parade of wildcard synth-pop and sly post-apocalyptic camp. Her enthusiasm for the album is as bold as her body of work: “Halfway through, we started calling this the record of the prophecy, the record that’s going to save mankind.”



Opener “Laps of Luxury” sets the template – a strobe-lit dreamer’s delight of swaggering synth bass, Haçienda drum machinery, and sultry vocal spellcasting (“Tragic mysteries I’ve known for centuries / I burned all memories and turned to fantasy”). The collection burns through shades of sardonic strut (“Art Is Dangerous,” “Nu2U,” “Keep It Secret”), coldwave kiss off (“Speed Of Light,” co-produced by Andrew Clinco of Drab Majesty), retro-futurist body music (“Dry,” “Scene Ballerina,” “Bow Tie Eater”), and cheeky glitterball pop (“Take It Or Leave It,” “Heart Full Of Poison” co-produced by Roderick Edens and Andrew Briggs). She likens the eclectic spectrum of moods to the continuum of human emotions: “Funny, sexy, sad, scary, witty, hopeful, menacing. Eventually it deconstructs, turns into a party, and then ends sweet and soft.”



Taken as a whole, Triple Fire comes as close as any document yet to capturing Jacuzzi’s kaleidoscopic alchemy of pop sugar and chaos energy, flickering between icy and ironic, chic and surreal, hungry and heartsick. Hers is a muse as rare as it is regenerative, forever reborn at the precipice of the next chorus: “Someone said that Alcatraz had fallen into the sea / Almost sounded like an angel calling me in a dream / I felt an electric shock when I picked up the microphone.”

A new album is finally on Drivecom. A 2xLp full of new tracks recovered and rearrenged around 2022-23. No doubt the legacy of the past works are represented. Some arpeggios and melody lines will remember us to sonic landscapes from the “La Hora de las Máquinas” or “The Source” albums by Boris Divider but with a new and refreshed production sound, for sure this will be a must item for all the electro community and fans of the label.

The album opens with the intro track “The Way You Feel Me” a mix between electro and synthwave with a moog bass and arpegio reminiscent of some Arpanet’s “Wireless Internet” tracks. Then followed for the “Letters From A Sleeper” theme. As the track’s name reflects, it's a clear tribute to the synth era of David Harrow/Anne Clarke’s “Sleeper in Metropolis” just like a reply from a postnuclear future, with a big role carried out by the initial synthline. Then the first slow bpm track is for “Distante” where synthlines a la Tangerine Dream are crossed and mixed with vintage digital rhythm machine sounds and the pattern seems to be taken from those Dire Straits’ “Money for nothing” intro drum arrange in an infinite and repetitive way.

In the B Side “You Know What I Know” track is again showing an Arpanet-ish intro synthline followed by a sequential prophet's arpeggio which bring us back to the old “La hora de las máquinas” sound. Closing the first 12 inch is “Sin Mirar Atrás”. One of the most important tracks of the album for the author. A big dimensional and introspective track full of vintage synthlines and reverb. Time for “Your Light” track is again here. This song was already presented with its own reference on Drivecom. A future pure Electro classic which was announcing the album months before.

In the same side, we find another slow tempo theme called “Recursos Infinitos” an instrumental track which implements several synthlines that interlink themselves into an infnite Tangerine Dream’s soundtrack that serves as a little break to the power and darkness of “Cenital”. Electro rhythm patterns and dark arpeggio synthlines in the vibe of Vangelis’ Blade Runner are mixed in this cold dystopian agressive dancefloor track. Later we find the theme that gives name to the album: “ Memories From The Dust” a slower track which mixes sounds and melodies between “La Hora de las Máquinas“ and other 80's digital keyboard sounds. The last track is just an outro theme called “Out of Sync”. Its name is a clear statement of its own musical arrangement, synthlines are full out of timing and synchro, it was recorded in realtime from a modular synth to a digital device in one take.

After performing together in the skiffle-oriented band Good Earth, singer-songwriter Ray Dorset and keyboardist Colin Earl formed Mungo Jerry, whose breakthrough single, “In The Summertime,” remains a stone-cold anthem of the early 1970s. With Paul King on banjo and jug, Mike Cole on string bass, Earl on ragtime piano and with Dorset’s humorous vocals upfront, “In The Summertime” was skiffle-tinged rock at its best. The reissue of this uncommon 12-inch also features Dorset’s “Mighty Man,” with King’s kazoo and harp, as well as a great cover of Woodie Guthrie’s “Dust Pneumonia Blues.” A must-have!

Duff McKagan (Guns N Roses) feiert das fünfjährige Jubiläum seines Solo-Albums 'Tenderness' mit einem Live-Album, das am 13. Juni 2019 in Los Angeles aufgenommen und vom ursprünglichen Produzenten des Albums, Shooter Jennings, gemischt wurde. Das Album ist eine intime und persönliche Reise durch Duffs eigene Songs sowie einige Covers. Das Album ist auf streng limitierten 2CD- und 2LP-Vinyl-Gatefold-Sets erhältlich.

NEW WORLD DEPRESSION by $uicideboy$ delves deep into a tumultuous psyche, portraying a world riddled with inner demons, existential crises, and a stark defiance of societal norms. Throughout the album, the duo navigates through themes of fame, self-destruction, and the relentless search for identity amidst chaos. Their raw, unfiltered lyrics serve as a gritty narrative of personal turmoil, substance abuse, and the struggle for authenticity in a world that often feels cold and indifferent. This album is an unapologetic exploration of the darker sides of human experience, resonating with anyone who has ever felt out of place or battled with their own shadows.

Seit mehr als drei Jahrzehnten kreieren EVERGREY Songs, die mit einer Symbiose aus Härte und Melancholie direkt ins Herz gehen und ziehen damit Fans weltweit in ihren Bann. Mit ihrem 14. Album Theories Of Emptiness schreiben die Poeten aus Schweden um Bandgründer, Sänger und Gitarrist Tom S. Englund ihre Erfolgsgeschichte weiter und beweisen, warum sie zu Recht unangefochten an der Spitze des Genres stehen.

Das Album Theories Of Emptiness wurde von Tom S. Englund und Jonas Ekdahl produziert und von Adam „Nolly“ Getgood (Ex-Periphery) gemischt, mit dem EVERGREY während des gesamten Entstehungsprozesses eng zusammengearbeitet haben, um das klangliche Profil bestmöglich zu entfalten.

Gemastert wurde Theories Of Emptiness von Thomas „Plec” Johansson, der durch seine Arbeit mit Soilwork, The Night Flight Orchestra, Onslaught, The Gems, Eleine und vielen weiteren Bands bekannt ist.

Seit ihrem Debüt The Dark Discover (1998) haben EVERGREY 13 Alben veröffentlicht und bewegen sich in einem Spektrum zwischen hartem Progressive und düsterem Melodic Metal. Theories Of Emptiness ist der Nachfolger des 2022 erschienenen A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), mit dem EVERGREY weltweit Charterfolge verbuchen konnten (#3 in Schweden Metal, #5 der Top New Artist Albums USA, #7 in Finnland und #12 in Deutschland).

ZOMBEAST erheben sich von den Toten und präsentieren "Heart Of Darkness", ihr bisher härtestes, düsterstes und wildestes Album!
Beeinflusst von Danzig, AFI, Mercyful Fate und 80er Jahre Punk, Death Rock und Thrash Metal, haben ZOMBEAST eine perfekte Crossover-Mischung aus Dark Punk und Thrash erschaffen. Die von Mario Montechello geschriebenen Texte handeln von den echten Schrecken des Lebens, vom Okkulten und von Lykanthropie.
Mit Alex Young (Leadgitarre) und Kyle Smith (Schlagzeug) betritt die Band auch in technischer Hinsicht Neuland, das sie bisher noch nie betreten hat.
Donnernde Drums und sich duellierende Gitarren treffen auf diesem lang erwarteten neuen Album auf Gesang mit Kultcharakter - lasst euch das nicht entgehen!

ZOMBEAST erheben sich von den Toten und präsentieren "Heart Of Darkness", ihr bisher härtestes, düsterstes und wildestes Album!
Beeinflusst von Danzig, AFI, Mercyful Fate und 80er Jahre Punk, Death Rock und Thrash Metal, haben ZOMBEAST eine perfekte Crossover-Mischung aus Dark Punk und Thrash erschaffen. Die von Mario Montechello geschriebenen Texte handeln von den echten Schrecken des Lebens, vom Okkulten und von Lykanthropie.
Mit Alex Young (Leadgitarre) und Kyle Smith (Schlagzeug) betritt die Band auch in technischer Hinsicht Neuland, das sie bisher noch nie betreten hat.
Donnernde Drums und sich duellierende Gitarren treffen auf diesem lang erwarteten neuen Album auf Gesang mit Kultcharakter - lasst euch das nicht entgehen!

ZOMBEAST erheben sich von den Toten und präsentieren "Heart Of Darkness", ihr bisher härtestes, düsterstes und wildestes Album!
Beeinflusst von Danzig, AFI, Mercyful Fate und 80er Jahre Punk, Death Rock und Thrash Metal, haben ZOMBEAST eine perfekte Crossover-Mischung aus Dark Punk und Thrash erschaffen. Die von Mario Montechello geschriebenen Texte handeln von den echten Schrecken des Lebens, vom Okkulten und von Lykanthropie.
Mit Alex Young (Leadgitarre) und Kyle Smith (Schlagzeug) betritt die Band auch in technischer Hinsicht Neuland, das sie bisher noch nie betreten hat.
Donnernde Drums und sich duellierende Gitarren treffen auf diesem lang erwarteten neuen Album auf Gesang mit Kultcharakter - lasst euch das nicht entgehen!

Warehouse Find!

Last month saw the re-release of the this stone-cold classic from 1988. Now we give you the re-edits from The Black Madonna, Adjowa and Jimpster. The Black Madonna should need little by way of introduction seeing as she is almost singlehandedly regenerating Chicago's House music legacy through brilliant
her brilliant productions as well as her position as booker and resident at the legendary Smart Bar. It seemed only right and proper to have the youngest generation of Chicago native revisit such an infuentional classic from the first wave of House. With only the stereo track to work with she stretches things out
and teases with a filter-frenzied arrangement and plenty of twists and turns to bring a fresh new spin to In The Heat Of The Night.
Adjowa grabbed our attention after his amazing Science And Soul 10' last year and seemed the perfect choice to bring some seriously raw warehouse vibes to the release. He certainly goes for the jugular with a more in depth remix adding extra bass and beats with plenty of grit and dirt. Finally, Jimpster gives us his Stretchdit, keeping the vibe of the original intact but offering up an extended DJ friendly version with extra hats, FX and a
sprinkle of pixie dust adding sizzle and drama. We hope you agree that with club music like this sounding every bit as mind-
blowing today as it did in 1988 it seems only right to help introduce such innovative, influential and timeless music to a wider audience.

Yes! Tommy Guerrero’s revered Return Of The Bastard gets its first ever vinyl reissue. Endearingly simple but beautifully beguiling, it's lo-fi dusty break business with the most elegant guitars this side of Vini Reilly and Gabor Szabo. Tommy's breezy drum-machine guitar-soul should be prescribed to soothe an aching world. By rights, he should also be a Balearic god. Here's 14 tracks of drop-dead laconic beauty, all of them combining to create this unheralded masterpiece. Working with Tommy directly, the LP has been fully remastered and sounds as dazzlingly, heartbreakingly beautiful as it did back in 2007.

Coolly opening the album, "And The Folklore Continues" can be said to be both a titular and actual nod to his past work. As ever, there's heavenly Latin guitar stylings that make you swoon and the melancholic vibe is accentuated by the addition of some melodic wordless vocals from Tommy. Just divine. The sparkling "La Califas Perdido" follows, all dreamy melodic guitars and twinkling vibes over dusty drums and a fine bassline. The shuffling, conga-assisted "I Would Go With You" is a gentle, romantic gem whilst the brief but beautiful "No Time For Time" feels in a hurry to let us know that Tommy can work with more propulsive rhythms. In this case, they underpin Tommy's gorgeous, shimmering guitars wonderfully well.

The head-nod funk of "Calling For Ya!" (get it?) features Curumin delivering the clever title as a hypnotic vocal refrain peppered throughout, all hung around some buried spoken word vocals and gorgeous cello work from Lenny Gonzalez. "Bloodinthemud" is a low-down gritty funk workout whilst "Zapata's Boots" is a total low-key groover, all Latin percussion and Morricone muscle aided by a whistled Spaghetti Western melody. The startling instrumental "Mosaic Man" closes out the side with a lean slice of mellifluous, virtuoso guitar bliss.

The reflective "What Have I Been Doing Since I Was Gone?" opens the B-side in glorious fashion, the type of melancholic melodic head music that should soundtrack a bright walk on a cold winter's day. The hypnotic groover "Paper Switchblade" is a razor-sharp fuzz-funk whilst the beautifully downbeat "Never Forget To Remember" is a kaleidoscopic kalimba-koolout. Galloping cop-funk breaks workout "Run With The Hunted" is a rollicking ride and it's followed by the fresh chiming guitar funk of "New Terrain".

The upbeat and bright "40 Summers", featuring congas from Alfredo Ortiz, is as clean and poppy as Tommy gets and it really is a look he wears incredibly well. Just straight up guitar pop. "The Simple Man" a gorgeous, melancholic ballad, closes out the record with deeply yearning vocals from Tommy, a rarity and a treasured one at that.

Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possibly quality at Record Industry in Holland. The original and iconic sleeve, designed by Natas Kaupas, has been restored here at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.

FRN Dancehall might have emerged in Jamaica, but over the last few decades the popular genre's tendrils have stretched out across the globe. In Kampala, Ratigan Era is adding a distinct Ugandan twist to dancehall, fusing it with East African humor and hyper-melodic afrobeats elements imported from Ghana and Nigeria. The versatile MC grew up listening to Jamaican music like Vybz Kartel, Busy Signal and Mavado - in his hometown of Kawempe there was almost no way to avoid it - and it blurred into the background, blending with local church music, US hip-hop and radio pop. He developed this diverse range of influences into a completely unique Afro-dancehall flow that simmers between Luganda, patois, Spanish and English, reflecting the melting pot of cultures and dialects that characterizes contemporary Africa. Ratigan broke out with a memorable feature on Pallaso's Ugandan hit 'Nsaba', a track that echoed throughout the country booming from nightclubs, motorcycle loudspeakers or from convenience stores. Now he's assembled his first album "Era", a furiously inventive interweaving of rubbery vocals and memorable chants backed by futuristic beats from Hakuna Kulala's most boundary-pushing producers. Congolese producer Chrisman takes the reins on 'Gorilla Attack', providing a downtempo groove that echoes recent Jamaican chop deployments from breakthrough artists like Skillibeng and Skeng. For his part, Ratigan ducks and dives between Chrisman's gqom-inspired low end womps and corrosive synths, commanding attention with his smart, dextrous flow and tongue-twisting lyrics.The Modern Institute and Golden Teacher's Richard McMaster handles 'Top Strike Force' leaving space in his wiry, minimal beats for Ratigan to flit between anthemic repetitions and ice-cold AutoTuned wails. On stand-out track 'Badman Style', Ratigan's guttural patois is measured against a dizzy trap-dancehall hybrid beat from HHY & The Kampala Unit's Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, aka Lithium Beats, while on the surreal 'Drop it Down', Japanese mad scientist Scotch Rolex brings out Ratigan's cheeky sense of humor with toytown bleeps and laser zaps. MC Yallah collaborator Debmaster appears on 'Gan Dem', meeting Ratigan's double-time raps with soundsystem destroying rolling subs, and veteran US noisemaker Kush Aurora sprinkles magic dust on 'Cool and Deadly', galvanizing the link between global bass mutations, Jamaica and East Africa.And despite the grab-bag of producers and inspirations, "Ratigan" is a strikingly coherent listening experience that accurately snapshots Kampala's colorful froth of sounds and phrases. Ratigan's outsized personality is welcoming and captivating, providing the sights, sounds and smells of the city with a frenetic rhythm that's as intimate and local as it is far-reaching. It might just be the future we so desperately need.

"Ausgezeichneter Gruselrock! Allein die Songtitel: ,The Dead Won't Sleep", ,Forbidden Forest", ,At The Mountains of Madness" oder ,Stone Age Funeral"! Da krieg ich gleich gute Laune von, das sind die wichtigen Dinge im Leben. Musikalisch befinden wir uns ungefähr in 1970, und die Rockmusik wird irgendwie heavy & treibend und vor allem düster und unheimlich. Mountain Witch verschreiben sich auf ihrer zweiten Platte erneut diesem Sound, den Black Sabbath und andere in die Welt gerufen haben, und mit ihrem Vintage Equipment Wahn kommen sie so dicht dran, dass man es nicht für möglich hält, dass das eine neue Platte sein soll. Erfreulich finde ich, dass hier mehr gesungen wird als auf dem Debut ,Cold River", das steht den Songs ausgezeichnet und unterstreicht eben das eingangs erwähnte Gruselfeeling. Wer auch nur am Rande was hält auf alten Hardrock oder konsequenten Stoner, muss unbedingt reinhören. Absolutes Meisterwerk ist der gut sieben Minuten lange ,At The Mountains of Madness", der sich langsam aufbaut und eine recht eigene Note mitbringt, außerdem gruselt es mich hier am meisten, wenn kurz vor Schluss dieser Psychedelik-Part verhältnismässig weit raus rudert für Berghexen-Verhältnisse. Gut gemacht! Wer also auf alten Kram wie Witchfinder General, Legend, Manilla Road, epic 70ies Protometal oder neueren Kram wie Demon Head, Kadavar oder natürlich die erste Mountain Witch Platte steht, sollte unbedingt zugreifen, es hat eine Entwicklung im Songwriting stattgefunden, die ich so nicht vorhergesehen habe. An den Songs ist kein Gramm Fett zuviel, die sehnigen Songs hauchen einem wie ein Knochenmann in den Nacken, wenn der getragene Titelsong losgeht, verbreitet sich Nebel aus einem anderen Jahrhundert in meinem Zimmer und wenn ich Glück habe, nimmt er mich nicht mit oder löst mir das Fleisch vom Skelett. Das meine ich ernst! Der Chor! Top! ,Isle of Bones" wird dann so melancholisch, fast eisig, dass es ein perfekter, hypnotischer Rausschmeißer ist, der einen die Platte einfach nochmal umdrehen lässt!" Tobi Neumann

Soft Walls is the solo recording project of Dan Reeves, who has spent his entire adult life kicking around in the dust of the UK's underground music scenes. Cutting his teeth in the South West's post-hardcore scene; centred around Exeter's The Cavern club, before moving to the South East and forming his own record label; Faux Discx, and the propulsive post-punk band: Brighton via London's Cold Pumas. Projects have come and gone over the years, but Reeves' Soft Walls has remained, an outlet for whatever musical whim takes his fancy.

'True Love' is Soft Walls' 4th album. Written and recorded at home, during breaks in work. During the aftermath of you-know-what.

For this album Dan leaned heavily in to his guitar playing, searching for those purest moments of true emotion and connection. Aiming to strike an instant blow. "Emotional guitar music. But not Emo." The result of falling in love with an instrument again and playing for the joy of it, much like he did as a teenager. Just older, wiser(?) and certainly more world-weary / teary-eyed.

Thematically, 'True Love' revels in stating its love for everything that is dear to Reeves. Odes to marriage, romance, unconditional love, parenthood and creativity pierce through the record's down-swings that tackle existential crisis and the feeling of falling in to depression. Each song attempts to encapsulate a vivid feeling, be it positive or negative. It's all part of a life worth living.

Although recorded at home, this album marks a leap in to digital mid-fidelity for Soft Walls, embracing a wider, richer sound beyond the tape hiss of earlier releases. That same spirt is still in the mix, but is presented wide-eyed and caffeinated in to clarity. Elevated by the input of a handful of collaborators contributing to the performances and helping to shape it sonically, 'True Love' ends up being the truest version of Soft Walls committed to (digital) tape thus far.

Die Essenz der ersten beiden Whispering Sons Alben.

Das dritte Album der fünfköpfigen belgischen Post-Punk-Gewalt Whispering Sons um die charismatische Sängerin Fenne Kuppens schichtet einen mitreißenden Ozean an Emotionen, Energien und Geschichten auf.
Nach dem düsteren 'Image' (2018) und dem minimalistischen 'Several Others' (2021) stellt das dritte Album eine Neuausrichtung und ein Umdenken dar. Aufgenommen in der Nähe von Eindhoven und an der Nordseeküste ist 'The Great Calm' nicht nur ein Album, das einen Ozean von Emotionen, Stimmungen, Energie und Geschichten umspannt, sondern auch eine Folge der gezeitenähnlichen Veränderungen innerhalb der Gruppe aus Brüssel, die wieder zu fünft ist.

Double LP on Hibiscus & Butterfly Pea Tea Vinyl Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much-loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator - "Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly". You are a barista and your customers aren't always humans. Listen to their stories and influence their hearts with a warm cup of coffee or two. Introducing "Coffee Talk Episode 2" on vinyl. Dive into the soothing rhythms of this atmospheric lo-fi soundtrack, which captures the very essence of the Coffee Talk universe. Each groove transports you to that familiar coffee shop corner, where the patter of rain, heart-warming chatter and captivating melodies intertwine flawlessly. Presented in a stunning analogue format, the cover is drawn by Junkipatchi, Episode 2's lead writer and narrative designer. The tracks themselves have been handpicked by Andrew Jeremy, game producer and music composer, who has this to say: "The world is so chaotic that it can break you down. Just take your time to rest and re-energize with relaxing and chill music, before you start each day conquering the world once again." So, settle down with your favourite brew and let Coffee Talk Ep. 2 on vinyl guide you on a melancholic yet tranquil journey, evoking the Seattle from a parallel universe that you've come to know and love. Secure your auditory escape today and immerse yourself in an unmatched coffee shop ambiance.

Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much-loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator - "Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly". You are a barista and your customers aren't always humans. Listen to their stories and influence their hearts with a warm cup of coffee or two. Introducing "Coffee Talk Episode 2" on tape. Dive into the soothing rhythms of this atmospheric lo-fi soundtrack, which captures the very essence of the Coffee Talk universe. Each groove transports you to that familiar coffee shop corner, where the patter of rain, heart-warming chatter and captivating melodies intertwine flawlessly. Presented in a stunning analogue format, the cover is drawn by Junkipatchi, Episode 2's lead writer and narrative designer. The tracks themselves have been handpicked by Andrew Jeremy, game producer and music composer, who has this to say: "The world is so chaotic that it can break you down. Just take your time to rest and re-energize with relaxing and chill music, before you start each day conquering the world once again." So, settle down with your favourite brew and let Coffee Talk Ep. 2 on tape guide you on a melancholic yet tranquil journey, evoking the Seattle from a parallel universe that you've come to know and love. Secure your auditory escape today and immerse yourself in an unmatched coffee shop ambiance.

Dust off your coffee machine and prepare your warmest smile to meet your customers again in the second episode of the much-loved coffee brewing and heart-to-heart talking simulator - "Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly". You are a barista and your customers aren't always humans. Listen to their stories and influence their hearts with a warm cup of coffee or two. Introducing "Coffee Talk Episode 2" on tape. Dive into the soothing rhythms of this atmospheric lo-fi soundtrack, which captures the very essence of the Coffee Talk universe. Each groove transports you to that familiar coffee shop corner, where the patter of rain, heart-warming chatter and captivating melodies intertwine flawlessly. Presented in a stunning analogue format, the cover is drawn by Junkipatchi, Episode 2's lead writer and narrative designer. The tracks themselves have been handpicked by Andrew Jeremy, game producer and music composer, who has this to say: "The world is so chaotic that it can break you down. Just take your time to rest and re-energize with relaxing and chill music, before you start each day conquering the world once again." So, settle down with your favourite brew and let Coffee Talk Ep. 2 on tape guide you on a melancholic yet tranquil journey, evoking the Seattle from a parallel universe that you've come to know and love. Secure your auditory escape today and immerse yourself in an unmatched coffee shop ambiance.

Diffrent Music roars back into action after an extended hiatus to raise a couple of young giraffes with the electrifying new compilation, ‘Revolution Of The Giraffe’ LP.

Launched in 2010 with the aim of bringing something new to a drum & bass scene that had become overly formulaic, the label has continuously pushed in new directions, often incubated tomorrow’s stars, and evolved beyond even that original grand ideal. ‘Revolution Of The Giraffe’ unleashes 17 tracks of bleeding-edge electronic music, proving that after 13 years, Diffrent still sounds like nothing else.

Core artists from the label’s distinguished history bring their expertise, such as drum & bass mainstay Arkaik and sound architect Fearful, who team up with label boss Dexta for the MC GQ-sampling ‘Old Skool’ — a new track with a classic Diffrent sound. And there are numerous debuts: A.Fruit reworks an all-time Diffrent classic, ‘Boxgroove’ by Dexta & Hyroglifics, into a glitchy halftime stomper; none60 bosses Silent Dust turn Dexta’s ‘SE4’ into a rebellious dancefloor juggernaut; and the mysterious Gaunt’s ‘Firefloor’ becomes locked ‘n’ loaded rave artillery in the hands of Pepsi Slammer.

Label stalwart Mauoq puts his signature psychedelic future dub spin on ‘Departed’ by Cuelock, who in turn delivers the ice-cold, grime-indebted ‘Pages Of Snow’. Lakeway conjures the epic ‘Even Though’, nearly eight minutes of ecstatic, spell-binding, hyper-rave wonder. Dexta goes solo with squelchy techno jungle stormer ‘Giraffes On Acid’. Even Sense MC makes an… appearance.

New-gen Diffrent acts are in fine form too. The inimitable BrandNewTrumpets opens the album alongside Macc; ‘We Are The Tightrope Walkers’ is a powerful spoken word piece that erupts into a hail of punishing breaks. No Nation, Sheba Q and BK Balance, meanwhile, turn out explosive, hi-tek junglism on ‘Too Late’. From Diffrent’s industrial-toned sister label Are We Really Alone? (A.W.R.A.), Amir De Bois joins forces with Fearful for the paranoid, jittering ‘73’; Tokyo’s Itti summons thunderous bass on the ritualistic ‘Rumbling’; and Croatian artist Spaj.A.S.E.’s competition-winning, mind-mashing remix of the first ever Diffrent release, ‘Everyones Mad’ by Chills, finally sees the light of day.

Always looking to the future, Diffrent also welcomes modern jungle visionary Eusebeia, who puts his ethereal touch to Crypticz’s ‘Could Have Been’, and Stateside up-and-comers Illexandra & TGRbass, who deliver the supercharged, elastic bounce of ‘Swampy Swami’.
Closing out with one from deep within the vaults, ‘Aftaparty’ is Beezy and MNTX’s ode to seeing where the night takes you. It’s a fitting note to end on, as a new era of Diffrent Music begins. Where will it take you? Join us on the ride and find out.

"I've loved every moment of the label so far: the fast-paced release schedules, the slow years, the podcasts, albums, singles, EPs, parties, etc. This compilation album signposts where we are at — a bunch of classic Diffrent artists, a load of new faces, and a few remixes thrown in for good measure. Each tune stands alone, but stands tall next to each of its siblings. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we have! The revolution is here, join the revolution!"
- Dexta

Pejzaz (aka Bartosz Kruczyski) returns with two captivating new collage albums. Divided into two records LIST I (which was released end of September this year) & LIST II - which premieres end of movember - delves into the realm of 90s/Y2K Eastern European CD releases. Employing hundreds of samples, Pejzaz sculpts a mesmerizing and distinctive body of work.

LIST II guides the listener into the night, combining trip hop and dub influences, dusty samples, wailing blues guitars, and cold-wave synthesizers. Its haunting soundscapes provide an apt soundtrack for winter in Eastern Europe.

Notably, this marks Pejzaz first foray into a fully instrumental album. Although devoid of lyrics, the bittersweet blend of samples infuses the music with a profoundly Polish essence, further enhancing its distinctive allure.

The Blips self titled debut, 'The Blips', struck lightning when Little Steven's Underground Garage declared "Inside Out" The Coolest Song In The World in the spring of 2021. And here we are with The Blips, 'Again'. Back with more boogie, beast and beauty

This band swaggers like The Stones, Haggards like Merle, and snots like Mike Ness. 'Again' carries you on a not-too-long trip through a varied landscape of far out, well made and dusty rock songs that stick to your black boots and go with you when you go. While there are four different lead singers and writers throughout this album, it is apparent 'Again' is executed by a band, rather than disparate musicians playing along on a track in a cold studio. A band that sweats. The Blips haven't "grown" or "matured" with their "sophomore effort" --These ideas don't apply to the Blips. The band is wholly made up of veteran front men of some of the most revered bands of the Birmingham rock scene. Making records is what all of these guys do on the regular. Once upon a time, The Blips came together, rose above, braved the elements, forced the issue, carried the weight and dealt with the demons that require the making of a record. And now they have done it . . . 'Again'.

'Smoking in Heaven' is back! After 12 years, our second studio album is receiving its long-awaited re-issue, this time on double Pink Smoke vinyl. The tracks, each one unique, are united upon this album by a strong sense of playfulness, deep rhythmic quality and an unfailing dedication to authenticity. This fast paced album exudes the vitality that in the past has come to captivate the likes of Chris Martin, Eagles of Death Metal and the late Amy Winehouse as well as Dustin Hoffman and Ewan McGregor. In fact their rapturous reception was so strong in the case of Chris Martin that he handpicked the young trio to tour the U.S with Coldplay.

Neues Konzept-Album der einzigen "Winterdoom"-Band Deutschlands! Die Würzburger, die ursprünglich 2014 als Nebenprojekt der einzigartigen Instrumentalband OMEGA MASSIF gegründet worden waren, ballern uns einen fiesen und massiven dunklen Brocken um die Ohren: Black- und Postmetal vermischen sich mit Sludge, Ambient und Post-Punk auf hohem Niveau, ich wäre tatsächlich überrascht, wenn die Band nicht beim Roadburn 2024 aufschlagen würde, da gehört sie nämlich hin. Grundsätzlich melancholisch und episch, unterlegt von maschinenhaftem Stakkato-Drumming, düster, kalt und wütend. Für die 6 schleppend-schleifenden Songs muss man sich Zeit nehmen, das ausgezeichnete Songwriting entfaltet sich Schicht für Schicht zu einem Albtraum-Szenario, das stetig zu lauern scheint, angriffslustig geduckt und im Schatten. Der Kontrast zwischen sanft-melodischen E-Bow Leads und Klargesang bzw. auch Sprechgesang auf der einen Seite zu präzise drückendem Riffing, Sprachsamples und viehischem Gegrowle auf der anderen Seite verstärkt nur noch das Unwohlsein beim Hören. Insgesamt merkt man den Songs deutlich an, wieviel Mühe darin steckt, es gibt sehr viele Details zu entdecken und zu den Texten, also der Story bin ich noch gar nicht vorgedrungen: Inhaltlich orientiert sich die Platte am Romanzyklus "His Dark Materials" von Philip Pullman, was den Eindruck eines Soundtracks durch den Einsatz von Sprechtexten bzw -samples (teils englisch, teils deutsch) noch verstärkt.

Jeder, der genau hinschaut, kann erkennen, dass Cincinnati, OH, derzeit eine wahre Brutstätte musikalischer Kreativität ist, und die drei Mitglieder von The Serfs - Dylan McCartney (Gesang, Perkussion, Gitarre, Bass, Elektronik), Dakota Carlyle (Elektronik, Bass, Gitarre, Gesang) & Andie Luman (Gesang, Synthesizer) - und ihre jeweiligen Nebenprojekte (The Drin, Crime of Passing, Motorbike) sind unbestreitbar im Zentrum der New-Underground-Szene von Cincinnati. Nach der Veröffentlichung von Alben auf dem Berliner Minimal-Synth-Label Detriti und dem in Seattle ansässigen DREAM Records im Jahr 2018 bzw. 2022 macht die Band für ihr drittes und bisher bestes Album den Schritt zu Trouble In Mind. "Half Eaten By Dogs" gibt dem modernistischen Twitch von Future-Forward-Bands wie Total Control oder Cold Beat sowie dem post-industriellen Dancefloor-Grime von Skinny Puppy, Dark Day, This Heat oder Factrix einen entschiedenen Midwestern-Spin. "Half Eaten by Dogs" ist ein Blick durch ein Fernrohr in eine dystopische Vision, in der eisverkrustete Synthie-Harmonien triefende chemische Rhythmen und aufgebohrte elementare Rockformationen beherrschen. Die Musik ist eine Mischung aus düsterem Drum- und Synthesizer-Industrial und stygischen Gitarreninstrumenten, mal mit vorsichtiger Paranoia, mal mit melodischem Trotz und Ausgelassenheit (und in manchen Momenten mit Mundharmonika, Saxophon oder Flöte). "Half Eaten By Dogs" fasst erfolgreich alles zusammen, was The Serfs bisher erreicht haben, aber mit weitaus größerer Absicht und Zielsetzung als ihre vorherigen Alben. Es gibt Songs zum Tanzen und Songs, die man während eines Sturms oder beim Fahren durch die Straßen der Welt in sich aufnehmen kann. Es mag für die Band ein weiterer Schritt hinunter in die Katakomben sein, dabei aber auf dem Weg zu etwas Höherem.

Jeder, der genau hinschaut, kann erkennen, dass Cincinnati, OH, derzeit eine wahre Brutstätte musikalischer Kreativität ist, und die drei Mitglieder von The Serfs - Dylan McCartney (Gesang, Perkussion, Gitarre, Bass, Elektronik), Dakota Carlyle (Elektronik, Bass, Gitarre, Gesang) & Andie Luman (Gesang, Synthesizer) - und ihre jeweiligen Nebenprojekte (The Drin, Crime of Passing, Motorbike) sind unbestreitbar im Zentrum der New-Underground-Szene von Cincinnati. Nach der Veröffentlichung von Alben auf dem Berliner Minimal-Synth-Label Detriti und dem in Seattle ansässigen DREAM Records im Jahr 2018 bzw. 2022 macht die Band für ihr drittes und bisher bestes Album den Schritt zu Trouble In Mind. "Half Eaten By Dogs" gibt dem modernistischen Twitch von Future-Forward-Bands wie Total Control oder Cold Beat sowie dem post-industriellen Dancefloor-Grime von Skinny Puppy, Dark Day, This Heat oder Factrix einen entschiedenen Midwestern-Spin. "Half Eaten by Dogs" ist ein Blick durch ein Fernrohr in eine dystopische Vision, in der eisverkrustete Synthie-Harmonien triefende chemische Rhythmen und aufgebohrte elementare Rockformationen beherrschen. Die Musik ist eine Mischung aus düsterem Drum- und Synthesizer-Industrial und stygischen Gitarreninstrumenten, mal mit vorsichtiger Paranoia, mal mit melodischem Trotz und Ausgelassenheit (und in manchen Momenten mit Mundharmonika, Saxophon oder Flöte). "Half Eaten By Dogs" fasst erfolgreich alles zusammen, was The Serfs bisher erreicht haben, aber mit weitaus größerer Absicht und Zielsetzung als ihre vorherigen Alben. Es gibt Songs zum Tanzen und Songs, die man während eines Sturms oder beim Fahren durch die Straßen der Welt in sich aufnehmen kann. Es mag für die Band ein weiterer Schritt hinunter in die Katakomben sein, dabei aber auf dem Weg zu etwas Höherem.

Transluzentes algengrünes Color-Vinyl (140g) inklusive doppelseitigen 12"-Kunstdruck und Download-Code.

Forest Swords (alias der elektronische Produzent/ Komponist Matthew Barnes) kündigt sein neues Album, „Bolted“, an. Nachdem er in den letzten Jahren als gefragter Komponist und Sounddesigner gearbeitet und Musik für Ballett, Film und Videospiele geschrieben hat, wurde „Bolted“ im letzten Jahr in einer Lagerhalle in Barnes' Heimatstadt Liverpool aufgenommen. Auf den elf Tracks taucht er tiefer in sein einzigartiges Klangvokabular ein, um eine Reihe von Tracks zu weben, die gleichermaßen kraftstrotzend und düster, eindringlich und euphorisch klingen.

Wie immer in seiner Musik, fühlen sich Melancholie und Euphorie, Monochrom und Farbe, Vergangenheit und Zukunft mehrdeutig an. Die Emotionen verschieben sich von Moment zu Moment, die Unterschiede zwischen digitalen und akustischen Instrumenten sind verwischter denn je: eine Verquickung von Zeit, Raum und Klang, die sich gleichermaßen spielerisch und absolut vital anfühlt.

Zusammen mit der Ankündigung über das neue Album kommt „The Low“, eine stimmungsvolle, metallische Triphop-Single aus „Bolted“. Barnes kommentiert den Track wie folgt: „‚The Low‘ basiert auf einem Beat, den ich ursprünglich für Yoko Ono vorgesehen hatte, und enthält Elemente, die ich sowohl am Anfang als auch am Ende des Albums gemacht habe, und verbindet so viele der Sounds und Emotionen, die ich während des Schreibprozesses erforscht habe. Das begleitende Video, das ich zusammen mit Sam Wiehl gedreht habe, vertieft einige meiner Artworks und die visuelle Welt, die das Album begleitet.“.

Ahora, die neue Platte von Melenas, ist das genaue Gegenteil von "dem schwierigen dritten Album". Während andere Bands unter einem Mangel an Inspiration leiden, der typisch für diesen heiklen kreativen Moment ist, erscheint unser spanisches Quartett unbesiegbarer denn je, mit einer Sammlung umwerfender Songs und revitalisiert mit einer herrlichen neuen Klangpalette, die folgende Frage aufwirft: Kann man Jangle Pop und Garage Rock mit Synthesizern machen? Wenn man sich Songs wie 'K2' oder 'Bang' anhört, ist die Antwort ein klares Ja, denn das herrliche Pochen der analogen Keyboards, die Ahora dominieren, verrät nicht den Sound von Melenas, diese brodelnde Vibration, die bisher die Gitarren lieferten und ihre Songs in den Pop-Himmel trieben.

Die neuen Texturen, die Vintage-Synthesizer wie der Korg Delta oder der Yamaha PSR-36 liefern, bewahren diese Unmittelbarkeit und prägen faszinierende neue Farbschattierungen, indem sie die klangliche Identität der Band ausdehnen und mit neuen Nuancen versehen, vom kristallinen Pop von '1986' bis zu den düsteren, aber bewegenden Untertönen von 'Flor de la Frontera'. Dieser neue Reichtum an Klangfarben steht im Übrigen im Einklang mit einem Album, auf dem Melenas viel zu sagen haben: Sein Titel (übersetzt "Now") will, so die Band, "die Bedeutung der Zeit rechtfertigen, um darüber nachzudenken, wie wir unseren Alltag leben, mit wem wir unsere Momente teilen und wie wir es tun (oder nicht tun) wollen". Eine Erkundung ihrer eigenen Identität, ihrer Beziehungen zu anderen und der Bedeutung von "Zusammengehörigkeit, geteilten Gefühlen und gemeinsamen Aktionen". Gleichzeitig vertiefen die neuen Klänge symbolisch diese Themen: Das Konzept der Zusammengehörigkeit wird in den Gesangsharmonien vermittelt, die reichhaltiger und ausgefeilter sind.

Das Konzept der Zeit wird mit Hilfe einiger verblüffender Sequenzer, Arpeggiatoren und mechanischer Rhythmen vermittelt. Kombiniert mit Melenas' Gespür für Pop machen diese Elemente viele dieser Songs zu einer aufregenden Mischung aus dunkleren, maschinenartigen Tönen (die Cold-Wave-Echos von 'Flor de la Frontera', der Kraut-Rhythmus von 'Bang') und himmlischen Melodien. All dies wird mit einer Fülle von schillernden elektronischen Arrangements verwoben, die handwerklich perfekt gemacht sind, aber mit der Energie einer Live-Band gespielt werden, in einer sehr post-punkigen Verbindung von Synthesizern mit echtem Bass und Schlagzeug.

Das Ergebnis sind solche Wunder wie "Dos pasajeros", "Tú y yo", "1986" oder das wunderschöne "Promesas", letzteres ein wahrer Neo-Synth-Pop-Klassiker. Melenas sind mehr denn je im Besitz ihrer kreativen Kräfte. Nicht so sehr, um ihrer Musik - die im Wesentlichen immer noch in der Liebe zum Pop verwurzelt ist - eine neue Wendung zu geben, sondern um ihre Songs mit einer neuen elektronischen Energie und einem neuen Vibe zu versehen.

Ahora, die neue Platte von Melenas, ist das genaue Gegenteil von "dem schwierigen dritten Album". Während andere Bands unter einem Mangel an Inspiration leiden, der typisch für diesen heiklen kreativen Moment ist, erscheint unser spanisches Quartett unbesiegbarer denn je, mit einer Sammlung umwerfender Songs und revitalisiert mit einer herrlichen neuen Klangpalette, die folgende Frage aufwirft: Kann man Jangle Pop und Garage Rock mit Synthesizern machen? Wenn man sich Songs wie 'K2' oder 'Bang' anhört, ist die Antwort ein klares Ja, denn das herrliche Pochen der analogen Keyboards, die Ahora dominieren, verrät nicht den Sound von Melenas, diese brodelnde Vibration, die bisher die Gitarren lieferten und ihre Songs in den Pop-Himmel trieben.

Die neuen Texturen, die Vintage-Synthesizer wie der Korg Delta oder der Yamaha PSR-36 liefern, bewahren diese Unmittelbarkeit und prägen faszinierende neue Farbschattierungen, indem sie die klangliche Identität der Band ausdehnen und mit neuen Nuancen versehen, vom kristallinen Pop von '1986' bis zu den düsteren, aber bewegenden Untertönen von 'Flor de la Frontera'. Dieser neue Reichtum an Klangfarben steht im Übrigen im Einklang mit einem Album, auf dem Melenas viel zu sagen haben: Sein Titel (übersetzt "Now") will, so die Band, "die Bedeutung der Zeit rechtfertigen, um darüber nachzudenken, wie wir unseren Alltag leben, mit wem wir unsere Momente teilen und wie wir es tun (oder nicht tun) wollen". Eine Erkundung ihrer eigenen Identität, ihrer Beziehungen zu anderen und der Bedeutung von "Zusammengehörigkeit, geteilten Gefühlen und gemeinsamen Aktionen". Gleichzeitig vertiefen die neuen Klänge symbolisch diese Themen: Das Konzept der Zusammengehörigkeit wird in den Gesangsharmonien vermittelt, die reichhaltiger und ausgefeilter sind.

Das Konzept der Zeit wird mit Hilfe einiger verblüffender Sequenzer, Arpeggiatoren und mechanischer Rhythmen vermittelt. Kombiniert mit Melenas' Gespür für Pop machen diese Elemente viele dieser Songs zu einer aufregenden Mischung aus dunkleren, maschinenartigen Tönen (die Cold-Wave-Echos von 'Flor de la Frontera', der Kraut-Rhythmus von 'Bang') und himmlischen Melodien. All dies wird mit einer Fülle von schillernden elektronischen Arrangements verwoben, die handwerklich perfekt gemacht sind, aber mit der Energie einer Live-Band gespielt werden, in einer sehr post-punkigen Verbindung von Synthesizern mit echtem Bass und Schlagzeug.

Das Ergebnis sind solche Wunder wie "Dos pasajeros", "Tú y yo", "1986" oder das wunderschöne "Promesas", letzteres ein wahrer Neo-Synth-Pop-Klassiker. Melenas sind mehr denn je im Besitz ihrer kreativen Kräfte. Nicht so sehr, um ihrer Musik - die im Wesentlichen immer noch in der Liebe zum Pop verwurzelt ist - eine neue Wendung zu geben, sondern um ihre Songs mit einer neuen elektronischen Energie und einem neuen Vibe zu versehen.

Oráculo Records long time partner in crime Carlos Grabstein rules Berlin based MISERIA records. Started as a DIY cassette and digital label back in 2021, the imprint is clearly focused and specialized in ultra-rare synth based darkwave compilations. Now in 2023 MISERIA joins forces with Oráculo Records to present a selection of his best releases to date in vinyl format for the very first time, presented in DOUBLE GATEFOLD format in a ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially mastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

Glacial Domination, das zweite Album von FROZEN SOUL, lässt das Death-Metal-Quintett aus Dallas in noch tiefere Abgründe eintauchen als es ihr Century Media-Debüt Crypt of Ice aus dem Jahr 2021 andeutete. Tracks wie 'Invisible Enemy' (unter Mitwirkung von Mitgliedern von Power Trip und Creeping Death), 'Abominable' oder der Titeltrack des Albums sind eine Lawine von Riffs und unvergesslichen Hooks, die an eiskalte Klassiker des Death Metal erinnern und FROZEN SOUL zu einem Spitzenprädatoren des modernen Extrem-Metal machen. Glacial Domination, das von Matthew K. Heafy (Trivium) mitproduziert wurde, markiert eine Verschiebung hin zu brutaler Zugänglichkeit, ohne FROZEN SOULs Markenzeichen - die Düsternis und Grausamkeit - aufzutauen. Mit dem 2-Song-Zyklus des Albums, 'Frozen Soul' / 'Assimilator', inspiriert von John Carpenters antarktischem Sci-Fi/Horror-Klassiker 'Das Ding aus einer anderen Welt', verfeinern Frontmann Chad Green und seine kalte Crew den unverwechselbaren Sound und die Vision der Band weiter. Der ewige Winter ist da. Die Eiszeit von FROZEN SOUL ist angebrochen. Glacial Domination ist als Standard CD Jewelcase, Ltd. black LP (in schwerem 180g-Vinyl und mit einer speziellen Matt/Glanz-Beschichtung der Cover-Hülle)

Boy Harsher, Portishead, Thom Yorke, Radiohead, Beak>, ERAAS, SUUNS. Over the past seven years, Public Memory's distinctive use of analog synthesizers, electronic beats mixed with organic percussion, lo-fi sound design, and gritty ambience has created a singularly eerie and shadowy world. The first seconds of Public Memory's new record, Elegiac Beat, thrust us immediately into that world. We are in media res, with a feeling of sudden movement from a sensible point A to B. Given some time however, we realize that there is something askew–a bit of brightness here, some shadows pushed aside, some jazz and funk amongst the dub and Krautrock. This is an unfamiliar, ambiguous mood that pushes Public Memory towards new ground. We still drift past the clouded lights and hollowed out buildings of previous albums, but with an occasional bounce in our step now, a bit of golden haze around the edges. First single "Savage Grin" cements this clearly. The track has a jazzy, trip-hop flavor, albeit filtered through Public Memory's narcotic, hazy lens. We could be in a hotel lounge in the alps somewhere on holiday, or out of time in a majestic, sparkling ballroom. But we still have the feeling of being haunted, or perhaps even hunted in some way. This feeling intensifies and comes to a head towards the ever-darkening end of the track, leading directly into "Afterimage", in which someone almost imperceptibly sings "I hear them coming" in a twisted, auto-tuned flail. Second single "7 Floor" begins with flanged drums and damaged synthesizer stabs, evoking a kind of apparition floating towards us in the mist. As the track moves on there is, similarly to "Savage Grin", a contrast in feeling between a cold exterior roaming and an interior, warmer, human place. This time however, we move from the colder to the warmer as the synths from the track's beginning make way for a Rhodes-style organ and backing string synth, infusing an unexpected sense of peace. But like "Savage Grin", the track moves to its end through an in-between place beyond the haze. Faded and distant synthesizers meld with voices–human, or perhaps otherwise–that beckon us, or perhaps warn us. We can't be sure which. Third single "Far End Of The Courtyard" brings us closest to classic Public Memory territory with hip-hop beats, chopped and screwed samples, lo-fi ambience, and ghostly electric pianos complementing the vocals. There is darkness, perhaps more here than in the previous two singles, but with a crucial moment of uplifting lightness so subtle it may be missed upon first listen. As an inverse to both "Savage Grin" and "7 Floor" we end with brightness, the jazzier side of the record pushed to the forefront as the track fades away on that golden haze. In the end though, the haze may be just that: a vapor, a mist, a slight dusting of some other world on top of the degraded one Public Memory so effectively portrays. Elegiac Beat is between two places, and as it straddles the line between the two, we are uncertain if the light it brings shines directly from the sun, or if it is dimly reflected through that majestic ballroom world. For fans of 1990s Bristol trip hop, coldwave, and Thom Yorke's The Eraser

Mit wenig mehr als einer unerbittlichen Reihe von Live-Auftritten und einem zweimal gepressten (und anschließend ausverkauften) selbstbetitelten Demo hat sich die in New York ansässige Band Lathe of Heaven als ein starkes und zusammenhängendes Element inmitten der Flut von Punk und synthiegetriebenem Pop-Revival erwiesen, das derzeit im US-Underground wuchert. Die 2021 gegründete Band setzt sich aus Mitgliedern bemerkenswerter Brooklyner Projekte wie Pawns, People's Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Android, Hustler und anderen zusammen. Obwohl diese Liste vergangener und alternativer musikalischer Bestrebungen ein breites Spektrum an Genres und Fähigkeiten aufzeigt, kann Lathe of Heaven nur als eine Abkehr von solchen Einflüssen verstanden werden und erforscht einen völlig eigenen Sound. Nun, fast zwei Jahre später, sind Lathe of Heaven endlich bereit, ihr Debütalbum "Bound by Naked Skies" zu veröffentlichen. Die elf Tracks umfassende LP verbindet Elemente von düsterem britischem New-Wave und finnischem Post-Punk zu einer nuancierten Gegenüberstellung von 80er-Jahre-Soundwahn. "Bound by Naked Skies" greift Themen der klassischen und zeitgenössischen Science-Fiction auf, die den einzigartigen und bewussten Sound prägt, und verdankt seinen literarischen Einflüssen ebenso viel wie der Musik. Als kraftvolle Hommage an die unheimlichen Welten der Autoren Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler, Ken Liu und natürlich Ursula Le Guin (nach deren Roman die Band benannt ist), verweben sich Themen der Kosmologie ("Ekpyrosis"), Simulation ("Heralds of the Circuit-Born"), Geisteskrankheit ("Moon-Driven Sea") und Ontologie ("Entropy", "The Spider" etc.), und ziehen sich wie ein roter Faden durch das Album. Ein Einblick in die Gedankenwelt derer, die von der Ungewissheit der erschreckenden und gar nicht so fernen Zukunft der Menschheit geplagt werden.

Mit wenig mehr als einer unerbittlichen Reihe von Live-Auftritten und einem zweimal gepressten (und anschließend ausverkauften) selbstbetitelten Demo hat sich die in New York ansässige Band Lathe of Heaven als ein starkes und zusammenhängendes Element inmitten der Flut von Punk und synthiegetriebenem Pop-Revival erwiesen, das derzeit im US-Underground wuchert. Die 2021 gegründete Band setzt sich aus Mitgliedern bemerkenswerter Brooklyner Projekte wie Pawns, People's Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Android, Hustler und anderen zusammen. Obwohl diese Liste vergangener und alternativer musikalischer Bestrebungen ein breites Spektrum an Genres und Fähigkeiten aufzeigt, kann Lathe of Heaven nur als eine Abkehr von solchen Einflüssen verstanden werden und erforscht einen völlig eigenen Sound. Nun, fast zwei Jahre später, sind Lathe of Heaven endlich bereit, ihr Debütalbum "Bound by Naked Skies" zu veröffentlichen. Die elf Tracks umfassende LP verbindet Elemente von düsterem britischem New-Wave und finnischem Post-Punk zu einer nuancierten Gegenüberstellung von 80er-Jahre-Soundwahn. "Bound by Naked Skies" greift Themen der klassischen und zeitgenössischen Science-Fiction auf, die den einzigartigen und bewussten Sound prägt, und verdankt seinen literarischen Einflüssen ebenso viel wie der Musik. Als kraftvolle Hommage an die unheimlichen Welten der Autoren Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler, Ken Liu und natürlich Ursula Le Guin (nach deren Roman die Band benannt ist), verweben sich Themen der Kosmologie ("Ekpyrosis"), Simulation ("Heralds of the Circuit-Born"), Geisteskrankheit ("Moon-Driven Sea") und Ontologie ("Entropy", "The Spider" etc.), und ziehen sich wie ein roter Faden durch das Album. Ein Einblick in die Gedankenwelt derer, die von der Ungewissheit der erschreckenden und gar nicht so fernen Zukunft der Menschheit geplagt werden.

***AUGMENTED REALITY COVER***

Merak EP by Sev Dah marks the debut release on the Berlin-based label Dust in Grooves. Heavily influenced by the grit and zeal of Berlin, Detroit, Birmingham, and, his own, Sarajevo, Sev Dah unleashes his distinctively punchy and deviously structured spheric sound across this 4 track EP.

Opening with a stomping dancefloor tool that sets the energy high with playful and nostalgic loops, "Audio Grape" showcases the dynamic range of the techno proletarian. The dexterity of "Butter Knife" cuts intensely through the air with unexpected tones and drums, evolving into a steamy big-room journey made of sinister spins all the way through.

On the B side, "Dense Fog" permeates the space with a thick grip, softly engulfing all the senses in a labyrinth of sound, steadily building up anticipation with gleaming pads and elevated melodies as the story unfolds. The final track "Meraki" glistens with cold, robotic, fast-paced beats, roaring with otherworldly chords, like omens from the dystopian future, and melancholic subtlety that leaves a feeling of bitter hope.

From start to end, the EP Merak is an expression of the thriving and techno-revolutionary spirit of Sev Dah, crafting powerful narratives through a minimalistic approach. As a founder of DIG records, Olivia Mendez aims to bring precisely this signature sound, and a dedication to vinyl culture, which puts Dust In Grooves at the forefront of the contemporary techno scene. Further bridging classic and current formats, is the dynamic augmented reality cover designed by visual artist Bileam Tschepe. To unlock its motion, follow the riddle on the back.

All tracks are mastered by Nihad Tule.
Words by Lora Mateeva, MONUMENT

Für ein beeindruckendes Gemeinschaftsprojekt tut sich Ellen Allien mit der italienischen Synth-Wave-Band Ash Code zusammen. Auf drei Tracks bündeln sie ihre kreative Energie, um die eindrucksvolle EP "Dance and Kill" zu produzieren.
Die drei Tracks der EP stellen eine perfekte Verbindung zweier starker und unverwechselbarer Soundwelten dar, wobei beide Acts aus allen Rohren feuern. Unheimliche Gesangseinlagen, kraftvolle Percussion, stampfende Bässe, verzerrte Vocals und bedrohliche Instrumentierung zeigen die Parallelen zwischen den beiden Klängen auf. Der Eröffnungstrack "Dance and Kill" verkörpert diese Verschmelzung von Techno- und Cold-Wave-Elementen. "Shining On You" mit Ellens Gesang und donnerndem Drum-Programming ist ein düsterer, aber unwiderstehlicher, tanzbarer Track. Everything Collapses" schließlich entfesselt kräftige Percussions und einen knurrenden Bass, der von einem Chor überirdischer Stimmen angehoben wird.