Cerca:collection

Even in these most turbulent of times, dub musician and fatigued onlooker Elijah Minnelli remains an inexplicable stalwart on the lower rungs of the Breadminster County Council.

His latest record ‘Clams As A Main Meal’ continues his astute siphoning of council funds, this time with help from the Breadminster Board of Abstinence. As a further mark of respect, the original head of the Board, Dr. K'houldoux, graces the cover art in his infamous ‘Looming Moon of Desire’ guise.*

As fine a backdrop as any for Minneli’s off-brand dub experiments, and ‘Clams...’ is the truest representation of his varied wheelhouse yet...

We find vocal appearances from dub goliath Dennis Bovell and Welsh-language singer Carwyn Ellis. A pair of tracks which build on 2024’s acclaimed ‘Perpetual Musket’, a collection of folk songs reworked alongside reggae vocalists, released by FatCat Records. It garnered glowing reviews, with nods from The Guardian and The Quietus concluding with prominent appearances on their respective yearly round-up lists.

Elsewhere, the album finds Minnelli in a more experimental mode, all wheezing contraptions and cockeyed bass, creaking with the weight of creation, a satisfying tactility laid seam-side up.

As well as ‘Perpetual Musket’, the new album follows years of sold out 7" singles, handmade and self-released. Online, the tracks have amassed global streams numbering in the millions. His tracks have found play across an eclectic range of radio mixes and dance floors, most notably the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Batu, Optimo and Zakia Sewell (BBC6Music).

It is perhaps worth mentioning that this everbuilding interest in his work is at great odds with the growing suspicions amongst his fellow townsfolk, who see his Breadminster County Council Music Initiative as nothing more than an empty cash-grab.

Further Reading on the Breadminster Board of Abstinence

In the late 70s, Breadminster was awash with the last vestiges of the hippy era. Though the flared silhouette of the lower leg remained, the utopian ideals that had once flowed merrily around the youth's shaded ankles had begun to wane. LSD and free love had led to a sharp spike in population and a generation of children raised by air-headed psychonauts unprepared for the bleary-eyed strictures of parenthood.

Aware of the crisis, the County Council entrusted Dr. Paulinque K'houldoux to spearhead a pushback, and it was his pro-abstinence movement - a mixture of education initiatives and radical renutrition campaigns - that came to impact Breadminster's census deep into the new millennium.

Being a pseudo-archipelago Breadminster has fundamentally limited resources, however deep-seated ties to distant coastal villages meant that oysters were a regular part of the local diet. K'houldoux pinpointed this as a factor in the town's overpopulation, and believed that simply replacing these with clams (a “lesser mollusk”) would help lower the erotic urges of the people. It was his “anti-aphrodesia” movement that first championed the idea of “Clams As A Main Meal,” and the slogan “Consider Abstinence” carried the message yet further.

The Breadminster Board of Abstinence soon became involved in all cultural happenings in the area, with K'houldoux MCing at prominent festivals and performances, sometimes dressed as the “Looming Moon of Desire” - an idea of his relating to the tide, seafood, menstrual cycles, and his privately held celestial predilections.

It was in 1981 that it was revealed Dr. K'houldoux had never fully qualified as a doctor and was seeking exile in Breadminster due to a series of botched bracelet heists in which he had previously been involved. K'houldoux was subsequently extradited to Basingstoke, where he served 3 of a 12-year sentence, owing to the lunar-oriented prisoner health campaigns he helped implement.

It has been a strange twist of bureaucratic fate that the Breadminster Board of Abstinence has never stopped receiving public funding, despite its lack of clear utility. And while its roots are tied to a rose-tinted past, the Board continues to sponsor cultural events and projects to this day.

An extract from: Eugeniq Schooner's article in Sydney Parishioner: “Clams, Breadminster and Countercultural Abstinence Trends” (2008)

Faitiche welcomes a new artist: Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Her practice ranges from performances, concerts, to works with video and visual art, but she is best known for her sound installations and electro-acoustic compositions.

TUNING brings together three pieces by Christina Kubisch from different periods of her oeuvre. What they have in common is the way they transform sound phenomena originally considered “non-music” into compositions.

Jan Jelinek: Gaming in Silence (2024) is the most recent work on this compilation. It’s a collage of electromagnetic waves, voice, and abstract sound textures. How did this combination come about?

Christina Kubisch: Gaming was commissioned as a fixed-media composition for the Sound Dome at ZKM Karlsruhe. Since Resonances: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project (2005), I’ve been making recordings in the old and new server rooms at the ZKM and in their permanent collection of historical computer games. Computer games like Asteroids (Atari, 1979) and Poly-Play (VEB Polytechnik, 1986) have specially generated analogue electromagnetic waves that interest me in particular on account of their density, rhythms and textures. I originally studied painting and to me the work of composition often feels like painting an abstract picture. I alter my source material as little as possible, layering and overlapping until a distinctive sound space emerges. In recent pieces, I sometimes combine magnetic waves with field recordings or live instruments. In Gaming it’s my recording of a Chinese song about silence.

JJ: Two persons walking through a street in Madrid (2004) is a recording from your Electrical Walks series. Here we should give a brief explanation of one of your best known works: participants in an Electrical Walk move through public spaces wearing prepared headphones that allow them to receive electromagnetic waves from their surroundings – for example from security gates, ATMs or neon signs. They discover a situation that normally is inaudible to the human ear and they can actively shape it by choreographing their movements. I really admire this piece, not least because there’s no clear dividing line between participants and artist. What exactly do we hear in Two persons walking through a street in Madrid (2004)?

CK: With this early work, I wanted to understand what is heard by people participating in an Electrical Walk in the same place but moving in different ways. The Spanish composer Miguel Alvarez-Fernàndez and I set off from opposite ends of a major shopping street in Madrid, met briefly in the middle, and then continued to the end. We both recorded our walks and I then layered them over one another. You might call it a work of electromagnetic conceptualism.

JJ: Diapason (2009 version) is an installation that plays a composition based on sounds from fifteen tuning forks. This setting is audible in the recording: there’s no dramatic arc, no beginning or end – instead, it recalls a piece of aleatoric music focussing on the decay phase. How did you come to make this work and could you tell us something about your compositional method?

CK: Diapason is part of a series of three pieces that deal with “non-instruments” or instruments that no longer exist: electrical mine bells used to send signals to the workers underground; a historical glass harmonica originally used for medicinal purposes; and tuning forks that were used by doctors to test people’s hearing. All of these methods are no longer in use. The sound of the tuning forks, audible only if held close to the ear, was recorded at the electronic studio at Berlin’s Technical University in such a way that even their decay remained audible. The frequencies range between 64 and 2048 Hertz and they can be adjusted at micro-intervals using small movable weights. The sequence and the duration of the pauses are dictated by chance and were not defined in advance. The 2009 version was created for an installation in the historic Holy Cross Church (Korskirken) in Bergen. Visitors could enter and leave the space at any time, deciding for themselves where and for how long they wished to listen to the sounds played back over an array of small loudspeakers placed on the floor of the apse.

Credits:

Gaming in Silence: commission of the ZKM/Hertzlab, Karlsruhe 2023
elektronic sound processing: Tom Thiel
sound engineering and mixing: Eckehard Güther

Diapason: produced at Elektronisches Studio of TU Berlin
rearrangement: Eckehard Güther

Christina Kubisch, published by Edition Christina Kubisch / Random Musick Publishing

image front: Transitionen 2021 by C. Kubisch, sonagrams of electronic waves (courtesy: Galerie Mazzoli Berlin)
image back: Diapason Tuning Fork, property of Folkmar Hein, Photo: Archiv Christina Kubisch

design by Tim Tetzner
mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Thanks to Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Folkmar Hein, Dominik Kautz and Mario Mazzoli

Blue Vinyl

After a three year hiatus, the rap trident known as Death At The Derby is back with another full LP, this time entirely produced by Toronto based producer Finn. An 11 track project, “Capitano” is themed behind some of the games most respected & legendary captains to rock the honorary armband.

Inspired by their previous 2020 release “Ballon D’Or”, this latest LP is both the first official drop, yet second installment to their newest series entitled Club & Country. With the third & final season of their celebrates derby series around the way, this record is the next phase in their wave of worldwide work.

Cuts provided by their resident DJ, DJ Dubplates, the project is both a rare & raw blend of potent underground production, cultured sound bites, top flight lyricism & love for the beautiful game. Whether El Salvador, Romania, North Ireland or Argentina, the roster is monster. Centered around a tracklist aligned by the player’s actual jersey numbers, this collection of stars shine bright as any constellation.

Naive Melodies is a bold and visionary tribute to the music of Talking Heads, reinterpreted through the lens of Black musical innovation. Curated by Drew McFadden — the creative mind behind BBE’s acclaimed Modern Love (David Bowie tribute album) — this new collection dives deep into the Afro-diasporic rhythms and experimental soul roots that helped shape Talking Heads’ unmistakable New Wave sound. Inspired by artists like Fela Kuti, Parliament, and Al Green — whose influences loomed large in the band’s rhythmic DNA — Naive Melodies shines a light on the Black music traditions that underpinned their artistry. Far from a conventional tribute, Naive Melodies reframes the band’s catalog through the voices and visions of a new generation of genre-defying artists. These interpretations illuminate the foundational grooves and sonic textures that fueled Talking Heads’ rhythm-forward aesthetic, bringing them full circle with authenticity. “With Naive Melodies, I wanted to spotlight the deep and often overlooked influence of Black music on the sound of Talking Heads, drawing from the rhythmic foundations of Afro-diasporic traditions, soul, gospel, Latin, and spiritual jazz. This project is a chance to reimagine Talking Heads’ legacy through the lens of the very innovations that helped shape it, bringing those influences to the forefront through the voices of today’s most forward-thinking artists.” — Drew McFadden The album features a globally minded lineup, including Liv.e, Bilal, Rogê, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Aja Monet, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Theo Croker, Kenny Dope, Rosie Lowe, Pachyman, W.I.T.C.H., and more — spanning Afrobeat, jazz, soul, funk, gospel, dub, electronica, orchestral, and Latin styles. It reflects not only the boundary-pushing ethos of Talking Heads, but also the influence of Black music as a cultural force that helped shape it. This is not just a tribute album — it’s a recontextualization. A cultural conversation. A rhythmic reawakening.

Please Note: This format is 3×12' Vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with the full 11 track CD inside. Dub Police are proud to announce the release of their first artist album courtesy of Birmingham-based producer Emalkay, who is set to release his hotly anticipated debut LP 'Eclipse' this Spring. First making a name for himself with early releases on his own Morphic Sounds imprint, Emalkay has continued to push the boundaries of underground bass music ever since, delivering a slew of huge releases on the way. Having been an integral part of the Dub Police stable ever since his 'Explicit / Heroics' 12' for the label in 2009, Emalkay has gone from strength to strength with a series of heavyweight tracks that includes the phenomenal 'When I Look At You' and recent smash 'Crusader'.Comprised of 11 tracks, 'Eclipse' is a bold and powerful album encapsulating perfectly everything that makes Emalkay such a prodigious talent, effortlessly showcasing the depth and diversity of his sound while always remaining true to his inimitable style. As addictive as it is hard-hitting, the album doesn't just provide a collection of dancefloor tracks, but a confident and coherent artistic statement.A brilliantly confident and varied debut album, 'Eclipse' is set to cement Emalkay's place as one of the biggest and most exciting producers working in bass music today.

a Emalkay - Flesh & Bone
b Emalkay - Metropolis
c Emalkay - Keep Goin On
d Emalkay - True Romance
e Emalkay - Space Hopper
f Emalkay - When I Look At You

Metaphon is pleased to present this première edition, which brings together a near-complete collection of the acousmatic works of Liliane Donskoy, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.

Liliane Donskoy (*1933) is a French, classically trained pianist, music teacher, and composer of both instrumental and acousmatic music. She began her musical training at an early age, undertaking private piano studies with Yves Nat at the age of thirteen, shortly after the Second World War. During the 1960s and 1970s, she pursued advanced studies with prominent figures of twentieth-century music, including Darius Milhaud, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, and Guy Reibel, and participated in courses led by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis.

Despite this extensive and diverse training, Donskoy encountered limited institutional and professional opportunities to fully realize her artistic vision. A decisive turning point occurred in 1977, when she gained access to the facilities of the Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM) in Ghent. There, she realized and completed the majority of her acousmatic compositions.

Donskoy’s oeuvre is characterized by a high degree of structural complexity, precision, and expressive intensity. Her work reflects a pronounced and distinctive artistic temperament, manifested through a rigorous exploration of sound material and form. Notwithstanding its artistic significance, her music has remained largely unknown, as her compositions were neither widely circulated nor formally released, leading to their relative obscurity until the present publication.

Metaphon is pleased to present this première edition, which brings together a near-complete collection of the acousmatic works of Liliane Donskoy, recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.

Liliane Donskoy (*1933) is a French, classically trained pianist, music teacher, and composer of both instrumental and acousmatic music. She began her musical training at an early age, undertaking private piano studies with Yves Nat at the age of thirteen, shortly after the Second World War. During the 1960s and 1970s, she pursued advanced studies with prominent figures of twentieth-century music, including Darius Milhaud, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, and Guy Reibel, and participated in courses led by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Iannis Xenakis.

Despite this extensive and diverse training, Donskoy encountered limited institutional and professional opportunities to fully realize her artistic vision. A decisive turning point occurred in 1977, when she gained access to the facilities of the Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM) in Ghent. There, she realized and completed the majority of her acousmatic compositions.

Donskoy’s oeuvre is characterized by a high degree of structural complexity, precision, and expressive intensity. Her work reflects a pronounced and distinctive artistic temperament, manifested through a rigorous exploration of sound material and form. Notwithstanding its artistic significance, her music has remained largely unknown, as her compositions were neither widely circulated nor formally released, leading to their relative obscurity until the present publication.

»Vents d’aether« is the first collaborative album by sound artist Jérôme Bouve and composer-performer Delphine Dora. The six pieces are based on live improvisations on organ and harmonium. They were recorded in different churches on the Cotentin peninsula in France’s Normandy region and later enriched with additional field recordings by SA~RA. This adds an extra layer to compositions which were created both in and out of the moment and which quite literally resonate with the histories of the instruments and the buildings that were so integral to their emergence. »Vents d’aether« is to be understood as a dialogue between sound and space that takes place across time and place.

Bouve carried the idea of working with the organs and harmoniums that can be found in the churches and chapels in the Val de Saire in the Northeast of Cotentin around with him for years. When he got to know Dora, he found the perfect musical partner with whom to finally make a record »about the wind, the wood, the stones of the Val de Saire.« In September 2024, the duo embarked on a short but fruitful journey during which they stopped by at several different churches. They recorded hours-long improvised sessions dedicated to »capturing the moment, letting space and time shape gestures and sound, seizing fleeting epiphanies in their greatest simplicity,« as Dora notes in the album’s linernotes.

She took the lead behind the instruments, however Bouve assisted her on drawbars for the last two pieces on »Vents d’aether,« thus adding an even more unusual touch to the recordings. They formed the basis for an album that Dora calls »the testimony of a sensory quest, a collection of memories suspended in time.« Indeed, starting with the epic 20-minute-long titular piece up until the ringing of church bells near the end of the closing piece »Montfarville V,« this overwhelming yet intimate record blurs the boundaries between different times and spaces altogether.

Early Days (2016-2019) is a new collection of previously unreleased songs from Mauri Tapia a.k.a Los Retros. From a young age, Tapia has been a prolific songwriter, spending his teenage years writing and recording song after song. Influenced by soft rock and left-field South American pop, Early Days (2016-2019) captures the sound of this formative era Streaming everywhere today, Early Days consisting of 15 tracks, recorded from Mauri's parents' living room using nothing more than an old four-track recorder, that only existed in low quality online, now mastered, sequenced, and physically released for the first time. It was during these sessions that Los Retros created the song "Someone to Spend Time With", now certified Gold. Early Days comes with a companion visual for "Without You", edited by close friend and collaborator Ross Harris from found footage of early Los Retros tour stops. Check out Los Retros proper debut "Odisea" released simultaneously too. FFO soul, bedroom pop, indie, modern jazz, downtempo, soft rock, Mac DeMarco, Thee Sacred Souls, Skinshape, Men I Trust, Too Slow To Disco

Bunker Intimations II by London-based anti-formalists Index For Working Musik is a sister record to their second album Which Direction Goes The Beam, originally issued as a limited edition cassette with early copies of the vinyl pressing of that record. The 50-minute long collection of recordings was made across an intense three day period in March ‘25 under the duress of a very strict deadline. All tracks were improvised and mixed-down on the spot, a genuine document of a moment in time. Some of us think that it’s better than the record that it was trying to sell. And so here it now stands for wider judgment. Bunker Intimations II is released digitally and on vinyl via Tough Love.

On 6th October, multi BRIT-nominated DJ/producer Joel Corry releases his debut album, ‘Another Friday Night’ via Asylum / Atlantic Records, with the pre-order going live on the 18th August.

To be released on both vinyl & CD, as well as via streaming/download, ‘Another Friday Night’ is a collection of Joel’s most iconic records of the last five years, including breakthrough hit ‘Sorry’, ‘Lonely’, multi-platinum UK #1 single ‘Head & Heart’ ft. MNEK, ‘BED’ w/ RAYE & David Guetta, ‘OUT OUT’ w/ Jax Jones, Charli XCX & Saweetie, plus fresh 2023 cuts like ‘Dance Around It’ with Caity Baser and the anthemic ‘0800 HEAVEN’ with Nathan Dawe & Ella Henderson, ‘Another Friday Night’ toasts a remarkable run of releases that’s seen Joel become one of the UK’s biggest and most impactful dance acts.

“My debut album ‘Another Friday Night’ is the biggest moment of my life”, says Joel Corry. “Everything I have dreamed about and worked so hard for has come together with the release of this record. It has been an incredible journey and I am so proud to have reached this moment in my career. I want the songs to make people feel good and bring happiness to their days, and the album includes everyone’s favourite bangers from over the years, as well as some really exciting new material. This is the ultimate Joel Corry playlist, perfect for Another Friday Night.”

Ahead of the release of ‘Another Friday Night’ on October 6th, Joel has also announced a special headline show at London’s Ministry Of Sound on Friday 29th September – his first London headline date since playing at former 5000-cap venue, Printworks, in autumn 2021.

Fans who pre-order ‘Another Friday Night’ will be granted early pre-sale access to tickets on August 24th, before general sale opens on August 25th

Marking the second 12” on new Bristol label Northfield is the enigmatic Dalibor Cruz of Chicago. Pathos Peristaltica is a carefully calculated collection of 7 twisted & scuzzed out beats & interludes, expertly mastered by Beau Thomas @ Ten Eight Seven Mastering.

Echoes of Muslimgauze, Beau Wanzer, Laszlo Hortobagyi, 5 Gate Temple & Pablo’s Eye run throughout Dalibor Cruz’s work. However it seriously sounds unlike anything else out there, a true original in electronic music.

Previous releases of Dalibor Cruz have been on Natural Sciences & Chicago Research.

Artwork designed by Guillaume De Ubeda.

The history of house and disco music is full of gospel soul singers creating anthemic bangers for the dance floor. Annie and the Caldwells, a family band from West Point, Mississippi, are the latest to join their ranks.

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This collection — featuring remixes from musclecars, Kornél Kovács, Alexis Taylor (of Hot Chip), and disco icons Nicky Siano and Justin Strauss — follows the release of the Caldwells’ wildly acclaimed debut Can’t Lose My (Soul) Luaka Bop, Spring 2025. Hailed as “a masterpiece” by The Guardian (★★★★★), and one of the best albums of the year by The Times, MOJO, UNCUT, and The Economist, Can’t Lose My (Soul) found fans all over the world — like Sir Elton John, who called their album “A great, great record that I insist you go out and buy.”

“I was blown away when I first heard the original version of ‘Wrong’,” says Kornel Kovács, whose remix of “Wrong” appears on this white label. “Deborah’s voice floored me, as well as the background singers. One of the greatest vocal performances I’ve heard, let alone worked with. The result is a club-ready take that’s become a highlight in my recent DJ sets.”

Producers Brandon Weems and Craig Handfield (of musclecars) had a similar experience when they heard the family for the first time: “We quickly fell in love with the groovy bassline and the choir vocals,” said Craig. “We thought it’d be fitting to put our own spin on it, while paying homage to those jive brothers from Tulsa. The uplifting keys paired with the punch of the drums, rounded out with that organ…this one is sure to bring a joyful noise!”

Annie Caldwell and her family have since performed in more than twenty countries on four continents, and recently made a star turn on the UK's preeminent music program Later... with Jools Holland. They’re hitting the road again in 2026. Watch this space.





[c] Wrong [You Dropped a Bomb] - Extended Wooden Dance Floor Mix (A Nicky Siano Production) 6:48

Orange Vinyl with exclusive illustrated notes/lyric insert ltd to 300 w/w.“Zimmerman conjures up a kind of Arcadian folk surrealism that is utterly his own” MOJO Never released before collection featuring Ian A Anderson & Maggie Holland recorded 72-80 is among Tucker’s finest - Free-ranging, Playful, Intimate - his Songpoet imagination unbound and in full bloom now on colour Vinyl for first time with (exclusive to this version) illustrated lyric insert with notes from Tucker.Recorded between 1972-80 this is the first ever release for ‘I Wonder If I’ll Ever Come True’ a stunningly beautiful, homegrown collection by Songpoet Tucker Zimmerman and friends. The range and depth is astonishing. From the heady surreal journey of ‘It All Depends’ Upon the Pleasure Man’, to the uplifting Gene Clark-esque 'So It Goes’, to some of his most beautiful & touching love songs in ‘Let’s Start Over Again’ & ‘Song’. Only one song has seen the the light of day before now - ‘Taoist Tale’ from his 1984 album ‘Word Games’. This recording from a decade earlier loses no power in its folkier stripped down style driven by Tucker’s strong narrative.

While living in bucolic seclusion in Belgium with Marie-Claire, Tucker invited visiting musicians (Derroll Adams, Wizz Jones, Maggie Holland, Dave Evans, Ian Anderson) into his home studio to play and live tape whatever songs he had at hand. Maggie Holland and Ian A Anderson feature, while Tucker found a freeing simplicity in just guitar, ’70s organ, bass and piano. We are so grateful to Ian A Anderson, who carefully kept and curated these recordings from 50 years ago. “Every time I would leave, Tucker would hand me another tape full of songs”. Ian worked with Tucker and ourselves to present this wonderful album. The collection is among Tucker’s finest - free-ranging, playful, intimate - his Songpoet imagination unbound and in full bloom. The ethos, the playing, the freedom, feels like Ronnie Lane’s time in the Welsh Borders. Unhurried, liberated, down-home and cosmic. Extraordinary music made among friends.
"Startling collection of intimate, home-recorded songs from the cult singer-songwriter adored by David Bowie and Big Thief alike.

When I first interviewed Tucker Zimmerman back in 2015 neither of us had any idea that, a decade later, he would be venerated by a new coterie of young fans, touring with maximal folk-rockers Big Thief and recipient of a concerted reissue campaign by the wonderful Big Potato Records. Last year I eulogised the “Arcadian folk surrealism” of his 1974 LP *Over Here In Europe but, if anything, this informal collection of intimate home-studio recordings is even better. Recorded between 1973 and 76 whilst living in Belgium and hosting such visiting folk musicians as Derroll Adams, Wizz Jones, Maggie Holland, Dave Evans, and Ian A. Anderson this is the kind of assured, organic freewheeling folk music that has the mellow, introspective rough-edged feel of some lost private-press LP, the kind rightly revered by Endless Boogie’s Paul Majors as “real people” music. A true find.” Andrew Male MOJO 4/5
“Here's a charming oddity: an unreleased album dating from the mid-Seventies by an American-born songwriter beloved of David Bowie and, more recently, Adrianne Lenker of the folk-rock band Big Thief. Zimmerman's a bohemian type who eschewed the big time for a life of gigging around Europe. He, his wife, Marie-Claire, and a handful of friends recorded these songs in seclusion in the Belgian countryside, and what songs they are. Slide On could have come from the Byrds when they discovered country music, Let's Start Over Again captures the dreamlike experience of being in love with unsettling clarity. This is a real unearthed gem.” 4/5 The Times

L. Jacobs releases his second album, Behind the Great Curve, on the Belgian label Blickwinkel. Featuring contributions from Milan W., Sarah Yu Zeebroek, and Joachim Badenhorst, the follow-up to the surprising debut Enthusiasm was initially composed and recorded in Jacobs’ small attic room and later refined at Milan W.’s Van den Nest Studio, where W. also handled production and mixing.

A line or outline which gradually deviates from being straight for some or all of its length.

Behind the Great Curve explores and celebrates the beauty and universality of the abstract notion above and what we commonly refer to as the curve. Its presence, allegedly, is everywhere. It is a form that appears visually, mathematically, and symbolically — a line that suggests motion, time, expectation, and impermanence.

This album aims to listen to all of this — the poetry, the irony, and the faint background hum of modern life — with quiet curiosity. Within a gently meandering, synthesized landscape, a collection of dreamlike compositions unfolds: delicate melodies, sparse percussion, warm buzzing synths, and fragments of field recordings coexist in carefully measured imperfection. Colorful yet minimal in aesthetic, the album does not seek to explain the curve, but to follow it.

White vinyl. Signed Print Edition. When Jack Tatum began work on Life of Pause, his third full-length to date, he had lofty ambitions: Don't just write another album; create another world. One with enough detail and texture and dimension that a listener could step inside, explore, and inhabit it as they see fit. "I desperately wanted for this to be the kind of record that would displace me," he says. "I'm terrified by the idea of being any one thing, or being of any one genre. And whether or not I accomplish that, I know that my only hope of getting there is to constantly reinvent. That reinvention doesn't need to be drastic, but every new record has to have its own identity, and it has to have a separate set of goals from what came before." What came before: a rightfully acclaimed, much beloved display of singular pop craftsmanship. Tatum's dreamy, unexpected 2010 debut, Gemini, was written while he was still a student at Virginia Tech University. Its equally disarming follow-up, 2012's Nocturne, marked the first time he'd been able to bring his bedroom recordings into a studio, to be performed and fully realized with the help of other musicians. There has been a set of wonderfully expansive EPs in between_each hinting at new directions and punctuating previous ideas_but with Life of Pause, Tatum delivers what he describes as his most "honest" and "mature" work yet, an exquisitely arranged and beautifully recorded collection of songs that marry the immediate with the indefinable. "I allowed myself to go down every route I could imagine even if it ended up not working for me," he says. "I owe it to myself to take as many risks as possible. Songs are songs and you have to allow yourself to be open to everything." After a prolonged period of writing and experimentation, recording took place over several weeks in both Los Angeles and Stockholm, with producer Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Beachwood Sparks) helping Tatum in his search for a more natural and organically textured sound. In Sweden, in a studio once owned by ABBA, they enlisted Peter, Bjorn and John drummer John Ericsson and fellow Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra veteran Pelle Jacobsson, to contribute drums and marimba. In California, at Monahan's home, Tatum collaborated with Medicine guitarist Brad Laner and a crew of saxophonists. From the hypnotic polyrhythms of "Reichpop" to the sugary howl of "Japanese Alice" to the hallucinogenic R&B of "A Woman's Wisdom," the result is a complete, fully immersive listening environment. "I just kept things really simple, writing as ideas came to me," he says. "There's definitely a different kind of `self' in the picture this time around. There's no real love lost, it's much more a record of coming to terms and defining what it is that you have_your place, your relationships. I view every record as an opportunity to write better songs. At the end of the day it still sounds like me, just new."

GOLLIWOG is billy woods' first album in two years, preceded by 2023's Maps, his second collaboration with producer Kenny Segal. That nimble travelogue has little in common with woods' newest work, despite the fact that Segal shows up a couple times in the credits. GOLLIWOG is a haunting collection that weaves horror, humor, surrealism and Afropessimism into a cinematic tapestry, aided and abetted by a murderer's row of producers. African zombies, time traveling trap cars, malevolent ragdolls and a dying Frantz Fanon are just a few of the revelers in woods' danse macabre. GOLLIWOG features production from The Alchemist, Kenny Segal, EL-P, Conductor Williams, Preservation, Messiah Musik, Sadhugold, Ant (Atmosphere), Shabaka Hutchings, Steel Tipped Dove, DJ Haram, Willie Green, Jeff Markey, Saint Abdullah, and LA-based experimental jazz trio Human Error Club. Meanwhile, woods is joined on the mic by Backwoodz labelmates ELUCID and Cavalier, along with rappers Bruiser Wolf, Despot, Al.Divino, and singer-songwriter Yolanda Watson. GOLLIWOG is another triumph in the woods oeuvre, as layered and compelling as anything he has ever done. A black carnival pitched in a muddy field overnight, empty rides whirring and clattering in the dark.

The ultimate 1999 Death Metal masterpiece on limited edition 12" picture disc!

Now, Fantastic Cat has defied the odds—and their therapists’ strong recommendations—to return with their third and finest album yet, Cat Out Of Hell. Produced by the band and mixed by D. James Goodwin (Goose, Kevin Morby, The Hold Steady), the collection elevates Fantastic Cat’s trademark blend of craftsmanship and chaos to new sonic heights, capturing the freewheeling, lightning in a bottle energy of their must-see live show and channeling it into a ramshackle house party full of existential searchers, desperate romantics, and barstool philosophers.

Australian indie and garage-rock firebrand, GIMMY unveils her new EP Labour of Love — a raw, emotionally charged collection that fuses gritty indie rock, post-punk bite and tender poetic expression, all powered by Gemma Owens’ unmistakable vibrato and fiercely honest songwriting.

Where her 2024 debut Things Look Different Now was a slow-burn, two-to-three–year voyage of change and introspection, Labour of Love hits with an entirely new force: intuitive, immediate and deeply connected to Owens’ emotional world. Written over six months and captured in an intense 4–5 day studio burst with producer Sam Joseph (King Gizzard), the EP moves with the urgency of something that needed to be felt and heard, right away.

Across seven compelling tracks, GIMMY dives into social anxiety, grief, falling in love and the chaotic beauty of everyday life, with each song arriving “on its own terms” — born from late-night home writing sessions, snippets of inspiration while travelling and moments of full-band electricity. Sonically, Labour of Love nods to Soft Play, Nick Cave, Fontaines D.C., The Preatures and The Smiths, yet remains unmistakably GIMMY: expressive, gritty, vulnerable, cheeky and alive in every moment.

Ultimately, the EP is an unfiltered snapshot of emotional truth, celebrating life’s highs, lows and everything in between, and showcasing GIMMY at her most dynamic, powerful and compelling to date.