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TRUE CONFESSION TWO: ZEIT DES ERWACHENS BY DAN PIU.

TALES OF SELF-PROPHECY. CIVILISATIONS BORN FROM ANCIENT TECHNOLOGY. THE ARCHITECTS OF THE FUTURE. VERWANDLUNG DER WELT…

A CHILDHOOD INTELLIGENCE PROJECT
BY DAN PIU & VENUS NEWS NETWORK.

Childhood Intelligence’s 18th release by ADSR aka. Todd Nickolas & Dominic Paterson from Toronto, Canada. The 2x12” album presents mostly tracks written and produced by Todd, with A1/D1 being in collaboration with Paterson. "Give a teenager in a rural Canadian setting an analog synthesizer, a drum machine and a four-track cassette recorder and feed him a steady diet of 80s EBM, Post-Punk, Synthpop, Electro, Dub, Acid, Hip Hop and House, and you’ll get the kind of genre melding electronic-based music that Todd Nickolas has been known for since his early days of writing and producing." The end result is a versatile one, with “Passive Articulation” presenting abstract Techno - House - Electro visions, and fusing all the elements of vintage Intelligent Dance Music that we cherish so much: warm basslines, beautiful chord progressions, diverse and surprising arrangements infused with haunting melodies, hypnotic cyber sounds, detached vocal cuts and dubbed percussion.…Overall fresh & timeless classiness for the present, past & future.

Recorded various locations New Hamburg, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa, Toronto, San Francisco and Los Angeles. ADSR greatly thanks those who were there from the start, those who joined along the journey and those here now.

El Elektro Compilado Padrísimo Vol. 1 is a double 12” compilation curated by Spanish artist Elektro’s Grandfather, Dark Vektor featuring his personal selection from today’s scene. A fearless snapshot of the Spaniard national electro scene. Established figures stand shoulder to shoulder with new blood, generating a current where tradition and innovation collide in sparks. Every track is a charged fragment of a collective identity, soldered into one unstoppable groove. A declaration that the Spanish electro underground is alive, mutating, and absolutely padrísimo. 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 remastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

La Matta Records proudly presents the first official 7-inch, Tutto Ben, a rare “Italo-Brazilian” mini EP by iconic singer, guitarist, and composer Jorge Ben Jor. This edition includes Ana Maria (Remastered), originally recorded at the Teatro Sistina in Rome in 1978, while Falcão and Lorella were first released in 1983 on the CGD (Maracanà) label, part of Warner Music Italy, celebrating AS Roma’s league title. This 7-inch captures a pivotal moment in Jorge’s career, singing in Italian with Banda do Zé Pretinho in Rome. Acclaimed for his radiant spirit and admired by the genius art director Franco Fontana — who invited him to Rome several times — this fully remastered gem is now available for collectors and enthusiasts on vinyl.

Inspired by Sam Kidel’s ›mimetic hacking‹ concept, Berlin-based composer Jasminev Guffond pipes opiated brass and woodwind motifs into a reverb chamber modelled on an Amazon fulfilment centre.

»Muzak for the Encouragement of Unproductivity« is a poetic inversion of Muzak’s traditional role in stimulating seamless productivity in the workplace. Beginning as a pre-radio music distribution network (1934, U.S.), Muzak was transmitted along electrical wires with the intention of being at once ubiquitous and indiscernible, always present yet easily ignorable. As a pseudo-science the aim was to capitalize on the potential of music to have a psychological effect on listeners, and with the goal of maximum productivity, was employed as a sonic disciplinary force in the work place.

Previously installed for Dystopia Sound Art Biennial (2024), at the Amazon Packing Station located before HAUNT-Frontviews in Berlin, Muzak for the Encouragement of Unproductivity sonically addresses utopic notions of seamless, efficient productivity, inherent to capitalist cultures, and their very real dystopic effects from labour exploitation to the impacts of over-production on the environment. This poetic inversion, further developed as an album, is not meant as a kind of melodic control but rather a reflective space in which to consider the benefits personally, globally and environmentally, of slowing down.

Reverb, essential to the Muzak aesthetic, is programmed (using convolution reverb) with the dimensions of the Berlin Amazon fulfillment centre, DBE2. Amazon fulfillment centers are global contemporary factories, promising a consumer utopia of next day delivery of almost any product imaginable. Inspired by Sam Kidel’s concept of »mimetic hacking«(1), the reverberation characteristics of the DBE2 facility perform a symbolic sonic break-in to the guarded Amazon fulfillment center, a trespass to the flow of production.

Guffond’s ambient Muzak with its drifting horn, clarinet and synth-like modulations is just too down-tempo for upbeat spending. If this is Muzak it is possibly Muzak for the end of the world, thoughtfully seeking transcendence through implied questioning after all avenues for shopping have been exhausted.

A chopped-and-screwed love letter to the sounds of rebajada – half-speed cumbia, pioneered by Sonido Dueñez in the 1990s, and born from an overheated turntable motor that didn’t make the crowd stop dancing. With Debit’s treatment, rebajada becomes an ethereal, at times intense ambient tapestry that’s also a history lesson.

Spend any amount of time pacing the streets of Monterrey, the bustling city in the north of Mexico where Delia Beatriz, aka Debit, grew up, and you’ll be sure to catch traces of cumbia echoing from Bluetooth speakers, DIY soundsystems, or car stereos. An Afro-Latin dance form and »practica cultural« originating in Colombia in the early 19th century, cumbia evolved rapidly in the early 1900s, as a localised sound played on drums and flutes quickly modernised to integrate European instrumentation like the accordion. When it reached Mexico in the 1940s, the sound shifted again, fusing with mariachi styles and integrating further vallenato folk elements. Eventually, cumbia spread across the entirety of Latin America, splintering into a spectrum of different musical styles such as chicha in Peru, and cumbia villera in Argentina. And over in Monterrey, cumbia inadvertently found its own idiosyncratic groove.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, waves of immigrants from across Mexico and Latin America headed to Monterrey to find work, making a home in Colonia Independencia. Colombian cumbia records, shipped in from Mexico City, Houston, and Miami, became the soundtrack of the neighbourhood, relaying familiar stories to a rural working class adjusting to their new industrial reality. The sound struck a chord with locals, and huge street parties hosted by ramshackle soundsystems known as sonideros unified the diverse community. So when cumbia rebajada materialised serendipitously in the 1990s, it emphasised and highlighted the memory distortions at the heart of the immigrant experience. Local record collector, selector, and sonidero Gabriel Dueñez had been playing cumbia for hours one night when disaster struck: his turntable’s motor overheated and slowed down, turning the music into a warped groan, with half-speed voices echoing over wobbly accordion drones and splashy drums. But the crowd kept dancing, and Sonido Dueñez realised he’d struck gold – cumbia rebajada was born.

Over the next few years, he dubbed a popular series of mixtapes, hawking them at the flea market on the dried-up Santa Catarina riverbed beneath El Puente del Papa, the bridge that links downtown Monterrey with Independencia. These woozy archives became the stuff of legend, poetically but subconsciously shadowing DJ Screw’s series of epochal cassettes that appeared over the border in Houston. Beatriz uses Sonido Dueñez’s first two tapes as the starting point for »Desaceleradas«, entering into a dialogue with time, culture, and geography as she recalls the sonic ecosystem that surrounded her decades ago, long before she emigrated to the USA. If 2022’s acclaimed »The Long Count« was an attempt to recover concealed pre-Columbian history in the face of colonisation, »Desaceleradas« jumps forward, figuring out how memory and shared celebration can resist a more contemporary form of cultural erasure. As AI systems scrape, blend, and decontextualise culture around us, leaving vapid slop, »Desaceleradas« proposes a slower, more careful, and ultimately more human kind of engagement. It’s an archive with a pulse.

Announcing Perseverance Flow, the latest album from acclaimed Chicago-based ensemble Natural Information Society (NIS), release date 2024-10-24. After a trilogy of double LPs by expanded manifestations of the band that began in 2018 with Mandatory Reality & continued through Since Time Is Gravity (a Pitchfork Best Jazz & Experimental Album of the Year selection & Mojo’s #1 Underground Album of 2023), NIS returns to its core formation of Lisa Alvarado on harmonium, Mikel Patrick Avery on drums, Jason Stein on bass clarinet, & composer/multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams on guimbri for one continuous 37 minute composition across a single LP. As the rocket boosters on spaceship earth sputter closer to burnout, lower your stylus into a soundfield that grows stronger the deeper you travel into it; a dose of the medicine many of us look to music to deliver awaits you inside.

One of the deep contemplations of this natural information (thanks Bill Callahan) is the wide range of source materials Abrams draws from over the band’s more than 15 year history: Ideas from minimalism, modal jazz & traditional musics are regularly reimagined in these compositions. The 2021 double LP descension (Out of Our Constrictions), with guest soloist Evan Parker, reflected aspects of Abrams’ love of party music, Chicago house, & John Coltrane. *But even veteran travelers with the NIS best brace themselves for the Perseverance Flow.

Speaking to the history & the inspirations behind the album, Abrams offers: “We played the piece for a year in concert before the recording. At Electrical (Audio Studios, Chicago) we went in at 11 & were done in time to pick our kids up from school.” Abrams continues: "In a reference world, I imagine Perseverance Flow like a live extended realization of a Jaylib lost instrumental as remixed by Kevin Shields. Or vice versa. I also think it has sympathies to some of the more rhythmically intricate dance musics out of Chicago & Lisbon.”

The core NIS ensemble heard on Perseverance Flow always address Abrams’ writing with the discipline of orchestra musicians & the creativity of improvisers. But this time around, instead of inviting living legend status musicians Evan or William Parker or Ari Brown as honored guests to solo freely over the composed materials, Abrams’ invited guest collaborator was the medium of the recording studio itself. Situated at the board with engineer Greg Norman, Abrams pushed post production techniques found only sporadically on earlier NIS records deep into the heart of the music, distorting & reshaping instruments to subtly &, at times, aggressively mutate timbre & texture, color & time.

Refracting the band’s signature mesmerizing chains of overlapping rhythmic patterns through the sonic funhouse of dub makes Perseverance Flow the most formally experimental NIS album to date. Now a soundworld fully unique to itself is listening to itself, consoling & humoring itself, & consoling & humoring you. A destruction myth & a creation myth of a soundworld together at once —”energetically nutritious” (October 2025 Issue 500 The Wire) supernatural information society.

“Perseverance Flow is skipping rope in slo-mo. A dance of co-operation to rally guts & humors & keep marching through pouring tears” (Abrams).

For AI-41 Astral Industries presents a vinyl reissue of Robert Henke’s multifaceted concept album ‘Layering Buddha’. An erudite masterclass on sampling and composition, ‘Layering Buddha’ encapsulates the material process of metamorphosis and a well of nascent, ever-present potentialities. This new edition comes remastered by Henke himself. 

Originally released in 2006, ‘Layering Buddha’ began with a curious encounter with the ‘Buddha Machine’ - a pocket-sized, battery powered playback device that, over the past two decades, has quietly achieved a cult status around the world. Conceived by the Beijing-based group FM3 (Christiaan Virant, Zhang Jian), the machine takes inspiration from Tibetan Buddhist prayer boxes and consists of nine sound loop compositions of varying length, which can be toggled with a single switch. Due to low production cost and manufacturing imperfections, each Buddha Machine is unique, giving slight variations in sound, pitch and duration.

Using a state of the art A/D converter Henke made high quality recordings from a single machine, providing the source material for the album. Through various processing and arrangement methods, new pieces emerged, most of them all deriving from a single source loop. The pieces were then set up on the computer as generative arrangements, living as continuously permutating structures that could theoretically go on forever - just as the loops do within the Buddha Machines… 

The final pieces featured on the album are rendered excerpts of these infinite permutations, and therefore exist as momentary views on a perpetual machinery, as opposed to closed works. Upon initial exploration, it also became a natural development to format the work into an immersive multi-speaker performance - which premiered on January 31, 2007.

Within the music, subtle artefacts and idiosyncrasies are transmuted into new realms of texture and timbre. Through the extractive hand of subtle augmentations, an array of ethereal dimensions emerge from the vast unseen ocean. Suspended in a sense of timelessness, their undulating rhythms point to a pool of endless mysteries. 

The Return of 'The Nightstalker', a Childhood Intelligence endeavor written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich (2022). The second album «Genetic Constitution» is the sequel of «The Tragedies Of A High-Tech World» (2020), in which the Nightstalker continues to manifest its mystic dystopian electronic prophecies. Full of haunted melodies, cinematic compositions and passages of hope and despair.

«In a damned world
dystopian and mad
we create our own sound
of the positive apocalypse

with bizarre characters
we feel connected
with the outsiders,
strangers and forgotten

in the darkest hour
the crazy sounds arise
standing on the edge
a delight for the senses

when all are gone
we have stayed
in the endless desert
good and evil at the same time

for us it is true
always to nail down
when everyone can have it
we do not want it»

The Just Joans' new album Romantic Visions of Scotland finds the Glasgow band in characteristically melancholic form, pairing shambling indie pop with sharp observations on romantic pratfalls and everyday dis-appointments, all delivered with sardonic Scottish wit, fronted by siblings David and Katie Pope, whose wry lyrics and heartfelt vocals remain at the heart of the band’s distinctive sound.
Originally inspired by a grandiose exhibition title spotted on Glasgow buses in 2019 for a show at the Nation-al Museum of Scotland called Wild and Majestic: Romantic Visions of Scotland, the new album arrives six years later as a collection of semi-autobiographical snapshots from the Central Belt of Scotland. Whilst some of the details have been exaggerated for comic (or tragic) effect, the songs are based on personal experience of mundane failings, bitter regrets and missed opportunities that make up an unremarkable life.
Recurring themes of nostalgia for a bygone era and the fear of being left behind by lovers, friends and peers run throughout the album. Musically and lyrically, the band channels Village Green-era Kinks, with nods to The Television Personalities, The Smiths and Dolly Mixture.
In the past they have always recorded by themselves in a variety of bedrooms, living rooms – and the occasional toilet. For the first time they have abandoned their DIY recording practices to create what songwriter David Pope calls, “a corporate behemoth in an actual studio.” The album was recorded at Chem19 in Blan-tyre with Paul Savage, who is best known as a founding member of local legends The Delgados. He has also produced and recorded the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Arab Strap and Camera Obscura, and has captured a slightly more muscular version of the band while retaining their ramshackle charm.
The album artwork by vocalist and painter Katie Pope depicts Motherwell Train Station – an ordinary, boring place that speaks to the subject matter of the songs, but with a hint of potential escape. As David Pope ex-plains, “For me, the painting reminds me of the ending of Billy Liar in which Billy tries and fails to leave his hometown for the bright lights of London. Half the band also live in Motherwell, so it seemed appropriate.”
Funded by Creative Scotland, the recording allowed the band to bring in bass and cello arrangements, adding depth and a sheen of musical proficiency to their signature sound.
About The Just Joans - The Just Joans were formed in Glasgow in 2005 by songwriter David Pope. Early demos were collected together and released as a loose concept album, Last Tango in Motherwell, in 2006. Chris Elkin joined on guitar and was followed shortly after by David’s younger sister, Katie, on vocals and Fraser Ford on bass. Over the years they have released EPs and albums on WeePOP! and Fika Records and have gained a cult following as Scottish pop miserabilists.
The current line-up consists of Katie Pope (vocals), David Pope (vocals, guitar), Chris Elkin (lead guitar), Fraser Ford (bass), Arion Xenos (keyboards) and Jason Sweeney (drums).
Press Quotes:
“They fit snugly into the scratchy, low budget Scottish indie tradition of The Delgados and Arab Strap… There’s mischief in this miserabilism.” - Mojo 4*s
“Glasgow’s The Just Joans have documented the romantic pratfalls of a generation of indie kids with sardonic wit and a shambling musical style where Stephin Merrit lies down with The Vaselines.” - Uncut
“Funny and sad, it’s the kind of song that made Red House Painters, The Magnetic Fields and The Wedding Present’s early albums so easy to embrace; an unpretentious sharing of relatable gloom.” - Record Collector

"Eau" is the lovely new album from aus, the solo project of Tokyo-born composer and producer Yasuhiko Fukuzono, who has gained attention, in Japan and overseas, for his thoughtfully paced and sensitively skillful music as well as his intriguing sound design for exhibitions and experimental cinema. Having worked primarily with keyboards and electronic sound up to this point, "Eau" is a slight yet fascinating shift for aus; the album, while still primarily an electronic work, revolves around the sonic world of a stringed acoustic sound source, the koto, that most characteristically Japanese of musical instruments. The very accomplished Eden Okuno provides the delicate-yet-rich koto sounds on offer here; Fukuzono, in the liner notes, acknowledges the importance of Okuno's artistry to the project.

The compositions on the album are designed to balance the sound of the koto, with its subtly variable attack and flickering resonance, with the timbre of other instruments. The delicate decay and metrical flexibility of the koto is enveloped by sustained synthesizer sounds and contrapuntally constructed piano melodies, creating a flowing ambience with absorbing undercurrents, a languid and liquid quality that reveals the suitability of the title.

Avid fans of contemporary Japanese music might hear the influence of pioneering works such as the the 1979 Hiroshi Yoshimura composition "Clouds for Alma", realized by koto player Tadao Sawai, and the 1993 album "Koto Vortex I: Works by Hiroshi Yoshimura" which featured performances of Yoshimura's works by the Japanese koto quartet Koto Vortex. These works attempted to remove the koto from its traditional context and place it within the context of ambient and techno. "Eau" is available on CD/LP/cassette/digital, with E/J liner notes by aus. "Eau" is the first collaborative release by EM Records and FLAU, the label run by Yasuhiko Fukuzono (aus).

One of the leading Japanese alternative rock band, GEZAN’s leader, MahitoThePeople’s director debut film, i ai was released in March 2024, and it is an atypical coming-of-age film decorated with tinge of red.

　The film takes place in Akashi and Kobe, Hyogo prefecture. This film’s main characters are Ko (Kentaro Tomita), a rookie member of a band and a brother-like figure of his, Hee (Mirai Moriyama) who Ko idolizes and the story of this movie is based on their struggles with life and death. The story is also based on Mahito's real-life experiences and while reality and fiction are duplicated, the boundary between them slowly melts away. The film co-stars Honami Satoh, Kazuki Horike, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Eita Nagayama, Kyoko Koizumi, K-BOMB, Ichi Omiya and many other unique personalities. It should also be noted that the transparent images filmed by photographer, Masafumi Sanai gives the film, a special emotional quality.

　The film is not bound by any film theory but it poses a theme common to GEZAN's recent works and Mahito's writing activities: How can we live in a crumbling society while interacting with others? We can never live alone but living with others is also never easy. How can we overcome this time of extreme division of the world?

What left quite a strong impression in this film that not only Mahito personally directed but also wrote the script and composed the soundtrack as well was the main theme song, entitled “i ai”. This new piece of GEZAN is an extension of the work that this band has continued doing over the last few years. This 12" single, contains the song, “i ai” and it will be the first time released on vinyl.

Led by soft guitar arpeggios, the song gradually builds to a fever pitch, condensing the mood of the film which encompasses both tranquillity and intensity. The chorus of ineffable, multiple voices united together sounds like a lament that has spilled out of society or a cry of joy. GEZAN's collaboration with the 15-member chorus group, Million Wish Collective has been in development of late and the cultivated sensibilities through their activities are put to use in this song.

The song can also be considered a slow, relaxed dance track that lasts 9 minutes and 8 seconds. It has something in common with organic dance tracks from South America and other regions, and it is significant that GLOCAL RECORDS which represents glocal music from around the world in Japan are releasing it as a DJ-friendly 12-inch single.

The B-side features a remix by COMPUMA who is also closely associated with GEZAN. The song starts with an African styled percussion, with a thumb piano in the middle of the song and then returns to that memorable chorus. This song feels like a 18 minutes and 18 seconds long short movie like suite, with some dizzying changes from the beginning to the end. It is remix filled with enormous drama!

The cutting and mastering of this 12” was done by TOREI who is also active as a DJ and the artwork was created by jvnpey, a visual artist and graphic designer based in Tokyo. Their loving work also makes this 12" very special.

When I asked AI to find a synonym for the word, “division,” it displayed in succession, a series of words: “integration,” “consolidation,” “unification,” “unity”, and “reconciliation". All of these phrases are somewhat whitewashed and embarrassing but the mirage-like chorus echoing in the song, “i ai” seems to be trying to find a new word, that is a synonym for the word, "division. In this film, “i ai”, the message, “Let's live together after the end roll” was thrown out but included in this 12-inch, the message, “Let's live together after the music stops”, emerges.

For over six decades, Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1947, New York) has been a pioneering composer, performer, and multimedia artist, celebrated for his ecstatic sonic explorations and ritualistic, metaphysical performances. Emerging from the cross-disciplinary New York art scene of the 1960s and ’70s, he helped shape a heretical edge of minimalism alongside figures like Conrad, Riley, Niblock, and Glass. Trained as a Jewish cantor and later as the carillonneur at St. Thomas Church, Palestine cultivated a deep fascination with resonance and overtone—an obsession that evolved through his use of percussion, early synthesizers, and monumental piano works, influencing artists from John Cale to Nick Cave.

Animated by a spirit of ecstatic play and what he calls his »meschugge« (Yiddish for »crazy«) sensibility, Palestine’s universe blends the sacred and the absurd, filled with soft toys, ritual gestures, and immersive sound environments. Rejecting the »minimalist« label in favor of a maximalist, »spontanimalist« approach, he creates long-form, resonant performances that transform spaces into vibrating, living organisms—opening portals into the nature of time, sound, and devotion.

In the same vein, the aptly titled live record »The Organ is the World’s Greatest Synthesizer« – performed during the Sonic Acts Festival at Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk in 2025, and taking its title and cover art from a drawing realized by Palestine himself during the concert – adds to his opaque yet vibrant personal mythology and intimate transcendence, marking a return to the Staalplaat catalog after »Fffroggssichorddd« (2020) and »Music for Big Ears« (2001).

Beginning with a resonating bell and his falsetto overtone singing, then surrendering to the endless, wild soundscapes of tone-feeling and beat frequencies generated by the church’s organ, across 40+ minutes, single sound sources evolve into clusters, entangle fully with one another, and establish their own spatial existence and aural architectures. We witness the traces of something that can be described as a perpetual performance, a test for the ever-changing interaction between artist, instrument, space and, ultimately, us.

Since Palestine has always defined his execution as a form of anti-composition - of simply »being in the music« as if inhabiting a space - the true power of »The Organ is the World’s Greatest Synthesizer« lies in encapsulating a moment of Palestine’s practice in its most authentic, live dimension. Sound becomes at once subtle substance and strange telluric force, animating physical forms from some unknown channel beyond and within, accessible only through our sensorium. The point in this liminal temple of tone, timbre and frequency is not to learn anything but to simply enter. Palestine earns once again his self-given title of contemporary shaman by keeping this sonic portal open, allowing us to witness and make it last.

»I have always felt and heard and mixed the sounds in my world as liquids not as solids. Sonic liquids are material that is endlessly transformable. But I’m not crazy about people who go around defining stuff.«

Alan Vegas selbstbetiteltes Debüt-Soloalbum kam 1980 raus, zur gleichen Zeit, als Suicide ihr zweites Album "Suicide: Alan Vega and Martin Rev" veröffentlichten. Während Suicides Plattenlabel ZE Records das Duo in Richtung eines synthetischen Disco-Sounds drängen wollte, der von Moroders Produktion von Donna Summers "I Feel Love" inspiriert war, zog es Vega in eine andere Richtung. Er wollte tiefer in die Wurzeln seiner eigenen musikalischen Identität eintauchen, die von Blues, Rockabilly, frühem Rock ,n' Roll und seiner anhaltenden Liebe zu Elvis Presley geprägt war. Vega nutzte die Zeit zwischen den Aufnahmen mit Suicide, um seine selbst geschriebenen Songs auszuarbeiten, begann mit der Produktion seines ersten Albums und trat live auf, um diesen Sound weiterzuentwickeln. Wie auch in seiner bildenden Kunst schichtete Vega Klänge auf minimalistische, dynamische und bewusste Weise. Das Ergebnis war ein einzigartiges Album, das aus rohen Materialien entstand und tief in Vegas künstlerischer Vision verwurzelt war. Tracks wie die klassische Hymne "Jukebox Babe" mit ihrem schwungvollen Rhythmus und ihrer minimalistischen Selbstsicherheit fingen diesen Ansatz perfekt ein und wurden in Frankreich zu einem Hit. "Kung Foo Cowboy" hat einen südstaatlichen Touch und lehnt sich stark an den Blues an, während der goldene Pop-Glanz von "Ice Drummer" mit melodischem, aber klagendem Gesang, marschierenden Trommeln und einem geschmackvollen Mundharmonika-Solo überzeugt. "Bye Bye Bayou" ist ein eindringlicher Mutant-Rockabilly-Song, der den Rock der 50er Jahre mit Vegas exzentrischem Performance-Stil verbindet und später in der Coverversion von LCD Soundsystem aus dem Jahr 2009 neu interpretiert wurde, wodurch Vegas Solowerk einer neuen Generation vorgestellt wurde. In ähnlicher Weise würdigte die Coverversion von "Ice Drummer" durch The Flaming Lips Vegas Außenseitergeist. Jetzt von Josh Bonati anhand der Originalbänder neu gemastert und erstmals auf Streaming-Diensten verfügbar, wurde Alan Vega von Sacred Bones Records originalgetreu neu aufgelegt, wobei die rohe Intensität von Vegas Originalaufnahmen erhalten blieb und sie gleichzeitig für Hörer auf der ganzen Welt neu zugänglich gemacht wurden. "Alan Vega" ist mehr als ein Solo-Debüt, es ist eine Erklärung der künstlerischen Unabhängigkeit und Freiheit eines der einflussreichsten und kompromisslosesten Künstler New Yorks. Ohne die intensive Elektronik von Suicide, aber mit Vegas Außenseiter-Energie und Schärfe, übersetzt das Album den frühen Rock 'n' Roll durch einen Art-Punk-Filter, der sich als eigenständiges Kult-Meisterwerk bewährt hat.

Alan Vegas selbstbetiteltes Solo-Debütalbum, das ursprünglich 1980 rausgekommen ist, eröffnete ein neues Kapitel für eine der einflussreichsten und kompromisslosesten Stimmen New Yorks. Vega stürzte sich voll und ganz auf die Wurzeln seines persönlichen Sounds, inspiriert von Blues, Rockabilly und seiner großen Liebe zu Elvis Presley. Ohne die konfrontative Elektronik von Suicide, aber mit Vegas Außenseiter-Energie und Stimme, filtert das Album den frühen Rock 'n' Roll durch einen Art-Punk-Filter und ist ein echtes Kult-Meisterwerk. Minimalistisch, eindringlich und zutiefst persönlich hat es sich einen einzigartigen Platz im Underground-Kanon erobert. Die limitierte Deluxe-Doppel-LP-Edition kombiniert das neu remasterte Originalalbum auf der zweiten Platte mit bisher unveröffentlichten frühen Demos und bietet einen seltenen Einblick in den kreativen Entstehungsprozess dieses Kultklassikers sowie exklusives alternatives Artwork. "Alan Vega (Deluxe Remastered Edition)" ist ein Begleitwerk, das neues Licht auf Vegas Schaffensprozess und Vision während dieser entscheidenden Ära wirft und es zu einem Muss für Sammler und langjährige Fans macht.

Multi-platinum, BRIT Award-winning, and GRAMMY®-nominated global pop visionary MIKA ushers in a bold new era with his seventh studio album, Hyperlove. Produced by MIKA alongside Nick Littlemore (Empire of the Sun) , with additional production by Peter Mayes (PNAU), Hyperlove is a vibrant and emotionally charged collection that embodies MIKA’s signature fusion of theatricality, honesty, and irresistible melody. The album captures the sound of an artist forever redefining and transcending pop on his own radiant terms. Written almost entirely by MIKA, Hyperlove also features select co-writing collaborations with Nick Littlemore, Renaud Rebillaud (GIMS), Matthieu Jomphe (Billboard) (Madonna, Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande), and Amy Wadge (Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud”). Adding a distinctive cinematic flair, Hyperlove includes narration by the legendary American filmmaker John Waters, bringing his unmistakable wit and presence to the album’s world. With Hyperlove, MIKA continues his lifelong mission to craft pop music that is as bold and heartfelt as it is timeless, a celebration of emotion, identity, and imagination in their most vivid forms.

**2010 Grammy Award Winner: Best Traditional Folk Album **

‘Marvelous…exuberant’ - Rolling Stone

Nonesuch Records releases a fifteenth anniversary edition of Carolina Chocolate Drop’s 2010 Grammy Award-winning album Genuine Negro Jig, featuring founding band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson. The reissue includes the original album and nine bonus tracks: seven previously unreleased tracks plus a 2025 remaster of ‘City of Refuge’ and a 2025 mix of ‘Memphis Shakedown’. This release marks the album’s first time on vinyl since its original pressing in 2010.

Genuine Negro Jig was released on February 16, 2010, reaching the top ten on the Billboard Folk chart and the top of the Bluegrass chart. It won the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album. Produced by Joe Henry, it was the first of three releases on Nonesuch followed by The Carolina Chocolate Drops/ Luminescent Orchestrii EP (2011) and the Grammy nominated album Leaving Eden (2012), produced by Buddy Miller. Widely acclaimed as one of 2010’s best, Genuine Negro Jig appeared in year-end lists of NPR, Paste, and more, and was featured in Rolling Stone’s 25 Best Country-Soul Albums in 2024.

“Genuine Negro Jig remains fresh fifteen years later not only because of the Carolina Chocolate Drops’ influence on American popular culture but also because it’s an excellent record in itself,” says Dr. Dwandalyn Reece and Dr. Steven Lewis of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in the album’s liner notes.

Carolina Chocolate Drops formed after band members Dom Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens, and Justin Robinson met at the Black Banjo Gathering in Boone, NC in 2005. All three trained in the Piedmont banjo and fiddle musical tradition under the tutelage of Joe Thompson, who was one of the last musicians of his era and his community to carry on the southern Black string band tradition. While old-time Southern string music is often associated with Caucasian musicians from Appalachia, Giddens pointed out in an NPR interview that “it seems that two things get left out of the history books. One, that there was string band music in the Piedmont, period. And that Black folk was such a huge part of string tradition.” Carolina Chocolate Drops sought to not only correct this misunderstanding but also to keep the centuries-old string music tradition alive and developing.

The members of Carolina Chocolate Drops, who came from diverse musical backgrounds, shared singing duties and swapped instruments throughout their sets. The band recently reunited for a single show at Rhiannon Giddens’ Biscuits and Banjos festival in Durham, North Carolina in April 2025. In celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the Black Banjo Gathering, the documentary Don’t Get Trouble In Your Mind: The Carolina Chocolate Drops’ Story by Filmmaker John Whitehead was released on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and YouTube Free4all streaming platforms.

The Final Album recorded by Nikki Sudden release posthumously by friends o Now after consultation with all band members and producer John Rivers the album has been re assembled re mixed and re mastered to create the best sound it's ever been o Lavishly designed by Dave Twist includes notes by band members and photos from the sessions o The Lp comes in de luxe gatefold sleeve with printed inner bags o Contains bonus tracks and has been reordered to the last email nikki sent on the subject

"Huntress" by She Spread Sorrow (Alice Kundalini) is the story of a huntress and her morbid and psychotic relationship with her prey. The protagonist is Blue, a girl whose existence is marked by obsession with another woman of the same age and by nightmares that leave her without peace. Between love and psychosis, a tragic story is consumed, which vibrates in the stomach, like the music that accompanies it - dark and hypnotic death industrial, with moments of dark ambient, power electronics and noise.Inspired by Kundalini’s nightmares and her fervent world of dreams, "Huntress" was born after 3 years of intense recordings. It pursues the need to whisper secret, forbidden tales and to stimulate the deepest shadows of the human being, exploring the boundaries between the delicate and the violent; between love and obsession; between fantasy and madness."Huntress" is the soundtrack of a tragic game between opposites in a reality of total solitude.

With her new album, Spira (Sprout), Olof Arnalds has found her joy in writing songs rekindled. In many ways it harkens back to her debut: it is exclusively in Icelandic, the arrangements are markedly stripped back compared to her last two records, and it is mostly recorded in single takes in the control room of Sundlaugin, much like Vio og vio. Although a classically trained singer and violinist, Olof has been an active practitioner of popular music for thirty years, the watershed moment was the 2007 release of her debut solo album Vio og vio (Now and Again, wider international release in 2009), produced by Sigur Ros' Kjartan Sveinsson in the band's converted swimming-pool studio Sundlaugin. It seemed to appear fully formed out of the ether, and became a local classic almost overnight, winning accolades such as 'Best Alternative Album' at the Iceland Music Awards, named 'Record of the Year' by Iceland's principal daily newspaper and recognised as one of the decade's 100 best albums by eMusic. Spira is produced by Skuli Sverrisson, who also contributes bass and guitar. His mind-melting resume includes musical direction for Laurie Anderson, recordings with Blonde Redhead and work with artists such as David Sylvian, Jon Hassell, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bill Frisell and Arto Lindsay. Davio por Jonsson contributes piano and guitar to the record-much as he did during Olof's busiest touring schedule nearly fifteen years ago when the two of them toured the world for months on end. There is hardly a jazz musician in Iceland he hasn't played with but lately he is perhaps best known for his close collaboration with Ragnar Kjartansson, one of this century's most celebrated visual artists.

L. Eugene Methe is an Omaha based singer-songwriter and musician with a discography spanning over twenty years. His last two lyrical based albums were released on Grapefruit Records. As a studio musician he has contributed violin and piano on a diverse group of albums by Simon Joyner, Refrigerator, Mountain Goats, the Renderers, Naturaliste, Expensive People and many more.

Dennis Callaci from the band Refrigerator has released collaborative records with John Davis, Heimito Kunst, Simon Joyner and others as well as a myriad of solo LPs over the last 35 years. He runs the Shrimper record label. His fourth book is out in 2025 on Bamboo Dart Press.

The Last Chance Lottery is a collaborative record featuring the music of Methe and the vocals/lyrics of Callaci. Cinematic and outre in tone, the record does not forsake melody or tunesmithery, but strips much of it bare to paint it with surprising found sounds, abstraction and a balance between what these two fellas do best. The album was mastered by Al Jones as Marginal Frequency to further tightrope those two worlds. Features cover art and liner notes by Callaci.

After last year's widely acclaimed third full- length album "Bloem" found its way into the hearts and minds of many listeners, it did not take long for the duo of M. Koops and B. Mollema to return to the studio and record an immediate follow up. But do not be fooled by this quick succession of releases; "Gegrepen door de Geest der Zielsontluiking" is in many ways a polar opposite of what "Bloem" had to offer. Guided by a spirit of self- transcendence, Fluisteraars sought to indulge in a deep current of animalistic urge. From murky depths to the high towers of the soul, "Gegrepen..." is an exaltation of a new language, a breaking down of barriers and revaluation of underlying routine. Utilizing a minimalist and spontaneous recording style proved fruitful in this endeavor: only doing one take of every instrument, only recording the natural acoustics of the room instead of the close- up registration of sound so ingrained in modern production. The duo recorded exactly one song each studioday. No overdubs, no synths - they started every day by setting up a new sound palette for each song.

Dan O'Farrell & The Difference Engine's fourth album (recorded and produced by Andy Lewis ) arrives at the start of 2026 like a cold, sharp bucket of water in the face. Bracing and troubling - like a tongue returning to a sore tooth - these songs probe life's dark waters: loss of family, faith, community & self- confidence - but also remains empathetic and rousing, ultimately cathartic. Once you've scraped the bottom, the only way is up. Creation is always an act of joyful defiance. Based in Southampton, and formed from the ashes of John Peel-endorsed indie-band Accrington Stanley , the band bring layers of warmth and subtlety to the uncompromisingly lyrical alt-folk songs of Dan O'Farrell, English-teacher by day and angry, leftist complainer by night.

The follow-up to 2024’s "Perpetual Eden" sees Bloody Head stretch out and capture the cosmic sprawl of their live gigs on record. Available on limited-edition LP with spot-varnished sleeve.
After finding their Perpetual Eden and then seeing it violently retrograde, Bloody Head return with a new transmission devoted to the pendulum’s swing and the big wheel’s turn.
The big wheel turns and the seasons turn and we turn and it all just keeps on spinning away… elliptic, off kilter, centres not holding, the whole merry-go-round whirling and dissolving and coagulating, perpetually.
The CHILDREN OF THE DUSK and the sundry weirdoes and creeps depicted on the cover painting, channelled by Danny Roberts 777, all spinning and singing and sinning as they rattle along… in some sort of strange, discordant VIBRATORY AFFINITY with themselves/each other/it all.
Stay a while and take the time to BEND DOWN AND KISS THE GROUND/smell the roses/find your Eden, in and amongst the nooks and cracks and crannies and in the thin, strange places.
TIME AS VEILED ETERNITY is a microcosm of the whole merry Shambala, pushing and pulling and coming together and falling apar
Recorded, mixed and mastered by James Atkinson at the Stationhouse, Leeds. The session almost kiboshed by Storm Éowyn. A sprawling mass/mess which oozes and lurches from bloody minded heaviness to meditative reflection to unsettling delirium and back again, ending in total sonic breakdown. More focused and restrained, more reckless and chaotic. There is No time, to every season some sort of purpose.

To mark what would have been Mikis Theodorakis' 100th birthday in 2025, Intuition released a very special album: 'Lost Songs' - fourteen previously unpublished compositions by the world-renowned Greek composer, presented here for the first time in a remarkable solo piano version by German pianist Henning Schmiedt. A remarkable moment took place in 2009 at Mikis Theodorakis' studio in Athens: Henning Schmiedt personally played his piano arrangements of the 'Lost Songs' to Theodorakis himself. Some of the melodies sparked the composer's memory, while others did not - but he listened attentively, offered comments and gave guidance that directly influenced the final versions of the pieces.

As such, 'Lost Songs' can be considered a posthumous release with the composer's blessing. These pieces offer a glimpse into Theodorakis' expressive power and artistic maturity from a very young age - most of the 'Lost Songs' were written in the early 1940s and provide a compelling window into the formative years of one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

'Lost Songs' is available on 180g vinyl and digipak CD editions.

In March 2025, "On the Love Beach" performed solo shows in Shanghai and Beijing with Toushi Naoki to great success.

2025 marks the 30th anniversary of their memorable debut album, "On the Love Beach," and the band's first three albums are being reissued on CD and vinyl!

All three albums use the original master tapes, and each has been thoroughly remastered under the supervision of Shinji Shibayama for high-quality sound!

"On the Love Beach"'s third album, released in 1999, is a two-disc masterpiece that holds a unique position in the band's history, and many fans secretly cherish
the original LP version.

Shibayama's motivation for recording this album was to explore whether the concept he experimented with with Hallelujahs—"pursuing the uniqueness and
improvisation of the performance itself within the format of a pre-written song"—would work in a fixed band format rather than a session, and what the results would be.
It was a bold (and reckless) production approach: all basic tracks, including the lead vocals, were recorded live in the studio in one take, with no re-recordings allowed,
and overdubs like the chorus were kept to a minimum.

Although there are discrepancies between the punk-inspired performances and vocals due to the unedited concept, this is a rare example of the wild energy of a
band captured so authentically with such high sound quality in Jap-rock, and, regardless of its merits or demerits, it is undeniably compelling.

The raw sound quality, capturing the irreversible, fleeting interplay, demonstrates the outstanding engineering sense of Peace Music's Nakamura Soichiro,
and the pride of the rock band "Nagisa Nite" is evident throughout.

It's also noteworthy that this "Nagisa Nite" album contains the most solo works by Masako Takeda. Naturally, it's meticulously remastered from the original
master tapes for exceptional sound quality!

Brooklyn-born David Forman was steeped in soul music and Brill Building songcraft in the early 1970s while earning his living as a Hollywood set builder. He developed a soul singing style through his friendship with Aaron Neville, with whom he used to sing and jam on his apartment rooftop. He met Jack Nitzsche through his work on the 1972 film Greaser’s Palace (for which Nitzsche created the soundtrack) and later asked Nitzsche to produce this album. Forman’s original record deal with Davis was shepherded by the critic Stephen Holden of Rolling Stone and later the New York Times, and later by Paul Nelson, also of Rolling Stone.Fun fact about Forman: He was an assistant to Phillip Petit on his daring tight rope walk between the twin towers in 1974. And Forman later became a jingle writer and wrote and sang the famous Tums theme song (“Tum tum-tum-tum, TUUUUMS."This release features remastered audio, a plethora of archival photos, and a 24-page booklet with a 5500-word essay from noted journalist and producer Joe Hagan, a staff writer at Vanity Fair and producer of the 2022 compilation 'Earl's Closet' for Light In The Attic. Hagan is also fully committed to promoting the release through his network of key media gatekeepers, as well as his personal connections with legendary musicians, writers, and other cultural tastemakers.

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.

January 21, 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of Hideaki Tokunaga's major label debut.
A long-awaited new album will be released on this memorable day! Titled "COVERS," it marks the launch of a new series of cover albums that truly showcase Tokunaga's talent.
This is his first studio recording since moving to Nippon Columbia, and his first cover album in 11 years since his smash-hit series "VOCALIST 6." With "VOCALIST," Tokunaga
built his own brand on the concept of faithfully covering classic songs by female artists. "COVERS" features a wide selection of works by both male and female artists,
reinterpreting classics that he "want to sing now" with his own powerful arrangements and vocals. It's been exactly 40 years since the release of his debut song, "Rainy Blue."
Look forward to the new sound that has been created as a result of this journey.

“The GRILL will fucking rule things…” – Backengrillen’s debut album out in January "Backengrillen's music is a paean to chaos and destruction. The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noiserock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart like a ravenous cat would a tiny forest mouse. It's filled to the brim with the self-hatred endemic to the province of Västerbotten from whence the member’s hail. The record was written on a Thursday during their first ever rehearsal, performed live on a Friday and recorded on a Saturday, so what you're hearing is raw, stupid, gut instinct music played by seasoned purveyors of hardcore punk, metal, free jazz, noise et cetera. Record no 2 is in the making, less stupid, more ugly. Stay tuned and fuck the pigs." - Backengrillen, November 2025 Backengrillen is a new ensemble with their roots in HC, punk, noise and free Jazz. All members from Umeå, with roots in the original version of Refused – and one with starting points in the jazz-rock ensemble Nirvana (1980). With a solid and yet varied background in the creativities of Refused, TEXT, INVSN, Fire Orchestra, The International Noise Conspiracy, The End, Serpent, The Thing, Final Exit and other classic jazz combos we will now start our journey of 4 colliding locomotives, creating a new form of beauty and energy. Antifascist, antiracists free form death – jazz – in the memory of Lars Lystedt – Backengrillen arrives with new perspectives on jazz. And punk. In-your-face HC jazz inspired by The Cramps, Little Richard, Albert Ayler, Polly Bradfield, Entombed, John Zorn, Misfits, Stooges, Lars Gullin, Can and much more. Backengrillen’s self-titled debut album is out on January 23rd, 2026 on vinyl, CD, and digitally on Bandcamp via Svart Records. Backengrillen Dennis Lyxzén – vocal and effects Mats Gustafsson – saxophones, flutes and live electronics Magnus Flagge – bass David Sandström – drums and electronics

“The GRILL will fucking rule things…” – Backengrillen’s debut album out in January "Backengrillen's music is a paean to chaos and destruction. The basic idea is to take a death/doom metal, or noiserock riff and play it until it loses meaning and then break it apart like a ravenous cat would a tiny forest mouse. It's filled to the brim with the self-hatred endemic to the province of Västerbotten from whence the member’s hail. The record was written on a Thursday during their first ever rehearsal, performed live on a Friday and recorded on a Saturday, so what you're hearing is raw, stupid, gut instinct music played by seasoned purveyors of hardcore punk, metal, free jazz, noise et cetera. Record no 2 is in the making, less stupid, more ugly. Stay tuned and fuck the pigs." - Backengrillen, November 2025 Backengrillen is a new ensemble with their roots in HC, punk, noise and free Jazz. All members from Umeå, with roots in the original version of Refused – and one with starting points in the jazz-rock ensemble Nirvana (1980). With a solid and yet varied background in the creativities of Refused, TEXT, INVSN, Fire Orchestra, The International Noise Conspiracy, The End, Serpent, The Thing, Final Exit and other classic jazz combos we will now start our journey of 4 colliding locomotives, creating a new form of beauty and energy. Antifascist, antiracists free form death – jazz – in the memory of Lars Lystedt – Backengrillen arrives with new perspectives on jazz. And punk. In-your-face HC jazz inspired by The Cramps, Little Richard, Albert Ayler, Polly Bradfield, Entombed, John Zorn, Misfits, Stooges, Lars Gullin, Can and much more. Backengrillen’s self-titled debut album is out on January 23rd, 2026 on vinyl, CD, and digitally on Bandcamp via Svart Records. Backengrillen Dennis Lyxzén – vocal and effects Mats Gustafsson – saxophones, flutes and live electronics Magnus Flagge – bass David Sandström – drums and electronics

NEW VERSION ON WHITE VINYL! After turning heads with the relentless 2024 EP Råtner på rot, Jordsjuk are back with their full-length debut: Naglet til livet (translates to 'Nailed to life'). Across twelve tracks and 36 minutes, the band delivers a visceral strike of raw, uncompromising metal - free of gloss, gimmicks and nonsense. Naglet til livet is a kaleidoscope of destruction, decay, and ugliness, the band states. From the thrash-fueled chaos of "Grovt skadeverk" and the suffocating aggression of "Parasitt", to the punk-driven decay of "Rennestein" and the gloomy introspectiveness of "Svikter den neste", this is the sound of filth, concrete, ruin, and rage. Twelve tracks of in-your-face, riff-driven and organic metal. Jordsjuk consists of Renton (drums), Mannevond (vocals), Sagstad (guitars), and Larsen (bass) - seasoned musicians from the Norwegian underground. Their sound sits somewhere between black, death, thrash, punk, and rock, forging a sonic identity as raw as it is deliberate. The lyrics, written in Norwegian, dive into personal collapse, trauma, and apocalyptic despair, delivered with uncompromising honesty. Drums were recorded at PhatCat Studios (Rygge, Norway), with the rest captured at various locations in Oslo. Mixing was handled by Kurt Ballou (Converge) at God City Studios (Salem, MA), while Brad Boatright took care of mastering at Audiosiege Studio (Portland, OR). The result is exactly what it needs to be: dirty, sharp, and heavy. Jordsjuk is necro music for necro times, says the band, and after hearing Naglet til livet, it's hard to disagree. The band were booked to by:Larm festival and Midgardsblot in 2025, and it's on stage that their sonic violence truly takes over. For those who've seen them live, expectations are high. For everyone else - prepare to be run over.

"ROCKY AND THE SWEDEN continue to fight for their freedom of smoking weed not only by “burning spirits” approach but by “burning buds” with the same spirit. " - Maximum RockNRoll Tokyo Hardcore legends ROCKY & THE SWEDEN celebrate 30 years of weed-fueld Rock N' Roll with their return and new full-length, "Punks Pot Head! " Decades up in smoke, and the band show no signs of slowing down; ROCKY AND THE SWEDEN continue down their blazing path of fast, aggressive punk. Forever loyal to their green-motiff, tracks like the aptly titled "THC" and "Chain Smoke" burn with intensity; explosive drums detonate alongside scorching guitar leads. Short: Tokyo Hardcore legends ROCKY & THE SWEDEN celebrate 30 years of weed-fueled Rock N' Roll with their return and new full-length, "Punks Pot Head!" FFO: Lip Cream, Discharge, Bastard, Boris, Death Side, GBH

Cunimondo Takiguchi's 70s-inspired, emotionally rich masterpiece is elevated by singer Kurumi with a contemporary sensibility.
A soundscape where novelty and nostalgia intersect, now available on long-awaited analog 7-inch!
This timeless beauty and fresh vitality resonate in this exquisite track, now available in a 7-inch analog-exclusive version.
The B-side features a jazz bossa nova arrangement of a popular song by “Shaky,” the band to which Kurumi belonged.

Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse release their 2024 debut full length album on vinyl now!. Led by the famed former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno (5/17/1958 - 10/21/2024)! Speaking about the album Paul Di'Anno said, "I'm looking forward to the release of 'Warhorse' and I hope you like it. By my standards, too much time has passed since the recording of this album and I can't wait to finally have this record in my hands." Warhorse members Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante Pupacic Pupi commented "Are you ready - Ready to rock? 'Cause we are ready - Ready to rock! As the song says! Enjoy the album, cheers!" The debut Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse album, called 'Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse', was recorded during 2022 and 2023 in Croatia and the UK... Paul sings like never before and in a way that will surprise and leave all his fans speechless, as well as heavy metal fans in general.

Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse release their 2024 debut full length album on vinyl now!. Led by the famed former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno (5/17/1958 - 10/21/2024)! Speaking about the album Paul Di'Anno said, "I'm looking forward to the release of 'Warhorse' and I hope you like it. By my standards, too much time has passed since the recording of this album and I can't wait to finally have this record in my hands." Warhorse members Hrvoje Madiraca and Ante Pupacic Pupi commented "Are you ready - Ready to rock? 'Cause we are ready - Ready to rock! As the song says! Enjoy the album, cheers!" The debut Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse album, called 'Paul Di'Anno's Warhorse', was recorded during 2022 and 2023 in Croatia and the UK... Paul sings like never before and in a way that will surprise and leave all his fans speechless, as well as heavy metal fans in general.

Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993 & with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest & most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’. 2025 also saw Sigh reimagining their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album for a release on Peaceville as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw The World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’.

Maintaining the core trio of Mirai Kawashima, Shinichi Ishikawa & Satoshi Fujinami & on the back of the epic & darkly symphonic opus ‘Infidel Art’ (1995), Sigh adopted a more boundary-defying approach to their writing, whilst still keeping the dark foundations & traits of the band’s fundamental sound. The result was ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ which surfaced in 1997 & draped in Eastern & horror-based atmospherics, the band also embraced elements outside of metal with what was their most experimental offering to date; utilising instruments such as the saxophone as well as acoustic passages & notoriously drawing comparisons to the moods of bands such as The Beatles at times, featuring catchy hooks & structures in line with the rock music genre, but masterfully woven into Sigh’s unique blackened metal tapestry.

Continuing with Peaceville’s re-issues of Sigh’s classic early ( & until now, hard to find) works, this edition of ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ contains a new master created by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, featuring a new transfer from the original DAT source.

The release also includes a new interview with main-man Mirai Kawashima conducted by Dayal Patterson of Cult Never Dies, delving into the history & inspirations behind ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’.

This edition of ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ is presented on black vinyl.

Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993 & with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest & most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’. 2025 also saw Sigh reimagining their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album for a release on Peaceville as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw The World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’.

Maintaining the core trio of Mirai Kawashima, Shinichi Ishikawa & Satoshi Fujinami & on the back of the epic & darkly symphonic opus ‘Infidel Art’ (1995), Sigh adopted a more boundary-defying approach to their writing, whilst still keeping the dark foundations & traits of the band’s fundamental sound. The result was ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ which surfaced in 1997 & draped in Eastern & horror-based atmospherics, the band also embraced elements outside of metal with what was their most experimental offering to date; utilising instruments such as the saxophone as well as acoustic passages & notoriously drawing comparisons to the moods of bands such as The Beatles at times, featuring catchy hooks & structures in line with the rock music genre, but masterfully woven into Sigh’s unique blackened metal tapestry.

Continuing with Peaceville’s re-issues of Sigh’s classic early ( & until now, hard to find) works, this edition of ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ contains a new master created by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, featuring a new transfer from the original DAT source.

The release also includes a new interview with main-man Mirai Kawashima conducted by Dayal Patterson of Cult Never Dies, delving into the history & inspirations behind ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’.

This edition of ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ is presented on black vinyl.

Co-produced with Blaine Harrison of Mystery Jets, the album is a bold and moving leap forward, shaped by the wide-open spaces of Grace's adopted California and the intimate venues of his hometown of London. Moving to California at 21, Grace played his first shows in small coffee houses and clubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco. There he was introduced to the music of artists like Bon Iver and Ray Lamontagne who helped shape his early writing and the songs that would later appear on his 2022 debut album 'Alive In America' . Since returning home to London, his music has been championed by the likes of Clash, Under The Radar, Wonderland, Songwriting Magazine, Americana UK, Absolute Radio, BBC Introducing and Mahogany.

Recorded and Mixed - Jamtone Studio by Darren MathersMastered by - Nick Manasseh
PRODUCED - CHANNEL ONE SOUND SYSTEM - 2024