Singer-songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey was 20 years old when he became the third signing to Leon Russell and Denny Cordell's Shelter Records – after Russell himself and the legendary J.J. Cale. The result was Ramsey's 1972 eponymous debut, a masterpiece of laid-back Texas country-rock, blues-inflected folk and outlaw ballads.
As a child, Ramsey was an obsessive radio listener – from Elvis and the Beatles to Delta blues, country and even classical music. By middle school, he had formed his first garage band and started writing songs. After a brief stint at the University of Texas, he took to the burgeoning coffeehouse circuit where he toured alongside folks like Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker and Keith Sykes. It was during these shows that Ramsey developed much of the material for his LP, a diverse yet coherent mix that revealed his varied influences.
Recorded in Memphis, Nashville and at Russell's home studio in the Hollywood Hills, the album features some of the era's greatest session musicians: Eddie Hinton on guitar, Red Rhodes on pedal steel and the rhythm section of Leland Sklar and Jim Keltner. A true songwriter's songwriter album, its tunes have been covered by Waylon Jennings ("Satin Sheets"), Jimmy Buffett ("The Ballad of Spider John") and, most famously, Captain & Tennille ("Muskrat Love"), but no cover can beat the originals from the wise-beyond-his-years Ramsey.
Though Willis Alan Ramsey has continued to perform regularly and write new songs, a second album is yet to be released. For years, whenever someone asked about it, Ramsey was known to answer "What's wrong with the first one?" The answer is, of course, absolutely nothing. In fact, it's perfect.
This first-time vinyl reissue reproduces the original lyric sheet. Includes new interview with Ramsey and liner notes by author Richie Unterberger.
After establishing their identity with their debut EP, Alma de Baile, Geneva-based duo Roshâni unveil Planet R, their first album, set for release on October 15, 2026, via Stonepixels and distributed by The Orchard.
More than just a record, Planet R is a world of its own: a planet shaped like a disco ball, where languages blend, synthesizers intertwine with organic grooves, and dancing becomes a form of futuristic therapy. Sung in Farsi, Spanish, French, and English, the album moves freely between futuristic disco, alternative pop, experimental electronic music, and contemplative ballads, never seeking to belong to a single scene or territory.
Drawn From Life, originally released on Virgin Records in 2001, was a full collaboration between Brian Eno and J. Peter Schwalm, the two having met through Eno’s longtime friend Rolf Engel. It will carry that joint billing for the first time. The album featured Holger Czukay, Laurie Anderson, Nell Catchpole and Leo Abrahams, and was supported by a tour taking in Porto and Lanzarote before a headline appearance at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival. The rights to Drawn From Life reverted to Opal when Citigroup acquired EMI and the album has not been available since. The 2026 reissue will be available across all formats and includes the bonus track ‘Bloom (Instrumental)’.
From Richmond, Virginia, Shy, Low have a reputation as one of the most compelling voices within the modern instrumental underground. Their music speaks to fans of post-rock's emotional grandeur and post-metal's crushing intensity alike, while simultaneously appealing to listeners drawn to experimental, atmospheric, and cinematic forms of heavy music. The band's ability to merge these seemingly disparate qualities has resulted in a body of work that is immediately recognizable and continually evolving. Luminous melodies, driving heaviness, layered textures, and carefully controlled tension allows `Purity Spiral' to move effortlessly between fragile moments of introspection and towering passages of intensity. Whether constructing intricate layers of harmony or driving songs toward explosive climaxes, there is a deep understanding of pacing, atmosphere, and the power of restraint. Momentum is at the heart of this album, through intricate rhythmic detail, and explosive bursts of energy, drums become the anchor and catalyst, supporting the band's expansive arrangements while pushing them toward moments of cathartic release. What distinguishes Shy, Low is their ability to balance enormity with restraint. Their music unfolds patiently, allowing tension to accumulate through layers of texture, melody, and dynamics. Moments of delicate clarity often coexist with overwhelming weight, creating a sense of organic motion. At the core of the band's sound lies an acute understanding of contrast. From shimmering, expansive passages to towering walls of distortion, the rhythm section provides both propulsion and atmosphere, becoming integral narrative voices that shape the emotion. There is a disciplined sense of purpose in their writing, an understanding that every note serves a larger arc. Shy, Low thrives in the space between introspection and catharsis, where subtle details become as impactful as the heaviest climaxes, and listeners are taken on a journey that is as visceral as it is profound. FOR FANS OF Caspian * Russian Circles * If These Trees Could Talk * Pelican * Toundra
From Richmond, Virginia, Shy, Low have a reputation as one of the most compelling voices within the modern instrumental underground. Their music speaks to fans of post-rock's emotional grandeur and post-metal's crushing intensity alike, while simultaneously appealing to listeners drawn to experimental, atmospheric, and cinematic forms of heavy music. The band's ability to merge these seemingly disparate qualities has resulted in a body of work that is immediately recognizable and continually evolving. Luminous melodies, driving heaviness, layered textures, and carefully controlled tension allows `Purity Spiral' to move effortlessly between fragile moments of introspection and towering passages of intensity. Whether constructing intricate layers of harmony or driving songs toward explosive climaxes, there is a deep understanding of pacing, atmosphere, and the power of restraint. Momentum is at the heart of this album, through intricate rhythmic detail, and explosive bursts of energy, drums become the anchor and catalyst, supporting the band's expansive arrangements while pushing them toward moments of cathartic release. What distinguishes Shy, Low is their ability to balance enormity with restraint. Their music unfolds patiently, allowing tension to accumulate through layers of texture, melody, and dynamics. Moments of delicate clarity often coexist with overwhelming weight, creating a sense of organic motion. At the core of the band's sound lies an acute understanding of contrast. From shimmering, expansive passages to towering walls of distortion, the rhythm section provides both propulsion and atmosphere, becoming integral narrative voices that shape the emotion. There is a disciplined sense of purpose in their writing, an understanding that every note serves a larger arc. Shy, Low thrives in the space between introspection and catharsis, where subtle details become as impactful as the heaviest climaxes, and listeners are taken on a journey that is as visceral as it is profound. FOR FANS OF Caspian * Russian Circles * If These Trees Could Talk * Pelican * Toundra
There’s this feeling that House Music is sometimes diluted into a pleasant, non-offensive and conformist formula. Well, Jackie Gritness - you may have heard of her big bro Gary - is bringin’ all the sweat, the attitude and the filth down - take it or leave it.
Jackie introduces herself from both sides on this well-strapped debut 12” - the slick swingin’ & sangin’
on the bass-heavy A side, and the raw clave trax and cunty snarls of the acid-laced B side.
No trace of over-production or tired sampling here: this is just Jackie, her mic and her lil’ groovebox -
gettin’ raw in the studio just like she does onstage. Only thing added is some wall-shaking mastering by New York OG Dietrich Schoenemann.
This is the kinda House that’s supposed to make regular folks wanna turn it off. This ain’t rated E for Everyone, it’s rated F for Freaks.
It’s music from the underground, for the underground - as it was first revealed on the runway of Glastonbury’s infamous NYC Downlow last summer.
And if that’s more than you can take - it’s alright. It’s not like Jackie will hold it against you.
Jackie Gritness
“Gary’s little sister.” His studio session resume reads like a House music who’s who - from David Morales to Fred P. He’s also been rockin’ clubs with the Playin’ 4 The City and MLIU crews - but she’s also been seen on Gideon’s fierce Homo-Centric Records. See, this bitch’s true feelings about House are stripped-down, bare-bones, and unapologetically sexual. With a radical ‘live’ attitude, she’s serving the realness with an irresistibly acidic zing.
Originally released by Umor Rex on cassette in 2018, Rafael Anton Irisarri’s Sirimiri is now available on vinyl for the first time, newly remastered for this edition. This LP marks the fourth and final installment in a series of four reissues released throughout 2026 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Umor Rex.
It is a fitting way to close such a special anniversary year. Rafael is not only an artist who has released three albums on Umor Rex, but someone who has been part of the label’s history for more than a decade. His sensibility and way of listening have complemented and nourished the label throughout the years, while his mastering work has helped shape the sound of many of our releases. A close friend, and an essential part of what Umor Rex is today.
Sirimiri roughly translates as “drizzle” in Basque, and we can’t think of a better word to describe its content. The album consists of four long-form pieces, each shaped through different processes and with its own distinct identity, in which Irisarri seeks to blend subjective time with the listening experience through loops, repetition, and subsequence-based sound. Following Eno, nothing happens in quite the same way twice: perception is constantly shifting, and nothing stays in one place for long. The desolation and despair—in a strangely positive way—that we heard in The Shameless Years (Umor Rex, 2017) and later in FAÇADISMS (Black Knoll, 2024) are present here, but the impression is more concrete, unfolding through rawer, less rhetorical landscapes. If The Shameless Years existed somewhere between beauty and active tragedy, this record travels through the beauty and melancholy of an observing eye—a quiet, rebellious insurrection.
Written, produced, mixed & mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY. Carl Hultgren: Guitars on “Sonder”, Taylor Jordan: Electric Piano on “Mountain Stream”. Design by Daniel Castrejón.
The threeway combo you never knew you needed. Sam Binga, Machinedrum and Cesco built the raw bones of these tunes across a single morning in LA, overlooking MacArthur Park, in an intense session that saw them throwing live Bingerian vocals, raw Brazilian shrimp-sellers and tweaked-out Acid lines into the melting pot.
Further sessions between Highland Park and Stokes Croft saw these bare bones jams get fleshed out into the four genre-bending tracks that make up the Niche Flex EP, all of which have been tested out in clubs and festivals across the world, and which land this September via Binga's Pineapple Records imprint, on both vinyl and digital formats.
While obviously handy in the studio, Team MACESGA (as nobody calls them) also can operate a DJ booth to a reasonably high standard, as witnessed at the raucous Pineapple Takeover at the Beatport HQ in LA, and are available to showcase their Transatlantic Threesome at a Quality Music Venue or Devious Fetish Spot near you.
Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.
Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”
Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.
Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.
“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.
Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.
Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”
Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.
Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.
“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.
"Firebreather formed in Gothenburg in 2016, rooted in crushing, sludge-doused doom from the very beginning. Never wavering from that commitment across all three of their incendiary full-length releases, the trio has pursued weight with purpose, not as spectacle, nor as an exercise in excess, but as the only language broad enough to hold the emotional reach and sonic heft of their sound. The music arrives in a way that writes itself with no distance between the words and the sound; they rise from the same cursed ground, and that honesty has become the band's defining force. Firebreather is a band that never postures or asks to be admired for their heaviness- and to see them live is to experience exactly why. Their weight takes on another life entirely. The band's towering tone and consuming grit don't fill a room so much as alter it. Volume presses against the body before the first lyric lands and riffs arrive like shifting earth. The drums don't drive the songs forward; they anchor them while the line between sound and physical force begins to disappear. Years spent crossing Europe and North America have only sharpened that purpose, and a decade on with a fourth album on the way via the notorious Heavy Psych Sounds Records, Firebreather remains exactly where it belongs. Head down. Volume up."
Gold Nugget Vinyl, limited to 400 copies. "Firebreather formed in Gothenburg in 2016, rooted in crushing, sludge-doused doom from the very beginning. Never wavering from that commitment across all three of their incendiary full-length releases, the trio has pursued weight with purpose, not as spectacle, nor as an exercise in excess, but as the only language broad enough to hold the emotional reach and sonic heft of their sound. The music arrives in a way that writes itself with no distance between the words and the sound; they rise from the same cursed ground, and that honesty has become the band's defining force. Firebreather is a band that never postures or asks to be admired for their heaviness- and to see them live is to experience exactly why. Their weight takes on another life entirely. The band's towering tone and consuming grit don't fill a room so much as alter it. Volume presses against the body before the first lyric lands and riffs arrive like shifting earth. The drums don't drive the songs forward; they anchor them while the line between sound and physical force begins to disappear. Years spent crossing Europe and North America have only sharpened that purpose, and a decade on with a fourth album on the way via the notorious Heavy Psych Sounds Records, Firebreather remains exactly where it belongs. Head down. Volume up."
Tenuous Links welcomes Torino’s very own VIOLA to the label with his new ‘Wrinkles’ EP. As the label owner of Reflue Records, VIOLA first caught my attention with his debut full-length release, a body of work that showcased a deep, rugged sound and a clear technical prowess shaped by his surroundings rugged coastlines and industrial landscapes of Torino in northern Italy. After speaking with Cristiano for over a year, it felt like a natural progression to bring his music to Tenuous Links. “The music I write almost always functions as a visceral soundtrack to whatever environment surrounds and infects me while I'm creating. Deeply rooted in the architectural contrasts of the places I’ve inhabited.”
‘Wrinkles’ is VIOLA’s second full-length body of work, yet the years of graft and dedication behind it are immediately apparent. Across three original tracks and a remix from London’s Jay Duncan, the EP delivers pure grit and crunch, inhabiting large, cavernous atmospheres grounded by pummelling bass, dynamic drums and intricate rhythmic detail.
The title track ‘Wrinkles’ is an ode to club spaces and the scene that revolves around them. Its broken rhythm channels the dancefloors of Cristiano’s formative years, spent partying in abandoned bunkers and warehouses in and around Torino. VIOLA explains: “Crafting such a raw, gritty bassline felt like an absolute necessity during the writing process, retracing memories of long nights spent dancing in silence.” The track’s cavernous atmosphere mirrors those pitch-black, unlit spaces, drawing us deeper and deeper into the abyss, with only brief glimmers of light offering reprieve from its relentless, all-enveloping bassline.
‘Mon Tom’ draws heavily from VIOLA’s hometown and his complicated relationship with Torino ,a city where tranquillity and beauty sit alongside heavy industry. The calm of the coastline is violently interrupted by vast steelworks and plumes of black smoke, leaving an imposing industrial mark on both the landscape and its people. The track reflects these contrasts. Metallic yet fluid, it moves at a faster pace, built around a driving 4/4 rhythm designed to suspend the listener while skittering percussion creates an increasingly uneasy sense of movement. It’s a meeting point between the beauty and brutality of the environment that inspired it.
‘P Maggiore’ was written between 2019 and 2020 while VIOLA was living in Rome’s chaotic Porta Maggiore district. Surrounded day and night by the grinding noise of trains, screeching tram brakes and beaten metal, he translated those raw auditory memories directly into high-pressure sound design. Yet, in contrast to the intensity of his surroundings, VIOLA deliberately pulls back the tempo.
Rounding off the EP is a skeletal remix of ‘Wrinkles’ from London’s Jay Duncan. She strips the original back into a techy, rolling cut, retaining its atmosphere and darkness while introducing a lighter touch of minimal-esque sound design. The result is a subtly transformed take on the title track that provides a fitting conclusion to the EP.
‘Wrinkles’ EP is a record shaped by place, by architecture, industry, memory and the physical spaces that leave their mark on us. From Torino’s industrial coastline to the chaos of Rome and the darkness of abandoned club spaces, VIOLA turns his surroundings into sound. Coming to vinyl and digital October 16th of October.
The Lemonheads release a strictly limited edition 12” single on 21st September featuring three classic tracks on white vinyl. Lead cut is ‘Roky’, Evan Dando’s homage to the late, great outsider genius Roky Erickson (of garage psyche legends 13th Floor Elevator and much solo strangeness).
"If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, ‘You're Gonna Miss Me’, in early 1966, in all likelihood he'd still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work." AllMusic
‘Roky’ is Evan's incisive take on the songwriter’s struggles and features a searing guitar break from the song's co-writer Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond)
The Bevis Frond toured with The Lemonheads in support of the latter’s much-praised ‘Love Chant’ album of 2025 from where ‘Roky’ originally comes. And, to complete this unique package, the Frond cover two Lemonheads’ songs, ‘The Great Big No’ and ‘My Drug Buddy’; both sounding like the kind of UK-based left field power pop that inspired Kurt Cobain in the formative days of grunge – indeed, they could have snook out on the original Rough Trade or 53rd & 3rd labels at any time.
Fact fans looking for Roky-styled curveball ley line between events, might note that The Lemonheads covered The Bevis Frond’s ‘Old Man Blank’ on 2019’s ‘Varshons II’, the same year that Roky sadly passed.
Stars & Quotes:
“One of the most distinctive voices of the ‘90s” The New York Times
“The Lemonheads are one of my favorite bands” Jimmy Fallon
“Gloriously euphoric melancholy” MOJO (on Roky)
Overleaf is the new album by Paris-based musician Théo Martin, following Anti Atlas, released on LAAPS two years ago.
Overleaf was recorded over the course of a few intense months in 2026. Every recording made during this period eventually found its place within the album, transformed, fragmented and reassembled, sometimes far removed from its original form. The process gradually became a kind of puzzle, built from accumulated sounds, accidents and imperfections.
Tape remains at the heart of the album, but this time it is intertwined with a more extensive use of digital tools, opening new paths for transformation and layering.
Overleaf is about carrying what remains into what is yet to come.
Folksongs and Ballads by Tia Blake & Her Folk-Group, is more than just a “lost classic”. As clear and honest as can be, Folksongs and Ballads is a magnetic record, a refuge like only Nick Drake, Nico, and a few others have been able to create. A graceful, delicately minimalist approach to classic Appalachian and British folk songs.The perfect balance between melancholy and daydream. Originally released only in France in 1971, Ici Bientôt is very pleased to present the first-ever reissue on vinyl.
When she recorded her only album, Tia Blake was nineteen years old and had just arrived in Paris a year and a half beforehand. She spent most of her time at Disco’Thé, a record shop in the Latin Quarter, a free space, peaceful and inspiring, a hub for students as well as the local artistic community.
There, Tia would occasionally sing—when she managed to overcome her shyness. Two young guitarists who were passionate fans of folk music and regulars at the shop began to accompany her, forming “Her Folk Group.” One year later, they cut 11 tracks at Pierre Barouh’s Studios Saravah.
Folksongs and Ballads is composed of traditional tunes that have been covered many times, but they’re not the best-known folk standards. A collection of stories ranging from the Middle Ages to the 1960s, bringing together sublimely doleful ballads, lamentations for a lost lover, and an unexpected, brilliant version of the road anthem “Plastic Jesus.”
Tia Blake's haunting, unaffected voice captivates and comforts us, wrapping us in its cool embrace. Meanwhile, the tasteful, stripped-down, mellow acoustic arrangements provided by the guitarists, reminiscent of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, occasionally supported by a kena flute, have created the space Tia Blake needed to reinvent these traditional songs.
Folksongs and Ballads is a timeless record, deep and unique, a longtime companion for repeated listening, in the vein of works by Sibylle Baier, Bridget St. John and Vashti Bunyan.
Für die Feier des Miteinanders! Mit ihrem zweiten Album "Wenn man das Licht zurückverfolgt, weiß man, wie alt die Sterne sind" gelingt WIM ein eindrucksvoller Schritt nach vorn. Die Hamburger Künstlerin verbindet erstmals ihre poetische Tiefe mit einem neuen, synth-poppigen Sound, der Raum für Leichtigkeit und Bewegung schafft. In zehn Songs erzählt sie von prägenden Momenten, Verlust, Erinnerung und dem, was Menschen im Verborgenen formt. Dabei entsteht ein Album, das Empathie einfordert, ohne zu beschweren - und das zeigt, dass selbst schwere Themen tanzbar sein können. Produziert von Tobias Siebert (Kettcar, Enno Bunger), klingt die Platte organisch und frisch - unverkennbar WIM, aber mutiger und offener als je zuvor, fast schon moderner, urbaner XL-Pop: Die Songs werden rhythmusgetriebener, luftiger und teils konsequent vom Beat getragen. Und wenn es inhaltlich doch zu schwer wird, tanzt WIM im Studio zu Paula Hartmann, hört Chappell Roan und lässt sich von Wir Sind Helden inspirieren. LP farbiges Coke Bottle Green Vinyl (140g), CD Digipak mit Posterbooklet.
The Crystal Teardrop's first album, THE CRYSTAL TEARDROP IS FORMING, came out on Rise Above Records' subsidiary Popclaw in May 2025. Steeped in classic psychedelic guitar pop and the Paisley Underground scene, not to mention the broader 60s cultural aesthetic, it has made them firm favourites with audiences in the UK and Europe. Now, barely a year later, comes its infectious follow-up, LOVE YOU MORE, also on Popclaw. The songs on LOVE YOU MORE are fundamentally upbeat, but there are hard edges, both musically (check out the guitar solo on It's Too Late!) and lyrically.
The new album is inspired by the simultaneously magical and insidious ways that advertising and name-brand technology wraps itself around our memories. It’s an ambivalent ode to the nostalgic pull of commercial jingles and proprietary start-up sounds. The best things in life may be free, but childhood and corporate entertainment products are completely intertwined. The obsession with advertising and consumer technology informs the sonic make-up of the music as a source of raw material out of which the foundations of the tracks were built. Speaking on this impetus for the album Robbie Chater says ““It seems to be bound up with the nature of sampling itself. Once we start digging through forgotten sounds and uncovering their meaning, almost inevitably you get sent down a path of discovery. Every forgotten sound opens another door. And that’s what I love - feeling like a kid again. Diving into this whole world of advertising, looking at how jingles get made, it’s the kind of thing that keeps me interested in sampling as a process, an art form.”
„Once Upon A Time“ ist ein Schlüsseldokument des britischen Modern Jazz um 1970. Alan Skidmore
stellte das Quintett für das Montreux Jazz Festival 1969 zusammen, wo es gleich drei Preise gewann –
darunter als beste Gruppe und Skidmore als bester Solist. Der Erfolg führte zur Zusammenarbeit mit
Deram-Produzent Peter Eden. Mit Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Harry Miller und Tony Oxley vereinte
Skidmore einige der später wichtigsten Stimmen des europäischen Jazz. Das 1969 aufgenommene und
1970 auf Deram Nova (SDN 11) erschienene Album verbindet Skidmores Coltrane-geprägtes Tenorspiel
mit Modal Jazz und freien Formen.
“High Spirits” zeigt eine ungewöhnliche, nicht minder faszinierende Seite des jamaikanisch-britischen Altsaxophonisten Joe Harriott, eines der großen Originale des britischen Jazz. Nach seinen bahnbrechenden
Free-Form-Experimenten widmete sich Harriott hier acht Songs aus dem gleichnamigen Musical von Hugh
Martin und Timothy Gray. Mit Shake Keane an Trompete und Flügelhorn, Coleridge Goode am Bass
und Bobby Orr am Schlagzeug ist Harriotts klassisches Quintett in Bestform zu hören. Aufgenommen
im September 1964 und 1965 als Teil der von Denis Preston betreuten Lansdowne Series veröffentlicht,
verbindet das Album melodische Zugänglichkeit mit souveränem Post-Bop und brillanten Improvisationen.
Bloodhound Gang’s irreverent brand of comedy-rock and rap-rock is collected here on this essential 1LP hits package, pressed on exclusive Milky Clear vinyl and including a collectible poster. Featuring the band’s biggest and most enduring tracks, the set is led by the international smash “The Bad Touch”, a multi-million-selling single that reached No.1 in Germany, Sweden and several other European territories, while also hitting the UK Top 5. Also included are fan favourites “Fire Water Burn”, “The Ballad Of Chasey Lain”, “Along Comes Mary”, “Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo”, “Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss Uhn Tiss” and “I Hope You Die”, spanning the band’s most successful era from the platinum-selling Hooray For Boobies through to Hefty Fine. Bloodhound Gang have sold millions of albums worldwide, with Hooray For Boobies reaching No.1 in both Germany and Austria and achieving Platinum certification in the US. Combining the group’s biggest chart hits, cult classics and live favourites, this specially curated single-LP edition delivers the definitive Bloodhound Gang experience in a concise, collector-friendly format.
Die langjährigen Freunde Bibio und Dorian Concept tun sich nach diversen Kollaborationen für das gemeinsame Instrumentalalbum "Answers" zusammen. Ein Großteil der Musik entstand aus der Ferne; Ideen wurden zwischen Wales und Österreich hin- und hergeschickt, was die Vorliebe beider Künstler für einen eher zurückgezogenen, prozessorientierten Schaffensprozess widerspiegelt. Der britische Produzent Bibio, bekannt für die Verbindung von Folk, Ambient und Lo-Fi-Tape-Texturen, steuert eine greifbare, von der Gitarre geprägte Wärme bei, während der Wiener Dorian Concept, Autodidakt am Keyboard und Improvisationskünstler am Synthesizer, seinen fließend-experimentellen Ansatz elektronischer Komposition einbringt. Auch an der visuellen Gestaltung arbeitete das Duo eng zusammen; Videos und Artwork entstanden gemeinsam, inspiriert von der geteilten Liebe zu Vintage-Kameras und visuellem Spiel. Das Ergebnis ist ein texturreiches Instrumentalalbum, das sich weniger wie eine erste Zusammenarbeit anfühlt, sondern vielmehr wie eine Fortsetzung: Zwei eigenständige Stimmen treffen in einer gemeinsamen Sprache aufeinander, die über Jahre gegenseitiger Inspiration und stillen Experimentierens gereift ist. Beide Formate enthalten ein Concertina-Booklet, gefaltet in Ziehharmonika-Form.
fter 25 years of exploring music from different angles, Chillum Trio lands on Faith In Truth with his third EP on vinyl. Driftlines is a cinematic, multicultural trip through the deeper and dubbier corners of house music, moving freely between hazy atmospheres, broken rhythms, acid lines and warm instrumentation. Across four tracks, eclectic influences blur together and settle into a club-oriented frame.
The EP opens with Dustfire, a deep night-drive cut that slowly draws its scenery around a low-slung beat. A cinematic breakdown gives way to a restless yet understated percussive acid groove, before a Rhodes hook emerges through the dust, carrying a touch of desert heat into the night.
Keeping things mellow and midtempo, Deepskin heads somewhere warmer: a humid tropical beach after midnight, all body heat and salt in the air. What begins loose and sensual gradually turns into ass-shaking garage house, surrounded by cosmic layers, drifting pads and spacious atmospheres.
On the flipside, the tempo picks up while the story continues with Thin Air. A long, lush, phase-soaked horn intro settles into a melancholic dream state, slowly pulling you under. The slow-burning build eventually breaks into a memorable piano line and fractured drums. After a trippy bridge, gentle acid lines lock into place and hold the dancefloor until the wistful finale.
Closing the record, Serotone slips back into downtempo territory with a jazzy, trip-hop-infused groove. Soft vocal fragments, piano and rising arpeggios keep the tension suspended through the middle, before the track mutates into something reminiscent of early-2000s dubby, acid-tinged future jazz and Latin fusion.
Like patterns drawn by wind across desert sand, Driftlines traces the points where different currents meet, overlap and interfere. Rhythms, places and memories crossing paths, briefly forming shapes before drifting somewhere else.
Orphx makes a striking comeback with a six-track EP on KR3, celebrating Rich & Christie's three-decade career in the industrial music scene.
Theikos EP - spans multiple eras and moods, merging raw, ancient production methods with modern interpretations. The result is a sonic landscape that bridges pulsing club rhythms with the intense energy of extreme electronics and death industrial. The title track, "Theikos," began in 1998 and was only finalized in 2024, years of evolution shaping it into a truly formidable piece.
This 12" release stands out as a deep and fully realized body of work, filled with personal insight and resonant echoes of a primordial world.
The standard edition comes in a sleek single-pocket gatefold sleeve, featuring a 1997 photograph taken in Toronto by Michael Nine, capturing the duo in their early years and visually anchoring the album to the roots of their sound. Limited and special editions include an exclusive booklet with archival photos of Orphx and a poster, along with a promotional videos featuring remastered and reimagined archival footage created especially for this release.
It all began in the late 1980s with *Calypso of House* by K.T.E. (released by Irma Records), a track that made history
in Italian house music.
The man behind the project, Francesco "Kekko" Montefiori, went on to collaborate with Claudio Rispoli (aka DJ
MozArt) under the name SOFTHOUSE COMPANY, creating cult classics like *What You Need*.
He later formed the duo Montefiori Cocktail with his twin brother, Federico "Chicco" Montefiori, touring the world together.
Now, the story continues.
Kekko Montefiori and Lorenzo "Meo" Meoni (resident DJ at BICIO PAPAO)
are launching OTUM Records to revive the Softhouse Company and Keytronics Ensemble projects.
The goal: to capture the original energy of the Italian House Music "Golden Age" and project it into the future.
No nostalgia—just high-quality dance music.
"Otum" means "excellent" in the slang of Italy’s Romagna region.
MEMORIALS jump off the waterslides and head above the clouds with their stunning second album, ‘All Clouds Bring Not Rain’. The duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms (formerly of Electrelane and WIRE) locked themselves away in a studio in a barn secluded deep in the woods in southwestern France and re-emerged with a beautiful, unusual record that is both melodic and unconventional. For such an ambitious album it’s striking that it was written, performed, recorded and mixed solely by the two of them. Sounding like an unearthed classic, MEMORIALS twist their influences into their own unmistakable sound. Imagine Nico singing with Can produced by David Axelrod and you’re somewhere in the right ballpark.
The record draws inspiration from a wide range of music including folk, dub, post punk, experimental tape music, 60s soul, garage rock, 70s spiritual jazz and Canterbury prog. This attention to detail in their sound meant finding several other studios to get what they needed to record with, including a harpsichord at 4AD’s studio in London and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker in Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay’s studio Press Play. Verity’s distinctive, unadorned singing is a focal point of the record, moving from tender to wild. Her vocal melodies quickly become earworms, providing the tuneful heart around which the songs’ more unorthodox elements are arranged, which is where Matthew’s unconventional approach to recording and production comes to the fore. With their adventurous arrangements, classic songwriting skills and innovative production techniques, MEMORIALS have created another mesmerising listen that’s accomplished and compelling in its unique approach yet remains dizzyingly immersive - just like their acclaimed live shows.
Fused around saxophonist Ornella Noulet and a shared devotion to the spiritual jazz of John Coltrane, OLA TUNJI is a Brussels-based quartet whose music channels the intensity and openness of the 1960s “New Thing” movement.
Deeply inspired by John and Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, and Albert Ayler, the group embraces improvisation as a political and spiritual act. On stage, their performances often take on a trance-like intensity, carrying musicians and audience alike toward a sense of shared elevation. The music becomes a reminder that it can still be a medium for love, sister and brotherhood, and collective uplift.
Debut album ‘TRUST’ was born from a long artistic and spiritual journey, with music playing a central role as a space for inner exploration. Trust, a key concept for the group, lies at the foundation of this journey. The album’s title embodies an approach rooted in self-awareness, connection, and the sharing of love.
‘TRUST’ presents itself as a cohesive body of work, moving through moments of intensity, calm, spirituality and joy, each track contributes to a shared intention: to remind us that personal transformation is the starting point for a more authentic relationship with ourselves, with others and with the world around us.
Compositions such as ‘DEVOTION,’ WE CHOOSE LOVE’ and ‘SPEAK UP! (YOUR VOICE IS YOUR STRENGTH)’ reveal the album’s guiding thread: self-knowledge, resilience and the awakening of consciousness. Each track invites the listener to reconnect with their inner voice, cultivating a deeper sense of awareness and view of the world through a lens of reflection and humanity. Modal and physical, the album is built on long-form playing and moves between a deeply meditative and ecstatic sound.
Tropical Fu*k Storm revisit the live album concept on ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Fairyland Codex’. Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable.
Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad “Stepping on a Rake” takes on heavier undertones, “Irukandji Syndrome” becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Moscovium” sounds more urgent than ever.
The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including “Who’s My Eugene” and “You Let My Tyres Down”, alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ “This Perfect Day”.
Tropical Fu*k Storm have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’ catches that chaos in the act.
Key Quotes:
“Tropical Fuck Storm are masters of tension and release.” The Guardian.
“If anyone's qualified to make music about all-encompassing terror, it ought to be Tropical Fuck Storm.” Pitchfork.
“Thrilling noise-rock pranksters” Uncut.
“End times chaos… A gloriously imperfect storm” MOJO.
“A galvanising opus of incredible political bite” The Line Of Best Fit.
“One of the most rewarding listens in rock music” Consequence Of Sound.
Tomorrow’s World is the new album from synth-punk/darkwave artist N8NOFACE. Fully produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, the record also features contributions from Hudson Mohawke, Snow Wife, and Angélica Garcia.
On Tomorrow’s World, N8NOFACE pushes beyond the DIY spaces that formed him, delivering his most ambitious album yet: a collection of hard-as-nails songs that manage to be furiously catchy. In line with N8's cyberpunk aesthetic, Tomorrow's World's title comes from the 1960s British TV show of the same name about tech and science. N8 came across the show when he found a clip of Kraftwerk performing and breaking down their music on it, with Tomorrow's World being credited in breaking the band to a wider audience. In N8's words, the album sees him “imagining what the punks and the street kids might be listening to in 2077.”
A genre- blurring statement born from bedrooms and late- night studio sessions, the album fuses live drums, analogue synths, samples, and dense percussion into something critics struggled to pin down - baggy grooves meet electro-pop meets rave culture. Originally designed as an extension of the band's unpredictable live shows, Harder Than It Should Be captures a rotating cast of collaborators and a core four-piece that expanded into an eight-member spectacle. Tracks like Atom Bomb City, Cut It Loose and the cult single These Boys Are Athletes (featuring Bis vocalist Manda Rin) earned radio play and industry buzz - yet the album itself was never formally released. Recovered from early recordings and demos, this reconstruction reflects the original intent: a high- energy journey mirroring the band's live intensity. A document of a moment when MySpace buzz, indie discos and electro experimentation collided in small venues and word-of-mouth scenes.
Tropical Fu*k Storm revisit the live album concept on ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Fairyland Codex’. Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable.
Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad “Stepping on a Rake” takes on heavier undertones, “Irukandji Syndrome” becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Moscovium” sounds more urgent than ever.
The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including “Who’s My Eugene” and “You Let My Tyres Down”, alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ “This Perfect Day”.
Tropical Fu*k Storm have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’ catches that chaos in the act.
Key Quotes:
“Tropical Fuck Storm are masters of tension and release.” The Guardian.
“If anyone's qualified to make music about all-encompassing terror, it ought to be Tropical Fuck Storm.” Pitchfork.
“Thrilling noise-rock pranksters” Uncut.
“End times chaos… A gloriously imperfect storm” MOJO.
“A galvanising opus of incredible political bite” The Line Of Best Fit.
“One of the most rewarding listens in rock music” Consequence Of Sound.
Three decades since Global Underground began defining what a superstar-DJ mix album could sound like, this anniversary release breaks from the format entirely. Instead of just one artist focus, the focus is on the decadal number: here there are 30 artists, 30 new exclusive tracks - and no mixing. Guy J, Rodriguez Jr., Quivver & Dave Seaman and an unexpected Nadia Ali/Frankey & Sandrino pairing headline the tracklist, compiled to represent the current state of the progressive-house lineage. Collector's edition aside, the standard triple-vinyl set on purple, orange and aqua vinyl is the one you wanna own.
Global Underground ist stolz darauf, diese wegweisende Veröffentlichung anlässlich unseres 30-jährigen Jubiläums präsentieren zu dürfen. Dreißig Künstler, dreißig brandneue, exklusive Tracks – zur Feier von dreißig Jahren, in denen wir euch die allerbeste elektronische Musik präsentieren. Auf „THIRTY“ sind einige der dynamischsten Künstler der Dance-Musik vertreten: Guy J, Rodriguez Jr., Quivver & Dave Seaman, Nicky Elisabeth, Yulia Niko, HotLap, Spencer Brown, eine ganz besondere Zusammenarbeit zwischen der legendären Nadia Ali und Frankey & Sandrino sowie viele weitere.
2026 Repress
30 years of Fuse means 30 years of road paving.
An ode to the past and a hint to the future, Fuse shares this milestone with its original guests from 1994 all the way to its fresh party goers of the past years as a promise to keep its dance floor focused on quality music and timeless moments.
In over a quarter century, the Brussels club has stood the test of time by rooting itself in ageless music and employing pioneering artists - large or small, international or local - to command the decks of Belgium's longest running dance floor. A celebration of this legacy and the renewed imprint is in order, coming in the form of a 30 track compilation of techno's best and brightest from around the world. One track for one year, this collection of recordings highlights the status quo of enduring club music, beginning with a nod to the past: a re-release of Jeff Mills iconic 'Step to Enchantment' from 1993. This glance to the past quickly shoots us forward into the current state of techno with legendary artists like Planetary Assault Systems, DVS1, Steffi, Rodhad, Donato Dozzy, DJ Nobu and many others who headlined the club in recent years. Cementing itself as a respected escapist institution, Fuse also calls on its growing local scene to prove why Brussels continues to remain a reference in the scene even outside of its own borders.
Teal return on October 2 with Love Comes Thru, the trio's nine-track debut album. Expanding their emotionally resonant blend of downtempo trip-pop, the record reaches into street soul, dub, and experimental grooves, marking a confident new chapter for the group.
At its core, Love Comes Thru is a reflection on the quiet strength of love—not through grand gestures, but through the steady presence that carries us through uncertainty, change, and connection. Written over the course of a year of bi-coastal collaboration, the album became a testament to the bond Teal share as artists, friends, and family.
From the lush synth landscapes of "Aries Moon" to the footwork-inspired pulse of "Time Is Blind," the album explores themes of patience, vulnerability, longing, and intimacy. Standout singles "Kissing in a Dream" and the title track lean into left-field street soul, while stripped-back, 808-driven tracks like "Change Your Mind" and "Anomaly" demonstrate the power of restraint without sacrificing momentum. Building on the group's love of ambient improvisation, Love Comes Thru also features instrumental pieces with percussion by Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya/Lido Pimienta).
The album closes with the sensual "Bubbling," bringing the journey full circle with a reminder that love ultimately comes through in its most embodied, physical form. Love Comes Thru is presented in a deluxe, limited-edition matte-finish, double-embossed jacket with a printed inner sleeve. Available on LP and digitally through Rubadub, In Sheep's Clothing, and Forced Exposure beginning October 2.
Over the last decade and a half, Rotation Sound System’s annual gathering in the Staffordshire countryside has become one of underground dance music culture’s true success stories – an intimate gathering of like-minded friends and partygoers, powered by a custom-built six-way sound system, with music provided by a carefully curated line-up of dusty-fingered diggers, selectors and hand-picked live performers.
At the heart of the collective’s unique and much-loved approach lies a dedication to finding and sharing lesser-known gems and audio obscurities – fantastic records whose charm and quality has long been overlooked.
Last year, the core members of the crew – founders Dean Meredith and Ben Shenton (renowned for their productions as Mind Fair), and Wrekin’ Havoc trio Rob J, Stuart Robinson and Rich Hall – offered a snapshot of their unique musical approach via debut compilation Everything You Are About To Hear Is True, Volume 1, in the process introducing a global audience to some of the countless unknown mid-tempo classics nestled in their collections.
Fresh from another sold out edition of their acclaimed micro-festival, they’re back with volume two, another must-have collection of slept-on classics, loved-up shufflers and wide-eyed Balearic beats, all of which have played a part in Rotation’s story over the last 13 years.
Appearing on gatefold double vinyl with extensive liner notes telling the stories behind the tracks, Everything You’re About To Hear Is True, Volume 2 is full to bursting with music that sounds mind-blowing on the crew’s high-end sound system.
For proof, check the analogue-rich intergalactic shuffle of Paul Atreides’ 2015 jam ‘Arrakis Walk’, the relaxed boogie-soul of Rocky Winters’ Chaz Jankel produced ‘Vicious Circle’, the easy-listening-jazz-rock bliss of Vincent Maclin’s ‘Should’ve Took a Chance’, the 80s soul squelch of ‘Ecstasy (Centurion Mix)’ by Endgames and the immersive British dub drift of Sigma’s ‘Remember (Dub Style)’.
Everywhere you look, you’ll find eye-opening and ear-pleasing delights. There’s Pinky’s lightly acid-flecked, breakbeat-fuelled, acid house-era street soul classic ‘I Wanna Be The One (Instrumental Groove)’, the 1992 new age downtempo seduction of Linda Myers (‘Shine On Me’), the Clavinet-and-synth sporting jazz-rock/space-rock fusion of Wolfhound (1984 gem ‘Another Moon Song’), the Gallic colour of Buzy’s ‘Keep Cool (Version Maxi)’ and the guitar solo-laden electrofunk explorations of mid-80s UK act Lifesighs (‘Get Serious’, here presented in its extended instrumental form).
Phwoar! TD go four for the floor on Volume 9, letting loose with a set of sure-shot hits from all corners of their sonic spectrum.
A tag team match up, this action spectacular trades peak-time pump, Balearic cool, Italo thrust and dance-punk theatrics on its way to snatch the championship.
Obviously TD ooze subtlety and taste, so as we sat sipping Schnapps from our Stanley cups, we couldn't help but take a little inspo from our kitchen decor. 'Live Love Pump' - what a mantra. In musical form, this philosophy takes the shape of a capital D-isco delight, equal Pats Cowley & Adams, EQ-freaked and filtered into something dafter than a pair of chrome clad millionaires. Big room mirrorball magic if ever we've heard it.
The A2 sees the drunk AOR funk of 'Sure Line' take a leisurely stroll down the coast, a Gauloises in the gob and tattered Baldwin in the back pocket, flipping and flopping along the prom to buoyant bass, melting brass and more than a little melancholy.
Booting off the B-side, 'Un America' is a massive mid-tempo chugger replete with laser fire, synth scree and nipple high guitar. Powering along on a serious bass sequence armed with hooks-a-plenty, mostly incomprehensible lyrics and a groove which won't quit, this has all the ingredients required for an Italo all-timer.
The finale finds us in the company of some punk pioneers at their absolute silliest, bringing the kind of whacky vocal vibe, surf-centric style and off kilter groove the B-52s made a career of. Add in animal chatter and scratchy guitars and you've got the sort of secret weapon the Idjuts unleash waaaay post peak.
Limited Press - Numbered Insert - Drum Fun Guaranteed
Ursprünglich 1968 in New York auf Barakas eigenem Label Jihad veröffentlicht, ist "Black And Beautiful Soul And Madness" ein leidenschaftliches Zeitdokument der 1960er Jahre. Man könnte es leicht für eine verschollene Veröffentlichung von ESP-DISK halten, fügt es sich doch nahtlos zwischen Sun Ra, The Fugs und Albert Ayler ein. Die Band nutzte ihre Stimmen auf vielfältige Weise: mal singend im Stil von Doo-Wop und Soul, mal rappend im Stil der Last Poets, und oft auch beides gleichzeitig. Emotional fesselnd und von enormer Kraft, wird dieses Werk nun erstmals wieder auf Vinyl zugänglich.
In 2000, after almost two decades of hibernation under the ambient waves and dub currents of the Sargasso Sea, LSD revived the seminal ‘Auntie Aubrey's' series, an Orb Remix Project. Released as a 2 x CD compilation, Part 3 is a veritable smorgasbord of classic, new and unreleased labour-of love remixes that span three decades yet still transcend space and time.
Many influential artists have been involved with The Orb since the beginning, and the project keeps evolving and adapting. Dr. Alex Paterson, the gravitation centre of the Orb is known for his playfully subversive remixes and true to form this album highlights the diversity of his musical mind.
We see the good doctor remix the melancholy and evocative “The Last Lighthouse Keeper” from The Transit Kings, an early British electronic music group that included Jimmy Cauty of The KLF, one of the original members of The Orb. The remix of ‘Davy Jones’ Locker’ from System 7 takes you surfing on a sun-dappled sea of ambient dance nostalgia, while Killing Jokes’ ‘European Super State’ remix (in which LSD label founder Martin ‘Youth’ Glover plays bass guitar) sounds like the soundtrack for an imaginary spy thriller with the powerful lyrics and hypnotizing voice of Jaz Summers.
Legendary producer Youth teams up with Lx yet again on a psychedelic rocker with spellcasting vocals by Lara Smiles, and this is just the beginning! Boasting an all-star lineup, the compilation includes many of our scenes most esteemed electronic music producers such as Coldcut, David Harrow, Sendelica and Gaudi as well as the ambient blissed out vibes from the enigmatic DF Tram, Duende India Collective and The Gyuto Monks of Tibet, this collection offers up such the variety to appease even the most dedicated Orbsessives and music connoisseurs
Following the reissue of Fire & Sugar (1975), we present a special 45 focused on two standout tracks from the album.
If you’ve heard the album, you already know “Guaguanrock” had to make it to our favorite format. So here it is on 45.
Side A features “Guaguanrock (Le Spam Mix)”, a new version by Andrew “DJ Le Spam” Yeomanson, created from the original multitrack master tapes. The mix extends the intro break and brings the drums forward, enhancing the track’s raw, percussive energy for maximum dancefloor impact.
On the flip, “Bokolo” delivers a deeper, hypnotic groove, showcasing Caunedo’s unique blend of Afro-Cuban rhythms and jazz-funk textures.
A DJ-focused release, bridging rare groove authenticity with modern playability.
DJ Support: Mad Matts, Jimpster, Rainer Truby, Craig Smith, Giles Smith, Shane Johnson (Fish Go Deep), Lars Berhenroth, Leo Luscher, Ricky Chong, Rafa Santos, Buti Mabutana and many more
FORMA002 sees label co-founder Glenn Davis back with a deep original production that also does real damage on the dancefloor. Flip over for a true masterpiece remix from Trinidadian deep with his trademark Caribbean rhythms and deep sonics. When you know..
Glenn's deep driving baseline, jazzy chords and synth stabs elevate you to a hypnotic house nirvana. A love for deep atmospheric and melodic house music creates an instant classic from the Dublin producer.
Trinidadian Deep takes the original Davis production, adds his Caribbean magic with layers of live percussion, vocals, organs and sub bass that needs to be heard on a proper club system. Don't sleep on this one.
Muyei Power or Orchestre Muyei (muyei means 'our country') was one of the top dance bands of the1970s in Sierra Leone. Soundway Records' first collection of music from this West African country ('Muyei Power: Sierra Leone in 1970s USA') is an album of rock-infused, 'afro' music from a group that traveled the world throughout the mid 1970s. Fusing elements of electric Congolese and Nigerian music with fast, syncopated, uptempo modernised arrangements of traditional music, Muyei Power produced a series of unique single-only releases that have been unavailable for 35 years. The rare recordings featured here are a glimpse of a dynamic and powerful band at the very height of its powers.
Even though lyrically Orchestre Muyei focused on traditional themes and songs, the arrangements and formulation of the instrumental side of things still very much reflected the mixed nature of urban Sierra Leone music, exemplified by a small collection of bands that also included Afro National, Sabanoh 75 and Super Combo.
For the early part of 1970s the band toured extensively throughout Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire before making a handful of 45s in local TV and radio studios. The recordings featured here however come from a period of touring the college circuit in California during late 1975 and early 1976. Later that year, as they played the colleges of the east coast, they gave the tracks to the owner of the African Record Centre in Brooklyn, New York. He initially released two of them on his in-house Makossa Records label as 7-inch 45rpm singles in 1976. The tracks from 1975/6 were then not heard of again until 1979/80 when the African Record Centre released many of them on a series of Makossa Records 12's that sounded far superior than the records that had been released a few years earlier.
Orchestre Muyei Power finally split up in 1979 leaving no proper album releases and only a handful of recordings for us to enjoy all these years later.
Accomplished trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator, Kamal Abdul-Alim has been actively involved in creative music for decades. He has toured Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and the United States. He has recorded with all kinds of bands, large and small, and performed in festivals all over the world. “He takes the postbop of the 50s and free-form jazz of the 60s and turns it into an even balance of fine textures. Alim, who is highly underrated, has one of the most beautiful tones and concepts of jazz. A master of improvisation, he knows the art of weaving different ideas, whether they stem from Manhattan’s lower East Side or Europe” (Hugh Wyatt, New York Daily News). “Dance” was recorded in 1983 but first released on vinyl in 1987. Rhythm section includes drummer Idris Muhammad. Original pressings are extremely rare and expensive. “Brotherhood” is a much sought after track on the jazz dance scene. There is a high demand for this title again on vinyl and pressings are limited to 1000 copies, all individually hand numbered.
George Otsuka (or Ohtsuka), sadly passed away in March 2020, was one of Japan’s most renowned jazz drummers. ‘Sea Breeze’, released in 1971on the Union label, is his first record in quintet formation and is reissued here on a single LP housed in a gatefold sleeve.
And we can say that George Otsuka knew how to surround himself: Shunzo Ohno is on trumpet and Flugelhorn, Takao Uematsu on tenor sax and soprano, Takashi Mizuhashi on bass and Hideo Ichikawa on electric piano.
If all the tracks on this album are solid, included the astonishing cover of “Fool on the Hill”, it is especially “Sea Breeze”, the eponymous track opening the album that will make an impression. A super and long jazz-funk track where the five musicians, in perfect osmosis, leave each other enough space to express the full extent of their talent.
Recent copies of the original vinyl,which were only released in Japan have sold for £200-300.
High Focus Records are proud to present the latest collaboration from Verb T & Illinformed. ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ both continues and completes the trilogy that began back in 2015, with ‘The Man with the Foggy Eyes’, before broadening the horizons with last year’s release ‘The Land of the Foggy Skies’. This final chapter returns to the same conceptual landscape as its predecessors, but also sees Verb T & Illinformed returning to a more classic approach to album making. In spite of its concept, the Foggy Trilogy is something of a personal outpouring for Verb T, with the original aim being to vicariously discuss the trials and tribulations that play a part in his life, including his struggles with chronic illness and the feeling of alienation from leaving his hometown, while also reflecting on the state of the world as a whole. Their approach to making the album meant taking it back to the most natural form, where the idea for the track would be outlined, Illinformed would make the beat, Verb T would write to it and then they would tweak and adjust accordingly. The result is 19 of the most finely crafted tracks to emerge from the UK shores this year. As with the previous albums, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ finds Illinformed moving away from the more rugged sound that has shrouded the British scene over the last few months, thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Datkid and Wish Master, instead providing Verb T with an arguably more mellow backdrop. From the string and piano driven introduction on ‘Legacy’, to the blissful head-nod vibes of the closing track, ‘Blind Faith’, the union between beats and rhymes sits at the perfect level. The album also boasts one of the most impressive guestlists of the year, one that is very much a product of both players’ worlds. Thanks to Illinformed’s Bristol connection, there are features from the likes of Res One, Datkid, Leaf Dog, Smellington Piff and Chillman, as well as some locally sourced cuts from DJ Rogue. While on Verb T’s side of the fence, we have features from Rye Shabby and Moreone, along with a collaboration that reignites the same creative spark he found in his early days, as King Kashmere steps into the booth on Feeling Strange. All in all, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ does exactly what it sets out to do, by drawing the trilogy to a close while also providing insights into Verb T’s personal world and the world at large. The fact that it also happens to be one of the strongest rap albums of the year is the icing on the cake
New pressing on black vinyl (500 units). Following the recently released and highly praised Trees 50th Anniversary box set on Earth Recordings, Trees reissue their debut album ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’as a standalone release. It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation, a band who helped define ‘Acid Folk’, creating a sub-category in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics alike. “When we are talking about psych folk or acid folk, we are really talking about music like this by Trees” Stuart Maconie, BBC6 Music. Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs. The record includes readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’, the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’. // “The music’s arcane power remains intact” Mojo. // “A fantastic band” Record Collector. // “Spectacular” Uncut. // “Sublime” Shindig. // Timeless” Prog. // “It’s these two original albums that stand as pinnacles of form” The Wire. // Track listing: A1. Nothing Special A2. The Great Silkie A3. The Garden of Jane Delawney A4. Lady Margaret B1. Glasgerion B2. She Moved Thro' The Fair B3. Road B4. Epitaph B5. Snail's Lament
Split System, the Aussie group featuring Jackson Reid Briggs (Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters) on vocals and Arron Mawson (Stiff Richards) on guitar, took the punk world by storm with its debut EP this past spring. That was hardly surprising given the talent involved. But whatever my expectations were for Split System, the Melbourne-based outfit far exceeded them. Not just another "super group" (also on board are guitarist Ryan Webb Speed Week, bassist Deon Slaviero, and drummer Mitch McGregor [No Zu]), Split System is straight-up one of the most powerful and exciting punk rock and roll bands of recent memory. The band's EP was a smasher, and now debut album Vol. 1 emphatically follows suit. My god, this record is a monster! Essentially Split System's sound is classic Aussie punk. That may sound like nothing new, but this band executes the style with a force and fury rarely heard these days. It doesn't hurt that Jackson Reid Briggs is one of the best rock and roll screamers going. He's got a fire inside of him. Meanwhile, Mawson and Webb form one hell of a guitar tandem. And that rhythm section is insane. These are all brilliant players who come together to make an extraordinary band. Vol. 1 comes storming out of the gates with "The End" and never lets up. Of course we knew some of the previously-released tracks ("Hit Me," "Demolition," "Climbing") were going to rip. But the newer material is just as good and will just about melt your face off. Songs like "Ringing In My Head" and "Grip" are pure energy and ferocity, while closing track "Feelings" has a mellowed-out Saints feel. This band knows how to rock and roll, and there are literally no songs on this album that don't entirely kick ass. Sometimes we think of these all-star groups as "side projects," but such categorization would sell Split System woefully short. If we're talking about the top three or four punk bands in Australia right now, this has to be one of them! Josh Rutledge/ Faster and Louder
The first Jet Set series is back in print and now repressed on colored vinyl. St. Louis producer Bonus Points scores high with Off Topic, an outstanding four-song EP for the Cold Busted label. With previous appearances on Chillhop Records, Sundae Sauuce, Horizon, and others, Bonus Points delivers a dazzling take on boom-bap beats and future funk. Bonus Points is a graphic designer by day and, in turn, his musical compositions reflect attention to color, form, and detail. These beats are visual. The release’s title cut opens things with a spacey intro before delving into some serious sunshine lounge vibes. A cool breeze wafts through these melodies. “Zoned Out” follows with a distant, romantic guitar and a lonesome, pensive feeling that’s perfect for seaside pondering. Next up is the old-timey jazz bop of “Coffee Lounge,” recalling the St. Louis swing of yesteryear over some phat beats. Off Topic closes with “Back And Forth
Follow up to Goodge's 2023 album Echoes Of Yesterday. Previous releases found on Hip Dozer and Cascade Records. Tracks found on the popular Spotify Mellow Beats playlist. 11th in 'Jet Set' Cold Busted series. Designed and manufactured similar to the vintage 60's style rice paper sleeves. In his latest EP, Sunday Soul, Goodge takes listeners on a four-track journey through the heart of funk, masterfully blending elements of R&B, jazz, and chilled lo-fi. Released as part of Cold Busted's Jet Set series, this four-song offering follows Goodge's 2023 album Echoes Of Yesterday and showcases his dedication to crafting timeless music. "Lights Out" kicks off the EP with heavy funk and stirring breakbeats, accompanied by a scratchy guitar that summons the revolutionary spirit of the '70s. Horns serve as a call to action, while a rollicking bass line and chunky electric piano might inspire listeners to go out and fight crime. "Promised Land" follows, featuring a formidable funk bass guitar and lead guitar chords that rhythmically play off the delightfully busy drums, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the city's bustle. The title track, "Sunday Soul," is a rowdy affair with a speech-over-beats leading to crispy snare rolls and chiming electric piano. Shaker magic, staccato horn bleats, and spiral flute bits combine to create a swirling vintage-hued photograph of sound. The EP concludes with "Within Myself," a spacier sonic experience that could serve as the soundtrack for chasing someone across rooftops. It's funk spelled with a capital K. Sunday Soul is a must-listen for fans of of the heavier side of funk, solidifying Goodge's position as a master of his craft, creating a nostalgic yet fresh soundscape that keeps listeners grooving back for more.
Transparent grünes Vinyl! Wieder lieferbar! Zum ersten Mal überhaupt seit der digital-only Veröffentlichung 2011 erscheint nun der erste "Minecraft"-Soundtrack in physischer Form. Die Vinylversion enthält zwölf Tracks! "Minecraft - Volume Alpha" ist das Werk des deutschen Komponisten und Musikers Daniel Rosenfeld. Unter seinem Künstlernamen C418 erschuf Rosenfeld den weitreichenden Soundtrack und das lebendige Sounddesign, das das auf Voxel aufgebaute Universum von "Minecraft" zum Leben erweckte. Fans und Kritiker waren durch die Bank weg begeistert von seinen beatlosen, ausgewogenen Electro-Stücken. Die bekannte Gaming Seite "Kotaku" führte den Soundtrack unter der "Best Game Music" 2011 und nannte die Musik "beeindruckend beruhigend", während The Guardian die zerbrechlichen Stücke Rosenfelds aus Klavier und minimalistischem Ambient mit den legendären Künstlern ERIK SATIE und BRIAN ENO. In einem Interview destillierte Polygon "Volume Alpha" auf seine Essenz hinuntern: "Der Soundtrack ist nicht gebunden an die Retro-Ästhetik der Minecraft Graphik. Der Soundtrack setzt sich über sie hinweg. Das Album ist ein Versuch, die kombinierte Game/Music Erfahrung in etwas Himmlisches zu übersetzen."
One of the most popular and notorious of all British hardcore acts, the Exploited were formed on a dire Edinburgh council estate in 1978 by singer Terry Buchan and guitarist Stevie Ross, although Buchan’s brother Wattie would soon become leader and the lineup seldom stayed stable. Influenced by the Pistols, they built their large working class and skinhead following through an aggressive, fast-paced, and uncensored hardcore style. Gathering singles from their street punk days and the best tracks from their first three albums, Totally Exploited was the band’s first compilation and it remains the best by far. Essential Exploited!
Kassie Krut is comprised of Kasra Kurt and Eve Alpert — former members of Philadelphia math rock institution Palm — alongside Matt Anderegg (Mothers, Body Meat). On their self-titled debut EP, the newly minted Brooklyn three-piece have retained the fangled snarl of their prior work, outlining sugary melodies with visceral flourishes. Front to back, 'Kassie Krut' smudges starkness & filth, settling into a commanding partnership fit for muddy raves, basement punk spaces, and festival stages alike.
After years of twisting rock instrumentation into unknown shapes, the first release by Kassie Krut represents a transformative refocusing of energies. These tracks evince the kind of wisdom that only comes from experience—and the kind of experience that can only be scored by new sounds, still glittering with the metal filings of their making
DJ Himitsu is a Tokyo-born, London-based producer and DJ, known for his understated approach and deep knowledge of Japanese vinyl and book culture. Following a debut EP of acid house on Australian imprint Lunatic Music in 2023, 'Exotic Animals' marks a new waypoint in Himitsu's artistic evolution.
On this debut full length, driving 303 basslines and kickdrums are traded in for obscure recordings and convoluted samples, which spiral and fuse to form shuffling, heady new compositions. Like shattered pottery reassembled into top-heavy sculptures with golden glue, 'Exotic Animals' shapes and juxtaposes opposing forms and fragments, with lolloping aplomb.
When not producing, DJ Himistu runs Caravan - a vintage Japanese record, ceramics and bookshop in London. It's with the same warmth, care and curiosity that he arranges his findings in the plunderous grotto of 'Exotic Animals'. In this way, stepping inside this work is like entering a remote trading post of instruments, memoirs and other sonic curios - as Himitsu stands patiently at the counter.
Recommended for fans of Jon Hassell, Giovanni Venosta, Discrepant.
The new album ‘Notte Davvero’ will be a surprise for Castelli's fans and lovers of the Italic synth-pop scene. The solo project of Milanese Stefano Castelli, former frontman of the post-punk band Clone Culture, combines 80s-inspired synth-pop and new wave
Joe Fujinoki centered the compositions of his latest album Glass Torso round the idea of the fragility of the human body. Fujinoki described the narrative thread of the album as that of “holding the shape of a human body as if it might shatter like glass”. The precariousness of the body, the essence of the body as defined by Fujinoki as the torso, and the object relations between the boundaries of dialectical exercises pack themselves into his creative process.
Fujinoki recorded Glass Torso exclusively with analog synthesizers, stumbling in and out of structural loops to find space for accidental discoveries. The ten pieces of recorded material feel somewhere on the edge of typified form, feeling like a vascular system pumping in and out its undulating liquidities. Maybe this is the hollowed space held together by Fujinoki’s notion of the torso where you hear a microscopic world, dubby and generative. Fujinoki is adept at organizing this realm of subtle sound sources, giving proper considerations of shared tonal space. Seemingly, this handling of the precarity of sonic material elucidates Fujinoki’s mature attention to detail.
Ambient music genre tropes often affirm the listeners vessel for escape and dissociation. It provides an intoxicating allure by respite from an overwhelming exterior reality far outside the listeners controls. Here this space becomes apolitical, or its protest vocabulary softer and subtle. Fujinoki does not aim to tackle hyperobject topics on how to course correct the world, but he does something increasingly rarer to come across. On Glass Torso an alternative space is created not as shelter, but as a meditation on negotiation and compromise. This twenty eight minutes of audio lays down a foundation for imagination, for imagining how to negotiate the fragility of the self. Zoomed out, the implications of his negotiative sonics can be a playground for broader reflections on distributive care and attention.
Fujinoki says he feels “alert” to his physicality and placement in the world amidst vast digital cultures creating impositions on him and his surroundings. On Glass Torso he creates a concretized space on a vinyl record, where the virtual and the tangible antagonize one another that create the spectacle of the listening experience. This spectacle is a soft one, a considered one, and an utmost enjoyable one. Fujinoki juggles opposing forces brilliantly, and formulates an exquisite palette of soft passing music so he can also help the listener with the exquisite burden of their own Glass Torso.”
You wake up abruptly on cold floorboards, your body aching as if from a great fall. White light floods your vision. Where are you? Last thing you can remember you were hurtling through the Genesis Domain at breakneck speed, but this is definitely somewhere different. As your eyes come into focus you see the hall is grand, intimidatingly opulent. A full house of seated onlookers peers at you expectantly. You’re on a stage, you realize. Flames creep up the walls, engulfing the room and lighting the faces in the audience; the heat is oppressive, but nobody seems to notice. A voice booms out.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Presenting: a performer of great renown all across the land, yours for one night only… introducing—”
Tiny bells jangle around your head as you shift your weight, obscuring whatever name the announcer just called out. You try to sit up. The jester’s hat tumbles off with a clatter. Not this again, you groan. Your head spins with vertigo. You grimace, trying to remember something. You had just gleaned an urgent and existential truth in the Genesis Domain, but it’s slipping away now… what was it?
Off to your left, a whip cracks. The impresario glares at you from the wings, fist clenched around a diamond-encrusted whip, mouthing at you to get up.
You try to run, but the weight of an incorporeal authority bears down upon you. The impresario cracks his whip again, an impish smirk forming on his lips.
With resignation, you begin to work the room. What else can you do? Tendrils of giggling and gossip creep through your periphery. The heat is suffocating and the smoke stings your eyes, but the show goes on. Remembering your bag of tricks as if from a dream, you raise your hands in the air, invoking the universal call to audience participation. The crowd goes wild. You feel the rush of a familiar thrill. Being the Fool comes naturally to you, you realize, as the palace burns around you.
The Suicide Handbook is Ryan Adams’ most elusive and mythic recordings. The album is a raw and intimate collection of songs that captures the songwriter at his most unguarded. Recorded at the beginning of his solo career and long circulating only through bootlegs, the album has earned a legendary status among die-hard fans and fans of the americana genre alike for its stark stripped-back beauty.
Acoustic arrangements and hushed, late-night vocals, these songs feel like private confessions set to tape. Adams leans into themes of heartbreak, isolation, and emotional vulnerability, delivering recordings that are as fragile as they are compelling. There’s an immediacy here that sets The Suicide Handbook apart from his studio releases. These are the original recordings in their rawest and un-touched form.
Released officially for the first time, experience the record as a cohesive piece, bringing warmth and depth to its lo-fi origins. The analogue format enhances every subtle nuance, from the quiet creak of strings to the tremble in Adams’ voice.
For longtime fans and collectors alike, The Suicide Handbook stands as a haunting, deeply personal snapshot of an artist laying everything bare—an essential addition to the Ryan Adams collection.
Das wandlungsfähige Trio Vanishing Twin präsentiert sein neues Album ,Archives" - eine Collage aus postmoderner Songkunst, die im gemeinsamen Schaffensprozess Transzendenz findet. Der Albumtitel spielt auf den unverwechselbaren Ansatz von Vanishing Twin an, tägliche Aufnahmesessions anzuhören, zusammenzufügen und neu zu bearbeiten. Gründungsmitglied Cathy Lucas beschreibt den Prozess so: ,Material sammeln, damit herumspielen, es auf den Kopf stellen, versuchen, die Teile zusammenzufügen und daraus eine Geschichte zu erschaffen". Da Lucas mittlerweile ins ländliche Frankreich gezogen ist und Valentina Magaletti sowie Susumu Mukai in London leben, verbinden sich die drei, indem sie Songs und Instrumentalfragmente in einem virtuellen Studio austauschen. Die geografische Distanz wird durch ihre kollektive Kreativität überbrückt, wobei jedes Mitglied als Multi-Instrumentalist seinen Beitrag leistet. Jeder Musiker bringt umfangreiche Erfahrung in Zusammenarbeit und Improvisation mit, wobei das Anhören und Bearbeiten von Studio-Sessions ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des kreativen Prozesses ist. Konzepte von Urheberschaft und Eigentumsrechten lösen sich in der Musik von Vanishing Twin auf, während die Mitglieder Instrumente tauschen und sich ganz dem Moment der Zusammenarbeit hingeben. Die ,Archive", die dem Albumtitel seinen Namen geben, werden zu Dokumenten der kollektiven Intelligenz des Trios. Die chaotische Energie von ,Archives" treibt Vanishing Twin in ungewohnte Formen und Richtungen. Außerhalb ihrer Komfortzonen findet das Trio neue Momente der Erleuchtung und Freude. Tief im Mix hörst du vielleicht, wie Magaletti zum Bass greift, Mukai unerwartet am Schlagzeug einspringt oder Lucas chamäleonartig durch die Lücken gleitet. ,Archives" verfeinert Vanishing Twins Modell des kollektiven Musizierens, bei dem Egos in spielerischen Mix-and-Match-Spielen in den Hintergrund treten und die Kreativität zwischen den drei Multi-Instrumentalisten fließt. Sie bewegen sich zwischen und außerhalb konventioneller Genrekategorien und reihen sich neben Weggefährten wie dem Tara Clerkin Trio und Still House Plants ein, wodurch sie die Vorstellung vom zeitgenössischen Musikensemble erweitern. Nach einem Jahrzehnt ihres Bestehens sind Vanishing Twin wandelbarer denn je.
Original Press Release: ‘Headsoup’ is a new compilation that deepens the legend of mysterious Swedish psych collective Goat even further. Collecting rarities from across band’s celebrated career, including standalone singles, B-sides and digital edits and two enormous brand new tracks. It’s a globetrotting acid trip of a record that’s even bigger in its scope than their acclaimed studio LPs.
From the incendiary heavy psych of their earliest work, like debut B-side ‘The Sun And Moon’, to the serene Requiem’-era alternate take ‘Union Of Mind And Soul’, to the simmering menace of their latest material, it’s a record as multifaceted as Goat themselves, packed with detours in every conceivable direction. Taking in jazz-flute solos, pounding Afrobeat rhythms, ferocious desert blues, drifting Ethio-jazz, this is, as the name of Goat’s first album made clear, ‘World Music’ in its most complete form, a sound unrestrained by genre boundaries. Yet the band are anything but lazy appropriators. They approach their forebears with upmost reverence, articulating a celebratory cultural cross-pollination.And what about these two new tracks? ‘Fill My Mouth’ is a scuzzy psychedelic funk knockout, the sleaziest thing the band have ever recorded. ‘Queen Of The Underground’, meanwhile, is truly herculean, a swaggering psychedelic powerhouse of the very highest order. Sometimes dark and heavy, at others joyous and beautiful, like Goat themselves ‘Headsoup’ is mysterious, and constantly shapeshifting, difficult to properly pin down but constantly enthralling. Almost a decade since Goat first emerged from the depths of Korpilombo, there is still no other band on earth that sounds quite like them.
A former architect of the cult DiY sound in Nottingham, as well as being a member of downtempo outfit Bent, Nail is a house making machine whose own distinct fingerprint is all over everything he makes. His sound is raw but never hostile - he always finds a neat sample to bring some soul to his louche, loose drums. This EP for his In The Dance label starts with 'And So', a wonky sound infused with sensual whispers, while 'Before' blends woozy pad work with deep drums and prickly percussion. 'Grief' is a sombre affair with bluesy sax lines weaving between the dusty drums, and 'Size A Dat' gets choppy, playful, and funky. Another majestic EP.
Wax Digits keep rolling out the groovy jams with an eight instalment, and this time it is back to the Various Artists format. Fingerman is the label owner and he goes first here with 'Phunkee Party', a seductive sound with twanging bass riffs and chunky drums under soaring vocals. The talented I Gemin then drops 'Sambalike', a more nuance and subtle groove that worms its way under your skin and then the love gets dialled up on the flip side thanks to Chuggin Edits and 'Anita's Mystery', a blissed-out roller bathed in sun. Smokecloud Records boss Osmose shuts down with some bright, retro disco soul in the form of an edgy rework of 'Ur Luv.'
Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.
After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.
"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.
Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.
Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.
From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.
During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.
Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis
Recently hailed by The Guardian as "British techno's great survivor," Nigeria-born, UK-based Ibrahim Alfa Jnr continues with the fine form shown on his recent Infinite Black Inside LP with this first EP on his newly minted label Infinite Black Audio. The music was made after the end of a time of bad health, which means there is a feeling of both relief and reflection here. The nameless tracks are all overtly technological in their DNA - spanned synths warp around mechanical kicks on the opener as detuned jazz keys tumble through the mix. ''Track 2' floats on skittish breakbeats, there's moody downtempo on 'Track 4' melodically-inspired hope on 'Track 6.' An adventurous and rewarding EP.
Hackney based Hidden Sounds Records launches – with support from Emotional Recordings – it’s Dark Times label by diving in the the music of Alkahest, a short-lived project from Canadian brother-production duo Lex and Rew MacCrimmon.
For the second EP, the Twisted Up release is re-examined, with a tweaked track list to represent the times and how their sound continues in relevance today. Released in 2 years (1994-1996), Alkahest was the darker side of the MacCrimmon’s productions and allowed them to focus on twisted, psychedelic electronics, away from their main Legion Of Green Men project.
Self-described music obsessives from a young age – lying under a home-made harpsichord, with their heads in the resonator box was an early indication of a love outside the norm. Experiments with forks and pencils on strings – totally unaware of the likes John Cage – highlighted an interest in sound from unusual places.
Anything with a synth notably grabbed their attention, going to the public library to take out BBC Sound Effects and Morton Subotnick albums, sat alongside contacting European mail order catalogues, to grow their knowledge and record collections.
As early productions formed, working under the sound production name of Incarnate, their love of art was just as influential as music. The likes of M.C. Escher, Salvador Dali, Bridget Riley and the Op Art movement, was all part of brothers in their progression to form the Post Contemporary label in 1992.
Following the DIY ethos of the music they had long been buying, their “indie ethic” influences all coalesced in the label, not conforming to one sound or tempo, placed them within the electronic music coming from Canada, but also, out on their own.
Twisted Up expands the Alkahest sound, the title cut a stomping anthem, it’s unrelenting drums and lifting strings a call to arms. The compelling Shake arrives, acid techno rewiring synapsis, dub static between the beats.
On the flip, Twisted Another is just that, a reversion excursion, pushing the psychedelic synthesis to the forefront, stabs call and respond. Closing the EP with the perfectly titled, Kiss My Acid, a journey of industrial bang, reflexed, Alkahest showing their sound is pulsating, widescreen overtures.
ICE CASTLES, Larry Heard's downtempo ambient, deep house masterpiece available on vinyl again. After nearly three decades out of print, Larry Heard's Ice Castles is finally getting the reissue people have been asking for. Originally released in 1995 (as Sceneries Not Songs - Volume Tu), Ice Castles stands out as one of the most overlooked, but essential records in deep house and downtempo. A hazy, RnB, jazz-inflected suite of tracks from the genre's original architect. Forming a blueprint for his release in the decades to come. From the shimmering ''Crystal Fantasy'' to the aching title track, this is Heard at his most intimate: less dancefloor, more personal. Now, for the first time since 1998, it's back on vinyl. Remastered and expanded to a full double LP with all tracks.
Richard Sen debuts on Phantasy with ‘Space 1999 / Bergen Light Rail’, the first transmission from the illustrious DJ and producer since his vinyl-only solo LP, 2024’s ‘India Man’.
Deeply invested in electronic music for over thirty years, first at the intersection of London’s acid house and graffiti art scenes, evolving in cult duos Padded Cell and Bronx Dogs, and now generously sharing his formidable knowledge of club culture on London’s Do!! You!!! Radio, Sen is known to take listeners anywhere. On this occasion, he locks into two distinct influences from his winding creative journey, with ecstatic results.
The title of ‘Space 1999’ mirrors Sen’s own hand-painted accompanying artwork, yet its sonic influence sits much closer to our own orbit; A tribute to a slice of London nightlife history, Space at Bar Rhumba was a midweek party led by residents Luke Solomon and Kenny Hawes, whose selections helped sculpt the deep house scene at the turn of the millennium. ‘Space 1999’ transports contemporary dancers back there in no less than ten minutes, led by a deep bassline and swinging drums, while an intergalactic melody slowly takes hold, resulting in pure satisfaction.
‘Bergen Light Rail’ embraces a different kind of kosmische, looking to the northern light of space disco and following the tram route of its namesake to the Norwegian city’s beloved Club Ostre, riding a rhythm of pogoing toms and crashing drums. Conjuring a dreamy tête-à-tête between ever-expanding, heavenly synths and tightly-wound arpeggiators, Sen’s transmission to the stars is a deeply human call to dance.
Nicolas Balmer reveals the heavy silence of his soul.
Facing his own mirror.
The soundscape unfolds.
Fire sets the tone.
Kindling of the abyss, driven to go on and on.
Passion in his language contains suffering.
A silver lining, found in delicately layered noise.
A myriad of intertwined sounds paint the melodies of a life.
Holding the memories of those who danced with his shadows and light.
Nicolas releases his album “Leben” on Zürich based Subject To Restrictions Discs. While moving between New Wave, Kraut and Electronics, his intuition for ambient oozes from each composition, fast-paced or slow. As Nicolas Balmer lays bare his most intimate sources of inspiration with Leben. He holds nothing back.
The album is shaped by a sense of optimistic melancholy: restless and contradictory, yet full of hope. The music is not about arriving, but about the journey: loss and finding oneself; despair, love, guilt and forgiveness. This is an album that does not seek to explain life, but rather embraces it in all its contradictions.
Nicolas Balmer is a Zurich-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and synthesizer enthusiast who has been exploring contemporary music for over fifteen years. Working across music, theatre and interdisciplinary projects, he moves between genres and forms. His work includes the electronic project Nico Sun, the experimental duo Gūsū with Xueyan Chen, the collaborative project Konstant with Angelo Repetto and Kenel/Sonne. He also composes and produces music for theatre and performance, as well as working in mixing and production. Across his projects, Balmer is driven by raw textures, emotional authenticity and a search for an independent musical language.
Compiled onto one vinyl album for the first time, Landlocked (Numbers, 2026) presents Hallucinator’s 1999 debut album originally released under Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald’s label Chain Reaction. Writing much surrounding the culture of what would be later considered ‘Dub Techno’ and its’ primary distribution center, Hard Wax, leads one down roads of shifting primary sources and decades old overheard smoke break recollections. Maybe brevity primes the listener to the paralinguistic to approach the sound on its terms; focusing on how things are uttered and not what.
This theory will remain unconfirmed. Hallucinator original press release left us with three or so gestures to consider over the years since:
“A new act on CHAIN REACTION”s distinct productional thesis. HALLUCINATOR are 3 people from he UK/London and this their first release ever- that’s all what the artists want to let us know…. This record is dedidacted to the memory of Stephen Lawrence!”
The first gesture is one of personnel. Since ’99, we’ve gotten to learn a bit more about the artists behind the Hallucinator project. All London-based, all writers, composers, and sound-designers— Anna Piva, Edward George, Trevor Mathison. These three seem to flow between parameters as aesthetic tactic and tacit structure to the work itself. For example, other collaborative shapes have come from this lineup including Flow Motion (Piva, George and Mathison) as well as the now defunct Black Audio Film Collective of which George and Mathison are founding members.
The second gesture is in the second line of the previous press release, “distinct productional thesis.” Much of Landlocked’s affect and sequencing seems to suggest an emotional study of entropy at the level of sediment. Rhythms play with space and capacity through polyvalence. The production chose subtractive vertigo, often switching and bringing back in elements that vanished from the track 6 minutes ago. Dubbing out so much of a track, one begins to associate sound akin to memories held in the experience of running your hand across a concrete block as a child. Felt (re)memberance in lieu of narrative tale. Using textures that flicker between colour and percussion, Hallucinator’s 12-tracker of loudspeaker perception music might be a mediation on the psychic wake of the Cold War. Intermittent strata of ambience and groove convects an active margin rifting event underneath a scorched geology of power in Western Europe. Again, this is all grapevine hearsay.
But it’s silence that voices the third gesture. The album’s sparse application of the written word touches on the ennui paradox of being landlocked on an island. Stuck. Trapped in the psychosis of occidental hypercentricism. A looping silence of Black British tragedy: “to the memory of Stephen Lawrence”. 18 year-old Lawrence was stabbed to death at a bus stop in southeast London by six white men in 1993. The rift of grief and implicit reiteration of modern subordination left by this hate act went legally silent for almost two decades until Lawrence’s killers were ultimately sentenced to virtually life in jail in 2012. Only six years removed at the time of Hallucinator’s initial invocation of rememory, the mind-numbing accretion of what Black Studies Professor Denise Ferreira da Silva might call “unpayable debt”, finds demonic ground across Landlocked, forming an aural sense of what continues to be refused.
The album ventures through spaces of overactive non-happenings: ‘Red Angel’’s factory floor dub flashes between smokestack and jungle visions, or the halfway mark’s stilted breath of ‘Dusk’ lending its mood to the sort of sedated dreams built from daily life under colony rule for instance. That linked rhythm links us back to our linked fates across Black and Brown folk is real, thus the syncopated signals through this work behave on the level of transnational radiotelegraphy, sounding out its windswept tension of a body negotiating a meat-grinder schema of linear production and wage for others to know that unspeakable thing can be broadcast in every drum tongue.
As the silence continues to reverb, we return to the sort of meaning-making that cannot be told but felt. Soothing to some, disturbing to others. Landlocked, a Rorschach test for a crumbled empire.
Deep, deep stuff on the debut album from K Wata. Long and dubwise, dark and detailed. With bass that fills and warms a space.
All noir. Cast shadows against the wall. Weight being shifted and distributed with singularly delicate poise, like a knife being balanced on the end of a finger.
There’s a silvery, loose flow state to this record that maybe reveals the way some tracks were first written to be deployed live at Sustain Release 2025. Then taken back to the lab and tightened up further into the album’s final form, with beautiful mixing work between Kenzo and Chris Botta.
With that in mind, Give U Space unfolds slowly and fluidly, giving the listener the chance to access and open up to the deepness of the sound, being led down a path. It rolls and builds momentum and groove, and ratchets tensions up toward peaks of energy "Whisper Dub" and "There Will Be Love".
The tunes feel architectural. Rooms to be in and settle into. Simultaneously stripped back and then etched with neat little details and characterful or atmospheric sound choices. The silhouette of slo mo Memphis and Houston trap is a leading influence, especially with the drums. Mixing with bits of click’n’cut sampling and psychoacoustic tricks, the penumbra of dub techno and drowsier dubstep, and SG’s soft vocals rising in the ether.
The presence and inspiration of the sound system is obvious in all of Kenzo’s work, the music can rattle when spun up louder or blended into the club. But K Wata’s uniqueness and signature comes from an often equally inward facing quality, touched by distance and longing and a sort of chiaroscuro incandescent light set up.
Written and produced by K Wata.
Mixed by K Wata and Christopher Botta at Fer Sound Studio.
12th Isle return to familiar downtempo, club-adjacent ambient and analogue house stylings with eight tracks from Japan’s sprawling metropolis. After a series of split releases and dancefloor focused EPs over the last decade, Tokyo based producer Igaxx lands on the label with their debut full length album to close out the year.
Influenced by leftfield electronic music from the 1990s such as releases on Elektrolux and Rising High, Igaxx (Shota Ikawa) works with multi-tracked hardware synthesizers manufactured throughout the 1990s and 2000s, embracing subtle variations and unexpected moments that emerge through performance. Allowing chance and unpredictability to become an integral part of the music, Ikawa’s process and sound design also speaks to the lighter side of vintage UK labels such as Irdial and Radioactive Lamb or the psychedelia-infused touch of the West Coast scene in the states. New Lights exists somewhere between the dancefloor and music for focused listening, carrying a sense of weightlessness and a quiet sense of humour, balancing immersive sonic environments and moments of sly unexpected detail and improvisation.
“To date, I have released several EPs on my own label in Japan as well as on labels across Europe. I am truly happy to finally present my work in the form of a full-length album. It has allowed me to express and unify a broader musical world than was possible within the format of an EP, and that, to me, is one of the album’s greatest meanings.”
Feeling both familiar and forward-looking, MBK004 expands its reach with an international lineup of
producers united by a shared appreciation for the New York underground sound.
Crafted by Tunisian producer Gringow, our first two tracks take listeners to the darker side of minimal.
Also owner of the HeardOf label, Gringow lends his talent to Minimal Brooklyn with 15 minutes of
hypnotic rhythms. “Black is the new color” gives chills, while “My K” triggers introspection.
Flipping the record will bring listeners to a brighter space. We begin with Chilean DJ/producer
Francisco Ruíz-Tagle and his original track “Primal Depths”. Francisco introduces textures that have
been cultivated throughout his life. His submission to Minimal Brooklyn holds nothing back, delivering
a multidimensional auditory experience to listeners.
MBK004 ends with “Bean Water”, an original track from Chicago-based producer Double Dipp. This
spell-casting production truly highlights the attraction of minimal. Dynamic instrumentals with clean
resolution. This is Double Dipp’s formula for timelessness.
For their next release, Phase Group invites you deep into the mind of a singular artist to offer a glimpse of their prolific body of work, zooming in on music composed specifically between 2018 and 2021.
Across 16 tracks, ‘Summa 2018-2021’ by Serbian producer Andria reveals a highly unique approach to sound design and composition, spanning the realms of futuristic IDM, ritual ambient, fourth-world techno and other elusive electronic genres.
Listening to this album in its entirety feels like entering a self-contained sonic world, where animistic and ancestral traditions are refracted through unfamiliar forms of technology. It’s an album which moves effortlessly from moments of deep and contemplative abstraction, as heard in tracks like ‘Sunlessness’, with it's atmosphere of otherworldly field recordings and ancient rites, to propulsive tracks that will guide clubs through ceremonial trance states such as ‘Floating Island’, where industrial kicks underline expressive poly-rhythms, evocative synths and snarling digital glitches.
The release is a gripping and immersive listening experience filled with spellbinding and expertly conjured sounds alongside highly effective moments of dance music that will surely find their way into the sets of the most expressive and fearless DJs. This is one for fans of Coil, Shackleton, Andy Stott and Demdike Stare.
Behind the work is Andrija Čugurović the Belgrade-based artist. A graphic designer by day (and in-house designer here at Phase Group), he dedicates his nights and time away from work and production to Belgrade’s underground electronic scene, digging deep into the worlds of Bass, Techno, Industrial, Ambient, IDM, Experimental and Computer Music.
A regular attendee at spots like Drugstore and the 20/44 boat since a young age, Andrija has honed a deep connection with the music he creates and DJs and that is evidenced in this highly original collection of music. This is his second release on Phase Group, coming after his debut EP ‘o o o o o’ in 2020, the second release on the label.
'Summa 2018-2021’ is available digitally and on high-fidelity C-90 cassette, dubbed at Tapeline UK and distributed by Rubadub.
All tracks composed and produced by Andrija Čugurović.
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Artwork by Andrija Čugurović.
Revered worldwide for their love-fueled, technically adventurous all-vinyl b2b DJ sets, Maya Bouldry-Morrison (Octo Octa) and Eris Drew conceived Alchemical Sisters as a vehicle for creating music together. Alchemical Sisters describe themselves as "psychedelic chaos, acid rollers, and big beat, channeled through hardware instruments and animated by love, touch, rhythm, and spiritual fire." Their self-titled debut double album is forthcoming on Interdimensional Transmissions this October, just in time for Samhain XXVI. Alchemical Sisters was recorded in the forests of New Hampshire by Maya and Eris and mixed by BMG in Detroit in the Interdimensional Laboratory on high end hardware for ecstatically euphonic results. In the cold winter months, Maya and Eris emptied the master bedroom of their forest cabin and sealed it as an alchemical retort--a hermetic vessel in which a higher form could emerge. For a year they slept on the studio floor while, in white nightgowns and under the spell of mushrooms, they brought dulcimers and ancestral instruments into communion with turntables, twentieth-century machines, and new technologies. Alchemical Sisters is the substance crystallized within that vessel by their secret fire. They then brought their music to BMG in Detroit to meticulously mix their vision through hardware, in a high end studio environment. For two weeks at the height of winter, we shut out the world and focused on fusing their sonic vision within the Interdimensional Laboratory. Setting up their computer and sound card, BMG processed their tracking sessions through a high end mixing console, using transformers and tubes and the special properties of many machines to create a solid visceral sound out of a dream, to create a powerful euphonic ecstatic experience from their highly personal highly evolved music, whose sources could be both carnal and celestial. It was important to have their music connect before thought, to feel both the power and the gentleness of their sound, to have the texture and presence of their myriad influences unconsciously affect you. Watching them work together, the patience, the focus, the rigorous thought and discipline, the love, the space and the dedication afforded to each other was a genuinely inspiring thing to witness. They truly are Alchemical Sisters, and we are extremely proud to share their debut album on IT, and their debut performance at IT's Samhain XXVI. It truly is a loop point in time, a full circle moment.
Following the success of two collaborative releases (EMC “The Show”/2008 and Ace & Edo G “Arts & Entertainment” /2009), Masta Ace joins forces with the metal faced MF Doom for Son of Yvonne, a highly personal concept album that celebrates the life and legacy of Ace’s recently departed Mother. Like his 2004 landmark Disposable Arts, Son of Yvonne is meticulously constructed with stories, settings, and characters that resonate with flesh and bone humanity. Interstitial vignettes provide a thematic backbone to the experience, and each track complements and completes the previous to form a narrative whole: a sometimes visceral, sometimes nostalgic slice of Ace’s young life in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Entirely underscored by MF Doom’s iconic Special Herbs instrumentals, Son of Yvonne features the Juice Crew general Big Daddy Kane, new comers Pav Bundy (The Bundies), Reggie B and even MF Doom on the mic. It’s Masta Ace’s no frills flow, however, that looms largest above the dusty samples and digger loops that define Doom’s production. Ace’s photo-realistic rhymes about stick-up kids, spraycan artists and wack emcees add extra gravity to his already celebrated reputation as “truly an under-appreciated rap veteran and underground luminary” (Allmusic Guide). Like Eminem recalls in his 2008 autobiography The Way I Am, “Masta Ace had amazing storytelling skills. His thoughts were so vivid.” TRACKLIST: A1. DJ Ski's Intro A2. Ninteen Seventy Something A3. Son Of Yvonne B1. Da Pro B2. Store Frontin B3. Me & My Gang B4. Crush Hour feat Pav Bundy C1. Think I Am feat Big Daddy Kane & Mf Doom C2. Fresh Fest Reggie B C3. Hoe-Tel-leftovers C4. Slow Down D1. Home Sweet Home feat Pav Bundy D2. Dedication D3. I Did It D4. In Da Spot feat Milani The Artis D5. Outtakes
This is the reissue of original 1993 Rephlex double vinyl album, completely remastered from DATs by Beau Thomas, with the original artwork, and photography by Richard James. µ-Ziq's Tango N'Vectif was released in 1993, a classic year for auteurist electronic music that didn't always fit on the dancefloor. Written by Mike Paradinas in his late teens with some help from Frank Naughton, it still stands up really well today and its influence on electronic music in the decades since is obvious. Across an expanse of ideas, taking influences from early Aphex, Detroit Techno and UK Hardcore, Mike created this spirited, funky, jerry-rigged, lo-fi version of rave; with crunchy drums and a knack for melody that fell somewhere between John Barry and classic TV themes. Without owning a computer, Mike had been writing techno, house and industrial tracks on and off since 1990, playing live keys alongside drum machine rhythms on his 4-track recorder. µ-Ziq started when Mike linked up with Frank who was also writing dance-influenced music, and importantly owned an Atari 1040ST computer with Cubeat software. They pooled their equipment and Mike would travel up to Frank's house a couple of miles away in Wimbledon to record together. By 1992, and after a false start when a proposed EP for Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton's Evolution label got shelved, Mike had started at Kingston University where he deejayed and met like-minded people including a couple of guys who knew Aphex Twin who was also a student at Kingston too, and they passed Aphex a demo of Mike's material. A few days later Mike got a message from his mum to 'call Aphex Twin' and he gave Mike some advice, and seemed interested in releasing something. So when Frank and his family went on holiday that summer Mike borrowed his Atari and synths and wrote the majority of the Tango N'Vectif album during that 2 weeks. By the end of 1992 a release with Aphex Twin and Grant Wilson Claridge's Rephlex label had been agreed - Aphex had moved to the house in Clissold Crescent where he recorded a lot of his early classic albums and Mike went over to collect his advance, in the form of his very own Atari computer.
For its second release, the Parisian vinyl-only imprint Mustard & Pickles takes a bold step into the V/A format, a challenging one where balancing diverse styles is key—here, the gamble paid off. The EP kicks off with a stellar deep house cut from Berlin based Hustache, using a hypnotic vocal to lure us straight into 'That Beautiful Place'. Over on the A2, things get bouncy yet mysterious, featuring an addictive vocal loop that keeps you hooked. Flip the record, and M&P label head Tom Cler serves up a tailor-made break-to-4/4 weapon, packed with deep leads and the VA's signature : insane vocal lines. Closing out the wax, Numero 6 drops a gorgeous deep house gem. With its lush pads, quirky textures, and enchanting vocals, it feels like he’s casting a spell on the dancefloor—and we’re totally here for it.
Hackney Electronica come to Dark Entries with the Feedback Memory EP, featuring 5 cuts of acidic rave-inflected wave. Quinn Whalley (Paranoid London), Unai Trotti (Cartulis Music), and Margo Broom (Hermitage Working Studios) formed Hackney Electronica during COVID era. Trotti and Whalley were spending countless hours digging through records and making music during lockdown. As their sound took shape – heavy and hypnotic – they invited Broom to join, cementing the motley trio. Following their debut EP, Synaptic Shadows, the five pieces on Feedback Memory muse on the loss of self in the digital era and the fine line between pleasure and paranoia. Each track pulses like a memory from the backstreets of Hackney, where the night transforms the city into an electrified maze of fleeting highs and inevitable crashes. Their hard-hitting dancefloor indulgences shine on “Trapped in the Circuit” and “Six Foot Seven,” which features Mutado Pintado on vocals, while tweaked-out wave sounds blossom on “Feedback Memory” and “Lost Trip - Destino.” Things close out with “Compressed Air,” a lush, breakbeat-laced affair that veers into trip-hop territory. Housed in a sleeve designed by Germán Bardo, Feedback Memory continues Hackney Electronica’s tumultuous journey through the flickering alleys of the mind, where tension and transcendence intertwine.
Juxtaposing acid-tipped breakbeats with influences of acoustic behaviour in nature, Sully unveils a debut release for Critical Music with two-track 12” ‘Flux’ b/w ‘Chatter’. Sully says: "‘Flux’ and ‘Chatter’ were another attempt to take the groove and feel of the breakbeats I've been previously working with and build them from the ground up. The aim was to find space for the tonal elements to breathe and end up in a place I'd not been to before." Birdsong became an unexpected reference point during the writing process, with Sully using synthesis to analyse and recreate natural calls as compositional material. The resulting dialogue between acoustic behaviour and digital sound generation forms part of the release's underlying methodology rather than a surface aesthetic. "The contrast and contradiction of the organic world captured by digital processes is always a pull for me," Sully explains. "It never fails to inspire." Jack Stevens aka Sully has spent much of the last two decades developing a body of work that sits slightly outside the obvious cycles of revival that have shaped UK bass music. While his records draw from established rhythmic forms, they rarely settle within a single tradition, instead examining the shared characteristics between them. His releases have consistently explored the points where 2-step swing, breakbeat construction, and jungle's rhythmic vocabulary begin to overlap. Sully’s records retain a relevance that extends beyond the moment of their release, continuing to circulate through DJ sets and specialist record collections. This 12” adds another chapter to a catalogue defined by sustained investigation into rhythm, texture and soundsystem music.
r.hitect opens a new chapter with a refined vinyl release that signals both evolution and intention. Exploring subtle textures, intricate rhythms, and a deeper, more introspective sound, this record marks a shift toward a more personal sonic identity.
The release also introduces Croquis, a new label concept focused on capturing music in its purest form — raw, spontaneous, and essential. More than just a label, Croquis is a space for stripped-back expression and meaningful sound.
This vinyl sets the tone for what’s to come: minimal, emotional, and deeply authentic.
YARN welcomes René Audiard for its tenth release with "Makes Me Feel", a four-track EP from one of underground electronic music’s most singular voices.
Across years of dub techno, minimal and leftfield electronic experimentation, René has developed an approach to stripped-down music that feels anything but limited. Where minimalism can often become an exercise in taking things away, his work finds possibility in what remains. "Makes Me Feel" is a particularly fitting example: immersive, at times strange, but always full of feeling.
‘Lovin’ opens the EP in familiar Audiard territory: murky low-end, locomotive groove, reduced rhythmic compositions and an understated framework swimming in a pool of detail. 'Possession' lets in more light. Vocal echoes, persistent rhythms and occasional string phrases give it a cinematic quality, while a groove that seems to circle endlessly takes on an almost shamanistic pull. The EP’s 11-minute behemoth, 'Flesh', fills most of the release’s B-side while making a convincing case for patience and sophistication. There are echoes of minimal’s golden age here, but Audiard never mistakes repetition for standing still. Tiny rhythmic fragments sit alongside expansive orchestral gestures, with samples working at every scale of the arrangement. Warmth and cinematic drama run through the track, but it's the playful programming underneath that keeps it moving. 'Night' closes the record on a different note, recalling Audiard’s work with Ali Çakır in Düve. Percussive samples, accordion and Middle Eastern guitar phrases bring a more acoustic character to his reduced 808-infused broken beats, making for a playful, occasionally melancholic ending with a distinctly microtonal feel.
What makes René Audiard’s music so rewarding is how readily you recognize his hand in it. There is a particular grain to the sounds, a way of placing details within a groove, and a willingness to follow an idea wherever it leads. Across “Makes Me Feel”, those instincts give four quite different tracks a shared identity. Even when working within familiar forms, Audiard makes them sound entirely his own. It’s the holy grail of music production: a personal sound signature. And a thoughtful addition to YARN’s growing repertoire of reduced, sophisticated dancefloor music.
