quête:d mess

Vinyl edition of the Omar-S album, comes in two parts. Features 3 extra tracks!

BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years. Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted. Their mantra: Music for the people, by the people, with the people. From humble beginnings rehearsing in a shipping container, a stone's throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organized the escape of the most wanted anti-Apartheid activists, they kept believing in their dream of self-empowerment. Today they command festival stages worldwide: Glastonbury West Holts, Roskilde, Afropunk Brooklyn, WOMAD, Fusion, Sziget, FMM Sines, Beaches Brew, Boomtown, Colours of Ostrava, Couleur Café – to name just a few. In 2023, BCUC were honoured with the prestigious WOMEX Artist Award, an accolade usually reserved for more established artists, in recognition of their fearless work and transcendent live performances.

THE ROAD IS NEVER EASY

The Road Is Never Easy is BCUC's fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. On this new offering, BCUC take listeners on another Afro-psychedelic journey into the soul of Soweto. It feels like a gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert, "guaranteed to touch untapped corners of your soul" (OkayAfrica). BCUC's music is deeply rooted in history and echoes the voices of the ones who came before. The road was never easy for the people of Soweto who originally came to work in the mines of Egoli, the City of Gold, Johannesburg. When apartheid finally ended after a long struggle, it was hoped that life would improve. But more than 30 years later, many of those initial hopes and dreams are still waiting to be fulfilled. This album is about that struggle. The album contains 10 brand new songs – a record for BCUC, whose previous albums featured an average of 3 songs. It represents the culmination of more than two decades of performing together and building a reputation as a powerful live act. These ten songs encapsulate that same live energy, each one building gradually and drawing you into BCUC's Afro-psychedelic stream of consciousness. It's a seismic tour de force through life in Soweto today. Songs like Amakhandela (Breaking All the Chains) connect history to daily life: "How is this precious metal inflicting so much pain in us," sing BCUC, "this government has been telling us we are free, but we don't benefit from being free." The album also talks about all the hopes and dreams that remain: "I have too many wishes and dreams in my head," BCUC sing in Um duma khanda, "I think I am losing my mind". The album ends with the soothing Matla a rona ke Bophelo, "our strength is life", praising the spirits and thanking the elders for protection. The Road Is Never Easy is about the harsh reality of life in Soweto, where "people always carry heavy loads". BCUC are street poets trying to deal with that burden: sometimes revolutionary, sometimes soothing, but always hopeful and compassionate. "When you are from Soweto you can't retreat nor surrender." (Sebenzela)

RECORDING

The album was largely recorded in Munich, Germany during tour breaks over two sessions, each three days long. It took place in a small studio located in a German WW II bunker converted into rehearsal spaces. The songs were recorded in one take altogether in one room, with only a few overdubs added, mainly backing vocals, by BCUC at Fourways studio in Johannesburg. BCUC have created their own distinctive way of writing, or rather, finding and creating their songs. The recording process is like an improvised live performance. They bring their ideas into a zone where the music, the rhythm and the spirits take over until the song starts to form. In this Afro-psychedelic zone BCUC create their unique poetry that feeds on the dreams still dreamt, the hopes, the fears and the temptations lingering everywhere. BCUC's songs need to breathe and time to build. The right take was the one when the song took over, and just like their live performances, no one knew beforehand where the song would take them. During the recording, BCUC just let it all flow out: inner turmoil, cries of rebellion, but also resilience and a search for healing, love, unity and compassion. You don't have to be from Soweto to feel the deep meaning and impact of this music. In these times of so much hate and division, BCUC are like a campfire for people to gather around.

PRODUCTION & ARTWORK

"BCUC have a unique magic," says Outhere's Jay Rutledge, who produced the album. "It blew our minds. It's like punk and pure gospel at the same time. Their music can make you dance and it can make you cry, all at the same time. And when the song is over, you feel you're not alone in this world anymore. We felt compelled to do this." The album cover is based on a matchbox design, matches being a common household item in South Africa even today. "These were the matches people used to burn government buildings and cars," explain BCUC. Little messages, addresses, or phone numbers used to be scribbled on the back of these boxes; each one a reminder of the strength, resilience, and resistance that once drove the struggle for freedom in Soweto. BCUC keep this flame burning. The Road Is Never Easy is a heavy spiritual road trip, a deep dive into the subconscious of Soweto and a quest for truth, justice and sanity in this crazy world. BCUC tackle the harsh realities of the voiceless, guided by the spirit world of their ancestors. Rather than reinforcing stereotypes of poverty, BCUC's portrayal of Africa is one rich in tradition, rituals and beliefs. "We bring fun and Afro-psychedelic fire from the hood," says vocalist Kgomotso Mokone.

José González has delivered a new album, Against the Dying of the Light, a companion and further meditation on the themes of his critically acclaimed album, Local Valley. Where Local Valley turned inward toward place, language, and personal reflection, this new record widens its gaze, becoming an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity with all its flaws, at a moment when, technology increasingly shapes how we think, feel, and relate to one another.

While José has always embraced technological advancement, he questions the assumption that every new possibility must be pursued to its maximum potential, especially when progress comes at the expense of human flourishing, attention, and empathy.

Keeping in the tradition of folk music as protest, José’s new single — sharing its title with the forthcoming album — urges listeners to resist systems that dehumanize and divide: “Disconnect from every algorithm, every perverse incentive that drags you down. Let’s rebel against the replicators, against the dying of the light. Kill the codes that feed the hate, keep the codes that make you thrive, celebrate the **king fact that we’re alive.”

Across the album, González works within a deliberately minimal framework, pushing his familiar palette to new heights through subtle variation, restraint, and detail. Each song unfolds with its own distinct character, proving how much emotional and musical range can be achieved within self - imposed limitations. Written in English, Swedish, and Spanish, the record reflects his Swedish - Argentine roots and frames its humanist message as a global one rather than a purely personal or political statement.

José González is one of the most quietly influential artists of our generation. The Swedish - Argentine artist has built a singular musical world from hypnotic, minimal guitar work and his unmistakably gentle voice — a sound that has become deeply personal to millions of listeners worldwide. With billions of streams across platforms and hundreds of thousands of physical records sold, González’s songs often act as emotional landmarks. Ask almost anyone, and they can name at least one of his tracks tied to a defining moment in their lives.

Nicaraguan-American artist Dagmar Zuniga makes music that feels both intimate and expansive: songs drift like disrupted signals, carried by harmony, tape hiss, and a strong sense of touch. Her debut solo album in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music — written and recorded in New York, Norway, and Athens, Georgia over a period of five years on her longtime companion, the Tascam 424 — was uploaded to Bandcamp and YouTube in January 2025, quickly garnering over two hundred thousand views and the attention of artists such as Mount Eerie, who invited her to tour with them that summer. This year, what was once a jewel of tapped-in algorithms and message boards will meet the world at large, with in filth arriving digitally on March 4, and physically on April 10, via AD 93.

in filth is an atmospheric, devotional collage where one voice multiplies into a chorus of selves, sometimes delicate, sometimes severe; an effect created by Zuniga’s masterful layering of texture and complex harmonies. Synths glitter out like spears of sunlight from beneath clouds of moody, time-distorted guitars, and songs spin about themselves like tightly-wound music boxes, making use of a kind of hypnotic repetition, before melting apart into their components or slipping into the following track.

Zuniga began recording to tape as a teenager, drawn to the physicality of the medium — how a tape recording is fragile, mutable, and alive. Though her ethereal sound may draw easy comparisons to other female pioneers of psychedelic folk, she is influenced just as much by the darker sounds of Syd Barrett and The Fall. Like Barrett, Zuniga is a painter, and she is interested not only in recording music but in creating a full, self-contained artistic universe: she creates her own artwork, merchandise, music videos, and bootleg tapes of new and unfinished music that she exclusively sells at live shows (“If something is not material, it does not exist,” she insists). Her world has not gone unvisited, garnering her a monthly show on NTS Radio ‘World of Pain’, as well as a forthcoming appearance at Rewire Festival in April 2026.

Though Zuniga’s work explores themes of solitude and suffering, the suffering in her songs is not borrowed or displayed; it is held, then opened outward through empathy — an exacting practice of attention that insists on shared ground. Solitude, in her work, is not withdrawal but a starting point for connection. Likewise, over time, her recording process has become increasingly communal, with in filth featuring musicians Hayes Hoey, Austyn Wohlers (Tomato Flower), and Zach Phillips (Fievel Is Glauque). Newer recordings widen the circle even more. For Zuniga, collaboration is a way to “find a place between worlds,” echoing Badiou’s idea of love as a vision refracted through the prism of difference. Meaning emerges there — in the space between voices, between artist and listener. “I hope my music helps people work through difficult experiences,” she says. “The same way it helps me.”

Killer Groove Records proudly presents "Keep Your Step", the explosive comeback by Italian rock steady & early reggae ambassadors The Appetizers, a soulful celebration of reggae's timeless spirit.


"Keep Your Step" marks the band's much-awaited return, landing April 10th on limited edition LP, CD digipack and digital format featuring two exclusive bonus tracks.

The Appetizers deliver a masterclass in roots reggae music with their highly anticipated second studio album, bridging Jamaica's golden age with contemporary relevance. "Keep Your Step" is a heartfelt sonic journey where the band blends rocksteady and early reggae with funk and soul influences to create a sound that's both genuine and refreshingly modern.

The fourteen tracks move fluidly between infectious dancefloor fillers and socially conscious lyrics. From the laid-back swing of "Feel Like Dancing" to the hypnotic rhythm of "Thicker Than Water", the band demonstrates their versatility while remaining true to the roots of Jamaican sound. "A Message from The Meters" pays tribute to the legendary funk pioneers, while the instrumental "Catch This" and "Make It Reggay" highlight the band's musical prowess and the deep connections between reggae and funk.

Meanwhile, tracks like "Fussy Girl" and "Behind My Shoulders" explore love's complexities with humor and soul. The album's heart lies in its social consciousness. "Cool and Deadly", "The Life", "Stormy Weather" and the album title track "Keep Your Step" tell stories of perseverance through life's struggles.

With the hopeful anthem "We Shall Overcome," The Appetizers deliver a timely message about genuine human connection in a social media-dominated era. The digital edition closes with "Get Some Rollin'" and "Swing and Sway," rounding out the journey with two additional gems.

"Keep Your Step" pays homage to Jamaican music legends, from Jackie Mittoo and Tommy McCook to Toots & the Maytals, while carving out The Appetizers' own distinctive sound. This is a groove made for both the dance floor and the soul, proving that reggae's power to inspire, unite, and uplift remains as vital as ever.

The production stays true to The Appetizers' signature sound: organic tones, deep groove, and that live-room vibe you only get when real musicians are locked in together. Luca Monza and Claudio Mambrini, the band's core members, handled the artistic production. Mastering came courtesy of the great JJ Golden (Black Pumas, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Jr. Thomas & The Volcanos, The Frightnrs) at Golden Mastering in Ventura, California. JJ is one of the most trusted engineers working in this sound, ensuring every ounce of warmth and authenticity came through.

The Appetizers are a rocksteady and early reggae band formed in Milan in 2020 by musicians deeply embedded in the Italian and international reggae scene. Musicians from different paths united by a shared vision: recreating that vintage Caribbean and American sound with authenticity, respect and a forward-thinking edge.

Drawing inspiration from Jamaica's golden era and channeling the soul of Delroy Wilson, Alton Ellis, the early Wailers, and The Upsetters, The Appetizers carry forward the essence of bass culture with a pure, fully organic approach.

Their debut album Listen Up! (2022), released via Belgian imprint Badasonic Records (home to The Slackers, The Aggrolites, David Hillyard & Victor Rice), featured ten original tracks and a dub cut by Victor Rice. Distributed across Europe, the UK, the US, and Japan, it quickly earned international recognition among reggae connoisseurs and selectors worldwide.

Following extensive touring, including shows with The Slackers, Black Uhuru, Skip Marley, and more, the band returned to the studio to record "Keep Your Step", their second album produced by Killer Groove Records. Here the band expands its musical language, weaving together the spirit of historic Jamaican labels like Studio One and Treasure Isle with '60s funk, arriving at a warm, organic, and timeless sound: soul, Jamaican roots, and modern sensibility in perfect balance. Their lyrics explore heartbreak, social issues, and reflections on life and music, performed with dedication and respect for tradition while always pushing forward.


If you're into The Skatalites, The Ethiopians, and those classic Caribbean rhythms, this one's for you.

Als Art Blakey im Jahr 1964 das Album “‘S Make It” für Limelight einspielte, befand er sich mit seiner
Band The Jazz Messengers in einer Umbruchphase. In dieser Zeit änderte der Schlagzeuger von einem
Album zu anderen immer wieder die Besetzung. “‘S Make It” wird von vielen Kritikern als eines der
sträflich unterbewerten Alben der Jazz Messengers bezeichnet, auf dem Blakey zu einem gefühlvolleren
Sound zurückkehrte.

Hard Texas Funk aus der renommierten Szene von San Antonio. Während Abe Epstein auf dem General McMullen Boulevard nach West Side Brown-Eyed Soul-Gruppen suchte, antworteten Mickey Foster und seine gemischtrassige Soul Generation Band auf Browns Aufruf, südlich des River Walk den richtigen Weg einzuschlagen. Hier sind ein Dutzend ihrer schwungvollsten und unkonventionellsten Instrumentalstücke versammelt, eine stimmungsvolle Übersicht über die Band von 1969 bis 1977, darunter der Hit ,Iron Leg". Entscheiden Sie sich hier für Ihr nächstes Sample.

Hard Texas Funk aus der renommierten Szene von San Antonio. Während Abe Epstein auf dem General McMullen Boulevard nach West Side Brown-Eyed Soul-Gruppen suchte, antworteten Mickey Foster und seine gemischtrassige Soul Generation Band auf Browns Aufruf, südlich des River Walk den richtigen Weg einzuschlagen. Hier sind ein Dutzend ihrer schwungvollsten und unkonventionellsten Instrumentalstücke versammelt, eine stimmungsvolle Übersicht über die Band von 1969 bis 1977, darunter der Hit ,Iron Leg". Entscheiden Sie sich hier für Ihr nächstes Sample.

How do losers dance? According to Helmut, almost weightlessly, with soft feet, warm gestures, sometimes alone, sometimes together. Content Creatures, Helmut's fourth album, evokes the pop archetype of the "beautiful loser", who had almost disappeared from view in so-called late capitalism. In a present in which even suffering is often similarly instrumentalised and tailored to clicks like a competitive sport, this album sets a counterpoint: those who listen to it suddenly want to be enchanting losers again, useless and joyfully messing up, losing something beloved, having their hearts broken, giving up a dream, sinking into beauty.
You don't sink alone. Comforting harmonies envelop you, the voices of friends appear, accompany you for a while and then disappear again. Warm grooves, floating synths and delicate guitar lines characterise an indie sound that remains open and breathes.
Self-produced for the first time in his home studio in Neukölln, 'Content Creatures' sounds thoughtful and light at the same time. The album will be released digitally and on vinyl on 10 April 2026 on Berlin-based label St.Vladimir. There are four songs on one side and four songs on the other. The cover is adorned with an exceptionally pretty guinea pig. Helmut shows the special in the seemingly ordinary: a child's pet, the most ordinary of all, is his cover star and headstrong protagonist.

Wie tanzen Verlierer? Wenn man nach Helmut geht, dann fast schwerelos, mit weichen Füßen, warmen Gesten, manchmal allein, manchmal gemeinsam. Content Creatures, Helmuts viertes Album, evoziert den Pop-Archetypus des "beautiful loser", der im sogenannten Spätkapitalismus fast aus dem Blick geraten war. In einer Gegenwart, in der sogar das Leid oft ähnlich durchinstrumentalisiert und auf Klicks getrimmt ist wie ein Leistungssport, setzt dieses Album einen Kontrapunkt: Wer es hört, möchte auf einmal gern wieder ein bezaubernder Verlierer sein, nutzlos und freudvoll abkacken, etwas Geliebtes verlieren, das Herz gebrochen bekommen, einen Traum aufgeben, in Schönheit versinken.
Man versinkt nicht allein. Tröstende Harmonien legen sich um einen, die Stimmen von Freundinnen tauchen auf, begleiten einen ein Stück weit und verschwinden wieder. Warme Grooves, schwebende Synths und feine Gitarrenlinien prägen einen Indie-Sound, der offen bleibt, atmet. Erstmals in seinem Neuköllner Homestudio selbst produziert, klingt "Content Creatures" bedacht und leicht zugleich.
Das Album erscheint digital und auf Vinyl am 10.04.2026 auf dem Berliner Label St.Vladimir. Es hat vier Songs auf der einen und vier Songs auf der anderen Seite. Das Cover ziert ein außergewöhnlich hübsches Meerschweinchen. Helmut zeigt das Besondere im scheinbar Gewöhnlichen: Ein Kinderhaustier, das normalste von allen, ist bei ihm Coverstar und eigensinnige Protagonistin.

How do losers dance? According to Helmut, almost weightlessly, with soft feet, warm gestures, sometimes alone, sometimes together. Content Creatures, Helmut's fourth album, evokes the pop archetype of the "beautiful loser", who had almost disappeared from view in so-called late capitalism. In a present in which even suffering is often similarly instrumentalised and tailored to clicks like a competitive sport, this album sets a counterpoint: those who listen to it suddenly want to be enchanting losers again, useless and joyfully messing up, losing something beloved, having their hearts broken, giving up a dream, sinking into beauty.
You don't sink alone. Comforting harmonies envelop you, the voices of friends appear, accompany you for a while and then disappear again. Warm grooves, floating synths and delicate guitar lines characterise an indie sound that remains open and breathes.
Self-produced for the first time in his home studio in Neukölln, 'Content Creatures' sounds thoughtful and light at the same time. The album will be released digitally and on vinyl on 10 April 2026 on Berlin-based label St.Vladimir. There are four songs on one side and four songs on the other. The cover is adorned with an exceptionally pretty guinea pig. Helmut shows the special in the seemingly ordinary: a child's pet, the most ordinary of all, is his cover star and headstrong protagonist.

Wie tanzen Verlierer? Wenn man nach Helmut geht, dann fast schwerelos, mit weichen Füßen, warmen Gesten, manchmal allein, manchmal gemeinsam. Content Creatures, Helmuts viertes Album, evoziert den Pop-Archetypus des "beautiful loser", der im sogenannten Spätkapitalismus fast aus dem Blick geraten war. In einer Gegenwart, in der sogar das Leid oft ähnlich durchinstrumentalisiert und auf Klicks getrimmt ist wie ein Leistungssport, setzt dieses Album einen Kontrapunkt: Wer es hört, möchte auf einmal gern wieder ein bezaubernder Verlierer sein, nutzlos und freudvoll abkacken, etwas Geliebtes verlieren, das Herz gebrochen bekommen, einen Traum aufgeben, in Schönheit versinken.
Man versinkt nicht allein. Tröstende Harmonien legen sich um einen, die Stimmen von Freundinnen tauchen auf, begleiten einen ein Stück weit und verschwinden wieder. Warme Grooves, schwebende Synths und feine Gitarrenlinien prägen einen Indie-Sound, der offen bleibt, atmet. Erstmals in seinem Neuköllner Homestudio selbst produziert, klingt "Content Creatures" bedacht und leicht zugleich.
Das Album erscheint digital und auf Vinyl am 10.04.2026 auf dem Berliner Label St.Vladimir. Es hat vier Songs auf der einen und vier Songs auf der anderen Seite. Das Cover ziert ein außergewöhnlich hübsches Meerschweinchen. Helmut zeigt das Besondere im scheinbar Gewöhnlichen: Ein Kinderhaustier, das normalste von allen, ist bei ihm Coverstar und eigensinnige Protagonistin.

New album from Pictish Trail, AKA Johnny Lynch, known for his wildly inventive electro-acoustic psych-pop. Life Slime is the sixth full-length album by Pictish Trail (AKA Johnny Lynch) - a strange, tender, psychedelic electro-pop record shaped by transformation, exhaustion, hope, guilt, and renewal. Written at home on the Isle of Eigg and recorded at Mike Lindsay's studio down in Margate (Tunng / LUMP), the album follows 2022's critically acclaimed Island Family, further refining Lynch's world of lo-fi electronics, warped pop melodies, baggy psych rhythms and emotionally direct songwriting. It's a record that balances woozy synth-pop, motorik propulsion and intimate acoustic songwriting, all infused with the emotional messiness that gives the album its title. Across the album's singles - the guilt-stained psych-pop ballad 'Hold It', the life-affirming shimmer of 'Infinity Ooze', the late-night confession of 'Torch Song', the expansive eight-minute centrepiece 'Another Way', and the cinematic closer 'Werewolf Ending' - Life Slime charts a journey from emotional fracture to uneasy release. 'Sorry Eyes' brings a punchy electro-pop strut with a sharp emotional edge, 'Crystal Cave' drifts through crystalline guitars and shoegaze haze into transformation, and the title track 'Life Slime' moves with a slow, weary swagger toward bittersweet acceptance. Together, these tracks form a cohesive album statement about surrender, resistance, change and renewal. "Wonderfully weird pop"- Brooklyn Vegan For fans of Hot Chip, The Flaming Lips, Liars, Mercury Rev, Beck, John Grant, Empire of the Sun, Grandaddy. Colour vinyl and digisleeve CD

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

Powerful lyrics are voiced by Jah Rueben Mystic, with the inspirational Ital Horns brass section.

Jah Rueben Mystic vocal evokes the fighting spirit and hopefulness of a message sent out to defeat the arrogance and greed of the capitalistic leaders of the world.

Lock up riddim, composed by Kieko De Stefanis is an original Roots Dub tune.

The Dub -produced by Gaudi- is a musical journey through the sound of 70's roots, Gaudi here adds his own analogue trademark creativity and psychedelic-dub mastery effects to the track.

"Let Me Loose" is a dance floor inspired disco jam about cutting loose things that

hold you back. It's a four on the floor jam with a message of taking positive change

and running with it. Don't sleep on this uptempo 7-inch from GED SOUL!

LIMITED to 500

Thirty years after its release, Robert Miles' 'Children' remains the most famous instrumental electronic track
in the world. To celebrate this anniversary, a special numbered collector’s reissue is being released.
Dedicated to one of the most iconic pieces in electronic music history, this edition features artwork that stays
true to the original 1996 debut."

Crypt of the Wizard is proud to make available two legendary underground albums by Slutet on vinyl and digital formats.
Slutet originated in Uppsala well over a decade ago, first emerging as a loose idea around 2010. The original cluster of strangely like minded individuals - Dingir, Ryttersson, J.P., Sviatopolk, were equally set on starting a cult as they were a band, the former emerging as a loose collective known as The End Commune, while the latter eventually began rehearsing together as Slutet on September 1, 2013.
From this constellation three notorious demo tapes sprung which were self-released in very limited numbers, and only available by trading bodily fluids, blood, and/or hair for the cassettes. “A very loose guess but we made probably around 20-30 hand-drawn/custom demo tapes of the first three releases. We got blood and hair from many places, actually the very first offering was from INDONESIA. Slovakia, Germany, USA, Argentina, Norway, Canada, Finland followed.... if my memory serves..... hazy years indeed”
J.P. left early 2015. Later that year, after trying the band as a bass-drum-vocals outfit for a while, Fjalar joined on guitar. This is the classic constellation. Dingir, Ryttersson, Fjalar, Sviatopolk. The same troupe playing to this very day.
Following on from the compilation Slutet began work on their next offering entitled Jihad. While the departure of J.P. left them temporarily without a guitarist, a chance meeting with Fjalar at a rave ushered in a new era for the band. “I met the drummer and the bass player at a psytrance rave in the forest. I didn’t have any band and I wanted to play music and I saw this fucking weirdo with long dreads and a Hellhammer shirt and I just went up to talk to him”.
After Fjalar joined the rather chaotic fray, songwriting duties were spread out more broadly and Jihad was rehearsed and recorded in a haze. First released as a cassette by Manifest Of Hate Creations, and later on vinyl in an edition of 100 by Goatowarex the release quickly sold out and became as legendary, and as incredibly difficult to obtain as the previous releases. “It has got some psychedelic improvs, some very unorthodox and quite genius vocal work, some electronic undertones, some noisy ambience, a message of existentialism; all this wrapped up in some sloppy but very authentic and intense black metal-ish music.”
“After the vinyl compilation was out (early 2015) we felt probably a bit directionless, and, having parted ways with a befriended and talented guitar player, we felt maybe a bit morally weakened to continue. First, for a year almost, we toiled on without the 6-strings and rehearsed quite lengthy material for a proposed upcoming LP. However, that material never surfaced. Then we got a new guitar player (Fjalar) and created and recorded this mess”.
It is with great pride that we make these albums available to a general audience and in a wider pressing without need for bloodshed.

UILTY RAZORS, BONA FIDE PUNKS.



Writings on the topic that go off in all directions, mind-numbing lectures given by academics, and testimonies, most of them heavily doctored, from those who “lived through that era”: so many people today fantasize about the early days of punk in our country… This blessed moment when no one had yet thought of flaunting a ridiculous green mohawk, taking Sid Vicious as a hero, or – even worse – making the so-called alternative scene both festive and boorish. There was no such thing in 1976 or 1977, when it wasn’t easy to get hold of the first 45s by the Pistols or the Clash. Few people were aware of what was happening on the fringes of the fringes at the time. Malcolm McLaren was virtually unknown, and having short hair made you seem strange. Who knew then that rock music, which had taken a very bad turn since the early 1970s, would once again become an essential element of liberation? That, thanks to short and fast songs, it would once again rediscover that primitive, social side that was so hated by older generations? Who knew that, besides a few loners who read the music press (it was even better if they read it in English) and frequented the right record stores? Many of these formed bands, because it was impossible to do otherwise. We quickly went from listening to the Velvet Underground to trying to play the Stooges’ intros. It’s a somewhat collective story, even though there weren’t many people to start it.
The Guilty Razors were among those who took part in this initial upheaval in Paris. They were far from being the worst. They had something special and even released a single that was well above the national average. They also had enough songs to fill an album, the one you’re holding. In everyone’s opinion, they were definitely not among the punk impostors that followed in their wake. They were, at least, genuine and credible.

Guilty Razors, Parisian punk band (1975-1978). To understand something about their somewhat linear but very energetic sound, we might need to talk about the context in which it was born and, more broadly, recall the boredom (a theme that would become capital in punk songs) coupled with the desire to blow everything off, which were the basis for the formation of bands playing a rejuvenated rock music ; about the passion for a few records by the Kinks or the early Who, by the Stooges, by the Velvet mostly, which set you apart from the crowd.
And of course, we should remember this new wave, which was promoted by a few articles in the specialized press and some cutting-edge record stores, coming from New York or London, whose small but powerful influence could be felt in Paris and in a handful of isolated places in the provinces, lulled to sleep by so many appalling things, from Tangerine Dream to President Giscard d’Estaing...
In 1975-76, French music was, as almost always, in a sorry state ; it was still dominated by Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. Local rock music was also rather bleak, apart from Bijou and Little Bob who tried to revive this small scene with poorly sound-engineered gigs played to almost no one.
In the working class suburbs at the time, it was mainly hard rock music played to 11 that helped people forget about their gruelling shifts at the factory. Here and there, on the outskirts of major cities, you still could find a few rockers with sideburns wearing black armbands since the death of Gene Vincent, but it wasn’t a proper mass movement, just a source of real danger to anyone they came across who wasn't like them. In August 1976, a festival unlike any other took place in Mont-de-Marsan – the First European Punk Festival as the poster said – with almost as many people on stage as in the audience. Yet, on that day, a quasi historical event happened, when, under the blazing afternoon sun, a band of unknowns called The Damned made an unprecedented noise in the arena, reminiscent of the chaotic Stooges in their early adolescence. They were the first genuine punk band to perform in our country: from then on, anything was possible, almost anything seemed permissible.

It makes sense that the four+1 members of Guilty Razors, who initially amplified acoustic guitars with crappy tape recorder microphones, would adopt punk music (pronounced paink in French) naturally and instinctively, since it combines liberating noise with speed of execution and – crucially – a very healthy sense of rebellion (the protesters of May 1968 proclaimed, and it was even a slogan, that they weren’t against old people, but against what had made them grow old. In the mid-1970s, it seemed normal and obvious that old people should now ALSO be targeted!!!).
At the time, the desire to fight back, and break down authority and apathy, was either red or black, often taking the form of leafleting, tumultuous general assemblies in the schoolyard, and massive or shabby demonstrations, most of the time overflowing with an exciting vitality that sometimes turned into fights with the riot police. Indeed, soon after the end of the Vietnam War and following Pinochet’s coup in Chile, all over France, Trotskyist and anarcho-libertarian fervour was firmly entrenched among parts of the educated youth population, who were equally rebellious and troublemakers whenever they had the chance. It should also be noted that when the single "Anarchy in the UK" was first heard, even though not many of us had access to it, both the title and its explosive sound immediately resonated with some of those troublemakers crying out for ANARCHY!!! Meanwhile, the left-wing majority still equated punks with reckless young neo-Nazis. Of course, the widely circulated photos in the mainstream press of Siouxsie Sioux with her swastikas didn’t necessarily help to win over the theorists of the Great Revolution. It took Joe Strummer to introduce The Clash as an anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-ignorance band for the rejection of old-school revolutionaries to fade a little.

The Lycée Jean-Baptiste Say at Porte d’Auteuil, despite being located in the very posh and very exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris, didn’t escape these "committed" upheavals, which doubled as the perfect outlet for the less timid members of this generation.
“Back then, politics were fun,” says Tristam Nada, who studied there and went on to become Guilty Razors’ frontman. “Jean-Baptiste was the leftist high-school in the neighbourhood. When the far right guys from the GUD came down there, the Communist League guys from elsewhere helped us fight them off.”
Anything that could challenge authority was fair game and of course, strikes for just about any reason would lead to increasingly frequent truancy (with a definitive farewell to education that would soon follow). Tristam Nada spent his 10th and 11th unfinished grades with José Perez, who had come from Spain, where his father, a janitor, had been sentenced to death by Franco. “José steered my tastes towards solid acts such as The Who. Like most teenagers, I had previously absorbed just about everything that came my way, from Yes to Led Zeppelin to Genesis. I was exploring… And then one day, he told me that he and his brother Carlos wanted to start a rock band.” The Perez brothers already played guitar. “Of course, they were Spanish!”, jokes their singer. “Then, somewhat reluctantly, José took up the bass and we were soon joined by Jano – who called himself Jano Homicid – who took up the rhythm guitar.” Several drummers would later join this core of not easily intimidated young guys who didn’t let adversity get the better of them.

The first rehearsals of the newly named Guilty Razors took place in the bedroom of a Perez aunt. There, the three rookies tried to cover a few standards, songs that often were an integral part of their lives. During a first, short gig, in front of a bewildered audience of tough old-school rockers, they launched into a clunky version of the Velvet Underground's “Heroin”. Challenge or recklessness? A bit of both, probably… And then, step by step, their limited repertoire expanded as they decided to write their own songs, sung in a not always very accurate or academic English, but who cared about proper grammar or the right vocabulary, since what truly mattered was to make the words sound as good as possible while playing very, very fast music? And spitting out those words in a language that left no doubt as to what it conveyed mattered as well.
Trying their hand a the kind of rock music disliked by most of the neighbourhood, making noise, being fiercely provocative: they still belonged to a tiny clique who, at this very moment, had chosen to impose this difference. And there were very few places in France or elsewhere, where one could witness the first stirrings of something that wasn’t a trend yet, let alone a movement.

In the provinces, in late 1976 or early 1977, there couldn’t be more than thirty record stores that were a bit more discerning than average, where you could hear this new kind of short-haired rock music called “punk”. The old clientele, who previously had no problem coming in to buy the latest McCartney or Aerosmith LP, now felt a little less comfortable there…
In Paris, these enlightened places were quite rare and often located nex to what would become the Forum des Halles, a big shopping mall. Between three aging sex workers, a couple of second-hand clothes shops, sellers of hippie paraphernalia and small fashion designers, the good word was loudly spread in two pioneering places – propagators of what was still only a new underground movement. Historically, the first one was the Open Market, a kind of poorly, but tastefully stocked cave. Speakers blasted out the sound of sixties garage bands from the Nuggets compilation (a crucial reference for José Perez) or the badly dressed English kids of Eddie and the Hot Rods. This black-painted den was opened a few years earlier by Marc Zermati, a character who wasn’t always in a sunny disposition, but always quite radical in his (good) choices and his opinions. He founded the independent label Skydog and was one of the promoters of the Mont-de-Marsan punk festivals. Not far from there was Harry Cover, another store more in tune with the new New York scene, which was amply covered in the house fanzine, Rock News (even though it was in it that the photos of the Sex Pistols were first published in France).
It was a favorite hang-out of the Perez brothers and Tristam Nada, as the latter explained. “It’s at Harry Cover’s that we first heard the Pistols and Clash’s 45s, and after that, we decided to start writing our first songs. If they could do it, so could we!”
The sonic shocks that were “Anarchy in the UK”, “White Riot” or the Buzzcocks’s EP, “Spiral Scratch” – which Guilty Razors' sound is reminiscent of – were soon to be amplified by an unparalleled visual shock. In April 1977, right after the release of their first LP, The Clash performed at the Palais des Glaces in Paris, during a punk night organised by Marc Zermati. For many who were there, it was the gig of a lifetime…
Of course, Guilty Razors and Tristam were in the audience: “That concert was fabulous… We Parisian punks were almost all dressed in black and white, with white shirts, skinny leather ties, bikers jackets or light jackets, etc. The Clash, on the other hand, wore colourful clothes. Well, the next day, at the Gibus, you’d spot everyone who had been at this concert, but they weren’t wearing anything black, they were all wearing colours.”

It makes sense to mention the Gibus club, as Guilty Razors often played there (sometimes in front of a hostile audience). It was also the only place in Paris that regularly scheduled new Parisian or Anglo-Saxon acts, such as Generation X, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Johnny Thunders who would become a kind of messed-up mascot for the venue. A little later, in 1978, the Rose Bonbon – formerly the Nashville – also attracted nightly owls in search of electric thrills… In 1977, the iconic but not necessarily excellent Asphalt Jungle often played at the Gibus, sometimes sharing the bill with Metal Urbain, the only band whose aura would later transcend the French borders (“I saw them as the French Sex Pistols,” said Geoff Travis, head of their British label Rough Trade). Already established in this small scene, Metal Urbain helped the young and restless Guilty Razors who had just arrived. Guitarist for Metal Urbain Hermann Schwartz remembers it: “They were younger than us, we were a bit like their mentors even if it’s too strong a word… At least they were credible. We thought they were good, and they had good songs which reminded of the Buzzcocks that I liked a lot. But at some point, they started hanging out with the Hells Angels. That’s when we stopped following them.”

The break-up was mutual, since, Guilty Razors, for their part, were shocked when they saw a fringe element of the audience at Metal Urbain concerts who repeatedly shouted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. These provocations, even still minor (the bulk of the skinhead crowd would later make their presence felt during concerts), weren’t really to the liking of the Perez brothers, whose anti-fascist convictions were firmly rooted. Some things are non-negotiable.
A few months earlier (in July 1978), Guilty Razors had nevertheless opened very successfully for Metal Urbain at the Bus Palladium, a more traditonally old-school rock night-club. But, as was sometimes the case back then, the night turned into a mass brawl when suburban rockers came to “beat up punks”.

Back then, Parisian nights weren’t always sweet and serene.

So, after opening as best as they could for The Jam (their sound having been ruined by the PA system), our local heroes were – once again – met outside by a horde of greasers out to get them. “Thankfully,” says Tristam, “we were with our roadies, motorless bikers who acted as a protective barrier. We were chased in the neighbouring streets and the whole thing ended in front of a bar, with the owner coming out with a rifle…”
Although Tristam and the Perez brothers narrowly escaped various, potentially bloody, incidents, they weren’t completely innocent of wrongdoing either. They still find amusing their mugging of two strangers in the street for example (“We were broke and we simply wanted to buy tickets for the Heartbreakers concert that night,” says Tristam). It so happened that their victims were two key figures in the rock business at the time: radio presenter Alain Manneval and music publisher Philippe Constantin. They filed a complaint and sought monetary compensation, but somehow the band’s manager, the skilful but very controversial Alexis, managed to get the complaint withdrawn and Guilty Razors ended up signing with Constantin with a substantial advance.

They also signed with Polydor and the label released in 1978 their only three-track 45, featuring “I Don't Wanna be A Rich”, “Hurts and Noises” and “Provocate” (songs that exuded perpetual rebellion and an unquenchable desire for “class” confrontation). It was a very good record, but due to a lack of promotion (radio stations didn’t play French artists singing in English), it didn’t sell very well. Only 800 copies were allegedly sold and the rest of the stock was pulped… Initially, the three tracks were to be included on a LP that never came to be, since they were dropped by Polydor (“Let’s say we sometimes caused a ruckus in their offices!” laughs Tristam.) In order to perfect the long-awaited LP, the band recorded demos of other tracks. There was a cover of Pink Floyd's “Lucifer Sam” from the Syd Barrett era – proof of an enduring love for the sixties’ greats –, “Wake Up” a hangover tale and “Bad Heart” about the Baader-Meinhof gang, whose actions had a profound impact on the era and on a generation seeking extreme dissent... On the album you’re now discovering, you can also hear five previously unreleased tracks recorded a bit later during an extended and freezing stay in Madrid, in a makeshift studio with the invaluable help of a drummer also acting as sound engineer. He was both an enthusiastic old hippie and a proper whizz at sound engineering. Here too, certain influences from the fifties and sixties (Link Wray, the Troggs) are more than obvious in the band’s music.

Shortly after a final stormy and rather barbaric (on the audience’s side) “Punk night” at the Olympia in June 1978, Tristam left the band ; his bandmates continued without him for a short while.

But like most pioneering punk bands of the era, Guilty Razors eventually split up for good after three years (besides once in Spain, they’d only played in Paris). The reason for ceasing business activities were more or less the same for everyone: there were no venues outside one’s small circuit to play this kind of rock music, which was still frightening, unknown, or of little interest to most people. The chances of recording an LP were virtually null, since major labels were only signing unoriginal but reassuring sub-Téléphone clones, and the smaller ones were only interested in progressive rock or French chanson for youth clubs. And what about self-production? No one in our small safety-pinned world had thought about it yet. There wasn’t enough money to embark on that sort of venture anyway.

So yes, the early days of punk in France were truly No Future!

VERY LIMITED TRANSPARENT PURPLE COLOURED VINYL - 100 UNITS ONLY FOR EUROPE


Lucky Number are thrilled to announce the release of both TRICK and RULES the latest albums to be released by the Philadelphia-based songwriter Alex Giannascoli, more commonly known as Alex G. Trick and Rules follow on the acclaimed heels of the November 2014 international release of Alex's fifth album, DSU. Recorded prior to DSU and previously only available via Alex's Bandcamp account, the albums have now been professionally mastered and are being made commercially available for the very first time.

Rules is soaked in the distinctive personality that is Alex G, the professionally mastered versions of these tracks further highlight that Alex has a serious knack for melodic songwriting.

In addition, Lucky Number are also thrilled to be releasing Trick, Alex's fourth album. Written and recorded just a few months after Rules, they both harbour a similar charm that makes it feel right for them to be released together.

Both Trick and Rules continue to showcase a prodigious song-writing talent, reaffirming that Alex G is one of the most promising and prolific American musicians today.

New Jon Savage Compilation release alert! Jon Savage's SF Sike 1966-72 (Double Vinyl) Limited Edition. Heavyweight Luxury Gauge Sleeve-Stock & Inners.

The real sound of San Francisco 1966-72." It was the new gold rush, but with drugs, music and freedom the goal. " (Jon Savage -The Guardian August 2012)

A limited edition double vinyl 18 track album celebrating the great pop music and idealism of that time & featuring Moby Grape, Skip Spence, Ron Nagle, Country Joe & The Fish & much more

Full contextual & track-by-track sleeve notes by Jon Savage. Ephemera & archive material from the period.

With bands such as Hellhammer/Celtic Frost and Coroner, but also more obscure formations such as Fear Of God, Excruciation, and Infected, Switzerland has always been a fertile breeding ground for extreme metal. Messiah, originally formed in 1984, also played a major role in the development of thrash and death metal in Switzerland. They released two groundbreaking albums on Chainsaw Murder Records: “Hymn To Abramelin” in 1986 and “Extreme Cold Weather” a year later. In the early nineties, Messiah signed a contract with Karl Walterbach's label Noise Records, on which three more albums were released: “Choir Of Horrors” (1991), “Rotten Perish” (1992), and “Underground” (1994). The classic lineup of Messiah during the Noise era consisted of vocalist Andy Kaina, who passed away far too early in 2022, Steve Karrer on drums, Patrick Hersche on bass, and band founder Brögi on guitar. Many consider “Choir Of Horrors” from 1991, produced by Sven Conquest at Sky Trak Studios in Berlin, to be the pinnacle of Messiah's work. Messiah Infernal Thrashing Records (MITR) is now releasing the 35th anniversary edition of this classic on vinyl

When Ryan DeRobertis announced the name change of his project from Saint Pepsi to Skylar Spence, there was no indication of any stylistic departure, though the change arrived with a musical shift toward faster tempos and more pristine production. Whereas Saint Pepsi had often used decades-old boogie, disco, and new wave as grist for the sampling mill, Skylar Spence is intent on trafficking more overtly in those genre aesthetics through his own production techniques and vocal contributions. With Prom King, DeRobertis reorients his music for his new full-band live act and winds up with an album full of tight and enveloping dance tunes.

Working with Carpark Records 'gave me the confidence to 'go big' with the new material: to write pop songs with universal messages in the sonic wrapping paper that I've grown accustomed to,' DeRobertis says. 'A few songs on Prom King are about specific events in my life—a party where I got too messed up, watching a friend's life spiral out of control and trying to help—but I tried hard not to be too autobiographical because I want my music to unite, above all else. I'm much more interested in connecting with the listener than mystifying my personality.'

While DeRobertis' previous long-players have been more amorphous collections in the style of beat tapes, Prom King is compact and cohesive, with the album's varied stylistic references (new wave, UK garage, boogie) united through strong guitar melodies and Todd Edwards-ian cobblings-together of tiny vocal samples. 'I slowed some music down and called myself an artist,' DeRobertis sings on lead single 'Can't You See,' acknowledging in his lyrics what is already apparent in the music's tone—he can maintain fidelity to his vision while working in more uptempo, disco-based song structures.

'Ridiculous!' and 'Bounce Is Back' are big groovers that capitalize on jacking hi-hats and hand drumming, respectively, and both have an air of Balearic warmth and smoothness. On the title track, DeRobertis entwines a chorus of unintelligible but expressive samples with his own vocals—what feels like a synthesis of two approaches—and the result is an affecting pattern of build and release. More contemplative sophisti-pop numbers like 'Fall Harder' and 'Affairs' add a realist's breadth of scope: thoughts of past foibles bleed into present-dwelling and dancing.

Prom King is DeRobertis making sense of missed opportunities. His high school did not have a prom king; he has filled the position with an imaginative album of personal and musical revisionism.

Antivenom is the fourth album from Portland melancholic dark alternative trio Darkswoon, refining their blend of darkwave, post-punk, and shoegaze into a focused and emotionally charged statement.

Built on a hardware-driven electronic foundation, the album pairs cold mechanical textures with an intimate human core, carrying Jana Cushman’s ethereally soaring vocals as they con-front themes of loss, anxiety, fear, and inequality with unflinching honesty. Norah Lynn’s melodic, gritty bass lines weave through Rachel Ellis’ propulsive rhythms, while Cushman’s guitar creates a dense sonic web that occasionally drifts into more expansive shoegaze territory.

Cohesive yet urgent, Antivenom unfolds as an atmospheric whole filled with cautionary messages and the weight of words left unsaid, capturing a band confident in its evo-lution and singular voice within the dark alternative landscape

“Better Days” is a strikingly beautiful anthem built around the Carltons’ breathtaking harmonies and a patient, rolling,
minimalist Reggae rhythm made of syncopated drums and a gentle horn section in background, hence serving the
strong vocal delivery even further. Without forgetting the equally beautiful lyrics delivering a powerful message of
resilience, optimism and faith. Beautiful harmonies, minimalist rhythm and uplifting lyrics all together make
“Better Days” one of the Shoes most enduring performances and a Reggae masterpiece that invites to both reflection and musical delight...
 

“Station Underground News” was in fact the A track on the original 1973 single with Lee Perry credited as “King Koba”.
It is a subterranean journey through Perry’s imagination. Built from a skeletal rhythm track, the piece unfolds as a series of
musical interventions: echoing vocals, fractured percussion, Funky manipulations and more.
This little know tracks capture perfectly Perry’s trademark blend of Jamaican musical textures, off kilter rhythms,
experimentations and unbridled whimsy and creativity…

Enjoy!

The new album by L.Y.R., their third commercial release, begins with the idea that the furthest points of light - stars - can only be seen in the dark. It’s a kind of contradiction that finds musical expression in these new tracks, the band always navigating towards sightings of hopefulness and constancy in an increasingly bewildering and storm-battered world.

The term dark sky reservation has its origins in environmentalism, and several tracks on the album deal with the messed-up weather of our contemporary planet, both meteorological and psychological, from descriptions of an earth deluged by thunderstorms to the soggy back-gardens of suburbia, a climate crisis brought on by rampant urbanism. In that context, dark sky reservations are those regions of the landscape where light pollution is discouraged and even outlawed, to allow scientists and casual stargazers to peer into the cosmos and see the glory of the constellations, patterns of light that have entranced and mystified us for hundreds of thousands of years.

It’s from those designated zones that human beings get a sense of their place in the universe, and experience the wonder of the here and now against a context of eternity and infinity. An alternative to the hectic craziness of everyday life, so often virtual and synthetic, the dark sky reservation is a place of refuge and dreaming, and like L.Y.R.’s music, such spaces are earmarked for contemplation and thoughtfulness.

L.Y.R. is author and current British poet laureate Simon Armitage, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist & producer Patrick Pearson.

Horrorful Heights markiert ein beeindruckendes neues Kapitel im umfangreichen Werk von The Bevis Frond und zeigt die anhaltende Kreativität des Songwriters, Gitarristen und Frontmanns Nick Saloman, der nun in ein weiteres Jahrzehnt als Musiker startet. Seit langem als eine der markantesten Stimmen des britischen Underground-Rock etabliert, verfeinert Saloman weiterhin die Qualitäten der Band aus melodischer Psychedelia, drahtigen Gitarrenepen und Songwriter-Kunst. Einer der zugänglichsten Einstiege in die Bevis Frond Welt, welcher alle Stärken zu einem zusammenhängenden, lebendigen Ganzen vereint. Das Album bewegt sich fließend zwischen klirrendem Psych-Pop, schweren Gitarrenriffs und pastoralen Träumereien. Die Bandbreite des Albums ist groß, aber klar definiert. "Draining The Bad Blood" erinnert an den klassischen Bevis-Frond-Stil melodisch inspirierten Gitarrenpops der 60er Jahre, "Space Age Eyes", eine prägnante neunminütige Odyssee, verweist auf die transzendentalen Erkundungen des elektrischen Miles Davis der 70er Jahre. Der mit Sitar untermalte Titeltrack driftet durch rauchige Psychedelia mit mehrstimmigem Gesang und geschichteten Tablas - ein liebevolles Echo der Headshop-Mystik, mit der Saloman während der gesamten Bandgeschichte gespielt hat. An anderer Stelle verbindet "Mossback's Dream" lysergische Leads mit der treibenden Energie des amerikanischen Hardcore der 80er Jahre und schafft so einen Hybrid, der sowohl zeitlos als auch völlig eigenständig wirkt. Weitere Höhepunkte sind das von den Byrds beeinflusste "Buffaloed", das wirbelnde "Silver Insects" und "That's Your Lot", ein rasantes Feuerwerk melancholischer Euphorie und einer der unmittelbarsten Songs des Albums. Obwohl eklektisch anmutend, ist es ein fokussiertes Porträt von The Bevis Frond im Jahr 2025 - vital, melodisch und frei von Nostalgie. Saloman beschreibt die Sammlung ganz einfach: die besten Songs, die er in den letzten Jahren geschrieben hat, entstanden ohne Zwang und ganz instinktiv. Das Ergebnis ist ein Höhepunkt aus der Spätphase einer der stillsten einflussreichen Underground-Bands Großbritanniens.

What's the point of the howl of string to speaker, the hammering of stick-on skin? Is it transcendence, elevating the human spirit by catharsis in sound? Or is it summoning chaos, a purgatory in which to bask in all that’s unclean, the better to feel alive?
Why not both? Because that’s what’s on offer on Diet Of Worms, the second Rocket release by The Shits, Leeds via Newcastle’s titans of disgust and deliverance. This is a feast for the senses in the worst way possible - primal rock boiled down to its essence and flung full in your face. Using repetition, tortured vocal invective and heads-down intensity as blunt instruments, these eight tracks are an unprecedented torrent of acidic salvation. Whilst lurking somewhere on the decadence-destruction axis between the nihilism of prime Stooges and the bloody blackout of Braimbombs, Diet Of Worms is possessed of a legitimately uncompromising hostility that both elevates and debases it to co-ordinates unknown.
There are revelations here in the riffage and the rancour, even if they are the kind that occur in the bleary miasma of the lock-in, or witnessing the streetlight blur of the subsequent stagger home. Even more single-minded and remorseless than the band’s Rocket debut ‘You’re A Mess’, this is a record that demands full immersion. Whether it’s ‘Then You’re Dead’ hammering on a pulverising garage-stinking riff until it begs for mercy, or ‘Change My Ways’, whose Creedence-In-Hell swagger and lurch is that of abjection transmuted into joy, this is psychedelia forcibly removed from its comfort zone of pastiche, and thrust into a bad-trip realm of the vivid and nightmarish.
But rarely has the process of making beauty and horror indivisible seemed like so much fun. If Werner Herzog was right, and the only harmony in the universe is that of overwhelming and collective murder, then The Shits are the true music of the spheres.

A collection of fourteen digital reggae, deep roots and dub rarities from the Nigerian underground, spotlighting a time when Jamaican reggae entwined with Nigerian styles, politics and consciousness, creating a bridge between Lagos and Kingston. Fight the Fire is a companion piece to Soundway"s seminal "Doing it in Lagos" and "Nigeria Special" compilations, celebrating the innovation and musical experimentation of Nigeria in the 80s. Features rare tracks from key figures of the time including Oby Onyioha (with a crucial Burning Spear cover) and Orits Williki.

Industrial Dark Hardcore, dirty bass kicks and broken typicall Deathchant break dancefloor tricks.

It’s been 12 years since Karizma’s last album, and in that time the world has changed beyond recognition.
What has remained constant is Karizma’s commitment to constantly pushing the boundaries of his sound and defying categorization, effortlessly moving from down-tempo soul, hip-hop, house and electronic dance, and connecting it all with his emotive production and his ear for moving a dance- floor.
“Can’t Call !t” is a double album that sees Karizma craft 17 tracks to take his music in ever new directions. As always, he pours his heart into every cut, always with a message and purpose of intent.
Like all of us, Karizma’s wondering what comes next, which way things will go. Can you call it?

Magma, is a French cross-genre, jazz-rock rooted, progressive rock and fusion band founded in 1969 by drummer Christian Vander. Magma have existed in two phases, the first was formed in the summer of 1969 and debuted on LP in 1970, continuing through to 1983. Kobaia was released spring 1970 and 1001 Centigrades was released April of 71.

Jeb Loy Nichols is at it again with a brand new 7” that pairs two sides of his soulful storytelling. On the A-side, the exclusive cut “Do The Get Together” makes its debut – a slow-burning southern soul dancer that gently calls people closer, both on the dancefloor and beyond it. With warmth, patience, and a steady groove, Nichols invites connection without force, offering a quiet reminder that togetherness can still feel natural and unpretentious.

Driven by Cold Diamond & Mink’s deep-pocket rhythm and understated analog textures, “Do The Get Together” unfolds with ease. The groove never rushes, allowing Jeb’s voice to guide the message with soft authority and lived-in wisdom. It’s a song that feels tailor-made for late-night spins, where movement and meaning find common ground.
On the flip, “First Night Away From Home” brings listeners back to the opening chapter of Nichols’ latest album This House is Empty Without You. Warm, melodic, and intimate, the track captures that mix of vulnerability and quiet resolve that defines Jeb’s songwriting. Together, these two sides form a perfect 7” pairing, pressed for those who value soul that speaks gently but stays with you

Hagridden' is the second full-length from Scottish sisters Bratakus. Fiercely political and unapologetic, the duo made up of siblings Brèagha Cuinn (guitar and vocals) and Onnagh Cuinn (bass and vocals) deliver ten songs that combine garage rock and feminist punk with the same deft poise as forerunners The Distillers, The Donnas, Bikini Kill and X-Ray Spex.
In 2019, a BBC news report called Bratakus "the UK's most remote punk band". Formed in 2015 outside a small whiskey village called Tomintoul in the Scottish Highlands, the sisters (then 14 and 8 years old) have maintained a DIY ethos in everything they've done. Recording at home, self-releasing music, booking their own tours and with no drummer available locally, the duo turned their limitation into a statement, performing live with a drum machine and cementing their reputation as an uncompromising force within the punk scene.
'Hagridden' marks a new beginning for the two sisters, introducing real drums to the recording process (including a guest appearance from Chris Dangerous of Swedish rock band The Hives) plus a more focused approach to songwriting. The message and music are just as loud, but the execution is now deadlier than ever.

An album with reflection, resilience, journey, and elemental connections at its core, Hollow Chapters is a collection of original songs written and performed by the Marsh Family - Dad (Ben, 49), Mum (Danielle, 48), sons Alfie (19) and Tom (18), and daughters Ella (16) and Tess (14). Recently featured in The Observer, the multiinstrumentalist family group of six from Kent have a significant international online following passionate about their mix of folk- pop harmonies, uplifting messages, authentic imperfections, and sense of connection and heart. Hollow Chapters ranges across genres (from acoustic protest songs to funk and reggae rock), but has a vintage organic style, rooted in natural analogies, ideas of journey and lifecycle, and epic and inspirational themes. It promises to move people emotionally, whether through ballads about departed loved ones or stirring tracks designed to forge collective action and hope. The songs tell stories using the different voices of family members, drawing inspiration from poetry, landscape, and artefacts.

José González has delivered a new album, Against the Dying of the Light, a companion and further meditation on the themes of his critically acclaimed album, Local Valley. Where Local Valley turned inward toward place, language, and personal reflection, this new record widens its gaze, becoming an urgent call to preserve the light of humanity with all its flaws, at a moment when, technology increasingly shapes how we think, feel, and relate to one another.

While José has always embraced technological advancement, he questions the assumption that every new possibility must be pursued to its maximum potential, especially when progress comes at the expense of human flourishing, attention, and empathy.

Keeping in the tradition of folk music as protest, José’s new single — sharing its title with the forthcoming album — urges listeners to resist systems that dehumanize and divide: “Disconnect from every algorithm, every perverse incentive that drags you down. Let’s rebel against the replicators, against the dying of the light. Kill the codes that feed the hate, keep the codes that make you thrive, celebrate the **king fact that we’re alive.”

Across the album, González works within a deliberately minimal framework, pushing his familiar palette to new heights through subtle variation, restraint, and detail. Each song unfolds with its own distinct character, proving how much emotional and musical range can be achieved within self - imposed limitations. Written in English, Swedish, and Spanish, the record reflects his Swedish - Argentine roots and frames its humanist message as a global one rather than a purely personal or political statement.

José González is one of the most quietly influential artists of our generation. The Swedish - Argentine artist has built a singular musical world from hypnotic, minimal guitar work and his unmistakably gentle voice — a sound that has become deeply personal to millions of listeners worldwide. With billions of streams across platforms and hundreds of thousands of physical records sold, González’s songs often act as emotional landmarks. Ask almost anyone, and they can name at least one of his tracks tied to a defining moment in their lives.

PMF006 Has Landed

Poor Man's Friend Recordsproudly welcomes the legendarySylford Walkerto the label with a powerful roots debut single:"They Don't Know."

True to form, this track delivers exactly what you'd expect — and crave — from one of reggae's most iconic and unmistakable Rasta voices. Aheavily saturated drum and bass groovesets the foundation, locked tight with atough, swung Nyahbinghi section. The rhythm is sparse but deeply textured, featuring carefully placedguitars, percussion, and saxophonethat leave room for the message to breathe.

Low in tempo butloaded with low-end weight, "They Don't Know" is a roots statement that resonates. Fans of classic conscious anthems like"Babylonians," "Chant Down Babylon,"and"Africa Homeland"will find themselves right at home.

A heavyweight One Drop. A voice of experience. A message for the times.
Don't sleep on this one.

Out now via Kudos/Poor Man's Friend Records.Catalog number:PMF006.

Russell Paine (Super Disco Edits).

These four tracks simply blew me away when I heard them. Its raw disco funk cosmic energy that you just can't replicate. Sometimes when you get a long disco track that's eight or ten minutes long, mundane thoughts and loss of interest can start to kick in once the dums and bongo's have faded.

This isn't the case with Magique. You just keep joining the rocket ride to the stars.

From the social message disco funk of "Inch By Inch" which is still relevant to today's social problems. "Dancin" and "Disco Nights" epitomise why we love disco.

And finally "Disco Cowboy" has a sound that harks back to those Plainfield NJ P-Funk roots. I think if any of the Dj pioneers from the 1970's stumbled across these they would have been etched in Disco Folklore!

xm Black talk [Part 1]
[xn] Hörprobe Track 8: Black talk [Part 1]



[xr] Thank you [Part 1]
[xs] Hörprobe Track 9: Thank you [Part 1]




























[yv] Listen here [Part 1]
[yw] Hörprobe Track 15: Listen here [Part 1]








[h] B4 | Charles Earland - Black talk [Part 1]
[i] B5 | Melvin Sparks - (Jazz) Thank you [Part 1]





[o] D2 | Freddie McCoy - Listen here [Part 1]

Patience moonlights as one of the most underworked muscles of the modern human. Time meanders at the same pace as always but yet everyone seems to be living their lives as through they are stretching it out like elastic jelly through their fingertips, ignoring the virtue necessary to ride each moment. At the end of patience always lies a reward. DJ Teeth, a veteran disciple of time, presents a sonic palette to Kasra V's V-Sion imprint that is for only the most determined. Symphonic synths and acid swells ebb and flow, vocal samples move like auditory hieroglyphics scrawled on cave walls, and other hidden messages appear, but only for those who wait. Patience will be rewarded.

With two deeply cherished compilations already in the bag, Luke Una steps up for the third volume in his É Soul Cultura series on Mr Bongo. A love letter to the dancefloor and its power to unite people from all corners of society amid growing division and extremist politics. Genre-spanning in nature, the 15 tracks travel between cosmic soul, boogie, proto-house, slo-mo technoid grooves, drum machine afro, astral bass-bugging futurism, jazz funk, dance, and disco. Each having the ability to move the body as much as the heart.
 
From his formative years in Sheffield to co-founding Manchester’s much-fabled Electric Chair with Justin Crawford, through to helming the iconic LGBTQ institutions of Homoelectric / Homobloc, Luke has spent 40 years immersed in dance music. His latest outlet, É Soul Cultura, has grown from a label to a globe-spanning events series with Luke holding residencies and embarking on tours across the world from Japan and Australia to America and Europe. 
 
“For me, the dancefloor was never about a one-dimensional, thudding, 130 BPM beat only. It's a much more dynamic, broader vision than that. I cut my teeth in an era where a 100 BPM record had as much impact, excitement, and energy as a 134 BPM dancefloor jazz funk or techno record”, Luke mentions. É Soul Cultura Volume 3 is the perfect embodiment of that notion: “It’s about four decades in the trenches playing dance music, the late-night afters, the shebeens, the basements, warehouse parties, the eight-hour journeys in East London, through to festival sets at Houghton and We Out Here. It’s music unconstrained by genre or tempo and more about making your body move”. 

But this isn’t simply a collection of disparate dance tracks; they carry meaning and soul. “It’s less about escapism, more about reconnection. My experience of post-covid has been the coming together of all the clans in various clubs and gatherings. A reaction to a very toxic world out there, where the aggro rhythms of division have sought to divide us, and people don't meet as often. The coming back together face-to-face in clubs has encouraged a real love in the air, there's a real togetherness and collective spirit”.
 
Opening up the compilation is a track that channels that very message, the transcendental, soul-rousing Harris & Orr ‘Spread Love’. Joining the dots from there, to the low-slung deep house closer of Fatdog ‘Remember’, you’ll find electronic drum machine Nigerian funk, sitting side by side with dancefloor Cape Verdean brilliance, a post-punk cover of Fela Kuti, rubbing shoulders with cosmic electro, and an Una-championed, 8-minute, kickless DJ Harvey remix. There’s jazz funk in various guises moving from boogie synth to astral travelling, slo-mo acidic raw techno, and a ‘79 soul stepper, alongside swirling percussive Italo disco and tribal-charged house. All infused with an innate ability to bring people together.
 
As society becomes increasingly fractured, É Soul Cultura Volume 3’s message is more than movement. It’s about dance music’s power to unify people from all walks of life and break down the barriers that divide us.

With two deeply cherished compilations already in the bag, Luke Una steps up for the third volume in his É Soul Cultura series on Mr Bongo. A love letter to the dancefloor and its power to unite people from all corners of society amid growing division and extremist politics. Genre-spanning in nature, the 15 tracks travel between cosmic soul, boogie, proto-house, slo-mo technoid grooves, drum machine afro, astral bass-bugging futurism, jazz funk, dance, and disco. Each having the ability to move the body as much as the heart.
 
From his formative years in Sheffield to co-founding Manchester’s much-fabled Electric Chair with Justin Crawford, through to helming the iconic LGBTQ institutions of Homoelectric / Homobloc, Luke has spent 40 years immersed in dance music. His latest outlet, É Soul Cultura, has grown from a label to a globe-spanning events series with Luke holding residencies and embarking on tours across the world from Japan and Australia to America and Europe. 
 
“For me, the dancefloor was never about a one-dimensional, thudding, 130 BPM beat only. It's a much more dynamic, broader vision than that. I cut my teeth in an era where a 100 BPM record had as much impact, excitement, and energy as a 134 BPM dancefloor jazz funk or techno record”, Luke mentions. É Soul Cultura Volume 3 is the perfect embodiment of that notion: “It’s about four decades in the trenches playing dance music, the late-night afters, the shebeens, the basements, warehouse parties, the eight-hour journeys in East London, through to festival sets at Houghton and We Out Here. It’s music unconstrained by genre or tempo and more about making your body move”. 

But this isn’t simply a collection of disparate dance tracks; they carry meaning and soul. “It’s less about escapism, more about reconnection. My experience of post-covid has been the coming together of all the clans in various clubs and gatherings. A reaction to a very toxic world out there, where the aggro rhythms of division have sought to divide us, and people don't meet as often. The coming back together face-to-face in clubs has encouraged a real love in the air, there's a real togetherness and collective spirit”.
 
Opening up the compilation is a track that channels that very message, the transcendental, soul-rousing Harris & Orr ‘Spread Love’. Joining the dots from there, to the low-slung deep house closer of Fatdog ‘Remember’, you’ll find electronic drum machine Nigerian funk, sitting side by side with dancefloor Cape Verdean brilliance, a post-punk cover of Fela Kuti, rubbing shoulders with cosmic electro, and an Una-championed, 8-minute, kickless DJ Harvey remix. There’s jazz funk in various guises moving from boogie synth to astral travelling, slo-mo acidic raw techno, and a ‘79 soul stepper, alongside swirling percussive Italo disco and tribal-charged house. All infused with an innate ability to bring people together.
 
As society becomes increasingly fractured, É Soul Cultura Volume 3’s message is more than movement. It’s about dance music’s power to unify people from all walks of life and break down the barriers that divide us.

Inspired by the concept of the city as a living, complex entity - a feeling Youniss describes as the difference between "living in a city and just being in that city" - Good Effort! is an open-ended narrative drawn from the artist's own experiences, including growing up on the outskirts of Antwerp.

Like a vibrant city itself, the album is a culmination of organic interactions, layered with diverse perspectives from a collective of artists. Good Effort! features a dynamic cast of collaborators, including international heavyweights like Pink Siifu, Petite Noir, and Quelle Chris, alongside celebrated names from the Belgian underground such as Dienne and Porcelain id.

While retaining his critical edge - especially on themes like gentrification, an acute problem in his home city - Youniss explores the full range of his voice across the album's tracks, resulting in a warmer, more texturally diverse sound.

Tracks like “Notice,” “Glass Ceilings,” and “The Sun Is Falling” expand his textural use of distortion, while others, such as “At the Still Point of the World” and “Why Don’t You?”, float at a more tranquil register. The record's energy peaks on “TakeThat” where Pink Siifu and Youniss trade frenetic bars atop jazzy drum freakouts.

Despite the cynicism forged by witnessing his environment change - like the flattening of the beloved venue Onder Stroom for a parking space - Youniss offers a crucial message of perseverance. The album's title, Good Effort!, is a defiant embrace of trying again.

In the past, DVTR has definitely been shaking up the Canadian punk scene, racking up dazzling reviews, best of 2023 lists, soldout shows and some bootlicking awards for their first ever EP "BONJOUR". Somewhere between the B-52s and fast DIY punk à la Jay Reatard, Demi Lune & Jean Divorce's troublemaking duo pours out its bile on often surprising, sometimes awkward, and always salvatory soundscapes. Its unpredictable stage antics break all language barriers, already taking the band on stages everywhere from Mexico to the UK. DVTR is French-speaking, female-fronted, short and not sweet at all: it repeats, it repeats, it repeats - that's the only way to get the message across. Vasectomy for all, ACAB, Rhum coke and MDMA, etcetera, etcetera. A simple fuck off to anyone who'd need a reminder before everything burns? As the legendary magazine CULT MTL recently said: "This is a live band doing what great live bands do, live: entertaining, f*cking with people's heads, having fun, and showing what they've got - crazy licks - without showing off."

IARC108LP – black vinyl / IARC108LPI – indies exclusive grapefruit colour vinyl. All formats are extremely limited and orders may be subject to cutbacks.

IARC108LP – black vinyl / IARC108LPI – indies exclusive grapefruit colour vinyl. All formats are extremely limited and orders may be subject to cutbacks.

Zooparty sind international betrachtet so etwas wie Spätzünder, wenngleich sie in der skandinavischen Punkszene seit zwei Jahrzehnten eine high credibility genießen (Skrutt Magazine: "So damn good, I really love this group") und Kenner ihre Alben im Plattenschrank schon lange wie einen raren Schatz aufbewahren. Als die Band 2024 ihr Album "No matter what you say" veröffentlichte, bemerkte nicht nur das legendäre "Maximum RocknRoll" US-Magazine, dass "I am, in fact, late to the party with this band. Fortunately, they're still raging. They fucking rock Yay, I love this. Hats off " Die mitreißende Mixtur aus poppigem Punk, englischem 77er-Punkrock, Glam und ehrlichem Streetrock'n'Roll. (Ox-Fanzine) spricht eigentlich für sich selbst und obwohl Punk-Legenden wie Glen Matlock von den Sex Pistols, Brian James/ The Damned und sogar KISS-Gitarrist Bruce Kulick ihr Potential erkannten und Songs mit Zooparty aufnahmen, sind die Schweden einfach immer zu bescheiden gewesen, um sich groß ins Rampenlicht zu rücken. Eigentlich ist jedes ihrer Alben bisher ein Volltreffer gewesen oder wie schon Englands Mass Movement Fanzine 2018 schrieb: "If you like your punk with a pop edge and relish the classic Fat Wreck Chords period, then Zooparty may well have created your favourite album of the year! Pogo, pogo!" Ihr neues Album "XX" zum 20jährigen Jubiläum steht dem in nichts nach. Jede Band bezeichnet ihr neues Album als "Ihr Bestes". Zooparty darf man das aber getrost glauben: "XX" ist voller fesselnder Punkrock-Songs, die Aggression mit Wut, Verzweiflung und der klarer Message mit einem Sound verbinden. Mit Lieder wie "Stop it now" und "An eye for an eye" fassen sie alles zusammen, was Punk seit Jahrzehnten so faszinierend macht, bringen es in die Zukunft und machen daraus ihre eigene, "pogotastische Mischung" aus Tragik und Melodie. Mit dem Black Sabbath-Cover "Never say die" verabschieden sich Zooparty zusammen mit "Nomads"-Gitarrist Hans Östlund auf ihre Art von der Legende Ozzy Osbourne. Apropos Sound: Mastermind Chips Kiesbye (Sator, Nomads, The Hellacopters, etc) hat es sich auch diesmal nicht nehmen lassen, das Album zu produzieren.

Zooparty sind international betrachtet so etwas wie Spätzünder, wenngleich sie in der skandinavischen Punkszene seit zwei Jahrzehnten eine high credibility genießen (Skrutt Magazine: "So damn good, I really love this group") und Kenner ihre Alben im Plattenschrank schon lange wie einen raren Schatz aufbewahren. Als die Band 2024 ihr Album "No matter what you say" veröffentlichte, bemerkte nicht nur das legendäre "Maximum RocknRoll" US-Magazine, dass "I am, in fact, late to the party with this band. Fortunately, they're still raging. They fucking rock Yay, I love this. Hats off " Die mitreißende Mixtur aus poppigem Punk, englischem 77er-Punkrock, Glam und ehrlichem Streetrock'n'Roll. (Ox-Fanzine) spricht eigentlich für sich selbst und obwohl Punk-Legenden wie Glen Matlock von den Sex Pistols, Brian James/ The Damned und sogar KISS-Gitarrist Bruce Kulick ihr Potential erkannten und Songs mit Zooparty aufnahmen, sind die Schweden einfach immer zu bescheiden gewesen, um sich groß ins Rampenlicht zu rücken. Eigentlich ist jedes ihrer Alben bisher ein Volltreffer gewesen oder wie schon Englands Mass Movement Fanzine 2018 schrieb: "If you like your punk with a pop edge and relish the classic Fat Wreck Chords period, then Zooparty may well have created your favourite album of the year! Pogo, pogo!" Ihr neues Album "XX" zum 20jährigen Jubiläum steht dem in nichts nach. Jede Band bezeichnet ihr neues Album als "Ihr Bestes". Zooparty darf man das aber getrost glauben: "XX" ist voller fesselnder Punkrock-Songs, die Aggression mit Wut, Verzweiflung und der klarer Message mit einem Sound verbinden. Mit Lieder wie "Stop it now" und "An eye for an eye" fassen sie alles zusammen, was Punk seit Jahrzehnten so faszinierend macht, bringen es in die Zukunft und machen daraus ihre eigene, "pogotastische Mischung" aus Tragik und Melodie. Mit dem Black Sabbath-Cover "Never say die" verabschieden sich Zooparty zusammen mit "Nomads"-Gitarrist Hans Östlund auf ihre Art von der Legende Ozzy Osbourne. Apropos Sound: Mastermind Chips Kiesbye (Sator, Nomads, The Hellacopters, etc) hat es sich auch diesmal nicht nehmen lassen, das Album zu produzieren.

As the world sinks deeper into screens and algorithms blur the line between creation and imitation, Nubiyan Twist return with Chasing Shadows, a record that reclaims the pulse, warmth and spontaneity of human connection.
The band’s fifth studio album is a rich and restless blend of jazz, afrobeat, hip hop and electronic textures, exploring the space between the organic and the digital. It’s music that moves, sweats, and breathes, made by real people in real rooms with heavyweight features bringing together varied voices from the music community which they inhabit.
Bandleader and producer Tom Excel explains: “We wanted to make something that felt joyous and defiantly human — something that couldn’t exist without that connection between people. You can get an AI to write a fugue in seconds, but it can’t capture the chemistry and chaos that happens when musicians lock in together. Chasing Shadows is our way of holding onto that.”
Folowing 2024’s acclaimed Find Your Flame, praised by Roling Stone, Jazzwise, NPR and more, Chasing Shadows pushes the band’s sound further into new soulful territory under Exce l’s expert guidance, featuring bright new vocalist Eniola and a glowing cast of icons and innovators. Malian star Fatoumata Diawara lights up the title track on a powerful slice of Afrobeat, Joe Armon Jones leads the dub workout ‘Rhythm Of You’ and the band take it back to their hip hop roots on great colabs with The Pharcyde’s Booty Brown, Ghanaian MC M.anifest and London dancehal favourite, Mr Wi liamz.
On Chasing Shadows, Nubiyan Twist continue to look outwards with their music but keep the focus firmly on humanity and positivity. It is an album which crosses continents and which shamelessly celebrates our co lective strength.
Fifth album from UK-based co lective Nubiyan Twist led by bandleader & producer Tom Excel (Africa Express, Onipa)
Featuring Booty Brown, Fatoumata Diawara, M.Anifest, Mr Wi liamz and Joe Armon Jones.
Pressed on Yelow Vinyl LP, or Green & Yelow splatter Vinyl LP (exclusively for UK indies).

The “5” Royales were the most enduring and influential of all the 1950s proto-soul groups. In a very crowded market, their success was remarkable. The Royales were the first African American group to introduce gospel based vocal styles into the rhythm and blues format. This gave an intensity to their recordings and live performances that no other combo could get near, thanks to the passion and power that lead singer Johnny Tanner generated. Furthermore, the group possessed in Lowman Pauling a songwriter of genius and a guitarist, who invented an exciting style of playing that linked stinging solos with rhythmic accompaniment. The Harbingers Of Soul is a mouth-watering overview featuring the best of the King era and the most soulful sides from their stay at Home Of The Blues. 180gsm vinyl. Sleeve notes by John Ridley.

Period Music is a research process involving Susanna Gonzo, Merma Suelo, Tuce Alba, Elizabeth
Gallon Droste, Agnese Menguzzato, and Farah Hazim. The six artists aim to attune to the different
temporalities experienced through our bodies, drawing from multiple meanings of period – from the
menstrual cycle to musical repetitions and astronomical revolutions.

r'tu
A central meaning of the Sanskrit word for ritual, r'tu, is menstruation, the original ritual. The root of
r'tu is in arithmetic and rhythm/.

Period Music has been staying with essential matters on how we listen to time and rhythms in our
bodies and in the world. Questioning the tempo of everyday life in an accelerated system like that of
modern society, the group has opened up co-creation spaces to listen to embodied memories.
Through dialogue, improvisation and jam sessions, the six artists attuned to e ach other’s processes,
composing music, word scores and drawings – ultimately sounding together.

This work embodies other notions of community through archetypes, embracing the impermanence
that reveals the countless rhythms of life. Period Music speaks of friendship and connection, and
invites you to take on a journey of interconnectedness between our rhythms and the broader social
structures influencing our lives.

The project emerges from conversations that began in Berlin in the fall of 2023, including a one-week
residency at Atelier Josepha in Ahrenshoop by the Baltic Sea in April 2024. The first physical iteration
of this project will consist of a book and a vinyl. The album features looping improvisational compositions encoded with messages about multiple temporalities. The accompanying book gathers poetic memories, letters, photographs, symbols, and drawings that emerged during the process

"The Outfit release career defining new album, Preservers of the Pearl, asserting themselves as messengers of the new wave of underground rock and roll, pushing the movement forward alongside fellow trailblazers Mystery Lights, Sheer Mag, Shadow Show, Uni Boys + more.

Everything has been leading here. Daniel Romano shifts from his position as sole writer, opening the floor to Outfit stalwarts Ian Romano and Carson McHone, and welcoming into the fold longtime friend and legendary Canadian rock-n-roller, Tommy Major. The band is functioning as a true collective — multiple voices and perspectives — all serving one creative pulse. The result is both a new beginning and a homecoming, a complete and fearless statement.

Tracked to tape at their own Camera Varda studio, the album captures the band live in the room — breathing, musing, and believing. It’s the sound of human hands and hearts at work, in a shared moment of co-creation, preserved in real time in stunning hi-fi.

Here is music as communion — rock n roll as experience. Preservers of the Pearl rejects the flattening forces in modern times — what the band calls “the mono-agriculture of the mind.” In a “target culture”, condemned to homogeny and banality, The Outfit refuse polish and uniformity, embracing imperfection as truth, and promoting curiosity through creativity. At the center of it all is a deep spiritual current — what The Outfit calls Rock & Roll Magick: the belief that music is a sacred act, a force that can reconnect the individual to what is larger.

The Outfit are making music that is purposeful and profoundly urgent. Preservers of the Pearl is an invocation - it’s fearless in a time of great compromise, and resolute in an age of peripheral bullshit. Here is a band serving something greater than themselves."

"The Outfit release career defining new album, Preservers of the Pearl, asserting themselves as messengers of the new wave of underground rock and roll, pushing the movement forward alongside fellow trailblazers Mystery Lights, Sheer Mag, Shadow Show, Uni Boys + more.

Everything has been leading here. Daniel Romano shifts from his position as sole writer, opening the floor to Outfit stalwarts Ian Romano and Carson McHone, and welcoming into the fold longtime friend and legendary Canadian rock-n-roller, Tommy Major. The band is functioning as a true collective — multiple voices and perspectives — all serving one creative pulse. The result is both a new beginning and a homecoming, a complete and fearless statement.

Tracked to tape at their own Camera Varda studio, the album captures the band live in the room — breathing, musing, and believing. It’s the sound of human hands and hearts at work, in a shared moment of co-creation, preserved in real time in stunning hi-fi.

Here is music as communion — rock n roll as experience. Preservers of the Pearl rejects the flattening forces in modern times — what the band calls “the mono-agriculture of the mind.” In a “target culture”, condemned to homogeny and banality, The Outfit refuse polish and uniformity, embracing imperfection as truth, and promoting curiosity through creativity. At the center of it all is a deep spiritual current — what The Outfit calls Rock & Roll Magick: the belief that music is a sacred act, a force that can reconnect the individual to what is larger.

The Outfit are making music that is purposeful and profoundly urgent. Preservers of the Pearl is an invocation - it’s fearless in a time of great compromise, and resolute in an age of peripheral bullshit. Here is a band serving something greater than themselves."

Celebrating the first year of ‘NOW That’s What I Call Music’ – 1983. ‘Now Yearbook’ presents a stellar selection of 1983’s biggest and best hits… 80 huge chart hits from the year, alongside enduring and well-loved classics on 4 CDs. 1983 saw British artists achieving unprecedented success across the world with ‘Every Breath You Take’ from The Police being the year’s biggest seller in the U.S., and ‘Karma Chameleon’ from Culture Club being the top seller in the U.K. Breakthrough acts, achieving their first big hits – all here – include a staggering line-up of future superstars: U2, Eurythmics, Wham!, Paul Young, The Style Council, Marillion and Thompson Twins, to name a few..' Released on a LTD 4CD SET: This will be a limited run of 5000 4CD units housed in ‘hard-back book’ packaging and featuring a 28-page booklet that includes an overview of the chart music of 1983, a track by track guide including chart stats and fun facts, a selection of original picture sleeves and a quiz. 2CD Standard set and also a limited edition of 3000 units, pressed on 3LP translucent red vinyl...

Mit seinem Debütalbum "Mesdames, Messieurs !" sorgt Sam Sauvage für einen elektrisierenden Neustart der französischen Popmusik. Seine 13 Songs sind gleichermaßen ungestüm, poetisch und kompromisslos ehrlich - ein Sound, der zwischen Synth-Poesie, Rock-Theatralik und intensiver Erzählkraft oszilliert. In Stücken wie "Avis de tempête" oder "La fin du monde" entfacht Sam eine dramatische Energie, die den Nerv unserer Zeit trifft: der Tanz am Rand des Chaos, gepaart mit einer eindringlichen Botschaft, den Moment festzuhalten. Gleichzeitig zeigt er in "Boulogne" oder "Roi du silence" eine zerbrechliche, fast intime Seite, die seine Songs zu emotionalen Miniaturen macht. Sam Sauvage ist ein Ausnahme-Performer: körperlich, direkt, nahbar. Seine Stimme und Präsenz - geschärft durch Straßenmusik, Bar-Gigs und Support-Shows für u. a. Zaho de Sagazan, Eddy de Pretto und Benjamin Biolay - machen jede Live-Situation zu einem Ereignis. Ein Album, das berührt, provoziert und bleibt. Ein neuer Name, der nicht mehr zu überhören ist.

Taupe’s latest album release, waxing | waning delivers jazz experimentalism, ‘skronk’, avant-rock, and electronics, by the Glasgow-based trio, due out via Minority Records. Across its seven tracks, waxing | waning captures Taupe’s approach – bold and boundary pushing – shaped by a fresh shift in the band’s dynamic and compositional approach.

Taupe’s waxing | waning, co-composed and realised by its players in a studio that was once an undertaker’s premises in Glasgow, is an absolutely affirmative album, an act of cultural defiance in desperate times.

Comprising Mike Parr-Burman (guitar, bass guitar, electronics), Jamie Stockbridge (alto and baritone saxophones) and Alex Palmer (drum kit, percussion), Taupe work up a storm of skronk, free jazz and harmolodic frenzy whose closest relations include Zu, Melt Banana and John Zorn. However, waxing | waning is from its opening, stuttering blasts, an exercise in seeking out and claiming new territory, finding unique and novel permutations in which jazz, rock, electronics interbreed at breakneck pace. Here is a group determined to say and do things they don’t get to say and do elsewhere in their musical lives.

‘Lemonade Tycoon’ hits the ground skronking. It’s cubistic jazz, cumulative in its impact, avoiding the white lines of the conventional freeway, bridling, bustling, coming at you from all angles – a three way conversation of astonishing rapidity, fast track, telepathic communication – everyone from James Chance to Albert Ayler coming at you at once, before morphing in to a spidery scrawl of electronics and furious percussion. ‘Anti-Bird-Spike BirdNest’s‘ title somehow sums up the sort of mental images evoked by the music – its sheer creative disobedience, as if being chased in vain, like a delivery rider evading capture by ICE agents -– shapeshifting, assuming different shades, sprouting metal quills and, in its midsection, seeming almost to swallow itself alive, before regurgitating itself in a sublime mess.

‘Interlude (Stride)’ is not exactly ambient, more a horizontal enmeshment of percussion, drones, reverberant noise, electronics, a sonic mulch. ‘allcapsallbold' reminds of early Aksak Maboul, in its playfulness, a haywire series of short phrases, subject to mechanical interference, a complex weave of irregular rhythms, increasingly eloquent sax phraseology and caustic guitars, which land heavier and heavier. ‘Pet Boss' is the new jazz equivalent of a highly evolved, mature conversation among brilliant equals, sharp, empathetic, complementary, rising to a collective, joyful noise. On the title track, electronics descend like a shower of bright particles, intensifying in their luminosity, whitening the skies, as sax and drums kick up a tempestuous, spontaneously sculpted noise that summons the ghosts of the great free jazz players, before a dark calm descends slowly. Finally, ‘Turn Push Kick’, a burgeoning chatterstorm of electronics, before the group kicks in, at angles to one another, led by abrasive guitars, reminiscent of Sunn O))) in their ritualistic concussion, riffing, digging deep amid squealing sax and piledriving percussion.

Das bisschen Totschlag’s new LP 0dB Headroom drifts through a cathartic kind of vulnerability—telling stories of losing, larking, and feeling everything all at once. Its soundscape echoes the act of remembering: manipulated samples and floating guitars bent through distorted electronics embody memory not as a fixed archive, but as something alive: tender, fractured, shifting. Moments come back in flashes—sometimes radiant, sometimes aching, always familiar, yet blurred and distorted. A beautiful mess that you can’t ever fully capture.
(FFO: Alex G, Wednesday, Maria Somerville)

Benton County Relic is Cedric Burnside's debut record for Single Lock. It was honored with a nomination for "Best Traditional Blues Album" at the 61st GRAMMY Awards. It was Cedric's second nomination and Single Lock's first. "The Big Bad Burnside Sound is back. and how!"- MOJO

Double Je is Hypnotique’s third release on Bordello A Parigi. Following the successes of La Pénombre and Solitude, the trio of Sergio Mesa (IAMNOTAROBOT), David and Maia Jornet have reconvened for a smouldering three tracker. Vocals scale soaring synthlines in the title piece. Melodies dip and swoop like birds in flight. A beat throbs as Maia’s lyrics sail ever higher in this tale of misguided romance and impossible answers. The instrumental version allows the track’s intricate synthwork to take centre stage. Drums snap that bit tighter, gentle pads lapping against the pulsating basslines and addictive hooks. Tempos drop on the flip, the B-Side being dedicated to “Dark.” Slender keys rise above a steady kick before a rumbling bass takes hold. Vocals take spoken word form, their message and mood shifting from resignation to resilience and then resolve as the track becomes ever more emboldened. A truly fantastic return from a uniquely talented group.

rot/schwarzes Marble Vinyl. Offensichtlich parkverliebt_ eine musikgewordene Parksituation: Du schlenderst langsam durch das zerbrechliche Idyll inmitten der Stadt, die Luft ist kalt und klar, die Arme hinter dem Rücken verschränkt. Hochgewachsene Bäume spannen den Raum auf, gedämpfter Stadtlärm mischt sich mit dem Rascheln der Blätter, mehr oder weniger verwirrte Tiere sehen aufmerksam in Deine Richtung. Du setzt Dich auf eine Parkbank, hältst inne und fängst an Dich darüber zu freuen, wie schön das alles eigentlich ist. ParkWalkers emopop/slowcore sound ist bestimmt durch zwei cleane Gitarren (Hannes & Nicola), eindringliche Basslinien (Arnaud), entspannte Drums (Armin) und der warmen Stimme von Nicola. Melodien, die hängen bleiben, in meist klassischer Songstruktur. Die lieben 90er oder Nullerjahre lassen grüßen, vielleicht fällt einem American Football, Snow Patrol ein oder fühlt sich an Death Cab for Cutie und Weakerthans erinnert. ParkWalker haben sich 2018 gefunden, und leben verteilt in Berlin, Stuttgart und Karlsruhe. Klar in der DIY-Szene verwurzelt haben sie viele Stunden auf Bühnen im In-und Ausland mit verschiedenen Formationen verbracht, u.a. Tidal Sleep. Nach ihrem Debüt "Distant Phenomena" im Jahr 2021 ist für Herbst 2025 das zweite Album "The Extra Mile" bei This Charming Records geplant. Das Album wurde in den RAMA Studios aufgenommen und von Christian Bethge (z.B. Messer) produziert und gemastert

Blisterhead ist eine der verstecktesten Perlen der europäischen Punkrock-Szene. Die Band wurde 1999 in den kleinen Städten Falköping und Skövde in Schweden gegründet. Im Laufe der Jahre hat sich die Band einen Ruf für Beständigkeit und Leidenschaft aufgebaut und fünf Alben sowie drei EPs über renommierte Indie-Labels wie Kob Records, Mad Butcher Records, Laketown Records und Alleycat Records veröffentlicht. Mit Tourneen durch mehr als 15 Länder in ganz Europa hat Blisterhead die Bühne mit legendären Acts wie Millencolin, Toy Dolls, Mad Sin, GBH und Bombshell Rocks geteilt. Bekannt für ihre energiegeladenen und messerscharfen Live-Auftritte, gelten sie oft als eine der zuverlässigsten und fesselndsten Live-Bands der europäischen Punkszene. Musikalisch liefert Blisterhead eine einzigartige Mischung aus Punkrock und rohem Rock'n'Roll, angetrieben von unglaublich starken Refrains und mitreißenden Melodien, die dem Zuhörer noch lange nach dem Ende der Songs im Gedächtnis bleiben. Blisterhead kehren nun mit ihrem sechsten Album "Where We Belong" auf Sunny Bastards Records zurück und destillieren alles, was die Band ausmacht: große, hymnische Refrains, einen wilden Cocktail aus Punkrock und Rock'n'Roll und eine live aufgenommene Energie, die Ehrlichkeit, Schweiß und Adrenalin direkt aus den Lautsprechern strömen lässt. Mit jedem Hören entfalten sich neue Hooks und Melodien, die zeigen, wie viel Tiefe unter der rohen Kraft steckt. Dieses Mal ließ sich die Band stark von Legenden wie US Bombs, The Humpers und Rancid inspirieren und verband den rohen amerikanischen Punk-Angriff mit der Härte und Melodie des klassischen englischen Punks der 80er Jahre. Das Ergebnis ist ein Sound, der sowohl zeitlos als auch eindringlich wirkt, den Wurzeln des Punk treu bleibt und gleichzeitig mit voller Geschwindigkeit vorwärtsprescht

Blisterhead ist eine der verstecktesten Perlen der europäischen Punkrock-Szene. Die Band wurde 1999 in den kleinen Städten Falköping und Skövde in Schweden gegründet. Im Laufe der Jahre hat sich die Band einen Ruf für Beständigkeit und Leidenschaft aufgebaut und fünf Alben sowie drei EPs über renommierte Indie-Labels wie Kob Records, Mad Butcher Records, Laketown Records und Alleycat Records veröffentlicht. Mit Tourneen durch mehr als 15 Länder in ganz Europa hat Blisterhead die Bühne mit legendären Acts wie Millencolin, Toy Dolls, Mad Sin, GBH und Bombshell Rocks geteilt. Bekannt für ihre energiegeladenen und messerscharfen Live-Auftritte, gelten sie oft als eine der zuverlässigsten und fesselndsten Live-Bands der europäischen Punkszene. Musikalisch liefert Blisterhead eine einzigartige Mischung aus Punkrock und rohem Rock'n'Roll, angetrieben von unglaublich starken Refrains und mitreißenden Melodien, die dem Zuhörer noch lange nach dem Ende der Songs im Gedächtnis bleiben. Blisterhead kehren nun mit ihrem sechsten Album "Where We Belong" auf Sunny Bastards Records zurück und destillieren alles, was die Band ausmacht: große, hymnische Refrains, einen wilden Cocktail aus Punkrock und Rock'n'Roll und eine live aufgenommene Energie, die Ehrlichkeit, Schweiß und Adrenalin direkt aus den Lautsprechern strömen lässt. Mit jedem Hören entfalten sich neue Hooks und Melodien, die zeigen, wie viel Tiefe unter der rohen Kraft steckt. Dieses Mal ließ sich die Band stark von Legenden wie US Bombs, The Humpers und Rancid inspirieren und verband den rohen amerikanischen Punk-Angriff mit der Härte und Melodie des klassischen englischen Punks der 80er Jahre. Das Ergebnis ist ein Sound, der sowohl zeitlos als auch eindringlich wirkt, den Wurzeln des Punk treu bleibt und gleichzeitig mit voller Geschwindigkeit vorwärtsprescht

Mit ihrem zweiten Full-Length-Album "Overspace & Supertime" setzen CRYPTIC SHIFT neue Maßstäbe im extremen Metal. Nach dem weltweit gefeierten Debüt Visitations from Enceladus (2020) liefert das Quartett ein monumentales, fast 80-minütiges Sci-Fi-Konzeptwerk ab. Die Band kombiniert technische Brillanz mit atmosphärischem Storytelling und zielt auf eine anspruchsvolle Zielgruppe ab, die komplexe Strukturen und visionäre Klangwelten sucht.


Medienecho & Zitate
"An dieser Scheibe werden sich in Zukunft alle technischen Thrash-/Death-Bands messen lassen müssen." - Deaf Forever (9,5/10)
"Ein unfassbar aufregendes Ereignis!" - Metal Hammer UK

Blisterhead ist eine der verstecktesten Perlen der europäischen Punkrock-Szene. Die Band wurde 1999 in den kleinen Städten Falköping und Skövde in Schweden gegründet. Im Laufe der Jahre hat sich die Band einen Ruf für Beständigkeit und Leidenschaft aufgebaut und fünf Alben sowie drei EPs über renommierte Indie-Labels wie Kob Records, Mad Butcher Records, Laketown Records und Alleycat Records veröffentlicht. Mit Tourneen durch mehr als 15 Länder in ganz Europa hat Blisterhead die Bühne mit legendären Acts wie Millencolin, Toy Dolls, Mad Sin, GBH und Bombshell Rocks geteilt. Bekannt für ihre energiegeladenen und messerscharfen Live-Auftritte, gelten sie oft als eine der zuverlässigsten und fesselndsten Live-Bands der europäischen Punkszene. Musikalisch liefert Blisterhead eine einzigartige Mischung aus Punkrock und rohem Rock'n'Roll, angetrieben von unglaublich starken Refrains und mitreißenden Melodien, die dem Zuhörer noch lange nach dem Ende der Songs im Gedächtnis bleiben. Blisterhead kehren nun mit ihrem sechsten Album "Where We Belong" auf Sunny Bastards Records zurück und destillieren alles, was die Band ausmacht: große, hymnische Refrains, einen wilden Cocktail aus Punkrock und Rock'n'Roll und eine live aufgenommene Energie, die Ehrlichkeit, Schweiß und Adrenalin direkt aus den Lautsprechern strömen lässt. Mit jedem Hören entfalten sich neue Hooks und Melodien, die zeigen, wie viel Tiefe unter der rohen Kraft steckt. Dieses Mal ließ sich die Band stark von Legenden wie US Bombs, The Humpers und Rancid inspirieren und verband den rohen amerikanischen Punk-Angriff mit der Härte und Melodie des klassischen englischen Punks der 80er Jahre. Das Ergebnis ist ein Sound, der sowohl zeitlos als auch eindringlich wirkt, den Wurzeln des Punk treu bleibt und gleichzeitig mit voller Geschwindigkeit vorwärtsprescht

Medium Rare showcases The Mighty Mighty Bosstones at their finest — a dynamic mix of B-sides, unreleased gems, and three brand-new songs that bridge the band’s early ska-punk roots with their mature, horn-driven sound. Bursting with energy, grit, and heart, this collection captures the spirit of the Bosstones’ Boston-bred attitude and their unmatched ability to blend melody, muscle, and message into timeless ska-core anthems.

Rick James Blends Brazen Attitude, Fearless Sexuality, and Shrewd Charisma on Street Songs:

Punk-Funk Album Aims for the Hips and Head, Includes the Timeless Hit “Super Freak”
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 4,000 Numbered Copies:

Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Presents 1981 Smash in Audiophile Sound for the First Time
1/4” / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe


“Punk funk” was a relatively unknown concept before 1981. But once Street Songs took the charts by storm that year, the world soon knew about what became Rick James’ signature style. And how. True to its name, Street Songs blends outspoken sexuality, brazen attitude, and edgy commentary amid contagious R&B-fueled arrangements that simultaneously aim for the hips, head, and various nether regions. And it’s never sounded better.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents James’ platinum-certified effort in audiophile quality for the first time. Playing with crisp dynamics, lively textures, airy headroom, and revealing clarity, this collectible edition of the record that stayed at the No. 1 spot on the R&B Album Charts for 20 weeks invites you to get closer to music that beckons you to turn your space into a private dance floor.

Then again, you’ll likely be so taken by how the taut bass lines, snappy rhythms, and four-on-the-floor beats — all rendered in stunning detail and with full-bodied architecture — come across with such accuracy and presence, you might stay pinned to your seat. On this pressing, the soundstaging, imaging, and lit-fuse energy of Street Songs reach new heights. Everything from the rubbery feel of the guitar lines to the depth of James’ temperature-raising vocals to the scale of the horn charts emerges as if James and his ace session crew set up in your room.

The Buffalo native and his ensemble waste no time getting their message across. On the album-opening “Give It to Me Baby,” James and company lay down a mix of sleek funk and pulsing disco that practically activates the bright lights of a discotheque and stimulates the libido of anyone within earshot. Having reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul charts, the song is pure sex — and just one of the carnal delights on a record that embraces the subject as fearlessly as James does his identity.

Of course, the most famous of James’ erotic excursions — the timeless “Super Freak” — hit No. 1 on Hot Dance Club Play charts, No. 16 on the Hot 100, and, later, No. 153 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 500 Songs of All Time. Bolstered by a quavering keyboard theme and electro riffs, the much-sampled track worms itself inside your muscles with smile-inducing subject matter, gliding vocals, nimble movements, a hot tenor-saxophone solo, and backing vocals by the Temptations.

The iconic Motown group isn’t the only celebrated guest artist on the Grammy-nominated Street Songs. James’ then-labelmate, Stevie Wonder, lends harmonica to the frank sociopolitical narrative on “Mr. Policeman,” a protest tune that also manages to stroll ’n’ strut via simmering organ, staggering brass accents, and James’ gritty vocal performance. In addition to contributing backing vocals on several cuts, Teena Marie turns in one of the album’s signature moments on “Fire and Desire,” a romantic old-school duet with James that impresses with smoothness, sensitivity, and smokiness.

High-profile colleagues aside, James remains the undisputed star, a figure whose leather-and-latex attire, braided hair, and natural swagger made him misunderstood by some in the mainstream and embraced by everyone in the know as a true original. As a testament to his magnetism and skills, his charisma and rawness seemingly seep through every note, whether on the balladic sweep of the risqué “Make Love to Me” or strident, poke-and-prod persuasion of the moonwalking “Call Me Up.”

On the closing “Below the Funk (Pass the J),” an uptempo autobiographical tale that addresses the visionary musician’s second-favorite love, the singer acknowledges his upbringing and inseparable connection with his roots — an homage to where he began and a toast to where he’s gone.

Rick James, keepin’ it real on Street Songs, still as real as it gets.

Impatience is thrilled to present Leaving Memory, the latest album-length work by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova. Leaving Memory is a searing distillation of the duo’s ouevre - it’s eleven prismatic electronic seances combining for a mind warping wormhole with it’s own internal (il)llogic, where pop, ambient, and industrial music convene beneath a rugged HD of digital processing and brain fog. Equally rosy with nostalgia as it is ominously forward looking, Leaving Memory defies easy categorization and makes for an astounding, confounding listen.

By turns violently abrasive and disarmingly touching, Piper and Lena deploy sounds that fracture and disintegrate, burn up and explode, synthetic supernovas that give the record an unmistakable, inimitable texture. Song structures often abide by their own blueprint - heading in one direction before making an abrupt dive elsewhere. Bursts of vibrant colour lurk below layers of grayscale noise. Unidentifiable voices deliver secret messages from the murk. When rhythm’s emerge they ground the tracks to some unknown terrain and invigorate.

Lame Line veers towards the sweeter end of their spectrum, a hazy plaintive repetition increasingly lashed with friction, before Exit erupts with clanging rhythm and shards of distortion. Diagnosis is an almost sweet alt-pop song, Lena’s vocals yearning beneath a dubby shuffle, while Keeper Of The Void’s possessed incantations open up to a ripping, fried climax. Beryl Grey releases the pressure gauge, a gently lilting drift arpeggiating as the sun sets, and Lost Cars sweats through claustrophobic drones and bird song before the clouds part on a serene scene. Leaving Memory closes with Shin, offering a genuinely sweet resolution and a gentle landing back down to earth of either footsteps or fireworks, swelling synthesized horns and woodwinds, a kiss on the cheek for making it out the other side.

On Leaving Memory, Piper Spray & Lena Tsibizova share their uniquely discordant take on freaky music for unsettled minds, an intensely energized set that offers a deeply evocative, unimaginable otherworld for adventurous ears.

Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova have been producing music together since 2020. Leaving Memory is the first to be presented in the LP format. Piper has previously released music via Orange Milk, Hausu Mountain and Gost Zvuk, as well as his own Singapore Sling Tapes label. Lena works predominantly as a photographer, and together Piper and Lena have released music via radio.syg.ma and Kartaskvazhin. Both make music as part of Air Krew, who have released music on the Echotourist and Motion Ward labels. They’re both currently based nowhere.

Leaving Memory was written, produced and mixed by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova, and mastered by Sergey Podluzhniy. Cover photo by Lena Tsibizova, design and layout by Justin Sloane.

Alongside with the release of the new album “Tote Winkel”, Sankt Otten will be delighting us with another limited vinyl bonus release. “Hymnen und Helden” (hymns and heroes) is a collection of cover versions created over the last few years. As the album title suggests, it pays homage to self-proclaimed musical hymns and heroes from the seventies and eighties.

HYMNEN UND HELDEN – track by track: A well-known Moog sequence leads us on the way into the cover album. Giorgio Moroders 1977 disco classic “I feel love” has been tackled here. Sankt Ottens instrumental interpretation starts out familiar, but ends in a slightly disturbing disharmony of mellotron and ebow guitar.

The instrumental version of the melancholy Wipers anthem from 1983 starts with a rather unusually fast 808 beat for Sankt Otten. The 80s electronic echoes suit the punk rock earworm “Doom Towen” surprisingly well.

Without Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft, more unusual electronic music would hardly have been conceivable in Germany in the early 1980s. “Alles ist gut” tribute to this band and singer Gabi Delgado-Lopez, who passed away in 2020 and with whom they shared the festival stage in 2015. Gabi‘s lyrics are rendered by text- to-speech software with the voice of an unknown Claudia.

“Wishing (If I had a photograph of you)” was made famous in 1982 by A Flock of Seagulls. This record was regularly played on Stephan Ottens turntable back then. Reason enough to remember this with “Sehnen (Hät- te Ich von dir eine Fotografie)”. The recordings for this album were made in 2007 and have been updated and completed in the last year. Carsten Sandkämper, who was also featured on Sankt Ottens debut album “Eine kleine Traurigkeit”, contributed the vocals and lyrics.

The Swiss band Grauzone became famous with the NDW hit “Eisbär”. Instead of this title, they took on the B-side of this single with “Ich liebe sie”. A synthpop love song full of innocence, stylishly sung by Carsten San- kämper and refined with Kraftwerk-like choral sounds and an herbaceous motorik beat.

The band has enjoyed a personal friendship with Harald Grosskopf since their collaboration in 2013 on the album “Messias Maschine”. With “So weit, so gut”, they take on his little hit from the album “Synthesist”, which is one of the gems of the synthesizer albums of the eighties.

“Kriegsmaschinen, fahrt zur Hölle” is an anti-war song from 1974 by Günter Schickert, the Berlin master of the echo guitar. Unfortunately, the lyrics are still relevant. Oliver Klemm contributes the delay guitars and Stephan Otten puts the lyrics through a vocoder. Sankt Otten compress the 17-minute original to just under 5 minutes and move it musically from the 70s to the 80s.

Sankt Otten’s adaptation of David Bowies “Heroes” is equipped with warm Juno 106 sounds, ebow guitar and synthesizer pads. The German “Helden” version, known from the movie Christiane F. – Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, is sung in a touching way by Carsten Sandkämper.

New York-based Rafael Anton Irisarri was responsible for mastering the record. As part of the series with graphic covers, this die-cut artwork was also created by Mexican designer Daniel Castrejon. The one time only vinyl pressing, limited to 350 copies, comes in a beautifully designed die-cut cover and colored vinyl. The Osnabrück duo Sankt Otten, founded in 1999, have been releasing on Denovali since 2009. The band has dedicated itself to the holy trinity of Krautrock, Ambient and contemporary Electronics.






d Sehnen [Haette ich von Dir eine Fotografie]

West Mineral returns with lushly amorphous actions by Shiner, Pontiac Streator & Ben Bondy aka Shinetiac; together fused for an immersive flux of vapoured dub, chopped and droned Billie Eilish, and fidgety algorithmic jams.

There's not a single, specific sound you can peg to the West Mineral axis at this stage in the label’s evolution - it's rather a set of shared aesthetics that freely bend into various interconnected shapes. Shinetiac's contemptuous, critic-baiting gear is the ideal example; on their last album, 2023's 'Not All Who Wander Are Lost', skittery, ketamized IDM sparkled over Spice Girls samples and the Foo Fighters' 'Everlong' was transmuted into Sneaker Pimps-style trip-hop. 'Infiltrating Roku City' might be a little less blatant with its out-and-out poptimism, but it takes a similarly dim view of conservative "big ambient" snobbishness. Just a few minutes of 'Bluemosa' should be enough to let you know what's up; the overall character of the sound is hazed, with frozen pads and garbled, dubbed-out voices smudged into a mess of effects and samples. But it sups up different nuances as it wriggles, absorbing scampering breaks, dizzy acoustic guitar strums and half-heard wordless vocals, flipping in the third act to emerge from its shell as minimalist balearic folk-pop - something like Bon Iver doing 'Electric Counterpoint'.

Brooklyn's Shiner, Philly's Pontiac Streator and Berlin-based Ben Bondy navigate the labyrinthine streaming landscape, guided by their own private experiences of mindless doom-scrolling and cruising the darkest corners of YouTube. They formulated 'Infiltrating Roku City' while they were rehearsing last year and spent the winter stitching together various recordings and jams into a layered, dry-witted commentary on our algorithmic reality. Laden with inside jokes and refried memes, it's surprisingly elegant gear; handling the most unseemly elements like sonic recyclers, earnestly repurposing pop and nostalgia to create an atmospheric echo of contemporary reality.

Screwing Chief Keef's enduring 'Citgo', 'Clublyfe (hulu)' emphasises the original's AFX-pilled euphoria with Robert Miles-style piano hits, replacing Young Ravisu's brittle 128kbps trap rhythm with a glitchy rattle that picks up dembow spikes as it rolls. 'I Hate Being Sober' vaporises the Chicago drill pioneer's 'Hate Bein' Sober', blocking out his voice with glitchy, downsampled interference and elasticated Rhodes. The trio team up with Orange Milk's goo age on the sublime 'Crisis Angel', catching a ray of Malibu's sunshine in the process, and reduce Billie Eilish's voice to a Romance-does-Celine cinder on 'Billie', stretching it to fit next to gassed Future ad-libs and swooping 808 Mafia sub womps. And although the album takes a murky diversion on 'Roku Axes Ultra’, and a cloud-stepping centrepiece ‘Purelink’ in homage to the eponymous dubbed ambient dynamos, it's back on course with 'Jiafei (NETFLIX)', taking aim at TikTok bot videos and welding screams from Florida metal band Underoath to AI-strength vocal curlicues.

The mystic duo SB&C, laying low amongst the stone circles of the Scottish Highlands send a message out to the cosmos with remixes from Orgue Electronique and Legowelt. 12" hit of black space, limited run, download code, no digital without the physical, no streaming and no repress.

In February 2025, more than 1,000 musicians came together to release a silent album protesting the UK government’s planned changes to copyright law, which would make it easier to train AI models on copyrighted work without a licence. The album, titled Is This What We Want?, featured recordings of empty studios and performance spaces, representing the impact on artists’ and music professionals’ livelihoods that is expected if the government does not change course.

The digital release in February 2025 reached no. 38 in the UK album charts. Now, it is being released on vinyl, with a bonus track - a recording of an empty studio - from Paul McCartney. The vinyl is being released by state51.

Under the heavily criticised proposals, UK copyright law would be upended to benefit global tech giants. AI companies would be free to use an artist’s work to train their AI models without permission or remuneration. The government’s proposed changes would require artists to proactively ‘opt-out’ from the theft of their work – reversing the very principle of copyright law. ‘Opt-out’ models are near impossible to enforce, have yet to be proven effective anywhere else in the world, and place enormous burdens on artists, particularly emerging talent.

Facing major backlash from the creative sector and beyond, the government has said its previous proposal is no longer its preferred option. However, it has not proposed an alternative, simply recommitting to its plan to “modernise the copyright legislation”. In the meantime, it has sent creatives a worrying signal, five times rejecting House of Lords amendments to the data bill that would have given rights holders visibility over when their work was being used against their wishes by AI companies.

The album’s track listing spells out a simple message: “The British government must not legalise music theft to benefit AI companies.”

Ed Newton-Rex, the organiser of the album, said:
“The government must commit to not handing the life’s work of the country’s musicians to AI companies for free. Doing so would be hugely damaging to our world-leading creative industries, and is totally unnecessary, only benefiting overseas."

Paul Sanders, founder of The state51 Conspiracy, said:
"When tech companies lobby governments to give them songs for free, it’s not so they can cure diseases, feed the hungry, or provide clean water where it is needed. It’s simply so they can make millions of fake songs and keep all the profits for themselves. As a company with a lifelong commitment to musicians The state51 Conspiracy was honoured to be asked to help get this message out on vinyl. All profits go to Help Musicians, which is what our politicians should be doing instead of sucking up to tech bros."

2024 taten sich für ihr gemeinsames Impulse!-Albumdebüt erstmals das Jazz-Punk-Trio The Messthetics
aus Washington DC, bestehend aus Mitgliedern der Punk-Band Fugazi, und der in New York ansässige
Jazz-Tenorsaxofonist James Brandon Lewis zusammen. Fans und Medien waren begeistert und priesen
ihre Musik u.a. als „Schnittstelle zwischen freier Improvisation und dem Geist des punkbeeinflussten
Rock’n’Roll“ (Glide Magazin).
Nach einer umjubelten Europatournee mit über 150 Konzerten haben die Musiker jetzt das Nachfolgealbum
„Deface The Currency“ aufgenommen, das den Vorgänger in Sachen Energie noch einmal toppt. Die Band
hat sich zu einer beeindruckenden Einheit entwickelt, die mit komplexen Unisono-Linien, kantigen Melodien
und kraftvollen Improvisationen beeindruckt.

"Weil wir Menschen schaltbar sind.". Mit dem bedrückenden ""43" verkünden FJORT aus Aachen die Ankunft ihres fünften Albums namens"belle époque" (Grand Hotel van Cleef). Die erste Minute führt uns balladesk in die unvorstellbar entmenschlichte Zeit der deutschen Geschichte und spannt einen mahnenden Bogen in unsere Gegenwart. Erst dann spielt das Trio die stärkste Karte in seiner Hand: eine musikalische Entladung, die dem gerade Gehörten Nachdruck verleiht. Wenn in der folgenden Strophe "wir haben gemordet, gebrandschatzt, geschändet, erdrosselt - wir sind dazu fähig" mit 98dC Verzerrung geschrien und immer wieder zur Selbstreflexion angesichts dieses Entsetzens gemahnt wird, wird offensichtlich: "belle époque" ist das bisher wortgewaltigste Album der Band. "Wir leben in Hakenkreuzzeiten" schlussfolgern FJORT am Ende und uns wird unmissverständlich bewusst, wie kurz wir vor einer Wiederholung des Damals stehen. Auf der musikalischen Ebene sind FJORT nach wie vor ihr eigener Maßstab: Kompositionen wie Theaterstücke, emotional verdichtet, gleichzeitig in der Lage in Angst zu versetzen und zu erlösen.

"Weil wir Menschen schaltbar sind.". Mit dem bedrückenden ""43" verkünden FJORT aus Aachen die Ankunft ihres fünften Albums namens"belle époque" (Grand Hotel van Cleef). Die erste Minute führt uns balladesk in die unvorstellbar entmenschlichte Zeit der deutschen Geschichte und spannt einen mahnenden Bogen in unsere Gegenwart. Erst dann spielt das Trio die stärkste Karte in seiner Hand: eine musikalische Entladung, die dem gerade Gehörten Nachdruck verleiht. Wenn in der folgenden Strophe "wir haben gemordet, gebrandschatzt, geschändet, erdrosselt - wir sind dazu fähig" mit 98dC Verzerrung geschrien und immer wieder zur Selbstreflexion angesichts dieses Entsetzens gemahnt wird, wird offensichtlich: "belle époque" ist das bisher wortgewaltigste Album der Band. "Wir leben in Hakenkreuzzeiten" schlussfolgern FJORT am Ende und uns wird unmissverständlich bewusst, wie kurz wir vor einer Wiederholung des Damals stehen. Auf der musikalischen Ebene sind FJORT nach wie vor ihr eigener Maßstab: Kompositionen wie Theaterstücke, emotional verdichtet, gleichzeitig in der Lage in Angst zu versetzen und zu erlösen.

Macclesfield 3-piece Cassia make their extremely welcome return with the announcement of their most ambitious release yet in new studio album everyone, outside - out April 11th.

The album marks a bold new chapter, and recently served up a tropical-tinged first offering in ‘heat’ - with today serving a superb Round Two with the stomping, insatiable, hook-laden new single ‘friends’.

everyone, outside takes Cassia’s sound to new heights. Written fresh off the back of two years of relentless touring, the band channelled every ounce of their renowned live energy into the album, returning to a studio they built themselves in Macclesfield, after creating their previous album in Berlin. The journey provided an added twist, recording the majority of tracks live on TikTok, giving fans a unique, inclusive experience to be part of the process.

The album’s title is a metaphor for embracing your truest self and reflection of a band who are at their happiest outside. It’s a message that speaks to the idea of reconnecting with nature and Britain’s finest summers. As frontman Rob explains, “That title, ‘everyone, outside’ started as a song about how weird it is that we stay inside all the time when being out in nature always makes us feel better. Over time, it came to mean more than that - like a metaphor for being your truest, most natural self, unburdened, like when no one’s watching.”

Drawing influences from a host of genres and cultures, everyone, outside reveals Cassia’s venn diagram of global sounds and intimate storytelling. A trip to Mexico during the writing process injected the record with a new energy, while their time spent in their new space back home gave the band a freedom to try new instruments, new sounds, acquire new tools to hone their production skills - and to simply have fun and explore. “The time we spent in Berlin taught us so much, but coming back home to Macclesfield allowed us to really focus on making something that felt like it came from us. No distractions, just pure creativity,” says drummer Jacob Leff.

Cassia’s rise has been impressive. From their early days busking the streets of Cornwall to playing major festivals, touring the world and receiving critical acclaim from BBC Radio 1, Radio X, The Independent, Rolling Stone UK, Clash & many more, the band has carved out a unique niche. Their sound, influenced by the African music Rob’s father introduced him to, combined with the indie heritage of nearby Manchester, combines the positivity of bands like Foals and Vampire Weekend, with the jazz-tinged afrobeats of Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor.

After signing to Distiller Records in 2018, the band gave up their full-time jobs and ventured to Bath to record their debut album, Replica. Tracks such as ‘Right There’, ‘Drifting’ & ‘100 Times Over’ have amassed millions of streams, seeing the band sell out multiple headline Tours both in the UK and Europe. Playing to a homecoming capacity crowd at Manchester’s O2 Ritz, as well as sold out headline shows at London’s KOKO & The Garage, the band have accrued a huge, loyal following and their live shows earned them a nomination for Best Live Act at the AIM Awards alongside Idles and DMA’s, as well as making them the winners of Reeperbahn’s Anchor Award in 2022.

Cassia will tour the UK in May 2025, playing songs from the new album and some of their biggest tracks - headlining Leeds, Bristol, a newly added night in Southampton, a special Manchester homecoming, Glasgow, Birmingham, & a huge show at London’s HERE @ Outernet - dates below & Tickets Here. The band will also take things Stateside this year for their first ever run of headline shows in the US & Mexico.