quête:d pac

In 2023, Wood secretly worked with producer Kevin Antreassian on a new mix of his top-selling release "The Normal Album." Digging into the original 2019 recordings for more muscular takes, smoother edits, and a more nuanced and balanced mix, Antreassian and Wood created a version of the fan favorite that is one of the rare cases where a new mix is widely considered to improve on the original noticeably. "The Normal Album" is yet another turn in Wood's discography, sardonically playing with Americana and doo-wop sounds, strategically restrained but still highly emotive vocals, and lyrics densely packed with scientific and philosophical references. The dark mania of Wood's prior 2016 release, "SELF-iSH," continues on some tracks but is arranged with greater precision with a new band at his command. Like his 2015 debut "Everything is a Lot," the songs whiplash tonally but are brought together through intertwined themes and recurrent musical motifs and an undercurrent of simultaneous obtuseness and vulnerability. After the original mix of "The Normal Album" was released, a live version of the 4th track on the LP, "I/Me/Myself," had an unexpected viral moment, which brought attention to many other songs on the LP. Songs like "2econd 2ight 2eer" and "Laplace's Angel" continued to attract new fans with their dense wordplay and high-energy attitude, and the album became Wood's first major break into larger notoriety, proving that his sudden burst of popularity was not just a fleeting trend. After taking some time away from the public, Wood began to revisit the album with the intent of giving it the production that he had originally envisioned for it. Wood's top-selling album re-edited for a fuller sound and clearer instrumentation, bringing the album to a new level: new Modern Stereo Mix - 2023 Edit

Laurel Halo returns with an album of original soundtrack music, composed for the film Midnight Zone by visual artist Julian Charrière. Following the path of a drifting Fresnel lighthouse lens as it descends through the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone — a remote abyssal plain in the Pacific Ocean, rich in rare metals and increasingly targeted for deep-sea mining — the film traces a descent into one of Earth’s last untouched ecosystems.


Charrière’s film reveals the deep not as void, but as a luminous biome teeming with fragile life: bioluminescent creatures, swirling schools of fish, and elusive predators. The suspended lens becomes an abyssal campfire, attracting species caught in the tides of uncertainty, their futures hanging in the balance.


Echoing this tension, Halo’s compositions evoke a sensory freefall, where gravity falters and light and sound flicker in uncertain rhythms. Midnight Zone is a sonic drift through the space between what we seek to extract, fail to understand, and must protect.


Halo’s score evokes the life that exists beyond our physical airbound capacity. The material features long, subtle passages of electro-acoustic ambient, drone and sound design, slowly flowing and unfolding with rich detail. The music, composed largely on a Montage 8 synthesizer and Yamaha TransAcoustic piano at the Yamaha studios in New York City, possesses an uncanny quality: that of synthetic waveforms being amplified and sung through the stringboard of the physical body of the TransAcoustic piano. Combined with stacks of violin and viol da gamba, the music on Midnight Zone possesses trace elements of a human hand in an otherwise sunken landscape. Patient, submerged, and alive. The album will be the third on Halo’s imprint, Awe.


The film is central to Charrière’s current solo exhibition Midnight Zone. The exhibition engages with underwater ecologies, exploring the complexity of water as an elemental medium affected by anthropogenic degradation. Reflecting upon its flow and materiality, profundity and politics, its mundane and sacral dimensions, the solo show acts as a kaleidoscope, inviting us to dive deep.

Luminous Orange Marbled Vinyl Mit ihrer ersten Veröffentlichung seit sieben Jahren kehren MONSTROSITY eindrucksvoll zurück und präsentieren ein Album, das ihre unverwechselbare Mischung aus purer Aggression, technischer Brillanz und ungebändigter Intensität eindrucksvoll auf den Punkt bringt. Angeführt von Drummer, Gründer und Mastermind Lee Harrison, zeigt sich die Band stärker denn je. Mit Langzeit-Gitarrist Matt Barnes, der triumphalen Rückkehr von Originalbassist Mark Van Erp und der markerschütternden Stimme von Ed Webb (ex Massacre) entfaltet Screams From Beneath The Surface eine Energie, die sofort packt und nachhaltig wirkt. Das Album festigt nicht nur MONSTROSITYs Status als Death-Metal-Institution, sondern erweitert das Genre um frische, mutige Facetten - innovativ und dennoch kompromisslos ihren Wurzeln treu. Die zehn Tracks dieses massiven Werkes verkörpern den rebellischen Geist, der MONSTROSITY seit Jahrzehnten definiert. Songs demonstrieren eindrucksvoll das Zusammenspiel aus vernichtenden Riffs, komplexem Drumming und eindringlichen, bildgewaltigen Texten. Gleichzeitig zeigen sie, wie vielseitig und weiterentwicklungsfähig die Band geblieben ist - neue klangliche Ebenen treffen auf ihre charakteristische, rohe Wildheit. Jeder Titel ist ein Statement, ein Beweis für MONSTROSITYs technische Überlegenheit und ihren kompromisslosen Anspruch, Death Metal auf höchstem Niveau zu liefern.

Mit ihrer ersten Veröffentlichung seit sieben Jahren kehren MONSTROSITY eindrucksvoll zurück und präsentieren ein Album, das ihre unverwechselbare Mischung aus purer Aggression, technischer Brillanz und ungebändigter Intensität eindrucksvoll auf den Punkt bringt. Angeführt von Drummer, Gründer und Mastermind Lee Harrison, zeigt sich die Band stärker denn je. Mit Langzeit-Gitarrist Matt Barnes, der triumphalen Rückkehr von Originalbassist Mark Van Erp und der markerschütternden Stimme von Ed Webb (ex Massacre) entfaltet Screams From Beneath The Surface eine Energie, die sofort packt und nachhaltig wirkt. Das Album festigt nicht nur MONSTROSITYs Status als Death-Metal-Institution, sondern erweitert das Genre um frische, mutige Facetten - innovativ und dennoch kompromisslos ihren Wurzeln treu. Die zehn Tracks dieses massiven Werkes verkörpern den rebellischen Geist, der MONSTROSITY seit Jahrzehnten definiert. Songs demonstrieren eindrucksvoll das Zusammenspiel aus vernichtenden Riffs, komplexem Drumming und eindringlichen, bildgewaltigen Texten. Gleichzeitig zeigen sie, wie vielseitig und weiterentwicklungsfähig die Band geblieben ist - neue klangliche Ebenen treffen auf ihre charakteristische, rohe Wildheit. Jeder Titel ist ein Statement, ein Beweis für MONSTROSITYs technische Überlegenheit und ihren kompromisslosen Anspruch, Death Metal auf höchstem Niveau zu liefern. 180g Black

Barsuk Records is pleased to release Death Cab for Cutie's beloved debut LP Something About Airplanes on attractively-priced standard weight vinyl. This black vinyl pressing is packaged with the original spot-color printed die-cut jacket design, with a new boat-and-water-ripples lyrics insert.

The beauty, confusion, complexity, and intensity of their youth - lived under the shadow and around the scars of conflict - are entangled in the industrial dance-punk hybrid encoded in the record's DNA, aptly entitled Crystalpunk. "This record is us waving a flag for that generation -- the ones who inherited confusion, resilience, and a fractured sense of self." They're waving that flag as intensely as possible too. For the uninitiated, Chalk mainlines the reaction between genres, eras, and cultures, commuting this collision into their sound. The Belfast group could comfortably power an underground warehouse party after-dark, incite a mid-day festival mosh-pit, or shake an arena on any given evening.

Their power has seamlessly translated to the stage with the group packing venues and delivering alternately sweaty and electrifying performances to a growing rabid fan base. As a group, they've sold out shows across the UK, EU and USA, notched festival performances such as Glastonbury, SXSW, BBK, Trans Musicals and more across 11 countries and were handpicked to tour alongside IDLES and Fontaines D.C.. Coming from dissimilar backgrounds and rallying together naturally, Ben and Ross first crossed paths in film school. As the story goes, Ben had noticed a framed poster of Dublin disruptors Gilla Band in one of Ross's Instagram photos and felt a kinship before ever actually speaking to him.

"Nobody else at our school was into experimental noise guitar bands, so that was all I needed to see," laughs Ben. Emerging in 2022, Chalk initially made waves with songs like "Them," "Velodrome," and "Static." Ultimately, they come-of-age and tell a story that resonates beyond borders. Not just a portrait of the band, but one of their home, a complicated place where the sacrifices made and risks taken by activists, artists, ravers and punks created the only environment that a band like Chalk could emerge from. Crystalpunk is not about choosing a side, it's about choosing the future.

Kicked in the Teeth relies primarily on rip-roaring punk rock & roll guitar riffs and hardcore drum beats, the entire LP slashing by like a Japanese street bike on a rain-soaked highway -- blink your eye, and it's passed. Zeke does one thing, and that one thing they do very very well - incredibly fast, out of control punk rock & roll, executed with exceptional lead guitar work. There are, however, some slower-paced tunes on Kicked In the Teeth - after all, Zeke is not the typical snotty American punk or hardcore act -- and they are performed well. For example, the amped-up cover of Kiss' "Shout It Out Loud".

Kicked In The Teeth is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on red & black marble vinyl and includes an insert.

This first outing from the newly minted Pleased As Punch serves up sounds that are packed with the true essence of house. Groove P's 'Are They Real' sets the tone with an infectious underground bounce that's playful and deep, leading in to a new cut from the chart-topping UK crossover stars The Shapeshifters. Bringing their trademark disco-infused flair, 'Body Music' is uplifting and built for the dancefloor. Then, on the flip, Lost In & Arnold Jarvis elevate things further with 'Look Around,' a deeply soulful cut enriched by live instrumentation and Jarvis' unmistakable vocals. Seems like this label is going to be essential for house heads.

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...

“Certain albums hit like howling bullets at pivotal moments, tearing open the face of music to reveal hidden sonic muscles and fusing them back into something both strangely familiar and yet entirely unrecognisable. We believe this is one of those records.”

The double album Death of Music delivers 18 crooked vocal pops, some ruthless, others unexpectedly disarming. In some songs, Ajukaja & Mart Avi function like a two-headed saurus swinging its spiky tail to shady pop-house smackers. In others, Ajukaja's serene organ licks descend into subterranean caverns, allowing Avi to float to the surface on their wavelengths and turn his voice into billions of extinct moths, enslaved by the moonlight’s pull. There are songs that face destruction and those that seek to prevent it.

One kykeon rap goes, “If you die before you die, then when you die, you don't die!”. Ajukaja & Mart Avi have embraced this notion to create new music that allows them to thrive in the algorithmic wasteland. 13 years in the making, these 66 minutes are packed with lifetimes of truths you didn’t know you needed to know. They are Ajukaja & Mart Avi – two against death.

Produced by Ajukaja
Words by Mart Avi, Music by Raul Saaremets
Guitar and Bass by Sten Sheripov (Can’t Touch The Earth, Safe)
Sax by Steve Vanoni (I.D.O.L.)
Recorded between 2011—2024
Mastered by The Bastard
Cover Photo by fs
Sleeve by Marke, Mart Avi
Pressed in Tartu, Estonia

On the release of his debut EP, aldn shares, “‘greenhouse’ represents my mind and thoughts. The individual songs represent the different plants within that greenhouse. Each song gets its own special attention and dedication just like a plant would. Everything on this EP was written and produced by me which makes them extremely personal to me, I’ve grown them all from a simple melody into what they are today. I want all of these songs to be put into your own interpretations to make them more personal to you.”

Through the interwoven storylines and soundscapes of greenhouse, aldn’s experimentation with a broadly sculptured experimental palette shares a snapshot into the worldbuilding he has created over the past two years, an honest representation of the thoughts you only feel comfortable sharing through the lens of your phone, and a therapeutic diary entry set to the dim lights of the corners of the club. As the world moved online in the past year, this new music became even more of a crucial component as a direct means of communication where crossed wires connect the dots more than ever.

Sonic Groove Experiments returns with the debut album from Mendikant DX. A Pack of Ghosts draws the listener into a deep ambient-industrial swirl of decay; a haunting soundtrack to the grim, back-lit, post-reality world we find ourselves in. Written and produced by techno veteran Bryan Zentz.

2026 Repress

Next up on Philippa Pacho’s, 'phorum' imprint is Berlin based artist Regent. Across four tracks Regent
showcases a diverse range of sound backed with purposive force making for a futuristic and interstellar
voyage into the deep depths of modern techno

Dr. John Chowning (b. 1934) is a pioneering computer musician, composer and professor who, in 1967, discovered the FM synthesis algorithm. This breakthrough in electronic music allowed for simple, yet rich timbres described as sounding "real." With this discovery, Chowning composed singular, dramatic electronic music and changed the timbre of music forever.

Chowning utilized the potential of computers to synthesize sounds according to programmed instructions. The composer's use of his own FM algorithms, digital synthesis with computers and the new compositional concepts offered by a programmable musical structure combine to create some of the most original and unique electronic music ever created.

The compositions on this LP were realized between 1966 and 1981 and the music on this LP, with the exception of Stria, was originally released on CD in Germany (Wergo, 1988). The version of Stria included here contains a section not included on the Wergo CD. Thus, this version of Stria is complete. This is the first time these purely digital recordings have been released on an analog medium. The original dynamics of these groundbreaking compositions have been preserved on this LP. As a result, listeners are advised to increase volume with caution.

In 1975, John Chowning founded the CCRMA - Center For Computer Research In Music and Acoustics at Stanford University. Through Stanford, Chowning licensed his groundbreaking algorithms to Yamaha resulting in numerous new instruments including the iconic DX series of keyboards. In 1972, his composition Tureens which is included on this LP, was the first to create the illusion of continuous 360-degree space using four speakers.

Technical Notes:

All pieces on this LP are originally quadrophonic. The illusion of moving sound sources is thus projected from the surrounding environment given by four loud-speakers on the stereo-basis.

STRIA was composed using Chowning’s own program to compile the musical structure into note-lists and MUSIC 10 (by D. Poole/Tovar) to generate the sounds in software-synthesis. The original quadrophonic version utilized 12 bits, two different sampling rates being used to accommodate the enormous amount of data on the magnetic disc-packs available at that time. The original sound-data was processed by sampling-rate conversion and digital mixes to achieve the stereo version presented on this LP.

SABELITH and TURENAS were synthesized originally using Smiths’ SCORE and MUSIC 10. However, their format was changed from direct sound-samples to a command stream for a special purpose computer, the System Concepts Digital Synthesizer, designed by Peter Samson, one of the first large-scale digital synthesizers for real-time sound processing - one was designed for CCRMA in the late seventies. For this recording the sounds were recorded directly from the synthesizer computing the samples in real-time.

PHONÈ was realized with the System Concepts Digital Synthesizer using again Chowning’s own program to create the note list.

The master tape of this LP was made directly from the computer system at CCRMA which generated and stored the sound data in digital format. No analog recording was involved at any stage of the production and editing process.

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.

Thelonious Monk, considered one of the greatest Jazz pianists of all time, recorded Underground in '67-'68. It's the last recording with the Thelonious Monk Quartet (Larry Gales on bass, Charlie Rouse on tenor sax, and Ben Riley on drums) and one of the last album he made for Columbia.

What makes Underground special is that unlike his other Columbia recordings, four out of the seven songs were newly composed and recorded. The album cover depicts Monk as a member of the French Resistance and is meant as an homage to Pannonica "Nica" de Koenigswarter. She was a member of the aristocratic Rothschild family and became a patron of leading jazz musicians, hosting jam sessions, driving them to gigs and sometimes even help out with paying the rent. In 1969 the cover won a Grammy for Best Recording Package.
Underground is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl and comes in a deluxe, heavy duty sleeve.

„Twio“ hieß das fünfte Studioalbum des US-amerikanischen Tenorsaxofonisten Walter Smith III, das im
Februar 2018 bei Whirlwind Recordings veröffentlicht wurde. Der Titel war eine spielerische Wortschöpfung
aus „Trio“ und „Two“. Downbeat schrieb damals: „‘Twio‘ präsentiert den großartigen Tenorsaxophonisten in einem kompakten Trio-Setting. Sein Ton und seine Melodik sind umwerfend, gepaart mit reichem,
packendem Ideenreichtum“.
Für sein drittes Blue-Note-Album greift der Musiker jetzt das Konzept wieder auf und präsentiert mit
„Twio Vol. 2“ ein äußerst gelungenes Album mit klassischen Jazzstücken voll swingender Spielfreude. Das
Album besticht durch eine neue, wechselnde Besetzung mit Bassist Joe Sanders und Schlagzeuger Kendrick
Scott sowie Gastauftritten der Jazzlegenden Ron Carter am Bass und Branford Marsalis am Tenorsaxofon.