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Samosa Records brings the heat just in time for the summer months with Volume 3 of the electrifying ‘Earth, Wind & Funk’ series – landing a slick four tracker that will relieve you of your socks and undergarments…

Kicking Vol.3 off is Roberto Telll with ‘It’s Magic’ – an unstoppable, bass driven leviathan of a track with perfectly balanced vocals and groovy, punchy beats. ‘It’s Magic’ straddles that sweet spot of disco flavour expertly infused with a peppery funk spice. Mesmerising.

Track 2 sees the welcome return of label favourites and fellow Italian groove machine Dirtyelements with ‘Get On Down’ (De Gama Re-Groove). The mid-tempo calypso rhythm on this slice of leg-wobbling perfection is outrageously infectious. Dirtyelements has yet another solid, stomping disco builder bursting out of the lab with a mission to cause mayhem.

On Side B, Marco Corona swoops in with his 126bpm sonic torpedo ‘Eat Me!’ From the start, ‘Eat Me!’ drums its way into your subconscious with a powerful bass drum and tribal tinted percussion. Before you know it, you’re over the border into house territory – expertly picked vocal loops and builds make this one insanely irresistible.

Closing out the EP with ‘Hey Jee’ is Italian producer extraordinaire Frank Virgilio. Step into Mr Virgilio’s taxi whilst he whisks you through downtown Manhattan en route to the best night out in town. Soaring strings, slick bass work and nimble beats are the dress code – but, don’t worry, Frank always gets you in.

Raising the Samosa bar yet again, ‘Earth, Wind & Funk Vol. 3’ is a cool antidote for those hot summer nights under the stars – best served with your favourite cocktail.

Scotland's incomparable and influential Arab Strap are back with their ninth studio album Half-Told Tales, due for release via Rock Action Records on 4th September 2026: almost exactly 30 years since the beloved duo’s first ever single, The First Big Weekend, was released. The follow-up to 2024's acclaimed I'm totally fine with it (y) don't give a fuck anymore (y) , Half-Told Tales is rich with Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s trademark wit and dark humour, whilst creating moments from quiet brooding to a self-described “disco-metal incantation that might make you dance” . Including the single You You You, the album was recorded with long-time collaborator Paul Savage (Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand) . Vinyl is released as a double LP in a gatefold sleeve.

Scotland's incomparable and influential Arab Strap are back with their ninth studio album Half-Told Tales, due for release via Rock Action Records on 4th September 2026: almost exactly 30 years since the beloved duo’s first ever single, The First Big Weekend, was released. The follow-up to 2024's acclaimed I'm totally fine with it (y) don't give a fuck anymore (y) , Half-Told Tales is rich with Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s trademark wit and dark humour, whilst creating moments from quiet brooding to a self-described “disco-metal incantation that might make you dance” . Including the single You You You, the album was recorded with long-time collaborator Paul Savage (Mogwai, Belle and Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand) . Vinyl is released as a double LP in a gatefold sleeve.

The second volume of this (already) cult series of British proto-metal compilation albums. Every artist on here was a regional band in their local underground scene of the late 1960s/early 1970s. The main thing that differentiates this series to any other, is the fact that none of the artists included had any kind of commercial release during their existence (apart from Fusion Farm, who self-released an extremely rare private press LP titled 'Rush Job' in 1971). All the artists were discovered after extremely lengthy searches of old music magazines, local newspapers, concert posters, government agencies.... By any means possible! It was a lot of work, but the results speak for themselves. The one thing that joins all these bands together (apart from being exclusively British), was their desire to play as loud and heavy as possible. This was a magical era in rock music, where Black Sabbath were the undisputed kings, but the industry simply didn't want to recognise the countless other band that existed in their gloomy wake. All of the recordings on Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy! are taken from demos, whether originating from crusty old 1/4 inch tapes, dusty acetate discs or third generation cassette tapes. Basically, whatever format was available. As a result, sound quality varies, though we did our utmost to get these precious artefacts sounding as killer as possible. For instance, Bonehead were close friends of Led Zeppelin. Their guitarist/vocalist Paul Lockey had previously played with Robert Plant and John Bonham in the Band Of Joy. Their track, 'Free To Escape', was actually an audition tape for Atlantic Records, which had been instigated by Robert himself. Unfortunately, the band broke up not long after the recording. So, their recording is top notch, whereas others were taken from rehearsal tapes (such as Fusion Farms' - Keys To Hell). But the main thing is, there's a spirit that unites them all. Sit back, roll up a fat one and let your mind be blown by the obnoxious sounds and sheer weight of vintage gravity that is: 'Yeah Man, It's Bloody Heavy! Vol 2'.

I Bet on Sky is the third Dinosaur Jr. album since the original trio – J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph – reformed in 2005. And, crazily, it marks the band’s 10th studio album since their debut on Homestead Records in 1985. Back in the ‘80s, if anyone has suggested that these guys would be performing and recording at such a high level 27 years later, they would have been laughed out of the tree fort.

The trio has taken everything they’ve learned from the various projects they tackled over the years, and poured it directly into their current mix. J’s guitar approaches some of its most unhinged playing here, but there’s a sense of instrumental control that matches the sweet murk of his vocals (not that he always remembers to exercise control on stage, but that’s another milieu). This is head-bobbing riff-romance at the apex. Lou’s basswork shows a lot more melodicism now as well, although his two songs on I Bet on Sky retain the jagged rhythmic edge that has so often marked his work. And Murph…well, he still pounds the drums as hard and as strong as a pro wrestler, with deceptively simple structures that manage to interweave themselves perfectly with his bandmates’ melodic explosions.


After submerging myself in I Bet on Sky, it’s clear that the album is a true and worthy addition to the Dinosaur Jr. discography. It hews close enough to rock formalism to please the squares. Yet it is brilliantly imprinted with the trio’s magical equation, which is a gift to the rest of us. For a combo that began as anomalous fusion of hardcore punk and pop influences, Dinosaur Jr. have proven themselves to be unlikely masters of the long game.

Roy Montgomery, a key figure in the experimental underground rock scene, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand, just a short drive from the sea. Avant-garde vocalist and songwriter Martha Skye Murphy is based in London. Though geographically worlds apart, the pair inhabit an intimate and almost tactile shared sonic world. Their collaboration feels transformative, like the gradual shifting spell from night to day.

What draws them together is the emotional force of each other’s music. Montgomery’s cyclical, decaying compositions are shaped through intricate guitar and piano work, blending post-rock, folk, and drone. Murphy, meanwhile, possesses a rare gift for transformation, from the intimate cracked whispers of 'At Dawn' to the hypnotic drift of 'The Play of Dark and Light'. On the latter, she evokes old maritime folk tales of fishermen lured into the darkness by the sea’s siren call. The song both seduces and warns, finding something magical and frightening in the temptation of drowning. Though her vocals often resemble fragments of words, consonants, or vowels, they frequently function as pure sound, drawing on glossolalia and prioritising feeling over any ‘learnt’ language.

Emotion and intuition are the driving forces behind Nebular, an album that oscillates between the intimate with the unknown. This spirit is reflected in its artwork. Murphy shared a painting by Irish artist Simon English depicting a solitary house bathed in dusky blue light, and the pair quickly settled on it as the cover image. Both were captivated by its atmosphere. Montgomery related it to the isolated, seemingly uninhabited houses he encounters while travelling through rural New Zealand—places that inspire a desire to knock on the door and discover what lies beyond. “Terra incognita springs to mind. A search into the unknown,” Murphy agrees.

The nocturnal and remote nature of the artwork mirrors the process of making Nebular. With Montgomery in New Zealand and Murphy in London, the album was created entirely through remote correspondence, with stems exchanged via email. Their messages were often written and read at different times of day, and, because of the time difference and the demands of daily life, replies usually were sent late at night and the music too often composed at nocturnal hours. Their exchanges took on the quality of pen pals sending letters across great distances. This suspended sense of time is echoed in Nebular’s sound, with its feeling of temporal drift and timelessness.

On Nebular, Montgomery and Murphy have harnessed raw emotion and launched it into a time capsule bound for the stars. It allows you to drift, to be present, and to feel; creating something timeless.

TRACKLISTING

ROSE KEELER-SCHAFFELER

UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Magic Hollow (MH002)

Before we learn language, we learn the voice.

Universal Language is the second release on Magic Hollow and an exploration of the voice before song and before speech. Written and recorded during pregnancy and early motherhood, Rose Keeler-Schaffeler's album draws inspiration from the earliest forms of human communication: coos, cries, sighs and instinctive vocalisations that precede language yet already contain the seeds of music.

Best known as Keel Her, the cult DIY songwriter, producer and NTS Radio DJ whose fiercely independent body of work helped define a generation of bedroom pop, Rose reveals a strikingly different side of her musical practice here. Produced by Daniel O'Sullivan, Universal Language places the human voice at its centre, treating it not as a vehicle for lyrics but as the raw material from which music, language and relationships emerge.

With the exception of a handful of bass vocal parts performed by O'Sullivan, every voice heard on the album is Rose's own.

Across twelve meticulously composed pieces, layered vocal arrangements intertwine with subtle electronics, tape manipulation, synthesizers and understated drum machines. At times the music evokes the luminous purity of medieval sacred music; elsewhere voices dissolve into hazy ambient textures or unfold through hypnotic loops that blur the distinction between singer, choir and atmosphere.

The album was recorded during the first year of her son’s life. Many of its melodic contours and vocal gestures were inspired directly by his earliest sounds. His pre-linguistic attempts at communication became compositional material, guiding Rose towards a deeper exploration of the voice at its point of origin.

Deeply personal yet reaching towards something universal, Universal Language is a meditation on the human voice: our first instrument, our first language and our first experience of belonging.

Coyote are back with another typically carefully curated collection of Baleraic re-edits and revisions via the reliable (and hush-hush) Magic Wand imprint. The Nottingham twosome kick things off themselves with 'Carpenter', a dubby and bass-heavy extension of a dreamy, folksy number (all jangling acoustic guitar, stoned male lead vocals and gentle hand percussion), before we're treated to the 'Pointless edit' of 'Six Blade Scalpel' - a languid, bass-heavy revision of a late 70s blues/soft-rock number crafted by Bedmo Disco's Sell By Dave. There's an Americana/neo-folk feel to Andy Kidd's sublime extension of Dan England's 'I Don't Feel That Way', while YZ's edit of 'Sapelo' is a horizontal, Rhodes-laden, spoken word-sporting ambient delight.

The Toy Tonics crew is known for being addicted to two things: vintage music machines and old vinyl. 100% music aficionados. On the Tonic Edit series the crew shares some of their favorite old tracks - in a reworked version. This time COEO get back in time. They destroyed a couple of 1970ies disco jams. Recut & repasted them. And gave them their special COEO touch. Of course it's irresistible! This release comes on vinyl only first. Later maybe could be out on selected Digital sellers.. not sure yet.

To mark its 10th Anniversary,
discover Awa Ly's Album "Five And A Feather" (Including one previously unreleased track) On Vinyl For The First Time !

One night, Awa had a dream.

The atmosphere was enchanted, almost mystical, enveloped in a setting that summoned the moon, the Earth, and the elements. An ancestral blend of Native American and African cultures, a shamanic being was there, speaking in an unknown language, narrating stories both real and imagined. She received these tales from others, made them her own, absorbed them, shared their joy, and soothed their harbored pain or sadness.

Upon waking, the shamanic narrator had vanished, but her presence was still palpable; Awa made her the storyteller of this new album: Five and a Feather.

Five, like all things counted by fives: the senses, the oceans, the lines of a musical staff, the fingers on a hand. And feather, the magical element that connects them-the very one Awa used to write and compose the ten tracks of this new album where, under the brush of SainaSix, she becomes the first Black woman immortalized in Mucha's Art Nouveau aesthetic.

Ballaké Sissoko's kora, Paco Sery's senza, Greg Cohen's double bass, Faada Freddy's vocals, the steel guitar, or the erhu (Chinese violin) are all elements that illuminate the shamanic storyteller's tales.

Produced alongside the duo Jean Lamoot and Pascal Danae (winners of the 2015 Victoires de la Musique in the World Music category with their band Rivière Noire), Five and a Feather faithfully captures the warm atmosphere of live-recorded sessions where instruments answer and interlock with one another, creating the perfect showcase for the album's principal instrument: Awa's voice.
Words that she delicately places or lets fall onto the notes like tears of joy or sadness, flowing from that source called love.

An album written, composed, and recorded like fine lace, starry with details that only reveal themselves to those who know how to seek them out.

Discoweey launched back in February with a collection of label head Hotmood's hottest digital tunes making their way to wax for the first time. Now he is back with a second collection of worldly hits that collide Latin, disco, funk and soul into colourful and hooky grooves perfect for outdoor dancing under the sun or the stars. 'Por Que Me Dejaste' is a global groove with Spanish vocals flair, 'Dancing Is The Only Way' is a smoother disco-house blend and 'My Love Is 4U' is a soul-drenched and feel-good retro number before 'Hot Beat' closes with jazzy and cosmic synth expressiveness and timeless house drums for all the magical feels.

In order to celebrate their 20 years anniversary Permanent Vacation is releasing a series of EPs with some of their core artists and friends of the past two decades. First EP comes stacked with high quality tracks from Lauer, Midnight Magic, Pional, Curses and PV's own Benjamin Fröhlich. The
music is in a fabulously Permanent Vacation tradition and covers the spectrums from Disco, Italo, beefy House and poppy Electronic.

Following the first two singles by Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (later F.S.K) from 1980 and 1981, as well as their debut LP “Stürmer” and the 1982 EP “Magic Moments”, A-Musik is now releasing “Ça c’est le Blues,” another of their early works, all of which were released on Alfred Hilsberg’s legendary ZickZack label and have long since become rarities. “Ça c’est le Blues” was originally released in 1984 and marks nothing less than a milestone in F.S.K.’s already impressive discography. While numerous bands from the West German underground of the early 1980s, following the “Summer of Pop” of 1982 and the associated breakthrough of the “Neue Deutsche Welle,” either moved toward the mainstream or began singing in English, Justin Hoffmann, Thomas Meinecke, Michaela Melián, and Wilfried Petzi took a different path.

The songs became more elaborate, the production – influenced by bands like Gang of Four and Dexys Midnight Runners – more opulent, and the instrumentation now included wind instruments for the first time, which have since become an integral part of F.S.K.’s sound. At the same time, the Munich-based band’s music-historically motivated focus was directed more toward the US than was typical of the bands in the West German scene of that era. To their signature blend of post-punk and experimental music, as already evident on “Stürmer,” they now incorporated funk (on the opener “Faire Le Chicken”) and jazz (on the heartbreaking cover version of “My Funny Valentine”). From then on, this “transatlantic feedback” was an essential component of F.S.K.’s musical practice. The discursive twists and turns, the incorporation of references, and the insistence on German lyrics would influence bands in the coming decades, not just those of the “Hamburg School.” At the same time, the album features legendary hits by Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle – such as “Move Ahead” and “Fragen der Philosophie (Völkerball)”– which are still played at every concert to this day.

With the reissue of “Ça c’est le Blues,” one of the most impressive releases in 20th-century German avant-pop history is finally available again. The reissue includes a comprehensive booklet featuring an in-depth interview about the album with all band members, as well as numerous previously unpublished photos.

Whatever The Reflex is on at the moment, we want some - he's rolling out the jams left, right and centre across several different styles. For this drop, he has revisited his own revision: ten years after first dropping this and without countless plays from legends like Kerri Chandler, he retouches a disco-house fusion classic that rides big vocal hooks and smooth, breezy grooves. On the B-side he takes aim at another soulful gem and go-to DJ favourite with real invention. 'Nobody' has persuasive drum breaks and slithering synths that shimmer like heat waves and allow the acing, singalong vocal room to work its magic up top.

Ever since the late 1950s bossa-nova revolution, Brazil’s influence on French music has been undeniable. Pierre Barouh, Georges Moustaki and a vast array of lesser known artists, all made the Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB) an axis of promotion at the service of a cool and metaphysical, modern and mixed Brazilian lifestyle. Some were seduced by the poetic languors of the bossa, some were looking for fun, and others just loved the American hybridization of jazz-bossa, jazz-samba.



What is bossa nova? One of its creators, Joao Gilberto said: "Its style, cadence, everything is samba. At the very start, we didn't call it bossa nova, we sang a little samba made up of a single note - Samba de uma nota so .... The discussion around the origins of bossa nova is therefore useless”. It is nevertheless useful to remember that these magnificent Brazilian songs, which the guitarist describes as samba, were shifted and balanced around improbable chords. "I like things that lean, the in-betweens that limp with grace," said Pierre Barrouh, quoting Jean Cocteau.



With emotion, arrangements for violin and supple guitar licks, bossa nova rapidly changed. A transformation that can be heard in the Tchic, tchic, French Bossa Nova 1963-1974 compilation, the result of a cultural reappropriation, which traveled through the United States and supplemented itself in France.

A musical revolution that has remained significant, bossa nova was born in Rio. From 1956 to 1961, Brazil lived through its golden years. In five years, the country had invented its modernist style. Elected president in 1956, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, an elegant man with a broad forehead, brandished a promising slogan: "Fifty years of progress in five years". He quickly got to work. Not worried about increasing debt, he launched the project for a new federal capital, Brasilia, designed by the communist architect Oscar Niemeyer. Volkswagen opened state-of-the-art factories and created the “fusquinha”, the Beetle. In Rio, the Vespa made its first appearance. The Arpoador Surf Club crew run into the “girl” from Ipanema, Helô Pinheiro - the tanned garota ("chick"), between a flower and mermaid, who at 17 walked by the Veloso bar, where the fiery author and composer, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, were getting drunk on whiskey. From then on, bossa symbolized cool.

In 1958, Joao Gilberto recorded Chega de Saudade, which the directors of Philips denied, calling it "music for fagots". The marketing director, who believed in it, secretly pressed 3000 78-inch vinyls and distributed them at schools around Rio, creating a tidal wave.

American jazzmen then took over. In particular, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and guitarist Charlie Byrd. In November 1962, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a "Bossa-Nova" concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, inviting the genre’s pioneers. Unprepared, the show soon turned to disaster. But the troupe was invited to the White House by Jackie Kennedy. The first lady loved "the new beat" and in particular Maria Ninguem, a song by Carlos Lyra, later covered by Brigitte Bardot.

In Brazil, the 1964 military coup quickly ended this euphoria. The destructive atmosphere that ensued pushed many Brazilian musicians to leave, if not to exile. Thus, Tom Jobim, Sergio Mendes and Joao Gilberto arrived to the United States. In New York, Joao Gilberto met saxophonist Stan Getz. At the time, he was married to the Bahianese Astrud Weinert Gilberto, who had a German father. She had never sung before, but she knew how to speak English. Getz therefore asked her to replace her husband on The Girl From Ipanema. The Getz/Gilberto record with Tom Jobim on piano, was released in March 1964. Phil Ramone, the "pope of pop" was in charge of sound.

Bossa nova arrived in Paris through the classic “guitar-voice” channel (Pierre Barouh, Baden Powell, Moustaki…) But France loved jazz and Paris had already welcomed its American contributors. All these good people were to pass through Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The cabaret l'Escale became the Mecca of Latin American sound where one could find Pierre Barrouh and his friends, such as the Camara Trio, samba-jazz aces, whose only record was published by the Saravah label. With a band strangely called Les Masques (a band that included Nicole Croisille and Pierre Vassiliu, among others), the Camara Trio recorded an interesting Brazilian Sound, including the track Il faut tenir which is present on this tasty compilation of rarities.

Other enlightened musicians can also be found on the compilation, such as Jean-Pierre Sabar (songwriter for Hardy, Auffray, Leforestier ...) and the French pop rock organist Balthazar. In 1975, Sabar recorded Aurinkoinen Musiikkimatka on a Finnish label, which featured the crazy Vai, Vai, included on this record. We are now following the footsteps of Brazilian electronic musicians such as Sergio Mendes, Eumir Deodato or Marcos Valle who created funk and disco sounds on their keyboards and synthesizers. A style that influenced Véronique Sanson when she wrote Jusqu’à la Tombée de la nuit in 1969 for Isabelle de Funès, the niece of Louis and a great friend of Michel Berger - Sanson did end up singing this track on her 1992 Sans Regret record.


The pinnacle of exoticism and travel, Sylvia Fels’ Corto Maltese includes bongos, sea mist and ocean sounds. The title was taken from Jacky Chalard’s concept album written in 1974, Je suis vivant, mais j’ai peur (I am alive, but I am scared), based on Gilbert Deflez’s science fiction novel.


However, bossa nova extended the scope of popularity. "In the 1970s, I was a fan of Sergio Mendes, Getz / Gilberto. I fell in love with this music that I knew because I had been an orchestral singer, " explained Isabelle Aubret, who in 1971 delivered a composite record of covers by the very funky Jorge Ben, Orfeu Negro, Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Morais and Jean Ferrat. "I recorded this album for Meys Records in Paris, far from Brazil, with wonderful musicians, François Raubert, Roland Vincent, Alain Goraguer...". The latter wrote the arrangements for Casa Forte, a very percussive title borrowed from Edu Lobo, one of the initiators of the bossa who spent time in California. "Jazz and bossa came together and produced very rhythmic music. I love singing, it allows me to dream, to have fun, to feel a high on stage, and these songs brought me joy, made me swing, my singing felt like a dance.”


The world tours of French singers and their desire for the tropics, often brought them to Rio with its hills, forests, caipirinhas and tanned bodies. There are surprises though, like this Iemenja (Iemenja is the goddess of the sea in the Afro-Brazilian candomblé religion). Not unlike the composer and musician Jean-Pierre Lang, based in Sao Paulo, Claire Chevalier taught Brazil to Brazil. In 1970, the singer and painter published a 45-inch vinyl, Mon mari et mes amants (My husband and my lovers), under the improbable pseudonym of Clarinha (little Claire). She was then living in Rio, with her husband, Joël Leibovitz, who founded a band called Azimuth, and who owned a record label specialized in "sambas enredos" songs for samba school parades.


For its B side, she asked Pierre Perret to come up with lyrics for a song composed by Carlos Imperial: "Oh goddess of the sea, o goddess Iemenja, I bring a white rose to adorn your long hair ..." . "Perret came to see us, and we had fun, remembers Joël Leibovitz. We wrote Lemenja for fun, we recorded it at the Havaí studio, behind the Central do Brasil the central station. Erlon Chaves, the arranger who worked with Elis Regina, joined us" adding his share of Afro-Brazilian percussions and funky brass to the mix.

There is a common misunderstanding in Franco-Brazilian history: that bossa, admittedly hedonistic, is perceived as funny, even though the poets who wrote the texts are often philosophizing on the human condition. Its French interpreters pull it towards a carnival inspired universe, far removed from its fundamental essence. Thus, Jean Constantin covered the famous Samba da minha terra, an ode to the art of samba written by the classic Bahian composer Dorival Caymmi, renaming it with the enticing title of Pas tant de tchi tchi pompon: "On your pier there is no tchi tchi / when you arch your back, you know everything is alright ”(lyrics by Gérard Calvi). This expedited bossa aims for the absurd, but retains a certain elegance.

Indeed, Jean Constantin was not an idiot, the rather large man had a huge mustache and liked fantasy, (Les pantoufles à papa, Le pacha, inspired by cha-cha-cha-cha, salsa and jazz) but he was also the lyricist of Mon manège à moi interpreted by Edith Piaf, the composer of Mon Truc en plume by Zizi Jeanmaire and the soundtrack of François Truffaut’s 400 Blows. Le Poulpe, published in 1970, from which this bossa is extract, was arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier, an accomplice of Serge Gainsbourg’s Melody Nelson. In short: "There is enough of samba / By looking at the parasol / Because my poor cabeza / Is going to die in the sun".

Even the American actress Marpessa Down, who was at the heart of the bossa nova revolution with her role as Euridyce in Marcel Camus’ film Orfeu Negro, winner of the 1959 Cannes Palme d'or, fed the clichée with Je voudrais parler au petit cuica - "Tell me how you manage to always make people want to dance / It's true, I must admit that I cannot resist your magic" - in consequence, once can hear the cuica, a little drum inherited from the Bantu.


But bossa nova had many angles. Societal, of course, pushing actresses who were symbols of women's liberation like Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, or Sophia Loren to engage in the exercise of accelerated bossa. In February of 1963, Sophia Loren made a record in French in Rome, Je ne t'aime plus, featuring the song De jour en jour, a bossa written by two Italians, Armando Trovajoli and Tino Fornai, which was released a little later by Barclay. Bossa accompanied the 1960s, a decade of moral liberation. Ann Sorel, who interpreted La Poupée des favellas, caused a sensation with L’amour à plusieurs, a provocative song written by Frédéric Bottom and Jean-Claude Vannier. As for the actress Andrea Parisy, she displayed her bourgeois cheekiness in Marcel Carné's Les Tricheurs before interpreting Les mains qui font du bien. And Magalie Noël, the friend of Boris Vian, who sung Johnny fais-moi mal, was hired to sing Une énorme Samba, composed by Alain Goraguer (arranger to Gainsbourg, Bobby Lapointe and Jean Ferrat) with lyrics by Frédéric Botton.

But in the end, of what wood is bossa nova made of? The answer is given by Christianne Legrand, daughter of Raymond the conductor, and sister to Michel the composer: "With me, with jà" - jà means "immediately" in Portuguese. In 1972, the singer, an expert in vocal jazz and a member of the Double Six, published Le Brésil de Christianne Legrand. Two songs included on the Tchic Tchic compilation that demonstrate how bossa, jazz, funk, rock, etc. work like a swiss army knife: the music is used to denounce broken systems, or miracles, HLM et ciné roman, Cent mille poissons dans ton filet, two songs from the O Cafona soundtrack, a successful telenovela broadcast, at the time in black and white, on TV Globo. The first was adapted in French by the fighter and friend of the Legrand tribe, Agnès Varda. The second is content with a play on words, jostling them into a summer fun.



Véronique Mortaigne

Cymbals' second album, ‘Mr. Noone Special’, released in 2000, makes its debut on vinyl.
Building on the pop sensibility of their first album, this record evolves into a more soulful and mature sound.
Featuring expressive vocals by Asako Toki and mellow, refined compositions by Reiji Okii, it includes classics like “Do You Believe In Magic” and “Highway Star,
Speed Star.”
A defining work from Cymbals' mid-period, distinguished by its sophisticated, urban sound and assured melodic sense.
This essential album for any discussion of Japanese pop from the 90s to the early 2000s finally gets its long-awaited first vinyl release.

This is not a Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein record; it’s a Play Time record. That’s a subtle but important distinction, for a couple reasons. One, the sound of Magic Object—a polymetric blend of improv and pulse minimalism for saxophone, drums, and Moog—doesn’t really sound anything like any of their many other ensembles or respective solo projects. And two, it was only while making Magic Object, their debut album, that Play Time realized they were a band at all.

Let’s back up. The roots of the trio date to 2020-21, when Will and then Booker moved to the Hudson Valley, where Ben was already living. The three got into the habit of playing together at Ben’s house, and they soon realized that their hang sessions felt fundamentally different from making music in some falling-down studio in Bushwick. Where those experiences were rushed and cramped, a new sense of time and space now suggested itself. Where once they rat-raced the music, now they relaxed into it.

Early gigs yielded similar revelations. A booking at Tubby’s, the beloved Kingston venue, evolved into a kind of residency. Tubby’s is a small space, fitting around 100 people, with a bar in the front room and a stage in the back. Play Time decided that they didn’t want to play on the stage; they wanted to play in front, among the people in the bar. Rather than hogging the spotlight and overpowering the other voices in the room, they blended with the energy of their surroundings and emerged as a sort of minimalist-jazz-krautrock bar band.

Gradually, they discovered a newfound “elasticity”—Ben’s word—that reshaped the music from inside. “It’s this communal thing,” he says. “It’s vibes. And it’s embedded in the community up here, which feels really vital and nourishing.” They were jamming, but it wasn’t just a free-for-all; they found themselves listening to each other in new ways. “Ben and Booker joke that they’re always playing in different time signatures,” Will says. “We’re all going forward with our own ideas, but we’re open to each others’ as well, and they’re all sort of dancing together.”

“We all have our painterly solo projects,” Will says—where, Booker adds, “we do a lot of studio arranging and thinking and composition that takes shape over a period of time.” Play Time, on the other hand, is all about being in the moment. That spontaneity was key to the process of recording the album. They booked two days in their friend Joey’s studio, a converted wooden barn. “It’s just a live room,” Booker says. “There’s no separation or anything. So we’re all in the space together and it’s got this beautiful, woody sound, and that’s very much the sound of the record.” For two days, they just jammed, for seven or eight hours each day. When it was over, they went through, edited down the portions they liked, and added very judicious overdubs designed to enhance the original recordings without fundamentally altering them, staying true to the spirit of the sessions.

The result is something like a snapshot and a mission statement all rolled into one. “You’re hearing us discover the voice of the band in real time,” Ben says. “We finished those sessions and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s what our band sounds like now.’”

Now, with Magic Object, the rest of us get to find out too.

—

Balmat is a label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show born almost ten years ago. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.

“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.

Warehouse Find!

Time to welcome Soul 223 to the label with his debut Delusions EP entitled Fear Of Stopping. Something of a complete legend in our eyes and ears, Steve Pickton has been releasing top drawer tuneage for over two decades both as Stasis on influential labels such as B12 and Peacefrog and more recently as Soul 223 on equally well regarded imprints like Delsin, Soul Jazz and Neroli. Always one to shy away from any limelight or self promotion it's true to say that this underrated British producer remains something of an anomaly, staying true to his underground roots where faceless, shadowy and obscure reigns supreme over the latest over-exposed cover star. This ethos naturally carries through into his music where you will always find both expansive beauty and unrefined rawness in equal measures ensuring his tracks always sound fresh rather than over produced or contrived.

Fear Of Stopping opens the EP with a low-slung disco groove providing the backbone for intermittent pad washes and reversing stabs. The focus here is firmly on the drums and simple conga riff with thankfully very little else to deter you from this sublime slice of abstract dance music.

Next up we have a remix from another ridiculously talented producer who chooses quality over quantity, having only ever had one release under his own name, albeit for one of the most respected labels in the world; Rush Hour. Maxi Mill came to our attention having released one of the tracks of 2011 namely To The Next. On this, his first ever solo remix he brings a brilliant bump to the EP with a raw, warehousey and bass-heavy workout. Just the right amount of strings and pads keep the deep vibe intact but the filtering bass and jacking drums definitely take this one to the floor.

Flipping over we have Walberswick in it's Hoist Covert Mix incarnation. Almost thirteen minutes of spaced out, deep Detroit house music awaits you, ready to lure you in and cocoon you with it's warm and hypnotizing machine funk. Lovely to hear the old Stasis influence working it's way into this one sounding both decidedly old-school and completely futuristic and otherworldly as only the best tracks ever do.

Closing the EP we have Birdbrook Rain dropping the BPM's for a beautifully sparse track that brings with it an almost desolate and disconnected feeling, echoing synths providing a naive melody while a dusty pad shifts simply beneath. A little slice of magic concluding a fresh and interesting EP, we hope you agree.

UnOwn is back with a third outing of magical edits and this time the enigmatic Fava Luva is cooking up the heat. First up is an edit of 'Roze', a disco gem that gets pulled apart and rebuilt in slow, sensuous fashion. The drums are loose, the funk is real and the vocal is full of tease that will warm up any setting in any season. On the flip, 'Fishy' is just as much of an elastic and playful sound, this time with a sleazier vocal and some mad, cosmically inclined synth expressiveness and plenty of Parliament-style vocal oddness. A pure heater from this ever-more-vital label.

WRWTFWW Records unleashes the first ever release of legendary post-disco, funk, soul and electronic UK trio Imagination's cult album Night Dubbing in (well deserved) double LP format. The limited edition full-length comes with pristine audiophile treatment and luxurious packaging : a 45rpm and Half Speed Mastered DLP housed in heavyweight silver cardboard sleeve.
Imagination's singular 1983 album Night Dubbing is a refined deconstruction of black British soul and club pop, filtered through the deep studio and mixing techniques of dub music. Elegant, restrained, and, in its very own subtle way, radical, the record reshapes choice selections from the group's stellar catalogue into an immersive and out-of-this-world listening experience.

The special mixes on Night Dubbing are built on time and space. Basslines elongate and dissolve. Vocals appear, vanish, and reappear like ghosts. Drums fall away into vast silences, while echoes, tape edits, and precise engineering manoeuvres smoothly slide across the stereo field, revealing themselves like magic over repeated listens. Far from simple extensions or 12" versions, Night Dubbing treats the studio itself as an instrument, opening new dimensions of sound.

Often cited as a foundational record in the genesis of the house genre, the album also features the historic Larry Levan remix of "Changes", a Paradise Garage anthem that helped shape the direction of club music for decades to come.

More than 40 years on, Night Dubbing remains a seminal work. Its influence continues to echo through contemporary dance music, offering a blueprint for how pop could be transformed into something darker, stranger, more physical - a timeless sound that drifts effortlessly from the dancefloor into space.

Important note : it sounds amazing played on 33rpm too !

2026 Repress
Twenty five years after its initial release, and accompanying the re-release of 'Internal Empire' Tresor Records is proud to present a new cut and pressing (180gm) of Robert Hood's essential 'Master Builder'.
The ongoing importance of this single and its adjacent album is indisputable, essential both to techno and to Tresor. It is a history intertwined.

This work elevates its maker as master, and remain a cherished moment in the Tresor story, sharing an irrefutable singular magic, sounding as present and indispensable as when first created. To understand this work fully is to stand back and celebrate its impact.
Originally released in 1994, 'Internal Empire' marks a point of transition for Robert Hood moving on from his previous collaborations within Underground Resistance. Robert Hood advanced uncovering the power of true minimalism. Deep soul through a simplicity that showed how much could be done with so little. The devastating rhythms of this album forge the unmatched spirit of this sound, influencing generations to come.

"25 years ago, I was faced with the challenge of following up on 'Minimal Nation'. I cancelled all my tour dates for that summer, setup my studio in the living room and began to work on 'Internal Empire'. My intention was to create something distinctively di erent. Looking out my living room window in Detroit watching people go by gave me a new perspective. It made me look at the world within myself. 25 years later I am still discovering.' - Robert Hood

The Coyote-affiliated Magic Wand wafts its mercurial charm over a series of mega-useful and equally effective edits here. Robot 84 kicks off with a slow, cyborg-infused and digitally finished dub of a Prince classic and Ali Renault brings sugary synth charm to 'Indovina Key'. Bratley himself then steps up with the whacked out piano house of 'PNO', a slow jam with oversized impact. 'Song To The Hills' gets a Secret Soul Society mix that's infused with subtle psychedelic charm and fresh disco chug.4 new heavyweight reworks from Secret Soul Society, Robot 84, Ali Renault and Craig Bratley.

Mr. K’s latest is a sureshot double-sider with two much-loved classics given the exclusive treatment from the edit master.

The Shades Of Love, a powerhouse female vocal trio led by the sensational Meli’sa Morgan, dropped an absolute boogie bombshell in 1982 on their first collaboration with superproducer Patrick Adams. ‘Body To Body’ has an easy midtempo swing that’s perfect for a dancefloor (or roller rink!) with a chunky bass line and crisp claps pushing things along, giving Morgan’s sultry vocals the perfect springboard. Previously only available as a 7-inch on obscure Dutch and Brazilian pressings… but that was a remix version, this custom edit by Mr. K is from the version Larry Levan made famous at the Paradise Garage, a welcome addition to any dance 45s crate.

Taking things back to the early days of disco music, Crown Heights Affair provide a shimmering slice of uplifting magic on ‘Dreaming a Dream’. Originally an instrumental break of a vocal song, this wordless take became a hit in its own right when it was released as a single in 1975. That famed version, however, sadly ends far too early. The magnificent waves of sparkling keys, rushing

Dive into the latest groove-packed installment from Luv Shack Records - where Disco, House, and Indie Dance collide in a timeless celebration of dancefloor magic.

Disco Biscuits #7 delivers the heat, curated for those who live for the rhythm and the vibe.

2026 Repress

- Linen Paper, Foil Printed Box Set
- Includes 6 Double LPs + 1 Single LP, 13 Discs In Total
- All LPs Pressed on Coloured Vinyl
-Each Disc is Housed in a Printed Inner with PMS Print, Finished with Spot Gloss Printing. Each Sleeve Features an Abstract of the Original Album’s Artwork
- Also included are a 4 page Insert + Poster

Skintone Edition commemorates the singular talent of this music pioneer with the re-release of all of his albums released via his own Skintone label.
Over a 20 year period Yokota released 30 albums and countless 12s under a variety of aliases, across more than a dozen pre-eminent labels. Yokota received domestic and international acclaim as a house and techno DJ and producer throughout the nineties. Part of the vanguard of the Tokyo scene, his influential release Acid Mt. Fuji inspires techno artists to this day.

In 1998 though, at the height of his success, he established his Skintone imprint, which came to eclipse all of his previous achievements. Skintone shone a light on the diverse new directions in which his creativity had blown, from delicate, cyclical tape-loop meditations to neo-classical compositions. It also gave him the autonomy to combine his visual and music-making practices and, importantly, to create at his own pace. The label was a great success and his experiments proved foundational in the global 00s ambient canon.

Skintone Edition will be available as 2 box sets - the first volume coincides with the 10th anniversary of Yokota’s untimely death and the 30th year of Lo Recordings. All music has been fully re-mastered. This edition is presented with the generous assistance of the Yokota family.
Albums Included:

Magic Thread 1998
Image 1983-1998 [1998]
Sakura [1999]
Grinning Cat [2001]
Will [2001]
The Boy and the Tree [2002]
Laputa [2003]

Every so often in music, we come across voices that achieve a certain timelessness, so naturally do they encapsulate both past and present. Laure Briard is one of these voices, retro in form but contemporary at heart, spanning a career rich in aesthetic twists and turns, never without her signature magic, a special kind of eternal filter. Her first album, Révélation (2015), reveals her yé-yé influences, a testament to her love for ‘60s French pop music. Her second studio album, Sur la piste de danse (2016), follows in this vein and finds Laure accompanied as always by her long-time bandmates who share an affinity for warm, catchy arrangements that never lose their appeal. Her tour of Brazil marks a turning point in her career, introducing her to the local indie scene and thus launching her collaboration with the band Boogarins, as well as inspiring the release of multiple EPs composed and performed in Portuguese. Today, her music is embellished by touches of bossa nova and a folk sensibility, boasting increasingly intricate arrangements, as exemplified by her 2019 release, Un peu plus d'amour s'il vous plaît. Several years later, the Californian desert captures the musician’s imagination with Ne pas trop rester bleue, a poignant musical journey inspired by the rich history of Western legends and the role they play in shaping our collective consciousness.

In Voyage Mental, Laure Briard draws upon an inner energy unearthed during a new stage in her life, where the thrill of spontaneous adventure is not accessible in quite the same way. The result is a collection of sophisticated, introspective songs, narrating a young mother’s quest for balance in the face of routine. The album, nostalgic but always tethered to the present moment, is also the fruit of her collaboration with Gaëtan Nonchalant, a talented musician known for coaxing poetry out of the mundane. The two of them co-wrote and recorded five tracks at Studio Nocturne, accompanied by her long-time sidekick Pieuvre, aka Vincent Guyot, Léo Blomov, Pierre-Louis Vizioz, and Hedi Bensalem. The gentle pop opener “Rocking Chair” sways steadily to the rhythm of dynamic drums, followed by “Train,” a ballad that extends an invitation to set sail and daydream alone. The folk escapade continues with “Golden Sun,” a duet featuring the 1960s cult American musician F.J. McMahon, who Laure contacted via the internet on a whim. “Golden Sun” is an unlikely encounter between two generations and two cultures, giving new life to an old forgotten demo on the other side of the Atlantic. And while Laure sings of wide open spaces, cowboys, and sunsets sinking into the sea, we feel the city surrounding her in “Miroir,” a song composed by Hedi Bensalem that laments the suffocation of living in a crowded metropolis where the sky is a distant gray smudge. This pressing need for air, this search for rest and total disconnection, is one of the album's central themes. It may also explain the ever-present sense of nostalgia that pervades the songs, a welcome respite in our current era of doomscrolling and darkness. Along the way, Laure soothes us with melancholy guitar, delivers poetry set to scattered piano notes, and takes us by the hand during lively, uptempo passages. We climb onto her wings, never straying too far from the ground, soaring joyfully above her moods.

Irish band Dea Matrona return with their second album, Hate That I Care. Darker and more emotionally intense, the record finds Mollie McGinn and Orláith Forsythe coming into their own, embracing alt-rock with a sharpened edge. Written with a deeper awareness of the world around them, Hate That I Care explores desire, rebelling against expectations and the complicated process of self-discovery.

OH! is the powerhouse production duo of Massimo Paramour and Gianluca Pighi. Their
debut album, We Come In Peace (Huldigung Records), is a 19-track odyssey that fuses
the grit of post-punk with the neon hooks of classic Synth-Pop. Recorded entirely on
analog hardware at Italy’s Elfo Studio, the record features a global cast of vocalists
including Local Suicide, Sarah P, and iDA fLO. It is a love letter to the era of Tangerine
Dream and The Human League, reimagined for the modern dancefloor.
We Come In Peace is a masterclass in analog synthesis. Eschewing VSTs and samples for
the tactile power of the Moog Subharmonicon and Sequential Prophet Rev 2, OH! has
crafted a record that is musically audacious yet undeniably radio-friendly. From the dark
disco pulse of "Crush" to the shimmering pop of "Falling," this is a project built on
production flair and collaborative magic.

Moving Images is a collaborative album by composers Frank Maston and Greg Foat, and marks the inaugural release on Magic Hollow, the new imprint founded by Daniel O'Sullivan. Rooted firmly in the tradition of classic library music, the album draws from the deep, elegant end of the form: vintage keyboards, analogue synthesis, drum machines, and melodic economy, realised with clarity, warmth, and restraint. Recorded in February 2025 at Ritmo Studios in Leysin, Switzerland, high in the Alps, Moving Images unfolds as a suite of finely balanced cues, defined by restraint, texture, and a discerning sense of tone.Swiss bassist Elie Ghersinu features prominently throughout the album, his rich and fluid bass tone providing a continuous anchor. The record draws inspiration from the golden age of European library music, channeling the spirit of De Wolfe and Bruton releases such as Alan Hawkshaw's Frontiers Of Science, the Push Button albums by Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge, Edmondo Giuliani's refined orchestrations, and Alessandro Alessandroni's Romance and Drama for Coloursound. Rather than pastiche, Moving Images internalises the discipline and elegance of these recordings, translating their grammar into a contemporary context. Maston Frank Maston's work occupies a space where pop sophistication, orchestral writing, and library traditions intersect. His seminal album Tulips established a distinctive voice defined by melodic confidence and meticulous arrangement, while Panorama, composed for the KPM library, placed him firmly within the lineage of modern composers revitalising the classic library form.Maston's music is characterized by melodic generosity and meticulous arrangement, resulting in work that is elegant, florid, and richly detailed. Greg Foat Greg Foat is a central figure in the contemporary resurgence of library-influenced music, known for his prolific output and deep engagement with the form. A virtuoso pianist, his work bridges jazz, soundtrack composition, and classic library aesthetics, often favouring analogue warmth, strong melodic identities, and ensemble interplay. Foat approaches library music as both a craft and a living language, practical, expressive, and open ended. Moving Images Together, Maston and Foat treat Moving Images as a shared vocabulary rather than a showcase. The album prioritises mood, utility, and suggestion, music designed to serve images and narratives while remaining richly satisfying in isolation. Magic Hollow Magic Hollow is a London based record label founded by composer Daniel O'Sullivan. The imprint is dedicated to contemporary works that engage with library music as a creative practice rather than a fixed genre.Magic Hollow represents a parallel compositional practice in which the sonic self-portrait gives way to openness, economy, and concision.

Archeo Recordings is a record label. Old, lost, obscure and forgotten gems and a boundless focus on the new Balearic scene for a wider audience of collectors, DJs and music lovers. All releases are limited edition. This release is a Limited Edition EP (100 on Pink Marbled vinyl). New life and an expanded treatment for the magical Free Disco - You Are My Sculpture with the Original 2010 Heterosexual Mix + the Zion Heat Version (an obscure raw unreleased demo from that period that will light up all the dancefloors on the planet) + 2 special Balearic Remixes by label boss Manu Archeo.

Cult reissue label Sticky Buttons returns with ‘Sweet Edits’, their first official foray into dancefloor edits featuring 4 remixes of Nigerian boogie legend Dizzy K by a hand picked set of superstar producers specially designed to get the party moving.

Starting with a bang, the A Side features a double hit of remixes to Dizzy K’s 80’s sleeper hit “Afrikan Jamboree”. First up is Clive From Accounts, frequent contributor to Razor-N-Tape and hot off the heels of his 2025 debut full length LP, Clive’s edit has gifted us a complete foot stomper, filled with popping synths and squelchy baselines the track has already been getting big plays by the likes of Optimo over the past 18 months. On track A2, well known dance floor magician Lipelis takes the reins, creating his Disco Dub version, expertly layering traditional african drums and vocal loops from the original to build a wonky club track laden with energy and soul as come to be expected from the artist.

Over on the B Side, South London based duo Make A Dance (M.A.D) take the formula from their own widely popular house inspired edits imprint to take apart Dizzy K’s “I’ll Never Love Again”, stripping it down into a teetering, chugging acid sprinkled weapon overlaid with a ferocious drum pattern destined to move even the stiffest hips. Last but not least, Japanese producer Mayurashka brings her signature subversive style to Sticky Buttons, flipping Dizzy’s K’s “Konga Mama” into a hypnotic tribal masterpiece, pulsating with a psychedelic techno edge ripe for blending in smokey club venues and dark mainrooms.

Four heaters not to be slept on. Hearing is believing and on this limited edition vinyl release the legend of Dizzy K sings again, finely tuned for 2026 dancefloors but always carrying the raw spirit of the original.

Mastered by Submarea Estudio
Cover Art Illustration by Alex Ram

We’ve all experienced that feeling when a song instantly transports us back to the moment we first heard it and became completely hooked. For Linda & Norm, “Moments to Want You” by the Jerry Lillard Band carried the warm vibes of a Parisian summer in 2019. Fast-forward to 2025, they revisited the track with a complete twist, nudging it toward an AOR resurgence for the label’s Soft Rock for Hard Times series.

The original version by the Jerry Lillard Band was released in 1981 on a German rock sampler, created in protest against the closure of their rehearsal space in an old school building. “Moments to Want You” stands out for its haunting melody, heartfelt lyrics, and compelling arrangements. Inspired by these elements, Linda & Norm cast the song in a new light, leaning into ’80s-tinged guitar pop à la Trevor Horn, with hints of psych bedroom pop in a distinctly Californian fashion.

Joining the release are two favorite artists of theirs, further expanding the song’s potential into dancefloor territory. Sydney’s own DD Mirage delivers the smoky, dubby disco blend we’ve admired since their debut album, while seasoned producer Justin Van Der Volgen brings the B-side magic, echoing the authentic stripped-back dub approach in the vein of Pettibone and Baker. To round it out, an instrumental version, along with an extended mix courtesy of Justin, complements the release, making it a 12” worth pulling out whenever the moment calls.

Straight from an alternative dancefloor, a recollection of stone cold classics from huge & influential post-punk pioneers. They called it white funk once, but here you can even catch echoes of latin, dub and club influences, a mutant disco manifesto from a series of British champions such as Medium Medium, Jah Wobble, Animal Magic, Blue Rondo' A La Turk, Nightmares In Wax, Tappa Zukie and many more.

Tracklist Side A:
Blue Rondo A La Turk - Sarava
Medium Medium - Serbian Village
Jah Wobble - Invaders Of The Heart (Mix One)
Perfect Zebras - What Dance Is This?
Splat! - Yeah... The Dum Du

Tracklist Side B:
Dancing Did - Ballad Of The Dying Sigh
Animal Magic - Get It Right
Nightmares In Wax - Black Leather
Tappa Zukie – Freak

First Word Records proudly present the second single from Above The Clouds (aka kidkanevil & Magic Manfred), taking on another underground hip hop classic, 'Change'.

'Change' was originally performed by Shadez of Brooklyn, produced by Da Beatminerz and most notably appeared on DJ Premier's legendary 'New York Reality Check 101' mix compilation back in 1997.

This 7" vinyl release follows on from last Summer's MF DOOM cover 'Arrow Root', which received strong support from the likes of Japan's DJ Koco and Philadelphia's DJ Jazzy Jeff.

This new instrumental reinterpretation also features cuts by Leicester-based turntablist, Jon1st - a DMC World Online Champion, as well as being a producer & musician in his own right, collaborating on music with a number of hip hop, D&B and electronic artists.

One of the original First Word roster, UK Producer/DJ and all-round laptop music geek kidkanevil has developed a distinctive and progressive sound over the years, gleefully exploring the beats and bleeps of the electronic music universe to international recognition. Leeds born, sound system bred and raised on a (un)healthy diet of video games and anime, his solo work inhabits the curious space between bass frequencies and otaku culture. But as a devoted teenage backpack rap nerd, somewhere in the back of kid's mind was a lingering desire to reconnect with his first love, hip hop.

Not long after moving to Berlin he joined a studio space in graffiti plastered Kreuzberg, where he met multi instrumentalist wizard Magic Manfred; a disciple of all things boogie, disco, funk and soul. Born and raised in Berlin, and currently a touring musician for many an act, Manfred's musical map joins the dots from piano lessons at four, to starting a band with his teenage friends, leading him to his true calling - the bass - via the club vibrations of his hometown, which introduced him to the world of DJing and production, and a stint studying in the explosive London jazz scene to finalise his Jedi training.

Bonding over their mutual love of '90s hip hop, a friendship and musical kinship developed, coupled with a desire to honour past eras but push things forward, Above The Clouds was born; named after their joint favourite DJ Premier beat, with a touch of irony regarding their basement based studio of a windowless variety.

kidkanevil explains further "We started the project with a few covers, just as a way to get warmed up and in a certain creative headspace, of which 'Change' by Shadez Of Brooklyn was one. We both loved DJ Premier's 'New York Reality Check 101' mix when we were teenagers and this track was a favourite. The elements really lent themselves to live interpretation, and as an instrumental there was space to bring some nice movement with the bass and stuff. Hopefully we found the balance between paying tribute and finding our own pocket. For the final seasoning we hit up the homie and turntable wizard Jon1st to recreate the cuts, of which he did an immaculate job of course.

The b-side 'Urgh' is one of our favourite beats we've made so far; the title is just how it makes us feel! We actually recorded the piano with two iphones as left and right and it sounded kinda cool so we went with it..."

'Change / Urgh' is released on limited 7" vinyl & digital platforms, April 24th 2026.

Shrouded in mystery when it first appeared, Tiger & Woods’ debut album quickly took on a life of its own. With little more than whispers surrounding the project, the music spoke loud enough: a set of extended disco constructions carefully tuned, remixed, over-dubbed, sliced and diced by the elusive duo of Larry Tiger and David Woods. What began as a cult phenomenon soon caused a stir across dance floors and record bags worldwide.
Now, for the first time ever, that legendary debut finally arrives on vinyl. Through the Green captures Tiger & Woods at the moment their distinctive language of groove first took shape. Rooted in the spirit of disco edits but already stretching beyond the format, the album blends loop-driven funk, house-leaning propulsion and the unmistakable bounce that would soon become their signature.
It’s the sound of two producers refining a craft that would later blossom on albums like On The Green Again, where their approach expanded into a wider palette of boogie, electronica, Italo and uptempo house. But here is where the story begins.
Before world tours, live sets and the creation of their own T&W Records imprint, there were these tracks: hypnotic, playful and engineered with a dancer’s instinct for tension and release. Each cut unfolds like a perfectly extended club moment, full of warmth, swing and that unmistakable Tiger & Woods sense of fun and function.
Years after its original digital release, Through the Green remains a cornerstone of modern disco-house culture. Pressed to wax at last, it finally receives the physical format it always deserved: grooves built for the turntable, the dance floor and the crate.
The mystery might be gone. The magic, however, remains very much intact.

Primordial Mind forms the mysteries and intensity of inner life into eight mandalic instrumentals where Mas Aya and Khôra, artists who share 15 years of music making, orchestrate an inspired, prismatic palette of percussive and melodic sources. Each composition presented stages a vigorous meshwork of colours and textures, contrasting riveting polyrhythms with towering arrangements for flutes, synths, and processed acoustic instruments. Tendencies which the artists trace in their solo practices are amplified, blended, and refracted sublimely in unison, serving as energetic portals to the collective awareness.

Combining trans-ethnic scaling alongside a heady brew of rhythmic influences and advanced electronic processing, the recordings on this album operate with a tactility that vaults between free jazz, dub, raga, ambient, and ritual music. Assimilated powers of primal drum patterning and psychoactive, ceremonial melodies, invoke fourth world adjacencies with the work of Don Cherry, Jon Hassell, Popol Vuh et al. There is an alchemical, Buddhist/Taoist/Hindu inflection that guides the record’s narrative, formed through dialogue between the artists over lifelong shared interest in spiritual modalities generally and the tantric approaches of the global east in particular. The album title is derived from an unexcelled esoteric work known as the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time)Tantra and its associated commentary the Ornament of Stainless Light which detail forms of inner and outer transubstantiation within its complex cosmology and metaphysiology.

Mas Aya is the moniker of Brandon Miguel Valdivia, acclaimed Nicaraguan-Canadian composer, producer, and musician whose electronic and jazz inspired works creatively interlace Colombian, Cuban, and a wide array of traditional music. Khôra is the name of the occult entity that uses multi-instrumentalist, producer, and writer Matthew Ramolo to pronounce itself. Returning to Marionette following 2024's monumental Gestures of Perception, Primordial Mind reinforces the rigorous and magical approach to creation which defines Khôra’s two decades of sonic output. Brandon and Matthew met back in 2011 and the pair toured around eastern Europe with Toronto band Picastro in 2013, also performing as a duo with Brandon contributing drums to Khôra's opening sets. After a short spate composing and playing in the ensemble Bespoken together, they continued to discover shared inspiration in psych/art rock, jazz, experimental and electronic music, providing a fertile soil for friendship and collaboration resulting in their collaged, lo-fi album Tangled Roots in 2017. Mythic and talismanic, the duo's Marionette debut weaves a luminous tapestry of organic pulses, offering itself as a support for resonant meditation and a motor for lucid action and intuition.

Brandon Miguel Valdivia: Percussion, Flutes, Log Drum, Korg Lambda, Angklung, Tambor Alegre, Udu
Matthew Ramolo: Modular Synth, Archival Samples, Angklung, Guitar, Duduk, Bass, Percussion, Arrangements and Mix

Oceanine, Jolanda Moletta’s third album and her first for Beacon Sound, is a powerful and ethereal statement of artistic community. Expanding on her previous work, each track represents a collaboration with a different female vocalist, with the foundational elements being generated entirely by her own voice. By turns haunting, enchanting, and inspiring, you won’t want to come up for air once you’ve been pulled under. Representing a
musical practice that is distinctly feminist, this is an album with a longer view in mind, to an age when the altars were to goddesses and women were centered as powerful beings representing the earth’s cycles of regeneration and renewal. Oceanine then, in all its beauty, can be viewed as an album of survival. It is deeply transportive, accessing something that lies within all of us. As the late, great Lithuanian folklorist and archaeologist Marija Gimbutas noted, “We must refocus our collective memory. The necessity for this has never been greater as we discover that the path of 'progress' is extinguishing the very conditions for life on earth.”

Jolanda Moletta is a multimedia artist and one-woman electronic choir. She creates wordless compositions through extended vocal techniques, integrating wearable-controlled live processing, alongside symbolic visuals. Moletta considers her performances to be a collective ritual and creates her Sonic & Visual Spells following the cycles of nature and the moon. Jolanda's 2022 critically acclaimed album Nine Spells was released on the Ambientologist label, followed by Night Caves on Whitelabrecs in 2025. Moletta’s artistic practice is a radical and spiritual journey through sound art, ritual, and the symbolic archaeology of the feminine.

Oceanine is inspired by sirens, water nymphs, and the timeless call of the sea. At its core lies Jolanda’s deep, lifelong connection to the Mediterranean Sea and to the ancient and modern myths and folklore that have emerged from its waters. Growing up by the Mar Ligure, Jolanda was surrounded by stories carried by salt, wind, and waves: legends of sirens, echoes of ancient voices, and the sea as both origin and oracle. This intimate relationship with the Mediterranean is not merely a backdrop, but a living source that shapes Oceanine’s emotional, symbolic, and sonic world.

Each track features a different female vocalist, creating a rich tapestry of voices, styles, and perspectives. This artistic choice not only broadens the album’s sonic palette, but also deepens its narrative core: celebrating the power, beauty, and mystique of feminine energy through myth, history, and sound.

The entire album is built exclusively from the human voice, processed and layered, yet always remaining voice, and nothing else. For each piece, Jolanda invited every vocalist involved to contribute a raw stem: a short, unedited melodic fragment of just a few seconds, inspired by the album’s themes. These intimate vocal seeds became the foundation of each track: the guest artists’ voices appear as brief, melodic stems, while the entire surrounding “orchestral” fabric is created solely from Jolanda’s own layered and processed voice. In this way, Jolanda’s voice becomes the Ocean itself, embracing, absorbing, and carrying the sirens’ calls within a vast, immersive soundscape. Every song is a unique expression of the feminine experience, revealing its depth, complexity, and emotional range, echoing the call of the sea and the many faces of the siren archetype.

The figure of the siren has transformed across centuries. In myths of Ancient Greece and Rome, sirens were hybrid beings, part woman, part bird, whose irresistible songs lured sailors to their doom. During the Middle Ages, the image shifted toward the half-woman, half-fish figure, often associated with temptation and danger. Historically, the voice of women has often been feared. Sirens were considered harbingers of misfortune not simply because they seduced or destroyed, but because they were powerful liminal beings.

In Ancient Greek, sirens functioned as psychopomps: figures who existed between worlds and guided souls, especially between life and death. Their songs were believed to carry forbidden knowledge, including prophetic insight and the ability to reveal truths about fate and the future. The danger of the sirens lay in what they revealed: knowledge that humans were not meant, or ready, to hear.

Oceanine confronts this legacy head-on. The voices heard throughout the album are not merely beautiful: they are dark and luminous, wild and enchanting, magical, soothing, dreamy, and at times fractured or distorted. They whisper, lament, beckon, and enchant. Like sirens, they skim the surface of the water and sink into its depths, hovering on the edge between tenderness and danger, vulnerability and power. They rise toward the sky, dissolve into mist, and return as echoes charged with raw, elemental emotion: voices that seduce, warn, mourn, and remember. They refuse to be reduced to decoration.

Alongside the album’s release in May, Oceanine will also unfold as a visual and performative work through a short art film. The film includes a live session recorded inside a sea cave facing the Mar Ligure, the very coastline where Jolanda spent her childhood, dreaming of sirens and listening to the sea as if it were speaking directly to her. This site-specific performance reconnects the music to its place of origin, allowing the voice to resonate within stone, water, and air, and transforming the cave into both a sanctuary and a threshold between myth and reality.

What if the sirens’ songs were considered dangerous because they carried another truth, an ancient truth long forgotten?

Oceanine embraces the idea that we are still deeply woven into myth. Though we may see ourselves as rational and modern beings, our world is saturated with ancient symbols and archetypes, often distorted, simplified, or stripped of their original meaning. And if those symbols are allowed to shift, if the mirror once held by the siren becomes an invitation to look beyond appearances and into what has been obscured, then we may finally uncover a deeper truth and reclaim the voice that was always ours.

Oceanine is not just an album. It is a reclamation, a spell, and a call from the depths.

Naya Beat is excited to announce 'PAWA!', a soaring disco-funk anthem celebrating feminism and the power (pawa) of togetherness. It is a mouthwatering collaboration between legendary jazz vocalist and disco pioneer Asha Puthli and NYC’s punk-chic, discodelic stars Say She She.

A fortuitous and fleeting window between touring schedules allowed Puthli and Say She She’s Nya Gazelle Brown, Sabrina Cunningham, and Piya Malik to write and record Pawa! with members of the cult funk band Orgone in the English countryside at Mike Oldfield’s (Tubular Bells) studio. Pawa! is a tribute to female fortitude and an anthemic call to action for unity and collective action. PAWA TO THE PEOPLE! Asha’s spoken word bursts into a soaring falsetto while Say She She’s celestial three-part harmonies make for a sublime call and response between the fabled mentor and her gifted disciples. Throw in a stellar bassline and one of tightest rhythm sections around, and you have an instant classic. And if that wasn’t enough, four remixes bring Pawa to the dancefloor! The UK’s legendary Crazy P deliver not one, but three future classics – an epic house take with a stomping bassline, a stripped-down vocal dub, and a sunshine-ready disco dub. Not to be outdone, Greece’s favourite dance duo Boys’ Shorts add magical disco touches and reimagine the original as an eight-minute balearic opus.

Featuring beautiful artwork and a premium poly-lined inner sleeve, the 12" has been cut to vinyl for the discerning DJ and listener by Grammy-nominated Frank Merritt from The Carvery, London.

Some tracks are just too good to only feature on a compilation, even if it is a significant and celebratory set like Leng’s 15 Year anniversary album from late last year. That’s certainly the case with Payfone’s brilliantly atmospheric ‘Dime Algo’, a seductive slab of slow-motion Balearic disco featuring ‘I Feel You’ vocalist Kyd Nereida, along with Sofi Hardoy and Ludmila Rodriguez.

For this single release Black Science Orchestra, one of Britain’s most storied production collectives, deliver some truly exceptional remixes. Initially making their name with a series of sensational house jams on Junior Boy’s Own across the 1990s, BSO became renowned for the quality of their remixes as well as an ever-evolving trademark sound that put soul, organic instrumentation and references to dance music’s rich and varied past front and centre.

Comprised of Rob Mello, Ashley Beedle and Darren Morris, Black Science Orchestra work has been rare in recent years but here they deliver some magical takes on ‘Dime Algo’, blending Payfone’s original instrumentation with their own low-tempo magic. The Vocal Mix begins with sparse drums, Kraftwerkian bleeps and heavy sub-bass, building the action in waves with 303 lines, electro synths, warm chords and Nereida’s superb lead vocals combining to re-frame ‘Dime Algo’ as a deep, far-sighted slice of chugging 21st century acid-disco. The Dub Mix stretches things out with effects-laden instrumentation, acid lines and vocal snippets. Deeper and woozier, with more prominent use of the trio’s 303 trickery and Payfone’s superb original elements, it’s a heady, intoxicating and loved-up interpretation that subtly gains intensity throughout its seven-minute duration.