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Phantasy transports back to 1982 for a faithful reissue of the highly sought after ‘Fools Are Friendly’ from Xclusiv, carefully re-mastered from the original tapes.

The alias of sisters Karen and Maxine Berlinski, Xclusiv emerged inconspicuously from the London borough of Croydon with a sophisticated vision of cosmic disco pop, linking the suburbs with Soho’s neon-tinted nightlife. Decades later, and in close collaboration with the sisters, this highly sought-after record arrives lovingly reissued by Phantasy in its original, sensuous form.

Originally self-released on Le Maitre Music, a record label spun-off from their family-run fireworks and pyrotechnics company, ‘Fools Are Friendly’ has the irresistible sense of a radio hit that never was. A brilliant DIY reflection of the disco and soul that dominated the charts of the time, its glossy, primitive electronics echo the synth experiments of Giorgio Moroder or Didier Marouani, pioneers that were transforming pop music.

The extended mix provides an overture to the sisters’ twinned vocals, unfolding with delectable disco drama. In contrast, the Instrumental Mix lets the record’s blend of elements truly breathe, a synthesised version of Xclusiv’s irresistible vocal hook holding court between timeless arpeggios and subtle modulation.

Kumachan Seal: solo project of Japanese vocalist / songwriter / producer Sairi Ojima, who has been playing in numerous indie bands, including Neco Nemuru, since her teens. She began her solo career in 2013, and released her first cassette in 2017. This EM Records release is her first CD/LP album, with all compositions by Ojima, who co-produced the album. Each of the eleven songs reveals beguiling layers of detailed and surprising sounds, with Ojima's DIY sonic core embroidered by vibrant and colorful beats and guitar from EM artist Le Makeup and the quintessential ambient-pop synths and keyboards of fellow EM-er Takao. Le Makeup mixed ten of the eleven songs, with Takao mixing "China Sandwich". The heart of Ojima's musical identity is her clear, aque- ous voice; apart from one instrumental, all the tracks here feature that mellifluous voice, but in an interesting twist, only half the songs have lyrics, with the remainder employing her wordless voice as melodic and textural elements. Although Kumachan Seal can be heard as a sort of bedroom pop filtered through ambient music and the new-age revival, listeners will note that the final two songs, "Atsumono" and "Tiny Cell", are respectively a slightly skewed four-on-the-floor track and a lightly skanking Doo-wop- flavored confection, slightly reminiscent of the UK's Brenda Ray. This album, full of Ojima's calm and cool observation of the world, is available on CD, LP and DL, and includes an English lyric sheet.

Cathartic avant-rock, literate DIY folk & experimental composition exploring displacement, love, climate change, belonging & the places we call home - RIYL Jim O’Rourke, Richard Youngs, This Heat, Richard Dawson, Flying Nun. ‘Real Home’ is the new album by the Manchester-born, London-based artist Kiran Leonard. His sixth album proper (not including innumerable tour-only CD-Rs and short-run cassettes), since his precocious debut in 2013, ‘Real Home’ finds Leonard invigorated by inspiration and experience, making passionate, literate, and mercurial music that explores displacement, love, memory, climate change, connections to home and more. Encompassing songs recorded after moving to South London, ‘Real Home’ reflects on ideas of belonging and domesticity through folkloric, stream-of-consciousness songwriting. Across nine tracks, Leonard traces lived impressions of the household and the city, expressing sentiments of dislocation, alienation and stasis, but contentment too. Infusing the avant-rock effervescence, terraced dynamics and visionary lyricism of his music with what he defines as a greater sense of openness, Leonard is as versatile, fervent and imaginative as ever on ‘Real Home’, yet his music is somehow more intimate, affecting, and acutely expressive. Shaped by dual considerations of simplicity and formalism, ‘Real Home’ is by turns beautiful, allusive, and ruminative, an album on which Leonard considers what his songs have resembled in the past and what they mean now. In recent years, Leonard has crafted eloquent chamber music inspired by the likes of James Joyce and Clarice Lispector (‘Derevaun Seraun’), responded to contemporary politics and communication breakdown in the digital age (‘Western Culture’), and compiled solo works and ensemble recordings for a longform ode to Jonas Mekas and to one of Leonard’s enduring themes; home (‘Trespass On Foot’). On ‘Real Home’, Leonard reiterates this abiding thematic focus yet ascends to new, different heights, in music of cathartic delicacy and dissonance where all the myriad dimensions of his work to date seem to crystallize. There are sinuous songs about struggle and defying the pace of city life through drift and diversion (‘Pass Between Houses’), stirring songs of intense feeling and crescendo, described as a form of speculative detective fiction (‘Theatre for Change’). There are touching solo piano ballads (the title track), symbolic contentions with carbon capture and climate change (‘Utopia of Bog’), modes of experimental minimalism (‘Void Attentive’), and other profuse feats of compositional range, embroidered with wild tendrils of narrative and lyrical depth. A record to pore over, and get lost in. Exemplifying the vast aesthetic scope of Leonard’s music, lead single ‘My Love, Let’s Take The Stage Tonight’ is inspired by country lodestar Hank Williams, Russian poetry and a late period love poem by William Carlos Williams. Yet for Leonard, the song signals a sense of accessible materiality, and is the product of a more linear approach to writing songs: “My imitation of the great Hank Williams, in spirit if not in substance…This is one of the best efforts on Real Home at a song-as-object. Looking at it now I realise I was trying to write a song that made itself known as a song to the listener, and I wonder whether that’s crucial if you want a song to transcend its context. And that this is either accomplished through a total openness – by being inviting, by laying the tricks of the song out plain to see, as Williams and his many ghostwriters did so well – or by adopting a knowing aloofness, positioning oneself against the listener but letting it be known that that’s what it’s doing. In this song I try both, but mostly the former: as in, I wanted to write a song where every line follows on from the next.” Imbuing the endlessly elaborate and inventive qualities of his music with a newfound streak of candid, clear-cut melodicism, Leonard has reached a special place in his artistry, on a record that feels familial, and expresses closeness. Assembled with affiliates including Lauren Auder, Otto Willberg, Jasper Llewellyn (caroline), Tom Hardwick-Allan (Shovel Dance Collective), Magda McLean (caroline, The Umlauts), Alex Mckenzie (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective), Isabelle Thorn (Dear Laika) & more, the recording process had a significant influence on the subject matter of ‘Real Home’, in sessions defined by close-knit camaraderie and artistic eccentricity: “The theme of the home obviously recurs throughout the record; the album was mostly recorded in domestic spaces with friends, and the name of the album is Real Home. I like the qualifier ‘real’, like you’re getting past the cloak of the word and towards the thing-itself…also nearly all the percussion in this record was recorded on items from my dad’s shed (jam jars, sandpaper, blocks of wood, etc). Real home record!” ‘Real Home’, like anything by Kiran Leonard, is a record of dazzling multiplicity. Yet it’s a companionable prospect with a central premise; a collection of songs where listeners old and new can find a home. An album led by a scene; of Leonard standing at the threshold, ready to welcome you inside. “Exceptional songs that linger” - The Guardian // “An autodidact of amazing talent & energy” – Pitchfork // “A ridiculous amount of talent…confrontational, celebratory, provocative or perverse – he manages all of these emotions & more” - The Quietus /

2026 Repress !

Black Label #36 is introducing Mladen Solomun to the Compost Black Label Crew. Solomun who was born in the heart of Bosnia, grew up and still lives in Hamburg. Beside his residency at "Uebel & Gefaehrlich" he is the host of Club "DIY" in his chosen hometown Hamburg since five years now. With his first releases on labels such as Diynamic Music, Sonar Kollektiv, Liebe*Detail and Steve Bug's Dessous Label his tracks were played and charted by DJs like Gabriel Ananda, DJ T., Tobi Neumann, Martin Landsky, Laurent Garnier, Tiger Stripes just to name a few.

For his Black Label debut Solomun has built three very deep and organic tracks.

When you name your band Prince Daddy & The Hyena, you sort of accept that chaos isn’t a chapter in your story – it’s the entire ethos. Since forming out of Albany, NY’s DIY scene, Prince Daddy & The Hyena have built a career out of reaching their breaking point and continuing forward anyway. Their first LP, produced by Joe Reinhart, captured a very young band figuring things out in real time; their massive conceptual undertaking Cosmic Thrill Seekers followed and pushed their ambition (and patience) to new extremes. Not long after, a serious van accident nearly took their lives, directly informing the intensity of their self-titled record.

Over the last decade, the band has lost close friends and collaborators, endured relationship struggles, and faced countless moments that would have ended most bands without question. But those experiences never slowed Prince Daddy & The Hyena down. On their upcoming fourth album, Hotwire Trip Switch, they recalibrate and reconnect with their roots while sounding more focused and self-aware than ever. Reuniting with Joe Reinhart for the first time in nearly a decade, the album pulls from the punchy lineage of Green Day, the hook-driven quirk of Weezer, the snarky urgency of Joyce Manor and Jeff Rosenstock – all through the distinctly bratty lens of songwriter and vocalist Kory Gregory.

Following their debut album "Flaws," here is a high-quality follow-up from GARDENS. The popular Viennese indie band are making music that feels warm, direct, and a little rough around the edges. Bright guitars, soft synths, and melodies that stick without trying too hard. Their sound drifts between indie pop, dreamy folk, and gentle garage energy, grounded in honest, quietly catchy songwriting. EP digitally and on ltd tape available. "GARDENS certainly succeed in adding new layers of inspiration into the modern dream-pop genre, something which has been far too long overdue for a refresh. Their debut record offers a colossal level of promise" - Far Out Magazine " an irresistible sonic tapestry" - KEXP "intricately crafted_glistens with warmth and depth" - DIY

Shrunken Elvis ist ein Trio aus Nashville, bestehend aus Spencer Cullum, Sean Thompson und Rich Ruth - drei erfahrenen Musikern, die ihre Liebe zu genreübergreifender Instrumentalmusik verbindet. Die Gruppe entstand aus langen Autofahrten durch Europa, Winter-Jam-Sessions und dem gemeinsamen Bestreben, Musik eher aus dem Bauch heraus als aus Ambitionen heraus zu machen. Cullum, ein in East London geborener Pedal-Steel-Gitarrist, spielte bereits mit Angel Olsen, Lambchop, Miranda Lambert und Billy Strings gespielt und zwei Solo-Folk-Psych-LPs bei Full Time Hobby veröffentlicht. Thompson kam mit Gnarwhal und Promised Land Sound in der DIY-Szene von Nashville groß heraus und tourte später mit Margo Price und Skyway Man. Ruth schafft unter dem Namen Rich Ruth (Third Man Records) immersive Soloarbeiten, die spirituellen Jazz, Ambient und Post-Rock miteinander verbinden. Ihre Anfänge gehen auf eine Europatournee im Jahr 2022 zurück, die sie im Rahmen von Cullums Soloalbum unternahmen. Mit einem kompakten Setup aus Gitarren, Pedal Steel und Synthesizern in einem VW Passat zusammengepfercht, begannen sie unterwegs zu komponieren - und entwickelten eine gemeinsame musikalische Sprache, die sie in ihre Wintersessions in Nashville mitnahmen. Sie nahmen in einem Studio in einem Schuppen um einen Heizstrahler herum auf und fingen den Geist dieser Reisen mit Spontaneität und Vertrauen ein. Ihr Debütalbum zielt nicht darauf ab, individuelle Fähigkeiten in den Vordergrund zu stellen, sondern die Instrumente zu etwas völlig Neuem verschmelzen zu lassen. Mit der Einstellung ,keine Ziele, nur Ideen" schufen sie Musik, die sich ungezwungen, explorativ und lebendig anfühlt. Verwurzelt in den Traditionen von Kosmischer Musik, Jazz-Fusion, Elektronik und Ambient, lässt sich Shrunken Elvis von Alice Coltrane, Michael Rother, Pat Metheny, Ashra und KLF inspirieren lassen - zusammen mit visuellen Einflüssen wie ECM-Albumcovern und den Filmen von Kurosawa und Bergman. Gemischt von Jake Davis (William Tyler) und mit Artwork von Max Kinghorn-Mills (Hollow Hand) ist ihr Debüt ein leise drängendes, zutiefst kollaboratives Album - Musik, die ohne Erwartungen entstanden ist, aber voller Absicht.

Analogue electronics of crispy drum-driven madness on the A-side and an organic dark ambient drone on the B, live-jammed & recorded directly to cassette tape. Cover is DIY-printed with purple flock. Caution is advised!

Das Debütalbum einer der renommiertesten und einflussreichsten Bands Großbritanniens, Songs to Remember, versetzt uns zurück in die Anfänge von Scritti Politti. Die von Green Gartside angeführte Gruppe, die aus der DIY-Szene der Einzimmerwohnungen in Camden Ende der 70er Jahre hervorgegangen war, hatte jedoch eine musikalische Vision, die der von Miles Davis (mit dem sie später zusammenarbeiteten) in nichts nachstand. Mit Songs To Remember, das sowohl die feurige Politik der damaligen Zeit als auch eine aufkeimende Pop-Sensibilität widerspiegelte, etablierte sich die Gruppe als einer der wahren Innovatoren der frühen 80er Jahre. Songs to Remember, das bei seiner Veröffentlichung 1982 vom NME als "witzig und genial" beschrieben wurde, wurde für diese längst überfällige Vinyl-Neuauflage vollständig remastered, was Gartside persönlich überwacht hat. "Mark E Smith, damals Künstler bei Rough Trade, sagte einmal zu mir: 'Scritti hat die beste Rhythmusgruppe in der Rockmusik." Er erwähnte Green Gartside nicht, daher weiß ich nicht, was er von ihm hielt. Ich weiß jedoch, dass wir bei Rough Trade alle von Greens honigsüßer Stimme und seinen brillanten Texten fasziniert waren. Es waren aufregende Zeiten, in denen die Menge an purem Talent, die in das Rough-Trade-Universum strömte, einfach überwältigend war. Niemand mehr als Green, der den intelligenten Angriff auf die Zitadelle der Popmusik-Perfektion verkörperte. Ich erinnere mich, dass ich sehr stolz auf "Songs To Remember" war, zu einer Zeit, als es für uns noch eine relativ neue Erfahrung war, ganze Alben zu veröffentlichen." - Geoff Travis

Mit ,GO BOOMER GO!" liefert die Wiener Band POST ein kompromissloses Statement zwischen spätem 70er-Punk und kantigem New Wave. Roh, direkt und mit scharfem Schmäh zerlegt die Band Generationenmythen, Selbsttäuschungen und den ganz normalen Wahnsinn der Gegenwart. Gesungen wird auf Deutsch und im Wiener Dialekt - bissig, poetisch, ungeschönt. POST verorten sich musikalisch zwischen der schnörkellosen Energie von Wilko Johnson und der unbändigen Energie von The Clash, kombiniert mit der gesellschaftskritischen Haltung eines Sigi Maron. Harsche Gitarren, minimalistische Arrangements, stoischer Groove und eine rotzige Attitüde prägen den Sound - keine Retro-Show, sondern ein wütend-zeitgenössisches Update des späten Siebziger-Feelings, das - wie wir ja alle wissen - in Wirklichkeit zeitlos ist. ,GO BOOMER GO!" ist keine bloße Generationskritik, sondern eine Zustandsbeschreibung: Zwischen Wut und Witz, Zynismus und Selbstironie seziert POST gesellschaftliche Spannungen, Bequemlichkeit und kulturelle Stillstände - immer mit Wiener Unterton und einer klaren DIY-Haltung.

Seamus Fogarty is the brilliant Irish singer/songwriter who previously released two critically acclaimed albums on Domino Records and his debut album via Scottsh cult label Fence records.
DIY pop, electronic noises and heartfelt ballads and stories is mixed on this amazing new album where Seamus once again prove to be a one of a kind songwriter and artist.

American Steel is the last great band to come out of Berkeley's 924 Gilman scene. Forged in the same ¬res as Operation Ivy, Crimpshrine, and Rancid, these soulful punks have at long last decided to unearth their self-titled album from 1998. AmSteel evolved into one of the most artful and sophisticated punk bands around, but this quartet began as a truly raw and wrathful DIY outfit, and we're grateful for the opportunity to share this 17-song hidden gem. We have been begging the band to release this material since Red Scare first began. Literally pestering them for twenty years. Listen to this dynamic debut and you will understand why.

Glispy Records follows up its first vinyl with a second release, bringing together Rydeen, Yamoc, Gauvain, and Roman Khropko. Four artists, four different approaches, connected by a shared focus on club-ready, forward-leaning electronic music. This release continues the label’s vinyl series with the same hands-on, DIY spirit and attention to detail that shaped its debut.

"Collected Works and War of the Martian Ghosts" ist die ultimative Sammlung von Aufnahmen der lebenden Chicagoer DIY-Legende Dr. Charles Joseph Smith. Es ist auch die erste Archivveröffentlichung von Sooper Records aus Chicago. Die Musik hier ist zum ersten Mal überhaupt für alle zugänglich. Diese 90-minütige Sammlung umfasst 30 Jahre von Charles' selbstveröffentlichter Musik, darunter Konzertklavier, elektroakustische Experimente, elektronische Beats, freie Improvisation und zwei Instrumentalversionen seiner sich weiterentwickelnden Science-Fiction-Oper "War of the Martian Ghosts" (eine elektronische Version von 2023 und eine Klavierversion von 2018). Diese Doppel-Vinyl-/Dreifach-CD-Sammleredition enthält ein umfangreiches Booklet mit 9000 Wörtern über das Leben und Werk des Künstlers sowie Gedichten, Interviews, Zitaten und 30 Archivfotos. Dies ist ein Stück Musikgeschichte Chicagos. Die bemerkenswerte Geschichte von Dr. Charles Joseph Smith beginnt mit der musikalischen Begabung eines stummen Kindes und der zielstrebigen Art und Weise, wie er dieses Talent förderte, um es zu seiner Lebensaufgabe und Daseinsberechtigung zu machen. Charles erzählt von dieser künstlerischen Reise in seiner Autobiografie ,The 88 Keys that Opened Doors", einem selbst veröffentlichten Buch, das ein Leben beschreibt, in dem Musik der wichtigste Schlüssel war (und immer noch ist), um die großen Herausforderungen durch Autismus-Spektrum-Störungen (ASD) zu meistern. Seine Karriere als Musiker startet in der Kirche, führt ihn in die internationale Konzertszene und endet schließlich in Chicagos experimenteller Underground-Szene, wo sie seltsame Früchte trägt. Auf diesem Weg hat Charles Joseph Smiths kompositorische Stimme populäre Musik von Pop bis Jazz, den Gospel der Kirche, den Kanon des klassischen Konservatoriums, moderne Tanzmusik und den regelbrechenden Experimentalismus der DIY-Subkultur seiner Stadt, in der er seit über 30 Jahren eine tragende Rolle spielt, aufgenommen und verarbeitet. Seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre tritt Charles auf, tanzt und verkauft seine selbst veröffentlichten Musik- und Schriftwerke persönlich, oft bei lokalen Shows, die er regelmäßig besucht. In Chicago ist er als lebendes Symbol für die Kraft der Musik und den beliebten Gemeinschaftsgeist im Herzen der DIY-Szene bekannt. Dies ist die definitive Sammlung seiner Originalaufnahmen - auch wenn es unmöglich wäre, die ganze Bandbreite der Musik, Poesie und Prosa des produktiven Dr. Charles Joseph Smith zu erfassen.

Talulah’s Tape is the debut offering from magnetic Midwest-jangle collective Good Flying Birds. Across a patchwork mixtape of stripped-down home recordings that span the independent-guitar spectrum, the band delivers colorful, intricate pop songs perched between the immediacy of DIY punk and the intimate sweetness of twee. Breakbeats, memes, and noise glue everything together, making the album feel as chronically online as it is timeless.

Originally released on cassette in January 2025 by Midwest-punk legend Martin Meyers’s Rotten Apple label, the tape sold more than 300 copies in under a month and quickly became an out-of-print and coveted item. Meyers called it “certified catnip for popheads.” Now, with a refined track list and a fresh master from Greg Obis, Talulah’s Tape returns on LP and CD via Carpark and Smoking Room in October 2025.

While production and approach vary, a through-line of sensitive self-contemplation rests on bright, scrappy guitars and hyperactive melodic bass. Opener “Down on Me” rides a buoyant bass line while jangling guitars frame reflections on overcoming trauma: “I see you in the mirror every time I cry / I hear your voice every time I try.” Next, the guitars trade twinkling counter-melodies on “I Care for You,” pairing sugary, lovestruck lyrics with effervescent strums: “You catch me when I fall / You build me up so tall.”

The rosy grin occasionally twists into a wicked smirk. “Dynamic” warns, “You used to paint the face, but now you’re just the clown,” while “Glass” asks, “Is it lonely at the top when everyone follows the trend, and you hold the pen?” Both tracks brim with sparkling guitar interplay. By the closing, nearly five-minute “Last Straw,” Good Flying Birds stand far beyond conventional indie-pop or 4-track punk, unveiling a roller-coaster of unpredictable changes, vocal harmonies, and instrumental cross-talk.

Altogether, Talulah’s Tape is a pastel-yellow, candy-coated shell filled with thoughtful juxtapositions and melodic experiments. Standing on the same ground as idiosyncratic songwriters like Connie Converse and Daniel Johnston, Good Flying Birds find sweetness in sadness, tear stains on a colorful flower-print couch. Simultaneously, it’s packed with the scratchy guitars and vibrant rhythms of Scottish guitar groups like The Pastels, Orange Juice, and Josef K. It’s a tremendous opening statement from a band just getting started.

Salix is a bold new departure for modular synthesist Loula Yorke, seen here using an antique reed organ to explore the ancient roots of willow trees in magic, myth and medicine, as well as inviting another musician into her recording studio for the first time, clarinettist Charlotte Jolly.

The EP forms a sonic archive of a singular instrument: an antique free reed organ left behind by a previous encumbent of Asylum Studios, (the artists' co-operative in Suffolk where Yorke's Truxalis labelmate and life collaborator, Seiche, has a studio space). The organ is in poor condition and fascinatingly, painfully detuned. Yorke's recordings bring out its host of unusual quirks exacerbated by age and neglect: the powerful rhythmic creaking of the wooden treadles; the bone-shaking resonance emanating from its body at specific pitches; unexpected exclamations of harmonic collision from within the carcass redolent of a human voice; the piercing, shrieking whistles of broken reeds, and the powerful timbres unlocked via Yorke's experiments with various combinations of stops.

The three tracks that form Salix are inspired by a local weeping willow tree, a constant companion photographed over the course of a year. Boughs caught in a gyre. A maiden in mourning. Branches that gesture in the wrong direction. A tree turned upside down. A hand-woven willow basket, an old technology to gather and store. The journey of a lovelorn bard through the underworld, a bundle of willow under one arm for protection.

For the opening track, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, Yorke recorded herself playing a simple unaccompanied improvisation on the organ, the only ornamentation being the processed sounds of the keys being struck and returning to their positions.

For Bundle of Styx, a spell of protection is cast and then broken. Yorke invited virtuoso clarinettist Charlotte Jolly into the studio to test combining the breathy textures of both brass and natural reeds, the instruments uniting and obsuring each other in turn during this one-take improvisation. The organ's unpredictable sharpened tunings take centre stage here, with Jolly using them as a point of departure to conjure a set of peerless harmonic improvisations live in the moment. Throughout the improvisation, Yorke, a self-taught musician, unpracticed on the organ, supports and challenges, freely admitting that she's not always sure what effect her decisions to move up and down the keyboard or pull out certain stops will have. Jolly's genius lies in her ability to meet and build on every uncertain pitch thrown her way, saying of the experience, "I love that Loula isn't classically trained, I can't predict at all what she's about to do."

For the final track, With the Red Dawn, Yorke has come up with another unique combination of textures, this time bringing her own specialism in modular synthesis to the fore. A ten-minute reed organ drone characterised with ever-shifting bass swells and overtones is layered with tuned sines, often shudderingly wave-folded, that ebb and flow both in intensity and harmonic colour according to the duty cycles of eight interrelated LFOs. These recordings are collaged with Yorke's singing voice and a langorous, ascending sequence across two octaves on Jolly's clarinet, all arranged to form a cohesive whole far greater than the sum of its parts. Smatterings of untuned percussion and a fragment of a conversation between the duo left in the final mix cements Yorke's unprecious DIY aesthetic into the release.

At its heart, Salix is like watching the wind in the willows; hundreds of thousands of identical tiny leaves moving in confluence on its branches; at once one thing and many things; moment-to-moment our perception makes out different individuals parts within this expanse of texture, before sinking back into the whole.

Specs: Wrapped in shrink, DL code, insert with liner notes

"Music in DNA" is an album recorded in the early 1980s in New York City by Yasuhito Ohno, a young Japanese man breaking free from the constraints of his homeland. The album is a naive burst of outsider DIY enthusiasm, inspired by the multiple avant-garde movements of the era, in music, painting and performance, as well as the native energy of 80s NYC. Ohno channeled his youthful “edge” and zeal into open-minded lo-fi musical explorations using a mere two machines: the then-new technological glories of a four-track cassette recorder and that polyphonic synthesizer masterpiece, the Roland Juno-60; on several pieces he vocalizes. These seven tracks have a zestful, innocent, anything-goes charm, free from preciousness and self-consciousness: a raw and youthful human spirit at play in a new world. Ohno was also inspired by the humanistic promise of the general technological developments of the day, including DNA research, personal computing, and early computer graphics, an example of which can be found on the cover. Ohno later returned to Japan, becoming a renowned composer/producer. In an era of jaded cynicism, "Music in DNA" is a welcome taste of big-hearted innocence, a revival of a raw self. Available on CD/LP/Digital, with E/J liner notes.

When you notice the cheerful mystery playing with the synths, the edges of this small world start to look slightly distorted. In any era, someone is always creating mysterious music on their own. (7FO)

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Music in DNA is an album recorded in the early 1980s in New York City by Yasuhito Ohno, a young Japanese man breaking free from the constraints of his homeland. The album is a naive burst of outsider DIY enthusiasm, inspired by the multiple avant-garde movements of the era, in music, painting and performance, as well as the native energy of 80s NYC. Ohno channeled his youthful "edge" and zeal into open-minded lo-fi musical explorations using a mere two machines: the then-new technological glories of a four-track cassette recorder and that polyphonic synthesizer masterpiece, the Roland Juno-60; on several pieces he vocalizes. These seven tracks have a zestful, innocent, anything-goes charm, free from preciousness and self-consciousness: a raw and youthful human spirit at play in a new world. Ohno was also inspired by the humanistic promise of the general technological developments of the day, including DNA research, personal computing, and early computer graphics, an example of which can be found on the cover. Ohno later returned to Japan, becoming a renowned composer/producer. In an era of jaded cynicism, Music in DNA is a welcome taste of big-hearted innocence, a revival of a raw self. Available on CD/LP/Digital, with E/J liner notes.

Febuary & Summer Shade haben sich zusammengetan, um die neueste EP der Band ,Run Like a Girl" auf 10-Zoll-Vinyl zu pressen. Diese limitierte Auflage kommt mit erweitertem Artwork, einschließlich eines brandneuen Texthefts, und ist auf pinkfarbenem ,Strawberry Nesquik"-Vinyl erhältlich. ,Run Like a Girl" wurde 2025 online veröffentlicht, mit einer limitierten CD- und Kassettenauflage vom DIY-Label Milkcrate Merch. Die fünf neuesten Songs der Emo-Band aus Las Vegas wurden von Medien wie Stereogum als ,die heftigste und eindringlichste" Emo-Veröffentlichung des Jahres gefeiert. Nach einem arbeitsreichen Jahr mit Tourneen mit Bands wie Midrift und First Day Back startet Febuary 2026 mit Auftritten bei Coachella, Something in the Way und Outbreak.

DIY-Haltung, Slacker-Romantik und der Flirt mit den MTV-Heydays - eine bewährte Ästhetik, die irgendwie nicht totzukriegen ist und neuerdings in HI MUM aus Nürnberg ein weiteres Pro- Argument findet. Ja, das Quartett hat sich frisch formiert. Nein, der Begriff Newcomer trifft es trotzdem nicht ganz. Jedenfalls sollte die direkte Vorgängerband MAFFAI nicht gänzlich unerwähnt bleiben, auch wenn es zu kurz gegriffen wäre, die Verwandtschaft der beiden Projekte schlicht auf den Tausch der Frontperson zu reduzieren. Elan und Skillset beibehalten, profitieren HI MUM zwar vom Knowhow der letzten Jahre, schlagen musikalisch aber eine spürbar andere Richtung ein. Alternative, Shoegaze, Indie und Grunge sind in diesem Zusammenhang Genre-Bezeichnungen, die sich zweifellos aufdrängen.

PET NEEDS return with their fourth studio album ‘ELBOWS OUT! THIS IS CAPITALISM’ to be released on Xtra Mile Recordings on 27th March 2026. Recorded by George Perks (Enter Shikari, You Me At Six, Mogwai, Skindred) it follows the release of their Top 20 album ‘Intermittent Fast Living’ in February 2024. The album charts the exploits of the band buying a second-hand punk rock career at auction and trying (and failing) to make it work.

Over the course of the genre-spanning 12 tracks, the story unfolds with a mix of frenetic punk rock defiance; reflective melodic introspective and beat heavy party anthems as well as guest appearance by CJ Ramone, legendary auctioneer Eric Olson and friends The Whops and Jess Guise who help the story develop. The album is a satirical look at the pitfalls of trying to make it as a DIY punk band, delivered by a band at their most creative and bold as they continue on their own ascension of success.

PET NEEDS are a punk fuelled melodic rock fourpiece from Colchester who have toured the world since they signed with Xtra Mile in 2020. Their past three albums have helped catapult the band to the rising stars they are today. They regularly headline tours in UK, Europe and in America as well as huge support tours with Laura Jane Grace, Art Brut, Frank Turner, Flogging Molly, Skinny Lister, Bouncing Souls, NOFX, The Hives. The Lottery Winners, Spike & The Gimmie Gimmies and The Levellers. In the lead up to the album release the band will tour the UK’s regional towns giving fans exclusive listens to some of the new songs. And throughout week of release will perform instores and outstores to push for a high chart position.

Topsy Turvy sind zurück und bereit für den Kampf. Mit ihrem Space-Age-Glam-Look ist ,Fighting the Ginormous Macho Nacho" das zweite Album des Wiener Trios, das respektlos, clever und immer verspielt ist. Mit Instrumententausch, opernhaften Vocals und jeder Menge Van-Halen-Synthesizern webt die Band eine unruhige Mischung aus Garage-Punk, Surf, Vintage-Rock und Psychedelia, die sich an den legendären ,Girls In The Garage"-Compilations orientiert und bis hin zum knurrenden Trotz von Amyl and The Sniffers oder Automatic reicht. Entstanden aus der kollaborativen Szene einer produktiven DIY-Szene in Wien, ist es nicht nur das bisher fokussierteste Werk der Band, sondern auch ein Hochgesang des unabhängigen Geistes, eine lebendige, atmende Rebellion gegen toxische ,Macho Nacho"-Männer auf der ganzen Welt. Topsy Turvy's "Fighting The Ginormous Macho Nacho" ist die zweite Veröffentlichung der Band, nicht lang nach ihrem gefeierten Debütalbum "But Sore" aus dem Sommer 2024. Vinyl-LP inklusive Din A2 Poster.

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

The track shows SUEP at their best - glistening synth pop with Marr-esque jangle, sweet but emotionally incisive. Singer Georgie Stott - also known for being the keyboardist of the recently ended Porridge Radio - is at peak performance, marrying catchy melodies with off-kilter storytelling.
Receiving acclaim across BBC 6 Music and the indie press for their ‘car boot sale’ pop music, SUEP rummage through the jumble bin of music history, selecting and reassembling its best parts into something playful, strange and deeply artful. The band are affiliates of the Gob Nation collective - including The Tubs, Sniffany & The Nits, Ex-Void, and others., described by the Guardian as uniting around “a leftfield sensibility, lacerating wit and snotty attitude.”

With a slightly darker edge than their delightful EP Shop or last year’s groovy The Rain, Highway II tells the story of hope slamming into disappointment - a Valentine’s date gone wrong. Tears, cigarette breaks, running makeup and snotty sleeves paint a picture of painful emotional dislocation. It comes with an incredible, multilayered dance-routine music video from frequent collaborator, artist Jess Power.

Singer Georgie Stott says: “The lyrics for this poured out of me on Valentine’s Day when me and my partner went out on a date in the Limehouse area, over the river from where we lived in Rotherhithe. I got drunk too quickly, he got grumpy, and tears started streaming down my face because I just wanted to have a nice romantic time. We made up in the Canary Wharf Wetherspoons at the end of the night, but I went to have a cigarette before, to get out all my sobs and wrote all the lyrics on my phone in one go. Then at a practice studio we quickly wrote it around some chords I made up in the room.”
Forever is a confident debut, a masterpiece of modern indie songcraft. Across the album SUEP dip into country, synthpop, garage rock, post punk, and pub rock, but always retain their signature penchant for melodic hooks, snappy structures and straight-to-the-heart lyrics. Artfully unpretentious, the album was recorded by friend Matt Green, best known for his work with The Tubs, and mixed by Mike O’Malley of the band caroline.

Led by Georgie Stott and Joshua Harvey, SUEP have become fixtures of south-east London’s underground through a series of shared living spaces, improvised studios and DIY venues. Now with George Nicholls (The Tubs, Joanna Gruesome, GN Band), William Deacon (PC World), and Louis Forster (The Goon Sax, Expiry) completing the line up, their debut is finally on its way.
Forever is a glimpse into one of the best bands on the scene, not fitting into any trend, but also never fading into obscurantism - SUEP are a band that wear a joie de vivre loosely but fashionably. Now is their time to shine.

Emerging from the sun-drenched haze of their previous releases, the Belgo-Italian duo descend into the shadows with Trabajando El Flex, their third record to date. This is their gloomiest strike yet, a mutant wave manifesto built on a raw DIY ethos. Imagine pulsing basslines and ghostly vocals soundtracking your deepest, most illicit desires. Channeling the spirit of a major influence which is Coil, this album could have been called "Music to Play in the Dark(rooms)." It's a lethal fusion where New Beat, EBM, Dub, Italo, and New Wave lock into a singular, hypnotic atmosphere. Their world is a wild ride from Bear-Santa Claus Fantasms to Burning Churches and Amphetamine rooms, reflected in both their playful - not-to-be-taken-seriously - lyrics and a genre-shattering sound. Their debut was a a lost reel; their second, a dream, Trabajando El Flex is the raw, slow-burning, and beautifully unclean night that consumes both. It's a flawless fit for the after-hours ruin of the Pinkman universe.

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

"Since their formation in the latter half of 2023, Berlin’s Industry have quickly emerged into the foreground as one of the more exciting groups of the European DIY punk scene. Having released their 2024 debut LP, touring and playing festivals all over the continent, they are now back with a follow up record that’s every bit as bruising and bleak as the first.
Much has been made of how ‘on point’ Industry sound - a mid-paced cocktail of heavy toms and churning riffs recalling ‘No Sanctuary’ era Amebix or classic Killing Joke. But Industry use these sounds as a springboard rather than a template, utilising the form for genuine expression where others are tempted by retro cosplay. Their sound is pared back, pulsing, relentless but danceable. But it’s the words that result in a listen that’s engaging from start to finish, an album that’s both expressive and polemic. Just as people often describe Discharge’s lyrics as Haiku, Industry uses the band’s repetitive grooves as a wide-open canvas on which their exasperated observations are given space to land with precision. The litany of criticisms are familiar to us all - violence exacted on the poor and vulnerable by those in power, the ongoing industrialised slaughter of humans and animals, the disastrous consequences of colonialism, the list goes on… The world in 2025 is fucked, and even though they say they ‘can’t even look’, this band has got their eyes wide open."

Benefit compilation with exclusive tracks from live performances & installations at eavesdrop festival 2024. All revenues go to charities providing medical aid and food sovereignty in Gaza.

In november 2024, eavesdrop festival presented its 3rd edition of contemporary electronic music and sound art, taking place in the striking architectural setting of silent green’s Betonhalle in Berlin. ”to eavesdrop” - is invoked as a mode of listening intently, attentively and with curiosity. With its ongoing commitment to adventurous listening cultures, the festival brought together a top-notch line-up of Berlin based and international artists, who share a common practice in electronic sound composition whilst spanning a diversity of inter-related contemporary tendencies. Whether it’s multi-award winning Mariam Razaei’s exceptional turntablism, Ilpo Väisänen’s legendary DIY analogue electronics, Jasmine Guffond’s generative sound installation, Nina Garcia’s extraordinary electric guitar manipulations, Lottie Sebes’ AI voice synthesis or Rashad Becker’s idiosyncratic synthesizer explorations, to name a few, eavesdrop invited listeners to consider, from multiple perspectives, new social and technical developments in international music and sound cultures.

This compilation documents those 2 nights with 9 exclusive tracks - 7 live performances and 2 stereo mixes from multi-channel installations, edited by the festival’s curator / organizer Jasmine Guffond, with a total running time of approx. 78 minutes. All revenues will go to charities providing medical aid and food sovereignty in Gaza: Medical Aid For Palestinians & Thamra.

Creaked out of an eck with two heads and no brain - just fracking around. Juli Zimmer and Sayizan Stange are Blowjobs Are Real Jobs, crawling right under your skin. Armed with guitar, MS-20 and a trashy drum machine, they bark about dogs, ostriches, stolen bodies, heads buried in sand, plastic spoons in freezer pops, and the big question of where the hell this whole loving-living thing is going anyway. The songs build up expectations like a delicious drink, which then, oops, gets taken away and never delivered. That’s how it is sometimes, you little puffball!

End of 2025, Blowjobs Are RealJobs dropped their first DIY tape, Bloody Situation Menstruation Masturbation. Their notorious sets, somewhere between performance art and riot gig, pop up almost monthly: gallery openings, summer garden chaos, or grimy St. Pauli basement bars. Now the duo’s first 7-inch vinyl brings 5 songs at 45 rpm with a fold-out cover, limited to 200 copies.

Scopeotaku’s latest is a continuation of themes he explored in System Failure. Mutating into darker dimensions, influenced by recent world events. reality error is steeped in strangled synths, tape hiss and distorted echoes. Featuring crushed low-tech rhythms and recordings inspired by science fiction B-movies. Scopeotaku seizes the means of production with full on DiY approach. Setting out to soundtrack a dystopian society that has lost touch with the soul of humanity. A world where corporate greed and disruptive extremist views amplified by echo chambers soaked in misinformation drown the voices of reason and compassion. Within this murky swamp however lies a glimmer of light and hope for us all to not accept the future but to shape it.

50 DiY tapes with download code included.

Recorded in Glasgow

“It’s hard to find your way, following the ghost,” sings Noah Alves on the title track from Middleman’s debut album, as the band explores ideas of how being chained to the past can hinder your forward momentum into the future. This creates a thrilling duality to the debut LP from the London DIY four-piece made up of Alves, Harper Maury, Rory White and Ted Foster. They are all young, in their early-to-mid-twenties, and very much focused in the now, harnessing an energy, urgency and rawness that feels fresh, alive and viscerally present. However, it’s also clear there’s a deep love of music that was made before they were born: the taut, wiry assault of Mission of Burma; the raspy yet melodic charge of The Replacements; the pioneering punk of Wipers, fleshed out via the more restrained and tender moments of Big Star or Neil Young. The result is a beautiful dichotomy of a record that both pays tribute to a rich musical lineage that the band are a part of, while also resisting the urge to get sucked into a dead end of nostalgia, mythology and recycling past glories.

Shoreline’s new album Is This The Low Point Or The Moment After? is built around an unanswerable question: when you hit rock bottom, can you tell where things begin to turn? Meant to be heard front to back, the record starts in a subdued, reflective place, grows progressively heavier, and ultimately lands on a more hopeful note. Drawing from the current wave of emo and hardcore while reflecting the collision of Germany’s alternative scenes, the album shows a band with a clear musical vision focused on big melodies, heavy riffs, and an honest DIY punk foundation.

Nail has been an important voice in the UK underground ever since his DiY Sound System days in the East Midlands in the 90s. After many years away, he returned, much to the delight of many heads, about a decade ago and has continued to roll out essential jams ever since. This one on his In The Dance label embodies his style - loopy, disco tinged house that's rough around the edges and burning with soul. 'Lick The Bag' is a cheeky title for a cheeky tune, 'The Price Is Wrong' shimmers with muted jazzy chords that are always held back, but the delight is in the promise and 'Medicine Stick' rolls on sweet grooves and knotted bass. 'Swing By' shuts down with plunging kicks and hints of MAW. Superb.

S urrounded by the DIY-scene around their own self-founded recording label new basement, plainhead tries to introduce an ethos uncommon to the local music landscape in their hometown Munich (DE) and interacts between the boundaries of experimental rock and pop.

You Are More Than A Thousand Words‘ is a romantic gesture dedicated to the stars and the people we hold close to our hearts, a subtle mix of chamber pop, experimental acoustic indie and 00s indietronics.
(FFO: Phil Elverum, The Notwist, The American Analog Set)

Diagonale des Yeux is the new band formed by two of France’s admired and adventurous artists. Laurène Exposito, we know as EYE, our longest regular contributor to the label — and friend Théo Delaunay, member and producer of Parasite Jazz, panoptique, De Klok & Violent Quand On Aime.

In Knekelhuis we have a particular fondness for artistic outputs that resist easy categorisation, and Diagonale des Yeux inhabits precisely that kind of territory.

Every aspect of the project is DIY/homemade. Their world drifts along the fringes of cabaret, strange 1980s French underground pop music to contemporary lo-fi scene — evoking the spirit of Nini Raviolette and The Residents — while delivering beautifully written songs that lodge themselves in your head almost immediately like a Cindy Lee ballad.

The tracks on Madeleine squeak and creak, wobbling on fragile hinges before suddenly opening onto moments of pure beauty.

Drums and guitars follow up synths and electronic percussions captured on tape between living rooms, studios and a concert space.

The band has a kink for choirs and playfully uses diverse languages. Their lyrics emerge through a homemade, patented four-hands cadavre exquis (Exquisite Corpse) process, where chance and dialogue shape meaning as much as intention.

Diagonale des Yeux is a singular project — equally strange and irresistibly pop-leaning. Music like weeds pushing through pavement cracks and, against all odds, turning into flowers.

Julius Hemphill's debut record, 1972's Dogon A.D., was self-produced for his Mbari imprint, and it was issued with a beautiful black-and-white cover. Very DIY. The label's name writ large along the bottom edge, like it was the band's name. It's a quartet record featuring Hemphill on alto and flute, with Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Abdul Wadud on cello, and Phillip Wilson on drums – a classic jazz front line/rhythm section format, but nothing conventional about the way the music sounds.

The long track – from where the LP takes its title – is one of the key epic statements of new jazz in the era. Among its remarkable distinctions, it manages to draw on Wilson's schizoid experience having been a member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the first drummer for the Art Ensemble of Chicago, in making an 11/8 rhythm into a staggeringly funky thing of joy. Over the course of fourteen and a half minutes, Hemphill builds a nearly continuous solo, his spiritual blood brother Wadud sawing the cello with a deep blues soulfulness that is raw and mantra-like in its repetitive incantation. It feels right and wrong in equal measure, the theme carrying its own piquancy with honked barnyard dissonances and some contrary motion between the horns and string. Most of all, it takes its own sweet time, in no hurry to get anywhere in particular, but out for a righteous stroll. – John Corbett (excerpt from the liner notes)

London-based Irish singer-songwriter Seamus Fogarty returns with 'Ships', his most expansive and uplifting album to date, released March 6, 2026 on limited-edition 12” coloured vinyl, CD and digital formats. Praised for crafting “magical journeys through fable and modern life and back again, often in the same song” (----- – The Guardian), Fogarty blends motorik rhythms, folk traditions and leftfield electronics into a richly detailed collection that channels influences from Tortoise to early ’90s hip hop. Following 2023’s 'Hee Haw EP,' 'Ships' is packed with poignant, funny and deeply human vignettes touching on love, loss, DIY coffins, chance encounters and the quiet determination required to keep going.
Written in the wake of 'A Bag Of Eyes' and road-tested on tour with Lisa O’Neill, 'Ships' was brought to life with an esteemed cast of collaborators including Emma Smith, Chris Vatalaro, Aram Zarikian, Joe Auckland, Leo Abrahams and Mike Lindsay. Recorded across London, St Leonards-on-Sea and Margate, and fine-tuned in Fogarty’s Walthamstow home studio, the album moves effortlessly from the urban hum of ‘Come Down To The Square’ to the romantic sweep of the title track ‘Ships’ and the defiant crescendo of closing track ‘Doer Undoer’. “There’s something strangely uplifting about this collection,” Fogarty says. “It’s more honest than anything I’ve released before.”

London-based Irish singer-songwriter Seamus Fogarty returns with 'Ships', his most expansive and uplifting album to date, released March 6, 2026 on limited-edition 12” coloured vinyl, CD and digital formats. Praised for crafting “magical journeys through fable and modern life and back again, often in the same song” (----- – The Guardian), Fogarty blends motorik rhythms, folk traditions and leftfield electronics into a richly detailed collection that channels influences from Tortoise to early ’90s hip hop. Following 2023’s 'Hee Haw EP,' 'Ships' is packed with poignant, funny and deeply human vignettes touching on love, loss, DIY coffins, chance encounters and the quiet determination required to keep going.
Written in the wake of 'A Bag Of Eyes' and road-tested on tour with Lisa O’Neill, 'Ships' was brought to life with an esteemed cast of collaborators including Emma Smith, Chris Vatalaro, Aram Zarikian, Joe Auckland, Leo Abrahams and Mike Lindsay. Recorded across London, St Leonards-on-Sea and Margate, and fine-tuned in Fogarty’s Walthamstow home studio, the album moves effortlessly from the urban hum of ‘Come Down To The Square’ to the romantic sweep of the title track ‘Ships’ and the defiant crescendo of closing track ‘Doer Undoer’. “There’s something strangely uplifting about this collection,” Fogarty says. “It’s more honest than anything I’ve released before.”