Cerca:dj day

As a professional sound engineer by day, Colin Dunkerley aka Lapsed Pacifist, spends much of his time traveling and rarely gets to focus on producing his own music. Despite high praise from those who have become familiar with his work over the years, Colin’s previous productions have mainly consisted of shares with friends and DJs in smaller circles through his ‘Negative Neutron’ alias.

Colin envisaged a more pronounced and darker ambient style to emerge one day, but struggled to dedicate the time. ‘Hypatia’ came to life over an extended and fragmented period, with field recordings and loops of audio created on the go, later processed through his modular setup. In the autumn of 2022, Colin spent time collating and listening to these many fragments and field recordings, making notes in a book as he wandered around cold, unfamiliar places with headphones on, trying to shape disparate starting points into something thematically connected.

The title of Lapsed Pacifist’s debut album, ‘Hypatia’ is a reference to one of the many fantastical descriptions of imaginary places by Marco Polo in the book, Invisible Cities. Written as a dialogue between Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, the book became the inspiration and a clear parallel for how Hypatia came to be and what it means to Colin today.

Attaching music to a place and time can become a very powerful and long-lasting memory. Across its eight tracks, Hypatia depicts fragmented glimpses of color and textures –a scrapbook of senses– traversing the optimistic first steps; the first smell of cold air; cityscapes burnt into your head; and the many emotions from exploring new places that stick with you longer than any photograph ever could.

“The experience of moving between places so frequently can be fascinating but also dislocating and often quite lonely. I have so many small stories about places I’ve been, but I often think they aren’t necessarily real reflections of anywhere, no more real than anything Invisible Cities author Calvino dreamt up”. - Lapsed Pacifist.

Hypatia is available on Transparent Copper smoke 12” + digital, mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri and featuring artwork by Noah M / Keep Adding.

Bruno Berle, the young songwriter and poet originally hailing from Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state, crafts songs that are simple, direct, and full of tender nuance. With his first album No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to "In the Realm of Affections” and was released in 2022), Berle firmly established himself as a unique and important voice in the burgeoning scene of new Brazilian artists making a global impact, including peers like Ana Frango Elétrico, Tim Bernardes, Bala Desejo, Sessa and more. Now back with his second album, No Reino Dos Afetos 2, he stretches that further.

Bruno Berle’s music lives between two worlds – a traditional Brazilian folk talent steeped in history, and a contemporary, dreamy electronic pop; the result is songwriting that’s genre-bending, intentional, iconoclastic and consuming, spacious and sinewy and singular, a striking reflection of its composer while leaving space for the listener to settle in. The album follows Bruno’s relocation to São Paulo, and the songs are a reflection of his past and present. A rebuke of former categorizations of his work in Brazilian music scenes, and an idea of where his music can move, unfettered.

Berle’s music is purposeful in being a true portrait of himself, and a reflection of the music, art, and fashion scenes he personally moves through. Berle aims to provide an entrypoint for Black queer joy in his music, in his storytelling, in his presence and vision as a creative. For him, it feels subversive to be playing MPB laced with dubstep and lo-fi, a sort of intentional sacrilege, capturing a dialogue of modernity in traditional music.

Berle wrote most of the arrangements and co-produced his new album, Reino Dos Afetos 2 with longtime friend and musical partner Batata Boy, who is also from Maceió; the album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Maceió, and São Paulo, his new home, and picks up the conversation begun in 2022 on Berle’s debut album No Reino dos Afetos. Both records are the result of a nonlinear but coherent seven-year music creation process culminating in these albums, holding hands across space and time.

“Tirolirole,” the first single from the record, was released at the end of 2023; sun-soaked rhythms and soft voice coat the song, the lilting refrain of “Tirolirole” throughout – hushed, gentle, but somehow almost tactile, a golden-hour moment unlocked in the mind. “Tirolirole” is a triumphant future classic about the temporality of a blossoming love, with Bruno’s stunning vocal soaring over melodies which ebb and flow like the waters on the Atlantic shore. Of the track, Berle explains: “Despite ‘Tirolirole’ being an expression that evokes my childhood, just like the light words about nature, the harmony, and the poetry are epic, carrying a great hope for love.”

In fact, the guiding theme of No Reino dos Afetos 2 is a relationship, unfolding in the arc of a weekend. It traverses the innocence of an early young love, how that can be formative, can stretch on to take new shapes, or shape you. The album happens at the genesis of meeting someone and falling for them, before the relationship is thrown into overdrive – set in a big city, against a backdrop of major life changes, rising energy, the sound of São Paulo.

Something transcendental emerges in “Dizer Adeus,” with an arrangement that echoes a gospel atmosphere (evangelical and Catholic environments were pivotal to Berle’s upbringing). On “É Só Você Chegar,” piano and flute gracefully intertwine, a dance, while “Quando Penso” skews sparser, the voice-and-guitar minimalism somehow cultivating an entirely different shape – somehow both cozy and melancholy, with the background sound of a rainy day. Coupled with the lo-fi aspects that shape much of the album’s personality in the vocals and the production, No Reino Dos Afetos 2 is meticulously elaborated by Berle’s sonic alchemy, like on the mid-album instrumental “Sonho,” which feels like floating. “It’s the apex. It’s when lovers are sleeping together,” Berle explains of the feeling he wanted to encapsulate in the song.

On “Love Comes Back” Berle interprets Arthur Russell, the late Iowa musician who only reached greater visibility after he died in 1992. “His way of making music is similar to mine,” Berle explains. “He sings in a more fragile way, has more of an experimental way of recording, letting ‘chance’ appear in the final work.”

Even so, Berle doesn’t want his music to be buried in sentimentality – and the purposefulness of his craft serves as a sort of north star. The production, the arrangements, his restraint and intentionality in crafting his songs feel just as vital as their emotional cores. His songwriting is amorphous, fluid, an encompassing genre-bending movement in-and-of-itself, quietly daring. The songs are often in conversation with other works – drinking in fountains as diverse as the filmmaking of Ingmar Bergman, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the rhythm of Djavan, and the painting of Maxwell Alexandre. Musically he weaves together a rich tapestry of Brazilian folk, UK 2-step garage/dub, trip hop and sun soaked west coast songwriters; something akin to the worlds of Milton Nascimento, Arthur Russell, James Blake, Feist, and Sade colliding into one. But even then No Reino Dos Afetos 2 floats separately, a romanticism driven by a simplicity and intimacy, an open-ended possibility, Berle’s singularity as an artist at the helm of the ship.

The latest by UK rave reanimator Low End Activist is a nine-track suite of skeletal hardcore, pointillist drum n bass, and deprivation chamber dub, chopped and brewed in homage to the countryside sites of golden age dance gatherings: Airdrop. From Waterstock to Yarnton Road to White Horse Hill, England’s early 90’s dance summits loomed large in LEA's familial and artistic landscape as a youth, trading tapes and pumping tunes across long weekend afternoons: “Fast music to soundtrack slow days.”

An atomized stew of stabby samples, bubbling bass, airhorns, echo, and blitzed BPMs, the cuts take cues from key heroes of the “where were you in ‘92” set – Tango & DJ Ratty, Top Buzz, DJ SS, DJ Seduction, Dr. S Gachet – then fling them to the four corners. Skittery, stripped, and elevated, this is mad scientist music of voltage, vision, and rewired brains, scraped to its raw genetic essence and deployed for peak kinetic liberation.

Nia Archives is the star at the forefront of the latest era of jungle. Since her emergence in 2020, her collagist soundscapes have helped bring the sound to a new generation of clubgoers (though fair warning: don’t call her a “revivalist” – she’s the first to point out that the scene never went away). So when it comes to talk of the 24-year-old producer, DJ, singer and songwriter’s much-anticipated debut album, the odds are you’re thinking of a full-length record of weightless jungle tracks with basslines so intense they’ll leave your ears ringing.

But the reality of the Bradford-born, Leeds-raised artist’s first ever album – while very much replete with that exquisite jungle sound she does so well – is also doing something a little different. On the thrilling and freeing Silence Is Loud, Nia Archives is looking to make music for beyond the rave. As she explains: “I think music can be experienced in different ways, and there’s different kinds of music for different scenarios. Say you’re at a festival listening to music with thousands of other people, that can feel really uniting. But then you might listen to an album on your own in the bus, or in a taxi; and this project is definitely more a record to sit and listen to than a collection of club tracks.” Nia is intent that Silence Is Loud is taken in as a full body of work of something “more song-focussed, putting interesting sounds on jungle.” It means that this is a record which finds gloomy Britpop, warm Motown, soaring indie, a love for Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak, skittering IDM, Madchester, classic rock, old skool hardcore and more, woven and fused into her ragga and junglist tapestry, all layered with feeling, imbued with her songwriterly lyricism about loneliness, relationships, family, navigating her 20s, and the intense potential power of silence.

The vast sonic palette on Silence Is Loud comes down to Nia’s broad array of influences through her life. With her Jamaican heritage, Nia remembers hearing jungle as a child via her nana, as well as at Bradford Carnival, where she was drawn to the soundsystem culture, dancing carefree on the floats in the parade. The first album she ever bought was Rihanna’s debut, Music of the Sun, and she also went to Pentecostal church back then, and was obsessed with gospel. Aged 16, she moved to Manchester, where she didn’t really know anybody: and so, her solution to meeting people was going out. “Partying was a huge part of my life,” she says, “They used to do little freestyle cyphers at the house parties and I would join in – that’s kind of how I got into singing.” She had found music boring at school, but in meeting all these new people she became interested in making her own music as a hobby. “I was making boom-bap kind of stuff which I didn’t really like in the end,” she laughs, “My lyrics are quite deep, so on a hip-hop beat it all sounds really depressing. I wanted people to dance to my music.” And so she began experimenting with faster tempos alongside that melancholy songwriting, teaching herself how to make beats on Logic: “It’s all been a lot of trial and error, really.”

Nia went to study music in London, and was also interested in visual art, making collages and VHS: “Before the music, I was trying to make a visual archive of my life and the people around me,” she explains, “And then my music was like my diary, and a sonic archive, as well.” Hence, she paired the word “archives” with her middle name, Nia. To this day, in her spare time she’s working on pulling together a documentary on the global nature of the jungle scene.

Back on those first two EPs, Headz Gone West (2021) and Forbidden Feelingz (2022), she honed that junglist sound, painting it with new flecks of colour and vibrance. It was only after she started releasing work that she realised pursuing music could be a viable life path for her. The decision has been paying off ever since. Nia Archives placed third in the prestigious BBC Sound Poll for 2023, alongside garnering a nomination for the Brit Awards’ Rising Star prize, plus wins at the DJ Mag, NME, the MOBOs and Artist and Manager Awards. She has also toured the world – be it North America, Europe or Asia – and even opened a show in London as part of a little something called Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour. She’s renowned as a party-starter in her own right, too, with takeovers at Glastonbury, Warehouse Project and her own Bad Gyalz day event. She’s done official remixes for the likes of Jorja Smith, had a huge summer hit with her Yeah Yeah Yeahs rework ‘Off Wiv Ya Headz’, and worked with brands like Corteiz, Nike, Flannels, Burberry, FIFA and Apple. In just three years, it’s fair to say that Nia Archives has become a need-to-know name in dance music.

But Nia is not interested in being one fixed thing. Building on the terrain from her third EP, Sunrise Bang Ur Head Against Tha Wall, the universe of Silence Is Loud is not totally unfamiliar territory; but it’s still emblematic of a bolder scope than we’ve heard from the artist before. Working with Ethan P. Flynn (the songwriter and producer known for his work with FKA twigs and David Byrne), the resulting record is an impressive feat of deftly-sculpted textures; sometimes big and euphoric, like the wobbly, lusty bass of ‘Forbidden Feelingz’, or elsewhere notably gentle and quiet – see: the gorgeous, surprisingly drumless ‘Silence Is Loud (Reprise)’, a heartfelt number that sits somewhere in the school of Adele. “I really sharpened my songwriting skill on this project,” Nia says, “I was really intentional about what I was writing about, and I really loved co-producing with Ethan. His process is so different to anyone I’ve worked with before, and he’s got a kind of DIY set-up like me.” Flynn’s flat overlooks the Barbican, adding that unquantifiable futurist urban quality that the area holds to the music. The pair enjoyed the collaborative process so much that the album was done within three and a half months.

Perhaps this is why Silence Is Loud maintains an exuberant immediacy while still being sleek and spacious, interspersed with flourishes of metallic beats, lush melody and topped with her sugary but powerful vocal, floating over it all. There is an intimacy to the record, perhaps in part due to Nia writing most of her lyrics while sitting in bed in her flat in Bow (once a bedroom producer, always a bedroom producer). You can hear it on the refrain for lead single ‘Crowded Roomz’, which finds rippling guitar lines cutting taut through the beats as Nia refrains: “I feel so lonely crowded rooms.” The song is an examination of life on tour, constantly surrounded by people, but not necessarily those she can be herself around; more than that, the track is exemplary in the category of sad bangers.

Silence Is Loud often finds itself in that push and pull between melancholy and euphoria. There’s a celebration of her unconditional love for her younger brother (the title track), a rumination of an evening with an Irish boy she met by Temple Bar (‘Cards On The Table), or a letter to herself on the light and airy ‘Unfinished Business’, even coming to terms with a lover having a past they haven’t quite processed yet (“nobody comes with a clean slate”). The latter was recorded the week after a music festival, and accordingly captures Nia’s vocal in its not quite healed, husky state.

Nia’s work is always a snapshot of where she’s at when she’s making it. This might not be the debut album you were expecting, but that’s what makes Silence Is Loud so special. Nia Archives has learned the rules of her sound, and is unafraid to break them, pushing jungle and herself into new, unchartered territories that, in turn, go some way to map the history of the greats of British dance music. More than that, it plants her firmly in that lineage.

18 freshly baked instrumental Hip Hop tracks from the best of the global underground.
To celebrate Volume 10 we've cooked up something special...
Limited edition 12" vinyl will also come with issue 1 of a 3 part Cheeba comic series illustrated by

Shelly y Nueva Generación was a cult Spanish soul and garage band that left an indelible mark on the late 1960s music scene. Their rare 45s, now classic DJ spins in the mod/psych 60s scene, boast a funky Le Beat Bespoke style freakbeat sound. Three singles were released on Philips between 1968-69, including their stunning take on Nonato Buzar's 'Vesti Azul' and the outstanding original 'I'm Just a Fool', as featured on Ivan Zulueta's cult film "Un, Dos, Tres, Al Escondite Inglés". This long-awaited release unveils their complete discography plus many unreleased recordings unearthed from lost tapes now seeing the light of day for the first time! It comes with a 8-page booklet with extensive notes and rare photos of the artists. This compilation stands as both a celebration of the band's legacy and a rediscovery of the timeless allure that made Shelly y Nueva Generación an enduring force in the annals of Spanish music history.

Die Band The Reds, Pinks & Purples aus San Francisco bleibt auf ihrem einmal eingeschlagenem Pfad und kündigt ein neues Album an, das im April erscheinen wird. RPPs Gehirn Glenn Donaldson hält es düster - wie könnte es anders sein - mit Titeln wie "What's Going On With Ordinary People", "We Only Hear The Bad Things People Say" und "Dead Stars In Your Eyes". Die DIY-Pop-Titanen The Reds, Pinks & Purples kristallisieren auf "Unwishing Well" den tragischen, sich selbst feiernden Reichtum der glücklichen Versager, der falschen Helden und der Menschheit mit all ihren romantisierten Sich-Wundern - und nehmen die Fäden der Hoffnung mit ungebremster Hingabe ins Visier. Das Album, das sich über 10 wunderschöne Stücke erstreckt, ist ein weiterer Beweis für Glenn Donaldsons makellose Beherrschung des intimen, aber dennoch ausladenden, niedergeschlagenen Pops. In den letzten fünf Jahren haben The Reds, Pinks & Purples sechs Alben, mehrere EPs und zahllose Singles veröffentlicht, die sich alle dem Ziel verschrieben haben, dem Independent-Guitar Pop neues Leben einzuhauchen, der die düsteren Teenager, College-Radio-DJs und Plattenladenangestellten der 80er und 90er Jahre animierte. Vorbilder wie The Go-Betweens, The Smiths, Magnetic Fields, Felt und andere sind offensichtliche Inspirationen, aber Donaldsons unermüdliches Talent für Stimmung und Melodie hat praktisch ein eigenes Genre geschaffen, und "Unwishing Well" ist dessen bisher reinste Verkörperung. Die erste Single des Albums ist ein großartiges Beispiel für die Weltanschauung von RPP, ein Blick auf die Zugeständnisse des Popstars durch die Augen eines Ausgestoßenen mit dem Titel "Your Worst Song Is Your Greatest Hit". Über verträumten, grauen Gitarren- und Synthie-Waschungen beklagt Donaldson: "Deine erste Idee wurde verwässert" und fügt hinzu: "Nur die schlimmsten Teile konnten gefunden werden." Weißes Vinyl und/oder CD, für Freunde von The Field Mice, Blue Boy, The Clientele, Cindy...

Keyboardist and composer Carl Moore originally wrote, recorded and pressed only 100 (!) copies of these tracks, grabbing a quick moment of studio time during a tour of Japan in the early 1980s. Moore’s purple patch saw him becoming peers with artists such as Phyllis Hyman, Jean Carn, Janet Jackson and ‘The King of Gospel’, James Cleveland.

Carter Lake is an energetic 2 minutes 30 second blast of pure dance floor joy, that looks back at carefree days, teenage love and love lost. Moore’s voice soars, and showcases his love for the powerful stylings of jazz and gospel. On the flip, Must Be The Beat sees him explore very different textures and could easily be a long lost Prince recording found in the vaults in Paisley Park. Sounding like something jammed late at night, this one is perfect for the afterhours when there are 30 sweaty dancers left on the floor at 5am that just don’t want to go home!

This is the first release on Sweet Free Association, a new label founded by Sam Don, the DJ and curator responsible for the recent lovers rock and UK soul comps For The Love of You and Just A Touch. Born out of the wish to find another way of sharing ‘the fruits’ from his Free Association radio show and parties, these impossibly rare disco tracks are now available to a wider audience for the first time, as the vast majority of the original copies have been long lost.

Mastered at The Carvery, the lo-fi recordings have been skilfully lifted by Frank Merritt to sound big in the club, while retaining the original charm in the sound that made the tracks stand out to Sam in the first instance.

Pressed On Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl! Ridin' Dirty is the third studio album by dirty south legends Bun B and Pimp C - together known as UGK. It is easily considered one of the greatest southern hip hop albums ever made, but let's drop all the labels this is just pure good rap music, for any region. It's all right there, everything that people have come to expect from Houston rap: candy-painted cars, wood-grained steering wheels, flashy jewelry, late-night odes to lean and weed, passing references to DJ Screw tapes, those warm funk synthesizers that sound like radio oldies. All of Ridin' Dirty feels iconic now— among other reasons, because so many of its lyrics have since been cribbed by everyone from Slim Thug to Jay Z. There's the laid-back badassery of "Diamonds and Wood," the zoned-out celebration of "3 in the Morning," the ridiculous boasting of "Fuck My Car." Everything here is essential. Ridin' Dirty was produced entirely by Pimp C and features start to finish bangers such as One Day', Murder', Hi Lif' and of course the title track Ridin' Dirty.' Pimp C's makes use of perfectly chosen Soul, Funk and Gospel samples to create a perfect soundscape for he and Bun B to trade verse over. Despite there being no singles or videos released from the album, the set went on to be a pivotal moment in southern hip hop as well as UGK's best-selling and most critically acclaimed release.

Demon Music are happy to present – Electribe 101 - ‘Electribal Memories’, this stunning half-speed master vinyl edition cut from the original tapes by Barry Grint at Air Studios. Formed when Hamburg-born / London-based, sometimes S’ Express member Billie Ray Martin hooked up with four musician / producers from Birmingham, Electribe 101 instantly hit upon a sound heavily influenced by the de rigueur deep house sounds of Chicago and Detroit but with a distinctive European twist. With Billie Ray up front, with a voice like ice on fire and looking as if she’d stepped forward in time from a circa-1966 Mary Quant catwalk, the band were instantly snapped up by Mercury Records, and taken under the wing of Pet Shop Boys manager Tom Watkins. The band released five singles in the UK, and all featured on their debut album ‘Electribal Memories’ – ‘Tell Me When The Fever Ended’, ‘Talking With Myself’, ‘You’re Walking’, ‘Lipstick On My Lover’ and an incredible cover of Odyssey’s deep soul classic ‘Inside Out’. When the album arrived in 1990, it was an instant hit with critics – immaculately produced, poised, luxurious and soulful, it was difficult to believe it was a debut record at all. After ‘Electribal Memories’, Electribe 101 called it a day. Since then, the album’s reputation has grown in stature and many of its’ singles’ attendant remixes have become sought-after rarities. The cultural earthquake prompted by the late-1980s arrival on these shores of house, acid and rave prompted many a legendary club night and a generation of superstar DJ / producers. While there were a myriad of great club tracks produced in that heady period between 1988-1991, classic albums from the scene were rather more of a rarity. One towering exception was the debut by Electribe 101…

The Jack Bregman LP was made consecutively in 10 days from July 7th-17th 2020. It was made in the same continuous manner from front to back that it’s listened to. It’s the first of many more advanced albums to come from Citra Lab.

Lewis Brooker: A Collaboration between Andy Lewis and Hugh Brooker. Andy Lewis was one of the founding fathers of legendary Camden night Blow Up and was recruited by Blur to DJ on their Parklife tour. Always a musician as much as a DJ, Andy played bass for Pimlico, Spearmint and later spent eight years performing with Paul Weller. He also signed to Acid Jazz Records in 2002 for whom he’s recorded a number of albums and singles. Hugh Brooker founded The Night Trains in 1987, who became one of the first acts signed to Acid Jazz records. He also formed The Humble Souls with UK rapper and Fatboy Slim cohort MC Wildski and released the all-time classic single “Beads Things And Flowers”, still played on the jazz dance scene to this day.

Nach Releases für Cercle, AnjunaDeep und Ninja Tune veröffentlicht der Londoner Produzent/DJ George King (aka Catching Flies) mit TIDES eine basslastige und dennoch melodische Melange aus brütender Elektronik und komplexen Rhythmen, mit Schattierungen von Hip-Hop bis House, Soul bis Jazz. Die LP enthält die Erfolgssingle GLY (25 Mio. Streams), die von Hot Chip und DJ BORING geremixt wurde. Künstlerkollegen wie Nils Frahm, Jungle, Sofia Kourtesis, Caribou, Bonobo, The Black Madonna, Lane 8 und Gui Boratto bekennen sich als Fans.

Release one of a 5 plate series from Blame.

Release one carries a killer V.I.P of Sith that featured in blames recent and very rare DJ appearance at a VNR event in Germany. Lost Science on the flip was produced in 1998 and appeared in Blames Logical Progression Sets from those days.

The series will build with each release culminating with a collectors box to house the series.

Gatefold Sleeve / 180g Vinyl

Returning to the well of Roger Doyle once again, his “Babel” project spans a decade of composition work before its’ initial release in 1999 as a 5CD set. Over 100 pieces and almost 50 collaborators it marks a journey through a virtual tower of Babel with each piece corresponding to a room within an imagined giant tower city. For the 25th Anniversary vinyl edition Doyle has revisited it- remastering it and providing its first vinyl edit - 80 minutes spread across two 180gm LP’s - rounding out the package with extended liner notes and a download code to the full 6 hours.

We’ve previously explored Roger’s Operating Theatre days and the idea for this project came in the early nineteen eighties while Doyle was heavily involved with the experimental theatre group. Working with emerging technologies and across a variety of genres he realised that he would be unlikely to achieve an overarching compositional style. Instead deciding to make a virtue out of the fact that he composed so schizophrenically, he wished to create a musical alphabet out of short abstract sounds with these sounds being analogous to phonemes in speech. With Blade Runner and sci-fi embedded in the zeitgeist of the times he came to the idea of the Tower of Babel as both a futuristic skyscraper and also an embodiment of language.

In the spring of 1990 Babel was finally begun and kept growing until it reached over 6 hours of music and was released in 1999.A large-scale musical structure making use of many technologies and music languages, with each piece of music being thought of as a 'room' or place within an enormous tower city. Each track in the main section corresponds to a virtual sonic architecture. The pieces are divided into two kinds: aural representations of actual spaces like The Dressing Room, The Stairwell and Mr. Brady's Room alongside internalised dream spaces like the Room Of Rhetoric, the Spirit Levels and the Mansard childhood memory room. Listeners can navigate their way differently through this virtual building at each hearing. As a supplement to the Babel Tower KBBL - the fictitious radio station – broadcasts a number of shows. Each has its own style and atmosphere. Collaborating with DJs, actors, writers and singers, KBBL is made to sound like a real radio station with ads, traffic reports and phone-ins.

Examples of the connections within the project can be found via the architecture were the saxophonist in the off-stage dressing room is rehearsing for her solo in the concert-hall (heard in Pagoda Charm) or the room off the stairwell, where the sounds of piano lessons and apartment life can be heard and the apartment where a muffled KBBL can be overheard At a molecular level The Iron Language Alphabet is a sound alphabet containing tiny fragments of sound representing letters or characters of an alien alphabet. This sound alphabet can be heard scattered through other pieces like The Room of Rhetoric, Pagoda Charm and in KBBL in Johnny’s Body at 002. Other molecular scatterings can be found in Cantilena where two songs sung by Operating Theatre’s Elena Lopez in KBBL are exploded and re-arranged to form new entities.

Doyle’s Babel celebrates language - a slight variation on the Biblical morality tale - and musical expression in all its variety.

Kendra is excited to release a new 45, featuring a special a bonus track written and recorded during the 'I Am What I'm Waiting For' sessions, as well as a new 45-edit of her instant classic 'Birthday Song.' The A-side 'Fine Right Here,' the bonus cut from Kendra Morris's brand new LP 'I Am What I'm Waiting For' (which has received incredible support from the likes of Rolling Stone France, KCRW, WNYC, Flood Magazine, and countless others), takes a look into the deeply introverted side of Kendra. "This song is about being ok just sitting inside and missing the party," Kendra explains. "It's the antithesis to FOMO." Written to accompany a rainy day, the song feels like you're being enveloped in a hug. Sonically, the track tips its hat to Ethiopian Jazz and soul of the 70s, like Rose Royce and the Delfonics. The warm vibraphone, sturdy bass line, and vocal reverb create a layered tapestry of sound that wraps around your shoulders and drifts into your ears. The new 45-edit of 'Birthday Song' is for the DJs. It's an upbeat and funky jubilant jam that's ready and waiting to take the place of outdated standards. Both tracks were co-written and produced by Torbitt Schwartz (AKA Little Shalimar) of Run the Jewels, 'Fine Right Here' is a welcome departure to the upbeat nature of 'I Am What I'm Waiting For' whereas 'Birthday Song' is set to be a celebratory go-to

This project unites artists from two labels, Chinese based bie Records
and Latin America based Shika Shika, separated by very contrasting
cultures and thousands of kilometers but united by shared values and a
shared musical vision
Driven by values of creativity, borderless music and fairness for artists, both
labels showcase artists that unite electronica with ambient and folk music,
purposefully existing outside of the globalized, copy- paste of the mainstream
music industry.
A mix of intrigue and mutual respect led to the birth of this compilation, with the
two labels teaming up to match together a group of their artists to remix each
other. The result is a widely imaginative, fresh and diverse selection of tracks
featuring some of the prominent producers such as DaYe, Lim Giong; Hualun, Sun
Dawei and Rainsoft from bie records and DJ Raff, Terror:Cactus, Numa Gama,
Barrio Lindo and El Buho from Shika Shika.
The compilation is a testament to music's power to transcend language and
cultural background as artists from hugely different contexts unite to explore and
build on each other's creative visions.

Pastime Paradise, first released by Stevie Wonder in 1976 got a new lease of life when sampled by Coolio on his Grammy Award winning Gangsta’s Paradise. It has also over the years been covered by Patti Smith as well as our fave version, courtesy of Latin percussionist Ray Barretto. First released on CTI in 1981, to this day it remains a staple for both the jazz and soul rooms. Never before released on a 12 inch, Major Keys continue their fine form with this extended floor filler that will appeal to DJ’s and collectors alike. It also flips it with La Cuna and Mambotango taken from the same 1981 LP. This is a special EP and one that you will want for your collection.

After his first two one-off singles "Black Pegasus" and "Day Without You" introduced DJ Swagger's massive songwriting abilities and love for recording instruments, his first album on Kommerz Records, "Chemistry Forever", showcases his background in UK-leaning elec- tronic music as well as new tendencies towards neo soul, indie pop and jazz. Welcome DJ Swagger to the Kommerz Records stage and prepare for the album to drop on March 22nd.
The 25-year-old from West Germany's Bielefeld is pretty much the archetype of a so-called Wunderkind. At his young age the producer, DJ, multi instrumentalist and songwriter released more than 40 vinyl records including two solo albums and endless rave tracks since turn- ing 16. As of most recently and even though coming from an electronic music background DJ Swagger's creative agenda ventured more and more into classic songwriting and taking over the role of lead vocalist of his one-man-band. His third solo album "Chemistry Forever" show- cases this transformation from UK-influenced electronica towards neo soul and indie without losing its listeners at any point. His subtle melancholic vocal performance and the just as subtle, yet constant pop appeal make this equation solve itself magically. From electro, 2 step and breakbeat over hip-hop, indie and R&B to a final bebop (!) madness - "Chemistry Forever" is a trip for music lovers while each and every song has heavy potential to be listened to on repeat.
Besides his own vocal performances DJ Swagger also invited rappers TripSixVivo (London), Vitus04 (Bielefeld), Kaba (Paris) and poet Dainell Aiken (NYC) for mesmerizing guest perfomances. Additional production work came from Hamburg dance producer Speckman and jazz outfit Jonas Gersema Trio.
Aaaand since we called him a Wunderkind: Be aware that he's not only a next level musician, but studied graphic designer, illustrator and most likely many more things. Just an example: Most recently he sold self-made perfumed candles through his D.I.Y. label and fashion brand Goddess Music. He obviously designed everything around the album, directed the music videos and merch drops are to be expected.
For us, brothers Lukas and Jonathan, the love story goes way back though. In the midst of the long gone lo-fi house hysteria (2017-2018) we discovered the Bielefeld native's dance floor productions, which fused hip-hop braggadocio with pumping electronic music. We kept following up on his ever evolving musical journey into new genres and felt super honored when he reached out to release his upcoming projects via Kommerz.

Stolen Goods Records announce Pergola's cinematic techno 'Zed' EP, featuring a remix from indie-dance legend CURSES.
Exploring hypnotic, emotionally charged melodies and vast techno breakdowns, the title track opens up the EP with a strong sense of mystery. Suspenseful strings build in anticipation as the bassline filters in intensity, this deep space offenng is the perfect example of a tune fit for the club as well as headphone-listening.

'Freak' is a beautifully intense piece featuring soft synths marked by subtle scratches, a feel-good vocal and the catchy strum of a quitar. '"Zed' is then given the CURSES treatment, the Optimo Music, Bordello a Parigi and Correspondant artist amplifies its retro feel resulting in nine minutes of pure dark disco hedonism. Closing out the release is an ambient collaboration between Pergola and Luigi Sambuy, 'Tunnel' is an ode to the early days of IDM through to the '70s.
*"Zed' marks the third release on Lele Sacchi & Asian Fake's Stolen Goods Records and follows up their widely acclaimed 'Volume 0' compilation as well as the recent collaborative EP between Black Loops & Innocent Soul. Since its launch last summer, the label has seen the support of artists like Dixon, Sasha, DJ Seinfeld and DJ Sneak and has garnered plays on prestigious stations like NTS and BBC Radio 1. The imprint continues its strong start to the year with three new tracks from the hyper-talented Pergola: a newcomer to the scene whos aready listed on labels such as Multinotes, Sementa ano Adriatiques Siamese, the latter which saw/ him reach number one on Beatport's Electronica chart.