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Cindy Lee, Arthur Russell, Viagra Boys, On-U Sound. In the discourse around new albums from singular, world-building artists, the phrase “a big step forward” can often be a blinking red warning sign. You know you’re about to be pulled somewhere new against your will. Inertia is a hell of a thing. It’s nice here. Surely, the party’s not over yet? JJULIUS’ Vol. 3 album is a big step forward, or a step up, out of the murky basement of the preceding two volumes. There’s no time to acclimate. A spindly violin grabs you by the hand and pulls you into the pastoral bounce of “Brinna ut,” which, in spite of its meaning (“Burn out”), creates the kind of blind positivity and warm stomach feeling less cynical people might find in self-help seminars. For us, we have records like this. And, inertia be damned, Vol. 3 has charm like a balm. JJULIUS records have always arrived like meteors from another planet, an impression hammered home by the fact that they’re titled like compendiums of artifacts. And while Vols. 1 and 2 carried that notable tinge of darkness, Vol. 3 has (almost!) cast that shadow, adding elements of disco (“Dödsdisco”) and dream-pop (“Etopisk hallucination”) to his forever favorites Arthur Russell, African Head Charge, and The Fall. Some of that new car smell could be attributed to a change in process. Each song was written over beats played by Tor Sjödén of the wild-eyed Stockholm group Viagra Boys, beats that were themselves inspired by tracks from the likes of Patrick Cowley, CAN, Count Ossie, Black Devil Disco Club and others that Julius would send to him as inspiration. Unless you’re Mark E. Smith, fervor fades. Eventually we all crave a lie down in some nice grass, a few minutes to gaze at the sky and wonder if everything is actually all that bad. Vol. 3 gives you 35 of those respiting minutes. “No looking back, no misery, no talking trash, no enemies.”

180G vinyl pressing

After releasing their well-received 7” and 12” singles ‘Night Time’ and ‘Feel It / So Hot’, Isle of Jura is pleased to present Exotic Illusions, the debut album from D.D. Mirage, the Sydney-based duo of Josh Dives and Disky Dee.

Having first played music together during the mid-2010s in the indie-psyche and punky-shoegaze bands King Colour and SCK CHX, the two Australian musicians/DJs came up in the warehouse party scene that fermented in the wake of the Sydney lockout laws. While organising mixed media events under the Yeah Nah Yeah brand, they discovered the joys of disco, dance-punk and the Balearic beat through Pender St Steppers’ DJ mixes and reissue releases and found themselves changing direction in response.

Written and recorded with a range of vintage keyboards and preamps, instruments and digital studio software, Exotic Illusions is a cosmopolitan love letter to the immaculate blend of Italo disco, Neopolitan funk, Nigerian boogie, cosmic house, synth-pop, UK street soul and lovers rock sounds that have inspired D.D. Mirage since they began this iteration of their ever-evolving musical relationship.

“The name Exotic Illusions refers to our fascination with all of this music made in other parts of the world,” they explain. “During lockdown and thereafter, we indulged in these exotic sounds as an antidote to our lack of travel. This fascination continued as the world opened up again, and we started working on tunes together. It’s also a way of acknowledging that we feel like tourists partaking in these styles and established sounds. They aren’t ours and weren’t born out of the place we’re from, but we hope we’ve been able to add something unique to them.”

In recognition of this, rather than just reinterpreting genre motifs through an antipodean lens, D.D. Mirage opened up lines of communication with some of their favourite musicians from the Neapolitan scene, bassist Daniel Monaco (Rush Hour, Periodica Records) and drummer Andrea De Fazio (Parbleu/ Nu Genea), who recorded the rhythm section for ‘So Hot’. They also wrote to the Manchester-based singer/producer Private Joy, who graced ‘Night Time’ with a smoother-than-silk street soul vocal that helped the single secure crucial plays on NTS and BBC Radio 6.

Opening with the tropical melodies, post-disco machine beats and jilted art-punk singalong chants of the title track, Exotic Illusions unfolds as a series of sturdy, internationally-minded dancefloor excursions. ‘Piranesi’ is boogie with a South American shuffle. ‘So Hot’ is Neapolitan funk with a Leichhardt strut, and ‘Antenna’ (featuring Jofi) is D.D. Mirage’s love letter to ‘80s drum machine bossa nova from Brussels.

On ‘Feel It’, the duo hit a sparking groove that reaches into an eternal sunset of the mind before throwing out a bubbly disco-not disco spoken word bounce on ‘Cat’s Cradle’, featuring psychedelic-pop singer Jermango Dreaming. From there, D.D. Mirage bring it home with a cheeky Aussie drawl on ‘Living Upside Down’ and the nocturnal excellence of ‘Night Time’, making a case for themselves as a significant new force from Australian music to the world.
full sleeve artwork from Bradley Pinkerton.

"I imagine that one of the first things I heard in the world was the
explosion of a Russian ammunitions factory on the outskirts of my
hometown. It blew up the night I was born a new GDR-citizen. I´m not
sure I heard a noise when the Wall came down, but it still echoes in my
body. The echo contains many frequencies. Some of them sound like Gabber
playing in my childhood room over the speakers my grandfather once stole
from a Leipzig radio station. Some of them sound like me and my friends
running through the streets. They sound like my mother laughing and
consoling women in the women´s shelter where she worked in 1992. They
sound like birds: my father swears after the Reunification the great
crested grebes on the town lakes lost all fear of humans. Some of them
sound like these recordings."

Julek ploski’s ‘Give up Channel’ is on mappa. It’s the follow-up to the Poland-based FL Studio demon’s ‘Hotel *’, released via Orange Milk in 2023.

It’s an album that wrestles against a shadow self. It’s about shelter from the hailstorm of unwanted memories and guilt pangs and serrated blades of thought. It’s about clinging on to some semblance of hope, knuckles taut and teeth gritted.

The fragmented drift of opener ‘Naysayer’ flows forward like an anxious daydream, pad eddies and piano plinks anchored by Trapaholics drops and bursts of guaracha drums. It’s a mess of mind: the bleakness of ‘Truth’ is punctuated by gun cocking and bullet spray and sudden jester-like blasts of unhinged, schizo-whimsical melody. An internal war without a clear winner.

Shame snakes through this music like venom through an emaciated body. Blue screenlight in a dark bedroom, pulsating temples, lockjaw. ‘Titanic’ hits like the thrashing resistance of a being built for love grappling against the scalding vengefulness it’s forced to contend with, the song’s abstracted rave synths giving way to warped voices and spiralling derangement. ‘Hollywood’ is a scarred battleground, the martial bludgeoning of a tightly wound hardstyle stomp blistering and shredding a delicate piano-and-string arrangement.

This music is about deep solitude, a meditation on simmering, slow-marinating hatred. But it’s ultimately about prevailing. It doesn’t revel in negativity, it roils and twists and writhes against it. Dots of light in oppressive darkness. Clarity and purpose against chaos and filth. It’s a struggle worth waging.










h I Was #AllAlone Movements V - VIII
[i] Economy [Movements I - IV]

The second part in the series looking at the works of the Beninoise super group T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo and the compositions of bandleader Clément Melome. The title song, "Unité Africaine" was originally released domestically in 1977 on the LP, "T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou Benin - Melome Clement, Chef d'Orchestre" and celebrates a message of unity across the African nations.

The single focuses on the modern interpretations for which Canopy again enlists the skills of Jose Marquez & Sol Power All-Stars.

Jose Marquez builds around the core elements of "Unité Africaine", deepening the mood with characteristic production prowess. Recruiting precise musicians who add live bass, percussion and synthesizer, Jose delivers an adaptation which effortlessly compliments the original arrangement and feeling with a thoughtfully executed sensibility.

Sol Power All-Stars step up with a sincere rendition of "Unité Africaine". No strangers to the work of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo, (having released a dynamite remix EP of Orchestre Poly-Rythmo on their own imprint "Sol Power Sound"), they were a natural fit for this project. The version presented here is respectful to the original, adding live drums, light disco FX and new arrangements to gently enhance the original composition, adding just the right amount of seasoning to their mix to bring it to a joyful and tasty simmer.

Emotional Especial returns to the music of Peter Reilly aka Persian, with a second EP diving into his extensive catalogue to celebrate this cult artist and evaluate his recent decision to retire from music production.

For over 20 years Reilly has been an exemplary electronic producer, a producer’s producer, a DJs producer, releasing over 50 EPs that crossed genres, from Breaks to Digidub, Electro to Garage, House to Jungle and on and on.

If this release is to act as an epitaph, then its exploration of Reilly’s wonderful programming, sampling and understanding of emotions is laid bare. Spread across a series of self-released edits hidden within limited run EPs, Questions appeared as something akin to beats interludes, across numerous releases over the last 10 years.

Bringing the best versions together on one EP, Questions 1, 2, 5, 3 and 7 have been re-edited, extended and sequenced into a continuous mix especially for this finale. Starting with the ambient breaks of Questions 1, this is a Balearic beginning where bubbling acid meets haunting refrain, before segueing effortlessly into the sunrise breaks of Questions 2. A nod to Carl Craig’s classic Incognito remix, the solo keys add a touch of jazz to a glide by shooting melody.

Side 2 rises. Question 5 heralds a half stepper Dub bassline riding the Amen breaks, the now familiar Brando sample, a wormhole in your brain that ties the EP together, joining the dots as strings float skywards, allowing Questions 3 break it all back down. Herbie Handcock inspired Funk Boogie beat, shouts out to his own Existence To Resistance label, leads to the pure ambient closing of Questions 7. A showcase again of Persian’s multi-genre dexterity and maybe, just maybe brings an influential music chapter to a close.

After a near-total silence of twenty years, Edith Frost is back again, and in full bloom with In Space. Her first new record since 2005"s It"s a Game is just in time - the world needs Edith"s voice back in the conversation. And her ineffable way with a tune . . . It seems Edith needed something, too: from the notebooks of her long hiatus, a line like "I say too much/I wait too long/I wait forever/And notice that it"s gone" speaks volumes about feelings of lack. Overwhelmed by the demands of day-to-day living and the details and anxieties that always come, Edith squirreled herself away for as long as she could - only to find herself isolated, spun even farther into the doldrums. In Space isn"t simply a song-cum-album title so much as a very real exploration of the remote place she"d found herself, with her songs registering this recognition and measuring the vast distances between herself, the life that is and the life that was. It was the only way back in! Over the years away, Edith was immersed in music everyday, and spent lots of time learning - in addition to new lyric perspectives, her reinvention of herself as a keyboard player is one of the waves lifting the album In Space. The keys suggested different places within Edith"s harmonic palette; for us listening, this attenuation seems to create a deep focus on emotional life within the songs and a breathtakingly visceral presence in the performances. Her voice as well, in all its iterations, sounds quite fine and vital. The songs, as ever, are low-key brilliance elevated by the vitality of Edith"s voice. Mark Greenberg, alongside longtime Frost A&R man Rian Murphy, brought fresh arrangement ideas to complement the strange-new-world vibe of Edith"s songs. Recorded at The Loft in Chicago, with invaluable contributions from Jim Becker (Califone, Air Blue Gowns), Sima Cunningham (Finom, formerly OHMME), Bill MacKay and Jeff Ragsdale, In Space feels like the most Edith Frost record yet made, pulled from deep inside with great feeling, awash in harmonized voices and - more often than ever before - featuring her own playing. Alternatively approaching and avowing connection, Edith"s crafty songwriting orbits the human exchange with an increasing sense of possibility. It"s what the world needs the most of today.

Oxblood Vinyl

If you’ve followed the global shenanigans of heavier music over the past decades, you know the name Marko Hietala.
And if you don’t, I strongly suggest you go back down the dark rabbit hole and do your homework again. There is no doubt about it: Marko Hietala has been synonymous with quality for more than four decades. Hietala has not only shaped, but also defined the sound of harder rock, as a founding member of the heavy metal band Tarot, as an essential member of the supergroup Sinergy (next to extreme talents such as Alexi Laiho) or as one of the key figures of world’s biggest symphonic metal band Nightwish. Needless to say, his thunderous bass lines and rich vocals have been echoed in the world’s most famous venues, such as Wembley Arena and legendary festivals like Rock in Rio.
However, despite all the achievements, new conquests are coming at a steady pace... Just recently, Marko Hietala has appeared in a starring role in the TV series Vain elämää, which has gathered millions of viewers in Finland.
When it comes to an endlessly talented artist with a strong musical flame in his heart, an eponymous album is always just a matter of time. In the case of Marko Hietala, it took a while, but better late than never: his long-awaited first solo debut, Mustan sydämen rovio, finally arrived to grace the spring of 2019 (later reissued in English as Pyre of the Black Heart) Guess what? Marko Hietala’s musical and lyrical tide has not dried up and the well-received debut is getting the company it deserves. To be released in February 2025, “Roses from the Deep” follows the adventurous path of its predecessor, but perhaps with even greater ambition.
“Sometime in 2017-18, Nightwish took a break – first for about 20 years – and I decided to spend my time working on my first solo album”, I’ve come up with all kinds of ideas over the years, and it was time to get them out of my system. When I set my sight on the album, I didn’t limit myself in any way. If the idea felt good, it was good...” Hietala recalls.

"Every night we've been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking." Thurston Moore
“Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate.” The Quietus
“Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea.” MOJO
Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. They’ve since released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!
Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. ‘Encircle’ was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattle’s other mesmeric covers.
‘All Burning’ opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. ‘All Burning’ was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresa’s cumulative snare work and Katherine’s urgent calls for action: “hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses”. If ‘All Burning’ represents fire, then it’s accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, ‘Argot’, is informed by the air. ‘Argot’ is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. “I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal” asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. ‘Ritual’ is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers ‘Ritual’ as “very earthy song - lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something”! ‘Ritual’ was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. ‘Your Move’ is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, ‘Your Move’, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.
With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.
Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.

"Every night we've been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking." Thurston Moore
“Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate.” The Quietus
“Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea.” MOJO
Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. They’ve since released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!
Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. ‘Encircle’ was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattle’s other mesmeric covers.
‘All Burning’ opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. ‘All Burning’ was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresa’s cumulative snare work and Katherine’s urgent calls for action: “hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses”. If ‘All Burning’ represents fire, then it’s accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, ‘Argot’, is informed by the air. ‘Argot’ is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. “I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal” asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. ‘Ritual’ is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers ‘Ritual’ as “very earthy song - lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something”! ‘Ritual’ was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. ‘Your Move’ is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, ‘Your Move’, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.
With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.
Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.

Yellow & Black Vinyl. "The first three are innocent in a way, because we didn't have an audience when we were making them," Oberst says. "But from Lifted on, I was definitely aware of an audience. Lifted was well-received right away, and then everything happened with Wide Awake and Digital Ash." Those two albums came out simultaneously. And their lead singles - "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)," from the austere, remote Digital Ash, and "Lua," from the warm, folky Wide Awake - debuted in the top two slots on the Billboard Hot 100. "First Day of My Life," also from Wide Awake, would later be voted the Number One love song of all time by NPR Music's reader's poll.Bright Eyes had officially broken through. It was a heady, exciting time, but also fraught and tense, both because of the band's careening new fame, and because of the state of the world. When Bright Eyes made their Tonight Show debut in 2006, they chose to perform none of their shiny new hits, instead delivering a searing, harrowing rendition of their caustic anti-Bush anthem, "When The President Talks To God."These days, Oberst is still amusing himself by messing with the extremes Bright Eyes baked into this era's releases, extremes that reflected the polar, with-us-or-against-us, fractious feel of the times. The reworked Digital Ash tracks, originally so clean and elegant, are, on the companion EP, full of "harmonica and mandolins - folky vibes," Oberst says. While the analogue sweetness of the Wide Awake songs have been put through a detached nihilism filter.

“Do you still believe it?” John Ross asks that question after journeying through the wreckage. The genesis of Dulling The Horns goes back to late 2022, when Ross began workshopping new material during soundcheck on the ILYSM tour. Last summer, Wild Pink decamped to western Massachusetts to reunite with engineer Justin Pizzoferrato. Ross decided to record Dulling The Horns live in the room, in an effort to capture Wild Pink’s onstage style — rawer, grainier. Gone are the glimmering atmospherics and studio affectations of recent Wild Pink outings. Instead, Ross’ voice is haggard against the humid distortion coating every song. “I wanted to make economical songs,” Ross explains. “Music that is very much at its core three or four people rocking.” If before, Wild Pink took notes from Springsteen and Petty, they’ve now entered their Crazy Horse era. On Dulling The Horns, you can hear him rediscovering the fire in real time. Tropes discarded along the roadside, songs pulled from the formative DNA of rock music, all filtered through years of messy fog. “There is no answer to these problems,” Ross says, having eventually yielded. But as far Dulling The Horns is concerned, there’s at least one path forward: Burn it all away, and keep moving. The album was mixed by Alex Farrar in Asheville NC, mastered by Greg Obis in Chicago, IL and is out in October on Fire Talk.

Der Soundtrack von 'KNEECAP', mit Musik von der Band sowie Bicep, Fontaines DC und Orbital, ist als Doppel-LP im Gatefold-Design auf farbigem Vinyl erhältlich. Er enthält auch Filmmusik von Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante MBE und Ausschnitte aus den Dialogen des Films.

- Ltd. Col. 2LP: (LP1 Orange / LP2 Green Vinyl)

2025 Repress

Running Back’s Double Copy subsidiary for house music history returns with four musical masterpieces from Chicago, London and an international cast from Italy on its first various artist sampler.
Originally released on Roy Davis Jr.’s Undaground Therapy outlet, Destination Heaven by the enigmatic Earth Boys project delivers a piece of cloud-nine-deep-house that was a staple at Frankfurt’s Wild Pitch Club and during the early days of its successor Robert Johnson. Produced by Cloudy Eyes and Cole Brooks, we unfortunately have never heard from the duo again. Luckily, Family of Few have been a little bit more productive. Also known as Mind Readers, Kevin Elliot and Billy ‚Jack“ Williams produced some of the more tender moments on Detroits 430 West label. Intervoles is amongst the most peculiar and catchy tracks that slow-burning dance floors can hope for.
The flip side turns the attention to the conclusions that Europe drew from its US-role-models. Released in 1992 on Rena Records with the involvement of New York’s JoVonn (a distinct genius of deep grooves himself), the keyboard skills of Pierre Audetat and the production work of I. Betti, M. Clemente and W. Brown, Dummy Head is one of a kind. Swirly echoes, dubby textures and a heavy bass line mate on the Edit Mix of I Have Been Wanting You to create one of the very first examples of fully formed dub-house.
Similar pioneering properties can be ascribed to the work of Rob Mello. We don’t have enough room here to list all his merits, but rest assured that the UK’s house scene wouldn’t be the same without him (Luxury Service Records, Classic et al). Under the Karim guise, Mello delivered a unique stroke of genius. Distilling the essence of deep house, while looking far into the future, In My Mind is many things at once: broken beat, electro, house with embracing chords, and – if you will – a warm-up banger. and does, what all the tracks in here do: turning heads then, turning heads now. Hardcore Deep House!

More straightforward than À la Ô Terre, its predecessor released on Castle Face Records back in 2020, Électrons libres du québec is Population II’s sophomore album. On this LP, produced by Emmanuel Éthier, the three-piece band - made up of singer/drummer Pierre-Luc Gratton, guitarist/keyboardist Tristan Lacombe and bassist Sébastien Provençal - delivers a heavy, psychedelic rock infused with feverish funk rhythms, a hint of jazz philosophy, a burst of early punk energy, and a love of minor scales that harkens back to the roots of heavy metal. With Électrons libres du québec, Population II showcases once again their sharp sense of songcraft and an undeniable expertise in their instruments. This is an album that effortlessly maintains a balance between challenging compositions and instantly memorable melodies.

"Whistle from Above" is David Grubbs" first Drag City release in over a decade and his first-ever instrumental album for the label. The suspiciously youthful Grubbs is four decades into his career, with former bands including Gastr del Sol, Squirrel Bait, and Bastro, along with a wild ride of collaborators including f.e. Bitch Magnet, Codeine, The Red Krayola, Royal Trux, Dirty Three, Will Oldham, The Underflow and The Wingdale Community Singers. "Whistle from Above" is the first solo collection David has released since 2017"s Creep Mission. During the 2020 shutdown, David played what he precisely quantified as "a shit-ton of guitar," more than he could recall playing ever previously. Reinvigorated by this period of enforced woodshedding, he produced a series of new pieces, mostly for guitar, but also a piano composition and an exceptionally eerie bit of musique concrète. Meanwhile, David was reconnecting with the Gastr del Sol archive, as a new collection of old performances was being prepared from extensive archival material. The duo magic of that storied collaboration (released in 2024 as We Have Dozens of Titles) left David hungry to play in this format again - as he had recently with Loren Connors, Alan Courtis, Manuel Mota, and Liam Keenan. These duo experiences showed David the path forward to complete this new solo material. Thus he sought out collaborations with folks he"s called "some of the musicians whom I adore most on the planet" - Rodri Davies, Andrea Belfi, Nikos Veliotis, Nate Wooley, and Cleek Schrey - and their stunning contributions flesh out Grubbs" innate, deeply person brand of minimalism. "Whistle from Above" is a colourful, compulsive set of instrumental pieces in which David and his chosen collaborators interact amid the steady roll of an expansive landscape based in the hypnosis of David"s immediately recognizable guitar style.

Unofficially the third entry in our Good God! series of ecstatic worship, Born Again Funk picks up where A Gospel Funk Hymnal leaves off. Yes, the prodigal sons of Thomas Dorsey arrived in there multitudes, only some of them toting fuzzboxes and Fender amps. These are the most devout songs, but done up amid the hot, sweaty, earthy moonshine rhythms downed by any blues singer thumbing his way up north from the Mississippi delta. Born Again Funk hones in on wholly modern vulgarity brought to a joyful strain of American composition, and performers unafraid of expressing their devotion with both inspiration and invention. They were acolytes faithful to a spirit, but never to an ordained sound.

There is no one universe for Ben LaMar Gay, he just sonic booms from one sound to another." - NPR Music
Ben LaMar Gay’s de facto debut album, Downtown Castles Can Never Block The Sun, was our attempt to introduce the legendary Chicago composer / improvisor / renaissance man to the rest of the world with a compilation of tracks from “7 albums he made over 7 years but never made the effort to actually release. ” The material showcases Gay’s penchant for genre-hopping—from Reich-ian soundscape voyages to Don Cherry-esque polyrhythm treks to Jorge Ben-style vocal-and-string earworms—while keeping his singular musical voice in focus.
In the years since its release, this long OOP collection has become a touchstone, foreshadowing the breadth and scope of Ben LaMar Gay’s output since. The songs-between-the-songs warped Soul Americana madness and beauty of Open Arms To Open Us, the unhinged long form freedom of Certain Reveries—each fresh mode would defy expectation if without the context established by Downtown Castles. To quote the OG press release, “to call it ‘eclectic’ would only scratch the surface. This music is everything.

King Street Sounds continues to deliver deep house classics with the third various artist sampler in the series. This release taps into the essence of original house music and features iconic names such as DJ Pierre, Blaze, Kenny Bobien, Palmer Brown, Dannell Dixon, and Big Moses.

The EP begins with Dannell Dixon's track 'Dance Dance (DJ Pierre’s Wild Pitch Mix).' This engaging piece features a steady groove, multiple percussive elements, and captivating vocal hooks that keep listeners immersed in the rhythm.

Next is Big Moses' 'Brighter Days (Extended Mix),' which showcases the unmistakably smooth and sultry vocals of Kenny Bobien. As is often the case with Kenny's lyrics, this song explores themes of love, hope, and the promise of 'brighter days,' delivering uplifting dance music.

On the B-side, DJ Pierre makes a second appearance with 'Dancin’ (Club Mix).' This track radiates sunshine and block-party vibes, effortlessly transporting listeners to a lively street party in New York City.

Finally, the record concludes with 'Shine (Shelter Vocal Extended Mix)' by Blaze. This track brings down the tempo just a notch, making it a perfect addition to sets when the dancefloor needs a moment to catch its breath and regain its energy.

Once again, King Street Sounds delivers a knockout release that is a must-have for collectors and DJs alike

Marking the twentieth/twenty-first anniversaries of ‘Amnesiac’ and ‘Kid A’ respectively, Radiohead announce a deluxe triple-album of both records plus a brand new bonus disc titled ‘Kid Amnesiae’. It features two previously unreleased tracks - ‘If You Say The Word’ and ‘Follow Me Around’ - plus alternate versions of album tracks and B-sides from the era. An absolute essential for Radiohead fans!

Being Dead knows how to make an entrance - within the first several seconds of EELS, the duo's new record, the bright, hard-strummed guitar line on "Godzilla Rises" conjures cinematic immediacy, a creature emerging from the depths of the ocean in campy, freaky stop motion, fittingly so. Being Dead's records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead's psyche, it is, most importantly, in the year of our lord 2024, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next: a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil' house in the heart of Austin, Texas. They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Ricky Motto (who is immortalized finally on record here, particularly in the giggles on "Rock n' Roll Hurts") The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within, but it's also a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There's heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing - we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don't. From the pummeling garage rock distortion of "Firefighters" to "Dragons II," which appears in its demo form taped on a hand recorder, it's unexpected but intuitive, and, most importantly, singularly Being Dead. Like its animal namesake suggests, the songs on EELS are malleable, the record like slithering through murky waters or strange half dreams, mysterious and beautiful in how it moves, reflective in a wavering sheen. Dipping into each song feels like uncovering a new cavern, plunging into depths unknown but fully open to what will be revealed. On the album artwork, an illustration by the artist Julia Soboleva, there are some weird disparate spectral creatures, a stark glimmer against a cloudy darkness. It's a fitting encapsulation of Being Dead, exuding a welcoming, playful energy even if something foreboding lurks just beyond the pale - more out of frame that's left to uncover, no path unexplored, strange and beautiful in the light.

Purple Tree Fog Vinyl. Being Dead knows how to make an entrance - within the first several seconds of EELS, the duo's new record, the bright, hard-strummed guitar line on "Godzilla Rises" conjures cinematic immediacy, a creature emerging from the depths of the ocean in campy, freaky stop motion, fittingly so. Being Dead's records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead's psyche, it is, most importantly, in the year of our lord 2024, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next: a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil' house in the heart of Austin, Texas. They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Ricky Motto (who is immortalized finally on record here, particularly in the giggles on "Rock n' Roll Hurts") The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within, but it's also a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There's heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing - we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don't. From the pummeling garage rock distortion of "Firefighters" to "Dragons II," which appears in its demo form taped on a hand recorder, it's unexpected but intuitive, and, most importantly, singularly Being Dead. Like its animal namesake suggests, the songs on EELS are malleable, the record like slithering through murky waters or strange half dreams, mysterious and beautiful in how it moves, reflective in a wavering sheen. Dipping into each song feels like uncovering a new cavern, plunging into depths unknown but fully open to what will be revealed. On the album artwork, an illustration by the artist Julia Soboleva, there are some weird disparate spectral creatures, a stark glimmer against a cloudy darkness. It's a fitting encapsulation of Being Dead, exuding a welcoming, playful energy even if something foreboding lurks just beyond the pale - more out of frame that's left to uncover, no path unexplored, strange and beautiful in the light.

After two pandemically conditioned ‘reaction’ albums - Yay! (2023) and Neigh!! (2024) - a few non-album singles and a compilation album, a downsized and sleek Motorpsycho is back where we all know and love them, with an epic, sprawling double album, filled to the brim with inventive, organic and ecstatic rock-based music. Rejoyce Psychonaut! This eponymously titled, 11 song work, has exactly as much variety & diversity, accord and discord, as one expects from a band that has released a few albums before, and that these days must be regarded as an institution in European rock. From concise 3min-something pop-rockers, to 20mins plus progressive epics, via acoustic intimacies and psychedelic wig-outs, this is concentrated Motorpsychosis: commenced Rebis, countdown initiated. Ever closer. Ever sharper... Since the traditional 3 or 4 piece rock band seems to be a dying breed these days, and MP always was a band in flux anyway, a new pragmatic era has begun in the Psychoverse. The band has, in what one might call alchemical terms, been ‘dissolved and purified’, and is by now again reduced to the core two founding members HMR & BS. This is nothing new, it has happened a few times before, but these days they are also the owners and creators of the record company NFGS, which is now the hub of all recorded band activity, and Motorpsycho marks the final severance of existing ties to other labels for the first time in 35 years. If ‘freedom is free of the need to be free’, this is it. Yikes! The minimalist title of the album is then not just easy to remember, it’s also a statement: a new era has begun in the Psychoverse, a state of affairs reflected in execution and details as well as title, if not perhaps, in ambition or size: “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam” *. This is a time of new beginnings for a band that has spent two years consolidating and reseting before charging ahead anew on a new path, trumpets blaring (...and trumpets don’t come much more blaring in the Psychoverse than with this grandiloquent hyperbole. Good fun! ). New day rising indeed. The core band was adroitly helped by a gaggle of greats from all over the Scandinavian musical landscape on these recordings: drummers Ingvald Vassbø and Olaf Olsen, string arranger/violinist Mari Persen, vocalist Thea Grant, and - as usual - honorary psycho, brother Reine Fiske, were all fellow travellers on this musical journey. Motorpsycho was co-produced by the band and Deathprod, and mixed by Andrew Scheps. Motorpsycho are not the best at what they do, they’re the only ones that do what they do. NFGS2025 *: “Senex psittacus negligit ferulam,” or “An old parrot doesn’t mind the stick.”

Enxin/Onyx, the duo of Nicky Mao/Hiro Kone and Tot Onyx (formerly group A), joins Other People with their debut album "In Rupture," capturing the same mesmerizing energy for which their live sets have become known.

“In Rupture” is not painless but in rupture lies possibility. The elasticity of this time pitching us across unknown terrain, revealing new potentialities, eclipsing static being. Whether in breach, collision,shimmer or severance, Enxin/Onyx explores these as occasions for transformation. Peeling back the layers through discord and harmony, exciting the inversion of expectation, towing the listener to depths and back up again to illuminate the senses. At times metallic and feral, at others murky and sharp, each song serves as an offering for all that is in rupture; body, spirit, land, ecosystem.
The opening track “A Void” calls to mind some mutation in its mechanical ecstasy, but for what purpose remains unknown. Even in the near moments of stillness, “Needle Pierces the Threshold” breathes a forceful disquietude. Tommi’s vocals pulling the listener down into some subterranean
madness, to unravel upwards from all sides, flooding the once parched landscape. In “Embers Kissthe Eye”, all of time emerges in one moment, compelling the subject’s gaze towards a new horizon.
The album follows its subjects through exile, exhumation and discovery. Through this process plates shift, fissures are revealed and what once appeared to be indomitable absolutes crack, pointing towards their inevitable collapse. To be in rupture is regeneration, to be in rupture is to return.

The new label engorn celebrates its second catalog release, once again featuring gustav krach and taschendrachen. The A side kicks off with two dreamy deep house tracks by taschendrachen. The first track, the meaning, blends lush congas and bongos with smooth pads. dont forget us stands out with its warped bassline, while both tracks feature lovely, haunting vocals. The side is rounded off by a sweeping ambient
breakbeat track from gustav krach, closing it with atmospheric depth.

On the B side, taschendrachen showcases his passion for
chords, creating a drive infused cut with tell me do and crafting a dub influenced soundscape with tides, where the chords form a vast sonic backdrop. The release closes with gustav krachs atmospheric ambient track, offering a fitting, introspective conclusion to the journey.

Sunny War, also known as Sydney Ward, found inspiration for her latest album Armageddon In A Summer Dress while living in her late father's 100-year-old house in Chattanooga, TN. She initially thought the house was haunted. Eerie sounds and visions led her to write the song "Ghosts." However, she later discovered that hallucinations were caused by gas leaks, shifting her understanding of those experiences but not her artistic focus. Armageddon In A Summer Dress explores themes of memory, loss, and the ghosts of past selves. After the success of her 2022 album, Anarchist Gospel, Sunny spent more time touring with artists like Bonnie Raitt and Mitski. To avoid falling back into past struggles with alcohol, she channeled her energy into music, crafting intricate demos and experimenting with sound. This process involved shifting from acoustic to electric guitar, aiming for a fuller band sound. Tracks like "One Way Train" and "No One Calls Me Baby" highlight her blend of punk and roots influences, emphasizing the rebellious spirit shared by both genres. A notable collaboration on the album is with Steve Ignorant from Crass, whose participation in "Walking Contradiction" reflects Sunny's admiration for the band and its critique of modern society. Armageddon in a Summer Dress serves as a reflection on identity and choices, balancing heavy themes with empowerment. Sunny War encourages listeners to live authentically and resist societal pressures. Committed to continual growth, she sees every performance and song as an opportunity for exploration. Through her music, Sunny War captures the complexities of life, loss, and the transformative power of creativity.

Album features and was co-produced by Joseph Shabason. String arrangements by Owen Pallett. Thom Gill has written songs for Chaka Khan, in addition to contributing to albums by The Mountain Goats, Owen Pallett, Joseph Shabason, Bernice, and many others. Way Through is a collaborative album by Toronto musicians Chris Cummings, Joseph Shabason, and Thom Gill (as Cici Arthur). Inspired by moments of discovery in familiar places, the album's title reflects the feeling of uncovering hidden paths in life. Musically, it blends mid-century influences like Jobim and Sinatra, with producer-instrumentalists Shabason and Gill crafting lush, expansive soundscapes. Featuring a 30-piece orchestra led by Owen Pallett, the album brings a grand scale to Cummings' intimate, reflective lyrics. The project began in 2020 when Cummings lost his job and turned to full-time music for the first time in his life. His collaborators tailored the arrangements to showcase his understated vocal delivery against sweeping orchestral backdrops. Songs like 'Cartwheels for Coins' and 'Prior Times' explore themes of regret and emotional complexity, contrasting the grandeur of the music with Cummings' quiet introspection. Tracks like 'Damaged Goods' provide upbeat moments with doo-wop harmonies, while the cinematic closer 'No Fight Or Flight' emphasizes the filmic quality of the album. Through its orchestral richness and deeply personal lyrics, Way Through captures the tension between ambition and realism, offering a poignant reflection on life's unpredictable journey

The original track came back in February and proved an immediate hit. Next to the original, versions from the likes of DJ Spen & Gary Hudgins also helped make this a breakout tune in the first quarter of 2021. Now comes the turn of Kenny Dope, one half of Masters at Work, the most seminal house duo of all time. Kenny Dope is an obsessive record collector, studio wizard and all-round musical encyclopedia whose influence on the scene cannot be overstated. He has been involved with numerous projects, from The Bucketheads to running his Dopewax label and never fails to impress.

This new remix from the Brooklynite is a glorious one baked in the sun's warming rays. It's built on a loose, Latin-tinged beat with big chords, expressive xylophone stylings and plenty of irresistible syncopation. The buttery smooth vocals bring the soul up top and help make this a timeless tune that will unite all dance floors. An instrumental mix is also included that strips things back, shows off the track's effortless musicianship, and draws out the beats for extra dance floor impact.

These two vital versions are the sort of life-affirming, and feel-good house sounds the world is desperate to hear right now.

It’s written in the Agreement Terms. There’s no getting out alive in Life. And yet, mankind keeps striving for eternal life; through art, through power, through cryogenics, through singularity. In that misguided quest against the inevitable, we all fall into the category of lost travellers. No one is exempt. In that understanding, Confucius MC and producer Bastien Keb offer no misgivings about the destination on the somber “Time Will Come”: Time will come for all of us / try to take your time.

Songs For Lost Travellers is a collaborative album by Con and Bastien Keb that merges unexplored pathways between rap, folk, and jazz into a spiritual triumvirate. Each genre is a balancing force within the record. The result is an album unlike either artist have made previously, possibly unlike any record in existence. Songs For Lost Travellers opens with bedtime stories and fairytales. Both “Tell Me Lies” and “Fairytale” present the creature comforts that trick us into forgetting the truth. Con’s first words spoken are “tell me lies ‘til I swear I can’t remember” over Keb’s lo-fi plucking that feels like it was lifted from a handheld recorder capturing a nursery mobile above a crib. Third track “Time Will Come” resets the album after acknowledging on “Fairytale” there’s “no nourishment in half-truths / no sustenance in eating lies.”

Honest and direct, Con and Keb imbue Songs For Lost Travellers with knowledge and truth from their lived experiences. There is grief hidden in the notes, an inherent sadness that is balanced with an awareness that grief is a protest against the social machinery of remaining numb. The record lingers in a meditative state, unafraid of restlessness and embracing solitude, with the expectation that peace is just as imminent as death.

The production contains a complimentary authenticity. Neither Con nor Keb bothered much with the professional studio in making Songs For Lost Travellers. Instead they opted for the raw state of their home recordings and first takes, matching the intimacy of being alone and reflective in their creative energies. Room static on “Tell Me Lies” makes it feel like you’ve entered their apartments. The immediacy continues on “Gutters,” as Keb plays guitar while watching the tele and Con hums along to the vocal melody in search of the proper pocket for his verse. Someone snaps their finger to mark a cue, but the snap never returns to the mix to keep time.

More drawn to Keb’s recent folk recordings on the Songs For Lilla EP than his funk roots circa Dinking In The Shadows of Zizou or the cinematic soul of The Killing of Eugene Peeps, Con leaned into the spacial freedom he heard in Keb’s lo-fi production cobbled from field recordings and voice notes. Both artists placed their families into the tableau. Con wrote “Little Man” for his son, hoping to add a positive contribution to the canon of parental rap songs. Later, his son appears at the end of “Paramount” to deliver a passage from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. Keb secretly recorded his mum playing saxophone and sampled his cousin playing sax as well. The result is a near-drumless album (save for “Toulouse” and light tapping on “It Would Speak”) in which Keb’s raw production (plus a few sessions with Kofi Flexxx) gave Con a liminal zone, unencumbered by beats per minute, to craft melodies that turn his philosophical rhymes into mantras.

Perhaps there’s a message in the presence of family? It would be one of many. Con and Keb’s reflective, somber approach to Songs For Lost Travellers does not wallow in the mire. Music is action and it’s taking them through a portal to the other side of grief. We are welcome to join (which is also in the fine print of the Agreement Terms), but first there’s a password in the final song, a single request to answer: Tell me what you care about.

Biography by Blake Gillespie
credits

Franco Rosso’s epic cinematic opus of reggae social commentary, Babylon, landed in November of 1980. Moving through the film’s opening frames of grey dreary London, two spars – Blue and Ronnie – run with unrestrained anticipation to link with their Ital Lion Sound System brethren. Simultaneously the rest of the crew does what sound crews have done from time: Load them boxes up in the van and trod with vigor to the dance.

But that bassline…The soundtrack notes that carry the celluloid movements of the film’s opening scenes…That bassline…Upside down…Jazzy…Dubby…A bassline like no other reggae bassline the Ital Counselor has ever heard. The hook that got me deep into UK roots music from the band that is my number one inspiration.

If there is bassline that represents the core imperative of Ital Counselor Records, it would have to be Aswad’s Hey Jah Children. It seemed therefore only fitting to bring its absolutely resplendent glory to a new generation. Lovers of sounds and blues, it is time for the dread ital lion sound to once again rise to meet the day. So it is with the deepest of gratitude and respect to the legacy of Aswad (RIP Drummie Zeb) and Franco Rosso, that we present a deeper than deep next cut…Christened here…the Ital Lion Serenade.

In line with all IC releases, we have enlisted top tier session musicians and studio men. Long time IC collaborator, Inyaki BDF, is at the center of the action as the musical maestro. Hopping on the BDF sonic lorry are Aratz Diez on Trombone and James Zugasti on the dub mixes. This crew bring the original composition up-to-date with a heady dubwise weight. Syndrums ricochet while Inyaki’s bassline rumbles teetering as it does somewhere between a modern dubstep warble and its core roots-wise influence in Tony Gad’s original playing.

Diez’s trombone playing comes across like an x-ray of the Aswad Horn Section and keeps intact the jazzy abstraction of the original. In turn, Inyaki goes full 70s synth on the psychedelic dubwise of the B-side’s Operation Swamp 81. UK history buffs better you know the reference in that title and its thematic echoing significance from the UK depicted in Rosso’s film and carried on in remembrance on this here hotter than hot 12”.

A warning: the Zugasti dub cuts are devasting to speaker boxes.

As soon as Martin Circus was born in 1969, the band laid foundations for the French "Pop Musique" genre, deliberately turning its back on both French yéyés and rock'n'roll to better embrace psychedelia and the French language. In 1971, they were a pioneering, innovative group moving as fast as a speeding train, building upon everything they found on the way. However, faced with band members changing often, management issues and music evolution, Martin Circus ended up trying to fit in every style: soul, R&B, glam rock, disco, new wave, 80s mainstream music. To follow their journey is to listen to the world shifting along music charts. Behind the scenes, since the very first days of the band, one man had been pulling all the strings. Manager and artistic director Gérard Hugé used to work for both the band and the label - this has never been good news. What he cared about the most was getting records out, no matter who played on them. In the mid-70s, he registered the Martin Circus name, granting himself full power over the band. Deciding that it no longer had either a lyricist or a composer, he made the remaining musicians embark on a series of American 60s hits adaptations. As a result, they made tons of money : "Marylène" was a huge hit and gave them a new impulse. The Martins adopted a new look by wearing shiny Courrèges-style suits and platform boots, and on stage they performed dance moves choreographed by the eccentric Amadeo. They completely fit into the disco craze which was about to take over. Still, their music blended doo-wop and rockabilly with glam rock and funk music. They eventually hit disco with a soundtrack in the mannerof French disco groups such as Space and Voyage. Effortlessly, they released the epic 14- minute "Disco Circus", a track which was to become a real underground gem. DJ and remixer François Kevorkian then released it on the American Prelude label in a self-edited version, shortened to 7 minutes while retaining all the dazzling passages of the original track. It came to be a hit in the clubs of New York and Chicago, making a lasting impression on everyone who heard it. It got sampled on at least 40 tracks over the following decades and featured in dozens of bootlegs and prestigious compilations - by Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig, Juan Atkins, Joey Negro, The Beatnuts, The Rapture, and by Danny Krivit in the DJ culture film Maestro. As the 80s arrived, Martin Circus once again changed the way they looked and their style. Inspired by Devo and their cold dance music, by Buggles' synthpop and Plastic Bertand's postpunk. Throughout their career full of ups and downs, Martin Circus nonetheless managed to keep up with one stable element: contrary to what they seemed, the musicians never took the easy way out. Their playing and arrangements were consistently flawless and polished, they relentlessly dedicated themselves to playing quality music and this can only compel admiration. As Coco Chanel once said, "Fashion goes out of fashion, style never does."

In Mallrat’s (aka Grace Shaw’s) vision of the world, light is more than photons and electromagnetic radiation hitting the eye — it’s a moment of divine intervention. A bold swerve into the metaphysical, this is the premise of the prized Brisbane-born, LA-based pop songwriter and producer’s 2025 sophomore album: Light hit my face like a straight right. Set against a newly informed backdrop of expressive breakbeats and dance music, its 12 songs explore the intangible and mysterious allure of human connection, held together by curious investigations into light — “the closest thing to a concept this album has,” Mallrat says. She reunited with Butterfly Blue producers Styalz Fuego (Troye Sivan, Tate McRae) and Alice Ivy, while bringing into the mix indie electronic producers Chrome Sparks and Casey MQ. Mallrat serves up highs like “Hideaway,” a song where heart-racing garage clashes with her trademark candor: “I’ll be your lucky charm just let me hang around your neck,” she sings. Sleek and early standout “Pavement” gets a gritty underlayer with chopped up vocals from DJ Zirk’s “Born 2 Lose” and mid-album standout “Hocus Pocus” finds Mallrat singing about being pulled “under the spell” of someone new, borrowing a different part of the same DJ Zirk sample to build its shimmering, dancefloor-ready facade. It’s an endeavor that perhaps reaches a peak on “Horses,” the record’s gentle and organic closer which Shaw herself calls “objectively the best song.” Written after returning home to Brisbane and “feeling like an alien,” it gained new meaning in the wake of her late sister’s passing. For Shaw, it’s the convergence of the song’s minimalism, lyrics, space, and the way her voice cracks on the recording as she sings, “Hey, I’m right here, I look different now.” After years of solidifying herself as a master of well-crafted, timeless pop — fielding recognition from New York Times, NYLON, Teen Vogue, Billboard, The FADER, NPR, and more — Light hit my face like a straight right is a step into the art of world-building, bolstered by her intuitive songwriting and clever, studied production.

Other Voices is a studio album by English singer Paul Young. The gold certified album was originally released in 1990 and peaked at #4 on the UK Albums Chart. Other Voices combines cover versions with original songs and includes the singles “Calling You”, “Softly Whispering I Love You” and “Heaven Can Wait”. On this album, Paul Young collaborates with many well-known musicians such as Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Nile Rodgers, Steve Winwood, Dave Gilmour and Anne Dudley. In 2012, a deluxe expanded edition of the album was released on CD. This vinyl release of Other Voices presents this
expanded edition for the very first time available on vinyl, including 10 bonus tracks containing 12” mixes, B-sides and live performances.
This release does not include the track “Trying To Guess The Rest”, but instead includes a live performance track of the song
“That’s What Christmas Means To Me”.

Other Voices (Expanded Edition) is available on vinyl for the first time as a 35th anniversary edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on silver coloured vinyl and includes an insert.

The hornsman instrumental has a long legacy in the realms of reggae music. Don Drummond, Tommy McCook, Vin Gordon, Rico Rodriguez, Eddie Tan Tan. The list players behind this tradition could go on and on. The notes they played across eras from ska to rock steady to the deepest dubwise steppers bellow through the wind and the wire like a Warrior Charge ….

…It is within this tradition that Ital Counselor’s next weighty contribution to the musical world of QUALITY reggae fits…

…From the very first sonorous note emanating from the mighty Soothsayer’s Horn Section the listener can tell the Dub Organiser means business. That’s right. Once again, the Ital Counselor teams up with Chris Lane of Fashion Records for a cantankerous churning steppers meant to burn out all weak heart sound who try come test.

As evidenced from this 12”s namesake, the humble Soul Dragon Temple of Tone Sound System and IC partners in crime out of Philadelphia, USA, the Soul Dragon Anthem breaths some serious fire. The hard hard rhythm churns relentlessly while the bassline rolls like Dragon’s breath calling all in the dance to spring heel skank straight through all four cuts.

The Dub Organiser stirs a cauldron of dense dub at points conjuring aspects of Lee Perry’s classic Black Ark sound while maintaining his own distinctive spin on the mystical mixing arts. Shards of sound echo and delay. Mr. Lane takes the bassline to aquatic depths as the DRAGON DIVES DEEP……Cut 1…Cut 2…Cut 3…Cut 4…

This one is dedicated to all home town hi-fi’s forwarding reggae and sound system culture outernationally. So without further ado, all soundman and woman worth your salt it is time to DROP the needle on this track. Watch the Dragon FLY and let the Dub Organiser and the Soothsayer Horn’s “Soul Dragon Anthem” BREATH FIRE through your SPEAKER BOX!!!!!!

Repress!

Just six months after her huge Rave On Time EP, Charlotte de Witte is back on her own KNTXT label with another standout release featuring three thrilling new tracks.

Despite the global pandemic, Charlotte did not let up in 2020. Her label continued to serve up techno from the cutting edge, she held down various high profile streams during lockdown and also got voted as the World's Number 1 DJ by DJ Mag's Alternative Top 100 poll. After picking up the Best Producer title at the Red Bull Elektropedia Awards, her Selected EP picked up the silver medal in the Best EP category and she was awarded bronze in the Artist of the Year category. She ended the year with a spectacular set on the virtual Main Stage of Tomorrowland on New Year’s Eve and now races out of the blocks with yet another vital EP.

Says Charlotte, "I've always been fascinated by the high adrenaline racing world. Rapid movements, living in the moment, racing through life, eyes on the future. As far as concepts go for an EP, this is one of my favourite ones so far."

That plays out across the electrifying tracks, starting with ‘Doppler,' a heavyweight techno weapon with shuffling drums and urgent alarm like synths shooting over the bulky groove. It's one to keep you on edge as the strobes flash on a vast dance floor. 'RPM' ups the ante further with blistering acid lines flashing about the mix. Rooted drums roll on in unrelenting fashion and a lead synth takes you down a deep, dark rabbit hole. 'Formula' then rounds out in urgent fashion with the sound of revving engines, hammering hits and haunting melodic loops all making for a vast and vital wall of techno sound.

With this arresting and powerful new EP, Charlotte de Witte once again remains in techno's pole position.

Folk musician Seth Lakeman is set to release his self-produced new album The Granite Way, in February 2025 via his own label Honour Oak Records. It’s a collection of songs that was recorded within a week alongside a group of longtime collaborators of Seth’s, staying true to his roots and referring to ancient stories that inspired early West Country storytelling. Seth’s expert grasp of using folk music to convey a multitude of emotions in mere minutes cannot be overstated as he once again explores West Country folklore. ‘I made a point at the beginning of this writing period to stick with a narrative as best I can,’ he explains. ‘Each song feels strongly connected through history to the moors and the sea. I had written the stories and songs beforehand and had the melodic tunes ready for us all to explore when we recorded in the room, and the musical interplay between this lineup really displays their appetite for sounds and subjects within the folk tradition.’ While all the tracks on The Granite Way were written and produced by Seth Lakeman himself, the album was made possible with a group of musicians he has played alongside for many years, and will also be touring with them in early 2025 on his upcoming UK headline tour. They are Benji Kirkpatrick (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica), Ben Nicholls (double bass and electric bass), Cormac Byrne (percussion and bodhrán), and Alex Hart (vocals), with additional studio contributions from Archie Churchill Moss on accordion and Dany Crimp on whistles.

Folk musician Seth Lakeman is set to release his self-produced new album The Granite Way, in February 2025 via his own label Honour Oak Records. It’s a collection of songs that was recorded within a week alongside a group of longtime collaborators of Seth’s, staying true to his roots and referring to ancient stories that inspired early West Country storytelling. Seth’s expert grasp of using folk music to convey a multitude of emotions in mere minutes cannot be overstated as he once again explores West Country folklore. ‘I made a point at the beginning of this writing period to stick with a narrative as best I can,’ he explains. ‘Each song feels strongly connected through history to the moors and the sea. I had written the stories and songs beforehand and had the melodic tunes ready for us all to explore when we recorded in the room, and the musical interplay between this lineup really displays their appetite for sounds and subjects within the folk tradition.’ While all the tracks on The Granite Way were written and produced by Seth Lakeman himself, the album was made possible with a group of musicians he has played alongside for many years, and will also be touring with them in early 2025 on his upcoming UK headline tour. They are Benji Kirkpatrick (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin and harmonica), Ben Nicholls (double bass and electric bass), Cormac Byrne (percussion and bodhrán), and Alex Hart (vocals), with additional studio contributions from Archie Churchill Moss on accordion and Dany Crimp on whistles.

Comes with an insert with exclusive pictures and condensed interview about the serie with Lloyd Miller made in March 2022 printed on 300 gram Favini "Remake" paper, plus exclusive goodies!

Personnel:
Manucher Paydar - Tar Drum
Lloyd Miller- Drum (Zarb), Lute (Oud), Lute (Kamanche), Lute (Sehtar)
Marilyn Miller -lute
Jan Otterstrom - Guitar
Stan Wood - Percussion
Anna Claire Eastmond - Vocals

Notes:
The second and last chapter of Dr Miller's journey between cultures and its uses, which began with "The Far East", dissected and looked into the root of the sound of distant Asia, continues with this new chapter dedicated instead to the countries bathed by the Mediterranean and contiguous to Central European history. From Spain to Arabic sounds, a new compendium that takes us back to other places and times, Dr Miller is once again able to dissect and encapsulate sounds and spices from distant places and spaces in a time machine. Thanks to these historical documents, we have the opportunity to discover feelings that are impossible to find 50 years later, sucked up and watered down by globalization and social capitalism.

Here it is, Decultivate's selftitled debut full-length, even if all tracks find their home on a single LP side (vinyl plays same both sides!). Nine oppressive chaotic hardcore songs in the best tradition of bands like Converge, Baptists or Gaza. Make Hardcore harsh again.

New Omar S alert! The FXHE label boss wastes no time in dropping heat this New Year as he once again hooks up with vocalist Desire for this latest house gem. Up first is 'Something Real', in the classic Omar S mould of laying down a deep, heartfelt drum line and then topping it with a mad emotive vocal hook that is filled with r&b goodness and joined by the most subtle cosmic chord motifs. 'Hard Leaf Rag' follows next, so raw it will make your ears tickle with its busted drums and serrated stabs. Then flip it over for 'Conant Leaf Rag', which pairs warbling synth sounds with dusty hi-hats and tight kicks for a nice, full mind and body workout.