Cerca:dr res

'Songs and Bodies' is best described as hypnagogic post-rock, an impressionistic blur of dissociated riffs, jazzy rhythms and half-heard voices that casts a beguiling digital silhouette of '90s indie music. The album began as a personal experiment, a question that emerged as Piotr Kurek cast his mind back to the era that birthed bands like Gastr del Sol, Bark Psychosis, Labradford and The Sea and Cake. Curious how this music might sound in today’s cultural climate, he started recording sketches at home on guitar and keyboard, applying the same advanced processing, editing and manipulation techniques that had nourished his last run of albums. Early on, he brought in drummer Mateusz Rychlicki and bassist Wojciech Traczyk, layering their performances into the evolving material. These ideas might have remained in that unvarnished state had Unsound not suggested a live performance of the work in October 2024. Spurred by the invitation, Kurek hardened his resolve, finishing a crumpled, uncanny set of half-songs that extend the chimerical sonic universe of the jazz-inspired 'Smartwoods' and its baroque predecessor 'Peach Blossom'.

Not an exercise in nostalgia, 'Songs and Bodies' is an examination of the '90s and '00s experimental rock canon that isolates its humanity as the world stares down a new technological dawn. At a glance, Kurek's songs are remarkably organic, diaphanous guitar-led meditations embellished with era-specific organ and electric piano vamps, cryptic vocal utterances and dusty drums, but it's all an illusion. Listen a little closer and the wrinkles appear—the robotic, garbled articulations, awkward tempo fluctuations and charming hiccups.

Kurek distills these vulnerabilities and blemishes to present a deeply personal but relatable abstraction of familiar sounds and gestures. It's the closest the composer has come to old-fashioned songwriting, but the end result is the same: an invitation to look beyond the frosted glass of an increasingly digital existence.

"Marionette presents Mélodies pour Clairons, the debut album by multidisciplinary artist Ioa
Beduneau. Based in the South of France, Ioa’s world is rooted in creation - building intricate
self-playing installations and handmade DIY electronics. His practice is driven by a desire to
connect, challenge, and open up dialogues around disability and other social constructs.
Proudly identifying as a disabled artist who is attuned to how our bodies interact with the world,
Ioa brings a fresh and inimitable perspective to electronic and electroacoustic music.
On Mélodies pour Clairons, Ioa contemplates lifeforms using modular synths, channeling
principles of physical modeling and bioacoustics. Ideas begin on paper and evolve into sound,
forming an abstract yet intentional sonic ecosystem. Clairons refers both to a musical instrument
and to a loved one with whom this music was shared, serving as a kind of sound diary during
the stillness of the pandemic. The movement of air, pressure, resonance, and the physical
properties of the clairon (a medieval trumpet) are reimagined and manipulated on this album,
resulting in impressionistic and deeply moving compositions with poetic sensibility. Organic
ASMR tones, synthesized bird calls, and pirouetting melodies of pipes and bells score an
imaginary biodome where chaos and harmony coexist. Striking and singular, these works
embody the kind of boundary-pushing music that defines Marionette."

Toyah’s 1991 solo album Ophelia's Shadow is issued on limited edition picture disc vinyl for the first time ever.

The picture disc features colour images on each side of the vinyl and is housed in special die-cut vinyl outer sleeves containing previously unseen colour photography from the album shoot.

A personal favourite album of her catalogue, Toyah confirms: “Above all, this is the one album I have made that truly represents me. I’m fiercely proud of it. Ophelia’s Shadow is not just a record, it’s a reflection of who I was, who I am, and who I continue to become. It’s the sound of resilience, reinvention, and raw truth.”

The album features a band line-up including Trey Gunn on stick, Paul Beavis on drums and Tony Geballe on guitar. Two tracks, Brilliant Day and Lords Of The Never Known feature Robert Fripp on guitar and were originally played live by Sunday All Over The World, the band Toyah & Robert Fripp toured and recorded with in the late 1980s.

Moving Pressure marks its fifth release, and the first one to stretch across a double vinyl with full sleeve artwork. It isn't framed as an album, yet its sequencing carries a narrative weight that lingers between immediacy and introspection.
MP05 welcomes on board Australian producer Connor Wall, whose work fuses tightly wound rhythm and immersive atmosphere, balancing precision with a sense of openness. His sound is rooted in the physical pull of the dancefloor, yet drawn toward zones of suspension and elusion. And Moving Pressure 05 captures that duality very clearly. Momentum sets the tone from the outset - taut drum programming, metallic accents, and structures that build energy in decisive bursts. There's a sense of propulsion that feels engineered for peak hours, exuding a tightening grip on the floor. Gradually, tension loosens up, stretching patterns into spirals, layering vaporous pads and resonant low-end that opens a more interior space.
Together, the two arcs trace Wall's range with clarity: body and mind, force and dissolve. Rather than presenting opposites, they reveal different angles of the same language. An exploration of density, atmosphere, and the subtle thresholds between the two.

Ursprünglich in kleinen, ausverkauften Auflagen selbst veröffentlicht, fangen La vida de alguien más (2021) und Obrigaggi (2023) Diles Que No Me Maten auf dem Höhepunkt ihrer unermüdlichen Kreativität ein - sie bewegen sich fließend zwischen krautrockigen Grooves, Free-Jazz-Chaos und spektralen, traumartigen Meditationen. La vida ist ein berauschender 34-minütiger Ausbruch von Post-Punk-Dringlichkeit und improvisierten Wendungen, während Obrigaggi, aufgenommen in einem Haus am Flussufer in Veracruz, mit intimer, jenseitiger Anmut dahinschwebt. Nun werden diese Alben zum ersten Mal gemeinsam neu aufgelegt und über Moonlight Activities vertrieben. Diese Alben markieren die Entwicklung der Band von Underground-Lieblingen in Mexiko-Stadt zu einer der experimentierfreudigsten Rockbands auf der internationalen Bühne.

In March 2025, "On the Love Beach" held a highly successful solo concert in Shanghai and Beijing with Toushi Naoki.
2025 marks the 30th anniversary of their memorable debut album, "On the Love Beach," and the band's three first albums will be reissued on CD and vinyl!

All three albums are made using the original master tapes, and each has been thoroughly remastered under the supervision of Shinji Shibayama for high-quality
sound!

Shinji Shibayama, who played drums for IDIOT O'CLOCK, a stalwart band in the Kyoto underground scene in the early '80s, founded Orgu Records in 1986
and released "Eat Meat, Take a Vow" under the name "Hallelujahs," formed "On the Love Beach" in 1992. This 1995 debut album by "On the Love Beach"
deserves to be passed down to future generations.
"On the Love Beach," which took approximately three years to complete due to its 24-channel multi-track recording, truly marks the origin of "On the Beach"

It was during the production of this album that Shibayama met his partner, Masako Takeda. Starting with the classic song "Nagisa no Watashi," born from that inspiration,

this masterpiece, with its kaleidoscope-like polyhedral structure, is the result of a meticulous reconstruction of the musical essence of Shibayama's

personal history, including GS, Showa-era pop, progressive rock, contemporary music, and psychedelic influences. The album also features a superb cast of

guest appearances, including Naoki Toshi, Kenichi Takayama "IDIOT," Chie Mukai, and Fuyuri Kudo.

While the 1995 album LP was a low-sounding cut due to its 54-minute running time, this analog reissue features a 2LP cut for superior sound quality.
The D-side includes the obscure classic "Woman," which was only available on CD at the time, and the album has been reborn as a timeless, complete version
worthy of the 30th anniversary of its release! Of course, the CD released at the same time is also a high-quality version with the same remastering!

Relive the early years of Madness with 'Hit Parade Vol. 1 1979-1986'. This 23-track 2LP set remembers the early years of Madness; containing a selection of their biggest hits and best loved tunes. It includes 23 UK Top 40 hits such as 'One Step Beyond', 'Embarrassment', 'My Girl', and 'Night Boat To Cairo'.

Beautifully packaged in a deluxe, gatefold sleeve, this 2LP collection is pressed on translucent red vinyl. The fully illustrated inner sleeves contain new liner notes with various band members and long-time producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, in conversation with renowned author and journalist Paul Sexton.

Firmly established as national treasures and as one of the UK’s most cherished and beloved bands, Madness are adored by their loyal and huge following. Their consistently sold-out shows illustrate their enduring qualities resulting in their popularity continuing to grow and grow.

On “Cold Sweat,” James Brown famously called to “give the drummer some.” In 1974, Philadelphia vibraphonist Khan Jamal called to Give the Vibes Some, with superb results. Pianist and composer Jef Gilson’s PALM label gave Jamal the platform he needed to deliver a thorough exploration of contemporary vibraphone. After launching PALM in 1973, Gilson quickly demonstrated that he would only produce records not found anywhere else. Give the Vibes Some, PALM number 10, was another confirmation of this guiding principle.



Raised and based in Philadelphia, Khan Jamal took up the vibes in 1968, after two years in the army during which he was stationed in France and Germany. Decisively drawn to the instrument by the work of the Modern Jazz Quartet’s Milt Jackson, Jamal studied under Philadelphia vibraphone legend Bill Lewis and soon made his debuts in the local underground.



Early in 1972, Jamal made his first recording, with the Sounds of Liberation. The band attempted an original fusion of conga-heavy grooves with avant-garde jazz soloing. Saxophonist Byard Lancaster, an important figure in Jamal’s development, contributed much of the solo work. Later in 1972, Jamal made his leader debut with Drum Dance to the Motherland, a reverb-drenched, never-to-be-replicated experiment with live sound processing. Both albums appeared on the tiny musician-run Dogtown label.



“We couldn’t get no play from nowhere. No gigs or recording sessions or anything. So I took off for Paris,” Jamal recalled in a Cadence interview with Ken Weiss. “Within a few weeks, I had a few articles and I did a record date. It didn’t make me feel good about America.” That was in 1974, while Byard Lancaster was recording the music gathered on Souffle Continu’s recent The Complete PALM Recordings, 1973-1974.



Jamal’s record date delivered Give the Vibes Some. At its core, it was an exploratory solo vibraphone album, even if two tracks added (through technological resourcefulness?) a très célèbre French drummer very much into Elvin Jones appearing under pseudonym for contractual reasons. Another track, for which Jamal switched to the vibes’s wooden ancestor, the marimba, added young Texan trumpeter Clint Jackson III. The most notable article published on Jamal during this stay in France was a Jazz Magazine interview. Jamal’s last word there were “The Creator has a master plan/drum dance to the motherland.” “Give the vibes some” could be added to this programmatic statement.

Iptamenos Discos kündigt Houdini an, die neue EP der Labelgründer Local Suicide. Die Platte enthält drei ihrer dunkelsten und kraftvollsten Originaltracks bis heute, ergänzt durch markante Neubearbeitungen des französischen Electroclash-Pioniers David Carretta und der aufstrebenden griechischen EBM-Kraft Alpha Sect. Die Houdini EP entstand im Berliner Studio von Local Suicide während zahlloser nächtlicher Sessions mit Skelesys in derselben kreativen Phase, die auch ihren gemeinsamen Hit Moustache, die Surface Of The Sun EP und Faster Faster auf Curses’ Next Wave Acid Punx-Compilation hervorbrachte. Das Ergebnis ist ihr bisher düsterstes Material, das ihren Technodisco-Sound in noch härteres Terrain führt - mit hypnotischen Basslines, industriellen Texturen und analogen Vintage-Synths. Damit zählt es zu den mutigsten Releases im Katalog von Iptamenos Discos. Die EP eröffnet mit Obsessions, einem Track zwischen Darkwave und Techno, aufgebaut auf einer brutalen Bassline, analogen Synths und eindringlichen, mantraartigen Vocals. Die wiederholte Zeile „Obsessions, they come and go“ spiegelt den unerbittlichen Sog des Stücks wider und unterstreicht seine klaustrophobische, sich ständig wiederholende Energie. Submission, eine Zusammenarbeit mit Langzeitkollaborateur Skelesys, steht dem in nichts nach: ein düsterer Low-End-Sound, verzerrte, stark bearbeitete Vocals und der Sprechgesang „Resistance, no submission“ durchziehen den Track wie eine Trotz-Erklärung, die Spannung in Kraft verwandelt. Der Titeltrack Houdini ist etwas zugänglicher, behält aber die gleiche schattige Atmosphäre. Unheimliche Orgelmelodien und der Text „The great Houdini, the big escape“ beschwören Transformation und Befreiung herauf, zollen dem legendären Illusionisten Tribut und verleihen der Nummer eine theatralische Note. Der französische Kult-DJ und Produzent David Carretta interpretiert Obsessions neu mit seiner unverkennbaren retro-futuristischen Handschrift. Seit den 1990ern bekannt für die Fusion von industrieller Präzision mit Italo-inspirierten Synths, hellt er den Track mit glitzernden Disco-Melodien und einer erhebenden Stimmung auf – eine Version, die sich bewusst vom dunklen Original absetzt und sofort für die Tanzfläche taugt. Der in Straßburg ansässige Alpha Sect, das Projekt des griechischen Künstlers George McCall, führt Submission in kompromisslose Dimensionen. Verwurzelt in Electro und Body Music mit Punk-Einflüssen, beginnt sein Remix als wuchtiger EBM-Stomper und entwickelt sich zu einem clubtauglichen Track, der Intensität mit Katharsis in Balance bringt.

Mit Live in Bangalore legt der Kölner Schlagzeuger und Komponist Jo Beyer das dritte Album seines Quartetts vor - ein fulminantes Live-Dokument aus dem renommierten Windmills in der südindischen Metropole Bangalore. Fünf hochenergetische Tracks voller Spiellust, Wucht und Tour-de-Force-Momenten zeigen die Band in absoluter Topform. Entstanden gegen Ende einer intensiven Indien-Tournee, fängt die Aufnahme einen Abend ein, an dem alles stimmte: ein extrem gut eingespieltes Ensemble, ein Raumklang von Weltklasse und ein Publikum, das restlos aus dem Häuschen war. Sämtliche Titel existieren bereits in Studioversionen, doch hier sind sie hörbar gereift - durch jahrelanges Zusammenspiel, erweiterte Improvisationen und radikale Interaktion. Besonders prägnant ist die ungewöhnliche Besetzung ohne Bass, die ein unverwechselbares, rhythmisch starkes Klangbild schafft. Mit Pianist Felix Elsner an Bord hebt Beyer das Quartett endgültig auf ein neues Level - kraftvoll, kompromisslos und voller Überraschungen.

Brixton Heights Records is releasing a new original One Drop track, which is a collaborative effort of the Brixton Heights Crew, Kieko De Stefanis and Gaudi. The riddim is composed by Italian producer Kieko De Stefanis.

The lyrics are a re-adaptation of an old Italian reggae song by the Genoese band Sensasciou, voiced by the legendary Peter Hunnigale.

The track features drum and bass by Mafia and Fluxi, piano by Gaudi, brass by Ital Horns and a set of arches by N. Gatti at the Violin and R. Rassi at the Viola. On Side A you will find the sweet voice of the original Mr Honey Vibes, Peter Hunnigale, one of the most formidable contemporary British Reggae artists who is responsible for the rise and fame of Lovers Reggae in Britain in the 80s and 90s, with his chart-topping tunes and award-winning albums.

On Side B the track Caruggi Jazz is an homage to the Italian alleys of Genoa, where the sound of live musical instruments fuses with the perfume of lovers who exchange effusions protected by the shadows of old buildings, in a seductive harmony which mixes unconditional feelings, warm memories and affectionate hopes for the future.

The tracks were mixed by Gaudi and mastered at Anchor Studios by Augustus "Gussie" Clarke. The final result is a unique production that blends vintage vibes with modern sounds.

In 2019, a brutal epileptic seizure changed my life - the first of more to come. I was forced into solitude, and in that quiet, music became my lifeline. In the following years, I poured everything I had into creating between you and me: a raw, DIY album that is a distillation of my lived experience during this time. The album explores emotional authenticity, freedom of expression, and acceptance: not as abstract concepts, but through visceral experiences that have fundamentally reshaped my art and my sense of self. As a listener, I invite you to explore your vulnerability by joining me in mine. This album is truly between you and me.

Ozzy Jones is a Dutch-Australian interdisciplinary artist whose music blends electronica with indie. Drawing from personal struggles and raw emotion after his seizures started, his debut album between you and me explores vulnerability, male identity, and authentic self-expression. Rooted in Amsterdam's vibrant creative scene, Ozzy's work fuses sound, visuals, and storytelling to create a deeply immersive and honest artistic experience.

Just one year and 13 days after their critically acclaimed debut Colorful White Lies, Bergen- based rock band Electric High return with their second album Free to Go. While the debut was a manifestation of the band's first five years of existence, Free to Go is quite the opposite: written, rehearsed and recorded at breakneck speed, the album bursts with freshness, spontaneity and raw energy. Ahead of the release, Electric High have already dropped three singles - Thick as Thieves, Ain't Got Nothing But Time (watch music video) and the title track Free to Go - each showcasing different sides of the record, from singalong anthems to heavier, more hard-hitting rock. Free to Go expands on the band's signature sound: an explosive blend of classic and modern rock. Expect infectious choruses inspired by Aerosmith, Whitesnake and AC/DC, dark riffs echoing Black Sabbath, a touch of 70s glam and punk attitude - along with flavours of contemporary rock à la Arctic Monkeys and Royal Blood. The result is an album that feels both timeless and fresh, balancing melody with sheer power.

One Instrument welcomes Morning Seance, composer and sound artist, originally from Italy and based in Vienna. On this debut LP, Morning Seance traces a drifting narrative composed of unstable harmonies, fluid structures, and ghostlike forms. The album unfolds like a dream told in fragments, oscillating between fluctuating pulses and decaying transmissions, from nocturnal stillness to acoustic mirages. The first half of the record moves through zones of suspended tension and evanescent contours, where tracks like “Be faster than your own depression” and “The tenderness of our own autobiography” sketch fragile architectures of affect. The second half enters a more spectral terrain — “Breakfast in a night club,” “A visit to the Brion-Vega tomb” — not places, but agglomerates of sonic sensation, detached from any personal frame.

With each piece, the music dissolves and reconstitutes itself, resisting finality or form, and doing so with an indestructible joy that hums beneath the wreckage. This is degenerate ambient music: anti-geometric and subject to emotional weather — not a refuge, but a slow collapse of structure and purity, where atmosphere gives way to excess and disobedience.

The album is crafted entirely from a single source: the Roland Alpha Juno-1. Despite this constraint, it achieves a vast sound spectrum, transforming one synthesizer’s voice into a layered landscape of textures and moods.

The electronic music of Morning Seance is built on constant variation and intricate, looping patterns with no clear beginning or end. This variation is not simply applied to an audio element, but enacted as a compositional logic — avoiding mechanical combinations and obvious rhythms. The result is a mutable mass of audio matter and tonal debris, guiding the listener through richly divergent environments.

Or Kantor returns with his sophomore album Snake Island, a vivid and cinematic journey through imagined landscapes and lost love, for fans of Eden Ahbez and other seekers of sound and spirit.

Following the critical success of his 2024 debut Sarda Sarda, praised by BBC Radio 6 Music, FIP Radio, RRR Australia, WYEP, KCRW, and Songlines Magazine, Kantor continues to refine his distinctive sonic identity, grounded in instrumental storytelling.

With Snake Island, Kantor ventures deeper into what he calls Subterranean Music, an atmospheric fusion of Mediterranean ballads, desert blues, spiritual jazz, and psychedelic textures. Drawing inspiration from artists such as Gábor Szabó, Omar Khorshid, The Budos Band, Dorothy Ashby, and Tommy Guerrero, he crafts instrumentals that feel both timeless and cinematic.

"Snake Island was written as a soundtrack to a fictional film that disappeared from the world, one that most likely no one has ever seen," says Kantor. "It began as a tragic love story, imagined during my time on a remote island in the Cyclades. Every landscape felt like a scene waiting for music. Eventually, the story gave way to sound."

A respected tattoo artist and founder of the Love Light Studio, Kantor's musical path began after a chance encounter with Johnny Sharoni (Garden City Movement, A&R at Anova Records). During a tattoo session, Sharoni heard Kantor's demos and was immediately struck by their raw beauty.

Kantor now steps confidently into the next chapter of his creative journey. Snake Island is more than an album. It is a mythic, imagined soundtrack to a film that only exists in memory, rendered in tones that shimmer like heat on stone.

The story begins with Kevin Morby absentmindedly flipping through a box of old family photos in the basement of his childhood home in Kansas City. Just hours before, at a family dinner, his father had collapsed in front of him and had to be rushed to the hospital. That night Morby still felt the shock and fear lodged in his bones. So he gazed at the images until one of the pictures jumped out at him: his father as a young man, proud and strong and filled with confidence, posing on a lawn with his shirt off. This was in January of 2020. As the months went on and the world dramatically changed around him, Morby felt an eerie similarity between his feelings of that night and the atmosphere of those spring days. Fear, anxiety, hope and resilience all churning together. The themes began twisting in his mind. History, trauma and the grand fight against time. Having the courage to dream, even while knowing the tragedy that often awaits those who dare to dream. While his father regained his strength, Morby meditated on these ideas. And then, he headed to Memphis. He moved into the Peabody Hotel and spent his days paying tribute and genuflecting to the dreamers he admired. In the evening, he would return to his room and document his ideas on a makeshift recording set-up, with just his guitar and a microphone. The songs, elegiac in nature, befitting all he had seen, poured out of him.Produced by Sam Cohen (who also worked on Morby’s Singing Saw and Oh My God), This Is A Photograph features musical contributions from longtime staples of Morby’s live band, as well as old friends and new collaborators alike. If Oh My God saw Morby getting celestial and in constant motion and Sundowner was a study in localized intent, This Is A Photograph finds Morby making an Americana paean, a visceral life and death, blood on the canvas outpouring. As Morby reminds us early on, time is undefeated. So what do we do while we’re still here? This is a photograph of that sense of yearning

Within the world of theatrical archives, there are the known, the unknown, the forgotten, and the lost. Demetrio Stratos' stage compositions for Teatro dell'Elfo's groundbreaking 1979 production Satyricon - directed by future Oscar winner Gabriele Salvatores - represents one such lost artifact now wondrously returned to life. This radical sonic work, integrating extended vocal techniques, Balinese instruments, and pioneering whale song recordings, stands as the final masterpiece of Italy's most visionary vocal experimenter, lost for over four decades until Die Schachtel's extraordinary recovery. As Stratos himself explained: "The musical operation performed on Satyricon is particular: the composer-musician here does not compose, but borrows ready-made music, vivisects it, melts it, intervenes and recomposes it on magnetic tape. The structure of the signifier, from a morphological point of view, presents itself as a conceptual collage." The music is obtained by utilizing compositions and musical elements from David Behrman, Joan La Barbara, Balinese Ketyak, Turkish Nay flute, Yugoslavian bagpipe, Pan flute, and whale song, with synthesizer interventions by Paolo Tofani. It began as part of something known - a wild, immersive theatrical event that inaugurated Teatro dell'Elfo's historic venue in 1979, was almost entirely forgotten, becoming lost and then unknown. The original production marked a radical departure for the company: no longer popular street theatre, but a dark, immersive, sophisticated spectacle that transformed their space into a rough wooden arena with a sand floor. Demetrio Stratos, working with Paolo Tofani (fellow Area member), created an entire sonic universe that subverted every conventional function of stage music. Their composition wasn't accompaniment, but autonomous sonic dramaturgy that integrated extended vocal techniques, archaic electronic elements, Nay flutes, Balinese instruments, and pioneering whale song recordings. The result was a three-dimensional soundscape that enveloped audiences, creating an otherworldly acoustic dimension. Stratos' score even intervened in the actors' vocal delivery, with the recordings capturing both the performance and his coaching sessions with the cast. The production featured young actors destined for fame - Elio De Capitani, Ferdinando Bruni, Cristina Crippa, Corinna Agustoni, Ida Marinelli - guided by Gabriele Salvatores in this adaptation of Petronius' ancient novel. Shortly after the Satyricon performances, Stratos was hospitalized for the condition that would lead to his death at just 33 years old. This work represents his final composition - a haunting farewell from one of Italy's most innovative sound artists. Die Schachtel presents this recovered work in collaboration with Teatro dell'Elfo, pulled from the original magnetic tape and carefully restored. Satyricon '79 is one of the great artifacts of 1970s Italian avant-garde - a wild, grinding sonic expose which sucks the ear into its depths, made in the spirit of collaboration and creative risk-taking. The edition includes critical apparatus with essays, testimonies from protagonists, and period photographic documentation, documenting an unrepeatable moment where theatre, vocal research and sonic experimentation converged. This release marks a poignant moment in experimental music history - Stratos' final work, now rescued from the archives and restored to its rightful place in the canon of Italian avant-garde masterpieces. A true wonder of towering historical importance. As essential as it gets for any fan of experimental music, or the history of the Italian avant-garde. Fully restored and newly mastered from the original analog tapes. Absolutely essential.

"PROG-ROCK LEGENDS SPOCK’S BEARD ARRIVE ON MADFISH WITH NEW ALBUM THE ARCHAEOPTIMIST. GATEFOLD 2LP VERSION, PRESSED ON RED VINYL. “mad time signatures, impossible harmonies, intense arrangements…sensational”
THE PROG REPORT “a true heir of the legacy of bands as Yes, Gentle Giant, Pink Floyd & old Genesis…a truly fascinating voyage.” METAL TEMPLE If Spock’s Beard have taught us anything over their 30+ years in the business, it’s that they have no interest in becoming their own tribute act. The Archaeoptimist - their latest offering & first release on Madfish - is not a retreat into old habits, but a recalibration. Just when you think they’re settling in, they kick the walls out instead. At the centre of this particular storm is Ryo Okumoto, whose fingerprints are all over the album - not just as a performer, but as a driving creative force. Teaming up with co-writer Michael Whiteman (I Am the Manic Whale) & longstanding bandmembers Alan Morse & Ted Leonard, Ryo has helped shape an album that is undeniably Spock’s Beard with a characteristic wry smile to boot. The album was produced by Okumoto & recorded at each band member’s respective home studios. Esteemed producer Rich Mouser (Dream Theater/Weezer) takes up the mixing & mastering duties. Over more than 30 years, Spock’s Beard have established themselves as one of modern progressive music’s most exciting & consistent acts, with live shows as renowned as their studio work & tours that draw sold-out audiences across the globe. Their albums regularly chart worldwide, with 2018’s Noise Floor reaching #3 on the UK Official Rock & Metal Chart & #6 on the Official Progressive Albums Chart.

France's most unique fire-driven hard psych duo return with their sophomore masterpiece. Written between 2022 and 2024, "DEUX" marks a bold evolution in Moundrag's sound - nine meticulously crafted tracks that balance raw power with intricate storytelling, creating their most ambitious work yet. What makes Moundrag special: Two brothers. No guitars. Just vintage organ, thunderous drums, and hypnotic call-and-response vocals that forge epic soundscapes. Drawing from Deep Purple, King Crimson, and Emerson Lake & Palmer while channeling modern acts like Motorpsycho, they've created something fiercely contemporary. From the hard-hitting assault of "Stormdrummer" to the psychedelic crescendos of "Take Me To The Stars," DEUX is both a nostalgic nod to 70s prog and a modern manifesto. The album blends dystopian fantasy, sci-fi, and Celtic myth into a cry against old patterns - an invitation to reshape a freer world. Featuring stunning cover art by contemporary Polish artist Justyna Kozikzak - a surrealist interpretation of Dante's journey through hell. Co-released with our friends Spinda Records