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His music is characterized by a mix of electronic, deep and tropical house, and techno music produced in a minimalist manner with jazz and soul influences. "Vandaag", containing a sample of the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. became a major charting hit in 2014. Six years later, in 2020, Bakermat released his first studio album The Ringmaster - a ten- track project showcasing his lengths and versatility, including the chart- topping release "Baiana\u0301", awarded Gold and Platinum status, surpassing 100 million total streams, and stamped as the official feature track for EA's FIFA 2021. The Ringmaster also includes the singles "Partystarter", "Trouble", "Learn To Lose", "Baiana\u0301", and "Under The Sun (ft. Kidda)". The full album features collabs with Alex Clare, Gossip Girl's Emily Lind, BRAVES, and 7Chariot amongst others. The Ringmaster is available as a limited edition of 500 copies on yellow, black and red marbled vinyl

With a breathtaking pair of intimately interrelated new albums, he applies that bold passion to an uncharacteristically pared-down setting, then transforms those stunning sounds via a startling process of sonic reinvention. ResoNation Trio convenes a new chordless trio with master improvisers Scott Colley on bass and Nasheet Waits on drums. The album's contemplative explorations feel like a departure from the raucous spirit that characterizes so much of the trumpeter's work, yet the trio discovers such an audacious beauty and celebratory gusto in these sparse environments that the music feels uniquely Bernstein's. It is also a rarity in his oeuvre for featuring Bernstein - whose mastery of the little- used slide trumpet has become so central to his sonic identity - exclusively playing valve trumpet and flugelhorn. In parallel with this captivating trio excursion, Bernstein handed the recordings over to his longtime collaborator, the pioneering producer Scotty Hard, to reimagine the album through his own iconoclastic lens. The result is the uncategorizable Ultra Resonance, which finds Hard breaking down the ResoNation Trio session into its constituent parts and redeploying them as the elements of a wholly original, mutant creation. The project will be released on June 5, 2026 via Royal Potato Family as a double vinyl or CD package containing both albums, and separately on digital streaming platforms.

A Project dealing with the relative length of time at a record label and the effect of adding another zero. To explore this passage of time and all those memories, we’ve commissioned remixes of key tracks from the LEX catalog by artists we love and admire. The album features contributions from Danger Mouse & Jemini, Fly Anakin & Pink Siifu, Eyedress, Golden Rules featuring Yasiin Bey and Freddie Gibbs, Neon Neon feat. Cate Le Bon, alongside Kaleida, Belief, Nevermen, Prince Po and MF DOOM. With remixes that reinterpret the tracks by Boards of Canada, Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine, DJ Premier, Prefuse 73, Madlib, Stereolab, Warpaint, King Krule, Chad Hugo and Thom Yorke. The limited edition physical release is presented in a rigid slipcase, with the vinyl housed in a triple sleeve gatefold, and accompanied by a large format board book, with both featuring artwork by Commission Studios. The records are pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl, with the D-Side finished with a bespoke etched design.

Just featured on BBC6 Music in the CRAIG CHARLES FUNK & SOUL as part of the ODDBALL CREATIVES “Trunk of Funk Mix “ on Saturday 1st August - and already gaining great DJ feedback from the likes of Greg Caz, Laurent Garnier, Chris Bangs, Rocky, Chico Malo, Starla Recordings and many more ….

Another new collaboration on the Echo Labs label - the subsidiary of Echo Chamber Recordings set up to release tracks and remixes from other artists.

This one is a very special hook-up with Daniel Walls & Joseph Malik in Edinburgh with their new project under their “Oddball Creatives” production monicker. It was truly an honour that they reached out to Echo Chamber Recordings to bring this out on a vinyl 45 , fitting in perfectly with the foundation sounds of the label - combining classic timeless funk, jazz , Latin and soul with 21st Century production techniques

They have recruited the vocal talents of Philadelphia’s Kameela Waheed and the instrumental skills of Scottish jazz legend Colin Steele , to bring us the sound of the summer with a huge soul-jazz-funk cut. It combines elements of a classic early 70s groove with a subtle, up-to-date style, built around Joseph’s vocals and Kameela’s spoken rap.

On the flip you get the purely instrumental take - meaning you could extend the hypnotic groove even longer with two copies !

As ever, on Echo Labs there will be just 300 vinyl copies pressed for worldwide distribution

Layered guitars, synths and wordless vocals set the scenery in this epic, beautiful and introspective solo debut by musical wanderer Lynn Wright.

Wright, who has mostly eschewed developing a fixed artistic identity throughout his already long career, has preferred to remain on the periphery of collaborative projects and behind the scenes. It took until recent times for him to make “Before The Sinking Plains”, which arrives as his first solo recording after decades of traversing underground scenes in New York and beyond. Wright defines the album as “a collection of atmospheric compositions structured as songs or songs masking as atmospheric compositions.”

The album began during a long neurological illness as guitar loops Wright would make each morning in his apartment and let play quietly in the background. At some point he began recording the ones he liked and adding layers of treated guitars, vocals, and synths, and then, eventually, giving them defined structures. The album features none of the aggression of his louder bands and improvisatory projects, but retains the dark hues.

Before The Sinking Plains lives on the familiar peripheries of our post-everything sound world, with elements of everything from washed-out dream pop and atmospheric drone works to sparse noir folk and minimalist vocal composition moving within the linings of Wright's subtle yet grand pieces, creating a perfect backdrop for watching the sky merge with the vast open fields.

Since relocating to Berlin some years ago from New York, he has worked closely with composer Simon Goff, who mixed his current album, as an editor, engineer and composer on various film and recording projects. He also plays lap steel guitar in Swans bassist Dana Schechter’s band Insect Ark. This is just the top of the iceberg when it comes to Wright's collaborations and projects throughout the years.

When Drop Nineteens disbanded in the mid-'90s, singer Greg Ackell decided he would never make music again. He wouldn't noodle around on a guitar in his basement. He wouldn't get a group of friends together just to jam. He was done with music entirely. Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, the group disbanded. They shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenagers in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with a few MTV videos, a couple BBC sessions and numerous festival appearances under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.That was until 2021, when a friend from the band's early days got Greg on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent. He immediately called up Steve Zimmerman, the band's bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. "We were off to the races," he says, "But also the question came up: what does a Drop Nineteens song sound like today?" Enter Hard Light, the band's stunning third record. It's the band's proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision. The first task making Hard Light was, of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell writes the lyrics, and he works with band members Steve Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country: Boston, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles. When Kelley and Ackell first heard their vocals recorded together on the opus album closer "T", the chemistry was undeniable. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.Hard Light is a romantic record in the literary sense. Beauty from longing; longing from beauty. You put the album on and want to be clad in a velvet dress sprawled across a fainting couch. You want to be holding someone's hand while you sit back in the tall grass. The guitars are expansive and expressive as ever. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are cool, crystalline, and luminous. "Gal" comes on like a dream. The vocals pour in when you least expect them, once in the middle, where Ackell delivers one of the strangest (and best) lyrics on the record, "And there were snakes/with cats at the wheel." Hard Light's first single, "Scapa Flow" is triumphant and an excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide cloud-like, floor toms shuffle and rumble in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are as toned as they are bound. Hard Light is every bit the ride that Delaware was, diverse in its sounds, with surprises at every turn. Drop Nineteens have brought clarity and cool in 2023 to the genre they helped create. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and dedicated to their craft as ever. To put it more bluntly, they're at the top of their game.

Appleton announce the release of a brand new EP, 'Side By Side', which will be released Friday September 4th, marking the first new Appleton body of work in over two decades.
Nicole says: "The reaction to 'Falling Into You' and our first Appleton show in over twenty years has been incredible We feel so grateful that people still connect with these songs and are excited about what we're doing now. This EP feels like the natural next chapter." After reissuing their cult- classic 2003 album 'Everything's Eventual' on vinyl, this January Appleton returned with 'Falling Into You' their first new music as a duo in 23 years.
While nostalgia may have sparked the reunion, 'Side By Side' is firmly focused on the present. Across four original tracks, the EP blends the melodic pop songwriting and distinctive harmonies that made Appleton favourites first time around with a fresh, contemporary sound that reflects where Natalie and Nicole are today. For both sisters, the project has been a reminder of the unique creative bond they've always shared. "We've always had a special connection when we sing together" says Nicole. "Making these songs reminded us of that. It never feels forced it just feels natural." More than twenty years after they first burst into the charts, Appleton aren't looking backwards. They're simply enjoying making music together again side by side.

Poem by Alea Coble (February 2026) - Written for Andrew Weathers, Chattonooga Recording Project

Listen to my story and everything will come out true. - Bessie Smith

35° 02' 44.27" N -85° 18' 34.85" W:

Howl. Hammer strikes firing pin. Its echo ricochets over river bend. The woodpecker’s syncopated pop-pop-pop clink and thwap in time with cops practicing prayer at the firing range.

Quick. Sketch a few constellations onto a postcard: empty shotgun shells, these pre-forgotten fossils snaking rusted railroad spikes, like snagged rosary, fallen poplar petals draped over cerulean glass ashtray scattered along glittering fractures, ignored like a treaty. Train tracks reverberate necrophilic boomerang-hunger for mountain air without that coal dust. Eat. Eat. Everything is real estate. Even the air is for sale. Buy it cheap while I.C.E. carves through the valley along the Trail of Tears in unmarked SUVs, traffic stops.

Howl. Callback to estranged entanglements oscillating over holler and highway. Meet on the porch. Haint-blue ceiling. Some ghosts can’t get through anyway. They got tied up on the Walnut Street Bridge by a mob of white spit. Howl. The South should scare you.

But the woodpecker is still nesting, hungry, typing uncannied punctuation marks into black oak: a deed. Home? Takes a side-eyed knowing to call by name. The moon sickles in a sweating glass of iced tea.

Speculation cycle: symmetry as ancient as sour-dank betrayal of the tongue, bitter bones binding blood and lead, alchemical forgetting like I found a hairbrush in the yard while planting wild irises, like someone is charging $10 for an old glass Coke bottle, like semicolons itching restless under new sod from no-one-knows-where. Howl. Sing back. History is soil-in-stereo.

How will this line end? Like riverbank? Like atlatl arching hope smash-through a stained glass window? Words fall out of the sky, and 30 American flags snap at attention on the bridge. Howl. A shift in the wind gallops through the streets tossing her head back, laughing.

Tennessee River, who once kissed Pangea, how she softens at the knuckle-suck of it all, that secret-sweet stowed in the feathers of sandhill cranes lifting up on warm summer breeze: slow-shooting stars bending toward unbothered brevitas.

Howl. The red wolf knows her truest kin is always her shadow’s shadow.

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

Ecology Division is a new compilation from Bastard Jazz that brings together a network of producers and musicians working across jazz, soul, electronic, and beat-driven styles. Featuring artists from Brooklyn, Chicago, Montreal, London, Lisbon, Melbourne, and Ludhiana, the release highlights a core group of collaborators and peers connected to the label’s extended orbit. The project is presented with cohesive visual direction inspired by vintage field guides and naturalist illustration, with each track paired to a distinct animal. This framing positions Ecology Division as a curated snapshot of an active, evolving creative community rather than a traditional compilation.

The release features contributions from Simon Mavin (of Hiatus Kaiyote), Sholto & David Bardon, Danny Scott Lane, Rachel Kitchlew & DOUGH, Lapgan, Korovo, Birocratic, Kartik, Nick Marks, and Pimenta Caseira. Collectively, these artists have released music on respected independent labels including Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder, Mr. Bongo, Melting Pot Music, WRWTFWW Records, and Moon Glyph, among others—underscoring the compilation’s reach across established global scenes.

A Collision of Worlds. A Convergence of Sound.

Czarface opens another portal. On Czarface Meets Frankie Pulitzer, the boundary between comic book canon and hip-hop reality dissolves. Frankie Pulitzer, also known in certain dimensions as FacePuller, is no ordinary collaborator, character, or catalyst. He is a hybrid entity: part human, part alien force, fully embedded in the expanding Czarface universe.

Following landmark team-ups with MF DOOM and Ghostface Killah, Czarface continues its “Meets” saga with a full-scale crossover event that pushes deeper into story and sound. Frankie’s presence is both lyrical and mythological, bringing a chaotic, shape-shifting energy that challenges and complements Czarface’s razor-sharp precision. Dusty drums, cinematic soundscapes, and razor-edged bars bring the classic Czarface sound, yet mutated.

The universe widens with appearances from Busta Rhymes, Method Man, and El-P (of Run the Jewels), each adding their own gravitational pull to the project, thus grounding it in hip-hop legacy while amplifying its larger-than-life scope.

Across two song cycles separated by nearly four decades – Richard Wagner’s »Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme« (the »Wesendonck Lieder«) and Johannes Brahms’ late »Vier ernste Gesänge« (»Four Serious Songs«) – Wagner’s songs, written under the spell of his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck and already pointing towards »Tristan und Isolde«, and Brahms’ final composition, which gives the album its name and was shaped by grief, illness, and meditations on biblical texts, circle the same existential questions.

Desire and mortality, ecstasy and resignation appear less as opposites than as mirrored states. The voices of Wesendonck’s poetry seem to answer the solemn reflections of Ecclesiastes and Corinthians, revealing an unexpected dialogue across time.

Without seeking historical authenticity or revisionist spectacle, »Serious Songs« listens for what still resonates beneath these works: the suspended moment where love, loss, and transcendence become indistinguishable. The harp assumes the role of the piano as the foundation, pulse, and emotional compass. The vocal line, liberated from classical convention, inhabits a contemporary expressive space without severing its bond to the original scores. It is Romantic music viewed through the acoustics of the present. The project emerged from a moment of professional disillusionment familiar to many classically trained musicians. This led to a confrontation with some of classical music’s traditional flaws that became an invitation to reimagine it.

Sissi Rada approaches the spinal properties of the Romantic Lieder, fragile enough to transform and resilient enough to survive. Intimate, lucid, and quietly radical.

Kid Drama presents 'Machines and Other Things', his first full-length album for Metalheadz and a project shaped by instinct from a producer three decades deep into his craft.

Initially conceived through the lens of the classic Headz sound, the album only found its true identity once Kid Drama stopped looking backwards and allowed his own Autonomic influences to take hold. Slowing the tempo and focusing on groove rather than function, he built a body of work unconcerned with club trends, instead prioritising atmosphere, texture and progression.

Written sequentially rather than assembled from a large pool of tracks, 'Machines and Other Things' captures a distinct moment in time. Across the album, layers of tape saturation, analogue processing, noise and environmental detail sit alongside melancholic melodies and intricate rhythms, creating a sound that feels tactile and deeply immersive.

Also featuring collaborations with Goldie, dBridge, Loxy and LaMeduza, 'Machines and Other Things' finds Kid Drama drawing on the past without being defined by it, delivering a body of work that feels unmistakably his own.

"The electroclash genre sure has been having a bit of a renaissance moment. During its first coming an odd 25 years ago the French act Sweetlight was a favorite over here. Originally active between 2002 and 2010, they quickly positioned themselves within a refined strand of the global underground scene: inspired by 90s acid house club culture, they rose to prominence by releasing a sparse selection of original tracks and a multitude of remixes that were both dancefloor-effective and immediately recognizable. After the EPs stopped coming, the project seemed to have faded. But their tracks never left our bag: they combined minimalism with ambiguous elegance and retained a distinct, timeless quality, easily transcending the turn-of-the-century style they were most closely associated with. We are delighted, in what we consider nothing less than a full-circle moment, to release "Selected Recordings: 2004 - 2006" and shed light on an underrated yet, in our eyes, absolutely essential project. ALT022 is an anthology release featuring four extensive, remastered cuts. Abusator, arguably the act's hallmark track and a crossover hit, kicks off the EP. It is joined by Mecaniques Remontees, which opened the milestone Suck My Deck mix by Ivan Smagghe, and Too Shy, both initially part of the same EP back in 2004. Noir Comme Le Beat, an unreleased curiosity from the same era, closes the record. You will find dark, endless, ever-modulating arpeggiator basses, Detroit-via-Paris chord progressions, and spartan drums. The work is, in the artists' own words, low-profile, detail-oriented, and built for late hours. It's an ideal compilation or - depending on the case - introduction, especially now that new work is rumored to be finally on its way."

Tape

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later - all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry - Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective - Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax - are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy" Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new. The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and uctuate enough for Black Thought to ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories.

4 tracks by one of the most solid German techno project at the moment !

“Ruins are the style of our future cities, future cities are themselves ruins.” - Izosaki Arata

A note from Lawrence English: Nostalgia is not an ideology, though in this moment, we could be mistaken for thinking it might be just that. Over the past years, the idea of nostalgia has been filtered through various political and technological lenses and has become a tool used for forgetting, rather than remembering. Instead of embracing histories’ complexities and inconsistencies, this version of nostalgia seeks only singular recollection. This contemporary phenomenon of nostalgia has become a methodology at best, and a weapon at worst, used to erode the past and project forward a collapsed and unimaginably sanitised version of things, places, and ways of being from former times. It’s this projection that sees it playing a mounting role in a social pathology associated with reducing the imagined possibilities of future.

The Rest Is My Ghost is a record that interrogates the manifestations of this reductive futuring and celebrates those that have tried (and failed), and those who continue to push back against decayed and revisionist positions. It’s a record that considers the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures.

In recent times, I’ve proposed a term for this weaponised use of nostalgia, something I have called Acid Nostalgia. I offer it as a shorthand to describe the de-contouring of the future through a corrosive fixation on a flatten rendering of the preceding times. It is, in part, a certain type of lazy cultural scripting where tropes of the past are presented in the absolute, as empty pictorials; photocopies without any original from which to draw actual meaning, or useful detail.

Acid Nostalgia describes an increasingly common political projection of nostalgia that exists without any subjective connection to the memory surrounding and contained within it. Like acid poured onto a surface, this use of nostalgia seeks to erodes and smooth out the complexity and texture of lived connection and longing, which has until recently guided contemplations of nostalgia. Acid Nostalgia instead erases the texture of histories and de-contours the past, and in doing so dematerialises the horizon of possibility, which by its very nature marks the beginning point for any (and all) imaginable futures. Acid Nostalgia is a dreamless screen, where uncertainty, restlessness and aspiration are subjected to corrosion, breaking down and neutralising the wellspring of futures which are birthed from within the ambiguously charged, complex and at times chaotic atmospheres of the present.

The Rest Is My Ghost is not however some universal reading of these things and happenings. Rather it draws its breath from a very personal pathway carved through my own fraught experiences of nostalgia and framed through a disparate collage of chance encounters, situations, places and provocations. It takes oblique notes from civic and architectural references such as Japan’s Metabolist movement, Hong Kong’s ‘one line sky’ and Los Angeles’s vanished Sodium Vapour lights. It interpolates texts – factual and fictional – by authors such as Franco Berardi, Kate Crawford, JG Ballard, Katsuhiro Otomo, Mark Fisher and Alexei Yurchak who have each so wonderfully sought to rupture the familiarity of now, and push us towards other ways of imaging ourselves, our surroundings and our very ways of being in this world.

I also owe a debt of thanks to Adam Curtis in helping launch what has become this edition. It was his provocation, in a conversation we shared about an overwhelming and profound sense of uncertainty around being able to predict the immediate future and how to respond to that, which sparked the earliest inklings of this edition.

The Rest Is My Ghost is ultimately a record about the promise of constructions and connections to come, material, social and political. It's a record that accepts the fragility of failure as a source of ultimate potential, and a position from which the deepest freedom of imagination might be sought and summoned forth to conjure even the most unimaginable, (but) possible futures.

Dawuna’s latest mixtape is a muted hypnagogic R&B tour de force, pieced together while recovering from a traumatic head injury.

For »African Family Laptop Musick«, I was healing from a traumatic head injury that gave me a later amnesia diagnosis, so I don’t remember more than a couple small flashes of memory from the recording/construction of this project. I know I wanted to make a low-fidelity concept piece about my family life at the time, compositionally simple, but necessarily abstracted. This is the last lil offering from a very personal side of myself before I give y’all something big. Enjoy. – Dawuna

»Ampersand Curve« initiates a brilliant new phase of work by North Manchester’s most elusive artist, best known as Michael J. Blood. His string of ruffkut club bangers, as well as jams with Rat Heart & Samizdat over the past seven years, have made his records a true cult property, and now find him signed to one of the UK’s most foundational techno imprints – more of which later this year.

But under the Sees aegis, he swims in very different waters, following his instincts to use the studio-as-instrument to produce his most impressive, deep-minded work, made from – and for – the heart. Where MJB was all about off-the-cuff club jams cooked for immediacy, his new stylistic switch reveals myriad worlds of influence swirling under the hood, where interrelated spheres of spiritual jazz, dub, ambient, and concrète more clearly light up his rich inner world.

As the story goes, MJB was burgled a few years back and lost most of his studio just as the project was hitting its stride. It prompted a personal review of his practice, re-learning new kit, allowing him to bend the rules. Adopting a sort of first-thought, best-thought approach to composition, the new methodology fuelled a renewed imagination in flux, or what he identifies as Sees: a personalised way of conveying complex emotions. That undoing of musical and mental conditioning opens the walls of his music to vast new horizons. Opener »Ithaca« fathoms sonorous midnight jazz with 10 mins of a plangent, searching sax solo in HD widescreen, like some alternate version to the Blade Runner Love Theme, while a resonant vocoder soliloquy, »Unseem«, reaches into space harmonised between Alvin Lucier and Ron Trent, and »Sheer« chases the devil out of labyrinthine dub dimensions.

The floating dream architecture of »Caprices« caps the LP’s underlying narrative and painterly qualities with a romantic conclusion of blushing pads and shivered, metallic echoes of the subtropical that suggest a coming-to-terms with worries, refreshed and good to go again.

Tampa City launches as a new project from Toscal Records paying tribute to the breaks scene.

The first release comes from Ritacco & Igna as a personal take on that era — built around broken drums, low-end heat and straight-to-the-floor attitude.

Matrix Disruption is the vinyl debut of Cluster B, a project that confidently navigates the dark territory of hypnotic tech, progressive house, and trance nuances. Four tracks crafted with patience and vision, where the groove is never an end in itself but becomes a narrative tool.

The EP opens with the title track, "Matrix Disruption," where mechanical rhythms and synthesizers interweave into a dense, hypnotic fabric.

"Escalation" pushes the accelerator, building tension layer by layer, leading into a climax that leaves no escape.

“Dancing in the moment" takes the dancefloor to deeper, more suspended territories.

“Human Touch" closes, introducing a more human and melodic respite.

A work that looks to the dancefloor, designed to be played on vinyl and do its job where it counts.

A refined and deeply immersive vinyl release that captures the essence of timeless underground electronic music. Akbal Music celebrates a very special moment in its history with the addition of renowned Romanian artist Barac, a key figure within the international minimal and rominimal scene. As part of this collaboration, Akbal Music presents I Close My Eyes In Order To See EP. This release will be presented exclusively on a limited 180g audiophile vinyl edition as part of Akbal Music’s official 20 Years Anniversary Pressing series, reinforcing the label’s commitment to music collecting culture, analog sound, and the unique sensory experience that vinyl continues to represent within the underground electronic music community. More than a release, this EP symbolizes a meeting point between generations, visions, and sonic identities, honoring Akbal Music’s past while projecting its future through a carefully curated, elegant, and deeply emotional musical journey.

Joaquin ‘Joe’ Claussell returns to the Spring Revisited project, and he delivers another jazz-infused house mix of a classic funk track by the iconic Fatback Band. Spring Revisited is collaborative project between Ace Records and Acid Jazz, inviting influential house music producers to reinterpret classic tracks from seminal New York label Spring Records, a pioneer in funk, soul and disco. After a series of sell-out and chart-topping 12” and 7” releases, as well as a 2LP compilation, the project continues with these two new mixes of the Fatback Band’s ‘(Do The) Spanish Hustle)’. Claussell combines the original classic funk elements with Latino percussion and samba-styled trumpets.

First up is his 'Sacred Rhythm Version’, which lifts the tempo and loops a section of the original's percussion. Keeping the trumpets, and soulful vocal phrases, he adds a DJ-friendly kick drum and shows off his improvisation skills with a vibrant synth line. On the flip, he strips back some of the drums and horns and focuses on the bassline with the 'Spanish Harlem Dub,' which is a moody rework utilising some funk-infused organ chords. On the original track Joe says: "I can vividly recall the very first time I heard Spanish Hustle blasting through my brother Jackie’s stereo system. Not long afterward, I experienced its energy again on the dance floor at a discotheque known as The Inferno, where it was masterfully delivered by the legendary René Hewitt. The record left an imprint on my spirit that never faded.’ A spectacular continuation of the series, presented in the nowsignature Spring Revisited housebag, resembling an original worn-in promotional 12”, pressed in a strictly limited run!

2026 Repress

Multi-faceted artist Calibre today shares his sixteenth studio album "Feeling Normal". The album is out now to pre-order on Vinyl, CD and on digital platforms via his own independent imprint Signature Recordings.

The record is his first bonafide 140bpm record and a staggering body of work that shows the genius levels of one of electronic music's most respected auteurs. Across the 13 tracks, he transcends through space and time, creating music that will take the listener on a weighty sonic journey. The album announcement is accompanied by two dub versions "Bad" and "Badder" deconstructed from the track "Badman" with DRS from Mark Ernestus available via his Hardwax store January 29th and Bandcamp February 12th. "Getting to work with Mark Ernestus is a real honour, I collected Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound and his other work for many years and still do. It's hard to avoid the influence of this guy in electronic music across genres and so it is a real pleasure to have him do his thing with the Badman tune which I think sounds closely related."

All of the tracks on the record have been road-tested in Calibre's DJ sets over the last 2/3 years with many of them being sought-out by his hardcore fans. It was only a matter of time then that he put them out for all to consume. With a nod to the dancefloor, the clear idea for the album came about following the release of his most personal album to date "Planet Hearth". "It still works in the headspace but ultimately it's been written for the sweaty club experience we miss now, also after an album like Planet Hearth it felt very liberating to do," he remarks. When writing albums, he often just puts it down to the general chaos of life, not citing any one influence but generally just waits to see what comes. With one of the tracks on the album written 7 years ago on the island of Valentia, It became a project that he spent the intervening years collecting tracks for, not really knowing when he was going to put it together as an album. "The whole album is special to me, everything on there has import and meaning beyond for me, I have spent much time on all these and hope they are special for other people too."

Belfast-born, Berlin-based Calibre - AKA Dominick Martin - shows no sign of slowing down. As a producer, DJ, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter, he is one of the most unique and inspiring living artists. With a career spanning two decades, his ability to remain underground whilst being one of the most-respected is testament to who this enigmatic artist is. To this day, he has never been remixed and has a seriously impressive amount of unreleased music under wraps. With everything on hold and gigs on the backburner, this record is exactly what the world needs right now.

BUCHLA MEETS ORCHESTRA IN QUADRAPHONIC SPACE ON CIANI/ORKEST

Suzanne Ciani, Metropole Orkest and Simon Dobson release historic immersive performance in multiple immersive formats including quad vinyl.

Silverlake, CA \\ June 4, 2026 – Electronic music pioneer and five-time Grammy nominee Suzanne Ciani joins the internationally acclaimed Metropole Orkest, conducted by Simon Dobson, for the release of CIANI/ORKEST, a landmark live album composed entirely of new work, created specifically for this unprecedented collaboration.

Recorded at Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) before a rapt audience, CIANI/ORKEST is not a retrospective. It is a bold, immersive meeting of the Buchla electronic instrument and 50-piece orchestral sound. The result is a sweeping sonic landscape, at once intimate and monumental.

Under the direction of the Metropole Orkest, renowned for its genre-defying collaborations with artists from jazz to contemporary classical - strings shimmer, brass swells and woodwinds echo the organic, fluid qualities that have always defined Ciani’s sound. “This project feels like a homecoming,” says Ciani. “The Buchla was always orchestral to me, an instrument capable of infinite color. Hearing those colors unfold through the Metropole Orkest has been profoundly moving.”

At the heart of CIANI/ORKEST lies Ciani’s lifelong commitment to quadraphonic sound. From her early Buchla performances in the late 1960s to her 2018 release LIVE Quadraphonic, Ciani has treated space as a primary compositional parameter. Working alongside immersive producer KamranV, Ciani continues to explore immersive sound as both artistic and human gesture. Kamran’s decades of work in spatial formats, converge here in service of a singular goal: to let sound behave as it does in the physical world. “For both of us, quad is musical,” Kamran notes. “The way Suzanne works, quadraphonic is nested in — not the technology per se — but the intent you bring to the work.”

The recording stands as a meditation on legacy, evolution, and the enduring dialogue between technology and human expression. The live album captures the electricity of performance, the immediacy of touch plates under Ciani’s hands, the collective of musicians responding in real time, and the audience’s shared immersion in quadraphonic-inspired space.

CIANI/ORKEST is released by Atmospheric/AKP Recordings/CyKiK in multiple double-disc quadraphonic 12” Record packages designed by grammy-nominated designer Rebeka Arce. Each pressing is made regionally to minimize carbon emissions and also contributes to nature via Brian Eno's EarthPercent, the music industry's climate and nature foundation.

The release is encoded using the dublab Quadraphonic Universally Accessible Resource Kit (QUARK). QUARK enables binaural listening via standard 2-channel playback or 4-speaker playback via Involve Audio hardware decoders, vintage Regular Matrix quadraphonic receivers, Dolby Pro-Logic II/Dolby Surround Upmixer (DSU) receivers, or any multi-channel audio interface equipped computer. This album is immersive via all formats: digital download, streaming (Qobuz, Spotify, SoundCloud, Bandcamp), radio broadcast, vinyl and high-resolution Dolby Atmos (Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon HD, IIA), Sony 360RA (Nugs, Amazon HD) and Eclipsa Audio (YouTube).

About Suzanne Ciani
Suzanne Ciani is a composer, pianist, sound designer, and electronic music pioneer whose work spans experimental, new age, classical, and cinematic sound. A five-time Grammy nominee and recipient of the Moog Innovation Award, she continues to perform internationally, captivating audiences with immersive modular synthesis performances.

About Metropole Orkest
Based in the Netherlands, the Metropole Orkest is one of the world’s leading genre-crossing orchestras, known for collaborations with artists including Brian Eno, Herbie Hancock, Snarky Puppy, Jacob Collier, and within contemporary classical and electronic spheres.

Manonmars’ 3rd album sees him at his most amorphous and psychedelic, at points sharper and laser focused, and at others more blurred and impressionistic than his previous records. Many of the core players remain the same, all of the production is once again handled by O$VMV$M (the duo of Neek and Amos Childs of Jabu) while Paulina Korobkiewicz (also of Young Echo) makes a return handling both the album’s cover artwork and contributing a series of diaristic field recordings and voice notes.

‘The project references movies, cartoons, fictional characters and video games, among other things. The album title is open to interpretation but all of these elements are forms of visual entertainment which have their own unique ability to transcend things like language barriers and cultural divides. The visual element is key because those details bridge the gap on a communicative level.’ - Manonmars

The album blends abstract, blurred braggadocio with more immediate personal details such as on ‘Volcanic Shield’ a posse cut of sorts featuring Bristol improv luminary Dali de Saint Paul and Franco Franco (½ of cyborg rap duo Kinlaw & Franco Franco) - where Mars recalls;

‘Memories of brighter days, happy meal hit the spot
Mum was spinning vinyl playing Super Ape or Pressure Drop
I would spend the weekend with the Turkish mandem on the block
single parent household, mum was studying or on the job
money came and went always was an on and off
made it back from school time to see what’s on the box’


The beat fades away to leave one of Korobkiewicz’s recordings of Mars’ mum talking about her life in London in the 80s, spending her money on reggae records as an ambient chord fades in like an echo of a jungle intro – stretching out as a link between generations of UK music.

The production by and large is brighter and more kinetic than earlier Manonmars records – with O$VMV$M drawing on everything from modern underground rap and drill through to jazz and acid ambient passages.

London is also a central character here, bustling and constantly shifting, either when bleeding in through field recordings, or as an ever-present backdrop in the lyrics;

‘I’m a fusion of Tippa Irie and Topper Harley
Hit the target like the black Atari
I dropped a tab now shit’s A Scanner Darkly
Got the munchies, Imma yam a sarnie
Pour the Wray and Ting like man at Carni
Exit Peckham Rye and turn left, walk past Hannah Barry
Get your (w)raps up like its January’

‘I've always considered London my home, despite spending some time in the South West of England too. My mum had been living in London for 25 years (...) That was a pretty big deal in some ways because it removed us from multicultural society during the period which overlapped with my teenage years. (...) I never got used to how quiet it was in the countryside (...) Bristol was the closest city to where we lived and it was through travelling there and making connections that I became involved in making music and playing gigs.’ - Manonmars

Mars’ practice as a painter (under his given name Jack Martyn Richardson) and photographer also loom heavy over the album, he cites Paul Verhoeven, Abdul Mati Klariwein and H.R Giger as influences – as well as Miles Davis, Drakeo the Ruler and DJ Rashad.

As with much of Richardson’s work the raps at times feel blurred to a point of almost inscrutability, creating a distance between the audience and himself. A process that ties into his visual work and the way he experiences the world as mainly abstract colour without his glasses. He explores this further in an ongoing visual collaboration with Korobkiewicz, ‘Fun and Games’ which serves as a visual archive of one of London's largest and oldest travelling fairgrounds.

‘I was diagnosed with very severe short-sightedness at the age of seven. I remember my early formative years as visually blurred. Some of my photography reflects this experience of partial vision and uncertainty, referencing memory and perception rather than fixed representation.’

Manonmars’ first public outing as a rapper was at a Young Echo radio event, broadcast shambolically from a practice room just off Jamaica street, Bristol in 2011, as much as things have moved on both stylistically and in terms of focus - strong links back to the city remain a key foundation throughout the collaborations and guest appearances.

‘I have no problem with being an outsider looking in. One of the things I enjoy about London is the anonymity (...) it's easy to be a stranger here when so much is happening. I feel like thats more valuable than people may realise.’

Dark Entries helps Suzanne Ciani come out of the closet as Steve! Legendary composer, sound designer, and Buchla maestra Suzanne Ciani has a staggering list of accolades and accomplishments, from scoring Hollywood films to releasing influential new age records to literally designing the Coca-Cola bottle-opening sound. In the late 70s/early 80s, Ciani, while living in New York, acquired an Eventide H 949 harmonizer, which offered high fidelity pitch-shifting. In her words, “When I adjusted the pitch of my voice to 0.80, my natural voice became re-invented as what was clearly a gay man, who I called Steve. I became Steve; and Steve expressed himself as only he could.” Ciani adopted the male persona and collaborated with Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream on “Steve Goes to a Party.” The track features Ciani-as-Steve adlibbing in decadent and delirious fashion alongside Baumann’s robotically funky beats. Steve would emerge again a few years later at George Louvis’s Stardust Studios in New Jersey, to create “Steve Saves the World,” an absurdist and ecstatic proto-house groover complete with a gospel-esque chorus from the Stardust All-Stars. This EP is rounded out by a birthday wish to Ciani’s then-boyfriend Alfred on “Steve Happy Birthday Wishes” featuring Suzanne. Steve’s Out of the Closet perfectly captures the delirious techno-poptimism of the 1980s downtown avant-garde, with parallels in Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives or Lynn Goldsmith’s project Will Powers, responsible for the track “Adventures in Success.” The Steve sleeve was designed by Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh, and the record also includes a birthday card with liner notes from Ciani.

This next manifestation of Corvus Corone is a project featuring one As’teka tribal original and 3 collaborators with their own take. All RMX’s are different but stay within the parameters of the original and the label. Get two 12“ and mix for an endless experience.
A trip into the dark heart of the jungle where evil could be lurking anywhere. Are those birds or bats? Was that a gigantic insect crawling? Was that shadow moving? Did you hear that voice? Arghh, is it day or nite? What day is it? I am getting stuck in quicksand - I...am...being...sucked...in...

The fourth instalment on Daniel Poli's, Suspect Package released in 2002 produced
by Leonora Epremian aka Autonomy. A three-track EP with soulful techno-inspired
textures and rolling, UK groove. The A side features a collaborative project between
Leonora and Daniel Poli.

Big Crown Records is proud to present the debut full length offering from Les Imprimés, Rêverie. The stirring and ethereal sounds of Les Imprimés have been making fans of anyone who hears them since their first 7" single hit the speakers. Morten Martens is the man behind the band. Born, raised, and working in Kristiansand, Norway, he keeps a low prole while making his heart felt, highly infectious, and unique music. This album is a long time coming for Martens and it is sure to make him a name to be reckoned with. The first thing you notice listening to Les Imprimés is the high level of musician-ship. Martens plays nearly every instrument on the recordings and handles the production and arranging. He has been making records for decades, winning a Spellemann Award (aka, the Norwegian Grammy) in 2006 for producing a HipHop album as well as getting nominations across three other genres. While awards and accolades speak to the level of his talent, this new album really shows who he is an artist on his own terms. Moving away from being a hired gun on the touring scene naturally led him to start doing more studio work. Slowly collecting gear and getting more experi-ence behind the boards he built his own studio on the island of Odderoya and was making a living playing with and recording other people's music. As the story goes, after those sessions would end he would work on his own project into the wee hours of the night. From these late night sessions, Les Imprimés was born and Rêverie began to take shape. However, "it wasn't until COVID, when things locked down, that I was really able to nd the time to focus on Les Imprimés" Morten says about creating and leading his own solo project. "It was a scary time. But I knew I had to do something with it." He took the sum of his inuences, combined them with his own vibe and got busy writing the music, playing the instruments, and singing the songs. "It's soul music, but I don't exactly have the soul voice," Morten explains humbly. "But I do it my own way, in a way that's mine. "It is his sound, his fingerprint, his sensibility, that makes his music hard to put in a box. The album showcases both Martens' range and his ability to make a cohesive album. The lead single "Falling Away" starts with a raw drum break and turns into a lushly arranged tune that paints the picture of love when it slips away. On "Still Here" he professes his resilience through life's twists and turns over a thundering track that puts a new spin on the B side ballad genre. Songs like "You" and "Our Love" mix tones from 60s and 70s Soul with arrangement nods to Doo Wop records while Martens' lyrics and delivery leave you singing the melodies long after they finish. "Love & Flowers" finds Martens in a moment of clarity with a song that ts the niche sub genre of happy break up tunes, the four on the floor track will move the dancefloor or while the message will resonate with anyone who put too much effort into the wrong situation in their lives. However, it is songs like "Muse" and "Chess" that really encapsulate the uniqueness of Les Imprimés as they push the boundaries of genre, one a profession of love for music and the other a cover of an electronic record respectively. Martens' lyrics, emotion, and delivery truly make the whole thing come together and stand out from any of his peers. There's an infectiousness and a pop sensibility in the writing that is done with the utmost class and taste giving Les Imprimés the rare quality of immediate attraction that only deepens the more you listen.

Alex Warren returns with his highly anticipated sophomore album, WILDCHILD, following the success of his critically acclaimed debut You’ll Be Alright, Kid, which featured the chart-topping, record-breaking hit “Ordinary” and established Warren as one of music’s biggest global breakout stars. Inspired by the nickname his late father gave him growing up, WILDCHILD is Warren’s most vulnerable but also most joyous work to date — a raw, cinematic collection exploring grief, growth, love, and self-discovery. Blending heart-stopping ballads with infectious pop anthems, the album captures Warren at his most honest yet, pairing deeply personal storytelling with soaring vocals and expansive production. Featuring recordings of his father’s voice woven throughout the project, WILDCHILD offers an intimate portrait of an artist moving from heartbreak toward healing.

Alex Warren returns with his highly anticipated sophomore album, WILDCHILD, following the success of his critically acclaimed debut You’ll Be Alright, Kid, which featured the chart-topping, record-breaking hit “Ordinary” and established Warren as one of music’s biggest global breakout stars. Inspired by the nickname his late father gave him growing up, WILDCHILD is Warren’s most vulnerable but also most joyous work to date — a raw, cinematic collection exploring grief, growth, love, and self-discovery. Blending heart-stopping ballads with infectious pop anthems, the album captures Warren at his most honest yet, pairing deeply personal storytelling with soaring vocals and expansive production. Featuring recordings of his father’s voice woven throughout the project, WILDCHILD offers an intimate portrait of an artist moving from heartbreak toward healing.

Leap Life is Saul Williams’ first solo album in over 10 years and marks a major return for one of the most influential voices in spoken word and experimental music. Named after Saul’s leap year birthday, the project has been carefully sequenced by composer and producer Carlos Niño as a fully immersive, front-to-back listening experience.

The album expands Saul’s sound into electronic and ambient territories while remaining rooted in spoken word, with rich sound design built from nature recordings, environmental textures, and expansive instrumentation. It also sees Saul step further into the role of producer, drawing influence from Fela Kuti, Black church traditions, and South African electronic music. The record features a standout cast of collaborators including Kamasi Washington, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Moor Mother, Gonjasufi, and Surya Botofasina, alongside material developed with Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack). Released via Big Dada, the album marks a full-circle moment with the label where Saul originally launched his solo career.

Magi Merlin’s debut LP, POWER HOUSE, is a high-production, 12-track masterclass in modern pop - an infectious, high-energy record that feels deceptively familiar at first touch, yet every time you reach for a comparison, you realize it doesn't quite fit; a one-of-one project that remains as polished as it is daring.
Conceptually, POWER HOUSE is an exploration of the internal architecture we all inhabit, housing the conflicting rooms of anger, fear, vanity, and ultimately, a reclaimed sense of power. Where Magi Merlin’s previous work, Gone Girl, was a study of external strength, this new era is an ode to the realization that inner work is the only true outer work. With a perspective that is both empathetic and furious, and a grow-as-you-go philosophy, she proves that real change starts small but sounds massiv

When everything around is racing blindly toward ruin, change direction and spin as fast as you can until you defy gravity and rise above the ground into blissful madness. "K-drone", the debut album by three renegades—Jakub Šimanský, Michal Vaľko, and Ján Podracký—is like a hallucinatory Calvary with five stations. Each station is a time-loop capsule, a tiny utopia sneering at the phantom progress of the world outside.

The opening track, "Speedrone", is pure vertigo; for seven long minutes, there's nothing to hold onto. Šimanský’s banjo cuts through the air, Vaľko’s hurdy-gurdy sounds like someone scraping a rusted sheet of metal with a handful of nails, and Podracký’s bass recorder hums like a slowly intensifying migraine. "Sine" is like a train journey through a barren wasteland, where the images outside the window constantly repeat like a bad trip. "Pro DJ" starts like a gig in a bar at the end of the line—a gig that never actually goes anywhere. It’s as if all three are locked in a spasm, their repeated motifs turning into haunting earworms. "Alien Radigue" shifts into a strange idyll in a clearing in the middle of the forest, where an unknown bird species trills in the background. The end and definitive dissolution come in "Slush", where everything suddenly slows down. Šimanský plucks a simple guitar melody, Podracký’s harmonica drifts from side to side like a boat gently rocking by the shore, and Vaľko’s hurdy-gurdy drones like a drunken mosquito buzzing around.

"K-drone" sounds like an acid anti-western movie recorded in a tucked-away burrow, like smoke-soaked folk and experimental campfire songs echoing through a deep forest. It evokes Third Ear Band's "Alchemy", it screeches and repeats like some of Henry Flynt's experiments, and you could easily imagine hearing it drifting from one of the windows on the cover of Hala Strana's eponymous album.

Jakub Šimanský is the bard of Czechoslovak guitar primitivism, an earthy folk sommelier whose fingerpicking you may also know from the duo Šimanský Niesner. Michal Vaľko, aka Line Gate, needs no introduction to fans. He has released three albums on mappa, and his hurdy-gurdy meditations hold an important place in the drone and minimalist music scene. "Den", "Apex", and "Trap" have become essential listening. Ján Podracký is a self-taught composer and musician whom you might know from various participatory music projects, such as an orchestra where all the players play diatonic harmonicas. Besides harmonicas, he has long explored a wide range of flutes. In short, a pied piper who will guide you through other worlds.

Purple & Translucent Orange Vinyl. Raw Fury and Black Screen Records are outta space to announce Cameron Paxton's game soundtrack masterpiece Dome Keeper on vinyl. The double LP set includes both volumes, "Vol 1: The Engineer" and "Vol 2: The Assessor", in their entirety pressed on beautifully coloured wax and packed in a sleeve that is featuring the iconic artwork of the game. Composed by Cameron Paxton, Dome Keeper features an enchanting original soundtrack that combines a mysterious atmosphere with an adventurous sense of wonder. Paxton got into the project early on and saw the game become reality right from the start: "Dome Keeper began life as a game jam title called Dome Romantik. So originally the scope was much smaller. Because I was there at the beginning of development, I had a long time to spend experimenting and coming up with the vibe before the game ever got picked up."

Mariá Portugal has been active in the music scenes of Brazil and Europe as a drummer, composer, singer, and music producer. After graduating in composition, she has focused her research on free improvisation and its possible intersections with popular song. This exploration resulted in her acclaimed album EROSÃO (2021) and in the formation of two groups: the EROSÃO Septet and the EROSÃO Percussion Trio, both based in Germany.

She is also a member of the group Quartabê and has toured and recorded around the world with various artists, moving between pop, free jazz, free improvisation, and Brazilian popular music. She has performed and recorded with artists such as Elza Soares, Anthony Braxton, Joe McPhee, Fred Frith, and Tomeka Reid. She is a member of Fire! Orchestra, Fire! Trio, Endless Breakfast and MONSTER.

In 2020, Portugal was the 13th Improviser in Residence at the Moers Festival. As a curator, she has participated in the Soundtrips-NRW in Duisburg and currently coordinates the concert series “TOMA CHOCOLATE!” in Berlin, besides being the guest curator for this year's unlimited Wels festival. She also composes music for dance, theater, and film, including the award-winning soundtrack for the film “1976”, which earned her the Chilean Film Academy Award in 2025. She was nominated for the 2025 and 2026 German Jazz Prize in the drums and percussion category.
Emilio Gordoa is a Mexican sound artist, percussionist, and composer whose work focuses on sound and performance as primary means of expresion. Based in Berlin since 2012, he has been an active contributor to the city’s Echtzeitmusik scene and is involved in the international avant-garde music community.

His projects include solo and ensemble performances, sound installations, and compositions for film, theater and dance. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, including Jérôme Noetinger, Ingrid Schomliner, Yuko Kaseki, Burkhard Beins, Don Malfon, John Butcher and Sabiene Vogel. Gordoa’s approach combines experimental percussive techniques with electronic elements, leading to invitations to perform at events such as the Moers Festival, Meakusma Festival in Belgium, A’larme!, and Maerzmusik in Berlin.

He founded WildSonico, a platform for experimental music, and has been part of artist residencies at institutions like the Akademie der Künste and Kunststiftung NRW. He also worked as the Improviser in Residence for the Moers Festival. His discography includes albums such as Substantial Myths (2022), Balderi Variations (2019), and GRIFF (2021), which reflect his ongoing engagement with music. His work has been supported by organizations such as the Goethe-Institut, Musikfonds e.V., and INM - initiative neue musik berlin, and he has received recognition, including an Honorary Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica.

Burkhard Beins was born in 1964 in Lower Saxony and has been living in Berlin since 1995. He is considered a stylistically influential percussionist as a composer/performer, due to his individually developed playing techniques. Additionally, he works with analog synthesizers and live electronics, plays electric bass, and has created various sound installations.

He collaborates as a soloist, as well as with artists such as Chris Abrahams, Keith Rowe, Sven-Åke Johansson, Axel Dörner, Andrea Neumann, and many others. He is also a member of several ensembles including Sawt Out, Activity Center, Polwechsel, The Sealed Knot, Zone Null, Perlonex, Trio Sowari, Vertigo Transport, the NoWave/Krautrock band Slurge, and the Berlin Splitter Orchestra.

Since the late 1980s, he has performed concerts and participated in international festivals for experimental and contemporary music across Europe, America, Asia, and Australia. He has released more than 70 CDs and LPs in collaboration with various artists.

Burkhard Beins has been an Artist-In-Residence at the Künstlerhäuser Worpswede (2009), EMS Stockholm (2014), Muong Studios, Hoa Binh/Vietnam (2015), the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Captiva/Florida (2017), as well as at DAR, Drsukininkai/Lithuania (2018), and the Agosto Foundation, Prague (2019).