Einige Alben schlagen ein wie ein Blitz, andere entfalten ihre Wirkung über Jahrzehnte hinweg. Robert Lester Folsoms Kultalbum Music and Dreams, ursprünglich 1976 im Eigenverlag erschienen, feiert sein 50-jähriges Jubiläum mit einer besonderen Neuauflage.
Die 50th Anniversary Edition präsentiert das remasterte Originalalbum erstmals zusammen mit den bislang unveröffentlichten Reel-to-Reel-Demos auf einem Doppelvinyl. Geprägt von Folsoms Liebe zu den Beatles sowie Songwriter-Größen wie Neil Young, Joni Mitchell und Crosby, Stills & Nash, verbindet Music and Dreams zeitlosen Folk-Pop mit jugendlicher Sehnsucht, Melancholie und großer musikalischer Vision.
Abacus – Analog Stories Vol.5 delivers stripped-back power, deep textures, and rolling rhythms. A raw statement for DJs chasing soul, weight, and movement.
Heavyweight psychedelic improvisers EarthBall are back with their third and most monstrous record to date: ‘Outside Over There’, released on Upset The Rhythm (Nov 7th). Born from the haunted basements of Nanaimo, Canada, the quintet thrives on spontaneity, shaping improvisation into jagged hallucinations and ecstatic eruptions.
Recorded live-off-the-floor in 2024 in Jeremy, Izzy, and Kellen’s basement, and mixed by drummer John Brennan, ‘Outside Over There’ is an album that feels both summoned and inevitable. Each track lands with uncanny purpose, as if uncovered rather than written.
The opener, 100%, features a cameo from comedian and English icon Stewart Lee, who lent his blessing for the band to use a fragment of his stand-up. The album was mastered by John Dieterich (Deerhoof), with liner text contributed by longtime comrade John Olson (Wolf Eyes). Olson describes the album in his unmistakable style:
“This eight-track odyssey unfolds like a dreamscape, where whispered incantations brush against the shadowy fringes of the cosmos, and wild, Cézanne-inspired rock anthems erupt like geysers of color in the midst of a western warm and wet rain storm… culminating in the sprawling eleven minute masterpiece, ‘And The Music Shall Untune The Sky,’ aptly dubbed the Earth Crusher. A creation so utterly deconstructed and intertwined with the pulse of nature itself that if AI was called upon to conceive ‘Outside Over There’ anew, it would just spit back, “F.U. in Tree Font”. An enchanting invitation for even the flat-earthers to join the circle, if only just a little.”
EarthBall’s trajectory has been relentless. Their 2024 album ‘It’s Yours’ was praised by The Quietus as “fully aggressive and fully life-affirming,” and by The Wire as "a boisterous mind-melting album”. The band’s live double set LP ‘Actual Earth Music Vol. 1 & 2’ (2025) captured blistering performances: a performance opening for Wolf Eyes at the Fox Cabaret, and a Café OTO improvised throw-down featuring Chris Corsano and Steve Beresford. These releases on their own confirm them as one of Canada’s most vital experimental exports, not to mention the impressive self-released discography on their Bandcamp. The band’s reach has stretched far beyond their west coast roots with a UK tour May 2024, plus this past June, EarthBall closed Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon. This November they will perform at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, with a European tour to follow (tour dates below). Outside of EarthBall, each member carries their own torch. Jeremy Van Wyck, founding member of the legendary Shearing Pinx, has toured extensively, released over 100 records, and has been a vital force in the Vancouver and West Coast underground for the past 25 years. He and Isabel Ford (Izzy) play together not only in EarthBall, but also in Psychedelic Dirt, Shearing Pinx, Behaviours, and Crotch.
John Brennan collaborates widely, including recently with Endlings (Raven Chacon and John Dieterich), Evichen (Victoria Shen), Francesco Fonassi, Plan Your Future (with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof), Brennan/Corsano duo and Physics with John Dieterich. Kellen Maclaughlin performs with KVMP and Ora Corgan, while saxophonist Liam Murphy is a west coast staple, playing with the best across Vancouver Island and the mainland. On three of the tracks of ‘Outside Over There’, the band is joined by their comrade Justin Patterson, who also plays with Brennan in the duo Modale. This cross-pollination fuels EarthBall’s sound - a collective improvisation, psychically overdriven, and grinding into bloom.
Outside Over There’ is more than an album though, it is a ritual, a gathering of sound at the forest’s edge; where feedback, saxophone screams, and ecstatic vocals dissolve the boundary between chaos and clarity. EarthBall invite you into their circle, to share in the joyful terror of spontaneous creation. ‘Outside Over There’ will be released on November 7th through Upset The Rhythm digitally and as a limited blue-in-black vinyl LP.
Inperimental is a bold return from Lithuanian electronic pioneers Plasma, presenting a meticulously crafted double LP that explores the intersections of techno, ambient, and forward-thinking electronic sound. Every element — sound, structure, and visual identity — is
intentional. This is not a collection of experiments, but a fully realized sonic architecture shaped by decades of experience and analog mastery. This vinyl edition is more than just an audio release — it's a multi-sensory experience.
The gatefold cover and packaging feature hidden artwork that can only be revealed using included red-lens glasses. This visual element isn’t just a gimmick — it reflects the same intentionality that defines the music. With no room for improvisation or trend-chasing, Inperimental is a precisely executed statement in both sound and form. The album blends ambient tones, analogue warmth, and dancefloor rhythms. It demonstrates a refined sound palette: humid techno grooves, cosmic textures, and cinematic depth.
Inperimental is described by the artist as a voyage where technology meets pure emotion — “a realm where warmth intertwines with technology, dreams blur into reality, and pure, authentic sound reigns supreme”. A digital download card is also included with each vinyl copy.
Acid Pauli knows where the shoe pinches: We all need more soul. Soul heals! So here’s a limited edition two-tracker including his still in demand and sought after „Marvin“ on the flip while the fresh “Roger” is bringing the heat on the A-side. “Roger” is an ode to our favourite artist from Minneapolis, merged with a strong Echonomist groove. This one’s made to set your dancefloor on fire. Must Have - Limited vinyl only!
Discotchari unveils a full deadstock run of this rare 7 inch from 1970, found in original factory boxes and reissued as the first release of the label. It features previously unheard material from oud virtuoso John Bilezikjian and percussionist Raja Zahr, a Burbank via Beirut collaboration. The record will be available on vinyl and digital platforms from November 3rd, 2023.
Recorded under the name Something Different, the duo produced a single 45 RPM that was shelved as their solo careers took off. At just 21, Bilezikjian handles oud, bass and harpsichord, while Zahr delivers rich and inventive percussion.
Side A, Zulu Man, blends late 60s psychedelia with a more experimental edge, closer to underground acts than mainstream rock of the era. Carried by evocative vocals and expressive oud lines, the track unfolds like an epic narrative.
Side B, Chemical Reaction, is harder to define, moving between cinematic moods and rhythmic tension. The track evokes shifting landscapes and contrasting atmospheres, making it as intriguing as it is unpredictable on a dancefloor.
The wonderful Scruniversal takes a sidestep into electro here with a remix of a tune by Liza Gromova, a talented musician and rising star in the pop and indie world who hails from Moscow. Lipelis reframes her 'Papa, Poputny Veter' with 80s synth shimmers, glassy melodies and minimal electronics that maintain the emotional vocal of the original and manage to marry its optimism with a bittersweet edge. The flipside instrumental is another intimate sound but with an irresistible groove that will appeal to wave and Italo fans. Two ageless cuts that are subtly hooky.
Indroducing our new vinyl collaboration, a fusion of talents by Eafhm and our Co-Founder Nils Edte. Exploring the theme of "Glossolalia" or speaking in unknown tongues, they treat music as its own language. Featuring stunning remixes by MTRL & Laima Adelaide, the vinyl is not just an auditory experience but a visual one too. The cover artwork, a joint effort by Nils Edte and painter Mariano Fernandez, adorns the limited edition of 200 records. Each cover is a unique piece of the painting, making this release a truly exclusive collector's item. Immerse yourself in this blend of art and music, where sound and visuals unite in a captivating collaboration.
* 2026 REPRESS *
Ashanti Selah – Musician & Dub Producer hailing from the UK, is the eldest son of the world-renowned soundman, Aba Shanti-I. Ashanti's musical journey began at a tender young age, during his formative years of soundsystem exposure through his father's musical infrastructure he learned the art of the Dub. His education continued as he attended his father’s long-standing annual sessions at the Notting Hill Carnival and traveled the globe as a crew member and diligent student. Via his Steppas Records imprint, Alpha Steppa, son and nephew of pioneering dub-duo Alpha & Omega presents a unique collaboration between two second generation Dub / Reggae producers. 'Ashanti Selah Meets Alpha Steppa' is a testament to their teachers and the product of a life spent in dub. Steppas Records delivers four unique cuts of the long-time Aba Shanti-I exclusive 'Violin Step', featuring the uplifting and transcendental strings of Ras Divarius. New generation soundsystem music with a deep roots foundation.
Up In Her Room are delighted to announce their first release of 2025, and a return to the label from Oli Heffernan, aka Ivan the Tolerable!
10 new chunks of lo-fi instrumental library-hop - recorded in 2 days in Summer 2024, ‘Nocturnes’ is the first ITT album of 2025, and the first one made solo by Heffernan since ‘Wild Nature’ in 2019.
Known for his genre-defying and boundary-pushing approach to music, Heffernan – who has spent years experimenting with various styles, instruments and production techniques has crafted a collection of tracks that defy categorization. The new album is a sonic tapestry of atmospheric library music, dusty hip-hop beats, and the organic, unfiltered essence of field recordings, all neatly packaged up into a format that allows each element space to breathe.
‘Nocturnes’ weaves intricate layers of samples, loops, and live instrumentation, combining elements of hip-hop, dub, jazz, and electronic music, all while maintaining a sense of urban cinematic flair.
The album is released by Up In Her Room on limited edition black heavyweight vinyl
Balvanera is the project of Agustina Vizcarra and Lucas Palavecino from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Since 2016, the duo has been building a sonic narrative that moves between the corporeal and the spectral, exploring waves and minimal synth as well as more intense and rhythmic directions closer to Body music, all while sharing the stage with artists such as Clan of Xymox, Boy Harsher, Die Selektion, Kontravoid, NNHMN and Ashcode.
New album Hasta tocar el fondo vacío del lenguaje arrives as an attempt to push expression to the limit, focused on language and sound as expressive forms.
With all tracks sung in Spanish, the album is a declaration of identity and at the same time an exercise with Spanish itself: how to play with a language that sometimes feels baroque and turn it into something stark while retaining its richness. Musically direct, the album occasionally returns to some minimalism reminiscent of the band’s early releases while preserving the intensity and club-oriented feel of their later work. At times intensifying in speed, the record brings the energy of their live performances to visibility, while other tracks feel like an unsettlingly dreamlike atmosphere. The title – meaning Until Touching the Empty Bottom of Language – borrowed from a fragment of Arturo Carrera’s poem Escrito con un nictógrafo, offers a clue to Balvanera’s nocturnal sensibility: those thoughts and images that can only emerge in the sleepless hours of the night, when they reach their most revealing edge.
Hasta tocar el fondo vacío del lenguajen explores death as something hidden within language while allowing each track to find its own form rather than adhering to genre conventions.
Split released with DKA. Out October 1st, 2026 on aquamarine vinyl LP limited to 500 with lyrics insert.
There's something about summer that makes everything fall into place. Maybe it feels even more significant to us, especially if you know MM Discos through its Balearic leanings. It's that time of year when the whole scene reaches its peak, with everyone dreaming of being in Ibiza-or at the very least, somewhere on a forgotten beach or island in the Mediterranean.
For that very moment, Desert Island Disco make their MM Discos debut with a record tailor-made for the summer of 2026. Splitting their time between London and Lisbon, the collective have already shown a deep affinity for African-rooted midtempo sounds through releases on Shades of Sound and Mister T Records, alongside a steady stream of sought-after self-released edits on their Bandcamp.
This time, Desert Island Disco dive headfirst into South Africa, drawing deeply from the worlds of Kwaito and Bubblegum to deliver a record steeped in the warmth, groove and unmistakable spirit of both genres.
From its South African foundations, *World View* reaches far beyond, weaving together tropical textures, Caribbean flavours and Balearic sensibilities into something fluid and difficult to pin down. A borderless collection where geography becomes secondary to feeling, yet every track remains firmly rooted in the dancefloor.
Welcome Tori Kudo back to A Colourful Storm with a new edition of Maher Shalal Hash Baz's Faux Départ, a document of a stateside tour that culminated in a recording session at the legendary Dub Narcotic Studio with a one-time ensemble of Greg Saunier and Chris Cohen (Deerhoof), Andrew Maxwell, McCloud Zicmuse, Arrington de Dionyso, Takashi Ueno, Saya Ueno, Naoki Otani, Akiko Hotaka, Masaaki Endo and Naoki Otani. Always spontaneous, never rehearsed. Music in and of this world, seemingly teetering on the verge of collapse.
"We flew to the US for a show with Red Crayola in Los Angeles and initially stayed at Rick Potts' house. There, I met up with The Curtains and hit the road in their car. We headed north, writing down every melody that came to mind. I slept in the gap between the wall and the sofa and got interrupted by a herd of cows along the way, but I finally arrived in Olympia and recorded all the melodies I'd written down, which became Faux Depart. There, I found McCloud, a noble beggar who was sleeping in the studio and playing the bassoon on the street." - Tori Kudo, 2026
"Chris Cohen, who played in Deerhoof from 2001-2006 or so, was an obsessive Maher fan. When our other band, The Curtains, was given a chance to support Maher on a West Coast tour, we got to see up close how Tori leads - often by not leading. He is an unpredictable, wild musical genius and card-carrying eccentric." - Greg Saunier, 2026
Silk Cuts fresh drop of more ”nameless and shameless" goodness. Essential 7-inch mashups delivering floor-fillers lovingly crafted for all the party DJs, turntablists and heads. This time we’re deep into early 90s source, these are limited edition 7 inches, when they’re gone they’re gone. Highly recommended and available exclusively through prime distribution. More Silk adventures to follow……
2024 feiern die Broilers ihren runden Geburtstag: 1994 - 2024, 30 Jahre Broilers. 30 gemeinsame Jahre bedeuten Wachsen und Zusammenwachsen. Auch miteinander streiten und zusammen streiten – für die gute Sache. Zusammen feiern und zusammenstehen, in den Besten aller Zeiten und den Schlechtesten aller Zeiten. Und weil es für jede gute Geburtstagsparty auch die passende Musik geben muss, hat die Band zum ersten Mal alle ihre Hits und Lieblingslieder auf einem Album versammelt. Und nicht nur das, die Broilers machen sich selbst ein Geschenk: Zehn der 22 enthaltenen Songs, nämlich alle, die vor 2011 eingespielt wurden, haben sie noch einmal komplett neu aufgenommen. So erstrahlen legendäre Broilers-Klassiker in zeitgemäßem Glanz, ohne ihre Wurzeln zu verleugnen. Die Broilers sind ein Phänomen: Seit über einem Jahrzehnt gehören sie konstant zu den erfolgreichsten Rockbands im deutschsprachigen Raum. Millionen verkaufter Konzertkarten, Nummer- 1-Charts-Platzierungen, Edelmetallauszeichnungen in Folge, kaum ein Superlativ, den die Gruppe sich noch nicht zu eigen gemacht hätte. Ein paar Schulfreunde aus den Vierteln am Stadtrand von Düsseldorf gründeten 1994 eine Band, die sich am ruppigen Sound einer Streetpunk-Variante orientierte, der schon Anfang der 80er-Jahre unter der Bezeichnung „Oi!“ auf der britischen Insel das Licht der Welt erblickte. Die bedingungslose Liebe, die ihnen bis heute von vielen ihrer Anhängerschaft entgegengebracht wird, hat ihren Ursprung in dieser Zeit. Neben den Liedern, mit denen sie über die Jahre ihren Hörern stets aufs Neue aus dem Herzen sprachen, führte aber auch die Kombination der individuellen Charaktere der einzelnen Musiker an die Spitze: Wie fünf Superhelden aus einer Comicserie bündeln sie als Team ihre Kräfte, begeistern so die Fans und können aus dieser Unterschiedlichkeit Kraft schöpfen und spenden. Die Broilers haben keine Angst vor Pathos, Emotionen und Kontrasten: In ihrer Musik sind wuchtige Bläsersätze, Offbeats, da ist Soul und Rocksteady, da sind Flirts mit Power-Pop und Kitsch und das alles, als wäre es das Logischste und Normalste auf der Welt. Diese eklektische Mischung trauen sich nicht viele. Die Broilers wollen es sich anders gar nicht mehr vorstellen. »Jolly Good Fellas – Best of Broilers 1994 - 2024« legt davon eindrucksvoll Zeugnis ab!
What an unbelievable record. From the wild cover to the iconic breakbeats, Roots from Ian Carr’s Nucleus is one of the dopest albums we know. This is seriously thick, funky-prog jazz-rock heaven. Originally released on Vertigo in 1973, other than a couple of versions at the time for other territories, Roots was never re-pressed since so it’s gone on to become another one of those impossible to find records.
Maybe it was a little too out there for the time, but it’s aged very, very well indeed and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.
Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.
Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels.
Working together with producer Fritz Fryer and engineer Roger Wake, the seven compositions by Carr, Brian Smith and Dave MacRae that make up Roots flirt with perfection, and Nucleus at that time made up of the cream of 1970s UK jazz with Brian Smith on tenor saxophones and flutes, Dave MacRae on piano and electric piano, Jocelyn Pitchen on guitar, Roger Sutton on bass, both Clive Thacker and Aureo De Souza on drums and percussion, Joy Yates delivering the vocals and of course Carr on trumpet.
The spellbinding title track immediately renders the album indispensable. Riding the illest of loping breakbeats, “Roots” is low-slung, doped-out heist-funk. An absolute monster. If it sounds familiar then that’s likely down to it being sampled by Madlib for Lootpack and Quasimoto’s “Loop Digga”, as well as by a whole host of beat manipulators. “Roots” conjures prime instrumental hip-hop / beat music, only 20 years ahead of its time. Truly, these are the roots. Through sinuous bass, twinkling keys and a hypnotic guitar riff, a smoky brass motif weaves its way into a gloriously deep haze around Carr’s solos. “Roots” is over 9 minutes long, but there’s not a single wasted second, not surprising given that this is a condensed version of an originally 40 minute long commissioned composition.
The soothing vocal fusion delight of “Images” follows. Meticulously constructed, with gorgeous flute work from Brian Smith, with Joy Yates’ silky vocals and Dave MacRae’s Rhodes never sounding better. The cool, driving “Caliban” closes out the first side. Originally the third movement in a four part commission to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday it stands up on its own, all robust rhythms and blended brass. Keyboard colour and Carr’s trumpet are splashed across the funk drums and basslines (and there’s even some bamboo flute). This really is fusion: the elements of jazz and rock coming together in beautifully synthesis.
Side two opens in riotous fashion with the short, thrilling samba of “Wapatiti”. Next up, “Capricorn” forms a smoothed-out, jazzy constellation. Mellow and dreamy, its twinkling percussion and languid horns slowly build the vibe before head-nod drums and a killer bassline enter the fray. With a distinct heaviness that Black Sabbath would’ve envied, “Odokamona” is a venomous slice of riff-soaked jazz metal (yes, you read that right), elevated by Carr’s wah-wah horns.
The album closes with MacRae’s exceptionally cosmic “Southern Roots and Celebration”. Very much in conversation with Weather Report, it opens as a languorous, spiritual jazz of chiming keys and serene guitar that turns slowly, gorgeously into a mid-paced, brass-laced banger. It’s another sure-fire party starter and the sound of the band having a righteous blast, building an ecstatic chaos that ends with Yates screaming.
And of course we need to talk about Keith Davis’ cover for Roots. Perhaps the coolest record cover of all time? Certainly one of the most bonkers. Just your run-of-the-mill high-gloss, acid-tinged airbrush dystopian/utopian living-room party scene. Consider this your chemical flashback trigger warning.
Front-and-centre the hip-to-death green robot holds court with their giant ball of yellow barbwire wool, hooked up to… something(?) being teased out from under the stairs (probably best not to ask). A thoroughly zoned-out, long-legged Pop Art party-goer lounges half-plugged in to the painting behind her as a pair of legs flail into shot from the the top of the stairs opposite. We won’t even begin to guess what the chap’s up to in the middle, but the view out of the windows is rather nice, and someone’s already got the hoover out ready to tidy up. All of the Nucleus sleeves are something special, but this particular one? Crikey.
This Be With edition of Roots has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The crazy cover has been restored at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.
The year was 1989, and Derrick May was at a creative peak as both a DJ and producer. Under his Rhythim Is Rhythim moniker, he released a string of landmark records on Transmat, while his residency at Detroit's The Music Institute showcased the distinctive DJ style that would soon take him onto the international stage. Around the same time, he hosted a weekly radio show on Detroit radio station WJLB, alongside influential programs by The Electrifying Mojo and The Wizard (Jeff Mills).
For one of these broadcasts, May assembled a 15-minute megamix in his studio during the week leading up to the show. He opened his radio set with this continuous mix, blending his own tracks and versions into a seamless introduction that reflected his approach to DJing at the time. It includes unreleased versions of classics such as ‘Nude Photo 88’ and ‘Strings Of Life’.
‘All of this is unreleased because I made it as I was playing it on the spot as a special Mayday Mix for my show on the radio station WJLB in 1989, edited together straight from the keyboards live to tape. There is no other recording of these tracks in this form, only here’.
The original WJLB master tapes have since been lost, and no official recording is known to survive. Fortunately, many listeners recorded the broadcasts at home. One such cassette, preserved by Richie Hawtin, eventually made it our way. It has been carefully restored and mastered, with the artist’s approval.
To highlight this remarkable document of techno history, the recording is now available as a limited-edition, one-sided 12-inch release. The mix has been cut as a continuous side, visually divided into eight sections, while the reverse features a custom engraving.
There is a hush most of us only knew as children, the warm drift between familiar household sounds and being carried to bed, a place that belongs to you and to some self you have not met yet. June McDoom’s debut full-length, Follow the Light, lives in that dream space and then keeps walking, slipping out of time and waking somewhere new, barely familiar enough to feel like home yet wholly your own. She came up in a Jamaican household on the edge of the Florida Everglades, an existence built of extended family, communal care, bass and harmonics. Her father, a carpenter and a student of sound, built his own speakers and kept three sound systems going across as many rooms. His low end would rise through her bedroom floor like some wayward cat while she lay above it with folk records, finding harmonies that were new and hers alone. Two musics in one room. Lushness as past and premonition. She found folk on her own, somewhere between the cast recording of The Sound of Music and Simon and Garfunkel, while everyone around her called it sleepy music. She did not mind being the only one. The solitude let her fall for harmony first, before words, before anything else, and harmony is still the thing she reaches for. Generationally speaking, the music was already in the air. Her grandfather, Colin Smith, is a distinguished mento man who played banjo and guitar and built his own rumba boxes, worked to keep Jamaica’s oldest acoustic folk form alive. Mento is the root of all of it: ska, rock steady, reggae, dub and everything after. He is the one who put a guitar in her hands. An inheritance, a gift and a map. Even her name is part of it, though she will tell you she landed on it more by feel than reason. She records as June McDoom, born Alyssa, June being a nickname one of her grandmothers, Joan, went by, a name she thought was cool to carry and simply liked the sound of. An etheric channel that reverberates all the same. A dub all its own.
Made slowly and by hand with her longtime partner Evan Wright, Follow the Light lays the harmony of folk over the rhythm of dub, with Dionne Warwick, Minnie Riperton, Pentangle and the washed guitars of Cocteau Twins haunting its outer edges. Voice and guitar seeking each other out first, then everything else stacked across long days in the studio they keep at home, restraint kept on purpose. The lead single “Without You” is the whole method surfacing, split open and sparkling like a geode in a creek bed. Angelic heroics, and nothing less.
At the heart is family. Her grandmother Aggie, the light behind “Memory,” guiding still. And underneath, the quieter truth the record keeps: none of us are only one person, but a continuum of selves, the ones who shaped us and the ones we have yet to meet. Future you is an ancestor your current self gets to greet. Press play and the same invitation is yours: A few minutes out of time, a place that turns familiar the longer you stay until you surface somewhere new and find it was yours all along
There is a hush most of us only knew as children, the warm drift between familiar household sounds and being carried to bed, a place that belongs to you and to some self you have not met yet. June McDoom’s debut full-length, Follow the Light, lives in that dream space and then keeps walking, slipping out of time and waking somewhere new, barely familiar enough to feel like home yet wholly your own. She came up in a Jamaican household on the edge of the Florida Everglades, an existence built of extended family, communal care, bass and harmonics. Her father, a carpenter and a student of sound, built his own speakers and kept three sound systems going across as many rooms. His low end would rise through her bedroom floor like some wayward cat while she lay above it with folk records, finding harmonies that were new and hers alone. Two musics in one room. Lushness as past and premonition. She found folk on her own, somewhere between the cast recording of The Sound of Music and Simon and Garfunkel, while everyone around her called it sleepy music. She did not mind being the only one. The solitude let her fall for harmony first, before words, before anything else, and harmony is still the thing she reaches for. Generationally speaking, the music was already in the air. Her grandfather, Colin Smith, is a distinguished mento man who played banjo and guitar and built his own rumba boxes, worked to keep Jamaica’s oldest acoustic folk form alive. Mento is the root of all of it: ska, rock steady, reggae, dub and everything after. He is the one who put a guitar in her hands. An inheritance, a gift and a map. Even her name is part of it, though she will tell you she landed on it more by feel than reason. She records as June McDoom, born Alyssa, June being a nickname one of her grandmothers, Joan, went by, a name she thought was cool to carry and simply liked the sound of. An etheric channel that reverberates all the same. A dub all its own.
Made slowly and by hand with her longtime partner Evan Wright, Follow the Light lays the harmony of folk over the rhythm of dub, with Dionne Warwick, Minnie Riperton, Pentangle and the washed guitars of Cocteau Twins haunting its outer edges. Voice and guitar seeking each other out first, then everything else stacked across long days in the studio they keep at home, restraint kept on purpose. The lead single “Without You” is the whole method surfacing, split open and sparkling like a geode in a creek bed. Angelic heroics, and nothing less.
At the heart is family. Her grandmother Aggie, the light behind “Memory,” guiding still. And underneath, the quieter truth the record keeps: none of us are only one person, but a continuum of selves, the ones who shaped us and the ones we have yet to meet. Future you is an ancestor your current self gets to greet. Press play and the same invitation is yours: A few minutes out of time, a place that turns familiar the longer you stay until you surface somewhere new and find it was yours all along
* long version / previously unreleased on vinyl
** exclusive / previously unreleased
Felix Laband's highly acclaimed electronica masterpiece album "Dark Days Exit" (2005) is now available as an Extended Version 2LP vinyl. Originally planned for last year's 20th anniversary, this special edition features a new design by Felix Laband and includes a double-sided DIN A2 art print. Dark Days Exit features four exclusive tracks, alongside five vinyl-only tracks available for the first time in their original long versions. Listening to the key track, Sleeping Household, on Dark Days Exit is unsettling: like being an impostor rambling around an uncanny house, a Lynchian leitmotif in the form of a young girl divulging secrets that you probably shouldn't hear. Dark Days Exit is an album that paints an interior landscape, an invitation to transgress private thresholds. Made with old-school production tools that require hands-on application, Dark Days Exit is a sound-production tour de force. The music is as wide as the savannah and microscopic at the same time, a lesson in what can be achieved when 'music' is placed on an equal footing with sound as a phenomenon, by an artist who decides to apply themselves without reserve. The masterful manipulation of reverb and delays and hyper-detail was a generation ahead of its time, and Dark Days Exit is preferred by audiophiles for testing their systems. Dark Days Exit is intimate, demanding, and a masterclass in tension, and Laband's ability to use all sound without hierarchy to paint a detailed personal vision — one that is less overtly political and streetwise than on subsequent albums — is unsurpassed. Most discerning listeners are into music because, in the hands of a master, it can manipulate our mood and transport us. Felix Laband opens with a sonic portrait of spring happiness and gradually dismantles the atmosphere in front of our ears, as epitomised by the haunting track Black Shoes. No sooner are we afraid than the artist drops us off where we started. In many ways, the intimacy derives from the tight group of friends and believers whom Laband corralled as contributors: Mark van Niekerk (xylophone, "Miss Teardrop"), Jane Rademeyer (clarinet, "Black Shoes," "Radio Right Now"), Brendon Bussy (mandolin, "Black Shoes"), and Derek Gripper (sampled violin, used throughout) and Alex van Heerden on Minka. The difficulty in categorising Dark Days Exit is probably due to Laband listening mostly to ambient and classical music at the time, and consequently registering the album at the lush, cinematic end of the electronic spectrum. There is poise and restraint in the spare use of beats, and when they do appear, they hit hard. Forged in the optimistic post-apartheid years, Dark Days Exit is music about life and death, spanning hope, despair, terror, tension, with humour and empathy. Twenty one years on, the album's gravity endures, due to its almost perverse authenticity, its timeless themes of hope and despair, and its apex level of technical mastery. The additional, immaculately produced tracks add new rooms to the uncanny house we are invited into.
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