Cerca:el fin

Format Details: 12” matte jacket, orange & blue side A/B effect colour vinyl, dust sleeve & marketing sticker.

Originally released in 2002, Daylight EP was the follow-up to Aesop Rock’s critically-acclaimed Labor Days album, a cult classic released only six months prior. The EP was built around its titular opening song, “Daylight,” one of the standout tracks from Labor Days, and continued expanding upon the range and depth of Aesop’s multi-talented gifts for writing and producing. In addition to the title track, Daylight EP also included its counterpoint, “Night Light,” an alternate version in concept whose paraphrased lyrics simultaneously refer back to– and stand in stark opposition to– the original's, over darker, more menacing production. The tracklist for Daylight EP boasted seven songs plus a hidden track for a total of eight, and collectively featured production by Blockhead, El-P, Blueprint and Aesop Rock himself, as well as guest appearances from Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox) and Blueprint.
At the time of its initial release, Daylight EP was only offered in CD and digital formats, while the vinyl was stripped back, available only as a three-song 12” single. Now, Rhymesayers Entertainment is pleased to present the complete EP on vinyl for the first time ever, pressed on two-color side A/B effect orange & blue vinyl to complement the original artwork. Finally, fans and vinyl collectors everywhere can own this integral piece of Aesop Rock’s legacy and enjoy the genius behind this project.

Mancunian-based record shop Haunted Dancehall is happy to reveal the first addition to its new label: Would You Kindly, a four tracks EP by rising talent Jibz, crafted in his Parisian home studio and designed for (haunted) dancefloors.

Digging into techno, electro and progressive territories, Would You Kindly kicks off with Flat Pillow, a dancefloor-tailored track with evolving drum patterns, thick basslines and a definitive haunting feel. Then, Inari offers relentless rythms along with energy-loaded synths, reminding us that the whole EP was first thought as a live jam.

On the flip side, Lane Gank gifts us with broken beats rythms and spatial soundscapes to take us in a videogame-like trip. Finally, the EP closes on Anaphylaxis, blending numerous influences to wreck clubs and festivals, and acting as a keepsake of the contagious energy of the whole release.

After a three-year hiatus from releasing new music, Błoto knew they had to make up for the long wait with a flood of fresh material. Their fruitful recording sessions at Studio Pasterka produced a wave of new tracks—like mushrooms springing up after the rain. These sessions have already brought us two 7" singles, the Grzybnia LP, and now, rounding off this chapter, comes the final piece: the album Grzyby (eng. Mushrooms).

Anticipation for new Błoto releases reached a fever pitch. Vinyl collectors quickly snapped up all copies of the singles Szlam / Ścieki and Bakteria, the latter featuring a guest appearance by DāM-FunK. In less than six months, nearly all copies of Grzybnia were sold out—setting a record pace for Astigmatic Records. In the meantime, the album was nominated for a Fryderyk Award in the Alternative Music category. Though Grzybnia didn’t take home the prize, Błoto did win a Fryderyk for their track “Godzina W”, featured on the WAWA album dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising. It’s been an electrifying time for the band, filled with shows across Poland and abroad.

Known for her delicate, subtly psychedelic approach to production - all subtlety is thrown out of the window on the opener, “Parents and God”. We are immediately confronted with a slamming Chicago house style beat in style of Mr Fingers at his most utilitarian. It slams, jerking in and out of tempo like Ron Hardy in beast mode.

Out of nowhere a soulful church organ arrives - at first for a brief respite - but then for an extended solo, which gives way to an 80s electro style breakdown before reverting back to form. It shouldn’t work, but somehow it does - to a dizzying extent - and heirin lies Mayurashka’s magic: a blatant disregard for norms and a deft touch that makes the unorthodox so compelling.

“Notango" takes another big left turn - sitting somewhere between tribal seance and rain dance, it’s mostly organic drums and otherworldly sound effects that combine to drag us deeper into the wormhole before “ Vat Murmur” takes us back into the light with its uptempo disco energy and giving way to heavy chugging bass. This one is equally for fans of idjut boys and Larry Levan.

The EP rounds off with the title track “ LSI dreaming” - to try and describe it is almost impossible, but let’s say it starts of with a mid 2000s Perlon-era tech house energy before things quickly escalate beyond all recognition and then just hover with lysergic intensity. If I ever closed panorama bar, this is the track I’d end with.

Barcelona’s Egyptian Greyhound and Berlin-based Ziel join forces in search of a modern sound rooted in the spirit of classic dancefloor cuts. Riding the revival wave, their EP blends Progressive, Trance, and Balearic elements with Classic House undertones.

A1 – Ziel’s "Divinity" is a sensual vocal track, channeling the eroticism and transcendentalism of past eras. Straddling the line between after-hours soft-trance and progressive house with Hi-NRG ambition, it delivers a compelling emotional punch.

A2 – "A Life in Paradise" follows in tone but leans further into Classic House. Less Hi-NRG, more warmth — it’s a strong warm-up tool, ideal for building energy early on.

B1 – "Nature Dancer" by Egyptian Greyhound brings a powerful kick and drum groove for peak time, combining Balearic colors and trancey aesthetics to ignite the dancefloor.

B2 – "Ace of Swords" sees both producers come together for a trippy, acid-tinged closer that fuses deep Trance and Balearic moods into a dreamy final statement.

Returning to the Bordello, and the seven-inch, is Real Velour. This secretive figure reappears with two tracks of indie dance that bend and re-shape elements of italo disco, minimal pop and synth wave to create an utterly unique experience. Sleazy basslines and tropical percussion give way to heavily vocodered words in “Lover”, machine amor breaking to spoken human voice as melodies twirl. The romance described is one of passion, of friendship and of fidelity; but, with a hint of control. Clever and addictive, the composition cherry-picks bittersweet sounds to depict this relationship. The flip, “Look What You’ve Done”, maintains the candystore keys of the A-Side; the tone shifting as lyrics adopt a brazen and fortified vigour. It appears maybe that the promises of “Lover” have been shattered. While the love story turns to hurt feelings and regret, Real Velour keep the energy high to revel in the final break-up.

Sweet Free Association is back with new productions this time, an essential debut EP from London-based producer Convertible.
A three track 12inch that touches on all areas of house but stays driving and DEEP! TIP!

The label says:
"Every once in a while something special comes along and this is one of those moments!
Sensitively crafted over time, the result is lush and timeless electronic music that is full of emotion and depth and that invokes the highest feelings of ecstasy!
Teased over the last 6 months in clubs and on radio, the music is consistently the highlight of my set, with the reaction from both the floor and the amount of messages I have received about these ‘unknown’ being staggering. But try it for yourself and you will find out!

Support from Chaos in the CBD, Ryan Elliott, Alex Kassian, Kléo and Millos Kaiser."

All tracks written and produced by Convertible.
Mastered by Frank at The Carvery.
Like The Rain additional mixing by Brain Rays.
Comes in gradient-coloured sleeve.

Following on from last year's acclaimed ‘R.O.I.’ album, Manchester’s favourite sons Aerial Salad are set to return to the fray with a brand new 5-track EP titled ‘Roi de l’herb’ to be released June 27th via Venn Records.
Having released their ‘Dirt Mall’ album during lockdown, which was a pretty grim time to put an album out, the release still eventually opened up some exciting doors for the band and captured Aerial Salad at their most Aerial Salad; loud, brash, silly and emotive.
This led swiftly to 2024’s ‘R.O.I.’ album that marked a real evolution in the band’s sound and songwriting.

“R.O.I. is a concept album but rather than being about a band, it’s from the perspective of an individual pushed to the brink of insanity by the ever-present quest from commercial success,” explains singer and guitarist Jamie Munro. “The idea came from my job; I’ve been working in the tech industry in ‘sales’. ‘Return on investment’ was probably my most uttered phrase for a few years, I was sick of it, sick of having no positive impact on the world and sick of the tech bro, double espresso, thirsty thursdays, work hard - play hard bollocks culture that comes with it. ‘R.O.I.’ is me saying ‘know what, you can actually earn a lot of money in life, even without the fallacy of educational infrastructure and financial privilege, however, it comes at the cost of your soul, time and energy. ‘R.O.I.’ is called such because it’s in the opposite pursuit, it’s not about a return on a financial investment, it’s about doing something with your life that’s enjoyable.”
This brings us crashing into 2025, no longer in the same line of spirit destroying work, with some seriously exciting gigs on the horizon, Aerial Salad wanted to kick off the next era of the band with a short, fast and hard EP and have served up 5 absolute bangers that sit somewhere between ‘Dirt Mall’ and ‘R.O.I.’ The EP is called ‘Roi de l’herb’ because of the track ‘King Of The Grass’: “We tour and play a lot in France, we’ve played most of our “best” gigs in France, so out of curiosity I wanted to see if the title would translate well, naturally, when the translation contained both “ROI” and l’herbe” - I though, fuck it, that’s about as spot on a title for this EP as we can possibly muster.”
‘King of The Grass’ is about the band’s bassist Mike Wimbo who works for Rochdale council on the greens team, which means he spends his life in the pouring rain chopping down overgrown hedges and mowing lawns. Elsewhere on the EP, ‘Inject Your Blood’ is another romantic love song inspired by the TV series ‘True Blood’ (“I’d inject your blood, into mine just to feel you close”), ‘Wires’ rages against the world of AI and GPT, whilst the EP’s opening track ‘My Girl’ is a chaotic, high energy catchy punk song, nothing profound, nothing complicated. It’s a punk song as god intended, a few chords and a load of shouting.
“The EP is like the teaser for what’s next,” summarises Jamie. “The overall hook for this EP is one of hope, that by sticking to what you believe in you can do anything.”

Repress!

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.



Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.



Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytumcomosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”



But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.



The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.



“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.



Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.



Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’snew renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

Following on from the single release of ‘Intentions’, Soul Quest is pleased to present a myriad of remixes alongside a resonating live version of the original cut - and in doing so, serving up a package of lively renditions that add further to the label’s soulful sound.

‘Intentions’ in its original guise was the result of a joint musical adventure from label head Max Sinal, producer and longtime collaborator Kingcrowney, and vocalist Liv East. The track is Soul Quest to its core, with simmering and emotive chords interlaced between a softly spoken yet impactful rhythm section. East provides some inspired vocal work up top, her angelic voice floating through the breeze, shining light on all corners, as the totality of the musical package gives over only the most heartfelt and joyful feels. It seems only fitting that the original track be explored and reconsidered by some of the finest producers currently going, and with this remix album, you see all sides of ‘Intentions’ possible. Up first comes producer extraordinaire Frits Wentink, who takes the atmosphere firmly into the clubbing sphere. Wentink breaks down all the elements with razorsharp precision, drawing focus to the central progression by adding in new, repeating chordal elements that revolve around the kicks. As the track shifts through the gears, lines emerge and grow in stature, with plenty of time for breakdowns to get that full dose of the original’s emotive brilliance.

Dallas based deep house legend, JT Donaldson features next with not one but two remixes, the first of which retains the forward progression of the original but adds in some exciting elements. The addition of the driving bass line gives depth to the undercurrent, with stripped-back sections allowing the flow to meander through some very profound atmospheres. The ‘Dub’ version strips back East’s vocals to draw more focus to the groove and melodic sequences, and as a flip side to the first remix, the duo encapsulates all that could be wished for in a soulful house number.

Flying Moth is up next, with his spin consisting of a more hypnotic approach, with skipping broken drums creating melodic pools and caverns. East’s voice echoes through space and time, enticing further escapism as the track grows and morphs with each passing minute - a beautiful saucerful of sound that is oh so intoxicating.

Finally, to wrap things up, the live version lands to take the energy down to a beautiful canter. The rhythm section takes the form of a full percussive outlay, which speaks gently amidst a sea of exquisite guitar licks, breezy chords, and brass. East is the star of the show here, her voice the anchor within the ever-evolving backing section, which drifts and lulls with a wondrous effortlessness.

‘Intentions’ as a single contained all the sonic qualities which Soul Quest treasure, and with this collection of remixes and live versions, its meaningfulness is only added to. From imaginative takes through to inspired audial environment

A psychedelic start for the imprint where Digregorius tricks and conducts us into unknown lands...
Find the answers through this spiritual and musical exploration that waves from Folk to electro/ techno.

"Lern ma Deutsch!" - Die seit fast zwei Jahrzenten ausverkaufte und hochgehandelte Kultscheibe der Emscherkurve77 als Sammler-Edition mit fetter Bonus-LP ("und anderen Lektionen") endlich wieder - streng limitiert - erhältlich! Für das "Lern ma Deutsch!" Album haben die Jungs seinerzeit (2002) ihre Oi! & Punk- & Hardcore-Lieblingssongs zusammen mit den Original-Sängern der Bands neu aufgenommen, mit augenzwinkernden Humor interpretiert und "perfekt" eingedeutscht! Von The Cracks "This is my world/ Meine Welt" bis hin zu The Toasters, Murphy's Law, (Secret Agent Skin..ääh Spiller), Cockney Rejects, Agnostic Front, The Business, Dropkick Muphys, Antiseen...ach, schaut einfach die Tracklist selbst an. So eine Scheibe mit dieser prominenten Beteiligung wird wohl nie wieder kommen! Zeitlos, vom Kulturminister garantiert nicht empfohlen und auch heute noch etwas ganz Besonderes! Aber damit nicht genug, denn auf der Bonus-LP finden sich "andere Lektionen" in Form von Demo-Raritäten und gesuchten Sampler-Beiträgen, z.B. vom Johnny Cash-Tribute Sampler ("San Quentin") mit Gunter Gabriel), einen Coversong von Gunter selbst (Intercity Linie Nr.4) oder alle Songs von der ebenfalls vergriffenen Split-Scheibe mit Hudson Falcons "One Size Slits All" von 2003. Insgesamt 27 Songs (oder sind es sogar 28?) auf erstmals Doppel-Vinyl! Eine Nachhilfestunde der punkigeren Art!. Woanders hieß das wohl Deluxe Edition mit Röstaroma, hier "Lern ma Deutsch! und andere Lektionen" Doppel-Vinyl als 2LP schwarz, 2LP zwei Farben oder 2LP zwei Splatter! In Klappcover, mit Insert und verstecktem Bonustrack auf der D-Seite.

"Lern ma Deutsch!" - Die seit fast zwei Jahrzenten ausverkaufte und hochgehandelte Kultscheibe der Emscherkurve77 als Sammler-Edition mit fetter Bonus-LP ("und anderen Lektionen") endlich wieder - streng limitiert - erhältlich! Für das "Lern ma Deutsch!" Album haben die Jungs seinerzeit (2002) ihre Oi! & Punk- & Hardcore-Lieblingssongs zusammen mit den Original-Sängern der Bands neu aufgenommen, mit augenzwinkernden Humor interpretiert und "perfekt" eingedeutscht! Von The Cracks "This is my world/ Meine Welt" bis hin zu The Toasters, Murphy's Law, (Secret Agent Skin..ääh Spiller), Cockney Rejects, Agnostic Front, The Business, Dropkick Muphys, Antiseen...ach, schaut einfach die Tracklist selbst an. So eine Scheibe mit dieser prominenten Beteiligung wird wohl nie wieder kommen! Zeitlos, vom Kulturminister garantiert nicht empfohlen und auch heute noch etwas ganz Besonderes! Aber damit nicht genug, denn auf der Bonus-LP finden sich "andere Lektionen" in Form von Demo-Raritäten und gesuchten Sampler-Beiträgen, z.B. vom Johnny Cash-Tribute Sampler ("San Quentin") mit Gunter Gabriel), einen Coversong von Gunter selbst (Intercity Linie Nr.4) oder alle Songs von der ebenfalls vergriffenen Split-Scheibe mit Hudson Falcons "One Size Slits All" von 2003. Insgesamt 27 Songs (oder sind es sogar 28?) auf erstmals Doppel-Vinyl! Eine Nachhilfestunde der punkigeren Art!. Woanders hieß das wohl Deluxe Edition mit Röstaroma, hier "Lern ma Deutsch! und andere Lektionen" Doppel-Vinyl als 2LP schwarz, 2LP zwei Farben oder 2LP zwei Splatter! In Klappcover, mit Insert und verstecktem Bonustrack auf der D-Seite.

"Lern ma Deutsch!" - Die seit fast zwei Jahrzenten ausverkaufte und hochgehandelte Kultscheibe der Emscherkurve77 als Sammler-Edition mit fetter Bonus-LP ("und anderen Lektionen") endlich wieder - streng limitiert - erhältlich! Für das "Lern ma Deutsch!" Album haben die Jungs seinerzeit (2002) ihre Oi! & Punk- & Hardcore-Lieblingssongs zusammen mit den Original-Sängern der Bands neu aufgenommen, mit augenzwinkernden Humor interpretiert und "perfekt" eingedeutscht! Von The Cracks "This is my world/ Meine Welt" bis hin zu The Toasters, Murphy's Law, (Secret Agent Skin..ääh Spiller), Cockney Rejects, Agnostic Front, The Business, Dropkick Muphys, Antiseen...ach, schaut einfach die Tracklist selbst an. So eine Scheibe mit dieser prominenten Beteiligung wird wohl nie wieder kommen! Zeitlos, vom Kulturminister garantiert nicht empfohlen und auch heute noch etwas ganz Besonderes! Aber damit nicht genug, denn auf der Bonus-LP finden sich "andere Lektionen" in Form von Demo-Raritäten und gesuchten Sampler-Beiträgen, z.B. vom Johnny Cash-Tribute Sampler ("San Quentin") mit Gunter Gabriel), einen Coversong von Gunter selbst (Intercity Linie Nr.4) oder alle Songs von der ebenfalls vergriffenen Split-Scheibe mit Hudson Falcons "One Size Slits All" von 2003. Insgesamt 27 Songs (oder sind es sogar 28?) auf erstmals Doppel-Vinyl! Eine Nachhilfestunde der punkigeren Art!. Woanders hieß das wohl Deluxe Edition mit Röstaroma, hier "Lern ma Deutsch! und andere Lektionen" Doppel-Vinyl als 2LP schwarz, 2LP zwei Farben oder 2LP zwei Splatter! In Klappcover, mit Insert und verstecktem Bonustrack auf der D-Seite.

“(Cheer-Accident have) earned a reputation for extreme left turns - following collections of complex, metallic art rock with albums stuffed with piano-driven balladry cementing a practice of defying expectations that’s endured for more than three or four decades, depending on when you recognize as the group's actual genesis” - THE WIRE

From Cheer-Accident's liner notes: It’s weird to have so few words to say about our best album to date, but… well…

Our Best Album? Out of 26?

That’s not nothing.

What makes it “our best?” Is it the songs? Is it the production? Is it the convergence of those two elements? What if we added “accessibility?” It is, after all, a pop album. You know, very much in the same way that “The Why Album” and “What Sequel?” are. In fact, we very nearly named it “Now What”, viewing it as the final installment in this pop trilogy.

But that started to feel wrong, because: Why get locked into a “series” every time we happen to lean on the more melodic and concise aspect of what we do?

You know, and the thing is, this isn’t any kind of “return.” This is something new. Though it certainly shares DNA with the aforementioned What/Why releases, it also very much incorporates the rock and dissonance and experimentation present in many of our other forays. Maybe this is simply where we landed. Maybe this is what we are now. Maybe we’ve finally found the combination of ingredients that so perfectly synthesize as our aesthetic that there’s no need to go on from here. Maybe we’ve stopped. Maybe we’re done. Maybe we’ve finally found that sweet spot between the “adventurous” and the “palatable,” and we now intend to rest on our laurels.

What an Admission that would be.

Emerging from the fertile chaos of Düsseldorf’s Salon des Amateurs scene, Sequence of Events, the collaborative project of Deniz Saridas and Joshua Gottmanns, presents The Art of Memory, an album that feels both intimate and ungraspable, like recalling a dream that fades upon waking.

Rooted in the post-industrial landscapes of West Germany, The Art of Memory channels the bleak resilience of these environments into its sound. It’s a collage of kraut-infused electronics, shoegaze textures, and industrial pulses, filtered through a lens of introspective psychedelia. “We don’t consciously break down or combine genres,” they explain. “Everything is interwoven, like chemistry. Some reactions happen immediately, others take years under pressure.”

From the opening track TAR, with its stoic vocals and drum-heavy propulsion, to the robotic Meagre Gardens, where autotuned chants coil around unconventional drum programming, the album moves like a fever dream through fragmented memories. Soul Divider unfolds like a cinematic journey through yearning and desire, its repetitive pulses echoing the ache of unfulfilled longing, while Nature Hates Life distills pop music through the eyes of a killjoy: “Kurt Cobain on an AKAI MPC2000,” as the band describes it. Even moments of tenderness, like the drifting Becomings, shimmer with absolute sensuality: a seductive exploration of presence defined by absence. We lift each other up and hold each other down.

The creative process behind The Art of Memory is as fluid as the music itself. Saridas and Gottmanns, both self-taught musicians with backgrounds in fine art, worked intuitively, drawing from a shared pool of samples, text fragments, and images. Operating somewhere in the space between fin de siècle aesthetics and occultism, it’s a dream wedding with a continuous stream of meaningless (moving) images generated by human and non-human entities.

Ultimately, The Art of Memory is not an escape but an immersion. A meditation on the sensory overload of the present and the ghosts it leaves in its wake. In a world where music is often reduced to background noise for consumption, Sequence of Events offers something more elusive: a record that lingers, unsettles, and demands to be remembered.

Underground Pacific is back with a new double vinyl compilation titled ‘The Only Good Wave is a Dead One’ that confirms, once again, its uncompromising taste for bold electronic music, psychedelic textures, and raw, electrified rock ‘n roll. This release brings together a varied group of artists, each of them adding something special to the journey.

The trip begins with “Excursions” by Gregory Moore, a piece that floats into a humid sonic world, between the nostalgic tones of vintage video game soundtracks, the Fourth World atmospheres of Jon Hassell, and the shimmering calm of ’90s Japanese ambient à la Takashi Kokubo.

Next comes Talee, the Rotterdam-based regular of the label, with “Makes Me Wonder”. Here, grunge-soaked vocals meet a tight dark disco groove, pierced by crystalline guitar chords that shimmer at the track’s heart. A song with its soul in the past and its feet in the club.

Label founder Cantor teams up once again with German duo New Hook on “Achtung! Achtung!”, an homage to the eponymous track by Italian producer Black Saagan. Fueled by vintage drum machines, punk-infused vocals, and melodies echoing the krautrock minimalism of Cluster, the track channels pure Cold War disco energy.

On “Scavengers”, Berlin based World Wild Web and Rasp Thorne deliver a pure mix of electro-rock noir – Suicide by way of David Lynch. Picture a never seen before episode of the series where Martin Rev and Alan Vega are playing live at the Roadhouse in Twin Peaks, while Laura Palmer slowly moves her head to the music, with a devilish smile on her face.

All the way from Grenoble to Berlin, H.L.M. deliver a dirty bass-driven anthem called ‘Fronde’. French spoken vocals spitfire over layers of distorted drones and hypnotic rhythms. The result is rough, hypnotic, and brings to mind the grooves of Death in Vegas.

New Hook return, this time solo, with ‘Unity’: a blend of groovy downtempo percussions, melancholic guitar riffs, and their signature brand of spoken word, a style that’s quickly become their sonic fingerprint.

Then it’s the turn of mexican-wave exponents Montessori featuring Vongold on “Ad Libitum”: a techy sunrise piece with soft pads, subtle build-ups, and an ecstatic sense of endlessness. After-party music for vast, open spaces.
Next up are SX2 from Ireland with their ‘Buttons’, offering a rolling tech-house banger laced with desert guitars. Psychedelic FX’s and whispered vocals drenched in delay slow the pace in a breakdown full of tension, preparing the floor to an euphoric release.

A dream from the pandemic era reappears: Cantor’s “Hannett’s Dream”, originally released in 2020 by Modular’s Project’s imprint ‘Nothing Is Real’ together with their own reworked version present also in two very limited vinyl-collector editions released by Underground Pacific. The introspection and hypnotic structure of the original cut here is replaced by a more stripped down arrangement, with a four-to-the-floor groove that is perfectly crafted for peak-time ignition.

Closing out the release is “Carissima” by the man behind iconic label Wonder Stories, Aimes – a Moroder-esque bassline and sensual vocals play on top of a warm groove that suddenly fractures into jazz-tinged, breakbeat mood, in the style of early Warp Records, just in time to get back into its disco-ish swing.

Contrary to what the title of this release might suggest, the wave isn’t dead at all. It’s well alive in the underground, reanimated by labels like Underground Pacific who are always ready to welcome artists who aren’t afraid to crash genres together and, above all, who are driven by the desire to make free-form, inspired pieces of music.

New Environments & Rhythm Studies finds Andrew Pekler returning to the humid zones he explored on previous albums such as Sounds From Phantom Islands and Tristes Tropiques. Split between longer immersive compositions and shorter glimpse-like sketches, these 12 tracks feature new juxtapositions of Pekler's familiar palette of synthetic field recordings, warm, undulating electronic textures, shifting percussion patterns and serene melodies.

As with much of his recent work, Pekler's compositions here are structured around the beguiling effect of synthetic and non-synthetic sounds mirroring, mimicking and modulating one another. The teeming atmospheres within tracks such as Globestructures, Cymbals In The Mist or Globestructures: Option II are, despite their seemingly anthropogenic nature, entirely synthetic. Elsewhere, the lopsided grooves of Cumbia Para Los Grillos or Fabulation For K are derived from recordings of crickets and other insects which Pekler loops and uses to trigger electronic percussion – producing a pleasantly skewed rhythmic base for the fragments of melody which are layered on top. The six Rhythm Studies also follow the same principle – a playful interweaving of the organic and synthetic.

New Environments & Rhythm Studies is a further attempt to re-describe past tropes which laid claims to authentically represent music and sound from beyond the Western world (exotica, ethnomusicology, field recording) as undertakings of the imaginary.

Written and produced by Andrew Pekler, mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi, artwork by Morgan Cuinet, graphic design by Dmytro Nikolaienko.

Mit ,Backstage" hat Jay-Jay bereits sein 15. Album veröffentlicht, und seine Inspiration wird ständig erneuert. Hier finden wir die grundlegenden Elemente seines musikalischen Universums: Jazz, Triphop, Pop und sogar einen Hauch von Easy Listening. Die erste Single ,How Long Do You Think We're Gonna Last?" bietet einen köstlichen Soul-Sound, der auf den ersten 14 Alben von Jay-Jay nicht zu hören war. Auf ,Backstage" singt Jay-Jay zum ersten Mal in seiner Diskografie einen Song komplett auf Französisch, der Rimbaud gewidmet ist. Der Text stammt von dem französischen Schriftsteller Renaud Santa Maria. Schließlich liefert Jay-Jay eine persönliche Version von ,Lujon", dem Kultsong zum 100. Geburtstag des Komponisten Henry Mancini. Aufgenommen in Stockholm im Winter 2024, wurde das Album in Paris von Alex Gopher (Air, Phoenix, Bob Sinclar...) gemastert. Für JJJ-Hardcore-Fans: In der Auflage von 1000 LPs gibt es 20 goldene Tickets zu gewinnen, die nach dem Zufallsprinzip verteilt werden. Die goldenen Tickets berechtigen zu einer VIP-Einladung zu einem beliebigen Jay-Jay Johanson-Konzert + Backstage-Treff mit Jay-Jay Johanson. Die CD-Version hat indes zwei Bonustracks aufzuweisen.