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Acclaimed Scottish composer Craig Armstrong releases his new work Pacific via his own label CMA Records. Written for piano, cello, and electronics, the three-movement piece was originally commissioned in December 2024 by Christian Kellersman, a pioneering figure in contemporary classical and jazz music, for his new live event series Berlin Confidential, co-curated with Alexander Szlovák. The series aims to promote innovative new music projects, with a particular focus on emerging musicians and composers.

Armstrong was among the first artists invited to perform as part of Berlin Confidential, premiering Pacific at Berlin’s historic Meistersaal concert hall in March 2025. The concert featured Armstrong on piano alongside cellist Lena Angelina von Almen and producer and musician Guy Sternberg, combining acoustic instruments with live electro-acoustic treatments to create a rich and atmospheric sound world.

Recorded in May 2025 at Lowswing Studios in Kreuzberg, Pacific continues Armstrong’s ongoing exploration of blending acoustic and electronic sound in a natural, seamless way. Over several days in the studio, Armstrong, von Almen and Sternberg developed the work’s intricate textures and dynamic interplay, resulting in a recording that captures both the intimacy and expansiveness of the original live performance.

Speaking about the inspiration behind the piece, Armstrong says: “I wrote this work during a time of great instability in the world, I wrote “Pacific” as an Elegy dedicated to the many suffering in today’s conflicts and in the hope that peace will prevail.”

Across its three movements, Pacific 1 is elegiac in nature, with the main themes stated and developed throughout the piece, punctuated by recurring piano motifs. The movement is reflective and atmospheric, with subtle electronic interventions. The second movement is arrhythmic in nature, following shifting time signatures that reflect a sense of uncertainty - the music is searching and static, ending without resolution but leaving hope for one to come. Pacific 3 moves towards peace and resolution, bringing the work to a close with quiet strength and emotional release.

When speaking about the creative process and his collaborators, Armstrong said: “Lena’s beautiful playing , tone and expression worked so beautifully on Pacific, Lena was also a great collaborator and was always willing to experiment and try new musical approaches. Lena is such a natural musician and she brought so much emotion and beauty to the piece. I wish her all the best in her future musical journey.”

He continues: Guy is a unique combination of being a brilliant engineer and mixer and a prolific very talented musician/composer. I was very fortunate to spend time with Guy in his studio in Berlin. His sensitivity to the project and his electronic programming made a wonderful contribution to the composition. His collaboration and friendship made the days working in Berlin such a great experience I would like to thank Emma Ford for her dedication, enthusiasm and guidance on Pacific”

For both von Almen and Sternberg, the collaboration was equally meaningful. Von Almen reflects on the experience of recording the piece, saying: “As a musician, it is always a great privilege to work on a piece together with the composer, and of course I felt even luckier to go through the process of creating something new with an artist like Craig Armstrong. Figuratively speaking, it felt like knitting a silk scarf: using the finest materials and taking the utmost care during the recording, we have realised another beautiful and touching work by Craig, which will bring us and certainly many others great joy. I feel very honoured to have been part of this and to have experienced this warm encounter.”

Sternberg adds: “Diving into Armstrong’s music while working on this record felt like examining a diamond under a microscope, discovering endless beauty within simplicity. Perfection and complexity emerging from simplicity, where every note, tone, noise, and gesture has meaning. I’m deeply grateful to have been part of this process, and for the freedom Craig gave me to express myself through his music, to let our sonic visions merge into one. It’s been both a lesson in music-making and in setting the ego aside, if only for a moment.”

Reflecting Armstrong’s belief in the role of music as a force for empathy and reflection, proceeds from Pacific will be donated to charities working towards peace: Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross.

The limited-edition vinyl release has been pressed on Eco Vinyl at SeaBass Vinyl, a sustainable plant near Edinburgh. The record features striking cover art by Dirk Rudolph, who has designed several of Armstrong’s previous releases.

Experience a trance classic like never before with the limited edition purple vinyl of Gaia - "Tuvan". This collector's release features the original mix that captivated a generation, alongside powerful reimaginings by Gareth Emery, bringing his signature melodic uplift, and AVIRA, delivering a deep, modern twist. A must-have for vinyl lovers and dance music aficionados alike-only a select few will own this stunning homage to an iconic track.

EMEX is the emergent project of Modular Expansion. The "né.on" project expresses a contemporary retrofuturism that is based on current but simultaneously changing concepts of "the future". Retrofuturism embodies two overlapping trends that can be summarized as the future as seen from the past and the past as seen from the future.

DJ Vibe, widely regarded as one of Portugal’s most influential and sought-after DJs, has played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s electronic music scene. Not only has he been instrumental in launching some of Portugal's most iconic clubs, but he is also behind some of the biggest anthems in the scene, such as “So Get Up” and “Dance With Me,” both released in 1994 on Kaos Records and Tribal America. Since the early 90s, he has released music on seminal labels such as Nervous, Twisted, and Innervisions, among many others.

From the underground rave scene to iconic club parties, from radio airwaves to packed dance floors, from DJing to production - DJ Vibe has traversed many paths in his decades-long career, contributing to the foundation of the modern "dance culture" that emerged in the mid/late 80s.

After over four decades of dominating clubs and festivals worldwide, what’s left to accomplish? For DJ Vibe, the answer is simple: a new adventure fueled by the same passion and excitement that defined his career. In 2024, he took a bold step forward with his debut album, Frequências—his first full-length work under his own name.

Frequências is an album defined by freedom and passion—two words that might sound cliché but perfectly capture its essence. A balanced body of work that seamlessly moves between high-energy moments for the dance floor and introspective chapters ideal for late-night reflection and relaxation.

Poetry and music in an annually changing Frisian-international ensemble — that’s IT DEEL, a residency project by the Kleefstra brothers. After three previous sessions and releases with Jacaszek, Eivind Lønning & Espen Reinertsen, and Karen Willems, this beautiful project finds its conclusion with a fourth collaboration.
In the summer of 2024, the Kleefstras invited cellist Joana Guerra and violinist Maria do Mar de Brito Lopes for a week-long creative residency at a special location: the Thomas Church in Katlijk.
Like with the previous releases from the IT DEEL collaborations the central theme of for this work is the relationship between humans and nature, in all its beauty and complexity. It’s not a light topic, but one that is universal and deeply connecting. Each year, it’s remarkable to witness what has emerged from the Frisian soil in the dialogue between the Kleefstras and their guest musicians.

2LP 140g col vinyl


»High Times – Singles 1992–2006« erschien 2006, erreichte Platz 1 der Charts und wurde mit Dreifach-Platin ausgezeichnet. Die Tour Edition 2025 erscheint als stahlfarbenes Doppel-Vinyl mit Kunstdruck, Booklet und einem von fünf zufällig beigelegten Sammler-Laminaten mit dem Buffalo-Man-Icon.

Das Album umfasst 20 Songs, darunter den Nummer-1-Hit »Deeper Underground«, sieben weitere Top-10-Titel wie »Virtual Insanity«, »Cosmic Girl« und »Canned Heat« sowie weitere bekannte Singles wie »Seven Days in Sunny June« und »Space Cowboy« viele davon feste Bestandteile der aktuellen Live-Shows.

The third volume in a survey of the modern jazz & hard-bop scenes that emerged in the new cultural melting pot of post war London, with recordings from the end of the 1940s through to the early 1960s.

Featuring representations from players whose roots lay in the East-End's jewish community alongside a wealth of talent of Caribbean and African descent playing and recording in post war London during this period.

Made in partnership with the Barbican to coincide with the exhibition Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965.credits

The core duo of Max D and Matt Papich debut on Peak Oil following full-lengths for Future Times and PAN with a fresh suite of tactile, diffuse fusion. Half the collection emerged from a 2021 session at Tempo House rounded out by Dustin Wong, Mezey, and Jeremy Hyman, while the rest took shape in moments both collaborative and isolated, collaged together with CDJs into something more liquid and liminal than the sum of its parts.

Across fractured jazz, pitch-shifted downtempo, revelatory guitar, and interstitial interplay, Lifted’s sound is one of flux, fragments, and filigree. Oblique harmonic synergies dusted in chance encounters and rogue acoustics. Diverse moods mapped with split strings and the space between notes. Music untethered by form or expectation, snaking like an ungrounded cable through a geodesic dome of deep-listening.

With Processing Music, Dutch composer and electronic musician Casimir Geelhoed offers a compelling meditation on sound transformation as a metaphor for psychological and emotional processing. Operating at the intersection of overstimulation, introspection and fragility, the album unfolds as a deeply immersive and personal exploration — one that invites the listener to inhabit a space of their own projection, memory and reflection.

Rather than imposing a fixed compositional structure, Processing Music follows a bottom-up approach, allowing form to emerge organically from the interaction of sonic materials. Digital signal processing is not used here as a mere technical tool, but as a poetic device: transformation as narrative, delay as memory, distortion as tension. Through slowly eroding loops, gently collapsing textures and shifting layers of timbre and space, Geelhoed crafts a delicate sound world that is charged with friction.

What may at first seem abstract gradually reveals an emotional core. The album evokes the suspended time of a largo, the layering of memory like an excavation, the psychological tension of perceived spatial expansion. These are not literal themes, but associative keys to a music that operates in a distinctly human sonic language.

Emerging from a series of live performances, Processing Music retains a performative sensibility: the music breathes, transforms, and invites attention to nuance. It slowly unfolds a landscape shaped by the subtle interplay between structure and dissolution.

Casimir Geelhoed has presented performances and installations at festivals such as CTM, Sonic Acts, Rewire, Fiber, SPATIAL, and Aural Spaces. He studied computer science, composition, music technology, and sonology in Amsterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht.

AOKI takamasa and Tujiko Noriko’s 2005 album »28« has become a cornerstone in the artists’ respective discographies. 20 years after its initial release, Keplar issues it on vinyl for the very first time. Three years in the making, »28« saw the sound artist and the avant-pop singer-songwriter combine their distinct aesthetics for an album that defied categorisation. Their combination of advanced electronic experimentation and pop appeal paved the way for a new generation of artists and turned »28« into an enduring fan favourite. Remastered by Stephan Mathieu, the reissue comes with a brand-new artwork by Joji Koyama and a changed track listing—authorised by Takamasa and Tujiko—for the vinyl version to fit it on a single LP, while the digital version remains identical to the original release.

Tujiko and Takamasa first shared the stage together after the turn of the millennium. Both were emerging solo artists, with Takamasa a mainstay on the Progressive Form label and Tujiko forging a connection with Mego in Vienna, Austria. »I simply liked Noriko’s voice and music, and since we often performed at the same events, it felt like a natural progression for us to start working together,« remembers Takamasa. They first collaborated in 2002 for two shows at the Fondation Cartier in Paris and at SonarLab in Barcelona, respectively. The first joint piece was a rework of Tujiko’s »Fly« from »Hard Ni Sasete (Make Me Hard)« by Takamasa, appearing as the album opener »Fly2« on »28.«

After that, the Paris-based Tujiko and Takamasa, still based in Osaka, worked sporadically and remotely on new material. For the first two years of their collaboration, the two met in the context of live events or Takamasa’s visits to the French capital to discuss their process and exchange hard drives while also occasionally sending each other CDrs in the mail. »Aoki made beats and sounds that complemented my music perfectly, building the foundation on which my voice could float,« Tujiko says today. Takamasa used hardware such as the Nord Modular, the Korg Z1, and the Korg ER-1, while also working with different kinds of software and plug-ins as well as Logic. Tujiko was using Cubase, her preferred piece of gear at the time being an AKAI MPC.

After Takamasa moved to Paris in 2004, this enabled the duo to finish the album together in person. Starting with its subtle use of glitches to the almost-anarchic way in which it deals with the structures of a song, »28« came to be an incomparably intricate album. 20 years on, it remains timeless because of its flawless synthesis of the cutting-edge avant-garde ideas of early 2000s electronica with an idiosyncratic but accessible pop sentiment. Both artists look back fondly—though not uncritically, with Takamasa noting a certain »youthfulness« in his contributions—to the album that was titled after their respective age at that time. »Maybe we should make ›51‹ now?,« quips Tujiko. See you in three years, perhaps.

This Transition's label album features the concert that Donald Byrd Sextet gave in Detroit on August 23th, 1955 organized by the New Jazz Society, a group formed under the impetus of Kenny Burrell, one of the key influences in Detroit jazz.


The reissue of this hard-to-find album is significant for a number of diferent reasons. Its very rarity is one attraction for certain collectors, but more important perhaps is the fact that it was the first recording as featured artist for trumpeter Donald Byrd. It is also extremely revealing of the depth of the jazz scene in 1950s Detroit, which had nurtured Byrd and from which he was just emerging at the time of this concert.

Reboot emerges as another key name on Thuishaven's Haven Trax with Signs, a three-track EP landing as the label's fourth release. Drawing inspiration from his recent set at Thuishaven, Reboot's title track 'Sunshine' captures the warmth and connection of that moment with sun-soaked textures and shimmering percussion.

Following releases on Longform Editions and her own Paralaxe imprint, Dania descends on Somewhere Press with crepuscular, quixotic pop that hits a sweet spot between Mark Clifford’s Cocteau Twins remixes and Massive Attack.

Parked next to Alliyah Enyo, Slowfoam, and Angel R, Dania’s found an ideal home at Somewhere Press, and »Listless« is her most confident, transcendent set to date. Her last few albums were steeped in meaning – a way for the Iraq-born, Tasmania-raised artist to explore her identity and probe the impacts of colonisation. Here, she gives herself more room to breathe, thriving in the mysteries of nighttime – a direct reference to her nocturnal existence as an emergency doctor in Australia. The album was completely composed in the midnight hours, but it’s not self-consciously dark in the way you might expect. Opening track »On a Grassy Knoll« is one of the prettiest – and poppiest – tracks Dania has released, cracking open her voice with thrumming harmonies that she complements with granulated, Guthrie-esque guitars and, most unexpectedly, half-speed drums. It’s the first time Dania’s used percussion, and it suits her extremely well.

In fact, even when the powdery breaks drop away in the album’s final breaths, you can almost hear an outline of where they might remain. On »Write My Name«, Dania loops her voice between waved strings and slippery piano phrases, and the hypnotic closer »A Hunger« is a thudding, sub-heavy 4/4 away from being Peak Oil-style contemporary dub techno.

But the big draw here is Dania’s batch of hazy dream-pop miniatures, like the Seefeel-adjacent »Heart Shaped Burn« (with Rupert Clervaux on drums), and the Bristolian »Car Crash Premonition«, that features a rolling bassline taking us right back to 1998. Very strong – peak listening if you’re into Bowery Electric, MBV, or Mark Van Hoen.

Recorded in concert at the University of Sheffield in March 2025, Reality Is Not A Theory is the first collaboration between Mark Fell and Pat Thomas. Major figures in British experimental music since the 1990s, Fell and Thomas have developed their rigorous practices from radically different backgrounds and perspectives: where Fell’s singular take on synthetic abstraction emerged from Sheffield’s electronic underground, Thomas is a virtuoso improvising pianist steeped in jazz and modernist art music who has simultaneously worked with sampler-based electronics for decades. As the record’s wonderfully academic subtitle explains, we are presented here with two sides of ‘algorithmic and improvised music for computer and piano’, exemplifying both players’ insatiable search for new (and sometimes uncomfortable) playing situations.

The performance begins with Fell’s electronics close to the timbres of acoustic percussion, attacks that suggest wood, metal or glass threaded along a rapid pulse while Thomas focuses on the lowest registers of the piano, deadening the strings. As Fell’s electronics start to ring out and occupy more harmonic space, Thomas turns to wide, repeated clusters, which slowly expand into patterns of chords. Like in his recent solo recordings and his trio work with Joel Grip and Anton Gerbal, Thomas’ playing combines extreme dissonance with a deep lyrical sense. Fell’s work gradually shifts its focus toward drum sounds, drawing on the microtemporal processes that have characterized his practice in recent decades. Heard together with Thomas’ probing piano, the computer sounds call up unexpected associations with the klangfarben antics of improv drummers like Paul Lovens or Tony Oxley. Throughout its second half, the music grows increasingly frenetic, as Thomas sounds out rapid, irregularly repeated figures and beautifully sour chords in the upper register, while Fell’s percussion develops into angular pan-pipe-like feedback and waves of glissandi.

With great confidence and patience, Fell and Thomas often let their individual contributions remain rhythmically distinct and unsynchronised, allowing unexpected correspondence and coincidence to guide the music’s development. Recorded in a hall named after Sheffield steel manufacturer and Master Cutler Mark Firth, the location might suggest a model for understanding how Fell and Thomas interact here: two workers in the same workshop, each immersed in their own part of the production process. Arriving in a striking sleeve designed by Mark Fell, with liner notes by Francis Plagne, Reality Is Not A Theory is an invigorating document of the meeting of two mavericks of contemporary music.

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

DarkSonicTales is a project by Rolf Gisler and his eponymous album his first for Hallow Ground. Having been granted an artist residency by the label in a 300 year-old farm house in the Swiss countryside in autumn 2019, the Lucerne-based musician and sound artist explored the peculiar sonic environment of the building and its surroundings through the use of field recordings, modular synthesizers, guitar, bass, kalimbas, a singing saw as well as self-built instruments. "DarkSonicTales" starts with kalimba sounds and field recordings, setting the stage for "Sonic Darkness"- a self-referential spoken word piece whose sinister jazz-like sound calls to mind Bohren & der Club of Gore. The following "Spring Feelings" contrasts insect sounds with harsh noise elements, elegiac drones and a throbbing rhythm. It's not quite what you'd expect from a piece with such a title, but the stories that Gisler tells throughout the record are more concerned with uncovering the hidden histories underneath what meets the eyes than (re-)creating idylls. The nine minute-long "I Still Believe" further underlines that by bringing together glistening synthesizer notes with industrial-like drones and field recordings that give it a palpable effect before Gisler unexpectedly changes course and quite literally bursts into song. Towards the end of "DarkSonicTales," the music becomes notably more minimalistic. Gisler experiments with the dynamics of modular drones on "Kind of Restless," juxtaposing birdsong and ominous electronic noises on "Best Buddies" before a mid-tempo beat emerges, making the record close on a decidedly hopeful note. These dark sonic tales, they have a happy ending. "DarkSonicTales" is an organic album in more than one sense of the word. Reacting to and reflecting the world around him as well as expressing his inner one, Gisler gives the sounds at the core of his multifaceted compositions space and lets them breathe. Working along stark contrasts and with surprising twists, he also shines a light on the atmospheric and emotional ambiguity of the world he encountered during his solitary artist residency-unearthing the hidden layers underneath what is perceivable.

A decade after its original release, Flako"s seminal debut album Natureboy returns for its first-ever reissue on vinyl in a special 10th anniversary edition. In 2015, Natureboy emerged as a rare bloom in the electronic underground - a record that defied genre and expectation. Hailed by Bleep as "one of the most startlingly unique and original releases" and crowned their Album of the Year, it still stands as one of the most singular, emotive, and genre-defying releases of its era.

When two of Sweden’s most distinctive creative voices unite, something truly unique emerges. Joakim Åhlund, prolific musician, songwriter and producer who has left an indelible mark on Swedish music once again meets Jockum Nordström, one of the country’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Together they shape a project where alternative, instrumental jazz rock grows into a free and playful force.

Monolith 45 series I

A new chapter emerges within Organic Signs.Conceived as a vessel dedicated to a single frequency, Monolith 45 is born to trace the lineage of progressive trance — that tribal, hypnotic, and ceremonial sound that carved its path during the early 2000s, and which today we reclaim with reverence.

Each release stands as a stone marker along this continuum: timeless signals that resonate equally with memory and vision. As with the broader work of Organic Signs, this new line will follow a dual path: rescuing forgotten gems from the past while also curating new music that embodies the same spirit.

Monolith 45 becomes the place where past and present intertwine, shaping a narrative that honors tradition while opening new doors for exploration.

The first monolith in the series carries with it two totems of the genre:
On the A-side, Magnetrixx – Intraferences, originally released in the year 2000 on the legendary Tatsu Records. Behind this moniker stands Stefan Lewin, not only a key architect of the progressive trance sound but also the mind behind ACL (Audiophile Circuits League), one of the most special modular synthesizer brands..

His work bridges eras: from shaping the trancefloor at the turn of the millennium to designing instruments that define modern electronic creation.On the B-side, Ticon – Lo Mi Hi, a track that saw the light in 2001 on Digital Structures, one of the most influential labels of that era.

Ticon are nothing short of mythical within this universe — pioneers whose sound blurred borders between deep grooves, psychedelic textures, and progressive structures, leaving an indelible mark that still resonates with dancers and producers worldwide.

With Monolith 45, we seek not only to preserve these transmissions but to project them into the present: to reawaken a sound that was always more than music, a tribal pulse, a ritual language that invited bodies and minds into collective trance.
This is our homage, our offering, and our way of extending the path forward.

*includes insert

Timely reissue of Only for the Headstrong, the seminal 12” from UK duo Psychotropic, arriving this November. Originally released in 1990 at the height of the Acid House explosion, the track quickly became a defining moment in UK dance music—melding house, breakbeat, and psychedelic pop influences into something utterly timeless. Revered by DJs, collectors, and ravers alike, Headstrong is a euphoric, genre-blurring anthem that retains a raw innocence and hypnotic pull even 35 years on.

Psychotropic was formed by Gavin Mills, a rising DJ with a deep love of house and hip-hop, and Nick Nicely, a seasoned psych-pop experimentalist whose history included cult releases with Arista and EMI. The pair met during the fever pitch of late '80s rave culture—bonding over illegal warehouse parties, makeshift home studios, and a shared impulse to explore new sounds and styles. Crafted using an Akai S900 sampler, a Fostex 8-track, and a Casio CZ-101, Only for the Headstrong emerged from Nicely’s South London home studio in a single inspired session, its unforgettable loops and soaring keys capturing both the chaos and euphoria of the era.

The track, and the Prince-style groove of B-side Out of Your Head, became underground hits, reaching the top of London’s independent record store charts and cementing Psychotropic’s reputation for marrying psychedelic sonic textures with club-ready grooves. Their sound stood out—rooted in DIY experimentation but elevated by emotional depth and melodic flair. Mills and Nicely’s unique chemistry would spawn further club classics like Hypnosis, Psychosis, and Feel Surreal, before diverging into solo paths in the mid-90s. Despite parting ways creatively, the duo has remained close friends, occasionally reuniting for remixes and digital reissues.
Now, in 2025, Only for the Headstrong returns to vinyl in its full analog glory—remastered and recontextualized for a new generation. With freshly penned liner notes by Nic Nicely, this nostalgic reissue captures the raw, open-minded energy of a pivotal moment in UK dance music and reconnects us with the heady, DIY spirit of early rave culture.

After two years of silence, whispers and speculation, the enigmatic junglist known only as San emerges once more from the underground, returning to Rua Sound with a third strike of ice-cold, precision-engineered jungle.

No other junglist delivers this kind of power — ruthless breakbeats, sinister atmospherics, and sub-bass that haunts the night itself.

San was forged in the smoke and grit of the dancefloor, born of a need for jungle futurism, breakbeat terrorism, and hardcore sub-bass gangsterism. He doesn't just make tracks — he leaves warnings, coded messages in rhythm for those tuned to the right frequency.

This isn't just music. This is the return of the anti-hero, the lone gunman in the rain-soaked streets of jungle's future.

Concrete Noir is the latest project from multimedia artist and sound designer Piero Fragola, known for genre-defying ventures like We Love (BPitch Control) and ANGLE (Tiptop Audio Records). With this project, he explores a hybrid space where electronics, voice and image merge into an introspective and shadowy form. The debut album, Romance Ruins, is the first release on the newly founded Frequens Records.

Composed entirely using Tiptop Audio’s ART modular system, it unfolds as a series of layered, emotionally charged compositions. These are structured songs with a physical low-end impact.

Musically, Romance Ruins moves beyond genre boundaries to inhabit a space shaped by contrast and collision. The result is a form of modern hybridization—melancholic yet forceful, intimate yet expansive. The sonic identity is carefully constructed but deliberately raw, emphasizing emotion over precision.

The title itself captures the core of this paradox. Romanticism, in its intensity, may ultimately destroy. And yet, from that destruction, something vital emerges. The album embraces the figure of a decadent hero—a child of broken ideals who reclaims beauty from collapse. It’s a romantic vindication of decadence, a belief that clarity can rise from ruin, and meaning from fragmentation.

Moving through a broad range of tempos, the tracks explore murky, melancholic, tactile and cinematic moods. Synths intertwine with guitars (Fender and Gretsch Dobro). All vocals are performed by Piero Fragola, except on Faraway Places, where his voice is joined by that of Viktoria Lishkee—the album’s only guest appearance.Nearly every track is paired with a video, expanding the work’s audiovisual dimension. As a designer for Tiptop Audio and instructor at IED and LABA in Florence, Fragola brings a multi-sensory vision to Concrete Noir—one where medium and message, form and feeling, are inseparable. With Romance Ruins, he delivers an artistic statement. A body of work that resists categorization and embraces the beauty of decay.

Romance Ruins marks the beginning of Frequens Records. Available in a 180-gram vinyl edition.

Kalita are proud to present a 2-year anniversary repress of Emerson’s 1988 mythical electro boogie grail ‘Sending All My Love Out’, accompanied by two remixes courtesy of the genre’s most respected innovators, Egyptian Lover and Detroit In Effect. Limited to only 500 copies, pressed on electrifying yellow 12” vinyl.

Originally privately released as an obscure 7” single on LAS Records, operated by visionary power couple Emerson and Leora Sandidge, ‘Sending All My Love Out’ has since transformed into a hallowed grail among dance music collectors, enthusiasts and DJs alike, commanding sky-high prices on the second-hand scene.

A late 80’s electro boogie anthem, featuring a heavy mix of synthesizer and drum-machine euphoria, overlaid with Emerson and Leora’s own vocals, the recording truly is in a league of its own.

And to do justice to its legendary status, Kalita has dusted off the original multi-track master tapes and enlisted two of the electro scene’s most revered figures, namely Egyptian Lover and Detroit In Effect, to remix and elevate the track in their own signature style.

A truly special release.

Originally released in 1973 and pressed in very small quantities, Emerge is the second album by the McCrary family and their non-gospel debut. Long sought after by collectors and modern-soul and funk connoisseurs, it's an exemplar of what was considered "progressive soul" in the early 70s as well as what emerged a generation later as "neo-soul." This long-overdue reissue was produced with the full cooperation of the McCrary family and gives this remarkable record wide distribution and easy accessibility for the very first time since its initial low-key release over half a century ago. The McCrary family started out as a gospel group in their native Youngstown, Ohio but turned to secular music upon relocating to Los Angeles in 1970 and recording this album for the tiny Cat’s Eye label of Beverly Hills. The music veers between sophisticated, jazzy R&B (Charity McCrary’s beautiful “Matter Of Time”) to occasionally grittier funk (as on “Kung Fu”). “Be A Father To Your Son” and “People Run On Love” bear messages that are still relevant decades later. The McCrarys would later gain wider recognition with their hit “You” featuring Stevie on harmonica and with “Any Old Sunday” which was memorably covered by Chaka Khan.

Rare is the soundtrack that as time passes overshadows the film of which it was a part, but that’s what has happened in the years since the 1992 release of The Last of the Mohicans. Not that the film is any slouch; Michael Mann’s epic retelling of James Fenimore Cooper’s frontier tale is a cable TV fixture and more evidence that Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the great actors of our time. But the film’s music has emerged as easily one of the most popular scores of ‘90s cinema, with the “Main Title” in particular having become a part of our popular culture the same way as, say, the signature themes from Titanic, Star Wars, and other blockbusters. What makes it even more extraordinary is that the movie’s score emerged from postproduction turmoil as the work of two different composers, Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman. Jones’ work is more of the traditional orchestral soundtrack ilk, Edelman’s has a more contemporary feel, but somehow it all fits, with the closing credit song “I Will Find You” by Clannad an added bonus. Long a bestselling soundtrack CD, we at Real Gone Music are releasing this revered soundtrack on double LP peach vinyl, inside a gatefold festooned with production stills. Guaranteed to get your blood stirring!

Although they emerged from Melbourne bayside outer suburbs onto the local live scene with their fresh and spirited indie-rock update of the garage-beat sounds of The Easybeats, Kinks and early Beatles only a year or so ago, Gnome actually started out as a bedroom solo project for teenaged singer/songwriter/ guitarist Jay Millar a few years back. Jay, playing everything himself, started recording and releasing a steady succession of material - quite a few albums' worth - on his own Goblin Records label via Bandcamp. Realizing he needed a band to start playing out, Jay approached some like minded players from Frankston's rehearsal hub Singing Bird, and with Jay on lead vocals and lead guitar, Ned Capp on guitar, Olly Katsianis on bass, and Ethan Robins on drums, Gnome became a band.

Early in 2025, the last solo Jay recordings released under the Gnome name caused something of an international underground sensation when the Bandcamp only I Like It EP - four songs of kranked up Kinks-style mono riffage - was posted by a Spanish garage-punk YouTube page and quickly clocked up over 50,000 views.



At the same time, the band quickly began gaining attention on the thriving Frankston scene and around Melbourne. They started breaking out, sharing bills with the likes of Drunk Mums, Skegss, Split System, The Prize, The Unknowns, Cosmic Psychos, Hockey Dad, Guitar Wolf, The 5.6.7.8's, The Breadmakers, Loose Lips, fellow Frankstoners/Singing Bird alumni The Belair Lip Bombs, and, on a quick trip to Sydney, Cammy Cautious & The Wrestlers.

And now, finally, we have The Gnomes' debut album. Twelve killer tracks that combine the best of the '60s with the best of today. Twelve killer tracks that show off assertive and accomplished songwriting, singing and playing and an explosive and authentic swinging group sound. Twelve killers slices of raw rock'n'roll running the gamut from the savage Rhythm & Blues of "Play With You" and “Better With You” to the vibrant beat pop of "I'll Be There" and "I'm Not The One", with forays into the heavy reverb psych of "Stung", the Cavern/Star Club stylings of "Flippin' Stomp" and the first flyte jangle of "Time Will Tell" along the way. There’s more of course, including a new version of that Kinks-style kranker “I Like It” for good measure.

Frankston’s Fab Four are taking their sound to the world. Join them for the ride!

Accomplished musical documenters Analog Africa shine a long-overdue spotlight on the trailblazers of Zimbabwe's Chigiyo sound with this lovingly curated new collection. Emerging from Kwekwe in the 1980s, the group fused reggae grooves with Shona chants, mbira-inspired guitars and bold brass to create a style uniquely their own. Anchored by legendary guitarist Gilbert Zvamaida, Zig-Zag's music carried spiritual weight and infectious energy with classics like 'Gomo Ramasare' and 'Mudzimu Mukuru' shaping the country's cultural landscape. This lovingly curated compilation revives their groundbreaking catalogue and celebrates their fearless creativity while introducing a new generation to one of Zimbabwe's most distinctive and visionary bands.

Undiluted - a highly anticipated collaborative Hip-Hop album from two of the underground’s most respected artists, Cymarshall Law and Ramson Badbonez, One Nation Exclusive.

Unchained is the long-standing guitar-based project of Nate Davis, originally from Providence, RI, and based in France for over a decade. In his two most recent LPs—Gabbeh (2024, A Colourful Storm) and Frontalier (2025, Stern Records)—Davis strives to describe a new path for outsider jazz instrumentalism that remains committed to harmonic and rhythmic form while placing greater emphasis on sonic texture through experimental production techniques.

Release Description:

Unchained—a name which at the project's inception or on earlier recordings spoke perhaps to the ecstatic saturation of high gain guitar—has over the past three albums (N.D. Visitor, Pic, and Gabbeh) come to represent more and more an acknowledgement of and sensitive remove from a crashing world. An excuse of oneself from trend towards a siloed artistic development.

On Frontalier, Nate Davis crosses further into this patient personal lexicon of guitar composition, presenting a new set of richly developed songs and leaps in arrangement which may very well shock Unchained fans the world over. The sympathetic geometric guitar themes of the earlier second-period Unchained style are almost entirely absent, making way for a fully realized presentation of the jazz, MPB, and fusion influence present to varying degrees on the previous three albums. Davis's keen sense of melody and songcraft have never been stronger, here landing on music which is at moments evocative of Wes Montgomery, Allan Holdsworth, Jobim, or the jazzier impulses of Lô Borges. Distinct in Davis's music, however, is what these references might belie: an innate tending towards repetition as an affective tool—one which has less to do with the aesthetics of the scene from which the project emerged than it does with devotional prayer. In this way it feels as if Unchained has always been music for living. What was once a maximalist expression of youth has matured into the sound of living with and in the world and an empathic transmuting of all the joy, disappointment, and ambivalence that comes with it. Songs that feel like the sort of thinking one does looking out the window on a long train ride, or the routinism of internal and external life and the breaking out of it. As much as it will be recognized by the fandom as a significant step forward, Frontalier serves also as a perfect gateway for new listeners to the singular music of Unchained.

Léo Dupleix return to Black Truffle with Round Sky, following the enchanting Resonant Trees (BT119). The composer here performs on analogue synthesizer, harpsichord and spinet as one member of Asterales, a group that brings together four important figures in the international community of musicians working with just intonation: Dupleix, Jon Heilbron (double bass), Rebecca Lane (quarter-tone flute) and Frederik Rasten (guitars). The quartet perform three recent pieces by Dupleix, each of which is like a different view on the same landscape of unruffled calm, where the unique harmonic events made possible by just intonation flicker across melodies and harmonies like light on the surface of water.

The first side is dedicated to ‘Poème d’air’, composed while Dupleix was immersed in the music of 14thcentury ars nova composer-poet Guillaume de Machaut. A sustained study of the ‘sonic possibilities of low-pitched sounds in just intonation’, it begins with a long, rumbling pitch from Heilbron’s bass, soon joined by the organ-like tones of the composer on synthesizer. The piece is made up of cycling sequences of chords, each of which is repeated for several minutes before the music either freezes on a single harmony or silently pauses before the next episode begins. These structures are initially dominated by the bass and synthesizer, with Lane’s pure vibrato-less flute tone and Rasten picked harmonics adding flashes of colour. As the piece develops, flute and guitar become more prominent and the bass climbs to higher registers. The development culminates in a stunning episode around fifteen minutes in where the texture thins out, casting a spotlight on a melodic figure exploiting the uncanny sound of Lane’s quarter-tone flute.

On the second side we are treated to two briefer pieces, closer to the sound of Resonant Trees as they return harpsichord and spinet to the foreground. ‘Ghosts’ centres on a harpsichord melody that slowly expands as it repeats, growing from a haunting six-note cell to a flowing succession of notes whose shape become increasingly difficult to perceive. Alongside this melodic development, an increasingly lush accompaniment grows, with long tones from bass, flute, e-bowed guitar and synthesizer holding notes picked out the harpsichord melody in a swaying harmonic cloud. Dupleix notes that the concluding ‘Round Sky’ was written in the countryside in spring, a circumstance that seems far from irrelevant to the impression the piece makes when its euphonous spinet arpeggios emerge from a gentle synthesizer drone like a flower from a bud. Performed as a duo with Rasten, with both instrumentalists also singing, this title piece exemplifies what makes Dupleix’s music so unique: grounded in a rigorous application of just intonation principles yet as open as Harold Budd or Andrew Chalk to an uncomplicated, intuitive experience of beauty.

Official 12" reissue of Freex Machine's sought-after discoid-funk burner. Two underground groove-led gems recorded and released in 1979 on the New York indie-label Starbase Sounds. The Freex Machine hailed from Corona, Queens and had emerged as an extension of the group Hooker, a teenage band of musicians that started performing together in the early 70s, earning a respected reputation locally. Whilst a handful of singles were released under various monikers, including Aura and Stars, the band's distinct New York-centric live funk sound remained consistent.

This anthology of Los Wembler's allows us to appreciate the legacy of the iconic group from Iquitos, the most important city in the Peruvian Amazon which is only accessible by air or river, and their key role in the creation and revival of Amazonian cumbia. Los Wembler's emerged as a family band in the late 1960s in the Belén district of Iquitos and are regarded as pioneers of electric guitar-driven Amazonian cumbia from Perú. The selection of songs that make up this compilation dates from the period between 1972 and 1980, at the peak of the band's career. Songs such as 'Sonido amazónico' or 'La danza del petrolero' have become highly influential classics of the genre. Most of these tracks are reissued here for the first time after remaining unavailable for decades. "Selva" includes an insert with liner notes and photos. Pressed on 180g vinyl.

First Word Records are proud to present the sophomore solo EP from Victoria Port.

'Barefoot In The Garden' is a 5-track selection merging classic soul with contemporary sounds.

Put together from sessions recorded at the world famous Abbey Road Studios in London, and Victoria's home studio Candle Shop, this project exemplifies her talents as a singer-songwriter, developing upon the building blocks of her debut EP 'Did it Again' and Victoria's work as one half of electronic-soul duo, Anushka (BBE / Tru Thoughts / Brownswood).

On this EP, Victoria is accompanied by a wealth of talented artists in their own right, including frequent collaborators Hemai and JNR Williams, the highly-acclaimed drummer Moses Boyd, and vocalists such as Lea Lea, to name just a few.

The sonic tapestry stitched together on this EP epitomises the quality of British soul music of modern times; a vintage symphonic feel approach with modern-day production techniques, encompassing the Ronson-era of the late great Amy Winehouse, to the pack leaders of nowadays such as SAULT and Jungle. It's a logical progression considering Victoria's lifelong influences of US luminaries like Minnie Riperton, Gladys Knight, Nina Simone and Dionne Warwick.

Her fanbase includes Gilles Peterson (BBC 6 Music / Worldwide FM) who has tipped her as "an exciting emerging new artist whose sound fits alongside current successful acts like Cleo Sol, Lynda Dawn and Yazmin Lacey."


Victoria's previous EP had support from a wide range of tastemakers, including Cerys Matthews, Huey Morgan, Somewhere Soul, Mo Ayoub (Selector Radio), Ronnie Herel (Mi-Soul Radio's "One to Watch"), Tony Minvielle (Jazz FM) and across platforms like Rinse FM, NTS, Soho Radio and Global Soul, whilst her work with Anushka also received airplay from Annie Mac, Jamz Supernova, Huw Stephens and BBC Radio 1.

Victoria says "this EP comes from a place of nostalgia. It's kind of reflective of parts of life up to this moment, culminating in 'Barefoot in the Garden'. I guess it's me starting to understand the things that are truly important to me. How I want to love and be loved, the way I want to spend my time, and just me starting to filter out a lot of the noise. Sonically it's been such a dream to explore elements of old soul and jazz with so many incredible musicians, and to put our own unique spin on the genre."

Already a seasoned live perfomer, additionally to various live appearances solo past & forthcoming including We Out Here, Jazz Cafe, Koko and the London Jazz Festival, Victoria Port is set to be one of the leading lights in the world of British soul music. This EP provides some solid examples as to why.

'Barefoot In The Garden' is due to be released on vinyl and digital, November 7th 2025.

Anathema has spent the vast majority of their career making music that defies
description. As part of the Peaceville 3, along with Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride,
Anathema have carved a strong legacy since their inception at the turn of the 1990s,
to become a widely revered & respected band within both the metal world & beyond,
as their sound & compositions progressed from doom/death metal into more rock &
progressive territory with each subsequent release, becoming one of the UK's most
cherished & critically acclaimed rock bands.
'The Silent Enigma', Anathema's second studio album, was originally released in the
summer of '95 & was the first release on which guitarist Vincent Cavanagh took over
the vocal duties of the departed Darren White. Where Darren's vocals were guttural,
Vincent's style pushed the possibilities for Anathema onwards & upwards, with a
scope & breadth beyond his years, complimenting an ethereal roller- coaster of
thoughtful atmospherics & crushing Celtic Frost style riffs - the Swiss legends being a
notable inspiration. What emerged was a fine example of highly-atmospheric & often
emotional gothic doom, spawning classic Anathema songs such as "Restless
Oblivion", "Sunset Of Age", "The Silent Enigma" & "A Dying Wish". Lauded by the metal
press & fans alike as a doom metal classic, the album's popularity has remained a
favourite within the metal scene.
This special 30th anniversary edition of 'The Silent Enigma' is presented on limited
marble vinyl, with the vinyl mastering work carried out by Abbey Road Studios,
London.

"Love it! Electronic wonkiness at its finest" - Richard Norris (The Grid)

TEA, CAKES AND THE (WO)MAN MACHINE

Curtain Twitcher could only have emerged from Sheffield.
A female electronic duo whose corrupted downtempo post Balearic chug pulses and wobbles, throbs and twitches - full of fat noises and bolshy Moogery.
It's human and appealingly analogue. More Delia Derbyshire's Radiophonic Workshop than DAF, More Tangerine Dream than Depeche Mode. Not your average bloketronica.

Frankly this music doesn't behave itself in any way you might expect. Plugged in post rave pop can be far too orderly. Music should be messy. Even on occasion revealing a tune your mum could hum.

"Leap The Dips" emerged from machine jamming with a creative freedom that only comes from friendship. That friendship is a musical one but it's also real and genuine: "We’ll talk about pretty much owt if you provide the tea and cakes".

Acclaimed electronic musicians, producers and sound architects Max Cooper and Rob Clouth team up for a new collaborative EP; a dark, playful four-track dive into ambient, breakbeat and techno’s subconscious flow, featuring a standout vocal performance from South London rapper FLOHIO.

Recorded over a series of spontaneous London sessions, “8 Billion Realities” channels years of creative exchange between two of the genre’s most quietly innovative artists and is a result of a decision between the longtime friends to refrain from conceptual overthinking in favour of instinct and joy.

As long-time admirers of each other’s audio/visual work, Cooper and Clouth collaborated in London together after both emerging from intense, idea-heavy album cycles. What followed was a series of exploratory sessions, half-improvised, half-built around half-formed thoughts.

The result is a club-ready EP that feels alive and human: imperfect and hypnotically rich.

“Rob Clouth has been one of my favourite electronic music producers since I first heard his work in 2011,” says Cooper. “His work is more full of ideas and structure than anyone else.” “We were both coming from extensive conceptual studio albums and both in the mood for simplifying things and having some fun with the music, so that’s what we did”.

For Clouth, no stranger to Max Coopers Mesh label having previously released an array of EP’s plus his 2020 debut album “Zero Point” this record marks a new chapter, both creatively and personally.“Something pretty new for me is collaborating,” he says. “You kind of have to when to stop, because if you develop an idea all the way to its endpoint, the other person has nowhere to jump in.”

The first “A Moment Set Aside” began as a break from another idea, a live, unplanned improvisation based around arps and ambience. “The track was written in about as long as it took to play it,” says Cooper. “It was pulled from a 1 hour recording session, more or less as you hear it… the energy and excitement grew as the unplanned moment bore some magic.”

“The lesson being that sometimes it’s helpful to set aside a moment without forcing results, and let the subconscious have something to say.” What followed was darker, heavier. “Asymptote” is detuned techno. Subversive and euphoric in its descent. “We found a sort of brain mangling, half consonant, half wandering detuned techno pulse, which we started chatting about being a sort of pit of spiralling body parts we were falling into,” says Cooper. “It was a lot of fun to work on and let loose with bigger kicks than I usually ever get to unleash.”

Then came “8 Billion Realities”, featuring a standout rap performance from FLOHIO; an emerging figure in the UK grime and rap scene. The track was inspired by conversations about algorithmic echo chambers and hyper-personalised online worlds. Frantic, direct, and South London to the core, FLOHIO brings this tension to life. Her sharp, intense flow cuts through distortion and rhythm, landing the track somewhere between chaos and control instantly making it one of the most striking moments in either artist’s catalogue. “A different reality for all 8 billion of us,” says Cooper. “We weren’t sure if it would work… but there was something about the energy of the percussive idea and the story which felt like it might fit.” “Then FLOHIO had a play with it and straight off the bat absolutely killed it, not just with the lyrics and energy, but the harmonising too, it was a beautiful process.”

The final piece on the EP “Candeleda” originated from Clouth’s solo experiments with a live rig made entirely of vocals and keys, using his self-developed “cheatbox” system. “He put forward a beautiful stumbling melodic sequence which we bounced back and forth adding harmonies and synth layers,” says Cooper. “It rounds off a collection covering some of the breadth of music that we both love.”