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Massimiliano Pagliara celebrates 20 years of music production with a special anniversary compilation on Funnuvojere. The release brings together solo productions and collaborations spanning a rich and abundant period that began when Pagliara acquired his first analogue machines, five years after moving to Berlin from Milan, where he worked as a professional dancer and choreographer.

The compilation features 20 previously unreleased tracks, deeply infused with italo grooves, wonky bass-lines, balearic pads, drama, love, sex, and dreams. These tracks evoke a wide spectrum of moments, ranging from intimate, pleasure-driven home listening to full-blown dance-floor euphoria. Throughout the compilation, one can feel Pagliara’s enthusiasm for discovery—his excitement in encountering new machines and immediately putting them to work.

Pagliara’s sonic identity is unmistakable, present in every track and in the compilation as a whole. Like the facets of a crystal, the music reflects his many nuances while maintaining a strong, coherent core. Tracks such as Waves of Desire pay homage to Dream House, reimagined through contemporary production with cosmic tones and infectious drums. Flicker Of Us reveals a dramatic tension between a rowdy bass-line and melancholic pads, while We Can Touch The Sky features Pagliara himself on vocals, blending synth-pop with elements of new wave and glam rock. Cool Breeze unfolds as a sunlit, optimistic walk through a wide Berlin avenue—funky, warm, and filled with curiosity for what lies ahead.

A notable strength of the compilation lies in its collaborations, which highlight Pagliara’s joy in working with other producers and vocalists. Each collaboration reveals a distinct character: the balearic sensibility of A Journey of Discovery with Gatto Fritto, the French house flavour of Neon Memories with Alinka, the 70s disco inflection of It’s In Your Eyes with the late Aérea Negrot, and the driving techno attitude of Whirlwind with Fabrizio Mammarella, to name just a few.

Ultimately, this compilation stands as both a gift to Massimiliano’s long-time fans and an open invitation to new listeners. It offers entry into a world shaped by beauty, order, balance, and ecstasy—guided by an enduring love for the craft.

,Ruin Everything" ist das fünfte Studioalbum der Stockholmer Psychedelic-Rock-Pioniere Les Big Byrd. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2011 hat das Quartett seine Mischung aus Space Rock, hypnotisierender Psychedelia und diszipliniertem Krautrock perfektioniert. Angeführt von Songwriter und Produzent Jocke Åhlund Byrd um die ganze Welt getourt und sich dabei eine begeisterte Fangemeinde aufgebaut, wobei sie abwechselnd zu Hause als eine der größten Rockbands Schwedens und im Ausland als Underground-Psych-Act auftraten. Nach dem experimentellen und stark instrumentalen ,Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain" (2024) kehren Les Big Byrd auf ,Ruin Everything" zu einem stärker songorientierten Ansatz zurück, der an ihren Klassiker ,Iran Iraq IKEA" aus dem Jahr 2018 erinnert. Da die abenteuerlichsten Tendenzen der Band zugunsten eines strafferen, fokussierteren Sounds zurückgenommen wurden - der von dem dystopischen Epos ,Big Flood" bis zum Vollgas-Space-Rock von ,Hökvind" reicht -, ist ,Ruin Everything" Les Big Byrd in ihrer bisher besten Form.

,Ruin Everything" ist das fünfte Studioalbum der Stockholmer Psychedelic-Rock-Pioniere Les Big Byrd. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2011 hat das Quartett seine Mischung aus Space Rock, hypnotisierender Psychedelia und diszipliniertem Krautrock perfektioniert. Angeführt von Songwriter und Produzent Jocke Åhlund Byrd um die ganze Welt getourt und sich dabei eine begeisterte Fangemeinde aufgebaut, wobei sie abwechselnd zu Hause als eine der größten Rockbands Schwedens und im Ausland als Underground-Psych-Act auftraten. Nach dem experimentellen und stark instrumentalen ,Diamonds, Rhinestones and Hard Rain" (2024) kehren Les Big Byrd auf ,Ruin Everything" zu einem stärker songorientierten Ansatz zurück, der an ihren Klassiker ,Iran Iraq IKEA" aus dem Jahr 2018 erinnert. Da die abenteuerlichsten Tendenzen der Band zugunsten eines strafferen, fokussierteren Sounds zurückgenommen wurden - der von dem dystopischen Epos ,Big Flood" bis zum Vollgas-Space-Rock von ,Hökvind" reicht -, ist ,Ruin Everything" Les Big Byrd in ihrer bisher besten Form.

Few producers age into deep house with this level of ease. From Switzerland, Shaka's latest EP feels authentic and lived-in rather than retro while drawing on 90s jazz-inflected house without leaning on pastiche. The opener main vocal mix drifts in on flutes, soft keys and Eve's voice, setting a loose, late-night mood that favours feel over flash. The instrumental flute version pares things back, letting swing and detail breathe. Flip it and 'As If Eternity Belonged To Us', featuring Cate Acupar, locks into a warmer, early-2000s pulse, while 'Life Is Brighter With You' cools the room with sax, piano and patient restraint. Dancefloor-ready but also nice and reflective.

Soul Jazz Records’ long out of print classic ‘Studio One Funk’ collection is being re-released in three new one-off limited-edition coloured pressing 18th anniversary format editions!
Firstly, a heavyweight special limited edition one-pressing only red 2xLP vinyl + download. Secondly, there is also a new special limited-edition one-off pressing edition red-pressed CD enclosed in jewel case and slipcase. And thirdly there is a very limited unique new one-off pressing red-cased cassette format (200 copies only)! 18 years on from its original release Studio One Funk remains one of our Studio One releases most in-demand titles and like all our earlier special coloured editions is sure to sell out fast!
Studio One Funk is made up of rare and unreleased Reggae Funk from the vaults of Studio One. Ever since the birth of Funk in America, the sound has been an ever-present ingredient in the melting pot of Studio One’s musical output.
The music on this release is a combination of originals, US covers and versions of existing Studio One cuts. Jackie Mittoo shows his appreciation for Booker T and The MGs, the studio group at Memphis’ famous Stax Records with ‘Hang Em High’, itself a cover of a film soundtrack by Dominic Frontiere. Incredibly this version has never before been released. Booker T’s super-funky ‘Melting Pot’ is also covered by the little-known Underground Vegetables.
Other versions include Isaac Hayes’ classic Blaxploitation soundtrack ‘Shaft’ again by Cedric Im Brooks track - another unreleased gem, straight from the tape master. Motown gets a look in with Alton’s stripped-down version of the Spinners classic ‘It’s A Shame’, written by Stevie Wonder and Syreeta.
James Brown is apparent in spirit with the JBs-inspired groove on the super rare cut “Now” by Lee Arab. Lloyd Williams similarly does a fine Kingston-style version of the hardest-working man in showbusiness on ‘Reggae Feet’.
Version-wise, we have ‘Idleberg’, Cedric Im Brooks tough instrumental cut on Horace Andy’s seminal ‘Skylarking’. The little-known Prince Moonie gives us a rare DJ cut of another Horace Andy classic, ‘See A Man’s Face’.
Pablove Black’s cut of Sidewalk Doctor (A/K/A Poco Tempo) is one of a handful of Studio One releases featuring Augustus Pablo’s trademark instrument, the melodica, played by Black himself.
Add to these original cuts from Studio One’s heavyweight session players including Leroy Sibbles, Jackie Mittoo, Leroy Sibbles, Eric Frater, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace, Richard Ace, Vin Gordon and more and you have one of the finest selections of reggae and funk you will ever hear.







"This collection goes deep into the Brentford Road vaults and unearths a rake of previously unreleased gems alongside hard to find classics. Heavy and inspirational, totally unique and essentially timeless." Straight No Chaser
"An absolute treasure trove for the collector as well as being great for the ears and feet. Jackie Mittoo's 'Hang Em High' is worth the price of the album on its own." Echoes
"A superb collection that shows how much many Jamaican musicians were influenced by the heavy funk belting out of American studios from the early seventies onwards.” Touch
"The most satisfying listening experience so far in the Studio One series." The Wire
"Rare and unreleased grooves from Jamaica's house of excellence." Mojo

Soul Jazz Records celebrate 25 years of working in partnership with Studio One with brand new editions of FIVE of their best-selling CLASSIC Studio One collections all released on limited-edition one-off pressing coloured double vinyl. Also available in new limited-edition card wallet CD editions. The new edition featured albums are Studio One Funk, Studio One Dub, Studio One Ska, Studio One Roots and Studio One Classics.

Studio One Classics features a non-stop selection of stone-cold classic Studio One killers! Spanning 40 years of the legendary label, this album is a celebration of the music of Studio One Records and features a who’s who of Jamaican Reggae: Bob Marley, The Heptones, Horace Andy, Sugar Minott, Don Drummond, Prince Jazzbo & more. This collection contains numerous legendary tracks, including Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Simmer Down”," "Love Me Forever" by Carlton & His Shoes, Slim Smith's "Rougher Yet," Horace Andy's "Fever,", Alton Ellis’s “I’m Just A Guy’, The Skatalites’ blazing ‘Confucious’ and loads more. Timeless stuff - every track here is indeed a classic, no-one can argue about that! Studio One produced literally hundreds of hits and this selection includes some of the label’s most enduring songs.

It is simply impossible to imagine modern Jamaican music without Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, founder of the iconic Studio One where virtually every singer and musician of note in Reggae cut their teeth. Studio One's output spans over four decades, all represented here. Coxsone Dodd pioneered nearly every new form of Jamaican music as it developed over time and this album includes Ska, Dancehall, Roots, Rocksteady, DJ, Lovers and more. This is probably the best entry of the many Soul Jazz Studio One releases if you're after a primer in the Studio One sound. Like it says on the wrapper 'Classics' pretty much sums it up

On June 5th, Tectonic Recordings will release Beatrice M.’s debut LP, Sinking, on a vinyl triple pack and digital download. The vinyl edition will be split across 3 separate 12” vinyl releases, packed in matching printed disco bags. This is part 1 of 3.
Beatrice M. pushes the needle forward for a sound and scene that nestles among a niche that blends UK dubstep, techno, and the golden era of tech house. The Paris-born artist is in their mid-20s and has been building up a grassroots following and plenty of momentum over the last few years, through their Bait label and its output of sonically resonant artists, alongside numerous remixes and collaborative and solo releases for labels such as Tectonic, Tempa, and Rinse. There are plenty of accolades coming in for Beatrice's work too, with notable DJ mixes for respected heavyweights such as Mixmag as well as featuring in Resident Advisor’s best mixes of 2025.
Beatrice is known for making deep explorations into the history of the scenes that have interested them, tracking and highlighting connections between dubstep, tech house, jungle and beyond across various self-produced, one-off radio shows, often taking a journalistic approach to subjects of true passion. They travel across Europe on a packed-out DJing schedule, avoiding air travel, and doing it mainly by train. Many of the LP's tracks started life as sketches put together on these long journeys, as the sights of different countries rolled past the window.
Having taken inspiration from Tectonic artists such as 2562, the label – a home to music that was originally placed in the dubstep-techno crossover spectrum—feels like the perfect place to host Beatrice M.'s debut album Sinking, beginning a new chapter for this kind of sound.
Opening track ‘Ever’ plunges us into deep waters with a sense of dubwise command. The momentum picks up on ‘Ocean’, where the vocal snippet "everyday life" circles around reverbed stabs and intricate hi-hat moves. ‘Motion’ sets the pace with its jumpy but rolling rhythm, leading straight into the eyes-down, party-time energy of ‘Disco Corner’.

Frankfurt am Main -- Leipzig duo not even noticed deliver their long-awaited debut album space beyond noise - a 12-track journey balancing club functionality with immersive, long-form listening.

Shaped by years of touring and a shared ritual of visiting botanical gardens around the world, the album blends shapely grooves, field recordings and warm melodic textures into a cohesive, lived- in sound. Subtle environmental details run throughout, creating a natural flow between tracks.

Musically, it moves between electro-funk, breakbeat and hip-hop- inflected cuts, with downtempo and dubby excursions. Highlights include the driving “chrone,” the sundown groove of “diras,” the acid-tinged “plune,” and the hazy two-step moment “skum.”

Designed with warmer months in mind, space beyond noise captures the balance between dancefloor energy and home listening depth.

Bolka is known as the man with the cap. His cap has lived through a lot: his glitchy and microtonal experiments, studies at Institute of Sonology in The Hague or through countless performative works. A few years ago, Bolka’s cap fell apart. By that time he was already a fixture on the slovak experimental scene, but only releasing his debut album, “smutné stropy.” He started wearing new caps from then: somehow reminiscent of the old one, but much more varied — same as “smutné stropy,” bubbling with motifs, charming humour and pop sensitivity layered over detailed soundscapes popping with surprises.

On schwarzkopf, Bolka returns wishing for a thick black hair. With his charming love songs, that are positioned somewhere between a tightly run freak folk orchestra, deconstructed ballads and colorful ecstatic melancholy, he creates an album that thrives on juxtapositions that are completely unique, yet strangely familiar. Bolka’s songwriting is at once tender and irreverent — lovestruck whispering suddenly tripping over absurdist jokes and surreal images that fizz like soda. His songs move in that strange space between vulnerability and mischief, where intimate confessions collide with radical playfulness and the poetic rubs shoulders with the delightfully ridiculous.

On schwarzkopf, Bolka expands his world with a wide circle of collaborators and an even richer sonic palette. The album is meticulously detailed yet carefree: delicate moments sit next to sudden explosions, drifting from gentle pop to bursts of noise. Toward the end, the album even slips into a footwork-infused remix by Kodiki, passes through Julek ploski’s signature neon-baroque string perspective, and briefly wanders into Lénok’s cinematic sonic world. Bolka sings that he wants to dissolve into a healing ointment, to be ground in a mortar with calendula — and he invites us into this musical spa with him: a place that stings a little but ultimately soothes, a gorgeous soundscape that is both painful and joyful at the same time.

For their third album As You Please, Citizen is looking inward. Pairing up again with longtime producer Will Yip, the band presents twelve songs that fuse aspects of their entire catalog into one neoteric whole. While the cathartic melancholy of their debut Youth and the jarring intensity of 2015's Everybody is Going to Heaven are both present, the most welcome addition to Citizen's arsenal on As You Please is the range of auxiliary instrumentation and sonic experimentation on the album. This is most notable on "In the Middle of it All," where vocalist Mat Kerekes is sampled singing the song title in a modulated, haunting chorus that echoes throughout the song. The addition of organs and unconventional drum effects on songs like "You Are A Star" and "Medicine" create shifting emphases on tension and frailty, while the huge choruses of songs like opener "Jet" and "I Forgive No One" are reminders that while Citizen dove headfirst into uncharted territory with their new album, the band is still as good as ever at writing emotionally-charged anthems. As You Please presents Citizen's vision at the most focused it has ever been - it is delicately crafted to provoke at every moment.

Germany's most exciting new indie voice BROCKHOFF opens a bold new chapter and announces her debut album Easy Peeler, out June 5th 2026 via PIAS Recordings. “Easy Peeler” is the ambitious culmination of BROCKHOFF’s musical coming-of-age journey. It's an album that bridges grunge-laced indie rock and early-2000s pop textures, wrapped in a deeply authentic songwriting voice. It’s a reminder that even when life feels uncomfortable, there’s beauty in being an easy peeler. For Fans of: Modern indie acts Phoebe Bridgers, Snail Mail, Soccer Mommy as well as 90s bands such as Weezer or The Cardigans Tracklist: 01. Easy Peeler 02. The Carpet Song 03. Willows 04. Sunny Day (Deadline) 05. Blue Star 06. Front Row 07. Nothing Can Be Fixed In This Place 08. Dirty Dream 09. Japanese Garden# 10. I've Stopped Getting Chills For A While Now 11. Cruel 12. Sleep It Off 13. It Never Happened 14. Hot Wheels

Following the celebrated reissue of Classics Vol. 1, Metroplex unveils Model 500 - Classics Vol. 2, a powerful new collection of essential works from Juan Atkins--pioneer of Techno and architect of some of the most forward-thinking electronic music ever recorded. Bringing together key cuts, rare mixes, and long-sought favorites from across Atkins' groundbreaking output, this compilation highlights the full spectrum of his sonic universe: deep, rolling machine funk, shimmering electro-techno hybrids, and timeless futurist grooves that helped shape generations of electronic artists. Each track has been carefully remastered to enhance its original energy while preserving the raw spirit and space that define the Model 500 sound. From expansive, atmospheric journeys to soulful vocal transmissions and Detroit-powered rhythmic science, Classics Vol. 2 presents Juan Atkins at his most inspired--an essential document of a visionary whose influence continues to echo across dancefloors worldwide. Three decades on, these tracks have lost none of their immediacy, imagination, or futuristic pull. Restored for a new era, Classics Vol. 2 celebrates the legacy of Model 500 with pristine sound and renewed force. Pure Detroit heritage. Eternal future music.

Real heads with good memories and a lifelong love of good grooves might remember that the original mixes of 'Disco Glory' first appeared on DJ Garth's Wicked imprint in 1996. Top DJ dogs like Danny Tenaglia, Francois K and Doc Martin all used to drop them on the regular and ensuing remixes even made their way onto Sony Pictures' 'Groove' soundtrack. The DJ Garth & ETI mixes have long been out of print, so fetch a pretty penny on the second-hand market, which means it's great news that the 30th anniversary is marked with a fresh return to wax. The Acid Rock mix is psychedelic and trippy, the Look To The Moon dub is a dark and dubby tech sound that could be brand new, and the Ye Olde Organ Grinder mix has a moody and retro house charm.

Seit der Veröffentlichung seines von Kritikern hochgelobten Debütalbums 'Come Around and Love Me' im Jahr 2023 hat Jalen Ngonda eine kometenhafte Karriere hingelegt. Der Song 'If You Don’t Want My Love' wurde zum viralen Hit und wurde bis heute 253 Millionen Mal gestreamt. Jalen war in einer Reihe von großen Fernsehsendungen zu Gast, darunter 'The Graham Norton Show', 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' und 'Later with Jools Holland'. Er war Support-Act für Thee Sacred Souls auf ihrer US-Tournee und hat als Headliner unzählige Clubkonzerte auf der ganzen Welt ausverkauft. Jetzt, im Jahr 2026, während die Glut seines Debüts noch hell lodert, bereitet sich Jalen Ngonda auf die Veröffentlichung seines mit Spannung erwarteten zweiten Albums 'Doctrine Of Love' vor.
Die harte Arbeit und die unermüdlichen Tourneen nach seinem Debüt haben sein Handwerk gestärkt. Seine Botschaft: 'Die Lehre der Liebe besagt, dass jeder Gedanke und jede Handlung in erster Linie von Mitgefühl für andere geleitet sein sollte, denn Liebe ist der höchste Maßstab für den Wert eines Menschen.' Die Titel des neuen Albums sind aus diesem Credo entstanden. Mit seinem tiefen Wissen und seiner Liebe zum klassischen Soul vermittelt Jalen Ngonda Authentizität in Hülle und Fülle. 'Doctrine Of Love' verbindet Pop-Sensibilität und soulige Melodien mit roher Kraft und Groove und erweitert die orchestralen Arrangements von 'Come Around And Love Me' um bläserreiche und gospelartige Backing Vocals, wodurch ein äußerst stilvolles Beispiel für moderne Soul-Kunst entsteht. Tipp!

These days – on the new, ninth Fink album – Greenall is operating within a lineage of authentic, quietly revolutionary artists from England’s verdant southwestern toe. Artists like Michael Chapman. In 1970, the elusive acoustic guitar wizard released an album called Fully Qualified Survivor. The cult-classic served as a lodestar for Greenall – along with bandmates Tim Thornton and Guy Whittaker – as he began jigsawing together The City Is Coming to Erase it All, the follow-up to 2024’s Beauty In Your Wake. He even considered covering a song from it, but in the process, inadvertently stumbled into what became the album’s opener. ‘Wishing For Blue Sky’ circles a universal teenage ache: waiting for life to start. “No point dying of patience” goes the first lyric as crunching footsteps cue a resonant, open-tuned acoustic swaying into view. By 18, Greenall was fed up with waiting, so he left suburban Bristol and saw the world, sending postcards from the edge, waiting tables, squirreling away tips for the next flight. Thornton had similar experiences when the guitarist/drummer busked across Eur

This is nowstalgia more than nostalgia, though; there’s a parallel between these 18-year-olds and Fink’s autumn-aged family men. “You’re expected to be boring and settling down at this age,” Thornton says. “But we’ve still got this tremendous wanderlust. We want to go and discover, and also achieve things. It’s a nice life – home and family – but fuck, I can’t wait to get back out there.” City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky

These days – on the new, ninth Fink album – Greenall is operating within a lineage of authentic, quietly revolutionary artists from England’s verdant southwestern toe. Artists like Michael Chapman. In 1970, the elusive acoustic guitar wizard released an album called Fully Qualified Survivor. The cult-classic served as a lodestar for Greenall – along with bandmates Tim Thornton and Guy Whittaker – as he began jigsawing together The City Is Coming to Erase it All, the follow-up to 2024’s Beauty In Your Wake. He even considered covering a song from it, but in the process, inadvertently stumbled into what became the album’s opener. ‘Wishing For Blue Sky’ circles a universal teenage ache: waiting for life to start. “No point dying of patience” goes the first lyric as crunching footsteps cue a resonant, open-tuned acoustic swaying into view. By 18, Greenall was fed up with waiting, so he left suburban Bristol and saw the world, sending postcards from the edge, waiting tables, squirreling away tips for the next flight. Thornton had similar experiences when the guitarist/drummer busked across Eur

This is nowstalgia more than nostalgia, though; there’s a parallel between these 18-year-olds and Fink’s autumn-aged family men. “You’re expected to be boring and settling down at this age,” Thornton says. “But we’ve still got this tremendous wanderlust. We want to go and discover, and also achieve things. It’s a nice life – home and family – but fuck, I can’t wait to get back out there.” City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky

Seit der Veröffentlichung seines von Kritikern hochgelobten Debütalbums 'Come Around and Love Me' im Jahr 2023 hat Jalen Ngonda eine kometenhafte Karriere hingelegt. Der Song 'If You Don’t Want My Love' wurde zum viralen Hit und wurde bis heute 253 Millionen Mal gestreamt. Jalen war in einer Reihe von großen Fernsehsendungen zu Gast, darunter 'The Graham Norton Show', 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' und 'Later with Jools Holland'. Er war Support-Act für Thee Sacred Souls auf ihrer US-Tournee und hat als Headliner unzählige Clubkonzerte auf der ganzen Welt ausverkauft. Jetzt, im Jahr 2026, während die Glut seines Debüts noch hell lodert, bereitet sich Jalen Ngonda auf die Veröffentlichung seines mit Spannung erwarteten zweiten Albums 'Doctrine Of Love' vor.
Die harte Arbeit und die unermüdlichen Tourneen nach seinem Debüt haben sein Handwerk gestärkt. Seine Botschaft: 'Die Lehre der Liebe besagt, dass jeder Gedanke und jede Handlung in erster Linie von Mitgefühl für andere geleitet sein sollte, denn Liebe ist der höchste Maßstab für den Wert eines Menschen.' Die Titel des neuen Albums sind aus diesem Credo entstanden. Mit seinem tiefen Wissen und seiner Liebe zum klassischen Soul vermittelt Jalen Ngonda Authentizität in Hülle und Fülle. 'Doctrine Of Love' verbindet Pop-Sensibilität und soulige Melodien mit roher Kraft und Groove und erweitert die orchestralen Arrangements von 'Come Around And Love Me' um bläserreiche und gospelartige Backing Vocals, wodurch ein äußerst stilvolles Beispiel für moderne Soul-Kunst entsteht. Tipp!

Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.