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After the success of part one, the second half of this fabed Aspect double pack from 2000 gets a separate reissue by popular demand. M-Core's 'Get Down' starts proceedings, a slow techno burner that starts with spaced out eeriness but builds its momentum rhythm-wise almost literally brick-by-back. 'Evolved' by Soul Capsule Productions has a fresher, cheerier atmosphere to it, before the gloomy clouds gather again for closing track 'The Prayer' by Dark Boys.

Tauceti (Lilou Chelal) is a DJ / producer / composer from Lyon. As a DJ Chelal distills a dark, tropical and sensual techno with percussive and vaporous rhythms in her mix. She stands for a very particular elegance and a certain, clearly audible maturity, which makes her stand out. "Guanyin" is her very first full length - where she transfers the elegance of her sound into a very personal and unique journey.

Tauceti about "Guanyin":

I am pleased to announce the release of my very first ambient album on the Denovali label. This is probably the most personal record I produced so far, because it is in a way a tribute to my Middle Eastern and Asian origins. It is a hybrid and intimate object, at the border between futurism and cultural heritage, with a desire to approach a more contemporary environment at the limit of classical. I used traditional instrument patterns, sounds intimately linked to oriental instruments, all the while using my electronic touch composed of drone/ ambient and sound distortions. This is the result of a year of reflection and increased exploration of new frontiers in the studio, which has gradually evolved into a desire to make an album concrete. Composed of eight tracks, some of you may have heard some of them during my ambient set during the last edition of Nuits Sonores, just before Vail and Rodhad’s magnificent live performance. It’s a kind of homecoming for me, the very first tracks I produced years ago already being part of the ambient register. This is an opportunity for me to reaffirm the multi-faceted aspect of my artistic project, drawing on various aesthetic registers, between ambient and techno. I would like to warmly thank the Denovali label for their trust here, and with whom I will have the chance and the opportunity to maintain a privileged relationship for the next years.

Carnivalfinds the Fort Worth trauma ray captures some of their strongest, most intense, and exploratory work within the boundaries of a whirlwind year. The breakout success of Chameleon, their 2024 debut on Dais Records, further established the band amidst the current wave of shoegaze revivalists, yet increasingly agile, able to weave between scenes, touring throughout 2025 with the likes of Deafheaven, Loathe, and TouchéAmoré. A confluence of blitzing riffs and stark beauty, theirsound continues to evolve, nodding to loud-quiet-loud greats across metal, grunge, and shoegaze from Slowdive to Smashing Pumpkins. Carnival delves into moodier, more cerebral material, like holding theirpast excursions against a funhouse mirror. There's a distinct sense ofunease in these songs, built as a band in a fleeting window of time, proving they work best under pressure and when pulling from thedarkest corners of their subconscious. The wordless "Carousel" ushers in the EP's unsettling atmosphere withblasts of static and downcast strums giving way to "Hannibal", ananthemic track packed with power riffs and raw emotion. The band has hit this kind of sheer power before, from 2018's "Solstice" to Chameleon's title track, while "Hannibal" contorts with a tinge ofunprecedented evil, slithery, "Stone Temple-y, Alice in Chains-y," Avilaquips. Lyrically, he taps into teenage angst, the feeling of beingdissected and rejected.

Carnivalfinds the Fort Worth trauma ray captures some of their strongest, most intense, and exploratory work within the boundaries of a whirlwind year. The breakout success of Chameleon, their 2024 debut on Dais Records, further established the band amidst the current wave of shoegaze revivalists, yet increasingly agile, able to weave between scenes, touring throughout 2025 with the likes of Deafheaven, Loathe, and TouchéAmoré. A confluence of blitzing riffs and stark beauty, theirsound continues to evolve, nodding to loud-quiet-loud greats across metal, grunge, and shoegaze from Slowdive to Smashing Pumpkins. Carnival delves into moodier, more cerebral material, like holding theirpast excursions against a funhouse mirror. There's a distinct sense ofunease in these songs, built as a band in a fleeting window of time, proving they work best under pressure and when pulling from thedarkest corners of their subconscious. The wordless "Carousel" ushers in the EP's unsettling atmosphere withblasts of static and downcast strums giving way to "Hannibal", ananthemic track packed with power riffs and raw emotion. The band has hit this kind of sheer power before, from 2018's "Solstice" to Chameleon's title track, while "Hannibal" contorts with a tinge ofunprecedented evil, slithery, "Stone Temple-y, Alice in Chains-y," Avilaquips. Lyrically, he taps into teenage angst, the feeling of beingdissected and rejected.

White Elephant announce their debut album “World Elephant Day”, the sound of time, trust and total freedom.

A project forged over ten years in Crazy P’s Nottingham studio, blending dancefloor DNA with intimate musicianship.

White Elephant began as a no-agenda weekend in Crazy P’s Nottingham studio, where Chris “Hot Toddy” Todd, Jim “Ron Basejam” Baron and Ben “BJ” Smith discovered an effortless musical union. Over the next decade, their collaboration slowly evolved into a debut album shaped by warmth, trust and lived experience rather than deadlines. Blending Crazy P’s dancefloor DNA with tender musicianship, the record moves between glowing disco grooves, 80s-bright sparkling pulses and intimate acoustic moments. It’s reflective without being nostalgic, playful yet deeply human. White Elephant is three friends rediscovering the joy of making music simply because it feels good.

Volcanic Sun Vinyl, limited to 500 copies. The Berlin-based power trio once more is driving their musical WEDGE in between many different genres: Garage rock turns progressive while psychedelic guitar lines are tripping over hard rocking riffs. Does this work together? Hell yes! For fans of Deep Purple, MC5, Led Zeppelin or Humble Pie this album is a sure shot. You like fuzz guitars? Hammond organ and vocals trough a swirling Leslie cabinet? More cowbell? You got it. But unlike our beloved rock records from around 1971, which we've heard a hundred times before "Like No Tomorrow" has one huge advantage: It's brand new and the 8 tracks, ranging from 3:00 to 9:00 minutes, deliver a fresh, unspent and unmistakably unique taste to the rock'n'roll menu. In the tradition of bands like The Raconteurs, The Hellacopters, Graveyard or Wolfmother, WEDGE are building on that vintage vibe we all know and love but evolve their very own thing and are able to connect it directly to here and now.

A unique collaboration between two of the most inquisitive and important artists in modern avant-garde electronic music.

Paper Masks marks a striking new collaboration between visionary Mute labelmates Phew and Danielle de Picciotto. Developed quietly over nearly five years, what began as an experiment between friends gradually evolved into a fulllength album. Phew composed and arranged all the music, weaving in dePicciotto’s voice and freely reshaping it to create something entirely new. Performed in both German and English, the result is an exploratory work that balances electronic minimalism with emotional immediacy.

Described by Pitchfork as “a Japanese underground legend”, Phew - former member of Osaka punk pioneers Aunt Sally - has forged a remarkable solo career, collaborating with Ryuichi Sakamoto, members of Can, and many others. In parallel, Danielle de Picciotto, an American-born interdisciplinary artist based in Berlin, co-founded the Berlin Love Parade and has performed internationally, working with Crime & the City Solution, Gudrun Gut, Space Cowboys, and her partner Alexander Hacke (Einstürzende Neubauten and frequent Phew collaborator) in hackedepicciotto.

Paper Masks stands as a mesmerizing exchange between two singular voices in experimental music - an intimate dialogue across distance, language, and sound, and a compelling addition to both artists’ evolving legacies.

Available on limited edition jellyfish color vinyl, featuring lyrics and poetry, and on CD, housed in an eco card-pack with a lyrics and poetry booklet.

White Elephant announce their debut album "World Elephant Day", the sound of time, trust and total freedom. A project forged over ten years in Crazy P"s Nottingham studio, blending dancefloor DNA with intimate musicianship. White Elephant began as a no-agenda weekend in Crazy P"s Nottingham studio, where Chris "Hot Toddy" Todd, Jim "Ron Basejam" Baron and Ben "BJ" Smith discovered an effortless musical union. Over the next decade, their collaboration slowly evolved into a debut album shaped by warmth, trust and lived experience rather than deadlines. Blending Crazy P"s dancefloor DNA with tender musicianship, the record moves between glowing disco grooves, 80s-bright sparkling pulses and intimate acoustic moments. It"s reflective without being nostalgic, playful yet deeply human. White Elephant is three friends rediscovering the joy of making music simply because it feels good.

A chance meeting in Mexico City set Points of Inaccessibility into motion. When Ibero-American composer Rafael Anton Irisarri crossed paths with Dutch media artist Jaco Schilp at MUTEK in 2024, a conversation about how technology shapes perception revealed an unexpected common ground. Schilp invited Irisarri to a spring 2025 residency at Uncloud, the Utrecht-based collective he co-founded, where Irisarri's sound began to take form amid an environment shaped by Schilp’s visual research.

The Uncloud studio was located inside the former Pieter Baan Centre, a forensic psychiatric prison where suspects of violent crimes were once confined. Its long history of silence and containment shaped the atmosphere in which the project developed. Within this setting, Irisarri coaxed long bowed-guitar tones through a network of pedals and looping systems. The raw gestures thickened into a vaporous and architectural field of sound. Schilp processed the material through a custom point-cloud software patch that produced images in continuous flux. The visuals flickered, dissolved and reformed like memories that resist coherence, functioning as a digital Rorschach that reflected the observer’s own perception.

Amid these spectral echoes, the project evolved into an examination of how the past persists within present signals. Memory endures as residue and interference, continually shaping perception even when its source has faded.

Schilp’s visual process required a continuous stream of sound in real time. Irisarri improvised throughout the residency, generating material that allowed the visuals to develop in parallel. Once back in his New York studio, he began shaping the recordings by carving pathways through the improvisations and mapping selected passages into MIDI. This process allowed him to build outward from the bowed-guitar material with minimal overdubs, adding Prophet 5 textures, Moog bass and strings that expanded the harmonic field while keeping the original performances at the center. To refine the structure, Abul Mogard provided editorial input, working with Irisarri’s stems to guide transitions and strengthen the overall pacing. The material, originally created under conditions of immediacy and constraint, evolved into a fully realized work through careful revision, patience and sustained reworking.

The title engages the geographic concept of the Poles of Inaccessibility, locations defined solely by their distance from all surrounding points. Irisarri adapts this idea to the conditions of digital life, where new forms of inaccessibility arise through the informational enclosures that structure perception. What appears to be a fully connected network often produces a deeper kind of separation, one shaped by the filtering logic of the systems that mediate experience. In this sense, the digital sphere mirrors its geographic counterpart. We inhabit spaces saturated with signals, yet the possibility of genuine contact becomes increasingly remote.

At its core, Points of Inaccessibility considers what can be understood as the new rituals of capitalist realism. Irisarri uses the term digital shamanism to describe the forms of simulated connection that organize contemporary life. These systems promise comfort through algorithms, influencers and AI interlocutors, yet they often reproduce the same conditions that generate loneliness in the first place. What appears as connection becomes the echo of connection, a sequence of gestures that imitate solidarity while withholding it. Like the geographic poles, these rituals are defined by distance. They pull us into environments where everything is illuminated, yet meaningful proximity becomes increasingly rare. In this sense, the work approaches a hauntology of the present, a reflection on futures that have stalled and intimacies that have been thinned by the algorithmic infrastructures that surround us.

This thematic tension unfolds across the album’s four movements. Faded Ghosts of Clouds introduces the work with textures that rise and dissipate in slow cycles, creating an atmosphere that resists clear definition. Breaking the Unison occupies a pivotal position in the sequence and focuses on the moment when the individual and the system fall out of alignment. Its shifting patterns trace the scattering of signals that once suggested connection, revealing the instability at the heart of contemporary perception. Signals from a Distant Afterglow forms the center of the album and features vocals by Karen Vogt, whose presence enters the sound field like a fragile transmission shaped by distance and delay. The closing piece, Memory Strands, follows motifs that appear, recede and briefly intersect before returning to quiet. Across these movements, the album outlines a landscape in which emergence and disappearance continually inform one another.

Listening to Points of Inaccessibility is an encounter with a sound field that is constantly in flux. Elements surface briefly, shift position and recede, creating a sense of motion that resists stable interpretation. The music moves between closeness and vastness, carrying traces of memory while withholding a clear point of resolution.

The album’s visual identity completes the project’s conceptual arc. In Mexico City, where Irisarri and Schilp first met, Daniel Castrejón transformed stills from Schilp’s point-cloud visuals into the cover image. The final artwork captures a single suspended frame of the digital material, a moment extracted from a field that is normally in constant motion. Its surface recalls the texture and abstraction found in the work of Catalan artist Antoni Tàpies, where material presence and erasure coexist within the same plane.

What emerges is a work that examines the tension between technological systems and human presence. Points of Inaccessibility asks whether connection is still possible within environments shaped by mediation and delay, or whether we have become isolated points within the very networks that promise proximity. What possibilities for relation persist within environments organized by algorithms and interruption? And how are we meant to understand presence when so much of it is constructed at a distance?

Points of Inaccessibility will be released on BioVinyl on February 6, 2026, with audiovisual performances planned throughout 2026.

Mastered by Stephan Mathieu
Artwork by Jaco Schilp
Design and layout by Daniel Castrejón
Artist photo by Iulia Alexandra Magheru.

To decay is also to transform. Rusting metal is the visible traces of passing time, as the oxidation process accumulates dampness in our atmosphere and imprints it as unpredictable patterns onto hard iron and steel. Working in construction for a year now, Kensho Nakamura sees rust all the time, clambering up ageing chunks of material. Normally discarded as waste, Nakamura began discerning beauty in the phenomenon, organically spiralling around and consuming some of the very hardest of manufacturing stuffs into unique new forms.

‘Electric Rust’ continues the conceptual electronic composition mode of Nakamura’s previous works with a series of fractured musical dioramas. These scurrying notes, sparse hums, and quivering bleeps explore the topics of rust and the accumulation of time. The music ticks like a clock, drips like a tap, and manifests unknowable inorganic shapes. Recognisable musical snippets of bells, pianos, or murmured voices are buried inside counterintuitive synthetic rhythms and tension.

On ‘wet air’ piano notes tinkle and pipes gargle, digital detritus tap dances and arpeggios stumble. On ‘unique faces’, idle marimbas and malfunctioning animalistic squeaks flounder. This is music from the promethean space between being forgotten and being conceived. ‘Electric Rust’ is a topography of a world of rust, where corroding structures evolve into new — and beautiful — patterns of life.

APORIAMOR noun 1. The death of love’s contradiction.
| “Embody APORIAMOR”

Etymology
aporia-: an irresolvable internal contradiction or logical disjunction in a text, argument, or theory. from Greek aporos ‘impassable’, from a- ‘without’ + poros ‘passage’
-amor: love. Sentimiento intenso del ser humano que, partiendo de su propia insuficiencia, necesita y busca el encuentro y unión con otro ser. Del latín amor.
-mor: latin for death.

APORIAMOR explores the affective ontological and organic processes of love and lust in the turmoil of an urban existence, through the female lens. It expresses the process of strengthening through heartbreak in its various forms.

With her debut EP The Art of the Concrete, elsas knew that by giving that name to a record which was ironically expansive and experimental, she would be calling for a distilled and clearer path further down the line. This is what she’s been incorporating into the sonic world of this new EP, APORIAMOR, signifying the birth of a more matured and distilled version of herself as an artist.

With APORIAMOR (“the death of love’s contradiction”) elsas conveys a personal process of healing in the romantic space. Through different experiences of heartbreak, elsas builds a language - a coping mechanism attached to its subsequent artistic expression – that isn’t founded on hardness or a closing-off, but instead, on a playful but profound reckoning, and learning of self-worth.

APORIAMOR embraces the complexities of being a lover-girl: of moving through life with an open heart. It celebrates the clarity, sweet hindsight, and detachment that come from processing emotion. APORIAMOR is both an affirmation and a release.

elsas makes canonical blends with a forward boundary-bending vision. Her sound in this record is naturally referential of both her Mediterranean heritage and UK alternative music — intrinsic parts of her lived experience. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with artists she deeply admires, each exchange enriching her creative world.

The experience of working hand-in-hand with Sampha for the last 3 years and ongoingly has been a core of her evolution as an artist. She has also collaborated in many forms with artists like Florence + the Machine, Little Simz, Jordan Rakei, Jockstrap, Obongjayar, Black Country New Road, Genevieve Artadi (KNOWER) and Duval Timothy. Additionally, her ongoing work with the Idrîsî Ensemble, of which she is a core member, continues to inform her artistic depth.

The making of this largely self-produced record unfolded over four years — “it’s a well-kneaded dough,” she says. These songs evolved through exposure to multiple environments: from early writing sessions in her childhood home in the Spanish countryside, to stages across the U.S. while on tour supporting Sampha.

Experimentation and modulation are an intrinsic part of elsas’ method, conceiving songs as organisms that respond to their surroundings. Collaborators on this collection of songs include Shrink, Will Lister, Gabriel Gifford, Ethan P. Flynn and more. The record was mixed by David Wrench (a long-time supporter of elsas’) and Nathan Boddy, and mastered by Matt Colton.

With APORIAMOR, elsas creates a visual world from the fabulation of the past, as an act of playful historical revisionism in which she embeds herself as both subject and storyteller. The songs function like an archive of her experiences across various years, each one unearthed and presented as some sort of archaeological artifact. Through this body of work, elsas begins to conceptualize herself as a legacy artist: one who honors the archive of her own becoming while emerging as a distinct and resonant voice in today’s musical landscape.

Somewhere between jazz, progressive rock and cinematic soundscapes, Kabasse unfolds a world of intricate arrangements, bold sonic textures and heartfelt improvisation. The brainchild of Munich-based musician Sigmund Perner (also member of Carpet), this sextet blends composed structure with free exploration, layering lush harmonies, unexpected rhythms and a rich palette of wind, mallet and keyboard instruments. What began as decades of musical ideas-gathered quietly, never written down-found its shape through a group of close-knit musicians from Munich and Augsburg, including Perner's own son on drums. Together, they recorded in a live studio session, embracing risk and spontaneity. The result: a deeply personal debut album that feels both mature and raw, contemplative and gripping. Rather than demanding attention, the pieces invite it: About Sitting on Fences captures the art of waiting-for ideas to grow, evolve and resonate. Just like the name Kabasse, inspired by the calabash: a vessel, a resonator, a home for sound.

Jackie Mittoo, organ and piano maestro, was also one of the founding members of Jamaica's top session band The Skatalites. Musical arranger for Studio One he provided the backbone to so many of Jamaica's finest tunes. The invention of Ska music and the sounds that rode through the Rocksteady and Reggae period all carry his stamp. Whether it be in his various incarnations, the aforementioned Skatalites, The Soul Brothers, Soul Vendors and the Sound Dimension or under his own name, his distinctive organ and piano sound and musical arrangements have all played a major part in Jamaica's musical history.

Jackie Mittoo (born 1948, Kingston, Jamaica) began playing musical instruments at a very early age. Taught piano by his grandmother he was performing live by the age of 10 and recording by the age of 15. Two Kingston bands that he played with the Rivals and the Sheiks brought him to the attention of Studio One's founder Coxsone Dodd. Who at the time was putting a group of musicians together to be his studio band. Impressed by his skills on both the organ and the piano, Jackie was asked to join in what would become Jamaica's foremost band The Skatalites. The fellow band members were Lloyd Brevett (bass), Lloyd Knibbs (drums), Don Drummond (trombone), Tommy McCook, Roland Alphonso and Lester Sterling (Sax), Johnny Moore (trumpet), Jah Jerry (guitar) and Mr Mittoo (piano). This line up ruled the Jamaican scene between 1964 - 1965 as well as inventing the Ska sound, they also performed the backing duties for the other top labels of the time including Duke Reid's Treasure Isle and Justin Yap's Top Deck label.

1965 saw The Skatalites disband and Jackie Mittoo move on to his next musical project The Soul Brothers. Formed with fellow Skatalite Roland Alphonso, this band would back all the hits coming out of Studio One for the next three years with Jackie Mittoo working as band leader and musical arranger. Around this time Jackie also had his own single released, a Ska underground classic called 'Got My Bugaloo'. Rare, as it also features Jackie in the unusual role for him, as lead singer!!!!.

1966 saw the Ska sound evolve into Rocksteady, again with Jackie's band at the helm, and his first hit single the Rocksteady cut 'Ram Jam'. The success of which would lead to a solo career and album releases under his own name such as 'Now', 'Macka Fat', 'Evening Time', 'In London' and 'Keep on Dancing', to name but a few. In1967 the hits at Studio One were still flowing when The Soul Brothers morphed into The Soul Venders and began backing such luminaries as Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, The Heptones, The Cables, The Wailers and many other of the labels solo artists.

By 1968 Jamaican music was ready for another change and Rocksteady rolled into a slower groove soon to be called Reggae. Jackie Mittoo would be at the forefront with his latest band The Sound Dimension. A line up that included Leroy Sibbles (bass), Roland Alphonso and Cedric Brooks (saxophone), Eric Frater and Ernest Ranglin (guitar) and Bunny Williams (drums). Being the house band at Studio One they backed all the leading names of the time, John Holt, Horace Andy and Alton Ellis, all of Studio One's output carried his sound.

Jackie Mittoo emigrated in the late 60's to Canada, but travelled to Jamaica and London to record with many of the big new names, who were trying to redress Studio One's supremacy and needed his magic touch. Such Producers as Bunny Lee used Jackie Mittoo on many of his sessions, Sugar Minott among others were always glad of his services.

We have captured some fine 1970's cuts that feature Jackies numerous talents, showing his ability to embellish tracks with a feel that few could better, Musical arranger, band leader all round studio ace. We hope you enjoy the set and I'm sure you'll agree with us Jackie Mittoo does indeed Ride On.........

Portland, Oregon dark rock trio HOAXED return with their stunning new album Death Knocks. Three years in the making, the group—featuring vocalist/guitarist Kat Keo, drummer Kim Coffel, and new bassist/vocalist April Dimmick—have honed their stygian craft to perfection. "We've added another element to the writing and collaboration process," says the band. "April comes from a classic heavy metal background, and her influence is in these songs. We've also had experiences on tour that have helped shape these songs. You can hear influence from the bands we toured with and learned from. We played together for three years as we wrote this album, and we learned a lot about our styles, and our sound evolved naturally together on stage. So, when we sat down to write this album, it didn't feel like a departure or a change." Anchored by the witchy spell of opener "Where the Seas Fall Silent," the rock-hardened groove of "Kill Switch," and the dimly lit power pop of "The Family," HOAXED upped the tempo, sawed the edges (Dimmick's raspy menace intimidates), and strengthened their ties to the golden gods of heavy metal. Indeed, cyclical riffs, dynamic rhythms, and bottom-heavy bass propel Death Knocks through its filmic, hard-nosed gloom, but Keo's sorcerous vocal hooks seal the deal. Often smartly paired with Dimmick's angels' n' demons, her performance effuses fragility and potency across the album's alluring expanse. HOAXED recorded Death Knocks at Falcon Recording Studios with producer/engineer Gabe Johnston (Unto Others, Vintersea) and enlisted Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Kreator, and more,) for mixing and mastering. In total, the group spent eight days in February and March tracking Death Knocks. While most bands spend months ironing their metallic mettle, Hoaxed's expeditious time at Falcon engendered a polished, big-sounding force befitting their larger-than-life songs. Short: Portland, Oregon dark rock trio HOAXED return with their stunning new album Death Knocks. Three years in the making, the group—featuring vocalist/guitarist Kat Keo, drummer Kim Coffel, and new bassist/vocalist April Dimmick—have honed their stygian craft to perfection. FFO: Ghost, Tribulation, Bloody Hammers, Khemmis, Unto Others, GGGOLDDD, Katatonia. Pallbearer

On one hand, it could be bumming out the people who enjoyed hearing what the band evolved into. On the other hand, nostalgia sells...and daddy needs to eat! So...Nevermind 2! Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses has seen a few vinyl pressings in the past, but landing a physical copy of You Are My Canvas (which was only released on burned CDs, crafted in the Lovat- Frasers' basement) is almost impossible. And ooooooh boy...the pre- demo demo (or PDD) versions of "Sketch Artist Composite" and "The Anatomy of the Journey"? Those puppies - with me (Connor...hi!) on vocals/drums and Jeff playing everything else - were only available on the Y2K version and basically only used to recruit other band members. Smash all these old chestnuts together in one release and see what happens! Why not? It perfectly captures the whole spirit of early BOYS NIGHT OUT. But what title does one bestow upon such a sonic siphonophore? There are 3 versions of "Sketch Artist Composite".

Do you call it Sketch Artist Composite Plus Other Songs? Do you go all in on a lyric- based title like Fuck Us Where We Breathe? Decisions, decisions! Probably best to follow Costa's sage advice and go with Nevermind 2. So, almost exactly two decades after our first show - July 19, 2001 @ The Oakville Pine Room with Sky Came Falling, Unearth, and Rise Over Run - may we present unto you, Nevermind 2! What's old is new again, probably?

A rising and genre-defying figure in the French electronic scene, Goldie B continues her ascent with Who Says Night’s For Sleeping?, a five-track EP that asserts her distinctive signature: an instinctive blend of club energy, cinematic storytelling and UK rave influences. Conceived as the soundtrack to a night lived in full intensity, the record moves through the fire of the dancefloor, the collective trance, and those suspended moments where one floats between dream and wakefulness.

“I imagined this EP as the soundtrack to a night experienced in its entirety. From the first rush of adrenaline on the dancefloor to that floating walk home, still carried by the music. My influences range from Moby and Air to Floating Points and Joy Orbison, artists who know how to combine power and emotion. I love connecting the raw energy of the club with more dreamlike textures, because you can absolutely dream while dancing. Each track is an instinctive snapshot of my inner world.” Goldie B The EP’s opening act, “The Space Between” blends ethereal pads, organic strings and a steady crescendo, recalling the elegance of Air or Moby. It opens a suspended space, equally suited to inner drift or physical release. “I wanted it to feel like a threshold, a gentle hand pulling you into a trance state.”

On “U Make Me Feel So Good”, a sensual and narrative breakbeat track, a flowing bassline gradually tightens into trancier energy. Seductive female vocals weave through broken rhythms, creating a piece that is as tactile as it is hypnotic. “It’s about contrast, the softness and caress at the start, then a tension that rises and electrifies.”
Instagram | Youtube | TikTok | SoundCloudAt the heart of the project, “Rêve de Rave” channels 90’s breakbeat spirit with old-school samples, an euphoric central break and voices urging to move your feet. Urgent and liberating, it embodies the dreamlike essence of the rave. “It’s how I imagine the rave: a lucid dream where joy and collective energy feel almost unreal.”

Next comes the most incisive cut of the EP, “Purple FX”, driven by a grating central bassline that evolves relentlessly until its explosive drop. Minimalist yet implacable, it captures the sheer force of a peak-time track. “I wanted a track purely designed for the club, where the tension just keeps rising until it explodes.”

Closing in chiaroscuro, “Snake Waves” shifts from breakbeat into a half-house, half-techno 4/4 groove, carried by a sinuous, hypnotic bassline. The track plays on tension and release, with a rich harmonic break before fading like a suspended farewell, where the party recedes but the energy lingers. “It’s a farewell piece that keeps the intoxication alive, like a final vertigo before slipping back into the night.”

Goldie B is a multifaceted force on the French electronic scene. A producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, MC, DJ, and co-founder of the label Omakase Recordings, her sets blend bass, jungle, UKG, and breakbeat, captivating audiences with their contagious energy. Based in Marseille, she has released music on renowned labels such as D.KO, Banoffee Pies, and YUKU, and has performed on some of the biggest French stages and festivals: Peacock Society, Astropolis, NDK, Marsatac, Delta, Le Bon Air, and even the Festival d’Avignon. In 2024, she was selected by Apple Music for its Women In Electronic series. Her new Who Says Night’s For Sleeping? EP confirms her status as an instinctive and distinctive artist to watch on the French electronic scene.

DJ Support: BEN UFO, Solomun, Marco Carola, Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones, Joseph Capriati, Ilaria Alicante, Michael Bibi, Paco Osuna, D'Julz, Groove Armada, Dennis Cruz, Chloe Caillet, Kettama and many more

Enzo Siragusa opens 2026 with his ‘Kilimanjaro Sound’ EP, a release that expands on last year’s standalone single. Marking both Enzo and FUSE’s first drop of the year, the EP delivers the latest instalment in his longstanding Kilimanjaro concept while reaffirming the label’s position at the heart of underground club culture.

Following the digital release of ‘Kilimanjaro Sound’ back in October, the full EP frames the title track within a broader narrative of rhythm, atmosphere, and movement. A long-time fixture in Enzo’s sets throughout 2025, the title track established itself as a fan favourite through its rolling percussion, weighty low-end, and expansive spatial design, and now it takes on renewed presence on vinyl. New cut ‘Liquify’ pushes deeper into Enzo’s rhythmic sensibilities, pairing fluid groove structures with subtle tension and release. Designed for late-night floors, the track unfolds patiently, allowing swing, texture, and space to do the heavy lifting. It’s a natural continuation of the Kilimanjaro language, less about immediacy, more about immersion, showcasing his refined understanding of how momentum is built and sustained in true club environments.

Completing the EP is a remix from Giammarco Orsini, whose Garage Dub Mix of ‘Kilimanjaro Sound’ offers a fresh perspective while remaining true to the original. Born in Italy and now based in Berlin, Orsini has quietly evolved into one of the scene’s most respected selectors and producers, with releases on Cragie Knowes, Mood Waves, and Shonky’s Stoned Pilot. His interpretation strips the track back to its essentials, reintroducing it through a garage-leaning lens that prioritises groove, swing, and subtle pressure.

As the first release following FUSE’s latest DJ Mag Best of British Award, marking their second Best Club Event win, the EP reflects the values that have long defined the brand: community, longevity, and music built for real dancefloors. Pressed to wax, the release extends one of Siragusa’s most recognisable concepts and sets the tone for the year ahead - measured, confident, and rooted in the underground.

Rhiza Semar presents its fourth chapter with Yildizlara, a four-track odyssey shaped from shadow, rhythm, and elemental texture. Crafted as both visceral tools and introspective journeys, the record navigates between ominous density and luminous release, guided by a deep awareness of space, myth, and matter. As an artist, Hitam paves the way for a new sound emerging from his burrows to build bridges between electronic subgenres while shaping a landscape unmistakably his own. Orb Weaver opens the cycle with jagged IDM rhythms that coil and release like threads of a web pulled taut. Originally composed for the graduation project of fashion designer Tim van der Plas, who's collection was inspired on climbing out of depression, its atmosphere is dark and ceremonial, with textures scraping against silence until catharsis emerges from the tension. A confrontation between inner turmoil and release. On Vanishing of the Anasazi, cavernous reverbs carry traces of lost structures, percussion echoing as if across ruins. A relentless drive holds the ghost of ritual processions, summoning a spectral energy that feels at once monumental and hollowed-out. The track suspends itself between presence and absence, architecture and collapse, leaving the listener in a space where echoes become the only surviving form of memory. Mesh Grip plunges downward into subterranean force. A thundering groove rumbles like minerals being unearthed, goblin-like figures at work in hidden shafts, chiseling away at stone in endless rhythm. From this pressure, a sudden swell of melancholy pads rises, reframing the heaviness with emotional resonance as if the whispers of angelic guardians seep into the caverns, transforming extraction into elegy. What begins as pure drive of endurance evolves into an introspective meditation. Closing the release, Yildizlara unfolds as an epic ascent. Layered rhythms rush forward with urgency, intricate yet propulsive, while chopped vocals bring back a sensual human element, scattering like signals across the night sky. Animalistic atmospheres dart through the mix as spectral cries and furtive movements, adding a primal dimension to the drive. What begins as erratic and untamed slowly converges into warmth and ultimate catharsis: a cosmic tale inscribed in sound, both intimate and monumental, familiar yet born of hidden memory. Yildizlara is both innovative and ancestral; a release where turbulence becomes ritual, and where rhythmic complexity unearths fragments of hidden memory. Beneath its dark and erratic surfaces lies a strange familiarity, like echoes of a primal past resurfacing through sound, reminding us of worlds once known but long concealed. Words by A. Veyra

London-via-Accra artist BLACK FONDU shares his seven-track debut EP ‘BLACKFONDUISM’, following the underground momentum of singles ‘im not sleeping’ and the Steve Lamacq BBC 6 Music-premiered ‘holla back girl’. Available on vinyl, and with a self-directed video for ‘#music’, the project marks the first full expression of a voice emerging as one of the UK’s most uncompromising new forces.

‘BLACKFONDUISM’ captures that evolution in its rawest form. The EP came together quickly through instinct and freestyling, recorded between his room in London and a short period in Paris. Each track reflects a world he understood only after living through it. ‘IN D4 CLUB’ channels the exhilaration of acceleration, ‘BOYS’ explores the foundation provided by maternal love, ‘im not sleeping’ confronts denial after more than twenty revisions, ‘C00N V2’ marks a moment of creative rebirth, and ‘BLACK1E’ navigates the tension between self-perception and the world’s gaze. Closing track ‘#music’ distills the entire project into one statement.

Working alone has brought challenges, but he has learned to trust the emotional volatility that fuels the work. “I care so much and would die for this, but I cannot let it kill me. I have to trust myself the same way I trust myself when I make music.”

At 21, BLACK FONDU has carved out a sound that collides hyperpop, noise, rap, punk energy and abstract grime into something instinctive and volatile. Influenced by everything from Rachmaninoff to MF DOOM to Xiu Xiu, he writes, produces and performs every element, including the fractured visuals that accompany his tracks. Praise from BBC 6 Music, Pitchfork, NME, The Quietus, Pigeons & Planes, METAL and Line of Best Fit has positioned him as one of the most intriguing new voices in the UK underground, with explosive live shows across London, the UK and Europe.

With BLACKFONDUISM, he introduces a universe that refuses to sit still. “I wanted this EP to act as an introduction to my worlds. It felt important to put this out so I can do anything after.” He hopes listeners feel alive when they hear it, and jokes that he wants the record to “evolve music, even just a little.”

BLACK FONDU’s sound remains a paradox, abrasive and fragile, chaotic and meticulous, always guided by instinct. Or, as he puts it, “A bit fucked. But alive.”

It's been a decade since the Soderhamn quintet last released a full album, 2016's Machina Viva, and four years since their last EP, 2021's A Darkened Sun, raised hopes that they were back with a vengeance. Throughout their career, Wolverine have always carried a similar dark emotional heft to their fellow countrymen Katatonia, driven by a sonic wall of sound. Lyrically too, singer Stefan Zell's lyrics pack a powerful emotional punch, and on Anomalies he's at his peak, drawing on those years of exasperation. The Swedes have evolved continuously, from their earliest days toying with death metal sounds, before adding in a more progressive influence on 1999's Fervent Dream EP, before setting themselves up as purveyors of the finest in melancholic prog metal, a flag they continue to carry aloft to this day.

Since the turn of this century, perhaps no other modern composition has had a more resonant healing effect than The Disintegration Loops. Composer William Basinski’s deteriorating analog tape loops evolved from melodic symphonies to melancholic silence over a span of time that uncannily turned passing minutes into pensive lifetimes. In her foreword for the new box set reissue of The Disintegration Loops, the pioneering multimedia storyteller Laurie Anderson describes the impact of this transformation in poetic detail: “These dissolving sounds, this emptying space, has gained my complete confidence. They are taking me somewhere. I am willingly following these sounds, becoming more and more transparent.”

The Disintegration Loops – Arcadia Archive Edition is an expansive new box set that includes the entire 5-hour suite of iconic work. Newly remastered from the original recordings by Josh Bonati, the hefty package includes eight vinyl records (or four CDs for the less analog-inclined) in sturdy full-color jackets featuring the restored original artwork, and a new 1000-word foreword by Laurie Anderson – all housed in a striking heavyweight, case-wrapped box. It is the ideal encapsulation of one of the 21st century’s most truly transcendent works. As Anderson concludes in her foreword, “this music has created another world, a world to be carried away in.”

'In 2023, sound artist and composer Weston Olencki toured across the American South. Beginning in their hometown in South Carolina, they snaked a circuitous path from the mountains of West Virginia to the banks of the Mississippi River. As the miles accumulated, so did the initial seeds of new work.
'Instruments and artifacts they acquired hitched a ride in the backseat, while songs and sounds filled their portable recorder: water in its various states, the familiar insectoid buzz of those summer nights, trains cutting through the landscape, the traditional music that lived alongside the communities that kept it. Olencki took it all in, and over time, found ways that these experiences coalesced into a bramble-like perspective of time, where past, present, and future intersect in ways both barbed and beautiful.
'Broadsides, Olencki’s newest solo full-length is the multilayered result of this journey. The album follows their landmark release Old Time Music from 2022, which presented radical interpretations of traditional tunes from Appalachia and throughout the South alongside original compositions that drew significantly on archival recordings. On Broadsides, Olencki rejects delineations between the unmoored avant-garde and the rootedness of one’s cultural heritage, revealing their porous and intertwined nature. “My mother was a quilter. Her mother before that,” they write in the album’s liner notes. “Quilting, like music, is a practice of embedding knowledge and remembrance into the very core of the thing you are making. It’s not just about the materials, but how they’re reassembled, recontextualized, stitched, woven to form new patterns - the minutiae of craft holding significance to those looking to find it. Stories woven from stories, never told the same way twice.”
'Like all great road trips, Broadsides unfolds slowly and continuously, with moments of dramatic reverie punctuating the endless melt of highway in the rearview. We’re immediately confronted by the uncanniness of revisiting old haunts, as Southern storms break through the initial churn of the freight locomotives of Alabama. Olencki’s interpretation of the bluegrass standard “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” captures the euphoria of melancholy in motion. The permutational plucks of banjo are bounced around the frame by a computer, its pitches determined within algorithmic sequences and transcriptions of classic three-finger licks. The tonalities of old-time are smeared and stretched until all that’s audible is the insistence that Heaven might be real.
'In the album’s second half, “Omie Wise,” a murder ballad made famous by Doc Watson, follows an interlude recorded on the river in North Carolina in which the titular character’s body was laid. Ghostly echoes of a dozen other renditions float through the substrata as Tongue Depressor’s Henry Birdsey accompanies them on the pedal steel guitar. The album’s central composition, “all my father’s clocks,” is a profound meditation on entropy and impermanence. The sound of their father’s extensive clock collection ticks away as Olencki pulls a bow across the length of an autoharp sourced from a rural strip mall. The instrument was left as detuned as it was found, the resonance of its deep bass drone and clanging high-end the result of years of neglect and the warping effects of Southern humidity.
'Historically, broadsides were an early form of broadcasting, an often- musicalized telling of current news pasted in the public square. The name was later taken up by Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen in the 1960s, whose Broadside magazine published songs and social commentary when American folk music resurfaced as an urgent way of communicating the multifaceted politics of its time.
'Olencki borrows the phrase to recall both this old form of songmaking and that later prominent reexamination of traditional music’s role in modern life, but also to draw attention to the fragmented and machine- mediated way heritage is diffused in this very different, but no less pivotal, moment.
'As a sanitized past is used as justification for current violence and domination, we can turn to these artifacts to better understand the history of ourselves, but only if they are consciously pushed to evolve. Broadsides represents one personal, striking vision of what far-flung futurisms could be respun from = these high, lonesome sounds: a reflection of the unbridled joy and deep sorrow inherent to living together through time, and a desire to push further into the untold and unknown.'

Kashyyyk was originally released in late 1995. Each copy was recorded onto a blank cassette, almost never new. We'd find boxes of tapes at flea markets and dub the demo over one side of them. Never knew what was on the other side. The collage on the cover evolved over time. Early copies had a sparse cover and later copies had a cover collages like this one. The text also changed over time. Edits were made, the thanks list grew, and the address changed. The text on this rereleases is the same as the last copies made in the '90s, with only tiny changes. Three of these songs were recorded in August of 1995 and originally released as the 8D8 demo. We made an unknown number of copies before we recorded again with Matt on guitar. We added our three new songs to the old and named the demo demo after Chewbacca's home planet. The other collages were put together specifically for this 30th anniversary release. Bonus track: Gage recorded January 19, 1996. This is the original version with Matt on vocals. Gary re-recorded the vocals before it was released on Cry Now Cry Later vol. 4.”—Noothgrush

Berlin-based Swedish dynamic duo of sax man Otis Sandsjö and bassist/producer Petter Eldh return with new music on We Jazz Records. Remember the hard hitting banger "Tremendoce" from Otis Sandsjö's "Y-OTIS 2"? Well, the saga continues, and the new directions are surprising to say the least, just as we like it!!! Some proper late night / early morning out there vibes on this one, and the flip is yet another step forward, bringing in Kathrin Pechlof on harp. Things are liquid, just as you would guess, but the whole consistency of the substance has flipped and evolved. A new sound. A new idea. Another new day in Mauerpark, Berlin.

Berlin-based Swiss vocalist Lucia Cadotsch returns with her celebrated Speak Low trio for their second album, released by We Jazz Records on 27 Nov. "Speak Low II" features Cadotsch on voice, Otis Sandsjö on tenor saxophone and Petter Eldh on double bass, and introduces guest artists Kit Downes on hammond organ and Lucy Railton on cello. "Speak Low II" picks up where their genre-bending and forward-looking debut album left off, introducing new shades into the band's sound and also diving even deeper into the songs they tackle. What makes Speak Low special is their approach to really get to the heart of each composition with seemingly minimal means, yet generating a sound which is both instantly recognisable and remarkably impactful.

"Speak Low II" comes almost five years after the band's lauded debut, and proves the depth of the band's approach right from the start. At the core of the trio's operation is an openness to their love of the music and to their surrounding scene(s). The album comes across as a unified collection of songs made truly theirs and found through listening to records and spending time with their musician friends, often on the road. The highly evolved band sound and the equality of the musicians shines through on the Speak Low sound, as the group uses their 100+ performances together as a vehicle for the development of their music.

"The first album was filled with pretty famous songs, but that was actually not at all intentional" explains Cadotsch. "Those were just my favourite songs of the previous 10 years and we started working on making them ours, musically. We were playing around with concepts for the second album, but soon realised that we just needed to find the right songs and adapt them organically, which comes through in how we interact with the songs and each other. This time around, we wanted to dig deeper and made finished arrangements of around 20 tracks, half of which we ditched in the process. The ones that made the cut have been through a lot and they just felt right for us."

In a way, the Speak Low approach could be described as archaeological. Three music lovers connecting with songs found at various sources, readily throwing away any ideas that don't seem natural to them, and hanging on tight to the ones that do.

Turns out there is a concept to "Speak Low II". It's the band itself, their shared musical development and their love of music.

"Speak Low II" will be available on We Jazz Records on vinyl (PURPLE and BLACK editions), CD and digitally. The vinyl versions come with a heavy duty tip-on sleeve and a printed inner sleeve. CD in digisleeve with no breaking plastic parts.

Where maturity evolves into a signature sound, the personal and musical journey becomes one. Chromadelia by Italian producer and live artist Ness refines two decades of precision and craft. It is techno reduced to its core logic - direct, functional, and self-aware. Ness' process moves from spontaneous jams to detailed sculpting, a continuous sequence where improvisation gradually becomes structure. Randomness plays a role, but only as the foundation for his architecture. The result is music that feels both deliberate and fluid, shaped by intuition and refined through years of practice. Minimalism here isn't merely an aesthetic choice, but an organic conclusion -- drawn from experience and the trust that less can truly reveal more. The four tracks on Chromadelia extend this clarity onto the dance floor: sharp, beepy, metallic, rhythmically charged, yet open enough to let each element breathe. Introspection and club-functionality coexist seamlessly, each amplifying the other. In Chromadelia, Ness demonstrates that every tone, every pulse serves a purpose, offering a clear reflection of an artist who has learned to let precision speak louder than complexity.

CAY unveils his personal side on Another Life, a debut album rich in melancholic euphoria

The expressive, multi-faceted 10 tracker comes on Mind Against's HABITAT label in January 2026

Cologne-born producer CAY explores beyond the dancefloor with Another Life, a debut album that trades peak-time pressure for an ambitious and artful exploration of self. Far from being rooted in one genre, the record weaves his own honest vocals with a wide range of powerful rhythms that pull from progressive, broken beat, techno and trance.

For CAY, making music has always offered refuge and a place to calm his mind, process life’s chaos and channel personal experiences into sound. His journey started in the clubs of Cologne, in illegal forest raves and with trips to Berlin to soak up big room techno. His search for more purpose, away from mental demons and the darker side of the party lifestyle, led him to production. DJing followed after a push from his brother turned Manager, and while those experiences around Europe shaped his understanding of dance floor dynamics, he was never in a rush to release his early experiments.

Instead, CAY took private time to evolve into an accomplished artist with his own musical voice. Label heads Mind Against were so impressed when they heard what he sent to their demo inbox, they both reached out to collaborate, and he has since released on their label HABITAT.

With Another Life, he is making music that is multilayered and rich in narrative, rather than defined purely by big moments. It is drawn from years of writing, with more than 60 tracks whittled down to one concise, impactful statement. "There wasn't one big concept,” says CAY “but there was direction. It's a big risk for me, but I wanted to introduce people who like club music to something deeper. I want the music to say something real.”

Because of that, Another Life introduces CAY the vocalist. For the first time, he sings on several tracks. The subjects are real, whether that's an important friend, a moment with his girlfriend or, on 'Runaway', the thought of giving up and escaping everything. The lyrics are honest but often slightly oblique, so they invite your own readings rather than spelling everything out.

Sonically, the album moves between optimistic grandeur and introspective reality. It's cinematic but personal and bridges the gap between dancefloor drive and vulnerable storytelling. There is a grand scale to many of the tracks, with arching synths reaching and heavyhearted drums anchoring a groove: you'll dance, you'll cry, maybe both at the same time.

Another Life is the sound of a producer granting himself permission to sing, turn inwards and risk audience expectations. It’s intimate without being insular, club-capable without being confined, and a compelling first chapter for an artist who has spent years building toward this moment of truth.

Childhood Intelligence Nineteen by Dan Piu “The Mystic Mind” 2x12 LP

As the vortex of time evolves, Swiss Underground Legacy “Dan Piu” returns to his home planet “Childhood intelligence”. A rare specimen and artifact known for his timeless & intelligent soul-infused music, arises with his 3rd solo album on Childhood. “The Mystic Mind” 2x12 Lp as the trilogy, the sequel of “Tru Time And Ages” and “Inside Universe”.

This Full-Length player is a voyage through yet another unexplored realm of Dan's creativity, where listeners are invited to explore a vast network of emotions. As the album organically unfolds, tales of spooky synth worlds emerge, where hypnotic atmospheres collide with analog technoid elements, guided by classic JUNO chord progressions. Witness the alchemy of vintage ARP, Jupiter, Mono/Poly, and 80s Yamaha sounds as they morph into an elusive journey of electronic mysticism crafted by the otherworldly mind, the “Mystic Mind” of Dan Piu.

Alpenglühen starts 2026 with two close friends working together in the 11th one
Atàvic is the collaborative project between Estrato Aurora and Absis, merging two distinct yet complementary approaches to electronic music. The project is rooted in texture, atmosphere, and subtle narrative, allowing sound to evolve organically and without excess.
They together bring a refined sense of space and detail, working with ambient layers, restrained rhythms, and melodic fragments that unfold slowly. Here is a 4 track release with a more tactile and material approach, focusing on timbre, resonance, and sonic density, blurring the line between abstraction and structure.
The alignment between Atàvic and the label lies in a shared appreciation for subtlety, patience, and sonic storytelling, where each release is conceived as a complete and meaningful statement.
With this reference, Atàvic contributes a work that resonates with alpenglühen’s aesthetic ethos while reinforcing the collaborative project’s own identity: music that invites close listening and reveals its nuances slowly.
If you’re looking for a peak-time, dancefloor-driven banger to keep you moving until sunrise, this is not that record.
But if you’re after a mind-blowing experience that challenges and expands your listening (and dancings), this one’s for you. Don’t overthink it.

A chopped-and-screwed love letter to the sounds of rebajada – half-speed cumbia, pioneered by Sonido Dueñez in the 1990s, and born from an overheated turntable motor that didn’t make the crowd stop dancing. With Debit’s treatment, rebajada becomes an ethereal, at times intense ambient tapestry that’s also a history lesson.

Spend any amount of time pacing the streets of Monterrey, the bustling city in the north of Mexico where Delia Beatriz, aka Debit, grew up, and you’ll be sure to catch traces of cumbia echoing from Bluetooth speakers, DIY soundsystems, or car stereos. An Afro-Latin dance form and »practica cultural« originating in Colombia in the early 19th century, cumbia evolved rapidly in the early 1900s, as a localised sound played on drums and flutes quickly modernised to integrate European instrumentation like the accordion. When it reached Mexico in the 1940s, the sound shifted again, fusing with mariachi styles and integrating further vallenato folk elements. Eventually, cumbia spread across the entirety of Latin America, splintering into a spectrum of different musical styles such as chicha in Peru, and cumbia villera in Argentina. And over in Monterrey, cumbia inadvertently found its own idiosyncratic groove.

From the 1950s to the 1970s, waves of immigrants from across Mexico and Latin America headed to Monterrey to find work, making a home in Colonia Independencia. Colombian cumbia records, shipped in from Mexico City, Houston, and Miami, became the soundtrack of the neighbourhood, relaying familiar stories to a rural working class adjusting to their new industrial reality. The sound struck a chord with locals, and huge street parties hosted by ramshackle soundsystems known as sonideros unified the diverse community. So when cumbia rebajada materialised serendipitously in the 1990s, it emphasised and highlighted the memory distortions at the heart of the immigrant experience. Local record collector, selector, and sonidero Gabriel Dueñez had been playing cumbia for hours one night when disaster struck: his turntable’s motor overheated and slowed down, turning the music into a warped groan, with half-speed voices echoing over wobbly accordion drones and splashy drums. But the crowd kept dancing, and Sonido Dueñez realised he’d struck gold – cumbia rebajada was born.

Over the next few years, he dubbed a popular series of mixtapes, hawking them at the flea market on the dried-up Santa Catarina riverbed beneath El Puente del Papa, the bridge that links downtown Monterrey with Independencia. These woozy archives became the stuff of legend, poetically but subconsciously shadowing DJ Screw’s series of epochal cassettes that appeared over the border in Houston. Beatriz uses Sonido Dueñez’s first two tapes as the starting point for »Desaceleradas«, entering into a dialogue with time, culture, and geography as she recalls the sonic ecosystem that surrounded her decades ago, long before she emigrated to the USA. If 2022’s acclaimed »The Long Count« was an attempt to recover concealed pre-Columbian history in the face of colonisation, »Desaceleradas« jumps forward, figuring out how memory and shared celebration can resist a more contemporary form of cultural erasure. As AI systems scrape, blend, and decontextualise culture around us, leaving vapid slop, »Desaceleradas« proposes a slower, more careful, and ultimately more human kind of engagement. It’s an archive with a pulse.

For over six decades, Charlemagne Palestine (b. 1947, New York) has been a pioneering composer, performer, and multimedia artist, celebrated for his ecstatic sonic explorations and ritualistic, metaphysical performances. Emerging from the cross-disciplinary New York art scene of the 1960s and ’70s, he helped shape a heretical edge of minimalism alongside figures like Conrad, Riley, Niblock, and Glass. Trained as a Jewish cantor and later as the carillonneur at St. Thomas Church, Palestine cultivated a deep fascination with resonance and overtone—an obsession that evolved through his use of percussion, early synthesizers, and monumental piano works, influencing artists from John Cale to Nick Cave.

Animated by a spirit of ecstatic play and what he calls his »meschugge« (Yiddish for »crazy«) sensibility, Palestine’s universe blends the sacred and the absurd, filled with soft toys, ritual gestures, and immersive sound environments. Rejecting the »minimalist« label in favor of a maximalist, »spontanimalist« approach, he creates long-form, resonant performances that transform spaces into vibrating, living organisms—opening portals into the nature of time, sound, and devotion.

In the same vein, the aptly titled live record »The Organ is the World’s Greatest Synthesizer« – performed during the Sonic Acts Festival at Amsterdam’s Oude Kerk in 2025, and taking its title and cover art from a drawing realized by Palestine himself during the concert – adds to his opaque yet vibrant personal mythology and intimate transcendence, marking a return to the Staalplaat catalog after »Fffroggssichorddd« (2020) and »Music for Big Ears« (2001).

Beginning with a resonating bell and his falsetto overtone singing, then surrendering to the endless, wild soundscapes of tone-feeling and beat frequencies generated by the church’s organ, across 40+ minutes, single sound sources evolve into clusters, entangle fully with one another, and establish their own spatial existence and aural architectures. We witness the traces of something that can be described as a perpetual performance, a test for the ever-changing interaction between artist, instrument, space and, ultimately, us.

Since Palestine has always defined his execution as a form of anti-composition - of simply »being in the music« as if inhabiting a space - the true power of »The Organ is the World’s Greatest Synthesizer« lies in encapsulating a moment of Palestine’s practice in its most authentic, live dimension. Sound becomes at once subtle substance and strange telluric force, animating physical forms from some unknown channel beyond and within, accessible only through our sensorium. The point in this liminal temple of tone, timbre and frequency is not to learn anything but to simply enter. Palestine earns once again his self-given title of contemporary shaman by keeping this sonic portal open, allowing us to witness and make it last.

»I have always felt and heard and mixed the sounds in my world as liquids not as solids. Sonic liquids are material that is endlessly transformable. But I’m not crazy about people who go around defining stuff.«

First Word Records are proud to bring you 'Penny Ballads', a 5-track EP from Royce Wood Junior. Royce Wood Junior is a Grammy & Mercury Award-nominated musician, songwriter and record producer from London, currently based in Brighton. As a multi-instrumentalist, he's collaborated with a litany of brilliant artists over the years, such as Jamie Woon, Nao, Disclosure, Jessie Ware, Olivia Dean, Joy Crookes, Jamie Lidell and Jordan Rakei, additionally to touring with the likes of the legendary Thomas Dolby. He's released two acclaimed solo albums to date ('The Ashen Tang' in 2015, and 'No Two Blue Ticks' in 2021). 'Penny Ballads' demonstrates RWJ's varied talents, with a collection of alternative soul compositions, each one as unique as the next. It includes the first two singles, the Poplife-Prince era flavoured 'Go Get Your Money', and the double-time future funk adrenaline shot, 'Clean Up', along with three previously-unreleased tracks. 'Beretta' is low-slung soul funk, beginning with quirky squelchy synths, before the soulful lead vocal of feature artist Lucey Way breezes in to melt everyone's hearts. 'Things' sweeps in next, an infectiously soulful midtempo heavy soul bop, with an instant earwork of a hook, like a modern-day Steely Dan / Doobie Brothers, complete with a head-nodding string section to end the track. The collection concludes on a more melancholy downtempo tip with 'Rolling'; an almost-folktronic anthem, with a key refrain that wouldn't be out of place on a 70's Stevie piece. RWJ (aka Jim Wood) says of this project… "Back in the 17 and 1800's Troubadours and minstrels would go from Tavern to Tavern selling Penny Ballads, single sheets of music and lyrics written quickly and frivolously to make a quick buck.. It strikes me that we're in a similar phase in the way we value music in 2025. An old Penny Ballad was cheap and dog-eared, ink-smudged, sung aloud by firelight, Now songs live in the digital ether, dissolved in the air, a ghostly breath paid in micro cents. The new era of Penny Balladry is here, and weird. This EP is a snapshot of my writing over a two year period. Focussed on minimal recording styles, one mic on the drums, generally first or second takes on parts and vocals, I wanted the music to feel like small moments with lyrics that talk about the weird nuances of being alive as a latter stage human on the cusp of the Ai revolution. Culturally so evolved, but physiologically still just a bunch of mammals walking about with primitive fears and needs. Just trying to reconcile it all moment to moment…" Previous support for Royce's music has included Radio 1's Future Sounds, BBC 6 Music's New Music Fix, Annie Mac, Clara Amfo, Jo Whiley (BBC Radio 2), Mary Anne Hobbs, Jamz Supernova, Tom Robinson, Huw Stephens (BBC 6 Music), Zane Lowe and MistaJam. There have been sessions previously for the likes of Red Bull and press from Huck, Line of Best Fit, Clash, Aesthetica & DIY magazine. Entirely self-written and self-produced, this EP gives a solid taste of RWJ's talents. A deeply funky diverse set of music from an immensely talented individual. 'Penny Ballads' is due to be released on vinyl & digital, 24th October 2025. The vinyl version also includes an exclusive additional mix of the first single 'Go Get Your Money'. TRACKLIST: 01: Clean Up (EP Mix) 02: Go Get Your Money 03: Beretta (feat. Lucey Way) 04: Things 05: Rolling 06: Go Get Your Money (B-Sharp Mix) Deconstructed Mixes

The combination of Todd Terry and Hard Times is synonymous in the world of House Music. The legendary DJ/Producer, a true pioneer of the genre, was among the first US artists to play at the intimate, vibrant gatherings in the North of the UK in the early ‘90s. Forever linked by "A Night In The Life," the live mix released in 1995 that set a new benchmark for mix-tapes, it is a collaboration that has continually blossomed, forging a bond that remains strong over 30 years later.

1995 also saw Todd Terry make his first impact on the label with the seminal club smash "Bounce To The Beat." Following his chart breakthrough with 'Can You Party’ in ‘88, the legendary 'The Unreleased Project’ series, which spawned club hits such as “Jumpin’”, and just a few months ahead of topping the charts with his remix of Everything But The Girl’s ‘Missing’, label boss Steve Raine seized the perfect moment to bring his friend on
board at Hard Times Records with the signing of Bounce To The Beat. "I can still remember pressing play, hearing those beats for the very first time and thinking we had big track on our hands" says Raine. "It was our second release on the label, but it would be the track that firmly placed us at the forefront of the scene, both here in the UK and globally."

Hard Times & Todd Terry now revive 'Bounce To The Beat' with a 2024 reimagining, featuring two of house music’s most exciting young stars, delivering two powerful remixes that promise to dominate dancefloors this summer and beyond.

Dutch producer and Up The Stuss label head, Chris Stussy, takes the track on a '90s- inspired journey, blending progressive strings, high-energy bassline and original vocal, for an exhilarating ride. "I remember discovering Todd’s productions back in the days when I started to dig for that 90’s sound. He’s one of the artists that inspired me massively. He has proven that he owns the art of making timeless music as his productions are still being played till this day all across the globe. To be remixing ‘Bounce To The Beat’ is something special for me personally and I tried to give it a 90’s touch with a modern twist." says Chris.

London’s own Dan Shake offers a fresh twist with a 2Step-inspired remix, featuring an Armand-esque bassline that pulsates and evolves, building to an epic crescendo that is set to ignite mass hysteria on the dancefloor.

"Bounce To The Beat was actually one of the first records I bought when I started collecting house music. So to come back 15 years later and remix this iconic track for the legendary label Hard Times was both surreal and very, very fun," shares Dan.

Two exemplary reworks of Todd Terry presents Sound Design’s 'Bounce To The Beat'. For Vinyl and Digital release on Hard Times alongside the Original and ‘Tee’s Freeze Mix.’

Ltd. Orange Vinyl Finnish powerhouse Bloodred Hourglass (BRHG) return with their seventh studio album “We Should Be Buried Like This”, a bold and unrelenting statement from a band that has steadily evolved into one of the most commanding forces in modern death metal. Hailing from Mikkeli, BRHG have long stood out for their ability to merge the ferocity of thrash and groove metal with the immersive soundscapes of metalcore, alternative metal, and melodic death. Their music is as dynamic and emotionally resonant as it is heavy and entertaining - a mix that has earned them critical acclaim, a devoted international fanbase, and a reputation for explosive live performances. On “We Should Be Buried Like This”, the band takes their darkest, most unfiltered turn yet. Described as “a work of end-time songs,” this album does not aim to comfort or explain. It’s a raw, confrontational piece built around the slow erosion of hope, the fading of love, the repetition of generational mistakes, and a world defined by self-obsession, disconnection, and indifference. “There’s no pleading, no sugarcoating,” the band explains. “We’re not here to prove anything. This is an album born from an urgent drive to rip things open and say them as they are.” Musically, “We Should Be Buried Like This” is the most aggressive and straightforward album BRHG have ever crafted, yet it never loses sight of the unmistakable melodic power that defines their sound. With searing riffs, explosive energy, and sweeping emotional depth, the album pulses with intensity from start to finish. Guest appearances and fresh sonic elements are woven throughout, yet the band remains firmly rooted in the signature style they’ve spent years perfecting.

KREATOR’s Krushers Of The World is a ferocious return that finds the band at full strength, blending classic thrash fury with fresh intensity and purpose. From the relentless opener “Seven Serpents” to the darkly melodic “Tränenpalast” featuring Britta Görtz, the album shows a band unafraid to evolve while staying true to their roots. Tracks like “Barbarian” and “Psychotic Imperator” hit with unrelenting speed, while the title track and “Satanic Anarchy” deliver crushing groove and anthemic hooks. Backed by Jens Bogren’s massive production and Zbigniew Bielak’s striking artwork, Krushers of the World proves KREATOR aren’t just surviving — they’re still leading. Fueled by the reflective fire of their Hate & Hope film and Mille Petrozza’s sharpened vision, this is a statement album: heavy, focused, and unstoppable.

KREATOR’s Krushers Of The World is a ferocious return that finds the band at full strength, blending classic thrash fury with fresh intensity and purpose. From the relentless opener “Seven Serpents” to the darkly melodic “Tränenpalast” featuring Britta Görtz, the album shows a band unafraid to evolve while staying true to their roots. Tracks like “Barbarian” and “Psychotic Imperator” hit with unrelenting speed, while the title track and “Satanic Anarchy” deliver crushing groove and anthemic hooks. Backed by Jens Bogren’s massive production and Zbigniew Bielak’s striking artwork, Krushers of the World proves KREATOR aren’t just surviving — they’re still leading. Fueled by the reflective fire of their Hate & Hope film and Mille Petrozza’s sharpened vision, this is a statement album: heavy, focused, and unstoppable.

KREATOR’s Krushers Of The World is a ferocious return that finds the band at full strength, blending classic thrash fury with fresh intensity and purpose. From the relentless opener “Seven Serpents” to the darkly melodic “Tränenpalast” featuring Britta Görtz, the album shows a band unafraid to evolve while staying true to their roots. Tracks like “Barbarian” and “Psychotic Imperator” hit with unrelenting speed, while the title track and “Satanic Anarchy” deliver crushing groove and anthemic hooks. Backed by Jens Bogren’s massive production and Zbigniew Bielak’s striking artwork, Krushers of the World proves KREATOR aren’t just surviving — they’re still leading. Fueled by the reflective fire of their Hate & Hope film and Mille Petrozza’s sharpened vision, this is a statement album: heavy, focused, and unstoppable.

KREATOR’s Krushers Of The World is a ferocious return that finds the band at full strength, blending classic thrash fury with fresh intensity and purpose. From the relentless opener “Seven Serpents” to the darkly melodic “Tränenpalast” featuring Britta Görtz, the album shows a band unafraid to evolve while staying true to their roots. Tracks like “Barbarian” and “Psychotic Imperator” hit with unrelenting speed, while the title track and “Satanic Anarchy” deliver crushing groove and anthemic hooks. Backed by Jens Bogren’s massive production and Zbigniew Bielak’s striking artwork, Krushers of the World proves KREATOR aren’t just surviving — they’re still leading. Fueled by the reflective fire of their Hate & Hope film and Mille Petrozza’s sharpened vision, this is a statement album: heavy, focused, and unstoppable.

Wiccans only make noise when they feel like it. A band that’s been uttered in reverence for nearly two decades with only a handful of releases, each one a stand-alone classic.
You see, it’s hard to pinpoint a band that actually has the equal influences of American psychedelia and hard rock all anchored in the glorious benevolence of American Hardcore. A tonne of bands dance around and flirt with each but it rarely lands in the sweet spot. They’re not trying to fit some supposed perfect space and that’s the very point so many others miss.
Wiccans are creating the space. Breaking rules and allowing a bit of breadth to what is often a claustrophobic style of music. This might sound scary as everyone knows that the more Hardcore evolves the worse it is - at least on record. The formula that Wiccans are playing with on Phase IV should scare you. It’s totally potent with odd songwriting, intensely creative and varied guitar work and completely pissed vocals. Phase IV does whatever the fuck it wants and passes the bar that only Wiccans could have set for themselves. All of this is propelled by a far stronger production quality than previous efforts and instead of having that expose some fault line it’s secured it as a modern classic.
It’s the kind of shit that will shake the dandruff from the beard of a Third Man collector but will also make that guy stop going to DIY gigs because they’re “too rough” or whatever. I’m just sitting here wondering if this is maybe what might have happened if Poison Idea wrote Hidden World. There’s always space for a carbon copy Negative Approach destroying someones basement and they usually put out a record that is clearly brilliant but fuck me if I can’t help but yawn.
Am I getting old or is Hardcore painting by numbers? In a slough of legitimately top tier Hardcore Punk releases, this one actually sounds like something truly special.

‘No Fixed Point In Space’, the third full-length album by Jack Cooper’s Modern Nature, takes the palette of sound and themes that were honed on 2021’s ‘Island Of Noise’ and launches them into an expansive world of openness and vivid technicolour.

It’s a music that hasn’t been heard before; as melodic as anything Cooper has produced but framed by rhythms and instrumentation that reflect the chaos, unpredictability and colour of the natural world.

Certain moorings - woodwind, percussion, strings and Cooper’s lambent voice - are still present and recognisable from No Fixed Point In Space’s predecessor, ‘Island Of Noise’, but the new record marks a shift to utilising musical notation as a point of departure, from which the group explore the space around suggested notes and rhythms to create a semiimprovised, semi-composed ensemble performance.

These explorations of partly organised chance were recorded live and directly to tape.

This approach gives the music a remarkably fresh feel; songs pulse and evolve. The changes between movements, verse and choruses are almost all ambiguous. During the album’s opener, ‘Tonic’, a verse of hushed brevity washes away into a passage of overwhelmingly vibrant orchestration.

CD in four-panel digisleeve with 10-panel booklet with lyrics. LP pressed on 140g black vinyl with printed inner
sleeve and stamped postcard.