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“Paradigm of Tomorrow” is the representation (or sound) of concepts related to an innovative future and the radical changes brought about by technology in society that is, a way of thinking that redefines the present and opens up new possibilities. Published by Biometric-Audio (DE) Mastered by Paul Mac (UK) Lacquer cutting by Simon Exchange (UK) Release Management: Daniele Angelo (IT) Distribution: Triple Vision (NL) Artwork: Yuki Raw (DZ) A3 – She Spoke in a Detached Way Voice recorded by Hamza (Zahham) in Algiers (DZ) Mixed by Basic in collaboration with Punchlines Room (IT) Recorded at Neoromatik Studio (DE)

Much like a teacher, Meryl Streek imparts his knowledge and lived experiences to all who are willing to listen. His third album, ‘Stories They Don’t Teach You At School’, serves as an alternative form of education, delivered through a visceral blend of factual soundbites and raw emotion, loops and samples, guitars and bass. The lyrics resonate with core values of compassion, resilience, and community—themes rarely explored within a classroom setting or seen in today's fragmented society. By prioritising conviction over commercial success, the Dublin artist's outspokenness may invite controversy. Yet beneath the fervor lies a profound desire for positive social change at home in Ireland, and beyond.
Meryl Streek returned to Darkland Studios in Dublin to fine-tune the recordings previously made in a shed at the back of his ma's garden. Here he continued the genre-blurring nature of his earlier work, enticing listeners toward dissonant landscapes and hypnotic rhythms. Gentle piano tones collide with abrasive synths, creating a striking tension between beauty and noise. Streek tempers his rage when appropriate, integrating atmospheric textures and pop sensibilities into his ever-expanding sonic collage.
As is tradition with any Meryl Streek record, ‘Stories They Don’t Teach You At School’ unearths many uncomfortable truths. ‘Rotten Fruit’ examines media manipulation and the numbing proliferation of misinformation, all soundtracked by synth-punk. With gliding keys and a crunchy bassline, ‘Council Estates’ critiques systemic government failures affecting the working class. ‘Kelly’ is a slice of electronica that details an ongoing criminal investigation, currently classified as a “Contested Cause of Death”. The indie pop of 'The Chancer' brings much-needed attention to landlord politicians. As the album progresses, the mission remains absolute: to provide a voice for the voiceless.
To amplify these narratives, Meryl Streek handpicked a diverse group of collaborators for the project. ‘Rotten Fruit’ features Steve Ignorant of anarcho-punk collective CRASS. ‘Depression’ opens with a touching recording of the late Liam Norton, close friend and former touring companion, while Pete Holidai of The Radiators From Space contributes guitars on the song. Comedian Phill Jupitus provides the spoken outro for ‘The Chancer'. ‘Housing For All’ incorporates audio from Derelict Ireland campaigners Frank O’Connor and Jude Sherry. Venn Records owner and Gallows guitarist Laurent ‘Lags’ Barnard joins forces with Adebisi Shank bassist Vinny McCreith on the aggressive ‘Bullet,’ while Sophie Porter of Other Half provides bass guitar for ‘Life is Not a Rehearsal’. The album concludes with a three-minute spoken word piece by Frankie McNamara, the viral creator behind ‘Meditations for the Anxious Mind’.
In her 1990 protest anthem “Black Boys on Mopeds,” the late Sinead O’Connor warned, “To say what you feel is to dig your own grave”. With this release, Meryl Streek firmly holds the shovel.

"Broken Home"tells the story of an escape that doesn"t really lead anywhere. The song depicts leaving a dysfunctional home hoping to find something better,only to end up in a worldthat feels just as chaotic and empty. The journey takes on a surreal tone, filled with striking, symbolic images: glittering but hollow figures, cheap messiahs, plastic saints-signs of a society that builds superficial, interchangeable idols. Surrounded by a hyperconnected crowd, there"s still a deep sense of isolation running through everything. The city itself feels saturated with excess, addiction, and illusion, where even moments of "cleanliness" or redemption seem fake, as if something as simple as rain could wash everything away. At its core, the song explores alienation and disillusionment, suggesting that escaping your past doesn"t mean much if the world you run into is just as broken.

Nu Vision is the latest project of Duke Cooper, band leader and label boss of Nation, Kode and DirtyBlends. There are three humans who make up Nu Vision, and they all have their own stories and discographies, records released on labels you might know, gigs played in Chicago or Berlin or someone’s loft, lives lived, friends made, sleep lost - fighting for theirart, standing by truths, defending voices, honoring progenitors, whilst pushing a new paradigm. Time is both fleeting and heavy for us all, but it is not without receipts.

Nu Vision is a band in the classic do-you-believe-in-alchemy sense - equal parts rhythm, damage, and deep feeling. Drenched in nostalgia and futurism, The Seed is a singularity of sound + vision; as if heavily rotated by VJ Dave Kendall on MTV’s 120 Minutes but materialized via today’s technology.

The Seed 10 inch provides additional music inspired significant icons Section 25, Liaisons Dangeruses and Adrian Sherwood having paved the way with their prior successes..- this package of The Seed is no freshman effort; but rather, a masterclass in continuing sonic education, delivering a unified experience from beginning to end. A NU VISION.

The Seed 10 inch provides additional music inspired significant icon band: Section 25 from the period of 1981-1984 with a more electronic-dance direction, process which culminated in the album ' From the Hip ' and remix single "Looking From A Hilltop", both released in 1984 as "Insecure Man is about being true to manhood with Robert Lane leading the charge with his vocabulary message of the current state of society.

Insecure Dub focuses on the period of 1981-1984 with an alternative electronic-dance direction process as an inspired blueprint from Nu Vision inspired from Adrian Sherwood having paved the way with his individual success.

Inspired from electrifying songs produced by Chrislo Haas (DAF) and Beate Bartel (Mania D. / Matador) reinforced by Krishna Goineau’s French and Spanish Speech-Attack-Lyrics Liaisons Dangereuses created a unique style anything other than a Berlin or Düsseldorf ‘thing’ – that was propelled to an international underground phenomenon of fame.

Nu VIsion was inspired to create a blueprint from the period of their productions of 1981-1982 with an electronic-dance direction paying homage with passionate craftsmanship utilizing what equipment was possible in the studio at the time of this recording featuring new members; Zoe Murphy & Fletch The Stranger on vocals and James Chazz on Saxaphone with a Ring Modulator.

Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.

After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.

"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.

Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.

Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.

From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.

During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.

Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis

Budapest based concept label Blue Sun arrives with the 3rd edition of their annual VA series, showcasing a colorful taste of the local underground music scene, with some international sidenotes.

Following up on the label’s customs, the 19-track selection is not only released digitally, but also on a limited 200-piece cassette series. Curated by the label heads, the tracks follow Blue Sun's listening-oriented concept without genre restrictions with downtempo, trip-hop, jazz, dub, balearic, ambient, experimental, and electronica as highlights, with pieces that are more difficult to classify.

As before, instead of the usual A-B markings, the two sides are divided by the label's colors: “ORANGE” contains more organic and high-energy music, while “BLUE” contains more pensive and experimental tracks. Moreover, the selection has been carefully curated so that it can be listened to as an endless loop: the end of a side always resonates with the beginning of the other, wherever the listener begins.

The list of contributing artists this year are truly various and just as impressive. From uniqe debuting local artists to internationally recognised performers, it gives a taste of how the Hungarian underground scene sounds like atm. Important to note, that the release marks another debut: the label’s new visual identity by Blue Sun’s new designer, Péter Tóth.

The EP SHAME is an existential retrospective of musician 이명(earring) 20s and 30s, as well as an “audio essay.” Resonating deeply with Søren Kierkegaard’s statement that “anxiety is the vertigo of freedom,” the album captures the wandering, choices, and existential crises of youth confronted with excessive freedom and infinite possibilities in a personal and literary manner.

With cinema scores and underground dance music as the backbone, the artist juxtaposes distinct genres, such as trip-hop and techno. From everyday field recordings, such as the sounds of the Korean subway, traffic lights, and rain, to poems about human relationships or war, the production repeatedly intersects highly personal narratives with vast sociocultural phenomena in the style of an omnibus film.
Individuals cannot exist apart from society, nor can society be complete without them. [SHAME] is a record and a question in which the musician, 이명(earring), projects himself onto the entity known as “human,” seeking the reason and value of life.
credits

Composed by 이명(earring)
Mixed by 이명(earring), fandisk
Mastering by Jiyong Kim At Motherbird Studio
Pressed by champion pressing
Artwork by 이명(earring)

Almost 20 years on, Washington-based Drew Sullivan's 2007 debut as Slow Dancing Society hasn't dated the way you'd expect. The Sound Of Lights When Dim is a reserved work with reverberating guitar drifting through broad, unhurried tones. On opener 'Be There' reversed guitar and blurred vocal traces dissolve before they resolve on 'The Delicate Sound Of Silence.' It's deeply emotional ambient with endless oceanic scale and plenty of encouragement to reflect on your own. The glowing synths, patient guitar work and preoccupation with memory that would define Sullivan's next two decades are all present from the start and still have the same lasting impact.

Craig Alexander drops back with the Soul Revival repress — a raw, deep house cut built for heads who know. Originally released on Transparent Records, now back on wax through Phonogramme.
Limited-run energy, timeless groove, straight-up dancefloor business.

Feedbacks:

Dave Huismans (ex_libris, In Transit) : Nice to get Soul Revival digitally, thanks!
Ben UFO (Hessle Audio / Rinse FM) : absolute classic
Laurent Garnier : SOUL REVIVAL is super cool track Will play
Mike Shannon (Cynosure) : Nice to have this one back! thx
Prosumer : this a journey into sound
Red Eye (Crash Planet Rec, R.E.A.D., Red/Shift, Lavish Habits, Multipass) : ahh i have this original vinyl. Glad to have a digi!!!
Dorian Paic (Raum Musik) : good re release too. Soul Revival is the one for me, in the past and now as well. ;) Thx for the promo !!
Hunee (Rush Hour) : lovely reissue
DJ Bone (FURTHER) : Lovin Feelin works for me, thanks
Chloe Caillet (Smile Records) : love these!
Franck Roger (Real Tone Records) : soul revivais is dope as always !!!
Terence :Terry: (La Vie En Ros / Freak N Chic) : what a good remember we use to played it a lot " Soul Revival" super track to surprise everyone Terence :Terry:
Tripmastaz (Plant 74) : tight cutz
Jorkes (Freeride Millenium) : soul revival is cute
Girls Of The Internet (Classic) : Classic!
Geir Aspenes (G-Ha (Sunkissed)) : Thanks
Terry Francis (Fabric) : nice
Sven Weisemann (Mojuba Records) : absolute classic!!!
Pacific Coliseum (Dublab, Teen Daze, Noire & Blanche) : DEEP!!! These are gorgeous, thank you so much for sending!
Pat Hyland (Northside Loft Society) : A welcome release from Craig. Three pure dancefloor heaters with Soul Revival topping!
Fred P : Dope...
Doc Martin (Sublevel) : Good Grooves!!!!
Mark Farina : good stuff. thanks!
Samuel Deep (SlapFunk Records) : yes
DJ Steaw (Rutilance / Steaward) : Nice ep thanks :-)
Lea Lisa (Phonica Records / Folklor Club) : Soul revival for me !
Brothers' Vibe (Luv4Wax) : Bangers!
Anthony Collins (Frank & Tony / Scissor & Thread) : great record
Carlos Valdes (Is Burning) : Loved it since the first time I've heard it! Happy to have the digital file!

Anlässlich des 10-jährigen Jubiläums von ,Lost Themes II" präsentiert Sacred Bones stolz eine neue, erweiterte Kunstausgabe von John Carpenters gefeiertem zweitem Album mit Nicht-Soundtrack-Kompositionen. Mit neu in Auftrag gegebenem Artwork von Randy Ortiz vereint diese Jubiläumsausgabe das Originalalbum auf limitiertem "Violet Sunrise" Vinyl mit einer Bonus-7"-Single, die ,Real Xeno" enthält - nun zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl erhältlich, abseits der ursprünglichen, limitierten Veröffentlichung der Sacred Bones Society. Die B-Seite zeigt ein exklusives, speziell für diese Ausgabe entworfenes Gravurdesign. Die ,Lost Themes"-Reihe hat sich zu einem der prägendsten Kapitel in Carpenters Karriere entwickelt. Befreit von den Zwängen der Leinwand haben diese Kompositionen ein Eigenleben entwickelt und Carpenters Vermächtnis über Filmmusik hinaus erweitert. Das 2016 erschienene ,Lost Themes II" erweiterte die Klangwelt seines Vorgängers und verband Carpenters unverkennbares Gespür für Atmosphäre und Spannung mit seinem charakteristischen Minimal-Synth, reichhaltigeren Arrangements sowie elektrischen und akustischen Gitarren. Ein Jahrzehnt später bleibt ,Lost Themes II" ein Meilenstein in einer Reihe, die weit über imaginäre Soundtracks hinausgewachsen ist und als unverzichtbare Werke in Carpenters Katalog gilt - ein Zeugnis seiner musikalischen Vision und seiner bemerkenswerten Fähigkeit, Welten zu erschaffen, die weit über den Film hinausreichen.

“I am not sure which of us it is that's writing this page” - Jorge Luis Borges. There are places where a river runs through the story even when you cannot see it. Austin Cash grew up in the Arkansas Delta, and Nathan Smerage in the Chicago suburbs, their paths crossing years later in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where both became members of the Ozark Free Music Society, a loose congregation of musicians who made free and experimental music in non-traditional venues across the city. ‘River Season’ began as an impulsive text sent to Smerage in the summer of 2024, Cash suggesting they should make an album of guitar duets. Calling his bluff, Smerage returned a folder of recordings within a week. Cash had a handful of pieces of his own, originally written for an unreleased film about an Ozarks ceramicist. The songs began traveling back and forth between them by email, however, after opening for the Magic Tuber String Band and playing the compositions live for the first time together, realised the decision to record them live was the only true option. For four days, in the basement apartment where Cash lived, they recorded River Season live. The result is a meticulously composed collection of steel-string guitar music: part folk record, part road map.

Fahey and Ackerman are somewhere in the distance, alongside Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, Marisa Anderson, Nathan Salsburg, Loren Connors, and others. But River Season belongs to neither Arkansas nor Chicago entirely. Cash grew up in Arkansas before moving to Chicago, whereas Smerage grew up in Illinois before moving to Arkansas. River Season catches the two musicians at an intersection in their paths; it belongs to the stretches of road and rivers between them, real and imagined. "This new collaboration between Austin and Nathan is intimate and tonally diverse. Many of the tracks see Austin playing acoustic and Nathan on electric. The statements are succinct (all but two clock in under four minutes) and idiosyncratic. "Bell Harp" and "Painting Friend" are two stand out examples for me in which the textures of the electric/acoustic pairing play off each other in a way that I can't say I have encountered before." -Evan Morgan (Magic Tuber Stringband)

Rubbermaidxxx is a recent music performance project by the Irish artist Anna McCarthy, rather than simply the title of one autonomous artwork. Rubbermaidxxx is a character or unstable identity, an emancipatory underdog with a heart for daredevilry. The project sits naturally within McCarthy’s larger practice, which moves between drawing, assemblage, happenings and collective actions.

Clad in a black balaclava and fetish climbing wear, she abseils from buildings before entering the stage. For the first performance in New York City, she was invited by Kyp Malone of TV on the Radio to perform at his club Francis Kite Club in Alphabet City, NYC and since has continued to make a name for herself hanging off façades, singing, dancing and mopping the floor together with her performance collaborators Miss Philip a.k.a. Philip Errico and Michael Tapper at Pianos NYC, Kottbusser Tor and Genezarethkirche Berlin or the Villa Stuck Museum in Munich.

The album was produced in Munich and New York in 2025 in collaboration with her brother Nick McCarthy (Franz Ferdinand) and Anton Kaun (Rumpeln). What started as a quick improv turned into a high-energy 4-hour session of the siblings playing manic ball with beats, bass, guitars and vocals resulting in what laid the basis to this album. In the weeks following, Anna McCarthy, who is known for her cut-up production style, reminiscent of albums such as White Noise or Flying Lotus, continued to develop the vocals, performance and music by mixing in an amalgam of field recordings with her narrative spoken word, including sounds of protests, dollar stores or ice-cream trucks, as well as collaborating with the noise artist Rumpeln for the last two tracks of the album.

McCarthy is also known as the lyricist and singer of What Are People For? (debut 2022 on Alien Transistor) with its dystopic dance music candy-cane shows and equally humorously critical tongue-in-cheek bangers such as Bring back the Dirt, Drones or Partytime. Anna McCarthy's spoken word, social urgency and enthusiasm to experiment across mediums is comparable to other contemporaries such as Moor Mother, Miho Hatori, Gonjasufi, Tricky, or Cibo Matto.

The name itself is telling. Rubbermaidxxx evokes elasticity, artificiality, domestic labour and the commercial world of cleaning and garbage. It suggests a body capable of stretching, absorbing filth and cleaning up after society – only to revolt against the role it has been assigned.

Rubbermaidxxx is a master of deception, juggling fact and fiction as a reflection of our times – a diamond thief, a protester, or even responsible for the Louvre heist? This album invites the listener and viewer in, playfully dismantling hierarchies and power structures as she goes through a hopeful amalgam of dance, protest & love songs.

This 1981 album marks the debut of the most revered and iconic figure in Peruvian chicha: Chacalón. His music combines fuzz- and wah-wah-drenched distorted electric guitars with tropical percussion and even elements of huayno. This passion for electric guitars also fueled his admiration for the British band Cream -- and, of course, Eric Clapton -- which ultimately inspired the name of his band: La Nueva Crema.


His songs speak to the working classes who migrated from rural areas to the major cities in search of better employment opportunities and portray the hardships they faced. The lyrics tell stories of heartbreak, drunken nights amid everyday struggles, and marginalization -- common experiences in the poorer communities of Peru. Chacalón became a cult figure among the most disadvantaged sectors of Peruvian society, a devotion that remains strong years after his death. The album is essential listening for anyone interested in psychedelic cumbia and the roots of Peruvian chicha. This reissue preserves the album's original artwork as it appeared on Discos Horóscopo and includes liner notes by genre expert Víctor Zela (La cumbia de mis viejos).

2026 Repress
Rights: World excluding FR & UK

Packaging: 2 x Gold-On-Clear Splatter Vinyl, 5mm spine sleeve, 2 x printer inner sleeve, marketing sticker

SHORT BIOG & KEY POINTS
" Goldie's 1995 debut Timeless is often described as one of the greatest dance music albums of all time. As one of the founders of Metalheadz, one of the most influential drum and bass labels, Goldie helped shape the sound of a generation, and a genre that has spanned over 3 decades.
" "Listening to Timeless is like taking an adventure. If the limits of music are the limits of society, then Timeless is going to create new worlds. It's a record that travels from darkness to light across electronic oceans, across streetsoul, ambience and jazz."

" London Records celebrate 30 years of Timeless with limited edition vinyl formats, re-imagining the original white sleeve and putting the album on double vinyl for the first time since '96, with new liner notes from Tim Carr. Remastered audio.

'Life As A Duck' marks the return of Fergus Sweetland's imprint Pressure Systems and the label's first vinyl release. The title originates from a joke between two friends - friends that are ducks. These ducks found one another whilst discovering themselves, trying to navigate a world built for humans. Being a duck is another way of saying neurodivergent; existing adjacent to everything whilst trying to make sense of a strange planet, determined to remain as true to themselves at the same time as trying to be accepted in society. The tracks were made in direct response to a challenge presented to Fergus from a close friend: strip it back. The test was to apply brain-licking sound design to as few elements as possible and work them into functional club tracks. 'Tickle My Tism' meets the challenge. Fergus' signature low end captures the hips as the tension builds, expanding into an unexpected soundscape with precise smoothness. 'Trouble In The Bubble' is a dark yet dubby rolling club track full of texture and soundscapes. Nørbak's remix of 'Trouble In The Bubble' strips things down further with the Portuguese Garage (PTG) version, providing a more club-focused slant to the tune. 'Mind Easer' closes out the EP. The concluding track was written to ease the mind of a fellow duck when their feathers were ruffled by life. Its soothing focus allows one to melt into the sound and calm their mind. It tells you that everything is going to be okay. Expect the unexpected as Fergus' distinct sound design carries you through a four-track journey that emphasises that less is more - from a duck just trying to do his best.

Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.

After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.

"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.

Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.

Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.

From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.

During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.

Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis

Acid Pauli's new album "Mystic Meltdown" is hypnotic mystery, textural mastery, all hurtling through your system at peak velocity, unrelenting yet full of mischief and spirit.
The first full-length Acid Pauli album since 2020's MOD, here the artist, Martin Gretschmann, who you might also remember from Console and The Notwist, reaches out to collaborators, unearths new sounds through travel and then brings it all together with one long, sweeping breath - an album to take in as a whole, to ride its compulsive energy to the end and then back to the start, over and over again.
While the album's been brewing for some time, "It took months and months to find the coherency and the story that this album is telling," Gretschmann recalls, "Arranging the pacing, feeling how the tracks come together into one album", it reads as effortless. It draws from Gretschmann's various musical languages, from the techno, house and ambient of Acid Pauli, even reaching back to the electronica of Console, but it places them in new contexts, at new speeds and in rich, giddy contrasts. Mystic Meltdown feels like endless pleasure, unflagging energy.
It's also an album rich with multiplicity. There are many voices that visit us at the Mystic Meltdown, from Hani Mojtahedy's Kurdish vocal on "Goman (Remix)", through to Lhasa de Sela's "Con Toda Palabra" in Spanish. A sample of Kingdom Molongi's voices opens the title track and returns on "Mystic Feedback" - this feels like a particularly profound connection, given the inspiration that Gretschmann has gleaned from the musical community surrounding the Nyege Nyege Tapes label and organisation over the years. He's also appeared at one of their festivals, by all accounts a revelatory experience.
Sometimes Gretschmann reaches back yet further. "Yes, Caroline" hints at an abstract relationship with the Beach Boys' pop masterpiece, Pet Sounds. Yet the way he draws these various influences into his own music always displays more than a touch of transmutation. Releasing the album on his own label All Is Acid which has recently been undertaking a reissue program of some of Acid Pauli's earlier works, "Mystic Meltdown" feels like a complete expression for Gretschmann; from beginning to end, from creation to reflection. "Building up, going into different spheres and emotions," Gretschmann concludes. "Working through some darker shades, trying to find light. Pouring in to get through."

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the release of Remek Depo, the very first electronic record from the former Yugoslavia, the group Beograd has decided to unveil eight previously unreleased tracks in the context originally intended. The band initially planned to title their first album as Mrak ( eng. Dark). Recorded with Du Du A and other collaborators, this album serves as a manifesto of resistance—not only in Belgrade and Yugoslavia but everywhere else.

The A-side opens with the track 1984, named after George Orwell’s seminal novel. This piece was recorded in a single night in the same year, featuring Zoran Zagorcic (Du Du A) and one of the first Yamaha DX7 synthesizers. It encapsulates the dark and tense atmosphere of Belgrade during a period marked by economic crisis, characterized by shortages of essential products like coffee and oil, as well as electricity restrictions. This oppressive environment also impacted personal relationships, leading to unconventional expressions of passion and desire, as exemplified by the subsequent track from 1985, Mracni Predjet Zelja (eng: That Obscure Object of Desire). However, the primary source of frustration was political, stemming from the abuse of nationalism and the incitement of inter-ethnic conflicts within the complex Yugoslav society. This sentiment is vividly illustrated in the songs Hare Krishna and Belgrade Beat, recorded just before the country’s collapse in 1991. Remarkably, despite their protest, these songs convey messages of strong optimism and hope. In “Belgrade Beat Dejan Kostic (Du Du A) raps and Dejan Stanisavljevic sings. ”Od Studija B do Amerike, Beograd širi svoje talase, mi nismo sami u nama je svet, dolazi veliki preokret” (eng. “From Studio B to the USA, Belgrade spreads its waves, we are not alone, the whole world is with us, a great change comes!”). It is no surprise that this song was frequently broadcast on student Radio Index during the student and anti-war protests in 1992.

The B-side features contemporary songs produced by Beograd, which reflect protests against the current societal conditions in post-war Belgrade. Crafted with musical clarity and irony, these tracks satirize figures of repression, hitting their mark with an almost childlike purity, reminiscent of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The collaboration between Dejan Stanisavljevic, the leader of the Beograd and the Du Du A group not only influenced his musical expression but also laid the groundwork for the group’s socially engaged music in their later career.

As we remember the two late leaders of the Du Du A group, Dejan Kostic and Zoran Zagorcic, alongside the recently departed member of the Beograd, Milan Bubalo, this gramophone record stands as an important testament to the contributions of previous generations of artists in the fight for a fairer society. We hope it will inspire the younger generation in their current struggles, especially at a time when such inspiration is needed more than ever.

Mario Batkovic’s music occupies a singular space between composition, performance and sonic experimentation.
Based in Bern, Switzerland, the composer, accordionist and multi-instrumentalist has developed an intensely personal musical language rooted in a radical interrogation of the accordion — its timbre, mechanics, physicality and rhythmic potential. In Batkovic’s hands, the instrument becomes something far beyond its conventional role: a source of intricate, evolving sound in which performer and machine appear to become one.
Batkovic received International critical acclaim when his eponymous debut album was released on Invada Records in 2017, with Rolling Stone listing it in the top 10 avant-garde albums of the year. ‘INTROSPECTIO’ followed, a self-questioning, self-examination of society which featured collaborations with Colin Stetson, James Holden and Clive Deamer (Radiohead / Portishead).
II sees Batkovic venture further into radical, uncompromising and experimental territory, both in the reduction and the expansion of sound. Voices overlap, rhythmic structures develop an almost mechanical force, and layers of sound evoke analogue synthesizers. Then everything falls away: near-total silence, the breath of the bellows, a single frequency. Sounds emerge that can barely be traced back to any particular instrument.
The album is built entirely around the physical relationship between one musician and one instrument. No loops, no electronic layers. Everything you hear comes from an uncompromising exploration of the instrument itself. A primal force of creation and destruction.
With credits that include music for the global hit game 'Red Dead Redemption II’, commissions for AMI Paris, Cartier Fondation, Hugo Boss, Chanel and film scores ‘Mad Heidi’ and ’Shame and Money’ his compositional work has extended into some of the most distinctive fields of contemporary culture.

Following the release of Haunted House Party, Bradley Thomas Turner was contacted by the Cryptozoological Society of New York City to create music for their museum’s holiday exhibitions. As enigmatic as they are controversial, the secretive society gave the composer free rein to create music that celebrated their profane (and, according to their critics, pseudoscientific) explorations of the darker side of yuletide folklore. The endeavour was denounced by religious groups, the scientific community and even parts of the cryptozoological community as “blasphemous,” “irresponsible”, and “a dangerous topic to make light of” respectively. Not much is known about the pandemonium that broke out on the night of the opening reception, but one journalist (who has been granted anonymity by request) infiltrated the event and captured the recordings that follow. Death cult ritual? Mishandling of cursed artifacts? Elaborate practical joke? Publicity stunt? No one can (or will) say for sure as no person in attendance has been willing to speak on record. Therefore, we present these recordings so the general public can decide for themselves.

Synaptic Cliffs proudly welcomes Annie Hall for her label debut. With the Future Sports EP, she once again expands the boundaries between machine funk, speculative sound design, and forward-thinking club music. Delivering her signature fusion of IDM, electro, fractured breakbeats and experimental electronics, she sculpts a metallic, high-definition vision that feels as though it has been transmitted directly from centuries ahead.

Future Sports imagines the sonic landscape of sport in the year 3024. In a future where society has paradoxically stripped itself back to the essentials, aesthetics have returned to the elegance and restraint of the 18th and 19th centuries. Amid this cultural shift, fencing has emerged as the defining global sport, elevated from historical discipline to mass obsession.

Throughout the EP, the sounds of these future arenas become musical raw material: the sharp clash of advanced foils, the resonant impact of engineered protective gear, the tension of ritualized competition, and fragments of other, unnamed sports from a distant age. Annie Hall transforms these imagined athletic acoustics into intricate rhythmic structures and futuristic melodies, allowing the machinery and choreography of competition to shape the record's sonic identity.

The result is a vivid soundtrack to a world yet to come - precise, kinetic, and unmistakably futuristic, where sport, technology and sound merge into a singular vision. Future Sports is both a speculative narrative and a club-ready statement from one of electronic music's most distinctive voices.

As a special bonus, the EP features an animated picture label. When played at 45 RPM and viewed under a stroboscopic light operating at 9 Hz, the artwork comes alive, revealing a hidden motion sequence. Blurring the boundaries between sound, design and optical illusion, this kinetic visual layer extends the EP's futuristic narrative into the physical realm, transforming the record itself into an artifact from the year 3024.

* Edition of 500 colored vinyl (transparent purple)
* Artwork developed in collaboration with Paris-based visual artist Caroline Ventura
* Including download code

i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is the highly anticipated new album by Sirens Of Lesbos, led by sisters Jasmina and Nabyla Serag. The dynamic release is a vibrant showcase of the group's expansive musical range, blending R’n’B/Soul, Afrobeats, electronic music, and lo-fi indie pop into a rich, genre-defying experience. With its eclectic sound and captivating melodies, the album solidifies Sirens Of Lesbos as a standout force in modern music.

Featuring on the album are the singles “Room 333” feat. Kendrick-Lamar-collaborator Zacari, a futuristic R’n’B song with progressive club beats; the epic “Call Me Back” (feat. Drake-co-signed rapper SadBoi and the Kabusa Oriental Choir); and dub-infused reggae song “Let It Hurt”, plus new song “My Moon”, which draws inspiration from artists like Bruce Hornsby, Justin Vernon, and Jai Paul. Sirens Of Lesbos have earned widespread acclaim from outlets like CLASH, COLORS, Dork, Tsugi and Earmilk, with BBC 1Xtra’s CassKidd calling the collective “magical.”

As Black women living in the diaspora, Jasmina and Nabyla navigate the intersection of their parents’ collectivist North-East African culture and the Western emphasis on individuality. Questions of identity have always been central to their journey. While society often demands clear-cut definitions, the sisters have come to embrace their multifaceted identities: “We have always been many things.”

Both artists are deeply rooted in the technical and philosophical dimensions of sound. Jasmina recently completed her Sound Arts degree, and Nabyla is now finishing hers. Their academic pursuits have included creating abstract sound installations in exhibition spaces. However, their focus for the foreseeable future is on elevating the Sirens Of Lesbos project, writing and producing standout indie pop tracks, performing live, and delivering unforgettable experiences for their audiences.

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The vinyl version of i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is published by Präsens Editionen, a Switzerland-based publishing house and music label. Founded in 2011 in the process of launching zweikommasieben Magazin, Präsens Editionen has since released music on vinyl, cassette, CD, and digital formats—alongside magazines, books, and other printed matter. Recent audio releases include works by Martina Lussi, spalarnia, Magda Drozd, Anom Vitruv, Belia Winnewisser, and Red On, among others.

Bruno Berle is a singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist and figurehead of a contemporary Brazilian music movement. With a quiet mastery of songwriting and an astonishing voice, his music has won hearts around the world. Since the release of his debut album No Reino Dos Afetos (2022), Berle has performed across the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, and China, only leaving his home country for the first time in 2023. Shaped by these journeys, Berle’s third studio album, Sem Fronteiras (Without Borders), reflects a utopian vision of a unified world.

Recorded across London, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Germany, and Maceió, the album–co-produced alongside his longstanding musical partner Batata Boy–is the most expansive canvas Berle has worked on to date. Shot through with the imagery that has always animated his songwriting: open skies, morning light, vivid colours and the magic of human connection, Berle’s carefully crafted poetics and warm, delicate instrumentation drive this vivid body of work.

“I came from nothing”–Berle doesn’t take his rise to global prominence for granted.

Born to a working class family from Brazil’s northeastern Alagoas state, one of Brazil’s most economically deprived, Bruno moved frequently in his youth to follow any job opportunities his parents could find, before eventually settling in the coastal capital of Maceió. “I used to travel to Caruaru, Santa Cruz, Recife, Garanhuns, Arapiraca, which I loved and feel it made me ready to be in this rhythm i’, but at the same time I think not having friends from childhood and being in constant change made me a little numb to the constant upheaval”. On Sem Fronteiras, there is a similar duality at play. The album celebrates the collective joy and human connection that live touring brings, but it also sits with the darker realities of crossing borders. While music moves more freely around the world than ever before, our bodies are not granted the same privilege.

Though he’s never lacked self-belief, Berle recognises that talent alone doesn’t guarantee opportunity. “Before my second album No Reino Dos Afetos 2 everything I had ever recorded was made with the help and kindness of people who believed in my ability”. Determined to pay that kindness forward and help others from the sharp end of Brazil’s desperately unequal society, Berle produced and featured on the recent self-titled albums by his northeast Brazilian compatriots, Nyron Higor and Phylipe Nunes Araújo (both 2025), helping propel both onto the international stage. In turn, following the successes of Nyron & Phylipe’s albums alongside his own, Bruno finds himself at the forefront of a thriving community of artists now based in São Paulo, but primarily originating from northeastern states like Alagoas and Pernambuco.

Much like the famed Clube Da Esquina movement that spawned in 1970’s Minas Gerais, they operate with a free-exchange of ideas, writing songs with and for each other, performing on each other’s albums and on the live circuit together. Lead single ‘Manha’ flows from this ethos. It was written by Berle’s friend and fellow Alagoan João Menezes (writer of ‘Ate Meu Violao’ and ‘Te Amar Eterno’ from Bruno’s previous albums) and Marvin Viera, and originally recorded on their 2018 album Areia e Mar.

Sem Fronteiras opens with ‘Você Já Sabe Que Eu Te Amo’, just six beats of one nylon guitar chord ring out before changing key, paving the way for the gentle strike of fender rhodes and the arresting call & response duet between Berle and Higor. On ‘Amor Inteiro’, the album reaches a celebratory burst of catharsis, with the punch-packing drums of Pedro Lacerda and Nina Maia’s joyous backing vocals encapsulating the live energy that Berle and his band bring to the stage.

With the abundant talents of this musical community at its heart, Sem Fronteiras releases 10th July 2026 via Far Out Recordings, supported by a summer tour across Europe. Bruno Berle will perform in a four-piece band alongside Nyron Higor, Phylipe Nunes, and Batata Boy, culminating in an appearance at Roskilde festival, Berle’s biggest live show to date. He’ll continue to carry a hopeful vision of a world where artists and musicians can move as freely as their music flows.

Tracklist:

A1 “Você Já Sabe Que Eu Te Amo”
(Nyron Higor / Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – drums, bass, acoustic guitar, electric piano, synthesizers, vocals
Bruno Berle – piano, vocals
Batata Boy – piano
Jorik Bergman – score preparation and conducting
Klara Gronet – violin
Ségolène de Beaufond – violin
Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – viola
Ilektra Stevi – cello

A2 “Não Posso Viver Sem Você”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Batata Boy – electric piano, organ, synthesizer
Bruno Berle – drums, bass, synthesizer, vocals
Jorik Bergman – score preparation and conducting
Klara Gronet – violin
Ségolène de Beaufond – violin
Cristina Ardelean Montelongo – viola
Ilektra Stevi – cello

A3 “A Noite de Estrelas”
(Nyron Higor / Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – synthesizers
Bruno Berle – bass, drums, vocals

A4 “Outra Noite”
(Bruno Berle)
Nyron Higor – drums
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, bass
Felipe Berle – congas
Lucca Francisco – guitar, vocals

B1 “Amor Inteiro”
(Bruno Berle)
Pedro Lacerda – drums, choir
Nyron Higor – bass, choir
Batata Boy – guitars, organ, electric piano, choir
Nina Maia – choir
Bruno Berle – guitars, acoustic guitar, congas, vocals

B2 “Ideias Mágicas”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Heloisa Alvino – trombone
Batata Boy – synthesizers, beats, electric piano, organ, bass
Bruno Berle – synthesizer, vocals

B3 “Vim Dizer”
(Batata Boy / Bruno Berle)
Batata Boy – electric piano, organ, synthesizer
Thomas Stankiewicz – synthesizer
Nyron Higor – synthesizer
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, bass, vocals

B4 “Tô Assim”
(Bruno Berle)
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitars
Batata Boy – synthesizer
Nyron Higor – bass, synthesizer

B5 “Manhã”
(João Menezes / Marvin Silva)
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, vocals, congas, shaker
Batata Boy – piano, shaker, electric piano, vibraphone, synthesizers
Nyron Higor – drums, bass

B6 “Sem Fronteiras”
(Bruno Berle)
Filipe Mariz – guitar
Bruno Berle – acoustic guitar, vocals, bass
Jennifer Souza – vocals, acoustic guitar
Rudson França – drums

Credits:

Produced by Bruno Berle and Batata Boy
Mixed and mastered by Bruno Berle, Batata Boy and Felipe Berle

Audio engineering:
Nyron Higor (track 1 – production; track 4 with Felipe Berle)
Joe Osborne (tracks 7 and 9)
Victor Gelling (strings on tracks 1 and 2)
Filipe Mariz (track 10)

Photography: Claudio Virgínio
Design: Minchai

Recorded in:
Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil
Tamandaré, Pernambuco, Brazil
Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
London, England
Cologne, Germany

Genie In A Bottle is back with strong EP from my Italian Hermano - Shkedul.

“Secret Society” is the last track of the record, but definitely far from least. One of the best examples of Shkedul’s dark and confident production. This time also with perfect marching kicks, acidic arpeggios, and kinda familiar story that is being narrated through the track. The name here goes straight from the story, by the way.

“Meditative State” at the B1 also tells us the story, this time with a bit calmer voice. The track is calmer too, the kicks are still marching, don’t assume. “Confidence” lays very hard on the acid part, easily the most acidic track here. Finally, the opener, “Change Is Coming”. With the story again (damn, I like those conversations over the track so much) and the most interesting bassline of all.

Powerfull Support from : Quest , Anthea , Gabbs , Jane Fitz…

Grab your copy !

The Temptations Get High on Psychedelic Soul: Cloud Nine Soars with Ambitious Arrangements and Production, Features Standout Vocal Performances and Instrumentation by the Funk Brothers

The Temptations’ Cloud Nine announced that Motown — and “The Sound of Young America” — would never be the same. Influenced by the emergence of cutting-edge rock and pop currents, as well as increasing sociopolitical turmoil, the album broke down barriers between rock, psychedelia, and soul while heralding the arrival of visionary arrangements and production techniques. Bookended by traditional R&B numbers, the 1969 record sent the Temptations in bold new directions and signaled the advent of psychedelic soul.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45PM 2LP set presents Cloud Nine in audiophile sound for the first time on a domestic pressing. This collectible reissue bestows Norman Whitfield’s extraordinary production with the grand-scale dynamics, natural tonality, expansive openness, and low-end weight it deserves. The timbre of each of the five members’ voices is readily identifiable — even within the group harmonies — bestowing a realism never experienced outside the recording studio.

Making its debut on 45RPM, the album further benefits from the wide groove space by playing with greater separation and more realistic presence than prior editions. Everything from the brassiness of the horns to the dry snap of the snare comes across with reference-grade clarity and positioning. And since Motown’s renowned Funk Brothers backing band plays on many of the cuts, you’ll want to savor every note. The imaging, soundstaging, and organic bloom-and-decay of the notes make that possible.

Amid Cloud Nine, the instrumentation and architecture stand out as much as any element. Never before had a Motown album contained such ambitious patterns and complex passages. Seemingly conscientious of the departure from their past methods, the Temptations and Whitfield bunched together the tracks that mark a deep dive into psychedelic territory and counterbalance them with seven sterling soul cuts that dovetail with Motown tradition drenched with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats.

On the original 33RPM release, traditional Motown soul — laden with heartfelt vocals, swelling strings, and finger-snapping beats — occupies Side Two. These songs reveal an ensemble still very much on top of delivering pristine pop-soul material graced with romantic sweetness, persuasive insistent, and soaring highs. Re-energized after the departure of lead singer David Ruffin, who was fired for a variety of reasons in June 1968, the Temptations seamlessly meld with his replacement, Dennis Edwards, on one melodic gem after another.

The collective tackles five songs co-written by the legendary Motown team of Barrett Strong and Whitfield. Not the least of which are the smooth, shuffling “Why Did She Have to Leave Me (Why Did She Have to Go)” and deceptively simple, horn-spiked “Gonna Keep on Tryin’ till I Win Your Love.” On these tracks, as well as on a lush rendition of the ballad “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing” and pleading, tender send-up of the Gerry Goffin-Carole King classic “Hey Girl,” Edwards and Paul Williams take turns on the lead with the estimable Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, and Otis Williams providing backing support.

All five vocalists trade-off leads on the simmering title track, a groundbreaking composition shot through with wah-wah-pedal effects, liquid funk, deep bass lines, Cuban percussion, saturated reverb, and gang choruses. Whitfield mines each member’s natural vocal range with spectacular results, keeps time with cymbals, and channels both the heated temperatures and escapist desires of a society embroiled in war, conflict, and experimental drugs.

Amazingly, the Temptations top themselves on the similarly revealing “Run Away Child, Running Wild.” Nearly 10 minutes in length, the song explodes R&B parameters and harbors a cinematic scope. Urgent pianos, distorted guitars, stripped-down percussion, steamy Hammond organs, minimal bass motifs, five distinct voices narrating the tale of a boy who fled home and now finds himself amid the scary, unforgiving external world: They combine to give the urgent tune a walls-closing-in atmosphere where fear and desperation reign. Bolstered by an extended instrumental section that precedes a climactic return of the singers’ voices, “Run Away Child, Running Wild” equaled the success of the record’s title track, with both reaching No. 6 on the pop charts.

Secret Society is catnip for all the cool cat minimal and tech heads scattered across the global underground and here they mark their first decade in the game with a whopping great big triple album V/A comp that celebrates in style. The label works with exciting talents both old and new, and their 20th outing is the first in a new series, Discipline of Time, featuring six sides of beats. Delphie warps space and time with a lithe, bendy, liquid minimal dub tech twister; Marceline taps into airy, dubby space tech on 'Sale Jugando' and Rh Cher's 'Gwen' (Edward Desert version) is a weird late-night ritual with paranoid voices belting in from the edges. Rhadoo closes with a classic Villalobos-era minimal gem that is wonderfully sparse but for warped lines and abstract FX. "Time is one of our most valuable resources, and how we choose to spend it shapes what we create and who we become" says the label. You could do far worse than spending your time listening and/or dancing to this.

2026 Repress

The Architects of Shadows explores the volatile undercurrents shaping today's polarized world, where extremes on all sides vie for influence and control. Against a backdrop of rising nationalism, digital echo chambers, and deepening distrust, each track captures a stage in the gradual radicalization of society. Through dark, immersive soundscapes, the album delves into how unseen architects exploit fear, amplify division, and pull the strings of public sentiment, leading society toward ideological extremes. The Architects of Shadows invites listeners to confront the forces behind the fracturing of Western societies in an era marked by profound political and cultural polarization.

(*Previously unreleased)

Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)

Network 23 Recordings proudly unveils its first full digital album release since its revival in partnership with Triple Vision Distribution. It will also release as 3 Vinyl EP's over the course of this year.

Better Than Drugs, the latest album from Crystal Distortion, delivers a high-impact sonic snapshot of both personal upheaval and the turbulent state of the world today. Framed by flashes of media soundbites old and new, the album tackles themes ranging from gentrification in Landlords Hooked On Crack (Breakbeat Version) to the right to protest in Got2StopThem, and the mass manipulation of society in The Chicken Strikes Back.
Launching with a hard-techno surge, the record moves fluidly through a spectrum of tough, mid-tempo rhythms, accented by breakbeats, electro-leaning syncopations, and bass-driven cuts like StepGPT-all while staying firmly rooted in dance-floor intent. Designed for movement and built for impact, Better Than Drugs is a versatile, high-energy release ready to ignite any setting.

Crystal Distortion is a pioneering force in the underground electronic music scene, known for fusing hard-driving techno, breakbeat energy, and improvisational live performance into a signature sound that helped define the European free-party movement. His work blends raw analog textures with relentless rhythmic experimentation, creating high-intensity sets that feel both chaotic and meticulously crafted. As a long-standing member of the Spiral Tribe collective, he has influenced generations of producers and performers, pushing the boundaries of what electronicmusic can be in both form and context.

Aquasonic Vol.1 marks a new chapter for Afalinas, presenting a carefully selected vinyl compilation featuring Ukrainian producer iO (Mulen), Berlin based Tro, Afalinas founder Olekhar, and Chilean artist Existencia Pasajera. Each track reflects a distinct geographical and emotional perspective, united by a shared focus on depth, groove and immersive sound design. From refined deep and juicy tech house and subtle techno structures to psychedelic textures and spacious rhythms, Aquasonic Vol.1 unfolds as a cohesive listening experience shaped by four individual voices.

The fifth release from Diggers Society Records is signed by one of the most influential duos in the underground electronic scene of the past 20 years: The Analogue Cops. Lucretio and Marieu deliver a finely crafted, dancefloor-oriented EP, strongly defined by the techno, electro, acid, and house sounds that have become their unmistakable signature. The A-side opens with two full-on techno dancefloor bangers, ‘Fake Black Out’ and ‘Do What You Want’, while the B-side leans more towards house, driven by the hypnotic progression of ‘Milano Gipsy’ and the intense bassline of ‘Chinese Coffee’. The duo’s creativity and brilliance shine through in raw, unconventional solutions that surface in every moment of the EP.

This special edition also includes a 10" limited to 100 hand-numbered copies, featuring two exclusive productions: “Burning Jack” and “Yes Or Not”.

Artwork by @designattitude_graphic

One of the most innovative and ambitious albums ever made, Genioh Yamashirogumi’s Ecophony Rinne is a sonic masterpiece featuring over 200 musicians that expanded the limits of what music and sound could do.

Before Akira there was Ecophony Rinne. Originally released in 1986, Ecophony Rinne is a four-part symphony of “ecological music” by Geinoh Yamashirogumi that married ancient tradition with technological innovation, and changed the way we listen to music in the process.

Half-speed mastered at Abbey Road by Miles Showell, Time Capsule’s high-tech analogue reissue is the first to reproduce composer Ōhashi’s ground-breaking “Hypersonic Effect” theory on vinyl, cutting frequencies beyond the realm of human hearing into wax to capture the full spectrum emotional impact of this extraordinary work.

Founded by genius polymath Tsutomu Ōhashi aka Shoji Yamashiro, Geinoh Yamashirogumi is a shapeshifting collective of over a hundred members from across disciplines. Rejecting professional musicianship, Ōhashi cultivated an ethos where neuroscientists, psychologists, doctors, journalists, engineers and students could critique society through artistic expression and pursue their research in ethnomusicological performances that spanned global traditions, Eastern spirituality and Western classical form.

Ecophony Rinne represents the pinnacle of this vision - an expansive orchestral suite made with over 200 musicians that channeled Ōhashi’s thinking about mankind’s relationship with nature, and fundamental questions of life, death and rebirth.

Here pipe organ synths made from sampled Tibetan horns sit alongside field recordings from Central African forests, Buddhist mantras circle dummy head microphones, Javanese Jegog percussion ensembles pulse like verdant ecosystems, and the acoustics of temples, caves and landscapes are conveyed in the mix. Weaving together culture, nature and technology, it is a record that vibrates with the polyphony of life on Earth.

But Ecophony Rinne was not only musically innovative. Noticing the difference between vinyl and CD versions of the album where digital reproduction limited the sound, Ōhashi developed a theory of “Hypersonic Effect”, determining that ultra-high frequencies above 20khz can impact human perception even if they are inaudible. At once a physical and a psychological experience, to listen to Ecophony Rinne is to feel music differently.

The rest is history. After its release, Ōhashi was approached by director Katsuhiro Ōtomo to produce the soundtrack for Akira, the work for which Geinoh Yamashirogumi is best known. Emerging from the shadows at last, Ecophony Rinne was its transcendental blueprint, reissued in its most complete hypersonic form on vinyl for the first time.

Rather than describe nature, Ecophony Rinne embodied it. Rather than reflect culture, Ecophony Rinne defined it. Rather than explore technology, Ecophony Rinne changed it. As a work of art, it is more relevant than ever. You won’t have heard anything like it.

On 27 March, fabric Originals presents Shō, a five track EP of introspective, transcendent electronics from Japanese techno icon DJ Nobu. Inspired by the Buddhist Brahmavihāras - joy, compassion, loving-kindness and equanimity - Shō unfolds as a meditative, emotional journey rooted in Nobu’s experiences of Tokyo, mindfulness and inner clarity. From kinetic renewal to serene minimalism, the EP channels presence, acceptance and the simple truth that breathing itself is living.

Each track on ‘Shō’ marks a step in an emotional and spiritual journey, channelling the foundational virtues of the Brahmavihāras, which are the four ‘Sublime States’ of Buddhist practice: ‘Muditā’ (joy), ‘Karuṇā’ (compassion), ‘Mettā’ (loving-kindness), and ‘Upekkhā’ (equanimity). Together these principles form a path towards an open, boundless heart, which is mirrored in the EP’s unfolding sonic narrative.

“In recent years I became overly sensitive to my surroundings and society, finding myself strongly affected by every daily occurrence. It was during this time that I discovered meditation. And beyond that lay Buddhism. Through this, my sensibilities became able to express themselves more naturally. I decided to portray my feelings, and the scenery in Tokyo, conveying what I was experiencing in real-time, as music.

The EP title ‘Shō’ denotes views, thoughts, and actions aligned with Buddhist truth, and encapsulates my striving for presence, clarity, and acceptance. It also represents the conscious, mindful understanding that simply breathing is living.” DJ Nobu

Agent By Default In Hybrid Systems' is a deep dive into today’s and tomorrow’s society. Across four tightly constructed tracks, cinematic-surrealist musician and DJ JessyJiggy reflects on how mankind and machine-driven systems coexist and evolve. We act, respond, and adapt as agents by default caught between instinct and structure. Built for movement yet rooted in observation, every progression feels less like a command and more like a suggestion inviting listeners to negotiate their own place inside the grid.

This poetic concept translates into music where analogue and digital tools merge into a hybrid sound. Compositions carry an almost automatic rhythm that drives motion while sound design elements subtly reference modern technology. Raw, bass-driven, minimal and techno showcase the breadth and progressiveness of Rotterdam with its brutalist spirit embedded in every detail.

Carefully mixed and mastered by Simon Lescure, who works at the intersection of sound design, club culture, and contemporary art, the record is optimized for a wide spectrum of sound systems while offering a distinct, full-bodied experience on the dance floor. With his vision of music as a system of memory and tension, a way to hold time and transmit presence, raw energy is brought into focus, shaping JessyJiggy's signature sound with clarity, weight, and intent.

A work committed to pushing boundaries and contributing something lasting to the electronic music landscape, this record is crafted to become a cult classic.

The Messier Objects returns with the second release on their label containing ten new tracks from the new TMO alter ego ‘Messier One.’ The work combines nostalgic IDM, eerie ambient and dreamy dub techno into one mini-album, inspired by the brute forces of nature and the power of healing and regeneration.

Expect to feel the force of nature on the A-side, where tracks such as ‘Earth’s Signal 04’ and ‘The Greatest Ebb Current’ contain distorted and fuzzy pads, eerie and vague echoing vocals, and whitenoise patterns that somehow feel strangely calming. Together with the broken drum patterns on tracks such as ‘Who Do You Worship?’, and the distorted kicks on ‘Kaalo Asmi Loka Kshaya Kritpraviddho’, the A-side manages to create crude IDM and ambient patterns – resembling historic natural events as if you were there yourself.

On the B-side. the noisy and broken patterns from the previous six tracks are replaced with warm and meditative sounds. ‘Two Tides’ is filled with soothing arpeggiated soundscapes and echoing voices, and the organic jungle chants and mythical vocals in ‘Rebuilding Temples’ further continue the process of regeneration. The B-side is accompanied with two remixes from Messier808 (known from the first release), who brings his typical meditative 4x4 patterns to the table, accompanied by dreamy textures, cyclical melodies and illusive effects from a now ‘healed’ society.

This thoughtful release brings a complete story told in only ten chapters. As always, their releases are backed by breathtaking artworks using vibrant and organic colours, completing an intriguing mini-album.

After years of dormancy, Stilove4music is back with a brand-new 12” from label boss Jerome Derradji — the 52nd release since the label’s creation in 2005. You know the drill: Midwest disco floor bangers made strictly for discerning DJs.

Titled “Do or Don’t”, the EP delivers three essential joints:

“Disco Don’t” is a fast-paced, floor-destroying monster built for peak-time damage.

“Jazz Do” shifts gears into a mellower, psychedelic jazz disco zone, featuring Jerome on live piano, Fender Rhodes, and Korg DV800, with additional programming for good measure.

Closing things out is “Never”, a lovely, groove-heavy floor filler bursting with Brazilian love — again elevated with extra programming from Jerome.

All tracks were produced by Jerome Derradji at the Hirsch Society For Togetherness in Chicago circa 2025.

For this edition, the label meets this duo of producers, that has been created by the musical synergy between Zonker and Daniel Gorziza, who go by the name – “SameSame”. This disc has been titled “Unconditional Society” and has been crafted with a mission to be brought to the worldwide dancefloors and to be foreseen by the adepts of the sound it conveys. The A side is opening with a deep trancey burner “Suspect Zero”, with time passing this side of the record is morphing into the prime-time speaker ripping sound of “Rip the Jacker. The B side will see more mellow feel to it and sometimes even could be said that the vibe turns relatively melancholic by the time the record reaches its natural conclusion. The words that have been shared do not translate the profoundness of the subject that the artists have carried through, but then again, sometimes them letters have to be present even if they are kept to the slightest. The frequencies communicate much superior to the words and by now you can stop reading this and immerse yourself into the sound.

Mean Field Mutation is a thermodynamic phenomenon occurring just below the vaporization point of voracious growth. It relies on the debris of false and almost forgotten narratives. Astral residue of consumer angst, echoes of obsolete newspeak and oscillations of promotional imbecilities collide with free floating particles hovering under the radar of the megamachine. In steady intervals, this results in a meltdown producing random waves of reconfigurations driven by cryptic but sanguine naivety.
Released on Lustpoderosa, Mean Field Mutation is the first musical output by Des Coda. Written and produced by Piero Scherer during the pandemic winter of 2021 in his bedroom studio in Zurich. Moving between playful
serenity and feral distortion, it was produced by layering sounds from field recordings, radio and TV clips, as wellas sequences from drum machines and analogue synthesizers. Taking a stance against commercial copyright, all stems of this production are available for download free of charge and ready to be reappropriated.
Des Coda is an open field for collaborative, cultural experiments beyond the conventional understanding of authorship and representation. It engages with an artistic position that defines the creative process as an interplay between context and concept. The resulting work is not a rigid product of authoritarian ingenuity, but a sensitive, living organism guided by the tensions between society and individual. Des Coda is the zestful curiosity rummaging through the rubble of the present in search of future aesthetics.

You may be excused if, seeing the dazzling China Moses on stage, online, or on-air, you thought that she, fabulous and French, an orchestra trailing her, with one of those light-up-a-room smiles you only hear about in myth, was someone who might only be singing cheery songs about her glamorous musical life. Not so. It’s complicated… vibrates with the joy, wistfulness, ambivalence, and wisdom of a woman who’s been on many journeys, down many paths, and landed here, in your ears, on purpose, with something to say.

Through these songs, China captures the many hues of grown Black womandom: her choices, her regrets; her place in society as both citizen and observer. Her voice is girlish and playful; gritty and growly; truly prismatic, as Anthony Peyton Young’s cover art suggests, to reflect the many lives she’s lived. And she does all this with vulnerability, a quality that transcends and supersedes genre, taste, or ability. Of all the tools a singer-songwriter could possess, it might be the most important one. Though there is bravado here (“I can be happy”, the song and the video, are the best example), this is an album that taps into the full, resplendent spectrum of human experience, its many facets hewn into these 10 gems before you.

It’s complicated… and it’s complex. How could it be anything else?

— Kyla Marshell

Specific Objects debuts on Life In Patterns with Helios, a powerful 6-track EP shaped by the pressures, ambitions, and contradictions that define creative work in a hyper-competitive society. The record explores the perpetual pursuit of success - an ever-distant horizon that inspires as much as it consumes.

Named after the sun, Helios symbolizes the personal goals we orient ourselves toward: radiant and motivating, yet capable of overwhelming those who chase them too closely. The EP was written during a period of intense reflection on performance culture, "hustle" mentality, and the rat race of late capitalism - an environment amplified by constant comparison on social media.

Helios is both a celebration and critique of ambition - a techno journey through the heat, pressure, and brilliance of striving. It is scheduled to release on February 6, 2026 on both digital and vinyl formats.