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OWL is back with its 2 nd release, and this time with Artem Stan!

Nigerian-born, London-based singer, songwriter, musician and producer Steven Bamidele presents his keenly anticipated sophomore album, 'THE CRASH!' – a sonically rich exploration of purpose, doubt and personal reckoning. Written against the backdrop of an ever-changing world, the album combines soul, rock, jazz, acoustic and electronic textures, along with daydream-esque storytelling for a thought-provoking journey in pursuit of something real in an age of hyper-curation and superficiality.
At its core, 'THE CRASH!' is a soulful meditation on the weight we place on relationships, the fundamental cost of growth, and the search for direction in an imperfect world. It's a deeply personal project, shaped by Steven's own journey through faith, disillusionment and self-discovery. Raised in a strictly Christian household, Steven's first crisis of belief came at 17, when he began questioning the very foundations of existence. As his faith unravelled, music became his new guiding force – a source of direction, discipline and identity. But as he turned 30, disillusionment crept in once again. The stark realities of the music industry, coupled with global uncertainty, reignited that same despondent weight he had battled in his youth.
"It was an intoxicating feeling when I was younger and had no responsibilities, to foolishly believe I was the first person in history who'd worked something out that no one else had. It gave me this twisted sense of power and was a big creative motivator. Where I'm at now, nihilism is debilitating, boring and unhelpful. I've worked to find a way to channel those feelings into this project. I'm really proud of it."– Steven Bamidele

This transcontinental techno VA gathers five forward-thinking artists from across the globe.

Icelandic techno forward Exos opens the release with "Tunis" - a no-compromise, fast-paced track that pulses with distant echoes of African tunes. This piece that moves you forward, propels through time and textures.

Hailing from Paraguay, Victoria Mussi brings "Imaginary Rush", a track that shifts the grid: behind the steady four-to-the-floor pulse hides a maze of unexpected sound accents. This is techno that demands both dancing and deep listening.

Latvian producer Ksenia Kamikaza follows with "34 hours of C" - a cinematic narrative shaped by futuristic sound design. Taking you to the sci-fi movie scene with echoing synths - it's a sonic adventure drifting across an obscure dancefloor.

Chilean artist Andrea Riffo offers "Fissure State", a fragile yet deeply intentional track that blends minimal structure with immersive depth. Thoughtful and hypnotic, it carries a subtle intensity that fits perfectly into both opening and prime time sets.

Catalan non-binary artist Basso Mata closes the record with "Open Close" - a departure from strict techno into mid-90s-influenced electro. Combining distorted guitar-like basslines with synthetic groove, it's both unexpected and irresistibly danceable.

Together, these five pieces form a cohesive yet diverse vision of modern techno - experimental, emotional, and deeply rooted in each artist's local context. This record is built for DJs who play with narrative, contrast, and surprise. A secret weapon for those who mix stories, not just beats.

Focus, integrity and substance, all allied to a relentless work ethic and that essential (if indefinable) sprinkling of magic dust, have kept Nick Warren at the top of the electronic music tree for not far short of forty years.

In that timespan, Nick has been tour DJ for Massive Attack, held a residency at Cream, been a Glastonbury regular, and become the UK’s most successful export to Argentina (in no small part due to his touring brand The Soundgarden). As half of Way Out West, he has helped write (and re-write) the rule book for club-based electronic acts, achieving true longevity without compromise. He has curated over a dozen essential compilations – a mainstay of the Global Underground series whose heavyweight influence is still felt to this day, an in-demand decknician for pivotal brands such as Renaissance and Balance, and the very first DJ entrusted with creating a blueprint for the now iconic Back to Mine series.

It's quite the CV, a career many can only dream of. But Nick has long had one further itch in need of scratching. Inspired at a young age by his dad’s Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream albums, coming of age with experimental labels like 4AD and Factory, roots deep in the dub-wise scene of his native Bristol, a long time collector of exotica and obscure film soundtracks…all that knowledge and passion has long been crying out to be channelled into a Warren solo album.

All of which brings us to the career-defining Turbulence. The world is certainly a turbulent place as Nick gets set to unleash his masterwork, but the musical turbulence at work here arguably takes its lead from other interpretations of the word – turbulence as a feeling of heightened intensity, turbulence marked by a sense of unpredictability.

Turbulence is a window into Nick’s musical soul, and the myriad styles and influences that reside there, drip-fed into a melodic melting pot to create a unique sonic stew. Tempos and styles switch and interlock effortlessly, the mood ebbs and flows like the best DJ sets, and the running order, from the ethereal opener Loveland all the way through to the achingly beautiful closing cut Sadly (in tandem with Tripswitch, one of several noteworthy collaborations) showcases an artist at the top of his game, and with a deep understanding of the concept of the long player.

We all need some turbulence.

Emotional Response is delighted to present the debut EP of Aaron Coyes (Peaking Lights / Leisure Connection) new project, as Exotic Gardens. An additional music universe as his love of dub expands to include new wave, goth and acid psychedelics across 5 catchy, bass heavy songs.

While the continuing journey of his duo band, Peaking Lights, with his wife Indra, earns plaudits and fans alike, his early years as a one-man lysergic music polymath that saw his youth in punk and hardcore bands, expanded during a mid-90s burst of “living in San Francisco” creative expansion, devouring music, genres, and influences for life.

Started as a sub-project to Peaking Lights and his personal dub excursions, Exotic Gardens pollinates a rich tapestry. Recording through the pandemic in their then home in Amsterdam, before being archived, assembled, and completed following the move back ‘home’ to the West Coast, California.

Re-embracing that love of his inner goth, the analogue warmth is all there, now featuring Coyes’ dub-languidity of stripped drum machines, widescreen bass, haunting guitar lines and an almost idle voice to peddle true, raw songs.

Combined, the pop layer of hooks and tight grooves instantly catch you. Opener and EP title, Drugs & TV is the perfect anthem for the Exotic Gardens sound, before the “dubwave” of Last Of The Light and Tonite shimmer that yearning melancholy of youth.

In the almost 10 minute dub house opus Organize Your Movement an appreciation and understanding of the psychoactive properties of the Roland 303 and 909, they also hark to a love of Industrial / Noise bands, a lineage from the death pulse of his cult project Rahdunes through to Sound Design and Sound System culture to the pop-dub psychedelics with Indra, now melded here to include a dark assault, whispering invocations and pulsing pads.

To close, Turn It On is a roaming multi-genre evocation, an exotic end from this constant troubadour, cassette junkie, record dealer, sound system builder, always looking to get back on the road, to live to roam.

“I turn it on, you lose your mind’.

An expanded and remastered reissue of the 2009 debut album the collaborative musical project. Vocals and songs from Julianne Regan (All About Eve), Monica Richards (Faith & the Muse), Evi Vine and Amandine Ferrari. Enhanced by violin from Van Morrison/ Penguin Café"s Bob Loveday, Steve Carey on guitars, Fields of the Nephilim"s Tony Pettitt on bass, plus many friends. The album came about from Carey & Pettitt exploring music they enjoyed, and deciding on a revolving line-up of female voices. The result was an amalgam of trip-hop, prog rock and exotic goth-rock, enriched by lyrics and vocals from four exceptional female artists. The album now includes an additional six songs recorded around the same sessions as the original album. The band subsequently had five more releases and regularly toured the UK & Europe.

Common Aspects

A collaboration between two Georgian producers from Tbilisi, Hatsvali and Rydeen.
In the style of trance, tech, and acid, the album explores deep moods and hypnotic rhythms.

EXOTIC GARDENS is the dub focused solo project of Aaron Coyes. As a member of PEAKING LIGHTS, LEISURE CONNECTION, and a mainstay on both NTS and DUBLAB radio (among many other credits), Aaron should be nothing less than a household name. But here, in EXOTIC GARDENS, Coyes' only collaborator is a make-shift dub home studio that would make any tech head weep with ecstatic joy. For the last 6 months, little snippets and whispers of the project have been emerging on various social outlets, but here we find the culmination of those efforts: EIGHT DEEPLY HEAVY, DEEPLY DUBBY, DEEPLY PSYCHEDELIC, DUB TRACKS FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY.

Kicking off our VA series we’re pleased to present Frequencies Vol. 1. Six brilliant artists covering a variety of dancefloor moods and energies.

The Belgian duo A.G. & Kompo have delivered an extended slice of punchy minimal techno for the A1, with elements of tech house and progressive leaning synths scattered throughout. David Agrella’s welcome return to Seven Hills sees him developing the late morning atmosphere titled Amfexa, utilising a groovy bassline, classy pads and some expertly organic drum programming.

On the B side the Hamburg based Rupert Marnie and our beloved Dutch friends Young Adults add a darker tinge to this release. Parapsychic is a gurgling meditation; very minimal which allows the drums and alien sounding bass sounds to punch hard through the mix. Closing us off is Exothermic, a monstrous, almost hellish bit of deep tech house.

Lots of textures, a rubber elastic kick drum, and a hypnotic, groaning vocal which sounds as if it was dredged up from the underworld.

Originally released following his acclaimed sophomore album, HYBRIDISM finds Ecuadorian producer Nicola Cruz at the height of his exploratory powers. Now reissued on limited editon green vinyl, this expansive EP re-emerges with renewed relevance—blending North African rhythms, ethereal Persian motifs, and vocal fragments that evoke both ancient traditions and imagined worlds. A contemporary take on global exotica, HYBRIDISM is a vital entry in Cruz’s ever-evolving sonic journey.

'Aima’, named after the refrain sung by Igbo girls from Nigeria, creates the illusion that you’ve dusted off a lost LP. The aesthetic details recall expertly produced French exotica from the 70s, an overall feeling of warmth and character rarely pulled off with such panache.

‘Naeku,' in Cruz’s words, is "a sorrowful song in minor tonalities, but with a warrior energy, strength and forward vision: a soul departs, but a new one arrives in the name of Naeku, a maasai child. Not all grief needs to be a suffering; a feeling which I can relate to the place I come from with a Quechua word: Llaquilla - triste, pero feliz (sad, but happy). As always, the 303 adds that heart touching feeling.” If there’s a template for Multi Culti’s ethos, Cruz has synthesized the formula: Masai lamentation filtered through Quechua wisdom with a touch of 303 for the soul.

'Drom Tradisie' is a nostalgic vignette that captures the fantasy of a scenic horizon on a lost beach, a portrait done with the FM domain of synths that somehow associates with tropical imagery.

'Third Eye Dub’ takes things deeper, exploring the fractal realm of concentration, a point where the Oud (played by Nasiri) acts on the pineal gland. This inward journey through the cavernous depths of the subconscious sails on a smooth modular groove that transports the listener across this psychic expanse, a filigree of Persian harmonies (in Shur, to be exact) tracing outlines in the dark.

Finally, 'Kawe’s Dream’ ventures even further into the imaginary spaces of the mind. It is an aural reconstruction of the Tibetan Bardo Thodol, or ‘Book of the Dead’, a sacred text that guides the spirit through the passage out of the body. In Nicola’s words "To paint that depth, I had these Tibetan chants in mind, that I ended up crafting with Ableton's vocoder over a piece of Ayan’s vocals (sung in a made-up language). A few notes, and it gave the gravity I was looking for in the song.” Stuff that only a producer as capable as Cruz could pull off.

Hybridism’s five tracks are sonically diverse, yet all possess an ephemeral quality, a pastoral, transitory feeling that travels through the music - we listen to the sounds pass us by, we might even catch a hook or two, but the feeling is of sand running through our hands, deep, elusive, beautiful.

Mannequin Records presents Artificial Salvation, the long-awaited next chapter from Taiwan-born, Berlin-based artist Jing. A visceral journey into fragmented identity, post-human desire, and sonic disobedience, the album marks a bold evolution in Jing's unmistakable language—where rhythm is weapon, voice is distortion, and silence is political.

Known for her uncompromising DJ sets and past releases exploring industrial textures, field recordings, and haunting spoken word, Jing now delivers her most narrative-driven and confrontational work to date. Artificial Salvation lives at the intersection of club dystopia and spiritual unease: glitched-out techno structures collide with ghostly chants and collapsing machinery, echoing themes of surveillance, digital exile, and existential displacement.

Crafted between Taipei and Berlin, the album draws from a palette both hyper-modern and deeply ancestral—melding broken beats, noise, and vocal manipulation into an unflinching statement of intent. This is not music for escapism. This is a sonic exorcism.

Exos returns to Mutual Rytm for second standout EP, 'Icebreaker'.

A renowned global talent, Iceland's Exos was last on Mutual Rytm earlier this year with his successful 'Infrared' EP in April. The debut release on the label's new 10" vinyl X-Series, the EP picked up a wealth of high-profile plays while delivering an absorbing journey through techno soundscapes. The release was followed up by his 'Evil Nation' LP, exploring a harder, more intense approach to techno on his own Planet X imprint, ext to tunes on the likes of Figure and X/OZ. However, he returns with more skilfully crafted ammunition across five stand-out productions and two digital bonus gems on SHDW's burgeoning imprint for a second outing packed with his trademark sound spanning mystic yet driving and impactful spheres.

The package opens up with 'Voices Of Volcano', a powerful track with a monstrous low end and quickened drum kicks that compel you to march in time as the twisted synths peel away up top. 'Enter The Danger' has a steamy feel, as if racing through a humid jungle with the sounds of bird calls and haunting voices next to the loopy percussion and driving rhythms.

The brilliant 'Icebreaker' keeps up the intensity with more precision drumming working dancers into a meditative state while the cosmic synths grow up out of the groove to become bright and unsettling. 'Mocoa Beats' is another warm techno cut that fizzes with synth energy and unfolds like an ancient ritual, while 'Chicat' brings some sensuality to the party with whispered, intimate vocals over more macho and unrelenting drums. Bonus tracks 'Codebreaker' and 'Spliffmatch' round out this high-grade EP of timeless techno in style, offering a unique closing treat for digital purchasers.

For this new full-length output, Gil.Barte delivers on Teenage Menopause an 8 tracks LP full of formal strength and psychedelic grandeur. Unlike the vast near-death explorations or trancey adventures he developped on various labels such as Neubau, Big Science Records, Homemade Soundsystem or his own imprint Meth'O'Tapes, the meaningfully-named « Claviceps Purpurea » is a botanist guide to the valleys of the mind.
From the eponym opening to the ending echo, each entry is a glance at magical universal exotica. With an intense emphasis on rhythm, standing quite apart from his former releases, Gil.Barte draws the bouncing steps of a whirlwind dance rooted in western witchcraft.
Raging pieces of club-destroying material (for those who dare) meet sketches of electronic fever-dreams. A full circle that is meant to run on and on, breaking the veil of daylight consciousness.

2025 Repress
Growing up on the north Atlantic island of Iceland bestows one with an unusual and often intense relationship with light and colour: Summers come with endless days, Winters with scant sunlight yet increased sightings of the Aurora Borealis; the mysterious and awe-inspiring glow across the sky. Channelling these energies, Exos
comes to Tresor with his Green Light EP, a five-track collection of the sort of spectrally rich techno synonymous with the Northman’s 27-year career.
Across the EP, the five tracks fizz and pulsate driving ever forward, making the release’s title a three-way play on words referencing the continuous travelling of photons, the verdant warping of the Northern Lights, and the universal colour for Go, for forward propulsion. Smart wordplay can also be found in titles like Grátt Silfur, a term in Íslenska (literally “grey sliver”) which signifies a tension between two parties, further extending the colour metaphor and dark/light dichotomy found elsewhere.
The digital release comes with three extra tracks that continue the dynamic energy, pushed along by the same shifting, mutating force where the music often feels like voices calling out from the darkness or the shimmer of light as the sun rises across the horizon.
Green Light EP continues this year’s blazing return from an artist who, similar to his output, is never stagnant: ever changing form yet ever moving forward.

Saphileaum (the pseudonym of Georgian multi-media artist Andro Gogibedashvili) is inspired by Georgian myths and legends, esotericism, earth, unity, truth and the secrets of the universe.

Over the past few years, Saphileaum has released a diverse array of albums and EPs on labels such as Good Morning Tapes, Oslated, Silent Season, Mule Musiq and Slow Life, each one reflecting his unique blend of cosmic expansiveness, tribalism and meditative storytelling.

On his first collaboration with P&F Recordings, he draws inspiration from mysticism, self study, ancient civilizations and their various cultures and mysteries.

These musings unite to create an immersive sonic experience that traverses cosmic and tribal landscapes, bringing us 'TAMALUNGMA'.

Here, the listener enters a mystical realm-space, where nature's precious spirits guide you through a journey of transition. As you walk this path, their wisdom and presence illuminate the way, helping you move closer to your true purpose.

2026 Repress

This is Gerd's debut on his own label Andarta. Four warm tracks that explore exotic combinations of disco, fm-synthesis, old school tape dub effects and percussive rhythms.

A previously unissued post-bop document from 1970, Jyväskylä Workshop Band 1970 assembles American saxophonist Charlie Mariano, Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen and Finnish luminaries Heikki Sarmanto, Eero Koivistoinen, Paroni Paakkunainen, Seppo Ranniko, Pekka Pöyry, Edward Vesala and Matti Koskiala. Professionally captured in concert, the album delivers a vibrant set of groovy, exploratory and subtly exotic tunes that helped assert Finland’s place on the international jazz map.

Originally from Sicily but living in Basel, electronic composer Marco Papiro confirms his eccentric and multifaceted personality. The sound articulation of his analog synthesizers flows into in an artificial hyperrealism of great thematic and expressive variation. The tracks unfold between ascending cosmic moments, more ecstatic meditative tones, symphonic planetary floods, exotic afrodelic and psycho-andean drifts. Papiro synthesises and converts echoes of acoustic wind instruments (oboe, recorders, bamboo flute), while the percussion lives on its own pulsating reality. The influence of certain folk traditions, as well as contemporary music, also suggests the more acoustic flavor of an ethereal minimalism (for voice and psaltery), making his music a continuous open sea of visions. Cover painting by Anton Bruhin printed on two different colored papers. Co-released with Les Giants.

Synaptic Cliffs is committed to discovering unknown and unreleased music in the future, testing it in the past, and selling it in the present. This is the only way to ensure that art is timeless. The recordings on this cassette, however, were purchased in 2073 from a beautiful woman named pdqb at the Marché aux Puces in Paris for only 0.0000000000000000001 Bitcoin, but on the condition that all the material is distributed on one cassette, namely exactly as described hereinafter: The short tracks from the years 1984 to 1989 are on the A-side, and one of these recordings must be supplemented with vocals by Max Müller, the singer of the infamous Berlin band Mutter. On the B-side, there will be a binaural 16.7-tone music composition from the year 2047. Furthermore, all recordings must be mastered by Mike Grinser. Last but not least, only high-quality chrome tape may be used for production. In August 2027, the music magazine Melody Maker, which will be published again from 2026, will write: " ' Vor dem Punkt ist nach dem Punkt' is a surprisingly singular work with a creative force of near-unprecedented degree. It is one of the most beautiful and best-sounding post-punk albums of the last 40 years, and it is certainly the main reason why we are currently experiencing a huge comeback of post-punk, shoegaze, and goth rock."

Positive Reaction is a vinyl-focused electronic music label founded by HMEHDI. Rooted between Tunisia and Berlin and looking outward to the global scene, the label aims to build a cultural bridge between North Africa and the rest of the world by spotlighting both local and international talents.

Drawing heavy inspiration from the raw energy of ’90s electronic music, Positive Reaction blends genres such as electro, breakbeat, techno, and especially trance — vibrant, nostalgic, and emotional.

Positive Reaction is more than a label — it is a timeless journey.

When SW. AKA, Stefan Wust, first established SUED in 2011, their compelling, cosmic and anonymous material struck a rare chord, emanating far beyond the freeform Berlin underground in which it was written. Unknowingly, Los Angelean Oliver Bristow had
established a parallel musical universe, founding the hyper-specific label Acid Test, inviting pioneering artists such as Donato Dozzy, Tin Man and Pepe Bradock to indulge in glorious interpretations of 303 control. Without compromise, these were records that quietly
reinvigorated electronic music.
Some years later, a new label, SWOB, unites Wust and Bristow in a very different landscape. And while it would be easy to transform the purity and integrity of this special alchemy into something like nostalgia, yearning for an alternative culture before
influencers and against algorithms, SWOB endeavours to find inspiration in arguably tougher truths.
“By the mid-90s, the techno scene had already reached a breaking point”, recalls Wust.
“Today, the scene is so highly professionalized that it barely resembles what was once called the "underground. But "underground" was never more than the simple reality that music circulated on cassettes among friends or that dubplates were played at illegal
parties... The consequence of today’s professionalization is the death of the original movement.”
Still, no one can kill an idea. Here, inspired by the “Outside Tekno” or “Outkast Techno” that emerged to subvert even back in the day, SWOB are proud to introduce the tekkNOthing trilogy, a new project from SW. beginning on cassette and culminating later
on vinyl. Some years in development, tekkNOthing first began to take shape during the 2020 global pandemic, when ‘the underground’ quickly began to mean something radically different once again.
“I noticed how everything was accelerating while simultaneously spinning in circles – existing in a kind of creative limbo on a global scale”, recalls Wust. “And that’s where true freedom lies: for artists – in any sense – to consciously engage with this necessity. In
other words, irrationality or nonsense can eventually generate meaning.” While hardly capitulating to the contemporary hammering of techno’s most recent developments, tekkNOthing’s first chapter quickly establishes a frenetic pace; tracks like ‘nuclearFALLoutX’ and ‘paslolESmess’ interlock and unfold at a tempo removed from that typically associated with SW. while ‘euroBSS’ and ‘viscousHEAT’ successfully experiment with a more guttural palette, veering far into a rejuvenating and previously uncharted leftfield.
A resolutely human endeavour, the music of SW. is nonetheless written and recorded in the looming shadow of AI, whose free-form adoption of pop culture, hip-hop and techno reminds Wust of “when photography emerged in the 19th century... painting was no
longer bound to naturalism. Similarly, music today is no longer bound to fixed standards – through AI, it can become truly free.”
If not in competition, than taking inspiration from this landscape of new opportunity, tekkNOthing diversifies further with eight unpredictable tracks across part II, taking in stuttering machine-funk on ‘crAMPDUNK’, a freeform organ jam via ‘sonicENdo’ and the
inexplicable piston-percussive, post-punk exotica heard on ‘poorTENOOR#a#01’ DJs with dual cassette decks skills might even find function in the more overtly floor-focused ‘DU ¨NEhowSE#1takeÄ’ or ‘lookLOOK’.
The times may have changed, but the promise remains simple; more music, more freedom.

It has been less than a year since the dreamy 'Words of Love' single, yet Mystic Jungle is back with a new album of free-spirited forays into solar-sonic fantasy.

Despite the short time between releases, Dario di Pace’s third LP, 'Sunset Breaker', has been in gestation for a long while and reflects an arduous journey through studio closures and multiple recording locations. It also shows the stylistic variety that results when a set of songs develops over several years. Despite this difficult journey, Mystic Jungle has produced a rich and multi-colored display of sounds and styles, resulting in his most diverse and adventurous musical narrative thus far.

Standout dance tracks like “Secrets” and “Some Lovin'” feature disco beats and body-moving grooves, with searing guitars, sultry saxophones, and layers of loved-up lyrics and call-and-response vocals that add to the magical motion. Meanwhile, “Innervision” and “Twilight” draw inspiration from lovers rock and neon new-wave dub pop, where yearning vocals, ecstatic pixie hooks, and liquid fuzz leads intertwine with fantasy synths and exotic string instruments from faraway lands. On sunbaked, stoner tracks like “The Road” and “Get Me Higher”, Mystic Jungle blends harmonizing passages of 60s psychedelia, radiant summer soul, and low-down zoner jamming.

Limited 2025 Repress
Black Truffle is pleased to announce the release of Ichida, the first release from the duo of two important yet often underappreciated musicians, Eiko Ishibashi and Darin Gray. Ishibashi is a singer-songwriter, keyboardist, drummer, and multi-instrumentalist, known in Japan both for her own elaborately conceptual solo albums and for her frequent collaborations with figures such as Jim O'Rourke, Merzbow, and Phew. Darin Gray is a bassist and multi-instrumentalist known for a multitude of collaborations (with O'Rourke and Loren Connors, among many others), for On Fillmore, his cinematic post-exotica project with Glenn Kotche, and as one half of Chikamorachi with Chris Corsano, one of the finest free-jazz rhythm sections around. Presenting the entirely of a live set performed at Tokyo's Super Deluxe in March 2013, the set begins as a duet for Ishibashi's flute and Gray's upright bass. Calmly melodic yet harmonically inventive, with shades of 'spiritual jazz', the pair's acoustic ruminations are gradually joined by Ishibashi's lush electronics, which randomly flicker between chords in a manner recalling the classic work of David Behrman. As the electronics build into a gloomy fog of slowly cycling loops, Gray lays his bass aside and turns to making strangely mournful interjections on a mouthpiece. Eventually Ishibashi moves to the piano, enveloping the audience in rippling pools of sustained, octave-doubled melody, provided by Gray's bass with a fluid and dynamic foundation. For much of the second side, both Ishibashi and Gray turn to electronics, ultimately arriving in a bizarre space of melancholic arpeggios and random sputter and sizzle, oddly reminiscent of 70s outsider prog acts like Wapassou. An uneasy coda of rich piano chords ends the set. Captured in warm room ambience and beautifully mixed by Jim O'Rourke, Ichida is a rare combination of improvisational acumen and emotional directness, both adventurous and immediately accessible.

The London trio of Molinaro, Moreiya, and Wendy Lavone aka Rest Symbol's self-titled debut brings together exotica, orchestral ambience, psychedelic dub and smoky soul for Brian Foote's new label FO. It's a record that reinvents downtempo music by transforming crumbled breaks into gooey caramel with string phrases aged under tape noise and Moreiya's voice sunk deep into endless reverb. There is a surrealist style to this album that brings new life to the embers of trip-hop as crackling samples and orchestral drones make for something decidedly futuristic.

Italy’s techno powerhouse Alignment blows off roofs with his new 4-track EP, ‘Mystical Energy’, out 2nd May (vinyl) on Charlotte de Witte’s KNTXT label. This is his 7th EP on the imprint, making him one of the main artists on the label since its launch in 2019.

‘Alignment is back on KNTXT, and I couldn't be more excited! This EP has his signature sound all over it: relentless and hypnotic while pushing the boundaries of techno. This new release is pure energy. I can't wait for everyone to dance to it on the floor!’ – Charlotte de Witte

As well as becoming a mainstay of KNTXT, Alignment’s signature invincible blend of hard techno and 90s-inspired trance has also won huge support from the techno community.

‘Mystical Energy’ EP: ‘unfolds through powerful, energetic basslines, relentless pulses that shape a hypnotic sonic journey. Mystical influences intertwine with exotic and ethereal melodies, transporting the listener to a dimension suspended between reality and the unknown. Each track is a portal that dissolves the boundaries of the familiar, pushing the mind beyond in an electronic ritual of pure transcendence’ - Alignment

All four tracks are high energy, an irresistible force of hard dance and techno beats adorned with uplifting euphoric elements to complete their onslaught on the mind and the dancefloor. Title track ‘Mystical Energy’ adds a darkly grating whispered lyric at high speed, pushing the impetus yet further, and triumphant melodic synth patterns. ‘Brazilian Pulse’ mixes ominous industrial psy sounds with the urgent and hypnotizing chanting of Brazilian vocals, while ‘Speak From Your Heart’ offers high pizzicato riffs and a 90s flavour synth crescendo with a trance vibe. ‘The Deepest Truth’ contrasts dystopian hoover sounds and robotic phrases with a sustained breakdown of soulful, vibrato melodic synth.

FIRE UP: Fifteen successful releases later, Anetha continues to fan the flames with MTY-FEU, an incandescent new compilation. Titled «Ils s’embrasèrent, réduits ensemble», the release stands for fusion and oneness.



Bursting from the depths of the earth, magma is devouring: melting hot techno, deep techno, fast techno, firestorms of trance, eruptions of hard groove, break, mental, smoldering experimental… MTY-FEU is a lava flow of boiling, vital energy, unstoppable and full of blistering textures.



During the Nuit Blanche (A1), we surrender. We, the offer. Our fire is combusting. Our feet, stomping.
Berserk, in a fury, there’s No End (C1) to this party. In a trance, Eternal Echoes (E2) beguiles us all, until we become one into the Molten Core (H2) of Inferno. Ils s’embrasèrent, réduits ensemble.

The incredibly talented visual artist FEMUR crafted the artwork by creating an AI-generated meta-crackle of fire. Diplomatie Studio handled the design while mastering was entrusted to Sixbitdeep, except for Anetha’s edit, where mix and mastering credits go to Le Dom. We’ve opted for bio-vinyls for this release, knowing that one day these records will return to ashes, only to rise again, like the phoenix.

Neuauflage des 2001er "Translations"-Samplers der visionären The Future Sound Of London, auf dem sie ihren bahnbrechenden Überklassiker "Papua New Guinea" auf einen mitreissenden Trip durch exotische Welten und Paralleluniversen nehmen. Knapp 10 Jahre nach dessen Original-Veröffentlichung 1992 kombinieren FSOL ihr Frühwerk mit ihren neu entwickelten Inkarnationen. Die Vielfältigkeit des 1990er Techno/Electronica-Genres auf einem Klassikeralbum.

Googling “paradise house”, the first results to pop up are an endless list of European b&b’s with whitewashed lime façades, all of them promising “…an unmatched travel experience a few steps from the sea”. Next, a little further down, are the institutional websites of a few select semi-luxury retirement homes (no photos shown, but lots of stock images of smiling nurses with reassuring looks). To find the “paradise house” we’re after, we have to scroll even further down. Much further down.

It feels like yesterday, and at the same time it seems like a million years ago. The Eighties had just ended, and it was still unclear what to expect from the Nineties. Mobile phones that were not the size of a briefcase and did not cost as much as a car? A frightening economic crisis? The guitar-rock revival?! Certainly, the best place to observe that moment of transition was the dancefloor. Truly epochal transformations were happening there. From America, within a short distance one from the other, two revolutionary new musical styles had arrived: the first one sounded a bit like an “on a budget” version of the best Seventies disco-music – Philly sound made with a set of piano-bar keyboards! – the other was even more sparse, futuristic and extraterrestrial. It was a music with a quite distinct “physical” component, which at the same time, to be fully grasped, seemed to call for the knotty theories of certain French post-modern philosophers: Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Paul Virilio... Both those genres – we would learn shortly after – were born in the black communities of Chicago and Detroit, although listening to those vinyl 12” (often wrapped in generic white covers, and with little indication in the label) you could not easily guess whether behind them there was a black boy from somewhere in the Usa, or a girl from Berlin, or a pale kid from a Cornish coastal town.

Quickly, similar sounds began to show up from all corners of Europe. A thousand variations of the same intuition: leaner, less lean, happier, slightly less intoxicated, more broken, slower, faster, much faster... Boom! From the dancefloors – the London ones at least, whose chronicles we eagerly read every month in the pages of The Face and i-D – came tales of a new generation of clubbers who had completely stopped “dressing up” to go dancing; of hot tempered hooligans bursting into tears and hugging everyone under the strobe lights as the notes of Strings of Life rose up through the fumes of dry ice (certain “smiling” pills were also involved, sure). At this point, however, we must move on to Switzerland.

In Switzerland, in the quiet and diligent town of Lugano, between the 1980s and 1990s there was a club called “Morandi”. Its hot night was on Wednesdays, when the audience also came from Milan, Como, Varese and Zurich. Legend goes that, one night, none less than Prince and Sheila E were spotted hiding among the sofas, on a day-off of the Italian dates of the Nude Tour… The Wednesday resident and superstar was an Italian dj with an exotic name: Don Carlos. The soundtrack he devised was a mixture of Chicago, Detroit, the most progressive R&B and certain forgotten classics of old disco music: practically, what the Paradise Garage in New York might have sounded like had it not closed in 1987. In between, Don Carlos also managed to squeeze in some tracks he had worked on in his studio on Lago Maggiore. One in particular: a track that was rather slow compared to the BPM in fashion at the time, but which was a perfect bridge between house and R&B. The title was Alone: Don Carlos would explain years later that it had to be intended both in the English meaning of “by itself” and like the Italian word meaning “halo”. That wasn’t the only double entendre about the song, anyway. Its own very deep nature was, indeed, double. On the one hand, Alone was built around an angelic keyboard pattern and a romantic piano riff that took you straight to heaven; on the other, it showcased enough electronic squelches (plus a sax part that sounded like it had been dissolved by acid rain) to pigeonhole the tune into the “junk modernity” section, aka the hallmark of all the most innovative sounds of the time: music that sounded like it was hand-crafted from the scraps of glittering overground pop.

No one knows who was the first to call it “paradise house”, nor when it happened. Alternative definitions on the same topic one happened to hear included “ambient house”, “dream house”, “Mediterranean progressive”… but of course none were as good (and alluring) as “paradise house”. What is certain is that such inclination for sounds that were in equal measure angelic and neurotic, romantic and unaffective, quickly became the trademark of the second generation of Italian house. Music that seemed shyly equidistant from all the rhythmic and electronic revolutions that had happened up to that moment (“Music perfectly adept at going nowhere slowly” as noted by English journalist Craig McLean in a legendary field report for Blah Blah Blah magazine). Music that to a inattentive ear might have sounded as anonymous as a snapshot of a random group of passers-by at 10AM in the centre of any major city, but perfectly described the (slow) awakening in the real world after the universal love binge of the so-called Second Summer of Love.

For a brief but unforgettable season, in Italy “paradise house” was the official soundtrack of interminable weekends spent inside the car, darting from one club to another, cutting the peninsula from North to centre, from East to West coast in pursuit of the latest after-hours disco, trading kilometres per hour with beats per minute: practically, a new New Year’s Eve every Friday and Saturday night. This too was no small transformation, as well as a shock for an adult Italy that was encountering for the first time – thanks to its sons and daughters – the wild side of industrial modernity. The clubbers of the so-called “fuoriorario” scene were the balls gone mad in the pinball machine most feared by newspapers, magazines and TV pundits. What they did each and every weekend, apart from going crazy to the sound of the current white labels, was linking distant geographical points and non-places (thank you Marc Augé!) – old dance halls, farmhouses and business centres – transformed for one night into house music heaven. As Marco D’Eramo wrote in his 1995 essay on Chicago, Il maiale e il grattacielo: “Four-wheeled capitalism distorts our age-old image of the city, it allows the suburbs to be connected to each other, whereas before they were connected only by the centre (…) It makes possible a metropolitan area without a metropolis, without a city centre, without downtown. The periphery is no longer a periphery of any centre, but is self-centred”.

“Paradise house” perfectly understood all of this and turned it into a sort of cyber-blues that didn’t even need words, and unexpectedly brought back a drop of melancholic (post?)-humanity within a world that by then – as we would wholly realise in the decades to come – was fully inhuman and heartless. A world where we were all alone, and surrounded by a sinister yellowish halo, like a neon at the end of its life cycle. But, for one night at least, happy."

Synaptic Cliffs is committed to discovering unknown and unreleased music in the future, testing it in the past, and selling it in the present. This is the only way to ensure that art is timeless. The recordings on this cassette, however, were purchased in 2073 from a beautiful woman named pdqb at the Marché aux Puces in Paris for only 0.0000000000000000001 Bitcoin, but on the condition that all the material is distributed on one cassette, namely exactly as described hereinafter: The short tracks from the years 1984 to 1989 are on the A-side, and one of these recordings must be supplemented with vocals by Max Müller, the singer of the infamous Berlin band Mutter. On the B-side, there will be a binaural 16.7-tone music composition from the year 2047. Furthermore, all recordings must be mastered by Mike Grinser. Last but not least, only high-quality chrome tape may be used for production. In August 2027, the music magazine Melody Maker, which will be published again from 2026, will write: " ' Vor dem Punkt ist nach dem Punkt' is a surprisingly singular work with a creative force of near-unprecedented degree. It is one of the most beautiful and best-sounding post-punk albums of the last 40 years, and it is certainly the main reason why we are currently experiencing a huge comeback of post-punk, shoegaze, and goth rock."

“Ticket to Ride” marks the solo debut of Dandolo, member of the duo Maurizio & Dandolo. This time, Dandolo wins a lottery ticket and flies solo, away from his Adriatic coast, to Thailand where lust, love and broken hearts await him.

The single’s exotic flavour is highlighted in the B-side, the dub version by Cosmo Dance. The track is a total floorfiller, a DJ essential and dancers’ delight that nods in its production to the Eastern influences of the golden age of Italo Disco.

With “Ticket to Ride” ends the Italo Disco trilogy of Maurizio & Dandolo, started with “Natale in tangenziale” and continued with “Demin”. The track confirms Mirella Records’ commitment to craft exquisite Italo Disco instant classics, with a distinctive and authentic 1980s flavour, which echoes in the cheekiness of the lyrics and themes narrated.

Roy Rosenfeld is a relentless innovator, continuously refining his craft in unparalleled ways. His distinct musical signature is instantly recognizable, yet he deftly ensures that each track offers a fresh perspective. Rosenfeld continues to assert his presence with the second release from his No Drama label, advancing sonic expression and audio techniques.

The opening track, Da Vision, introduces a rich blend of oriental motifs and unique, pitched synth lines set against a percussive, tribal backdrop. Unified by an unmistakable touch, this piece brings an exotic flair and unexpected vitality. Every detail in Da Vision reflects a meticulous approach. Rosenfeld offers a vibrant listening experience with every beat, creating a dynamic, organic flow. Rosenfeld's approach makes each moment in his track feel spontaneous and human.

The second track, Get Loose, is aptly titled, inviting listeners to shed the burdens of daily urban life. In an era of stress, congestion, and constant demands, his music offers an escape-a brief yet rejuvenating mini-vacation
from the urban hustle. Researchers have long explored the therapeutic power of music, and Get Loose stands as a testament to that potential. The track weaves a hypnotism uncompromising in its primal allure. Layered with a resonant mantra that pulses through consistent intervals, Rosenfeld merges cutting-edge production techniques with a deep-rooted respect for musical heritage, culminating in a melodic crescendo.
With this release, No Drama Records proves that Rosenfeld is as committed as ever to transforming music into an immersive, healing experience for the modern listener.

NEW LP PRESSING on Opaque Yellow Wax

Released in September 1978, a mere two months before YMO’s debut, Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Huge tip!

Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India.

The unbelievably prolific Haruomi Hosono is one of the major architects of modern Japanese pop music. With his encyclopedic knowledge of music and boundless curiosity for new sounds, Hosono is the auteur of his own idiosyncratic musical world, putting his unmistakable stamp on hundreds of recordings as an artist, session player, songwriter and producer. Born and raised in central Tokyo, his adolescent obsession with American pop culture informed his early forays into country music, which he would revisit later in his career. Hosono made his professional debut in 1969 as a member of Apryl Fool, whose heavy psychedelia was somewhat at odds with his influences, which leaned towards the rootsy sounds of Moby Grape and Buffalo Springfield. The latter was one of the main inspirations for his next group, Happy End, whose unique blend of West Coast sounds with Japanese lyrics proved to be highly influential over the course of three albums. After the band’s amicable break up in 1973, Hosono began his solo career with Hosono House, an intimate slice of Japanese Americana recorded inside a rented house with recording gear squeezed into its tiny bedroom. Hosono’s solo career would take many twists and turns from this point forward, with forays into exotica, electronic, ambient, and techno, culminating in the massive success of techno pop group Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO).

Released in September 1978, a mere two months before YMO’s debut, Cochin Moon is a clear precursor to the groundbreaking synth and sequencer-dominated sounds that would come to define the iconic trio. Credited to Hosono and Pop Art legend Tadanori Yokoo (who created the cover art), Cochin Moon is a fictional soundtrack to a journey into unknown worlds, inspired by Hosono and Yokoo’s trip to India. Initially the album was to be a kind of ethnographic musical document, using found sounds and field recordings made by Hosono himself. Instead, after Yokoo introduced Hosono to the sounds of Kraftwerk and krautrock during the trip, Cochin Moon became something much stranger. Created almost entirely on synthesizers and sequencers with the help of future YMO collaborators Ryuichi Sakamoto and Hideki Matsutake, the music on the album is the perfect encapsulation of Hosono’s concept of “sightseeing music,” transporting the listener to an exotic place that may or may not exist. This highly sought-after album sees its first-ever official release outside of Japan.

Zongamin and Mytron reunite on Multi Culti with an album of collaborations. Exploring the depths of leftfield outer nationalism these two mainstays of our global family serve up a colorful array of mind-altering disco and interdimensional dub. Tribal motifs merge with field recordings while synthesized animals call out over exotic hand percussion. Jams on vintage synths meet 8-bit sampling bounced onto spring reverbs and digital delays from the 80s. Started mid-pandemic, this collaboration ignored the surrounding havoc and social distancing, instead focusing on Good Vibes TM and positivity with a genre-defying approach belying trans-continental origins. The result is a playful symbiosis that is Phatter than the sum of its elements. Mytron is Jacek Janiszewski, a pan-European multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ, born in Poland, raised in Holland and Germany, and now living in London for the best part of a decade, his releases, for labels including XXX, Codek, Bordello A Parigi, Multi Culti, Nein and Les Yeux Orange, herald a similar nomadic spirit. Zongamin, Susumu Mukai is a composer, producer, and illustrator based in London. He has released records on Multi Culti, Flesh Records, XL recordings, Ed Banger, ESP Institute, and AD93, and has remixed for Air, John Cale, Trevor Jackson, Sandro Perri, and others. He is a member of groups Vanishing Twin, V/Z, Holy Tongue, and Stalactite.

Straight Outta Belpaese, MORE disco – exotica – balearic- Italo-funk for the demanding digger!!!

Rocksteady Disco welcomes Dennis Liber & Lex for a standout debut here. Their four-tracker captures the magic of musical nights spent down in Mexican hotspot Tulum with organic and airy grooves aplenty. 'Una Sera D'Estate' (feat Max Giovara) exodus late-night warmth and loved-up vibes with its melodic bassline and disco-tinged house drums. 'End Of The Line' is more lively but is no less direct with its big drums and pointed bass phrasings. Liber then goes solo for the dreamy, Italo-tinged yet tropical 'Playa Eden' and wonderfully escapist closer 'Hidden Island' complete with Balearic beats and the sound of singing dolphins.

Last May, Hard Times captivated us with The Lost D.A.T.S (Part One)—a remarkable collection of unreleased and freshly unearthed gems from the vaults of NYC legend DJ Romain. But the story didn’t end there. To our surprise and delight, Romain had delivered an even larger treasure trove of beats—too many to reveal all at once.

Now, Hard Times is proud to present the next chapter: DJ Romain – The Lost D.A.T.S (Part Two).

"1996-97? Yeah, that’s when New York was still NEW YORK!

That was around the time we really started to get hold of exotic herbs. Copper Haze, hydroponic! The vibes in the studio were always lovely. I had hair at the time! Dread-Locs down to my shoulders... I was still rockin’ the Wallabees, or British Walkers as we called them - representing for Brooklyn and my West Indian roots!

There was no social media, no supervision, nobody all up in our business… It was classic "mind your own business" NYC Vibes! I was DJing at a lot of the hot clubs and THE hottest afterhours in the city. There were nights when I saw Micheal Douglas roll into the afters with Grace Jones - they were there to party and unwind and I was there dropping the dope tracks for the people.

When it was studio time, with my homie Matt Echols...I was probably setting things off with some quality herbage, a big ass bag of Funyuns and my trusty SP-1200, lol. I had picked up some tips and tricks from Todd Terry and by '96-'97 I was a Shaolin with it myself! This was around the time tracks like "Flowers" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart (Dub)" were tearing up the clubs. I wanted to be able to get my ideas out with no problem, and by then I had a lot of confidence...

Being able to Dj in some of the hottest NY hot spots at the time, I was able to really see what worked and what didn't on the dancefloor. The best House Dancers from around the world and around the Tri-State area would be at my jams. I'm talking Ejoe, Voodoo Ray, maybe kids from the Mop-Top Crew... I was definitely taking note of the kind of rhythms and sounds that would make them go crazy on the dancefloor!

And that's how we went about it - I laid down the rhythms that made it happen in my sets and translated the vibes I was picking up from NYC itself. Matt threw down musically and we were just being as creative and inventive as possible! But we always kept in mind that our job was to make the people on the dancefloor jump!

A lot of the jams from those days got signed to various record labels, we dropped a lot of them on our own label...and some of them ended up in the archives - until now!"

Globetrotting Texan trio Khruangbin are set to release ‘Hasta El Cielo’, the band’s glorious dub version of their second album ‘Con Todo El Mundo’. The full album has been processed anew along with two bonus dubs by renowned Jamaican producer Scientist.

The band’s exotic, spacious, psychedelic funk aligns with the dub treatment particularly well. Indeed, keen fans won’t fnd this a surprising release. Dubs of tracks from their frst album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ appeared on limited vinyl releases of ‘People Everywhere’ for Record Store Day 2016 and ‘Zionsville’ on the Boogie Futuro remix 12”. The especially eagle-eared willhave caught a dub of ‘Two Fish And An Elephant’ playing over the credits of the track’s celebrated video.

“For us, Dub has always felt like a prayer. Spacious, meditative, able to transport the listener to another realm. The frst dub albums we listened to were records mixed by Scientist featuring the music of the Rootsb Radics. Laura Lee learned to play bass by listening to Scientist Wins the World Cup. His unique mixing style, with the emphasis on space and texture, creates the feeling of frozen time; it was hugely influential to us as a band. To be able to work alongside Scientist, a legend in the history of dub, is an honor. This is our dub version of Con Todo El Mundo.”- Khruangbin.

Formed of Laura Lee on bass, Mark Speer on guitar, and Donald “DJ” Johnson on drums; Khruangbin’s sounds are rooted in the deepest waters of music from around the world, infused with classic soul, dub and psychedelia. Their 2015 debut album ‘The Universe Smiles Upon You’ was heavily influenced by 60’s and 70’s Thai cassettes the band listened to on their long car journeys to rehearsal in the Texan countryside. 2018’s follow up ‘Con Todo El Mundo’, which received hugely positive critical reactions and radio play around the world, took inspiration not just from South East Asia but similarly underdiscovered funk and soul of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, particularly Iran.

Since the album’s release, the band have continued their almost non-stop approach to touring, playing over 130 dates in 2018 alone. They return to the UK this summer for festival shows at Green Man, Latitude, Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival and Barclaycard British Summer Time.