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There is a pivotal scene in “August in the Water” (dir. Sōgo Ishii, 1995) where the surface of a pool turns into a stone wall. The water that gave the protagonist's life its meaning becomes a threat. As you fall through this stone wall, you appear in a set of underwater coral-reef corridors, and one of the most beautiful musical themes begins to play: Aquatic Ambience, composed by David Wise for Donkey Kong Country (1994). It's a theme that represents the weightless vibe of your new deep-sea life, where you go about your mundane errands, collecting bananas while driving on a swordfish, or, as HerzMayhem put it: "Poor monkey... always swimming, never going anywhere..."

Synthetic Water Music is the second of three compilations, following Synthetic Bird Music and timed to mappa's 10th anniversary. As with the birds, it gathers friends of the label, artists who have released with mappa or played our shows. Most of the music is new, made to measure for this compilation, much of it from Central and Eastern European hands. Birds and water mix well, so please feel invited to play them together, creating your own environments.

Where the birds were in one flock, water is dispersed across four chapters. You live your life as a droppity drop: vapour in the heavens, condensing in clouds, falling into a swamp, trickling into the deepest sea.

Tlālōcān (Cassette 1, Side A)
A place of eternal spring, of aquatic energy that nourishes everything and allows all things to bloom. Bubbly and splishy-sploshy, it is full of dripping sounds and moist caverns (“Emerald Pool” by Pauline Anna Strom), a landscape filled with living fountains (“Oh, to be a Fountain” by Eva Sajanová) and winding streams that flow through the area, forming part of its organic architecture. It is also a paradise reserved for those whose deaths were water-related, where the aquatic and terrestrial beings live in symbiosis and perspectives shift rapidly, from observing a single droplet (Shakali, Lau Nau) to dew (Feronia Wennborg & Lucy Duncombe) and on to flowing currents (Visible Cloaks) that gradually transform into river music (Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton).

Nephelora (Cassette 1, Side B)
A celestial anti-gravity sound world made of evaporation, steam and the formation of clouds, as if looking at “The Sky At The Bottom of the Well” (by Natalia Beylis) or at “The Cloud That Never Rains” (by Henrique Vaz).

If a cloud never rains,
it is not a cloud at all, but a veil that parches the earth with its gaze.
It generates only its own shadow —
a looming mass of suspended longing,
a sky that hoards but never yields,
a reservoir that swallows every river and returns nothing but echoes.

The water in this world is often invisible but sometimes all the more present, as Bint Mbareh describes it: “Recently been obsessed with invisible waters because I come from a place where you have to imagine the water is there even though you cannot see a river, a sea, usually no rain, so water is in the air, the voice and the imaginal realm, drought is imagined to be negotiable.”

Žaboglach Zha-bo-glahch (Cassette 2, Side A)
A fusion of Scottish lochs and Slovak ponds: a misty, foul-smelling, swampy realm, the kind of place that swallowed Artax from The NeverEnding Story. Stagnant waters full of decay become a blooming habitat for sirens (“thereby losing the weightless delight of being swept along with it” by Adam Badí Donoval) and beings straddling the line between fauna and flora, inventing their own communication systems (“Water-lily phase” by Action Pyramid).

R'lyeh (Cassette 2, Side B)
A brooding sunken city at the bottom of the ocean. It’s a journey to get there. Let this chapter guide you, from the shore down to the depths, to the gates of an unexplored world that is inherently dark, unfathomable, and beyond the limits of human perception: starting with seasickness ("Seasick" by Nikolaienko), passing through a classic Poe-esque maelstrom ("Flurry at the Whirl-pull" by Atte Elias Kantonen), a gateway into the darkness and emptiness of the ocean floor, and finally traversing the city itself (“last waves of 2025” by Jules Reidy).
But what is pulling you to a place like this that only a few explore and even fewer leave? Maybe “the darkness that water can contain, the expanse of things we don't know and that can trigger fear instincts even as we try to rationalise them and think we are in control of the rest of nature” (“supercritical fluids” by Diane Barbé).

Dive in and surface wherever you like. Always swimming, never going anywhere. Just don’t forget to take water breaks.

P.S. Birds, then water, can you guess what comes next? Synthetic Soil Music, an elegy for insects and worms? Synthetic Glaciers, or maybe Pollinators? Which sounds would you miss the most if they disappeared? Or what if the third one never comes at all, and somebody, or something, makes Synthetic mappa Music instead. Don't you worry, with the right training data, it can all be replicated, better than the real thing.

Wer wissen möchte, weshalb Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973) bis heute als die “Godmother of Rock and
Roll” und “Original Soul Sister” gefeiert wird, muss nur ihr bahnbrechendes Album “Gospel Train” aus dem
Jahr 1956 hören. Wie keine andere verstand sie es, die Intensität des Gospel mit bluesigen Phrasierungen
und rhythmischem Drive zu verbinden. Dadurch schuf sie die musikalischen Grundlagen, die den frühen
Rock ’n’ Roll und die spätere Popmusik prägen sollten. Bei den Aufnahmen für “Gospel Train” ließ sich
die E-Gitarristin mit der kraftvollen Stimme von einer Band mit Jazzmusikern wie dem Bassisten George
Duvivier und dem Schlagzeuger Panama Francis sowie dem Gospel-Vokalquartett The Harmonizing Four
begleiten. Das Repertoire, eine Mischung aus selbst komponierten Spirituals und Gospel-Standards, wird
von Sister Rosetta Tharpe mit der für sie typischen Leidenschaft und rhythmischen Vitalität vorgetragen.

DJ Support: Kerri Chandler, Chris Stussy, Archie Hamilton, Fabe, Groovesh, Vlad Caia, Andrey P Ush Krav, Thor, Masimillano Pagliara, Dubtil, Reboot, East End Dubs, IULY.B, Josh Wink

Now repressed on Limited Edition green vinyl.

Kerri Chandler’s Kaoz Theory welcomes Amsterdam’s Chris Stussy onto its roster with the ‘A Glimmer Of Hope’ EP.

Amsterdam based producer and DJ Chris Stussy has become one of the most eminent figures in the contemporary house scene of the Netherlands and across the globe over the past five years, racking up releases on the likes of Eastenderz, Moscow, PIV, Contstant Sound and most recently his own Up The Stuss imprint. Here though he delivers his new four-tracker for Kaoz Theory.

Leading the release is ‘Central Frenzy’, laid out across six and a half minutes with skippy percussion, a snaking bass groove, intricate synth sequences and sweeping vocal chants. ‘Riva De Biasio’ follows and tips the focus over to airy atmospherics a jazz-tinged bass groove and squelchy acid licks atop swinging drums.

‘Deviant Shadow’ opens the flip-side and merges an amalgamation of expansive dub chords and bouncy sub bass tones with a robust 4/4 rhythm. Lastly to round things out is title-cut ‘A Glimmer Of Hope’, wrapping up the release on a deeper tip courtesy of ethereal pad swells, metallic synth licks and shuffled drums.

Faith and Fate, Destiny and Devotion, Dark Nights and Dazed Illuminations. Josephine raises a stained-glass lamp and shepherds us spelunking the depths of spirit in this four-part double album. Following the fame of her voice are choruses of winged entities (and a space shuttle) that ascend and descend a maze of spirituals: ritual prayers, blues laments, vestal hymns and jubilant benedictions. The edges of the natural world are revolving backdrops from which our narrator perches upon symbolic precipice or saunters desolate snow-blanched forest, exploring eternal themes of mortality and morality, beneath the moon and in occasional dialogue with a mysterious lord of love, an ambiguous mystical figure. Accompanying herself on guitar, piano, organ, harp & autoharp, this cycle of 18 new songs hearken back to various facets of Foster's anachronic oeuvre (the esoteric balladry of This Coming Gladness, native rhythms of Blood Rushing, somnambulist waltzes of I'm a Dreamer, the Shaker primitivism of Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead you). Celestial humor and devastating innocence are delivered with contributions from Victor Herrero (lead guitars), Gyða Valtýsdóttir (cello), Chris Scruggs (pedal steel), Jon Estes (bass), as well as cameos by members of The Cherry Blossoms and others. Recorded, engineered and mixed by Andrija Tokic at his Nashville Bomb Shelter Studio, mastered by John Baldwin, and produced by Josephine herself.

Faith and Fate, Destiny and Devotion, Dark Nights and Dazed Illuminations. Josephine raises a stained-glass lamp and shepherds us spelunking the depths of spirit in this four-part double album. Following the fame of her voice are choruses of winged entities (and a space shuttle) that ascend and descend a maze of spirituals: ritual prayers, blues laments, vestal hymns and jubilant benedictions. The edges of the natural world are revolving backdrops from which our narrator perches upon symbolic precipice or saunters desolate snow-blanched forest, exploring eternal themes of mortality and morality, beneath the moon and in occasional dialogue with a mysterious lord of love, an ambiguous mystical figure. Accompanying herself on guitar, piano, organ, harp & autoharp, this cycle of 18 new songs hearken back to various facets of Foster's anachronic oeuvre (the esoteric balladry of This Coming Gladness, native rhythms of Blood Rushing, somnambulist waltzes of I'm a Dreamer, the Shaker primitivism of Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead you). Celestial humor and devastating innocence are delivered with contributions from Victor Herrero (lead guitars), Gyða Valtýsdóttir (cello), Chris Scruggs (pedal steel), Jon Estes (bass), as well as cameos by members of The Cherry Blossoms and others. Recorded, engineered and mixed by Andrija Tokic at his Nashville Bomb Shelter Studio, mastered by John Baldwin, and produced by Josephine herself.

Brighton’s Moon Attendant team up with Go! Team's leader and drummer Ian Parton for new LP ‘Dum Evol’. Following their debut ‘One Last Summer’ with this incendiary, heart-pounding, drum-led masterwork full of untutored surf-guitar, Scarlet Rivera style fiddle, psychedelic orchestration and sharp-playful lyrics, all within just over 30 thrilling minutes.Since their debut, Paul Blewett and Nick Holton had been knee-deep in experimental music and needed something or someone to smash the shit out of the new songs. Instead of making heavier music, the result left lofty but wobbly structures teetering on fractured Giacometti-like frames, exposed, more arresting. Paring back the Musical palette from previous wash of synths and reverb to surf guitars, Moog, and violin, leaving Blewett's vocal (often compared to Colin Bunstone) leaning into an unvarnished, direct sound like Jimmy Campbell. Thematically, Dum Evol turns inward. Where their debut asked questions, this record sits with the answers, exploring love, conflict, and growth as experiences that must be lived first hand - “It’s such dumb evolution, you still have to learn the hard way”. Their lyrics get under the skin and under The Establishment in a wistful worm like way. Nudging at the truths. Smiling but always ready to bare some fangs.The fantastic instinctive violinist, Roger Proctor, joined as fourth member, bringing raw fragile beauty to ‘Look The Other Way’ & ‘Difficult Ifficult’, blending swooping string lines with the monster-surfing-Sonic Youth racket elsewhere. They explain - “We kept to a first take policy generally as it keeps everything just fresh and daisy like.” Dum Evol’s restraint allows the band’s more experimental instincts to land with greater weight. Musically, the record occupies a space somewhere between the slacker-rock nonchalance of Pavement and the gypsy swagger of Dylan - 'Desire' through a lens that is consciously, almost defiantly, English. It’s a sound that channels the 60's pastoral folk tradition alongside the sharp-edge of The Auteurs, an honest version of England, one to be proud of, existing in stark contrast to the hollow jingoistic nationalism of flag-shaggers climbing lamp posts. Jagged, lived-in, and entirely vital, Dum Evol is a record that feels fully realised, yet remains dangerously built to unravel in a hair's breadth.“Psychelelic grungy synth-pop - Moon Attendant marry analogue electronics to a lovely burbling pop sound, like Felt exploring the recesses of krautrock. Trippy, ramshackle and a cult in waiting.” Shindig!

Brighton’s Moon Attendant team up with Go! Team's leader and drummer Ian Parton for new LP ‘Dum Evol’. Following their debut ‘One Last Summer’ with this incendiary, heart-pounding, drum-led masterwork full of untutored surf-guitar, Scarlet Rivera style fiddle, psychedelic orchestration and sharp-playful lyrics, all within just over 30 thrilling minutes.Since their debut, Paul Blewett and Nick Holton had been knee-deep in experimental music and needed something or someone to smash the shit out of the new songs. Instead of making heavier music, the result left lofty but wobbly structures teetering on fractured Giacometti-like frames, exposed, more arresting. Paring back the Musical palette from previous wash of synths and reverb to surf guitars, Moog, and violin, leaving Blewett's vocal (often compared to Colin Bunstone) leaning into an unvarnished, direct sound like Jimmy Campbell. Thematically, Dum Evol turns inward. Where their debut asked questions, this record sits with the answers, exploring love, conflict, and growth as experiences that must be lived first hand - “It’s such dumb evolution, you still have to learn the hard way”. Their lyrics get under the skin and under The Establishment in a wistful worm like way. Nudging at the truths. Smiling but always ready to bare some fangs.The fantastic instinctive violinist, Roger Proctor, joined as fourth member, bringing raw fragile beauty to ‘Look The Other Way’ & ‘Difficult Ifficult’, blending swooping string lines with the monster-surfing-Sonic Youth racket elsewhere. They explain - “We kept to a first take policy generally as it keeps everything just fresh and daisy like.” Dum Evol’s restraint allows the band’s more experimental instincts to land with greater weight. Musically, the record occupies a space somewhere between the slacker-rock nonchalance of Pavement and the gypsy swagger of Dylan - 'Desire' through a lens that is consciously, almost defiantly, English. It’s a sound that channels the 60's pastoral folk tradition alongside the sharp-edge of The Auteurs, an honest version of England, one to be proud of, existing in stark contrast to the hollow jingoistic nationalism of flag-shaggers climbing lamp posts. Jagged, lived-in, and entirely vital, Dum Evol is a record that feels fully realised, yet remains dangerously built to unravel in a hair's breadth.“Psychelelic grungy synth-pop - Moon Attendant marry analogue electronics to a lovely burbling pop sound, like Felt exploring the recesses of krautrock. Trippy, ramshackle and a cult in waiting.” Shindig!

Features Rasco, L da Headtoucha, Edo. G, Esoteric, Pace Won, Young Zee, Danja Mowf, Lonnie B, J-Live, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Lucky Dice, Ripshop and more, plus the first production from Statik Selektah and beats by Soul Searchers, Eddie Bones of Skitzofreniks, Ray Fernandes & Fakts-1.
Along Came the Chosen dropped in 2001 and was the first solo album from Reks, and the first album by a solo artist released on Boston-based Brick Records, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 too. Its release was a defining building block in the long and storied history of Boston independent hip-hop, and this album set the bar for what was expected from MCs and Beatmakers on the Beatown rap scene and beyond.
Brick Records and Reks are proud to celebrate its 25th anniversary with this deluxe double-vinyl pressing. "Along Came the Chosen reaching its 25 year anniversary, being the piece of art that established my hip hop career, is something monumental to celebrate. The fact that individuals still reach out to me to express how they grew with this album means so much to me. There were so many voices in my ear telling me that being a successful artist in this game required bending to popular trends and styles. This album allowed me to establish my own voice and identity, and I am thankful for Soul Searchers (Magoo and Rockwell) for being the foundational sound bed, Shay Boogs for being my first manager, and Brick Records for being the label that believed in me. I am happy to say we have put out some incredible art together. This album boasts the first-ever Statik Selektah beat placement too! We have come a long way. Here’s to 25 more!" REKS.

Trey Songz released Trey Day, the follow-up to his debut album I Gotta Make It, on October 2, 2007, via Atlantic Records. Almost 20 years later, the album is being issued on vinyl for the first time. Hailing from Petersburg, VA, Trey Songz launched his career after graduating from high school, went on to record eight studio albums, sell over 32 million albums worldwide, and began acting in movies and TV shows in 2008. Troy Taylor, along with a team of producers, released four singles from the album, including the Grammy-nominated "Can't Help But Wait." Featuring an intro by Bun B, the album's production was more influenced by Hip-Hop, a departure from his debut, which was more akin to modern-day soul and featured an intro by Aretha Franklin. Get On Down, in partnership with Rhino and Atlantic Records, has issued the album on tinsel-town-colored vinyl, limited to 1,000 copies.

It feels like a lifetime ago that the first Rat Cage demo tape was spat into the Hardcore Punk underground. Maybe that’s because for the past 10 years Bry Suddaby has been relentlessly chucking out a slew of pummelling records, arming many Punks worldwide with a soundtrack to survival in the modern age of death and destruction.
Fourteen bloody releases later, the third RAT CAGE LP comes crashing in as the state of global horror reaches a grave pinnacle. In true RAT CAGE fashion, the drums relentlessly hammer away under rollercoaster riffs, while Bry’s viciously cynical bark spills the trials and tribulations of trying to get by in 2026.
For the uninitiated, RAT CAGE pulls influence from 80’s Northern European Punk like MISSBRUKARNA or APPENDIX, contemporary Swedish sweet spot Hardcore like HERÄTYS or FYFAN, ripping USHC ala POISON IDEA or OUT COLD, while naturally adding a classic British injection of GBH or THE VARUKERS.
As always, there’s the constant apprehension that you never quite know what’s around the next bend, and with ‘Not Asking for Much’ Bry has cast the net even further. There’s moments that get as heavy as BASTARD, as melodic as the UK SUBS, and even a title track that gets as rocking as the PINK FAIRIES. All amounting to a distinctive and characterful sound that’s unmistakably RAT CAGE.
With little to be hopeful about as we all suffocate within the authoritarian nightmare, this LP could once again be your beacon of fire. So, light the match and burn alone at maximum volume.

Bondage-Music proudly welcomes back Markus Homm with his latest vinyl EP, "It's Safe To Say." Continuing his long-standing relationship with the label, Homm once again delivers the warm grooves, crisp rhythms, and unmistakable dancefloor sensibility that have become his trademark.
Across four carefully crafted tracks, Markus Homm combines rolling basslines, soulful vocal touches, and refined house grooves with subtle techno influences. From the infectious swing of "My Alibi" and the driving title track "It's Safe To Say" to the soulful energy of "I Got All This Love For You" and the hypnotic flow of "Rush," the EP is built for both peak-time club moments and extended listening sessions.
As a special treat for vinyl collectors and DJs, two exclusive tracks are available on vinyl only, continuing Bondage-Music's tradition of offering unique content for the format.

Piano Works 2016-2026 collects fourteen impromptu pieces by composer and producer John Carroll Kirby, written whenever he had the opportunity to sit at a piano while on the road. These mostly solo works for piano were recorded in Los Angeles, Rome, Tokyo, Wollongong (Australia), rural New Zealand and London. Piano Works marks a departure from the full-band sound of recent albums Blowout and Septet, which Kirby has spent the past years performing live around the world. The album is a study in piano repertoire: Baroque, Romantic, Impressionist, jazz, minimalist, atonal, and more. Most of the pieces have an impromptu feel - improvised, or meant to sound improvised, or at least written in one sitting. The collected pieces on Piano Works are a document of Kirby's life as a piano player and touring musician, and "serve as the melodic / harmonic lexicon for what would inform all my other compositions of the past ten years." John Carroll Kirby has scored two feature films, and his solo piano song "Walking Through a House Where a Family Has Lived" formed the score for Oscar-nominated short film Retirement Plan.Fans of John Carroll Kirby's cult favourite solo album Conflict will find plenty to love in Piano Works 2016-2026.

Source Code Memory is a deep and hypnotc house journey built around rhythm, memory and reconnecton. With this new EP, Marcus Raute explores the point where body, mind and dancefoor energy meet, shaping four tracks that move between spiritual refecton, raw groove and soulful release.

Opening track “Reconnect” features legendary Detroit visionary Abu Qadim Haqq, whose spoken words bring a symbolic and cosmic dimension to the record. Hypnotc percussion, warm organ textures and jazzy piano lines create a deep house atmosphere where storytelling and rhythm become one.

“Body Code” moves into a more direct dancefoor space, driven by stripped-back drums, rolling grooves and old-school house energy. On the B-side, “Inner Transmission” brings a warmer and more emotonal tone, with rich chords, vocal cuts and live Rhodes and organ improvisatons inspired by the depth of 90s deep house.

Closing the EP, Giomini reworks “Inner Transmission” into a powerful, tmeless house remix, keeping the soulful spirit of the original while pushing it further into club territory.

There is an important difference between "mature" club vibes (leather porkpie hats) and "adult" club vibes (a post-ego-death experience of the world through the eyes of an Eames chair). Extrawelt's Jamborghini EP exemplifies the latter in ways that extend beyond sophisticated wordplay*. Well beyond.

Sophisticated electro-techno hybrids occupy an incredibly dangerous space. One false move and you corner listeners into an unsolicited conversation about "gain staging." The four tracks on the vinyl EP thread the needle in thrilling fashion, and then use that needle to stab at the sweet spot between sentient cell tower admin software vibes and the kind of architecture hot people like.

And with the digital exclusives, we've once again saved you from the depths of "bonus beats" hell by supplying three tracks that are as good as anything that has ever been pressed to vinyl. If your knee-jerk reaction is to doubt this, we would simply point out you haven't even heard them yet, and here you are talking shit. Go push your hateful agenda somewhere else.

Extrawelt are fast becoming a Turbo Recordings staple, and don't think the globalist EDM cabal hasn't taken notice. Jamborghini has already received heavy DJ support from Jumpin' Josh Junior, Monoburglar, Now or Never, Tiga, Never Say Never, Rumpled Glory, Moment of Truth, and the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce.

*Our best guess is that the title is meant to evoke a Lamborghini you can have a musical "jam session" in, and not the striking metallic purple Diablo SE30 driven by Jamiroquai frontman Jay Kay in the 1996 video for "Cosmic Girl."

Self-made producer Farron debuts on Delsin's Inertia series. Growing up in Southern Germany, Farron has a long history with electronic music, releasing under multiple aliases and for many labels. Since 2015 he launched his own Shaw Cuts imprint as his own personal playground for releasing his own music and from his likeminded peers. Over ten years later it became an essential catalogue for DJ's who are into forward-thinking broken and dub heavy techno. His 'Since Eleven' EP emphasizes this typical sound, four tracks of playful, dub driven classy techno.

Rome Disco & Funk lover Les Inferno is still out with his own label's latest release, featuring four gems cutted by him and his friends and partners. Side A features two tracks named by Les. "Can't Stop" is an uptempo disco that revives the golden era of disco funk, a dance floor killer. "Everybody Know" is a fast-paced deep funk that will get you moving at 106 bpm. Side B open with the LTJ Edit, featuring "Just Funk," a killer boogie that will keep you from stopping! This four-header release, M.B. Edit, closes with a re-touch of "All Night," a go-go funk that will hit you in the gut.

Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell is the fourth studio album by the American band Social Distortion. It continues the melding of country and rockabilly influences with punk that began two albums before with the album Prison Bound. Clear influences include Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.

The album also marks the first time that a Social Distortion line-up had not changed in three consecutive studio recordings. The American punk rock band Social Distortion formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California and is fronted by vocalist, guitar player and main songwriter Mike Ness.

This pressing of Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell is available as a limited edition of 3000 individually numbered copies on yellow vinyl. The record is packaged in a deluxe sleeve finished with linen laminate and includes an insert with lyrics.

The acclaimed compilation series returns with volume 4! Fourteen tracks showcasing the most exciting emerging voices in Belgian jazz, ready to claim a permanent spot on your turntable.

The latest instalment in the celebrated compilation series once again shines a spotlight on the most adventurous and forward-thinking artists emerging from Belgium's jazz scene. Curated by Belgian tastemaker, DJ and broadcaster Lefto Early Bird, the collection continues a tradition of uncovering hidden gems and introducing them to a wider audience of dedicated diggers.

Over the years, the Jazz Cats series has become a trusted barometer of Belgium's ever-evolving jazz landscape. Long before many artists gained international recognition, they first appeared on these compilations, making the series both a discovery platform and a snapshot of one of Europe's most exciting musical ecosystems.

Jazz Cats Volume 4 captures a scene bursting with creativity, diversity and ambition. Across fourteen carefully selected tracks, the compilation explores the many directions contemporary Belgian jazz is taking today. Jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, afrobeat, spiritual jazz and experimental sounds coexist effortlessly throughout the collection.

The opening stretch of the compilation, led by Brussels-based Irreversible Entanglements band member Aquiles Navarro, Ola Tunji and HelenaCasella, offers an early glimpse into a scene that rarely stands still. Their music moves freely between traditions and contemporary influences, reflecting less concern with preserving genres than expanding them. Artists such as Lupo Spaccaro and Kunde, joined here by the raw soul voice of Fred Gata, draw inspiration from hip-hop and contemporary beat culture, yet neither approaches these influences in a conventional way. Instead, they reveal how naturally these sounds have become part of the vocabulary of a new generation of jazz musicians.

Experimentation emerges as another defining thread. KVR and BREAD FOR PIGEONS embrace unpredictability through unexpected textures, shifting atmospheres and confident compositional choices, creating music that constantly challenges expectations. Elsewhere, artists like Gaiko and VLIEGWERK favor immersive soundscapes that reward repeated listening. Whether there's a connection between musical adventurousness and a preference for capital letters remains a question for future research.

At the heart of the compilation lies a strong sense of movement and groove. Ragini Trio and Foutloos approach that rhythm from different angles, yet both build their music around powerful, pulsating foundations. Their tracks need close attention, revealing layers of detail and low-end richness that practically demand to be experienced on a proper sound system.

By the time it reaches its closing chapter, Lucid Lucia, SLAGADER and Kuna Maze bring the focus back to forward motion. Jazz and funk-infused grooves provide a fitting finale, reminding us that however far these artists push the jazz genre, they never lose sight of its ability to connect, uplift and move people.

The result is a body of work that feels remarkably cohesive despite its diversity: a portrait of a scene that continues to evolve through curiosity, collaborationand constant reinvention.

While the sterile “professionalism” of some heavy bands can be like a clinical drone strike, Texas-based Judiciary feels personal. Like close combat with a knife. And it’s all in their chemistry. Judiciary is an amalgamation of four guys raised in the intersection of metal and hardcore—all devoted to pushing their craft further. Across two esteemed LPs, the band has proven their worth as a crucial entity in the crowded heavy music scene by evolving their sound further and further with each release. And now with the band’s latest Stalagmite Angels, due on September 4th via the venerable Closed Casket Activities, Judiciary can further showcase their status as a crucial, one-of-a-kind part of the evolution of hardcore in 2026. Life changes can bring about chaos and seismic shifts, but if Stalagmite Angels is any indication, then it’s all for the better. In the wake of the release of Judiciary’s second LP Flesh + Blood, the band called upon Juan Vazquez to pick up guitar duties, thereby changing the internal framework of the band for good, and unknowingly for the better. It’s this pivot in personnel that resulted in the band’s latest EP. “The goal with this EP was a hard reset, but we also wanted to chill the f— out a bit, have fun, and do something that felt true to the four of us,” recalls drummer Austin Looney. “We wanted time to reconfigure things and let the music come naturally–temper this new mindset that we've adopted post-Flesh + Blood.” Judiciary’s greatest strength lies in their musical singularity. Though Stalagmite Angels represents the collision of influences from across well-worn territories like metallic hardcore, death metal, black metal, d-beat and more, it’s the Lubbock-born band’s approach that makes it distinctly their own. Stalagmite Angels is a wholly new document that resembles a horde of bands ranging from Hatebreed to Carcass to Slayer to Iron Age, yet never aping any single band nor even revealing any single influence. It’s all familiar but none of it is specific. “90s hardcore and hardcore in general is always gonna be our natural inclination, but it manifests with different elements not only from song to song but within each song,” says vocalist Jake Collinson emphatically, who learned guitar specifically to help with writing new material. “Whether that’s Dying Breed or Cannibal Corpse or Crowbar or Machine Head or any number of other influences that any one of us may have, it all manifests in our work, and through our individual and collective lenses. With this EP, we transformed those ideas into the Judiciary approach.” Stalagmite Angels is an EP about anger at the world, belief in yourself, and how harnessing both in the pursuit of growth is necessary to achieve. But furthermore, it’s a concept record that envisions a subterranean world in both a literal and metaphorical sense—where hidden beauty lurks in the shadows (and in the eye of the beholder) and where triumph manifests in the ability to rise from the depths and into the world above.

This is a concept record that reflects on events that have had a calculable effect on a generation:
‘’By 83 and 84, it felt that nuclear war was going to happen. Not could happen but was going to.’’
Stephen Brotherstone
"What would you do in the event of a Nuclear war?"
I remember having discussions about what we would do when we heard the four minute warning siren. We would raid the sweet shop. I was 8 or 9 years old. The absurdity of this vivid memory encapsulates the concept of the record. It would take at least four minutes to get to the shop!
The record starts with an early memory of circling a church on a Raleigh Budgie (the smaller lesser known iconic Chopper bicycle) in 1981 and ends with staring up at a clear sky on Oldham Lows in 1990.
The record identifies and plays with the effects of an underlying fear of oblivion on a generation of children, but also society as a whole: The pieces take in media and government propaganda. Machinery (nuclear submarines) and buildings (nuclear bunkers) but also everyday activities of the civilian population, activities such as shopping, clubbing and staring at the sky. Thematically, the record is made up of personal memories mixed with historical events.
Instruments are mainly from 1980s. DX7 and 808 feature predominantly. The pieces feature numerous melodic motifs that develop and intertwine underlying ideas of espionage and layers of secret messaging. It also mirrors the ways in which governments and civilians interact. Decisions being made in the name of defence whilst people go about their daily lives. I am exploring the everyday experiences of the masses whilst major political decisions are taking place. For example, shopping on a Saturday afternoon versus heated Cold War tensions in 1983.
Although taking place conceptually in the years 1979-1991, this record mirrors current events. History repeating. It also mirrors the helplessness or maybe some oblivious everyday normality state that we adopt as a community whilst major political decisions are being made.
The idea that life goes on oblivious to larger scale politics, or on the other hand, the idea that we are all very aware but in a state of unreal normality. Adam Curtis goes into great detail about such things in his film 'Hyper Normalisation'.

Across two song cycles separated by nearly four decades – Richard Wagner’s »Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme« (the »Wesendonck Lieder«) and Johannes Brahms’ late »Vier ernste Gesänge« (»Four Serious Songs«) – Wagner’s songs, written under the spell of his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck and already pointing towards »Tristan und Isolde«, and Brahms’ final composition, which gives the album its name and was shaped by grief, illness, and meditations on biblical texts, circle the same existential questions.

Desire and mortality, ecstasy and resignation appear less as opposites than as mirrored states. The voices of Wesendonck’s poetry seem to answer the solemn reflections of Ecclesiastes and Corinthians, revealing an unexpected dialogue across time.

Without seeking historical authenticity or revisionist spectacle, »Serious Songs« listens for what still resonates beneath these works: the suspended moment where love, loss, and transcendence become indistinguishable. The harp assumes the role of the piano as the foundation, pulse, and emotional compass. The vocal line, liberated from classical convention, inhabits a contemporary expressive space without severing its bond to the original scores. It is Romantic music viewed through the acoustics of the present. The project emerged from a moment of professional disillusionment familiar to many classically trained musicians. This led to a confrontation with some of classical music’s traditional flaws that became an invitation to reimagine it.

Sissi Rada approaches the spinal properties of the Romantic Lieder, fragile enough to transform and resilient enough to survive. Intimate, lucid, and quietly radical.

Shoal corrals three original solo productions into ISOTOOP’s fourth record, each demonstrating refinement of the artist’s sound and technique, finished by a fitting retelling of ‘Interlocking’ by Antony Linell.

It begins with helical hypnotism; ‘Strange Blue Knots’ drives directly forward on muscular bass, but pointillistic synthwork creates an aural illusion of a spiral aperture tightening; the landscape remains broad, but focus is drawn down to the loci of motion. All containment is blown away by the incomparable force of ‘Roxellana’. Here, the forward motion is not illusory but the irrefutable command of hurricane tailwinds. Thunder heralds full-band waves of unbridled sound, and though the rudder is surrendered to the billowing storm, no part of the weapon is directionless chaos.

Shoal’s tale concludes with ‘Interlocking’, a step back from the monstrous energy of the preceding track (anything and all would be); attention is built again on guile and quiet magnetism, commonly felt attributes throughout the artist’s repertoire. This concept of restraint as force receives a sharpening by Antony Linell, whose sonic influence is present throughout the record, like fossilised footprints. In the calm, sheltered lee of the mountain, the slope behind the wave’s punching crest, Linell’s calmer, stripped-back version feels like a fireside retelling of a myth; still full of the magnitude of the original events, the space surrounding the action is foregrounded. 

Every tale may be reduced to the same core elements: the hand; the knife it holds; vivid silence presaging the moment of action. Fitting that the tale of three parts is summarised by a fourth, wider perspective.

Shoal corrals three original solo productions into ISOTOOP’s fourth record, each demonstrating refinement of the artist’s sound and technique, finished by a fitting retelling of ‘Interlocking’ by Antony Linell.

It begins with helical hypnotism; ‘Strange Blue Knots’ drives directly forward on muscular bass, but pointillistic synthwork creates an aural illusion of a spiral aperture tightening; the landscape remains broad, but focus is drawn down to the loci of motion. All containment is blown away by the incomparable force of ‘Roxellana’. Here, the forward motion is not illusory but the irrefutable command of hurricane tailwinds. Thunder heralds full-band waves of unbridled sound, and though the rudder is surrendered to the billowing storm, no part of the weapon is directionless chaos.

Shoal’s tale concludes with ‘Interlocking’, a step back from the monstrous energy of the preceding track (anything and all would be); attention is built again on guile and quiet magnetism, commonly felt attributes throughout the artist’s repertoire. This concept of restraint as force receives a sharpening by Antony Linell, whose sonic influence is present throughout the record, like fossilised footprints. In the calm, sheltered lee of the mountain, the slope behind the wave’s punching crest, Linell’s calmer, stripped-back version feels like a fireside retelling of a myth; still full of the magnitude of the original events, the space surrounding the action is foregrounded. 

Every tale may be reduced to the same core elements: the hand; the knife it holds; vivid silence presaging the moment of action. Fitting that the tale of three parts is summarised by a fourth, wider perspective.

Spanish producer Notzing joins Alpenglühen with Vermiström, a four-track EP exploring the deeper edges of experimental dance music.
Over the past few years, Notzing has established himself as one of the most compelling voices in Spain's underground techno scene. His sound is stripped back yet immersive, built from hypnotic drones, stretched loops, and subtle rhythmic developments that gradually pull the listener into a trance-like state.
With Vermiström, each of the four tracks unfolds organically, evolving with patience and precision. Intricate, unconventional rhythms intertwine with long-form sequences and richly processed textures, creating a constantly shifting sonic landscape.
What truly defines this EP, however, is its profound sense of depth and its unmistakable dub aesthetic. Every element occupies its own carefully crafted space: textured atmospheres, meticulously sculpted percussion, and syncopated sequences that seem to exist at two different tempos simultaneously. Creative use of delays and spatial effects subtly references the language of Jamaican dub, while an exceptional level of sound design and mixing gives the record remarkable clarity and dynamic range.
Rather than revealing everything at once, Vermiström unfolds gradually. Each listen brings new details to the surface, as subtle shifts in texture, rhythm and space slowly reshape the music from within.

Over the course of more than four decades, Andrew Chalk has created one of ambient and experimental music's most distinctive, influential, and enduring bodies of work. Though his recordings have taken many forms—from the raw, post-Industrial sounds of Ferial Confine in the 1980s to the fragile guitar meditations, blurred keyboard studies, and richly textured collages that populate the Faraway Press catalogue—they remain united by a singular sensibility: an uncommon attentiveness to atmosphere, nostalgia, and the power of restraint.

Mystical Obscurant offers a rare opportunity to encounter the expansive character of that oeuvre in miniature. Rather than documenting a single period or methodology, it functions almost like a survey of Chalk's musical language—a collection of new music that illuminates the breadth of his practice while distilling the singular vision that unites it.

“The Sea of Sorrow” and “Peacemaker” feel cut from the same cloth as the sacred guitar minimalism of The River That Flows Into the Sands, while “Against the Tide” would sit naturally alongside the smudged and distant keys of Blue Eyes of the March. Other pieces draw upon environmental sound and loop-based constructions, hallmarks of Chalk's more recent, vignette-like compositions. Though these recordings emerge from different moments in his long creative journey, each inhabits a recognizable world: one where melodies drift in diffuse, unhurried forms and sound gathers with painterly grace.

What is most striking when these pieces are heard together is not their difference but their coherence. Across changing instruments, collaborators, and approaches, Chalk has consistently pursued a subjunctive music of suggestion rather than declaration, creating spaces where memory and imagination are allowed to unfold at their own pace.

For the first time, Fakear has released an album that speaks primarily of humanity, emotions, and himself. Simultaneously imbued with nostalgia and hope, love and anger, loneliness and celebration, it takes the form of a sensitive autobiography rooted in the adolescence of an emo metalhead skater searching for his place in the world. Facing him, the adult writing these tracks tries to convince himself that he has found his balance. If we were to place this album within the current landscape, we would have to look towards the resurgence of bass music and emotional electronic music championed by artists like Fred again.., Four Tet, Bonobo, Sammy Virji, and Camoufly.

Appleton announce the release of a brand new EP, 'Side By Side', which will be released Friday September 4th, marking the first new Appleton body of work in over two decades.
Nicole says: "The reaction to 'Falling Into You' and our first Appleton show in over twenty years has been incredible We feel so grateful that people still connect with these songs and are excited about what we're doing now. This EP feels like the natural next chapter." After reissuing their cult- classic 2003 album 'Everything's Eventual' on vinyl, this January Appleton returned with 'Falling Into You' their first new music as a duo in 23 years.
While nostalgia may have sparked the reunion, 'Side By Side' is firmly focused on the present. Across four original tracks, the EP blends the melodic pop songwriting and distinctive harmonies that made Appleton favourites first time around with a fresh, contemporary sound that reflects where Natalie and Nicole are today. For both sisters, the project has been a reminder of the unique creative bond they've always shared. "We've always had a special connection when we sing together" says Nicole. "Making these songs reminded us of that. It never feels forced it just feels natural." More than twenty years after they first burst into the charts, Appleton aren't looking backwards. They're simply enjoying making music together again side by side.

"There are two versions of this album," says Hollow Hand's Max Kinghorn-Mills. "But there's only one that exists." Kinghorn-Mills is reflecting on a period when he was at something of a crossroads. He had written songs for his forthcoming fourth album but, after coming back off tour, something needed to change. “When I listened back to where I’d left the album, it wasn't exciting enough for me,” he says. “I was like: that's not really what I want to do anymore.” Since releasing 2023’s Your Own Adventure – which drew acclaim from the likes of Mojo, Uncut, and Shindig! – he found himself touring and collaborating with a variety of other artists. Hollow Hand became the house band for Caitlin Rose on tour, while Kinghorn-Mills was also collaborating with Aoife Nessa Frances and playing in her touring band. There was countless exposure to incredible Irish bands along the way, and then came a sold-out European tour with Hollow Hand supporting MJ Lenderman.

EXTRACELLULAR:

the space between cells where signals are exchanged & life is communicated

12" vinyl compilation of pulsing electro, jazz fragments, industrial dub & spoken abstraction featuring label friends & associates from the UK & EU.

Justin James has been turning out ambient, electro and techno soundscapes as Dreamlogicc for a quarter of a century. There have been six albums and 23 EPs in that time and plenty of it has come on Main Drain Studios, where he returns now with four more intricate and immersive tunes. 'Unincorporated Township' is sombre IDM rewired as a dusty techno cut, while 'Land Ho Live' is a jumbled blend of warped bass and half-time rhythms, broken beats and busted bass. 'Tu Long Live' has a bright synth glow and more gritty and glitchy details in the foreground that create an unsettling tension, and 'Snip Ette' is a similar contrast of synth wonder and textural anxiety. Beguiling stuff, for sure.

Hearing colours is back! And is pleased to present its fourth reference, by the hand of Ricardo Villalobos and Washington Miranda.
Both tracks were recorded more than a decade ago and are already classics for those who follow and know these legends.
Let yourself be hypnotized by these masterpieces.
Limited copies

For 10 years, the Austin, Texas- based experimental avant- pop/ electronic musician, born Roger Sellers, has been creating atmospheric soundscapes brimming with layers, texture, and deep emotional resonance. On his fourth and most immersive album to date, 'Filters', Sellers picks up where he left us on 2023's mournful yet popminded 'Temporary Time'. With its elegantly constructed melodies, silken synth-work, a sprinkle of field recordings, and an upbeat yet blissful blend of piano and percussion, Filters finds Sellers entering a new phase of existence as he works through the grief around losing his father and into a place of acceptance.

So-Cal's Movements remain on a steady upward trajectory, their fourth album Happier Now builds on the tension-and-release sound they've perfected on their previous releases Once again produced by Grammy- winner Will Yip , Happier Now holds fast to Movements' dissonant grooves, while incorporating melodic flourishes in the mix as heard in "Dissolve Me" and the moody "Back in My Ways." With over 600M total global streams, Movements to remain faithful to the distinct sound their fans love. Available on CD and transparent violet vinyl editions.

2026 Repress

Kerri Chandler begins a brand-new chapter with the launch of his self-titled label, Kerri Chandler, and its debut release; the Downtown EP Pt. 1.

The release includes four tracks reconnecting with the spirit of Kerri’s iconic Downtown Records era while offering something fresh for the next generation of listeners. 3 of the tracks come straight from that timeless catalogue and firm favourites among Kerri’s community, now beautifully presented on vinyl once again.

Part 1 also features one brand-new, exclusive track, giving fans something truly special: a glimpse of Kerri’s sound, and an invitation to join him on a journey through his remarkable catalogue. This release marks the start of an ongoing celebration of Kerri’s music, his evolution, and the sound that continues to inspire house music lovers around the world. Every detail, from the sleek new sleeve design to the thoughtful presentation, reflects Kerri’s care and respect for his music and the people who’ve supported it. It marks the beginning of something bigger; it’s a series of reworks, reissues, and rediscoveries that will guide listeners through the depth of Kerri’s catalogue and his lifelong love for house music. For long-time followers and new listeners alike, Downtown EP Pt. 1 captures everything Kerri Chandler represents, soulful, honest, and made with nothing but heart.

After orbiting the sun for six years, HMD returns in collaboration with Omformer to revisit and expand upon the enduring compositions from HMD002, Ascending and Distance, originally released in September 2020 (Late Lobster Theremin distribution). Since then, the search has been on for the right producers to breathe new life into these beloved pads and melodies. The remixers each build upon stems from Ascending and Distance, approaching the material with complete creative freedom.

Released spring 2019, HMD002 resonated through its airy, embracing, and intricately woven sound. In the years that followed, the release found its place within a rapidly evolving club music landscape, while Omformer also continued to shape their identity through releases on UTE.Rec and performances across the world.

HMD006 brings together a collection of forward-thinking artistic perspectives on today’s fast-tempo progressive club landscape, while remaining equally suited to afterparty sofa conversations or late-night kitchen burnouts. Each remix is soaked in rich, hopeful reinterpretation, combining inventive sample work, distinctive percussion, and the personal creative oddities of its four contributors.

Remixers

Alvar (Teo Bachs, Ekkel) — Co-founder of UTE.Rec
Mikkel Rev — One half of Omformer and producer on UTE.Rec
Human Space Machine — Nous’klaer Audio, De Lichting
Joachim Krüger — HMD Records

For close to a decade, B’licious has been best known as the voice ofThe Heliocentrics, the London psych jazz and funk collective whose collaborators include Madlib, Mulatu Astatke, DJ Shadow, Gaslamp Killer and Lloyd Miller, with stages taking her to Glastonbury, Roskilde and Worldwide festivals alongside artists including Marshall Allen and Bilal. Her appearance on Strut Records’‘Nuclear War’, a tribute to Sun Ra also featuring Marshall Allen, Knoel Scott and Bilal, is the latest marker of a body of work built over years on some of the most respected stages in UK jazz and soul. Following her 2022 solo EPSurrender, ‘Apple’ is the lead single from her debut full-length album,Serpent Dreams.

‘Apple’ was co-produced byDan Smith of The Noisettesand engineered bySie Medway-Smith, whose credits include Björk, Depeche Mode, Gang of Four and Massive Attack. On the flip side,SLICKnBOBBY— known for chest-rattling basslines and immersive, dubbed-out rhythms — deliver a live reworking that shows off their skills perfectly, drawing on a background that includes performing alongside Wally Badarou and frequent collaborations with Liam Bailey and Greentea Peng.

The most beautiful thing we’ve ever released?

It is virtually impossible to describe with mere words how emotionally powerful this work of art is. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen...

A blissed-out 80-minute epic, Hatchback's Phaser For The Ocean, Chorus For The Moon is his magnum opus, a sprawling masterwork that encompasses ambient, new age and environmental music to wondrous effect. Moving, hypnotic and deeply meditative, it's FFO Mike Brooks, Deuter, Klaus Weiss, Innovative Communication, Harmonia, Cluster, Ashra's New Age of Earth, Stomu Yamashta, Haruka Nakamura, Yoshimura, Hosono, the works.

A record truly deserving of the deluxe Be With treatment, the vinyl was specially cut at Abbey Road Studios whilst the original stunning artwork has been pleasingly expanded. Now, an eye-catching holographic-foil layer moon is set against the original tones, wrapped up in a sumptuous double-gatefold jacket.

Soaked in Californian consciousness and limited to a run of just 500 copies for the world, this release is a treasured balm like no other for these troubled times.

Hatchback is the atmospheric, melodious ambient alias of California-based artist Samuel Milton Grawe. Sam creates music that sings of the Cosmos, full of deep resonant tones, glistening arpeggios, lush pads and harmonic motifs.

"When I first was getting into the creative side of music making in my teens, I was heavily influenced by concept albums like Quadrophenia and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, as well as epic pieces that took up an entire side of a record: Pink Floyd’s Echoes, Yes’ Close To The Edge, Klaus Schulze’s Nowhere Now Here, Miles Davis' Shhh/Peaceful and He Loved Him Madly. In the extreme, these ideas coalesced in double albums where each side of each record is occupied by a single title - Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans and Tangerine Dream’s Zeit being primary examples. When I returned to making music after moving back to Northern California in 2020, the first piece I recorded landed around the 20-minute mark, and the idea of creating three other long pieces to realize a full album felt like a natural - if indulgent - goal. From there, each new piece followed sequentially. Four songs. My fourth album." - Sam Grawe

Phaser For The Ocean Chorus For The Moon is a pure expression, informed by a lifetime of deep listening unbound by algorithms or AI. These are songs for the sunrise and the sunset - and every colour in between.

Dutch groovemaster Boss Priester debuts on Haven Trax with a raw and hypnotic four-tracker, stripped grooves like we know from him, an analog grit, and late-night energy straight from his studio in the Hague to the dancefloor.

GALA's fourth single, produced by Molella & Phil Jay,
became another international hit and gave its name to her
debut album.

"The electroclash genre sure has been having a bit of a renaissance moment. During its first coming an odd 25 years ago the French act Sweetlight was a favorite over here. Originally active between 2002 and 2010, they quickly positioned themselves within a refined strand of the global underground scene: inspired by 90s acid house club culture, they rose to prominence by releasing a sparse selection of original tracks and a multitude of remixes that were both dancefloor-effective and immediately recognizable. After the EPs stopped coming, the project seemed to have faded. But their tracks never left our bag: they combined minimalism with ambiguous elegance and retained a distinct, timeless quality, easily transcending the turn-of-the-century style they were most closely associated with. We are delighted, in what we consider nothing less than a full-circle moment, to release "Selected Recordings: 2004 - 2006" and shed light on an underrated yet, in our eyes, absolutely essential project. ALT022 is an anthology release featuring four extensive, remastered cuts. Abusator, arguably the act's hallmark track and a crossover hit, kicks off the EP. It is joined by Mecaniques Remontees, which opened the milestone Suck My Deck mix by Ivan Smagghe, and Too Shy, both initially part of the same EP back in 2004. Noir Comme Le Beat, an unreleased curiosity from the same era, closes the record. You will find dark, endless, ever-modulating arpeggiator basses, Detroit-via-Paris chord progressions, and spartan drums. The work is, in the artists' own words, low-profile, detail-oriented, and built for late hours. It's an ideal compilation or - depending on the case - introduction, especially now that new work is rumored to be finally on its way."