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The complete album + 5 bonus tracks - limited edition pressing on 180g vinyl American piano player and composer Martin Denny developed a new musical genre in the mid-'50s by combining lounge jazz, Hawaiian music, Latin rhythms, bird calls, and ethnic instruments from around the world (such as koto, gamelans, Burmese temple bells) into a sound that became known as Exotica. Best known as the "Father of Exotica," Martin Denny was responsible for the genre's biggest hit of all time with his 1956 single version of Les Baxter's 'Quiet Village', the title of the album presented here, and with the single included as a bonus track.









[i] Quiet Village [1956 Version]

Anathema formed in Liverpool in 1990, initially under the name of Pagan Angel & grew from a heavy doom/death metal style act into a more progressive & melodic group, blending rock elements with strong atmospherics inspired by classic acts such as Pink Floyd & Radiohead. The band signed with Peaceville Records after recording the 'All Faith Is Lost' demo in 1991, & is known for being part of the hallowed Peaceville doom metal trinity in the early 1990's (alongside fellow UK bands Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride), with some highly influential releases in the early part of their long, esteemed career. 'Pentecost III' was released in early 1995 & was recorded at the infamous Academy Studios in Yorkshire UK (My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost). 'Pentecost III' featured classic heavy & often hypnotic doom metal, as well as a reworking/rerecording of the 'Memento Mori' track from the 'Iliad of Woes' demo.

When The Lights Gone is the new Album from Nostalgia 77. A set of simple songs in primary colours it explores Lamdin’s familiar themes of memory, time, truth and identity. After a hiatus of several years from releasing personal work Producer Benedic Lamdin has two albums set for release this year of which ‘When The Lights Gone’ is the first. When The Lights Gone renews Lamdin’s partnership with Berlin based singer Yosa. Her tracks with Nostalgia 77 are some of their most popular with 30 plus million streams. “It was great to reconnect with Yosa after years not working together. She was about to start a family in Berlin and it seemed like the perfect time to try and pick up - to catch something before that new phase began. “Becoming immersed in family life is such an all encompassing experience It’s sometimes dreamlike in its own way. I think this record has something of that - it is naive and childlike in certain ways itself.” This album is a private press release on Lamdin's new label but publishing a press support is provided by Tru Thoughts.

Glamgoth? Dark Electro? Industrial Cyberfunk? DEAD LIGHTS was founded in 2020, at the start of the Covid19 pandemic, forcing the international musician / producers duo (UK and NL) to work on all their output from a distance. Disguised as dark, sleazy electropop, Saul and Richard create their own personal blend of monumental synth bass lines and gritty sounds, elaborate vocal arrangements and brutal, dance-orientated beats. Their new album ‘Lash’ can be characterised as their boldest release to date. It contains 8 previously released singles which all are dance floor bangers - built to ignite strobes and command bodies into motion. On top of these, DEAD LIGHTS presents 4 brand new songs that emphasize the more cinematic side that is also present in their music and which move further away from conventional song structures.

San Francisco style driving techno tinged with dark dubs and disco from two of the town’s most explosive producers.

Brick & Zero Idea represent the same city, blazing their own paths in San Francisco’s heady techno scene. Both manage their own labels / parties, Brick with Perfect Dark and Vitamin1000 a la Zero Idea respectively, but are no strangers in the studio together.

First up, two full-bodied techno timebombs from the duo: a mega sub’n’dubchord special alert on A1’s “West End” paired with a more refined, smoother, slippier companion on the A2 “No Room For Error”. Combined-strengths banger collabs for different moments and moods of a night.

Sticking with the theme, we see contrasting solo tracks on the flip side as well. Brick’s “Sigil” spotlights the producer’s laser focus for darker, hypnotic, full force synths in impeccable arrangement, while “Xhale” ends this release on an upliftingly funky bassline disco tip showcasing Zero Idea’s ease at blending techno sensibilities with French House techniques.

TGP & LDG on their third collaborative release, a four-track statement that moves between raw live energy and deep, hypnotic exploration. The A side captures the essence of the dancefloor with two cuts from Tobias. & Kuniyuki’s live set at EDEN, Japan. Spontaneous, textured, and driven by the moment. A direct transmission from the booth.
B side shifts perspective: Yuta / O-MA strip things down to the core with a minimal techno approach, precise, reduced, and functional. Ness closes the record with a downtempo, hypnotic journey, immersive, subtle, and introspective.A release built on contrast and cohesion, bridging live improvisation and studio precision. Third chapter. Same vision. Expanded language.

Ten years ago, Anderson .Paak didn't just release an album; he staged a full-scale takeover of the soul and hip-hop landscape. Released on January 15, 2016, Malibu served as the definitive arrival of an artist who had spent years grinding in the underground before a star-making turn on Dr. Dre’s Compton. While his previous work hinted at his potential, Malibu was the moment the world met the "Cheeky Andy" persona in full—a virtuosic drummer, a raspy-voiced crooner, and a sharp-witted rapper all rolled into one. The album is a sprawling, sun-drenched journey through the Southern California coast, blending 1970s funk, church-reared gospel, and gritty boom-bap into something that feels both nostalgic and entirely futuristic. With a heavyweight production lineup including 9th Wonder, Madlib, Kaytranada, and Hi-Tek, the record maintains a warm, analog texture that was a breath of fresh air in an increasingly digital era. It’s an album that breathes, full of intentional imperfections and the kind of "in-the-pocket" groove that can only come from a seasoned live performer. Beyond the infectious, dance-floor-ready energy of tracks like "Am I Wrong" and "Come Down," the album is a deeply autobiographical masterwork. .Paak uses the 65-minute runtime to unpack his life story with startling clarity, touching on his mother’s gambling addiction, his father’s incarceration, and his own brushes with homelessness with a sense of resilience that never feels heavy-handed. He weaves these heavy themes through a lens of triumph, grounded by vintage surfing documentary samples that give the project its cinematic, coastal atmosphere. It’s a celebratory record born out of struggle, anchored by his impeccable technicality on the drums and a guest list—featuring ScHoolboy Q, Rapsody, and The Game—that feels hand-picked to complement his specific brand of West Coast swagger. A decade later, Malibu stands as a modern classic and the blueprint for the soulful revivalism that would eventually lead .Paak to global superstardom and Grammy-winning heights. It remains a testament to the idea that the most profound music often comes from the most personal places, proving ten years on that the best way to move forward is to stay rooted in the groove.

Australian composer-performers Judith Hamann and James Rushford have worked together in countless projects for two decades, perhaps most notably in Golden Fur, their trio with Sam Dunscombe. Black Truffle is pleased to announce Midmeste, their first work as a duo. Its title is Middle English for ‘the middlemost point’, alluding to how the piece builds on the points of overlap between the highly personalised musical languages Hamann and Rushford have developed in recent years. Performed on cello and a variety of pipe organs, Midmeste is a spacious, sometimes unsettling exploration of their shared interest in alternative tunings, psychoacoustic phenomena, the physical properties of their instruments, and the usually peripheral sounds generated by the performing body.

Beginning with a sequence of austerely vibrato-less harmonics from Hamann's cello, trailed by Rushford's whistling portative organ tones, the music soon expands into a slow-moving melodic wander, pausing at times to linger over an uncomfortable harmony or particularly resonant cello tone. Hamann and Rushford have long histories of engagement with pre-Classical European musical traditions, having in past projects performed and radically extended the work of Solage, Louis Couperin, Johann Conrad Beissell and other composers. Here they use a 15th century song by John Dunstaple, ‘O rosa bella’, which returns throughout the piece, distorted, aerated and splayed into new forms.

Developed while the two shared residencies at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart in 2020 and La Becque on Lake Geneva in 2023, Midmeste integrates recordings made (at at the invitation of the Biennale Son) on the organ of the Basilica St Valere in Sion, Switzerland—the world’s oldest playable organ, built in the early 15th century. Played by both Rushford and Hamann, the instrument’s idiosyncratic features, including bellows pumped manually using massive wooden beams, are integrated into the music through amplification. Creaks and thumps locate the music physically both in the performers’ bodies and the specific site of its making. Moving through a series of distinct episodes across its forty-minute span, Midmeste makes space for near-silent duets of high harmonics and hissing air, moments where twittering high tones and rumbling sub-bass could be electronic, and static fields that unexpectedly blossom into almost Romantic harmonies.

Listeners familiar with Hamann and Rushford’s work will find many familiar features here: the stunningly rich cello tones, their patient sustain allowing heightened awareness of the inner life of sound and its interactions with the environment; the care with which acoustic space is activated, becoming at times a third instrumental voice; the attention to fragile, unstable sonorities that sometimes have a comic edge. A major work from two key figures in contemporary experimental music, Midmeste synthesises rigorous exploration of fundamental questions of sound and performance with an unapologetic embrace of beauty.

Vita Noctis is a curious Belgian formation that, in a more experimental vein, recorded two cassette tapes featuring a dark and distorted sound blending industrial with minimal, darkwave, and synthpop. Active during the 1980s, they remained inactive for many years until Dark Entries Records revived their work in 2011, releasing recordings created between 1984 and 1986. This encouraged Kris and Martine, the current members of the band, to continue the legacy of Vita Noctis by creating new music.

This EP is a selection of tracks created by Vita Noctis from the 2000s onwards. It includes songs that have never been released before, such as “Betrail,” an extended version of the song “Engaged,” along with other tracks that will appear on vinyl for the first time, marking the first release of Casual Strippers Rubicon Records. Also the EP comes with an insert featuring an image of Vita Noctis printed on yellow paper.

Hope you enjoy!

Eastern Traffic, Hidden Skeleton, Street Talk – three immaculate cuts from the masters Satoshi Tomiie and Steve O'Sullivan. Raw house, dub-soaked and hypnotic. Pure sonic architecture for the dance floor. Drop the needle, lose yourself.

The eleventh release from label Early Morning, run by Guy J, presents a three-track EP totaling 22 minutes and 23 seconds, reinforcing his position as one of the most disciplined and forward-thinking figures on the global scene. Despite intercontinental recognition, Guy J continues to approach his work with restraint and focus, treating sound not as a finished achievement but as an ongoing exploration. His imagination remains a constant source of carefully developed ideas that resonate through a restrained yet expressive intensity.

The opening track, Piece of Cake, sets the tone with confident momentum, unfolding through a precisely balanced structure where hypnotic rhythm meets expansive spatial design. Selector expands the palette with a fierce bassline drive, textured atmospheres, random squeaks, and euphoric build-up, building on the opening piece and taking the vibe into psychedelic territory.

The release concludes with Against the Wall, a composed and decisive finale. Strong rhythmic foundations, paired with suggestive female narrative vocal samples, bring the record to a resolved and coherent close.

The aptly named "Momentum" is the label's first EP from Decoder, who recently released an album to wide acclaim on Planet X. Spread across 6 tracks, the EP is drenched in psychedelia as it effortlessly moves through different moods and aesthetics to take dancers through the night.

"Flowing" begins the EP with stripped-back percussion and moody atmospherics, transporting the listener into a trance. "Photon" takes a nostalgic trip back to the 90s, featuring a 909 workout that's heavily processed with intensifying effects.

"Strawbs" presents what might be the most captivating track of the EP, characterized by its rolling, hands-in-the-air vibe that persists throughout the song. To conclude the vinyl, "Dyslexic" is intricate and enigmatic in all thedelightful ways. Mallets intermittently appear and disappear as the 909 maintains a steady rhythm. "Dyslexics untie!"

Originally released in 1999 on the Duet imprint, Robert Hood's "Sophisticcato" stands as a concise but potent example of his late-'90s minimal techno philosophy. Built around four tracks, including the title cut, "The First Night" and two versions of "Cobra Seed", the record features his signature approach with stripped-back drum patterns and hypnotic loops that prioritise rhythm over unnecessary embellishment.



Throughout the year M-Plant's Perpetual Masters series has been releasing one track per week from Robert Hood's extensive music archive, remastered by legendary German producer, Thomas Heckmann. Alongside those weekly digital transmissions are accompanying vinyl drops, so following April's "Psychic / Pole Position" 12" is the "Sophisticcato" EP in May.

..an uncontrolled awakening of the inner intelligent groove...
This is the third gargantuan installment for this unassailable vanguard.
Four tracks of the undiluted, high-tech energy you would expect from these storied creators.

XKatedral Anthology I is the first in a series of archival releases dedicated to presenting music by XKatedral affiliated composers working within the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral music. This double-vinyl set contains an array of pieces dating from 2010 - 2020. Four of the works included here were originally released on cassette tape early on in the label's history, while the two remaining pieces are presented by the label for the first time.

"The works Ir Himinn, Grooenn by Kristoffer Svensson, Disquiet (Heart) by Marta Forsberg and Lamé by Isak Edberg were first released on the compilation XKatedral Volume II in 2016. Svenssons piece from 2014 combines justly tuned gamelan percussion and prepared piano intricately interwoven in a way that obscures the boundaries between the two instrument groups. Forsberg and Edbergs pieces both use a monolithic form to explore the timbral and harmonic spaces provided by the Düben Baroque organ situated in Tyska Kyrkan in the oldest part of Stockholm. While similar in terms of instrumentation the two works differ formally - Edbergs Lamé composed in 2010 uses the registers of the organ to articulate a seamless spectral transformation while Forsbergs Disquiet (Heart) from 2014 deals in blocks of sound with a varying degree of opacity, saturation and intensity.

Glory for two electric guitars by Caterina Barbieri and Kali Malone was composed and recorded in Tempo Reale in Florence, Italy, and was originally released on the cassette compilation XKatedral Volume III in 2016. This music takes the form of an ever-evolving hypnotic pattern shared by the two instruments articulated through an additive and subtractive canon. Dissolving Ceremony, composed in 2012 by Edberg/Erlandsson/Lisinski, was first presented publicly on the self-released record Stratum. The music contained in that release was formed from a collection of gamelan percussion instruments augmented by two sets of live-electronic instruments tuned to the harmonic framework formed by the partials of the metal percussion. Originally positioned in the center of the record running order between two long monolithic process-based pieces, Dissolving Ceremony now stands on its own as a memory of a time and methodology from the not so distant past.

The newest piece in this set is Shipwrecks by Daniel M Karlsson. While this work is a recent one Karlsson should be considered one of the forerunners of the musical expression contained within this record set. Active within new music for two decades his strongly articulated musical ideas and constantly evolving craftsmanship has resulted in an enormous body of work, and has served as an inspiration for many of his fellow composers. This piece is a celebration of transposition and its immense capacity for timbral transformation using a vast array of instruments performed, recorded and electronically treated by the composer to form a liquid uncanny topography where a deeply personal harmonic language constantly shifts, slides and shivers."

Cult reissue label Sticky Buttons returns with ‘Sweet Edits’, their first official foray into dancefloor edits featuring 4 remixes of Nigerian boogie legend Dizzy K by a hand picked set of superstar producers specially designed to get the party moving.

Starting with a bang, the A Side features a double hit of remixes to Dizzy K’s 80’s sleeper hit “Afrikan Jamboree”. First up is Clive From Accounts, frequent contributor to Razor-N-Tape and hot off the heels of his 2025 debut full length LP, Clive’s edit has gifted us a complete foot stomper, filled with popping synths and squelchy baselines the track has already been getting big plays by the likes of Optimo over the past 18 months. On track A2, well known dance floor magician Lipelis takes the reins, creating his Disco Dub version, expertly layering traditional african drums and vocal loops from the original to build a wonky club track laden with energy and soul as come to be expected from the artist.

Over on the B Side, South London based duo Make A Dance (M.A.D) take the formula from their own widely popular house inspired edits imprint to take apart Dizzy K’s “I’ll Never Love Again”, stripping it down into a teetering, chugging acid sprinkled weapon overlaid with a ferocious drum pattern destined to move even the stiffest hips. Last but not least, Japanese producer Mayurashka brings her signature subversive style to Sticky Buttons, flipping Dizzy’s K’s “Konga Mama” into a hypnotic tribal masterpiece, pulsating with a psychedelic techno edge ripe for blending in smokey club venues and dark mainrooms.

Four heaters not to be slept on. Hearing is believing and on this limited edition vinyl release the legend of Dizzy K sings again, finely tuned for 2026 dancefloors but always carrying the raw spirit of the original.

Mastered by Submarea Estudio
Cover Art Illustration by Alex Ram

12 Inch Lovers nothing but classix, straight from vinyl! Part 1 of two double vinyl-pack incl. Sasha & Maria, Fatima Yamaha, Brahama, The Mackenzie feat. Jessy, Hatrixx, and Salif Keita & The Base Boys.


After its foundation in 2012, 12 Inch Lovers have become a household name for vinyl lovers in Belgium. Their parties sell out time and time again and focus on an adult audience that loves house and club music from the mid 90s to the present. This in combination with unique locations and DJ's that only play vinyl generates a very dedicated and passionate audience that share one big love: vinyl.

12 Inch Lovers nothing but classix, straight from vinyl! Part 2 of two double vinyl-pack incl. Tensnake, Afro celt Sound System, Midnight Star, Robert Babicz, Gregor Salto, Lovebirds, and Codec & Flexor



After its foundation in 2012, 12 Inch Lovers have become a household name for vinyl lovers in Belgium. Their parties sell out time and time again and focus on an adult audience that loves house and club music from the mid 90s to the present. This in combination with unique locations and DJ's that only play vinyl generates a very dedicated and passionate audience that share one big love: vinyl.

• “Guerrilla Girls!”, Ace Records’ much-anticipated first release of 2023, takes us on a thrilling ride from punk’s mid-70s origins, via the left-field post-punk groups, jangly female combos, grunge bands and vigilante Riot Grrrls of the 80s and 90s, to the she-punk bands of recent years – a five-decade alternative to the macho hegemony of rock.

• The collection highlights songs that emerged out of a dynamic underculture of female creative expression. What unites the featured artists is a healthy disregard for the way the music industry ties up its female performers into pretty, neo-liberal packages. From Patti Smith, universal mother of the punk movement, to the Bags, Bikini Kill and Skinny Girl Diet, this music is anti-A&R. Including lesser-known names such as San Francisco street punk Mary Monday and London-based experimentalists pragVec, it shows that, rather than being a few novelty bands existing on the margins, these performers represent a stronger, more three-dimensional version of the female experience.

• Glorious resistance was on display in the first wave of UK female-fronted punk bands. Poly Styrene’s charged vocals on X-Ray Spex’s ‘Iama Poseur’, for instance, were a deliberate refusal to be a pretty punkette. With 15 year-old Lora Logic on saxophone, X-Ray Spex epitomised a fearless, self-defined agency that was at odds with the pastel shades and flowery, submissive Laura Ashley version of 1970s girlhood. By the early 80s, there was a hugely vibrant scene propelled by the diverse rhythms and voices of post-punk feminism. Lora Logic had left X-Ray Spex to form the interweaving textures of Essential Logic, the Mo-dettes mangled ska and off-kilter pop, and Birmingham band Au Pairs sliced political rigour into their lyrics and funky guitar work.

• Some female artists took that elemental energy into pop, creating pop-punk with a twist. We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!! made a statement on music technology and female power with a cheeky play on words. Their song ‘Rules And Regulations’ shows that what Guerrilla Girls do well is debunking – taking genres of popular song and turning them inside out – like the way the Pandoras and the Pussywillows would amp up the driving beat and high vocals of the 60s girl group style, and subvert it with a DIY garage element.

• In its fanzine culture, use of montage and DIY music, 90s Riot Grrrl bands such as Bikini Kill and Bratmobile drew direct inspiration from 70s punk, articulated through the prism of Third Wave feminism. Too often, Riot Grrrl gigs were invaded by men intent on heckling “the enemy”. Liz Naylor, manager of British Riot Grrrl band Huggy Bear, says that their concerts became war zones. From the US grunge and Riot Grrrl scenes emerged more female instrumentalists, with bands such as L7 and Babes In Toyland proving that it was possible to recruit cutting-edge drummers, bass players and guitarists. Lori Barbero, whose relentless power drumming is a major element of Babes In Toyland, took the one instrument that has been a staple of male rock’n’roll and made it her muse.

• In the 2000s a new generation of girl-punk bands drew on the Riot Grrrl underculture to form their own sound. London trio the Tuts refashioned C86, Riot Grrrl and lush dream pop on songs like the ironically titled ‘Let Go Of The Past’, while the Regrettes injected shots of ska and doo wop into their explosive West Coast pop-punk. What began with Patti Smith and 70s punk has grown into a vast, spikey infrastructure of girl music. Many take inspiration from their foremothers, like Skinny Girl Diet whose vigilante feminism and punk distortion has been championed in return by Viv Albertine of the Slits. As long as these female artists stay aware of their musical vision and what they are trying to express – in a sense, A&R themselves – the underculture will continue to grow and flower. And this “Guerrilla Girls!” compilation is a celebration of that power.


• The back sleeve of the release features a scene-setting introductory essay by Lucy O’Brien (author of She Bop: The Definitive History Of Women In Popular Music). Each of the two discs come in a swanky inner bag containing a track commentary by compiler Mick Patrick (Ace Records’ long-serving champion of female artists of all persuasions) and exclusive interviews with many of the featured artists by Vim Renault and Lene Cortina (founders of the Punk Girl Diaries webzine).

Loukeman is a Toronto-based producer, DJ, and songwriter. His music pulls from folk, pop, rap, and R&B, creating his own warped yet familiar forms. He’s earned support from the likes of a wide range of artists including Fred again.., Obongjayar, Aminé, Skin on Skin, Ecco2k, and more. He’s delivered official remixes for PinkPantheress, Vegyn, and Obongjayar, and he’s shared stages with some of the most exciting acts in the underground. Most recently, he's produced 5 tracks on ASAP Rocky's long awaited record, 'Don't Be Dumb.' Having garnered praise for his self-released Sd-1, Loukeman followed up with Sd-2, which established his cultural and critical presence.

Sd-2 — the second of a planned trilogy -- continued his display of range as one of the most exciting producers in recent years. Following the release, praise followed from the likes of Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, Mixmag, and numerous others. He launched a series of club nights titled BRXZN WXRLD in 2024, which sold out across London, Los Angeles, Toronto, and NYC. A recent guest mix on Rinse.fm provides a glimpse into his eclectic mix style and range of edits. His music has been used by a multitude of brands from Burberry, and Stussy to Nike and Apple. With a forthcoming album in 2026, he's also caught the attention of several pop acts as a producer and co-writer.

Matt Gold and Dustin Laurenzi present Devotional Fade, a collaborative record of electroacoustic rhythmic improvisations – equal parts meditation and dance, released on We Jazz Records, 24th April. Laurenzi and Gold, key collaborators in the Chicago creative scene and with genre spanning artists such as Bill Callahan and Makaya McCraven, step forward here with a major artistic statement, a product of extended improv sessions capturing the duo's hypnotic interplay. This is the sound of two of Chicago's most vibrant instrumental voices listening deeply, communing in sound.

Recorded in Laurenzi's attic studio, Devotional Fade emerged from a series of weekly sessions over the course of a single month. The duo kept the tape rolling continuously each day and selected a number of immersive sonic worlds to present, oscillating between patient, sacred minimalism and wild, dancefloor-worthy combustion.

The pair set two parameters to heighten the sessions' stakes: editing would be kept to a minimum, and a rule of "no pitched overdubs" was put in place – ensuring that all melodic and harmonic gestures would have to be committed in real time. Laurenzi and Gold held true, only sparingly adding a stray shaker or brush to these already largely complete improvisations. Devotional Fade is imbued with quiet propulsion and ecstatic repetition.

Matt Gold is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer based in Chicago, IL. His work pulls from diverse traditions of electric and acoustic music. Matt has performed across six continents and contributed to over fifty recordings as a collaborator and instrumentalist, garnering critical praise from Pitchfork for playing "one of the most exhilarating guitar solos of recent memory, in any genre." Gold has several long-running collaborative bands spanning jazz, folk, experimental, and chamber music including Sun Speak, Storm Jameson, and Tin. He performs and records with an array of creative artists including Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill, Jamila Woods, Natalie Merchant, and Greg Ward. Gold co-curates the record label and concert series Flood Music.

Chicago saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Dustin Laurenzi has developed a personal approach to improvisation and composition that has garnered the attention of the city's creative music community. Laurenzi's music is inspired and informed by jazz, folk, and improvised music. His inventive improvisational sensibilities have made him a sought-after musician in many circles of Chicago's vibrant music scene and beyond. Laurenzi has toured extensively with songwriter Bill Callahan and is featured on Callahan's 2024 release Resuscitate! He has toured with Grammy award-winning artist Bon Iver and appears on the band's critically lauded 2016 release 22, A Million. Laurenzi has also performed with Jeff Parker & The New Breed, Marquis Hill, Makaya McCraven, Matt Ulery, Japanese Breakfast, and This Is The Kit.

Born 2 Be Free celebrates the naughtier end of the house and garage spectrum with a first volume in this new Low End Guerrillas series. Mista Men's 'Corner' has muggy blasts of bass that cocoon you in warmth as lively garage drums and nimble synth motifs keep things fresh. Mella Dee brings his usual sonic filth to the rugged analogue grind of 'A Way Of Life'. No Brainers then layer up a bubbly mix of top and hits over driving bass notes on 'Not Again', then Lvpica's 'Funky:Mission' keeps it deep and moody with a shadowy bassline and slick drums for cool cats. Live From The Moon shuts down with the more eerie and suspenseful 'Parrot In The Studio.' Characterful tools from font to back.

Label Boss TSVI is back with a brand new release on Nervous Horizon: Dance Tripping EP! Inspired by his early years in London, where he spent countless nights at minimal and tech house raves, the EP draws elements from these styles through stripped back productions and groove driven basslines. Moving away from TSVI’s signature percussion focused sound, the record prioritises a more sound design approach, exploring texture, movement and club functionality.
The EP opens with Music is Moving, a high energy festival weapon built around a groovy bassline and a UK garage leaning swing. A sharp, restless lead drives the track forward before exploding into a euphoric climax of phased and distorted sawtooth waves. Next comes The Wasp Track, combining pitched down leads with a rolling tech house groove, built for peak time tension and release. The title track Dance Tripping sees TSVI at his most stripped back, featuring loopy analog textures and hypnotic rhythmic elements that focus on repetition. The last two tracks Kataklisma and Turbo Motion create a literal sonic apocalypse by pounding the club with heavy reeses and mean beats.

TSVI Dance Tripping EP is the ultimate club weapon for 2026!

Constructive is pleased to announce, 'Utopia or Oblivion', a new compilation featuring ten artists inspired by the pioneering work of R. Buckminster Fuller, with each track inspired and in response to Fuller's work specifically Utopia or Oblivion', first published in 1963.

From the irregular glitch pop scintillation of 'How Would I Be? What Would I Do' by German artist & founding member of To Rococo Rot, Robert Lippok, to the heartfelt ambient and seraphic voices of 'Afterimage' by Japanese artist Tujiko Noriko (Editions Mego, PAN, Room40), through to the tensile, eruptive, dub-contoured emittances of 'Tensegrity Rhythms' by Peruvian experimental composer Ale Hop (Karlrecords).

Elsewhere, there are appearances from the Bafta-nominated composer Adam Janota Bjowski (Saint Maud OST), musician & Constructive co-founder Adrian Corker, London-based experimentalist No Home, Italian artist & NTS Radio resident Silvia Kastel (Blackest Ever Black, Palto Flats, Youth), British sound artist David Prior, and a unique collaboration between the British DIY experimental musician Richard Skelton & Corey Fuller, a descendant of R. Buckminster Fuller.

There is an abruptness to waking up to the sight of the other person’s back, a quiet violence hidden in the impression of intimacy, that’s leaving an aftertaste of emptiness. The feeling of losing oneself completely in a love that is given but never returned. Or the slower, less immediate one - the gradual disintegration of a world into which so much was once invested.

Love, Diskito is like a worn out overdubbed cassette found in a drawer, with its underlying tracks flickering between contrasting emotional states. Written, produced and mixed by GbClifford, the release follows up on the elusive, multifaceted output of the Prague-based experimental artist, who dresses fleeting glimpses of youthful yearning, sentiment and fragility in the blunt apparel of distortion and immediacy.

Drawing from their idiosyncratic, collage-like approach to music production, GbClifford condenses on Love, Diskito a varied palette of field recordings, samples, distorted instruments and ambient sounds. They resemble doodles in the corner of a school notebook, tightly overlapping with the evocative, minimalistic artwork by Czech artist Kateřina Šípová.

The guidance of GbClifford’s personless, at times highly decomposed vocals modulates the emotional urgency of the recording and reflects on the past. “I’m so close to relapsing, I’m here for you, closer than ever,” echoes in the elusive track So Only Yours, carrying the undercurrents of surrendering to the sole necessity of caring, even at the cost of individual ache. While the album does not forgo its earthbound, bare setting, there is something deeply pastoral and sky-gazing in the layered, multi-pitched vocals, horn-like tones and sense of space that Love, Diskito evokes.

An album of improvised music was recorded in Belgrade, in the courtyard of one of the musicians’ homes. There were no prior agreements, prepared compositions, or preplanned ideas. The album came into being in real time, right there on the spot.



Ulya Volkova (pleurereme) - cellist/multi-instrumentalist, composer/sound designer, producer and music enthusiast with over a two decade of experience in cultural community. After studying for 15 years at the Gnessin School (Academy) of Music she began writing music for big films, documentaries, TV series, audio books, plays and exhibitions, soundtracks for games and sound design for interfaces, and music production for artists all over the world.

Evgenii Piankov - Keyboardist, producer, composer, sound designer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist. Throughout his career, he has worked in various roles with different popular artists.

Aleksei Siubaev (Mark Borzer) - Musician, ( from True Flavas Band, and Great Rvivers ) producer and DJ operating at the intersection of funk, soul, avant-jazz, post-rock and experimental music. Alongside the collaborative projects, he develops a solo practice focused on hybrid forms and textural experimentation.

XDCVR_ unveils 'I HATE THAT SHIT, I HATE ALL THAT SHIT' a blistering sonic manifesto on the 'performativity of decay'.

In a world saturated with digital perfection, the album emerges as a vital, hand-made act of electronic rebellion.

Framed as a "soundtrack for the end stretch" the record explores the notion that societal decay is not a passive process, but an active performance—a machine chugging along long after its wheels have fallen off.

This is cyborg music for a bifurcated reality: carbon-fiber toughness shielding a core of systemic rot. The sound palette is intentionally raw and imperfect, a direct challenge to the sterile, automated order of what the artist calls the "techno-fascist oligarchy."

Tracks eschew conventional temporality, mirroring the feeling of existing in two concurrent timelines—one hyper-aware of the collapse, the other numbly consuming it.

Drawing a line from the Cold War anxieties of the past to the data-farming dystopia of the present, 'I HATE THAT SHIT…' posits art as the last authentic incubator for societal change. It is, in the artist's words, "a deliberate 'fuck you' to the oppressive order of the status quo. This is not easy listening; it is a contested space, a lit fuse, and a necessary noise for our complicated times."

In a Secret Room is a retrospective that reopens the sonic and visual archive of KKD, bringing back to light a trajectory that long remained underground within the history of Italian new wave. The tracks, recorded between 1979 and 1986, reflect a constantly evolving process shaped by experimentation, improvisation, and a drive toward new languages. The project takes shape inside a former hotel in Italy’s Po Valley, transformed into a studio, rehearsal space, and visual lab.

Here, among analog synthesizers, homemade electronics, and multitrack recorders, Kriminal Killer Division experimented with and pushed their available technology to its limits, developing a hybrid language: sounds captured from radio and the street, synthetic voices, guitars, and electronic sequences intertwine in compositions that move between art rock, minimal wave, and more industrial directions. This collection aims precisely to reactivate that imaginary. The vinyl is accompanied by a risograph fanzine that restores the project’s visual dimension: collages, photographs, and graphic materials reflecting the same experimental attitude found in the recordings. Sound and image move together, as parts of a single expressive device. In a Secret Room offers access to a hidden space where interference, noise, and intuition take form without mediation. Not a nostalgic operation, but a re-emergence: a living archive that continues to generate meaning in the present.

The concept for this one is as wonderfully odd as we have ever heard: Argentinian Federico Durand draws on his collection of Cinderella stamps and looks to translate their modest scale into sparse arrangements and carefully spaced notes. Small motifs drift across analogue synth tones, all shaped with tape hiss and soft saturation. Pieces move slowly, often built from repeating figures that shift in pitch and melody, feel tentative, sometimes dissolving into low drones or faint harmonic clouds. There is little percussion, with rhythm implied through looping patterns and subtle timing changes. Tracks favour brevity and minimalism and the result leans into a darker mood than his earlier work, with a muted, slightly worn character that makes it all the more real.

The second installment of The Tape Masters series by German film music maestro Peter Thomas. Audiophile pressing in deluxe 2x10" vinyl set, limited to 500 copies.
While volume one of the series compiled Thomas' dopest library music cuts, this album dives deep into the soulful side of the Peter Thomas Sound Orchester, featuring the mystique house band of Afro-American Munich GI club Tabarin Bar, Donna Summer's first solo recordings, stunning cinematic funk instrumentals and a healthy amount of breaks and beats.

Out of the 20 scorching tunes on this compilation, only three were released at the time of their recording and are nearly impossible to find on the 2ndhand market, ten have never been released anywhere before, others celebrate their first outing on vinyl or in stereo.

Peter Thomas is widely acknowledged as Germany's most inventive film music composer of the 1960s and 1970s, best known for his iconic soundtracks. Today, his work is cherished not least for its incredible groove factor. The story of this compilation traces the origins of the Peter Thomas Sound Orchester's rhythm section and its soul music background, shines a light on unsung heroes like singer Joe Quick and unearthes nuggets that have been lying dormant on tape for decades.

All music was carefully transferred from Peter Thomas' private master tapes and cut in full dynamics, housed in a beautiful fold-out cover with liner notes and private pictures. The compilation is released in cooperation with Peter Thomas' son Philip who represents the Peter Thomas Sound Orchester catalogue since his father's passing in 2020.

Tim Wright is a musician, composer and video artist based in York. He is perhaps best known as a producer of unusual electronic dance music released under his own name and the pseudonym Tube Jerk. His music has been released by some of the key labels in the field including Tresor, Mute/Novamute, Sativae and GPR. Remix credits range from scorn through Cristian Yogel to Laurent Garnier and Goldfrapp.

Tim also works for the Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara as a composer and sound designer. his compositions for Teshigawara include the original music for metamorphosis (2014), a commission for Goteborgsoperans Danskompani, Sweden; darkness is hiding black horses (2013) for the ballet de l'opera de paris, France; and compositions for installations at the Yokohama Triennale 2008, the Shanghai Zendai museum of modern art and the ikon gallery in Birmingham.

For our second record, we would like to introduce you to Fonos, after quality releases on labels like Workbench, doeasy & Agaric's imprint " WEARE ": he joins Goldmin Music.
Keep it raw. Keep it underground. Play quality Music and play it on vinyl... is Federico Pedron alias Fonos's state of mind and that's far enough to introduce him !!
Freshly made with analog synthesizers, grooveboxes which bring this awesome warmness & analog imperfection this 4 Tracker Vinyl perfectly illustrates Federico's music.


Feedbacks:

Patrick Bateman: dub mix of "youknow" is pretty cool, thanks !
Jakob Seidensticker ( Wareika ): nice mood, big sound, well done, love it !
Tom Dazing: Downtown is a bomb, thanks !
Agaric: Far out stuff from a far out talent - dope house tracks
Alejandro Mosso: i'm not

10 songs from No You - the debut, self-titled LP by Davy Kehoe (Wah Wah Wino, IE) and Diego Herrera (Suzanne Kraft, US). Sharing both vocal and instrumentation duties, D & D venture somewhat off of their respective musical paths - with the collab throwing up a big, small-studio sound. They are maybe at their most melodic on ‘Baby’ where their voices play off each other over bent feedback and crunching drum machine. There’s a real low slung swagger to ‘So Far Gone’ and ‘Miracle Mile’ met with a blown out and blasted approach on songs such as ‘Invisible’ and ‘Side Effect’. The song ‘Put Up A Dream’ exhibits the duo’s more unhinged side.

Following her contribution to Scenic Route’s Road Less Travelled 2, MS RAY returns with MELT — a defining new chapter in what Boomkat described as “adult contemporary soul.”

MELT is set to be a true benchmark for MS RAY - a five-track release that moves between the cathartic and the heartfelt, shifting fluidly between R&B, trip-hop and dream pop. Subtle yet expansive, it captures her most refined and emotionally resonant songwriting to date.

The EP features new single “Miss You” ft. Nourished By Time, a slow-burn duet pairing her velveteen delivery with his unmistakable, off-kilter pop sensibility.

Also included is “Signs,” her standout cut from Road Less Travelled 2, available here for the first time on vinyl, alongside three brand new, unreleased tracks that further explore her palette of nocturnal electronics, minimalist soul and soft-focus atmospherics.

Mildred have announced their debut album Fenceline (out 24 April via Memorials of Distinction / Dog Day Records), they have also shared the Nick Roberts directed video for lead single ‘Fish Sticks’. Speaking of ‘Fish Sticks’ and the album, Mildred say: “Fish Sticks is a song of scenes from two worlds. Conversations with your boss. Acute workplace mediocrity. Riding home and eating fish sticks with your friends. For UK audiences, a fish stick is a fish finger, ideally Alaskan-caught cod. The song comes packaged in Fenceline, an album about conversations with old friends, little cousins, ceaseless piles of dust in your crumbling duplex, loves and theologians and their books. Fencelines mark two places but belong to neither. Neither nor, either or.”
Ahead of Fenceline, at the end of last year Mildred released their debut twin EPs mild and red, an insatiable collection of songs birthed before Mildred even knew they were a band. Arriving purposefully on the scene in that gentle, approachable Mildred way, the EPs picked up support from The Guardian, The Line of Best Fit, Uncut (‘We’re New Here’), The New Cue, Clash, DIY and more. Mildred is a band from Oakland, CA of four equal parts. They don’t have a lead singer, no one person writes the songs. The songs that make up Fenceline come together as a group with their genesis sprouting from any one of their members - Henry Easton Koehler (vocals, guitar), Jack Schrott (vocals, guitar), Matt Palmquist (vocals, bass, woodwinds) or Will Fortna (drums, production) - each time.

The songs are often wrestled from the lead writer by the other three, a lyric might have been mumbled absentmindedly for a few days before one of the other three grabs at it. Summed up neatly by Clash “imagine if Pavement went Americana and you’d be close”, Mildred make music that is pure and poetic, gently addictive and never overwrought. The lyrics for their songs are written largely alone and often draw from their own individual lives and experiences but there’s a shared something there. “It makes sense when common threads emerge” they say, “because we do things together a lot as friends: cook, laze about on a weekend, listen to an album, go walkabout, read, go see movies etc.
Strikingly literal or intriguingly oblique, Mildred have a remarkable way with lyrics that lodge themselves in your head softly but with such determination that they begin to feel like shimmering memories from your own life. Fenceline is a collection of songs that you want to hold close and delve into, and yet play to everyone you know.

London trio, thredd’s, acclaimed 2025 debut ‘It’s Lovely, Come On In’ available for the first time on vinyl. thredd is the latest project from musicians Will Lister, Max Winter, and Imogen and The Knife who came together as the first (and only) band formed during the infamous Laylow residency in West London.

Over the course of 4 weeks in November 2023, the trio set up a makeshift studio in Laylow’s basement venue and wrote music to be performed live each Wednesday, embracing a raw, immediate approach with no room for overthinking. The result is a sound they call “cold pop”, a mix of atmospheric textures, sharp melodies, and emotional depth. Since then, they’ve built on their diverse strengths having already played the ICA and supported Nourished by Time across the UK.

Having shared a studio in South London together since 2020, the trio have collaborated and cross-pollinated their musical approach while taking time to hone their individual crafts; Will’s drum programming and production, Max’s ear for harmony and composition, Immy’s lyrics, melody and vocal delivery. With music that both feels familiar yet boundary pushing, ear catching and intriguing, it becomes a true sum of its parts celebrating the individualism of each musician.

The album ‘It’s Lovely, Come On In’ moves between late-night indie, synth- driven pop, and stripped-back songwriting with emotional weight. Tracks like ‘Horseshow’ showcase Will’s tight post-triphop inspired beats, Max’s harmonic instincts, and Immy’s evocative vocals. ‘We Don’t Speak Anymore’ came together in a day, capturing a sharp, defiant energy. ‘Something For My Head’ is a late-night, anxious love song, while the title track has a defiant repetitive energy. The lead single ‘Party’ bursts with bold, euphoric energy, and ‘Funny Girl’ strips back to something vulnerable, inspired by a haunting vocal sample and personal notes.

The record channels the layered, mysterious atmosphere of Laylow’s basement, shaped by the building’s winding corridors and hidden rooms. Themes of fatigue, release, and creative survival run throughout, born from a pressure-free, collaborative process.

‘It’s Lovely, Come On In’ feels honest and immediate, a collection made to capture a moment, not polish it away. As they put it, the record is for people who are “Up for a party, down for a cry.” The album doesn’t make grand claims; it simply invites you in.

In Sheep’s Clothing announces the long-awaited vinyl pressing of Marc Leclair’s beloved 2005 album Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes. The album will also be available on streaming for the first time via Community Music Group.

For years after Marc Leclair released Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes, he heard from listeners who had lived with the record in an unusually intimate way. Many described how the music became part of the emotional landscape of the months leading to birth. “I never expected that,” Leclair says. “Many women told me they listened to the record throughout their pregnancies. They said it made a real difference, that it helped them. It became more than just a record.”

First issued on CD in the early 2000s, Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes (Music for Three Pregnant Women) now returns in a new edition from In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi, appearing on vinyl for the first time as a double LP. The record is being pressed in Detroit at Archer Record Pressing, the historic plant behind deep-groove classics by Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Underground Resistance, UR’s Jeff Mills, and J Dilla.

Listeners who know the Montreal-based Leclair through his better-known work as Akufen might be surprised by the tone here. During the same years he was shaping the intricate micro-sampling tracks that made Akufen a cult figure on labels including Perlon, Force Inc. and Trapez, Leclair was quietly developing this far more personal project. The meticulous craftsmanship remained the same, though the focus shifted from the hyper-detailed cut-up rhythms of his dance records toward something slower and more atmospheric. “I always compare my work to a jeweler,” Leclair says. “It’s really very precise. I’m a bit of a detail freak. I can spend hours or days on just one phrase in one song. Everything has to be perfectly put together.”

The project began almost accidentally. A few members of Leclair’s circle became pregnant nearly simultaneously, including one who had long believed she couldn’t conceive. The first track he recorded for the project wasn’t meant to advance a larger concept, he says. “It was meant to highlight the fact that three of my closest friends became pregnant at exactly the same time.”

Leclair was already a father with a three-year-old daughter, so the emotional terrain of early parenthood was familiar. Gradually the idea expanded. “I began thinking, why not make a whole album that celebrates this and also follows the entire pregnancy, the nine months,” he says. The music developed piece by piece, including a track originally commissioned by the Berlin experimental duo Rechenzentrum that would later become the album’s opening movement.

Nearly seven years passed between the first composition and the finished album, and the music mirrors the strange arithmetic of pregnancy itself. What begins as a single idea multiplies outward, sounds layering and branching until the album feels less like a sequence of compositions than a living process unfolding in time. “I work very slowly,” Leclair says. “Everything has to be something I’m completely behind. I never want to rush anything. I want things to come naturally.” Across its 72 minutes, the album blossoms with the patience of a long meditation on time, growth and emergence.

When Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes first appeared via Mutek, it circulated quietly but steadily. Critics who discovered it later recognized its unusual scope. In a 2006 Pitchfork review, Mark Richardson gave the record an 8.1, calling “150e Jour” “an unfailingly gorgeous and tightly sequenced quilt of guitar and piano samples reminiscent of Tangerine Dream,” and describing “85e Jour” as infused with “viscous pop ambient drift, the gauzy synth pads ebbing and flowing with rhythm.” Boomkat described the album as “a majestic opus from a producer that's always promised so much — here delving into a panoramic construction of almost visibly radiant music that works so beautifully through each and every second of its 72 minute lifespan.”

The new In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi edition finally presents the record in the format Leclair long imagined. “I always thought that record deserved a vinyl edition,” he says. Spread across two LPs, the music now has room to unfold at its natural pace. More than twenty years after it first appeared, Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes remains what it was from the start: a carefully shaped meditation on transformation and the quiet miracle of life beginning.

Cosmic Journey is the new album by Little Lion Sound, bringing together the sound system's most significant releases from the past two years. The album embodies the DNA and artistic evolution of Little Lion Sound, reflecting a deep love for reggae and sound system culture, as well as a strong ability to build bridges between generations and territories.

Born from sound system culture and firmly rooted in reggae, Little Lion Sound has developed an open and modern musical vision over the years, blending contemporary reggae with hip-hop influences while always preserving the essence of the genre. Cosmic Journey perfectly illustrates this approach through a coherent and immersive soundscape, driven by deep basslines and meticulous attention to textures and arrangements. The album also stands out for the richness of its collaborations, bringing together iconic artists and rising voices from the international reggae scene. From Jamaican foundations (King Kong, Capleton) to new generations, passing through Brazil (Jô), London (Brother Culture), and Trinidad & Tobago (Queen Omega), each contributor brings their own color, energy, and signature. The project also highlights collaborations with producers from France, Costa Rica, and Jamaica, further enhancing the diversity and balance of the album.
Cosmic Journey is a true invitation into their musical universe. A celebration of creativity, authenticity, and the collaborative spirit at the heart of sound system culture, this sonic journey is designed as a complete experience where tradition and innovation meet, uniting established artists and emerging talents.

Tracklisting:

New album by french rapper Sheldon, including featurings with Chilly Gonzales, Jazzy Bazz, Tuerie, Asfar Shamsi...



Monsters are never where we expect them to be. They take shape in silences, in vague fears, in the baggage we carry without always understanding it. Sometimes, we also encounter them along the course of a life. On this new album, Sheldon chooses to dance with them, to tame them with wit, grace, and a sense of peace.



Following a powerful return with Grünt 75, an iconic format to which the 75e Session collective brought particularly ambitious visual staging, Sheldon unveils a fourth album that unfolds across fourteen tracks like a chiaroscuro landscape, revealing the full depth of his emotional and musical range. Through intimate narratives, the record explores identity (Être une fille), family and fatherhood (La Fenêtre and Les Monstres, the title track), as well as friendship (Eh le reuf). These are themes that run through all of us, approached here with writing that is vivid, demanding, and deeply sensitive.

Driven by a strong narrative arc, the album features songs like Être une fille, which challenges and questions us. On it, Sheldon reflects on his relationship to gender, his doubts and discomfort with the codes of masculinity, and the idea that he has sometimes imagined himself elsewhere. Tracks like La Fenêtre and Avec ça illuminate the album like moments of communion, sincere, warm, and unifying, carried by a childlike lightness that makes tomorrow disappear.

True to his open minded and ever curious artistic approach, Sheldon draws from a wide range of musical genres while keeping rap as the album’s guiding thread, giving each song its own singular identity and contributing to the balance of the whole. To shape the project, Sheldon surrounded himself with a new generation of musicians and beatmakers whose influences span rap, indie rock, pop, and experimental music. Among them are Johnny Ola, who has notably composed for Zamdane, Jazzy Bazz, and Edge, Rodolphe Babignan, Carbonne’s flamenco guitarist, and Jeune Oji, an artist signed to Friends of Friends Music. Together, they bring melodic and acoustic richness, as well as a collective generosity that deepens the album’s intimacy.

This new album also opens the door to new collaborations.

On L’école primaire, Chilly Gonzales joins Sheldon for an unconventional piano and vocals piece, driven by cinematic, deeply intimate storytelling. Using his primary school as a point of reference, Sheldon retraces his path from childhood to adulthood, somewhere between nostalgia and serenity.

On Cowgirl, Tuerie joins Sheldon for a soft, melodic ballad with an 80s tint, capturing the weightlessness of a sunlit summer.

On Sidequest, Sheldon reunites with Asfar Shamsi, who had already appeared on his Grünt. Over a delicate cloud trap production, the two artists open up about everyday pain, finding in introspection a way to put things into perspective.

Finally, Vol de nuit brings Jazzy Bazz and Sheldon together for an intimate exchange over an ethereal, mysterious production, as both artists look back on their journeys with calm and clarity.

Conceived alongside Sheldon’s closest circle, the project celebrates family, friendship, and love as its founding pillars. Sheldon chooses to step away from the images, allowing his story to be embodied instead through the faces and gestures of those around him. This approach runs through all of the project’s visuals. Rejecting the excess of spectacular image making, he chose instead to hand a camera to his loved ones so they could offer their own vision of a song from the album. By opening a small window onto his intimacy, and that of the people closest to him, Sheldon finds a way to say a great deal with very little, turning deeply personal trajectories into something universal.

Like the music videos, the album cover is rooted in a deliberately simple approach, where the fantasy of childhood disrupts reality. Designed by Tenzin, the graphic designer behind Sheldon’s recent projects, Ptite Sœur, and also work for Jul, it is based on an archival photograph taken during a traditional carnival in Tenzin’s native village. With no staging involved, the image captures children in costume mid parade, caught in a spontaneous burst of movement, embodying the free innocence of childhood.



Les Monstres marks a new chapter in Sheldon’s journey. Like a rainbow after the storm, this fourth album reveals new colours in the artist’s discography, as he delivers a record that is both demanding and accessible, intimate and open, one in which music becomes a love letter to friendship and to love itself. Set for release on April 24, 2026, the album will be followed by a tour culminating at La Cigale in Paris on December 3, 2026.

Strut proudly presents the first-ever reissue of a landmark 1974 Ghanaian highlife classic Sikyi Highlife by Dr K. Gyasi & His Noble Kings, originally released on Essiebons.

A defining recording of the era, Sikyi Highlife bridges tradition and innovation at a pivotal moment in Ghanaian music. Deeply rooted in the classic 1950s–’60s highlife sound, K. Gyasi drew inspiration from the ancient sikyi drum-dance of the Akan people of southern Ghana, shaping the album’s rhythms around its distinctive pulse.

The vocal arrangements echo the traditional Akan modal style, grounding the music firmly in Ghana’s cultural heritage. Yet Sikyi Highlife is equally forward-thinking. As electric guitars became standard in highlife during the 1960s, the 1970s ushered in further experimentation. The Noble Kings broke new ground as the first highlife guitar band to incorporate keyboards and a full horn section into their sound, expanding the genre’s sonic possibilities while retaining its rootsy spirit.

Gyasi’s approach was part of a broader indigenisation movement among Ghana’s electric highlife bands in the post-independence era. Inspired by the nation’s ‘African Personality’ ethos and reinforced by Afrocentric messages arriving from American soul and funk, artists began reclaiming traditional forms within modern arrangements. Contemporaries included Koo Nimo, who revived the older palmwine style, and drummer Nii Ashitey, whose Wulomei band pioneered a folklorised Ga highlife sound from 1973.

Like many musicians of his generation, Gyasi was a passionate supporter of Ghana’s independence movement. In 1963, he travelled as a musical ambassador alongside Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah, performing across North Africa and the USSR and carrying Ghanaian culture onto the world stage.

The Noble Kings’ mid-’70s line-up featured some of the country’s finest musicians, including guitarist Eric Agyeman (who led the band at the time), Thomas Frimpong on drums and vocals, Ernest Honny on organ, and bassist Ralph Karikari - who was renowned for his innovative technique of translating the rhythms and tonal language of the traditional talking drum onto electric bass.

Upon its original release, Sikyi Highlife became one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1970s for Essiebons, earning Gyasi the affectionate honorary title of “Dr” from his devoted fans. Today, the album remains an evergreen classic, still cherished across Ghana and beyond.