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From Wisdom Teeth’s recent compilation nagoyaka na kaze / 和やかな風 (quiet wind)—which cast a spotlight on the Japanese city of Nagoya—emerges “2++”, a new label launched by abentis, who curated the compilation alongside Facta and K-LONE as a central figure in the scene. Conceived as a series introducing facets of Nagoya’s underground electronic music to the world on vinyl, its inaugural release is abentis’ debut album, Dim Grow.

Across the album, intricately designed electronic mallet sounds—created using Ableton Live’s physical-modeling synthesizer—take center stage. Fresh and percussive like marimba or kalimba, yet simultaneously carrying an otherworldly, unreal quality, these tones form the core of the record’s sonic identity. In moments of near-silence, a crystalline resonance poised between glass and metal shimmers with subtle shifts in temperature, giving the album its distinctive texture.

While resonating with the sonic sensibilities of fellow Wisdom Teeth affiliates such as K-LONE, Tristan Arp, and Salamanda, abentis’ uniquely strange palette can be traced back to one of his strongest influences: Haruomi Hosono. In particular, Hosono’s mid-’70s tropical-infused solo albums — Tropical Dandy (1975), Bon Voyage Co. (1976), and Paraiso (1978) — serve as a key reference point. Symbolically reflected in Hosono’s marimba and vocal performance at a 1976 live show in Yokohama Chinatown, the marimba functioned as a central instrument for constructing imagined exotic landscapes inspired by Martin Denny and Hawaiian music.

For abentis—who worked at a local jazz bar before becoming active as a hip-hop beatmaker—the language of “tension chords,” a harmonic vocabulary rooted in jazz and R&B that hovers ambiguously between brightness and darkness, forms a consistent grammar throughout Dim Grow.

Behind the album’s core theme of “mallets + tension chords” lies a broad musical lineage: the harmonic sensibility of Claude Debussy, who anticipated the tensions of jazz; the proto-minimalist spirit of Erik Satie; the marimba-centered structures of Steve Reich; their continuation in Japan through Mkwaju Ensemble (with Midori Takada and production by Joe Hisaishi); and the subsequent branches into post-rock, electronica, and ambient music.

Growing up in Nagoya—an industrial city where creative independence is deeply valued—and being rooted in punk and hip-hop counterculture scenes naturally fostered abentis’ affinity with these predecessors. His practice between genres, combined with an encounter with the highly cross-pollinated musical perspective cultivated around Wisdom Teeth, provided the framework through which his own musical language crystallized. Dim Grow stands as the natural culmination of that journey.

"Singled Out" kommt als auf 1000 Stück limitierte Doppel-LP auf farbigem Vinyl (LP1 blau / LP2 kirschrot) im Klappcover oder als glänzende CD! Dreiunddreißig Tracks! Alle 7"-Singles der Band bis jetzt! Das sind alle ihre A- und B-Seiten! Mit dabei sind zwei bald erscheinende Singles, von denen eine als kostenlose 7" der nächsten Ausgabe des SAFETY PIN MAGAZINE beiliegt. Die andere gibt's als streng limitierte Lathe-Cut-7". Um Komplettisten zu begeistern oder zu ärgern, wird gleichzeitig eine dritte (Standard-)7"-Single veröffentlicht, deren A- und B-Seite hier nicht enthalten sind. Cyanide Pills veröffentlichten 2009 ihre erste 7"-Single ,Break It Up", gefolgt von weiteren 14 fantastischen 45er-Singles, zuletzt eine Split-Single mit den Schweizer Nasty Rumours Anfang letzten Jahres. Die meisten dieser Veröffentlichungen enthielten exklusive B-Seiten, die auf keinem Album zu finden sind und die Damaged Goods für ,Singled Out" zusammengestellt haben. Schön, sie alle an einem Ort zu haben, oder? Alle Tracks wurden im Billiard Room in Leeds mit dem Produzenten Carl ,Razorblade" Rosamond aufgenommen. ,Einflüsse? Hmm, nun, wir hören nicht nur Punkrock, das taten auch die frühen Bands nicht, weil es noch keinen gab", sagte Leadsänger Phil 2023 im Gespräch mit dem Magazin ,Vive le Rock". ,Wir mögen natürlich die üblichen Verdächtigen, unsere Favoriten sind die belgische Band The Kids, X-Ray Spex und Buzzcocks. Wir mögen Satan's Rats, The Tours, Knots, The Fingers, Panic, Kleenex, Crime, The Terrorways, Victims, Wipers, The Briefs, The Spits, The Plugz, Bad Nerves, Nasty Rumours, solche Sachen, jede Menge Sachen, Syd Barrett, The Kinks, MC5, Stooges, Bowie, Ruben and the Jets, Kim Fowley, John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf. Die Liste geht weiter und weiter und weiter."

Brown Spirits are a super-heavy psychedelic three-piece band who play raw energetic super-charged psych rock heavily influenced by krautrock, freejazz and deep funk music from the 1970s that gives them a truly unique and highly addictive sound. The group record and mix their own music to ¼-
inch analogue tape at home maintaining a strictly DIY-ethic.

Brown Spirits are Tim Wold, Agostino Soldati and Ash Buscombe. The group are from the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, home to an ever-growing
music scene that includes Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Surprise Chef, Tropical Fuck Storm and more.
The group have already released two superb critically-acclaimed album on Soul Jazz Records – ‘Cosmic Seeds’ and Solitary Transmissions’.
Soul Jazz Records are releasing three new albums from the Australian group on one day. All three albums are super-limited one-off special coloured
vinyl pressings of just 500 copies each that will all be deleted on the day of release.

These three albums were originally released (between 2017-2020) in long-deleted very short run-editions - either self-released in Australia or on an
indie German psych label. No copies of Brown Spirits #2 or Brown Spirits #3 are currently available anywhere in the world. Both of Brown Spirits two
earlier releases for Soul Jazz Records are also sold out on vinyl and these three super-limited special edition LPs will also sell out.

Brown Spirits are a super-heavy psychedelic three-piece band who play raw energetic super-charged psych rock heavily influenced by krautrock, freejazz and deep funk music from the 1970s that gives them a truly unique and highly addictive sound. The group record and mix their own music to ¼-
inch analogue tape at home maintaining a strictly DIY-ethic.

Brown Spirits are Tim Wold, Agostino Soldati and Ash Buscombe. The group are from the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, home to an ever-growing
music scene that includes Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Surprise Chef, Tropical Fuck Storm and more.
The group have already released two superb critically-acclaimed album on Soul Jazz Records – ‘Cosmic Seeds’ and Solitary Transmissions’.
Soul Jazz Records are releasing three new albums from the Australian group on one day. All three albums are super-limited one-off special coloured
vinyl pressings of just 500 copies each that will all be deleted on the day of release.

These three albums were originally released (between 2017-2020) in long-deleted very short run-editions - either self-released in Australia or on an
indie German psych label. No copies of Brown Spirits #2 or Brown Spirits #3 are currently available anywhere in the world. Both of Brown Spirits two
earlier releases for Soul Jazz Records are also sold out on vinyl and these three super-limited special edition LPs will also sell out.

Brown Spirits are a super-heavy psychedelic three-piece band who play raw energetic super-charged psych rock heavily influenced by krautrock, freejazz and deep funk music from the 1970s that gives them a truly unique and highly addictive sound. The group record and mix their own music to ¼-
inch analogue tape at home maintaining a strictly DIY-ethic.

Brown Spirits are Tim Wold, Agostino Soldati and Ash Buscombe. The group are from the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, home to an ever-growing
music scene that includes Amyl and the Sniffers, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard, Surprise Chef, Tropical Fuck Storm and more.
The group have already released two superb critically-acclaimed album on Soul Jazz Records – ‘Cosmic Seeds’ and Solitary Transmissions’.
Soul Jazz Records are releasing three new albums from the Australian group on one day. All three albums are super-limited one-off special coloured
vinyl pressings of just 500 copies each that will all be deleted on the day of release.

These three albums were originally released (between 2017-2020) in long-deleted very short run-editions - either self-released in Australia or on an
indie German psych label. No copies of Brown Spirits #2 or Brown Spirits #3 are currently available anywhere in the world. Both of Brown Spirits two
earlier releases for Soul Jazz Records are also sold out on vinyl and these three super-limited special edition LPs will also sell out.

Seit über 30 Jahren ist Simon Joyner eine Ausnahmeerscheinung - ein vollkommen unabhängiger Künstler, der sich ganz auf sein Handwerk konzentriert. Der in Omaha lebende Singer-Songwriter veröffentlichte Anfang der 90er Jahre erstmals Musik und ist seitdem seinem Weg treu geblieben. Joyners Songs voller stiller Freude und Herzschmerz haben verschiedene Generationen von Künstlerkollegen geprägt und zeigen sich als offensichtlicher Einfluss bei Acts wie Bright Eyes oder Kevin Morby sowie als Anklänge gemeinsamer Perspektiven bei den nachfolgenden Lenkers, Oldhams und Molinas. "Tough Love", Joyners 19. Studioalbum, setzt diesen Aufwärtstrend fort. Obwohl es untrennbar mit der persönlichen Trauer von "Coyote Butterfly" aus dem Jahr 2024 verbunden ist - dem autobiografischen Album, das Joyner nach dem Tod seines Sohnes aufgenommen hat - erforscht dieses neue Album das Konzept der ,tough love" als Dichotomie, die auf verschiedene fiktive Beziehungen angewendet wird, darunter romantische, familiäre und politische. Dieser Balanceakt zeigt sich in lebhaften Schilderungen alltäglicher Herzensschmerzen und in der Auseinandersetzung mit politischer Wut und dem Verrat am amerikanischen Traum. Eines der Wunder von Joyners Werk ist, dass sich seine Muster nicht wiederholen, sondern wandeln. Anspielungen auf Cohen, Dylan und die Velvets sind seit den frühen Lo-Fi-Tagen Teil seines Songwritings, doch die Art und Weise, wie diese Vorbilder einfließen, verändert sich ständig. Während Joyners raue Akustiksongs im Rampenlicht stehen, werden sie von E-Gitarren angestachelt und sind von experimentellen Tendenzen durchdrungen. Die Rocksongs bilden einen Mittelweg zwischen minimalistischen Grooves, die von Velvet Underground der Loaded-Ära übernommen wurden, und der ekstatischen rhythmischen Verrücktheit von Can. Wenn wir beim vorletzten Track, ,Anniversary Song", angelangt sind, haben die geisterhaften Vocals und die Scratches des mikrotonalen Synthesizers die Grenzen zwischen Joyners Folk-Sänger-Herz und seinem Avantgarde-Geist verwischt. All das mündet in den 20-minütigen Titeltrack, der "Tough Love" abschließt - ein erschütternder Sturz in einen scheinbar bodenlosen Abgrund aus Reue, Überlebensschuld und unverblümter Trauer. Er leiht sich eine repetitive Struktur aus Lou Reeds erzählter Suite ,Street Hassle" und kombiniert sie mit dem seitenfüllenden Zeugnis von Dylans ,Sad-eyed Lady of the Lowlands", Joyner erzählt dazu aus der Perspektive seines verstorbenen Sohnes, der zu seinem Vater spricht, all seine Fehler darlegt und schonungslos hervorhebt, dass nichts davon rückgängig gemacht werden kann. Bald jedoch öffnet sich diese Qual zu etwas Transzendentem, sowohl in ihrer eleganten Bildsprache als auch in ihrer ätherischen Atmosphäre. Die letzten Momente des Albums gewähren die Erlaubnis zur Selbstvergebung und hoffentlich eines Tages auch zum Verständnis. Dieses kathartische Ende bringt all die verworrenen Gefühle, die sich durch "Tough Love" ziehen, auf den Punkt. So wie Joyner das Songwriting aus ungewöhnlichen Blickwinkeln angegangen ist, die sich jedes Mal ändern, wenn er zur Gitarre greift, um ein neues Album aufzunehmen, so verändert sich auch auf "Tough Love" seine Beziehung zu Trauer, den alltäglichen Kämpfen und dem ewigen Streben nach etwas Besserem.

UK DJ and producer Eusebeia makes his Aquaregia debut with Critical Impact, a four-track EP drawing on the house, techno and trance records that shaped him in the 90s and early 2000s. Bass-heavy and cosmic in atmosphere, the record moves through dark electro, evolving trance and driving techno, with flashes of acid running throughout. Eusebeia's low-end instincts, honed in drum & bass, give each track a heaviness and punch that hits hard on the floor, as his synth work draws us up into the cosmos.

With festival season in the air, Vince Watson lets loose on his big summer track for 2026. Piano-heavy ‘The Awakening’ hits right on the money - full-on hands in the air piano and some E-Dancer-style bass give this track the ‘Summer Anthem’ vibes. This is a hit record! It’s backed up with a stripped-back version, letting go of the big orchestral strings to make way for more heat from that E-Dancer baseline. On the flip side, there is a faster BPM edit of ‘Flashback’ from his 2023 album ‘Another Moment In Time’, not only bringing a more friendly club tempo, but also extra heat and intensity in the build-ups.


[b] A2: The Awakening [No Strings Attached]
[c] B1: Flashback [Edit]

Big Crown freut sich, das zweite Album von Thee Marloes, ,Di Hotel Malibu", zu präsentieren. Es erweitert den Rahmen - ein selbstbewusster Schritt weg von den Grenzen, die ihren Sound einst klar definierten, hin zu etwas Durchlässigerem, Gesprächigerem und zutiefst Indonesischem. Zwei Jahre sind vergangen, seit ,Perak", das Debütalbum des Trios aus Surabaya bei Big Crown Records, ihren einzigartigen Sound vorstellte. Dieses neue Album bricht nicht mit dieser Tradition, sondern erweitert sie und zeigt, wie sehr sie als Band seit der Veröffentlichung ihres Debüts und all den damit verbundenen Erfahrungen gewachsen sind. Bestehend aus der Sängerin und Keyboarderin Natassya Sianturi, dem Gitarristen und Produzenten Sinatrya Dharaka und dem Schlagzeuger Tommy Satwick, haben Thee Marloes stets als Einheit gearbeitet, wobei ihre Songs von Satwick, haben Thee Marloes stets als Einheit gearbeitet, wobei ihre Songs von gemeinsamen Referenzpunkten und einem ausgeprägten Sinn für Groove geprägt sind.

Auf diesem Album erweitert sich diese gemeinsame Sprache. Die Arrangements bewegen sich über ein breiteres Spektrum, mit neuen instrumentalen Farben, unerwarteten rhythmischen Wendungen und einem lockereren Ansatz in Bezug auf die Struktur. Die Band beschreibt es als eine Reaktion auf die letzten zwei Jahre ihres Lebens: soziale Realitäten, Liebesleben in Der Album-Opener ,Under the Silver Moon" ist ein kühler Two-Stepper, der die bitteren und süßen Seiten von Fernbeziehungen vor einem luftigen musikalischen Hintergrund thematisiert. ,Six Years" ist eine Seite aus dem Leben der Sängerin Natassya Sianturi und ihrem Kampf, den Schritt zu wagen, einen bequemen und sicheren Tagesjob aufzugeben, um ihrem Traum von einem erfüllten Leben zu folgen.

Big Crown freut sich, das zweite Album von Thee Marloes, ,Di Hotel Malibu", zu präsentieren. Es erweitert den Rahmen - ein selbstbewusster Schritt weg von den Grenzen, die ihren Sound einst klar definierten, hin zu etwas Durchlässigerem, Gesprächigerem und zutiefst Indonesischem. Zwei Jahre sind vergangen, seit ,Perak", das Debütalbum des Trios aus Surabaya bei Big Crown Records, ihren einzigartigen Sound vorstellte. Dieses neue Album bricht nicht mit dieser Tradition, sondern erweitert sie und zeigt, wie sehr sie als Band seit der Veröffentlichung ihres Debüts und all den damit verbundenen Erfahrungen gewachsen sind. Bestehend aus der Sängerin und Keyboarderin Natassya Sianturi, dem Gitarristen und Produzenten Sinatrya Dharaka und dem Schlagzeuger Tommy Satwick, haben Thee Marloes stets als Einheit gearbeitet, wobei ihre Songs von Satwick, haben Thee Marloes stets als Einheit gearbeitet, wobei ihre Songs von gemeinsamen Referenzpunkten und einem ausgeprägten Sinn für Groove geprägt sind.

Auf diesem Album erweitert sich diese gemeinsame Sprache. Die Arrangements bewegen sich über ein breiteres Spektrum, mit neuen instrumentalen Farben, unerwarteten rhythmischen Wendungen und einem lockereren Ansatz in Bezug auf die Struktur. Die Band beschreibt es als eine Reaktion auf die letzten zwei Jahre ihres Lebens: soziale Realitäten, Liebesleben in Der Album-Opener ,Under the Silver Moon" ist ein kühler Two-Stepper, der die bitteren und süßen Seiten von Fernbeziehungen vor einem luftigen musikalischen Hintergrund thematisiert. ,Six Years" ist eine Seite aus dem Leben der Sängerin Natassya Sianturi und ihrem Kampf, den Schritt zu wagen, einen bequemen und sicheren Tagesjob aufzugeben, um ihrem Traum von einem erfüllten Leben zu folgen.

Big Crown freut sich, das zweite Album von Thee Marloes, ,Di Hotel Malibu", zu präsentieren. Es erweitert den Rahmen - ein selbstbewusster Schritt weg von den Grenzen, die ihren Sound einst klar definierten, hin zu etwas Durchlässigerem, Gesprächigerem und zutiefst Indonesischem. Zwei Jahre sind vergangen, seit ,Perak", das Debütalbum des Trios aus Surabaya bei Big Crown Records, ihren einzigartigen Sound vorstellte. Dieses neue Album bricht nicht mit dieser Tradition, sondern erweitert sie und zeigt, wie sehr sie als Band seit der Veröffentlichung ihres Debüts und all den damit verbundenen Erfahrungen gewachsen sind. Bestehend aus der Sängerin und Keyboarderin Natassya Sianturi, dem Gitarristen und Produzenten Sinatrya Dharaka und dem Schlagzeuger Tommy Satwick, haben Thee Marloes stets als Einheit gearbeitet, wobei ihre Songs von Satwick, haben Thee Marloes stets als Einheit gearbeitet, wobei ihre Songs von gemeinsamen Referenzpunkten und einem ausgeprägten Sinn für Groove geprägt sind.

Auf diesem Album erweitert sich diese gemeinsame Sprache. Die Arrangements bewegen sich über ein breiteres Spektrum, mit neuen instrumentalen Farben, unerwarteten rhythmischen Wendungen und einem lockereren Ansatz in Bezug auf die Struktur. Die Band beschreibt es als eine Reaktion auf die letzten zwei Jahre ihres Lebens: soziale Realitäten, Liebesleben in Der Album-Opener ,Under the Silver Moon" ist ein kühler Two-Stepper, der die bitteren und süßen Seiten von Fernbeziehungen vor einem luftigen musikalischen Hintergrund thematisiert. ,Six Years" ist eine Seite aus dem Leben der Sängerin Natassya Sianturi und ihrem Kampf, den Schritt zu wagen, einen bequemen und sicheren Tagesjob aufzugeben, um ihrem Traum von einem erfüllten Leben zu folgen.

Gravity Pleasure welcomes Maude Vôs for their most intimate EP offering to date, Medicinal Properties. Dripping in serenity and grounded in connection, Medicinal Properties is a musical elixir concocted with the healing modalities of the natural world and derived from the intentional planting and nurturing of sapphic seeds. Through minor modes, swimming cinematics and mineral-rich textures, Vôs traverses an ecosystem of sensuality and bonding, a symbiotic journey of long-distance love colored and shaped by their affinity for the earth.

Taking root in California and continuing throughout Ireland, Iceland, and Montreal, the EP translates this cross-continental connection by blurring the lines of timezones, genres, and natural landscapes. Inspired by sea swims, country oyster cottages, diner pancakes, snow flurries, geothermal soaks, mossy mornings, and adventures to igneous formations, Vôs invites you to experience this potent body of work, which forms the harmonious emotional bedrock of both kinship and creation.

Support comes from Yushh (“LOVE, so good!!!”), Jossy Mitsu (“Incredible <3”), Mixtress (“v pretty”), Peder Mannerfelt (“hot”), Batu (“like Maude Vos, downloading”), Vladimir Ivkovic (“Good! Thank you”), and OM UNIT (“Orr kore is lush”), amongst others.

Time To Get On Board A New Black Universal Express.

With each new recording Anthony Joseph presents an imaginative, personal vision of contemporary black culture, and The Ark is yet another compelling album by the award-winning Trinidadian poet and musician. This second part of a sequence of two albums launched with last year’s Rowing Up River To Get Our Names Back, finds Joseph giving full vent to his desire to explore many thought-provoking themes. However, there is a specific thread running through the glorious offering of sounds.

”I was especially interested in the idea of using Afrofuturism as a means of using the future in order to correct the wrongs of the past,” explains Joseph. “And so a lot of lyrics reimage or imagine an alternate black history. At the same time there are elements of autobiography.” The aforesaid cultural phenomenon, a view of the black experience through the prism of science fiction and ancient Egypt and Africa, as mapped out by visionaries from music and literature such as Sun Ra, Parliament-Funkadelic and Octavia E. Butler, has previously inspired Joseph. His 2006 novel The African Origins Of UFOs was a multi-hued work, and the new music shows how Joseph

has, much like all significant artists, gone on to broaden his conceptual palette, creating beguiling new stories and images set to startling rhythms and tones. Tracks such as ‘James’, with its taut, crisp bass and dubbed-up brass, and ‘Transposition Of Space (Glissant)’, a potent evocation of the influential Martiniquan theorist set in a haze of jazz guitar and ambient synthesizers, are marvels of text-sound painting.

As for ‘Baron Samedi’, shaped by a languid, almost wounded guitar line and slow rise of horns that frame Joseph’s journey to the ‘mountain of fire, almost touching the sky’ it is an epic blend of commanding vocal delivery and dramatic sonic tapestry.

Joseph led the Spasm band in the early 2000s and recorded well-received albums such as Bird Head Son and Time, in which songs were largely based on spirituals or chants enhanced by improvisation. But his musical curiosity has naturally led to collaborations, and the new work is produced by Dave Okumu, the prodigiously talented guitarist-vocalist-composer known as the leader of Mercury Music Prize-nominated The Invisible, and who was also a member of the seminal band Jade Fox.

Having first performed together at a show curated by influential saxophonist-flautist Shabaka Hutchings at the storied Total Refreshment Centre In London during lockdown, Joseph and Okumu struck up a rapport that further developed when the former guested on he latter’s album. With the connection made Joseph knew Okumu was the ideal producer for this latest project, which has a freewheeling, almost black psychedelic thing. After sifting through demos and loops the guitarist made on pro-tools the poet started to live with the music. Many months later words began to take shape. Joseph then went into the studio with Okumu’s band and set about creating a magnum opus. Boasting a stellar cast such as vocalist Eska Mtungwazi, trumpeter Byron Wallen and keyboardist Nick Ramm, The Ark is a highly intricate musical mosaic framed by simmering funk grooves, wily jazz improvisation and haunting dub effects. Through the use of many genres the music has simply become its own genre.

The Ark can be perceived as a vessel or means of transport to new worlds, along the lines of Sun Ra’s Ark or Funkadelic’s Mothership, and the material it contains is a unique blend of who Anthony Joseph is and how he sees the world and society in these stimulating, challenging times. “It balances the personal with the universal in a much more vulnerable, accessible way than on previous albums,” Joseph explains.

“It has become less about a personal experience and more about a collective, communal experience in which the artist is conduit, messenger, urban griot.”

Liepāja’s Elektrons is a contemporary electronic music compilation on vinyl, bringing together artists connected to the Baltic city of Liepāja. The LP features eleven original tracks that reflect the diversity and vitality of the local electronic scene — from deep techno and liquid funk to experimental ambient, IDM, and broken beats. Across the record’s two sides, Liepāja’s Elektrons brings together a diverse constellation of producers shaping the city’s electronic identity. The A-side features Cliché, Nejauši, Kristaps Puķītis, DJ KEDA feat. Ieva Dreimane-Sidare, BAZIITS, and NiklāvZ feat. Kenji, moving fluidly from intricate IDM textures and atmospheric experimentation to liquid funk rhythms and high-energy drum’n’bass. The B-side continues the journey with Ksenia Kamikaza, Eque, OMIROS, ALTER V and Existal, exploring deep and peak-time techno, minimal house and progressive sonic structures.

For its 30th anniversary, Kruder & Dorfmeister’s DJ-Kicks is available for the first time in mixed form on 3LP, remastered by Bernie Grundman and packaged in a special box set including original imagery. Kruder & Dorfmeister's rendition of the series created an era defining moment, which tied together a glowing array of musical registers. The Viennese downtempo royalty blended a fusion of slowed down moments across many genres with rolling Drum and Bass from the likes of Aquasky, the melting acid lines of deep Hardfloor and the 90s boom bap sampling, smoked out atmospherics of Thievery Corporation amongst many more.

These masters of mood channeled the sound of a moment with their DJ-Kicks, which still retains a certified cinematic sheen, the patina of the real – curation and mixing at its most playful and refined. It remains to this day one of the most recognizable DJ-Kicks and mixes of all time. Containing two certified cuts from K&D themselves; the wooze is strong on “High Noon” with Dorfmeister's intoxicating jazz flute licks and a trembling harmonica atop a mirage of breaks. Their DJ-Kicks original and legendary tune “Black Baby” closes the mix providing a piece of grandeur, riding off into the distance deep to the vanishing point.

When the mix dropped in 1996, the slo-beat pioneers were among the hottest producers in the dance universe. Even though they only produced two unreleased maxis, names like Count Basie, Bomb The Bass, Alex Reece or United Future Organization had some of their tracks remixed by these exceptional producers. Rumour has it during the work for DJ-Kicks and their debut album they refused doing remixes for U2, Grace Jones, Elvis Costello and the Fantastic Four! ‘DJ-Kicks: Kruder & Dorfmeister’ took its place in the pantheon a long while back, effortless in its ability to traverse sounds, styles and tempos while retaining a selection which remains timelessly recognisable as: Kruder & Dorfmeister.

Schwarzweißes Split-Vinyl LP! "Ultra-catchy. A wicked side of garage soul" - CLASH // "One of their catchiest pieces yet, Sassy, groovy, toe-tapping" - CLASSIC ROCK // "A giddying rush of noise" - MOJO // "The real sound of now busting through my door, new songs that keep kicking the history forward. I can't imagine my turntable without The Courettes" - David Fricke, ROLLING STONE // Die dänisch-brasilianische Band The Courettes war von Anfang an eine Rock'n'Roll-Sensation und kehrte 2024 mit ihrem vierten und bisher besten Album zurück: "The Soul Of... The Fabulous Courettes". The Courettes treffen genau den richtigen Punkt zwischen Garage-Rock, Girlgroup-Pop, Doo-Wop-Harmonien, Herzschmerz und allem, was dazwischen liegt.

We are pleased to announce the first FEX live album, Don't Look Back. The release features selected recordings from two concerts in Paderborn and Uelzen, both captured in 1985. All tracks on the album are previously unissued, including entirely unheard songs such as It's a Hard Life, Just Get Back, Legend, and Waiting Song, alongside a previously unreleased version of Subways of Your Mind, widely known as "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet."
One of the most striking aspects of the album is the remarkable sound quality of the live recordings, as well as the strength of the performances themselves - particularly given that FEX were still considered a newcomer band at the time. The four-piece lineup consisted of singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Ture Rückwardt, Michael Hädrich on keyboards and occasional second guitar, Norbert Ziermann on bass, and Hans-Reimer Sievers on drums. In 1985, the band was preparing for broader exposure through a nationwide tour organized by the small promotion company HBM-Musikbüro.
The album opens with the psychedelic Skyscraper, a track Rückwardt reportedly regarded as a personal favorite to perform. Hädrich contributes dynamic synthesizer layers, while Ziermann underpins the track with a distinctive slap bass groove. This is followed by the energetic rock number It's a Hard Life, which once again demonstrates that the band possessed multiple songs capable of matching the impact of their best known track Subways of Your Mind.
After this energetic opening, the album shifts into a more restrained mood with the synth-pop ballad I Got My Eyes On You. It is followed by Strange Feeling, presented here in a particularly compelling live version that arguably surpasses the previously released studio demo featured on the Skyscraper LP, with Rückwardt delivering one of his most expressive vocal performances. On Goldrush, another fan favorite, it is Hädrich's DX7 synthesizer work that stands out.
Don't Look Back continues to flow seamlessly, moving between styles such as new wave, synth pop, and a blues-influenced form of classic rock. On It's Good To Know, a song addressing the theme of stardom, the band returns to a heavier rock sound. In contrast, the synth-driven Just Get Back reflects on the conflict in Northern Ireland, then ongoing at the time. Lines such as "It's the money, it's the money why they come along" are directed at mercenary soldiers, while "even Sunday's a killing time" directly references Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.
Previously known songs such as Dirty Slapstick and Heart in Danger lead into We Don't Want It No More, perhaps the band's most striking pop ballad. It is easy to imagine that the track had the potential to achieve radio success in the 1980s. The following piece, the epic Legend, explores themes of loneliness and love simultaneously. With poetic and abstract lines such as "some isolate in the falling rain" and "that's why I count all the reasons they call out for living, sadness is falling inside," it builds an almost eerie atmosphere.
One of the final highlights of the album is Subways of Your Mind, recorded in Uelzen. In this version, Rückwardt's vocal performance is even more on point than on the previously issued recording from Paderborn. Another notable moment is the driving, 1970s-inspired rock 'n' roll track Waiting Song. Both the composition and its live performance carry an energy that could easily stand alongside the repertoire of bands such as AC/DC. It was usually the track that FEX ended their concerts with, calling out each band member at the end of the song.
This leads to a broader reflection: it is striking that FEX did not achieve a wider breakthrough at the time. The performances captured here suggest a band capable of delivering consistently, song by song, note by note. It is not difficult to imagine FEX performing in large venues and engaging sizeable audiences. In reality, however, most performances in 1985 took place in front of relatively small crowds. The recordings featured on this album originate from the Roxy club in Paderborn and a small, unknown venue in Uelzen, likely in front of fewer than fifty attendees.
An essential figure behind these recordings is the engineer known only under his nickname Hase (German for "rabbit"), who was responsible for capturing not only these concerts but many other surviving FEX recordings. Bringing his own mixing desk to performances, he developed a deep familiarity with the band's material and was able to shape the live sound with precision, including the timely use of vocal effects. The original recordings existed only on cassette and required careful and extensive restoration work. Zoey Cairs was finally responsible for bringing them to their present quality.
This album marks the beginning of the Live Waves series, following the rediscovery of additional recordings that have gained international attention since November 2024, when they surfaced through what has been described as the largest "lost wave" music search to date. The title of this first live LP Don't Look Back carries a certain paradox. While the album invites listeners to revisit recordings from forty years ago, FEX themselves were always oriented toward the future. In that spirit, further releases of brand new material are already planned.
The cover artwork is once again based on an image by Magnussen from the Kiel archive, depicting the Prinz-Heinrich-Brücke. The bridge, once located in the northern part of the city, no longer exists. As a symbol, however, it remains fitting: a bridge stands for movement and connection - qualities that FEX sought to embody on tour, bringing their music to different places and audiences.

"Imagine a classic singer/songwriter record loaded with the intimacy and grit reminiscent of Alex Chilton or Nikki Sudden." Shindig

Los Angeles singer-songwriter Tracy Bryant returns with his new album The Well, which is his first release since 2019’s critically acclaimed Hush. His fourth solo album, The Well marks a striking new chapter, trading his signature guitar-driven sound for piano-led songwriting that took root during the pandemic. The album was born out of one of the most turbulent periods of his life, written in the wake of his father’s sudden passing and birth of his first child. It was produced by longtime friend and compatriot Joo-Joo Ashworth at Studio 22 in Cypress Park, CA, and mastered by Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters. The nine songs are filled with raw emotion and driving motorik rhythm, telling tales of loss and love, relationships beginning and ending.
 
When the pandemic upended Bryant’s promotion for Hush and brought his 2019 European tour to a halt, he found himself at home rediscovering his musical roots at the piano, listening to Vince Guaraldi and Arthur Russell to take inspiration for the song structures. Without a band around, Bryant used the instrument to create both rhythm and melody, which resulted in a repetitive and precise backbeat, which was elevated when he began working with drummer Carmeron Gartung to rehearse the new songs. This different approach would define the style of The Well, creating an amalgamation of sounds with classic songwriting structures blended with post-punk, 90s indie, krautrock and psychedelia.
 
To produce the record, Bryant turned to Joo-Joo Ashworth, who share a friendship stretching back to 2011 (when Joo Joo was only 18) when both of their bands, Corners and Froth, were at the forefront of the bourgeoning Los Angeles/Echo Park music scene of the time and embarked on their first national tours together. Ashworth, who has since become one of underground music’s most respected producers, recorded the album throughout 2024/2025 on half inch tape at Studio 22 in Cypress Park, California, giving The Well a warm, considered sound that matches the weight of its subject matter.
 
The album’s emotional core was forged by two significant life events arriving in close succession. In January 2022, Bryant’s father passed away unexpectedly at the age of 67. Just three months later, Tracy and his wife welcomed their first child. The Well is a direct result of those experiences, a songwriter processing grief and joy, endings and beginnings in real time. 
 
The nine songs take the listener on a meticulously crafted journey through the nooks and crannies of Bryant’s mind. Spanning 37 minutes, the album is an exploration of classic songwriting elements moving fluidly between driving beat punk, like “Weight” and “Widow”, and more melancholic tracks like “Halfway” and “Danny”. Album opener “Cold Floor” sets the tone immediately, Bryant’s lyrics confronting the day of his father’s death with unflinching directness – the breezy California piano sound is in direct contrast to the heavy theme. The Bowie-esque title track is perhaps the album’s most expansive moment – a fully realised epic composed with a dynamic flare. 
 
 The Well feels like an arrival. Dramatic and expansive, it is a true, visceral reflection of the life changing events that altered the course of Bryant’s life. Fans will be surprised by the heavy focus on piano but they will welcome the change as a bold turning point for an artist who has lived long enough to know exactly what he wants to say. 

Some previous press:

"feels like a slice of California, down to its ringing post-surf guitars and bright melodies, but cross-cut with a folk sensibility more aligned to the work of Elliot Smith or, on occasions, Conor Oberst." Uncut - lead album review

"…sees the Los Angeles rocker confront both the finer and uglier aspects of love and life, combining classic rock with psychedelic tinges and catchy melodies." Evening Standard 4*s

Wer sich Drunks Debütalbum ,A Derby Spiritual" aus dem Jahr 1996 noch einmal anhört, wird feststellen, dass es charmanter, sanfter und - wenn ich das so sagen darf - farbenfroher ist, als es sein stoischer Slow-Core-Ruf aus den 90ern vermuten lässt. Und man könnte sogar bemerken, dass Rick Alversons Stimme einen bisher ungeahnten, von Niederlagen gezeichneten Tom-Petty-Singsang aufweist. Der Sound der Band aus Richmond ist zweifellos zurückhaltend, knarrend und karg. Doch die Jahrzehnte haben diesem alten, traurigen Kerl einen wärmenden bernsteinfarbenen Schimmer verliehen. Das Black-Hole-Radio-Stück am Ende des atemberaubenden Openers ,Collarbone" scheint das Kommen von ,Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" vorherzusagen. Und hier in der seltsamen Gegenwart könnten Stücke wie ,Germany Skies", ,Gideon's Trumpet" und ,Gizmo" nahtlos in den heutigen Indie-Country-Boom eingefügt werden. Der seltsame Walzer aus Akkordeon und Geige in Stücken wie ,Indeliberate Matrimony" und ,Coming Home" klingt - wage ich es noch einmal zu sagen - wie Mellencamp aus der ,The Lonesome Jubilee"-Ära am Boden eines Fasses Schnaps. Alversons Lyrik schwankt zwischen dem hoffnungsvollen Nihilismus seines zeitgenössischen Songwriter- und Dichterkollegen aus Virginia, David Berman, und dem tiefgründigen Post-Beat-Minimalismus von Robert Creeley. Ich schwöre, wenn er in dem hoch-und-einsamen, von der Mundharmonika getragenen ,Window Sill" seufzt: ,I feel willy-nill/I pissed upon your window sill", klingt das im Lenderman'schen Sinne des Wortes verdammt romantisch. Im Rahmen des 30-jährigen Jubiläums von Jagjaguwar wird ,A Derby Spiritual", Jags zweite Veröffentlichung überhaupt, zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl gepresst. Ein drei Jahrzehnte langes Unrecht wird endlich wiedergutgemacht. Tatsächlich erscheinen im Rahmen der Feierlichkeiten zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum des Labels eine Handvoll dieser frühen Veröffentlichungen aus der Charlottesville-Ära von Jagjaguwar auf Vinyl.

The Drop presents Based On A True Story - 21st Anniversary Edition. Honouring Chris (MU) Faiumu, aka Dj Fitchie. Manuia Lou Malaga. Mystic soul supernova, "Based On A True Story" aka BOATS is the debut studio album from Fat Freddy"s Drop unleashed in May 2005. The BOATS album features 10 fresh slices of future funk, with surprises, fakes & freaky sidesteps throughout. BOATS is Aotearoa"s longest-charting album with 111 weeks in the Top 40, won eight NZ Music Awards and took out Gilles Peterson"s Worldwide Music Awards in the UK. On debut in Aotearoa, the independent released BOATS debuted at #1 and went Gold on its first release day. The tracklist featured six completely new tracks, as well as reworked versions of previously released singles like "This Room", "Hope" & "Ernie" (also known as "Willow Tree"), alongside "Flashback".