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2LP Repress!

The legendary partnership of NYC's Disco godfather Tom Moulton and Philadelphia International Records has long been documented.
A truly explosive collaboration that yielded endless classic tracks for dancers and deep listeners alike, Moulton seemed to be totally in tune with the labels output and the direction it should go in. Luckily we've been enjoying the fruits of this labour for the last 30+ years with a lot of these PIR classics becoming ingrained in the psyche of the modern day music fan as the building blocks of House music.

Another stellar volume of what is an essential purchase for any Disco lover. Featuring a host of legends from the height of the Philly era and beyond - Archie Bell & The Drells, People's Choice, Lou Rawls & Teddy Pendergrass are all graced by Tom Moulton's supreme ear on this special PIR reissue 2 x 12" that see's some all-time classics from the aforementioned artists in their full, unabridged, unedited Disco glory. The selections on this EP are absolutely top-shelf, flawless in fact. One could argue that these are the 'definitive' versions of these anthems. Pure Disco gold essentials. Anyone with even a passing interest in Disco will most certainly need this record in their possession, the 2012 pressing of this EP is super in demand among those in the know and it can change hands for big money in the used record world, time, undoubtedly, for a repress.

These tracks are fully licensed and reissued in conjunction with Tom Moulton and PIR and all relevant rights holders. Remastered from original source materials to the highest spec and pressed onto top quality vinyl, courtesy of Above Board distribution for 2019.

Hailing from the city of Brotherly Love, Terri Wells first came to prominence as a session singer for Philadelphia International Records in the mid 1970’s following the breakup of her group City Limits. Wells soon began recording and touring as a featured vocalist with artists such as Lou Rawl, M.F.S.B., Leon Huff, Jean Carne and Dexter Wansel. In 1979, she joined the band of Roy Ayres and eventually sang on “Turn Me Loose” and co-wrote the track “Let’s Stay Together” from his 1982 album “Feeling Good”. Recruited by staff producer Nick Martinelli, Terri signed as a solo act with the Philly World Records in 1983 and released her one and only full length offering “Just Like Dreamin’” The album features the singles “You Make It Heaven” and “I’llll Be Around” which both charted in the United Kingdom. To this day her sensational debut remains a classic example of the soulful Philly sound of the the early 1980’s.
- Features the hit singles “You Make It Heaven” and “I’ll Be Around”
- Produced by Nick Martinelli (Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Regina Belle, Phyllis Hyman, Stephanie Wells)
- Backing and arrangement fine the cream of the crop Philly Soul session aces

A great, self-contained, soul music collective that never got their just due because of a spurious tax scam that was prevalent in the record industry in the early to mid 1970”s - the group known as Spice, and their 1976 LP ‘Let Their Be Pice”, remained in obscurity without members of the band even knowing that it was ever released until nearly 30 years after the fact. Now, thanks to the sharp ears of his internet savvy aging motherland subsequent interviews with Spice”s leader Richard Brown Jr. - the full story of who this almost forgotten band was, and what happened to them and why, is finally revealed. Whatever transpired business wise should not obscure the quality of the music that resulted in the recording of this album. The performances are impeccable, the musicianship is top-notch, and the original songs in retrospect, were way ahead of their time. As a special treat for rare soul music lovers, this long-lost LP has been newly remastered for this exclusive release.

MELODIES” is the first album released on the MOON label. The album was the first album released on the MOON label, and it marked a drastic change
in sound direction from the RCA/AIR era, as a result, the range of their work expanded, and the Christmas classic “Christmas Eve” was born from their work.
The result is a monumental masterpiece that will remain in the history of pop music. Includes “Christmas Eve” “High Air Pressure Girl,” “Merry Go Round”
and more. Includes detailed liner notes by Tatsuro Yamashita himself!

The mysterious artist behind the alias Your Ex returns after a self-released EP in 2025 and a deep house killer 7-inch on Scruniversal Records in 2023. Now joining Vibes And Pepper Records, Your Ex opens 2026 with a five-track EP that channels a European twist on Chicago deep house—warm basslines, soulful chords, and hypnotic percussion layered with emotional depth and a timeless groove. Drawing inspiration from Jazz, Funk, Fusion, Library Music, Dub, and “out there” Electronic sounds, Your Exalso draws deeply from the foundational vibrations of Chicago and Detroit. These influences flow through every track—lush harmonies, intricate rhythms, and raw analog textures that bridge eras and styles. Staying true to an elusive identity, Your Ex lets the music speak: smoky late-night grooves, dusty hardware tones, and an undeniable sense of movement that nods to the roots while pushing forward. With Vibes And Pepper, the artist continues to blur the line between mystery and motion—a perfect start to the new year for those who still believe in the deep.

This official double vinyl is dedicated to Duplé, the historic nightclub that defined enre
generaons of clubbers.
It's a special project: two vinyl records collecng the tracks that made Duplé's history over the
years—the ones you danced to, shouted out, sang along with, and that sll give you goosebumps
on the first listen. An insert with historical notes and flyers recalling the most significant magical
nights is included.
This is not a simple record release, but a collector's item: a piece meculously curated, featuring
tracks that are somemes hard to find, selected specifically to tell the story of the club's soul and
its legendary events. This "Duplé Paura" double vinyl is a tribute to all who experienced its magic, both yesterday and
today.

Gene Tellem & Gabriel Rei are back as Game Plan with ‘Offset’, the follow up to their debut ‘Club Negotiations’ on Bienvenue Recordings. Three smashing tunes for the floor + a stunning remix from Metrolux head XDB!

All basses covered on this one! The 12” kicks off with the original mix of ‘Crazy For Congas’ providing an infectious House/Tribal groove. As the OG mix ends, the reshape kicks in… XDB strips the original down to build up the perfect Tech/Minimal companion for the AM hours!

The B side comes out swinging with ‘Industry’ in a Dub Techno sound to stoke the movement on the floor. Last but not least, a well rounded record always has a banging B2 & Game Plan would not leave you hanging. Play ‘Offset’ when you need to give the dancers some sweet satisfaction.

Indiana Jones never dug this deep.
Church – the brainchild of Joe Washington – were a band both lucky and cursed to come up in the seventies. Lucky, because they rode a wave of community activism, uplifting messages and a moment when music truly mattered. Cursed, because those same times meant their tight, heartfelt output went overlooked.
Mid-sixties to circa 1980 soul and funk were extraordinarily rich. The era’s big releases have aged like fine wine, yet countless hidden gems remain buried. Church’s only single was one of them. Their hypnotic 1976 release “How Long” b/w “Da Da Song” arrived the same year as Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Marvin Gaye’s I Want You, Diana Ross’s Diana, and at a time when Black mainstream music was shifting toward disco. Church, however, sounded like Sly & The Family Stone in an alternate timeline — gritty, focused, stripped of additives.
“Da Da Song” is pure grits and gravy: furious, tight drums and lyrics that sound like both a plea to DJs to play their record and an insistence to keep the party alive, noticed or not. It cooks from start to finish in just two and a half minutes.
“How Long” is its own universe. Where “Da Da Song” is skeletal, “How Long” blends key strands of Black music in under three minutes: touches of spiritual jazz with a Gary Bartz-like sax, gospel-blues undertones, and echoes of the era’s flower-power-tinged Black creativity — The Undisputed Truth, The Family Stone, even the poetic freedom of Nikki Giovanni. The lyrics are a timeless plea for love.
Church formed in the Bay Area in the early seventies, shaped by the movement, culture and activism of the time. Joseph Washington, based in San Jose, never chased a music career — for him, music was a way to bring people together. Before Church, he led a backing band called Wash, then added gospel singer Linda Williams (née Stephens) and New York–born Joel Como on xylophone to complete the group.
They rehearsed in Joe’s garage, spread through word of mouth and played every gig they could: Black colleges, opening slots for The Whispers, neighbourhood house parties. Some members studied at Nairobi Junior College in East Palo Alto, then a hotbed of Black community activism, with revolution in the air and messages woven naturally into the music.
This single is a message from that era, resurfacing at last — ready to be sampled just as another Joe Washington track, “Look Me in the Eyes”, was on Drake and J. Cole’s “First Person Shooter”. These rare, spirited tunes are begging for new life through samplers, again and again.

Rosa Brunello returns with Reworks, a 5-track EP featuring new reinterpretations of music from her acclaimed and now out-of-press albums Sounds Like Freedom (2022) and Senseless Acts Of Love (2024). Following recent highlights including the Women In Jazz Compilation, Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Basement and a sold-out Ronnie Scott’s show, Brunello invites a diverse group of collaborators to reshape her bass-driven compositions across jazz, dub and electronic forms. Featuring reworks by Eva Geist, Khalab, Neil Bopperson, Paolo Baldini and Joe Christensen (DJ Stepmom / King Pari), Reworks bridges contemporary jazz and forward-thinking club music. Released on limited 12” vinyl and digitally via Domanda Music.

Woody Herman Shaw war ein US-amerikanischer Jazztrompeter, Flügelhornist, Kornettist, Komponist, Arrangeur, Bandleader und Pädagoge. Shaw gilt weithin als einer der bedeutendsten und einflussreichsten Jazztrompeter und Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts. Das ursprünglich 1976 bei Muse Records erschienene Album „Love Dance“ gilt als eine der spirituellsten und zukunftsweisendsten Aufnahmen von Woody Shaw. Diese audiophile Neuauflage stellt den vollen Klangreichtum des Albums wieder her und fängt Shaws schwebende Trompetenlinien und das dynamische Zusammenspiel des Ensembles mit beispielloser Klarheit ein. Shaw leitet eine hochkarätige Besetzung – darunter Billy Harper, Steve Turre, René McLean, Cecil McBee und Joe Bonner – durch fünf ausladende Titel, die Modal Jazz, spirituelle Themen und Post-Bop-Intensität miteinander verbinden. „Love Dance“ ist ein Meilenstein in Shaws Diskografie und ein Muss für jeden Musikliebhaber – jetzt präsentiert mit der Tiefe und Detailtreue, die es schon immer verdient hat.

Now universally recognized as one the great ambassadors of House Music around the globe, Todd Edwards first built his reputation in the early 90’s with a string of 12" releases from some of New York’s more prominent independent labels. This was an era when on any given week you would have up to 100 new 12" releases from New York based producers, all vying for space on the 12" shop walls. In this hypercompetitive environment it was not easy for a new producer to garner a reputation. But Todd’s releases did not sound like anything else. Using an innovative blend of rhythmic, cut-and-paste vocal samples, rubbery basslines, and slapping percussion, he created a 4 track EP for Nervous in 1994 under the production acronym The Sample Choir. This 12" created such a massive buzz in the UK that it is now considered instrumental in helping to propel Britain’s Sunday clubscene into the genuine cultural phenomenon of speed garage.

ROTCIV is back with his new EP ‘Memory’, which marks the 20th release on Beartrax’s label Melodize. Throughout the record, the Berlin-based and native Brazilian producer explores his signature dark, mysterious, and atmospheric vibes shaped by the underground and queer club nights and dance-floors that fuel his sound, refined by over almost 30 years behind the decks.

Maintaining Melodize’s specialized sound deep-rooted in moody electronic principles, the EP opens with ‘Memory’, a piercing, dark, synth dynamic alongside rich tonal textures in both harmony and melodies alike. Unapologetic, yet calming and reminiscent of a slow drive through the winter nights; cold, yet bold, sharp, and comforting.

First to remix ‘Memory’ with a nostalgic, synth-heavy 80’s remix is Frankfurt-based DJ, producer, and visual artist Chinaski. Integrating his signature bold synth hooks into the track, Chinaski knows how to roll in with longing sentimentality. The remix features a bouncier approach with re-envisioned acoustic percussion and catchy synth arps, along with an eery dark disco feel.

On the B side, Rotciv kicks in with ‘Trintage’, which gives a sinister sensation with its hypnotising bass synth lines alongside contrasting, choir-like pads. Seeping with articulate poly-rhythmic synth arps, Trintage guides the listener to be indulged into a dream-like state on the border between both digital and analogue soundscapes, blurring the lines between fantasy and reality.

Next up is New York-based and founder of Samo Records, Facets, who takes on the next remix for ‘Trintage’ with a more electro-grunge techno approach consisting of heavier four to the floor kicks in company of Rotciv’s hypnotic textures. Having shifted the synth melody rhythmically, a sense of space and tension is created within the soundworld of this track. The play between gritty bass-end synths along with softer, textured high-ends helps emphasize the groove injected into this remix.

One last remix of ‘Memory’ by Melodize’s own label founder, Beartrax, rounds out the EP. Available exclusively via digital bonus, Beartrax features his deeply hypnotic aesthetic by driving in ethereal synths alongside cosmic arps and slow-rolling rhythmic and pulsating groove lines.

Cristi Cons makes his Crosstown Rebels debut with his latest EP, ‘Give Me Love’.

The three-track exploration of rhythm, tension, and hypnotic club craft lands on 16th January 2026.
Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels imprint opens its 2026 release schedule with a special label debut from Romanian favourite Cristi Cons, as he delivers a magnetic three-tracker in the form of his ‘Give Me Love’ EP. Known for his precise, minimal-infl ected approach and unwavering command of groove, Cristi’s arrival onto the label brings a release that distils his signature tension-and-release architecture into some of its most direct club form yet.

The title track, ‘Give Me Love’, unfolds with subtle vocal refrains, shadowy atmospheres, and a rolling, elastic groove built for late-night momentum. On the B-side, ‘Can You Hear Me’ channels a sleeker, more hypnotic pulse, with dubby textures, restrained bass pressure, hooky vocals, and a snaking groove to keep dancers moving. Closing the EP, ‘You Ain’t Got Nothin’ brings vibrant synths, tight drum programming, and more captivating vocal use into a head-down trip that leans into Cons’s innate ability to craft late-night and early-hours journeys.

A longstanding architect of Romania’s influential underground, Cristi Cons has carved a reputation through his solo work, his collaborative SIT project with Vlad Caia, and their shared imprint, Amphia, which now stands as a true force within the minimal landscape. Alongside regular appearances across Europe’s key institutions and collaborations with revered names, including Raresh as part of their Verico project along with Caia, Cristi continues to evolve with each release - and ‘Give Me Love’ delivers yet another side to his diverse sound as he steps into the Crosstown Rebels fold to open the year.

2026 repress !

Nous'klaer Audio presents Martinou - Chiral, the follow full-length up to his 2021 album Rift. This time nine tracks across two vinyls. An album flowing 'in a way' like Rift, but it's different: More outspoken, heavier sound design and it peaks on a blissful note. ''Open up the blinds and take me there. We'll break the surface tension. We'll dive in. I'm locked in your devotion. You give an inclination to our demise. It will be our exit. To bliss, we'll be its guardian. Once there was love. Clear as glassy water. No ripples, no waves. I followed while you led. Our arrival was warm. Hot, even. Stunning to a startling degree. Hands intwined, frolicking towards the blue. Hours passed, and white heat cede to an orange hue. We cooled down. Red. We rallied. Black. It began. Into the deep darkness we ran. White sand, it has a tendency to get everywhere. Salt water will only dehydrate you more. Shriveled and dry. Scratchy and coarse. More. And then we were lost. Fingers once locked grew distant. Morning, dear. Where have you gone? We looked. A glimpse from afar. Red. We rallied. Shall we share a bottle of wine? Black, lost again. Afternoon, friend. Where were you? Red. Alone. Black. We rallied. Shall we try somewhere new? Sand and salt. Evening, sir. Reservation for one? Reservations a plenty, I say. Evening, miss. Dining alone? Aren't we all? Dining, miss, not dying. Oh, yes, alone. Black. Sand and salt. I found you. No. No. Wait, do I know you? You feel like a dream. Don't touch me. Move along, sir. Who are you? Leave. Who are you? Where did you go? Keep moving. I am, I will. Time to move on. I'm moving! Leave. Don't touch me. Leave. Why are you? Exit. Purple. Orange. Yellow. White. Blue. Morning, dear. Shall we have breakfast? I think I'll sleep some more. But it's our last day. I know. See you downstairs when you're ready. OK. I open up the blinds. A bird breaks the surface tension. Locked in. To Devotion? No. Demise. An inclination. Reverie. Take me there. Where? Exit (To Bliss) '' Text by Gregory Markus

‘Let’s take a trip’ – with major names on the psytrance scene Avalon and GMS releasing on KNTXT for the first time, combining forces for a full-on attack, 4-track EP ‘The Underground’, out December 11th. Their joint mission? ‘Combining two worlds where psytrance meets techno, a fusion which will take you on a mind-expanding journey! Welcome to The Underground…you have arrived!

London DJ/Producer Avalon was recently awarded the number 1 top-selling psytrance artist on Beatport with over 30+ psytrance chart #1s and 5 top-selling LPs to his name, and performs at the likes of Tomorrowland, Boom, EDC Las Vegas, Glastonbury, Exit, Burning Man, Ultra, ASOT, Ministry Of Sound,... GMS (Growling Mad Scientists) was founded by Dutch Ibiza-based DJ/Producer Riktam with the sadly late Bansi, to establish pioneering psytrance label Spun Records and to have director Tony Scott no less, using GMS tracks on three of his films. A prolific producer with over 300K album copies sold, GMS holds the most psytrance records released overall.

‘I'm beyond honoured to release this stunning four tracker from psytrance legends Avalon and GMS. With this release, friendships were formed and worlds truly started colliding. I have massive respect for both these artists and their long standing impact on electronic music. This release feels like a bridge between generations and genres. It carries an energy that deserves to be heard, experienced, and felt on dancefloors around the world.’ Charlotte de Witte

Title track ‘The Underground’: hyperspeed trance beats support a wild variety of acid-dripping pulsations, spacey arps, otherworldly swoops, mind-teasing stabs, it’s like a lightshow in sound. That transports its listeners into another dimension. On ‘Horizen’, psytrance thrives, while ethereal vocals call, with intricate sound design painting a mythical soundscape. On ‘Machines’, it’s driven by hypnotic acid lines, pulsating Kick & Bass with sprinkles of techno infused percussion! Its choral notes and alien-like spoken lyrics, both gripping and disorientating as builds & breaks come thick and fast. ‘Rave to the Grave’: constant pulsing high synth and vocals with twanging acid together with frantic percussion create a sustained, agonizing build, build, build – until ‘On the 7th day, the Lord said ‘Let the beat drop!’’ Phew!

‘We are very excited about our debut release on KNTXT ‘The Underground’ and can’t wait to share this 4 track EP with you all. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did creating it. This fusion of techno/psytrance is brought together by all of our mutual love for acid & driving hypnotic dance music! Enjoy… Play it loud! Welcome to The Underground… You have arrived!’- Avalon & GMS

A mind-bending EP, with racing beats that give the ‘trance’ in psytrance a huge adrenalin shot. This is high energy reaching new altitudes; hold on to your brain cells, they’re going for a ride!

Childish Gambino is (and isn't) Donald Glover, a recording artist, writer, actor, director, producer and comic who was gifted his alias by an online Wu Tang-Clan name-generator. Originally hailing from Stone Mountain, Georgia - his Mum was a daycare provider and his Dad a postal worker, where TV was banned in the house - Glover first entered the spotlight as a member of sketch-troupe Derrick Comedy, via a stint working on The Daily Show and the invitation to join the '30 Rock' writing staff by Tina Fey before he'd even graduated from NYU. A succession of mini-albums and mixtapes surrounded all of this, parallel to acting roles ranging from The Muppets to NBC's cult hit comedy 'Community'. It was 2011's debut album 'Camp' - his first since signing to Glassnote Records - which marked a breakthrough for Childish Gambino, whose music explores everything from identity, race, and technology to hip-hop culture, class, and family. Follow-up 'because the internet' went top 10 on the Billboard chart, was nominated for 2 Grammy Awards and further assimilated Gambino's multiple disciplines (it was accompanied, for instance, by two films and a standalone 72-page screenplay). Around this time - and between roles in HBO's 'Girls' and movies like 'The Martian' - Glover also announced that he was working on his own TV show: a comedy-drama which he would star in, write and direct, 'Atlanta' premiered on FX this autumn to significant critical acclaim (it's already been described as "Twin Peaks with rappers"). The show was launched alongside the third Childish Gambino, 'Awaken, My Love!', this summer at 'Pharos', a series of secretive, audio-visual live performances which took place in a custom-designed dome in the middle of the desert in Joshua Tree. A second series of 'Atlanta' has already been commissioned, whilst Glover has recently been cast in the forthcoming Spider Man movie and has also been confirmed to play the iconic role of Lando Calrissian in the next Star Wars film (a Han Solo spin-off). His most vital artistic statement to date, Childish Gambino is expected to unveil further music from 'Awaken, My Love!' in the coming weeks. 

TO COMMEMORATE THE 10th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS PASSING

DEFECTED HONOURS FRANKIE KNUCKLES WITH SPECIAL EDITION ‘HOUSE MASTERS’ VINYL

Defected celebrates the life and legacy of house music pioneer Frankie Knuckles with a limited-edition vinyl offering of his notable ‘House Masters’ release.

Marking ten years since his passing, join Defected in honouring the enduring legacy of house music pioneer. All proceeds of ‘House Masters: Frankie Knuckles’ will be donated to Frankie Knuckles Foundation as it was when the compilation was originally released back in April 2015.

“Frankie Knuckles, whom many consider to be one of the architects of house music is still highly influential to a new generation. Since his untimely passing ten years ago it has been incredible to see the continued outpouring of love and respect that he has received. His legacy is why the Frankie Knuckles Foundation exists. Through our work we honour him by supporting initiatives that he was passionate about: music education, AIDS and diabetes research, prevention and LGBTQIA+ youth homelessness. This commemorative vinyl release of ‘House Masters’ in association with Defected will allow us to do just that!”

Frederick Dunson, Founder, President & Executive Director, Frankie Knuckles Foundation

The forthcoming vinyl releases will feature a selection of his finest productions and remixes including the seminal ‘Your Love’, ‘The Whistle Song’ and remixes for Chaka Khan and Sounds Of Blackness.

Find out more about Frankie Knuckles Foundation and its commitment to educating and supporting initiatives across LGBTQIA+ communities and AIDs prevention

Kicking off 2026 in style! Here we have volume 5 of the annual Razor-N-Tape Family Affair series. As always a wide-ranging collection of vibes and grooves from the extended international Razor-N-Tape network, this year’s vinyl sampler includes label newcomers and veterans across 6 tracks. Recloose, Medlar & Daisybelle, Misiu, Saucy Lady, Anoraak and Marina Trench deliver in their respective signature styles, taking us on a genre-bending tour of genres and sounds. From House to Disco, Dub to Breaks, and Chuggers to Pumpers, there’s bit of something for everyone here…fun for the whole Family!

Following the reissue of The Pocket of Fever, Ambient Sans presents the second chapter in Masahiro Sugaya’s visionary work for the avant-garde performing arts company Pappa TARAHUMARA.

Founded by Hiroshi Koike in 1982, Pappa TARAHUMARA blended dance, theater, music, and visual art into abstract, immersive stage worlds. Sugaya’s compositions became the sonic counterpart to this radical aesthetic—minimal yet deeply evocative, combining electronics, ambient textures, and delicate melodic gestures into a sound language both intimate and expansive.

Music From Alejo marks his first original stage score for the company: a work where repetition and silence intertwine with shimmering synthesizers and dreamlike motifs, conjuring atmospheres that feel suspended between reality and reverie. More structured than The Pocket of Fever yet equally poetic, the album reveals Sugaya’s gift for translating movement into sound, balancing modern composition with subtle echoes of Japanese tradition.

Reissued for the first time on vinyl, Music From Alejo includes a printed insert featuring an exclusive interview with the artist, alongside photographs from our visit to his home in Japan. Essential listening for anyone drawn to the ambient minimalism of Hiroshi Yoshimura, Midori Takada, or Brian Eno—reimagined here through the lens of Tokyo’s experimental scene of the 1980s.

a1. Straight Line Floating In The Sky
a2. Oldfashioned
b1. An Afternoon When Fish Appeared
b2. Mistral
b3. Alejo's Theme

January 2025. Serra Grande, Bahia.
The sound of the forest dampening the steps of weary travelers. The air dense with the song of the Araponga. In the distance, amidst the rustling leaves and tropical raindrops, a distant voice howls: “P… Cara… A…zing”. A child’s soul, expressed through the body of a Japanese man, plays ‘Gishiki’ for the first time with the innocence and wonder of a young alchemist that just turned a rock into gold. We were captivated by the elegance of the composition. A friendship was struck and months of work followed.

Fast forward, and we find ourselves down by a familiar Portuguese lake. Rushing towards another Floresta just in time to hand over the test press before a spellbinding set. ‘Suiryuu’ plays and everything magically falls into place.

We hope this record touches you the way it touched us and reminds us all how life can really be Pra Caralho Amazing.

Dedication is Stevie Bensusen and Lashley Todd, two friends born and raised in Seattle, WA, who started singing together in high school. Their dynamic blend was undeniable and it made all the sense in the world to form a band together. And if and when the planets were somehow aligned and they were gifted with adequate financing, go into the studio and record their voices. Convinced that their unmistakable vocal blend would be better served by recording their own material (songs both written and arranged by Stevie) that would showcase their voices, both solo and together. After attending Boston's Berklee College of Music to study theory and composition, Stevie returned to Seattle with a batch of new tunes and arrangements in his portfolio. He and Lash focused on rehearsing the material and looked for a chance to take their sound into the studio. As luck would have it, someone liked their prospects enough to bankroll their studio sessions. They hired and rehearsed the top-notch players that would make up their masterful rhythm section, then booked time at now legendary Kaye-Smith Studios in Seattle to cut and mix their tracks. What came from those sessions are four powerful and sophisticated R&B performances, being made available only on the Final Bell label by Super Disco Edits. Their adventures in the unpredictable world of recorded music are now beginning to unfold. Which brings us to this moment in time when audiences in the UK can finally discover, and appreciate . . . Dedication.

Dedication is Stevie Bensusen and Lashley Todd, two friends born and raised in Seattle, WA, who started singing together in high school. Their dynamic blend was undeniable and it made all the sense in the world to form a band together. And if and when the planets were somehow aligned and they were gifted with adequate financing, go into the studio and record their voices. Convinced that their unmistakable vocal blend would be better served by recording their own material (songs both written and arranged by Stevie) that would showcase their voices, both solo and together. After attending Boston's Berklee College of Music to study theory and composition, Stevie returned to Seattle with a batch of new tunes and arrangements in his portfolio. He and Lash focused on rehearsing the material and looked for a chance to take their sound into the studio. As luck would have it, someone liked their prospects enough to bankroll their studio sessions. They hired and rehearsed the top-notch players that would make up their masterful rhythm section, then booked time at now legendary Kaye-Smith Studios in Seattle to cut and mix their tracks. What came from those sessions are four powerful and sophisticated R&B performances, being made available only on the Final Bell label by Super Disco Edits. Their adventures in the unpredictable world of recorded music are now beginning to unfold. Which brings us to this moment in time when audiences in the UK can finally discover, and appreciate . . . Dedication.

“The group has no niche, it doesn’t fit in anywhere,” explains Necessaries drummer Jesse Chamberlain in a 1980 Melody Maker interview. “We just state the facts about life in America, like The Clash did about England, but we’re not so heavy about it.” The Necessaries rose from the ashes of Harry Toledo & The Rockets, a little-known New York art-rock band playing gigs at Max’s Kansas City during glam’s metamorphosis into punk. —From the liner notes by Michael IQ Jones The Necessaries came together in 1978 and in the too-brief lifespan of the band counted among their members, Ed Tomney (Rage To Live, Luka Bloom), Jesse Chamberlain (Red Crayola), Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers), Arthur Russell (The Flying Hearts), Randy Gun (Love Of Life Orchestra). First championed by John Cale on the strength of Tomney’s songs, Cale produced their first single for Spy Records (under the I.R.S. umbrella) which was released in 1979. With the forward momentum brought about by the single, the band set about tracking demos intended for Warner Bros., but The Necessaries ultimately would sign to Seymour Stein’s Sire Records. These rough demo basic tracks lacked overdubs, mixes and any finishing touches that would have made them viable for commercial release, but due to tour commitments, the band had to put the sessions on hold to hit the road. While on tour, the band was shocked to discover that Sire had issued the unfinished tracks as their debut album Big Sky (issued in 1981). The band had Big Sky withdrawn and replaced with Event Horizon (issued in 1982) which included half the original tracks from Big Sky and continued to record throughout 1982 aiming for a follow-up. It was not to be and their final studio sessions remained unissued until now. Completely Necessary (Anthology 1978–1982) is the first authorized collection of recordings by The Necessaries and includes 37 tracks, 28 of which are previously unissued. Completely Necessary represents the most accurate musical history of the band laid out across three albums. Disc one is the band-approved first album Event Horizon, followed by Pilots Facing North, a disc collecting studio recordings spanning 1978–1981 and disc three finally sees the release of their final sessions, Songs From The Blue Colony. Album notes by Michael IQ Jones trace the history of the band for this compilation produced by The Necessaries’ Ed Tomney and Cheryl Pawelski (Omnivore Recordings). The audio has been restored and mastered by Michael Graves at Osiris Studio, and both the 3-LP and 2-CD sets feature previously unseen photos across the package. Finally, an essential missing piece of the late ’70s/early ’80s New York scene that was just slightly ahead of the college alt-rock soon to come, is finally available to rediscover—this time it’s authorized and absolutely necessary. BUY! HERE’S WHY! • The first authorized and comprehensive anthology by The Necessaries. • Mid-’70s/early ’80s New York rock/punk/art scene band included members: Ed Tomney, Ernier Brooks, Arthur Russell, Jesse Chamberlain, and Randy Gun. • 37 tracks, 28 previously unissued. • Liner notes by Michael IQ Jones, plus unseen photos.

DGM & Panegyric proudly present…

One of the highlights of the King Crimson 50th anniversary CD/Blu-ray editions to date has been King Crimson producer David Singleton’s series of Elemental Mixes as he utilises the full spectrum of available studio sessions for each album to produce very different takes on the familiar songs and pieces.

This is especially true of Lizard where the ambition of the material, the much-expanded line-up of musicians - the background of many of them in the jazz rather than the rock world - and the number of takes recorded, resulted in a large amount of material to be considered for this album.

There was enough material for David to be able to mix and produce alternate takes for every piece from the original album.

As well as giving great insight into the recordings, the nature of Elemental Mixes allows for different takes from individual musicians to be included – sometimes alongside one another - in a way that would never be considered in the formulation of the original album.

David comments that “When I was working on the Elemental mixes, I jokingly described them as ‘Lizard for those who don’t like Lizard’. They were a complete revelation. Lizard is the one album which, in its initial incarnation, never quite convinced me. And yet these Elemental mixes, with their opportunity to look ‘under the hood’ of the album, revealed something fresh, wonderful and astonishing. So, if you are a King Crimson fan, who like me, has never quite taken Lizard to your heart, then these are essential listening. And hopefully equally fascinating to those who already love the album”.

Presented as a single 200gram LP and including the complete album in Elemental Mixes form, running in the same sequence as the original album, this release showcases Lizard in a very different manner to how it’s previously been heard.

Lizard’s reputation has grown, deservedly so, in recent years as old and new audiences alike rediscovered the album, initially when it was first remixed for new Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound editions in 2009 by Steven Wilson and then as much of it was performed live for the first time in concerts by the most recent King Crimson line-up between 2016 and 2018.

2025 REPRESS ON TRANSPARENT GREEN VINYL


Compiled by Philip King “And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.” NICK KENT, NME. All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure. Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms, ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course) these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother of invention. At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records). The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased track You Will See, released April 12th 2025. There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk / underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now. Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP. Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7” and lost until now. The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the main refrain. The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive, robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner. All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Der aus Wyoming stammende Troubadour Jeb Loy Nichols kehrt mit ,This House is Empty Without You" zu Timmion Records zurück, einer zeitlosen Sammlung von Songs mit Soul-Wurzeln, die Wärme, Weisheit und stille Intensität ausstrahlen. Erneut unterstützt von Timmions Hausband Cold Diamond & Mink, liefert Jeb ein Album in voller Länge, das sich nahtlos in die Reihe der besten Veröffentlichungen des Labels einreiht - geprägt von den Traditionen des Southern Soul, aber getragen von seiner unverwechselbaren Stimme und seinem lyrischen Touch.Vom sanft dahinschreitenden Opener ,First Night Away from Home" bis zum Schlussstück ,Time On My Hands" entfaltet sich das Album wie ein gutes Sommerbuch, das man am besten mit einer warmen Brise im Gesicht genießt. Nichols hat die Fähigkeit, alles mühelos klingen zu lassen - als würde er nur für Sie singen, von der Veranda oder aus dem Hinterzimmer -, aber wenn man genau hinhört, entdeckt man Songwriting voller Tiefe, subtil arrangiert mit Orgelklängen, knackigen Drums und tiefen Grooves.Neben dem luftigen Midtempo-Romantikstück ,Here With You" gehören zu den weiteren Höhepunkten der rootsige Southern Shuffle ,Good Morning Monday", das herzergreifende ,Coming Home Love" und ,Step In", ein sanfter Groove über Wiederentdeckung und Wiedersehen. Zusammen mit Nichols - und Emilia Sisco, deren gospelartige Hintergrundharmonien mehrere Titel zieren - haben sie ein Album geschaffen, das sich an klassischen Einflüssen orientiert, aber unverkennbar persönlich und präsent klingt. ,This House is Empty Without You" ist eine Meisterklasse in zurückhaltendem Soul und beweist, dass Jeb Loy Nichols nicht nur immer noch da ist - er wächst weiter, strahlt und findet neue Wege, die Wahrheit zu sagen.

Between 2023 and 2025, L.F.T. split his time between Hamburg and Berlin, slowly piecing together what would become his most ambitious work to date. The result is Hell Was Boring - a double album that plays like a fever dream, unfolding as a dark, mythical tale about life, death, and the strange spaces in between.


L.F.T. - the alias of German producer and multi-instrumentalist Johannes Haas - has always thrived on tension: between punk urgency and electronic precision, between raw emotion and mechanical repetition. On Hell Was Boring, those tensions are amplified. Drawing on the spectral drama of Bauhaus, the melancholic minimalism of Linear Movement, the futuristic romanticism of Gary Numan, and even the sly swagger of Falco, the album feels at once deeply personal and part of a much older musical lineage.


The sound is stripped down to its bones: drums snap and rattle from a Roland TR-808, TR-707 and Korg KR-55; basslines growl from a Roland SH-101 and Korg MS-20; shards of guitar cut through clouds of tape hiss. Everything was tracked to a Teac Tascam 80-8 reel-to-reel, giving each track a lived-in, imperfect warmth. Nothing is overpolished - L.F.T. wanted the listener to hear the edges, the grit, the moments when the music almost comes apart.


Along the way, he invited friends and long-time collaborators into the fold - Das Kinn, Rosaceae, Felix Kubin, Children Of Leir, and Konstantin Unwohl - each leaving their own fingerprints on the record’s world of shadows and static.


Hell Was Boring isn’t a mere collection of songs; it’s a narrative that drags you into its orbit and doesn’t quite let go. It’s music for the late hours when reality feels porous, and for those moments when you’re not sure if you’re waking up or still dreaming.

„SUMMER 1987 - DATA BITS RACING THROUGH YOUR PROCESSOR. BREAKING INTO THE CYBER WORLD AND TURNING THE WORLD UP SIDE DOWN. THE DAWN OF THE DIGITAL ERA HAS JUST BEGUN AND ITS CORE BRAIN EXPANDZ A HACKING COMMUNITY THAT CHANGES THE C64 WORLD. THE SOFT PIONEER, A LIL TEENAGE HACKING DUDE BLOWS UP THE COMPLETE SCENE BY USING THEIR OWN HACKING WEAPONS AND POINTING THEM AGAINST THEMSELVES. THE RESULT IS AN ANGRY FREAKED OUT CONSPIRACY TO KILL THE SOFT PIONEER. THE HUNT HAS JUST STARTED...“

Beautiful soulful album by George Smallwood - including original material from home sessions prior to George's 1980 self- released LP. The rest, a sampling from the Smallwood mind's library of classic song writers. Huge tip!
"Recorded Live in Hyattsville, MD 1975-2015. George really had no interest in releasing this record. 'Seeing Is believing, they don't need records, trust me I did that, today they getting it live.' So this record is that, live tapes from the house, recorded on a government issued cassette recorder from National Library Service for the Blind. George calls these his practice tapes for songwriting, and performance warm-up, and never beyond his ears were they intended to travel. 'You just got to see me live if you want to really see me.. so when we get there just plug me in, and point me at that crowd' Last time I saw George they had him wired to the club system. He unplugs his Yamaha keyboard, licks the tip of the power cord and taps a beat on it, finally plugging in, synth lights up, tones all at zero, beats at zero. Then he builds from there, counting blind through a preset one hunderd factory tones and rhythm patterns. 'I gotta start off at zero, and go from there.' After the Marshmellow Band disperesed, he got this Yamaha keyboard, same one he's been playing since 1990, endless scrolling over the same presets, trying to make them fit, tempo down, tapping while telling the story and asking if that feels right to you. 'This always gonna be different live.'
Andrew Morgan (Peoples Potential Unlimited)

Rare as fish knees, roots gem!

“Me Look Like A Lion But Me Humble Like A Man”

Fredrick Dookie & Desmond Silpatt were cousins and close friends who though not prolific, created one stunning reggae tune which has been near impossible to find for over 40 years.
Like artists from Supercat to Sheila Rickards, Freddie & Dessie are of Indo-Jamaican descent. They gravitated to music from an early age.

Recorded at Aquarius and arranged by Wire Lindo, the track features back up vocals from a young Beres Hammond.

"I have loved this song for a very long time and this exclusive reissue has been in the works for several years since I tracked down one half of the duo Dessie aka Desmond Silpatt who is now based in Florida." says Chris from Shella Records.

Freddie who provides the song’s hypnotic vocal was a devout Rasta man who sadly passed away in 2019. He is survived by Dessie, a renaissance man, inventor and author who has penned thousands of songs in his time.

2 x catastrophic cosmic chronic compositions from the 2016 psychic mirrors debut album. re-mastered loud for 7" club play. brought to you by Amnisa & PPU records.

includes 5x7 promo photo postcard.

Rochelle Jordan is proudly stepping into her diva era. To those in the know, the Los Angeles-based British-Canadian singer and songwriter has long been an underground force coaxing together the mutually flirtatious scenes of daring alt-R&B and heart-pumping electronic music. With her longtime creative director/producer KLSH, she’s cultivated a singular marriage of sound — mixing soulful sensuality, house bump, DnB wildness, hip-hop swagger, and pure experimentalism — that’s spread not only through certain circles, but also to the mainstream. At the same time that her gauzy 2014 single “Lowkey” was going viral in 2023 — racking up 21 million streams on Spotify alone — she was in the studio cooking with tastemaking beatsmiths like KAYTRANADA and Sango, quietly preparing to melt dance floors and headphones alike.

Now, as the timelines merge, Jordan is approaching success with the sparkle of a brand new star and the stance of someone who’s earned everything she has. Her new musical chapter aims to carry forward the magic that fans feel in her coquettish vocals and bold soundscapes even as she reaches deeper into her pop bag. The fact that her first single of 2025, the darkly dazzling “Crave,” was produced by Chicago house legend Terry Hunter (Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé) speaks volumes to this exact moment in Jordan’s ascendent trajectory.

“My goal when I first started making music was to bring back something that I felt had started to fade away for me,” says Jordan. “That certain essence or sound that would give me butterflies in my stomach when I’d listen to music — it would unleash some kind of chemical that would make me feel happy and excitable and curious, something that would make my soul shine. My number one goal is always: How do I give people that feeling when they listen to my music?”

Jordan grew up in Toronto raised by British-Jamaican parents. She remembers hearing one of her older brothers cycling through a variety of music at maximum volume in the room next to hers. “Reggae to soul to drum and bass to garage music to gospel,” Jordan recalls. “It was all intertwining for me at such a young age.” She developed her own sound quietly, and soon met KLSH through MySpace. They traded multiple songs back and forth daily until he flew her out to L.A. to record what would become her debut project, 2011’s R O J O. That collaboration hasn’t faltered since, resulting in sonically surprising, subtly infectious sets like Jordan’s breakthrough 2014 album 1021 (with “Lowkey”) and 2021’s dance-steeped revelation, Play with the Changes.

“If you’re talking about Rochelle Jordan, you’re talking about KLSH,” she says. “It’s one and the same. We come from the same inspiration source.” With him at her side to this day, Jordan is crafting new listening experiences as radiant as refracted light glimmering through a prism — an incredible space from within which to explore love in all its iterations — from romantic infatuation to self-affirmation, and strength in womanhood to pride for what she’s accomplished thus far.

More than a decade into her career, Jordan has arrived at a new stage of life and creativity — she’s a seasoned professional, a fully realized woman, and she’s excited to continue growing. “I know my story isn’t necessarily a new one,” she says. “I look at 2 Chainz, who became 2 Chainz way later on in his life. I look at Tina Turner, who became Tina Turner at 40. I want to be another story of resilience for people.” As she prepares to unveil more of her vision, and fans clamber for a long-awaited fourth album, Rochelle Jordan is casting aside self-doubt, and appreciating and underlining her status as a verifiably influential reigning diva in her one-of-one sonic space.

Beyond Structures by Giomini is an exploration of form and perception within deep house. Across four tracks, he distills the genre to its essential elements: rhythm, texture, and atmosphere. The result is a set of pieces that move between motion and stillness; grooves that evolve organically, and silence that holds meaning. Every tone is deliberate, every pause intentional.
This is music not made for distraction but for immersion; a deep listening experience that invites reflection through movement. Beyond Structures seeks the point where architecture dissolves into feeling, and the dancefloor becomes a meditative space.

File in Ambient / Electronic / Mood Hut sections

Listen if You Like = Jon Hassell, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Terry Riley, Rhythm & Sound, Laurie Spiegel, Ariel Kalma, Laraaji, Steve Roach, Kerry Leimer, Suzanne Ciani, Yu Su, Hotspring, La Monte Young, Erik Satie, Music From Memory, Brian Eno, O Yuki Conjugate, Harold Budd, Robert Guthrie, Leif, Gigi Mason, Gaussian Curve, Patricia Wolf, Muslim Gauze, Manuel Göttsching,






f B1. Simulacra f. Alex Ho

Real Lies’ new album ‘WE WILL ANNIHILATE OUR ENEMIES’ will arrive on April 16th 2025 via Tonal. The album is about taking the hand of someone you love intensely and running headlong into the chaos and noise and grinding forces that dominate modern life. It follows gilded 2024 collaborations with Mall Grab, Kettama and Drain Gang’s YEAR0001 label. Lyricist Kevin Lee Kharas and producer Patrick King created the record in their studio, hidden away under a railway bridge somewhere in London’s Zone 3. Three pictures stared down at them from the walls throughout, including an image of a young Sasha Shulgin in the relief print style of Che Guevara t-shirts sold at Camden Market, and a photo of an orbiter fairground ride in flight, taken sometime in the early 2000s. Kharas’ lyrical inspiration comes when he steps away from the tsunami of data flooding his consciousness and paces London’s rain-soaked streets late at night. “I wanted the songs on WWAOE to confront modern reality head-on, unflinching,” he explains. “I didn’t want to whine about a lost past. I didn’t want nostalgia. I wanted to learn to love the modern world, with all its horrors and futility.” After a teenhood spent playing in hardcore bands, the duo found ecstasy at a squat party for the first time, and moved to London. Since then, they’ve made music about finding romance and fun when the moon is up, becoming a cult act in the process.

Another DINTE tape curated by cult WFMU show and blogger Bodega Pop; Gary Sullivan's long-running project rooted in a passion for digging for music in bodegas and cell-phone stores across NYC's boroughs. This edition focuses in on late 1990s and early 00s hip-hop & rnb from across Southeastern Asia.

"While on a work trip to Chicago in the mid-2000s, I was craving a bowl of pho. A bit of sleuthing led me to hop on the red line "L" up to Argyle Street, ground zero of Chicago's Little Saigon. In the 1960s, Chicago restaurateur Jimmy Wong invested in property on Argyle Street with a vision to build the city's new Chinatown, a kind of mall with pagodas, trees, and reflecting pools. In 1971, the Hip Sing Association, a labor/criminal organization, established itself in the area, and along with Wong, they bought up 80% of the buildings on a three-block stretch of the street. Wong reportedly broke both hips in an accident, leaving his dream to wither; in 1979, Charlie Soo of the Asian American Small Business Association brought it back to life.

Soo expanded the area into a vibrant mix of Chinese, Vietnamese, and other Southeast Asian businesses, pushing for renovations, including an Argyle station facelift and the Taste of Argyle festival. At the time I exited the station and crossed the street to get a better look at a shop with a poster for A Vertical Ray of the Sun in the window, the area was home to some 37,000 Vietnamese residents.

Opening the door, I was gobsmacked by a cavernous Southeast Asian media store, bigger than any I'd been to in Dallas, Montreal, New York, or Seattle. I spent some time at the bins, pulling out collections by some of my then-favorite singers — Giao Linh, Khánh Ly, Phương Dung — before approaching the register to ask the young woman behind the counter if the they carried any Vietnamese rap. It was a longshot, I knew, but if such a thing existed on physical media and anyone carried it, it would be this place.

'Have you heard Vietnamese rap?' she replied, her tone of voice and facial expression betraying a comically exaggerated level of distaste. I admitted my ignorance but assured her that I had long cultivated a high threshold for cheesy pop music of all kinds and genuinely tended to like hip hop from around the world.

She rolled her eyes and pointed to an area I had missed. I walked toward a far corner of the store and knelt over a small box on the floor sparsely populated with CDs, VCDs, and cassettes. I pulled out half a dozen Vietnamese hip hop compilations and a strange-looking CD with a cavalcade of odd typefaces in a queasy multitude of colors: THAILAND RAP HIT, it boasted, with 泰國 "燒香" 勁歌金曲 below it. The information on the back provided an address in Kuala Lumpur and the titles in Thai and English translation. The first track included three simplified Chinese characters after the English-language version of the title, "The Chinese Association": 自己人.

WTF was going on here? Walking back to the register, I waved the CD, asking "What's up with this one?" She gave me a look. I placed it on the counter so she could bask in the cover's full glory. She shrugged. "I'm guessing it's Thai rap?" She looked disappointed in me when I said I'd take it.

It turned out to be a Malaysian pressing of half-Chinese Thai hip hop artist Joey Boy's third album, Fun Fun Fun from 1996, and it completely changed my sense what the genre could sound like. The rapper's self-assured, effortless, silly-but-cool rapid-fire delivery weaved in and out of the most bizarre, antic beats I'd ever heard. The six Vietnamese hip hop CDs were a mixed bag, mostly "serious" sounding mimicry of US rapping over predictable production, but the highs were very high. When I got home and listened to it all, I made a point to find as much hip hop from this part of the world as I could.

The tracks collected here provide a limited but potent reflection of the two-decade ascendency
and ultimate world-takeover of hip hop, as it displaced rock and its endless variants for millions of listeners. This not a fair and balanced overview of regional production: I've only included tracks from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Nor is this a biggest or most important artists collection; instead, I've tried to recapture the pure visceral thrill of that first time I heard Joey Boy, choosing bangers that sound like nothing else, from nowhere else."

—Gary Sullivan

Over the past decade, East London artist Kojey Radical has cemented himself as one of the most creative and unique voices in British music. His debut album Reason to Smile (2022) was released to critical acclaim, and saw him emerge as one of the defining voices in UK culture. Now, the 32-year-old readies to release his second album Don’t Look Down.

“I wanted to make this album more personal and more honest,” he says, “we have to be able to accept that the messenger has flaws and all.

16-tracks long, Don’t Look Down, set for release on 19th September 2025, is a musically rich and deeply introspective reflection on the shifting tides, lows and joys that have passed through his life since his emergence into the public eye.

Sonically, the album provides the most experimental and eclectic music of his career, with influences ranging from golden age Hip Hop to disco, grime to Indie, Jazz to Ska. Together, these strings combine to give a pertinent insight into Kojey’s inner world, and a timestamp documenting the feelings, emotions and experiences that arise when many reach the milestone of their 30s.

“When you’re younger, certain ages seem so grown,” he says, “you feel like you’re supposed to have your life together and all figured out by 30. Then especially when you're in the spotlight you feel extra pressure to have it figured out because so many people are looking towards you.”

Don’t Look Down follows debut album Reason to Smile (2022). A critical success, it landed at No.11 on the UK Album Charts and was nominated for the Mercury Prize as well as two MOBO Awards. In the following year came a nomination for Best New Artist at 2023 BRIT Awards and Best Contemporary Song at the Ivor Novello Awards. He toured across the UK, as well as hitting the festival circuit.

This sense of growth was not limited to music. Kojey was tapped by the British Fashion Council to host the 2023 and 2024 editions of The Fashion Awards as his stock in music and wider culture continued to rise.

The album he says, is a reflection of “the experiences I’ve had over the past few years. That shaped the direction I took going forward. It’s given me the opportunity to tell new stories from newer perspectives. It was liberating, and it was very necessary to keep me in love with the process and to keep making music.”

The result is his most innovative album yet, a project where a sense of profound personal interrogation and introspection dance in union with the rich musical tapestry. Don’t Look Down is a story of purpose lost and then found, of what happens in the aftermath of achieving your childhood dreams, and the ranging flux of emotions that rise to the surface once the music stop

Jalapeno Records are celebrating their 25th anniversary in the business. The label are marking the occasion with the release of a 3LP compilation featuring some of label boss Trevor Mac's favourite dancefloor gems from across the years. From a humble start in a basement recording studio on Holloway Road to a quarter century anniversary celebrated from their Brighton offices – Jalapeno Records has been an indie label with a mission - to bring the funk to the masses. Along the way that has taken in so many genres from chill to house, gospel to soul, breaks to drum & bass but it has all had a common thread running through it - the funk. "Twenty Five years means there are too many artists to list and this album is not supposed to be a Greatest Hits. We did that on the 20th anniversary. The album is dedicated to all of the artists that trusted us with their music and all the people who supported us along the way" says Trevor











k 11. Back Again (Hot Toddy Remix) feat. John Turrell — Kraak & Smaak


n 14. Alone with You (Purple Disco Machine Remix) feat. Cleopold — Kraak & Smaak











[k] 11. Back Again (Hot Toddy Remix) [feat. John Turrell] — Kraak & Smaak


[n] 14. Alone with You (Purple Disco Machine Remix) [feat. Cleopold] — Kraak & Smaak











[k] 11. Back Again (Hot Toddy Remix) [feat. John Turrell] — Kraak & Smaak


[n] 14. Alone with You (Purple Disco Machine Remix) [feat. Cleopold] — Kraak & Smaak