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In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

Talk-Mo-Band mit Frontfrau aus der verfluchten Szene von Elgin, Illinois. ,Something Good Has Got To Come From All These Goodbyes" versammelt die gesamten Aufnahmen von The Lazarus Plot - ihr Debüt-Doppel-7"-Single von 1998, die EP ,The End", eine Split-Veröffentlichung mit Long Live Nothing, eine vereinzelte Compilation sowie zwei bisher unveröffentlichte Songs - zusammen mit einem 24-seitigen Booklet mit Texten und Fotos, gestaltet von Laura Laurent. Ein geheimes Teenager-Tagebuch voller Trauer und Sehnsucht, vertont mit Musik, die vom Louisville und Chicago der Vor-Internet-Zeit inspiriert ist. Keine Reue.

Atkinson first saw Les yeux sans visage when she was a teenager, around the turn of the century. The film made an impact for its iconic imagery and the way Franju draws on the aesthetics of early filmmaking, from its score that relies on stylistic markers typical of the 1940s or 50s to the decision to shoot in black and white. Even four decades after its first release, it was clear that this was a work that stood outside of the cultural moment that birthed it, speaking through time in ways that were uncanny, but profound.

A quarter-century later, Atkinson was approached by the Belgian cultural center VIERNULVIER to create a new score for Les yeux sans visage for its celebrated Videodroom series, which has seen artists like claire rousay, Mabe Fratti, Lee Renaldo, and many more create new original scores for cult classics and genre cinema. Atkinson's music, with its sublime meditations on space and proximity, its elusive sense of narrative development, mirrors the pacing and mystery at the heart of horror filmmaking. There is a shadow at the heart of her soundtrack to Les yeux sans visage, an ever-shifting wisp and an insinuation of encroaching transfiguration. Echoing a climactic moment in the film, the music obliquely points to "the Beyond," an impossible place of discovery and revelation.

Atkinson envisioned her music as something akin to the air moving throughout and beyond the many cages that appear in the film, unconstrained by the bars and with undefined borders. Those cages hold the victims of a madman surgeon, determined to graft a new face onto his daughter, the protagonist Christiane Génessier, who lost hers in a car accident while he was behind the wheel. Atkinson was reminded of her predecessors at the pioneering French studio the GRM, who approached sound in a less sinister, but similarly surgical manner, and took inspiration from their playful approach to cerebral soundmaking for the electroacoustic topography into which the piano is embedded. As such, Atkinson’s reactions to the larger themes and the minute-by-minute happenings onscreen are both audible simultaneously.

A film about a man who destroys the lives of young women marked by their beauty and similarity to his daughter in a shame-fueled rage has clear, continuous cultural resonance. "Through the music, I decided to bring back their empowerment despite what they endure," says Atkinson. "This is why the record is also dedicated to Gisèle Pelicot, whose trial happened while I was in the process of composing the music and kept thinking of her strength and her decision to share her trial in order to reverse the shame."

This recorded version of the soundtrack is a 34-minute synthesis of the full 90-minute score, presented on LP along with an essay by writer-musician Claire Cronin and drawings by Momo Gordon, together forming a complex reflection on the film's themes. If these sounds move as if the bars of cages are no barrier, they also intimate the freedom and power of those held behind them. Rather than simply mirroring the fear and confinement shown onscreen, Atkinson offers an elusive escape, a beacon for the characters, and the listener, to follow as they reckon with the narrative and move through it.

Techno House Connoisseurs are back with their 8th release by Bay Area producer Tranquil Elephantizer. This 3 track ep covers all the bases with equal parts tribal and acid culminating into that West coast sound you have come to love and miss. The A side starts off with the Silverwind Mix....deepish house music with flutes and mood for days teasing and drifting with tight percussion keeping the track grounded yet still dreamy. Long winded but in the best way. The 2nd track on side A is the Brother Lee Love mix which has a similar vibe but transitions into layers of crisp and subtle 303 acid lines all throughout. Wonderful end of night or middle of set escapism for side A. Side B has a lone track titled 5 Strobes mix that will get yours and the dance floor's attention. Panning and hypnotic with skipping percussion and spoken word....truly psychedelic west coast vibed out acid house.

Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s) EP two: ‘Marionette’ has been produced by Daniel Fox (Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group) and it’s set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. “The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself.” Opener ‘Chocolate’ bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track dry-wretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. It’s a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to ‘Crows’ is the sonic equivalent of biting one’s nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture: “children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion.” The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniac’s head on day four of a REM drought.

The metallic intent of ‘Discipline’ squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer ‘Servant’ starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dial-up modem-coded, it pauses for moments of white-noise-vomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and self-awareness of one’s own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyper-fixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that it’s all bad news “we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope.” Influenced as much by the liminal-space horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. They’re a band interested in being necessary. There’s so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply don’t satisfy; something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isn’t a rare cargo.

Newly signed to indie heavyweights Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s) EP two: ‘Marionette’ has been produced by Daniel Fox (Sprints, Melts, Psychotic Monks, Naked Lungs, Nerves, Ronan Group) and it’s set to be seminal. A set text for future musicians with aspirations of innovation. “The theme of the marionette is present throughout each song, involving some aspect of a power struggle and a lack of control within oneself.” Opener ‘Chocolate’ bounces in on a synth line as slippery and hyperactive as anything Aphex Twin ever cooked up. Crispy offbeat electronic cymbals play counterpoint to atonal guitars and pugilistic drumming before the track dry-wretches its way into a nauseating cacophony of euphoria. It’s a tale of crippling social anxiety and a preference for an unflattering, lonely reality. The muted guitar pluck in the intro to ‘Crows’ is the sonic equivalent of biting one’s nails. An anxious, involuntary tic that speaks to the theme of guilt, especially surrounding digital culture: “children can watch what they please, just with viewer discretion.” The track lurches between textures, weaving themselves in and out of focus. Guitars blare like sirens, interrupting paranoid urban centres at 2am, while the bass sounds like the inside of an insomniac’s head on day four of a REM drought.

The metallic intent of ‘Discipline’ squats on the chest as though Steve Albini is your sleep paralysis demon. The pain of accountability spews from the industrial regularity of the beat, apt to the narrative of a soldier coming to terms with the lies that made him commit atrocious, violent acts. EP closer ‘Servant’ starts like a Spectrum loading screen. Dial-up modem-coded, it pauses for moments of white-noise-vomit and existential bloops. Fitting for a more abstract take on the idea of the power struggle filtered through religious imagery and self-awareness of one’s own actions, coupled with an inability to exert control over them. The band pile on the textures with sadistic glee until the evil is exorcized and the modem melts. Connection severed. Across the EP, vocalist Joseph has a tendency to hyper-fixate on themes of control and unhappiness. Creating rooms in which doom and isolation ricochet. Not that it’s all bad news “we like to think that by shedding light on the negative, it commands a sense of hope.” Influenced as much by the liminal-space horror and uncanny dread of Silent Hill as the existentialist theatre of The Twilight Zone or the absurdity of Twin Peaks, they occupy a space between unease and impulse. Makeshift Art Bar are not a band interested in being liked. They’re a band interested in being necessary. There’s so much eating and drinking in their work that multiple listens simply don’t satisfy; something new reveals itself on each return visit. Audacious. Idiosyncratic. Vital. A young band carrying identity, defiance and an uncompromising vision as if it isn’t a rare cargo.

DJ Support: Chris Coco, DJ Morpheus, Alexis Le-Tan, DVS1, Afterlife, Ally Tropical, Alex Ruder (KEXP), Andy Wilson, Bill Brewster, Makossa

Dawn Again continues his masterful run on Hell Yeah with a third new album in consecutive years. The Aussie "pubwave" architect this time serves up Pints Of Ambient Nectar, an eight-track collection of new ambient works and remixes of album tracks from 2024's Every Dog's Hotel and 2025's Lost In The Front Bar.

Melbourne producer Nick Verwey has spent the last decade quietly refining a sound that's loose, lived-in, and made for real moments rather than peak-time theatrics. With releases on Houseworx, Enjoyment Division and Hell Yeah, his sun-faded, lo-fi grooves drift between breaks, downtempo and hazy house. His “pubwave” sound is music born from lockdown nostalgia, communal pints and the romance of places where time slows, conversations linger, but the jukebox keeps things moving.

The scene is set with bird calls and saw synth awakenings on 'Backyard Paradiso', 'A Day in the Life of Pond Algae' is a quiet ode to hope and revival, while 'Slow Motion Goal Celebration' smudges chords like rays of sun cooled by a breeze. 'Kneverending Knockoffs' teases acid murmurs amongst floating melodic clouds, and new cut ' A Pub With No Beer' has sugary lines piercing sustained ambient drones. 'Hard Earned Thirst' is mellow magic for horizontal afternoons, 'Hair Of The Dawg' shimmers like heat waves on the horizon and 'Vanilla Sky' is a cathartic drift bathed in soft light, unfolding in slow, weightless waves.

This sun-dazed ambient sidestep from Dawn Again stretches pubwave nostalgia into hazy, unhurried pieces made for slow afternoons where your woes dissolve and your soul warms.

Random Color ReVINYL Edition. Never has a Songs: Ohia album's process been so integral to its overall feel as is the case with DIDN'T IT RAIN, the band's sixth proper full-length. The album, like the working class South Philadelphia neighborhood in which it was birthed, has a real used goods kinda feel to it. Engineer Edan Cohen employed what some may consider "old-fashioned" recording techniques -- the entire album was recorded live with no overdubs, the full band playing in one room with the players always within arms' reach of one another; singers Jason Molina, Jennie Benford and Jim Krewson (the latter two of Jim & Jennie And The Pinetops) sharing microphones singing live together, sometimes sitting in chairs, sometimes standing. The result is a sound which resembles the warmth and personality of the classic Muscle Shoals Sound recordings of the early- to mid-70s: Willie Nelson's PHASES & STAGES, the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses", and others by Aretha Franklin, Boz Scaggs, Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Wilson Pickett.Inspired by the Mahalia Jackson song of the same name, the title track is a beautiful song about the shifting tides of life and the old cycle of "a lot of shit going down before shit clears up". It's a damn fine place to start an album that seems in no hurry whatsoever to make a universal statement, instead perfectly content to walk its own path toward resolution. And damn if Songs: Ohia principal songwriter Jason Molina hasn't gone and created a record that is even more intensely personal and healing than any of his previous works. Neil Young had his AFTER THE GOLDRUSH, this is Molina's DIDN'T IT RAIN. Indeed, this is the album with which Molina really leaves his mark as a serious songwriter and artist. On 1999's genre-bending Ghost Tropic full-length, Songs: Ohia made it clear that it could make a cohesive album that took its listener on a journey from front to back. Its dislocated feel set a haunting tone, and its largely instrumental and drone-like quality was the process of the Ohia eluding itself and its own tendencies, searching for the underside of its roots freshly yanked. With DIDN'T IT RAIN, Molina & Co. return to the beauty of the song form and offer up a startlingly soulful and introspective song cycle in which Molina -- accepting a comfortable degree of anonymity amongst the other players -- meditates on what it means to feel rooted again (in the city of Chicago, where he's called home for the past three years), sounding more sturdy at his core than ever.

Known to many a canny Bandcamp digger through his excellent Lost Acid series of digital albums, Jim Thompson is a London based producer, skater & graphic designer. His debut vinyl release came last year on Ooze Records, run by Laurence, an estimable selector based in the excellent Palace Records store in Brixton.

The release caught the attention of System One head D. Howard who followed the trail & found High Score Table from Jim’s Glytek Audio album, a thoroughly captivating mid tempo acidic chug with aching pads & an old school charm; exactly the kind of track that needs to be played on vinyl at an after hours in a basement.

A conversation began, pints were downed & the idea was spawned; lets make a killer ep with another Glytek cut, The Hollow Tree, 2 phenomenal new cuts - the muscular sub acidic tweaker Cruiser and Numerology, a late night trippy gem - and 2 remixes including top tier Irish electro don, Cignol, who has made some of the finest cuts to grace the System One basement over the last few years.

An accomplished video producer, Jim has made videos to every track, stand by for these, the first one for the CIgnol remix drops May 22 & its a peach ! System One is a new label dedicated to soulful electronic music, late night grooves & intergalactic beats, drawing its inspiration from the early 90s techno & ambient sounds of Uk, Frankfurt, Detroit & beyond

Rafael makes a statement on his Crosstown Rebels debut with his latest two-track release, ‘Gotta Be Cool’. Out on 26th June 2026, the rising talent lands on Damian Lazarus’ imprint with one of the year’s most sought-after IDs, backed by a collaborative B-side alongside close friend N.O.Y. Long before its release, Rafael’s ‘Gotta Be Cool’ had already taken on a life of its own. Passed between dancefloors and the subject of track ID requests for months, the record became a recurring standout moment in Damian Lazarus’ sets, the kind of track that cuts through instantly without needing explanation. Now officially arriving via Crosstown Rebels, the in-demand DJ/producer’s highly anticipated label debut captures the instinctive approach that has quickly put him on the radar through releases on Beltools, Hot Creations, SZR, Planet X and Maccabi House.

Built around slow-blooming synth flourishes and vocal chants that evoke playful, almost childlike memories, it balances emotional weight with direct club energy - a combination that has made it one of the standout records in the label boss’s sets throughout the year.

On the flip, ‘Teder’ sees Rafael team up with close friend and studio collaborator N.O.Y. for a deeper, more understated cut shaped by layered percussion, fluid grooves, and loose, after-hours energy. ‘Teder,’ made together with my close friend and studio partner N.O.Y, represents a more underground side of the EP,” Rafael adds. “The track is named after the studio complex we work from, and it was actually the first record we created there together. I feel like both tracks showcase two different sides of me as a producer and DJ, with one more direct and euphoric, the other deeper and more underground.”

Strut Records proudly presents a new reissue of the original Afrobeat classic Low Profile (Not For The Blacks), recorded and composed by Afrika 70 saxophonist and bandleader Lekan Animashaun and produced by Fela Kuti. After years touring the world as Fela’s baritone saxophonist, Animashaun stepped forward to lead the legendary Egypt 80 band following Tony Allen’s departure, remaining the group’s musical director until Fela’s death in 1997. He continued on subsequent tours with Seun Kuti until 2016. Lekan began recording his only solo project, Low Profile, in 1977. The album was composed and recorded across sessions at home in Nigeria and on tour with Fela, who both produced the recordings and added keyboards to the album’s title track. ‘Low Profile (Not For The Blacks)’ referenced a government campaign during the country’s 1970s oil boom: “It was inspired by a speech by Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s military Head of State, when he urged black people to keep a low profile about their wealth and not to behave in a vulgar, arrogant way,” explains Lekan. “I argued that low profile is not just for the blacks, as everyone is human, regardless of race.” On the flip side, the simmering Afrobeat anthem ‘Se Rere’ (which translates as ‘Do Right’) delivers Animashaun’s message of living with integrity: do right, and you will reap what you sow.

The song later became the band’s opening number during Fela’s live performances both in Nigeria and internationally throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Despite recording beginning almost two decades earlier, Low Profile did not receive an official release until 1995, when it finally surfaced on Fela’s Kalakuta label. One of only a handful of albums led by core members of Kuti’s band, Low Profile captures a pivotal moment in Afrobeat history. Over time, the original has become a rare and highly sought-after record, and this new reissue places the spotlight back on a modest but influential Nigerian legend. Strut’s reissue features the complete original artwork, is fully remastered by The Carvery, and includes brand new liner notes by Lekan Animashaun himself.

Following vibraphonist and long-standing member Lewis Wright"s move to the USA, the award-winning UK jazz ensemble, featuring Nathaniel Facey on alto saxophone, Tom Farmer on double bass and Shaney Forbes on drums, have embraced a more flexible lineup. The trio enlist high-caliber guest artists to expand their sound, with long-time collaborators Ivo Neame on piano and David Preston on guitar lending their distinctive musical voices to the album. The album traverses the musical terrain between contemporary classical music, soundscape, post-bop and free jazz. The jazz of the 1960s has long been a guiding light for Empirical, not least in the way it represented Black musicians" struggle for respect, freedom and civil rights, often drawing on their faith as a moral foundation.

Capturing the full scope of the Straw Hat Crew’s journey into the Grand Line, this collection brings together the massive, high energy score by award winning composers Sonya Belousova and Giona Ostinelli. From the shores of Loguetown to the snowy peaks of Drum Island, every moment of the voyage is brought to life through soaring orchestral arrangements and unforgettable pirate anthems.

2LP Audiophile Black Vinyl: Two 12 inch records pressed on high quality black vinyl for a classic look and superior sound fidelity, delivering every orchestral swell with crystal clear precision.

Double CD Set: Two discs featuring the complete original score and songs, presented in a premium compact format.

Premium Packaging: A double gatefold jacket for the vinyl edition and a three fold digipack for the CD, both showcasing vibrant cinematic artwork of Luffy and the Straw Hat Crew.

Complete Soundtrack: Over 40 tracks spanning the entire second season, including character themes, emotional moments and epic battle motifs.

Whether at home or on your own journey, this release is the perfect way to keep the spirit of adventure alive, immersing you fully in the world of One Piece.

Netflix’s epic high seas pirate adventure, ONE PIECE, returns for Season 2, unleashing fiercer adversaries and the most perilous quests yet. Luffy and the Straw Hats set sail for the extraordinary Grand Line, a legendary stretch of sea where danger and wonder await at every turn. As they journey through this unpredictable realm in search of the world’s greatest treasure, they will encounter bizarre islands and a host of formidable new enemies

King Street Sounds Sampler Vol. 7 continues the long-running series from the legendary King Street Sounds catalogue, bringing together a selection of classic house cuts from some of the label’s most respected artists.

Featuring productions from Mood II Swing, Jovonn, Roy Davis Jr. and Osunlade, the release highlights the soulful, groove-led house sound that has defined King Street across decades of dancefloor culture.

Including standout tracks such as Mood II Swing’s Nafara and Osunlade’s The Fifth Dimension, the sampler brings together several proven records in one DJ-friendly vinyl package.

With warm grooves, musical depth and timeless club arrangements, these proven King Street records offer strong crossover appeal for both long-time house collectors and DJs looking for reliable dancefloor material.

As the seventh edition in the King Street sampler series, this release presents a selection of essential house cuts on one highly playable vinyl release.

A strong catalogue addition for stores serving soulful and deep house buyers.

For the 10th Anniversary of the iconic and unique For Honor, Kid Katana Records teamed up with Ubisoft to bring you this high quality album on an exclusive double vinyl. With over 35 million players since its release, For Honor has kept on bringing new content in the game, enriching the players’ experience with new Heroes, Factions and Music to keep the battle for survival and honor alive.


The physical edition is a premium 2LP designed in close relationship with the game's creative team:


● Track selection handpicked by For Honor team, including 2 new tracks (Year 10 exclusive) and a track never released before from Y1 Season 7
● 2 Golden vinyls
● Exclusive cover art with glossy effect on the logo
● Exclusive 16-page booklet with insights on each faction’s music, liner notes
from the game’s creative team and composers Luc St-Pierre, Danny Bensi and
Saunder Jurriaans



The tracklist is a selection of music from the 10 seasons of the game, one side per faction:

A cult electronic artefact from 1999 resurfaces here as DHS's 'From Outer Space' lands once more on wax. Ben Stokes' project has always thrived on the fringes of breakbeat and acid experimentation. Stretching across 12 minutes, 'From Outerspace' is a patiently unfurling trip built on hypnotic loops, eerie atmospherics and a restless low end that never quite settles. Fairground oddities, UFO signals and disembodied shrieks drift in and out of focus to tease the floor before locking into a rugged, heads-down stride. On the flip, 'DHS Theme 2014' and 'Voodoo Breaks' extend the sampledelic ritual with squelch and understated menace.

Ryo Fukui, the renowned pianist from Hokkaido who sadly passed away in 2016, has earned global recognition among jazz listeners through his highly praised early works Scenery and Mellow Dream. A Letter From Slowboat, recorded in 2015, marked his first leader album in sixteen years. The sessions took place at Slowboat his musical home together with two young musicians whose talent Fukui himself deeply trusted. The lyricism that seeps through “Sonora”, the poetic warmth enveloping “Stella By Starlight,” the vibrant energy coursing through “Speak Low” each performance is filled with life. His touch grew more forceful, his emotions more profound, his musical fragrance even more luxuriant.

Downtown Boys have pushed relentlessly forward as an artistic and political project since their founding. Singer Victoria Marie and guitarist/singer Joey La Neve DeFrancesco first met at union meetings while working together at a hotel in Providence, RI, writing many of the band's early songs about labor organizing and exploitative workplaces. The quintet is completed by Joe DeGeorge (sax/synth), Mary Jane Regalado (bass), and Joey Doubek (drums). Over years of touring, and three acclaimed albums, Downtown Boys have continued to grow as artists, musicians, and organizers. Now, the band has arrived with Public Luxury, an enthralling album that keeps politics front and center while summoning the band's most urgent and powerful sound to date. The definition of Public Luxury falls very much in line with that of the title of the second Downtown Boys LP, Full Communism. Straight up, Public Luxury means, "everything for everyone." It's the stubborn insistence that a better world is possible, while fully recognizing the horrors we witness daily, and the individual and collective responsibility to resist the nihilism and hopelessness we all feel. Sentiments like "everything for everyone," and "we will have it all" perfectly represent the cathartic, communal live experience this cadre of multi-instrumentalists create. These sentiments also encapsulate the inclusive, joyful sonic fusion that defines the album: anthemic punk and indie rock mix with Latin traditions, drum machines blend with acoustic drums, saxophones punctuate riffs, and layers of synths add flourishes from new-wave to industrial. The amount of ground covered on Public Luxury can't be overstated, and yet the album feels totally vital and cohesive. Public Luxury is a revisitation of the band's past for the sake of their future. It was co-produced by DeFrancesco with recording engineer and longtime Downtown Boys supporter Seth Manchester (Lambrini Girls, Lightning Bolt, Model/Actriz) at the Pawtucket, RI studio and arts space Machines With Magnets, not far from the band's first home of Providence, RI. Victoria Marie's grandmother-a monumental figure for the band throughout their existence-passed away in May of 2025, and her influence looms large over the album; the songs "No Me Jodas" and "Sirena" are crystallized representations of the love between a woman and her ancestor. Beyond the loss, rage and frustration of the present, Public Luxury points boldly towards a vibrant, open-hearted vision of both music and the world: "Our music is simply for anyone and everyone who believes in the new future we can make together," Victoria Marie declares. "A world that will be awkward, inconsistent, yet truly free when it comes to all that matters."

The arrival of REAL, Vol. 1 marks a seismic shift in the global music landscape, uniting two of Nigeria’s most formidable forces for a project that defines the current zenith of Afrobeats. This collaborative effort sees Wizkid, the smooth-talking pioneer of the genre’s international expansion, and Asake, the "Mr. Money" whose neo-Fuji sound redefined the street-pop aesthetic, finding a middle ground between luxury and grit. The project serves as a sonic bridge between eras, blending the minimalist, high-fashion sensibilities of Wizkid’s recent output with the high-octane, choir-backed energy that has made Asake a household name. It is less of a competition and more of a conversation between two masters of their craft, exploring themes of spiritual gratitude, the weight of superstardom, and the unyielding pulse of Lagos.

With soundscapes both cinematic and deeply rhythmic, the production moves beyond standard club formulas, opting instead for a sophisticated fusion of traditional Yoruba percussion, shimmering synths, and the heavy, resonant log drums of Amapiano. Wizkid provides the effortless, melodic swagger that acts as the project's anchor, while Asake injects a spiritual intensity through his signature layered chanting and rapid-fire flows.

Ultimately, REAL, Vol. 1 is a celebration of authenticity in an era of global crossover. By stripping away the pressure of conforming to Western pop standards, Wizkid and Asake have created a body of work that is unapologetically Nigerian yet universally resonant. It captures the spirit of a city that never sleeps and the ambition of two artists who have conquered the world without losing their souls. This is more than just a collection of hits; it is a blueprint for the future of African music, proving that when Wizkid and Asake occupy the same frequency, the result is nothing short of legendary.

Detroit producer, Shawescape Renegade, comes to Tresor Records with Exoframe, a five-track EP of pure techno and electro, including a remix by Arpanet.
As with so many forerunners and peers in the Detroit techno world, Shawescape Renegade, is a deep thinking and a world-building story teller and Exoframe uses the traditional sci-fi narrative to explore recent thought Shaw has had on the potential hidden costs of technological
evolution: what happens when overspecialisation leads to a dead end; when inflexibility means a return to the old forms becomes difficult.
The EP opens with 78 Light Years From Earth, an effects-laden slab of electro that pulls the percussion into other dimensions. Mechanus 9 brings a techno edge before Terraformers Warning unleashes a bass-driven beast.
A fast-paced remodel of Terraformer’s Warning from Gerald Donald’s Arpanet project follows, before the EP is closed out with another bassline-forward track, Ignition One, an updated version of the Shawescape cut that soundtracked the section of the Black To Techno
documentary focussed on the Detroit’s Jit dance scene. The strong symbiosis between Jit and Techno is a foundational part of Detroit’s culture and a community tie and suggests that while technology may lead to stagnation, the cultural muscle memory offers a path back to
authenticity.
In a thoughtful nod to the praxis of the DJ, the vinyl versions of A1 & B1 are five BPM slower than the digital, moving the music to between 128BPM and 151BPM on a standard Technics turntable and opening it up for play in a greater range of club environs.
It’s this deep respect for the artistry and traditions of Detroit’s longstanding music and dance scenes that mark Shawescape Renegade out as one of the true inheritors of the city’s heritage.