Around the year, the sturdy red brick walls of an old Cable Factory stand there like a mountain, facing weathers of all kinds rising from the Gulf of Finland. It might be freezing winter winds whipping the whole shore line into submission, fog heavy as concrete, or the relentless sun of the summer months, softening the asphalt to a boiling point. Whatever the weather may be, the narrow courtyard of the old factory embraces those musicians, who are looking to get down. They gather from all directions, making their way towards a pair of doors that lead towards a flight of stairs, again through a few doors all the way to the last portal, where an open padlock and a loosely hangin crossbar signal that Cold Diamond & Mink are inside, locked in a groove.
Who could it be with them this time, perhaps the jazz prophet Jimi Tenor beaming out of his space ship, maybe it's the golden voiced knight of soul Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä, the number one trumpet wielding dandy Jukka Eskola or the saxman Pope Puolitaival, who loses nothing in coolness compared to the former? The reel to reel is always there in the monitoring room, catching each analog layer of sound, even the silences and banter between takes. Seppo lays down the guitar and tries to catch the riff on organ instead, Jukka throws a rare tune on the turntable, hoping to guide their unit through that wobbly chorus, Sami waits there bass in hand, maybe already thinking about the next production.
After a whole lot of playing instruments, arranging and taking care of business, after the moon has travelled around the old industrial building for some rotations, Carlton Jumel Smith comes waltzing through those same doors. There's a handful of unnamed tracks waiting for him. He sits there listening and then starts writing, maybe echoes of soul classics from his own record collection in New York projecting inside his mind. Then the tape is rolling again. Starting with a short intro rap Carlton lets it out, singing on the edge of shouting "Woman you made me...". After the vocals are in the can, Carlton ascends out of the basement and heads out to entertain an audience somewhere. Some months later, after the mix is said and done, there's the question of the instrumentals. It seems they're pretty good as they are. And here they are.
d 04: Help Me (Save Me From Myself) Instrumental
nicht am Lager
Zuletzt vor 5 Jahren geliefert unverbindlich nachbestellbar
Around the year, the sturdy red brick walls of an old Cable Factory stand there like a mountain, facing weathers of all kinds rising from the Gulf of Finland. It might be freezing winter winds whipping the whole shore line into submission, fog heavy as concrete, or the relentless sun of the summer months, softening the asphalt to a boiling point. Whatever the weather may be, the narrow courtyard of the old factory embraces those musicians, who are looking to get down. They gather from all directions, making their way towards a pair of doors that lead towards a flight of stairs, again through a few doors all the way to the last portal, where an open padlock and a loosely hangin crossbar signal that Cold Diamond & Mink are inside, locked in a groove.
Who could it be with them this time, perhaps the jazz prophet Jimi Tenor beaming out of his space ship, maybe it's the golden voiced knight of soul Tuomo "Pratt" Prättälä, the number one trumpet wielding dandy Jukka Eskola or the saxman Pope Puolitaival, who loses nothing in coolness compared to the former? The reel to reel is always there in the monitoring room, catching each analog layer of sound, even the silences and banter between takes. Seppo lays down the guitar and tries to catch the riff on organ instead, Jukka throws a rare tune on the turntable, hoping to guide their unit through that wobbly chorus, Sami waits there bass in hand, maybe already thinking about the next production.
After a whole lot of playing instruments, arranging and taking care of business, after the moon has travelled around the old industrial building for some rotations, Carlton Jumel Smith comes waltzing through those same doors. There's a handful of unnamed tracks waiting for him. He sits there listening and then starts writing, maybe echoes of soul classics from his own record collection in New York projecting inside his mind. Then the tape is rolling again. Starting with a short intro rap Carlton lets it out, singing on the edge of shouting "Woman you made me...". After the vocals are in the can, Carlton ascends out of the basement and heads out to entertain an audience somewhere. Some months later, after the mix is said and done, there's the question of the instrumentals. It seems they're pretty good as they are. And here they are.
d 4 Help Me (Save Me From Myself) [Instrumental]
nicht am Lager
Zuletzt vor 7 Jahren geliefert unverbindlich nachbestellbar
Wild Oats proudly presents a new record by Byron the Aquarius, Gone Today Here Tomorrow. The 6-track EP explores the nature of reality and being, the pursuit of ecstasy and bliss, and embracing the ephemeral.
nicht am Lager
Zuletzt vor 6 Monaten geliefert unverbindlich nachbestellbar
Early 1980, UB40 scored their first success with Food For Thought', reaching high in the charts. By the time they released their first album they were already so successful that they had signed off on unemployment benefit, leading to the stamped Signing Off featured on form 40, for the sleeve of their debut album. The first dub album ever to reach the album charts in the U.K. included One In Ten' and Don't Slow Down'.
In 1983 the band put on a new project, boasting ten cover versions of Jamaican hits and, contrary to low expectations, it became a huge hit and the band's first number one album. Tracks included are Cherry Oh Baby' and Please Don't Make Me Cry' and Red Red Wine'. The latter was a rather poppy song and became the band's biggest selling single ever, entailing their definitive worldwide break through.
There have been lots of collaborations through the years and most of these became huge hit songs. Together with Chrissie Hynde UB40 recorded two singles: I Got You Babe' (1985) and Breakfast In Bed' (1988). They teamed up with Afrika Bambaataa for Reckless' (1988) and with Robert Palmer the band released I'll Be Your Baby Tonight' (1990), just to name a few.
UB40 - COLLECTED has captured all the different phases of the band in one complete album, from classic hits combined with the new!
Hui Terra. The dreamlike shape of the half-heard word, abstracts with faint impressions of bucolic landscape, or handfuls of translucent and brightly-colored gemstones that hold odd, elusive, asymmetrical form. This enchanting, gently surreal debut album from Alex Cobb's Etelin project explores the power and playfulness of impulsive action diffused through electro-acoustic and ambient sound.
This music was created with digital synthesizers and a sampler in the four months immediately following the birth of his first child, a hazy period marked by a lack of regular sleep and a diet of INA-GRM, Nuno Canavarro's "Plux Quba", and Microstoria's "Init Ding" - records that appeared to produce both stimulating and soothing effects on a newborn's nascent consciousness. Recorded and arranged at all hours, this is an album that reflects on moments of tumult and fragility. Cobb sews small sharpnesses and surprises into its movements to uncover different aspects of each sound source, doubling as hypnic starts cast to advance and variate the narrative in subtle and unexpected ways. Sound and atmosphere manifest in eccentric, alchemical fashion, as though forming in processes of sublimation - solids dissipating into vapor - and deposition - clouds resolving and dropping to the ground in piles - to an obscure and domestic rhythm. There's the purveying sense of moving within the boundaries of small, hermetic ecosystem. This is underscored and doused by a slow, blooming sense of warmth; growing joy without bombast. Even the more startling textures conceal this same truth and emphasis, such as the alien, sour salt-butter electronic babble in "Little Rig", largely sampled from Cobb's son's voice at just a week old. It is emotional music - devoted, affectionate, and playful.
December 2012 I showed up totally exhausted in Vancouver BC after touring stupidly and relentlessly for however many straight months and got a job at a call centre raising money for the Red Cross. It was a scent free office but one time this woman cooked a piece of fish in the microwave for 10 minutes on low and hot boxed the whole office - we got sent home early no pay. There was the other woman I named the Call Centre Coltrane because her pitch and routine usually involved improvised flights of fancy that went off in both directions at once somehow landing back down with a credit card number and a donation. I used to sleep under the desk. I was there a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time. I knew Nic and Jer from an AIDS Wolf Tour and was so stoked to get to know them both better. I really fell in love with that era of Vancouver's music scene.
Fast Forward to today. 2024
Actually it was the dying days of 2023 but you get it and John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my ipads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar (a dessert treat - special to this region - that seems to be more popularly found under the weird glass sneeze guards in office building deli's out east in Ontario.... anyhoops ). No one in Nanaimo wants to talk to me about the famous treat. I asked a couple of people. Silence. Nanaimo is like London, Ontario but more fried and by the sea. The town is filled with blown out old sea dawgs with tin coffee pots and loose leaf tobacco, then there's the usual streetfolk you find in this part of the Canadian Pacific Northwest and a bunch of bohemians who I guess have left Vancouver behind - that fine city having become uninhabitable for those not making over 100k a year. And then up the way are all the retirees.
Yup Nanaimo is a strange one. They mined the shit out of this region and Nanaimo is surely haunted by those buried in mining shafts or maimed by the heavy machinery or blown up by accident in the explosives store house. And when Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums.
You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell - the lyrics are improvised too...Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music.. Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too.
The live show is scorched and without naming names they've been known to make headliners nervous. Lucky ones will get to see them live as they tour this beast of a record entitled ‘It’s Yours’ (out May 17th on Upset The Rhythm) and I hope I'm one of them.
But now you, fan of fun but totally fucked up music, have the opportunity to Ball with them thanks to Upset The Rhythm. Enjoy
-Alex Moskos, Montreal QC, Feb 2024
The premise of this compilation is simple: music we’d like to hear at the airport.
The idea came after learning that Honolulu’s international airport has been playing AI-generated music over its speakers since November 2025. First reported by Civil Beat, the news has caused frustration and disappointment among residents and visitors, as well as within the local music community.
Everyone knows Hawaii is one of the most musically rich regions in the world — why then is the airport using AI music? 'Music For The Airport' is our response.
Located in the middle of the Pacific at the outskirts of one the most remote cities on the planet, Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) is for most people the first place they encounter when they arrive in Hawaii. Warm sun, tropical tradewinds, playful palm trees and majestic mountains welcome every traveler, as do the sounds of birds, familiar music from Hawaiian artists like Aunty Genoa Keawe and Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, and—at least for now—seventeen “island-themed” AI-generated songs.
In late 1977, while sitting in Germany’s Cologne Bonn Airport on a Sunday morning, Brian Eno noticed how terribly uncomfortable he felt hearing the airport’s “muzak” overhead. For a harried, hurried place like the airport where travelers scramble to their gates, stand in long border control lines, and wait impatiently for their luggage at the carousels, music can create more anxiety than calm. Asking himself, "What should we be hearing here?", Eno soon created ‘Ambient 1: Music For Airports’, a sonic remedy aimed at reducing nervousness in public spaces.
When we heard the news that HNL airport is playing AI-generated “muzak”, we were immediately reminded of Eno’s genre-defying 1978 album. And we were similarly inspired to react. But how? Recreating an ambient masterpiece wasn’t in our wheelhouse. We started digging through our catalog of licensed music which we haven’t yet re-released. We quickly realized this was our chance to highlight some of favorite songs from the so-called CD era: the 1990s and 2000s (with a few exceptions). In less than 20 minutes, we pulled 17 original songs recorded by local artists between 1984 and 2017.
The speed at which this project came together surprised us; reactionary gut instinct often produces swift and lasting results. Ironically, our new compilation likely took less time than it did for the state Department of Transportation to commission its AI songs in question. But even though ‘Music for the Airport’ came together in less than one week, the truth is that this collection of 17 songs is the result of years of hard work, trust, sacrifice, patience, and understanding. Building relationships with and licensing music from artists doesn’t happen overnight, but more importantly: these songs are the result of people pouring their hearts and souls into something they believe in. This music wouldn’t exist today without the artists and their loved ones who supported them along the way.
As of this writing, the DOT states its intention in creating AI-generated songs is to “highlight different aspects of the islands, aviation and the airport” and that “no state funds were used to produce them”. Okay, but at what cost? Technology disrupting the music industry isn’t news to anyone. AI music in public spaces are cost-saving measures, since its users (airports, for example) don’t have to pay the licensing fees typically required, which can be a worthwhile source of revenue for artists. But what happens when a place like HNL airport, which hosts more than 21 million passengers annually, uses music created by machines instead of people to represent Hawaii? The identity of a place beings to erode, diluted by a language learning model’s conceptual summary of what a people and its culture sounds like. To echo Brian Eno: what should we be hearing here? In other words: what should the music of Hawaii sound like?
We believe in the power of music, especially when it comes from the soul. We believe in supporting artists, especially as AI disrupts our lives. We believe that Hawaii must be represented authentically, especially when it comes to song. And of course we believe in vinyl, especially since it was a record from 1978 (Mackey Feary Band’s debut LP) that inspired Aloha Got Soul’s origins in 2010.
We hope you find as much joy in this compilation as we have. Perhaps it’ll soundtrack your next journey to Hawaii. At the very least, we hope some people take a moment to hear these sounds: in your headphones for now‚ maybe someday overhead at the airport in Honolulu.
here is a direct and enduring connection between the roots of Italian electronic music and the underground club culture of today.
Boldly pulling that thread are Marta Paradise, the duo from Martina Franca (Puglia, Italy), who have established themselves as a go-to name for anyone craving an elegant, refined sound that remains unapologetic.
For their latest release, they team up once again with a true legend: Fred Ventura. As one of the most iconic artists of early Italo Disco, Ventura brings an unmistakable vocal timbre that turns every track into an instant classic.
The result of this cross-generational collaboration is Call In The Night, a track that bridges authentic Italian heritage with the sharpest edges of modern Indie Dance. It delivers everything discerning clubbers live for: shimmering synths cutting through the dark, an octave-driven bassline that locks you to the dancefloor and a nocturnal, dreamy, relentlessly catchy vocal line.
Elevating the package even further is a stellar remix package featuring some of the hottest names on the current circuit, including Mystery Friend, Day Ventura, the unmistakable touch of the legendary Flemming Dalum, and Slow Motion label boss Franz Scala.
Far from a simple nostalgia exercise, Call In The Night is a forward-looking journey with a vintage soul that never falls into cheap clichés. Past and present merge to set the world’s most visionary DJ booths ablaze.
Written by GIANLUCA SERVETTI
HEY CABRERA
Owner of the Magazine “rockerilla”
Released by Polydor Records on April 1, 1972, Mandrill Is is the second album by Mandrill, the Brooklyn seven-piece led by brothers Carlos, Lou, and Ric Wilson.
Recorded at Electric Lady Studios during the winter of 1971?72, it finds the band refining the adventurous blend of funk, soul, jazz, rock, and Latin rhythms established on their acclaimed debut. With its powerful horn section, deep grooves, percussion-rich arrangements, and flashes of psychedelia and jazz-rock, Mandrill Is sounds both tighter and more ambitious than its predecessor. "Ape Is High" and the horn-driven "Git It All" deliver the album's most immediate funk, while "Cohelo" and "Kofijahm" explore Latin and Afro-diasporic rhythmic traditions. "Children of the Sun" and "Lord of the Golden Baboon" stretch further into expansive, progressive territory, revealing a band as interested in atmosphere, arrangement, and instrumental interplay as in the groove itself. The album's strength lies precisely in that refusal to settle into one category. Mandrill use funk as a foundation for moving freely between soul, jazz, rock, Latin music, and psychedelic textures, creating a sound that is unmistakably their own.
Mandrill Is captures the group at an important early peak: more focused and confident than their debut, yet still willing to follow the music wherever it leads. Pressed on 180g vinyl.
This is more a relic than a record. A token of respect to the music that made me who I am. Everything I do starts here — the urge to pull songs I love into the club shape I play today, for one reason only: to make someone else feel what I feel when I hear them. Two techno improvisations, ANG and OSC, built on two songs that mattered enormously to me and to electronic music — bands that started their own revolutions, in their own time, mostly off to the side of the mainstream.
These came out too good to keep to myself. Vinyl only. 300 copies. No repress, ever. First come, first served. Bandcamp and selected stores. No digital, no promos — this one stays sealed.
Nicola Conte & Gianluca Petrella’s 2021 brilliant collaborative jazz dance album People Need People channelled a vision of togetherness and used the universal language of music to elevate our spirit during these trying times. This vision can’t be more relevant today and the album’s legacy is kept alive with the same spirit of collaboration that distinguished the project.
“Inner Light” - featuring Raashan Ahmad on vocals - is the first song from the album chosen for a series of reinterpretations of the project that will be released throughout 2022. Joaquin Joe Claussell needs no introduction, the Body & Soul founder and Sacred Rhythm label honcho is a true legend and purveyor of spirituality – a cosmic messenger that brings us two versions of “Inner Light”; his work here is not to be solely intended as a remix but, as the title suggests, delivers two new proper versions of the original song.
This EP is the first in a trilogy of 12” releases that will also feature further reinterpretations of tracks taken from the “People Need People” album, by none less than Anthony Nicholson, DJ Spinna and Tall Black Guy!
Here come two unearthed scorchers from the 90s era of UK Dub. Shades Of Black also known as Jonah Dan and Paul Fox on the riddim, mix and vocals. On the A side, one finds ‚Free Again‘, a conscious vocal piece including two dubs calling for freedom and equality. It has never been released as such, and only sounds like Aba Shanti-I were able to beat down cuts of this one dubplate style. The side B holds ‚Fight For The Right‘ an anti-war hymn from the late nineties, which seems to be unfortunately just as relevant today. A crunch with the needle and let the time traveling begin. 90s SALUTE !
Producer duo Crossroads is back with another track featuring the talented young singer Cler. This time, they’re taking on a huge classic originally by Grover Washington Jr. and Bill Withers. 'Just The Two Of Us'—a soul classic that’s been loved across three generations—gets a fresh update here, perfectly matching today’s modern soul sound. And once again, Cler delivers goosebumps with her vocals, bringing a seamless mix of simplicity and passion to an timeless hit.
Hanne Lippard and Renato Grieco's Today's Special is a suite of language works synthesising melody and diction that integrates the literary and the audible in a repertoire of songs that bask in the melody of voice and the punctuations of structured composition. Working with methods of reduction rather than opulence in both tonal composition and rhetoric, each piece pegs the poetic to the musical with compositional schematics and methods. It is important to state that there is little to none improvisation here, instead, the duo set up matrices, rules and structural links that facilitated meaningful locus of exchange between their two practices. Lippard's texts are a collection of new and previously completed works. In these, as is typical for her work, she enjoys the easy pleasure of wordplay, iterative language, and decontextualised anecdote, as in opener Portrait of a Betrayal, a piece about the loss of a phone and the way it haunted the owner who dropped it, based on a lived experience. Grieco's instrumentation works with Lippard's language art as a form of acoustic typography. "I studied graphic design and I think about how you can express typography through voice," she says. "Renato's use of the viola da gamba becomes like an underline, or a font's brushstrokes, in ways that feel typographical." In this, the classically-trained composer Grieco often finds and echoes the pitch movements of Lippard's voice, intonation mirrored and revealed, linguistic meaning doubled and shadowed by plucked, strummed or bowed strings. His main instrument is the viola da gamba, the instrument considered closest to the human voice for its tonal range and ability to mimic inflections and timbre, and here he brings it even closer to the voice, building systems by which it moves with and around Lippard. He also plays piano and Wurlitzer, and joins her in speaking on Receiver and in conversation for final track The Black Rose. "Hanne's voice is an artist's voice, embodied as the artwork itself," he says. "But where my approach is from the perspective of a composer, hers is around rhetoric and language. We worked towards each other in this sense, Hanne finding a space to welcome my voice, and me designing an acoustic space to enhance her vocal persona." In some tracks the structural connections are obvious - the matched tumbling delivery and stepped pitches of voice and piano in Aficionado sounding like two tipsy friends descending a staircase. In others, like the triptych of tracks Three Rungs Ladder, structured with rules derived from nursery rhymes, or cumulative song (akin to the 12 Days of Christmas). For the Colour 1 and Colour 2 pieces, the duo worked from palettes of colours connected to clusters of harmonies, which underlined the power of the word and its articulation. The absurd Labradorable personifies a people pleaser, A Story About Being Blue is an imagined playful monologue from the Deep Blue supercomputer - requesting in sing-song stop motion to be called Debbie, and Larry - as Grieco echoes in factual reportage. Hurtbeat unpacks and recomposes a tweeted non-apology by a Russian art collector about owning a piece of racist art, Grieco shadowing Lippard's generating a third `drop-shadow' performer from the resonances between the duo, typographic re-articulation of the source material. The Receiver includes lines from Robert Ashley's Improvement (Don Leaves Linda), Ashley existing as a spiritual parent of sorts to the practices contained on Today's Special, and here interpolated as if he is being quoted and written through within the audible world of the piece in a palimpsest of borrowed sentences. Closing track The Black Rose contains its own self-aware comedy, a lightly distorted conversation sourced from a Reddit thread about whether black roses exist, recorded as if it were an internet radio or a low budget podcast, the casual exchange stilted in the delivery of platitudes as scripted speech. Today's Special was developed in person over the course of a series of small residencies - at Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo, Rome; Fondazione Morra, Napoli; Callie's, Berlin. In these limited periods that rarely stretched beyond a week, Lippard and Grieco developed strategies for the works, keeping tightly locked to musical concepts. This, for Grieco, is about maintaining a solid, meaningful connection within the compositions, and committing to everything having a purpose for existing within the work. Each element pulls its weight; has something to say, literally and metaphorically speaking. In the same way that Lippard's work leaves nowhere for her to hide, he wants the music to exist with its own naked purpose: "It's is about exposing nudity via reduced materials," says Grieco. "This is a form of courage we want to embrace. Once we take off everything, it needs to be extremely precise to maintain a connection with the audience. We have a lot of tools to hide behind now, to protect ourselves and our identities as artists, performers, and in life more generally. It's something I don't want to do. I want extreme reduction: no hiding."
Toy Tonics Italomania Vol. 4 is a compilation dedicated to new ITALIAN DISCO. Not ITALO DISCO.
10 new tracks made by young producers from Italy, exclusively made for Toy Tonics. All songs with Italian vocals.
Made with a lot of love by
Cleeeo, Giorgio Lopez, Magnolia, Juan Soto & Sam Ruffillo, KOKO, Luca Averna, Ricardo Baez, Euro Nettuno, The Cube Guys and Paccone.
The Italomania compilation was initiated by Mathias ‚Kapote‘ Modica. Creative mind behind Toy Tonics and half italian producer himself.
The series is a manifesto to show the status of Italian disco of today.
Kapote invited the most relevant producers to show different new styles of modern Italian disco and house music.
With a wide range of influence: Live disco, indie dance, italo pop, and italo house.
Italian disco is not Italo disco. The last few years saw a big revival of the trashy pop music of the 1980s called Italo disco, mostly with English lyrics.
But this compilation is about something else. It is about this new Italian disco. Toy Tonics wants to show a new way to combine Italianity with dance culture.
The Italomania Vol. 4 Artists
Cleeeo - Come Tocchitu: A sexy and sophisticated disco house track by 22 year old newcomer DJ and producer Cleeeo. Driven by a warm, uplifting groove and strong dancefloor energy. The record is dedicated to Brazil. The vocals move between Italian and Portuguese. This creates a natural bridge between two cultures.
Giorgio Lopez - Italiani Brava Gente: Giorgio Lopez is an important player from the much talked about new music scene from Napoli.
For "Italiani Brava Gente," he teams up with Los Angeles artist Sueño. The track is a tongue-in-cheek take on the stereotypical Italian male. It pays homage to late Italodisco legend Pino D’Angiò. The story unfolds from the perspective of a foreign tourist navigating the contradictions of self-proclaimed Casanovas.
The Cube Guys - Saper Ringraziare: The legendary italo house duo shows their Italian vibes and musical taste with “Saper Ringraziare”. The track captures the warmth of summer and the infinity of urban nights. A combination of early Italo disco elements mixed with their typical groovy beats.
Magnolia - Vesuvio: Magnolia’s “Vesuvio” is a cover version of a song from the 1960s by artist E’ Zezi. While the original is more in a folk vibes, the new version is an irresistible piano house track with groovy, sun-soaked vibes. It is made for the dance floor. This track blends Mediterranean roots with the euphoric energy of modern house. Some might know the vocals already from another cover version by Nu Genea from the previous album.
Juan Soto & Sam Ruffillo - Italomexicano: What happens when a Toy Tonics artist hangs out in Mexico city and teams up with the local scene? The result is here. A blend a Toy Tonics sound and tons of vintage synthesizers and some additional production by Mexican producer talent Juan Soto.
You get "Italomexicano". A fuse of the mystique of Mexican mariachi with the magnetic pulse of Italo disco.
KOKO feat. Elena Moroder - I Can't Understand: This melancholic piano house track is a serious floorfiller! Goosebumps! Italian DJ and producer KOKO teams up with Elena Moroder on "I Can’t Understand". Elena delivers a captivating vocal performance. The track explores the misunderstandings of a relationship where emotions were never fully expressed. It blends an iconic piano melody with warm, uplifting grooves.
Luca Averna - Le Luci Della Pista: Luca Averna is a DJ, producer, and resident at the iconic Pikes Hotel in Ibiza. "Le Luci Della Pista" is an energetic track designed for peak-time Ibiza moments while keeping a strong groove and a playful spirit.
Ricardo Baez - È Venerdì: Ricardo Baez is an Italian-Venezuelan DJ and producer. He is known for his distinctive blend of house, dark electro, italo disco, and leftfield electronics. Well respected in Italy's contemporary electronic scene he has been releasing on labels such as Running Bag, Permanent Vacation, Bordello a Parigi, Correspondant, Mule music, Live at Robert Johnson.
Euro Nettuno - La Notte Chiama: These guys are hot! Part of the Polyamore Crew, one of the rising italian new disco collectives their sound mixes Italo house from the 1990ies, electro and Pop in a very cool new way.
Paccone - J'Adore Napoli: Vincenzo Paccone is a DJ, producer but also very renowned graphic designer. He is co-founder of NSS. A fashion agency that is by now one of the leading italian fashion crews. He has been also working as a designer for Circoloco Ibiza for many years and organizes some of the hottest parties in Napoli currently. He makes his official debut as a producer with “J’Adore Napoli”. It is a vibrant tribute to the house music culture born in Naples. The track draws inspiration from the late 1990s and early 2000s. And is part of a NSS campaign about the ’new coolness of the city of Napoli“.
Omar Neri aka Omar J Born & live in Arezzo, Dj Professionist from 1991, play and produced under name PRESSLABOYS with Luigi Gori since 2011. In1996 instead, while they were in his basement during a storm, the study got flooded and they looked like homeless people holding all them instruments. Here born Presslab Records & two Years later Presslaboys Team, after various names used before. Today, never forget but never look back, keep moving forward, it’s time to fly… my creature, Tapemann, who lives the eternal dilemma linked to his nature, of tapa, grappling with the future, progress and the loss of certain values that leave room for AI. So, let’s start this totally hybrid journeys, in sounds ranging from house to prog house contexts (sometimes Deep and Dub) but with a sound and structure that recalls minimal, in the choice of reverbs and lengths of the sounds... all immersed in a decidedly acidic context. A melting pot from an artist who has spanned three decades of music, we couldn't expect anything different.
We are heartbroken to announce this very special release — a tribute to the genius of Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch (Optimo), who sadly left us on September 19, 2025. Over 20 years ago, when Skylax had no money and was just starting out, Keith was among the very first to believe in us. He delivered four unforgettable remixes of Denise Motto – I M N X T C, sharp, uncompromising cuts that defined the true spirit of underground dance music. At the time, due to limited means, only one made it to vinyl. Now, for the first time, we are proud to present the complete set: four remixes — the unreleased acid mix, blackrabbit whorehouse mix, industrial mix, and alternative mix , all cut loud and mastered with love. This release is more than a record; it is a homage to Twitch, a true pioneer and tastemaker, our generation’s John Peel. His art of digging, his fearless intelligence in music choices, his no-compromise vision — all of it stands in stark contrast to the disposable culture of today’s Instagram DJs. What we celebrate here is the real thing: edgy, sharp, timeless. A piece of history, pressed in vinyl forever. Featuring a stunning artwork by H5 (Daft Punk, Air, Logorama), specially designed to pay homage to the legend. Ultra-limited, no repress.
The eye of the storm: welcome to Tornado Wallace's debut album! The accumulation of about four years of work, with tracks written in Berlin and Melbourne, 'Lonely Planet' is nothing like you may have expected from the Australian expat. No stranger to fans and followers of ESP Institute, Beats in Space and Music From Memory's sister Label Second Circle, Tornado Wallace's strain of releases so far merged functionality with a musical playfulness that led him to find himself as one of the producer's behind José Padilla's International Feel album. Here, he leaves the needs of the dance floor behind in order to create a magical mystery tour de trance into his and our inner jungle. How about some references New Age sounds meet new wave melodies, Grace Jones runs into the Dire Straits at Compass Point, while a Korg Mini Pops and a Roland CR78 make amends for Sly & Robbie's absence, Michael Mann pictures Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness', Robert Rauschenberg tries his luck at naturalism and an imagined Wally Badarou echoes through all of it. Sandwiched between the title track and the yearning beauty of the album's final point 'Healing Feeling', you get all of that as well as collaborations with and contributions of NO ZU, David Hischfelder and the voice of Sui Zhen on 'Today', who would easily make Anna Domino take her proverbial hat off. Tornado Wallace created an album that supersedes the requirements and expectations of a debut. Like a lost Island Records or a never released Made to Measure album, 'Lonely Planet' soundtracks notions and ideas that recall the nostalgic future in the past as much as it looks ahead.
Forty years of cassette releases, pressed for the first time on vinyl
First of two instalments exploring the previously unreleased sonic archives of one of Poland’s most enigmatic
living artists - with its first volume focused on his deep listening practice and spiritual reverie (recorded 1990–2013)
The last time Andrzej Dudek-Dürer took a banknote bearing the face of the Polish anarchist Jarosław Dąbrowski from his pocket to trade it for a pair of shoes was in 1969. He bought them for 120zł - the equivalent of 100€ today - and never replaced them since then. Only rebuilt them, year after year, drawing a needle and thread through the leather each time it split, closing one wound before the next one opened. It became a ritual of precision, stitching a record of another year into their soles.
That same year, in Wrocław, he arrived at a conclusion that would recalibrate everything that followed. Convinced he was the reincarnation of Albrecht Dürer, he adopted the surname Dudek-Dürer, stopped cutting his hair and began wearing the same garments every day. It was the first ritual of many, though he wouldn't have called it that yet. Look closely enough, over the decades, and it is always the same gesture, returning in different material: hair growing in a single unbroken strand, a needle drawing thread through leather, sitar strings pulled taut across a neck he built with his own hands and magnetic tape spooling forward inside the cassette boxes stacked against his walls.
None of this began in a vacuum. Dudek-Dürer emerged from the Wrocław neo-avant-garde, in a Polish art world where an exhibition could be cancelled overnight by the stroke of a censor's pen. In 1973, his exhibition Auto-crucifixion was shut down by the state, and for a time he found himself blocked from exhibiting his own art at all - the one force in his life that ever came close to cutting the thread.
He seemed to experience it differently. In 1974, after long, patient research into sitar craftsmanship, he built his first prototype with his brother, a knowledgeable luthier. In 1978, in a smoked-out jazz club, he took his first steps into sound recording with the unreleased album Jazz From Underground with his first band. By 1979, recognition started to travel further than he could.
Turning toward Far-Eastern philosophy, meditation and the idea of reincarnation was another language of freedom for him. It was a way of claiming an inner territory the state could not reach, a border it could not close. Mail Art served a parallel function, reaching further out: in a country that restricted travel and expression, sending and receiving art through the postal system became an act of quiet rebellion.
The body, in his understanding, is only an envelope readied for constant transformation. From this came Metaphysical Telepathy: during the years he could not leave Poland, he treated that confinement as a rehearsal room, sending his mind out ahead on the same thread his body would later follow. Living Sculpture grew from the same root with performances of stillness beside static art objects, until the boundary between the object and the man beside it simply dissolved. Camera Meditation extended the same instinct into photography: a shutter click flattening three dimensions into two so that a single instant could be held forever. Inspired by the pioneers of self-portrait photography like Robert Cornelius, he used it to document time itself, and kept explaining to me: "You know. This is not about vanity. This is about observing time passing.”
The isolation did not end suddenly. It ended the way his own philosophy had already predicted it would, from the inside first. Mail Art quietly solved the problem politics couldn't. Correspondence built during years of confinement slowly worked its way through doors the state itself had kept locked. Contacts made through folded paper and stamps became invitations. Ultimately, invitations became passports.
In 1983 he made his first trip outside Poland, to Germany, in search of the audio technology he couldn’t get his hands on before. In 1985, he was invited by the Indian embassy in Poland to give a sitar concert on an instrument he had spent a decade patiently stringing together - half sitar, half tanpura, built from patience and determination. After the collapse of the People's Republic of Poland, the travels kept unspooling: South Korea, then Mexico, then Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, Japan and the United States - each stop leaving behind its own small knot of tape, tied off and carried home.
In the decades since, recognition arrived at the same unhurried pace: he conducted workshops at UC Berkeley, served as vice-president for artistic affairs of the Union of Polish Art Photographers and the Union of Polish Visual Artists between 2010 and 2014 and received the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis. His visual work gradually entered collections including the National Museums of Warsaw, the Stedelijk Museum, Tate Modern, MoMA and the Venice Biennale. His musical practice, by contrast, never found that kind of room - left to circulate quietly, sharing his cassette tapes directly, waiting for someone willing to follow it further.
It took months before I could find a way to reach Andrzej Dudek-Dürer - his presence online is very close to nonexistent. Surprisingly, LinkedIn turned out to be the only door still open, a faintly absurd irony given everything else about him. I packed the strict minimum for a three-day trip and an empty notebook and made my way to Wrocław. His headquarters sits in the neighbourhood of Grabyszyn: a two-storey pre-war house that has belonged to his family for generations. The man who opened the door was long-haired, long-bearded, in his trademark leather shoes and patched jeans. We sat in his living room, in front of a computer where decades of recordings sat organised in cryptically named files, surrounded by books and objects that had arrived one layer at a time, leaving room for only two chairs in the middle. His shoes sat by the door, rebuilt so many times they had become their own quiet sculpture. Cassette tapes filled boxes against the walls, almost unlabelled, each one a spool of thread holding decades of sound that had never once been asked for, until now.
I listened for hours: meditating in front of strangers on the porch of a Seoul temple until the tourists stopped taking photos and simply waited with him; a stand-off with border guards at the US–Mexico crossing over an instrument they couldn't identify and didn't trust; a session with the Stockhausen family that he still, decades later, describes like it happened last week. All of it interrupted, occasionally, by the smell of soup boiling and fresh bread warming on the ceramic stove. After two days, it felt like being handed the end of a very long thread and asked, gently, to keep following it. I left with a USB drive holding his full discography, signed with his unmistakable signature.
Astral Meditations From A Living Statue is a length of that thread, drawn out from the boxes stacked against his walls - recordings gathered from different rooms, different countries, different decades. This first record breathes slowly: incense-thick, meditative, built for stillness. A cutting-edge séance in outer space where machines learn how to dream.
It begins with the neo-classical improvisations of Andrzej, space-delayed, recorded at Klub Muzyki i Literatury in Wrocław in 2002. 'When..So' opens the curtains with a deep-rooted meditation accompanied by slow-decaying piano figures illuminated by a candle-lit spirit gathering.
Los Angeles, 1990: a dormant villa, a grand piano, the voice of Bonnie Barnett. 'Exception' is captured in a single room, in a single afternoon - voice and keys circling each other, neither one leading, until the silence between the notes starts to feel like the instrument.
'The Meta...' and 'Tired Of...', recorded at Studio Morandi in Ponte Nossa, Italy, in 1992, settle into a sitar drone built entirely from patience - overtones stacking and beating against each other, strung by a man who never once set foot in India. 'Mastery Of...' follows, recorded the same year at Studio Suski in Łomianki, pushing that same hum further still, until pitch dissolves into a spectral reverie. 'Transcendental Sound', from 2000, closes the first record in a slow bath of celestial frequency - better heard beside the shores of the Odra river.
More than fifty years after deciding that a life could become an artwork, Andrzej Dudek-Dürer continues to inhabit that decision. His shoes keep wearing thin against the earth's crust. His hair keeps growing, one strand at a time. His cassette tapes keep spooling in the dark of their boxes.
Now the thread finds its last shape: a single unbroken groove, spiralling inward from the outer edge to the label at the centre. Never cut - the way nothing else in his life ever was. Drop the needle and it will find that groove and follow it, the same way a needle once followed leather, once followed a border it couldn't cross, once followed string into an instrument that didn't exist until he built it. This record is the other end of a thread that has been travelling for fifty years. For the length of both sides, it rests here, in your hands. This is a timeless proof that the Lord of the New Age was never lost."
The new voice of jazz is here. Following his
acclaimed debut album ‘Open Up Your Senses’,
award-winning vocalist Tyreek McDole returns with
‘CHROMA’, a bold, genre-defying record that takes
the jazz tradition somewhere unexpected.
Drawing from the rich musical canon, from Nina
Simone’s ‘Wild Is the Wind’ and Miles Davis’s ‘Blue
in Green’ to OutKast’s ‘She’s Alive’, McDole
completely inhabits each song, bringing his
extraordinary baritone, soul and contemporary
vision to a repertoire that spans generations.
Produced by GRAMMY-nominated trumpeter Theo
Croker, ‘CHROMA’ is a striking record where jazz
tradition meets the sounds of today - the sound of
a new generation of jazz.
Celebrating 30 years of ‘Filthy Lucre’ Live, the incendiary 1996 recording that captured the Sex Pistols’ explosive reunion tour of the same name, this landmark live album returns for the first time as a 2LP, set on red vinyl. The album documents Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Glen Matlock reuniting nearly two decades after their original implosion, revisiting the songs that transformed punk and the world we live in today. Recorded at the band’s Finsbury Park performance, the release delivers a raw and uncompromising snapshot of the Sex Pistols at full volume, reaffirming their enduring influence and confrontational spirit.
Drawing heavily from ‘Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols’, the setlist features defining tracks including “Bodies”, “No Feelings”, “New York”, “God Save The Queen” and “Pretty Vacant”. Performed with the same abrasive energy that established the band as one of the most influential acts in British music history. This special edition also includes the Japanese bonus tracks for the first time, making it the definitive version of this iconic live recording for fans and collectors alike.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of one of the true cult classics of the Italo Disco universe: Mike Mareen’s “Love Spy.” Released in 1986, the track sounded strikingly different from much of the dance music around it: futuristic, dramatic, playful and instantly recognisable. It quickly found its way into DJ cases across Europe and became one of the records that would define Mike Mareen’s electronic sound.
But the story actually began under a different name. An early incarnation of the song was called “Batman,” with lyrics inspired by the adventures of the famous comic-book hero and the villains surrounding him. A small number of promotional copies circulated before copyright concerns meant that the concept had to be abandoned. The title and lyrics were rewritten and “Love Spy” was born. The early “Batman” version has since become one of the most fascinating curiosities in Mike Mareen’s catalogue.
Four decades later, we felt an anniversary like this deserved something special.
LOVE SPY 40th Anniversary will therefore arrive in two parts, bringing together some of our favourite producers from today’s Italo, synth and electronic scene.
Part One features brand-new remixes by Luca Dell’Orso, Flemming Dalum, Also Playable Mono and Disco Computer. And enthusiasm was never going to be a problem here. “Love Spy” is not simply an ’80s classic, it remains a genuine DJ favourite, loved by old-school collectors and a new generation of Italo-wave selectors alike.
Alongside four killer new interpretations, we are bringing back the original Badman Mix, plus the highly sought-after “MAKE YOUR OWN MIX” material – rare set of individual elements created for DJs to deconstruct, combine and rebuild “Love Spy” themselves. These samples have become particularly desirable among collectors and make the perfect addition to the first chapter of our anniversary edition.
Four new remixes. Two pieces of history. Forty years of LOVE SPY.
And we are only halfway there.
LOVE SPY 40th Anniversary Part Two, featuring another line-up of major names from our scene arrives in November.
Due to high demand, MEU has revisited two of Mr. K’s classics, previously only available as 12-inch extended mixes, and asked the master editor to pare them down to 7-inch size.
A true top-five peak record at the Garage, Thelma Houston’s “I’m Here Again” was “a highlight whenever Larry played it,” Danny Krivit recalls, “and he played it a lot!” Danny’s edit is a homage to Larry and Frankie Knuckles – in particular a similar private edit that Frankie did back in the day and shared with Krivit. “It was on reel to reel and I didn’t copy it correctly and lost it,” Danny remembers. “Reels were problematic! When I tried to get it again from him, unfortunately he had lost it too.” The song (likely an attempt by Motown to capitalize on the previous year’s monster hit “Don’t Leave Me This Way”) is, in its original form, a virtual retake of Thelma Houston’s breakout single, from the subdued, schmaltzy intro to the “oooh BABY!” leading to the chorus. What sets “I’m Here Again” apart though, is the incredible second half of the song. Naturally, it is here that Mr. K’s edit focuses. Over a vicious groove reminiscent of the Originals’ “Down To Love Town” breakdown (Michael Sutton wrote and produced both “Love Town” and “I’m Here Again”) Houston delivers soul-stirring ad libs as the band crackles with electricity behind her, the piano chasing a descending string riff so eagerly. Pure dancefloor peak energy! And the very first time having all these parts on a 7"!
For our flip, Danny has reached deep into the earliest foundations of his voluminous collection, and come out with a psychedelic pop classic rearranged for today’s sound systems and setlists. Recorded in the Beatles’ Abbey Road studio at the height of the Summer Of Love, the Zombies’ “Time Of The Season” is firmly linked in pop culture to the late ‘60s and the Vietnam era, breaking big in the summer of 1969. Krivit’s edit highlights the parade of lush sonic textures that ornament the hip composition, from the iconic, exquisitely echoed bass-clap-exhale riff that opens the song to the cascading Hammond organ solos of Rod Argent. “It’s a song from my childhood that really struck a chord,” Danny says. “Over the years I often played a rough edit which always seemed to go over great. The song seemed to get better and better, and age like fine wine.” We agree!
These two songs have both appeared on previous (separate) MEU 12-inches, but are presented here in custom new edits for the 7-inch format.
Paul Guido and Laron McNally, AKA Locomotive & Swan, conjured up ‘Way Out Here…’ in the living room of a tiny apartment in San Francisco in 2003. The duo were part of a bustling West Coast scene inspired by the pioneers that came before them, pushing the music into a more experimental direction. Their sound was a hybrid of looping tech-house with a freshly dubbed-out soul, soft-edged pumpers made with long sessions on the dance floor in mind.
The four versions of ‘Way Out Here…’ contain the same tripped-out samples and driving percussion, but with their own distinct attitude. The ‘Breakbeat Mix’ provides the most bone-rattling bassline of all time, balanced by the more restrained and stripped back ‘Bonus Breaks’. The ‘House Mix’ subtly plays with pressure and release, while ‘Posse Up’ goes full throttle lift-off.
With this four tracker all bases are covered - each track is suited to different moments across a night’s arc from warm up, to peak time, to after hours. This EP is a testament to the grooves and groovers of the time, reflecting an era of music that informed much of what we cherish today. The shimmy is strong with this one, and we are happy to give it another lap.
Deep techno, sometimes nostalgic and melancholic: that what Zooloft Records is. Giorgio Gigli and Francesco Baudazzi (Obtane), balancing soul and body, give birth to intense storytelling through sound, enhanced by an intimate reflection about childhood innocence.
Introspection is driven by a vein of subtle and rarefied nihilism, pervaded in each release. Project's graphics evoke the idea of abstract thoughts written on blank paper, where shadows meet memories.
Future, maybe, is the memory of a beautiful past. So, we are here, today, and proud to present you a special, collector-item vinyl boxset, limited to 100 pieces only, handsigned and remastered, containing the full Zooloft discography.
The ultimate soundtrack of the summer is here: Mixatissimo, a 10-track vinyl-only mixed dance compilation bridging nostalgic ’80s sunshine vibes with modern Italo and indie-dance energy.
In Italy, during the 1980s, there was an absolute ritual that marked the beginning of summer: the release of those mixed dance compilations with glittering, futuristic covers. They weren’t just records; they were the very definition of sun, sea and tan lines. It was precisely holding one of those vinyls in his hands – the first one he ever bought – that sparked the musical passion of Italian DJ and producer Hey Cabrera!
Today, that perfect circle closes with Mixatissimo, a project that takes that nostalgic inspiration and transports it straight into the modern era.
Released as an exclusive vinyl-only edition by Universo Segundo and powered by Bordello A Parigi, the compilation packs 10 bangers oscillating between modern Italo, indie-dance and electronics, featuring some of the hottest names on the contemporary scene.
Exclusive special edits have been crafted for every single track, locking the groove into a fixed BPM for each side: 122 BPM on Side A and 125 BPM on Side B. Thanks to smooth transitions featuring drums-only sections, the record flows as a continuous stream for the listener, while simultaneously serving as the perfect tool for DJs who want to mix the individual tracks.
A meticulously calibrated selection, designed as much to make the dancefloor explode late at night as to keep the rhythm high in the most sophisticated listening bars.
The soundtrack to your summer is ready.
What are you waiting for?
Madonna announced today her eagerly anticipated new album Confessions ll is set for release on July 3rd via Warner Records.
The new album is the continuation of the iconic counterpart Confessions on a Dance Floor. Ahead of the lead single, Madonna unveils the first taste of music with a trancelike visual teaser. Watch HERE. Fans can pre-order the album + the ultimate curation of expansive vinyl and CDs
Madonna sums up her new record best by quoting the first few lines of her song, One Step Away, “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”
Madonna adds “When Stuart Price and I first started working on this record, this was our manifesto”:
We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we've been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect
—with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It's about pushing your limits and
connecting to a community of like-minded people.
Sound, light, and vibration Reshape our perceptions Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it.
Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.
Phone Me Tonight was recorded in 1981 at Studio Maïa in Bondy, just outside Paris - a creative hub where many artists of the African diaspora shaped their sound. On this track, Eko Roosevelt collaborates with producer Gabriel Nahas, known for his work with artists such as Pasteur Lappe, Marthe Zambo, Toto Guillaume, and Manu Dibango. The result is a shimmering blend of synth-driven groove and Eko’s signature ‘Funky Disco Music’ sound, capturing a moment where analogue warmth met futuristic ambition.
For this 2026 reissue, Phone Me Tonight has been carefully restored and remastered, breathing new life into Eko’s iconic Yamaha DX7 synth lines. The track has been subtly tightened to the grid, making it perfectly suited for contemporary dancefloors & dj’s while preserving its original spirit and charm.
This EP also offers a glimpse into Eko’s creative world: rare photographs of his home studio in Lobé, featuring the very DX7 synth used during the original recording. In addition, you’ll discover exclusive footage from the Phone Me Tonight video shoot, filmed at the breath-taking Lobé Waterfalls, documented together with Lobé’s community throughout 2025 and 2026.
ABOUT LOBE MON AMI
Lobé Mon Ami was written by Eko Roosevelt in 1981 as a heartfelt tribute to his home community of Lobé in Cameroon. Two versions of the song exist; this EP presents the rare and original version, restored and remastered here for the very first time. Using the download code, listeners can also access an exclusive alternate version of Lobé Mon Ami and the full EP in digital formats.
The song weaves together multiple languages, including Batanga and French, reflecting the rich cultural fabric of the region. Through its lyrics, Eko tells the story of his life - born and raised in Lobé, venturing abroad in pursuit of music, yet always drawn back home. Each return rekindles his deep connection to Lobé. In a poetic gesture, he names surrounding villages in various languages such as Batanga throughout the song, turning it into both a personal memoir and a cultural map.
ABOUT EKO ROOSEVELT
Born on November 13, 1946, to princess Kethy Mbenyo and William Roosevelt, Eko Roosevelt has led a life filled with mythical appeal and musical excellence. Local lore recalls how, at the age of ten, he bravely fought off and killed a serpent near the waterfalls of Lobé. An event that became part of his local legend prior to his enduring legacy as a musician and traditional chief.
Eko Roosevelt discovered his passion for music in church before furthering his studies in Dakar, where he met his wife, Nicole. Together they moved to France, where Eko launched his recording career - first with the Dikalo Group, and later as a solo artist. His discography includes standout releases such as Kilimandjaro My Home, Funky Disco Music, and the hit single Nalandi. In 2020 he renewed his status as hitmaker through his work with Disclosure on the revised version of his single ‘Tondoho Mba’, originally released in 1982. His enduring legacy and pioneership within Makossa and Funky Disco music helped shape the sound of many DJ’s and producers such as Gilles Peterson, Disclosure, Folamour, Diplo, ANOTR, Jax Jones, Sonny Fodera and Daphni.
Over the years, he shared stages and collaborations with renowned artists including Claude François, Nino Ferrer, Manu Dibango, and Miriam Makeba. As a producer and arranger, he became a respected figure across the African diaspora, working with talents such as Toto Guillaume, Marthe Zambo, M'Pongo Love, and experimenting in the studio with visionary artist Francis Bebey.
In 1998, Eko returned to Kribi, where he continues to live, create, and perform. Alongside his musical career, he has composed three albums of Catholic music, still awaiting release, and is currently working on new material. Today, he remains a beloved figure both locally and internationally.
Since 1996, he formally assumed his role as traditional chief of Lobé (usually reffered to as 'Chef Traditionnel'), following in the footsteps of his grandfather; his majesty ‘Bevigna Eko Louis’ - an enduring source of inspiration throughout Eko Roosevelt’s life. Despite his royal duties, he continues to perform regularly across Cameroon. When he takes the stage, entire crowds sing along to Lobé Mon Ami and classics like Nalandi and Attend-Moi, celebrating a legacy that bridges generations.
Balancing tradition and music, his majesty Eko Roosevelt Louis remains deeply committed to both his community and his art. This reissue of Phone Me Tonight / Lobé Mon Ami marks a renewed chapter in sharing his rich musical legacy, and his musical future with the world.
Can you believe it? Certain Music turns 10+1 years!
Back in 2015, we released the very first record on our label, while also launching our first club night under the Certain Music banner.
10+1 years later, with 9 releases and more than 40 club sessions hosted across Spain, we’re proud to present the 10th release on the label: 10 Years of Certain Music, a special compilation bringing together 10 tracks from artists who became part of our journey through the years. Those artists we first met in booths, backstage rooms and smoky dancefloors, and who today we are proud to call family.
Contemporary club music: rooted in respect for the past, fully focused on the present, and driven by a vision for the future.
Here’s to the next chapter. Until then, grab your copy and join us on the ride.
Madonna announced today her eagerly anticipated new album Confessions ll is set for release on July 3rd via Warner Records.
The new album is the continuation of the iconic counterpart Confessions on a Dance Floor. Ahead of the lead single, Madonna unveils the first taste of music with a trancelike visual teaser. Watch HERE. Fans can pre-order the album + the ultimate curation of expansive vinyl and CDs
Madonna sums up her new record best by quoting the first few lines of her song, One Step Away, “People think that dance music is superficial, but they’ve got it all wrong. The dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold: A ritualistic space where movement replaces language.”
Madonna adds “When Stuart Price and I first started working on this record, this was our manifesto”:
We must dance, celebrate, and pray with our bodies. These are things that we've been doing for thousands of years — they really are spiritual practices. After all, the dance floor is a ritualistic space. It’s a place where you connect
—with your wounds, with your fragility. To rave is an art. It's about pushing your limits and
connecting to a community of like-minded people.
Sound, light, and vibration Reshape our perceptions Pulling us into a trance-like state. The repetition of the bass, we don’t just hear it but we feel it.
Altering our consciousness and dissolving ego and time.
ALERT: BIG 90s ITALIAN RAVE COMP - a lot of very in demand tunes on here.
Navigators
Franco Falsini and the Interactive Test Universe
There are musicians who follow their time.
And then there are those who seem to move along a different trajectory—like navigators crossing sonic eras without ever truly belonging to any one of them. The story of Franco Falsini belongs to the latter. It is a story that begins long before raves, before techno, before the word “electronic” had even become a recognizable musical genre. A story that moves across continents, technologies, and sonic visions, eventually arriving at a small creative laboratory born in Italy in the early 1990s: Interactive Test. This compilation is a fragment of that universe. But as often happens with the hidden histories of music, understanding it requires going back. Far back.
The Beginning: Machines, Tape and Space
In the late 1960s Franco Falsini leaves Italy and moves to the United States. It is not merely a geographical journey—it is also a journey into a new idea of music. At the time, synthesizers are only just emerging from research laboratories. Multitrack tape recorders allow musicians to build entire sonic worlds on their own. Technology is still far from standardized: every studio is almost an experimental workshop. In Virginia, Falsini builds one of his own. Among cables, oscillators, electric guitars and reels of magnetic tape, a kind of music begins to take shape that resembles nothing else being made at the time. It is not simply rock, and it is not yet truly electronic. It moves somewhere in the space between the two. Out of these explorations emerges Sensations' Fix, the project through which Falsini releases a series of albums during the 1970s. Records that seem to come from a parallel dimension: cosmic landscapes, electronically treated guitars, synthesizers drifting like satellites. Many years later those albums would be rediscovered as visionary works. But at the time they were simply the result of relentless curiosity. A curiosity that would never fade.
The City That Never Sleeps
In the 1980s Falsini’s trajectory leads him to New York. The city is a sonic organism in constant transformation. In its clubs and recording studios something entirely new is beginning to take shape: music built from drum machines, sequencers, and samplers, created for the body before the living room. It is the dawn of modern dance culture. Falsini works as a sound engineer, producer and experimenter. From close range he observes electronic music transforming into a global language. Machines become more accessible, computers begin entering studios, and rhythm takes on an increasingly central role. Yet even in this phase Falsini does not simply follow what is happening. He absorbs. Observes. Reimagines. When he eventually returns to Italy, he brings back not only technical experience but also a clear vision: the conviction that electronic music is an open space, a territory still waiting to be explored.
Tuscany, Early 1990s
At the beginning of the 1990s something is happening in Italy as well. In clubs, abandoned industrial warehouses and clandestine parties, a new scene is beginning to form. It is rave culture: a spontaneous movement bringing together DJs, producers and listeners in a collective experience driven by rhythm, technology, and creative freedom. It is within this context that Franco Falsini, together with his brother Riccardo, creates Interactive Test.
The name almost sounds like a scientific experiment. In many ways, it is. Interactive Test does not emerge as a traditional record label. It begins as a laboratory—a place where ideas, sounds and musical identities can be tested and explored. Around the Falsini studio in Tuscany a small constellation of artists and DJs begins to gather, helping to shape the sound of Italy’s emerging electronic scene. Among them are Andrea Giuditta, Francesco Farfa, Gabry Fasano, Roby Mastelloni, Roby J and many others. Each brings a different musical sensibility. But they all share the same intuition: electronic music is not a genre. It is a language.
The Laboratory of Identities
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Interactive Test universe is its constant play with identity. Franco Falsini releases music under several different names: Open Space, Youth Wave, Agent Fylfoyt, Man Myth Magic. These are not simply pseudonyms.
They are different sonic perspectives, as if each project were a window opening onto a parallel musical universe. Open Space, for example, explores more atmospheric and visionary territories. Youth Wave moves between electronic groove and club-oriented rhythms. Other projects experiment with digital psychedelia or hypnotic techno textures. Interactive Test becomes something more than a label. it becomes an ecosystem.
Domestic Machines, Infinite Worlds
Looking back today at the technology used in those productions, one might almost smile. Many tracks were created on Amiga computers, MIDI sequencers and analog synthesizers wired together in home studios—tools that appear modest when compared to today’s digital possibilities.
Yet precisely these limitations became a creative force. Every sound had to be built, shaped and reinvented. Sequences developed slowly, almost like living organisms. The tracks did not always follow traditional dance music structures; often they felt like genuine sonic journeys. Music built from space.
A Hidden Constellation
Many of the records released by Interactive Test in the 1990s remained for years almost invisible objects, circulating quietly among DJs, collectors, and devoted listeners. Yet it is precisely this underground existence that helped preserve them. Listening again today, one perceives something rare: the feeling of music that does not fully belong to its own time. Music suspended between different eras. Perhaps because it comes from a vision that both precedes and transcends trends.
Continuing the Journey
Looking at Franco Falsini’s entire path—from the electronic psychedelia of Sensations’ Fix to the rave culture of the 1990s—a surprisingly coherent line emerges.
A line defined by exploration.
Each project, each pseudonym, each record appears as a new route within the same great sonic voyage.
Interactive Test was one of its stations.
A laboratory.
A community.
A creative platform.
This compilation gathers some of its traces.
Not as a simple archive of the past, but as a map of a musical territory that continues to expand even today.
Continuing its faithful documentation of the early years of Monolake, Field Records proudly present the first-ever vinyl pressing of seminal 1999 album Interstate. In a kaleidoscopic lattice of micro-rhythms and exquisitely dynamic textural work, Robert Henke and Gerhard Behles fully collaborated for the final time on this record — and created an electronica landmark in the process.
Monolake's evolution from their earlier dub-techno-tinted works saw their exploration of Max/MSP go further out. The duo yielded greater complexity in the behaviour of their sound palette to achieve an organismic quality that remains an enduring influence on so many strands of experimental electronic music today. Interstate is a vivid record that builds up eight different ecosystems of sound and subtly threads elegant grooves through their root structures.
There's a house-like undulation to the low-end driving 'Tangent-I' and 'Tangent-II', but the infinitesimally detailed layers of sound on top swoon from techno synth shimmers to trickling waters, snaking delay trails and pin prick percussion. You can hear the unmistakable, snappy rhythmic thrust of drum & bass driving 'Ginza', but here it's used as an engine for the crispest array of designer percussion and dub-soaked synth chirrups. Across every track, Henke and Behles demonstrate a potent combination, both groovily instinctive and eternally fascinating to try and pick apart.
After Interstate, Behles departed to focus entirely on the development of Ableton Live and Henke steered Monolake towards a leaner — but no less pioneering — sound. Every Monolake record has its own unique context and sound, and the circumstances of Interstate could never be repeated. Capturing the leaps in progress that were being made in digital music production at the end of the millennium, it's an information-rich document of a moment in time that still sounds wildly futuristic 27 years later.
Jolene Cuts delivers a stunning 5-track vinyl-only release that reinvents the spirit of 90s French Touch for today’s dancefloors. No edits here—these are 100% original productions crafted by Danny & Mike, masters of filtered house grooves. From the funk-drenched “Without,” a Kool & The Gang-inspired house monster, to “Fall,” a euphoric blast reminiscent of the best Daft Punk moments, every cut is designed for maximum floor impact. “Mon ami Julien” dives deeper with a warm and hypnotic Scott Grooves vibe, while “Ready for Love” feels like Cerrone remixed by early Bob Sinclar at his peak—pure disco magic reimagined. The record closes with “Burning,” a banging, feel-good anthem built to ignite any set. This is a true celebration of filtered house, disco energy, and feel-good music—strictly vinyl, strictly limited, and packed with five undeniable club weapons. Perfect for DJs who want to tear the club apart, vinyl purists, and anyone who knows that real French Touch doesn’t need gimmicks—just groove, soul, and timeless dancefloor power. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.
Formed in Bristol UK (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020, the Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.
With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. colour in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.
Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).
The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. – Ryan Davis (Chicago, February 2026)
Death Is Not The End collaborate with Uzbek label Maqom Soul to deliver an LP counterpart to last year's mixtape of the same title, compiling specially picked & fully licensed individual belters from the ex-soviet studios of Central Asian republics between 1978 and 1989 - incl. Uzbek, Tajik, Kurdish & Uyghur artists pulling traditional folk motifs together with pop & rock and psych elements.
"These recordings do not form a smooth or coherent history. They feel more like a sequence of discoveries made at different moments and in different circumstances. Songs and instrumental pieces that once lived inside specific contexts radio broadcasts, philharmonic programs, touring routes now sit side by side, revealing hidden connections as well as clear fractures between them.
Nasiba Abdullaeva appears here as a voice from the end of an era. Trained within a conservatory system, she worked inside the format of the Soviet pop song while filling it with melodic logic that did not come from Moscow or Leningrad. Her voice is soft and sustained, shaped by Eastern melisma, and it never functions as decoration. Even in tightly structured songs there is a sense of resistance, an effort to preserve a musical language rooted in Uzbek tradition rather than fully adapted to an all Union standard.
The ensemble Sintez, later renamed Navo, represents a different path. Beginning as a student rock group, the band was gradually absorbed into the official VIA system with all its limitations and compromises. Yet it was precisely within those boundaries that Sintez and Navo developed a recognizable sound. Electric guitars and jazz rock harmonies do not overpower the folk material but remain in tension with it. Their recordings feel like negotiations between what the musicians wanted to play and what they were allowed to perform.
The Tajik ensemble Gulshan reflects an institutional approach carried to a high professional level. Formed under television and radio structures, the group treated folk material almost as a written score. Carefully constructed arrangements, close attention to orchestration, and restrained use of pop techniques define their sound. There is less spontaneity here, but a strong sense of discipline and structure, where national melody becomes part of a carefully controlled sonic framework.
Koma Wetan occupies a very different space. Formed in the 1970s, this Kurdish rock group approached poetry and folklore as tools of cultural assertion. Their psychedelic rock never feels like a stylistic borrowing. Instead it functions as a contemporary vessel for language and themes that might otherwise have remained unheard. Even today these recordings sound fragile and stubborn at the same time.
The Uyghur ensemble Yashlik, closely connected to a musical drama theatre, operated somewhere between stage performance and popular music. Their songs are built on folk melodies but shaped for wide audiences. What emerges is a constant attempt to preserve the recognizability of Uyghur musical identity without freezing it in a folkloric frame. Yashlik's music exists in a state of balance between representation and development.
Digging Central Asia does not attempt to establish hierarchies or offer a single wayof listening. Names and dates matter less than the sound itself. Tape noise, abrupt transitions, and unexpected timbres remain part of the material rather than flaws to be corrected. This music existed at the crossroads of multiple routes geographic, cultural, and ideological. Heard today in a new context, it no longer feels peripheral. Instead it stands as a reminder that the history of popular music is far more fragmented, layered, and polyphonic than it is usually allowed to be."
INDUSTRIAS MEKANIKAS is back with the third instalment of the ANTIKHRIST VISIONS saga. This release is particularly symbolic: it’s the ninth in the catalogue, marked by the infernal numerology that runs right through the whole series. It’s a descent into a sonic underworld, where noise becomes ritual and pleasure is just pure agony.
The artist tasked with opening this new chapter of the saga is the mighty Óscar Mulero, an essential figure on the national electronic scene and one of our biggest international ambassadors, whose career has left a deep mark on contemporary music. Here, with Faceless, he delves into dark, precise, and devastating electro territory; a spiritual machine that dictates the pulse of chaos.
Next up, we’ve got Pressurized Modulator with Reddrum: hard, crunchy, industrial electro, absolutely buzzing with electrical tension and twisted sonic matter.
Closing out the A-side is Jacko Volvone (aka Hoax Believers) with Quieren Cerrar Las Fábricas: a track that expertly blends electro, techno, and post-punk echoes, resulting in a tense, distorted, and combative sound, like a working-class echo shouting from the abyss.
Flipping over, the B-side opens with Hanging Nuts (made up of Waje Martín, Fake Robotik, and Ruben Montesco). They unleash a murky descent of filthy, distorted, primal electro, slashed through with guitars and raw, guttural vocals: a genuine chant from beyond the grave. The second cut marks the debut of Techselektah & Phil Fork with Champagne No Potable: a raging street anthem packed with fury, energy, and social criticism, where Spanish vocals emerge amidst EBM structures that have that ‘80s spirit, reinterpreted with today’s raw edge. And the big finish is down to HBK1 alongside Rigor Mortis, with Instinto Caníbal: a full-on explosion of electro-industrial and EBM that awakens the body’s most primitive urges.
Antikhrist Visions Vol. III is a sonic summoning from the lands of Hades: ritualistic matter, organic sound, and primal force. A testament to pleasure and torment—Tormento do Gostar—etched into the vinyl as if it were molten iron.
STRIKER TRAXX proudly presents its very first release — STX101: BALLAN “Chantal Grooves EP”.
Born as the new sub-label of SUPREME STRIKER, itself a direct emanation of the Skylax Records universe, STRIKER TRAXX sets the tone for a new era: raw, uncompromising, and forward-thinking. As always, the visual identity is entrusted to the legendary H5’s exclusive artwork (Daft Punk, Air, Logorama), delivering a striking design that transforms each copy into a true collector’s object.
For this inaugural strike, we welcome Asaf Ballan, aka BALLAN, an artist emerging with force from the vibrant beatscape of contemporary electronic music. With Chantal Grooves EP, he delivers a 12-inch packed with five club-weapons that dive deep into the essence of house and tech house, reshaping them with his own relentless, pumpy twist.
The trip opens with “How Should I Start”, a perfect ignition, teasing anticipation while locking you instantly on the groove. “Goddamnit (Club Tool)” follows as a pure machine workout, echoing Kerri Chandler’s house foundations while pushing them into today’s territory. “Members Only Club” exudes exclusive sophistication, a secret-weapon built for late-night dancefloors. On the flip, “Keep the Frequency Clear” hypnotizes with razor-sharp frequencies, proof of BALLAN’s sonic craftsmanship, before “Futuro” launches us headfirst into tomorrow—where innovation collides with the Romanian sunrise aesthetic, infused with a heavier, raw energy.
Influenced by the minimal masters (Zip, Ricardo Villalobos, Raresh) yet unwilling to compromise on drive and power, BALLAN delivers here a record where every track stands as a killer. Chantal Grooves EP is both a homage to the roots of house and tech house, and a manifesto propelling the genre into its next evolution.
STRIKER TRAXX launches with a statement: this imprint is made for DJs and dancers who still believe in vinyl as a sacred object and in the dancefloor as a transformative space. With H5’s exclusive artwork (Daft Punk, Air, Logorama)and Skylax’s uncompromising vision, each release is conceived as a weapon for the underground, and a jewel for the true collectors.
“For Today” is a timeless album—a sonic journey that seamlessly blends electronic influences, Trip-Hop, Folk, Indie Rock,
and Psychedelia.
It unfolds like an immersive soundscape, rich in complex atmospheres, experimental textures, and a deep emotional
undercurrent. Agosta has envisioned a record that transcends trends and market conventions, crafting a cinematic, soulstirring experience that fuses the intensity of trip-hop, the purity of folk, and the swirling colours of psychedelia.
The result is music that stimulates the intellect as much as it stirs the heart. With a delicate, refined touch and melodic
depth, Agosta combines contemporary sounds with vintage warmth, pairing poetic lyrics with themes of love, introspection,
and the human experience.
A standout element of “For Today” is the presence of five tracks featuring female performers and writers. This
intergenerational collaboration brings a richness of perspective and emotional range to the album. Far from a simple gesture
of gender inclusion, it serves as an authentic integration of diverse voices, offering new layers of sensitivity and storytelling.
Where Agosta’s previous work leaned more toward instrumental composition, here the inclusion of female voices adds
lyrical nuance and depth. These contributions explore themes such as love, identity, relationships, and personal liberation—
offering a poetic yet grounded lens through which to experience the album’s contemporary sound.
In essence, “For Today” is a mature and cohesive work that defies the boundaries of traditional genres, creating a unique
and resonant sonic world.
Each track explores a different emotional and musical dimension, with meticulous attention to sound design and a clear
desire for emotional experimentation. The album balances the introspective depth of trip-hop with the lightness and
spirituality of folk, weaving in modern pop elements and touches of psychedelia and groove.
The result is a compelling, emotionally charged, and genre-blending experience—one that invites listeners not only to hear,
but to feel.
An absolute must-listen!
Long kept in the shadows, "+ Ou – 8000" is a rare gem of the French musical avant-garde, born from the meeting of three
composers at the peak of their inventiveness. Initially intended as sound illustration, this album crosses the boundaries of
library music, space jazz, and electronic experimentation, with a freedom and boldness that today give it cult status.
Teddy Lasry, an iconic figure from the MAGMA universe, has always moved between jazz, progressive rock, and electronic
music. A saxophonist by training, he explores here synthetic and spatial territories with striking modernity.
Francis Mercier, discreet yet remarkably effective, is a sound craftsman who left his mark on many library music records
in the 1970s. Here he delivers precise rhythmic textures, tense atmospheres, and a minimalist groove mastery.
Christian Perraudin, a chameleon composer bridging academic music and film scoring, brings his cinematic touch—
floating melancholy and sci-fi tension. A true artisan of sonic ambiance.
Boldly visionary, + Ou - 8000 is an invitation to active listening, a journey into the heart of a fascinating sound laboratory.
This unprecedented vinyl reissue is a unique opportunity to (re)discover a crucial record that remained out of reach for far
too long.
Limited edition – for lovers of rarities, analog synths, and genre-defying musical exploration.
When billy woods released Today, I Wrote Nothing ten years ago, it was an unexpected departure from a rapper who was just starting to make waves in the indie rap scene. After spending the earlier part of his career in the wilderness, woods had managed to crawl out of obscurity with the minor success of 2012’s History Will Absolve Me. Dour Candy, 2013’s collaboration with underground legend Blockhead drew accolades, which only increased with Armand Hammer’s debut Race Music.
Then, woods dropped out of sight for two years before returning with Today, I Wrote Nothing, a record that deviated significantly from what had come before. Where Dour Candy had been concise and focused, TIWN was a sprawling 24 tracks. Where History Will Absolve Me was anchored by hard-hitting beats, anthemic songs, and a couple high powered features, TIWN was comprised of short vignettes, quietly eclectic production, and the only guests were his Backwoodz label-mates. Only one video was released; the claustrophobic “Flatlands”, shot on a shoestring budget in a Brooklyn housing project. Reviewers didn’t know quite what to make of the record, and in many cases, neither did fans.
As is often the case for woods’ albums, many perspectives shifted as the years passed. Listeners came to see the sad, quiet beauty of Today, I Wrote Nothing; a road trip album that doubles as a meditation on life’s journeys and death’s hiding places. The album’s power is in it’s intimacy, it’s insistence on holding your hand through the darkness. Now, TIWN is considered one of the more unique and vital records in woods catalogue. The dynamic woods created with TIWN vis-a-vis History Will Absolve Me and Dour Candy is one that would come to define his ouerve; constant experimentation, a refusal to be pigeonholed, and an unwavering search for the emotional heart of his subject. For us at Backwoodz, being able to repress this album on it’s ten year anniversary is especially sweet, because we remember how long it took us to sell that original run of 500. To everyone who copped one of those and helped us keep the lights on, this is for you too, we couldn’t have gotten here otherwise.
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