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Frankey & Sandrino come back to Rekids with the ‘Please’ EP, landing 10th October 2025 alongside a remix from Echonomist.

They follow their 2022 ‘Brainscan’ EP on Radio Slave’s label, as well as a remix for Denney in 2023. With an irresistible bassline, smooth melody, and a nostalgia-fuelled vocal, ‘Please’ is the kind of track you hear as you walk into a busy tent at a festival, hands in the air, energy abundant. Frankey & Sandrino are masters at crafting emotional dancefloor bangers, going a little deeper on the progressive ‘Genie’, building up to busy stabs and mind-melting, futuristic sound design. Completing the EP, the pair call in Greek DJ and producer Echonomist to remix ‘Please’. The Innervisions and Exit Strategy artist strips the original back, transforming it into a dark, hypnotic groover built for smoke-lit dance floors.

Frankey & Sandrino are a German duo that has been shaping dance floors since 2009 with their distinct, trend-defying sound. With releases on Kompakt, Diynamic, and their own Sum Over Histories, and regular appearances at clubs like fabric and Stereo, they now return to Rekids with the ‘Please’ EP.Founded in 2006, Radio Slave’s Rekids has since launched the Techno-focused Rekids Special Projects in 2017 and its latest sublabel, REK’D, in 2024. With Matt Edwards as the sole A&R, Rekids has been instrumental in developing emerging artists and remains a trusted home for House and adjacent sounds, recently featuring names such as Harry Romero, Tal Fussman, Tiger Striipes, William Kiss, Oliver Dollar, The Hacker, and more.

Charlotte de Witte releases single ‘The Heads that Know’ feat. Comma Dee, out October 2nd on KNTXT. It’s the final LP single to keep excitement building before her self-titled debut album ‘Charlotte de Witte’ drops on November 7th.

The single release marks the start of her 2nd-5th October London city takeover. Following the insane success of her NYC takeover, she plays 5 shows in 4 days in London, including The Shard, fabric, The Cause, Magazine + one TBA. This mix of intimate cultural spaces and large uncompromising venues celebrates de Witte’s love of the city and its rave scene over her 10+ year career.

‘I'm very excited to launch this single in London’ Charlotte says. ‘The city has played a massive role in my growth as an artist and I’ve had many memorable shows there, from the smaller and more intimate venues like Village Underground to Tobacco Dock, Printworks and Drumsheds and many summer festivals. The London crowd is special. I'm looking forward to playing different sets in different settings in your wonderful city to celebrate the launch of the third single of my upcoming album. This will be one for the books.’

The new single, the third release from the LP, is already a set highlight for de Witte, going back to May’s pop-up secret set on the Williamsburg Bridge. It features Welsh producer/DJ Comma Dee, D&B, Hip Hop, Rap, & Grime exponent. Says Charlotte, ‘it’s a poetic dispatch from the shadows. It's for the ones who move with quiet power. This track is a tribute to the underground. It's for the ones who move with certainty. It's for the heads that know.’

‘The Heads that Know’ feat. Comma Dee: Fast, rattling techno spiced with spacey sine wave sounds and an acid dose in the breakdown, supports a hypnotic high synth theme and Comma Dee’s rhyming rap double quatrain through a crescendo/diminuendo swoop.

NATURAL ROOTS MUSIC, tuned to the rhythms of the Earth! A special mix by Rooing SWE from the previous Roots & Foundation (CD) release, Side A: All
Those Who Love the Earth (Roots Man Foundation). Side B: The Danjiri Festival (Prayer for a Good Harvest) in Senshu, Southern Osaka. This first 7-inch release
pays tribute and gratitude to the local area.

As a DJ, I prioritize three key points when selecting music. I'll introduce this record in relation to those points.
The first is the power of the intro. I'm always grateful for killer tunes that get the floor moving naturally. The A-side, which begins with a catchy trombone, is a
perfect example of that. Natural Roots' performance is so dark that it almost makes you forget that you're in Osaka, the city of laughter.
The second is about the lyrics. Especially in times like these, I want to share a positive message with everyone. Frontman Livity Tabasuke sings straightforwardly
about his feelings for the Earth. It reminds us of the gratitude we often forget in our daily lives. Above all, his voice is soft and soothing.
The third is the 7-inch format. If you're going to take it to a venue, nothing beats a small, light record. The older I get, the more my hips instinctively tell me to.
The dub-inspired instrumental tunes on the B-side are also fantastic, and the album's functionality continues to increase. I also appreciate the addition of the
shinobue flute, a unique instrument unique to Senshu, a renowned Kansai reggae region, which adds to the local feel.
This album, which captures all of these elements, is extremely practical for me. I'm sure I'll be using it for a long time to come. I sincerely hope that the limited
edition of 300 records reaches reggae fans all over the country.

A critique and embrace of self-destruction, esoteric vanity and inevitable ruin. The molten-red LP on Riot Season Records plunges deep into an abuse of distortion, existential doom and primal Stooges-like chaos. LA’s Acid Punk Power Trio returns to its mark 1 line up, now wielding a second addition in twin-drum assault
OVER-GAIN OPTIMAL DEATH are :Jasso : Guitar/ Vocals, Luna : Bass, Backhaus + TJ : Twin Drums
Jasso (guitar/vocals) is seemingly out for blood on this 4 track studio album, leading a violent dive into the abyss, Japanese Underground fury meets Hendrix’s wreckage, fuzz-drenched wah freak-outs compete against raw punk vocals caught in an endless slap back delay…
OVER-GAIN OPTIMAL DEATH are an Acid Punk power trio formed in 2008 hailing from Los Angeles, and now currently hiding out somewhere in the South of France.
Fronted by guitarist/ vocalist Jasso (Psychedelic Speed Freaks, Antarcticans), they push a special niche product of blown-out extreme psychedelic noise rock. Their sound is enveloped in a total nihilist
"No Hope" atmosphere of heavy lyrics and distortion, mating intoxicating pulsing repetition, hyperactive improvisations and out of body guitar solos.
Resurrecting US 60s punk and acid-riffage from the likes of Blue Cheer, the Stooges, MC5 and live Hendrix Experience, OVER-GAIN OPTIMAL DEATH also draws greatly on the in-the-red sound aesthetic and high energy of the Speed Freak Underground and Hardcore scene of 80s/90s Japan.

Lemon Yellow Vinyl. Eine der umfangreichsten Instrumental-Hip-Hop-Reihen aller Zeiten, MF DOOMs gefeierte Special Herbs"-Serie versammelt eine riesige Sammlung seiner Beats, von exklusiven Tracks bis hin zu leicht überarbeiteten Favoriten, die er für sich selbst und andere produziert hat. Unter dem Pseudonym Metal Fingers veröffentlicht, gelingt es Special Herbs", DOOMs äußerst einflussreichen Sound einzufangen, der immer wieder die Regeln des Spiels zugunsten des Super-Bösewichts bricht und neu interpretiert. Super-Villain. Die Welt ist eine Fundgrube für Sounds, und der Metal-Fingered DOOM kennt keine Grenzen: 70er-Jahre- Soul-/Funk-Klassiker, 80er-Jahre-R&B-Hits, Rap-Nostalgie und sogar Soundbites aus Kinderplatten und dem Fernsehen finden ihren Platz in den Zutaten, die er für seine perfekten Rezepte benötigt.

Apple Red Vinyl. Eine der umfangreichsten Instrumental-Hip-Hop-Reihen aller Zeiten, MF DOOMs gefeierte Special Herbs"-Serie versammelt eine riesige Sammlung seiner Beats, von exklusiven Tracks bis hin zu leicht überarbeiteten Favoriten, die er für sich selbst und andere produziert hat. Unter dem Pseudonym Metal Fingers veröffentlicht, gelingt es Special Herbs", DOOMs äußerst einflussreichen Sound einzufangen, der immer wieder die Regeln des Spiels zugunsten des Super-Bösewichts bricht und neu interpretiert. Super-Villain. Die Welt ist eine Fundgrube für Sounds, und der Metal-Fingered DOOM kennt keine Grenzen: 70er-Jahre- Soul-/Funk-Klassiker, 80er-Jahre-R&B-Hits, Rap-Nostalgie und sogar Soundbites aus Kinderplatten und dem Fernsehen finden ihren Platz in den Zutaten, die er für seine perfekten Rezepte benötigt.

Sky Blue Vinyl. Eine der umfangreichsten Instrumental-Hip-Hop-Reihen aller Zeiten, MF DOOMs gefeierte Special Herbs"-Serie versammelt eine riesige Sammlung seiner Beats, von exklusiven Tracks bis hin zu leicht überarbeiteten Favoriten, die er für sich selbst und andere produziert hat. Unter dem Pseudonym Metal Fingers veröffentlicht, gelingt es Special Herbs", DOOMs äußerst einflussreichen Sound einzufangen, der immer wieder die Regeln des Spiels zugunsten des Super-Bösewichts bricht und neu interpretiert. Super-Villain. Die Welt ist eine Fundgrube für Sounds, und der Metal-Fingered DOOM kennt keine Grenzen: 70er-Jahre- Soul-/Funk-Klassiker, 80er-Jahre-R&B-Hits, Rap-Nostalgie und sogar Soundbites aus Kinderplatten und dem Fernsehen finden ihren Platz in den Zutaten, die er für seine perfekten Rezepte benötigt.

Evergreen Vinyl. Eine der umfangreichsten Instrumental-Hip-Hop-Reihen aller Zeiten, MF DOOMs gefeierte Special Herbs"-Serie versammelt eine riesige Sammlung seiner Beats, von exklusiven Tracks bis hin zu leicht überarbeiteten Favoriten, die er für sich selbst und andere produziert hat. Unter dem Pseudonym Metal Fingers veröffentlicht, gelingt es Special Herbs", DOOMs äußerst einflussreichen Sound einzufangen, der immer wieder die Regeln des Spiels zugunsten des Super-Bösewichts bricht und neu interpretiert. Super-Villain. Die Welt ist eine Fundgrube für Sounds, und der Metal-Fingered DOOM kennt keine Grenzen: 70er-Jahre- Soul-/Funk-Klassiker, 80er-Jahre-R&B-Hits, Rap-Nostalgie und sogar Soundbites aus Kinderplatten und dem Fernsehen finden ihren Platz in den Zutaten, die er für seine perfekten Rezepte benötigt.

More Rice and Jugaar Records – Two Bangkok-affiliated labels – bring together an assemblage of their mutual friends for a heady, floor-focused VA with moods to soundtrack peak flow, after-hours rabbit holes, and just about everything in between.

Rudoh of Jugaar Records fame kicks us off with ‘Madoh’, a bendy groove that initially bares flex of early 2000s Minimal with its trimmed, rubbery percussion and obscured vocal snippets. As the track progresses, a hefty break and a catchy synth line bolster things before breakdowns unfold like little trippy slumbers rudely interrupted by bold, punchy drops.

Next up is Tokyo legend Gonno who follows up with ‘Rad’, a broad-shouldered banger propelled by a heaving kick and clap combo. A wrought synth is paired with odd shocks of acid and a sequence that flickers like a strobe. All the while a thick, gnarled bass line rumbles underneath, keeping vibes at boiling point throughout.

More Rice’s DOTT follows up with a swampy excursion propelled by a potent kick and nimble submarine tones. Drums are neatly stacked in polyrhythms as an infectious swing unfolds, one that’s decorated with ghostly synths and a generous dose of psychedelic synthesis.

Sarayu – also of More Rice fame, closes things up with ‘Fuijan Groove’, a brilliantly lean cut that lets the subs do the talking. Sharp tonal blobs flesh out a simple but highly effective march as spectral pads expand in plumes of smoke until the conclusion of a rich and varied record that unites two kindred labels perfectly.’

‘More Rice and Jugaar Records – Two Bangkok-affiliated labels – bring together an assemblage of their mutual friends for a heady, floor-focused VA with moods to soundtrack peak flow, after-hours rabbit holes, and just about everything in between.

Rudoh of Jugaar Records fame kicks us off with ‘Madoh’, a bendy groove that initially bares flex of early 2000s Minimal with its trimmed, rubbery percussion and obscured vocal snippets. As the track progresses, a hefty break and a catchy synth line bolster things before breakdowns unfold like little trippy slumbers rudely interrupted by bold, punchy drops.

Next up is Tokyo legend Gonno who follows up with ‘Rad’, a broad-shouldered banger propelled by a heaving kick and clap combo. A wrought synth is paired with odd shocks of acid and a sequence that flickers like a strobe. All the while a thick, gnarled bass line rumbles underneath, keeping vibes at boiling point throughout.

More Rice’s DOTT follows up with a swampy excursion propelled by a potent kick and nimble submarine tones. Drums are neatly stacked in polyrhythms as an infectious swing unfolds, one that’s decorated with ghostly synths and a generous dose of psychedelic synthesis.

Sarayu – also of More Rice fame, closes things up with ‘Fuijan Groove’, a brilliantly lean cut that lets the subs do the talking. Sharp tonal blobs flesh out a simple but highly effective march as spectral pads expand in plumes of smoke until the conclusion of a rich and varied record that unites two kindred labels perfectly.’

Finally, the pioneering first album from the group that epitomized the spontaneous, simultaneous and glorious emergence of the Hip-Hop and Electro Funk genres is back on vinyl. The song "Where's the Beat" has been extracted due to it's not actually being made by the group, but every other note and beat is included as it was originally released, from the opening narration and the sound effects joining the songs to the classic Hip-Hop and Electrofunk in-between. Also included for the first time anywhere is the previously unreleased track “Disco Kryptonite”!

Whether you are a big fan of Newcleus, or a serious connoisseur of Old School Hip-Hop or Electro, or just a lover of good music, your collection is incomplete without this incredible reissue of Newcleus' classic Jam On Revenge on vinyl!

Benjamin Hudson returns to Acroplane, following his last projects with us as Ebola (Wrong Music) and one half of Baconhead, with 'Slime'… and he's brought a load of his talented mates to collaborate with him.

Artwork by Everything Alllways

Mastering by James Forde Stewart @ Sorting Room Studios.

Brain Rays is part of queer collective, DOOMSCROLL, and Devon art & party crew, Bizarre Rituals. He is also a co-founder of Wrong Music alongside DJ Scotch Egg and Matt Lambert (Roger Species).

Known for his hectic, high pressure output with Quiet, and film soundtrack work (as part of Unknown Horrors) collaborating with director Dean Puckett (The Severed Sun, The Sermon, Satan's Bite) and Rhys Chapman (Wonderkid). As a DJ he has performed all over the world, including Transmediale Festival (Berlin), Today's Art (Den Haag) and Boomtown Fair, as well as two live sessions at Radio 1's legendary Maida Vale Studios. As a producer he has garnered support from the likes of Mary Anne Hobbs, ETCH, Huw Stephens, Drumskull, Annie Mac, and Nikki Nair.

The Rhythm Makers's Soul On Your Side is flawless proto-disco funk. The Bronx-based band - that later went on to form heavyweight disco outfit GQ - originally released this treasure in 1976 and it's long been a hard to find record. It's also rare to find a record this hard. Captivating funk at its rawest, no doubt.

Storming out the gate with the rollicking Loft/Garage staple "Can You Feel It (Part 1)", the listener is immediately put on notice that this LP is just a little bit special. The title track, "Soul On Your Side", is a classic dancer and the basis of GQ's future hit "Disco Nights". But it's perhaps "Zone", a huge Baldelli track, that the record is best known for. Hypnotic psyched-out cosmic-disco / cosmic funk, it's an unrelenting groove that really thrusts the party into hyperdrive. With doses of scintillating Latin and pulsating African rhythms driving the pumping tune, atop an unstoppable bassline and imaginative, soul-slathered keyboard figures, it's basically a full-on funk assault. You might need a lie-down after this.

But there's no let-up on the B-Side, immediately grooving thanks to "Funk-N-You", a laidback glider that just rolls in the sleek style. Gorgeous harmony skills are displayed on "Street Dreamin'". Beautiful and gritty funk, by turns. "You're My Last Girl" is an airy ballad with two leads before the legendary "Monterey" enters the fray. A much-sampled instrumental and heavy disco-funk nugget, it contains an amazing B-Boy drum break making the whole LP worth the price of admission. "Can You Feel It (Part 2)" closes out this spectacular set.

The Rhythm Makers had been gigging around New York City since the late ’60s, having initially come together as Sabu and the Survivors, named after bassist Keith “Sabu” Crier. They eventually - for this album at least! - settled on The Rhythm Makers and cut one record for the small De-Lite subsidiary Vigor. The core lineup featured Crier, keyboardist Herb Lane, drummer Kenny Banks and rhythm guitarist Rahiem Leblanc.

Mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston for Alchemy at AIR Studios with artwork restored at Be With HQ, this new edition should hopefully bring this album into the homes and record boxes of many more people.

James Morrison"s new album Fight Another Day is born of difficult times and heavy emotions but one that, ultimately, leans into the light and joy and hope. Written after a period of reflection and therapy, the songs deal with his own struggles, childhood, and personal battles, with Morrison saying, "Every day being a bit of a battle. Trying to eke the light out after what felt like darkness for ages." From the defiant title track to the soul-baring Something I Can"t Forget and the feelgood New Day, the album captures a wide emotional spectrum. "I"m really proud of the album in terms of the creative, sonic elements and how I dealt with truthful stuff," he says, "but also... it"s an album of songs that hopefully make you feel better and make you nod your head and stamp your feet and singalong."

James Morrison"s new album Fight Another Day is born of difficult times and heavy emotions but one that, ultimately, leans into the light and joy and hope. Written after a period of reflection and therapy, the songs deal with his own struggles, childhood, and personal battles, with Morrison saying, "Every day being a bit of a battle. Trying to eke the light out after what felt like darkness for ages." From the defiant title track to the soul-baring Something I Can"t Forget and the feelgood New Day, the album captures a wide emotional spectrum. "I"m really proud of the album in terms of the creative, sonic elements and how I dealt with truthful stuff," he says, "but also... it"s an album of songs that hopefully make you feel better and make you nod your head and stamp your feet and singalong."

In 2005, when they formed Cotonete, the Parisian musicians secretly dreamed of playing 70s Brazilian funk in Brazil. Having become specialists in the style, the dream became a reality 12 years later thanks to Brazilian singer and actress Simone Mazzer (awarded Newcomer of the Year), who decided to hire the Parisian group to record her second album.
The engagement quickly turned into a collaboration, with Cotonete taking part in the selection of the repertoire, the arrangements, and the production of the album. It was prepared and recorded in Paris at Studio Prado in July 2016. It would be mixed and released in Brazil in 2017.
And so, Simone finally invited Cotonete to come and set foot on Brazilian soil. Five concerts, including two wonderful ones at the SESC Copacabana in Rio, were organized for the album's release. It was during this tour that the band met singer Di Mélo, with whom they recorded the album "Atemporel" in Sao Paulo, featuring the track "A.E.I.O.U."

Nearly 10 years after its recording, the album "Simone Mazzer & Cotonete" is finally being reissued on vinyl on Prado Records. It has been remixed for the occasion by Fabien Girard.
Simone Mazzer will be in France in September 2025 and performing at the Studio de l'Ermitage on September 19th for the official vinyl release.

"I stood on top of the mountain and looked out over the landscape. It was so beautiful that my chest hurt. The light vibrated, time stood still, and the contours dissolved for a moment. Everything had changed; I felt it then. I took their little hands so as not to lose contact with the ground. Then we ran down the mountain, scraping our knees. Still, we didn't make it. You had already put away all the nautical charts, loosened the moorings and steered out among the skerries. Mum stood waving from the jetty. You were alone, you wanted it that way. It was to be just you in the boat this time. I called out to you. I think you heard me and felt less lonely. We couldn't carry each other anymore, no matter how hard we tried. We washed our wounds on the shore and scattered tears and rose petals in the bay. The children laughed and searched for treasures under water. We called to them that it was time to come up. They were cold, and we hugged them to warmth. One ran ahead, the other up on our shoulders. Up the mountain, our mountain."

In 2020 Anna Högberg put her widely celebrated band Anna Högberg Attack on hold, retraining as a nurse whilst continuing a solo practice and playing in other groups. With Ensamseglaren she makes a spectacular return with her own ensemble — this time a double sextet — performing an album length suite of new music written in dedication to her late father — the titular ‘ensamseglaren’ pictured on the LP cover as a young boy.

 (ensam in Swedish can mean both alone and lonely, seglaren = the sailor).

Shot through with renewed energy and a brutally affective emotional punch, Högberg’s formal experimentation opens up vibrant possibilities for the assembled musicians to let loose with some of their wildest and most ecstatic playing on record.

Högberg’s contention with grief leans into collective joy as method of mourning — the big band as extended family; where bonds are made through a shared experience of being together. Where everyone gets to be themselves without expectations of who they should be or what they can do. It’s a radical commitment to care — of her self and others — that animates and unifies this suite of music’s radical dynamics and variations in colour: from whisper-quiet textural intensity to harrowing distortion and double drum chaos; raucous and solemn song.

"Throughout history, humans have had different images of the transition between life and death. Imagine standing on the seashore on a summer evening and seeing a beautiful vessel being prepared for departure. The sails are hoisted. The evening breeze comes, the sails fill and the boat glides out onto the open sea. You follow it with your eyes as it heads towards the sunset. It gets smaller and smaller, until it finally disappears as a tiny dot on the horizon. Then you hear someone next to you say, ‘Now they have left us.’ Left us for what? The fact that they got smaller and smaller and finally disappeared is only how we see it. In reality, they are just as big and beautiful as when they were here, lying on the beach by our side. Just as you hear that voice say ‘Now they have left us’, there may be someone on another beach who sees them appear on the horizon, someone waiting to welcome them when they reaches their new port."

Mutant, in partnership with Back Lot Music, are proud to present the physical media debut of Universal Pictures’ Jurassic World Rebirth Original Motion Picture Soundtrack with music by two-time Grammy® and Academy Award®-winning composer Alexandre Desplat.



To create the score for Jurassic World Rebirth, director Gareth Edwards turned to a distinguished friend, two-time Oscar® winner Alexandre Desplat (The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Shape of Water), who worked with Edwards on Godzilla. “I feel very fortunate to be doing the music for a movie franchise like this, which entertained me so greatly, as a filmgoer, for decades,” Desplat says. “I dreamed of writing music for movies like this since I was a teenager, and now, here I am,” he adds with a laugh, “part of Jurassic World, almost a teenager.”



Rebirth represents the second time that Desplat has stepped into a franchise and inherited and adapted iconic musical motifs written by an artist he considers his “forever idol,” the legendary John Williams: Desplat previously took on that challenge with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2. “John Williams wrote a fantastic melody for Jurassic Park that I now get to reinvent, rejigger and resculpt in ways benefit our movie,” Desplat says. “My desire was not to quote John’s score bluntly but subtly echo it or make use of it in the original score I have written for the film in playful and meaningful ways.”



"Continuing in the legacy of composers like John Williams, Don Davis, and Michael Giacchino - Alexandre Desplat brings the action packed Jurassic World: Rebirth to life with equal parts bombast, and tenderness." says Mo Shafeek, co-founder of Mutant. "Beautiful piano melodies give reprieve from thundering percussion, in this beautiful and essential addition to the Jurassic franchise.”

Brussels-based guitarist Benjamin Sauzereau is one of the most respected figures in Belgian jazz, working across the full spectrum-from elegant jazz to adventurous improvisation. You may know him from projects such as Les Chroniques de l'Inutile, Hendrik Lasure Warm Bad, Book of Air, and Fur. Over the past few years, he has written a large number of compositions under the umbrella of 'REMORQUE', performed in various line-ups-a concept somewhat reminiscent of John Zorn's Masada compositions.



These pieces share a clever and imaginative approach to composition, improvisation, and arrangement. Typically short but vibrant, they shimmer with color and atmosphere-sometimes lyrical and contemplative, other times playful, whimsical, or slightly prickly. Each piece opens up a small, self-contained universe full of nuance, refinement, and space, interpreted by musicians who navigate fluidly between classical discipline and free improvisation.



Following the first release Un on W.E.R.F. Records, Sauzereau now presents the highly anticipated follow-up: DEUX. This second chapter dives even deeper into the sonic world of REMORQUE-further refining its playful contrasts, rich textures, and poetic unpredictability. With DEUX, Sauzereau cements his reputation as a composer who continuously reshapes the boundaries between structure and freedom, offering a listening experience that is as intimate as it is exploratory.

END[GER] Die Band Wednesday aus Asheville, North Carolina errichtet im Laufe der zehn Songs von "Rat Saw God" einen Schrein voller aufregender Details: Halb lustige, halb tragische Botschaften aus den Südstaaten, die sich klanglich irgendwo zwischen dem wimmernden Skuzz von Neunzigerjahre-Shoegaze und klassischem Country-Twang entfalten - mit verzerrter Pedal Steel und Frontfrau Karly Hartzman, die mit ihrer Stimme, den Lärm durchschneidet. Ein Song von Wednesday ist wie ein Quilt. Eine Kurzgeschichtensammlung, eine verschwommene Erinnerung, ein Flickenteppich aus Porträts des amerikanischen Südens, der disparate Momente einfängt und als Ganzes doch irgendwie einen Sinn ergibt. Karly Hartzman, die Songschreiberin, Sängerin, Gitarristin und Leiterin der Band, ist eine Geschichtensammlerin als auch eine Geschichtenerzählerin: Eine aufmerksame Beobachterin von Menschen und witzigen Bemerkungen. "Rat Saw God", das neue und beste Album des Quintetts aus Asheville, ist ekphrastisch, aber ebenso autobiografisch und vor allem sehr einfühlsam. Es wurde in den Monaten unmittelbar nach der Fertigstellung von dem zweiten Album der Band, "Twin Plagues", geschrieben und innerhalb einer Woche im Drop Of Sun Studio in Asheville aufgenommen. Die Songs auf "Rat Saw God" erzählen keine Epen, sondern das Alltägliche. Sie sind lebensnah, erzählen vom wahren Leben, sie sind verschwommen und chaotisch und seltsam zugleich - was Hartzmans eigenem Ethos entspricht: "Everyone's story is worthy. Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating." A Wednesday song is a quilt. A short story collection, a half-memory, a patchwork of portraits of the American south, disparate moments that somehow make sense as a whole. Karly Hartzman, the songwriter/ vocalist/guitarist at the helm of the project, is a story collector as much as she is a storyteller: a scholar of people and one-liners. Rat Saw God, the Asheville quintet's new and best record, is ekphrastic but autobiographical and above all, deeply empathetic. Across the album's ten tracks Hartzman, guitarist MJ Lenderman, bassist Margo Shultz, drummer Alan Miller, and lap/pedal steel player Xandy Chelmis build a shrine to minutiae. Half-funny, half-tragic dispatches from North Carolina unfurling somewhere between the wailing skuzz of Nineties shoegaze and classic country twang, that distorted lap steel and Hartzman's voice slicing through the din. Rat Saw God is an album about riding a bike down a suburban stretch in Greensboro while listening to My Bloody Valentine for the first time on an iPod Nano, past a creek that runs through the neighborhood riddled with broken glass bottles and condoms, a front yard filled with broken and rusted car parts, a lonely and dilapidated house reclaimed by kudzu. Four Lokos and rodeo clowns and a kid who burns down a corn field. Roadside monuments, church marquees, poppers and vodka in a plastic water bottle, the shit you get away with at Jewish summer camp, strange sentimental family heirlooms at the thrift stores. The way the South hums alive all night in the summers and into fall, the sound of high school football games, the halo effect from the lights polluting the darkness. It's not really bright enough to see in front of you, but in that stretch of inky void - somehow - you see everything. The songs on Rat Saw God don't recount epics, just the everyday. They're true, they're real life, blurry and chaotic and strange - which is in-line with Hartzman's own ethos: "Everyone's story is worthy," she says, plainly. "Literally every life story is worth writing down, because people are so fascinating." But the thing about Rat Saw God - and about any Wednesday song, really - is you don't necessarily even need all the references to get it, the weirdly specific elation of a song that really hits. Yeah, it's all in the details - how fucked up you got or get, how you break a heart, how you fall in love, how you make yourself and others feel seen - but it's mostly the way those tiny moments add up into a song or album or a person.