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A DJ, producer and prolific collaborator, Greg Paulus’s musical career has led to a truly enviable discography. Born in Minnesota and now an essential part of New York’s sprawling musical landscape, Paulus has taken the foundations of an organic childhood education by his father, the composer Stephen Paulus, and seen it blossom into an unpredictable musical journey encompassing house, soul, jazz and hip-hop.

While touring as a trumpet player with indie band Beirut, as well as in Matthew Dear’s live ensemble, back home he was helping to redefine New York’s underground dance scene as one half of No Regular Play. Alongside childhood friend Nick DeBruyn, the pair brought their deeply musical sound to no less than fifty countries across the world. A decade on, and Paulus arrives on Seth Troxler’s Slacker 85 imprint for his long-awaited debut solo LP, ‘Close To Home’, a deeply felt long-play celebration of his personal cornerstones; family, trust and hope.

From the opening, organic swell of ‘Perot’, arranged with Seth Troxler himself alongside John Camp, ‘Close To Home’ introduces itself as a focused, conscious trip, it’s languid trumpet spilling over into the reflective ‘World Keeps Changing’, which introduces Paulus’s philosophy of music as a constant. ‘Midtown Mirage’ meanwhile leans into the idea of the city itself as a collaborator, resisting pressure and finding its own restful groove. Back over the river, ‘Bond’ roots itself in Brooklyn with a contribution from resident Dillon Cooper, flipping rap standards amid psychedelic flourishes.

Paulus nods toward his dancefloor form on ‘NRG’, a slinky, lo-slung club groove that seamlessly evolves to meld the artist’s nocturnal and studio instincts. In contrast, ‘Real Job’ switches the tempo on Paulus’s MPC to embody an old-school, beatdown flavour, subtly teased out alongside composer and sound designer, Taylor Bense. Doubling down on this languorous groove, ‘Hat Down’ introduces a full-scale No Regular Play reunion, the first of two collaborative tracks that recall the duo’s imperial phase of confidently minimal productions, while evolving their craft.

Following a few missed calls made with love taken from Paulus’s answering machine on ‘$1000’ the minimal, reflective arrangement of ‘Hold Dear’ finds the artist stripping back his layered sound for a skittering, vulnerable exploration of intimacy and life’s devotions.

For a memorable finale, Paulus recruits jazz prodigy Michael Feinberg to deliver upright funk on the deliciously rich ‘Sometimes It’s About Us’. A purely celebratory collage of bopping rhythms and vocals, sharply plucked guitars and archive samples, ‘Close To Home’ concludes with Paulus leading his friends, ensemble and many influences in rare harmony.

When Chuck D proclaimed "Bass, how low can you go?" on Public Enemy's anthemic 'Bring the Noise,' maybe he was pre-empting or inciting the 10,000 fathoms-deep, spine-bending basslines and sub-quake tremors of 'Implosion.'

Implosion is a crushing split album, appropriately released on The Bug's own PRESSURE label. Mapping out a new form of spectral dub, the sound is deliberately immersive, introverted, and yes, definitely implosive. In pursuit of heavy lids, blurred vision, and merciless bass bin punishment, it’s one part meditation, two parts low-end theory, and essentially a confession of devoted sound system addiction.

As expected from a tag team featuring British soundlab explorer and 'London Zoo' composer Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, and Michael Fiedler, aka Jah Schulz—a long-time graduate of Germany's new school of sound system reggae culture—the duo approaches their target differently yet share the goal of keeping their sound "raw" (Fiedler) and "brutally minimal" (Martin). This proves that opposites can attract, even if their tools are different and their methods sometimes diverge.

From such a disparate combo, hailing from different geographical and aesthetic backgrounds, contrasts are certainly on display, even within each artist's own contributions. From the melancholia and transcendence of 'Alien Virus (West Indian Centre, Leeds),' to the duality of ascension and descension on 'Hope,' or the Sunn 0))) in dub, visceral drone of 'Dread (The End, London),' to the tripped-out repetitions of 'Midnight,' which reinvents Chain Reaction for post-millennials, the result is both sacred and narcotic. Each track illuminates the emotional impact and atmospheric pressure being explored across this deceptively sparse album—a mastery of tone and texture.

This collection might be as reduced, minimal, and deep as The Bug has ever gone, perhaps echoing the solemnity of his recent Kevin Richard Martin Black release and invoking the futurist steppas self-pioneered on his previous Pressure album. Alternatively, Fiedler‘s Ghost Dubs project ventures into his most heavyweight direction yet, which is no mean feat considering his previous, the critically acclaimed album Damaged, was a monstrously massive triumph of analogue weight and enviable sound design.

Implosion is ice-cool, a stark contrast to the warmth and sociability of traditional Jamaican roots and the current trends in digi-dub. Instead, the mood is soaked in tension and intense dread, finding an unexpected melting point where classic dub's stark rhythm attack, isolationist ambience's eerie drift, dub techno's floatation strategies, and even the relentless riffs of doom metal collide. As the bass-obsessed pair drop what is arguably the heaviest ambient dub album to emerge from any electronic sector—a moody counterpoint to The Orb's fluffy clouds, etc, Martin has cited The Roots Radics, Black Jade, and On U Sound's Pounding System as heavily influencing his approach to the album, while Fiedler has expressed his admiration for Adrian Sherwood's productions and Rhythm & Sound's enchanting soundscape. Yet, the super heavyweight pulsations, emotive resonances, and bone-rattling vibrations detonated here effortlessly go far beyond these influences.

Shadowy and elusive, there’s a mysteriousness at this record's core. A haunting moodiness oscillating between nostalgia and future shock. Despite the deadly fixation with SLOW and HEAVY, the album maintains a totally hypnotic swing throughout. Implosion and its lead single 'Imploded Versions' are testaments to being enveloped in bass, seduced by bass, submerged in bass, and utterly crushed by bass, as The Bug and Ghost Dubs seek to craft a new form of dub for zonal headz and Babylon seekers.

Mastered by Stefan Betke (a.k.a. POLE) at Scape Mastering studio, this record is heavy as f-ck without resorting to continuous distortion. It’s low-end worship taken to an absolute extreme, yet remains highly listenable and definitely danceable, albeit at the slowest of paces. Sacred and narcotic, this is low-end worship amplified to the max. Dive in if you dare.

Punching in with his debut vinyl EP for Fluid Funk, Chilean house producer Massiande follows up to a string of head-turning releases on an array of labels, including Jimpster’s Freerange Records. His much anticipated new offering, “Essential”, packs all the attributes of his vivid, floor-focussed vision, taking us on a bouncy ride across densely forested coastal house scapes and heavy-lidded electronics. Draped in washed-out pads and cottony textures, Massiande’s tracks have us floating in a chromatic daze of sorts, light-hearted and somewhat nostalgic, but above all hopeful and resilient.

A textbook slab of Massiande’s ever-expanding palette of woozy house tropes and silken disco touch, A1 “Tears” (also presented in bare instrumental form on the flip side B2) has it all, from the euphonic synths arrangements to the no-nonsense, club-igniting jack and irresistible footwork, via the infectious bass and Chicago-style soulfulness of its vocals. Proper fiery number and absolute weapon for any DJ seeking either impactful elegance in a peak-time context or to rekindle the flame when the after gets a bit too prosaic and requires that extra funky boost to get back on tracks. Grooviness exemplified.

More of a straightforward affair, A2 “Essential” unflappably beckons us on the path of utter vaporous escapology with its pulsating tableau of FX-soaked machine talk, semi-acidic bass and zero-G synthwork painting the sky all shades of pastel. The result is a rather captivating piece of weightlessly intuitive though carefully engineered sonic daydream. Injecting further oomph to the groove, B1 “Come On” pulls out a symbiotic collage of Sino-flavoured melody, Stax-ian vox sampling and straight out Detroit house-indebted propulsion, neatly showcasing both Massiande’s broad spectrum of influences and that idiosyncratic take of his on the said genres’ tried-and-tested leitmotivs.

2025 Repress

When people think of Tough Gong they usually think of Bob Marley and rightly so, as he was nicknamed and often called Tough Gong and from this his early releases which came out on the Tough Gong label. But Tough Gong was also the name of a recording complex named after Bob Marley hat included a top level recording studio, pressing plant and distribution centre that would allow reggae music to carry on many years after his sad and too early demise.

Bob Marley had take over the former residence of Island Records boss Chris Blackwell the Island House, 56 Hope Road around 1974. Just before the 'Smile Jamaica' concert on 03rd December the same year the house was ambushed by gunmen. Bob's manager Don Taylor was hit 5 times AND Bob was shot in the arm and his wife Rita Marley was hit in the head by a stray bullet. How no one was fatally injured is staggering. Immediately after the concert Bob Marley started his self imposed exile from Jamaica, settling in London, England. This would lead to the aptly named exodus album being recorded there in the summer of 1977. It would not be until the 'One Love' peace concert in Kingston's national arena on the 22nd April 1978 that would see Bob's return to the island. Marley felt is was important to show his commitment to the people of Jamaica and on his return to 56 Hope Road he began construction of his own recording studio with the help of music mogul Tommy Cowen. Unfortunately Bob Marley's short life would end on the 11th May 1981 from cancer which originated form a football injury. His passing would lead to 56 Hope Road being turned into a museum to the legend of reggae music.

A new location would have to be found to carry on Bob's work which was 220 Marcus Garvey Drive, Kingston 11. The buyer would be Rita Marley and the Tough Gong International Organisation.

Engineers working at the new facility included Errol Browne who had worked at Treasure Isle studios and Hopeton Overton Browne known as 'Scientist', named by the great producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee who worked with him previously at King Tubbie's and Channel One's studios described his ground breaking style as being like that of a scientist.

We focus for this release on the work carried out by the great Scientist on the songs of the Black Solidarity Label run by Ossie Thomas (aka Joe The Boss) recorded at Tough Gong studios. One of the foremost recording, pressing and distribution facilities on the Jamaican island set up from the work of Bob Marley to carry forward reggae music. Hope you enjoy this set......

“The high priest of country cool” - Rolling Stone

“I like him very much. He’s very special. He’s singing with a voice I never heard before” - Townes Van Zandt

“A conscious, soulful brother” - Horace Andy

“He’s a brother to me - one of the best singer/songwriters I’ve ever met” - Adrian Sherwood

“Unearthed mine of gems from inner Wales - a songbook of ideas - that's Jeb!” - Gilles Peterson

Jeb Loy Nichols is a bonafide Country (Got) Soul legend. The Music Maker presents 21 incredibly deep, grooving and soulful songs from the cream of Jeb's catalogue; from its earliest days to his latest unreleased gems via countless rare and unbelievably good lost-classics. This 2LP set is presented in a gatefold sleeve complete with freshly commissioned artwork courtesy of Jeb himself.

In collecting these uncut, under-heard gems, we hope to do justice to Jeb's jaw-dropping artistic brilliance. A man who, in working with Adrian Sherwood, Dennis Bovell, Dan Penn, Larry Jon Wilson and countless other legendary characters, has crafted some of the most deeply affecting folk, country, soul, funk, blues, dub, reggae, gospel, rap and electronic music, ever heard.

The first music Jeb really felt a connection with was southern soul: "I used to listen to the radio at night and fell in love with Bobby Womack and Al Green, The Staple Singers and Joe Simon – that whole Nashville/Memphis/Muscle Shoals thing.” But Jeb was so much more than a soul boy, Indeed, he "went to bluegrass festivals with my dad and come home and listened to jazz records with my mother.” And, when he was fifteen, he heard his first punk record: "God Save The Queen" by The Sex Pistols. “That and The Ramones completely changed me.” In 1979 he got a scholarship to go to art school in New York: “A great time. Punk was over but hip-hop was starting and I got into that in an obsessive way.”

His first recording, in 1980, was an unreleased rap song called "I’m A Country Boy". If that isn't an insight enough into Jeb's kaleidoscopic path through music, in 1981 he visited friends in London and found himself living in a squat with Adrian Sherwood, Ari Up (from the Slits), and Neneh Cherry. “Adrian put me to work immediately, moving boxes of records all across London. It was Adrian that was and is my biggest influence – in his complete disregard for genre purity.” So, presumably you're getting the picture? A veritable musical magpie with a voracious appetite and unimpeachable taste.

"Mine has always been a meandering career. I've done what I've done, and made the music I've made, due to chance meetings. I'm not particularly ambitious; it's more important to me that I work with friends and like-minded people. I've been a big fan of Be With for years. Everything they release is essential. When they asked about rereleasing "Countrymusicdisco45" I was both pleased and flattered. We began talking about how we'd do it; two years and twenty-one tracks later, here we are. I've always thought of the music I make as Country Music. Music conceived in the country, written in the country, recorded in the country. I left London and moved back to the country so I could live among the trees, the grasses, the animals, those things that don't go to war and get greedy. This compilation is the story of that life. Hand made, lo-fi, ramshackle, stripped down, real deal music. Heartworn and funky. Music made in the kitchen, not in the studio. As the great Skip Mcdonald said, Perfect ain't perfect. It's great to see all these tracks gathered together. It feels like a family reunion. Some older members of the tribe, some newer arrivals."

Opener "countrymusicdisco45" is a song Jeb wrote about how his crew lives, tucked up blissfully in the hills: "House parties full of country folk dancing to disco, reggae, soul, country, hip-hop. All night. I recorded it at home under the influence of Stevie Wonder." It's one of the funkiest records you'll ever hear. "Sometimes Shooting Stars" was recorded in Nashville and mixed by the legendary Dennis Bovell. It's deep, dubby, majestic. A thing of fragile, melodic beauty. The party ramps back up again with the undeniable groove of "Short Cut Home" before the profoundly moving "Disappointment" arrives. One of many songs he's recorded with good buddy Benedic Lamdin (aka Nostalgia 77): "We were going for a Leon Thomas meets Richard Brautigan meets Alice Coltrane kind of thing". We think they nailed it. "Days Are Mighty", like a lot of the tracks on this collection, "started life as a demo, an attempt to get something down while it was fresh. No frills, nothing fancy, just feel." And what feels!

The irrepressibly funky "Don't Dance With Me Tonight" is a deeply moving, slow-mo organ-drenched head-nod-funky country-ballad. Next up, the breezy "You Got It Wrong" was recorded in Wales with some of Jeb's good friends and neighbours, The Westwood All Stars, featuring Clovis Phillips and Will Barnes. Skanking fiddle-flecked gem "Ring The Bells" was the first thing Jeb recorded when he moved to Wales. A combination of all his loves; country, reggae, soul. It's followed by "Let's Make It Up", a truly sumptuous string-drenched emotional groover. "When Did You Stop Loving Me" is another Nashville track, written and recorded during a time Jeb was spending a lot of time with the Muscle Shoals crew, Donnie Fritts, Spooner Oldham, George Soule and Dan Penn: "It shows, I'm sure, their influence." Oh, you bet it does!

The swaggering country-funk of "Just Beginning" should grace many groove-focused DJs' sets whilst "Wintering Of The Year", again made with Clovis, is pastoral, campfire soul. The glacial, gorgeous "Let It Rain" is from an unreleased record Jeb made with the great British jazz bass player Andy Hamill and "We Tell Each Other Who We Are" is freaky country-soul made by a man with a love for strutting, wonky hip-hop stylings. Rounding out the side, "Trip To You" is pure, uncut amphetamine-propelled drum-machine soul.

The spare, beautiful "Dirt" is from an EP Jeb made with Julian Moore in his house in South London: "All first takes, straight to tape." Swoon! "Heaven Right Here" was a very minor league hit in America: "It was produced by the brilliant and much missed Wayne Nunes. It was started in the countryside of Missouri, finished in the countryside of Wales, and recorded in the countryside of Sussex." Double swoon! "If Later Ever Comes" is electronica meets J.J. Cale business whilst "Remember The Season" is truly wonderful and breezy guitar soul. "A Little Love" was made with Wayne Nunes as well, after a night of listening to Studio One and Northern Soul. Bouncy dub closer "Weary Traveller" was written by Bill Monroe, the hero of Jeb's youth: "Monroe's music was heavily influenced by black southern churches; I've tried to keep some of that feral feel." This was the final recording by Jeb's 1990s Country-Dub band, Fellow Travellers.

The name of this compilation comes from a time when Jeb lived in Peckham, south London and he used to DJ and sometimes perform at a local bar: "The owner of the bar, a Jamaican named Count Percy, once asked me what I called my music. I told him I wasn't sure, I guess just pop music. He thought about it for a minute and then said, 'no, more like mom and pop music'. Rather than call me a country singer or a folk singer he always referred to me as The Music Maker."

With the long overdue deluxe overview of his beloved music, we hope to finally shine a light on the unheralded genius of Jeb Loy Nichols. RIYL Larry Jon Wilson, Townes Van Zandt, Bobby Charles, country got soul artists, dub, deep soul, disco, dancing, heartbreak. This deluxe collection, spellbinding from beginning to end, should hopefully go some way to ensuring Jeb reaches an ever bigger, ever more appreciative crowd of followers. Mastering for this special double vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. The artwork has been lovingly put together by The Music Maker, himself, Jeb Loy Nichols. "Be With is the perfect home for this mongrel music. I am forever in their debt." The pleasure is all ours, Jeb.

Operating on the fringes of pure improv, organised chaos, minimal composition, lo-fi electronics and Italian spaghetti westerns, wide-eyed and with a healthy dose of DIY aesthetics lies the world of Jaan. It’s a poetic & cosmic universe, exploring “discreet music” whilst wandering on the edges of the Cat People soundtrack & Brian Eno’s more experimental output, in which you might yourself find floating, wandering or in the middle of a market place.

Jaan is a collective of one, a deliberately anonymous activistic unit with strong ties to the international art scene. Purposefully bypassing the know-it-all of the the internet & embracing the bygone mystery of dusty old archives and deep-dive searching, remarkably little is known about this project. Jaan is lead by veteran experimental sonic alchemist Jaan; they operate between Greenland, the Middle East and Europe, with frequent associates Lisqa, Mashid & Schneorr N. acting as local hubs for collaboration and exploration.

The purpose of this wilful obscurity: full focus on the actual music, whether live events or on recordings. Which brings us to Baghali, their first for World of Echo. It’s a deeply personal album, much like slowly browsing old family albums filled with vaguely remembered tales, some still very much present, some faded, leaving but a ghost-like reflection of what once was. Baghali was compiled over the course of a year on the road, trapped in snow storms, waiting for cancelled flights and stuck rides. It’s made up of snippets of diary, quick recordings on road sides, abandoned buildings, garden ruins, vast desert and focussed studio sessions, following a collage-like aesthetic and steeped in an exploration of non-lineair storytelling. There’s broken memories, a sense of displacement and an occasional yearning for what can’t be again, clouded in fever and unrest, but there is also hope, wonderment and bright colours seeping through the cracks in the wall. Jaan weaves home-made instruments, old tape loops, broken synths, beat-up reeds, dusty beat boxes and the occasional doom guitar squall into a tapestry of fractured sound, with tracks following their own inherent logic rather than following formats. Sounds crash in and out, field recordings placing the listener firmly in an environment then throwing several perspectives at once onto them, with individual elements - a wandering clarinet, a lone mandoline, a beat out of place yet perfectly in place - slowly walking in and out & doing their thing.

The whole album is alive, breathes, takes a wrong turn, gets lost, somehow finds its way again - effortless and with a unique sense of space and flow.

Baghali is released digitally and on vinyl in an edition of 300 on 3rd October 2025.

Following a string of acclaimed collaborations, including Agua Dulce with percussionist Laura Robles and Mapambazuko alongside Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta, Peruvian artist Alejandra Cárdenas (aka Ale Hop) returns with her most personal work to date yet, A Body Like a Home. Marking her first album under her birth name, the project is a sonic memoir exploring the tangled realms of trauma, recovery, and love through autobiographical soundscapes.
A Body Like a Home is the artist at her most exposed. Comprising 13 songs and 15 poems, the album sees her set aside collaborative fusions for solo catharsis, channeling years of turbulence - intergenerational scars left by colonialism, racism, domestic violence, and alcoholism - into a work that oscillates between brutality and tenderness. Cárdenas states: “I grew up under Alberto Fujimori’s dictatorship, when a veil of hopelessness seemed to settle over everything. This is the backdrop of the album. The songs and poems trace the inevitable loop between private wounds - addiction, domestic violence, fractured intimacy - and Peru’s national scars, carved by colonialism. It’s not a straight story or a resolution. Writing and composing became a ritual of digging for meaning, into what’s buried, disguised, or renamed, until the body itself became a living archive.
” At the heart of the album is Cárdenas’s own voice - part witness, part confessor - reciting over layers of electric guitars, electronic textures, the haunting violin of Mexican musician Gibrana Cervantes, and a collage of field recordings, from rainfall, muffled whispers, broken glass, to archival protest footage from Peru. The result is a work that resonates like a diary written in sound.
The first single, "Motherland", is a searing testimony where Cárdenas voice cracks under the weight of history and personal loss. Amid a storm of distorted guitars, she traces the cyclical legacies of colonialism, from state massacres branding Indigenous bodies as “terrorists” to the spiral of addiction as an unavoidable future. The lyrics draw parallels between political and domestic violence: a mother’s drunken knife pressed to her chest, and a motherland where racism is currency. She utters: “sacrifice demands a body.” Yet, amid the wreckage, a willful grip on love and faith persists. Ultimately, A Body Like a Home is a document of transformation. Tracks like "Evangelina" and the title piece "A Body Like a Home" hold space for resilience, spirituality, and love, while "Early Road" and "Going South" thread subtle nods to Peruvian folklore, opening up bright vignettes into a sense of belonging.
The poetry chapbook accompanying A Body Like a Home (five of its pieces are also recited on the album) extends the work, building a parallel architecture. Oscillating between the documentary and the mythic, the intimate and the forensic, the profane and the oniric, these poems practice a theology of the ordinary, where everyday objects - cameras, knives, moth-eaten cotton - are charged withspiritual and historical weight. Here, the body is land, house, battlefield, collective pain, geological territory; and trauma is, in contrast, archival, cellular, ritualistic, inherited. Read alongside the music, the stories refract across two mediums: songs give them breath and poems give them bone.

Natural Element proudly presents the long-awaited album The Paradigm Shift by one of Amsterdam’s finest and most prolific producers, Kid Sublime. Following on from the 12” single ‘You Got Me Runnin’’ which dropped in the summer, this 8 track, double LP offering is a special piece of work crafted during the pandemic years and Turbulence recording sessions with maestros Beka Gochiashvili and Mishulino.

The album showcases the evolution of Kid Sublime’s sound and the influence of London’s vibrant broken beat scene, with him having connected with some of the artists around the time of the passing of the legendary Phil Asher. It touches on house, bruk and even techno, with his signature soulful touch palpable across the whole record. Features include talented London artist Oliver Night, Sydney-based vocalist Natalie Slade and long time collaborator, flautist Han Litz, amongst others.

The Paradigm Shift takes you on a deep sonic journey straight from the heart, celebrating love, connection, spirituality and human evolution. There’s introspective moments with the jazzy house drifter ‘The Awakening’ and the dubbed out bass of ‘Kingz’, as well as joyful moments such as the uplifting ‘Heaven’s Glory’ and the romantic ‘Stay Over’, which is as soulful as it gets. ‘Bring It Come’ brings some minimal bruk flavours reminiscent of Bugz in the Attic, and the title track takes things a bit darker with a club-ready roller.

Sitting somewhere between the living room and the dancefloor, this album is sure to enliven the spirits of many a discerning listener and bring some much needed radiance and hope into people’s lives.

Fragments was a completely new way of working for us. We’ve always worked with an internal brief, creating documents, pictures and videos, simply because keeping an idea on track with three individuals can be difficult. It's easy for someone to be edged out of the creative process when the focus is not clearly defined.
It’s a formula we’ve used since the early 2000s, but things have changed a lot since then, particularly when we decided to dip our collective toes into supporter memberships with Patreon. It made us think about what we could do directly for our support- ers rather than just the next album or project. At first, the whole thing felt odd and uncomfortable, but we decided that we’d try a few things and ask for feedback.
"Fragments" was initially a way for us to see how we could include others in an ongoing creative process. There was no over-arching concept, no defined characteristics or purpose, just the promise that there would be at least one new track for members to download every month. Consequently, we never knew what was coming next, so the old, very focused working method was irrelevant. It was difficult for us to let individual tracks go without knowing what was coming next, but this also made the project more interesting.
And then C19 hit and we were forced to continue the project remotely from our home studios. As difficult as the disruption was, it was during this period that we realised we could re-organise and remaster the individual tracks into a coherent album, captur- ing a specific moment in time and drawing a line under the first phase of the project.
Like our "Allegory" EPs, we’ve tried to keep everything stripped back. We used to hide many subtle elements within the layers, but not so much this time.
Fragments is our journey through many changes, both self-im- posed and those imposed upon us, and it ultimately led us to create things differently. We hope you like it.




b A2















r D1 b Yes Hello (Remastered BONUS) 1:53
s D2 No JuJu (Man Power Version - Remastered BONUS) 4:27
t D3 Cup Noodle (Unemployed Youth Version - Remastered [BONUS]) 5:43
[u] D4 Black Smoke (They Never Got Started) (Remastered [BONUS]) 2:18
[v] D5 Concrete Concentration (Remastered [BONUS]) 3:21
[b] They All Live In The Past (Remastered [BONUS]) 1:06

Siggatunez makes his debut on Small Great Things with E-Motion EP — a heartfelt journey through deep, soulful house grooves and late-night dancefloor therapy.

This 4-track offering captures his signature blend of emotive textures, lush instrumentation, and raw rhythmic energy, cementing his place as a storyteller in sound. Whether it's the uplifting vibes of “U Give Me Hope,” the vocal warmth of “Keep On” and “Don’t Let Me Down,” or the introspective closer “You,” E-Motion EP moves with both heart and purpose.

From the uplifting opener “U Give Me Hope”, to the introspective warmth of “You”, each track pulses with intention. “Keep On” (featuring Pilar Jordan) inspires persistence and groove, while “Don’t Let Me Down” (with a soulful turn from Vany T Fair) delivers a rich, vocal-driven depth perfect for sunrise sets.

Both timeless and contemporary, E-Motion EP is a testament to Siggatunez’s ability to translate feeling into frequency. Pressed on wax and available digitally, it’s music to move bodies—and hearts.

Für einige ist Pavement die vielleicht größte Band der Welt, oder zumindest Nordamerikas, ganz sicher aber die beste Band der amerikanischen Westküste. Nun veröffentlicht die mindestens mal Kultband ein "Best of"- Album für alle die, die sich immer noch Fragen wer zur Hölle eigentlich Pavement sind. "Hecklers Choice", so der Name des "Best of" leistet dabei Aufklärung und führt den Hörer aus dem Tal der Ahnungslosen in einen Garten Eden voller blühender Gitarren-Feedbacks und sprießender Indie-Riffs. "Hecklers Choice" ist die bereits zweite "Best of"-Kompilation der Band. Es ist schließlich mehr als ein Jahrzehnt vergangen und man kann nie genug gute Pavement-Songs kompakt in der Sammlung besitzen. Als "Quarantine the Past" 2010 erschien, gab es TikTok noch nicht. Diese neu überarbeitete Titelliste berücksichtigt alle viralen Seltsamkeiten der letzten Jahre ("Harness Your Hopes"), und repräsentiert gleichzeitig die zeitlosen Stücke, die über Generationen hinweg fester Bestandteil von Playlisten und Mixtapes für Liebhaber der Band geblieben sind.

The Chisa Years: 1965-1975 (Rare and Unreleased) is a compilation album by South African jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela. The album consists of 14 rare or forgotten tracks recorded by Stewart Levine and Hugh Masekela from 1965 to 1975 when they ran their own Chisa Records label.Thom Jurek of Allmusic wrote 'In sum, there isn't a weak moment on this entire collection. It's appeal is wide and deep and one can only hope this is the first of many volumes of this material to appear. BBE Records has done a stellar job in making this slab available.' Dan Nishimoto of the Prefix Magazine stated 'The compilation focuses on Masekela's original idea of 'African American Music.' From the early experiments of the Zulus (a group featuring M'Bulu) in mixing doo-wop, rhythm & blues and South African gospel and the mbaqanga/'Grazing in the Grass'-style work of the generically named Johannesburg Street Band to the clearly Fela-influenced Ojah (Masekela's band in the mid-'70s, consisting of players from Ghana and Nigeria) and the readyfor-primetime belting of M'Bulu, each track reveals a multi-pronged effort to find and challenge the notion(s) of how African and American cultural forms could interact.'

Los Angeles polymath Tyler, the Creator turns his past into vivid technicolour here on his latest offering. Narrated by his mother, the album unfolds like a scrapbook of childhood memories and adult reckonings, moving between swagger and nostalgia. Tyler's production - lush with horns, strings and jazz-inflected chords - recalls the warmth of Flower Boy but with the unpredictability of Cherry Bomb. 'Noid' wrestles with fame's paranoia while 'Hey Jane' confronts moral conflict with startling candour. 'Darling, I' and 'Like Him' offer soulful reprieves amid the chaos. Guest spots from Lil Wayne, Santigold and Lola Young expand the palette without distracting from Tyler's emotional centre. Messy but self-aware, this captures an artist still discovering who he is.

Auf ".5: The Gray Chapter" zeigen die Maskenmänner aus Iowa, was sie drauf haben, und präsentieren gleichzeitig ihren aktuellen Drummer Jay Weinberg.

Musikalisch orientiert sich das Album weniger an seinem Vorgänger "All Hope I Gone" als vielmehr an Slipknots musikalischen Wurzeln zur Zeit von "Iowa" (2001) und "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses" (2004).

Mit hohen Chaftplatzierungen und guten Reviews reiht sich ".5: The
Gray Chapter" deshalb in die Liste der Slipknot Klassiker ein.

Arriving two years after the first chapter, Absurd Matter 2 isn’t just a sequel, it’s an evolution, redrawing the boundaries established by its acclaimed predecessor. The Berlin-based Italian producer tempers his confrontational sonics with rare moments of introspection, shifting seamlessly between blown-out noise, warped hip-hop, mutant club experimentation, and weightless ambience. Textures disintegrate and reassemble, rhythms flex and crumble, and every detail balances on the edge of fantasy. It’s a poetic, layered response to Nino Pedone’s changing physical reality: the gradual hearing loss and perceptual renegotiation triggered by Ménière’s disease, which struck him in 2022. At first, the experience felt like betrayal, a brutal disconnection from the very sense that had shaped his life. But over time, the disorientation turned into a strange kind of focus. The silence between sounds became as expressive as the sounds themselves.
The first Absurd Matter was a visceral reaction to trauma; the second is more reflective – an ambiguous chronicle of sensory recalibration. Pedone doesn’t represent his altered inner reality through extremes, but through depth, zooming in on illusory distortions, tense rhythmic fluctuations, and fragmented sonics. Dense, immersive, and mystical, the album mirrors Pedone’s evolving relationship with perception itself.
Tinnitus-like feedback wails and noir-ish strings introduce “Repeater”, making it immediately clear that Pedone is painting a more delicately finessed image this time around. Fleshed out by raps from cult MCs billy woods and E L U C I D, the track is marked by subtle, sophisticated contrasts: the blurred, inverted rhythms that couch Armand Hammer’s haunted back-and-forth, and the glitchy interference that offsets the lavish orchestral phrases. Backwoodz associate Fatboi Sharif lends his Lynchian drawl to “Bandage Chipped Wings”, grounding Pedone’s lysergic rhythmic distortions with syrupy, horror-inspired couplets. Pedone also invites discomfort into “Crash Landing”, with droning, metallic tones that contradict South Central rapper ICECOLDBISHOP’s elastic flow. “Bitch, I don't give a fuck about anybody,” he squawks over Pedone’s incongruous rasping textures and time-warped beats, “cash out at any party.” Working alongside London’s Loraine James on production, Pedone reunites with Moor Mother on “I Saw The Light”, blending James’ soft-focus atmospherics with soundsystem-damaging, overdriven bass hits and rusted percussive snips. Moor Mother’s assertive words hover over the wreckage, tightening Pedone’s themes of overstimulation and altered awareness as they stutter and veer off course, vanishing into the backdrop.
Contrasting his more pensive experiments, Pedone’s dancefloor deviations are more concentrated on Absurd Matter 2 than ever before. He torches a stuttering dembow structure on “X”, obfuscating the rhythm’s familiar energy with disturbing audio hallucinations. On “Splintered”, he reunites with Kenyan prodigy Slikback, mangling neon-lit trance arpeggios with dissociated trap rhythms. He sharpens his skills to a fine point on “Oblivion Step”, observing 2- step through a lens of distortion and personal abstraction, shaking blipping synth leads over neck-snapping drums and counteracting the momentum with airless sci-fi soundscapes.
Perhaps the album’s most surprising moment arrives with “Viel”, which features vocals from Los Angeles-based composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Together, Pedone and Smith chance upon their notion of dub techno, fogging synth stabs and ghostly vocal traces into eerie harmonic distortions. On some level, it’s almost pop music, a far cry from the bleak dissonance of Absurd Matter and a hopeful way to reframe turbulence as transformation. Absurd Matter 2 doesn’t simply document a process; it enacts one. It doesn’t offer clarity; it invites disorientation. It’s not a map of the labyrinth, but a foghorn piercing the darkness.

‘Cataclysm’ is a poignant call for revolution of both politics and consciousness, conveyed through ten distinct songs written and produced by Zanias between 2020 and 2024. Each piece of music inhabits its own aesthetic universe and rhythm, featuring elemental fusions of coldwave, italo disco, witchhouse, trance, breakbeats, hyperpop and even a touch of drum and bass. The unique amalgamation is best described as post-industrial ethereal wave, of Zanias’s very own signature. The subject matter grapples with how to move forward through times when civilisation and the entire ecosystem of the planet feel like they are on the brink of total collapse, while gazing back over hundreds of thousands of years of human survival in total awe of how far we’ve come. The lyrics aim for a balance of vulnerability and poetic strength, as the audience is beckoned to “thread the power through the pain”. While darker atmospheres are conjured through the sound design and instrumentation, the album ultimately directs itself steadfast toward the glittering sheen of hope. As the tempo ascends through the course of the album’s tracklist, so too does Zanias’s deep attachment to our sacred humanity and refusal to give in to despair.

‘Cataclysm’ represents an ambitious defiance of genre tropes in pursuit of pure artistry, with a potent political message delivered with assertive fervour and playful sincerity. Additional production was contributed by mixing engineer Trey Frye, best known for his work in the band Korine, and the album was mastered by Alain Paul.

Despite immense challenges, SOYUZ have delivered a career-defining album in KROK.
“Krok” means “step” in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It’s the title and theme that ran throughout СОЮЗ (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ’ composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time.

In early 2022, Chumak and original members, Mikita Arlou and Anton Nemahai, joined tens of thousands of Belarusians seeking safety abroad. Resettling in Warsaw, the band released Force of the Wind in October 2022, garnering widespread acclaim, a string of major European gigs, and led to Polish musicians Albert Karch and Igor Wiśniewski joining the band.

Deeper and more melancholic than previous works, KROK is quintessentially SOYUZ, laced with hope, dreams and a celebration of life. Given the difficulties with finding rehearsal and recording spaces in Warsaw and the departure of the drummer Anton Nemahai from the band, Chumak explored alternative options. He reached out to friend and fellow musical collaborator, Sessa, about the possibility of recording the new album in his recently finished studio in São Paulo, with Sessa and Biel Basile coming onboard as recording engineers.

At the tail end of 2024, Chumak and SOYUZ’ new drummer, Albert Karch, made the trip to São Paulo to record the first sessions for KROK. Laid down directly to tape, these sessions featured prominent Brazilian musicians Sessa, Biel Basile, and Marcelo Cabral, with a guest vocal feature by Tim Bernardes recorded at a later date. The final touches were then added back in Europe. Lush string and woodwind arrangements written by Chumak and Karch were recorded at the Polish Radio studio in Warsaw, and Rhodes parts were added by Chumak at Sven Wunder’s studio in Stockholm.

Though primarily recorded in Brazil, KROK is not a Brazilian or MPB album. It blends the band’s Eastern European roots with jazz, folk and global influences. The genre of the music is hardly identifiable: there are folk ballads and jazz-driven pop compositions covered in lush and often dissonant string and woodwind arrangements where each note is placed with care and meaning behind it.

The title track was the first song Chumak wrote in Belarusian as an adult, making for a fitting opener and one of the band’s finest tracks. Darker than most of SOYUZ’ songs, the tensions lift and lighten as the track progresses. The cinematic library jazz of 'Voo Livre', with ghostly vocals sung by Ciça Góes and Ina, feels like a modern twist on the Italian library composer Alessandro Alessandroni through its sublime choir and woodwind orchestration. Elsewhere, the heartfelt 'Lingua Do Mundo', composed, written, and sung by Chumak and the incredible Tim Bernardes, features one of the standout string arrangements from Chumak and Karch. 'Cichi Karahod' is an instant SOYUZ classic, almost Pat Metheny-esque as it opens, with the acoustic guitar and bass riff transitioning into jazzy AOR / pop-folk territory. The record closes with 'Smak žyćcia', a gentle, dreamy spoken-word poetry piece in Japanese by singer-songwriter Manami Kakudo.

Celebrating 4 years of Autosimilar, we're proud to present a very special vinyl release packed with exceptional talent! This compilation (VA) features tracks from Kessel, Stanislav Tolkachev, Pergo, and Vibrations of Gravity. Each artist brings their own unique vision of techno to the record, making this release a truly diverse and powerful showcase.

We hope you enjoy it-there has been a lot of effort and passion poured into this project. This marks the first in a series of upcoming vinyl releases dedicated to highlighting outstanding techno talent from across the globe.
Mastering has been handled by Ruben Montesco, ensuring top-quality sound, and the striking artwork is crafted by Devoner.

Introducing OBI02 – Plight of the Gifted EP by TB Shine, the second release on
Dutch-label OBI Trackz.

Operating under various aliases since the early 2000s, TB Shine is one of the many expressions of Norwegian artist Terje Bakke. Plight of the Gifted EP holds five tracks that drift between hypnotic minimalism and raw percussive workouts, told through disjointed rhythms, haunting atmospheres, and layered tension.

The A side kicks off with Dopamine Dungeon—a slippery, low-end-driven roller wrapped in hazy textures and unstable euphoria. The track traps the listener in a quirky haunt, like the title describes accordingly. Red Army Moody Troopers follows with a tougher edge: straight drums, spectral pads, and an undercurrent of unrest. It’s a track that marches forward but never fully lands, suspended in an unresolved urgency.

On the B side, Plight of the Gifted appears in two versions. The original leans into emotional melodic motifs and fragmented structures, evoking both vulnerability and defiance. The Haunted Version strips things back further—bleeding with space, odd grooves, and a kind of post-club phychosis that lingers long after. Closing the EP is Plague Doctor, a slow-burning piece where a hopeful melody echoes and distant percussion round off the release with a sense of closure while being wrapped in a warm blanket.

With Plight of the Gifted EP, TB Shine offers a layered and personal collection— one that walks the tightrope between control and collapse, rhythm and mood. A fitting next step for Obi Trackz: cryptic, cinematic, and carved with intent.

A record born of insurmountable joy and simultaneous profound loss; World Maker marks a time of great change for Psychonaut, both personally and musically, as the band burn away the philosophical narrative complexities of previous offerings with a searing, panoramic clarity that implores us to savour the beauty of the now as a means of leaving a legacy for the future. The traditional, three-piece line up of Belgian, psychedelic post-metal collective Psychonaut has long belied the compositional prowess, captivating narrative depth and crushing live presence of a band now operating at the forefront of forward-thinking, contemporary heavy music. Having sent a shockwave through the post-metal and prog scenes with their three times repressed Pelagic Records debut Unfold The God Man in 2020 before following it up with the transformative metaphysical complexities of 2022's Violate Consensus Reality, Psychonaut have played prestigious Belgian open-air festivals like Alcatraz, Rock Herk and Boomtown Festival as well as boutique events such as Soulcrusher, Roadburn Redux and A Colossal Weekend whilst sharing stages across Europe with the likes of Amenra, Brutus and Pelagic labelmates The Ocean and PG.Lost. The seed of World Maker took shape just as the campaign for Violate Consensus Reality came to a close, with the news that guitarist/vocalist Stefan De Graef was to become a father. This tilting of life's axis led De Graef, like most fathers-to-be, to re-assess what was really important. As such, the music he was inspired to write felt free of the band's previous philosophical and spiritual foundations and instead took the form of life lessons for his unborn son, a legacy of love in case something were ever to happen. This hopeful euphoria shines keenly throughout World Maker as an uncharacteristically optimistic warmth; from the reverberating Rhodes organ on the titular opening track and the meandering, free-jazz inspired guitar solo that introduces `Everything Else is Just The Weather' to elements of world music, electronica and the otherworldly voice of Dutch multi-instrumentalist and old friend Anthe Huybrechts (Anthe/Helion Creek) most notably on tracks like `Origins' which also features tabla, a pair of indian hand drums, as its propulsive heartbeat. Whilst Psychonaut's giant riffs, punishing polyrhythms and guttural vocal rage are more resplendent than ever, there is a wider dynamic spectrum to World Maker that sees the band proudly exploring their more delicate, intimate extremes as well as their most aggressive and abrasive. Not long after the birth of De Graef's son came the devastating news that both his own father and Psychonaut bassist/vocalist Thomas Michiels' father had been diagnosed with advanced cancers. Living day-to-day and torn between joy and grief, the band found themselves shedding the grand scope and world-shattering agenda of Violate Consensus Reality to focus on the here and now. Lead single `Endless Currents', the first full track on the album, explodes in a barrage of staccato guitar tapping but mellows to let the powerful, newly pared back lyrics ring out as a call to embrace the flow and follow joy. The song's final few words `Lead the way. / Soar. / Everlong.' double as both a greeting and a goodbye as the trio build their formidable post-metal might to a thunderous breaking point. Similarly, the pulsing, propellant `Stargazer', named so for De Graef's son being born in stargazer position, pairs delicate guitar motifs and folk-inflected optimism with huge and sprawling breakdowns as some of the band's most genre-pushing work to date; asking difficult but important questions of what happens next. It is `And You Came With Searing Light' though that most immediately exemplifies Psychonaut's redirected ambition on World Maker, as euphoria collides with blinding fury. The first track written for the album, `_Searing Light' is easily the most complex and initially wouldn't sound out of place on Violate Consensus Reality. Originally meant to be the new album's opening track; the decision to defer its impact, not to mention its compositional and dynamic gravity, speaks of a fundamental change to the band's very core. The words "Discover the world with wide eyes" recurring throughout speak as much to those having lost a part of their world as they do to those seeing it for the first time. Amidst such turbulent times, the band found strength and support within their Post-Metal community. The album was recorded and produced by the band alongside their longtime collaborator and close friend Chiaran Verheyden (Hippotraktor) with help and advice from Psychonaut's live engineer Victor, who will no doubt make this album sound just as awesome on stage. Even the artwork for World Maker was a family affair, being designed by close friend Sam Coussens of Belgian cosmic sludge metallers Pothamus. In the face of life's soaring highs and desolate lows, World Maker is direct and brave without sacrificing any of Psychonaut's raw power, creative innovation or inimitable musical depth. Where their previous full-length offerings have charted grand introspective courses through time and space, World Maker is breathtaking in its uncompromising clarity: a father singing to his newborn son as a son bids his own father farewell. FOR FANS OF Mastodon, Russian Circles, Tool, Gojira, The Ocean, Pelican, Hypno5e, Cult Of Luna, Amenra