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Mr Bongo proudly presents a first-time worldwide vinyl and CD issue of Rubel’s debut album Pearl. Self-released on YouTube in 2013, the album quietly became a huge hit in Brazil with the lead single and accompanying video for ‘Quando Bate Aquela Saudade’ amassing over 85 million views to date. Pearl laid the foundations for Rubel’s path to greatness - a first glimpse into the brilliance of a modern-day troubadour and ever-evolving Brazilian artist who deftly mixes classic and contemporary influences. Fusing MPB, folk, pop, and indie, it charts Rubel at his purest and most personal.

The journey of Pearl begins with Rubel in his early 20’s studying film in Austin, Texas. Immersing himself in the city’s vibrant DIY music scene and surrounded by countless musicians who he shared a large house with, he set up a home studio with an assortment of rented gear and recorded the album without any expectations. It was inspired by an environment of youth, music and experimentation Rubel found himself within. The seven songs are an attempt to record and take with him a little of what he lived and learned whilst there. He uploaded the album to YouTube, didn’t think much of it and continued to pursue a career in film in LA. Over the next few years however it became a viral hit in Brazil, with a subsequent Brazil only vinyl and CD issue, drawing him both back to Rio and a trajectory to musical stardom.

Almost Starlight is the extraordinary new album by Jem Finer (hurdy-gurdy) and John Matthias (violin). Produced by Jay Auborn and recorded in a Medieval Church, deep in the Devon countryside, in the Summer of 2025, the music is suffused with light, heat and the natural acoustics of the space.

The album defies categorisation; forced to pigeon hole it the nearest approximation would be ‘modern-classical’ but this ignores its myriad influences and explorations which encompass inspiration from Arvo Pärt through Terry Riley to Can via Delius, Alice Coltrane and a subtle reimagining of electronic music played purely with acoustic instruments, bending and shaping their possibilities in surprising and unexpected directions.

Jay Auborn plays cello on a number of the compositions and his production opens up and expands the music through a skilled and imaginative use of space, paying homage to the atmosphere of the church; ‘the sound evolved… chasing the imagined acoustics of that church in my mind; a place for worshipping light with sound.’

Almost Starlight will be released on the 4th September by Touch, available as CD, vinyl, cassette and on streaming platforms.

BIOS OF THE ARTISTS

Jem Finer

Since studying computer science in the 1970s, Jem Finer has worked in various fields, including photography, film, experimental and popular music, sound recording, sculpture and installation.

Much of his work relates to systems, extended processes and extremes of scale and includes Longplayer, a musical composition repeating once every 1000 years, and the Gurdy and Hurdy stones, ancient rocks set upright in fields in East Sussex and Gloucestershire with Jimmy Cauty. Their work together includes a band, The Standing Stones, whose most recent release is Twa Sisters, featuring Iona Zajac and Daragh Lynch.

He was a founder member of The Pogues, with whom he has played, written and recorded since 1981.

Recent music revolves around a fascination with the hurdy-gurdy and includes hrdy-grdy, a cassette released by Benedict Drew’s Thanet Tape Centre. His latest collaboration, with John Matthias, Almost Starlight, will be released by Touch in September 2026.

John Matthias

Since studying Theoretical Physics in the late 1980s and 1990s, John has created music and sound in many forms, including for installation, popular music, music for film, for dance and orchestra.

Much of John’s work plays with the physics of complex systems but he is also greatly influenced by stories and song. John has collaborated with Matthew Herbert, Stanley Donwood, Jay Auborn, Radiohead, Thom Yorke, Nick Ryan and many others to create music with a variety of textures and sonorities. He is particularly interested in simplicity and form and how context informs the way music sounds.

His latest collaboration, with Jem Finer, Almost Starlight, will be released by Touch in September 2026.

Frazer Ray lands on Time Is Now with Masha EP. Four tracks of killer, stripped back FWD facing proto/future garage effortlessly pushing the sound into a new direction.

FACTS:

1. Frazer Ray knows how to make a dance. IYKYK…. Recently he’s been shelling Live UKG cooked right in front of you on a custom modular rig. Mad energy. 100% party business.

2. Frazer Ray knows a thing or two about making UK soundsystem music. The artist FKA Soundbwoy Killah is now a decade deep in his discography. And first as ‘Soundbwoy Killah’ and now as ‘Frazer Ray’ he is 2 for 2 with aliases that never miss.

3. New Frazer Ray is always something to get excited about. For 10+ years he’s kept it super tight. Quality over quantity. Always holding dubplates. When releases have landed they drop on only the best labels; including both Rinse and Rinse’s new INGRAM imprint, Ninja Tune’s Technicolour imprint, Sneaker Social Club, Interplanetary Criminal’s Locked On and IPC & Main Phase’s ATW Records. (side note - his Soundbowy Killah - ‘Halcyon Daze’ LP on Sneaker is IMO an all time classic - do not sleep on that one). Aaaannd… if the dubplates got too heavy he’s also occasionally dropped weight on his own U-Phorix label.

Also…..what has always struck me about Frazer’s music is that it’s simultaneously integral in the hardcode continuum while also pushing it forward. It’s always complete. Fully formed. You never bristle. There’s no failed experiments. Just a firm nod to the future for anyone looking.

OK… Run the tracks.

Masha’s vocal licks tell it straight, this one is “Fire”. Proper club business to test the stacks. The drums roll steady in front of a wall of sub bass. A killer mix of post dubstep era goodness, techno sound design and the shuffle & swing of proto dubstep.

Settle Down There’s something 90’s tek step about this one. Dark and moody with a wall of bass. It bristles with texture and atmosphere before – a moment of reprieve in this absolute weapon – Frazer opens up into a dubwise oasis before skittering back into the darkness.

Syren Song is exactly what it says on the tin, alluring Dancehall vocals chatter and roll. Who knew auto-tune and Garage paired so well… Frazer did that’s who.

No Reasons Left is an ethereal closer for the end of the night / start of the morning after. Gliding warm & introspective dubwise breaks with a Reese bassline that hangs in the space between garage and hardcore.

Frazer says…

“This EP feels like I've finally nailed integrating my modular setup (and VCV rack for all you nerds out there) into my productions. I wanted to create deeper production while still ensuring the tracks translate well in the club.”

If this is only the beginning then strap in.

When a British alt-soul and art-pop duo collaborates with Filipino musical royalty, the result is a blinding flash of artistic spirit that transcends geographical andgenerational barriers.

For Margate-based act Thandii, a chaotic whirlwind of a trip to Manila allowed Graham Godfrey and Jess Berry to explore a new cultural context of song- writing. After several prolific years of self-released albums together, they took the opportunity to channel Graham’s Filipino heritage through an ambitious project proposed by the label Sama Sama Records: for Thandii to make their next album with the most recorded drummer in the Philippines, Jun Regalado.

Now in his late 70s, Regalado has recently gained more recognition internationally after the reissue of his track ‘Pinoy Funk’ (from the Soundway compilation Ayo Ke Disco in 2024), along with the discovery of nearly 500 album appearances that are now finding themselves in the collections of younger generations. And on Coco Okayo - the first time he has collaborated outside of his contemporaries - Regalado effectively passes the torch.

In exploring a sound born of the diaspora with roots in British soul music, Coco Okayo makes full use of the polymath abilities of Thandii. While they provide vocals, percussion, flutes and production, they still manage to carve out space for regular Margate collaborators (including keyboardist Steve Pringle, Graham’s bandmate in Pigeon), as well as tapping Filipino connections in the United States such as Wyn Avillas and Ian Santillano.

“It’s a new genre coming from Filipino diaspora artists paying tribute to the Manila sound of the 70s,” say Thandii, “but combining it with modern day post-punk- disco, beat-driven-art-pop music coming from the small seaside town of Margate”. However the listener might interpret it, it’s clear that Coco Okayo is not stuck between worlds, but rather, has built a utopian world of its own.

2020 album from Colorado’s freewheelin’ melodist Josephine Foster. Revolving between her adopted Spain and her native American West, Josephine was stationed this spring in Nashville with maverick guitarist and comrade-in-arms Matthew Schneider. The result: ‘No Harm Done’, a spacious and enveloping love letter of an album. Eight new slow-burning songs branch forth from idiosyncratic country folk blues, sung with sibylline wit and a hint of the absurd, awash in sensually anachronic lyricism. “The Wheel of Fortune”, nearly a title track by virtue of its refrain: 'No harm will come/if there's no harm done', are words of a homebound wanderer finding refuge in healing stillness with her beloved, having 'time to kill' in the midst of 'hard times to feel at home'. All delivered with calm sagacity upon the pedestal of Mr. Schneider's pedal steel and underscored by a knowing trebled chorus in Foster's lower register. Going nowhere never felt like so righteous of a destination before. Devotion in all its permutations, spiritual to carnal, are seamlessly explored. In 'Conjugal Bliss', overtones of the 12-string and autoharp gently interplay, sounding like some unearthed Carter family wedding hymn (it bears the subversive subtitle '69' ) while 'How come, Honeycomb?' bounces low in the hips like a sultry old music hall number à la Harry Nilsson. The obliquely sapphic 'Leonine', it's unquiet harp scaling right out of ancient Lesbos, dreams of a kingless land; in 'Sure Am Devilish', a stargazer humbly confesses to a lowercase lord. 'Old Saw', the mesmeric album closer, is a medium's petition to cross the threshold and merge with the holy spirit. Josephine's enigmatic voice captured once more by frequent co-producer Andrija Tokic in his analog Bomb Shelter studio, where layers of her guitar, piano, organ entwine with Schneider's 12-string, pedal steel and electric bass to rouse a spectral yet full blooded band. The ensuing cycle of songs pulse and glow within the ruins and deep fundamental roots of American song. “Remarkable, ghostly music” The Guardian.

The compositions recorded here are a product of work with computers in synthetic speech, song and vocal sounds and were created between 1972 and 1975. The music was realized on two different computer music systems and takes advantage of, and attempts to extend and explore their features. The system employed to realize speech songs was created at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for research in synthetic speech and speech communication. Since the system was not designed for musical purposes, its limitations were severe and its musical use a great (and often rewarding) challenge. The system used for In Celebration and The Story of Our Lives was designed with the expressed purpose of creating synthetic musical voices, and was therefore much better suited to the task at hand. As with any high technology project, there was extensive collaboration in the production of the works.

The works on this disk are called computer music because the sounds were created numerically in a computer before reaching magnetic tape and loudspeakers. The computer did not compose the music. However, it was only used as a sound synthesis and analysis medium. In order to hear the sounds which are represented in the computer as successions of numbers it was necessary to attach a digital-to-analogue converter to the computer. The converter transformed the succession of numbers into a fluctuating voltage which was recorded directly on to audio tape.

The technique used to create the synthetic voices is called speech synthesis-by-analysis. For this method of speech synthesis, only those words, phrases and sentences which have been spoken into the computer previously (via an analogue-to-digital converter) may be synthesized. First the digitally-recorded speech is analyzed by programs which extract the attributes (parameters) of the speech for short time segments (.01 sec.). From these parameters the speech may be recreated in a form which resembles the original recording very closely. But for musical purposes the parameters are most often altered before synthesis. It is possible, for example, to change the natural pitch contour of the speech into a melodic line or to change the speech speed without altering the natural pitch level.

The variety of musical patterns which may be created from the analytic parameters is limited only by the composer's imagination. Most of the speech sounds on the recording were created by changing the pitch and duration attributes of the original on resynthesis, but for a few, the resonances (the formants) of the speech were altered as well. The voice of the book in The Story of Our Lives was created by replacing the program which simulates the sound of the human vocal cords with one consisting of 64 sine tones glissandoing at different rates. All the textures in which more than one voice is heard were obtained by mixing the synthetic voices together digitally.

Jess By The Lake’s fully analog sophomore album out in September Jess By The Lake’s highly anticipated second full-length album, HUMAN, will be released on September 11th via Svart Records. Jasmin Lempinen, the former vocalist of Jess And The Ancient Ones, is now focusing on her solo career and has this to say about the upcoming album. “This album is an analog counterattack and a celebration of live band music. It’s a statement against everything that modern society seems to be churning out from every nook and cranny: disposable, soulless, plastic, mindless output meant to be swallowed without question. The album is a carefully crafted work of art from start to finish and a tribute to both its creators and its listeners. In making it, we’ve strived for the best possible performance and sound quality that we were capable of at the moment of recording. And in that moment, we truly lived and channelled all our energy into it, which we hope will also reach the listeners. It unashamedly pays homage to the past, to the traditions of rock music.” The band began working on the album in 2019, when the first songs were written, and it was recorded live on magnetic tape in the summer of 2023 at the legendary Höyrybaari in Lapinlahti, Finland. The recording was handled by Tommi Saikkonen and the band’s guitarist Sampo Leksis, who also mixed the album. The old railway company’s log warehouse resonated beautifully, and at times the tape also picked up the rumbling of a train on the tracks right behind where the band was playing. However, making the album took time due to changing life circumstances and new additions to the family. Keeping the album entirely analog has also delayed the process

Jess By The Lake’s fully analog sophomore album out in September Jess By The Lake’s highly anticipated second full-length album, HUMAN, will be released on September 11th via Svart Records. Jasmin Lempinen, the former vocalist of Jess And The Ancient Ones, is now focusing on her solo career and has this to say about the upcoming album. “This album is an analog counterattack and a celebration of live band music. It’s a statement against everything that modern society seems to be churning out from every nook and cranny: disposable, soulless, plastic, mindless output meant to be swallowed without question. The album is a carefully crafted work of art from start to finish and a tribute to both its creators and its listeners. In making it, we’ve strived for the best possible performance and sound quality that we were capable of at the moment of recording. And in that moment, we truly lived and channelled all our energy into it, which we hope will also reach the listeners. It unashamedly pays homage to the past, to the traditions of rock music.” The band began working on the album in 2019, when the first songs were written, and it was recorded live on magnetic tape in the summer of 2023 at the legendary Höyrybaari in Lapinlahti, Finland. The recording was handled by Tommi Saikkonen and the band’s guitarist Sampo Leksis, who also mixed the album. The old railway company’s log warehouse resonated beautifully, and at times the tape also picked up the rumbling of a train on the tracks right behind where the band was playing. However, making the album took time due to changing life circumstances and new additions to the family. Keeping the album entirely analog has also delayed the process

The bleak, hard-driven third LP by the Wipers (originally released in 1983) offers Greg Sage at his most chased and breathless, lashing out with sharp staccato notes as if melody were his only defense. The 3rd LP from the PDX punks finds them tightening up their sound to create what is arguably the Wipers' definitive album statement. Kurt Cobain listed it in his top 50 albums of all time. A distant cousin of the preceding Youth of America but undoubtedly no less excellent and no less venomous, Over the Edge is a return to the easily digestible song lengths of Is This Real?; however, it all but leaves that debut in its wake. On the strength of some brave/smart radio stations that decided to play this album's "Romeo" (a propulsive horn-flecked slammer in the vein of "Youth of America"), Wipers solidified their status as a certifiable force in the American underground of the early '80s. Songs like "Messenger" and "What Is" show Greg Sage's increasing skill as a pop songwriter. Despite the fusion of punk and pop, the record hardly mirrors the bands that would later be called punk-pop. In fact, this collision of the two elements makes what followed decades later seem twee.

Features Rasco, L da Headtoucha, Edo. G, Esoteric, Pace Won, Young Zee, Danja Mowf, Lonnie B, J-Live, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Lucky Dice, Ripshop and more, plus the first production from Statik Selektah and beats by Soul Searchers, Eddie Bones of Skitzofreniks, Ray Fernandes & Fakts-1.
Along Came the Chosen dropped in 2001 and was the first solo album from Reks, and the first album by a solo artist released on Boston-based Brick Records, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 too. Its release was a defining building block in the long and storied history of Boston independent hip-hop, and this album set the bar for what was expected from MCs and Beatmakers on the Beatown rap scene and beyond.
Brick Records and Reks are proud to celebrate its 25th anniversary with this deluxe double-vinyl pressing. "Along Came the Chosen reaching its 25 year anniversary, being the piece of art that established my hip hop career, is something monumental to celebrate. The fact that individuals still reach out to me to express how they grew with this album means so much to me. There were so many voices in my ear telling me that being a successful artist in this game required bending to popular trends and styles. This album allowed me to establish my own voice and identity, and I am thankful for Soul Searchers (Magoo and Rockwell) for being the foundational sound bed, Shay Boogs for being my first manager, and Brick Records for being the label that believed in me. I am happy to say we have put out some incredible art together. This album boasts the first-ever Statik Selektah beat placement too! We have come a long way. Here’s to 25 more!" REKS.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will have bound to have heard Prospa and Cloonee’s 2026 Summer anthem Free Your Mind which reimagines the iconic vocal from this legendary Fibre Foundation track. Featuring Sybil’s vocals originally heard on Oh, How I Love You, produced by Victor Simonelli, Prospa & Cloonee’s track introduces the beloved hook to a new generation of House music fans.

Now for the first time since it’s initial release in 1995 Free Your Mind by Fibre Foundation, one of the many aliases of New York house mainstay Victor Simonelli, is available again on the original label, Victor’s own Big Big Trax.

Driven by uplifting piano riffs, soulful vocal touches and groove-led rhythms, the track captures the essence of classic US garage house, delivering a feel-good energy that continues to resonate on modern dancefloors.

Featuring a selection of mixes including UK Mix, NJ Mix, Instrumental and Bonus Dub, the release offers strong versatility for DJs across house and garage sets, from peak-time moments to deeper transitions.

Rooted in the New York house tradition, Simonelli’s productions sit comfortably alongside artists such as Masters At Work, Todd Terry and Kenny Dope, making this a natural fit for stores supporting classic US house and garage.

Back on fresh 12" vinyl, this iconic release maintains strong appeal for both collectors and DJs looking for reliable, time-tested dancefloor material.

Of course everyone knows Kurt Hauenstein aka Supermax. He was one of the few Austrians to shape the sound of late 1970s disco, performing and selling records around the world. Not many know his daughters Judy and Nicola, however, and the fact that they in 1987 wrote a song that they recorded together with their father. Well, here it is: Cracy Coconuts, “Rubberdub Dance” a true Hauenstein family affair. We are proud to re release this super rare 7” that proves, once and for all, that Austrians can excel at digi dub. Timelessly tropical and beautifully bouncy, its vibe is quite different from the iconic Supermax productions. Here, Judy and Nicola’s sweet yet confident vocals replace the moustache driven sotto voce singing that we love Supermax for. The result is oh so catchy and bound to be a hit.

While the sterile “professionalism” of some heavy bands can be like a clinical drone strike, Texas-based Judiciary feels personal. Like close combat with a knife. And it’s all in their chemistry. Judiciary is an amalgamation of four guys raised in the intersection of metal and hardcore—all devoted to pushing their craft further. Across two esteemed LPs, the band has proven their worth as a crucial entity in the crowded heavy music scene by evolving their sound further and further with each release. And now with the band’s latest Stalagmite Angels, due on September 4th via the venerable Closed Casket Activities, Judiciary can further showcase their status as a crucial, one-of-a-kind part of the evolution of hardcore in 2026. Life changes can bring about chaos and seismic shifts, but if Stalagmite Angels is any indication, then it’s all for the better. In the wake of the release of Judiciary’s second LP Flesh + Blood, the band called upon Juan Vazquez to pick up guitar duties, thereby changing the internal framework of the band for good, and unknowingly for the better. It’s this pivot in personnel that resulted in the band’s latest EP. “The goal with this EP was a hard reset, but we also wanted to chill the f— out a bit, have fun, and do something that felt true to the four of us,” recalls drummer Austin Looney. “We wanted time to reconfigure things and let the music come naturally–temper this new mindset that we've adopted post-Flesh + Blood.” Judiciary’s greatest strength lies in their musical singularity. Though Stalagmite Angels represents the collision of influences from across well-worn territories like metallic hardcore, death metal, black metal, d-beat and more, it’s the Lubbock-born band’s approach that makes it distinctly their own. Stalagmite Angels is a wholly new document that resembles a horde of bands ranging from Hatebreed to Carcass to Slayer to Iron Age, yet never aping any single band nor even revealing any single influence. It’s all familiar but none of it is specific. “90s hardcore and hardcore in general is always gonna be our natural inclination, but it manifests with different elements not only from song to song but within each song,” says vocalist Jake Collinson emphatically, who learned guitar specifically to help with writing new material. “Whether that’s Dying Breed or Cannibal Corpse or Crowbar or Machine Head or any number of other influences that any one of us may have, it all manifests in our work, and through our individual and collective lenses. With this EP, we transformed those ideas into the Judiciary approach.” Stalagmite Angels is an EP about anger at the world, belief in yourself, and how harnessing both in the pursuit of growth is necessary to achieve. But furthermore, it’s a concept record that envisions a subterranean world in both a literal and metaphorical sense—where hidden beauty lurks in the shadows (and in the eye of the beholder) and where triumph manifests in the ability to rise from the depths and into the world above.

Poem by Alea Coble (February 2026) - Written for Andrew Weathers, Chattonooga Recording Project

Listen to my story and everything will come out true. - Bessie Smith

35° 02' 44.27" N -85° 18' 34.85" W:

Howl. Hammer strikes firing pin. Its echo ricochets over river bend. The woodpecker’s syncopated pop-pop-pop clink and thwap in time with cops practicing prayer at the firing range.

Quick. Sketch a few constellations onto a postcard: empty shotgun shells, these pre-forgotten fossils snaking rusted railroad spikes, like snagged rosary, fallen poplar petals draped over cerulean glass ashtray scattered along glittering fractures, ignored like a treaty. Train tracks reverberate necrophilic boomerang-hunger for mountain air without that coal dust. Eat. Eat. Everything is real estate. Even the air is for sale. Buy it cheap while I.C.E. carves through the valley along the Trail of Tears in unmarked SUVs, traffic stops.

Howl. Callback to estranged entanglements oscillating over holler and highway. Meet on the porch. Haint-blue ceiling. Some ghosts can’t get through anyway. They got tied up on the Walnut Street Bridge by a mob of white spit. Howl. The South should scare you.

But the woodpecker is still nesting, hungry, typing uncannied punctuation marks into black oak: a deed. Home? Takes a side-eyed knowing to call by name. The moon sickles in a sweating glass of iced tea.

Speculation cycle: symmetry as ancient as sour-dank betrayal of the tongue, bitter bones binding blood and lead, alchemical forgetting like I found a hairbrush in the yard while planting wild irises, like someone is charging $10 for an old glass Coke bottle, like semicolons itching restless under new sod from no-one-knows-where. Howl. Sing back. History is soil-in-stereo.

How will this line end? Like riverbank? Like atlatl arching hope smash-through a stained glass window? Words fall out of the sky, and 30 American flags snap at attention on the bridge. Howl. A shift in the wind gallops through the streets tossing her head back, laughing.

Tennessee River, who once kissed Pangea, how she softens at the knuckle-suck of it all, that secret-sweet stowed in the feathers of sandhill cranes lifting up on warm summer breeze: slow-shooting stars bending toward unbothered brevitas.

Howl. The red wolf knows her truest kin is always her shadow’s shadow.

When Drop Nineteens disbanded in the mid-'90s, singer Greg Ackell decided he would never make music again. He wouldn't noodle around on a guitar in his basement. He wouldn't get a group of friends together just to jam. He was done with music entirely. Following the release of the shoegaze masterpiece Delaware in 1992, and the intricate experimentations on National Coma in 1993, the group disbanded. They shared stages with Radiohead, Hole, Blur, PJ Harvey and Smashing Pumpkins. They went from being teenagers in Boston to mid-twenty-somethings with a few MTV videos, a couple BBC sessions and numerous festival appearances under their belt. So when Drop Nineteens ceased to be, Ackell felt content. He had the rest of his life in front of him to figure out what he wanted to do. Music was a closed chapter.That was until 2021, when a friend from the band's early days got Greg on the phone to suggest making some music together, just to see how it felt. Instead of shutting it down like he had been doing over the years, he decided to entertain the prospect. For the first time in nearly 30 years, he picked up a guitar with intent. He immediately called up Steve Zimmerman, the band's bassist and fellow guitarist, and the two got writing. It felt effortless for Ackell, like he never stopped writing music. "We were off to the races," he says, "But also the question came up: what does a Drop Nineteens song sound like today?" Enter Hard Light, the band's stunning third record. It's the band's proverbial follow up to Delaware, a modern Drop Nineteens record that is completely singular in its sound and vision. The first task making Hard Light was, of course, getting the rest of the band back together. Drop Nineteens is an inherently collaborative project. Ackell writes the lyrics, and he works with band members Steve Zimmerman, Paula Kelley, Motohiro Yasue, and Peter Koeplin to create the sonic world. The record came together over the course of a year, recording at a patchwork of studios all around the country: Boston, Brooklyn, San Francisco, Los Angeles. When Kelley and Ackell first heard their vocals recorded together on the opus album closer "T", the chemistry was undeniable. Making music together felt natural, fluid, exciting.Hard Light is a romantic record in the literary sense. Beauty from longing; longing from beauty. You put the album on and want to be clad in a velvet dress sprawled across a fainting couch. You want to be holding someone's hand while you sit back in the tall grass. The guitars are expansive and expressive as ever. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are cool, crystalline, and luminous. "Gal" comes on like a dream. The vocals pour in when you least expect them, once in the middle, where Ackell delivers one of the strangest (and best) lyrics on the record, "And there were snakes/with cats at the wheel." Hard Light's first single, "Scapa Flow" is triumphant and an excellent example of what a modern day Drop Nineteens song sounds like. The guitars glide cloud-like, floor toms shuffle and rumble in the background, searching. Ackell and Kelley's vocals are as toned as they are bound. Hard Light is every bit the ride that Delaware was, diverse in its sounds, with surprises at every turn. Drop Nineteens have brought clarity and cool in 2023 to the genre they helped create. A portrait of a band 30 years later, as talented and dedicated to their craft as ever. To put it more bluntly, they're at the top of their game.

The most beautiful thing we’ve ever released?

It is virtually impossible to describe with mere words how emotionally powerful this work of art is. Just listen. Listen, listen, listen...

A blissed-out 80-minute epic, Hatchback's Phaser For The Ocean, Chorus For The Moon is his magnum opus, a sprawling masterwork that encompasses ambient, new age and environmental music to wondrous effect. Moving, hypnotic and deeply meditative, it's FFO Mike Brooks, Deuter, Klaus Weiss, Innovative Communication, Harmonia, Cluster, Ashra's New Age of Earth, Stomu Yamashta, Haruka Nakamura, Yoshimura, Hosono, the works.

A record truly deserving of the deluxe Be With treatment, the vinyl was specially cut at Abbey Road Studios whilst the original stunning artwork has been pleasingly expanded. Now, an eye-catching holographic-foil layer moon is set against the original tones, wrapped up in a sumptuous double-gatefold jacket.

Soaked in Californian consciousness and limited to a run of just 500 copies for the world, this release is a treasured balm like no other for these troubled times.

Hatchback is the atmospheric, melodious ambient alias of California-based artist Samuel Milton Grawe. Sam creates music that sings of the Cosmos, full of deep resonant tones, glistening arpeggios, lush pads and harmonic motifs.

"When I first was getting into the creative side of music making in my teens, I was heavily influenced by concept albums like Quadrophenia and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, as well as epic pieces that took up an entire side of a record: Pink Floyd’s Echoes, Yes’ Close To The Edge, Klaus Schulze’s Nowhere Now Here, Miles Davis' Shhh/Peaceful and He Loved Him Madly. In the extreme, these ideas coalesced in double albums where each side of each record is occupied by a single title - Yes’ Tales From Topographic Oceans and Tangerine Dream’s Zeit being primary examples. When I returned to making music after moving back to Northern California in 2020, the first piece I recorded landed around the 20-minute mark, and the idea of creating three other long pieces to realize a full album felt like a natural - if indulgent - goal. From there, each new piece followed sequentially. Four songs. My fourth album." - Sam Grawe

Phaser For The Ocean Chorus For The Moon is a pure expression, informed by a lifetime of deep listening unbound by algorithms or AI. These are songs for the sunrise and the sunset - and every colour in between.

Eden Samara grew up in the mountains of western Canada, writing folk songs and performing in the theatre. Following a trip to Europe where she had her first formative clubbing experiences, she relocated to London in 2019 where she’s become a consistent presence and voice in the city’s underground, collaborating with artists like Parris, Ciel and Loraine James and earning praise from The Guardian, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Crack and DJ Mag.

2022 saw Eden release her debut album Rough Night on Local Action, blending freaky club-pop, introspective R&B and more while collaborating with leading scene figures TSVI, Call Super and Shanti Celeste. Described by Dazed as ‘an embarrassment of riches’ and by Mixmag as one of the best albums of the year, in Eden’s words it was simply ‘a tragicomedy in seven scenes and an interlude’. She’s downplaying things: to us it was a rich tapestry that explored everything from fleeting moments in smoking areas to the Madonna-whore complex. Both, for better or worse, still make the world go round.

On her second album Odyssey, Eden brings more elements into her ensemble (jungle, choral singing, live harp) while honing her song-writing – it’s an expansion and a tightening at the same time. Inspired by epic literary works like Homer’s Odyssey, The Alchemist and The Picture of Dorian Gray, the album reimagines the archetypal quest through a personal lens: a healing journey amid the collapse of close relationships to addiction, mental illness, and the weight of codependency disguised as love. In Eden’s words: 'This work is a narrative and sonic expedition - part myth, part memoir - that traces my path through the emotional aftermath of watching loved ones struggle with drug addiction and mental health crises, and the impact it
had on my own mental wellbeing. The album addresses substance abuse, toxic relationships, and the internalised belief that love must come through sacrifice, even at the cost of one’s selfhood.'

For this special release, Barcelona’s Lapsus and London’s Local Action join forces for the first time in their respective journeys, reflecting the affinity between both platforms and their shared vision of contemporary electronic music.

Spanish producer Notzing joins Alpenglühen with Vermiström, a four-track EP exploring the deeper edges of experimental dance music.
Over the past few years, Notzing has established himself as one of the most compelling voices in Spain's underground techno scene. His sound is stripped back yet immersive, built from hypnotic drones, stretched loops, and subtle rhythmic developments that gradually pull the listener into a trance-like state.
With Vermiström, each of the four tracks unfolds organically, evolving with patience and precision. Intricate, unconventional rhythms intertwine with long-form sequences and richly processed textures, creating a constantly shifting sonic landscape.
What truly defines this EP, however, is its profound sense of depth and its unmistakable dub aesthetic. Every element occupies its own carefully crafted space: textured atmospheres, meticulously sculpted percussion, and syncopated sequences that seem to exist at two different tempos simultaneously. Creative use of delays and spatial effects subtly references the language of Jamaican dub, while an exceptional level of sound design and mixing gives the record remarkable clarity and dynamic range.
Rather than revealing everything at once, Vermiström unfolds gradually. Each listen brings new details to the surface, as subtle shifts in texture, rhythm and space slowly reshape the music from within.

On her debut album Switchbacks, Nashville-based artist Hannah Cole finds inspiration in the image of the switchbacks – sinuous twists in the road that obscure what's ahead. For a young artist making her way in the music industry, it's a powerful image: we can't really know what's ahead for us but – as Cole has learned – you should honk your horn to tell the world you're coming, and otherwise just enjoy the ride. Melding shoegaze and alternative rock with infectious pop melodies and strains of 90s nostalgia, Switchbacks is a commentary on the pursuit of success and how to protect the pure joy and love that lives at our core.

Across the ten tracks of Switchbacks, Cole swings her gaze at many unsettling aspects of the scramble toward success. Lead single "MMA" explores the ugly side of the music industry through the image of Las Vegas. On the brightly off-kilter "Give," she sings, "I feel like I've become an actor, / A TV pastor / climbing up a topless ladder," explaining that "the pursuit of success can feel like buying lottery tickets all the time for money that you'll never see." "Mechanical Bull" seethes with rage as Cole grapples with being seen as just the "girlfriend" in music settings and not being perceived as an equal to her partner, while on "Pitcher," she's paralysed in the face of wanting to achieve perfection. Later, she shrugs off the need to impress on "100 Bucks," reminding herself that she's enough for the people she loves.

Switchbacks is not only a finely-crafted debut album but also a deeply human artifact, tracing an arc that blazes like a comet to the height of ambition and then leaves you in the shimmer of self-acceptance and contentment. "Success is a moment that comes and goes," Cole concludes, "but I think the joy and experience that comes with making music is something I can take with me forever."

When one thinks of the terms “mass” and “massive” in music, especially contemporary music, perhaps certain aural images come to mind: generic metal heaviness; dynamics-bereft noise; ear-battering dance floor madness; the multitudinous forms of drone darkness. All of these are massive in their own fashion. However, this newstudio album from 7FO (pronounced “nana f o”), a composer-performer based in northern Osaka, investigates and inhabits a different aspect of the massive. A glorious combination: dense low frequencies; sculpturally condensed blocks of sound, subtly swinging gravitational fields ― and a surprising sense of rolling and rollicking joyfulness and play. “Massive” doesn’t have to mean “dark” ― consider the sun. This is the third 7FO release on EM Records, following the well-received Ryu no Nukegara (Dragon's Husk) (2018). On these 2024-25 recordings, 7FO focuses his drum machines, synths and musical vision into eight compact structures which were partially inspired by the intense essence of American pre-war blues and the shining soul of traditional Ethiopian music, especially the works related to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. While not obviously evident, the glowing core of these musics has been captured and condensed here; another inspiration is the massive sculptural 1980s works of Yoshi Wada ― although there are obvious differences, there is a similar material tangibility to the vibration of the air. The final piece, “Shirohebi”, is an update of the b-side of 7FO's 7-inch single "Healing Sword" (2023), featured on Henry Rollins’ radio program. We invite you to experience and enjoy these eight massive blocks of sound, imbued with 7FO’s heartfelt warmth and humour, dense but not dark; shifting, rolling, appearing and disappearing: 7FO once picked up a roadside stone, which split as it sat in his palm. This experience, referenced in the release’s title, hints at the metaphysical magic of music, a realm beyond mere coincidence: even the massive density of stone can split, and reveal the magic within. Available on CD, LP and digital download.

Der zweite Teil von Chapter Musics gefeierter australischer Post-Punk-Compilation-Reihe ,Can't Stop It!" erscheint erstmals auf Vinyl als Deluxe-Doppelalbum. Die Compilation wurde ursprünglich 2007 auf CD veröffentlicht und präsentiert eine unglaubliche Auswahl an innovativer und oft bisher unveröffentlichter Musik aus den Jahren 1979 bis 1984. Nun aktualisiert Chapter Music die Compilation mit sechs bisher unveröffentlichten Bonustracks sowie neuen Liner Notes, Fotos und einem neuen Layout. Dies ist eine unglaublich reichhaltige und dynamische Zeit in der australischen Musikgeschichte, eine Zeit, in der Australien aus dem Schatten ausländischer Einflüsse trat und vielleicht zum ersten Mal seine eigene musikalische Identität behauptete. ,Can't Stop It! II" enthält Titel, die mittlerweile zu Meilensteinen der australischen Post-Punk-Geschichte geworden sind, darunter ,Lamborghini" von Severed Heads und den Proto-Oz-Rap-Klassiker ,Do the Job" von Use No Hooks sowie frühe Werke von Künstlern wie Lisa Gerrard von Dead Can Dance und Mark Seymour von Hunters & Collectors. Zu den Bonustracks gehören das verblüffende ,How" von This Five Minutes aus Brisbane, das ,Fool's Gold" von The Stone Roses um mindestens fünf Jahre vorwegnimmt, sowie Tasmaniens eigener Performance-Punk Chainmale mit seinem ausgeflippten ,Freakout". ,Diese Ära der australischen Musik wurde nicht durch einen Sound oder ein Instrument definiert, sondern durch eine anarchische Kreativität" - Stephen Deusner, Uncut

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

In a world increasingly shaped by disposable content, Chat Pile answer with something defiantly real and organic, a mentality that permeates Who Loves The Sun, their third full-length record. Since the band’s formation just over six years ago, the Oklahoma City-based quartet Chat Pile has grown from a scrappy passion project into one of the defining heavy acts to emerge from the 2020s underground. Ray B. (vocals), L. Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass), and Cap’n Ron (drums) create a crushing, crass, and cathartic take on noise rock that captures a raw, undeniably human essence in an age marked by technological overreach and the cold state of society. Nothing about Who Loves The Sun feels synthetic.

Whereas their debut album God’s Country depicted a particularly American flavor of dread, and the follow up Cool World showed a cruel planet defined by global systemic violence, Who Loves The Sun peels the skin back on how collective indifference defines this new century. Spanning imagery of coastlines devouring cities, dead-end jobs, and submission to data-driven inauthenticity, the album dissects the apathy-bloated state of 21st-century existence as a slow-motion apocalypse. As with much of Chat Pile’s work, Oklahoma City itself looms over the album like a character, its sprawling isolation, economic contradictions, and underlying sense of decay embedded in the fabric of the record. The perfect allegory for the thematic essence of Who Loves The Sun is the photo embossed on the record’s cover, where Devon Tower, a glassy, largely vacant monolith, looms high above the Oklahoma City skyline while a burnt-out home or storefront envelops the foreground. The album remains lyrically and sonically confrontational, but Chat Pile approached the songwriting with hooks in mind, drawing on melodic tones of pre-2000s indie rock, alt-rock, and new wave. From the blood-soaked vocal passages of “Christabel ’26” to the eerie trip-hop pulse of “Same Rules,” Who Loves The Sun is deeply human despite its allusions to a dying, divided .

Minions & Monsters is the brand new 2026 installment in the popular Minions franchise. The animated adventure follows the Minions as they find themselves caught up in a world of larger-than-life creatures, unexpected challenges, and the kind of chaotic situations that have made the franchise a global success. The film expands the Minions universe while staying true to the humor and charm that audiences have come to love.

The movie’s original score is composed by Oscar-nominated composer John Powell, whose work on How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda has earned him a place among the most acclaimed composers working in film today. For Minions & Monsters, Powell delivers a lively orchestral score that complements the Minions on their adventure and brings it to life.

Minions & Monsters is available as a limited edition of 1,000 copies on yellow (LP1) and turquoise (LP2) vinyl, and includes a 4-page booklet with liner notes by John Powell.

The acclaimed compilation series returns with volume 4! Fourteen tracks showcasing the most exciting emerging voices in Belgian jazz, ready to claim a permanent spot on your turntable.

The latest instalment in the celebrated compilation series once again shines a spotlight on the most adventurous and forward-thinking artists emerging from Belgium's jazz scene. Curated by Belgian tastemaker, DJ and broadcaster Lefto Early Bird, the collection continues a tradition of uncovering hidden gems and introducing them to a wider audience of dedicated diggers.

Over the years, the Jazz Cats series has become a trusted barometer of Belgium's ever-evolving jazz landscape. Long before many artists gained international recognition, they first appeared on these compilations, making the series both a discovery platform and a snapshot of one of Europe's most exciting musical ecosystems.

Jazz Cats Volume 4 captures a scene bursting with creativity, diversity and ambition. Across fourteen carefully selected tracks, the compilation explores the many directions contemporary Belgian jazz is taking today. Jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, afrobeat, spiritual jazz and experimental sounds coexist effortlessly throughout the collection.

The opening stretch of the compilation, led by Brussels-based Irreversible Entanglements band member Aquiles Navarro, Ola Tunji and HelenaCasella, offers an early glimpse into a scene that rarely stands still. Their music moves freely between traditions and contemporary influences, reflecting less concern with preserving genres than expanding them. Artists such as Lupo Spaccaro and Kunde, joined here by the raw soul voice of Fred Gata, draw inspiration from hip-hop and contemporary beat culture, yet neither approaches these influences in a conventional way. Instead, they reveal how naturally these sounds have become part of the vocabulary of a new generation of jazz musicians.

Experimentation emerges as another defining thread. KVR and BREAD FOR PIGEONS embrace unpredictability through unexpected textures, shifting atmospheres and confident compositional choices, creating music that constantly challenges expectations. Elsewhere, artists like Gaiko and VLIEGWERK favor immersive soundscapes that reward repeated listening. Whether there's a connection between musical adventurousness and a preference for capital letters remains a question for future research.

At the heart of the compilation lies a strong sense of movement and groove. Ragini Trio and Foutloos approach that rhythm from different angles, yet both build their music around powerful, pulsating foundations. Their tracks need close attention, revealing layers of detail and low-end richness that practically demand to be experienced on a proper sound system.

By the time it reaches its closing chapter, Lucid Lucia, SLAGADER and Kuna Maze bring the focus back to forward motion. Jazz and funk-infused grooves provide a fitting finale, reminding us that however far these artists push the jazz genre, they never lose sight of its ability to connect, uplift and move people.

The result is a body of work that feels remarkably cohesive despite its diversity: a portrait of a scene that continues to evolve through curiosity, collaborationand constant reinvention.

The late Matt Watts was an American songwriter/storyteller and performer from Montana residing in Antwerp and Brussels, Belgium. He ws the son of a catholic priest and mother with Cherokee roots in the Carolinas.

He first began using the electric organ to write songs and also recording them on cassettes when he was 11 years old. When he was 13 his mother bought him an electric guitar from a pawn shop in South Carolina. Using a karaoke machine as an amplifier, he began writing and performing and recorded his first album at age 15 in a small studio in Great Falls, Montana.In addition to writing and performing his own music, he began performing and touring with various local Punk & Noise bands.

In 2007 when he was 19, he moved to Antwerp, Belgium. Since his arrival he has worked and performed with Zita Swoon Group, become a member of Rudy Trouvé's I H8 Camera, translated Simon Allemeersch and Rudy Trouvé’s critically acclaimed piece SCREEN into English, formed The Calicos (now Humo’s Rock Rally winners under Quinten Vermaelen) as a one time backing band, worked with many artists and songwriters (including Emillina Torini & The Colorist, The Love Substitutes, ..) and toured and released various widely acclaimed solo albums and a duo album with Nicolas Rombouts on Starman Records.

Highlights for sure were “How Different It Was When You Were There” (2017 - **** De Standaard), produced by Nicolas Rombouts (ex-Dez Mona) and featured guest performances by Nathalie Delcroix and Bjorn Eriksson (Eriksson Delcroix) and Stef Kamil Carlens. Its excellent successor “Queens” (produced by Stef Kamil Carlens and Nicolas Rombouts) featured a.o. the late Sandy Dillon and Jim White.

Sadly Matt Watts passed away too soon in June 2024. “Restless Kind” is the final album readied shortly before his death in a production by Bai Kamara Jr. Another astonishing collection of intimate Americana songs with lyrics as fascinating miniature novels.

“Ruins are the style of our future cities, future cities are themselves ruins.” - Izosaki Arata

A note from Lawrence English: Nostalgia is not an ideology, though in this moment, we could be mistaken for thinking it might be just that. Over the past years, the idea of nostalgia has been filtered through various political and technological lenses and has become a tool used for forgetting, rather than remembering. Instead of embracing histories’ complexities and inconsistencies, this version of nostalgia seeks only singular recollection. This contemporary phenomenon of nostalgia has become a methodology at best, and a weapon at worst, used to erode the past and project forward a collapsed and unimaginably sanitised version of things, places, and ways of being from former times. It’s this projection that sees it playing a mounting role in a social pathology associated with reducing the imagined possibilities of future.

The Rest Is My Ghost is a record that interrogates the manifestations of this reductive futuring and celebrates those that have tried (and failed), and those who continue to push back against decayed and revisionist positions. It’s a record that considers the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures.

In recent times, I’ve proposed a term for this weaponised use of nostalgia, something I have called Acid Nostalgia. I offer it as a shorthand to describe the de-contouring of the future through a corrosive fixation on a flatten rendering of the preceding times. It is, in part, a certain type of lazy cultural scripting where tropes of the past are presented in the absolute, as empty pictorials; photocopies without any original from which to draw actual meaning, or useful detail.

Acid Nostalgia describes an increasingly common political projection of nostalgia that exists without any subjective connection to the memory surrounding and contained within it. Like acid poured onto a surface, this use of nostalgia seeks to erodes and smooth out the complexity and texture of lived connection and longing, which has until recently guided contemplations of nostalgia. Acid Nostalgia instead erases the texture of histories and de-contours the past, and in doing so dematerialises the horizon of possibility, which by its very nature marks the beginning point for any (and all) imaginable futures. Acid Nostalgia is a dreamless screen, where uncertainty, restlessness and aspiration are subjected to corrosion, breaking down and neutralising the wellspring of futures which are birthed from within the ambiguously charged, complex and at times chaotic atmospheres of the present.

The Rest Is My Ghost is not however some universal reading of these things and happenings. Rather it draws its breath from a very personal pathway carved through my own fraught experiences of nostalgia and framed through a disparate collage of chance encounters, situations, places and provocations. It takes oblique notes from civic and architectural references such as Japan’s Metabolist movement, Hong Kong’s ‘one line sky’ and Los Angeles’s vanished Sodium Vapour lights. It interpolates texts – factual and fictional – by authors such as Franco Berardi, Kate Crawford, JG Ballard, Katsuhiro Otomo, Mark Fisher and Alexei Yurchak who have each so wonderfully sought to rupture the familiarity of now, and push us towards other ways of imaging ourselves, our surroundings and our very ways of being in this world.

I also owe a debt of thanks to Adam Curtis in helping launch what has become this edition. It was his provocation, in a conversation we shared about an overwhelming and profound sense of uncertainty around being able to predict the immediate future and how to respond to that, which sparked the earliest inklings of this edition.

The Rest Is My Ghost is ultimately a record about the promise of constructions and connections to come, material, social and political. It's a record that accepts the fragility of failure as a source of ultimate potential, and a position from which the deepest freedom of imagination might be sought and summoned forth to conjure even the most unimaginable, (but) possible futures.

Manonmars’ 3rd album sees him at his most amorphous and psychedelic, at points sharper and laser focused, and at others more blurred and impressionistic than his previous records. Many of the core players remain the same, all of the production is once again handled by O$VMV$M (the duo of Neek and Amos Childs of Jabu) while Paulina Korobkiewicz (also of Young Echo) makes a return handling both the album’s cover artwork and contributing a series of diaristic field recordings and voice notes.

‘The project references movies, cartoons, fictional characters and video games, among other things. The album title is open to interpretation but all of these elements are forms of visual entertainment which have their own unique ability to transcend things like language barriers and cultural divides. The visual element is key because those details bridge the gap on a communicative level.’ - Manonmars

The album blends abstract, blurred braggadocio with more immediate personal details such as on ‘Volcanic Shield’ a posse cut of sorts featuring Bristol improv luminary Dali de Saint Paul and Franco Franco (½ of cyborg rap duo Kinlaw & Franco Franco) - where Mars recalls;

‘Memories of brighter days, happy meal hit the spot
Mum was spinning vinyl playing Super Ape or Pressure Drop
I would spend the weekend with the Turkish mandem on the block
single parent household, mum was studying or on the job
money came and went always was an on and off
made it back from school time to see what’s on the box’


The beat fades away to leave one of Korobkiewicz’s recordings of Mars’ mum talking about her life in London in the 80s, spending her money on reggae records as an ambient chord fades in like an echo of a jungle intro – stretching out as a link between generations of UK music.

The production by and large is brighter and more kinetic than earlier Manonmars records – with O$VMV$M drawing on everything from modern underground rap and drill through to jazz and acid ambient passages.

London is also a central character here, bustling and constantly shifting, either when bleeding in through field recordings, or as an ever-present backdrop in the lyrics;

‘I’m a fusion of Tippa Irie and Topper Harley
Hit the target like the black Atari
I dropped a tab now shit’s A Scanner Darkly
Got the munchies, Imma yam a sarnie
Pour the Wray and Ting like man at Carni
Exit Peckham Rye and turn left, walk past Hannah Barry
Get your (w)raps up like its January’

‘I've always considered London my home, despite spending some time in the South West of England too. My mum had been living in London for 25 years (...) That was a pretty big deal in some ways because it removed us from multicultural society during the period which overlapped with my teenage years. (...) I never got used to how quiet it was in the countryside (...) Bristol was the closest city to where we lived and it was through travelling there and making connections that I became involved in making music and playing gigs.’ - Manonmars

Mars’ practice as a painter (under his given name Jack Martyn Richardson) and photographer also loom heavy over the album, he cites Paul Verhoeven, Abdul Mati Klariwein and H.R Giger as influences – as well as Miles Davis, Drakeo the Ruler and DJ Rashad.

As with much of Richardson’s work the raps at times feel blurred to a point of almost inscrutability, creating a distance between the audience and himself. A process that ties into his visual work and the way he experiences the world as mainly abstract colour without his glasses. He explores this further in an ongoing visual collaboration with Korobkiewicz, ‘Fun and Games’ which serves as a visual archive of one of London's largest and oldest travelling fairgrounds.

‘I was diagnosed with very severe short-sightedness at the age of seven. I remember my early formative years as visually blurred. Some of my photography reflects this experience of partial vision and uncertainty, referencing memory and perception rather than fixed representation.’

Manonmars’ first public outing as a rapper was at a Young Echo radio event, broadcast shambolically from a practice room just off Jamaica street, Bristol in 2011, as much as things have moved on both stylistically and in terms of focus - strong links back to the city remain a key foundation throughout the collaborations and guest appearances.

‘I have no problem with being an outsider looking in. One of the things I enjoy about London is the anonymity (...) it's easy to be a stranger here when so much is happening. I feel like thats more valuable than people may realise.’

2026 Repress
Temudo - Meteora (FUSE06) by Noah Hocker

A leader of the Portuguese wave in techno co-founding Hayes Collective while boasting acclaimed releases on Klockworks, Blueprint, and Soma, Temudo grabs the reins to take club music back to its days of audacity and risk taking. A more than promising up-and-comer turned modern reference, Temudo defends his reputation with a release showcasing depth in his various sonic universes and a deep understanding of his music's history. For its seventh release, Temudo's 'Meteora' is a logical next step for the club's direction - a sweet spot between dancefloor efficiency and enduring aesthetic.

Combining the intrigue of mental soundscapes with the reliability of imposing rhythm, 'Meteora' finds itself collected, expressing effect through restraint. The title track, claiming the EP's A1, is just that - a force of interweaving sound design and powerful micro transitions. Some believe the best techno records are able to express emotion and attitude despite its dissonant and machinelike nature; if that's the case then Temudo has mastered the craft. 'When I Grow Up', however, puts the focus back on the body. What sounds like warbling tape modulation over a percussive lead makes this record an addictively delirious ride from start to finish, fitting in with the track before while shifting to different priorities. Proving his versatility, 'Vrthng' at first seems reminiscent of the minimal Berlin style with a higher pace, but quickly progresses into something intensely euphoric. With experience and measure, an out of the box approach can really pay off, and the added emotion in 'Vrthng' is certainly a turning point in the EP. This mindset is clearly carried over in the project's conclusion : 'It's Always Past'. A surprising use of harmony and storytelling, this final chapter ends with Temudo sealing his style with confidence. The track is mystified by its chords, ending 'Meteora' with a question mark that leaves us in anticipation for what Temudo dares to do next.

New Japanese Ambient Electronica from Tokyo

Composing primarily with the piano, Kotaro Maruyama creates music for a variety of visual media, including commercials and short films. Influenced by the composer Toru Takemitsu, he places importance on the “silence” and "ambience" of sound, aiming to create works where the music quietly depicts a scene.

Kotaro Maruyama's first solo album, "Vapor Curve," is constructed entirely from the sound source of the OP-Z digital synthesizer. Notably, he avoids the concept of harmony for a single tone, instead pursuing a unique "woven harmony" created by intricately layering multiple independent melodies. Using only the OP-Z, and recording everything in a single take without using a computer, Kotaro Maruyama's "Vapor Curve" is distinguished by its uncompromising production style. The minimalist melodies that are layered to create an ambient soundscape, along with the incidental noise that gives an organic texture to the inorganic electronic sound, showcase the raw appeal of sound that is imperfect."

Originally scheduled for release September 2025, this album faced delays due to a series of errors involving the distributor, pressing plant, and cutting engineer. However, earlier this year, Personal Affair teamed up with a new distributor, Rubadub, who introduced them new pressing plant, allowing them to restart the entire pressing process from scratch. Emerging from Tokyo via Glasgow, this release is now ready to deliver a fresh sound to the world."

OOZ proudly presents the sixth instalment on the label with Nate Oldfield’s inaugural solo EP. Informed by minimalist techno and intuitive modes of machine music – made predominantly with hardware – Nate puts forth a record that feels as though it’s dancing out of the shadows and into the light. Eery chords and vocals are paired with sharp percussive rhythms by a producer that seems to revel in the play of music-making. At points stark and almost plaintive, the depth of feeling throughout the record is contrasted by the playful nature of how sound is manipulated. Grooves plod along to cold, melodic chimes, guitar plucks and a discussion about walking through Danson Park near Nate’s hometown of Abbey Wood, South-east London.

Big Crown Records is proud to present the debut full length offering from Les Imprimés, Rêverie. The stirring and ethereal sounds of Les Imprimés have been making fans of anyone who hears them since their first 7" single hit the speakers. Morten Martens is the man behind the band. Born, raised, and working in Kristiansand, Norway, he keeps a low prole while making his heart felt, highly infectious, and unique music. This album is a long time coming for Martens and it is sure to make him a name to be reckoned with. The first thing you notice listening to Les Imprimés is the high level of musician-ship. Martens plays nearly every instrument on the recordings and handles the production and arranging. He has been making records for decades, winning a Spellemann Award (aka, the Norwegian Grammy) in 2006 for producing a HipHop album as well as getting nominations across three other genres. While awards and accolades speak to the level of his talent, this new album really shows who he is an artist on his own terms. Moving away from being a hired gun on the touring scene naturally led him to start doing more studio work. Slowly collecting gear and getting more experi-ence behind the boards he built his own studio on the island of Odderoya and was making a living playing with and recording other people's music. As the story goes, after those sessions would end he would work on his own project into the wee hours of the night. From these late night sessions, Les Imprimés was born and Rêverie began to take shape. However, "it wasn't until COVID, when things locked down, that I was really able to nd the time to focus on Les Imprimés" Morten says about creating and leading his own solo project. "It was a scary time. But I knew I had to do something with it." He took the sum of his inuences, combined them with his own vibe and got busy writing the music, playing the instruments, and singing the songs. "It's soul music, but I don't exactly have the soul voice," Morten explains humbly. "But I do it my own way, in a way that's mine. "It is his sound, his fingerprint, his sensibility, that makes his music hard to put in a box. The album showcases both Martens' range and his ability to make a cohesive album. The lead single "Falling Away" starts with a raw drum break and turns into a lushly arranged tune that paints the picture of love when it slips away. On "Still Here" he professes his resilience through life's twists and turns over a thundering track that puts a new spin on the B side ballad genre. Songs like "You" and "Our Love" mix tones from 60s and 70s Soul with arrangement nods to Doo Wop records while Martens' lyrics and delivery leave you singing the melodies long after they finish. "Love & Flowers" finds Martens in a moment of clarity with a song that ts the niche sub genre of happy break up tunes, the four on the floor track will move the dancefloor or while the message will resonate with anyone who put too much effort into the wrong situation in their lives. However, it is songs like "Muse" and "Chess" that really encapsulate the uniqueness of Les Imprimés as they push the boundaries of genre, one a profession of love for music and the other a cover of an electronic record respectively. Martens' lyrics, emotion, and delivery truly make the whole thing come together and stand out from any of his peers. There's an infectiousness and a pop sensibility in the writing that is done with the utmost class and taste giving Les Imprimés the rare quality of immediate attraction that only deepens the more you listen.

LIMITED THIRD PRESS. 300 ONLY CLEAR VINYL WITH RED BLOOD SPLATTER, HOUSED IN A RED AND METALLIC SILVER SLEEVE.

The Swedish underground legends return with a brand new album. Let this reddit user take over …
“Listening to Brainbombs has been one of my weirdest experiences with music. Brainbombs are most definitely a band. I guess at the core they’re a hardcore punk/noise rock hybrid I guess? But… It's so unlike anything I’ve ever heard and I still don’t know if it's good or bad. I saw the edgelord Ed Gein album cover, and it intrigued me, so I listened to their biggest song and it was easily THE WORST thing I had EVER FUCKING HEARD. I shut it off as soon as it got to the vocals. I was shocked by the fact that it had almost a half million streams. But, a few hours later, I clicked on it again and didn’t know why.
Over the past few days, I’ve listened to all of their discography and looped a lot of it. And I don’t even think I like them. The music is abysmal, it's the same single riff and verse repeating for 5 minutes. To make it worse, the vocals are just a guy with a swedish accent awkwardly talking about murder and rape. That sounds awful right? It is awful. But at the same time I want to keep listening? It’s so childishly edgy and obnoxiously repetitive but so.. intriguing? Catchy? I’m not even sure. It's one of if not the weirdest experience I’ve ever had with music and I don’t know how to feel about it.”

What is Buck? Buck is a state of mind, a way of life, a demeanor that gets you through the good times and the bad. If you ask Brainstory, It is also the energy that permeates their debut album. Kevin, Tony, and Eric are a trio of brothers bounded by blood, fate, and a small town with nothing to do. Their story begins in the long lost lands of the San Bernardino Valley, in the twilight zone known as Rialto, California: An arid wasteland of boredom and empty lots. Through punk rock and skateboarding they found temporary liberation from the local monotony. However, it wouldn't be long before a hunger for more led them to explore musical realms beyond that of the hardcore punk they admired. After stints at music school and steady disappointment trying to navigate their local jazz scene they moved to Los Angeles and Brainstory was born. Through a introduction from Chicano Batman's bassist, Brainstory caught the ears of Big Crown head honchos Danny Akalepse and Leon Michels. Shortly thereafter they were on their way to Queens, to record at The Legendary Diamond Mine with Michels at the helm. An instant chemistry yielded 10 songs in 10 days and now Brainstory has gifted the world with one hell of an introduction to all things Buck. Highlights include the sublime slow burner, "Dead End" which was the A-side to their first 45 on Big Crown that sold out in a matter of days. With Kevin's sublime falsetto floating atop Tony and Eric's unflappable and unmistakable backbeat, this tune has become a favorite with the ballad heads, the low-riders, and the slowie collectors. "Breathe" showcases another side of their sound taking a page out of the Shuggie Otis playbook and flipping the script with some stoned out west coast swag. Kev and Tony's father, Big Tone, an accomplished performer himself, steps in on "Peter Pan" to sing lead vocals over a chorus of friends and family. Bassist extraordinaire, Tony, takes over lead vocal duties on "Sorry", a smoked out, G Funk groove that is just waiting to be sampled. These guys have come a long way from their self released EPs and opening tours with Chicano Batman. Their musical growth is undeniable, and taking their California sunshine vibes and mixing them with Michels' NYC aesthetic has proven to be an amazing combination. It's a debut record that pulls influences from so many genres seamlessly it's hard to nail down. Call it Funk, call it Rock, call it Soul, but over here at Big Crown HQ, we've decided to call it BUCK.

John Tchicai (1936 – 2012) was one of the most important free improvising saxophonists of the 20th Century: an artist of rare vision and aptitude whose lines soared and stood out even in the most hallowed company, and whose body of work as a leader / composer is among the most singular and distinct within the entire canon of that music. But Tchicai’s importance doesn’t end there. Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a Danish mother and a Congolese father, his life and career represent a crucial bridge between the European and American traditions of free jazz. Initially trained on violin as a child, Tchicai shifted his focus to the clarinet and alto saxophone during his mid-teens, and began touring Europe as a professional musician by his early 20s, which landed him at a socialist youth festival in Helsinki, Finland, where he met the trumpeter Bill Dixon and saxophonist Archie Shepp. Impressed by what they heard, Dixon and Shepp encouraged the young saxophonist to move to New York, and in so doing changed the history of jazz forever.

Tchicai’s arrival in New York marks the rare occurrence of a European player joining the intimate circle that was first wave of American free jazz. Following his landing in the city in November of 1962, in addition to regularly sitting in with Don Cherry’s group, Tchicai began playing with Bill Dixon's band alongside Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd, forming the nucleus of the foundation of the New York Contemporary Five - one of the most important groups of the era - which counted Tchicai, Shepp, Cherry, Don Moore, and J. C. Moses as its members. From the ashes of this group, Tchicai would go on to found the legendary ensemble, New York Art Quartet, with Roswell Rudd, Milford Graves, and Lewis Worrell, as well as working within Albert Ayler's band, recording “New York Eye and Ear Control”, Shepp’s band, recording “Four for Trane”, the ensemble that recorded John Coltrane's “Ascension”, and the Jazz Composer's “Orchestra”.

By the time he decided to return to Denmark in 1966, had Tchicai chosen to record little else, his legacy within the history of music would have been ensured. Incredibly ambitious, his arrival home marked the beginning of an incredible period of activity which saw him radically expanding his creative explorations, which by the end of the decade would include becoming a founding member of Amsterdam's Instant Composers Pool and helping to record John Lennon and Yoko Ono's “Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions”. This, however, was proceeded the formation of a new orchestra, Cadentia Nova Danica, led by Tchicai, dedicated to radical cross-disciplinary exploration. Remaining together between 1966 and 1971, the group and its shifting membership regularly fell into collaboration with artists and composers, notably Musica Elettronica Viva, who existed beyond the realms of jazz, as well as participating within multi-media events that incorporated the visual realms.

Cadentia Nova Danica’s only two LPs - “Cadentia Nova Danica” (Polydor, 1968), and “Afrodisiaca” (MPS, 1969) - are effectively Tchicai recorded efforts as a leader, and are legendary. There’s little mystery, once heard, why the later landed on Thurston Moore’s iconic “Top Ten from the Free Jazz Underground”, published by Grand Royal in 1996. Sadly, despite playing extensively during their five year run, with exception of a CD documenting a performance at Jazzhus Montmartre, in 1966, until now there has been no other publicly available recordings that allow us to capture a glimpse of this astounding band at work. Alga Marghen / Formalibera’s vinyl pressing of a never before released body of recordings, made in Copenhagen between 1969 and 1970, changes that in the most exciting of ways.

Comprising three pieces - “Mc Gub Gub, (I–VIII)”; “Ode to Skt. John”; and “Pladepip” - the material on this stunning LP comes from two specific events. The first, which encompasses the first side, “Mc Gub Gub, (I–VIII)” was recorded by Cadentia Nova Danica - in this instance, Tchicai, Sune Weimar, Theo Rahbek, Christian Kyhl, Niels Holt, Jørgen Thorup, Michael Schou, Morgens Bollerup, Allan Gregersen, Ole Matthiessen, Pierre Dørge, Willy Jaegert, Anthony Barnett, and Jon Finsen - on May 29th, 1969, at the ABC-Theatre in Copenhagen. Penned by Tchicai, the piece is a sprawling, evolutionary composition at the outer reaches of free jazz, rooted in large blocks of colliding tonality and rhythm - a sound only accessible to larger ensembles - that push territories explored by Charles Mingus to previously unimagined heights, threaded by moments of hard blown fire. Writhing like a stormy sea - skronking and devilish - “Mc Gub Gub, (I–VIII)” is a work of profound complexity that singlehandedly illuminates not only Tchicai’s singular vision as a composer, but also the power and uniqueness of Cadentia Nova Danica during the band’s most vital period.

The two pieces - “Ode to Skt. John” and “Pladepip” - taking up the flip side, were recorded on February 21st, 1970, at the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio House, and are the outcome of Cadentia Nova Danica’s extended residency there between 1969 and 1970. In many ways, these two recordings offer some of the best insights into the broad collaborative approaches that defined the band, in this case encountering them working with Danish experimental composer, Svend Erik Werner, who was among the earliest in his country to embrace stylistic pluralism and the use historical forms within a modern context. “Ode to Skt. John” - based on aspects of Gregorian music - was penned by Werner, incorporating heady improvisation by the members of Cadentia Nova Danica, this time made up by Tchicai, Sune Weimar, Hugh Steinmetz, Theo Rahbek, Christian Kyhl, Michael Schou, Morgens Bollerup, Ole Kühl, Torben Enghoff, Mauritz Tchikai, Kjeld Ipsen, Willy Jaegert, Ole Matthiessen, Ole Thilo, Pierre Dørge, Steffen Andersen, Jon Finse, and Clause Bøje. The piece is a fascinating binary of the composed and improvised, utilising the band’s large scale to introduce a remarkable sound within its slow progressions and furious, driving free moments, in this incredible meeting of worlds.

The album’s final piece, “Pladepip”, is arguably its most historically significant: an entirely singular piece, unlike anything in Tchicai’s recorded canon as his foray into musique concréte. Drawing upon two recordings of full-band improvisations by Cadentia Nova Danica, for its creation Tchicai also gouged the surfaces of 78rpm records in his collection to skip and create repeated phrases and patterns, creating a stunning sound collage of hard angles and abrupt phrase, that creates a striking counterpoint to the band’s flowing improvisations that bookend those passages. The result is an engrossing listen and easily one of the most unique and culturally important gestures in the entire history of musique concréte.

Truly incredible, Alga Marghen / Formalibera’s vinyl pressing of this never before released body of recordings, made by John Tchicai’s Cadentia Nova Danica, in Copenhagen between 1969 and 1970, offers an unprecedented window into one of the most important groups working in Europe during that period, significantly expanding their rare and slim discography to date. Accompanied by extensive exploratory liner notes by veteran jazz writer, Ed Hazell, this is easily one of the most historically important archival releases of the year and is impossible to recommend enough. Absolutely essential on every count.

South Coast artist Howman lands back on DNO Records for his second outing, ‘Trap Eastwood’. First introducing his heavyweight fusion of rock, hip-hop, dubstep and electronica via his outstanding 2023 debut, ‘Moon Operator’, the multi-instrumentalist and producer returns with a refined palette. Still bearing the first class musicality, rich layering and imaginative sonics that we’ve come to expect, the new EP is more stylistically focused than its predecessor. This time, Howman homes in on a spot somewhere in the 140/dubstep/trap sphere, decorating it with digital fizz, alien bleeps, snarling bass, and the signature gruff twang of guitar that makes his music feel deeply personal and eternally human.

The title track is perhaps the most prominent example of the latter, where Howman’s Western-esque riff conjures up the tension before a duel at high noon, while the bend and wobble of each string shapes the movement of the track like the curves of a rattlesnake.
But it’s a constant from the start, like on opener ‘Strip Search’, with its cinematic guitar intro, and combination of repetitive keys, earnest strings and bear-hug bass that nods to classic hip-hop.
Or closer ‘Fatigue’, where the layers of stuttering plucks, emotive melody and scratchy slide noises form a downtrodden soundscape plagued by police sirens and punctured by “Champion Sound” snippets.
On ‘Navigator’, Howman’s approach is more subtle: fluttering strums and a simple bassline creating a brooding, enigmatic vibe in stark contrast to the urgent, alarm-like stabs which first grip the attention.

Throughout there is an overriding sense of the unknown. ‘No Spring’ weaves drawn-out flute notes, tinkling percussion, super-massive 808 lows and spurts of breakbeat into a twisting, winding thing that wants to lure and enchant. While ‘Frosty’ is as ice cold as its name suggests, murderous bass meeting a spidery piano melody in dread-inducing matrimony — along with snatched words from some familiar faces outside a Berlin edition of THE MINE.

Produced between 2022 and 2025 across various locations, influenced by Howman having to move into more solo live performance (as opposed to his previous band setups), and miraculously surviving a catastrophic data loss incident, the EP is a snapshot of disruption focused into creative cohesion. We’ve been told, however, that it’s not a new direction or a sign of things to come, which only serves to make his next release that much more enticing, that much more of a mystery.

Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.

The compositions recorded here are a product of work with computers in synthetic speech, song and vocal sounds and were created between 1972 and 1975. The music was realized on two different computer music systems and takes advantage of, and attempts to extend and explore their features. The system employed to realize speech songs was created at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for research in synthetic speech and speech communication. Since the system was not designed for musical purposes, its limitations were severe and its musical use a great (and often rewarding) challenge. The system used for In Celebration and The Story of Our Lives was designed with the expressed purpose of creating synthetic musical voices, and was therefore much better suited to the task at hand. As with any high technology project, there was extensive collaboration in the production of the works.

The works on this disk are called computer music because the sounds were created numerically in a computer before reaching magnetic tape and loudspeakers. The computer did not compose the music. However, it was only used as a sound synthesis and analysis medium. In order to hear the sounds which are represented in the computer as successions of numbers it was necessary to attach a digital-to-analogue converter to the computer. The converter transformed the succession of numbers into a fluctuating voltage which was recorded directly on to audio tape.

The technique used to create the synthetic voices is called speech synthesis-by-analysis. For this method of speech synthesis, only those words, phrases and sentences which have been spoken into the computer previously (via an analogue-to-digital converter) may be synthesized. First the digitally-recorded speech is analyzed by programs which extract the attributes (parameters) of the speech for short time segments (.01 sec.). From these parameters the speech may be recreated in a form which resembles the original recording very closely. But for musical purposes the parameters are most often altered before synthesis. It is possible, for example, to change the natural pitch contour of the speech into a melodic line or to change the speech speed without altering the natural pitch level.

The variety of musical patterns which may be created from the analytic parameters is limited only by the composer's imagination. Most of the speech sounds on the recording were created by changing the pitch and duration attributes of the original on resynthesis, but for a few, the resonances (the formants) of the speech were altered as well. The voice of the book in The Story of Our Lives was created by replacing the program which simulates the sound of the human vocal cords with one consisting of 64 sine tones glissandoing at different rates. All the textures in which more than one voice is heard were obtained by mixing the synthetic voices together digitally.

This Summer has never looked so bleak. Along with news of the album, Kulk have also released their new video single 'An Endless Kife': "An Endless Knife is about growing up. When we're younger, sometimes it feels like we're invincible. Like everyone we know and love are constant parts of the universe. When that reality is shattered, it changes how we see the world. You come to realise we are all just a couple of bad days from the worst. At the same time, it feels devastating. It reminds us to look after each other" - Kulk The band have toured across the UK extensively the past few years, playing amongst bands such as Part Chimp, Hey Colossus, Crowbar, Melt Banana, Iress, Big Brave, Gnoomes, Conan and Portrayal of Guilt... to name a few! They have toured twice with PigsX7, including shows at Electric Ballroom (London) and Rock City (Nottingham) and have appeared at the renowned UK festivals Arctangent and Desertfest