quête:idea 6

Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious ‘If I Knew What I Know Now’ and ‘The World Is Wrong’ are examples of Vice Squad’s ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, ‘Battle of Britain’, showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent ‘If I Knew What I Know Now’, followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister ‘Out of Reach’. Next up is the visceral ‘Get A Life’, an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic ‘Resurrection’. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of ‘Allergy’ underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime ‘Sniffing Glue’, a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. ‘Ordinary Girl’ is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. ‘The World Is Wrong’ is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It’s always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, ‘Citizen’, and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal ‘Scarred For Life’. ‘Voice of the People’ is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, ‘Freedom of speech is against the law; now we’re all criminals,’ snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. ‘Punk Police’ sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, ‘Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,’ call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, ‘Humane’, and I’m struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome ’Spitfire’ takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into ‘Born In A War’, the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the ‘Last Rockers’, the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.' The four bonus CD tracks kick off with ‘Coward’, another teen Bateman/Bond composition. ‘No You Don’t’ is just over two minutes of vocal acrobatics over a Dexedrine-driven Devo-esque chord sequence, and the frantically brilliant ‘I Dare To Breathe’ from ‘Battle of Britain’ continues the aural assault. Then the final sombre entreaty of ‘You Can’t Buy Back The Dead’ warns us that ‘Enough’s never enough; absolute power will corrupt; the war machine still rumbles on’ before fading into the future.

Formed in Oslo in 1996 by childhood friends Jon- Arne Vilbo & Thomas Andersen
along with Jan-Henrik Ohme (later joined by Mikael Kromer, Lars Erik Asp & Kristian
Torp), Gazpacho have honed their unique sound over a string of critically acclaimed
albums & numerous tours, including several with long-time supporters Marillion.
'March Of Ghosts' was the band's follow-up to 'Missa Atropos', which was released on
Kscope in 2011 along with the live album, 'London'. 'London' was recorded on the
band's European tour & the success of this tour helped provide the genesis for 'March
Of Ghosts', as Jon-Arne explains: "the previous tour gave us lots of inspiration. So, the
week after returning we went straight into the studio to capture whatever came." This
material was then honed, dissected & refned throughout the summer & autumn of
2011 to create a coherent whole.
While 'Missa Atropos' can be viewed as a concept album, 'March Of Ghosts' is much
more as a collection of short tales; "The idea was to have the lead character spend a
night where all these ghosts (dead & alive) would march past him to tell their stories.
They are short stories. They are a March Of Ghosts. They are tales that need to be
told."

Black Vinyl LP. The world has changed, we shouldn't try and pretend otherwise. While we were shut away in isolation our routines shifted, social patterns evolved, and our hopes and dreams were twisted into cobwebs we're still trying to wipe from our fingers. Ziúr tentatively approached this on her last album Antifate, an ambitious and complex hybrid pop fever dream that looked back to a Medieval escapist fantasy as the scent of revolution seemed to hum in the air. But when restrictions were eased, she found herself staring down a discombobulated society that had trapped itself in a spiral of microwaved nostalgia and detached, narcotic repetition. Eyeroll then is Ziúr's musical panacea, a tincture to wake us from our creative slumber and prompt external connection and reflection. It's a polyphonous hex that demands human interaction, and Ziúr's hand-picked alliance of collaborators - Elvin Brandhi, Abdullah Miniawy, Iceboy Violet, Juliana Huxtable, Ledef, and James Ginzburg - each provide distinct voices that together herald a bewildering sonic epoch. Ziúr's palette had to evolve to match the scope of the project, but it was pure necessity that informed the album's defining tone. Recording mostly at night, Ziúr was conscious of the noise she was making so developed a unique way to record organic percussion. Using a set of rototoms - low profile tunable drums - she scratched, scraped and gently tapped the skins to build up the undulating and unstable rhythmic backdrop for each track. It's the first sound we hear on the opener 'Eyeroll', rattling like lost marbles against Elvin Brandhi's primal croaks and screams. And when Brandhi's twisted articulations form words, Ziúr matches the energy with chaotic thuds and serrated blasts of saturated electronics. "I roll the shittiest cigarette," she squeals like she's about to start a mosh pit at Paris's GRM Studios. Without pause, Abdullah Miniawy takes over on 'Malikan', building on the promise of material with Simo Cell, Carl Gari and HVAD with corrosive trumpet blasts and charged, politically incendiary Arabic vocals. Inspired by pre-Islamic poetry and the Qu'ranic chanters he heard growing up in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, he spins labyrinthine stories that cross between the worlds, breaking down physical and spiritual borders simultaneously. Miniawy's scope is expanded even further on his second collaboration, 'If The City Burns I Will Not Run'. "If it rains and the city drowns," he utters over gaseous electronics, "I will not run away, but I will be anxious for the heart of one close to me." After a supple vocal turn from Manchester's Iceboy Violet on 'Move On' and a surreal interlude from poet- DJ-artist-theorist Juliana Huxtable on '99 Favor Taste', Brandhi returns with two more hyperactive collaborations: ,'Nontrivial Differential' and 'Cut Cut Quote'. On the former she slices into Ziúr's skeletal jazz eruptions, screaming and crooning interchangeably, fluxing between the rap battle and the cabaret. The latter is completely different meanwhile, with Brandhi settling into her role as front-woman and groaning dizzying improvised passages that sound like grunge crossed with psychedelic no-wave. Brandhi's spiky musical history has prepared her well for this collaboration; she's a prolific producer and has been using her voice spontaneously since debuting with father-daughter improv duo Yeah You in the mid 2020s. She's found an ideal foil in Ziúr, a producer who matches her restless energy and willingness to bend formality, and leaves an indelible mark on Eyeroll. But the album's most tender moments are from Ziúr herself, who winds the album down on 'Hasty Revisionism', growling over collapsible beats and cascading strings, and comes to an unexpected conclusion with country coda 'Lacrymaturity'. Its feverish amalgamation of country music and euphoric, experimental electronics might seem incongruous at first, but in context with the rest of the album is the only possible conclusion. With Eyeroll Ziúr is making a firm statement about togetherness, humanity, and the renewal of hope when all seems lost. By bringing together such a wide but philosophically harmonic team of collaborators, she's conducted a body of work that speaks to the creative fringe in no uncertain terms. Now's the time to throw away what you think you know, and build bridges you didn't think you need. Now's the time for action. She may have spent her entire career avoiding the solipsistic trappings of "queer art", but by assembling a communal statement that questions so many normative assumptions about music, politics, and beyond, Ziúr has chanced upon her queerest album yet. Cringe? Eyeroll.

There’s something oddly comforting in the idea of a dead star still sending signals — distant, mechanical, yet somehow filled with meaning. Inertia and the whole record, tap into that contradiction: the sensation of being impossibly far from home, yet still drawn toward something vast, unseen, and filled with memory.

Written & produced by Dangkhoa Chau
Mastered by Stefan Betke at Scapemastering
Vinyl pressed at AFG Record Manufacturing
Distributed by Readymade Distribution
Curation & artwork by Severja

Transitioning from the successful 2 Years EP (O Sótão Records, 2023), Tiago Fonseca became an up and coming Producer and DJ based between Lisbon and Porto. On the back of gigs at some of the best clubs in the country, he also transitions from Tiago A.F. to TGZ (sounding Tigz) as his moniker for what’s to come ahead. Long Shape, his latest project, is O Sótão’s first vinyl release, and the first to be delivered with higher standards of professionalism. Learning the trade, the processes, the timeframes, the costs, and having just completed 10 years of existence. A good time to go a bit deeper.

In the summer, Tiago sent me a golden playlist of unfinished projects for a second opinion. The idea for a new record started there, and from the bunch we handpicked a selection that ended up making really a lot of sense for us. We were looking for wet deepness and eternal warm ups, pulling up the fader slowly. An invitation to leave our mental capsules and divert attention towards a seductive bassline cliff-hanging a dream. Progressiveness and jazz. Long shapes and melodies in the last frontier between nostalgia and hope.

To help, we invited Miguel Tenreiro (a.k.a. Gazpa) to master the tracks, with him adding a smooth-extra-delicious pump on the beautiful original elements. Miguel also picked up the title-track for a remix treatment, breaking up the tempo with a hip-hop-electronica finale, sprinkled by a guitar solo from Zé Nuno - another great musician stemming from Mr. Bean’s bar, where we held a residency for the past year.

Long Shape will drop on March 21st. Vinyls might be only available a bit later. It will be a landmark moment for us, being Tiago’s most complete work to date, and a better representation of his rich musical influences, expanding it, as we speak, to another level. It’s also been 10 years for O Sótão, so there’s that too. To sum up, I’m just very glad that Long Shape sounds exactly where we would like to be after all this time, with a quick image of a nite-lit skyscraper cutting into a couple of rocks being dropped in the coolest whiskey glass, and the people warming up to a dream.

Edition of 100 Vinyl 12’’, Cover 3mm spine

One of Romania’s most important composers in the last half-century, Octavian Nemescu (1940-2020) is among the few that were not “part of the system”, managing to survive and compose in a world that felt more and more “empty”, fragile, confused and scarce in prophecies. The mystical approach to his art defines Octavian Nemescu as an essentialist who believed in the power of archetypes in which he found inspiration. His pieces always start from an idea that has spiritual, cosmogonic implications and often involves synthesizers, sounds from nature (buzz of bees) and the “ison” (drone). When defining “meta music” or “imaginary music”, Nemescu was an advocate of looking from above, from the top of the mountain. Silence is very important in his work in order to keep the sound flowing and to reflect on the sound from before, as a space, as a pause for thinking. Nemescu put forward another kind of music: a song that has not yet surfaced through human voice, any musical instrument, orchestra or other electro-acoustic means: an intimate, interior, introverted inner sound that focuses on the individual and the imagination. Imaginary music is a reaction, it comes in contrast to the spectacular, it is anti-show. For him, music had a ritualistic function, it served no cultural purpose.

This 3LP set collects eight pieces for variable ensemble, tape and electronics, composed between 1968 and 2015, selected together with Erica Nemescu, who also mastered the tracks. Most tracks have been previously released on different CD’s but never before on vinyl.

Emotional Rescue completes the series of non-defined reissues where the label licenses an all-time favourite, remasters and then reappraised with new interpretations by contemporary producers for today’s collectors.

After the series started back in 2019 with Hawkwind’s sprawling psychedelic electronics, featuring deep drone mixes by the esteemed digger Cherrystones (ERC074), the bouncing cosmic-Balearics of Thomas Leer with wonderful reworkings by friend and producer Bullion (ERC075) and then the post punk dubs of The Embrace and Timothy J Faiplay’s brooding italo-dub excursions (ERC076), there was always one artist and producer left out. Finally, then the percussive excursion of the early 80s band The Impossible Dreamers and their cult B side jam, Spin, coming with 9 minutes percussion-dub extravaganza of an extended reversion, plus a dub heavy reprise, by label go-to Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys /Noid), under his NAD moniker.

Started by a group of friends while at Exeter University that centered around Caroline Radcliffe, James Hood, Justin Adams and Nick Waterhouse, their debut 12” record is one of just three on the 100 Things To Do label. The other two releases have already been covered with the Hamburger All Stars ‘Swinging London’ 12” (ERC114) of 2022.

Recorded before the move to West London, ‘Life On Earth’ was a raw post punk vocal pop cut, with influences of dub, funk, hip-hop and African music shining through, there were in their own words, “young music fans starting out, with no agenda”.

However, it was on the B side that things got interesting. Enamored by the growing trend of extended 12” singles, they decided, with the A side wrapped up, to have some studio experimentation by recording a drumming jam, with all the members playing percussion, followed by some overdubbing. Memories are hazy, but at the time the band was an 8-piece, so the results a chaotic explosion, capturing the essence of that time. Featuring Nick and James on 4 hand piano, plus Caroline on Oboe, with some additional hollering and wooping vocals, Spin was a 5-minute burst of energy.

In effect, self-released in 1982, the band didn’t expect much to come of it, but the 12” acted as a calling card leading them to London and later signing for RCA. At the same time, Spin was being discovered in the early eighties alternative club world. On a trip to New York, the track was heard being played Downtown, and on enquiring it was discovered the DJ was playing a 7” that was never an official release but cut in the US solely for the club DJs there.

Its resonance extended further, to Italy and the Cosmic club of the resident, an ever-searching Danielle Baldelli, before being picked up a few years later by a young Andrew Weatherall during his pursuit of an alternative “Balearic” beat during the late eighties Summers of Love and has even recently received the Joe Clausell edit treatment back again in NYC.

For the remake to fit the label series, it was only right to ask label friend Dan Tyler to do what he does so well, putting the original through his array of dub machines and pedals, extending and cutting with aplomb to create an incendiary ‘Reversion’ that will send dancefloors literally in a spin. Teasing the percussion incandescent, looping and teasing, the piano held back before finally releasing in a haze of dub effects.

This is followed by the ‘Riddim Reprise’. Working with London based drummer Matt Bruce (Claptrap), this is the perfect DJ tool, taking the original idea of the band, to just jam see what happens, twisting it full of space echo and reverb, to offer a perfect 12” Extended Mix.

David Douglas and Applescal both share a deep passion for the road. In the summer of 2023, they decided to come together to write a track. Full of inspiration and atmospheric ideas, this evolved from a rough concept into a collection of tracks. What initially began as an idea for a single track quickly grew into the full-fledged electronic album 'Démarrage'.

*People Like Us, the project of artist Vicki Bennet returns to Discrepant with a special vinyl release of "COPIA". This album marks the first new musical material since "The Mirror" in 2018, delving into the profound realms of existential collage and sampling, celebrating these forms as expressions of timeless connectivity.
* The title "COPIA," meaning 'abundance' and 'copy,' reflects the essence of collage and sampling - art created not in isolation, but as a connective thread through time and space, linking ideas across generations in a seamless tapestry.
* By reconfiguring preexisting sounds and images, Bennet highlights the non-dual nature of creation — where distinctions between past, present, and future possibilities blur, revealing a shared foundation beneath. The album marks a return to not just solo works but collaborations with notable artists.
* Drawing from the new People Like Us live AV performance, "The Library of Babel," sampling and edited sound collage, electronic music, combined with Ergo Phizmiz's lyrics and melodies, "COPIA" weaves and recombines a timeless blend of diverse elements that transcends traditional musical boundaries. This creative process unfolded through the exchange of multitracks across both water and ether. Collaborating with the voices, instruments and editing timelines of Matmos, Hearty White, Gwilly Edmondez, Lotte Bowater, Buttress O’Kneel, Douglas Benford, Irene Moon, Jon Leidecker, and Matt Warwick, the work evolved exquisite corpse-style.

“Bennett has proven herself an alchemist of popular music, able to push her source material into fresh and engaging places. Where some artists hack existing instruments and technologies to create their new sounds, Bennet has circuit-bent the songs themselves.” - Spenser Tomson, The Wire Magazine

Motel d'amour - A Lost Electro-Funk Gem from the NDW Era Resurfaces

When we first collaborated with Collage member Markus Kammann on the EP project "Mit den Puppen tanzen" at the end of last year, we never imagined what would follow: Kammann approached us with a completely unreleased full-length album by his former band. Upon receiving the first three preview tracks, we were floored. One of them was "Nachtcafé" - a track that kicks off with a funky bassline layered over the punchy rhythm of a Roland TR-808. Add shimmering synths and Katrin A. Kunze's sharp, distinctive vocals, and we instantly knew we were hearing something special.

For a label dedicated to rediscovering lost treasures, this was exactly what we'd been searching for. The next two tracks - "Rendezvous" and "Casanova" - were just as compelling. When Kammann sent us the full album, we realized we were holding an electro-funk grail from the late golden days of the German Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW). We were listening to "Motel d'amour".

"Motel d'amour" is a concept album, offering a sharp, vibrant perspective from a confident, intelligent, and radiant young woman eager to experience nightlife, love, and music. Kunze's lyrics paint vivid scenes of flirtation ("Nachtcafé", "Rendezvous"), encounters with men ("Casanova"), the pulse of nightlife ("Die Nacht ist noch jung"), love ("Rotes Licht für rote Liebe"), one-night stands ("Motel d'amour"), and more. Rarely has a German album from that era captured emotional nuance and social dynamics so insightfully. Without veering into the overly personal, Kunze's direct, daring lyrical style was groundbreaking at the time - and remains refreshingly bold today.

While German listeners will fully appreciate the lyrical depth, the music speaks volumes on its own. Kunze's words are masterfully complemented by the production of Markus Kammann and Jürgen Grah. As heard on the in-demand "Mit den Puppen tanzen", their creativity seemed boundless. Each track is tightly composed, catchy, and full of character. While many German bands at the time leaned into rock, Kammann drew from the deep grooves of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers, Brothers Johnson, The Commodores, and the electro-futurism of Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" and "Looking for the Perfect Beat". The result: tracks with unmistakable electro-funk flair, powered by the classic 808 drum sound.

Though primarily rooted in funk and electro, the album retains flashes of NDW aesthetics - "Wir haben getanzt heut' Nacht" being a prime example. The instrumentation is a dream list for vintage gear lovers: Yamaha keyboards, Roland Juno-60, vocoder, Micromoog, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Fender bass, and a Telecaster guitar all feature prominently.
Recorded in 1985 at the high-profile Delta Studio by Richard Rossbach, the album attracted interest from Polydor. However, the label proposed using the compositions for a solo project with singer Inga Humpe (of Neonbabies), who was already signed to their roster. This would have required replacing Kunze as the vocalist, an idea the group firmly rejected. As a result, "Motel d'amour" was shelved, and Kammann, Grah, and Kunze moved on to form Cold End.
The album cover features a rare archival photo of Katrin A. Kunze - rediscovered by Kammann and now finally seeing the light of day, 40 years later.

We believe Motel d'amour deserves recognition alongside cult German classics like P!OFF?, 1. Futurologischer Congress' "Wer spricht?", Ami Marie's "Verrückt nach Glück", the funkier cuts of Cosa Rosa, or Piet Klocke's groove classic "Heute ist nicht sonst". It's a record that fits into adventurous DJ sets but also rewards a full, start-to-finish listen.

A note on audio quality: Sadly, the original master tapes were lost. The tracks were restored from a vintage TDK cassette. Thanks to modern digital tools, we were able to remaster them to a high standard - but in some songs light distortions remain. We appreciate your understanding and hope you enjoy this lost and undiscovered gem.

Motel d'amour - A Lost Electro-Funk Gem from the NDW Era Resurfaces

When we first collaborated with Collage member Markus Kammann on the EP project "Mit den Puppen tanzen" at the end of last year, we never imagined what would follow: Kammann approached us with a completely unreleased full-length album by his former band. Upon receiving the first three preview tracks, we were floored. One of them was "Nachtcafé" - a track that kicks off with a funky bassline layered over the punchy rhythm of a Roland TR-808. Add shimmering synths and Katrin A. Kunze's sharp, distinctive vocals, and we instantly knew we were hearing something special.

For a label dedicated to rediscovering lost treasures, this was exactly what we'd been searching for. The next two tracks - "Rendezvous" and "Casanova" - were just as compelling. When Kammann sent us the full album, we realized we were holding an electro-funk grail from the late golden days of the German Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW). We were listening to "Motel d'amour".

"Motel d'amour" is a concept album, offering a sharp, vibrant perspective from a confident, intelligent, and radiant young woman eager to experience nightlife, love, and music. Kunze's lyrics paint vivid scenes of flirtation ("Nachtcafé", "Rendezvous"), encounters with men ("Casanova"), the pulse of nightlife ("Die Nacht ist noch jung"), love ("Rotes Licht für rote Liebe"), one-night stands ("Motel d'amour"), and more. Rarely has a German album from that era captured emotional nuance and social dynamics so insightfully. Without veering into the overly personal, Kunze's direct, daring lyrical style was groundbreaking at the time - and remains refreshingly bold today.

While German listeners will fully appreciate the lyrical depth, the music speaks volumes on its own. Kunze's words are masterfully complemented by the production of Markus Kammann and Jürgen Grah. As heard on the in-demand "Mit den Puppen tanzen", their creativity seemed boundless. Each track is tightly composed, catchy, and full of character. While many German bands at the time leaned into rock, Kammann drew from the deep grooves of Earth, Wind & Fire, The Isley Brothers, Brothers Johnson, The Commodores, and the electro-futurism of Afrika Bambaataa's "Planet Rock" and "Looking for the Perfect Beat". The result: tracks with unmistakable electro-funk flair, powered by the classic 808 drum sound.

Though primarily rooted in funk and electro, the album retains flashes of NDW aesthetics - "Wir haben getanzt heut' Nacht" being a prime example. The instrumentation is a dream list for vintage gear lovers: Yamaha keyboards, Roland Juno-60, vocoder, Micromoog, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Fender bass, and a Telecaster guitar all feature prominently.
Recorded in 1985 at the high-profile Delta Studio by Richard Rossbach, the album attracted interest from Polydor. However, the label proposed using the compositions for a solo project with singer Inga Humpe (of Neonbabies), who was already signed to their roster. This would have required replacing Kunze as the vocalist, an idea the group firmly rejected. As a result, "Motel d'amour" was shelved, and Kammann, Grah, and Kunze moved on to form Cold End.
The album cover features a rare archival photo of Katrin A. Kunze - rediscovered by Kammann and now finally seeing the light of day, 40 years later.

We believe Motel d'amour deserves recognition alongside cult German classics like P!OFF?, 1. Futurologischer Congress' "Wer spricht?", Ami Marie's "Verrückt nach Glück", the funkier cuts of Cosa Rosa, or Piet Klocke's groove classic "Heute ist nicht sonst". It's a record that fits into adventurous DJ sets but also rewards a full, start-to-finish listen.

A note on audio quality: Sadly, the original master tapes were lost. The tracks were restored from a vintage TDK cassette. Thanks to modern digital tools, we were able to remaster them to a high standard - but in some songs light distortions remain. We appreciate your understanding and hope you enjoy this lost and undiscovered gem.

Pioneering British electronic musician Mark Van Hoen is set to release his latest solo album, The Eternal Present, on 23 May 2025 via Dell'Orso, a remarkable collection of tracks spanning nearly three decades of recordings from 1998 to 2024.
The Eternal Present embodies its philosophical title, inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept that "Eternity isn't some later time... Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off." The album explores music as the ultimate expression of existing in the present moment, transcending time and creating a sonic experience that is simultaneously "spectral, ghostly, melodic, harmonic, and decayed."
An influential contemporary of Aphex Twin, Autechre, LFO and Boards of Canada, Van Hoen is best known for his solo work as Locust in the mid-'90s, which helped push post-rave electronic music into newly challenging realms. His extensive discography spans releases on influential labels including R&S, Touch, and Editions Mego. Van Hoen has worked on numerous collaborations throughout his career, including with Nick Holton and Neil Halstead of Slowdive under the moniker Black Hearted Brother—their album Stars Are Our Home was released in 2013.
The Eternal Present continues the lineage of Van Hoen's most significant works, with artwork by Ian Anderson (Designers Republic) reflecting the album's "eternal present" concept with a mysterious visual approach, allowing listeners to form their own imaginary landscapes. The mastering by Stefan Betke (Pole) enhances this document of the evolution of the artist over the years as he continues to hone his signature sound. Using a host of instruments including analogue synthesisers and employing various recording approaches, Van Hoen's equipment changed dramatically over the years—from early DSP processing used on his first solo record on Apollo ‘Playing With Time’ to various synthesisers, modular systems, tape machines, and digital workstations—contributing to the album's rich sonic diversity.
Throughout The Eternal Present, ideas are woven together through spoken word quotations and abstract vocals featuring notable collaborations from Rachel Goswell on the Slowdive cover "Shine" (from 1998), Megan Mitchell (Cruel Diagonals) on "Somewhere", and session vocalists Clare Dove and Dorothy Takev on "No-One Leave" and "It's Not You (In A Way)" respectively. The use of cleverly assembled vocal samples from an "undisclosed but very famous female vocalist" on "Multiplex" (2016) and the indistinct vocalisations on the Cabaret Voltaire-influenced "Only Me" (2017), constantly challenges and disorientates the listener through fluctuating, ever-changing musical elements.
The album was recorded across multiple locations including Somerset, London, Los Angeles, and New York—even beginning compositions during flights and in airport lounges—reflecting Van Hoen's changing personal circumstances, environments, and situations throughout the years.
Of Indian-Jamaican descent, Van Hoen was born and raised in England, absorbing diverse musical influences from his neighbors—African-Jamaican on one side and Punjabi Indian on the other. "Each family played their own music frequently, and I absorbed it." His musical foundations include Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, OMD, Tangerine Dream, Japan, Cabaret Voltaire, and Cocteau Twins, later finding inspiration in My Bloody Valentine, LFO, and '90s producers Robert Leiner and CJ Bolland.
These eclectic influences are evident on The Eternal Present, which contains snapshots of different periods in his life, with changing circumstances across decades creating a variety of textures and sounds. As Mark explains: "It holds the same sonic signature as many of my solo releases and early Locust albums. It's a natural development that has taken place in the last few decades. It's even related to the earliest music I made as a teenager, although perhaps more sophisticated."
“What a remarkably affecting, majestically broad and captivating work it is..what strikes you most is the album’s myriad diversity. Outstanding” (Electronic Sound)

“Whether channelling mid- 70’s Eno, early Aphex Twin or Neu! his vivid sounds shimmer with emotional weight” (Mojo 4*)

"Musically, Van Hoen belongs to a distinguished family tree. Originally influenced by the likes of Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream, and later presaging both Autechre's glitch and Boards of Canada's pastoral IDM." (Pitchfork)

BIOGRAPHY BY IRVINE WELSH
I discovered the Beta Band, like I discovered a lot of great music, basically through eventually surrendering to the enthused urgings of a mate who was cooler than me. He continually evangelized about the EP's. I was lost to the concert hall and firmly ensconced on the dancefloor by then and highly resistant, but quite taken by the idea that a band would bring out extended plays rather than singles. When I did check them out, I was instantly smitten by their originality and power.

The band, therefore, were pivotal for me in terms of my own musical journey, in that they represented a gateway back into indie guitar music, which I'd basically given up since becoming obsessed with rave and acid house.

The Beta Band were definitely a band for the cool cognoscenti- like my buddy- the ones you make a bit of a tit of yourself trying to convert quite straight boring people to.

The emotions they induced were a kind of throwback to school days when you were very pompous and prescriptive about what you liked, and derisive towards non believers. It's a testimony to the power of the music that they could take me to the raw state of the younger man.

I took it personally that they didn't hit the mainstream commercial base. At least two of the three albums they made deserved quadruple platinum status. Hot Shots II and Heroes to Zeros are permanently lodged very high in my top one hundred albums of all time.

So, the return of the Beta Band has me moving into the same mode of immature, adolescent anticipation. Everyone should have the Beta Band albums and EP's in their collection. It still kind of annoys me - in fact it bugs the shit out of me - that most of them don't.

And that really is something.

Mute veröffentlicht am 11.07. das neunte Soloalbum des für immer einflussreichen Künstlers Mark Stewart - 'The Fateful Symmetry' - ist ein vitales Meisterwerk, das kurz vor seinem frühen Tod im April 2023 fertiggestellt wurde.

In seiner illustren Karriere als Pionier mit The Pop Group, Mark Stewart & The Maffia und als Solokünstler hat Stewart ein bahnbrechendes Werk geschaffen, das von den DIY-Idealen des Punk, radikaler Politik, Protestbewegungen, Theorie, Philosophie, Technologie, Kunst und Poesie geprägt ist. Mit 'The Fateful Symmetry' wird Stewarts bleibendes Vermächtnis als „verehrter Gegenkultur-Musiker“ (The Guardian) mit einem Album fortgesetzt, das so furchtlos und visionär ist wie seine besten Arbeiten.

'The Fateful Symmetry' zeugt von seinem unermüdlichen Einfallsreichtum und ist eines seiner intimsten und kraftvollsten Statements. Es ist ein erstaunlich ausdrucksstarkes und innovatives Album, ein kämpferisches und schönes Manifest für eine bessere Welt. Der unnachahmliche, titanische Mark Stewart, nie normalisiert, immer außergewöhnlich.

Gelateria Fisotti (a real gelato spot located in Otranto, Apulia) chose to give life to the "Gelato Italiano" project in 2023, with the idea of creating a soundtrack that would be able to enter the Gelateria spaces as a protagonist. A compilation that presents the contributions of different artists, moving between disco, house, broken-beat, with different nuances within it, almost like the various flavors of an ice cream and which this year reaches its 3rd volume. The sound is unfailingly summery, in balance between "body" and "sweetness"

'Pepper Tree Hill' is, spiritually, our 'Abbey Road' both in album and studio name. It is the place where we feel the most creative, safe to try any crazy idea, and write songs that are both personal and extensions of our creative being. 'Pepper Tree Hill' the album explores our love of the sounds and songs of the Sixties, but in a total Boxmasters way. Legendary trumpeter and Grammy Award winner Herb Alpert is featured on the title track.

Riki is the Los Angeles based dark synth-pop outfit commandeered by the mysterious Niff Nawor, a visual artist and musician active in the deathrock / anarcho-punk scenes of the California bay area (formerly a member of Crimson Scarlet), before founding her solo endeavor as Riki in 2017. Niff's desire to explore her own sound manifested in the recording of the Hot City cassette tape in 2017, which featured Chelsey Crowley of Crimson Scarlet, Skot Brown of Phantom Limbs and Pedaof Doomed to Extinction. Released on Commodity Tapes and later reissued on vinyl by the well-regarded Symphony of Destruction label, Riki followed the release of the single with several small tours and festival dates, performing with such acts as Light Asylum, Black Marble, and Trisomie 21.For her self-titled debut album for Dais, Riki explores courage, physicality, and romance across eight timeless synth pop anthems. Produced and engineered by hardware-based synthesist Matia Simovich of INHALT, influences and ideas are worn proudly without deviating from fresh and daring electro-pop territory. Nostalgic cues can be heard ranging from Neue Deutsch Welle, early Adrian Sherwood productions, classic ZYX Italo Disco, Japanese Visual Kei and even classic new wave/pop like Pat Benatar, Kate Bush, and early Madonna.The lead single, Napoleon, contains Riki's indelible sound design, reminiscent of 80's New York dance floor electro-pop that recalls the fusion of uptown and downtown styles and culture, told through Riki's present day West Coast narrative. For contrast, the second single entitled Böse Lügen (Body Mix) was previously released in demo form and re-mixed to emphasize its commanding presence and addictive nature. Translated simply to "Wicked Lies" and sung completely in German, Böse Lügen moves away from the upbeat romanticism found throughout the album and commands serious self-reflection guised within an infectious dance floor anthem.

Los Angeles trio sunking marry hip hop, and electronic influences on their 2nd album I DON"T LIKE MY TELEPHONE. Childhood friends Bobby Granfelt, a jazz drummer and self-proclaimed hip-hop head, Antoine Martel, a synthesist and composer, branched off their mainstay High Pulp to explore their polar opposite tastes and make music as sunking in addition to multi-instrumentalist Victory Nguyen. Their 2022 debut Smug, was more jazz-influenced, while I DON"T LIKE MY TELEPHONE is akin to the early work of beat-driven artists Thundercat, Madlib, and Flying Lotus. They hand selected artists Salami Rose Joe Louis, Niki Randa, Deradoorian, and Takoda to lend vocals and help capture that spirit. I DON"T LIKE MY TELEPHONE as a series of self-contained "micro-compositions," built around Granfelt"s drum loops and Martel"s new gear. In addition to, they were fueled by an increasing love for electronic music artists like Galcher Lustwerk, The Field, and Susumu Yokota, whose 1994 cult classic Acid Mt. Fuji they cite as a particular inspiration. The result is a record as vibrant as a kaleidoscope, and compact as one too, shuffling through more styles and ideas in neat, three-minute chunks of virtuosity.

Reissue of in-demand Italo title, with accompanying edits by Hysteric. "For the much-requested 12'' reissue of Roaring Mosquitoes, Best Record followed the hint by a die-hard German researcher and esteemed DJ of 'hidden musical treasures' Frinda Di Lanco. Further enriching this reissue - masterfully remastered by Dom Scuteri - with two of his splendid edits is the Australian DJ-producer George Hysteric, one of the world's leading authorities and a leading figure in Italo Disco. The juxtaposition of the two songs performed with grit and physicality by Agostina Casalino and her cousin Antonietta Casalino (aka Roaring Mosquitoes) highlights two aesthetically and rhythmically similar approaches, albeit with different roots and inspirations. "You Aren't With Me" has the merit of not wanting to reinvent the genre, but exploits the familiarity of pop-dance forms, obtaining an immediate catchiness. The piece stands out for its linearity while reworking melodic mechanisms typical of the 80s new wave: short instrumental intro, well-defined verse-chorus, obsessive repetition of melodic hooks that make it an immediate and "dragging" song on the dance floor. The arrangement focuses on a solid electronic drum groove, sinuous basslines, clean guitar riffs, "cutting" keyboards and the use of the chorus typical of the Italo Disco of those years. Some passages recall the melodic line and rhythmic progression of "Tonight... Crazy Night", an intriguing song that the Canadian artist Dorine Hollier created in 1984 at the Titania Studios in Rome with Pierluigi Giombini. Even with "Ah Ah Ah Ah" which features a vibrant and cheerful sound there's a playful use of citation for some idea that Diego Pepe took from a Micky & Joyce track. It evokes the "space disco" spirit of Jean-Pierre Massiera and the influence of the French scene of 1979: polyphonic synthetic strings, echo effects on electronic hi-hats and a vaguely futuristic atmosphere, but with an even more captivating sound revitalized with more scratchy modern touches and compressed basslines. A mix of vintage and contemporary that enhance its charm."

Monde UFO follow the celebrated ‘7171’ album with a trip to the mysterious ‘Flamingo Tower’. In the shadows of the Los Angeles bustling music scene, the enigmatic collective led by visionary Ray Monde create a trance-like fusion of psychedelia and avant jazz, mantra-like evocations, brash moody ambience and passages reminiscent of long-lost library music.

Magnifying Monde UFO’s idea of musical chaos, their early sonic escapades into off-kilter exotica is now elevated with sweeping atmospheric waves of sound inspired by an eclectic brew of Arto Lindsey, Khan Jamal’s ‘Drum Dance To The Motherland’, Keith Hudson, Milford Graves, Marion Brown, Don Cherry and Lennie Tristano.

Cast deep into number theory with occasional quasi-religious touchstones, ‘Flamingo Tower’ bustles with background sounds overlaid with intimate melodies conjuring plenty of suitably strange illusions; a synthetic orchestra plays baroque pop, a guitar is set to auto destruct and Ray Monde’s hushed vocals carry a bracing narrative. It’s an evocative album, one for the heavy music nerds, sprinkled with ear candy and proliferated by mysterious numbers which litter the song titles.

“Monde UFO wander through a humid mist of exotic samba shuffles, shamanic whispers, and reverberating laser beam synthesizers.” New Commute

Composed, performed and produced by Cosey Fanni Tutti, the 9-track album moves between propulsive beat constructions and expansive electronic explorations, continuing themes from 2019’s acclaimed album TUTTI. It is a personal reflection; a sonic realisation of her life, drawing on her powerful inner resolve and expressing it through music. The album finds Cosey making sense of some very tough years, dealing with personal bereavements alongside swingeing world events that have impacted us all. Centring on her own strength and self will, the album’s two distinct sides – one rhythmic, one more meditative – are connected by an overwhelmingly positive mood.

She explains, “My overtone chanting on the track ‘Stound’ was part of that, tapping into the inner self, to the core of your being, emotionally, physically, allowing the sounds to permeate and soothe as well as create a sense of power, resistance and resilience to what we face.” Even in the more melancholic moments, there’s a lightness that she explains is an “acknowledgement that it’s alright to be sad, that’s part of life, but there is so much joy too in our memories of people we lose and in the moments we share with each other. Joy is our resistance.”

There are also threads from her most recent projects running through 2t2. Her latest book RE-SISTERS and the score she wrote for Caroline Catz’s film Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes are acknowledged, most directly on ‘Threnody’ which is dedicated to Delia Derbyshire and Andy Christian, an artist friend of Delia’s. He sent Cosey an abstract drawing of the same name, created one night from an improvised evening where he drew while Derbyshire intoned and sang softly as she looked at the drawings, as if reading a score expressing how they made her feel. Cosey’s process and the different strands that make up her work form a totality of vision.

She goes on to say, “Once you get creating and listening, weaving, collaging sound it’s a wonderfully fulfilling feeling that takes you both out of yourself at the same time as essentially deep within.” The artwork reflects this idea that the album is a “sound cameo”, reflecting the light within the music, and the buzz of life that exists within all of Cosey’s work. Musician, artist and author Cosey Fanni Tutti has continually challenged boundaries and conventions through her work. As a founding member of the hugely influential avant-garde band Throbbing Gristle, one half of electronic pioneers Chris and Cosey, and as an artist channelling her experience in pornographic modelling and striptease, her work on the margins has reshaped the mainstream. Her first solo album, Time To Tell (1983) was followed by 2019’s Tutti and 2022’s Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes. Her debut book, the Penderyn Music Book Prize shortlisted Art Sex Music, was published in 2017, followed by RE-SISTERS in 2022 (both Faber), which will soon get a Spanish edition.

Barcelona’s Egyptian Greyhound and Berlin-based Ziel join forces in search of a modern sound rooted in the spirit of classic dancefloor cuts. Riding the revival wave, their EP blends Progressive, Trance, and Balearic elements with Classic House undertones.

A1 – Ziel’s "Divinity" is a sensual vocal track, channeling the eroticism and transcendentalism of past eras. Straddling the line between after-hours soft-trance and progressive house with Hi-NRG ambition, it delivers a compelling emotional punch.

A2 – "A Life in Paradise" follows in tone but leans further into Classic House. Less Hi-NRG, more warmth — it’s a strong warm-up tool, ideal for building energy early on.

B1 – "Nature Dancer" by Egyptian Greyhound brings a powerful kick and drum groove for peak time, combining Balearic colors and trancey aesthetics to ignite the dancefloor.

B2 – "Ace of Swords" sees both producers come together for a trippy, acid-tinged closer that fuses deep Trance and Balearic moods into a dreamy final statement.

Yes Amigos!

The Debut Album "Latin Freaks" by Funkool Orchestra is finally out!

Get ready for another dose of Neapolitan Funky Disco Boogie madness with a Latin touch and a glorious featuring by the one and only Latin soul King : JOE BATAAN.

The Long Playing is a mixture of Rare Grooves, Napoli Sound, Disco Boogie, Latin Soul and Boogaloo, ideal for a trip to Nueva York and back to Naples just to say hello to your Puertorican uncle Manolito "Gennaro" Marròn.
A gozar!

While paying homage to the pioneers of the genre, this compilation pushes the boundaries of nostalgic soundscapes with fresh, original creations. Evoking a sense of familiarity and warmth, the release beautifully captures a feeling of wonder and introspection. Let these timeless rhythms set the mood for your most peaceful moments.



















q C5. lock - eli filosov p h i l o

















[q] C5. lock - eli filosov [ p h i l o ]

Repress!

In the mid-1970s, a force of nature swept across the continental United States, cutting across all strata of race and class, rooting in our minds, our homes, our culture. It wasn’t The Exorcist, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, or even bell-bottoms, but instead a book called The Secret Life of Plants. The work of occultist/former OSS agent Peter Tompkins and former CIA agent/dowsing enthusiast Christopher Bird, the books shot up the bestseller charts and spread like kudzu across the landscape, becoming a phenomenon. Seemingly overnight, the indoor plant business was in full bloom and photosynthetic eukaryotes of every genus were hanging off walls, lording over bookshelves, and basking on sunny window ledges. The science behind Secret Life was specious: plants can hear our prayers, they’re lie detectors, they’re telepathic, able to predict natural disasters and receive signals from distant galaxies. But that didn’t stop millions from buying and nurturing their new plants.



Perhaps the craziest claim of the book was that plants also dug music. And whether you purchased a snake plant, asparagus fern, peace lily, or what have you from Mother Earth on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles (or bought a Simmons mattress from Sears), you also took home Plantasia, an album recorded especially for them. Subtitled “warm earth music for plants…and the people that love them,” it was full of bucolic, charming, stoner-friendly, decidedly unscientific tunes enacted on the new-fangled device called the Moog. Plants date back from the dawn of time, but apparently they loved the Moog, never mind that the synthesizer had been on the market for just a few years. Most of all, the plants loved the ditties made by composer Mort Garson.



Few characters in early electronic music can be both fearless pioneers and cheesy trend-chasers, but Garson embraced both extremes, and has been unheralded as a result. When one writer rhetorically asked: “How was Garson’s music so ubiquitous while the man remained so under the radar?” the answer was simple. Well before Brian Eno did it, Garson was making discreet music, both the man and his music as inconspicuous as a Chlorophytumcomosum. Julliard-educated and active as a session player in the post-war era, Garson wrote lounge hits, scored plush arrangements for Doris Day, and garlanded weeping countrypolitan strings around Glen Campbell’s “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” He could render the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel alike into easy listening and also dreamed up his own ditties. “An idear” as Garson himself would drawl it out. “I live with it, I walk it, I sing it.”



But as his daughter Day Darmet recalls: “When my dad found the synthesizer, he realized he didn’t want to do pop music anymore.” Garson encountered Robert Moog and his new device at the Audio Engineering Society’s West Coast convention in 1967 and immediately began tinkering with the device. With the Moog, those idears could be transformed. “He constantly had a song he was humming,” Darmet says. “At the table he was constantly tapping.” Which is to say that Mort pulled his melodies out of thin air, just like any household plant would.



The Plantae kingdom grew to its height by 1976, from DC Comics’ mossy superhero Swamp Thing to Stevie Wonder’s own herbal meditation, Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. Nefarious manifestations of human-plant interaction also abounded, be it the grotesque pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers or the pothead paranoia of the US Government spraying Mexican marijuana fields with the herbicide paraquat (which led to the rise in homegrown pot by the 1980s). And then there’s the warm, leafy embrace of Plantasia itself.



“My mom had a lot of plants,” Darmet says. “She didn’t believe in organized religion, she believed the earth was the best thing in the whole world. Whatever created us was incredible.” And she also knew when her husband had a good song, shouting from another room when she heard him humming a good idear. Novel as it might seem, Plantasia is simply full of good tunes.



Garson may have given the album away to new plant and bed owners, but a decade later a new generation could hear his music in another surreptitious way. Millions of kids bought The Legend of Zelda for their Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1986 and one distinct 8-bit tune bears more than a passing resemblance to album highlight “Concerto for Philodendron and Pothos.” Garson was never properly credited for it, but he nevertheless subliminally slipped into a new generations’ head, helping kids and plants alike grow.



Hearing Plantasia in the 21st century, it seems less an ode to our photosynthesizing friends by Garson and more an homage to his wife, the one with the green thumb that made everything flower around him. “My dad would be totally pleased to know that people are really interested in this music that had no popularity at the time,” Darmet says of Plantasia’snew renaissance. “He would be fascinated by the fact that people are finally understanding and appreciating this part of his musical career that he got no admiration for back then.” Garson seems to be everywhere again, even if he’s not really noticed, just like a houseplant.

Following on from last year's acclaimed ‘R.O.I.’ album, Manchester’s favourite sons Aerial Salad are set to return to the fray with a brand new 5-track EP titled ‘Roi de l’herb’ to be released June 27th via Venn Records.
Having released their ‘Dirt Mall’ album during lockdown, which was a pretty grim time to put an album out, the release still eventually opened up some exciting doors for the band and captured Aerial Salad at their most Aerial Salad; loud, brash, silly and emotive.
This led swiftly to 2024’s ‘R.O.I.’ album that marked a real evolution in the band’s sound and songwriting.

“R.O.I. is a concept album but rather than being about a band, it’s from the perspective of an individual pushed to the brink of insanity by the ever-present quest from commercial success,” explains singer and guitarist Jamie Munro. “The idea came from my job; I’ve been working in the tech industry in ‘sales’. ‘Return on investment’ was probably my most uttered phrase for a few years, I was sick of it, sick of having no positive impact on the world and sick of the tech bro, double espresso, thirsty thursdays, work hard - play hard bollocks culture that comes with it. ‘R.O.I.’ is me saying ‘know what, you can actually earn a lot of money in life, even without the fallacy of educational infrastructure and financial privilege, however, it comes at the cost of your soul, time and energy. ‘R.O.I.’ is called such because it’s in the opposite pursuit, it’s not about a return on a financial investment, it’s about doing something with your life that’s enjoyable.”
This brings us crashing into 2025, no longer in the same line of spirit destroying work, with some seriously exciting gigs on the horizon, Aerial Salad wanted to kick off the next era of the band with a short, fast and hard EP and have served up 5 absolute bangers that sit somewhere between ‘Dirt Mall’ and ‘R.O.I.’ The EP is called ‘Roi de l’herb’ because of the track ‘King Of The Grass’: “We tour and play a lot in France, we’ve played most of our “best” gigs in France, so out of curiosity I wanted to see if the title would translate well, naturally, when the translation contained both “ROI” and l’herbe” - I though, fuck it, that’s about as spot on a title for this EP as we can possibly muster.”
‘King of The Grass’ is about the band’s bassist Mike Wimbo who works for Rochdale council on the greens team, which means he spends his life in the pouring rain chopping down overgrown hedges and mowing lawns. Elsewhere on the EP, ‘Inject Your Blood’ is another romantic love song inspired by the TV series ‘True Blood’ (“I’d inject your blood, into mine just to feel you close”), ‘Wires’ rages against the world of AI and GPT, whilst the EP’s opening track ‘My Girl’ is a chaotic, high energy catchy punk song, nothing profound, nothing complicated. It’s a punk song as god intended, a few chords and a load of shouting.
“The EP is like the teaser for what’s next,” summarises Jamie. “The overall hook for this EP is one of hope, that by sticking to what you believe in you can do anything.”

Since first forming in 2016, London's High Vis have steadily polished their palette of progressive hardcore with shades of post-punk, Brit pop, neo-psychedelia, and even Madchester groove, mapping a middle ground between hooks and fury, melodies and mosh pits. Singer Graham Sayle describes their third album 'Guided Tour' as an axis of competing forces: "It's trying to be a hopeful record, while also being incensed." Rounded out by drummer Edward 'Ski' Harper, guitarists Martin MacNamara and Rob Hammaren, and bassist Jack Muncaster, the band's deep roots in the UK and Irish DIY hardcore scenes have kept them grounded but growing, inspired equally by restlessness and righteous anger. As Sayle puts it, "Everyone's scratching, everyone's working all the time, and their idea of relaxing is just getting fucked and avoiding reality. This album is an escape from that."From its opening seconds of a cab door slamming, a car revving away, and a baggy rhythm swinging to life, 'Guided Tour' sounds like a band reaching for new heights, bristling with energy. Recorded across a few weeks at Holy Mountain Studios in London with producer Jonah Falco and engineer Stanley Gravett, the results feel dynamic and dialed-in, like anthems burned into sense memory through sweat and repetition. Harper cuts to the chase: "We had a clear idea going in, every moment got used. Maybe when we're 60 we can sit around and get a drum sound right, but for now it's about getting things done."The album's 11 songs span the spectrum of contemporary guitar music, sharpened by experience, camaraderie, and societal frustrations. From swaggering street punk ("Drop Me Out," "Mob DLA") to jangling indie sneer ("Worth The Wait," "Deserve It") to heavy alt ("Feeling Bless," "Fill The Gap") to shoegazey spoken word ("Untethered"), the group's chemistry transmutes any style to their unique intensity. Sayle champions this evolving fusion: "For years coming from hardcore, we had pretty clear boundaries - other scenes were separate worlds. Now things are getting more blended, drawing from different places."Nowhere is this sentiment flexed more boldly than on "Mind's A Lie," a dance- punk anthem inspired by Harper's love of house, garage, and pirate radio. Stabs of sampled female vocals (by celebrated South London singer and DJ Ell Murphy) build into a razor wire rhythm of low-slung bass, tense drums, and sparkling guitar before Sayle's staunch voice starts barking harsh truths ("Face to face with all I've known / I can't call these thoughts my own"). After a sudden breakdown, the track regroups and takes off, cruising into the horizon in a haze of chiming guitars and Murphy's ascendant voice, from the streets to somewhere beyond.

Chicago-based composer/producer Joey Meland makes music under the moniker Cocojoey. Treating genre conventions and ostensible barriers between disparate musical vocabularies like playthings to gleefully smash and reshape at will, Meland channels decades of experience as a polymathic professional musician adept in styles like metal, jazz, synthpop, and experimental sound design into their infinitely combinatory compositions. STARS, their first album on Hausu Mountain, follows the self-released COCOJOEY’S WORLD with a spellbinding burst of heart-on-sleeve self-expression. The album finds Cocojoey indulging their most adventurous impulses in production and technical instrumental performance, launching into a constantly morphing program that contrasts day-glo earworm hooks against cathartic moments of screaming intensity. Cocojoey’s music exudes warmth and finger-wagging mischief as it exhumes the depths of their psyche with the pure-hearted goal of making their audience smile — when those listening find a chance to breathe within the ecstatic overstimulation.

The album’s tightly constructed song cycle blasts the listener with moment after moment of novel juxtaposition, both in terms of genre and emotional energy, that keep us reeling in a state of delirious whiplash. Warp-speed piano solos over bossa nova-inflected chord progressions segue into detonations of death metal that front-load Meland’s ferocious screaming vocals and meticulously programmed double-kick drum patterns. A strain of iridescent prog emerges in the sheer overload of notes and ideas, as drum n’ bass breaks collide with labyrinthine multi-time signature keyboard lines and bright flashes of clean vocals. Despite whatever contrasting styles might hit within any given Cocojoey song, Meland returns again and again to the upheaval and release provided by extreme metal — though that idiom lands with joyful exuberance, an abrasive yet heartwarming flavor whose positive energy carries through even to those who might not encounter screams and hyper-technical drum breakdowns in their typical listening regimen.

LDF (Lello Di Franco) makes a powerful return to Skylax, this time teaming up with Detroit's own Javonntte. Following his stellar release with Gari Romalis, LDF delivers a release that is pure gold for fans of the original Detroit sound. If you appreciate the styles of Moodymann, Theo Parrish, or Omar S, this record is bound to resonate deeply. The EP opens with "Disco One (All Night Long)," a groove-heavy track that embodies the essence of classic Detroit house. It pulses with soulful basslines and infectious rhythms, setting a hypnotic tone that's perfect for late-night sessions. "Saved" ventures into Chicago acid territory, a tribute to the raw, driving energy of classic acid house. With its punchy 303 basslines and tight, snappy percussion, it channels the best of Chicago's underground with a fresh, modern edge. "After Midnight" offers a smooth, after-hours vibe, balancing deep, jazzy chords with a pulsating rhythm that keeps the energy simmering. It's a track that brings warmth and intimacy, ideal for closing sets or introspective moments. "Martha" is a lush, emotionally rich track that embodies LDF's Italian roots while staying grounded in Detroit's heritage. With warm melodies and a rolling bassline, it delivers a balance between soulful warmth and a classic dancefloor feel. "Love Anthem" is a heartfelt groove, merging lush pads and laid-back percussion with a sense of nostalgic euphoria. It's a track that brings people together, a true love letter to house music. "People From Mars" pays homage to Omar S, with its stripped-down, gritty approach. The track has a rough, analog feel, capturing the raw energy and spirit of Detroit's underground. Finally, "The Dirty Digital Show" closes the EP on an intense note, with a driving rhythm and futuristic soundscapes. As an Italian DJ and producer from Naples, LDF brings his decades of experience—starting from his early inspirations in house and techno in 1993—into this record. Also, as co-owner of Frole Records and co-founder of Basic Frame Distribution, his knowledge of the scene is profound, and it's reflected in each meticulously crafted track. This release is a testament to the timelessness and diversity of house music.

Artwork done by legendary french cult designer H5 (Daft Punk, Air, Etienne de Crecy …)

REPRESS

New Delhi-based Peter Cat Recording Co. will release their debut album, ‘Bismillah’ on June 14, 2019 via French independent label Panache Records. Debut UK live shows are soon also to be announced by the band.


Peter Cat Recording Co. could almost have a question mark on the end of its name. Not least as founder & frontman Suryakant Sawhney refuses to explain where that name really comes from or what it means (perhaps a reference to the Tokyo jazz club owned by Haruki Murakami), but also since the very existence of the band itself raises a raft of questions. When was the last time we fell for an indie rock band for the right reasons? Not because the band in question nostalgically imitate a perceived ‘golden age’ but because they innately embody the fundamentals of such music: fantasy, sincerity and the freedom to make music without rules or career aspi- rations. And when was the last time this kind of band sounded like Sinatra, Barry White, the sweetest doo-wop, humid fanfares and a psychedelic wedding band, all at once? And all of this coming from India?
In truth, the story of Peter Cat Recording Co. was written within the triangle of San Francisco, Delhi and Paris.
In the first of these cities, Sawhney (a native of Delhi) pitched up to study film-making. More distracted by the city’s peaking live scene of the early noughties, this is where he started to make music and to sketch out an idea for the band.“
The people I lived with supported my idea of writing music, they introduced me to great mu-
sic. There used to be a great garage scene in San Francisco, like The Oh Sees also Ty Seagall, Mikal Conin, all those bands. This is a world I had never seen in my entire life. A big inspiration from San Francisco was that you could record yourself. You don’t need to be in a studio and spend a lot of money to make an album. You can do it”.


At the end of the 2000s, Suryakant returned home to New Delhi, and started his band for real, more or less the same band that plays today. “I wasn’t so concerned about will we be performing, will we be the greatest band, will we be trendy. I just wanted to make something that was consequential and important for us, I think. Something which would last, something people could listen to and be like « this is life changing ». It was for the sake of beauty”.


For the first few years and in India alone, this is exactly what Peter Cat Recording Co. did, in total indifference to the rest of the world. This was until young Parisian label Panache stumbled across the band online via Vice’s THUMP subsidiary, stupefied by the band’s cosmic video for seven-minutes-and-counting track, ‘Love De- mons’. And so in spring of 2018, ‘Portrait Of A Time: 2010-2016’ was released on Panache - making the first international release from Peter Cat Recording Co., bizarrely enough, an anthology of re-mastered, hidden gems from the band’s ramshackle back catalogue, previously recorded in Suryakant’s own living room. With Peter Cat’s off-kilter charm hitherto unheard of beyond the fringes of India, the release provided a gateway op-
Whilst the title track found its way onto Tracks Of The Year lists at the Guardian & NME, it was tricky for new PCRC enthusiasts to get a firm grip on the startling push/pull between the immediate, uncanny music this release gathered, and the cultural backdrop of New Delhi at which it was so startlingly at odds.


Opportunity for a wider fanbase to fall in love with their cloud-like, drunken songs for the first time.
If discovering your favourite new band via a ‘Best Of’ feels a curious premise, then ‘Bismillah’ does more than hint towards the promise of Peter Cat Recording Co’s future. Blending gypsy jazz, psychedelic cabaret, space disco, bossa supernova, Bollywood and uneasy listening with kaleidoscopic ease, in many senses, the band’s knack hasn’t altered. Always different, paradoxical, unpredictable yet somehow familiar. The new album opens to the strains of bird chatter, the whisper of a city’s soundscape and the first few notes from an instrument which seem to be calling us to the departure lounge, a fore-shadow of the flight ‘Bismillah’ launches its listener
on. Suryakant sings with the detached, rueful elegance of Sinatra marooned on a desert island, whilst his band create small space-time capsules which navigate their way through genres and eras – including the future – and between nostalgia and eccentricity.


Peter Cat recently trailed ‘Bismillah’ with the release of ‘Floated By’, an appositely titled musing on failure & missed opportunities, punctuated by the fulsome brass section which weaves through so much of the album.


The languid, blue quality to the track is offset by the attendant music video, created with footage shot, implau- sibly enough, at Suryakant’s own marriage ceremony (needless to say, the wedding band hired for the day was of course, Peter Cat Recording Co.) Sawhney dryly notes; “Hopefully it’s not a many-a-times-in-a-lifetime event. You can’t fake that set, those people actually having a good time, being really emotional and intense.” ‘Bismillah’’s colour-drenched album cover also captures Suryakant’s father-in-law making his wedding toast on that same day - a nod back towards the cover of ‘Portrait Of A Time’, itself a black & white image taken at the wedding ceremony of Suryakant’s own father.


A stumbling but gracious collection of songs rooted in a kind of drunken soul music, the melancholy nature of some of the songs on ‘Bismillah’ renders them almost liquid, before they develop into more dance-like shapes. Suryakant’s rangy voice swoops from the falsetto glide of ‘I’m This’ to the beat-up baritone blown along by the warm breeze of ‘Soulless Friends’. The elliptical structure of album opener ‘Where The Money Flows’ also al-
lows for the use of brief bursts of autotune effect on his vocal without feeling incongruous, whilst the desultory lyrics of ‘Heera’ (a Hindi word for diamond) - sharing something with the Morricone school of grand storytelling - have an emotional weight that would impress even coming from a native English speaker. Perhaps the most gleefully unpredictable moment on ‘Bismillah’ comes with the illusory, vocal loops on the intro to ‘Memory Box’, errupting into 8 exhilarating minutes worth of unbridled, string-backed disco joy. A cat might have nine lives, but on ‘Bismillah’ and beyond, Peter Cat Recording Co. are hinting towards an un- knowable multitude of dimensions. Throw them all together, and it equates less to a listening experience and more to an out-of-body experience.


Peter Cat Recording Co. are: Suryakant Sawhney (vocals/guitar/organ), Dhruv Bhola (bass), Kartik S Pillai (organ/guitar/electronics), Rohit Gupta (horns), Karan Singh (drums)

"Polymath artist, musician and iconoclast Raed Yassin releases Eternal Ghost, two long-form pieces of modular minimalism via Fourth Sounds. Drawing on influences of Terry Riley, Suicide, no wave and synth pop, the double A-side 12” reverberates with urgent, high-octane loops, repeating patterns and distorted vocal frequencies, each track unfurling over 15 frantic Minutes of maximalist electronics.

Born in Lebanon and based in Berlin, with a musical practice that spans free improvisation, Arabic pop and sample-based cultural archaeology, Yassin is an artist who refuses to be contained, working across disciplines to interrogate ideas of personal identity, collective memory and consumer culture.

Eternal Ghost is the latest addition to a shape-shifting body of work, released to accompany Yassin’s debut London exhibition of the same name at Cedric Bardawil in June 2025."

45 Jahre alt – und jetzt so frisch wie nie:

Am 27. Juni erscheint das selbstbetitelte Ideal-Debütalbum von 1980 in einer neu abgemischten Version. Für den „2025 Mix“ wurden die originalen Mehrspurbänder digitalisiert und von Moritz Enders (u.a. Kraftklub, Casper) und Annette Humpe neu abgemischt. Das Ergebnis klingt verblüffend direkt, greifbar und gegenwärtig – als wäre die Berliner Band gerade erst ins Studio gestiegen.

Der Clou: Für den neuen Mix kam ausschließlich Technik zum Einsatz, die bereits 1980 zur Verfügung stand. Der Sound ist also nicht einfach nur neu – sondern neu gedacht im Geist der alten Zeit. „Ideal (2025 Mix)“ ist nicht bloß ein nostalgischer Rückblick, sondern ein eindrucksvolles Update: Songs wie „Berlin“, „Blaue Augen“ oder „Hundsgemein“ wirken heute so kompromisslos, radikal und relevant wie eh und je.

Wytch Hazel's stellar 2016 debut Prelude confirmed these Lancastrian apprentice wizards to be Britain's most promising new hard rock band. Two years on, that promise comes to abundant fruition on II: Sojourn, an album that moves Wytch Hazel on from the innocence and exuberance of the debut to a darker, more profound and complex place, carefully wrought into optimum shape by the band's singer, guitarist, songwriter and mastermind Colin Hendra. "I'm really into the idea of an album," notes Colin. "I don't do mix-tapes, I don't listen to singles, I'm interested in albums. I want to make a good, listenable, cohesive work, that is the whole thing." Asked what inspirations were brought to bear this time, Colin has good news, and even better taste: "I was listening to plenty of Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy and Wishbone Ash last year," remarks the frontman. "This seems to be more of a hard rock album, where the last one was more rock-folk. It's definitely more rock than folk!" The most crucial influence fully expresses itself via Les Paul guitars in sweet twin harmony through cranked Super Lead Marshalls - "Exactly the same type of amp that Thin Lizzy would have used," beams Colin - a benefit of working in James Atkinson's Hand Of Law Studio, a converted gaolhouse in Leeds. "We knew there would be a lot more great gear, more amps, more options," enthuses Colin of this productive new work environment. "We were more prepared, we planned better. I had a lot more vocals to record on this album, pretty much every song has at least three harmonies, but James is a really chilled out guy, he made it easy for us. I had a very clear idea of how I wanted each song to sound, I thought about every single aspect. I probably over-prepared for this album, and it paid off!" Wytch Hazel's proud, avowed Protestant Christianity continues to set them apart from the occult hocus-pocus of their peers, and the very title Sojourn has a Biblical inspiration: "It's used a lot in the Old Testament, people would travel somewhere to stay for a short period of time," explains Colin, comparing the idea to Wytch Hazel's development since Prelude. "We're going to reside here with this sound for a while, and the next album might not sound the same. Come and have a listen to this aspect of Wytch Hazel - it's a temporary stay. We'll be here for a while, then there will be something else. I'm always writing, it's a constant stream, but I'm always trying to raise the bar, because I don't want the next album to be not as good as the other ones!"

With solid training as a classical musician, Sophie Agnel took a close interest in modern jazz before committing in the early 90s to the shifting, deliciously uncertain ground of free improvisation, thanks to her fascination for the powers of expression displayed by a few great keyboard-heretics such as Keith Tippett, Fred Van Hove or Christine Wodrascka. She began reworking the prepared piano techniques imagined by John Cage and transformed her instrument into a sort of extended piano.

Coming from a Punk music background Joke Lanz started in the mid 80s to play Experimental- and Noise music. Best known for his internationally acclaimed project Sudden Infant, Lanz is presenting his work since 30 years all over the world. Born in Switzerland and currently operating out of Berlin, he is one of the most prolific and profound artists working in the border zones where performance and body art meet Improvisation and Noise.

Agnel and Lanz have performed stunning live shows as a duo, now their debut album is coming out on Klanggalerie. Turntables and piano, a unique combination that is a lot of fun!

Evolving from a performance lecture by philosopher and Jonna Bornemark at Orionteatern in Stockholm, ‘Hyperit’ (Swedish for a volcanic stone; hypersthenite in English) is inspired by Jennefelt’s performances alongside Bornemark. Before each performance, Jennefelt would plant a lawn on stage, with dirt, sand, gravel, rocks, weeds, and a body of water placed underneath. During the performance, Jennefelt would dig a hole in this lawn, delving progressively deeper and recording soundscapes in the process, with microphones attached to her tools of excavation.

With ‘Hyperit’, Jennefelt expands these ideas into a distinct incarnation of experimental world building, reenvisioning the lecture composition project with new sounds, vocals and field recordings. Using the performance lecture as a springboard, she explores the interior geological matter on ‘Hyperit’, sculpting electronic music inspired by the terrain of meteorites, magma and the Earth’s innermost composition. In this Jennefelt aims to capture a sense of being ‘inside’ the eponymous volcanic stone, or, as it’s known in her native Swedish, of being ‘inside the mountain’.

Recorded and composed at Stranden Ateljéer, EMS and Palazzo Stabile 2023. Mastered by Giovanni Conti at Artefacts Mastering, Berlin. To Bruno. Front cover art by Sara Melin. Graphic design by Oskar Laurin.

The Last Question is the first album by electronics master Tim Clark. It collects his early works, when he was the Music Director of the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, N.Y. These tunes were the soundtrack to the planetarium’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question short stoy. The idea was conceived by Von Del Chamberlain, director of teh Abrams Planetarium, and was taken to fruition in a joint venture bewtween the Abrams and Strasenbergh Planetariums, were the shows were premiered in 1972.

Clark composed and produced the works in the Strasenberg Planetarium’s own sound studio, equipped with three Ampex 440 recorders, a 4-channel mixing board with 18 inputs and a Moog Synthesizer. The album was released as a private pressing in 1973 and it has since become an elusive collector’s piece among electronic music afficionados. Comes with remastered sound and straight reproduction of the original artwork.

ULTRA RARE OUTER SPACE PRIVATE PRESS!

RIYL : Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, Iasos, Peter Davidson, Michael Stearns, Steve Roach...

The Last Question is the first album by electronics master Tim Clark. It collects his early works, when he was the Music Director of the Strasenburgh Planetarium in Rochester, N.Y. These tunes were the soundtrack to the planetarium’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question short stoy. The idea was conceived by Von Del Chamberlain, director of teh Abrams Planetarium, and was taken to fruition in a joint venture bewtween the Abrams and Strasenbergh Planetariums, were the shows were premiered in 1972.

Clark composed and produced the works in the Strasenberg Planetarium’s own sound studio, equipped with three Ampex 440 recorders, a 4-channel mixing board with 18 inputs and a Moog Synthesizer. The album was released as a private pressing in 1973 and it has since become an elusive collector’s piece among electronic music afficionados. Comes with remastered sound and straight reproduction of the original artwork.

ULTRA RARE OUTER SPACE PRIVATE PRESS!

RIYL : Tonto’s Expanding Head Band, Iasos, Peter Davidson, Michael Stearns, Steve Roach...

After two decades, the indietronic veteran returns with a powerful sonic reflection on today’s sociopolitical climate and a poignant reminder of music’s enduring ability to heal, unite, and inspire. Blending experimental electronics with krautrock sensibilities, the album thrives on spontaneity, collaboration, and the beauty of ‘happy accidents’.

While many of Nitrada’s sonic trademarks remain — intricate, rickety beats; enigmatic field recordings; and gut-punching string melodies — EVERYTHING THAT IS NOT COUNTED WILL BE LOST marks a shift in approach. Experimenting with different constellations of musical machines, Christophe Stoll, the mind behind Nitrada, recorded hours of improvisations (some shared on his Instagram). These sketches became the raw material for more elaborate, carefully structured arrangements.

True to his collaborative spirit, Stoll brought in like-minded artists to shape the final album: Jan Sturm (aka STURM) lends his touch to the shimmering FRAGMENTS OF LIGHT. The euphoric dystopian WE DANCE IN THE CHAOS features Landobe (Marco Heinle) and Patrick Siegfried Zimmer on vocals. Luca di Mira (of Giardini di Mirò fame) contributes synths, cello, and delicate textures to some tracks, while Johannes Schardt’s guitar work brings a visceral, post-rock edge to NO HYMN FOR NOBODY and IL ROMANTICISMO DELL’APOCALISSE, nodding to Stoll’s roots in punk and indie.

“The goal is to take listeners on a journey through different timbres and sonic landscapes — a collage of diverse ideas and inspirations,” says Stoll about his album which effortlessly juxtaposes experimental ambient soundscapes, heavy jagged guitars, and minimal techno pulses, making them feel as though they’ve always belonged together. Because, in the end, they do – all part of the shared vocabulary of our universal language: MUSIC.

An Announcement Of A Miracle
This tune is about a specific idea..
not using a 303 to make a timeless piece of Chicago Seriousness.

The Jak & Nico Babylon lays out the foundation of vintage electronics righteously snapping Kode with an intense amount of energy and balance paying respect to the underground tribes.
The sermon included throughout the song is about the truthful miracle in the lives of OUR humanity everyday.
listen, absorb and realize!

Roman Romance 4 The Drum Kidz
This is a honorable homage to Fred Brown from Rocking House Records (Chicago)..

The Jak & Nico go head to head with this dark and melancholic slab of pure chicago created by hand…
Showin Ultra Respect.

This is an album made during a crucial period in South Africa’s history during which there was a palpable feeling of a slow turning towards the collapse of the apartheid state side by side with an increasingly well-organised culture of resistance through the formation of the United Democratic Front (UDF) and various affiliated bodies. However, as a result, there was increased pushback from the state security establishment, a turning to dirty tricks and the formation of hit squads whose members murdered and tortured many of our friends and created chaos throughout South Africa as well as neighbouring countries.

This album is situated in this political environment however it took advantage of the new do-it-yourself music technologies available at that time. Technologies that made it possible to make and release records without interference from traditional record company executives. Two musician friends of mine pooled their resources after their respective bands had broken up. Ivan Kadey (National Wake) and Lloyd Ross (Radio Rats) built an 8-track recording studio control room and fitted it out in a second hand caravan and called it Shifty. They parked it in a garage attached to the only house left in a demolished and derelict mining village near Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
All the work on this album was completed there, mainly after hours and mostly alone where I enjoyed an exhilarating freedom to develop a whole new set of musical skills and ideas, incorporating my love of a wide range of music I’d grown up with. Influences of 1970s progressive/kraut/and psychedelic rock combined with mbaqanga bass styles, early reggae/dub and Indian tabla rhythms. Stockhausen, early Zappa and Holgar Czukay were radio text and shredding influences, and Chris Cutler’s band Henry Cow & Art Bears helped me see a way to political expression. Mostly though was the exciting post-punk and no-wave music coming through to us from Europe and America: bands like This Heat, the Mekons, Raincoats, Sonic Youth and Pere Ubu were immensely important to me as was my reading from the period: J.M.Coetzee’s first 3 novels are strong influences on Free State Fence; the stark landscape, superstition, ritual, and sexual repression are in many of his settings. JG Ballard was a constant presence throughout that period, especially whilst living in such a surreal environment, surrounded by mine dumps, but mostly I think the whole French post-modern philosophical movement—Derrida, Foucault and of course, Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation—set out a new sense of possibilities, possible ways to express oneself, ways to think, and ways to try and analyse the political intersection of public and private life. Most important at that time was the influence of sound recordings I had made and experiences garnered from working as a sound recordist on documentary films. These financed my work and later the studio and were consistent employment throughout the 1980s. Film work also enabled me to experience much of South Africa that was hidden from most. The track Independence Day is a good example; drawn from some time spent in the rural homeland of Venda. This then was the first full length Kalahari Surfers album, completed in summer of 1984 it was taken to EMI pressing plant but rejected by the cutting engineer as being ""political, pornographic and anti religious"". Chris Cutler at Recommended Records took up the challenge and released the album through his label. He wrote the original liner note

Named after a (US) West Coast grocery store chain, The Whitefronts started out in 1982 as a quartet of art and theater students attending UCSB. The band quickly mutated into a sextet. In 1984, they moved north to establish themselves as part of the SF DIY culture. Live shows usually consisted of open jams drawing from what the band was obsessing about at the time—free jazz, The Velvet Underground, Caribbean music, improv noise—as well as their own unheralded genres that popped in and out of existence like subatomic particles. Shows with local bands like Slovenly, Camper Van Beethoven, Caroliner Rainbow, Vomit Launch, Barnacle Choir and Barbara Manning provide some context as to their eccentric position within the indie scene of the era.

In 1985, the band released their sole LP, Roast Belief, on their own Bogden label. This was an ambitious attempt to document the various ideas that were happening live. Though practically unknown today, it’s an extraordinary record—a mid-80s classic serving up eclectic derangement on a par with contemporaries like the Butthole Surfers, Meat Puppets, Sun City Girls, Tuxedomoon and Eugene Chadbourne.
The Mamo Waves LP was compiled from recordings made between 1982-1987. As with Roast Belief LP, it’s a mind-melting jumble of the genres explored by Whitefronts throughout their existence. It was originally supposed to be released by Camper Van’s Pitch-A-Tent imprint, as a couple of WF members were touring with CBV in 1987, but the release fell through the cracks when CBV was airlifted to Virgin Records in 1988. Today, it’s clear that Mamo Waves belongs to the same 1980s Californian sub-underground aesthetic that nurtured mythical 80s bands like Departmentstore Santas and Prominent Disturbance. It’s a real WTF m.o. that still sounds like the future.

Unreleased electronic / jazz / madness from two titans of jazz and experimentation: JOHN SURMAN and KARIN KROG.

I could now write a load of blown up puffery about how amazing this is, but everyone does that, and a lot of the time it’s all a load of bollocks. But basically this was sent to me by Karin / John when I asked if they had anything hanging about that had not been released. This came through and blew my tiny mind. Like something from prime Annette Peacock “Pony” period. Here is what John Surman said…

John Surman writes:

Back in 2012/13 there had been some talk about a big futuristic open air urban dance/theatre production for about 80/100 actors/dancers with lasers and all kinds of lighting effects on different stages. I was invited to get involved and, together with Ben and Karin, we eventually decided to get to work on some ideas. I think that the original plan was that in performance there would be a mixture of live music and electronica.

Not altogether surprisingly, bearing in mind the complexity of the project, it never moved forward and developed into anything more than an interesting idea. It was probably over ambitious & I guess the funding never came through.

The only information I that I can find relating to the production refers to two silent movies made in 1927/1928 by the filmmaker Eugene Deslaw, entitled `La Marche Des Machines´ and `Les Nuits Électriques.These were clearly intended to act as inspiration for the project.

After months turned into years it became obvious that the project was going nowhere, and so the recorded music laid around gathering dust until Johnny Trunk asked Karin if she had any interesting music that he might be interested in releasing. One thing led to another and so, finally, Electric Element found a home!

For anyone interested in the equipment used this will have to be an approximation since the memory might be playing tricks. Karin was probably using a Yamaha Rex50 f/x unit, a Roland VT-3 Voice Transformer and an Oberheim Ring Modulator. I was playing Bass Clarinet and Contrabass Clarinet through various f/x units together with a Yamaha WX5 wind synth. All the instruments and voice were also processed through Ben´s equipment. After writing this I asked Ben for his recollections and he came up with the following:

John, Karin and I created this music in 2 or 3 days in the winter of 2013 at their studio in Oslo, Norway. I followed up with another 2 or 3 days of mixing, editing and post-processing . We kept a collaborative, improvisational and free-form approach to the sessions. I grew up immersed in music such as Cloudline Blue, the 1979 duo album of Krog/Surman, and this felt like a similar approach. I have mixed sound for many of their live duo concerts and I would use effects and electronics as an

accompaniment and counterpoint to the performed music. The relation of organic and artificial sound sources in music has always fascinated. In this case, I used some contemporary digital signal processing to introduce my own aesthetic into the conversation, in particular using granular synthesis to recombine small 'clouds' of sound into alternate forms. Some of the software tools I used included Ableton Live, Max/MSP and Reaktor.

Repress!

Wonderwheel recordings is proud to present the first full-length album from

producer Robin Perkins, aka El Buho. Balance represents a meeting of different currents that make up Buho's music: a fascination with the natural world, and its protection, a fascination with the rhythms, traditions and sounds of Latin America and a fascination with modern electronic music and production aesthetics. The album is peppered with Cumbia, Son Jarocho, Andean instrumentation & Afro-Colombian rhythms. Mixed with this, Robin integrates this idea of "nature music" - putting the sound of a misty forest, the songs of birds, of crunching leaves under foot or the rhythmic tapping of rain alongside synthesized sounds, electronic clicks or claps, deep basses. Trying at once to give them their own space but in a new, surprising perspective - it draws electronic music into something more soft, natural, different and appealing.

Balance is also an album that celebrates community and collaboration, showcasing collaborations with ten different artists form Latin America and beyond, both producers, instrumentalists and singers. Including more of a lyrical presence than his previous EPs, Perkins solicited the participation of talented singers like Dina al Wedidi from Cairo, Luzmila Carpio from Bolivia and the incredible decimas of Mexican poet Citlaly Malpica. The album also features the likes of harpist Veronica Valerio, Argentine multi-instrumentalist Rumo Tumba, jarana player Pablo Emiliano from Mexican Son Jarocho group Semilla and members of the Shika Shika family (the global collective he co-run's) Uji, Barrio Lindo, Kaleema, Minük and Jhon Montoya.

El Buho's music has an incredible power to convey feelings, atmospheres, memories or messages. The message that sits behind this music is to value on the one hand the power of community, of collaboration and of our modern, globally, connected world but also the remembrance, protection and celebration of the very earth we depend upon for our existence.

"High urgency music with a very personal expression of the artist: in one way or another", this has always been the important or maybe even the core factor of every Cortizona release so far.

So it was just a matter of time until DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess, longtime fan of The Fall and Jiskefet, topnotch producer, dj wizard with three turntables (and a lovely person in general) - and myself - would collaborate towards a Cortizona release.

I guess the initial idea of working together with DJ Marcelle/Another Nice Mess dates back to 2019. One day she called me four times in five minutes just to hear Mark E. Smith's voice message on my phone. Since then there has been no going back. I mean: what's not to love about her?

Some time ago, she sent me the digital files of her new LP 'Sorry, No Service'. One of the tracks, 'Sorry, No Silence', features the Nan Goldin sample: 'this is clearly ethnic cleansing', taken from Goldin's impressive speech to which the audience cheered in support at the opening of her exhibition at the Neue Nationalgallerie in Berlin end of 2024.
Two weeks later Marcelle contacted me again: her German label refused to release the track. This was the moment we had both been waiting for: at last Cortizona and Marcelle would work together!

The album is due to be released later this year, but, with things as they are in Gaza, it is important to issue 'Sorry, No Silence' as a stand-alone track as soon as possible.
Talking about urgency!

'Sorry, No Silence' resonates feelings of global despair over the genocide in Gaza and the moraland political bankruptcy of 'western values'. It does so over a repetitive, militant tribal beat, complete with heavy basslines. The spirits of Mark Stewart, On-U Sound and Muslimgauze loom over the track, but as is always the case with Marcelle, both on stage and in the studio: she has an authentic style of her own, where playfulness meets courage and - also in this case - anger meets rhythm.

'Sorry, No Silence' is a track I didn't know I was waiting for. A track reflecting the sign of the times. The 12'' also features an even more heavy (and faster) dub version and the avant garde track 'Never Again Means', featuring more Nan Goldin samples: 'never again means never again for everyone'.
For obvious reasons the proceeds of this 12 inch and the digital Bandcamp release will be donated to PCRF, Palestine Children's Relief Fund.

Support more than welcome.


(written by Philippe Cortens)

Music is a language. This new label is a hypothetical sound trip between skyscrapers, wild places, deep imaginary oceans in our mistreated, but fascinating globe. No specific musical genre, but a sort of global beat, winking especially at the Balearic sounds. You can call them edits or re-publications, but our belief is that you can make tracks that are extremely expensive, in their original version or that have never been printed on vinyl. Imaginária wants to respect the publishers, authors, producers and musicians of the published songs, but fundamentally you who promote our idea.

From the moment she began writing her new album, Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner knew that she wanted to call it Jubilee. After all, a jubilee is a celebration of the passage of time—a festival to usher in the hope of a new era in brilliant technicolor. Zauner’s first two albums garnered acclaim for the way they grappled with anguish; Psychopomp was written as her mother underwent cancer treatment, while Soft Sounds From Another Planet took the grief she held from her mother‘s death and used it as a conduit to explore the cosmos. Now, at the start of a new decade, Japanese Breakfast is ready to fight for happiness, an all-too-scarce resource in our seemingly crumbling world.


Jubilee finds Michelle Zauner embracing ambition and, with it, her boldest ideas and songs yet. Inspired by records like Bjork’s Homogenic, Zauner delivers bigness throughout - big ideas, big textures, colours, sounds and feelings. At a time when virtually everything feels extreme, Jubilee sets its sights on maximal joy, imagination, and exhilaration. It is, in Michelle Zauner’s words, “a record about fighting to feel. I wanted to re-experience the pure, unadulterated joy of creation...The songs are about recalling the optimism of youth and applying it to adulthood. They’re about making difficult choices, fighting ignominious impulses and honouring commitments, confronting the constant struggle we have with ourselves to be better people.”

Throughout Jubilee, Zauner pours her own life into the universe of each song to tell real stories, and allowing those universes, in turn, to fill in the details. Joy, change, evolution - these things take real time, and real effort. And Japanese Breakfast is here for it.

TAMTEN, the master storyteller behind the synthesizers, extends his invitation to every curious listener to ponder the same questions that haunt him throughout his peculiar career: what impacts the sound of an era? How are we shaped by what we hear and see? Do we channel our collective feelings of longing and desire for higher purpose in accord or in opposition to major historical and political forces?
On "Wschodnia Fala: The Reimagined Vision of Eastern-European Wave Music" TAMTEN takes us on a kaleidoscopic voyage through a parallel universe where the symbols and echoes of days gone by are so much more than just archived exhibits of nostalgia. Through an array of meticulous, cut & paste rearrangements, the Warsaw-based artist manages to animate yet another fantastic world of "what could be", following his more apocalyptical take on the previous LP.
There is boldness in every aspect of the release. The saga-like story unfolds evoking the excitement of seashore autobahn ride, thrills of long-forgotten discotheque nights, rush of obsessive romance and intriguing, noir-inspired drama of introspection. The analogies between Polish wave music (with nods to Aya RL, Republika, Klaus Mittfoch, Papa Dance or even Bajm) and global disco-era top chart phenomenons like Kraftwerk, Grace Jones, Giorgio Moroder and Duran Duran, could spark hour-long musicology debates. The melodies and harmonies heard on the album resemble compositions everybody knows but also sound completely new and exhilarating, just as western music clips experienced for the first time behind the Iron Curtain and then collected compulsively on VHS tapes. The feeling of the author's frenetic attempt to capture sensations, memories, artifacts and ideas never escapes the listener till the very last minute of the recording.
"Wschodnia Fala" could pass for an eerie, anonymous late 80s lost-and-found cassette mixtape unearthed on any of the Berlin Wall's sides, if it wasn't for its crystal-clear, contemporary production value and the fluent, educated use of samples ranging from bizarre and opaque to deliberately retro-pop-influenced. Those elaborate winks of the eye for those in the know are already TAMTEN's trademark and they reflect his long-standing fascination with the dancefloor anthropology rather than just the dancefloor itself. Even though never leaning towards formulaic, easy-to-mix, club-ready stompers, his ideas are still groovy enough to make anyone move.
The album strives for some sort of unattainable totality - it's a ticket to a seance, an experience, a rite. It is a chance to time travel and dance with your ancestors in a glass labyrinth on acid or to watch an 80s teenage adventure, coming-of-age, road cruising film in the cinema of your imagination with only a soundtrack provided. A "the best of" CD compilation of hits from a childhood we remember from a different timeline. A comic book sketch, a diary of an archivist, an elegy for the times that never were and a party you wish you could go to right now. The adventure is always different with another listen.
Step in. Close your eyes. Reimagine.
Embrace the wave

Rico found an old painting from his childhood and set it to music as he remembered the infantile feels behind those moments of painting over 30 years ago. While perfectly fitting the label's idea of presenting EXHIBITIONs, this interdisciplinary time travel truly grew into some unique and remarkable music...

Krystal Klear returns to Running Back with another batch of purpose-built dance floor tracks. The name? Personal. It means something, but that bit stays off the press sheet.
Written during a particularly charged stretch of inspiration, these tracks aim to soundtrack every hour of the night: from the hopeful haze of doors open to the bitter-sweet buzz of lights on.
Crafted as quiet tributes to nights out and DJ booths in Germany, Scotland, and London, places where sweat meets sub, and the USB never quite ejects.
The formula? Unchanged and undefeated: heavy drums, melodic inflections, more ARPs than strictly necessary, and something emo stirred in for good measure. Dance music for dancers. Or at least for the idea of them.

astia's NECHTO presents a new six-track release from DJ Dextro, including one collaboration with Portuguese producer Cardao. The project marks Dextro’s first appearance on the label, following years of his tracks being played by Nastia and a shared event in Lisbon in 2023. That connection gradually turned into a conversation about releasing something together. “It was a matter of time until I got to her ear,” Dextro says. “And from there, we talked about NECHTO — and here we are.”
The tracks on the EP are shaped by a mix of spontaneous ideas and observations on daily life, society, and broader themes like science and the unknown. Dextro explains that the track titles often reflect his current state of mind or something happening around him --- sometimes personal, other times completely random. Each one sits within his established sound: energetic, structured, and focused on rhythm.
One of the six tracks features Cardao, with whom Dextro shares what he describes as “a good harmony and easy understanding” in the studio. Known for his groove-led, percussive style, Cardao’s contribution adds another layer to the release while fitting seamlessly into its overall tone.
Shaped by both artists’ individual perspectives, this EP stays close to the club — direct, driving techno rooted in shared sensibilities and straightforward execution.

From the moment she began writing her new album, Japanese
Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner knew that she wanted to call it
‘Jubilee’. After all, a jubilee is a celebration of the passage of time
- a festival to usher in the hope of a new era in brilliant technicolor.
Zauner’s first two albums garnered acclaim for the way they
grappled with anguish; ‘Psychopomp’ was written as her mother
underwent cancer treatment, while ‘Soft Sounds From Another
Planet’ took the grief she held from her mother’s death and used it
as a conduit to explore the cosmos.
Now, at the start of a new decade, Japanese Breakfast is ready to
fight for happiness, an all-too-scarce resource in our seemingly
crumbling world.
‘Jubilee’ finds Michelle Zauner embracing ambition and, with it, her
boldest ideas and songs yet. Inspired by records like Bjork’s
‘Homogenic’, Zauner delivers bigness throughout - big ideas, big
textures, colours, sounds and feelings. At a time when virtually
everything feels extreme, ‘Jubilee’ sets its sights on maximal joy,
imagination and exhilaration. It is, in Michelle Zauner’s words, “a
record about fighting to feel. I wanted to re-experience the pure,
unadulterated joy of creation… The songs are about recalling the
optimism of youth and applying it to adulthood. They’re about
making difficult choices, fighting ignominious impulses and
honoring commitments, confronting the constant struggle we have
with ourselves to be better people.”
Throughout ‘Jubilee’, Zauner pours her own life into the universe
of each song to tell real stories and allowing those universes, in
turn, to fill in the details. Joy, change, evolution - these things take
real time and real effort. And Japanese Breakfast is here for it.
Available on clear with yellow swirl coloured vinyl.

A meeting of minds and bodies on a heady percussive trip with no clear destination, captured live at Espacio Cultural El Tanque in Tenerife. With both imaginary and lived in tropical sceneries coalescing the two units, both Tenerife's Lagoss and Kampala's Abagwagwa (aka Nihiloxica) find a common thread to disentangle cartographies. As if it was bound to happen. As it did.

Taking Abagwagwa's relentless barrage of polyrhythms as a starting point to jammin' excursions that never falter into self indulgence, brimming with ideas and spirits pulled from East African traditions, Free Jazz cosmologies, Dub tactics, urban sonic warfare and different strains of psychedelia through a vast array of drums, percussion, flutes, skewed synths, ecstatic vocals and electronic processing.Blessed with the xamanic drumming of João Pais Filipe on two tracks and feeling equally indebted to both bands' vision all the while commiting to a newfound sense of wonder, 'Island Slang' is a celebration that's truly alluring in its search for some sort of 'Universal Consciousness' - to quote Alice Coltrane - for which we're now invited to tag along. You are all welcome.

'BMB x OBI' marks a new venture for the long-time instrumental powerhouse Black Market Brass. Teaming up with Obi Original, the young and visionary Minneapolis talent with a mission to share the heart of African music with the world, Black Market Brass delivers both proverbial and prophetic messages for the year to come - 'You've got to be Battle Ready!'. Inspired by the raw energy and messages of Fela Kuti and indebted to Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou for their heavy fusion of voodoo-infused Afro-beat, Black Market Brass points in both directions towards the resurgent history of West African funk and the future of where a younger generation can lead us. These tracks are bursting at the seams with energy and force the listener to wise up and march along as soon as the drums thunder and the horns blare their first notes. The A-side, 'Battle Ready,' is what it claims: a band armed and ready to take on whatever may come. Strapped to the hilt with three drummers, this infectiously rhythmic track simmers, if not boils, under Obi's demands to mount up. The energy is high, edgy, and proves that getting nine musicians in the same room to track live captures a passion that bulldozes through anything placed in its way. The B-side, 'What You Make It,' encapsulates a musical quality that Black Market Brass has refined over its many years together, with polyrhythmic ideas you don't have to understand to know it feels good. Infused with elements of ethno-funk and classic highlife, this Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas inspired work approaches the listener with a simple message amongst a danceable cacophony of sounds - 'Life is what you make it.' Move in 4, dance in 3, or sway in 6. Whichever you choose, choose it deliberately; the music will be there to support you.

Psychedelic rock in the dark!

Dope Purple's new album 'Children In The Darkness’ was recorded when the band hosted a live midnight recording session at Revolver, Taipei City, Taiwan on Friday 3rd March 2023.

Amidst the tense silence of the middle of the night, the five members of Dope Purple, two guest musicians: saxophonist Yong Yandsen from Malaysia, British drummer Darren Moore from Singapore, and a familiar audience, came together to produce the album 'Children In The Darkness’.

The album is a ferocious space psychedelic rock, no starlight, no glamourous psychedelic paradise, just a meditative journey of infinite darkness and ear-splitting tinnitus. Unlike our last album, I didn't have a specific theme or idea for this album, however I named it 'Children In The Darkness’ because all the songs on this album share the same lonely, disorientating chaos that reminds me of children forgotten in the darkness, and Dope Purple has always been a messenger for those children, playing sedative music for their ghosts.

At the end of each performance, I can clearly feel my furious brain melting away and only the calming spirit remains in my body.

Produced in eastern Sicily between Mount Etna and Ionian seashore, Oltremare recalls the idea of what’s beyond the sea, evoking the dialogue between Northern and Southern Italy, Europe and America, and all the extremes that are divided by the sea, in a constant -yet inspiring conversation that can only lead to contamination. Franco Corica and Andrea Normanno join forces with multi-talented and revered dj and producer Byron The Aquarius, who infuses his blissful touch to this jazz-funk inspired house record.

Guilherme Granado & Bruno Abdala Unite in FILHOS, a long-awaited collaboration between the two Brazilian musicians.

After years of friendship and sporadic live collaborations, Granado (São Paulo) and Abdala (Goiânia) have finally brought their creative synergy into a full-fledged project. Despite the geographical distance, a collaboration was inevitable — and now, it has become a reality.

The creative process moved swiftly once the exchange of ideas and files began. While the exact timeline is a blur, the inspiration remains clear: life itself. Musical influences are ever-evolving, shaped by experiences and time, but the essence of this project remains rooted in a deep connection to existence.

The sonic landscape is built from an eclectic palette: samplers, bells, synthesizers, drums, marimba, vibraphone, bass, violas, and more to create an elegant tapestry of sound that pays homage to the past while forging new paths forward.

At its core, this project is a tribute to tradition and lineage, hence Filhos (Sons). We are all products of what came before us, and through music, we strive to honor that legacy—carrying it forward into the future.

Composer Corneliu Cezar (1937-1997) was a distinctive personality within the Romanian post 1960 avantgarde: a visionary of music, a thinker and a prophet, a richly gifted artist also active with writing, poetry, painting and astrology. Cezar was an activist rediscovering the natural resonance of sound within a different historical context and he embraced the recovery of authenticity as a reaction against the artificialized culture of serial doctrines. When, after 1975 the spectral music trend became official in Paris, with much fuss and remarkable support from musicologists, nobody knew that this trend has already been practiced by a small group of Romanian composers lead by Corneliu Cezar for ten years. The four electro-acoustic pieces on this album (privately released on CD in Romania in 2000), recorded with little means between 1967 and 1975, display the incredibly strong ideas of a truly visionary artist. Everything Corneliu Cezar has done during his short earthly life bared the shade of authenticity.

To fans of black metal, Dødheimsgard need no introduction, being one of the great purveyors of the Norwegian Black Metal creative evolution.

The band was formed in 1994 by Aldrahn (Thorns) and Vicotnik (Ved Buens Ende). The early incarnation was that of a raw and at often melodic black metal band, with their debut album also featuring Fenriz of Darkthrone on bass. In recent years, Dodheimsgard has become known for its eclectic musical ventures and poignant mood shifts, with a less chaotic, more considered approach compared to their earliest works. Following the 'Kronet til Konge' and 'Monumental Possession' opuses, there was a shift in direction as demonstrated on 1998's 'Satanic Art' EP and by Dødheimsgard's third album, 666 International, Vicotnik had taken over a lot of the writing duties, with DHG's style becoming more technical yet ferocious black metal, with strong experimental ideas and industrial elements.

Vicotnik's riffs were inspired by cult bands such as Thorns and perfectly entwined with Aldrahn's delightfully twisted lyrics and immense vocals to create something truly unique. In its 666 International incarnation, DHG (as they were later to be known) featured a line- up of well- respected Norwegian musicians including Czral (Aura Noir, Ved Buens Ends, Virus), Apollyon (Aura Noir, Immortal), plus Mr Magic Logic (Fleurety) on keyboards, as the album was constructed over a period of time. All in all, 666 International is rightly regarded as a highly influential masterpiece of avant-garde metal by many since its release in 1999.

The Secret Goldfish release their first album in 25 years in June 2025 - Empty Holster has been in process since 1996 when vocalist Katy Lironi started collating songs by her favourite songwriters Vic Godard, Davy Henderson and James Kirk (the idea for Empty Holster was a covers album of their songs).
The tracks have been recorded extremely sporadically over the past decades and were finally finished off at Green Door studio and mastered by Samuel Joseph Smith.

Empty Holster also features covers of songs by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham, Port Sulphur, The Beach Boys, and a long-lost Goldfish collaboration with Adventures in Stereo's Jim Beattie, Elevator, which was missing for 15 years, presumed lost. Musical guests appearing on Empty Holster include Mick Slaven (The Bluebells), Campbell Owens (AztecCamera), James Kirk (Orange Juice), Vic Godard (Subway Sect), Francis Macdonald (Teenage Fanclub), and Katy and Douglas's daughter Amelia Lironi (QUAD90). The album is pressed on Goldfish Orange vinyl at Seabass Vinyl in Scotland.

Official Licence.

This limited-edition vinyl release brings together Lofi Girl and Assassin’s Creed Shadows in a legendary collaboration.

The album features 20 lofi remixes inspired by the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Original Game Soundtrack. Familiar melodies like Ezio’s Family have been reimagined as softer, more atmospheric tracks - ideal for unwinding, studying, or finding focus.

On limited double vinyl (500 ) with a download -

With Limited Edition A4 Heavy-Weight Space Art print (First 100 Copies Online) Signed & Numbered By Jon Savage (CTRUE48) Original Cover Artwork By Matt Sewell.

Jon Savage's Space - An amazing musical voyage through the theme and idea of Space - music for Space - Space - Music - Through West-Coast US Rock , Techno, Post-Punk , Jazz, Ambient & Experimental sounds-this is a journey like no other .. From Sun Ra to Mr Fingers and way beyond.

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"We are taken to less familiar musical quadrants-fascinatedly & instructively so"

(Roy Wilkinson - MOJO Feb 2025)

OVERVIEW: DUB TREES is one of Youth’s most revered dub projects, it helped define the Liquid Sound Design sound that fans around the world hold dear. This project is the third in a triptych of albums Youth has made with a specific Celtic / Hindu fusion. Starting out with the classic Celtic Cross ‘Hicksville’ 20 years ago, featuring the mythical Simon Posford (Shpongle) through to ‘East of the River Ganges’ (ft Klaus Shultz / Tangerine Dream amongst many others) in 2004 followed by the last piece of this mystical puzzle ‘Celtic Vedic’ ,released on compact disc only in 2016 , which charts the journey of the Celt from Northern India to Snowdonia. The idea stems from Youth’s firm belief that there is a strong correlation between Celtic and Vedic cultures and their Northern Indian roots. Youth has assembled a host of collaborators to weave their labrynthine magic on ‘Celtic Vedic’: Jah Wobble (PiL) on bass, Matt Black/Coldcut (Ninja Tunes) on warped soundscaping duties, Galician Celtic pipe and flute player Daniel Romar, Bollywood contemporary Indian singer Shridevi Keshavan and Elfic Circle. It features many field recordings made by Youth on his various Indian odysseys and is all harnessed together with cutting-edge electronica that the Liquid Sound Design team pioneered 20 years ago. The team today are still pioneering new directions within ‘Downtempo Electronica Music’ and beats that create 3 dimensional landscapes for the helioscopic imagination to explore and psychoactive maps for the inner astronaut in all of us. ‘Celtic Vedic’ promises unchartered bass annihilation and heliotropic soundscapes, pounding basslines overlayed on 3D holographic beats and wrestles with serpentine melodies and psychedelic textures.

Editions Mego reissue the 2001 release Asuma by Finnish artist Ilpo Väisänen. Originally released on CD this is the first ever vinyl issue, remastered by Rashad Becker. 2001 is a landmark year for the artist following a wave of success from the notable outfit Väisänen formed alongside Mika Vanio, Pan Sonic (as they were now known then). Following a string of highly acclaimed and influential releases such as “Vakio”, “Kulma”, “A’ and “Aaltopiiri” Pan Sonic had toured the globe extensively leaving a trail of blown expectations and rumours of all manner of objects in venues cracking or falling apart due to the immense sound the duo concocted with their unique instruments.

Taking a break from the ecstatic cacophony of Pan Sonic, Väisänen retreated to work on a solo release which conjured the spirits of the former outfit whilst simultaneously carving out a more personal take on these new electronic forms.

Asuma is a precise study of drones, rhythms, clicks, ambience and gentle confusion. Whilst inhabiting a zone of abstraction the results also move in a natural field as Väisänen’s native Finland permeates these recordings as much as the idea of experimentation itself.

Autioitu 1 opens the album as delicate pinball rhythms bounce across the spectrum as a hairy drone hovers underneath. The mood is both intriguing and unsettling. Tukahduttaja is a delightfully disorientating sound sculpture that is hard to pinpoint what it actually is. Klikki is comparable to a microscopic version of Pink Floyd’s “Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict”. Asumaton is a foreboding miniature acting like a segway to Vallitseva which embraces the icy clicks that punctuates much of the Pan Sonic output. Arvioimaton Ongelma is an audio riddle whilst Jaettu jitters around a dancefloor crawl. Autioitu closes proceedings as a gentle ambient thumper. Asuma is awash with contradiction and mystery. This is time wrapped in twisted turns and rewards a neat payoff for those interested in the absolute fringes of electronic ‘dance’ music.

For his third long-player under the Phi-Psonics banner, Ford-Young marshalled a series of live recordings at the Healing Force Of The Universe record store in Pasadena, sculpting fourteen tracks, largely composed in the moment with a fluctuating cast of players, which wonderfully transmit his ideals of community and inner peace. Called "Expanding To One", it features exquisitely calming yet searching pieces like "There"s Still Hope", where Seth"s softly undulating bassline underpins beatific explorations from core Phi-Psonics members, Sylvain Carton and Randal Fisher (both on saxophone), and Josh Collazo (drums), alongside guests Zach Tenorio (Wurlitzer piano) and Mathias Künzli (percussion). Equally sublime, "Healing Time" ripples like a mountain stream, with Ford-Young, Carton, Fisher and Tenorio joined by Minta Spencer (harp), Dylan Day (guitar) and, on drums/percussion, Jay Bellerose, a revered LA stickman most recently under the spotlight in Jeff Parker ETA IVtet.

Rando Arand is an Estonian electronic music producer from Tallinn. With a strong foundation in sound design, Arand released his debut record on Asphalt Soliloquies in 2017 and has since captivated audiences at clubs and festivals across the Baltics with his unpredictable and unique live sets. Drawing inspiration from a range of genres such as broken jazz, dubtechno, breakbeat and jungle, Arand incorporates modular synth patches into his performances. He has shared the stage with artists like Dorian Concept, Gerry Read and King Midas Sound. In 2019, Arand released the "Alles" EP on Ali Asker's LIITHELI imprint, which focuses on promoting local talent from Estonia's capital. Arand's latest EP, "Aru" (2022), showcases his exploration of a new "Linki" format. In addition to his musical pursuits, Arand was also a host at the underground venue Ulme in Tallinn.

About the album „Child of the Internet”

The new album by experimental sound designer and electronic music producer Rando Arand takes the artist on a completely different path compared to the previously known dance music influenced deep and contemplative instrumental tracks. Featuring several notable guest artists, the album is a sizzling hot record that makes feet tapping and bodies grooving. On the artist’s most listener-friendly work to date, an impressive lineup of Estonian vocalists makes an appearance: Hyrr IV, the lead singer of the indie band Ouu; Jon Mikiver from Elephants from Neptune; actress Mirtel Pohla; alternative pop artist Kitty Florentine; queer artist Helgi Saldo; comedian Maiduk; and hobby musicians Maihe and David.

The conceptual album "Child of the Internet" is dedicated to young kids for whom the internet has been a defining part of growing up. Genre-wise, the album is very flexible, weaving through various musical chapters and styles with the help of numerous musical sketches, touching on both the comedic and the darker oddities that circulate online.

The album features scorchingly hot, electrified synth-funk jams with a nostalgic touch reminiscent of Prince ("Slidin in Yo DM’s", "Refresh"). Kitty Florentine delivers a sensual neo-soul ballad ("Just Scrolling"), filled with soft tones, soulful warmth, and a smooth groove. For more demanding listeners, the record also explores elements of chillwave, glitch, lo-fi hip-hop, techno, house, and breakbeat. Longer tracks and shorter interludes come together like a bouquet of favorite memes or a collection of countless open web browser tabs that we all keep running. At the same time, the album hints at the immense impact the internet has on our everyday lives.

Rando Arand’s latest studio album is an intriguing listen — perfect for enjoying alone with good headphones or as an ideal background soundtrack for a larger gathering with friends.

Iori Wakasa, one of the leading lights of the Tokyo club scene is set to release his second 12” from his own label, “BOTANICA” which he established to express his own primal sensibilities.

The Concept of the Label:
Tokyo-based DJ/producer, Iori Wakasa launched BOTANICA to assert that his label’s activities in itself is art and a palette for his creative, self-expression. It is also based on 2 main concepts: To integrate the sensibilities of both "nature" and “artificial and human activities" and to “contribute music that presents a scenery from the listener's point of view”.

For Iori, his label is an interface of some sort and is also a symbol of his own personal musical expectations.

Iori produced these 2 new tracks during the recent pandemic when the world was under severe restrictions. While taking into account and focusing on both 'his current outlook' and returning to “the roots of his own production aesthetic', he strived to produce something that would substitute it and as a result, created these two new tracks and the artwork that are presented in the label's second release, 'The Party Is Here EP’.

In this EP, he also attempts to express the sentiment that 'the experience that music provides to people is invaluably infinite' and that 'if you truly want to go out and party, it will happen, then and there!’.

About the tracks:
For the track, ’Bedroom Disco’, Iori tries to express his memories of 'a virtual night of partying’ that he experienced during Covid and created this track while being ‘in a state of wanting to break free from oppression’ and reminiscing about a party in a bedroom at night.

He also wanted to express the idea that no matter what situation or environment you are in, you can go to anywhere you want if you really want to and with that sentiment, he wanted to express a scenerio that transcends it and at the same time, he also wanted to convey his feelings of nostalgia for the past, rebellion against the environment and his feelings of desire.

For this track, Iori did not use any sampled voices or field recordings and created it by layering pure sonic imagery repeatedly folded and desolved which triggered the creation of new developments while imagining the thought that “a party actually begins when you step out” and the swaying of emotions that take place from it.

’Tropica' is a track that Iori produced by heavily mixing a utopian feel that people have inside of them with his own sensuality and is designed to ‘guide you to a tropical seaside', regardless of what the listener may have experienced in the past.
Unlike 'Bedroom Disco', this track uses a variety of samples and envisages "many elements intertwining with each other, working together to create this sound structure”. And it also expresses that equal opportunity exists for anyone who wants to visit an imaginary tropical land as well as the hope that even a brief break of the mind can be created by yourself and those close to you, if one pursues it.

About the artwork:
The cover of this new EP, the concept text 'Is your window open?', and the label's logo was designed by illustrator, HILOSHI SHINOZAKI who also worked on the first release, BOTANICA EP. For over 10 years, he has been a regular visitor of Hawaii, where he tries to cultivate his "true way of life” in his art.

And, artwork for the cover and label design of the EP is complemented by the label design and art direction of the record by hiro, a graphic designer who has been his partner and best friend since the first Botanica EP.
hiro expresses Bedroom Disco track's shifting compositional changes and its complex series of sound waves by creating an intricately multi-layered design that is a perfect representation of the way he sees it.
Also initially inspired by the fluctuations of waves, islands, sun, rays, sky and time, the artwork of Tropica also found inspiration from a drawing that made by Iori’s daughter who drew a picture of a scenery when she listened to the track. So through this design, one of the label’s concept of “the label’s activities is in itself art” was realised via the surprising contribution coming from his own family.

ANORAX is privileged to issue a very special 7” single.

Piano virtuoso Gail Jhonson’s stunning reimagination of EXPANSIONS celebrates the 50th anniversary of LONNIE LISTON SMITH releasing his groundbreaking epic classic. His revolutionary fusion of Jazz Funk & Soul with a cosmic message is in the music was hailed as an instant classic when released in 1975. Since then after being adopted across diverse dance music genres it has become an anthem of anthems.

Gail grew up listening to Lonnie’s music on quiet storm radio in Philadephida. After attending his concerts she began jamming with the great man and they became friends. Now based in Los Angeles and leader of all female jazz outfit Jazz In Pink she came up with the idea of paying homage to and reinventing EXPANSIONS.

“I decide to cover one of his many compositions and EXPANSIONS spoke to my spirit. As a smooth jazz artist I was able to slow the tempo down and reharmonise some of the chord voicings and play his vocal melodies as a piano lead. The bass line is infectious and carries the groove, accompanied by a four on the floor beat, a little wah guitar and the reimagining began…”

Covering a song as sacred as EXPANSIONS could be regarded as herey but when it is recreated with such reverence as this it simply adds to the legend.

Cosmic Echoes indeed.

Die 1992 in London von Sänger und Songschreiber David Christian gegründete Band Comet Gain war ursprünglich inspiriert von den frühen Creation Records, Television Personalities und der Mod-Kultur. Comet Gain schöpften aus denselben Idealen wie Dexys, The Style Council oder Vic Godard und aus Traditionen wie der von The Velvet Underground, The Byrds und den 13th Floor Elevators. In den darauffolgenden Jahren veröffentlichte die Gruppe acht Alben auf so angesehenen Labels wie Wiiija, Kill Rock Stars, What"s Your Rupture und Fortuna POP!. In diesen Veröffentlichungen vermischten sich französischer New Wave mit englischem Arbeiterherz, Riot Grrrl mit Acid Punk und Twee Pop mit Post-Punk und Northern Soul. Comet Gain überdauerten ihre Zeitgenossen und inspirierten eine neue Generation von DIY-Bands. Auf dieser Platte, Comet Gains zweitem regulären Album bei Tapete Records, hören wir David Christian (Stimme, Gitarre), Ben Philipson (Gitarre), Rachel Evans (Gesang), Robin Christian (Schlagzeug), Anne Laure Guillain (Keyboards) und Clientele-Bassist James Hornsey, mit zusätzlichen Gesangs-, Bläser- und Keyboard-Beiträgen von Produzent Sean Read (Dexys, Edwyn Collins, Rockingbirds).

Repress of 2018’s classic compilation from Brownswood.

A primer on London’s bright-burning young jazz scene, this new compilation brings together a collection of some of its sharpest talents. A set of nine newly-recorded tracks, We Out Here captures a moment where genre markers matter less than raw, focused energy. Looking at the album’s running order, it could easily serve as a name-checking exercise for some of London’s most-tipped and hardworking bands of the past couple of years. Recorded across three long, fruitful days in a North West London studio, the crossover between each of the groups speaks to the close-knit circles which make up the scene.

Surveying the way that London’s jazz-influenced music had spread outside of its usual spaces in recent years, this album bottles up some of the vital ideas emanating from that burgeoning movement. Giving a platform to a scene where mutual cooperation and a DIY spirit are second-nature, it’s a window into the wide-eyed future of London’s musical underground.

Ubiquitous, much-lauded saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is the project’s musical director. His own recent projects span from South Africa-connected, spiritually-minded jazz players Shabaka and the Ancestors to Sons of Kemet, who match diasporically-connected compositions with viscerally-direct live shows. His entry on the album, ‘Black Skin, Black Masks’, is typically difficult-to-define: with an off-kilter, shifting rhythmic backbone, repeated phrases – mirrored between clarinet and bass clarinet – shape the track with an alluring hue. His input ties together a deft, genre-agnostic sensibility that’s shared through all the players on the record.

Theon Cross – who’s also part of Sons of Kemet with Hutchings – starts his track, ‘Brockley’, with the solo, distinctive low rumble of his tuba. Winding and mesmeric, it sees tuba and sax lines winding together in rhythmic and melodic parallels. Ezra Collective – whose drummer and bandleader Femi Koleoso has toured with Pharaohe Monch – run a tight, Afrobeat-tipped rhythm on ‘Pure Shade’, with the final third changing gear into a melodic, momentous closing stretch.

Joe Armon-Jones, whose ludicrous chops on the piano have seen him touring with the likes of Ata Kak, showcases earworm-like, insistent motifs on ‘Go See’, balanced with a playful, improvisatory approach with room for ad-libbing and solos a-plenty. Taking a softer tact than many of the other entries, Kokoroko – whose guitarist Oscar Jerome has been making waves with his solo material – spin a lyrical, steady-paced meditation on ‘Abusey Junction’, matching chanted vocals with gently-played guitar.

Nodding to spiritual jazz influences, Maisha’s ‘Inside The Acorn’ is a wandering, explorative rumination, balancing delicate washes of piano and percussion with sharp interplay between flute and bass clarinet. In contrast, Nubya Garcia’s ‘Once’ is taut and carefully-poised, her tenor sax guiding a carefully-built energy to an explosive conclusion. And finally, Triforce’s ‘Walls’ is a performance in two parts: starting with Mansur Brown’s languorous, lyrical guitar, the second half switches up to a low-slung, g-funk-tipped groove.

2023 Repress

DJ Koze - with his friendly and sometimes slightly melancholic take on the world - is one of the greatest auteurs of club music today, and one of the few internationally active DJs who dares to make music that has relevance beyond the dance floor. During the 70-minute journey on his DJ Kicks - the 50th edition - Kosi
Kos manages to establish a uniform color even though genres alternate in a way that is rarely heard on a mix CD: the stripped down hip hop of Madlib, brutalist Berghain techno, timeless songwriting, floating indie-pop and outlier numbers that oscillate between absurdity andmelancholy. Koze's disregard for the stylistic yoke presents him with an immense challenge. Hence, almost all the tracks are more or less edited, and one is fully rhymed (Session Victim: Hyuwee).Koze rambles on here himself: "I didn't want to kick around ophisticated knowledge, but rather try and weave together some good gems that would make sense to anyone, even people who aren't necessarily music nerds". But this is blabbing that you can count on, also because he approaches the term "mix" from a different angle and doesn't even try to make something fit that doesn't fit: "During the day, I don't need to hear anything that's mixed on the beat. I put the focus on making sure that it works harmoniously - the idea is more to create the impression of a radio show, like people such as John Peel did so uniquely. There is a giant cosmos of music and it runs through my filter".

The songwriter Joseph Allred is always prolific, but breaks up their string of solo releases for one of the most orchestrated offerings since the excellent Branches And Trees. Allred’s often monastic guitar works are fleshed out here on Old Time Fantasias, turning them towards ensemble visions of country, Americana, and Appalachia. Album opener, “The Groundhog,” features the distinctive piano of Hans Chew, with bass from Daniel Kimbro and brass from Mikey Allred. Elsewhere the new album features Kelby Clark, Courtney Werner (Magic Tuber String Band), Evan Morgan (Magic Tuber String Band), Lydian Bramblia, and Jack Bird in the mix. “I started recording this album in Spring ‘23, thinking I might be making a mostly solo acoustic album with a couple of duets thrown in for good measure. I met Hans Chew at a Nashville show a few months earlier and sent him a few tracks to see if he wanted to add anything to them. Before long the ‘solo acoustic album’ had given way to what’s probably the most involved and densely orchestrated album I’ve made to date. “I enjoyed following some threads of influence that aren’t as easily discernible in my solo playing—I hear some classic country and psychedelic flourishes, baroque pop glockenspiel and horns, percussion ideas that may be cribbed from Danny Elfman and Tom Waits albums, nods to post-rock-filtered western guitar twang, and a little Cocteau Twins dreaminess. “All in all this was a satisfying record to make. I’m especially grateful to the collaborators for adding their touches and making it a less solipsistic affair than it would have been otherwise. The political climate has changed so much over the last two years that I find it hard to imagine I could make a record with this kind of fantastic mood if I started now. I hope that it can maybe re-enchant those of us who are felling disillusioned.” —Joseph Allred