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Der Wiener SALAMIRECORDER präsentiert mit seinem aktuellen Album "Inside The Cage" wieder einmal stilsicheren 60s-Garage Sound. Nach seiner letzten LP auf Bachelor Records, die er noch mit seiner Band "The Hi-Fi Phonos" eingespielt hat, hat er für "Inside The Cage" zehn Songs zur Gänze allein mit 4-track Taperecorder aufgenommen. "If you have to describe the music, its probably like a weird slightly annoyed outsider but with a melting heart for love songs. A perfect shake between 60s Back from the Grave Garage punk and a little breeze of early trash mixtape Powerpop. or something... ...weird, loud, rocknroll noise!!!" (Elmar, Bachelor Rec.) Natürlich ist der 23-jährige SALAMIRECORDER viel zu jung, um selbst die weltverändernden Zeiten des Rock'n'Roll erlebt zu haben. Doch seine Persona als trägt dessen historisch aufsässiges Programm in sich. Stilprägend war dabei seine beim Skateboard-Fahren entwickelte frühe Leidenschaft für Genre-Größen der 2010er wie Ty Segall oder Bass Drum of Death. Dieser Tage ist Salamirecorder bestens vernetzt, aber weniger per Sozialen Medien als im echten Leben. Er genießt Respekt, sowohl bei Beat-begeisterten jungen Kids als auch bei ergrauten Szene-Altvorderen wie Wild Evil & The Trashbones oder den Jaybirds, spielt bejubelte Gigs mit seiner perfekt eingespielten Begleit-Combo The Hi-Fi Phonos und gehört als Schlagzeuger, Gitarrist und Sänger Bands wie Laundromat Chicks, Sux Sux Sux und Telebrains an. Als Produzent hat er neulich das Solo-Debüt von Vic Velvet auf Band gebannt. Das Analoge ist ihm dabei nicht bloß puristisches Glaubensprinzip, sondern eine ebenso praktische künstlerische wie - ja doch! - politische Entscheidung. In einer Welt endloser digitaler Möglichkeiten findet der Salamirecorder eine paradoxe Freiheit, indem er sich selber auch ein bisschen limitiert.

On "Enduring Sonance," saxophonist and flutist Steve Wilson reflects on a lifetime of lyrical, deeply felt songs drawn from jazz, pop, and film—brought to life by an all-star ensemble featuring Renee Rosnes, Joe Locke, Jay Anderson, and Kendrick Scott. *** Certain songs have a way of lingering in the imagination—resonating long after we’ve last heard them, sometimes for a lifetime. On his breathtaking new album "Enduring Sonance," veteran saxophonist and flutist Steve Wilson celebrates the music that has left the deepest imprint on his musical life. “Some of the tunes on this record have stayed with me for, in some cases, over 50 years from the time that I first heard them,” Wilson says. “I wanted to put some music out there that people can connect with, no matter what kind of music they like.” Originally conceived as a ballads project, Enduring Sonance evolved into something broader and more personal. Rather than focusing on tempo or style, Wilson gravitated toward a sense of lyricism—music whose emotional clarity and melodic resonance endure across genres, decades, and listening habits.

To realize this vision, Wilson assembled a deeply intuitive ensemble featuring pianist and arranger Renee Rosnes, vibraphonist Joe Locke, bassist Jay Anderson, and drummer Kendrick Scott, with special guest Kevin Newton (French horn, Imani Winds) appearing on two tracks. Each musician brings a rare sensitivity to melody, texture, and space, allowing the material to unfold with warmth, restraint, and quiet authority. The repertoire draws from a wide musical landscape, including works by close collaborators and modern jazz masters Billy Childs and George Cables, alongside enduring songs by Michel Legrand, Quincy Jones, Milton Nascimento, Gino Vannelli, Bill Lee, and Eliane Elias. These are not standards in the traditional sense, but deeply personal selections—songs that have accompanied Wilson through different chapters of his life. The album opens with Childs’ “Quiet Girl,” its subtle rhythmic motion enhanced by Newton’s luminous French horn, and travels through cinematic ballads, soulful grooves, and reflective lyricism. The title Enduring Sonance speaks both to the lasting resonance of these songs and to Wilson’s enduring musical relationships—most notably with Rosnes, whom he has known for nearly four decades and whose sensitive arrangements help unify the album’s diverse repertoire. “These songs are the soundtrack of my life,” Wilson says. “I’d love it if listeners came away from this album with the same kind of enduring sound and feeling.”

Metric’s relentless pursuit of timeless songwriting and fiercely independent ethos have cemented their place as one of the most essential and ahead-of-the-curve bands of the last two decades. The trailblazing Toronto outfit was founded by songwriting and production partners Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw, along with bandmates Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott Key. Though both were also founding members of the influential and sprawling Canadian indie rock outfit Broken Social Scene, Metric was always the top priority, and shortly after they met and cemented their mission, they left Toronto for New York in search of like-minded artists. There, they found themselves at the center of the city’s burgeoning indie sleaze scene alongside bands like LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol.

Their 10th studio album Romanticize The Dive harkens back to the free spirit of that era, kicking off with Haines nostalgically imploring the listener to “let me take you back, it was the start of something...” before pulling back the curtain on a band that has consistently stayed true to each other and their ethics for decades. In a tribute to lifelong friendship, the album also reunites the dream team behind their 2009 breakout album Fantasies at Electric Lady Studios in New York. All at once a heartfelt reflection on their history, a celebratory gift to those who have been along for the ride, and an outstretched hand to new fans, Romanticize The Dive is another testament to the band’s unwavering love for each other and their insatiable desire to push themselves as artists.

Psychedelic MasterpieceOriginally released on Capitol Records in 1969, Euphoria’s debut album A Gift From Euphoria is an unsung album; one with incredible sonic radiance, masterful songwriting, and everlasting harmonies—with their fantastical combination of psychedelic, folk, country, and hard rock. The 15 songs set up a journey through the best of what had been happening within modern music by 1969. Comparisons to The White Album are apt as it leaps from genre to genre with shocking confidence, as if they knew this was their only chance to say it all on a record. But it was too good to last as this was the only album Euphoria made, one that is critically championed in hindsight and highly sought after nowadays, and it is Jackpot Records honor to be able to bring it to you. Now reissued from the original analog master tapes with the original cover artwork exclusively for RSD 2026.

RSD title from 2022 pressed again. Reissue of the sought-after deep/spiritual jazz album, the first time it’s been pressed from the master tapes. All analog lacquer by Bernie Grundman. Bobby Hamilton founded the band Anubis in Syracuse, New York, and they put out their awesome ‘Ecology’ single on Charles Bazen’s Salt City imprint. It’s a highlight on the Soul-Cal anthology Now-Again issued in 2012, something akin to Terry Callier and Gil Scott Heron’s most soulful works. Shortly after issuing that single, Bobby put together the Bobby Hamilton Quintet Unlimited and recorded and issued ‘Dream Queen’ in 1972. The last clean copy Bobby Hamilton had, he sold to the musician Jamie XX in 2021 for a princely sum. Few originals will ever surface again, its original run of 500 units having disappeared into the ether decades ago. This is your chance to hear a masterwork of deep, spiritual jazz lacquered directly from its original master tape in an all analog transfer by the legendary Bernie Grundman.

2xLP Black Vinyl. Jane Remover is something of an internet legend. They are credited with playing a key role in the creation of the digicore music microgenre, an overstimulated relative of hyperpop.
In fact, everything Jane Remover does has an overdose of stimuli: their songs are like the Tasmanian devil from Looney Tunes. A whirlwind of warped and excessive digital pop.

Music To Watch Seeds Grow By continues its second season with Seoul-based left of centre ambient duo Salamanda - Uman Therma (Sala) and Yetsuby (Manda) - and their meditation on the inner life of a basil plant. Seeds 008 is an ambient composition born from quiet domestic observation: a single basil on a windowsill, its days shaped by light, warmth, and the slow passage of time.

The album moves through a full day in the plant's life opening with ‘introduce my atom which is my favorite one’, an act of quiet self-declaration in morning light, before settling into the unhurried rhythmic pulse of ‘to to ki toki tok’- the drip of water, the tick of a clock, the slow beat of photosynthesis. ‘allez, pousse!’ - one of the standouts in this journey - carries the basil's gentle will to grow, to push, to tilt toward the sun, while ‘hungry snail’ captures a moment of creaturely encounter on the glass: an uninvited visitor, moving slowly, wanting. As the afternoon deepens, 'Basil's Ritual' traces the daily ceremony of light and warmth, repeated with calm devotion from root to leaf. Night falls across 'Basil's Dream', and in the stillness something like sleep arrives - the plant resting, imagining tomorrow's sun. The album closes with ‘the blue wine’, a final mysterious reverie in which the basil seems to contemplate its own fate, somewhere between acceptance and wonder.

'Matsuli Music is proud to announce the first vinyl reissue of Philip Tabane’s Sangoma ("Spiritual Healer") since its 1978 release. Remastered from the original tapes with lacquers cut by Frank Merrit and pressed on 180g heavyweight vinyl at Pallas in Germany, this definitive edition re-asserts the power of one of South Africa’s landmark recordings. Featuring new liner notes by cultural critic Kwanele Sosibo and artwork restoration by Siemon Allen, Sangoma returns in full force through an extended Malombo line-up, fronted by Tabane's spellbinding guitar - ancestral, timeless, and unbound.
'Philip Tabane (1934–2018), the mercurial guitar genius of South African music, forged a sound that was as rooted in the spirit world as it was in daily life. With the Malombo Jazzmen of the 1960s, Tabane disrupted Western notions of “jazz,” bringing the resonant rhythm of cowhide malombo drums into the foreground. While outsiders and the uninitiated often reached for labels like “primitive yet sophisticated,” Tabane and his collaborators named it more truthfully: “music of the spirit.”
'By the time of Sangoma, Tabane stood at a crossroads. Fresh from a period of three years’ touring in the United States where he graced the Newport Jazz Festival, and played alongside Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and others, he brushed off comparisons with characteristic self-assurance: “No, I don’t play like Miles. Miles plays like me.” Back home in South Africa, and with a newly signed international distribution deal with WEA Records, he harnessed this momentum into a larger band setting, capturing a rare intensity.
'The result was Sangoma—an album that bridges contradictions: expansive yet intimate, celebratory yet haunted by exile and return. Tracks such as “Sangoma,” “Hi Congo,” and “Keya Bereka” are not simply performances but living testaments, songs that would remain in his repertoire for decades. Unlike the moody, immersive character of much of his work, here Tabane is on the move—urgent, restless, uncontainable. As he announces on the second track, “Maskanta wa tsamaya” (“something that kicks ass”).
More than four decades on, Sangoma is both an historical document and a timeless invocation. From his home in Mamelodi to the world and back again, Tabane’s spiritual healing endures—raw, electric, and unbowed.'

Kēpa is built whole, even if life has broken a few bones along the way.

Back when he was a pro skater, he gave everything to the board. Today, he gives that same intensity to the stage, delivering hypnotic cine-concerts where motion, sound, and image blur into one. The only falls left now are the ringing final chords of his guitar — not just an instrument, but an extension of his body.

Fingerpicking is his native tongue. So much so that Kēpa no longer sings — he lets the strings speak. Percussive, alive, essential. This music isn’t about performance, it’s about living: a personal quest, a way to reach others by first going inward. Moving against the current without fighting the wind. Finding breath, essence, and remembering we’re all drifting on a spinning planet, surrounded by forces bigger than us.

It’s easier to look away. Easier to follow noise, fear, or false prophets. Harder — and braver — to truly connect.

Released in late 2025, Hotline Service opened the door, offering a wide-open, spiritual escape. With SOUL WASH SERVICES— produced by Timber Timbre — Kēpa goes further. Warmer, deeper, more focused. The album feels like sunlight on asphalt, a long drive with the windows down, time slowing just enough to let something real surface.

A kindred spirit to Hermanos Gutiérrez, Kēpa plays the role of a modern, pagan preacher — guiding us through a dusty, golden road movie that unfolds entirely inside the listener. His music doesn’t shout; it cleans.

Kēpa does it all: writes, plays, films, edits, mixes. Music becomes image, image becomes music. Nothing is separate, on record or on stage. There’s no excess, no showboating — just an open invitation to slow down, go deeper, aim higher.

Tracks like Solarium and Paradisiac reach the peaks with minimal gear: five strings, a few picks, and total control of touch and space. Listening to Kēpa feels like checking in with yourself — a quiet inner trip shaped by sounds from every corner of the world. Blues, not to feel them, but to leave them behind.

After years devoted to picking, his playing has become something sacred.

And if you let it, it carries you with it.

Hot’n’Spicy returns with Vol. 8, carrying the same DNA that built the label’s reputation: deeply curatedselections and HOLDTight’s very personal approach to late nigh grooves & timeless music.Side A opens with a warm late-night disco-boogie groove, wrapped in a beautiful vocal and a crispdriving rhythm. Unmistakably Hot’n’Spicy.A2 drifts into a different atmosphere with a romantic slow-disco mover around 105 BPM, glowing withquiet tension and late-night charm — a piece built for listeners who appreciate subtlety and emotionaldepth. On the flip, B1 lifts the energy with a vibrant high-energy disco cut featuring a superb vocal,full of colour, uplift, and that joyful spirit that makes disco endlessly addictive.Vol. 8 continues the Hot’n’Spicy story — carefully chosen grooves for selectors, vinyl collectors, andhappy diggers.

For its third release, Honey Trap turns toward the instinctual. Ritmo Animal is a record driven by body memory, where rhythm becomes language and movement becomes communion. Vancouver- and Colombian-rooted duo Dosis weave club music with lived histories, drawing from punk ethics, soundsystem culture, and a deep commitment to collaboration.

Formed by Daniel Rincon and Zachary Treble, Dosis operates in the space between structure and looseness, where grooves feel hand-built and edges remain intentionally rough. Across five tracks, Ritmo Animal resists clean categorization. House mutates into dub-soaked psychedelia, vocals surface and dissolve, and percussion swings between discipline and abandon.

The A-side opens with “I Want To Be Your Dog”, a low-slung, hypnotic burner featuring Alien D, setting the tone through repetition and restraint. The title track, “Ritmo Animal,” anchors the record in motion, with saxophone lines from Dave Biddle threading through percussive momentum and grounding the track in something tactile and human.

On the flip, “Malibu” offers a softer pull, with Hannah Acton’s vocals drifting through warm, unhurried rhythm. “Humo,” featuring Hashman Deejay, leans deeper into smoke and sway, while closer “Sancocho” stretches time entirely, favoring communal simmer over destination.

Ritmo Animal is music made for shared space. It is not concerned with polish or purity, but with connection, between scenes, cities, and bodies on a floor. Another chapter in Honey Trap’s ongoing exploration of intimacy, pleasure, and rhythm as refuge.

The year that NOW’s story began, and where we started our ‘Yearbook’ series back in 2021. An incredible year in Pop music, and a fabulous selection of the years’ hits have featured on that first ‘Yearbook’, and on the ‘80-84 Final’ as part of our appreciation of 1983. Those tracks were generally the bigger hits of the year, with their Chart achievement a factor in their inclusion. However, that’s not the whole story, and our celebration of 1983 wouldn’t be complete without shining a light on some of the year’s singles that have been compiled much less frequently over the past 40 years. Welcome to the THE VAULT for 1983…Some of the tracks were Top 40 hits, some missed the Chart completely, and some were huge in the U.S. and not in the U.K. – but all are part of the wonderful Pop story of 1983. Released as 80 tracks across 4-CDs, available as a standard 4CD and as a a special edition 4CD in ‘hardback book’ packaging featuring a 28-page track by track guide, original singles artwork and a quiz and 45 tracks across 3-LPs, pressed on stunning translucent red vinyl -

With our 12th anniversary approaching, we invited Dutch artist Human Space Machine, who delivered Perception Field, a five track EP built around the idea that perception is never fixed.
Across a wide tempo range, the record explores how the same material can shift depending on focus and context. Foreground and background exchange roles. Subtle textures and negative space shape the impact as much as the main rhythmic elements. Perception Field approaches club music as something fluid and responsive, where meaning forms through the act of listening itself. It’s an impressive showcase from an artist that shows once again he’s capable of merging layers of his excellent sound design with deeper feelings.

With our 12th anniversary approaching, we invited Dutch artist Human Space Machine, who delivered Perception Field, a five track EP built around the idea that perception is never fixed.
Across a wide tempo range, the record explores how the same material can shift depending on focus and context. Foreground and background exchange roles. Subtle textures and negative space shape the impact as much as the main rhythmic elements. Perception Field approaches club music as something fluid and responsive, where meaning forms through the act of listening itself. It’s an impressive showcase from an artist that shows once again he’s capable of merging layers of his excellent sound design with deeper feelings.

Jazz by Sun Ra, Vol. 1.


Released in 1957 on the Transition label, this album is important because it features Sun Ra's first recordings before the Saturn sessions, recorded in 1956 when the Chicago musicians were searching for something more, something beyond.

Keith Tippett was just twenty-one when his group recorded the first of these sets for BBC’s Jazz Workshop on May 21st 1969, three months before the recording of his first album, You Are Here – I Am There. Featured on Side One is the three-part “Portishead Suite,” which presents three stylistically different musical portraits of three generations of the Somerset town. The first is comparatively gentle and flowing but the second portrait is more insistent, its 5/4 tempo bringing to mind themes heard on early King Crimson albums. The third portrait has something of the Caribbean in its playful rhythms. “Hail Conquering Hero” can be heard on Side Two, and is described by Tippett as ‘a jazz study of war.’ None of these compositions have ever appeared officially in any form. Also included on Side Two are two tracks from Tippett’s August 1970 session for BBC Top Gear that was advertised as by Keith Tippett & Heavy Friends.
Keith Tippett – piano; Mark Charig – cornet; Nick Evans – trombone; Elton Dean – alto; Gill Lyons – bass; Alan Jackson – drums. Sleevenotes by Duncan Heining

Faitiche welcomes a new artist: Christina Kubisch belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Her practice ranges from performances, concerts, to works with video and visual art, but she is best known for her sound installations and electro-acoustic compositions.

TUNING brings together three pieces by Christina Kubisch from different periods of her oeuvre. What they have in common is the way they transform sound phenomena originally considered “non-music” into compositions.

Jan Jelinek: Gaming in Silence (2024) is the most recent work on this compilation. It’s a collage of electromagnetic waves, voice, and abstract sound textures. How did this combination come about?

Christina Kubisch: Gaming was commissioned as a fixed-media composition for the Sound Dome at ZKM Karlsruhe. Since Resonances: The Electromagnetic Bodies Project (2005), I’ve been making recordings in the old and new server rooms at the ZKM and in their permanent collection of historical computer games. Computer games like Asteroids (Atari, 1979) and Poly-Play (VEB Polytechnik, 1986) have specially generated analogue electromagnetic waves that interest me in particular on account of their density, rhythms and textures. I originally studied painting and to me the work of composition often feels like painting an abstract picture. I alter my source material as little as possible, layering and overlapping until a distinctive sound space emerges. In recent pieces, I sometimes combine magnetic waves with field recordings or live instruments. In Gaming it’s my recording of a Chinese song about silence.

JJ: Two persons walking through a street in Madrid (2004) is a recording from your Electrical Walks series. Here we should give a brief explanation of one of your best known works: participants in an Electrical Walk move through public spaces wearing prepared headphones that allow them to receive electromagnetic waves from their surroundings – for example from security gates, ATMs or neon signs. They discover a situation that normally is inaudible to the human ear and they can actively shape it by choreographing their movements. I really admire this piece, not least because there’s no clear dividing line between participants and artist. What exactly do we hear in Two persons walking through a street in Madrid (2004)?

CK: With this early work, I wanted to understand what is heard by people participating in an Electrical Walk in the same place but moving in different ways. The Spanish composer Miguel Alvarez-Fernàndez and I set off from opposite ends of a major shopping street in Madrid, met briefly in the middle, and then continued to the end. We both recorded our walks and I then layered them over one another. You might call it a work of electromagnetic conceptualism.

JJ: Diapason (2009 version) is an installation that plays a composition based on sounds from fifteen tuning forks. This setting is audible in the recording: there’s no dramatic arc, no beginning or end – instead, it recalls a piece of aleatoric music focussing on the decay phase. How did you come to make this work and could you tell us something about your compositional method?

CK: Diapason is part of a series of three pieces that deal with “non-instruments” or instruments that no longer exist: electrical mine bells used to send signals to the workers underground; a historical glass harmonica originally used for medicinal purposes; and tuning forks that were used by doctors to test people’s hearing. All of these methods are no longer in use. The sound of the tuning forks, audible only if held close to the ear, was recorded at the electronic studio at Berlin’s Technical University in such a way that even their decay remained audible. The frequencies range between 64 and 2048 Hertz and they can be adjusted at micro-intervals using small movable weights. The sequence and the duration of the pauses are dictated by chance and were not defined in advance. The 2009 version was created for an installation in the historic Holy Cross Church (Korskirken) in Bergen. Visitors could enter and leave the space at any time, deciding for themselves where and for how long they wished to listen to the sounds played back over an array of small loudspeakers placed on the floor of the apse.

Credits:

Gaming in Silence: commission of the ZKM/Hertzlab, Karlsruhe 2023
elektronic sound processing: Tom Thiel
sound engineering and mixing: Eckehard Güther

Diapason: produced at Elektronisches Studio of TU Berlin
rearrangement: Eckehard Güther

Christina Kubisch, published by Edition Christina Kubisch / Random Musick Publishing

image front: Transitionen 2021 by C. Kubisch, sonagrams of electronic waves (courtesy: Galerie Mazzoli Berlin)
image back: Diapason Tuning Fork, property of Folkmar Hein, Photo: Archiv Christina Kubisch

design by Tim Tetzner
mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Thanks to Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Folkmar Hein, Dominik Kautz and Mario Mazzoli

Robert Pettersson, die kraftvolle Stimme hinter zwei der größten schwedischen Rockbands, Takida und Stiftelsen, tritt nun mit seinem ersten Soloalbum ins Rampenlicht. Bekannt für seine rohe Emotion und seinen unverwechselbaren Sound, hat Robert mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte damit verbracht, Charts anzuführen, Arenen auszuverkaufen und den modernen schwedischen Rock zu prägen. Sein Solodebüt zeigt eine persönlichere Seite und verbindet tiefgehende Texte mit elektronischen Klangwelten. Produziert wurde das Album von Roberts langjährigem Songwriting-Partner Chris Rehn. So habt ihr Robert Pettersson noch nie gehört - intim, mutig und unverkennbar authentisch.

Grounded in a season of life that has been earned rather than borrowed, Benjamin Tod speaks with the ease of someone no longer running from himself. There is joy now - a steadiness that comes from commitment. With the recent arrival of his son and a deep well of new music on the horizon, Tod is firmly rooted in both purpose and possibility. That clarity is evident in Vengeance and Grace, the Lost Dog Street Band frontman's forthcoming and most expansive solo album to date. Conceived as a "dual-version" release, the project presents two parallel worlds: (Alone) is a stripped solo-acoustic version, along with its full band counterpart.

Together, the two versions form the full range of what Tod is capable of: restraint on one side, force on the other. At the core of Tod's writing is a simple conviction: music should serve something larger than the moment. His writing speaks to mind, body, and soul, shaped by faith, discipline, and a hard-earned understanding of consequence. The darkness that once defined him is neither denied nor indulged. It is understood and no longer in control. Today, Tod moves with a sense of calm that wasn't always there. He is grateful, settled, and intentional, continuing to follow the compass that's guided him from the beginning. Rooted in traditional country and folk, his work stands firmly in the modern music landscape, shaped by experience, restraint, and the life he's built around it.

When you name your band Prince Daddy & The Hyena, you sort of accept that chaos isn’t a chapter in your story – it’s the entire ethos. Since forming out of Albany, NY’s DIY scene, Prince Daddy & The Hyena have built a career out of reaching their breaking point and continuing forward anyway. Their first LP, produced by Joe Reinhart, captured a very young band figuring things out in real time; their massive conceptual undertaking Cosmic Thrill Seekers followed and pushed their ambition (and patience) to new extremes. Not long after, a serious van accident nearly took their lives, directly informing the intensity of their self-titled record.

Over the last decade, the band has lost close friends and collaborators, endured relationship struggles, and faced countless moments that would have ended most bands without question. But those experiences never slowed Prince Daddy & The Hyena down. On their upcoming fourth album, Hotwire Trip Switch, they recalibrate and reconnect with their roots while sounding more focused and self-aware than ever. Reuniting with Joe Reinhart for the first time in nearly a decade, the album pulls from the punchy lineage of Green Day, the hook-driven quirk of Weezer, the snarky urgency of Joyce Manor and Jeff Rosenstock – all through the distinctly bratty lens of songwriter and vocalist Kory Gregory.

Following their debut album "Flaws," here is a high-quality follow-up from GARDENS. The popular Viennese indie band are making music that feels warm, direct, and a little rough around the edges. Bright guitars, soft synths, and melodies that stick without trying too hard. Their sound drifts between indie pop, dreamy folk, and gentle garage energy, grounded in honest, quietly catchy songwriting. EP digitally and on ltd tape available. "GARDENS certainly succeed in adding new layers of inspiration into the modern dream-pop genre, something which has been far too long overdue for a refresh. Their debut record offers a colossal level of promise" - Far Out Magazine " an irresistible sonic tapestry" - KEXP "intricately crafted_glistens with warmth and depth" - DIY

Carve is the second full-length by Bay Area artist Kathryn Mohr. Written over the course of five years and recorded over several weeks in a rural singlewide in the Mojave Desert, the album centers on love experienced as a form of grief, not as an aftermath of loss, but as a condition of intimacy itself.

Mohr describes Carve as an album about how memory exists outside the body, embedded in places and landscapes. It is shaped by her first return to the American Southwest since a childhood road trip at age five, and by the experience of moving through terrain that holds emotional weight long after its origins fade. The record considers how intimacy feels after years of isolation, and what it takes to carve out a life that allows for trust, presence, and feeling rather than mere survival. The project took form after a difficult tour that ended in Joshua Tree. Mohr pointed her car into the desert and drove alone, crisscrossing the Mojave on dirt roads. Months later, she returned to record the album, working alone with an acoustic guitar, a field recorder, and limited supplies. Following that period, Mohr began to allow for intimacy and connection. The time she spent recording Carve in the desert did not create isolation so much as mirror it. Working alone out of an old, western-themed jail Airbnb, the physical enclosure reflected the emotional conditions under which much of the record had been written: distance, restraint, and long stretches of stillness. In that context, love was not experienced as escape, but as something inseparable from impermanence and the awareness of loss.

This tension between connection and inevitability sits at the center of Carve. Some of the album’s songs were written earlier, during a prolonged period marked by emotional distance and apathy. Over those four years, Mohr was working through unprocessed childhood memories and their long-term effects on her ability to connect with others. The work was slow and difficult, involving a fundamental reshaping of how she related to herself and to the world. Carve was mixed by Richard Chowenhill of Flenser labelmates Agriculture. Rather than offering resolution, the album documents the act of remaining present within tension. Carve is not about escaping grief, but about accepting it as inseparable from love itself. Kathryn Mohr’s previous effort “Waiting Room” received the coveted ‘Best New Music' designation and a score of 8.4 from Pitchfork.

BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years. Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted. Their mantra: Music for the people, by the people, with the people. From humble beginnings rehearsing in a shipping container, a stone's throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organized the escape of the most wanted anti-Apartheid activists, they kept believing in their dream of self-empowerment. Today they command festival stages worldwide: Glastonbury West Holts, Roskilde, Afropunk Brooklyn, WOMAD, Fusion, Sziget, FMM Sines, Beaches Brew, Boomtown, Colours of Ostrava, Couleur Café – to name just a few. In 2023, BCUC were honoured with the prestigious WOMEX Artist Award, an accolade usually reserved for more established artists, in recognition of their fearless work and transcendent live performances.

THE ROAD IS NEVER EASY

The Road Is Never Easy is BCUC's fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. On this new offering, BCUC take listeners on another Afro-psychedelic journey into the soul of Soweto. It feels like a gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert, "guaranteed to touch untapped corners of your soul" (OkayAfrica). BCUC's music is deeply rooted in history and echoes the voices of the ones who came before. The road was never easy for the people of Soweto who originally came to work in the mines of Egoli, the City of Gold, Johannesburg. When apartheid finally ended after a long struggle, it was hoped that life would improve. But more than 30 years later, many of those initial hopes and dreams are still waiting to be fulfilled. This album is about that struggle. The album contains 10 brand new songs – a record for BCUC, whose previous albums featured an average of 3 songs. It represents the culmination of more than two decades of performing together and building a reputation as a powerful live act. These ten songs encapsulate that same live energy, each one building gradually and drawing you into BCUC's Afro-psychedelic stream of consciousness. It's a seismic tour de force through life in Soweto today. Songs like Amakhandela (Breaking All the Chains) connect history to daily life: "How is this precious metal inflicting so much pain in us," sing BCUC, "this government has been telling us we are free, but we don't benefit from being free." The album also talks about all the hopes and dreams that remain: "I have too many wishes and dreams in my head," BCUC sing in Um duma khanda, "I think I am losing my mind". The album ends with the soothing Matla a rona ke Bophelo, "our strength is life", praising the spirits and thanking the elders for protection. The Road Is Never Easy is about the harsh reality of life in Soweto, where "people always carry heavy loads". BCUC are street poets trying to deal with that burden: sometimes revolutionary, sometimes soothing, but always hopeful and compassionate. "When you are from Soweto you can't retreat nor surrender." (Sebenzela)

RECORDING

The album was largely recorded in Munich, Germany during tour breaks over two sessions, each three days long. It took place in a small studio located in a German WW II bunker converted into rehearsal spaces. The songs were recorded in one take altogether in one room, with only a few overdubs added, mainly backing vocals, by BCUC at Fourways studio in Johannesburg. BCUC have created their own distinctive way of writing, or rather, finding and creating their songs. The recording process is like an improvised live performance. They bring their ideas into a zone where the music, the rhythm and the spirits take over until the song starts to form. In this Afro-psychedelic zone BCUC create their unique poetry that feeds on the dreams still dreamt, the hopes, the fears and the temptations lingering everywhere. BCUC's songs need to breathe and time to build. The right take was the one when the song took over, and just like their live performances, no one knew beforehand where the song would take them. During the recording, BCUC just let it all flow out: inner turmoil, cries of rebellion, but also resilience and a search for healing, love, unity and compassion. You don't have to be from Soweto to feel the deep meaning and impact of this music. In these times of so much hate and division, BCUC are like a campfire for people to gather around.

PRODUCTION & ARTWORK

"BCUC have a unique magic," says Outhere's Jay Rutledge, who produced the album. "It blew our minds. It's like punk and pure gospel at the same time. Their music can make you dance and it can make you cry, all at the same time. And when the song is over, you feel you're not alone in this world anymore. We felt compelled to do this." The album cover is based on a matchbox design, matches being a common household item in South Africa even today. "These were the matches people used to burn government buildings and cars," explain BCUC. Little messages, addresses, or phone numbers used to be scribbled on the back of these boxes; each one a reminder of the strength, resilience, and resistance that once drove the struggle for freedom in Soweto. BCUC keep this flame burning. The Road Is Never Easy is a heavy spiritual road trip, a deep dive into the subconscious of Soweto and a quest for truth, justice and sanity in this crazy world. BCUC tackle the harsh realities of the voiceless, guided by the spirit world of their ancestors. Rather than reinforcing stereotypes of poverty, BCUC's portrayal of Africa is one rich in tradition, rituals and beliefs. "We bring fun and Afro-psychedelic fire from the hood," says vocalist Kgomotso Mokone.

Artist and multi-instrumentalist Flaer embraces the search for quiet miracles on first full-length LP Translations.

In 2023, Realf Heygate - who makes music as Flaer - released his debut mini-album Preludes, composed on his mother’s piano and his childhood cello.Returning to ODDA for his debut full-length album, Heygate is now looking in another direction. A record that embraces transition and movement, Translations is in many ways more internal, less rooted to a single place and reflective of the process of laying new foundations in Cornwall.

Like Preludes, Translations is coloured with found sounds and field recordings, from the starlings which can be heard singing through the open window of his studio, to the brittle recordings of his mother, who was a linguist, learning Spanish on a set of language tapes. In both cases, Heygate embraced the translations and memories inherent to the sounds.

“When I digitised my mother’s tapes, they warped and stuttered in a very similar way to the starling’s song,” he explains. “They had this uncanny rhythm and pulse that I couldn’t quite decode, but was saying something." These decayed transmissions hint at loss, resisting clarity in favour of the ineffable.

Translations is also a record of ambiguities and in-betweens, suggested by the double meaning of the album’s opening track ‘Entre’. At once intricate and expansive, threaded with birdsong and acoustic guitar motifs, this and ‘Starling Descends’ (a reference to Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’) act as a bridge away from the pastoral themes of Preludes towards a more assertive sound. At times intimate in its textured instrumentation and at others more overtly grand in orchestration, reflecting awider palette of influences.

“Flaer began in many ways when I picked up my mother’s instruments, seeking a form of reconnection. Where words evaded me, they became the tools through which I found a language for grief – and above all, for love.”

Recorded between 2023 and 2025 – what Heygate calls “A gradual process of sowing and harvesting ideas rather than a single intense creative period” - each track follows a rhythm similar to the small maquettes and sculptures he has been working on in his visual practice, whereby structures and melodies form intuitively in moments that are as rare as they are fleeting.

“It's that feeling of searching that I really enjoy,” Heygate continues. “I never know what the destination of the composition is going to be, and I never really find what it is."

Translations is released on limited edition off-white vinyl LP (500 copies worldwide) with one of five signed and numbered handmade risograph prints. It's also available as standard black vinyl LP and digitally.

"Hayalet Kırıkları" unfolds like a diary of fragmented memories, where voices, textures and distant echoes blur into something both intimate and unsettling.
Hilal Can’s luminous presence meets Tzii’s raw sonic landscapes, creating a music that feels suspended—between memory and invention, absence and desire.
With the spectral violin of Ruben Tenenbaum, the record shimmers like a fragile world on the verge of dissolving.

2026 Repress

Autumn of 2022 marked 20 years since the initial release of Metro Area's first and only album, Metro Area. Environ had already remastered and re-released this essential LP for its 15th anniversary. So this time around, we're doing something a bit different.

To celebrate two decades of Metro Area, Environ has partnered with renowned mastering engineer Matt Colton (Metropolis Studios) to remaster and recut the first four Metro Area 12"s: Metro Area, Metro Area 2, Metro Area 3 and Metro Area 4. Unlike the album reissue, these records include the original, extended 12" versions of all songs, including some which have never been re-released.

Metro Area 4 is the duo's fourth 12" EP, originally released in 2001.

Dave Wallace is one third of Aquasky, as well as a founding member of Mad Dog and Fugitive. He also released his own EP’s on Moving Shadow and R&S in the 90’s and more recently an EP on TeeBee’s Subtitles label as well as a return to the rave with various Fugitive tracks and remixes on Vinyl Fanatiks over the past few years.

But one track has always alluded a release, there was always something that prevented it from being released. Originally written in 1995, it wasn’t until 1996 that he sent it to LTJ Bukem who went nuts for it, advising Dave to speed it up from its original 156bpm so he could play it. Upon doing so, it was also sent to Fabio and the pair of them played it on Kiss, Radio 1 and various gigs and festivals across the world. Dave was just in discussions to release it when Dillinja made a Bladerunner track using the same samples. In light of that and how the hierarchy worked in the 90’s drum and bass scene, Dave decided to pull the release and the track went back into the DAT draw… for 26 years!

This track has been requested by many to be pressed since Vinyl Fanatiks started as it had such a huge fanbase, so many people loved the track after hearing it either back in the day or on copies of mixes uploaded in recent years to the internet. An extremely desired track! But there was never a B-side to it… until Dave stepped into his Fugitive guise and brought the track up to date with one of the baddest basslines we have released on the label.

Join us as we take you on a ride from the smooth to the ruff!


Its all an expression!

When we were thinking about making an EP for Rupture, the first few tracks happened to already be finished, and fit together really nicely - but getting that final track done ended up being a bit more of a challenge!

The vision was to convey our individual styles in collaboration as best as we could - with dance ready tracks that also carry emotion. Rum Runna, as the A1 of the EP, all started from a break we found that had one of the loudest subs cutting through. Instead of looking for something else, we decided to lean into this and maximise the energy, before finally breaking through with the 808s. Drifting Through The Mist is more of a rolling vibe, focussed on vocals and funk to lift spirits in the dance, all the while teasing an amen drop that leans into a ragga fusion.

Northwest Passage is one of the earliest tunes we got finished - being made quite soon into our first meeting I believe. The result is a darker tip that focusses on dissonance and sub pressure that really thrives in the bassbins. Our final tune on the EP, Original Secret, is the most emotionally charged on the EP, again utilising our love for unique percussion and bongo hits along with rolling breaks, carefully chopped snares, atmospheric pads and emotional vox samples.

We are more than proud to release this body of work on one of our all time favourite labels, and have had the utmost pleasure to work with the team every step of the way.

Like its cover, Nicolas Remondino's Hìeratico plays in the rich shades of crepuscular spaces. A night-tuned, percussion led album where prepared drums are accompanied by flickers of spoken word, acoustic instruments and muted electronics,

The title translates to 'hieratic', for Remondino a "black and gold" term laden with dualities and complex connotations. A sense of teetering between sparkling light and richly coloured darkness imbues the music, the compositions simulating a sense of heightened acuity as they convey us through a spooky elemental soundworld. The opening title track begins with a metallic shimmer, a drum skin activated in a way that sounds like it's being smelted. A cushioned rhythm enters, a smothered timbre akin to hearing something lurking around the garden. On "litho non-danse", percussion cracks like branches and dried foliage under foot.

Remondino recorded initial outlines for the pieces at Giuseppe Ielasi's studio in Milan, before fleshing out these ideas with his own additional instrumentation and contributions from a globe-spanning network of collaborators. On "blue hymne", chiming percussion equal parts jubilant and sinister heralds spoken word from Limpe Fuchs. "Tombal" opens with Massimo Silverio whispering in the Carnic dialect, a minority language from the Carnic Alps. Around, Marco Baldini, Pierre Bastien and Remondino construct a somber soundscape that cranks and sighs in the crevices.

Hìeratico is an album of hybrids. Diverse voices, accents and dialects deliver its lyrics, the instrumentation underpinning it crosses idioms. The drumkit at its core is modified to amplify its resonant tones and harmonics. Inspired by natural substances and phenomena: stone, wood, wind, earth, metal, grass, rain, clouds and bark, Remondino explores how percussion could evoke their materiality, treating drums as lucid textural instruments as much as rhythmic timekeepers. It gives the album a finely shaded depth and clarity as it conjures the vibrancies that reside in darkened corners. Hìeratico dwells in a sensation that crosses borders, the speckles of light in the oblique night sky. Listening is an aural equivalent to stepping into a pitch black forest and waiting for your eyes to adjust, a lightless void turning into a spectacular tableau of shadows and glows. Daryl Worthington

Peace World Records returns with Hidden Atmospheres, the debut release produced by Max F and mixed by Space Ghost. Drawing from classic deep house and esoteric club sounds of the '90s and early 2000s, this seven-track collection channels these influences into fresh territory while preserving the digital grit and dreamlike essence of the era.

The release strikes a delicate balance between the meditative and the kinetic. On the A Side, tracks “Soul Control” and “Zone 6” highlight subtle yet hard-hitting percussion grooves and deep basslines that anchor the mix beneath ethereal pads and sweeps. Each track builds through hypnotic, evolving arrangements that reward close listening. On the B side, “Dream Channel” and “Earth Effects" both feature airy, spectral synth progressions that interweave with ephemeral yet decisive melodies, demonstrating a refined insight of space and dynamics. To round things off, Space Ghost took a crack at an energetic club remix of “Dream Channel. ” Carried by a classic 909 house rhythm and a bubbly bassline, the remix offers a fun, uplifting take on the original, complete with organ stabs and MIDI sax!

As a whole, Hidden Atmospheres delivers something new for fans of 90s and 2000s era house music. Think Ronin, Hanna, Chris Brann, Wamdue Kids—artists whose work holds its own in the club while remaining equally suited for intimate late-night listening. Throughout the record, tracks drift seamlessly between shimmering dancefloor functionality and liminal, introspective ambience, inviting repeat listens that reveal new details and "hidden atmospheres" with eachpass.

Hidden Atmospheres lands on Peace World Records April 9th, 2026.







g B3. Dream Channel Space Ghost Club Remix

Nicaraguan-American artist Dagmar Zuniga makes music that feels both intimate and expansive: songs drift like disrupted signals, carried by harmony, tape hiss, and a strong sense of touch. Her debut solo album in filth your mystery is kingdom / far smile peasant in yellow music — written and recorded in New York, Norway, and Athens, Georgia over a period of five years on her longtime companion, the Tascam 424 — was uploaded to Bandcamp and YouTube in January 2025, quickly garnering over two hundred thousand views and the attention of artists such as Mount Eerie, who invited her to tour with them that summer. This year, what was once a jewel of tapped-in algorithms and message boards will meet the world at large, with in filth arriving digitally on March 4, and physically on April 10, via AD 93.

in filth is an atmospheric, devotional collage where one voice multiplies into a chorus of selves, sometimes delicate, sometimes severe; an effect created by Zuniga’s masterful layering of texture and complex harmonies. Synths glitter out like spears of sunlight from beneath clouds of moody, time-distorted guitars, and songs spin about themselves like tightly-wound music boxes, making use of a kind of hypnotic repetition, before melting apart into their components or slipping into the following track.

Zuniga began recording to tape as a teenager, drawn to the physicality of the medium — how a tape recording is fragile, mutable, and alive. Though her ethereal sound may draw easy comparisons to other female pioneers of psychedelic folk, she is influenced just as much by the darker sounds of Syd Barrett and The Fall. Like Barrett, Zuniga is a painter, and she is interested not only in recording music but in creating a full, self-contained artistic universe: she creates her own artwork, merchandise, music videos, and bootleg tapes of new and unfinished music that she exclusively sells at live shows (“If something is not material, it does not exist,” she insists). Her world has not gone unvisited, garnering her a monthly show on NTS Radio ‘World of Pain’, as well as a forthcoming appearance at Rewire Festival in April 2026.

Though Zuniga’s work explores themes of solitude and suffering, the suffering in her songs is not borrowed or displayed; it is held, then opened outward through empathy — an exacting practice of attention that insists on shared ground. Solitude, in her work, is not withdrawal but a starting point for connection. Likewise, over time, her recording process has become increasingly communal, with in filth featuring musicians Hayes Hoey, Austyn Wohlers (Tomato Flower), and Zach Phillips (Fievel Is Glauque). Newer recordings widen the circle even more. For Zuniga, collaboration is a way to “find a place between worlds,” echoing Badiou’s idea of love as a vision refracted through the prism of difference. Meaning emerges there — in the space between voices, between artist and listener. “I hope my music helps people work through difficult experiences,” she says. “The same way it helps me.”

UILTY RAZORS, BONA FIDE PUNKS.



Writings on the topic that go off in all directions, mind-numbing lectures given by academics, and testimonies, most of them heavily doctored, from those who “lived through that era”: so many people today fantasize about the early days of punk in our country… This blessed moment when no one had yet thought of flaunting a ridiculous green mohawk, taking Sid Vicious as a hero, or – even worse – making the so-called alternative scene both festive and boorish. There was no such thing in 1976 or 1977, when it wasn’t easy to get hold of the first 45s by the Pistols or the Clash. Few people were aware of what was happening on the fringes of the fringes at the time. Malcolm McLaren was virtually unknown, and having short hair made you seem strange. Who knew then that rock music, which had taken a very bad turn since the early 1970s, would once again become an essential element of liberation? That, thanks to short and fast songs, it would once again rediscover that primitive, social side that was so hated by older generations? Who knew that, besides a few loners who read the music press (it was even better if they read it in English) and frequented the right record stores? Many of these formed bands, because it was impossible to do otherwise. We quickly went from listening to the Velvet Underground to trying to play the Stooges’ intros. It’s a somewhat collective story, even though there weren’t many people to start it.
The Guilty Razors were among those who took part in this initial upheaval in Paris. They were far from being the worst. They had something special and even released a single that was well above the national average. They also had enough songs to fill an album, the one you’re holding. In everyone’s opinion, they were definitely not among the punk impostors that followed in their wake. They were, at least, genuine and credible.

Guilty Razors, Parisian punk band (1975-1978). To understand something about their somewhat linear but very energetic sound, we might need to talk about the context in which it was born and, more broadly, recall the boredom (a theme that would become capital in punk songs) coupled with the desire to blow everything off, which were the basis for the formation of bands playing a rejuvenated rock music ; about the passion for a few records by the Kinks or the early Who, by the Stooges, by the Velvet mostly, which set you apart from the crowd.
And of course, we should remember this new wave, which was promoted by a few articles in the specialized press and some cutting-edge record stores, coming from New York or London, whose small but powerful influence could be felt in Paris and in a handful of isolated places in the provinces, lulled to sleep by so many appalling things, from Tangerine Dream to President Giscard d’Estaing...
In 1975-76, French music was, as almost always, in a sorry state ; it was still dominated by Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan. Local rock music was also rather bleak, apart from Bijou and Little Bob who tried to revive this small scene with poorly sound-engineered gigs played to almost no one.
In the working class suburbs at the time, it was mainly hard rock music played to 11 that helped people forget about their gruelling shifts at the factory. Here and there, on the outskirts of major cities, you still could find a few rockers with sideburns wearing black armbands since the death of Gene Vincent, but it wasn’t a proper mass movement, just a source of real danger to anyone they came across who wasn't like them. In August 1976, a festival unlike any other took place in Mont-de-Marsan – the First European Punk Festival as the poster said – with almost as many people on stage as in the audience. Yet, on that day, a quasi historical event happened, when, under the blazing afternoon sun, a band of unknowns called The Damned made an unprecedented noise in the arena, reminiscent of the chaotic Stooges in their early adolescence. They were the first genuine punk band to perform in our country: from then on, anything was possible, almost anything seemed permissible.

It makes sense that the four+1 members of Guilty Razors, who initially amplified acoustic guitars with crappy tape recorder microphones, would adopt punk music (pronounced paink in French) naturally and instinctively, since it combines liberating noise with speed of execution and – crucially – a very healthy sense of rebellion (the protesters of May 1968 proclaimed, and it was even a slogan, that they weren’t against old people, but against what had made them grow old. In the mid-1970s, it seemed normal and obvious that old people should now ALSO be targeted!!!).
At the time, the desire to fight back, and break down authority and apathy, was either red or black, often taking the form of leafleting, tumultuous general assemblies in the schoolyard, and massive or shabby demonstrations, most of the time overflowing with an exciting vitality that sometimes turned into fights with the riot police. Indeed, soon after the end of the Vietnam War and following Pinochet’s coup in Chile, all over France, Trotskyist and anarcho-libertarian fervour was firmly entrenched among parts of the educated youth population, who were equally rebellious and troublemakers whenever they had the chance. It should also be noted that when the single "Anarchy in the UK" was first heard, even though not many of us had access to it, both the title and its explosive sound immediately resonated with some of those troublemakers crying out for ANARCHY!!! Meanwhile, the left-wing majority still equated punks with reckless young neo-Nazis. Of course, the widely circulated photos in the mainstream press of Siouxsie Sioux with her swastikas didn’t necessarily help to win over the theorists of the Great Revolution. It took Joe Strummer to introduce The Clash as an anti-racist, anti-fascist and anti-ignorance band for the rejection of old-school revolutionaries to fade a little.

The Lycée Jean-Baptiste Say at Porte d’Auteuil, despite being located in the very posh and very exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris, didn’t escape these "committed" upheavals, which doubled as the perfect outlet for the less timid members of this generation.
“Back then, politics were fun,” says Tristam Nada, who studied there and went on to become Guilty Razors’ frontman. “Jean-Baptiste was the leftist high-school in the neighbourhood. When the far right guys from the GUD came down there, the Communist League guys from elsewhere helped us fight them off.”
Anything that could challenge authority was fair game and of course, strikes for just about any reason would lead to increasingly frequent truancy (with a definitive farewell to education that would soon follow). Tristam Nada spent his 10th and 11th unfinished grades with José Perez, who had come from Spain, where his father, a janitor, had been sentenced to death by Franco. “José steered my tastes towards solid acts such as The Who. Like most teenagers, I had previously absorbed just about everything that came my way, from Yes to Led Zeppelin to Genesis. I was exploring… And then one day, he told me that he and his brother Carlos wanted to start a rock band.” The Perez brothers already played guitar. “Of course, they were Spanish!”, jokes their singer. “Then, somewhat reluctantly, José took up the bass and we were soon joined by Jano – who called himself Jano Homicid – who took up the rhythm guitar.” Several drummers would later join this core of not easily intimidated young guys who didn’t let adversity get the better of them.

The first rehearsals of the newly named Guilty Razors took place in the bedroom of a Perez aunt. There, the three rookies tried to cover a few standards, songs that often were an integral part of their lives. During a first, short gig, in front of a bewildered audience of tough old-school rockers, they launched into a clunky version of the Velvet Underground's “Heroin”. Challenge or recklessness? A bit of both, probably… And then, step by step, their limited repertoire expanded as they decided to write their own songs, sung in a not always very accurate or academic English, but who cared about proper grammar or the right vocabulary, since what truly mattered was to make the words sound as good as possible while playing very, very fast music? And spitting out those words in a language that left no doubt as to what it conveyed mattered as well.
Trying their hand a the kind of rock music disliked by most of the neighbourhood, making noise, being fiercely provocative: they still belonged to a tiny clique who, at this very moment, had chosen to impose this difference. And there were very few places in France or elsewhere, where one could witness the first stirrings of something that wasn’t a trend yet, let alone a movement.

In the provinces, in late 1976 or early 1977, there couldn’t be more than thirty record stores that were a bit more discerning than average, where you could hear this new kind of short-haired rock music called “punk”. The old clientele, who previously had no problem coming in to buy the latest McCartney or Aerosmith LP, now felt a little less comfortable there…
In Paris, these enlightened places were quite rare and often located nex to what would become the Forum des Halles, a big shopping mall. Between three aging sex workers, a couple of second-hand clothes shops, sellers of hippie paraphernalia and small fashion designers, the good word was loudly spread in two pioneering places – propagators of what was still only a new underground movement. Historically, the first one was the Open Market, a kind of poorly, but tastefully stocked cave. Speakers blasted out the sound of sixties garage bands from the Nuggets compilation (a crucial reference for José Perez) or the badly dressed English kids of Eddie and the Hot Rods. This black-painted den was opened a few years earlier by Marc Zermati, a character who wasn’t always in a sunny disposition, but always quite radical in his (good) choices and his opinions. He founded the independent label Skydog and was one of the promoters of the Mont-de-Marsan punk festivals. Not far from there was Harry Cover, another store more in tune with the new New York scene, which was amply covered in the house fanzine, Rock News (even though it was in it that the photos of the Sex Pistols were first published in France).
It was a favorite hang-out of the Perez brothers and Tristam Nada, as the latter explained. “It’s at Harry Cover’s that we first heard the Pistols and Clash’s 45s, and after that, we decided to start writing our first songs. If they could do it, so could we!”
The sonic shocks that were “Anarchy in the UK”, “White Riot” or the Buzzcocks’s EP, “Spiral Scratch” – which Guilty Razors' sound is reminiscent of – were soon to be amplified by an unparalleled visual shock. In April 1977, right after the release of their first LP, The Clash performed at the Palais des Glaces in Paris, during a punk night organised by Marc Zermati. For many who were there, it was the gig of a lifetime…
Of course, Guilty Razors and Tristam were in the audience: “That concert was fabulous… We Parisian punks were almost all dressed in black and white, with white shirts, skinny leather ties, bikers jackets or light jackets, etc. The Clash, on the other hand, wore colourful clothes. Well, the next day, at the Gibus, you’d spot everyone who had been at this concert, but they weren’t wearing anything black, they were all wearing colours.”

It makes sense to mention the Gibus club, as Guilty Razors often played there (sometimes in front of a hostile audience). It was also the only place in Paris that regularly scheduled new Parisian or Anglo-Saxon acts, such as Generation X, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Slits, and Johnny Thunders who would become a kind of messed-up mascot for the venue. A little later, in 1978, the Rose Bonbon – formerly the Nashville – also attracted nightly owls in search of electric thrills… In 1977, the iconic but not necessarily excellent Asphalt Jungle often played at the Gibus, sometimes sharing the bill with Metal Urbain, the only band whose aura would later transcend the French borders (“I saw them as the French Sex Pistols,” said Geoff Travis, head of their British label Rough Trade). Already established in this small scene, Metal Urbain helped the young and restless Guilty Razors who had just arrived. Guitarist for Metal Urbain Hermann Schwartz remembers it: “They were younger than us, we were a bit like their mentors even if it’s too strong a word… At least they were credible. We thought they were good, and they had good songs which reminded of the Buzzcocks that I liked a lot. But at some point, they started hanging out with the Hells Angels. That’s when we stopped following them.”

The break-up was mutual, since, Guilty Razors, for their part, were shocked when they saw a fringe element of the audience at Metal Urbain concerts who repeatedly shouted “Sieg Heil” and gave Nazi salutes. These provocations, even still minor (the bulk of the skinhead crowd would later make their presence felt during concerts), weren’t really to the liking of the Perez brothers, whose anti-fascist convictions were firmly rooted. Some things are non-negotiable.
A few months earlier (in July 1978), Guilty Razors had nevertheless opened very successfully for Metal Urbain at the Bus Palladium, a more traditonally old-school rock night-club. But, as was sometimes the case back then, the night turned into a mass brawl when suburban rockers came to “beat up punks”.

Back then, Parisian nights weren’t always sweet and serene.

So, after opening as best as they could for The Jam (their sound having been ruined by the PA system), our local heroes were – once again – met outside by a horde of greasers out to get them. “Thankfully,” says Tristam, “we were with our roadies, motorless bikers who acted as a protective barrier. We were chased in the neighbouring streets and the whole thing ended in front of a bar, with the owner coming out with a rifle…”
Although Tristam and the Perez brothers narrowly escaped various, potentially bloody, incidents, they weren’t completely innocent of wrongdoing either. They still find amusing their mugging of two strangers in the street for example (“We were broke and we simply wanted to buy tickets for the Heartbreakers concert that night,” says Tristam). It so happened that their victims were two key figures in the rock business at the time: radio presenter Alain Manneval and music publisher Philippe Constantin. They filed a complaint and sought monetary compensation, but somehow the band’s manager, the skilful but very controversial Alexis, managed to get the complaint withdrawn and Guilty Razors ended up signing with Constantin with a substantial advance.

They also signed with Polydor and the label released in 1978 their only three-track 45, featuring “I Don't Wanna be A Rich”, “Hurts and Noises” and “Provocate” (songs that exuded perpetual rebellion and an unquenchable desire for “class” confrontation). It was a very good record, but due to a lack of promotion (radio stations didn’t play French artists singing in English), it didn’t sell very well. Only 800 copies were allegedly sold and the rest of the stock was pulped… Initially, the three tracks were to be included on a LP that never came to be, since they were dropped by Polydor (“Let’s say we sometimes caused a ruckus in their offices!” laughs Tristam.) In order to perfect the long-awaited LP, the band recorded demos of other tracks. There was a cover of Pink Floyd's “Lucifer Sam” from the Syd Barrett era – proof of an enduring love for the sixties’ greats –, “Wake Up” a hangover tale and “Bad Heart” about the Baader-Meinhof gang, whose actions had a profound impact on the era and on a generation seeking extreme dissent... On the album you’re now discovering, you can also hear five previously unreleased tracks recorded a bit later during an extended and freezing stay in Madrid, in a makeshift studio with the invaluable help of a drummer also acting as sound engineer. He was both an enthusiastic old hippie and a proper whizz at sound engineering. Here too, certain influences from the fifties and sixties (Link Wray, the Troggs) are more than obvious in the band’s music.

Shortly after a final stormy and rather barbaric (on the audience’s side) “Punk night” at the Olympia in June 1978, Tristam left the band ; his bandmates continued without him for a short while.

But like most pioneering punk bands of the era, Guilty Razors eventually split up for good after three years (besides once in Spain, they’d only played in Paris). The reason for ceasing business activities were more or less the same for everyone: there were no venues outside one’s small circuit to play this kind of rock music, which was still frightening, unknown, or of little interest to most people. The chances of recording an LP were virtually null, since major labels were only signing unoriginal but reassuring sub-Téléphone clones, and the smaller ones were only interested in progressive rock or French chanson for youth clubs. And what about self-production? No one in our small safety-pinned world had thought about it yet. There wasn’t enough money to embark on that sort of venture anyway.

So yes, the early days of punk in France were truly No Future!

Bristol's Tara Clerkin Trio return to World of Echo and the EP format for a five song collection of quixotic, emotional redolence. But do not mistake their absence for inertia. If their musical output has been a little sparse during those in-between years, limited to a few solo ventures and an astonishing ten minute long piece as a trio, their time has otherwise been richly spent: continuous writing and recording, extensive live performances across Europe and Japan, a cultivation of local and more far-flung artistic connections (musical and otherwise), and a monthly NTS show that, through the voice of others, speaks most obviously to their own unorthodox interests. It's the conflux of that winding activity that leads indirectly to On The Turning Ground, 26 minutes of probing, thoughtful composition that draws from no one specific source. Their inspirations might be centreless, but the trio still possess a very obvious anchor in the form of their hometown. Bristol stands as a city of multitudes, heterogenous and vibrant in such a way as to allow it to renew and remake time and again. Tara Clerkin Trio drink from that same well, duly reflecting a rich musical heritage built on fwd-facing electronic subcultures and experimental urges.

As such, On The Turning Ground finds them subject to their own subtle internal evolution, the pervasive sense that you've caught them mid-bloom, on their way to becoming but never anything but themselves. The two instrumental pieces that bookend the EP stand as a perfect case in point, displaying an increasing mastery of compositional space. Pensive and restrained, 'Brigstow' and 'Once Around' both emanate an interstitial quality that's not so much after- as in-between-hours, miniature dub-folk symphonies held together by the kind of tacit understanding that remains the preserve of only the closest of family units. If those two tracks are shaped by a sense of shifting temporality, then the three vocal-led pieces that comprise the record's core feel like a gentle ossifying of aesthetic into something approaching their own unique form of avant-pop. 'Pop' is, of course, a broadly subjective concept, but there's no avoiding the overt sparkling melodicism of songs like 'Marble Walls' and 'The Turning Ground', undeniable re-directions of that late 90s impulse to bend pop sensibilities into off-centre terrain, to render the familiar new again. This is what Tara Clerkin Trio do, gently pulling the ground from under your feet, turning you to face something you'd not quite seen before. To view the world as they do: sideways, sometimes, all of the time.

How do losers dance? According to Helmut, almost weightlessly, with soft feet, warm gestures, sometimes alone, sometimes together. Content Creatures, Helmut's fourth album, evokes the pop archetype of the "beautiful loser", who had almost disappeared from view in so-called late capitalism. In a present in which even suffering is often similarly instrumentalised and tailored to clicks like a competitive sport, this album sets a counterpoint: those who listen to it suddenly want to be enchanting losers again, useless and joyfully messing up, losing something beloved, having their hearts broken, giving up a dream, sinking into beauty.
You don't sink alone. Comforting harmonies envelop you, the voices of friends appear, accompany you for a while and then disappear again. Warm grooves, floating synths and delicate guitar lines characterise an indie sound that remains open and breathes.
Self-produced for the first time in his home studio in Neukölln, 'Content Creatures' sounds thoughtful and light at the same time. The album will be released digitally and on vinyl on 10 April 2026 on Berlin-based label St.Vladimir. There are four songs on one side and four songs on the other. The cover is adorned with an exceptionally pretty guinea pig. Helmut shows the special in the seemingly ordinary: a child's pet, the most ordinary of all, is his cover star and headstrong protagonist.

Wie tanzen Verlierer? Wenn man nach Helmut geht, dann fast schwerelos, mit weichen Füßen, warmen Gesten, manchmal allein, manchmal gemeinsam. Content Creatures, Helmuts viertes Album, evoziert den Pop-Archetypus des "beautiful loser", der im sogenannten Spätkapitalismus fast aus dem Blick geraten war. In einer Gegenwart, in der sogar das Leid oft ähnlich durchinstrumentalisiert und auf Klicks getrimmt ist wie ein Leistungssport, setzt dieses Album einen Kontrapunkt: Wer es hört, möchte auf einmal gern wieder ein bezaubernder Verlierer sein, nutzlos und freudvoll abkacken, etwas Geliebtes verlieren, das Herz gebrochen bekommen, einen Traum aufgeben, in Schönheit versinken.
Man versinkt nicht allein. Tröstende Harmonien legen sich um einen, die Stimmen von Freundinnen tauchen auf, begleiten einen ein Stück weit und verschwinden wieder. Warme Grooves, schwebende Synths und feine Gitarrenlinien prägen einen Indie-Sound, der offen bleibt, atmet. Erstmals in seinem Neuköllner Homestudio selbst produziert, klingt "Content Creatures" bedacht und leicht zugleich.
Das Album erscheint digital und auf Vinyl am 10.04.2026 auf dem Berliner Label St.Vladimir. Es hat vier Songs auf der einen und vier Songs auf der anderen Seite. Das Cover ziert ein außergewöhnlich hübsches Meerschweinchen. Helmut zeigt das Besondere im scheinbar Gewöhnlichen: Ein Kinderhaustier, das normalste von allen, ist bei ihm Coverstar und eigensinnige Protagonistin.

On Psalm Funk, Bnnyhunna deepens the artistic language he first articulated on his celebrated debut Echoes of a Prayer. Rather than retracing familiar ground, the Amsterdam-based composer and producer expands his palette, allowing rhythm and space to carry as much narrative weight as harmony and lyricism.

While Echoes of a Prayer felt personal and devoted, Psalm Funk opens things up. Gospel harmonies stay central to his music, but now they are energized by smooth funk rhythms and heightened by the flexibility of jazz improvisation. Bnnyhunna moves between styles effortlessly, in a way that nothing seems borrowed, but everything feels lived in.

At the center of the record is an understanding of space. Silence acts not as an absence but as a structure. Breath, restraint, and patience shape the music just as much as basslines and backbeats. This awareness of dynamics allows the album to grow without losing its focus. It signifies a subtle but important change in Bnnyhunna as an artist, moving from inward reflection to forward momentum, from prayer as personal dialogue to prayer as a physical expression. The clarity, discipline, and emotional depth that marked his debut remain, now directed into something more rhythmically confident and spiritually uplifting.

Fusing gospel, funk, jazz, and African rhythmic traditions, Psalm Funk serves as both a meditation and an outpouring. It invites deep thought while demanding a physical response.

The album includes collaborations with American saxophonist Braxton Cook, trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey of Kokoroko, 3DDY, and Reggie Dartey, among others. The singles "Sorry Not Sorry" and "Waiting For You" have already hinted at the project's range, while the latest single, "The Heart Part 2," further expands on the album's dynamic and emotional scope.

To celebrate the release, Bnnyhunna will tour the Netherlands in April, with performances in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Nijmegen before heading to the UK for a show at The Great Escape.

Released in October 2024, Bnnyhunna's debut album Echoes of a Prayer was created as a dialogue with God, a personal call expressed through sound. The record resonated both with fans and media, gaining support from platforms like 3voor12, Rolling Stone Africa, and Afromixx. It reached the airwaves of BBC Radio 1 in the UK, KEXP in the US, J-Wave in Japan, and 3FM in the Netherlands, and landed in playlists such as BUTTER, Morning Rhythm, and Vanguard.

In 2025, Echoes of a Prayer earned the Edison Pop award for Soul/R&B/Funk and received Grammy consideration for Best Alternative Jazz Album. On stage, Bnnyhunna established his presence with performances at festivals such as Lowlands, Couleur Cafe, Brick Lane Jazz Festival, Dour, and Super Sonic Jazz, as well as his first tour in Japan.



Upcoming live shows:
10/04/26 - BIRD, Rotterdam (NL)
11/04/26 - Doornroosje, Nijmegen (NL)
12/04/26 - Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam (NL)
13/05/26 - The Great Escape, Brighton (UK)

Pale Communion is the eleventh studio album by Swedish progressive metal band Opeth. The album was released in 2014 on Roadrunner Records, and was produced by Mikael Åkerfeldt and mixed by Steven Wilson.

Mikael Åkerfeldt said of the album, "I wanted to do something more melodic with this album, so there's stronger vocal melodies and more melodies overall for this album." Greg Kennelty of Metal Injection said the album does not contain "growls or death metal vocals" and he described the album as "the missing link between Damnation and Ghost Reveries or if Heritage was written directly after Ghost Reveries without Watershed having ever existed".

2026 Repress

Kicking off a new concept for Palinoia, I'm presenting a previously unreleased Donato Dozzy track that I first heard in his infamous "DDKH" mix from many moons ago. I regularly harassed Dozzy about this in hopes he had plans for it, but after almost a decade of being questioned he told me to just put it out myself, provided I was doing a track for the B-side.

Knowing full well I couldn't make anything nearly as gorgeous as Donato's underwater techno groover here, I decided to go for something a bit more upbeat and party friendly, all the while as wiggly as the masters' contribution.