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With four albums already behind them, Sababa 5 have earned global support, from Songlines magazine and BBC Radio 6 Music tastemakers including Gilles Peterson, Jamz Supernova and Iggy Pop to France’s FIP Radio and Radio Nova, for their unique blend of traditional Middle Eastern celebration music with psychedelic grooves, funk, jazz, rock, and international vocal collaborations spanning Japan to India. The Paris-based group have taken this sound to stages across Europe, including Reeperbahn Festival and Dresden’s Super Fest.

Ça Va Ça Va is the band’s hafla album – a return to the wedding and event celebration music that first shaped Sababa 5. Recorded in Paris, it draws directly from the sounds of hafla – the joyful, communal music heard at Middle Eastern weddings, parties and festive gatherings – with a sprinkling of influences from the wider Mediterranean. The group utilise their classic combination of electric guitar, bass, drums, organ, and synths to transform these ideas into vibrant melodies, dance-ready rhythms, and a spirit of abundance and
togetherness.
Opening track “Bienvenue” sets the tone with a mysterious, longing guitar solo before bursting into an irresistible rhythm and jubilant guitar motif. It flows seamlessly into “Allô”, straight into wedding-riot territory – a fast-rising instrumental that showers the dancefloor with energy as it builds around a hypnotic, arpeggio-driven riff. The album is almost entirely original material, with two key exceptions: “Ypárcho” (I Exist), a beautiful instrumental journey inspired by a classic Greek song traditionally performed by Stelios Kazantzidis, and “Asunsan”, an instrumental flip of the much-loved Sababa 5 collaboration “Nasnusa” with Yurika Hanashima. Another impressive step in the Sababa 5 story, Ça Va Ça Va captures both joy and longing – the unmistakable warmth of Eastern Mediterranean celebration and the band’s surf-rock edge – sounding more confident, spirited and deeply rooted than ever.

Kommt in einer auf 2.500 Exemplare limitierten und nummerierten, farbigen Edition auf rotem 180g-Vinyl -inklusive dem Bonustrack 'Don't hold your breath' und eingefasst ein einer Deluxe-Hülle mit Leder-Laminat-Oberfläche sowie plus Lyric-Insert!

Mit ihrem einzigartigen Stil, der vom Klang der Hammond-Orgel, markanten Gitarrenriffs, Improvisation und treibender Rhythmusarbeit geprägt ist, zählen Deep Purple zu den ersten und einflussreichsten Vertretern des Hard Rock und Heavy Metal. In ihrer bislang 45-jährigen Bandgeschichte schrieben sie zahllose Hits wie "Highway Star", "Child In Time" und "Smoke On The Water". Nun erscheint die Wiederveröffentlichung des Deep Purple-Klassikers "Purpendicular" aus dem Jahr 1996. Die damalige Bandbesetzung bestand aus Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover und Steve Morse. Inklusive der Hits "Vavoom: Ted The Mechanic", "Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming" und zwei zusätzlicher Bonus Tracks. Ein Muss für alle Deep Purple-Fans!

Antibalas established themselves in the late 1990s as a burning, tough, horn, bass and drum driven Afrobeat ensemble cut from the Fela Kuti mold, who were politically savvy and socially conscious. Their live shows have been incendiary events where rhythm and perspiration from completely crazy, booty-shaking audience members shared something deeper and wider than the music itself. Security is Antibalas' fourth album. It was co-produced by the band with John McEntire from Tortoise.

The group, whose name means "bulletproof" in Spanish, has indeed proved they possess the mettle to not only survive but also thrive by employing a musical arsenal that has become known worldwide. Initially using the revolutionary blueprint of afrobeat as a launching pad, the dozen-strong members of Antibalas weave a rich tapestry of latin, jazz, classical, funk and soul into their horn-driven mix. Words fail in trying to describe the result: simultaneously polyrhythmic and political, independent and contagious, and the reason why many have credited the band for introducing afrobeat's framework to a new generation.

Security is available as a numbered limited edition of 500 copies on white vinyl and is packaged in a gatefold sleeve.

"EYE OF MELIAN open the gates to a different world with their new album Forest Of Forgetting, out February 20th, 2026 via Napalm Records. Named after a powerful primordial singing spirit from the world of J. R. R. Tolkien, EYE OF MELIAN draws inspiration from the master of fantasy and expands on his ethereal concept. Created by Delain’s Martijn Westerholt and featuring Auri’s Johanna Kurkela as a lead vocalist, EYE OF MELIAN’s Forest Of Forgetting is a masterclass in symphonic songwriting so whimsical the real world fades away. Completing the all-star lineup on their debut with Napalm Records are orchestral arranger Mikko P. Mustonen and backing vocalist and lyricist Robin La Joy, blessing twelve lush compositions with immortal life. Mesmerizing from the first gentle notes of opening track “Of Willows And Shadows”, Forest Of Forgetting weaves otherworldly piano melodies and epic strings around angelic vocals worthy of the powerful Valar themselves. “Child Of Twilight” deepens EYE OF MELIAN’s dreamy and bombastic Hollywood movie score approach, carefully building up an exceptionally enchanting atmosphere that carries on into the equally cinematic “Blackthorn Winter”, ever so elegantly broadening the view into the alluring realms the band is melodizing. “Dawn Of Avatars” features Nightwish multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley on flute and uilleann pipes, as well as hurdy-gurdy fairy Patty Gurdy, before EYE OF MELIAN turns in the direction of heavy metal with a charming rendition of Bruce Dickinson’s anthem “Tears Of The Dragon” (originally released on Balls To Picasso in 1994 after the singer had left Iron Maiden). Forest Of Forgetting also comes with all its tracks as instrumental versions to dwell in the impressive orchestrals alone. With this opulent album, EYE OF MELIAN extends an invitation to faraway lands full of wonder. Forest Of Forgetting unfolds as quite the opposite of its title: utterly unforgettable."

It’s been decades since New Found Glory were etched onto pop-punk’s Mount Rushmore, but as the Coral Springs, Florida, quartet approach their 30th anniversary, they’ve proven with their 11th studio album Listen Up! - and first for Pure Noise Records - that they still have plenty to say. Shaped by guitarist Chad Gilbert’s battle with metastatic cancer and the enduring bond with bandmates Jordan Pundik, Ian Grushka, and Cyrus Bolooki, the record captures resilience and gratitude in tightly wound riffs and sing-along hooks reminiscent of their early 2000s classics. Written face-to-face in Gilbert’s Nashville home with a riff-first mentality, the album recalls Sticks and Stones and Catalyst while pushing forward with songs like first single “100%,” road-tested alongside The Offspring and Jimmy Eat World. Produced by Steve Evetts with contributions from Dan O’Connor of Four Year Strong, Listen Up! balances nostalgia with urgency, embodying the band’s mission to inspire a new generation of fans while offering longtime listeners a renewed sense of strength, positivity, and joy—because, as Pundik sings on “Beer And Blood Stains,” at the end of the day, “it’s good to be alive.”

‘DISCOMBOBULATED’ is the confounding and haunting new album from Hen Ogledd, the collaborative project of artists Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington.

· This album is perhaps their most complex and emotionally charged record to date, involving meditations on political tumult ,personal crisis and mental wellbeing in a world gone mad, yet also their most warmly inclusive and accessible.

· ‘DISCOMBOBULATED’ features collaborations from avant-garde legends, family members, animals and even elements.

· By turns emphatic and vulnerable, subtle and direct, joyous and furious, DISCOMBOBULATED is a strange, complex and moving a record as we have come to expect from Hen Ogledd.

· LP with four-page booklet and digital download card

Als direkte Folge des großen Interesses der Beatles an experimenteller Musik und anderen avantgardistischen
Kunstformen gründete Apple Records im Februar 1969 das kurzlebige Tochterlabel Zapple. Es sollte ein Forum für ungezügelte Klangexperimente bieten, oder, wie es damals hieß, für „noch abgefahrenere Sounds“.
Georges „Electronic Sound“ und John Lennons und Yoko Onos „Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the
Lions“, beide im Mai 1969 erschienen, waren Zapples einzige Veröffentlichungen vor der Schließung des
Labels. Das von George gemalte Cover von „Electronic Sound“ zeigt seinen Moog IIIp (der später von den
Beatles auf vier Stücken ihres Albums „Abbey Road“ verwendet wurde) mit den vier Modulen, aus denen
der Klang synthetisiert wurde. Jede Seite der LP „Electronic Sound“ enthielt ein experimentelles, längeres
Werk.
George Harrisons „Wonderwall Music“, erschienen im November 1968, war das erste Soloalbum eines
Beatles-Mitglieds und die erste LP, die von Apple Records veröffentlicht wurde. Der Soundtrack zu Joe
Massots Spielfilmdebüt „Wonderwall“ ist ein überwiegend instrumentales Album, das einen komplexen und
lebendigen Klangteppich aus westlicher Rockmusik und Kompositionen im Stil der indischen Klassik bildet.
1992 erinnerte sich George: „Ich entschied mich für eine Art Mini-Anthologie indischer Musik, weil ich die
Öffentlichkeit für indische Musik begeistern wollte.“

Als direkte Folge des großen Interesses der Beatles an experimenteller Musik und anderen avantgardistischen
Kunstformen gründete Apple Records im Februar 1969 das kurzlebige Tochterlabel Zapple. Es sollte ein Forum für ungezügelte Klangexperimente bieten, oder, wie es damals hieß, für „noch abgefahrenere Sounds“.
Georges „Electronic Sound“ und John Lennons und Yoko Onos „Unfinished Music No. 2: Life With the
Lions“, beide im Mai 1969 erschienen, waren Zapples einzige Veröffentlichungen vor der Schließung des
Labels. Das von George gemalte Cover von „Electronic Sound“ zeigt seinen Moog IIIp (der später von den
Beatles auf vier Stücken ihres Albums „Abbey Road“ verwendet wurde) mit den vier Modulen, aus denen
der Klang synthetisiert wurde. Jede Seite der LP „Electronic Sound“ enthielt ein experimentelles, längeres
Werk.
George Harrisons „Wonderwall Music“, erschienen im November 1968, war das erste Soloalbum eines
Beatles-Mitglieds und die erste LP, die von Apple Records veröffentlicht wurde. Der Soundtrack zu Joe
Massots Spielfilmdebüt „Wonderwall“ ist ein überwiegend instrumentales Album, das einen komplexen und
lebendigen Klangteppich aus westlicher Rockmusik und Kompositionen im Stil der indischen Klassik bildet.
1992 erinnerte sich George: „Ich entschied mich für eine Art Mini-Anthologie indischer Musik, weil ich die
Öffentlichkeit für indische Musik begeistern wollte.“

Danish bassist and composer Jesper Thorn has become one of Scandinavia s most distinctive musical voices, known for blending introspective storytelling with the understated lyricism of Nordic jazz. His award award-winning albums Boy and Dragor earned international praise for their emotional honesty and cinematic depth, establishing a sound world where fragility, melancholy, and quiet beauty intertwine. A deeply personal meditation on the search for calm, connection, and meaning in a world that often feels overwhelming, the album continues his exploration of sound as refuge, a place to pause, reflect, and breathe. Joined by long long-term collaborators Marc Méan (piano), Andreas Bernitt (violin), Cecilie Strange (saxophone), and Maj Berit Guassora (trumpet), Thorn reunites with producer Mette Damm and engineer August Wanngren to craft an atmosphere both intimate and expansive. Where 2023" s Dragor confronted the ghosts of Thorn s past, STILLE (meaning quiet " or silent " in Danish) looks outward - and inward - toward reflection. For me, music has always been a refuge, Thorn writes. It s a place where I can reflect and immerse myself - both as a listener and, maybe even more, as a composer. Each composition functions as a kind of musical still image : fragments of emotion captured in time, responding to both the chaos and fragile beauty of the modern world. From the flickering calm of Fragmentarium , to the urgent, primal fear of Run (written as wildfires swept through California) to the tender domestic peace of Stilleben , these pieces balance melancholy and hope in equal measure. Thorn s writing continues to thrive on collaboration and trust. Such is Fate emerged from a discarded melodic fragment, reimagined through the expressive playing of Bernitt on violin. Recover and Rebuild form a quiet hymn to resilience, with Guassora and Strange lending understated, breath breath-like power to the ensemble. The closing track, Shimmering (for MM) MM), is dedicated to pianist Marc Méan, a constant presence in Thorn s projects since 2014 and, as Thorn puts it, the touch and sound I hear in my head when I compose ". I wanted to create a space that feels like silence, peace and quiet in a noisy world that often moves faster than it feels possible to keep up with. says Thorn.

Juegos Nocturnos is the new project from two essential musicians of the '80s Spanish scene, coming from iconic bands like Décima Víctima and P.V.P. In this new musical venture, they deliver nine guitar-centered, refined pop-rock songs that reflect influences developed over 40+ years, recorded between 2020 and 2022. Jesús Amodia (guitar, vocals, programming, and keyboards) was a founding member of the punk-rock group P.V.P., a band often compared to The Clash and other British acts of the era thanks to their blend of punk energy with Jamaican influenced sounds. The project also features Per Mertanen (bass), member of cult band Décima Víctima, known for crafting a very distinctive sound with echoes of Joy Division, The Cure, and other British post-punk groups. Now united in this new musical adventure called Juegos Nocturnos, they present nine guitar-driven, sophisticated pop rock tracks that showcase influences shaped over more than four decades of musical career, recorded between 2020 and 2022.

This compilation brings together some of the best recordings by Los Indios from Bolivia, recorded during their brief time as a band, pioneers in blending beat sounds with garage rawness through a repertoire packed with covers of artists such as Deep Purple, Wilson Pickett, Eduardo Araujo (via Los Iracundos)_ The birth of Los Indios took place at a key moment for Bolivian music, in May 1968, during the "Festival de la Canción" held at the Félix Capriles Stadium. This event was a milestone for the so-called Bolivian new wave, featuring various groups from all over the country. A month later, Jorge Filipo Dalence, in association with Freddy Valdivieso, decided to launch their own band, Los Indios, ready to make their mark on the music scene. Their discography includes one LP and a handful of EPs released on the Caracol and Imperio labels. Their album not only showcases their musical talent but also represents an important moment in the evolution of rock in Bolivia. The combination of their unique style helped open new doors for other artists in the country's music scene. By 1969, the group was enjoying overwhelming success and widespread popularity. This is a joint release with the Peruvian label Rey Record and includes an insert with notes on the band's history

LIMITED EDITION (500 COPIES) 20TH ANNIVERSARY REMASTER, AVAILABLE ON VINYL (2LP) FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ALMOST TWO DECADES. HOUSED IN GORGEOUS GLOSSY GATEFOLD SLEEVE AND PRESSED ON RED & ORANGE VINYL TO COMPLIMENT THE ARTWORK
City Calls Revolution is our second full-length album, created as we absorbed the new wave revival and math rock movements that emerged in the early to mid-2000s, while simultaneously reconstructing elements of classic progressive rock, hard rock, and experimental music in our own way.
The album strongly reflects the attitude we cultivated as a live band—deeply influenced by the American and Japanese bands we shared stages with at the time—and embodies the punk spirit that shaped us.

Recorded and mixed in March 2005 at Headgear Studio in Brooklyn, New York, by Paul Mahajan (known for his work with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV on the Radio, and others), the album was originally released in May of the same year on both LP and CD by Beta-lactam Ring Records, then based in Portland, Oregon. Long out of print, it now returns two decades later as a newly remastered edition to be released by Riot Season Records in the UK.

In 2026, GREEN MILK FROM THE PLANET ORANGE celebrates its 25th anniversary—and also marks 10 years since Damo joined as our current bassist. It is a joy and an honor to have this album, filled with songs we still play live today, reissued in such a milestone year.

Starting January 2026, we will bring this LP on tour across 27 shows in 11 European countries, including the UK. We look forward to seeing all of you at the venues.
/// 2026 Winter European Tour ///

Slow Process welcomes D3070 with ‘Crossing The Unknown’, a brisk six track collection of contemporary, inventive electro.

Track by track:

Opener ‘Interceptor’ is a concentrated blast of overdriven, swaggering energy, setting the tone for an immersive and hard- hitting joyride of a release. A pacy electro assault follows in the form of ‘CBRN’, before pulling the tempo back for the title track, an eight-minute swathe of dark acidic sequences and classic drums. ‘Aim High’ strikes a similar, albeit less dark chord, with some sweeter melodies on display. The introduction of ‘Quantum Leap’ is suggestive of a straightforward four to the floor workout, before evolving into something altogether more off-the-wall. Finisher ‘Our Galaxy’ is a slightly more subdued, minimal affair comprised of lucid melodic motifs, percussive zaps and sub basses.

Includes download codes.

The Cabildos remain one of the most enigmatic names to emerge from the 1970s library music scene. Little is known about the group, except that their name was inspired by Johnny Cabildo, an Italian keyboardist and composer who had relocated to Florida. Their recorded legacy is strikingly concise: just three albums—Yuxtaposición (1972, released under the name Cabildo's Three), Cross Fire (1974), and the later Where Is the Cat? (1979).

Entirely instrumental, the Cabildos' music is driven by deep grooves and a vibrant blend of Latin influences, funk, and jazz fusion, often enhanced by Afro-tribal percussion. Conceived primarily for use in films, documentaries, and advertising, their work naturally belongs to the world of synchronization music.

Cross Fire stands out as a particularly compelling chapter in their catalog, distinguished by an impressive range of textures and moods achieved through the minimalist interplay of bass, drums, and keyboards alone.

Now reissued by Redi Edizioni on clear red vinyl, this excellent record returns with a faithful reproduction of the original artwork, offering a renewed opportunity to appreciate one of library music's most elusive gems.

Sonor Music Editions proudly presents an absolute Italian mood music grail and one of the best Library Music recordings ever - A.ALESSANDRONI's RITMO DELL'INDUSTRIA n.2, a true legend in the field. This is the maestro most prized and sought-after album, produced in 1969 on the small Grand Prix label, part of the Leonardi publishing group. A mindmelting record featuring some of the most killer driven beats ever! - dark vibes and haunting atmospheres with constant and moody Industrial rhythms, filled with tons of drum breaks, trippy Scat vocals and eastern inspired obsessive grooves. Music has been remastered from the original stereo master tape and the back sleeve will feature deluxe liner notes written by Mr. Jonny Trunk. HOLY GRAIL ALERT!

What or who is Arawak? It's the library music pseudonym of Italian pianist and composer Benito / Luciano Simoncini. Here, he was asked to produce a series of background cues for the Lupus label in 1974. So he began with a track called London 1965. Then proceeded to do what the hell he wanted, writing musical love letters, playing with strange noises, treated trumpets or keeping it simple with his piano and some heavy but controlled reverb.

The result is a consistently interesting album full of passion, joy and beautiful fun, and not a million musical miles away from a classic Morricone release. The original album was repressed five years later on the small Titian library label, and now, at last, there's this final commercial pressing.

It's great to know these near legendary and rare background recordings are moving slightly more into the important foreground.

Jonny Trunk

T.O.N.Y. 2 (Director's Cut) delivers a raw, unfiltered dive into Pounds448’s unique brand of underground Hip-Hop. 15 tracks packed with gritty storytelling, tight wordplay, and heavyweight energy. Completely produced by Spittzwell blending streetwise lyricism with vivid soundscapes, this project showcases Pounds448 honing his craft and carving out his own lane in the modern rap landscape. At just under 50 min, it’s a powerful listen that’s perfect for anyone hungry for authentic, no-nonsense hip-hop from one of Rochester’s most distinctive voices.

Out on February 20th 2026. The album release will be preceded by the single " The Praise of Folly part 1". First 13 minutes of a long composition that will take up the entire side A of the album for a total of 21 minutes. Guitarist Alessandro Santori says about the album: " We are very excited to finally release these three songs that we have worked hard to arrange on over the past two years. Once again we invite the listener to join us on a journey beyond the constraints of song form and genre, and to dive into The Praise of Folly like reading a book where you never know what will happen when you turn the page... sometimes exactly what you expect, but very often... absolutely not.

From the production point of view we pushed even more on the live aspect and sounds of the single performance. We decided to not edit and comping between different takes of each song but to choose which one to use on the base of general feeling and then add some post arrangements to emphasize specific passages. We definitely did not want to create a perfect Frankenstein but to take the listener in the room with us during the performance, as in concert".

Out on February 20th 2026. The album release will be preceded by the single " The Praise of Folly part 1". First 13 minutes of a long composition that will take up the entire side A of the album for a total of 21 minutes. Guitarist Alessandro Santori says about the album: " We are very excited to finally release these three songs that we have worked hard to arrange on over the past two years. Once again we invite the listener to join us on a journey beyond the constraints of song form and genre, and to dive into The Praise of Folly like reading a book where you never know what will happen when you turn the page... sometimes exactly what you expect, but very often... absolutely not.

From the production point of view we pushed even more on the live aspect and sounds of the single performance. We decided to not edit and comping between different takes of each song but to choose which one to use on the base of general feeling and then add some post arrangements to emphasize specific passages. We definitely did not want to create a perfect Frankenstein but to take the listener in the room with us during the performance, as in concert".

Based on an unbelievable true story, Roofman follows Jeffrey Manchester (Tatum), an Army veteran and struggling father who turns to robbing McDonald's restaurants by cutting holes in their roofs, earning him the nickname: Roofman. The film's score was composed by Grizzly Bear multi-instrumentalist Christopher Bear, with contributions from The War on Drugs' Jon Natchez. Christopher Bear is a drummer and multi- instrumentalist member of the Brooklynbased indie-rock group Grizzly Bear. He continues developing his independent career, most recently working on arranging soundtracks for the HBO series High Maintenance, and scoring the 2023 film Past Lives alongside his bandmate Daniel Rossen.

Six years after his Grammy-nominated LP5, Sascha Ring - aka Apparat - takes a bold dive into the complexities of life with his sixth studio album.



A Hum Of Maybe is detailed, finely crafted, and wonderfully unpredictable. At its core, the record is about love - for himself, his wife, and his daughter - and holding onto it, protecting it, and constantly recalibrating as it is in a constant state of flux. As the title suggests, the songs explore being stuck in between: not a clear yes or no, but A Hum Of Maybe.



Ring elegantly combines the perspectives of an electronic producer and a classical composer, working closely with long-time collaborators Philipp Johann Thimm (cello, piano, guitar) - who also co-wrote and co-produced the record - Christoph “Mäckie” Hamann (violin, keyboard, bass), Jörg Wähner (drums), and Christian Kohlhaas (trombone). The album also features Armenian-American artist KÁRYYN - Apparat’s Mute labelmate - on ‘Tilth’, and Berlin-and Rome-based musician Jan-Philipp Lorenz (aka Bi Disc) on ‘Pieces, Falling’.



A Hum Of Maybe is complex, deeply personal, and embraces a state of limbo, marking an exciting new chapter for Apparat.

After the last release ‘Innocence’ with Nathan Cable gaining support from John Digweed on his renowned Apple Music Compiled & Mix Series, we bring forth one of the remixers for his own single release ‘Snake Altar’.

Richie Blacker Northern Ireland’s progressive house & breaks prodigy who’s seen releases on Sasha’s Last Night On Earth, Scream’s Of Unsound Mind, Franky Wah’s Shen, Armada, Anjuna Deep and so many more including his own imprint Mess Express. We were super excited to sign the original breaks mix of ‘Snake Altar’, an amazing ethereal & euphoric progressive breaks track with its haunting ethnic vocals we just knew who could step up as the originator (this time) to remix the third Break-The-Future project.

Ray Keith delivered his signature sound system Jungle / Drum & Bass sound to which we think you’ll absolutely love, just oozing in class. The way it flows from euphoric to his heavy hitting signature darkness to deep jungle roots and back is exactly what we wanted from the big man himself and absolutely buzzing to have Ray on the label for our third release.

To finalise the package Richie Blacker delivered a 4x4 mix, now the lead track and to close off the release a beatless mix & acapella giving you some serious tools to work with… THIS IS ESSENTIAL!

White Elephant announce their debut album "World Elephant Day", the sound of time, trust and total freedom. A project forged over ten years in Crazy P"s Nottingham studio, blending dancefloor DNA with intimate musicianship. White Elephant began as a no-agenda weekend in Crazy P"s Nottingham studio, where Chris "Hot Toddy" Todd, Jim "Ron Basejam" Baron and Ben "BJ" Smith discovered an effortless musical union. Over the next decade, their collaboration slowly evolved into a debut album shaped by warmth, trust and lived experience rather than deadlines. Blending Crazy P"s dancefloor DNA with tender musicianship, the record moves between glowing disco grooves, 80s-bright sparkling pulses and intimate acoustic moments. It"s reflective without being nostalgic, playful yet deeply human. White Elephant is three friends rediscovering the joy of making music simply because it feels good.

Auf dem komplett unübersichtlichen Markt der Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichungen rarer Aufnahmen aus dem im weitesten Sinne Rock & Roll/Rhythm & Blues/Popcorn-Umfeld hat sich die Serie DOWN AT THE UGLY MEN’S LOUNGE mit einer komplett eigenständigen konzeptionellen Farbe etabliert. Das authentische 10“-Format und die Covergestaltung mit obskuren und anonymen Musikerfotos der ersten fünfzig Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts sind gleichermaßen unverkennbar wie unwiderstehlich.
Das stilistische Spektrum der neuen Auswahl rarer und rarster Trouvaillen aus dem legendären Archiv von Prof. Bop bleibt dem Ursprungskonzept treu: Zwischen Boogie und Mambo, zwischen Blues und Bop, zwischen Exotica und Egozentrik...weniger amateurhaft gespielter Teenager-Rockabilly, eher Rock & Roll etc. von musikalisch versierten und Jazz-geschulten Vollprofis. Allesamt Aufnahmen der goldenen Epoche 1950 – 1962.

Un-easy listening from »anti-singer« and improviser Sofia Jernberg, a celebration of the voice in its rawest, most malleable form. Jernberg was born in Ethiopia and grew up in Vietnam and Sweden, so one can only imagine these diverse languages opened up a wealth of phonetic possibilities before she entered academia to study jazz and composition. If you dive into her catalogue you’ll clock her startling range – working as a jazz soprano and as an improviser, collaborating with everyone from Stefan Schneider to Mats Gustafsson, as well as appearances on the stage and screen, most notably in Matthew Barney, Erna Ómarsdóttir, and Valdimar Jóhannsson’s »Union of the North«.

On »Voice«, Jernberg provides a ground-level entry point to her work, meticulously running through a litany of unconventional techniques (non-verbal vocalisation, split tones, toneless singing, and distortion) without any effects, just pure batshit sonics designed to show off the voice’s scope as an experimental instrument. On »Mouth Synthesizer« she purses her lips to make ratcheting pops like some analog oscillator, hoarsely mimicking the sort of blustery, Merzbow-coded distortions you might get if you patched a RAT pedal into a broken guitar amp. It isn’t an act of caricature, it’s Jernberg’s way of demonstrating that expensive modular rigs aren’t an essential tool for experimental music, before throwing a side-eye to the field recording industrial complex on »Birds«, transforming her vocal chords into a nightmare aviary. But it’s Jernberg’s startling »multiphonic« experiments that hit hardest. The album opens on »Multiphonic I«, and it’s difficult to tell that you’re listening to a human voice at first – you could just as well be on Colin Stetson’s overblown sax airstreams. Jernberg creates a captivating spiral of crooked, phased tones and hoarse, guttural croaks that she develops over three movements. On »Multiphonic II«, her voice is turned into a storm of pained shrieks, and on the third and final segment, it almost resembles Arve Henriksen or Jon Hassell’s muted brass curlicues. Each track pulls a different musical muscle, whether it’s »One Pitch« with its unsettling yodel-like quivering drones or »Gurgle«, sounding like a close mic-ed recording of a small pot gently simmering.

While it remains a remarkable achievement, Mavi’s breakthrough debut album Let The Sun Talk was the work of an artist still coming into his own, recorded when the gifted emcee was a teenager attending Howard University. After touring with Jack Harlow and working with artists like Earl Sweatshirt and Pink Siifu, the Charlotte, North Carolina wordsmith returned three years later with the acclaimed follow-up Laughing So Hard, It Hurts, an emotional meditation on life’s complex duality. Embedding his dense flows within lush instrumentation and stuttering percussion, Mavi unearthed new lyrical depth on the album, navigating through joy and sorrow, grief and hope, pain and healing. While many artists have struggled to match the heights of a beloved debut, Laughing So Hard, It Hurts proved that Mavi would only continue to elevate his virtuosic self expression with each new release. Eloquently cascading rhymes reveal an artist searching for truth through a vast scope of thought, floating atop serene production from Monte Booker, Dlyvinci, Ovrkast, and more. After very limited initial pressings, this classic 2022 collection is now receiving its most extensive vinyl release to date.

Finlay Shakespeare is an electronic musician working from the UK and across Europe. A childhood obsession with his parents’ record collection led him to both create his own music and build his own synthesizer equipment throughout his teenage years. After studying audio engineering, he was invited to become in-house engineer for the Moog Sound Lab UK, leading to collaborations with acts as diverse as Suicide, Charlemagne Palestine, The Grid and Mica Levi & Eliza McCarthy, both in live and studio environments. In 2017, Finlay began recording a series of monthly “Housediet'' releases - all improvised and captured at home utilising drum machines, modular synthesis and processed vocals. After several encounters with Peter Rehberg of Editions Mego, a compilation of the Housediet tracks was drawn up by Rehberg and Shakespeare, culminating in the release of “Domestic Economy” in early 2019. “Solemnities' ', a second album for Editions Mego appeared the following year. In the period since Rehberg’s untimely passing, Finlay has recorded for Superpang, Modulisme and his own GOTO Records imprint. “Illusion + Memory”, meanwhile, continues on from where “Solemnities” left off, with Finlay once again aiming to work at the fringes of electronic pop. Alter is proud to present “Illusion + Memory”, the third full length physical LP of Shakespeare’s utterly unique and sophisticated output. Shakespeare’s obsession and knowledge of late 70’s and early 80’s electronic pop music is once again at the forefront of this intense and dynamic release. Alas, this is not some retro throwback. Shakespeare’s deep understanding of his machines breathes new life into a genre of music once defunct. Supporting the likes of Blancmange bolstered his reputation for sublime synth hooks and dark lyrical content. Building on his previous work in the field “Illusion + Memory” is an unabashed pop record, as joyous as it is intense, moving from the brooding opening ballad “Your Side of the River” through the punchy “Theresa” which could be read as a love song to Throbbing Gristle’s United. Elsewhere “Climb” unleashes the opportunity to the dancefloor as wild electronics snake into all manner of schizophrenic shapes. There is a romantic side to this music. In its homage to electronic pop of the late 70’s and early 80’s but also in the emotional punch Shakespeare injects into every second of every track. Shakespeare’s reboot of these musical forms is technically impressive, one rich in feeling and deep in emotion, atmospherically and vocally. The two come together to create a unique visceral sonic experience… today!

5 track EP including 2 remixes.

Embracing a rich Italo-heavy sound infused with global music elements, 'Ritmomento' firmly positions the duo as modern-day producers carrying on the legacy of both the late '80s Italo wave and the cosmic, tribal, and Afro-influenced Italian 90's electronic scene. In addition to the EP's three original tracks, London-based South African DJ/Producer Esa and Amsterdam’s Masalo both contribute stellar remixes and re-interpretations that transport the originals to new dimensions.

The EP kicks off with 'Luna Manga', where a strong Italo synth bassline and a catchy, Mory Kante-inspired vocal hook set the tone for the journey ahead. Following this is 'Echo Danza', with mid-tempo grooving rhythms and captivating vocals that highlight the duo's unique interpretation of the diverse influences that defined the late '90s Italian electronic scene - also showcased in 'Nakarap', a track featuring infectious synth stabs that delivers a classic cosmic vibe, paying homage to the genre's rich roots.

With Esa's live band version of 'Nakarap' things are taken up a notch, introducing a lively bassline and dynamic drums that weave throughout the track. Lastly, Masalo adds his unique touch to 'Luna Manga', transforming for the peak-time dancefloor with hypnotic arpeggios and an ecstatic build-up.

“Tubby did three original dub albums, ‘Dub From The Roots’. ‘The Roots of Dub’ and the third is ‘Brass Rockers’ with Tommy McCook ‘pon the flying cymbals. Where he mixed it with the horn going in and out in a dub way and one named ‘Shalom Dub’ you can call Tubby’s too because he mixed the versions as they were off forty fives’’

Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

King Tubby and Producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee are intertwined in the birth of Dub Music. After discovering a mistake that made a ‘serious joke’ (more of which later...) they went on to release the first pressings of this new musical genre namely ‘Dub Music’. Tubby’s vast knowledge of electronics and Bunny’s vast catalogue of rhythms would lay the foundations of what today is taken as a standard... the Remix / Version cuts to an existing vocal tune.

Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock was born in Kingston, Jamaica on 28th January 1941 and grew up in the High Holborn Street area of downtown Kingston. He studied electronics at Kingston’s National Technical College and also on two correspondence courses from the U.S.A... When he had qualified Tubby began repairing radios and other electrical appliances in a shack in the back yard of his mother’s home. His work in the early days included winding transformers and building amplifiers for Kingston’s Sound Systems. Tubby built his first Sound System in 1957 playing jazz and Rhythm & Blues at local weddings and birthday parties. His reputation as a man who knew and understood both electronics and music grew steadily and as the sixties drew to a close. Tubby
purchased his own basic two track equipment. He installed this alongside his dub cutting machine, a home-made mixing console, and his impressive collection of jazz albums in the back bedroom of his home at 18 Dromilly Avenue which he christened his music room.

Tubby and Striker were at Treasure Isle Studio’s one day while Ruddy from Spanish Town was working with the engineer Byron Smith....

“Tubby and myself was talking when Ruddy was cutting some dub but Smithy (engineer) made a mistake through we were talking and forgot to put in the voice. It was two track recording in those days. Ruddy said ‘No Man! Make it stay! and so they cut the rhythm. When I went over to Ruddy’s that Saturday night a dance was in progress and when they played the vocal to the tune... then he said we’re going to play ‘Part Two’. They never called it ‘Version’..and then he played the rhythm track. The song was a catchy song and everybody started to sing along and the deejay started to toast so everything went down well. On Monday morning I went up and I said ‘Tubbs the mistake we made was a serious joke.It mash up Spanish Town! The people went wild. So you have to start to do that now ‘cause when the man put on the ‘Part Two’ everyone start singing this song. It played about twenty times. I said you try Tubbs!’...Well the next Saturday night now when Tubby strung up down the farm U Roy said he’s going to play ‘Part Two’ but Tubby did it different now. He started with the voice then dropped it out and let the rhythm run and then he brought in the voice in the middle and from there Tubby started to get really popular.’’
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee

Dynamic Sounds upgraded to sixteen track recording in 1972 and Tubby purchased, again with the help of a deal brokered by Bunny Lee. The old four track equipment and the MCI console from their Studio B. The four tracks now gave him far wider scope to work with and he began to create a new musical form where the bass and drum parts were brought up while the faders allowed Tubby to ease the vocal and rhythm in and out of the mix. It was only a matter of time before Tubby’s dub plate experiments began to make it on to vinyl and the first ever long-playing King Tubby releases would feature a collection of his mixes to a selection of Strikers rhythms. So please sit back and enjoy this historic set of sounds. Lovingly restored and with a few extra gems added to the CD Editions. These releases were the first to carry the name of King Tubby and the first to credit the great musicians that contributed so much to the rhythms that made these albums possible.

Reggae music in many ways reminds us of America’s Motown records. The music comes out of its stable fast and furious we tend to know the songs, the artists, the
studio but who? are the players. The unsung heroes that in many cases, cut most of our favourite tracks One such band this applies to in the Reggae field is the Soul Syndicate Band.

Each Jamaican record producer would have their favourite set of musicians they would use, availability permitting. Although several musicians crossed over into different named bands. For example, a set of players working with Producer Bunny 'Striker' Lee would go under the guise of The Aggrovators. The same group working with Producer Joe Gibbs would work under the name The Professionals. Soul Syndicate were the band of choice for Producer Niney the Observer, who used them for his own recordings and when you put that aside the other artists Niney produced, Dennis Brown, Max Romeo, Michael Rose, I Roy, The Ethiopians, Barry Brown, Gregory Issacs and Freddie McGregor.  To name a few and not necessary all, you begin to see the amount of material this set of musicians played on.

Built around the rhythm section of Calton 'Santa' Davis and George 'Fully' Fullwood, drums and bass respectfully. They were usually accompanied by Earl 'Chinna' Smith, Tony Chin on guitars, Keith Sterling, Gladstone 'Gladdy' Anderstone, Bernard 'Touter' Harvey, organ/keyboards and Noel 'Skully' Simms, percussion. Niney's tracks tended to be rhythm heavy and thus Sound System favourites.But when brass was needed/called for ,this was provided by the likes of Tommy McCook, Bobby Ellis, Felix ' Deadley Headley' Bennett. Niney not having a studio of his own at the time used most of Kingston's studios, again availability and money providing. But most of these cuts
selected for this release were cut at Channel 1 and a few exceptions at Randy's Studio 17 and at Joe Gibbs studio at Burns Avenue.

Niney also worked closely with King Tubby on his dub plates, so tracks after the recording sessions were taken to King Tubbys for reconstruction and sometimes
re-voicing over an existing rhythm. These were then used as version sides to the vocal cuts, but most importantly used to nice up the dances, being played out on King Tubbys Hometown Hi-Fi Sound System. We have pulled together a selection of such dub plate specials cut by the Soul Syndicate band for this release. Dub sides that emphasise how well the band worked together, and with Niney at the reigns and the added bonus of some Tubby magic sprinkled on top. Please see our Niney the Observer at King Tubbys 1973-1975 (JRO11) for further examples of this work.

We at Jamaican Recordings hope we are not alone in saluting the musicians, that played such a big part in producing many of our favourite Reggae Sounds. Having released titles by The Revolutionaries (JR003), The Aggrovators (JR005), Sly and Robbie (JR006), we are now pleased to release a selection of rare Dub cuts by another one of Jamaica's finest, the Soul Syndicate band to our catalogue...

Respect Jah Floyd.

The Meth Lab returns for its third instalment with “Meth Lab Season 3: The Rehab,” a sharp, hard-hitting chapter that cements Method Man’s place as one of hip-hop’s most consistent and enduring voices. Executive produced by longtime collaborator Handz On, this project finds the Wu-Tang legend in rare form—polished, precise, and laser-focused.

“The Rehab” pulls listeners back into the world Meth has been building since the first Meth Lab sessions: a mixtape-style showcase blending razor-sharp lyricism with streetwise storytelling, packed with energy and attitude. Method Man’s flow remains timeless, weaving between gritty boom-bap, polished modern production, and the unmistakable Wu-Tang aesthetic. A strong lineup of guests brings extra fire to the set—Cappadonna, RJ Payne, Redman, KRS-One, JoJo Pellegrino, Jadakiss, Carlton Fisk, Hanz On, Intell, Iron Mic, 5th Pxwer, Chunk Bizza, Eddie I, Cortez, and more—each stepping into Meth’s world with their own hard-edged energy. Behind the boards, producers like P. Version, Rockwilder, Eric Sermon, Adam McLeer, Daniel C. Wells, Darnell Norman McConnell, and Joshua D. Zimmerman craft a gritty yet refined sonic framework that elevates every performance.

More than just another chapter, Season 3: The Rehab feels like a victory lap: a culmination of decades of craft, a celebration of the Staten Island movement, and a reminder that Method Man still out-rhymes rappers half his age. It’s a must-own for Wu-Tang fans, East Coast purists, and anyone who appreciates sharp writing and decades-deep mastery.

Following the widely acclaimed release of Body Shell in Spring 2025, Carré returns to Tempa, for a new EP, ‘Hibiscus’, featuring a collaborative track with LA-artist Bbyafricka, highlighting the synergy of West Coast Rap & London Soundsystem culture.

Connected by warmth and groove that define where Carré is musically right now, each of the four tracks on ‘Hibiscus’ stands on its own, yet together they continue to showcase Carré’s flair for producing sleek dubstep with melodic verve. From the shimmering ‘Warm Light’, the razor-sharp edge of ‘X Effect’, the deep stepper ‘Ride It Out’ to the stripped back ‘Hibiscus’ which glows with the addition of Bbyafricka’s sultry vocals, the EP is a concise statement of Carré’s evolving sound.

Speaking about the collaboration, Carré says, “I’d been a fan of Bbyafricka’s sound, style, and tone — tracks like ‘Baton Rouge’ and ‘Dumbo’ really stood out to me — and I could already imagine how her voice would fit with my production. The fact that she’s from LA made the connection feel even more natural. When I reached out, she was down straight away and came back with something I genuinely loved. She captured the energy of the track perfectly, and together I think we created something that feels authentic and even better than I’d imagined.”

For Bbyafricka, working on ‘Hibiscus’ was a moment of overcoming writer's block, “this song was me coming out of it on a weekend spent in Joshua tree, sitting outside looking at the view and the solar panels. I think you can envision what my view was when you play the song,” she explains.

Carré’s next outing on Tempa is a welcome return, signifying the home run she’s on as a producer and marking another impressive instalment in the producer's growing catalogue. In the last three years, Carré has quickly become a leading figure in the contemporary wave of artists pushing the true school Dubstep sound to new places and new audiences, expanding on the roots laid down by the likes of Skream, Benga, and Loefah.

Mit dem BIPPP Sampler bringt uns das in Frankreich ansässige Label Born Bad ein Stück französischer 80s Untergrundmusikgeschichte für das manche Leute töten würden wenn sie die Originalaufnahmen in die Hände bekommen würden!

Die Compilation ist vollgestopft mit extrem raren französischen Minimal-, Synth- & Coldwave. Der Großteil der Songs von u.a.: A Trois Dans Le Wc, Act, Les Visiteurs Du soir, Vox Dei, Comix, Tgv, Mary Moor, Ruth, Visible, Casino Music sind dabei wohl auch nur dem engeren Kreis der Minimalsammler bekannt, können hier aber dankenswerter Weise auch endlich einem (etwas) größerem Publikum präsentiert werden. Wer frühe Soft Cell, Silicon Teens, Grauzone, Nouvelle Vague die von Martin Hannett produzierten belgischen Names oder ähnliches mag kommt hier wirklich nicht dran vorbei. Großer Tip für alle die auf schrägen 80s Epop, Postpunk und Minimalelektronik stehen, inkl. tollen beiheft- leider nur auf französisch!

Malena Zavala is an Argentinian-born, London-based artist, producer, and filmmaker, known for crafting ethereal, genre-blending music that navigates the space between her Latin heritage and her British upbringing. With the forthcoming album If This Life Could Start Again set for release on 30 January 2026 on Paraná Records, Zavala presents her most intimate, cohesive, and accomplished work to date, marking a significant evolution in her artistic journey.
With her new album, Malena creates an atmospheric dream pop world, weaving singer-songwriter intimacy with synth pop, Argentine folk, indiepop, rock and experimental music, threaded together by her blissful vocals and dreamy guitar work. Gorgeously warm and vivid, If This Life Could Start Again charts the journey from pain to acceptance, mapping out the non-linear nature of healing through a sonic landscape. Each song embodies a distinct emotion within that journey, from grief and chaos to feeling lost, seeking refuge, finding confidence, and finally acceptance and letting go. Drawing on her Argentinian roots, Malena uses the Andes mountains as both a visual and thematic anchor – the difficult climb towards higher ground becomes a metaphor for healing, whilst being lost at rock bottom reflects the darkest moments of the journey. 
Completely composed and performed by Malena herself, the album was recorded in Girona’s L’Empordà countryside in Spain with producer Luke Smith. As a professional producer and audio engineer, this was Malena’s first time relinquishing production control – an intimate creative shift that allowed their shared vision to shape the album’s rich, enveloping sound. 
However, Zavala’s career to date has been a testament to self-sufficient artistry. Her critically acclaimed debut, Aliso (2018), was written, recorded, and produced alone in her parents’ garage, which honed her dreamy bedroom pop sound. The album, praised by The Guardian for its “gently warped and beguilingly melancholy guitar pop,” ****, immediately catapulted her from DIY beginnings to prestigious stages, supporting acts like Lord Huron at London’s Roundhouse and Men I Trust at Village Underground and subsequently continuing on their UK/EU tours. Later with standout performances at Latitude, Green Man, and All Points East. Her consistent radio support from key influencers including BBC Radio 6 Music, BBC Radio 1's Huw Stephens, and Steve Lamacq has solidified her presence on the airwaves.
Her second album, La Yarará (2020), saw Zavala delve deeper into her roots, exploring Latin traditions like Cumbia and Bolero. This exploration of identity continues powerfully on the new album, but with a newfound lyrical depth and sonic confidence. The new album, If This Life Could Start Again, is a raw and transformative eight-track journey that maps the emotional landscape of healing. Written after a period of personal upheaval, the album traverses themes of grief, hereditary trauma, and self-discovery. The record’s narrative is structured like a mountain ascent. A challenging climb through varied emotional terrain, posing the central question: “Will you join the journey?” Sonically, this journey mirrors the non-linear path to acceptance, evolving from acoustic folk and synth-pop to funk-infused rhythms and rock anthems.
As a formidable live performer, Zavala has built a robust touring profile across the UK and Europe. She will embark on an extensive tour in February and March 2026 to support the album, with dates spanning major cities from London and Glasgow to Berlin, Paris, and Barcelona.
With If This Life Could Start Again, Malena Zavala fully realizes her artistic vision as a self-taught producer to an autonomous artist commanding her career through Paraná Records whilst reflecting the vast landscapes of her heritage and affirming her place as a compelling and evolving voice in contemporary music.

Toronto-based musician and producer David Psutka’s long dormant Egyptrixx alias returns, with How Tidal. A compendium of sorts, which retells the story so far, reworks of highlights from his catalogue sit alongside brand new tracks, serving as a bridge between the past and the future, preceding more fresh music in 2026.
With the originals still sounding remarkably current, a straight best-of wouldn’t have been out of question, but ever the tinkering student of sound, Psutka thought he’d break them apart, just to see how he could put them back together again.

The music on is How Tidal is cutting-edge and futuristic, but never difficult, instead offering accessible gems where multiple strains of bass music are infused with a zingy, techno-pop bounce, whilst ambient moments gift sonic lozenges for maximum contentment. Psutka creates optimistically welcoming environments, where synthetic birds chirrup in cyan skies over babbling rainbow brooks, as 15 inch subwoofers boom by.

Egyptrixx gained renown across the 2010s with his hard hitting yet tranquil experimental dance music dubbed ‘celestial jeep music for a Saturn moon’. Colourful sound design was braided with dancefloor structures, creating an exhilarating tension between melodic and dissonant, euphoric and inward. The debut album Bible Eyes was released in March of 2011 to critical acclaim.

As Egyptrixx, Psutka has released four studio albums, collaborated, remixed, and toured with some of the biggest names in electronic music.
The widely acclaimed moniker is foundational to Psutka’s complex body of work that encompasses multiple solo projects, plus a diverse range of collaborative work. He has performed live at Sonar Festival, Roskilde, Mutek, MOMA PS1 Warm-UP and CTM Festival, and presented sound installations at Galeria Civica Commune di Modena and Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).

In 2015, Psutka launched Halocline Trance as a home for his various sound projects, events and collaborations. In recent years, the label has quietly established itself as a platform that facilitates many of Canada’s most exciting creative music projects.

At the start of this summer, following a three-year hiatus for Daphni (punctuated only by his first ever collaborative Daphni track ‘Unidos’ alongside Sofia Kourtesis), he dropped ‘Sad Piano House’. The track represented something of a continuation in the Daphni catalogue, its roots growing from Cherry’s ‘Cloudy’ and its subsequent Kelbin remix, something in that song’s makeup having a profound effect when played on dancefloors by Snaith and countless others. ‘Sad Piano House’ deployed more intangibly irresistible bendy piano to equally satisfying effect and continues to achieve similarly rhapsodic dancefloor saturation.
Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between Cherry and Butterfly however of course sits Honey, the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly’s lead single ‘Waiting So Long (feat. Caribou)’. An unlikely duo - in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith - ‘Waiting So Long’ is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It’s simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. He has never sung on a Daphni track before, and did not set out with the intention to do so this time, and yet this strange billing was born.

Daphni music has always been Snaith’s way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.
Butterfly is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like ‘Clap Your Hands’ which picks up the energy of ‘Sad Piano House’ and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith’s hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile ‘Hang’’s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. ‘Lucky’ is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, ‘Invention’ skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, ‘Talk To Me’ grumbles and broods in the murk, and ‘Miles Smiles’ could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. There are no obvious peaks in these tracks or unifying moments, in fact many of them really have no business being on the dancefloor at all, and yet in the right setting, they could be the most fun to be had all night.

One such club is a good microcosm for the ethos of Butterfly as a whole. “Around the time I was finishing up this album I played a long set in a club called Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany.” Snaith recalls, “It’s kind of, in one sense, the platonic ideal of the kind of club I’d want to play in. Every single decision has been taken, at great expense, with the aim of making the perfect sounding medium sized club room. But on top of it being the perfect acoustic environment it also is run by an amazing collection of people in a way that gives it a sense of community that dance music at its best provides. It is an absolute pleasure to play in that room to a crowd of people who come from all over. Playing in there you feel like you can play anything, and I played works in progress of pretty much every track on this album in my set there. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing a short set at a festival or in a more raw warehouse kind of club where you bang it out and only really functional music works but on record I guess the point of these Daphni records is to keep in mind a more expansive idea of dance music where the parameters are broad and the church is broad. I think that actually, putting really functional stuff next to weirder tracks (both on an album and in a dj set) might be the thing that’s still most interesting to me.”
This is the feeling that’s most palpable on Butterfly, and in every single time you see Snaith DJ. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias - and even before that – the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on Butterfly is present in all its twists and turns. It leaps all over the place and yet it hangs together, never feeling like a grab bag of dancefloor utilities but rather a distillation of all the strings to Snaith’s bow, exhilaratingly human and unified by one singular concept – simple and joyful exploration.

At the start of this summer, following a three-year hiatus for Daphni (punctuated only by his first ever collaborative Daphni track ‘Unidos’ alongside Sofia Kourtesis), he dropped ‘Sad Piano House’. The track represented something of a continuation in the Daphni catalogue, its roots growing from Cherry’s ‘Cloudy’ and its subsequent Kelbin remix, something in that song’s makeup having a profound effect when played on dancefloors by Snaith and countless others. ‘Sad Piano House’ deployed more intangibly irresistible bendy piano to equally satisfying effect and continues to achieve similarly rhapsodic dancefloor saturation.
Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between Cherry and Butterfly however of course sits Honey, the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly’s lead single ‘Waiting So Long (feat. Caribou)’. An unlikely duo - in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith - ‘Waiting So Long’ is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It’s simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. He has never sung on a Daphni track before, and did not set out with the intention to do so this time, and yet this strange billing was born.

Daphni music has always been Snaith’s way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.
Butterfly is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like ‘Clap Your Hands’ which picks up the energy of ‘Sad Piano House’ and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith’s hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile ‘Hang’’s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. ‘Lucky’ is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, ‘Invention’ skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, ‘Talk To Me’ grumbles and broods in the murk, and ‘Miles Smiles’ could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. There are no obvious peaks in these tracks or unifying moments, in fact many of them really have no business being on the dancefloor at all, and yet in the right setting, they could be the most fun to be had all night.

One such club is a good microcosm for the ethos of Butterfly as a whole. “Around the time I was finishing up this album I played a long set in a club called Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany.” Snaith recalls, “It’s kind of, in one sense, the platonic ideal of the kind of club I’d want to play in. Every single decision has been taken, at great expense, with the aim of making the perfect sounding medium sized club room. But on top of it being the perfect acoustic environment it also is run by an amazing collection of people in a way that gives it a sense of community that dance music at its best provides. It is an absolute pleasure to play in that room to a crowd of people who come from all over. Playing in there you feel like you can play anything, and I played works in progress of pretty much every track on this album in my set there. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing a short set at a festival or in a more raw warehouse kind of club where you bang it out and only really functional music works but on record I guess the point of these Daphni records is to keep in mind a more expansive idea of dance music where the parameters are broad and the church is broad. I think that actually, putting really functional stuff next to weirder tracks (both on an album and in a dj set) might be the thing that’s still most interesting to me.”
This is the feeling that’s most palpable on Butterfly, and in every single time you see Snaith DJ. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias - and even before that – the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on Butterfly is present in all its twists and turns. It leaps all over the place and yet it hangs together, never feeling like a grab bag of dancefloor utilities but rather a distillation of all the strings to Snaith’s bow, exhilaratingly human and unified by one singular concept – simple and joyful exploration.

Editions Mego welcomes KMRU back to the fold. Kin is Kenyan born, Berlin based, sonic wizard Joseph Kamaru’s second release on Editions Mego, following on from the classic 2020 release Peel. Since the release and subsequent praise for Peel, the artist has been a staple on the electronic scene performing on numerous stages and festivals worldwide in tandem with a flood of media recognition. Kin could be construed as the second child following Peel. The project came out of initial discussions with Peter Rehberg about what a Peel sequel would sound like. Kamaru is quick to clarify that Kin is not that record; “I'll know when that record will come and when I'll make it. It's already happening... or maybe it lives within both of these Mego records”.

It is this deft ambiguity and vague tiptoeing around the concrete that encapsulates the ambiguous sound world of Kamaru’s vision.

Kin was started early 2021 in Nairobi with Kamaru exploring his noisier palette of sounds encompassing distortions reminiscent of the sounds he would muster from in his youth when playing guitar. He paused making this record for a year as soon as Peter died, then slowly returned to it through 2022 resulting in the immense new work we have here.

The charms within Kin lay as Easter eggs revealing the true identity behind the colourful sonics only after multiple deep listens. With Trees Where We Can See sets the tone by way of a warm swaying melody inviting the listener in for further investigation. In 2022 KMRU and Mego stalwart Fennesz toured the USA together resulting in a strong friendship and also, the second track here, Blurred. A neat Mego/Editions Mego loop as such. Blurred arranges twangy guitar strums alongside glistening glaciers of shimmering drones. They Are Here represents a darker hue as melancholic clouds of shadowy noir tap directly into the listener's nerve stream. Maybe takes a detour into a bristling euphoric electronic storm whilst We Are screeches in a pattern formation not unlike a highly abstracted Aphex Twin forcing its way out of a hard drive. By Absence concludes proceedings, operating as both exit music and a portal to further sonic investigation with acoustic bellowing residing amongst a kaleidoscopic backdrop.

Kin is a trip that rewards close repeated listens as all the colours and textures, nuance and narratives unveil themselves. This isn’t a record to be glossed over, magic rewards concentration.

Kin is a record to be Played slow and LOUD.

For Pita.

All tracks written, produced, mixed by Joseph Kamaru
Blurred co-written & produced with Christian Fennesz
Mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering
Photography: Joseph Kamaru
Layout & Design: Nik Void
Cut by Andreas Kauffelt at Schnittstelle, Berlin

This one already has created a nice little stir with the soul crowd, and rightly so.

The A side "Is It Still Good For You" is a wonderful Modern soul chugger that oozes that late night club feel. Simple in its melody and production but bounces along so soulfully. Great vocals but the late Johnny Kemp with the group on some killer backing harmonies.

Kinky Foxx could be described as an ever changing funk machine with nuts and bolts that remained strong over time. This band planted its roots in the Bahamas where the name "Kinky" was given to Joseph Foxx and teaming up with his Brother Donny Foxx formed the musical group named, "DER KINKY FOXX"!!! The two Foxx Brothers added members Kevin Bassett-Guitar, Johnny Kemp-Vocals, and Burnis Stubbs-percussion performing clubs and concerts in the Bahamas. Moving to New York City Kinky Foxx changed members to compete with the major funk venue during the early 80s. Acquiring Dan Atherton Sr. AKA "The Slammin 'Drummer", Larry Robinson-Keyboardist, Timmy Allen-Bass, Kevin Robinson-Guitar these musicians combined forces with Johnny Kemp, Kevin Bassett, and Burnis Stubbs to form the New York City based "Original" Kinky Foxx from '79 to '81, burning up the famous Cellar Club in NYC, the mecca for Black Funk entertainment. With a front line of top musical talent some members moved on to follow solo recording and production careers and contracts. To fill lead gutiarist and Bass guitarist vacancies Jerry Powell was added on guitar,and Leslie Booker was added on bass. In 1982 Kinky Foxx added Vincent Lilly on lead vocals and Curtis Styles on Keyboards.The Foxx released the hit song "So Different" on Sound of New York records in '83 and embarked on a Canadian experiment leaving the US to play briefly in Montreal, Quebec at Club Checkers. The rest is history as the band became so popular in Quebec and Ontario they could have been called Canadian residents, usually working 6 nights a week and 11 months out of the year from '83-'91 . Dan Atherton moved on in '83 to pursue a career as The "Slammin Drummer" for hire, and was sought after by a barrage of major artists,touring with Bobby Brown,New Edition,Levert,Teddy Riley and Guy,Cameo,and Atlantic Starr. Tyrone Govan aka "King" moved in as the Foxx Drummer in '83 and remained with the group until the band went their separate ways in the mid 90's. The Foxx's last performance in the States was in North Carolina on tour and backing Prince's sister Tyka Nelson in the 90's. Currently the band has sparked interest once again writing and recording new material and is forming a reunion show which will eventually lead to additional performances with other recording acts and headline shows.

repressed !

Francois Kevorkian is a name that should need no introduction. With over 40 years in the game FK has occupied numerous roles in his long and storied career - drummer, DJ, A&R man, remixer and producer - his skills know no boundaries. Having DJ-ed during the nascent days of club culture in NYC alongside Walter Gibbons, Larry Levan and more, Kevorkian has been there from day one. Years spent in the seminal clubs of the day sharpened his ears and his prowess behind the mixing desk saw him become the A&R man at the legendary Prelude records in the early 80's, this in turn led to him working with everyone from The Eurythmics, Depeche Mode, Erasure, D-Train, Yazoo, The Smiths, Kraftwerk and many many more. A true NYC original and legend, Kevorkian is still active today and the respect he commands amongst his peers has never waned, his adventurous extended DJ sets, seminal mixes and remixes and his open ears and open mind have ensured that he will go down in history as a musical pioneer.

Rewind to 1995. Kevorkian's 'Wave Music' imprint has come into existence with a handful of releases. No-one could imagine that his self-produced 'FK EP' - the next release on the label - would be a stone cold classic. Easily one of the most consistent, exciting and solid EP's to come out of NYC during this golden era of dance music. Across 4 tracks we are taken on a sound journey through a world that is undoubtedly informed by FK's time as an engineer, DJ and most importantly, a music lover.

EP opener 'Hypnodelic' brings us into this world, a deep, driving cut that fuses the dubbed out vocals of Freddie Turner against FK's keyboards and immaculate drum programming, oozing cosmic electronic soul, this track was destined to be a future classic. 'Mindspeak' also boasts some tough drums and with a respectful nod to Chicago is an incredibly mixed and arranged peak-time cut that will drive your dancefloor into deep space again and again. 'Edge Of Time' welcomes us to the flipside of the EP, wild Latin percussions, tablas and old school horn stabs drive this monstrous cut, not to mention cavernous dub FX and that huge bassline that just doesn't let up. Essential. 'Moov' rounds things out on a more subdued, stripped back vibe. Reversed percussions and spaced-out synth chords lace this beautifully understated and warm track, one that builds into a crescendo of melodies and hypnotic rhythms and the perfect way to close what has been a truly special musical journey.

This essential reissue of the 'FK EP' has been fully licensed, sanctioned and remastered in conjunction with FK from the original master sources by Optimum Mastering, Bristol UK, repressed onto high quality vinyl and packaged as the 1995 release was. A truly classic record indeed, available again for 2018. Welcome back Wave Music!

“Short Story” is the new album by Restive Plaggona. Eight new tracks of industrial techno beats and raw atmospheres. Over the course of 40 minutes the album takes us through different territories and landscapes of immense bass weight sound, sometimes dark and raw, sometimes droning and minimal, always energic.

Restive Plaggona is the music project of the Corfu-based artist Dimitris Doukas, known for his heavy and deep industrial soundscapes with subtle traces of darker forms of techno music. Dimitris is a particularly productive musician, having released more than a dozen records including his own imprint Several Minor Promises.

Water can retain or wash away memory; flowing or freezing. It gives life and shapes earth, while frozen imprints of an ancient past are waiting to melt – back into sound or fluid motion, or simply to dissipate and disappear. For their split release, Yoichi Kamimura and Olli Aarni offer two distinct reinterpretations of a performance recorded live at the Temppeliaukio Kirkko – a church in Helsinki built directly into solid rock and bathed in natural light – meditating on glacial landscapes and water cycles, using shared field recordings that bifurcate into two sonic visions of “ice journey”.

Yoichi Kamimura’s extensive recordings formed the bedrock of the original performance, notably from time spent on Suomenlinna Island just outside Helsinki in 2021, aiming to capture the remnants of the glacial movements that formed the area’s geology. Elsewhere, the voices of ringed seals, underground waterways of Kyoto, and icy rivers in Lapland from Kamimura’s library float in as well. “The small, charming, and gentle islands floating in the Baltic Sea—some with little cottages and restaurants—reminded me of the drifting ice in the Sea of Okhotsk between Japan and Russia,” describes Kamimura. Fragments of a Christmas choir creep in too, recorded at the church on Suomenlinna Island. Titled Kōri no ryokō , Kaimimura’s reinterpretation of the performance emphasises a shared future across all icy sea regions of the world: thawing ancient memories and the threat of disappearing entirely.

On Jäämatkailu, Olli Aarni presents his own expansive reworking of the same source material, heavily processed alongside his own field recordings from Vantaanjoki river and Suontee lake in Finland. “I was thinking about the processes of erosion, water carving rock, the prehistoric glaciers over the landscape in my own environment,” explains Aarni. The soundscape hums with both intimate details and macrocosmic flow, and a submersible bass rumble hinting at an iceberg far below the tip, morphing at time scales beyond human comprehension.

Side A is composed by Yoichi Kamimura using field recordings of drift ice (Shiretoko, Hokkaido, 2019–2022), the Lake Biwa Canal (Kyoto, 2020), the Therme Vals baths (Vals, 2017), spring water (a fountain next to Saint Benedict Chapel, 2017), a Christmas choir (Suomenlinna Church, Helsinki, 2021), ice in the Juutuanjoki River (Inari, 2021), and recordings from Yoichi’s and Olli’s concert (Temppeliaukion kirkko, Helsinki, 2021), KORG iPolysix, and KORG minilogue xd.

Side B is composed by Olli Aarni using the aforementioned sounds + field recordings of the river Vantaanjoki and the lake Suontee, sampled sounds, and a computer.

You don’t need to be Freud to regard teeth as a delicate issue. They can make joy look joyous and pain look painful, and on the cover of the new múm album they do both at the same time. As »Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is Okay« (2001), »Finally We Are No One« (2002) and »Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know« (2009) »Smilewound« is another example of the band’s art of juxtaposing two conflicting meanings and taking advantage of the energy created through the tension between both.

Sparser in sound than many of its predecessors, »Smilewound« is an airy, relaxed record. The múm-core-duo of Örvar and Gunni doesn’t make you laugh out loud (except maybe for the quirky vintage Arcade-sound-start of »When Girls Collide«), but it will make you smile often - despite the heavenly voices singing about violence in one form or another in most songs. Musically, múm’s capability to build playful electronic sound-ornaments around simple melodies is in full bloom. And these days they know that trimming the ornamentation can strengthen the melody. Take »The Colorful Stabwound«: an aguish drum’n’bass piece and »Smilewound« gets close to a straight pop-song. Even that isn’t very close, but it combines its rhythmic strength with a simple yet effective piano-line and the soothing lushness of a female voice to something compelling that follows you like the smell of a delicate eau de toilette. Or »Candlestick« which started out as a little ditty strummed on an acoustic guitar many years ago and has grown into this bouncy piece of synth-pop that changes its musical colours every couple of beats until you feel comfortably dizzy. Perfect pop in very fancy clothes. No wonder that antipodean pop-princess Kylie Minogue wanted to collaborate with múm on the »Whistle«, the main song in 2012-movie »Jack & Diane«.

Recorded in, among other places, the band’s practice-space, an old baltic farmhouse and on the kitchen-table after dinner, the album was produced by múm themselves. And being the revolving collective they are, it comes as no surprise that we see the return of former member Gyda. Defining satellites as part of the core fits nicely with the band’s penchant for ambivalence - in fact that's part of the album's charm.

Explicit isolation is the third album by the international collective E/I, led by composer and percussionist Szymon Pimpon Gąsiorek. The group’s seven core members came together while studying at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. For this latest release, they are joined by Slovenian musicians Samo Kutin (hurdy-gurdy) and Kaja Draksler (organ), alongside Danish tuba player Rasmus Svale.

The three compositions distill sound down to its essential elements, drifting freely through space. The material is minimal, moving in the geological rhythm of endless cycles of tension and release, formation and dissolution, density and lightness. Pimpon acts here more as a guide than a creator with a master plan. He is a navigator, leading us to the most crucial moments where sonic emissions merge into vibrating drones, building to an inevitable leap—an explosion after which the particles rearrange themselves once again. It feels like futuristic temple music infused with intergalactic spiritual jazz, the extensions of drone music, and acoustic ambient textures, all highlighted by the jolly grin of the navigator.

“I wrote the scores and asked each of the musicians to record their parts individually. What’s interesting for me about doing it this way is that it removes the element of immediate interaction and introduces a factor of randomness. I then edited and mixed it myself, also adding my own parts. Previously, it was strictly acoustic music, and the recordings were ‘live,’ meaning they were captured in one room at the same time, with no subsequent edits.” Pimpon has also incorporated electronics, which make the album even more airy and organically complement the sounds of the hurdy-gurdy and organ, recorded in Trboje, the small Slovenian village.

Inspired by the soundtrack from the motion picture American Graffiti, this 3LP collection captures the sound of late night cruising, jukebox romance and early rock ’n’ roll rebellion. Spanning doo wop, rockabilly and classic pop, the set brings together era defining hits from the mid 1950s to early 1960s, featuring timeless favourites by Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys, Dion, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, The Platters and many more. Pressed across three vividly coloured vinyl records, red, blue and yellow, this set is both a nostalgic listening experience and a striking collector’s piece, celebrating the golden age of American rock and pop in authentic style.

The Coasters were, in the opinion of noted rock writer Dave
Marsh, ‘the funniest group in rock’n’roll history’, while author and
historian Arnold Shaw described their music as ‘ebullient,
energising, entertaining, expressive and danceable.’ High praise
indeed - and as this album confirms, well deserved. the
Coasters’ songs are more famous than the group themselves.
Their music will endure forever, a fact underlined by the
Broadway-staged musical revue Smokey Joe's Café that
received seven Tony nominations and won a Grammy Award.
The Coasters’ hits were a large part of the score.

When you listen to birds, they usually talk about food, sex/family, or anxiety. If they knew about the true nature of humanity's cruel and exploitative relationship with birds, they would be discussing rebellion. Humanity's current trajectory about birds is to cause the extinction of one-third of all bird species by the end of this century.

This record crystallises the borders between memory, beauty, and anxiety. At the core is an amalgam of all the birds we have met and heard, their sounds synthesised from a blend of memories. Esthetically it simulates the qualities of bird sounds, hitting similar frequential sweet spots. There is a great variety of birds captured here, from high to low frequencies, from solo voices to groups, from birds standing on their own to complex world-building, where the bird voices are part of an ecosystem, becoming one of the instruments.

You could stop there, enjoying this record on a musical level, but it invites us to do one step further, to consider reconfiguring our relationship with the Earth and its inhabitants. To question our impact, and to ask why we need synthetic bird music. Is it just a visionary endeavour or is it because we are failing at fostering a world in which organic birds and other creatures can thrive?

32 artists from the whole world, including our favourite artists from Eastern Europe, have contributed to this compilation both with new and previously released music. Their music is ordered from dawn to dusk and into the night. For many of the artists it's their first time on mappa, but some have previously released an album with us.

Smoove pulls out two classic Hip Hop joints from 1987 & 1990 and gives them a fresh reworking utilising original multitrack parts while adding new samples and blunted head snapping beats.

Paid In Pounds - lovingly recreated with additional parts , slapping bass, 80,s synth pads and vocal cut and paste snippets aplenty

Ghetto - Using multitrack elements from the original 1973 score, Smoove flips the beat and strips back the track to its groove while showing off production techniques

Andrew Weatherall never wakes up in the morning and decides to start a new album that day. Instead, recording music is a continuous process usually working with different collaborators and seeing where the muse takes him. Somewhere down the line the rewards of a collaboration will coalesce into a body of work between thirty minutes and an hour long and he will put a call into the Rotters' team to say he has a new release ready to go.

We were visiting the studio catching up on new tracks in various states of readiness when he offered up some remixes of tracks from his recent "Ruled by Passion…" he'd been sent by fellow musicians. Tim Fairplay, Andrew's partner in The Asphodells, Sean Johnston from A Love From Outer Space and Scott Fraser live and work in the area and all popped in at various points.

Andrew's black book reads like the who's who of contemporary music but rather than plunder it for remixers he'd let drop the idea of a remix with friends and neighbours. These plus a couple a swaps with musical friends who were new to the concept of remixing, gave Andrew an hour of music he thoroughly enjoyed listening to.

It goes without saying none of the tracks are duds but our ears always prick up when Justin Robertson's take on "Beglammered" ups the heart rate or Daniel Avery's own unscrewing of "… the Axis" ruffles the neck hairs. We've stopped arguing in the office about which is the best track. They all are.

If there is a year zero for the introduction of reggae music to Japan, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was 1979 when Bob Marley and the Wailers toured the country, trailed by an entourage of journalists, photographers and fans ready to spread the message of the music into all corners of Japanese society.

But the story of Japanese reggae is not a linear one, and the music that is collected on Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 captures the moment J-reggae entered the broader public consciousness, merging commercial city pop style with an infectious backbeat, that has drawn comparisons with the emergence of Lovers Rock in the UK.

Rather than look directly to Jamaica, many producers and artists in Japan were inspired instead by the more approachable sounds of The Police and UB40, their reggae fix arriving pre-filtered through the lens of new wave pop from the UK. Playful and groovy, these album deep cuts have been overlooked for too long.

Among them are Miki Hirayama, the idol singer who borrowed the bassline from Bob Marley’s Natural Mystic on ‘Denshi Lenzi’, Chu Kosaka, who headed to Hawaii to cut the Jimmy Cliff-inspired ‘Music’ and Marlene, the Philippine songstress whose cover of Roberta Flack’s ‘Hittin’ Me Wear It Hurts’ owed much to her producer’s obsession with Sly & Robbie’s Compass Point sound.

Then there was Izumi “Mimi” Kobayashi, who enlisted the Babylon Warriors to perform on a dubbed-out version of her own track ‘Lazy Love’, the city pop-meets-new wave reggae sound of Miharu Koshi’s ‘Coffee Break’, Junko Yagami’s anti-apartheid deep cut ‘Johannesburg’ and Lily, whose ‘Tenkini Naare’ was produced by Ryuichi Sakamoto and closes out the compilation with a flourish.

While these stories may not always conform to neat narratives, they do provide a more accurate reflection of the indirect ways in which styles infiltrate one another and, in their naivety, have the potential to create something beautifully strange and entirely new. Previously only available in Japan, the tracks on this compilation are a testament to that curious alchemy.

Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 is released on vinyl and as a full album download (no streaming), featuring original artwork by Japanese Fukuoka-based artist Noncheleee, whose cover pays homage to the iconic dancehall album art of Wilfred Limonious.

Released on 1st September, Tokyo Riddim 1976-1985 is part of Time Capsule's Nippon Series, a loose series of compilations exploring different musical scenes from Japan between the 1960s and 2010s.

From the Guts of Essaira claims space in body and time. It follows the path announced with the single ‘Dramla / Xirxe’, expanding its tensions and guiding them towards a more layered, conscious expressive form. It is an album to be listened to without respite, allowing the sonic material to dilate.

The tracks move across a punkstrial terrain rich in synths held in constant tension; sharp guitars and industrial rhythms alternate drive with suspension. The vocals, multiple and layered, do not seek centrality but co‑presence: they enter, disappear, pursue one another, dig deep and steer the listening through zones of friction and release.

The album is released during a period of widespread instability and reflects that mood. The ten pieces construct a compact journey, with darkness and urgency alternating with more rarefied, introspective moments. Nothing is accidental: every segment is functional, every tension is permitted to resonate until the end. From the Guts of Essaira is a physical, visceral record; it works by accumulation and subtraction, strengthened by the fracture between control and abandonment. It breathes, listens, spreads.

Joe Allotta's solo project (drummer, composer, and singer) was born from his need for freedom of expression after numerous experiences
as a session musician for artists such as Davide Shorty, Johnny Marsiglia, Funk Shui Project, Mario Biondi, Leburn Maddox, Giles Robson,
Amy True, and Imaani (Incognito).
His compositions embody the desire to make jazz, in its various forms and influences, accessible to the widest possible audience without sacrificing the impact of an engaging and captivating live performance.
Joe Allotta blends hip hop, funk, and drum 'n' bass with contemporary jazz, perfectly blending vocals with his performances. He combines
his rhythmic exploration with a sweet and surprising voice, capable of lending further emotional depth to his music.
"Transition" is a musical journey that reflects a life in constant motion, where everything seems fleeting, fast, and fleeting, immersed in the
frenetic rhythms that surround us every day. The title also encompasses a more intimate dimension: the growth of his artistic identity. Joe is
no longer just a drummer and composer, but also a singer. His intense and surprising voice intertwines with his drumming in a continuous
dialogue, opening up new expressive possibilities and adding further depth to his musical language.
The album was produced in the studios of the Sghetto Club in Bologna, where Joe, together with his producer Jacopo Trapani, spent weeks
researching and experimenting: rehearsing, playing, processing and synthesizing sounds, developing and arranging ideas, thanks also to
the collaboration of extraordinary musicians. The result is a work that blends instinct and research, intimacy and openness, movement and
transformation: exactly what Transition aims to convey.
CREDITS
Giuseppe "Joe" Allotta: Compositions, Vocals, Drums, Bass, Keyboards
Jacopo Trapani: Compositions, Recording, Mixing
Chicco Allotta: Piano (Track 1)
Giovanni Galdo: Bass (Track 1)
Riccardo Dalle Vedove: Trombone (Track 1)
Piergiorgio Perrella: Guitar (Tracks 2, 5, 8, 9)
Elijah Lee Last Jacinto: Piano (Track 6)
Matteo Diego Scarcella: Sax (Track 6) Francesco Brini: Master

Kanyon (John) is a NYC based producer/dj who has cut his teeth in the underground US techno scene through raw live sets, and dynamic djing. Keeping the quality high with his signature no-bs style of production and performing, he has played live supporting legends like Steve Poindexter, DJ Hyperactive, and Francois K. His productions have garnered support from Ben Sims, Akua, Ron Like Hell, Kush Jones and many others.

The Duplex EP is a split record featuring John's house alias DJ John Brooklyn on the A side (A1, A2, locked groove) & techno alias Kanyon on the B side (B1, B2). Exploring NY house and trippy, dubby minimal techno respectively, Duplex EP is a heady start to 2026.

B' ROOTS SOUND SYSTEM presents the first release of its record label -NORTH&SOUTH Reggae Label-. A 12inch worked with Sergio López aka Japu, from Lana Studio in Linares (Jaén-Andalusia-Spain).

A version of the original riddim by N. Bailey with the voice and lyrics of Natty Nature. 'Keep up the vibe', a song full of powerful melodies, where the lyrics refer to creating a harmony between the music and the listener through the vibration of the instruments, the voice and each sound element. That is, keeping the energy and creativity awake in perfect balance.

On the other side, Jorge Dopico contributes his art in 'Trombone vibe', to keep the energy at its highest until the end of the album. A trombone line that delights anyone who loves the most melodic and instrumental reggae.

All this, supported by the respective Dub Versions, by Sergio López aka Japu, from Lana Studio. Providing the riddim, production, mixing and mastering of this sensational first work.

Es war eine nächtliche Spielerei – und wurde zum Welterfolg. Vor zehn Jahren lud Joep Beving, damals
noch ein unbekannter Holländer, seine selbst komponierten Klavierstücke ins Netz. Solipsism hieß das Album, das daraus entstand: sanfte Klaviergeschichten, die Menschen weltweit berühren. Die interpretierte
Fassung seines bahnbrechenden Debüts, das inzwischen Goldstatus erreicht hat und Hunderte Millionen
Streams verzeichnet.
„Solipsism ist die Vorstellung, dass die Realität nur im eigenen Geist existiert. Ich habe dieses Album
Solipsism genannt, weil ich mir selbst beweisen wollte, dass das Gegenteil wahr ist – dass wir alle tief
miteinander verbunden sind.“
Deutsche Grammophon legt Joep Beving’s erfolgreiches Album Solipsism als EcoRecord neu auf.

Of the 200+ collaborations Hifiklub has created since its debut album in 2007, the one with Alain Johannes remains the most significant and recurring in the Toulon-based band's rich discography. Founding member of Eleven, Alain Johannes is known for his solo career and his work with Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, Mark Lanegan, and PJ Harvey. This 25th Hifiklub album, with its more ambient aesthetic, celebrates nearly 20 years of a fruitful musical friendship.

Me vs Me, Vol. 1 is the debut album by Joe Allotta, a drummer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist active as a session musician for various
artists (Davide Shorty, Johnny Marsiglia, Funk Shui Project, Mario Biondi, Nick The Nightfly, etc.). The album was conceived in London,
Trapani, and Bologna and features performances by various musicians Joe has worked with in recent years.
The EP embodies a sound rich with emotion, expressed through four tracks that blend jazz with cutting-edge urban rhythms, with drums as
the central element of his compositions.
The four tracks on the EP thus have distinct personalities inspired by soul, breakbeat, and funk, souls that coexist in the artist's emotional
experience: the song "Lullaby" is a hip-hop beat with a funk flavor, while "The Mess You Left" moves through dreamlike sounds that crystallize
into a drum 'n' bass storm. House Party is very reminiscent of UK club sounds, it is full of synths and with a square drumming, it closes the
EP She Sad, a sort of skit that leaves room for an improvisation of guitar and drums.

On one hand, it could be bumming out the people who enjoyed hearing what the band evolved into. On the other hand, nostalgia sells...and daddy needs to eat! So...Nevermind 2! Broken Bones and Bloody Kisses has seen a few vinyl pressings in the past, but landing a physical copy of You Are My Canvas (which was only released on burned CDs, crafted in the Lovat- Frasers' basement) is almost impossible. And ooooooh boy...the pre- demo demo (or PDD) versions of "Sketch Artist Composite" and "The Anatomy of the Journey"? Those puppies - with me (Connor...hi!) on vocals/drums and Jeff playing everything else - were only available on the Y2K version and basically only used to recruit other band members. Smash all these old chestnuts together in one release and see what happens! Why not? It perfectly captures the whole spirit of early BOYS NIGHT OUT. But what title does one bestow upon such a sonic siphonophore? There are 3 versions of "Sketch Artist Composite".

Do you call it Sketch Artist Composite Plus Other Songs? Do you go all in on a lyric- based title like Fuck Us Where We Breathe? Decisions, decisions! Probably best to follow Costa's sage advice and go with Nevermind 2. So, almost exactly two decades after our first show - July 19, 2001 @ The Oakville Pine Room with Sky Came Falling, Unearth, and Rise Over Run - may we present unto you, Nevermind 2! What's old is new again, probably?

2026 Repress

We trying hard to keep things real here with a new vinyl drop pulling out a a limited series for the crate diggers.

Der Spoken-Word-Künstler Dan Whitlam, eine der überzeugendsten neuen Stimmen aus GB, balanciert auf der 14-Track-Odysee "Strangers (Again)", seinem Debütalbum, gefühlvolle, klavierbetonte Momente und gebrochene Beats mit seiner charakteristischen Mischung aus lyrischer Ehrlichkeit und melodischem Feingefühl. So entsteht ein intimer wie auch weitläufiger Sound. Mit Gastfeatures von Raphaella, Tamzene, Saphire & Jordan Akampa fängt die LP die Dualität seiner Arbeit ein, wenn poetisches Geschichtenerzählen mit zukunftsweisender Produktion kontrastiert. Jeder Track reflektiert Verbindung und Distanz und verwebt Momente emotionaler Tiefe und Entspannung. Im Okt./Nov. 2025 startet(e) Whitlam seine bisher größte Headliner-Tour, mit ausverkauften Konzerten in Köln & Berlin, die ein intensives Erlebnis verspricht, wenn Grenzen zwischen Poesie, Soul und zeitgenössischer Musik verschwimmen. Der Londoner feiert Millionen TikTok- & Instagram-Aufrufe und wird von Künstlern wie Fred Again & Arlo Parks sowie Modemarken wie Hermes & YSL unterstützt.
















[o] B8. Interlude - 3 Lives [vinyl exclusive]

Der Spoken-Word-Künstler Dan Whitlam, eine der überzeugendsten neuen Stimmen aus GB, balanciert auf der 14-Track-Odysee "Strangers (Again)", seinem Debütalbum, gefühlvolle, klavierbetonte Momente und gebrochene Beats mit seiner charakteristischen Mischung aus lyrischer Ehrlichkeit und melodischem Feingefühl. So entsteht ein intimer wie auch weitläufiger Sound. Mit Gastfeatures von Raphaella, Tamzene, Saphire & Jordan Akampa fängt die LP die Dualität seiner Arbeit ein, wenn poetisches Geschichtenerzählen mit zukunftsweisender Produktion kontrastiert. Jeder Track reflektiert Verbindung und Distanz und verwebt Momente emotionaler Tiefe und Entspannung. Im Okt./Nov. 2025 startet(e) Whitlam seine bisher größte Headliner-Tour, mit ausverkauften Konzerten in Köln & Berlin, die ein intensives Erlebnis verspricht, wenn Grenzen zwischen Poesie, Soul und zeitgenössischer Musik verschwimmen. Der Londoner feiert Millionen TikTok- & Instagram-Aufrufe und wird von Künstlern wie Fred Again & Arlo Parks sowie Modemarken wie Hermes & YSL unterstützt.
















o B8. Interlude - 3 Lives [vinyl exclusive]















[o] B8. Interlude - 3 Lives [vinyl exclusive]

Conjuring a faithful following, quite rare in these days of ADHD, by sheer force of their celebratory and fiery live shows, Montijo's most celebrated outfit reflects these past couple years of camaraderie and life on the road on their debut album, after a self-released EP and a 4 way split on Zegema Beach Records. Sublimating all the inherent potential of post-hardcore at its most sweeping into a forceful and focused delivery, 'Acetate' captures all their urgency through 13 memorable and sharpened tracks. Recorded patiently and mastered by the gifted know how of Jack Shirley - Deafheaven, Joyce Manor or Gouge Away -, the songs on 'Acetate' open sprawling vistas upon the band's recognizable sound between chaos and order, cutting back on everything that might be redundant or overly technical. Alex Domingos' vocals reach new means of expressiveness through harrowing screams and hints of melody, João Pires' sinewy guitar pulling out riffs and skewed lines that echo for posterity and the rhythmic section of Simão Simões - bass - and João Portalegre - drums - driving all this turmoil with kinetic precision and flexibility. Never before did Hetta sound as relentless, chill and melodic, tracking down life at its own pulse.

Mal-One’s first release for 2026 and his first PUNK50 release to celebrate 50 Years of Punk 1976-2026 (where did that go !! ). This 6 track 12” / mini album see’s him working the concept of the Punk Rock Disco. He has dance enhanced the tracks to suit this style. The lead track is ‘Welcome To The Punk Rock Disco’ explaining the concept and to accompany this he has reworked 5 previous tracks that he thought could work within the disco format.

The collage on the cover shows John Travolta and Olivia Newton John getting down with all the punk boys and girls at the Punk Rock Disco.. where all the best Punks Go…
Hope you enjoy the Punk Party.

Prehension macht Bevings Begabung deutlich, eingängige Melodien zu schreiben und sie zu minimalistischen Stücken mit einer hohen emotionalen Dichte zu verweben.
Es sind die schwingenden Zwischentöne inniger Beziehungen, die unendlichen Farben menschlichen Lebens
und die unterschiedlichsten Empfindungen von tiefer Traurigkeit bis hin zu inniger Freude, die sich in seinem
Tastenspiel wiederspiegeln und die Beving höchst präzise und mit meditativer Intensität zum Klingen bringt.
Deutsche Grammophon legt Joep Beving’s erfolgreiches Album Prehension als EcoRecord neu auf

"The Highwaymen were a country music super-group composed of four of the biggest outlaw country artists: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. The band was active as a group between 1985 and 1995.
In 1984 Glen Campbell first played the song ""Highwayman"" for Johnny Cash. The four were all together in Switzerland doing a television special and decided that they should do a project together. While the four were recording their first album, Marty Stuart again played the song for Cash, saying it would be perfect for them - four verses, four souls, and four of them. The quartet had the name for their new super-group ""The Highwaymen"", the name of their first album, Highwayman, and the name of their first single. It was a perfect name for them because they were always on the road and all four had the image of being outlaws in country music.
Both the album and the single eventually reached the top spot in the country music charts. Their cover of Guy Clark's ""Desperados Waiting for a Train"" reached the Top 20.
Highwayman is part of the Groove Classics collection and now available against a fair, budget-friendly price."

"The Highwaymen were a country music super-group composed of four of the biggest outlaw country artists: Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson. The band was active as a group between 1985 and 1995.
In 1984 Glen Campbell first played the song ""Highwayman"" for Johnny Cash. The four were all together in Switzerland doing a television special and decided that they should do a project together. While the four were recording their first album, Marty Stuart again played the song for Cash, saying it would be perfect for them - four verses, four souls, and four of them. The quartet had the name for their new super-group ""The Highwaymen"", the name of their first album, Highwayman, and the name of their first single. It was a perfect name for them because they were always on the road and all four had the image of being outlaws in country music.
Both the album and the single eventually reached the top spot in the country music charts. Their cover of Guy Clark's ""Desperados Waiting for a Train"" reached the Top 20.
Highwayman is part of the Groove Classics collection and now available against a fair, budget-friendly price."

The album begins with the title track (Blossom) a light and immediate song composed by Besson. Also composed by Besson are 'Kyoto dans la brume', inspired by a stay in Japan's imperial city, and 'La Course', originally written for three slapstick short films by Fatty Arbuckle starring Buster Keaton. Suarez's composition ' Sans laisser d'adresse' , was initially written for a stage play titled ' Ici Nougaro' , and his ' Le jour J a l'heure H' for a film by director Jean- Henri Meunier. 'Les Tuiles Bleues' is a nod to Suarez's late friend, Malagasy accordionist and singer, Regis Gizavo.

There are also three covers on the album, 'Answer Me' by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch, a composition recorded by Keith Jarrett during his 2016 European tour; Besson cites Jarrett as a major influence. There is also Carla Bley's ' Ida Lupino' and Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays' ' Au Lait'. These and their own compositions result is Blossom' ', a highly accomplished album on which trumpet and accordion shine in equal measure.

John Paul Youngs Karriere erreichte mit der Veröffentlichung von „Love Is in the Air“ 1977 (international) und 1978 (Australien) ihren internationalen Durchbruch. Die von Harry Vanda und George Young
geschriebene Disco-Pop-Hymne wurde zu einem weltweiten Phänomen. Die B-Seite wurde seit 1992 nicht
mehr veröffentlicht (und war der Titelsong in Baz Luhrmanns Film „Strictly Ballroom“), was diese Vinyl-LP
zu einem echten Sammlerstück macht.

ince its opening in spring 2021, JUBG, a still young Cologne gallery for contemporary art, has specialized in the broad field of artists and collaborations working along artistic interfaces, especially those between visual art and experimental and/or electronic music. For example, JUBG has already hosted exhibitions by Markus Oehlen, Kim Gordon, Wolfgang Voigt, Matthias and Aksel "Superpitcher" Schaufler, Sven-Åke Johansson, and Emil Schult. Albert Oehlen, who is a kind of mentor and supporter of the gallery, was also a guest at Albertusstraße this summer, where he presented the exhibition D-I-E ORPHEUSMASCHINE together with Michael Wertmüller, Thomas Stammer and the poet Rainald Goetz.

It is only logical that the gallery now expands its sphere of activity to include its own label, on which music appears that comes from similar contexts as the artists listed above already suggest.

As catalog number 1, JUBG is now releasing the official soundtrack to "The Painter" from 2021. The film, German title "Der Maler", is a mixture of feature film and documentary and a collaboration between German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, best known for his Oscar-nominated film "Downfall", and Albert Oehlen, with whom Hirschbiegel has a long friendship, as they both once studied together at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Hamburg.

The docu-fiction shows Oehlen struggling with a painting and pondering the meaning of his work. Oehlen is played by German actor and musician Ben Becker, accompanied by the off-screen voice of Charlotte Rampling. In the film, Becker makes a painting that Oehlen himself creates step by step behind the camera, while the actor improvises the process in front of the camera.

The wonderful music for this film comes from no less than two outstanding personalities whose individual biographies and musical signatures could hardly be better suited to this project. On the A-side it is Gudrun Gut, icon not only of the German electronic music scene since at least the 90's, singer, composer, DJ, label owner (Monika Enterprise) and of course founding member of the legendary 80's New Wave band Malaria. On the B-side it’s the world famous and award winning US avant-garde trumpeter and improvisational musician Nathan "Nate" Wooley, who has played with Fred Frith and John Zorn among others.

Gudrun Gut's tracks bear such beautiful titles as "Bewegung", "Küste" or "Weinen" and she once again pulls out all the stops of her great skills and decades of experience as a producer of the most diverse electronic music genres. These are unusual and much more experimental musical paintings that she creates here than on her recent solo works. Edgy, angular, raw and unpolished, yet always elegant and clever, she subverts the male artist madness depicted extensively in the film in her own unique way.

Nathan Wooley answers with the instrument he has been familiar with since childhood, the trumpet, with which he is able to create a ravishingly virtuosic noise. His pieces are more like sketches, often only 90 seconds or a few minutes long, but in all their abstractness underpin the narrative of the film almost perfectly.

A limited edition of 20 copies in total, painted and signed by Ben Becker, can be purchased directly through JUBG.

JUBG, eine noch junge Kölner Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, hat sich seit ihrer Eröffnung im Frühjahr 2021 auf das weite Feld von Künstler:innen und Kollaborationen spezialisiert, die entlang künstlerischer Schnittstellen tätig sind, insbesondere an denen zwischen bildender Kunst und experimenteller und/oder elektronischer Musik. So hat JUBG bereits Ausstellungen von Markus Oehlen, Kim Gordon, Wolfgang Voigt, Matthias und Aksel "Superpitcher" Schaufler, Sven-Åke Johansson und Emil Schult gezeigt. Auch Albert Oehlen, der eine Art Mentor und stiller Unterstützer der Galerie ist, war im Sommer dieses Jahres zu Gast in der Albertusstraße, wo er zusammen mit Michael Wertmüller, Thomas Stammer und dem Dichter Rainald Goetz die Ausstellung D•I•E ORPHEUSMASCHINE präsentierte.

Es ist nur logisch und folgerichtig, dass die Galerie ihren Wirkungskreis nun um ein eigenes Label erweitert, auf dem Musik erscheint, die aus ähnlichen Zusammenhängen und Sphären stammt, wie es die oben aufgezählten Künstler:innen bereits vermuten lassen.

Als Katalog-Nummer 1 veröffentlicht JUBG nun den offiziellen Soundtrack zu "The Painter" aus dem Jahr 2021. Der Film, deutscher Titel “Der Maler”, ist eine Mischung aus Spiel- und Dokumentarfilm und eine Zusammenarbeit zwischen dem deutschen Regisseur Oliver Hirschbiegel, vor allem bekannt für seinen Oscar-nominierten Film "Der Untergang", und Albert Oehlen, mit dem Hirschbiegel eine lange Freundschaft verbindet, studierten sie doch beide zusammen einst an der Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Hamburg.

Die Doku-Fiktion zeigt Oehlen, wie er mit einem Gemälde kämpft und über die Bedeutung seines Werks nachdenkt. Oehlen wird vom deutschen Schauspieler und Musiker Ben Becker gespielt und von der Stimme von Charlotte Rampling aus dem Off begleitet. Im Film erstellt Becker ein Gemälde, das Oehlen selbst hinter der Kamera Schritt für Schritt anfertigt, während der Schauspieler den Prozess wiederum vor der Kamera improvisiert.

Die wunderbare Musik zu diesem Film kommt von gleich zwei herausragenden Persönlichkeiten, die mit ihren individuellen Biographien und musikalischen Handschriften kaum besser zu diesem Projekt passen könnten. Auf der A-Seite ist dies Gudrun Gut, Ikone nicht nur der deutschen elektronischen Musikszene seit mindestens den 90er Jahren, Sängerin, Komponistin, DJ, Label-Betreiberin (Monika Enterprise) und natürlich Gründungsmitglied der legendären 80er Jahre New Wave-Band Malaria, auf der B-Seite der weltberühmte und Preisgekrönte US-amerikanische Avantgarde-Trompeter und Improvisationsmusiker Nathan “Nate” Wooley, der u.a. mit Fred Frith und John Zorn zusammengespielt hat.

Gudrun Gut’s Tracks tragen so schöne Titeln wie “Bewegung”, “Küste” oder “Weinen” und sie zieht hier einmal alle Register ihres großen Könnens und ihrer jahrzehntelangen Erfahrung als Produzentin der verschiedensten elektronischen Musikspielarten. Es sind ungewöhnliche und sehr viel experimentellere musikalische Gemälde, die sie hier entwirft als auf ihren jüngsten Solo-Werken. Kantig, eckig, roh und ungeschliffen und dabei immer elegant und schlau, unterläuft sie den im Film ausgiebig dargestellten männlichen Künstlerwahnsinn auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise.

Nathan Wooley antwortet mit dem ihm seit Kindesbeinen vertrauten Instrument, der Trompete, mit der er in der Lage ist, einen hinreißend virtuosen Lärm zu erzeugen. Seine Stücke sind eher Skizzen, oft nur 90 Sekunden oder ein paar wenige Minuten lang, die in all ihrer Abstraktheit das Narrativ des Films nahezu perfekt untermalen.

Eine auf insgesamt 20 Exemplare limitierte Edition, bemalt und signiert von Ben Becker, ist direkt über die JUBG zu erwerben.

A rising and genre-defying figure in the French electronic scene, Goldie B continues her ascent with Who Says Night’s For Sleeping?, a five-track EP that asserts her distinctive signature: an instinctive blend of club energy, cinematic storytelling and UK rave influences. Conceived as the soundtrack to a night lived in full intensity, the record moves through the fire of the dancefloor, the collective trance, and those suspended moments where one floats between dream and wakefulness.

“I imagined this EP as the soundtrack to a night experienced in its entirety. From the first rush of adrenaline on the dancefloor to that floating walk home, still carried by the music. My influences range from Moby and Air to Floating Points and Joy Orbison, artists who know how to combine power and emotion. I love connecting the raw energy of the club with more dreamlike textures, because you can absolutely dream while dancing. Each track is an instinctive snapshot of my inner world.” Goldie B The EP’s opening act, “The Space Between” blends ethereal pads, organic strings and a steady crescendo, recalling the elegance of Air or Moby. It opens a suspended space, equally suited to inner drift or physical release. “I wanted it to feel like a threshold, a gentle hand pulling you into a trance state.”

On “U Make Me Feel So Good”, a sensual and narrative breakbeat track, a flowing bassline gradually tightens into trancier energy. Seductive female vocals weave through broken rhythms, creating a piece that is as tactile as it is hypnotic. “It’s about contrast, the softness and caress at the start, then a tension that rises and electrifies.”
Instagram | Youtube | TikTok | SoundCloudAt the heart of the project, “Rêve de Rave” channels 90’s breakbeat spirit with old-school samples, an euphoric central break and voices urging to move your feet. Urgent and liberating, it embodies the dreamlike essence of the rave. “It’s how I imagine the rave: a lucid dream where joy and collective energy feel almost unreal.”

Next comes the most incisive cut of the EP, “Purple FX”, driven by a grating central bassline that evolves relentlessly until its explosive drop. Minimalist yet implacable, it captures the sheer force of a peak-time track. “I wanted a track purely designed for the club, where the tension just keeps rising until it explodes.”

Closing in chiaroscuro, “Snake Waves” shifts from breakbeat into a half-house, half-techno 4/4 groove, carried by a sinuous, hypnotic bassline. The track plays on tension and release, with a rich harmonic break before fading like a suspended farewell, where the party recedes but the energy lingers. “It’s a farewell piece that keeps the intoxication alive, like a final vertigo before slipping back into the night.”

Goldie B is a multifaceted force on the French electronic scene. A producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer, MC, DJ, and co-founder of the label Omakase Recordings, her sets blend bass, jungle, UKG, and breakbeat, captivating audiences with their contagious energy. Based in Marseille, she has released music on renowned labels such as D.KO, Banoffee Pies, and YUKU, and has performed on some of the biggest French stages and festivals: Peacock Society, Astropolis, NDK, Marsatac, Delta, Le Bon Air, and even the Festival d’Avignon. In 2024, she was selected by Apple Music for its Women In Electronic series. Her new Who Says Night’s For Sleeping? EP confirms her status as an instinctive and distinctive artist to watch on the French electronic scene.

In his own time, in his own tone and in his own company.

‘Win and lose without losing oneself’’ This line from French rapper Oxmo Puccino greatly accompanied David Walters while composing his fourth studio album. Over the eleven tracks on ‘Ti Love’, David took his time to find the right tone and in turn, tell his truth.

‘Ti Love’, is a French-Creole abbreviation for “petite love”, meaning ‘little love’, evoking that sweet fondness found in those small gestures and little acts of kindness.

Think of things like young kids' brotherly love or a stranger lending you a helping hand, while expecting nothing in return. It’s these motions that allow this album to feel full of real life, carried by beating drums that also pull at our heart strings.

Basing himself in a small village in Martinique, where David had not long since scattered the ashes of his late mother, the multi-instrumentalist decided to remain there and let the writing of Ti Love pour out from deep inside him. Taking influence from around the island, the energy from his makeshift studio set up in Fort de France, allowing a resilient yet grieving man to recount, let go and come to terms with his recent loss.

So embracing these new circumstances, on the rugged coastal Caribbean island of Martinique, David took up an artist’s residency in the island’s capital Fort de France, located near the town’s port is the ‘Manoir des Artistes’, a bustling recording studio space. A place where the walls shake as the latest sounds being created are blasted by locals and visitors alike. Most studio doors are wide open; as music here is a huge part of everyday life, feedback from encouraging neighbouring musicians is on hand and welcomed. A contrast to the isolation often assumed with working in more traditional music studios.

It was here in this stimulating environment that David recorded Ti Love’s initial demos.

With his first collaborator onboard, Neeweed, a 25-year-old producer and gospel expert who David met at the Martinique Jazz Festival.

Of the album’s initial versions of the record David recollects: ‘It took me three years to write it, then I rewrote it, reworked it. In the end I'm really glad I stepped back and listened to myself.’ I found a great ally in GUTS, who ended up being the artistic director of the record”

David surrounded himself with the right people who helped him express himself in the best possible way. He called on other friends and musical comrades; album opener and title track, ‘Ti Love’ features the incomparable Fatoumata Diawara (World Circuit Records / Africa Express) and further along additional production came in from; Izem, Art Of Tones, and GUTS himself, who all added just the right amount of ‘little love’ to this

project. Further helping hands came from Californian producer and DJ Captain Planet, who David was introduced to a few years ago. Closer to home, here in Europe, the German producer Bluestaeb appears on two tracks: the very catchy disco funk ‘Mr Maraboo’ and ‘Kite Koule’, the latter being the first single lifted from the album, where David invited Nigerian guitarist Keziah Jones.

Elsewhere on the album, fellow Heavenly Sweetness recording artist Blundetto contributed two tracks; the reggae ‘Voodoo Love’, which is David's tribute to Studio One, and the very sweet and resilient ‘Bon Voyage’, which closes the album... "It's gold, it doesn't need anything changing.” remarked David - ‘Bon Voyage’ is a goodbye to his mother, whose voice called him from the bottom of the sea one night while he was surfing during the full Moon.

Released almost 20 years after his debut album ‘AWA’ released on French imprint Ya Basta, home to Gotan Project and many others, David boasts a long list of radio supporters including; Gilles Peterson, Cerys Matthews and Don Letts at the BBC, while further field Cosmo Radio in Germany, and KCRW in Los Angeles.

On this new record, David has shown sincerity and vulnerability, while still honouring the infectious groove that he is known for the world over. Despite the upsets, a little love can indeed go a long way.

CREDITS:
Produced by Bluestaeb / Blundetto / Captain Planet / Izem / Art of Tones
A&R : Guts
Mixed by Mr Gib @ Onetwopassit
Except "Bon Voyage” and "Voodoo Love" mixed by Jerome “Blackjoy” Carron
Mastered by Benjamin Joubert @ Biduloscope
Art by Elliott Walters

Banda Black Rio is a Brazilian musical group from Rio de Janeiro that was formed in 1976. They were one of the first to undertake the fusion of Essential Brazilian Music with International Black Music. The songs are based on funk but also including samba, jazz and Brazilian rhythms. Compared to other soul-funk groups, such as Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind and Fire, Banda Black Rio developed a particular style of instrumental soul music fusing together elements from a number of genres. With saxophonist Oberdan Magalhães, trumpet player Barrosinho, Cristovão Bastos on keyboards, Claudio Stevenson on guitars, Jamil Joanes on bass and Lucio Silva on trombone. Arrangements are from Cristovão Bastos and Claudio Stevenson. The album “Saci Pererê” was originally released in 1980.

"Chuck Roth’s music wanders. The New York-based guitarist’s inquisitive style builds from rippling patterns that center the physicality of his instrument, roaming wherever they take him. watergh0st songs, his Palilalia debut, collects songs from the past half-decade, presenting an intimate snapshot of his music that draws from an eclectic background in classical guitar, electronic music, and improvisation." "The mark of watergh0st songs is its exploratory nature. Roth began his musical journey as a classical guitarist studying the canon works for the instrument, but he was never interested in playing fast or flashy. Instead, he wanted to roam down musical paths and see where they led him. He eventually became more interested in electronic music, where he found inspiration in subtractive properties and patterning. The music of watergh0st songs translates that electronic music to the guitar: many of the songs began as synth tones and later branched out through the physicality of his instrument." "When writing music, Roth wants melodies to feel comfortable in the body, focused less on setting a structure and more on letting music unfold how it happens in any given moment. His songs are fluid and his melodies are clear, plucked with careful attention but never too deterministically. His is the music of a traveler, floating around the strings of the guitar. It is about embracing the banal, or the everyday moments that shape a life." "Though Roth’s music often feels quite direct, there is a dreaminess that lives inside of it. His lyrics don’t feel too hot or cold, instead they have a wistfulness and melancholy of what it feels like to live through every passing day. His exploratory style bolsters these lyrics, giving the music its sense of ennui, as does his focus on texture. Each track takes on a different structure: 'Bunny Hop' unfolds like a squirrel jumping from branch to branch of a tree, while 'Private Boy' has a slower approach, growing from delayed harmonics that almost sound like bowed strings. His textures range from metallic and bristling to soft and feathery, evolving with gentleness. It is about ending up somewhere different than where it started, and watching the notes that fall in-between." The embrace of the routine colors Roth’s music. In it, there is a sense of presence, of admiring the smallest details and moments. Roth loves to take walks and look around, observing the beauty of his surroundings. Similarly, watergh0st songs feels like moving through the world at the pace of a comfortable trot and soaking in every sound as it emerges. It is a quiet evolution—but one that stays."—Vanessa Ague

Nachdem Ásgeir jahrelang mit Übersetzern wie John Grant zusammengearbeitet und die Poesie seines Vaters, Einar Georg Einarsson, vertont hat, betritt er nun neues Terrain: Zum ersten Mal in seiner langen und gefeierten Karriere hat er die Texte komplett selbst verfasst.

Ásgeir wird seit Langem für seinen detailreichen Folk-Pop, die opulente Produktion und sein sehnsüchtiges, gefühlvolles Falsett gefeiert. „Julia“ markiert eine Wende – nicht nur hin zu lyrischer Eigenständigkeit, sondern auch zu kathartischer Direktheit, mit Songs, die nicht nur meisterhaft vorgetragen, sondern auch durchlebt wirken. „Das war irgendwie das erste Mal, dass ich die Texte völlig allein geschrieben habe“, erzählt er. „Es war beängstigend. Ich versuche immer noch, mich darin zu finden. Aber ich habe versucht, mich zu öffnen, und habe in diesem Prozess viel gelernt. Es war auf jeden Fall therapeutisch für mich.“

Dieses neue Gefühl der Verletzlichkeit zieht sich durch die zehn Stücke des Albums, die über einen Zeitraum von fast zwei Jahren geschrieben und aufgenommen wurden. Viele der Songs entstanden zunächst auf der Gitarre, wobei Ásgeir auf Schlichtheit setzte und Melodie, Klarheit und Bedeutung in den Vordergrund stellte. Die Produktion, gemeinsam mit seinem langjährigen Weggefährten Guðm. „Kiddi“ Kristinn Jónsson entwickelt, bleibt organisch und zurückhaltend – und gibt so Ásgeirs Stimme, und vor allem seiner Stimme als Songwriter, den nötigen Raum.

Der aus Nashville stammende Cellist Nathaniel Smith, den Ásgeir als „Zauberer“ beschreibt, steuert hier und im gesamten Album atmosphärische Klangteppiche bei. Mit improvisierten Melodien verleiht er den Stücken Leben und Tiefe – auf eine Weise, die Ásgeir sich zuvor nicht vorgestellt hatte.