Fans and headz worldwide have been clamoring for a follow- up, but all Emapea wanted to do was just 'zone out.' And that's what happened, with the release of Emapea's twenty song album Zoning Out, Volume 1. Emapea's cuts are meant for the listener to get lost in - but they're not only for chilling, or when deep in thought, but also for getting in that crucial head-nod zone, like when the DJ drops the dopest beat. Expertly crafted and sequenced, the album presents a boom-bap journey that's dreamy and spacey while remaining tough and jazzy. "Check It Out" exemplifies the mood with its smooth drums, chiming keys, subtle sax riffs, and hip hop shout-outs. The vibe expands on "Motion", adding an exotic, worldly flavor to the seductively loping rhythm. And "Classy" features a smokey saloon piano melody that cruises smugly out of jeep-beat speakers.
Drop the needle on this latest dispatch from the tape vaults, and we are back in Chicago at The Curtom Studios in 1977. For instalment number five in the "Hutson Sevens" series, Home of The Good Groove Records are so very honoured to deliver this previously unreleased cut from Leroy Hutson—a true titan of soul music and an absolute master of his craft.
"Betting On My Love" carries that signature smooth orchestration we have come to expect from Hutson’s finest hours. It moves with a wonderful, breezy optimism. Hutson’s joyful, velvet lead tones skip effortlessly across the groove, wrapped in lush backing harmonies that instantly evoke the feel of the Hutson II
classic, "I Think I’m Falling in Love".
Now, a brief confession of pure, crate-digging indulgence: if tailored strictly for the dancefloor, the track arguably hits its logical peak and fade just past the three-minute mark. But to cut it there would strip away the raw human magic of the session. If you let the wax ride to the very end, the arrangement dissolves into a wonderful, lingering instrumental outro, culminating in the studio players purposely "clattering" their instruments in a moment of pure creative release. It is a brilliant, candid studio artifact that was fortunately preserved on the original master recording. Essential listening for the global soul family—do not sleep on this debut pressing.
For the flip we present Leroy Hutson’s 1979 cut “ So Nice”, a masterclass in late-70s soul music. A stand out track from the “Unforgettable” album and a vital reminder of Hutson’s unmatched ability to inject sophisticated romanticism into the bleeding edge of that disco era.
Slightly edited for the 7-inch pressing, up steps our remastering and editing maestro Mr Phil Ward. Phil always has the utmost respect when remastering and editing original content, ensuring that every second of the groove is fully respected and preserved. His stellar work here includes the studio recording of the three-count drum intro, never heard before now, leading into that meditative smooth groove layout.
It is an exquisite arrangement of simmering electric keys, nimble basslines courtesy of the legendary Keni Burke, and subtle bongo accents that collectively deliver a timeless masterpiece. Now available on 7-inch vinyl for the first time.
Slacker and Seth Troxler presents He Ain’t Here. 15 tracks by Slackers for Slackers. All exclusives.
Featuring exclusive music from: Seth Troxler, O.bee & Tomas Station, Audion, Jonny Rock, Dr Dunks, Krystal Klear, Marc Houle, Hiroko Yamamura and more. This is our dysfunctional family – and this will get weird.
Seth Troxler:
"When I created Slacker I wanted to make something to remind me of my youth in the ’90s. Being born in ’85, the ’90s was a decade that defined me. Culturally America was at a pivotal point. Post Reaganism of the ’80s, the ’90s was defined by the anti-hero. The idea that we had had enough. From grunge to hip hop, house and techno.
"This was the time of independence and indie music. Life without boundaries. A world where everything felt possible and a belief that the future was coming. Home game consoles, futuristic new sports like the X Games. It was about being radical. Living life on the edge and turning away from the imaginary cookie cutter American dream.
"I feel we are in similar times. The future we were promised every day seems more like a nightmare than a utopian dream. And all we have left are our minds and bodies, but who knows how long our freedom to be an individual will exist.
"This compilation is protest – from fight songs to moments of joy. It’s about living, dancing and being. It’s for the freaks, perverts, for the rebels, for those who forever were other, and dared the impossible to just be themselves in a world where everyone wants to be the same. The revolution will not be televised because it’s within ourselves. It’s about being unapologetically individual.
"Freedom is a state of mind as well as a state of being. Being a slacker is as much about pushing, as it is about being. Not giving a f#ck about the rules and making your own. I’m a slacker, you’re a slacker, a loser and nobody. History will forget me, history forgot Elvis.
"The world is about to change. Might as well have a bit of fun while it burns. Welcome to our dysfunctional family. Join us for the bonfire, I promise you things are going to get weird, in the best possible way. HE AIN’T HERE."
MEMORIALS jump off the waterslides and head above the clouds with their stunning second album, ‘All Clouds Bring Not Rain’. The duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms (formerly of Electrelane and WIRE) locked themselves away in a studio in a barn secluded deep in the woods in southwestern France and re-emerged with a beautiful, unusual record that is both melodic and unconventional. For such an ambitious album it’s striking that it was written, performed, recorded and mixed solely by the two of them. Sounding like an unearthed classic, MEMORIALS twist their influences into their own unmistakable sound. Imagine Nico singing with Can produced by David Axelrod and you’re somewhere in the right ballpark.
The record draws inspiration from a wide range of music including folk, dub, post punk, experimental tape music, 60s soul, garage rock, 70s spiritual jazz and Canterbury prog. This attention to detail in their sound meant finding several other studios to get what they needed to record with, including a harpsichord at 4AD’s studio in London and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker in Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay’s studio Press Play. Verity’s distinctive, unadorned singing is a focal point of the record, moving from tender to wild. Her vocal melodies quickly become earworms, providing the tuneful heart around which the songs’ more unorthodox elements are arranged, which is where Matthew’s unconventional approach to recording and production comes to the fore. With their adventurous arrangements, classic songwriting skills and innovative production techniques, MEMORIALS have created another mesmerising listen that’s accomplished and compelling in its unique approach yet remains dizzyingly immersive - just like their acclaimed live shows.
New music from The Strokes arrives now, beginning with a new song, “Going Shopping” released today. Produced by Rick Rubin, Reality Awaits is the 7th album from The Strokes. Full track list includes nine new songs — set for release on June 26.
Two of the most prolific remixers in the world of Disco,Dave 'Love' Lee and John Moraleshave teamed up for one of their biggest projects to date - 'Mixed To The Maxxx'. After gaining access from the legendary original artists, the pair take the multi-track tapes of many classic Disco, Funk & Soul tracks and re-work them...to the Maxxx!
Where Remixed With Love stands as Dave Lee's own gold-standard body of work, Mixed To The Maxxx sets that legacy alongside Morales' own decades-deep M+M body of work: Lee brings his musically dense, groove-first touch to the likes of Harold Melvin, Syreeta, Lenny Williams and The Brand New Heavies, while Morales applies his extended, dancefloor-built M+M treatment and crushes the likes of Barry White, The Temptations and Loleatta Holloway, plus Dennis Coffey's breakbeat classic "Scorpio" for the DJs and collectors alike. Both work from original tapes, surfacing parts barely audible or entirely unheard in the source mixes, and both know when to let a classic breathe rather than bury it under modern production. It's a pairing a long time in the making. Lee and Morales first talked about working together around a decade ago, and getting Mixed To The Maxxx off the ground took five years of patient work: tracking down usable stems, securing approvals, and navigating a licensing landscape where much of the best material is now tied up with major labels increasingly cautious about clearing remixes. What's landed here is the product of that graft as much as the pair's shared ear for a great record, the sound of two people who know exactly what they're looking for and are willing to put in the time to find it.
A double 12" sampler in summer 2025 previewed the record's range. A bass-driven overhaul ofThe Brothers Johnson's "The Real Thing" and an extended mix of Philly legends Bell & James' "Livin' It Up (Friday Night)" showcased Lee's side, while an anthemic take on Inner Life's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and a tempo-lifted Light Of The World"London Town" flew the flag for Morales. Both drew strong early support ahead of the full LP.
Madelyn Byrd returns to Glasgow’s Somewhere Press with a hazed set of weightless soundscapes. »Night Rider« opens in widescreen with the chirp of cicadas dancing across a desert landscape, before Shiroishi’s saxophone eventually cuts through the dark like neon. The story Byrd tells is close to their heart: they spent their teenage years in the Sonoran Desert, the vast subtropical expanse spanning parts of Arizona, California, and Mexico. Its seemingly alien landscape — pocked with giant, tree-like cacti and looming rocky outcrops — is lodged in the cultural memory, a quality Byrd draws on as they slowly reveal their poetic narrative.
The album plays like a road movie of sorts, moving through Byrd’s memories and setting them to very different rhythms. Clattering drums emerge on »Of Nature, Of Bodies, Of Dreams«, while Byrd’s soft tones, processed to sound almost otherworldly, glide gently across the metallic clangs. Each track highlights a form of movement: there is the microscopic, insectoid crunch of »Imprint«, where guitar prangs meet Shiroishi’s spirited runs, while »Into Sonoran Pool« creates motion from the atmosphere itself, recreating the thick desert air with shimmering electrical currents and psychedelic processes.
At this point, the album begins to echo Robert Ashley’s late-period theatrical work: compositions that broke with familiar formats, juxtaposing dialogue with knowingly experimental orchestral flourishes. Byrd strikes a similar note through a fusion of poetry, sound design, choral music, and chiming, listless ambient elements that also recall Harold Budd. Budd grew up in the Mojave Desert, which borders the Sonoran, creating an eerie parallel with the moods he conjured throughout his long career.
Byrd finds a similarly aesthetic link to the West Coast landscape, referencing the history of experimental music while establishing their own voice. As the album rides into the sunset with a roar of engines, they offer a distinct vision of pop: »What Is, What Was« integrates a chugging break and ketamised vocal hook, while the finale, »In Perfume, Remember«, lands as a James K-like heartmelter.
'The Shadow BoxerÔ - a tale of oppression, discipline, and inevitable revenge - is re-interpreted by British producer Heritage, whose musical style perfectly aligns with the Shaw Cuts squad.
Ku Ding trained in Tai Chi under Master Yeung for over a decade. This discipline prioritizes health, self-defense and above all, the virtue of tolerance. 'Looking Back, Moving ForwardÔ mirrors this holistic training for body and mind through its broken rhythms, dreamy pads, and warm bass.
Despite facing relentless harassment at work from his tyrannical boss Jin Dasheng, Ku Ding remains calm and endures the humiliation. The playful percussions, vocal snippets, and powerful low-end grooves of 'DancehallÔ underscore the protagonist's deep-rooted discipline and resilience.
However, after his lover A Bao is killed and both his master and his friend Hu Binglian are successively murdered, he is forced to rise up and fight back using his martial arts prowess.
'2003Ô comes in swinging, fueling Ku Ding with the perfect mindset for the battle ahead via punchy drums and an energetic bassline.
Driven to mete out justice, Ku Ding prepares for his revenge without betraying his sacred tolerance. The complex breakbeat patterns of 'HaywireÔ carried by recurring, subtle chords, give him a final boost. But can this rational approach succeed? You better find outÉ
Pascal Moscheni debuts on Limousine Dream with a double 12" featuring 8 stunning representations of the modern tech house sound. Ultra functional, but with plenty of character, and hard-driving but never overbearing - these are tools for DJs working with high-energy dancefloors.
Rakete returns with its fourth release from Minneapolis-based producer and DJ, Baher.
The Cairo-raised artist has spent years carving out club-focused hardware-driven sounds that drift between different shades of techno, house, and the spaces in between, drawing inspiration from old school rhythms, underground culture and distant memories.
The artist’s debut EP on Rakete, Fragments, is a reflection of those moments. From the desert winds of Cairo to the intimate warehouse raves of Minneapolis, each track from the founder of Rakete carries an emotional imprint and raw energy onto the dancefloor, shaped by the artist’s diverse and wide-reaching influences that feel distant yet familiar.
Fragments EP is the founder's first complete body of work stitched together with precision through classic drum machines and old school synthesizers. Music full of soul, movement, and energy, made for the dance floor.
As intended from the start, Acid for the Grandma moves without a fixed direction. No clear starting point — just a path taking shape along the way.
No common ground, except the need to keep making music: instinctive, personal, at times compulsive. Each track stands as a standalone fragment, driven by the same impulse — turning tension into sound.
Om Unit says of this release 'For me it's another milestone as a DNB fan.. Being allowed to come back to 31 again with another shadow boxing version, being one of only a tiny handful of people being allowed to remix this classic truly is an honour, let alone twice! Also working with Thing on "something ancient" was a real blessing not only because he's original and convincing with his own work but also I think he's like me, he does his own thing without adhering to too many of the insular rules that have made dnb such a closed room over the years, and so creating this cinematic piece just happened naturally and I really love the results.
For the second installment of its renewed imprint, Fuse's own in-house resident and one of Belgium's proudest exports Phara takes the reins for a deep dive into thick percussion and vibrant club landscapes. 'The Wall' puts current dance music under a microscope with a brush of truly vintage spontaneity, merging techno's confrontational nature with house's harmonic genuineness. This duality is reflected through Phara's own relationship with his home base Fuse and the complementary contrast between its two rooms.
The EP's title track serves as a hypnotic introduction for the A1, imposing a bass-heavy rhythm and a persistently oscillating synthline. A dense production full of energy, 'The Wall' inspires intrigue throughout its duration, revealing its true intentions through a capable sound system. Sharing the first side of the press is 'Blaes 208', a name that Fuse club goers will likely recognise, that guides the listener from effect into embrace. With lush keys echoing past a comforting drum sequence fit for a close-eyed dancefloor experience, Phara's impactful tendencies meet his affinity for the melodic through a blissful six minutes of crowd to selector connection. Switching sides, a return to a cold cold aesthetic is quickly apparent through 'Hush Now 206'. A pummeling, saturated bass competes with a kick of equal effect, rolling through a storm of metallic stabs. Mastering the message of urgency, Phara presents a lightshow of resonating percussive work, defining his space just to cut right through it. To close out with a lasting impression, the producer mutes the acoustics of his work through razor-sharp sound design dotting along playful snares, a duality reminiscent of the dynamism of Detroit electro. 'Motion Steps', referring to the stairs that ascend from Fuse's main room to its more left-field counterpart, captures the atmosphere of the almost shimmering music that can be expected to be played there; a place where Phara and many others have been known to explore the extremities of their music. He swiftly throws in melodic elements to recontextualize an otherwise pressing composition, and after three chapters of considerable weight, he concludes his record with infectious groove that flaunts technical ability.
Esoteric Ears is a new label from Barcelona’s Conor Brophy.
Its first release comes from an unsung hero of the early 00s: Julian Foddy. As Katakana, Foddy released a string of now sought-after EPs, with a signature, brooding sound in the sweet spot between progressive, breaks and tech house. EARS 01 represents Katakana’s first release in over two decades, archival tracks forgotten for 20 years but that sound like they could have been produced yesterday, perfectly tuned for contemporary dance floors and listeners.
Side-long A1 ‘Incline’ is a driving but patient percussive progressive groove: heavy but spacious. On side B the stabs and bass pressure of ‘Xii’ are primed for peak time play; B2 ‘Fear of the Unknown’ is more heads down and pensive, with gradually unfurling hopeful melodies, perfect for mornings and after hours.
Hector Ram and Ricky Ramirez are starting to celebrate ten years of Short Attention Records and it's US house stalwart DJ Aakmael they've enlisted to pop the champagne cork and cut the cake. He's one of those artists who turns out plenty of music, much of it sounding within the same consistent deep house framework. But there's always a little something to his tunes that keeps you coming back for more - a perfectly chosen sample, a nagging bassline, a sense of melancholy that you cannot escape. All of that is true on his latest. 'Things Always Happen' has keys that convey beautiful pain, then 'If You Believe' is a deep house haze with smudgy samples and blues-y ache. 'Free' is more light with trilling jazz-funk keys and earthy guitar frets sprinkled into the mix. 'Stopmotion' shuts down with a signature Aakmael bump. Just timeless stuff.
The Synewave label has legendary status amongst those who know and now boss man Damon Wild is back on it with a quartet of deep techno treasures. 'Avoidant' is a roaming, cavernous sound with gentle synth notes rising and falling over hefty kicks. 'Invincible' is more sci-fi in style with icy modulations and roaming pads over slinky, kinetic drum patterns and 'Organica' is a jumbled mix of feather hi-hats and more bleeping pulses with kicks pulled far apart. After the Detroit stylings of 'Coronas,' Sonic Mind records boss Donnel Knox aka D-Knox remixes it into something more direct and rhythmically rugged.
San Francisco electronic pioneers Darwin Chamber and DJ Spun head down the arcade for four tracks of the unmistakable flavour of modified 8 Bit sound chips from the 80s. 'LFO's Are Real' definitely nods to the Leeds duo that kicked the Warp Records revolution off, but that's just a starting point for some rough edged electro machinations and some spooky extra-terrestrial samplings. '8-Bit Phantasy' connects Chicago-style piano magic with acid undertows and gets brought to dancefloor life by a serious injections of funky ass breakbeatery. 'Intruder Alert' is the gnarliest of the lot, the bass end nothing if not speaker threatening, before 'We Gotta Get' is wonderfully disorientating disco dub delirium. Raw and direct, this will set the floor alight quicker than a can of petrol and lit match.
In 2000, after almost two decades of hibernation under the ambient waves and dub currents of the Sargasso Sea, LSD revived the seminal ‘Auntie Aubrey's' series, an Orb Remix Project. Released as a 2 x CD compilation, Part 3 is a veritable smorgasbord of classic, new and unreleased labour-of love remixes that span three decades yet still transcend space and time.
Many influential artists have been involved with The Orb since the beginning, and the project keeps evolving and adapting. Dr. Alex Paterson, the gravitation centre of the Orb is known for his playfully subversive remixes and true to form this album highlights the diversity of his musical mind.
We see the good doctor remix the melancholy and evocative “The Last Lighthouse Keeper” from The Transit Kings, an early British electronic music group that included Jimmy Cauty of The KLF, one of the original members of The Orb. The remix of ‘Davy Jones’ Locker’ from System 7 takes you surfing on a sun-dappled sea of ambient dance nostalgia, while Killing Jokes’ ‘European Super State’ remix (in which LSD label founder Martin ‘Youth’ Glover plays bass guitar) sounds like the soundtrack for an imaginary spy thriller with the powerful lyrics and hypnotizing voice of Jaz Summers.
Legendary producer Youth teams up with Lx yet again on a psychedelic rocker with spellcasting vocals by Lara Smiles, and this is just the beginning! Boasting an all-star lineup, the compilation includes many of our scenes most esteemed electronic music producers such as Coldcut, David Harrow, Sendelica and Gaudi as well as the ambient blissed out vibes from the enigmatic DF Tram, Duende India Collective and The Gyuto Monks of Tibet, this collection offers up such the variety to appease even the most dedicated Orbsessives and music connoisseurs
