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KNEECAP return to bend genre, language, and rules. The most talked about artists in the world are turning the page. A new chapter, new sounds, new manifestos.
A blistering album that revels in darkness while bursting through the void with illuminated revery. This is FENIAN.

Produced by Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Kae Tempest, Wet Leg), FENIAN upends expectations with an expansive sonic palate, traversing acid house, trip-hop, dubstep, and more - Masters of rave and rap theatre, FENIAN represents Kneecap’s most sophisticated exploration of language and sounds.

More darkness. More confrontation. More craic. More energy. More solidarity. More absolute bangers. And more fuel for the unrelenting engine that powers this unstoppable force. For their remarkable second album, Kneecap have come out fighting.

Throughout, the sirens and alarms ring, and the chorus’s blast. Revolutionary and rebellious, confrontational and impossibly catchy, inescapably intelligent and brilliantly rendered, FENIAN doesn’t just represent the next phase in Kneecap’s trajectory but stands as a remarkable record that thrills as much as it surprises. The mayhem of their breakout year is a memory now. But Kneecap are neither dwelling on that nor merely persevering through it. In FENIAN they excel, reaching a new peak that is undeniable in its mastery.

Pressure makes diamonds, and FENIAN glistens with Kneecap’s uncut gems.

Slow Leaves - alias Grant Davidson aus Winnipeg - steht für einen feinfühligen Indie-Folk, der leise spricht und dennoch lange nachhallt. Seine Musik verbindet warmes Fingerpicking, sanfte Psych-Rock-Anklänge und eine Stimme, die direkt ins Herz zielt: klar, verletzlich, tröstlich. Kritiker vergleichen ihn mit Roy Orbison, Nick Drake, Mickey Newbury oder Neil Young - Songwriter, die Emotionen mit Einfachheit und Tiefe verbinden. Davidsons neue Songs kreisen um innere Landschaften: Erinnerungen, familiäre Prägungen, Generationenlinien, kleine Wunden und stilles Wachstum. Er schreibt mit einer poetischen Direktheit, die Intimität schafft, ohne schwer zu werden. Seine Arrangements bleiben bewusst zurückhaltend: Gitarre, behutsame Rhythmik, warme Tastenklänge, dezente Streicher - alles im Dienst einer emotional klaren Erzählstimme. Was Slow Leaves besonders macht, ist seine Fähigkeit, kosmische Themen - Zeit, Einsamkeit, Verbundenheit - in schlichte, menschliche Momente zu übersetzen. Es ist Musik, die Raum lässt: zum Atmen, Erinnern, Trost finden. Ein leises, aber eindringliches Songwriting, das im Kleinen das Große sichtbar macht.

Das dritte Album von Nick Llobet und Micah Prussack, alias youbet, aus Brooklyn ist ein weitläufiges, warmes Gemisch aus Indie-Rock, Pop und experimentellen Klängen. Es zeigt eine Band, die weit über ihre Bedroom-Pop-Wurzeln hinausgewachsen ist und sich zu einer selbstbewussteren, komplexeren und lauteren Kraft entwickelt hat. Das Album, das in Bewegung entstanden ist und zwischen langen Tourneen Gestalt angenommen hat, spiegelt einen Moment ekstatischer Möglichkeiten und Entschlossenheit wider. Sowohl geschärft als auch expansiv, wächst youbet aus den Grenzen des Heimaufnehmens und des ,Bedroom Pop" zu etwas Robusterem, Lauteren und Unverwechselbarem, das ganz der Band eigen ist. Die vielfältigen Einflüsse des Duos - von den Beatles über Bernard Herrmanns schwindelerregenden Vertigo-Soundtrack bis hin zu Flamenco, den japanischen Noise-Rockern Boris und vielem mehr - legen sich in den Hintergrund, während die Band ihre eigene musikalische Sprache entwickelt. Die Co-Produzenten Katie Von Schleicher und Julian Fader runden das Album ab, wobei erstere glitzernde Synthesizer-Klänge und letzterer ein von Prussacks Bass untermaltes Schlagzeug-Fundament beisteuern. youbet zeigt, wie Llobet und Prussack bezaubernde musikalische und lyrische Ausdrucksformen miteinander verweben und das Ergebnis immer wieder neu formen.

Red Axes step into the fabric presents series with a release that feels both inevitable and deeply personal. Known for their hypnotic, psychedelic approach to club music, the Tel Aviv–based duo bring a narrative-driven sensibility that aligns seamlessly with fabric’s legacy of long-form storytelling and forward-thinking curation.

Across years of performances at fabric and other key global institutions, Red Axes have developed a reputation for sets that unfold patiently and unpredictably, drawing dancers into a world where groove, tension, and atmosphere take precedence over genre or trend. Their contribution to the fabric presents series reflects this ethos: a carefully sculpted journey that prioritises mood, momentum, and emotional depth, while remaining firmly rooted in the physical language of the dancefloor.

Formed by Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi, Red Axes emerged from Tel Aviv’s underground with a sound shaped by post-punk, acid, krautrock, and cosmic disco influences. Over the past decade, they have built a catalogue defined by raw textures, twisted melodies, and a distinctly human looseness, qualities that translate as powerfully in the club as they do on record. Their releases and remixes for labels such as Phantasy, Correspondant, Running Back, Dark Entries, and Permanent Vacation have established them as artists who consistently operate just outside the expected.

As DJs, Red Axes are celebrated for their ability to stretch time on the dancefloor, weaving obscure selections, unreleased material, and leftfield classics into slow-burning, trance-inducing narratives. This approach has seen them invited to venues and festivals including Panorama Bar, De School, Bassiani, Dekmantel, Sonar, and Primavera Sound, where their sets are defined not by peaks alone, but by the tension built between them.

With the forthcoming fabric presents Red Axes release, the duo deliver a statement that captures years of shared musical intuition and a deep respect for the club as a communal, transformative space. It is a mix that rewards close listening as much as physical immersion, a snapshot of Red Axes at their most focused, expressive, and uncompromising.

To mark the launch of their forthcoming fabric presents album, the duo unveil the lead single, “Hot Rod To Hell”, a bold reworking of Man Parrish and Roy Garrett’s 14-minute spoken-word electro epic, reimagined through Red Axes’ signature psychedelic lens.

Stripped back and refocused, the original’s narrative tension is transformed into a hypnotic, downtempo house track built for late-night immersion. A rolling, elastic groove anchors the track, while pulsing low-end, subtly warped synth lines, and tightly controlled percussion create a sense of slow, smouldering momentum. The spoken vocal elements drift through the mix like fragments of memory, lending the track a ritualistic, cinematic quality without overwhelming the dancefloor.

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

NOSUCHKEY makes a bold debut on the Art of Memory label with a deadly four track EP of masterfully reduced but stylish and evocative minimal techno. NOSUCHKEY is actually a side project from Nico Purman. He served up the first two releases on the label and this new alias is focused on straight forward techno. Over more than a decade Purman has established himself on Vakant, Crosstown Rebels and Curle, and now heads in an exciting new direction designed to make a huge impact on the floor. Opener 'Stages' is post minimal techno with a focus on mind melting melodic riffs that ripple over the rooted drums. It is sci-fi in style with a hint of Detroit greats like Jeff Mills and really takes you into the future. The excellent 'FMFMFM' is another fluid bit of deep techno that is wired up with languid synths constantly wrapping and warping round the drums. Keeping up the pressure is 'Lunch', with a stripped back but impactful techno style built on rubbery kicks and with modulated synth lines constantly shapeshifting throughout the mix. Direct but dynamic, it is excellently timeless techno that leads on to closer 'ACD RDFN'. There is urgency, paranoia and cyber tension in this one that really keeps you locked as it journeys deep into a blackened yet cinematic cosmic abyss. NOSUCHKEY is a false address, a lack of a word, a character or sign that makes a whole code unable to find its final path: The Specified Key does not exist.

Xzibit – Kingmaker markiert die lang erwartete Rückkehr der Westcoast-Legende, sein erstes Album seit 2012. Vollgepackt mit Heavyweight-Kollaborationen präsentiert Kingmaker Branchengrößen wie Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Busta Rhymes, Redman, Royce Da 5'9", Ty Dolla $ign und viele mehr. Mit einer knallharten Produktion und Xzibits charakteristischer, messerscharfer Darbietung verbindet dieses Album rohe Lyrik mit erstklassigen Beats und bekräftigt Xzibits Status als Hip-Hop-Powerhouse. Kingmaker ist ein Muss für Shops und Fans gleichermassen und wird in der gesamten Kulturszene für Aufsehen sorgen.

Van Morrisons neues Album 'Remembering Now' markiert seine Rückkehr zu Original Music mit einer reichen Mischung aus Soul, Jazz, Blues, Folk und Country und enthält die lang erwartete Single 'Down To Joy'.

Van Morrison, blue-eyed Soul-Shouter und wild-eyed Dichter-Magier zugleich, ist einer der wahren Erneuerer der populären Musik. Er ist ein rastlos Suchender, dessen beschwörender Gesang und alchimistische Verschmelzung von R&B, Jazz, Blues und keltischem Folk das vielleicht spirituellste Werk im Rock'n'Roll-Kanon hervorgebracht hat. Seine Aufnahmen, die nur den Launen seiner eigenen Muse unterworfen sind, decken ein außergewöhnliches stilistisches Terrain ab und bewahren doch eine Geschlossenheit und Reinheit, die unter seinen Zeitgenossen nahezu unerreicht ist. Was sie verbindet, ist die mythische Kraft seiner einzigartigen musikalischen Vision und seines feurigen Gesangs: spiralförmige Wiederholungen von Klagen und Flüstern, die die Grenzen der Sprache umgehen, um emotionale Wahrheiten zu artikulieren, die weit über den Rahmen der wörtlichen Bedeutung hinausgehen.

Peki Momés took hearts and ears by storm with her first 45 (Göç Mevsimi b/w Rüya) last autumn. Her dope outernational grooves and fresh singing style made it as far as Iggy Pop's show on BBC. Time for another double-sided single!

Yıldız is a Turkish cover of the beloved Marcos Valle tune Estrelar. Staying true to the spirit of the original, this version draws its energy from the bright stars, dreaming of meeting the stars up in the sky alongside the sun and moon. The production has been meticulously crafted, blending key elements of the original instrumentation with Peki Momés' distinct vocals in Turkish language.

Bahar is a psychedelic disco groove about longing for sunny days — both literally and metaphorically. It captures the exhaustion of waiting for brighter days in our homelands, our world, and our inner selves. As Peki Momés puts it, the wait for spring can be so long, it even wears down our pullovers. This track mirrors the duality of our reality and invites the audience to dance during this wait.

There’s no direct English translation for the word “hiraeth”. In the Welsh language, it describes a form of longing for an intangible something, somewhere or someone that no longer exists. Sofie Birch and Antonina Nowacka draw on the concept to guide their second collaborative album, a suite of vulnerable, open-hearted improvisations and reflections that attempt to grasp an image of the past that’s chimeric, dissolving almost as soon as it materializes. The duo’s process follows the same distant beacon; unlike Languoria, their critically acclaimed debut, Hiraeth is, at heart, an acoustic record, informed by in-person improvisations with voices and string instruments that gesture to an era before computers, AI and DAWs. It’s just as lush, but Hiraeth is warmer and more muted than its predecessor.
Nowacka and Birch conceived the album in the wake of a slew of collaborative live concerts, spurred on by serendipitous improvisations and an interest in paring down their setup. Unsound arranged a retreat in Sokołowsko, an idyllic village nestled in the verdant hills of Southern Poland, close to the Czech border. Sokołowsko surrounds a large ruined sanatorium that’s rumored to have inspired Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain, and has long been a magnet for artists. The two took the opportunity to rethink their approach completely, arriving with just a guitar, a zither and a portable Nagra reel-to-reel machine. Recording directly to tape, they sketched out ideas with just their voices and instruments, reflecting their surroundings without being distracted or mediated by modern technology.
“We wanted to get away from screens as much as possible,” says Birch, “to bring to the world something vulnerable and honest. Without advance preparation, every day we went out into the open air, finding places to sit, during sunset or the midday sun. We discovered new tunings on our instruments, picked up a melody, and started the machine, playing over
and over till we got a take.” In the autumn, they met again in a Copenhagen studio, sparingly and carefully layering old synths and organs to add more depth without muddying the mix.
Both Nowacka and Birch sing throughout, their voices threading the acoustic instruments and tangling with each other, almost becoming one. But it’s the environment of Sokołowsko, “the birds and the light, even the wind playing against the harps,” that’s woven into the music’s lining. Affected by time spent meditating and in nature, as well as the fact that Birch was pregnant whilst recording, the album feels alive and remarkably present. Even the sound quality of the tape machine gives Hiraeth a tactile, organic quality, as Nowacka puts it, “like being in a warm bath.”

They still have the raw recordings from Sokołowsko on old reels, physical souvenirs of their time spent making music in a “habitat for intuitive songs, a little ecosystem, alive and spirited.” The outmoded gear and remote setting helped the duo disengage from the modern world for a few moments and imagine an existence that’s been lost to time and nominal progress. With digital technology receding into the background, Nowacka and Birch had space to make “intuitive connections with frequencies and people,” as Birch explains. Hiraeth is a testament not to nostalgia, but to the power of kinship.

Killer Groove Records proudly presents the self-titled debut album by Italian cinematic funk trio Atabasca. A sonic journey where funk, psychedelia and desert groove merge into a timeless narrative suspended between rhythm and vision.


"Atabasca" marks the debut release from the cinematic funk trio, dropping March 27th on limited edition LP, CD digipack and digital formats, the latter featuring an exclusive bonus track. This is a project built on evocative imagery: each song unfolds as an open scene, an emotional landscape where listeners can step inside and write their own ending.

Lap steel, kalimba, percussion and guitars interweave with bass and drums, striking an original balance between tradition and experimentation that evokes unwritten soundtracks for worlds at once distant and familiar. The record navigates between melancholy and irony, tension and release, with a sharp focus on dynamics and sonic narrative.


Deserts, seas, imaginary villages, getaways, pursuits and collective rituals: "Atabasca" emerges as a collection of musical landscapes that unfolds through vivid, evocative imagery.

Jazz-funk, world music, afrobeat, psychedelia and the Italian Golden Age of movie soundtracks merge into a singular emotional geography: warm, analog and deeply human.

The musical journey opens with "Dune", a melancholic statement that leaves room for imagination, before igniting with "Kundela Mawedi" and its cascading lap steel over haunting vocal chants. "Paco" tips its hat to classic westerns, tracing a bandit's trajectory, while "Cameo" drifts back to childhood through minimal rumba and shimmering kalimba. The cinematic imagery continues in "Cacopoulos", a nod to Spaghetti westerns and Eli Wallach, built on raw drum patterns and distorted guitars. Intensity builds in "Khettara", where afrobeat rhythms and Middle Eastern textures intertwine, before "Hell Dorado" tears off in pursuit of the American dream's funk-fueled mirage. "Papambra" weaves hypnotic polyrhythms between kalimba and lap steel, while "Porpora" delivers a sensual, visceral tango of passion and tension. The digital edition closes with "Reprise", a sequel that stretches the album's central theme into an expansive, meditative interpretation.

The tracks were recorded in single takes, capturing the raw energy and natural atmosphere of the performance. Artistic production was handled by the trio alongside Andrea Fabrizii (digger, musician, producer and catalogue curator for CAM Sugar), while Riccardo Ricci mastered the album at Velvet Room Mastering Studio in Brighton.

Like a desert blooming within the evergreen forests of the planet's far north, a unique, alien, disruptive environment. This is the vision behind Atabasca, the project of Luca Mongia (guitars, lap steel, keyboards, vocals), Paolo Mazziotti (bass, keyboards, vocals) and Valerio Pompei (drums, percussion, vocals).

Individually active for over twenty years on both the national and international scenes, the three Italian musicians came together in 2023 to create a project that merges experience, experimentation and creative freedom. Their music is imaginative and at times dreamlike, blending the classic concept of the instrumental trio with the worlds of film scoring and sound design.

Atabasca's sound moves through jazz-funk, world and cinematic territories, weaving together afrobeat, desert and psychedelic influences into a personal and timeless language. Each piece is a scene; each sound, a fragment of a world, a journey between reality and imagination where groove, texture and organic timbre merge into a singular sonic ecosystem: a perpetually shifting balance that generates new inner landscapes.


For fans of Khruangbin, Surprise Chef and instrumental psych-funk!

Ein aufmerksamer Zuhörer der Welt zu sein, bedeutet, von Sprache umgeben zu sein. Sprache hallt durch fast jeden Raum, in dem sich Menschen aufhalten, ob unerwünscht oder erwünscht, banal oder tiefgründig. Worte stehen auf der Seite und klingen im Ohr nach, vermehren sich endlos. Diese Überfülle fasziniert den Komponisten und Musiker Ben Vida schon lange, aber in den letzten Jahren hat sie zu einer neuen Art des Musikmachens geführt, die die Vorrangstellung der Sprache in unserer Klang- und Kulturwelt gleichzeitig hervorhebt und hinterfragt. Sanft und spielerisch bricht Vida die Hierarchie von Bedeutung und Klang der Sprache auf, bis sie in egalitärer Harmonie existieren. Oblivion Seekers ist Vidas neuestes Album in diesem Kompositionsstil, nach der Zusammenarbeit mit dem New-Music-Ensemble Yarn/Wire The Beat My Head Hit aus dem Jahr 2023. Wie bei seinem Vorgänger liegt der Fokus der Musik auf koordinierten Duetten aus gesprochenem Wort in neutralem Ton, wobei die variablen Rhythmen der bewegten Worte komplexe interne rhythmische Strukturen schaffen. Er wird von den Stimmen von Nina Dante, Christina Vantzou, John Also Bennett und Félicia Atkinson, die einen einzigartigen Klang erzeugen, der weder ihrer noch seiner ist und in seiner Geschlechtsdarstellung, seinem Akzent und seiner Aussprache fließend ist. Die instrumentalen Kompositionen, die den Hintergrund des Albums bilden, haben den ungezwungenen Fluss eines Dialogs, gesprächig, aber zurückhaltend, selten als Motor der Veränderung. Es herrscht eine ruhige, konzentrierte Stimmung, die durch den zurückhaltenden Rhythmus der Stimmen noch verstärkt wird, sodass man das Gefühl hat, die Musik sei ein langes Mantra, das nie ganz zu seinem Ausgangspunkt zurückkehrt. Der Effekt ist bezaubernd, gleichermaßen einschläfernd und fesselnd, und suggeriert Wiederholung, ohne sich jemals genau gleich zu bewegen. Die Instrumentierung der vier Stücke des Albums variiert; ,Be Yr Own Abyss" wird durch den wellenartigen Kontrapunkt der Saxophone geprägt, während der mehrdeutige Klang des Vibraphons über ,Oblivion Seekers" schwebt und Frasers anschwellender Bass den einzigen dramatischen Auftritt des Albums liefert. Die Musik verändert sich im Ohr, während der Text die Form und Bewegung der Komposition ständig neu definiert und in einen neuen Kontext stellt, auch wenn sie in ihrem jenseitigen Glanz konsistent bleibt. Der Text besteht oft aus Sprachfetzen, denen Vida während seines Lebens beim Komponieren begegnet ist: zufällig mitgehörtes Gemurmel in der Schlange im Supermarkt, eindrucksvolle Sätze aus einem Roman, den er gerade las, Eindrücke von Musik, die er immer wieder auf seinem Plattenspieler hörte. Kleine, ansonsten unbedeutende Details sammeln sich an, nicht um eine Erzählung zu bilden, sondern um einen Eindruck vom komplexen Prozess der Bedeutungsfindung zu vermitteln, der im täglichen Leben stattfindet. Charaktere und Szenen tauchen im Bild auf und verschwinden wieder, und Sätze, die nach einer Erklärung verlangen, dürfen einfach vorbeiziehen. Vidas Liebe zu Robert Ashley ist gut dokumentiert, aber vielleicht noch bedeutender sind Mark E. Smith und The Fall, Neil Tennant und die gesprochenen Verse der Pet Shop Boys, die gesamte Geschichte des Hip-Hop und Meredith Monk. Die Art und Weise, wie die Worte dargeboten werden, ist genauso wichtig wie die Worte selbst und offenbart eine Intentionalität und Direktheit, die Vida mit den abstrakten Konstruktionsmustern des Textes hervorhebt und untergräbt. Auf Oblivion Seekers ist der omnidirektionale Lärm der Marmor, den Vida abträgt, um zu beleuchten, wie wir die unermessliche Fremdheit der Welt verarbeiten. Der Triumph des Albums besteht darin, dass wir nichts von dem schönen Geheimnis verlieren, wie diese Zeichen unsere äußere und innere Welt miteinander verbinden.

Roberto Zanetti, better known as Savage or Robyx, is without a doubt a fully realized artist. When he stepped into the world of dance electronics in 1983, success came instantly. Not only across Italy, but far beyond its borders. Alongside his own chart-defining run as Savage, Zanetti was simultaneously shaping the scene from behind the desk, developing talent and refining a signature sound that would define an era. By the late ’80s, Robyx was already an established powerhouse producer. Around that time, he wrote three tunes for Maurizio Felici, performing under the alias Wilson Ferguson. These tracks carried all the hallmarks of Zanetti’s late-’80s aesthetic: lush melodies, smooth, flowing arrangements and high-energy grooves built for the dancefloor. In Europe, where house music was rapidly taking over, this sound faced tougher competition, but in Japan, where Eurobeat was exploding into the mainstream, these productions were untouchable. Felici’s rich, throaty vocal delivery gave the tracks an unmistakable emotional weight and identity.

Responding to long-standing requests from fans, Vintage Pleasure Boutique now revisits the most melancholic and emotionally charged of these three recordings: “I’m Singing Again”, a bittersweet tale of lost love told through the language of Italo disco. It’s a perfect fusion of Savage’s late-’80s sonic elegance and a truly distinctive vocal performance.

For this new release, the story is pushed one step further with a fresh remix, slightly faster in BPM and clearly nodding to Robyx’s classic Eurobeat instincts, a version built to move bodies while keeping the original’s emotional core intact.

Some grooves don’t rush to the dancefloor — they crawl there, slow and heavy, like smoke wrapping around a bassline. With Fragments of Reality, The Balek Band sculpt an electronic funk that lives between shadow and light — an end-of-the-world fever dream, a Barjavel-style Ravage where chaos turns nihilistic.

No sequencer grid here — just four musicians sharing the same room, shaping air and tension together: drums locked tight with a slap bass, a guitar dripping with echo and heat, and a one-man orchestra behind his machines, weaving acid lines and synth arpeggios while mixing the band live — drenching it in delay, reverb, and saturation, like a dub producer in a Kingston studio, Lee Scratch Perry or King Tubby conjuring ghosts through smoke.

This isn’t fusion — it’s friction. A living ritual where the TB-303 hums, and machines don’t dominate but converse with the human pulse. Each track feels like a night that refuses to end — that humid in-between where trance slips into languor, and the body starts to think for itself.

The record recalls the cosmic jazz of Alain Mion or Eddy Louiss meeting the fiery energy of West African afrobeat musicians freshly arrived in a smoky Belleville basement in the mid-’80s. When The Balek Band summon ghosts, it’s only to reshape them — bending the past into something futuristic, alive, and strangely refreshing. Both disciplined and delirious, Fragments of Reality feels like a promise at dawn: dark funk for the late hours, slow acid for warm blood.

This EP isn’t nostalgic, though it remembers. It’s a transmission from a parallel past — a moment when jazz players met drum machines and decided never to stop playing. Each note sweats, each rhythm breathes. You can almost see the light cutting through the haze, faces half-awake, half-possessed.

The Balek Band aren’t recreating a moment — they’re keeping it alive.
Flesh and cables. Impulse and patience.
A band, not a loop.
A trip, not a format.

For his new full-length on Second End Records, Lyon-based artist Jonnnah turns deeply inward. Conceived as a form of therapy, as much as a reflection and a testimony, the record retraces a process of introspection and confrontation with one’s own history, looking back at origins, DNA, and the invisible ties that connect us to our ancestors, while opening paths toward new connections.

The double-sided structure of the album makes this journey tangible. The first side lingers in uncertainty : opaque atmospheres, fragmented rhythms, and restless textures mirror the doubts, questions, and fragile states of self-analysis. The second side, in contrast, embraces clarity and resolution, dense yet luminous soundscapes where reconciliation and acceptance take shape, culminating in The Blue Comet, a piece charged with finality and revelation.

Opening with the multipart suite N-zero, symbolizing the beginning of therapy, and closing with O-one, evoking the soul’s original purity, the record traces a complete emotional and spiritual cycle. Between them, the third edition of Insomnia Never Ends once again portrays the struggle between sleep and the irresistible pull of musical distraction, a fragile tension that runs through the album as a whole.

The record condenses Jonnnah’s language into something rawer and more direct. Layers of dub and dub sonic resonate against ethereal ambient passages, while techno impulses maintain tension and forward motion. Each piece feels at once intimate and expansive, designed as much for solitary listening as for collective experience.

A new chapter in Jonnnah’s trajectory, the album is a document of transformation : from shadow to light, from questioning to acceptance.

Pete Lambrou, the visionary composer and multi-instrumentalist behind VLMV (pronounced "Alma"), is one of the most singular voices emerging from the ambient, post-rock, and experimental scenes in the UK. With a career that spans atmospheric solo work, film and television scoring, and evocative live performance, Lambrou has carved out a distinctive sonic universe he describes as "ambient-ish post-something" (Pete Lambrou) a playful yet accurate summation of a sound that is at once genre-fluid and deeply immersive. The album takes its title from Sara Teasdale's 1918 poem and Ray Bradbury's later short story, both of which imagine a world continuing quietly after humanity's disappearance. This idea became the gravitational centre around which the record formed. Written during a period of deep engagement with climate fiction and ecological thought, `There Will Come Soft Rains` reflects on humanity's legacy, its technological ambition, and its uneasy relationship with the natural world. A century on from Teasdale's poem, the balance of power feels less certain, and Lambrou's music inhabits that tension with remarkable subtlety. "The initial ideas stem mostly from chaos, randomness or sound exploration and then get shaped as I go. Typically, and certainly for this album. It's evolved since album 1, which was more song / chord based. It's a fun process of finding the sound and then working out whether it's speaking to me - or merely just a cool noise. That's fun, but it sometimes can't evolve or progress, so then begins the long journey of shaping it into some sort of song format - which doesn't have to be a-typica,l but whatever feels right to me. The subject matter and overall theme is important too - it's got to all make sense within itself. There's no point having a slowly creeping theme and then rush the music." (Pete Lambrou) VLMV embody an emotional honesty that works with patience and nuance. Whether you're encountering his music for the first time or returning to its quiet depths, VLMV offers an aural space that resonates long after the final note fades. Lambrou's singular sonic language sits at the intersection of ambient, post-rock, modern classical, and experimental electronic music, while remaining unmistakably human at its core. "Instrumentally it's far more synth based - as soon as I had the concept, I wanted to make sure technology clash and marry with traditional instruments (at different times) in a sort of slow-moving dance I suppose. One is nature, one is human development and technology. Sometimes working together and sometimes in opposition. On my previous albums I'd say that at least half of the tracks started life as songs, whereas with `There Will Come Soft Rains` I think the majority (if not all) started as experiments in sound." (Pete Lambrou) Sonically, the album is VLMV at its most cinematic and textural. Warm, intimate piano figures and elegiac string arrangements are set against unstable modular synthesis, fractured rhythms, and evolving sound design. The organic and the artificial are locked in a slow, shifting dialogue, mirroring the album's central themes. At times the music feels tender and nostalgic, at others unpredictable and mournful, yet it never tips into despair. Instead, a quiet resilience runs throughout the record. "The album is slightly unusual in that it was mixed in Dolby Atmos before being mixed down to stereo. Most, if not all, do it the other way round. That's because I got to work with a superb mix engineer who just happens to live opposite. It was extremely random and lucky, moving to a tiny hamlet in the South of England and there being a Dolby Atmos studio opposite with a genius of an engineer. We had in mind that we would do it this way round and enjoy the mix process and give everything its own space - it still had issues when folding down to stereo, but overall a more pleasurable mix!" (Pete Lambrou) There Will Come Soft Rains has a geological sense of time: themes creep, expand, erode, and reform, resisting conventional structures in favour of something more patient and immersive. Each sound exists because it needs to; they move, recede, and emerge with a three-dimensional clarity that enhances the music's cinematic quality, giving each element room to breathe while maintaining an enveloping sense of cohesion. Lambrou's unique voice is Intimate and fragile, his vocals hover above the instrumentation, a guiding thread through the expansive soundscapes, drawing listeners closer into the emotional core of each piece. "Long time vocal collaborator Anja Madhvani did lots of harmonies on the album - I wanted to include her voice as much as possible on this album. In terms of string players - 3/4 have been long term collaborators with me. Marie Schreer actually recorded all strings on my first album ALMA, and Fraser & Clodagh have worked on every album (and occasional live shows) since Stranded Not Lost. In terms of art - Joel Cammarata designed the cover, and accompanying art - he designed Sing With Abandon and I absolutely adore his work, but also - he's so great at understanding and developing and capturing the concept." (Pete Lambrou) Layered harmonies drift through the music like distant signals or half-remembered voices. Madhvani's presence adds a human fragility to the album's vast soundscapes, reinforcing the sense of memory and longing that runs beneath the surface. The strings, performed by a close circle of trusted collaborators, further ground the record in warmth and physicality, acting as a counterweight to the synthetic elements that threaten to unravel it. "Despite the heavy subject matter, I wanted to create an album that imparts hope and optimism, marrying traditional instrumentation as nostalgia, with technological innovation through the randomness of modular synths." (Pete Lambrou) The partnership with Pelagic Records feels both organic and significant. Known for championing artists who value emotional weight, sonic ambition, and artistic integrity, the label provides a natural home for VLMV's work. Lambrou's music shares Pelagic's ethos: immersive, patient, and unafraid of scale whether intimate or vast. With There Will Come Soft Rains, Pete Lambrou has crafted a work that feels timely without being didactic, expansive without being overwhelming. It stands as a quiet, but powerful statement that lingers long after the final notes fade. FOR FANS OF Sigur Ros * Olafur Arnalds * Radiohead * Keaton Henson * This Will Destroy You

Pete Lambrou, the visionary composer and multi-instrumentalist behind VLMV (pronounced "Alma"), is one of the most singular voices emerging from the ambient, post-rock, and experimental scenes in the UK. With a career that spans atmospheric solo work, film and television scoring, and evocative live performance, Lambrou has carved out a distinctive sonic universe he describes as "ambient-ish post-something" (Pete Lambrou) a playful yet accurate summation of a sound that is at once genre-fluid and deeply immersive. The album takes its title from Sara Teasdale's 1918 poem and Ray Bradbury's later short story, both of which imagine a world continuing quietly after humanity's disappearance. This idea became the gravitational centre around which the record formed. Written during a period of deep engagement with climate fiction and ecological thought, `There Will Come Soft Rains` reflects on humanity's legacy, its technological ambition, and its uneasy relationship with the natural world. A century on from Teasdale's poem, the balance of power feels less certain, and Lambrou's music inhabits that tension with remarkable subtlety. "The initial ideas stem mostly from chaos, randomness or sound exploration and then get shaped as I go. Typically, and certainly for this album. It's evolved since album 1, which was more song / chord based. It's a fun process of finding the sound and then working out whether it's speaking to me - or merely just a cool noise. That's fun, but it sometimes can't evolve or progress, so then begins the long journey of shaping it into some sort of song format - which doesn't have to be a-typica,l but whatever feels right to me. The subject matter and overall theme is important too - it's got to all make sense within itself. There's no point having a slowly creeping theme and then rush the music." (Pete Lambrou) VLMV embody an emotional honesty that works with patience and nuance. Whether you're encountering his music for the first time or returning to its quiet depths, VLMV offers an aural space that resonates long after the final note fades. Lambrou's singular sonic language sits at the intersection of ambient, post-rock, modern classical, and experimental electronic music, while remaining unmistakably human at its core. "Instrumentally it's far more synth based - as soon as I had the concept, I wanted to make sure technology clash and marry with traditional instruments (at different times) in a sort of slow-moving dance I suppose. One is nature, one is human development and technology. Sometimes working together and sometimes in opposition. On my previous albums I'd say that at least half of the tracks started life as songs, whereas with `There Will Come Soft Rains` I think the majority (if not all) started as experiments in sound." (Pete Lambrou) Sonically, the album is VLMV at its most cinematic and textural. Warm, intimate piano figures and elegiac string arrangements are set against unstable modular synthesis, fractured rhythms, and evolving sound design. The organic and the artificial are locked in a slow, shifting dialogue, mirroring the album's central themes. At times the music feels tender and nostalgic, at others unpredictable and mournful, yet it never tips into despair. Instead, a quiet resilience runs throughout the record. "The album is slightly unusual in that it was mixed in Dolby Atmos before being mixed down to stereo. Most, if not all, do it the other way round. That's because I got to work with a superb mix engineer who just happens to live opposite. It was extremely random and lucky, moving to a tiny hamlet in the South of England and there being a Dolby Atmos studio opposite with a genius of an engineer. We had in mind that we would do it this way round and enjoy the mix process and give everything its own space - it still had issues when folding down to stereo, but overall a more pleasurable mix!" (Pete Lambrou) There Will Come Soft Rains has a geological sense of time: themes creep, expand, erode, and reform, resisting conventional structures in favour of something more patient and immersive. Each sound exists because it needs to; they move, recede, and emerge with a three-dimensional clarity that enhances the music's cinematic quality, giving each element room to breathe while maintaining an enveloping sense of cohesion. Lambrou's unique voice is Intimate and fragile, his vocals hover above the instrumentation, a guiding thread through the expansive soundscapes, drawing listeners closer into the emotional core of each piece. "Long time vocal collaborator Anja Madhvani did lots of harmonies on the album - I wanted to include her voice as much as possible on this album. In terms of string players - 3/4 have been long term collaborators with me. Marie Schreer actually recorded all strings on my first album ALMA, and Fraser & Clodagh have worked on every album (and occasional live shows) since Stranded Not Lost. In terms of art - Joel Cammarata designed the cover, and accompanying art - he designed Sing With Abandon and I absolutely adore his work, but also - he's so great at understanding and developing and capturing the concept." (Pete Lambrou) Layered harmonies drift through the music like distant signals or half-remembered voices. Madhvani's presence adds a human fragility to the album's vast soundscapes, reinforcing the sense of memory and longing that runs beneath the surface. The strings, performed by a close circle of trusted collaborators, further ground the record in warmth and physicality, acting as a counterweight to the synthetic elements that threaten to unravel it. "Despite the heavy subject matter, I wanted to create an album that imparts hope and optimism, marrying traditional instrumentation as nostalgia, with technological innovation through the randomness of modular synths." (Pete Lambrou) The partnership with Pelagic Records feels both organic and significant. Known for championing artists who value emotional weight, sonic ambition, and artistic integrity, the label provides a natural home for VLMV's work. Lambrou's music shares Pelagic's ethos: immersive, patient, and unafraid of scale whether intimate or vast. With There Will Come Soft Rains, Pete Lambrou has crafted a work that feels timely without being didactic, expansive without being overwhelming. It stands as a quiet, but powerful statement that lingers long after the final notes fade. FOR FANS OF Sigur Ros * Olafur Arnalds * Radiohead * Keaton Henson * This Will Destroy You

With Black Koyo, Mattias De Craene enters a sound world at once intimate and vast. Born from journeys in Morocco and Brussels, the project traces the rhythms, chants, and spirits of the Gnawa tradition, revealing a quiet resonance that echoes De Craene's own search for depth and presence. Guibri, qraqueb, call-and-response chants, saxophone, loops, and electronics come together in a trance-induced dialogue - ritualistic, elemental, and dreamlike - creating a space where listening becomes immersion, tradition meets imagination, and music unfolds as a shared act of reflection and wonder.

About Mattias De Craene
Mattias De Craene's artistic path is marked by rare coherence. As a central voice in Nordmann and MDC III, he developed a physical, rock-inflected jazz language driven by propulsion, volume, and trance-like collective energy. Over time, a period of personal rupture - burnout, tinnitus, depression - shifted his focus inward. The saxophone became a breathing, textural presence, and in his solo work, he weaves saxophone, electronics, loops, and minimal forms into a cinematic, hushed world where repetition, resonance, and silence slow perception. Rooted in ambient and introspection, his music prizes attention over impact, precision over excess - a quiet intensity recognized with a nomination as Musician for the Music Industry Awards (MIA's).

About Black Koyo
Black Koyo is a Brussels-based ensemble and one of the most compelling voices of the Gnawa tradition outside Morocco. Led by maalem Hicham Bilali, the group brings guibri, qrraqueb, and call-and-response chants to life with trance-like intensity and ritual precision. Their music is both rooted and contemporary, weaving earthbound rhythms and vocal invocations into ecstatic, immersive soundscapes, creating a space where ancestral resonance meets present-day imagination.

About Jan Bang
Jan Bang is a pioneering Norwegian producer and musician, celebrated for his mastery of live sampling and his ability to merge electronics with improvisation, rhythm, and texture in real time. He mixed the album and occasionally joins live performances, bringing his signature approach to sound as co-founder of the influential Punkt Festivaland collaborator with artists such as Jon Hassell, David Sylvian, Arve Henriksen, and ECM Records' roster. As a performer and sound architect, Bang creates immersive, trance-like sonic textures where silence and sound carry equal weight. Within Mattias De Craene ftBlack Koyo, his live sampling becomes an organic instrument, weaving saxophone, electronics, and Gnawa rhythms into hypnotic, physically charged soundscapes.

Line-up & credits
Mattias De Craene - sax, electronics | Hicham Bilali - guibri, vocals, qraqueb |Ismael Akhraz - vocals, qraqueb | Marwan Abantor - vocals, qraqueb
All tracks are original gnawa traditionals played by Black Koyo and arranged by Mattias De Craene.
Album produced & recorded by Mattias De Craene in Essaouira, Morocco and hometown Ghent, Belgium 2025.
Text by Hicham Bilali.
Mixed by Jan Bang at Punkt Studio
Mastered by Lieven Van Pee
Artwork by Marina Sviridova
Design by Benoit Van Geel
Manufactured and distributed by N.E.W.S.
Executive production by W.E.R.F. records
Supported by Flemish Government, Jazzlab, nona, HA Concerts, Aubergine artist Management,
KAAP, La Bestia (Wout Van Putten) & mdcmu.sic vzw.
2026 (c) W.E.R.F. records

Türkisfarbenes Vinyl, Gatefold, inkl. Insert. Willy Astors Humor ist seit Jahrzehnten ein Markenzeichen: verspielt, sprachverliebt und voller Leichtigkeit und hat damit seit Dekaden ein Alleinstellungsmerkmal. Doch jenseits seiner Wortakrobatik ist Astor stets auch ein ernstzunehmender Musiker und Gitarrist mit ausgeprägtem Sinn für harmonische Weite. Was er nun gemeinsam mit seinen langjährigen Weggefährten Roberto di Gioia und Ferdi Kirner auf seinem Werk "The Sound Of Islands Vol. VII" vorlegt, überrascht selbst versierte Kenner seiner Musik: ein Album von bemerkenswerter Ruhe und Klarheit. "Sound Of Islands Vol. VII" ist ein instrumentaler Hörgenuss. Das neue Werk holt einen perfekt runter, ist eine wahre Wohltat für gestresste Seelen und strapazierte Ohren.