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“We know what jazz is when we hear standards or music that is close to the same source, to a recognized pattern. But what is jazz? Here, a starting point. "Blow" showcases an accumulated CITIZEN:KANE techno vocabulary but it quickly tones down the sensation by introducing frequent breaks in the rhythm, as in "Peiote". But even there we are able to "feel" techno by recalling Wolfgang Voigt's M:I:5 and its parallel yet contrasting rhythmic grids. Elsewhere, manifestations of opposite forces: the beat keeps a body firm on the floor, eminently physical but not commanding; and melodies, cosmic threads, suggest ascension as well as a drive towards the within, creating space for feelings and/or rationalization. "The Fence" or "Montreal" stand as good examples. One less evident aspect of beauty in this record is the apparent coldness of the music, almost rigid and devoid of passion, and thus we declare it more true. As the mind performs a synthesis of what was learned after a class, last track "Family" (expressively) gathers impressions of what went before, adding poetry to the moment. "Blow" may be a reference to the most familiar instruments used in jazz but it can also figuratively mean an explosion, an aesthetic liberation, even with (our) knowledge that for now, and theoretically, the artist chose to concentrate on this thing called jazz.”

Following the release of Blue Lava on Houseum Records, B From E returns with Apocalypsex, an EP that dives deeper into darker and more club-oriented territory. Released on Ellipse Records, the sub-label dedicated to rawer and more experimental expressions, this new chapter explores tension, hypnosis and late-night energy, while preserving the melodic sensibility that defines the Danish producer’s sound.

We begin with the A1 “X-perience”, a track firmly rooted in 90s trance aesthetics, blending acid lines, sharp trance-style synths and vocal elements into a direct, club-focused structure with a progressive, hypnotic drive.

The A2 “Dream Mania” shifts towards a more melodic and expansive direction. Less centered on pure club impact, it unfolds as a sun-soaked journey, led by evolving melodies and a smooth, flowing progression.

On the B-side, “Apocalypsex” dives into deeper territory. The title track builds a sustained state of trance through repetition and gradual tension, combining floating atmospheres with an intense, forward-moving groove.

The EP closes with “In Orbit”, a more break-driven and spacious piece where airy pads and open textures take the lead, offering a lighter, atmospheric conclusion.

There are records that do not so much belong to an era as they pass through it, leaving traces rather than statements, circulating in the margins where function outweighs discourse. World Cup, written at the end of the 1990s by Kiko, emerged in precisely that way — as a techno track whose presence was felt less through promotion than through repetition, carried from booth to booth, absorbed into the working vocabulary of DJs who recognized in it something immediate and self-evident. Its architecture is minimal yet insistent, driven by tension and release, a form of clarity that resists ornament and instead privileges duration, pressure, and movement.

When it resurfaced in 2006, it did not return as a revision but as a continuation, reaffirming its role within the ecology of the dancefloor. The same internal logic remained intact, allowing it to re-enter circulation without friction, as though it had simply been waiting to be picked up again. In both instances, the track operates less as a fixed object than as a tool — something to be used, extended, and recontextualized in real time.

Bringing together these two versions alongside Tainted Life, the release traces a subtle but telling trajectory. If World Cupdefines a certain techno functionalism, Tainted Life reveals another dimension: a proto-Italo sensibility that gestures toward what would later coalesce as electroclash, not through stylistic declaration but through texture, tone, and attitude. Long absent from digital circulation and largely confined to obscurity, it appears here not as a rediscovery, but as a piece whose relevance has simply remained latent.

Nothing has been added, nothing has been altered beyond what was necessary to restore presence. The recordings are allowed to exist in their own continuity, detached from the temporal markers that might otherwise confine them.

The artwork, conceived by H5, extends this approach into the visual field. Its restraint is not aesthetic minimalism for its own sake, but a form of structural clarity, where composition and absence articulate a space in which the record can be encountered without interference, as if resurfacing from a parallel timeline that never fully closed.

Soul Music legend Candi Staton returns to her down-home Alabama roots on her 32nd album, Back to My Roots. The twelve-track Americana set features an array of Staton-penned originals and some well-chosen covers.

"These songs represent my roots," Staton adds as she reflects on her many trials and triumphs. "Even the new songs on some level represent something I've experienced and that's what real soul music is about." Back to My Roots was produced by Staton with her second eldest son, Marcus Williams, a professional drummer who has toured with the likes of Peabo Bryson, Isaac Hayes, and Tyler Perry. They brought in Mark Nevers of Lambchop fame, who produced three of Staton’s prior Americana albums for Honest Jon’s and Thirty Tigers, to sweeten certain tracks. “Some of the first songs I ever heard were songs like `Peace in the Valley’ and `It’s Gonna Rain,’” says Staton. “The new songs or cover songs are tracks that remind me of that era when I was growing up as a child and evolving as a young woman. That’s why I named the album Back to My Roots because I’m going back to the roots that made me who I am.”

Staton received the Americana Music Association UK’s highest honour, the International Lifetime Achievement Award, at the UK Americana Music Awards ceremony at Hackney Church in London last year for her southern soul work that stretches from her 1969 Muscle Shoals hits to her more recent collaborations with the likes of Americana kings Jason Isbell and John Paul White.
The album opens with a mid-tempo Bonnie Raitt-styled contemporary blues “I Missed the Target Again” that finds Harry Connick Jr.’s longtime guitarist Jonathan DuBose Jr. (aka the Prophesying Guitarist) showing off his skills that set the tone for the song and the album.

Staton’s older sister, Maggie Staton Peebles (who alongside Staton was a member of the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s), joins her for two duets. The first, “It’s Gonna Rain,” features just a drum, steel guitar and vocals. “My mother used to sing that song to us all the time when I was a child,” Staton recalls. “It’s a really soulful kind of song I wanted to revisit.” They then take turns leading Thomas Dorsey 1939 gem “There Will Be Peace in the Valley” that Elvis Presley popularized in the 1950s.

“Hang on in There” is a new, mid-tempo song that has an old school gospel flavour and features vocals from veteran bluesman, Larry McCray.
While in Europe in 2023 for her farewell concert tour that took her to the Glastonbury Festival and Love Supreme, Staton and her British band, PUSH, went into a London studio to record a new version of The Rolling Stones’ 1972 gem, “Shine A Light.” “I love the way that came out,” Staton says. “We put a big choir on it and put our own twist on it.”
From there, Staton revives another Thomas Dorsey classic, “The Lord Will Make a Way Somehow,” with a bluesy vibe. When Al Green started recording gospel in the early 1980s, he re-introduced this song into the culture.

“God’s Gonna Use Me Anyway” is a new mid-tempo blues with subtle Caribbean influences.

The mood takes a turn on “1963.” It’s a poignant, spoken-word reflection on September 15, 1963, when four black girls were killed in the Birmingham Church bombing. “I was in the city that day and I remember the chaos and horror after the bombing,” Staton recalls. “Just thinking of how racism and hatred caused those men to kill those girls was so emotional for me that I could only do it in one take.”

It's a perfect segue into "Reach Down and Touch Heaven," a haunting, plea for divine intervention into the affairs of mankind. "That's straight Baptist," she says. "I used to be a church pianist back in the 1960s. I've never played piano on one of my records before so that's a unique song for me because I’m finally playing on one of my records. The message of that song is about the homeless. It came to me when a homeless person on the street asked me for $5. When God touches your heart to help somebody else that’s heaven to God’s hears. So, when we reach into our purse or wallet to help someone, we’re touching heaven."

Staton offers love as an antidote to hate on the bouncy, Motown-styled, “Love Breakthrough.”

Her publicist brought Aaron Frazer & the Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY’s 2017 cut “My God Has a Telephone” to Staton’s attention. She shifts the track from a retro 1960s groove to more of a 1980s Malaco Records arrangement, a subtle but distinct variation. Staton brought in her longtime friend and STAX Records legend, William Bell (“I Forgot to Be Your Lover” and “Trying to Love Two”), to add raspy seasoning to the track.

The album closes with the wistful, “In God’s Hands We Rest Untroubled,” that was originally written and recorded by the late country star, Lari White, who died in 2017 at the age of 52. “Lari sent me that song to consider at least ten years ago and I always loved it,” Staton says. “The record label didn’t want it on the album or something, so I just held it.”
Staton says, “I grew up hearing a lot of these old songs when they were new songs. I toured with the Jewel Gospel Trio in the 1950s and we got to know people like Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke and others who sang these types of songs. So, I’m sort of paying tribute to them and the influence they had on me by refreshing these songs and making new songs in the old style.”’

2026 Repress

The undisputed Godfather of Boogie, Leroy Burgess’s Logg project is his grand masterpiece.

The self-titled LP, originally released on Salsoul in August 1981, is one of the greatest albums of the post-disco era. It’s one of Be With’s favourite ever LPs and so it’s a complete honour to be giving it our reissue treatment. With all the touchstones of Burgess’s finest work - breezy grooves, undulating synths, funk-drenched bass and life-affirming lyrics - delivered with gospel-derived vocals and harmonies - it’s a record to uplift both body and spirit.

Already a cult soul figure as lead singer of seminal vocal group Black Ivory, Leroy Burgess cut his teeth as arranger, vocalist and songwriter with legendary producer Patrick Adams on essential late-70s projects like Phreek and Dazzle. He went on to define the essence of “boogie”: the vibrant underground dance sound that stood in contrast to commercial disco. With its reduced speed - mid-90 to under 110 BPM - the cool boogie of Burgess has the disco bounce, just more laidback.

All six tracks here could have been stand alone 12" hits. Indeed, some of them were. But together they are also an incredibly cohesive album, where all the compositions are deeply relevant to each other. In short, it’s essential; a thrilling showcase for Burgess’s finest arranging and production work - with his vocals at their euphoric peak alongside the inventive rhythm section of Aaron (Sonny) T. Davenport on drums and James Calloway on bass.

Opener “(You’ve Got) That Something” is a balmy sunshine groover with an insistent chorus whilst the timeless vocal of “Dancing Into The Stars” - married to percolating synth and airtight drums - showcases the chemistry between Burgess and the rhythm section.

The fusion of funk and gospel-influenced harmonies which propels “Something Else” is remarkable - deep, joyous and bouncy. Infamously mixed by Larry Levan, “I Know You Will” is an easy glide, all rollicking electric piano underpinned by a precise and relentlessly upbeat groove. “Lay It On The Line” radiates smooth, understated brilliance, elevated by interstellar keys and finally album-closer “Sweet To Me” is a chilled-out gem of profound soulful elegance.

Logg has long been a hit with the likes of Kenny Dope and Dam-Funk whilst, in the last decade, MCDE and Harvey Sutherland have routinely cited it as a huge influence. Accordingly, finding original copies on vinyl at affordable prices has been a thankless task. This fresh Be With reissue ensures this legendary record now sounds, looks and feels as sensational as it deserves to.

Mastered brilliantly by Simon Francis, cut by Pete Norman and with lovingly reproduced artwork, we think this is a reissue that does justice to this classic LP.

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.

The union of Antwerp synthesist David Edren and Tokyo minimalist Hiroki Takahashi is a fit so natural as to feel preordained. Both traffic in subtle shades of contemplative electronics, marked by patience, space, and poetic restraint. And both have rich histories of curation and collaboration – Edren in the duo Spirit & Form alongside Bent Von Bent, and Takahashi as proprietor of the Kankyō record shop, as well as one fourth of cosmic ambient quartet UNKNOWN ME. Mutual fans of one another’s work, they began sharing stems in the latter half of 2020, which slowly blossomed into a collection of multi-hued compositions inspired by notions of connectivity and impermanence, translated for east and west: Flow | 流れ.

Opener “Dusk Decorum | 黄昏 礼節” maps the mood of what’s to come, elegantly pirouetting and percolating through an expanding vista of looming stars and half-light horizons. Takahashi describes Edren’s arrangements as evoking “a strange feel, something we haven't heard much of before.” The sensation is one of “in-betweenness,” a restless current whispering beneath the beauty, like seasons seen in time-lapse footage: flickering but infinite, transience turned permanent. Takahashi’s signature sculpture garden tones plot spiral patterns over which Edren cascades dazzling pointillist synthesizer coloration. The pieces veer between delicate and dilated, micro and macro, their aperture forever softly in flux.

From the oscillating orchestral lullaby of “Stalactime | 鍾乳石時計” to the sweeping, sparkling dream sequence closer, “Shift Register | シフトレジスタ,” the album achieves the elusive goal of being more than the sum of its parts. This is music of rare air, elevated and amorphous, shimmering just out of reach. Though Edren and Takahashi have yet to cohabitate the same room in person (a fact that should be rectified soon by an astute festival booker), their palettes and poise are perfectly paired, twin fragilities woven into seven radiant and regenerative vibrational states. The cover design of a beatific, beaded leaf rippling on the surface of a hidden pond aptly captures the record’s muted majesty. Takahashi’s quiet pride is justified: “We are very happy with this time-consuming and carefully crafted work.”

A rising artist of the French electronic scene, Naajet asserts her identity with The Night Starts Now, a four-track EP that celebrates the freedom and intensity of the night. Co-founder of the Bande de Filles collective and known for her explosive universe blending House, Hardgroove and Breaks, as well as for the unique energy inherited from her dance background, Naajet delivers here a sonic manifesto conceived as an ode to club culture and to the present moment.

“I imagined this EP as an anthem to the world of the night. The night offers us unparalleled freedom, an outlet that allows us to be ourselves, to create, to love. The Night Starts Now captures this celebration of the present moment and this declaration of independence.” Naajet Opening the EP, “Ready To Shine” unfolds radiant House nourished by Pop and 90’s sounds. With a clear and ascending rhythm, the track combines euphoria and introspection. “I composed this track as a joyful and introspective journey that prepares us to embrace the night. For me, it is a call to accept our wounds, to transform them into light and strength, so that we may shine brighter when we enter the club,” explains Naajet. Between ethereal vocal lines and shimmering pads, the track acts as a ritual of entering the night, inviting us to turn wounds into strength and to shine on the dancefloor. The second track of the EP, “Sugar”, embodies the effervescence of the club. Carried by a hypnotic voice and an effervescent rhythm, the track celebrates the communion of bodies and the liberating energy of dance. “It is an ode to dance and to bodies coming together. This track speaks of those moments when, on the dancefloor, boundaries fall: we sweat together, we free ourselves together, and energy flows from one body to another,” says Naajet. A true concentrate of intensity, “Sugar” captures the moment when sweat, rhythm and abandon merge into a collective movement towards freedom.

With “I Can Be Anything”, Naajet changes register and flirts with deeper, even techno textures. Built on a throbbing pulse and sharp synths, this track is meant as a manifesto of identity. “I really wanted to propose a track that claims our right to free and plural expression and sexuality. I Can Be Anything is about our multiple identities, our ability to reinvent ourselves and to refuse any form of formatting,” she says. Between club intensity and political resonance, “I Can Be Anything” questions our multiple facets and embodies the assertion of an elusive and free self. Closing the EP on an euphoric note, “May It Never End” stands out with its broken rhythms and powerful synths. The track conveys the transcendent energy of the end of the night, when dawn arrives but we refuse to leave the collective trance. “I wanted to put into music this feeling of infinite energy, when time is suspended and the party seems to never have to stop. It is this euphoric vertigo that connects us all in the same breath, this utopia of a night that would never end,” says Naajet. A true apotheosis, this track embodies the utopia of an eternal night.

DJ, producer and co-founder of the Bande de Filles collective, Naajet has established herself with a singular universe where House, Hardgroove and Breaks blend, nourished by her background as a dancer and an instinctive sense of groove. For the past three years, she has performed on French and European stages – from Berlin to Amsterdam, via Geneva and Oslo – and has made her mark in clubs such as Rex Club, Le Sucre and Badaboum, as well as festivals like Nuits Sonores and Kolorz. On the production side, she has released several acclaimed EPs on renowned labels such as Shall Not Fade and Monki & Friends. In 2025, she takes a new step with the launch of her label SWEAT Records and a residency at Le Sacré in Paris, affirming her role as an ambassador of a free and intense club culture. She also collaborates with the waacking company MADOKI, for which she composes and mixes projects at the crossroads of dance and music. With The Night Starts Now, Naajet confirms her status as an essential artist of the new electronic generation1

DJ Support: BEN UFO, Solomun, Marco Carola, Damian Lazarus, Jamie Jones, Joseph Capriati, Ilaria Alicante, Michael Bibi, Paco Osuna, D'Julz, Groove Armada, Dennis Cruz, Chloe Caillet, Kettama and many more

Enzo Siragusa opens 2026 with his ‘Kilimanjaro Sound’ EP, a release that expands on last year’s standalone single. Marking both Enzo and FUSE’s first drop of the year, the EP delivers the latest instalment in his longstanding Kilimanjaro concept while reaffirming the label’s position at the heart of underground club culture.

Following the digital release of ‘Kilimanjaro Sound’ back in October, the full EP frames the title track within a broader narrative of rhythm, atmosphere, and movement. A long-time fixture in Enzo’s sets throughout 2025, the title track established itself as a fan favourite through its rolling percussion, weighty low-end, and expansive spatial design, and now it takes on renewed presence on vinyl. New cut ‘Liquify’ pushes deeper into Enzo’s rhythmic sensibilities, pairing fluid groove structures with subtle tension and release. Designed for late-night floors, the track unfolds patiently, allowing swing, texture, and space to do the heavy lifting. It’s a natural continuation of the Kilimanjaro language, less about immediacy, more about immersion, showcasing his refined understanding of how momentum is built and sustained in true club environments.

Completing the EP is a remix from Giammarco Orsini, whose Garage Dub Mix of ‘Kilimanjaro Sound’ offers a fresh perspective while remaining true to the original. Born in Italy and now based in Berlin, Orsini has quietly evolved into one of the scene’s most respected selectors and producers, with releases on Cragie Knowes, Mood Waves, and Shonky’s Stoned Pilot. His interpretation strips the track back to its essentials, reintroducing it through a garage-leaning lens that prioritises groove, swing, and subtle pressure.

As the first release following FUSE’s latest DJ Mag Best of British Award, marking their second Best Club Event win, the EP reflects the values that have long defined the brand: community, longevity, and music built for real dancefloors. Pressed to wax, the release extends one of Siragusa’s most recognisable concepts and sets the tone for the year ahead - measured, confident, and rooted in the underground.

Rhiza Semar presents its fourth chapter with Yildizlara, a four-track odyssey shaped from shadow, rhythm, and elemental texture. Crafted as both visceral tools and introspective journeys, the record navigates between ominous density and luminous release, guided by a deep awareness of space, myth, and matter. As an artist, Hitam paves the way for a new sound emerging from his burrows to build bridges between electronic subgenres while shaping a landscape unmistakably his own. Orb Weaver opens the cycle with jagged IDM rhythms that coil and release like threads of a web pulled taut. Originally composed for the graduation project of fashion designer Tim van der Plas, who's collection was inspired on climbing out of depression, its atmosphere is dark and ceremonial, with textures scraping against silence until catharsis emerges from the tension. A confrontation between inner turmoil and release. On Vanishing of the Anasazi, cavernous reverbs carry traces of lost structures, percussion echoing as if across ruins. A relentless drive holds the ghost of ritual processions, summoning a spectral energy that feels at once monumental and hollowed-out. The track suspends itself between presence and absence, architecture and collapse, leaving the listener in a space where echoes become the only surviving form of memory. Mesh Grip plunges downward into subterranean force. A thundering groove rumbles like minerals being unearthed, goblin-like figures at work in hidden shafts, chiseling away at stone in endless rhythm. From this pressure, a sudden swell of melancholy pads rises, reframing the heaviness with emotional resonance as if the whispers of angelic guardians seep into the caverns, transforming extraction into elegy. What begins as pure drive of endurance evolves into an introspective meditation. Closing the release, Yildizlara unfolds as an epic ascent. Layered rhythms rush forward with urgency, intricate yet propulsive, while chopped vocals bring back a sensual human element, scattering like signals across the night sky. Animalistic atmospheres dart through the mix as spectral cries and furtive movements, adding a primal dimension to the drive. What begins as erratic and untamed slowly converges into warmth and ultimate catharsis: a cosmic tale inscribed in sound, both intimate and monumental, familiar yet born of hidden memory. Yildizlara is both innovative and ancestral; a release where turbulence becomes ritual, and where rhythmic complexity unearths fragments of hidden memory. Beneath its dark and erratic surfaces lies a strange familiarity, like echoes of a primal past resurfacing through sound, reminding us of worlds once known but long concealed. Words by A. Veyra

DJ Support by Fabrizio Mammarella, Sean Johnston (ALFOS), Erol Alkan, Ame, Fango, Jaye Ward, SHMLSS, Camilo Miranda, Marco Passarani, Logan Fisher, Massimiliano Pagliara, Otto (Bordello a Parigi), Phil Mison, Giulia Gutterer, Pete Herbert, Franz Scala, Lauer, Pedro Bertho, Feel Fly ...

New music from legendary Adriatic DJ and producer Verdo is as rare as an MP3 in the golden age of disco. Which is why you should be hella excited for GRATIS CLUB, his first full-length album and a love letter to the iconic club he once called home in Senigallia.

A true Loyal Hell Yeah Recordings member and consummate musician, Verdo brings his signature piano melodies to Italo disco, hi-NRG, and trance magic across X cuts that are equal parts dancefloor propulsion and cosmic exploration.

GRATIS CLUB captures the energy, eccentricity and euphoria of the club Verdo played and directed, translating the pulse of a local institution into a timeless, high-voltage record. With previous releases on Danny Was A Drag King and this label, including his 2020 Symmetry EP, Verdo continues to prove he’s one of Italy’s best-kept secrets with this new album.

Opener and lead single ‘Let In The Light' is pure Italo disco adrenaline: shimmering arps soar over lush chords and retro analogue drums, igniting the dancefloor. Second single ‘Boulevardier’ is introspective yet radiant with rugged synths spiralling inward while shiny 80s chords inject colour and retro soul, all carried by supple, marching drums. 'Eyes Melody' is an ascent to a higher state with acrobatic drums and bass and more luminous synth magic, 'Ballad' has a more downbeat and late-night feel with pensive pads and sad vocoder, then the title cut is bold, bright and unabashed in its stomping disco brilliance. 'Our Love Come Back' has a sense of yearning that surely translates the sadness felt at the closing of Gratis Club, then 'Lest We Forget' is a reminder of how pumping and sweaty the main room got with Verdo in the booth. 'Little Blue's is the gentle comedown and comforting hand that leads you home in a reverie.

GRATIS CLUB is a pure hit of unbridled Italo disco joy.

Based in Rennes and founder of the Vives label in 2020, Weever has been exploring the interplay of light and shadow for over 10 years, crafting abstract soundscapes and textured sonic tunnels of unparalleled musical breadth. He elegantly blends industrial and baroque sounds to construct sonic cathedrals. His music is both utterly raw and meticulously crafted.

L’âge de la Galère :

started this EP in 2020. At the time, I had just finished my studies, it was a pretty difficult period and I had made a track, or rather a melody, that I thought was amazing. I held onto it all these years without ever releasing it. 2020 was a tough year overall. The big question was: What am I going to do with my life? Hence the title L’âge de la Galère

The title really started to make sense when I began putting tracks together for Micheal. Around that time, I was reading Those of 1914 by Maurice Genevoix. For those who don’t know it: it’s written as a journal and tells the story of the author and his fellow soldiers in the trenches during World War I.

I’ve always been passionate about the two World Wars, I watch every film, old and new, I listen to the soundtracks, and so on. Same with period films, especially medieval ones. I love drawing inspiration from them.

So naturally, I imagine and create around that. It comes easily because it’s always been my universe. And when I make music, those kinds of images inevitably come out, even subconsciously.

So I created and told an audio story through my 6 tracks.

“It’s 1914. The story of many men who, upon hearing the sound of the bells, are met with the announcement of a war like no other. Most of them are young, some very young, and they are drafted into the French and German armies. They have no military experience, and the first battles are so violent that many won’t make it back. Very few will earn the glory they deserve.

The conditions are appalling, everything is in short supply, and the men are exhausted. Still, they must hold on.
Leaving carelessly from beneath their mothers’ skirts, too few returned. Many were left traumatized, and an entire generation was forever changed.”

CER009 finally brings Pumphouse Gang – “Welcome Back Into My Life” back to the 7inch format, a killer slice of Irish modern soul perfection from 1979. Originally pressed in tiny quantities and barely escaping dublin, it’s one of those records that rarely becomes available. A favourite of label boss miche, it’s in his words “an unbeatable soul track, that really fills a dancefloor with smiles”

On the flip, Medlar steps up once again, this time sending his mix straight from the Cayman Islands — a dubbed-out, Part 2-style reprise that stretches the groove, teases the rhythm, and gives the track a second life for late-night dancefloors.

As always, Celestial Echo digs deep into the overlooked corners of soul and disco, unearthing some of the best soul records and giving them a new lease of life. Each release is remastered with care and presented with the respect these recordings deserve.

Were FEX the Wildest & Weirdest German New Wave Band in 1984?

Few cult mysteries in modern music have captured the internet's imagination quite like "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet." Eventually identified as "Subways of Your Mind" by the elusive German band FEX, the track became a viral sensation decades after its creation-and even made its way into a recent Hollywood blockbuster (Black Phone 2).

Now, two more lost FEX recordings have emerged from an old demo cassette: "Dead End" and "Sarah." And they're every bit as electrifying as the legend suggests.

On both songs, guitarist and main songwriter Ture Rückwardt joins forces on lead vocals with his former wife and musical partner Ilona Rückwardt, forming a vocal pairing that channels raw energy and eerie chemistry. What they deliver are two of the most urgent, adrenaline-fueled post-punk artifacts you're likely to hear this year-even if they were recorded more than forty years ago.

Opening with a sharp, melodic guitar solo, "Dead End" bursts forward with uptempo drive-catchy, fierce, and full of momentum. Apparently inspired by Orwell's 1984, its lyrics depict urban desolation-loneliness, homelessness, hopelessness-yet still shimmer with defiance in lines like, "Truth is amazing - hoping is like waiting."

The second track, "Sarah," dives even deeper into darkness. Mixing post-punk intensity with psychedelic textures, Rückwardt tells an imaginary story of a couple lost in drugs and spiraling through a bad trip, only to wake and realize that sobriety offers little comfort-the real world itself can be just as brutal and offers no easy escape.

Neither song makes the slightest concession to commercial trends. Instead, they feel utterly uncompromising-wild, strange, and defiantly timeless. In a world obsessed with polish and playlists, "Dead End" and "Sarah" sound like transmissions from a different planet.

Both tracks were originally recorded as demos in 1984 in the band's rehearsal room, with Hase engineering. The newly restored versions preserve the raw spirit of the original tapes while adding subtle layers to enhance their atmosphere without losing the authentic 1980s sound. FEX hint that the untouched demo versions might surface later, possibly on a second volume of their archival

Isa Gordon and Tony Morris were first brought together through their individual releases on Optimo Music, which established mutual respect within the label’s community. While they had not previously performed live together, they were invited to take part in a fundraiser hosted by Queen’s Park Arena in support of Glasgow NW Foodbank and later for JD Twitch’s end-of-life care. Tony asked Isa to contribute guitar and backing vocals to his set, including a track then called Last Night I Had a Dream. That performance became the seed for their collaboration.

The first phase of fleshing it out, recalls Tony: “Somebody said Isa sang like Shania Twain. That got me thinking about country music and call and response, prompting me to come up with alternative lyrics.” Isa remembers: “I cycled over to Tony’s house with my guitar, and we spoke about what the tune meant. It was about him being wrapped up in dreamland, luxuriating in his subconscious, while my character — impatient and trapped in her own routines — barely had time to remember her own dreams.” Tony continues: “Brilliantly I realised that I could never collaborate with anyone in situ and so I sat in the garden for two hours watching my wife tend to plants. Every now and again I would creep up the stairs and put my ear to the door. I could hear Isa warbling away and so would resume my garden watch. After two hours I went back upstairs to see how she was getting on, only to find that she had written one of the greatest songs I’d ever heard. I still think that.” Tony adds: “My overwhelming sentiment about Wake Up Baby is pride. I can honestly say that I’m more proud of it than anything else I have done. It ticks a whole load of boxes. Isa’s singing in various Scottish modes is unique. The way her electric guitar adorns the dance beat makes it a rock song as well as a dance and a C&W song — truly multi-genre.”

The B-side of the 12” release, Syringe Moustache, is a surreal, darkly playful counterpart to Wake Up Baby. The track was inspired by a dream Tony had: “I was in a shopping mall, in a two-level shoe shop, and my attention was taken by a little girl with a syringe taped beneath her nose like a moustache. She went about her business trying on shoes, confident and wise beyond her years. In the dream, I imagined her as the daughter of cultured, intelligent parents determined to raise her independently. I was struck by my own feelings of inadequacy — I knew I could never have coped with such a contraption myself.” Isa’s take on the meaning of this song somewhat differs: “Tony sent me the tune over Instagram months before I met him, and I was spooked — as far as I knew, he didn’t know anything about me, but the story felt like it was written about me as a little girl, growing up around heroin addiction. The syringe beneath the girl’s nose became a symbol of the inescapable constraints of that environment, literally written on her face, yet something you just have to carry on through. On a buzz from the serendipity, I added a full instrumental backing to this most bizarre of works.”

The result is absurd, unsettling, and strangely empowering, staking out its own surreal, cinematic space. The 12” dance single is a format Tony had long wanted to explore — a tangible artefact to leave for family, a medium that celebrates the physicality of sound and the ritual of listening. It allowed the artists to maximise the format’s potential: a strong, multi-genre A-side, a surreal B-side, and remixes that expanded the record’s sonic world. Glasgow music staples Auntie Flo and 100% Positive Feedback were invited to reinterpret the tracks, bringing their distinctive touch — Auntie Flo transforming the A-side into a luscious, dancefloor-ready meditation, and 100% Positive Feedback twisting Syringe Moustache into absurd, playful shapes with false-start drops and over-the-top vocal editing.

The cover photograph, taken at the University Café by Harrison Reid, captures Isa and Tony embodying the characters they brought to life in the songs — a visual reflection of the record’s narrative and emotional stakes. The Café also holds personal significance: it’s where all of Isa’s meetings with Keith McIvor took place, where she first remembers visiting Glasgow as a child, and a place Tony fondly likes to go to drip egg yolk down his tie and watch the world go by. Together, the 12” format, the remixes, and the artwork create a cohesive, tactile experience, amplifying the duality, theatricality, and emotional breadth of the collaboration.

Hailing from the city of Brotherly Love, Terri Wells first came to prominence as a session singer for Philadelphia International Records in the mid 1970’s following the breakup of her group City Limits. Wells soon began recording and touring as a featured vocalist with artists such as Lou Rawl, M.F.S.B., Leon Huff, Jean Carne and Dexter Wansel. In 1979, she joined the band of Roy Ayres and eventually sang on “Turn Me Loose” and co-wrote the track “Let’s Stay Together” from his 1982 album “Feeling Good”. Recruited by staff producer Nick Martinelli, Terri signed as a solo act with the Philly World Records in 1983 and released her one and only full length offering “Just Like Dreamin’” The album features the singles “You Make It Heaven” and “I’llll Be Around” which both charted in the United Kingdom. To this day her sensational debut remains a classic example of the soulful Philly sound of the the early 1980’s.
- Features the hit singles “You Make It Heaven” and “I’ll Be Around”
- Produced by Nick Martinelli (Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, Regina Belle, Phyllis Hyman, Stephanie Wells)
- Backing and arrangement fine the cream of the crop Philly Soul session aces

From Germany to Montreal, a cross-continental dialogue takes form as Oovation and Jares unite for The Shift, a sweeping coalition of emotion and rhythm marking both artists’ debut on W. Anchored in cinematic depth and driven by kinetic pulse, The Shift stands as a powerful first statement, further expanded through stunning reinterpretations by Coeus, ACNØR, and Turker.

The original take of “The Shift” finds Oovation & Jares constructing a restrained groove before thumping kicks and meandering blips send us off on a highly narcotic affair. With the foundations in place, a swaying bassline takes control of the piece, infusing it with an irresistible sense of movement. As we venture deeper inside the rabbit hole, a lush arpeggio rummages across the piece, taking us closer to an airy break where echoes osurrender to a new directive.

For the first reimagining, Coeus drives “The Shift” into more dangerous, sensual territory. Built on a thunderous rhythmic foundation, the Serbian producer laces the mix with ghostly vocal traces and a relentless synthetic tension. The result feels cinematic in scope: an after-hours odyssey pulsing with urgency and redemption, where desire and danger move in lockstep.

Next, ACNØR transforms The Shift into a perpetual motion device where tension breathes and recedes like a living organism, shimmering under dim light. Reflective and transportive, this version feels like moving through mirrored corridors. Each twist refracts a new emotion, a new identity, culminating in a tantalizing entropy.

Finally, Turker closes the circle with a radiant reconstruction that leans toward transcendence. Textured percussion, raspy stabs, and a gleaming lead line spiral upward, pushing “The Shift” toward a horizon bathed in gold as vocal phrases drift in and out of focus, painting the mirage in full technicolor for a finale that feels both cathartic and luminous.

Following the success of his recent releases, Mendekua and Electro Bloody Music, Barro’s honcho Nöle demonstrates that he is at one of his creative peaks with this new four-track EP.

The fortunate owners of reference number thirteen will not only take home a substantial slice of vinyl but also a powerful teleportation device that will instantly send them to the dance floor. Demencial chico acelerado features four tracks of techno infused with elements of industrial and EBM, as dark as it gets.

The EP kicks off with the enigmatic “IDDDQD,” a complex industrial techno track packed with sharp synths, devastating basslines, and an incredible punch.

“Lemmy Dust” comes next showing no mercy from the moment that the powerful kick hits, captivating you with its hypnotic sound and not letting go until you’re exhausted.

Cinematic as its name suggests, “Xenomorph” is a claustrophobic industrial techno powerhouse, brimming with intense EBM nuances that are both unsettling and frenetic—perfect for dancing with your hair standing on end.

Last but not least, “Ghost Dancer,” is one of the most purely techno tracks, showcasing haunting synths mid-way through. It’s heavy material fit for the dance floor.

Without a doubt, this demencial accelerated kid knows exactly what he’s doing.

The above references have already been supported by artists such as Dave Clarke, Phase Fatale, The Hacker, Lokier, NX1, Unhuman, Alienata, Reka, and many more.

Text by : El Garaje de Frank

2026 Repress

Whether in the studio or the club, Daphni has always been a pursuit where Dan Snaith lets the music find its own path. With Cherry this is more evident than ever, this sense of the tracks as objects with life and desires outside of Snaith’s control has now become a driving force in their creation. "There isn't anything obvious that unifies it or makes it hang together" Snaith says, "I think it was good that it was made without worrying about any of that. I just made it."
Recorded over a prolonged period, Snaith let the music go where it wanted to go. It wasn’t until he put everything he’d been tinkering with together that he realised what he had. "It's weird that when the tracks were put in what felt like the right order it took on a new coherence" he says, "where it pings quickly from one idea to the next and, at least for me, hangs together in way that feels unified. Maybe because it's hard to avoid the musical fingerprints I leave on the music I make, whether I want to or not."
The component parts have this same sense of independence, the essence of Daphni always present over music that is more free-wheeling than it’s ever been, almost escaping Snaith's grasp as it tumbles and spirals. "As is often the case when you're working quickly and intuitively, new pieces of equipment played a part" he says.
New gear and ways of working meant Snaith was able to sit at the centre of the music but let things get away from him a bit more as equipment began to make its own decisions before reeling it back in to suit his purposes, or as he puts it "getting the snake to eat its own tail".

It’s with great pride that we announce this amazing album on Optimo Music from Portland-based duo Natural Magic. It was the final vinyl release that Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch put into production before his untimely departure in late September this year.

Having been a long time lover of everything krautrock, space rock, experimental and psychedelic it seems more than fitting that he leaves us this LP as his parting gift; because this sublime album is all these things wrapped up into one and much more.

The album’s opening track “Galaxy Builder”, with its driving tempo, monolithic bass and screaming guitars might give the impression we’re about to hear a Neu for the 21st Century, but no, by the 2nd track we’re already on the first of several wild detours into uncharted territories: part shoe gaze, part ethereal, part psychedelia it’s a unique piece of beautiful euphoria from start to finish. By the time we reach the end of the A-side’s closing track “Distant Bells” the whole place is in tears after hearing possibly one of the most poignant pieces of electronic music of the entire year.

The B-side takes us even deeper into this trip through the duo’s homeland in the Pacific Northwest opening with “Skyward Eye”. If the Orb had ever teamed up with Slowdive and gotten Andrew Weatherall on production this could be it. “Get It Right” is a fuzz-filled epic with heavy dub leanings and meanings...it soars high up into the beyond and prepares us for “Ride”; an unashamed space voyage in the true sense…cosmic guitars, laden with FX; before returning gently down to the rolling green hills of Earth with the closing track “Chugsby’s Theme”. Whoever Chugsby is, his vibe is organic, deeply grounded and beautiful.

In the duo’s own words:

“Natural Magic II is a west coast road trip soundtrack for the fading summer. Taking inspiration from the majesty and myths of their home in the Pacific Northwest, the seven track album is culled from the late night, dimly lit, live sessions of Mike McKinnon on keys/drums and Matthew Quiet on bass. Overdubs of guitar, synths and percussion followed. All this from the same space they throw their legendary Limited Edition parties - all-night free experimentation celebrations in their own right. The album art work is handmade flower pigments, opium poppy pollen ink and wood-scrap charcoal by their friend and collaborator Pith Cocomici. Roll the widows down, tilt the seat back and turn it up. Gas, grass or black mass... there's magic in the hills.