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At the end of the project’s 20th anniversary celebrations, ROME tolls in the next era of the band with a fresh and visionary album: ‘The Tower’.  ROME’s new and ever more mature sound is informed by a radically minimalist folk approach, with nonetheless charmingly lush arrangements. ‘The Tower’ is an introspective and enigmatic work at whose centre stands nothing less than ROME’s raison d’etre: The Great Work and the sacrifices both necessary and essential on the demanding path to light. As an unreachable bulwark against the general decline of every value in life, the tower would have been erected long ago to defend the coast.

It would have been raised on a rocky platform resting on the sea floor. It would have been joined to the continent by a thin tongue of sand. It would have offered a heroic, magical point of view. A place for our claim to know and point out vaster horizons. It would have stood firm on the ramparts. This isolated tower would not have been just a refuge for more or less mystic escape, but also a post of resistance and combat.

Professor Roth's debut EP, self-released on his newly formed label Maestro, is music that feels half remembered. Familiar enough to settle into, strange enough to keep shifting beneath your feet, it lives in that sweet spot where groove and abstraction lean into one another. Dusty textures, hazy melodies and understated rhythms never demand attention, yet quietly refuse to let go. Every track feels like another realm of the same dream: warm, weightless and just slightly out of focus.

‘Daydreaming’ is an inviting first step into the haze, opening the door without ever fully revealing what's on the other side. Gentle movement carries drifting melodies that seem to appear and disappear with every listen. An ethereal vocal breakdown creates the feeling of being quietly carried away from its hypnotic groove before pulling you back under its spell. Patient and understated, ‘The Way It Is’ lets the groove do the talking while subtle details gradually come into focus. Dubby percussive chaos is softened by warm, lifelike pads, encouraging your body to move while your mind wanders elsewhere.

As the name suggests, ‘Swells’ arrives in waves. Layers fold over one another, building and dissolving without urgency. There's a beautiful tension between motion and stillness, leaving the track suspended somewhere between the dancefloor and a reverie. ‘Shades’ is a fitting close that blurs the edges even further. Soft, hypnotic and quietly psychedelic, it feels less like an ending and more like waking up slowly. Content to linger in that in-between a little longer, glitchy samples drift through swirling soundscapes, keeping the dancefloor gently spun until the very end.

Key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition.





For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.



Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hit cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.



Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly definitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...

The bells have been rung in our miniature town of Sakskøbing that has been named after the glorious town that has been existing in Denmark, as we push through thirty releases marking down the new milestone. This time the talent that has been present in our ranks, coming from Barcelona and it is Lo-Lo, a man who knows his hardware instruments like his five fingers and has brought this idea came to life. Each track has been crafted with utmost heart and fastidiousness and has a particular way of bouncing off each other in such a manner that can only make “Divide and Conquer” come to life. From driving force of peak dancefloor scorchers to the more lyrical philosophical ways of it being, it has come to what it needs to be. As a wise man said, everything is connected but then may have disappeared into oblivion for the untrained mind, with only a few lessons for us to obtain and hear.

Looking back on her career in the early 90s, Stevie Nicks described the first track of Rock a Little as “the most exciting song that I had ever heard.” This coming from a superstar who was already closely affiliated with several bajillion-selling Fleetwood Mac albums — to say nothing of her own benchmark solo debut. Her remarks attest to the enthusiasm and effort she invested in her third record, a 1985 work that quickly furthered Nicks’ profile and cemented itself as a piece of 80s pop lore.

Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents Rock a Little in audiophile sound for its 40th anniversary. Helmed by a cadre of producers and engineers, and recorded for a reported one million dollars, the platinum-certified album teems with a head-spinning array of colors, tones, dreamscapes, and accents. This reference-grade reissue marks the first time they are all brought to light and conveyed with proper balance, dimensionality, and positioning.

Though Rock a Little doubtlessly has period characteristics of a mid-80s LP, Nicks and company spare no expense when it comes to distinguishing the music with expansive sonics distinguished with lush melodies, high-tech percussion, echoing vocals, sampled keyboards, and layers of sophisticated accents. The degrees of spaciousness, headroom, and dynamics are nothing less than inspiring, while the newly enhanced detail, texture, and clarity make the songs sing like never before. As for Nicks’ voice? Wait ’til you experience the transparency and depth.

Those advantages extend, of course, to the aforementioned “I Can’t Wait,” a statement-making opener shot through with modulating synthesizers, splashy drums, metallic guitars, and serious drama. Holed up in a massive studio, Nicks required just one take to nail her part, which she called “magic and simply not able to beat.” The singer-songwriter also distilled the reverberating emotional essence of the Top 20 tune, stating “when I hear it on the radio, this incredible feeling comes over me, like something really incredible is about to happen.”

The same can be said for nearly all of Rock a Little. Crafted by the likes of Songwriters Hall of Fame multi-instrumentalist/producer Rick Nowels, Heartbreakers organist Benmont Tench, bassist Bob Glaub, jack-of-all-trades Greg Phillinganes, and session-pro guitarists Waddy Watchel, Les Dudek, and Danny Kortchmar — along with another two dozen or so participants — the record spills with diverse ideas, shapes, and moods. Everything is in the right place, as evidenced by the swirling glide and sensual undertow of the slightly funky title track to the snapping rhythmic pace and big hooks of “Imperial Hotel,” one of Nicks’ standout moments.

“What was it she wanted?” Nicks queries on “No Spoken Word,” continuing a theme of contemplation that runs through the narratives. Nicks never lands on a definite answer, but hearing her explore loneliness, love, and the secrets we keep to ourselves proves continuously rewarding. Take her passionate performance on a cover of Chas Sanford’s “Talk to Me,” a Top 5 smash furthered by tasteful saxophone lines and understated folk elements. Immersive yourself in the grand sonic corridors of “If I Were You,” laden with Nicks’ signature mysticism.

Moreover, surrender to the gravitas of the closing “Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You,” a piano ballad composed about the death of Joe Walsh’s three-year-old daughter. As Nicks asserts earlier on the album, she sings for things money can’t buy.

So, rock a little, yes, but dare to feel even more.

MUSIQUE POUR LA DANSE presents The Unreleased Themes From Hellraiser expanded ritual by Coil

Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hitted cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.

Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly defnitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...

Notes by Danny Hyde
Original artwork by Trevor Brown
For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.

MUSIQUE POUR LA DANSE presents The Unreleased Themes From Hellraiser expanded ritual by Coil

Back in 1987, Clive Barker's supernatural body-horror classic Hellraiser hitted cinemas worldwide and introduced audiences to the demonic Cenobites. Barker was a devoted COIL fan (Peter Christopherson and John Balance), and he famously said they were the only band he'd ever heard on record whose music he'd had to take off because, in his words, "theymade his bowels churn.". He initially invited them to compose the film's music, and the group began recording cues. But the producers at New World Pictures ultimately rejected the material in favor of a more traditional approach, bringing in Christopher Young, whose final score remains excellent, if less experimental. What remains from Coil is an unfinished soundtrack with surviving fragments and rough ideas, abruptly left behind mid-process, a glimpse into an alternate Hellraiser movie, one we can only fantasize into existence.

Nearly 40 years later, key long-term collaborators and Coil's "secret third member" Danny Hyde located the original Hellraiser studio session tapes, and the bonus material recovered from them is presented here as an "expanded ritual" edition, reassembled into a standalone, possibly defnitive and strangely beautiful nightmare suite. Play it in the dark and experience the consequences of raising hell...

Notes by Danny Hyde
Original artwork by Trevor Brown
For fans of pain & pleasure, Throbbing Gristle, lost horror soundtracks & haunted electronics.

Prozak has been kicking out the garage-house jams for a while now, and always on the best labels, from Time Is Now to Instinct, which is run by Burnski, who also heads up this one. And it's another case of pure fire from the off as 'Freak Ya Right' layers up silky, melodic bass with charged up synth stabs and a bubbly groove. 'No Use For Love' has a darker 90s undercurrent with organ basslines and more coarse percussive textures. 'Classics' cuts loose with an off-balance bassline that's cartoonish and oversized, while 'Ravers Inside' shuts down with plenty of pent-up funk and playful samples that will destroy the floor and nothing less.

Lello Di Franco aka L.D.F. leans fully into his curatorial instincts here, and the result is less a traditional “producer ep” and more a cohesive, late-night DJ narrative. World Beats Vol. 2 doesn’t try to grab you instantly it unfolds, patiently, like a deep set in a small, packed club where the focus is on groove rather than spectacle. The collaborations are the real backbone: Byron the Aquarius injects looseness and jazz DNA his touch is immediately recognizable in the swung rhythms and slightly off-grid keys. These moments feel alive, almost jam-session-like. Tilman brings polish and restraint. His contributions tend to be more hypnotic, smoothing transitions and keeping the flow meditative. Trinidadian Deep adds emotional weight his Afro-deep sensibility introduces warmth and a sense of space that elevates the project beyond pure club functionality. Fire Drums II close the ep, an electronic/percussive track with a tribal and hypnotic feel. It combines intense drum rhythms with dance and worldbeat sounds, creating an energetic and ritualistic atmosphere. World Beats Vol. 2 is a refined, deeply musical project aimed at listeners who value texture, groove, and atmosphere over instant hooks. It’s less about standout singles and more about immersion.

In their third collaboration, the shared project between Merzbow and Pedro Vian shifts towards less confrontational and more introspective terrain. Bardo Thödol, released as an LP, draws on The Tibetan Book of the Dead not so much as an explicit narrative framework but as a conceptual resonance: a passage, a suspension between states.
Where Inside Richard Serra Sculptures and The Wheel of Mani foregrounded a relatively defined dialectic between Vian’s environmental restraint and Masami Akita’s impulsive, textural excess, that friction here appears to dissolve in favour of a more homogeneous mass. Noise, far from its most abrasive edge, is reconfigured as a continuous field — dense yet permeable.
Within this flow, melodic structures emerge without assertion, surfacing almost incidentally as by-products of the accumulation of frequencies itself. The result is less a reconciliation of languages than a blurring of their boundaries: a space in which intensity is internalised and the radical gesture folds into a more sustained, contemplative mode of listening.

The arrival of REAL, Vol. 1 marks a seismic shift in the global music landscape, uniting two of Nigeria’s most formidable forces for a project that defines the current zenith of Afrobeats. This collaborative effort sees Wizkid, the smooth-talking pioneer of the genre’s international expansion, and Asake, the "Mr. Money" whose neo-Fuji sound redefined the street-pop aesthetic, finding a middle ground between luxury and grit. The project serves as a sonic bridge between eras, blending the minimalist, high-fashion sensibilities of Wizkid’s recent output with the high-octane, choir-backed energy that has made Asake a household name. It is less of a competition and more of a conversation between two masters of their craft, exploring themes of spiritual gratitude, the weight of superstardom, and the unyielding pulse of Lagos.

With soundscapes both cinematic and deeply rhythmic, the production moves beyond standard club formulas, opting instead for a sophisticated fusion of traditional Yoruba percussion, shimmering synths, and the heavy, resonant log drums of Amapiano. Wizkid provides the effortless, melodic swagger that acts as the project's anchor, while Asake injects a spiritual intensity through his signature layered chanting and rapid-fire flows.

Ultimately, REAL, Vol. 1 is a celebration of authenticity in an era of global crossover. By stripping away the pressure of conforming to Western pop standards, Wizkid and Asake have created a body of work that is unapologetically Nigerian yet universally resonant. It captures the spirit of a city that never sleeps and the ambition of two artists who have conquered the world without losing their souls. This is more than just a collection of hits; it is a blueprint for the future of African music, proving that when Wizkid and Asake occupy the same frequency, the result is nothing short of legendary.

A sprawling, meditative journey into inner and outer space, the new double album from Ivan The Tolerable sees Oli Heffernan retreat fully into the solo realm - crafting an expansive sonic world that feels both intimate and cosmic in scope. Recorded entirely alone and released via Riot Season, this latest work drifts away from structured forms and toward something more fluid, exploratory, and transcendent.
Drawing on the devotional atmospheres of early ambient pioneers and the hypnotic pulse of kosmische music, the album unfolds as a series of slowly shifting soundscapes—analog synths breathing in long, patient waves, tape loops dissolving into shimmering drones, and melodies that seem to emerge from nowhere before gently receding again. There are echoes of ritual, of vast landscapes, of time stretching and folding in on itself.
Across its two discs, Heffernan embraces a deeply immersive approach—less concerned with destination than with the act of drifting itself. It’s music that invites stillness and surrender, equally suited to deep listening or quiet disconnection from the noise of the everyday.
Unbound by genre yet rooted in a rich lineage of experimental sound, this is Ivan The Tolerable at his most introspective and transportive - a double album that doesn’t just ask for your attention, but your presence.

Eric Cloutier's career has always been defined by a certain kind of relentless, monastic discipline. With My Friend The Abyss (PALINOIALP01), Cloutier continues to bridge the gap between the selector and the creator. The album title itself suggests a reckoning with the internal-a realization that time is the only distance between an artist and their masterpiece-resulting in a body of work that feels less like a collection of tracks and more like a hard-won transmission from the deep.

Forged in a crucible of stress, chaos, and loss, the LP eschews the easy loops of his earlier output for a far more complex architecture. While Cloutier's signature hypnotic pulse remains the bedrock, the record expands into a startlingly broad lexicon: the dub-wise weight of "Havittaa" and the tribal intensity of "Desassossego" sit alongside moments of fragile ambient beauty. Perhaps most surprising is the inclusion of "Ligrothism," where Cloutier explores the broken rhythms of drum and bass, proving that his obsession with "Palinoia"-the Greek term for perfecting an act through obsessive repetition-has led him to a place of total creative fluidity. This isn't just club music; it's a masterclass in atmospheric tension.

Goldmin founder Romain Lanteaume aka EinKa meets Terrence Dixon for a 2nd record which is nothing but a logical suite to the one released last year.

This one is probably less deliberately "dark" but to us The Edge was not dark at all, like what we tend to call melancholy isn't obviously a negative feeling. We believe there's no real duality between things and states.. There's an incredible amount of degress in between.. It's always a bit more complex and deeper than the first impression!

KinAhau returns to Crosstown Rebels with his introspective three-tracker, ‘Cicek’ EP.

Out on 3rd July 2026, the young producer delivers a deeply personal excursion, featuring Mahmut Orhan, exploring themes of identity, independence, and creative freedom.

Few artists have arrived on the electronic scene quite like KinAhau. First entering the spotlight through a chance encounter that led to his breakout collaboration with Solid Grooves founder Michael Bibi, the exciting DJ/producer quickly found himself moving through some of the world's most respected clubs and festivals. Yet while early attention centred on an unlikely origin story, the years since have revealed a more nuanced artistic voice, one increasingly focused on reflection rather than reaction, and expression rather than expectation. That perspective sits at the heart of his return to Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels imprint as he lands on the label with his latest EP, ‘Cicek’.

Opening title track ‘Cicek’, created alongside Mahmut Orhan, unfolds through emotive melodies, organic textures, and a sense of quiet tension that feels deliberately removed from conventional club formulas. It's a record that prioritises atmosphere and feeling over immediacy, setting the tone for the wider release.

Across the EP, that idea takes different forms, shapes and directions. ‘Plane Jane leans’ is a stripped-back, hazy journey through vibrant keys and woozy textures, while ‘Danza De La Pau’ flips the script and tunnels into trippy, ping-pong synths, cascading tones and off -kilter pockets of sound. Together, the three tracks feel less like individual records and more like snapshots from a broader creative conversation, one shaped by a growing distance from formula and a desire to explore something more personal and unique.

Constantly pushing his studio craft into unexplored realms, Pugilist returns to Samurai with a fresh clutch of innovative hybridised meditations transmitting from upper tempos. The versatility in Alex Dickson's approach is proven by the broad spectrum of labels he releases on — as comfortable shelling down for Shall Not Fade as he is tearing out on Rupture London. As the Melbourne / Naarm-based producer opens up the Triads EP with 'Rune', he hones in on a dynamic fusion of insistent technoid propulsion and brooding bass snarls with a mysterious portent. 'Pyre' swiftly turns up the percussive intensity with bludgeoning kicks and whipcrack snares that evoke classic electronica as much as D&B. For all the sharp attack of the drums, though, Dickson manages his ingredients with ruthless restraint, creating a fierce kind of meditation in the process. 'Woven' allows a rich variety of snaking synth lines to take centre stage as we tunnel into the second half of the EP, relishing the space for dynamic modulation and slowly evolving, cinematic pads that offer a glacial foil to the twitchy pace of the snappier elements in the mix. 'Machiavellian' plays the consummate closer in its lead in, playing a patient game in ritualistic drums before the herald of rave tropes rear up in some pronounced, choppy snare science. Yet again, Dickson opts for a softer approach where you might be expecting an explosive drop, allowing the skittering drums to roll on until they become a mesmerising texture in the track. In the end, it's an expert flourish demonstrating the energetic possibilities that lie in the spaces beyond more obvious peaks and troughs. Across four brilliantly original, highly advanced rollers, Pugilist nails the balance between subtlety and impact and proves himself a worthy advocate for the path less travelled.

Written in the wake of a relocation year that quietly rewired the Australian-Macedonian DJ/Producer’s instincts, the latest record on Aldonna’s own Re-leaf Imprint trades the melodic density of earlier work for something more intimate, immediate, and bodily. ‘Infatuate’ closes the gap between what she is making and what Aldonna is reaching for in her record bag. That shift manifests in a tighter focus on groove. Gritty, swung drum samples lifted and reshaped from vinyl, FX drenched stabs flickering through delays, and basslines that feel less composed than inhabited.

The A-side rides a continuous low-end groove. The environments that shaped these tracks are still embedded in them: the sunburnt euphoria of a Brussels day party bleeds into “Squeaky,” while “Keep Up” captures the nervous, sleepless churn of a Berlin weekend on the edge of breakthrough.

The B-side’s “My Dear” softens into something more viscous and intimate, its warmth underscored by Aldonna’s own spoken word vocal in the Macedonian language, an understated but pointed nod toward underrepresented Balkan textures in club music. The EP rounds off with a functional remix from Berlin’s ‘Revivis’, applying his signature rolling sound to ‘My Dear’.

As a whole, the record feels deliberately situational, equally at home under low red lights in a sweat-slicked club or stretched across a festival system in broad daylight, but always orbiting that same core impulse: to pull bodies closer, lock them into the groove, and let everything else dissolve.

Still compelled by the space they first opened, Gūsū returns with a second release, “Inhabiting Me”. What began as a shared approach, sprouted from intuition, has grown denser and more defined, holding on to that same fragility and openness. The duo continues to befriend with contrast, friction and proximity, shaping a language that inhabits their uncommon ground.

Vintage drum machines, tape delays and bass guitar widen the sonic ground, adding pulse, grain and instability, while the guzheng holds its place in full clarity. Each sound source becomes each other’s ornament, forming to gesture the next currents.

What emerges is less a fixed composition than a shifting form: precise in detail, impossible to contain. Listeners who have experienced Gūsū’s live performances will recognise this rare quality: a music of great sensitivity that expands with quiet force, drawing them inward rather than confronting them directly. The sound fades, re-enters, and leaves behind the trace of a lighthearted heaviness, echoing back in fragments, reappearing in memory with altered weight and colour.

Time bends inward and tones return altered. Between repetition and resonance, a tensile form begins to emerge. Neither nostalgic nor futuristic, neither static nor loose. Gūsū does not merge its materials into one smooth surface; it lets them stand close enough to sharpen one another.

Gūsū is a transcultural music project born from the confluence of two distinct artistic voices: Xueyan Chen and Nicolas Balmer. Together, they create a complex dialogue of sound that bridges the ancient and the modern, exploring the liminal spaces between tradition and experimentation. Gūsū’s inception was serendipitous, sparked by a shared stage in late 2022. What began as spontaneous improvisations has since evolved into a profound collaboration. The duo has performed under various monikers, finding their ultimate identity in the name Gūsū, a nod to both heritage and transformation.

BAILE & Nuage land on Shall Not Fade with their ‘Back 2 Earth’ EP

Four deeeep timeless tracks on this 12 inch. Sleek, progressive, acidy house & trancey ethereal breaks ‘Back 2 Earth’ is full of that headsy 90’s energy à la Underworld and Orbital…..we’ve been getting very lost in these ones!

Written remotely between Brooklyn, New York (BAILE) and Yerevan, Armenia (Nuage) both producers are more than a decade deep in their craft and it shows. They say “this all began with Nuage sending over a few short demos. BAILE took those pieces and constructed them into more fleshed out tracks, after which the two passed the songs back and forth slowly filling in the blanks.” …and that's the key here - no rush, no agenda just the realest takes expertly hewn.


Same Beat on the A1 is just that.. breakbeats, spoken word vocal chops and repetitive synth lines, but less is more. The percussion, bassline and programming do the work. Sometimes it's more about what you leave out than what you put in.

On ‘TSP’ you Nuage’s signature metallic synths. It’s a definite eyes closed/hands in the air weapon. Hypnotic flow building and ratcheting up the energy.

Flip over to title track’ Back 2 Earth’ and we get a trancey, garage and house blend. Sleek synths & arpeggios and minimal chops that seem to whisper ‘heaven…earth’.. BAILE utilized the Prophet Rev2 for pads and synths and a Moog Little Phatty and Minitaur for the bass but we want to know can a breakbeat soothe?

'Catch Yourself' closes out the EP.. More breaks and arpeggios but this time with an acid lead from the TB-03, grungy bass and warm gated synths underneath. Sample spotters you aren’t scoring any points here, the “I know that sample” vocal here come from Felicia Douglass (a frequent collaborator of BAILE’s who is in The Dirty Projectors and Ava Luna) and makes double the point that this EP is one of those ones that even on first listen you already know it. ‘Back 2 Earth’ has been on the SNF schedule for a minute so big up BAILE & Nuage for the patience but what that extra private time has meant, is that we can say with certainty that this EP keeps sounding better & better & better..

Curated by Brian d'Souza (aka Auntie Flo), Plants Can Dance is a forthcoming new compilation bringing together a global community of artists, exploring the creative possibilities of biosonification - transforming signals from plants, ecosystems and the natural world into sound. Out June 26th, the project marks the culmination of several years of d'Souza’s work across music, ecology and technology.

The album arrives at a time when more artists are turning toward nature as both subject and collaborator, such as Brian Eno’s Earth Percent, which formally recognises “Nature” as an artist. Plants Can Dance sits within a wider cultural shift, which is redefining the relationship between sound and the living world.

The project builds on several years of work by d'Souza, whose Plants Can Dance events have taken place across the UK, Europe, India and Africa, appearing in institutions including the V&A, Tate and the Design Museum. What began as a series of intimate gatherings has since evolved into a global platform, reflecting a growing appetite for work that reconnects music with the natural world.

The compilation features contributions from leading practitioners including Modern Biology (Tarun Nayar) in collaboration with saxophonist Zekarias Musele Thompson, OMMA (Olga Maximovam founder of Playtronica), Jason Singh, Dr Helen Anahita Wilson, Justin Wiggan in collaboration with celebrated Norwegian jazz musician Arve Henriksen, Lamine Touré, Bit Marten and Balam, alongside new work from d'Souza himself. Using a range of tools - from commercially available devices to bespoke modular systems - artists translate electrical activity, environmental data and organic processes into musical material.

The processes behind each piece differ - from interpreting plant biodata to translating wind patterns into compositional structures - and the results are as varied as they are compelling. The record spans ambient, jazz, electronica and modern classical, yet all pieces are unified by a shared intent: to reimagine music as a space of collaboration between human and more-than-human worlds.

At the core of Plants Can Dance is a question about how we define music, and how we choose to listen. Traditional musical forms, with their fixed tempos and predictable structures, give way here to something more fluid and less easily controlled. The listener is invited to surrender expectation and engage with sound as an evolving environment rather than a linear narrative. In this context, the compositions function as what d'Souza describes as “acoustic ecologies” - sonic systems shaped by biological, environmental and elemental forces unfolding in real time.

Accompanying the release is a printed zine offering reflections from each artist, and deeper insight into the ideas and debates surrounding this practice. Rather than presenting definitive answers, Plants Can Dance positions itself as an artistic exploration grounded in curiosity, experimentation and critical thought.

Ultimately, Plants Can Dance is less concerned with proving whether plants “make music” than with changing how we listen. By inviting audiences to engage with sound shaped by non-humans, it opens up new ways of perceiving the environments we inhabit - not as passive backdrops, but as active, dynamic participants in a shared ecological network. In doing so, it offers a quietly radical proposition: that by listening differently, we might begin to relate to the natural world differently too.

In the evolving landscape of modern Southern hip-hop, the pairing of Starlito and Bandplay stands out as a unique bridge between street-level authenticity and refined, calculated musicality. Their collaborative project, Not The Country You Know, functions less like a standard release and more as a manifesto—a masterclass in the chemistry between a seasoned, introspective lyricist and a producer who possesses an intuitive grasp of the region's pulse. It is an exploration of legacy and adaptation, capturing the tension between where they came from and where the culture is currently headed.

Bandplay, long recognized for sculpting the sonic identity of Memphis icons, brings his signature, trunk-rattling 808s to the project, yet he manages to pivot here. The production feels remarkably expansive, masterfully blending the raw, stripped-back aesthetics of classic Tennessee rap with forward-thinking textures that refuse to be confined to a single sub-genre. Complementing this, Starlito operates with his trademark mix of cynical observation and genuine vulnerability. He navigates these beats with the weary grace of an artist who has weathered the music industry's relentless cycles, treating every bar like a necessary piece of a larger, ongoing story.

The album’s title serves as a direct commentary on these shifting tides. Across the tracklist, the duo investigates the growing disparity between the romanticized South and the cold realities of the streets, alongside the inevitable evolution of the music business itself. There is no frantic chasing of streaming-era trends or algorithmic bait here; instead, the project remains a stubborn, confident assertion of artistic identity. By weaving together Starlito’s "voice-of-reason" flow and Bandplay’s evolving, genre-bending sound, Not The Country You Know challenges the listener to abandon their preconceived notions of the region, offering instead a complex, urgent vision of a South that is as haunting as it is vibrant.

MAUROMUSICA first appeared in 1999, when DJ Maurizio Schmitz introduced the name as an underground party brand shaped by long nights, afterhours and a deep passion for electronic music culture. For almost two decades, the project lived through intimate events and dancefloors before eventually going quiet for a number of years.

Now, MAUROMUSICA returns - not only as a party series once again, but finally as the music label Maurizio had envisioned from the very beginning. A long-held dream, brought back to life through a carefully curated first various artists compilation.

The first release brings together six artists from different corners of the electronic music world: Egyptian producer Raxon, German/French duo RE-ST, Italian artists JA:CK and Fedele, alongside Romanian producers Radu Dracul and Sublee.

Moving between warm-up atmospheres, emotional techno, afterhour moods and timeless club sounds, the compilation reflects the musical vision behind MAUROMUSICA - honest electronic music with character, depth and longevity.

Artwork comes from internationally acclaimed artist Tobias Rehberger, while the label typography was kindly provided by Buero New York.

Special thanks to Sven Väth for his continuous support and for championing Raxon's "Based In Space" in his sets for more than a year.

P.S. The handmade coloured vinyl edition of Raxon's "Based In Space" - limited to 100 copies - sold out within less than two hours. The track is now exclusively available as part of this compilation.

MAUROMUSICA first appeared in 1999, when DJ Maurizio Schmitz introduced the name as an underground party brand shaped by long nights, afterhours and a deep passion for electronic music culture. For almost two decades, the project lived through intimate events and dancefloors before eventually going quiet for a number of years.

Now, MAUROMUSICA returns - not only as a party series once again, but finally as the music label Maurizio had envisioned from the very beginning. A long-held dream, brought back to life through a carefully curated first various artists compilation.

The first release brings together six artists from different corners of the electronic music world: Egyptian producer Raxon, German/French duo RE-ST, Italian artists JA:CK and Fedele, alongside Romanian producers Radu Dracul and Sublee.

Moving between warm-up atmospheres, emotional techno, afterhour moods and timeless club sounds, the compilation reflects the musical vision behind MAUROMUSICA - honest electronic music with character, depth and longevity.

Artwork comes from internationally acclaimed artist Tobias Rehberger, while the label typography was kindly provided by Buero New York.

Special thanks to Sven Väth for his continuous support and for championing Raxon's "Based In Space" in his sets for more than a year.

P.S. The handmade coloured vinyl edition of Raxon's "Based In Space" - limited to 100 copies - sold out within less than two hours. The track is now exclusively available as part of this compilation.

2026 Repress

Samurai Music heralds a new seam of spacious, rhythmically curious exploration with the launch of the Saibai sub label, opened in mesmerising fashion by Brendon Moeller.

The overarching premise of Saibai is to nurture a more delicate, meditative inversion of Samurai's physical, dense sound, leaning less on the dynamics of the dancefloor while holding true to the intricate drum play and dubby principles that bind the label's sound together.

In this open-eared, inquisitive environment, Moeller is the perfect fit as an artist with decades of diverse offerings across all kinds of dubwise manifestations. On SAIBAI1, the US-based, South Africa-born producer stretches out with a live-sounding drum palette and exquisitely rendered synth work loaded with detail, character and organic flourishes. It's a light-footed approach with plenty of air flowing through the mix, but there's considerable weight in every notch of the production, not least the imposing channels of sub bass coursing beneath the frequency range.

SAIBAI1 is a feast for the senses, wholly immediate and front-loaded with fascination, setting the perfect tone for Saibai as a platform for charming, immersive electronics that take a fresh diversion from the fundamental core of Samurai's sharply defined sonic focus.

Balancing glitch-pop and contemporary piano, the Belgian pianist explores the edges of her voice, language and twisted electronica



The Belgian pianist and producer maya dhondt releases a new album titled 'wow, x', marking her debut solo album under her own name. Navigating between bedroom glitch-pop and contemporary piano, she presents sounds of alienating beauty.



The album ‘wow, x’ will be released on September 13 on vinyl and all digital platforms via VIERNULVIER Records.



“I find beauty in the uncomfortable and disorienting" - maya dhont



The first single, 'desire,' is a mutated synth-pop track that gets under the skin. The song centralizes longing for something you don't know (yet). Perhaps it's the smell of damp earth, which can be both pleasant and unsettling? The single is now available on all streaming platforms and comes with a schizophrenic video by Sakis Brönnimann.



The first release show is scheduled for Saturday, October 5, at De Koer, Ghent.

More shows will be announced soon.



A postmodern cramp, that's how one could describe the music of pianist and producer maya dhondt. Her music is an intuitive and a never ending exploration that has the potential to be and become a multitude of things at once.



On her first solo album under her own name, 'wow, x,' she presents 10 varied tracks in which she creates equally idiosyncratic sound worlds. She takes the liberty to endlessly experiment with vocals, piano, and a mix of distorted lo-fi electronic sounds with an open mind. The result is sometimes synthetic and weird, sometimes compellingly beautiful, and always captivating, drawing you into its underlying melody. These intelligently crafted productions are connected by a penchant for alienating beauty: like a warm, but damp cave where it’s pleasant to linger just a little longer. Her original sound moves within a sonic spectrum reminiscent of contemporary artists such as Lolina, Astrid Sonne, claire rousay, aya or Carla Dal Forno.



"What I create never stands alone, it can be many things at once"



If the world were a sculpture garden, maya dhondt eagerly picks from it to draw inspiration from both visual and literary passages as well as personal experiences. Her highly personal bedroom productions are grounded firmly in the world due to philosophical references and politically charged messages. And the world she lives in is being questioned on 'wow, x', as the title refers to "What Or Why?". This is evident in the single 'desire': "What is the thing that matters / to exist / or to know you’re existing?" What does one choose in life: to live in the moment or to live to remember that moment?



In the lyrics on 'wow, x', maya dhondt plays - at times childishly - with language and its boundaries. On 'tip toe tip,' banal wordplay leads to an unexpected confession, and the seemingly simple phrases in 'untitled' conceal hidden life lessons. dhondt's world of words is multilayered and multilingual: Dutch ('kleine cijfers, groot verlies'), English ('desire'), and French ('untitled') are at her disposal. And on the fierce track that is 'minimalinvasiv,' not only she turns to hardstyle, but also to German - a language dear to her due to her Swiss heritage.

Selekt Wax returns with its second vinyl offering, shifting the lens from introspection toward motion. Where its predecessor explored stillness and space, Varginha 96 leans into rhythm with a more fluid, tactile energy.

Loopedeville works within a minimal framework but pushes it toward something more animated. Groove takes the lead, while detail reveals itself gradually. The result is playful but controlled, built for movement while still carrying depth beneath the surface.

Inspired by the 1996 Varginha incident in Brazil, the record carries a subtle sense of the otherworldly. Not in a literal sense, but in texture. Unfamiliar tones, slightly off center moments, and elements that feel just outside of reach.

Etched on the sleeve, a poem sets the tone:

the analog moment is now
but, how? release
free form feelings finding
new places in yourself
a sort of synthesis
of interpretations
crash & collide
into the infinite groove of reality
but, is anything really real?

A1 – Varginha 96
A breakbeat driven opener centered on a looping vocal from the Varginha ‘96 incident. Off kilter synth textures circle the groove, giving it a subtle, otherworldly feel. Simple on the surface, with depth that reveals itself over time.

A2 – Varginha 96 (Ohm Hourani Remix)
Ohm takes it into a more stripped back, hypnotic space. Centered around the same vocal, the track locks into repetition and feel. Hazy, controlled, and built for late hours.

B1 – Thunders in Paradise
A driving groove built on dusty drums and a tightly controlled rhythm. It holds a steady pulse, with understated details and shifting textures giving it quiet depth.

B2 – Never Enough
A fluid, late night groove shaped by Loopedeville’s signature swing. Less driving than the previous cut, but still locked in, with warm tones and an easy bounce that carries through.

For his sixth solo album, Ezéchiel Pailhès returns with a new collection of songs infused by a sunny wandering spirit.
Within each of the twelve songs on SOL is a thread of melancholic happiness that has permeated much of Pailhès’ music and songwriting. He addresses love, the passing of time, hope, lost illusions, fleeting moments of grace, the temptation of forgetting, a need to escape, and desire. All this is
insulated by understated orchestrations that blend acoustic and electronic instrumentation with deft confidence.
The Portuguese and Brazilian concept of saudade—a form of melancholic longing and nostalgia— pervades, thanks in part to Pailhès decision to record the album in Rio de Janiero and to reinterpret some of the finest works of Música Popular Brasileira (MPB). In particular, he revisits a handful of
lesser known classics from the mid-century samba and bossa nova era—originally written or performed by talents including Vinícius de Moraes, João Gilberto, Tom Zé, Dorival Caymmi, João Donato, Os Tincoãs, and Ataulfo Alves.
The shift from Brazilian Portuguese to French and the decision to adapt rather than perform a straightforward cover versions, allows Pailhès to invent a form of prosody and euphony (the musicality and harmonious combination of words) that feels vibrant and unlike anything else in today’s French
chanson landscape.
“Some lyrics are simple translations from Portuguese, in what I’d call an expanded version. For others, I started from a single word or a single phrase and embroidered an entirely new text that carried me elsewhere,” explains Pailhès. “I allowed myself great interpretive freedom, while preserving the humanist dimension of the original songs. I’ve always been deeply moved by the way Brazilians transfigure reality through heightened emotion. I love this visceral and spontaneous country, which always seems to live through emotion. And above all, I love its music both popular and unifying,
bringing together all social classes. In that sense, it’s very political music, but even more so utopian, made by the people and for the people.”
On this new album, however, the French artist was keen to avoid cliché. Each song is therefore built around a carefully balanced interplay between Pailhès’ piano and synthesizers, alongside restrained arrangements of percussion, brass, bass, and cavaquinho (a small four-string plucked guitar). These parts were recorded in Rio de Janeiro with two musicians who regularly perform alongside the legendary Caetano Veloso—Kainã Do Jêje and Alberto Continentino—joined by Thomas Harres, Antônio Neves, Eduardo Neves, and Gabriel Loddo.
Since the 1960s, France and Brazil have shared a long-standing cultural and musical relationship. Some Brazilian artists, most famously Gilberto Gil, took refuge in France during the dictatorship years (1964–1985). But above all, French chanson quickly fell in love with the richness and ingenuity of
bossa nova and samba, translating and reinventing them in the language of Molière. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, albums and hits by Henri Salvador, Georges Moustaki, Pierre Barouh, Pierre Vassiliu, and Claude Nougaro all drew from the MPB repertoire.
Fifty years later, with SOL, Ezéchiel Pailhès reinvents this rich Franco-Brazilian musical legacy, bringing to it a personality and modernity that stand confidently alongside those of his forbears.

Factory Floor return to Phantasy with ‘Buzz Saw’, a driving new single that once more re-establishes the trio of Nik Colk Void, Gabe Gurnsey and Joe Ward as amongst the most vital forces in live electronic music.

Following on from 2025’s sold-out vinyl singles ‘Between You’ and ‘Tell Me’, the spacious groove of ‘Buzz Saw’ bridges the sharp, bracing synthesis of the band’s origins in London’s post-industrial warehouse scene. Once again mixed by legendary engineer David Wrench (Daniel Avery, Floating Points), it captures the band’s most dancefloor-forward instincts, recently rejuvenated via appearances at Berghain, festivals such as No Bounds and Simple Things, plus a headlining UK tour.

As before, Gurnsey’s peerless drum work - tracked in the studio by Stephen Morris of New Order - proves forceful and delicate in tandem with Ward’s percussion, encountering suspenseful breakdowns in the space between Voids enveloping basslines. In dreamlike accompaniment, Colk Void’s own voice drifts serenely upwards, itself slowly consumed and obscured into the band’s full-bodied electronic rush, which is also available here as a more minimal, no-less powerful dub version.

In sonic contrast, ‘Guitar_1342’ finds the band experimenting in their starkest terms, stripped back of their luminescent flow and boldly reduced to an abrasive, dissonant guitar feedback.

Factory Floor’s ‘Buzz Saw’ will be released via Phantasy on 29th May 2025, available as a limited-edition vinyl pressing in a risoprint sleeve, as well as digitally.

Xistence Records is destroying the boundaries between house and techno. The Rise E.P. simply goes to show you a good label does not lose it's competency after 4 years of releasing music. This 4 tracker sounds sublime! If you like deep emotional melodic music, you should have this 12”.
Difficult to pick a standout track as they all offer something different…

The original version of Resilience is a stunning track, reminds of the early Octave One sound with a great mixture of percussion, classy bassline, nice layering of textures and melodies.

While Gerald Mitchell (Underground Resistance/Los Hermanos) retouch is a soulful stripped back tune with elegant drum work, linked together by a uplifting synth pattern.

Sunset To Sunrise, a delightful piece of haunting electronica. It’s a real journey back to the birth of Los Hermanos. Class!

Meteoric Rise original version came out as digital earlier on the label, Journey Around The Sun Mix here has the UR sound. It’s more complex, Detroit lesson in syncopation and rhythmic programming with chord stabs and shuffling drum work drives this one forward..epic!

“Without Hope None Of Us Have Anything “

Walter G & Jay Caruso deliver a warm, groove-led Soulful Disco version of “From East To West”, built for DJ’s who appreciate real disco dynamics. Rolling basslines, bright piano chords and lush strings wrap around an emotive vocal, creating a timeless club-ready moment that bridges classic 70s soul-disco with modern dancefloor aesthetics. Ben Liebrand delivers a classic 12-inch reconstruction rather than a modern nu-disco vibe. It leans into Ben Liebrand’s signature extended format philosophy, letting the groove breathe. His is a rhythm-first reconstruction with crisp percussion, dynamic low-end and long instrumental sections. The vocal sits naturally within the groove, while the arrangement allows DJs space to build, ride and transition with ease. Less modern sheen, more heritage authority, a purist disco tool with timeless floor appeal.

Aspetuck has been steadily carving out a name for himself through releases on Never Late and Oslated, garnering a respected following for his DJ mixes and festival performances. Aspetuck’s latest record, Immersion, was sequenced and curated from dozens of ideas spanning a transformative few years in Griff’s life. The album is less a snapshot in time and more of a memory bank - flashes of fatherhood, loss, modular rabbit holes, late-night studio sessions, and long walks by the Hudson River with his daughter.
The emotional undertow of the album is immediate. Opener Hit Me With Your Pet Shark is one of the earliest compositions in the collection, created just months after the loss of Griff’s brother and during the sleepless swirl of new parenthood. Built around a single sound from Spectrasonics Omnisphere, found while rediscovering his brother’s studio gear, the track sets the tone: restrained yet searching, personal without becoming precious.
From there, The Printing Press captures the raw energy of a live jam in Griff’s upstate New York basement, running through a 1980s Tascam mixer like a lo-fi assembly line of synths, pads, and drum machines. REI, named after a spontaneous family mission to find a pink water bottle, encapsulates his knack for imprinting daily minutiae into sound. And title track Immersion- once known simply as Tuesday 303 Jam- emerges from a dinner break and a blender, distilling modular sketches and distorted drums into a powerful, slow-motion march.
Under, Under The Tree hits hardest. Built around a grainy iPhone voice memo of Griff’s daughter singing by the Hudson. And closing the album is Bobik, a collaborative studio session with Moon Patrol channeling the playful chaos of a close friendship and modular exploration. Named after a joke about their golden retriever and filled with alien textures from Griff’s beloved EMU XL7 gifted years ago by his late brother, it’s a fitting send-off to an album that straddles celebration and mourning with grace.
The artwork comes courtesy of Peter Skwiot Smith, whose textured analog/digital aesthetic resonated immediately with Griff’s original vision. Peter’s treatment draws on Griff’s personal photography and leans into motion, blur, and the layered nature of memory, echoing the album's sonic tone without overexplaining it.
Mastered by Sven Weisemann, Immersion is available on blue smoke colored 12”

Agent By Default In Hybrid Systems' is a deep dive into today’s and tomorrow’s society. Across four tightly constructed tracks, cinematic-surrealist musician and DJ JessyJiggy reflects on how mankind and machine-driven systems coexist and evolve. We act, respond, and adapt as agents by default caught between instinct and structure. Built for movement yet rooted in observation, every progression feels less like a command and more like a suggestion inviting listeners to negotiate their own place inside the grid.

This poetic concept translates into music where analogue and digital tools merge into a hybrid sound. Compositions carry an almost automatic rhythm that drives motion while sound design elements subtly reference modern technology. Raw, bass-driven, minimal and techno showcase the breadth and progressiveness of Rotterdam with its brutalist spirit embedded in every detail.

Carefully mixed and mastered by Simon Lescure, who works at the intersection of sound design, club culture, and contemporary art, the record is optimized for a wide spectrum of sound systems while offering a distinct, full-bodied experience on the dance floor. With his vision of music as a system of memory and tension, a way to hold time and transmit presence, raw energy is brought into focus, shaping JessyJiggy's signature sound with clarity, weight, and intent.

A work committed to pushing boundaries and contributing something lasting to the electronic music landscape, this record is crafted to become a cult classic.

Gap Mangione's monumentally influential Diana In The Autumn Wind. AKA BEWITH200LP. And, without question, Be With's White Whale.

They said it could never be done. And with good reason.

We've spent the past 12 years trying to license this legendary 1968 recording from Gap and, after much work, it's finally here. Remarkably, this is the first ever vinyl reissue of Gap Mangione's Diana In The Autumn Wind, produced with the full and extensive participation of Gap. An exceedingly rare album, it's been coveted by funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop sample fiends for decades.

It's unarguably *the* most sought after album for J Dilla / Madlib sample collectors. It has also been brilliantly sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, Large Professor, Ghostface Killah, Kendrick Lamar and Talib Kweli.

But this record is so much more than a sample-spotters curio. It's solid gold throughout. Bursting with killer funky-jazz grooves and tracks adorned with warm electric piano, the release is notable for featuring some extremely significant players at the very outset of their careers; Tony Levin, at 21, whose superb playing on both acoustic and electric bass was the harmonic mainstay of the trio and Steve Gadd, at 23, one of the greatest drummers of his generation.

With acceptable copies of this holy grail changing hands for $400, to call this reissue "much-needed" underplays just how vital it is. Gap's story is told in his words alongside rare photos across a sumptuously designed 2-page insert and, to augment this deluxe edition further, its all wrapped up in a beautiful, no-expense-spared luxury tip-on sleeve, as per the original hens-teeth release. And, while we're talking packaging, just take a look at that cover - a work of art in and of itself.

The tracks are short but complex, with that extraordinary rhythm section backing the beautiful piano, organ and electric piano work of Gap. It's like the best ever library funk breaks record you never heard - but all your favourite golden age rap producers were all over it, long ago. It's a stunning blend of the vibrant, driving music of the Gap Mangione Trio coupled with the sensitive composition and superb orchestration of Gap's legendary brother, Chuck Mangione, who helmed an amalgam of seemingly disparate elements – rock, big band jazz, solo improvisation and "classical" music - into a spectacularly cohesive whole that has aged wonderfully well. As Gap himself notes in the liners, "with this group I was able to explore and add new and exciting elements from rock, Brazilian and then-current pop music."

Opener "Boy With Toys" triumphantly swaggers out the gate, all big band horns, flutes and dextrous organ work. The synthesis of everything going on is nothing short of stunning. When one wise YouTube commentator called this tune "old school superhero music", Gap agreed. Rap luminaries did, too, amongst them Talib Kweli, who rapped over DJ Scratch's chopped up intro for "Shock Body" on his Quality album back in 2002.

You've barely recovered from that incredibly affecting opener when you get hit over the head with the exquisite title-track. And now you see how two of the greatest beats of all time emerged from one single track produced nearly 50 years earlier. Unforgettably utilised by Dilla for Slum Village's heartbreakingly good "Fall In Love" and then Madlib for his "Official" beat for Dilla to rap over, on the Jaylib record. Regardless of the records it went on to spawn, this is just a staggering tune in its own right. Be beguiled by the flutes and the flutter tonguing, the counter-melody from the trombones, the soprano sax solo. All of it. Simply beautiful.

The questing organ and horn workout "Long Hair Soulful" deserves a lot more attention, overshadowed somewhat by the opening two monsters but no less fantastic. It swings, it grooves and Gadd and Levin truly cook. Up next, Gap's wonderfully percussive, mellifluously piano-heavy cover of "Yesterday" by some fellas called The Beatles. It's a subtly arresting gem. "The XIth Commandment" is damn fine, with thick, gorgeous electric piano and snappy drum work underpinning chaotic soundtracky horns. To close out the side, "St. Thomas" showcases the "fourth" member of the Gap Mangione Trio, conga drummer Dhui Mandingo. Having performed with the Trio since 1965, Dhui‘s African-based and jazz-latin-influenced style amazed listeners and its way to hear why.

Opening the B-Side, standard "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" breezes along in the late-night jazz club fashion before things get super deep with the outstanding and - up to now - un-sampled "Pond With Swans". It's simply heavenly, and how its moody, melancholic intro has yet to be pilfered is anybody's guess. It oscillates between gentle, sombre movements and bombastic grooves, equally hypnotic and joyous. The rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" is yet another showcase for Gap's virtuoso playing and Gadd's mastery of the pocket. Indeed Gadd's drumming on "Free Again" is nothing short of neck-SNAPPING! Ghostface took it for not one but two "Iron's Theme" tracks across his seminal Supreme Clientele. It's got that Galt MacDermot "Coffee Cold" feel. Suuuuuper cool. The frantic "Dream On Little Dreamer" hurtles along and must've surely had the whole room absolutely swinging from the chandeliers back in Rochester in the late 60s. The album closes with the magnificent Graduate Medley, featuring memorable renditions of "Scarborough Fair", "The Sounds of Silence" and "Mrs. Robinson". The warm electric piano lines of the former were sampled by The Ummah (Dilla again!) for Tribe's "Pad & Pen" from their reappraised final album, The Love Movement, as well as by Large Professor on his much-loved "The LP (For My People)".

Under the watchful eye - and extremely attentive ears - of Gap Mangione himself, the audio for Diana In The Autumn Wind has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much needed tweaks here and there, according to the artist's wishes. At the prestigious Abbey Road Studios, Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland. The artwork restoration has taken place here at Be With HQ and has that drop-dead gorgeous cover artwork popping like new. Buy on sight!

Dino Lenny returns to Rekids with the ‘Piano Lessons at Eight’ EP, complete with a Tal Fussman remix. It follows Lenny’s ‘Not About The Volume’ EP, released in December 2025.

London-based DJ, producer, vocalist, and Fine Human Records label owner Dino Lenny returns to Radio Slave’s Rekids with the ‘Piano Lessons at Eight’ EP 24th April 2026, alongside a remix from label regular Tal Fussman. The EP follows Lenny’s ‘Not About The Volume’ EP, which released late 2025, and won support from Laurent Garnier, Chloé Caillet, Catz ‘n Dogz, and more.

‘Piano Lessons at Eight’ centres Lenny’s own vocals over a dark, chugging rhythm that develops steadily, tracing a personal journey from formal piano training to the discovery of electronic music. The biographical thread running through the record gives it an identity that sits apart from purely functional dance music. Rekids regular and Survival Tactics boss Tal Fussman then provides the accompanying remix, a crunchy, percussive rework that brings his characteristic blend of deep house and raw techno to bear, adding melancholic piano stabs that add texture without crowding the arrangement. The outcome is focused, atmospheric, and built for extended play.

With releases on R&S, Diynamic, Innervisions, Crosstown Rebels, Strictly Rhythm, Bedrock, and his own Fine Human Records label, and collaborative work alongside Underworld, Missy Elliott, Wu-Tang Clan, and Madonna, Lenny holds a long-established position within both underground and mainstream electronic contexts. Consistently supported by Pete Tong, Solomun, Carl Cox, and Groove Armada, he maintains a presence that spans scenes without being defi ned by any single one. Since 2021, he has hosted Tomorrowland’s CORE radio show, platforming artists including Nina Kraviz, Ellen Allien, and DJ Tennis.

When Henry Street & Sacred Rhythm Music join forces for a remix outing, it should be obvious the source material and resulting productions are of the utmost caliber. This record proves such a case in point: Johnny "D" DeMairo & Joe Claussell team up for two takes on Candi Staton’s 1979 disco opus 'When You Wake Up Tomorrow.’ The original, whose pedigree could be inferred simply by reading Patrick Adams’ and Jimmy Simpson’s names on the label, is a faultless dance floor cut featuring all the elements you’d expect—lavish horn and string arrangements, sparkling synthesizer accents, and plenty of hand-beat drumming—along with with Staton’s peerless voice. Johnny D’s mix starts carefully, the vocal refrain accented with auxiliary percussion until the rug is pulled out from under us, the ensuing chasm making the following thrust of the track that much more powerful. On the flip.

Claussell’s take starts with reinforced four-on-the-floor, along with a studio count-in, perhaps alluding back to his previous ‘It Seems To Hang On’ edit. As the track establishes itself, ample room is afforded for interplay between bass and guitar, with all the interlacing elements aggrandizing the mood with careful shots of delay and expertly-timed pivots in atmosphere. Both sides are proof of what shouldn’t need evidence: two masters of their craft assembling two wholly new mixes that far surpass the banal copy and paste, add and subtract methodology slung by the less blessed. Pressed on white vinyl, with a custom jacket to boot.

Death Is Not The End collaborate with Uzbek label Maqom Soul to deliver an LP counterpart to last year's mixtape of the same title, compiling specially picked & fully licensed individual belters from the ex-soviet studios of Central Asian republics between 1978 and 1989 - incl. Uzbek, Tajik, Kurdish & Uyghur artists pulling traditional folk motifs together with pop & rock and psych elements.

"These recordings do not form a smooth or coherent history. They feel more like a sequence of discoveries made at different moments and in different circumstances. Songs and instrumental pieces that once lived inside specific contexts radio broadcasts, philharmonic programs, touring routes now sit side by side, revealing hidden connections as well as clear fractures between them.

Nasiba Abdullaeva appears here as a voice from the end of an era. Trained within a conservatory system, she worked inside the format of the Soviet pop song while filling it with melodic logic that did not come from Moscow or Leningrad. Her voice is soft and sustained, shaped by Eastern melisma, and it never functions as decoration. Even in tightly structured songs there is a sense of resistance, an effort to preserve a musical language rooted in Uzbek tradition rather than fully adapted to an all Union standard.

The ensemble Sintez, later renamed Navo, represents a different path. Beginning as a student rock group, the band was gradually absorbed into the official VIA system with all its limitations and compromises. Yet it was precisely within those boundaries that Sintez and Navo developed a recognizable sound. Electric guitars and jazz rock harmonies do not overpower the folk material but remain in tension with it. Their recordings feel like negotiations between what the musicians wanted to play and what they were allowed to perform.

The Tajik ensemble Gulshan reflects an institutional approach carried to a high professional level. Formed under television and radio structures, the group treated folk material almost as a written score. Carefully constructed arrangements, close attention to orchestration, and restrained use of pop techniques define their sound. There is less spontaneity here, but a strong sense of discipline and structure, where national melody becomes part of a carefully controlled sonic framework.

Koma Wetan occupies a very different space. Formed in the 1970s, this Kurdish rock group approached poetry and folklore as tools of cultural assertion. Their psychedelic rock never feels like a stylistic borrowing. Instead it functions as a contemporary vessel for language and themes that might otherwise have remained unheard. Even today these recordings sound fragile and stubborn at the same time.

The Uyghur ensemble Yashlik, closely connected to a musical drama theatre, operated somewhere between stage performance and popular music. Their songs are built on folk melodies but shaped for wide audiences. What emerges is a constant attempt to preserve the recognizability of Uyghur musical identity without freezing it in a folkloric frame. Yashlik's music exists in a state of balance between representation and development.

Digging Central Asia does not attempt to establish hierarchies or offer a single wayof listening. Names and dates matter less than the sound itself. Tape noise, abrupt transitions, and unexpected timbres remain part of the material rather than flaws to be corrected. This music existed at the crossroads of multiple routes geographic, cultural, and ideological. Heard today in a new context, it no longer feels peripheral. Instead it stands as a reminder that the history of popular music is far more fragmented, layered, and polyphonic than it is usually allowed to be."

Guests is the home recording project of Jessica Higgins and Matthew Walkerdine. Vaguely named as such to avoid any problems with the poster if they pull out of a gig (which has only happened once, about a year and half before any songs were actually written to be fair) but also to capture a sense of reverse hospitality. That is, arriving at your door with a bottle of good wine (can’t turn up empty handed) or a fist full of savoury or sweet snacks (time of day dependant); oversharing at the afters (and then passing out on your couch); reading to your toddler while you make their lunch or put everything back where it was meant to go (only to get torn apart again). So, something about what happens when private worlds meet each other, making or having been made a space for. But at times, it’s a different kind of intimacy, a temporal or material one, like the feeling of crisp fresh sheets, and abundant and soft, body-part appropriate towels in a hotel in a city you’ve been to before and love to go back to.

Their debut record, “I wish I was special”, was variously described as “a collage of concrète experiments and outerzone pop gestures, music that sounds as if it’s been written from the depths of a dream”; “music for people who love music but also hate it too”; “something like chasing ghosts or befriending a wild animal”; “pulling apart nervous sensations with haphazard ease and requisite humour”; and “a melody of refusal, of being all-in (…) finding the exact right WRONG sound to express the discontent”. Common Domestic Bird continues in this vein, layering synthesiser, keyboards and samples over rudimentary drum rhythms and field recordings, which are in turn sung or spoken with to create nine new songs.

Written and recorded between autumn 2024 and summer 2025 in Reading, Berkshire, the music has matured since its last outing, in a way, leaning less into collage and more toward structured composition and melodic depth, yet retains a healthy dose of indeterminacy and off-kilter rhythms for the forever-amateur. The songs on Common Domestic Bird hint at some “about”-ness through a series of discrete vignettes which sound a bit like architecture or end of year lists, gossip or over-thinking subjectivity, like disappearances and impressions, the support structure of the spine, letters and signs offs, things you could really do without and where they should go, hoping you’ll see something that isn’t there, pretences and performance. At times they feel kind of funny, others kind of sad or a bit angry and annoyed, a bit like you really.

Between flesh and silicon. “Under My Skin” (2026) is the first album by IADI, released by Neo Life. A record like few
others, highly conceptual, cover art included. Its essence lies in the folds of the increasingly ambiguous relationship
between man and machine, where the former designs the latter and, perhaps without fully realizing it, is gradually
destined to adapt and be reprogrammed by it. Each track of “Under My Skin” is, in fact, a sort of interface, connector, or
any other imaginative point of contact between two creative phases, amid emotional impulses and binary calculations.
The sonic architecture oscillates between analog warmth and algorithmic coldness, constructing landscapes in which
pulsating synthesizers and mechanical rhythms seem to question each other. There's no linear narrative, but rather a
progressive immersion in a zone of near-friction, where the comfort of technology coexists with more than a faint
musical uneasiness, like a background noise that never ceases to remind you who's truly in charge. In “Under My Skin”,
the machine is neither an enemy nor a simple instrument: it's a real presence, intimate, even tactile, amplifying desires,
fears, and dreams of dawns beyond the digital realm. Intelligent dance music. Less noise, more sensations. Electronic,
but profoundly human.
The final result, then, is a music project that speaks to the present, yet sounds like an X-ray of the future, capturing that
fragile moment when humanity and technology stop observing each other from afar and begin to merge, track after
track. It's no coincidence that IADI's album opens with “Impulse”, an immediate expression of an electrical impulse, for
both humans and machines, which is also the language of the nervous system, as fast as it is vital—pure energy and
rhythm, a track as intense as it is irregular. And after this introduction, it's the turn of the equally erratic “Axon”, whose
title describes the neuron that transmits the signal over distance, telling the listener to sit back and relax for a new
journey through the notes toward the more melodic “Cortex”. The cerebral cortex, the ultimate seat of thought and
memory, becomes the source from which the musical flow of the first part of the work is drawn.
Then, suddenly, an automatic, or instinctive, response to the constant succession of impulses: “Reflex”, or zerotemperature techno, with a fragmented pace, featuring vocal samples, breaks, and restarts. In the producer's
imagination, the subsequent, and conversely placid, “Neuron” represents the emotional core of the second part of the
work, providing a kind of respite from the seething vibrations. While the neuron is the basic unit of the nervous system,
the synapse is the functional connection point between one neuron and another effector cell, essential for the
transmission of nerve impulses and communication in the nervous system, enabling functions such as learning and
movement. Likewise, a track like “Synapse” once again illuminates the path traced by IADI. The more experimental and
streamlined “Static” instead suggests true ordered chaos. “Dreamstate” is the conclusion suspended in the void, relating
to that dreamlike state between waking and sleeping, where consciousness fades toward infinity and visions begin. Pure
fading into the subconscious. Eternal return to where it all began. Dancing is a form of consciousness. Every beat is a
question. IADI, however, holds all the answers you need.

»Single #Two« offers another bite-sized portion of Muslimgauze. This one almost falls into traditional »A-side/B-side« territory, with side A containing a single buzzy, frenetic track just over 3 minutes in length. Densely looped percussion, vocal sample, and fuzzy keyboards meld together into a blurry rush.

The side B is longer, more chill, and less immediate; still utilizing the same ingredients but here spaced out, with the sampled singing only coming to prominence a few minutes in. If the first might provoke a twitch response, the second seems calibrated more for head-nodding.

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…