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Friction’s best-selling album "Afterdark" just got even bigger.

Back by popular demand, the legendary Drum and Bass pioneer returns with a brand-new deluxe edition featuring 4 exclusive remixes from some of the scene’s most cutting-edge producers.
From high-energy reworks to deep, atmospheric flips, these fresh takes breathe new life into the tracks you love, while staying true to the pulse-pounding spirit of the original.

Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the world of Friction this is a must-have addition to your collection.

Madlib’s WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip Returns on Double Vinyl via BBE Music BBE Music is thrilled to announce the long-awaited rerelease of WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip, the final installment in the legendary Beat Generation series from none other than Madlib. Originally released in 2008, this masterful collage of dusty loops, raw beats, and left-field soundscapes remains a high-water mark in the Stones Throw producer’s sprawling discography.

Now, for the first time in years, fans can experience the album in all its analog glory with this deluxe double vinyl edition, carefully remastered to preserve Madlib’s signature warmth and grit. A tribute to pirate radio culture and late-night airwaves, WLIB AM weaves together a rich tapestry of hip-hop, jazz, and soul, featuring an all-star cas t of collaborators, including Talib Kweli, Guilty Simpson, MED, and Oh No. Each track showcases Madlib’s uncanny ability to blur the lines between genres, effortlessly flipping obscure samples into hypnotic, off-kilter rhythms. From the hypnotic bounce of “Blow the Horns on ‘Em” to the smoked-out groove of “The Plan Pt. 1,” this is Madlib at his most playful, unpredictable, and inspired.

This special double vinyl edition, released exclusively via BBE Music, brings one of the Beat Generation series’ most celebrated albums back into circulation for crate-diggers and collectors alike. With original artwork and a high-quality pressing, this rerelease is a must-have for Madlib aficionados and vinyl lovers who appreciate raw, unfiltered beat craftsmanship. Don’t miss your chance to own a piece of hip-hop history—WLIB AM: King of the Wigflip is back and sounding better than ever.

Oliver Dollar presents Contemporary Part Three on Rekids The third instalment features collaborations with Ben Silver, Boogs, and Hazmat, and features Apropos and Boog Brown.

Berlin’s Oliver Dollar unveils part three of his ‘Contemporary’ series, releasing on Radio Slave’s Rekids 4th April 2025 and following up last year’s parts one and two, which featured the likes of Harvard Bass, Brillstein, ADMN, and Austin Ato, and won support from the likes of Nightmares On Wax, Anja Schneider, Laurent Garnier, Carista, Jennifer Cardini, Dam Swindle, and more.

Part three of Contemporary sees Oliver Dollar invite another cast of hotly tipped collaborators, kicking offthe EP with Melbourne DJ and producers Ben Silver and Boogs - both resident DJs at Revolver Upstairs - for ‘Cosmic Weapon’. Their track features lush, poignant chords underpinned by a rolling groove, with vocal samples warped, chopped, and sliced above for a mind-melting trip. Up next, ‘What Cha’ Gonna Do?’ sees Dollar team up with Apropos, whose inimitable voice previously featured on ‘Contemporary Part One’, and talented Detroit vocalist and Dilla’s Delights’ Boog Brown for a soulful duet. Last up is another Motor City link-up featuring Hazmat Live on production alongside Oliver Dollar for the infectious House energy of ‘Ought To Be Love’, joined by the earworm vocals of Members of the House front vocalist William Beaver, aka Billy Love, known for his work bringing Motown-style gospel vocals to Techno and House with notable Detroit artists like JeffMills, Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Kevin Saunderson, and many more.
drum work. Closing out the ‘I Feel’ EP, Tal Fussman works with fellow producer 8-AN to drop the dream-like strings of ‘Life Itself’, another deep track that is as club-ready as it is introspective.

With this new EP called "Last Night A Bassline Saved My Life", again released on Unsure, Stefan Schwander further refines the philosophy and sound of his latest concept While My Sequencer Gently Bleeps. Following his idea of reduction Schwander used only the Elektron Monomachine to shape four amazing tracks, beautifully balanced, searching for the perfect groove, stripped of all unnecessary.
"Compromise", the first track, may even be a reminiscence to Schwanders legendary releases as Antonelli Electr, supertransparent and supercrisp, yet still warm, deep and human, an understated wonder of a track! "Persona" and the title track got those dubby chords and effective synths, an inimitable tightness and basslines that can save your life indeed. And on "Escalator" Schwander comes up with extraordinary rolling and twisting rhythms and some sonic essentials that only the master of the sequencer can deliver. Distinguished.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

GIRASOLES is the ninth studio album from multi-platinum singer-songwriter Jay Wheeler. In what many will find is some of his most personal work to date, it’s clear that music is his refuge, with the album representing the birth of a renewed version of himself. The moving 15-track album musically represents three stages: difficulties faced in life (represented by planting a seed), a period of transformation (growth), and maturity (a full bloom). GIRASOLES represents the feeling of being stuck, life’s challenges and the moments where personal growth seems impossible. However, as you mature through time, overcoming challenges and obstacles, you bloom into something beautiful. The message is clear: “Never settle and keep working on yourself, show love to others, and continue to evolve despite difficulties, just as sunflowers continue to grow toward the light,” Wheeler expressed. “People talk about outcomes, but no one talks about the process of getting there. This is ‘Girasoles,’ an album full of emotions, showing my evolution as an artist and a man. I want fans to identify with each track and make it their own,” shared Jay Wheeler about “Girasoles”, an album dedicated to the three most important women in his life: Zhamira (his wife), Aiunii (his daughter), and his mother. 2xLP, pressed on Canary Yellow Vinyl and housed in a Gatefold Jacke

This is a tribute & was made during a place of sadness & grief for two amazing humans we lost last years, Rob Maguire on 18 december 2023 & Lea-Rose Besson aka Radical Softness on 15 February 2024.

They were the most unconditional loving persons I ever met, sharing love, breathing love, teaching us so much about being better everyday, leaving us as their mission on Earth were completed.

Still, the ones who stay, stand still. With only our memories to remember their souls, being infused by their aura of life forever. Its from those people when you feel instantly good around, making you feel comfortable, loving yourself more, accepting yourself & being vulnerable while powerful.

From all over the world and especially in Berlin, many of us where impacted so much by their kindness and souls, offering us a space to be heard & seen, when so many of us couldn't. We all know that it was such a privilege to knew them & shared wisdom with and timeless experiences, being kids around old souls, teaching us how to love beyond time & space.

Its from this place that most of the tracks of this EP were created, fighting for resilience through dark times. I felt the need to make them this tribute while healing from pain to find love in myself and others. Being grateful for everything that happens in life even if it never last.

Gaman, from the Japanese means, perseverance. That illustrate never giving up on ourselves, our dreams, our life, keep shining one day after the other, because being alive is the most unique privilege we will ever have.

While everything is temporary, music still belong, making them heard a little bit longer through vibrations.

My dear Rob, my dear Lea, may you rest in peace, may we see us again in another realm. We love you.

The Mighty Rootsmen features the unparalleled talents of Reggae superstars
Toots Hibbert, Luciano, Gregory Isaacs, Michael Rose, and the rhythmic prowess of Sly & Robbie, Mikey Chung, Robbie Lyn, and Sticky Thompson, alongside Zap Pow Horns members David Madden, Calvin ‘Bubbles’ Cameron, and Glen DaCosta. A groundbreaking collaboration – it is a celebration of reggae’s iconic artists, seamlessly blending the genre’s rich rhythms with rock and soul classics.

Brought together by producer Ralph Spall (Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens) and recorded at the famous Anchor Studios in Jamaica. The album’s unique sound comes from the decision to let the musicians’ instincts drive the creative process, striking a balance between homage and innovation. Featuring classic tracks from the likes of Tom Petty, The Steve Miller band, The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. It is produced with a reverence for authenticity and musical mastery. This once-in-a-lifetime project brings together a dream team of Jamaican legends, paying tribute to their artistry and the art of collaboration.

This is Timeless classics with a reggae supergroup. Tracks like “Fly Like an Eagle” showcase Steve Miller’s unexpected, soulful guitar work layered over a reggae groove. Meanwhile, Mike Campbell’s guitar on “I Won’t Back Down” deepen the album’s connections to rock royalty. Yet, the project remains firmly rooted in reggae. "My intention was to try to do something that hadn’t been done in reggae before by putting these giants of the genre together to make a record that leaves you with good feelings, they’re very recognisable as the songs they are but have a distinct reggae feel and stamp.” reflects Ralph.

The Mighty Rootsmen stands as a tribute to the enduring power of reggae music—an album that brings joy, good vibes, and a profound connection to musical history.

Steve Bicknell returns to KR3, once again unleashing his mastery of power electronics!
Following his two reinterpretations of last year's "JK Flesh Remixes" and four years after his solo EP "A Day In The Life" in 2021, Bicknell takes us deep into the realms of his sonic mysticism, marking a significant milestone in the fifth anniversary of the label.
Several Streams of Thought LP - is an unrelenting and immersive odyssey, presented through nine tracks, seven of which will be available on a double 12-inch vinyl, with two exclusive cuts in a limited 7-inch format.
The album hits hard, straight to the brain, with no warning, across sides A, B, and C. Each side is a raw, untamed techno experience, with Bicknell's unmistakable signature dominating throughout, delivering unwavering intensity and relentless impact.
However, on side D, a transformation takes place: a 15-minute soundscape that turns the embedded waves into breath - a blinding light emerging from the darkness. It's a moment of tribalism and evocative magic, offering a refreshing pause, a return to balance after the intensity of the shadows.
The 7-inch, available in a limited edition under the title "the eye of the invisible world", contains two tracks - one on side E and the other on side F.
The mystical sounds complete this dual experience: one part filled with dark, untamed energy, while the other brings a sense of mental lightness, emphasizing breathwork and emotional self-
healing.
S | B is back, stronger than ever!

Editrix is a Massachusetts-rooted trio known for their wild, gnarly take on experimental rock. Blending jagged guitar riffs, unpredictable rhythms, and bursts of cartoonish eccentricity, the band creates a sound that's both chaotic and compelling. Composed of singer and guitarist Wendy Eisenberg, drummer Josh Daniel, and bassist Steve Cameron, Editrix thrives on musical risk-taking, often veering into noise-rock territory with a playful edge. On their latest release, The Big E, Editrix unleashes their fangs, resulting in a demonic wall of scuzz. But for as intense as Editrix sounds, the act is convivial and easygoing _ ingrained in deep friendships and speedy, yet jovial recording sessions. Editrix's most pummeling moments seem to be founded on a heartfelt connection, adding emotional resonance to their most feral noise. In the three years since their second LP Editrix II, Eisenberg, Daniel, and Cameron have thrived in individual states of motion _ in and away from music. New York City-based Eisenberg is an accomplished solo artist in the avant-garde realm, receiving recent acclaim for their album Viewfinder (released by American Dreams in 2024). They are also a prolific collaborator, performing in a handful of projects alongside the likes of romantic partner more eaze, Bill Orcutt, David Grubbs, and others. Cameron relocated from Massachusetts to New York City around the same time Editrix II came out, taking a slight step away from music to return to school. Daniel is the only member of Editrix left living in Massachusetts, and performs with the eclectic bands Landowner, Hot Dirt, and The Leafies. Due to Editrix being scattered, the band's new album, The Big E, found them toying with a fresh process. Editrix was quick to write off the idea of collaborating remotely, as the act relishes the warmth of happy accidents that only happen in person. The Big E sparked with Eisenberg, Daniel, and Cameron compiling a list of albums they each admire to establish a self-professed "vibe" up front. King Crimson, My Disco, and Horse Lords were a few key touchstones that shine through, their grounded grooviness balancing erraticism. Eisenberg also found themself infatuated with `70s outlaw country and Van Dyke Parks production. The Big E is titled after a comedic bit between band members, sharing its name with a prominent regional fair in Western Massachusetts, although the title-track aptly features massive E chords. When held up alongside Editrix II _ which found the act toying with Finnish death metal and harsh noise _ The Big E feels settled in its skin. Editrix recorded The Big E with legendary tech death producer Colin Marston (Krallice, Behold_, Dysrhythmia) at his soon-to-be-shuttered studio in Queens. Though these tracks sound toiled over and technical, they are very spontaneous. The majority of The Big E was captured live, with a handful of overdubs added after the fact and came to life over the course of four focused, but rewarding days. Eisenberg uses zen words like "meditative" and "evocative" to describe Editrix's methods, but the end result is crunchy, intricate, and impressively baffling. Easygoing as the band's operation may be, The Big E is a strong jump forward for Editrix inching them towards the center of the avant-rock constellation.

Cosey Fanni Tutti has announced details of a new album, 2t2, set for release on the artist’s own imprint, Conspiracy International, on 13 June 2025 on vinyl & CD. Composed, performed and produced by Cosey Fanni Tutti, the 9-track album moves between propulsive beat constructions and expansive electronic explorations, continuing themes from 2019’s acclaimed album TUTTI. It is a personal reflection; a sonic realisation of her life, drawing on her powerful inner resolve and expressing it through music. The album finds Cosey making sense of some very tough years, dealing with personal bereavements alongside swingeing world events that have impacted us all. Centring on her own strength and self will, the album’s two distinct sides – one rhythmic, one more meditative – are connected by an overwhelmingly positive mood. She explains, “My overtone chanting on the track ‘Stound’ was part of that, tapping into the inner self, to the core of your being, emotionally, physically, allowing the sounds to permeate and soothe as well as create a sense of power, resistance and resilience to what we face.” Even in the more melancholic moments, there’s a lightness that she explains is an “acknowledgement that it’s alright to be sad, that’s part of life, but there is so much joy too in our memories of people we lose and in the moments we share with each other. Joy is our resistance.” There are also threads from her most recent projects running through 2t2. Her latest book RE-SISTERS and the score she wrote for Caroline Catz’s film Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes are acknowledged, most directly on ‘Threnody’ which is dedicated to Delia Derbyshire and Andy Christian, an artist friend of Delia’s. He sent Cosey an abstract drawing of the same name, created one night from an improvised evening where he drew while Derbyshire intoned and sang softly as she looked at the drawings, as if reading a score expressing how they made her feel. Cosey’s process and the different strands that make up her work form a totality of vision. She goes on to say, “Once you get creating and listening, weaving, collaging sound it’s a wonderfully fulfilling feeling that takes you both out of yourself at the same time as essentially deep within.”

The artwork reflects this idea that the album is a “sound cameo”, reflecting the light within the music, and the buzz of life that exists within all of Cosey’s work. Musician, artist and author Cosey Fanni Tutti has continually challenged boundaries and conventions through her work. As a founding member of the hugely influential avant-garde band Throbbing Gristle, one half of electronic pioneers Chris and Cosey, and as an artist channelling her experience in pornographic modelling and striptease, her work on the margins has reshaped the mainstream. Her first solo album, Time To Tell (1983) was followed by 2019’s Tutti and 2022’s Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes. Her debut book, the Penderyn Music Book Prize shortlisted Art Sex Music, was published in 2017, followed by RE-SISTERS in 2022 (both Faber), which will soon get a Spanish edition.

Experience the magic of a timeless classic reborn: this exclusive 7" vinyl features a brand-new remake of the iconic "I Believe in Miracles", produced by French groove maestro MonsieurWilly and performed by the radiant soul vocalist Natalie Nova. With a perfect balance of vintage disco vibes and fresh production finesse, this release breathes new life into the legendary track, making it both nostalgic and clubready. Adding to its irresistible charm, the remake is infused with a Latin summerinspired rhythm—a driving, syncopated beat that designs the heartbeat of Latin music. Ment to be upbeat and danceable, the track incorporates percussive grooves, rhythmic guitars, and tasteful electronic elements to create a vibrant, sun-soaked atmosphere that feels right at home from beach bars to dancefloors. The collaboration between MonsieurWilly and Natalie Nova delivers a unique blend of soulful warmth, infectious energy, and rhythmic flair. Natalie Nova’s powerful vocals shine with emotion and style, while MonsieurWilly’s production wraps it all in a groove-heavy, analog-inspired soundscape. This 7" is pressed on high-quality vinyl and is ideal for collectors, DJs, and lovers of soul, disco, and feel-good summer anthems. Don't miss this limited edition release - proof that miracles still happen on wax.

Bebedera takes the style of Tarraxo to a heightened awareness of its sexual nature. Tight, wicked layers of percussion, a suggestive ID ("Drinking is his life"), a slow pace that's not only perceptively slow, it sounds charged with intent, even malice, dissolution. Letting go of morality may be the big attraction in the music, permission to get down, this time in a heavy, conspicuous manner instead of a spiritual, breezy floatation. One has to recognize the impulse in ourselves. Once at peace with this rough nature, there are sublime grooves to follow, mind-boggling arrangements, a freedom from judgement in connecting with what may seem to be at first a very masculine take on dancefloor sensuality but which is in fact only human. Just with less filters.

In other ways, an aural combination of metal and flesh produces this notion of a cyborg, a very expressive physical body making its weight known to everybody around, a sort of walking fortress as in the "Moderan" group of sci-fi short stories. A glorious rattle of lata percussion, scraps from the junkyard. A sense of unease, even slight danger starts a flow of adrenalin. According to DJ Marfox, it's not the only thing flowing, there's also a strong desire for intercourse when a Bebedera tarraxo is playing. His very distinctive style has been a cult favourite for years. Accordingly, it took years to make contact, to reach an agreement, and the result is a set of classics that stretch as far back as 2014. Still the same punch, still the feeling no one has really stepped into this territory with such force.

Flipping the construct on its head, there's two Bebedera house tracks, we'd say almost an oddity, an abrupt change from the previous density of atmosphere, though they retain all the percussive bounce. Sensual, sure, a different tempo also letting through a romantic disposition other than the sheer physical attraction. One of the titles sums up the aesthetical power at play: "I Will Beat The Top High". As in reaching further out, further up. Wanting to. Time freezes - 2014 and 2016 (production years of these two tracks), fold up and melt into the Present. Where it matters.

In demand Electroclash from the golden days in the rebound! The best tracks by Michi Bormann, all released under his alias Latex on Muller Records and some tracks released under the pseudonym Steril on Gigolo and Lasergun. All newly mastered and processed. Seven tracks will be released on vinyl and the edition is limited.

Best of' albums are invariably repackaged collections of old recordings, so Vice Squad's `Punk Rockers' is a breath of fresh air The songs have been lovingly recorded and remastered, keeping all the original fire and adding decades of experience gained from punishing tours and continuous songwriting Beki is the original architect of the songs and the Vice Squad name, and she is the sole surviving member of the original lineup to have continued as a full-time musician Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious `If I Knew What I Know Now' and `The World Is Wrong' are examples of Vice Squad's ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, `Battle of Britain', showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent `If I Knew What I Know Now', followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister `Out of Reach'. Next up is the visceral `Get A Life', an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic `Resurrection'. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of `Allergy' underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime `Sniffing Glue', a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. `Ordinary Girl' is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. `The World Is Wrong' is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It's always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, `Citizen', and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal `Scarred For Life'. `Voice of the People' is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, `Freedom of speech is against the law; now we're all criminals,' snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. `Punk Police' sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, `Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,' call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, `Humane', and I'm struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome 'Spitfire' takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into `Born In A War', the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the `Last Rockers', the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.'

Best of' albums are invariably repackaged collections of old recordings, so Vice Squad's `Punk Rockers' is a breath of fresh air The songs have been lovingly recorded and remastered, keeping all the original fire and adding decades of experience gained from punishing tours and continuous songwriting Beki is the original architect of the songs and the Vice Squad name, and she is the sole surviving member of the original lineup to have continued as a full-time musician Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious `If I Knew What I Know Now' and `The World Is Wrong' are examples of Vice Squad's ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, `Battle of Britain', showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent `If I Knew What I Know Now', followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister `Out of Reach'. Next up is the visceral `Get A Life', an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic `Resurrection'. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of `Allergy' underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime `Sniffing Glue', a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. `Ordinary Girl' is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. `The World Is Wrong' is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It's always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, `Citizen', and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal `Scarred For Life'. `Voice of the People' is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, `Freedom of speech is against the law; now we're all criminals,' snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. `Punk Police' sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, `Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,' call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, `Humane', and I'm struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome 'Spitfire' takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into `Born In A War', the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the `Last Rockers', the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.'

Vice Squad are 100% DIY and record everything in their home studio with guitarist/riffmaster Paul Rooney engineering and mixing. There is nothing sloppy here; the whole album is concise and intelligent with lightning-speed diction, passion, and intent. The glorious ‘If I Knew What I Know Now’ and ‘The World Is Wrong’ are examples of Vice Squad’s ability to write instantly catchy, witty songs, and the more gut-wrenching material from their last album, ‘Battle of Britain’, showcases some enormous riffs and a voice that is a million decibels from Beki's untried teen vocals. The album opens with the deliciously effervescent ‘If I Knew What I Know Now’, followed by the sparkling old-school tongue-twister ‘Out of Reach’. Next up is the visceral ‘Get A Life’, an angry anti-suicide note to the desperate, originally the title track from their 1998 comeback album. This is followed by a shimmering version of Vice Squad's old-school classic ‘Resurrection’. While the treatment of the old songs remains true to the original teenage renditions, the upgraded versions pack more of a punch with detuned guitars and growling bass. The tribal tom-toms of ‘Allergy’ underpin just over two minutes of punk protest about the delights of pollution and asthma. Then comes the sublime ‘Sniffing Glue’, a near-perfect punk love song that would be a huge hit if not for its subject matter. ‘Ordinary Girl’ is punk-pop perfection brimming with hook lines and harmonies, warmly mocking the life that could have been chosen instead of the grindstone at the sharp end of the music industry. ‘The World Is Wrong’ is anthemic, joyous, and wonderfully contrary, and one would expect nothing less from a band that has soldiered on and grown through the decades. It’s always great when bands lead by example. In these increasingly tough times where our survival is threatened by the gargantuan greed of a few individuals, it's important to continuously stick two fingers up to the grabbers and spoilers. 'The World Is Wrong' does just that in an impassioned, melodic, and optimistic style. 'Hold your head up, stand your ground, and don't let the bastards grind you down.' Then we roar into the final single Beki wrote with original and now sadly deceased guitarist Dave Bateman, ‘Citizen’, and continue with another teenage opus, the quite brutal ‘Scarred For Life’. ‘Voice of the People’ is a bulldozer of a song, all swagger and ballsy riffs, and the chorus, ‘Freedom of speech is against the law; now we’re all criminals,’ snarls its derision at red-handed red tape. ‘Punk Police’ sneers over a catchy-as-COVID guitar riff, and the lyrics, ‘Regulation cut, you must measure up, down on the street, PR companies, monied families, running the scene,’ call out the hierarchies that now permeate Punk. Baritone guitars add extra darkness to one of the first-ever animal rights songs, ‘Humane’, and I’m struck by how relevant the older songs are. Chocks away, and the awesome ’Spitfire’ takes flight like Motörhead on extra amphetamines. Merlin engines fade into ‘Born In A War’, the second in the triumvirate of conflict-themed songs, an absolute stonker with huge muscular riffs and lyrics that roar pure outrage. Then comes the ominous Last Rockers, with all the angst of the original plus added depth and resonance. Beki: ' "Last Rockers" is a typically depressive adolescent song about nuclear war and being too young to die but too late to live. I believed Punks were the ‘Last Rockers’, the final youth cult before the Apocalypse. I was obsessed with punk, and all I wanted to do was sing in a band and be part of the movement, so I would often romanticise the idea of punk in my lyrics.' The four bonus CD tracks kick off with ‘Coward’, another teen Bateman/Bond composition. ‘No You Don’t’ is just over two minutes of vocal acrobatics over a Dexedrine-driven Devo-esque chord sequence, and the frantically brilliant ‘I Dare To Breathe’ from ‘Battle of Britain’ continues the aural assault. Then the final sombre entreaty of ‘You Can’t Buy Back The Dead’ warns us that ‘Enough’s never enough; absolute power will corrupt; the war machine still rumbles on’ before fading into the future.

“My hero’s back,” Madeline Kenney sings on the second track of her newest effort, Kiss from the Balcony. In a sense, she means herself; made with friends Ben Sloan and Stephen Patota across just a few in-person studio sessions in Oakland, these tracks represent a culmination of Madeline’s musings on growth and resilience reaching back years, brought to life through this generative and vibrant collaboration. Close listeners can hear the breadth of stylistic elements and themes carried through from various eras of her work, which all come together in a cohesive and timeless record.

In two week-long intensive sessions, the three collaborators grew these nine songs from fragments, sketches, and seeds. With a background in experimental percussion and sound design, Ben Sloan brings an electronic sound to Kenney’s writing; Stephen Patota provides ingenious guitar melodies throughout and grounds the project in acoustic elements. Kiss from the Balcony was originally intended to be an EP, but the sessions brought forth such fruitful ideation and play that the project was expanded to a full length album. It sits in Madeline’s discography as a thematic and musical progression that sees her iterate on ideas about love and explore new sonic motifs through her work with Patota and Sloan.

Much of Kiss from the Balcony is a meditation on modern relationships, a feminist and utterly human contemplation of power and who holds it. “Hereditary backward leaning,” she describes in ‘Slap,’ of the female condition; “But no-one ever likes to see the girls break down / So they keep it to the bathroom floor” she sings in the rapturous opener, ‘Scoop.’ While the songs are shrouded in metaphor, the ubiquity of heartbreak and resilience decode much of the internal conflict Kenney depicts. The album sees her recognize the precarity and peculiarity of life and take it by the horns, realizing she controls her own narrative:


She explores the relationships between joy and suffering, choosing to see them as inseparable, two sides of a single coin. “It’s never over / When will they love me?” Kenney asks on ‘They Go Wide,’ describing her positionality both as a woman in relationship and as an indie artist in the modern music industry.

A playful hopefulness pervades the record, providing a sense of revelation in the journey throughout, Kenney’s radical acceptance of life as it is like a lyrical tongue out at the absurd.

First-ever vinyl pressing of Mac Miller’s fan-favorite 2011 mixtape I Love Life, Thank You, featuring the viral track "Love Lost," and appearances by Talib Kweli and Bun B. Originally released to celebrate Mac reaching one-million Twitter followers, the mixtape showcases his charismatic early sound and includes production from Clams Casino and 9th Wonder.

Blues-rock titan Joe Bonamassa is back with Breakthrough, his powerful new studio album dropping July 18th.

Produced by longtime collaborator Kevin Shirley (Iron Maiden, The Black Crowes, Journey) and co-written with Grammy-winner Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd), Breakthrough captures Bonamassa at the height of his creative powers. Expanding his signature sound while staying true to the deep blues roots that launched his storied career, the album promises raw emotion, blistering guitar work, and fresh sonic twists.

With over 50 albums to his name and an unprecedented 28 #1 Billboard Blues Albums, Bonamassa proves yet again that he's not just keeping the blues alive--he's driving it into the future.

* In April the European tour starts.
* Joe Bonamassa has sold well over 4 million records worldwide and has had 20+ #1 Billboard Blues Albums
* Joe Bonamassa has been featured on the cover of virtually every guitar magazine multiple times. His name is notorious among guitarists not only for being a virtuoso, but also for his incredible collection of vintage guitars, gear and memorabilia.

Tracks: Breakthrough / Trigger Finger / I'll Take The Blame / Drive By The Exit Sign / Broken Record / Shake This Ground / Still Walking With Me / Life After Dark / You Don't Own Me / Pain's On Me

‘Idealism’ is an album about navigating life in the 2020s as millennial adults, and all the difficulties and uncertainties that come with that - knowing you’ll probably never be able to afford to buy a house, and that a simple grocery shop costs way more than ever before. But it’s also about all the joys and positives of modern life too - being kind to yourself, being kind to other people, and overcoming difficulties.
The band tries to capture that dichotomy on this album, hence the title ‘Idealism’, which the dictionary says is “the unrealistic belief in or pursuit of perfection”.
The album has been a long time in the making, diligently demoed before tracking across studios in London & Essex. Taking a more pop production approach, layering parts and additional keyboards, synthesisers and percussion to add a richer and fuller sound to their traditional indie rock set up.
Nostalgia has always been a running theme for Don’t Worry, as displayed on 2022’s ‘Remorseless Swing’ and 2018 debut album ‘Who Cares Anyway?’. There’s a decent dose of it on this new album still, including on the cover, with a photograph taken in their home of Harlow New Town in 2001 by Jim Brown. And in their musical influences, Pavement, Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, The Streets, Fleetwood Mac, UK Grime and The GTA Vice City Soundtrack (alongside contemporary influences such as Fontaines D.C., MJ Lenderman, Andy Shauf).
But perhaps for the first time on this album, they push through the comfort of the past, embrace the present and look forward to the future with hope.

Man @ Work Volume 2 is the sequel to his 2002 best seller, Man @ Work, and offers
fans an impeccable set of favorites from across Hay's rich catalog, including Men at
Work classics, solo album highlights, and new material. The album opens with "Into
My Life," featuring Gregg Bissonette (Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band) and Cecilia
Noel. The song originally appeared on Hay's 1990 debut solo album, Wayfaring Sons,
and exploded in Brazil in the 90s as the theme song of a popular soap opera, growing
to rival the anthemic "Down Under" as Hay's most popular song in South America. Hay
reaches back to Men At Work's 1983 release, Cargo, for a new recording of the reggae
infected "Blue for You," which segues into a stripped-down version of the infectious
"Come Tumblin' Down" from his 2017 release Fierce Mercy. Other standout tracks on
the album include "We the People" featuring rapper Derrick "Solpowa" Rice, which Hay
was inspired to write in the midst of the polarizing US presidential election in 2024,
and with a haunting performance of "Next Year People" from the 2015 album of the
same name. This version of the song features Hay on acoustic guitar and vocals,
augmented by a string quartet.

Formed in 2012 by long-time musical companions Oyvind Holm and Hogne Galaen,
the band quickly grew into the six- piece musical force they are today. Their unique
sound fuses cosmic Americana and rich vocal harmonies with catchy melodies, highspirited improvisation, and contagious musical energy that will leave you craving
more.
The six members come from diverse musical backgrounds but are united by their
shared love of psychedelia and cosmic Americana. They draw particular inspiration
from the California sound of the late '60s, with bands like The Byrds, Crosby, Stills,
Nash & Young, and the Grateful Dead as key infuences.
Between 2012 and 2019, the band recorded and released fve critically acclaimed
albums, two of which were recorded in the California desert at the legendary Rancho
De La Luna, nestled among the Joshua trees. Like many other artists, the pandemic
shook their foundations, forcing the band into an involuntary hiatus. In the aftermath
of lockdowns and other imposed restrictions, the backlash from other projects kept
them from picking up where they had left off.
However, the fall of 2024 brought new opportunities. An unexpected email from Mike
Scott of The Waterboys reignited their spirit and motivation. While on tour in Norway,
Scott discovered one of their albums and was so taken by their sound that he invited
them to contribute vocal harmonies to 'The Tourist,' a track off The Waterboys' new
album Life, Death & Dennis Hopper.
Soon after, an even greater opportunity arose--an invitation to join The Waterboys on
tour in the UK and Scandinavia. To accompany the upcoming tour, we've put together
a beginner's guide to Sugarfoot.
The compilation album Cosmic Norse Americana features nine highlights from
Sugarfoot's career so far, along with a newly recorded cover of Emitt Rhodes' 1967
track "Time Will Show The Wiser."
Sugarfoot:
Hogne Galaen - guitars, vocals
Even Granas - drums
Thomas Henriksen - keyboards
Oyvind Holm - guitars, vocals
Bent Saether - bass
Roar Oien - pedal steel
THOUGHTS AND WORDS
The Sugarfoot story begins back in 2011. But before there was Sugarfoot, there were
the Dipsomaniacs, Kulta Beats, Motorpsycho, Too Far Gone, and Deleted Waveform
Gatherings--bands that, in one way or another, featured future members of what would
eventually become Sugarfoot. Six musicians from diverse musical backgrounds,
united by a shared love of psychedelia and cosmic Americana. Drawing deep
inspiration from the California sound of the late '60s, their musical compass points
toward The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and the Grateful Dead.
I say eventually, because Sugarfoot didn't start as a band--it began as a duo. Hogne
Galaen and Oyvind Holm had previously played together in Deleted Waveform
Gatherings. But when their drummer moved out of town, the group was put on ice. Not
ones to sit still, the two of them launched a side project to keep the creative wheels
turning.
Throughout the winter of 2011, they holed up in their rehearsal space, writing and
recording rough sketches of what would soon grow into a full album. And that's when
things got interesting. They drew up a wish list--a dream lineup of musicians they'd
love to bring into the fold.
Among the names on that list were Even Granas, Thomas Henriksen, Bent Saether,
and Roar Oien, all soon to be permanent Sugarfooters. Each was invited to contribute
to the project, adding their parts to the pre-recorded tracks--without knowing what the
others were doing. Like assembling a giant musical puzzle, Galaen and Holm later
pieced the album together from these blindfolded contributions. The result was This
Love That We Outwore, released in the fall of 2012.
From there, things escalated quickly. By the following year, Sugarfoot had become a
proper band. Big Sky Country-- written and recorded collectively-- landed in 2014,
solidifying the group's evolving sound, including favourites such as Dolphins Hotel and
Ego In A Bag. When it came time to record a third album, the band felt the itch for
something new. They wanted a change of scenery--somewhere that could spark fresh
inspiration and leave its own sonic fngerprint on the production. So they asked
themselves: where could they go that carried the spirit, the legacy, the stardust of their
musical heroes?
That search led them to the California desert, to the legendary Rancho De La Luna,
nestled among the Joshua trees. Their next two albums, Different Stars (2016) and
The Santa Ana (2017), were both recorded at the Rancho. In fact, The Santa Ana was
both recorded and mixed during a two- week stay in 2015, making it a true time
capsule in the band's discography.

Anchored in the charmingly warm vocal presence that McNown partly honed by busking at the beach in Southern California just a few years ago, Night Diving (The Cost of Growing Up) takes the latter half of its title from a gorgeously textured track that perfectly exemplifies his newly refined sound. With its rootsy and ethereal instrumentation—luminous steel guitar, lush mandolin, soulful organ—“The Cost of Growing Up” arrives as a clear-eyed but melancholy meditation on the inevitability of pain. “To me, the cost of growing up is an acceptance that difficult things are going to happen—from minor inconveniences to devastating loss, it’s all a part of life,” says McNown. “But there’s also beauty in that because, without those hard moments, you wouldn’t be able to truly love.”

Teasing dread atmospheres and zooming in on microscopic details that bring every beat in every bar to life, Seb Uncles returns to Samurai Music with another deep dive into his exquisitely crafted, cinematic progression of the drum & bass tradition.

Even a cursory glance at the Eusebeia back catalogue tells you Uncles is an artist committed to the storytelling promise of breakbeat culture. His work has been heavily tipped towards albums since he first broke through around 2015, and across more than 10 long-players he's cultivated a strong line in moody, evocative jungle and drum & bass more concerned with world-building and subtle detail rather than aggression and intensity.

Following up on his 2023 LP for Samurai, X, on Undertones Uncles applies his signature meditative tones to a broad expanse. There's a consistent sound palette that leans on the warm snarl of monosynth low end and aqueous pads, delicately edited breaks and crisply sculpted synth percussion, but Uncles moves with dexterity around different tempos and structures within this considered sound world. The overarching notion is one of things lurking beneath the surface - a comfortably open theme to be approached and understood from any number of angles. It certainly chimes with the upfront detail and brooding tension that gives the Eusebeia sound such depth.

There are moments of direct drum pressure, such as fierce opener 'Undertones' with its diced-up breaks and icy chords, the boisterous jungle dread of 'Uncover' and chasmic roller 'Root Out', but on the likes of 'Beneath The Surface' and 'Out In The Open' it's the mellow elements that take precedence over the deft drum science. The motion is persistent and nuanced, but it's achieved without deferring to default dancefloor tropes.

'Emergence' marks a pointed shift towards a delicate strain of techno that maintains the album's sound at a mid-paced pulse, focusing on synth shapes and textures to achieve propulsion with only the lightest of drum parts. Alongside the energetic intrigue of Uncles' sonic choices, the melodic make-up of the track is a compelling showcase for his emotionally ambiguous approach, both rousing and chilling in the same curious chord shapes.

From the half-time prowl of 'Lifting The Veil' to the creeping textures and haunted phrasing of 'Brought To Light', Undertones is another stunning exercise in widescreen jungle. It flows naturally from the rich body of work Uncles has cultivated over the past 10 years while carving out its own unique pocket - a reminder if you needed one of the profound sound bedded into the Eusebeia project.

On At Tubby’s Dougie Poole plays stripped down live versions of his most treasured songs in a venue beloved by musicians for its’ intimacy & acoustics as well as its’ exceptional treatment of touring musicians. This set was a natural for release as a live album as it was a special night for the band. One of those nights when the music, audience and space all come together. It was recorded right from the board with minimal mixing work in post from Dougie himself.
The version of Dougie’s live band on At Tubby’s features main stays Mike Etten on electric guitar and Connor “Catfish” Gallaher on pedal steel. On the night’s first song “Los Angeles,” Etten’s classic country licks and Catfish’s soaring slide lines perfectly compliment Dougie’s formidable acoustic work and golden baritone. You can tell these three have been playing together for years and are road tested in this formation. They tackle some of Dougie’s most loved songs, from rave-up’s (“Beth David Cemetery” & “Vaping on the Job”) to country balladry (“Must Be in There Somewhere,” “Don’t You Think I’m Funny Anymore”) and all points in between.
There are some tracks here that might be new to fans of Dougie’s recent albums. “Toshiba Sky” is a one off digital single from 2020 and “Wild Motion” is a track Dougie wrote for L.A.’s Drugdealer, who recorded it for their 2020 album Raw Honey. Live at Tubby’s also sees the recorded debut of a new Dougie composition, “Heaven Sent an Angel” which closes out the set on a heartfelt note. At Tubby’s brings the listener to a spacial place and time, and will be a thrilling listen for fans old and new.

THE FIRST LADY OF SONG With her extraordinary voice, Ella Fitzgerald be- came a legend during her lifetime. She is considered one of the best singers of all time. Yet Ella actually wanted to become a dancer. However, she was too nervous to dance at a dance competition and sang instead. She won the first prize. The rest is history. With her Christmas album „Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas,“ Fitzgerald pioneered and paved the way for modern Christmas music. Everything that came af- ter would have been unthinkable without her. Rolling Stone lists the album first on its „40 Essential Christ- mas Albums“ list. This version also includes two bonus tracks: „Christmas Island“ and a medley.

The undisputed king of Disco House Purple Disco Machine returns to his club roots with retro-inspired release ‘Ghost Town’ ft. Rertosonix. Fresh off reworking the Hurts classic ‘Wonderful Life’ and delivering a huge remix for ‘Born Again’ (Lisa ft. Doja Cat & RAYE), the Dresden-born producer is once again ready to conquer the dancefloor with his signature sound. Tailor-made for that insatiable desire to dance, it’s a release engineered for movement, locking straight into the pulse of late-night energy and crowd euphoria. As such, the track is unsurprisingly becoming a favourite in Purple Disco Machine’s sets already, where dates in Mexico, the USA, and Spain have left the dancefloors anything but a ‘Ghost Town’. Armed with a dancefloor weapon, Purple Disco Machine drops the release early for DJs on Beatport.

A master of channelling the nostalgia of dance music’s beginnings and blending it with a modern-day flair, Purple Disco Machine has expertly crafted a record reminiscent of throwback disco cuts. The soulful vocals come courtesy of Retrosonix, successful songwriters who have come together to specialise in retro disco vocals that ingeniously feel straight from the archives. You’ll be sonically transported back to a time when disco was heard on every corner. Tactfully letting the powerful hooks and provocative lyricism lead the rhythm for the tune, Purple Disco Machine’s iconic groove-driven beats and mesmerising synths lay the foundation for a dancefloor classic. Crafting breakdowns dripping with funk, the disco maestro builds to a crescendo that will undoubtedly be a crowd pleaser for his many shows in 2025.

On the release, Purple Disco Machine said: “While a number of my recent records have referenced the more electronic 80s disco sound, I never lost the love for the classic funky disco of the 70s - which in many ways was the original blueprint - and so it has been equally inspiring and enjoyable to work with this palette again. I'm hoping that the listeners are as haunted (in a good way…) by Ghost Town as I am !”

FOLLOW UP TO THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED 2023 ALBUM ‘RPB’ (UTR151):

- #4 MOJO FOLK ALBUMS OF THE YEAR+ FOLK ALBUM OF THE MONTH:
“ IT MELTS TRAD TECHNIQUES AND MINECRAFT BURBLE INTO ‘A MASSIVE, MULTI-PLAYER ONLINE DREAM’ . INCOMPREHENSIBLE/IRRESISTIBLE’

‘ME LOST ME’S RPG (UPSET THE RHYTHM) IS AN EXCITING, IMAGINATIVE ALBUM EXPLORING THE LINKS BETWEEN TRADITIONAL INFLUENCES AND ELECTRONICS IN FERTILE WAYS.’ THE GUARDIAN - FOLK ALBUMS OF THE MONTH.

'FROM NEWCASTLE, VIA UPSET THE RHYTHM, JAYNE DENT EXPLORES FOLK ART AND FUTURISM TO SPELLBINDING EFFECT' THE QUIETUS

FULL PAGE REVIEW IN WIRE MAGAZINE:"ME LOST ME'S NEW ALBUM RPG IS FILLED WITH STORIES OF ADVENTURE AND SELF-DISCOVERY IN VERDANT NATURAL LANDSCAPES, SUNG WITH FEELING AND CLARITY"

Me Lost Me - the project of Newcastle-based artist Jayne Dent - delights in experimenting with songwriting, creating a beguiling mix of soaring vocals and atmospheric electronics that playfully push the boundaries of genre.

On Me Lost Me’s fourth full-length, This Material Moment - arriving on Upset the Rhythm on 27th June - she has created an “emotionally raw” album, her most honest and vulnerable yet.

Concerned with physicality, interpretations, and, yes, materiality, This Material Moment is an album akin to rummaging through a box of long-forgotten trinkets. With each song, Me Lost Me extracts something from the box and asks us to consider it from every angle. "This is an album which uses words as a material, a playful tool for experimentation, full of metaphor, abstraction and analogies.” Jayne says, “it has softness and anger, humour, hope and despair, intensity of feeling in all directions expressed as textures, objects, places."

With the release of This Material Moment Me Lost Me puts into practice the automatic writing techniques she developed during a workshop with Julia Holter, and in the process has spun her music in different directions that draws on poetry, psalms and using mesostic poems and phonetic translations to generate words. “Despite the chance-based writing strategies throughout, it feels like the most emotionally raw album I've ever made,” she says, likening the process to a Rorschah test which revealed things to her she wasn’t expecting to express. “I wanted to hide in stories, but I saw things plainly when I tried to write.” Having finished the writing process, Jayne realised that she had an unexpectedly personal album on her hands, into which her feelings of burnout and overwhelm had crept unconsciously. “Several of the songs for me express a kind of inner conflict, where you’re trying to keep hope and desire and beauty and art near to your heart, to live a meaningful life, but finding that increasingly hard to hold onto in a world that’s so fucked up.”

Whilst Jayne Dent’s music as Me Lost Me has previously presented time stretching back and forwards in opposition (noticeably on 2023’s album RPG), on This Material Moment she does away with linearity altogether, evoking rather than narrating, and presenting feelings, happenings and moods with no clear beginning or end point - “like experiencing a vista, trying to capture a moment that is unfolding all at once”. Instead, each track on This Material Moment exists entirely in media res, adjacent to past and future, and instead sprawling across the endless now.

This Material Moment was written and arranged solo, but played with a core band of John Pope on electric/double bass, Faye MacCalman on clarinet, and now with the addition of Ewan Mackenzie (Dextro/Pigs x7) on drums - bringing in live drums and electric bass for the first time. The album was recorded by Sam Grant at Blank Studios in Newcastle, who also worked on RPG.

Emotional Rescue completes the series of non-defined reissues where the label licenses an all-time favourite, remasters and then reappraised with new interpretations by contemporary producers for today’s collectors.

After the series started back in 2019 with Hawkwind’s sprawling psychedelic electronics, featuring deep drone mixes by the esteemed digger Cherrystones (ERC074), the bouncing cosmic-Balearics of Thomas Leer with wonderful reworkings by friend and producer Bullion (ERC075) and then the post punk dubs of The Embrace and Timothy J Faiplay’s brooding italo-dub excursions (ERC076), there was always one artist and producer left out. Finally, then the percussive excursion of the early 80s band The Impossible Dreamers and their cult B side jam, Spin, coming with 9 minutes percussion-dub extravaganza of an extended reversion, plus a dub heavy reprise, by label go-to Dan Tyler (Idjut Boys /Noid), under his NAD moniker.

Started by a group of friends while at Exeter University that centered around Caroline Radcliffe, James Hood, Justin Adams and Nick Waterhouse, their debut 12” record is one of just three on the 100 Things To Do label. The other two releases have already been covered with the Hamburger All Stars ‘Swinging London’ 12” (ERC114) of 2022.

Recorded before the move to West London, ‘Life On Earth’ was a raw post punk vocal pop cut, with influences of dub, funk, hip-hop and African music shining through, there were in their own words, “young music fans starting out, with no agenda”.

However, it was on the B side that things got interesting. Enamored by the growing trend of extended 12” singles, they decided, with the A side wrapped up, to have some studio experimentation by recording a drumming jam, with all the members playing percussion, followed by some overdubbing. Memories are hazy, but at the time the band was an 8-piece, so the results a chaotic explosion, capturing the essence of that time. Featuring Nick and James on 4 hand piano, plus Caroline on Oboe, with some additional hollering and wooping vocals, Spin was a 5-minute burst of energy.

In effect, self-released in 1982, the band didn’t expect much to come of it, but the 12” acted as a calling card leading them to London and later signing for RCA. At the same time, Spin was being discovered in the early eighties alternative club world. On a trip to New York, the track was heard being played Downtown, and on enquiring it was discovered the DJ was playing a 7” that was never an official release but cut in the US solely for the club DJs there.

Its resonance extended further, to Italy and the Cosmic club of the resident, an ever-searching Danielle Baldelli, before being picked up a few years later by a young Andrew Weatherall during his pursuit of an alternative “Balearic” beat during the late eighties Summers of Love and has even recently received the Joe Clausell edit treatment back again in NYC.

For the remake to fit the label series, it was only right to ask label friend Dan Tyler to do what he does so well, putting the original through his array of dub machines and pedals, extending and cutting with aplomb to create an incendiary ‘Reversion’ that will send dancefloors literally in a spin. Teasing the percussion incandescent, looping and teasing, the piano held back before finally releasing in a haze of dub effects.

This is followed by the ‘Riddim Reprise’. Working with London based drummer Matt Bruce (Claptrap), this is the perfect DJ tool, taking the original idea of the band, to just jam see what happens, twisting it full of space echo and reverb, to offer a perfect 12” Extended Mix.

Pioneering British electronic musician Mark Van Hoen is set to release his latest solo album, The Eternal Present, on 23 May 2025 via Dell'Orso, a remarkable collection of tracks spanning nearly three decades of recordings from 1998 to 2024.
The Eternal Present embodies its philosophical title, inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept that "Eternity isn't some later time... Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off." The album explores music as the ultimate expression of existing in the present moment, transcending time and creating a sonic experience that is simultaneously "spectral, ghostly, melodic, harmonic, and decayed."
An influential contemporary of Aphex Twin, Autechre, LFO and Boards of Canada, Van Hoen is best known for his solo work as Locust in the mid-'90s, which helped push post-rave electronic music into newly challenging realms. His extensive discography spans releases on influential labels including R&S, Touch, and Editions Mego. Van Hoen has worked on numerous collaborations throughout his career, including with Nick Holton and Neil Halstead of Slowdive under the moniker Black Hearted Brother—their album Stars Are Our Home was released in 2013.
The Eternal Present continues the lineage of Van Hoen's most significant works, with artwork by Ian Anderson (Designers Republic) reflecting the album's "eternal present" concept with a mysterious visual approach, allowing listeners to form their own imaginary landscapes. The mastering by Stefan Betke (Pole) enhances this document of the evolution of the artist over the years as he continues to hone his signature sound. Using a host of instruments including analogue synthesisers and employing various recording approaches, Van Hoen's equipment changed dramatically over the years—from early DSP processing used on his first solo record on Apollo ‘Playing With Time’ to various synthesisers, modular systems, tape machines, and digital workstations—contributing to the album's rich sonic diversity.
Throughout The Eternal Present, ideas are woven together through spoken word quotations and abstract vocals featuring notable collaborations from Rachel Goswell on the Slowdive cover "Shine" (from 1998), Megan Mitchell (Cruel Diagonals) on "Somewhere", and session vocalists Clare Dove and Dorothy Takev on "No-One Leave" and "It's Not You (In A Way)" respectively. The use of cleverly assembled vocal samples from an "undisclosed but very famous female vocalist" on "Multiplex" (2016) and the indistinct vocalisations on the Cabaret Voltaire-influenced "Only Me" (2017), constantly challenges and disorientates the listener through fluctuating, ever-changing musical elements.
The album was recorded across multiple locations including Somerset, London, Los Angeles, and New York—even beginning compositions during flights and in airport lounges—reflecting Van Hoen's changing personal circumstances, environments, and situations throughout the years.
Of Indian-Jamaican descent, Van Hoen was born and raised in England, absorbing diverse musical influences from his neighbors—African-Jamaican on one side and Punjabi Indian on the other. "Each family played their own music frequently, and I absorbed it." His musical foundations include Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, OMD, Tangerine Dream, Japan, Cabaret Voltaire, and Cocteau Twins, later finding inspiration in My Bloody Valentine, LFO, and '90s producers Robert Leiner and CJ Bolland.
These eclectic influences are evident on The Eternal Present, which contains snapshots of different periods in his life, with changing circumstances across decades creating a variety of textures and sounds. As Mark explains: "It holds the same sonic signature as many of my solo releases and early Locust albums. It's a natural development that has taken place in the last few decades. It's even related to the earliest music I made as a teenager, although perhaps more sophisticated."
“What a remarkably affecting, majestically broad and captivating work it is..what strikes you most is the album’s myriad diversity. Outstanding” (Electronic Sound)

“Whether channelling mid- 70’s Eno, early Aphex Twin or Neu! his vivid sounds shimmer with emotional weight” (Mojo 4*)

"Musically, Van Hoen belongs to a distinguished family tree. Originally influenced by the likes of Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream, and later presaging both Autechre's glitch and Boards of Canada's pastoral IDM." (Pitchfork)

The debut album from Addy Weitzman, ‘Light Months Will Fly Over Us’ explores new-wave, romantic pop and art rock with elegance and ambition, drawing from Weitzman’s scattered network of collaborators, as well as a “frighteningly vast” personal archive of compositions. Sequenced by Seth Troxler and released on his Slacker 85 label, it represents a pivot in musical direction for the imprint, and a showcase for the songwriting craft Weitzman honed as a member of cult electro duo Footprintz, and Montreal synth-pop projects The Beat Escape and Dawn to Dawn.

The title Light Months Will Fly Over Us is derived from a line in a poem by the Russian writer Anna Ahkmatova. Weitzman was immediately struck by its “hopefulness, its mystery… it gives the feeling of being suspended, hanging in a dream-like state”. This interpretation has been translated to the album, rich in memorable songwriting that nonetheless invites the listener to lean in further. Delicately mixed by engineer Pierre Guerineau, known for his work alongside Marie Davidson, each of the eight tracks gently interrogates life’s greater mysteries; fear, love and salvation, each defining and revealing the human soul.

Opener ‘End of The Line’ invites us into an immediately lush space of lounge lizard existentialism, soft brass and piano helping Weitzman introduce “where the journey begins and the fantasy dies”. Across orchestral arrangements arranged by Adam Wilcox, whose sensitive, ambitious compositions are weaved throughout the album, ‘Beyond The Speed of Life’ brings to mind the laments of Scott Walker. Navigating vulnerability via grandeur, Weitzman’s earnest vocals flourish in wide-eyed call-and-response with the object of a transcendent love affair.

Alongside collaborator, Richard Lamb, the next chapter of the LP plunges into contrasting machine-driven moods; the wry, bubbling ‘Entertainment Is All I Wanted (And I Found It)’ is imbued with the playfulness and experimentation of 80s electronic pioneers such as Fad Gadget, while the tougher, icier ‘Stranger To Your Kind’ shifts in a more instrumental direction, recalling Weitzman’s dancefloor experience, as well as contemporaries such as Matthew Dear.

Album centerpiece and striking first single ‘Running & Returning’ is the first of a suite of three tracks in collaboration with Weitzman’s The Beat Escape and Dawn to Dawn bandmate, Patrick Boivin. Blending lush saxophones and angular guitars with a wistful melodic touch and lyrics, its irresistible art-rock rhythm provides the foundation for one of Weitzman’s most involving vocal performances.

It’s followed by an anthem for existential absurdity: ‘Ice Cream Candle’ provides a driving acceptance that “the more and more you learn, the less you understand”; Weitzman submits to this uncertainty with equal grace on ‘No Man’s Land’, as baroque invocations of “words swept through the fields” and meeting “where the water lilies grow” give way to a blistering guitar solo, humbly riding hypnotic percussion.

For the compassionate finale of Light Months Will Fly Over Us, Weitzman narrates the experience of ‘Gabrielle’, a woman slipping between rooms between shuttered blinds in the towering city, “where cigarettes and roses fill the air.”

As lyrically delicate as it is musically ambitious, Light Months Will Fly Over Us is a sublime debut album, enriched with care, love and much-needed enchantment.

Despite the outright denial in its title, death is present in every one of the songs on Never Die, the collaborative album from MIDWIFE’s Madeline Johnston and Matt Jencik (of Implodes, Don Caballero, and Slint’s live band). Jencik held the tenderest thought imaginable when he came up with that phrase—Never Die—the fact that the people he loves eventually would, a certainty that feels impossible and remote, until the day it absolutely doesn’t. Never Die represents Jencik’s desperate bid to hold onto everyone he loves, to keep them on Earth so fiercely that they might enter the grave with claw marks on their skin.

Johnston, who recognizes the grace of mortality (and who, as MIDWIFE once sang: “I don’t wanna live forever,” over and over) serves as the spiritual guide for the album, transmuting the fear of death into an incentive to live more keenly and dearly. Following a number of ambient drone instrumental albums, Jencik felt the need to set himself a new creative challenge: to write vocal-heavy songs. He worked on them alone in his basement, recording directly to a four-track cassette. He sent those demos to a different collaborator to tinker with before that partnership eventually dissolved. Then, he thought of Madeline: the way her voice tended to glower in her songs, as well as her commitment to minimalism, which fell squarely within the project’s aesthetic and spiritual impulses.

“I was immediately drawn to what she was doing,” Jencik says. In both of their work, Jencik and Johnston understand minimalism as a vehicle for enormous, desperate and universal emotions. Entire worlds come in and out of existence between each of their sparse notes; a great breadth of feeling is bedded into the simple structure of their songs. Never Die offers a calm confrontation with the dour inevitability that bookends our lives. When the fact of death looms over life, it tends to denature every experience we have and every relationship we know we’ll eventually have to forfeit back to the Earth. No one, no matter how hard we love, makes it out of this alive thing. But we feel anyway. And we love anyway. And we sing anyway. Here, Jencik and Johnston have sung ‘die’ over and over, snowglobing life in the process.

Active between 1970 and 1976, the Bolton Iron Maiden (originally known as Birth and then Iron Maiden) was a psychedelic hard-rock band formed in Bolton by Ian Boulton-Smith (Beak) on lead guitar, Derek George Austin on bass and Paul TJ O’Neill on drums / vocals.
Influenced by contemporaries like LED ZEPPELIN, CREAM, FREE, GROUNDHOGS OR ANDROMEDA, their music blended blues, hard rock, and progressive elements.
They soon built a strong reputation supporting acts such as UFO, Bedlam (with Cozy Powell), CARAVAN, THIN LIZZY... In 1976, the band disbanded following the death of guitarist Ian Boulton-Smith from cancer.
In 2005, Paul O’Neill revived interest in BIM by releasing two albums, “Maiden Flight” and “Boulton Rides Again”,which compiled studio and live recordings. The proceeds from these albums were donated to Cancer Research and Macmillan Cancer Support. With the blessing of the more famous
Iron Maiden and their manager Rod Smallwood, the band adopted the name “The Bolton Iron Maiden” to avoid confusion.
For the first time on vinyl, “Maiden Flight” collects their previously unreleased studio recordings from 1972 plus raw as f*ck live tracks circa 1975.
*Insert with detailed liner notes and rare photos / memorabilia / *Download card with extra (live) bonus tracks

From the sunny shores of Miami, Florida, Fat Produce is leading the charge in today's soul-jazz scene. Their latest release features two classic tracks, "No Way" and "54-46 Was My Number," which are beautifully molded into Fat Produce's unique sound led by guitarist Addison Rifkind and drummer Michael Duffy. This limited 7" single offers a preview of what’s to come from this rising trio.

The influence of Boogaloo Joe Jones is undeniable, so incorporating his 1970s classic "No Way" into their repertoire was a fitting tribute for the band. With a deeper sound and an infectious groove, Fat Produce pays homage to this musical giant, guaranteed to get everyone moving on the dance floor. On the flip side, "54-46 Was My Number" is a reimagination of a Toots & The Maytals original, transformed into the instrumental style of a soul-jazz guitar trio. Rifkind's lyrical guitar work breathes new life into Toots' original vocal melodies, embodying the essence of soul-jazz and crossing genres to keep the spirit of feel-good music alive.

Both tracks were recorded on a Tascam 388 at Studio Del Sol in Boca Raton, Florida, by Travis Acker and mixed at The F-Spot HQ in Los Angeles by D.M.C. With upright bassist Nestor Del Prado joining the duo on this album, Fat Produce's forthcoming sophomore LP is set to be released in October 2025.

Accomplished Polish beat-maker Emapea has made memorable appearances on many Cold Busted label compilations – such as in the IWYMI and Bust Free series – and has been selected for inclusion in Mark Farina’s next Mushroom Jazz installment. All this activity has mouths watering for the debut full length album from Emapea, and the appearance of Seeds, Roots & Fruits doesn’t disappoint one bit. Featuring sixteen exceptional tracks ranging from hip hop to acid jazz to psychedelic trip hop in the style of Mo’Wax, Emapea’s long player is indeed, as a wise man once said, “a journey into sound.” Seeds, Roots & Fruits rises above the average beats album to reveal the enduring depth of this young producer

Domenique Dumont’s fourth album, Deux Paradis, arrives like the three that came before it – with an air of mystery and wonder. This is dance music for inner worlds – rituals, revelations and reveries.
Deux Paradis is a ten-track song cycle that leads the listener through the rhythm of a day, the bloom and fade of a relationship, or even the stages of a life.

It begins with a song about waking up – the candy-striped dub of “Enchantia” – and traces the sun’s arc with the pixelated reggae of “La Vie Va” and the sensuous rush of “Amants Ennemis”. As night falls, the songs take on a twilight quality in the
shimmering pop of “The Order of Invisible Things” and the seductive pulse of “Visages Visages” (a subtle nod to the Desireless classic). There’s also the baroque swoon of “Deux Paradis” and the soft exotica of “Visiteur de la Nuit”. Bolder and richer than before, it’s vintage Domenique Dumont – timeless and romantic, yet laced with an unplaceable sense of longing, like in an Éric Rohmer film. After the instrumental film score People On Sunday (Leaf, 2020) – composed solo by Arturs Liepins – singer Anete Stuce returns to Domenique Dumont, bringing her inimitable joie de vivre. Deux Paradis completes a trilogy of releases alongside Comme Ça (2015) and Miniatures De Auto Rhythm (2018) on the Antinote label.

Deux Paradis was composed, arranged and between 2022 and the end of 2024 in studios in Riga and Paris, and on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa.

Pelican has always been a band that's not just from Chicago, but distinctly of Chicago. Formed in 2000 by guitarists Trevor Shelley de Brauw and Laurent Schroeder-Lebec alongside brothers Bryan and Larry Herweg on bass and drums respectively, Pelican's foundation was built upon the rule-free, genre-agnostic scene synonymous with the Fireside Bowl. "The `90s in Chicago was a free-for-all. Everyone was just coming from a place of pure creativity," says Shelley de Brauw. With Schroeder-Lebec returning to the band following Dallas Thomas' departure in 2022, this reunified version of Pelican allowed the band to tap back into the spirit of their formative era and build something distinctly new with Flickering Resonance. While longtime Pelican fans will recognize the album as an update to the band's ethos_one that's been constantly evolving since their very first EP_their new partnership with Run For Cover Records emphasizes something that's always been implicit to the Pelican formula. These songs take as much inspiration from titanic `90s post-hardcore, space-rock, and emo as they do traditional metal, showing that though Godflesh and Goatsnake records occupied the shelves of Pelican's songwriters, so too did Quicksand, Christie Front Drive, and Hum. "A lot of people didn't hear it at first," says Schroeder-Lebec. "I was like, well, I guess the metal world is where we fit. But now, we're more willing to acknowledge all the suits we're wearing."On Flickering Resonance, Pelican doesn't attempt to reinvent itself as much as emphasize the elements that were so often overlooked. Though Pelican's thick sonic backbone remains intact, the songs on Flickering Resonance show a more humanistic side of the band. Tracks like "Evergreen" and "Indelible" tease Pelican's doom-metal roots, but these songs feel equally, ebullient and truthful, playing like Texas Is The Reason songs transmuted into a post-rock landscape. Recorded with longtime musical compatriot Sanford Parker, who recorded their first EP, Pelican begins this new chapter of their career with an album that's neither full reinvention nor back-to-roots revivalism. After so much time apart, and with so much life having been lived between the original Pelican lineup's last recording sessions together, the band approached it with renewed vigor and a more communal spirit."There was more room for openness and critique with the understanding that we're all trying to craft the best song possible and that every suggestion is valid until it's proven invalid," says Shelley de Brauw. That process allowed everyone to embrace the material with a shared vision. "We didn't move forward unless we all wanted to move forward, and that felt like real community building," says Schroeder-Lebec of this unified approach. "I went from seeing it as my art and my craft to our craft that we were shaping together."In doing so, Pelican allowed themselves to look at their music less as a means of hard-earned catharsis and more as an appreciation for the glimmers of joy that occur even in the bleakest landscapes. Songs like "Cascading Crescent" and "Indelible" don't languish in what's been lost, these tracks see the band embracing what remains in their hands instead of lamenting what's slipped through their fingers. It's a concept that's mirrored in the artwork of Christian Degn that graces the cover of Flickering Resonance. It's a piece built off the concept of flame meditation, and how the smallest flames can often bring about the biggest transformations. A song like "Flickering Stillness" exemplifies this feeling through its sonic expanse, putting the band's sonic density and hyper-focused clarity on display, but with an emphasis on the profound human connections that have kept Pelican going all these years. "When Laurent left and we were able to carry it through, there became a real sense of gratitude for the fact we still have this artistic outlet and a community of people who want to be a part of it" That feeling of deep, grounded appreciation isn't just one that's within the band members, it's expressed in every track on Flickering Resonance. Because at the very core of Pelican, are four individuals who have grown both separately and together, and always will.Like a distant light faintly glowing in the darkest night, Flickering Resonance is a reminder of all that has passed us by, but also all that is still to come.

The one-of-a-kind solo album by legendary jazz bassist Isao Suzuki—originally released in 1981—is now reissued on analog vinyl!

Crafted entirely by Suzuki himself through meticulous multi-track recording, the album features an eclectic mix of instruments including upright bass, Hammond organ, vocoder, Taishogoto, and erhu, along with his own vocals. Not only did he compose and perform all the music, but he also designed the jacket artwork and wrote the liner notes, making this truly a singular, self-contained expression of Isao Suzuki in every sense—a bold, genre-defying one-man masterpiece.

In 1995, when Cobweb-day was released, Fabrice Laureau was 24, Nicolas Laureau 21, Ludovic Morillon 22, and Quentin Rollet, who had just joined them on this new album, was 21. Prohibition, founded in 1989, had already released two albums: Turtle in 1993 and Nobodinside in 1994, on the Distorsion label. Cobweb-day, literally "Spider-web Day," is poetic, satirical, and libertarian. A title conceived by Nicolas to express all the feelings and themes explored on the album, this neologism also echoes the artwork on the cover. The lyrics describe, in vitriolic poetry and with a touch of self-deprecation, a world based on the powers of commodification and order, on submission to modern Molochs. Thirty years ago, it addressed themes such as the trade in minds and bodies, Kafkaesque justice, state violence, and Western blindness. Is this a coincidence that might raise a smile? Fabrice and Nicolas were both conscientious objectors at the time the album was written. The deceptively childish drawing that adorns the cover was created by Fabrice in 1989. It evokes African art and the skyscraper where the brothers grew up. Its title? "Glances on the Horizon." Yet, in these naive eyes, locked in a rhizomic matrix, there is the disturbing sensation of being observed, scrutinized, or perhaps imprisoned. This is Cobweb-day. During this period, the band spent its entire life touring with the British post-punk trio Headcleaner and the furious Lyon-based Condense. Their correspondence, followed by a meeting in 1994 with Guy Picciotto, singer-guitarist in Fugazi, led to a series of concerts with the Washington, DC quartet, around the time of the album's release in the spring of 1995. Quentin Rollet gradually joined the band, first on stage and then on the records. The concerts of this era often ended with long improvisations featuring saxophone, sitar, bass, and drums. Prohibition had emerged from the shadows, but chose to continue evolving underground, with the Laureau brothers creating their label Prohibited Records. Cobweb-day serves as the first reference. Thirty years ago, then. The album was recorded at Ark Studios near Paris in January 1995, along with eight other previously unreleased tracks. This new mix was created at Black Box Studios by Peter Deimel and Nicolas from 24-track analog tapes in August 1998, shortly before the release of 14 Ups & Downs, Prohibition's fifth and final album, and their US tour. All tracks were remastered by Fabrice and Nicolas Laureau in March/April 2025.