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Tramhaus aus Rotterdam wurden nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums "The First Exit" (2024) und zahlreichen Shows in ganz Europa (und weit darüber hinaus!) bereits als "DIE holländische Post-Punk-Sensation" beschrieben und wahrgenommen. Im Oktober 2026 erscheint das neue Album "Blister" bei Siluh Records. Die Band bewegt sich seit ihrer Gründung 2020 zwischen treibendem Post-Hardcore und Indierock-/Shoegaze-Anleihen, garniert mit einem Schuss kalkulierter Dissonanz. Dabei verorten sich Tramhaus, über die musikalischen Einflüsse hinaus, explizit als Teil einer organisch gewachsenen, internationalen Szene, eines Netzwerks aus unabhängigen Agenturen, Labels und Veranstaltern mit deren Hilfe die Band nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums innerhalb ein, zwei Jahren zum Szene-Tipp und must-see avancierte. Kraftvoll, laut und selbstbewusst gewinnt Blister bei wiederholtem Hören an Format. Das Album besticht durch eine neue Eleganz sowie spürbarem Raumgefühl und enormer Wucht. Dies rührt zum Teil aus einer gewachsenen, detailierteren Produktion her, die auch die vielen Zwischentöne einfängt. Die schwindelerregende Natur des fast zweijährigen, ununterbrochenen Reisens spiegelt sich im Titel des ungeduldigen Eröffnungsstücks "Plovdiv" wider (ein Ort, an dem sie übrigens tatsächlich gespielt haben): Ein Glam-artiger Stampf-Rhythmus und eine federnde Basslinie treiben eine Reihe bedrohlicher Gitarrenriffs voran - Elemente, die allesamt jenen Sound widerspiegeln, mit dem Tramhaus in letzter Zeit die Konzertbühnen in Schutt und Asche gelegt haben. Auch weitere Stücke wie "Rat Race" und "I Was Never Alone" klingen ganz ähnlich. Die langsameren Titel des Albums offenbaren bisweilen eine ,rockistische" Erhabenheit, die sie zuvor lediglich angedeutet hatten: vielleicht im Stil der Pixies oder der späten Nirvana (man höre und staune!) - oder, an anderer Stelle als leises Flüstern, das an Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds erinnert. "Overachiever, Big Believer" und "Sly (Like Ever)" zeichnen sich durch eine beißende, knurrende Grundstimmung sowie geduldig ausgearbeitete Melodielinien aus - Eigenschaften, die im Jahr 1991 zweifellos hervorragend ins musikalische Zeitbild gepasst hätten. An anderer Stelle besticht "Solace" mit seinem offenen Akkordanschlag durch eine lässige Attitüde, die direkt einem Stück der Saints oder der Bad Seeds entstammen könnte. Das Beste wird sich für den Schluss aufgehoben: Bei "Swarm" bricht nach einem monolithischen, an die frühen Pere Ubu erinnernden Bass-Grollen ein grandioses, Sabbath-artiges Riff über den Hörer herein. Es ist ein hymnisches, transzendentes Stück, das in früheren Zeiten ein garantierter Hit gewesen wäre - eine Single, die Teenager auf der ganzen Welt dazu animiert hätte, ihre Air-Guitar-Künste vor Mamas Schlafzimmerspiegel zu perfektionieren. Also, das zweite Album der genau richtig neben dem Mainstream verorteten Postpunk-Niederländer*innen nicht verpassen!

Tramhaus aus Rotterdam wurden nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums "The First Exit" (2024) und zahlreichen Shows in ganz Europa (und weit darüber hinaus!) bereits als "DIE holländische Post-Punk-Sensation" beschrieben und wahrgenommen. Im Oktober 2026 erscheint das neue Album "Blister" bei Siluh Records. Die Band bewegt sich seit ihrer Gründung 2020 zwischen treibendem Post-Hardcore und Indierock-/Shoegaze-Anleihen, garniert mit einem Schuss kalkulierter Dissonanz. Dabei verorten sich Tramhaus, über die musikalischen Einflüsse hinaus, explizit als Teil einer organisch gewachsenen, internationalen Szene, eines Netzwerks aus unabhängigen Agenturen, Labels und Veranstaltern mit deren Hilfe die Band nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums innerhalb ein, zwei Jahren zum Szene-Tipp und must-see avancierte. Kraftvoll, laut und selbstbewusst gewinnt Blister bei wiederholtem Hören an Format. Das Album besticht durch eine neue Eleganz sowie spürbarem Raumgefühl und enormer Wucht. Dies rührt zum Teil aus einer gewachsenen, detailierteren Produktion her, die auch die vielen Zwischentöne einfängt. Die schwindelerregende Natur des fast zweijährigen, ununterbrochenen Reisens spiegelt sich im Titel des ungeduldigen Eröffnungsstücks "Plovdiv" wider (ein Ort, an dem sie übrigens tatsächlich gespielt haben): Ein Glam-artiger Stampf-Rhythmus und eine federnde Basslinie treiben eine Reihe bedrohlicher Gitarrenriffs voran - Elemente, die allesamt jenen Sound widerspiegeln, mit dem Tramhaus in letzter Zeit die Konzertbühnen in Schutt und Asche gelegt haben. Auch weitere Stücke wie "Rat Race" und "I Was Never Alone" klingen ganz ähnlich. Die langsameren Titel des Albums offenbaren bisweilen eine ,rockistische" Erhabenheit, die sie zuvor lediglich angedeutet hatten: vielleicht im Stil der Pixies oder der späten Nirvana (man höre und staune!) - oder, an anderer Stelle als leises Flüstern, das an Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds erinnert. "Overachiever, Big Believer" und "Sly (Like Ever)" zeichnen sich durch eine beißende, knurrende Grundstimmung sowie geduldig ausgearbeitete Melodielinien aus - Eigenschaften, die im Jahr 1991 zweifellos hervorragend ins musikalische Zeitbild gepasst hätten. An anderer Stelle besticht "Solace" mit seinem offenen Akkordanschlag durch eine lässige Attitüde, die direkt einem Stück der Saints oder der Bad Seeds entstammen könnte. Das Beste wird sich für den Schluss aufgehoben: Bei "Swarm" bricht nach einem monolithischen, an die frühen Pere Ubu erinnernden Bass-Grollen ein grandioses, Sabbath-artiges Riff über den Hörer herein. Es ist ein hymnisches, transzendentes Stück, das in früheren Zeiten ein garantierter Hit gewesen wäre - eine Single, die Teenager auf der ganzen Welt dazu animiert hätte, ihre Air-Guitar-Künste vor Mamas Schlafzimmerspiegel zu perfektionieren. Also, das zweite Album der genau richtig neben dem Mainstream verorteten Postpunk-Niederländer*innen nicht verpassen! Dieses frisch grüne Vinyl ist limitiert (100 Stück weltweit)!

Tramhaus aus Rotterdam wurden nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums "The First Exit" (2024) und zahlreichen Shows in ganz Europa (und weit darüber hinaus!) bereits als "DIE holländische Post-Punk-Sensation" beschrieben und wahrgenommen. Im Oktober 2026 erscheint das neue Album "Blister" bei Siluh Records. Die Band bewegt sich seit ihrer Gründung 2020 zwischen treibendem Post-Hardcore und Indierock-/Shoegaze-Anleihen, garniert mit einem Schuss kalkulierter Dissonanz. Dabei verorten sich Tramhaus, über die musikalischen Einflüsse hinaus, explizit als Teil einer organisch gewachsenen, internationalen Szene, eines Netzwerks aus unabhängigen Agenturen, Labels und Veranstaltern mit deren Hilfe die Band nach der Veröffentlichung ihres Debütalbums innerhalb ein, zwei Jahren zum Szene-Tipp und must-see avancierte. Kraftvoll, laut und selbstbewusst gewinnt Blister bei wiederholtem Hören an Format. Das Album besticht durch eine neue Eleganz sowie spürbarem Raumgefühl und enormer Wucht. Dies rührt zum Teil aus einer gewachsenen, detailierteren Produktion her, die auch die vielen Zwischentöne einfängt. Die schwindelerregende Natur des fast zweijährigen, ununterbrochenen Reisens spiegelt sich im Titel des ungeduldigen Eröffnungsstücks "Plovdiv" wider (ein Ort, an dem sie übrigens tatsächlich gespielt haben): Ein Glam-artiger Stampf-Rhythmus und eine federnde Basslinie treiben eine Reihe bedrohlicher Gitarrenriffs voran - Elemente, die allesamt jenen Sound widerspiegeln, mit dem Tramhaus in letzter Zeit die Konzertbühnen in Schutt und Asche gelegt haben. Auch weitere Stücke wie "Rat Race" und "I Was Never Alone" klingen ganz ähnlich. Die langsameren Titel des Albums offenbaren bisweilen eine ,rockistische" Erhabenheit, die sie zuvor lediglich angedeutet hatten: vielleicht im Stil der Pixies oder der späten Nirvana (man höre und staune!) - oder, an anderer Stelle als leises Flüstern, das an Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds erinnert. "Overachiever, Big Believer" und "Sly (Like Ever)" zeichnen sich durch eine beißende, knurrende Grundstimmung sowie geduldig ausgearbeitete Melodielinien aus - Eigenschaften, die im Jahr 1991 zweifellos hervorragend ins musikalische Zeitbild gepasst hätten. An anderer Stelle besticht "Solace" mit seinem offenen Akkordanschlag durch eine lässige Attitüde, die direkt einem Stück der Saints oder der Bad Seeds entstammen könnte. Das Beste wird sich für den Schluss aufgehoben: Bei "Swarm" bricht nach einem monolithischen, an die frühen Pere Ubu erinnernden Bass-Grollen ein grandioses, Sabbath-artiges Riff über den Hörer herein. Es ist ein hymnisches, transzendentes Stück, das in früheren Zeiten ein garantierter Hit gewesen wäre - eine Single, die Teenager auf der ganzen Welt dazu animiert hätte, ihre Air-Guitar-Künste vor Mamas Schlafzimmerspiegel zu perfektionieren. Also, das zweite Album der genau richtig neben dem Mainstream verorteten Postpunk-Niederländer*innen nicht verpassen! Dieses frisch grüne Vinyl ist limitiert (100 Stück weltweit)!

On Last Night At Marienbad's latest, the imprint brings together three of the brightest souls found within the realms of Jazz, namely Mauricesax, 9ick and Milan93, with their collective talents synergising effortlessly on 'A Garden Between Us', alongside a stellar cast of remixers who add even further delight between the grooves….

As a genre, Jazz has perhaps lent itself the most to other musical universes, in that its curious heart, endlessly experimental nature, and parameter-defying spirit have wrapped itself deep within the core of countless albums, scenes, and music makers. It's a genre that welcomes reinvention, consistently defying its contents and always reaching out to find new methods of expressionism. Electronic music, in its many forms, has truly embraced Jazz perhaps like no other movement of music has, with a truly astonishing array of records surfacing in the past 40 years which have blended Jazz's unique motifs with grooves, chords, and emotive excellence. From 90s Jazz house and UR Techno, through to Future Jazz, downtempo, and Hip Hop, and around many other suns, there remains such an intrinsic and symbiotic relationship between the two musical realms that caters to those who wish to live music both within and out with themselves.

As practitioners of blending electronica and Jazz, few do it like the trio of Mauricesax, 9ick, and Milan93. All three are known for their distinctive soundscapes, yet share commonalities in terms of musical language, feel, and sense of progression. Bringing them together allows for overlaps in their sounds to emerge, and just like Jazz itself, this is where the intrinsicness of sound begins to blossom. 9ick brings his softly evolving vibe to the table, one which was so prevalent and celebrated on his 2025 album 'SMIL'; Milan93 draws from his focal point of exploring fill-laden grooves and a myriad of emotive sensibilities; and Mauricesax draws up his extensive musicality that exists at the corner of jazz, electronic, and experimental music, along with running musical workshops all over the globe.

'A Garden Between Us' represents the trio's core tenets, with this immediately obvious from the record's opener, 'Rhodora'. A gentle solo piano quickly evolves into a series of powerful rhythmic pulses, with brass lines bringing vitality and feel to proceedings. The track shifts gears with purpose, transitioning between musical vignettes of the highest order, with the synth work doing much to bind the transitions together. 'Tulip' emerges slightly differently, with glossy Rhodes tones and an unravelling rhythmic undercurrent setting an enthralling stage. The track flourishes amongst sweeping textures, coming up for air amongst a deeply hypnotic rhythmic section that holds on and never lets up. 'Honeysuckle' lands next, which sees the trio emerge with a boundless, dynamic soundscape. The drums shift within the undertones, as keys, chords, horns and hip-hop vocal samples dance around the pulse, capturing the imagination with their narrative-like placement. Wrapping up the A side comes 'Camellia'. A dazzling array of harmonic sounds converges around the transfixing rhythm section, which emerges from deep below to lavishly roll out over the midsection, with the delicateness of the instrumentation a real highlight here.

The B side features two exquisite remixes, with Pacific Coliseum's version of 'Tulip' landing first. Beginning with a signature four to the floor to get things going, his careful handling of the source material is seen in the tactful introduction of the blissful elements that made the original cut so impactful, with great focus placed on emotive fidelity. The result is a summer-bound house number that reimagines the original in all the right ways, flipping it into a euphoria-driven jazz-laden pacer that reaches for the heavens as much as it drives right into the heart. Teuteu then showcases their take on 'Honeysuckle', and at 9 minutes long, represents the longest cut on the record - and the experience is all the richer for it. Leaning heavily into dance music flavours, Teuteu shifts perspective totally into the realm of the club, with the walls beating hard to the kicks. The sax lines that drift ethereally up top keep eyes closed and souls full, as the dance shifts into the next phase.

An experience that drifts from the daydreaming, to soul-warming through to the club shaking - what else is left to experience, except for 'A Garden Between Us' and how it will brighten up life itself….

Moulded By Industry is William D Drake's six album, his first for ten years and a return to the richly layered sonic texture and epic production of his majestic Briny Hooves. He is joined by long time collaborators James Larcombe, Dean Gaisburgh-Watkyn and Steve Jackson, with the addition of a new crew member, singer Treana Morris. Moving on from his nine years of pianistic and compositional duties in Cardiacs, Drake's solo work has been known for its synthesis of Mellotron-driven grandeur with a surreal playfulness.

But the deep heart of Drake's work is in its powerful evocation of the landscape of the countryside and its connection with love, longing and loss. To this end, his own enigmatic lyrics have rubbed shoulders with poetry drawn from across the centuries. From obscure sources such as Samuel Spree to the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Rupert Brooke, his settings make old words shimmer with human emotion. The texture of his music also reflects an inspirational lack of concern for distances of time. The earthy breath of his harmonium is interwoven with tones teased from archaic instruments by James Larcombe – hurdy-gurdy, dulcitone and melodeon.

But Drake's sound-world is no museum. Here, ancient words and the timbres of ancient instruments become one with the rush of a moment's emotion. Moulded By Industry brings this approach a new sonic depth, intoxicatingly shaded by Treana's lush vocal harmonies and underpinned by Steve's rhythm. Dean's evocative guitar textures give an oceanic sense, tinged with Americana, recalling his work with Drake in their alt country band Nervous. These many layers of sound are drawn together into vivid soundscapes by the painterly mixing of producer Ott. Renowned for his work in electronica and dub, Ott's two decades of experience working with artists such as Sinéad O'Connor, the Orb and Brian Eno bring an organic touch here, more akin to the elemental forces of land and sky than grid electricity. More than any of Drake's previous albums, Moulded By Industry reignites the emotional urgency of old texts. The gorgeous single The Flickering Shade, haunted by glimmers of lost possibilities, is set from words by Thomas Ashe. Turtledove's heady evocation of the blissful madness of love sets the words of an anonymous 17th century ballad. above all, the album is a testament to Drake's love of John Clare, 'The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet'. Clare wrote as the centuries old process of enclosure, in which wild and common land was appropriated commercially, was accelerating.

His works, rather than representing simple sentimentality, are passionate love poems to the landscape and cries from a soul reeling from the creeping unfamiliarity devouring it. This sense of the tension between passion and ill-ease has its most potent expression in Green Shadows. The brooding, slow-tempo energy of Steve's drums drive a horizon-wide lament, alternately lulled by Treana's vocal textures and made restless by James' plaintive hurdy-gurdy and the emotive pull of Dean's slide guitar. The present moment is also a time of enclosure, both metaphorically, as our lives, memories and emotions are drawn into the commercial space of social media, and literally as land and water are swallowed by vast data centre developments. Moulded By Industry celebrates a regained sense of being in the moment in the landscape, in life and in love. The album closes with the utterly delightful single Love In The Universe. The kind of song that could make a cynic use the word 'joyous' without irony, this Harry Nilsson-esque romp reassures us, with a wink, that 'in an infinite universe everything has its place ... even the human race'.

The title of Ghost Bridge, the East-Coast-spanning chamber ensemble Hour's fifth record, is less metaphorical than one might expect. Bandleader Michael Cormier- O'Leary repurposed it from an unrealized movie concept about a bridge that inexplicably starts disappearing. On the nearly-ten-minute title track of this richly imaginative suite of songs_written for a 13-piece ensemble that includes woodwinds, strings, and vibraphone as well as a rock rhythm section_Hour conjures up this central image with spectral string harmonics and free-time percussion gestures. While writing the keyboard pieces that became the takeoff point for the album, Cormier-O'Leary also found himself reflecting on the loss of loved ones or even his own mortality. The six kaleidoscopic instrumental pieces on Ghost Bridge, though, feel more cosmically inquisitive than straightforwardly elegiac, sketching a progression from existential doubt toward understanding and acceptance. Ghost Bridge forms a contrast with Hour's art-rock-informed, more improvisatory early releases, representing a step further into intricate chamber orchestration. Known for his work with Friendship, Wendy Eisenberg, and 2nd Grade, Phillybased multi-instrumentalist and Dear Life Records founder Cormier-O'Leary has made Hour a home for increasingly cinematic instrumental compositions since the mid-2010s. With dazzling production by Lucas Knapp, Ghost Bridge delivers plenty of the live ensemble's trademarks, especially cyclically developing guitar and keyboard melodies. However, even more than on Hour's last studio album, unconventional harmonies and sophisticated counterpoint take center stage here. These emotionally multifaceted compositions feel as rooted in contemporary classical and film soundtrack music as in indie rock. One of the most striking elements of Ghost Bridge is the more significant developmental role the orchestral instruments assume in each piece. Instead of underscoring Cormier-O'Leary's central hooks, there is a new mesmerizing level of detail to the group's conversational interactions and kinetic energy. "Centralia" is a stately and idiosyncratic fugue built from repeated and overlapping phrases, while Ghost Bridge's compositions are full of unexpected pivots in harmony that allow recurring melodic motifs to sound continually reshaded. On "Pearls," the chords modulate drastically around Cormier-O'Leary's inviting central melody in a way that emulates cuts in a film telling several parallel stories. There is an unsettled quality to the chords on Ghost Bridge, with Cormier- O'Leary's progressions avoiding firm grounding in either clearly sunny or melancholy tonalities. This mood is made more concrete by the record's sole vocal track, the jazz-inflected "Sky is Blue," featuring an uncannily gorgeous performance by Heeyoon Won. The song seems to be a communication from a person who has departed, offering consolation or perspective to someone left behind. Though its sonic palette is often tranquil, Ghost Bridge explores heartbreak, grief, anger, and helplessness in a distinct and pretense-free way. The project represents a bold step forward for Cormier-O'Leary as a composer and arranger, and on Ghost Bridge Hour reaches its most fully realized form to date, connecting soaring themes with an inventiveness that perfectly suits the searching nature of the subject matter.

Come Back Down, the new album by Nashville experimental-pop duo Total Wife, was born from the edge of sleep. When composer and producer Luna Kupper would begin to fall asleep during late-night mixing sessions, the songs would follow her into the halfway place between dream and lucidity. Like Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, she'd wake with a new perspective on the puzzle she was piecing together. "I'm a psychological mixer - I'm trying to think of how someone's experiencing the sound, versus getting stuck in trying to make all these different tones and using all this gear to make something sound a certain way," Kupper says. And like a spiral from waking life into dream, the songs on Come Back Down are endlessly self-referential, building whole universes from a single point. Kupper sold all of her synths to make rent before she started working on the album, and so every inorganic sound is instead built from samples of the band's own work. A guitar on one song may be reprocessed and used as a synth on the next, while everywhere on the album vocal samples are taken from a single unreleased cover of Elliott Smith's 'Between the Bars.' In tribute to this process, the album was almost named The Julia Set after the mathematical equation which feeds into itself again and again, creating beautiful fractal images. The intention was to create something complex but accessible; experimental, yet precise and without abstraction. In her lyrics, too, lyricist and vocalist Ash Richter is as straightforward as she's ever been. She drew on her experience of pandemic isolation to write about connection and disconnection, using her lyrics as a tool for the communication that was missing in everyday life. On the soaring, shoegazey track 'peaches,' a storm that forced the cancellation of a recording session became a metaphor for emotional distance. 'still asleep' chronicles Richter's euphoria after Total Wife's first tour, and watches it begin to curdle into paranoia. "Thank the full moon, my heart is overflowing," she sings, before: "Is there such a thing as too happy?" The experience of isolation was prompting Richter to think back to her childhood, a time marked for her by solitude and natural play - climbing trees, making mud pies, getting lost in the woods. On tracks like 'in my head' and 'second spring,' she uses the imagery of nature to recall that time and forge a connection with her lonely inner child. "I feel connected with transcendentalist writing and magical realism - trying to convey things in a concrete way, but with that element of psychology and mystery," she says. Richter and Kupper, friends from high school, formed Total Wife in 2016, relocating from Boston to Nashville in 2020. Both are visual artists as well as musicians, which they incorporate into their work with Total Wife via layered and purposeful visuals. A DIY streak underpins everything that they do - from handling their own artwork and music videos to recording their own music, releasing tapes through their label Ivy Eat Home, and hosting house shows in the basement they've christened Ryman 2. In Nashville they've settled into a weirdo scene living under the record industry's floorboards, a hive of collaborative and creative energy that has made them excited to call the city home. They also assembled a live band for the first time shortly after moving to Nashville, consisting of Ryan Bigelow, Sean Booz and Billy Campbell - injecting their creative process with a jolt of spontaneity and aliveness that has fed back into Come Back Down.

Come Back Down, the new album by Nashville experimental-pop duo Total Wife, was born from the edge of sleep. When composer and producer Luna Kupper would begin to fall asleep during late-night mixing sessions, the songs would follow her into the halfway place between dream and lucidity. Like Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks, she'd wake with a new perspective on the puzzle she was piecing together. "I'm a psychological mixer - I'm trying to think of how someone's experiencing the sound, versus getting stuck in trying to make all these different tones and using all this gear to make something sound a certain way," Kupper says. And like a spiral from waking life into dream, the songs on Come Back Down are endlessly self-referential, building whole universes from a single point. Kupper sold all of her synths to make rent before she started working on the album, and so every inorganic sound is instead built from samples of the band's own work. A guitar on one song may be reprocessed and used as a synth on the next, while everywhere on the album vocal samples are taken from a single unreleased cover of Elliott Smith's 'Between the Bars.' In tribute to this process, the album was almost named The Julia Set after the mathematical equation which feeds into itself again and again, creating beautiful fractal images. The intention was to create something complex but accessible; experimental, yet precise and without abstraction. In her lyrics, too, lyricist and vocalist Ash Richter is as straightforward as she's ever been. She drew on her experience of pandemic isolation to write about connection and disconnection, using her lyrics as a tool for the communication that was missing in everyday life. On the soaring, shoegazey track 'peaches,' a storm that forced the cancellation of a recording session became a metaphor for emotional distance. 'still asleep' chronicles Richter's euphoria after Total Wife's first tour, and watches it begin to curdle into paranoia. "Thank the full moon, my heart is overflowing," she sings, before: "Is there such a thing as too happy?" The experience of isolation was prompting Richter to think back to her childhood, a time marked for her by solitude and natural play - climbing trees, making mud pies, getting lost in the woods. On tracks like 'in my head' and 'second spring,' she uses the imagery of nature to recall that time and forge a connection with her lonely inner child. "I feel connected with transcendentalist writing and magical realism - trying to convey things in a concrete way, but with that element of psychology and mystery," she says. Richter and Kupper, friends from high school, formed Total Wife in 2016, relocating from Boston to Nashville in 2020. Both are visual artists as well as musicians, which they incorporate into their work with Total Wife via layered and purposeful visuals. A DIY streak underpins everything that they do - from handling their own artwork and music videos to recording their own music, releasing tapes through their label Ivy Eat Home, and hosting house shows in the basement they've christened Ryman 2. In Nashville they've settled into a weirdo scene living under the record industry's floorboards, a hive of collaborative and creative energy that has made them excited to call the city home. They also assembled a live band for the first time shortly after moving to Nashville, consisting of Ryan Bigelow, Sean Booz and Billy Campbell - injecting their creative process with a jolt of spontaneity and aliveness that has fed back into Come Back Down.

For the label's latest, Oath is proud to present 'Honey Tangerine', the newest mini-album from producer extortionaire Olsvangèr, who serves up his signature blend of hyper-kinetic, ever-shifting dance music.

Olsvangèr's sound and musical journey are forever rooted in the liminal spaces that make up the broad-reaching and ever-shifting electronic music landscape, with his records consistently channeling that in-betweenness that imprints lasting impressions. A classically trained musician with a profound passion for house and techno, Olsvangèr's sonic palette is one of both broad and delicate brush strokes, applying an array of compelling motifs within amorphous arrangements that blend and blur perspectives. His records seek out the faraway fringes as much as focusing on the intensity found in the detail, creating cavernous soundscapes that are impeccably tuned and effortlessly free-flowing. Seemingly genreless, his records are anchored in all that is known and loved, yet due to the music's perspective situated at the intersectionality of electronica, a beautiful anticipation resides within every stanza of his tracks at what may come next. His musical language has found him releasing on the likes of Kalahari Oyster Cult, Hooj Choons and Craigie Knowes, and follows through within his imprint Tofistock, which has been pushing some of the most forward-thinking dance music of recent times.

'Honey Tangerine' touches upon the classic motifs of Olsvangèr's sound, and as always, the room for growth within the record's parameters remains truly endless. Over six tracks, Olsvangèr lays bare the directions of travel, with paths unravelling that feel well trodden yet with some that branch out towards new horizons. 'Source of Thought' opens up proceedings with a captivating ambience, where twinkling hues and lively tones paint the parameters of sound. The chuggy breaks that land deep within the mix drop in and out of view, allowing a deft balance between pure ambiance and rhythm to exchange dialogue between one another. 'In a Nutshell' shifts gears in atmosphere and energy, with all eyes placed upon the club. The shifting rhythm section lifts the acidic melodic features up above, with driving bass notes and a euphoric vocal like lead linking the depths to the heavens. 'Tulpa Nine' swings into heads-down territory, where the drums swing slow and the throbbing bass hits heavy. The auto-tune vocal line up above creates an atmosphere of hazy, smoke-filled rooms, where the party yearns for downtime in anticipation of the next shift in energy.

'Sunrise on the Lips' gives over further chill out room vibrations, where the lights remain low, and smiles reside all around. The enriching drums provide the basis for sitars and glossy keys to glide across the top ends, with the mind invited to dip deep within this enthralling ensemble. 'Zoom It Out' provides the release into the room, with the ante upped. A breaky house leaning number, this cut grooves through its chiming melodic section and groove-laden bass line, with the polyrhythmic drumming pattern doing much to keep the energy residing very high indeed. The record is wrapped up with 'Some Air', which gives over one final jaunt through the airy, slowed-down slipstreams. A wondrous beat is complemented by melodic elements that chime, absorb and quiver, glowing through the night with such charm and feel. An engrossing composition that demonstrates what Olsvangèr is all about - a crafter of sound, where adventure is sought and found, never wavering but curating new connections, feelings, and tones, with an eye on what might come next.

Whether softly undulating or boundlessly expressive, Olsvangèr's music remains a beautiful enigma that serves up both the glorious knowns and the captivating unknowns - 'Honey Tangerine' is yet another chapter in his glorious discography.

EM Records is proud to release Three Movements from “Some Kind of Seasoning” by the eminent Warren Burt: composer (and performer, writer, instrument builder, educator) of genius. Burt was born in 1949 in the USA, and moved to Australia in 1975. Throughout his long and inspired career, his expansive aesthetic has eagerly embraced microtonality, improvisation and technology, fusing these elements in often humorous and/or irreverent compositions based on live interaction with intelligent or semi-intelligent machine processes. He sets up machine-generated musical environments and then “wanders through” their rules and behaviors, exploring the resulting possibilities in a manner which never results in tech-driven alienation or alienating randomness; Burt’s keen and personable musical intelligence is always evident. This release features music from the final sections of a near-six-hour epic cycle of interactive computer and synthesizer pieces from 1990-91, investigating the magical intermediate space between the human and the mechanical. Dedicated to Kenneth Gaburo, the music draws on wide-ranging inspirations including Sun Ra and Elliott Carter, Quincy Jones’ “Setembro” and Charles Ives, Portsmouth Sinfonia and ancient Greek modes. With good-natured humor, an openness to the excellence of “mistakes” and a wide range of timbres, the music includes progressions of "traditionally musical" pitches, delicate textures of sustained electronic tones, raucous and noisy combinations of sound. Available on 12” LP, CD and DL, with liner notes by the composer.



c 03: A Post-Modern Object-Oriented Chaotic Cellular Microtonal Teledildonic Virtual Simulacra! (Buzzwords (that might have gotten you tenure) for sampled orchestra) [1991] for computer-controlled synthesizer



[c] 03: A Post-Modern Object-Oriented Chaotic Cellular Microtonal Teledildonic Virtual Simulacra! (Buzzwords (that might have gotten you tenure) for sampled orchestra) [1991] for computer-controlled synthesizer

The four-track EP “Invaders, Qu'est-ce que c'est?” blends dark electro-house elements with cloudy live improvisations, created for the Turin and European underground club scene. The composer duo was born from the meeting between Viziale, a DJ & Producer, and the multidisciplinary composer Barabbah.
After connecting through Italia90®, they began collaborating on new music and launched a new label linked to the clothing brand; the 30x30 cm poster by Woc, included in the vinyl release, is a proof of the contemporary image aim of the label.


NB: The Lps are made with 100% regenerated plastic, totally green and respectful for the world and 100% compatible with the standard of the pure material.

"The third part of "The Nightstalker" Saga emerges from the depths of dystopia, the last part of a Childhood Intelligence original tale written/produced by Dan Piu & Gary Rich. After "The Tragedies Of A High-Tech World" (2020) and "Genetic Constitution" (2022), the final chapter "Flowers Of Agony" (2026) // Child 22 materializes through a 2x12 Lp. "Flowers Of Agony" presents yet another shade of the duo's analogue machine soul. Technoid brain dance electro from alien mysterious worlds. The album travels through various types of electro infused works, the live-arrangement dynamics and "The Nightstalker" Klangbild shines through each of the traxx, taking the listener through psychedelic cybernetic universes with strong techno force, bridging elements of the past works and taking them further into the future. Deep mind Influence intensifies the more listening time spent... This last chapter of a 3-Story Saga, is the essence, yet evolution of an analogue band, a 20 year friendship - the current zeitgeist & the partnership with Childhood Intelligence. For the future listener, we hope you might unravel the keys to this puzzle and find your own means to define and represent your true self in underground culture..."

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a Netflix series and live-action adaptation of the beloved 2005 Nickelodeon animated show. The series follows young Aang, the Avatar, as he learns to master the four elements and restore balance to a world threatened by the Fire Nation.
Following the successful and highly anticipated first season released in 2024, Season 2 continues Aang’s journey alongside Katara and Sokka as they travel across the Earth Kingdom in search of allies against Fire Lord Ozai. Along the way, Aang meets Toph, a gifted and fearless earthbending master who becomes his teacher as he begins to learn the element of earth.

Featuring an epic original score by Takeshi Furukawa, the music of Season 2 expands upon the themes introduced in the first season, accompanying the heroes through new adventures, breathtaking landscapes, and the mysteries of Ba Sing Se. This release presents the soundtrack from the second season, bringing Takeshi Furukawa’s score to life in a stunning physical format.

Netflix and Music On Vinyl celebrate the release of the series with an exclusive 2LP pressing in a special and unique pop-up gatefold sleeve.

The score of Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is available as a limited POP-UP gatefold edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on green marbled vinyl. The gatefold sleeve is finished with a premium leather-laminate exterior, and also includes a 4-page booklet.

The track titles on Post Dub Cities – the new album by Adriano Zanni, photographer, sound artist, and field recordist – evoke the aftermath, that moment when a place continues to exist and live on, but no longer serves anyone. The human element has vanished, whether it happened overnight or through a slow abandonment that lasted for years. The perspective shifts: buildings, homes and palaces reveal a dimension of reality all their own, in which even the ruins give shape to this landscape that endures, transforming into pure presence.

This, after all, is our fate. The fate of us human beings, of our civilisation, of every civilisation: to pass away, to be forgotten, to erect monuments whose significance no one will remember once we are gone.

The opening track Crisopoli transforms the sonic dimension of a city into an echo chamber: a dark, urban dub built from delays and resonances, holding the imprint of what is no longer there — like a bassline that keeps vibrating even after its source has gone silent. What we see is not the presence, but its reverb.

Available from September 11, second excerpt Warosha gives us a minimalist, enveloping, solemn beat, like the symbols on a map that no one can read anymore. Warosha was the district of luxury hotels overlooking the sea in the city of Famagusta. After the island of Cyprus was invaded by the Turkish army, the entire area, emptied of its inhabitants, who had fled south, was fenced off and surrounded by barbed wire. No one has been allowed to enter it since 1974. Now, on these unspoilt beaches, sea turtles have found the perfect place to breed.

Fordlândia, on the other hand, is the symbol of Henry Ford’s failed dream of conquest. An industrial settlement built deep within the Amazon rainforest, several hours’ boat journey from the nearest towns, to gain access to natural rubber for the tyres of his mass-produced cars in Michigan. An extremely costly project, it quickly became a ruinous pipe dream: a town that has been uninhabited for almost a century and has since been reclaimed by nature.

For a long time now, Adriano Zanni has been exploring, through music and photography, the landscape that unfolds before our eyes, as attentive yet silent observers. As if we were absent, a civilisation that has long since vanished: human presence has dissolved, preparing to fade into oblivion. The precise depiction of places through field recordings, and the black-and-white imagery, give rise to apparitions, hallucinations, and memories. The less present we are, the more we seek meaning. We resist abandonment and the indifference of time.

In the ten tracks (plus three bonus tracks) of Post Dub Cities the echoes and reverberations of dub grant us access to an unknown future, as yet untold – in which we are nothing more than a vague memory. The deep sound guides us through a landscape that is familiar yet unknown, unrecognisable. The cold, distant, industrial rhythm resonates within us as if we were the last, all too aware, inhabitant of a now-deserted village.

Every place – be it an abandoned mining settlement on an island in Svalbard, or a ghost town in Pennsylvania evacuated following an underground fire that has been burning for sixty years at a depth of one hundred metres – leaves questions unanswered, shrouds itself in mystery, and makes us wonder, ceaselessly: what happened here?

In the end, we realise that we don’t really care that much about knowing the details of the disappearance. We can guess them, we’ve seen it happen a thousand times before. Just like in the photos accompanying the album, portraits of ghostly, deserted cities: Belgrade, like Venice, Dublin, Sarajevo, Lisbon, Kraków, Sofia, Naples, Hanoi, Lampedusa, Tehran. Unexpectedly, pleasantly emptied of people, and of their obsessions, struggles, illusions.

Then, suddenly, the crowd returns. Busy, feverish, hardworking. The record ends, the spell is broken. We feel a sense of longing for a future that has not yet come to pass, for a place we were only able to observe because we were not there.

Repress!

Dan Kye is the mysteriously evoked moniker from multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocal sensation Jordan Rakei. The New Zealand-born artist - who now resides in London - presents his first long-player from Dan Kye, ‘Small Moments’, on Bradley Zero’s Rhythm Section INTL. An ode to the dancefloor, the musical project was born out of Jordan’s lockdown experience, created from the comfort of his own home. Recorded with just a laptop, extra live instruments and guest musicians, ‘Small Moments’ seamlessly transcends across electronica, jazz and funk, with each genre being effortlessly fused with Jordan’s melancholy vocals. Allowing himself to push the boundaries, Jordan’s Dan Kye moniker draws on the energetic and uplifting elements of house and techno and perfectly mixes it with the sultry vocals and emotion that come with the live elements we know and love from Jordan Rakei. The record offers listeners a journey through more floor-heavy tracks such as ‘Mogeri’ and ‘Raro’ to more groove infused offerings such as ‘Rainbow Road’ (which is named after one of the maps in Mario Kart and inspired by the energy of Prince’s iconic live concert at The Aladdin in Las Vegas), whilst tracks, like ‘Sober’, take on a more lyrical and anthemic feel.

Jordan Rakei: “Rhythm Section INTL was my entry point into dancefloor orientated music, and it was Bradley who asked me whether I could head in that direction so he could play my music out in the clubs. Dan Kye has still got melodies, but the main focus is to keep it high energy.”

After meeting Bradley Zero online whilst living in Australia, Jordan eventually moved to London in 2014. The same day he landed, he went straight to a Rhythm Section party to meet Bradley, and it was here that he first got a taste for house music. He enjoyed Rhythm Section INTL’s ability to draw on both live and electronic talent; and thus, after Bradley asked him for some productions for the parties, the idea for Dan Kye was born. ‘Small Moments’ is a musical masterpiece that can be enjoyed as much on the dancefloor as it can in the comfort of your own home and is a perfect step into Jordan’s landscape and idealism of dance orientated music.

Bradley Zero - “In around 2014 the proprietor of the famous Northside Records in Melbourne handed me a self released 12” from a new, unknown artist based in Brisbane. It was Jordan Rakei - Franklin’s Room. I’d been home almost a year before I actually got round to listening to it and I remember that moment like it was yesterday. I lay down on the sofa, put the record on and was transported! The Dan Kye project is a testament to the experimental and independent ethos Jordan lives by and is a product of an artist reaching full stride but not afraid to still try something new. This ‘Small Moments’ LP was conceived in a record store, born in a club on Rye Lane and is now flying the nest, throwing caution to the wind and making a bold statement.”

Curses' dark, romantic take on electronic music is often linked to EBM, new beat, synth-pop, and the offshoots in between - but, as the artist states, it's feelings, not genres, that motivate his music. Especially the underground and its niche sounds, brimming with collective energy, drive and passion, make for a major impetus. It's no coincidence that he's drawn to the era when man turned to the machine, as a collaborative force, and a new kind of liveliness, timelessness, emerged. In Curses' practice, this synergy translates into an enticing mix of synthesisers and voices, electronic drums and guitars. Nostalgia operates as an influence rather than a motive, though: despite its affinities with the past, his music is stridently contemporary and idiosyncratic. On the "Perfect High" EP, this approach is rendered in a resolutely dancefloor-oriented selection. It's rich in detail and constantly evolving; each time a new element appears, it's treated with such delight and care that you could imagine the track to flit off and turn it into the main theme. This doesn't happen, however, as the sense of cohesion and momentum is paramount: there's a relentless forward drive that keeps engagement tight from start to finish. The detuned, chorus-heavy leads of title track "Perfect High" and the clockwork-tinged percussion of "Weapon Of Time" jell with lustrous hooks. The ominous choirs on "Dare To Dream" and the proto rolling-and-scratching squelches of "Killer Instinct" similarly fall into place. Bravado never stands in the way of flow. Everything is kept in check by gated R-50 rhythms, and in the vocal department, Curses finds the sweet spot between his own voice and a slew of off-kilter samples. On closer "Blasted" NYC royalty Andi joins for a slab of synth-driven groove. It's shiny and sensuous, like patent leather - a perfect distillation of club music channeled through pop aesthetics, and thus a right coda for ALT028.

Riva Starr teams up with Australian duo Close Counters for a sun-soaked debut on Heist.

What do you get when you put an Italian house legend in the studio with 2 of the most talented artists from Melbourne? Have a listen to the newest release on Heist and you’ll find out. On their ‘Push your luck’ EP, Riva Starr, Close Counters and UK soul singer Andre Espeut bring a heavy dose of jazz & soul and most of all, upbeat dancefloor energy. Whether it’s the deep soulful vibe of the title track or the house meets jazz-funk energy of ‘Gearbox’, this EP brings together everything we love about house music.

‘Push your luck’ comes right in the middle of Close Counters’ world tour, just after Riva Starr’s album ‘Keep me on the dancefloor’ and is the follow up to their recent collab ‘Jinga’ on Riva Starr’s own Snatch Records. We all know Riva Starr from his 2013 Fatboy Slim collab ‘Eat sleep rave repeat’, his work with Groove Armada, and more recently his collab with Prunk on his PIV records debut album. Close Counters have already worked with Heist mainstays Fouk and had their breakthrough moment with their 2023 album ‘Soulacousta II’, which got wide support ranging from Gilles Peterson to Jyoto and Folamour.

Their ‘Push your luck’ EP kicks off with the title track featuring the silky vocals of Andre Espeut. When we first heard this song, we immediately got transported to the soulful sound of the mid 2000s led by Recloose’s unique track ‘Dust’ with Fat Freddy’s Drop singer Joe Dukie. It’s moody, stripped back, and bouncy at the same time. The lush chords, disco bassline, and vocal harmonies all make for a track that goes beyond genres and trends. This is a future classic.

‘Gearbox’ is a disco-tinged piano jam full of live elements, rolling congas and disco bleeps, where the musicality of the Close Counters boys comes in at full speed. This song takes its inspiration from the Brazilian jazz-funk of legends Marcos Valle and Azymuth, with a clear sense of modern-day dancefloors and a love for electronic noise. Also; 10/10 for creatively naming the track after the glitchy electronic sound that freaks & funks throughout the track.

On the flip, ‘Dizzy’ sees the trio go more into disco-house territory, again teaming up with Andre Espeut for a track that blends catchy vocal loops with a tight groove and lush chords. The EP finishes with a club dub of ‘Push your luck’ for those in favor of more groove and less vocals.

We’ve had Riva Starr and the Close Counters boys on our radar for a while, and they landed on Heist with the perfect combination of musicality and dancefloor power. We hope you like this release as much as we do!

As always, play it loud and share the music.

Lars & Maarten

"ABYSSUS stand as one of the most significant forces within the Greek Death Metal scene, having forged their path since 2011. Drawing profound inspiration from genre-defining pioneers such as DEATH, OBITUARY and BOLT THROWER, the band preserves the unadulterated spirit of old school death metal while imprinting their own distinct identity.

From the very outset, ABYSSUS placed equal emphasis on studio output and live performance. A steady stream of EPs and split releases established their presence within the international Underground metal community. Their debut full-length, „Into the Abyss“ (2015), garnered widespread acclaim and marked a pivotal moment in the band’s evolution - leading to increasingly frequent appearances both in Greece and across Europe, often sharing the stage with renowned acts, like POSSESSED, SINISTER, SUICIDAL ANGELS and ROTTING CHRIST.

With renewed creative vigour and greater maturity, ABYSSUS unveiled their sophomore album „Death Revival“ in 2022 via Transcending Obscurity Records. Adorned with an arresting cover by the legendary Andreas Marschall (KREATOR, BLIND GUARDIAN, IN FLAMES a.o.), the album was met with universal praise, further cementing the band’s reputation for delivering unrelenting, yet masterfully crafted, death metal. More shows with a.o. ASPHYX, TANKARD, GRAVE DIGGER and THE CROWN followed.

Now in 2026, ABYSSUS return with their third full-length opus, “The Reign” - a ferocious testament to their artistic evolution. The album encapsulates all the core elements that have defined death metal through the decades: raw aggression, blistering riff-work, and a suffocating, commanding atmosphere. Once again, the visual narrative is entrusted to Andreas Marschall, whose artwork enhances the band’s sonic vision with striking intensity.

Relentlessly evolving, ABYSSUS remain true to their roots while continuing to push the boundaries of the genre. With a prolific discography and an ever-growing presence on the live circuit, they have rightfully earned their place as a formidable name within the global death metal landscape."

AMBASSADE ventures into the world of Manrira - a dark, alluring feminine presence that confronts systems driven by value, profit, and power. Emerging from dystopian structures, Manrira exists in the liminal space where organic and digital forces collide, merge, and mutate. This new audiovisual work is devoted to the enchanting acoustics of the human voice and its relationship to bodies, architectures, and shifting environments. At the heart of Manrira is the human voice - alive, breathing, and full of presence. It flows like a living instrument, shaping space and emotion. Manrira explores the voice as resonance, as body, and as spatial event. Manrira moves from dynamic song compositions into extended structures, blending live bass, neo-classical elements, ethereal vocals, drum machines, breaks, and techno-driven textures. The result is an immersive experience that invites the audience to listen closely and reconsider their connection to sound, space, and their surroundings.

*** Special edition on yellow flame colored vinyl. Comes with a poster and stickers *** AMBASSADE ventures into the world of Manrira - a dark, alluring feminine presence that confronts systems driven by value, profit, and power. Emerging from dystopian structures, Manrira exists in the liminal space where organic and digital forces collide, merge, and mutate. This new audiovisual work is devoted to the enchanting acoustics of the human voice and its relationship to bodies, architectures, and shifting environments. At the heart of Manrira is the human voice - alive, breathing, and full of presence. It flows like a living instrument, shaping space and emotion. Manrira explores the voice as resonance, as body, and as spatial event. Manrira moves from dynamic song compositions into extended structures, blending live bass, neo-classical elements, ethereal vocals, drum machines, breaks, and techno-driven textures. The result is an immersive experience that invites the audience to listen closely and reconsider their connection to sound, space, and their surroundings.

“Negative Music / The Poorest! If they still know silence at all, then only as holes in the continuum of noise…” — Günther Anders, 1965

Editions Mego presents GETGETGET, a new release by Thomas Brinkmann which serves as an inquiry into silence, code, and the limits of perception.

The title GETGETGET references the trilogy of ‘Get’ lp’s made by Rehberg under his PITA moniker; Get Out, Get In and Get On. The music is based on material by Rehberg and Brinkmann morphing these two identities into a third colour, a disappearing color.

Emerging from a live performance at the label’s 30th anniversary in Berlin, the work unfolds as both sonic artifact and conceptual system: a study in what remains when sound is reduced, extracted, and reconstituted.

Taking inspiration from Günther Anders’ notion of “negative music”—composition through absence—Brinkmann’s approach aligns with Heinrich Böll’s idea of “collected silence”: silence not as void, but as a material framed against the constant pressure of noise. In GETGETGET, pauses are not gaps but structural elements, cut from a continuum and reinserted as signals.

The two side long tracks weave a dark abstract and ‘twisted’ presence where the ghosts of the machines and their operators fuse into a fantastical whole. One can hear traces of both Brinkmann and Rehberg logic which seems to fuse in a hallucinatory manner.

Brinkmann’s work reflects a broader condition: the translation of material processes into informational ones. As images detach from bodies and code separates from matter, sound too loses its fixed resonance. What remains is circulation—of signals, of data, of meaning—within systems that increasingly define perception itself.

GETGETGET is an album where absence is equal to presence, a metaphor with suggestive tones of the influence Rehberg had and continues to have in the world of the radical experimental electronic avant garde. The “zero” is not empty; it is what makes everything else work.

Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the debut album by Outkast, was released in 1994. The album,

featuring live instrumentation and elements of funk and soul, addressed coming-of-age themes

and urban life in the South. A critical and commercial success, the album helped distinguished

Southern hip hop as a credible scene amid East Coast and West Coast dominance at the time.

Music journalists regard it as an important release in hip hop and Atlanta’s music scene. Available

on tangelo color vinyl.

Since emerging from Italy's underground over a decade ago, Ninos Du Brasil (Nicolò Fortuni and contemporary artist Nico Vascellari) have developed a potent sound that blends live batucada percussion, electronics, punk energy, and visceral vocals sung in an imagined language. Along the way, they've built a reputation for incredibly intense and unpredictable live performances.

This fifth full-length follows Antro Pop, released on Codalunga / Hospital Productions in 2021 in the middle of covid lockdowns with a canceled world tour leaving the world in wait. Out of that imposed hiatus Orden Micelial began to take shape.

The trademark Ninos elements remain intact: frenetic drumming, ritualistic chants, and relentless percussive intensity, while exploring new sonic territory. Most notably on "Innaya Som," the duo embrace a full-blown guitar-driven rock assault, revealing the hardcore roots that have always underwritten their music.

Recorded and produced by longtime collaborator Rocco Rampino, the album achieves a veritable wall of sound—dense and overwhelming, yet retaining remarkable clarity and separation throughout.

Part carnival rave, part punk freak-out, Orden Micelial finds Ninos Du Brasil expanding their mythology without losing any of the wild energy that has made them one of contemporary underground music's most distinctive acts.

The wait is over, Return To The 37th Chamber is El Michels Affair's highly anticipated follow up to 2009's underground cult classic Enter the 37th Chamber. Churning out classic records since then for the likes of Lee Fields, The Arcs, The Shacks, and tons more, it is clear that EMA's signature sound is stronger & sharper than ever. This time, in addition to re-interpreting the Wu compositions for a live band, EMA pays homage to the production and sonic fog that makes a RZA beat so recognizable. Producer and bandleader Leon Michels recorded the album completely analog, sometimes hitting 6 generations of tape before it was ready for mixing, giving the Return to The 37th Chamber it's own hazy sound. Adding to the unique fidelity, the record is laced with psychedelic flourishes, John Carpenter' synths, heavy metal guitars, triumpha0nt horns, and traditional Chinese instruments that make up for the lack of the Wu's superlative vocals. From start to finish it's a dark trip that walks the line between RZA's timeless hip-hop aesthetic and the cinematic soul EMA has become known for. El Michels Affair tackles some classics like 4th Chamber and Wu Tang Aint Nuthin to Fuck Wit, as well as some deeper cuts like Ol Dirty Bastard's Snakes, Raekwon's Verbal Intercourse, and Shaolin Brew, Wu-Tang's contribution to the St. Ide's Hip Hop endorsement campaign from 1994. This time El Michels brings some of the Big Crown family along for the ride. Lee Fields handles vocal duties on Snakes and is joined by Shannon Wise of The Shacks for their version of Tearz, which pays as much homage to the Wendy Rene sample as it does to the Wu-Tang Clan. Lady Wray makes an appearance on the cover of Method Man's hit, All I Need, lending her vocal prowess to what gave the Wu one of their biggest hits of all time. Interspersed throughout the record are some original interludes that are like the rug that ties the room together,' giving Return To The 37th Chamber a cinematic narrative that makes it a proper El Michels Affair record and not just a collection of covers. From the music to the presentation, this album is a perfect example of what can only be achieved through diversity. The end result is as much a kaleidoscope of influences and multiculturalism as the city it was recorded in. El Michels Affair is once again, sounding out the city' that raised them, pulling elements of art and culture from across the country and around the globe to create an album truly unique in it's own right.

Kapote presents: ITALOMANIA Vol. 4.

Toy Tonics Italomania Vol. 4 is a compilation dedicated to new ITALIAN DISCO. Not ITALO DISCO.

10 new tracks made by young producers from Italy, exclusively made for Toy Tonics. All songs with Italian vocals.

Made with a lot of love by

Cleeeo, Giorgio Lopez, Magnolia, Juan Soto & Sam Ruffillo, KOKO, Luca Averna, Ricardo Baez, Euro Nettuno, The Cube Guys and Paccone.

The Italomania compilation was initiated by Mathias ‚Kapote‘ Modica. Creative mind behind Toy Tonics and half italian producer himself.

The series is a manifesto to show the status of Italian disco of today.

Kapote invited the most relevant producers to show different new styles of modern Italian disco and house music.

With a wide range of influence: Live disco, indie dance, italo pop, and italo house.

Italian disco is not Italo disco. The last few years saw a big revival of the trashy pop music of the 1980s called Italo disco, mostly with English lyrics.

But this compilation is about something else. It is about this new Italian disco. Toy Tonics wants to show a new way to combine Italianity with dance culture.

The Italomania Vol. 4 Artists

Cleeeo - Come Tocchitu: A sexy and sophisticated disco house track by 22 year old newcomer DJ and producer Cleeeo. Driven by a warm, uplifting groove and strong dancefloor energy. The record is dedicated to Brazil. The vocals move between Italian and Portuguese. This creates a natural bridge between two cultures.

Giorgio Lopez - Italiani Brava Gente: Giorgio Lopez is an important player from the much talked about new music scene from Napoli.

For "Italiani Brava Gente," he teams up with Los Angeles artist Sueño. The track is a tongue-in-cheek take on the stereotypical Italian male. It pays homage to late Italodisco legend Pino D’Angiò. The story unfolds from the perspective of a foreign tourist navigating the contradictions of self-proclaimed Casanovas.

The Cube Guys - Saper Ringraziare: The legendary italo house duo shows their Italian vibes and musical taste with “Saper Ringraziare”. The track captures the warmth of summer and the infinity of urban nights. A combination of early Italo disco elements mixed with their typical groovy beats.

Magnolia - Vesuvio: Magnolia’s “Vesuvio” is a cover version of a song from the 1960s by artist E’ Zezi. While the original is more in a folk vibes, the new version is an irresistible piano house track with groovy, sun-soaked vibes. It is made for the dance floor. This track blends Mediterranean roots with the euphoric energy of modern house. Some might know the vocals already from another cover version by Nu Genea from the previous album.

Juan Soto & Sam Ruffillo - Italomexicano: What happens when a Toy Tonics artist hangs out in Mexico city and teams up with the local scene? The result is here. A blend a Toy Tonics sound and tons of vintage synthesizers and some additional production by Mexican producer talent Juan Soto.

You get "Italomexicano". A fuse of the mystique of Mexican mariachi with the magnetic pulse of Italo disco.

KOKO feat. Elena Moroder - I Can't Understand: This melancholic piano house track is a serious floorfiller! Goosebumps! Italian DJ and producer KOKO teams up with Elena Moroder on "I Can’t Understand". Elena delivers a captivating vocal performance. The track explores the misunderstandings of a relationship where emotions were never fully expressed. It blends an iconic piano melody with warm, uplifting grooves.

Luca Averna - Le Luci Della Pista: Luca Averna is a DJ, producer, and resident at the iconic Pikes Hotel in Ibiza. "Le Luci Della Pista" is an energetic track designed for peak-time Ibiza moments while keeping a strong groove and a playful spirit.

Ricardo Baez - È Venerdì: Ricardo Baez is an Italian-Venezuelan DJ and producer. He is known for his distinctive blend of house, dark electro, italo disco, and leftfield electronics. Well respected in Italy's contemporary electronic scene he has been releasing on labels such as Running Bag, Permanent Vacation, Bordello a Parigi, Correspondant, Mule music, Live at Robert Johnson.

Euro Nettuno - La Notte Chiama: These guys are hot! Part of the Polyamore Crew, one of the rising italian new disco collectives their sound mixes Italo house from the 1990ies, electro and Pop in a very cool new way.

Paccone - J'Adore Napoli: Vincenzo Paccone is a DJ, producer but also very renowned graphic designer. He is co-founder of NSS. A fashion agency that is by now one of the leading italian fashion crews. He has been also working as a designer for Circoloco Ibiza for many years and organizes some of the hottest parties in Napoli currently. He makes his official debut as a producer with “J’Adore Napoli”. It is a vibrant tribute to the house music culture born in Naples. The track draws inspiration from the late 1990s and early 2000s. And is part of a NSS campaign about the ’new coolness of the city of Napoli“.

A document of chill-out room dreamscapes transmitted from San Francisco circa 1993-1994.

Rooted in live improvisation and arriving at the sweet spot where nascent dance music collided with dub tradition, Selene Songs marked an early highpoint for Sunshine and Moonbeam Jones' enduring partnership as Dubtribe Sound System. This collection of dreamy, harmonious grooves and ambient excursions were recorded between November 1993 and January 1994, captured live in the chill-out room at the duo's legendary Come-Unity parties held at their home on Bryant Street in San Francisco.

Selene Songs was originally released on Chicago-based label Organico in 1995 as a CD and abridged 12" EP. Now it receives a full reissue that spreads the blissed-out majesty of the full seven-track album across a double vinyl pressing and CD digipak edition. Across all formats, Kristen Anderson's original artwork has been faithfully reproduced.

“… All the elements of classic ambient dub with the Tribe’s own sense of love wonderment. One from the heart." - Muzik Mag - 1995

“ We have faith that the universally accessible warmth oozing from these tracks will eventually entice a larger audience." - Billboard - 1995

Number 1 on the Eastern Bloc shop chart - Muzik Mag - 1995

A document of chill-out room dreamscapes transmitted from San Francisco circa 1993-1994.

Rooted in live improvisation and arriving at the sweet spot where nascent dance music collided with dub tradition, Selene Songs marked an early highpoint for Sunshine and Moonbeam Jones' enduring partnership as Dubtribe Sound System. This collection of dreamy, harmonious grooves and ambient excursions were recorded between November 1993 and January 1994, captured live in the chill-out room at the duo's legendary Come-Unity parties held at their home on Bryant Street in San Francisco.

Selene Songs was originally released on Chicago-based label Organico in 1995 as a CD and abridged 12" EP. Now it receives a full reissue that spreads the blissed-out majesty of the full seven-track album across a double vinyl pressing and CD digipak edition. Across all formats, Kristen Anderson's original artwork has been faithfully reproduced.

“… All the elements of classic ambient dub with the Tribe’s own sense of love wonderment. One from the heart." - Muzik Mag - 1995

“ We have faith that the universally accessible warmth oozing from these tracks will eventually entice a larger audience." - Billboard - 1995

Number 1 on the Eastern Bloc shop chart - Muzik Mag - 1995

Five years in the making, ‘Lotus Rising’ is an alternative body of work presented by Subb-an, exploring his South Asian heritage, live instrumentation and a more introspective side of his production. Across a career rooted primarily in house and techno, the album finds him looking beyond the immediate demands of the dancefloor, opening up a more expansive and self-healing approach to his music.

The album brings together electronic production with live and organic elements, featuring contributions from London-based Indian classical sitar player Akash Parekar, vocalist and sound artist Kate Fleur Young, vocalist Anushree Datar, bassist Luke Weaver and Maribou State drummer Jonny Cade. The lotus represents growth and transformation, providing a fitting framework for a record shaped by a period of transition and reconnection. ‘Lotus Rising’ is released via Phonica Records Special Editions on 30th October 2026.

Hanne Lippard and Renato Grieco's Today's Special is a suite of language works synthesising melody and diction that integrates the literary and the audible in a repertoire of songs that bask in the melody of voice and the punctuations of structured composition. Working with methods of reduction rather than opulence in both tonal composition and rhetoric, each piece pegs the poetic to the musical with compositional schematics and methods. It is important to state that there is little to none improvisation here, instead, the duo set up matrices, rules and structural links that facilitated meaningful locus of exchange between their two practices. Lippard's texts are a collection of new and previously completed works. In these, as is typical for her work, she enjoys the easy pleasure of wordplay, iterative language, and decontextualised anecdote, as in opener Portrait of a Betrayal, a piece about the loss of a phone and the way it haunted the owner who dropped it, based on a lived experience. Grieco's instrumentation works with Lippard's language art as a form of acoustic typography. "I studied graphic design and I think about how you can express typography through voice," she says. "Renato's use of the viola da gamba becomes like an underline, or a font's brushstrokes, in ways that feel typographical." In this, the classically-trained composer Grieco often finds and echoes the pitch movements of Lippard's voice, intonation mirrored and revealed, linguistic meaning doubled and shadowed by plucked, strummed or bowed strings. His main instrument is the viola da gamba, the instrument considered closest to the human voice for its tonal range and ability to mimic inflections and timbre, and here he brings it even closer to the voice, building systems by which it moves with and around Lippard. He also plays piano and Wurlitzer, and joins her in speaking on Receiver and in conversation for final track The Black Rose. "Hanne's voice is an artist's voice, embodied as the artwork itself," he says. "But where my approach is from the perspective of a composer, hers is around rhetoric and language. We worked towards each other in this sense, Hanne finding a space to welcome my voice, and me designing an acoustic space to enhance her vocal persona." In some tracks the structural connections are obvious - the matched tumbling delivery and stepped pitches of voice and piano in Aficionado sounding like two tipsy friends descending a staircase. In others, like the triptych of tracks Three Rungs Ladder, structured with rules derived from nursery rhymes, or cumulative song (akin to the 12 Days of Christmas). For the Colour 1 and Colour 2 pieces, the duo worked from palettes of colours connected to clusters of harmonies, which underlined the power of the word and its articulation. The absurd Labradorable personifies a people pleaser, A Story About Being Blue is an imagined playful monologue from the Deep Blue supercomputer - requesting in sing-song stop motion to be called Debbie, and Larry - as Grieco echoes in factual reportage. Hurtbeat unpacks and recomposes a tweeted non-apology by a Russian art collector about owning a piece of racist art, Grieco shadowing Lippard's generating a third `drop-shadow' performer from the resonances between the duo, typographic re-articulation of the source material. The Receiver includes lines from Robert Ashley's Improvement (Don Leaves Linda), Ashley existing as a spiritual parent of sorts to the practices contained on Today's Special, and here interpolated as if he is being quoted and written through within the audible world of the piece in a palimpsest of borrowed sentences. Closing track The Black Rose contains its own self-aware comedy, a lightly distorted conversation sourced from a Reddit thread about whether black roses exist, recorded as if it were an internet radio or a low budget podcast, the casual exchange stilted in the delivery of platitudes as scripted speech. Today's Special was developed in person over the course of a series of small residencies - at Deutsche Akademie Rom Villa Massimo, Rome; Fondazione Morra, Napoli; Callie's, Berlin. In these limited periods that rarely stretched beyond a week, Lippard and Grieco developed strategies for the works, keeping tightly locked to musical concepts. This, for Grieco, is about maintaining a solid, meaningful connection within the compositions, and committing to everything having a purpose for existing within the work. Each element pulls its weight; has something to say, literally and metaphorically speaking. In the same way that Lippard's work leaves nowhere for her to hide, he wants the music to exist with its own naked purpose: "It's is about exposing nudity via reduced materials," says Grieco. "This is a form of courage we want to embrace. Once we take off everything, it needs to be extremely precise to maintain a connection with the audience. We have a lot of tools to hide behind now, to protect ourselves and our identities as artists, performers, and in life more generally. It's something I don't want to do. I want extreme reduction: no hiding."

This is the sound of dream Texas, the cinematic Texas conjured in film and 20th century literary and art myth… big dark blueing horizons swallowing the infinite distance, a lonely poetry of sound, but also a stock taker of the iconoclastic, psychedelic, art rebel side of Texas… the cracked rock music side of Texas, the avant-garde in concrete cracks, the recklessly used, mind expanding drugs Texas, the dripping eastern swamps, the Houston house parties with the sounds of records blasting down the block and becoming musique concrète in the hot summer night.

Chrome Chasm’s debut album Interpreter is ambient, minimal in feel, maximal in texture, beautifully disorienting, vastly spacious— until it isn’t. It's a naturalistic shapeshifter, taking majestic form in the aforementioned elements and then dissolving back to raw genetic material to form anew. Spiritual jazz overtones, pedal steel moans and buzzing, noisy ambient visions are upended by grey-folded psychedelic unveilings. Interpreter’s three expansive tracks present a most detailed performance by its three deft musicians and the outcome often feels like a gorgeous collage in real-time.

Chrome Chasm was formed in 2024 by three of Houston’s brightest underground stars: Mlee Marie (Hearts Of Animals) on alto saxophone, flute and voice (whose long-form experimental sax performances helped inspire the formation of the band), Will Adams (Lower Dens/ Ka-Nives) on pedal steel, synth, percussion and voice, and Tom Carter on guitar. Carter has been casting a long shadow over Texas psychedelia and American underground music for over 3 decades, most notably with the Houston based Charalambides, a powerful creative force of the pre-new weird America era of experimental and avant psychedelic music, and most notably since with his solo guitar magnum opus Long Time Underground (which was deemed among the best experimental albums of 2015 by Pitchfork).

Interpreter’s opening track “The Star,” recorded almost completely live in one room and one take, is a 16-minute manifesto on ‘Dream Noir.’ An astute scholar of cross-genre connectivity and the through-lines of kosmische and spiritual-leaning sonic realms can hear echoes of Cluster, the skronk and beauty of Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and the architectural ambient flow of Harold Budd and Philip Glass in the tidal lapping of distorted guitar, mantra-like saxophone and pedal steel flow. From its deconstructed, pastoral opening moments to its proto-electronic center that crests into a bombastic polytonal climax, Chrome Chasm never neglect narrative arc for experimentation and avant technique. In fact, as a group, they effortlessly control, open, fill and contract space in abeyance to emotional vibration. “The Star,” and indeed the album as a whole, feels more like a communion or extended poem, in direct communication with the listener, than it does a ‘captured experience.’

Across the three longform tracks of Interpreter, Chrome Chasm conducts a masterclass in fusing real time performance energy with an abstract, cut-up master’s reimagining of the literal. They demand the listener meet their music with dream logic and then, like the best dream peddlers, they present a labyrinth to fall into and experience, a place where explanation and conclusion become obsolete, and engagement and immersion become sublime.

EPILOGUE is the culmination of more than four decades of music-making by Japanese composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ken-ichiro Isoda, an album in which environmental sound, electronics, contemporary classical composition and memory converge into a deeply personal late-career statement. Isoda moved through video-game music, film composition, classical production, Okinawan music, television and collaborative projects, continually developing an approach in which acoustic instrumentation, field recordings and electronics could coexist naturally.



His collaborative album Interwoven with aus, released through WRWTFWW, further demonstrated the openness of a musical philosophy Isoda describes as being rooted in fluctuation, imperfection and organic movement.



EPILOGUE brings those threads together while refusing to function simply as a retrospective. The album consists largely of older compositions that Isoda has returned to, reconstructed and reinterpreted from the perspective of the present.



Opening track “TANEKOMA” refers to the Izu Robin, a rare bird native to Hachijō-jima, the volcanic island where Isoda lives. Its song, recorded by Isoda in the mountains, becomes part of the composition itself. Placed at the beginning of the album, “TANEKOMA” becomes both document and prayer.



Elsewhere, “Circulation 2” develops from a work created around the relationship between forest, sea and the movement of water. Flutist Dogen Kinowaki replaces Isoda’s original piano melody with a performance that gives the piece a distinctly Japanese sense of place. Kinowaki also appears on a newly reimagined version of “Beach of the Pliocene”, one of Isoda’s most recognised compositions.“STEPS”, first composed for film in 2008, looks back toward the electronica of that period. For this definitive version, Tsutomu Sonoda of maya ongaku provides vocals, bringing new emotional and lyrical depth to a piece Isoda had wanted to properly complete for more than a decade.



The title track from Isoda’s 1991 New Age album “Yume no Sazanami” is similarly reconsidered. Originally recorded with a small chamber orchestra, the new arrangement replaces elements of the harp and cello with layers of nylon-string guitar performed by Tatsuro Murakami. Perhaps the album’s clearest meeting point between past and present is “WATERWAYS.”The mysterious European ambient artist Aiko Takahashi, transforming an abandoned demo into what is simultaneously the oldest and newest work on the album.



“A Flowering Tree,” written for film in 2013, is reconstructed around multi-tracked flute performances by Dogen Kinowaki. Isoda carries that association into his own arrangement, allowing the piece to function as another quiet meditation on memory, loss and hope.



The album closes with “EPILOGUE” —less a grand conclusion than a moment of acceptance. Isoda chose it as the album’s title piece to hold what he describes as the complex emotions that accompany the twilight of a life spent making music. EPILOGUE is not simply a look back. It is the sound of older music continuing to move, change and breathe in the present: a lifetime of ideas distilled into Isoda’s own form of pure music, shaped by memory, collaboration, nature and the world immediately outside his home on Hachijō-jima.

The legendary Charlemagne Palestine returns to Black Truffle with KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA, capturing a 2025 performance in London alongside two close collaborators of recent years, multi-instrumentalist Daniel O’Sullivan and guitarist Oren Ambarchi. While perhaps still best known for the ecstatic piano clouds of his ‘strumming music’ performances, Palestine’s life-long search for what he calls the ‘golden sound’ has taken in an enormous variety of methods of sound production. Now stretching back an incredible six decades, his exploration of continuous sound forms has led him to mega-instruments from the carillon bells of the Saint Thomas Episcopal Church to the synthesizer armada of the Moog Sound Lab, with stops along the way at many of Europe’s grandest church organs. Just as important, though, has been Palestine’s practice as a singer, beginning with his childhood experience of sacred Jewish music and growing through his studies of Indian and Javanese musical traditions in the 1970s.

KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA reimagines a key work showcasing Palestine’s voice, the haunting ‘magic song’ Karenina for falsetto singing and harmonium, recorded in Paris in March 1997 to honour the spirit of Palestine’s recently departed black labrador. In this trio version, which Palestine describes as the ‘karaoke’ version, O’Sullivan controls three cassette machines playing the original recording, their slow drift out of phase creating complex patterns of delays and ricochets as the recorded voice chants the syllables of Karenina’s name and other trance words. Beginning with a held organ tone that gradually expands to fill out the frequency spectrum, the piece soon grows into a dense psychedelic mass, as Palestine’s electric organs and the echoing pre-recorded voices are joined by Ambarchi’s swirling Leslie guitar tones and O’Sullivan’s viola, synthesizer and additional vocals. Atop it all sits Palestine’s live voice, in an extraordinary performance of keening, shamanic intensity, sometimes delivered in melodic unison with his keyboard playing.

Though clearly a work of Palestine’s design that sits squarely within his oeuvre, Ambarchi and O’Sullivan are far from simple accompanists on KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA. As the elements of the teeming, emotionally charged stew writhe and twist, different elements come momentarily to the surface, O’Sullivan’s spaced-out viola taking the lead in moments that recall Kosugi’s Catch Wave, Ambarchi’s gliding chords and signature stuttering tones enriching the details of many of the quieter episodes. Throughout all its transformations, the music is buoyed up by a sacred aura, as Palestine intones his hypnotic prayer for the soul of his departed pet. Arriving emblazoned with a striking labrador painting by O’Sullivan on the cover, KKKAAARRREEENNNIIINNNAAA is an essential slice of modern ritual music.

2026 Repress

Few producers embody the soulful heart of House Music quite like Move D. Being a mentor of the label since day one, All That Jelly brings together two defining and desirable cuts from David Moufang’s recent history to one record.
'To The Disco ’77' 2013 original version for the A-side and the 2017 live rework finds its way to the B-side, both freshly remastered by the amazing and sought after Andreas Kauffelt. 'To The Disco ’77', opens with a clean, electro-styled beat that has a restrained power and a controlled tension that gradually blooms as the keys start to lift the mood into something lighter. When the iconic 'to the disco' vocal sample cuts through, it’s like a wink
from the past, threading disco’s golden exuberance through the disciplined swing of classic house. The track is a seamless blend of Funk, Disco, House and Electro with each element raw yet playful, woven into a groove that never stops urging you forward. It’s a masterclass in balance: sleek but deeply human, nostalgic but alive in the moment. It's like listening to the history of dance music in one special track.
'To The Disco ’77 (Move D Live Rework)' stretches the idea out into something even more fluid. The groove loosens, the funk rises to the surface and the extended runtime gives space for guitar and bass lines to share center stage, riffing around each other with organic warmth. The 'to the disco' mantra remains, grounding the track in its celebratory intent. It’s the kind of tune that closes a night perfectly and makes you not want to leave the dancefloor. Reissued together, these versions show Move D’s masterful ability to bridge eras and genres, reminding listeners that the dancefloor is as much about emotion as it is about motion.

The journey continues.

For the seventh edition of the Vega Records 5 Pack Unreleased series, Louie Vega once again opens the vault to reveal a special collection of unreleased recordings, alternate versions, remixes, demos, tribute reworks and deep cuts from the Vega Records musical family.

5 Pack Unreleased VII brings together 15 tracks across five 12-inch records, showcasing the wide musical spectrum that has always been part of the Vega Records story. From soulful house and deep grooves to jazz, soul, Brazilian influences, live instrumentation, Latin influences, powerful vocals, disco-rooted rhythms and the freedom to experiment in the studio, this collection moves through many different sides of the music.

Some of these recordings have been waiting patiently in the vault. Others represent alternate versions of songs that continue to evolve through different interpretations. Together, they create another musical journey through the sounds, collaborations and ideas that have shaped the Vega Records universe.

These final recordings speak to something that has always been important to Louie’s musical journey: respecting the music that came before while finding a way to reinterpret it through his own musical language.

From Loleatta Holloway and Duane Harden to Elements Of Life, 2SoulFusion, Domo Domo, Brutha Louie & Brutha Basil, and the tribute recordings, 5 Pack Unreleased VII brings together different generations, different voices and different musical influences under one roof.

The Elements Of Life sound continues throughout the collection, with “Sunshine (I Can Fly),” “Every Step” and “Dreamer” offering special previews into the musical direction of the forthcoming 2027 Elements Of Life album.

This is the seventh chapter of the series, but the philosophy remains the same:

Open the vault.
Share the music.
Let the DJs discover it.
Let the dancers feel it.
Five records.
Fifteen tracks.

A collection of unreleased music, special versions, studio discoveries, tributes and musical experiments from the world of Vega Records — with plenty more waiting inside the vault.

A soaring new chapter unfolds from the forthcoming Elements Of Life album with the release of “Soar,” an uplifting and deeply moving collaboration featuring the incomparable Lisa Fischer. Written by Josh Milan and Louie Vega and produced by 2SoulFusion—Louie Vega and Josh Milan—the song is a powerful testament to resilience, transformation, and the limitless possibilities that emerge when spirit, soul, and music unite.

Built upon a rich tapestry of live musicianship, “Soar” embodies the signature sound that has made Elements Of Life a beloved musical movement around the world. At its core is Lisa Fischer’s breathtaking vocal performance, delivering a message of hope, elevation, and self-discovery with the emotional depth and conviction that have made her one of the most revered voices of her generation.

At the heart of “Soar” is a message of encouragement, resilience, and unconditional support. Through its uplifting lyrics and soaring melody, the song speaks to anyone navigating life's uncertainties while striving to become their fullest self. Lines such as “Clouds hang low, but the sky's still wide” acknowledge the challenges we all face, while the recurring refrain, “I just want you to soar,” serves as a powerful affirmation of faith in another person's journey. Equally moving is the song's central sentiment, “The more you do for you, the better I feel,” expressing a selfless form of love that celebrates growth, healing, and personal fulfillment. Universal in its message yet deeply personal in its spirit, “Soar” reminds us that one of the greatest gifts we can offer is the encouragement to rise, evolve, and embrace our own potential.

The production blends organic instrumentation with sophisticated arrangements, creating a timeless soundscape that feels both expansive and intimate. Multi Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian McBride anchors the composition with his masterful upright bass work, while Josh Milan's lush keyboards, piano, organ, clavinet, and atmospheric textures provide the song's harmonic foundation. Live drums from Tony Cintron and vibrant percussion from Luisito Quintero infuse the track with an irresistible pulse, while Ivan Renta's expressive soprano saxophone solo adds another layer of emotional richness, and a tasteful guitar groove by Sherrod Barnes.

The song's message is elevated further through a powerful vocal ensemble featuring background vocals from Lisa Fischer, Dawn Tallman, Ramona Dunlap, and Lea Lorien, creating moments of communion and uplift that echo the song's central theme of hope, growth, and believing in the possibilities that lie ahead. For Louie Vega and Josh Milan, “Soar” represents another defining moment in their longstanding creative partnership. Through Elements Of Life, they have continually blurred the boundaries between house music, soul, jazz, Latin rhythms, gospel, and global influences, creating music that resonates as deeply on the dance floor as it does in the heart. “Soar” continues that tradition, offering listeners a song that inspires movement, reflection, and renewal.

Recorded at Honeycomb Studios in Pennsylvania and Manhattan Center Studios in New York City, and mixed at Daddy's Workshop in New Jersey, the production benefits from the expertise of recording engineers Yas Inoue & Josh Milan, with final mastering by the Maestro of mastering Herb “Pump” Powers for PM Mastering.

As anticipation builds for the forthcoming Elements Of Life album slated for February 2027, “Soar” offers a powerful glimpse into the project's next evolution— a celebration of musical excellence, spiritual connection, and the enduring power of song to lift us higher.

Alek Lee and vocalist Margeeah come together for a boutique 7″ pressing limited to 200 copies, featuring two tracks blending soul, reggae, disco and dub. Lee, whose catalogue includes releases on Antinote and Isle of Jura, brings his background in slower, dub oriented productions to a collaboration built around Margeeah’s vocals and live instrumentation. The sound sits somewhere between Massive Attack’s Blue Lines and Grace Jones.

Margeeah comes from the Israelite community, whose musical history includes The Soul Messengers. Her debut album, Looking for Love, was recorded in 1983 with Kingdom Sounds, originally issued as a private press LP and reissued by Frederiksberg Records in 2025. Its musicians included Abshalom Ben Shlomo, associated with Sun Ra. Her vocal style spans soul, jazz, funk and reggae, with reference points including Roberta Flack and Doug & Jean Carn.

For this release, Lee records his own live drums and percussion for the first time, alongside his signature smoky melodica lines. The production develops the reggae elements of Margeeah’s singing, combining bass driven arrangements with live rhythms, spacious guitar lines and dubby approach.

On the A side, “The Music Inside”, Margeeah effortlessly projects Lee’s lyrics about optimism and the desire for inner and outer freedom. Built around a recurring vocal refrain, the track places her voice over a rooted reggae arrangement.

The B side, “Can You Feel It?”, moves seductively towards a slower disc-dub sound. Bass and drums provide the foundation, with the percussion developing from a restrained groove into a fuller live kit arrangement. Melodica and guitar weave around Margeeah’s lead vocal and the hypnotizing title phrase.

Polygonia and Simon Popp present ‚Apiformes‘, the second collaborative release from the two Munich-based artists.
As with 2023‘s ‘Candid’, ‘Apiformes’ was born from pure improvisation. Originating from the stems of four concerts, additional elements were built on from a foundation of live recordings — an intuitive endeavor by the musicians with such integrated effects to give one the impression of a sole sonic organism, and mystifying which sound is coming from which performer. Rapid creative decisions create an intriguing sense of aliveness, producing a uniquely vibrant buzz of jazz and electronic influences.

The duo set an otherworldly tone in their latest release, with leanings towards acoustic and percussion-heavy instrumentation, combined with playful synthetic musings which create a sense of opening up: an intriguing and earnest exploration of the ethereal, and what is available in nature as a window to the divine. Named for the scientific name for bees, the project’s mix of warm, dynamic improvisation and sequenced synth instrumentalisation mimic the similarly complex mathematical structures of a bee colony: a visual and sonic world made up of geometric shapes, mating dances and navigation patterns, sensations perhaps most energetically available through a sense of wonder rather than logical extrication.

Symbol Of The Land marks Dialog's first beat-driven album, broadening the duo’s vision of dubwise electronic music into a long-player shaped by collaboration and global exchange.

Over the last two years, Helsinki-based producers Samuel van Dijk and Rasmus Hedlund have been refining their voice within modern dub techno, testing their material on the road and inviting kindred spirits to their studio for real-life feedback loops. During these sessions, they built the album around live mixing, repeatedly re-recording elements as they work, committing effects and modulation before pushing digital processes back out into analogue voltage.

Across the record, the smoky tones of their regular collaborator, Jamaican singer Benji, plus the original voice of dub techno Paul St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman) fold into an open exchange of rhythm, space and sound. Their musings are housed by warm, patient grooves across a range of tempos and moods; from the blissed-out, reggae style on “Mellow Mood” to the wispy and esoteric “Constellation Of Stars”.

The album, which follows a string of well-loved releases on the duo’s own DOT Records, lands via Richard Akingbehin’s Kynant imprint, a label regularly dialling into the transcendent qualities of vocal dub techno.

DiG Records’ latest release is a reissue of one of the most remarkable Russian electronic albums of the 90s. Available on vinyl for the first time, 100 Photography Lessons is the 1993 debut album by the duo Block Four, with a rich sound spanning a wide range of genres, from downtempo and experimental electronics to trance and techno.

Block Four was formed by Oleg Salkhov and Konstantin Smirnov in the early 1990s at Moscow’s SNC Studio. Salkhov was the studio’s first recording engineer, working with bands including Moralny Kodeks and Megapolis, while Smirnov came from Nikolai Kopernik, where he had already been experimenting extensively with electronic instruments.

The album is built around sampling, experimentation, and a broad range of influences. Block Four drew sounds from jazz, classical music, rock, hip-hop, folk and electronic music, as well as films, VHS tapes, and radio broadcasts, gradually assembling their own extensive library of samples and loops. Combined with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, unconventional rhythms, and harmonic ideas, the duo brought all these elements together to create their own distinctive sound.

100 Photography Lessons captures a brief but important period when Russian electronic music was still developing its own language. Freely blending sampling, electronic instruments, and influences from a wide range of musical traditions, Block Four created an album that still sounds compelling more than three decades later.

Andreas Tilliander released »Ljud« in 2001 as the first full-length album under his real name. The year before, the Swedish producer’s »Cliphop« album under his Mokira moniker had established him in the world of adventurous electronic music and the clicks’n’cuts scene. »Ljud« was just as minimalistic, warm, and playful as its predecessor while also notably inspired by house music. It is a timeless record based on happy accidents, playful loops, and lively spontaneity. For its 25th anniversary, Keplar presents a vinyl reissue with adjusted artwork by graphic designer Marc Hohmann and updated mastering by the artist himself.

Tilliander laid the foundation for his two first albums when he got rid of most of his music gear in 1998 after meeting Joel Brindefalk, who was already releasing music on the legendary Börft label. Brindefalk was using a computer as his main instrument and introduced Tilliander to the audio editing suite Sonic Foundry Sound Forge. »What he did with that software is what made me sell most of the hardware except my Nord Modular and a Korg MS-20.« The former synthesizer played an integral role while Tilliander made the tracks for »Ljud,« working primarily in the modular studio environment Jeskola Buzz.

»Ljud« came together in an intuitive process. »It’s still how I work 25 years later: I first make loops, create bits and pieces, and build up my own sound library as a foundation,« Tilliander explains. The Nord Modular and Buzz, which allowed him to swap samples and produce new sounds out of pre-existing ones, provided him with material for loops that formed the basis of the ten tracks. »I would start with a few elements, add more into the mix, then take them out again—arranging the pieces in real time while recording.« The casualness and vivacity of this improvisational approach becomes tangible throughout »Ljud.«

»Ljud« was released on Achim Szepanski’s Mille Plateaux, which had published the seminal »Clicks+Cuts« compilation in 2000. »I was part of that scene and I liked the digital aesthetic of the label,« says Tilliander »Coming from a very analogue setup, working with computer music and this kind of minimalism was very inspiring.« When preparing »Ljud« for the Keplar reissue, he ran the music through an analogue outboard and noticed he was still happy with the way it sounded. »It brought back fond memories. I hope the same is true for people who heard it back then, and that everyone who discovers it now will enjoy it, too!«