Search:loose records

The Go’s Free Electricity, the group’s storied, long-lost album, finally gets a proper release! The Go appeared in Detroit in 1996, led by Bobby Harlow and featuring Dave Buick on bass and Jack White on guitar. Following the release of their 1999 debut, Whatcha Doin’, and a few lineup changes, the band hit the studio with Dion Fischer on lead guitar, John Olson (of Wolf Eyes) on saxophone, and Cary Loren (of Destroy All Monsters) to record their sophomore effort. The session found the band and their producer, Matthew Smith (Outrageous Cherry), exploring the outer edges of rock and roll, with blaring lead guitars, copious amounts of reverb, and a heavy jazz influence thanks to a heavy diet of ‘60s free jazz. The results erupt from the speakers with a cavernous sound, like some haunted frequency beamed across the time barrier from the Grande Ballroom circa 1968, often sounding more like records by Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra than the records being made by The Go’s peers in the ‘00s rock and roll scene.

Free Electricity was written, composed, and arranged by Bobby Harlow (except track one, which was written by Harlow and Dion Fischer; and track five, written by Harlow and Cary Loren). Free Electricity was mixed and produced by Matthew Smith, engineered by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, and mastered by Jim Kissling at Jim Kissling Mastering in Detroit, Michigan. Guest appearances by folks from Destroy All Monsters and Wolf Eyes only reinforced the album's musical direction. Weird or not, this was an inspired recording made by an inspired group of musicians. There was a feeling of excitement and adventure happening at these sessions, it shines through mightily on this album.

Bristol’s Friendly Records mark 10 years with a special compilation in aid of War Child - raising vital funds for children affected by conflict.

The record brings together standout tracks from recent Friendly Records 7” releases supporting War Child, featuring Portishead, PJ Harvey, IDLES, Sleaford Mods, Hot Chip, Beak and more!

Also includes tracks from Friendly Recordings releases by Christian Madden And The Enemy Chorus, Floating World Pictures, Nick Craft, Claude Cooper & Brain Fog and ZEE.

exclusive artwork by David Shrigley.

Every purchase will help War Child UK protect, educate and stand up for the rights of children living through war.

Bristol’s Friendly Records mark 10 years with a special compilation in aid of War Child - raising vital funds for children affected by conflict.

The record brings together standout tracks from recent Friendly Records 7” releases supporting War Child, featuring Portishead, PJ Harvey, IDLES, Sleaford Mods, Hot Chip, Beak and more!

Also includes tracks from Friendly Recordings releases by Christian Madden And The Enemy Chorus, Floating World Pictures, Nick Craft, Claude Cooper & Brain Fog and ZEE.

exclusive artwork by David Shrigley.

Every purchase will help War Child UK protect, educate and stand up for the rights of children living through war.

5 x LP
60-page hardback book
Black vinyl
Printed labels
Printed inners
Slipcase
A2 poster
Slipmat

Originally released in 1990 by Happy Mondays, Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches captured the chaotic, euphoric spirit of the Madchester movement, blending indie rock, acid house rhythms and funk grooves into a sound that helped reshape British alternative music. Featuring era-defining tracks such as “Step On” and “Kinky Afro,” the record became both a commercial breakthrough and a cultural snapshot of a generation fuelled by dance culture and Northern nightlife.

More than three decades later, its grooves, attitude and genre-blurring production still resonate strongly with contemporary audiences, influencing modern indie and electronic artists alike.

5LP Edition. All original audio remastered from Factory Records master tapes. Includes original album, Hallelujah + Madchester Rave On, Baby Big Head Bootleg Album (Live at Elland Road, 1991), classic and new remixes, 60-page hardback book with brand new essays from James Brown and Central Station designers, fold-out A2 tour poster and Madchester slipmat.

Originally released in 1990 by Happy Mondays, Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches captured the chaotic, euphoric spirit of the Madchester movement, blending indie rock, acid house rhythms and funk grooves into a sound that helped reshape British alternative music. Featuring era-defining tracks such as “Step On” and “Kinky Afro,” the record became both a commercial breakthrough and a cultural snapshot of a generation fuelled by dance culture and Northern nightlife.

More than three decades later, its grooves, attitude and genre-blurring production still resonate strongly with contemporary audiences, influencing modern indie and electronic artists alike.

1LP Red Edition. All original audio remastered from Factory Records master tapes. Includes original album and brand new liner notes by James Brown.

Sing Forever (Singing Is Free): Songs from 2021-2023 meets us as a foreword to A Profound Non-Event, Daily Toll's debut album from 2025. Offering an earlier chapter in the ever-growing songbook of the Sydney/Gadigal-based group, Sing Forever... is a collection in demo-form that maps their initial formative period as a duo, largely marked by Covid-era isolation, diabolical housemates, sonic experiments and copious amounts of wine sourced from Kata's job at the time. As bowerbirds of song, Kata and Jasper are making sounds from their own pocket - their world! - singing from nowhere to no-one from (in) a context of global upheaval, loss and mass confusion. Here we find the urge to sing forever, to share a morsel of spirit, and with it a mode of grounding one's humanity. The songs are loose, off-beat and textural, a period of "first thought, best thought" in boundless practice that finds inspiration from all over: a bracelet and a solo afternoon in Budapest; lyrics formed via a black-out poem scrawled across the page of a Neil Young biography; the scratch of paper daisies, toy drums, typewriters, and pots and pans all welcome melodies repeating and fumbling unto themselves until ultimately falling apart and into something else. These songs were never initially intended to find a physical release or to even be distributed further than the Bandcamp void, and yet here we arrive at a kind of essence of Daily Toll, or at least one iteration thereof, before the studio, before the additional band members, and before being known (perhaps, even loved) by more beyond. Sing Forever (Singing Is Free): Songs from 2021-2023 was initially released as a seven song cassette that came with early copies of A Profound Non-Event. Now with the addition of an extra song and a remastering by Mikey Young, it is now released as a limited 12" LP via Tough Love in a ww ltd edition of 275 copies.

Robag Wruhme is the solo alias of Gabor Schablitzki, a quietly singular voice in minimal and house music since the early 2000s. His sound is built on precision without ever feeling rigid. Instead of chasing big moments, he lets tracks unfold through subtle movement and carefully balanced tension, always evolving but never rushing.

That same approach runs through this EP. It's about letting momentum emerge naturally, allowing each element to settle into place while the energy continues to build.

Across four tracks, Robag creates a world where rhythm and atmosphere constantly shape one another. The arrangements are rich with detail, yet nothing competes for attention. Even in the densest passages, every sound feels deliberate.

OLAHNI opens patiently, with ghostly textures and hypnotic vocal fragments setting the tone before the bassline slowly comes into focus. The arrangement keeps evolving, with subtle details drifting in and out as the groove steadily deepens.
IFTHAH takes things into darker territory, driven by a heavy rolling bassline and a looping motif that never quite loosens its grip, adding weight without disrupting the flow.

On FUMAXOHN, the groove remains tight while the mood shifts. A warm harmonic layer gradually emerges as the vocals dissolve into texture, drawing the track towards something more melancholic.
PENTHO closes the EP in its most direct form. Stripped back and driving, it lands with quiet confidence, bringing the journey to a close while holding onto the hypnotic tension that defines the record.

It's been a pleasure bringing this EP together, and we're excited to finally share it with you. We hope these four tracks draw you into Robag's world as much as they have us.

There is a kinetic energy that binds drummer and producer Karriem Riggins and singer-songwriter, rapper, and producer Liv.e, the spark that happens when instinct meets flow and spirit finds rhythm.

Their collaborative debut as GENA (short for “God Energy, Naturally Amazing,” and loosely inspired by Gina from Martin), The Pleasure Is Yours feels like a playful, soulful conversation between two kindred improvisers: Liv.e’s smoky, unpolished vocals glide through Riggins’ warm, percussive universe. Rooted in jazz, soul, and hip-hop, Liv.e brings a raw, experimental approach to R&B, while Riggins known for his work with Common, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Madlib, and his close kinship with J Dilla, extends his lifelong dialogue between jazz improvisation and beat science.

Together they create a world that’s analog and ethereal, percussive and poetic, bridging eras without settling in one, the sound of two artists finding a new shared language rooted in rhythm, vulnerability, and exuberance.

Pressed on 180g vinyl, the album comes in an embossed sleeve and is avaible in red and black splatter.

Scum rock low-lives Louse return with their Sophomore LP, Buyer’s Remorse - an unrefined but levelled-up dip back into the murk, keeping it in the family one more time on Riot Season records (a label which now, fittingly, features genre luminaries Brainbombs).
More cohesive, more negative but no less disgusting than debut record Creep Call, the band have further enhanced their pummelling, single-riff ritual M.O. with even more strop-razor guitars, crank-fuelled slide-bass, strangled sax and sinister missives from the void.
Buyer’s Remorse includes unspeakable meditations on an unmatched litany of losers, including: inept hitmen/serial killers, snuff-flick refund naivety, disturbing fellatio lessons, burying yourself alive to escape the law (“you’ll never get me in the slammer”) and having a damn good time being chopped into luncheon (take a ride on the meat slide!)
Snubbed from all but the best festivals, Louse continue to eke out a steady stream of shows, with highlights such as glorious sweat-boxes in our beloved Torino, Monza and beyond in the EU with BRAK, being the first band to play Mickey Zogg’s Basement in Bristol with Beau Wanzer and multiple distinguished appearances at Café Oto with legend and fellow RS label-mate Shit & Shine.
Right-thinking taste-makers have decreed that Louse “exist in an alternate reality where The Fall and The Birthday Party are one and the same band”, and that their songs are “all at once unsettling, loose, filthy, untamed, distorted and fucked up, but most of all rocking, creative and unique”.
Buyer’s Remorse is no exception, having been wrangled into perfection by long-time collaborator James Atkinson (The Stationhouse Studio) and none other than Rectal Hygienics’ Matt Ibarra (STR Mastering) this is truly scum rock at its finest - all at once punishing, ugly and brutal; but listen to that groove (oh my!)
Louse are
The Captain - Vocals, Septic Pete - Guitar, The King of Sting - Guitar , Uncle Brutus - Guitar Mister P. - Drums, Dieta Di Patate - Slide Bass

Great Television unfolds as a loose, emotionally driven narrative about navigating love, identity, and self-destruction against a backdrop of memory, movement, and Southern imagery. It begins with “Sunset Promenade,” where a deep, possibly lifelong bond offers comfort amid internal turmoil, establishing a desire for connection strong enough to withstand a restless mind. This sense of identity expands in “Girls of Atomic City,” where independence and womanhood are celebrated, though tinged with performance and uncertainty.

As the story progresses, songs like “Okeechobee Mud” introduce instability and intensity, portraying relationships that are passionate but corrosive, where love becomes inseparable from pain. “Thiokol Tripwire” honors the lives lost in the 1971 Thiokol Chemical Explosion and those affected in the south Georgia community of Woodbine. “Razorwire Wall” reinforces this devotion to chaotic love, suggesting loyalty even in destructive circumstances. A turning point arrives with “The Easy Kind,” where Cook reflects on attempts at self-repair, acknowledging her contradictions and rejecting simplicity in favor of a more fractured self-understanding. This awareness deepens in “Caldonia and The Love Convoy” and “In Your Veins,” where freedom blurs into recklessness and love takes on addictive qualities, revealing her complicity in cycles of harm. “19th Nervous Breakdown” provides crucial context, tracing her instability back to a turbulent upbringing marked by neglect and emotional disorder. “Feverfew,” leaves the narrative unresolved, as she recognizes her repeated attraction to destructive paths yet continues to follow them. In contrast, the closing track “Lightly” offers a rare glimpse of pure, protective sisterly love. Altogether, the album portrays a cyclical journey of longing, damage, and partial self-awareness, where clarity emerges but transformation remains uncertain.

Skyjack — the borderless five piece band spread across South Africa and Switzerland — announce their fourth studio album, Let The Sky Open Under Your Feet, out 3rd July.

Recorded in December 2025 at a secluded studio outside Stellenbosch, South Africa, the album captures the vibrant live energy of the band at its most expansive — drawing together free improvisation, South African jazz traditions, chamber music, kinetic groove, and ecstatic collective interplay into a singular body of work.

“This record is a very articulate representation of our sound, having grown deep roots into the earth with high branches reaching upward and outward”, says bassist Shane Cooper. “My desire is always to create sonic universes that can envelope the listener.”

The album’s title comes from a line in a poem by the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi, reflecting the music’s balance between groundedness and transcendence. Here, Skyjack move fluidly between meditative improvisation and lush orchestration across twelve tracks of free-spirited, cosmic journeying. Inspired both by the cultural traditions and natural environments of South Africa, Let The Sky Open Under Your Feet is a testament to the band’s intuitive connection and innate musical curiosity.

It arrives just over a year after Light Cycle (2024), a short gap that reflects the momentum built on tour. After exchanging sketches remotely across two continents, the band reunited in Johannesburg in late 2025, workshopped the new material onstage across South Africa, and then headed directly into the studio, where much of the album was recorded live in first takes — preserving the looseness and unpredictability central to Skyjack’s sound.

Comprised of Kyle Shepherd (piano), Shane Cooper (bass), Jonno Sweetman (drums), Andreas Tschopp (trombone), and Marc Stucki (saxophones), Skyjack first formed in Cape Town in 2013 during a fertile moment in South African jazz, as a new generation of musicians pushed against rigid genre definitions and opened the music outward toward broader sonic possibilities. Over the past decade, the band has built a singular sound drawing equally on South African groove traditions and European improvisation.

Individually, the members move between jazz, electronic music, film scoring, rock, hip-hop and experimental composition, with collaborations spanning artists including William Parker, Lionel Loueke, Zim Ngqawana, Ben LaMar Gay, Jorge Rossy, Shabaka Hutchings, William Kentridge, Makaya McCraven and Sylvie Courvoisier.

Since their self-titled debut in 2015, followed by The Hunter (2019) and Light Cycle (2024), the group has developed a reputation for immersive live performances and music that continuously reshapes itself in motion — rooted in what they describe as “warm menacing African grooves,” while refusing fixed stylistic borders.

Originally released on Art Yard in 2017 finally back in print!

Solo album displaying a collection of foggy electronic dub meditations recorded between 2000 and 2005 by Berliner Ring member Alexander Christou under his Al Chem guise.

In 2009, the label Art Yard sent a probe into the outer regions of contemporary electronic music, releasing Berliner Ring's "Orbital" album, a dub techno hymnal for Berlin’s orbital ring road. Drawing together the disparate elements of invented instruments, modified keyboards, customized rhythm and string machines, it was built around moods and themes drawn from the Berlin landscape.

One member of the Ring, Alexander Christou, also a part of the Berlin electro rock group Elecdrones, recording for Katzensonne. The band were “not interested in the crafting of chunks of music ready to be consumed”. Christou has since been recording under the moniker Al Chem, crossing analogue and digital realms, synthesizing a kind of philosopher’s stone. As Al Chem, he released on Tummy Touch Records, and now follows with a collection of foggy electronic dub meditations recorded between 2000 and 2005 in a full album.

In the battle to harness the elements, ancient mists permeated Chem’s music. A murky, mercurial humidity saturates the project. A distinctly north European descendant of dub, a kind of Seventh Seal that Bergman could have made, if provided enough hydroponic infusions.

No Hopper is a rework of the Ras Michael song No Hoppers, from his legendary album, Rastafari Dub, Chem's version shuffles the pack of electronic percussion with organic, Moondog-like rhythms and hazy atmospheric chords; The Prophet pinpoints Chem's GPS firmly in Berlin, just as The Red Tower blurs that kick-drum parallel between reggae and house music; Baudelaire sputters digital delay, piling on the pressure, a clatter of surgical implements performing an operation out of Dead Ringers, the patient storming out of the theatre with loosely fitted mechanical body parts; the instrumental No Hopper only serves to highlight the distant gathering storm. Ladder of Perfection rounds off the set with a drone, creaking with bubbling digital mud pools

Hill Collective strike out with Fire In Orbit, their first release for Batov Records and the Brighton ensemble’s most focused and expansive studio statement to date. Rooted in spiritual jazz but unafraid of the natural looseness, humour and raw edges that arise when imaginative musicians collaborate, Fire In Orbit captures a band working collectively, instinctively and with space to breathe.

Seit 1982 ist Benjamin Sportes prägender Bestandteil der alternativen Szene Frankreichs, in chronologischer Reihenfolge: Les Wanderes, Torpedo, Sportes, Sporto Kantes und seit 2017 als Futuro Pelo. Das Album "Sketches Of Loss" ist entstanden aus einem Jahr der Trauer und einer brutalen Nähe zum Tod. Nach einer zehnjährigen Pause von der Gitarre markiert Sketches of Loss eine radikale Rückkehr zu den ureigenen Wurzeln von Rock 'n' Roll, Garage und Punk, ist Sportes intensives, ungefiltertes Ventil der Emotionen. Eine Klangexplosion aus Rock'n'Roll, Elektro, Garage, Punk und Pop. "Sketches Of Loss" reduziert die Musik auf ihr ureigenes Skelett: eine Stimme, eine Gitarre und ein stetiger Drum-Loop. Inspiriert von der Dringlichkeit von The Gun Club und der Theatralik von John Maus, zeugt Futuro Pelos neue Ära von unerschütterlicher Widerstandskraft und Energie- ein zeitliches Kräftemessen zwischen seinem 24-jährigen Ich und dem Mann, der er heute ist. Eine Rückkehr zum ungefilterten Rock 'n' Roll, Garage und Punk als Solo-Projekt - geboren aus einer existenziellen Dringlichkeit und einer brutalen Nähe zur Sterblichkeit. Tipp! Alternative Rock'n'Roll, Independent, Garage, Elektro-Punk für Fans von Sleaford Mods, Electronicat, Suicide, The Kills, Crocodiles, La Femme, Bracco, The Devils, Reverend Beat-Man & The New Wave, Bad Decisions

Seit 1982 ist Benjamin Sportes prägender Bestandteil der alternativen Szene Frankreichs, in chronologischer Reihenfolge: Les Wanderes, Torpedo, Sportes, Sporto Kantes und seit 2017 als Futuro Pelo. Das Album "Sketches Of Loss" ist entstanden aus einem Jahr der Trauer und einer brutalen Nähe zum Tod. Nach einer zehnjährigen Pause von der Gitarre markiert Sketches of Loss eine radikale Rückkehr zu den ureigenen Wurzeln von Rock 'n' Roll, Garage und Punk, ist Sportes intensives, ungefiltertes Ventil der Emotionen. Eine Klangexplosion aus Rock'n'Roll, Elektro, Garage, Punk und Pop. "Sketches Of Loss" reduziert die Musik auf ihr ureigenes Skelett: eine Stimme, eine Gitarre und ein stetiger Drum-Loop. Inspiriert von der Dringlichkeit von The Gun Club und der Theatralik von John Maus, zeugt Futuro Pelos neue Ära von unerschütterlicher Widerstandskraft und Energie- ein zeitliches Kräftemessen zwischen seinem 24-jährigen Ich und dem Mann, der er heute ist. Eine Rückkehr zum ungefilterten Rock 'n' Roll, Garage und Punk als Solo-Projekt - geboren aus einer existenziellen Dringlichkeit und einer brutalen Nähe zur Sterblichkeit. Tipp! Alternative Rock'n'Roll, Independent, Garage, Elektro-Punk für Fans von Sleaford Mods, Electronicat, Suicide, The Kills, Crocodiles, La Femme, Bracco, The Devils, Reverend Beat-Man & The New Wave, Bad Decisions

Repress in soon, note new price. For the ten-year anniversary of Algernon Cadwallader's first full length, "Some Kind of Cadwallader," Lauren Records and Asian Man Records are reissuing the record along with their second album, "Parrot Flies" (2011), and a new self-titled collection LP. The 16-track collection includes EPs, B-sides, previously unreleased versions, and two covers. Side A re­ects one era of Algernon Cadwallader, and Side B the other.

Dark Wings marks a shift toward a looser, more collaborative sound for Mason Jennings, recorded in an unconventional studio space built inside a design workshop with drummer Scott McPherson and engineer Aaron Featherstone. What began as a single track evolved into an 11-song collection shaped by ongoing sessions, spontaneous collaborations, and a rotating cast of musicians. The result is a warm, full-band record that leans into texture, instinct, and the energy of capturing music in the moment—an inspired departure from Jennings’ more solitary recent work. Vinyl pressing limited to 500.

There are records that follow the rules, and others that rewrite them in real time. With O R G A S M A N I A, Byron The Aquarius returns to Skylax with a deeper, freer and more unpredictable statement — where jazz instinct meets raw machine funk, and structure dissolves into pure feeling. Rooted in the lineage of Detroit yet never confined by it, Byron operates in that rare zone where house music becomes expression rather than format. His sound doesn’t chase functionality — it breathes, it stretches, it resists. The EP opens with Back 2 Zion (Tomorrow), a spiritual and meditative journey built on loose drums and luminous chords, carrying a sense of elevation — early morning music where the dancefloor begins to think again. Enter the Co$mos (Fool) pushes further into abstraction, with drifting synths and broken rhythms unfolding in a non-linear structure, navigating between Sun Ra’s cosmic language and Detroit futurism. On the flip, Mr. Captain Crunchhh brings a raw, playful energy — crunchy textures, off-grid swing and an almost improvised groove, alive and unpredictable, a leftfield tool designed to disrupt expectations. Finally, O R G A S M A N I A stands as the centerpiece — hypnotic, sensual and immersive, locking into a deep repetitive groove while evolving in subtle layers, a late-night body experience guided by a sharp musical mind. Across four tracks, Byron The Aquarius confirms his unique position between jazz musician, house producer and sonic storyteller, with a trajectory spanning Sound Signature, Axis, Eglo, Apron and Shall Not Fade, continuing to resonate from Detroit to Berlin and beyond. Artwork by H5 — the iconic studio behind Daft Punk, Air and Vitalic — reinforces Skylax’s timeless and art-driven identity. This is not fast music, this is not algorithm music — this is music for those who still listen. Strictly for the heads. Vinyl only. No repress. Skylax Records.

Danish quintet David Miilmann Group return with You Belong, their third album and a vibrant, uplifting statement built around guitarist David Miilmann"s distinctive slide guitar voice. Rooted in soul and blues but shaped within a genre-defying jazz context, the band brings a life-affirming energy to music that moves between groove, melody, and open improvisation with ease. Set for release on April Records on June 12th, 2026, You Belong centres on Miilmann"s approach to the guitar, drawing on the phrasing of singers like Curtis Mayfield, Freddie King and Aretha Franklin. His slide playing - developed as a way of emulating the human voice - sits at the core of the group"s sound, cutting through a warm, rhythmically grounded backdrop that blends jazz, rock, and Brazilian influences. At its core, the album captures a working band in motion. The five musicians move fluidly between composed material and looser, more exploratory sections, guided by close listening and a shared sense of direction. That chemistry comes into focus on "It"s Happening Again," a groove-led track steeped in a warm, 1970s-inspired production style. Built on a relaxed but propulsive feel, it captures the simple joy of time spent with close friends - familiar, unforced, and full of possibility. "The Day After" offers a more spacious counterpoint. Written as a reflection on those rare, quiet mornings following a meaningful moment - a concert, a celebration - it unfolds with a sense of ease and openness, led by Miilmann"s melodic slide guitar and supported by a restrained, attentive rhythm section. The band"s take on "My Favorite Things" reshapes the well-known material through their own ensemble sound, acknowledging the influence of John Coltrane while carving out a more textural, guitar-led approach. The album"s title, You Belong, points to the group"s broader outlook: an inclusive, community-driven approach to making music. That idea runs through both the compositions and the band"s dynamic - less about spotlighting individuals, more about building a collective sound. Since their debut Waiting for Myself (2021), David Miilmann Group have carved out a space with their emotionally direct, genre-fluid approach - earning two DMA Blues nominations, reaching the finals of the Jazz Competition, and receiving regular airplay on P8 Jazz. With You Belong, they refine that approach into something more defined: a warm, groove-driven sound shaped by song, feel, and the unmistakable voice of Miilmann"s slide guitar.

Strut Records proudly presents the first definitive expanded reissue of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Sun Ra’s 1977 session recorded at the Bluebird in Bloomington, Indiana, presented across three Vinyl LPs or as a two CD set.

The Arkestra were at the peak of their powers in 1977, releasing revered albums like The Soul Vibration Of Man and My Favorite Things with Arkestra regulars Marshall Allen, Danny Ray Thompson, Michael Ray and Luqman Ali among the core musicians. Ra also continued his touring in Europe with historic gigs in Italy. During this period, Arkestra live performances were often loosely structured into thematic blocks that moved from reflections on jazz history to cosmic “space narrative” sections featuring collective chants, extended Africa/Egypt-inspired grooves and selections from the Great American Songbook. This recording brings in all of these features with re-imagined versions of standards like ‘Take The “A” Train’, ‘St. Louis Blues’ and title track ‘Over The Rainbow’ alongside rarely recorded Ra compositions like ‘Make Another Mistake’ and ‘Amen Meni Many Amens’. Ra conducted improvisations to guide the listener seamlessly from one musical scene to the next. As Sun Ra himself described it: “It’s like a party—we enjoy ourselves and everybody’s invited to enjoy it with us.”

The original version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow assembled a handful of clearly delineated tracks drawn from the flow of two complete concert recordings, re-arranged out of sequence. Strut’s new edition restores previously excised material and preserves more of the natural transitions between pieces, offering a fuller glimpse into the distinctive aesthetic of Sun Ra and his Arkestra.

This definitive reissue is pressed across two CDs, or three vinyl LPs housed in a triple gatefold sleeve, newly remastered by Technology Works from the original source tapes and features extensive new liner notes by Chris Cutler alongside video stills from the original concert.

Recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, the album captures Zu at their most raw and explosive -- where avant-jazz energy collides with the weight of experimental rock. Igneo (2002) by Zu is the band's debut studio album and marks the starting point of their distinctive sonic identity. Even at this early stage, many of the elements that would define their later work are already clearly present. The album emerges from a context deeply rooted in experimentation and exploration. Compared to their subsequent releases, the sound here feels more open and less tightly structured, with a stronger emphasis on improvisation and real- time interaction between the musicians. The trio--baritone sax, electric bass, and drums--develops a language that blends free jazz, noise, post- hardcore, and touches of contemporary composition.

Listening to Igneo, you can sense a balance between raw energy and expressive freedom. The baritone sax shifts between abrasive bursts and more spacious, stretched- out passages, while the bass moves from repetitive grooves into fragmented lines. The drums, in turn, alternate between tight rhythmic frameworks and looser, more fluid playing. There's a constant negotiation between control and release. Unlike the band's later, more disciplined records, the structures here feel more fluid and unpredictable. The tracks don't follow conventional forms; instead, they evolve like living organisms, marked by sudden changes, contrasting sections, and a persistent sense of instability. This gives the album a dynamic, almost volatile character. The title Igneo-- suggesting something fiery and primal-- captures the essence of the record quite well. The music feels warm, raw, and in continuous motion, as if it were constantly on the verge of erupting.

Recorded and mixed by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago, the album captures Zu at their most raw and explosive -- where avant-jazz energy collides with the weight of experimental rock. Igneo (2002) by Zu is the band's debut studio album and marks the starting point of their distinctive sonic identity. Even at this early stage, many of the elements that would define their later work are already clearly present. The album emerges from a context deeply rooted in experimentation and exploration. Compared to their subsequent releases, the sound here feels more open and less tightly structured, with a stronger emphasis on improvisation and real- time interaction between the musicians. The trio--baritone sax, electric bass, and drums--develops a language that blends free jazz, noise, post- hardcore, and touches of contemporary composition.

Listening to Igneo, you can sense a balance between raw energy and expressive freedom. The baritone sax shifts between abrasive bursts and more spacious, stretched- out passages, while the bass moves from repetitive grooves into fragmented lines. The drums, in turn, alternate between tight rhythmic frameworks and looser, more fluid playing. There's a constant negotiation between control and release. Unlike the band's later, more disciplined records, the structures here feel more fluid and unpredictable. The tracks don't follow conventional forms; instead, they evolve like living organisms, marked by sudden changes, contrasting sections, and a persistent sense of instability. This gives the album a dynamic, almost volatile character. The title Igneo-- suggesting something fiery and primal-- captures the essence of the record quite well. The music feels warm, raw, and in continuous motion, as if it were constantly on the verge of erupting.

Because It Happens dokumentiert ein außergewöhnliches Live-Treffen dreier Meister der freien Improvisation - aufgenommen im legendären Café OTO in London. Mikolaj Trzaska (Saxofon, Bassklarinette), John Edwards (Kontrabass) und Mark Sanders (Schlagzeug) begegnen sich nicht im klassischen Sinne des Jazzspiels, sondern verstehen ihre Musik als "Live-Komposition" - einen offenen Prozess, in dem Publikum und Raum Teil des musikalischen Geschehens werden. Zwischen eruptiver Energie und lyrischer Verdichtung entfaltet sich ein intensiver Dialog, der weit über Technik hinausgeht: Musik als unmittelbare Erzählung, als Risiko, als Entdeckung. Ein Album voller Spannung, Freiheit und bewegender Momente.

‘Falling Backwards’ is the debut album from Him & Earl via Wah Wah 45s, serving up a mystic brew of desert blues, English folk, Americana and stirring southern soul, with tentacles stretching out into psychedelia and prog, across 11 hot and hazy tracks.

Singer-songwriter Olly Him and DJ, producer and composer Wyndham Earl both have deeply-dug roots in the south coast of England, with the former making his name as a solo artist before exploring his soulful folk/prog sound with a number of live acts, and the latter collaborating on albums and sharing stages with Bonobo, Khruangbin, Alice Russell and TM Juke, having remixes released by Tru Thoughts and Mr Bongo Records and releasing his solo projects on his Time Spun imprint.

The pair first met in 2015 when Wyndham produced some songs for now defunct hypnotic Afro-folk outfit Creatures Of The Deep, of which Olly was a founder member. They instantly clicked, but after the group broke up it was a few years before serendipity brought them back together; a chance encounter at a gig saw them begin hatching plans to make a full album under the name Him & Earl with Olly writing the songs and Wyndham arranging and producing the project.

After so long floating in the creative ether, the connective power of these songs has been strikingly immediate. The debut Him & Earl live show in early 2026, before any tracks had even come out, blew Olly and Wyndham’s expectations out of the water as their five-piece band found themselves toe-to-toe with a sellout crowd – a sweaty room full of happy music fans, on an otherwise bleak January night, throwing shapes to live percussion showdowns, losing themselves in psychedelic guitar and bass wig-outs, and singing along to choruses they’d never heard a note of before.

Since then, the first two singles “Bottled Up” and “Away” have had high profile airplay from the likes of BBC 6 Music’s Huw Stephens and Cerys Matthews, and Radio X’s John Kennedy, adding to widespread tastemaker and specialist support around the world, as excitement builds for the album.The LP’s introspective and philosophical lyrics are brought to life by a sonorous yet strangely uplifting sound palette that morphs by stealth into a darkly propulsive, psychedelic and bluesy trip.

Opening song “Away” taps straight into a key theme of the record – journeying, in both a physical and mental sense, and the quest to move on and embrace the unknown – and its sunny guitars, trumpet and violin barely even hint at the tumultuous sonic adventure that’s set to unfold. A stronger indication comes in the title track,“Falling Backwards”, as its elegant web of staccato finger-picked hook, fluid piano melodies and strings unfurls into a six-minute exploration of what Olly describes as “going through every day normality while feeling close to chaos and like things could fall apart at any moment… when there is a myriad of different things holding everything together and if one thing goes wrong everything can fall apart around it.”



“Better Days” swiftly restores a sense of upbeat calm, with lively Kora and Afrobeat-inspired guitar licks, atmospheric trumpet and a harmony-clad mantra of hope on the horizon; the folky “Bottled Up” continues that blissful notion with undulating finger-picked guitar, earthy clarinet counter-melodies and celestial murmurations of delicately plucked strings. The magnetic pull toward more mysterious horizons comes via the dusty twang of Wild West-esque guitars on “Open Road”, a nomadic journey of self-discovery through spacious sonic plains embellished with eerie flickers of flute and clarinet. This leftward turn gathers pace in the trancelike

psych-prog depths of “Preside”, an instrumental cut at the album’s pivotal halfway point. Hypnotic, guttural desert blues-infused riffs on “Inside” channel the feeling of a psychedelic or spiritual trip where, in Olly’s words, “something clicks and you understand things on a different level – it makes you see inside yourself and see things in a different way.” “Shadow overhead” brings a lighter touch to a darker subject – the feeling of paranoia and being locked away from the world – drawn from Olly’s own experience and also his years of working in and around mental health.

Exuberant horns lend hope to loosely looping suspense on “Blindside” (about being caught out by the unexpected, and searching for something to see or hear to pick you up again) and then mesh with urgent strings, low-slung guitars and subterranean bass on “Around Again”, which explores the modern fight to stay afloat amid the endless churn of information and distractions. Still plumbing the bassy, bluesy depths of this journey into the psyche, “You Can Only Know” is a dreamlike revelation about finding someone or something that helps to make sense of the world. Luminescent synths duck and weave, while a rock-solid bass riff is tracked by a soul-soothing four-part “hey hey” harmony, reassuring as a glowing lamp in the window at the end of a life-changing trip.

Dx2ov arrives on Blank Mind with Tonegues, his second vinyl LP following on from Interzona on Gost Zvuk in 2024. The LP title is a wordplay on the idea of speaking in tongues and sonic tonalities, echoing the process and dialogue that went into creating the record. Taken from a vast archive of material from 2019-2025, these ideas were arranged with the collaboration of label owner Sam Purcell and then completed with the long-distance assistance of Toupaz.

Tonegues is best seen through the lens of a beat-tape, with the playful flow and variety that the format provides, bursting with oddball ideas and punctuated with intangible vocal samples. Much like the LP’s beguiling, hand-drawn artwork by Wolfgang Matuschek, it is a glimpse into an inner world, a portal to somewhere uncanny and strange borne through imagination.

Light dub flourishes mix with footwork/IDM hybrids and understated, melancholic synthesis on ‘2018’, whilst the loose, rhythmic march of ‘Fon32’ evokes the dusty beatdown styles of early 2000s Detroit downtempo records. Whilst on one of the LP highlights ‘Trout’ he lays down a gleefully strange bed for the surrealist storytelling of Jacob Dwyer about interactions with dogs, dripping old houses and a perennial wish for the phone to ring with a heavy dub poetry slant. Dx2ov swiftly moves through more footwork adjacent, almost bedroom hyper-pop territories with a penchant for gabber kicks on ‘No Strings (feat DJ Paprika)’ and the maximalism of album closer 'Demetch' which continues in the tradition of wonky, mid-2010s UK bass music flips. The outcome is a confounding, unorthodox piece of work, zigzagging between forms, textures and moods.

Edition of 200

Seaford's Chewy Rubs heads up his own Bandolier Records and has impressed with collaborations with Fingerman before now. Here he lands on Wax Digits with an EP designed to join familiar moments of the past with fresh club energy. 'Another' has old school stabs and 90s vocals that get heart and body going, 'Freestyle' is a body-popping rhythm with vocoder vocals offering an 80s flex and 'Mobbed' is a suspenseful tech house groove before 'Underground' cuts loose on more big breaks and percussive flair. Useful, hard to date and harder to predict tools.

Strictly limited to 150 copies. DJ use only.

By popular demand, almost two years after its original release, we're finally pressing one of MM Discos' most iconic records to vinyl. A record that, in many ways, captures the label's vibe, spirituality, and sonic identity.
Daichi landed in 2024 with standout versatility, effortlessly pulling almost any genre into a balearic universe, bending it to his own language.
From the proto-tropical trance of "See of Cosmic" to the loose, hard-to-pin-down house of "Dampness," somewhere between Madchester moods and an Arthur Russell-esque swing. Late-night energy runs through "You Got Me" and "Aja Aja" - the former riding a garage swing, the latter drifting further into that signature cosmic space. To close it out and ease the tempo down, Daichi moves into more disco-leaning territory with a pair of understated but heavyweight edits.

For The Bobby Lees, their fourth album and Epitaph debut New Self marks a thrilling new chapter for the band while doubling down on what"s always made them so magnetic. The Bobby Lees don"t need much in the way of introduction. Within a few seconds of exposure to their furnace-blast live shows or their bottled-lightning studio records, it"s easy to hear why they"ve earned fans in legendary musicians like Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, and Henry Rollins. They"re as uncompromising in their sound and generous with their energy as any of their punk ancestors who first rewrote the rules of engagement back in the 1970s. Led by singer and guitarist Sam Quartin, drummer Macky Bowman, and bassist Kendall Wind, The Bobby Lees bring wildness and danger back into punk rock. You can hear the band easing into a new confidence -- one that"s both looser and more towering -- all throughout New Self, from the seething, fiery "Napoleon" to the rambunctious, offbeat take on PJ Harvey"s "50ft Queenie." This is the sound of a band who"s scrambled over shaky ground only to come back stronger than ever: more confident, more connected, louder and fiercer and secure in their own skin.

The Flaming Sideburns' debut album remastered 25th anniversary edition out in June via Svart Records In the beginning of the new Millennium, The Flaming Sideburns were getting ready to record our first proper album. First we rented Ismo Alanko’s old rehearsal room in Otaniemi, Espoo, and turned it into a recording facility. Old analog tape recorders, vintage microphones, a Space Echo unit, and other top equipment were brought in directly from Berlin, Germany by the album’s producer, Jürgen Hendlmeier. As producer Jürgen Hendlmeier recalls the final steps of the sessions: “Fact is, when we mastered the record at Seawolf Studios we had no real idea what to do with this equipment. We just wanted to make it louder and louder – that was all we wanted. We wanted to go to twelve instead of eleven.” When Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah was first released, it did not sound as “natural” as it had originally been planned to be – but the album was a huge success for the band nevertheless. For this remastered edition, Hendlmeier dug deep enough to finally find the files containing all the original mixes. The album’s producer then remastered the album himself, and the end result is far more convincing. Compared to the original version—which is already very good—the album now feels as if it has been completely remixed for the better. As a bonus, on the original album some of the songs were edited shorter, but now all of them appear in their original length. -Eduardo Martinez

The Flaming Sideburns' debut album remastered 25th anniversary edition out in June via Svart Records In the beginning of the new Millennium, The Flaming Sideburns were getting ready to record our first proper album. First we rented Ismo Alanko’s old rehearsal room in Otaniemi, Espoo, and turned it into a recording facility. Old analog tape recorders, vintage microphones, a Space Echo unit, and other top equipment were brought in directly from Berlin, Germany by the album’s producer, Jürgen Hendlmeier. As producer Jürgen Hendlmeier recalls the final steps of the sessions: “Fact is, when we mastered the record at Seawolf Studios we had no real idea what to do with this equipment. We just wanted to make it louder and louder – that was all we wanted. We wanted to go to twelve instead of eleven.” When Hallelujah Rock’n’Rollah was first released, it did not sound as “natural” as it had originally been planned to be – but the album was a huge success for the band nevertheless. For this remastered edition, Hendlmeier dug deep enough to finally find the files containing all the original mixes. The album’s producer then remastered the album himself, and the end result is far more convincing. Compared to the original version—which is already very good—the album now feels as if it has been completely remixed for the better. As a bonus, on the original album some of the songs were edited shorter, but now all of them appear in their original length. -Eduardo Martinez

For its 9th release after its relaunch, Apnea Records proudly presents another ERP record, this time in the form of a 2x12" Album "Faded Caprice" is a mesmerizing journey into the heart of summer's fading glow. Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, each track is a sonic tableau, capturing the essence of hot afternoons and wistful sunsets. E.R.P.'s signature blend of deep, cosmic funky electro gems resonates with emotional depth, inviting listeners to lose themselves in its hypnotic embrace. From the pulsating rhythms of "Miami Nice" to the introspective melodies of "Cape Earl "Faded Caprice" is a testament to E.R.P.'s artistry and vision. A testament to Gerard Hanson's music landscape, offering audiences a glimpse into the boundless possibilities of sound and emotion.

Debut vinyl release from San Francisco indie pop trio The Kitchenettes. After a quietly beloved 2024 demos tape, The Kitchenettes return with their first vinyl release: a sparkling three-song 7" that updates the timeless indie pop template of Marine Girls, The Cat's Miaow, and Lois for 2026. Across the three tracks, the band moves gracefully between tender, jangling pop and brighter, upbeat moments, revealing an impressive range of mood, tempo, and texture. Formed by Morgan (The Umbrellas, Telephone Numbers) with Emily and Sequoia (The Snogs),writing collaboratively and trading vocal duties, the band crafts effortlessly charming indie pop built on jangly guitars, loose harmonies, and a homespun DIY spirit. Short, sweet, and full of heart, it's a perfect introduction to one of San Francisco's most charming new indie pop groups.

"I decided to just let myself go," Zzzahara says of their new record, 'Spiral Your Way Out' "I think I finally came to this acceptance that I don't have to be perfect. I want to be a good role model to my fans and stuff like that, but I also don't want to hide who I am." Zzzahara's music wades into the deep waters of love, lust, and self-discovery in a part of the world where artifice and authenticity co-exist. Emerging from the heart of LA's alternative music scene, their sound is raw in feeling and rebellious by nature.

Their 2022 debut album, Liminal Spaces, chronicles a coming- of- age in Highland Park, following painful childhood memories through to late- night, live- fast coping mechanisms, and the changes the neighbourhood has endured over the same period of time. Their 2023 follow- up, Tender, marked a period of slowing down, looking inward, and embracing a softer side of being. 'Spiral Your Way Out' sees Zzzahara evolve again. Emotionally, its foundations are built on scorched earth.

The album finds Zzzahara in the aftermath of a relationship spent trying to fit someone else's mould, being jerked around by indecision, and then hitting "emotional rock bottom." Made in a three-month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, 'Spiral Your Way Out' is in part a work of self-reclamation, swapping there 2nd album Tender's meditative state for something fiery and more assertive. The new album marks another sonic evolution as much as an emotional one. Zzzahara's songs have always come wrapped in a warm glow that reflects how they were written -namely at home in their bedroom.

That glow remains on 'Spiral Your Way Out', but it also packs an ambitious streak and a gutsy punch. Taking a more collaborative approach than usual, Zzzahara worked with a range of producers including Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast, No Joy, Sky Ferreira), Sarah Tudzin (boygenius / Cloud Nothings / The Armed), former Ducktails guitarist Alex Craig (Jelani Aryeh / re6ce) and Halsey tour drummer Franco Reid, who helped harness their intimate style of writing and blow it up into something more panoptic. After a year of upheaval, Zzzahara finally feels "calm." The musical equivalent to going several rounds on a punching bag, 'Spiral Your Way Out' finds solace between extremes. It licks its wounds in a place where pain and love, healing and abandon, sit side-by-side. If it has a message, it's one of standing tall in your own shoes - scuffs and all.

"I decided to just let myself go," Zzzahara says of their new record, 'Spiral Your Way Out' "I think I finally came to this acceptance that I don't have to be perfect. I want to be a good role model to my fans and stuff like that, but I also don't want to hide who I am." Zzzahara's music wades into the deep waters of love, lust, and self-discovery in a part of the world where artifice and authenticity co-exist. Emerging from the heart of LA's alternative music scene, their sound is raw in feeling and rebellious by nature.

Their 2022 debut album, Liminal Spaces, chronicles a coming- of- age in Highland Park, following painful childhood memories through to late- night, live- fast coping mechanisms, and the changes the neighbourhood has endured over the same period of time. Their 2023 follow- up, Tender, marked a period of slowing down, looking inward, and embracing a softer side of being. 'Spiral Your Way Out' sees Zzzahara evolve again. Emotionally, its foundations are built on scorched earth.

The album finds Zzzahara in the aftermath of a relationship spent trying to fit someone else's mould, being jerked around by indecision, and then hitting "emotional rock bottom." Made in a three-month burst that let all their pent-up frustrations loose, 'Spiral Your Way Out' is in part a work of self-reclamation, swapping there 2nd album Tender's meditative state for something fiery and more assertive. The new album marks another sonic evolution as much as an emotional one. Zzzahara's songs have always come wrapped in a warm glow that reflects how they were written -namely at home in their bedroom.

That glow remains on 'Spiral Your Way Out', but it also packs an ambitious streak and a gutsy punch. Taking a more collaborative approach than usual, Zzzahara worked with a range of producers including Jorge Elbrecht (Japanese Breakfast, No Joy, Sky Ferreira), Sarah Tudzin (boygenius / Cloud Nothings / The Armed), former Ducktails guitarist Alex Craig (Jelani Aryeh / re6ce) and Halsey tour drummer Franco Reid, who helped harness their intimate style of writing and blow it up into something more panoptic. After a year of upheaval, Zzzahara finally feels "calm." The musical equivalent to going several rounds on a punching bag, 'Spiral Your Way Out' finds solace between extremes. It licks its wounds in a place where pain and love, healing and abandon, sit side-by-side. If it has a message, it's one of standing tall in your own shoes - scuffs and all.

For Metro Beirut’s latest release, Cem Mo steps forward with his debut vinyl EP, a record that bridges the roots of Chicago and Detroit house with his own deep and textured approach to groove.

Born in Ankara and having taken piano lessons at an early age, Cem drifted from classical into jazz, re-teaching himself harmony and improvisation before finding his way into production. After moving to Amsterdam in 2016, the city’s community and music scene expanded his horizon, shaping a sound that treats producing like improvising, with curiosity for grain, color, and repetition, where subtle shifts make all the difference. Along the way, Cem has released on Handy Records and Rhythm Section, while his project Nowhere People has appeared on Artisjok Records.

This EP brings together a tight circle of artists who deepen its character. Saxophonist Moritz Schuster, known for his work across electronic music and past work with Cem and Malik Kassim, formerly known as Retromigration, delivers a striking, free-flowing performance charged with raw intensity. On “The Hard Way”, Franco Corica joins Cem for a deep, soulful, jazz-leaning moment that feels both reflective and quietly defiant. Finally, longtime friend Malik pulls up with a dancefloor remix that preserves Cem’s melodic sensibility while adding his own loose, resulting in a circular dialogue between two artists who’ve grown side by side.

Artwork: Shahd Issa

Toronto’s Ducks Ltd. (formerly Ducks Unlimited), the bright jangle-pop duo of Tom McGreevy (lead vocal, guitar, bass, keyboards) and Evan Lewis (guitar, bass, drum programming), accomplish the impossible. The pair craft songs that play to very specific inspirations without drowning underneath them—immediately evidenced on their critically acclaimed EP, Get Bleak, and sharpened on Modern Fiction, their debut LP. “The Servants, The Clean, The Chills, The Bats, Television Personalities, Felt,” Evan rattles off. “Look Blue Go Purple is one I reference a lot with our production.” Echoes of ‘80s indiepop abound, but they never overwhelm. This is not a nostalgic record, after all, nor is it a derivative one. Instead, across 10 cheery-sounding songs, Ducks Ltd. explore contemporary society in decline, examining large scale human disaster through personal turmoil (hence the title, taken from a university course called Gnosticism and Nihilism in Modern Fiction, influenced by Graham Greene novels. Bookish indie fans, look no further.)

Writing the album was intimate. Tom drafted the nucleus of a song on an unplugged electric guitar and brought it over to Evan’s apartment, where the pair sat in his bedroom, placing percussive beats from a drum machine under nascent melodies, passing a bass back and forth, adding organs and bridges where necessary. “It’s computer music trying extremely hard not to sound like computer music,” Tom jokes. Fearful that limited and expensive studio time would kneecap the project creatively, eroding their charming naivete, the pair re-recorded the album in a storage space owned by Evan’s boss. Ornamentation through collaboration followed: there’s Aaron Goldstein on Pedal Steel in the Go-Betweens’ “Cattle and Cane”-channeling interlude “Patience Wearing Thin,” Eliza Niemi on cello (“18 Cigarettes,” a song loosely inspired by a 1997 Oasis performance of “Don’t Go Away”), and backing harmonies from Carpark labelmates The Beths (on an ode to friendship at a distance, “How Lonely Are You?,” “Always There,” and on the sped-up Syd Barrett stylings of “Under The Rolling Moon.”) While in his native Australia due to covid-19, Evan worked closely with producer James Cecil (The Goon Sax, Architecture in Helsinki) on Modern Fiction’s finishing touches—at one point, in the mountains of the Macedon Ranges in Victoria, recorded a string quartet (featured on “Fit to Burst,” “Always There,” “Sullen Leering Hope,” “Twere Ever Thus,” “Grand Final Day.”)

It’s danceable, depressive fun, with some relief: in “Always There” and “Sullen Leering Hope,” Modern Fiction’s faithful heart. “There’s a tendency in my writing, because of my world view, to be very bleak.” Tom explains. “A quality I don’t always see in myself and really appreciate in others is the courage to go on.” And yet, the record manages resiliency—enough for pop fans to fall in love with.

Carmy Love is mainstay of the Big AC Records label by now with the likes of 'Rebel', 'Together Again' and 'Thinkin Bout You' all establishing her sound. Here she embodies a love of, or certainly respect for, Southern Soul here with a bog and bold stomper that has brassy horns and loose tambourines backing a lung busting vocal that is powerful and emotive. It's a track that has an authentic old school sound but with modern production heft. Flip it over and you'll find the equally magical 'Together Again' which is a slower sound that sinks in deeper and with more pain.

“Tako” means “octopus”, “kite”, and even “bunion” in Japanese. Bald men or men with shaven heads, as well as red-faced, staggering drunks, are also referred to as “tako”. It’s a word that appears in a lot of slang and sayings. Taco is also the name of an 80s music and performance collective whose performances were like nothing before or since. The Japanese band Taco, formed at the beginning of the 80s, is a loose group/collective of varying members that belongs to the post-punk alternative music movement. The network of members were all friends and acquaintances of Harumi Yamazaki, ex-member of Gaseneta and Taco’s central member.

Taco can be described as a band of guerrillas who, over the years, continued to connect, collect, interrupt, and scatter while sending out into the world music and sounds that can best be described as transient. Taco also performed without Harumi, and so it is as though the band is an anonymous group of mercenaries. Taco’s first album was released in 1983 and had a huge impact on Japan’s underground music scene as an anomalous and collaborative album involving various participating artists (the stars of Japan’s underground music scene!) and Harumi, who provided the lyrics. Although each track represents a reverberating conglomeration of sounds created by this transient local network, common to all the tracks are Harumi’s expressive lyrics. This has the effect of transforming all the tracks into a single powerful force which, in turn, spawns an “incident” which spreads like a giant ripple. However, because of another incident in which the records were recalled due to the scandal caused by some of the lyrics, only a limited number of people actually own a copy of the album. Taco’s second album (a 12” EP), released in 1984, features a live recording of a performance that was held at the end of 1982. Taco is a band of indeterminate members which only ever played one-off performances, but this is an album that reveals a unit whose performance was unusually musically coherent. This is an album which effectively conveys the power of Taco’s astounding and legendary live performances, as well as Harumi’s inflammatory, sensational, and masochistic presence on stage. Her mutterings and screams, which practically ignore the detached beat, confront the audience like an overwhelming groundswell.

The following is a description of Taco by one of its members following one of its live performances: “Taco’s like a project where the indeterminate participants fan each other’s heightened emotions of wanting to wreak personal revenge and retribution. It’s an ecosystem of tangible and intangible mouldy slime which accumulates in order for emotions to be acted out, both indoors in the studio, or outdoors on stage. That’s why the avenger can often end up being the victim.”

Nameless, March 1985

Venturing into “a limbo world between medieval tropes and modern-day decay”, New Orleans musician Urq (half of art punk duo Spllit) returns with a new solo offering. Recorded over a single, intense month, This Dismal Village is a homespun document that sits somewhere between jittery punk, dreary psychedelia, and hooky bedroom pop. Recorded to 4-track, the record embraces limitation as a creative engine, resulting in a sound that is raw, unsettled, and deeply atmospheric.

The album is set not in a fixed point in time or geography, but a liminal environment where dystopic visions and archaic fixtures exist side by side. In the dismal village, kings and witches share space with televisions, skyscrapers, and modern enterprise; organ fanfares echo down streets populated by disgruntled townsfolk and whispered gossip. It is simultaneously the dark ages, 1950s suburbia, and a 21st-century metropolis. Embracing anachronism was central to the project’s identity, an attempt to collapse history into a single, uneasy present.

Sonically and philosophically, the album sits firmly in the tradition of rough and raw cassette rock. Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand looms large as an influence, particularly its ability to build an entire world through unpolished, first-take recordings. Robert Pollard’s idea of the “four P’s” (psych, punk, prog, and pop) serves as a neat summary of the artist’s musical instincts and each element can be traced right through the heart of This Dismal Village. Further inspiration comes from post-punk’s so-called “Calgary Sound,” a loose movement blending psych pop, post-punk, and math/prog elements with a home-recorded, unpretentious ethos.

The result is an album that unrolls like a place wandered through, uneasy, occasionally familiar, and impossible to pin down in time. All captured on tape before it could disappear like an apparition, like a dream only half-remembered.

French artist Swan Wisnia, under her solo project molto morbidi, announces her second album Maybe Marcel for release on April 17th via No Salad Records. An experimental album forged in both tenderness and turmoil, combining art / weird pop and baroque pop, the album moves between the intimate and raw to the playful and inventive, creating a universe that is at once dark and hopeful.
"What inspires me are artists who stand by their influences while transcending traditions," she explains. "Artists who are recognisably their own." Drawing inspiration from everything from Siouxsie Sioux to The Raincoats to Broadcast, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, and ESG, Wisnia balances melodic sensibility with the experimentally daring, creating a body of work that is both timeless and wholly original.