Hip-Hop Vinyl New Releases - News

Dylan Atlantis' Insta bio read 'amateur artist' at the start of the year. Now she's on a billboard in Times Square. With vocals and lyrics that extend well beyond her young years, Dylan Atlantis is the definition of meteoric rise. Pitchfork describes her as "the silky R&B singer, sliding in with the laid-back cool." THE PHILIPPINES-BORN, WEST SYDNEY BASED MUSICIAN WAS RAISED on a musical diet of RnB and Hip-Hop by her Mum. Now a self-professed lover of all genres of music (even country), she's out here sharing her innermost thoughts and lyrical experiments with the world. "I kinda just treat music like a diary but also a science lab where I can experiment expressing myself in different ways until it's awesome enough that I feel compelled to share it." Impressed Recordings are proud to present Dylan Atlantis' release - It Starts Again, on limited edition vinyl.

This October Jamiroquai celebrates the 30th anniversary of ‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’. Their second album, it will be reissued as a double-LP set on 140g “moon grey” vinyl and includes Michael Gray’s Good Vibe Zone edit of ‘Space Cowboy’ - which has never been released on a physical product. The packaging has also been re-designed for this anniversary release including foil enhancement of the original cover design.

‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’ is the follow up album to the band’s huge 1993 debut, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’. Selling over 3 million copies globally, ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ put the band on the map with their distinctive sound standing them apart from other popular acts of the time.

‘The Return Of The Space Cowboy’ was released just one year later and was met with great critical and public acclaim. Certified Platinum in the UK, Japan and France, it achieved chart success in multiple countries and spawned the single ‘Space Cowboy’ which remains one of their biggest tracks to date. Critically the album was lauded with Rolling Stone saying "Jamiroquai parlay jazzy soul pop so tight it crackles… Nowadays, when most funk comes out of cans, Jamiroquai's live spark glows", The Guardian said “... this second album sounds like vintage Stevie Wonder and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, but Kay's vocals are as snappy and engaging as his extrovert persona" and Q magazine said it “combines intricate arrangements with several long, free-form workouts crammed with virtuoso performances".

For many, this album is defined by some of the most complex songwriting the band have ever produced and Jay Kay called it “one of our most creative and accomplished albums”. The process of making the album came with many challenges. Having to recruit a new drummer (after Nick Van Gelder failed to return from holiday), the band were met with second-album syndrome with Kay proclaiming since that lyrics weren’t coming "... because suddenly I wasn't homeless, I had everything I needed. So I found myself creating problems to write about." The songwriting process was complex for the band as Jay Kay was often dissatisfied with the results, leading songs to be scrapped or rewritten, but half-way through recording Kay wrote ‘Space Cowboy’, a song which reflects darker times during the recording session, and it became the catalyst of creative inspiration helping them finish the record. On this 30th anniversary edition of the album Space Cowboy gets a modern dance makeover courtesy of DJ Michael Gray, shedding new light on the track and emphasising it’s already infectious groove.

The album built on the success of ‘Emergency On Planet Earth’ and Jamiroquai have become one of the UK’s most pioneering and ground breaking bands of the past 30 years. Pushing boundaries and bringing jazz and funk to a mainstream audience, their sound is not only unique, but immediately recognisable.

Ibiza-based Jazz N Palms is back with more musical dispatches from the calmer side of the island that follow on from his Ses Rodes album in 2022. That record was focused on a double album assembled, as if over a Cartesian grid of space-time. While one record was about space/the environment, the other was following the times of the day. This 7" expands that with more music inspired by magical island spaces.

These tracks were recorded in Magrana Studio in Ibiza with three new musicians and, after the post-production, the mixing was made with the help of Ben Westbeech and his beautiful Unfairchild II, an amazing Californian reproduction of the holy grail of tube compressor that has been present in Abbey Road studios since the 60s.

Opener 'El Valle' ('the valley') captures the different shades of light that pass over Ibiza, from early spring light to the arrival of looming clouds and the first thunders of a summer storm. It is the organ which serves as the main character to convey those sensations and the passing from light to dark as a live, loose and dusty groove bounces below. On the flip side, 'La Costa' simulates cruising on the open sea, riding choppy swells as waves lap at the boat and you gaze at the passing landscapes. Only drums and bass have been used to convey the feeling, and the result is a wonderfully uneven, ever-evolving and funky groove full of life.

Jhené Aiko’s highly anticipated fourth studio album, Westside Whimsy, pressed on 2LP standard black vinyl and packaged in a 12" gatefold jacket with LP insert

LP! is the fourth studio album from renowned Baltimore rapper JPEGAMFIA. Released on October 22nd, 2021 (his 32nd birthday), the album features guest appearances from DatPiffMafia, Kimbra and Tkay Maidza. It received a great critical response from Pitchfork, NME, and more. The album thematically speaks to JPEG’s struggles within the music industry and staying true to his art, and is entirely self-produced like much of his work. JPEGMAFIA has established himself as one of today’s premiere contemporary and experimental hip hop artists, with over 1.5M monthly listeners on Spotify, and 500K+ Instagram followers. His fanbase is dedicated, excited and engaged with everything JPEGMAFIA does.

Fudge is Michael Kiwanuka’s most free and instinctive album to date. A vibrant, deeply human record shaped by spontaneity, emotion, and creative joy. It’s loose, soulful, and alive with the kind of magic that only happens when the process leads the way. The album was inspired by the encouraging words of the late Chick Corea, whose interview Michael stumbled upon during the pandemic lockdown, urging him to embrace what he loved without worrying about what others might think.



Each physical edition brings you into that world. The artwork, created by Michael’s friend and visual collaborator Stevie Gee, bursts with colour and character. It’s a psychedelic cartoon-inspired piece that perfectly mirrors the album’s warmth and wonder

Fudge is Michael Kiwanuka’s most free and instinctive album to date. A vibrant, deeply human record shaped by spontaneity, emotion, and creative joy. It’s loose, soulful, and alive with the kind of magic that only happens when the process leads the way. The album was inspired by the encouraging words of the late Chick Corea, whose interview Michael stumbled upon during the pandemic lockdown, urging him to embrace what he loved without worrying about what others might think.



Each physical edition brings you into that world. The artwork, created by Michael’s friend and visual collaborator Stevie Gee, bursts with colour and character. It’s a psychedelic cartoon-inspired piece that perfectly mirrors the album’s warmth and wonder

c A3 Hogin' Machine - Drums



[c] A3 Hogin' Machine - [Drums]



[c] A3 | Hogin' Machine - [Drums]

New super-groovy one-off pressing purple double-vinyl very limited edition of Miami Sound 2 housed in gatefold sleeve, complete with two full-colour inner sleeves containing extensive text and exclusive photography from TK Records in-house photographer Larry Warmoth. Soul Jazz Records’ Miami Sound 2 is a superlative collection of 70s soul, funk, disco and boogie featuring tracks from legendary artists such as Betty Wright, Timmy Thomas, Gwen McRae, Milton Wright, T-Connection and many more, all released on the mighty TK Records musical empire based in Miami, Florida.

Throughout the 1970s founder Henry Stone’s TK Records rose up to be one of the most important forces in black music, successfully pioneering the evolution in musical fashions from the early gritty funk and soul at the start of the decade to the arrival of disco in the mid-70s. This album is a rollercoaster journey across soul, funk, disco and boogie, a party-rocking dancefloor-filling collection of monster tracks that includes million-selling hits such as Betty Wright’s classic ‘Clean Up Woman’, Timmy Thomas’s ‘Why Can’t We Live Together’, T-Connection’s ‘Do What You Wanna Do’, anthemic rare groove club hits including Gwen McCrae’s massive ‘All This Love I’m Giving’ and Milton Wright’s ‘Keep It Up’, plus a host of hard-to-find gems and rarities from the likes of Raw Soul Express, Chocolate Clay, Beginning of the End, Robert Moore, Clarence Reid, Little Beaver, Paulette Reeves and many more. TK Records functioned more like a close-knit family than a typical record company. Based in the industrial Hialeah district of Miami, music man Henry Stone surrounded himself with a host of creative artists, musicians, songwriters and producers who created an immediately identifiable TK sound as well as making musical stars out of many of its artists

After a couple of Echo Labs 45s and an ECR release - the ECHO EDITS sub-label is back once again, with the BREAK CRACKER in 2026

After the last latin flavoured joint on the label, we head to an all out Funk and Jazz party with a couple of cover versions of dancefloor favourites, never on a vinyl 7” before - given an added makeover for a double sided 45 bomb.

“I Want You Forward” takes a big band version of the Jackson 5 monster hit originally released on an LP. After being chopped,looped and layered with sound FX plus JA hype vocals to take it to the next level - this has been a favourite dubplate to start DJ sets with a bang !

“Psychedelic Drummer” is the Horace Silver penned soul-jazz cut that spawned various other vocal and instrumental versions that have been dancefloor favourites in mod clubs and funky jazz sessions over decades. Originally a very short track on a private press LP - it was the massive drums that made this ripe for more exposure with nothing more added - just cut-up, rearranged and extended for club play.

JTQ Return to Acid Jazz… At the very birth of Acid Jazz there was the James Taylor Quartet. Hammond player extraordinaire James Taylor was fresh from the split of The Prisoners when he recorded Herbie Hancock’s ‘Theme From Blow Up’ and signed with Eddie Piller’s Re-Elect The President label, the precursor of Acid Jazz. Then, in 1993, after albums for Polydor and Big Life, Acid Jazz and James hooked up again and released ‘In The Hand Of The Inevitable’, for many the finest JTQ album. In March this year James found himself backstage at the Royal Albert Hall - The Brand New Heavies were about to take the stage - with Acid Jazz’s Eddie Piller and Dean Rudland and a plot was hatched... James returns to the label with this brand new 7-inch single: ‘Wildflower’ b/w ‘Guiding Light’.

The A-side is Bossa-nova tinged slice of sunshine pop featuring James’ vocals. It sounds like an old private-press 45, unearthed in a dank warehouse basement in Oregon, and is another JTQ classic. The flip takes us into jazz funk territory. Presented in a one-o^ version of the latest Acid Jazz house-bag, with classic labels.

Norman Gervais and Charles Bals return after last year’s Transcoastal compilation with their first project for the Italian label Periodica Records and its newly founded imprint, Periodica International.
The concept behind SiRENE 89 is quite particular and took six years to develop. It is presented as the live recording of one long evening, with different bands taking the stage one after another on the terrace of a Mediterranean holiday resort in 1989, inspired by the places Charles and Norm remember from their summer holidays around that time.
The songs were recorded between 1982 and 1993 and gathered from small-time artists, beach-club vagabonds, local micro-labels, library records and privately released tapes. The music moves lightly between mystical ballads, digital samba and loose, sunburnt dance songs, carried by drum machines, not-quite-tuned guitars and college-band voices.
The audience on the terrace remains quietly present throughout, joining the tracks into one continuous, partly improvised set. By the end, it feels less like a compilation and more like a place where you have spent the night, proving that charm can carry further than perfection.

Budapest based concept label Blue Sun arrives with the 3rd edition of their annual VA series, showcasing a colorful taste of the local underground music scene, with some international sidenotes.

Following up on the label’s customs, the 19-track selection is not only released digitally, but also on a limited 200-piece cassette series. Curated by the label heads, the tracks follow Blue Sun's listening-oriented concept without genre restrictions with downtempo, trip-hop, jazz, dub, balearic, ambient, experimental, and electronica as highlights, with pieces that are more difficult to classify.

As before, instead of the usual A-B markings, the two sides are divided by the label's colors: “ORANGE” contains more organic and high-energy music, while “BLUE” contains more pensive and experimental tracks. Moreover, the selection has been carefully curated so that it can be listened to as an endless loop: the end of a side always resonates with the beginning of the other, wherever the listener begins.

The list of contributing artists this year are truly various and just as impressive. From uniqe debuting local artists to internationally recognised performers, it gives a taste of how the Hungarian underground scene sounds like atm. Important to note, that the release marks another debut: the label’s new visual identity by Blue Sun’s new designer, Péter Tóth.

Amazzonia is the new album by Alex Puddu and the second volume following the erotic series
I Desideri Di Sadie (Piaceri Tropicali), where the inspiration took us to an imaginary journey in Southeast Asia. With this new album “Amazonia,” Alex Puddu takes us on a trip to Central America, the Caribbean islands, and South America, exploring a new groove of Latin-funk, reggae, and seductive sleazy disco . Here, Sadie’s adventures unfold, from the jungle to the cities and onto the enchanting tropical beaches. Another journey through temptations, on the islands, discovering the beauty of Alex Puddu’s “Erotic World.”

"Amazzonia" was written, arranged, produced, and recorded by Alex Puddu, who plays all the instruments on the album himself. He was assisted by two of the best bassists on the Italian nu-disco and Balearic scene: Domenico Andria—who has played with Pellegrino/Zodyaco and worked closely with Alex Puddu on several releases—and Daniele Labbate, who has performed as a session bassist for artists including Nu Genea and Mystic Jungle.
Other featuring musicians on the album are:
Imelda : Lead and backing vocals
Adrian Wilding: Vocal on Gimme Dub
Hendrik Jørgensen: Trumpet
Jesper Løvdal: Saxophone

Following the overwhelming response to the Warner remix series produced by Joe Claussell, with copies disappearing in hours-another Stella remix package steps forward. This is not part of the Edits & Overdubs series. No loops. No shortcuts. Like the previous release, Ashford & Simpson’s “Stay Free” was rebuilt straight from the original 48-track 2-inch multitrack tapes, resulting in two fully realized remix versions designed for the floor. The A-side delivers a 14+ minute deep, extended journey-patient, evolving, and powerful, injecting new life while honoring the soul of the original. The B-side flips the script with an Alternate Instrumental, stripped back and ready for late-night moments. Cut, tested, and refined on dance floors worldwide over several years, these versions have already proven their weight in real club settings. Pressed on turquoise vinyl, housed in a heavy Japanese-style cardboard sleeve, and accompanied by a Warner-style disco promo one-sheet and bumper sticker-a nod to the golden era of 12” promos.

2026 Edition, black vinyl.



New 12" from the "Fonk" french master Dabeull, with a lot of vintage synths, 80's sounds and hairy moustache. Vintage Funk from today.

On January 17th, 2026, Grammy Award-winning hip-hop icon Lupe Fiasco joined Miami’s Nu Deco Ensemble, a hybrid orchestra dedicated to reimagining music from all genres, for a special concert at Miami Bandshell. This Juneteenth, Lupe and Nu Deco will release the recording for the whole world to hear, presenting Lupe Fiasco’s hits and new classics as they have never been heard before. Invigorated by the backing of the 33-person full orchestra, led by conductor Jacomo Bairos, Lupe forcefully rhymes every word of career highlights like “Daydreamin’,” “Kick, Push,” and “Paris, Tokyo,” emphasizing the musicality innate to Lupe’s tongue-twisting bars. In addition, Lupe presents unique live versions of new hits, including “Samurai,” from his critically acclaimed 2024 album of the same title, and “SOS,” an outtake released for the first time on 2025’s Samurai DX. The Nu Deco version of 2015’s “Dots & Lines” begins with a solo guitar exhibition from Aaron Lebos, while songs like “Daydreamin’” and thrilling closer “Superstar” benefit from the powerful pipes of backing vocalist Kelley Kessell and J Howard. The 9-track set is a scorcher, reaffirming Lupe’s status as one of the most proficient and electrifying live performers in hip-hop today.

London groover Sam Shelly plays everything from new jack swing to boogie, disco to soul, jazz funk to soulful house, and much of that feeds into his work in the studio. After outings on the likes of Midnight Riot, he now features on Soul Service Sabrosura with a new 7" full of love, life and soul. 'Spirit Love' is a life-enriching funk and jazz fusion with positive messages in the celebratory vocals, drama in the horns and killer groove in the drums and bass. On the flip, 'The Latin Strut' is a much quicker funk workout with shades of 60s styles and the narrative flow of a cop chase. It's a brilliant flip side to complete a gorgeous 45.

Wavetable synthesis, delays and reverbs. Mastered on a reel to reel tape machine, cut on 180g white marbled vinyl.

finally repressed !

Celestial Echo proudly present an official reissue of this highly sought after Modern Soul classic. If you’re lucky enough to find an original copy it will set you back more than £300. Finally a chance to own this holy grail anthem! Remastered and presented in a reimagined sleeve. Essential! Repressed on Limited Edition Blue vinyl

First & Last is the debut outing of MC D alongside his partner in rhyme Audio MC. Fresh-faced schoolboy scions of Hijack, The Demon Boyz and Silver Bullet, and peers of the likes of Gunshot, Hardnoise and The Criminal Minds, the pair were taken under the wing of The Powerlords as part of the Powerpack crew (alongside Construction and Trouble), and were given the moniker 2XDEF. Brought to the attention of South London’s fledgling dance label Mendoza Records by producer DJ Fusion, this release would mark the the beginning of a longterm creative partnership between him and MC D, with Mendoza label-mate CSP called in for remix duties. Gritty, explosive and raw, the record stalled at the white label stage with only a handful distributed to radio and club DJs, earning it the status of underground classic. First & Last became exactly that for the short-lived crew.

Culoe De Song brings ancestral rhythm to his Crosstown Rebels debut EP, ‘Moonhound’.

The Afro house veteran delivers a three-track excursion, featuring remixes from Manoo. One of South Africa’s most storied house exports, Culoe De Song, lands on Crosstown Rebels for the first time with ‘Moonhound’, a three-track EP fusing organic, electronic textures around a minimal core. His take on deep, Afro-house has carried him from a breakout year in 2008 to an acclaimed run of albums via labels including Innervisions, Mule Musiq and his own De Song Music. With a career spanning more than fi fteen years, he has shared line-ups with the likes of Black Coff ee, Seth Troxler, Louie Vega, Carl Craig, Âme, and, in particular, label boss Damian Lazarus, at some of the world’s most renowned festivals and venues. His arrival this August feels like a natural convergence of two paths that have long run in parallel, less like a debut and more like an overdue reunion that channels percussive rhythms into a stripped-back, hypnotic core.

Title track ‘Moonhound’ eases in slowly, layering organic textures over brooding rhythms as whimsical, drifting elements and soft synth lines pull it into a steady ebb and fl ow. ‘The Spiker’ follows, driven by a punchy bassline and animalistic vocal calls and chants, before crisp percussion builds and breaks down into panning melodies for a blissful close. With releases on MoBlack, Classic Music Company and Deeply Rooted, French house mainstay Manoo brings his instinct for groove to ‘The Spiker’, with his ‘Abstrakt Remix’ showcasing a hypnotic rework that stretches the original’s key elements into a tone-setter for the evening ahead. He then doubles up via his ‘Club Remix’, a digital-only addition that trades the ‘Abstrakt’ interpretation’s slow build for echoing synths and syncopated rhythms, bringing a heads-down, functional cut built squarely for the club.

Two of the most prolific remixers in the world of Disco,Dave 'Love' Lee and John Moraleshave teamed up for one of their biggest projects to date - 'Mixed To The Maxxx'. After gaining access from the legendary original artists, the pair take the multi-track tapes of many classic Disco, Funk & Soul tracks and re-work them...to the Maxxx!

Where Remixed With Love stands as Dave Lee's own gold-standard body of work, Mixed To The Maxxx sets that legacy alongside Morales' own decades-deep M+M body of work: Lee brings his musically dense, groove-first touch to the likes of Harold Melvin, Syreeta, Lenny Williams and The Brand New Heavies, while Morales applies his extended, dancefloor-built M+M treatment and crushes the likes of Barry White, The Temptations and Loleatta Holloway, plus Dennis Coffey's breakbeat classic "Scorpio" for the DJs and collectors alike. Both work from original tapes, surfacing parts barely audible or entirely unheard in the source mixes, and both know when to let a classic breathe rather than bury it under modern production. It's a pairing a long time in the making. Lee and Morales first talked about working together around a decade ago, and getting Mixed To The Maxxx off the ground took five years of patient work: tracking down usable stems, securing approvals, and navigating a licensing landscape where much of the best material is now tied up with major labels increasingly cautious about clearing remixes. What's landed here is the product of that graft as much as the pair's shared ear for a great record, the sound of two people who know exactly what they're looking for and are willing to put in the time to find it.

A double 12" sampler in summer 2025 previewed the record's range. A bass-driven overhaul ofThe Brothers Johnson's "The Real Thing" and an extended mix of Philly legends Bell & James' "Livin' It Up (Friday Night)" showcased Lee's side, while an anthemic take on Inner Life's "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and a tempo-lifted Light Of The World"London Town" flew the flag for Morales. Both drew strong early support ahead of the full LP.

Comet presents the first release from its new Disco Highlife series, featuring remastered originals by Ghanaian legends Ebo Taylor & Pat Thomas and disco reedits by LeonxLeon and Leo Nanjo.

Founder of Comet Records, Eric Trosset, started working with those great heroes of West African music, back in 2010. Taking on the role of manager/publisher, Comet teamed up with Strut Records
and musician/producer Ben Abarbanel Wolff to revive Ebo Taylor‘s international career with a string of album releases: Love & Death, Appia Kwa Bridge and Life Stories. In 2014, he collaborated with
Pat Thomas & The Kwashibu Area Band on a new album, gathering together the old ‘pals’ (Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Tony Allen) in producer Kwame Yeboah’s studio in Accra.

It is with great pleasure that Comet launches this new series. Let's make this beautiful and timeless music the soundtrack to an unforgettable summer!

On side A, comes “Enye Woa” by Pat Thomas, originally released in 1988 on Nakase Records and taken from the album Me Do Wiase. It’s killer disco cut, and as innovative a piece of highlife as it
was 30 years ago. Paris-based producer LeonxLeon has been cooking up songs in his Parisian home-studio since 2013. He did a remarkable remix of Cerrone's "Funk Makossa" and more recently released his new Rokanbo EP on Cracki Records. His remix of “Enye Woa” is a classy modern disco cut with funky bass and spacey synths.

On side B is “Atwer Abroba” by Ebo Taylor, a stand out up-tempo track from the album Twer Nyame, originally released in 1978 on Philips West African Records. Tokyo-based multi
instrumentalist/producer/arranger Leo Nanjo formed the first Japanese afrobeat group, Kingdom
Afrorocks. Since the band broke up in 2014, Leo has been producing and arranging music with various collaborations, such as DJ Muro, Pushim and Misia. This is a trippy afro-futurist, broken
beat reedit with highlife grooves flying to deep space

Yes Amigos!
The Debut Album "Latin Freaks" by Funkool Orchestra is finally out!
Get ready for another dose of Neapolitan Funky Disco Boogie madness with a Latin touch and a glorious featuring by the one and only Latin soul King : JOE BATAAN.
The Long Playing is a mixture of Rare Grooves, Napoli Sound, Disco Boogie, Latin Soul and Boogaloo, ideal for a trip to Nueva York and back to Naples just to say hello to your Puertorican uncle Manolito "Gennaro" Marròn.
A gozar!

After the dazzling debut of their first LP "Latin Freaks", the Funkool Orchestra is back with a brand new single that anticipates the release of their second studio album. A pure adrenaline double sider 7" vinyl with two dancefloor killer tracks.

"Tengo che ffà"
A dancefloor where the sun never sets, pulsing with a Mediterranean heartbeat. Funkool Orchestra return with "Teng Che Fa", a vibrant fusion of funk, disco, and Neapolitan groove. Following their sold-out debut Latin Freaks, this Maledetta Discoteca production delivers pure feel-good energy: sweaty, euphoric and made for endless dancing under golden skies. Perfect for global grooves, nu-disco, and upbeat funk playlists.

"P-Funk (Dance with Pezz)"
A rhythm that grabs your hips and won’t let go, while you smile to the world. Funkool Orchestra set the dancefloor on fire with ‘2-P–Funk’, a percussive, Latin-infused groove drenched in funk and soul. This Maledetta Discoteca production is built for shaking and radiating pure joy, packed with irresistible horns and unstoppable rhythm. Perfect for Latin funk, soulful disco, and global grooves playlists.

FUNKOOL ORCHESTRA: Valentina Conte – Voice; Daniele Mango – Voice; Pask Bluenne – Voice; Adriano Rubino – Trumpet; Riccardo Colicchio – Saxophones; Mario Tammaro – Trombone; Enrico Pizzuti – Guitar; Mattia Leone – Keyboards; Dario 'Pezz' Gessato – Bass; Peppe Shaf – Drums; Paolo 'Batà' Bianconcini - Percussions

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Fabrizio Piccolo at Auditorium Novecento (Naples)
Graphics and Illustrations by Jack Bulgaro

Hysterical Love Project return with February’s Album, ten warm compresses steeped in the hum and hiss of late season humidity. Downcast guitars are aerated by sanguine refrains and flitting e-waste, languidly driven by a persistent low-end throb. Contentment pulsates with delerium; sweetness ripens into pressure.

You ask me, what’s the point of doubt? What’s the price of peace of mind? I open the windows to let the insects in and the light out.

FFO: Chris & Cosey, Labradford, City Centre Offices, YL Hooi

Written and recorded by Brooklyn Mellar and Ike Zwanikken
Physical Distrubution by Rubadub

Bristol trio Jabu return with their first release for two years. Following on from their widely acclaimed third LP ‘A Soft and Gatherable Star’, this stand-alone double A-side Disco Mix 12” features four exclusive new tracks, while signposting fresh material currently being written, recorded and mixed for their forthcoming LP, due 2027.


If 2023 LP ‘Boiling Wells’ documented Jabu learning to be a live band, leaning into writing collectively in-the-moment, ‘A Soft and Gatherable Star’ took that record’s ad-hoc/mixtape blueprint, and fleshed out their transformation from an outfit rooted in hiphop and dubstep, to a guitar-based band with a unique take on dream-pop. It saw them described by The Face as “an experiential trio blending the raw edge of industrial dub with dreamy layers of ambient pop and shoegaze", and by The Wire as “like Mazzy Star remixed by The Mad Professor“.


Jabu have continued to grow in the space between releases, touring regularly for the first time, playing festivals such as Rewire and Le Guess Who?, and supporting the likes of Maria Somerville and AR Kane. Their extended live line-up now regularly incorporates those that contributed to ‘A Soft and Gatherable Star’, with new material often further developed as it gets passed back and forth between collaborators. Cellist Josh Horsley (Powders / Nightingale Floor) and multi-instrumentalist Will Yates (aka Memotone) both feature here, under the guiding hand of Birthmark’s mixing.


Titled after the rural, estuarine landscape bordering their Bristol hometown, ‘Severn Flood Plain’ sees the band pivot towards a more jagged and up-tempo, post-punk sound. It runs on a nagging drum machine pulse that feels closer to Joy Division than Sly Stone; while the echo-laced vocals and tremolo guitar phrasing hark back to the ‘50s slapback sound of Lee Hazlewood or Duane Eddy. Written and sung by Jasmine Butt, the lyrics describe a visit to a friend near the mouth of the Severn, and hint towards a darkness that can also be felt across that tidal landscape.


Dropping the pace to a languorous, sensual sprawl, ‘Where You Run To’ is plaintive and yearning, an opiated, ethereal flipside to ‘Severn Flood Plain’s more urgent, anxiety-laced opener. Alex Rendall’s vocals glide over a stripped, metronomic backdrop, eventually entwining with Memotone’s ghostly, processed clarinet.


If the band’s musical reference points appear to have shifted, their process remains indebted to dub and still very much rooted in the multicultural cross-pollination peculiar to their home city of Bristol. Both tracks are extended, with dub versions courtesy of Birthmark. The band sat in on those sessions, completing the circle that began with J’s on-stage mixing of their live sets. The strands provided by Will and Josh provide introspective counterpoint to the sound system leanings.


Jabu’s influences are threaded together as naturally here as on their long-running NTS radio show, ‘Music For Lovers’, which now occasionally guests on the Early Bird show slot. They are due to play World of Echo’s ‘Expected Music 2.0’ at London’s Walthamstow Trades Hall on 21st November with Loopsel, Insides, Giulio Erasmus, Thomas Bush, and Raime amongst others.

A x5 trk EP recorded live @ Maida Vale 1999. Blue coloured Vinyl. Spotgloss on sleeve front. Never officially released physically before. 'Travelling Without Moving', 'Canned Heat', 'King For A Day', 'Soul Education', 'Cosmic Girl'.

MUSIC BY MADLIB / ARRANGED BY KIEREN HEBDEN (Four Tet)

Gil Evans to Miles Davis…. Holger Czukay to the ensemble known as Can….Jean Claude Vannier to Serge Gainsbourg on Histoire de Melody Nelson. That’s the only way to explain the specificity of Four Tet and Madlib’s collaboration, in this special album that showcases a two-decade long friendship that has resulted in an album that follows Madlib’s classics like Quasimoto’s The Unseen, Madvillainy and his Pinata and Bandana albums with Freddie Gibbs.

“A few months ago I completed work on an album with my friend Madlib that we’d been making for the last few years. He is always making loads of music in all sorts of styles and I was listening to some of his new beats and studio sessions when I had the idea that it would be great to hear some of these ideas made into a Madlib solo album. Not made into beats for vocalists to use but instead arranged into tracks that could all flow together in an album designed to be listened to start to finish. I put this concept to him when we were hanging out eating some nice food one day and we decided to work on this together with him sending me tracks, loops, ideas and experiments that I would arrange, edit, manipulate and combine. I was sent hundreds of pieces of music over a couple of years stretch and during that time I put together this album with all the parts that fitted with my vision.” - Kieren Hebden AKA Four Tet

M.C.’s/How Many Miles? is the follow-up solo single and arrival proper of MC D. With DJ Fusion once again handling production and scratch duties, this extended player is no less uncompromising than its predecessor. Benefitting a full release with the now iconic Mendoza green labels, it cemented the young MC in the annals of UK rap history. MC D (aka Darren James) cut one more record for Mendoza as part of his Silent Eclipse project before moving on to future collaborations with the likes of The Principle (Caveman), Deckwrecka, Rodney P and Skinnyman. M.C.’s/How Many Miles? is ranked amongst Mark McDonald’s Top 100 UK rap records in the essential Megablast book published in 2024.

Repress!

repress !

Four years after Nuova Napoli, Nu Genea are back with Bar Mediterraneo, a new album and journey, which projects the sounds of the Neapolitan duo formed by Massimo Di Lena and Lucio Aquilina even further.

Nu Genea's Bar Mediterraneo is an idea of a shared place where people meet and fuse together; a space that leaves its doors open to travellers and their lives, always exposed to the whims of fate. Some of this can be experienced through the multitude of sounds that come together in the tracks, layers of different acoustic instruments, voices and synthesizers merging in a unique musical blend.

Opening up to the voices of many different people, separated by languages but united by the sea and the music, Nu Genea's hometown, Napoli, becomes a true place of encounter.

You can hear this all along. In "Gelbi", a gorgeously deep and propulsive Ney flute plunges into murky waters of the melancholic Tunisian dialect sung by Marzouk Mejri. In "Marechia'", unbridled happiness and sun ooze from the delicate vocals of Célia Kameni and create an acrobatic bridge between French and Neapolitan language. In "Straniero", your soul is arrested from the moment the slow spell-binding mandolin ignites the hypnotic patterns recorded by the legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. In "Bar Mediterraneo", the title track, bittersweet guitar’s riffs, analog waves and choirs are overwhelming the song giving you what you would like to hear on a boat trip along the Amalfi Coast.

Nu Genea couldn't afford to overlook their firmly anchored roots into the Neapolitan culture and its dialect with "Tienaté", where the power of neapolitan language (interpreted by Fabiana Martone) supports those quarter-tone strings and the uncessant folk-disco groove that spreads to the entire song. In "Praja Magia", repetitive mandolin riffs lead the song, giving space to a choral yet tight vocal line that speaks of Varcaturo, a village close to Napoli. In "Rire", a volley of poetic, deceptively laidback, lyrical fury interpreted by Sicilian Marco Castello intimately combines with a highly musical, multi-textured instrumental backbone and the swoon of a chanson in its heart. In "La Crisi'', the lyrics of a Raffaele Viviani’s poem from 1930 have been adapted to a laidback jazz-funk groove in full NG style. In "Vesuvio", revaluing the evocative verses and powerful mantra of Vesuvio, Nu Genea re-adapted to the dancefloor a folk song by the working-class band E’ Zezi from Pomigliano D'Arco, combining the voices of a school choir with Jupiter-6 arpeggios and bold percussions.

Bar Mediterraneo is the place where people constantly return to transform curiosity into participation, tradition into sharing, unfamiliar into familiar. When travellers come through its “doors”, carrying their treasures of words and emotions, they aren’t strangers any more. They take part in a shared experience, enriching themselves and others by leading to unexpected musical journeys.

Dutch DJ and digger Pete Blaker is ready to unleash his vision of editing and his
ability in song extension. Four cuts that every edit lovers can't miss!

Welcome to the first release from Tjotjo Records. Presenting: 'System' by Mystical Powa featuring Rapha Pico & Rootsman Sax Vinyl Cut for SOUND SYSTEM!