Playlists - Presale

Bassist, composer and arranger Bill Lee (who is the father of celebrated Director Spike Lee) helmed numerous Strata-East projects, but this is the one that most stands apart. The Descendants of Mike and Phoebe is a one-off 1974 album uniting Lee with his siblings Cliff Lee, Grace Lee Mims and Consuela Lee Moorhead under a name that pays honour to their enslaved ancestors. Elements of jazz, gospel, soul and blues are threaded into a work of complexity but spirituality, with nimble, dancing grooves next to more pensive explorations. It's a sought-after rarity from the label's catalogue that has been freshly remastered for this reissue. Essential Strata-East history.

,Yaphet" ist das neue Album des Rappers Curly Castro - auch bekannt als eine Hälfte des dynamischen Duos Shrapknel - das am 18. September 2026 bei Backwoodz Studioz erscheint. Auf ,Yaphet" lässt sich Castro vom Blaxploitation-Filmgenre der 1970er Jahre inspirieren; die schwarzen Helden und Antihelden jener Zeit dient ihm als Sprungbrett für seine filmische Lyrik. Die Flows wechseln so mühelos wie Kamerawinkel, die Strophen sind gespickt mit Anspielungen und Zweideutigkeiten - eine Rap-Meisterklasse, die man endlos wiederholen kann. Aber ,Yaphet" ist auch Castros erstes Soloalbum seit ,Little Robert Hutton" aus dem Jahr 2021, und hinter dem Feuerwerk spiegelt dieses Album die Tiefe seiner Erfahrungen in den dazwischenliegenden Jahren wider. ,Ich hatte nicht vor, so ehrlich über mein Leben zu sein, aber genau das ist dabei herausgekommen, und das Album ist dadurch besser geworden", erklärt Castro, ,vom Tod meiner kleinen Tochter über den Tod meines Vaters bis hin zur Konfrontation mit meiner eigenen bevorstehenden Sterblichkeit - das sind meine verwundbarsten Klingen, die meine tiefsten Wunden aufreißen." Genau wie Castro marschiert auch diese Platte im Takt ihrer eigenen Trommel, und täuscht euch nicht: Es gibt jede Menge Trommeln, mit denen sich der erfahrene MC messen kann, wie nur er es kann. Komplett produziert vom Milwaukeeer Beatmaker Locust, ist ,Yaphet" ein schwungvolles, vielseitiges Hörerlebnis, das seinen Einflüssen zunickt, ohne jemals zurückzuschauen. Castro wird von einem Wirbelwind der Besten des Genres begleitet: billy woods, PremRock, Fatboi Sharif, Brian Ennals, SKECH185, Blueprint, AJ Suede, shemar, ALASKA, Sunmundi, blackchai und Margel the Sophant.

a 1.1BLACK DON'T CRACK [FT. FATBOI SHARIF, BLUEPRINT, BRIAN ENNALS, SKECH185, ...]


[d] 1.4ENEMY-MINDED [FT. MARGEL THE SOPHANT]

[f] 1.6RAILROAD SPIKES [FT. MARGEL THE SOPHANT]
[g] 1.7BLOOD IN THE GARDEN [FT. PREMROCK]

[i] 1.9THE DELECTABLE NEGRO [FT. MARGEL THE SOPHANT]
[j] 1.10RINZLER WRECK [FT. ALASKA]

[l] 1.12NEW MUTANTS [FT. SHEMAR, BLACKCHAI, & SUNMUNDI]

[a] 1.1BLACK DON'T CRACK [FT. FATBOI SHARIF, BLUEPRINT, BRIAN ENNALS, SKECH185, ...]


[d] 1.4ENEMY-MINDED [FT. MARGEL THE SOPHANT]

[f] 1.6RAILROAD SPIKES [FT. MARGEL THE SOPHANT]
[g] 1.7BLOOD IN THE GARDEN [FT. PREMROCK]

[i] 1.9THE DELECTABLE NEGRO [FT. MARGEL THE SOPHANT]
[j] 1.10RINZLER WRECK [FT. ALASKA]

[l] 1.12NEW MUTANTS [FT. SHEMAR, BLACKCHAI, & SUNMUNDI]

It’s been 10 years since ‘Love Over Will’. In that time I have been experimenting with music outside of the purely electronic, working with musicians, other tuning systems and the role of sound in healthcare, amongst other things.

Is With Us is a return to what I love most about electronic music: the combination of sound design, rhythm and emotion. It doesn’t fall into any specific category but is rather a reflection on those elements I find interesting within the context of beats-led music.

Where ‘Love Over Will’ was slightly brooding, ‘Is With Us’ strikes a more positive note, something which wasn’t a conscious decision. It is just a moment in time.

Elastica’s iconic self-titled debut album is set to be reissued by Rough Trade Records on 2 October in a new edition boasting rarities and b-sides.

Striking their own, distinct path in March 1995, Elastica proved uniquely fresh-sounding as the London four-piece delivered on the reputation they had built up gigging around the capital beyond in the months ahead its release.

Home to the likes of Line Up, Waking Up and Connection, singles at once timeless yet in the moment, Elastica’s debut captured the fraying emotions, hazy experience and burning energy of life, love and after-hours adventure.

Absorbing atmospheres and attitudes of their post-punk and new wave forbears, Justine Frischmann (vocals, guitar), Annie Holland (bass), Donna Matthews (guitar, vocals) and Justin Welch (drums) poured their own identities into the album’s 15 tracks which balancing youthful swagger, with sage-like observation and a knowing cool that made Elastica and their debut effortlessly timeless.

“Stankface” finds Funkmaster Ozone deep in his natural habitat: a raw, playful P-Funk workout driven by a heavy bass groove, punchy drums, elastic synth lines and his unmistakable talkbox. Packed with swagger, humor and irresistible head-nodding energy, the track connects classic Parliament-Funkadelic and Zapp influences with polished modern-funk production.

“Bust A Move” takes Funkmaster Ozone straight back to the golden era of Electro-Funk, combining hard-hitting 808 drum-machine rhythms, funky synth bass, futuristic textures and infectious vocoder vocals. Robotic, playful and built for the dancefloor, the track channels classic old-school electro and boogie energy through Ozone’s unmistakable modern production style.

Written during and after a year touring the world, Sweet American Boy
expands the raw honesty that built honestav's audience while pushing his
sound into bigger, rock-driven territory - heard on Can't Let Go, Storm In
This House, and Crash First.
Across 16 tracks he wrestles with family history, addiction, grief, love, and
the complicated reality of chasing - and catching - the dreams he once
chased. It’s honestav at his most vulnerable, self-aware, and ambitious: an
evolution of his signature storyteling that feels larger, louder, and more
unfiltered than ever before.
• MGK co-sign Multiple dates on MGK's Lost Americana Tour; Crash
First (with mgk) on the LP
• Deeply engaged fanbase: 1.8M TikTok • 1.2M Spotify monthly
listeners
• A bigger, bolder chapter: Rock-driven evolution of his sound, with a
headline tour on the way

„Öd“ marks the long-awaited return of Institut für Feinmotorik - the Black Forest collective known for using eight prepared turntables to investigate acoustic micro-phenomena generated by everyday objects - with a new album and their first full-length release on Faitiche. It is also the return of their almost comical understatement as personal artistic principle: „making almost nothing out of almost nothing,“ compressed into the dots on an umlaut.

The Öd-nis, the wasteland, is a field that the collective has been ploughing in sound since their first release in 1997. Eight prepared turntables, four mixers, no records, six hands (give or take) merge into what they call the „Octogrammoticum“. A rotating organism of surfaces in friction, fed with the clutter from a drawer: rubber bands or tin foil, CDs, a discarded socket board. Under IFF's scrutinizing stylus, mundane almost-nothings get scratched open to reveal the acoustic density of negative space itself.

Last year’s „Adhesive Tape“ drew IFF closer together after an almost ten-year hiatus. An eponymous event series at Berlin's silent green set in motion what would become their most twistedly funky release since „Penetrans“ on Staubgold in 2002.

The only thing öd about „Öd" (meaning „barren" or „boring“ in German) may well be its title: layers of improvised play and randomized loops convolve around porous, dubby groove locks, tugging at each other in a call-and-response with howling static that cuts through bulbous ambient techno into a scrap-metal Dixieland phantasm. Stratified yet spacious, these sonic double exposures always hover on the verge of collapsing. What you think you hear might not be what you actually hear.

The album’s track titles resemble Conceptual Poetry, extending this psycho-phenomenological gesture into the realm of spoken language. Conceived by renowned poet Dagmara Kraus, they become word molecules - „stern,” „dies,” „lose“ - tilting delicately between German and English, constantly changing depending on the ear’s perspective and pointing back to the deeply unstable fabric connecting meaning and sound. Which also makes „Öd“ an unusual cross-disciplinary collaboration - at least in the field of electronic music.

PS: Since its beginnings in Bad Säckingen, IFF has always been more than the sum of its rotating parts, moving tirelessly between multimedia art, theory, solo projects and collaborations. With IFF Expanded, the collective now opens its eight-doored apparatus, inviting artists working with CDJs or samplers to join - an ambitious live format that loosens its former purity law while carrying forward a long-standing curatorial practice. The same thread also runs into the related event series Acephalic Headspace.

Institut für Feinmotorik (*1997), artist-group originating from Black Forest working in various fields. In musical context known for transforming turntables into instruments by removing the records and instead applying rubber bands, paper scraps, household materials – resulting in a vivid laboratory for the productive misuse of everyday objects. This approach is documented in record releases and performed live.

When the first JIM album Love Makes Magic was released in 2023, it was the end product of an experiment that had begun during the strange days of the pandemic. Cooped up in his studio, James Baron started fiddling about with an as-yet unnamed new album idea. It became Vicious Charm’s first LP release. Labelled variously as Balearic, folktronica, blue-eyed soul and Laurel Canyon, Love Makes Magic was perhaps all and none of those things: a record rooted less in Californian mythology than in Baron’s own musical world, somewhere between Sherwood, Nottingham, classic songwriting, electronic soul and the no-nonsense good times that have long run through his work under his other monikers (principally the anagrammatic Ron Basejam and, of course, Crazy P) One thing was indisputable, it connected with people... and still does.

The album was a minor hit, appearing in many a Best of 2023 chart and voted Album of the Year in Bill Brewster’s Furtive 50. A tour and a few memorable festival appearances – his 2024 We Out Here Festival being one of those wonderfully timed ‘moments’ - perfectly captured the horizontal vibes on the album, while injecting some live energy into its delivery. While there was a follow-up remix album for Love Makes Magic, JIM was already preparing a sophomore LP: “I wrote the majority of The Curious Case Of Existence in a couple of months at the beginning of 2024, then it was just a case of making the record over the next couple of years in between everything else.”

The duo Jolie Gentiane come to us straight from a wild and unpredictable mountain peak, a perched place far from civilization, where the beauty and cruelty of mother nature reign but harmonize the elements. They walk the high, steep paths, looking down on the chaotic and industrial world. This increasingly smoky world, which, from the top of the mountains, looks metamorphosing dangeroulsy, but would only need a few changes to make it less crazy. Or perhaps infinitely more so. Jolie Gentiane is a skilful concoction of sound and daring. Unclassifiable, impalpable, the contemporary embracing the tradition and the acoustic swinging with the electronics. Autotuned/vocoderized vocals, 4th world, kitsch sax, psychedelic arpeggios, acoustic guitar, techno, it's all there: the story told by Jolie Gentiane on this album is rich and complete. Nature, love, celebration, struggle, work. Yes, even work. Because the energy deployed to create this album was surreal, patient, extremely methodical, and the abnegation of the protagonists has been vertiginous: the cliff of the highest peak is finally climbed. This album is like an ode to the earth, to the respect we owe it, an ode also to music in its purest essence, that which does not confine itself to borders, but shout for federation, dance and uprising.

Charles Webster was one of the architects of the early UK house scene but has never got the flowers he deserves. Maybe this first win a new series of reissues from his incredible vaults, will change it. Unreleased Stuff comes on Remote and opens with a louche tech house sound that's deep and emotionally dialled in. 'Don't Work' is great advice for anyone as well as being a humid house roller for the backroom. 'How To Live' brings more of a steamy energy that encourages you to get up on your toes and then 'Bad Year' slows it down and layers in some lovely liquid West Coast chords. Two more brilliantly vibey cuts close an EP that must not be sniffed at.

TEMACHII creates immersive worlds where music, visual art, nature, and emotion blur together. Evoking the hazy surrealism of a once forgotten dream, the San Antonio-based multi-instrumentalist has built a devoted global audience through ethereal soundscapes, hand-crafted visuals, and songs that feel both deeply personal and universally comforting. Her music pairs ambient textures and dream-pop charm with an intimacy that feels like eavesdropping on an artist in conversation with herself—absorbing influences like Radiohead, Fiona Apple, Mitski and Aphex Twin while remaining less guided by genre than by feeling.

Her 2023 debut, flora maniia, was anchored by the 50 million-streamed hit “may you never forget me,” blending hypnotic acoustic guitar, lilting synths, and airy vocals into a reflection on love, memory, and the desire to leave a lasting impression. The follow-up LP, akrasiia, arrived later that same year, revealing a more stripped-back side of her sound while preserving the wonder at the heart of her work. Together with 2024 single “not/lost,” the releases have brought Temachii's art to fans around the world, a reach that feels especially meaningful given her Puerto Rican heritage. More importantly, they have transformed that audience into something more meaningful than simply streams and likes: a space for listeners to feel both safe and seen.

Released first as three EPs, 9PM, 12AM and 3AM, each explores a different moment of the night, from the anticipation of getting ready, to the unifying energy of the dancefloor, and finally the conversations and reflections that linger long after the music stops. Together, they culminate in The Night's Not Dead, a complete body of work that celebrates nightlife as far more than a party.

Cari Lekebusch is one of the architects of the Swedish techno scene whose influence naturally spilt out over the wider European landscape as part of the second wave in the late 80s and early 90s. Under his Yakari alias, he explored a tear-jerking and trance-infused style that was about looking outward to distant worlds beyond our own. This EP is a classic example and was originally released in 1994 on Loop Records. 'Positive Transphere' is an absorbing opener with dirty bass offset by sprawling synths, 'The Sound Ordeal' gets darker and more involving emotionally, before 'Lotus Trance' explodes in bright colours and new age love. 'Water Of Tranquility' is a more deep, insular closer. An EP that has aged perfectly and will still turn heads 30 years on.

VIBRAPHONE Records re-issues 49th Floor "Night Passage" from 1992!!!
First time re-press on original label with original and re-mastered tracks!

2026 Repress

The mighty Trelik label has long led the way when it comes to the best minimal in the underground and nothing about that changes with this new one from German pair Anro and Kuyateh. They collide their creative minds on four cuts starting with 'All We Have', which, like many of the sounds on this label, fizzes with a light synth touch while rolling on frictionless drums. 'Crocket' is another luminous sound with dubby drum loops that are supple and seductive, as spaced out motifs up top bring a curiousness. 'Gametime' layers in some warped and molten acid sounds to dubby tech rhythms and 'Hi' is a final sophisticated closer for those who like it deft and deep.

Bella Kay will release her first-ever full length on vinyl, My Reckless Abandon on 9th of October via Atlantic Records.

At just 20 years old, Bella has quickly established herself as an unmatched songwriter and one of the most emotionally resonant new voices in pop

The Texas-born singer-songwriter experienced a meteoric rise after her series of 3-Pack song releases and singles, but My Reckless Abandon lives as a complete 13-song journey to self-acceptance and introspection after a lot of messy and ‘reckless’ ups and downs.

The album was written and produced by Bella Kay and executive produced by Idarose (Becky G, Suki Waterhouse, Joji) and was recorded between New York and Los Angeles throughout 2026.

Mr Bongo reissues, in full for the first time, a pioneering Trinidadian steelband album from 1979. Masterminded by the key and highly influential calypso / soca steelpan player, Len "Boogsie" Sharpe, Phase2 showcases Boogsie’s innovative fusion of jazz, funk and Caribbean rhythms in stunning style.

Dubbed ‘the Mozart of Pan’ by Wynton Marsalis, Boogsie began playing pan at the age of five and composed his own music by the age of nine years old. Across a long and illustrious career, he has won seven National Panorama Championships in Trinidad and Tobago with his compositions and band, a world Steelband Music Festival with his original compositions “In the Rainforest”, and two Notting Hill Panorama Championships with Mangrove Steel Orchestra. Over the years he has also played with Andre Tanker, Lord Shorty, Lord Kitchener, Leston Paul, Clive Zanda, and other amazing Caribbean greats. Len became an arranger for the National Steelband of Trinidad and Tobago and is a cultural ambassador for the country promoting the instrument.

Muss sich alles ständig so schwer anfühlen? Claud Mintz ringt ständig mit dieser Frage. Und zwar nicht in Form von höflichen kleinen Wortgefechten, sondern in Form von großen, langwierigen, existenziellen Kämpfen - von der Art, die einen letztendlich dazu bringen könnte, den Kurs des gesamten Lebens zu ändern. Die 10 Songs auf seinem facettenreichen und glanzvollen dritten Album ,Me and the Music" zeigen den 27-jährigen Singer-Songwriter und Produzenten aus Brooklyn, wie er sich mit dieser Frage auseinandersetzt und schließlich triumphierend zu etwas gelangt, das einer Antwort nahekommt: Die Dinge können schwer sein, aber das bedeutet nicht, dass man keinen Spaß haben kann. Das Leben kann schwer sein, aber das Bier in Ihrer Hand ist es nicht - warum sollten Sie es nicht für einen Moment in die Höhe recken, mit den Freunden um Sie herum mitsingen und Ihre Sorgen für die Dauer eines perfekten Indie-Pop- Songs vergessen? ,Me and the Music" ist Clauds erstes Album seit drei Jahren, seit dem 2023 erschienenen, hochgelobten ,Supermodels". Sowohl ,Supermodels" als auch ,Super Monster" aus dem Jahr 2021 waren weitgehend inspiriert von ,dieser einen unklaren Beziehung", von der er irgendwann während des Schreibens von ,Me and the Music" erkannte, dass sie ,eigentlich nie wirklich etwas war". ,Supermodels" war ein so ernstes Album, und ,ich habe einfach so lange in meinen Gefühlen geschwelgt", sagt Claud. ,Es gibt einen Unterschied zwischen Aufrichtigkeit gegenüber dem Leben und dem Leben zu ernst zu nehmen." Diese Erkenntnis veränderte alles: Im Titelsong von ,Me and the Music" singen sie: ,Das ist der letzte Song, den ich von dir ruinieren lasse", und das meinten sie auch so. Nachdem Claud diesen Song geschrieben hatte - in den berühmten Electric Lady Studios zusammen mit ihren Freunden Hank Heaven und Annie DiRusso -, begannen sie, sich völlig befreit zu fühlen. ,Dadurch wurde viel Bedauern losgelassen, das ich mit mir herumgetragen hatte, und es ermöglichte mir, zu denken _ das macht so viel Spaß", sagen sie. ,Musik zu machen macht so viel Spaß." Das Markenzeichen von Me and the Music sind also Songs, die die Komplexität des Erwachsenwerdens und des Lebens in der Welt einfangen, ohne dabei den Sinn für Verspieltheit oder Spaß zu verlieren. Es ist ein typisches ,Slice-of-Life"-Album , das neue Romanzen, Insider-Witze, Gap-Werbespots, die Band ,America" und das Land Amerika thematisiert und all diese Dinge mit Sorgfalt und Rücksicht behandelt. Die Lead-Single ,She Doesn't Love Me" von ,Me and the Music" ist in vielerlei Hinsicht der Kern des Albums - ein leichtfühliges Lied darüber, wie es ist, in den 2020er Jahren in Amerika queer und trans zu sein. (Es ist eine kraftvolle, mitreißende Hymne, die vor Schmerz nicht zurückschreckt - und trotzdem Lust macht, wie Claud in dem Titel singt, die ,Biere in die Luft zu recken".) Als Claud den Song gemeinsam mit Heaven und DiRusso schrieb, waren sie fest davon überzeugt, dass es ein Yacht-Rock-Song werden sollte; das Demo klang letztendlich dennoch ,Lo-Fi und Indie". ,Me and the Music" wurde von Claud und John Congleton (Alvvays, St. Vincent) produziert und bedeutet für Claud, dass sich der Kreis schließt: Mit diesem Album hatte Claud endlich das Gefühl, als Produzent selbstbewusst genug zu sein, um die Rolle des Co-Produzenten zu übernehmen (und hat seitdem eine Reihe viraler Singles von Romy Mars produziert). Die Zusammenarbeit ist natürlich ein wesentlicher Bestandteil von Clauds Arbeit - wer wären wir ohne unsere Freunde? Neben Claud gehört er zu einem Viertel zu Shelly, einer Band, die er gemeinsam mit Clairo, Noa Getzug und Josh Mehling gegründet hat. Auf ,Me and the Music" arbeitet Claud bei dem Titel ,The Legend" erneut mit ihrem langjährigen Kollaborateur Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan) zusammen. Der Song thematisiert das Gefühl, tief in jemanden verliebt zu sein, der nicht mit einem gesehen werden möchte, sagt Claud: ,Es geht gewissermaßen um eine beschissene Beziehung und den Wunsch, die Liebe zur Schau zu stellen, ohne jedoch dazu in der Lage zu sein ", erklären sie. Doch wenn es auf ,Me and the Music" ein echtes Liebeslied gibt, dann ist es ,I Owe You", ein Dream-Pop-Road-Song, der hingebungsvoll und facettenreich ist. Er fängt den Geist von ,Me and the Music" als Ganzes ein: die Dinge Tag für Tag zu nehmen, Bilanz über das zu ziehen, was einen umgibt, und die schönen Dinge anzunehmen, wenn sie sich bieten. Das fühlt sich gar nicht so schwer an.

With S.I.K. (Sociedad Internacional de la Kumbia), Conjunto Media Luna maps a constellation of sounds, friendships, and underground connections stretching across Colombia, Mexico, the United States, and beyond.
Produced in Bogotá between 2024 and 2026 by Iván Medellín, the album draws energy from rebajada culture, low-end frequencies, vinyl obsession, rap, and the hypnotic pull of cumbia. Accordion melodies, sampled fragments, drum machines, and sound system pressure intertwine throughout the record, creating a world where tradition is constantly reimagined through contemporary urban culture.
Featuring contributions from artists such as La Gallo 3:20, Turbo Sonidero, Amantes del Futuro, Mextape, León Pardo, Mismo Perro, and Hito de Piedra, S.I.K. unfolds as a dialogue between scenes that have spent years exchanging records, ideas, aesthetics, and frequencies.
The artwork comes from Mateo Rivano, one of the key visual architects of Bogotá's experimental tropical underground, whose imagery perfectly captures the album's blend of street mythology, sonic futurism, and tropical psychedelia.
Part sound system manifesto, part love letter to the global kumbia underground, S.I.K. is dedicated to everyone expanding the culture from their own corner of the map, through music, dance, graphics, fashion, and noise.

Edition of 600 copies, not sealed

Made with Love by Little Beat More 2026
Published by Little Beat More

CPEN is the alias of Chris Penny and his 'Pirates Life' EP on Seasons Recordings back in the 2000s is one of our all-time favourites. It was used on Craig Richards's fabric mix and still sounds original more than a quarter of a century on as the man behind it has gone on to work with Luke Solomon and Honey Dijon on a Grammy-winning album. It's the title cut that does it for us with the way the groove is so languid and loose as it hangs just above the floor and deep space sounds colour the airwaves. 'Song Of The Muse' is a beautiful synth scape stripped of rhythm and 'Liquid Steps' has a little more bite but still roll on nice soft kicks with life-affirming keys up top. 'Third Quarter' is a majestic post-club comedown with all of CPEN's signature synth sounds and even some brassy smears, making it an utter downtempo delight.

Canada's Demuir makes house music with the sort of feeling and character that defined the earliest days of the sound. Gospel, funk, jazz and much more all colour his grooves next to a superb array of samples, and all of that is on display across The Intersecting Virtues Of Love & Respect, a new album packed with jams. 'TIVLR - Moment Of Clarity has neat organ chords worked into a soulful, dusty groove; there is an infectious bubble to the drums and molten chords of 'Alone In Chicago' and 'Somethin 'Bout Respect' is smooth, free-flowing analogue house with jazzy fingers dancing across the keys. Elsewhere, 'Know They Value' is deeper and more heads down and 'Speak Power To Your (Black) Man' is a freewheeling and sunny sound anchored by more trademark Demuir drums.

For Luca, Cuylan’s new album of elegant modern classical, globally informed folk and gentle electronic music, is in part a tribute to his dearly departed dog. Luca came into Cuylan’s life like a key unlocking a door, leading to experiences and experiments simultaneously new and familiar. Back then the Turkish-born musician was living in LA with his wife, leading a busy creative life, writing and recording scores for films and Netflix series, and suddenly with the adoption of Luca here’s this bouncy, furry being demanding constant attention. Cuylan accepted the responsibility like a father welcoming a child. He grew closer to his wife. He started psychoanalysis. He returned to acoustic guitar, his original instrument, waylaid for 20 years in favor of synthesizers and electronics, pulsing post-rock and skittering jazz. Luca was there in the studio when Cuylan recorded his first solo album, 2021’s No Such Thing As Free Will, which The Guardian said “seems to invent new languages for the guitar.” Without a doubt, Luca the dog made Deniz the musician more expressive and more vulnerable. Better at his craft. Better at his humanity. Luca was just five years old when bone cancer struck. He exited far too quickly, a comet of joy passing into the dark, unfathomable universe. Cuylan found his absence very hard to process–he was just right here! It took a couple years, but inevitably Luca, the catalyst for Cuylan’s current chapter, inspired new artistry after his death–from Cuylan, and from a host of collaborators from around the world who contributed to For Luca. All of them share an abiding compassion for the more-than-human creatures with whom we share this planet–dogs, cats, whales, ants, trees. The entire menagerie, humankind’s kindred. The album is a collective meditation on–and celebration of–their immeasurable essence. It was born not from despair but from a transcendent love that burns all the brighter for its brevity.

Following the success of UNLOCKED and UNLOCKED 1.5, acclaimed rapper Denzel Curry and visionary producer Kenneth Blume fka. Kenny Beats reunite for another explosive collaboration on upcoming album ii. Featuring JPEGMAFIA, Yebba, and Westside Gunn, the project pairs boundary-pushing production with sharp lyricism. The campaign includes music videos for both focus tracks, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive interviews, and more, giving fans an inside look at the making of this highly anticipated release.

You know the pattern: someone calls their album "Balearic," and you immediately expect chill-out terraces, pan-flute samples, and the umpteenth return of the Café del Mar sunset. Devi G. refuses this reflex almost maliciously. The title is a trick—an invitation to disappointment for those hoping for postcard exoticism. What is actually being negotiated here is erosion, but that of the body itself: the abrasion one inflicts upon oneself in the excess of the night, when partying turns into wear and tear, and a rush becomes a graze that only becomes visible in the morning. No backdrop, then, but a wound one has voluntarily acquired.

Instead of the usual Ibiza xylophones, Devi G. digs into the rift between idyll and wear. The result reads like a séance—less José Padilla, more as if Kevin Martin had re-recorded a Manuel Göttsching record on a dying four-track deck. The target area lies somewhere between the waterlogged ambient sketches of Huerco S. and the faded dub-afterglow of Actress, but Devi G. remains consistently on his own, grainier frequency.

Balearic Abrasions (title track) opens without haste, demanding almost without impatience: no motif, no rhythmic handhold, just a slowly tilting balance between warm texture and rough surface. The grain never feels forced—it is not a lo-fi costume, but an integral part of the statics themselves. Where other ambient producers strive for perfection, Devi G. consciously seeks the breaking point. Rhythm remains a tool, never an ambition. Those expecting quick resolution will be disappointed; those willing to listen will receive a depth effect that is rarely this vivid.

Exit Through Thee Gift Shop tips into harder territory: dub-techno reduction meets industrial edge, carried by a stoic kick drum that knows no mercy. Metallic textures slice through the sub-bass, while repetitive chords hypnotize like a defective loop. Central to this is a rare Terence McKenna recording, which functions less as spoken-word ornamentation and more as a disruptive spirit between memory and media archaeology. The title—Banksy reference included—turns this into a biting punchline: radical electronic abstraction positioned against the hyper-commercialized art world.

Morning Depth pushes the claustrophobia further, somewhere between post-industrial and deep-sea dub. The track refuses any peak-time logic, preferring to disintegrate into itself, subcutaneously, methodically. At the end, a casual, almost banal vocal sample (“i defiantly prefer chocolate”) breaks into the cool machinery—a small, profane fissure that makes the coldness of the rest of the piece all the more apparent.

Desiré Algorithmic is the album's most calculated moment: a stoic, repetitive bassline as a foundation, topped with fragile melody fragments that flash like glitches in faulty code. The title reads like a promise from nightlife—a figure that suggests much and delivers nothing, because behind the façade there is simply nothing, only simulation. The track carries exactly this principle: promise without substance, desire without body, just rendering. Only in the final third does a melancholic saxophone break into the sterile structure—organic, imperfect, and for that very reason more credible than everything before it. It is the moment in which the real briefly flashes through the surface of the dummy before it closes again.

All-inclusive Residue concludes the album as sedimentation rather than dramaturgy: dub-techno remnants, industrial patina, salty ambient surfaces that settle rather than compose. The refusal of consumption as a sonic principle—brittle, stubborn, with a gravity that lingers long after.

Verdict: Balearic Abrasions is not easy listening with a sea view, but an exercise in patience and friction. The restraint with which Devi G. avoids climaxes will frustrate some—for everyone else, that is exactly where the record's strength lies. No sunset. Rather, what remains on the rocks afterward.