Buscar:made to dance

It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).

“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”

The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.

“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”

“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”

The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).

Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”

The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…

REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:

“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)

CREDITS:

Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)

MORE INFO:

Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…

Stank In Here
Have no fear, the stank is here! Temu & Mofak are bringing it with their new single “Stank In Here”. Serving as a long-awaited follow-up to their first collaboration back in 2015, “On the Come Up”, the duo returns with an even smoother, soulful yet futuristic dance smash meticulously composed by Mofak for people of all ages to enjoy. Meanwhile, Temu addresses the listeners directly with a message of love and togetherness while echoing back to the era of EWF, Kool & The Gang, Zapp & Roger, and The Gap Band.

Heralds of the Stank
Temu is back on the scene with his new solo single “Heralds Of The Stank”. Temu recalls the first moments when the stank hit him personally and credits the ones who introduced him as its heralds — his parents — in an infectious funky tribute song. (Ever heard something so good it made you frown and pucker your lips while nodding your head? That’s the stank face!) Standing ten toes firm on his Funk roots, Temu both lyrically and musically draws inspiration from George Clinton, Sly & the Family Stone, Jackson 5, Prince, and James Brown. Be on the lookout for his upcoming album titled “HERALDS”.

Dez Andrés, Detroit’s underground legend and genre-blurring maestro is back with another batch of reworked old skool bangers.

Since the late '90s, Dez has built a respectable catalog that blurs the boundaries between genres. One of motor city’s most prolific artists, his music can be summed up in one word: quality. Now he returns to DFM with a two-sided heater.


Dez flips Odyssey’s classic Native New Yorker into a gritty dembow style club weapon. With iconic vocal lines and signature piano riff, Dez injects his signature bounce and percussive punch, turning this disco anthem into a raw dancefloor destroyer.
Diving deeper, Dez revives Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band’s classic Sun Showers, transforming it into a rhythmic, power groove tailor-made for sweaty basements, rooftop sets and smoke filled dance floors on red-lit nights that refuse to end.

A delve into the murky avenues of sonic territories, exploring off-grid zones & askew worlds – Daisy Moon leans harder into her 4/4 vision in this dancefloor-ready EP – the first release for Off-Kilter.

Each track pulses along to its own singular logic, with Daisy’s distinctive voice and vocal manipulations playfully drizzled throughout, marking an elegant collision of her sonic worlds.

Spirit Princess is a breakneck peak-time explosion – club-ready and bouncy with a pulsing bassline fit to burst from the subs of any system underpinning waves of textured ambience, nagging synths and granular gusts of found sound.

Fuelled with late night techno energy, Grain Pip offers a heads down counterpoint to the title track, while the B side serves up different energies again. Perhaps the most playful track on the record – The Stuff – demonstrates Daisy’s cheekier side as a producer and person, as inspired by a summer of fun with friends on festival dancefloors: a house banger stuffed with melodic stabs, pitched vocals and swung hats, made for the joys and follies of the 3am dancefloor. Drop Cycle rounds things off with a trippy, rolling excursion of delays and warped synths.

Dizzying sonics and relentless dancefloor energy with razor-sharp precision and uncompromising force.

Delusions Of Grandeur proudly welcomes back 6th Borough Project, the Scottish duo known for their deep-rooted devotion to dusty MPC jams, late-night disco refractions, and the raw, low-slung house grooves that have made them underground staples for over a decade.

Made up of veteran producers Craig Smith and Graeme Clark (a.k.a. The Revenge), 6th Borough Project have carved out a signature sound: soulful but tough, analog yet futuristic, always tapping into the spirit of warehouse sessions and dimly-lit basements. Their new EP entitled The Deal distills everything we love about 6BP - chunky drums, hypnotic groove science, and a certain smoky, nocturnal magic - across four expertly sculpted cuts. Leading the charge, The Deal is a stripped-back, rolling deep house burner powered by crunchy disco-infused beats and a captivating forward momentum. A hooky sax stab weaves in and out of the mix, keeping the groove bubbling and teasing dancers deeper into the zone.

A proper late-night tool with bags of attitude. Driving and percussive from the first bar, The Hertz rides a simple but deadly classic disco groove pushed along by punchy synth stabs and swirling dub-soaked chords. A perfectly-placed vocal sample sprinkles just the right amount of flavour on top, sealing this one as a certified dancefloor shaker. Flip over for Let Me Know which strips things back to the bare essentials: a bold square-wave bass motif, clipped disco drums, rasping open hats, and chopped vox flickering like neon. Dubby, twisted, and packed with raw kinetic energy, this is peaktime ammunition for those who like their grooves dirty and unrefined. Rounding off the EP, For Life is a mutant discoid teaser made for warming up the room or resetting the vibe. A single-note bassline pulses beneath syncopated stabs, creating a hypnotic tension that steadily draws dancers closer to the speakers. Subtle, deep, and effortless in it’s intention.

Our latest Holy Grail reissue is this private press spiritual jazz gem out of California from Rickey Kelly and his vibes & marimba. Features Diane Reeves (vocals) & Adele Sebastian (flute)!

Heavyweight 180g LP with tip-on sleeve, individually numbered 1-1000, card enclosed for liner notes & audio download

"Rickey, I know these are your friends, the guys you went to school with, but if you wanna record an album, you record with musicians who have been playing their whole life; whatever you write, they'll put their whole life into it. You play with your friends; they may not even play in tune."

These are the words of Slave guitarist Kevin Johnson, and they were to change the course of young Rickey Kelly's life.

It was 1978, and music student Kelly had approached Johnson with a tape of rough demos of some songs he'd written. A San Francisco native, Kelly had recently moved the short distance south to study music at LA City College in East Hollywood. He was a member of E.W. Wainwright Jr.'s African Roots of Jazz, and was spending up to 10 hours a day in practice on both vibes and marimba. He also played with Horace Tapscott, and had his own band made up of fellow students, but it was his ambition to make an album that led to the conversation with Johnson. It was a turning point in his education, and a decision was looming.

The next thing Johnson said was "You call the best jazz musicians. How'd you like to play with Billy Higgins?", a line that would seal it for anyone; for a youngster like Rickey just starting out in the business, you just don't turn down the opportunity to play with the likes of highly accomplished musicians, especially those of the calibre of legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins.

Some calls were made and the date was set to record at Studio Masters on Beverly Blvd, a studio set up just a few years previous in 1973, owned and operated by Dot Records founder Randy Wood with his son John. Some of the other music professionals set to record with Kelley that day were flautist Adele Sebastian, bass player Tony Dumas, saxophonist Charles Owens and vocalist Diane Reeves, none of whom had previously played with Kelly before.

Kelly was impressed with the studio, with the gold records displayed on the walls and the famous musicians hanging out. 'It took a lot of humility for me to record with them, I mean I was nobody, nothing, and for not a lot of money either' remembers Rickey in a later interview with Calvin Lincoln, 'It taught me a lot, to practice hard, and study for the rest of your life, to give your all, and there's a lot of all to give'.

As the recording session took place, John Wood was listening in. He was impressed. Kelly didn't have the funds to manufacture and release the album himself, so Wood suggested it was pressed up on his in-house studio label, Los Angeles Phonograph Records, and thus the LP 'My Kind of Music' was released early in 1979. The album also saw a subsequent pressing soon afterwards on Dennis Sullivan's New Note label.

Kelly remains humble and proud of his debut album to this day. 'I was still a beginner' he says, 'These masters walked in, smiling, and gave me something worth gold'.

In Sheep’s Clothing announces the long-awaited vinyl pressing of Marc Leclair’s beloved 2005 album Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes. The album will also be available on streaming for the first time via Community Music Group.

For years after Marc Leclair released Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes, he heard from listeners who had lived with the record in an unusually intimate way. Many described how the music became part of the emotional landscape of the months leading to birth. “I never expected that,” Leclair says. “Many women told me they listened to the record throughout their pregnancies. They said it made a real difference, that it helped them. It became more than just a record.”

First issued on CD in the early 2000s, Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes (Music for Three Pregnant Women) now returns in a new edition from In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi, appearing on vinyl for the first time as a double LP. The record is being pressed in Detroit at Archer Record Pressing, the historic plant behind deep-groove classics by Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, Underground Resistance, UR’s Jeff Mills, and J Dilla.

Listeners who know the Montreal-based Leclair through his better-known work as Akufen might be surprised by the tone here. During the same years he was shaping the intricate micro-sampling tracks that made Akufen a cult figure on labels including Perlon, Force Inc. and Trapez, Leclair was quietly developing this far more personal project. The meticulous craftsmanship remained the same, though the focus shifted from the hyper-detailed cut-up rhythms of his dance records toward something slower and more atmospheric. “I always compare my work to a jeweler,” Leclair says. “It’s really very precise. I’m a bit of a detail freak. I can spend hours or days on just one phrase in one song. Everything has to be perfectly put together.”

The project began almost accidentally. A few members of Leclair’s circle became pregnant nearly simultaneously, including one who had long believed she couldn’t conceive. The first track he recorded for the project wasn’t meant to advance a larger concept, he says. “It was meant to highlight the fact that three of my closest friends became pregnant at exactly the same time.”

Leclair was already a father with a three-year-old daughter, so the emotional terrain of early parenthood was familiar. Gradually the idea expanded. “I began thinking, why not make a whole album that celebrates this and also follows the entire pregnancy, the nine months,” he says. The music developed piece by piece, including a track originally commissioned by the Berlin experimental duo Rechenzentrum that would later become the album’s opening movement.

Nearly seven years passed between the first composition and the finished album, and the music mirrors the strange arithmetic of pregnancy itself. What begins as a single idea multiplies outward, sounds layering and branching until the album feels less like a sequence of compositions than a living process unfolding in time. “I work very slowly,” Leclair says. “Everything has to be something I’m completely behind. I never want to rush anything. I want things to come naturally.” Across its 72 minutes, the album blossoms with the patience of a long meditation on time, growth and emergence.

When Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes first appeared via Mutek, it circulated quietly but steadily. Critics who discovered it later recognized its unusual scope. In a 2006 Pitchfork review, Mark Richardson gave the record an 8.1, calling “150e Jour” “an unfailingly gorgeous and tightly sequenced quilt of guitar and piano samples reminiscent of Tangerine Dream,” and describing “85e Jour” as infused with “viscous pop ambient drift, the gauzy synth pads ebbing and flowing with rhythm.” Boomkat described the album as “a majestic opus from a producer that's always promised so much — here delving into a panoramic construction of almost visibly radiant music that works so beautifully through each and every second of its 72 minute lifespan.”

The new In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi edition finally presents the record in the format Leclair long imagined. “I always thought that record deserved a vinyl edition,” he says. Spread across two LPs, the music now has room to unfold at its natural pace. More than twenty years after it first appeared, Musique pour 3 femmes enceintes remains what it was from the start: a carefully shaped meditation on transformation and the quiet miracle of life beginning.

Coming in hot on Berlin's Toy Tonics label: a new EP by the talented duo ALMA NEGRA!

Founded in 2013, Alma Negra is a Swiss collective centered around the brother duo Dersu and Diego Figueira, whose diverse roots in Switzerland and Cape Verde inform their sound. The project was launched with the ambitious vision to explore the world's diverse rhythms and drive musical innovation by mixing different styles. Their work is anchored in a process of digging and sampling, skillfully blending traditional sounds-from Fela Kuti-influenced Nigerian afrobeat and Angolan Lamento to Caribbean Zouk and the Maloya sound of Réunion-into a contemporary dance music context.

The Figueira brothers' eclectic DJ sets embody this ethos, peppering disco and house with salsa, samba, jazz, and Afro-Caribbean carnival rhythms, all under their guiding motto: "As long as it's Funky."

Since 2014, Alma Negra has made an important contribution to intercultural exchange in their hometown of Basel. Their international presence began in 2015 with their first shows abroad in countries like France, the Netherlands, and Portugal. From 2016 to 2019, their reach expanded significantly, with performances in major hubs like London, Paris, and Berlin, as well as Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and Tunisia. Highlights from this period include sets at the Montreux Jazz Festival, Dimensions Croatia, and Fuse Club in Brussels. Their standing is further cemented by releases on respected labels like Heist Recordings, Sofrito, and Basic Fingers, alongside remixes from an elite group of peers, including Soulphiction, Kuniyuki, and Yuksek.

Parallel to their studio and DJ work, the project expanded into the Alma Negra Live Band, formed with jazz musicians from Basel. While the band is currently on hiatus, this collaboration made live instrumentation increasingly central to their productions, creating a dynamic they feel is essential for any dancefloor. The live band has performed in cities like London and Hamburg and has led to collaborations with artists such as French singer Pat Kalla and jazz trumpeter Bodo Maier.

Cathartic avant-rock, literate DIY folk & experimental composition exploring displacement, love, climate change, belonging & the places we call home - RIYL Jim O’Rourke, Richard Youngs, This Heat, Richard Dawson, Flying Nun. ‘Real Home’ is the new album by the Manchester-born, London-based artist Kiran Leonard. His sixth album proper (not including innumerable tour-only CD-Rs and short-run cassettes), since his precocious debut in 2013, ‘Real Home’ finds Leonard invigorated by inspiration and experience, making passionate, literate, and mercurial music that explores displacement, love, memory, climate change, connections to home and more. Encompassing songs recorded after moving to South London, ‘Real Home’ reflects on ideas of belonging and domesticity through folkloric, stream-of-consciousness songwriting. Across nine tracks, Leonard traces lived impressions of the household and the city, expressing sentiments of dislocation, alienation and stasis, but contentment too. Infusing the avant-rock effervescence, terraced dynamics and visionary lyricism of his music with what he defines as a greater sense of openness, Leonard is as versatile, fervent and imaginative as ever on ‘Real Home’, yet his music is somehow more intimate, affecting, and acutely expressive. Shaped by dual considerations of simplicity and formalism, ‘Real Home’ is by turns beautiful, allusive, and ruminative, an album on which Leonard considers what his songs have resembled in the past and what they mean now. In recent years, Leonard has crafted eloquent chamber music inspired by the likes of James Joyce and Clarice Lispector (‘Derevaun Seraun’), responded to contemporary politics and communication breakdown in the digital age (‘Western Culture’), and compiled solo works and ensemble recordings for a longform ode to Jonas Mekas and to one of Leonard’s enduring themes; home (‘Trespass On Foot’). On ‘Real Home’, Leonard reiterates this abiding thematic focus yet ascends to new, different heights, in music of cathartic delicacy and dissonance where all the myriad dimensions of his work to date seem to crystallize. There are sinuous songs about struggle and defying the pace of city life through drift and diversion (‘Pass Between Houses’), stirring songs of intense feeling and crescendo, described as a form of speculative detective fiction (‘Theatre for Change’). There are touching solo piano ballads (the title track), symbolic contentions with carbon capture and climate change (‘Utopia of Bog’), modes of experimental minimalism (‘Void Attentive’), and other profuse feats of compositional range, embroidered with wild tendrils of narrative and lyrical depth. A record to pore over, and get lost in. Exemplifying the vast aesthetic scope of Leonard’s music, lead single ‘My Love, Let’s Take The Stage Tonight’ is inspired by country lodestar Hank Williams, Russian poetry and a late period love poem by William Carlos Williams. Yet for Leonard, the song signals a sense of accessible materiality, and is the product of a more linear approach to writing songs: “My imitation of the great Hank Williams, in spirit if not in substance…This is one of the best efforts on Real Home at a song-as-object. Looking at it now I realise I was trying to write a song that made itself known as a song to the listener, and I wonder whether that’s crucial if you want a song to transcend its context. And that this is either accomplished through a total openness – by being inviting, by laying the tricks of the song out plain to see, as Williams and his many ghostwriters did so well – or by adopting a knowing aloofness, positioning oneself against the listener but letting it be known that that’s what it’s doing. In this song I try both, but mostly the former: as in, I wanted to write a song where every line follows on from the next.” Imbuing the endlessly elaborate and inventive qualities of his music with a newfound streak of candid, clear-cut melodicism, Leonard has reached a special place in his artistry, on a record that feels familial, and expresses closeness. Assembled with affiliates including Lauren Auder, Otto Willberg, Jasper Llewellyn (caroline), Tom Hardwick-Allan (Shovel Dance Collective), Magda McLean (caroline, The Umlauts), Alex Mckenzie (caroline, Shovel Dance Collective), Isabelle Thorn (Dear Laika) & more, the recording process had a significant influence on the subject matter of ‘Real Home’, in sessions defined by close-knit camaraderie and artistic eccentricity: “The theme of the home obviously recurs throughout the record; the album was mostly recorded in domestic spaces with friends, and the name of the album is Real Home. I like the qualifier ‘real’, like you’re getting past the cloak of the word and towards the thing-itself…also nearly all the percussion in this record was recorded on items from my dad’s shed (jam jars, sandpaper, blocks of wood, etc). Real home record!” ‘Real Home’, like anything by Kiran Leonard, is a record of dazzling multiplicity. Yet it’s a companionable prospect with a central premise; a collection of songs where listeners old and new can find a home. An album led by a scene; of Leonard standing at the threshold, ready to welcome you inside. “Exceptional songs that linger” - The Guardian // “An autodidact of amazing talent & energy” – Pitchfork // “A ridiculous amount of talent…confrontational, celebratory, provocative or perverse – he manages all of these emotions & more” - The Quietus /

Matt Gold and Dustin Laurenzi present Devotional Fade, a collaborative record of electroacoustic rhythmic improvisations – equal parts meditation and dance, released on We Jazz Records, 24th April. Laurenzi and Gold, key collaborators in the Chicago creative scene and with genre spanning artists such as Bill Callahan and Makaya McCraven, step forward here with a major artistic statement, a product of extended improv sessions capturing the duo's hypnotic interplay. This is the sound of two of Chicago's most vibrant instrumental voices listening deeply, communing in sound.

Recorded in Laurenzi's attic studio, Devotional Fade emerged from a series of weekly sessions over the course of a single month. The duo kept the tape rolling continuously each day and selected a number of immersive sonic worlds to present, oscillating between patient, sacred minimalism and wild, dancefloor-worthy combustion.

The pair set two parameters to heighten the sessions' stakes: editing would be kept to a minimum, and a rule of "no pitched overdubs" was put in place – ensuring that all melodic and harmonic gestures would have to be committed in real time. Laurenzi and Gold held true, only sparingly adding a stray shaker or brush to these already largely complete improvisations. Devotional Fade is imbued with quiet propulsion and ecstatic repetition.

Matt Gold is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer based in Chicago, IL. His work pulls from diverse traditions of electric and acoustic music. Matt has performed across six continents and contributed to over fifty recordings as a collaborator and instrumentalist, garnering critical praise from Pitchfork for playing "one of the most exhilarating guitar solos of recent memory, in any genre." Gold has several long-running collaborative bands spanning jazz, folk, experimental, and chamber music including Sun Speak, Storm Jameson, and Tin. He performs and records with an array of creative artists including Makaya McCraven, Marquis Hill, Jamila Woods, Natalie Merchant, and Greg Ward. Gold co-curates the record label and concert series Flood Music.

Chicago saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist Dustin Laurenzi has developed a personal approach to improvisation and composition that has garnered the attention of the city's creative music community. Laurenzi's music is inspired and informed by jazz, folk, and improvised music. His inventive improvisational sensibilities have made him a sought-after musician in many circles of Chicago's vibrant music scene and beyond. Laurenzi has toured extensively with songwriter Bill Callahan and is featured on Callahan's 2024 release Resuscitate! He has toured with Grammy award-winning artist Bon Iver and appears on the band's critically lauded 2016 release 22, A Million. Laurenzi has also performed with Jeff Parker & The New Breed, Marquis Hill, Makaya McCraven, Matt Ulery, Japanese Breakfast, and This Is The Kit.

2026 Repress Favorite Recordings proudly presents Voiciii, the 3rd and new album by Voilaaa, an immersive dip into its Afro-Disco universe spread across 14 tracks. Needless to say you’ll find in this new LP all the ingredients that made him famous: strong dancefloor-friendly festive bangers, irresistible funky arrangements and an undeniable sense of humor and irony.

Bruno “Patchworks” Hovart, behind Voilaaa, is as often surrounded by amazing vocal featurings from previous LP’s regulars (Pat Kalla, Lass) but also new voices you may already have heard on its recent EPs (David Walters, Rama Traore, Ayuune Suule), as well as the saxophonist Boris Pokora. The LP is also an occasion to pay tributes to major artists of the African sound, such as Fela Kuti (on “Water No Get Enemy”), or Manu Dibango (“Manu Écoute Ça” and “Tenor Jam For Manu”).

Since the release of Voilaaa’s previous LP’s Des Promesses and On Te L’Avait Dit and their massive international support, the Voilaaa Soundsystem did travel through the world to deliver its message of infectious joy and groove, from Equator to Thailand, from Kazakhstan to the infamous French “Fête de l’Huma”. Now you know: Voilaaa is everywhere and Voiciii (“here it is”) their new album.

In just five years, The Spy has gone from underground newcomer to one of the most talked-about names in the European electro and EBM dark electro scene. Early releases on Osáre Editions and Mechatronica quickly placed him on the radar of forward-thinking clubs and selectors across Europe. Now landing on Oráculo Records, he presents his most wave-driven and club-oriented material to date: pure, physical electro built for dark rooms and late hours. Driving basslines and sharp machine rhythms—infused with subtle, classic post-punk tension—define a sound that connects the dancefloor with the shadows, drawing clear parallels to artists like L.F.T, Credit 00 or Gesloten Cirkel. This is music made to move bodies without sacrificing attitude—raw, confrontational, and far removed from formulaic club clichés. Five years in, the message is clear: this is not hype, but momentum—an artist fully in command of a modern electro language built for the underground. Presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. All tracks have been specially remastered and mastered for vinyl by Daniel Hallhuber at Young and Cold Studios (Germany).

Roland Leesker reimagines a House Classic with Vinyl-Only Cover of ‘What You Need’.
Definitive Recordings presents a special vinyl-only release as Roland Leesker delivers his cover version of ‘What You Need’, the seminal house anthem originally released in 1990 by Soft House Company. This release is a respectful homage to one of house music’s defining records, crafted for DJs and collectors alike.
On the Original Mix, Leesker stays close to the spirit of Soft House Company’s classic, faithfully honoring the original arrangement but properly pumping.
On the flip, Leesker presents his ‘Mysterious Eastern Force Edit’, an expansive, eleven-minute journey designed for deep dancefloor moments. While retaining the essence of the original, this version introduces a more energetic bassline before weaving in a subtle 303 acid line, bridging different eras of house music history into one hypnotic, evolving arrangement.
This vinyl-only release is a tribute to the legacy of house music — respectful, powerful, and made to be played loud on a proper sound system.

Some records feel like they should have existed. This is one of them.Originally buried as an album cut in the catalog of C. C. Catch, ‘Stop – Draggin’ My Heart Around’ never received the maxi single treatment it always deserved. For decades, fans of Dieter Bohlen’s signature sound have been left wondering what could have been… no extended mix, no dub, no proper club version… Until now.

Julie Chrome steps in with a strikingly faithful reinterpretation, capturing the emotional tone and melodic essence of the original, while Ryan Benson carefully reconstructs the sonic blueprint, staying true to that unmistakable mid-80s German disco aesthetic of Luis Rodriguez. Think shimmering synths, tight Linn-style drums and that bittersweet, dramatic tension Bohlen/Rodriguez and Co. perfected. But this release goes further than nostalgia. On this maxi, the track finally unfolds the way it always should have. Fully extended, club-ready, and built for the dancefloor. The Long Version delivers that essential 80s arc: slow build, emotional lift, and extended instrumental passages made for mixing. The Dub Version strips it back into a hypnotic tool, pure drums, synth stabs and atmosphere, tailored for late-night transitions and deeper sets. The Radio Version and Alternative Radio Version complete the package, offering two concise takes that still retain all the charm, drama and melodic punch of the original composition. This is more than a tribute, it’s a carefully crafted time capsule. From the production to the artwork and label aesthetics, everything here is designed to transport you straight back to 1986. For fans of classic German disco, collectors of lost Italo-adjacent gems, and DJs who know the power of a well-placed nostalgic moment – this one hits deep. A record that finally corrects history.

Akio Nagase joins Especial with an EP of global acid tracks. Centred around his heritage, Osaka based Nagase infuses his sounds with a mixture of dub and ethno-dance, wrapped in 303 infused mid-tempo 4/4 grooves.

Making music for over 20 years, as well as running his Makedub parties, Nagase has released for Sound Channel, Darker Than Wax and cult Japanese digital label Chillmountain. It is here, on the latter, that the connection was made and his tracks unearthed.

Rearranged, re-edited and remixed especially for vinyl, Jurassic Shanghai Acid starts, fusing sound effects, dialogue and samples atop squelching acid beats. Following is Mongol 303, as Khoomii throat singing and acid vibrations loop and flow across the Altai Mountains down to Steppe Plains - Madrugada Eterna.

Okinawa Yunta crosses the South China Sea to home, perfectly mixing unique folk song from Taketomi Island reconstructed with Nagase's gentle, wiggling acid accompaniment. The incessant repetitive groove an Acid mantra, flowing through consciousness to move mind and body.

The bpm's rise for the close. Saigon Acid mixes tradition and Acid House for fun, a 3AM basement jam where Dan Nhi meets 808 and Nagase presents his ethno-acid love in.

Loud Ambient 2 picks up directly from where Loud Ambient left off. After picking the drum machines back up, we returned to the colourfield ideas that shaped the first record. Rothko remained a key reference, along- side a strong recommendation to spend time with the work of Josef Albers. We did exactly that, and it paid off.

Alongside the music, we created 50 new pieces of artwork for Loud Ambient 2. These became tools rather than decorations. Working this way felt open and rewarding, and brought a real sense of play back into the process. We already understood what a Loud Ambient track could be, so slipping back into that headspace felt natural. The tracks came together quickly, full of energy, movement and that familiar noodle quality.

The creative side landed easily this time. There is some- thing about working with colourfields that frees you up and pushes you further into abstraction. It removes hesitation and keeps the focus on instinct and response.

With the drum machines and synths loaded, we kept our heads down and made the kind of music we want to hear on a dance floor. Loud Ambient 2 is the result.

Peki Momés took hearts and ears by storm with her first 45 (Göç Mevsimi b/w Rüya) last autumn. Her dope outernational grooves and fresh singing style made it as far as Iggy Pop's show on BBC. Time for another double-sided single!

Yıldız is a Turkish cover of the beloved Marcos Valle tune Estrelar. Staying true to the spirit of the original, this version draws its energy from the bright stars, dreaming of meeting the stars up in the sky alongside the sun and moon. The production has been meticulously crafted, blending key elements of the original instrumentation with Peki Momés' distinct vocals in Turkish language.

Bahar is a psychedelic disco groove about longing for sunny days — both literally and metaphorically. It captures the exhaustion of waiting for brighter days in our homelands, our world, and our inner selves. As Peki Momés puts it, the wait for spring can be so long, it even wears down our pullovers. This track mirrors the duality of our reality and invites the audience to dance during this wait.

Regal delivers his first full EP on Backspin, marking a defining moment for the label he founded. More than just another release, the Forgotten Heroes EP captures the essence of Regal's vision: groovy, forward-moving techno that balances raw club energy with atmosphere, emotion and narrative.

The title track 'Forgotten Heroes' sets the EP in motion with a sense of controlled urgency. A rolling, slightly breaktinged groove pushes forward relentlessly, while an eerie, almost nostalgic synth melody hovers in the background, giving the track an emotional pull. 'Concentrate' shifts the focus inward_ bleeping motifs, tight claps and restless hihats circle around spoken fragments that feel like thoughts caught between the peak of the night and the quiet hours before sunrise.

On the B-side, 'Forte' accelerates into pure momentum: sharp, bleep-led sequences and forward pressure combine into a rush that feels like racing through the city at night. 'Soft Killer' deepens the mood with a darker, dominant edge, its stripped back power and razor-sharp sounds cutting clean through the mix. Closing track 'Wild Magic' offers a final release of tension, slowing the pace into a lighter, more house-leaning groove. Warm pads and a catchy, uplifting melody bring a sense of air and openness, letting the EP drift out on a hopeful, almost euphoric note.

Regal's comeback EP 'Forgotten Heroes' stands as a personal statement and a cornerstone release for Backspin. It's techno built on groove, contrast and character, made to leave a lasting impression on the dancefloor.

Tropidelicos is the electrifying new album from Houston/Denver powerhouse duo Gio Chamba, a kaleidoscopic fusion of cumbia, psych-funk, and global bass. Fueled by hypnotic percussion and cosmic guitar lines , the record embodies the next wave of Latin futurism — rooted in tradition yet exploding into vibrant, genre-defying sound.
Pressed on limited-edition 1×LP “Mango Viper Swirl” colored vinyl, Tropidelicos captures the radiant heat and joy of Gio Chamba’s live energy—music made for movement, community, and spiritual release. From sweaty dance floors to desert sunsets, every groove invites you deeper into the tropidelic revolution.

The earliest foundations of the Detroit Harmony group ‘The Gaslight’ came when future lead singer Oliver “Butch” Cheatham via an introduction by his sister Jackie joined a group known as ‘The Young Sirs’ who recorded, “There’s Something The Matter (With Your Heart/African Love” for Magic City during 1969. The group included Oliver’s future brother -in-law Allen Cocker (Jackie’s future husband).

Oliver and Allen went on to form a new vocal quartet with Curtis “Kippy” Anderson and Michael Eatmon. Under the group name of ‘The Gaslight’ they signed to Uptight Productions Incorporated, a local production company founded by local businessmen Marvin Figgins and Arnold Wright. The Gaslight were the only vocal harmony group signed to Uptight Productions and as such, it was they who made the most recordings across two label imprints Grand Junction and Black Rock. The Gaslight’s first single “I Can’t Tell A Lie/Here’s Missing You” was released on Grand Junction (GJ1001) in 1970, For the groups second single Figgin’s placed them under the guidance of legendary producer/songwriter, the late George McGregor under whom they recording “Drifting Away/If You See Her” Grand Junction (GJ1002) released in 1971 For their next release Figgin’s switched the group to his Black Rock label to record “Out Of My Hand/I’m Only A Man” Black Rock (2002) under the pseudonym of Butch & The Newport’s With “Butch” being Oliver’s nickname. A later, second release of “I’m Only A Man” but with a different flip side “I’m Gonna Get You” came out on Grand Junction (GJ1100) in 1973 with the performing artist credits reverting back to ‘The Gaslight’.

Upon leaving Uptight Production’s the group found a new home when George McCregor took them to a new fledgling label T.E.A.I (an abbreviation for “Tellin’ Everybody About It”) owned by ‘The Dramatics’ Road Manager Charles Underwood. ‘The Gaslight’s’ first and only release for T.E.A.I, was the mellifluous 1975 double sider “Just Because Of You/It’s Just Like Magic”. Underwood had precured a working relationship with Polydor Records who picked the release up for national distribution three months later. As good as the record was due to poor promotion it failed to make any notable noise and eventually sank with the group soon after breaking up.

During Soul Junction’s later dealings with the late Oliver Cheatham, respected UK Collector Andy Rix mentioned he owned a three track acetate containing the two mentioned T.E.A.I/Polydor tracks plus a third unissued dance track “Hard Times” which through a licensing deal with Charles Underwood Soul Junction now present to you on a three track 45, released under its full title “Hard Times Are Coming, Hard Times Are Here” backed with a previously unissued mix of “Just Because Of You” alongside the issued 45 version of “It’s Just Like Magic”.