SPIKE & THE GIMME GIMMES sind zweifellos die unterhaltsamste Coverband aller Zeiten. Die Band, die bis letztes Jahr noch unter dem Namen ME FIRST AND THE GIMME GIMMES umherreiste, hat sich den Titel Supergroup redlich verdient: Jedes der fünf Gründungsmitglieder konnte bereits auf eine ernstzunehmende Musikkarriere zurückblicken. Ursprünglich fanden Spike Slawson (Swingin' Utters), Fat Mike (NOFX), Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters), Joey Cape (Lagwagon) und Dave Raun (Lagwagon) durch ihre gemeinsame Liebe zum Punk zusammen. Mittlerweile tritt die Band in wechselnder Besetzung rund um Sänger Spike Slawson auf. "Shit the Bed", das Debüt von Spike and the Gimme Gimmes, bietet genau das, was man von einer Veröffentlichung der Gimmes erwartet: sofort eingängige Songs und herausragendes musikalisches Können - ihre Versionen deiner Lieblingslieder musst Du einfach lieben. PUNKt. Alle Einnahmen aus der hochkarätig besetzten Version von "We Are the World", die hier als Abschluss des Albums enthalten ist, gehen an den Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, du bist also moralisch dazu verpflichtet, mindestens ein Exemplar zu kaufen. Falls die Unterstützung notleidender Musiker als Grund nicht ausreicht: Die fantastische Gruppe von Sängern, die für dieses Projekt zusammengekommen ist, besteht aus den Gimmes mit Spike, CJ, Swami, Pinch and Jake as well as Milo, Nikki Corvette, Tony Reflex, Har Mar Superstar, Dani Miller, Dickey Barrett, Robert "El Vez" Lopez, Stacey Dee, Greg Antista, Johnny Bonnell, Joe Principe, Jolie Holland, Darius Koski, Jesse Wagner, Eva Walker, Chaki Funk Wizard, Jim Lindberg, Efram Schulz, Matt Caughthran, Jon Snodgrass, Blag Dahlia & Miss Guy! Auf Europatour im Oktober/November 2026. Die goldige Vinylversion ist nur dem Indie-Handel vorbehalten!
Third time’s a charm, or possibly an anomaly. Johannes Volk returns to Running Back for another five exercises in perception, memory and dance-floor physics.
Following Extra Dimensions and Lightweave, this third instalment finds Volk continuing his particular way of making machine music feel strangely human and vice versa.
Shining Force starts somewhere above ground. Gliding across an unfamiliar planetary surface, optical illusions and physical anomalies slowly interfere with the senses. Unknown landscapes,
peculiar vegetation, nature behaving unnaturally: techno as field research. Switching From Bicycle to Spaceship does exactly what it says on the tin, more or less: trading pedal power for propulsion as a deceptively simple groove gathers speed, sheds gravity and quietly leaves the atmosphere behind.
Hidden In Dark belongs to a more immediate kind of archaeology: fog, strobes, bodies and those inexplicably intense emotions that only seem to exist on a dance floor at the right (or wrong) hour.
Back Alley Dancers turns the telescope around and looks backwards. Vocal fragments, pitched, delayed, reversed and removed from their original meaning trigger half-memories of youth, and of
encountering music and culture before you quite understood what any of it meant. Familiar feelings in unfamiliar shapes.
Finally, Drumatury dispenses with introspection and gets down to elementary forces. Morphing bass drums meet a Chicago jacking snare-roll massacre. Drama becomes drumaturgy. Or the other way around.
Five tracks, several states of consciousness, one Johannes Volk. No protective equipment supplied.
Earlier this year, Blue Hour released his debut album Selva, a record steeped in the imagery of lost and forgotten worlds. Now, rather than let that world stand still, Blue Hour opens it up, inviting a handpicked crew of fresh talent to step inside and make it their own.
The result is a remix companion that reimagines Selva through fresh eyes and ears. Each remix artist brings their own sonic fingerprint to the source material, some peeling back the original's dense atmospherics to expose skeletal rhythms underneath, others pushing further into the album's dreamlike haze. What emerges isn't a simple tribute, but a genuine dialogue: new talents in conversation with an album that was already asking questions about memory, erosion, and what gets left behind when a world disappears.
It's a fitting extension of Selva's original premise: if the debut album conjured ruins and jungles swallowed by time, this remix project treats those same soundscapes as living, mutable spaces, ready to be excavated, reinterpreted, and given new life by a new generation of voices.
LUCIANO LAMANNA — A CARLO Blackwater Label — 2026 Distributed by Triple Vision More than ten years in the making, A CARLO is a single-sided EP by Luciano Lamanna for Blackwater Label, dedicated to Carlo Giuliani and to the memory of the events that unfolded during the G8 protests in Genoa in 2001. This record is the result of a long process, one that began more than a decade ago and has remained unfinished until now. Two tracks, both carrying the name and memory of Carlo, finally complete a circle that has been open for years. The first track, “Il Giorno del Sole”, was previously released on physical CD through Blackwater Label. The second, “Amore Infinito”, arrives more than ten years later, completing the dialogue between the two pieces and giving the project its long-awaited counterpart. Together, the tracks form a deeply emotional and personal statement: melancholic, haunting and at the same time driving and hopeful. Lamanna moves through the industrial language that has always characterised his work, while “Amore Infinito” explores a darker, more intimate territory, evoking the emotional intensity of Coil. A CARLO is not intended as a historical reconstruction or a conventional political statement. It is an act of memory.
Following the success of the inaugural all-Jiri Jiri edition, Batov Records returns with the second instalment of its Give Me Disco series, once again curated by label co-founder and globe-trotting selector DJ Kobayashi. Rather than revisiting familiar disco classics, Give Me Disco Vol. 02 digs deeper, bringing together four dancefloor discoveries from across Europe and Asia, including two previously unreleased tracks available here for the first time.
Spanning Portuguese jazz-funk, Norwegian cosmic oddities, Japanese-inspired psychedelic disco and cinematic groove, the EP reflects the breadth of Kobayashi's record bag - a carefully assembled selection of tracks that have soundtracked his DJ sets for years alongside exclusive material rescued from the vaults.
Opening the record is The Bam Jam Band's brilliantly understated "Theme", a soaring slice of jazz-infused disco from Portuguese musicians Sérgio Alves and Pedro Tenreiro. Originally released only as a now long-sold-out 7 inch on Mad About Records, the track has become one of Kobayashi's trusted secret weapons, championed by discerning selectors including Darryn Jones and Red Greg. Built around Alves' dazzling synthesiser work, "Theme" finally gets the wider audience it deserves. The EP's first exclusive arrives courtesy of D. Apal, instrumentalist and member of Norway's Flammer Dance Band. His only solo release, issued on the band's Lysketrekk Records, has become a cult favourite among adventurous record collectors. Batov now unveils the previously unreleased "60 Meter'n (Rytme)", an extended instrumental dub that strips away the vocals to let the handclaps, cavernous bassline, dub effects and wonderfully eccentric synthesisers breathe, transforming an underground favourite into an irresistible dancefloor weapon.
Side B opens with YĪN YĪN's "Tokyo Disco", taken from the band's acclaimed third album Mount Matsu on Glitterbeat Records. Long-time admirers of the Dutch quartet, Kobayashi has championed them since first hearing the breakthrough pairing of "Dis ̄ kô Dis ̄ kô" and "Dion Ysiusk" on Bongo Joe. Since then, he has hosted the band twice on Soho Radio and supported them live in London. "Tokyo Disco" perfectly captures YĪN YĪN's distinctive blend of Japanese-inspired psychedelia, Southeast Asian influences, post-punk funk and shimmering disco grooves, making it a natural fit for the Give Me Disco series.
Closing the EP is another exclusive from Jiri Jiri, whose contribution helped launch the series on Vol. 01. Ahead of their forthcoming album later this year, the duo unveil the previously unreleased "Spaghetti Western", a wonderfully off-kilter fusion of Morricone-esque cinematic atmosphere, taut funk rhythms and the soulful modern groove of SAULT. Equal parts soundtrack and dancefloor curveball, it provides a fitting finale while offering another tantalising glimpse of what's still to come. With two exclusive cuts sitting alongside two carefully chosen modern classics, Give Me Disco Vol. 02 is another lovingly curated snapshot of DJ Kobayashi's musical universe: borderless, groove-driven and unapologetically built for adventurous DJs, discerning collectors and open minded dancefloors alike.
Set to expand the footprint of his recent album Make-Up Is A Lie, his 14th solo album, legendary singer and songwriter Morrissey highlights “Zoom Zoom the Little Boy” on 7" vinyl, accompanied by a previously unreleased B-side from the album sessions, "Without Music the World Dies". The single features a vintage cover shot by Tina Dehghani.
Set to expand the footprint of his recent album Make-Up Is A Lie, his 14th solo album, legendary singer and songwriter Morrissey highlights “Kerching Kerching” on 7" vinyl accompanied by a previously unreleased B-side from the album sessions, "Isle Of Dogs". The archival sleeve photograph, seen above, was taken by Jake Walters.
At the foot of the mountain. Our gaze is inclined toward the summit.
Toward the ascent. The destination that awaits us.
From the valley, we look up at the summit: our destination. But also the path: the true destination.
We can already trace our route, and we are already imagining ourselves walking up there. Along the small ridge, just above the tree line. There, we take a short break and look for the exact spot in the valley where we were standing earlier. It is strange to grasp that we have actually climbed this mountain. To look down from up here at the place where we were just moments ago – the same place we looked up from, toward the place where we are standing now.
And now, knowing what it is like to be up here, we remember what we imagined it would be like back then. What we believed it would mean to stand here.
Along the way, our gaze wanders back and forth. Up toward the mountain, down into the valley, sometimes only at our shoes. We keep walking, one step after another. Our thoughts detached. Our body functioning purely mechanically.
Step left. Step right. Step left. Step right.
Our mind has completely detached itself, and our thoughts race at an immense speed. They summon the most different moments. Moments from our lives. Moments that shaped us, that made us who we are. Or are we perhaps simply trying to understand who we are and how we got here?
It is strange that reaching the summit and looking down could make us believe that we have finally reached, or are striving toward, some superior, triumphant position. When in fact, it is really only about looking at the path we inevitably have to take. Processing impressions from a certain distance. Reconsidering what we have experienced, without losing sight of what lies ahead.
Our gaze turns back toward the summit.
Is there a destination?
An ascent? A summit? A descent? The return?
Or is it only about the insights we encounter along the way?
Am Fuß des Berges. Unser Blick ist zum Gipfel geneigt.
Auf den Aufstieg. Das Ziel, das uns erwartet.
Vom Tal aus blicken wir auf den Gipfel: unser Ziel. Aber auch den Weg: das wahre Ziel. Unsere Route kann man jetzt schon abstecken, und wir stellen uns bereits vor, wie wir dort oben laufen. Über den kleinen Grat, leicht oberhalb der Baumgrenze. Dort machen wir eine kleine Pause und suchen genau die Stelle im Tal, an der wir vorhin noch standen. Es ist verrückt, zu begreifen, dass wir diesen Berg tatsächlich hinaufgestiegen sind. Von hier oben auf den Ort hinunterzusehen, an dem wir eben noch waren – an denselben Ort, zu dem wir hinaufgeblickt haben, als wir noch dort unten standen. Und jetzt, da wir wissen, wie es ist, hier oben zu sein, erinnern wir uns daran, was wir uns damals darunter vorgestellt haben. Was wir geglaubt haben, es würde bedeuten, hier zu stehen.
Unterwegs wandert unser Blick hin und her. Hinauf zum Berg, hinunter ins Tal, manchmal nur auf unsere Schuhe. Wir gehen weiter, einen Schritt nach dem anderen. Unsere Gedanken losgelöst. Unser Körper funktioniert rein mechanisch. Schritt links. Schritt rechts. Schritt links. Schritt rechts.
Unser Geist hat sich völlig losgelöst, und unsere Gedanken rasen mit einer ungeheuren Geschwindigkeit. Sie rufen die verschiedensten Momente herauf. Momente aus unserem Leben. Momente, die uns geprägt haben, aus denen wir geworden sind, wer wir sind. Oder versuchen wir vielleicht einfach nur zu verstehen, wer wir sind und wie wir hierhergekommen sind?
Es ist schon seltsam, dass das Erreichen des Gipfels und der Blick nach unten uns glauben lassen könnten, dass wir endlich eine überragende, triumphale Position erreicht haben oder anstreben würden. Dabei geht es doch eigentlich nur um den Blick auf den Weg, den wir zwangsläufig beschreiten müssen. Eindrücke mit etwas Abstand zu verarbeiten. Erlebtes noch einmal Revue passieren zu lassen, ohne den Blick nach vorne zu verlieren.
Unser Blick wendet sich wieder dem Gipfel zu. Gibt es ein Ziel? Einen Aufstieg? Einen Gipfel? Einen Abstieg? Die Rückkehr? Oder geht es nur um die Erkenntnisse, die uns unterwegs begegnen?
Every coastline develops its own rhythm. The Adriatic is no exception.
For decades, Italy’s eastern coast has been shaped by funk, Cosmic Disco, Balearic sounds, Italo Disco, House, Latin rhythms, Brazilian music and countless other influences. Rather than blending into a single style, these musical worlds have lived side by side, constantly inspiring new generations of DJs, musicians and dancers. For more than fifteen years, Soul Fingers and Funk Rimini have explored that landscape from different perspectives. Founded by Claudio Cavallaro in 2013, Soul Fingers grew into a vinyl-driven community where groove matters more than genre. Its philosophy has always been simple: if the groove is right, genres stop mattering. Brothers Ricky and Francesco Cardelli developed Funk Rimini into a project rooted in funk, disco, live performance and electronic production. Anima Adriatica is where these two journeys meet.
The project didn’t begin with the ambition of making an album. It began behind the turntables. As DJs, Claudio Cavallaro and Ricky Cardelli found themselves constantly searching for records capable of connecting distant musical worlds inside their sets; from Afrobeat into disco, from hip hop into Latin, from Brazilian grooves into boogie, from cosmic electronics into deep funk. Sometimes those records existed. More often, they didn’t. So they stopped searching and started writing them. Not records designed to belong to one genre, but records designed to travel between genres. That space between musical worlds became Anima Adriatica.
The music grew through spontaneous jam sessions with Ricky and Francesco Cardelli, drummer Enrico Mao Bocchini and, gradually, a wider circle of musicians, singers and longtime friends, making Anima Adriatica less a traditional band than the beginning of an open collective. Recorded at SynthPosio Studio, founded by Ricky and Francesco Cardelli inside Rimini’s iconic skyscraper, the project also carries a symbolic connection to the building itself, where many Italo Disco classics (including records by Betty Miranda, The Creatures and many others) were recorded decades earlier.
Betty Miranda returns not as a nostalgic guest, but as a bridge between generations. On the title track she performs a spoken-word text written by Claudio Cavallaro, reflecting on the invisible thread connecting the Adriatic dancefloor across time. From Baia degli Angeli to Cocoricò, from the legendary clubs of Riccione to today’s independent communities gathered around projects such as Soul Fingers and Funk Rimini, the places have changed, but the dancefloor continues to tell the same story. Much like Pier Vittorio Tondelli’s Rimini captured the Adriatic through literature, Anima Adriatica imagines its soundtrack.
Brazilian musician Daniel Plentz (Selton) expands that vision on Açúcar and Alegria, bringing another coastline into the story. Across its four tracks, the EP moves naturally between analogue funk, boogie, Brazilian music, underground disco, cosmic textures and the wider Black musical tradition, with All Down The Line paying tribute to the Paradise Garage era.
Released by Bordello A Parigi, the project found its natural home through a shared love of adventurous dance music, records and club culture. More than the title of an EP, Anima Adriatica marks the beginning of an open collective; a meeting point where musicians, DJs, producers and friends continue building bridges between genres, generations and communities.
Because Anima Adriatica doesn’t live inside a genre. It lives between genres. If soul music has always reflected the places where it was born, Anima Adriatica is simply our own Adriatic Soul.
Carlos Benedetti, a Colombian house producer and live performer from Cali, has steadily become one of the standout names in today’s underground dance scene. Following multiple vinyl releases on the acclaimed German label Disco Disco, Benedetti’s productions have earned widespread praise and support from respected figures including deep house icon Cinthie.
Specialists, selectors and collectors alike have described his records with comments such as:
“fabulous 12-inch”
“This is the most wild dance record to come out this year so far”
“Cannot formulate the words to capture how this one sounds and makes me feel”
“Listen close and behold.”
With this latest EP for SUPREME STRIKER, Benedetti once again delivers a collection that feels destined to become a future underground classic.
The record opens with Nostalgia Blues, a soulful and deeply textured piece channeling the spirit of Larry Levan’s legendary dancefloor energy, somewhere between disco’s emotional golden age and modern club functionality.
On Bellavista, Benedetti dives deeper into high-energy territory, layering powerful black grooves, hypnotic rhythmic tension and rich percussive movement into something both vibrant and timeless.
Pyramid follows with soaring arpeggios and delicate melodic flourishes, recalling the euphoric sophistication of Todd Terje at his most inspired, while maintaining Benedetti’s raw dancefloor sensibility.
Closing track How High The Moon nods toward Patrick Cowley’s pioneering synth work, injecting the EP with cosmic disco pressure, futuristic funk textures and a strange late-night sensuality.
More than a simple collection of tracks, the EP unfolds as a fully coherent journey through house, disco, Italo and high-energy mutations, balancing emotional depth, machine-driven grooves and timeless dancefloor instinct with remarkable naturality.
Dani Labb is a thunder bolt. A hardware head whose level of craft is felt instantly. Studio hibernation isn’t for everyone, but for those willing to give it all to the buttons the results can’t be overlooked.
This Argentinian artist has got the sauce, delivering four razor sharp club-focused tracks as the first release from new London label Acrylic Moves. ACMOVES001 is a naughty piece of dance floor weaponry. Scenes change and wackness vultures on, but the presence of fat-offtracks like these on a good system is an easily digested reminder of what truly makes us tick. Dani Labb is that reminder.
Powerhouse vocalist Sandra St. Victor returns with Eleven, her eleventh studio album and first solo release in over a decade. From her years with The Family Stand to collaborations with Roy Ayers, Curtis Mayfield, Chaka Khan, Prince and Lalah Hathaway, Sandra has built a remarkable career that has consistently blurred the lines between soul, funk, jazz and gospel.
Executive produced by Sandra St. Victor and Patrick Gibin for Mother Tongue, Eleven brings together Sandra's longtime collaborators alongside the Mother Tongue family, bridging her rich musical legacy with a fresh, forward-looking sound rooted in soul, jazz, boogie and soulful dance music.
The album combines brand new compositions with inspired reinterpretations, from Kaidi Tatham's stunning reimagining of Captain Sky's Moonchild and his masterful reinvention of the Leon Ware/Syreeta underground gem Tiki Tiki Donga, to a beautifully understated new version of Sandra's own Dizzy, originally released on Gemini: Both Sides in 2001 featuring Questlove, Roy Ayers and Donald Byrd, here reimagined by Mark de Clive-Lowe. Along the way, the lo-fi soul of Black Ice, the timeless duet No More Water featuring Lalah Hathaway, and the straight-up funk of Makes Me Wanna Fall In Love Again and What Would Miles Do showcase an artist continuing to evolve while remaining true to her artistic voice.
Rooted in experience yet driven by curiosity, Eleven bridges Sandra's remarkable musical legacy with the creative vision of Mother Tongue, resulting in an album that feels both timeless and unmistakably
Nu Vision is the latest project of Duke Cooper, band leader and label boss of Nation, Kode and DirtyBlends. There are three humans who make up Nu Vision, and they all have their own stories and discographies, records released on labels you might know, gigs played in Chicago or Berlin or someone’s loft, lives lived, friends made, sleep lost - fighting for theirart, standing by truths, defending voices, honoring progenitors, whilst pushing a new paradigm. Time is both fleeting and heavy for us all, but it is not without receipts.
Nu Vision is a band in the classic do-you-believe-in-alchemy sense - equal parts rhythm, damage, and deep feeling. Drenched in nostalgia and futurism, The Seed is a singularity of sound + vision; as if heavily rotated by VJ Dave Kendall on MTV’s 120 Minutes but materialized via today’s technology.
The Seed 10 inch provides additional music inspired significant icons Section 25, Liaisons Dangeruses and Adrian Sherwood having paved the way with their prior successes..- this package of The Seed is no freshman effort; but rather, a masterclass in continuing sonic education, delivering a unified experience from beginning to end. A NU VISION.
The Seed 10 inch provides additional music inspired significant icon band: Section 25 from the period of 1981-1984 with a more electronic-dance direction, process which culminated in the album ' From the Hip ' and remix single "Looking From A Hilltop", both released in 1984 as "Insecure Man is about being true to manhood with Robert Lane leading the charge with his vocabulary message of the current state of society.
Insecure Dub focuses on the period of 1981-1984 with an alternative electronic-dance direction process as an inspired blueprint from Nu Vision inspired from Adrian Sherwood having paved the way with his individual success.
Inspired from electrifying songs produced by Chrislo Haas (DAF) and Beate Bartel (Mania D. / Matador) reinforced by Krishna Goineau’s French and Spanish Speech-Attack-Lyrics Liaisons Dangereuses created a unique style anything other than a Berlin or Düsseldorf ‘thing’ – that was propelled to an international underground phenomenon of fame.
Nu VIsion was inspired to create a blueprint from the period of their productions of 1981-1982 with an electronic-dance direction paying homage with passionate craftsmanship utilizing what equipment was possible in the studio at the time of this recording featuring new members; Zoe Murphy & Fletch The Stranger on vocals and James Chazz on Saxaphone with a Ring Modulator.
Nu Vision is a modern salon for visionary leaders, fighting for their art, standing by truths, defending voices, honoring progenitors, whilst pushing forwards towards a new paradigm. The band all have their own stories and extensive discographies, records released on labels you might know, gigs played in places you might have attended but none of that matters. This is a new beginning. A group. A collective.A movement. Nu Vision is a band in the classic do-you-believe-in-alchemy sense. Equal parts rhythm, damage, and deep feeling. Their friends at DFA noted that the album “sounds like Depeche Mode scoring a Michael Mann montage: brooding,motorik, and shot through with black-and-blue beauty.” this idea is taken further in the first video from the album for track one / side one “Time” that launches the project publically along with the albums announcement. The palette of ‘The Seed’ is defined and refined in the best way. It’s an album that opens up many pathways. Brisker, freakier tracks like “Shadow In The Dark,” “R U Serious?” and “Humanity” run towards a softer finish with “Somedays” and the seven-minute, eyeliner-smearing closing ballad, “Lullaby Garden.” These are proper songs made with vintage machines, with a sound that carries obvious influences. ’ The Seed’ pulses forward as the body of the beast is turned inside out, wearing a beating heart on its sleeve, honoring those who left us too soon - DAF’s Gabi Delgado, Nitzer Ebb’s Douglas McCarthy, Depeche Mode’s Andrew Fletcher, and Sandwell District’s Juan Mendez. It’s important to note the emotional core of ‘The Seed’ album is the song ‘Synchronicity’ that is filled with both love and regret, the story of losing a friend without properly making amends. It is unquestionably heartbreaking, but is also delivered with a pang of hope, the feeling that with so many sunrises caught, so many additions and subtractions in life, a perspective has been gained. This is no freshman effort; but rather, a masterclass in continuing sonic education, delivering a unified experience from beginning to end. A New Vision
"John Beltran joins forces with Ireland’s Intrinsic Rhythm for a masterclass in emotional Detroit Techno with his "Roots EP" featuring a deep & soulful remix from Fireground.
Few names command the same reverence in electronic music as John Beltran. Since pioneering the more melodic, ambient-soaked textures of Detroit techno in the 1990s and 00s, the Michigan producer has spent over three decades crafting electronic music with an unmistakable human soul.
For his latest outing, Beltran links up with Irish imprint Intrinsic Rhythm for a physical and digital release after previously providing a remix for IR004 . The A1 "My Faith In You" is a perfect distillation of his signature sound: lush, cinematic chord progressions, propulsive rhythm arrangements, and that deep-running emotive warmth that makes his catalog timeless and this continues on the A2 with "Gratiot" a timeless piece of Deep Detroit Techno with a shuffling groove and precise tones and textures.
Sharpening the edge of the package is a stellar remix from dynamic Italian duo Fireground. Known for their driving, soulful and rich sound on labels like Tresor and Ilian Tape, Fireground adds a deeper more textured version of "Gratiot" and reconstructs it into a sun drenched musically rich remix. Together, the release forms a beautiful bridge between the two artists. "
A cache of unreleased, on-the-fly sonic orphans from the São Paulo underground and Hurtmold veteran, composed entirely at home alone between 2004 and 2025 and built from simple samples. Now housed on a single tape for general consumption, it delivers hazy, cyclical rhythms, spontaneous sampler alchemy, and low-end grooves heavy enough to make you swivel.
Mark Funk and Danny Cruz's Cruise Music label continues to offer-up the best of its digital-first EPs via the popular Vinyl Jams sampler series. There's a real sun-splashed, dancing-on-the-terrace feel to much of the music contained on this 14th volume in the series. Mark Funk steps up first with the loopy, filter-rich disco-house release of 'Never Never', which rises and falls in all the right places in search of hands-aloft action, before Makito drops the vibraphone solo-laden deep house-meets-garage-house flex of 'Heavy Vibes' (think Masters at Work collaborating with Roy Ayers and you're close), Over on side B, Danny Cruz serves up 'Sugar', a tooled-up, house-style re-edit of a joyous disco gem, while Filth & Smell's 'Panama Sweet Spot' is an electric piano and sax-loop-fired slab of thickset house funkiness.
Mysticisms completes its archival releases of the Dub Specialists with a 3rd EP of the outer reaches of the Digi Dub realm, this time mainly drawing from the project’s final album Loop To Loop.
Conscious Sounds head honcho Dougie Waldrop, working again with Chris Petter (Love Grocer) runs the desk, the heavy sample originals move from House to Breaks, Dub to Funk.
For the final reversions, label co-owner and editing specialist Piers Harrison returns, turning Love Song in a long form 4/4 romantic digi bounce. A sure-fire winner, the catchy groove and trippy beats, the template of what makes Dub Specialists come alive.
Following is Lotion Dub, edited by Vanity Project. A key part to the project, working with Millie Mckee, as well assisting Chuggy, his solid arrangements and engineering skills take the old school original, with digi horns, electro stabs and reggae “skanking” guitar, accentuating the drum and bass to effect.
The final side of edits come from Chuggy, taking the steppers of Dub Downtown, teasing the drop, looping and riding the riddim and also, finally, from rising producer and label head of Spiritual World Recordings, N1 Sound who sticks to the true essence of re-editing, creating a DJ friendly excursion, extending and live dubbing the sought after 808 Dub from Dub Specialists debut Break To Break, thus bringing the whole project full circle and complete.
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.
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.
"After a couple of years shaping her sound in the studio, Budino lands the "Signal EP", a record that grew out of the desire to make music for her own sets. Citing the journey she aims to create in the club as a key inspiration, she certainly put in the mileage, with a booking schedule tirelessly spanning all points of the compass. Although this is her first label-released original record, it's no novice effort: ALT027 shows a confident artist, fully in control, with a distinct vision and the technical expertise to bring it to life. On opener "Stay More", a trippy trance rendition, the sturdy kick and distorted sines leave ample room for mid-bass acid lines to roam freely. In its company, a myriad of risers, gated white noises and delayed fills appear - signifiers within the artist's palette, as will become apparent. "Wireless" features similar crafty sub movement, but this time the drums are infused with conga patterns and other exotic slices of battery. Because of the zest these rhythms bring, the track can keep building for several minutes until a synthesised lead emerges. When that finally happens, the affair really takes off. On the other side, "Alpha 7" rides the call-and-response dynamics between different formant and deep-vibrating leads, its shimmering arpeggios and atmospheric pads adding colour. Closer "1031" provides an organic touch with its live guitar bass pulse and enigmatic, eerie vocals. Amidst ever-evolving micro-frills, a sturdy square lead thrusts it forward. The groove, again, is endlessly seductive. This characterizes Budino's skilled approach: it's often so hypnotic it feels unclear whether the themes materialise from the surrounding, seemingly fluid compositions - or dissolve into them. In any case, these are multi-dimensional cuts you will love getting lost in on a nearby dancefloor."
Ossios makes his Yay Recordings debut with two deep cuts that capture the magic of his creative process - summer house excursions shaped by back-and-forth flights and fleeting moments of inspiration.
On one side, Deadbeat opens up his studio a fires up the studio stove with "One Night at the Ranch (Betting the Farm)," featuring vocals from his love soul Elle. Tumbling drums, understated grooves, and subtle house hypnosis unfold with effortless ease.
On the flip, "Drama Is a Game" channels a hazy afternoon in Mexico City, exploring memory and duality through shape-shifting synths and warm, drifting vocals. The result is a deeper, darker journey where emotion and atmosphere remain in constant motion.
Crossing their distinctive techno practices in the spirit of mutual appreciation and experimentation, DJ Nobu invites JakoJako to Bitta. Each delivering an original track and then remixing each other's work, both artists examine where their creativity converges, and what happens when their differing qualities collide. JakoJako has forged a reputation within techno and electronica circles centred on her accomplished exploration of modular synthesis. While she comfortably embraces ambient projects, she's also firmly entrenched in the club matching a tough rhythmic sensibility with adventurous textures and subliminal emotional content. As Nobu himself describes, "Beyond standard techno functionality, I deeply respect JakoJako's approach to music making, which stems from a pure, unyielding curiosity about sound itself. Her sound aligns perfectly with Bitta's core philosophy--the coexistence of experimentation and physicality." Nobu's own 'Wax and Wane' opens up the release in a melancholic mosaic of bleeping leads and natural-sounding drum tones, patiently laid out over a dense pad and developed with the elegant but driving style he's made his own over many years. JakoJako's 'Nodus' is a more cybernetic affair--lithe layers of frequency modulation moving over the rugged kick drum thump before opening up to celestial arps and jagged flurries of percussion. For the remixes, Nobu immediately reframes 'Nodus's melodic crescendo as the core theme while steering the track towards an immersive, linear arrangement that ebbs and flows with poise. In the process, he finds his own expressive sound design language to put a unique spin on JakoJako's original sound. Meanwhile, JakoJako steers 'Wax and Wane' into a mesmerising lattice of needlepoint percussion and swooning synth strokes, creating emotive swells out of the raw ingredients of Nobu's original melodies. The end result is a record made up of four distinct pieces, all logically compatible but bringing forth different aspects of two dedicated, ceaselessly curious practitioners of contemporary techno.
Take a trip back to the golden age of popular music with Golden Oldies, a 2LP collection bringing together 40 timeless favourites from the 1950s and early ’60s. Featuring legendary artists including Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke, The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry, Etta James and Bobby Darin, this hit-packed set captures an unforgettable era of rock ’n’ roll, pop, soul and rhythm & blues. Highlights include Johnny B. Goode, Heartbreak Hotel, The Wanderer, Mack The Knife, Crying and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes – classic recordings that still sound as good today as they ever did.
Life is like a mirror ball! The first one in a hopefully long-lived series of disco and pop influenced Super Sound Singles on Running Back, comes courtesy of the unmistakeable Gibson Brothers. Leaving their biggest wedding hits "Cuba" and "Que Sera Mi Vida" to the side, the philanthropic and smile-forcing "Ooh, What A Life" gets an extended edit service by Shan & Gerd Janson, who cut away some of the fat and make it fit for fun on contemporary dance-floors. The flip side sees them remixing and sandpapering "Heaven" into a disco-house interbred (filters and looping mandatory). To quote John Lyndon: "Disco sucks You never heard that from me."
Nearly 15 years have passed since the original version of this LP was released (the first iteration as a 4X12" LMTD set back in 2012), and it has truly aged like fine wine! This release features five timeless cuts from the mind and soul of cv313 and a truly mesmerizing otherwordly dub of the illusive radius project, mixed and recorded near the heart of Detroit! (with nearly all of the tracks making their debut on wax) This entire project has been beautifully remastered by dub innovator and pioneer, Stefan Betke POLE @ scape mastering in Berlin, DE. You can just drop the needle and close your eyes for a near 20 minutes of fathomless sonic depth, massaging your brain and mind, a deep dive into an immersive analogue world. A new addition to this newly minted vinyl iteration of the "Altering Illusions" series now includes cv313's blistering analogue assault on the darkest radius bit in the interpolation tapes series. Expect sub-harmonic deep space exploration in some seriously out-there electronic quadrants, some of the deepest techno reductions ever captured to tape!
Thoughts:
"Altering Illusions Chapter One cv313 is every bit as strong and essential as the debut cv313 album it supplements and acts as a nexus between cv313 material old and new.It is quite unlike anything cv313 has released before or since, a beautiful hybrid of cv313 textures, dense, whirring drones from Alva Noto’s Xerrox series of ambient albums and Thomas Koner’s panoramic soundscapes." -IGLOO MAGAZINE
a A1. cv313 “isis” original mix 10:47
c B1. radius “interpolation tapes” cv313 rewire 20:06
e C2. cv313 “irradiate dub” 5:58
reduced 20:24
a A1. cv313 “isis” original mix 10:47
c B1. radius “interpolation tapes” cv313 rewire 20:06
SIMPLR is a dab hand when it comes to editing, tweaking and touching up classics tracks just enough to make them bang on contemporary flors, but not so much that they lose the essence of what makes them standout in the first place. Already this month he kicked off this label with a doozy rework of a soul great and now offers two more gems - 'Downtown Soul' is steamy and hot house with big trumpets and funky bass loops and 'Those Days' gets deeper, with louche, live-feeling grooves that loop back on themselves and bring the funk.
not many artists are able to develop a distinct sonic identity releasing just 5 solo records. through his selective output in the course of 5 years on nina kraviz's Trip, vladimir dubyshkin gained not only an army of loyal fans analysing his live sets for new music, he also inspired many who followed and continued to develop his unique sound.
his tracks, many of which became underground hits like "lady of the night", "ticket to childhood" or "russian porn magazine", always stand out and are immediately recognisable. be it weird syncopated euro dance reminiscent bangers with crazy vocal snaps or haunting hypnotic beauties on a techno side. his music always has that genius dubyshkin groove, a pinch of irony and the ability to make just anyone dance, from a small underground club to a huge festival dancefloor. this universal appeal ensures his tracks resonate across sound systems of all sizes, embedding themselves in the listener's consciousness long after the music stops.
on "ivanovo night luxe", his first double ep on Trip, vladimir sounds as amazingly unhinged as ever embarking on a surreal journey, from the eerie echoes of a haunted funfair ride to the core of a peak-time set.
"ivanovo night luxe" continues to captivate and intrigue, solidifying dubyshkin's standing as an artist of unwavering integrity and reminding us that sometimes 'less is more'.
Satoshi Tomiie Unveils His Latest Ep, '12b Dub', Exclusively on Phonogramme Records Tokyo &Ndash; Renowned Dj and Producer Satoshi Tomiie Is Back With a Captivating New Ep, '12b Dub', Set to Make Waves in the Electronic Music Scene. This Four-Track Release Marks a Slight Shift Towards a More House-Oriented Sound, Showcasing Tomiie's Versatility and Innovative Approach to Music Production. Having Garnered Acclaim for His Previous Releases and Collaborations, Tomiie Continues to Push Boundaries With '12b-Dub', Solidifying His Reputation as a Trailblazer in the Electronic Music Industry. This Latest Offering on Phonogramme Records Is Sure to Be a Staple in Dj Sets and Playlists Worldwide....
The vinyl saga between Planet Rhythm and Derailed Records rolls on with a full album from none other than the mighty Tensal. Landing as a double 12", this release carries the unmistakable VVS signature: uncompromising, high-impact techno and a selection of heavyweight prime-time cuts made to ignite the dancefloor. We’re excited to welcome Tensal to the label, whose unmistakable sound makes this vinyl release a truly special addition to the catalogue. '' I Want VVS's More Than Ever ''
Rebecca Delle Piane makes her return on EMERALD with six tracks covering' Titania EP'. Driven by a steely determination to push herself further through sonic exploration and new creative approaches, she unveils a new direction in sound. A direction that feels both harsh and precise, yet equally clear and refined.
Wisconsin house music legends Solid Gold Playaz return with Minds Beneath Atlantis EP, a timeless deep house gem first released in 2003 on Silver Network before receiving a sought-after reissue from Still Music in 2017. Long out of print and highly coveted by collectors, copies have regularly fetched upwards of £50 on the second-hand market. Thankfully, Still Music have answered the call with a welcome repress, making this essential release available once again for DJs, collectors, and deep house enthusiasts who missed out the first time around.
Blame The Mono makes a powerful debut on RAW with their latest EP, Pace Refinery. Capturing the Franco-British duo at a defining moment, this project sharpens their hybrid European identity into a focused and forward-looking statement. They remain a shining beacon of inventiveness, balancing driving club energy with refined textural detail. Spotify, Apple, etc: bfan.link/pace-refinery Mastering : Charles Accarissi released April 9, 2026
DC Salas doesn’t do things by halves. Fresh off a June release on Enrica Falqui’s Plexus4, the Brussels-based producer wastes no time returning to his own Higher Hopes imprint and he’s brought a party with him.
Fiesta EP is a four-tracker with a split personality and zero apologies for it. The A-side is all business: Darkest Dream, already doing damage in Roza Terenzi’s sets and Consciousness lock in deep, hypnotic, and faster paced. Then the B-side happens. Fiesta Fiesta and Lost In My Memories raid the wreckage of new beat, proto-whatever and early 2000s electrohouse like they own the place. Fiesta Fiesta also marks fifteen years of DC Salas making music, celebrated, naturally, by vocodering his own voice and singing in Spanish.
HIGH005 follows Pixelated Dream Theory, which pulled support from DJ Masda, Ivan Smagghe, Evan Baggs, Enrica Falqui, Binh and many more. Back on home turf, no features, no compromises. Just DC Salas, in full.
Following on from the highly anticipated Rebirth 20 anniversary project, Rebirth return with the first of two limited-edition bonus 12"s, digging deeper into the label’s catalogue with four killer remixes and previously overlooked gems.
Kicking things off with Leon Feat. Corrina Joseph – I Follow You (Darryl Baalki Remix), a soulful and deeply grooving house cut with Corrina Joseph’s beautiful vocals riding over a warm, hypnotic groove. Darryl Baalki adds his signature touch, making this one a serious late-night house weapon.
Next up is Gianluca Pegoiani Feat. Ann Saunderson – Numero 5 (Rough Ride) (Nick Holder Trackheadz Remix). Nick Holder’s Trackheadz take the original into deeper territory, delivering a classy, rolling slice of deep house with that unmistakable Detroit/Chicago-inspired feel.
On the flip we have Mata Jones & Mikey V – Funky (Elado Remix), bringing a more energetic and playful edge to proceedings with a seriously infectious groove, chunky drums and plenty of dancefloor funk.
Finishing off the EP is Psycho Radio Vs LC Anderson – Bad Reputation (Red Axes Remix). Red Axes work their magic on this one, twisting it into a dark, psychedelic indie-dance workout packed with attitude and hypnotic momentum.
Another essential selection from Rebirth as they continue celebrating 20 years of the label with some seriously choice cuts.
Longtime Sonic Groove staple REALMZ (Rob D'Atri) makes his long-awaited return to the label with his first release since 2018. Delivering a sharp, clinical transmission of heavy electronic sound design, this record pairs intricate programming with fractured rhythms and dense, driving atmospheres. Echoing the minimalist, metallic energy of classic warehouse techno, it cuts straight to the floor with precision mechanical grooves. Pure, uncompromising underground techno
FOUNDATIONS004 heralds the Dawn of A New Era from FTL. A thematic 4 tracker evoking 1993 darkside jungle tekno flava. Lead track Braindead Badbwoy sets the scene with heavy kicks, weighty basslines, eerie pads and dark atmospheric stabs that build towards a climactic final drop. Next up, Consciousness kicks things off with uplifting hardcore vibes before dropping into classic rave stabs and a massive bassline built to make the bricks shake. Those familiar with undead lore will instantly recognise the infamous character on the sleeve, perfectly capturing the track’s title: a last brain-cell firing moment from the pattern recognition of a long lost tune. Consciousness in the new dawn. Keeping on theme, Stolen Memories drifts through dark atmospheric landscapes with haunting spoken-word vocals. Another climactic finale and we’re reminded once more of our talismanic protagonist, piecing together broken synapses at the end of an epic allnighter. What actually just happened? Rounding things off, title track Dawn of a New Era emanates with poignant nostalgia and the promise of new awakenings. A jungle tekno romper to carry you through to first light.
Amazing Album! Following his remix on Massiel's Echoform, Nicolas Barnes returns to Devilish Affair for his first full EP on the label, joining Genning for the label's first double LP. Each producer contributes three original tracks before remixing one another, bringing together eight tracks that showcase two different but complementary approaches to deep electronic music. While Barnes leans into darker, dubby grooves, Genning brings a brighter, more driving energy, giving the record a natural balance from beginning to end. The artwork features a photograph taken by Devilish Affair founder Eric Louis while hiking through The Narrows in Zion National Park. A winding stream cuts between shadow and sunlight beneath towering canyon walls, creating a scene that feels right at home alongside the music. Whether you're listening at home or deep into a late-night set, Through the Narrows is meant to be experienced as a complete journey across four sides of vinyl
New York-based Japanese jazz and electronic music polymath Takuya Nakamura presents his debut album Shape The Future - almost 35 years into his storied musical journey.
An expansive double album, the album’s first LP documents a spellbinding live performance by Nakamura recorded at fabric. A hybrid set combining DJing, live electronics, vocals, and trumpet, the set also features studio versions of special collaborations with Shigeto, Currency Audio and Tim Reaper. The second LP complements the first by assembling studio recordings of select album tracks. Altogether the two volumes make for a definitive display of Nakamura’s exceptional musicianship across jazz, DnB, jungle, broken beat, deep techno and more.
Across his career, Nakamura has played Brazilian music, merengue, salsa and straight-ahead jazz. He’s opened for Sun Ra Arkestra, performed with David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Wu-Tang Clan, and Arto Lindsay, appeared on sessions with Terry Riley, ASAP Rocky, Goldie, and TV On The Radio, and remixed the likes of Quincy Jones, Sun Ra, Billie Holiday, and The Streets. He’s also played under director and playwright Robert Wilson.
Although the musical past and present of the Tokyo-born, New York-based DJ and trumpet player is undoubtedly eclectic, Nakamura is abidingly steeped in the sounds of jazz and jungle. This’ll be obvious to casual observers who may have seen any viral videos of him. But there’s more to this. The depth of Nakamura’s engagement with these kinds of music, the way they’ve made him into the person he is, the decades-long path they’ve taken him on; to now arrive at the summit of a solo album is all truly remarkable. Shape The Future resonates with every chapter in this story.
In high school, Nakamura’s friends started listening to jazz and jazz fusion, which piqued his interest, especially when they started going to clubs to see it live, where they managed to see US legends like Sonny Rollins play. Eventually he began to play jazz every day and his musical skill emerged early. He soon became obsessed with getting closer to the source of this music, which led to his studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston with George Russell, an influential figure who had taught Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Nakamura drank it in: not only the technical aspects but the sense of a direct connection to “a music culture where Russell and his friends changed harmony forever. I wanted to know how that was possible!”.
This was a radical experience in itself, but then another revolution happened for Nakamura. He was playing in a venue called The Western Front, near Boston and discovered that the elderly owner had his own soundsystem and was playing what was then - in 1992 - only just becoming known as jungle. This was as freeing a musical revelation as his proximity to the giants of jazz was, and in that instant the two things fused. He understood that using technology to fill a dancehall with sound and a jazz musician’s reflexes are all working to the same ends: “You’re always making decisions,” he says, “but it doesn’t have to be really difficult. It’s the truth of the frequencies, and how they’re affecting people’s minds.”
From that moment on, his life path was set. Moving to New York City, he sought out jungle and its offshoot sounds wherever he could find them, gigging and collaborating relentlessly, and gradually developing his own live and hybrid live/DJ shows. Through regular appearances at New York fixtures Zebulon and CBGBs, and continual shows elsewhere in the city, Nakamura developed his live performance and DJing and it was in these environments that he gradually weaved together his twin loves without compromising either, building an international reputation in the process.
It’s only fitting then that his first album, almost 35 years after he first found his musical direction, should be a live one: a window into this never-ending process. Even here, he had to be persuaded that he should make a record. A member of the fabric team got turned on to his music after their daughter saw him play. Of course, as a jungle lover, Nakamura knew fabric – which has a special place in the history of jungle and drum’n’bass – and “had wanted to play there since I was very young.” You can hear the club in the record: this isn’t just a live show, in keeping with his jungle roots, it’s Nakamura duetting with the soundsystem, and you can feel how the emotions in the room would have ebbed and flowed.
This dynamic translates to a transfixing record. Setting the tone with lushly textured ambient and reverberant jazz, Nakamura segues into cinematic breakbeat and stellar fusion, infusing it all with intoxicating low end and hypnotic rhythms. The LP’s midway point locks into mesmeric percussion heightened by resonant echoes of piano and trumpet. There’s an endless pull to this music. Nakamura adjusts the levels for maximum impact throughout, and the overall effect begins to evoke some harmonious hybrid between a jazz ensemble, a classic Metalheadz 12” and a Theo Parrish DJ set. His electric form continues through surreal jazz, intricate electronics and rolling sub-bass velocity, right up to the subtly devastating final cover of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush’s ‘Don’t Give Up’, with Nakamura’s fragile vocal sitting in the heart of a huge sound.
From Tokyo jazz nights to formative studies and encounters in Boston to his artistic development in New York, Nakamura reaches another milestone with his monumental debut album. It’s a release that happened just the way a Takuya Nakamura record should. In the same way his instincts led him to musical revelations, taking his own sweet time has led him to make one of the most extraordinary debut albums imaginable, all executed in his own singular style. In Nakamura’s world, the universe finds a way.
As Eerie Enterprise, upsammy and Piezo have funnelled their singular styles into a classic-feeling but ultra-modern album of elegant, angular electronica. With a strong melodic sensibility and a highly developed palette of playful sound design in their toolkit, the unexpected pairing grew spontaneous jams into a considered collaboration, and Places Remember Events is the end result.
Individually, Thessa Torsing and Luca Mucci have carved out strong identities within contemporary electronic music. As upsammy, Torsing has applied a delicate precision to ambient and uptempo approaches alike, building up a striking catalogue of releases including her 2020 LP for Dekmantel, Zoom. Meanwhile, Mucci has taken a wayward path through contemporary bass music and techno that matches edgy sound design with playful unpredictability. As Eerie Enterprise, both artists tap into their respective creative instincts while arriving at a unique sound with a nurturing quality they were both missing from modern dance music.
Having appreciated each other's work for some years, in July 2024 Torsing and Mucci seized an opportunity to carve out two days in the studio. There was no expectation of an end product, but the sketches conceived during those open-ended, hardware-oriented sessions felt worthy of a deeper exploration developed and finalised over the following year-and-a-half.
Places Remember Events has an unapologetically nostalgic streak, calling to mind the warm glow of melodically-charged, golden-era electronica. The twitchy rhythmic make-up of tracks like 'Decay + Collapse' and 'Folding Origin' speak to the duo's shared affinity for ravey energy, but even within faster frameworks they lean into half-time space to maintain a light-footed agility that allows the relatively busy arrangements to feel grounded and patient rather than frantic.
There's an appreciation for mystery in the emotional make-up of many of the tracks, not least in the slithering textural exploration and spatial tension of 'Capsule', but elsewhere fragile melancholia guides the melody direction of 'Superradiance' and 'Things Fall Upwards'. The final impression is crisp and modern while delivering an accessible experience that seeks to soothe rather than shock when so much contemporary club music tips towards uneasy intensity.
Finding malleable approaches to their chosen sonics and applying them to intentional song structures, Eerie Enterprise collectively land on a sound that promises a lasting reward for the repeat voyager — satisfying headphone gear in the grand tradition of introspective electronic music, but also with a physical immediacy that will manifest in the live set upsammy and Piezo have put together to perform later in the year.
Celebrate the incredible music from the first half of the 70s with this brand-new 2LP collection packed with the era’s most iconic hits.
LP1 kicks off with Queen’s ‘Killer Queen’, followed by Elton John’s timeless ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ and Mott The Hoople’s anthemic ‘All The Young Dudes’. Glam-rock favourites from Sweet, Mud and Wizzard sit alongside Pilot’s feel-good ‘Magic’ and David Essex’s distinctive ‘Rock On’. Side Two turns up the guitars with Rod Stewart’s ‘You Wear It Well’, Free’s legendary ‘All Right Now’ and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s ‘You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet’. Alice Cooper’s rebellious ‘School’s Out’, Status Quo’s ‘Down Down’ and Thin Lizzy’s ‘Whisky In The Jar’ continue an incredible run of rock classics before Bob Dylan closes the LP with ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door’.
LP2 opens with Paul McCartney & Wings’ epic ‘Band On The Run’, before Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ and Billy Joel’s ‘Piano Man’ showcase some of the decade’s finest songwriting. Harry Nilsson’s unforgettable ‘Without You’ and Terry Jacks’ ‘Seasons In The Sun’ lead into soulful classics from Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and The Stylistics. Side Two opens with Neil Diamond’s enduring ‘Sweet Caroline’ and Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’, before Diana Ross’ ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and Stevie Wonder’s ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’ launch an irresistible run of soul and dancefloor favourites. Barry White’s ‘You’re The First, The Last, My Everything’, George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ and The Three Degrees’ ‘When Will I See You Again?’ lead into Michael Jackson’s beautiful ‘Ben’, bringing this celebration of 1970–1974 to a memorable close.
Cruise Music really does what it says on the tin - serve up the sort of grooves that are easy to slip into a ride along with, especially when the sun is out and the mood gets a little more playful than usual. Their 16th edition of this long-running series is another super fly collection of effective groove and classic house attitude. Makito opens with the funky licks and disco colour of 'Jailhouse Funk' while Mark Funk, Danny Cruz pull back and allow plenty of sunshine and jazzy sax warmth into 'The Vibe.' On the flip, Bonetti gets remixed by Vertigini for some filter-driven and dusty house goodness and Raffaele Ciavolino & FederFunk bring a little Latin heat and percussive texture. Classy stuff.
'A little grungy, a little groovy…after 25 years of making music, ELIZA has finally written her first real love song.
'Fifteen years on from her platinum-selling debut, the music she is making now feels far more authentic to the soundtrack of her teenage years: D’Angelo, Radiohead, Janet Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and The Smashing Pumpkins.'
"On her best record yet, Eliza strips her songwriting to its bones” - Shatter The Standards (★★★★☆)
"The Darkening Green feels like a natural deepening of her voice and vision, balancing intimacy, social awareness and quiet hope” - Wordplay
"Serious, stylish, but also effortlessly cool” - Song Bar
EPILOGUE is the culmination of more than four decades of music-making by Japanese composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Ken-ichiro Isoda, an album in which environmental sound, electronics, contemporary classical composition and memory converge into a deeply personal late-career statement. Isoda moved through video-game music, film composition, classical production, Okinawan music, television and collaborative projects, continually developing an approach in which acoustic instrumentation, field recordings and electronics could coexist naturally.
His collaborative album Interwoven with aus, released through WRWTFWW, further demonstrated the openness of a musical philosophy Isoda describes as being rooted in fluctuation, imperfection and organic movement.
EPILOGUE brings those threads together while refusing to function simply as a retrospective. The album consists largely of older compositions that Isoda has returned to, reconstructed and reinterpreted from the perspective of the present.
Opening track “TANEKOMA” refers to the Izu Robin, a rare bird native to Hachijō-jima, the volcanic island where Isoda lives. Its song, recorded by Isoda in the mountains, becomes part of the composition itself. Placed at the beginning of the album, “TANEKOMA” becomes both document and prayer.
Elsewhere, “Circulation 2” develops from a work created around the relationship between forest, sea and the movement of water. Flutist Dogen Kinowaki replaces Isoda’s original piano melody with a performance that gives the piece a distinctly Japanese sense of place. Kinowaki also appears on a newly reimagined version of “Beach of the Pliocene”, one of Isoda’s most recognised compositions.“STEPS”, first composed for film in 2008, looks back toward the electronica of that period. For this definitive version, Tsutomu Sonoda of maya ongaku provides vocals, bringing new emotional and lyrical depth to a piece Isoda had wanted to properly complete for more than a decade.
The title track from Isoda’s 1991 New Age album “Yume no Sazanami” is similarly reconsidered. Originally recorded with a small chamber orchestra, the new arrangement replaces elements of the harp and cello with layers of nylon-string guitar performed by Tatsuro Murakami. Perhaps the album’s clearest meeting point between past and present is “WATERWAYS.”The mysterious European ambient artist Aiko Takahashi, transforming an abandoned demo into what is simultaneously the oldest and newest work on the album.
“A Flowering Tree,” written for film in 2013, is reconstructed around multi-tracked flute performances by Dogen Kinowaki. Isoda carries that association into his own arrangement, allowing the piece to function as another quiet meditation on memory, loss and hope.
The album closes with “EPILOGUE” —less a grand conclusion than a moment of acceptance. Isoda chose it as the album’s title piece to hold what he describes as the complex emotions that accompany the twilight of a life spent making music. EPILOGUE is not simply a look back. It is the sound of older music continuing to move, change and breathe in the present: a lifetime of ideas distilled into Isoda’s own form of pure music, shaped by memory, collaboration, nature and the world immediately outside his home on Hachijō-jima.
There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.
Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.
The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.
Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."
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.
Spain's celebrated deep house outlet Mate comes correct again here with an EP that deals in rich musicality and mature emotions. HITTO aka Alberto Alba is the Mallorcan producer behind the music and his childhood love of jazz really shines through. Opener 'Beyond Words' has singing synths that speak to the soul with lovely ambient chords. Then, 'Take Me Away' brings groovy percussion and cosmic synth transmissions that make it feel all the more profound. Glenn Underground is the perfect remixer to dial up the sunshine with his astral rework of 'Beyond Words' before 'Swish' shuts down with a mix of smeared chords that radiate sun over a grittier bassline. Four accomplished cuts.
Tenampa now turns to French sonic storyteller YokoO, who makes his debut on the Mexican imprint with a three-track workout that perfectly captures his signature sound: deep, refined and effortlessly effective.
Rich in groove, subtle textures and immersive atmospheres, the release unfolds with the unmistakable sense of depth and emotional detail that has become synonymous with YokoO’s productions.
Strictly limited to 300 copies worldwide and available exclusively on vinyl, this release further cements its status as a true collector’s piece.
The artwork once again comes courtesy of the ever-outstanding Manuel Cetina, aka El_Stitch, whose distinctive visual language adds another layer of identity and lasting value to the release, securing its place in any serious record collection.
In January 2016, a 21-year-old Jacquees confidently stepped into the spotlight and officially shifted the climate of modern R&B. Released as a mixtape hosted by DJ Spinz, Mood wasn't just a collection of songs—it was a bold sonic manifesto. Merging classic, unbridled Southern R&B vocals with the heavy, localized bounce of Atlanta’s dominant trap scene, the project gave a generation of fans their definitive late-night soundtrack. Now, a decade after its initial release, the foundational classic is finally making its official debut on all major streaming services, as well as arriving on CD and vinyl for the very first time.
Produced primarily by Nash B, Mood captured an artist on the precipice of superstardom. Backed by executive support from Birdman and the Cash Money Records family, the project features a powerhouse lineup of mid-2010s royalty, including standout guest verses from Kevin Gates, DeJ Loaf, Rich Homie Quan, Kirko Bangz, and Young Scooter.
For years, Mood lived in the digital underground of mixtape websites and YouTube rips, passed around by R&B purists like a treasured secret. Whether you're streaming it on the go, spinning the rich analog grooves of the vinyl, or popping the CD into your car, this release honors the timeless body of work that cemented Jacquees as the King of R&B.
A new sub-division from Earth Dog Records, reissuing overlooked gems from the North American underground
The ‘90s to early 2000s saw US dance music experience a uniquely innovative gold rush. Records from that period narrate a burgeoning rave-obsessed sub culture, experimenting with the psychedelic sounds of tech house and progressive, with further flirtations with trance, breaks and beyond.
Many of those era’s artefacts have been increasingly difficult to find, and even rarer to hear out in the contexts they were constructed for. Relik exists as a means to preserve the legacy of this formative era, honouring the artists and labels that helped shape an ethos and sound unique to North America, and pivotal to the Earth Dog vision, while exposing this music to a new generation of listeners.
Each reissue will be released with permission and in collaboration with the original artists.
R001: The Vortex Archives
Volume one shines a light on Gainesville’s legendary Vortex Records.
Founded in 1996 by Boyd Westerman and Kyle Hogan, lifelong underground innovators (with Boyd remaining the undisputed king of the Discogs comment section). Vortex was home to a catalog of sounds that helped define a unique tech house and progressive flavoured corner of the North American underground.
Vortex Archives compiles four of our favourite cuts from the label’s discography, that for our money showcases their unmistakable sound best; a seamless fusion of progressive house, tech house, trance and breaks.
Nearly three decades on, these tracks (and the label from where they came) are as timeless and prescient than ever. We’re honored to certify their legacy by bringing them back into circulation.
A huge thank you to Boyd for trusting us with this release and helping to bring a sample of the Vortex catalog back into the world.
Endless respect to all the OGs who archived their catalogues, continued to make incredible music and subsequently paved the way for future generations. We wouldn’t be here without you.
It’s Italian time! Sam Ruffillo is back. Sicilian producer doing smooth Balearic disco with Italian vocals. The direction is clear: Sam Ruffillo's music brings us back into the Italian riviera and the hippy days of Ibiza in the late 1970ies. Even his way of production is similar to how the early days disco producers in Italia used to work: No samples needed. Instead a few guest musicians come to jam over Sam's beats in his Italian studio space. Guitar, bass, percussions. Sam later makes the production and added keyboard solos and put together the vibes into what is this new EP.
The girl voice comes from NINFA. It’s the classic studio story: Ninfa is a singer and DJ and friend of Sam. She was hanging at the studio while Sam was finishing these tracks. She stated to sing along... the words came up spontaneously… so they decided to record her and finally decided to keep them. The vibe was too good. Why talk English if u can do it better: in Italian! :)
This is second for Toy Tonics after his Sport House EP from last year. Sam also appeared on the solo record of Joel Holmes on Toy Tonics. Together with Kapote Modica he co-produced and made the beats on that record. Now Sam is back with this pure Italian EP. Inclusive remixes by new German artists Gome and Italian Musemeci - known to many from his fabulous Italo-trance releases on Diynamic records.
Ian Pooley's 'Roller Skate Disco EP' Returns with Digital Debut and Vinyl Repress
Definitive Recordings brings back one of the label's early house gems with a remastered reissue of Ian Pooley's 'Roller Skate Disco EP'. Originally released in 1994, the EP returns for the first time as a digital release while also receiving a new vinyl repress. Alongside the original material, the reissue expands the package with the previously unreleased track 'Unity' and the Bandcamp-exclusive 'Never Give Up'.
For more than three decades, Ian Pooley has been one of house music's most respected producers and DJs. Emerging from Mainz, Germany, with a deep love for the sounds of Chicago and Detroit, he has built a career defined by subtle artistry, impeccable groove, and timeless musicality. His acclaimed albums 'Meridian' and 'Since Then', remixes for artists including Daft Punk and Jovonn, and releases on labels such as Plus 8, Innervisions, Rekids, and his own Pooledmusic have established him as one of the true masters of deep and soulful house music.
The title track, 'Roller Skate Disco', immediately captures the uplifting spirit of classic 90s house. Built around an infectious disco-inspired sample, funky guitar loops, and a warm, rolling house bassline, the track is complemented by a looping female vocal that gives it an unmistakable feel-good energy. 'Sure!' follows with a groove driven by crisp TR-909 drums, deep synth chords, and a playful TB-303 sequence, while a repeated female vocal ties the arrangement together into a hypnotic club workout.
'The Brückenkopf at 7 AM', named after the legendary club in Pooley's hometown of Mainz, moves into deeper territory. Dreamlike synth textures, a memorable deep house piano motif, and another signature 303 sequence combine to create one of the EP's most atmospheric moments. The previously unreleased 'Unity' continues this journey with a hypnotic groove, deep house aesthetics, and another beautifully woven acid line, making it a natural addition to the original release. Completing the digital edition, 'Never Give Up' arrives as a Bandcamp exclusive, pairing playful M1 organ sounds with a rolling 303 sequence and an effortlessly flowing house groove.
More than thirty years after its original release, 'Roller Skate Disco EP' remains a perfect snapshot of Ian Pooley's early sound and a testament to the timeless appeal of classic house music. This expanded edition celebrates one of Definitive Recordings' defining releases while introducing it to a new generation of listeners.
To celebrate another year around the sun, we’re proud to present our second vinyl release: Formulation — a 4-track EP that perfectly captures the label’s output over the past year while continuing our commitment to physical formats and attention to detail.
Like its predecessor "Foundation" is a various artists release featuring some of the key names from our latest catalog. The formula goes like this:
A Side: Iron T.C. and Hor-G take control of the slower side of the record with aggressive drums, distortion and the raw energy that defines their sound. Epic atmospheres and humanoid vocals introduce a heavy breakbeat assault from two of the strongest names in the Iberian underground. A perfect blend of dirty electro and industrial breakbeat built to turn the dancefloor upside down.
B Side: Heathen, The Egg & No Rules push the BPMs higher in the other side. Dark landscapes and metallic drums twist into a spiral of tension and halftime rhythms. Three experienced explorers of the niche taking techstep sound beyond its usual limits — for those into density, introspection and long blends
Another solid step into the physical format — and a glimpse of what’s still to come...
Once again, huge thanks to everyone involved in the project and to all our supporters who make this possible.
To celebrate another year around the sun, we’re proud to present our second vinyl release: Formulation — a 4-track EP that perfectly captures the label’s output over the past year while continuing our commitment to physical formats and attention to detail.
Like its predecessor "Foundation" is a various artists release featuring some of the key names from our latest catalog. The formula goes like this:
A Side: Iron T.C. and Hor-G take control of the slower side of the record with aggressive drums, distortion and the raw energy that defines their sound. Epic atmospheres and humanoid vocals introduce a heavy breakbeat assault from two of the strongest names in the Iberian underground. A perfect blend of dirty electro and industrial breakbeat built to turn the dancefloor upside down.
B Side: Heathen, The Egg & No Rules push the BPMs higher in the other side. Dark landscapes and metallic drums twist into a spiral of tension and halftime rhythms. Three experienced explorers of the niche taking techstep sound beyond its usual limits — for those into density, introspection and long blends
Another solid step into the physical format — and a glimpse of what’s still to come...
Once again, huge thanks to everyone involved in the project and to all our supporters who make this possible.
(limited red vinyl, including poster / lyric sheet) 'The Way You Talk Reminds Me Of Home' is the second album by Belgian indie band BLUAI. Two years after their warmly received debut 'Save It For Later' and an extensive run of shows across some of Europe's biggest festivals and venues, the three-piece return with their most ambitious and immediate record yet.
Across eleven songs, BLUAI explore what it means to live somewhere between past and present. Conversations with family, friends, partners and people who resurface after years away become starting points for songs about childhood, love, grief, responsibility and the uncertainty of approaching thirty. Rather than a traditional coming-of-age record, 'The Way You Talk Reminds Me Of Home' is about figuring things out while you are already in the middle of them.
Produced by Isabel Gracefield (Adele, Dua Lipa, PJ Harvey, Radiohead...) and recorded at London's legendary RAK Studios, the album was made with a deliberately instinctive approach.
BLUAI much as they sound on stage: raw, direct and closely connected.
Radiant, spring-loaded and alive with movement, Lab Boogie sees Jupiter’s Depth go full dancefloor as Vienna-based Nizar Sarakbi makes his first appearance on the label.
The A-side cuts a brighter path through house, with rolling low-end, dubby flashes and percussion flickering from every angle. Across the B-side, the groove turns techier and the mood slightly darker, before Bella Sarris closes the record with a warped, off-centre take on “Angel Dust”.
Ukrainian-born and now based in Vienna, Nizar follows releases on Outdom and Naked Groove Records, including the recent *Truth Seekers* EP alongside COZi. The record is already picking up support from label favourites Julian Anthony, Christopher Ledger, Roza Terenzi, Eoin DJ and Jennifer Cardini.
'Palle Mikkelborg (b. 1941) - a spiritual jazz legend, acclaimed composer, trumpet player and electronic music pioneer - is back in the studio recording his first solo album in more than 25 years. Working with him as a producer is Jakob Bro, with whom he has recorded the great ECM albums Returnings with Jon Christensen and Thomas Morgan, and Strands with Marilyn Mazur.
'"When Palle decided to stop touring and performing live, I suggested that we sit down together and listen through the many MiniDiscs and DAT tapes he had tucked away, hoping we might find a new direction for making music together. We went through everything - recordings of orchestras and choirs, soundscapes, and so on - material he had worked on throughout his career,” says Jakob Bro. “I can still remember the first time we said it out loud. Suddenly, it made perfect sense in my mind: a solo album. An album devoted entirely to Palle - his sound, his vision, his voice. It felt like something the world truly needed.”
'This final opus sees Palle Mikkelborg re-interpret and record his own orchestral works and two pieces by Per Nørgaard and Thomas Laub as 'meditations' on solo piano, trumpet and flugelhorn mixed with soundscapes and guest performances by longtime collaborators Helen Davis, Jakob Bro and Thomas Li.
'As a soloist his sound on trumpet and flugelhorn is both much loved and familiar after decades at the forefront of Nordic Music, but on Light one is struck by the weight Palle Mikkelborg has given his soundscapes and the grand piano. Forever curious on what's ahead, the album underlines his spiritual and ever-seeking approach to free improvisation, classical composition, choral works and experimental sound landcapes.'
Bo Harwood (1946–2022) was one of those behind-the-scenes figures of American independent cinema: a self-taught musician, composer, sound editor, sound mixer and songwriter.
Harwood started out as the lead singer and guitarist of a Southern California rock band before a chance meeting with John Cassavetes changed the course of his career. He scored his first feature, The Bach Train, in 1969, and later joined Husbands as an inexperienced assistant in the editing room. He gradually became Cassavetes’s sound editor, music supervisor, composer and sound mixer, eventually working across six of his films, from Husbands and A Woman Under the Influence through The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night and Love Streams.Harwood’s music is inseparable from the peculiar emotional universe of those films: strange, romantic, funny and often devastating.
Harwood and Cassavetes worked closely and instinctively together, developing music in the process of making the films. The surviving master tapes reveal something of this exchange: alongside finished pieces are improvisations, experiments and conversations, capturing the two of them working through ideas in real time. Harwood’s compositions were often recorded as rough “scratch tracks”, with Cassavetes preferring their immediacy and vulnerability to more polished arrangements.
This nine-track LP brings together some of that work. There is something wonderfully intimate about hearing these recordings outside the films: the songs stand on their own, while retaining the rawness and emotional charge that made Harwood’s collaboration with Cassavetes so distinctive.
A small document of a remarkable and largely overlooked body of work.
Toy Tonics Italomania Vol. 4 is a compilation dedicated to new ITALIAN DISCO. Not ITALO DISCO.
10 new tracks made by young producers from Italy, exclusively made for Toy Tonics. All songs with Italian vocals.
Made with a lot of love by
Cleeeo, Giorgio Lopez, Magnolia, Juan Soto & Sam Ruffillo, KOKO, Luca Averna, Ricardo Baez, Euro Nettuno, The Cube Guys and Paccone.
The Italomania compilation was initiated by Mathias ‚Kapote‘ Modica. Creative mind behind Toy Tonics and half italian producer himself.
The series is a manifesto to show the status of Italian disco of today.
Kapote invited the most relevant producers to show different new styles of modern Italian disco and house music.
With a wide range of influence: Live disco, indie dance, italo pop, and italo house.
Italian disco is not Italo disco. The last few years saw a big revival of the trashy pop music of the 1980s called Italo disco, mostly with English lyrics.
But this compilation is about something else. It is about this new Italian disco. Toy Tonics wants to show a new way to combine Italianity with dance culture.
The Italomania Vol. 4 Artists
Cleeeo - Come Tocchitu: A sexy and sophisticated disco house track by 22 year old newcomer DJ and producer Cleeeo. Driven by a warm, uplifting groove and strong dancefloor energy. The record is dedicated to Brazil. The vocals move between Italian and Portuguese. This creates a natural bridge between two cultures.
Giorgio Lopez - Italiani Brava Gente: Giorgio Lopez is an important player from the much talked about new music scene from Napoli.
For "Italiani Brava Gente," he teams up with Los Angeles artist Sueño. The track is a tongue-in-cheek take on the stereotypical Italian male. It pays homage to late Italodisco legend Pino D’Angiò. The story unfolds from the perspective of a foreign tourist navigating the contradictions of self-proclaimed Casanovas.
The Cube Guys - Saper Ringraziare: The legendary italo house duo shows their Italian vibes and musical taste with “Saper Ringraziare”. The track captures the warmth of summer and the infinity of urban nights. A combination of early Italo disco elements mixed with their typical groovy beats.
Magnolia - Vesuvio: Magnolia’s “Vesuvio” is a cover version of a song from the 1960s by artist E’ Zezi. While the original is more in a folk vibes, the new version is an irresistible piano house track with groovy, sun-soaked vibes. It is made for the dance floor. This track blends Mediterranean roots with the euphoric energy of modern house. Some might know the vocals already from another cover version by Nu Genea from the previous album.
Juan Soto & Sam Ruffillo - Italomexicano: What happens when a Toy Tonics artist hangs out in Mexico city and teams up with the local scene? The result is here. A blend a Toy Tonics sound and tons of vintage synthesizers and some additional production by Mexican producer talent Juan Soto.
You get "Italomexicano". A fuse of the mystique of Mexican mariachi with the magnetic pulse of Italo disco.
KOKO feat. Elena Moroder - I Can't Understand: This melancholic piano house track is a serious floorfiller! Goosebumps! Italian DJ and producer KOKO teams up with Elena Moroder on "I Can’t Understand". Elena delivers a captivating vocal performance. The track explores the misunderstandings of a relationship where emotions were never fully expressed. It blends an iconic piano melody with warm, uplifting grooves.
Luca Averna - Le Luci Della Pista: Luca Averna is a DJ, producer, and resident at the iconic Pikes Hotel in Ibiza. "Le Luci Della Pista" is an energetic track designed for peak-time Ibiza moments while keeping a strong groove and a playful spirit.
Ricardo Baez - È Venerdì: Ricardo Baez is an Italian-Venezuelan DJ and producer. He is known for his distinctive blend of house, dark electro, italo disco, and leftfield electronics. Well respected in Italy's contemporary electronic scene he has been releasing on labels such as Running Bag, Permanent Vacation, Bordello a Parigi, Correspondant, Mule music, Live at Robert Johnson.
Euro Nettuno - La Notte Chiama: These guys are hot! Part of the Polyamore Crew, one of the rising italian new disco collectives their sound mixes Italo house from the 1990ies, electro and Pop in a very cool new way.
Paccone - J'Adore Napoli: Vincenzo Paccone is a DJ, producer but also very renowned graphic designer. He is co-founder of NSS. A fashion agency that is by now one of the leading italian fashion crews. He has been also working as a designer for Circoloco Ibiza for many years and organizes some of the hottest parties in Napoli currently. He makes his official debut as a producer with “J’Adore Napoli”. It is a vibrant tribute to the house music culture born in Naples. The track draws inspiration from the late 1990s and early 2000s. And is part of a NSS campaign about the ’new coolness of the city of Napoli“.
Hoshina Anniversary returns to MUSAR for his fourth appearance on the label with Sankaku, a five-track EP offering the latest snapshot of his ever-evolving ‘Watechno’ sound.
Taking its name from the Japanese word for ‘triangle’, Sankaku opens with a storming, floor-focused title track, pairing hypnotic techno rhythms with shifting textures and sharp acid drops. Tsuppari follows, named after the rapid hand thrusts used in sumo. Driving percussion, Japanese instrumentation and a raw techno pulse give the track a physical, forward-moving energy, making it a natural club cut.
Side B opens with Kono Kanjitte, where acidic tones meet jazzy elements and a playful sense of uncertainty. Slower and psychedelic, it unfolds as a track for restless minds and hazy nights. Ariake, named after the Ariake Sea, moves into more spacious territory, with Japanese instrumentation creating an atmosphere of mystery and anticipation, like looking towards an unknown horizon. Closing the EP, Itsukushimi brings a melancholic blend of melodic touches and darker cinematic tension, recalling the atmosphere of a Hitchcock soundtrack.
With ‘Sankaku’ EP, Hoshina Anniversary turns Japanese imagery, psychedelic textures and club-driven rhythms into a world that feels both familiar and otherworldly.
Die Band ,The Black Heart Procession" besteht aus den beiden Hauptsongwriter Tobias Nathaniel und Pall A. Jenkins, die beide zuvor bei ,Three Mile Pilot" mitwirkten. Manchmal treten sie als reines Duo auf, zu anderen Zeiten laden sie Freunde ein, mitzuspielen. Mario Rubalcaba (Clikitat Ikitowi), Jason Crane (Rocket from the Crypt) und Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead) wirkten an der Entstehung von ,Three" mit. ,Three", das ursprünglich im Jahr 2000 erschien, ist das dritte Album der Black Heart Procession in voller Länge. Die Klänge der Instrumente verschmelzen miteinander und untermalen den Rhythmus von Palls ausdrucksstarkem Gesang. Jeder Song scheint sich unaufhörlich vorwärts und rückwärts zu bewegen und spielt dabei mit dem Kontrast zwischen hellen Klängen und dunklen, grüblerischen Themen. The Black Heart Procession brechen Herzen mit der Verschmelzung von Klängen aus Klavier, Säge, Pumporgel, Gitarre, Trompete und Gesang sowie dem einen oder anderen ungewöhnlichen Perkussionsinstrument. Die Klänge mögen bei einigen von Ihnen Schmerz oder Freude auslösen - oder beides -, da ihre Musik von Trauer und Herzschmerz durchdrungen ist, doch es liegt ein unterschwelliges Element der Befreiung darin.
The 5th classic goa trax under the wings of Suntrip Records & Flatlife Records Labelgroup is there ! Representing this Psychedelic/Goa trance due from Sweden "Drop & Dash". Started making music together in 1995 as a duo, and also worked together in the group Germinator; which is also represented on this excellent goa release.
London duo Kassian trade darkness for daylight on Gradients, their third EP for !K7 Records
The EP arrives as a bridge between last year's debut album and a new live show and sophomore LP, due in 2027
As Kassian, Warren Cummings and Joe Danvers continue to sit apart from any one scene. Their fruitful relationship with !K7 has spanned eclectic and global club cuts, including the spatial breaks and bass of 2024's best-selling Supercontinent EP. 2025's debut album, Channels, emerged from lockdown so leaned slow, downtempo and introspective, but this new EP points toward a clubbier, more physical direction that will carry through into album two.
Crucially, the record was written and played live on an array of studio gear rather than assembled piece by piece in the box. It's a way of building towards their first fully live show in 2027 - a hands-on, jam-first approach that leads to "happy accidents" and the unpredictable textures that hardware throws up and no amount of in-the-box planning can replicate.
Gradients is built for the floor without playing to trends and marks some of the duo's most melodic work to date. Rather than sitting purely in heads-down territory, the EP folds in hooks and vocal fragments that lift you out of the smoke and the shadows of the club. The low ends are still rooted in techno with potent drums and bass, but deft vocal hooks and subtle melodies bring a brightness that deliberately steers away from the darker, meaner aesthetic dominating much of dance music right now.
Vocal touches throughout nod to what's going on in the wider underground without tethering to tried and tested tropes. Opener 'Blush' rides warm, soft yet bold melodic riffs, looping in arcs over a hunched, speedy tech house groove. 'Ritmo' is a muscular bouncer with spring-loaded bass, 'Inner Dance' has lurching drums and a cavernous rhythm with vocals that make a playful nod to sound system culture. Last but not least, 'Sweat' is the brightest and most bubbly cut on the EP, with a tight techno low end infused with a velvety whispered vocal.
The Gradients EP is a bright, hardware-built prelude to Kassian's next chapter and a typically well-crafted four-tracker that pairs physical weight with classy emotional release.
Frenchman Janeret heads up the second release on fledgling label Species. Deep in the game for over a decade now, Janeret has an innate ability to blend emotive layers of electronic funk with sultry grooves and hypnotic rhythms. His output is impeccable, each release encapsulating his emotionally rich approach. On the road, he’s an in-demand selector, channelling his love for sharing music that moves people into spellbinding sets from Europe to the USA, Australia and South America.
On the Vibrations EP Janeret embodies the essence of what makes him unique: combining the core foundational components of his sound to produce four dancefloor-ready cuts that epitomise where he’s at right now…
The EP opens with its title cut, ‘Vibrations’, a steppy production with an enchanting riff and mythical melodies. A reggae vocal utters “vibration” intermittently, accompanied by a hip hop sample, demonstrating Janeret’s broad sonic palette. Layered drum arrangement and deep bassline make this one a surefire dancefloor groover.
Up next it’s ‘No End’, a mesmerising trip driven by crisp percussion and a mean b-line. As the drums roll out, Janeret introduces jaunty layers that add cosmic funk to the cut. With each stage of progression the swirling funky synths envelop the listener more and more, immersing you in their wistful vibrations. A spinetingling break allows space for a short breather before the beats come back in, guiding us to the close.
On the flip we have ‘Fazed’, which kicks off with sturdy breaks and a highly effective, simple melody. The low end is immediately captivating, complementing the melody with a little more complexity. Together, the beats, bass and uncomplicated melody build steadily, with more elements added bringing further depth to the cut. This is one for closing your eyes and really losing yourself in the moment.
Finally, ‘Sub Pressure’ closes out the EP with a dreamy, yet bass-heavy atmosphere. Soft pads glide across the top layer, while a hefty b-line balances things out in the bottom end. Janeret’s exquisite production keeps things progressing with subtle elements creeping in throughout, creating a symphony of electronic sound and vibration. Let the brighter layers tantalise your spirit, while the bass moves your body.
Masterful work from Janeret here, with four versatile tracks designed to move the dancefloor across mind, body and soul. Feel the Vibrations…
Josh Ludlow - one half of MAKE A DANCE - one of London’s most beloved duos - steps out on his own for a rare solo outing on legendary London imprint Rhythm Section International.
A late contender for EP of the year - the record meanders menacingly across four tracks of mind-altering, dissociative Brain Music, precision engineered to transport a listener and hypnotise a crowd without losing any dancefloor impact.
Interestingly, Bradley Zero (RS label boss) and Mr. Ludlow have a connection dating back to the late 2000s, when they were both drummers in rock and roll bands...almost 20 years later - a shared love of experimental electronic music has brought them back together, resulting in this spellbinding EP.
Channelling a much darker, heads down, aggressive sound than the uplifting house M.A.D have become known for, the record begins with 'Brain Music’, which serves as a Detroit techno-inspired wormhole of a track, guiding us into a parallel, inner dimension.
Time Upside Down is next up and it becomes apparent we have entered another realm entirely. The introductory bars of the song feel like a long journey down a dark tunnel. The sound design and acoustic backdrop are so evocative you can almost see it. Obnoxious bass notes reverberate through the space created by the track, slowly giving way to flurries of high-pitched, resonant acid lines - the sum of which escape easy classification. It would be lazy to call it house music, misleading to call it techno - but it’s definitely not tech house. Elements of disco, electro, post-punk, balearic and Weatherall-esque chug are all in the mix but essentially, this is its own thing - this is Brain Music.
The record continues to the penultimate track “The Kettle”, which starts off in more familiar upbeat, bongo-house territory before the calm is betrayed by a hovering intensity which grows out of nowhere before making space for a humungous bass synth melody - so big in fact that it has never once failed to elicit club-wide bass-face; which for a mid-tempo track is no mean feat. We round things off with ‘Mean Mother’, the most playful of the bunch: a Chicago house-indebted workout reminiscent of Paranoid London at their most visceral. The track feels familiar and almost safe until the synth-work is cranked up to 11, creating a cacophonous SH-101 build-up into a disco-esque drop that would get even the most reluctant raver jumping up and down for more.
Besides all the theatrics and acoustic world building, the evocative sound design and the insatiable, no-nonsense grooves - the thing that makes these tracks stand out is the attention to detail. No two fills are alike, every embellishment is EQ’d and polished to perfection - yet no immediacy is lost. The tracks feel alive, intentional and constantly evolving. Hyperbole aside - we have a serious, generational talent on our hands whose mastery of the equipment, understanding of the dynamics of the dance and unabashed
playfulness is being harnessed into something that stands out head and shoulders above the crowd.
Yuki Kawamura - a multifaceted producer, songwriter, DJ, and the founder of Tokyo's iconic DJ warmup bar, Shibuya Oiran - presents a highly anticipated 12" vinyl release on her imprint OIRAN MUSIC.
As a globally active selector, her international footprint includes a monthly residency on Romania's Black Rhino Radio, alongside notable appearances on world-renowned platforms like NTS Radio and The Lot Radio.
Back in Tokyo, her venue Shibuya Oiran - featured in Time Out Tokyo's '50 Things to Do in Japan' as a premier spot to "pregame in stylish surroundings" - serves as a vital cultural hub where legendary international and local DJs gather. Its unique musical ecosystem is perfectly reflected in this release, which features a carefully curated selection of popular remixes from her debut album, Love Forever.
Side A delivers Balearic and dancefloor-ready grooves. It opens with 'Ra' a tribute to Sun Ra featuring musicians Watusi and George Kano, a track that has garnered massive support from top DJs including Red Axes...
The A-side also features brilliant Balearic-infused dance remixes by DJ SHIKISAI and XTAL (known for his work with Traks Boys and (((ssurround)))).
Side B shifts the focus to deep ambient and chillout soundscapes. It includes the previously unreleased full version of R.I.P Sunset',featuring an exquisite violin performance by Neko Saito.
The standout on this side is a stunning remix by renowned Japanese producer Calm. This specific remix holds a special history: Yuki debuted it as her opening track during her historic DJ set at the legendary Cafe Del Mar in Ibiza - making her the first Japanese Female DJ to perform there - where it received an incredible response on the floor.
The striking cover art is designed by HAMADARAKA, an acclaimed and rapidly rising female twin artist duo, produced by Nomadic Gallery in Tokyo.
Battlefield sees No Ice Cream Sound knock on the door of the real foundations of Roots Reggae and Dancehall culture with a heavyweight, riddim-focused multi-vocalist release.
The release perfectly balances a bold and fresh contemporary sound while retaining the spirit; energy and rawness of the classic riddims we all know and love. Battlefield creates a sturdy platform for the carefully curated selection of vocalists to showcase their respective styles and patterns.
At the heart of the release is a unique vocal link-up that reflects the ever-growing globalisation of the Reggae Sound-system culture. Each of the men behind the microphones invites us to embark on a journey; connecting the dots on the map that represent the places they call home. We start in The South West of England and track across country to Southend-on-Sea; from here we make the mission all the way down to Madrid before taking a bearing on the North Star to guide us over hills and valleys to Scotland.
Where the riddim creates a constant, the vocals provide variety. Made by design the track allows them a spacious environment for the individual styles and messages to come across with precision and clarity.
Hailing from different backgrounds; accents of different origins, insights and perspectives drawn from their own stories all come together over one sound. This could be seen as an analogy of the ethos and motivation behind Reggae music itself. Reggae music as a genre tells the same story, Reggae artists tell their version of the story. Via this timeless format we are always building on the teachings of yesteryear while simultaneously learning something new. The gift that will forever more continue to give!
It’s that time of year again! Are your copies of “Now! That’s What I Ca l Christmas” and “A Motown Christmas” finaly feeling worn out? Strut has the ideal antidote this year, as we dive into the world of festive records made by African artists spanning the late 1960s to the 1980s with our new Krismasi: Christmas Sounds From Africa compilation.
Taking in music from across the continent from Nigeria and Ghana to South Africa and Zimbabwe, Krismasi draws from a wide range of sounds from fun novelty records and spur-of-the-moment jams to spiritual and gospel favourites. Featured artists include Ghanian great Kwadwo Donkoh with a meditative highlife praise song from his much-loved Christmas Africana album. Elsewhere, pop star turned pastor, Jerry Boifraind, has some fun with a song celebrating seeing friends at Christmas and Nigerian pop favourite Martha Ulaeto features with the lilting lead track from her own Christmas Africana release. We pick out some choice Central and East African sounds with Kakai Kilonzo’s bri liant Kilimambogo Brothers Band and Congolese legend Baba Gaston’s Orchestra Baba National capturing the joy of the festive season. We stop off in Zim for a rare Dorothy Masuka acoustic piece and one of the country’s great musicians post-independence, Paul “Dr. Love” Matavire with ‘Christmas Yaswedera’ (‘Christmas Is Near’). Township jazz star Reggie Msomi appears with a joyous township instrumental and, fina ly, we couldn’t release a Christmas co lection without some carols. Here we include here a great version of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ by UK-based Nigerian highlife musician Flash Dominci and a hi-octane funky medley of favourite festive hymns by Ghana’s Oscar Suley.
The compilation is the first in-depth co lection of rare African Christmas recordings, uncovering a rich and often overlooked chapter of the continent's musical history. Krismasi is available on Red & White Inkplosion Vinyl LP and CD. Vinyl restoration is by Colin Young at See Why Audio, mastering is by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, and the album features striking new artwork by Liam Large.
ASUNCIÓN’S MOST WANTED, DJ HENDY AKA P. LOPEZ AKA ARIEL ME LLAMO, MAKES HIS DEBUT ON KAOS. AFTER MEETING HIM YEARS AGO IN PARAGUAY’S CAPITAL, I WAS ALWAYS DIGGING HIS MUSIC AND BLOWN AWAY BY HIS INSANE DJ SKILLS. FINALLY, WE GOT THE OUTPUT HERE. 6 TUNES, 6 ENERGIES. TRIBAL/GROOVE TECHNO AS LANGUAGE, BODY MUSIC AS MESSAGE. THESE ARE MUST-HAVE TOOLS FOR EVERY DIGGER. GUARANTEED DELIVERY NO EXTRA FEES +666111111111 CALL NOW!!!
A highly anticipated collaboration with Taiwan’s rising star Andr, released on vinyl for the first time with newly shot cover artwork! REJAY, a singer from Niseko, Hokkaido, joins forces with Andr, one of Taiwan’s most exciting emerging singer-songwriters in the alternative pop scene, for their first-ever collaboration, now available as a 7-inch vinyl release. REJAY, a 20-year-old singer whose voice captivated Nulbarich’s JQ, who also serves as his overall producer, released the A-side track “Hangover feat. Andr” in April 2026. The song is an ambitious work in which REJAY portrays a deep immersion into the emotions of a romantic relationship, while Andr offers a more detached and rational perspective. Their vocals and lyrics, spanning three languages, intertwine to create a unique musical experience. The B-side features “Meant to Be,” a fan-favorite track originally released in 2024, making this a must-have record for music lovers.
DALGA – A Selection of ’80s Pop Oddities from Turkey is the first compilation to bring together rare Turkish pop oddities from the 1980s, and the first compilation to explore how new studio technologies shaped the sound of 1980s Turkish pop and dance music. Features six tracks that were released only on rare cassette tapes.
In the aftermath of Turkey’s 1980 military coup, collective music-making gradually gave way to studio-based production, as drum machines, samplers, and synthesisers took centre stage. From the early 1980s onwards, these technologies became increasingly popular among Turkish musicians and producers. While some sought to emulate the global pop sound of the era, like Neriman’s “Sever Gibi” and Füsun Önal’s “Takma Kafana” others experimented by blending electronic elements with Arabesque, as heard in Mehmet Pekün’s “Anca Gidersin” and Zorbeyler’s “Bir Mumdur” or with Anatolian pop influences, such as the studio project Tele Tempo’s “Şu Samsunun Evleri” and “Havada Bulut”.
Let these waves carry you through the electrified tides of 1980s Turkey.
DALGA is compiled by Istanbul-based beat maker and digger extraordinaire Grup Ses.
First run of limited black and white vinyl versions of this huge cold war themed classic. Includes Devil's Dancers amongst other tracks. Huge!!
Minimal Wave proudly presents a newly remastered deluxe double album of archival material by pioneering 80s minimal electronic duo Oppenheimer Analysis. Oppenheimer Analysis formed in London, England in 1982 by Andy Oppenheimer and Martin Lloyd. Their first meeting though was at the 1979 World Science Fiction Convention in Brighton. They quickly became good friends, sharing an interest in the work of David Bowie, electronic music and early synthesizer bands such as the Human League and Soft Cell. They also shared a love of old science fiction movies, 1950s graphics and comic book imagery and a fascination with post-World War II propaganda, the politics and aesthetics of the Cold War, and the social impact of the atomic bomb. Over the next few years Andy and Martin frequented the growing club scene, including Studio 21 on Oxford Street, and became involved in the developing Futurist and New Romantic style sub-cultures. During this period Martin recorded as Analysis, both alone and with David Rome of Drinking Electricity. They released their first single, 'Surface Tension/Connections' on David's Survival label in 1981. In 1982, Oppenheimer Analysis began writing and recording together at Feedback Studio in Battersea, and performed several times at The Bell, Islington, the 1983 World David Bowie Convention in Hammersmith, the Starzone Birthday Party at Camden Palace, the 1984 European Science Fiction Convention in Brighton and other live venues. Their first demo tape and twelve song 'New Mexico' cassette were sold at gigs and by mail-order, and were reviewed in Melody Maker, Sounds and Soundmaker.
For the years to follow, Oppenheimer Analysis became recognized among electro-music aficionados as a pioneering duo who influenced countless other bands during the club and home-recording era of the early 1980s and beyond. Their cassettes became massively collectible. In 2005 they re-formed with the release of a self-titled four song 12' EP of selections from the New Mexico cassette, including 'Cold War' and 'The Devil's Dancers'. This marked the first release on Minimal Wave. Now in 2015, we're happy to present the entire New Mexico collection, newly remastered and cut to vinyl for the first time ever, to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. This first edition of 1000 copies is pressed on deluxe 'nuclear' style black and white 160 gram vinyl, housed in a glossy gatefold silver and black printed sleeve, featuring all the song lyrics on the inside of the sleeve. Release date: May 16th, 2015. This quintessential reissue has been produced in loving memory of Martin Lloyd.
These rare unreleased tracks were a part of collection of recordings made specifically for the Jeff Mills Live At Liquid Room DJ Mix film/audio recording in 1995. Finalized and mastered only to ¼' reel to reel tapes, these recordings sat undisturbed and never heard since those infamous two nights in Tokyo.
Created along with the most notable track "i9", in this time period, Mills was also composing music for releases such as Waveform Transmission 5 (that was never released) and the initial tracks for the first release of the label Purpose Maker.
Freerange is delighted to announce the 20th Anniversary Edition of Jimpster’s seminal Amour — remastered and available on vinyl for the first time.
Originally released in 2006, Amour arrived at a pivotal moment in Jimpster’s evolution, as Jamie Odell moved further into electronic and house territory while retaining the lush, downtempo, and eclectic character of his earlier work. Two decades on, Amour remains a beautifully understated record, full of warmth, musicality, and late-night appeal.
Shape of the Unknown’ is kind of a double LP that fully embraces the idea of exploration. It is CHLOÉ’s most expansive and immersive work to date. ‘Shape of the Unknown’ is CHLOÉ’s fourth proper studio album. Its predecessor, ‘Endless Revisions’, was released in 2017. Nine years have passed. Nine years during which CHLOÉ has continued digging for music, DJing at internationally renowned clubs and festivals including Rex Club, Robert Johnson, Panorama Bar, Nuits Sonores, Glastonbury and many more, releasing EPs and remixes, while also allowing herself the time to explore entirely new creative paths.
The challenge is to capture the unknown, make it her own, endlessly reshape its textures, and ultimately preserve its mystery.
The first single ‘Drifter’, released back in June, already offered a striking glimpse of the sonic territories the album would venture into, driven by its hypnotically contoured basslines. The album's two other singles offer different windows into her world. 'Shapeshifter' captures CHLOÉ at her most hypnotic, balancing stripped-back techno and melodic house through deep rolling grooves, expansive bass chords and subtle rhythmic shifts that constantly reshape the listener's perception without ever disrupting the flow. Later, 'Repeating The Obvious' takes a more leftfield route, pairing staggered rhythms with retro-inspired harmonics and an understated indie dance pulse that feels simultaneously familiar and unpredictable.
CHLOÉ has ventured into live performance through new formats, notably alongside percussionist Vassilena Serafimova; immersed herself in film scoring with soundtracks for Paris la Blanche, Arthur Rambo, The Mountain, Blanquita, Guru and Unsubmissives; and developed compelling collaborations, from High Season, her project with Ben Shemie of Canadian band Suuns (which resulted in the album The Call), to her own organic, experimental audiovisual performances under the name Slo/Mo AV.
Throughout Shape of the Unknown, CHLOÉ blurs the boundaries between deep house, hypnotic techno, electronica and cinematic sound design with remarkable fluidity. The album unfolds as a continuous narrative rather than a sequence of tracks, moving effortlessly between beatless ambient passages, rolling analogue grooves and emotionally charged club music. Organic percussion, sweeping bass movements, melancholic harmonies and richly textured synthesisers create a body of work that constantly evolves, where no section feels static and every transition reveals another layer of depth. There is an unmistakable warmth running through the record, with grainy analogue textures and spacious production giving even its most driving moments an intimate, almost tactile quality.
The album’s title is no coincidence. It evokes a form that has yet to be named, something language itself struggles to grasp. CHLOÉ approaches it through an organic creative process. Each piece must first be performed in the studio, almost as if it were being played live. The album will be followed by a series of live performances and DJ sets, including a show at the Olympia on March 18, 2027.
She is joined by a handful of steadfast collaborators. Jazz trumpeter David Enhco appears on two tracks, ‘Undertow’ and ‘Inner Bass’. But above all, there are the voices: Ben Shemie lends his unmistakable presence to the radiant ‘More Than Just a Feeling’. Olivia Merilahti, singer, songwriter and one half of The Dø, appears on the otherworldly ‘TWYR’. Working with Olivia’s already hypnotic voice, CHLOÉ has approached it like a sculptor, enhancing its strangeness and dreamlike quality.
And finally, impossible to miss is the instantly recognizable voice of Kittin. A longtime accomplice, she lends her distinctive phrasing to CHLOÉ’s music here for the very first time. The strongest collaborations are often those that take their time, arriving only when the moment is right. Same kind, same bass, same vibe, same pride.
The result is an enigmatic, nocturnal record, drifting between introspective listening and dancefloor functionality, revealing an artist who remains far more interested in atmosphere, movement and emotional storytelling than conventional club structures. It is an album that invites us to dream more deeply and to dance again, both within ourselves and out in the open.
House music has truly gone worldwide and here at Local Talk Records we like to think that we're open-minded to all shades of our beloved 4/4 rhythms...
This time we've given North Africa an opportunity to showcase their take on electronic deep house...with soul of course.
Egyptian producer Adham Zahran has been on our radar for quite a while now.
With a blend of dark yet beautiful electronic themes we like to think that his sound lands somewhere between Ron Trent, Atjazz or the more electronic Glenn Underground tracks.
For his debut on Local Talk, Adham presents 'Stripped Years', a beautiful production that takes us down below with big strings, supa deep chords and a light yet bumpy 4/4 kick.
Not hard, not pumping, just sexy and deep.
In order to make the North African theme even stronger we asked Moroccan producer Cee ElAssaad to take 'Stripped Years' further beyond the limits of the original version. The result is quite Chicago-ish, slightly more soulful but still very electronic and thumping. Cee gives us two versions, the original remix but also a massive beatless version that works just as well without beats.