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Voltage Desire is a five-track EP from Lazer Man moving between raw tension and subtle warmth.

Side A opens with "Woman's Need", an electro house cut built around a rock-inflected bassline and guitar tones that carry a dusty, wide-open edge. "Reactivation" follows with a deeper, more hypnotic approach: pitched-down vocals loop and drift over chords that keep pulling you further in. Side A closes with "Sunris Techy", the most groove-driven of the three, a funky bassline locked in dialogue with shifting synthlines and samples.

Side B shifts into collaborative territory. "Sweet Tide", produced under the Wave Catchers alias with Baldov, is a nostalgic track that will awaken past memories and feelings. The record closes with "Idée Discousu", a co-production with Koffi that blends synthpop with a spooky edge and a story told through vocoder.

Originally self-released in 2023, Stella Kola, the debut album from Beverly Ketch (Jow Jow, Weeping Bong Band) and Robert Thomas (Sunburned Hand of the Man, Dalthom), now returns in a renewed edition—bringing wider attention to a record that already felt like a quietly essential artifact from the moment it first appeared.

Given the pair’s respective roots—and the presence of collaborators drawn from across the Northeast experimental underground—one might expect “a brutal blast of acid swirl.” Instead, what emerges is something far more unexpected. The album is “steeped, not in noise and dissonance, but in the fragrant, captivating folk of Linda Perhacs, Judee Sill, Karen Dalton, and Bridget St John.”

From the opening moments, especially on “Rosa,” the record reveals its core sensibility: “a ballad that digs deep into the psychedelic-folk tradition until it takes root in a freshly sporous permaculture.” What follows is a set of songs that feel both carefully assembled and organically grown—delicate structures held together by a wide circle of contributing musicians, including Wednesday Knudsen (flute), P.G. Six (harp, guitars, keys), Gary War (synth), Jen Gellineau (viola, violin), Willie Lane, L. Gray, and others.

Rather than functioning as studio additions, these collaborators form a genuine collective presence. “The family affair feeds into the album’s charms,” and the feeling is unmistakably communal. Like many of the ‘60s folk records it echoes, Stella Kola carries “the feeling of community and camaraderie” at its core, shaping a warmth that runs through the entire release.

The album’s emotional palette leans toward a quiet, persistent melancholy: “the best records from that era also carried with them an inherent sadness and Stella Kola’s songs wash over the listener with a beautiful woe.” Its sound edges into the terrain of Fairport Convention and Pentangle, with references to “Beggar’s, Kings, Dark Damsels, and Tarot,” yet never settles into revivalism. Instead, Ketch and Thomas extend the tradition outward, refracting it through their own distinctly American, underground language.

As one early description of the album notes, “the masterful restraint of ‘Rosa’ and the rest of Stella Kola’s shimmering debut evokes Anne Briggs, C.O.B., Pentangle and similar ancestors that knew the best way to honor traditions was to widen the heritage even further.”

Even among a prolific and unpredictable network of underground musicians, Stella Kola stands apart. “It’s early in the year, but it’s hard to see an album, especially a debut, capturing the heart as hard as this one.” With its return in reissue form, the album reasserts itself not just as a hidden gem, but as an essential document of contemporary folk experimentation—an intimate, collective work that continues to unfold with time.

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

Random vinyl, ReVINYL Edition. The Tallest Man on Earth released The Wild Hunt this past April, and the album found its way into the hearts of fans everywhere. The connection that the Tallest Man on Earth (aka songwriter Kristian Matsson) has with his fans is a sight to behold - he has performed around the world, at clubs and festivals, and the bond between Matsson and his audience is breathtaking. Matsson is the rarest of performers, charismatic and captivating, and his passion for performance bleeds through every single time he takes the stage.At many of the Tallest Man on Earth shows this year, Matsson closed his set with a new song titled "Like the Wheel." It quickly became a fan favorite, with YouTube videos spreading virally, and the sets closing on a high note night after night."Like the Wheel," along with four other new songs, make up Sometimes The Blues Is Just a Passing Bird, an EP written entirely after The Wild Hunt. Recorded during a quick break from touring in the summer of 2010, "Like the Wheel" is joined by "The Dreamer," a soon-to-be-classic that Matsson performs on electric guitar. Sometimes The Blues Is Just a Passing Bird is an open and shut chapter in the Tallest Man on Earth's songbook - five new additions to those magical performances.

This 45 reissues two Spanish classics—DJ’d, sung, and danced to exhaustion—featuring striking arrangements and rhythms inspired by soul, funk, and rock, pushing flamenco-influenced popular music into previously uncharted territory. The flamenco rock of ‘Orgullo’ (1974) by Las Grecas will appeal to international listeners already captivated by the Anatolian sound of Baris Manço, Mogollar… On the B-side, Paco, Paco, Paco’ (1969) by Encarnita Polo is a soul-pop hit with an irresistible syncopated rhythm and killer bass lines. In the final years of Franco’s dictatorship, when Spain’s popular music was kept on the sidelines of avant-garde and countercultural trends, a number of records emerged that dared to bend and hybridize the country’s so-called “national” musical genres (calling it flamenco outright would be imprecise) and infuse them with a dose of modernity. This single brings back two of those local popular classics—DJ’d, sung, and danced to exhaustion—which featured arrangements and rhythms inspired by what their creators had heard in international soul, funk, and rock productions. The first 20 seconds of ‘Orgullo’ (1974) hit with a powerful sonic punch built on ferocious fuzzed-out guitars, distorted keyboards, and thunderous drums that could easily belong in the discography of Led Zeppelin, The Guess Who, or Cream… until, suddenly, Las Grecas start to sing and Flamenco rock is born. It will undoubtedly resonate with international audiences already drawn to the Anatolian sounds of Baris Manço or Mogollar. A few years earlier, in 1969, the brilliant Argentine producer and arranger Adolfo Waitzman had already transformed a harmless light pop tune recorded by a yeyé girl, Encarnita Polo, into a soul-pop hit driven by an irresistible syncopated groove and killer bass lines. The playful ‘Paco, Paco, Paco’ became a bestselling single in Spain and, more than 50 years later, is still celebrated as a brilliant example of the romance between flamenco-inflected sounds and soul-pop. First-ever single reissue.

Reissue of Spirit Caravan's debut album. Jug Fulla Sun follows a sonic continuum that began in the late '70s when Scott "Wino" Weinrich emerged from the outskirts of Washington, D.C., with the Obsessed, his stripped-down hybrid of biker rock and metal. That outfit made tremendous strides in bridging the gap between the long-haired metal contingent and the still developing, though already rabid, D.C. hardcore scene. Jug Fulla Sun shows Wino augmenting his trademark brand of doom-laden guitar work and slow-fuse vocal ferocity with greater lyrical depth and overall textural breadth. The songs are rich, refined, articulate, and created by a lifer, a true veteran of the hard music scene. Wino has obviously gone to great lengths here to subordinate his outlaw vision to a more expansive, comprehensive view of mankind, and of greater truths. The somewhat nebulous scope of his lyrics is enhanced by Lungfish vocalist/tattoo artist Dan Higgs' cryptic cover painting. An excellent album. - All Music

REISSUE of Spirit Caravan's debut album. Neon green vinyl, limited to 350 copies. Jug Fulla Sun follows a sonic continuum that began in the late '70s when Scott "Wino" Weinrich emerged from the outskirts of Washington, D.C., with the Obsessed, his stripped-down hybrid of biker rock and metal. That outfit made tremendous strides in bridging the gap between the long-haired metal contingent and the still developing, though already rabid, D.C. hardcore scene. Jug Fulla Sun shows Wino augmenting his trademark brand of doom-laden guitar work and slow-fuse vocal ferocity with greater lyrical depth and overall textural breadth. The songs are rich, refined, articulate, and created by a lifer, a true veteran of the hard music scene. Wino has obviously gone to great lengths here to subordinate his outlaw vision to a more expansive, comprehensive view of mankind, and of greater truths. The somewhat nebulous scope of his lyrics is enhanced by Lungfish vocalist/tattoo artist Dan Higgs' cryptic cover painting. An excellent album. - All Music

Assault & Battery is the second studio album by Australian hard rock band Rose Tattoo and was released in 1981. Like the first album it was produced by the Vanda & Young team, who are most known for producing AC/DC's classic 70s albums).

Rose Tattoo (or The Tatts, as they;'re affectionately called) play peerless, street-level heavy blues with the emphasis on slide guitar and strident lyric statements.

After years of touring in Australia, Europe and America opening up for acts like ZZ Top and Aerosmith, the band started writing/recording their second studio album, Assault & Battery.
It includes fan favorites:"Out Of This Place" & "Rock n Roll Is King" & "Suicide City"
The album is noted for its "hard as nails," no-prisoners approach, described as a mix of AC/DC's power-chord style with a faster, punk-infused intensity.

Assault & Battery is available as a limited numbered edition of 1000 copies on black/white swirl vinyl.

Like their name suggests, Model/Actriz seek to channel raw emotions into striking new forms. The band’s surface glamor is supported by nerves of steels, leveraging their focus into moments of wild abandon. Since their songs roar to life off the back of blistering guitar, relentless drums, and pummeling bass thereʼs an expectation that Model/Actriz aim first and foremost to be shit-starters. But their instrumental muscle couches a searching heart and the Brooklyn quartet have long made a mission to reconcile undefinable feelings by charting a ferocious new path through sound, one that brings jagged emotions back into full, sweaty alignment with the listenersʼ bodies.

Their deservedly successful release "Music From The Stars, Volume 1" sold out instantly, received heavy airplay, and was repressed shortly after. This huge success naturally called for a successor, so here it is: "Music From The Stars, Volume 2"! Once again, the boys broaden their musical horizons by adding stars like BLONDIE, PATRICK HERNANDEZ, MASSIVE ATTACK, and D.A.F. to their repertoire - without departing from their familiar Oetsound. You might ask yourself: 'Why did The Krontjong Devils record these songs?' The answer is simple: all these tracks possess beautiful melodies that truly deserve an instrumental guitar treatment.

“All I can do is make my art from an honest place with an honest intention.” Earth-o-Naut.

Earth-o-Naut is a songwriter, drummer, musician and producer. He was born in Liverpool and raised in one of its satellite towns, Skelmersdale. He was raised by his mum and uncles on music from every genre, falling in love, amazement and awe with the groove and the craft of songwriting. Nothing has changed to this day. Songwriting has also always been a constant. That quest to create something original and use the songwriting process as some form of catharsis. Learning guitar and piano was the next logical step, to help with the creation of new ideas into new songs. A lot of time was spent playing drumming gigs and then taking his own songs on the road, solo with just an acoustic guitar, learning the ropes and serving his apprenticeship. Great songwriters The Beatles, Curtis Mayfield, Bill Withers, Neil Finn and many others inspire Earth-o-Naut to this day.

Earth-o-naut has worked hard for many years on his studio chops and is the writer, arranger, recording engineer, mix engineer and producer on all of his own material, and he also works with other artists as a producer. Earth-o-Naut's debut album, 'This Is Nowhere. This Is Everywhere.' will be released on Agogo Records in June 2026. The debut album features UK drumming legend, Steve White and also the vocals of Amalia Estradas and Suzanne Maddock. 2026 will also see Earth-o-Naut take his songs on the road and play some live shows.st singular, emotive, and genre-defying releases of its era.

Over the course of more than a decade, the French quartet Lost in Kyiv have refined a sound that fuses cinematic ambition, electronic precision, and visceral live energy into something unmistakably their own. With their new album, `We're All Going To Be Fine', they push that identity further than ever; sharpening their production, intensifying their dynamics, and embracing a darker, more immersive sonic architecture. Lost in Kyiv's music has always thrived on tension between the organic and the synthetic. On `We're All Going To Be Fine', that integration reaches a new level of clarity and depth. The writing and production process was long and exacting, allowing the band to refine every transition and tonal detail. Songs unfold with architectural precision, motifs are introduced subtly before expanding into vast, multi-layered climaxes. Dynamics are handled with patience and control, silence and minimalism are deployed as strategically as explosive crescendos. This careful pacing gives the album a cinematic flow and larger narrative in which struggle and compassion coexist. Guitars surge and recede in wide, panoramic arcs. At moments they shimmer and support, at others they thrash violently, accumulating layers of distortion and harmonic overtones. Acoustic instrumentation is interwoven with sequenced synth lines, pulsing arpeggiators, and carefully sculpted electronic textures that give the band's sound a sense of forward propulsion. Rhythm plays a central role in Lost in Kyiv's identity. The drums provide impact and structure, locking into intricate patterns that interact with bass-driven synth pulses. At times the groove feels almost mechanical, echoing the steady insistence of electronic music; at others, it breathes and swells with human elasticity. This interplay creates a powerful sense of movement, an impression that the music is always advancing, even in its most introspective passages. "We almost consider this album as the first record of a new version of the band. That's why we decided to use the name Lost in Kyiv now. We don't want to erase the past, but it really feels like a new direction. Artistically, I think this album marks the beginning of a new direction, louder and more metal-oriented than what we did before." (Lost in Kyiv) FOR FANS OF Russian Circles * P.G.Lost * The Ocean * Cult of Luna * Brutus * This Will Destroy You

Over the course of more than a decade, the French quartet Lost in Kyiv have refined a sound that fuses cinematic ambition, electronic precision, and visceral live energy into something unmistakably their own. With their new album, `We're All Going To Be Fine', they push that identity further than ever; sharpening their production, intensifying their dynamics, and embracing a darker, more immersive sonic architecture. Lost in Kyiv's music has always thrived on tension between the organic and the synthetic. On `We're All Going To Be Fine', that integration reaches a new level of clarity and depth. The writing and production process was long and exacting, allowing the band to refine every transition and tonal detail. Songs unfold with architectural precision, motifs are introduced subtly before expanding into vast, multi-layered climaxes. Dynamics are handled with patience and control, silence and minimalism are deployed as strategically as explosive crescendos. This careful pacing gives the album a cinematic flow and larger narrative in which struggle and compassion coexist. Guitars surge and recede in wide, panoramic arcs. At moments they shimmer and support, at others they thrash violently, accumulating layers of distortion and harmonic overtones. Acoustic instrumentation is interwoven with sequenced synth lines, pulsing arpeggiators, and carefully sculpted electronic textures that give the band's sound a sense of forward propulsion. Rhythm plays a central role in Lost in Kyiv's identity. The drums provide impact and structure, locking into intricate patterns that interact with bass-driven synth pulses. At times the groove feels almost mechanical, echoing the steady insistence of electronic music; at others, it breathes and swells with human elasticity. This interplay creates a powerful sense of movement, an impression that the music is always advancing, even in its most introspective passages. "We almost consider this album as the first record of a new version of the band. That's why we decided to use the name Lost in Kyiv now. We don't want to erase the past, but it really feels like a new direction. Artistically, I think this album marks the beginning of a new direction, louder and more metal-oriented than what we did before." (Lost in Kyiv) FOR FANS OF Russian Circles * P.G.Lost * The Ocean * Cult of Luna * Brutus * This Will Destroy You

Near the end of fifth grade, Eli Edwards’ mom gave him $20 and told him to go find a friend. His team had won its soccer game that day, so they were out celebrating at a local pizza parlor with games. But, more importantly, there had been one other Black kid that day on the pitch in Spanaway, WA, a Tacoma suburb and military-base town at the rainy northwest corner of the United States. That kid just happened to be Xayvien Young. An instant deep connection was formed between Edwards and Young—Eli and Xay, as they prefer to be called were inseparable— and now twelve years later they are the electrifying, boundary-skipping duo Casi.

Along the way, Eli had relocated to Los Angeles with the indie rock band Enumclaw he had helped found, but he found himself flying home maybe a little too much. He was ostensibly visiting his girlfriend, but he spent most of his time with Xay. They cut tracks in every bit of free time they found until they had an epiphany: Maybe this music they’d made together for a dozen years was actually something special. Casi’s 10-track, self-titled debut out on Carpark Records is the electrifying proof they needed.

On the record, they enthusiastically explore every musical interest they have ever had—explosive hip-hop and unbridled hardcore, high-gloss nü metal and a little bit of emo—as a pair. These songs don’t ignore genre lines; they delight in destroying them, in finding ways to slam hip-hop and hardcore, emo and nü metal together until it seems illogical that they were ever apart. Take “Jumper,” where heavy metal guitars and face-kicking drums stir the moshpit for rabid verses about crushing ICE and the lessons you learn riding the poverty line. And take closer “Bridges,” where the melodic imprint of Deftones meets the relentless confessions of Death Grips. Here are the hard, funny, and loud stories of two 23-year-olds, screaming about the world over a breathless composite of all the music they’ve ever loved.

When Eli was in Los Angeles, Xay missed his friend. But in his absence, he also felt the spark of inspiration. Music was something that had just been their childhood hobby, but now Eli was in a rock band that had press accolades and tours. He got serious about the craft. Eli would write about the dislocation and isolation he felt in California, while Xay would document the hardships of being a young Black man with a complicated family while working menial jobs in Spanaway.

This isn’t a coming-of-age album for Casi; it is, instead, a raw and riveting snapshot of that process, painful as it can be. “Eleven87” is a breakup song, a soul beat springing beneath arching emo vocals. And “Intrusive Thoughts” treats that topic like a punching bag, Eli and Xav fighting against the mental habits that keep them down. These 10 songs instantly close that gap.

Nobody knew. Not the crowd packed into Circolo Kessel that Sunday evening, not even the six musicians on stage. When Giardini di Mirò played on March 19, 2023, it was supposed to be just another homecoming show in Cavriago, the kind of night where you play for the people who’ve known you longest. Some were missing from the audience, though: “Our closest friends stayed home to watch the football match tonight,” Jukka quipped from the stage. “But that’s fine, we’ll deal with them tomorrow.” In hindsight, even Juventus fans who celebrated their 1–0 victory over Inter made the wrong choice.

Seventy minutes in, all the instruments converged into a one-chord riff, driven by the drums and punctuated by screaming guitars. A repetitive rhythm that paired brutal volume with hypnotic precision. Even those at the back of the room felt it: that trance-like state where sound becomes physical. Then the wall of sound collapsed. Guitar feedback lingered in the air for a few seconds before fading into nothing.

This was the last sound Giardini di Mirò made. They haven’t played since, and there are no plans to do so again. But in that moment, nobody knew.

The closing song that night was also the opener of their debut full-length, recorded more than two decades earlier. Its title, A New Start, carries an unintended irony the band would likely appreciate. It is also oddly fitting that their final show took place in the same building where they began. Circolo Kessel, previously known as Calamita, served as the band’s rehearsal space for many years. Yet since their rise to becoming one of Europe’s defining post-rock acts, they had never performed a concert there.

In a fortunate coincidence, Markus Mathis – a longtime fan who had recorded several of their shows before – also captured this final concert using two room microphones and a feed from the mixing desk.

Quasi Casa is the complete, unfiltered document of that night: an “official bootleg” spanning over 70 minutes of purely instrumental music, drawing on material from across their entire career, from the earliest releases to Del Tutto Illusorio. It captures, with striking clarity, the intensity that defined the band’s live performances.

Rather than simply uploading the recording and calling it a day, the band chose to assemble a physical release as a parting gift to their fans. The double LP includes a 16-page booklet with extensive liner notes and visual material.

Strut Records presents a brand new reissue of the 1975 Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express original album Reinforcements. A gem from the later years of the Oblivion Express band, Reinforcements sees Auger evolve from his early ‘70s jazz-rock fusions towards smoother jazz funk sophistication, continuing his journey from the previous year’s Straight Ahead.
With two former Oblivion Express drummers joining Average White Band, there are obvious comparisons to draw as several tracks lean into groove-driven arrangements and polished mid-’70s production.Never one to follow a predictable path, Auger crafts a steadfast, stylish album that captures the evolving sound of the era, offering a rich snapshot of mid-’70s British soul and jazz-funk.

A fan favourite, the album also marks the return of vocalist Alex Ligertwood (later of Santana), whose soulful delivery is a highlight of many Oblivion Express recordings.
He is joined by Jack Mills (guitar), Lennox Langton (percussion), Dave Dowle (drums), and new addition Clive Chaman (bass, flute) – a family affair with their various kids joining for the cover shoot, the full cast adorned in an array of fine mid-‘70s tank tops.

Album highlights include the heavy funk instrumental jam ‘Brain Damage,’ a dynamic, keyboard-driven showcase of Auger’s virtuosity alongside the burning latin jazz workout ‘Something Out of Nothing’ and soaring closer ‘Future Pilot’ taking us from our present day troubles to “thread the skies to a new location.”
‘Big Yin’ is a heartfelt tribute to former drummer Robbie McIntosh following his untimely death. As with all Auger albums, the energy is nothing but positive and soulful – his back cover quote states “May the love you bring to this world be reflected upon you.”
This new Strut reissue of Reinforcements is curated by Greg Boraman of Impressive Collective in collaboration with Brian and Karma Auger. Fully remastered from the original tapes by United Archiving’s Bill Smith, it is presented as a high-quality single LP replica edition.

The Debut LP released by Cardinal Fuzz (UK) & Feeding Tube Records (USA). Presented in a hand stamped metallic copper ink (front and back) print on a black card sleeve with insert. Recorded during downtime but sounding anything but casual, Celestial Power emerged when Dead Sea Apes’ Brett Savage and Chris Hardman linked synaptic overload with Cardinal Fuzz’s own Dave Cambridge to form a three-headed amplifier cult. Heavy, raw, and deeply resonant, this is music that embraces volume, repetition, and the beauty of imperfection. What they’ve summoned is a sprawling liturgy of overdriven guitar mantras: brutal, blown-out, and gloriously repetitive. Imagine the Velvet Underground locked in a warehouse mainlining the kosmische pulse of some forgotten Krautrock commune while Bardo Pond’s ash-coated spirit hovers overhead, scattering embers into a storm of PSF-style amplifier abuse. Not so much songs as tectonic events. Not riffs, but rituals. This thing doesn’t purr it howls. You hear the room breathing. You hear amplifiers gasping as they’re pushed past mercy, past design, into some ecstatic mechanical breakdown. Every repetition drills deeper, pushing beyond the horizon line until time itself starts peeling back in sheets. And that’s the point. This is repetition as revelation. Volume as transcendence. Human hands wrestling raw electricity into shape, then losing control of it entirely. On “Mandate Of Heaven,” the circle widens with the arrival of Nik Rayne (The Myrrors), adding another dimension to the ritual, a desert prophet stepping into the feedback storm, pushing the album’s gravitational pull even further into the void. No compromise. No softening. No edges filed off. Just pure voltage, scorched earth repetition, and the kind of heavy psychedelic communion that feels less like listening and more like surviving. Step inside. Bring ear protection. Or don’t. 4 Tracks - 42 Minutes.

Incubus is an American rock band from Calabasas, California. The group was formed in 1991 by vocalist Brandon Boyd, lead guitarist Mike Einziger, and drummer José Pasillas while they were students at Calabasas High School. The lineup later expanded to include bassist Alex “Dirk Lance” Katunich and Gavin “DJ Lyfe” Koppel. Both were eventually replaced, Ben Kenney took over on bass, and DJ Kilmore joined as the band’s turntablist. In 2024, Nicole Row replaced Kenney on bass.

Incubus’ sound has been described as a blend of rap metal, funk, jazz, and post‑grunge, often incorporating elements of hip‑hop. This eclectic style helped them become one of the most popular alternative metal bands of the early 2000s.

The band has achieved significant commercial success, earning multiple multi‑platinum releases and producing several hit singles. In 2017, they released their eighth full‑length studio album, 8, with Skrillex contributing to production and mixing.

Powerful Stuff is a 1989 studio album recorded in Memphis at Ardent Studio and Alpha Sound and produced by Terry Manning - With Kim Wilson on vocals, Preston Hubbard on bass and Fran Christina on drums, it was the last one by the Fabulous Thunderbirds to feature guitarist Jimmie Vaughan before he left the band - The track "Powerful Stuff" achieved mainstream success when it was featured in Touchstone Pictures' 1988 hit film Cocktail - It was the first single released from the Cocktail soundtrack album, which reached number one on the Billboard Charts and sold over 19 million copies worldwide

Editing is a specialist game that is easy to play but difficult to master. King Most is more adept than many, as he shows with a third outing here on his own KM label. This one finds him spreading his wings a little, flying away from r&b and hip-hop and migrating towards more worldly grooves with Afro and Latin undercurrents. 'Tony Trinidad' brings swirling guitar echo and coconut percussion to a crispy slow jam, then 'Hermanos Cub' pumps up the funk with blazing horns and vocals. There's lush polyrhythmic looseness and string melodies to 'Zimbabwe Thorn' and earthy disco charm to 'Bebe Cameroon' with its seductive vocal leads. Cultured cuts.

“L’École de la nuit” marks Versatile Records’ 30th anniversary with a musical découpage by label founder Gilb’R. The album’s 12 songs and numerous collaborations form an adroit exploration of life and music, all threaded together by lifelong “partner in crime” I:Cube’s signature mixdowns.

“Hà mar” represents the peak of the album’s organic spectrum—an instantly captivating melodic and percussive Brazilian song featuring Alvaro Lancellotti on guitar and vocals—while “White Light” serves as its electronic counterpart, with a classic pop feel, featuring Swedish singer Monica Tormell

Musically, “L’École de la nuit” moves across many different landscapes and languages, intersecting rock, shoegaze, ambient, electronica, and, of course, jazz. Gilb’R collaborates with a rich arsenal of guest musicians: saxophonist Quentin Rollet; guitarist and producer Maxime Delpierre; French artist Judah Warsky, with whom Gilb’R previously released an album; Jonny Nash, producer and guitarist; as well as Ben Shemie. Not least, father and son Julio and Julinho Pimentel contribute their distinctive percussion, alongside François Creamer on bass clarinet.

“L’École de la nuit” is the 50th album release on Versatile Records. It was initiated in Amsterdam, then entirely reimagined and rebuilt in Paris. It stands as a manifesto for the album format and a tribute to the listener.

LP + insert. A cosmically poetic duo playing Afro-Roots-Electro with a clear nod to spiritual jazz. Esinam Dogbatse (flute, synths, vocals, fx, percussion) | Sibusile Xaba (guitar, vocals, percussion).



ESINAM & Sibusile Xaba is a meeting of nomadic, wandering and kindred spirits in music. Both artists draw upon their ancestry: Belgian-Ghanaian(ESINAM) and Kwazulu Natal-South Africa (Sibusile Xaba) through a unique connection, a deep artistic and spiritual level, they use rhythms and grooves to translate stories to the audience. Their vocal chanting enhances trance to rhythmic patterns that grace us by melodies of the future and past.

On April 25th 2025, ESINAM & Sibsile Xaba will release their first joint album entitled 'Healing Voices'.

This album is a reflection of the kaleidoscopic multitude of musical inspirations running through the veins of two very talented solo artists. Both multi-instrumentalists, they provide many different layers to their music. Each track is a reflection of their cross-pollination. Musically inspired by Ghanaian Highlife and traditional songs from Zulu and Ewe culture, but with a distinct contemporary interpretation where their acoustic sound is enhanced by electronic gadgets.

As multi-instrumentalists, the two artists translate messages from their ancestors through rhythms and grooves. Their vocal chanting enhances trance to rhythmic patterns that grace us by melodies of the future and past.

Thanks to their Belgian-Ghanaian and South-African roots, they are unique in their being, strong in their union and connected on deep artistic and spiritual levels. The collaboration between ESINAM and Sibusile Xaba is bringing healing to body and soul.

In 2018 Esinam discovered Sibusile Xaba during his European (solo)tour. She was enchanted by his musical energy and craftsmanship and invited him as a vocal guest feature on the track 'Flowing River', from her debut album 'Shapes in Twilights of infinity'. When she was asked at the first edition of WOMAD Festival in South Africa if she wanted to collaborate with a 'local artist', she didn't have to think twice.

So in October 2022, Esinam and Sibusile seized this opportunity to dive into the rehearsal and recording studio, and discover and combine each other's musical universes to shape up new music together.

In May 2023 this collaboration continued with rehearsals, recordings and a first European tour with performances in Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Slovenia.

In March 2024 they released the first single 'Africa Wola' out of the fothcoming album. In November 2024, they released a remix of their first single by South-African DJ and producer DaCapo and played at Visa for Music in Morocco.

‘ИМА (Ima)’ is a work by KiMiMi, the solo project of a musician Shin-ya Ohno, which captures the layers of time and the presence of people inhabiting ‘Arimasuton Building’―a self-built structure created over 20 years by architect Keisuke Oka, located in Mita, Tokyo, and reconstructs them into music.

A multi-instrumentalist who masterfully handles a diverse range of instruments, with the gaida (an ancestor of the bagpipes) – which he studied in Bulgaria – at the core of his sound, KiMiMi has previously brought traces of daily life and folk melodies recorded during his travels back to the scale of home recording, weaving fantastical folk soundscapes through cassette tape works and stage music.

Alongside his musical activities, he has participated in the construction work for ‘Arimasuton Building’, recording the sounds of hammers and steel beams echoing on site, lunchtime chatter, the melodies of instruments played by others, and the sound of cars passing by. From the end of 2022, a zine titled ‘Monthly Arimasuton Building Urimasu’, based on this construction project, was launched. KiMiMi incorporates these recordings into the musical works he contributes to each issue, layering sounds from live instruments―including the gaida, accordion, guitar, flute, ukulele, piano, foot-pump organ, melodica and xylophone―alongside a few synthesiser tones, to shape a soundscape imbued with the humidity and breath of the site.

KiMiMi’s creative process is characterised not by planned construction, but by an attitude of entrusting the work to chance, intuition and the passage of time. Fragmented recordings are layered, set aside for a time, and then unearthed again. Through this repetition, the music naturally takes shape. This resonates perfectly with the process of ‘Arimasuton Building’, which was built up improvisationally, layer by layer, without any pre-prepared blueprints.

‘ИМА (Ima)’ marks the current stage of KiMiMi’s sonic journey and represents an attempt to gracefully transcend the boundaries between architecture and music, documentation and creation, and the individual and the community. The clamour of the city, the tranquillity of manual labour, laughter, and every sound resonating at the Arimasuton Building site blend with KiMiMi’s music, reflecting the very passage of time in which people live.

W.R.F. was formed in 2015 by Nina and late studio partner Andrew Weatherall to help wrangle the vast output recorded together beyond his solo releases.
Spotlighting nine tracks from the Apparently Solo series of EPs recorded between 2016- 2019 and released on Bandcamp in 2023, this lustrous time capsule marks the culmination of Walsh and Weatherall’s creative relationship born after they clicked at London’s earliest acid house clubs, becoming partners then managers of their Sabres Of Paradise/Sabrettes labels before taking different paths by the late '90s.
An accomplished musician, Nina had learned the art of studio technology by the time they reunited and started working together in 2012. Created at her Facility 4 Studio situated in the dangerous, gang-ridden no man’s land between Streatham and Mitcham, Anamchara captures the super-prolific creative stretch starting in 2015 that produced Weatherall’s Convenanza and Qualia solo sets, W.R.F.’s The Phoenix Suburb (And Other Stories) plus a whole lot more. According to Nina, Andrew envisioned the spectacular ‘Borderland’ as natural successor to ‘Smokebelch’, his most revered track. When it came to his remix, Nina enlisted renowned viola virtuoso Sarah Sarhandi and composed new harmonies with Pachelbel’s Canon in D Minor in mind.
The set also catches the breakthrough period when, through Nina’s careful coaxing, Andrew started using the computer system she’d set up to better express his musical visions by arranging the elements, grooves and melodies she sent him. Still considered the UK’s greatest DJ-producer, Andrew’s arrangements were inspired by his club-igniting sets. “This allowed me to mix the colours for his palette whilst he was painting the picture,” says Nina. Anamchara straddles the gamut of musical styles explored by W.R.F. at this time, from slower paced psychedelic “drug chug” outings ‘We Two’. ‘Heat To Meat Ratio’, ‘Hidden Watchers Part 1’ to banging acid house and techno sometimes inspired by the violence outside the studio door, including ‘SCHLAP’, ‘Crack-Ed’ and churning acid juggernaut ‘Yacidik’ (“After much dangling of the acid carrot, Andrew took a bite and, after one familiar raised eyebrow, never looked back,” says Nina).
Many tracks fly elements from the enormous sonic library Nina inherited from late partner Erick Legrand that she called The Akashic Library of Sound. Marking Andrew’s 2016 admission into the vault, ‘Rattly Old Puffin’ boasts Erick’s psychedelic guitar and tumbling drum loop Weatherall would run with, including on ‘Borderland’. “Erick was like our third member,” says Nina.
Bringing down the curtain, ‘Alma’’s exquisitely poignant melody that unfolds over thirteen time-stopping minutes was composed by Nina while navigating Erick’s birth and departure date anniversaries to accompany Andrew’s reading from Gordon Burn’s 1991 same-named novel at 2018’s Durham Literary Festival. Burn’s novel imagines early 60s popstrel Alma Cogan, who succumbed to cancer in 1966 surviving to reflect on fame. “Now it just makes me think of Erick. And every time I hear those well-placed cymbal crashes I can only think of the Captain himself.”
A beautiful grand finale for this astonishing selection of pure gold from the vaults.
Kris Needs / 2026

Following the underground cult success of Mystical Funk, Gerardo Frisina returns to the 7” format with a new double-sider aimed at dancefloors, collectors, and selectors with a taste for cinematic funk. A record that feels as though it emerged from a lost Afro-funk session, where cosmic funk and Afro-Latin grooves are filtered through a distinctly modern electronic sensibility.
On the A-side, “Duala”, inspired by the African city of Douala, pays tribute to Afro-funk in its most visionary era, evoking the unmistakable sound made famous by the great Manu Dibango. The track opens into a dense and hypnotic electronic funk journey: pulsating basslines, fluid guitars, psychedelic synthesizers, and a rhythmic tension that recalls the golden age of Afro-funk. A nocturnal voyage through rare groove and cinematic atmospheres, with the groove constantly remaining at the heart of the composition.
On the B-side, “Lindeza” is a tribute to the beauty and richness of Brazilian musical culture. A track that shifts perspective while keeping the temperature high: elegant, percussion-driven electronics with a Latin spirit, flowing at around 110 BPM. Warm and magnetic, the piece carries all the hallmarks of Gerardo Frisina’s sound, where futuristic jazz, tropical funk, batucada, and club culture meet in a refined production designed equally for deep listening and the dancefloor.

RICE TBC

Songs Before Bed (2022) marks Otto Benson’s first physical release under his own name, following earlier
work under aliases including Memo Boy, OTTO, and Pudding Club.

Originally published as a digital-only release through Otto's own WNOADIARWB website and platforms on
New Year's Eve 2022, Songs Before Bed bridges the gap between the more experimental psychedelic
electronic works of OTTO and his most recent release, the acclaimed Peanut, released on NYE 2025.
Blending brief pop fragments with melodic bedroom guitar, droning ambient shoegaze textures, and blissful
IDM jaunts reminiscent of the Rephlex catalog, the album offers a seamless overview of Otto Benson's
genre-defying sound. Originally conceived as a late-night record, Songs Before Bed (2022) rewards
listening at any hour.

Remastered for vinyl by Stephan Mathieu and pressed on Sonopress EcoRecord, an environmentally
conscious alternative to PVC, special care was taken by Palto Flats and Otto Benson to make a sustainable
product without sacrificing sound quality.

Growing together both personally and musically… That is indeed the good fortune of the musicians in the Marseille-based trio ubaq. We’re talking about bassist Antoine Carletto, guitarist Lucas Schemidt, and drummer Antoine Saussol, winners of the Rezzo springboard competition at Jazz à Vienne 2025. In their early twenties, they met in their late teens while still honing their musical skills. Nearly ten years later, they burst onto the scene, in perfect harmony, with their very first album, “Night WIP,” a follow-up to their EP, “20bis,” released in 2024. They owe their stylized stage name—written in lowercase with a “q”—to the ubac, that side of a mountain with very little sun exposure, where twilight reigns. “We liked that idea because we’re night owls,” says bassist Antoine Carletto. Hence the “night” for “nuit” and the “WIP” for “Work In Progress,” explains guitarist Lucas Shemidt. ubaq’s music is characterized by a nocturnal, melancholic heaviness, pierced by beams of light. “We love creating music that soothes us and highlights the precious nature of composing and playing in complete harmony,” says Antoine Carletto. “We cultivate complex tones, sometimes difficult to bear, whether they’re nostalgic or even verging on depression. But we manage to convey emotions without falling into clichés,” adds Antoine Saussol. Night and twilight serve as the perfect catalysts for this trio, which moves forward with perfect chemistry and harmony.

On this album, they feature the German-Armenian rapper and singer Talin, who is also based in Marseille. She appears on the track “Regarding Others,” where she chants that even though the year 2026 may see mothers weeping in every corner of the world, she still manages to smile. Thus, this track explores the three musicians’ relationship with the world and the necessity of looking at others. The unsettling “Sciatiq,” the haunting “Sakakinik,” and the ambivalence of “Flayosc”—the final track, on which the trio features trombonist Jules Regard—owe their titles to the musicians’ own observations and experiences. The multi-faceted track “Proud,” in two parts, is a tribute to Lucas Schemidt’s mother, who has since passed away. The presence of wind instruments—whether Jules Regard’s trombone or Mathieu Fabre’s saxophone on the intense track “From The Ending”—adds textures missing from the natural landscape depicted in “Night WIP.” This debut album captures the obsessions and introspective wanderings—sometimes anxious, sometimes enchanted—of a trio that cultivates melody as a pledge of warm fulfillment.

Golden Earring were together between 1961 and 2021, and their last and best known line-up included two founding members George Kooymans (vocals and guitar) and Rinus Gerritsen (bass, keyboard) along with Barry Hay (vocals, guitar, flute and saxophone) a member since 1968 and Cesar Zuiderwijk (drums) a member since 1970.

They had over 40 hits and released 30 albums, many achieving either gold or platinum status in their home country, The Netherlands. They are best known for their 1973 hit single "Radar Love" and their 1982 single "Twilight Zone".

Around 1992, the unplugged sessions on MTV were a trend; almost every rock band or artist was doing them. Bass player Rinus Gerritsen suggested to record an acoustic album themselves. The record company wasn't very enthusiastic at first so with a small budget the band recorded the album live in an intimate cafe in Amsterdam. The Naked Truth turned out to be the Golden Earring's best selling album.

The Naked Truth is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on purple vinyl. The 2LP is packaged in a deluxe sleeve with linen laminate finish and includes an insert.

Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders return with their best album yet, and a UK tour this August. Press by Silver PR
‘’On the alternate timeline where the Meat Puppets inherited the bulk of the Grateful Dead’s tourheads when Jerry Garcia died in 1995, none of this would be necessary, because Jeffrey Alexander and the Heavy Lidders are a household name for evolving their own musical space that overlays dusty folk, cosmic jazz, deep psych, free improv, and even (gasp!) indie rock, building an audience that ranges from open-eared curiosity seekers to deep committed music weirdos that’s also yielded the Heavy Lidders, an infamous sub-cult of concert tapers that you’re already sick of hearing about. A lot of other things are better over on that timeline, too.
But in this consensus reality (and probably the other one, too), Liquid Donnon catches the Lidders at their heaviest, “heavy” in the Lidderverse being far from a monolithic musical idea. There’s heavy like the album-opening “From Loch Raven to Fells Point,” one of several tracks with elegant and gnarled conversational jams featuring the core Lidders lineup of Alexander alongside guitarist Drew Gardner and bassist Jesse Sheppard (both of Elkhorn) and drummer Scott Verrastro. But there’s heavy, too, like “Calliope Walker” and “Tightroping,” featuring Gardner shifted to dream-space vibraphone, the former with saxophonist Tacuma Bradley, the latter with Christina Carter of Texas noise-psych legends Charalambides on veil-crossing wordless vocals, her first collaboration with Alexander in some 20 years.
But then there’s also heavy like the cover photo of Alexander’s late friend and album namesake Donnon, taken at a Dead show at Rich Stadium in Buffalo in 1989, a spirit threading through the songs and weaving unexpectedly into Alexander’s life decades later, emerging especially when Alexander passed through a near-death experience of his own. But, taken together, the different heavies of Liquid Donnon add up into a state of musical grace, where all the Heavy Lidders from all the universes come together as one. Just, like, imagine.
Convened in 2019 on Alexander’s relocation back to his native east coast, the Heavy Lidders are the latest hard-touring expression for the guitarist’s music, joining a vast and tangled discography (and tape list) that includes the beloved long-running west coast Dire Wolves Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band and, before them, the Iditarod and Black Forest/Black Sea, as well as a bushel of solo play-all-the-instruments projects, a stint with Jackie-O Motherfucker, sessions with Kemialliset Ystävät and Avarus and others, and you’ll have to keep digging for the rest.
And while it’s not hard to find tapers at Lidders gigs (and they encourage you to be one), or to track themes and songs over Alexander’s many live releases, Liquid Donnon makes a new primary text, the original versions of six new pieces for the repertoire. The album closes with a devastating pairing of “Reservoir Drop” into “The Summer Song,” floating into a duo between Alexander’s guitar and Carter’s voice. Catch a half-dozen Lidders shows this summer, and you might not ever catch them playing it like that again, but you just might open the doorway back to that better place." - Jesse Jarnow (writer, WFMU DJ, producer and host of The Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast)

Damian Dalla Torre returns with People Pleaser, a record shaped by movement, collaboration and an ever-deepening relationship with sound as environment.
The Leipzig-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer first found wide attention with his 2022 debut Happy Floating, and his subsequent album I Can Feel My Dreams was named the #1 Contemporary Album of 2024 by The Guardian, an accolade that broadened his audience and deepened confidence in his evolving voice. That second album, written between Europe and South America, opened unexpected doors and took Dalla Torre to stages across New York, Japan and Italy. “When you release music, it’s very intimate,” he reflects. “You show your emotions pretty raw. I was kind of scared. But getting so much positive feedback gave me a lot of self-confidence to try out more.”

People Pleaser begins in that quiet shift of confidence.

The title stayed with him for months before he committed to it. “It was a working title for a long time,” he says. “I didn’t actually think I would use it. But this term also felt somehow relevant in connection with the phase of self-negotiation during the development process. Some aspects are related to pressure, others are positive.” The ambiguity felt right. Rather than presenting it as a statement, Dalla Torre leaves it open, an invitation rather than a confession.
At the centre of People Pleaser is collaboration. Guitarist Bertram Burkert, whose playing stretches from classical delicacy to electric abstraction, joined Dalla Torre in the studio for an intensive three-day session, recording a wide palette of textures that would become the backbone of the album. Vocalist Laura Zöschg, a key live collaborator, harpist Babett Niclas, organist Felix Römer, tape experimentalist Markus Rom, marimba and vibraphonist Volker Heuken and Japanese artist Manami Kakudo also contribute, creating a sound that feels intimate yet expansive.

Damian Dalla Torre returns with People Pleaser, a record shaped by movement, collaboration and an ever-deepening relationship with sound as environment.
The Leipzig-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer first found wide attention with his 2022 debut Happy Floating, and his subsequent album I Can Feel My Dreams was named the #1 Contemporary Album of 2024 by The Guardian, an accolade that broadened his audience and deepened confidence in his evolving voice. That second album, written between Europe and South America, opened unexpected doors and took Dalla Torre to stages across New York, Japan and Italy. “When you release music, it’s very intimate,” he reflects. “You show your emotions pretty raw. I was kind of scared. But getting so much positive feedback gave me a lot of self-confidence to try out more.”

People Pleaser begins in that quiet shift of confidence.

The title stayed with him for months before he committed to it. “It was a working title for a long time,” he says. “I didn’t actually think I would use it. But this term also felt somehow relevant in connection with the phase of self-negotiation during the development process. Some aspects are related to pressure, others are positive.” The ambiguity felt right. Rather than presenting it as a statement, Dalla Torre leaves it open, an invitation rather than a confession.
At the centre of People Pleaser is collaboration. Guitarist Bertram Burkert, whose playing stretches from classical delicacy to electric abstraction, joined Dalla Torre in the studio for an intensive three-day session, recording a wide palette of textures that would become the backbone of the album. Vocalist Laura Zöschg, a key live collaborator, harpist Babett Niclas, organist Felix Römer, tape experimentalist Markus Rom, marimba and vibraphonist Volker Heuken and Japanese artist Manami Kakudo also contribute, creating a sound that feels intimate yet expansive.

Irgendwann um das Jahr 2024 tauchte Vorhex Angel scheinbar aus dem Nichts auf: keine Social-Media-Präsenz, keine Identitäten, lediglich ihr Name tauchte hier und da auf einem Flyer in Nashville oder New Orleans auf. Wer neugierig genug war, um ihre Live-Show zu besuchen, konnte mit einer Vielzahl unerwarteter Dinge konfrontiert werden, die die Sinne anregten: aufwendige Bühnenbilder, Stroboskoplichter (oder alternativ völlige Dunkelheit), brennende Gegenstände, vor dem Auftritt eingenommene Rauschmittel. Die Musik bei diesen Auftritten passte zu dem Mysterium. Sie war laut, unberechenbar und verdammt viszeral. Wenn die beiden Live-Veröffentlichungen der Gruppe und ihr Debüt ,Heavenly" tatsächlich viszeral sind (Raven Sings the Blues nannte sie ja ,Erben des Strudels von High Rise"), dann ist der Nachfolger ,Drain" sicherlich ihr intellektuelles Werk. Seine sieben Tracks führen den Hörer vom Morgen bis zur Nacht, ein weitläufiges experimentelles Doppelalbum mit überlebensgroßen Gitarrensoli, spacigen Drone-Exkursionen und Momenten von kraftvoller Intensität durch das gesamte Werk. Zum ersten Mal sehen wir, wie Vorhex Angel ihren hämmernden Klangangriff gegen stimmungsvolle und dramatischere Gefilde eintauschen. Die Band - bestehend aus den Brüdern Jake und Jamin Orrall von JEFF the Brotherhood und Kunal Prakash von Silver Synthetic - erweitert die Grenzen des Vorhex-Angel-Konzepts, lädt neue Musiker in ihren Kreis ein, geht mehr Risiken ein und erntet dafür umso mehr. ,Drain ist keine Musik, die man im Hintergrund beim Kochen laufen lässt", warnt Kunal, bevor er zwinkert: ,Vielleicht ist sie etwas für besonders abenteuerlustige Köche." Vorhex Angel verspricht, dass noch mehr kommen wird. Mehr Jams, mehr unerwartete Wendungen - allein in diesem Jahr können wir mindestens eine Tour und mindestens zwei (!) weitere Alben erwarten. Vorerst gibt es ,Drain" zu feiern, sich damit auseinanderzusetzen, damit der Hörer wie die Musik selbst ein- und ausatmen kann, mit reichlich Raum für gedankliche Kontemplation. SPA Sometime around 2024, Vorhex Angel emerged seemingly out of the ether: no social media presence, no identities, simply their name popping up in Nashville or New Orleans on a flyer here and there. Those with enough curiosity to attend their live show could be met with any number of unexpected things to spike the senses: elaborate stage dressing, strobe lights (alternatively, complete darkness), burning things, pre-performance ingestibles. The music at those functions matched the mystery. They were loud, unhinged, and visceral as all hell. If the group's two live releases and debut Heavenly are indeed visceral (Raven Sings the Blues did name them "heirs to the maelstrom of High Rise"), then followup Drain is surely their cerebral offering. Its seven tracks guide the listener from morning to night, a sprawling experimental double album with larger than life guitar solos, spaced-out drone excursions, and moments of potent intensity throughout. For the first time, we see Vorhex Angel trade their pummeling sonic onslaught for moody and more dramatic pastures. The band-revealed to be brothers Jake and Jamin Orrall of JEFF the Brotherhood and Silver Synthetic's Kunal Prakash-push the parameters of the Vorhex Angel concept outward, inviting new players into their circle, adding more risk and generating more reward. "Drain is not in-the-background cooking-type music," warns Kunal, before winking: "Maybe it is for particularly adventurous chefs." Vorhex Angel promises there will be more. More jams, more left turns-just this year, we can expect at least one tour and at least two (!) more albums. For now, there is Drain to celebrate, to sit and chew on, to allow the listener to breathe out and in like the music does, with ample room for cerebral contemplation.

Mission of Mercy, the fourth full length album from celebrated guitarist and songwriter Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac) and his band The Dirty Knobs, is due June 12 via Soundly Music/Thirty Tigers. The album features appearances from the B-52s’ Kate Pierson and Morgane Stapleton alongside the Dirty Knobs’ Chris Holt (guitars, keys), Lance Morrison (bass) and Campbell’s fellow Heartbreaker Steve Ferrone (drums, percussion). Mission of Mercy displays Campbell’s full songwriting range, with tracks ranging from the unbridled rock & roll of “I Remember” to the Americana ballad “More Than Gold” and even the Brian Wilson-inspired psychedelia of the title track. Campbell states that “Mission Of Mercy is an action-packed collection of tunes that continue the vibe we established as well as some new directions in the songwriting. It’s full-throttle Knobs from start to finish and we look forward to playing these live this year.” Last year saw the release of Campbell’s New York Times Best Selling memoir Heartbreaker, which Rolling Stone hailed as “essential…a vividly told new autobiography,” while the Los Angeles Times praised its “tale of endurance and patience rewarded” and No Depression proclaimed it “does what the best music memoirs do: encourage readers to listen once again, or for the first time, to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and to Campbell’s solo works.” The Dirty Knobs (named after tech slang for a broken amp dial) were founded in 2000 by Campbell as a writing and club-date project outside the Heartbreakers. The group finally got on record with 2020's Wreckless Abandon and 2022's External Combustion. Those LPs, Campbell says, were the Knobs “trying to find our way as a rock & roll band.” “Now it’s down to great songs,” adds Campbell, “the depth in the lyrics and chords.” He recalls something Petty once told him: “Tom said, ‘I love the English language. There’s so much you can do with it.’ I'm discovering that, too. Looking for rhyme schemes, the right word. At first it was a struggle. Now that door has opened,” Campbell says. “I’ve turned a corner.” The Dirty Knobs are “still a rock band but growing into different feels.”

First released in 1976, "Metallic K.O." was the fourth album from IGGY & THE STOOGES, a classic, memorable recording of the Stooges confrontational last gig. The Stooges had not been heard since "73"s "Raw Power", and the sound of kamikaze Iggy in between new songs dodging eggs and glasses thrown by Hell"s Angels gave him a new audience in the embryonic punk crowd. It defined Iggy as a punk originator, sold 100k+ and become the Stooges best-selling album. Previously re-issued as an extended, two-CD set with two complete shows (FREUDCD070), it"s now been condensed down to the exact original album edit that shocked and inspired so many. In the 2007 remastering from the original tapes an original tape-speed fault was found - now for the first time the album can be heard in the correct pitch! As Lester Bangs said: "IT"S THE ONLY ROCK ALBUM I KNOW WHERE YOU CAN ACTUALLY HEAR HURLED BEER BOTTLES BREAKING AGAINST GUITAR STRINGS". Recorded 1973 & 74. Inner bag with historical background.

Moondata’s little-known sole single, 1984’s decidedly Balearic, jazz-funk/boogie fusion gem ‘Let The Moonshine In’, is a very important record to the Rotation Sound System crew. It has become a familiar favourite at their annual Rotation Garden Party micro-festival and formed the centrepiece of their first compilation, summer 2025’s superb Everything You’re About To Hear Is True Volume 1. It’s increasingly rare these days for an artist from the 80s to still have their master tapes but even rarer still for them to have the multitrack tapes too. This is something of the holy grail when it comes to licensing old music so when it happens the opportunity to remix and create new versions needs to be grabbed with both hands.

The original record, a genuine rarity beloved of synth-loving crate-diggers, had an unusual gestation. Originally recorded in demo form by musician Jean-Marie Gogniat, it was turned into a finished single by a group of German musicians with a little help from lyricist and vocalist Joe Mwenda, and a crew of backing vocalists whose number included a locally based American singer – a pre-fame Jennifer Rush. Fittingly, the pre-vocal instrumental mix, which has sat unreleased since 1984, is included as a bonus track on the digital edition of this new remix package. The Rotation Sound System crew’s mixes, headed up by long-serving producer Dean Meredith, sprinkle 21st century magic across Gogniat’s one-off masterpiece while retaining core elements of the original and offering nods aplenty to club-focused sounds of the 1980s. They are, in effect, the versions the track deserved – but never got – back in the mid 1980s.

To begin, Meredith reunites with long-time production partner Andrew Meecham for the pair’s first remix as Chicken Lips in three years – a typically sparse and spaced-out ‘Malfunction Dub’ with delay-laden synths, vocals and guitar snippets sit over a sparse post-electro beat and bass guitar. Meredith then joins forces with fellow Rotation Sound System member Ben Shenton for takes under their two bestknown aliases. First, they don the T-Kutt guise for some dubbed out, funky bass guitar-propelled boogie-meets-proto house action that rocks out a killer, Clavinet-expanded groove while spinning in talkbox and backing vocals.

The pair then re-emerge as Mind Fair, famed for their releases on Golf Channel Recordings and their own Rogue Cat Sounds, and deliver a warmer, deeper and more organic-sounding take that’s as languid and tactile as it is warm and saucereyed. To round off the vinyl version of the EP, Rotation Sound System’s other core members – Rob J, Rich Hall and Stuart Robinson – don the now-familiar Wrekin Havoc guise and re-invent the track as a raw, analogue-rich shuffle through 1980s electro – all squelchy synth-bass, stabbing, cut-up vocal samples, chiming synth melodies and echoing beats. The expanded digital download edition of the EP contains a trio of additional bonus rubs. Alongside instrumental versions of the T-Kutt and Mind Fair mixes, we also get a full vocal T-Kutt rework that adds back in Joe Mwenda’s beautifully delivered verses. These additional DJ tools round off a beautifully rendered set of re-imaginations of a genuine cult classic. Gogniat, the man who started it all way back in the summer of 1984, certainly approves.

House favourites Kai Alce, JKriv, Sean McCabe and Medlar debut on Universo Positivo with their masterful reworks from Universo Positivo’s catalog. After two years of agenda-setting sounds, the label is set to drop this classy remix EP, and in that time, founder Joseph Salvador has established the label with a mix of his own music and fresh grooves from carefully A&R’d pioneers and new school names. He has been doing much the same since the 90s with various projects from his cult TINK Records and the Tomorrow Is Now Kid! nights in Amsterdam, in collaborative production outfits like Black Tulip & Wendell Morrison, and releasing records by DJ Steaw, Malin Genie, Fabio Monesi and more. This latest release brings together some of the most respected names in the scene for four standout reworks.

First up, Atlanta-based NDATL label head Kai Alce, who has long been one of deep house's most influential architects. He flips 'Sonido Latino' into a smooth groove with jazzy, Roy Ayers-style melodies that bring a soft-focus glow and late-night intimacy. Then comes Bristol-based don Sean McCabe, a master of vintage synths with a 20-year back catalogue on seminal labels like Local Talk, Strictly Rhythm and Z Records. His take on 'Ipanema Jazz' maintains the original's samba shuffle but reframes it in a deep house groove with extra expressive jazz keys, dainty chords and playful trumpet motifs.

Brooklyn-based groove architect and Razor-N-Tape co-founder JKriv brings his many years of experience as a guitarist, producer and songwriter to his take on 'Caparica Sunset'. It's a deep, driving sound that's playful and romantic with flirtatious horns and soft acid, dusty breakbeats and luscious grooves for loved-up good time sessions. Last but never least, is Medlar, the South London underground maverick with a wide-ranging sound and album credits on the likes of the hallowed Delusions Of Grandeur. He remixes 'U R The Revolution' into a warm, euphoric rush of throwback house that's warm, melodic and sure to get the floor going right off.

Ltd Edition 10"

Budapest based concept label Blue Sun welcomes formerly independent local afrobeat-jazz ensemble to its catalogue with a nuanced 4 tracker EP. The release not only marks the beginning of the collaboration, but a definite new musical direction in the band’s life.

Written in a one week jam session retreat in the Hungarian countryside, and recorded at one of the highest peaks of Hungary after a year of global touring, The Garden becomes an amalgamation of the band's personal and artistic experiences. The material conveys a more jazzier approach, with complex harmonies, and an almost cinematic, dreamlike atmosphere, somewhat distancing from (but not completely forgetting) the previously emphasized, dance-oriented Afro- and Latino roots. Song for Ramon serves as the EP’s emotional climax inspired by the passing of a close friend and local underground chef pioneer.

Formed in 2019 in Budapest, Hakumba is a staple of the Hungarian festival circuit, with a growing international presence (SXSW London, SHIP, PIN Music Showcase). They’ve recently finished a tour in Australia this January.

The groove-driven ensemble blends afrobeat, jazz, and various strands of world music into a sound that is both rhythmically powerful and harmonically adventurous. With an eleven-piece lineup featuring an expansive horn section, multiple vocalists, percussion, and keys, the band moves effortlessly between dancefloor energy and more intricate, jazz-influenced musical ideas.

Like the band’s previous album, the EP was again recorded, mixed, and mastered by András Weil, the producer behind The Qualitons, the only hungarian band ever performed Live at KEXP. This continuity preserves Hakumba’s recognizable sonic identity while giving space for new colors and more complex musical ideas to emerge.

Written & performed by:

Soma Számel – drums
Endre Szép – bass
Imre Hegedűs – guitar
Zalán Bendegúz Huff – guitar, vocals
Csongor Mari – keys
Noel Nagy – percussion, vocals
Dorka Foster – flute, vocals
Kristóf Szabó – alto sax
Alpár Sikó – tenor sax
Gáspár Simon – trumpet
András Téglásy – baritone sax

Produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by Andras Weil
Artwork by Eszter Lukács
Graphic design by Péter Tóth
Manufactured by AD Records
Distributed by Rush Hour

Recorded at Galyatető, Hungary

Released under the Blue Sun

The new recordings from The Dengie Hundred unfurl on Tain Records after a busy year releasing a solo tape on Sagome and a collaborative LP and tape with Japan Blues on Demdike Stare's DDS imprint.

Lammas Land is an album which meditates on the Walthamstow Marshes, an ever-changing watery landscape, rich with history and wildlife. The Dengie Hundred writes:

"I am sitting at my table overlooking the marshes listening to Lammas Land in November 2023, watching crows fight a never-ending aerial battle with the gulls. In summer, you can see bats from here every evening, fluttering around the windows as the light begins to fade, but today it is colder so there is smoke rising from the boats on the River Lea and the dog walkers are wrapped up tight against the wind.
Most of Lammas Land was made sitting right here, playing guitar and recording the sounds passing by. I would hang a microphone out of the window to capture the ‘putput’ boat which delivers provisions, or the trains that rattle along the tracks that cut across the marshes and up to Stanstead, carrying passengers to the airport and away.
I wonder what tourists make of the marshes as they cross them, the landscape opening up for a moment between the urban sprawl of the East End and the rampant development of Tottenham. They offer a jarring pause of green and sky. I feel very lucky to be living in that pause, a resident, for now…

The album contains a whole year of found sounds recorded from the window and while out walking. It is full of bird song and radio sounds, singing, life.

Many others have been inspired by this space, this pause. The author Esther Kinsky who wrote River, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, captures this area so perfectly. I borrowed the two track names for this album from her book. I hope she doesn’t mind.

Also, the photographer Paul Fuller whose work reflects the atmosphere I feel here precisely. On hearing the music he wanted to collaborate on the Lammas Land project, He spent a year filming the marsh through the seasons. Some of his images are included with the vinyl release, and there is an accompanying film close to completion. I am so pleased this project is continuing in new forms.

The vinyl also contains a piece of writing, ‘Sound Fishing’, by Gemma Blackshaw, an author, art historian and curator who in a twist of fate also found herself spending time on the marshes, but that is her story, for another day."




The Dengie Hundred
Lammas Land
LP, with essay insert + five photographic prints
Cat No: TAIN02
Price: £14.49
Due next week

A: A hand full of ever thickening twilight
(Sample clips 1 / 2 / 3)

B: A string of pearls pulling
the night away
(Sample clips 1 / 2 / 3)

Based in Manchester but individually from all over the UK, the five piece's debut is intelligent, political and acutely aware of what it means to be in a band in 2026. Built around driving guitars and wiry rhythms, tracks like 'Too Much Fun' and 'The Seeds' brim with the tangible energy of their live shows. These are songs written with the energy of a packed room in mind. Having built their reputation the old fashioned way; relentless rehearsals, constant gigging and self releasing music wherever they could afford to, Martial Arts' dedication has shaped both the band's identity and their sound. Across the Craig Silvey-produced (Arctic Monkeys, R.E.M., Florence & The Machine) EP, Martial Arts balance personal reflection with broader political ideas, often turning the lens back on themselves as much as the world around them. The result is a band that combines the urgency of the UK's current guitar underground with a selfawareness and critical thought that feels increasingly rare.

Filmmaking and music-making share a common element of worldbuilding. Whole cloth, environments are raised in which a perspective can be placed; the viewer, the listener, is taken on a ride into the unknown for a time. Movie, the newest album by DMV-based duo Lifted, is like a film shot with microphones rather than cameras, using the pacing, spatialization, and semiotics of cinematic sound design to lead us through a surreal soundworld that draws as much from Foley artistry as dub, jazz, and electronic music. Musical elements and field recordings shift in and out of focus, collaged in spontaneous improvisation sessions on CDJs by the core duo of Andrew Field-Pickering (Max D, Dolo Percussion, Beautiful Swimmers) and Matt Papich (Co La, Ecstatic Sunshine). We may not see where we are, but our ears give us all the information we need.

We open on a pedal steel, played by More Eaze, but it’s been warped and slowed, gradually pitching upward until it's met by drums and electronics. Imagine the THX logo emerging onscreen. Movie is bookended by two related themes, “The Ice Chewers (Opening Credits), ” and “Midnight Snack (End Credits), ” giving the spatial experiments at the heart of the record form and focus. If there’s a broader narrative to latch onto, it’s in the transition moments, the juxtaposition of various field recordings that indicate movement of characters through space and life happening at its own pace. Tracks are defined by other thematic elements: a wandering piano in "Repossessed, " the drone of Duncan Moore’s bagpipe on “Melts Very Nasty, ” the delicate dance of Dustin Wong’s guitar over Jeremy Hyman’s drums on “Midnight Snack. ” Even with such an expansive ensemble cast, the focus remains squarely on the flow from one scene to the next.

Robert Altman’s use of sonic perspective shifting, as well as Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s intricate construction of environmental ambience and aural representations of the unknown, were both inspirational for Lifted’s focus on sound as a way to establish set and setting in film. We hear Altman especially in the way dialogue emerges and recedes: as Papich puts in a sandwich order, as Field-Pickering browses the grocery store. These techniques have been a part of the duo’s arsenal in Lifted and their own projects for years, but here, without the mandate to make something overtly musical, they are foregrounded and placed in crisp focus. Here is another way to listen to the world, to understand how time, place, and personality are communicated through sound as Lifted closes the gap between artforms. What you can’t see only drives the imagination to more brilliantly invent.