Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)
The British duo Andrew Eggleton and Daniel Hird, better known as Definite Grooves, return to Groove Culture with a new vinyl release that is pure energy for the dancefloor. Titled "Alive", this EP perfectly captures the essence of the label: delivering high-quality dance music curated with exceptional detail.
The record opens with the title track "Alive", a vibrant anthem that immediately sets the duo's intentions: solid grooves and infectious atmospheres. It follows with "Everyday (Move My Soul)", a track that, as the name suggests, hits all the right notes thanks to an impeccable rhythmic section and irresistible soul-infused warmth.
Side B keeps the momentum high with "Feel It", a track designed to keep the club moving during peak moments, while the closing is entrusted to "Don’t Do Disco". Despite the ironic title, the track plays with sophisticated house sounds, reaffirming the technical mastery of Eggleton and Hird.
In short, "Alive" is a must-have for vinyl collectors and DJs looking for that distinctive, elegant, and powerful sound that only Definite Grooves can deliver under the Groove Culture umbrella.
Five years ago, Curren$y proved once again that while the rest of the world might hit the brakes, the Jet Life never stalls. Released in the early months of 2021, Collection Agency arrived as a masterclass in "work-from-home" luxury—a smooth, ten-track victory lap that solidified Curren$y’s status as the most consistent architect in underground hip-hop.
Clocking in at just under 24 minutes, Collection Agency is the sonic equivalent of a pristine, low-mileage 911 Turbo. It’s lean, expensive-sounding, and devoid of filler. While the world was still grappling with a sense of stagnation, Spitta was in the garage, documenting the rewards of a decade-plus grind.
The 10-track release marks his 11th solo studio album, and 90th overall project. Even more impressively, the quality has remained consistent throughout his prolific career. The Louisiana rapper links up with several notable producers on the project including DJ.Fresh, Harry Fraud, Rsonist of The Heatmakerz, Trauma Tone, Purps, & Black Metaphor. We also see an appearance by longtime friend and collaborator, Larry June. Once again, Curren$y delivers another unforgettable round of smooth joints and cruising music.
Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)
POEME ELECTRONIQUE was Dave Hewson (synthesisers, production), Sharon Abbott (lyrics, lead and backing vocals), Julie Ruler (backing vocals) and Les Hewson (bass), formed in 1980 by Dave Hewson in South London, UK, in 1980. Dave was studying music and as a rare kind of student species he had a deep fascination for New Wave and electronic music thus also playing and recording electronic music ever since like using the Boss DR-55, Cosmo Sound Super Drum, Elka Rhapsody 610, EMS Synthi AKS, Korg MS-20(X2)/Polysix/Polyphonic Ensemble 1000/VC-10 Vocoder, Linn Electronics LM-1, Octave Kitten, Roland RS-09/VP-330 Vocoder Plus, Simmons SDS-V Kit and Yamaha CS-80 on this retrospective POEME ELECTRONIQUE album with original material from 1981/82 only. Over the period of more than two years, Dave has remastered these tracks using the latest high-end tools making them sound better than ever before. The deluxe 2LP vinyl album comprises 16 tracks of which 14 have never been published before. “The Echoes Fade” and “Voice” are the original versions taken off their original 7” from 1982. The album “The Echoes Fade” cannot be described other than being a masterpiece and one of the best-ever early 80’s electropop records ever, and it surely has to be lined up with Rational Youth or Experimental Products’ cult albums (in terms of being minimal synth/wave scene reference albums), but to be frank, Anna thinks that POEME ELECTRONIQUE were even above their level.
Truly, they had deserved to go on the successful path like Depeche Mode, OMD or Soft Cell, but fate was against them as it seems. The main difference to other electropop groups of the time was definitely that Dave did not only master his synths technically-wise, no, he also knew how to actually play, and when you hear his amazing multi-track ‘manual sequencing’, programming skills, great harmonies and melodies throughout the tracks, along with the two girls’ performances – well they can really sing! – you will agree there is some something remarkably extraordinary in these tracks. You will find minimal electropop super hits like “Rendezvous”, “She’s an Image”, “Fragile”, or “Dilemma”; hauntingly beautiful melancholic tracks like “A Mourner’s Lament”, “This Night” or “It’s in the Atmosphere”; darkest minimal electronics on “Inside his Head”; and even more poppier tracks like “Follow”. This record will hopefully be loved by any electronic music lover and most probably marks the highlight in the growing Anna Logue Records catalogue – therefore Anna did not shy away from any costs and the album is truly an outstanding release in every single aspect including sound and artwork presentation. Apart from the bonus tracks you will find in the 2LP deluxe vinyl edition glossy inner sleeves with lyrics to all songs, as well as individual mini 7” sleeves for each song designed by our dear graphic designer Steve Lippert plus many additional group photos on the gatefold sleeves’ inner. After so many efforts and more than two years passing by, Anna is so over the moon to see this release being ready now and we have done all we could to make this an outstanding release, so now it’s up to you to give the band their final glory, but Anna is in no doubt that – at least after hearing the sound samples – you will.
Komatssu, Lefrenk, Vema Diodes y Celine Arnauld comparten este various artists de cuatro cortes para el tercer disco de Undancel.
La tercera referencia del sello discográfico de Undancel se caracteriza por una fase de transición entre varios sonidos. Representado un punto «ni aquí ni allí» donde la identidad o el estado anterior se disuelve antes de alcanzar uno nuevo, cuyo nombre LIMINAL.
Cuatro cortes en vinilo de 12″ de varios artistas más una canciones extra en formato digital con código de descargas en su interior.
A1_KOMATSSU_DESTRUCTOR DE MUNDOS: En activo desde 2005, Komatssu es el proyecto más personal de Héctor Sandoval (Tensal y 50% del reconocido proyecto Techno Exium). Un proyecto cimentado sobre la fusión natural entre la IDM más melódica, el Electro, el Breakcore y el avant-techno espectral que concibe el sonido como catalizador de emociones, dando lugar a un imaginario sonoro sumamente personal.
A2_LEFRENK_INDECENT: Lefrenk es un productor y DJ coruñés con más de 20 años de experiencia y más de 100 lanzamientos.
También es profesor en Fanzine School.
En el ámbito editorial, destaca como cofundador del sello Deep Different junto a Ikke Alra y fundador de Knerfel, su sello centrado en el techno.
Su trabajo se distingue por la fusión de texturas sonoras orgánicas e innovación digital, lo que refleja una constante evolución personal y creativa. Siempre innovando, Lefrenk ha expandido su influencia a través de colaboraciones dinámicas y actuaciones en directo junto a figuras de renombre de la industria.
B1_VEMA DIODES_MINDNIMALIST: Productor con raíces en el Baix Llobregat, cuya identidad se define por la experimentación técnica. Su trabajo es una exploración constante de la síntesis, donde las máquinas dictan el mensaje.
Desde sus primeras producciones en 2002, ha refinado un sonido que transita del electrobass crudo a estructuras más complejas y horizontales, fusionando la calidez analógica con la precisión digital.
Fundador del sello ÚTIL Records, Gente Seria Viste Chándal y Dialecto Periférico, plataforma desde la que reivindica el sonido de máquinas icónicas como la TR-808, tratadas con distorsiones y texturas de corte industrial.
Entiende el electro no como un género rígido, sino como un proceso de «electrificar» la señal. Su música es un equilibrio entre ritmos sintéticos y pinceladas de IDM, buscando siempre una narrativa sonora avanzada.
B2_CELINE ARNAULD_GLITCHED DANCE SYSTEM: Celine Arnauld es el nombre artístico de Pablo Miranda Caballero, artista y productor de música electrónica especializado en géneros como el IDM y el glitch con texturas ambientales. Recientemente, ha creado los alias DJ Don’t Sleep, donde da rienda suelta a la vertiente más rave del jungle y el breakbeat, y Paul Basscoigne, donde explora el electro, el acid, el IDM y el braindance.
Ha publicado su música en varios sellos, como EVEL, Clean Error, Dynamic Form, Mahorka, Hypnotica Colectiva, EC Underground, Dead Trax, Not 4 Human Consumption, New York Haunted, Point Source Electronics Arts, Moatun 7, Polygon Network, Colorsquad Records, Opal Tapes y Zabra Records.
If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.
Formed in Bristol UK (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020, the Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.
With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. colour in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.
Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).
The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. – Ryan Davis (Chicago, February 2026)
Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.
For two decades, Gun Outfit has been a band defined less by genre than by continuity, patience, and a commitment to making music that reflects their lived experience.
Formed in Olympia, Washington in 2006 but long since rooted in Los Angeles, the group has evolved from a raw duo into a quietly formidable five-piece, their sound growing from scrappy post-punk beginnings into something spacious yet intimate, and always underpinned by an experimental edge.
On Process & Reality, Gun Outfit return with their most ambitious and immersive work to-date, a sprawling 80-minute double album shaped by time, environment, and philosophy. Recorded over the course of a single month in the late summer of 2020, on an 80-acre ranch in Pine Flat, California, while a massive forest fire burned less than ten miles away, the seeds of these songs were stark and strange.
Its title, Process & Reality, draws from the central work of philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, whose philosophy places intuition, experience, creativity, and relationality at the center of existence.
The band’s current lineup reflects both longevity and openness. Sharp and Keith remain the band’s primary architects, joined by longtime drummer Daniel Swire, multi-instrumentalist Henry Barnes, and bassist Kayla Cohen. Additional collaborators include Chris Cohen, Warren Lee, and Danny Sasaki all of whom add further depth, leaving subtle fingerprints across the album.
Musically, the album expands the band’s palette without abandoning its core sensibility. Dulcimer, autoharp, sitar, melodica, keyboards, homemade electronics, and a wide range of acoustic and electric textures appear throughout. The sound is mellow yet expansive, songs move between fragility and hefty atmospheric passages.
Influences surface obliquely rather than overtly. Elements of reggae and dub inform the production’s spatial sensibility. Echoes of long-form European jam bands coexist with sharp post-punk. British folk traditions, American country, and classic West Coast songwriting drift in and out of focus; the band is never afraid to lead or follow.
Shokolokobangoshay was a collaboration between three members of Pogo Ltd. The three of us felt we were crazier than the other members of Pogo Ltd. and decided to work together on the Kosmik 3 album. Robo was worked in the graphics department of NTA Benin. He was an amazing artist, a crazy guy, he was extremely creative, he invented a musical notation language that only he understood. He was amazing, he took me to his place in Asaba and showed me his compositions, he must have had over 500 songs.
Emman Osagie was my floor manager when I was a producer at NTA (Nigerian Television Authority) Benin. We were all on the same wavelength. He was a member of Severe 7, and heavily involved in the Bini music scene working with Ehi Duncan and others. we really enjoyed making Shokolobangoshay, it’s a river of influences, a bit of this, a bit of that, but it is really our thing. The musical ideas we were playing with at the time.
Emmanuel Ogosi. 3rd March 2026.
This record is why I went into reissuing records with Odion. The feeling to sharing records that went under the radar when they were initially released, with a greater audience. Shokolokobangoshay is uniquely Nigerian in a very personal way, it makes references to the societal and political ills that plague us in Africa. It’s title, Shokolokobangoshay, references a play song, kids in Lagos and western Nigerian sing when they play in the streets. Most Nigerians can relate. The music references afro beat, country music, reggae without falling firmly on any side. This is one for the ages. Amazing production, I personally love this record for the free spirit, creativity and excellent song selection. We had to licence it, we just had to. Limited repress only 500 copies.
It is also excellently produced. Big up to all involved, from the Vinyl Rip (James Law, Fidgit Studio, South Africa), to the master production by DJ Simbad (Cape Town, SA) and the cover restoration by Angelo Mitchell (SA). I am so happy to be doing it with the boys in the motherland. Peace and appreciation to all. Special dedication to Mother Tongue for creating a great pressing. Please file under Afro.
Blessings,
Made up of Matt Tuck, Michael ‘Padge’ Paget, Jamie Mathias, and Jason Bowld, Bullet For My Valentine return with their 8th album ‘Social Apocalypse’. The band have accrued multimillion album sales, multibillion streaming numbers, multiple Gold certifications at home and abroad, plus three UK Album Chart and Billboard 200 Top 10 placement.
Thematically, ‘Social Apocalypse’ combines the bare-faced lyrical introspection of people weathered and worn by the modern world. Working once more with producer Carl Bown – a veteran of four Bullet albums, alongside work with Sleep Token, While She Sleeps,
Malevolence and more – the idea for each track was diligently scrutinized, constructed and polished to its immaculate final form.
The track ‘Social Apocalypse’, rages against the end of the world as we know it, ‘I Don’t Trust Tomorrow’ is a reflection on the fear of the unknown labelled as the heaviest Bullet song ever complete with a hair-raising vocal turn from Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos. The second collaboration features Against The Current vocalist Chrissy Costanza also stepping in to duet on the exceptional ‘In The Absence Of You’.
Reminiscent of the band’s storied past without ever being repetitive of it, it’s with a steelyeyed determination to break new ground that the beloved hallmarks of Bullet For My Valentine past and present – Acid Rain and Fragile’s rapid-fire riffage, the melodic sensibility of Masquerade and Never Enough, and the anthemic balladry of Read Between The Lines and Here Without You – are refocused and re-energized for the future.
Bullet For My Valentine have established themselves as one of Britain’s all-time most celebrated rock and metal exports and now enter the dawning of a new era with the same burning drive and vision as ever.
Made up of Matt Tuck, Michael ‘Padge’ Paget, Jamie Mathias, and Jason Bowld, Bullet For My Valentine return with their 8th album ‘Social Apocalypse’. The band have accrued multimillion album sales, multibillion streaming numbers, multiple Gold certifications at home and abroad, plus three UK Album Chart and Billboard 200 Top 10 placement.
Thematically, ‘Social Apocalypse’ combines the bare-faced lyrical introspection of people weathered and worn by the modern world. Working once more with producer Carl Bown – a veteran of four Bullet albums, alongside work with Sleep Token, While She Sleeps,
Malevolence and more – the idea for each track was diligently scrutinized, constructed and polished to its immaculate final form.
The track ‘Social Apocalypse’, rages against the end of the world as we know it, ‘I Don’t Trust Tomorrow’ is a reflection on the fear of the unknown labelled as the heaviest Bullet song ever complete with a hair-raising vocal turn from Lorna Shore’s Will Ramos. The second collaboration features Against The Current vocalist Chrissy Costanza also stepping in to duet on the exceptional ‘In The Absence Of You’.
Reminiscent of the band’s storied past without ever being repetitive of it, it’s with a steelyeyed determination to break new ground that the beloved hallmarks of Bullet For My Valentine past and present – Acid Rain and Fragile’s rapid-fire riffage, the melodic sensibility of Masquerade and Never Enough, and the anthemic balladry of Read Between The Lines and Here Without You – are refocused and re-energized for the future.
Bullet For My Valentine have established themselves as one of Britain’s all-time most celebrated rock and metal exports and now enter the dawning of a new era with the same burning drive and vision as ever.
Absentia marks the powerful return of Belgium's Splendidula with a deeply immersive journey into atmospheric black doom metal. Massive slow burning riffs, reverberating guitars and layered vocal textures create a dense and haunting soundscape where crushing doom weight meets the cold, ethereal edge of black metal. The album unfolds through dark, hypnotic atmospheres and emotionally charged passages, balancing melancholy, intensity and cinematic depth.
Two outstanding special guests add further impact to the record: Aaron Stainthorpe of My Dying Bride and High Parasite, and Tim Yatras known for Austere and Germ. Their distinctive voices add depth and intensity, further enhancing the dramatic and evocative atmosphere of this powerful and immersive album.
For fans of: Alcest, My Dying Bride, Amenra, Sylvaine, Austere
Drumcode returns with its flagship A-Sides series, led by a huge new Adam Beyer single that highlights the 20-track compilation.
If you want a snapshot of techno in any given year, look no further than Drumcode’s annual A-Sides compilation. The release broadly charts the evolution of the genre, while giving a platform to standout demo’s Adam Beyer has received across the course of the year with many emerging artists finding their music on Drumcode for the first time. Case in point – Wehbba, Charles D and Raxon who all debuted on the label via a track on the A-Sides series and have gone on to become regular contributors to Beyer’s influential labels.
This year’s compilation features an exciting mix of established heavy-hitters, alongside a slew of new faces set to make their mark on the genre. ‘We Don’t Say Please’ – is emblematic of Adam Beyer’s sound in 2025 – fresh, experimental and thriving on cross-genre pollinations, as elements of bass music, rap and techno collide, underpinned by a distinctive UK vocal. The results are inspiring.
Elsewhere, the 20-track compilation brims with highlights. HI-LO’s ‘NYC to Amsterdam’ has inflections of New York house fused with driving techno elements. Nicole Moudaber returns to DC in cahoots with the rising ZLATA for the super-charged ‘Report to the Dancefloor’. Oscar L & Charles D mint a new collaborative partnership with the immersive, spacey cut ‘Lift Me Up’. LUSU continue their red-hot run following the recent ‘Move 2 the Groove’ EP, and craft a straight-up mind-mashing single ‘LIKE THIS’. Mark Reeve is in trademark strong form with hypnotic ‘My Mind’, which comes to life via a massive synth led. The fantastic Kaufmann shares her ‘People are Strange’, a nod to a classic vox, re-contextualised for a modern techno audience.
As is tradition, a troupe of ascendant producers land on Drumcode for the first time. They include Uruguay’s Enzo Monza, who delivers the crisp ‘Late Night’ – a favourite of Beyer’s; Mattia Saviola, whose ‘Parallel Dimension’ is a powerful cut with fantastic sound design; Romanian artist Tao Andra, who shares the celestial ‘Unity’; and long-time industry stalwart AdamK, who makes a richly deserved Drumcode debut in partnership with Vikthor feat. MC Stretch on the stunning ‘Silence + The Sound’.
Jess Sah Bi is well-known as half of the legendary duo Jess Sah Bi & Peter One who brought homegrown Country-Americana to the West African masses with their smash debut Our Garden Needs Its Flowers in the mid-1980s. Touring stadiums and reaching listeners worldwide, their music has racked up millions of spins on YouTube and remains imprinted in the hearts of Ivorians of a certain age. ATFA reissued their album in 2018, garnering critical acclaim from publications including Pitchfork and Rolling Stone and reaching a new generation of listeners outside Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire). Sometime in the early 90s, Die Sahbi - or Jesse, as he known to friends-became gravely ill with an unknown ailment and almost died. He visited various doctors and all kinds of religious healers and nothing helped. One day he went down to an Evangelical Christian revival in his neighborhood. They prayed over him and he was delivered. He says, "Their prayers helped chase out whatever demons and unhealthy spirits were inside me. After that my illness went away. When I went to the United States a few months later on an exchange program I wanted to make music to thank God because I was saved." He recorded an album of music praising God in order to honor a promise he made to himself at the depths of his desperation in the hospital. The album Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas Jesus Christ Does Not Let Us Down came out in 1991 and sold around 3000 cassettes in Ivory Coast. The master tape was lost along the way so the recording has never been on digital platforms until now. Jesse didn't have much time to record while visiting South Carolina, hence the relatively short album, 6 songs including two reprises for filler. A local pastor connected him with a studio and some American musicians (Robert Fortner and Gary Davis) to help. They added acoustic guitar, percussion and keyboard accompaniment to Jesse's soaring French and Gouro vocals, harmonica and finger-picked acoustic. The resulting recording is deeply soothing and contemplative music that perfectly compliments the songs already embraced by millions. But he had to find the rest of the studio expenses-$600 total-which he secured drawing cartoons for UNICEF. Jesse is Ivory Coast's first political cartoonist, a vocation for which he was widely celebrated at the time. It also made him a few enemies which lead to him leaving the country permanently a few years later. Jesus-Christ Ne Deçoit Pas is Jess Sah Bi's first and only gospel album. Fortunately, fans responded with enthusiasm: widespread radio airplay and concerts followed, along with a growing solo profile in the country. The first big gospel artists in Ivory Coast were the duo Mathieu et Constance, who emerged in 1989. There was a bigger gospel music movement in English-speaking counties like Ghana and Nigeria (Christians make up roughly 40% of the population in Ivory Coast, slightly less than Muslims). Jesse didn't have any intention of working in Christian music but he realized, "You don't make music to make money-you want to send a message." In the years since Jesus-Christ's release, gospel music in Ivory Coast has grown to become a key part of music culture in the country. Spiritual music appears in community actives across the public and private spectrum from religious gatherings and parties to television broadcasts and music festivals. And, as it has evolved and indigenized locally, gospel music has picked up elements of traditional Ivorian music, reggae and soul. The album ultimately precipitated the demise of the duo, who were soon separated geographically as Peter One relocated to Nashville. He went on to become a nurse and release a successful solo album on Verve following the ATFA collaboration. Nowadays Jesse lives in the Bay Area and continues to record and perform music wherever and whenever he has the chance. He is publishing a new book of humorous cartoons in 2025 and his most recent album Never Give Up came out in 2020
A certified deep house classic makes a comeback! Originally released in 2002, this significant collaboration between Lo.Motion (Gavin Belton of The Littlemen) and Jay Cowley (Toka Project) is finally available again on vinyl. With releases on Drop Music and Tilted Music, this duo provides a masterclass in timeless production that remains relevant and fresh 24 years later. Original copies are highly sought after and in limited supply, so don't miss out—grab a new copy while you can.
May 2026 marks the arrival of TYGAPAW (aka Dion McKenzie)’s first full-length album on Tresor Records, entitled Together You Gather All Power Applied Worldwide. An acronym of its creator’s name, TYGAPAW’s third studio album is a deeply personal collection of music building worlds where Black queer and trans siblings can thrive, while unifying dancefloors worldwide. A proposition that collective wisdom liberates us from the matrix of domination we live within. The album unfolds as the latest chapter in TYGAPAW’s ongoing techno opera opus, continuing to center the voices of Black women, which surface as layered incantations rather than lyrics - powerful, haunting, sensual, activating.
With the process of creating the album starting in 2023, as TYGAPAW (Dion McKenzie) was in the first year of their transition, the music reflects the intensity of that period, where they were experiencing deplatforming as a response to the shift in their physical appearance: Tracks like ‘M32 Riddim’ and ‘Helicopter hovers over my Crown Heights Apartment’ feature high-paced rhythms intersecting with intense siren-like synths to form demanding compositions echoing a heightened sense of alert. Yet throughout the album, relief comes in the form of TYGAPAW’s vocal features, co-conspirators, and chosen family, whose voices are treated with reverb and echo, a sonic fingerprint that leads back to the pioneers in the legendary studios of TYGAPAW’s native land, Jamaica, an important reminder that the past will always inform the future. It is an album for dancers first and foremost, where joy, defiance, and integration with the natural body coexist, and every drop feels less like a climax than a transformation. Expect a bass that permeates your soul and melodic synthesized sequenced phrases echoing the dancehall eras of TYGAPAW’s youth, reshaped into hypnotic melodies that glow over industrial kicks designed to command attention, reasserting Jamaica's pioneering yet often overlooked contribution to electronic music.
In the opening track, ‘Can I Live’, Precious Okoyomon’s words feel like the beginning of a ritual; setting the intentions for the rest of the proceedings. As McKenzie puts it, their “work is about regeneration, resetting, getting integrated into nature, and about rebirth. That’s the tone I wanted to set at the outset of the album.” Ms Carrie Stacks continues this thread of support in ‘Don’t Panic’ with heavily processed vocals on top of a beat that takes inspiration from another important ingredient in the antidote to the oppression of isolation: Ballroom culture. “ I feel like I found my queerness in Ballroom, that’s why this track is very important to me.”
Echoes of NYC Black queer nightlife scene also permeate in the energetic drums of ‘Exorcise the Language of Domination’, in which Julianna Huxtable’s spoken performance complements the various movements and tones of the music. “My producer brain thought this was the one that Juliana’s vocals would be best suited for. I hinted: ‘what do you think of this one?’ She just went into her notes and picked some passages to go with the first section of the track. From there, it was a year-long process of development. It required time and space for this thing to evolve, but I think it’s one of the most powerful tracks on the album.” London’s SUUTOO contributes the album’s only musical collaboration on ‘B2B’, a track that emerged from sessions in McKenzie’s New York studio where the real objective was to connect and have fun; a time out from the demands of life outside.
The album closes out with a double hit of emotion in the form of ‘Effects of Resistance and Black Trans Masculine Experience’. The former features South African scholar Khanyisile Mbongwa drawing connections that exist between Africa and the Black diaspora, whilst looking to the future and calling for a shared sense of community.
The latter piece, an instrumental version of the piece which featured on the IMMIGRANT E.P. of 2025 is a gentle and deeply affecting end to the record, a place of peace and acceptance. This end-of-cycle tone is mirrored in the sleeve photography, which also ties back to IMMIGRANT by finally revealing what was hidden: a portrait of the artist fully self-actualized; a step towards true inner liberation. TYGAPAW is sonically defiant across this album; bass frequencies feel tactile — less heard than inhabited — infectious lead synth melodies remain with you long after the track ends. An overall sound that leaves asserting an urgent need for connection. From Detroit to New York to Berlin to Jamaica, despite geographic distance, this album reminds us that we remain in solidarity, recognising that meaningful world-building requires collective input and action, both personal and communal, if we are to move toward liberation.
G.A.M.O. (Gods Against Man's Oppression) recounts events leading to Napoleon Da Legend transformation after being bestowed a metal helmet, which is a weapon against our modern dystopia. The album features a blend of soulful and dystopic grit featuring the likes of Vinnie Paz, Goretex, General Steele, Skyzoo, Passport Rav, Nejma Nefertiti, Innocent?, SKAM2?, Eloh Kush, CF, Dontique and more. It has production from Dub Sonata, Maitre D, Homage Beats, Passport Rav Proffeny and Napoleon Da Legend. The result is 23 tracks that blend retro-sci fi "Noir Wave" and modern Boom Bap. It features an exclusive 2 page comic illustrated by UK's Dan Lish. Limited to 300 copies only.
Derailed Records x Planet Rhythm return with a focused new EP from Milo Raad, hailing from Belgrade.
This release sees Derailed adding its own VVS edge to the vinyl saga. Tougher, more direct, and forward thinking. The tracks are stripped back but intentional, designed to lock you in rather than overwhelm. Don't get it twisted though: there's still plenty of depth here, the kind you can lose yourself in if you let it run.
'' I Want VVS's More Than Ever ''
Artwork: Studio ANTM
Mastering: Audiosculpture
Distribution: Triple Vision
Gap Mangione's monumentally influential Diana In The Autumn Wind. AKA BEWITH200LP. And, without question, Be With's White Whale.
They said it could never be done. And with good reason.
We've spent the past 12 years trying to license this legendary 1968 recording from Gap and, after much work, it's finally here. Remarkably, this is the first ever vinyl reissue of Gap Mangione's Diana In The Autumn Wind, produced with the full and extensive participation of Gap. An exceedingly rare album, it's been coveted by funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop sample fiends for decades.
It's unarguably *the* most sought after album for J Dilla / Madlib sample collectors. It has also been brilliantly sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, Large Professor, Ghostface Killah, Kendrick Lamar and Talib Kweli.
But this record is so much more than a sample-spotters curio. It's solid gold throughout. Bursting with killer funky-jazz grooves and tracks adorned with warm electric piano, the release is notable for featuring some extremely significant players at the very outset of their careers; Tony Levin, at 21, whose superb playing on both acoustic and electric bass was the harmonic mainstay of the trio and Steve Gadd, at 23, one of the greatest drummers of his generation.
With acceptable copies of this holy grail changing hands for $400, to call this reissue "much-needed" underplays just how vital it is. Gap's story is told in his words alongside rare photos across a sumptuously designed 2-page insert and, to augment this deluxe edition further, its all wrapped up in a beautiful, no-expense-spared luxury tip-on sleeve, as per the original hens-teeth release. And, while we're talking packaging, just take a look at that cover - a work of art in and of itself.
The tracks are short but complex, with that extraordinary rhythm section backing the beautiful piano, organ and electric piano work of Gap. It's like the best ever library funk breaks record you never heard - but all your favourite golden age rap producers were all over it, long ago. It's a stunning blend of the vibrant, driving music of the Gap Mangione Trio coupled with the sensitive composition and superb orchestration of Gap's legendary brother, Chuck Mangione, who helmed an amalgam of seemingly disparate elements – rock, big band jazz, solo improvisation and "classical" music - into a spectacularly cohesive whole that has aged wonderfully well. As Gap himself notes in the liners, "with this group I was able to explore and add new and exciting elements from rock, Brazilian and then-current pop music."
Opener "Boy With Toys" triumphantly swaggers out the gate, all big band horns, flutes and dextrous organ work. The synthesis of everything going on is nothing short of stunning. When one wise YouTube commentator called this tune "old school superhero music", Gap agreed. Rap luminaries did, too, amongst them Talib Kweli, who rapped over DJ Scratch's chopped up intro for "Shock Body" on his Quality album back in 2002.
You've barely recovered from that incredibly affecting opener when you get hit over the head with the exquisite title-track. And now you see how two of the greatest beats of all time emerged from one single track produced nearly 50 years earlier. Unforgettably utilised by Dilla for Slum Village's heartbreakingly good "Fall In Love" and then Madlib for his "Official" beat for Dilla to rap over, on the Jaylib record. Regardless of the records it went on to spawn, this is just a staggering tune in its own right. Be beguiled by the flutes and the flutter tonguing, the counter-melody from the trombones, the soprano sax solo. All of it. Simply beautiful.
The questing organ and horn workout "Long Hair Soulful" deserves a lot more attention, overshadowed somewhat by the opening two monsters but no less fantastic. It swings, it grooves and Gadd and Levin truly cook. Up next, Gap's wonderfully percussive, mellifluously piano-heavy cover of "Yesterday" by some fellas called The Beatles. It's a subtly arresting gem. "The XIth Commandment" is damn fine, with thick, gorgeous electric piano and snappy drum work underpinning chaotic soundtracky horns. To close out the side, "St. Thomas" showcases the "fourth" member of the Gap Mangione Trio, conga drummer Dhui Mandingo. Having performed with the Trio since 1965, Dhui‘s African-based and jazz-latin-influenced style amazed listeners and its way to hear why.
Opening the B-Side, standard "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" breezes along in the late-night jazz club fashion before things get super deep with the outstanding and - up to now - un-sampled "Pond With Swans". It's simply heavenly, and how its moody, melancholic intro has yet to be pilfered is anybody's guess. It oscillates between gentle, sombre movements and bombastic grooves, equally hypnotic and joyous. The rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" is yet another showcase for Gap's virtuoso playing and Gadd's mastery of the pocket. Indeed Gadd's drumming on "Free Again" is nothing short of neck-SNAPPING! Ghostface took it for not one but two "Iron's Theme" tracks across his seminal Supreme Clientele. It's got that Galt MacDermot "Coffee Cold" feel. Suuuuuper cool. The frantic "Dream On Little Dreamer" hurtles along and must've surely had the whole room absolutely swinging from the chandeliers back in Rochester in the late 60s. The album closes with the magnificent Graduate Medley, featuring memorable renditions of "Scarborough Fair", "The Sounds of Silence" and "Mrs. Robinson". The warm electric piano lines of the former were sampled by The Ummah (Dilla again!) for Tribe's "Pad & Pen" from their reappraised final album, The Love Movement, as well as by Large Professor on his much-loved "The LP (For My People)".
Under the watchful eye - and extremely attentive ears - of Gap Mangione himself, the audio for Diana In The Autumn Wind has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much needed tweaks here and there, according to the artist's wishes. At the prestigious Abbey Road Studios, Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland. The artwork restoration has taken place here at Be With HQ and has that drop-dead gorgeous cover artwork popping like new. Buy on sight!
Our latest Holy Grail reissue is this private press spiritual jazz gem out of California from Rickey Kelly and his vibes & marimba. Features Diane Reeves (vocals) & Adele Sebastian (flute)!
Heavyweight 180g LP with tip-on sleeve, individually numbered 1-1000, card enclosed for liner notes & audio download
"Rickey, I know these are your friends, the guys you went to school with, but if you wanna record an album, you record with musicians who have been playing their whole life; whatever you write, they'll put their whole life into it. You play with your friends; they may not even play in tune."
These are the words of Slave guitarist Kevin Johnson, and they were to change the course of young Rickey Kelly's life.
It was 1978, and music student Kelly had approached Johnson with a tape of rough demos of some songs he'd written. A San Francisco native, Kelly had recently moved the short distance south to study music at LA City College in East Hollywood. He was a member of E.W. Wainwright Jr.'s African Roots of Jazz, and was spending up to 10 hours a day in practice on both vibes and marimba. He also played with Horace Tapscott, and had his own band made up of fellow students, but it was his ambition to make an album that led to the conversation with Johnson. It was a turning point in his education, and a decision was looming.
The next thing Johnson said was "You call the best jazz musicians. How'd you like to play with Billy Higgins?", a line that would seal it for anyone; for a youngster like Rickey just starting out in the business, you just don't turn down the opportunity to play with the likes of highly accomplished musicians, especially those of the calibre of legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins.
Some calls were made and the date was set to record at Studio Masters on Beverly Blvd, a studio set up just a few years previous in 1973, owned and operated by Dot Records founder Randy Wood with his son John. Some of the other music professionals set to record with Kelley that day were flautist Adele Sebastian, bass player Tony Dumas, saxophonist Charles Owens and vocalist Diane Reeves, none of whom had previously played with Kelly before.
Kelly was impressed with the studio, with the gold records displayed on the walls and the famous musicians hanging out. 'It took a lot of humility for me to record with them, I mean I was nobody, nothing, and for not a lot of money either' remembers Rickey in a later interview with Calvin Lincoln, 'It taught me a lot, to practice hard, and study for the rest of your life, to give your all, and there's a lot of all to give'.
As the recording session took place, John Wood was listening in. He was impressed. Kelly didn't have the funds to manufacture and release the album himself, so Wood suggested it was pressed up on his in-house studio label, Los Angeles Phonograph Records, and thus the LP 'My Kind of Music' was released early in 1979. The album also saw a subsequent pressing soon afterwards on Dennis Sullivan's New Note label.
Kelly remains humble and proud of his debut album to this day. 'I was still a beginner' he says, 'These masters walked in, smiling, and gave me something worth gold'.
The long-awaited reissue of Toba makes it clear, once and for all, to fans and industry insiders that disco music produced in Italy between the late 70s and early 80s had no chance of success. What was disparagingly called "spaghetti disco", considered a poor imitation of real American disco music, only good for Japanese cartoons. This was the main reason that prompted Italians to record their songs abroad, as Fratelli La Bionda with their pseudonym D.D.Sound in Munich. Luigi Figini, with "Supercool" and "Percussion Sundance" by Edo Martin and Pino Santapaga (the same as "Step By Step" by Koxo), claimed that Kash was a one-off Swedish disco project, a lie that came to light when an Italian test pressing from the previous year, made by GDB, was posted !!! Amin-Peck followed the trend of passing off their songs as foreign music on the intuition of their Roman producers. So ''Love Disgrace'' was released on 7'' by a label called Connection, which never really existed, created for the purpose by Giancarlo Meo, confident that this would bring success to the Bolognese duo who were already creating 'proto Italo-Disco tracks' with a new-wave trend. To make the whole operation seem real, the London agency Ellie Jay Ltd. was involved, contacting Andy Fernbach of Jacobs Studios Ltd. The vinyl was also produced in the UK, otherwise the deception would have been discovered, then imported to Italy by Best Record. Italo-Disco was officially born after this, in 1982, not before! Everything makes sense now ! Real events that actually happened and purely invented names and anecdotes. Just think, even the image of Tony Balch used for the cover of Toba was taken from Grand Theft's 1978 album "Have You Seen This Band?" and reproduced on the new redesigned cover, as were the heads of the other musicians. The idea of a real band called Toba had finally come to fruition and would lead to a second sensational success the following year. Now it all makes sense! Facts and anecdotes that really happened and names and circumstances that are purely fictional. Finally, everything adds up! Real things and invented names of musicians and collaborators. It's important to clarify what we've said above, but we haven't talked about "Make Your Mind Up" and "Don't Take It" and the two masterful remixes performed by Dave Mathmos. In short: with the original versions we'll make Italo-Disco purists happy, with the remix versions we'll please new younger followers with more modern sounds and versions more in line with today's tastes and trends.
Following Parnell March’s Back Bar Grooves EP in February and November’s release of the Dust Tears (lead song from Sarah/Shaun’s debut) remixes, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label returns with a second EP of dream pop from husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), alias Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced McLochlun), who wooed hearts and wowed critics with debut EP ‘It’s True What They Say?’ last year.
‘It’s True What They Say?’ attracted fans across the board: Artist Of The Week in The Scotsman, rapturous reviews from The Skinny and Tokyo's Ban Ban Ton Ton blog, BBC 6Music airplay courtesy of Nemone (Mary Anne Hobbs' Morning Show), more radio play from Radio Scotland's Roddy Hart & Vic Galloway, plus Simone Butler (Primal Scream) and Jim Sclavunos (Bad Seeds) via their respective Soho Radio shows, not forgetting ringing endorsements from the likes of David Holmes, Youth, Kevin Bales (Spiritualized), Brent Rademaker (Beachwood Sparks) and Julian Corrie (Franz Ferdinand).
They played gigs supporting Glasgow's huge Glasvegas, at festivals (Kendall Calling, Dunbar Music, Hidden Door), plus a slew of venues across the Scottish capital, ending the year with a trio of shows supporting Glaswegian 80s pop legends The Bluebells at Aberdeen’s Tunnels, Dunfermline’s PJ Molloys and Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms, while The List magazine tipped them among their Ones To Watch For 2025, with journalist Fiona Shepherd suggesting they were “blending the starry-eyed pop of Sonny & Cher with the electronic experimentation of Chris & Cosey.”
Very much the companion piece to the debut EP but arriving a full twelve months later, Someone’s Ghost is emblematic of the duo’s desire not to rush things or release anything half-baked.
“I’ve always wanted to create the perfect pop record and I do really feel that we’ve achieved that with this one,” says Shaun. And he’s clearly not the only person who thinks so.
REVIEWS, FEEDBACK ETC:
"I LOVE that! Dreamy dreamy pop." ROY MOLLOY (Marvellous Crane/Alex Cameron) on BLAST RADIO, Sydney
“the Scottish music scene’s cream of the cool... buzzy drum beats, high, distant chimes, and heavenly electronics…. very ethereal.” THE SKINNY
"Listening to Sarah/Shaun is like eavesdropping on a noir dreampop, long-distance phone call between them both, across two separate sonic locations. On this stunning 4-song EP, Sarah’s voice, effortlessly mesmerising, draws you into these big beautiful and haunting passages of perfect dream-pop. All beautifully produced in a multi-layered-scape of low-fi analogue textures, epic cinematic crescendos, intense electro-pulse grooves and warped psycho-pop guitar riffs. Within the songs lurk a sense of unresolved emotions, longing and pathos. There are shades of classic Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra but also Post-Punk Electronica and Beach House. But what a unique sound they’ve created of their own. I love it" DAVID MCCLUSKEY (The Bluebells)
"Absolutely beautiful" SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"Lovely stuff here! Total quality." MARTYN 'MASH' HENDERSON
"Ooooh. Everything the last record promised is here. Well done" GEORGE T aka George Demure (Accident Machine)
"Vince clark Era Depeche Mode in places" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized)
"Sounds cool. Well done" PETE KEMBER (Sonic Boom, Spacemen 3)
"Glorious, it (Debbie Harry) grabs hold of you and doesn't let go." IAIN DAWSON aka RAVECHILD (Everyone Wants To Play The Hits Podcast)
SOMEONE’S GHOST
Born out of an incredibly anxious, stressful time, the songwriting process for these recordings has been something of a personal tonic for Shaun…
“There was a period when I was having nightmares,” he reveals. “Apparently I was saying there was someone in the room, I was talking to that person and Sarah was seeing all this while I was still asleep.
So, I was thinking that this was my ghost. I started writing songs because I was going through something and I was dealing with something and writing songs was a comfort. My ghost was a comfort, whether it was real or not. The idea of it was a comfort.”
“I firmly believe that everyone has someone who watches over them but all of the songs are essentially about being there for someone,” he says. “Everybody needs someone but also everyone needs to stay real and keep what you have, keep it close, never let it go. If you don’t have it, continue to tell people you’re there for them. It’s about loving and hoping people will be good to you in return.”
While Shaun took the songwriting lead on Filter Of Love and EP closer The Sound Which Stresses The Sound Of My Ears, Debbie Harry was originally instrumentally conceived by producer Jaguar Eyes, alias Ali Chisholm, later lyrically completed by Shaun, and the EP’s lead track, Anhedonia, and one of its stand-outs (much like Starbed on the debut) was conceived by Sarah, as a result of experiencing a bit of a spiritual epiphany of her own.
“When I first heard the word Anhedonia, I didn't know what it meant but when I found out I thought about it quite a bit. How sad it would be to have no enjoyment in anything,” she explains. “This song is really about my own personal beliefs. When I have been down, that's one of the things that helps me the most. It talks about trying to make amends but realising, for some things, you can't. But I think with any kind of faith comes hope… which is always a good thing.”
A record about hope, truth, honesty, a belief in something bigger than oneself… and all set to a soundtrack that wouldn’t feel out of place in a David Lynch or Eighties feature film. What more could anyone ask for, really?
There’s equally a desire to offer something universal and positive to anyone who tunes in. The labels for the 12” edition reveal the dual mantras “Who just wants to survive?” and “It’s about time to live a little”, with both messages also engraved in each record’s run-out grooves. T-shirts accompanying debut EP It’s True What They Say? bore the slogan “Kill Them With Kindness” - leading caps intentional. Shaun carries the acronym KTWK everywhere he plays, as a reminder: it’s stitched into his guitar strap. And this particular wee pebble has already caused a few ripples: people have been approaching him at gigs to acknowledge their appreciation and respect for it.
"We feel we have made an honest, open, colourful, body of work,” say the duo. “We hope to go out and play the songs with the guys (our band) and then potentially make more records. We are taking things as they come. Everything has been organic so far, after all. We are looking forward to whatever this brings."
London Based Deadbeat is a techno label founded in 2000 as an outlet for the more eclectic, risk taking and aggressive elements of the genre. Dedicated to unveiling forward thinking new talent, championing cult underground producers and celebrating established global acts the label has created a loyal fan base and now after more than two decades presents its first vinyl release, a massive six track EP that covers a lot of creative ground and features three artists well known for pushing boundaries while delivering face melting, dancefloor destroying beats.
Sane ( Don't Recordings / Fun In The Murky ) is a Uk based producer and techno DJ who has featured multiple times on the 'Best electronic music on bandcamp' pages. Described there by music journalist Joe Muggs as 'Filthy, dirty, vile and brilliant. His techno will tear the top off your head and make soup with the contents. It screeches, it blurts, it whistles, and it roars. Above all, it crashes and clangs like a dancing mech warrior, crushing all before it. What more do you need to know?'
TSR ( Analog Records / Hörspielmusik ) are a highly regarded creative force of Swedish musical mentalists, a crazed, technologically berserk band of electronic wizards who relentlessly conjure up the most brilliant, silliest, toughest, most dance bootable funky techno on this train of existence. Known for high-energy, raw, and sometimes humorous tracks they have released to high acclaim on many notable labels and played all over the world.
DJ Ze MigL ( Djax-Up-Beats / Minimalistix ) is first and foremost a DJ, but also a producer & a Dude! Creating crazy, funky and sometimes brutal techno mayhem. Residentially from Portugal, he’s been the one of most prolific Portuguese techno producer/ DJ during the last 25 years. Producing and Spinning his own special brand of honkin’ techno, not changing a single cowbell. Never too serious or dark, always with proper party ON!
The record additionally features full sleeve artwork by Ed Twist ( of the influential 'Ugly Funk' label ) and is pressed on yellow vinyl.
J Dilla passed away 20 years ago. Metro himself paid tribute to the production master.
"Donutroit" is a meticulously crafted tribute to James Dewitt Yancey. Reinterpretations, reworks, and original compositions – a total of 24 tracks produced by Metro, who pays tribute to the legend with this album. Maciej returns with the album after a somewhat lengthy break, but he does it with a bang. This kind of hip-hop with soul elements has been unheard of in Polish music for a long time. This is the first Polish full-length tribute to Dilla. The guests are few, but they are impressive. Emade himself plays drums on two tracks, and Immortal Onion reworked one of James's iconic recordings.
Dawid ObyOby Frańczak is responsible for the full artwork.
The legendary Polish underground label JuNouMi Records is responsible for the pressing.
l 12: The Look Of Love (Medley No. 1) feat. Immortal Onion
[w] 23: The Look Of Love (Medley No. 2) [feat. Immortal Onion]
[l] B7: The Look Of Love (Medley No. 1) [feat. Immortal Onion]
[w] D4: The Look Of Love (Medley No. 2) [feat. Immortal Onion]
[l] B7 | The Look Of Love (Medley No 1) [feat. Immortal Onion]
[w] D4 | The Look Of Love (Medley No 2) [feat. Immortal Onion]
RareTwo Inc. aka DJ Sneak and Tripmastaz are back together for 33 chambers EP, the next Respect The Craft release.
Words by Sneak:
"On a hot Ibizan summer the Rare Two fellas spent a period of 33 days on the island making tracks in a house garage with a couple of pieces of affordable gear and a whole lot of talent. We managed to create 33 tracks often burning them on CD to take to djs like Ricardo Villalobos at Amnesia and seeing the instant reaction of the crowd. We are a mega team of same mentality dudes who create from the heart breaking all rules and getting music done for a purpose. The Tripmastaz and Sneak Team is one to expect many great dance floor killers. As we call them Guttah Styles!
Words by Tripmastaz:
Recently I found these projects and since they were done on just a laptop and cheap small speakers, I gave them proper analog mixing and mastering.
All tracks remain exactly the same form and arrangement as they were originally done, including track Aww Lawd, that was featured on R. Villalobos BBC Radio 1 Pete Tongs mix back in 2018.
Mike Grinser at Mandmade Mastering did the lacquer cut and made it sound very crisp and loud a lot like it would've been cut in the 90s.
As Nathan Fake rises from the nocturnal subterranea and rave catharsis of his previous records, on Evaporator, he resurfaces into the domain of daylight, bringing a tangible sense of air rushing against your face, of big skies, and endless landscapes. The idea of pop accessibility that trickled into 2023’s Crystal Vision is refracted here through the prism of sweeping ambient, deep electronica, and trance uplift. Evaporator is Fake’s idea of “airy daytime music”, with each track a different barometer reading across the album’s varying atmospheres, which range from vibrant sunbursts, bracing rainscapes, and fine mists of clement melodics. “It’s not overtly confrontational electronic club music,” states Fake. “It’s quite pleasant, it’s accessible. As I was progressing through making the tracklist, I called it a daytime album. It doesn’t feel like an afterparty album.” For the past decade Fake has been gingerly introducing collaborations with heroes and friends alike into his lone, idiosyncratic working process. Border Community alumni Dextro AKA Ewan Mackenzie transmutes his ferocious drumming for Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs into the blurred choral thump of ‘Baltasound’. ‘Orbiting Meadows’, meanwhile, is his second collaboration with Clark, an eerily idyllic duet where microtonal 18EDO piano clangs slowly twirl around wailing pads. Evaporator marks the junction point of old technology and ever fresh creativity for Nathan. The trusty “dinosaur” age software, particularly Cubase VST5, that has powered two decades of music is rarely updated. “I used to sort of feel a bit ashamed of using such old software, and then I kind of had an epiphany – that’s just how I work”, comments Fake. “That’s just how I play. I’m very fond of these old tools, and I get the most joy out of them, but now I’ve incorporated new technology too.” When an artist accumulates so much synergy with their instrument, music making becomes instinctual. By Fake’s account, much of Evaporator just fell into place. The album title arrived randomly in his head (“it felt completely perfect. Airy.”), ideas looped and developed until things locked into place and just felt right. ‘The Ice House’ is a fleeting glimpse of the sonic world he taps into in this creative state, its glassy FM synths built around a counterpoint between rough-hewn crystalline arpeggios and sparse yet gravitas-bearing bass. “That riff I just wrote out on the keyboard, I just played it forever and ever and ever. The original track ended up being really short. Here you go, and it’s gone!” These unplanned channellings of sound call forth records from Fake’s past while he looks ahead, perhaps getting at the very essence of his musicianship. The opener ‘Aiwa’ (“the breeziest,” he muses) reminds of the introspection that characterised Providence, excited by the fire and grit of Steam Days’ textural experiments, its chunky slams and clatters surging into a flood of harmonic buzzing as they reach out for old wisdom. ‘Hypercube’ stampedes in a similar chronological confluence, infusing an incessant synth line reminiscent of the golden age of rave with the crackling, ecstatic energy of modern festival anthems. Like the vaporisation of liquid to particles, everything that Evaporator presents has a mutant desire to be amorphous. Sounds rarely settle; the irradiated garage beat of ‘Bialystok’ is pitched downwards to driving, rebounding effect, while ‘You’ll Find a Way’ warps static into shivering energy, cinematic synth strings building anticipation into a gradual gush of chords. This translates into a more expansive stereo field than Fake has explored before. ‘Slow Yamaha’ saves the wildest, most kinetic transformations for last with a cornucopia of crispy melodies and fried drums; a sibilance of cymbals on the left, a susurrus of shakers on the right, and kaleidoscopic lasers pulsing and fizzing all around. Evaporation culminating in pure excited atoms. In a world where music has increasingly become background content, making albums remains lifeblood for Fake: “It makes me realise how long; twenty years is ages! It’s weird to see how much the world has changed. Release day back then you did fuck all, now you spend all day on socials. When I grew up the people who made the electronic music I was into were quite mysterious, and the artwork was very abstract. There was a massive distance between you and that music, and that was a key part of it, really. Now it helps to be an extrovert, and I'm just not, but the album marks the first time my face has graced the cover art. I’ve never wanted to do this before, I'm very shy, and generally I don’t like being seen,” he professes. “But, twenty years in, I supposed I could try something new. I'm very lucky that I'm somehow surviving in this world, where the media world favours extroverts and interesting looking people. It’s not my world but somehow I’m still in it.” Evaporator continues to prove Nathan’s necessary presence, with some of his most engaging, varied, and magical music yet.
140g vinyl, remastered, double LP with the original LP along with a second record of 14 rare tracks
Sweet And Nice is the vital debut album from Jamaica’s undisputed first lady of song Marica Griffiths. It’s reggae at its most soulful. Slinking through a tight ten tracks of R&B and pop-sourced material, it became an instant best seller. 45 years after its initial release the LP is available again on vinyl, now as a double LP, with an extra record collecting 14 rare tracks.
Sweet And Nice has appeared over the years with a revised running order and under different titles. But the original’s opening sequence of loping soul is legendary, even beyond reggae circles. These songs are now returned to how they were presented on that first Jamaican release, and under their intended album title. Be With doesn’t mess with magic.
Marcia’s version of “Here I Am (Come and Take Me)” has long been lusted after, played by genre-hopping selectors to snapping necks for decades now. It’s followed by the sophisticated, rollicking wah-wah funk of “Everything I Own” and the slice of smooth lovers soul par excellence that is “Green Grasshopper” and her ace, lilting Neil Diamond cover “Play Me”.
The thundering, humid funk of “Children At Play” “sounds uncannily like a precursor of Massive Attack”, as FACT Mag astutely noted when they put Sweet And Nice at number 16 in their list of the 100 best albums of the 1970s. Otherworldly, moody and essential.
Side two keeps the fire burning. “Sweet, Bitter Love” should leave you swooning, and is also one of the album’s alternate titles. Curtis Mayfield’s already-eternal “Gypsy Man” is up next, recast as proto-lovers rock.
“There’s No Me Without You” is elevated to canonical status by the majestic, forlorn horns of the Federal Soul Givers and Marcia’s heartbreaking delivery. And if this doesn’t get you then surely the next track will: arguably the definitive version of Ewan MacColl’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. Yes, seriously.
“I Just Don’t Want To Be Lonely” re-takes its rightful place at the end of the LP’s second side… but we couldn’t leave it at that. So we added an entire second record of rare material recorded around the same time as Sweet And Nice, much of it unavailable since it was originally released. Some of these songs have only ever been found on now unattainable 7" singles and no, rarity doesn’t always correspond with quality, but in this case we’re talking about some seriously jaw-dropping music.
Amongst 14 extra tracks you’ll find the exquisite late-60s singles “Melody Life” and “Mark My Word” which, along with the sumptuous reading of “Band Of Gold”, are now £100 records, if you can find them! Just sayin’. There‘s also a fantastic version of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” and an alternate take of “Play Me” with producer Lloyd Charmers adding his own vocals.
Everything’s been remastered of course, including the original LP, so Sweet And Nice now sounds even sweeter, and even nicer.
Unreleased Records is the label founded by Arodes, recognized for its afro-house, melodic, and club-oriented sound within the international electronic music landscape. Through a combination of high-quality productions, a strong and carefully developed artist roster, and an expanding live platform, Unreleased Records positions itself as a forward-thinking imprint that bridges underground credibility with international audience reach, and are now, after much demand, debuting on vinyl, with this standout 4 tracker EP with 3 tried and tested club bangers, and 1 unreleased gem.
So far, “Gwele,” “Don’t Mind,” and “Nothing’s Changed” have already been supported by heavyweights of the scene, including, Ante Perry, Black Coffee, Bluckther, Camilo Franco, Carl Bee, Chus & Ceballos (Ceballos), Cincity, Deer Jade, Djuma Soundsystem, Enoo Napa, Facundo Mohrr, Hyenah, Jonathan Kaspar, Joseph Capriati, Mauricio Brigante, Moeaike, Nicolas Masseyeff, Queen Rami, Sasha Carassi, Simone Vitullo, THEMBA, and Xinobi.
DJ Support: Louie Vega, Dave Lee, Mousse T, The Brothers Macklovitch, Folamour, Bellaire, Moonboots, DJ Spen, Terry Hunter, Michael Gray, Dr Packer, JKriv, The Shapeshifters, Moplen, Melvo Baptiste, Saucy Lady, Tedd Patterson, John Morales, Maurice Joshua, DJ Minx, DJ Dove and DJ Disciple.
Big Love return with EP 7 in the A Touch Of Love vinyl series. Label head Seamus Haji kicks off proceedings with his popular ‘Disco Dreams’ feat Chicago legend Mike Dunn on vocals given a fresh new lick by Toronto’s jackin’ house master Hatiras. Shawn Christopher‘s 90’s house classic ‘Don’t Lose The Magic’ gets a sublimely soulful update from Chicago’s Emmaculate. On the flip side we have 2 French House veterans with Art Of Tones serving up the Chic inspired disco beauty ‘Hoping For Another Chance’ followed by Yass feat the vocal powerhouse Michelle Weeks on the disco driven gospel stormer ‘Hallelujah’.
The breakout underground star of the past year, the deservedly hyped Thought Leadership returns with another X ideas: the deck this time chooses the suit of Cups. This new collection is closer to the Post-Punk tonality of Pentacles, than the breezy Balearic Jazz of Swords. Gone are the brushed drum samples and airy synths and in their place are BIG guitars, 808 thumps and a decidedly more prominent use of bass as a melodic device.
As the suit of Cups reflects the emotional heart of the Tarot, presented within are a further X pieces, this time displaying the full range and fervour of Thought Leadership.
You know the drill by now. Originally out on cassette only, we present the first ever vinyl issue. It's a hideously limited pressing of 300 for the world, so don't sleep on this.
Side A explores the emotional levels of consciousness; angst, joy, love, sorrow, relief, regret – they are all represented across the first seven tracks, and often within the same piece. XXI kicks us off with a huge tumbling D minor passage, layers and layers of guitar front and centre, whilst the drums pound away in the distance. Release is provided with a gorgeous G Dorian section, where we hear the bass take flight with a high melodic line.
We’re still in familiar Durutti Column meets Dif Juz territory here, but things switch up with XXII. This piece showcases a darker, more angular palette of guitars; think Alan Rankine (The Associates), or Deb Demure (Drab Majesty) in the unexpected harmonic shifts, knotty arpeggiated patterns and heavy, goth-adjacent modulation. A real love letter to 45+ years of darkly inclined guitar heritage.
XXIII enters the fray with tight, thumping 808s and Marr-esque guitar figures; and again, the bass providing heavy melodic counterpoint to the guitars. Enter chiming, lyrical lead phrasing, reminiscent of the eternal opening to "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". Another accidental perfect pop moment from the Thought Leader. Whilst on the topic of Tears For Fears, XXIV comes swinging out of the gate with some serious Sophisti-chug; we’re reminded of "Shout" in the A section, before being beautifully juxtaposed in the B section with more Vini-eqsue patterns, reminiscent of his timeless classic, Another Setting.
XXV gives us welcome pause to take stock midway through the A side. No drums this time, but instead a heartbreaking conversation between two guitars; think Kevin McCormick and David Horridge’s masterful Light Patterns, or perhaps even the early solo-Bill Connors mid-70s cuts for ECM. The moment of quiet reflection passes, and is quickly shattered by the thudding march of XXVI – this piece comes across like The Associates playing "Wicked Game"; heavy, moody, and utterly compelling. XXVII ends our journey across Side A with more Marr-inspired playing; one for the heads and already featured on mixes, this one is real testament to the vision of Thought Leadership.
Side B again takes us on a trip through three long-form semi-improvised pieces. XXVIII is like those classic Jonny Nash, early Melody As Truth releases, slowly unfurling, additional details introduced deliberately piece by piece, this idea builds across 7+ minutes culminating in some utterly joyous ebow fireworks at the end – well Balearic.
XXIX again, like XXV before it, dispatches the drums with a focus purely on melody and mood. The piece feels like a lost Save Room Theme from the Resident Evil series, pure golden age Capcom Sound Team vibes. Unadulterated aural nostalgia for hours spent with a PS1 in haze of hash.
XXX completes this majestic voyage with another Modal exercise; this time the Thought Leader has opted for the Lydian Mode. Beautifully dreamy, undeniably Soundtrack-y, and arguably the most concise distillation so far of everything this project stands for; drum machines, guitars, pedals, one-take improvised solos – XXX has the lot, and is surely destined for greatness.
So, another X epic statements for guitar, homespun with the humblest of means, for all the dreamers out there. The first ever vinyl release of IV Of Cups has been carefully remastered by Be With's engineer Simon Francis to ensure it sounds better than ever after its initial tape release. Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut at Abbey Road Studios whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at Record Industry, in Holland. The original tape cover artwork, so crucial to Thought Leadership's striking visual aesthetic, has been rejigged for vinyl issue here at Be With.
Denver Cuss presents her first 7" single release and her debut with UK independent label LRK Records.
'Crossed My Mind' backed with 'You Don't Get It' is out on streaming services on the 30 January, with the 7" out on the 27th February. It follows her 2024 album 'Leaving Me', which was described as "a nostalgic masterpiece" - Sommer Zeit magazine, earning a feature in Rolling Stone Germany, and a series digital singles, which have been played on the Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on BB6 Music as well as Noble & Heath's Soho Radio show.
Denver is an Irish, London-based musician and producer, who makes classic R&B and Soul-influenced music, having graduated as the prize-winning jazz vocalist from the London College Of Music. She has since stepped into a world of live and session singing, alongside her solo project, delving deep into girl-group harmony, Northern Soul and classic Rhythm and Blues.
For this release, she captures the essence of '60s record-making, working with collaborator/producer PM Warson and engineer Ed Deegan at the all-analogue Gizzard Recording in East London. Backed by some of London's finest young musicians, she cut her vocal live, bypassing the trend for layered productions and imitation, in favour of a direct, live and soulful approach, direct to tape. The result is two of the most authentic '60s Pop/Soul sides you're likely to hear this year
One of the all-time greats in electronic music, Uwe Schmidt-better known as Atom TM-joins the Sonic Groove roster with his latest masterpiece, "Exotrax". A true visionary, Uwe's discography is legendary, and this new release is no exception. It's a slickly reduced, hypnotic four-track journey in industrialized techno, showcasing his signature style-minimal, powerful, and intensely immersive. "Exotrax" which adds another brilliant chapter to his already remarkable legacy. Don't miss this one.
Dreamweavers II sees Mark de Clive-Lowe reunited with Italian rhythm masters Andrea Lombardini and Tommaso Cappellato for the next chapter in their electro-acoustic trio journey.
Recorded at Sotto il Mare Recording Studios in Verona, Italy in summer 2024, the album builds on the cosmic, hypnotic language established on Dreamweavers (2020) while pushing deeper into groove-driven terrain, dancefloor jazz and textural improvisation. Across eight tracks, the trio explore the elastic space between jazz tradition, beat culture, and club-influenced momentum – without samples or looping – relying purely on live interaction, feel and shared intuition.Opening with the Azymuth-inspired “Terra de Luz,” the album immediately signals its global outlook. “Kaze no Michi” follows with late-night Tokyo energy – dancefloor jazz that feels equally at home in jazz clubs or after-hours rooms. Two intentional reinterpretations bridge jazz and beat culture: J Dilla’s “Raise It Up” (from Slum Village – Fantastic Vol. 2) is reimagined with its original groove and bass line as the launch pad, while “The Bass That Don’t Stop” becomes a lush house-jazz tribute to the late Phil Asher, originally co-created by Asher and de Clive-Lowe in 2002 under the moniker musiclovelife.Bassist Andrea Lombardini’s “Pam” brings the album inward – introspective, spacious, and deeply melodic; while “Lucid Dreams” draws on the trio’s shared love of jungle, drum’n’bass and the exploratory spirit of greats like Chick Corea, amplifying the journey with forward motion and harmonic curiosity.Dreamweavers II is a concisely intentional sound narrative: a trio record rooted in jazz lineage, shaped by beat culture and guided by a collective curiosity for texture, rhythm, and movement.
With Morocco Palace, Cybercafé aka Adam Dirk’heim delivers his very first full EP on Sequence Records - a record that balances raw energy and melancholy, blending emotional depth with a strong, forward-thinking dancefloor edge.
The EP opens with Electroskit, driven by an electric, almost extraterrestrial voice, before diving into raw electronic textures that set the tone. Dance & Control marks a first shift with its slow tempo, massive modulated synths and stretched tension. Then comes Nightshade, where the energy rises further through a rhythmic and emotional build-up carried by deep, melancholic, yet dancefloor-oriented synth lines.
On the B-side, Don Dolor flirts with instrumental EBM influence, while What Am I Talking About? closes the record with a hypnotic groove that stays with you long after the last note.
Morocco Palace lays the foundations of Cybercafé’s universe: a subtle balance between introspection, intensity, and dancefloor energy.
For their 11th release, djfix makes his long-awaited return. A Soft Place to Land features six driving, techy tracks flexing his familiar djfix steeze with swung, slamming percussion, deep chattering low-end, and a psychedelic sheen.
Credits:
Written by Ethan Donovan in Bedstuy, Brooklyn
Mastered by Mike Grinser, Manmade Mastering
Additional Vocals: namastrange
Legendary trax from the DUB MASTER himself, freshly compiled for MOOD GROOVE MUSIC! The bass is heavy, the drums are crispy and the vocals tell a story we all hear differently. Fans of JEREMY SYLVESTER, TODD EDWARDS and SMACK take notice. Full color sleeve, limited pressing.
Gloria Scott’s ‘What Am I Gonna Do’ is considered by many as one of the greatest soul records of all time. A masterpiece produced by Barry White, that oozes class, lush instrumentation and the remarkable vocal talent and emotive delivery of Ms Scott.
Selector Series are proud to present arguably the two best songs from the album, the Modern Soul scenes favourite, ‘(A Case Of) Too Much Love Makin’ backed here with the impeccable LP opener ‘What Am I Gonna Do’. Paired together officially for the first time on a 7” since it’s initial limited release in 1975.
Another essential addition to the ever-growing Selector Series discography! Don’t sleep.
