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This album is a glimpse into the creative outpouring from Todd in September and October of 2025. He returned to the Purple Building in East Nashville to perfect what he called “the sound of country music 10 years from now”. This meant taking his favorite country music tropes, dismantling and reassembling them over stretched-out, swampy grooves with New Orleans-style horns. He was so sure of this sound, feel, and his studio band's pliability that he insisted on recording his vocal and guitar first, with no accompaniment or click track. Todd wanted the band to record after him, so they would HAVE to follow his lead wherever it went. In his mind, he was attempting to write and record a double album. His excitement over the recordings and the push to capture that much material meant that by mid-October, Todd had recorded his vocal, guitar and the band's rhythm section for at least an album’s worth of material, with plans to continue recording. Sadly, Todd passed away before the remaining overdubs and additional songs could be completed. Fortunately all the notes, directions and encouragement he left behind in the form of emails, voice memos and demos provided an extensive roadmap for his band. Following that roadmap as closely as possible, his band was able to complete Todd's last work, My Second Rodeo, Part 1.

Das einzige Trennungsalbum, das Sie jemals besitzen müssen. Mit seinen schwebenden Harmonien, taschenraubartigen Rhythmen und den in der Ferne um 2 Uhr morgens heulenden ,Krankenwagen"-Gitarrensoli verbreitete sich Idas zweites Album aus dem Jahr 1996 von Brooklyn aus über herausnehmbare Auto-CD-Player und Mixtapes von Fernliebenden. Ursprünglich auf dem traditionsreichen Label ,Simple Machines" veröffentlicht, enthält diese zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum erschienene Deluxe-Edition von ,I Know About You" bei Numero ein halbes Dutzend Extras, eine Fülle an fotografischem Material sowie neue Einblicke von Jenny Toomey und Sara Marcus. Taschentücher sind nicht im Lieferumfang enthalten.

Das einzige Trennungsalbum, das Sie jemals besitzen müssen. Mit seinen schwebenden Harmonien, taschenraubartigen Rhythmen und den in der Ferne um 2 Uhr morgens heulenden ,Krankenwagen"-Gitarrensoli verbreitete sich Idas zweites Album aus dem Jahr 1996 von Brooklyn aus über herausnehmbare Auto-CD-Player und Mixtapes von Fernliebenden. Ursprünglich auf dem traditionsreichen Label ,Simple Machines" veröffentlicht, enthält diese zum 30-jährigen Jubiläum erschienene Deluxe-Edition von ,I Know About You" bei Numero ein halbes Dutzend Extras, eine Fülle an fotografischem Material sowie neue Einblicke von Jenny Toomey und Sara Marcus. Taschentücher sind nicht im Lieferumfang enthalten.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Koen Holtkamp has spent more than two decades shaping a body of work at the intersection of ambient, experimental, and electroacoustic music. Known for his role in the influential duo Mountains, as well as a solo catalog defined by texture and spatial awareness, Holtkamp has long explored how sound interacts with environment and perception. With Nightlife, he enters a new phase of that inquiry, one shaped as much by physical relocation as artistic evolution.

After leaving Brooklyn for the relatively rural setting of New York’s Hudson Valley, Holtkamp found himself immersed in nature and embracing a slower way of life, a shift that directly informed the album’s creation. Rather than rushing into a new project, he allowed the space itself to guide him, focusing on experimentation and play instead of a fixed outcome. Over time, a new instrument emerged from his modular system, built around physical modeling techniques that emulate plucked string sounds. Drawing on a deep affinity for acoustic traditions, from guitar soli to the kora and other chordophones, he began translating those influences into an electronic language, creating music that feels tangible, effusive, and even intimate, despite its synthetic nature. As the pieces took shape, Holtkamp expanded the project into a kind of imagined ensemble. Composed with specific collaborators in mind, the album features extensive contributions from drummer Greg Fox and saxophonist and flutist Matt Bauder, whose performances subtly reshape the material and draw it toward more fluid, song-like forms, alongside a guest appearance from Ben Vida on synth bass. Yet even as Nightlife occasionally resembles a band in motion, its construction resists traditional cohesion. Acoustic and electronic sources coexist to create a hyper-dimensional sense of space, with each element deliberately placed in its own distinct environment, yielding a complex yet inviting setting that feels both otherworldly and completely natural.

Much of the album was created during late-night sessions, which became a kind of personal ritual and ultimately inspired its title. Nightlife unfolds as a series of finely detailed environments, where stillness, texture, and subtle interplay take precedence over momentum. Each piece invites close listening while remaining open and unforced, reflecting both a change in pace and a deepening of focus. The result extends Holtkamp’s ongoing interest in how sound can shape, and be shaped by, the spaces we inhabit.

Beneath the sleek, confident guitar line that powers “Overdrive,” the lead single of All Over You, another guitar marks the time more impatiently, as if the groove its locked into is the timebomb- tightness of a pre-hookup heartbeat. Its energy isn’t nervous — after all, it’s hard to be nervous with Will Schwartz cooing come-ons like “I just wanna get you in the bed / Light you up like a cigarette” in your ear — but it is urgent. Excited. Titillated.


That’s the word that best describes the prospect of a new Imperial Teen record: titillating. They come out every five or six years, each new album acting as, to quote Roddy Bottum, “an episodic piece of where we are now, where the world is now, who we have become, and the geography of our collective consciousness.” There is considerable distance between Imperial Teen, its members — Bottum (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Schwartz (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Jone Stebbins (bass, vocals), and Lynn Truell (drums, vocals) — having made lives for themselves in different cities, but the collective consciousness that exists between them makes distance and time seem immaterial to the listener.


Time, especially time together, is not immaterial to Imperial Teen: it is precious. “For the last few records,” Stebbins explains, “the process has been similar. We live great distances away from each other, so initially, we get together to collaborate, write, and create. When we have enough material, we reconvene to record. Both scenarios, creating and recording, take multiple trips, sometimes with big lapses of time in between due to our various schedules.” Bottum concurs: “The biggest challenge in writing and recording is the distance between us, but the longing and desire and the ultimate coming together becomes more potent as a result.”


All Over You is a triumph of maximized moments together, four people bringing the force of their personalities to bear on years of built-up ideas. Title track “All Over You,” initially built over the computer, gained its charming sneer in the studio, where Stebbins’ buoyant, fuzzed out bassline added bounce to the song’s punchy, sloganeering lyrics, a perfect set-up for Truell to drive the song home, screaming the last line of the chorus, “We’ve got nothing to do,” like a rallying cry for a generation that’s been given nothing and told to deny themselves everything. “In my head,” Truell says, “I just went back to punk, to that feeling of prowling around looking for anything to do and being so mad about how boring everything is that you just have to yell.” The track had an attitude, it had an unexpected texture thanks to Truell’s playing improvised percussion, but her scream is what took it to the next level, transforming it into a signature Imperial Teen song.


One of Imperial Teen’s less magical concerns on All Over You is the effect capitalism has on the creation of art. This expresses itself in the headspinning rush of music industry success and disappointment that plays out in “Hands All Up,” and also in Imperial Teen’s sound. All Over You features the band’s most expansive, textured palette to date, and much of it’s steeped in — bubblegum music and boy/girl harmonies, electro beats and grungy distortion, power pop mall anthems and kiss-off lyricism — has been dismissed, at one point or another, as a fad. Time, of course, has proven otherwise, and All Over You makes a case for Imperial Teen as four of that time’s architects, inheriting, preserving, and pushing the boundaries of what pop music can be from one song to the next.


“We want to make people dance and think and feel,” says Schwartz. In all of those ambitions, All Over You crushes, brought to life by four musicians who found each other in the clubs of San Francisco over three decades ago and have remained family ever since. It is less a return from hiatus than a broadcast from the sonic utopia Imperial Teen has long ruled over, where the music is bratty and sexy and the parties don’t stop until everyone’s found euphoria. A raveup for mind, body, and soul, best enjoyed in a dark room packed with as many sweaty bodies as possible

Beneath the sleek, confident guitar line that powers “Overdrive,” the lead single of All Over You, another guitar marks the time more impatiently, as if the groove its locked into is the timebomb- tightness of a pre-hookup heartbeat. Its energy isn’t nervous — after all, it’s hard to be nervous with Will Schwartz cooing come-ons like “I just wanna get you in the bed / Light you up like a cigarette” in your ear — but it is urgent. Excited. Titillated.


That’s the word that best describes the prospect of a new Imperial Teen record: titillating. They come out every five or six years, each new album acting as, to quote Roddy Bottum, “an episodic piece of where we are now, where the world is now, who we have become, and the geography of our collective consciousness.” There is considerable distance between Imperial Teen, its members — Bottum (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Schwartz (vocals, guitars, keyboards), Jone Stebbins (bass, vocals), and Lynn Truell (drums, vocals) — having made lives for themselves in different cities, but the collective consciousness that exists between them makes distance and time seem immaterial to the listener.


Time, especially time together, is not immaterial to Imperial Teen: it is precious. “For the last few records,” Stebbins explains, “the process has been similar. We live great distances away from each other, so initially, we get together to collaborate, write, and create. When we have enough material, we reconvene to record. Both scenarios, creating and recording, take multiple trips, sometimes with big lapses of time in between due to our various schedules.” Bottum concurs: “The biggest challenge in writing and recording is the distance between us, but the longing and desire and the ultimate coming together becomes more potent as a result.”


All Over You is a triumph of maximized moments together, four people bringing the force of their personalities to bear on years of built-up ideas. Title track “All Over You,” initially built over the computer, gained its charming sneer in the studio, where Stebbins’ buoyant, fuzzed out bassline added bounce to the song’s punchy, sloganeering lyrics, a perfect set-up for Truell to drive the song home, screaming the last line of the chorus, “We’ve got nothing to do,” like a rallying cry for a generation that’s been given nothing and told to deny themselves everything. “In my head,” Truell says, “I just went back to punk, to that feeling of prowling around looking for anything to do and being so mad about how boring everything is that you just have to yell.” The track had an attitude, it had an unexpected texture thanks to Truell’s playing improvised percussion, but her scream is what took it to the next level, transforming it into a signature Imperial Teen song.


One of Imperial Teen’s less magical concerns on All Over You is the effect capitalism has on the creation of art. This expresses itself in the headspinning rush of music industry success and disappointment that plays out in “Hands All Up,” and also in Imperial Teen’s sound. All Over You features the band’s most expansive, textured palette to date, and much of it’s steeped in — bubblegum music and boy/girl harmonies, electro beats and grungy distortion, power pop mall anthems and kiss-off lyricism — has been dismissed, at one point or another, as a fad. Time, of course, has proven otherwise, and All Over You makes a case for Imperial Teen as four of that time’s architects, inheriting, preserving, and pushing the boundaries of what pop music can be from one song to the next.


“We want to make people dance and think and feel,” says Schwartz. In all of those ambitions, All Over You crushes, brought to life by four musicians who found each other in the clubs of San Francisco over three decades ago and have remained family ever since. It is less a return from hiatus than a broadcast from the sonic utopia Imperial Teen has long ruled over, where the music is bratty and sexy and the parties don’t stop until everyone’s found euphoria. A raveup for mind, body, and soul, best enjoyed in a dark room packed with as many sweaty bodies as possible

Two decades have passed in the land of Gnod, yet the psychic travelogue only becomes more enthralling as it goes on. And whilst this band has flourished via dauntless conviction, hive-mind magic and a fierce and uncompromising spirit, one ingredient has served as a crucial fuel for the fire – the monolithic singularity of the riff. 



This second chapter of Gnod’s sort-of-anniversary trilogy also originates in the same six day sessions as the first, at Hellfire Studios near Dublin with producer Spud Murphy (Lankum, Black Midi etc). Yet the focus this time is on the transcendental heaviness and repetition that the band have often used as a primary fulcrum of their approach. This volume captures the sound of strings flayed, throats shredded, skins punished by the organic chemistry of this formidably powerful band in a room.


The results are amongst the most fearsome and kinetic material that Gnod have summoned to date. As has often been the case for a band heavily driven by serendipity and intuition, the best plan is no plan at all. “We find quite regularly that spontaneity and the no thought approach works better than over analysis and detailed planning” clarifies the band's Chris Haslam


Maximal yet minimal, claustrophobic yet expansive, free in approach yet mercilessly disciplined in their intensity – Gnod like every truly great band are a mass of contradictions. On Chronicles Of Gnowt (Vol 2), this thunderous paradox has never sounded fiercer. To paraphrase Nietzsche: “Is man merely a mistake of Gnod's? Or Gnod merely a mistake of man?”

Creole Culture is the triumphant return of Dawn Richard’s King Creole era. Steeped in history but with its flag planted firmly in the future, Creole Culture pulls elements from Richard’s heritage as a Black and Native American woman who has spent a lifetime making and engaging with music. Following New Breed (2019) and Second Line (2021), Creole Culture is akin to a panel of a triptych: a fully-realized sonic and narrative universe in which Richard, as King Creole, rebuilds her hometown of New Orleans in her image. She not only honors her city for what it was or what it gave her, but stakes a claim for it as a cradle of global culture now and for all time.


Creole Culture follows two acclaimed avant-garde R&B albums with composer Spencer Zahn — the later of which, 2024’s Quiet in a World Full of Noise, found Richard exorcising the specters of grief and trauma in the wake of her father Frank Richard’s health struggles and the killing of her cousin Cisco. It is a softer take on the brass-soaked swagger of Richard’s previous King Creole efforts, an evolution brought about when she realized she had left a crucial viewpoint out of her exploration of New Orleans: her own. “New Breed was the story of New Orleans through my father’s eyes,” Richard explains. “I used his samples, his music, his cultures, his work with Chocolate Milk, his side of the family. Second Line was my mom — her interludes riddled the album with her depiction of what is meant to be a Creole woman in New Orleans. The masculine and feminine sides of King Creole had expressed themselves through them, but the story felt unfinished, like my version of the story was untold.”
That story is, for lack of a better word, complex: at turns triumphant and tragic, sexy and mournful, braggadocious and contemplative. Creole Culture presents Richard’s New Orleans as a utopian soundscape — an intoxicating blend of R&B, soul, hip-hop, pop, and jazz — that’s survived and thrived despite the dystopian circumstances visited upon it. Richard presents the melange of influence and artifact on Creole Culture with the care of a botanist nurturing new hybrids in a rose garden.


What emerges from that care is at once delightful and unexpected, enlisting a crew of guest stars including Big Freedia, Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and Durand Bernarr for features that play against type. Tank’s turn at spoken word verse on “l v r” serves to add dimension to King Creole’s New Orleans, as does Joseph’s undeniable voice on “chuuuurch.” “I’m not normally a features girl,” says Richard, ”but King Creole can’t build a world from scratch without help. What’s beautiful about the features here — which is also true of my band and producers — is they come from people who understand the materials of the world they’re from, they’re people I love, and they’re people who are just extraordinary at what they do. They’re part of the atmosphere of this place. You need them for the record to breathe.”
In the end, that’s what King Creole creates: a space where Dawn Richard can breathe, can be at peace with herself, and let loose with others. From finding love in opening single “enough” to relishing in the Afrocaribbean futurism of “fiesta,” Creole Culture is a tremendous, freeing breath of fresh air. It captures the resolve of a woman and a place who’ve survived the unimaginable and sees the future not as something to be endured, but as something to be created. Dawn Richard has been making that future one album at a time over the course of her career. Creole Culture is her most stunning one yet.

Creole Culture is the triumphant return of Dawn Richard’s King Creole era. Steeped in history but with its flag planted firmly in the future, Creole Culture pulls elements from Richard’s heritage as a Black and Native American woman who has spent a lifetime making and engaging with music. Following New Breed (2019) and Second Line (2021), Creole Culture is akin to a panel of a triptych: a fully-realized sonic and narrative universe in which Richard, as King Creole, rebuilds her hometown of New Orleans in her image. She not only honors her city for what it was or what it gave her, but stakes a claim for it as a cradle of global culture now and for all time.


Creole Culture follows two acclaimed avant-garde R&B albums with composer Spencer Zahn — the later of which, 2024’s Quiet in a World Full of Noise, found Richard exorcising the specters of grief and trauma in the wake of her father Frank Richard’s health struggles and the killing of her cousin Cisco. It is a softer take on the brass-soaked swagger of Richard’s previous King Creole efforts, an evolution brought about when she realized she had left a crucial viewpoint out of her exploration of New Orleans: her own. “New Breed was the story of New Orleans through my father’s eyes,” Richard explains. “I used his samples, his music, his cultures, his work with Chocolate Milk, his side of the family. Second Line was my mom — her interludes riddled the album with her depiction of what is meant to be a Creole woman in New Orleans. The masculine and feminine sides of King Creole had expressed themselves through them, but the story felt unfinished, like my version of the story was untold.”
That story is, for lack of a better word, complex: at turns triumphant and tragic, sexy and mournful, braggadocious and contemplative. Creole Culture presents Richard’s New Orleans as a utopian soundscape — an intoxicating blend of R&B, soul, hip-hop, pop, and jazz — that’s survived and thrived despite the dystopian circumstances visited upon it. Richard presents the melange of influence and artifact on Creole Culture with the care of a botanist nurturing new hybrids in a rose garden.


What emerges from that care is at once delightful and unexpected, enlisting a crew of guest stars including Big Freedia, Anjelika “Jelly” Joseph, Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and Durand Bernarr for features that play against type. Tank’s turn at spoken word verse on “l v r” serves to add dimension to King Creole’s New Orleans, as does Joseph’s undeniable voice on “chuuuurch.” “I’m not normally a features girl,” says Richard, ”but King Creole can’t build a world from scratch without help. What’s beautiful about the features here — which is also true of my band and producers — is they come from people who understand the materials of the world they’re from, they’re people I love, and they’re people who are just extraordinary at what they do. They’re part of the atmosphere of this place. You need them for the record to breathe.”
In the end, that’s what King Creole creates: a space where Dawn Richard can breathe, can be at peace with herself, and let loose with others. From finding love in opening single “enough” to relishing in the Afrocaribbean futurism of “fiesta,” Creole Culture is a tremendous, freeing breath of fresh air. It captures the resolve of a woman and a place who’ve survived the unimaginable and sees the future not as something to be endured, but as something to be created. Dawn Richard has been making that future one album at a time over the course of her career. Creole Culture is her most stunning one yet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OTHELLO is the debut album by pianist and composer Orson Claeys. Bringing together influences from jazz, hip-hop, urban culture, and everyday life, the record offers the clearest portrait yet of an artist shaped as much by the worlds around him as by music itself.

The title refers to Claeys' full name, Orson Dwight Othello Claeys, and reflects the album's central concern:identity. Throughout the record, personal experiences, cultural influences, and artistic inspirations converge into a body of work that seeks to understand how an artist is formed, both within and beyond music. Musically, OTHELLO builds on jazz, strongly intertwined with hip-hop, contemporary culture, and ideas beyond traditional musical frameworks. For Claeys, music is not a fixed genre, but an open and evolving form of expression.

This broad perspective is evident in the album's carefully chosen collaborations. A track like "WHAT A NIGHT" first took shape during a studio session with indie-soul singer Sevens, whose harmonic ideas laid the foundation for the track. As the composition evolved, Claeys felt it called for a stronger hip-hop voice. Through a recommendation from Mixmonster Menno of STUFF., he was introduced to L.A. rapper IAMOMNI, whose contribution brought exactly the energy and perspective the track needed. The result unfolds like a late-night journey through Los Angeles, with IAMOMNI's contribution adding a sense of movement, character, and place.

Elsewhere on the album, "SPIRAL", featuring Belgo-Brazilian vocalist Helena Casella, grew out of a long-standing mutual admiration. Conceived as a meeting point between R&B and jazz, the composition balances the groove and emotional depth of the former with the improvisational spirit and spontaneity of the latter. The collaboration developed naturally from the outset, with Casella instinctively understanding the atmosphere Claeys envisioned while enriching the music with her own warmth and nuance.

A long-held ambition materializes on "SHADOWBOXING", where Claeys is joined by drummer, producer, and one of the key figures in contemporary Belgian jazz, Lander Gyselinck. Gyselinck's work, particularly his collaboration with Zwangere Guy on Pourriture Noble, was instrumental in showing Claeys how the language of hip-hop could coexist naturally with jazz, an idea that runs through OTHELLO. Drawing inspiration from boxing, the track is a musical equivalent of a fighter's walk towards the ring: focused, intense, and driven by the sense of anticipation that precedes stepping into the fight.

After this heightened intensity, the album gradually moves toward its closing statement. OUTRO / HANIN", featuring oud player Akram Ben Romdhane, a longtime collaborator whose playing forms a natural bridge between Claeys' previous work and the broader musical landscape explored across the album. The title references the Tunisian Arabic word hanin, meaning "nostalgia", a fitting conclusion to a work deeply concerned with memory, identity, and personal history.

Beyond music itself, OTHELLO is informed by a wider cultural landscape. Urban culture, with its visual language, creative independence, and sense of community, forms an important backdrop to the record. Sport also plays a significant role, particularly boxing and basketball, whose emphasis on discipline, focus, and resilience mirrors Claeys' own creative process. Rather than being treated as separate influences, these worlds coexist without hierarchy, reflecting an artistic vision that resists rigid boundaries and allows different disciplines, communities, and experiences to inform one another.

Das 1982 aufgenommene (aber erst 1986 veröffentlichte) Album *Jealous* war John Lee Hookers erstes
Album mit neuem Material seit Jahren und leitete ein Comeback ein, das drei Jahre später in dem mit
einem Grammy ausgezeichneten Album *The Healer* gipfelten sollte.
Im Gegensatz zu der Vielzahl an Gaststars, die auf den meisten Alben seiner späten Schaffensphase zu
hören waren, präsentiert sich *Jealous* als schnörkellose, erdige Produktion von Hookers eingespielter
Band. Das Album, das neu interpretierte, weniger bekannte Stücke aus seinem frühen Repertoire enthielt,
wurde schließlich mit einem W.C. Handy Award ausgezeichnet und für einen Grammy nominiert.

A quick scan of the world’s favourite crowdsourced discography reveals that Sonic Youth co-founder Lee Ranaldo was not a total stranger to crackling electric experimentation in the years following his songwriting turns of the 20-teens. Yet »The System«, ingeniously culled and sequenced from Ranaldo’s soundtrack work for Dutch filmmaker Joris Postema’s ›eco-doc‹ of the same name, nonetheless feels like a reawakening. Quietly released in a vastly different (and much more ›filmic‹) form by Doxy Music/Riva Media Records in 2025, this LP reimagines and reconfigures the initial release, including unreleased material written and recorded for the film, to lend it new stature as both a return to drone-improv form and a reunion with introspective Downtown angst.

Given the state of the world, it’s not surprising that the film Ranaldo scores – a documentary on three climate activists bruising their fists on the black iron prison of techno-fascist deathkultur – is a study in despair and futility. But rather than wallowing in navel-gazing doom and gloom, the film documents the unstoppable spirit that has animated human resistance since the time of the Pharaohs.

As it turns out, the gorgeous scope of Lee Ranaldo’s guitar palette is a perfect manifestation of the hope and despair that animates the film. But like other high-water marks in the guitar-centric soundtrack canon – the high plains raga of Bruce Langhorne’s »Hired Hand«, Neil Young’s sparse and ghostly solo transmissions on »Dead Man«, or the monolithic mantras of Popol Vuh’s »Nosferatu« – its devotion to spectral gestures and meditative song forms launches it firmly outside of the OST orbit into a universe fully its own.

It might seem like a long journey from the Lower Manhattan rhythmic grime of the album’s opener »Tajikistan (Nice to Meet You)« (reminiscent of guitar opuses like Robert Quine and Jody Harris’s »Escape«) to the ringing cowboy chords of the final track, but the narrative logic of the LP pulls the listener along as solidly as a pack horse. As the LP unwinds, and collaborators like Jim Jarmusch, cellist Leila Boudreil, Yeah Yeah Yeahs snare shaman Brian Chase, and guitarist Yonatan Gat take their places, new vistas unfurl: the ritualistic thrum of »Berlin Blockade«, the haunted overtone palaces of »Bergelmir«, and the cavernous acoustic strumming of »Instruments of Violence«. It all winds up with the high lonesome standard »Cool Water«, each unhurried note trailing off into long-tail reverb, layers of shifting vocal harmonies pulling everything skyward – a hopeful note in an album where existential dread never lurks too deeply below the surface.

In the end, »The System« functions both as a film score and a hallucinatory (mostly) instrumental guitar record, revealing a sensibility not too often spotted in the 21st century – a liminal space where the song, the jam, and the meditation merge into a blurred whole. »The System«’s expansive fabric, emerging from a collective sound circling around Ranaldo’s signature tones, envelops and ampl amplifies the contributions of its community of creators – the perfect antidote to narcissistic despair. Much like the subjects of the film light the way towards intra-generational resistance, the music of »The System« reveals a path through gathering darkness. The world could be yours if you follow.

– Tom Carter

A quick scan of the world’s favourite crowdsourced discography reveals that Sonic Youth co-founder Lee Ranaldo was not a total stranger to crackling electric experimentation in the years following his songwriting turns of the 20-teens. Yet »The System«, ingeniously culled and sequenced from Ranaldo’s soundtrack work for Dutch filmmaker Joris Postema’s ›eco-doc‹ of the same name, nonetheless feels like a reawakening. Quietly released in a vastly different (and much more ›filmic‹) form by Doxy Music/Riva Media Records in 2025, this LP reimagines and reconfigures the initial release, including unreleased material written and recorded for the film, to lend it new stature as both a return to drone-improv form and a reunion with introspective Downtown angst.

Given the state of the world, it’s not surprising that the film Ranaldo scores – a documentary on three climate activists bruising their fists on the black iron prison of techno-fascist deathkultur – is a study in despair and futility. But rather than wallowing in navel-gazing doom and gloom, the film documents the unstoppable spirit that has animated human resistance since the time of the Pharaohs.

As it turns out, the gorgeous scope of Lee Ranaldo’s guitar palette is a perfect manifestation of the hope and despair that animates the film. But like other high-water marks in the guitar-centric soundtrack canon – the high plains raga of Bruce Langhorne’s »Hired Hand«, Neil Young’s sparse and ghostly solo transmissions on »Dead Man«, or the monolithic mantras of Popol Vuh’s »Nosferatu« – its devotion to spectral gestures and meditative song forms launches it firmly outside of the OST orbit into a universe fully its own.

It might seem like a long journey from the Lower Manhattan rhythmic grime of the album’s opener »Tajikistan (Nice to Meet You)« (reminiscent of guitar opuses like Robert Quine and Jody Harris’s »Escape«) to the ringing cowboy chords of the final track, but the narrative logic of the LP pulls the listener along as solidly as a pack horse. As the LP unwinds, and collaborators like Jim Jarmusch, cellist Leila Boudreil, Yeah Yeah Yeahs snare shaman Brian Chase, and guitarist Yonatan Gat take their places, new vistas unfurl: the ritualistic thrum of »Berlin Blockade«, the haunted overtone palaces of »Bergelmir«, and the cavernous acoustic strumming of »Instruments of Violence«. It all winds up with the high lonesome standard »Cool Water«, each unhurried note trailing off into long-tail reverb, layers of shifting vocal harmonies pulling everything skyward – a hopeful note in an album where existential dread never lurks too deeply below the surface.

In the end, »The System« functions both as a film score and a hallucinatory (mostly) instrumental guitar record, revealing a sensibility not too often spotted in the 21st century – a liminal space where the song, the jam, and the meditation merge into a blurred whole. »The System«’s expansive fabric, emerging from a collective sound circling around Ranaldo’s signature tones, envelops and ampl amplifies the contributions of its community of creators – the perfect antidote to narcissistic despair. Much like the subjects of the film light the way towards intra-generational resistance, the music of »The System« reveals a path through gathering darkness. The world could be yours if you follow.

– Tom Carter

Recently unveiled Norwegian Heavy Metal act Avrak was founded in 2023 by guitarists Anders Hegna & Ted Skjellum; himself notable for being half of legendary duo, Darkthrone. The pair had known each other for many years, & with a mutual passion for old, classic rock & metal they finally embarked upon this new journey together under the banner of Avrak.

Ted had declared from the beginning that he would in fact not carry out main vocal duties in the band, & so Anders - with his own voice befitting of the style - took on this task.

Still quite early on within the formative stages, Terje Kråbøl was brought in on the drums &, from there-on, with his percussive presence backing up some thunderous riffing, the creative work accelerated until enough material was produced (and relentlessly refined), culminating in the self-titled, hook-laden & doom-laced rock debut, ‘Avrak’.

Suitably & epically defined as a monumental “Heavy Metal voyage from the peak of the mountains to the depths of the seas”, & delivering themes relating to empowerment in the face of increasingly corrupt times, ‘Avrak’ is a combination of a vast multitude of influences, as the eclectic, deceptively nuanced nine track offering features a classic heavy metal & doom rock backbone, with further experimentation including synth passages, & even some traces of black metal riffing in its DNA.

Avrak subsequently held its debut show in their local town of Porsgrunn in late April 2026, backed by the brand new bassist & final piece of the puzzle, Steinar Gundersen, with more live shows intended in future to support the release.

This edition of ‘Avrak’ is presented on limited silver vinyl, including printed inner sleeve with full lyrics.

The pairing of two fiddles is a familiar sound in many folk traditions, but it has been heard less frequently in English traditional music. Morning of May, a new album from Sam Sweeney and Grace Smith, sets out to discover what happens when two fiddlers meet with this repertoire: taking turns carrying the melody, as the other takes a "seconding" role, weaving harmony and rhythm around the tune, elevating it and subtly reshaping the ground beneath it. Sweeney and Smith immersed themselves in a wide range of manuscripts and tune collections, delving into some of the more obscure sources. Within these archives, they found tunes that felt unexplored and rich with possibility. Some tunes arrived as complete hidden gems. Others required some restoration, their rough edges gently smoothed through the process of playing. Others were tiny fragments, inspiring almost total reimaginings. Alongside these old tunes sit a few original compositions by Sam Sweeney and Grace Smith, written in the same spirit of curiosity and continuity that informs their approach to archive material.

The pairing of two fiddles is a familiar sound in many folk traditions, but it has been heard less frequently in English traditional music. Morning of May, a new album from Sam Sweeney and Grace Smith, sets out to discover what happens when two fiddlers meet with this repertoire: taking turns carrying the melody, as the other takes a "seconding" role, weaving harmony and rhythm around the tune, elevating it and subtly reshaping the ground beneath it. Sweeney and Smith immersed themselves in a wide range of manuscripts and tune collections, delving into some of the more obscure sources. Within these archives, they found tunes that felt unexplored and rich with possibility. Some tunes arrived as complete hidden gems. Others required some restoration, their rough edges gently smoothed through the process of playing. Others were tiny fragments, inspiring almost total reimaginings. Alongside these old tunes sit a few original compositions by Sam Sweeney and Grace Smith, written in the same spirit of curiosity and continuity that informs their approach to archive material.

Recently unveiled Norwegian Heavy Metal act Avrak was founded in 2023 by guitarists Anders Hegna & Ted Skjellum; himself notable for being half of legendary duo, Darkthrone. The pair had known each other for many years, & with a mutual passion for old, classic rock & metal they finally embarked upon this new journey together under the banner of Avrak.

Ted had declared from the beginning that he would in fact not carry out main vocal duties in the band, & so Anders - with his own voice befitting of the style - took on this task.

Still quite early on within the formative stages, Terje Kråbøl was brought in on the drums &, from there-on, with his percussive presence backing up some thunderous riffing, the creative work accelerated until enough material was produced (and relentlessly refined), culminating in the self-titled, hook-laden & doom-laced rock debut, ‘Avrak’.

Suitably & epically defined as a monumental “Heavy Metal voyage from the peak of the mountains to the depths of the seas”, & delivering themes relating to empowerment in the face of increasingly corrupt times, ‘Avrak’ is a combination of a vast multitude of influences, as the eclectic, deceptively nuanced nine track offering features a classic heavy metal & doom rock backbone, with further experimentation including synth passages, & even some traces of black metal riffing in its DNA.

Avrak subsequently held its debut show in their local town of Porsgrunn in late April 2026, backed by the brand new bassist & final piece of the puzzle, Steinar Gundersen, with more live shows intended in future to support the release.

This edition of ‘Avrak’ is presented on limited silver vinyl, including printed inner sleeve with full lyrics.

2026 Repress!

A year after the release of Adriatique’s debut LP, ‘Nude’, Afterlife presents a seven-track remix package to breathe new life into the originals.

The album found Adriatique, the duo of Adrian Shala and Adrian Schweizer, explore a more downtempo, contemplative sound than they were known for. Its profound musicality makes rich source material for a set of dancefloor interpretations, which Tale Of Us have curated together with Adriatique for the label’s 30th release.

First is Tale Of Us and Mathame’s version of ‘Mystery’, where they extend the blissful tones and Jono McCleery’s vocals into a euphoric dancefloor cut. Next Solomun brings some electro flair to the vocoder-led title track, before Kobosil toughens up ‘Tachykardia’ with a warehouse-ready kick drum and twists the serene voice of Delhia De France. Rampa is another new name for Afterlife Recordings; he gives ‘Nude’ a slick, techy overhaul to complete the vinyl release in fine style.

The digital release contains an Agents Of Time epic in their remix of ‘Buchla’s Dreaming’, Johannes Brecht’s shimmering take on ‘Ray Reincarnation’ and a chopped-up remix of Mystery by Isoleé. A diverse, tastefully-executed remix EP which does justice to the quality of Adriatique’s album.

The group's goal was, "Let's go back to melodic tunes, let's be more of a proper rock band," Hozie explains. Sonically, the band aimed for "this late '80's/ early 90's Stone Roses- meets- Janes Addiction thing, with more riffing and guitar solos." Where the band's earlier material took a more explicitly sociopolitical bent, Hozie and Belfilgio's writing on 'All Inside Aquarium' is deliberately more concerned with the personal, poetics, and play. With each single from the album, the band have created a limited edition 7" singles series. Each 7" has a unique colour and individual exclusive artwork that corresponds to a section of the 'All Inside Aquarium' album cover designed by Nikki. BODEGA, passionate defenders of the lost art of curating B- sides, made sure that each disc comes with an exclusive B- side track that's not available digitally, or on the album. Vinyl collectors and BODEGA heads will surely want to catch them all.

Former members of COWARD, an instrumental math rock quartet from Columbia, Missouri, Mikey Wheeler, Nathan Driskill, and Cody Mains began developing new material with former FAMINES bandmate Matt Cole in the summer of 2024. Dense, angular riffs underscore dynamic arrangements. Delicate melodies soften harsh edges. Core themes of death and loss juxtaposed against brief glimpses of acquiescence and hope... The GIFT HORSE sound searches for cracks in the dark where the light can come through. ABSENCE, recorded between June of 2025 and June of 2026, was produced, mixed, and mastered by Ian Dobyns at Element Studios in Kansas City, Kansas and Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.

Cameron Winter kündigt sein erstes Live-Album "Live at Carnegie Hall" an. Das Album dokumentiert Winters historischen Auftritt im Dezember 2025, bei dem er als einer der jüngsten Solokünstler überhaupt als Headliner im Hauptsaal der legendären Konzerthalle auftrat. Ganz allein, über sein Klavier gebeugt und mit dem Rücken zu einem ehrfürchtigen, ausverkauften Publikum, interpretierte der Frontmann der Band "Geese" Songs aus seinem gefeierten Debütalbum "Heavy Metal" neu. Ein Album, das von GQ in ihrem ausführlichen Bericht über diesen Abend in der Carnegie Hall als "eine der kühnsten und selbstbewusstesten Singer-Songwriter-Platten dieses Jahrhunderts bisher, ein Fiebertraum voller Gefühle von jemandem, der die Regeln gut genug verstand, um zu wissen, dass sie ihm kaum etwas bedeuteten" beschrieben wurde.

Auf dieser berühmten Bühne präsentierte er zudem drei bisher unveröffentlichte Kompositionen, von denen jede einen Einblick in seinen Fundus an Material bot. Die gesamte Darbietung war von einem unbestreitbaren Gefühl der Einmaligkeit geprägt, das die Bedeutung des Augenblicks einfing: Zeuge zu sein, wie ein Künstler, wie er nur einmal in einer Generation vorkommt, die Bühne eines der ehrwürdigsten Veranstaltungsorte der amerikanischen Musikszene beherrscht.

Die intergalaktische Musik von EVE Online erstmals auf Vinyl!

Diese Veröffentlichung erstreckt sich über das von Spielern gestaltete Universum von New Eden und vereint auf zwei LPs eine Auswahl herausragender Titel, die sowohl das Ausmaß interstellarer Konflikte als auch die stille Einsamkeit des Weltraums widerspiegeln.

Mit Musik von Kristian Ross und Real X spannt der Soundtrack einen Bogen von üppigen Ambient-Atmosphären bis hin zu cineastischen Orchesterklängen. Von der treibenden Intensität von „Uprising“, „Havoc“ und „Legion“ bis hin zu den kosmischen, meditativen Klängen von „Stellar Shadows“ und „Below the Asteroids“ bewegt sich die Trackliste zwischen Spannung und Ruhe und spiegelt das sich ständig verändernde Kräfteverhältnis im Universum von EVE Online wider.

Die Verpackung greift Hintergründe des Weltraums, Umlaufbahnschemata und markante himmlische Formen auf und ist auf silbernem Karton gedruckt, um den Glanz des Himmels besser einzufangen. Das Artwork auf der inneren Gatefold-Hülle ist eine Hommage an die von den Spielern bestimmte Erzählung des Spiels und zeichnet die Geschichte von New Eden mit einer Zeitleiste der wichtigsten Ereignisse nach, die das Universum geprägt haben.

Mit hochwertigen Materialien und durchdachten Details ist dies eine Veröffentlichung, die sich so weitläufig anfühlt wie das Universum, das sie repräsentiert. Geschaffen, um ausgestellt, gesammelt und immer wieder neu entdeckt zu werden … Genau wie EVE Online.

Die Wurzeln der NWOBHM-Legende Tokyo Blade gehen zurück bis in die frühen achtziger Jahre, als die Schulfreunde Andy Boulton (Gitarre), Andy Robbins (Bass) und Steve Pierce (Schlagzeug) in Wiltshire unter dem ursprünglichen Namen White Diamond starteten. Irgendwann tat man sich mit Sänger Alan Marsh zusammen und machte zuerst als Killer und dann als Genghis Khan weiter. Die Doppel-Single »Double Dealin’« erschien 1982 und sicherte Tokyo Blade einen Plattenvertrag beim neu gegründeten Label Powerstation Records. Im November 1983 stand schließlich das Debütalbum in den Läden.
Gründungsmitglied und Gitarrist Andy Boulton erläutert: “Die Platte wurde im Wickham Studio in Ost-London aufgenommen. Wir hatten lediglich vier Tage zur Verfügung und es war ein Albtraum. Immer wenn wir fertig waren, fielen wir todmüde um und schliefen sofort auf dem Studioboden ein. Und am nächsten Tag ging alles wieder von vorne los.“
Es wundert demnach kaum, dass Andy die Atmosphäre im Studio als angespannt bezeichnet: “Wir dachten, uns würden wenigstens zwei Wochen zur Verfügung stehen, aber am Ende mussten wir alles mehr oder weniger live aufnehmen. Im Grunde genommen haben wir die Songs für das Album ausgewählt, die uns am besten gefallen haben zu diesem Zeitpunkt.”
Während die Pressereaktionen im Vereinigten Königreich, speziell beim Kerrang!, nicht überwältigend waren, wurden Tokyo Blade in Kontinentaleuropa von Magazinen wie dem Aardschok (Niederlande) und Rock Hard (Deutschland) bereits als die neuen Iron Maiden gefeiert.
Diese erweiterte Re-Issue des ersten Albums von Tokyo Blade kommt mit einer Fülle von Bonus-Material: als da wären die vier Songs der »Midnight Rendezvous«-EP, nämlich “If Heaven Is Hell”, “Highway Passion”, “Midnight Rendezvous” und “Mean Streak”, sowie “Powergame” und ”Death On Main Street” von der »Powergame« 7”, plus ein Stück namens “Machine Run”, das 1982 auf der Ebony-Compilation »Metal Maniaxe« unter dem Bandnamen Madame Guillotine erschienen ist und in Hull aufgenommen wurde.
Transfer, Audio-Restaurierung und Mastering durch Patrick W. Engel bei TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY im Februar 2021 / Januar 2026. Cutting durch SST Germany auf Neumann-Geräten für optimale Qualität auf allen Ebenen. Die ultimative audiophile Ausgabe dieses zeitlosen NWOBHM-Klassikers!

Die Londoner Band Apocalypse sollte kaum einer Einführung bedürfen. Sie erlangten unter Fans der New Wave Of British Heavy Metal durch ihre Single »Storm Child« von 1982 Ruhm, der drei Jahre später das vielbeachtete Album »The Prophet« folgen sollte, obwohl die Band zu diesem Zeitpunkt bereits eine Namensänderung durchlaufen hatte und nun als Omega bekannt war.
Spulen wir über vierzig Jahre vor. Apocalypse sind mit einem neuen Album zurück, »Last Man Standing«. Das aktuelle Werk knüpft nahtlos an »Abandon Hope an«, das 2010 von High Roller Records veröffentlicht wurde. Mittlerweile hat Gitarrist und Sänger Steve Grainger, der nach dem Tod sowohl seines Bruders Marc (ehemaliger Schlagzeuger der Band) und des Bassisten Dave Robertson tatsächlich als „letzter Mann übriggeblieben ist“, die Gruppe in Apocalypse NWOBHM umbenannt.
»Last Man Standing« kombiniert neues Material, das Steve geschrieben hat, mit älteren Songs, die in ihrer ursprünglichen Form aus der Vorgängerband Phaze stammen (die er und sein Bruder betrieben). Die Atmosphäre und der Drive von Apocalypse sind geblieben. Mit Beiträgen von Marc und Dave sowie textlichen Anspielungen auf einige frühere Stücke der Band ist »Last Man Standing« der neueste Teil der Apocalypse-Saga und in dieser Form definitiv eine würdige Ergänzung des Bandkatalogs.
HRR 1084LP, Einband aus schwerem Karton (425 gsm), 4-seitiges Booklet. Erste Auflage limitiert auf 500 Stück.

World Of Echo are proud to announce the long-awaited reissue of the self-titled debut album by Bristol’s Movietone. Originally released in 1995 by Planet Records and reissued on CD in 2003 by The Pastels’ Geographic Music imprint, this is the first time Movietone has been reissued on vinyl. An expanded double-LP edition, it includes the extra tracks from the 2003 CD (their first two singles, and an unreleased demo of “Chance Is Her Opera”), and adds three more unearthed gems: demos of “Alkaline Eye” and “She Smiled Mandarine Like”, and an early take of “Late July”, recorded in a garden by Dave Pearce (Flying Saucer Attack) in 1993.

Taken together, this is the definitive collection of music from the first phase of one of Bristol’s most remarkable groups. Movietone was the cumulation of a series of events, explorations, and discoveries, starting at secondary school – the group’s core membership of Kate Wright, Rachel Brook, Matt Elliott and Matt Jones met at Cotham School in Bristol. As for many other groups, their early years were all about experimenting, and finding ways to ‘make do’, a DIY sensibility that would inform Movietone through their decade-long lifespan. From formative rehearsals in a shed in the garden of Brook’s family home, to recording early material to four-track in Redland Library, and on into the Whitehouse and Mr Grin’s studio sessions for their debut album, Movietone’s music fell together in a creatively unpredictable, yet conceptually rigorous manner.

By the time they released Movietone, they’d found a home with Bristol’s Planet, run by author Richard King and James Webster, who had both released their first two singles, “She Smiled Mandarine Like” and “Mono Valley”. There was other music happening around them in Bristol, too, from the Jones brothers’ avant-rock outfit Crescent (who were Movietone’s closest conspirators), through Elliott’s jungle/electronica project Third Eye Foundation, and Brook and Elliott’s membership of Flying Saucer Attack. A closely knit community, Movietone are the centre of this nestling architecture of groups. The vision in the music, mostly, belongs to Wright, but Movietone ran in democratic creative consort. Listening back to Movietone, you can hear this democracy in action through the wildness of the music, which is balanced by the poetics of Wright’s lyrics and melodies.

Full of half-captured memories and entangled abstractions, there’s an elliptical, ruminative quality to much of the writing here that shows the deep influence of the Beat Generation writers, along with a twilight environment captured in the songs that’s pure third-album Velvets, Galaxie 500, early Tindersticks, Codeine. Unpredictable interventions – the crashing glass in “Mono Valley”, the sudden explosions of “Orange Zero” point towards the noise blowouts of My Bloody Valentine, the unpredictability of Sonic Youth; Wright’s understated vocal cadence suggest a deep, embodied understanding of John Cage’s Indeterminacy.

Movietone would go on to make 3 fantastic albums for Domino: Night & Day (1997), The Blossom Filled Streets (2000) and The Sand & The Stars (2003) and their Peel Sessions were released earlier this year on Textile. Still held in high regard by artists like Steven R. Smith, and The Pastels, whose Stephen McRobbie once described them as “one of the great unknown English groups,” it’s an absolute thrill to listen to Movietone anew – still inspired, still seductive, still magic, still mysterious.

Monolink and CIOZ bring a stripped-back electronic edge to Crosstown Rebels with ‘Don’t Talk To Me’. The German multi-instrumentalist makes his Crosstown Rebels debut alongside Italy’s CIOZ, with OMRI. also returning to the label on remix duties. There are few artists in electronic music quite like Monolink. Moving naturally between singer-songwriter, producer and live performer, his music gives as much weight to voice, melody and narrative as it does to electronic production. For ‘Don’t Talk To Me’, he joins Bergamo-born, Berlin-based CIOZ, whose own work is driven by rich musicality and a willingness to move beyond convention. The link-up makes for an intriguing signing to Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels, bringing together two different approaches to electronic music without either losing their identity.

‘Don’t Talk To Me’ is deliberately pared back, pairing Monolink’s voice and songwriting with sparse textures and gently shifting melodies. Rather than building towards a conventional dancefloor payoff, the track unfolds with a quieter sense of tension, sitting somewhere between alternative songwriting and electronic voyage. An artist whose productions and remixes have quickly made him a recurring presence in the Crosstown Rebels universe, OMRI. takes the track deeper with his remix, adding darker, hypnotic qualities while preserving the original’s restraint. ‘Wasting Time’ closes the release with another sweeping collaboration, built around subtle melodic details and captivating synth flourishes.

The collaboration marks Monolink’s first outing on Crosstown, adding to an impressive career that has seen him craft his distinctive sound via Berlin-based imprint Embassy One and on labels like Cercle Records. Performances have taken that music from Burning Man and Montreux Jazz Festival to Day Zero Bali, where he joined Damian Lazarus for its first edition, as well as sets alongside Lazarus at Club Space, Zamna and more around the world. Meanwhile, CIOZ brings his own expansive approach back to the label, with material also landing via Monaberry, Frau Blau and Stil vor Talent, plus remixes for Diplo, Oliver Koletzki, Patrice Bäumel and the Crosstown head honcho. With both artists comfortable moving between emotional depth and dancefloor function, ‘Don’t Talk To Me’ gives that shared instinct plenty of room to breathe.

The second VA release from Méchante Recording continues with a new identity, bringing together a refined selection of artists across different generations. At its core, a reissued and repress of a 1994 track by Jay Tripwire creates a timeless bridge between past and present.

Alongside this piece, UK producers Quidders and Ferg deliver fresh and captivating productions, as well as Arion, a prodigious talent from Lyon, who charms us with each of his tracks and brings depth and character.

This Various Artists blends dub tech house and progressive minimal, offering hypnotic, groove-driven tracks designed for both listening and the dancefloor, while affirming the evolving sonic identity of Méchante Recording.

Long overdue reissue of classic Scottish ambient techno banger ‘Mindweeds’, originally released in 1993 on the Pure-affiliated T&B Vinyl label run by Keith McIvor (JD Twitch) and Andy Watson (Brainstorm). With a Discogs demand ratio at about 300 have : 2000 want, and used prices peaking at over £100, now seems to be the right time for a re-release.

State of Flux were Roger Elliott and Dave Clark (aka Sparky, LUMA, Truffle Club and main man behind Kübler-Ross). They first met at Glasgow’s Strathclyde University in 1990, bonding over a shared love of weasel racing, German sausages and “man-duos” like The KLF and The Shamen. Dave was fully pubescent and already had a synth and drum machine, while Roger – a late developer – bought “another cheap synth, a Commodore Amiga for sequencing and a tiny mixer with no EQ”. For two long years they concentrated hard on “churning out unlistenable pish”, admittedly clueless about what they were trying to do.

Then – out of nowhere in the summer of 1992 – a flatmate’s Jello Biafra spoken word CD (‘I Blow Minds For A Living’) provided the inspiration to unlock the spark of dynamite that set the raving world on fire. Sampled using a Walkman* cassette** tape*** on playback (a decision the pair soon came to regret every time the track was subsequently performed live), Jello’s pilfered rant would soon become the crucial glue that held together the burgeoning kaleidoscopic helicopter spliff that is ‘Mindweeds’, loaded as it was – and indeed still is – with a veritably seething morass of cheeky electronic blims, nasal filter cheese and gay Caledonian spunk.

* a vintage portable listening device roughly the size of 4 iPhones stacked on top of one another and weighing the same as a small tub of yoghurt

** a plastic cartridge enclosing 2 miniature spools of magnetically coated, polyester-type plastic film (magnetic tape), notoriously convenient for pirating copyright material and secreting in one’s underpants for transporting between illicit market trader stalls

*** thin ribbon coated with ferromagnetic particles, usually ferric oxide but also chromium dioxide, "pseudochrome" ferricobalt or iron-cobalt-nickel “metal” formulations – with the latter types sounding marginally less crap

Playing demos of the track to friends, one thing led to another and a copy arrived with Twitch. Meeting the legends behind Pure in late 1992, a release was scheduled for summer 1993… but not before a promotional live gig in February of that year, supporting their heroes The Black Dog. Confessing that they “didn’t have a clue how to play live”, the duo played it safe, “went to a studio near Edinburgh airport to record the ‘live’ show” and then “mimed it off a DAT” at the gig, “standing in front of unplugged synths”. Soon after this, they recorded the full EP at Finitribe’s ‘Finiflex’ studio in Leith, Edinburgh and the record came out as planned that summer – the same week as Underworld’s ‘Rez’.

The record received high praise, appeared in many big-name DJ charts, sold out very quickly and was repressed within a few weeks, selling several thousand copies by the end of 1993 – no mean feat in an era when people had to use landline phones ****, faxes ***** or good old-fashioned carrier pigeons ****** to ascertain literally anything about the outside world, what was cool, where to buy the cool shit, or how to meet people and have fun.

**** a fixed communication device that connects to a telephone network using physical wires, cables, or a stationary base unit tied to a specific geographic address, using a handset incorporating a mouthpiece featuring a small metal disk and carbon grains, converting sound pressure from the human voice into a flow of electrical waves caused by these grains being squeezed together, before the variable signal is transmitted down DC voltage-powered copper wire and rerouted by a central exchange to arrive at the earpiece magnet of the target receiver’s handset, moving a small speaker cone accordingly so the message is intelligible WITHOUT THE PERSON SPEAKING ACTUALLY BEING PRESENT

***** as above, but for the d/Deaf

****** flying vermin riddled with diseases and capable of surviving nuclear armageddon

Soon Roger and Dave became sick of the Walkman being the only instrument played live in their set: with their new found fame and riches, they invested in a case for their Amiga to transport it around Scotland, while also putting in the hours on how to pretend to play live better with a sequencer and synths that were FINALLY plugged in. Following the release of ‘The Mercury EP' in April 1994, they embarked on a full tour of the UK and even managed to part ways and end the band by June that year.

This reissue includes the two original mixes of ‘Mindweeds’ recorded at Finiflex (‘Original’ and engineer ‘Fred's Fancy’), the original cassette demo (mastered directly from the actual recording sent to Twitch & Brainstorm in 1992) and a live version recorded at the Birmingham club night 'Oscillate' in April 1994.

On her first Harmony Index album, multi-instrumentalist and producer Nico Leibman spotlights the feelings that are most difficult to express, bringing out the friction between her dreamy hooks and harsher sonics. Written almost like a DJ set, the album shifts intentionally between piano-led trip-hop, lounge, dream pop, 2-step and breakbeat house, not languishing in nostalgia but defining a language that's rooted in desire, surrender and forward motion.

Until now, Leibman has been best known as a touring musician, working alongside artists like Jessica Pratt and Ana Roxanne, while slowly putting together new solo material in-between frequent tours. The album was written in bursts over the course of five long years and provided Leibman with a much-needed outlet - a chance for her to lock into her personal musical preoccupations, like Janet Jackson's 'The Velvet Rope', Everything but the Girl's 'Walking Wounded' and Prefab Sprout's 'Jordan: The Comeback'.

It's this era of pop - when nascent technology collided at force with skillful, soulful songwriting - that provides the album's backbone, fleshed out by Leibman's potent meditations on a spectrum of experiences in Los Angeles. And as the record was evolving, Leibman let long night drives crack her creative world open. Embracing the city's notoriously cinematic romantic side, she used the car as a "little chamber of limerence," in her own words, enabling her fantasies and acting as a test system for each song. "If it wasn't hitting in the car," she says. "It wasn't going to be on the record, period."

This sense of motion is evident almost immediately on 'Recognize', when Leibman's breathy words are carried into the night by choppy, uptempo breaks and resonant pads. So even when she simply coos over chugging guitars and bass on the first half of 'Enough', the drop into a low-slung breakbeat is implied. "Another digression, a break in this tension," she sings. "Was I foolish to believe that this was never your intention?" Leibman's tales of disillusionment are imbued with power, buoyed by her pitch-perfect production, with additional help from co-producer Cesar Maria.

On 'Don't Pretend', she sings softly and soulfully over decelerated Timbaland-inspired beats and a dubwise bassline, aided by additional production from Purelink. And 'If' marks the point where she lets go, infusing her euphoria with melancholy as her voice soars alongside the album's most infectious piano riff. Fittingly, the album concludes with 'Trust', a song about surrendering to the possibilities of love that works as a potent metaphor for the album's evolution. Over the course of five years, Leibman learned to let people in, finally trusting the process. "It's also a fantasy of what it would feel like to finally be in love again," she laughs, accepting that it's still just a fantasy. But it's this hope in unfulfilled longing that gives the album its unique character, defining a bold, unguarded voice in LA's experimental pop landscape.

This release closes the current run of much‑needed raids on the Digi Dub archives. Label boss Berwick emerged from the DIY ferment of Camberwell's squat era , blending reggae and rave influences into a stream of boundary‑pushing music and events under a tangle of ever‑shifting aliases. Nodding to the Far East stylings of Augustus Pablo, South‑Eastern Style finds Berwick, working under his Mudskipper alias, refracting Pablo’s melodic meditations through a mutoid bass filter, delivering six cuts of idiosyncratic, genre- agnostic electronics.

Some of Berwick’s Mudskipper material was partially exhumed for digital release in 2021, but the alias was only one of several he deployed during Digi Dub’s most fertile years and during the 90s Mudskipper material was released sparingly. It feels fitting, then, that this project finally gets its due in the form of a full vinyl release.

Beware Dub is the only track here to have seen daylight before, with a version originally appearing on the 1996 four‑track EP 4 Golems. It makes a fine opener: an agile bassline rolling through tunnels of processed skank, rocking in a haze of centrifugal breakbeat. Ambrosial Dub mounts an imperious, guitar‑laced groove onto a solid steppers march, while Pillars Dub drives another vigorous, sub‑heavy bassline forward in the mix alongside a mechanised rhythm track, shards of noirish piano and bursts of twinkling synth.

The second side opens with the cosmic skank of Stand It Dub, followed by the mutated one‑drop drift of Where There’s Dub, suspended in a canopy of gentle keys. Wasted Dub closes the EP in fine style, Berwick applying widescreen dubwise pressure: a robust low end topped with the distinctive twin twangs of jaw harp and slide guitar, coming on like Jah Shaka meeting Ry Cooder.

Lost Soul Super Rarity “Here I Am Baby” by Lady Jane reissued by Athens of the North

Rare 1980 Detroit funk-soul LP finally surfaces after 45 years, revealing a powerful story of survival and artistic resilience

Edinburgh based label Athens of the North is pleased to announce the reissue of Here I Am Baby, the only studio album by soul and funk vocalist Lady Jane (Jane Brice), originally recorded at Studio A, in Dearborn Heights and privately released in 1980.

Lady Jane recorded these sessions during a turbulent period in Detroit in the late 1970s, working with respected engineer Eric Morgeson and a studio band on material largely written by her then-husband. The album remained virtually unknown for decades, with copies destroyed in a flood and masters held by her ex-husband. A chance discovery by Friends of Sound Records founder David Haffner in 2022 set the reissue in motion. Remarkably, before his death, Jane’s ex-husband returned the original master tapes to her—yielding not only the complete multitracks for Here I Am Baby, but an entire album’s worth of unreleased material, also coming soon on AOTN.

Here I Am Baby showcases Jane’s extraordinary voice across a compelling blend of soul, funk, and disco, from the opening ballad through heavy funk excursions like “Never Lived In The Ghetto” and “Space Flight.” The album’s final track, “She’s A Star” - the only song Janewrote herself - carries profound personal significance. Recorded without her husband’s knowledge, the song directly addresses her survival of childhood sexual abuse and stands as a moving testament to resilience and self-belief.

Now an ordained minister, Jane Brice has spent decades away from the spotlight. But her voice—at once forceful, delicate, and vulnerable—deserves to be heard. Newly mastered from the recovered tapes, Here I Am Baby and the forthcoming Miss Disco present not merely a rare funk-soul artifact, but a powerful document of a woman’s courage in reclaiming her own story.

2026 Repress

'Quiet Pieces' initiates Abul Mogard’s personal imprint Soft Echoes with a definitive self-portrait of calm, contemplative, and discreet inner landscapes made audible. It is the first solo album on vinyl in four years. RIYL Alessandro Cortini, William Basinski, The Caretaker.

While sifting through archived material left idle from earlier projects, a chance encounter with a late uncle’s trove of beloved 78rpm classical and opera records prompted the reworking and completion of what would eventually become the album. Spinning dusty records at 33 and 45rpm, Abul Mogard recombined their enduring spectres with unfinished sketches from his archive. The resulting soundscape blurs distinctions between his memories and those of another, exquisitely short-circuiting the senses with its waking, dream-like lucidity.

This was a process I hadn’t explored in my earlier works. I began sampling brief moments from these records, altering them with studio effects and playing them at slower speeds. In many cases, I wasn’t entirely sure how the original music sounded. These fragments, once further processed, became a source of inspiration for my new compositions. Over time, I realised that the old pieces from the archive and the new material derived from the samples naturally complemented each other.”

The resulting pieces hover over a threshold, a liminal space that harmonises the old and older material. Voluminous waves of quiet and loud undulate between consonance and dissonance, conjuring imagery of a decaying grandeur that humanity’s decadence has surrendered to the elements. Abul Mogard’s seemingly abandoned yet vast landscapes are nevertheless intimate with timbral frissons of red-lined distortion. Elusive, yet as tangible as sea spray or smog, they affect the olfactory senses with a rarified, synesthetic quality that modestly engages one’s emotional register – a hypnotic, distinguishing feature long hailed as one of the hallmarks of his work. A fidelity to memory and dream recall is sensitively probed in the journey from the stately symphonic stasis of 'Following a dream' to the almost industrial, untethered brutality evoked by a looming silhouette that’s never fully visible in 'Constantly slipping away', culminating in the foreboding coda of 'Like a bird'. Those pieces appear to shield the album’s sentimental core, where the tempestuous play of light and shadow of 'In a studded procession' escalates to breathtaking, panoramic climax, while 'Through whispers' evokes an out-of-body-like experience encountered with visceral poignancy.

Looking back, Mogard notes an unexpected influence: “I realise being inspired by Phill Niblock, whose work I had barely known at the time but explored after his passing in 2024. His album 'Boston Tenor Index' changed the way I approached dissonance. It encouraged me to push my sound further, to the edge of a space where I began to feel uncomfortable.”

The album artwork, created by longtime collaborator Marja de Sanctis, features a photograph taken at the Temple of Jupiter Anxur, an archaeological site overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Captured with an iPhone, the image traces the residual presence of construction techniques and architectural forms of the Romans, where material history is transcribed through contemporary tools. The convergence of ancient and modern technology aims to reverberate the site’s lasting spiritual presence – an echo persisting in what is now perceived as a quiet, emptied space. The spiral gestures towards infinity and light. Past and present dissolve into one another, reflecting 'Quiet Pieces' meditation on sound, memory, and time.

RIYL Alessandro Cortini, William Basinski, The Caretaker

Shapes of the Roots is a two piece project by D_Roots. Part 1 has 4 serious, energetic, sharp, melancholic electro tunes. Rock solid dance floor material from this super talented Italian producer!!!

Das wandlungsfähige Trio Vanishing Twin präsentiert sein neues Album ,Archives" - eine Collage aus postmoderner Songkunst, die im gemeinsamen Schaffensprozess Transzendenz findet. Der Albumtitel spielt auf den unverwechselbaren Ansatz von Vanishing Twin an, tägliche Aufnahmesessions anzuhören, zusammenzufügen und neu zu bearbeiten. Gründungsmitglied Cathy Lucas beschreibt den Prozess so: ,Material sammeln, damit herumspielen, es auf den Kopf stellen, versuchen, die Teile zusammenzufügen und daraus eine Geschichte zu erschaffen". Da Lucas mittlerweile ins ländliche Frankreich gezogen ist und Valentina Magaletti sowie Susumu Mukai in London leben, verbinden sich die drei, indem sie Songs und Instrumentalfragmente in einem virtuellen Studio austauschen. Die geografische Distanz wird durch ihre kollektive Kreativität überbrückt, wobei jedes Mitglied als Multi-Instrumentalist seinen Beitrag leistet. Jeder Musiker bringt umfangreiche Erfahrung in Zusammenarbeit und Improvisation mit, wobei das Anhören und Bearbeiten von Studio-Sessions ein wesentlicher Bestandteil des kreativen Prozesses ist. Konzepte von Urheberschaft und Eigentumsrechten lösen sich in der Musik von Vanishing Twin auf, während die Mitglieder Instrumente tauschen und sich ganz dem Moment der Zusammenarbeit hingeben. Die ,Archive", die dem Albumtitel seinen Namen geben, werden zu Dokumenten der kollektiven Intelligenz des Trios. Die chaotische Energie von ,Archives" treibt Vanishing Twin in ungewohnte Formen und Richtungen. Außerhalb ihrer Komfortzonen findet das Trio neue Momente der Erleuchtung und Freude. Tief im Mix hörst du vielleicht, wie Magaletti zum Bass greift, Mukai unerwartet am Schlagzeug einspringt oder Lucas chamäleonartig durch die Lücken gleitet. ,Archives" verfeinert Vanishing Twins Modell des kollektiven Musizierens, bei dem Egos in spielerischen Mix-and-Match-Spielen in den Hintergrund treten und die Kreativität zwischen den drei Multi-Instrumentalisten fließt. Sie bewegen sich zwischen und außerhalb konventioneller Genrekategorien und reihen sich neben Weggefährten wie dem Tara Clerkin Trio und Still House Plants ein, wodurch sie die Vorstellung vom zeitgenössischen Musikensemble erweitern. Nach einem Jahrzehnt ihres Bestehens sind Vanishing Twin wandelbarer denn je.

For ten years Spike Fuck has existed more as a messy myth than an art- ist; sporadic works forever poised on the precipice of triumph, rumours of death or insanity and so on. Spike’s mission is to distill the sacred and profane, balancing the melancholy and humour of life; “to be alive is to be traumatised.” Luckily, the devotion to his music persevered, some- what bolstered by his inconsistency and inaccessibility. This inexplicable goodwill towards his artistry is perhaps partly due to Spike’s timeless, pained and confessional lyricism, though more pointedly, the fragility of a life mired in addiction. His being or works does not question the virtue of life, but simply addresses the numb, pragmatic and far more immediate matter of surviving another day, an almost ineffable senti- ment only justified by his distinct, poetic audaciousness. Free from his arresting thoughts, evidence, the long anticipated debut album, is a bra- zen proof of life statement. Convicted by the outlandish idea of evidenc- ing a ‘you had to be there’ mentality, the record honours the presence in body, a record to be felt, never to be rationalized.

The material on evidence touches on elements of new wave, glam, soul and doo-wop, citing Pere Ubu, New York Dolls, The Temptations and Bettye Swan as key influences. Melodically it emits the energy of a down- and-out CBGBs band who cashes in by recording a lucrative Christmas album.

Spike frequently uses sonic and lyrical juxtapositions to perform comic twists of sincerity, a reflection of society's obsession with ‘getting a rise’. On “Bored to Death,” a scuzzy, laidback and soulful tune, paired with morbid ragebait lyrics that payoff as a stand up joke “when I look up at the sun it makes me so happy cause I know one day it’s gonna kill me, and it’ll kill you too!” Lead single “All By Myself” carries on in this fashion; with feelgood, family-friendly punk doo-wop production, Spike is misleading on if his joy comes from the pride in solitude, or from lone- liness and a ‘give me everything’ mentality in the act of shooting heroin. The vocal performances oscillate between being blasé, vulnerable and manic; “Sweet Release” meets power-ballad criteria solely due to Spike’s deteriorating cries into the void, the jittery delivery on “Getting Sober” embodies religious fanaticism while sounding like a pop song written by Suicide for a David Lynch film.

evidence is an album that lives outside the limits of discourse; its purpose is eponymous and self-evident. It is what it is, and is subject to interpretation. There is no point in interrogating attachments, virtue or value. The only rightful way to live is to be.

a 01. CAN'T GET IT UP 4:38
b 02. HAD YOUR WAY 4:04
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

[a] 01. CAN'T GET IT UP [4:38]
[b] 02. HAD YOUR WAY [4:04]
[c] 03. SWEET RELEASE [3:27]
[d] 04. BORED TO DEATH [3:31]
[e] 05. ALL BY MYSELF [2:38]
[f] 06. GETTING SOBER [3:33]
[g] 07. BLUELIGHT[4:35]
[h] 08. HATE ME [7:44]

Mothers of All is Mark Gomes' second album as Blue Chemise for Students of Decay, following 2018’s acclaimed Daughters of Time. Though built from very different materials, it shares its predecessor's economy, sense of proportion, and fascination with the ways domestic life can open onto larger and less easily defined realms. Where Daughters of Time evoked tender, if alien, nursery songs, Mothers of All takes the form of spectral salon music heard at a temporal and geographic remove.

These pieces feel fundamentally receptive, with Gomes allowing his chosen fragments to retain their own histories - both personal and aesthetic - while revealing unexpected tonal relationships through their idiosyncratic arrangement. The resulting music is at once deeply personal and strangely unmoored, a space where the intimate and the distant occupy the same plane.

What lingers about this project as a whole is the paradox that the most private experiences can also be the least singular: that family, memory, and devotion become most legible at the point where they cease belonging to any one life.

Kukangendai are the innovative three-piece Kyoto based experimental rock band formed in 2006 with Junya Noguchi on guitar and vocals, Keisuke Koyano on bass, and Hideaki Yamada on drums. Since 2016 the band have set up shop in their studio and venue space, Soto, which houses an incredibly well tuned and powerful sound system that has become a well known destination for touring musicians. In March of 2025, Marionette was celebrating a belated 10 years of activity with label showcases across Japan in collaboration with Dotei Records, and Soto was inevitably one of the stops as many label alumni have set foot in the venue over the years. This is where I got to experience Kukangendai perform for the very first time and knew right then we were destined to work together.

Kukangendai embody an undeniable sense of timing and precision through collage-like repetition of minimalist phrases that manifest as a single unified rhythm. Their latest offering for Marionette, titled Baquet Wheel, is a purely acoustic endeavor, remarkably recorded live using Taku Unami's special binaural microphone. The trio seamlessly twist polyrhythms and melodies rooted in jazz, krautrock, blues, and Tuareg producing a timeless sound that preserves the primitive and memory evoking narratives buried deep within the music. Over the course of five tracks, the visceral nature of Kukangendai’s dynamic evolves from playful riffs that are seemingly familiar yet strikingly original, making it impossible to discern exactly when this material was conceived.

Kukangendai have maintained a prolific yet relatively low profile for the last two decades, with a handful of self-released editions on their own labels (Soto and Leftbrain) as well as a collaborative album with pioneering electronic music composer Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2018, then venturing outside Japan in 2019 to release their first widely distributed album on Ideologic Organ, a label curated by Sunn O)))’s Stephen O'Malley. Other collaborative projects to date include an album produced with rap group Moe and ghosts, live performances with Keiji Haino and with poet Gozo Yoshimasu, productions with the Chiten theater company, and most recently a remix album of their works featuring Carl Stone and Madteo.

Allison de Groot ist eine Clawhammer-Banjo-Spielerin aus Winnipeg, Kanada, deren Schaffen die Old-Time-, Bluegrass- und Folk-Traditionen umfasst. Als Preisträgerin des Steve-Martin-Preises für herausragende Leistungen im Bereich Banjo und als Nominierte für die Auszeichnung ,Instrumentalistin des Jahres" der Americana Music Association ist sie wohl vor allem für ihr Duo mit der Geigerin Tatiana Hargreaves bekannt, dessen Alben ,Hurricane Clarice" und ihr selbstbetiteltes Debütalbum Anerkennung seitens der IBMA, der Canadian Folk Music Awards und der JUNOs fanden. Rich Ruth ist ein in Nashville ansässiger Multi-Instrumentalist (geb. Michael Ruth), der bei Third Man Records aufnimmt. Seine Soloalben schöpfen aus Ambient, Spiritual Jazz, Minimalismus und synthgetriebenem Post-Rock - Kompositionen, die mit sich wiederholenden Drones und Synthesizern beginnen und sich durch Zusammenarbeit weiter entfalten. Er ist zudem ein Drittel von ,Shrunken Elvis", einem Trio aus Nashville, das aus langen Autofahrten durch Europa und winterlichen Jam-Sessions hervorgegangen ist und Ruth mit dem Pedal-Steel-Gitarristen Spencer Cullum sowie dem Gitarristen Sean Thompson in einem gemeinsamen kreativen Raum vereint, in dem Intuition Vorrang vor Ehrgeiz hat. Ihr vielbeachtetes, selbstbetiteltes Debüt erschien im Jahr 2025. Die beiden kamen zusammen, als Ruth im Begriff war, ein Soloalbum für de Groot zu produzieren. Im Laufe von etwa einem Jahr in Ruths Studio in Nashville veränderte sich das Projekt still und leise: Die beiden begannen gemeinsam zu komponieren, und das Ergebnis ist ebenso sehr von Raum und Prozess geprägt wie von der Melodie. De Groots Clawhammer-Banjo durchläuft Loops und Delays und wird dabei mit Ruths Synthesizer- Arrangements so kombiniert, dass die haptische Unmittelbarkeit akustischer Instrumente mit den umhüllenden Eigenschaften der Elektronik in Einklang gebracht wird. Patrick M'Gonigle steuerte durchgehend Violinen- und Streicharrangements bei, während Shrunken-Elvis-Bandkollege Spencer Cullum bei mehreren Titeln seine Pedal-Steel-Gitarre einbringt und der Klangpalette des Albums eine weitere Ebene atmosphärischer Tiefe verleiht. Kurz nach Fertigstellung des Albums präsentierte die Gruppe das Material erstmals live beim Big Ears Festival als einen der Überraschungsauftritte der Veranstaltung - ein reduziertes, minimalistisches Set, das den Geist der Aufnahmen widerspiegelte. Das Album fängt zwei unterschiedliche musikalische Stimmen ein, die weniger einen gemeinsamen Nenner als vielmehr eine neue, gemeinsame Sprache finden.

Initially released in 2016, The Divine Feminine marked one of the most stark turning points in a career punctuated by creative reinvention. After doubling down on his rap prowess on 2015's GO:OD AM, Mac Miller stunned fans with an audacious pivot to create a concept album that explored his views on the power of love and the sacred energy of women. Hailed by Pitchfork as being "easily his most intoxicating release yet," the embrace of his singing voice and genre-agnostic approach of the songwriting foreshadowed the evolution that would further materialize on his 2018 album Swimming. The 10th anniversary edition of The Divine Feminine features three previously-unreleased songs from the album's recording sessions and will be available on 3LP with printed inner sleeves in a single-pocket jacket upon its release on October 2nd.