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Rejoice is surely the album Tahiti 80 always wanted to make: free from all constraints, driven by curiosity. A collection of independent songs that speak to each other without sounding alike, yet form a cohesive whole, somewhere between the freedom of the White Album and the eclecticism of a Souljazz compilation.

Belgian Limburg-based Cold Wavers Siglo XX, were a leading coldwave band, successfully touring around Europe,and active between 1978 and 1989. Often called the Belgian Joy Division with their dark sound they made quite an impression in their heydays. Their backcatalogue and their liveshows still sound today timeless and fresh.

The past year they started touring again and played an impressive and powerful concert on January 17th in Ancienne Belgique, Brussels. On the set list an exquisite selection of their best work. This live album captures that performance as if you were there yourself, and maybe you were!

Tropical East Asian folk fused with psychedelic electronic rock and noise driven by a winding and jagged Sanshin guitar, shape forming vocals, odd percussion and spacey sounds. A Sgt. Peppers tour through the folklore of Okinawa. Amamikyu is the creation Goddess of the colourful Island of sound visited by Phil MFU ( formerly Vanishing Twin ) on his journeys through expanding his scope of experimental electronic music effortlessly locking style in with master Sanshin player and vocalist Yuko Tsubame to create a psychedelic trippy island of sound, revisiting classic folk songs in a new far out funky light. Amamikyu are a London based band of Phil MFU ( ex Vanishing Twin ) and Okinawan electric Sanshin player and singer Yuko Tsubame, with an expanding group of live musicians.

Life Creates Itself is the new album by Bill Baird, releasing September 25th, 2026 on Royal Oakie Records. After years of restless wandering that took him from the Bay Area to India to Abbey Road and back again, Baird has returned home to San Antonio, Texas. Inspired by Lone Star legends Doug Sahm and Roky Erickson, the album inhabits a world where outsider country, avant-garde pop, and psychedelic folk dissolve into one.


Produced by longtime collaborator Jasper Leach (Tony Molina, Color Green) and mastered by indie-rock legend KRAMER (Galaxie 500, Daniel Johnston, Will Oldham), Life Creates Itself was recorded at Sear Sound in New York City in a single remarkable day — fitting for an album as indebted to Arthur Russell and Captain Beefheart as it is to Sir Douglas Quintet and Townes Van Zandt. The sessions brought together a constellation of collaborators around Baird and Leach, including Pedrum Siadatian (Allah-Las, PAINT), Phil Carluzzo, Austin Day, Oliver O'Haver, Jordan Johns, Michael Vattuone, Clara Kennedy, and Carluzzo’s dog Ernie.


Lead single "Yanaguana" — the original Payaya name for San Antonio, meaning either "land of many waters" or simply "where I am right now" — serves as a thesis statement for the album, a restless soul reckoning with what it means to finally come home. Meanwhile, "Karma Loan" is a fuzzy, sprawling psych track that spilled out of Baird during a deep immersion in Bach that features cello by Clara Kennedy and closes with a sound collage of spiritual gurus hawking easy paths to enlightenment. Then there's "Horse Moon" — built around pedal steel that shimmers like rays of moonlight, drifting through vignettes from a late night walk across New York City, with Pedrum Siadatian's lead guitar lending the whole thing an unhurried, dreaming quality. The night they tracked it, Baird climbed to the roof of Sear Sound and watched a full moon wash the city in a warm glow.


Baird has never sounded more at home, and Life Creates Itself may be his most cohesive record yet – a songwriter record through and through that stands apart from the rest of his discography. Royal Oakie Records is proud to release Life Creates Itself on September 25th, 2026, available on vinyl LP, CD, and digital download/streaming worldwide.

Nach der Breakout-EP „Discount Fireworks“ haben Roman Candle ihren Sound konsequent weiterentwickelt. Die jüngsten Singles zeigen eine Band, die emotionale Direktheit mit kontrolliertem Chaos verbindet; „Can We Watch Something Happy?“ basiert auf persönlichen Erfahrungen von Piper und unterstreicht den ungefilterten erzählerischen Ansatz der Band.

The jaded daughter of a dead preacher-man caught in an exodus, Ethel Cain winds her way through a dizzying attempt at escape from her suffocating upbringing only to find herself crushed within its jaws in the end. Hayden Anhedönia, the woman behind the curtain, serves as the architect for the visceral and haunting world of Ethel Cain. After over four years of meticulously constructing her debut album and the graphic visual world that accompanies it, Preacher’s Daughter, was released in May 2022 to critical acclaim, catching fire with her reverent fanbase of daughters and the adoration of The New York Times, Vogue, NPR, Billboard, Vice, TheFADER, NYLON, Paper Magazine, Pitchfork, W Magazine, V Magazine and more.

The eighth helping of these Perro Bueno Edits is as delicious as Kinder Buenos (we have kids, don't judge us). Once again it is an anonymous affair from the in-house team, whoever that may be, and this one opens with 'SDBO', which is a new flip of, we're told, a "rare African cover version of a much-loved disco classic". It has a perfect mix of disco glam and Afro earthiness with soaring melodies and funk drums that can't fail to get you locked in. 'LEHA' on the B-side is another Afro-funk gem that is rebuilt with layers of chunky percussion and drums, interplay between male and female vocals and fat bass that anchors the whole thing perfectly.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy veröffentlicht ein Live-Album mit neu arrangierten Songs aus seinem umfangreichen Katalog.

Am 18. September erscheint Ghosts of American Psychonauts, das neue Live-Album von Bonnie "Prince" Billy. Aufgenommen am Valentinstag im Pico Union Project in Los Angeles, führt das Album durch verschiedene Stationen von Will Oldhams Karriere als Bonnie „Prince“ Billy. Zu hören sind neu arrangierte Stücke von Letting Go und I See A Darkness bis zu jüngeren Songs wie I Made A Place und The Purple Bird. Begleitet von London May, Jacob Duncan und weiteren Gästen, rückt das Album Oldhams Qualitäten als Live-Musiker und seine ausgeprägte Fähigkeit zum musikalischen Storytelling in den Mittelpunkt.

Continuing in its series of Yoko Ono reissues, Secretly Canadian has announced that Ono’s seminal 1982 album It’s Alright (I See Rainbows) will be released August 28, 2026, in expanded CD and digital versions, and on vinyl for the first time in more than forty years, with expanded and enhanced artwork. Influenced equally by 1960s girl group vocals and 1980s synthesizer experimentation, It's Alright (I See Rainbows) is an album of “adventurous… lush… committed and convincing avant-gardism” (Rolling Stone). As Ono said in her 1992 Onobox liner notes, “It was ’82 and it seemed as though I was finally in sync with the world.” Vacillating from a widow’s never-truly-over grief, to the necessary uplift for an artist and mother to continue her life’s missions, tracks like “Loneliness” and “Spec of Dust” make way for poptimism via “Let the Tears Dry,” and title track “It’s Alright.” As Ono said of the album in 1983, “It’s like my diary that I went through… and I’m just saying, hey, I’ve got the same kind of emotions that you’ve probably got too, and here I am saying hello… Around December 8th or whatever, I was feeling really heavy and feeling sort of down, you know… and then, side two, it’s all right… It was Sean Lennon who says, ‘Wake up, wake up, mommy.’ Like an angel that came and said, ‘Wake up!’… Wake up and dream love, and let the tears dry and I see rainbows. And sort of I’m saying all that. In result of Sean waking me up, see?” Lennon, speaking of his mother in a more recent interview with NPR in 2025, “She would say that energy is just energy, so you can turn it into anything you like. And she always said that she would take that negative energy and turn it into something productive and creative… It never stopped her from creating and putting herself out there, and I really think that it paid off… You never know how long it'll take for people to appreciate you if you just kind of hang on and don't give up.”

A recent signee to Chess Club Records, Jo Geller aka jo from school, finds herself among the independent label’s pedigree of homegrown artists who have gone on to attain major success. Alumni such as Billie Marten, an artist long admired by Jo, as well as Wolf Alice, are just a couple of names who found their initial support through Chess Club.

At 22-years-old, jo from school’s graceful, carefully crafted but devastatingly delivered songs hit with an air of maturity that lands far beyond her years. An embrace for spontaneity and imperfection gives her material its character; primarily as an artist focussed on doing things her own way.

Writing on the piano since the tender age of nine, Jo self-taught herself guitar as a teenager during lockdown, joining the illustrious Brit School: “I was the only musician in my world until I went to Brit School, then I was the worst musician there,” she says. “It gave me a kick. I went from thinking that it was cooler to not care about anything, to realising the more you cared, the cooler and more individual it made you.”

Largely produced by Rich Cooper (CMAT, Billie Marten), so far both singles from the EP have been supported by BBC Radio 1, Radio 2 & 6Music. Huw Stephen's has invited Jo to feature in his Huw You Are segment airing on 6Music on 29th July, and Jess Iszatt has already had Jo as her Introducing featured artist on BBC Radio London. Rolling Stone UK featured jo as their Play Next artist last month, along with CLASH who just confirmed a Next Wave feature to run on EP release. Outlets like Line of Best Fit, DORK, DIY and Wonderland have all came to the table to champion jo too. We've also seen impressive audience growth in just 2 months – with jo adding more than 3k new followers across platforms since her debut single 'Chicken' was released on 6th May.

On the live front, jo was invited by Dirty Hit's Skullcrusher to support on her UK + European headline tour in June, with past supports also including TTSSFU, Daffo, Esme Emerson. Jo has been booked for Night Currents festival in Portsmouth and invited to support 1000 Rabbits, both in October, and will be Playing Estrella Soundhood Festival in London in September too.

Whispering Ln. Vol. II was recorded between 2018 and 2019 in America, alongside the pieces that formed the first album. These recordings belong to the same time and space, shaped by the same quiet focus and slow attention to sound.

While remaining rooted in minimalism, this album introduces several more rhythmic pieces, drawing inspiration from early electronic music – echoes of composers such as Tom Dissevelt and Raymond Scott.

Movement and stillness coexist throughout this record. Rhythms and patterns shift and occasionally dissolve. The music asks for little and offers even less explanation, inviting listening without urgency – to slow down and remain present. May it offer a moment of calm, where time loosens, and attention gently settles.

Celebrate a decade of Turnover's iconic sophomore album Peripheral Vision with this 10 Year Anniversary Edition. Retaining the album's iconic cover art, the packaging has been completely overhauled to include a new lyric poster & printed photo inner sleeve. This special limited edition is pressed on limited edition color vinyl also includes two bonus tracks from the era - "Humblest Pleasures" and "Change Irreversible." Released on May 4th, 2015 via Run For Cover Records, Turnover's second album Peripheral Vision is widely regarded as an essential body of the work in the band's discography, maturing its sound into a shoegaze-inflected post-punk direction following the band's 2013 debut record Magnolia. Described as "a tour de force" by Kerrang!, the album set the stage for an extensive and prolific touring history over the past decade and three subsequent albums, including their most recent LP, 2022's Myself in the Way.

Die mehrfach mit Platin ausgezeichnete und GRAMMY®-nominierte Pop-Ikone Carly Rae Jepsen veröffentlicht am 18. September 2026 ihr neues Studioalbum Day and Night via Interscope Records. Das
Doppelalbum umfasst 24 Songs, aufgeteilt in 12 Tracks für den Tag und 12 Tracks für die Nacht, und gilt
als Jepsens bislang geschlossenstes künstlerisches Werk.
Mit Day and Night erschafft Carly Rae Jepsen eine traumartige Klangwelt, in der Tage und Nächte ineinanderfließen. Gemeinsam mit langjährigen Kollaboratoren wie Tavish Crowe (der mit ihr auch schon
den Welthit „Call Me Maybe“ geschrieben hat) entwickelte sie zwei unterschiedliche musikalische Facetten:
Während Day mit organischen Sounds, Live-Instrumentierung und Einflüssen des psychedelischen Pop der
70er-Jahre überzeugt, präsentiert sich Night als moderne, synthgetriebene Dance-Pop-Erfahrung.
Das Album bewegt sich durch ein breites emotionales Spektrum – von Liebe, Freude und Sehnsucht bis
hin zu Angst, Eskapismus und Selbstfindung.
Mit Day and Night setzt Carly Rae Jepsen ihre beeindruckende Entwicklung als eine der prägendsten PopKünstlerinnen ihrer Generation fort und liefert ein Album voller Freiheit, Selbstbewusstsein und emotionaler
Tiefe.

"Welcome to THE VAULT for 1986. A collection that digs deeper into the year’s musical landscape – uncovering singles that may not have always reached the highest chart positions but remain essential to the rich and diverse pop story of 1986. Some were overshadowed at the time, some were highlights from albums that had already sold huge amounts, some found greater success internationally – but all deserve their place in this continued celebration of 80s pop. 77 tracks across 4-CDs – NOW Yearbook – The Vault: 1986.
44 tracks across 3-LPs – pressed in gorgeous purple vinyl – NOW Yearbook – The Vault: 1986."

After enjoying two major hits with the singles “Maybellene” and “Roll Over Beethoven” in 1955 and 1956, it was not until May of 1957 that Chuck Berry released his debut studio album and masterpiece, After School Session. The second album ever released on the legendary Chess Records, After School Session offered a new sound to audiences, nodding to teenagers with its title and including a mix of “rockers” that set the blueprint for the rise of rock ‘n’ roll. Includes “School Day (Ring Ring Goes The Bell),” “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” and “Too Much Monkey Business.” Bring home the sound of America’s greatest blues label in high fidelity with the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. These audiophile reissues of classic albums and compilations from the Chess discography are remastered from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP). Each disc is packaged in tip-on gatefold sleeves printed on high-grade board.

Could it be that the world is finally ready for the tempestuous folk-rock opera that is "All the Leaves are Gone?" In 2004, only the truly informed and forward-thinking heads "got" this mini masterpiece. Critics scratched their heads and usually resorted to comparisons of past artists, like ol Grace Slick and her Great Jefferson Society, Fairport Convention (but which era? SURELY Judy Dyble's early reign?), and at best, Shirley Collins. A few fans attempted to connect the record to even more obscure "freak folk/rock" like Mellow Candle, Fear Itself, or Trees. "All the Leaves are Gone" was made by unique personalities not concerned with influences or copying any bygone era. Surely, some things are in our DNA or even early childhood, as Josephine Foster's roots in opera manifest themselves as much as any other influence in this organic song cycle. Sure, guitarist Brian Goodman may have heard Richard Thompson before, but his alchemical and molten guitar spray is purely his own, in tunings and intervals still not meant for normal humans to understand, mostly because his 2004 guts were poured into every sublime note (I think even Brian himself never even understood how good he was). That fiery emotion is also in every nuance of Foster's songs--like life, there's disquieting, jagged moments of unease, and there's calm both before and after the storm. There are moments of utter gentleness along the journey---because yes, every concept album should be a voyage, and this is one everyone should take. - Steve Krakow.

Pioneering Ghanaian musician King Ayisobareturns September 4, 2026 with his forthcoming seventh album Pure Confusion, recorded and produced by On-U-Sound’s Adrian Sherwood.

Ayisoba is one of Ghana’s most distinctive musical voices. The world’s foremost player of the kologo - a homemade two-string lute fashioned from a calabash and covered in goatskin - he delivers fiercely political and socially observant songs using three different voices, including the voice of his grandfather that possessed him as a child. Sherwood meanwhile is the pioneering British producer and founder of On-U Sound whose hugely influential career has connected dub, post-punk, industrial, hip hop and experimental music through collaborations with artists including Lee “Scratch” Perry, Mark Stewart, Horace Andy, Sinéad O’Connor, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode.

Ayisoba and Sherwood first collaborated during a BBC Radio 3 Late Junction session at Maida Vale in 2017, organised by Ayisoba’s long-time collaborator Arnold de Boer/Zea of The Ex. The pair immediately connected, and during the pandemic, when Adrian’s long-time African Head Charge collaborator Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah was in Ghana looking for musicians to collaborate with Sherwood suggested Ayisoba, who eventually featured on two tracks on African Head Charge’s 2023 album A Trip To Bolgatanga (Bolgantanga is the region Ayisoba is from). Ayisoba then returned to the UK in late 2024 and travelled to Sherwood’s Ramsgate studio where the pair laid down the songs that would become Pure Confusion: “All the songs were already in my head,” says Ayisoba. “This album is all recorded live, over one afternoon. Adrian only plays live, and I like that. And he works hard - he doesn’t sleep. I woke up in the night and he was still working.”

“In my role producing it, I just let it roll to make a good vibe,” says Sherwood. “We recorded it completely live, did some programming and processing on some tracks, using dub techniques live on the mixing desk and adding some slick touches. We wanted the colours on the album to swing off what Ayisoba was doing, so we invited some friends to participate. Doug Wimbish (Sugar Hill Gang) arrived from America and lent his services playing bass on a couple of tracks; the wonderful Ivan Hussey (Celloman) played bass, keyboards and cello - cello is not really featured on African recordings so we thought it would be really cool to try it. I'd been working with Alex White (Fat White Family/Primal Scream) on my album (The Collapse of Everything) and so he added sax to a few tracks and I brought Alan Glenn down especially - Alan was in Little Axe but also Nine Below Zero and played in the Yardbirds – to add some mouth organ; Mark Bandola added a bit of flavour with his Juno, Ayisoba’s long-time Ghanian collaborator Ayuune Sule added some percussion and vocals and Matt Smith did some programming.”

“King Ayisoba is quite amazing, so unique,” Sherwood continues. “He’s got his own handmade instrument and three different voices - when you’re listening you think it’s three different people. He’s a breath of fresh air, full of love for the music which he wants to share with everybody. Some tracks we kept very straight and others we experimented with - adding dubby psychedelic little touches to trip you out a bit. The added production we did at On-U has given it a shine while still keeping it vibrant, live and spontaneous. I’m really proud of this record”.

On Pure Confusion, Ayisoba documents the anxieties, contradictions and changing social realities of contemporary Ghana. “Land is a problem for everyone,” says Ayisoba of the opening track “Property”. “If you don’t build on your land they will take it away. Plenty corruption in Ghana, plenty confusion. They sell the land to two, three, four people and then everybody fights.”

Elsewhere Ayisoba explores illness, spirituality and social stigma on “Bemba”, warning against hiding sickness out of shame or fear of “bad juju”: “People hide their sickness and the sickness kills them.” “Tewigiloge” reflects on cultural difference and open-mindedness encountered through world travel: “We will tour the whole world and we will see many things we may not like or understand… your eyes will see, but don’t talk - you have to be open-minded.”

Spirituality runs deeply throughout the album. Ayisoba’s grandfather was a respected spiritual healer whose presence the musician says still guides him today. “The grandparents’ spirits are the ones you can contact,” he explains of the spiritual chant “Nkaase”. “This song talks about the forefathers.” The closing track “Leeda-Mampanga (It’s Not My Strength)” acts as a statement of humility and gratitude: “You have to be humble, even if you have talent. God gives you the power.”

For more than two decades, King Ayisoba has been one of Africa’s most distinctive musical innovators, transforming northern Ghanaian kologo traditions into a bold contemporary sound rooted in hypnotic rhythms, social commentary and spiritual intensity. Since the breakthrough success of 2006’s Modern Ghanaians, Ayisoba has built an international following through acclaimed albums, relentless touring and collaborations with artists including Lee “Scratch” Perry, Orlando Julius and African Head Charge. Performances at Roskilde, WOMAD, Le Guess Who? and the Barbican have further cemented his reputation as a singular live performer and cultural force.

For any collaborative project to succeed, the artists involved need a creative unifier – a meeting point, if you will, of their disparate interests and experiences. In the case of Mondo Love & Betrayal, the joint project of Nottingham musical mainstays Neil ‘Nail’ Tolliday and Henry Claude Scott, there were two creative unifiers: a mutual love of classic 1980s synth-pop, as well as shared admiration for each other’s work.

Even so, such shared interests and respect for prior mutual endeavours is no guarantee of success. Yet as their eponymous debut album emphatically proves, the duo’s disparate experiences, characteristics and musical strengths have not only dovetailed beautifully, but also resulted in serious sonic gold. Put simply, Mondo Love & Betrayal is a stunning debut album rich in emotive songs, colourful melodies, atmospheric chord progressions and infectious grooves. Throw in the sun-splashed warmth and saucer-eyed, loved-up tactility of late 80s dance beats, and you have a breakthrough album whose timelessness is evident from start to finish.

The project’s roots lie in Tolliday’s desire to work with Scott, a virtuoso guitarist, talented producer and secret songwriter best-known for his work alongside Huw Costin as Torn Sail, and John ‘Ming’ Thompson as Brown Fang – both projects known for prioritising organic instrumentation and sunset-ready soundscapes over dancefloor-rooted beats.

Tolliday, of course, is one of British electronic music’s true polymaths – a long-serving house producer best-known for his long-running Bent project alongside fellow Nottingham resident Simon Mills. He initially approached Scott with the idea of providing vocals on a house track he was working on, but quickly suggested something else: an exploration of a classic synth-pop sound inspired by his love of Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Depeche Mode and the producers who worked with them – the likes of Martin Hannett, Arthur Baker, Stephen Hague and John Robie.

Scott accepted the invitation, seeing it as an opportunity to explore a different side of his musical personality. Their first recording session resulted in the ear-catching and memorable brilliance of ‘Correspondence’ – a tongue-in-cheek breakup song inspired by the death of landlines and the rise of mobile communications – and soon they were working on their debut album.

The resultant 10-track set is simply sublime, with Scott’s expressive delivery of his own lyrics on life, love, heartache and rejection working in perfect union with Tolliday’s kaleidoscopic and pleasingly authentic backing tracks – gorgeous and beautifully rendered instrumentals rich in memorable melodies, bittersweet chords, and subtle nods to ‘80s and early ‘90s dance-pop culture, from Shep Pettibone style remixes and Bernard Sumner guitar licks, to Beloved-esque piano parts and Chris Lowe chord progressions. Some listeners may also draw favourable comparisons with 21st century synth-pop practitioners, particularly Parcels, Private Agenda and the deeply emotive songs showcased by Junior Boys.

For proof, wrap your ears around such album highlights as opener ‘Boo Boo’, where Scott warns that “love and betrayal will haunt you” atop sparkling synths and Vince Clarke style grooves, the Behaviour-era PSB melancholy of recent single ‘Your Latest’, the mid-tempo dreaminess of ‘Beyond The Rainy City’, the early Depeche Mode chug of ‘Whatever Happened To Me’ and the tactile warmth of ‘Across The Plane’.

We could go on. In truth, the whole album is – in Scott’s words – “magical musical alchemy”. Wherever they choose to go next, Mondo Love & Betrayal is a seriously good sonic statement of intent.

As has been the case with a number of releases on Punctuality so far, Echo Chambered has already gained notoriety as a sleeper hit for those in the know. Fans of Evan Baggs and Rey Colino’s Radar stream from Dekmantel 2025 will instantly recognise Carousel, pulled from a white-label dubplate about half an hour into the set. Fast forward nine months and a flood of track ID requests later and PNCT011 is finally here: five expertly crafted rollers from a modern master of the craft, Bliss Inc.

It’s easy to see why there has been so much demand for Carousel. Its earworm vocal, delicate percussion programming, undulating low end and spacey sound design land it squarely in the sweet spot between the minimal, progressive and contemporary tech house that so many
diggers are seeking out.

While the A1 is an undeniable hit, each track truly sounds like a hard-to-find early 2000s gem—the kind of record a Discogs shark will flip for extortionate rates. Why? Maybe it’s the rolling basslines, the understated grooves, the organic but club-ready percussion, the vocal samples or the cerebral FX.

Maybe it’s the mature, floor-focused arrangements, or the way Bliss Inc. nods to different corners of the dance music spectrum while maintaining a distinct signature. Or more simply, perhaps it’s because each track is an expertly constructed club tool —built for DJs, but just as rewarding for listeners.

However you want to hear it, Echo Chambered has all the markings of a Punctuality classic. With all five tracks doing damage in equal measures, you know what to do…

2026 Repress

Deadbeat & Tikiman's occasional collaborative performances have since blown the minds of many audiences

Deadbeat. Tikiman. Infinity. Dub. A quadrangle of such obvious statement and perfect musical inference may very well never have been uttered for those of the wholly weeded out persuasion. Indeed, when the great book of Dub music is written the names Scott Monteith and Paul St Hilaire will undoubtedly figure highly in its chapters devoted to recent years. Monteith, the last great prodigal son of the doctrine handed down from the Blue Mount of Lord Scratch and King Tubby, St Hilaire the undisputed voice of a generation, those fanatical warrior monks, followers of the most Holy House of Ernestus and Von Oswald incarnate.

Having developed a fast friendship from their very first meeting in Montreal at the premier Micro Mutek event a decade ago, Deadbeat and Tikiman's occasional collaborative performances have since blown the minds of audiences from Berlin to Tokyo and many points in between. No great surprise then that their first album length venture is a Tour de Force of Dub music of the highest order.

Nearly a year in the making, the genetic code of Deadbeat's Infinity Dubs series gets shot through with a Dreader than Dread Kingstonian logic, hi hats dropping back from the three to the one, Tikiman at his most militant, poetic, fierce, and flowing. These are the recordings of two lions uncaged, and none who bare witness shall escape their fiery judgement.

If music is truly eternal, here be two voices which shall echo in infinity with all the weight, reverence, and dire power unleashed with every tectonic bass hit, and every whimsical turn of phrase. And if these eight burnt offerings are any indication of what happens when these two sit down for a session of smoke and reasoning, here's hoping they choose to do it frequently. Dub without end. Ad Infinitum.

Samosa Records brings the heat just in time for the summer months with Volume 3 of the electrifying ‘Earth, Wind & Funk’ series – landing a slick four tracker that will relieve you of your socks and undergarments…

Kicking Vol.3 off is Roberto Telll with ‘It’s Magic’ – an unstoppable, bass driven leviathan of a track with perfectly balanced vocals and groovy, punchy beats. ‘It’s Magic’ straddles that sweet spot of disco flavour expertly infused with a peppery funk spice. Mesmerising.

Track 2 sees the welcome return of label favourites and fellow Italian groove machine Dirtyelements with ‘Get On Down’ (De Gama Re-Groove). The mid-tempo calypso rhythm on this slice of leg-wobbling perfection is outrageously infectious. Dirtyelements has yet another solid, stomping disco builder bursting out of the lab with a mission to cause mayhem.

On Side B, Marco Corona swoops in with his 126bpm sonic torpedo ‘Eat Me!’ From the start, ‘Eat Me!’ drums its way into your subconscious with a powerful bass drum and tribal tinted percussion. Before you know it, you’re over the border into house territory – expertly picked vocal loops and builds make this one insanely irresistible.

Closing out the EP with ‘Hey Jee’ is Italian producer extraordinaire Frank Virgilio. Step into Mr Virgilio’s taxi whilst he whisks you through downtown Manhattan en route to the best night out in town. Soaring strings, slick bass work and nimble beats are the dress code – but, don’t worry, Frank always gets you in.

Raising the Samosa bar yet again, ‘Earth, Wind & Funk Vol. 3’ is a cool antidote for those hot summer nights under the stars – best served with your favourite cocktail.

The compositions recorded here are a product of work with computers in synthetic speech, song and vocal sounds and were created between 1972 and 1975. The music was realized on two different computer music systems and takes advantage of, and attempts to extend and explore their features. The system employed to realize speech songs was created at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for research in synthetic speech and speech communication. Since the system was not designed for musical purposes, its limitations were severe and its musical use a great (and often rewarding) challenge. The system used for In Celebration and The Story of Our Lives was designed with the expressed purpose of creating synthetic musical voices, and was therefore much better suited to the task at hand. As with any high technology project, there was extensive collaboration in the production of the works.

The works on this disk are called computer music because the sounds were created numerically in a computer before reaching magnetic tape and loudspeakers. The computer did not compose the music. However, it was only used as a sound synthesis and analysis medium. In order to hear the sounds which are represented in the computer as successions of numbers it was necessary to attach a digital-to-analogue converter to the computer. The converter transformed the succession of numbers into a fluctuating voltage which was recorded directly on to audio tape.

The technique used to create the synthetic voices is called speech synthesis-by-analysis. For this method of speech synthesis, only those words, phrases and sentences which have been spoken into the computer previously (via an analogue-to-digital converter) may be synthesized. First the digitally-recorded speech is analyzed by programs which extract the attributes (parameters) of the speech for short time segments (.01 sec.). From these parameters the speech may be recreated in a form which resembles the original recording very closely. But for musical purposes the parameters are most often altered before synthesis. It is possible, for example, to change the natural pitch contour of the speech into a melodic line or to change the speech speed without altering the natural pitch level.

The variety of musical patterns which may be created from the analytic parameters is limited only by the composer's imagination. Most of the speech sounds on the recording were created by changing the pitch and duration attributes of the original on resynthesis, but for a few, the resonances (the formants) of the speech were altered as well. The voice of the book in The Story of Our Lives was created by replacing the program which simulates the sound of the human vocal cords with one consisting of 64 sine tones glissandoing at different rates. All the textures in which more than one voice is heard were obtained by mixing the synthetic voices together digitally.

There is a pivotal scene in “August in the Water” (dir. Sōgo Ishii, 1995) where the surface of a pool turns into a stone wall. The water that gave the protagonist's life its meaning becomes a threat. As you fall through this stone wall, you appear in a set of underwater coral-reef corridors, and one of the most beautiful musical themes begins to play: Aquatic Ambience, composed by David Wise for Donkey Kong Country (1994). It's a theme that represents the weightless vibe of your new deep-sea life, where you go about your mundane errands, collecting bananas while driving on a swordfish, or, as HerzMayhem put it: "Poor monkey... always swimming, never going anywhere..."

Synthetic Water Music is the second of three compilations, following Synthetic Bird Music and timed to mappa's 10th anniversary. As with the birds, it gathers friends of the label, artists who have released with mappa or played our shows. Most of the music is new, made to measure for this compilation, much of it from Central and Eastern European hands. Birds and water mix well, so please feel invited to play them together, creating your own environments.

Where the birds were in one flock, water is dispersed across four chapters. You live your life as a droppity drop: vapour in the heavens, condensing in clouds, falling into a swamp, trickling into the deepest sea.

Tlālōcān (Cassette 1, Side A)
A place of eternal spring, of aquatic energy that nourishes everything and allows all things to bloom. Bubbly and splishy-sploshy, it is full of dripping sounds and moist caverns (“Emerald Pool” by Pauline Anna Strom), a landscape filled with living fountains (“Oh, to be a Fountain” by Eva Sajanová) and winding streams that flow through the area, forming part of its organic architecture. It is also a paradise reserved for those whose deaths were water-related, where the aquatic and terrestrial beings live in symbiosis and perspectives shift rapidly, from observing a single droplet (Shakali, Lau Nau) to dew (Feronia Wennborg & Lucy Duncombe) and on to flowing currents (Visible Cloaks) that gradually transform into river music (Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton).

Nephelora (Cassette 1, Side B)
A celestial anti-gravity sound world made of evaporation, steam and the formation of clouds, as if looking at “The Sky At The Bottom of the Well” (by Natalia Beylis) or at “The Cloud That Never Rains” (by Henrique Vaz).

If a cloud never rains,
it is not a cloud at all, but a veil that parches the earth with its gaze.
It generates only its own shadow —
a looming mass of suspended longing,
a sky that hoards but never yields,
a reservoir that swallows every river and returns nothing but echoes.

The water in this world is often invisible but sometimes all the more present, as Bint Mbareh describes it: “Recently been obsessed with invisible waters because I come from a place where you have to imagine the water is there even though you cannot see a river, a sea, usually no rain, so water is in the air, the voice and the imaginal realm, drought is imagined to be negotiable.”

Žaboglach Zha-bo-glahch (Cassette 2, Side A)
A fusion of Scottish lochs and Slovak ponds: a misty, foul-smelling, swampy realm, the kind of place that swallowed Artax from The NeverEnding Story. Stagnant waters full of decay become a blooming habitat for sirens (“thereby losing the weightless delight of being swept along with it” by Adam Badí Donoval) and beings straddling the line between fauna and flora, inventing their own communication systems (“Water-lily phase” by Action Pyramid).

R'lyeh (Cassette 2, Side B)
A brooding sunken city at the bottom of the ocean. It’s a journey to get there. Let this chapter guide you, from the shore down to the depths, to the gates of an unexplored world that is inherently dark, unfathomable, and beyond the limits of human perception: starting with seasickness ("Seasick" by Nikolaienko), passing through a classic Poe-esque maelstrom ("Flurry at the Whirl-pull" by Atte Elias Kantonen), a gateway into the darkness and emptiness of the ocean floor, and finally traversing the city itself (“last waves of 2025” by Jules Reidy).
But what is pulling you to a place like this that only a few explore and even fewer leave? Maybe “the darkness that water can contain, the expanse of things we don't know and that can trigger fear instincts even as we try to rationalise them and think we are in control of the rest of nature” (“supercritical fluids” by Diane Barbé).

Dive in and surface wherever you like. Always swimming, never going anywhere. Just don’t forget to take water breaks.

P.S. Birds, then water, can you guess what comes next? Synthetic Soil Music, an elegy for insects and worms? Synthetic Glaciers, or maybe Pollinators? Which sounds would you miss the most if they disappeared? Or what if the third one never comes at all, and somebody, or something, makes Synthetic mappa Music instead. Don't you worry, with the right training data, it can all be replicated, better than the real thing.

STANDING ON THE CORNER wurde 2015 in Brooklyn, New York, gegründet und zählt zu den spannendsten Kollektiven der zeitgenössischen Musik. Die Gruppe verbindet Einflüsse aus Soul, Punk, Salsa, Doo-Wop, Jazz, Funk, Avantgarde und Rap zu einem unverwechselbaren Sound, der die kulturellen Verbindungen zwischen den USA, Puerto Rico und Afrika widerspiegelt. Mit ihrem genreübergreifenden Ansatz und ihrer konsequent unabhängigen Arbeitsweise hat sich die Band als wichtige Stimme der New Yorker Kreativszene etabliert. Mit dem Album "STANDING ON THE CORNER" führt das Kollektiv seine künstlerische Vision auf einen neuen Höhepunkt. Die 15 Songs wurden von Bandleader Gio Escobar gemeinsam mit den Kernmitgliedern Jack "Wacko" Nolan, Buz "Manman" Donald und Clérida "Ca$h Clay" Eltime aufgenommen. Entstanden ist ein intensives, stilistisch grenzenloses Werk zwischen psychedelischem Rock, No-Wave-Rap, R&B und Post- Hardcore-Energie. Das Album spiegelt die Unsicherheit, Entfremdung und Sinnsuche einer ganzen Generation wider. Gleichzeitig unterstreicht es die besondere Bedeutung von STANDING ON THE CORNER als Band, die musikalische Konventionen aufbricht und neue Ausdrucksformen schafft - kompromisslos, herausfordernd und gleichermaßen zeitgeistig wie visionär.

Donkey Inching', the Cellophane Suckers' ninth studio album, is set for release in September 2026. Unwavering and stubborn as a donkey, the Cellophane Suckers follow their very own path at their very own pace. The band, decried as "lead-swallowing" high-speed rock 'n' rollers, stoically let chords linger and celebrate feedback, reducing rather than harmonising, then picking up the speed when you least expect it and slowing down shortly afterwards to roll on in a Dadaist fashion the drums become a machine, the guitars increasingly embodying yin and yang. With "Execution Day", they pay tribute to Spencer P Jones, whom one might well cite as a musical influence, and Neil Young is also honoured, whose Wall of Sound goes down well with the Suckers. The fact that a text by Charles Bukowski is also "set to music" may be down to their love for red wine "Donkey Inching"... creeps stoically and stubbornly, like a donkey, into your ears. In July 2026, the Cellophane Suckers will once again be touring Brittany, and in September they'll be hosting a release party at the Sonic Ballroom in Cologne. Further concert weekends are planned for autumn/winter 2026...

In an era where pedalboards, laptops and samples have become commonplace, American blues-rock/metal guitarist and singer Eric Steckel goes against the grain and harkens his listeners back to the days when great guitars were played loudly through great amps. Hailed by many as the top rising star of Blues/Rock, Eric delivers a powerhouse performance that has left audiences in 30 countries (and counting) mesmerized. "My forthcoming new album, 'Sandstorm' is the most fun I’ve had making a record in my career thus far," comments Eric Steckel. "The incredible vibe in the studio brought forth tons of new and spontaneous material such as the title track 'Sandstorm' which instantly became my favorite track on this album and a perfect representation of this body of work." Eric has toured worldwide sharing the billing with Steve Vai, Gregg Allman, Johnny Winter, John Mayall, Ray Charles, Larry Carlton, Robben Ford, and others and was voted into Total Guitar magazine's list of "The 100 Greatest Blues Guitarists of All Time" and named one of "10 Future Blues Stars” by Guitar Player.

Features Rasco, L da Headtoucha, Edo. G, Esoteric, Pace Won, Young Zee, Danja Mowf, Lonnie B, J-Live, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Lucky Dice, Ripshop and more, plus the first production from Statik Selektah and beats by Soul Searchers, Eddie Bones of Skitzofreniks, Ray Fernandes & Fakts-1.
Along Came the Chosen dropped in 2001 and was the first solo album from Reks, and the first album by a solo artist released on Boston-based Brick Records, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 too. Its release was a defining building block in the long and storied history of Boston independent hip-hop, and this album set the bar for what was expected from MCs and Beatmakers on the Beatown rap scene and beyond.
Brick Records and Reks are proud to celebrate its 25th anniversary with this deluxe double-vinyl pressing. "Along Came the Chosen reaching its 25 year anniversary, being the piece of art that established my hip hop career, is something monumental to celebrate. The fact that individuals still reach out to me to express how they grew with this album means so much to me. There were so many voices in my ear telling me that being a successful artist in this game required bending to popular trends and styles. This album allowed me to establish my own voice and identity, and I am thankful for Soul Searchers (Magoo and Rockwell) for being the foundational sound bed, Shay Boogs for being my first manager, and Brick Records for being the label that believed in me. I am happy to say we have put out some incredible art together. This album boasts the first-ever Statik Selektah beat placement too! We have come a long way. Here’s to 25 more!" REKS.

They live! If this summer’s endless bout of heatwaves seems an odd setting for a new Altar Of Eden record, maybe we should consider that the fast-accelerating destruction of life on Earth is an appropriate setting for more deathrock. The eagle-eyed among you might recognise guitarist Ben Redman from recent lineups of symphonic noiseniks …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, while vocalist Albert Efraim has been making a thrillingly unholy racket with Texan hardcore faves like the Creamers and Nosferatu - and they both played together in gothed-out sensations Altar Duata before that band’s untimely demise. Altar Of Eden have thus far produced two mighty LPs of smartly chilling post-punk for Drunken Sailor - 2020’s wondrous The Grotto Screams and 2022’s superb follow-up Chimeras - but now they return with a sequel to their debut: The Grotto Screams II.

In keeping with their previous offerings, it’s superb. Redman’s guitar is brittle and minimal, but lurches into eardrum-lacerating strafes of deafening, brutal noise without warning, while Jake Cloud brings driving, pulsating basslines to the fore, dripping with the influence of Killing Joke’s Youth as they hold it all together somehow. Efraim intones his lyrics solemnly over the top, drenched in reverb and tucked deep into the mix; as much a texture as a means of delivering hooks. He’s cited the poetry of Jean-Pierre Duprey and Rene Daumal as influences in the past, and tracks like The Erasure and Light And Shade certainly contain their own suffocating sense of surrealism and obfuscated reality. It all builds to the epic finale of closing track The Moon, which handles their signature tricks in moodily grandiose fashion - a bleakly compelling version of post-punk that sears and soars even as it chills the heart. Arguably Duprey’s most famous line goes, “I shouldn't have got stuck in this galaxy,” and as humanity brings about its own destruction, it’s worth suggesting that this applies to us all. But at least Altar Of Eden bring a hell of a soundtrack while we all burn.

It feels like a lifetime ago that the first Rat Cage demo tape was spat into the Hardcore Punk underground. Maybe that’s because for the past 10 years Bry Suddaby has been relentlessly chucking out a slew of pummelling records, arming many Punks worldwide with a soundtrack to survival in the modern age of death and destruction.
Fourteen bloody releases later, the third RAT CAGE LP comes crashing in as the state of global horror reaches a grave pinnacle. In true RAT CAGE fashion, the drums relentlessly hammer away under rollercoaster riffs, while Bry’s viciously cynical bark spills the trials and tribulations of trying to get by in 2026.
For the uninitiated, RAT CAGE pulls influence from 80’s Northern European Punk like MISSBRUKARNA or APPENDIX, contemporary Swedish sweet spot Hardcore like HERÄTYS or FYFAN, ripping USHC ala POISON IDEA or OUT COLD, while naturally adding a classic British injection of GBH or THE VARUKERS.
As always, there’s the constant apprehension that you never quite know what’s around the next bend, and with ‘Not Asking for Much’ Bry has cast the net even further. There’s moments that get as heavy as BASTARD, as melodic as the UK SUBS, and even a title track that gets as rocking as the PINK FAIRIES. All amounting to a distinctive and characterful sound that’s unmistakably RAT CAGE.
With little to be hopeful about as we all suffocate within the authoritarian nightmare, this LP could once again be your beacon of fire. So, light the match and burn alone at maximum volume.

„Break or Breakthrough“ zeigt Zahna in Höchstform – mit kraftvollen Riffs, mitreißendem Gesang und der Durchbruch-Single „Defiler“ ft. Brian „Head“ Welch (Korn). Mit über 22 Millionen Streams und vier Wochen in den Top 40 der Active-Rock-Charts ist dies der erste Chart-Hit von XOVR Records. Das von Kellen McGregor (Memphis May Fire) produzierte Album liefert explosiven, cineastischen Hardrock.

It’s been one hell of a wild ride for Wine Lips. Originally formed in Toronto back in 2015 as a part-time project between Cam Hilborn (vox, songwriter, guitar) and drummer extraordinaire Aurora Evans, Wine Lips quickly escalated into a full-blown, full-time, full-on international phenomenon. Their debut album took them across North America followed immediately by an intensive and unexpected tour of Hong Kong and China in 2018. They released their massive “Stressor” album the very next year (2019) to rave reviews and massive critical acclaim. Multiple tracks from Stressor charted across North American and European radio, while several songs ended up being featured in broadcast and Netflix series. Endless touring ensued. Then 2020 happened. The band used their mandatory downtime to fully dedicate themselves to crafting their groundbreaking third full-length “Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party” (recorded by Simon Larochette at The Sugar Shack). The record was released in October 2021 and then shit really hit the fan. The international music press lost their collective minds, penning over 250 glowing features and super positive reviews spanning 35+ countries. At the time of writing, the album blew past 40 Million spins on Spotify alone.

The vinyl release of MDSBP is currently in its 7th pressing with 9 different colour variants. The lead track “Eyes” has been licensed to a metric ton of films, series and video games including ABC’s The Rookie, Hockey Night In Canada and Population 11. Even more endless touring ensued, except this time the venues were huge and mostly sold-out. The 2024 follow-up album “Super Mega Ultra” was an absolute beast. Recorded by Simon Larochette at The Sugar Shack in Ontario, the album packed 12 ramped-up supersonic ear-scorching auditory delicacies and racked up millions of plays.

A beautifully observed baroque masterpiece, part dream pop, part futuristic psych-folk with ambient synths and Josephine Foster’s plaintive guitar. Godmother is a slowly unfolding song cycle that marries a myriad of previous musical escapades with electronic experiments. Exploring new horizons on this record, it sees Foster at her most expressive and hypnotic. Now back home in the mountains of Colorado, Josephine’s 20-year journey to this new nirvana becomes enthralled further with a symphony of synths that sound like they are played in some neighbouring netherworld, through cotton gauze. It’s music that’s devotional, spiritual, a fitting soundtrack for any journey within or without, a means to experience places and vibrations beyond the boundary of time and space. Discussing the record, Josephine explains “You may notice me travelling a bit further sonically from our precious earth, aspiring to rise into broader astral perspective, to contemplate the light and origins of it all, as I do believe there is a grand source that is the sum of it all, us all. Performing all the parts on this recording, you may sense me focussing gestures of my singing into the instrumentation, which is a very great relief indeed, as the voice has such grand dreams to be set free.” “With her haunted, theatrical delivery, Foster cuts an arresting figure.” Pitchfork // “Out of time yet timeless” The Wire

Following last year's world tour, Sparks were invited to perform a one-off show on the Moon - the first band in history to do so! Includes an introduction and outro from Cate Blanchett, who accompanied the band on their lunar trip.

Sparks Live On The Moon comprises a full live set of twenty songs spanning the band's 54 year career, including 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us', 'The Number One Song In Heaven', 'When Do I Get To Sing "My Way"', 'The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte' and songs from their most recent album MAD!

Appleton announce the release of a brand new EP, 'Side By Side', which will be released Friday September 4th, marking the first new Appleton body of work in over two decades.
Nicole says: "The reaction to 'Falling Into You' and our first Appleton show in over twenty years has been incredible We feel so grateful that people still connect with these songs and are excited about what we're doing now. This EP feels like the natural next chapter." After reissuing their cult- classic 2003 album 'Everything's Eventual' on vinyl, this January Appleton returned with 'Falling Into You' their first new music as a duo in 23 years.
While nostalgia may have sparked the reunion, 'Side By Side' is firmly focused on the present. Across four original tracks, the EP blends the melodic pop songwriting and distinctive harmonies that made Appleton favourites first time around with a fresh, contemporary sound that reflects where Natalie and Nicole are today. For both sisters, the project has been a reminder of the unique creative bond they've always shared. "We've always had a special connection when we sing together" says Nicole. "Making these songs reminded us of that. It never feels forced it just feels natural." More than twenty years after they first burst into the charts, Appleton aren't looking backwards. They're simply enjoying making music together again side by side.

While the sterile “professionalism” of some heavy bands can be like a clinical drone strike, Texas-based Judiciary feels personal. Like close combat with a knife. And it’s all in their chemistry. Judiciary is an amalgamation of four guys raised in the intersection of metal and hardcore—all devoted to pushing their craft further. Across two esteemed LPs, the band has proven their worth as a crucial entity in the crowded heavy music scene by evolving their sound further and further with each release. And now with the band’s latest Stalagmite Angels, due on September 4th via the venerable Closed Casket Activities, Judiciary can further showcase their status as a crucial, one-of-a-kind part of the evolution of hardcore in 2026. Life changes can bring about chaos and seismic shifts, but if Stalagmite Angels is any indication, then it’s all for the better. In the wake of the release of Judiciary’s second LP Flesh + Blood, the band called upon Juan Vazquez to pick up guitar duties, thereby changing the internal framework of the band for good, and unknowingly for the better. It’s this pivot in personnel that resulted in the band’s latest EP. “The goal with this EP was a hard reset, but we also wanted to chill the f— out a bit, have fun, and do something that felt true to the four of us,” recalls drummer Austin Looney. “We wanted time to reconfigure things and let the music come naturally–temper this new mindset that we've adopted post-Flesh + Blood.” Judiciary’s greatest strength lies in their musical singularity. Though Stalagmite Angels represents the collision of influences from across well-worn territories like metallic hardcore, death metal, black metal, d-beat and more, it’s the Lubbock-born band’s approach that makes it distinctly their own. Stalagmite Angels is a wholly new document that resembles a horde of bands ranging from Hatebreed to Carcass to Slayer to Iron Age, yet never aping any single band nor even revealing any single influence. It’s all familiar but none of it is specific. “90s hardcore and hardcore in general is always gonna be our natural inclination, but it manifests with different elements not only from song to song but within each song,” says vocalist Jake Collinson emphatically, who learned guitar specifically to help with writing new material. “Whether that’s Dying Breed or Cannibal Corpse or Crowbar or Machine Head or any number of other influences that any one of us may have, it all manifests in our work, and through our individual and collective lenses. With this EP, we transformed those ideas into the Judiciary approach.” Stalagmite Angels is an EP about anger at the world, belief in yourself, and how harnessing both in the pursuit of growth is necessary to achieve. But furthermore, it’s a concept record that envisions a subterranean world in both a literal and metaphorical sense—where hidden beauty lurks in the shadows (and in the eye of the beholder) and where triumph manifests in the ability to rise from the depths and into the world above.

This is a concept record that reflects on events that have had a calculable effect on a generation:
‘’By 83 and 84, it felt that nuclear war was going to happen. Not could happen but was going to.’’
Stephen Brotherstone
"What would you do in the event of a Nuclear war?"
I remember having discussions about what we would do when we heard the four minute warning siren. We would raid the sweet shop. I was 8 or 9 years old. The absurdity of this vivid memory encapsulates the concept of the record. It would take at least four minutes to get to the shop!
The record starts with an early memory of circling a church on a Raleigh Budgie (the smaller lesser known iconic Chopper bicycle) in 1981 and ends with staring up at a clear sky on Oldham Lows in 1990.
The record identifies and plays with the effects of an underlying fear of oblivion on a generation of children, but also society as a whole: The pieces take in media and government propaganda. Machinery (nuclear submarines) and buildings (nuclear bunkers) but also everyday activities of the civilian population, activities such as shopping, clubbing and staring at the sky. Thematically, the record is made up of personal memories mixed with historical events.
Instruments are mainly from 1980s. DX7 and 808 feature predominantly. The pieces feature numerous melodic motifs that develop and intertwine underlying ideas of espionage and layers of secret messaging. It also mirrors the ways in which governments and civilians interact. Decisions being made in the name of defence whilst people go about their daily lives. I am exploring the everyday experiences of the masses whilst major political decisions are taking place. For example, shopping on a Saturday afternoon versus heated Cold War tensions in 1983.
Although taking place conceptually in the years 1979-1991, this record mirrors current events. History repeating. It also mirrors the helplessness or maybe some oblivious everyday normality state that we adopt as a community whilst major political decisions are being made.
The idea that life goes on oblivious to larger scale politics, or on the other hand, the idea that we are all very aware but in a state of unreal normality. Adam Curtis goes into great detail about such things in his film 'Hyper Normalisation'.

Ecology Division is a new compilation from Bastard Jazz that brings together a network of producers and musicians working across jazz, soul, electronic, and beat-driven styles. Featuring artists from Brooklyn, Chicago, Montreal, London, Lisbon, Melbourne, and Ludhiana, the release highlights a core group of collaborators and peers connected to the label’s extended orbit. The project is presented with cohesive visual direction inspired by vintage field guides and naturalist illustration, with each track paired to a distinct animal. This framing positions Ecology Division as a curated snapshot of an active, evolving creative community rather than a traditional compilation.

The release features contributions from Simon Mavin (of Hiatus Kaiyote), Sholto & David Bardon, Danny Scott Lane, Rachel Kitchlew & DOUGH, Lapgan, Korovo, Birocratic, Kartik, Nick Marks, and Pimenta Caseira. Collectively, these artists have released music on respected independent labels including Ninja Tune, Brainfeeder, Mr. Bongo, Melting Pot Music, WRWTFWW Records, and Moon Glyph, among others—underscoring the compilation’s reach across established global scenes.

Mara TK, a golden voiced, Maori-Scottish world-wandering citizen of Aotearoa (New Zealand) announces his debut solo album 'Bad Meditation', released 7th May on Extra Soul Perception. Stepping out on his own, Mara TK is the former frontman of the acclaimed Kiwi future soul trio Electric Wire Hustle. Written and produced by Mara himself, 'Bad Meditation' is his 13 track opus, a deeply personal account of heritage, love, loss and healing.

An alumnus of Red Music Academy in Toronto, Mara TK's work beyond Electric Wire Hustle has seen him collaborate with critically lauded names including Om'Mas Keith of Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Detroit producer and J Dilla collaborator Waajeed, and Steve Spacek.

Extra Soul Perception is a collaboration and community music platform that started life between the UK, Kenya and Uganda but is now continuing to grow and connect independent musicians worldwide. Now with Mara TK added to the roster, Extra Soul Perception has released music by Lex Amor, K15, Maxwell Owin, Lynda Dawn, Hibotep, Karun, Labdi, Faizal Mostrixx and more.

*Nb: The solo version of 'Met At The River' is a digital exclusive only.

Shoal corrals three original solo productions into ISOTOOP’s fourth record, each demonstrating refinement of the artist’s sound and technique, finished by a fitting retelling of ‘Interlocking’ by Antony Linell.

It begins with helical hypnotism; ‘Strange Blue Knots’ drives directly forward on muscular bass, but pointillistic synthwork creates an aural illusion of a spiral aperture tightening; the landscape remains broad, but focus is drawn down to the loci of motion. All containment is blown away by the incomparable force of ‘Roxellana’. Here, the forward motion is not illusory but the irrefutable command of hurricane tailwinds. Thunder heralds full-band waves of unbridled sound, and though the rudder is surrendered to the billowing storm, no part of the weapon is directionless chaos.

Shoal’s tale concludes with ‘Interlocking’, a step back from the monstrous energy of the preceding track (anything and all would be); attention is built again on guile and quiet magnetism, commonly felt attributes throughout the artist’s repertoire. This concept of restraint as force receives a sharpening by Antony Linell, whose sonic influence is present throughout the record, like fossilised footprints. In the calm, sheltered lee of the mountain, the slope behind the wave’s punching crest, Linell’s calmer, stripped-back version feels like a fireside retelling of a myth; still full of the magnitude of the original events, the space surrounding the action is foregrounded. 

Every tale may be reduced to the same core elements: the hand; the knife it holds; vivid silence presaging the moment of action. Fitting that the tale of three parts is summarised by a fourth, wider perspective.

Shoal corrals three original solo productions into ISOTOOP’s fourth record, each demonstrating refinement of the artist’s sound and technique, finished by a fitting retelling of ‘Interlocking’ by Antony Linell.

It begins with helical hypnotism; ‘Strange Blue Knots’ drives directly forward on muscular bass, but pointillistic synthwork creates an aural illusion of a spiral aperture tightening; the landscape remains broad, but focus is drawn down to the loci of motion. All containment is blown away by the incomparable force of ‘Roxellana’. Here, the forward motion is not illusory but the irrefutable command of hurricane tailwinds. Thunder heralds full-band waves of unbridled sound, and though the rudder is surrendered to the billowing storm, no part of the weapon is directionless chaos.

Shoal’s tale concludes with ‘Interlocking’, a step back from the monstrous energy of the preceding track (anything and all would be); attention is built again on guile and quiet magnetism, commonly felt attributes throughout the artist’s repertoire. This concept of restraint as force receives a sharpening by Antony Linell, whose sonic influence is present throughout the record, like fossilised footprints. In the calm, sheltered lee of the mountain, the slope behind the wave’s punching crest, Linell’s calmer, stripped-back version feels like a fireside retelling of a myth; still full of the magnitude of the original events, the space surrounding the action is foregrounded. 

Every tale may be reduced to the same core elements: the hand; the knife it holds; vivid silence presaging the moment of action. Fitting that the tale of three parts is summarised by a fourth, wider perspective.