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‘Dynamic Movements - Music for Exercise & Relaxation’ is the new album by the Swedish electronic music producer/remix duo of Johan Agebjörn and Mikael Ögren, lovingly released on Ltd. cassette via Lo Recordings.

Back in the 1980’s there was an exercise craze, people wore lycra bodysuits and headbands. All over the world people were making ‘Dynamic Movements’, determined to change the flow, turn their lives around and step into a bright new future. At the same time the New Age movement was blossoming and meditation was the way forward. Meditation and deep relaxation with maybe some crystals and Unicorns, just for fun.

Inspired by these exercise tapes of the 70s/80s and in tribute to those times and movements, Johan and Mikael worked with producers from around the world to create an album of diverse interpretations, bringing us an album of deep sonic nourishment. Sometimes throbbing and at other times gently lapping at your toes, the result is a lavish cassette contrasting ‘music for exercise’ on side A and ‘music for relaxation’ on side B.

Kicking off side one is the duo’s own ‘Dynamo Dance’, a resonant, pulsating slice of electronic pleasure, which gives way to tracks by acclaimed collaborators like the crisp, cruise control groove of Causeway, the dub chug delight of Jarle Brathen and the irrepressible majesty of ‘Lovelock’ (Steve Moore), before Johan and Mikael return with a tribute to the late great Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk.

Side two’s sumptuous drift into a world of soft pads, rippling arpeggios and sultry saxophone (all the saxophone on the album is by the aforementioned Steve Moore) is initiated by Seahawks, with their lysergic ‘Phase Induction’ leading to the extended Cafe Del Mar beach bar ambience of the legendary Fax records maestro Dr Atmo, continuing with the impossibly lush shimmer of Mary Yalex, the gravity defying drift of One Million Eyes and the divine dream world of Patricia Wolf.

Christened ‘High Tide’ after the sudden rising of the LA River basin during a particularly epic and rare rainfall, this cosmic slop funk jam was born from the minds of Devin Flynn (Pixeltan) and Eddie Ruscha (Secret Circuit), two individuals with a deep connection to Los Angeles’ tap water sources. While traipsing through the aisles of an Atwater Village bodega, the two mustered up a plan to create a rhythmic piece so delectable as to turn peoples’ heads inside out and pummel the senses with a wobbly Jah Wobble bass sound and a toy drum machine ‘no toy’ style back beat. They figured if they laced it up with enough electronic scuzz, the masses would be sure to want to sip from its nectar.

When DFA got wind it was all systems go and, from then on, all relevant parties knew that they should sit on the track for at least five years before it was released, otherwise the world at large would not be ready for it. The remixes are by Eddie himself - as Secret Circuit - and Dr. Dunks, aka Eric Duncan, a fellow Angeleno (at least at heart). Eric and Devin rolled through the streets as small children, shredding curbs and tagging local ice cream trucks, so it was inevitable they would reconnect and jam on ‘High Tide’.

Devin Flynn is an animator, musician and teacher who has worked on projects like Gary Panter’s web series Pink Donkey & The Fly and MTV2’s Wonder Showzen. He has previously released on DFA with Pixeltan, a trio - Flynn, Hisham Bharoocha of Black Dice and singer Mika Yoneta - that recorded with The DFA at the label’s inception, creating two seminal singles.

Eddie Ruscha is another DFA veteran, having remixed artists including Wolfram and Museum of Love. He has been making music for decades, as Secret Circuit and with myriad other aliases and collaborators, in addition to recording under his own name. He has released on labels like Beats in Space and Emotional Response, among others.

For fans of Young Marco, Suzanne Kraft, Prins Thomas, Khotin, Gaussian Curve.

Seitō 青鞜 gathers Japanese female artists from various electronic and experimental music fields. Like the « Tokyo Flashback » series issued by P.S.F. in the early 1990s, this collection recorded between 2017 and 2019 exposes the richness of the contemporary Japanese underground music scene. The title refers to a cult feminist magazine printed in Japan in the 1910s. All tracks issued for the first time.

"In 2004 Swedish melodic death metal kings released ""The Arrival"", by then the ninth album by Peter Tägtgren (guitars, vocals), Mikael Hedlund (bass), and for the last time with Lars Szöke behind the kit. Yet, an ending proved to be a beginning with 'Eraser' becoming one of the group's most successful tracks while offering further highlights like 'Stillborn', 'Slave to the Parasites', 'The Departure' and the re-recorded 'The Abyss', originally composed during the ""The Fourth Dimension"" era. Now, 20 years after its release, ""The Arrival"" is finally available on vinyl again! "

Kumio Kurachi is a Japanese singer-songwriter who has been active since the 1980's.

This is his 11th solo album and only the second to be released outside of Japan following ‘Sound of Turning Earth’ (2018) on bison. Though his songs are written and performed primarily on guitar, “Open Today” is a return to Kurachi’s full, multi-instrumental recording style - featuring drums, bass, strings, keys and Kurachi’s rich, distinctive vocals in multiple voicings. Incredibly, all instrumental performances and arrangements were performed and recorded by Kurachi himself - marking a brilliant return to the fully fleshed out visionary world we fell in love with on Supermarket Chitose (Enban, 2006). The super fine detail and dense landscapes of ‘Open Today’ should come as no surprise really - Kurachi is an illustrator by trade and it bleeds right through to his music. Even to the non-native speaker Kurachi’s vocals hold centre stage - at times enormous and thundering over urgent guitar and toms, then switching to softly spoken words amongst keys. Frequently Kurachi multiplies, whether multitracking himself or summoning voices for the characters he writes from sightings on train platforms or supermarkets. His lyrics - translated to English for both formats - are more like poetry, and though written about the mundane they quickly become surreal, bringing the quality of dreams into the everyday. The hours spent on buses, trains or walking home towards a cheap flat - familiar to us all - are catalysts for microcosms of detail.

Again, we shouldn’t be surprised - Kurachi is well known in Japan for winning the national championship of NHK's "Poetry Boxing" in 2002, which also might explain his amazing Discogs photo. Poet, illustrator, multi-instrumentalist - Kurachi is thought of by many as a genius. He’s worked with Jim O’Rourke, Tori Kudo, Eiko Ishibashi and Taku Unami (who did the mastering on this LP). There are lines to be drawn between Kurachi and Kazuki Tomokawa or Kan Mikami, but also Francis Plagne and Fairport Convention.

Ultimately though there is nothing else like it - it’s a brand of strange songcraft that’s totally captivating.

Hailing from the West side of St. Louis, Missouri, Mikahl Anthony’s sonic roots spread far across the global Alt-Soul / Hip-Hop scene. A highly soughtafter multidisciplinary artist (who has collaborated with the likes of Mick Jenkins, Chance The Rapper, Joey Purp, Smino and more), as well as being a founding member of Chicago’s THEMpeople collective, he now prepares to unveil his masterful full-length debut Muse via R&S Records.

Accompanied by several beautiful, self-directed film pieces, Muse is a record with storytelling at its core. Interspersed with commentary from a range of sources telling their stories to Mikhal, whilst collaboratively analysing their personal experiences, it speaks a candid and honest narrative, which reinforce the heartfelt lyrics within. With the project’s name anchored around a dual meaning acronym (1. Ms. Using sensual energy and 2. Making use of seclusion every day). The record is an audio version of docufilm, that creatively interprets the idea of self-therapy, an internal/interpersonal reflection of life experiences that serendipitously connect to Mikahl’s personal romantic relationships. Mikahl explains: ‘I wanted to use a unique style of songwriting, arrangement and filming with the intention of soundtracking my self-development/maturation process’.

On the project’s lasting impression on the listener, Mikahl elaborates ’The exploration of inner truth and vulnerability is key to the future of good music. I want this project to act as symbolism that highlights the mantra that honest approaches and authenticity still has the most value. I also want people to see how important the use of community is when you can connect them to your subject matter...I'd like my audience to observe and engage in their own self-reflections, approaches by way of listening or interacting with the story.’

Drifting to an elevated state of consciousness, Muse is a deeply intoxicating and engrossing listening experience from front to back. From the sliding, kaleidoscopic shadows of opening track ‘La Flare’, via the trepidation-laced atmosphere of ‘Polyamorous’ and the hazy, reverb drenched saxophone notes of LP closer ‘Eddie Kane’ - Mikahl channels moments of joy and pain, infused with spirit enriching instrumentation and gritty textures.

Visual stimuli play an integral role within Mikahl’s music. His songs represent transparency and openness dipped in funk. Layers of soft velvety vocals emerge from jazz harmonies, trap rhythms, and social commentary sourced from voiceovers/excerpts. His creations are the musical representation of documentary films. His art is imagery embodied.

Producer, designer, publisher, filmmaker, all-round scene phenom - Lasse Marhaug returns with his first album since relocating from Oslo to the Arctic Circle, surveying his 35-year career for a set of grizzled, doom-pocked rhythms and foghorn drones pulled from the aether. Expansive and hard to categorise, it's a precision-tooled set of ice-cold tonal productions that heavily lean into Mika Vainio’s rhythm experiments, with extra levels of growling bass and curious noises to send us deep into the uncanny.

Lasse Marhaug has put his mark on literally hundreds of albums - working with artists like Jenny Hval, Merzbow, Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Hilary Woods - so many others - yet he still regards himself as a primarily visual artist who got diverted into an occasionally different path. If his last album 'Context' was a kiss goodbye to decades of life in Oslo, 'Provoke' turns a new page, but one that draws heavily from memories of the distant past, reflecting on the way the topographies of Norway's frozen north helped shape his creative worldview. Weaving electronics into environmental recordings captured in the bleak Arctic winter, the album was mixed during the Polar night season, when, for two straight months, the sun never rose past the horizon. Somehow, even at its bleakest, Marhaug avoids the usual aesthetic signifiers for this kinda thing, finding elements of queered beauty in all the severity, juxtaposing elements that shine a bright light on all the odd spaces in-between.

A consideration of noise music's place in 2024, and whether it can still be a tool for subversion when its aesthetics have been so commodified, ‘Provoke’ also refernces an experimental '70s Japanese art magazine that attempted to define a new language for photography. Operating somewhere between these two guiding poles, Lasse feels his way through a subtly altered mode of expression, a new approach to familiar concepts. Album opener ‘Plates’, for example, gives it the full Ø treatment, like some exceptional ‘Oleva’-outtake, but , eventually, shards of interference start to exhale like horses blowing, creating uncanny sensations that hit through ambiguous feeling rather than sheer noise terror. Ritualistic, corporeal - hard to know what you’re listening to and why it makes you feel that certain way - so much more than just machine cycles optimised for their ultimately hollow brutalist aesthetic.

Marhaug paints vivid pictures from a carefully chosen palette, drawing us into a soundworld that's rich with contradictions and contrasts. Even the relatively deafening 'New Topographics' offsets its wall of distortion with a muffled, perforating kick drum, cutting into the noise like a knife through butter. And all of this preparation makes the album's lengthy centrepiece 'Monochrome Head' even more impactful; hinging on a Pan Sonic-like alloy of bass and drums, the track snowballs through tempered feedback and improv scrapes and whistles that pick up into an orchestral din. Marhaug accents the bluster with rhythmic hums that gather in momentum until they're almost oppressively heavy, as if everything's about to collapse.

A masterclass in quietly subversive world-building, 'Provoke' invites us to peer at an expansive sonic landscape and marvel at its intricacies, but this time around there's a Lovecraftian behemoth lurking somewhere beneath its icy surface.

UEVPD - Usage/Efficiency/Variance/Platform/Domain - is the solo project of Dominic Goodman, a former member of Mosquitoes and currently one half of Komare.

The self-titled UEVPD debut LP, released on 22nd November via World of Echo, consists of eight sequentially numbered electro-acoustic tracks made over approximately five years, living recordings that have morphed in shape over time, each systematically stripped back to their elemental form before being deemed complete. From the outset, Goodman purposefully deployed a relatively limited array of equipment and adopted a determinedly minimalist approach to composition, a practice in restraint that privileges detail and nuance. Field recordings, made using a combination of dynamic, condenser, contact and electret microphones, geophones and hydrophones, were allied to a basic modular/analogue synth setup, allowing for little in the way of excess or indulgence.

The results are markedly defiant, displaying an expert exercise in control and restraint that lets in little light but plays a great service to space and time. This is patient, claustrophobic sound design that bears out the value in attentive listening, a meditation on the acceptance of passing time, change, growth, death and regeneration. As such, listeners might connect associative lines with the likes of Pan Sonic and Mika Vianio’s solo work, Emptyset and Civilistjavel (who’s Tomas Bodén shows up on mastering duties here), though this remains distinctively Goodman’s vision, a continuation of his interests shown in Mosquitoes and Komare that further pushes out into the murky unknown.

Das zweite Album von The 69 Eyes, „Savage Garden“, erscheint im November 2024 über Svart Records.
1995 veröffentlichten The 69 Eyes ihr zweites Album „Savage Garden“ auf Gaga Goodies. Dieses Album enthielt die ersten Hinweise auf die
Gothic-Richtung, in die sie sich bewegten, während sie immer noch die Fahne des Sleaze-Rocks schwenkten, für den sie zu dieser Zeit bekannt waren.
Krawallige Rockmusik und viel geradlinige, eingängige Energie mit garantiert düsterer Atmosphäre.
„Savage Garden“ wurde von Mika Jussila in enger Zusammenarbeit mit den Mitgliedern der Band in den Finnvox Studios für Vinyl neu gemastert.

Das zweite Album von The 69 Eyes, „Savage Garden“, erscheint im November 2024 über Svart Records.
1995 veröffentlichten The 69 Eyes ihr zweites Album „Savage Garden“ auf Gaga Goodies. Dieses Album enthielt die ersten Hinweise auf die
Gothic-Richtung, in die sie sich bewegten, während sie immer noch die Fahne des Sleaze-Rocks schwenkten, für den sie zu dieser Zeit bekannt waren.
Krawallige Rockmusik und viel geradlinige, eingängige Energie mit garantiert düsterer Atmosphäre.
„Savage Garden“ wurde von Mika Jussila in enger Zusammenarbeit mit den Mitgliedern der Band in den Finnvox Studios für Vinyl neu gemastert.

Opeth are one of the biggest acts in the Prog Metal genre with numerous top 10 albums worldwide, ”The Last Will and Testament” is their new album set for release November 22. Guest vocals by Joey Tempest (Europe), and guest flute by Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). “A restless musical journey in a way mirroring my own relationship with music as a consumer of it," narrates band leader Mikael Åkerfeldt. "I pick up something here, dismiss something there. I worship and I hate music at the same time. This ambivalence leads me down some type of creative path of my own and then, all of a sudden, a collection of songs has been written. Best case scenario, these songs are good enough to impress the band. Good enough for the ”powers that be” in terms of the industry. Good enough for ”you”?! I love this record. I have to say it (write it). Maybe I’m proud even? There are some familiar ingredients in there I suppose. Most of our music has sprung from the same source, so I guess it’s not much of a shocker if it’s going to sound like ”us”. I’m a bit in awe of what we did with ”The Last Will and Testament”. It feels like a dream. There is some ”coherence" and ” songwriting skills” I hope, but what do I know? I tend to favour the ”strange” over the ”obvious”, but I feel like I’m in the minority, and that’s fine. So…fair warning! Don’t expect an instant rush (as per usual), but if you do ”get it” (have you got it yet?) right away, that’s ok too!"

"Five years since her debut album Delivery, Mikaela Davis has moved away from her hometown of Rochester, shared the stage with the likes of Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Christian McBride, Bon Iver, Lake Street Dive and Circles Around the Sun and entered a new decade. But it’s the ever-evolving relationships between her closest friends and bandmates that has propelled the Hudson Valley-based artist onto her latest album And Southern Star––a truly collaborative effort that ruminates on the choices we make, and the people we always come back to.

The band, made up of Davis (harp/vocals), Alex Coté (drums), Cian McCarthy (guitars/vocals), Shane McCarthy (bass/vocals) and Kurt Johnson (steel guitar), have been playing together for over a decade and it’s the first time they’ve appeared on a full length record together. Weaving 60s pop-soaked melodies, psychedelia and driving folk rock, And Southern Star picks apart the reflection we used to recognise, while trying to build a new one. It navigates the periphery of past selves, the coexistence of isolation and excitement in a new environment and the tension of growing away from what we thought we wanted, tackling it with a luscious, kaleidoscopic grace. “I finally feel like this album is more me than anything else that’s been released,” Davis says, adding that producing the album along with her four bandmates allowed them to carve out their own ideas, rather than someone else’s. It’s the band’s collective step into adulthood that has informed much of And Southern Star’s thematic landscape."

On Maza Gusu, Mikado Koko transforms into Mother Goose, hissing Perrault's fairy tales from her native tongue in your ears. Her unsettling, regressive voice is backed up by a subtle and chilling electronic soundscape sprinkled with traditional Japanese instruments, creating a realm of sound that feels both weirdly familiar and deeply unknown. Mother Koko hurls you deep down the rabbit hole, back to your darkest childhood anguishes, before gently leading you by the hand to a joyful catharsis. As you slowly get used to its disturbing familiarity, Koko’s music feels like waking up in the pale morning light, shaky but relieved after a feverish dream.

In summer 2017 Mikado Koko started her solo career as a club music producer with the elements of Japanese traditional music. After many releases, remixes and compilations such as Seitō: In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun (AKU1016), she now focuses on avant-garde poetry reading related to feminism and gender equality.

"Wer hätte gewollt, dass wir eine neue Extrem-Metal-Band gründen? Nun, vielleicht tatsächlich jemand, aber das ist diesmal nicht der Fall, denn wir haben etwas ganz anderes auf dem Teller..." Die nachdenkliche Stimme gehört dem außergewöhnlichen Gitarristen Markus Vanhala (Insomnium, Omnium Gatherum). In der neuen düsteren Band CEMETERY SKYLINE wird Vanhala von Keyboarder Santeri Kallio (Amorphis), Schlagzeuger Vesa Ranta (Sentenced, The Abbey), Bassist Victor Brandt (Dimmu Borgir und viele mehr) und Sänger Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquillity, The Halo Effect) verstärkt. "Mit CEMETERY SKYLINE begeben wir uns in bisher unbetretene musikalische Richtungen - in jene dunkleren Gassen, die uns am Herzen liegen, die wir aber bisher nicht wirklich durchwandert haben. Und wir sind kollektiv sehr begeistert!" Eines der Schlüsselwörter, Gothic, wurde bereits erwähnt. "Wir alle teilen eine tiefe Liebe für den Goth-Rock der 80er und 90er Jahre - egal, ob es sich um eher synthiegetriebene oder härtere, gitarrenlastige Sachen handelt. Du kennst das mit den besten Bands von The Sisters of Mercy bis Type O Negative", sagt Santeri Kallio, der sich das Songwriting mit Vanhala teilt. "Aber ist CEMETERY SKYLINE eine Gothic-Band? Vielleicht bis zu einem gewissen Grad, aber das ist sicherlich nicht die ganze Geschichte. Wenn ihr die vielfältige Musik von CEMETERY SKYLINE irgendwie beschreiben müsst, tut uns einen Gefallen und nennt uns Botschafter des melodischen, melancholischen und dunklen Rock. Danke." Der Inhalt der Texte ist tief in eine düstere Gothic-Atmosphäre eingebettet. Das von Stanne geschriebene Konzept - zum ersten Mal in seiner bemerkenswerten Karriere verwendet Mikael während des gesamten Albums Clean Vocals - taucht unwiderstehlich in die paradoxe Welt der "nördlichen Einsamkeit" ein. "Die Texte sind tief verwurzelt in der selbstgewählten Einsamkeit der nordischen Menschen, ihrem anti-sozialen Verhalten und ihrem düsteren Sinn für Humor... Beim Schreiben der Texte habe ich mir diese Besonderheit zu Nutze gemacht, die man als den skandinavischen Gothic-Lifestyle bezeichnen könnte", sagt Stanne. "Nordic Gothic" ist erhältlich als: Ltd. CD Digipak, als 180g LP sowie als digitales Album.

The Finns have crafted a top-notch piece of powerful heavy metal with the incomparably strong roars of frontbeast Noora Louhimo, catchy keyboards and earworm invasions. From the opening classical up-tempo opening track, 'Straight To The Heart,' to the last note of the closing ballad 'Far From Heaven,' BATTLE BEAST’s new opus is full of heaviness and emotions. Recorded and produced at JKB Studios by keyboardist Janne Björkroth, the album was also mixed by him alongside Viktor Gullichsen and Mikko Karmila, while mastering was done by Mika Jussila at the world famous Finnvox Studios. “Bombastic and brilliant heavy metal with a killer singer! »Bringer Of Pain« is gigantic!” MYROCK (F) “BATTLE BEAST at their best - majestically melodic and 'Straight To The Heart'!” ROCK IT! (D)

Johan Birgenius (Förnuft och Känsla, Mikael Godée-Eve Beuvens Quartet) has gahtered his favourite players and composed a modern version of rythmic complex fusion. Don’t miss this drummer´s epic and rare gem.

Finnish quartet Superposition returns with their second album, "II", on We Jazz Records. The band will premiere their new album live on the same day at Helsinki"s Odysseus Festival, organised by We Jazz. Led by drummer Olavi Louhivuori, Superposition features Linda Fredriksson and Adele Sauros on saxes and Mikael Saastamoinen on bass.

Vor drei Jahren gelang Sara Bareilles mit dem Lied "Love Song" einer der Hits des Jahres. Monatelang hielt sich das Stück in den Single- und Airplay-Charts. Die Bilanz: Top 5 der US- und UK-Charts, Platz 13 in Deutschland, Doppelplatin in den USA. Das dazugehörige Album "Little Voice" wurde mit Gold ausgezeichnet. Es folgten zahlreiche Tourneen quer durch die Welt, u.a. mit Mika, Paolo Nutini und Maroon5.

Im Oktober 2010 hat Sara Bareilles ihr zweites Album "Kaleidoscope Heart" in den USA veröffentlicht und ist damit direkt auf Platz 1 der Billboard Charts eingestiegen. Mittlerweile hat sich das Album in den USA knapp 250.000 Mal verkauft und die erste Single-Auskopplung "King of Anything" hat bereits Gold-Status und wurde für einen Grammy nominiert.

Am 11. Februar 2011 erscheint das großartige Album "Kaleidoscope Heart" mit 2 Bonus-Tracks nun endlich auch in Deutschland, rechtzeitig zu ihrer Deutschlandtour zusammen mit Maroon 5.

Der von Neal Avron (Fall Out Boy u.a.) produzierte Longplayer vereint kraftvolle, soulige Popsongs mit intelligenten Texten und Arrangements und überzeugt nicht zuletzt durch Sara Bareilles' abwechslungsreiche Stimme auf ganzer Linie.

Qwälen became what it is in 2017. The band members share a passion for playing music in its various raw manifestations and their band backgrounds include Küroishi, Nistikko, Dumathoin and Akma among many others. Punk background bleeds into the music connecting Qwälen's interpretation of black metal into how the genre started decades ago. Simplicity, rawness, speed and honesty. These values were present in the beginning and the same values still hold true. Punk background especially shows live as the chaotic energy of hardcore punk clashes with the ritualistic nature of black metal. Lyrical themes in the first album focused on self-portrayal, dealing with loss, building anew along with finding alternatives in abandonment, misanthropy and Satan. The second album ponders the sheep-like nature of humanity, the inevitability of destruction, the acceptance of being faulted and surrendering to a greater force. Syvä hiljaisuus was recorded at Waiting room recording studio in Tampere with Mikael Neves who has worked with the likes of Death toll 80k and Tryer. Mikael also handled mixing duties. Mastering was done by Will Killingsworth at Dead air studios.

Solid green vinyl. Qwälen became what it is in 2017. The band members share a passion for playing music in its various raw manifestations and their band backgrounds include Küroishi, Nistikko, Dumathoin and Akma among many others. Punk background bleeds into the music connecting Qwälen's interpretation of black metal into how the genre started decades ago. Simplicity, rawness, speed and honesty. These values were present in the beginning and the same values still hold true. Punk background especially shows live as the chaotic energy of hardcore punk clashes with the ritualistic nature of black metal. Lyrical themes in the first album focused on self-portrayal, dealing with loss, building anew along with finding alternatives in abandonment, misanthropy and Satan. The second album ponders the sheep-like nature of humanity, the inevitability of destruction, the acceptance of being faulted and surrendering to a greater force. Syvä hiljaisuus was recorded at Waiting room recording studio in Tampere with Mikael Neves who has worked with the likes of Death toll 80k and Tryer. Mikael also handled mixing duties. Mastering was done by Will Killingsworth at Dead air studios.