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On their second record as The Convenience, Like Cartoon Vampires, New Orleans multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson and Duncan Troast embrace a hypnotic physicality and collage-y, spur-of-the-moment approach to composition. The result is an avant-rock soundworld, peppered with spidery, atonal guitar work, pointy rhythms, and strident feedback, which may strike as a total reinvention following the sugary funk-pop of their 2021 debut album Accelerator. With their second LP, following their inspiration meant creating with their hands much more than buttons or switches. Sessions were characterized by gnarly, improvisational jams as they tinkered with everything from cassette loops, found sounds, and 808s. Tracks like "Target Offer" and "Fake the Feeling" quake with ear-splitting guitar feedback, while "Pray'r" and "Rats" eschew their groove worship in favor of haunting minimalism. Song after song, Accelerator's pop influences are traded in for more eccentric frontiers, with the clear common denominators of their first two records being the duo's spellbinding, funky instincts and a mastery of texture. Lyrically, Like Cartoon Vampires collects dispatches from a dying empire-characters are devoured by alienation and vanity, though society doesn't bat an eye. But make no mistake, these songs are not merely disaffected ennui-music-making and collaboration are intensely emotional practices for The Convenience, and they reflect a shrieking lust for life.

On their second record as The Convenience, Like Cartoon Vampires, New Orleans multi-instrumentalists Nick Corson and Duncan Troast embrace a hypnotic physicality and collage-y, spur-of-the-moment approach to composition. The result is an avant-rock soundworld, peppered with spidery, atonal guitar work, pointy rhythms, and strident feedback, which may strike as a total reinvention following the sugary funk-pop of their 2021 debut album Accelerator. With their second LP, following their inspiration meant creating with their hands much more than buttons or switches. Sessions were characterized by gnarly, improvisational jams as they tinkered with everything from cassette loops, found sounds, and 808s. Tracks like "Target Offer" and "Fake the Feeling" quake with ear-splitting guitar feedback, while "Pray'r" and "Rats" eschew their groove worship in favor of haunting minimalism. Song after song, Accelerator's pop influences are traded in for more eccentric frontiers, with the clear common denominators of their first two records being the duo's spellbinding, funky instincts and a mastery of texture. Lyrically, Like Cartoon Vampires collects dispatches from a dying empire-characters are devoured by alienation and vanity, though society doesn't bat an eye. But make no mistake, these songs are not merely disaffected ennui-music-making and collaboration are intensely emotional practices for The Convenience, and they reflect a shrieking lust for life.

Almost Like You Could ignites its art punk fire with Lucy Alexander proclaiming, “Everyone wants something to talk about / But not a minute to spare, so be brief.” Not surprising from a song that’s 1:54 (‘Higher’), but the raw honesty in her lyrics ring far after the music ends. Alexander, along with bandmate Luke Cartledge, place the propulsive power of their beliefs at the core of their debut full-length album, and their guiding motivation towards social justice is as fierce as it is welcoming. “Living as part of the queer community, and being queer myself, leads me towards supporting every person’s truth,” Alexander says. Scrounge’s songs skip to a fast beat, electrifying the entire album with a sense of empowerment. Their approach is OG punk: they make music for their peers and themselves. Only now, with a world of connections possible, they’re able to open arms wide for a far-reaching embrace. Alexander’s rich vocals give their sound its central force, anchoring the songs with confessional lines (“If this is the pinnacle, then I need a miracle/ Cause everyone’s laughing at me,” “There’s not much left/ this corpse I have to keep/ Above board.”). They sing about economic inequality, political corruption, environmental destruction, and collective change. “We’re inspired by those around us, and we write about what we care about. Art has always existed for us as a means of catharsis, a way of expressing something we might not be able to otherwise, and we hope our music can be that for other people too,” says Alexander. “I think I’ve actually written a filthy banger,” she states while re-listening to “Buzz/Cut”, a grunge-honoring hammer of a song that takes a journey from disappointment, to self-realization, to release. Alexander and Cartledge’s gratification in making an album they’re proud of mirrors the empowerment conveyed in their lyrics. A follow-up to debut mini-album Sugar, Daddy (Fierce Panda, 2022), Almost Like You Could came together over 18 months, in between “teaching, touring, graduation, and a wedding”, as Lucy explains, for the band always has a handful of shows coming up. It’s a strange outcome for a duo who first bonded over their mutual love of SOPHIE. “She radicalized the structure of sound, and revealed herself through it,” Cartledge explains. “That was a massive inspiration when we started playing together, stripping everything away to open up new possibilities as artists and as people." Having already toured Europe and the States, Scrounge is preparing to be on the road throughout 2025. In a world where the idea of true community is ephemeral, Lucy and Luke seek to foster it everywhere they play. And their belief in change is ultimately buoyed by hope. “I know that it’s never been this good,” they sing.

The first ever reissue of 1994 sound poetry masterpiece »BLANKSMANSHIP«, a high point in the work of legendary avant-garde poet and artist John M. Bennett. Editions Basilic and Luna Bisonte Prods previously collaborated on »A Flattened Face Fogs Through: Selected Sound Poetry (1986-1994)«, an anthology of Bennett’s sound poetry released in 2022 to widespread acclaim.

John M. Bennett’s »BLANKSMANSHIP« is a totemic representation of something impossible: a linguistic object containing a totality. Written and recorded in the early 1990s and released as a sound poetry cassette and chapbook, »BLANKSMANSHIP« begins and ends with a ten word mantra, distilling the poem’s ten cantos that act as phases of an extended meditation. Performed by the author accompanied only by minimalist shakuhachi flute and bell, a narrative emerges from a mythic place, spoken by a single voice that eventually multiplies into a horde of selves. The author states that »BLANKSMANSHIP« refers to a state of mind, the "empty yet swarming void from which the poem’s voice arises, as if it were the voice of completeness itself".

RIYL: Robert Ashley, Akio Suzuki, William S. Burroughs, Steve Dalachinsky, Max Headroom, Japanese Shakuhachi Flute Music

In many ways this is The Monochrome Set"s él Records album. Definitely not a rock album, more eclectic, with influences spanning the 1920"s to the early 1960"s. On this Album Bid is crafting his skills as a songwriter: the minimalist "Cowboy Country" could be a Burt Bacharach song without the orchestra, "Sugarplum" a Hoagy Carmichael song but with a pop group, "Jacob"s Ladder" an early 1960"s twangtastic beat song. There is a tangible Latin influence throughout the album, even a little Flamenco, especially on the songs "Cargo" and "Don"t Touch", all with a feather light touch. The very sparse and light nature of the album probably worked against it commercially in an 80"s world of heavy drums, rock guitar and New Romantic synths. 40 years later the quality of the songwriting shines through.

“Egypt’s “official” popular music throughout much of the 20th Century was a complex form of art song steeped in tradition, well-loved by the middle and upper classes, and even accommodating to certain non-Arabic influences. It was highly structured by professional musicians working an established industry centered in the capitol, Cairo. However, far from the bustling cosmopolitan center of Cairo, north and northwest, in towns like Tanta and Alexandria and extending across the Saharan Desert to the Libyan border, dozens of fully marginalized artists were developing a raw, hybrid shaabi/al-musiqa al-shabiya style of music, supported by smaller upstart, independent labels, including the short-lived but deeply resonant Bourini Records. Launched in the late 1960s in Benghazi, Libya, Astuanat al-Bourini اسطوانات البوريني (Bourini Records) published some 40 to 50 titles from 1968 to 1975. Bourini released 7-inch 45 RPM singles by 15 artists, all but one of them Egyptian, igniting brief careers for Alexandrian singer Sheikh Amin Abdel Qader and the blind Bedouin legend Abu Bakr Abdel Aziz (aka Abu Abab). The tracks compiled here comprise a full range of styles covered by the label, while highlighting some of its most gobsmacking moments, from Basis Rahouma’s beastly transformation into a growling and barking man-lion by the end of “Yana Alla Nafsa Masouda,” to Reem Kamal’s hopeful-if-bitter handclapping party pivot “Baed Al Yas Yjini,” which descends into an almost Velvet Underground outro-groove of nihilistic dissonance. All the tracks on this compilation were laid down in stark divergence from the mainstream Egyptian popular music topography of heightened emotions buoyed by lush arrangements. The contrast is most evident in Mahmoud al-Sandidi’s “Ana Mish Hafwatak,” wherein his voice weaves heavily but deftly through a constant accordion drone, and Abu Abab’s “Al Bint al Libya,” a sparse, slow-burning lament with minimal percussion, violin, and Abab’s nephew Hamed Abdel Muna'im Mursi on lyre. Whereas the Egyptian mainstream was aspirational, attempting to reflect Egyptian culture at its most refined, the performances captured by Bourini were manifestations of everyday life lived by the mostly otherwise ignored masses. More than half century old, this music has lost none of its urgency, presence, or relevance. We hear these artists as if they’d just joined us in our living room, and not on a stage decades ago surrounded by tens of thousands of long-forgotten acolytes.

Emily Jeanne presents quỳnh, her new label founded on psychedelic club music expressions. Call Of The Sea is the debut, 4 tracks unfurling experimental dancefloor movements of half step hypnosis and deep percussive explorations.

Loosely nicknamed “queen of the night” in Vietnamese, quỳnh thrives as a nocturnal flower. It serves as a light-hearted metaphor for Emily Jeanne and her authentic approach to late-night electronic music. Previous releases for PM+ explored devious peak time sounds, but her new label quỳnh launches with a fresh look. Its inaugural release Call Of The Sea showcases an adventurous new side to Emily, away from convention into something more ambitious and excitingly new.

Opener Wet Skin rumbles deep and quick with hypnotic fervour, plummeting kicks into its stark rotating abyss. Rolling taut, Count Me Out steps further with minimal guise as it moves sprightly on its reduced DnB dynamics. Đồ Sơn At Night unfurls differently, a change of pace where percussion and gurgling synths drift loosely down the track’s hallucinatory stream. Gone Water flexes stranger, its martillo polyrhythm transfixed heavily on the psychedelic chamber it inhabits. A fascinating first entry into the quỳnh canon from an artist in her finest form.

L.A. Witch haben schon immer eine Aura müheloser Coolness ausgestrahlt, sei es in Form des Americana Noir und des lakonischen Back-to-Basics-Rock'n'Roll ihres selbstbetitelten Debüts oder des glühend strengen Abenteurertums ihres zweiten Albums "Play With Fire". Die Band - bestehend aus Sade Sanchez (Gitarre/Gesang), Irita Pai (Bass) und Ellie English (Schlagzeug) - begann als informelle Angelegenheit, aber die schwülen und betörenden, von Hall umhüllten Songs, die sie schufen, fanden beim Publikum Anklang und brachten das Projekt über den isolierten Raum von Freunden und Gleichgesinnten in Südkalifornien hinaus in die weite Welt. Auf ihrem neuesten Album "DOGGOD" geht das Trio über die bisherigen kreativen und geografischen Grenzen hinaus - das Material wurde in Paris produziert und die Tracks im Motorbass Studio in der Rue de Martyrs aufgenommen. "DOGGOD" erkundet ein breiteres klangliches Terrain, setzt ein größeres Arsenal an Sounds ein und erforscht größere existenzielle und kosmische Themen, ohne dabei den für die Band typischen Sinn für das Verbotene, das Verlassene und die Vorahnung zu verlieren. "DOGGOD" ist ein Weg, das universelle Rätsel der spirituellen Natur von Liebe und Hingabe anzugehen. "Ich habe das Gefühl, eine Art Dienerin oder Sklavin der Liebe zu sein", sagt Sanchez. "Ich bin bereit, für die Liebe zu sterben, indem ich ihr diene, für sie leide oder nach ihr suche - so wie ein treuer, ergebener Diensthund es tun würde." Der Titel des Albums ist ein Palindrom, das DOG und GOD zusammenfasst - eine Verherrlichung des Unterwürfigen und eine Subversion des Göttlichen. Es ist eine Anspielung auf die Reinheit von Hunden und eine Anerkennung ihrer bedingungslosen Liebe und ihres beschützenden Wesens, die im Widerspruch zu den verschiedenen abwertenden Assoziationen stehen, die mit dieser Spezies verbunden werden. "Es gibt diese symbolische Verbindung zwischen Frauen und Hunden, die die untergeordnete Stellung der Frau in der Gesellschaft zum Ausdruck bringt", erklärt Sanchez. "Und alles, was solche göttlichen Eigenschaften verkörpert, hat es nicht verdient, als Schimpfwort benutzt zu werden." Diese widersprüchlichen Erkundungen von Liebe und Unterwerfung manifestieren sich in der sanften und rauchigen Garagerock-Alchemie der Band, mit einer neu entdeckten Nutzung der disziplinierten Zurückhaltung und eisigen Instrumentierung des Post-Punk. Der Album-Opener "Icicle" zeigt, wie L.A. Witch aus dem Proto-Punk, der Psychedelia und den düsteren Riffs der 70er Jahre in die von Refrains durchtränkten Gitarren und den verlorenen Minimalismus von Joy Division und den frühen The Cure reist. Es wird eine Parallele zwischen romantischem Selbstmord und Märtyrertum gezogen, die sich im zweiten Song, "Kiss Me Deep", fortsetzt. Hier beschreibt Sanchez eine Liebe, die so rein ist, dass sie die Zeit übersteigt und sich über mehrere Leben erstreckt. Es ist ein Lied über Leidenschaft, vorgetragen mit dem weltlichen und verletzten Stoizismus der frühen Goth-Pioniere. Von dort aus geht die Band zur Leadsingle "777" über, einem Song über Hingabe bis hin zum Tod. Ein treibender Beat, ein treibendes, verzerrtes Riff und Sanchez' ätherischer Gesang vereinen sich zu einem Song, der sowohl düster in seinem Fatalismus als auch sinnlich in seiner treuen Leidenschaft ist. Auf dem gesamten Album "DOGGOD" weichen L.A. Witch nie von ihrer Muse ab. In "I Hunt You Pray" legt Pai einen hypnotischen Basslauf hin, während English einen zyklischen Krautrock-Groove einsetzt und Sanchez das Bild eines verlassenen Hundes am Straßenrand malt, der allein in der Nacht ist und sowohl als Jäger als auch als Gejagter lebt. Auf "Eyes of Love" macht sich die Band die meditativen Mid-Tempo-Wiederholungen, dekonstruierten Akkorde und esoterischen Betrachtungen über Liebe, Tod und Spiritualität zunutze, die Lungfish zu einer so beliebten Band gemacht haben. Es unterstreicht die Parallele zwischen der unerschütterlichen Liebe in den Augen eines Hundes und der Selbstaufopferung eines Erlösers. Auf "The Lines" nimmt die Band den treibenden Puls des Post-Punk und fügt dem Mix eine Extraportion Chorus hinzu. "Chorus ist ein moderner Effekt, der auf der Idee beruht, die leichten Tonhöhenunterschiede eines Chors nachzubilden. Es gibt eine schimmernde Qualität, die uns zurück zu diesem spirituellen, göttlichen Gefühl bringt", erklärt Sanchez. Gepaart mit dem Einsatz von Orgel und einer grüblerischen Moll-Melodie, beschwört der Song gleichzeitig das Heilige und das Sakrileg. Der Titeltrack "DOGGOD" hat vielleicht die größte Ähnlichkeit mit dem Material des Vorgängeralbums "Play With Fire", in den schlanken und gemeinen Gitarren auf eine raue Rhythmusgruppe und verträumten Gesang treffen. Aber während ihr vorheriges Album ein Aufruf war, seinen eigenen Weg zu gehen, bleibt "DOGGOD" dem "Bis dass der Tod uns scheidet"-Thema des Albums treu und geht sogar so weit, ein Maß an Unterwerfung zu beschreiben, das in gefährliche und ungesunde Gefilde übergeht, wobei Sanchez singt "hang me on a leash / `til I wait for my release". Letztendlich ist "DOGGOD" eine perfekte Verkörperung des Ansatzes von L.A. Witch. Es ist gleichzeitig romantisch und bedrohlich, ehrfürchtig und profan, eine Feier und ein Klagelied. Es spannt den Bogen zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, indem es vertraute Klänge aufgreift und sie für die Jetztzeit aufbereitet. Aber es läutet auch eine neue Ära für die Band ein, die über die Kodachrome-Erinnerungen an das Amerika der Jahrhundertmitte hinausgeht und tiefer in den mittelalterlichen und gotischen Energien von Paris und darüber hinaus gräbt, während sie gleichzeitig ein besudeltes Herz erforscht.

Black Loops is an endlessly creative producer who has brought constant invention to house music since his first release over a decade ago. His widescreen sounds take their cue from funk, soul and disco and are underpinned by a love of 90’s grooves. They appeal to DJs and dancers alike which explains his constant demand for DJ sets around the world as well as his music being played and supported by the biggest names in the scene. After many years of vital 12"s and remixes, he now draws on everything he has learned and raises his levels with a fully realised debut full length album dropping 9th May, 2025.

Ahead of the LP we present the Experience EP which sees Jimpster and Black Loops himself deliver Dub versions of two of the LP’s highlights; Electrical and Experience. Jimpster kicks off with a stripped back, rolling Italo-inspired groover with touches of modular synth sequences, string stabs and dubbed out vocals. Black Loops follows with his own version keeping the funk factor intact with guitar licks, synth blips and extra fat, moog bassline.

Flip over for the original of Experience featuring Marlena Dae with it’s distinctly 90’s, Vogue-era Madge mood. Black Loops then proceeds to take it to the club on his Dancefloor Dub, stripping out the vocals and working up a punchy, minimal groove for the dancers. Closing out the release we have an exclusive original, not included on the LP entitled Inmasoul. Jazzy, deep beats are the order of the day here, making for a perfect warm up track to set the mood.

After a little vacation Wellness Records returns - straight out of the spa area onto the much missed dancefloor! During the break a lot has changed and developed, hence the sound of Wellness also discovered new nuances. With the two young talents Pük & Oward, it turned out wonderfully. The English Pük on the A side manages to pack a very own eclectic variation of breaks, minimal and electro into two sonically top balanced and driving tracks. Both "Double E" and "Get Well Soon" captivate with their clarity, their deepness and their inherently unique coherence.

French Oward, on the other hand, creates a wonderfully fun and light-footed contrast on the B side. With "I Need A Rocking Chair" and "Center Of The Universe" it's almost impossible to keep your feet still. This inevitable groove-attack throws thousandfold ideas and details in the right spots and creates two fantastically arranged dance tracks. We are so happy and proud to present Wellness IV to you!

Reissued for the first time on classic black vinyl, since its original release in 1980/81, this pivotal minialbum from The Saints was a turning point for Chris Bailey's latter incarnation of the band, after the departure of Ed Kuepper. An exceptional piece of rock 'n' roll ephemera with spikey horns, like Iggy on an upbeat take from 'Kill City', or Mink Deville fronting The Heartbreakers. This 1981 timeless slice of swaggering bravado is Chris Bailey's Saints at their finest, it is released by the late singer's estate. "I can only simply repeat, for the record, that, in my opinion, the Saints were Australia's greatest band, and that Chris Bailey was my favourite singer." Nick Cave

ver the years, Andreas O. Hirsch has shaped a distinctive sound, exploring the possibilities of the electro-acoustic instruments he const- ructs. The Carbophone as well as the Electrified Palm Leaf are plucked instruments akin to the African Kalimba or Mbira. In combination with effects and loops, Hirsch creates an experimen- tal space, influenced by early electronics, Asian and African music as well as the possibilities of editing and collage. The majority of the pieces on The Salamander Treaty were made using the Carbophone Jr., a small traveling version of his original Carbophone which was the basis of the previously released Early Carbophonics. Shaped by the joy of discovery, the eight tracks traverse peculiar worlds of sound, carried by a warm downbeat and analogue vibe. Alongside the Car- bophone Jr., other instruments come into play: a vibrato-soaked guitar leads through the slowly evolving ‘Rise’, marked by a recurring Shepard tone and sounds made by striking the bars of an antique wall clock. In the straightforward yet sub-aquatic ‘Te- atime Unlimited’, a pitch-shifted Morse key wanders erratically in the background. Tape-delayed har- monicas serve as a flying carpet for ‘Drifting Newts’, and rubber bands make their melodic-rhythmical appearance through ‘Back Door Minimal’.

The Salamander Treaty refers to War with the Newts, a prophetic and black-humoured science fiction novel by Karel Čapek from 1936, which tells the story of the rise of the salamanders, who become in- creasingly intelligent and eventually begin to compete with mankind. The album is a pacifist response to this dark scenario: Hirsch’s salamanders prefer to hang out under the stars (‘Drifting Newts’), drink tea (‘Tea Time Unlimited’) and — as illustrated on the back cover — write conspiratorial-pacifist demands instead of calling for war (e.g., ‘Teaoism International’, ‘White Lilies’, ‘For Congress’). In image and word, the album invites looking at the term ‘treaty’, which phonetically contains the words ‘tree’ and ‘tea’, as a friendly reminder that the drafting of every treaty and agreement on this planet should be accompanied by a peaceful spirit.

Music, mix and artwork by Andreas Oskar Hirsch. Mastered by Volker Hennes. Pressed on BioVinyl by Optimal, who state that their manufacturing process reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 90% for the PVC component. 12“ LP, coloured sleeve, download code included,

LIMITED TO 100 COPIES!.

The idea of an acoustic album had long been dismissed by the artist himself. "I"m not a guitarist; I use the guitar to compose", he used to say, reluctant to expose this level of vulnerability. However, in 2023, during the Kyotophonie Festival in Japan, organized by photographer Lucille Reyboz and encouraged by producer Laurent Bizot (No Format!), something changed. Surrounded by the spirituality of a Zen temple and supported by his loyal musicians - Badié Tounkara on ngoni and Mamadou Koné on percussion - Salif agreed to bare himself like never before. The title So Kono, meaning "in the room" in Mandinka, reflects both the simplicity and depth of this album. Recorded in the intimacy of his hotel room, So Kono captures the very essence of Salif Keita: a powerful voice, shaped by trials and travels, elevated by minimalist arrangements. Blending reimagined classics and new compositions, this album resonates as a sincere and timeless work, reaffirming why Salif Keita is considered one of the greatest living singers, across all cultures and continents.

"Resonantia" is a project that aims to promote visionary sound to the realm of techno music. Four innovative artists, united by a shared passion for sound design exploration, have fused in this collaboration to transcend traditional expectations and create a unique sound experience.
Drawing inspiration from the vibrant underground scene, Resonantia weaves together intricate melodies, driving basslines, and hypnotic beats, resulting in a sound that is both powerful and emotive. Each member of the collective contributes their expertise, blending diverse influences from minimal to industrial techno, crafting an unconventional EP.

On Katelyn Clark and Mitch Renaud's »Ouroboros,« astronomical and astrological phenomena, concepts and symbols such as the Great Year or the Eternal Return serve as the starting points for sonic explorations and experimentations. Focusing on a uniquely tempered range of frequencies, from low-enddrone rumbles to airy pipe swirls, the duo develops a minimalist and highly evocative sonic universe on their debut album for Hallow Ground.

Working as composers, improvisers and curators in Canada's vibrant experimental and early music scenes, Clark and Renaud began developing »Ouroboros« through extensive improvisation with a reduced setup. Clark, who has worked extensively with historical keyboards since her studies in Amsterdam and Siena, played a small pipe organ modeled after a 14th-century instrument while Renaud brought a modular synthesizer and his interest in feedback systems to the collaboration. Later, the duo further refined their artistic dialog and the sonic interactions of the two instruments through the shared space of a two day recording session in Vancouver. Subtle crackling, acoustic beating and other (psycho-)acoustic effects in five pieces document this encounter, giving the music a profound physicality while hinting at the bodily presence of the two collaborators.

Just as the cyclicality of natural phenomena or the repetition of planetary movements is both a scientific fact and of the cultural imaginary, the sound worlds of »Ouroboros« are fundamentally rooted in time and space while transgressing the idea of a »here and now« through their conceptual links to geological and planetary time. The interplay of portative organ and modular synthesizer, which merge fluidly and in ever-changing ways, leads to a kind of circularity, a timelessness, a no-time. At the same time, the movements and subtle changes undermine the idea of repetition in the negative sense. After all, the Eternal Return, as Gilles Deleuze writes in regard to Nietzsche, is not the return of the same but a repetition of repetition. The only constant is change, the production of new intensities, of new forms of life – and of new frequencies.

Japanese bamboo flute maestro and goat (JP) cohort Rai Tateishi makes an impressive debut statement with his holistic attempts to transcend the limits of ancient instruments to reveal gently delirious insights.

‘Presence’ is a triumph of improvised, elemental musicality that distills aspects of myriad folk traditions in pursuit of the artist’s own truth. For 40 minutes of singularly weird, locked-in performance, Rai Tateishi diverges his formative training in the shinobue (a bamboo flute) to applications for its elder sibling, the shakuhachi, and its distant relatives in the khene mouth organ of Northeastern Thailand and Laos, and even the Irish flute, with remarkable results returned from each.

Piece to piece, Tateishi adapts a spectra of unusual and extended instrumental experiments to articulate uniquely animist sound arrangements, with judicious use of a ring modulator and delay effects only subtly altering his sound in real-time, gelling the harmonics and smoothing off its contours. Some 15 years of studies and accreted knowledge of histories, timelines, and spirits are deftly tattered in the air and rebound in precisely complex ribbons that become all the more impressive by virtue of its in-the-moment recording.

Presented with no overdubs, the six works were recorded by label head and KAKUHAN/goat lynchpin Koshiro Hino across three days of adventurous improvisation capturing the breadth of Tateishi’s vision in a mix of succinct flights of fancy and one durational wonder where he really cuts loose. An opening piece of rapid percussive fingering and rasping sets the tone for increasingly intricate explorations of the shinobue, and bluesy cadence of a reedy Thai khene - antecedent of the shō - whipped into headier harmonic overtones, whilst his 5th piece for Irish flute best recalls Ka Baird or Michael O’Shea’s lysergic impishness, and a 13 minute closing piece most boldly fucks with folk and jazz traditions, in-depth and with the genre short-circuiting audacity of Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

Landing in the wake of prism-shaking works by Will Guthrie & Mark Fell, goat (jp) and Kakuhan; Tateishi’s ‘Presence’ more than lives up to NAKID’s impressive levels, unflinchingly operating by its wits with a verve and dare-to-differ moxie that gets at it from the first hit to the last, harnessing the kind of skill and ingenuity that’s distinctive but still strikingly minimal and overwhelmingly physical. It's a remarkable achievement.

Derya Yildirim ist so vieles: Begnadete Sängerin, Baglama-Virtuosin, Underground-Star, Botschafterin des reichen musikalischen Erbes in der Türkei, Erneuerin und Bewahrerin dieser Musiktradition und einfach eine verdammt gute Interpretin. Sie hat Groove, sie ist mit der Anadolu-Soul-Band Grup Simsek genauso großartig wie mit dem Kammermusik-Orchester Ensemble Resonanz. Sie bringt den Saal zum Toben, egal ob es die Elbphilharmonie oder ein kleiner Club ist. Gemeinsam mit dem französischen Keyboarder und Produzenten Graham Mushnik hat sie ein Kinderalbum gemacht: Hey Dostum, Çak! übersetzt: "Give me five!" Was für eine tolle Idee! Viele der Lieder kennt die Hamburgerin Derya Yildirim aus ihrer Kindheit: Es sind Wiegenlieder, Volkslieder, die ihr Vater auf der Baglama gespielt, oder die sie im Türkischunterricht gesungen hat, die auf Kassetten ihrer Großeltern zu hören waren, oder die der Baglama Lehrer ihr beigebracht, der sie und andere türkischsprachige Kids im Stadtteilladen in Hamburg-Veddel unterrichtet hat.

2LP in printed inner sleeves + 12 page booklet with detailed info, secrets and unpublished pictures written by Walter Verdin himself. This collection dives deep into Verdin's prolific and experimental music from 1980 to the beginning of this millennium, capturing an era of a DIY punk spirit, improvisation, creative freedom and swimming against the tide.



We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of 'Pingpong', a 2LP compilation showcasing previously unreleased works by Walter Verdin, the founding member behind Pas De Deux, the Belgian band which delivered 80's cult classics 'Rendez-Vous' & 'Cardiocleptomanie'. This collection dives deep into Verdin's prolific and experimental music from 1980 to the beginning of this millennium, capturing an era of a DIY punk spirit, improvisation, creative freedom and swimming against the tide.

This album is not just a compilation-it's a sonic journey into Verdin's unique approach to music-making, which he nurtured in the AV studio at KU Leuven's Audiovisual Department (AVD). Having begun his civil service there in 1980, Verdin was exposed to a rich array of audio and video tools that would shape his work for years to come. From the outset, Verdin's process was defined by an openness to experimentation, where he would explore sound and music organically rather than following pre-existing concepts.

The songs on Pingpong reflect his fascination with creating spontaneous, layered compositions. These recordings were made using limited tools, such as his duophonic Yamaha CS-40M synthesizer, borrowed drum machines, and tape loops, and were further enriched by techniques such as reverb and vintage sound manipulation. The results are raw, tactile, and full of personality-often more vibrant and personal than the polished, commercial recordings that would follow in professional studios.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Verdin developed his craft, regularly drawing from his diverse interests in film history, soundtracks, video art, and avant-garde music. His innovative use of tape recorders, improvisational techniques, and later, MIDI and digital tools, makes for a fascinating and varied listening experience. This compilation includes everything from proto-techno and abstract new wave to avant-pop songs, sample-driven experiments, and the oddball TV-inspired tunes that have long been a staple of his work.

This selection is a true reflection of Verdin's "keen amateur" approach: a method focused on discovery, happy accidents, and unexpected results. These compositions aren't about achieving technical perfection, but about capturing moments of sonic exploration and transformation. The 21 recordings have been meticulously curated, with some tracks freshly arranged while others remain true to their original, unedited forms.

'Pingpong' finally brings these forgotten gems into the light. The album includes not only unreleased music but also fragments from Verdin's video art and multimedia projects, offering a rare glimpse into his creative evolution over two decades. Stretching up the boundaries between medium and message, aligning his own musical univers.

Take a deep breath and dive into the works of an artist whose explorations pushed his boundaries of sound and technology.

A Belgian sonic cut up, ping ponging in between many worlds.

Enigmatic producer ANiML returns to the freeform Los Angeles-based label StrataSonic to release a six-track mini album, Star Walk. The new body of work, which comes alongside a new music video for “Bruv” (directed by Spanish visual artist YZA Voku), is out now.

Picking up where ANiML left off with “Breather” and “Bruv,” Star Walk elaborates further on that woozy-yet-sophisticated psychedelia, materializing as cinematic trip-hop, cavernous dub, and other unique genre concoctions across its six tracks. “Cherry,” with its free-spirited, delay-soaked guitar riffs, depicts a colorful, post-rock-inspired soundscape. “BabyD,” in step with “Bruv,” features a mischievous marimba melody among ghostly vocal samples, a punchy drumkit, and a slackened bassline.

These scenes are brought to life thanks to YZA Voku, a groundbreaking visual artist who is at the forefront of AI-assisted filmmaking in the animation space (see his work for The Weeknd, Swedish House Mafia, Hï Ibiza, and XG). The new music video for “Bruv,” out today, unfolds in stark black, white, and red, evoking a noir-inspired aesthetic steeped in mystery and intrigue. Shadowy figures move rhythmically through dimly lit alleys and smoke-filled ballrooms, blending calculated steps with hypnotic dance sequences.

The production blended real-life recordings with digital effects like blur, negatives, masks, analog textures, and AI-driven transformations using Runway’s video-to-video tools. AI-generated sequences created with Midjourney and Runway were merged to contrast real footage with synthetic imagery. This type of work is a rejection that AI is simply used as a shortcut in art and comes at a time when musicians are beginning to embrace such tools for the visual components of their products.

London favourites FUSE continue their busy start to 2025 with the latest offering from eb_flow, the previously anonymous project from founder Enzo Siragusa and Burnski, as they officially reveal their identities for the first time. A project shrouded in mystery since its debut in late 2022, eb_flow has captured the attention of the global underground house and minimal realm with their signature fusion of deep grooves and hypnotic soundscapes. With speculation surrounding the masterminds behind the alias since its launch, the ‘Boundless EP’ officially confirms what many had suspected – that two of the scene’s most respected producers are at the helm. The EP marks the duo’s second release on FUSE and their third overall, following their debut on the label and their ‘Sunshine’ EP on Burnski’s Constant Sound.

The three-track EP showcases eb_flow’s dynamic sound, perfectly balancing signature and trademark touches from both artists. ‘Celestial’ is a cosmic journey through sweeping pads, shimmering textures, and crisp drums, bringing a simmering cut to the fore. The title track, ‘Boundless,’ is a dancefloor weapon, built on tight percussion, heavy low-slung basslines, and atmospheric flourishes that take things deeper. Closing the EP with a hypnotic and immersive groove, ‘Illusion’ layers wonky yet intricate drum programming with subtle electronic elements to craft a trippy late-night roller.

Essential fixtures in both Siragusa and Burnski’s sets, this latest instalment cements the project’s status as a driving force with a reveal many have been patiently awaiting.

*180g virgin leaded vinyl in a deluxe textured heavy gatefold cover, with paste-on artwork and special anti-static innersleeve.* Note: The pressing is absolute on point!!!!

Vincent Gallo and Harper Simon with a beautifully recorded suite of songs and instrumentals.

" More than two decades since he blew minds with a suite of brilliant releases on Warp, Vincent Gallo returns to the world of music at long last in Butterfly, his duo with Harper Simon, with the project’s full-length debut, “The Music of Butterfly”. A gesture of gentle, DIY / bedroom left-field pop, falling within the rough territory for which Gallo became renowned during the late '90s and early 2000s, while interweaving fascinating flirtations with minimalism and experimentalism, it’s a truly captivating piece of work that’s hard to get off the turntable after the first needle drop.

In the arts, the lines between genius and madness, as well as fact and fiction, often blur. Such, it seems, has always been the life of the artist, filmmaker, actor, musician, and composer Vincent Gallo. A cult figure and a member of various creative undergrounds for the better part of half a century, Gallo has courted controversy, ruffled feathers, and made some of the most singular statements to flirt at the outer edges of popular culture that can be called to mind. Arguably most well known for his work in film, during the late '90s and early 2000s - notably with his soundtrack for “Buffalo 66” and a suite of releases on Warp - Gallo became something of a sensation in the world of independent music for a visionary, incredibly unique and sensitive approach to sonority. For a time, the world was abuzz, waiting on bated breath for more, and yet time passed. Bar a few fragments, appearing here and there, almost nothing has been heard from Gallo, within the world of music, for more than 20 years. That is, until now, with the release of “The Music of Butterfly”, the debut full-length of Butterfly, his duo with Harper Simon: beautifully produced and issued by Family Friend Records - Gallo’s own label, founded in 1981 - in a deluxe edition that simply left us speechless: 180g vinyl in textured heavy gatefold cover with paste-on artwork and thick anti-static innersleeve. More or less picking up from where we last encountered him, spinning captivating melodies and gentle song-craft within the quieter temperaments of DIY, left-field pop, once again, and at long last, Vincent Gallo, encountered in an incredibly successful collaboration with Harper Simon as Butterfly, reminds us that he’s as much a force within the realm of music as he is within film. Not to be missed. This one isn’t going to sit around for long.

Vincent Gallo’s biography reads like the stuff of blaring beauty: a figure of moderate fame in his own right, who has remained at the centre of cultural ferment as the decades have rolled by. Born in 1961, in Buffalo, New York, as the story goes he ran away to New York City at the age of 16 and fell into the brewing counterculture of the Downtown scene, William Burroughs and John Giorno, in addition to the cream of his own peers, and began making paintings, music, and experimenting with film. In addition to being a member of the now legendary band Gray, with the artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the filmmaker, Michael Holman, Gallo appeared in the cult 1981 film “Downtown 81”, before slowly beginning a career as an actor and catching the eye of Claire Denis, who brought his talents into the broader cultural gaze. Catapulted into the public by his own subsequent career as a filmmaker with “Buffalo '66” (1998) and “The Brown Bunny” (2003), both of which were marked by controversy and praise, Gallo further captivated the public with a partially brilliant, if not relatively brief, flurry of activity in the realms of music.

While Gallo had already been making music for roughly two decades at the time of his release of the “Brown Bunny” soundtrack, and the four release issued by Warp in rapid succession between 2001 and 2002 - “When”, “Honey Bunny”, “So Sad”, and “Recordings of Music for Film” - the almost fanatical fandom reached a fever pitch at the moment, allowing him, for some, to be regarded as much, if not more, as a musical artist than an actor and filmmaker. Anyway you cut it, in a few short years, he proved himself to be a polymath of rare talent. Somewhere along the way, while both were working as members of Yoko Ono's Plastic One Band, Gallo met the New York based, highly regarded singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer, Harper Simon, who also happens to be the son of Paul Simon. The pair fell into an incredibly fruitful duo collaboration, which came to be called Butterfly, and “The Music of Butterfly” being their debut full-length release.

Written, performed, and recorded by Vincent Gallo and Harper Simon in New York City between the winter of 2018 and the spring of 2019, the ten tracks comprising “The Music of Butterfly” are cumulatively a gesture of gentle, DIY / bedroom left-field pop, falling within the rough territory for which Gallo became renowned during the late '90s and early 2000s, making one feel like barely a moment had passed since we’d encountered his graceful hand at song-craft. Stripped back and raw, while retaining a sense of warmth and intimacy, across the length of “The Music of Butterfly” the duo of Gallo and Simon weave something completely captivating at the juncture of minimalism, experimentalism, and pop: meandering moments of texture and tone, slowly forming toward flirtations of melody that flower into song and back again. Somehow playful and light, while also remarkably emotive and personal, it’s almost as though each of these tracks crystallised out the air, unlabored and exactly as they should be without a note or beat more.

An engrossing immersion into both Gallo and Simon’s remarkably accomplished minds, having followed the path toward one another after radically different experiences and careers, “The Music of Butterfly” is one of those records that’ll be hard to get off the turntable after that first needle drop, and rarely leave the listening pile for some time to come. Issued by Family Friend Records in a beautiful deluxe edition that is unmatched even among the most stunning recent productions we can call to mind - 180g vinyl in textured heavy gatefold cover with paste-on artwork and thick anti-static innersleeve - it’s lovely to have Gallo back in the musical mix after so many years. "

Anika kanalisiert ihre Frustration, Wut und Verwirrung über die Welt in ihrem dritten Album "Abyss". Das Album wurde live in den legendären Hansa Studios in Berlin aufgenommen und fängt die rohe Energie mit minimalen Overdubs ein. Das Ergebnis ist eine eindringliche und dringende 10-Track-Reise, die von intensiven Emotionen angetrieben wird. Der Aufnahmeprozess, der in nur wenigen Tagen mit einer Live-Band stattfand, unterstreicht die Unmittelbarkeit und bietet einen Sound, der sowohl physisch als auch direkt ist. "Abyss" spiegelt Anikas Wunsch wider, einen Raum zu schaffen, in dem sich Menschen vereinen und frei fühlen können, um sich inmitten des Chaos der Welt auszudrücken. Mit Einflüssen, die von 90er Grunge und Courtney Love bis hin zu Patti Smith und Genesis P-Orridge reichen, wird das Album von einem rebellischen Geist getragen. Tracks wie "One Way Ticket" kritisieren den Aufstieg des Faschismus, während "Hearsay" sich mit der Spaltung durch Fake News auseinandersetzt und Anikas Entschlossenheit offenbart, sich mit den komplexen Gegebenheiten unserer Zeit auseinanderzusetzen. Die rohe, emotionale Kraft des Albums wird durch seine Körperlichkeit ergänzt. Anikas Ziel ist es, die Hörer aus ihren Köpfen heraus und zurück in ihre Körper zu holen und ihnen durch die Musik und die Live-Performances eine Befreiung zu bieten. Dies ist ein Raum, um die Verbindung zwischen Geist und Körper wiederherzustellen - etwas, das ihrer Meinung nach in der heutigen Welt zunehmend verloren geht. Ihr Wunsch, diese Energie auf der Bühne zu erzeugen, spiegelt sich in den dichten, stampfenden Rhythmen von "Abyss" wider, die auf der Energie des Alt-Rock der 90er Jahre aufbauen. "Abyss" befasst sich auch mit den intensiven Spannungen zwischen der Linken und der Rechten in der heutigen Gesellschaft und erforscht die Komplexität menschlicher Unvollkommenheit und gesunder Debatten. Von der stürmischen Intensität von "Oxygen" bis zum melancholischen "Buttercups" weigert sich das Album, vor unbequemen Wahrheiten zurückzuschrecken. Anika stellt sich mutig ihren eigenen rohen Emotionen, wie in den offenen Texten von "Walk Away", wo sie über ihre Unzufriedenheit mit sich selbst und der Welt nachdenkt. Mit "Abyss" lädt Anika die Hörer in einen Raum der Befreiung, der Rebellion und der Ehrlichkeit ein und schafft ein Album, das den Aufruhr unserer Zeit anspricht und gleichzeitig ein emotionales Ventil bietet. Wie sie es ausdrückt: "Dies ist ein Raum für dich".

Anika kanalisiert ihre Frustration, Wut und Verwirrung über die Welt in ihrem dritten Album "Abyss". Das Album wurde live in den legendären Hansa Studios in Berlin aufgenommen und fängt die rohe Energie mit minimalen Overdubs ein. Das Ergebnis ist eine eindringliche und dringende 10-Track-Reise, die von intensiven Emotionen angetrieben wird. Der Aufnahmeprozess, der in nur wenigen Tagen mit einer Live-Band stattfand, unterstreicht die Unmittelbarkeit und bietet einen Sound, der sowohl physisch als auch direkt ist. "Abyss" spiegelt Anikas Wunsch wider, einen Raum zu schaffen, in dem sich Menschen vereinen und frei fühlen können, um sich inmitten des Chaos der Welt auszudrücken. Mit Einflüssen, die von 90er Grunge und Courtney Love bis hin zu Patti Smith und Genesis P-Orridge reichen, wird das Album von einem rebellischen Geist getragen. Tracks wie "One Way Ticket" kritisieren den Aufstieg des Faschismus, während "Hearsay" sich mit der Spaltung durch Fake News auseinandersetzt und Anikas Entschlossenheit offenbart, sich mit den komplexen Gegebenheiten unserer Zeit auseinanderzusetzen. Die rohe, emotionale Kraft des Albums wird durch seine Körperlichkeit ergänzt. Anikas Ziel ist es, die Hörer aus ihren Köpfen heraus und zurück in ihre Körper zu holen und ihnen durch die Musik und die Live-Performances eine Befreiung zu bieten. Dies ist ein Raum, um die Verbindung zwischen Geist und Körper wiederherzustellen - etwas, das ihrer Meinung nach in der heutigen Welt zunehmend verloren geht. Ihr Wunsch, diese Energie auf der Bühne zu erzeugen, spiegelt sich in den dichten, stampfenden Rhythmen von "Abyss" wider, die auf der Energie des Alt-Rock der 90er Jahre aufbauen. "Abyss" befasst sich auch mit den intensiven Spannungen zwischen der Linken und der Rechten in der heutigen Gesellschaft und erforscht die Komplexität menschlicher Unvollkommenheit und gesunder Debatten. Von der stürmischen Intensität von "Oxygen" bis zum melancholischen "Buttercups" weigert sich das Album, vor unbequemen Wahrheiten zurückzuschrecken. Anika stellt sich mutig ihren eigenen rohen Emotionen, wie in den offenen Texten von "Walk Away", wo sie über ihre Unzufriedenheit mit sich selbst und der Welt nachdenkt. Mit "Abyss" lädt Anika die Hörer in einen Raum der Befreiung, der Rebellion und der Ehrlichkeit ein und schafft ein Album, das den Aufruhr unserer Zeit anspricht und gleichzeitig ein emotionales Ventil bietet. Wie sie es ausdrückt: "Dies ist ein Raum für dich".

Neutral is the no wave / anti-rock duo of Dan Johansson (Sewer Election, Ättestupa, Amateur Hour, etc.) and Sofie Herner (Leda, Enhet För Fri Musik), both with deep connections to the Swedish noise scene. As Neutral, the two smear voice, guitar, organ, and smoldering noise into narcoleptic songs that rewire the strategies of Dome by way of Gate and Mars. Lågliv translates to ‘lowlife,’ an apt metaphor for neutral’s subterranean murk and shambolic discontent that they languidly manifest as a punk dourness emptied of all rock ’n’ roll theatrics. Desperate, demolished, and dejected.

Lågliv was originally published as part of the instantly out of print boxset, On Corrosion - a 10 cassette anthology from 2019 that was housed in a handcrafted wooden box and featuring full albums from Kleistwahr, Neutral, Pinkcourtesyphone, Alice Kemp, She Spread Sorrow, G*Park, Relay For Death, Francisco Meirino, Fossil Aerosol Mining Project, and Himukalt. The collection also stood as the 50th release for The Helen Scarsdale Agency.

Nicolás Melmann (born in Buenos Aires and now based in Barcelona) explores sound's social and poetic dimensions through transdisciplinary projects. Drawing inspiration from Erik Satie's concept of "furniture music," Melmann's compositions transform the listening experience into havens of calm and contemplation.

Música Aperta is a fusion of acoustic and electronic sounds, rich in beautiful harmonies, where carefully soft elements interplay with delicate raspiness. Made up of three parts, the music unfolds slowly, immersing the listener in time. Música Aperta resonates with echoes of Satie, the meditative minimalism of Arvo Pärt, the roughness of Phill Niblock, and the nostalgic reflections of Richard Skelton.

Another way of listening to Música Aperta is through its digital encore – an extension of the album experience that brings the concept of open music to life – "a work that remains unfinished and open to transformation." The website features a reactive audiovisual interface where images dynamically respond to the music's behavior, translating electroacoustic frequencies into real-time cinematic landscapes. The album blends instrumental and electronic textures while allowing listeners to interact with different layers through a virtual mixer, enabling them to create unique sound combinations and personal sonic experiences.

All songs written and performed by Nicolás Melmann in Château Éphémère.
Mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studio, NY.
Artwork by Daniel Castrejón.

Die Berliner Post-Punk-Band The Underground Youth um den Musiker und Autor Craig Dyer meldet sich mit ihrem zwölften Studioalbum „Décollage“
zurück. Das von Dyer selbst geschriebene, aufgenommene und produzierte Album ist eine Übung in künstlerischer Dekonstruktion, sowohl im Namen
als auch in der Form, und markiert eine entscheidende musikalische Wende. „Décollage ist die Kunst, ein Bild zu erschaffen, indem man Teile eines
bereits existierenden Werks herausreißt, abreißt oder entfernt. Meine Idee war es, diese Technik auf die Musik anzuwenden“, erklärt er. „Ich baute
Wände aus statisch überzogenen Hip-Hop-Drum-Samples, Schichten von Streicherarrangements im Stil von Lee Hazlewood und von Serge Gainsbourg
inspirierten Mellotron-Melodien auf, dann begann ich, diese schönen, chaotischen Wände aus Lärm abzureißen und legte einen neuen Sound für The
Underground Youth frei.“
Von Momenten geisterhaften Minimalismus bis hin zu ausladenden Crescendos aus Lärm und Melodie haben die Songs hier eine schattenhafte,
traumhafte Qualität. Neben Dyer besteht The Underground Youth aus der Schlagzeugerin und bildenden Künstlerin Olya Dyer, dem Gitarristen
Leonard Kaage (der auch bei der Postproduktion des Albums mitwirkte) und der Bassistin Samira Zahidi. Ursprünglich als Soloprojekt von Dyer im Jahr
2008 gegründet, hat die Band inzwischen 11 - mittlerweile 12 - Studioalben und 4 EPs veröffentlicht und dabei einen einzigartigen Sound entwickelt,
der im Laufe der Jahre von cineastischer Lo-Fi-Psychedelia über rauen, melancholischen Post-Punk bis hin zu Gothic-Folk-Noir reichte.

Das fünfte Album der Newcastler Riffzauberer Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (aka PIGSx7) ist geprägt von kalkulierter Aggression und selbstzerfrleichenden Texten. Zu den verblüffenden Boni gehören verspielte Synthesizer-Arbeiten und der Auftritt eines Hip-Hop-Masters. Mit seinem Titel, der Absurdität und Ernsthaftigkeit einander gegenüberstellt, ist dies Death Hilarious. Während Land Of Sleeper von 2023 als immersives Kopfhörer-Erlebnis konzipiert war, strebten Pigs dieses Mal nach etwas direkterem, böseren. ,Wir wollten, dass es ein Schlag ins Gesicht ist", grinst Produzent und Gitarrist Sam Grant. Dieses Ziel kam zum Teil dadurch zustande, dass die Band in den letzten Jahren sooooo viele Gigs gespielt hat. Die Band fühlte sich gut geölt und reif dafür, den Zuhörern zu Hause die Art von Prügel zu verpassen, die ihr Publikum von der Bühne aus erhält. Death Hilarious bietet einige Überraschungen, vor allem der Track 'Glib Tongued', bei dem El-P von Run The Jewels als Gastmusiker mitwirkt. Als Bassist John-Michael Hedley unwissentlich das schrieb, was seine Bandkollegen als ihr Äquivalent zu einer Hip-Hop-Nummer betrachteten, setzten die Pigs ihre Ziele hoch an und sicherten sich einen fulminanten Beitrag von einem der größten Rapper der Welt. Das soll nicht heißen, dass Pigs zum Nu-Metal übergegangen sind. Death Hilarious ist eine abwechslungsreiches, straffes Album, das sich zwischen sabbathianischem Doom, grotesk minimalistischem Noise Rock und zyklischen Post-Metal-Fortissimos bewegt. Auch die Pigs treiben sich selbst weiter an. Unpassende Synthesizer-Soli tauchen dort auf, wo normalerweise Gitarren-Histrionik Platz hätte. Klaviertracks lauern im Mix und verleihen dem Klangstrudeln eine fast unterschwellige Tiefe. Stitches" ist wie Motörhead, die versuchen, Glamrock mit einem beschwipsten Keyboarder zu spielen. Und dann ist da noch das 100-Meilen-Tempo des Cosmic-Thrash-Openers ,Blockage". Verzerrte Licks fliegen aus den Verstärkern von Grant und Lead-Gitarrist Adam Ian Sykes, während die Rhythmusgruppe dahinter brutzelt. Mit all dieser Power, die durch die Adern fließt, wird Death Hilarious mit Leichtigkeit eines der besten Rockalben des Jahres 2025 sein... und das ist kein Witz!

Es ist ein Fall von popkultureller Archäologie. Eine Spurensuche der elektronischen Musik. Nach über 30 Jahren tauchen verschollene Tapes von Holger Czukay wieder auf, die er einst "zur freien Verfügung" eingespielt hatte. Eine Sound-Meditation von 1997, die nun erstmals neu gemastert im Original und in einer "Version" von die ANGEL (Ilpo Väisänen / Dirk Dresselhaus) und Zappi W. Diermaier von der Krautrock-Legende Faust vorliegt.

Die Arbeiten aus dem Czukay-Studio sind eigenwillige Klangstrukturen, die Mastering-Ingenieur Dresselhaus alias Schneider TM einschätzt als "futuristisches Kleinod, das für seine Entstehungszeit musikalisch weit vorne ist." Für ein abstraktes Klanggebilde "tief und emotional" wie er sagt. Eine Komposition, die mit Avantgarde oder Neue Musik nur unzureichend beschrieben ist. Ein echter Czukay eben. Die Genese dieser Aufnahmen führt in die freigeistigen 1990er, als Holger Czukay in Köln mit jüngeren Techno-Kollegen wie Dr. Walker von Air Liquide mit Beats experimentierte und sich ansonsten sehr für die leise Explosion der digitalen Medien interessierte.

Es war der Tech-Pionier und Medienkünstler Arthur Schmidt alias Gvoon, der ihn in langen Gesprächen auf die (damals futuristische) Data-Maschine "RealityEngine" brachte, mit der sich virtuelle Welten erschaffen ließen. Vom Full-Body-Tracking-System bis zum gemeinsamen Prototyp eines "Internet-TV-Senders". Darauf liefen experimentelle Czukay-Videos, die er mit neuen Samples und Klangfragmenten ausstattete. Später wurde eine kontemporäre Show namens "Czukay/Gvoon:Magazine" daraus und auch die "Can-Live-Soloprojekts" im März 1999, ausgestattet mit der Body-Tracker-Technik von Gvoon. Die DDR-Vergangenheit seines Tech-Sparringspartners Schmidt, der ihm von seiner Zeit in Stasi-Haftanstalten erzählte, setzte in Czukay einen kreativen Prozess frei. Er setzte dieses Trauma in Töne um und machte ihm ein musikalisches Geschenk. "Gvoon-Brennung 1", eine Gabe, die Schmidt "irgendwann" einmal verwenden könne. Einfach so. Ein Soundtrack, der ganz profan auf Digital Audio Tape übergeben wurde.

Über 20 Jahre später brachte Schmidt das "Czukay-Geschenk" für eine zum Kunstwerk umfunktionierte Verhörzelle des Ministeriums für Staatssicherheit (MfS) wieder zum Einsatz. Als Installation für einen stockfinsteren, bedrückenden Raum mit Gummiwänden. Hier stieß wiederum Dresselhaus auf das Material. Ihm wurde klar, dass er dort mehr hörte als irgendwelche 1990er-Fragmente: "Es ist irgendwie Blues-mäßig, auf eine kybernetische und abstrakte Art." "Mit einem sehr langsamen Groove, der einen die gesamte Strecke aufmerksam hält", sagt Dresselhaus. Er beschreibt den Mastering-Prozess sowie die Neubearbeitung in Form der "Gvoon-Version 1" als Balanceakt zwischen Respekt vor dem historischen Material und einer zeitgemäßen Studio-Bearbeitung.

Eine respektvolle Verbeugung zum 87sten Geburtstag von Holger Czukay im März 2025.

Another foggy day in Yorkshire. A steel grey sky. Raindrops tracing one another down the windowpane. Kirk Barley sits in his studio and assembles compositions from scraps of found sound and live instrumentation. Melodies swell, withdraw and repeat like waves. Time slows. Accelerates. Slows again. The light bends, tweaked at the edges. Twisted by rhythms that never quite resolve.

Written, recorded and produced by Barley in Yorkshire in early 2024, Lux picks up where 2023 LP Marionette leaves off, conjuring a mystical, reflective space between formal minimalism and sonic imaginaries of northern landscapes.

And yet, where Marionette relied at times on more recognisable field recordings, Lux leans into Barley’s skill as an instrumentalist and sound designer, working from a palette of short samples and utilising a variety of alternate tuning systems to build, layer and coax his compositions into being. Most evident on tracks ‘Vita’, ‘Sprite’ and ‘Descendent’, these tunings create an otherworldly harmonic language that is easier to perceive than describe.

Alongside more familiar instruments of guitar, bass, drums, organ and clarinet, here Barley draws on plastic saxophones and bells, and recordings of glass, wood and metal sound objects to provide the organic matter. Rather than directly representative of the natural world, Lux enters into a dialogue with it which, like the grasses and flowers of the album’s cover, exists somewhere between reality and artifice.

On album opener ‘Cache’, Barley constructs his own sense of time from a recording of an umbrella crank, a sparse and spectral piece which hints at memories embedded in the track’s title. Introspection blossoms into new life on ‘Vita’, crumpling again into the percussive ambience of ‘Verre’. A track that takes its harmonic lead from the clinks of glass, it features Barley’s long-time collaborator Matt Davies on drums, whose nuanced, tonally sensitive playing gives ‘Verre’ a fizzing, ice-like quality.

There are several moments where Lux picks up on themes Barley explored under electronic moniker Church Andrews on recent works with Davies, stretching and distorting temporalities most explicitly on ‘Descendent’, whose ritualistic air unfurls around a pattern in exponential decline.

Embracing the surrealism Barley absorbed over years watching classic film noir and the works of David Lynch and Federico Fellini, Lux wends its way through the enchanted sound worlds of ‘Sprite’ and ‘Balanced’ before arriving at the album’s title track.

An expression of his recent experiments in live, prepared guitar, ‘Lux’ brings the album back to earth, returning us to the room where the rain has stopped, the clouds have parted, and the soft warmth of the spring sun is pouring in through the open window.

DJ Support: Dave Lee, Danny Krivit, Dj Harvey, Brian Tappert, Michael Gray, Opolopo, Jimpster, Moplen, Birdee, Hot Mood, Richard Earnshaw.

Amazing Jazz-Funk mini Album from Italian Musician Paolo Fedreghini aka FAM Disco. 'Jazz On The Moon' is a 6 tracks ep full of emotional sounds. Live Horns,bass,guitars and synthesizers take us to a magic Journey. A project well done with a touch of class. All tracks encapsulate the essence of Jazz Funk Disco and should appeal to a wide range of music fans old and young.

1st@Vinyl

We are overjoyed to present you the first Klangtrauma Records Vinyl.
Our label bosses Nadine Fehn and Duniz have teamed up for this one.
Nadine starts with "I feel you", a clear and massive dancefloor filler!
The remix comes from Audio State - so it's clear that it's going to be an absolute banger!
Duniz kicks things off with it's counterpart "Fühl ma", a seadily rising track that enriches any set and delivers a minimal, hypnotic journey with "Snail".

So keep an eye out for our next vinyl release.

Bugge Wesseltoft has long been a shaper of his own jazz idioms, through his diverse solo albums, his group projects such as New Conception of Jazz, OKWorld! and RYMDEN, and collaborations with artists such as Sidsel Endresen, Henning Kraggerud or Henrik Schwarz.

"Am Are" features special constellations of superb musicians that spans both generations and styles, and is an exploration of sonic textures, dynamic contrasts of mood and style, and ranges from sparse arrangements through to complex layers of dubs and loops and improvisational interplay.

The album begins with Bugge alone on "How?" with layers of undulating atmospheric synth, brought into focus by Bugge's piano at the forefront, creating a minimalist miniature that is both emotive and serene. For "Villrein" Bugge is joined by Elias Tafjord on drums, beginning with a santur-like synth figure, floating over ominous formant sci-fi bass synths bubbling and pulsing, and overlaid by phrenetic piano that only stops to lock into the santur figure before relaunching on its own journeys, all underpinned by Elias Tafjord's expressive drumming. "Is Anyone Listening?" demonstrate's Bugge's songcraft, layering muted percussive piano behind Rohey's distinctive and beautiful vocals punctuated by Martin Myhre Olsen's tenor saxophone, creating a soulful mood tinged with desperation.

"BAG" presents the first classic piano trio of the album - Bugge on piano and synths, Arild Andersen on bass, and Gard Nilssen on drums - announcing itself with an insistent riff, chattering drums, breaking into a progressive rock-style passage of bass and piano in unison. "Reel", the second track from this trio, is a mellow soundscape that evolves to become hazy urban downbeat jazz.

The second piano trio of Bugge (Rhodes and Korg MS20 synth), Sveinung Hovensjø (Electric Bass), and Jon Christensen (Drums and Bells) offers a completely different perspective. The first track "Render" features Bugge's Zawinul-esque Rhodes and monosynth leads, Sveinung's fuzz bass in something of a leading role, all carried with chattering gusto by Jon Christensen's dynamic drumming that brings texture and space as well as rhythm to the piece. "Vender" begins as an atmospheric piece, with reed organ-like synth washes, and octave-processed bass with a somewhat sitar-like tone, meandering until the track breaks down into drums and bass weaving around an insistent drum machine loop, dripping with synth pads and monosynth lead.

"JazzBasill" introduces the third piano trio - featuring Bugge (Piano), Jens Mikkel Madsen (Acoustic Bass) and Øyunn (Drums) - and offers a classic piano trio style with urban sophistication, that is lyrical, and interspersed with staccato cadences, giving a feeling of broken swing, slightly staggered yet driving forwards. The title track "AM ARE" is late night jazz, with baroque whispers, and distinctly melodic.

The final track, "Think Ahead" features the non-standard trio of Bugge (Piano/Organ), Oddrun Lilja (Guitar) and Sanskriti Shrestha (Tablas/Harp). Beginning with a minimalist piano figure, table, and sustained guitar, the track breaks down to a noise surge and ambient windscape, with guitar birds and abstract grinding, before returning to minimalist melodicism.

The shifting personnel across the album, as well as the three different studios in which it was recorded - Village Recording in Copenhagen, Rainbow Studios in Oslo, and his own Buggesroom Studio - creates a feeling of dynamic change and musical variety that is unified by Bugge's piano and keyboards. His playing moves between foreground, where he allows the music to elevate him, and background, where he move gently like a beneficent presence, tending to the demands of the spirit of the musical moments he has captured. It is an album powered by restless exploration and shaped by distinctive musical personalities; it is a journey through different moods, illuminated and brought into focus by Bugge's measured approach and guiding hand.

We're thrilled to welcome DJ Merci with four powerful tracks on the label! These DJ Tools are the perfect sound for our limited series and to conquer the dancefloors.
On A1 we start In The Middle with exactly this club feeling and an evocative vocal that couldn't be more appropriate for these times.
A2 continues with some funky drum loops and a jazzy sax. We love it!
On the flip, B1 starts really smooth with deep chords combined with a conga groove and continues
on B2 with bouncing drums and deep minimal house.

The Irish producer t-woc makes his return to Rudimentary Records with Scenes, Journeys & Colors, his second LP for the label. The bones of the album was made during the 'quiet time' starting with a track that didn’t make the cut on this release but had provided the blueprint to that project titled ‘Street Soul Osaka’. It was a recent chance encounter with a lone boombox playing actual street soul on a pavement in Osaka that it became clear the project needed to be released and the album was completed in Dublin in 2024.

This album is crafted through a blend of samples, live instrumentation, field recordings and studio experimentation. The tracks are a mix of the slow and low, interspersed with minimal ambient pieces with a pronounced dub undercurrent, and a tip of the hat to the cosmos. There are also some vocoders and a fair dose of weirdness.

Since his 2016 LP for Rudimentary - ‘Sentinelas’, t-woc has released with Strangelove Records, Emotional Response, Macadam Mambo amongst others and is a regular contributor to DJ Sofa’s Elsewhere compilation series.

Over the course of a decade, Wata Igarashi has risen as one of techno's most accomplished DJs and producers. His highly aesthetic trademark sound is as heavily psychedelic as it's driven by its stern kinetic energy. It's often overlooked that Igarashi is much more than a torch bearer of the raw hypnotic techno he became known for. He's also a very accomplished and versatile musician with a deep understanding of the cause and effect of sound design. His skills are fully on display on 2023's full length "Agartha", a film score to a fictitious movie about the mythical underworld of planet Mars. It was a rather obvious idea to cross the bridge between this epic deep listening album and Wata Igarashi's techno persona by having him remix himself. As you might expect, the "Agartha Sorcery Acid Mix" has turned out to be a masterclass in psychedelic designer techno. It's slightly slower in BPM as the usual Igarashi fare but every bit as captivating. The "Floating Against Time Shimmering Mix" shows another intriguing facet of Wata's spectrum. Let's call it: Psychedelic Deep House. KOMPAKT's very own Michael Mayer couldn't resist to turn the Godzilla soundtrack-ish "Ceremony Of The Dead" into a positively hysterical minimal disco operette. And then there's the "Fusion Mix of Abyss x Darkness" by Philipp Stoffel, a fresh Cologne DJ producer whose AKTE club nights just spawned a label by the same name. He's definitely one to keep an eye on in 2025.
Im Laufe eines Jahrzehnts hat sich Wata Igarashi zu einem der versiertesten DJs und Produzenten im Bereich Techno entwickelt. Sein hochästhetischer, unverwechselbarer Sound ist ebenso stark psychedelisch entrückt wie von einer strengen kinetischen Energie angetrieben. Oft wird übersehen, dass Igarashi viel mehr ist als nur ein Fackelträger des rohen, hypnotischen Techno, für den er bekannt wurde. Er ist auch ein sehr versierter und vielseitiger Musiker mit einem tiefen Verständnis für Ursache und Wirkung von Sounddesign. Seine Fähigkeiten kommen auf dem Longplayer „Agartha“ von 2023 voll zum Ausdruck, einer Filmmusik zu einem fiktiven Film über die mythische Unterwelt des Planeten Mars. Es lag nahe, die Brücke zwischen diesem epischen Deep-Listening-Album und Wata Igarashis Techno-Persönlichkeit zu schlagen, indem man ihn sich selbst remixen ließ. Wie zu erwarten war, ist der „Agartha Sorcery Acid Mix“ eine Masterclass des psychedelischen Designer-Techno. Mit einer etwas geringeren BPM-Zahl als bei Igarashis üblicher Musik, aber genauso fesselnd. Der „Floating Against Time Shimmering Mix“ zeigt eine weitere faszinierende Facette von Watas Spektrum. Nennen wir es: Psychedelic Deep House. KOMPAKTs Michael Mayer konnte nicht widerstehen, den Godzilla-Soundtrack-ähnlichen Song „Ceremony Of The Dead“ in eine geradezu hysterische Minimal-Disco-Operette zu verwandeln. Und dann gibt es noch den „Fusion Mix of Abyss x Darkness“ von Philipp Stoffel, einem jungen Kölner DJ-Produzenten, aus dessen AKTE-Clubnächten gerade ein Label mit dem gleichen Namen hervorgegangen ist. Er ist definitiv einer, den man 2025 im Auge behalten sollte.

The Crystal Hum is the debut vinyl release by Taiwan-based artist Yuching Huang and her first release for Night School.
A beguiling dreamscape of crackles, spluttering, love-struck Casios presided over by the the spectral vocal and guitar work of Huang, Yuching sings love songs at the end of this world and the beginning of the next. Recorded during a hiatus from her group Aemong (a duo with artist Henrique Uba) in Berlin, these songs elevate Huang’s unique vocal style and grasp of atmospherics. The Crystal Hum deconstructs balladry, Garage, guitar music and reforms it into a
unified ghostly otherworld version of these languages.

The Crystal Hum thrums with buried desire, trails of nocturnal reverb seeping out of apartment windows, diaristic vocal performances and deeply emotive, evocative Western-style strings. Formulated by Yuching Huang after periods of frustration and experimentation, the album is an exercise in minimalism and paring back, with some tracks like JohnJohn featuring little else than an elastic bass, spring reverb trails, an interjecting vocal and swelling, dislocated synths. The effect is spellbinding, the soundtrack to getting lost in the labyrinthine, closed streets of Venice, Taipei, Hong Kong, or mirror versions of them in the imagination.

On opener Fly! Little Black Thing, a subterranean funk bassline roots Huang’s singing, a rudimentary, unreliable beat floundering in whimsy underneath. Demure, dream Dance music, Huang references classic lo fi experimenters Suicide and Arthur Russell as well as Night School label mates The Space Lady and Ela Orleans. In fact, after the release of Aemong’s third album Crimson, Huang credits the direction of The Crystal Hum to being enchanted by The Space Lady’s Greatest Hits,
the landmark lo-fi recording made by Susan Dietrich Schneider in 1990. The new, minimalist approach to her sound world reveals and shrouds in equal measure. On the heart-melter Love, a sultry mid-tempo Casio + bass backing drops into the ether with Huang’s vocal swimming in preternatural void before emerging anew, in awe at the world. Every chord change heralds new perspectives, every guitar flurry swells and drips emotion, nothing is wasted and space billows out from between the grooves.
Huang never reveals more than necessary, making this an in-between love album: the right amount of mystery and darkened mirror shines wanely on The Crystal Hum while remaining fragile and vulnerable in the sweet spots. Turning over in pillowing smoke and night in the dark corners, Huang sings in both Mandarin and English. The songs speak of earthly matters seemingly at the edge of dissipating into nothing. Distorted, beguiling Sambas warble like sweating dancehalls in an imagined Lynchian 60s, as on Thoughts. Closer You, An Illusion warps a classic 60s Girlgroup bassline beloved of the likes of Les Rallizes

Denudes into a slight ballad on the edge of the void, held back by the teary-eyed, wistful and enveloping vocal cooed by Huang. Each song feels like a love song dedicated to the bits between worlds, between beats, the negative space between people where desires, feelings and loss hangs in the air, resolute and unresolved.

Auf dem vierten Album von Chrystia Cabral als SPELLLING verwandelt die Künstlerin aus der Bay Area ihr gefeiertes Avant-Pop-Projekt in einen Spiegel. Cabrals Texte auf „Portrait of My Heart“ befassen sich mit Liebe, Intimität, Angst und Entfremdung und tauschen den allegorischen Ansatz vieler ihrer früheren Werke gegen einen Blick in ihr menschliches Herz. Die thematische Unverblümtheit des Albums spiegelt sich in den Arrangements wider und macht es zum bisher schärfsten und direktesten SPELLLING-Album. Vom düsteren Minimalismus ihrer frühesten Musik über den üppig orchestrierten Prog-Pop von „The Turning Wheel“ aus dem Jahr 2021 bis hin zu diesem neuen energiegeladenen Ausdruck ihres kreativen Geistes hat Cabral immer wieder bewiesen, dass SPELLLING alles sein kann, was sie braucht. Der Titeltrack mit seinem treibenden Drum-Groove und dem hymnischen Refrain von „I don't belong here“ ist die stärkste Verkörperung der Hinwendung des Albums zu emotionaler Direktheit. Sobald sich die Hauptmelodie herauskristallisiert hatte, nutzte Cabral den Song als Werkzeug, um ihre Ängste als Performerin zu verarbeiten, und entschied sich für eine straffere, rockigere Komposition. Diese Transformation spiegelt die allgemeine Verlagerung des Albums in Richtung Energie und Unmittelbarkeit wider, die von der Kernband Wyatt Overson (Gitarre), Patrick Shelley (Schlagzeug) und Giulio Xavier Cetto (Bass) vorangetrieben wird, deren Zusammenarbeit neue Konturen des SPELLLING-Sounds offenbart. Cabral schreibt und demontiert immer noch alleine, aber die Präsentation der Songs für „Portrait of My Heart“ vor ihren Bandkollegen hat ihr geholfen, die späteren lebendigen, organischen Formen zu entdecken. Das gilt auch für die Zusammenarbeit mit einem Produzententrio: Drew Vandenberg, der Tontechniker von „The Turning Wheel“, Rob Bisel, der mit SZA zusammenarbeitet, und Psymun, der Produzent von Yves Tumor. Wichtige Gastbeiträge prägen das Album zusätzlich. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) liefert SPELLLINGs erstes Duett auf „Mount Analogue“, Turnstile-Gitarrist Pat McCrory verwandelt Cabrals ursprüngliches Piano-Demo für „Alibi“ in die knackige, rifflastige Version, die auf dem Album zu hören ist, während Braxton Marcellous von Zulu „Drain“ seine schlammige Wucht verleiht. Diese Teile fügen sich nicht nur nahtlos in das Album ein, sie fühlen sich wie ein integraler Bestandteil seines Universums an. Letztendlich ist Portrait of My Heart jedoch niemandes Platte, sondern die von Cabral. Sie zieht furchtlos den Vorhang über Teile ihrer selbst zurück, die sie in SPELLLING noch nie gezeigt hat - ihre Gefühle als Außenseiterin, ihre übermäßig vorsichtige Art, die Art und Weise, wie sie sich rücksichtslos in intime Beziehungen stürzen kann, um sie dann genauso schnell wieder abzubrechen. „Es ist wie ein offenes Tagebuch all dieser Empfindungen“, sagt sie.

Auf dem vierten Album von Chrystia Cabral als SPELLLING verwandelt die Künstlerin aus der Bay Area ihr gefeiertes Avant-Pop-Projekt in einen Spiegel. Cabrals Texte auf „Portrait of My Heart“ befassen sich mit Liebe, Intimität, Angst und Entfremdung und tauschen den allegorischen Ansatz vieler ihrer früheren Werke gegen einen Blick in ihr menschliches Herz. Die thematische Unverblümtheit des Albums spiegelt sich in den Arrangements wider und macht es zum bisher schärfsten und direktesten SPELLLING-Album. Vom düsteren Minimalismus ihrer frühesten Musik über den üppig orchestrierten Prog-Pop von „The Turning Wheel“ aus dem Jahr 2021 bis hin zu diesem neuen energiegeladenen Ausdruck ihres kreativen Geistes hat Cabral immer wieder bewiesen, dass SPELLLING alles sein kann, was sie braucht. Der Titeltrack mit seinem treibenden Drum-Groove und dem hymnischen Refrain von „I don't belong here“ ist die stärkste Verkörperung der Hinwendung des Albums zu emotionaler Direktheit. Sobald sich die Hauptmelodie herauskristallisiert hatte, nutzte Cabral den Song als Werkzeug, um ihre Ängste als Performerin zu verarbeiten, und entschied sich für eine straffere, rockigere Komposition. Diese Transformation spiegelt die allgemeine Verlagerung des Albums in Richtung Energie und Unmittelbarkeit wider, die von der Kernband Wyatt Overson (Gitarre), Patrick Shelley (Schlagzeug) und Giulio Xavier Cetto (Bass) vorangetrieben wird, deren Zusammenarbeit neue Konturen des SPELLLING-Sounds offenbart. Cabral schreibt und demontiert immer noch alleine, aber die Präsentation der Songs für „Portrait of My Heart“ vor ihren Bandkollegen hat ihr geholfen, die späteren lebendigen, organischen Formen zu entdecken. Das gilt auch für die Zusammenarbeit mit einem Produzententrio: Drew Vandenberg, der Tontechniker von „The Turning Wheel“, Rob Bisel, der mit SZA zusammenarbeitet, und Psymun, der Produzent von Yves Tumor. Wichtige Gastbeiträge prägen das Album zusätzlich. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) liefert SPELLLINGs erstes Duett auf „Mount Analogue“, Turnstile-Gitarrist Pat McCrory verwandelt Cabrals ursprüngliches Piano-Demo für „Alibi“ in die knackige, rifflastige Version, die auf dem Album zu hören ist, während Braxton Marcellous von Zulu „Drain“ seine schlammige Wucht verleiht. Diese Teile fügen sich nicht nur nahtlos in das Album ein, sie fühlen sich wie ein integraler Bestandteil seines Universums an. Letztendlich ist Portrait of My Heart jedoch niemandes Platte, sondern die von Cabral. Sie zieht furchtlos den Vorhang über Teile ihrer selbst zurück, die sie in SPELLLING noch nie gezeigt hat - ihre Gefühle als Außenseiterin, ihre übermäßig vorsichtige Art, die Art und Weise, wie sie sich rücksichtslos in intime Beziehungen stürzen kann, um sie dann genauso schnell wieder abzubrechen. „Es ist wie ein offenes Tagebuch all dieser Empfindungen“, sagt sie.

On Chrystia Cabral's fourth album as SPELLLING, the Bay Area artist transforms her acclaimed avant-pop project into a mirror. Cabral's lyrics for Portrait of My Heart tackle love, intimacy, anxiety, and alienation, trading the allegorical approach of much of her previous work for something pointed into her human heart. The album's thematic forthrightness is echoed in its arrangements, making it the sharpest, most direct SPELLLING album to date. From the dark minimalism of her earliest music to the lavishly orchestrated prog-pop of 2021's The Turning Wheel to this newly energetic expression of her creative spirit, Cabral has proved again and again that SPELLLING can be whatever she needs it to be. The title track, with its propulsive drum groove and anthemic chorus of "I don't belong here," is the most potent embodiment of the album's turn toward emotional directness. Once the main melody emerged, Cabral used the song as a tool to process her anxiety as a performer and opted for a tighter, more rock-oriented composition. This transformation mirrors the album's broader shift toward energy and immediacy, driven by the core band of Wyatt Overson (guitar), Patrick Shelley (drums), and Giulio Xavier Cetto (bass), whose collaboration uncovers new contours of the SPELLLING sound. Cabral still writes and demos in isolation, but presenting the songs for Portrait of My Heart to her bandmates helped her discover their eventual lively, organic forms. So did working with a trio of producers_The Turning Wheel mixing engineer Drew Vandenberg, SZA collaborator Rob Bisel, and Yves Tumor producer Psymun. Key guest contributions further shape the album. Chaz Bear (Toro y Moi) delivers SPELLLING's first duet on "Mount Analogue," Turnstile guitarist Pat McCrory turns Cabral's original piano demo for "Alibi" into the crunchy, riff-y version that appears on the record, while Zulu's Braxton Marcellous gives "Drain" its sludgy heft. These parts aren't just incorporated seamlessly into the album; they feel like an integral part of its universe. Ultimately, though, Portrait of My Heart is nobody's record but Cabral's. She fearlessly draws the curtain back on parts of herself that she's never included in SPELLLING before_her feelings of being an outsider, her overly guarded nature, the way she can throw herself recklessly into intimate relationships and then cool on them just as quickly. "It's very much an open diary of all those sensations," she says.

Yearly compilation series RADAR KEROXEN return with its fifth volume of themed based albums showcasing the talents and misfortunes of carefully selected musical projects based or connected with the Canary Islands.
With its first volume released in 2020 aiming to introduce and divulge adventurous Island based music, the Keroxen imprint now presents Vol.5 with a collection of tracks born out of an in-situ collective performance at the Keroxen Festival iconic venue - a massive disused gasoline tank near the harbour of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The Radar Drone Ensemble, as it was named for that night only, took advantage of the tank’s natural reverb to perform an improvised piece exploring the cavernous resonance corners inherent to the locale. The four artists then took a few months to compose a 9 track LP inspired by the site’s peculiar sound.
Gonçalo F. Cardoso kicks opens up the proceedings with two broody new tracks, in a style not heard since his 2015 album A Study of 21st Century Drone Acoustics. Doomed and menacing atmospherics brush shoulders with creepy and ethereal chants creating the perfect opening for this drone themed edition of Radar Keroxen. Eduardo Briganty (also from MINIATURa) follows with two equally deranged feedback based compositions letting his guitar riffs and distortions roam free. Afgan aka Mladen Kurajica (from GAF, Lagoss and Tupperwear) takes things further to an Angus MacLise inspired drone collage of mystic percussions, field recordings and electronic modular storms. Resonance aka Javier Perez wraps up the journey with his now trademark soothing synth compositions full of warm tones and blissful melodies.
The album comes, as always, wrapped into a dizzying post-tropical collage artwork by Pura Marquez.