quête:music is the answer

Xexa is still undefined, gliding over her origins, influences, and points of reference. Her music is informed by uploads from all that, processing heritage and future in much the same democratic way, sure of its (her!) path. Synthetic as it may sound, »Kissom« contains the very human element of Xexa's presence, not only through her instantly recognizable ethereal vocals but also manifest in the web of grooves stopping short of »dance«. »Kizomba 003« is the closest she comes to the dancefloor, a reduced take on the popular style of kizomba, a low-key interpretation but with the vocals atypically high in the mix. A brief breath of nostalgia. »Kissom« (title track) prolongs the slow pace, almost as an extended mix of »Kizomba 003«, stretching the sexy bounce for close to 4 extra-delightful minutes.

Everything seems to dissolve into space, as if every track gently expires only to be reconfigured somewhere else, molecule by molecule, perhaps in a different location within our mind. The artist somehow corroborates the feeling, particularly regarding »Será«, »Xtinti«, and »Txe«, which she says »finish exactly where I wanted. They all end with an EQ that mutes the frequencies until they cease to exist«. Here, there, sparse beats, successive waves of ambience, half-machine lips singing close to our ears, a blend of classic 4AD and a metallic environment warmly wrapping around the music. Extra-long, »Quem és tu?« poses the question – Who are we? Who is she? And the title »Kissom« stems from another question Xexa often hears from people, »Ki som é este?« (What is this music?). The answer might well be the artist's own paste of the words »kiss« and »som«. Lovely.

15th Anniversary Edition. Black Vinyl. When Dinosaur Jr. reunited, more than 20 years after their formation and legendary dissolution, the worry was that these guys were just flogging the back catalog, taking the old show on the road as a marketing gimmick. But the 2007 release of Beyond gave a hearty Marshall-driven "F**K YOU!" answer to those inquiring ears. Restoring the sound established by the unassailable hat-trick gambit of their first three albums -- Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me, and Bug -- Beyond continued the band's march into rock greatness by making old ears smile and new ears bleed afresh. And then came Farm, the 9th full length record by the original line-up: J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph. If Beyond was Dinosaur Jr.'s return to form, Farm is proof that Dinosaur Jr. could (and still do, to this day!) deliver timeless, exhilarating rock music. Farm encompasses Dinosaur Jr.'s signature palette: soaring and distorted guitar, unshakable hooks, honey-rich melodies. At times wholly 70's guitar-epic, at times perfect for sitting by a babbling brook with Joni and Neil, these songs get into your head and stay there, bouncing happily around. The ear-catching "Plans" is nearly seven minutes of classic whipped-topping rock dessert, while "I Don't Wanna Go There" is a meat-and-potatoes main dish, mixing unapologetic lead guitar with straight-ahead delivery a la James Gang or Humble Pie. This expanded deluxe edition of Farm features four songs never pressed to vinyl and never given worldwide release:"Houses", "Whenever You're Ready" (The Zombies Cover), "Creepies" (Instrumental), and "Show". "Whenever You're Ready", a cover of classic pop-rockers The Zombies, is impossibly good for a hidden gem; Murph stomps in with a sledgehammer to the kit, J and Lou layer low-end and fuzz like two halves of one brain, and right when things feel biggest, airy and colossal, there's J with a lightning bolt of a guitar solo. Pure electricity and melody like only he can make. Recorded in J Mascis' Bisquiteen studio in Amherst, Massachusetts, Farm was produced by Mascis himself, and delivers the singular, unique energy of one of America's greatest living rock bands.

DJ Vibe, widely regarded as one of Portugal’s most influential and sought-after DJs, has played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s electronic music scene. Not only has he been instrumental in launching some of Portugal's most iconic clubs, but he is also behind some of the biggest anthems in the scene, such as “So Get Up” and “Dance With Me,” both released in 1994 on Kaos Records and Tribal America. Since the early 90s, he has released music on seminal labels such as Nervous, Twisted, and Innervisions, among many others.

From the underground rave scene to iconic club parties, from radio airwaves to packed dance floors, from DJing to production - DJ Vibe has traversed many paths in his decades-long career, contributing to the foundation of the modern "dance culture" that emerged in the mid/late 80s.

After over four decades of dominating clubs and festivals worldwide, what’s left to accomplish? For DJ Vibe, the answer is simple: a new adventure fueled by the same passion and excitement that defined his career. In 2024, he took a bold step forward with his debut album, Frequências—his first full-length work under his own name.

Frequências is an album defined by freedom and passion—two words that might sound cliché but perfectly capture its essence. A balanced body of work that seamlessly moves between high-energy moments for the dance floor and introspective chapters ideal for late-night reflection and relaxation.

Sugaring a Strawberry, the sophomore record from Julia, Julia, is a study in coming undone—on purpose. Recorded at COMA, Julia Kugel's home studio, and mixed through a custom Flickenger clone, the album drifts in and out of clarity like memory itself. It's emotionally retrospective, creatively unvarnished, and deeply human. You can hear it in the hiss, the warmth, in the vocals so raw they're like an open window. These songs weren't engineered for perfection. They were built to breathe. Her long-time collaborator and husband, Scott Montoya, mixes it all so loosely that you can hear the air between tracks— a space that makes the music feel inhabited rather than recorded.


"Bound" opens the album like a secret passed between sisters, solemn and unspeakably close. It begins with the softest of touches: hushed guitar, a near- whispered delivery that carries the intimacy of someone singing only for one other person. It's a love song, but not romantic, more ancestral in the way long bonds can be. All glow and undercurrent, "I Know," is like hearing someone hum through a wound. The track arrives as if it had been waiting, coiled and complete, to be sung. Its pulse is slow but insistent, anchored on a hypnotic loop and a vocal that's half-incantation, half-confession. One of the most outward-facing songs on the record, "Feeling Lucky," opens like a cigarette flicked in the dark– smoky and a little bit slick. Built on a skeletal beat and a nearly detached vocal, it leans into a sarcastic swagger that barely masks the ache beneath. The delivery is droll and glazed, the instrumentation is sparse and a little woozy, leaving space for her voice to sway—a shrug of a song, stylish in its sadness. "A Love That Hurts" drifts in on soft, fingerpicked guitar and a dry, close-mic vocal that feels both haunted and immediate. The mix is stripped down and analog-warm, letting tape hum and silence frame the emotion. Julia sings like she's remembering something she doesn't want to, each line a slight unraveling. Like the rest of the album, "A Love That Hurts" doesn't push toward resolution. It sits in the ache, sifts through it, makes it beautiful.

Sugaring a Strawberry doesn't seek catharsis so much as stumbles into it. There's a quiet volatility to these songs like they might fall apart if you press too hard. It moves in shadow and softness, asking questions it doesn't answer. It doesn’t end with closure. It ends with truth.

Since first arriving on the scene in 2009 with blistering inversions of shoegaze, Montreal's No Joy has always found formidable ways to reinvent itself. Now solely composed of musician Jasamine White-Gluz, No Joy has evolved over four studio albums and five EPs, defying expectation and genre, and cementing itself as something rare: a band without a category. Clearly sympatico at the time of collaborating, Fire-Toolz and No Joy (Jasamine White-Gluz) had both resituated to secluded woodsy milieus prior to the "Bugland seshies", as I now name the historic pairing. Together, they created an aural equivalent of a late 1980 I-d magazine front and back cover, with a non-problematic National Geographic hiding within. Fire-Toolz sums it up: "The collaboration really felt limitless. I didn't have to adhere to a certain vision in a way that made me feel like I couldn't be Fire-Toolz. I could easily relate to this album because Jasamine and I liked a lot of the same music, and I was able to be creative in ways that were freeing as if I was making my own album. " Both spent days driving through on empty rural highways listening to the mixes, and it reflects in the final product. With an open ear, many "influence eggs" can be detected by the listener. Garbage Dream House is Zooropian without any of U2's ego baggage. Seven-minute closing track Jelly Meadow Bright even manages to meld Stooges' Fun House out of control saxophone with the chill buoyancy of a high-end spa. Touching on respected, familiar genres and sounds while attempting to advance one's own isn't easy but Bugland manages to. What genre is it anyway? Is it even shoegaze when it could live happily on a shelf next to Boards of Canada and Autechre? The right answer is `yes'. What a lovely shelf `twould be as well. A marble shelf, with cyberpunk elements. Bugland`s a testament to White-Gluz's evolution and her ability to channel a wide variety of tastes into something cohesive that can descend into fine-tuned chaos, then out of that chaos with ease.

I first heard about this incredible record from my friend and renowned collector Ian Wright back in the mid-2000s. Ian may well have been the first to feature it on a mixtape around that time.

He originally found his copy on eBay without a sound clip calling the seller to listen over the phone before taking a chance on it.

A true San Diego masterpiece, now highly sought after within the Modern Soul scene. Beyond that dedicated circle, it has remained largely unknown, due to its insane rarity.

Although Glen is sadly no longer with us, his legacy lives on through this stunning piece of music, which will finally get the attention it deserves on dancefloors all over the world.

Special thanks to the ever-dapper James Pogson for his invaluable help with securing the licence x

As always - the U JAZZ ME vinyl is numbered to 100 copies and it was pressed on 180g black wax.

Music was composed and produced by Bartosz Weber (guitar, electronica) with creative aid of Michał Fetler (saxophones) & Jacek Prościński (drums).

This Molar record was created in a few stages. First it was substantial to find creative means which would spark the new material. The Polyend Tracker was perfect for that as it is both simple and surprisingly fresh. Only after that I applied my favourite environment and comfortably sat in my digital domain. The next stage was to find kindred spirits who share the same mental and musical sensibility. Michał Fetler and Jacek Prościński seemed to fit like a custom-made rubber glove. It was equally important that they are excellent and experienced musicians as well as good humans. Fetler brought his own sensitivity and ideas, we tried sampling his instruments live which you can hear in quite a few places on this record. We still apply this technique during performances. His contribution is best heard in Berry Teaching, or Stimulating Labourer. In both cases he starts the fun and I enter sampling and answering to his parts. Jacek Prościński fits the bill both in terms of his creative approach and contagious enthusiasm. His style also encouraged me to pick up the guitar and completely change a few parts which led to a more extreme ending in Brav0o (initially it was played on synths and calmly faded out into oblivion). What more is there to do than sit back (or stand up, run, float or fall, whichever you prefer listening to music) and enjoy this selection of audio extravaganza.

With no musical background and without ever having performed in public, Zelmani rose to the top of the charts in 1995
with her self-titled debut album. Until now, she has released up to fifteen albums and was described as Sweden's answer to
Norah Jones. In 2005 she released A Decade Of Dreams 1995-2005, a compilation album featuring both fan favourites and her
personal favourite tracks of the decade.

This double LP features 18 tracks including “Going Home” and “Dreamer” and eventually reached #2 in the Swedish album charts.

1995-2005 A Decade of Dreams is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl and includes a 4-page booklet with photos and notes about the songs.

On November 7, 2025, the Belgian label Sdban Records will release a reissue of the mythical Open Sky Unit (1974) by the eponymous jazz fusion group featuring Micheline and Jacques Pelzer, Steve Houben, Ron Wilson, Janot Buchem and Michel Graillier. The album returns on vinyl, highlighting a pivotal moment in Belgian jazz history, where soul, funk, and free improvisation came together in a vibrant and family-driven project.

Formed in the early 1970s as a homage to Dave Liebman's group Open Sky, Open Sky Unit grew out of informal jam sessions in Liège, Belgium, into a unique collective. One of the central figures was Jacques Pelzer, father of drummer and vocalist Micheline Pelzer, alongside his second cousin, saxophonist/flutist Steve Houben, bass player Janot Buchem, percussionist Michel Graillier and American pianist/composer Ron Wilson.

Their 1974 debut album was released on the Duchesne classical music label, run by Pelzer's brother-in-law. The group's sound carefully balanced jazz and soul and was largely directed by Wilson, a Californian pianist and singer who settled in Liège and nearby Maastricht after his army service. Wilson composed the entire repertoire. Open Sky Unit was recorded live at Jazzland club in Liège, and the band made several short tours in Belgium and abroad (including Tunisia) until around 1975-1976, when Houben left for Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music.

Although the original live recording from 1974 was not technically perfect, the group succeeded in capturing their heartfelt live energy. Tracks such as Open Sky, Sunshine Star, and Passion and Compassion are striking examples of this. Years later, the album version of Sunshine Star found its way onto Funky Chicken (2014), the compilation that not only brought the track back into the spotlight but also marked the beginning of Sdban Records.

In addition to the standard reissue, a limited edition of 200 copies will be released for collectors, featuring a 7" single of Ron Wilson's Sunshine Star as a special bonus. This single was originally released in 1973 with the acoustic version of Sunshine Star (piano and vocals) on the B-side, recorded a few months before the longer jazz-funk version later featured on the LP Open Sky Unit. The A-side, Peace Is The Answer, was only released on that single at the time and is now being reissued for the very first time. The 7" is thus a faithful and long-awaited reissue of a rare piece of Belgian jazz history, it's intimate, soulful, and an ideal complement to theexisting and well-known LP.

Although the band never achieved a major international breakthrough, they were highly valued in progressive European jazz circles and later secured a place in anthologies such as Utopic Cities: Progressive Jazz in Belgium 1968-1979. The reissue of Open Sky Unit brings their music back into the spotlight and reaffirms their role as key figures in the Belgian jazz scene of the seventies.

On November 7, 2025, the Belgian label Sdban Records will release a reissue of the mythical Open Sky Unit (1974) by the eponymous jazz fusion group featuring Micheline and Jacques Pelzer, Steve Houben, Ron Wilson, Janot Buchem and Michel Graillier. The album returns on vinyl, highlighting a pivotal moment in Belgian jazz history, where soul, funk, and free improvisation came together in a vibrant and family-driven project.

Formed in the early 1970s as a homage to Dave Liebman's group Open Sky, Open Sky Unit grew out of informal jam sessions in Liège, Belgium, into a unique collective. One of the central figures was Jacques Pelzer, father of drummer and vocalist Micheline Pelzer, alongside his second cousin, saxophonist/flutist Steve Houben, bass player Janot Buchem, percussionist Michel Graillier and American pianist/composer Ron Wilson.

Their 1974 debut album was released on the Duchesne classical music label, run by Pelzer's brother-in-law. The group's sound carefully balanced jazz and soul and was largely directed by Wilson, a Californian pianist and singer who settled in Liège and nearby Maastricht after his army service. Wilson composed the entire repertoire. Open Sky Unit was recorded live at Jazzland club in Liège, and the band made several short tours in Belgium and abroad (including Tunisia) until around 1975-1976, when Houben left for Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music.

Although the original live recording from 1974 was not technically perfect, the group succeeded in capturing their heartfelt live energy. Tracks such as Open Sky, Sunshine Star, and Passion and Compassion are striking examples of this. Years later, the album version of Sunshine Star found its way onto Funky Chicken (2014), the compilation that not only brought the track back into the spotlight but also marked the beginning of Sdban Records.

In addition to the standard reissue, a limited edition of 200 copies will be released for collectors, featuring a 7" single of Ron Wilson's Sunshine Star as a special bonus. This single was originally released in 1973 with the acoustic version of Sunshine Star (piano and vocals) on the B-side, recorded a few months before the longer jazz-funk version later featured on the LP Open Sky Unit. The A-side, Peace Is The Answer, was only released on that single at the time and is now being reissued for the very first time. The 7" is thus a faithful and long-awaited reissue of a rare piece of Belgian jazz history, it's intimate, soulful, and an ideal complement to theexisting and well-known LP.

Although the band never achieved a major international breakthrough, they were highly valued in progressive European jazz circles and later secured a place in anthologies such as Utopic Cities: Progressive Jazz in Belgium 1968-1979. The reissue of Open Sky Unit brings their music back into the spotlight and reaffirms their role as key figures in the Belgian jazz scene of the seventies.

In between the folds of ceremony and commonality lies a perennial spring of musical expression.

A statement along the time continuum, or a testament to the resilient resourcefulness embedded in that truth, forms the philosophical approach of this album – the first outing of Dídac.
Studying an extensive archive of instruments, artifacts, and field recordings at the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève—a space steeped in folkloric gesture – Dídac encountered a cosmos of liturgical music and folk song. Anchored in reverance for tradition and transformation alike, this album navigates the old-world Mediterranean lore through a post-modern ambient lens, threading drone, gentle rhythm, electroacoustic textures and the crude tactility of archival material into one woven tapestry.

Under the guidance of Dr. Madeleine Leclair, Dídac was invited to work within one of the world’s most extensive ethno- musicological archives—L’AIMP. In the saturated basements and tape-lined backrooms of the museum, he submerged himself in the sounds of ritual and rural life: wax cylinders from the Eastern Mediterranean, tapes of liturgical hymn, the worn edges of communal song.
In a makeshift studio on the fourth floor of the museum, he sifted through the hours of material he collected, gradually discovering that the archive was no static source – It did not dictate; rather, it served as a companion—offering not answers, but questions. Not a beaten track, but a cluster of sonic clues and riddles. Samples do appear occasionally, tenderly interwoven into the dialogue of the songs. In Dídac’s self-titled debut, the past is not worn as ornament or kitsch; it is listened to and responded to. The museum, its archives, and the visit to Geneva became a foundational culisse of sorts, igniting a myriad of rough cuts and improvisational outtakes.
Dídac, or Diego Ocejo Muñoz, was born in Madrid in 1994 to a family of both Catalan and Castilian origin.

Brought up in a religious household, the influence of the Catholic Church innately shaped the social fabric, schooling and daily life. This lingering dominance led the adolescent Diego into a path of rejection of everything sacramental, promptly resorting to subversion in the shape of grafitti, skateboarding and underground music. Only later in life, after a rigorous venture as an acid and electro producer, the Church re-emerged before him in new light, invoking a deep fascination for its mysticism, iconography and choral tradition.

Spain in general and Catalonia in particular, has long served as a crossroads of the eastern–western Mediterranean continuum, with many of its cultures sharing aspects of way of life and ceremony. At the MEG, Diego found himself puzzled with this realization, resulting in a sonic amalgamation that reaches farther away from the rugged mountains of Catalonia than you might perceive at first encounter.

The deeply embedded memory of rite and public ceremony, religious hymn and landscape—sieved through the undercurrent of personal re-emergence, forms the emotional topography of this album. The record does not trace this landscape; it inhabits it. Its repetitive mysticism and ambient, wide-eyed gaze could possibly evoke (perhaps redundant) comparisons to artists such as Dimitris Petsetakis, or Popol Vuh’s late 70’s cinema scores.
The delicate lines between the sacred and the secular – between memory and re-invention – serve as a cipher to understanding this album in its entirety. Titles like Malpàs Mines or Pantocrator’s Portal Outro nudge toward a folkloric and devotional bedrock—places where labor and spirituality coexist, where names preserve both dust and veneration.

Nevertheless, this is far from mere nostalgia. It is a reclamation — singing alongside the spirits of the past, nurturing what still hums beneath the soil. It is an intimate reflection on tradition, rebellion, adolescence, ceremony and fantasy – a pastoral contemplation on what once was and what is to be.

It runs through the minds of men and women of a certain age, complexion, and place who grew up during the era of segregation and who defied their parents, the law, and all genteel propriety and custom by answering one bluesman's invitation to cross the color line and join him getting lowdown and dirty as he serenaded a generation from the bandstand, on jukeboxes, and through the radio.

To them, the slurred guttural sound of a wise man singing "Hush, Hush," putting down the "Big Boss Man" or advising the listener to "Take Out Some Insurance" before they behold the "Bright Lights, Big City" was a siren's call they had no choice but to answer. Even if they tried, they couldn't resist the steady, dirty rhythm punctuated by the twanging sting of an electric guitar note and the sweet wail of a harmonica. And when they leaned in close, they could even hear the barely perceptible sound of a woman's voice whispering forgotten lyrics into an ear.

Ain't nobody can do Jimmy Reed like Jimmy Reed could. But this drive down Jimmy Reed Highway with fellow Mississippian Kent "Omar" Dykes at the wheel with Jimmie Vaughan (older brother of the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan) riding shotgun and folks like, Kim Wilson, Miss Lou Ann Barton, James Cotton, Delbert McClinton, and Gary Clark, Jr., joining the duo, comes mighty close. As Omar guns the engine and peels rubber on the two- lane blacktop lined with no- good women, empty whiskey bottles, too many cigarette butts and bad intentions, he leaves John Law trailing behind eating his dust. Hop in for a ride and turn up the volume. The electric bluesman who shaped the minds and moves of a musical generation is alive and well. (by Joe Nick Patoski)

"Feeling the Sea" 7-inch single from singer-songwriter HANAH SPRING, with a background in jazz and soul!

HANAH SPRING, who calls Shonan and Kamakura her home base and continues her musical career, is already known for her talent.
She also collaborates with a variety of artists, and her new song is the endlessly soothing lovers' reggae "Lovin' Me"
It's a positive tune that sends the message, "I'm me, let's sing love for myself"

The B-side includes a lovers' cover of Minnie Riperton's "Lovin' You" This release is an exquisite pairing of the answer song "Lovin' Me," which pays
homage to the original, and the cover version of "Lovin' You"

This single is from "SALT... meets ISLAND CAFE -Sea of ​​Love 3-," a surf music compilation curated by "SALT...," a magazine that proposes new values ​
​for beach lifestyles and surf culture.

World of Echo unites with the confounding genius of TRii for a highly limited first time vinyl run of 2020's Music For Desert Reboot tape, first released as TRj on the TRjj Musik label and then again as a second cassette by Mascarpone earlier this year.

As with all the sounds produced within the TRjj/TRii /TRj/TRi universe, strange illusion is part of the process, and this is certainly music that befits such smoke and mirror nomenclature, a kind of gamelan Werkbund re-programmed via the isolationist sounds of DIY home electronics conceived for a film that might or might not actually exist. Consider this time-dilation rug-pulling that's well in touch with its own mythology, so much so that it's hard to think of any obvious contemporaries, but if you've ever enjoyed the minimalist murk of Civlistijavel, the private quarters confessionals of Thomas Bush's first LP or any one of Guy Gormley's projects, you'll not got too far wrong here. Is further clarification required? That perhaps misses the point, though there is a track that features around two-thirds in entitled 'First Time Realizing the Clock Was Absent' that might function as a form of instruction to the listener. Namely, where does the time go? Music For Desert Reboot might not provide the answer, but it certainly knows how to ask the question.

The Ocean And Me is the seventh studio album by Swedish singer/songwriter Sophie Zelmani.
With no musical background and without ever having performed in public, Zelmani rose to the top of the charts in
995 with her self-titled debut album. Until now, she has released up to fifteen albums and was described as
Sweden's answer to Norah Jones. The Ocean And Me, featuring 12 self-written songs combining Nordic folk with
melancholic country-pop, was well received by critics and is influenced by the likes of Bob Dylan, Norah Jones,
Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison.
The Ocean And Me is now available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on crystal clear vinyl and includes a 4-page booklet with lyrics.

Released by Hegoa Records and Night School Records.
Greatest Heads is the fourth album by the radical Basque- Berlinesque group Al Karpenter. A deconstruction of structured “rock” music, here Al Karpenter re-imagine “the band” to explore the intersection between Free music, afro-beat, the avant garde and gonzo rock.
If Theodore Adorno wrote “To Write Poetry after Auschwitz is Barbaric” in 1949, Al Karpenter attempts to answer the difficult question today; what kind of music can be done in the face of a genocide? Álvaro Matilla, Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagnini & Mattin’s response to the planet’s slipping into a vortex of hate is to create a music ecstatic, a music of protest bursting with multiple musical languages and glossaries, full of overlapping histories and thrilling tensions.
Greatest Heads posits a plurality of musics both in opposition and intertwined: Al Karpenter play rock instruments pulled apart in the studio in post-production. Distorted rhythm chunks bit-crushed and dissipated, segments of freedom oppressed by waves of sound invading from every direction. The interplay between the chief instrumentalists and renowned, storied sound artist Mattin creates something akin to ESP freedom-seekers Cro Magnon playing in Miles Davis’ early 70s groups, The Los Angeles Free Music Society tightening up into a clenched fist of plunderphonics and runaway percussion.
We Are All Karpenters opens Greatest Heads with the most straight-forward song refrain of the record accompanied by a band that soon crash into eruption, imagining Sun City Girls in full free rock mode.
The modulating synth sound soon sucks the band into its wake to create a spine-chilling climax of distorted sound, made fully orgasmic with mastering engineer Rashad Becker’s attention to detail. On Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads), Matilla intones in Basque over a mangled distorto-beat. A Brand New Astraphobia creates a black space for a heavily processed guitar to blow up before falling to earth at night, a gentle figure serenading the coming end.
On Side B, the band begins by being masticated by a brutal phaser, squelching and stretching the music into new territories. The overt message of Stop The Genocide! is besieged by violence before Worm City aggressively samples the ghosts of soul music, mixing in noise bursts, prepared piano and swiping, abstracted sound. Epic closer Perfect Love feels like a beat poetry performance on a burnt world, still grasping for community, for home, for some sort of human love. A Mad love, then; an angry love fuelled by solidarity and collaboration.
The band’s cascading layers of references and polyglottal musics attempt to create the perfect lover, alive with rage and disorientating ecstasy: Al Karpenter.

The latest by Andrew Clinco's acid punk alias VR SEX takes its title from an architectural phrase but more importantly refers to the warped, wicked underworld the songs both chronicle and condemn. Donning the moniker Noel Skum - an acerbic anagram of Elon Musk - Clinco vents his scorn for and fascination with the seedy, surreal margins of low-life Los Angeles, doomed to dead ends of vanity, lust, and technology. Although initially launched as an outlet for "heavier sounds" beyond Clinco's duties in new wave fantasists Drab Majesty, the project has ripened into a compelling exercise in world building, weaving themes of gritty city neofuturist sleaze within a framework of driving, distorted guitars and cathode-blasted synths. Echoes of Chrome, Wire, Minimal Man, and Sisters Of Mercy ripple through the collection but ultimately Rough Dimension charts its own twisted vision of "our unforgiving reality." Written and demoed across two weeks alone in a Marseille flat using his prized 1980's Gibson "Invader" and a laptop, Clinco then took the tracks to Strange Weather studios in Brooklyn to record with Ben Greenberg (Uniform, The Men) who helmed 2019's debut, Human Traffic Jam. The results are notably ripping, refined, and riveting. Riffs in alternate tunings chug and churn over mid-tempo drums punctuated by spikes of sci-fi electronics while the vocals swagger and spit venom ("where we walk is also where we shit / but if we bark at our reflections are we hypocrites? / impulses bleed right into our seed / where hate culminates the apple rotted on the tree"). It's a bristling mix of the melodic and the macabre, absurdist observations of fast living and desperate measures, the clock of youth ticking towards midnight as dreams unravel in Babylon. VR SEX's specialty is making these cautionary tales of psychic decay and tainted love a thrill rather than a drag. There's a sunglasses at night glamor to Clinco's choruses and solos, a wit to his black leather judgements ("what is the answer / to cancerous people / walking in my line of sight?"). The music's milieu tends towards parasites and predators but its mood skews refreshingly accelerated and amused, cruising the strip with a cigarette, watching goths and limousines crawl in gridlock beneath digital billboards. The Rough Dimension may be a cesspool, but it's home.

“Great Doubt” is the third full length LP by Danish composer Astrid Sonne. Throughout her acclaimed discography, Astrid Sonne has been carefully crafting different moods through electronic and acoustic instrumental endeavours. On “Great Doubt” this skill is refined, now with the distinct addition of the composer's own vocal in front. The tone of each track is unmistakably Sonne’s, structured around contrasts through an impeccable sense of timing. Lyrics on the album are sparse, merely highlighting different scenes or emotional states of being, leaving the music to fill in the blanks. Yet they also form a pattern of ambiguity, consolidated through the album title, searching for answers through looking at how and what you are asking, questions for the world, questions of love. The viola, a trusted companion since Astrid Sonne’s youth, appears effortlessly throughout the album, fully integrated into the sonic universe; through a pizzicato driven arrangement in the poignant track “Almost” or along with booms and claps in mutated cinematic stabs during “Give my all”, paraphrasing Mariah Carey's 1997 ballad. Yet the string section also gives way to explorations of woodwinds, counterbalancing the bowed movements with digital brass and airy flutes. Finally, beats and detuned piano are fresh additions to the soundscape, cementing how Sonne’s practice is always evolving into new territories. In fall 2022, Astrid Sonne relocated from Copenhagen with its peers of artists such as ML Buch, Erika de Casier and Smerz, to live in London, where musicians of the South-East London scene like Coby Sey, Lolina, Still House Plants and Mica Levi provide a new inspirational framework. “Great Doubt” bears witness to both of those geographical locations, yet finds itself in its own unique space, in many ways due to the presence of Sonne's voice throughout. A voice that has always been present in her work, but never fully explored as a solo instrument before now. Astrid Sonne elaborates on the wish to work more in depth with the voice: “I come from a tradition of choir singing where I’ve used my voice as a way of creating unity with other voices. I’ve disciplined my voice in a certain way and this album is an exploration of me trying to find my own voice as an instrument, as a communicator, as a new way of being honest.” Questions take up a central role throughout the album. The doubt is both a blessing and a curse, always lying in-between, acting as both what holds back and drives forward. A metamorphosis not going anywhere. The great doubt takes place in a space of courage, chances, love, loss, gifts and surprises. Genre: Electronic / Experimental

Canadian singer-songwriter Marissa Burwell creates moments of warm musical tones featuring thick harmonies wrapped around gentle guitars and drums, while other moments showcase cathartic bursts of energetic alternative rock. Burwell"s sophomore album "Before the Hour"s Up" was born from a push and pull from within. The record is titled after the closing track, which explores the hopeless desire for all of life"s issues to be solved by the end of a therapy session. The creation and release of this album echoed this sentiment; there was a hope that by the time it was released, Marissa"s questions would be answered and her feelings resolved. Instead, she is humbled (yet unsurprised) by the reality that no matter how many topics you address in the hour, they do not simply disappear.

Get ready for a musical journey like no other as Apollo Junction, the dynamic and innovative indie rock sensation, prepares to launch their eagerly awaited new album, ’What In The World’ on August 22nd. The members of Apollo Junction hail from Leeds, UK. Known for their electrifying live performances and genre-blurring sound, the band has captured the hearts of music enthusiasts worldwide.

With a strong and dedicated fan base, Apollo Junction continues to push the boundaries of their craft, creating music that resonates on a profound level. Apollo Junction’s new album ‘What in the World’ has been years in the making - born from highs, lows, countless gigs, and all the chaos in between. It’s the most honest version of the band yet, a record shaped by every late-night argument, every breakthrough, every crazy story they have ever told each other.

Recorded at Chairworks Studio with David Watts (The Reytons, OMD, Paul Heaton, and Kaiser Chiefs) the album also features tracks co-written with Eliot Kennedy (known for his work with Bryan Adams and the Spice Girls) and includes a track with a powerful guest vocal from Brianna Corrigan of The Beautiful South. Lead singer Jamie Williamson explains the importance of the album: “This album feels exactly right for where we are now. Every track is a snapshot—of getting lost, finding our way back, and remembering why we started. It’s about making something that feels like home. We went looking for meaning and realised it was right in front of us: the band, the songs, this record. ‘What in the World’ isn’t just a title—it’s the answer we’ve been chasing all along.” Leeds-based quintet Apollo Junction is made up of Jamie Williamson (singer) Matthew Wilson (guitarist), Ben Hope (bassist), Jonny Thornton (drummer) and Sam Potter (keyboards). Their shared love of live music and dedication to performing, coupled with an incredible hard-work ethic has taken them on this magical journey which has included support slots for Shed Seven, Kaiser Chiefs, Richard Ashcroft and performing at festivals including the prestigious Isle of Wight Festival. Coming up this summer, the lads will be playing with Blossoms, Manic Street Preachers and Doves