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**Gangster Music Vol.3: The Most Gangster Music Trilogy of All Time Comes to a Triumphant Close**

Imagine curating a dream lineup of MCs and producers from every corner of the rap world—sounds impossible, right? Not for artist and illustrator Gangster Doodles, who has been bringing this vision to life for the past decade. Now, with “Gangster Music Vol.3”, the trilogy reaches its grand finale, and it’s bigger, bolder, and more unpredictable than ever before.

Gangster Doodles himself puts it best:
"It’s hard to believe that I’ve been actively working on this Gangster Music series for the past 10 years. The most gangster music trilogy of ALL TIME is almost complete!! And in my humble opinion Vol.3 is the most exciting out of the 3, both from a music standpoint (special shout-out to all my music heroes on Vol.3) and artistically speaking this is the most fun I’ve had in years”

Since launching Volume 1 in 2019 and following up with the second volume in 2022, Gangster Doodles has been shaping the Gangster Music series into a one-of-a-kind sonic universe—an unfiltered mix of underground titans, unsung legends, and rising stars. Volume 3 is the biggest installment yet, boasting a staggering 30 tracks that traverse the entire spectrum of rap and beat culture.

This time around, the lineup is as eclectic as ever. From legendary pioneers like Lee Perry and Tommy Wright III, to veteran producers such as Mr. Scruff and Peanut Butter Wolf, the album pays homage to hip-hop’s roots while pushing forward into fresh territory. The roster also includes established up-and-comers like Devin Morrison, Low Leaf, DJ Harrison, Quelle Chris, Homeboy Sandman, and Suzi Analogue, ensuring a mix of classic flavors and new-school innovation. The bubbling underground is well represented too, with artists like Raz Fresco, Atlanta’s 645AR, and Pro Era’s Chuck Strangers bringing their own distinct heat.

From pioneering SoundCloud rappers like Pouya to genre-bending composer John Carroll Kirby, from Birmingham’s Romderful to Chile’s RVYO, the album encapsulates a truly global soundscape, proving once again that Gangster Doodles’ ear for cutting-edge talent is second to none.

As always, the cover art is a vital piece of the puzzle. This time, Bootleg Garfield & Friends take center stage, bringing the same playful irreverence that has defined Gangster Doodles’ artwork for years. Fans are encouraged to engage, remix, and make the cover their own, staying true to the spirit of interactive creativity that has always fueled the series.

After years of meticulous curation, countless DMs, emails, and behind-the-scenes wrangling, Gangster Music Vol.3 is here to complete the trilogy in legendary fashion. Expect boundary-pushing beats, next-level lyricism, and a lineup that celebrates hip-hop in all its many forms.

“Thanks to everyone who’s actively supported and continues to tap-in. Believe & trust when I say I've got more dope stuff cookin’. STAY TUNED!! GANGSTER DOODLES 4EVER. 1LUV."

Gangster Music Vol.3 is out April 7th on All City. Stay tuned, stay tapped in, and get ready for the most gangster music experience yet.

Dateline: April 10, 1970. Setting: The storied Fillmore West in San Francisco, CA. Context: Miles Davis, three days removed from his first session for Jack Johnson and, with newly recruited soprano saxophonist Steve Grossman in tow, opening shows for countercultural heroes the Grateful Dead on the latter’s home turf. Result: The initial rumblings of a thrilling era in which Davis and his cohorts would again upend jazz and popular conceptions of the genre with music steeped in groove, improvisation, and hang-on-for-your-life adventurousness. All captured on Black Beauty: Miles Davis at Fillmore West.

Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 33RPM 2LP set helps bring what went down that spring evening in Bill Graham’s venue to your listening room with exceptional clarity, balance, and presence. Originally only released in Japan in 1973 and unavailable in the United States until the late ‘90s on compact disc, this marks the first time Black Beauty has been issued on domestic vinyl. The wait is worth it.

Benefitting from quiet surfaces and excellent definition, these LPs present the band’s livewire energy and torrential storm of notes with captivating dynamics, pacing, and fullness. At its core, this audiophile reissue takes you into the walls of sound erected by a band learning on-the-fly the sheer power, will, and breadth of the electric jazz Davis was orchestrating and realizing, on the spot, would reach rock audiences that until that point had only a faint awareness of his mad-scientist experimentation. The sense of release and reach conveyed by these carefully restored records make it clear the veteran bandleader was in the process of a permanent shift that he’d chase for the next five years.

Given Davis was only a few months away from releasing the pioneering double album Bitches Brew, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that much of the fare here adheres to similar explorative approaches. Turbulent rhythms, provocative trumpet passages, and rich, saturated tonal colors that seemingly splash against a blank canvas take precedence over any traditional attempts at organization and melody. Davis and Co. intentionally play everything on a line with the bandleader signaling changes with his horn via coded phrases. The group speaks a common language — with each member having gone to achieve iconic status for their career contributions and technical prowess.

In the company of Grossman, Chick Corea (piano), Dave Holland (bass), Jack DeJohnette (drums), and Airto Moreira (percussion), Davis constructs themes around “Directions,” “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down,” “It’s About That Time,” the title track to Bitches Brew, and more from his then most-recent studio works and the in-progress Jack Johnson. His farewell to the popular standards that for nearly two decades remained a part of his repertoire arrive via a brief dalliance with “I Fall in Love Too Easily,” a shortened albeit aggressive “Masqualero,” and the “Theme” finale of “Spanish Key.” Initially, Black Beauty lacked specific track listings due to Davis’ increasing frustration with listeners over-analyzing his music.

In retrospect, it’s difficult to blame anyone for wanting to view what’s on display here with the aural equivalent of a magnifying glass. Leaning in rock directions, yet maintaining an ear for spaciousness and solos, Black Beauty survives as a snapshot of a thrilling moment amid a transitory period in which evolution came fast and furious. Just two months later, Davis would add another instrumentalist to the lineup in the form of organist Keith Jarrett, and the perpetually restless visionary would blast off to a more atmospheric and arguably more chaotic universe.

Consider, then, this live document a bridge to that galaxy and a breathtaking example of the possibilities of jazz itself.

Cititrax proudly presents the debut LP from Another Body Found here, which is the latest moniker of A// who is well known for his pioneering work as Le Syndicat Electronique. Emerging from the French underground with a dark electro, industrial, minimal synth and wave style, he has a stark and visceral take on raw energy and haunting atmospheres. There are plenty of mechanical, hypnotic beats here with heft bass and hints of dystopian fears. The title track reimagines Bronski Beat's 'Smalltown Boy' and strips it to its emotional core, 'Lost In The Northern Lights' has a cold, urgent sound and 'Murderous Earth' is brilliantly unsettling and melancholic.

For their 21st release, Not An Animal Records welcomes the Northeast-of-England's Tom Rankin, aka Frequencies Of Love to the fold for his first-ever release. A half-step away from their usual low-slung sound, the EP is a bright and sepia-tinted affair bringing prime-time energy to the label. It is rooted squarely on the dancefloor and steeped with glimmering synthesizers and lashings of keys. Despite this stylistic departure, the ever-present driving grooves make it feel right at home.

The EP begins with Tucan, delicately shifting and changing synthesizer arps flow throughout, weaving a delightful tapestry of past and present.

The record glides smoothly into round 2 with Bpsyde pulling no punches; it has a distinct atmosphere of the old-school about it. A one-two of percussive breaks on the one hand and progressive bass on the other with LFO Arps, keys and nineties vocal chops completing the combo.

Pegasus is a shimmering whirlpool off the Adriatic coast. An antiphonal of choral chanting and female spoken word endlessly circle the groove, occasionally combining in a viscous duetto of wacky, Italo-flavored deliciousness.

For the remix, groove deconstruction connoisseur Fantastic Man gives Pegasus the Midas treatment. Riding a throbbing and reprogrammed bassline, key elements from the original mix cameo throughout the track, rounded off by piano chord progressions to complete the pensive sound that constitutes the glue throughout the EP.

Placenta is the fourth collection of broadly imaginative and highly collaborative Carlos Niño & Friends music released on International Anthem since 2021. But perhaps more notably for the zeitgeist of today, it is the first new music to be released by Carlos Niño & Friends following the November 2023 release of André 3000’s New Blue Sun – an album which Carlos produced alongside André, while co-writing, performing, and co-mixing every song. The announcement of Placenta also comes while Carlos is in the middle of tours with André to support New Blue Sun, where Carlos wields an immense presence as music director, bandleader, and percussionist, and performs alongside many of the same musicians that are present on his recent & Friends albums, including this new one.

Placenta is announced on the 1st solar return of Moss Niño, of whom Carlos and his partner Annelise are Earth parents. Their experience of pregnancy, labor and delivery were all profoundly impactful for Carlos. Becoming a father again (a whole 25 years after the birth of Azul Niño, who has become a regular artistic collaborator for Carlos) he felt total Inspiration for this set of recordings, and hence it is perhaps the most conceptually-grounded Carlos Niño & Friends album we've yet to present–fully connected to the spirit of family, birth, and "how we get here."

In Niño’s words, Placenta is “dedicated to Mothers, Children, Babies, Aunties, Doulas, Midwives, Birthworkers...,” and a short list of track titles includes: "Love to all Doulas!," "Some Rest for the Midwives," "Real Vital Organs," and "Generous Pelvis." The centerpiece of the album, the sprawling "Placenta, Nourishment, New Home, The Galaxy," is an unbelievably vivid immersion in the sonic architecture of Niño's memory-scape...like being present in his energy field...or being present in a birthing room, or maybe even being born yourself. And it just might be the most powerful, unique piece of music Niño has ever created.

Featured artists on Placenta, in order of their entry on the album, include: Nate Mercereau, Jamire Williams, Sam Gendel, Jamael Dean, Dexter Story, Brandon Eugene Owens, Maia, André 3000, Jesse Peterson, Ariel Kalma, Surya Botofasina, Annelise, Haize Hawke, Aaron Shaw, Devin Daniels, Tiffany de Leon, Michael Bolger, Michael Alvidrez, Moss, Iasos, Photay, Deantoni Parks, Adam Rudolph, Andres Renteria, and Cavana Lee.

'Gone Down Meadowland' is the much-anticipated debut album release from Norwich, UK psych outfit Floral Image, releasing 25th April 2025 on the renowned Fuzz Club. More than ever, the band wanted to produce a brand of East-Coast psychedelia that reflected the natural lusciousness and glorious solitude of the immediate world around them. Over 30 songs were conjured, considered and arranged before being whittled down to a final 10 that epitomise what they do best - ten tracks of vivid hue, harnessed live power, all laced together in fluid lyrical harmonies. Taking inspiration from band favourites Woods, KGLW, Stereolab, among many others, a string of at-home recording sessions commenced over a 6-week period across the summer of 2024. Side A is a sun-drenched journey through their whimsical Norfolk countryside, narrated with a surreal sense of lyricism which focuses on the undulating flow of the human psyche and the shape of relationships that can decide its fate. 'Burning 305' follows the mould of the band’s earlier creations with white-knuckled rhythms layered with dashing production and gritty guitars. 'The Score' summarises their love of Revolver-era Beatles and infuses it with a hint of 90's dance grooves. Side B is where the trip takes a heavier turn, the un-hinged night-time of the record. It is where the band best shows the force with which their live reputation has been built on. 'Tiergarten' - a motorik course through consciousness and 'Howling Dog Song' - all raucous, scuzzy-garage riffing. The album concludes with the 7-minute epic 'Sun For Hire'. Born out of a 30-minute live improvisation, it is the earliest written of all songs on GDM and a strong fan favorite for the audiences of the last 2 years. "A lot of themes are anti-establishment commentaries on the state of the modern world. It can feel isolating being bystanders of global concern in sleepy Norfolk, even though it’s easy to slip into a false comfort when you’re surrounded by vast space, natural beauty and friendly folks down the market. Gone Down Meadowland is that egoless escapist fantasy that still can't escape the world caving in on itself; Norfolk isolationism." Produced by the band themselves, mixed by Hugh Fothergill of Volleyball, and mastered by Joseph Carra at Crystal Mastering of KGLW fame, Gone Down Meadowland is Floral Image’s first full flourish. They take the record on the road across Europe and the UK throughout April & May 2025.

Northern soul is in the news again, as once more this most resilient of dance floor cults is discovered by a new generation. For four decades now Ace Records has been a natural home for the music and using that experience we are bringing you our first ever all classics collection of some of the scene's greatest hits. All on one LP.

The recordings featured on this release are tried and tested, often in the hot forge of the scene's earliest day, when new discoveries were coming thick and fast, and only the strong survived. These did.

So we have 14 tracks which filled floors in Wigan, Blackpool, Cleethorpes, London's 100 Club and many other legendary venues. From West Coast Mirwood and Kent/ Modern label classics by Jackie Lee, Bobby Garrett, Mary Love and Danny Monday, to the big City Chicago soul of Darrow Fletcher via the super rare recordings by Rita & The Tiaras and Little Ann, which are now accepted standards of the scene.

This is an album for the beginner, those who want to know what all the fuss is about, or those older hands who just want to relive some exceptional memories.

Where's Joao Donato? It's a frequently asked question, referring simultaneously to the physical location and the musical moment he inhabits. A sampling of some of his more descriptive song titles suggests Donato's comfort with musical hybrids: "Bluchanga," "Sambolero," and "Sambongo," to name just a few. Lacking a formal genre for his style of music, Donato's is a distinct sound, immediately recognizable from the first few bars of any of his compositions. He was funky back when "funk" was a bad word (listen to either of his 1960s Brazilian LPs, Sambou, Sambou and The New Sound if Brasil, for proof). His compositions are deceptively simple, while his arrangements are harmonically complex, revealing their intricate details upon repeat listening. Today, Donato brings this flavor, now near synonymous with his name, to a new album in the Jazz Is Dead series with Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad: Joao Donato JID007. "Donato is one of the greatest Brazilian composers from that golden era. His signature style, simple melodies combined with colorful chordal progressions, establishes a new lane for Jazz Is Dead," explains Younge. "Joao is one of the most innovative Brazilian jazz composers of the last century. Creating with and learning from this maestro was one of the greatest experiences of my career."

"The album was created in this back and forth of snapshots - we made most of the decisions impulsively without much questioning. That takes a lot of trust." — Violeta García & Hora Lunga

"I'll Wait For You In The Car Park", the first full length collaboration between Argentinian cellist, improviser and composer Violeta García and Swiss musician and composer Hora Lunga, is a work of extremes. Drawing from the realities of life on two continents, and embodying moods ranging from stoic desire to violent bursts, the album enciphers so-called ordinary moments from everyday life into an alluring collection of musical scenes. Seemingly inconspicuous moments are condensed into a tale of synchronicity: colliding time zones and seasons, metropolitan rhythms raining down onto a glacier's ice field, exploring places through street view, the serendipity of loitering at a kiosk. As such, "I'll Wait For You In The Car Park" brings documentary film essays to mind that carefully observe the private and everyday occurrences.
Violeta García and Hora Lunga crossed paths by chance in 2023 and began discussing and sharing music shortly afterwards. What started as a loose exchange of ideas, sending back and forth sketches and demos between South America and Europe, grew into several studio sessions in 2024. Being sucked into a "quite extraordinary flow", the two musicians recorded, arranged and intervened on a level playing field, using the studio as a playground to record musical layers and interweave them with field recordings and audio notes gathered over the course of a year. Speaking a kindred musical language, they quickly realized how their ideas clung to each other like two familiar souls, complementing, intertwining and merging. From gauzy and eerie textures, musical miniatures floating through time, howling and screaming strings, to tumbling and thundering basses – the sound of the ordinary shapes a body that vibrates, writhes and breathes.

Violeta García is a cellist, improviser and composer from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Based in Spain, she tours a lot with her band Blanco Teta. She is a performer in many art forms, including free improvisation, contemporary and trans-media experimental repertoire in violoncello and electronics and collaborations with dancers, film makers and visual artists. After years of studying classical and popular music on violoncello and, later, contemporary composition and improvisation, Violeta has developed her own musical voice needed to emerge beyond outside specific genres.

Throughout Swiss composer and musician Hora Lunga's work, the focus lies is on exploring boundaries, both musically and in terms of performance and content. Above all, genre designations lose all meaning, as the music always takes place within a dramaturgically conceived overall framework. In recent years, his projects have ranged from pop music productions to experimental works and sound performances, as well astheatre and film productions. His ensemble WIRREN consists of up to fifteen performers.

Taba voices a subtle yet surprising shift for the Japanese musician and producer Satomimagae. Observing and absorbing the fleeting scenes and sounds of life flowing outside of her home studio, Taba unfolds as a series of vignettes that document the personal and the universal. Satomi sings beyond herself in an orbit of souls and systems known and unknown, seen and unseen, in the present and in the strange flux of memory, leaving linear songwriting to rest for circuitous stories expanded and expansive in tone and texture. Following the logic of taba, a Japanese term for a bunch, bundle or grouping together of different things, the album is assembled as a loose collection of short stories. Shapeshifting into something like a poet-narrator, Satomi casts her writer's eye to the often perplexing shapes that form from quotidian events and exchanges defining our increasingly alienated age. Where Satomi's last full-length, 2021's Hanazono, bloomed from the lush soil of a private inner sphere, the bird's eye of Taba searches to place the artist_somewhere, somehow_within a wider, wilder world. Collaborations with other artists and musicians close to Satomi's universe further elevate the album's sweeping sonics. Synthesizer lines from Norio, who also helps define the album's visual identity through photo and video, enliven the tender ballad "Kodama." The bell-like Rhodes piano ringing in and around Satomi's guitar on "Dottsu" is played by Akhira Sano, who created the cover art for her 2021 Colloid EP. Yuya Shito's clarinet was the missing puzzle piece that completed "Spells," and it was also Yuya who mixed Taba with an ear for its organic textures and elegantly frayed edges, giving utterance to a distinctly different energy than Satomi's earlier expressions. The tonal and rhythmic play that lay the foundation of these songs also animates a colorful palette of melodic gestures, noisy resonances and pointed moments captured by Satomi's close-at-hand recorder. While Taba is still carried by the innate intimacy that has defined Satomi's music to date, these songs channel her newly spacious and inquisitive songwriting approach, unlocking unusual layers in the process. Some are subsumed in the speculative poetics of sound design, while others peer through the window of bedroom pop. Gathering imagistic reflections, tracing vast ideations and quietly lingering in humble moments, Taba connects vivid lines between the individual and the collective, the constructed and the cosmic, the articulated and the felt. Satomi's sonic tales gain an eloquent coherence by the simple fact of existing in conversation, humming a harmony of parts that buzzes with the tangled circuitry of a life in motion. Taba is the fifth album from Japanese musician, songwriter and dream traveler Satomimagae, following her 2021 album Hanazono and the 2023 reissue of her debut album Awa, both for RVNG Intl. On Taba, Satomimagae leaves linear songwriting to rest for circuitous stories expanded and expansive in tone and texture, unfolding as a series of vignettes that document both the personal and the universal. Some of the songs on Taba feature intimate moments captured on Satomi's hand recorder, poetic moments of sound design animated by tonal and rhythmic bedroom pop foundations. As with Hanazono, Taba's album artwork features a wooden block print by Satomi's sister, the artist Natsumi Magae.

A stellar collaboration between composer Michael Cashmore (Current 93) and vocalist Marc Almond of Soft Cell fame. Two complementary creative sensibilities in intimate interlock; supreme compositional and vocal talents fusing to make uniquely dramatic musical and vocal interpretations of searing beauty and insight. Specifically, this suite of songs feature the heightened lyricism of a stunning array of cult poets, both contemporary and of yesteryear. 'Feasting With Panthers' is a stellar collaboration between composer Michael Cashmore (Current 93) and vocalist Marc Almond of Soft Cell fame, in the nearest thematic echo and nod, in the latter's vast back catalogue, to the darker gothic influences of his celebrated Marc And The Mambas period and his acclaimed 'L'Absinthe' and 'Jacques' twisted chanson solo albums. This album's defining aesthetic is the setting of outsider poems to music. Poems by Count Eric Stenbock plus unique lyrical translations - by celebrated poet Jeremy Reed - of works by Jean Genet, Jean Cocteau, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, as well as Reed's own poetry. The emphasis throughout is on 'decadent' poems of thwarted love, ill-fated romance, self-destruction and death: many poems are woven with homo-eroticism, laced with opium dreamstates and all are accompanied by Michael Cashmore's haunting and melancholic music that lends the verses a deft yearning for beauty and a bittersweet, melancholic longing for lost innocence and youth. Originally released in 2011 and long since deleted, 'Feasting With Panthers' is now restored to back catalogue availability as a double vinyl album - it's first ever vinyl edition - with a variant of the original album artwork and two printed, full colour inner sleeves complete with lyrics and pictures and featuring four bonus tracks. The album was recorded over several years by the artists sending music files back and forth by e-mail and post; the artists never once recording together in the studio. Berlin based Michael Cashmore worked at home composing the music, playing all of the instruments and adding Marc's vocals from files recorded in London. The resulting album is a glorious union of sensual talents, both in voice and music, complementing the intriguing and evocative poetic texts. The project began after Current 93's David Tibet gave Marc a book of poems by the Baltic German poet Count Stanislaus Eric Stenbock. Marc was instantly attracted to the dark eroticism and the melancholic yearning of the verse and, so, contacted Michael Cashmore, whom he had previously worked with on Current 93's reading of 'Idumea'. He felt Michael would have the right understanding of the verse with his intricate, beautiful musical compositions. From this, the project developed to include many of Marc's favourite poems by some of his favourite 'outsider' poets with common thematic ground.

Hermon Mehari and Tony Tixier first met in 2010, in their early twenties, in a club on Paris's Rue des Lombards for a concert with saxophonist Rodolphe Lauretta. Over the next decade, the two musicians took opposite paths, while continuing to collaborate on two continents. The American trumpeter moved to France to discover European culture and the world cultures that coexist there, while the Parisian pianist of Martinican origin spent several years in the USA, immersing himself in the roots of jazz and Afro-American music.



In June 2024, the two musicians, who had been working for fifteen years on numerous albums and collaborations, and whose musical understanding had continued to be forged in clubs, festivals, and on recordings, met again for a duet at the TOC-TOC festival in the Puisaye region, where Antoine Rajon was a collaborator. Enthusiastic about the idea, the artistic director of the KOMOS label invited them back to his home in this corner of Burgundy to record this Fender Rhodes/trumpet formula. He called on sound engineer Christian Hierro, who traveled with his mobile studio for the album recording, then mixed and produced the master in his studio in Lyon, using the best analog equipment and his expert ear.



At dusk on November 12, 2024, the duo played eight tracks in a single, direct take on a 33-minute magnetic tape.



Four unusual cover versions were carefully chosen. "Maimoun" is a composition emblematic of pianist Stanley Cowell's style, also recorded by Marion Brown. George Duke's "The Black Messiah" was captured live by Cannonball Adderley's band on an album of the same name but has never been released as a studio version. "Hello To The Wind" was created by Bobby Hutcherson in 1969, sung by Eugene McDaniels. Finally, "Laini," dedicated by the great Martinican pianist Marius Cultier to one of his daughters, is a mazurka dear to Tony's heart.



Each of the musicians also contributed a composition: Hermon with "This Is Our Fantasy," written especially for the session, and Tony with "Poem For The Oppressed," a moving composition with an explicit title. Lastly, the duo improvised two tracks, without repetition, in mutual symbiosis and echo.

SOUL SONG captures a moment without enhancement, transformation, or additives, far removed from contemporary virtual technologies.

Rodeo Boys is what happens when the Miller High Life gets legs and starts walking around on its own. A rippin’ 4-piece from Lansing, MI is for queers and steers alike. Rodeo Boys shows up at your town, rolls up their sleeves, and gets to work to deliver their blue collar alt sound straight to your ears. They have been ripping rock n’ roll gigs since they formed in 2019 and After releasing their 2023 Album “Home Movies” on Don Giovanni Records, they have been steadily grinding away touring the US. They bring the nostalgia, twang, and punk rock rage of growing up in a small town to a city near you! This is how the Midwest was won.

Compiled by Bob Stanley to document the acid folk scene, “Gather In The Mushrooms” was first issued in 2004 on Sanctuary as a CD-only release; it proved popular enough for a sequel entitled “Early Morning Hush” two years later.

This new edition of “Gather In The Mushrooms” contains the cream of both long-deleted compilations with a few additions – COB, Roy Harper, Fotheringay – that weren’t available to Sanctuary at the time. Though they aren’t traditional, these songs have an authenticity of their own, an autumnal atmosphere and a naivety which proved influential in the 00s neo-folk boom (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Alasdair Roberts, Tuung et al) but impossible to replicate. For many of these acts at the end of the 60s, folk music and the hippy world that surrounded them was a way of life, a way of opting out from the Vietnam war, Angry Brigade and three-day-week early 70s. Anne Briggs lived in a caravan in Suffolk, Shelagh McDonald lived in a tent, Vashti Bunyan eschewed electricity; they weren’t part-timers. Listening to “Gather In The Mushrooms”, we are transported to a time when no one used the term post-modernist.

It may not have resonated with dyed-in-the wool political folkies, but over five decades later this music sounds very evocative of an England of yore – not necessarily one of poachers and pedlars, but one of long-haired youths in tie-dye T-shirts, bikers and hippies, acoustic guitars played in white stone cottages. Groups such as Stone Angel, Midwinter and Oberon made primitive, privately recorded folk albums; today they sound as distant and mystical as the field recordings of Alan Lomax. The sincerity and folk knowledge of a group like Forest becomes irrelevant once you hear something as eerie and evocative as ‘Graveyard’. Home-made, homely, warm as soup or chilling as a hoar frost, this is music of innocence and rare beauty.

After a strong first release on Fuse Imprint with 'The Wall', resident Phara returns to his home base for a mirage of introspective tracks. Furthering his research of emotive club music, 'Soft Glow, Fierce Light' seems more than appropriately named. Shimmering melodies, swinging rhythms, and a comforting ambiance, Phara proves that his constantly evolving musical persona and relationship with the Brussels club are built to last.

Beginning with 'Unfold', the Belgium-native sets the board with a warm introduction. Reminiscent of his recent endeavor as In Glass, a balance is struck between the slower tempo dub techno of his secondary alias and the higher club energy that he's been known to bring as Phara. Steady at first, filters open wide half way through the track to ensure maximum euphoria off or on the dance floor. 'Flow' follows in suit and here the producer keeps the level constant and tense with intricate melodic design. A steady groove with blossoming synth lines make 'Flow' a beauty to witness unravel. Warm chord stabs make for a nostalgic EP and shows once more that the seasoned producer frequently enjoys prioritizing emotion over drive. Flipping the vinyl to the other side, 'Wave to Wave' points a finger to all things dub, even a discrete appreciation of house music, through the harmony of his keys to the sound design of his square bass, and its common borders with techno. Juggling in snare rolls and rides throughout, Phara sets the tone with a soothing piece of work for lovers of the eyes-closed genre. To conclude, 'Solitude' brings a polished vintage effect to the project that 'Wave to Wave' introduced, this time with heightened intensity worthy of a set closer. Punchy stabs make this a particularly extraverted track, fitting into almost any record bag - Room 01 or Motion Room friendly. Thundering claps over an electric melody, these kinds of tracks aren't new to Phara. Pouring soul into his tracks, Phara proves once again to be a truly central artist in developing the Fuse sound and continuing his stylistic journey.

Born in the darkest days of a rainy summer, DRUUGG brews a raw garage rock, tinted with noise and romance under psychotropic influence. The trio, which quickly became a quartet, recorded its first tracks at the famous KOKO studio near Liège. In March 2023, nearly a year and a half after its formation, the band began performing, honing their skills from Wallonia to Brussels, through northern France and the Netherlands. Guitars keep screaming, walls shake, minds are marked, and nothing will ever be the same. In early 2024, after releasing their first EP, DRUUGG embarks on a crusade that will take them to Flanders and France. After spreading the gospel of FUZZ, the members retreat to their homeland to record their debut album, which will be available in spring 2025 through the Brussels label "EXAG' Records". In this world of chaos and illusion, DRUUGG is the ultimate cure that will lead you to illumination.

"Hook is a 1991 fantasy adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins. The soundtrack was composed and conducted by legendary film composer John Williams. The narrative follows a grown-up Peter Pan who has to return to Neverland after his children are abducted by his old nemesis, Captain Hook. Hook performed very well and eventually became nominated for five Academy Awards. Amongst these nominations was the Academy Award for 'Best Original Song', for the song ""When You're Alone"". Hook is available as a limited edition of 2000 individually numbered copies on translucent red coloured vinyl. The 2LP comes in a deluxe sleeve with leather laminate finish."

Hollows Made Homes In Their Sunken Cheeks came into existence as a result of Jon's wishes to take the Ungraven sound somewhere other than a standard 'rock band' setup. Moving away from the traditional 'drums / bass / guitar' structure has allowed Ungraven to experiment further with both sound and composition. 'Hollows_.' Is an experiment in sonics and allows both Davis and Perry to perform a sickening sonic duet as their respective instruments carve a universe shaped hole in your consciousness. Inspired by the duo's past collaborations on Conan tracks such as "Older than Earth" and "Grief Sequence" as well as artists such as Tangerine Dream, Circle, Zombi and Harold Budd. Hollows is a combination of composed and improvised elements, constructed remotely from their bases in England and Denmark. The addition of Perry's synth, organ and piano to Davis's slab like 6 string delivery has produced two epics that are both introspective and pummelling at the same time. Fall untethered into a bleak and expansive soundscape of psychedelic terror, experience a new chapter in Ungraven's tome of tone.

(10x12" box set, limited to 1000 copies, with premium finishing, uniquely numbered, incl. 10 records in individually printed sleeves, a booklet detailing the club's history & exclusive stickers) Boccaccio has secured its place among legendary venueslike Paradise Garage in New York and The Hacçinda in Manchester. Its bold fusion of emerging electronic genres such as New Beat, Acid, House, and Techno was way ahead of its time, drawing music lovers and clubbers from across Belgium and beyond.



Belgian label Music Man Records presents Boccaccio Life 1987-1993, a new compilation offering a fresh perspective on the legacy of the iconic Belgian club Boccaccio - often associated with the short-lived New Beat movement. The 40-track compilation highlights the raw and futuristic early house and techno sounds that were heard in the pioneering club.

Located in rural Destelbergen (Belgium), just a stone's throw from Ghent, Boccaccio has secured its place among legendary venues like Paradise Garage in New York and The Hacçinda in Manchester. Its bold fusion of emerging electronic genres such as New Beat, Acid, House, and Techno was way ahead of its time, drawing music lovers and clubbers from across Belgium and beyond. Sundays at Boccaccio were unlike anywhere else-offering sounds you couldn't hear anywhere else.

Boccaccio Life 1987-1993 is carefully curated by resident DJ Olivier Pieters and club regular Stefaan Vandenberghe, standing as the ultimate testament to a club that was more than just a venue. For those who experienced it, it was a community - a way of life. Hence the club's full name: Boccaccio Life.

This compilation stands as a testament to an innovative time in electronic music, capturing the raw, futuristic sounds of early house and techno. It sheds light on another side of Boccaccio, one that goes far beyond the short-lived New Beat scene. A carefully curated selection of 40 tracks, resonating with those who were there by offering familiar classics, while also reaching a new generation-those who never experienced it firsthand.

With tracks from Blake Baxter, Virgo, Frankie Knuckles, Tyree, and A Guy Called Gerald, the unmistakable influence of black American pioneers is clear-the originators of the firstanalog house and techno sounds. On the other hand, UK sound innovators such as The Orb and LFO bring both sharp textures and rough breakbeats to the table.

Club staple tracks include dreamy excursions from Roger Sanchez under his Egotrip moniker, the relentless basement house of Circus Bells by Robert Armani on Dance Mania, an uplifting take on a hip-house cut from The D.O.C. (Portrait of A Masterpiece in the CJ Ed-Did-It Mix), a timeless remix of UK Formation's Age of Chance from 1994, and an alternate take on The Tape by Boccaccio club regular and Belgian producer Frank De Wulf, taken from his B-Sides project.

While not always the obvious hits, these tracks have gracefully withstood the test of time, and were exclusive to Sundays at Boccaccio. Now, they are finally available to experience together in one collection, offering a timeless snapshot of a unique era.