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In the ever-evolving landscape of the underground music scene, few bands have made an impact quite like Selofan, an immensely talented duo of Joanna Pavlidou and Dimitris Pavlidis, has carved a niche for themselves within the international pantheon of darkwave, post-punk, and '80s synthpop, blending these influences to create a sound uniquely their own. Their journey, marked by a commitment to artistic integrity and evolution, has taken them from the cozy confines of local venues to the grand stages of international festivals, earning them a dedicated following and critical acclaim along the way. Their sixth album, Partners in Hell, released in October 2020, navigated the band through unprecedented times, testing their adaptability and resilience. Despite the hurdles to performing live and the global pandemic's challenges, Selofan emerged stronger, embarking on international tours with a newfound appreciation and connection with their global audience, during this period of introspection and isolation, Joanna Pavlidou embarked on a new venture, GIOVANNA, released under Selofan’s house label, Fabrika Records. GIOVANNA, which places Pavlidou at the helm of vocal and lyrical composition, represents a full on foray into synth-pop. showcasing a different facet of her artistic identity, with lyrics entirely in Greek. In 2023, Selofan hit the circuit hard, lighting up revered festivals with their presence. They stood shoulder to shoulder with heavy hitters like Molchat Doma and Lebanon Hanover at Grey Scale and performed with with the likes of The Sisters of Mercy, VNV Nation, and She Past Away at the Death Disco fest in their hometown of Athens. With each album they have released Selofan made significant strides in their evolution, deepening their engagement with their art. And their forthcoming seventh full length studio release, Animal Mentality, is poised to be their most compelling work yet. Animal Mentality unfolds as a labyrinthine journey through the elemental aspects of human emotion and experience, set against the backdrop of Selofan's signature darkwave sound. Each track on the album delves into different facets of the human condition, from the depths of desire to the pangs of isolation, encapsulating the duo's profound understanding of the intricate spectrum of human emotion and subjective experiences. The album kicks off with "Sticky Fingers," a track that melds cinematic scope with a haunting storyline, reminiscent of Jean-Michel Jarre's icy synths and a lyrical nod to Joy Division. This opening salvo revisits the tragic allure of classic car accident songs, weaving a tale of joy turned to sorrow amidst the snowy Alps. "Love's Secret Game" delves into the depths of forbidden desire, with vocals that echo the melancholy timbre of Xmal Deutschland, Lebanon Hanover, and Nico. It's a tale of passion and ephemeral connection, promising an enduring presence despite the inevitable fracture of time and distance. In "Lucille," sung by Dimitris Pavlidis, the plot is ensnared in the machinations of a tempestuous affair, with gothic undertones evoking the dramatic soundscapes of Ultravox and Clan of Xymox. The lyrics are steeped in danger and desire - a dance with the shadows. "Sacrifice Me" plunges into the abyss of despair, driven by a Bauhaus-esque bassline. It's a plea for release from the chains of alienation, a yearning for a final gesture of solace in the face of overwhelming darkness. "Bluebirds" offers a poignant reflection on solitude, with the fleeting imagery of bluebirds symbolizing the elusive quest for happiness. The song serves as a meditation on the internal struggle to maintain hope in a world shaded by sorrow. The narrative shifts with "Glassplitter," where German lyrics paint a portrait of deceptive allure and toxic entanglement. We are confronted with irresistible danger, masked by a veneer of beauty. "Ignoranz" continues the exploration in German, pondering the universality of misunderstanding. It's a reflection on the subjective nature of truth and the shared human experience of ignorance. "Behind My Eyelids" closes the odyssey, a contemplation on melancholy and metamorphosis. The phoenix rises from the ashes of betrayal to the brighter realm of renewal - a beautiful homage to the resilience of the human spirit amidst the often harrowing cycles of life. More than just an album, Animal Mentality is a milestone in Selofan's career, marking a decade of musical innovation and growth. It's a testament to their enduring spirit and a bold step into new realms of artistic expression. As Selofan continues to evolve, they remain at the forefront of their genre, pushing boundaries and exploring the depths of the human psyche through their haunting melodies and poignant lyrics.

The Bronx rapper Tim Dog released his 1991 debut Penicillin on Wax to a hostile audience. Ever a king of controversy, he made a million enemies with his provocative single "Fuck Compton," a shameless attention ploy dissing N.W.A., DJ Quik, and America's entire Pacific Coast. Penicillin on Wax contains more of the same, as Tim trashes everybody from Kwame to Michel'le to Eddie Murphy. The lyrical insults were arguably the opening salvo in what would later become the East Coast versus West Coast hip hop conflict.

There's no doubt that Penicillin On Wax remains one of the true hardcore hip hop classics and one of many landmarks in sounds from the Bronx. Produced by probably the best hip hop producers of the early 90s, the Ultramagnetic MC's, this album contains some of the most energetic tracks you'll ever hear. Guest appearances on the mic from Kool Keith and Ced-Gee also enhance the LP.

Penicillin On Wax is available on black vinyl and includes an insert.

Death Is Not The End present the first volume in a survey of a form of Brazilian country music known as música caipira ("hillbilly music") - a stripped-back forerunner to música sertaneja, the Brazilian equivalent to US country & western which in it's contemporary form has come to dominate the domestic music industry in recent decades. This collection covers some of the earliest recordings made by the pioneering folklorist Cornélio Pires at the end of the 1920s, through to records from the 30s, 40s & 50s and the beginning of the 60s.

Somewhat rooted in Portuguese troubadour folk traditions, música caipira is typically performed by a duo singing in parallel thirds and sixths, drawing upon a Portuguese-Brazilian style known as moda de viola - with the viola being the viola caipira, a Brazilian-style ten-string guitar that is the core instrument of the music. Born out of the "outback"-style region in north-eastern Brazil, these songs tell stories of pain, love, loss & betrayal - often backed by homemade guitars using invented tunings. Away from the polished pop country & western-stylings of the sertaneja, these recordings could be viewed as the Brazilian equivalent to the roots music of the American dustbowl or Appalachia.

Japanese acid pop outfit Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin channel the globe-trotting spirit of Haruomi Hosono’s 1970s tropical boogie on their debut album, Tradition.

Named after one of the basic rhythms of Cuban folk music and drawing on influences from across the globe, Cho Co Pa Co Cho Co Quin Quin are quite simply a world unto itself.

Comprised of three childhood friends, Daido, Yuta and So, who reconnected during the coronavirus pandemic, Cho Co Pa initially emerged as a playful way for the three 23-year-olds to pass the time. Tapping into their youthful connection, they created a sound that exudes confidence and curiosity, a homage to the masterful world of YMO’s and Happy End’s Haruomi Hosono, rooted in the trio’s own idiosyncratic experience of the present.

Recorded at home and promoted on hugely popular DIY TikTok videos, their debut album Tradition is a technicolour exercise in armchair travelling – a kind of lockdown exotica for the housebound whose nostalgic flights of fancy are laced with a sense of whimsical melancholy for the lost freedoms of youth.

Referencing everything from Afro-Cuban percussion to lo-fi beats, Buddhist spirituality to trap, each member of the band brings different musical inspirations to the table. Latin American and Middle Eastern styles sit adjacent to a fascination for the electronic music of Aphex Twin, Dorian Concept, Underworld and Daft Punk. At times, the music verges on acid pop bliss, at others, it grooves with the instrumental funk sensibility of BADBADNOTGOOD.

“In the first place, when I create a song, my goal is to transport the listener to a mysterious place,” vocalist Daido explained in a recent magazine interview. Using lyrics as another sonic texture in the composition of ideas, Cho Co Pa paint beguiling sonic postcards of far-flung moods across 12 highly original tracks.

Marrying the organic and the electronic on rhythmically sophisticated compositions like ‘Chichibu’ and ‘Watatsumi’, it is on the album’s standout track ‘Gandhara’ that the experimental sound of Cho Co Pa comes to the fore. Referencing the ancient city of Gandhara through which Buddhism made its way from India to China, the track is a vocoder-trap-inspired, Udu drum-driven pop jam that lilts with unmistakable Balearic flair. If that’s difficult to imagine, then know simply that ‘Gandhara’ sounds like nothing else on this side of Saturn. Even Daido seemed surprised by the outcome: “I feel like we were able to create something that exceeded our abilities. That was huge!”

Hugely popular in Japan, with festival appearances lined up alongside BADBADNOTGOOD at Asagiri Jam in October, it's safe to say the success of Tradition has taken Cho Co Pa by surprise. You won’t have heard anything like it."

Te Toca marks a new chapter for Cimafunk. For the first time, the Afro-Cuban funk powerhouse records an album with his electrifying band, La Tribu, capturing the chemistry and funkiness that has made their live performances legendary. Recorded live at Criteria Studios in Miami, the album embraces the raw energy of the full band playing together in real time, bringing the spirit and groove of the stage directly into the recording. Te Toca, which can mean “it’s your turn,” is a gift to Cimafunk & La Tribu’s loyal live show followers who have been asking for recorded versions of “Cocinarte,” “Relajao,” and “Se Acabó,” staples of Cimafunk & La Tribu’s dynamic live performances. It’s also a nod to Cimafunk formally introducing La Tribu as full creative partners. Te Toca features seven new original songs and a reimagined version of “Paciente,” one of Cimafunk’s standout tracks from his debut album Terapia. All eight tracks were recorded over three days with all musicians performing simultaneously in the same room with no rerecording: just raw, authentic, live music. In a time when so much music and communication is developed with technology and filtered through screens, Cimafunk & La Tribu’s Te Toca connects the artist and audience the old-fashioned way with real music.

2026 Edition, black vinyl



Released in 2005, OK Cowboy is the debut studio album by Vitalic, a major figure in the French electronic music scene. It made a significant impact on the European electronic music scene and laid the foundations for Vitalic's distinctive style. Highly acclaimed by both national and international press, this album has become a classic of French electro and techno from the 2000s. Among its cult tracks are "La Rock 01," "My Friend Dario," and "Poney Part 1," played by some of the biggest names in electronic music. It was certified gold in France.

Shaped in the shadows and sounds of the legendary Topanga Canyon, California. The debut album from Biita Houdei is buoyed by a magic that feels wildly and beautifully untamed; wild-hearted sentiments that are shaped by the world around it, fascinated by the enchantment of it all, and delivered via a collective (harmony layered) voice that understands the complex nature of what it means to be alive in the here and now.

Produced by Haley Heynderickx, 'This Bed Was Made For Me' is a striking collection of stirring, signature folk songs animated by subtle instrumentation and orchestral flourishes. It feels lived in: vocals weave together in a beautiful harmonic dance, seasons shift, sunshine appears and bold psychedelic colours warm the horizon.

In the early stages of making her debut album, Biita Houdei knew two things: that she wanted the recordings to feel distinctly and palpably warm, and that she would sew a unique patch for every song on the album. The first of those things is subjective, though brightness pours in from all corners of This Bed Was Made For Me. The second became a laborious task she undertook throughout the process, the completion of which is testament to the slow process of it all, to the physical commitment and patience required to make a full work of art.

The patches she crafted during the making of This Bed Was Made For Me became a full quilt, one that now adorns the album’s front cover. Beneath it sits a striking collection of Houdei’s stirring, signature folk songs, brought into fruition with the help of fellow songwriter Haley Heynderickx, in her first lead production role, and the album’s producer/engineer Sahil Ansari. It’s also the first release Biita (pronounced “bee-tah”) is releasing under her newly-taken name, one that was gifted to her by her auntie and means "unique" in the Farsi language. “I proudly take this name,” Biita says of the change. “It makes me feel that much closer to my Persian heritage.”

Recorded across ten back-to-back and full days, the album touches on themes of love and heritage, of taking chances, the preciousness of time and the impact we all have on the world around us. A number of the songs were written in Topanga, California, while Biita settled into a new home as wild fires raged, and as she adjusted to a life which no longer held distinct seasonal changes, far from the Ozark Mountain home she felt so attached to. Such themes reveal themselves in a variety of ways across the album’s fourteen songs, that key sense of warmth retained in the bones of the album whether they are stepping into darkness or seeking out light.

The album feels lived in and alive; dust swirls, seasons shift, sunshine appears and is held. Biita calls it ‘psychedelic’ and there is indeed a sense of that in the world building, in the way the bold colours are always shifting. Formed of fourteen songs, and filling nearly forty-five minutes, This Bed Was Made For Me not only builds a whole world for listeners to inhabit but also implores you to stay a while. This was deliberate, indeed it’s Biita’s wish that listeners give the album dedicated time; to learn its shape, to explore it fully, away from the instant grab of playlists and skewed algorithms.

“Many of my favourite albums didn’t reveal themselves instantly to me,” Biita, now based in the Catskill Mountains of New York, explains. “Some did, of course, but I had to work to understand the full scope of the piece as a whole. I encourage people to dive deeper into everything that they choose to consume. It is not my intention to sound pretentious, but instead, I am trying harder to explain the gratitude I have for being able to craft every part of this album— using my hands, my brain, my voice, my visions. To me, it is an all encompassing work of art,” she continues. “Making the quilt was laborious. Taking the cover photo was laborious. No shortcuts, but rather a manual and tangible approach. I am thankful for the time it took.”

The record is largely sung in Scots language, one of Scotland’s three official languages along with Gaelic and English. “Scots gives me a way of expressing myself which is connected directly with the landscapes I love. It brings the songs alive and it is a fascinating language. The name of the record is in Scots - Forefowk means the people who came before, or ancestors. When we say ‘mind me,’ we can mean a few things- remind, remember, watch over or care for me. The record explores how tradition needs to be constantly reconnected with, built upon, looked after, and shared.”
Quinie sings with a style inspired by Scottish Traveller singers. “I began singing unaccompanied Scots Song in 2015 after hearing Scots Traveller singer Sheila Stewart on the radio. Initially I felt like I shouldn't sing these songs because I'm not a Traveller, and I saw people around me doing that in a way that made me uncomfortable. But on the other hand this music made sense to me and I felt driven to learn. Over the years I have met Traveller friends who taught me that settled people sharing these songs could contribute to raising awareness. Scottish Travellers are marginalised and discriminated against in modern Scotland, despite being custodians of so many of our important traditions. So I started to perform them and tell this story. From there I built on my repertoire and started writing my own songs”.
To develop this record, Quinie travelled across Argyll with her horse. They went on a pilgrimage of sorts through the ancient landscapes of the West of Scotland to explore the interconnected relationships between people, ancestors, animals, and place. The album’s vinyl release is accompanied by a book and film, documenting this unusual research process.
Forefowk, Mind Me was recorded in August 2024 at The Big Shed in Highland Perthshire with support from Creative Scotland. Quinie is accompanied by an ensemble of musicians: Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh (viola), Oliver Pitt (duduk, bouzouki, percussion), Harry Górski-Brown (small pipes, violin), and Stevie Jones (double bass, recording, and mixing). Each of these artists brings their own distinctive voice, bridging contemporary experimental practice with worlds of traditional and early music.

Dublin-born, thirty years an immigrant. That's the spine of henryohenry's debut, Apocrypha, not as a concept but as a condition. He's spent three decades in the United States working in the trades, absorbing the country's mythologies and building what he calls "an idiosyncratic American language" out of them, something closer to Whitman's vision than what he found. He is, by his own account, "formally and informally not a musician" — all but two of the songs were written on a $6 charity-shop guitar with a repaired headstock and strings that distorted unpredictably. It doesn't appear on the record. Produced by filmmaker Rick Alverson, the album is anchored by guitarist Eamon O'Leary and his son Ned Steves, recording together for the first time, without rehearsal. Erik Hall mixed and contributed overdubs; Emilie Rex of Lean Year lends harmonies to three songs; poet Callie Garnett appears on another. Album standout "There" captures something harder to name: how powerful feelings drive you to the page, and how the thing you make can outlast the feelings that made it. "It feels like a triumph over something," he says, "even if you're a bit embarrassed by some of the sentiment."


Apocrypha arrives as a debut but carries the patience of a life lived in full. For fans of John Cale, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen.

Houston’s premier street griot is stepping into his most profound chapter yet with his highly anticipated upcoming album, O.Y.N. Throughout a decorated career that spans over 1.2 billion global streams and a fiercely loyal fanbase, Maxo Kream—born Emekwane Ogugua Biosah, Jr.—has established himself as one of rap’s most authentic, uncompromising storytellers. From the raw trenches of Alief to the critically acclaimed triumphs of Punken, Brandon Banks, Weight of the World, and his triumphant 2024 independent pivot Personification, Maxo has long been celebrated by Pitchfork, NPR, and Complex for his cinematic, hyper-detailed world-building. Now, O.Y.N. finds the Houston icon turning his gaze inward, pairing his signature Texas grit with an expansive, global perspective that redefines his artistic boundaries.

If his previous work was about Maxo taking full creative control as an independent force, O.Y.N. is about him uncovering who he is at his core. Following the passing of his father, Maxo found himself searching deeper for his family origins, leading to a pivotal moment of artistic and personal rebirth. For the first time in his life, Maxo traveled to Lagos, Nigeria, anchoring his new music in a profound celebration of his Nigerian heritage. The emotional centerpiece of this journey is the JPEGMAFIA-produced single “Time Out,” an introspective track that moves away from the frantic energy of his past releases to offer a stripped-back look at love, loss, and legacy. Featuring a heavy, resonant drum presence on the outro, the song’s accompanying music video was filmed on location in Lagos, capturing Maxo navigating his ancestral roots in real-time.

While O.Y.N. reaches new emotional depths, it doesn't sacrifice the hard-hitting, volatile street persona that made Maxo a star. The album expertly balances soul-baring vulnerability with cutting-edge hip-hop experimentation, showcasing elite chemistry with some of the genre's most forward-thinking visionaries. Look no further than “Fake Jeezy,” a collaborative explosion featuring Denzel Curry and masterminded by JPEGMAFIA. The track is a masterclass in industrial chaos, combining sharp lyricism and early-2000s trap imagery with cold, surreal visual aesthetics. This duality highlights Maxo's unique positioning in the culture as a trusted street general who can effortlessly trade bars with rap's avant-garde elite.

From his early days flipping Kendrick Lamar's “Rigamortis” to sharing marquee tracks with the likes of A$AP Rocky, Travis Scott, and Tyler, The Creator on hits like “Big Persona,” “Cracc Era,” and “Cracc At 15,” Maxo Kream has always been a rapper's rapper. O.Y.N. represents the ultimate synthesis of this incredible journey. It is an album born from the soil of Alief but elevated by the spirit of Lagos—a raw, beautiful, and heavy-hitting testament to an artist who has survived his past, honored his losses, and fully embraced his destiny.

You have to wonder why Railcard took so long to be born: their debut album feels like it should have been in your collection for years.


But it wasn’t until 2025 that Rachel Love (Dolly Mixture), Ian Button and Peter Momtchiloff (both Heavenly) met at a gig, realised that they were exactly the same age, and decided that this was an excellent reason to form a new band. The shared history, the same pop references, the parallel lives… Railcard had to happen, and there was no time to lose. Two Steps At A Time - the album title and theme song - express exactly how quickly Railcard have worked since then - jumping over pavement cracks and whistling past graveyards to get these songs written, recorded and released while they are still sweet and fresh.


The band released three digital EPs in early 2026, which were then gathered onto a CD and released by Skep Wax and Slumberland. They sold out very quickly. The critical response to a mail-order-only CD was far greater than anyone expected.


Railcard made their live debut in December 2025 and had by then recruited their fourth member: Allison Thomson (Trash Can Sinatras, The Love Band), whose flawless trumpet and swirly keyboard-playing complete the Railcard sound, allowing the band to fulfil the significant ambition and range of the songs, which are mostly co-written and often co-sung by Love and Button. “Flannelette” and “Sunday Sun”, delicate and swoony, could almost be Slapp Happy at their most Bacharach. “Foxy”, mysterious and charming, has more than a hint of Kate Bush December magic. The raucous duet “I’m A Disaster” is The Kinks meets deadpan Shangri-Las. The title track could have been an alternative theme tune for Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads. “Runaround” is like a school choir doing The Raincoats. “Unstable Neighbour” is mesmerising and insistent: it might make you think of Stereolab; we might imagine an indiepop Hawkwind. Peter Momtchiloff also contributes two wonderful songs on the album: the fragile and hallucinatory “Paper Thin” and the Love-meets-Undertones rush of “Hillman Minx”.


As with the first EPs, Railcard enlisted the sonic services of Medway psych expert Allan Crockford (of The Prisoners, James Taylor Quartet and many more) who has delivered mixes that pump with vintage valve energy and reverby depth.


Railcard have a string of UK dates through the summer and Autumn.

Four years after Les Mystères de Lorient, Il Est Vilaine returns with Best Service, a rich and cosmopolitan album that broadens horizons in a bleak era.
Twelve tracks and interludes crafted with the aesthetic the duo has been refining since its inception: a blend of analog electronics, techno, vintage rock, and synth-pop.
Tailor-made atmospheres, oscillating between raw energy, groove, and dark romanticism, provide perfect spaces for unexpected guests.

Tiffany Day has quickly emerged as one of the most compelling voices in hyper-digital pop, blending emotional chaos, internet-born edge, and forward-thinking production into a sound entirely her own. Born in Toronto and raised in Kansas, Tiffany first broke through with a viral cover of “Hallelujah,” building a YouTube audience of over 500,000 subscribers before graduating high school. She began releasing original music in college, quickly developing a devoted fanbase drawn to her wit, vulnerability, and genre-fluid instincts.

A self-directed creative force, Tiffany has made her live show a defining pillar of her artistry, fusing choreography, visuals, and electronic-driven transitions that push her beyond traditional pop performance. In 2024, she independently funded and sold out several headline shows across a North American tour. She later expanded into the DJ scene, launching BASSFLUFF, a series of standalone events that generated viral moments DJing everywhere from gyms to nail salons.

Her 2025 releases marked a sharp sonic evolution, leaning into electroclash and hyperpop textures. Singles like “BREAKUP,” “TELL ME WHAT I DID,” and “START OVER” generated millions of views across platforms and earned coverage from NME, Ones to Watch, On The Radar, and beyond, positioning her at the forefront of a new wave of digital-native pop artists.

That momentum culminates in her album HALO, released April 3, 2026 via Broke Records. The project debuted at #1 on the Apple Music Electronic chart and #25 on the Billboard Electronic/Dance Albums Chart, drawing early co-signs from artists like Laufey and Yunjin (LE SSERAFIM) alongside coverage from Pitchfork, The FADER, NYLON, LA Times, and more. To mark the release, Tiffany staged three headline shows—each of which sold out in under five minutes. With her production across nearly every track, HALO marks Tiffany's most cohesive and ambitious work to date, solidifying her not just as an artist to watch, but as a defining voice in the next era of hyperpop.

Tiffany Day has quickly emerged as one of the most compelling voices in hyper-digital pop, blending emotional chaos, internet-born edge, and forward-thinking production into a sound entirely her own. Born in Toronto and raised in Kansas, Tiffany first broke through with a viral cover of “Hallelujah,” building a YouTube audience of over 500,000 subscribers before graduating high school. She began releasing original music in college, quickly developing a devoted fanbase drawn to her wit, vulnerability, and genre-fluid instincts.

A self-directed creative force, Tiffany has made her live show a defining pillar of her artistry, fusing choreography, visuals, and electronic-driven transitions that push her beyond traditional pop performance. In 2024, she independently funded and sold out several headline shows across a North American tour. She later expanded into the DJ scene, launching BASSFLUFF, a series of standalone events that generated viral moments DJing everywhere from gyms to nail salons.

Her 2025 releases marked a sharp sonic evolution, leaning into electroclash and hyperpop textures. Singles like “BREAKUP,” “TELL ME WHAT I DID,” and “START OVER” generated millions of views across platforms and earned coverage from NME, Ones to Watch, On The Radar, and beyond, positioning her at the forefront of a new wave of digital-native pop artists.

That momentum culminates in her album HALO, released April 3, 2026 via Broke Records. The project debuted at #1 on the Apple Music Electronic chart and #25 on the Billboard Electronic/Dance Albums Chart, drawing early co-signs from artists like Laufey and Yunjin (LE SSERAFIM) alongside coverage from Pitchfork, The FADER, NYLON, LA Times, and more. To mark the release, Tiffany staged three headline shows—each of which sold out in under five minutes. With her production across nearly every track, HALO marks Tiffany's most cohesive and ambitious work to date, solidifying her not just as an artist to watch, but as a defining voice in the next era of hyperpop.

Coloured Vinyl. Harsh Reality - the fourth studio album by Seattle's The Drowns - is an unapologetically political punk record, coming this September from Pirates Press Records. Recorded at The Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO by punk rock legend Bill Stevenson (Descendents, Black Flag) and mixed by Jason Livermore (Teenage Bottlerocket), this collection of 13 new songs fuses everything fans have loved about the band's previous sonic experimentation and focuses it into laser-tight melodic songwriting firmly rooted in punk rock, but with the potential to reach listeners from all walks of life. Singer-guitarist Rev Peters, singer-bassist Andy Wylie, and drummer Jake Margolis largely bashed out the tracks themselves, with the exception of additional guitar work on "Vengeance" by Zach Blair (Rise Against, Only Crime, GWAR), and a touch of accordion on "3rd & Pike" courtesy of Matt Hensley (A-100s, Flogging Molly). While the title of lead single "Relentless" could easily refer to The Drowns' infamously non-stop touring regimen, it refers instead to something far more humanitarian: the crushing weight of capitalism on the working poor. The song acknowledges the toll it takes on one's mental health, struggling day in & day out with no breaks only to be left farther & farther behind. "I wish life would just give it a rest", laments Rev. The album contains its fair share of venom, however, like all great political punk in the tradition of The Clash or Stiff Little Fingers, the lyrics prioritize people over polemic, reaching out with compassion in an age where it is in distressingly short supply. "I'm sure that we could change it all if we only had a heart", implores Andy on "Have a Heart". This is life-affirming music for hard times, made for everyone that could sorely use it right now, and a record poised to give the band's hard-earned position as a fan-favorite in the global punk scene an even greater trajectory. For a band that has won over fans around the globe, record by record and show by show, it is a big statement, but simply put: Harsh Reality is The Drowns at the top of their game.

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

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

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

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

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

Palace return with their most open-hearted collection yet, 'Ox', out September 18th. The announcement of the new album arrives alongside the release of its latest single, ‘Dream On’. Palace’s fifth album, Ox, finds beauty and wisdom in the most human of revelations: watching a child encounter music for the first time, feeling overcome by gratitude, or sensing that the possibilities ahead are endless The album arrives as Palace continue to thrive as an independent act. What began in 2016 as Palace Presents, a monthly takeover at The George Tavern in London, has evolved into a worldwide community. This autumn, the band will embark on a major North American run, following a sold-out homecoming show at London’s iconic Somerset House this summer. 'Ox' will be available on CD and in four LP formats including 180g heavyweight black vinyl from the official store and a black cherry vinyl available from independent record stores.

Liam Hayes is an acclaimed American musical artist known for his songwriting and uncompromising approach to making records. He started cassette multitracking while a preteen and made his first real studio recording at twenty one. This started an obsession that ultimately led to his releasing a 7” single (Found A Little Baby/Three Quarters Blind Eyes) on a small US indie label. Those tracks garnered the attention of the UK music press, and on the strength of those songs a career was launched. The follow up was highly anticipated by critics and listeners alike, but rather than playing to expectations he delivered a highly personal album of solo piano/vocal songs (More You Becomes You). Not one to repeat himself, Hayes started off the millennium by serving up the extravagant pop/soul opus (Fed). Both records are now considered to be masterpieces.

Hayes’ songs are recognised for their exquisite melodies, poetic lyrics and distinctive vocals. He’s released seven albums, two singles and a soundtrack, and applies his craftsmanship to a variety of genres from orchestrated pop to stripped down rock. Comparisons to Brian Wilson, Laura Nyro, Carole King, Harry Nilsson, Badfinger (and even Prince) are numerous. His music takes the best of radio and stellar classic pop records of the 60’s and 70’s and brings it into the present.

Along with making records Hayes has appeared on screen performing his music in High Fidelity (directed by Stephen Frears) and A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III(directed by Roman Coppola) which he also wrote the soundtrack for.

In this, their first production for Hayes, are (executive producer) Terrence Washington and (multi-instrumentalist/producer/arranger) Vincent Carlo with additional contributions from Terrence’s father, legendary arranger TOM TOM 2084 (Chi-Lites, Phil Collins, Plush).

His latest album, Dancing Backwards, sees Liam stepping through the shadows in his life and into a new musical day.

Basel-based producer Tim Shatnyy made a welcome return to his home label, Resonance, with a massive and satisfyingly complex body of work.

The media ecosystem of Beyond Dualism combines a game, an Instagram bot, generative radio, and a full-length album at the forefront of the high-concept universe. The rhizomatic blend of web development, sound engineering, and conceptual framework does not diminish the joyous energy of Tim Shatnyy’s sonic adventures. Beyond Dualism’s digi-charms coalesce into a dynamic tension of minimalist electronic music, funky glitch, club-ready heaviness, and a boundless, idiosyncratic approach of disorientating arrangements.

Beyond Dualism is the result of Shatnyy’s deep, ongoing process of inner listening, constant change, and spiritual inquiry. It is a perfectly closed cycle of artistic creation, featuring hyperrealistic sound design and visionary manipulation on meta-levels of composition. Beyond Dualism offers the listener a continuous experience, revealing a nearly tactile and visual experience of a sound. Going beyond dualism is a journey. The way the artist has transformed his perception going through this path is reflected in the album's development and its structures.

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

Formed in New York City in 1993 around singer, guitarist and songwriter Chris Leo, the band emerged from the same fertile underground scene that gave rise to many of the most influential post-hardcore, indie rock and emo acts of the decade. Yet while many of their contemporaries went on to achieve wider recognition, The Van Pelt chose a different path: one built on artistic independence, restless experimentation and a stubborn refusal to fit comfortably into any scene or trend.
Across two landmark albums — Stealing From Our Favorite Thieves (1996) and Sultans Of Sentiment (1997) — The Van Pelt developed a singular language that combined intricate guitar interplay, spoken-word intensity, literary lyrics and emotional depth. Their music occupied a unique space between post-hardcore urgency, indie rock invention and the introspective sensibility that would later become associated with emo, influencing generations of musicians while remaining largely outside the spotlight.
After disbanding in 1997, the band's reputation continued to grow. What began as a well-kept secret among underground music fans gradually became a touchstone for listeners searching beyond the obvious narratives of 1990s alternative rock. Reunions in 2009 and 2014, the release of the long-lost Imaginary Third, and a series of acclaimed live performances introduced their music to a new audience while reaffirming their enduring relevance.
In 2023, The Van Pelt returned with Artisans & Merchants, their first collection of new material in more than twenty-five years. Rather than revisiting old formulas, the album expanded the band's sonic vocabulary while preserving the qualities that made them unique: curiosity, intelligence, vulnerability and an unwavering commitment to following their own instincts.
Now, more than three decades after their formation, The Van Pelt are set to return in 2026 with Remain Obscure, their fifth studio album. Continuing their tradition of defying expectations, the record pushes beyond the familiar boundaries of the band's sound while embracing the same spirit that has defined them from the beginning. A band whose influence has consistently exceeded its visibility, The Van Pelt remain one of independent music's most enduring and rewarding secrets.

Since emerging from Italy's underground over a decade ago, Ninos Du Brasil (Nicolò Fortuni and contemporary artist Nico Vascellari) have developed a potent sound that blends live batucada percussion, electronics, punk energy, and visceral vocals sung in an imagined language. Along the way, they've built a reputation for incredibly intense and unpredictable live performances.

This fifth full-length follows Antro Pop, released on Codalunga / Hospital Productions in 2021 in the middle of covid lockdowns with a canceled world tour leaving the world in wait. Out of that imposed hiatus Orden Micelial began to take shape.

The trademark Ninos elements remain intact: frenetic drumming, ritualistic chants, and relentless percussive intensity, while exploring new sonic territory. Most notably on "Innaya Som," the duo embrace a full-blown guitar-driven rock assault, revealing the hardcore roots that have always underwritten their music.

Recorded and produced by longtime collaborator Rocco Rampino, the album achieves a veritable wall of sound—dense and overwhelming, yet retaining remarkable clarity and separation throughout.

Part carnival rave, part punk freak-out, Orden Micelial finds Ninos Du Brasil expanding their mythology without losing any of the wild energy that has made them one of contemporary underground music's most distinctive acts.

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When we go searching for a Black avant-garde, we have to be prepared to look in unexpected places. The route to a Black avant-garde involves walking down – what some might consider – peculiar highways. Where they see strangeness, a road leading them nowhere, we see nothing but beauty. The paths Darren Cunningham went down, the highways he took to make Actress, are a chapter in the story of the Black avant-garde. Cunningham the footballer. Cunningham the Wulfrunian. Cunningham the ex-footballer. Cunningham the DJ. Cunningham the Londoner. Cunningham the producer. Cunningham the painter. Cunningham the writer. Cunningham the composer. This is where the Black avant-garde in Britain is made. This is where you have to go to find it.

Across an expansive discography of more than ten LPs, Actress has created his own arcane language of hermetic references and inter-dimensional electronic composition.

Radical Frame arrives 18 years since debut album Hazyville, and it feels like an apotheosis. The image realised. We get the full gamut of Actress signatures. Short bursts of broken down music. Tiny sketches of zoomed-in sound. Refracted dance floor heat. And we get more.

Perhaps Radical Frame is a container for everything that Cunningham has built so far. A frame he is handing over to the next in line. The next artist to make their own way in the Black British avant-garde.



Wenn wir nach einer schwarzen Avantgarde suchen, müssen wir bereit sein, an unerwarteten Orten zu suchen. Der Weg zu einer schwarzen Avantgarde führt - wie manche finden mögen - über ungewöhnliche Pfade: wo sie Fremdheit sehen, einem Weg, der nirgendwohin führt, sehen wir nichts als Schönheit. Die Wege, die Darren Cunningham beschritt, die Highways, die er befuhr, um Actress zu erschaffen, sind ein Kapitel in der Geschichte der schwarzen Avantgarde. Cunningham, der Fußballer. Cunningham, der Wulfrunianer (Anm.: Einwohner von Wolverhampton). Cunningham, der Ex-Fußballer. Cunningham, der DJ. Cunningham, der Londoner. Cunningham, der Produzent. Cunningham, der Maler. Cunningham, der Schriftsteller. Cunningham, der Komponist. Hier entsteht die schwarze Avantgarde in Großbritannien. Hier muss man hingehen, um sie zu finden.

In einer umfangreichen Diskografie von mehr als zehn Alben hat Actress seine eigene, geheimnisvolle Sprache aus hermetischen Referenzen und interdimensionalen elektronischen Kompositionen geschaffen.

„Radical Frame” erscheint 18 Jahre nach seinem Debütalbum, „Hazyville”, und fühlt sich wie eine Apotheose an: das Bild ist vollendet. Wir bekommen die ganze Bandbreite von Actress' Markenzeichen zu hören: Kurze Ausbrüche reduzierter Musik, winzige Skizzen von vergrößertem Klang.

Vielleicht ist „Radical Frame“ ein Gefäß für all das, was Cunningham bisher geschaffen hat. Ein Rahmen, den er an den Nächsten weitergibt. An die nächsten Künstler:innen, die seinen eigenen Weg in der britischen Avantgarde der Schwarz.

Product Text:

When we go searching for a Black avant-garde, we have to be prepared to look in unexpected places. The route to a Black avant-garde involves walking down – what some might consider – peculiar highways. Where they see strangeness, a road leading them nowhere, we see nothing but beauty. The paths Darren Cunningham went down, the highways he took to make Actress, are a chapter in the story of the Black avant-garde. Cunningham the footballer. Cunningham the Wulfrunian. Cunningham the ex-footballer. Cunningham the DJ. Cunningham the Londoner. Cunningham the producer. Cunningham the painter. Cunningham the writer. Cunningham the composer. This is where the Black avant-garde in Britain is made. This is where you have to go to find it.

Across an expansive discography of more than ten LPs, Actress has created his own arcane language of hermetic references and inter-dimensional electronic composition.

Radical Frame arrives 18 years since debut album Hazyville, and it feels like an apotheosis. The image realised. We get the full gamut of Actress signatures. Short bursts of broken down music. Tiny sketches of zoomed-in sound. Refracted dance floor heat. And we get more.

Perhaps Radical Frame is a container for everything that Cunningham has built so far. A frame he is handing over to the next in line. The next artist to make their own way in the Black British avant-garde.



Wenn wir nach einer schwarzen Avantgarde suchen, müssen wir bereit sein, an unerwarteten Orten zu suchen. Der Weg zu einer schwarzen Avantgarde führt - wie manche finden mögen - über ungewöhnliche Pfade: wo sie Fremdheit sehen, einem Weg, der nirgendwohin führt, sehen wir nichts als Schönheit. Die Wege, die Darren Cunningham beschritt, die Highways, die er befuhr, um Actress zu erschaffen, sind ein Kapitel in der Geschichte der schwarzen Avantgarde. Cunningham, der Fußballer. Cunningham, der Wulfrunianer (Anm.: Einwohner von Wolverhampton). Cunningham, der Ex-Fußballer. Cunningham, der DJ. Cunningham, der Londoner. Cunningham, der Produzent. Cunningham, der Maler. Cunningham, der Schriftsteller. Cunningham, der Komponist. Hier entsteht die schwarze Avantgarde in Großbritannien. Hier muss man hingehen, um sie zu finden.

In einer umfangreichen Diskografie von mehr als zehn Alben hat Actress seine eigene, geheimnisvolle Sprache aus hermetischen Referenzen und interdimensionalen elektronischen Kompositionen geschaffen.

„Radical Frame” erscheint 18 Jahre nach seinem Debütalbum, „Hazyville”, und fühlt sich wie eine Apotheose an: das Bild ist vollendet. Wir bekommen die ganze Bandbreite von Actress' Markenzeichen zu hören: Kurze Ausbrüche reduzierter Musik, winzige Skizzen von vergrößertem Klang.

Vielleicht ist „Radical Frame“ ein Gefäß für all das, was Cunningham bisher geschaffen hat. Ein Rahmen, den er an den Nächsten weitergibt. An die nächsten Künstler:innen, die seinen eigenen Weg in der britischen Avantgarde der Schwarz.

Archimboldos have clawed their way out of the starcaves of their primordial past and into the tranquil light of a coral garden on their third full length album, Crusta Arcana, a gumbo stewpot of transcendent electronica suffused with tribal rhythms and liquid ambience. Across a stereo field smeared with tolling bells, post-industrial folk percussion, and tinkling keys, Archimboldos soundtrack a science fictional journey, not into the depths of space, but deep beneath the waves.

In the past the Chilean duo of Nicolás Carcavilla and Felipe Crocco have described their music as “liminal shrimp folk.” Here they continue this strange exploration when they visit the court of the prawns, producing stately electronic chamber orchestrations. Perhaps these are the frequencies used for ritual dream initiation into the mystery schools of drowned Atlantis. Weaving an ancient sacred science, Archimboldos take listeners on a mystic vovage into their singular crustacean mythology, the crusta of their hidden arcana.

Archimbolodos are masters of conjoining cyclonic and centrifugal lines of electricity into spellbinding incantations. These deep-sea transmissions envelope the listener into aquamarine forcefields that are as hallucinatory as they are hypnotic. Navigating these strange fantasias could lead one to getting lost at sea, but the work is buoyed by the somnolent melodies of lonely harpsichords and swelling synth pads whose sustained tones reach towards distant shores. Sailing across a vast expanse of oceanic harmonies and percolating percussion, these pieces are as precise as the hand of a sailor on the rudder, moving with the tide.

Casting their net wide across eight pieces, Archimboldos have made a big catch. From the emotive electronic counterpoint found on “Bursting Armor” to the blocks of seaweed tangled sonic sculpture trawled up from the ocean floor on “Aphelion IX.” Other songs are like samples of biological ambience collected from luminous tide pools: resplendent tones placed into a Petri dish of sound, swirled, cultured and fermented until it undulates with the rhythmic movement of microscopic lifeforms. Alternating between rippling minimalist sonority and pounding, progressive, synth-heavy entrancement, Crusta Arcana charts its own idiosyncratic itinerary of instrumental invention.

All the while light is down streaming from the heavens to pierce the waters, here calm, there choppy. The intrepid musical captains commanding Archimboldos have laid a course for new archipelagos of the imagination, guided by heavenly constellations.

-Justin Patrick Moore, author of The Radio Phonics Laboratory, Telecommunications, Speech Synthesis and the Birth of Electronic Music

Von 1964 bis 1980 zauberte Lenny ,King Creole" LaCour auf verschiedenen geheimnisvollen Labels eine knallharte Mischung aus R&B, Keller-Beehive, Hard Funk, Gruppenharmonien und Proto-Disco aus dem Hut. Dieses Deluxe-Doppelalbum versammelt 26 soulige Tricks aus dem Zylinder von Magic Touch, ergänzt durch eine ganze Illusion an Notizen, Fotos und Ephemera im beiliegenden Booklet. Abracadabra.

Oscar Later is the solo project of one half of Once Twice, formerly known as Parallels. The EP takes its premise from the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which ruled that no nation could claim ownership of the Moon or any other celestial body. Across six tracks, that idea of ownership, distance and free imagination runs through the record, which combines breakbeat and shimmering synths with processed vocals and clips from vintage ads and obscure films.

"I wanted the record to feel like public-domain myths, commercial promises and space-age optimism all colliding," Oscar says, "blurring the line between memory and fantasy."

Opener 'Air Time for Andre' channels chopped-up breaks reminiscent of Skee Mask, combined with processed found audio. 'Wenlocked', named after the East London street where it was written, develops from a downtempo sketch into a heavier club track as the bassline builds, inspired by releases on Voam and Floating Points' live sets. 'It Never Made Sense' steps away from the dancefloor, built around a granulated Orion Sun vocal that, as Oscar puts it, "ties the track into quite a surreal space," leaning towards Burial, Overmono and Radiohead.

The title track, 'The Moon Belongs to You', runs a vocoded 90s ad through a detuned one-note synth. It's the track Oscar says "best encapsulates the intention of the EP as a whole: surreal, wacky and clubby." 'Yaya' keeps the energy up as a straight techno cut, its gated bassline locking in around a chopped vocal and pitched samples. Closer 'That's Quite A Lot Of Zeroes!' expands from a stripped-back Buchla line into something huge, driven by chopped samples and inspired by sci-fi scores like Dune and Annihilation.

The cover is designed by art director Will Millner with designer Josh Lowe, a homage to space food and 80s industrial design geared to survive life on the moon. It's available as a limited vacuum-packed 12" record.

The EP launches alongside a music video for 'It Never Made Sense', directed by Louis Mackay, telling the story of a group of kids who steal the moon for themselves.

The Toxic Funk series keeps pushing the boundaries of funk and hip-hop on wax, and Volume 23 welcomes DJP with two heavyweight remix cuts tailor-made for party-rocking DJs and golden-era hip-hop lovers alike. Packed with dusty breaks, sharp cuts and undeniable boom-bap energy, this 7” delivers pure underground flavor from start to finish.

On the A-side, The Nod Factor (DJP Remix) flips a true hip-hop classic into a groove-heavy breakbeat weapon loaded with crisp drums, funky rhythms and that unmistakable head-nodding swing. DJP injects fresh energy into the timeless vocal flows while keeping the raw essence fully intact.

The B-side, How Many Emcees (Must Get Dissed) (DJP Remix) dives even deeper into rugged East Coast vibes with rolling breaks, punchy basslines and expertly chopped funk elements that hit hard on any sound system. DJP balances classic hip-hop attitude with dancefloor-ready funk pressure, making this another essential weapon for selectors who like their beats raw and funky.

Toxic Funk Vol. 23 continues the series’ tradition of bringing heavyweight grooves to 7” vinyl, serving up another limited edition double-sider for crate diggers, breakbeat heads and party DJs worldwide.


b B1: How Many Emcees (Must Get Dissed) [DJP Remix]


[b] B1 | How Many Emcees (Must Get Dissed) [DJP Remix]

Originally released in 1995 Methodrone was the first Brian Jonestown Massacre album. Redolent with the spirit of such high priests of effects and delay as Loop, Spaceman 3, and My Bloody Valentine, not to mention a fair dollop of the Jesus and Mary Chain ,over 70 minutes long Methodrone clearly is the sum of its influences..

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recorded in Los Angeles over the course of a single day at a studio in the Eagle Rock neighborhood, Dois Desertos was produced by Mario Caldato Jr. and emerged without a predetermined plan or schedule. The project took shape during Portuguese musician João Pimenta Gomes' stay in Los Angeles with his family. During that time, through Rodrigo Amarante, João met Mario and Samantha Caldato, as well as musicians Abe Rounds (drums and percussion) and Gabe Noel (bass and cello). From those encounters, the album began to unfold organically.

Working from simple scores—some containing little more than chord progressions—the sessions left plenty of room for improvisation. Every performance was captured live, in a single take, with no overdubs. The mixing process, also carried out live by Mario Caldato Jr., followed the same philosophy: effects and level adjustments were performed in real time and printed directly to the final two-track master.

At the heart of the album's sound is the Cristal Baschet, a rare instrument played by rubbing glass rods with the hands, causing metal resonators to vibrate and produce an ethereal, resonant tone. João describes its sound as "a trace, almost like a shadow." Rather than taking the lead, the instrument serves as a textural foundation, while the bass and cello carry the melodic lines. Some of these melodies are original compositions, while others draw from traditional Portuguese fado, reimagined through an open and exploratory approach.

The album has a dreamlike atmosphere, reflecting the perspective of someone experiencing Los Angeles from the outside—not in a rush to belong, but fully receptive to the city's unique energy. Two films helped shape this imaginary landscape: Model Shop (Jacques Demy, 1969), in which the French filmmaker uses Los Angeles as a pretext to simply observe and inhabit the city, and Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself. The result is Dois Desertos, an album that, in João's own words, "could never have been made anywhere else."

With Dois Desertos, João Pimenta Gomes invites listeners into a deeply immersive experience, revealing a more exploratory side of his artistic practice while reinforcing Amor in Sound's commitment to releasing original works that engage with the many languages of contemporary music.

Tommy McCook was not only a founding member of the legendary Jamaican Ska group The Skatalites, but also a brilliant musical arranger. His informed understanding of Jazz, R&B and in fact most music styles would always add another layer to any song put his way. This made him the go to guy for most of the Jamaican producers, who would use his arrangement skills to pepper up their latest tunes.

Tommy McCook, (b1927, Havana, Cuba) came to Jamaica with his mother from Cuba aged 11 and entered renowned Alpha Boys School for underprivileged children, a school that placed great emphasis on musical tuition. At the tender of 14, such was his talent he has left to join Eric Deans Orchestra and took on stints with other bands led by Don Hinchman and Roy Coburn. All the bands played in the Swing and Jazz style of the times. He relocated to the Bahamas in 1954 where he further developed his Jazz technique and upon his return to Jamaica in 1962 began working Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One and became involved in the development of Ska. His knowledge of Jazz, R& B and Jamaican musical forms helped set the tone for the group of musicians he was working with and would name the Skatalites. The group, consisting of Don Drummond (Trombone), Roland Alphonso (Tenor Saxophone), Jackie Mitoo (Piano), Lloyd Brevett (Bass), Lloyd Knibbs (Drums), alongside Tommy himself on Tenor Saxophone. The group would back all the major Ska vocalists pf the day and would also go on to cut a catalogue of instrumental music. The Skatalites split up in 1965 and Tommy McCook moved over to work with Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle Studios where he formed The Supersonics. A set of musicians under his guidance that consisted of Lynn Tait and Ernest Ranglin (Guitar), Neville Hinds and Winston Wright (Organ), Gladstone “Gladdy” Anderson (Piano), Hugh Malcolm and Arkland “Drumbago” Parks (Drums), Clifton “Jackie” Jackson (Bass), and Tommy and Hernon Marquis (Saxophone). The more laid back sounds from 1966-1968 would be given the name Rocksteady of which again McCook was at the forefront. The top producers like Bunny Lee would use the musicianship of Tommy McCook and his arrangement skills to enhance this new sound.

We have compiled a great selection of rhythms that featured McCook blowing over tracks stripped of their vocals and replaced with some fantastic lead lines played by Tommy and some of his fellow horns men.
We hope you agree like we do that they do this in fine style.

Early into their collaboration as Turning Jewels Into Water, Val Jeanty and Ravish Momin adopted the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians’ longtime credo “Ancient to the Future” as a lodestar. Perhaps it seems like a riddle, but the AACM motto offers instruction to take what is sacred from the past and pull it into the present, using new means to make music that resonates with your lineage. Jeanty emigrated to the United States from Haiti in the mid-’80s, while Momin was born in India but now calls New York home. Since improvising together at Pioneer Works in 2017, Momin and Jeanty have integrated a world of beliefs and sounds—voodoo and hoodoo, mbalax and drum circles—into kinetic music made with cutting-edge electronics, from Sensory Percussions drums to Smart Fabric MIDI controllers. They pull the past into the present, then use it to imagine a better future.

Two tracks extending towards the 10 minute marker, very much in the unique style of Robert Mononom which was already being refined throughout his previous 3 EPs, now culminating in 2 excursions throughout deep hypnotic/psychedelic machine made sounds. A side is built on an aggressive triple and double beat kick drum with a very dubby "big room" presence upon which waves of other nuances in noise get overlayed slowly transforming the 165+ BPM experience throughout what sounds like an extended live mix. B side goes in more spacial/atmospheric direction where hi hats take control over the kick, capturing the witness in a whirlwind of dubbed out overlaying rhythmic patterns. A sound so raw and pure in its introspection, clearly showing Robert's capacity of developing an aesthetic of his own.

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

The Go’s Free Electricity, the group’s storied, long-lost album, finally gets a proper release! The Go appeared in Detroit in 1996, led by Bobby Harlow and featuring Dave Buick on bass and Jack White on guitar. Following the release of their 1999 debut, Whatcha Doin’, and a few lineup changes, the band hit the studio with Dion Fischer on lead guitar, John Olson (of Wolf Eyes) on saxophone, and Cary Loren (of Destroy All Monsters) to record their sophomore effort. The session found the band and their producer, Matthew Smith (Outrageous Cherry), exploring the outer edges of rock and roll, with blaring lead guitars, copious amounts of reverb, and a heavy jazz influence thanks to a heavy diet of ‘60s free jazz. The results erupt from the speakers with a cavernous sound, like some haunted frequency beamed across the time barrier from the Grande Ballroom circa 1968, often sounding more like records by Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra than the records being made by The Go’s peers in the ‘00s rock and roll scene.

Free Electricity was written, composed, and arranged by Bobby Harlow (except track one, which was written by Harlow and Dion Fischer; and track five, written by Harlow and Cary Loren). Free Electricity was mixed and produced by Matthew Smith, engineered by Jim Diamond at Ghetto Recorders, and mastered by Jim Kissling at Jim Kissling Mastering in Detroit, Michigan. Guest appearances by folks from Destroy All Monsters and Wolf Eyes only reinforced the album's musical direction. Weird or not, this was an inspired recording made by an inspired group of musicians. There was a feeling of excitement and adventure happening at these sessions, it shines through mightily on this album.

Kitsune No Yomeiri, which translates to the fox’s wedding, is an endearing expression used to describe sunshowers. Dawson returned home from a recent tour of Japan with a collection of field recordings documenting the spring rain he encountered throughout his travels. These curious sounds, stretching from peaceful shrines to clattering city streets, underpin the material.

Dawson also credits the wonderful folks he met on that tour with profoundly shaping the direction of the album. After each show he found himself immersed in inspiring conversations about the guitar. Through navigating the language barrier, he discovered he was communicating with an immense sincerity that he would ordinarily avoid at all costs. “I’ve always just made records at home in a vortex, but this time it felt like those conversations were there with me in the studio.”

Musically the album has a slight western slant. It’s not country, but it does see Dawson lean softly into his prairie past. Constellations of stray notes and rusted tones form nostalgic melodies, like chance encounters between old friends. Dawson allows phrases and gestures to repeat across the record, resulting in a collection that’s more akin to turning the pages of a novel than a series of vignettes vying for attention.

Minions & Monsters is the brand new 2026 installment in the popular Minions franchise. The animated adventure follows the Minions as they find themselves caught up in a world of larger-than-life creatures, unexpected challenges, and the kind of chaotic situations that have made the franchise a global success. The film expands the Minions universe while staying true to the humor and charm that audiences have come to love.

The movie’s original score is composed by Oscar-nominated composer John Powell, whose work on How To Train Your Dragon, Shrek, and Kung Fu Panda has earned him a place among the most acclaimed composers working in film today. For Minions & Monsters, Powell delivers a lively orchestral score that complements the Minions on their adventure and brings it to life.

Minions & Monsters is available as a limited edition of 1,000 copies on yellow (LP1) and turquoise (LP2) vinyl, and includes a 4-page booklet with liner notes by John Powell.