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Amandra, half head honcho behind Ahrpe Records, goes for subtly evolving and droning atmospheres. With releases spanning electronic genres and record labels: Nous klaer Audio, AD 93, Tikita or Semantica, just to name a few; the French producer ba with coherence his own vision of acid and tribal rhythms that can be presented with either bright and soft feelings or through a
Brera Som Som EP

As always with Amandra, there is a blend of poetic and soft hidden touch given to the music through carefully crafted personal Som is a 4 tracker EP, recorded back when he lived in Warsaw Poland, showcasing the artists ability to navigate through nich double 12 package cherry topped with four intelligent and eclectic remixes from artists with their own unique identity: Shieldin Brainwaltzera.

Amandra on disc 1
Brera Som Som
I want my music to breathe dirty so its alive to my ears, trying to stay away from surgical, clean, electronic music. The Prophet recorded by hand, with assumed offbeat imperfections, as always. I wanted to get a naive Asian mood out of it, just to try and c track. I tend to think a lot about my tracks and their meaning more in terms of feelings, art and techniques than in terms of dee
dance floors or whatever. Brera Som Som is a try at using the chiaroscuro technique depicted in classical paintings for instance interesting focus on some very specific elements.

Cyborg Pelikana
Recorded out of a jam on a Soma Pulsar 23 and some heavy distorted synths, it ended up sounding like no other recordings bit different as I wanted to have a more composed like approach here.

Fanfaron
Here is a try at going jungle... with a Moog DFAM and a 303 processed through a Sherman Filterbank.

Prorokini
This one belongs to a phase where I was exploring the sampling side of electronic music. Until that moment I was building 100 based on raw drum machines and some processing, then started feeling how it would feel to sample some raw external beats and process them my way. I didnt pursue that sampling lead much afterward because it felt like a boring approach to me that
stood out anyway, like this one, which Im very proud of. The synths are clearly programmed on the Prophet 08, it cant go any Instruments than that, if you like them, go grab that synth

Remixers on disc 2
Cyborg Pelikana Shielding Remix
I liked the dry and direct qualities of the original track and wanted to maintain that feeling while collaging it using my own proc Recorded in my old home studio in Stockholm.

Brera Som Som Brainwaltzera Remix
no comment.
Fanfaron Whylie Remix
The remix was made using resampling techniques, the rhythmic noises were transformed into driving percussive layers pushi character. A more emotional overlay was added to the track based on the sentimental and personal approach I built through.

Brera Som Som Martinou Remix
Interpreting Amandras work has been on my bucket list for a while. Theres something in it that is innately humanizing and raw capture in my remix. The melody line from the remix is just a snapshot of a small part of the full original track, but it stuck with my improvisation to what you see before you today. With this remix I wanted to make something that would swell slowly and ring o
All original tracks written and produced by Amandra.
Remixes written and produced by Brainwaltzera, Whylie, Martinou and Shielding.
Mastered by Amandra.
Artwork by Neurotypique.

Ltd White Vinyl, DL card. 1992's 'Untitled' brought the band's third album that re-cemented the duo once again as the progenitors of the "lo-fi" genre. This breakthrough set transitioned "The Trux" into a never ending all-inclusive rotating cast of musicians. Continuing Fire Records' series of classic remastered albums from Royal Trux, 'Untitled' is released on white vinyl and features updated monochrome and silver artwork. As unpredictable as ever, Neil Hagerty and Jennifer Herrema shook off the next level layering and noise of 'Twin Infinitives' to embrace the history of rock 'n' roll in all its deformed grandeur. Utilizing their ever present mind set of macro-inclusivity, they allowed the subconscious "radio stations" of their lives to infiltrate, lead, and dictate. Culling from their collective minds and memories twisted tunes that touched them. After the blood rush of their much-hailed avant-garde masterpiece 'Twin Infinitives' (1988), this eight-song opus added to the lo-fi genre that originated on 'Twin Infinitives'. On 'Untitled' Hagerty uses his 5-string blues roots and hails rock's twisted potential, while Herrema slurs and snarls in ecstasy. They sound like they're locked in a fourth-floor boudoir at the Chelsea Hotel; bottles clink, an album clicks on its run-out groove, the band plays on. In the mix are the characters and casualties of the 90s, a roll call of swaggering misfits. These aren't superficial sketches, the Trux cut much deeper than that_ "'Junkie Nurse' isn't just about addiction; it's about the twisted hope that even the most broken people can somehow mend others, even when they're falling apart themselves." Jennifer Herrema, Royal Trux. With 'Untitled' Royal Trux justifiably increased their coterie of convicted followers, becoming the cult heroes for a transgressive generation, and the Rosetta Stone for male/female duos (ie:The White Stripes, The Kills etc... ) over the years inspiring everyone from The Silver Jews (David Berman) & Sonic Youth through to melodic blue-eyed soulsters like Hot Chip - "I urge and encourage you to enter the harmolodic multiverse of their music." Alexis Taylor, Hot Chip. "Royal Trux were nothing if not fearless." Pitchfork.

Two-Piers bringt mit "Come To My World" eine kurze Geschichte und Tauchgang in die Welt des Indie-Pop, von seinen bescheidenen Anfängen in den 1980ern bis zu den vielen grossartigen Bands, die heute die Flagge hochhalten.

"Come To My World" beginnt mit coolen Bands wie Talulah Gosh, The Flatmates, Blueboy, Primal Scream, McCarthy, 14 Iced Bears und The Springfields auf bahnbrechenden DIY-Labels wie Sarah Records, The Subway Organization und Creation. Über die einflussreichen C86-Kassettenjahre gelangen wir zu den kommerzielleren Spät-1980er-Sounds von The Primitives, The Soup Dragons und The Darling Buds. Wir navigieren durch die 1990er mit der unterschätzten Brillianz von Heavenly, der florierenden schottischen Szene mit Acts wie BMX Bandits und The Vaselines, bis zum Durchbruch der Indie-Pop-Sounds von Velocity Girl und Blake Babies in den USA. In den 2000ern brachte die US-Szene exzellente Bands wie Dum Dum Girls und The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart hervor, neben Underground-Acts wie Joanna Gruesome, The Spook School und Veronica Falls. Die Zusammenstellung endet mit einem Blick in die glänzende Zukunft des Indie-Pop mit Künstlern wie The Goon Sax, The Lost Days und Ribbon Stage.

Für Indie-Pop-Liebhaber ist diese Underground-Musik seit fast 40 Jahren eine ständige Quelle der Freude. 2LP mit 34 Tracks. 2CD mit 40 Tracks.

Water ripples all around, and echoing sounds stretch out into a shady sub aquatic habitat. Its dark corners slowly burst into view as cresting noises reveal fresh caverns teeming with liquid life. This is Sueños acuáticos, the latest sonic exploration from Lamina, a musical project by French artist, Clarice Calvo-Pinsolle. Built from years of carefully gathered field recordings, the album constructs immersive, detailed soundscapes where watery environments, caves, and forests intertwine with digital manipulations.

Rooted in the myth of the ‘Lamina’, a creature from Basque folklore, the project blends this oral tradition with technology to build a geological myth. The Lamina’s world—a nocturnal ecosystem of water and stone—serves as the foundation for the album’s sound design. Lamina reshapes these natural recordings into something new: stretching, pitching, and layering them to build intricate sound environments that feel simultaneously organic and synthetic. “I transform these sounds much like I would sculpt in ceramics,” explains Calvo-Pinsolle, “by adding, removing material, and imagining landscapes.

Drawing from hydrofeminist and posthuman ideas, particularly those in Astrida Neimanis’ Bodies of Water, the album treats sound like water—shifting, flowing, connecting, and buoying life. Tracks flow into one another without clear boundaries, much like the natural currents they represent. The result is a continuous listening experience, inviting deep focus on texture above melody.

Lamina is exploring the potential of the field recording as a compositional tool. Natural sounds, like trickling water or wind through trees, are processed out of recognition—or cliché. A sense of weightless immersion takes hold as Lamins’a music unfolds, and listeners float freely and choose their own adventure in the Lamina’s home. Less a set of songs than its own evolving environment, Sueños acuáticos (‘Aquatic Dreams’ in English) is a meticulously constructed work in which we can freely float.

Noisy (Rockin') Hardcore / Punk outfit VAUTOURS is now closing its EP Trilogy with their most mature, hybrid and tortured work to date : "LIVE FOREVER".

Adding distorted "pop" ingredients in their crude and strange Noise recipe, VAUTOURS gathers late 90's / early 2000's Noise Rock, Crust / Hardcore, Post-Rock and "metallic" Punk influences, blending Unwound and McLusky, Cult Leader and Young Widows into something hyper-versatile, silly-serious... And radically unique.

Plunge into this crude yet sparkling, bittersweet love letter now.
Cause you won't Live Forever (but you'll get what you want).

HAIL THE QUEEN, LIVE FOREVER !

Highly polished, cinematic “hypernoise” melded with industrial metal /rock. Follow up to 2019’s industrial noise classic, The Origin Of My Depression. Uboa’s fifth album Impossible Light almost never made it out of the dark. From its initial conception in 2018, this record went to hell and back, dragging its immensity and too-big-to-hold emotion through the torturous process of translation to sound and returned triumphantly as a full-bodied record in a distinct new style. Impossible Light begins where Uboa’s 2019 breakout album The Origin Of My Depression left off—and ends somewhere entirely different. The Origin stunned with its methodical use of doom, harsh noise, and ambient soundscapes while documenting a raw, unhindered account of Xandra Metcalfe’s experiences with her transition and her struggles with mental health. Over time The Origin steadily grew a cult-like following which developed into a full-fledged internet community focused around noise, neurodiversity and transness. While Uboa’s signature style of highly polished, cinematic “hypernoise” is front and center in Impossible Light, there is also a daring departure into the genres of industrial metal / rock, setting it apart from any other Uboa release thus far and distinguishing it from other contemporary noise records. Metcalfe kept the lyrical content of this record as a time capsule of the catastrophic ups and downs and rapidly changing environments within herself and in the world from 2018-2023. Key collaborators include Blood Of A Pomegranate, Otay:onii, Charlie Looker and Haela Hunt-Hendrix of Liturgy. Impossible Light dives fearlessly into queer sexuality, trans embodiment, grief for those who couldn’t make it, solidarity for those facing unimaginable discrimination, the toxic spread of transphobic hatred and misinformation, and the ultimate hope of recovery from trauma and mental anguish. This is a record about the light at the end of the tunnel and the power it takes to keep moving towards it

The 2015 edition of Winnipeg’s send + receive festival, focussed on rhythm, turned out to be a generative meeting of minds. There, Mark Fell encountered the music of Will Guthrie, a meeting that was eventually to result in the frenetic acoustic drumkit and digital synthesis pairing heard on Infoldings and Diffractions (2020). At the same festival, Limpe Fuchs first heard and appreciated the music of Mark Fell, planting the seed of a collaboration that came to fruition when Fell (along with his son Rian Treanor) visited Fuchs at her home in Peterskirchen, Germany in September 2022. Black Truffle is pleased to announce the release of the results of this extensive session in the audacious form of a triple LP, housing over two hours of music across its six sides. The collaboration might appear unlikely: what common ground could exist between Fuchs, classically trained pianist, legend of improvised music, instrument builder and sound sculptor active since the 1960s, whose group Anima Sound connected the dots between free jazz, krautrock and ritual, and Fell, proponent of radical computer music, known for his bracingly austere productions that twist remnants of club music into algorithmic stutters? For all their seeming disparity in technology, approach and background, the music on Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch makes it immediately evident the pair share a great deal in their essentially percussive approach and ability to, in Fuch’s phrase, ‘establish silence’. Recording at her home studio, Fuchs had the use of her entire array of instruments, found, invented, and traditional, and treats the listener to some that don’t often make their way to concerts, including extensive passages performed (with Gundis Stalleicher) on pieces of wooden parquetry. Alongside metallic, wooden and skin percussion of all kinds, sounded and struck in every conceivable way, we also hear bamboo flute, viola, and Fuchs’ distinctive free-form vocalisations. Fell also stretched himself, with his contributions ranging from characteristically fizzing pitched percussive pops to swarms of sliding tones and abstract digital noise. Showing both remarkable restraint and improvisational freedom, much of the music consists of duets between a single percussion instrument and a distinctive mode of digital sound, often lingering in one timbral-rhythmic space for minutes at a time. Improvisational forward momentum coexists with a free-floating, wandering quality. On opener ‘Dessogia I’, the shimmering almost-gilssandi tones of Fuchs’ enormous set of microtonally tuned metal tubes ripples across Fell’s rubbery pulse, which moves up the frequency spectrum as Fuchs becomes more animated and switches to horn. At some points, as on the metallic chiming tones that open ‘Fauch I’, only the unexpected dynamic behaviour of Fell’s sounds distinguish them from Fuchs’ acoustic instruments. At others, like on ‘Queetch III’, the waves of sliding tones and noise textures are bracingly synthetic, joined by piercing squeaks and scrapes from Fuchs’ metal objects. Epic in scope, immersing the listener in an entirely distinctive world of sounds, and thrillingly bold in its melding of the most ancient musical procedures with cutting edge technologies, Dessogia/Queetch/Fauch is an unexpected major statement from two of the great mavericks of contemporary music.

“Commencement/Mineral Blend” delivers a fusion of rough and ready dub-adjacent bass music compositions from the London based trio Damos Room. Also featured are eclectic remixes from artists Gonjasufi, Lewi Boome, Dome Zero, and Nudibranch residents Polyop.

The bulk of the EP came from a rare in-person collaboration at Elijah Minnelli’s loft. The Horse Militia laid belly to the ground, endlessly feeding an effects chain like a battery hen with noises from multiple contrasting sources. It was particularly hot that day and the windows were wide open, so if you listen closely you can hear the humid Selhurst skyline bleeding into the recordings. This long weekend was punctuated by visits to the local swamp and an outing to see Channel One Soundsystem.

"Commencement," the EP's inaugural offering, unfolds with a hypnotic, droning bass groove, providing the floor for a paranoid stream of consciousness.

"Mineral Blend" takes a lazier dancehall-esque approach. Littered with unloved sounds from previous sessions and repurposing the lyrics ("I want to be a vessel") from Damos Room's DR Viewings #2 release with Polyop, this track weaves in and out of consciousness without ever truly bubbling over.

Remixers Lewi Boome and Dome Zero contribute imaginative 150bpm takes on both "Commencement" and "Mineral Blend” respectively, drawing inspiration from their backgrounds in bass, techno and experimental electronic music.

Polyop's remix of "Mineral Blend" leans further into dub techno stylings, infusing a refreshing and spacious perspective that echoes their acid roots.

The LA-based artist Gonjasufi transforms "Commencement" into a foggy and mysterious rendition, using his unique production techniques to transcend the dancefloor and immerse listeners in a misty sonic landscape.

Just under a year after their acclaimed self-titled debut, dreampop duo deary release a brand new six-track EP – Aurelia – via Sonic Cathedral on November 1. It includes the singles ‘The Moth’, ‘Selene’ and ‘The Drift’ and features Slowdive drummer Simon Scott playing on three songs. It will be available on three different vinyl variants, a CD with three bonus tracks and digitally. It’s a stunning record, which displays a new-found maturity in terms of production as well as musically and lyrically. The band – singer Rebecca ‘Dottie’ Cockram and guitarist/producer Ben Easton – have had to grow up in public since the release of their debut single at the start of 2023, supporting legends such as Slowdive and Cranes and TikTok sensations like Wisp along the way. An aurelian is a rare old term for a lepidopterist – someone who studies and collects moths – derived from the Latin aurelia, meaning chrysalis. The perfect title for an EP which is based around the theme of metamorphosis and change. “It leans on the natural world, the human body, the earth and sky as well as human emotion,” says Ben of how the EP represents physical and metaphysical growth. “Change can be daunting but equally exciting, which is something we’ve come to learn.” “While writing the EP, I found a letter I had written to myself when I was 22,” adds Dottie. “I was fresh out of university and had moved back in with my parents as Covid was in full force. I was uninspired and lost and reaching out to my future self for some hope. It was a physical representation of what can happen in a few years; how much can change and how you never know what’s coming next. “I found it interesting that – at the age of 26 – here I was looking back to my younger self for hope or just some comfort in the fact that things will and do move on. It was important to me to bring both of these versions of myself into the new songs.” “Personally, I had noticed a change in myself; a new level of social anxiety, a strange disassociation to things that once brought me joy as well as negative repetitions in my daily life,” reveals Ben. “I began the year sober which allowed me to finish the writing process as a letter of care to my own mental health. There are motifs throughout the EP – for example the riffs in ‘The Moth’ and ‘The Drift’ being reminiscent of each other – which are like musical reflections of these repeated cycles.” It’s musically where the change deary have undergone is most obvious. ‘The Moth’ mixes howling guitars atop a strident breakbeat making it more Curve than Cocteaus; ‘Selene’ is a slow-building wall of noise; ‘The Drift’ combines a perfect pop melody with an incredible sense of urgency. These three singles are balanced by the brief but beautiful ‘Where You Are’ which leads into the Portishead-style trip-hop of ‘Dream Of Me’. The title track has been a staple of their live sets for about a year as ‘Can’t Sleep Tonight’, but its mix of The Cure circa Disintegration and Mezzanine Massive Attack has grown and evolved so much that they renamed it ‘Aurelia’ as the embodiment of the change they have been through. “We’ve allowed deary to naturally grow over the past year, we didn’t want to force it to take a certain shape or sound,” explains Dottie of the duo’s slow and steady approach. “A lot of the last EP was written by sending ideas back and forth over WhatsApp, but this time we were able to sit in the same room and I think that really shows. We know each other a lot better now as we have experienced this journey together and that benefits the writing process as we are more open with each other and can be vulnerable.” “Aurelia definitely feels a lot more collaborative, more personal and more fully realised than the first EP,” concludes Ben. “It feels like a real document of what has been a very important time in both of our lives. Ironically, the band has changed and matured even more since the recording, so we’re both excited to document the next stage

Saxophonist and musical omnivore Benjamin Herman has been one of Holland’s most productive musicians of his generation for over three decades. Aside from thousands of gigs, Benjamin has released over 50 albums as a solo artist and as frontman of his groove-orientated ensemble New Cool Collective. His wonderfully diverse musical output includes straight-ahead jazz, Gypsy jazz, punk jazz, film scores, Afrobeat, Latin music and postmodern interpretations of pieces by Dutch composer Misha Mengelberg, as well as collaborations with vocalists, poets, pop stars, hip-hop artists, and instrumentalists from all over the world. The common thread is his quest for a recognizable, personal sound on the alto saxophone. As usual, his latest album finds him exploring new territory.

With his Bughouse project, he fulfills his long-standing desire to blend his old loves of punk and jazz. The latest Bughouse album, "Bughouse: The ERUS / ARC Sessions”, displays the versatility of Benjamin Herman's Bughouse, covering a wide range of styles from jazz-punk to noise, free jazz, and beyond.

All My Heroes Are Cornballs is the third studio album by renowned Baltimore rapper JPEGMafia, released on September 13, 2019, follow-up to the album that really launched his career, Veteran (2018). JPEGMAFIA handled the production, mixing and mastering in his home studio. The album features guest appearances from Abdu Ali, Helena Deland and Buzzy Lee, as well as additional vocals by Refined Sugar, Vegyn and Young Emoji. All My Heroes are cornballs is an avant-garde, experimental hip hop, and punk rap album, and draws influences from experimental pop, glitch hop, ambient, noise and industrial music. It has a smoother and more melodic sound than its predecessor, employing uncommon song structures, extensive sampling, and a variety of vocal techniques such as rapping, screaming and singing. Thematically, the album is personal, introspective, and presented in a stream of consciousness form, touching on the Internet culture, prejudice, political issues and JPEGMafia's newfound fame.

Elias Rønnenfelt is a musician and poet best known as the lead singer and lyricist of Iceage. Heavy Glory is his debut solo album. Out October 25th via Escho. Heavy Glory was recorded in Copenhagen in chapters and moments over the course of a year. Collaborators include Iceage's Dan Kjær Nielsen, Danish punk godfather Peter Peter, and singers Joanne Robertson (Elias and Joanne have collaborated before, on a number of recent Dean Blunt releases) and Fauzia. "I've done this so many times," Rønnenfelt explains, speaking of the process of crafting a long player, "but capturing and crystallising an album remains a singular ritual, just with different circumstances. We are capturing something that is hard to hold down." Heavy Glory is a record that examines all the things that lovers do, from the most desperate to the most pure. The lover haunts the record, reappearing and provoking Rønnenfelt, pulling him in and pushing him away. Songs like "Close" describe the line between jealousy and protectiveness. "Unarmed" is a song of surrender. "River of Madeleine" harnesses toughness in the name of preservation, staying up all night to protect his lover's dreams. "Stalker" is an epic third-person story song in the tradition of the murder ballad. The record closes with two covers. The first, Spacemen 3's "Sound of Confusion," is a mission statement of the life Rønnenfelt has found and inherited in music. "Here it comes," the song famously promises, and flares out into noise. It is a joyful noise, because this life, in all its grit, is the life he chose. The second, Townes Van Zandt's "No Place to Fall," is a sweet plea, Rønnenfelt's final invitation to join him on his journey. This journey - this story, this record - will repeat and continue. It never stops. Rønnenfelt's life as an artist results in a sound that wobbles and rocks but never loses its centre, both fragile and tough, and always moving forward. It is dreamy yet bombastic, held together by the passion of certainty. Co-produced by Rønnenfelt and Nis Bysted.

Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld are back with their third album, nearly eight years after "Nerissimo", but time collapses and expands like an accordion. Especially those two stolen years that have disappeared from our accounts without a trace during the pandemic. The new album is titled "Christian & Mauro" and their real names on the header hint to a more personal landscape who allows them to go through elements of the past like "Bisogna Morire", an incredible passacaglia, a dance of death from 1600 that"s been reinvented from a contemporary perspective. Since their musical roots belongs also to the future, another consideration comes after a book by astrophysicist Carlo Rovelli, it opens up for a different look at the universe. It"s not always possible to discover new territories without consenting to lose sight of the shore for quite a good amount of time, so across these new ten songs Teho and Blixa allow themselves various detours playing a large array of instruments, using a mythological keyboard who can play with ciphers, letters, characters, sounds and noises. Using sounds transversely provides the cue to new possibilities to move forward in music. The album has been produced by Teho Teardo, Blixa Bargeld and Boris Wilsdorf both in Roma at Basement Recordings and at andereBaustelle in Berlin. This music joins again the sky between Roma and Berlin and the tour that will follow its release will take place from November 19th right in Roma and will take them all over Europe. Teho and Blixa will tour with Laura Bisceglia on cello and Gabriele Coen on bass clarinet, there will be on stage also a string quartet on each show.

"The Nothing That Is, Fit For An Autopsy’s seventh and latest album (and third for Nuclear Blast), bears no sign whatsoever of commercial concession or rehashed past glories. Instead, the ten-song album finds the band exploring moodier textures and deeper emotions that add new power and dynamics to their already brutal and complex music, while also completely tuning out the ambient noise of passing musical trends and the expectations of the outside world.
"

One True Pairing, auch bekannt als Tom Fleming, ehemaliger Songwriter, Sänger und Multiinstrumentalist von Wild Beasts, veröffentlicht sein zweites Soloalbum 'Endless Rain' am 25. Oktober 2024 über Domino.

Aufgenommen in Dublin im Jahr 2022 mit Produzent John 'Spud' Murphy (Lankum, black midi, caroline) in den Hellfire Studios in Dublin, bekräftigt "Endless Rain" mutig Flemings künstlerische Vision - mit einem herbstlichen, suchenden und oft erhebenden Album, das von den Einflüssen traditioneller Musik, Klassik und Noise-Rock geprägt ist. Flemings langjähriger Kollaborateur Josh Taylor-Moon arrangierte, produzierte und spielte auf dem Album, ebenso wie Cormac MacDiamarda von Lankum und Eleanor Mylor von Percolator. Klanglich ist "Endless Rain" ein ehrgeiziges und weiträumiges Album, das sich deutlich von Flemings bisherigem Werk abhebt. Das Album enthält die bereits veröffentlichten und hochgelobten Singles "Frozen Food Centre", "Mid-Life Crisis" und "Be Strong".
Flemings Songs haben sich stets mit Ideen rund um Männlichkeit auseinandergesetzt - die traurige und verführerische Musik von Wild Beasts unterlief die akzeptierten Rollenbilder junger Männer aus dem Norden. Nun älter und weiser, nutzt "Endless Rain" diese Basis, um neues Terrain zu erkunden, tritt einen Schritt zurück, schaut tiefer und verwendet die neu gewonnenen Erfahrungen, um etwas völlig anderes zu erschaffen.

London based Multi National noiseniks ‘Michael’ return with their second album ‘Nite Salad’, released on Crackedankles Records on October 18th.Nite Salad, the second offering...One studio fire, several collapsed spinal discs, two swapped out axemen and a couple o’ kids, all dragged through a taste-battering pandemic. A seriously good bedrock recipe primed for the unwanted A-road that is Nite Salad, Michael’s second full lengther. Another helping of thuggy dirt, funky hurt, baggy spunk and general malaise confronting the state of shitlife in the 2020s.Look elsewhere for optimism but sneak onto the good ship Mike for a destinationless, ill-prepared voyage into the deep,dark ocean of H E A V Y F U T U R E S.

The debut recording from the duo of multi-award-winning Scottish author David Keenan and Bruce Russell, the guitarist from the greatest underground rock band of the late 20th century, New Zealand’s The Dead C, was recorded live in Christchurch, NZ, as part of the WORD festival in August 2023. A series of live improvised settings that pair readings from Keenan’s monolithic and critically-acclaimed modernist masterpiece, Monument Maker (White Rabbit 2021), with guitar and electronics from Russell, the music takes off on the kind of post-VU fantasy of punk-primitive free music posited by Russell in projects like A Handful of Dust while expanding on Russell’s no-technique blues w/scalpel sharp riffs and aformal blats of pure electricity that match the religious eroto-mania of the text. Keenan reads w/shamanistic intensity and with a sonorous, incantatory rhythm, while Russell conjures the very ghost of the book straight out of the air. Think the early Patti Smith/Lenny Kaye spoken word/guitar jams informed by religious painting, Bach cantatas, Pierre Reverdy, Goya, Charles Olson, Arthur Doyle and Rudolph Grey. Features full colour photography by musician and artist Heather Leigh taken in-situ during the writing of Monument Maker in France in 2018. Bruce Russell is a practitioner in sound, who for forty years has been a member of The Dead C and A Handful of Dust. He mixes rock, electro-acoustics, noise and improvisation in equal measures. Also directed two of New Zealand’s vanguard independent labels, Xpressway and Corpus Hermeticum. His solo guitar practice reconfigures the blues as a form of improvisational auto-destruction. He is also a writer and his next book is titled ‘Rock’n’roll: my part in its downfall’. David Keenan is the author of six novels; This is Memorial Device (Faber & Faber) which won the London Magazine Prize for Debut Fiction and was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize; For the Good Times (Faber & Faber), which won the Gordon Burn Prize and was shortlisted for the Encore Award for Second Novels; Xstabeth (White Rabbit), which was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Prize; The Towers The Fields The Transmitters (White Rabbit); Monument Maker (White Rabbit), which was a Rough Trade Book of the Year; and Industry of Magic & Light (White Rabbit). Edna O’Brien has said of him “I sometimes think David Keenan dreams aloud. His prose has the effortless, enigmatic, unsettling quality of dreams… reading him feels like being cut open to the accompanying sound of ecstatic music.”

Flame is Slow collects together three acclaimed seven-inch EPs (originally released on the Noisebox label in 1996 and 1997) by the mysterious, mercurial Navigator. The post-Loveless UK underground of the early 1990s was a vibrant place, despite what music biographies may tell you. What might now be lumped together as “post-rock” was in fact a varied and forward-thinking group of artists creating inquisitive music in the wake of the grunge goldrush. Contemporaries such as Hood, Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone and – of course – Mogwai and Arab Strap are rightfully seen as timeless nearly thirty years on but they’re really just the tip of the iceberg. Navigator might get mentioned less but their story is every bit as intriguing as any of their peers. Navigator formed in Norwich in 1994. Their music was consistently introspective and melancholic, but their brief existence of five years saw them move rapidly from traditional song structures towards noise, found sound, free improvisation, electronics, primitive instrument building and – ultimately - silence. They were an enigma back then and they remain so now. They released four seven inches before a solitary album Nostalgie (1997, Swarf Finger Records). Each release felt different to the last but always intimate and peculiar. Their use of sound and space is nothing short of magical. Rough and unsettling textures rub against each other, selected and mixed instinctively. Another band’s discarded mistake becomes a key element in their hands. The band received much acclaim and some genuine commercial success when single When the Wires Fall ended up in the indie charts. They shared stages with Low, David Thomas, Aerial M, Stars Of The Lid and Labradford and toured with Mogwai and Arab Strap culminating in the now-notorious, equipment-levelling performance at The Garage in London. The original version of the group played live for the last time in 1999 before quietly disappearing. It was perhaps inevitable that a band so committed to exploring and refining their sound should end by removing themselves from it entirely. Aside from a brief (and excellent) reformation in 2006 and a CDR compilation of those early seven inches, Navigator have been quiet for over 20 years until now. Flame is Slow assembles the blue, red and green Noisebox EPs into one cohesive album-length collection, remastered with care and reassembled by the band. It rightfully places Navigator where they belong – as one of the most curious, adventurous, and beautiful groups this island has ever produced. “Whenever I think of bands that more people should’ve heard than did, I always think about Navigator. It’s great that the music they made is going to be available again as it is truly special and deserves to be heard by more people” – Stuart Braithwaite

Following his debut album Bisou Genou, released in October 2021, Frise Lumière are preparing the release of his second album Ambo (Experimental, minimalism, Noise Jazz, Avantgarde) for October 2024.Ambo is the outcome of numerous interactions from the past and present, affirming and advancing the research of his prepared bass's acoustic possibilities. His use of broomsticks, mallets, and drumsticks enhances his rhythmic playing. Whether he plays his instrument more conventionally or flat on his lap. A method that is already audible in a few of the tracks on his first LP

It's been nearly a decade since Montreal's PYPY (pronounced like 'π π'...with a long 'i' rather than long 'e', thank you very much) landed with their debut Pagan Day (Slovenly), but the same lunatics behind CPC Gangbangs, Red Mass and Duchess Says are back with Sacred Times on Goner Records. One might recall the thunderous pop of their banger "She's Gone" carving out a place for itself in the high-end fashion world, becoming the soundtrack to Yves Saint Laurent's 2016 show. If that album bounced, punched and clawed like Delta 5 covered in dirt and trying to get somewhere in a booted vehicle while dodging lightning rod guitar licks the whole way, Sacred Times takes things to somewhere far beyond the proverbial "next level."

Co-vocalist/founder/multi-instrumentalist Annie-Claude Deschênes' (Duchess Says) signature howl and vocal acrobatics are present but so is a tendency towards beautiful melodies. Bassist Philippe Clement's (Duchess Says) brings a nastier bottom end that locks onto Simon Besré's drumming with a death grip for the entire affair. And guitarist/co-vocalist Roy Vucino (Red Mass, CPC Gangbangs, Black Leather Rose, Les Sexareenos, a gazillion others) goes bonkers with wildass blown-out guitar that's like hornets caught in yr hair.

"Lonely Striped Sock" grooves along like "Earthbeat"-era Slits/ESG until the chorus transforms PYPY into something else entirely. Something huge. Something with monster riffs and wah wah that pins you to the back wall. So there is clearly a brilliance with dynamics here, and it proves to be a not-so-secret-weapon that repays the "ear-vestment" in dividends throughout. "Ear-vestment"? Yikes. Then it's time for "She's Back," a sort of part 2/continuation (maybe a trilogy is in the works?) of Pagan Day's best-known gem (the aforementioned "She's Gone"). This one packs a hook that'll make your brain take out a restraining order. Looking for lost keys? Jury duty? Underwater welding? Negotiating a hostage situation? It doesn't matter...nothing will stop it from invading your thoughts. They say the only way to get a song unstuck from the noodle is to listen to it from start to finish, but you'll be doing that anyway. A lot. "Erase" is a (synth) noise-punk nugget; revealing a need for Brainiac-meets-Blondie we didn't know we had...deceptively kicking off with a no-fi drum machine that is immediately lost in the massive pop din that seemingly includes everything within reach. "Poodle Escape" is two minutes of perfect (and perfectly distorted) synth-punk and "I Am A Simulation" – with lead vox from Vucino – is yet another hit that deviates from the noise a bit and pays homage to both Devo and classic late-70's (big) power-pop (ex: the first Cars LP), but with a manic nature that is 150% circa right now. "15 Sec" (actually 3:38 in duration, thankfully) serves up a stanky-brown bass line, Deschênes' gorgeous vocals, wonderfully combative white hot, pin-the-meters Oh Sees/early Comets on Fire guitar rips, and a stunning coda that seems to utilize everything great about this band over its final minute. The album's title track is a love letter to Hawkwind in the musical language already established here. "Vanishing Blinds" is like being chased through the rain-soaked streets in an unknown dystopian nightmare from 40+ years ago. The album closes with the brooding if not playful menace of "Poodle Escape,” which, like its predecessors, is completely unlike every track before it.