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Based in Ottawa, Ontario, the capital city of Canada, The Riptides have been cranking out high-energy blasts of melodic, poppy punk rock for over 25 years. With their new LP Burn After Listening, the band makes the move to Pirates Press Records, and are ready to bring their sound to an all new worldwide audience! Originally formed in 1998, the band wasted no time assembling their own studio and label, putting out their own records as well as their fellow Ottawa bands. Word spread quickly, and the band's notoriety grew, particularly in the US, and soon the band found that they enjoyed rising to the challenge of leaving home and recording at noted US studios, with Burn After Listening being no exception. This album was recorded at the legendary Blasting Room in Fort Collins, CO, with Andrew Berlin at the helm for tracking and Jason Livermore in charge of the final master. These studio sessions included a cavalcade of friends & guest musicians, including members of Teenage Bottlerocket, All American Rejects, Screeching Weasel, and The Queers. A number of songs on the record also bear co-writing credits from fellow Pirates Press Records artist Matt DeeCRACK. Blending attitude-driven downstroke riffs with irresistible hooks and harmonies, combined with an aesthetic informed by everything from nerdy pop culture and surfing, they've already amassed quite the following across the decades, but this record stands poised to introduce them to many new fans.

Repressed for the first time in 2 years, Note price change. Sermonizing Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and the benefits of a healthy and just lifestyle during the height of the Bad Boy/Roc-AFella era of nihilistic excess in the late 90's, Dead Prez also signed to a major label (Loud/Columbia) despite leaning much more towards the burgeoning indie aesthetics of the day. But this was a good thing – using major label muscle to wake up righteous hip-hop fans who might have fallen asleep at the wheel. The group itself – consisting of MCs stic.man and M-1, who produced or co-produced most of the duo’s music – was formed in Tallahassee, Florida in the early 1990's.

By later that decade, the duo had started making significant waves, having their music heard on the soundtracks to “Soul In The Hole” and “Slam,” as well as appearing on albums by Big Pun and The Beatnuts. By 1998, they released their first official single, the serious, stark “Police State,” on Loud, appropriately brought to the label by Lord Jamar of Brand Nubian. After building a solid rep over the next two years with fiery live performances, in 2000 they unleashed their debut album, Let’s Get Free.

The album was a welcome return to provocative and often radically political rhetoric that hearkened back to hip-hop forebears including The Coup, Public Enemy and KRS-One (as well as poetic descendants like the Last Poets and Watts Prophets). Let’s Get Free was critically acclaimed and benefited from multiple singles, including the infectious, thick analog drive of “Hip-Hop” “It’s Bigger Than Hip-Hop,” with a remix co-produced by a young Kanye West; “Mind Sex” (with Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets); and the poignant “I’m An African.”

But the singles weren’t the only worthy songs, as just about every cut here has deeper meaning than most full albums by their early 2000's peers. Highlights: the thought-provoking, anti-drug album opener “Wolves”; “We Want Freedom” “They Schools” and “Propaganda” . All in all, this is one of the more underrated and possibly Top 5 fully-realized political hip-hop albums of all time.

TC.KYLIE x The Hourglass brings dynamic jazz fusion music from her debut album, integrating Hong Kong, Japanese and British cultures. Kylie leads her band dynamically on stage playing keyboard and synth keytar, iconic in Japanese jazz rock & highly memorable to watch.TC.KYLIE, a jazz fusion pianist, performs regularly in both Hong Kong and London. Inspired by the likes of Shaun Martin and Robert Glasper, she also continues to write songs in the areas of Japanese acid jazz, following Fox Capture Plan, Jabberloop, Toconoma, Jizue and Bohemianvoodoo. Prior to becoming a performing artist, Kylie previously worked as a news documentary journalist for radio and TV networks in Hong Kong, She spent much of her time connecting human stories and investigating the connections between people and society which was inspiring and enlightening but also often heavy and difficult within increasingly tricky political landscapes unfolding around her.

Under the changing social environment in her hometown and with the hit of the pandemic, she decided to take an indefinite well-earned break in 2020 to take care of her own well-being & passions. During a stay at a jazz cafe and hostel in Lake Towada in Aomori, Japan, encouraged by the hostel owner as a jazz enthusiast; Kylie sat in front of the piano, contemplated and played scattered notes to express what she had been enduring during her time as a political/social reporter.

Finding herself joyfully picking up music in her life again after years of leaving it behind, she wrote the song "The Last Grief" a tribute to one of her deepest sorrows and in remembrance of her best friend in childhood who battled heavily with depression. This song went on to be an official selection for the International Toronto Music Video Festival as well as the Toronto Asian Independent Film Festival in 2023.

Cross Record's new album, Crush Me, is steeped in the pressures and wonders of existence—a profound statement, especially coming from artist and death doula Emily Cross. A two-and-a-half-year gestation period offered challenges, disappointments, and joys reflected in the cramped space of the album, which explores how we handle the weights we carry. Emily Cross had held hundreds of Living Funerals and was as many episodes deep into her podcast, What I’m Looking At. She was five years into serving clients as a death doula and fresh off a tour with Loma, her band with Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski, when she began work on her fourth album. After moving from Austin, TX to Dorset, UK, she established the Steady Waves Center for Contemplation (named after a track from her second record, Wabi-Sabi ), where she hosted Living Funerals, met clients, scheduled mindful tea sessions, and showcased experimental music nights. All the while, she was scribbling down song ideas. Cross’s Tascam four-track demos finally reached readiness, and she sent them to an interested major independent label. She was encouraged to push her imagination to the limits of what a record could be. So, unlike her usual process of recording as inexpensively as possible, she prepared a two-week recording session in Germany with a group of skilled musicians from around the world. True to her previous work, Cross left plenty of room in her demos for experimentation, collaboration, chance, improvisation, and complete obliteration, then resurrection when necessary. Comfort and traditional structure were eschewed in favor of unaccountable magic, prayers whispered into The Void. Cross is comfortable with the chaotic and unpredictable, a perspective demanded by her work and writing style. The Berlin Airbnb was packed with people, instruments and luggage. During a ride down in a tiny elevator to the studio, Cross realized how central the sense of being crushed was to the album. “I thought of it later and it dawned on me that ‘Crush Me’ perfectly embodied the record,” says Cross. Yes, the weight of a body laying limply atop yours, or the tight squeeze of a hug, can be pleasant. Go too far, and you’re in the hands of a cruel, adolescent god. Upon leaving Germany, the record was unfinished, and without a roadmap. As passages were recorded as isolated parts, Cross and musician Marcin Sulewski collaborated, facing a haphazard brick pile, waiting to be assembled. Work dipped in and out of view like a buoy bobbing in a violent sea over many months. During that time, the aforementioned interested label went radio silent, suddenly not seeming so sure of a thing. Collaborators disappeared, continuing the themes of abandonment, surrender, and disarray that followed the project. Cross physically felt her entire body go numb: In a twist of fate, the record was rescued by long-time friend and supporter Ben Goldberg at Ba Da Bing Records who was eager to help realize the project. Cross worked for months on the album, all the while nursing a pregnancy and continuing her full-time funeral work. The last minute participation of Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets, who mixed and mastered, was an essential liferaft. He gave true final form to the abstracted songs. Crush Me has the effect of a spell being cast, with songs balancing heaviness and levity. Vocals, guitars, and keyboards float above, as drums and upright bass (often bowed) lurch beneath. On “Rolling Backwards” percussion wanders about while feedback squeals and persists in the distance. “Dorset Area Of Natural Beauty” starts with a thick, unhinged church organ progression punctuated by the disquieting sounds of laughter reaching the point of hysteria. “God Fax” is a slow-moving panic attack, with shallow breaths in and out framing a guttural cacophony like a wooden freighter encountering increasingly turbulent waters and vocals struck emotionless by autotune. The album ends with “Twisted Up Fence,” a reflection on life from outside the wall--wistful, warm, and comforting. Cross, likely with a smile on her face, sings: “You say it’s an endless abyss” “And I say the abyss is the best”

For the first time on vinyl, J Rawls 1999 beat series offers scenes 1-3 and 6 never before heard tracks. All these beats are from the archives of Rawls in his early years (1996-1999) as a young producer in Cincinnati, OHIO. These beats are the essence of that Rawls sound and embody his entire style. According to Rawls, “I did this album because I have had so requests for my music from that underground hip-hop era. This record took me back to a time when making music was just for fun.”

Sunday At The Village Vanguard by Bill Evans, released 1 March 2025.

This version of Sunday At The Village Vanguard comes as a 1xLP. This release comes with (a) Liner Notes.

The Wild Robot by Kris Bowers, released 21 March 2025, includes the following tracks: "The Island", "Deploying Rescue Transmitter", "The Accident", "Hatching" and more.

This version of The Wild Robot comes as a 2xLP in a(n) Gatefold Sleeve packaging. This release comes with (a) Booklet.

The vinyl is pressed as a swirl, blue disc. Another vinyl is pressed as a swirl, pink & purple disc.

Cornflake Zoo was one of many untamed garage rock bands that burst out of Sweden in the wake of The Nomads. Their debut single, Hey Conductor, dropped in 1985 on the legendary Tracks On Wax label – the same stomping ground as the early days of The Creeps. With fuzzed-out guitars, a swirling Farfisa organ, and raw energy, they tore through the scene, releasing an EP, another single, and making stellar appearances on international garage rock compilations. But by the time they pulled the plug in 1990, their sound had transformed from ragged, riff-heavy garage rock to shimmering, melodic wimp-pop. And every note they played was pure magic. Now, we’re thrilled to announce the release of the ultimate Cornflake Zoo compilation, Knights Of Fuzz! This collection captures all their released tracks and throws in a few bonus tracks for good measure. It’s time to unearth Haninge’s best-kept secret and experience the sounds of a band that truly deserved to conquer the world. Set for release April 2205.

Features members of Pansy Division, Avengers, Camper Van Beethoven, Anohni and the Johnsons, Oranger, Enorchestra and the State Band of Guanajuato. Panorama is an LGBTQIA+ album and it is a bilingual Spanish/English album .Recorded in Leon, Guanajuato with a cross section of notable US underground music stalwarts and emerging Mexican instrumentalists. VIDA VELLA is the manifestation of a dream a lifetime in the making. Apocalyptic yet optimistic balladry. Tijuana native and NYC transplant Luis Gabriel Illades, longtime member of Pansy Division, Avengers and touring drummer for countless acts steps in the singer/songwriter role with VIDA VELLA, a bilingual exploration of universal human emotional themes.

American director and actor Eli Roth takes you on a forbidden journey across the vaults of legendary Italian soundtrack label CAM Sugar. Setting the mood for his very own red light discothéque, Tarantino’s right-hand man and Italian B-movies connoisseur has sourced and selected 20 juicy tracks, spanning from kinky disco and funk to seductive bossa nova and psych, from Italian Sexy Comedy and softcore films (1969-1981). It includes 9 previously unreleased tracks with 4 previously unreleased on vinyl and music by some of Italian film music's most cult composers, including Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai, Riz Ortolani, Franco Campanino, Gianni Ferrio, Nico Fidenco as well as unique vocal performances by actress and Italian sexy comedy actress Gloria Guida.

Don McLean's The Western Album is a 1973 release blends folk, rock, and country influences. The album features McLean's storytelling style, exploring themes like love, loss, and Americana, with a focus on Western imagery. It includes tracks like "The Good Old American Dream" and "The Legend of Andrew McCrew. The Western album remains notable for its introspective lyrics and rich sound.

Die Rockikonen Rush feiern ihr 50-jähriges Jubiläum und präsentieren der Welt die erste vollständige RushAnthologie, die die gesamte Karriere der Band umspannt, mit 50 Titeln, darunter 7 unveröffentlichte, auf 4
CDs und 7 LPs. Den Auftakt der Sammlung bildet die allererste offzielle CD- und LP-Wiederveröffentlichung
der allerersten Singles der Band, „Not Fade Away“ und „You Can’t Fight It”. Abgerundet wird die Anthologie durch Auszüge aus jedem Studio-, Live- und Deluxe-Wiederveröffentlichungsalbum, das die Band
offziell veröffentlicht hat und Vault Editions von „Working Man“ und „The Trees“, die beide alternative
Gitarrensoli enthalten. Als nächstes folgen 5 unveröffentlichte Live-Songs aus dem Jahr 1974 und den
Abschluss der Feier bildet die feurige letzte Aufführung von „What You’re Doing / Working Man / Garden
Road“ mit Neil Peart am 1. August 2015 in Los Angeles.
Hugh Syme, der langjährige Kreativdirektor der Band entwarf brandneue Grafiken zum 50. Jubiläum
sowie neue Illustrationen. Die Rockjournalisten David Fricke und Phillip Wilding berichten in einem 100-
seitigen Hardcover-Buch, das in allen drei physischen Formaten erhältlich ist, anhand unglaublicher Fotos
der Band über ihre persönlichen Erfahrungen mit der Band und ihre größten Erfolge. Exklusiv für die Super
Deluxe Edition hat Fantoons als zweites gebundenes Buch einen 100-seitigen Graphic Novel erstellt

Celebrate 50 years of RUSH with their first-ever complete career anthology. . Igniting the experience are the very first two singles “Not Fade Away” and “You Can’t Fight It” remastered & reissued for the first time ever. The collection showcases 7 unreleased tracks including five 1974 live selections with the non-album songs “Bad Boy” and “Garden Road,” a Vault Edition of “The Trees” with an alternate guitar solo, and the very last performance with Neil Peart in Los Angeles on August 1, 2015 of “What You’re Doing / Working Man / Garden Road.” The 104-page hardcover book features new Hugh Syme 50th anniversary artwork along with stunning new song illustrations, photos and liner notes by renowned rock journalists David Fricke and Philip Wilding..

50 tracks on 7 180g LPs featuring selections from every studio, live and deluxe reissue album

Measure Divide makes his full debut EP for Mutual Rytm X with his latest release, 'Everything Is Porridge'.

Karachi-born artist Measure Divide now resides in Toronto, where his FORMAT parties have revived the techno scene over the last decade. In that time, he has eschewed techno by numbers with innovative sounds on Clergy and Mutual Rytm while appearing at iconic clubs like Berghain, K41 and Tresor. Outside of the underground, he has years of experience in sound design and scoring for animations and films, and that is what he channels here into a uniquely playful sound with a vibrant and playful departure from his usual serious tones for his first full EP on SHDW's Mutual Rytm X.

A record for adventurous DJs and listeners craving bold, mischievous and innovative sounds, the EP's title, inspired by an inside joke about calling anything edible "porridge", reflects the chaotic and unpredictable state of the world - a mushy mix of uncertainty. This same unpredictability shines through the tracks, which combine techno, breaks, modular experimentation and plenty more.

The superbly original title cut begins with a restless mix of unusual percussive sounds and fizzing synths over thudding drums. It's tense and twisted and sounds like nothing else. 'Wormy Wonderland' is another brilliantly outthere cut with freaky noises and scuzzy textures over body-popping techno drums, and 'Eeeeeermmmm' then slows down with a menacing synth buzz and caustic broken beats. Digital bonus tracks 'Shrew Cascade' and 'Clumsy Clatter' further challenge techno norms with watery sound effects, twisted synth lines and inventive rhythmical patterns.

The third album by the rising star that is Aran Angmar: 'Ordo Diabolicum'
explores darkness not as a void but as a realm where truth reveals itself,
boundaries shatter, and human freedom emerges
A sonic descent where chaos reveals liberation. A Black Metal ritual.

The third album by the rising star that is Aran Angmar: 'Ordo Diabolicum'
explores darkness not as a void but as a realm where truth reveals itself,
boundaries shatter, and human freedom emerges
A sonic descent where chaos reveals liberation. A Black Metal ritual.

After humble lo-fi beginnings in the Australian Art-Pop Underground, Donny Benet has expanded his cult-like following across the Globe with a resonant Array of danceable Repertoire dealing with Love- and Affection. New album "Mr Experience" marks a new chapter, informed by a wealth of musical- and personal development.

For Mr Experience, Donny envisioned a Soundtrack to a Dinner-Party- Set in the late 1980's. While his earlier Recordings drew Inspiration from DIY Pop Conspirators such as Ariel Pink & John Maus, Donny channelled the Stylings of Bryan Ferry & Hiroshi Yoshimura as the Impetus for new Material, evident on the Intimacy found on ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ and it's lush production- with a soothing whistle-along Chorus for good Measure!

Sincerity has been a key component of Donny Benet’s output since the beginning. His songs deal with genuine Emotion served on a kitsch Platter. An alter-ego manifested in the beginning of the 2010's, Donny has blurred the Lines of Artifice to create a back- Catalogue that can embrace- and challenge, often simultaneously, - the notion of Irony in Art.

"Mr Experience" moves further away from ironic Notions as Donny explores lyrical- and musical themes which embody Observations of Maturation in his audience, his tightknit musical Community- and himself. While ‘mature’ is a term that often rings hollow as an album descriptor, the term couldn’t be more apt for Mr Experience.

Previous album The Don was created with the luxury of time. The phenomenal Response to that Album across Europe- and the United States - fuelled by accompanying Music Videos clocking in Views in the Millions- meant that there were scant Windows of Opportunity to write- and record a follow-up.

With a legacy in Sydney’s music community, working with Sarah Blasko, and tightknik collaborators Jack Ladder & Kirin J Callinan, Donny Benet is accustomed to collaboration on the Stage- and in the Studio, mostnotably on the 2014 full-length release Weekend At Donny’s.



“There is such immense talent evident in every aspect of the Donny Bene experience - the vision of the character, the steadfast adherence his narrative and the musicality of Benet himself all combine to makesomething truly genius.” - Double J, Australin.

“Donny Benet makes feminine music for everybody” - Vice, Netherlands.

“The Don does not sound like amusical copying machine”. - 3voor12 National, Netherlands.

“The set was punctuated with virtuosic solos and exquisite harmonies, and added another layer of genius to the show.
We almost couldn’t handle it... Donny for president!" - Indie Berlin.

“Everyone loves Donny Benet” - Feature in Gonzai, France.

“Phenomenal Australian Showman... Offers Top-Class Dance Music with Virtuose-Bass Guitar- and Keyboard Parts & incredible Sound-Colour feel.” - Podujatie.sk, Slovakia.

Donny has toured Europe five times since the start of 2018 and has played in the UK, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Greece and Sweden. The Don will revisit Europe twice in 2020, once for his own headline shows in May then back again in August for festivals!

"The Beatles spread the use of electric guitars all through the world, and Bolivia was no exception. “The British Invasion” hit a politically convulsed country, and it fell upon a rich multi-cultural scene that was further expanded when the psychedelic counterculture youth movements coming from San Francisco also took the hearts of the country’s youngsters.
It was a big mixture of influences thrown in a cauldron that saw a link between the LSD drenched hippie generation and the country’s native ancestors. Bolivians were not new to mind-expanding experiences, the acid experiences promoted in the USA by Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary found their local counterpart in the old indigenous traditions of using plants such as the ayahuasca to open their doors of perception.
On this compilation you will find some of the more interesting young bands from a 1960s Bolivia bringing the sounds of a new generation and marrying them with the rich musical background of the country. The garage-sounding psychedelic beat made by these young musicians would soon open new horizons, and Bolivia would soon see how traditional sounds, like their local version of the cumbia, would evolve in a similar way as it would do in the neighboring country of Perú."

Mr Bongo is proud to present 'The Original Sound of Mali', compiled by Vik Sohonie & David Buttle.
Malian music is arguably deeper, more sophisticated and lyrical than any other form of African music. Those of us deeply entranced by Malian culture, and, in particular, the immense hypnotic beauty of Malian music, have put together a
selection of songs from across the country.
Compiled by Vik Sohonie & Dave 'Mr Bongo' Buttle, the story of this release began in 2015 when Dave happened upon the Soul Bonanza blog. A treasure chest of rare finds from around the world! One mix in particular stood out and totally enthralled Dave - le monde à change: a tribute to mali 1970 - 1991. He
already knew of Malian legends such as the Rail Band, Salif Keita, & Les Ambassadeurs du Motel de Bamako, but this mix was something else! Deep & culled from the collections of some of the heaviest African music collectors in the world, legends like Vik Sohonie, Hidehito Morimoto, Philippe Noel, Gregoire
Villanova, and Rickard Masip. Dave immediately contacted Vik and a journey of discovery tracking down the rights-holders began. He also turned to the font of Malian music knowledge, Florent Mazzoleni. Florent has written the definitive book about Malian music - 'Musiques modernes et traditionnelles du Mali'. He
proposed some incredible tracks to include and provided the back bone of the sleeve notes and photos that are used in the album. No Malian album would be complete without a striking front cover photo, and ours is sourced from the late great Malian photographer Malick Sidibé.
On this album you will find well-known artists sitting next to rarer
discoveries. The Rail Band, who are one of the best known of all the big bands in Mali, gave us the stars Mory Kanté and Salif Keita. Les Amabassedeurs du Motel de Bamako were another big act that had Idrissa Soumaoro, Kanté Manfila, and for a while Salif Keita in their ranks. Sometimes Salif would play in both bands in one night, quite a feat considering the bands were fierce rivals. As an albino Salif has had to face considerable prejudice from society, focussing on his musical career to help overcome this.

A major discovery on the album has been Idrissa Soumaoro et L'Eclipse de L'Ija. L'Eclipse de l'Institut des Jeunes Aveugles was a Blind teenagers institute and their record was produced by the German association that took care of blind Malian teenagers in Bamako. It was never properly released commercially and was the first recordings by the legends of Malian music Idrissa Soumaoro, Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia. Amadou & Mariam later got married and became household stars, including making an album with Manu Chao.
This album is a concerted global effort to showcase the most vital cornerstone of Malian culture in an attempt to preserve its reputation in the face of its current, grim reality. We hope our highlights of Mali's rich history of musical innovation will serve as a starting point for reclaiming an image tainted by unnecessary conflict. May peace and music return to Mali soon.
Dedicated to Malick Sidibé.

Now on album number seven , Metronomy has continued where many of their 2000s ‘cool’ band peers have dropped off along the way. Small World is a return to simple pleasures, nature, an embracing in part of more pared down, songwriterly sonics (some moments wouldn’t sound amiss on a Wilco release), all while asking broader existential questions: which feels at least somewhat rooted in the period of time during which it was made – 2020. For all that Mount seems to think he has made a comparatively sombre record, much of Small World still pulses with the zesty, tongue-in-cheek joie de vivre you’d expect of a Metronomy record.

So sure, things are different now Joe Mount is getting older and what’s on his mind is changing, but that doesn’t mark a change in quality for Metronomy. An immaculate set of tracks, Joe Mount’s ability as a songwriter and arranger shines through on Small World, evergreen. Metronomy might be growing up, but they’re not afraid to still have fun with it all. Through the tumultuous ebb and flow of the years, Metronomy continues to endure and make great pop music – and, really, that’s all that we could ask for.

A. Whoa! Here she comes : Norman Ray: Whoa! Here is the first 45 from On Point Records and what a “Maneater” it is. Hopefully you’ve had your Oates and this smooth rendition will have the heads bopping in the dance Hall. At 92 Bpm this is combo is not to be missed… as you’d be absolutely Playing Yourself.

B. The Magic Word : Marshall Miller: Abracadabra : The new mysterious duo at ON POINT RECORDS have made that Magic flip. Combining Em n’ Steve M for a fun party heater at 112BPM For when you can’t cool down and have to keep spinning round and round.

For his next Token EP, Kr!z delivers squelchy synth sequences over robust kicks, reinforcing his no-nonsense approach to club music. Classic in its conception yet psychotic in effect, Ipso Facto is a record built for powerful sound systems during thenight's most delirious moments.



First impressions are important; the Belgian producer has never been one to waste time, and this record is no exception. What you hear is what you get-an anxiously slithering synth line makes his intentions clear in Defeat the Purpose, driving people to the dancefloor. Dry drum machine work thunders throughout, locking in the Token style with precision. Moving into the next track, 'Chrome Dust' focuses more on the tonal side of things and its irresistible groovemakes it an instant ear catcher. Playful rides and snares shape the progression, with Kr!z swapping percussion elements to keep the movement lively.
The title track is a true hip swinger on the B1 as he reaches in the low end of the synth sequence to establish a very compelling rhythm. Everything in its right place, and not a hair more, the percussion transitions are reminiscent of his 4 channel DJ sets, the energy always being on the move. Equilibrium closes the EP with high energy, opening up filters over a reliably bouncy rhythm. Years of experience behind the decks can be very instructive for a perceptive producer, and Kr!z proves us just that in this track and in the whole EP.

Florence + The Machine feiert gemeinsam mit Jules Buckley und seinem Orchester Lungs, ihr mit dem
BRIT Award ausgezeichnetes Debütalbum, das vor 15 Jahren mit großem Erfolg veröffentlicht wurde. Am
11. September 2024 wurde Symphony of Lungs bei den BBC Proms mit einer herausragenden Performance von Florence + The Machine und Jules Buckley zum Leben erweckt, die das Album Lungs in seiner
Gesamtheit neu interpretierten. Dazu gehörten die meistverkauften und bei den Fans beliebten Singles
„Dog Days Are Over“, „You’ve Got The Love“ und „Cosmic Love“ sowie Raritäten, die Florence nach
eigenen Angaben seit mindestens 15 Jahren nicht mehr gespielt hatte, darunter „Bird Song“ und „Falling“.
Jules Buckley und sein Team von Arrangeuren verwandelten das bereits wunderschön produzierte Album
in ein orchestrales und chorisches Meisterwerk.
Zusätzlich zur Live-Übertragung der Aufführung auf BBC Radio 3 wird Universal Music Recordings in
Zusammenarbeit mit der BBC die Live-Aufnahme dieser Aufführung offziell veröffentlichen, zunächst auf
digitalen Streaming-Plattformen im Oktober 2024, gefolgt von 2LP schwarz, 2LP farbig und 2CD-Formaten
im März 2025. Die physischen Produkte enthalten atemberaubende Bilder des Auftritts sowie eine herzliche
persönliche Notiz von Florence selbst.

On their most explicit venture into music for moving image, Miles Whittaker & Sean Canty rudely fracture piano and vocal recordings by US filmmaker-musician Kristen Pilon in a short-circuiting of style and pattern.

Shredding up definitions of electro-acoustic opera, spectralist chamber musique and concrète rave, Demdike hit square between the eyes/ears of film music vernaculars on a startlingly strong addition to their unique oeuvre, now in its 16th year of elusive psychoacoustic strafes and jump-cuts across putative borders. The 13-part, hour-long album dislodges source material made for the experimental film ‘To Cut and Shoot’, by Kristen Pilon, an NYC-based musician and filmmaker, to farther refract the film’s themes of serendipity and the nature of ghosts and dreams with a flickering flux of sound-imagery and aleatoric weirdness appropriate to her original meditations, but also freely messing with their forms.

Situated just a few miles north of Houston, Cut and Shoot is a relatively insignificant Texas town with an unforgettably bizarre name. Pilon grew up not far from Cut and Shoot, and it's there where she ran into 65-year-old machinist and motorcyclist Robert Lewis Stevenson, better known as Bobbo, who's pictured on the album's cover. The meeting occurred a few months after Pilon recorded her improvisations on piano, strings and voice in the basement cellar of the Halle in Manchester, with Bobbo providing the necessary narrative heft the trio needed to inspire an experimental film and its accompanying soundtrack.

Responding to Kristen’s initial piano and operatic vocal recordings, Demdike return a volley of discrete parts tilting from typically cantankerous mayhem to quieter, more clandestine buzzes sliced with crazed interstices of the imagination, all marbled with the plasmic contrails of the paranormal which have long been peculiar to their work. With a poetic flair reflecting Pilon’s own phrasing and melding of mediums, Demdike unfold and expand her melodic fragments into temporal mazes, variously resembling the most messed-up ends of The Caretaker in ‘A Grave Fall (January)’, but also liable to skew into buckshot club turbulence, as with ‘Belly Up’, or the bittersweet bruk contortions of ‘Twist’.

The storyline wickedly frays and loops into itself with a non-linearity that recalls the mid-to-latter stages of Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive’ or waking from a sweaty fever dream only to pitch back into its thorny bush of ghosts, often within the space of one track. It’s testament to the ever-tighter binds of Demdike’s symbiotic vision that the results nevertheless hold a thread of logic that weaves in everything from their Jon Collin jams to reams of mixes and Gruppo edits with an unresolved, open-ended quality that still keeps us on our toes, perhaps more so than ever here.

This anthology follows Now-Again's Loving On The Flipside, issued more than a decade ago. And that anthology itself got its start in a different time, a decade even earlier - the era in which Now-Again's Egon and his friends chased down funk 45s and the odd LP for their testosterone riddled, aggressive sound. Often times the funk song on one of their chosen is would be the throw-away b-side, the hasty afterthought the band cobbled together the night before hitting - or while in - the studio because they'd put all of their energies into writing the amazing ballad that would ensure their entry in soul's history books. Every once in a while, that funk song they coveted could have been - in an alternate universe - a ballad. The Third Guitar's "Baby Don't Cry," El Pooks* "I Could Do The Impossible" and Spider Harrison's "Beautiful Day" all fit into this category. That realization notwithstanding, more often than not they shined over the ballads to get to the tough stuff. Then they started flipping those funk records over to find some loving on the flip side. Some marvellous tunes were there to be found. This is the long awaited follow up. Contained within this anthology are some of the greatest soul ballads that go sweet with a beat - or, to follow our tagline, epitomize "sweet funk." Most of these songs have never been compiled. Some have never been issued in any form. Some, like the Ledgends entry here, were sampled to great success (in that case for Freddie Gibbs and Madlib's "Deeper"). Some haven't been sampled, but, like Herb Johnson's entry, are patiently awaiting their day. It should go without saying that we're proud to present this music in good conscience; with the full participation of everyone but the most obscure names contained within. And, for those who we've not yet been able to contact, this is our message: We've found your brethren, we've placed them beside you on an album that we hope you feel is befitting of your collective contributions to soul music and now we're just waiting for you. Though the music you recorded is from the years past, vour time is now.

Zoetrope Vinyl. Schrank zu klein, Arsch zu groß, blasse Waden, hellgrüne Luftballons in der Steckdosenfrisur - das ist Schwiegermutters Fiebertraum in Reinform, das ist der körperhafte Stinkefinger an die Selbstoptimierer*innen-Gesellschaft, das ist Punk in der Jetztzeit-Version, das ist der "EXTRA"Lifestyle. Paula Carolina zelebriert eben diesen Lifestyle Woche für Woche erfolgreich auf den Festivalbühnen der Bundesrepublik - und hat ihm mit "EXTRA" ein musikalisches Denkmal gesetzt. Paulas neue Single ist eine Musik-gewordene Ode auf die Weirdness und das Besonderssein, ein augenzwinkernd-romantischer Vorstoß gegen Normschönheit, Langweilertum und "Otto Normal"-Standards - "als wär' auf der Tanzfläche jedem scheißegal, was man anhätte". "EXTRA" ist nicht umsonst der Namensgeber des Ende September erscheinenden Paula Carolina-Debütalbums - dieser Song steht exemplarisch für die künstlerische Vision seiner Macherin, die ihren Platz zwischen den Stühlen unlängst gefunden hat: "Fühl' ich mich heute wie ein Punk oder doch nur wie die Göre von Nebenan? Egal!". Paula-Carolina-Musik ist "irgendwie anders" und jedes Mal ein bisschen neu. Zwischen rustikalem Gitarren-Geschrubbel, tanzbar-schiebenden Drums und kaum erwartbaren Airhorn Einschüben blüht die Weltenbummlerin in "EXTRA" erstmals überhaupt mit einer Rap-ähnlichen Stimmperformance auf. Paulas Vocal-Experimente münden zwischendurch in einer Vulkanausbruch-artigen Ohrwurm-Hook und im letzten Drittel des Songs in einer epochalen SingSang-Bridge. Zwischen Punk-Attitüde und Techno-Club-eske Hektik mischt sind also auch die nötige Portion Pop-Appeal. Wer "EXTRA" lieber in einem anderem Genre-Gewand hören will und sich in Jungle-, Dancehall- oder Happy-Hardcore-typischem Tanzstill zum Song bewegen möchte, kann dies übrigens auch tun. Ja, richtig gehört: Ab 3. August - also einen Tag nach Single-Release - wird täglich ein neuer Remix des Originalsongs veröffentlicht. Star-Produzent Marti Fischer, den Paula-Carolina-Fans spätestens seit seinem erfolgsgekrönten "Schreien! - Turbo Remix" kennen dürften, hat ein umfangreiches Begleitwerk zu "EXTRA" realisiert und mehrere, verschiedenartig elektronische Alternativ-Versionen der Außenseiter-Hymne zusammengeschustert. Als wäre das nicht genug "EXTRA" zu "EXTRA", haben auch Großstadtgeflüster eine stilechte Remix-Version der Single gefertigt und der Bonus-EP ihren Stempel aufgedrückt. "Es geht wieder los", im Kosmos Paula Carolina - und zwar so richtig.

It’s the fifth release and this time it’s one of The Viper & DJ Panic.

A new artist appears on the streets of City HC Records, he is Andrey Orenstein
multidisciplinary artist, part of the alternative Rock band ‘Tequilajazz’, with several solo musical incarnations such as: Amor Entrave, for electronic Indie beats with tocuhes of IDM of broken beats, Do you like trains? for Acid House, and 50DIX, dedicated to street beats such as jungle, drum n bass, ghetto house, Juke and Footwork, and the pseudonym he uses for Go Ahead! EP, the new and multifaceted 22nd release from the Valencian label.

IF U WANT 2 is the elegant track that takes us into the bustling avenues of the 2st century megapolis, where the urban rhythms of the dance battles in Chicago, Footwork and Juke, along with brief Jungle passages alternate in a brilliant composition with funk and jazz nuances accompanying tight percussion and distorted kicks at 160 BPM.

Tough and Ghetto House and rugged acid define FOOLZ, second track of the A-side in which the demonic power of the 303 sounds embrace the thick and husky voice that together with infectious laughter set a rhythm as pugnacious as it is playful.

FETTA DI LIMONE, Juke, Footwork and Jungle, a perfect combination of American influences, legacy of Dj Rashad together with the English tradition around bass music, are fused by 50DIX with the unexpected and playful Italian lyrics of Tomasso Girardi, in perfect conjunction with the pianos, ethereal pads and mutant synths, that forge the development of the track. Already anthemic before the first beat sounds.

Juke, IDM, Halftime and abstract broken beats combine for the ultimate dance elixir, in the last track of the vinyl titled ICE FEELS KEEN, reaching 170 BPM in a catharsis of braindance, soul and acid exaltation in a dreamy harmony, where the syncopated notes of Oleg Egorov's bass and the velvety voice of Julia Garnits (Ice Hokku) commune.

Bonus digital track - 50Dix ICE FEELS KEEN (DZA REFLIP). Hypnotic, sharp and minimalistic, DZA's remix transforms the original track into an intimate and evocative experience, in which every sonic element acquires more prominence and presence.

Bonus digital track 2 - Fetta di limone (Kaxtelian remix) Inspired by the classic hardtrance sounds of the 90s, from Valencian dance temples such as Chocolate, Kaxtelian reinterprets the track with distorted drums, catchy melodies and Rave spirit at 165 bpm.

Mastering by Steve Voidloss at Black Monolith Studios in London (UK), except for the Bonus track 2 mastered by Raszia.

Once again, artwork and design by Dani Requeni, giving artistic coherence to the label's aesthetic.

re-release recorded 7/94 at sunlight studios, enginered by fred estby, mixed and produced by tomas skogsberg and fred estby, music and lyrics by refused, layout by jose, dennis & adam at hillebjork ab Tracklist: Burn It Symbols Sunflower Princess I Am Not Me Everlasting The Real Pretty Face

At the border of genres, OGIVES is an ambitious musical project, initiated and led by composer and musician Pavel Tchikov. This large ensemble leads us onto a path to a sacred universe, to a cathedral of sounds, whose foundations are rock and classical music. Born in Liège (Belgium), OGIVES offers a resolutely intense personal and poetic work, dominated by layers of melodious, polyphonic, shouted or lyrical voices. This first album from OGIVES, 'La mémoire des orages' (The Memory of Storms), is build and orchestrated around poems written by two members of the group. These texts revolve around the themes of the perception of time and the perspective of death. We find here all the group's influences, ranging from post-rock, prog' to contemporary music, baroque and medieval music, through electronic music and noise, all exploited to forge a homogeneous and singular material. From the first choral notes to the last sharp riff, it is a dense and melancholic epic, carried by inhabited and versatile musicians. The album was mixed by Steve Albini.

The grand finale is here, but not as you expect. This final vinyl series comes with a twist: we ve added two extra bonus tracks for you to enjoy.

One of the rarest and most sought after roots grails in existence from enigmatic Jamaican Canadian singer Prince Robinson aka R. Man Prince.

Funny Dream, an apocalyptic roots stepper from 1976 is a 45 so rare that it has developed its own mythology in the small circle of collectors who know of its existence.

One rumour suggests that so few copies exist because Robinson’s Russian wife took all the records from Canada back across the iron curtain in the late 70s when they split up. Some suggested he had died.

Shella Records eventually tracked down Prince Robinson not far from Toronto and learned the true story of why the original 45 is so impossibly rare- almost all copies were destroyed shortly after they were pressed, tragically reduced to ashes inside an incinerator.

Thankfully Prince has kept the original mastertapes stored safely in a briefcase for almost 50 years knowing that his music had value and biding his time.

Nels Cline, Gitarrist der US-Independent-Rockband Wilco, den der Rolling Stone in seiner Liste der “100
Greatest Guitarists of All Time” führt, ist in seinem „zweiten Leben“ Jazz-Gitarrist, und das seit 2016 auf
dem weltweit renommiertesten Label des Genres: Blue Note Records. Sein viertes in einer Reihe stilistisch unterschiedlicher Blue-Note-Alben hat er jetzt nach seinem neuesten Ensemble „Consentrik Quartet“
benannt - mit Ingrid Laubrock (Saxofone), Chris Lightcap (Bass) & Tom Rainey (Drums) - dessen Debü-
taufnahme dies ist.
„Consentrik Quartet“ ist Nels Clines bis dato stilistisch vielseitigstes Blue-Note-Werk, auf dem es ihm
gelingt, swingenden Modern Jazz und Avantgarde, Virtuosität und Coolness zu verbinden.

NOW Music proudly presents NOW That’s What I Call Gold – The Ultimate Hits – this essential 3-LP set brings together 46 tracks by legendary artists with timeless anthems, celebrating some of the greatest hits of all time, including chart-topping classics and enduring favourites.



LP1 sets the stage with Queen’s electrifying ‘A Kind Of Magic’, followed by Philip Bailey & Phil Collins’ #1 ‘Easy Lover’. The Police feature with their #1 smash ‘Message In A Bottle’, while The Killers follow with their record-breaking anthem ‘Mr. Brightside’. The massive ‘Stick Season’ from Noah Kahan is up next before the first side finishes with Lana Del Rey’s stunning ‘Video Games’. Flip the LP over for contemporary classics from Coldplay and Duran Duran. Sinéad O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ still sounds raw and breath-taking and is followed by classics from the Pretenders, Shirley Bassey, Dusty Springfield, and Soft Cell’s ‘Tainted Love’, one of the best-selling UK singles of the ‘80s, whilst another of those closes out the first LP: Ultravox with their masterpiece, ‘Vienna’.



LP2 delivers a legendary lineup, including Billy Joel with his Grammy-winning ‘Just The Way You Are’ and Céline Dion’s powerful version of ‘All By Myself’. John Denver’s ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ and Paul Simon’s groundbreaking ‘Graceland’ are featured along with the pop genius of Electric Light Orchestra with ‘Last Train To London’. While on the other side timeless ballads from Elton John with ‘Tiny Dancer’ and Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ come ahead of Wings, Simply Red and ‘60s gems from Stevie Wonder, The Supremes and the peerless ‘Walk On By’ from Dionne Warwick.



LP3 opens with Neil Diamond’s universally beloved singalong anthem, ‘Sweet Caroline’ and Cliff Richard’s mid-70s classic, ‘Devil Woman’. Disco legends Donna Summer (‘MacArthur Park’) and Gloria Gaynor (‘I Will Survive’), lead into Sophie Ellis Bextor’s ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ which became a smash for the second time recently. Ed Sheeran and Pharrell Williams had enduringly popular hits with ‘Galway Girl’ and ‘Happy’, and the side closes with the harmonic vocals of All-4-One and their beautiful signature song ‘I Swear’. The final side is packed with anthemic and uplifting classics kicking off with Spandau Ballet’s ‘Gold’, Survivor’s ‘Eye Of The Tiger’, and Take That’s soaring ‘Rule The World’. The remainder of the collection celebrates and showcases some of the ‘70s greatest tracks including Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Lost In France’, Marianne Faithfull’s poignant ‘The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan’ and Blondie’s era-defining and genre-defying #1 ‘Heart Of Glass’.



NOW That’s What I Call Gold is a must-have for all music lovers —packed with legendary artists, timeless hits, and unforgettable moments in pop. Don’t miss out on this golden treasure trove of musical brilliance!

Two new faces on the label with the two-faced eagle! Both artists have been much respected forces on the international club circuit for a while. IDA ENGBERG is best known for her affiliation with Stockholm’s Drumcode and Truesoul labels. For her Speicher debut though, she’s tapping into a quite different sound territory. “Nothing Feels The Same” will go down in history as the first 2 Step track ever released on KOMPAKT EXTRA. It’s as sensual as it’s booming. Definitely one for those late morning hours. With “Pink Monkeys” is an EBM/sawtooth trance amalgamation of the highest order with enough psychedelic headroom for the festival season.

MARCO RESMANN’s deep involvement with the late Berlin club legend Watergate has made him one of the German capital’s beacons of house and techno. He’s one half of Lunar City Express and former member of Pan-Pot which speaks volumes about his stylistical versatility.”“RIMA feat. Laatz” he delivers a frenetic rollercoaster ride of a techno track. It’s radical, it’s menacing and super fun all at once – A truly one of a kind techno track. “Dimensions” is a low-slung electro bulwark full of intricate details to keep head and feet going in unison.
Zwei neue Gesichter auf dem Label mit dem doppelköpfigen Adler! Beide Künstler sind seit einiger Zeit angesehene Größen in der internationalen Clubszene. IDA ENGBERG ist vor allem für ihre Zusammenarbeit mit den Stockholmer Labels Drumcode und Truesoul bekannt. Für ihr Debüt auf Speicher betritt sie jedoch ein ganz anderes Sound-Territorium. „Nothing Feels The Same“ wird als erster 2-Step-Track, der jemals auf KOMPAKT EXTRA veröffentlicht wurde, in die Geschichte eingehen. Es ist ebenso sinnlich wie dröhnend. Definitiv etwas für die späten Morgenstunden. Mit „Pink Monkeys“ ist eine EBM/Sägezahn-Trance-Verschmelzung der höchsten Güteklasse mit genug psychedelischem Headroom für die Festivalsaison entstanden.

MARCO RESMANNs tiefe Verbundenheit mit der jüngst verstorbenen Berliner Clublegende Watergate hat ihn zu einem der Fixpunkte der deutschen Hauptstadt in Sachen House und Techno gemacht und weit darüber hinaus. Er ist eine Hälfte von Lunar City Express und ehemaliges Mitglied von Pan-Pot, was Bände über seine stilistische Vielseitigkeit spricht. Mit „RIMA feat. Laatz“ liefert er eine frenetische Techno-Achterbahnfahrt, die gleichermaßen radikal, bedrohlich ist und ungemein Spaß macht – ein wirklich einzigartiger Track für die Ewigkeit. ‚Dimensions‘ wiederum ist ein tiefgründiges Electro-Bollwerk voller komplexer Details, das Kopf und Füße sicher im Einklang hält.

Boldy James & Harry Fraud team up for their first full-length colloborative album: The Bricktionary

Boldy James & Harry Fraud team up on The Bricktionary, their first full-length collaborative album. The Bricktionary, entirely produced by Harry Fraud, features Boldy at the top of his game and has guest appearances from BabyFace Ray, Benny The Butcher, and Tee Grizzley. While both artists have been consistently releasing albums over the years, fans of Bo Jack & La Musica have been waiting for this one and they will not be disappointed by the music or artwork of The Bricktionary on vinyl. “Arriving like a victory lap, the grandeur of Fraud’s production provides an intoxicating foil to Boldy’s steely honesty and delivery”....“Boldy and Fraud’s technical brilliance on The Bricktionary is direct and precise, not overcomplicated, and it allows their respective production and writing styles to fit like puzzle pieces. This kind of no-frills approach leans on intrinsic quality and dependability, not on bells and whistles, and leaps into the stratosphere.” - Pitchfork

Wellen.Brecher is an electronic band with punk attitude, which has been transcending and subverting electronic music genre boundaries for the past 6 years. After the release of Tierisch Verboten, which can confidently be described as the "soundtrack to inclusion", and a strong second release on our label Killekill, LIEBESERKLARUNG is the band's first full length album. Including a series of first-class remixes.
Refreshingly, the entire release is not based on the corny bad trance traditions loved by contemporary Buffalo shoe wearers. Instead - intentionally or not - it follows a series of almost historical musical quotations from over the last 40 years with each track on the album feeling like a new adventure.
The album opens with TUROFFNER, which has a kind of an Afrika Bambaataa intro, before turning into a wonderfully tresoresque/Detroit techno beast, always commented on or counteracted by the vocals - just like (almost) all the tracks on the album: a new round, a new crazy ride - bumper car lyrics on a powerful stomping reduction of a 90s track.
From here we leap backwards in time into grey West Berlin of the 80s with ROBOT GIRL which shifts and drifts like a bug in buttermilk somewhere between Grauzone and Alan Vega. Next track KAPUTT kicks in with a bang and smashes everything in the best EBM tradition - this could have been played in a techno club in Frankfurt, both in terms of lyrics and sound. Line up for Elektropogo please!
After all the stomping Wellen.Brecher bring in something completely different with VOICE OF A GENERATION: dramatic vocals over delicate breaks which gradually dissolve into arpeggios on a high-quality trance carpet. Challenge complete!
JULIA takes us back to the late eighties in the dark but fun Belgian-Detroit early trance with new beat appeal. TUNNEL TRANCE would have been a good fit for dancing around the Berlin Siegessaule in, let's say, 1998. Relentless 4/4 beats with a hook-line on speed surrounded by acidophilic bows and, on top, the vocal commentary arriving as if from the man behind the glass of the Ferris wheel. In
your mind's eye, you can see fur-shoed gym ravers in bright neon jumping through the Tiergarten like rubber balls. The cover version of the classic TECHNO DJ is an hommage to good old punk - torn apart and reassembled in true Wellen.Brecher style. The closer TIERISCH VERBOTEN brings all the emotion rushing back: fat beats beckon slowly from afar, before the curtain comes up for an epic synth finale.
The harsh, albeit true words really drive you in. It's not necessary, but perhaps it's good to point it out: Inclusion can easily be experienced with music like this. Fuck AfD!

Wellen.Brecher is an electronic band with punk attitude, which has been transcending and subverting electronic music genre boundaries for the past 6 years. After the release of Tierisch Verboten, which can confidently be described as the "soundtrack to inclusion", and a strong second release on our label Killekill, LIEBESERKLARUNG is the band's first full length album. Including a series of first-class remixes.
Refreshingly, the entire release is not based on the corny bad trance traditions loved by contemporary Buffalo shoe wearers. Instead - intentionally or not - it follows a series of almost historical musical quotations from over the last 40 years with each track on the album feeling like a new adventure.
The album opens with TUROFFNER, which has a kind of an Afrika Bambaataa intro, before turning into a wonderfully tresoresque/Detroit techno beast, always commented on or counteracted by the vocals - just like (almost) all the tracks on the album: a new round, a new crazy ride - bumper car lyrics on a powerful stomping reduction of a 90s track.
From here we leap backwards in time into grey West Berlin of the 80s with ROBOT GIRL which shifts and drifts like a bug in buttermilk somewhere between Grauzone and Alan Vega. Next track KAPUTT kicks in with a bang and smashes everything in the best EBM tradition - this could have been played in a techno club in Frankfurt, both in terms of lyrics and sound. Line up for Elektropogo please!
After all the stomping Wellen.Brecher bring in something completely different with VOICE OF A GENERATION: dramatic vocals over delicate breaks which gradually dissolve into arpeggios on a high-quality trance carpet. Challenge complete!
JULIA takes us back to the late eighties in the dark but fun Belgian-Detroit early trance with new beat appeal. TUNNEL TRANCE would have been a good fit for dancing around the Berlin Siegessaule in, let's say, 1998. Relentless 4/4 beats with a hook-line on speed surrounded by acidophilic bows and, on top, the vocal commentary arriving as if from the man behind the glass of the Ferris wheel. In
your mind's eye, you can see fur-shoed gym ravers in bright neon jumping through the Tiergarten like rubber balls. The cover version of the classic TECHNO DJ is an hommage to good old punk - torn apart and reassembled in true Wellen.Brecher style. The closer TIERISCH VERBOTEN brings all the emotion rushing back: fat beats beckon slowly from afar, before the curtain comes up for an epic synth finale.
The harsh, albeit true words really drive you in. It's not necessary, but perhaps it's good to point it out: Inclusion can easily be experienced with music like this. Fuck AfD!

After many years of artistic collaboration, the long-awaited album, KILLING TIME, bringing together London-based MC Killa P and Italian Bass music collective Numa Crew, has finally arrived.

Killa P, a name synonymous with potent lyricism and raw energy in the Grime scene, delivers a vocal masterclass throughout his debut long-player, soundtracked by the stellar production of the Numa Crew. Together they expertly navigate genres including dubstep, grime, dub, and jungle, while maintaining a distinct and cohesive musical identity.

Not simply a collection of individual tracks, Killing Time is a meticulously crafted journey through sound system music. There are no stylistic boundaries, as the long-player encompasses the entire musical spectrum that unites the Italian crew with the London-based MC, with Killa P free to showcase his evolution as an artist. Alongside them, the album also brings together a diverse cast of friends and collaborators, vocalists, and producers, each adding their own unique flavor.

From the pulsating dubstep-infused Boys in Blue, a searing commentary on social inequality, to the reggae-tinged steppa tune Love Inna We Heart featuring Charlie P and Long Range, a plea for unity and love, Killa P's lyrical dexterity shines.

Tracks such as Champion Sound, Badman City Pt.2 featuring the French Ragga legend Big Red, and No Laugh featuring Big Chain and Bristol’s Buggsy are a nod to Killa P's roots, beautifully showcasing his mastery of grime's signature sound, while the sped-up tempos of the Fleck collaboration Jungle Leng, and Can't Get Me Down featuring Ras Demo, inject a jolt of Junglist attitude. Different Life is a vibrant ‘carnival’ jam, that infuses grime and dancehall moods and sees the great Lady Lykez on the second verse.

The album wraps on a contemplative note with Dreaming, a collaboration with Abstract Sonance, and Heartless, featuring Killa’s son GK on production, revealing an introspective note that adds yet more depth to Killa P's artistry.

As the album’s second track, Family, proclaims: ‘man a deal with family, not friends’ - a fitting line to define the album as a whole… An ode to the unity and strength of family.

Six track EP full of warm deep house music, spacy jazz not jazz, african and brasil rhythms, plus a portion of psychedelic funk poetry.

‚Children Of Zu Zu‘ is Charles Petersohn‘s restart after his previous label release from 18 years ago, besides some experiments on Bandcamp and SoundCloud. On this EP sound merges into each other, is producing an organic flow. Smooth deep house, different kinds of jazz and jazznotjazz, african rhythms, Brasil batucada, psychedelic funk poetry, inspired by Dr. John and most of all the space music and afrofuturist philosophy of Sun Ra and his Arkestra. Soundscapes and atmos in the background of each song give the music a deeper feel. It took its time to get the music ready. There was the desire of having Web Web pianist Roberto di Gioia in the music, took months. But it was worth waiting. Roberto planted some magic moments in to it. On other hand Charles is hyper critic with his own sound. If jumping into to arena again, there should be something special. When he will be okay with every inch of his sonic work, then its done! ‚Children Of Zu Zu‘ became a collage of thick, warm and smooth housemusic, spacy Ambient Jazz and two dancefloor tools with a deep Afro and Brasil feel.

Here we go with six tracks full of love, full of dreams and full of space.

"Children Of Zu Zu" ist Charles Petersohns Neustart nach seiner letzten Label-Veröffentlichung vor 18 Jahren mit dem Pianisten Jasper van't Hof bei "Jaro". Deep House Music, Jazz Not Jazz, afrobrasilianische Jazz-Grooves, Ambient Jazz, eine von New Orleans Legende Dr. John inspirierte spirituelle Botschaft, einen Gesang von Frauen und Mädchen aus Samoa vom "British Commonwealth Sound Archive" und nicht zuletzt die intergalaktische Poesie von Sun Ra und seinem Arkestra. Soundscapes im Hintergrund fast aller Tracks versetzen die Musik jeweils an einen fiktiven Ort. Es hat seine Zeit gedauert, bis die Musik fertig war. Der Wunsch, den Web Web Pianisten Roberto Di Gioia für die Musik zu gewinnen, schien fast unmöglich. Seine Teilnahme verzögerte sich um mehrere Monate, denn Roberto ist ein vielbeschäftigter Musiker und Produzent. Am Ende hat sich das Warten gelohnt. Er hat der Musik einige magische Momente beschert. Auf der anderen Seite ist Charles mit seinem eigenen Material meist überkritisch. "Wenn ich mich parallel zu so vielen großartigen Musikern und Produzenten überall in der Welt und darüber hinaus mit einer eigenen Botschaft in die Welt begebe, muss das schon etwas Besonderes werden!" Nach endlosen Sessions in seinem Mini-Studio ist 'Children Of Zu Zu' um einiges mehr geworden, als er sich vorgenommen hat. Statt zwei, sind es am Ende sechs Tracks und zwei Bonus-Versionen voller Liebe, voller Träume und voller Space, innerspace und outerspace, geworden. Musik für den Dancefloor, für Jazz Clubs, Chill Zones und obendrein für Kinderzimmer!

Joni Void, the artistic persona of Montréal-based French-British producer Jean Néant (he/them) returns to songcraft on their warmest and most welcoming record yet, where the acclaimed sampledelic sound collagist chills out with an emotionally resonant song cycle tinged by downtempo, lo-fi, avant-pop, and trip-hop. Guests include Haco, Ytamo, Sook-Yin Lee, Pink Navel and N NAO. Every Life Is A Light expands on Void's recent stylistic turn towards more languorous and mellow lo-fi production, foreshadowed by the drifting looseness and ambient bricolage of their preceding experimental sound-art record. This transitional sensibility now shapes more defined song structures and styles, with loops are given time and space to unspool, and rhythms shot through the softer-focus lens of trip-hop and dub. Every Life Is A Light swaps the twitchy insistence of Void's acclaimed early albums for a newfound lightness and suppleness, still imbued with all the restlessness, sonic detailing, and emotional resonance that made their name. The neurotic brokenmachine kinetics of earlier Void, summarized by Sasha Geffen as "drawing despair and wonder from within the vast unfeeling of digital communication" in an 8.0 Pitchfork review, may be chilling out, but Void is becoming an ever better conjurer of hauntological feeling. Every Life Is A Light summons this in a comparatively buoyant, benevolent, head-nodding journey more open to tenderness and modest joys. Perhaps it's the sound of Void at greater peace with themselves and the world, despite the bittersweet cost: even as it channels grief, memorializing comrades and companions recently deceased, this album wants light. Void's raw materials continue to draw heavily from samples (their own Walkman cassette fieldrecordings and songs by others) and from a wide community of musical guests. Vocalists Haco on "Time Zone" and Ytamo on "Cloud Level" help levitate what could be lost tracks from a mid-90s Too Pure Records compilation of skewed-lounge electronica. Canadian musician Sook-Yin Lee sings on lead single "Vertigo," a sinewy 80bpm tape-loop and bassline groove propelled by psychedelically-layered lyrics that eventually turn the song in on itself entirely, like Grace Jones' "Nightclubbing" covered by Animal Collective. One of Void's greatest hip-hop loves is the Ruby Yacht collective; charter member Pink Navel drops some brilliant verses on "Story Board." The album's two minimal tracks, an extended piano loop set to a slow beat and shimmering electronics on "Muffin-A Song For My Cat" and the languid sampled bass riff and breakbeat of "Event Flow," are perhaps most overtly `lofi chill.' Indeed the whole album could be said to sit adjacent to those viral (if not already AI-generated) genre trends, which maybe begs the question on a lot of our minds: can specificity and authenticity of musical materials still be heard, still meaningfully signify substance and difference, still matter? Perhaps a question that fades in comparison to the career break Void could catch by landing on generic streaming playlists. More likely, these tracks remain too off-kilter, too genuinely lo-fi and ineffable, and too disqualified by the status of its peasant rights-holders, to catch the algos. Context remains the poor cousin of content. Meanwhile Void marches on, as a tireless organizer of local music events, bouncing around and often living in DIY venue, depending on the latest apartment eviction. With an ubiquitous polaroid camera in tow, they also document each communal happening with a single shot (and often a blinding flash bulb): a memory and metaphor for lives illuminated preciously, singularly, `imperfectly' in the moment. Dozens of these polaroids adorn the album's back cover and inner sleeve art in grid-like montages, as a fitting analog for the careful construction, grainy intimate materiality, and ephemeral feeling of these songs. Every Life Is A Light is Joni Void's most coherent and congenial record while relinquishing none of their experimentalist acumen as a producer or emotional attunement as a composer. Instead these qualities flourish, on an album that lights a humble flame for the fragile promise of homespun creative collaboration as unalienated labour and therapeutic communion, making an enchantingly idiosyncratic contribution to downtempo sample music along the way. Thanks for listening.

Aunes is a rare solo album from peripatetic Australian cellist-composer-performer Judith Hamann, presenting six pieces recorded across several years and countries. Developing the collage techniques and expanded sound palettes heard on their previous releases, Aunes makes use of synthesizers, organ, voice and location recordings alongside the dazzlingly pure, enveloping tones of Hamann's cello. The record takes its name from an old French unit of measurement for fabric, varying around the country and from material to material. Unlike the platinum metre bar deposited in the National Archives after the Revolution as an immovable standard, an aune of silk differed from an aune of linen: the measure could not be separated from the material. In much the same way, in these six pieces_which Hamann thinks of as `songs'_formal aspects such as tuning, pacing, melodic shape and timbre are not abstractions applied universally to musical material but are inextricable from the instruments and sounds used, even from the places and communities in which the music was made. Audible location sound embeds the music in its place of making, as in the delicate duet for church organ and wordless singing `schloss, night', where shuffles and cluttering in the reverberant church space form a phantom accompaniment, gradually displaced by a uneasy shimmer of wavering tones from half-opened organ stops. `Casa Di Riposo, Gesu' Redentore' documents a walk up a hill to an outdoor mass in Chiusure, layering voices near and far with footsteps, insects and other incidental sounds. Like in the work of Moniek Darge or Luc Ferrari, location recordings are folded on themselves in space and time, their documentary function dislocated to dreamlike effect. On other pieces, it is the emphatic presence of the performing body that grounds the music, whether in the intimate fragility of Hamann's softly sung and hummed vocal tones or the clothing that rustles across a microphone on the opening `by the line'. The idea of a music inextricable from its material conditions is perhaps most strikingly communicated on the album's briefest piece `bruststärke (lung song)', composed from layered whistling recorded while Hamann suffered through an asthma flare up, the results halfway between field recordings of an imaginary aviary and the audiopoems of Henri Chopin. More than any of Hamann's previous solo works, a strong melodic sensibility runs through Aunes, even when, like on `seventeen fabrics of measure', the music hangs together by the merest thread. At other points, Hamann's love of pop music is more obvious: the rich synth harmonies of `by the line' could almost be a melting fragment of a backing track from Hounds of Love. The expansive closing piece `neither from nor toward' exemplifies the highly personal musical language that Hamann has developed in recent years through constant solo performance (and a rigorous discipline of instrumental practice), pairing two overdubbed voices with the boundless depth and harmonic richness of just-intoned cello notes, calling up Ockegham or Linda Caitlin Smith in its elegiac slow motion arcs. Hamann's most personal work yet, Aunes arrives in a striking sleeve reproducing a section of a painting made from sewn pieces of dyed wool by Wilder Alison, a friend and fellow resident at Akademie Schloss Solitude, one of the temporary homes where much of this music was recorded.

On his Discrepant debut Memotone aka Bristolian Will Yates collects some unreleased recordings under a most aptly titled name - »Pruning« - following a healthy stream of releases for such esteemed labels as Black Acre, The Trilogy Tapes or Soda Gong.

Considering the process of pruning as a practice of selective removal, the album takes its name at face value never falling into a mere collection of tossed off material or random B-side assemblage, making it a cohesive listen throughout its disparate timeframe and evasions.

A statement about Memotone's vision itself, »Pruning« veers closer to his Fourth World/ECM/Exotica meets Sci-fi transmutations in alignment with what would be expected from a Memotone release on Discrepant. »Moss Zone« briefly sets the tone with a warm but queasy synth bedsheet that flows into the »Weird Figures« cyber- jungle, all small twinkling percussions and rainforest pads slowly rising. 'Riders' brings the synth-flute to an early Warp meets John Hassell's »City: Works of Fiction« scenario that pops up again in more disrupted form on »Wisdom MOTHER«. »Not What I Thought's« skewed tropical guitar gets going on lo-fi percussion and dissonant synth chords while »Jim Starling and The Inverse Church« bring to mind »Autoditacker« era Mouse on Mars going jazz-fusion. Or what we should expect from their Smalltown Supersound stint. »Beach Scene« is exactly it, as the sun sets into »Come In Don't Mind the Ghost« summer night's stars with all the allure of Stereolab.

Alluring, that's exactly it. Do come in.

Motown producer and songwriter Norman Whitfield assembled The Undisputed Truth to further explore the psychedelic soul he had been developing with the Temptations on songs like ‘Cloud Nine’ and ‘Psychedelic Shack’.

Joe Harris, Billie Calvin and Brenda Evans were assembled as the vocal front-line and their first single was ‘Save My Love For A Rainy Day’/’Since I’ve Lost You’ that was released on Gordy in February 1971 and got to #43 on the R&B Chart.

It was followed by ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes’/’You Got The Love I Need’ that was a massive hit single getting to #2 R&B and #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their debut album The Undisputed Truth followed and not only contained all four tracks issued on 7” but an almost interstellar version of ‘Ball Of Confusion (That’s What The World Is Today)’, ‘I Heard It Through The Grapevine’ as well as a very soulful prowl through Bob Dylan’s ‘Like a Rolling Stone’. Tracks like ‘California Soul’ and ‘Aquarius’ also ticked the psychedelic soul box. All told it was a fantastic debut and sold strongly.

Amazingly this fantastic album has not been repressed since 1972. Thus Ace are delighted to put it back into the record racks pressed on 180gm black vinyl.

Sun Ra was a master of misdirection. Tape boxes wrongly labeled—whether by accident or design—are legendary among Ra archivists. One can speculate about the artist's intent or carelessness, but source misinformation abounds on Ra tape cases, album jackets, cassettes, ephemera—as well as in interviews. It's as if Ra, in furtherance of his own mythmaking, wanted to keep historians guessing.

This project began as a misidentified tape discovered by Michael D. Anderson of the Sun Ra Music Archive. The 7-inch reel, which contained a live Ra solo piano performance of 11 works—some recognizable, others not—was of stellar quality, and was marked as a 1979 Carnegie Hall date. But the program on the tape did not align with known facts (e.g., titles played, concert duration) which were chronicled in a Newsday review of Ra's appearance at Carnegie in September of that year. With a prod from writer/historian Ted Gioia and further research by myself, the tape was eventually identified as a mostly unreleased July 1977 performance by Ra at a downtown NYC "jazz café" called The Axis-in-Soho.

It’s been 20 years since Hinder’s major label debut Extreme Behavior was released, and we’re still not sure the music industry has recovered. Seldom have commercial and critical success been poles apart to this degree; this record went TRIPLE platinum and scored, what, four major hit singles (more if you count the international charts)?! Yet, critical scorn was unrelenting, one reviewer commenting Hinder “appeal not to fans of music, but fans of high fives.” Which is pretty funny…but this Oklahoma City band laughed all the way to the bank, as songs like “Get Stoned,” “Lips of an Angel” (#3 on the Hot 100), “How Long,” and “Better Than Me” were worldwide hits.

Part of this was due to the undeniable charisma of lead vocalist Austin John Winkler; producer Brian Howes also deserves credit for co-writing the songs. But a big part of Hinder’s allure (aside from the fetching cover photo taken straight from the cover of the book How to Tell a Naked Man What to Do: Sex Advice from a Woman Who Knows) was the band’s devil-may-care attitude. Fans of Jackass found their party-hearty soundtrack right here; Extreme Behavior is good, unclean fun. Remastered for its firstever vinyl reissue on its 20th birthday by Mike Milchner from Sonic Vision, and pressed in blackberry vinyl!

You may not require any introduction to the members of ROACH SQUAD, or at least one or two of the band. Needless to say, Hugo Mudie (The Sainte Catherines), Frankie Stubbs (Leatherface), Graeme Philliskirk (Leatherface) have all graced the Paradise Gutters around the Punk Rock world for some time. Joining them is Alex Keane (The Murderburgers), along with another local Sunderland Lad, Sim Robson. As with many of the members previous works, a DIY approach to writing and recording the album was taken. The bulk of the recording took place at their own Rocket Studios in Sunderland, UK with the exception of Hugo laying down the vocals from his home in Montreal (Quebec, Canada). Some of you will have noticed the line-up contains two vocalists, and indeed this is the case. For this new Band, Frankie wanted to take some time out from vocal duties and concentrate on playing his guitar. This sees Hugo taking front stage... Not for every song, though! Who knows what you expect, but what we do ask of you before listening is that you find your comfortable spot, abandon any preconceptions, and as always play it loud.

Brand new double LP on orange vinyl limited to 300 copies worldwide from Tyla (The Dogs D’amour) featuring the latest single ‘Cadillac Man’ - 'It’s becoming a bit of a cliche these days to say 'I dreamt this idea, song, story film book etc' But that's exactly what I did with the song 'Cadillac Man' the lyrics and the video idea and the melody as it was just after noon I jumped out of bed and scribbled the lyrics an picked up my trusty black Gibson J200 the guitar I've written nearly every song on since the day I bought it brand new in 1991. It was then I realised id dreamt the chords too!' I was 62 years old when I began writing and recording this album in the Autum of 2023 and I'm lookin' at 64 this July. I sent some of the songs to Simon (Hanson) who slapped on the drums then I sent them to Jamie Turnbull ('In Vino Veritas' / Tyla’s Dogs D'amour producer) knowing he was a great guitarist, but I didn't know just how good! This is the first album I have ever done that you can and even I do, play air guitar too! The songs flowed and i seemed to have captured most if not every human emotion in a Genie's lamp which I am now putting in your trusty hands and ears and eyes and soul. I beg you pop the cork, and I can guarantee that some if not all of your wishes will come true.' 'Gilding the Lily' Is the album I've been trying to write wanting to write, all my life.'

Members went on to Sinkane, and Pompeii, This Morning. Originally recorded in the
summer of 2005 out west, while on tour, by Vince Tennant. The recording had been
shelved and unreleased. In 2023, Expert Work Records reached out to Sweetheart and
got the recording re-mastered. It will be released on limited vinyl and digital.
This is also a companion piece/ record with EW018 (Sweetheart- The Process of
Making Us Well). We highly suggest getting both records.
Sweetheart's "The Unbearable Tightness Of Being" is one of those records you should
put on your radar as soon as possible. A rediscovered artifact from 2005, the album is
a sonic panorama that intricately incorporates post- hardcore, noise rock, punk,
screamo, and indie elements into an innovative and complex sonic landscape. The
guitars, wielded with finesse, serve as the driving force behind Sweetheart's sonic
assault. From the opening chords to the closing refrains, they deliver a relentless
barrage of riffs that defy predictability. The interplay between the two guitarists
manifests as a dynamic dialogue - a musical conversation that seamlessly transitions
from chaotic dissonance to moments of clarity. Catchy, intricate, and hypnotic chord
progressions unfold, evoking the spirit of At The Drive-In and Fugazi while carving a
distinct sonic identity.
However, it's not merely about sonic assault; Sweetheart infuses the album with a
nuanced approach to melody. Amidst the aggressive riffage, this material treats
listeners with moments of harmonic beauty and unexpected melodic twists. Themes,
leads, melodies, and harmonies intermingle, creating a rich auditory experience that
transcends the boundaries of conventional post-hardcore.
The production quality of this long- lost gem further accentuates its brilliance.
Recorded in 2005 but kept in the shadows due to financial constraints and a desire for
perfection, the album has now found its moment in the sun. Expert Work's decision to
release the LP in 2024 has allowed audiences to appreciate the intelligent
craftsmanship that went into its creation.
"The Unbearable Tightness Of Being" is more than a musical journey; it's a sonic
exploration transcending all the possible sonic boundaries. Sweetheart's commitment
to experimentation and honesty, as emphasized by band members reflecting on their
creative process, is palpable. The act of listening, treated as a discipline, is evident in
the careful construction of each track - a result of repetitive practice, internalization,
and an unwavering dedication to their craft. In the grander narrative of the album's
release, the band's reflections on the passage of time and the meaning of their work
imbue the music with a poignant depth.
"The Unbearable Tightness Of Being" is a mandatory addition to any record collection.
It's not just a revival of the early 2000s scene; it's a sheer example of Sweetheart's
enduring brilliance and a celebration of a significant part of their musical legacy.

Belgium's iconic DJ and producer, Yves Deruyter, who celebrates his 40th DJ career in 2025, makes a triumphant return to the music scene with the much-anticipated remaster of his seminal second album: "2001".

Renowned for his pioneering influence on techno and classics, Deruyter's re-release is packed with timeless tracks, including the unforgettable anthem "Back To Earth" and also including but not limited to: "Music-Non-Stop", "Rhythmic Bazz", the much sought after Transfusion and as a special bonus "Born Slippy".

Available in an exclusive 2 x 12" vinyl release, collectors and fans alike can choose between a special light blue edition, limited to 500 copies, or an ultra-limited faded smoked black-to-transparent white 180-gram audiophile version, limited to just 200 copies.

Each version comes repackaged in a stunning, redesigned sleeve, making it a must-have collector's item for true enthusiasts. Don't miss the chance to own a piece of techno history!

Capturing phantom drones behind dusty beats and haunted twangs, Ellis Swan and James Schimpl return for their third album as Dead Bandit. Locked into a musical language unique to their collaboration, the duo once again put us out to pasture across broad sonic plains, drums flapping like loose fence panels in the prairie breeze and bass rumbling like distant thunder. True to their previous two records, Swan and Schimpl keep the strung out guitars at the front of what they do, whether playing a naked, desolate strum or running six strings through disruptive effects processing until they're barely recognisable.
But while there are details of disturbance when listening to Dead Bandit's self-titled record up close, the wider impression is a smoother, more direct affair that toys with post-rock complexity and matches it with the emotional weight of melodic simplicity, gentle grooves and conscious arrangements. 'Weeds' offsets its languid fuzz guitar with shimmering sustained notes before settling into a patient, heavy-hearted composition charged with heartbreak leads pealing out in the middle distance.
By comparison, 'Glass' has a smoky, half-hidden backroom quality. Its brushed whisper of a beat, lingering guitar drones and subtle sub bass come on like a dub wise flip of a sad-eyed country ballad. The mood maintains on 'Half Smoked Cigarette', which captures the grey sky sullenness of post-punk and reframes it in the seductive isolation of rural America. While there's a thickness to the sound on these most direct of tracks on the album, there's also fragility inherent to the sound world Dead Bandit have been shaping out over these past few years.
'Buttercup' swaps sadness for sinister undercurrents, once more drawing on fulsome low end to fill out the sparse threads of instrumentation up top. 'Pink' finds a steady momentum for its own brand of brooding mystery, the sharp end of the beat bringing focus to the many-layered approaches to the guitar which roundly define the Dead Bandit sound. There's an even clearer direction mapped out in the vintage drum machine pulse of 'Koyo', all the better to carry swirling effects treatments and moody melodic figures. Even in these ominous climes there's space for plaintive, endearing hooks which land as the most direct phrases in Dead Bandit's musical lexicon to date.
The fundamental sound across this album holds true, but Dead Bandit are never bound to a singular practice. 'Lucien's Bitters' strikes up a pronounced drum machine beat which comes on like 90s downtempo, and it feels like a natural vessel for the heavy, shoegaze tinted lament of the guitars. At every turn, Swan and Schimpl prove their affinity for all kinds of approaches, and yet the end product is a deeply cohesive, immediate listen that shows just how clear their creative vision really is.

In 2017, Matthias launched his record label named Superluminal, after the astronomic motion observed in 1902 by Jacobus Kapteyn in the ejecta of the nova GK Persei, which had exploded in 1901. His discovery was published in the German journal Astronomische Nachrichten, and received little attention from English-speaking astronomers until many decades later. It appears to travel faster than light, its existence could conceal the most inexplicable mysteries of our universe which gave birth to many of the secrets hidden in the path of mysticism and esotericism.

The label celebrates its 8th Anniversary with Matthias’s first self-released album. The instalment pays homage to the roots and influences the artist has genuinely embraced throughout the years. An immersive composition which summons a line from the sounds of the past to the present, designed meticulously and displayed within gatefold cover.

It certainly manifests a polyhedral vein with some very cerebral, experimental songs among more dancefloor oriented music. The artist delves into a self exploratory leap of synth-driving notes, striking chords of late decaying dub pianos. Certainly a journey that pairs conceptual alignment with more clubby-essential, stripped-down recordings.

The song’s progression evokes atmospheres from the far out worlds, carved into a space-echoing psychedelic trip with sinister tribal-percussive rhythm. The song’s arrangements are simple-complex drum’s versatile patterns, forged and elegantly blended into cinematic soundscapes.

This is a one way ride to the forest of mysteries, from which, there is no return. The time of the day between dusk and night, when it gets dark.

Fourth Wave's latest compilation feels like a musical postcard from Japan's vibrant underground, gliding through genres with effortless charm. Mari Nakamoto's 'Day Dreaming' sets a tranquil mood with her airy vocals drifting over soft, dreamy instrumentals. Yudai Suzuki's 'Midnight Calling' brings smoky sax riffs and laid-back grooves, perfect for late-night introspection. Yasuhiro Abe's 'Night Fish' dives into psychedelic waters, swirling with hypnotic melodies and unpredictable rhythms. Maki Asakawa's 'Kohi Hitotsu' radiates raw emotion, her voice rich with longing. Yuji Ozeki's 'Futaribun No Yume' blends traditional Japanese sounds with modern electronics, crafting a sound both timeless and futuristic. Jin Kirigaya's 'Matenro Monogatari' closes the collection with cinematic depth, its sweeping arrangement lingering long after the final note.

R.M.K returns to NECHTO with his latest release, ‘NECH028’, following his previous solo record ‘NECH021’, his features on the label's VAs and numerous label event appearances. Hailing from London, R.M.K, the alias of Fossil Archive label head Roberto, brings a unique, evolving take on his sound. With over 20 years of experience, he has performed at iconic venues like Berghain, Tresor, and fabric, and collaborated with artists such as Trevino, Jamie Anderson, and Goldie.
‘NECH028’ marks a new chapter in R.M.K’s artistic growth, with the EP taking over a year to complete. The release includes four vinyl tracks, plus an additional digital-only track. R.M.K notes that while each track has its own distinct style, they collectively tell a cohesive story. He also
acknowledges the role of Nastia in pushing him to deliver the best possible quality, and he takes great pride in the result.
This release reflects the evolution of R.M.K’s sound, demonstrating his dedication to refining his craft and offering a compelling narrative through techno.

Bad news: Not much is known about pdqb, and what we do know is most likely either wrong or made up. The man who is credited for the productions is said to have gone insane due to being possessed by an alien parasite. His whereabouts remain unknown. Good news: Fortunately, Synaptic Cliffs owns about a dozen releases from whoever or whatever is behind the mysterious abbreviation and will publish every single one of them…because they are ultra awesome.

With the original tapes of this Mini-LP, pdqb left a fragmented note in the '90s stating that he decoded eight tracks originally produced with the NCO6.27 for test subjects who were all given some strange form of brain implants, and that a certain wetware could be unveiled in that manner, and that he conducted that research long before he developed a machine capable of hacking into the dreams of everyone who has ever lived.

However, the music could best be described as playful and dark, old-school Techno/Electro/Industrial blended with Chiptunes, IDM/Braindance, and Electronica. It is pressed on a beautiful green splatter vinyl.

The first 150 customers will be rewarded with a free leftover flexi disc from the '80s featuring two exclusive tracks composed by pdqb while he worked for Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset TV production company. The flexi was originally included in the November 1985 issue of the Italian Playboy Magazine (cover girl: Grace Jones) and is extremely sought after.

Wavering through feverish nets of mild notes with no real sun. A disorganised yet precisely paced collection of sounds summoning the gloomy B-side of summers calling. A moment to sit in the frantic underworld of embraced chaos. Clemency. A figure head for embracing off-kilter interpretations of night time music. A real life ‘Angel of the North’.

AIRD is pleased to welcome Clemency to the series.

T. Gowdy returns with a major statement and luminous stylistic expansion on his third album for Constellation. Trill Scan is an exquisite suite of songs literally and figuratively about alchemy, where Gowdy melds his background in choral and medieval music with his trademark analogue electronics. Following the acclaimed Miracles (Bleep Album of the Week / Albums of the Year 2022), Gowdy's bar-raising new LP centers human voice for the first time. Choral set-pieces and solo lead vocals, along with his own lute playing, are novel elements in Gowdy's work, and draw on strains of Middle Ages polyphony and the Baroque "broken style" to further distinguish Trill Scan from anything in his discography to date. Gowdy sees "the modal language of medieval Europe as a less distant cousin to indigenous traditional music practice" compared to a Classical-colonial "patriarchal order of tonality that honours a system of domination." The 12th century Notre Dame School of choral music and 17th century style brisé each carry tonal materiality, heterodox technique, and cultural-historical symbolism central to Trill Scan's conceptual and compositional alchemy. Gowdy coheres these beautifully into his palette of serpentine slowburn electronics, a minimal analogue-driven techno shaped by aleatory strategies and tinged with post-punk grit. Gowdy's sound has been aptly described as "gently transportative, flickering like a busted halogen lamp" and his overriding pursuit of psychoacoustic immanence likened to "getting your brain massaged" and praised as "blissful work that bristles with effervescent energy, like brain waves coming in and out of focus." Trill Scan expands this sonic sensibility with more conspicuous harmonic complexity, stylistic variety, and humanistic narrative arc. Alternately sacramental and intimately personal vocals, sometimes wordless and sometimes lyrical, are worked into superlative instrumental tracks, yielding a warmly immersive concept album that's equally Gowdy's most musical. Gowdy sings explicitly of alchemy on the hypnotic album centerpiece "Novus Lumen" with lyrics that gesture at these medieval processes of material investigation. The tension between the scientific and esoteric is crucial; the separation and synthesis of physical substances in medieval alchemy maps onto his fixation with the interplay between the materiality of sound and psychoacoustics. Gowdy follows the Jungian interpretation of classic alchemical texts as an historical bridge to theories of the psyche, where consciousness itself is treated as materiality and similarly subjected to methodical analysis and experimentation, to deconstruction, dissolution, transformation, reintegration, metamorphosis. Song titles like "Arislei Bone" and "Materiadiscipuli" further reference these mythopoetic throughlines from medieval alchemy to modern psychology. Gowdy chooses disruptive forms from the history of Western music that symbolize and prefigure the modern psychological subject and its struggle for/against order, even as they also evoke liturgy and the Renaissance court. The sacramental adds a potent dimension to his pursuit of psychoacoustic activation, meditation, and transcendence, as choral passages intersperse with electronic drone and pointillism throughout the album. His gorgeous Fennesz-meets-lute rendition of the Baroque composition "Courante" by François Dufault offers idiomatic salon-secular counterpoint. Album closer "Strewn" is bookended by a final recurrence of choral invocation, with pulsing earworm motorik techno in between, over which Gowdy whisper-sings a dreamlike vision quest of mythic-alchemical imagery: "as I washed my eyes they turned to metal / and the memories melted to the metal / the metal of my heart." A mesmerizing final song that explicitly invokes Gowdy's search for materialized abstraction and substantive musical immanence wrought from his own psycho-therapeutic subjectivity, and encapsulates the album's turn towards more harmonic, historicized, and humanistic elements. Trill Scan commingles empyrean and earthly electronic songcraft to genuinely original and absorbing effect. Thanks for listening. RIYL: Coil, Nicolás Jaar, Alessandro Cortini, Pantha Du Prince, Fennesz, Visible Cloaks, Actress,

Born out of the early 1980's Austin noise punk scene, Scratch Acid deliberately eschewed the loud, fast rules of hardcore as everything they didn't want to be and embraced a weirder, artier sound. Prior to the release of their 1984 debut S/T EP, someone gave Touch and Go Records owner Corey Rusk a cassette of the recording, and he was instantly a huge fan. Rusk was immediately interested in releasing the EP and contacted the band to express his admiration. At the time, Scratch Acid had already committed to working with Rabid Cat Records. The group quickly developed a riveting performance aesthetic, and, as the debut S/T EP made its way around the country via fanzines, college radio, and word-of-mouth, the band mounted short tours to the Midwest and the East Coast. While he was not able to work with Scratch Acid directly through Touch and Go, Rusk had begun booking shows with Scratch Acid in Detroit, so he could see them live and meet them. A friendship formed, and Touch and Go Records would eventually release the band's second EP, Berserker, in 1987.

Born out of the early 1980's Austin noise punk scene, Scratch Acid deliberately eschewed the loud, fast rules of hardcore as everything they didn't want to be and embraced a weirder, artier sound. The band's eventual permanent line-up consisted of David Yow on vocals, Brett Bradford on guitar, David Wm. Sims on bass, and Rey Washam on drums. During their brief existence from 1982 to 1987, the band released 3 records, including a full-length album (Just Keep Eating) and two EPs (S/T EP, Berserker). On March 14, 2025, Touch and Go Records will release the Scratch Acid Box Set - limited to 2000 sets worldwide. Remastered by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service, the box set includes 180-gram clear LP pressings of all three releases as well as a 24-page booklet featuring exclusive behind-the-scenes photos, liner notes by David Yow, Brett Bradford, and photographer/journalist Pat Blashill, as well as full-color paintings by contemporary artist Mark Todd from the same era as the cover art for the S/T EP and Berserker releases. In addition, this limited Scratch Acid box set includes an exclusive clear vinyl 7" with both tracks the band contributed to the 1986 Touch and Go Records compilation, God's Favorite Dog. The 7-inch includes cover art by Mark Todd as well.

,Siamo tutti in pericolo" ist das dritte Album von Golem Mecanique, dem Pseudonym der französischen Multiinstrumentalistin und Komponistin Karen Jebane, das auf Ideologic Organ veröffentlicht wird. Jebane arbeitet am Rande des zeitgenössischen Folk (aka La Novea Community), des mikrotonalen Sounds und der frühen Moderne, berührt aber auch die Asche und die Fasern des Back Metal und die DNA der Gothic-Musik, der Literatur, der Zauberei und vor allem der Poesie. Jebanes Arbeit mit der Drone Box (einer mechanisierten Drehleier) und der Zither als glatte und wellige Oberfläche für ihren Gesang ist auf fast zeremonielle Weise sofort ersichtlich und lädt in einen Raum von klarer, dunkler Kreativität und Schönheit ein. Auf ,Siamo tutti in pericolo" arbeitet Jebane mit ihren Kompositionsformen auf neue Art und Weise, poetisch und sparsam in der Ausführung ihrer Techniken, durch ihre Hommage/Hymnen/Meditationen über die höchst unregelmäßigen Umstände und Fragen/Mysterien des Vergehens der Seele von Meisterkünstler Pier Paolo Pasolini. In perfekter Kombination mit dem Coverbild des Collagekünstlers Julien Langendorff präsentiert ,Siamo tutti in pericolo" Jebanes ,Golem Mecanique" in Reinkultur. -Stephen O'Malley, Brion, Frankreich, 1. September 2024

Bowie’s connection to Jacques Brel came through Scott Walker and the 1968 musical.

Blasé is a French-American pop artist, composer, arranger, producer, singer and author. Since his childhood and adolescence in New York, he experimented, mixed together 70s rock, electronic music, disco and hiphop, to create a sound that will take him directly to Paris with his first band Haute, with Anna Majidson. A first hit will be born, «Shut Me Down», whose session Colors accumulates more than 30 million views on YouTube.

After this first success, and following numerous collaborations with various artists such as Agoria, DJ Pone, Lala&ce, Niro or Jwles, he found his musical signature and started solo. The UFO Blasé released his first EP «Why Blasé? » in 2023 on Record Makers label, a unique fusion of Chic, The Strokes and Manu Chao.

Blasé releases his first album «BLABLABLA» in 2025, an album that stands as a personal manifesto of his sound obsessions that open almost as many tracks: 15 original titles in search of the groove.

With his educated ears to the radio and charts across the Atlantic, he honors this generous vision of pop that encompasses old-school hip-hop, R&B, jazz, funk, disco and new-wave, and navigates between different styles in the manner of American artists. Some songs are in French while others are in English, featuring singer Anna Majidson, rapper Jwles, and the late American artist Cola Boyy. So we go on «BLABLABLA» from a studio haunted by Quincy Jones to a cellar where he rehearses The Cure of «Boys Don’t Cry».

Five for Fighting achieved a hit record with "Superman (It's Not Easy)" in 2001 leading to his America Town album going Platinum.

For the follow-up, The Battle Of Everything, John Ondrasik went into the studio with Bill Bottrell, best known for his production work with Sheryl Crow.

On the influences behind Battle and its recording, Ondrasik said, "When I was a kid I could put on Dark Side of the Moon, turn up the sound in my headphones, lie down in the dark, and go away. I wanted that experience again, and so Bill and I were ambitious to the point of absurdity. If we wanted drama, we'd get a thirty-piece orchestra. If we wanted a rock edge, we went after it with reckless abandonment. It was like doing my own private Quadrophenia."

The Battle for Everything was released in 2004. The first single, "100 Years" was a top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album itself was certified Platinum in 2009. and is now finally available on vinyl for the first time.

This is a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies on gold coloured vinyl. The LP contains a 4-page booklet with lyrics and pictures.

"The Sunlandic Twins" markierte 2005 einen Wendepunkt für Of Montreal, als sich Songwriter Kevin Barnes einem stärker elektronisch-tanzbaren Sound zuwandte. Die lebendige Mischung aus Synthie-Pop und Psych-Rock wurde zum kommerziell erfolgreichsten Of Montreal-Album mit mehreren kultigen Fanfavoriten. Zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum veröffentlicht Polyvinyl die "The Sunlandic Twins (20th Anniversary Edition)", von Miles Showell in den Abbey Road Studios auf halber Geschwindigkeit neu für Vinyl remastert. Sie enthält das auf 45rpm neu geschnittene Originalalbum sowie einen digitalen Download mit einer zusätzlichen Fundgrube an Bonusmaterial, darunter bisher unveröffentlichte Raritäten, B-Sides, Coverversionen, Remixe und Livetracks, die einen tieferen Einblick in den kreativen Prozess hinter dieser faszinierenden Platte bieten. Neu verpackt auf holografischem Goldpapier samt Booklet mit noch nie zuvor gesehenen Skizzen des Cover-Artworks von David Barnes und einem Vorwort von Kevin Barnes.

Endlich zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl erhältlich, die My First Holly Golightly Album CD Compilation von vor zwanzig Jahren! Eine 14-Track-Compilation, inspiriert von der damaligen Live-Show von Holly Golightly. Diese Zusammenstellung enthält Hollys Lieblingssongs von ihrem Debütalbum The Good Things aus dem Jahr 1995 bis hin zu ihrem Album Slowly but Surely von 2004. Außerdem enthält sie vier exklusive Tracks, die eigens für dieses Album aufgenommen wurden.

On her forthcoming record, Rose Cousins holds our hands as she guides us on a journey through the "conditions of love." Ever the emotional explorer, the acclaimed, Nova-Scotia-based folk artist seeks truth, in all its imperfection, in the depths of our most complicated of emotions: love. Co-produced with trusted friend and longtime bandmate Joshua Van Tassel, this new collection of songs sees Rose return to her first love, the piano. “Piano is where I feel the most connected. It’s the best partner in expressing the emotion I’m mining,” she shares. Rose’s work as garnered her two JUNO Awards (2013’s We Have Made a Spark & 2021’s Bravado), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, eleven East Coast Music Awards and one Grammy nomination (2018’s Natural Conclusion), along with praise from the likes of the CBC, No Depression, LA Times, Billboard, Folk Alley, and NPR, who raved “Cousins’ disarmingly fluid vocal tone has the ability to convey the most internalized feelings without an ounce of fuss.” Over the years, she has shared stages with Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jann Arden, Bruce Cockburn, Josh Ritter, Kathleen Edwards, Joe Henry, Aoife O’Donovan and Anais Mitchell, and her music has fittingly underscored scenes from notable TV shows including Grey’s Anatomy, Fire Country, Station 19, and Batwoman, along with several independent films.

The debut recording from one of jazz music's most revered pianists! First U.S. vinyl release!

All-analog remastering by Bernie Grundman.
"Byard is absolutely brilliant...highly recommended." - All Music

Originally recorded in 1960, briefly released in Japan in the early ’70s, it wasn’t until 1988 that Jaki Byard’s solo debut, Blues For Smoke, was widely released. Even then it was more of a secret handshake among fans than the catalog cornerstone it should have always been. Now, Candid has finally created the definitive edition of this lost masterpiece for all to experience.

Byard backed generations of jazz icons, including Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Roland Kirk, and Quincy Jones.

As a bandleader and soloist, he went on to build his own catalog of iconic recordings across three decades while establishing himself as an educator and mentor to the next generation of artists, most notably, Grayson Hugh, Fred Hersch, and Jason Moran. Blues For Smoke is where it all began.

Recorded as a solo-piano showcase for Byard’s incredible gifts as a player, composer, and jazz historian, the exquisitely engineered session is given new life by Bernie Grundman’s sensitive remastering. With this release, Candid is hoping to make Jaki Byard’s very first album the rosetta-stone of jazz piano it was intended to be.

Of all the artists who recorded for the Black Jazz label, keyboardist and composer Doug Carn was the most prolific, releasing four albums for the imprint. 1972’s Spirit of the New Land was his second Black Jazz release, but the first one (of two) to co-feature his wife, vocalist Jean Carn. It’s the most collectible of the bunch, showcasing Carn’s innovative approach of adding lyrics to jazz standards like Miles Davis’ “Blue in Green” and Lee Morgan’s “Search for the New Land,” while originals like “Arise and Shine” and “My Spirit” soar with spiritual fervor on the wings of his wife’s five-octave range.

Along for the ride are a stellar cast of players, including trumpeter Charles Tolliver, co-founder of the Strata-East label; saxophonist George Harper, who played with Herbie Hancock and Jimmy Smith among others; trombonist Garnett Brown, who appears on albums by Roland Kirk, Albert Ayler, and Art Blakey among his hundreds of album credits; tuba player Earl McIntyre, whose discography spans from Carla Bley to the Band; and drummer Alphonse Mouzon, founding member of Weather Report. This beautiful, uplifting album also comes with liner notes by Pat Thomas, author of Listen, Whitey! The Sights and Sounds of Black Power 1965-1975, that feature excerpts from a freewheeling interview conducted with Doug Carn himself. Pressed in blue with black swirl vinyl limited to 750 copies!

Yeah, legendary drummer Ginger Baker was in a trio with Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce. But would it be sacrilege to suggest that perhaps that outfit was the not the, ahem, cream of the crop when it comes his career’s musical threesomes? For the Ginger Baker Trio, first heard on the 1994 album Going Back Home, featured Charlie Haden on bass and Bill Frisell on guitar! And that record lived up to its pedigree with a fascinating blend of British folk, Arabic-tinged melodies, and jazz, propelled by Baker’s astonishing jazz chops on his double bass kit (punctuated by some of his trademark tom-tom fills) and shot through with Haden’s melodic bass work and those impressionistic guitar textures that could only come from a Frisell axe. In short, if you’re a fan of any of these three guys, this album’s a must, and we’ve had it remastered for vinyl (by Mike Milchner at Sonic Vision) for its LP debut. Pressed on forest green vinyl and housed in a jacket with printed insert…limited to 1250 copies!

Lee Hazlewood made his bones producing and cowriting with guitarist Duane Eddy during the ‘50s, and then cemented his immortality with the classic sides he produced for Nancy Sinatra during the ‘60s. Over the past few decades, though, attention has turned to Lee’s idiosyncratic solo work, the heart of which he recorded for the Reprise label and his own LHI Records. Issued in 1968,

Love and Other Crimes is one of his Reprise releases, and it’s one of the weirdest records in his entire catalog. Recorded in Paris with such legendary Wrecking Crew members as guitarist James Burton and drummer Hal Blaine, Hazlewood sounds every bit the bon vivant (read: half drunk) as he swings from country ballads to lightly psychedelic pop highlighted by his rockin’ cover of Bonnie Dobson’s “Morning Dew.” Other highlights include “Rosacoke Street,” which presents him at his most psychedelic lounge lizard-esque, (think a Hunter Thompson character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and his moving “Wait and See,” an apology for bad behavior to an absent lover.

We’ve enlisted Mike Milchner to remaster this one for vinyl… don’t miss Lee’s stream-of-consciousness back cover notes, either. Pressed in sea blue vinyl limited to 1000 copies!

The late, great Calvin Keys’1971 debut album for the Black Jazz Records label announced the arrival of a new star in the jazz guitar firmament. Keys had spent the ‘60s backing up the crème de la crème of jazz organists—Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes—but for his first record as a leader, he was eager to play with a piano player instead. So he recruited one of the best—Larry Nash, who, besides being a member of the L.A. Express, played with everybody from Eddie Harris to Bill Withers to Etta James. Bassist Lawrence Evans, drummer Bob Braye, and flautist-songwriter Owen Marshall rounded out the group on Shawn-Neeq, which might remind some of Pat Metheny’s early work (Metheny acknowledges Keys as an influence), or Grant Green.

But what gives Shawn-Neeq extra depth is that it comes from the heart; as Keys says in Pat Thomas’ liner notes, which feature an interview with the artist: “My thing was, I write about some of the experiences that I’ve had in my life.” Keys became a fixture in the Bay Area jazz scene before he passed in April 2024; this is the album that started his journey. Another gem from the celebrated Black Jazz catalog, pressed in blue with black swirl vinyl limited to 750 copies!

The late, great Calvin Keys’1971 debut album for the Black Jazz Records label announced the arrival of a new star in the jazz guitar firmament. Keys had spent the ‘60s backing up the crème de la crème of jazz organists—Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Jack McDuff, Richard “Groove” Holmes—but for his first record as a leader, he was eager to play with a piano player instead. So he recruited one of the best—Larry Nash, who, besides being a member of the L.A. Express, played with everybody from Eddie Harris to Bill Withers to Etta James. Bassist Lawrence Evans, drummer Bob Braye, and flautist-songwriter Owen Marshall rounded out the group on Shawn-Neeq, which might remind some of Pat Metheny’s early work (Metheny acknowledges Keys as an influence), or Grant Green.

But what gives Shawn-Neeq extra depth is that it comes from the heart; as Keys says in Pat Thomas’ liner notes, which feature an interview with the artist: “My thing was, I write about some of the experiences that I’ve had in my life.” Keys became a fixture in the Bay Area jazz scene before he passed in April 2024; this is the album that started his journey. Another gem from the celebrated Black Jazz catalog, pressed in blue with black swirl vinyl limited to 750 copies!

FIRST TIME EVER ON LP
LIMITED EDITION CLEAR VINYL - ONLY 1000 UNITS PRESSED
COMPACT DISC BACK IN PRINT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS - Now On 8 Panel Digi-Pak
FINAL SMITHEREENS ALBUM WITH ORIGINAL LEAD SINGER PAT DiNIZIO
PRODUCED BY DON DIXEN (REM, GIN BLOSSOMS, MARSHALL CRENSHAW)

“Crushing chronic chords with the dyne-rhythm section to fuel it all, are not only still here, but stronger than ever”. No Depression

"Everything in Smithereens' world is like a film noir shot in psychedelic colors. But this New Jersey band has a talent for creating fresh variations that prevent dust or mist from clouding their music. "Smithereens 2011" reaches a peak with the song that opens the album, the sour-tempered yet utterly transporting "Sorry.” Ken Tucker, NPR

"Wholly satisfying blast of classic Smithereens songcraft and melodicism, colored with Pat DiNizio’s impassioned vocals, Jim Babjak’s thick-toned, stinging guitar, Dennis Diken’s imaginative, powerful drum work and Severo “The Thrilla” Jornacion’s stylish bass. The entire collection sounds like a return to The Smithereens’ mid-to-late ’80s glory years, both song and performance-wise.” GOLDMINE MAGAZINE

“And 2011’s songs – the songs! – vintage! Picks up where Green Thoughts left off. Pop Dose

compiled by tsunaki kadowaki
artwork by yoshirotten
mastering by kuniyuki takahashi

Tsunaki Kadowaki, a staff member at Kyoto’s record store Meditations, the supervisor of "New Age Music Disc Guide", and the founder of Sad Disco, curates the fourth installment of "Midnight in Tokyo" themed around Ambient Kayō.

The Midnight in Tokyo series by Studio Mule focuses on Japanese music, serving as a soundtrack for Tokyo nights—whether for home listening, club play, or as a driving BGM, transcending location and space. After a six-year hiatus, the fourth volume takes "Ambient Kayō" as its new perspective, compiling genre-defying tracks released between 1977 and 1999 to explore the intersection of Japanese ambient and pop music.

For this long-awaited fourth installment, selections were made regardless of record label status (major or independent), era, format (vinyl or CD), original release price, or prior reissues. Instead, the focus was on music that deeply moves the listener, is open-minded and evocative, brims with inspiration and spiritual insight, and embodies the "utagokoro" (singing heart) of Japanese artists.

Opening the compilation is "Umi e Kinasai" by Yōsui Inoue, a legendary Japanese singer-songwriter whose works have recently gained renewed interest as hidden gems of Walearic and ambient pop

Composed and arranged by Katsu Hoshi—who is also known for his arrangements on Inoue’s masterpiece Ice World—the track features renowned players such as Masayoshi Takanaka, Hiroki Inui, and Shigeru Inoue. The song embodies a yearning for Balearic horizons, tinged with youthful vibrancy and sentimentality.

Next, "Oritatamu Umi", compiled from Keiko Nosaka, a 20-string koto player, and George Murasaki, a pioneer of Okinawan rock, is an instrumental track from their album "Niraikanai Requiem 1945". As the title suggests, it carries themes of requiem and remembrance, conveying poetic lyricism even without words. Blending Ryukyuan/Okinawan harmonies and indigenous elements, it unfolds as an intimate and nostalgic piece of progressive rock.

Also featured is "Natsu no Kowareru Koro" by Higurashi, a folk-rock band led by Seiichi Takeda, formerly a guitarist of The Remainders of The Clover, the predecessor of RC Succession. Like the opening track "Umi e Kinasai", this song was also produced by Katsu Hoshi. It stands as a folk/new music piece that takes a step into an "otherworldly" realm, recommended for fans of Twin Cosmos and Masumi Hara.

From the enigmatic Blue, the only work left by the mysterious composer S.R. Kinoshita, comes "Mangrove", a hidden treasure of Japan's ambient/new age scene from the CD era. With an oriental and enigmatic atmosphere, the track evokes a mystical world of deep, uncharted jungles, unfolding as an otherworldly New Age Kayō.

"Yaponesia Sakura", selected from Rehabilual’s sole album New Child, is a masterpiece of Japanese new age music. Produced by Swami Dhyan Akamo, a disciple of Indian meditation teacher Osho and a renowned balafon player, the track features Michio Ogawa (Chakra) and Atsuo Fujimoto (Colored Music). Their collective artistry creates an exquisite spiritual ambient pop sound.

"Asa no Hitoshizuku", the opening folk song from Sachiko Kanenobu’s album Sachiko, is also included. Known for her legendary folk album Misora, produced by Haruomi Hosono, Kanenobu’s fourth album after resuming her career was inspired by her experiences living in San Francisco and revolves around the theme of "love." This track carries the same intimate poetic world as Misora, imbued with a pure, crystalline innocence.

From the synth-pop band E.S. Island, known for the Haruomi Hosono-produced *Teku Teku Mami", comes "Yume Fūrin ", selected from their long-lost new age classic Nanpū from Hachijo. Created while the band’s core duo was living in Hachijō Island, the album aimed to sonically capture "the high and happy vibrations of everyday island life." This track offers a dynamic, tribal-infused New Age Kayō experience.

Dubbed "the world's first Min’yō House Mix" "Esashi Oiwake (Maeuta) " comes from Kanazawa Akiko HOUSE MIX Ⅰ, a collaboration between Japanese house music pioneer Soichi Terada and Akiko Kanazawa, a renowned min’yō singer. Through the prism of club music, Hokkaido's Esashi Oiwake, one of Japan’s most iconic folk songs, is transformed into a futuristic ambient pop piece with intricate sound design.

The compilation also includes "Sweet Ong Choh", a track from Voice From Asia, a group active between 1989 and 1992 featuring vocal artist Shizuru Ohtaka. Taken from their imaginative minimal work Voice From Asia, released under Aoyama Spiral’s music label Newsic, the song presents a tranquil, tribal-minimal soundscape enriched by ethnic instruments.

Hailed by Haruomi Hosono as having “a shaman residing in her voice,” singer-songwriter Nami Hōdatsu also appears in the selection. Known for her collaborations with Henry Kawahara, her debut album featured "Asa-Hikari-Ame-Yume", a track that now stands as a precursor to modern vocaloid/synthesized vocal music—a hidden gem of post-choir aesthetics that deserves rediscovery.

Likewise, "Tennessee Waltz", from Naomi Akimoto’s album One Night Stand, supported by members of Mariah, serves as another early prototype of vocaloid/synthesized vocal music. The track weaves fragmented vocal samples, pastoral yet sweetly minimal synth sounds, and mechanical beats into a strikingly unconventional piece in the history of Japanese music.

Closing the compilation is "Heaven Electric", a track from Nav Katze’s album Gentle & Elegance, which featured remixes by Autechre, Seefeel, and Sun Electric. Merging elements of IDM, ambient techno, and chillout, the song embodies an optimism reminiscent of space music while seamlessly blending a mystical Japanese aesthetic—an ambient pop masterpiece.

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The album presents 12 exquisite pop tracks infused with an ambient feeling, resonating deeply with the evolving landscape of the mid-2020s—a time of post-hyperpop and Y2K revival.

Tsunaki Kadowaki (Compiler)

Born in 1993 in Yonago, Tottori, Tsunaki Kadowaki is a staff member and buyer at Kyoto’s Meditations record store. He is the editor of New Age Music Disc Guide (DU BOOKS) and a contributor to Music Magazine, Record Collectors' Magazine, ele-king, and more. Kadowaki has written liner notes for multiple Japanese releases (Brian Eno, Masahiro Sugaya etc.) and runs the Sad Disco music label under Disk Union. He also curates Spotify’s official New Age Music playlist and performed as a DJ at YCAM’s Audio Base Camp #3 in 2024.

"Invisible Threads" is a sonic assault that penetrates the darkest depths of existence. This album explores themes of human degradation, unspoken fears, and wars that ravage not only bodies but also minds. A fierce manifestation of death metal, "Invisible Threads" overwhelms the listener with a crescendo of sonic brutality and raw emotions_an unrelenting frontal impact from the first to the last track, destined to leave a lasting mark.

"Invisible Threads" is a sonic assault that penetrates the darkest depths of existence. This album explores themes of human degradation, unspoken fears, and wars that ravage not only bodies but also minds. A fierce manifestation of death metal, "Invisible Threads" overwhelms the listener with a crescendo of sonic brutality and raw emotions_an unrelenting frontal impact from the first to the last track, destined to leave a lasting mark.