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"The Outfit release career defining new album, Preservers of the Pearl, asserting themselves as messengers of the new wave of underground rock and roll, pushing the movement forward alongside fellow trailblazers Mystery Lights, Sheer Mag, Shadow Show, Uni Boys + more.

Everything has been leading here. Daniel Romano shifts from his position as sole writer, opening the floor to Outfit stalwarts Ian Romano and Carson McHone, and welcoming into the fold longtime friend and legendary Canadian rock-n-roller, Tommy Major. The band is functioning as a true collective — multiple voices and perspectives — all serving one creative pulse. The result is both a new beginning and a homecoming, a complete and fearless statement.

Tracked to tape at their own Camera Varda studio, the album captures the band live in the room — breathing, musing, and believing. It’s the sound of human hands and hearts at work, in a shared moment of co-creation, preserved in real time in stunning hi-fi.

Here is music as communion — rock n roll as experience. Preservers of the Pearl rejects the flattening forces in modern times — what the band calls “the mono-agriculture of the mind.” In a “target culture”, condemned to homogeny and banality, The Outfit refuse polish and uniformity, embracing imperfection as truth, and promoting curiosity through creativity. At the center of it all is a deep spiritual current — what The Outfit calls Rock & Roll Magick: the belief that music is a sacred act, a force that can reconnect the individual to what is larger.

The Outfit are making music that is purposeful and profoundly urgent. Preservers of the Pearl is an invocation - it’s fearless in a time of great compromise, and resolute in an age of peripheral bullshit. Here is a band serving something greater than themselves."

"The Outfit release career defining new album, Preservers of the Pearl, asserting themselves as messengers of the new wave of underground rock and roll, pushing the movement forward alongside fellow trailblazers Mystery Lights, Sheer Mag, Shadow Show, Uni Boys + more.

Everything has been leading here. Daniel Romano shifts from his position as sole writer, opening the floor to Outfit stalwarts Ian Romano and Carson McHone, and welcoming into the fold longtime friend and legendary Canadian rock-n-roller, Tommy Major. The band is functioning as a true collective — multiple voices and perspectives — all serving one creative pulse. The result is both a new beginning and a homecoming, a complete and fearless statement.

Tracked to tape at their own Camera Varda studio, the album captures the band live in the room — breathing, musing, and believing. It’s the sound of human hands and hearts at work, in a shared moment of co-creation, preserved in real time in stunning hi-fi.

Here is music as communion — rock n roll as experience. Preservers of the Pearl rejects the flattening forces in modern times — what the band calls “the mono-agriculture of the mind.” In a “target culture”, condemned to homogeny and banality, The Outfit refuse polish and uniformity, embracing imperfection as truth, and promoting curiosity through creativity. At the center of it all is a deep spiritual current — what The Outfit calls Rock & Roll Magick: the belief that music is a sacred act, a force that can reconnect the individual to what is larger.

The Outfit are making music that is purposeful and profoundly urgent. Preservers of the Pearl is an invocation - it’s fearless in a time of great compromise, and resolute in an age of peripheral bullshit. Here is a band serving something greater than themselves."

On his new album, the Ivorian balafon virtuoso Aly Keïta explores new horizons for his instrument in improvised music. Together with his Berlin-based trio, he conquers the peaks of balafon possibilities one by one, wandering between groovy African rhythms, spectacular polyphony and elements of jazz, and combining them into a fusion that is both futuristic and deeply in roots. In Balafon Evolution, Keïta establishes a new level of balafon artistry, creating universal, contemporary soundscapes that transcend cultural boundaries. The Aly Keïta Trio embodies the pulsating spirit of the Berlin jazz scene. Coming from different cultural backgrounds, the three musicians found a common language on stage as they explored the metropole, one of the most active, buzzing jazz hubs of Europe. Aly Keïta and the Dutch drummer Marcel van Cleef, began playing together in 2008, forming the core of the trio"s future "groove machine". As a part of the "Aly Keïta and Magic Balafon" formation, they shared a prize of the Global music contest "Creole" in 2009. Recognised as one of the most intriguing and innovative bass players among the new generation, the Italian bass player Roberto Badoglio, joined trio in 2014, becoming a true "fusion reactor" of the band.

Taupe’s latest album release, waxing | waning delivers jazz experimentalism, ‘skronk’, avant-rock, and electronics, by the Glasgow-based trio, due out via Minority Records. Across its seven tracks, waxing | waning captures Taupe’s approach – bold and boundary pushing – shaped by a fresh shift in the band’s dynamic and compositional approach.

Taupe’s waxing | waning, co-composed and realised by its players in a studio that was once an undertaker’s premises in Glasgow, is an absolutely affirmative album, an act of cultural defiance in desperate times.

Comprising Mike Parr-Burman (guitar, bass guitar, electronics), Jamie Stockbridge (alto and baritone saxophones) and Alex Palmer (drum kit, percussion), Taupe work up a storm of skronk, free jazz and harmolodic frenzy whose closest relations include Zu, Melt Banana and John Zorn. However, waxing | waning is from its opening, stuttering blasts, an exercise in seeking out and claiming new territory, finding unique and novel permutations in which jazz, rock, electronics interbreed at breakneck pace. Here is a group determined to say and do things they don’t get to say and do elsewhere in their musical lives.

‘Lemonade Tycoon’ hits the ground skronking. It’s cubistic jazz, cumulative in its impact, avoiding the white lines of the conventional freeway, bridling, bustling, coming at you from all angles – a three way conversation of astonishing rapidity, fast track, telepathic communication – everyone from James Chance to Albert Ayler coming at you at once, before morphing in to a spidery scrawl of electronics and furious percussion. ‘Anti-Bird-Spike BirdNest’s‘ title somehow sums up the sort of mental images evoked by the music – its sheer creative disobedience, as if being chased in vain, like a delivery rider evading capture by ICE agents -– shapeshifting, assuming different shades, sprouting metal quills and, in its midsection, seeming almost to swallow itself alive, before regurgitating itself in a sublime mess.

‘Interlude (Stride)’ is not exactly ambient, more a horizontal enmeshment of percussion, drones, reverberant noise, electronics, a sonic mulch. ‘allcapsallbold' reminds of early Aksak Maboul, in its playfulness, a haywire series of short phrases, subject to mechanical interference, a complex weave of irregular rhythms, increasingly eloquent sax phraseology and caustic guitars, which land heavier and heavier. ‘Pet Boss' is the new jazz equivalent of a highly evolved, mature conversation among brilliant equals, sharp, empathetic, complementary, rising to a collective, joyful noise. On the title track, electronics descend like a shower of bright particles, intensifying in their luminosity, whitening the skies, as sax and drums kick up a tempestuous, spontaneously sculpted noise that summons the ghosts of the great free jazz players, before a dark calm descends slowly. Finally, ‘Turn Push Kick’, a burgeoning chatterstorm of electronics, before the group kicks in, at angles to one another, led by abrasive guitars, reminiscent of Sunn O))) in their ritualistic concussion, riffing, digging deep amid squealing sax and piledriving percussion.

After traveling through Mexico, Miami, the Bahamas, and New Orleans, Nishioka recorded his fourth album South American Journey in Los Angeles,
released in 1979. From this album, two of his most celebrated tracks—“GYPSY SONG”, a fan favorite with numerous cover versions, and “NEVER LAND”,
featuring the distinctive sound of steel pans and a Japanese reggae vibe are now being pressed on 7-inch vinyl for the first time in a limited edition!

The recording features members of the So What Review band, including Junshi Yamagishi (guitar) and Osamu Ishida (guitar), along with renowned steel pan
player Robert Greenidge, known for collaborations with Van Dyke Parks and Taj Mahal.
(FLATT THE LAIDBACK)

Kyozo Nishioka Profile
(Born May 7, 1948 – Died April 3, 1999)
Singer songwriter from the Shima Peninsula in Mie Prefecture, affectionately nicknamed “Zo-san”.
After enrolling at Kinki University and moving to Osaka, Nishioka became a regular at the folk cafe Dylan in Namba, opened in August 1969 by Masaji Otsuka
and Yoko Ishimura. Dylan was a gathering spot for folk music enthusiasts from all over Japan.
Nishioka formed the folk group The Dylan with Masaji Otsuka and You Nagai, performing at folk camps and the Nakatsugawa Folk Jamboree. In 1971, Nishioka
left the group, and Otsuka and Nagai continued as The Dylan II. Nishioka wrote and composed the song “Puka Puka” under the pen name Zokyozo, which became
one of his signature works. The song was first released in July 1971 as the B-side of The Dylan II’s single “Otoko rashii tte Wakarukai” on URC Records.
Nishioka began his solo career, releasing his debut album “Dylan nite” in July 1972, produced by Kinji Yoshino on Bellwood Records, which included his own
version of “Puka Puka”. In September 1973, he appeared at the farewell concert of Happy End titled CITY – LAST TIME AROUND at Bunkyo Public Hall in Tokyo.
His 1974 album “Machiyuki Murayuki” was produced by Haruomi Hosono, and his 1975 album “Rokka My Baby” featured support from Shigeru Suzuki’s band
HUCKLE BACK. Nishioka recorded three albums under Hosono’s production, deepening their friendship.
Together with his wife and lyricist KURO, Nishioka wrote songs for artists such as Eikichi Yazawa. The couple traveled the world, recording overseas albums such
as “Nanbei Ryoko” (1977), “Yoh-Sollo” (1979), and “New York to Jamaica” (1981), incorporating reggae, calypso, and other global sounds. In the 1980s, he released
works under the duo name KYOZO & BUN with Yoshifumi Okajima, and in the 1990s returned to solo projects with albums like “START” (1993) and “Farewell
Song” (1997).
After KURO’s passing in 1997, Nishioka continued his musical activities until his own death in 1999 at the age of 50. His music transcended the boundaries of folk,
blending jazz and tropical elements to create a unique world view, leaving an indelible mark on Japanese music history.

Since 2020, 12 Inch Lovers have been releasing new samplers every year, eagerly anticipated by collectors. These samplers have now become a staple and are easily added to vinyl collections across Europe. They offer timeless classics and rare tracks that are often hard to find elsewhere.

With Samplers 11 & 12, they surprise again with a mix of modern classics and tracks that have never been released on vinyl or are difficult to find. By adding unique and exclusive tracks, the 12 Inch Lovers samplers remain innovative and high-quality. They are a must-have for DJs, collectors, and fans of contemporary classics!

SAMPLER 11

A1) Paul Kalkbrenner - No Goodbye (2019)

Berlin techno producer Paul Kalkbrenner became world-famous with his 2008 hit Sky & Sand. Since then, he has released one record after another and performed all over the world in the biggest venues and at the most renowned festivals. No Goodbye is one of his more recent hits, released in the summer of 2019.

The track was created using an a cappella he received on a demo tape while on tour. He was immediately inspired by the vocal and built his own sound and production around it. Interestingly, Kalkbrenner rarely uses vocals, but for No Goodbye he collaborated with Australian singer Chiara Hunter, giving the track a unique and instantly recognisable character. The result is a stylish, dance-floor-friendly track with a rolling house groove that quickly became a modern classic on dance floors worldwide.

A2) Water World - Give Me Love (2000)

This trance classic by Water World appeared in 2000 on the French label Adequat Records and is the perfect tune for a sunny summer evening. Warm melodies and pulsing beats instantly create that beach feeling, as if you were dancing with your feet in the sand. The record recalls Beachball by Nalin & Kane, sharing the same dreamy, sun-drenched vibe.

Behind Water World were producers Laurent David and Frédéric De Backer-names well known to many trance fans. In the nineties De Backer was active with projects such as Global Trance Mission (Dream Mission) and Y-Traxx, the trio that released the 1997 classic Mystery Land.

Give Me Love clearly bears their combined signature: euphoric, warm and melodic, with a timeless build that perfectly balances emotion and energy. The track was released on vinyl as part of Trance E.P. Vol. 01 and remains a fixture in retro-trance sets to this day.

B1) Panoramic - Colors (1996)

Colors by Panoramic is a Belgian trance classic released in 1996 on the legendary label XTC Records, a sub-label of Bonzai Records. Panoramic was a collaboration between Belgian techno icon Marco Bailey and Mauro Mirisola. The duo, also known under playful aliases such as The Coke Man & Sniff, released an EP featuring two powerful trance tracks.

We chose Colors, a tune with pure Belgian trance DNA: driving rhythm, dreamy synths and a catchy female vocal. The combination of Bailey's production expertise and Mirisola's creative touch resulted in a timeless track that still appears in many classic playlists.

B2) Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful Of Sunshine (StoneBridge Club Remix) (2008)

British singer-songwriter Natasha Bedingfield released the album Pocketful of Sunshine in 2008, featuring the title track as a single. The original pop version became a major hit in North America, reaching the Top 5 in the US. Swedish DJ and producer StoneBridge (Sten Hallström) reworked the song into a groovy house version, released in the summer of 2008.

StoneBridge gave the upbeat pop tune a club-ready beat and an infectious piano riff that made it shine on dance floors worldwide. It was not his first time transforming pop into house gold-he had already achieved global fame with his remix of Robin S - Show Me Love (1992), one of the greatest house anthems of all time. He also remixed Sia - The Girl You Lost to Cocaine in 2008, another club favourite.

The StoneBridge Club Remix of Pocketful of Sunshine appeared on a special remix EP in July 2008 and was played endlessly in clubs-by us too, in the venues where we performed. The result is a timeless, sun-soaked house classic thatmakes sitting still impossible.

C1) Y-Traxx - Mystery Land (Fred Baker vs Mr Sam's Magical Mystery Dub Mix) (original release 1995)

Y-Traxx was a nineties trance project by DJs Laurent David and Fred Baker. This trance classic first appeared in 1995 as a B-side but gained real attention when it featured on a Paul Oakenfold mix album. Thanks to that success it received an official re-release in 1998 on the respected French label FFRR (Full Frequency Range Recordings).

In 2003 an excellent remix by Mr. Sam & Fred Baker followed on the Nebula label. That version is highly sought after on vinyl by trance collectors, and we are proud to feature it on our new sampler.

C2) Weiss - Feel My Needs (2018)

Feel My Needs by British producer Weiss (alias Richard Dinsdale) is the tune with that unmistakable old-school piano and catchy vocal that instantly pulls you onto the dance floor. Released in May 2018on the UK label Toolroom Records, the track is pure feel-good house with a modern touch. From the very first piano riff, hands go up in the air.

Toolroom even called it a "future anthem" for the summer of 2018, and indeed Feel My Needs became a huge floor-filler. The record charted high on global dance lists and gained massive popularity at festivals and clubs that year. With its warm piano chords, tight beat and soulful vocal, this is a modern house classic that will stay in the collective club memory for a long time.

D1) The Killers - Mr. Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix) (2005)

American band The Killers formed in 2001 and scored a massive hit a few years later with Mr Brightside. Taken from their debut album Hot Fuss (2004), it became their biggest and best-known track-a true rock-pop anthem.

In 2005 the song was given an electronic twist when renowned producer and remixer Jacques Lu Cont (the alias of Stuart Price) created an eight-minute dance version titled Mr Brightside (Jacques Lu Cont's Thin White Duke Mix). This remix replaced the raw rock energy with a more progressive and electronic vibe, driven by a steady beat and long build-up.

The track found a second life in club culture and quickly became a dance-floor favourite. For vinyl collectors it was an instant must-have, and to this day it stands as the perfect party closer. The Killers themselves loved it so much that they often used the remix live as an outro, followed by the original version. A remix that perfectly bridged rock and club culture-and has since become a genuine classic.

D2) Sia - Drink To Get Drunk (Different Gear Remix) (2001)

The legendary ice-cube sleeve says it all: Drink to Get Drunk was a huge club hit in the early 2000s. Released in 2001 on the UK label INCredible, a sub-label of Sony Music, it was a collaboration between British DJ duo DifferentGear (Gino Scaletti & Quinn Whalley) and singer Sia.

The producers took Sia's original song Drink to Get Drunk from her album Healing Is Difficult and gave it a complete transformation, keeping her distinctive vocal and placing it over a hypnotic progressive-house groove.

The combination of Sia's unmistakable voice and the deep, driving production hit hard: the track became hugely popular in Belgian clubs and turned into an anthem of its time. In Belgium it even reached number one in the dance chart in early 2001, and it also performed strongly in the UK and the Netherlands.

To this day it remains a nostalgic crowd-pleaser that perfectly captures the atmosphere of the early 2000s.

8-page lyric / drawing booklet, glossy poster, download card (inc. mp3s), white inner paper bags, sticker on cover.

After 7 strange years of relative silence, and 13 years of being a band, Dog Chocolate have returned with ‘So Inspired, So Done In’. Their fourth album is their most focused, cohesive and song-y yet. They still sound like a bin full of wasps, but now the bin has double-cream or a Viennetta or something at the bottom. While many of the 16 songs on here barely make it past the 3-minute mark, each one is bursting with all the textures and colours of an office cupboard: full of old sweets, fluorescent markers, and multiple ways to fix paper together.

Thematically, a lot of ground is covered, with songs tackling subject matter as diverse as overheard conversations, healing fungal toenails, the Rogerian concept of the Actualising Tendency, bronze age living conditions, dreaming songs into being and human-plant relations. Work (and anti-work) is a recurring theme, as is artistic inspiration and burnout. Dog Chocolate revel in the mundane and incidental, to explore bigger, existential questions. Recorded and mixed by POZI’s Toby Burroughs and mastered by Sofia Lopes, ‘So Inspired, So Done In’ charts a long and confusing period in the band’s collective life, marked by major life changes, losses and shifts, colouring the band’s trademark frantic, daft and anxious energy with a contemplative glaze. Dog Chocolate continue to investigate their internal and external landscapes with playful curiosity, frustration, silliness and empathy.

Pre/history of the band: In the early 2000’s Andrew (vocals), Rob (guitar, vocals) and Matthew (guitar, vocals) played together as teenagers in South-East London-based maximalist, costumed surrealist punk band Yeborobo. They met drummer Jonathan playing with his instrument-swapping masked band Limn at art space Utrophia in Deptford. Later, when both bands had split, Dog Chocolate formed with a shared desire to make a band that was simpler than their theatrical past: small amps and light guitars, no more than 2 drums at any one time, a keyboard no longer than a ruler and a shared ethos… “it’s about giving a shit, but at the same time not giving a shit, but not ‘whatever’, not giving up never!”. The band floated the term “pencilcase punk” to describe their jumbled, colourful, dense and instant music.

Dog Chocolate built on this early scrappiness, bedding into their sound over several albums. Their first “Or” (2014) was a split with Ravioli Me Away, soon followed by “Snack Fans” (2016) and “Moody Balloon Baby” (2018). Along the way they played gigs with bands as wide ranging as Deerhoof, No Age, Dry Cleaning, Palm, Daniel Wakeford, Shopping and Pozi.

With a tendency to converse with each other both lyrically and musically cultivated over many years, the members of Dog Chocolate bounce off each other, respectfully disagree, try to make each other laugh and share some of their most vulnerable feelings with each other. ‘So Inspired, So Done In’ is their own unique offering during these unsteady times: a language of friendship translated into songs.

Rick James Blends Brazen Attitude, Fearless Sexuality, and Shrewd Charisma on Street Songs:

Punk-Funk Album Aims for the Hips and Head, Includes the Timeless Hit “Super Freak”
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 4,000 Numbered Copies:

Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Presents 1981 Smash in Audiophile Sound for the First Time
1/4” / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe


“Punk funk” was a relatively unknown concept before 1981. But once Street Songs took the charts by storm that year, the world soon knew about what became Rick James’ signature style. And how. True to its name, Street Songs blends outspoken sexuality, brazen attitude, and edgy commentary amid contagious R&B-fueled arrangements that simultaneously aim for the hips, head, and various nether regions. And it’s never sounded better.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents James’ platinum-certified effort in audiophile quality for the first time. Playing with crisp dynamics, lively textures, airy headroom, and revealing clarity, this collectible edition of the record that stayed at the No. 1 spot on the R&B Album Charts for 20 weeks invites you to get closer to music that beckons you to turn your space into a private dance floor.

Then again, you’ll likely be so taken by how the taut bass lines, snappy rhythms, and four-on-the-floor beats — all rendered in stunning detail and with full-bodied architecture — come across with such accuracy and presence, you might stay pinned to your seat. On this pressing, the soundstaging, imaging, and lit-fuse energy of Street Songs reach new heights. Everything from the rubbery feel of the guitar lines to the depth of James’ temperature-raising vocals to the scale of the horn charts emerges as if James and his ace session crew set up in your room.

The Buffalo native and his ensemble waste no time getting their message across. On the album-opening “Give It to Me Baby,” James and company lay down a mix of sleek funk and pulsing disco that practically activates the bright lights of a discotheque and stimulates the libido of anyone within earshot. Having reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul charts, the song is pure sex — and just one of the carnal delights on a record that embraces the subject as fearlessly as James does his identity.

Of course, the most famous of James’ erotic excursions — the timeless “Super Freak” — hit No. 1 on Hot Dance Club Play charts, No. 16 on the Hot 100, and, later, No. 153 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 500 Songs of All Time. Bolstered by a quavering keyboard theme and electro riffs, the much-sampled track worms itself inside your muscles with smile-inducing subject matter, gliding vocals, nimble movements, a hot tenor-saxophone solo, and backing vocals by the Temptations.

The iconic Motown group isn’t the only celebrated guest artist on the Grammy-nominated Street Songs. James’ then-labelmate, Stevie Wonder, lends harmonica to the frank sociopolitical narrative on “Mr. Policeman,” a protest tune that also manages to stroll ’n’ strut via simmering organ, staggering brass accents, and James’ gritty vocal performance. In addition to contributing backing vocals on several cuts, Teena Marie turns in one of the album’s signature moments on “Fire and Desire,” a romantic old-school duet with James that impresses with smoothness, sensitivity, and smokiness.

High-profile colleagues aside, James remains the undisputed star, a figure whose leather-and-latex attire, braided hair, and natural swagger made him misunderstood by some in the mainstream and embraced by everyone in the know as a true original. As a testament to his magnetism and skills, his charisma and rawness seemingly seep through every note, whether on the balladic sweep of the risqué “Make Love to Me” or strident, poke-and-prod persuasion of the moonwalking “Call Me Up.”

On the closing “Below the Funk (Pass the J),” an uptempo autobiographical tale that addresses the visionary musician’s second-favorite love, the singer acknowledges his upbringing and inseparable connection with his roots — an homage to where he began and a toast to where he’s gone.

Rick James, keepin’ it real on Street Songs, still as real as it gets.

Synthpop, minimal wave, post-punk, goth, new romantic - fans and critics alike have dug deeply into their vintage thesauruses to describe the beguiling work of Nation of Language. And if you can't precisely define the band, that's the point. Frontman Ian Richard Devaney has become prodigious in expanding what synthesizer-driven music can evoke, such that his output is as much an extrasensory journey as it is an all-too-human destination. With that experience in mind, he wrote the band's fourth album - the spectral, spacious Dance Called Memory - in the most humble of ways: chipping away at melancholia by sitting around and strumming his guitar. Nation of Language's first two albums, Introduction, Presence (2020), and A Way Forward (2021), came as pandemic godsends: gorgeous, relatable soundtracks to our collective doldrums. But it was their last LP, Strange Disciple (2023), that catapulted the group from cultural standouts to critical darlings, with the album being named Rough Trade's Album of the Year. With that release, Pitchfork wrote that the band "are learning what it means to get bigger and better." This is Devaney's calling: soulfully translating individual despair into a comforting, collective mourning. The single "Now That You're Gone," which radiates and reverberates with a devastating wistfulness, was inspired by witnessing his godfather's tragic death from ALS, and his parents' role as caretakers for this ailing friend. At its heart, the song is a reflection of how friends can be there for each other, and also highlights a theme throughout the record: the pain and lost promise of friendships that fall apart. On Dance Called Memory, the band once again collaborated with friend and Strange Disciple producer Nick Millhiser (LCD Soundsystem, Holy Ghost!). "What's so great about Nick is his ability to make us feel like we don't need to do what might be expected of us," says synth player Aidan Noell, who, along with bassist Alex MacKay, rounds out the Nation of Language lineup. They imbued Dance Called Memory with a shifted palette - sampling chopped-up drum breaks on "I'm Not Ready for the Change" for a touch of Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine or smashing all of the percussion of "In Another Life" through a synthesizer to cast a shade of early-2000s electronic music. Ultimately, the hope was to weave raw vulnerability and humanity into a synth-heavy album. "There is a dichotomy between the Kraftwerk school of thought and the Brian Eno school of thought, each of which I've been drawn to at different points. I've read about how Kraftwerk wanted to remove all the humanity from their music, but Eno often spoke about wanting to make synthesized music that felt distinctly human," Devaney says. "As much as Kraftwerk is a sonically foundational influence, with this record I leaned much more towards the Eno school of thought. In this era quickly being defined by the rise of AI supplanting human creators I'm focusing more on the human condition, and I need the underlying music to support that_ Instead of hopelessness, I want to leave the listener with a feeling of us really seeing one another, that our individual struggles can actually unite us in empathy."

Our Mirage have carved out a distinct voice in the heavier music scene with emotionally charged lyrics, atmospheric textures, and searing intensity. Formed in 2017, the band quickly gained momentum through an ever-growing fanbase and a string of compelling releases. Their 2022 studio album Eclipse has amassed over 15 million streams on Spotify, cementing their reputation as one of Germany’s most exciting new metalcore exports. Now, the band is gearing up for their most ambitious release yet: Fractured Minds, due out on January 30th, 2026. The record promises to be even more explosive, expanding on their signature mix of crushing heaviness and emotional depth. The momentum is already undeniable —with five singles released from Fractured Minds to date, the band has accumulated over 5.5 million Spotify streams on those tracks alone. Meanwhile, Our Mirage currently count more than 260,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, underlining their ever-growing international presence. Beyond streaming success, Our Mirage have proven themselves a formidable live act, playing major festival stages such as Summer Breeze Open Air and delivering powerful, emotionally raw performances night after night. In January and February 2026, the band will embark on a co-headline tour, bringing Fractured Minds directly to fans across Europe.

Pioen is the second album by Elisabeth Klinck & Nils Vermeulen, released on blickwinkel. It was recorded in a small chapel of a monastery in the city center of Ghent. A chapel by nature is a place of contemplation and meditation, which automatically had influence on the music. Movements slow down, attention is sharpened and the overwhelming silence of the space becomes part of the music. Sound and silence are meticulously woven into each other. Even when the music grows at times dense and heavy, there is an ever-present sense of closeness and intimacy. This is reinforced by the use of the voice, which naturally appears throughout the album, not as a separate layer but as an extension of the instruments.

The pieces – this time more curated than on their previous album Pair, Paire – arose from hours-long improvisations where sound became space and space became sound. Bringing together violin, double bass and voice, Pioen unfolds as a serene and honest journey, inviting the listener into a state of contemplation.

Elisabeth Klinck is a contemporary violinist, composer and performer based in Brussels, known or her timeless, deep-listening sound worlds. Her album Picture a Frame (2023) and Chronotopia - selected by The Quietus as one of the best albums of 2025 - were released on the Swiss label Hallow Ground. A big part of her work revolves around tactility, fragility, and a very physical approaches to sound.

Nils Vermeulen is a Belgian double bass player active in all varieties of adventurous music. He has played with Paul Lytton, Martin Küchen, Seppe Gebruers, William Parker, John Dikeman, Luis Vicente, among others. He works across many scenes, from free improv to jazz to contemporary classical music, and in many distinct constellations, such as his own groups Kabas and Jukwaa, a Norwegian free jazz trio with Tollef Østvang and Heidi Kvelvane, a string duo with Elisabeth Klinck, and as the double bassplayer of Nemo ensemble. In 2023, he released his debut solo album on Aspen Edities.

Heavenly return! As fiercely independent as any punk band, but as sweetly melodic as any chart-topping act, Heavenly combine sharp-edged lyrics with shamelessly joyful pop music. The band comprises original members Amelia Fletcher, Peter Momtchiloff, Cathy Rogers and Rob Pursey, who are now joined on drums by Ian Button. An important element of the Heavenly story was the loss of Mathew Fletcher, who took his own life just before the fourth album was released. It took Amelia, Peter, Cathy and Rob a long time to get over the loss; maybe it took even longer to find a drummer as good as Ian. 'Highway To Heavenly' shares its musical recipe with the band's first four albums, all of which were released in the 1990s at a time when sensitive indie types in the UK were sheltering from the prevailing macho-rock storm under the Sarah Records umbrella, and when women in the US were starting to find their Riot Grrrl voices in the small town of Olympia, where labels like K and Kill Rock Stars were designing a new creative space. The new songs are full of anger, of grief, of empathy, of love, and set themselves in opposition to the resurgence of the cold 'masculine energy' that is making the world a miserable, aggressive place today. It's all pop here, but Highway To Heavenly has a huge range of tones and moods. Heavenly have recently enjoyed a huge resurgence of interest from a younger generation of fans, who have cottoned on to Heavenly's music, but also embraced the band's inclusive version of feminism. The new Heavenly have played a number of sell-out shows in the past couple of years, where older fans have mingled with new devotees. Still our love is Heavenly!

On and on, the beat goes on. Sound System culture plays a huge part in the history of House music, shaping Mysticisms, its founders and the music it brings into the spotlight. Continuing the dive into that history, in all its forms and permutations, Tranquil Elephantizer’s 1995 classic Zombie Dawn is reissued here in its original form.

A name that has been getting noticed on recent releases for the likes of legendary San Francisco collective Wicked Records and Manchester’s cult Red Laser label, the project has, in fact, been around for several decades.

Morphing out of the late 80s Acid House revolution, members Alexis Worrall, brothers Caspar and Darius Kedros and focal point, David Jenkins aka DJ Shakra came together in the South London melting pot of free parties and DIY anything is possible ethos.

Born of a collaboration between the short-lived Camberwell Butterflies project – featuring Alexis Worrall and DJ Shakra amongst others – and the Kedros’ bothers downtempo/trip hop forbears Slowly. With a shared label, on the ground-breaking Chill Out Records, and Thursday late-night encounters at London’s legendary Megatripolis club, they decided to pool studio resources and Tranquil Elephantizer was born.

Mixing lo-fi 808 heavy analog jams of the Butterflies, with the studio sophistication from the Slowly crew, sparked something new and Zombie Dawn was the first result. Local producer Crispin J Glover dropped by the studio, riding high with his Caucasian Boy project’s hypnotic Northern Lights (featuring DJ Shakra on Roland 303) – recently out on Strictly Rhythm – he offered to remix both Zombie Dawn and the Slowly album cut No Slo Dub for release on his own Matrix label and an underground hit on the London and West Coast 90s party scene was born.

Coming in the original “Saxmental Mix”, alongside Glover’s storming “Nu Dawn Club Mix” Zombie Dawn was a correlation of the past, present and future in one record. The history of British House can be heard in the bumpin’ nature of the beats, the sharp hats encompassed around dub overtones that give it added warmth. The slightly quirky, left field touches of the tracks, set against the then weekly overload of sharp US imports, brought the mix of influences from the Tonka and Sugarlump Sound Systems they had partied and been involved with, on to vinyl, adding touches of jazz keys and disco’s heritage for good measure.

A bedfellow for the emerging UK House sound coming on the likes of Luxury Service (Rob Mello / Zaki Dee), Other (A Man Called Adam / DJ D) and Nuphonic (Faze Action / Idjut Boys), that shaped and defined London clubs and far beyond. Some 30 years later, with a new album on the way, here is debut Tranquil Elephantizer’s release, remastered especially for this reissue, ready to bring that optimistic thinking back.

Tranquil the Mystery.

Macclesfield 3-piece Cassia make their extremely welcome return with the announcement of their most ambitious release yet in new studio album everyone, outside - out April 11th.

The album marks a bold new chapter, and recently served up a tropical-tinged first offering in ‘heat’ - with today serving a superb Round Two with the stomping, insatiable, hook-laden new single ‘friends’.

everyone, outside takes Cassia’s sound to new heights. Written fresh off the back of two years of relentless touring, the band channelled every ounce of their renowned live energy into the album, returning to a studio they built themselves in Macclesfield, after creating their previous album in Berlin. The journey provided an added twist, recording the majority of tracks live on TikTok, giving fans a unique, inclusive experience to be part of the process.

The album’s title is a metaphor for embracing your truest self and reflection of a band who are at their happiest outside. It’s a message that speaks to the idea of reconnecting with nature and Britain’s finest summers. As frontman Rob explains, “That title, ‘everyone, outside’ started as a song about how weird it is that we stay inside all the time when being out in nature always makes us feel better. Over time, it came to mean more than that - like a metaphor for being your truest, most natural self, unburdened, like when no one’s watching.”

Drawing influences from a host of genres and cultures, everyone, outside reveals Cassia’s venn diagram of global sounds and intimate storytelling. A trip to Mexico during the writing process injected the record with a new energy, while their time spent in their new space back home gave the band a freedom to try new instruments, new sounds, acquire new tools to hone their production skills - and to simply have fun and explore. “The time we spent in Berlin taught us so much, but coming back home to Macclesfield allowed us to really focus on making something that felt like it came from us. No distractions, just pure creativity,” says drummer Jacob Leff.

Cassia’s rise has been impressive. From their early days busking the streets of Cornwall to playing major festivals, touring the world and receiving critical acclaim from BBC Radio 1, Radio X, The Independent, Rolling Stone UK, Clash & many more, the band has carved out a unique niche. Their sound, influenced by the African music Rob’s father introduced him to, combined with the indie heritage of nearby Manchester, combines the positivity of bands like Foals and Vampire Weekend, with the jazz-tinged afrobeats of Fela Kuti and Ebo Taylor.

After signing to Distiller Records in 2018, the band gave up their full-time jobs and ventured to Bath to record their debut album, Replica. Tracks such as ‘Right There’, ‘Drifting’ & ‘100 Times Over’ have amassed millions of streams, seeing the band sell out multiple headline Tours both in the UK and Europe. Playing to a homecoming capacity crowd at Manchester’s O2 Ritz, as well as sold out headline shows at London’s KOKO & The Garage, the band have accrued a huge, loyal following and their live shows earned them a nomination for Best Live Act at the AIM Awards alongside Idles and DMA’s, as well as making them the winners of Reeperbahn’s Anchor Award in 2022.

Cassia will tour the UK in May 2025, playing songs from the new album and some of their biggest tracks - headlining Leeds, Bristol, a newly added night in Southampton, a special Manchester homecoming, Glasgow, Birmingham, & a huge show at London’s HERE @ Outernet - dates below & Tickets Here. The band will also take things Stateside this year for their first ever run of headline shows in the US & Mexico.

FRQNCY LDN, the new project from Alex Lavery and James Ford (producer du jour and one half of Simian Mobile Disco), are releasing their debut album ‘The White Edition’ on 5 September via PRAH Recordings. Alongside the news of their debut album, the duo are sharing the first taste in ‘Matthias’ Wajd’, which they describe as “a rousing, instrumental piece from the middle of the set where the whole ensemble became balanced providing moments where Raven played violin with haunting yet uplifting melodies within the cavernous reverb of the church. Interestingly, at this moment, most of the audience who had been laying down rose to watch the performance like a gig, like an awakening.”

Initially conceived as a live project with earlier performances at churches in London and at Glastonbury, FRQNCY LDN’s music is a mix of strings, gongs, oscillators, FX, and spoken word, and the result is a musical experience unlike any other. Now that immersive magic has been captured on their debut release through Prah Recordings.

The music that FRQNCY LDN are releasing as their debut album is from an extraordinary live take from a performance at St Matthias Church in Stoke Newington last year, and thanks in no small part to the serendipitous bunch of musicians they assembled: composer and violinist Raven Bush, clarinettist Arun Ghosh, cellist Satin Beige Chousmer, and harpist Chloe Chousmer-Kerr. Alongside Lavery and Ford and assisted by engineer Animesh Ravel, they were able to capture the music to a world class level.

FRQNCY LDN has its roots in a supermoon that occurred three summers ago, after the hottest day of the year. Two of Lavery’s friends gave a sound bath that evening. “I’m not overly into astronomy or anything but the experience was nuts,” he says. “I had to find out what had just happened. What felt like forty minutes was actually two and a half hours. We were all out. It was so profound that I was hooked.”

He immediately signed up for a sound therapy course where he learned about what he calls a “brain hack” to meditation. “The thing about sound therapy is there’s a lot that’s meditation-based, and I find meditation really difficult. I’ve got a very busy brain. What was alluring about this process of sound immersion, a sound bath, whatever you want to call it, is it’s basically a hack to making your brain get into a meditative state.”

FRQNCY LDN’s early shows crystallised their ideas into a project, and Lavery brought poet Nikita Gill on board as a vocalist. “One of the first poems she gave to me, ‘Unwitches’ was in response to me explaining that I’d love this project to be perceived as something anyone could access. It’s not just for the sound meditation or the yoga, or the mushroom crowd. No one should be turned off by connotations from where the music comes from, I love music but I’d never be into that because it’s too woo-woo. Nikita said she’d had this poem for a long time but she’d never found the right home for it.”

And in an increasingly busy and fraught world, the need to tune out for an hour or so, and maybe tune in to something more profound, is only going to get bigger.

It was in about 2003 that Jazzman Gerald came on The OST Show and played this album. He played the track "Scherzi Pesanti" (translates roughly as Heavy Jokes) and I had no idea what was going on. This was jazz but taken to a non-jazz place, and it was a place I really really wanted to go to.

I realised the only way of getting there was to try and find a copy of the LP. It took about 12 months and one came up on eBay. And I bought it for about 20€. But this was back in 2004. This kind of thing doesn't happen any more. Copies of "Tempo Di Naja" do not appear for sale. And if they do, few can afford them. Maybe only a handful of originals actually exist, such was the nature of tiny Italian library companies back in the 1960s and 1970s.

Thankfully now you can visit that strange jazz place dreamed up and brilliantly composed by Remigio Ducros. You might like it there, especially if you like heavy jokes.

Jonny Trunk

Denmark s forward forward-thinking trio Human Being Human return with a luminous new collaboration featuring acclaimed American saxophonist Chris Cheek. Rooted in lyricism, groove, and connection, Being captures the essence of what it means to create music as a shared act of humanity. Formed by bassist Torben Bjornskov, pianist Esben Tjalve, and drummer Frederik Bülow, Human Being Human have quickly earned a reputation as one of Europe s most distinctive piano trios. Their blend of Nordic lyricism and modern rhythmic vitality has drawn international acclaim for its compositional voice and cohesive ensemble sound. On Being , the trio expand their world through the unmistakable voice of Chris Cheek - a player known for his warm tone and intuitive lyricism, whose credits include work with Paul Motian, Brad Mehldau, and Charlie Haden. A long long-time admirer of Cheek s work and humility, Bjornskov reached out and invited him to Denmark to collaborate with the trio. In the studio, the chemistry was undeniable, as most of the album s tracks were captured in just one or two takes, preserving a sense of immediacy and spontaneity. Reflecting on what it means to be human, our capacity to make decisions and shape the world around us, as well as the damage our species has done to our planet, the quartet channels a spirit of contemplation and rediscovery through elegant, organic compositions. Tracks like Human Rights showcase the group s deft interplay and melodic clarity, while the tender ballad Being highlights Cheek s burnished tone and Tjalve s spacious harmonic sense. On Filia , a duo between bass and saxophone, the music unfolds in weightless dialogue and pure musical empathy. True to the group s name, Being reflects on what it means to live, connect, and create as humans in a complex world. The essence of music is working together, being open, being positive, and wanting to experience new things, things," says Bjornskov. That s essentially what jazz is - it s influenced by any and every culture in the world, every kind of music and race, and every person is part of it.

At the start of this summer, following a three-year hiatus for Daphni (punctuated only by his first ever collaborative Daphni track ‘Unidos’ alongside Sofia Kourtesis), he dropped ‘Sad Piano House’. The track represented something of a continuation in the Daphni catalogue, its roots growing from Cherry’s ‘Cloudy’ and its subsequent Kelbin remix, something in that song’s makeup having a profound effect when played on dancefloors by Snaith and countless others. ‘Sad Piano House’ deployed more intangibly irresistible bendy piano to equally satisfying effect and continues to achieve similarly rhapsodic dancefloor saturation.
Though a sizeable gap for Daphni releases, between Cherry and Butterfly however of course sits Honey, the latest Caribou album and one that saw the more instantaneous and dancefloor leaning traits of Daphni peaking through the cracks more than ever before. This blurring of the lines leads to an intriguing collaboration in Butterfly’s lead single ‘Waiting So Long (feat. Caribou)’. An unlikely duo - in that both artists are the same man, Dan Snaith - ‘Waiting So Long’ is not so much an identity crisis, ego trip, or the result of a chemical spill in the Snaith laboratory. It’s simply a track that Snaith felt for the first time belongs to both aliases, and might appeal to fans of both. He has never sung on a Daphni track before, and did not set out with the intention to do so this time, and yet this strange billing was born.

Daphni music has always been Snaith’s way of hitting directly to the core of the dancefloors he spends so much of his time playing to, and those dancefloors have been steadily expanding as his name grows, with the music following suit. This album however also draws from further back with a definite kinship to the very first Daphni album, the invigorating bag of ideas that was Jiaolong.
Butterfly is a showcase of the wonderful variety and surprising twists and turns that made that album such an exciting new prospect and that still to this day make Snaith such an intriguing DJ. There are more heavy hitters here, tracks that fill those dancefloors better than anyone, like ‘Clap Your Hands’ which picks up the energy of ‘Sad Piano House’ and flips it, exposing the gritty and intoxicating underbelly of Snaith’s hitmaking side, while retaining the playful urgency that runs through all of his work of late. Meanwhile ‘Hang’’s comic-strip horns are unpinned by gleeful force, unrelenting and thrillingly unshakeable. Elsewhere though comes a clutch of other tunes that might creep out somewhere more off the beaten path, a path Snaith has never stopped seeking in amongst his larger billings. ‘Lucky’ is squirmy and elusively intoxicating, ‘Invention’ skitters down meandering, inviting corridors, ‘Talk To Me’ grumbles and broods in the murk, and ‘Miles Smiles’ could roll on endlessly, so confident in its groove. There are no obvious peaks in these tracks or unifying moments, in fact many of them really have no business being on the dancefloor at all, and yet in the right setting, they could be the most fun to be had all night.

One such club is a good microcosm for the ethos of Butterfly as a whole. “Around the time I was finishing up this album I played a long set in a club called Open Ground in Wuppertal, Germany.” Snaith recalls, “It’s kind of, in one sense, the platonic ideal of the kind of club I’d want to play in. Every single decision has been taken, at great expense, with the aim of making the perfect sounding medium sized club room. But on top of it being the perfect acoustic environment it also is run by an amazing collection of people in a way that gives it a sense of community that dance music at its best provides. It is an absolute pleasure to play in that room to a crowd of people who come from all over. Playing in there you feel like you can play anything, and I played works in progress of pretty much every track on this album in my set there. Don’t get me wrong, I love playing a short set at a festival or in a more raw warehouse kind of club where you bang it out and only really functional music works but on record I guess the point of these Daphni records is to keep in mind a more expansive idea of dance music where the parameters are broad and the church is broad. I think that actually, putting really functional stuff next to weirder tracks (both on an album and in a dj set) might be the thing that’s still most interesting to me.”
This is the feeling that’s most palpable on Butterfly, and in every single time you see Snaith DJ. Right from the inception of the Daphni alias - and even before that – the thrill of trying stuff out, pushing at the boundaries has always been there and on Butterfly is present in all its twists and turns. It leaps all over the place and yet it hangs together, never feeling like a grab bag of dancefloor utilities but rather a distillation of all the strings to Snaith’s bow, exhilaratingly human and unified by one singular concept – simple and joyful exploration.

In 1999, on December 23 to be precise, the electronic music landscape changed forever. On that day, the now legendary Icelandic band múm released their debut album “Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK”. The thing is though, back in the day, hardly anybody realized. It was Christmas after all, people were busy with potentially more important things and didn’t pay attention to some kids selling records on Reykjavík’s high street. Little did those shoppers know.

Thankfully, those 10 tracks weren’t overlooked for long. On the contrary: the album went on to become one of the most influential building blocks of what back then was called electronica and today is considered an art form playing a crucial and important role in shaping and defining the rich electronic music culture of the 21st century. Now, 20 years after the record dropped onto planet Earth, Morr Music is re-issuing the remastered album with its original artwork, adding newly commissioned re-works: A note-for-note representation of “Smell Memory“ by Kronos Quartet (with additional drums by múm’s Samuli Kosminen), a gentle reinterpretation of “Random Summer” by acclaimed pianist and composer Hauschka and an otherworldly new version of “Ballad Of The Broken String” recorded by label mate Sóley. Additionally, four remixes produced in the early 2000s are made available for the first time ever on vinyl here.

In 1999, electronic music was in full bloom. The dance floors were thriving worldwide.Yet the concept of using electronic sounds in acoustic-based productions (or vice versa) was still in its infancy. Many producers were trying, most of them failed. The results felt often forced, fabricated, unimaginative, random and forgettable. New ideas require new mindsets after all. With “Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK”, múm established a new approach in music production. Instead of setting a fixed agenda and working with a distinct hierarchy for their sonic palette, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir, Gunnar Örn Tynes and Örvar Smárason let each instrument and sound source be true to itself, creating an ever-evolving universe of sonic bliss. Listening to the album in 2019 still makes every music lover’s heart jump. Combining Drill-and-Bass-inspired beat-chopping, future-informed DSP-programming, ethereal vocal work, indie rock’s boominess, folk music’s soulful brittleness and a lofty feeling for melody and arrangement, the album is a rare example of musical transcendence and remains impossible to categorize.

Many of the ideas formulated and recorded for the album quickly became an integral part of the canonical self-conception musicians around the world were and still are aspiring to. How these ideas really came about, though, is not known – the dynamics, the struggles, the qualms, the sudden realization of having achieved something which might actually stick. Maybe that is a good thing. Örvar Smárason remembers that most of the album “was recorded in a tiny, sweaty room in the summer of 1999 with carpenters banging nails around us, but sometimes we put on headphones so we couldn’t hear them.” It is a good thing they did. As is often the case with classics, all one can do is listen closely and let the magic sink in – again and again.

Explicit isolation is the third album by the international collective E/I, led by composer and percussionist Szymon Pimpon Gąsiorek. The group’s seven core members came together while studying at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Conservatory and the Royal Danish Academy of Music. For this latest release, they are joined by Slovenian musicians Samo Kutin (hurdy-gurdy) and Kaja Draksler (organ), alongside Danish tuba player Rasmus Svale.

The three compositions distill sound down to its essential elements, drifting freely through space. The material is minimal, moving in the geological rhythm of endless cycles of tension and release, formation and dissolution, density and lightness. Pimpon acts here more as a guide than a creator with a master plan. He is a navigator, leading us to the most crucial moments where sonic emissions merge into vibrating drones, building to an inevitable leap—an explosion after which the particles rearrange themselves once again. It feels like futuristic temple music infused with intergalactic spiritual jazz, the extensions of drone music, and acoustic ambient textures, all highlighted by the jolly grin of the navigator.

“I wrote the scores and asked each of the musicians to record their parts individually. What’s interesting for me about doing it this way is that it removes the element of immediate interaction and introduces a factor of randomness. I then edited and mixed it myself, also adding my own parts. Previously, it was strictly acoustic music, and the recordings were ‘live,’ meaning they were captured in one room at the same time, with no subsequent edits.” Pimpon has also incorporated electronics, which make the album even more airy and organically complement the sounds of the hurdy-gurdy and organ, recorded in Trboje, the small Slovenian village.