The incredible story that began with The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet (TMMS) now enters an exciting new chapter: Skyscraper, the debut album by FEX.
Skyscraper features ten original tracks recorded in the early to mid-1980s-carefully re-transferred, remastered, and brought back to life. The album cover, designed by Darius S., brings the story full circle. Darius is the very person who preserved the now-iconic track Subways of Your Mind by recording it from NDR radio in the mid-80s. Without him, FEX may never have been discovered.
FEX's debut opens with its namesake, Skyscraper-a brooding, previously unreleased track the band once described as part of their "psychedelic phase." With haunting synth-helicopter textures and deep guitar riffs, it immediately sets the tone and raises tension.
The release flows naturally into the energetic and fully remastered studio version of Subways of Your Mind. This version of the TMMS - re-discovered on the "yellow label tape" by Reddit user Marijn-was long believed to be from a smaller home studio, but was actually recorded in November 1984 at Hawkeye Studios in Ganderkesee, near Hamburg.
Goldrush, first teased in raw form on FEX's YouTube channel, bends toward mechanical rhythm and shimmering synths, a snapshot of the band's experiments with programmed drum machine sound. Rückwardt's lyrics point to greed and criticizes materialism, and while the music leans toward pop sensibilities, it carries a raw, fractured edge.
Heart in Danger and I've Got My Eyes On You offer contrasting experiences-one rooted in classic post-punk tension, the other floating in melodic synth layers. The latter in particular feels like a fragment from a parallel radio history: a precise and one of a kind synth pop love song with a progressive touch.
From a rehearsal tape comes Dirty Slapstick, its urgency intact. Missing keyboard parts were later reconstructed by Michael Hädrich using his original DX7 synthesizer-recovering lost elements without rewriting the past. The lyrics take a wry look at forced optimism. Also included are the songs Talking Hands, Jenny and Strange Feeling, the latter being a slower blues-tinged cut, revealing yet another facet of the band's reach and Rückwardt's songwriting diversity.
The album closes where the legend began-with the original radio recording of Subways of Your Mind from Darius' cassette. This version of The Most Mysterious Song features alternate vocal effects, contributing to the track's enigmatic aura. Digitally transferred using a high-end Revox machine and carefully remastered, it now has its long-deserved official release.
The cover features a photo of the Eichenberg Bunker in Kiel-one of FEX's original rehearsal spaces and a symbolic monument to their sonic legacy.
Return to Sky is the follow-up to the band's classic Euporie Tide, which consolidated the band as a crucial underground force in the European psych scene and spread their unique brand of warm-toned stoner rock to a wider audience. The album is a condensed piece of acutely experimental, yet immensely engaging, instrumental rock. Each of the album’s five epics unfolds as a microcosm of the band’s genre-transcending psychedelia at large, yet adds something different to the whole.
The tracks on Return To Sky travel far and wide: heavy, detuned riffs are transformed into wide, pastoral soundscapes, and fluid minimalism warped into swirling crescendos and back again. Occasionally the band even manages to sound turbulent, fuzzed-out yet strangely peaceful at the very same time. Whereas so much of today’s psychedelic scene comes off as merely a tribute to a certain period of the past, Causa Sui has always been on a different mission. More than any other record in their catalog Return To Sky declares their roots in the avant rock of the late 1990s - where different eras and genres merged into something that resonated as much with the present as it celebrated the past. It also reveals the fact that members of the band has had their hands in many different projects since the band’s debut album in 2005: solo excursions into synthesizer music, collaborations with members of Sunburned Hand Of The Man and Tortoise as well as film soundtracks and improv sessions with krautrock legends Faust and Damo Suzuki. It has all worked a subtle influence on the kind of band they have become. On Return To Sky their sound is more earthy and heavy than other Causa Sui record, but it’s also a record that has absorbed everything from shoegaze and vintage Italian film music to spiritual jazz and afrobeat into its fabric. Causa Sui has never sounded deeper or more mesmerizing than on this set.
Derek Kamm is the American producer behind the Kidislive project and brings more than two decades of experience.
The Long Island-raised DJ and producer has previously received support from the likes of Richie Hawtin, Marco Carola and Carl Craig, while releasing on Visionquest, but now hones his craft, combining influences from micro house, minimal and experimental. Fresh off a third outing on 8 Head Records, he is back on his own new label to explore more compelling grooves.
Opener 'Down To The Penny' has a lively carnival feel, with an excitable mix of shimmering synths and subtle guitar riffs bursting through the mix. Sweeping filters ramp up the scale as more delicate melodies hang in the air, helping to hypnotise the dance floor. There is plenty of sunshine in the rich, multilayered instrumental 'Never Stop Reaching', which builds through rousing chords and florid flute lines. Vocals arrive with an empowering message that will bring real rapture. The fantastic 'Dipper Fox' is a rugged rhythm with chunky bass and a muscular feel that's softened by wispy, swirling synths and soaring choral vocals. Last but not least, 'Shorty Circuitry' is a study in emotional soundscaping - a warm, effervescing brew with strings and breathy vocals, long-tailed chords and a sense of joy all swarming around a subtle bass guitar that moves things onward and upwards.
Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.
Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.
The Release:
Striking the sweet spot between sampledelic downtempo and earth-rooted deep house, Fila Brazillia's Old Codes New Chaos is a maverick patchwork of grooves and soundscapes. Crafted in North East England in the vibrant period before chill-out was co-opted by advertising, Steve Cobby and Dave McSherry's sharp-eared funk formula remains a cult classic suite of exquisite productions spanning deep house, broken beat and ambient shot through with wry humour.
Last physically released in limited quantities in 2002, Forever Records are revisiting this 1994 gem with an extensive reissue led by a triple vinyl pressing. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.
'Chemistry' and 'Rankine', plus an exclusive print of Catherine Brennand's watercolour painting that graces the front of the album. All editions also features liner notes by veteran music journalist John McCready.
Press response to Old Codes New Chaos:
"The album that made the world finally sit up and take notice of the avant funk grooves coming from Hull's immaculately stoned tech funk magicians." Frank Tope, Mixmag, UK 1994.
"This album… stands out a mile from most of its peers as a work of untouchable genius." Bill Brewster, DJ Mag UK 1994.
"Fila works because they fit into that no man’s land, the space in your record collection where ambient seems too much like wallpaper and house seems just too braindead for your bedroom " Frank Tope, Mixmag, UK 1994.
"Having already created the perfect desert island disc, "Mermaids" and explored the darker side of sub bass on the 17-minute extravaganza "Fila Funk", Fila Brazillia have just unleashed their moving debut LP, "Old Codes New Chaos", and to be quite honest, you'd be fool to miss out this time around." Mandi James, Melody Maker, UK 1994.
“Where Cobby and Man rip up the rulebook on the four to the floor and probably make the greatest afterhours house album in the word”. Tony Marcus, Mixmag, 1996.
Winter Collection arrives a little late, but it arrives right. Four tracks across two sides, drawing from Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and Portland, mastered for DMM cut by Lawrie Dunster of Curve Pusher. The vinyl sounds like it means business.
The A-side opens with the Bryan Zentz Remix of Basic Analogue, originally written and produced by Mazi and Joshua Collins. Dunster’s remaster serves the synth work well, keeping the melodic lines clear and the low end present without overcrowding the mix. Zentz built something durable here, and the vinyl pressing confirms it.
Sound Whore by DJ Mes follows, and Mes doesn’t waste any time. The wah-wah guitar arrives early, the trumpet not far behind, and then the Latin percussion and vocal samples start stacking up. It’s a lot, but Mes holds it together with a groove that keeps pulling everything back toward center. You don’t resist it. You just follow.
The B-side belongs to the most requested track in the label’s catalog, and it’s easy to understand why. Mike Huckaby’s remix of Cesar Ramirez’s Congo Fury anchors itself to a conga line and then opens outward, synth lines drifting across the rhythm like smoke. Huckaby had a particular gift for this, the ability to make a moment feel like it could last forever without ever losing tension. Ramirez’s own keyboard solo survives toward the end, a subtle crescendo that feels earned. Dunster captures the whole thing with care.
It’s Time to Jack by Da Outlawz closes the record. 909 drums, cracking snares, chopped vocal fragments. Barebones Chicago house, designed for a sound system that can take the weight. Nothing complicated about it, and that’s the point.
Play it loud.
Track A1 written and produced by Maziar Namvar and Joshua Collins. Remixed by Bryan Zentz.
Track A2 written and produced by Jason Sutton.
Track B1 written and produced by Cesar Ramirez. Remixed by Mike Huckaby.
Track B2 written and produced by Gabriel Palomo & Geto Mark.
Mastered by Lawrie Dunster at Curve Pusher, UK.
Copyright Control
2026 Fresh Meat Records
Shorter Version
Winter Collection arrives a little late, but it arrives right. Four tracks across two sides, drawing from Chicago, Detroit, Oakland, and Portland, mastered for DMM cut by Lawrie Dunster of Curve Pusher. The A-side opens with the Bryan Zentz Remix of Basic Analogue, originally written and produced by Mazi and Joshua Collins. Dunster’s remaster keeps the melodic lines clear and the low end present. Zentz built something durable here, and the vinyl confirms it. Sound Whore by DJ Mes follows. The wah-wah guitar arrives early, the trumpet not far behind, then Latin percussion and vocal samples start stacking up. Mes holds it together with a groove that keeps pulling everything back toward center. You just follow. Mike Huckaby’s remix of Cesar Ramirez’s Congo Fury anchors itself to a conga line and opens outward, synth lines drifting across the rhythm like smoke. Huckaby had a gift for making a moment feel like it could last forever without losing tension. Ramirez’s keyboard solo survives toward the end, a subtle crescendo that feels earned. It’s Time to Jack by Da Outlawz closes the record. 909 drums, cracking snares, chopped vocal fragments. Barebones Chicago house, designed for a sound system that can take the weight. Play it loud.
UK Hardcore Techno badman Dolphin back on PRSPCT XTRM with a killer 4 track audio violent onslaught.
Nature is dying, Trump is in office, The whole Brexit charade, Hong Kong is screwed and this is just a tip of that insanely high iceberg of bullsh** that keeps building up in this world.
Simple fact: C**ts Rule Everything Around us so the title of this EP is not just meant funny as an ode to one of the most legendary hip hop groups to ever live. We are dead serious here. Just look around you. C**nts everywhere for as far as the eye can see.
So blast these protest bangers hard and give those c**nts a super sonic hard as nails punch in the face.
Produced after a period spent alone, surrounded by the elements of nature, this record brought Katatonic Silentio back to her essence and her roots. The result is a dedication to the dancefloor through the genre she first became involved with, and to the music itself as the conductor of her whole life; an ever-changing entity of the essence of the soul; a bridge to the unknown and the depth of existence. A luminous voyage in the profound lightness of sound. Far from being an intellectual exercise, the album - the first club-oriented release by Krisis Publishing - is a physical and spiritual journey. This one is for the body, mind and soul, so that there may be harmony between the parties, between the inside and the outside, between the self and the other.
BAILE & Nuage land on Shall Not Fade with their ‘Back 2 Earth’ EP
Four deeeep timeless tracks on this 12 inch. Sleek, progressive, acidy house & trancey ethereal breaks ‘Back 2 Earth’ is full of that headsy 90’s energy à la Underworld and Orbital…..we’ve been getting very lost in these ones!
Written remotely between Brooklyn, New York (BAILE) and Yerevan, Armenia (Nuage) both producers are more than a decade deep in their craft and it shows. They say “this all began with Nuage sending over a few short demos. BAILE took those pieces and constructed them into more fleshed out tracks, after which the two passed the songs back and forth slowly filling in the blanks.” …and that's the key here - no rush, no agenda just the realest takes expertly hewn.
Same Beat on the A1 is just that.. breakbeats, spoken word vocal chops and repetitive synth lines, but less is more. The percussion, bassline and programming do the work. Sometimes it's more about what you leave out than what you put in.
On ‘TSP’ you Nuage’s signature metallic synths. It’s a definite eyes closed/hands in the air weapon. Hypnotic flow building and ratcheting up the energy.
Flip over to title track’ Back 2 Earth’ and we get a trancey, garage and house blend. Sleek synths & arpeggios and minimal chops that seem to whisper ‘heaven…earth’.. BAILE utilized the Prophet Rev2 for pads and synths and a Moog Little Phatty and Minitaur for the bass but we want to know can a breakbeat soothe?
'Catch Yourself' closes out the EP.. More breaks and arpeggios but this time with an acid lead from the TB-03, grungy bass and warm gated synths underneath. Sample spotters you aren’t scoring any points here, the “I know that sample” vocal here come from Felicia Douglass (a frequent collaborator of BAILE’s who is in The Dirty Projectors and Ava Luna) and makes double the point that this EP is one of those ones that even on first listen you already know it. ‘Back 2 Earth’ has been on the SNF schedule for a minute so big up BAILE & Nuage for the patience but what that extra private time has meant, is that we can say with certainty that this EP keeps sounding better & better & better..
With Panorama, Frank Maston pays homage to the classic era of library records and Italian soundtracks of the 70s. A blissed-out, grooving collection of filmic cues, it continues the unique brilliance of Tulips and Darkland. Elegant and easy, subtle and stylish, breezy and beautiful; this is his Maston-piece. Commissioned by legendary label KPM, Panorama cements Maston as a master of modern classics and the most mesmeric of contemporary composers.
In early 2020, Be With suggested to Frank that he should make a KPM record. He wasn't aware that they were still putting out new library records - but he was super keen: "It was completely surreal and it still hasn't fully sank in that I have a record in that catalog, sitting alongside those incredible albums that were so influential to me."
Frank was visiting family in his hometown of LA in March 2020 when the world ground to a halt so the KPM project arrived at a fortuitous moment. Having fantasised about committing to a record with no distractions, with a proper budget, access to his gear and space to work in - to really dig in and try to write and arrange the best work he could possibly make - it was a real "be careful what you wish for" moment. But, as Frank explained, "it completely saved my year and sanity to have something to focus on and get excited about. It was my lifeline." He spent seven months on it, working almost every day.
Maston had already been making library-influenced music so when KPM outlined the criteria for the tracks it was exactly what he had been doing all along. He thought the best approach would be to make a follow-up to Tulips that had a parallel life as a KPM record. Enjoying complete creative freedom, “gave me the drive to power through and dig in deep. I'm not sure if I could have kept myself on such a rigorous recording schedule under my own steam, and I think the momentum I had writing and recording it is part of the strength of this record."
Maston’s sleek retro-groove instrumentals emulate the classic KPM “Greensleeve” reel-to-reel recordings that provided mood-setting music for mid-century cinema, television, and radio programs. Apparently in close conversation with the John Cameron-Keith Mansfield KPM pastoral masterclass Voices In Harmony, Maston's Panorama could be heard as that record's funky follow-up. Yes, it's *that good*. Another reference point from the hallowed library would be Francis Coppieter's wonderful Piano Viberations.
Opener "First Class" is a blissed-out groove, featuring the soothing vocals of Molly Lewis and a glistening harp over drums, a two-note bass motif (from Eli Ghersinu of L'Eclair) and an assemblage of guitars, synths, French horn and glowing vibraphone. Acid Lounge, anyone? The irresistibly funky "Easy Money" is a gorgeous cut led by more of Molly's vocals, pastoral flute and Rhodes, underpinned by drums and percussion, grooving bass, chilled guitars and synth strings. Kicking the tempo up, the percussive "Storm" is a vibin' filmic-fusion jam where psychedelic guitars (courtesy of Pedrum of Allah Las/Paint) organ, jazzy flute, Rhodes and vibes all compete for a place in the sun, over drums and walking bassline.
The heavenly "You Shouldn't Have" is a delicate, melancholic wonder; a dreamy instrumental where the melody is shared by a whistle, harpsichord and celeste, over a cyclical piano chord sequence and bass, synths, guitars, organ and distant French horn. The tempo rises again with the passionate, sticky "Fling", a summery, nostalgic groove with skipping drums and percussion, warm bass and electric guitar, yearning flute and synth strings. The brilliantly titled "Fool Moon" has that Voices In Harmony sound down pat. A romantic slow-mo dreamscape of Rhodes and harpsichord, piano, light drums and softly strummed acoustic guitar.
Side B opens with "Medusa", a hopeful, mellowed-out track with shuffling drums, feel-good flute, muted horns, glowing Rhodes and synth strings. The soft and gentle "Morning Paper" is an elegant way to start the day; a beatless blend of flute, guitar, percussion, ambient synths and vibes. The upbeat head-nod jam "Scenic" has that widescreen car-chase feel, uptempo drums and percussion, grooving bass, piano, synths and ambient electric guitar. "Adieu" is a smooth summer vibe, relaxing with brushed drums, Rhodes, flutes and horns. Molly Lewis's gorgeous vocals steal the show, alongside vibes, jamming organ and synth strings.
"Hydra" is another laid-back 70s-sounding retro cinema cue with light drums and percussion, walking bass, spacey synths, clavinet, glowing vibraphone, vintage organ and electric guitar. Closer "Jet Lag" is a laconic bow out; bass-driven drum machine soul, featuring hand percussion, Rhodes, vibes, synths and organ.
Multi-instrumentalist Frank played a bit of everything across Panorama. Yet, humble as ever, he believes the time, energy, and enthusiasm of all of the musicians invited to the sessions helped him realise his vision: "There were two Italian flautists who really understood what I was going for. Two french horn players, cor anglais, a vibraphonist and a flügel horn player. I've never involved this many people in my projects before, and yet the result is the most "me" record I've ever made."
Musically, a strong Italian theme runs through the record. Frank is fascinated by ancient Rome and both his parents are Italian (Maston was originally Mastrantonio before anglicisation). So, it felt natural to fully embrace these strands and tie everything together with the striking artwork. The Romans were influenced by Greek culture, emulating their art and architecture, which, in turn, influenced Renaissance era artists. Frank acknowledged this tradition when reflecting on his place in the lineage of library and soundtrack composers. He then asked his friend Mattea Perrotta, a painter and sculptor, for some sketches. What he received was exactly what he had in mind: "Especially the theater mask, which really captures the range of moods on the album". Frank arranged them as per the cover and it soon felt right: "I wanted to make a cover that was reminiscent of the classic KPM albums without making it too pastiche - so it has its own identity and looks at home alongside other library records, while still fitting in nicely in the KPM catalogue." The last step was for us to introduce Frank to Be With-KPM’s Rich Robinson, who helped put together the back and centre labels and align it all within the KPM standard.
Panorama is a perfect title for the album. With no opportunity to travel for tours or recording projects, Frank arranged postcards from his collection on his desk with beautiful views of the mediterranean coast, the Roman Colosseum and Cinque Terre. These also served as visual prompts: "That was part of the sonic concept - imagining myself driving down the mediterranean coast with this music on, with the top down." Additionally, the range of moods and vibes - "I tried to make each song very different from the previous one in terms of tempo and arrangement and feeling" - speaks to the idea of a Panorama of music and sounds and emotions. The last track was originally called Panorama, but KPM already had that title in their catalogue so it was changed to "Jet Lag", which, as Frank notes, "is perhaps even more fitting, since the trip is over".
After he dropped his full debut with Sneaker back in 2024, Oxford’s own Silas steps back up to serve more crispy grime variations. With a deep affinity for the power of a 140 instrumental, his breakthrough streak continues to yield the toughest beats with a stripped back, steely resolve that could fold into all manner of dance situations.
Continuing the pressure laid down on the ‘Wot’ EP, the A side bowls in heavy with ‘Dimensions’, a cool and deadly whip-up of nervy string stabs and crooked, cubist drums. Meanwhile ‘Lost Souls’ amps up the atmospheric tension and lets the bass flex out behind the groove for a potent sidewinder joint to get the whole club shifting its stance.
‘Book Of Spells’ on the flip stretches the nervous energy out even further, leading in on the iciest ambience before locking into a devastatingly stripped down drop evoking the assured restraint of the weightless grime days. Making sure nothing feels too predictable, Silas pivots to a rugged, 2- step informed structure on final floor wrecker ‘Ritual Step’ . It’s another demonstration of the clear-eyed intention at the heart of everything this must-check producer puts out — a consistency of vision yielding some of the dankest workouts in the wider bass music sphere.
LP,180g, 2027 REISSUE - REMASTERED FROM ORIGINAL TAPES, CAREFULLY REPRODUCED ORIGINAL ART
The 'vivid contemporary sounds for a fresh visual image' make up the now canonised Synthesis from Alan Hawkshaw and Brian Bennett. These two greats go deeper than usual on this collection, and the end result is a synth concept record of sorts. Released in 1974, it's an essential companion piece to
their Synthesizer and Percussion LP, released on Themes International Music in the same year.
Like most of our favourite library records, Synthesis has that gloriously funky, 'weird electronic music' vibe without ever being inaccessible. With the awesome ARP Odyssey at the fore, Hawkshaw and Bennett have created a blissed-out soundscape that, whilst laid back in all the right places, somehow remains heavy on the funk. It's a sort of throbbing, proto-G Funk sound and you can fnd it on many of these low-lit basement workouts.
Take the ice-cool 'Alto Glide'. It's a sunset-funk highlight with an electro-fute refrain that conjures those dreamier Dre / DJ Quick instrumentals from '91 to '92.
Stereolab, Koushik (again) and all those Ghost Box artists were clearly listening very closely in the years since. The equally relaxed 'Mermaid' glides efortlessly with soft, shimmering piano, understated percussion and kaleidoscopic synths.
It's a really beautiful piece.With these two soft-focus closing tracks allowing the LP to foat away over the horizon, the preceding ten tracks have a more insistent, neck-snapping rhythm
section to back the synth overload. Highlights include the head-nod funk of 'Getting It Together' and the synth break in 'The Executive', which informed classic video game soundtracks.
For once Be With really is stuck for words to describe just how good this record is.
Best just to listen. As with all ten re-issues, the audio for Synthesis comes from the original analogue tapes and has been remastered for vinyl by Be With regular Simon Francis. We've taken the same care with the sleeves, handing the reproduction duties over to Richard Robinson, the current custodian of KPM's brand identity.
In certain circles, this is a record that would easily be called „eternal“. Back in 1996, when it was originally released, it sounded like nothing else - and still does. The sixth record of Frankfurt’s soon to be imperial Playhouse label and Losoul’s first outing on the label, it hot-wired many things at once: house and techno, US roots and European fruits, grittiness and wittiness, high tech funk, the expansion pf playtimes and the concept of minimalism in dance music. Elegance met effectiveness.
A composition that hooked you and also caused a stir elsewhere. Daniel Bell licensed it to his Elevate label and commissioned a very young Theo Parrish to remix it, Michel De Hey did the same with his EC Records and treatments by Gerd among others.
Here you finally get both of those carefully restored, remastered and reissued next to the originals. Amply placed on a double 12“, it also features the previously unreleased D1. Stemming from the same time and era as Open Door it rings and feels like a compact lost brother. Addictive as on the very first day and here to stay.
Who, or, what, exactly is a Matured Sinner? In this case it's the result of a meeting of both minds and bodies between Swedish producer Johan Blende, freshly relocated to Athens, and fellow Eskimo artist and native Athenian NTEIBINT. Between the decidedly weak minds of succumbing to night time activities and day time regret an idea was born to create the best Greco-Norse creation since ABBA stole a bouzouki and used it shamefully for the best part of Mamma Mia (OST ?).
"I took one of my half-baked beats to George (aka NTEIBINT) to see what he could add to it and voilà - Mist 9000 was born!" explained Johan. Now complete with pulsating analogue arpeggios, a throbbing bass line and increasinglydistressed synths all writhing together in composed ecstasy that dance floors are made for, the track that emerged from George's studio left them hungry for more.
Returning to the studio, it isn't long before the song that would give this new project its name emerged. Created with the help of a friend Olga on backing vocals and an unnamed, equally sinning, young lad, Matured Sinner paired hypnotic disco beats, sinuous synths, squawking sine waves and almost queasily blissful sighs with a cautionary tale of drugs, flying saucer cults and a spiral deeper and deeper into sin and moral ruin.
Was it enough? It was. But then the third one came around, mainly by sheer want to continue, lingering like the third child of a marriage running out of ideas. Shall we keep going? "Of course we shall, this is our gift to the world!" Like a modern day cult, Bright Bum was conceived in a non-sexual context from leftover sounds after a nightof confusing creations and not necessarily tender compliments in an equal manner, chugging synths squelching their way over a mesmerising guitar loop as bright stabs cut through the humid funk of the track's insistent rhythm which, like all good nights out, increasingly fray at the edges as it rolls towards oblivion. Nobody requested it but like the nature of humanity itself, it must keep going.
Samosa Records swings back into action for the summer months with Afrikano Vol. 1 - a scintillating four tracker EP from Various Artists which you will fall in love with on the first listen.
On the A-side, the always impressive Vagabundo Club Social kick things off with the enigmatically titled ‘Mr. Mista’ - a hypnotic, (almost calypso inspired) rhythmic explosion of Mibra guitar, whirling organ, horns and a wicked high end laser sweep. This is a pure chugger, folks. At a deceptive 120bpm it will have you dancing til dusk.
A2 brings us ‘Sweet Dance’ where C. Da Afro met De Gama: after a brief shuffle beat start (liberally peppered with rhythm guitar and organ stabs), the unusual duo make sure it’s all about the beat and horn breakdowns. Pre-drinks in Lagos, people watching and waiting for the night to start is the order of the day here. Cut this in half and it has ‘summer’ stamped right through it. Gloriously sweet.
On the B-Side, Atchoum & Grincheux take centre stage with ‘Demokoussé’. Les Inferno applies the special retouch here, and straight away we’re treated to a gloriously produced trip through breakbeat inspired beats, deep, throaty horns and an outrageously soaring sax. Oh you want more? Well try the addition of the gorgeous spiritual vocals that put the bow nicely on this African sizzler.
Finishing the EP on B.2 is Lego Edit and the aptly titled ‘Afromaniaco’. A pulsating, horn inspired shaker, this track grabs you right by the beat bone from the off and won’t let go. Lego Edit’s trademark deft touches and attention to detail is all on display here - sweet sounding African vocals weave in and out of the almost melancholy horn stabs and washboard beats. A soundtrack for one of those incredible sunsets, ‘Afromaniaco’ is the missing piece of this diverse jigsaw.
With Afrikano Vol. 1, Samosa Records has found the perfect accompaniment to what is hopefully a long, hot summer. So Samosa, so brilliant.
Guy From Downstairs brings a deeply human touch to the machinery with the Brighter EP.
It opens with "No Fun," where a dry, stripped-back rhythm plays hard to get, anchored by an emotive, raw vocal that cuts straight through the tension—it is a smirk with actual soul behind it. Just as that mood settles, the title track cracks the window open, letting in an unpretentious, genuine warmth that completely changes the temperature of the room. "Beat Street" picks up the pace, locking into a tough, street-level stride, before the EP bows out with "Untitled," a hazy piece of 7 AM introspection.
This is a record that doesn't just play; it breathes with you.
Phone Me Tonight was recorded in 1981 at Studio Maïa in Bondy, just outside Paris - a creative hub where many artists of the African diaspora shaped their sound. On this track, Eko Roosevelt collaborates with producer Gabriel Nahas, known for his work with artists such as Pasteur Lappe, Marthe Zambo, Toto Guillaume, and Manu Dibango. The result is a shimmering blend of synth-driven groove and Eko’s signature ‘Funky Disco Music’ sound, capturing a moment where analogue warmth met futuristic ambition.
For this 2026 reissue, Phone Me Tonight has been carefully restored and remastered, breathing new life into Eko’s iconic Yamaha DX7 synth lines. The track has been subtly tightened to the grid, making it perfectly suited for contemporary dancefloors & dj’s while preserving its original spirit and charm.
This EP also offers a glimpse into Eko’s creative world: rare photographs of his home studio in Lobé, featuring the very DX7 synth used during the original recording. In addition, you’ll discover exclusive footage from the Phone Me Tonight video shoot, filmed at the breath-taking Lobé Waterfalls, documented together with Lobé’s community throughout 2025 and 2026.
ABOUT LOBE MON AMI
Lobé Mon Ami was written by Eko Roosevelt in 1981 as a heartfelt tribute to his home community of Lobé in Cameroon. Two versions of the song exist; this EP presents the rare and original version, restored and remastered here for the very first time. Using the download code, listeners can also access an exclusive alternate version of Lobé Mon Ami and the full EP in digital formats.
The song weaves together multiple languages, including Batanga and French, reflecting the rich cultural fabric of the region. Through its lyrics, Eko tells the story of his life - born and raised in Lobé, venturing abroad in pursuit of music, yet always drawn back home. Each return rekindles his deep connection to Lobé. In a poetic gesture, he names surrounding villages in various languages such as Batanga throughout the song, turning it into both a personal memoir and a cultural map.
ABOUT EKO ROOSEVELT
Born on November 13, 1946, to princess Kethy Mbenyo and William Roosevelt, Eko Roosevelt has led a life filled with mythical appeal and musical excellence. Local lore recalls how, at the age of ten, he bravely fought off and killed a serpent near the waterfalls of Lobé. An event that became part of his local legend prior to his enduring legacy as a musician and traditional chief.
Eko Roosevelt discovered his passion for music in church before furthering his studies in Dakar, where he met his wife, Nicole. Together they moved to France, where Eko launched his recording career - first with the Dikalo Group, and later as a solo artist. His discography includes standout releases such as Kilimandjaro My Home, Funky Disco Music, and the hit single Nalandi. In 2020 he renewed his status as hitmaker through his work with Disclosure on the revised version of his single ‘Tondoho Mba’, originally released in 1982. His enduring legacy and pioneership within Makossa and Funky Disco music helped shape the sound of many DJ’s and producers such as Gilles Peterson, Disclosure, Folamour, Diplo, ANOTR, Jax Jones, Sonny Fodera and Daphni.
Over the years, he shared stages and collaborations with renowned artists including Claude François, Nino Ferrer, Manu Dibango, and Miriam Makeba. As a producer and arranger, he became a respected figure across the African diaspora, working with talents such as Toto Guillaume, Marthe Zambo, M'Pongo Love, and experimenting in the studio with visionary artist Francis Bebey.
In 1998, Eko returned to Kribi, where he continues to live, create, and perform. Alongside his musical career, he has composed three albums of Catholic music, still awaiting release, and is currently working on new material. Today, he remains a beloved figure both locally and internationally.
Since 1996, he formally assumed his role as traditional chief of Lobé (usually reffered to as 'Chef Traditionnel'), following in the footsteps of his grandfather; his majesty ‘Bevigna Eko Louis’ - an enduring source of inspiration throughout Eko Roosevelt’s life. Despite his royal duties, he continues to perform regularly across Cameroon. When he takes the stage, entire crowds sing along to Lobé Mon Ami and classics like Nalandi and Attend-Moi, celebrating a legacy that bridges generations.
Balancing tradition and music, his majesty Eko Roosevelt Louis remains deeply committed to both his community and his art. This reissue of Phone Me Tonight / Lobé Mon Ami marks a renewed chapter in sharing his rich musical legacy, and his musical future with the world.
Sound Therapy is the culmination of over ten years of sonic experimentation, developed across the past three years between Sicily, the United Kingdom, and Brooklyn. It builds on the foundation of the 2021 Dub-Stuy single Pon Pause featuring Al Campbell, whose success became the catalyst for the album’s eight tracks.
Conceived across two distinct halves, the album reflects the dual nature of D-Operation Drop’s sound, moving from one drop and roots/steppers traditions into more modern, forward-leaning bass music. The whole is intended to move the listener between foundation and progression, day and night, light and dark, a dynamic reflected in both the music and album artwork.
Sound Therapy also reflects the collaborative nature of sound system culture, featuring vocalists Blakkamoore and JonnyGo Figure (US), Galas and Marina P (Italy), and Rider Shafique (UK), alongside instrumental contributions from Brooklyn-based saxophonist Troy Mobius. The album was collaboratively mixed in person with McPullish (US) and mastered at Star Delta (UK), with a focus on depth, weight, and sound system translation.
Sound Therapy stands as a complete body of work while establishing a broader musical direction for D-Operation Drop, with further singles, mixes, and related projects to follow.
Anthoney J Hart continues to leave an indelible impression on the underground with his latest album as Basic Rhythm, returning to Sneaker Social Club after a string of incendiary EPs to deliver his definitive statement on 8 Bar Techno. The clue's in the name — a deadly fusion of grime sonics strapped to the pummelling locomotion of peak-time techno.
Hart's roots in pirate radio reach back to the 90s, forming a bedrock of uncompromising attitude that has permeated his work ever since. Between his work as Basic Rhythm, East Man and Imaginary Forces he's split the difference between incisive UK club sounds and experimental intention, applying artistic thinking to the physical impulses of grime, techno, D&B, drill and more. It's no wonder his work has been held aloft by labels as respected as Planet Mu, Metalheadz, Future Retro and The Trilogy Tapes.
On 8 Bar Grime Hart stretches out with a potent statement on his vision for club music in 2026. The thrust of the title track's opening 4/4 stomp is quickly interrupted by a none-grimier gun lock and load — an unambiguous thesis for the direction the album is heading in. The pressure stays high for the duration, barrelling through the distorted kicks and rabid wobble breakdowns of 'Weed Killer' before bringing the flawless flow of NyNy into the mix for half step sheller 'Vibez'. Elsewhere Lyrical Strally brings savage bars to 'Clutch' and Eklipse takes it deep and moody on 'Who, You'
In between the vocal spots, Hart maintains the flexibility to bend between styles with poise, edging a touch of UK funky's staggered groove to 'Teutonic' and wreaking havoc with a Drexcyian sound palette on 'More Pricks Than Kicks'. 12 tracks deep and without a moment of respite among them, the first Basic Rhythm album in five years finds Hart operating a peak strength, firing off neck-snapping payloads of ferociously infectious club gear for the more advanced kind of dance.
This is not a Ben Vida, Booker Stardrum, and Will Epstein record; it’s a Play Time record. That’s a subtle but important distinction, for a couple reasons. One, the sound of Magic Object—a polymetric blend of improv and pulse minimalism for saxophone, drums, and Moog—doesn’t really sound anything like any of their many other ensembles or respective solo projects. And two, it was only while making Magic Object, their debut album, that Play Time realized they were a band at all.
Let’s back up. The roots of the trio date to 2020-21, when Will and then Booker moved to the Hudson Valley, where Ben was already living. The three got into the habit of playing together at Ben’s house, and they soon realized that their hang sessions felt fundamentally different from making music in some falling-down studio in Bushwick. Where those experiences were rushed and cramped, a new sense of time and space now suggested itself. Where once they rat-raced the music, now they relaxed into it.
Early gigs yielded similar revelations. A booking at Tubby’s, the beloved Kingston venue, evolved into a kind of residency. Tubby’s is a small space, fitting around 100 people, with a bar in the front room and a stage in the back. Play Time decided that they didn’t want to play on the stage; they wanted to play in front, among the people in the bar. Rather than hogging the spotlight and overpowering the other voices in the room, they blended with the energy of their surroundings and emerged as a sort of minimalist-jazz-krautrock bar band.
Gradually, they discovered a newfound “elasticity”—Ben’s word—that reshaped the music from inside. “It’s this communal thing,” he says. “It’s vibes. And it’s embedded in the community up here, which feels really vital and nourishing.” They were jamming, but it wasn’t just a free-for-all; they found themselves listening to each other in new ways. “Ben and Booker joke that they’re always playing in different time signatures,” Will says. “We’re all going forward with our own ideas, but we’re open to each others’ as well, and they’re all sort of dancing together.”
“We all have our painterly solo projects,” Will says—where, Booker adds, “we do a lot of studio arranging and thinking and composition that takes shape over a period of time.” Play Time, on the other hand, is all about being in the moment. That spontaneity was key to the process of recording the album. They booked two days in their friend Joey’s studio, a converted wooden barn. “It’s just a live room,” Booker says. “There’s no separation or anything. So we’re all in the space together and it’s got this beautiful, woody sound, and that’s very much the sound of the record.” For two days, they just jammed, for seven or eight hours each day. When it was over, they went through, edited down the portions they liked, and added very judicious overdubs designed to enhance the original recordings without fundamentally altering them, staying true to the spirit of the sessions.
The result is something like a snapshot and a mission statement all rolled into one. “You’re hearing us discover the voice of the band in real time,” Ben says. “We finished those sessions and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s what our band sounds like now.’”
Now, with Magic Object, the rest of us get to find out too.
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Balmat is a label with a cloudy outline. Jointly shepherded by Albert Salinas and Philip Sherburne, two friends living in Cardedeu, Catalonia, and on the Balearic island of Menorca, Balmat grew out of Lapsus Radio, a weekly show born almost ten years ago. Balmat’s mission is simple: to foster new ideas, expand upon personal obsessions, and put enveloping sounds out into the world.
“Balmat” means “empty” or “void” in Catalan. But quite apart from any negative connotations, we prefer to think of it in terms of possibility: a space waiting to be filled.
Yaka slips into the APPX catalogue a hi-def 8 part narrative. Coated in silky sonic camouflage the Philadelphian sound designer, producer, and apparent amphibophile, conjures an aquatic instrument-rack straight out the estuary, and re-engineers it into a kind of amphibient-bass eco-system: part poolside bio-luminescence, part Severn-side subsidence. Welling with emotion ‘Dream Big’ is a joyride with your favourite frog-sage homies. It’s devotional, yes, but with a wink. Orchestrated by a bayou-mystic who’s just as likely to kiss the ring-modulator as they is to throw a shaka from his boogie board as they carves a line down stream.
The opening track “chrysalis of peace” builds like a choral summoning, beckoning you outward. “blubstep” shakes itself off and stretches into scattered breaks, sprinkles of underworld energy flickering beneath the surface. On “la pari,” the daemons find their stride in a huge leap into bass, punctuated by vocal satire, kitschy melodic fun, and an Amazonian sweat capable of humidifying any dancefloor. “miss that beach” slows the A-side into a thoughtful drift on a lilo, the distant sounds of cousins playing while wind lifts leaves overhead.
Flipping the disc, “buggged” arrives as a beat you can imagine bounding out of a Timbaland studio, tiptoeing in and out of 4/4 club jack. “back at the pad” breaks stride with a halftime depth that keeps you poised, like the surface tension of a water droplet in zero gravity. “weavin’ web” threads ascending melodic patterns over raised nodules of rhythm. Closing the album, “secret dream” dissolves into a private horizon — something half-remembered, half-invented — left for the listener to discover on their own.
About Yaka
A sound designer and musician based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Their work blends emotive aquatic ambience, thick bass layering, and playful rhythmic structures, with an essence that sits somewhere between spiritual and satirical. Their earlier releases Somewhere In That Water introduced a practice rooted in the melancholic and bitter-sweet cuteness dipped in a deep affinity for wet environments.
Beyond their solo work, Yaka co-operates Inner Most, a label run between Philadelphia and Reykjavík alongside Echinacea. The imprint has become a home for boundary-blurring electronic music and features a number of Appendix.files favourites, including a release by our own secret getii, reinforcing a shared ethos of porous scenes and cross-continental collaboration.
A-side is Bill Withers' Harlem, taken from a rare recording and reworked into a slower, DJ-friendly version that really opens it up.
On the flip is FPI Project's Everybody Around The World, completely rebuilt from scratch, slowed down and driven by the piano. A real Balearic, feel-good summer record.
Discothèque Credits – Forgiveness Not Permission EP 4:
Four, soul-feeding edits drop just in time for sunshine. ‘Harlem’ serves up a light-touch edit approach, preserving the original street-corner poetry of ‘Harlem’ - with two versions supplied: Mix one for DJs with a clean intro and outro, plus an alternative second version with a tempo shift and fade. Backed with unmistakable, loved-up and iconic poolside pianos – ‘Everybody (All Over The World)’ now stripped into a global Balearic pulse: built for sunlit dancefloors & late-night gatherings.
In the beginning of the 1970’s, Guinea-Bissau was a country broken up into many ethnic groups and at the heart of a war for independence. By reviving traditional musical genres as Gumbé and singing in guinean Kriol, José Carlos Schwarz & Cobiana Djazz established an immediate affective bond with their audiences. Through its music and politically engaged spirit of the lyrics, the band played a significant role in shaping the social and political consciousness of the masses. As well as influencing local bands like Super Mama Djombo and giving back a deep sense of cultural identity to bissau-guineans.
The explosive birth of Cobiana Djazz brought about other kinds of detonation. Schwarz became involved in urban guerilla activities which resulted in several bombings in the centre of Bissau, leading to his imprisonment and torture. He remained in lockup for a total period of about 2 years, between 1972 and 1974.
The process of decolonisation, in the wake of the Portuguese revolution of 25 April 1974, led to the recognition, during the same year, of the sovereign nation of Guinea-Bissau.
Schwarz, a key figure in the fight for independence, played an important part in the transition to the democratic regime, profiting from his popularity as an artist. Soon, his criticism (underscoring opportunism and irresponsibility in high places) became a thorn in the side of the political elite. Uneasy with the disquieting effects of his work, government officials effectively separated the author from the masses by assigning him to the embassy in Havana.
José Carlos Schwarz met a tragic and untimely death at the age of 27, when his plane crashed on arrival at Cuba's José Martí International Airport, on May 271th 1977.
Hailed by african giants like Orchestra Baobab, Letta Mbulu or Miriam Makeba (with whom he recorded his first and only solo album), “Zé Carlos” and his poetry won a lasting position in the annals of Guinea-Bissau. However, this collection of songs remains relatively unknown outside the country and its diasporas.
We are proud to offer, in close collaboration with the Schwarz family, this first official reissue on vinyl. Remastered and pressed on heavyweight vinyl.
Seit der Veröffentlichung seines von Kritikern hochgelobten Debütalbums 'Come Around and Love Me' im Jahr 2023 hat Jalen Ngonda eine kometenhafte Karriere hingelegt. Der Song 'If You Don’t Want My Love' wurde zum viralen Hit und wurde bis heute 253 Millionen Mal gestreamt. Jalen war in einer Reihe von großen Fernsehsendungen zu Gast, darunter 'The Graham Norton Show', 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' und 'Later with Jools Holland'. Er war Support-Act für Thee Sacred Souls auf ihrer US-Tournee und hat als Headliner unzählige Clubkonzerte auf der ganzen Welt ausverkauft. Jetzt, im Jahr 2026, während die Glut seines Debüts noch hell lodert, bereitet sich Jalen Ngonda auf die Veröffentlichung seines mit Spannung erwarteten zweiten Albums 'Doctrine Of Love' vor.
Die harte Arbeit und die unermüdlichen Tourneen nach seinem Debüt haben sein Handwerk gestärkt. Seine Botschaft: 'Die Lehre der Liebe besagt, dass jeder Gedanke und jede Handlung in erster Linie von Mitgefühl für andere geleitet sein sollte, denn Liebe ist der höchste Maßstab für den Wert eines Menschen.' Die Titel des neuen Albums sind aus diesem Credo entstanden. Mit seinem tiefen Wissen und seiner Liebe zum klassischen Soul vermittelt Jalen Ngonda Authentizität in Hülle und Fülle. 'Doctrine Of Love' verbindet Pop-Sensibilität und soulige Melodien mit roher Kraft und Groove und erweitert die orchestralen Arrangements von 'Come Around And Love Me' um bläserreiche und gospelartige Backing Vocals, wodurch ein äußerst stilvolles Beispiel für moderne Soul-Kunst entsteht. Tipp!
Remastered from the original recordings and now presented on a 45rpm 2 LP deluxe audiophile edition, this is first time the complete 7-track album has been available on vinyl. 'In My Own Sweet Way', recorded during a month- long European tour in 1987, captures Woody Shaw in peak form playing with a spirit and a sense of adventure that identify him as a jazz giant. Woody calls the trumpet "the prince of all the horns". Woody is the king of all the trumpet players.
Nobody around plays with such a big, round, ravishing sound - a sound which could easily fool you into thinking that you are listening to a flugelhorn. Woody's musical asociates on this album are Alex Deutsch, a young drummer from Austria who has worked in Europe with many American jazz stars; Neil Swainson, a highly gifted bassist from Toronto who has worked with Pat La Barbera and Peter Leitch but is perhaps best known for his superb collaboration with George Shearing; and Fred Henke , a pianist from Montreal whose credits include backing Clifford Jordan, Steve Grossman and Junior Cook
Vibraphone Records is back from winter break with a new release by Danijel Kevic!
Classy retro Acid House with this remakeble Vibrapohone sound.
Highly recommended!
Limited turquoise vinyl edition. First come - first serve!
Vibraphone Records is back from winter break with a new release by Danijel Kevic!
Classy retro Acid House with this remakeble Vibrapohone sound.
Highly recommended!
After ten years 12 Inch Lovers has become a household name not only because of their parties but also because of the fantastic vinyl samplers they released over the past few years, which were sold out in no time and have become true collector's items.
They now continue in the same vein and once again bring a fresh and contemporary mix of hard to find, original house classics or even classics that never had a vinyl release.
These samplers should therefore not be missing from any 12 Inch Lovers collection.
Sampler 5 begins with the breakthrough record from Norwegian producer "Finnebassen". "If You Only Knew" was a big hit for him in 2012, the record was best known for that hypnotic Aaliyah sample used throughout the entire track. A2 brings the very rare remix of this uber classic "The Sound Of Violence" by "Cassius". The "Franco Cinelli" remix is a very successful approach to this classic.
On B1 we find a real anthem. "World Cup" by "Kiko" is a delightful classic from 1999 but to this day it is impossible to imagine today's DJ sets without it. B2 then brings the delicious "Still In The Groove" from "Reckless", of course in that famous "Def Offenders" remix.
"Phil Fuldner" is still very active as a DJ and producer today. You can find his dreamy "Lights Off" from 2010 on C1. And speaking of dreams. "Winter" by "Aril Brikha" is another incredible classic that should definitely not be missed in your collection.
On D1 we find the Australian and headstrong singer "Sia" with her classic "The Girl You Lost On Cocaine", but in that fantastic and hard to find "Stonebridge Vocal" mix.
Last on Sampler 5 we dive back into the nineties with the memorable club classic "Closer" by "Liquid" on D2.
Curated by Brian d'Souza (aka Auntie Flo), Plants Can Dance is a forthcoming new compilation bringing together a global community of artists, exploring the creative possibilities of biosonification - transforming signals from plants, ecosystems and the natural world into sound. Out June 26th, the project marks the culmination of several years of d'Souza’s work across music, ecology and technology.
The album arrives at a time when more artists are turning toward nature as both subject and collaborator, such as Brian Eno’s Earth Percent, which formally recognises “Nature” as an artist. Plants Can Dance sits within a wider cultural shift, which is redefining the relationship between sound and the living world.
The project builds on several years of work by d'Souza, whose Plants Can Dance events have taken place across the UK, Europe, India and Africa, appearing in institutions including the V&A, Tate and the Design Museum. What began as a series of intimate gatherings has since evolved into a global platform, reflecting a growing appetite for work that reconnects music with the natural world.
The compilation features contributions from leading practitioners including Modern Biology (Tarun Nayar) in collaboration with saxophonist Zekarias Musele Thompson, OMMA (Olga Maximovam founder of Playtronica), Jason Singh, Dr Helen Anahita Wilson, Justin Wiggan in collaboration with celebrated Norwegian jazz musician Arve Henriksen, Lamine Touré, Bit Marten and Balam, alongside new work from d'Souza himself. Using a range of tools - from commercially available devices to bespoke modular systems - artists translate electrical activity, environmental data and organic processes into musical material.
The processes behind each piece differ - from interpreting plant biodata to translating wind patterns into compositional structures - and the results are as varied as they are compelling. The record spans ambient, jazz, electronica and modern classical, yet all pieces are unified by a shared intent: to reimagine music as a space of collaboration between human and more-than-human worlds.
At the core of Plants Can Dance is a question about how we define music, and how we choose to listen. Traditional musical forms, with their fixed tempos and predictable structures, give way here to something more fluid and less easily controlled. The listener is invited to surrender expectation and engage with sound as an evolving environment rather than a linear narrative. In this context, the compositions function as what d'Souza describes as “acoustic ecologies” - sonic systems shaped by biological, environmental and elemental forces unfolding in real time.
Accompanying the release is a printed zine offering reflections from each artist, and deeper insight into the ideas and debates surrounding this practice. Rather than presenting definitive answers, Plants Can Dance positions itself as an artistic exploration grounded in curiosity, experimentation and critical thought.
Ultimately, Plants Can Dance is less concerned with proving whether plants “make music” than with changing how we listen. By inviting audiences to engage with sound shaped by non-humans, it opens up new ways of perceiving the environments we inhabit - not as passive backdrops, but as active, dynamic participants in a shared ecological network. In doing so, it offers a quietly radical proposition: that by listening differently, we might begin to relate to the natural world differently too.
Returning from an 18-month hiatus, Companion resurfaces with its long-awaited ninth offering – a six-track EP that beautifully distills the label’s devotion to patient tempos and deep immersive moods. The Garden is the result of a remote, cross-border dialogue between London and Belfast: a project born from a seasonal fatigue with the dancefloor and a collective turn towards our most inner states of being. The debut collaboration between Serenity Complex (Wigs) and Aika Mal, the EP is a meticulously detailed exercise in restraint, trading industrial harshness for a lush, subterranean hush.
The production breathes with a tactile, low-slung urgency: gritty, compressed drums and haphazardly recorded beatboxed percussion captured on a patio beneath the Devon sun provide a raw counterpoint to the EP’s cinematic sweep. Steered by narcotic basslines imbued with the brooding, early DNA of Massive Attack, these undulating pulses coil around the listener with a subtle, magnetic pull. They create a state of suspended momentum where tension never fully resolves and instead becomes the point of return. Aika Mal’s voice acts as a spectral anchor – mellifluous and transfixing as it moves in and out of each carefully curated element.
Drawing from the gossamer, reverb-drenched landscapes of Love Spiral Downwards and the gothic opulence of The Golden Palominos, the tracks lean into a slow, deliberate pace. Dub-influenced low end and trip-hop structures form the backbone, while fractured, gritty breakbeats bring a sharper edge. The release traces low-lit excursions into limerence, thriving in the heavy humidity of the afternoon just as easily as in the blue light of the pre-dawn or the apricity of first light.
The Garden celebrates togetherness by blurring two distinct artistic outlines into a single, prismatic whole. It is an invitation to submerge – a descent into the overgrowth.
The second release on Outer Heaven Sound is back to build on the foundations of their first EP with more "stripped-back drum & bass built around weight, space and detailed breakwork". Jungle influences loom large here, but reworked with stripped back style that never lets any pressure out of the low ends. Effra kicks it off with the crunchy textures and hammering rhythms of 'The Vault' while Outer Heaven goes deeper with 'Bring It,' which is a nimble stepper. Jay B's 'The Walk' is a cacophonous breakbeat assault that sounds like a cartoon fight that happens in a cloud of dust with the occasional limb popping out. Artilect closes with a more restrained moodiness of 'Nyra'.
West Coast tech house had long since taken shape by the time it made its way over to the UK at the turn of the new millennium, and that's in part because of the pioneering work of the Casa Del Soul crew. The "DJ-first, producer-second collective" was founded in Denver in 1999 by a bunch of artists including DJ Darrell Foxx, who put out several records that laid out the blueprint for this raw, gritty sound across several EPs. His debut, 'The Collective EP', was one of them - two live-session, warehouse-ready tracks of low-slung and stripped-back tech with swing in the drums and dust in the percussion. The original DAT tapes were lost in a blizzard, which meant original copies have become ever more scarce and pricey on the second-hand market... until now. This fantastic remaster brings them back to life with the same distinctive rawness that made them favourites with Doc Martin and Tyrant (Craig Richards and Lee Burridge) the first time around. Utterly essential.
Rahaan is a through-line to the earliest days of the scene in Chicago when he was playing house and disco across the city. That heritage shines through everything he does even decades on, and his catalogue now includes way over 100 credits as a producer, remixer and writer. Here he drops a trio of different cuts on Soul Service, starting with 'Pim Of Poms', a dubby Afro sound that unfurls at mid-tempo with a loose-limbed groove. 'Work It Out' is a throwback with big instrumental energy, dramatic builds and a belting vocal that is steeped in soul and funk, before 'Ms Head' is a loopy, wonky jam that keeps turning back on itself and ramping up the tension each time.
UnOwn is back with a third outing of magical edits and this time the enigmatic Fava Luva is cooking up the heat. First up is an edit of 'Roze', a disco gem that gets pulled apart and rebuilt in slow, sensuous fashion. The drums are loose, the funk is real and the vocal is full of tease that will warm up any setting in any season. On the flip, 'Fishy' is just as much of an elastic and playful sound, this time with a sleazier vocal and some mad, cosmically inclined synth expressiveness and plenty of Parliament-style vocal oddness. A pure heater from this ever-more-vital label.
Biz has some serious techno credentials, having landed on esteemed labels like Transmat and Acquit Records before now, and here he is back on his Subjekt label with a third outing in his limited series. This is cerebral techno steeped in Detroit style but looking to the future. 'No Pain, No Gain' is awash with crystalline pads over a surging groove, 'Monozukuri' gets more prickly with metallic percussive textures and a forlorn lead. 'Manipulate' unhinges from reality with trippy synth cascades that remind of 8bit video games and the flip then has a more introverted sound across three minimalistic, deep rhythmic excursions.
UK electro producer Emile Facey aka Plant43 doesn't leave it long between releases and so it is that he's back with a new EP on his own label, which once again heads to the outer edges of our galaxy. This latest electro cruise gets underway in smooth fashion with 'Glide Ratio' that rides on frictionless breaks with bleeping synths passing by as your eyes glaze over. 'Perfect Mask' has a more defined kick to it and plenty more sugary pads and pixelated arps, then 'Glowing Undertow' rides on rubbery drum patterns with nice brushed metal snares and glassy chords that reflect the light of the distant sun. 'Octagon Path' offers contrast with a darker sound and more menacing low end. Pure class as ever.
In the evolving landscape of modern Southern hip-hop, the pairing of Starlito and Bandplay stands out as a unique bridge between street-level authenticity and refined, calculated musicality. Their collaborative project, Not The Country You Know, functions less like a standard release and more as a manifesto—a masterclass in the chemistry between a seasoned, introspective lyricist and a producer who possesses an intuitive grasp of the region's pulse. It is an exploration of legacy and adaptation, capturing the tension between where they came from and where the culture is currently headed.
Bandplay, long recognized for sculpting the sonic identity of Memphis icons, brings his signature, trunk-rattling 808s to the project, yet he manages to pivot here. The production feels remarkably expansive, masterfully blending the raw, stripped-back aesthetics of classic Tennessee rap with forward-thinking textures that refuse to be confined to a single sub-genre. Complementing this, Starlito operates with his trademark mix of cynical observation and genuine vulnerability. He navigates these beats with the weary grace of an artist who has weathered the music industry's relentless cycles, treating every bar like a necessary piece of a larger, ongoing story.
The album’s title serves as a direct commentary on these shifting tides. Across the tracklist, the duo investigates the growing disparity between the romanticized South and the cold realities of the streets, alongside the inevitable evolution of the music business itself. There is no frantic chasing of streaming-era trends or algorithmic bait here; instead, the project remains a stubborn, confident assertion of artistic identity. By weaving together Starlito’s "voice-of-reason" flow and Bandplay’s evolving, genre-bending sound, Not The Country You Know challenges the listener to abandon their preconceived notions of the region, offering instead a complex, urgent vision of a South that is as haunting as it is vibrant.
Gorizont Sobytiy (Event Horizon), the duo of veteran electronic musician Nocow and his wife, DJ Designer, mark the project's debut with an album worth of material of 'frogg-step' / Pankratov Step. It's safe to say this is an intriguing proposition for even those well-initiated into the world of the contemporary Russian underground. What is perhaps most immediately obvious across the 11 tracks is a clear appreciation for golden-era Rephlex records, as if the duo are reflecting on how the iconic label was perceived in the Eastern bloc at the time. There's a nostalgic touch tugging at the heart strings with the warm ambient tones of 'Bananoivy Twist' or even the ballroom-esque organ melodies of follow up 'Chacha', both swiftly followed by a switch back into frantic gabber style kicks that recur across the album.
To give a little more away in terms of a background story, Nocow and DJ Designer draw influence from a film called Winter Evening in Gagra, a somewhat distant feeling artefact of late-Soviet cinema about a tap dancing champion's late nights spent gallivanting across the glitz of Moscow's pop music scene in the 1980s. Maximalist in its sound design, Pankratov Step draws its name from actor-protagonist Pankratov, not quite an out-of-time soundtrack as such but at the least a wry nod to the former world in which the film takes place. The cascading, brittle synthesis of 'Cemetry's Boss' forms an icy cinematic fusion again with a gabber influence at play whilst a fierce acid line works alongside myriad glitch rhythms and repeating keys on 'Octopus Werk'. Influenced by the local humour and sentimentality surrounding the film, a melodrama with themes of lost art and a kind of old-world transcendence the young circus performer yearns for, the duo use it as a vessel to describe the projects sound - a coalescing of vintage Soviet soundtracks, early IDM, Jake Slazenger and Expert Knob Twiddlers album. 'Pankratov-Step' becoming their own fictional genre. The LP marks another avant-garde chapter in Nocow's long back catalogue, as well as a fully formed collaborative debut for the currently enigmatic DJ Designer. Pankratov Step is the second release on GOST ZVUK sub-label MEMONT, curated by Kuzma Palkin.
After finding their feet with a couple of remixes for Before I Die, Talking Drums ditch their sea legs and swap the pirate booty of their cult edit series for a five-track EP of original productions, each swimming in LinnDrums, digital chimes and synth-vox sunshine. Summer sounds abound as the crew refract house, disco, ambient and dub through shimmering sea glass, bringing the beach to the bar, club, garden or grotto.
Inspired equally by tropical Sceneries (but Not Songs), Ecco the Dolphin and Echoes of Wally, as well as a few tall tales about trendy whales, this 16-bit caper makes a splash from wave top to bikini bottom. Written and produced as a cohesive EP over three sun-baked weeks in 2025, and stitched together with field recordings and found sounds from Sicily, rural France, Japan and Singapore, Pier Pressure sees each track flow into the next: distinct seas that make up one larger ocean.
Opener ‘Fashionable Whale’ surfaces with mystic motifs and dreamy pads arcing above the spray before a purring low end and drum-box shuffle plunge us into Balearic house depths. A rippling breakdown, bookended by insistent arps, provides respite from the rhythm before the low-tempo pulse returns to take us home. Sticking with Zone 2 cardio, ‘Salmon Hats’ serves wonky disco at Valium pace, its beatific vox and glittering sequences underpinned by a hip-swivelling bassline and topped with a future-primitive melody. After drifting into dream house for a sunset lull, it’s back to the beat and the enduring question of how best to dance on a lilo.
‘Mangrove’ offers an intertidal intermission as tuned percussion finds a place among the cicadas and lapping waves, gently unfolding into an RPGambient ode to humid languor. Refreshed, albeit ailed by a sunstroke haze, we’re back on the dance floor with the optimistic motifs and jolly polyrhythms of ‘Flutti Di Mare’, an uptempo, Afro-adjacent house workout designed to inspire mile-wide smiles. Then the EP sails off into the sunset with the fathoms-deep delight of ‘Squid Dub’, a Cousteau-coded cod-reggae stepper with digi-dub bass, pound-shop marimba and all manner of THCtinged FX. Don’t be deceived by the loose and limber opening: a solid sequencer emerging at the midpoint sees the Squid squeeze every bit of bump out of the finale.
Forget ATOL protection - Talking Drums deliver your summer holiday directly to your stereo.
Uncompromising Italian DJ/producer The Southern makes his vinyl debut on Mutual Rytm's sub-label, Spectra, with remixes from Alarico, Temudo and Sciahri. An EP marking an impressive label debut, Carmine Portarulo, aka The Southern, lands on Mutual Rytm’s sub- label Spectra with a powerful showcase of his much-loved sound. With the lead track featuring as one of label head SHDW's most requested IDs of the year so far, and packaged alongside outstanding remixes by close label associates Alarico, Temudo and Sciahri, the EP comes having established himself with a sound rooted in old school value and pure techno, favouring energy and authenticity over hype. The track’s backstory comes from the moment Carmine and his partner found out they were expecting a child and went for their first ultrasound appointment. Overwhelmed by the emotion of the moment and the beauty of what nature is capable of, he returned home and poured those feelings into the music. The result, ‘Ultrasound’, is an anthemic, punchy techno cut with euphoric energy rising up through the synths and its catchy lead melody. Joyful melodies sparkle amid vocal groans, adding a raw emotional pull as the warm, driving drums march on. Berlin-based artist Alarico is the first to remix on his return to the label, and his ‘Sad Mix’ has a more melancholic mood, with dark chords and tightly programmed drums that bring lo-key funk. Hayes Collective founder Temudo also returns and flips the vibe on his ‘Neuro Interpretation’ with a more psyched-out, twisted tune featuring trippy synths and booming drums for peak-time impact. Italo-Iranian Sublunar Records head Sciahri then drops his trance- inducing, hypotonic ‘Tunnel Vision Mix’, followed by two digital bonuses: ‘The Stripped Mix’, a bouncy workout with futuristic melodies, and Temudo’s ‘Neuro Interpretation 2’, which is raw, textured, and dark.
Veinyl returns with Decant Vol 1, the fourth release and the label's first Various Artists compilation. Rooted in the label’s philosophy of connecting sound, atmosphere, and the social ritual surrounding a good bottle of wine, this record unites producers from the deeper edges of house and tech-house. Much like wine, which brings people together and reveals different notes with every sip, Veinyl seeks to curate music that encourages listeners to savour the moment and discover new layers with each play.
Diego Krause opens the bottle with “Currents,” setting the tone with controlled momentum. Punchy kick and bass sync with swinging hats and airy pads as crystalline synths gradually expand in colour, culminating in sparse, darker echoes and an understated atmosphere in its final moments. Lescano’s “Illusion” uses a stripped-back tech-house palette of resonant dubby chords, vocal echoes, and funky bass stabs, all thrown into motion, ready for the dancefloor. On the flip, NVNDO & Until6’s “Donkey Long” brings a playful shift: bongo-driven percussion, rubbery grooves, and 90s-tinted house basslines and synthwork give it a hint of Balearic flavour without losing club weight. Skotsch closes with “Blood,” a dark, jacking tune where acidic basslines, razor-sharp drum programming, and teasing vocal fragments close the V.A. out with punch and style.
With Decant Vol. I, Veinyl distils its approach into four tracks that move between minimal house atmosphere and tech-house mechanics without losing focus on groove. It’s a compilation that highlights the label’s ear for subtle detail and functional design, pointing toward a catalogue shaped less by trends than by carefully curated underground talent and special dancefloor moments.
MAUROMUSICA first appeared in 1999, when DJ Maurizio Schmitz introduced the name as an underground party brand shaped by long nights, afterhours and a deep passion for electronic music culture. For almost two decades, the project lived through intimate events and dancefloors before eventually going quiet for a number of years.
Now, MAUROMUSICA returns - not only as a party series once again, but finally as the music label Maurizio had envisioned from the very beginning. A long-held dream, brought back to life through a carefully curated first various artists compilation.
The first release brings together six artists from different corners of the electronic music world: Egyptian producer Raxon, German/French duo RE-ST, Italian artists JA:CK and Fedele, alongside Romanian producers Radu Dracul and Sublee.
Moving between warm-up atmospheres, emotional techno, afterhour moods and timeless club sounds, the compilation reflects the musical vision behind MAUROMUSICA - honest electronic music with character, depth and longevity.
Artwork comes from internationally acclaimed artist Tobias Rehberger, while the label typography was kindly provided by Buero New York.
Special thanks to Sven Väth for his continuous support and for championing Raxon's "Based In Space" in his sets for more than a year.
P.S. The handmade coloured vinyl edition of Raxon's "Based In Space" - limited to 100 copies - sold out within less than two hours. The track is now exclusively available as part of this compilation.
MAUROMUSICA first appeared in 1999, when DJ Maurizio Schmitz introduced the name as an underground party brand shaped by long nights, afterhours and a deep passion for electronic music culture. For almost two decades, the project lived through intimate events and dancefloors before eventually going quiet for a number of years.
Now, MAUROMUSICA returns - not only as a party series once again, but finally as the music label Maurizio had envisioned from the very beginning. A long-held dream, brought back to life through a carefully curated first various artists compilation.
The first release brings together six artists from different corners of the electronic music world: Egyptian producer Raxon, German/French duo RE-ST, Italian artists JA:CK and Fedele, alongside Romanian producers Radu Dracul and Sublee.
Moving between warm-up atmospheres, emotional techno, afterhour moods and timeless club sounds, the compilation reflects the musical vision behind MAUROMUSICA - honest electronic music with character, depth and longevity.
Artwork comes from internationally acclaimed artist Tobias Rehberger, while the label typography was kindly provided by Buero New York.
Special thanks to Sven Väth for his continuous support and for championing Raxon's "Based In Space" in his sets for more than a year.
P.S. The handmade coloured vinyl edition of Raxon's "Based In Space" - limited to 100 copies - sold out within less than two hours. The track is now exclusively available as part of this compilation.
Good Morning Tapes are back with a new album of lushest New Age sound-bathing x emotionally gooey trip hop from Andro Gogibedashvili aka Saphileaum.
Saphileaum has spent the past decade in passage between notable houses of atmospheric sorcery - Mule Musiq, Not Not Fun, Slow Life, Constellation Tatsu - and of course Good Morning Tapes, who now host their 3rd meeting, »Heavenly Hills«. A definitive chapter in his ten year saga, it is flush with symphonic strings and sky born keys, breezily urged by percussion that straddles chill out and folk zones. That said there’s also a Balearic - or should that be Black Sea? - appeal to its title tune, that lingers in the glistening wake of »Your Grace«, to the shimmering breaks of a parting piece »Alarko (Cosmic Eagle)«, falling into the space between Boards of Canada’s cult-inspired hauntological nostalgia and Shackleton’s hallowed ethno-dub.
»The tracks in the album were written with the inspiration of the kingdom of Shambhala in the Himalayas. I’m deeply fascinated and touched by it. Even the album title, holds the idea of its Heavenly nature and the tracks are like individual, elemental parts of it. The album is not a journey into Shambhala, but rather a play and a dance with its energy, image and presence in my world. »Alarko (Cosmic Eagle)« is dedicated to my grandfather, Temur Tsiklauri, and I dedicate the whole album to my country Georgia, which I deeply love«.
Techno House Connoisseurs are back with their 8th release by Bay Area producer Tranquil Elephantizer. This 3 track ep covers all the bases with equal parts tribal and acid culminating into that West coast sound you have come to love and miss. The A side starts off with the Silverwind Mix....deepish house music with flutes and mood for days teasing and drifting with tight percussion keeping the track grounded yet still dreamy. Long winded but in the best way. The 2nd track on side A is the Brother Lee Love mix which has a similar vibe but transitions into layers of crisp and subtle 303 acid lines all throughout. Wonderful end of night or middle of set escapism for side A. Side B has a lone track titled 5 Strobes mix that will get yours and the dance floor's attention. Panning and hypnotic with skipping percussion and spoken word....truly psychedelic west coast vibed out acid house.
Daybreakers head to Chicago for this one, bringing back How Bad I Want Ya from Soul Element, aka Stacy Kidd, alongside Peven Everett. This record is a true representation of the city — Stacy’s deep approach to house music and Peven’s unmistakable voice up front. It carries that raw, direct energy that defines a lot of their best work.
How Bad I Want Ya has been around for a while now, one of those records that stayed in bags and never really disappeared. It’s a proper slice of deep house with a vocal that stays in your head.
The original keeps things direct and deep. No excess, just a track that does what it needs to do on the floor.
On the B side, Glenn Underground steps in with the Peak True Time Mix, stretching things out and adds some percussion and an infectious bassline. It’s a proper GU remix — longer and patient, while keeping that Chicago swing intact.
Signal Threat is the debut vinyl release of DRUUM aka James Orvis, an exhilarating and boisterous chest pumping collection of electro anthems. Raw and packed with energy, DRUUM’s productions are explosive and have serious bite. His sound is distorted and bold unfiltered, drawing inspiration from the infamous electro punk scene where he has carved out a name for himself. His impeccable use of rap vocals is unique and authentic its rhythmic and aggressive.
DRUUM’s bridging of various styles and use of heavy breakbeats are stunningly edgy. Each sound is carefully modulated and designed purposefully; it’s like a cage fight met a high stakes heist, buzzing with ruggedness. As some who have been following DRUUM are aware, he suffered two strokes in 2025. As DRUUM makes a strong recovery, Dionysian Mysteries felt obligated to get a posse of remixers to help raise money and awareness for this bad ass release. An absolute stellar group of producers are behind this release in support of DRUUM. Featuring remixes from the likes of Umwelt and Ben Pest.
Welcome to THE VAULT for 1985. A collection that digs deeper into the year’s musical landscape – uncovering singles that may not have always reached the highest chart positions but remain essential to the rich and diverse pop story of 1985. Some were overshadowed at the time, some were highlights from albums that had already sold huge amounts, some found greater success internationally – but all deserve their place in this continued celebration of 80s pop.
45 tracks across 3-LPs – pressed in gorgeous green vinyl – NOW Yearbook – The Vault: 1985.
LP1 opens with a trio of tracks from huge-selling albums:- Bruce Springsteen’s ‘My Hometown’, the sixth single in the UK from ‘Born in the U.S.A’ - one of the best-selling albums of the decade, followed by Bryan Ferry with the stunning ‘Windswept’ from ‘Boys And Girls’ and Sting’s ‘Love Is The Seventh Wave’, taken from his solo debut ‘The Dream Of The Blue Turtles’. Next up, Go West with a U.S single release ‘Eye To Eye’, Scritti Politti with ‘Perfect Way’ – their biggest hit in America, and ABC with ‘Be Near Me’. The first side closes with two established bands; Heaven 17 and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark… Flip the LP over for Adam Ant with ‘Vive Le Rock’, Midge Ure, Blancmange and the second collaboration between Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder with ‘Good-Bye Bad Times’. The Style Council’s ‘Welcome To Milton Keynes’ leads to LP1’s closer’s from Simply Red and Fine Young Cannibals who followed their debut ‘Johnny Come Home’ with ‘Blue’.
LP2 opens with Cocteau Twins and the dream-pop atmospherics of ‘Aikea-Guinea’, ahead of The Jesus And Mary Chain with ‘Just Like Honey’, and The Dream Academy with ‘The Love Parade’.
Brilliant with their cover of James Brown’s ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World’ and jazz-influenced pop from Matt Bianco are up next ahead of the sublime ‘Castles In The Air’ from The Colourfield and Elvis Costello & The Attractions, who released the 1979 track ‘Green Shirt’ to promote their ‘Best Of’ collection … and the side closes with The Clash’s ‘This Is England’ which would become their last originally released hit…whilst on the other side…celebrate the dancefloor, with a vibrant mix of Hi-NRG, soul, electro and club-influenced pop:- Opening with Sheryl Lee Ralph’s ‘In The Evening’ and Barbara Pennington’s equally superb ‘On A Crowded Street’, the hi-energy continues with Miquel Brown and Hazell Dean ahead of a US hit from Laura Branigan (‘Spanish Eddie’) and Divine’s cover of ‘Twistin’ The Night Away’. LP2 finishes with a massive U.S. dancefloor smash for Eddie Murphy with ‘Party All The Time’.
The final LP kicks off with a bunch of singles that achieved bigger hit status in the US than here and opens with Billy Joel’s ‘You’re Only Human (Second Wind)’, a track written exclusively for his ‘Greatest Hits – Volume I & II’ compilation, ahead of pop-rock from John Mellencamp plus an anthemic smash from Bon Jovi. Pat Benatar’s ‘Invincible’ features ahead of The Power Station’s third US Top 40 hit…whilst back in the UK Chris Rea enjoyed his biggest chart hit to date with ‘Stainsby Girls’ and the side is completed by Marillion with ‘Heart Of Lothian’ the third hit from their huge ‘Misplaced Childhood’ album… Flip to the final side for the stellar vocals on ‘Act Of War’, the huge collaboration between Elton John & Millie Jackson ahead of dancefloor smash ‘New Attitude’ from Patti Labelle and ‘Show Some Respect’ a U.S. single from Tina Turner. Sophisticated pop-R&B from Michael McDonald and Daryl Hall & John Oates come ahead of the collection’s closers- and two outstanding vocal performances: Chaka Khan’s ‘Through The Fire’ and the U.S. breakthrough hit from Whitney Houston with ‘You Give Good Love’ – signalling the arrival of one of the decade’s brightest new stars.
NOW Yearbook – The Vault: 1985 – A deeper dive into an unforgettable year in pop.
Anthea and Oshana’s tandem label UNIT-Y is back with a steezy new output by Lucio. The artist’s music sounds like Dj Hell would accidentally start peak-ing from a very good designer dr*g at a dirty electro-tech-squat-party somewhere in Rotterdam in the early 2000’s … ruff stuff.
Welcome back to a time when Bulletin Board Systems were the social media, it was too dark for influencers, hardware predated plugins, and a home studio was a cumbersome necessity in the absence of ghost producers.
The vinyl-only Kilotoni series returns with another faceless batch of radioactive techno from the previously unreleased tape archives.
A1 The classic acid techno anthem formula is utilized in its purest form for prime time main floor use. Steady build-ups keep the tension going in what is otherwise a simplistic live recording style performance.
A2 Compressed-to-death hard techno and a detuned lead that could have come straight out of late-90s Sweden. A rare cheeky vocal snippet from an old Trax record and submarine sonar pulses provide some relief from the pressure.
B1 Melancholic but funky acid house for warming up the dance floor in your local club basement. A bouncing bassline and flanging chords meet for the sweetest treat.
B2 Cruiserweight ghetto techno meets dubby, modulating chords — perhaps unexpectedly. The last sweat of the morning hours.
On this recording, one can hear both resolve and farewell. Just before departing for the United States, Masabumi Kikuchi pours himself into these now-legendary compositions.
Gifted with a singular artistic voice and a keen sense of his time, Masabumi Kikuchi established himself as a pianist of international stature. In 1973, he relocated his base of operations to New York. Recorded immediately before that move, End For The Beginning captures a studio live performance held in front of invited fans, documenting a pivotal moment in his career.
During this period, Kikuchi was exploring innovative sounds through the use of electric instruments and unconventional ensembles. Yet on this album, he returned to a more traditional format: a two-horn frontline backed by a piano trio. The program consists entirely of five original compositions by Kikuchi himself.
The determination surrounding his imminent departure fuels the music's intensity, while the sense of farewell evokes a distinctly Japanese emotional depth. Masterpieces such as “Shuuu”, “GinKai”, and “Green Dance” emerge like waves from beyond an atmosphere charged with tension and anticipation. Each performance unfolds with remarkable focus, lyricism, and power.
A work of striking conviction and emotional resonance, End For The Beginning stands as one of the defining achievements of Kikuchi's career and a fitting summation of his artistic vision.
Cristi Cons returns to Amphia with Out of Cycle Part 2, expanding the narrative beyond fixed frameworks.
Cristi Cons continues his exploration of fluid musical identity with Out of Cycle Part 2, released via Amphia, the label which he co-founded and runs alongside Vlad Caia.
Conceived as a continuation of Out of Cycle Part 1 released back in 2021, the new installment deepens the concept of operating outside predefined structures, both in form and in sonic direction. Rather than adhering to a single aesthetic, the album reflects a wide spectrum of influences, capturing an evolving artistic language shaped by intuition, experimentation, and long-term musical curiosity.
The title Out of Cycle acts as both a statement and a method: stepping outside familiar loops, resisting categorization, and allowing the music to exist beyond rigid expectations. This philosophy extends into the production itself, where subtle variations in structure, tone, and pacing reveal a process driven less by formula and more by exploration.
Across the album, rhythmic frameworks shift between hypnotic, club-oriented patterns and more introspective passages, while textures unfold with a focus on depth, movement, and spatial detail. Each track functions as part of a broader continuum, yet maintains its own identity, highlighting a deliberate departure from cyclical repetition in favor of a more open-ended approach.
Released on vinyl and digital formats, Out of Cycle Part 2 marks another chapter in Cristi Cons’ ongoing dialogue between club functionality and deeper listening contexts. While rooted in stereo composition, the project also opens the possibility for further reinterpretation, reflecting an interest in how the same material can evolve across different listening environments.
With this record, Cristi Cons continues to trace a distinct artistic trajectory, one that prioritizes depth, individuality, and an ongoing expansion of his musical language as it evolves beyond established forms.
Dedicated to my dear friend Laurentiu Gavrila (Funk-e).
The Austrian imprint Fortunea Records took a little break to fill up their batteries and comes back now this summer with a release by the Bavarian duo Decent Rides. They are around for a couple of years and are also the masterminds behind the label Interloot Records.
On the ‚Like We Do‘ EP they are your guides for a versatile house infiltrated tour. The title-track is an energetic floorfiller with modulated synth sequences and heart stomping drum patterns. Definitely the killer app on this wax.
The second track on the A-side features the tune ‚Mind Maze‘. A funky bouncing bassline, reverberant almost siren sounding tones, staccato vocal samples and high accentuated hats make you blister your feet from your high intensively dance moves.
On track B2, the duo adds further "Colours" to the record. This melancholic deep house tune exudes a beautiful, somber, and yet captivating atmosphere that is impossible to resist. This track could be very effective when played during sunrise or sundown.
And finally, they round off this release with cosmic dub sounds and shimmering chords. "Lembo" invigorates the senses. Every beat on this tech house track is an invitation to let go and feels you the pulse of the underground scene.
Go check this out!
Limited to 200 records. There will be no repress!
Mastering by Patrick Pulsinger.
Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)
ALERT: BIG 90s ITALIAN RAVE COMP - a lot of very in demand tunes on here.
Navigators
Franco Falsini and the Interactive Test Universe
There are musicians who follow their time.
And then there are those who seem to move along a different trajectory—like navigators crossing sonic eras without ever truly belonging to any one of them. The story of Franco Falsini belongs to the latter. It is a story that begins long before raves, before techno, before the word “electronic” had even become a recognizable musical genre. A story that moves across continents, technologies, and sonic visions, eventually arriving at a small creative laboratory born in Italy in the early 1990s: Interactive Test. This compilation is a fragment of that universe. But as often happens with the hidden histories of music, understanding it requires going back. Far back.
The Beginning: Machines, Tape and Space
In the late 1960s Franco Falsini leaves Italy and moves to the United States. It is not merely a geographical journey—it is also a journey into a new idea of music. At the time, synthesizers are only just emerging from research laboratories. Multitrack tape recorders allow musicians to build entire sonic worlds on their own. Technology is still far from standardized: every studio is almost an experimental workshop. In Virginia, Falsini builds one of his own. Among cables, oscillators, electric guitars and reels of magnetic tape, a kind of music begins to take shape that resembles nothing else being made at the time. It is not simply rock, and it is not yet truly electronic. It moves somewhere in the space between the two. Out of these explorations emerges Sensations' Fix, the project through which Falsini releases a series of albums during the 1970s. Records that seem to come from a parallel dimension: cosmic landscapes, electronically treated guitars, synthesizers drifting like satellites. Many years later those albums would be rediscovered as visionary works. But at the time they were simply the result of relentless curiosity. A curiosity that would never fade.
The City That Never Sleeps
In the 1980s Falsini’s trajectory leads him to New York. The city is a sonic organism in constant transformation. In its clubs and recording studios something entirely new is beginning to take shape: music built from drum machines, sequencers, and samplers, created for the body before the living room. It is the dawn of modern dance culture. Falsini works as a sound engineer, producer and experimenter. From close range he observes electronic music transforming into a global language. Machines become more accessible, computers begin entering studios, and rhythm takes on an increasingly central role. Yet even in this phase Falsini does not simply follow what is happening. He absorbs. Observes. Reimagines. When he eventually returns to Italy, he brings back not only technical experience but also a clear vision: the conviction that electronic music is an open space, a territory still waiting to be explored.
Tuscany, Early 1990s
At the beginning of the 1990s something is happening in Italy as well. In clubs, abandoned industrial warehouses and clandestine parties, a new scene is beginning to form. It is rave culture: a spontaneous movement bringing together DJs, producers and listeners in a collective experience driven by rhythm, technology, and creative freedom. It is within this context that Franco Falsini, together with his brother Riccardo, creates Interactive Test.
The name almost sounds like a scientific experiment. In many ways, it is. Interactive Test does not emerge as a traditional record label. It begins as a laboratory—a place where ideas, sounds and musical identities can be tested and explored. Around the Falsini studio in Tuscany a small constellation of artists and DJs begins to gather, helping to shape the sound of Italy’s emerging electronic scene. Among them are Andrea Giuditta, Francesco Farfa, Gabry Fasano, Roby Mastelloni, Roby J and many others. Each brings a different musical sensibility. But they all share the same intuition: electronic music is not a genre. It is a language.
The Laboratory of Identities
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Interactive Test universe is its constant play with identity. Franco Falsini releases music under several different names: Open Space, Youth Wave, Agent Fylfoyt, Man Myth Magic. These are not simply pseudonyms.
They are different sonic perspectives, as if each project were a window opening onto a parallel musical universe. Open Space, for example, explores more atmospheric and visionary territories. Youth Wave moves between electronic groove and club-oriented rhythms. Other projects experiment with digital psychedelia or hypnotic techno textures. Interactive Test becomes something more than a label. it becomes an ecosystem.
Domestic Machines, Infinite Worlds
Looking back today at the technology used in those productions, one might almost smile. Many tracks were created on Amiga computers, MIDI sequencers and analog synthesizers wired together in home studios—tools that appear modest when compared to today’s digital possibilities.
Yet precisely these limitations became a creative force. Every sound had to be built, shaped and reinvented. Sequences developed slowly, almost like living organisms. The tracks did not always follow traditional dance music structures; often they felt like genuine sonic journeys. Music built from space.
A Hidden Constellation
Many of the records released by Interactive Test in the 1990s remained for years almost invisible objects, circulating quietly among DJs, collectors, and devoted listeners. Yet it is precisely this underground existence that helped preserve them. Listening again today, one perceives something rare: the feeling of music that does not fully belong to its own time. Music suspended between different eras. Perhaps because it comes from a vision that both precedes and transcends trends.
Continuing the Journey
Looking at Franco Falsini’s entire path—from the electronic psychedelia of Sensations’ Fix to the rave culture of the 1990s—a surprisingly coherent line emerges.
A line defined by exploration.
Each project, each pseudonym, each record appears as a new route within the same great sonic voyage.
Interactive Test was one of its stations.
A laboratory.
A community.
A creative platform.
This compilation gathers some of its traces.
Not as a simple archive of the past, but as a map of a musical territory that continues to expand even today.
LOS ANGELES—To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the celebrated Talking Heads and Jonathan Demme’s concert film Stop Making Sense, the set will be re-released as a 2LP and 2CD/Blu-ray set this summer.
Released last year, the sold-out Deluxe Edition of the soundtrack will return as a 2-LP black vinyl on Rhino and 2-LP crystal clear vinyl at retail. Both variants feature a 12-page booklet with liner notes from all four band members –Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison—and band photos. The 2CD/Blu-ray version includes the entire 28-page booklet from last year’s Deluxe Edition and a Dolby Atmos mix of the complete concert, mixed by Jerry Harrison and E.T. Thorngren, who also mixed the original release. Both will be available on July 26. Pre-order now.
The band appeared together for a sold-out screening and Q&A last night at the Pantages Theater, the same theater at which Stop Making Sense was recorded. They were joined by Blondshell, who performed “Thank You For Sending Me an Angel.” Another special screening with the band will occur in Brooklyn at the King’s Theater on June 13, with the Q&A hosted by Questlove and The Linda Linda’s performing “Found a Job.” The two events cap off a banner year of celebrations for what many consider to be the best concert film of all time.
The inspiration for Stop Making Sense came when director Jonathan Demme saw Talking Heads perform during the band’s 1983 tour for Speaking in Tongues. Afterward, he approached them with the idea of making the show into a concert film. They agreed and worked together over the next few months to finalize the details. Ultimately, Demme filmed three shows at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983 to create Stop Making Sense.
The concert film presents a retrospective of the band up to that point, with a performance that weaves together songs from all six of its studio albums. The show progresses methodically, opening with Byrne onstage performing “Psycho Killer” alone with a drum machine. After each song, he’s joined by a new band member until Weymouth, Frantz, and Harrison are all on stage with him. The group continues to grow throughout the concert as members of the stellar touring band are added: keyboardist Bernie Worrell, percussionist Steve Scales, guitarist Alex Weir, and backup singers Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt.
The band performs 18 songs in Stop Making Sense, including its recent single at the time, “Burning Down The House.” That summer, the song was in heavy rotation on radio and MTV, helping the song become the band’s first top 10 hit in America. It was, however, a different song from Speaking in Tongues that was destined to deliver one of the film’s signature moments. Talking Heads would perform “Girlfriend Is Better” wearing the now iconic, oversized suit inspired by costumes worn in traditional Japanese theater. For good measure, a picture of David Byrne in the suit also graces the album cover.
Stop Making Sense focuses mainly on music by Talking Heads but does include a few songs recorded outside the band: “Genius Of Love” by Tom Tom Club, “What A Day That Was” and “Big Business” from Byrne’s 1981 album, The Catherine Wheel. Limited edition vinyl versions of both of these albums, along with Harrison’s The Red And The Black, were released for this year’s Record Store Day.
When it arrived in September 1984, Stop Making Sense was an artistic and commercial triumph. The film had people dancing in theatre aisles, and the soundtrack sold over two million copies. Just last year, the Library of Congress added Stop Making Sense to the National Film Registry in recognition of its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
Weymouth praises Demme as a collaborator: “…Jonathan was a very enthusiastic, highly adaptive, and imaginative guy who was just as good a listener as he was a talker and collaborator. From the get-go you just got the impression he was as flexible as he was disciplined. Being team players, that boded well for a great relationship and a great film!”
Harrison says the film still holds up today: “To me, Stop Making Sense has remained relevant because the staging and lighting techniques could have been created in a much earlier time period. For example, Vari-Lights, lights with motors to re-aim them, had just come into vogue. Had we used them, there would have been a timestamp on the film, and it eventually would have felt dated...The absence of interviews, combined with the elegant and timeless lighting, created a film that can be watched over and over.”
Byrne says it’s interesting that this album was – for many people – an introduction to Talking Heads. “We had done a live album before this, but coupled with the film, and with the improved mixes and sound quality, this record reached a whole new audience. As often happens, the songs got an added energy when we performed them live and were inspired by having an audience. In many ways, these versions are more exciting than the studio recordings, so maybe that’s why a lot of folks discovered us via this record.”
Frantz recalls the sheer joy surrounding the entire Stop Making Sense experience. “I’m talking about real, conscious, transcendent joy… I’m talking about what the Southern gospel people call ‘getting happy,’ which means ‘to be filled with the Spirit.’ That is what happened to us onstage every night, and from my seat behind the drums, I recognized that this was happening to the audience too. Joy was visible in front of me and all around me every night.”
Portal Replica welcomes cult Australian duo, B(if)tek, onto the label with a first-time-on-vinyl release of their debut album ‘Sub-vocal Theme Park’ released in 1996 exclusively onto CD. The 2x12” release includes the original album, plus additional never-heard-before 'lost' tracks from the pair. The album has been mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk Studios (DE) and pressed to 180g heavyweight vinyl.
Kate Crawford and Nicole Skelty’s pioneering electro-femme outfit ‘B(if)tek’ can be traced back to 1994 in Canberra, where lack of blueprint blossomed their playful and bizarre experimentations in techno — ‘feminism with a wink and a bleep’. Thirty years on, the uniqueness and ingenuity of B(if)tek’s deep analogue exploration endures.
“Monstrous clowns dressed as princes whose role is to laugh at themselves and entertain outlandish beings, suffocated by etiquette, conspiracy and lies, bound by confession and remorse … and beyond that, the auto-da-fe and silence.” – Ferdinand (Pierrot), from the film “Pierrot Le Fou” .
Photography by Kate Crawford.
Design by Jesse Sappell.
Mastered by Rashad Becker at Clunk Studios, DE.
Dr. Caligari was notoriously out of his mind — a genius fixated on experiments and a former lecturer at the Department of Experimental Phonetics. His students, Spacelunch included, spoke of him with cautious admiration: “Too smart to be normal; too bold to stop.” His laboratory looked like a hand-welded cosmos: cables everywhere, diodes, and the soft hiss of electricity.
“What’s that?” Spacelunch nodded toward the large glass dome.
“My new invention that allows sound to become tangible. Care to take a look?”
The Professor and Cat carefully stepped inside.
“You’re about to be the first to witness the voice of space!”
“Hey, we didn’t sign up for this!”
“Doesn’t that make the experiment more interesting?”
Caligari smiled and turned a dial. Their bodies stretched like strands of pasta and vanished. An instant later, they found themselves in another dimension: towers of transistors and coils rose into the sky, the air thrummed with low-frequency oscillations, and every flash of light carried the rhythm of a sonic lattice. Almost at once, the image wavered like old film, went black, and then snapped back to the laboratory. Caligari sat at the console, eyes fixed on the monitors. “It worked,” he whispered. “Perfect phase alignment!”
This is a bit of a rare gem from the Ellis Dee. Back in 1995 he made the track 'Synthetic Disco' but for some unknown reason (I'll have to ask him and let you know) it was never released and remained a mystical track lost in time. The flipside 'Atmosphere' was only released as part of the Total Science 2 compilation that came out in 1996. Both tracks compliment each other beautifully and are both very much on a similar tip to his Norty But Nice 12" that we put out a few years ago. Deep but rolling drum and bass for the massive!
Big release outta Casablanca, Morocco from Cee ElAssaad.
We here at Local Talk have been big fans of Cee's deeply organic and uplifting House productions for a good while, so we're mighty happy to present this new release.
The A side starts up with a massive organ house workout that has been played on repeat at Mad Mats residency at the Soulmates club in Stockholm over the last 6 months or so. A peak time jam!
To add more fire we asked Emmaculate to throw down a remix for us, and it doesn't hold back. Deep, bumpy and utterly funky. Again...those house organs are fully at work!
On the B side Cee goes to church with deep but slight jackin' 4/4s over some heavy gospel preaching.
To enhance the gospel experience, our friend from Amsterdam, Marcel Vogel makes a long overdue guest visit on Local Talk and delivers a big gospel intro that moves into a jazzy and thumpin' house affair.
The "TRACK TRAX EP" is the new vinyl of the "Computer Controlled Minds"
The yellow vinyl clearly indicates the direction – ACID!
As the name suggests, it will be a fast-paced race.
On the A side, our track days start with a driving track, it quickly becomes clear that this will not be a leisurely Sunday ride. It's going to be a tough race. When approaching the apex, it is always important to remain seated and open the tap slowly.
The second track is a confession of love to Kerb, he wants to be loved and touched. But this love also harbors great dangers. If you drive too hard over the limit, the Kerb will pay back mercilessly.
With B1, the DOWNSIDER brings ecstatic acid acceleration to the slopes. If the braking point is exceeded, it can fall massively to the ground. The experienced technoracer has everything under control and brings the necessary momentum to the next straight.
As the race goes on, the strength dwindles and a clean line becomes more and more difficult, but at the same time it is the key to the thrill. The struggle with body and machine becomes clear, every action makes the body burn. Giving up is out of the question, the race is only over with the chequered flag. But now off to the bar!
Last but not least on the B-side, two short bonus sounds for all mix DJs
The Computer Controlled Minds show their clear roots, ACID and hard RACE.
TCCM can be booked as a live act via insta: __NEXT_DOOR__. You will never forget the race!
Telling a tale of house music’s early days or roots without mentioning Tony Humphries as a club DJ, remixer and radio disc jockey would make it an incomplete, forged and most of all a bit of a yawn.
Born in Brooklyn in 1957, Humphries’ musical journey is synonymous with New York City’s dance music history and the evolution from uptempo soul music to house: from being a dancer at David Mancuso’s infamous Loft parties to becoming a mobile DJ and getting the call from Shep Pettibone to become his right hand at
the then new Kiss FM radio station, followed by countless remix offers and a legendary residency at Newark’s Club Zanzibar. Next to that one, is was especially his work as a radio disc jockey for said station during most of the 1980s until 1994 that gave him majestic clout. Breaking new records week in, week out,
putting New Jersey acts like Adeva and Jomanda or countless up-and-coming producers from there on the musical map, while simultaneously playing the hottest imports from Europe, trax from Chicago, dance classics and all things straight from New York’s music factory that never seemed to stop.
Going to his vast and almost complete archive of radio shows from way back when he graced those airwaves, we at Running Back Records have pickedNew Release Information original recordings that symbolize his importance as an industry giant and ambassador of this style of music.
„But one thing I would like to point out is that, as a DJ, the music I play is not my music. I want to make it perfectly clear that it is music that is released, and it’s everyone’s music. I do not take any other credit than being the middle person exposing this music.“
(Tony Humphries in: What Kind of House Party Is This?, Jonathan Fleming, 1996)
We feel like Frank & Tony and Smallville have been on the same musical wave-length since forever. Our musical paths have crossed back and forth over the years and we have always shared a lot of the same values- steadily putting out quality music, that stands the test of time - growing consistently - never stop following our very own way - always not-following trends forever..
Frank & Tony is the collaborative guise of Scissor & Thread co-founders Francis Harris and Anthony Collins aka Grant. Both have long been staples of the underground with material under their own names and numerous other guises shaping the musical landscape of House Techno and beyond since the turn of the millennium. Both lived together in New York and as Frank & Tony the pair have delivered multiple albums and many EP’s on their own label, Tokyo’s Mule Musiq and Pacific Rhythm- now they are warmly welcomed onto the Smallville Records roster with their latest collection of works.
‘Ways Of Mine’ leads on the A-Side and showcases the pairs signature deep hypnotic house style via soft billowing pads cascading metallic chimes psychedelic spoken word and dreamy dubbed out keys floating atop a robust bouncy rhythm
section.To open the flip-side title-track ‘After All’ lays down a subtly blooming chord sequence shuffled drums and bumpy bass stabs at its core all subtly nuanced while the latter half introduces more dynamic rhythmic elements and intertwined melodic touches. ‘Dimension’ then concludes the release diving deeper with saturated ethereal pads and bubbling resonant arpeggio lines alongside heavily swung crisp drums jazzy keys and delayed vocal chants.
After All comes with a full cover artwork by Stefan Marx.
All tracks written & produced by Francis Harris & Anthony Collins
Mastering and Vinyl cut by Helmut Erler at Lathesville
Ready for a hot summer? It will get hot when listening to the new Mat Chiavaroli EP called "Ammaro"!
Mat has a long time connection with Quintessentials and released his first ever album "No stranger to madness" back in 2017. His new sound is more driving and club friendly, ranging form the mediterrainina inspired "Ammaro" the the UK garage styled "Need" to the classic deep house tune "We can figure it out". To top if off, Quintessentials buddie Ralph Session adds a NY influenced remix to heat things up even more! And yes, artwork provided by Mat's son Divo, a real family affair!
“Nimm die rosa Brille … sag was Du siehst … alles viel besser”
44 years after its original release, one of the most idiosyncratic DIY minimal electronics / synth / new wave records of the early ’80s returns: the legendary 7” by German group DEUTSCHE SCHÄFERHUNDE (engl. German shepherds)—now remastered and reissued for the first time as a one-sided 12” on Anna Logue Records. Recorded in the winter of 1981/82 between rehearsal space, provincial disco and bar nights, and a humble four-track setup, these tracks capture the raw spirit of a generation that simply started creating—no formal training, but plenty of attitude. Minimalist, uncompromising, and inspired by krautrock, punk, new wave, electronic music and dub, the songs move between raw electronics, percussive noise, new wave experimentation, and sharp social commentary. „Rosa Brille“ (rose coloured glasses) in particular feels as urgent today as it did back then—a track that has lost none of its relevance, „Gasmasken“ tells of gas masks dancing in the woods to the sound of sirens, and a timeless Holger Czukay/Jah Wobble inspired „Mein Herz“ (my heart).
Originally pressed in a small run of just 500 copies and later becoming a sought-after collector’s item now worth 200€, the record now returns in a carefully crafted edition featuring a laser-printed reverse side and additional materials such as original lyric sheets and articles, postcard and poster. DEUTSCHE SCHÄFERHUNDE thrived on paradox—a provocative name paired with a clear stance, and lyrics that still resonate today. Shaped by Cold War tension, political unease, and youthful rebellion, their sound refused to fit into any neat category. Only few other bands, such as Der Musikant, Im Namen des Volkes, Thorax Wach, Klinisch Sauber oder Stephan Eicher spielt Noise Boys come to mind.
This release is more than a reissue—it’s a document of its time that still hits with full force.
12″ features: limited to 400 copies, hand-numbered, one-sided 180g black vinyl, laser-etched B-side, outer sleeve printed on reverse side of the board, printed inner sleeve with original lyrics sheets and original articles, DIN A3 poster, double-sided postcard
Vaalbara EP - Franco Rossi Sine Space 7 - Release date: 19 June 2026 - Vinyl
Franco Rossi makes his Sine Space 7 debut with Vaalbara, a five-track vinyl EP (including one vinyl-exclusive cut) that lands the Argentine producer firmly in the label's hypnotic and driving orbit. Following recent releases on Soma Records, MindTrip, and Secession, Rossi arrives with a record that feels both unmistakably his and right at home in the Sine Space 7 catalogue. His productions have already found support from the likes of DVS1, Richie Hawtin, and Setaoc Mass.
Opener Rodinia sets out raw and patient, with two rising builds carried by strange synthetic patterns over a darkening drone. Title track Vaalbara drifts on a modulating high synth line, locked into a hypnotic lower-frequency pattern that pulls the two registers into quiet synergy. Paramo keeps the floating quality but leans darker, with raw drums anchored by finely distorted rides and a backbone of dense texture. A Quemarropa pushes further into ear-candy territory. Distorted rides again, punctuated by one strange, track-cracking sound that refuses to let the listener settle.
The vinyl-exclusive closer Mar Adentro is the weight-bearer, a rolling low-end drive punctuated by a sub-heavy synthetic hit you feel in the chest.
Mastered by Robin Van Genechten at Wanton Mastering. Artwork by Norwegian macro photographer Petter Lilleengen.
Dario Rossi approaches electronic music like few others. His work as a percussionist has brought his unique rhythmic abilities to audiences around the globe. Born in Italy, Rossi combined percussion with samplers and synthesizers. His energy and talent have allowed these machines to be incorporated into his distinctive palette with very special results. 07Sep83 is his Bordello debut, with the title piece opening the four tracker. Beats cascade as analogue warmth laps the shore. Slow with a magnetic groove, elements of italo, wave and synth-pop intertwine to create a clean, bright sound that is at once familiar and totally unique.
Vocals arrive with “We’ll Meet Again.” Tempos rise while keys are emboldened by rich guitar strings. Lyrics counter with a melancholic tone that shifts into hope and fortified belief as melodies rise ever higher. The flip is “Lost.” Sharp drum patterns support notes that hark back to the majesty of Bobby O, the live sax by Augusto Pallocca and disco glory combining in this journey through genres. “Beat the Devil” closes. Sizzling from the outset, snares roll and snap. Rossi’s percussive prowess is on full display as synthlines flow over rhythmic ripples to the subtle and soulful strings that bring down the curtain.
POEME ELECTRONIQUE was Dave Hewson (synthesisers, production), Sharon Abbott (lyrics, lead and backing vocals), Julie Ruler (backing vocals) and Les Hewson (bass), formed in 1980 by Dave Hewson in South London, UK, in 1980. Dave was studying music and as a rare kind of student species he had a deep fascination for New Wave and electronic music thus also playing and recording electronic music ever since like using the Boss DR-55, Cosmo Sound Super Drum, Elka Rhapsody 610, EMS Synthi AKS, Korg MS-20(X2)/Polysix/Polyphonic Ensemble 1000/VC-10 Vocoder, Linn Electronics LM-1, Octave Kitten, Roland RS-09/VP-330 Vocoder Plus, Simmons SDS-V Kit and Yamaha CS-80 on this retrospective POEME ELECTRONIQUE album with original material from 1981/82 only. Over the period of more than two years, Dave has remastered these tracks using the latest high-end tools making them sound better than ever before. The deluxe 2LP vinyl album comprises 16 tracks of which 14 have never been published before. “The Echoes Fade” and “Voice” are the original versions taken off their original 7” from 1982. The album “The Echoes Fade” cannot be described other than being a masterpiece and one of the best-ever early 80’s electropop records ever, and it surely has to be lined up with Rational Youth or Experimental Products’ cult albums (in terms of being minimal synth/wave scene reference albums), but to be frank, Anna thinks that POEME ELECTRONIQUE were even above their level.
Truly, they had deserved to go on the successful path like Depeche Mode, OMD or Soft Cell, but fate was against them as it seems. The main difference to other electropop groups of the time was definitely that Dave did not only master his synths technically-wise, no, he also knew how to actually play, and when you hear his amazing multi-track ‘manual sequencing’, programming skills, great harmonies and melodies throughout the tracks, along with the two girls’ performances – well they can really sing! – you will agree there is some something remarkably extraordinary in these tracks. You will find minimal electropop super hits like “Rendezvous”, “She’s an Image”, “Fragile”, or “Dilemma”; hauntingly beautiful melancholic tracks like “A Mourner’s Lament”, “This Night” or “It’s in the Atmosphere”; darkest minimal electronics on “Inside his Head”; and even more poppier tracks like “Follow”. This record will hopefully be loved by any electronic music lover and most probably marks the highlight in the growing Anna Logue Records catalogue – therefore Anna did not shy away from any costs and the album is truly an outstanding release in every single aspect including sound and artwork presentation. Apart from the bonus tracks you will find in the 2LP deluxe vinyl edition glossy inner sleeves with lyrics to all songs, as well as individual mini 7” sleeves for each song designed by our dear graphic designer Steve Lippert plus many additional group photos on the gatefold sleeves’ inner. After so many efforts and more than two years passing by, Anna is so over the moon to see this release being ready now and we have done all we could to make this an outstanding release, so now it’s up to you to give the band their final glory, but Anna is in no doubt that – at least after hearing the sound samples – you will.
Mr Bongo presents a reissue of one of the rarest releases on the illustrious and now ultra-rare tax scam label TSG Records. A label with a checkered past, operated by Lloyd Price and with alleged ties to boxing promoter Don King. The album in question, Disco Party by Reality, is a stunning journey through ‘70s dancefloor-focussed funk into early proto-disco grooves. Back in mid-‘70s Manhattan, Dr. Otto Gomez and a group of fellow New York musicians including Tony Dixon, Norman Drayton, Tony Dupree, Al Jones and Fred Nanton were brought in for a recording session by songwriter and producer, Billy Nichols. Laying down one of Nichols' songs and a selection of the group's own, they were paid as session musicians and thought little of it. The tapes came to the attention of Lloyd Price who struck a deal with Nichols unbeknownst to Gomez and the rest of the band. Price then pressed the album and put it out in 1976 on a newly formed subsidiary label, TSG Records, that would later be documented as one of the US tax scam labels of the ‘70s. Such labels were created to exploit a loophole in the US tax system, running up inflated production costs / losses that investors or the parent label could write off against their tax bills. Releases on these labels were never intended to have commercial success. They would usually be produced in incredibly limited pressing numbers and have little to no promotion or distribution. As such many of these records instantly fell into obscurity, becoming mythical amongst DJs and record collectors. Sadly, this meant that artists like Dr. Otto Gomez and friends never had the chance for their record and their talents to shine at the time. In fact, it was only when Jazzman reached out for their 2022 reissue that Dr. Otto Gomez became aware that the album had ever been released and heard the story behind it. Disco Party is a time capsule where ‘70s instrumental funk edges and intertwines into an early disco sound. The sessions are for the dancefloor, minimalist and groove-based. The bass and drums are at the forefront, providing the pulse of the album. Driving funky guitar licks, and a brilliant horn section weave their way in and out of the productions. Highlights include the uplifting feel-good ‘Let's Party People’, the early disco swagger of ‘Reality’, and ‘Disco Party (Let's Have A)’ with its wah-wah groove and percussion break, which could easily have found its home on a Blaxploitation film soundtrack of the period. It’s not just rarity that makes this record so sought after, but rather the fact that it is a superb example of dancefloor-focussed mid ‘70s funk and disco.
Release #50 celebrates the digging, care & musical curiosity that’s made the GSC series essential for DJs, collectors & break seekers alike.
For years GSC has built a catalog that earns immediate “cop-on-sight” status. Thoughtful edits. Deep respect for the OG recordings. Breaks that knock w/out feeling heavy-handed. The kind of taste that reminds you these are real heads behind the decks.
Side A pulls from Jerry Butler’s “I’m Your Mechanical Man,” released in ’74 on the Sweet Sixteen LP. The track contains a raw drum break hip-hop producers recognized instantly. Most famously it powers Method Man’s “Bring The Pain,” 1 of the defining solo joints from the Wu-Tang Clan era. The break later resurfaced in Missy Elliott & Method Man’s 2002 version & Snoop Dogg’s “I Miss That Bitch.”
On the flip, GSC draws the source into pure DJ tooling: a sample break edit, a full drum break edit & the “Mechanical Wu” mix — built for selectors who know the power of letting a break breathe.
Then they deliver a beautiful surprise. Instead of leaving empty wax, GSC slides in Les McCann’s “Vallarta,” from the 1977 album Music Lets Me Be. Jazz-funk heads know it instantly — the hypnotic groove behind Biggie’s “Ten Crack Commandments.”
This is why Galaxy Sound Co. matters. They’re not just pressing edits — they’re curating moments. Unearthing grooves DJs need back in rotation. Some originals now cost serious money on Discogs. Others simply faded from memory. GSC dusts them off & hands them back to the community.
San Francisco artist Ross Hogg has been grafting away on his grooves for many years. He has plenty of styles in his arsenal and here digs into some sun-baked reggae and lovers' rock. Up first, he reworks 'Rose Inna Di Dark', the title cut from the debut album by British soul singer Cleo Sol. Her angelic vocal rides a clean reggae rhythm with sleek melodies reflecting rays outwards. On the flip is 'Come Around & Kick It', a deep cut groove with an r&b vocal and classic reggae guitar riffs. It's a steamy combination that's designated to get plenty of backyard parties and beefy sound systems ablaze as we head into the warmer months.
Belgian saxophonist, composer, and producer Mattias De Craene (Nordmann, MDCIII) announces a new solo album, ‘A House Where I Dream,’ on VIERNULVIER Records. On his second album, he delivers a highly personal and healing journey, presented as an alternative soundtrack to the 1973 cult film ‘The Holy Mountain.’
The record will be released on October 11 on vinyl LP and through all digital platforms.
"The Holy Mountain" is a surreal Mexican film from 1973 directed, written, and produced by Alejandro Jodorowsky, who also stars in the film. The film holds a prominent place in avant-garde cinema and explores themes such as spirituality, mysticism, and the quest for enlightenment. It is in this vein that ‘A House Where I Dream’ is crafted.
“My mind and soul - and thus my music - come home to this motion picture” - Mattias De Craene
The album will be presented live with the film on October 16 at Videodroom during Film Fest Gent.
ABOUT THE ALBUM
With hypnotic tape loops, grainy textures, and mesmerizing saxophone, Mattias De Craene creates possible worlds that herald a spiritual transformation. From the Scottish Highlands and desolate mountains to the deepest recesses of the soul, this music has the power to create cinematic landscapes that transcend time and space. The sound of these 8 tracks is closely related to the minimalist compositions of Terry Riley, but the work of contemporary artists like KMRU or William Basinski is also drawn from the same material.
Above all, this album is a deeply personal journey and unintentionally serves as a metaphor for De Craene's ascent of his own mountain. For the Videodroom festival by Arts Center VIERNULVIER, the saxophonist began working on a new soundtrack for the film ‘The Holy Mountain’ in 2023, but his body and mind abruptly called him to a halt, forcing him to take a professional break. However, this project never left him, leading to an honest and raw quest to find himself as both a person and an artist, with Jodorowsky as a companion de route and music as an anchor. It initiated a long process of dismantling, searching, healing and back again. The album not only provides a sanctuary for dreaming to all who listen, but for its creator it also serves as both an outcry of despair and a source of comfort during challenging times.
All the tracks on 'A House Where I Dream' share an unfiltered grain of life, as one can almost feel the damp breath of the saxophone blowing.
The album opens with the three-part strong 'Transcention,' where the hypnotic interplay between soprano sax and lo-fi tape loops leads to higher realms of the mind and soul.
Alternating between deep frequencies and farout folk modalities, this mantra-like triptych acquires an alchemical character and ultimately transcends time and space.
In the ethereal 'Away,' one can peer into an abyss of resonance while a saturated tenor sax lends guidance in the spirit of Terry Riley's productions. 'You and Me' also bathes in a similar atmosphere, albeit in the vein of healing 90s ambient as granular sax tones converge with celestial chants. 'Gazing Upwards Towards The Sky,' offers different shades of blue as a slumbering tenor sax is juxtaposed to swift sax patterns. On 'A Stranger That Moved Me,' beauty lands in a soft and subtle manner, while the closing track 'Shepherd's Glow' drifts like a mountain wind flaring up at the darkest hour of the night.
The artwork is created by Gent-based artist Sam Timmerman, who portrays the world of 'A House Where I Dream' with playful repetition and mystique.
Selekt Wax returns with its second vinyl offering, shifting the lens from introspection toward motion. Where its predecessor explored stillness and space, Varginha 96 leans into rhythm with a more fluid, tactile energy.
Loopedeville works within a minimal framework but pushes it toward something more animated. Groove takes the lead, while detail reveals itself gradually. The result is playful but controlled, built for movement while still carrying depth beneath the surface.
Inspired by the 1996 Varginha incident in Brazil, the record carries a subtle sense of the otherworldly. Not in a literal sense, but in texture. Unfamiliar tones, slightly off center moments, and elements that feel just outside of reach.
Etched on the sleeve, a poem sets the tone:
the analog moment is now
but, how? release
free form feelings finding
new places in yourself
a sort of synthesis
of interpretations
crash & collide
into the infinite groove of reality
but, is anything really real?
A1 – Varginha 96
A breakbeat driven opener centered on a looping vocal from the Varginha ‘96 incident. Off kilter synth textures circle the groove, giving it a subtle, otherworldly feel. Simple on the surface, with depth that reveals itself over time.
A2 – Varginha 96 (Ohm Hourani Remix)
Ohm takes it into a more stripped back, hypnotic space. Centered around the same vocal, the track locks into repetition and feel. Hazy, controlled, and built for late hours.
B1 – Thunders in Paradise
A driving groove built on dusty drums and a tightly controlled rhythm. It holds a steady pulse, with understated details and shifting textures giving it quiet depth.
B2 – Never Enough
A fluid, late night groove shaped by Loopedeville’s signature swing. Less driving than the previous cut, but still locked in, with warm tones and an easy bounce that carries through.
HVS is stoked to have Wetman back for the second time on the label! This is part one of a two part series showcasing original tunes from Wetman and remixes of those tunes, so stay locked for the next one soon! Dan had initially sent me two original tracks of his along with the two remixes of “Inside” from Etch & Meridian. We both agreed it would be cool to spread out the tracks into a series since there were already two remixes of the same tune, so Laramie and I whipped up a third mix and here we are!
As most of you know, Dan and I both started Vivid way back in 2017 so it's really really awesome to still be releasing tunes from him almost 10 years later! Dan has since gone back down to Cali while I'm stuck up here in Seattle, but we still collaborate as often as we can. His original mix is so damn creative and probably the wildest mix of the bunch. Excellently sourced samples per usual from him, most of which I didn't know, but Meridian is actually the one that tipped me on the Harold Budd sample!
I first heard BC badman Meridian's EP on Disrupt Records when it came out a couple years back, and was floored with his tunes! I was really excited to have a mix from him for this. And his mix really delivers IMO. With some seriously precision cuts/choppage and a really excellent balance of light and dark in the mix. It's very cool having a (sort of) local producer on the label as well!
Etch, out of London needs no intro really, with a ton of quality releases under his belt spanning all sorts of dance genres, it's really an honor having him on the label! Being a fellow FL user and also a gear fanatic make for some fun chats with Etch as well. His mix is the most mellow of the bunch but it still slaps hard everytime.
Laramie's mix is super duper techy, which is a bit different to his usual niceness style! But he wanted to switch it up for this one. I was happy to jump in the studio and record a vocal for the track. We think this mix came together nicely!
As the so-called “Latin boom” becomes a new anchor for hard-swung club sounds, it is crucial to recognize that the region’s musical culture extends far beyond dembow edits and the pop-trap hybrids that have edged into the mainstream. Monterrey-born, New York City-based producer and DJ Delia Beatriz, aka Debit, returns to NAAFI with Potpourri, a generous and kinetic collection of dancefloor-oriented tracks filled with percussive flourishes, squelching 303 basslines, and rhythmic mutations that actively challenge the status quo. Rather than rebuilding “Latin sounds” as a fixed category, the album rethinks their internal logic, tracing the evolution of techno and house in cities like Detroit, Chicago, and New York alongside parallel innovations emerging in Mexico, Colombia, and across the wider Latin world. Positioned on the bridge between Mexico and the US, Potpourri does not seek synthesis as a gesture of smooth fusion, but as a site of disruption.
The album can be heard as a loose follow-up to System (2018), Debit’s NAAFI-released EP that expanded the sonic potential of tribal guarachero through triplet-driven rhythms, industrial pressure, and noisy reconstruction. Potpourri retains guaracha as a structural backbone while drawing further influence from veteran DJ and producer Javier Estrada—who also appeared on System—and particularly from his fast-paced, nonlinear style of mixing. That approach becomes a formal principle here: canonical structures are dismantled, repetition is avoided, and tracks evolve without sacrificing propulsion. Coming after the introspective temporal inquiry of Desaceleradas and the speculative historical acoustics of The Long Count, Potpourri arrives as a deliberate surge of energy. As Beatriz explains: “It’s a manifesto for rethinking form and sound in dance music. By stepping outside traditional structures and embracing the potpourri approach, I’m creating new meaning with familiar rhythms. I’ve also been applying this to my DJ sets, using it as a tool to break free from established norms and explore new narrative possibilities.”
Years in the making, Potpourri imagines an alternate timeline in which the psychedelic squelch of acid—echoing pioneers such as DJ Pierre and Mr. Fingers—and the dub-inflected atmospheres of Basic Channel entered into direct and sustained contact with Latin American club mutations. Those references are legible, but never merely quoted. Instead, they are folded into syncopated hi-hats, overdriven kicks, and unstable arrangements that absorb both the intensity of the parties Beatriz remembers from Monterrey and the abrasive edge she sharpened at DIY noise shows in New England. The result is unmistakably a dancefloor record—heard in tracks as forceful as “Pero like” and the peak-time pressure of “tuvesuerte”—but one saturated with grotesque, psychedelic atmospheres, where sounds dissolve into hoarse croaks, acidic smears, and anxiety-inducing growls. Here, the rave becomes not simply a site of release, but a platform for navigating identity, hybridity, and artistic formation across borders. Moving through peaks and ruptures, Potpourri reveals a party narrative that is not linear but multidimensional.
By folding together the fluidity of DJ culture, the experimental charge of acid, and the rhythmic vitality of guaracha, Potpourri proposes a space of formal and political innovation within Latin America’s rapidly expanding electronic music landscape. It is a record that refuses containment, pushing against the templates through which Latin electronic music is often consumed, and insisting instead on friction, instability, and transformation as generative conditions for the dancefloor.
Smoove puts the spotlight firmly on the larger-than-life vocals of Rufus Thomas, peeling things back to reveal hard-hitting breakbeat drums from the very first bar, anchored by a relentless, pounding bassline. Punchy brass stabs and rolling keys collide with dirty funk guitar riffs, all stretched out into an extended rework built for maximum floor impact.
A.2 Bouncy Lady 5.06
A classic jazz-funk break from 1975 gets a fresh twist as Smoove reworks the structure into a groovy, extended build-up. Vocal chants and handclaps take the lead, while the original sax solo is stripped away and replaced by a raw bass-and-guitar workout. The focus shifts squarely to the rhythm section, letting the drums ride all the way to the finish—ending with the studio engineer’s off-mic murmur on the tape: “beautiful.”
B1. – For The Love Of You 6.57
The Isley Brothers classic gets a loving reworking, with the groove locked in tight and the keyboards pushed front and centre letting the drums and bass drive home the groove. Those iconic falsetto vocals are spine-tingling, from start to finish.
B.2– I’m Trying 4.48
Lush, soulful strings and a deep-groove piano line glide over this drum-driven reinterpretation, opening up the raw, emotive vocal breakdowns of Carla Thomas and Pervis Staples. Originally scored by Isaac Hayes, this rework digs deep into the multitracks, uncovering previously unheard moments and giving them room to breathe.
Factory Floor return to Phantasy with ‘Buzz Saw’, a driving new single that once more re-establishes the trio of Nik Colk Void, Gabe Gurnsey and Joe Ward as amongst the most vital forces in live electronic music.
Following on from 2025’s sold-out vinyl singles ‘Between You’ and ‘Tell Me’, the spacious groove of ‘Buzz Saw’ bridges the sharp, bracing synthesis of the band’s origins in London’s post-industrial warehouse scene. Once again mixed by legendary engineer David Wrench (Daniel Avery, Floating Points), it captures the band’s most dancefloor-forward instincts, recently rejuvenated via appearances at Berghain, festivals such as No Bounds and Simple Things, plus a headlining UK tour.
As before, Gurnsey’s peerless drum work - tracked in the studio by Stephen Morris of New Order - proves forceful and delicate in tandem with Ward’s percussion, encountering suspenseful breakdowns in the space between Voids enveloping basslines. In dreamlike accompaniment, Colk Void’s own voice drifts serenely upwards, itself slowly consumed and obscured into the band’s full-bodied electronic rush, which is also available here as a more minimal, no-less powerful dub version.
In sonic contrast, ‘Guitar_1342’ finds the band experimenting in their starkest terms, stripped back of their luminescent flow and boldly reduced to an abrasive, dissonant guitar feedback.
Factory Floor’s ‘Buzz Saw’ will be released via Phantasy on 29th May 2025, available as a limited-edition vinyl pressing in a risoprint sleeve, as well as digitally.
House favourites Kai Alce, JKriv, Sean McCabe and Medlar debut on Universo Positivo with their masterful reworks from Universo Positivo’s catalog. After two years of agenda-setting sounds, the label is set to drop this classy remix EP, and in that time, founder Joseph Salvador has established the label with a mix of his own music and fresh grooves from carefully A&R’d pioneers and new school names. He has been doing much the same since the 90s with various projects from his cult TINK Records and the Tomorrow Is Now Kid! nights in Amsterdam, in collaborative production outfits like Black Tulip & Wendell Morrison, and releasing records by DJ Steaw, Malin Genie, Fabio Monesi and more. This latest release brings together some of the most respected names in the scene for four standout reworks.
First up, Atlanta-based NDATL label head Kai Alce, who has long been one of deep house's most influential architects. He flips 'Sonido Latino' into a smooth groove with jazzy, Roy Ayers-style melodies that bring a soft-focus glow and late-night intimacy. Then comes Bristol-based don Sean McCabe, a master of vintage synths with a 20-year back catalogue on seminal labels like Local Talk, Strictly Rhythm and Z Records. His take on 'Ipanema Jazz' maintains the original's samba shuffle but reframes it in a deep house groove with extra expressive jazz keys, dainty chords and playful trumpet motifs.
Brooklyn-based groove architect and Razor-N-Tape co-founder JKriv brings his many years of experience as a guitarist, producer and songwriter to his take on 'Caparica Sunset'. It's a deep, driving sound that's playful and romantic with flirtatious horns and soft acid, dusty breakbeats and luscious grooves for loved-up good time sessions. Last but never least, is Medlar, the South London underground maverick with a wide-ranging sound and album credits on the likes of the hallowed Delusions Of Grandeur. He remixes 'U R The Revolution' into a warm, euphoric rush of throwback house that's warm, melodic and sure to get the floor going right off.
Although humankind has made it to the far side of the Moon and back, there is still more to discover. Strap in… Rex The Dog is taking us further out into the lesser-known realms of space disco.
‘Far Out!’ is a reinterpretation of an early breakbeat rave tune from 1991 by Son’z Of A Loop Da Loop Era. It’s a tribute to a simpler time when all you needed was a cascading piano riff played through a powerful sound system, with your best friend by your side.
In Rex’s version, the breakbeats and piano have been replaced with a punchy 4/4 beat and an arpeggiated synth workout that cuts through the air like a laser. Houston, we have a hit.
‘I Need Your Body’ showcases Rex The Dog’s more introspective side, with yearning vocals spread across a heavily bouncing rhythm track full of mind-boggling dub effects.
This new EP cements Rex The Dog’s status as a unique voice in today’s techno world, as well as an incredibly reliable purveyor of highly emotional dancefloor smash hits.
Obwohl die Menschheit es bereits bis zur Rückseite des Mondes und wieder zurück geschafft hat, gibt es noch immer Neues zu entdecken. Schnallt euch an … Rex The Dog entführt uns noch weiter in die weniger bekannten Gefilde des Space Disco.
„Far Out!“ ist eine Neuinterpretation eines frühen Breakbeat Rave Tracks aus dem Jahr 1991 von Son’z Of A Loop Da Loop Era. Es ist eine Hommage an eine einfachere Zeit, in der man nur ein kaskadenartiges Piano-Riff brauchte, abgespielt über ein kraftvolles Soundsystem, mit dem besten Freund an der Seite.
In Rex’ Version wurden die Breakbeats und das Piano durch einen druckvollen 4/4-Beat und ein arpeggiertes Synth-Riff ersetzt, das wie ein Laser durch die Luft schneidet. Houston, wir haben einen Hit.
„I Need Your Body“ zeigt die eher introspektive Seite von Rex The Dog, mit sehnsüchtigem Gesang, der sich über einen heftig bouncenden Rhythmus-Track voller verblüffender Dub-Effekte erstreckt.
Diese neue EP festigt Rex The Dogs Status als einzigartige Stimme in der heutigen Techno-Welt sowie als unglaublich zuverlässiger Lieferant hoch emotionaler Dancefloor Smash Hits.
It's been a busy 3 years since Danny Berman aka Red Rack'em released on his own Bergerac imprint.
Since then he's toured relentlessly, released a whole album of live music based disco/punk funk for Sonar Kollektiv as Hot Coins, managed to completely update his biggest track 'In Love Again' to make it a hit the second time around plus released spaced out, wonky party smashers on Wolf Music, Phonica, City Fly and Telefonplan.
While all this was going on Bergerac was largely on ice but now Berman is turning his energy back to the label with a vengeance.
Wonky Bassline Disco Banger is accurately titled. An uplifting intro breaks down into a slamming disco house number and just when you think you know what's going on...
Then the trademark Red Rack'em wonky bass drops in. 150% Guaranteed party smasher... Jazzy House Extension is super vintage Red Rack'em from around 2004 - something for the jazz heads out there - cracked out piano and far too loud double bass come together to birth a euphoric yet banging snapshot of a producer learning his chops. Destined is a slightly demented leftfield house number featuring mangled, pitch shifting fretless bass and vocals samples discussing someone's destiny.
A woozy end to the EP.
Following their 2023 LP Presents, Nathan Nelson's American Cream Band bring the Twin City heat back to Quindi with an album rooted in duality. From the yin and yang party-starting A side and meditative B side to the dual-attack boy-girl vocals, the nature of opposites and equals steer the expansive, artful strain of rock n' roll that spill out of this wholly unique Minnesotan export. For the ever intriguing Quindi, it's a strident step into Spring after the frosty introspection of Roudi Vagou & Läuten der Seele's Taghelle Nacht. While the world burns and injustice prevails, Twin is a celebration of unity and radical expression-all the more urgent against the backdrop of authoritarian overreach and righteous protest that has whipped through Minneapolis in recent times.
Twin continues Nelson's drive at the helm of American Cream Band to draw in a colourful cast of players to feed into his orgiastic sound, meshing the trance-induction of krautrock with the irrepressible funk of the post-punk-new-wave explosion. But principal among the cast of characters and forming a central tenet to the identity of this album is Liz Buhmann, lead vocalist and a formidable, playful foil to Nelson's own Midwestern twang. Around the electric spark between Buhmann and Nelson, a heavy duty ensemble wrangle guitar, bass, sax, a cornucopia of synths and a battery of percussion into all manner of sonic forms.
The double-sided concept manifests throughout Twin. On 'Call Me' Buhmann sings in French to contrast Nelson's English, while the strident strut of the NYC disco groove is offset by an inherent dreaminess that turns the track into a more cosmic kind of dancefloor workout. 'Ethical Vampire' is a spiky cut with a garage rock patina that spirals into a psychedelic, synth-soaked get-down. 'Don't Burn The House Down' is a loose and limber roller that captures Can at their funkiest along with the hypnotic vibe of other such esteemed long format jammers, but American Cream Band boils that energy into a hook-laden art pop sensibility before a gentle, drawn out landing.
Even the more pensive moments on Twin find space for friction. For all its tender, smoky temperament, 'Leda and the Swan' lets the electric piano and guitar fray at the edges and bleed into the red while Mat Heinrich's tumbling drums lurch with pent-up intensity on the one. 'No Funeral Necessary' skirts around the mellow pools of new age but prefers to let liberally doused Tape Echo tweak out Alex Meffert's honeyed sax inflections and Buhmann and Nelson's disparate sermons.
Nelson describes Twin as "an oppositorum coincidentia" - a reference to the mystical Latin concept of the coincidence of opposites that suggests contradictory ideas 'fall together' in a higher reality. Beyond the sound of the album, this idea also manifests in the cover photography by Sho Nikado and the swans on the LP labels by Autumn Garrington. As freewheeling and wide-open as American Cream Band feels, nothing appears by accident. The end result feels like a nourishing whole - rich with substance and nuance, deep enough to be explored and absorbed yet also so brazen and immediate you can't help but feel its surface charms from the first thrusts of 'The Hive Is Pissed' to the last ripples of 'We're Not So Sinister'.
Layton Giordani brings out his first MADMINDS vinyl to celebrate his opening duo of releases on his imprint. Released on wax, 'When It Kicks' sees Layton's debut collaboration with dance legend Green Velvet - on the flip side, 'Call You Back' features Layton's standout link up with GENESI & Be No Rain.
You blink; eyes crusty. Last night went a little too late again, and as you stumble towards the kitchen you stare at the record player like it’s a cup of coffee. The rest of your life can wait. You stare at the record again and hit the lever and the needle falls.
First up: Gastón Cabrera’s Inhumano, a little relentless and unforgiving, like being thrown in the back of an Aston Martin and driven away. The groove builds to a haunting peak, and you want more. Then the record blurs into Alfalfa’s La Fiebre, which tickles your ears with eerie bells, and builds from bass fundamentals into something more driving. It’s hopeful, but makes you work for it – wading through acid; climbing the hill.
Everything stops. Fuck it. You flip the record, and Marcos Coya’s The Underdog starts off easy, but slips you down a dark path to a pool of churning, hypnotic synths. There’s a strange moment of quiet before the final track. vault. and Isaac Elejalde close with authority on Just Melt: a raw and writhing finale spiked with voices and sirens that will leave you out of breath, somewhere else.
Introducing The Goods. Four tracks; one abduction. Limited to 300 copies – vinyl exclusive, forever.
A1 - ELECTROPHORUS
super entry track for this EP in general!
He brings it to the point and let you roll in, in the electro half pipe and makes big air beats and bassline slides. Drop it!
A2 - FOR THE NIGHTTIME
crispy stereo effects from the legend mc 202, vocoder vocals, top drums and a good sounding bassline make this track interesting, but wait! The final is in the end of this track and is a big surprise!
A3 - NARROW MINDED
its 12 o clock and this for over 5 minutes!
808 boom boom and fully overloaded highhats, is the end track of side A. Old-school
B1 - RODES
a beautiful statement of the soul of BISTONG.
the trackname is RODES, but the EP name BE STRONG is here fixed in my opinion as Label Head.
It's hard to be strong, and it's also hard to make strong music, sometimes.
This track has: a strong producer background, a strong character, a strong arrangement and a super strong weekend feeling every single day.
B2 - ANCIENT ANALOGUE
Check out the B side everytime!
often the track you want to play in your set is hidden here. Nobody knows him, but everybody can like him.
A1 - ELECTROPHORUS
super entry track for this EP in general!
He brings it to the point and let you roll in, in the electro half pipe and makes big air beats and bassline slides. Drop it!
A2 - FOR THE NIGHTTIME
crispy stereo effects from the legend mc 202, vocoder vocals, top drums and a good sounding bassline make this track interesting, but wait! The final is in the end of this track and is a big surprise!
A3 - NARROW MINDED
its 12 o clock and this for over 5 minutes!
808 boom boom and fully overloaded highhats, is the end track of side A. Old-school
B1 - RODES
a beautiful statement of the soul of BISTONG.
the trackname is RODES, but the EP name BE STRONG is here fixed in my opinion as Label Head.
It's hard to be strong, and it's also hard to make strong music, sometimes.
This track has: a strong producer background, a strong character, a strong arrangement and a super strong weekend feeling every single day.
B2 - ANCIENT ANALOGUE
Check out the B side everytime!
often the track you want to play in your set is hidden here. Nobody knows him, but everybody can like him.
GALA announce Ten Years of GALA – a compilation marking a decade of independent culture
Ten Years of GALA is both an archive and a horizon: a reflection on where GALA has come from, and a signal of what lies ahead.
Founded in 2016 as a one-day gathering in South London, GALA has grown into a global point of reference for dancers, artists and collectives drawn together by a shared commitment to independence, collaboration and underground music culture. Rather than charting success through scale alone, the festival has consistently prioritised integrity, community and musical curiosity – values that underpin this release.
Spanning fifteen tracks, Ten Years of GALA unfolds as a considered journey. It opens with an intimate spoken contribution from Charlie Dark, grounding the compilation firmly in GALA’s home of Peckham before gradually expanding outward into fuller, club-focused terrain. From there, the record moves between moods and tempos, tracing a path from reflective moments into the physical language of the dancefloor.
The compilation brings together longtime friends of the festival alongside newer voices drawn into its orbit in recent years. Each artist contributes a distinct perspective, but collectively the tracks form a coherent portrait – not of a single sound, but of a shared ethos shaped over ten years of gatherings, collaborations and days spent dancing together.
Rather than a retrospective in the conventional sense, Ten Years of GALA functions as a living document. It captures fragments of past editions, scenes and relationships, while remaining firmly oriented toward the future. These are not museum pieces, but records designed to be played, shared and folded back into the spaces from which they came.
Together, the compilation holds a piece of GALA’s first decade – not as a closed chapter, but as a foundation for what comes next.
M.I.L.F Records are back with a brand new record “Funky Blood” by Cee O Funk, and a special remix version by Amadeo85. The French band have created their own unique sound, and this slapper is an absolute proof. Super spaced-out funk, spooky synth leads matched with dreamy vocals by Mae Rojas, the lead singer of the group.
On the flip side, label boss Amadeo85 provides a p-funk/ vocoder-funk remix of “Funky Blood”, with a thumping drum programming, that will make any pop locker want to get down in the cypher
Xistence Records is destroying the boundaries between house and techno. The Rise E.P. simply goes to show you a good label does not lose it's competency after 4 years of releasing music. This 4 tracker sounds sublime! If you like deep emotional melodic music, you should have this 12”.
Difficult to pick a standout track as they all offer something different…
The original version of Resilience is a stunning track, reminds of the early Octave One sound with a great mixture of percussion, classy bassline, nice layering of textures and melodies.
While Gerald Mitchell (Underground Resistance/Los Hermanos) retouch is a soulful stripped back tune with elegant drum work, linked together by a uplifting synth pattern.
Sunset To Sunrise, a delightful piece of haunting electronica. It’s a real journey back to the birth of Los Hermanos. Class!
Meteoric Rise original version came out as digital earlier on the label, Journey Around The Sun Mix here has the UR sound. It’s more complex, Detroit lesson in syncopation and rhythmic programming with chord stabs and shuffling drum work drives this one forward..epic!
A brand new repress of this highly sought-after classic deep house/tech house 12" from Da Sunlounge that is currently fetching up to €100 on second-hand markets! This is high-caliber, bumping dancefloor house that's been igniting dance floors since 2003.
Back in the day, it received support from prominent artists such as Ralph Lawson, Silver City, Fred Everything, Inland Knights, and David Duriez. Da Sunlounge has released music on labels including Cajual, Salted Music, King Street, and Mother Recordings, and has remixed well known artists like Mood II Swing and Roland Clark, among others.
We are pleased to announce the first FEX live album, Don't Look Back. The release features selected recordings from two concerts in Paderborn and Uelzen, both captured in 1985. All tracks on the album are previously unissued, including entirely unheard songs such as It's a Hard Life, Just Get Back, Legend, and Waiting Song, alongside a previously unreleased version of Subways of Your Mind, widely known as "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet."
One of the most striking aspects of the album is the remarkable sound quality of the live recordings, as well as the strength of the performances themselves - particularly given that FEX were still considered a newcomer band at the time. The four-piece lineup consisted of singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter Ture Rückwardt, Michael Hädrich on keyboards and occasional second guitar, Norbert Ziermann on bass, and Hans-Reimer Sievers on drums. In 1985, the band was preparing for broader exposure through a nationwide tour organized by the small promotion company HBM-Musikbüro.
The album opens with the psychedelic Skyscraper, a track Rückwardt reportedly regarded as a personal favorite to perform. Hädrich contributes dynamic synthesizer layers, while Ziermann underpins the track with a distinctive slap bass groove. This is followed by the energetic rock number It's a Hard Life, which once again demonstrates that the band possessed multiple songs capable of matching the impact of their best known track Subways of Your Mind.
After this energetic opening, the album shifts into a more restrained mood with the synth-pop ballad I Got My Eyes On You. It is followed by Strange Feeling, presented here in a particularly compelling live version that arguably surpasses the previously released studio demo featured on the Skyscraper LP, with Rückwardt delivering one of his most expressive vocal performances. On Goldrush, another fan favorite, it is Hädrich's DX7 synthesizer work that stands out.
Don't Look Back continues to flow seamlessly, moving between styles such as new wave, synth pop, and a blues-influenced form of classic rock. On It's Good To Know, a song addressing the theme of stardom, the band returns to a heavier rock sound. In contrast, the synth-driven Just Get Back reflects on the conflict in Northern Ireland, then ongoing at the time. Lines such as "It's the money, it's the money why they come along" are directed at mercenary soldiers, while "even Sunday's a killing time" directly references Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2.
Previously known songs such as Dirty Slapstick and Heart in Danger lead into We Don't Want It No More, perhaps the band's most striking pop ballad. It is easy to imagine that the track had the potential to achieve radio success in the 1980s. The following piece, the epic Legend, explores themes of loneliness and love simultaneously. With poetic and abstract lines such as "some isolate in the falling rain" and "that's why I count all the reasons they call out for living, sadness is falling inside," it builds an almost eerie atmosphere.
One of the final highlights of the album is Subways of Your Mind, recorded in Uelzen. In this version, Rückwardt's vocal performance is even more on point than on the previously issued recording from Paderborn. Another notable moment is the driving, 1970s-inspired rock 'n' roll track Waiting Song. Both the composition and its live performance carry an energy that could easily stand alongside the repertoire of bands such as AC/DC. It was usually the track that FEX ended their concerts with, calling out each band member at the end of the song.
This leads to a broader reflection: it is striking that FEX did not achieve a wider breakthrough at the time. The performances captured here suggest a band capable of delivering consistently, song by song, note by note. It is not difficult to imagine FEX performing in large venues and engaging sizeable audiences. In reality, however, most performances in 1985 took place in front of relatively small crowds. The recordings featured on this album originate from the Roxy club in Paderborn and a small, unknown venue in Uelzen, likely in front of fewer than fifty attendees.
An essential figure behind these recordings is the engineer known only under his nickname Hase (German for "rabbit"), who was responsible for capturing not only these concerts but many other surviving FEX recordings. Bringing his own mixing desk to performances, he developed a deep familiarity with the band's material and was able to shape the live sound with precision, including the timely use of vocal effects. The original recordings existed only on cassette and required careful and extensive restoration work. Zoey Cairs was finally responsible for bringing them to their present quality.
This album marks the beginning of the Live Waves series, following the rediscovery of additional recordings that have gained international attention since November 2024, when they surfaced through what has been described as the largest "lost wave" music search to date. The title of this first live LP Don't Look Back carries a certain paradox. While the album invites listeners to revisit recordings from forty years ago, FEX themselves were always oriented toward the future. In that spirit, further releases of brand new material are already planned.
The cover artwork is once again based on an image by Magnussen from the Kiel archive, depicting the Prinz-Heinrich-Brücke. The bridge, once located in the northern part of the city, no longer exists. As a symbol, however, it remains fitting: a bridge stands for movement and connection - qualities that FEX sought to embody on tour, bringing their music to different places and audiences.
Bahamadia’s 1996 debut album Kollage is rightly regarded as one of the greatest rap albums of the 1990s. For the first time ever, Be With present the definitive double LP version of this eternal hip-hop classic, including the legendary "Path To Rhythm" which never appeared on the original LP or on vinyl, anywhere. An indelible VIBE from start-to-finish, Kollage presents Bahamadia's swirling rhymes delivered with an irresistibly butter flow and razor-sharp assuredness over a steady slew of smoothed-out, jazzed-up, blunted beats. Achingly cool and effortlessly funky throughout, it's an absolute must for true 90s hip-hop fanatics.
The entire Kollage project was recorded at D&D Studios and the ties to Gang Starr are keenly felt, with DJ Premier producing five tracks in addition to the killer songs Guru had already produced with her. Working with the cream of the mid-90s East Coast sound, Kollage is, accordingly, a record that demonstrates a varied musical taste with disparate influences, as Bahamadia has previously stated: “The title Kollage was a reflection of my state of mind. I first got interested in music from playing my parents’ and grandparents’ records, as well what I heard on the radio. I wanted Kollage to reflect that diversity both lyrically and sonically."
With intelligent, poetic lyricism and a laconic verbal style bursting with both warm texture and deceptive energy, Bahamadia’s flow was as inspired by Aretha and Nancy Wilson as it was Q-Tip, Schoolly D and Lady B. Swaggering out the gate, "WordPlay" finds Bahamadia confidently showcasing her considerable old-school battle-rhyme skills over a Guru beat that utilises an infectiously bouncy bassline with splashes of sultry jazz horns and a Jeru vocal snatch for the hook. Up next, the quietly shimmering and ruggedly beautiful "Spontaneity" is one of the most alluring on the record, Da Beatminerz crafting a brilliantly soulful and jazzy soundscape for Bahamadia's effortless vocals to float across. It's followed by "Rugged Ruff", where the rapper carefully constructs a swift off-beat flow over Premier's raw jazzy fire.
With smooth spacey synth vibes overseen by former Geto Boys producer N.O. Joe, "I Confess" is, without question, a fly love song and soothing (p)-funk groove. "UKNOWHOWWEDU" is an airy, chilled tribute to her hometown. Produced by Ski Beatz & DJ Redhanded, it rides a gloriously mellow break. It's a true Philly anthem, shouting out a who’s who of the entire city’s scene. Early banger "Total Wreck" follows, presenting a murky Guru instrumental elevated by jazzy horns. Bahamadia invokes the title's suggestion, firing her brilliant bars more aggressively than we’re accustomed to. More Beatminerz-brilliance comes in the way of "Innovation", an opportunity for the MC to invoke Freestyle Fellowship in her forward-thinking and literary verses. "Da Jawn" features hometown buddies The Roots, with Black Thought gliding into a back-and-forth with Bahamadia over ?uestlove’s warm, snapping percussion. With the strut club banger "True Honey Buns (Dat Freak Sh*t)", DJ Premier provides some laidback vibrant boom bap for Bahamadia to share a wild, cautionary tale about a night out with her girl, Kia.
Fan favourite "3 Tha Hard Way" is a hypnotically sinister cut, with Bahamadia, K-Swift and Mecca Star taking star turns to coast over DJ Premier’s raw beat whilst the tender "Biggest Part Of Me" is a heartfelt stunner dedicated to her son. Incredibly, only the European and Japanese CD versions of Kollage was released with the brilliantly breezy “Path To Rhythm”, featuring Ursula Rucker. Whilst ostensibly a "bonus track", it's anything but, to our ears. Very much in sonic conversation with KRS-One's stretched-out sleeper classic "Higher Level", it's absolutely essential so we had to include it, appearing on wax for the first time here, exclusively. Quite a coup.
Somewhat predictably, whilst Kollage was released to significant critical acclaim, it suffered from disappointing sales. In the intervening years - and for far too long - it was a criminally underrated record, an increasingly hidden gem. We hope this double LP reissue - which looks and sounds amazing - will go some way to correct this. This 2024 Be With double LP re-issue has been mastered for vinyl by Simon Francis, cut by Cicely Balston and pressed at Record Industry. It's too bold and beautiful to remain overlooked and underserved.
Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.
Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.
The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.
Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.
Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:
“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992
“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.
"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.
Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992
"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.
"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.
"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.
Music springs eternal. Recognising the enduring power of timeless albums to guide us through life, Forever Records is a reissue series dedicated to rediscovering lost musical treasures from across the spectrum of head-feeding, heart-rending electronic music.
Established by Rush Hour co-founder Christiaan Macdonald and Delsin founder Marsel van der Wielen, Forever Records places heartfelt faith in a carefully curated sequence of seminal, largely forgotten records from disparate eras, scenes and spaces within electronic music history. Tipped towards the mellow and introspective, these are albums that stop time when the needle hits the groove, stirring only when it's time to flip over before you sink back into the experience. That's what albums were always meant to be about, back then, right now, always and forever.
The Release:
Dancing on the wildest edge of the 90s outsider techno zeitgeist while proudly independent of any so-called scene, Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves: A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics is both of its time and out of time. Rooted in the experiments of electronic music pioneers, industrial culture and ethnic music from around the globe while responding to the house and techno explosion, Robbert Heynen, Reinier Brekelmans, Reinoud van den Broek and Tim Freeman's freewheeling masterpiece takes in lush electronica and murky abstraction on its singular voyage through parts unknown.
Forever Records presents an extensive reissue edition of the first 'fully released' Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia album. Originally released in 1992, this is the first time the full, previously CD-only, version of Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves will be pressed on vinyl. The original LP and CD artwork from the various editions released in the early 90s has been combined and designed by the band, and the audio has been remastered with their full approval. As well as a new LP edition of the album, there will also be a uniquely numbered, limited edition available housed in a gatefold sleeve that comes with a bonus 10" featuring two previously unreleased tracks.
Press response to Ov Biospheres and Sacred Grooves - A Document Ov New Edge Folk Classics:
“That’s Magick! The Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia are Holland’s best kept secret.”
Sherman, NME, UK 1992
“PWOG’s debut LP is an organic invocation rite — the soundtrack to a new world coming to life, an odyssey. Cross-cultural rhythms, ambiences and environmental samples segue into one another like a fluid relay, and unlike the majority of dance records, it never settles into a routine. It’s always evolving, always unpredictable, an indefinitely religious experience.”
John Selzer, Melody Maker, UK 1992.
"Grown men, who snorted their first ecstasy to this record, stammered with tears in their eyes about divine experiences and the cosmos, man."
Peter Erik Hillenbach, Marabo Magazine, Germany 1992.
Sacred Grooves’ introduces tribal dance music for the mind, body music leaning on the avant garde. Its ripples of sound drift through tranced out ritualistic beats into ambience and serenity resembling something akin to The Orb meeting Klaus Schulze at a brain tuning session.
Sherman, NME, UK 1992
"There's still dance for a moment, in the opening track "The Challenge," then Psychick Warriors roam the earth, where African drummers, tropical sounds, and science-fiction chords have found their place in a spiralling interplay of rhythms and sounds. A captivating, almost magical ritual." Corné Evers, Oor Magazine, Netherlands 1992.
"It's truly astonishing what these Dutchmen have come up with for their first LP. Their roots might explain the enigma, for Psychick Warriors are more in the tradition of Psychic TV than in the desolate temples of techno-house fetishists, to which they are wrongly relegated. Here, chromosomes dance, not instincts." CMK, Tip, Germany 1992.
"The transcendental essence of this album is spread throughout, with musical gravitations emerging unexpectedly from sonic experiments that are sometimes primitive, sometimes
futuristic in intention… But there is always an aura of cosmic magic that constantly puts all the parts involved in conflict and which, upon closer analysis, ends up being the main reason for the final result." Blitz Magazine, Portugal 1992.
/// First track, Symmetry, debuted on BBC Radio 6 New Music Fix, 10th February: "A beautiful, beautiful album" /// I got my life back. On 17 February 2025, 1024 rays of ultra sound converged at an operation table in Bern, Switzerland, and disconnected a noisy circuit on my brain. 90% of the manifestation ceased – of a disease that I no longer wish to mention by its name. During the same period, I completed my new album: Self Help Manual. I’ve read more current research about the nameless disease than my neurologist, who despite that I didn’t follow his advice on suitable treatment, called me after the successful operation: a brave, brave man. I have composed the music in the same way as in my previous album – Songs for the Nervous System – through layers upon layers of improvisations in dialogue with my synthesizers, most of which are the same age as me. I made the majority of the songs in my studio in the remains of Old Hagalund in Solna. I edited the recordings in my bed during the waking hours of clarity at night. Some songs – NAC, Ketosis, Overkill – were recorded in the basement of my childhood home in Skutskär, in Norduppland, where I’d returned to be nurtured by my retired parents – who during a night when I couldn’t turn over in bed, or pull the blanket over me – made a list of what would happen to my belongings. To my friends who have stood out with me despite my disease, I want to state: you will not inherit me yet. On the new album, the electric bass takes on a leading role. ESG and Liquid Liquid have been important when I reinvented my baselines, limited and liberated by my poor fine motor skills. Plasma is my homage to Summertime Rolls by Jane’s Addiction, that I listened to frequently in my youth. I guess that no one will hear the resemblance. In several songs, the Fender Rhodes plays an important role, a magical instrument that I bought shortly after my diagnosis over a decade ago, and for a long time didn’t dare to touch out of respect for Herbie Hancock and Fela Kuti. A couple of songs draw inspiration from the Horn of Africa – Inner Nile and Delta. At first, subconsciously in the reverb-drenched Inner Nile, then more consciously in Delta. I’m sorry it doesn’t swing the right way, but it was my attempt to return to the cradle of humanity. Longevity is possibly my favourite. The melody is played by an arpeggiator that I controlled by pressing down different keys in an exhilarating sense of freedom. One song in particular, the second track – One – has caused friends to associate freely: one thought it sounded like Patrick Cowley, another like Sly & Robbie meets Kraftwerk, a third like Air – Moonlight Safari. I made one song just before the surgery: opening track Symmetry. It’s the mightiest and most minimal song. I made one song after the surgery: finishing track Self Help Manual. My previous medication pump is heard through the microphone of my Ovation Magnum. It’s the most hopeful song on the album. I took the cover photos with my Hasselblad during walks in Tokyo suburbs of Ōmori and Kamata more than ten years ago. It was something about the faith of the traffic cones that fascinated me – born in the same streamlined form, they had over the years become increasingly individual and lovable. The mixing was finalized by Christoffer Roth in the newly built Studio Dubious in Nacka. Rashad Becker, who in an interview said that he listens as much with his mouth as with his ears, mastered the album at Clunk in Berlin. Right now it feels like anything is possible. My recovery is perhaps a small step for mankind, but a giant leap for me. I hereby leave the music to you. Joakim Forsgren
For its second outing, Time Travel Stuff welcomes back the cosmic touch of Georgian producer DJ Astrobee with the Murder EP - a heavyweight slab of Rare Acid sound .
Straight from the backseat of a tinted SUV and into the headphones of every die-hard fan from the West Side to the coast, LUCKI returns with Dr*gs R Bad—a title that’s half-ironic, half-exhausted, and 100% Tune. This isn't a PSA; it’s a high-speed, low-pass filtered look at a life where the designer denim is heavy and the heart is even heavier. Drowning in those signature ethereal, space-trap melodies that sound like a 4:00 AM fever dream, LUCKI trades his usual nonchalance for a raw, "out of luck" transparency that reminds his cult following why he’s the undisputed king of the heartbreak flex. It’s the soundtrack for the late-night drives and the "everything’s a movie" lifestyle where the credits are starting to blur, proving once again that nobody captures the beautiful, nihilistic chaos of the climb quite like Neptune.
Nothing Under Heaven is the third full-length album from Scottish ambient and drone multi-instrumentalist Yulyseus.
It follows 2022’s In the Dark Palaces of Both Our Hearts, an introspective and immersive work shaped by travel, displacement, and unfamiliar surroundings. Where that release explored darker and more inward-looking terrain, Nothing Under Heaven opens outward into broader, more expansive soundscapes. Drawing on years spent moving between Glasgow, Berlin, Mexico City and Valencia, Niall Gahagan’s compositions here feel patient and quietly luminous, built from layered electronics, bowed strings and subtle field recordings.
Rather than seeking dramatic gestures, the album unfolds slowly, allowing atmosphere and emotion to emerge over time. Working within a crowded and ever-evolving ambient landscape, Yulyseus continues to focus on texture, weight and gradual movement.
Across eight carefully shaped pieces, Nothing Under Heaven explores how sound can hold both stillness and momentum, inviting attentive listening rather than functioning as simple background music. The opening track, Veillands, sets the tone with a quiet intensity that gently draws the listener inward. From there, the album develops as a continuous, immersive experience, rich in detail and emotional nuance. Nothing Under Heaven reflects an artist still in motion, responding to change, uncertainty and new surroundings with humility and care. It stands as a thoughtful and deeply considered addition to Yulyseus’s growing body of work which is rooted in patience, deep listening, and a continuing search for meaning through sound.
Now into its sixth year, NuNorthern Soul’s Summer Selections series has become a popular annual fixture. Like its predecessors, 2026’s edition showcases a variety of Balearic dancefloor workouts, sensual soundscapes and tracks tailor-made for poolside sun-down sets.
As usual, Summer Selections Six is a vinyl-first affair, offering wax enthusiasts a chance to cop killer cuts set to feature on a swathe of forthcoming NuNorthern soul releases – including some that would otherwise be unavailable on physical formats.
To begin, is It Balearic? label regulars and Rotation Sound System crew members Wrekin’ Havoc turn their attention to NuNorthern Soul favourite B.J Smith’s 2014 cover of Outkast’s ‘Prototype’. Their take, which will be featured on a forthcoming collection of reworks of Smith’s NNS material, places the long-serving producer’s beautiful, beguiling vocals atop lo-fi 80s electro beats, moody pads, squelchy synth sounds and far-sighted electronics.
Up next is label newcomer Sasha Foam, a fast-rising Lisbon-based DJ/producer whose Memoria EP is set to land digitally soon. ‘Curios’, his contribution to Summer Selections Six, is a propulsive and ear-catching affair, with joyful synth melodies, rushing piano riffs and cheerful TB-202 style acid tweaks rising above a crunchy, drum-machine driven mid-tempo groove.
Rounding off side A is ‘Call To Wind’, a rootsy, warming and sun-baked slab of Balearic dub gorgeousness from Strictly Dub Records founder Saimon AKA Roots Artefact. The track, which marks his first new material since last year’s NuNorthern Soul debut Different Perspective, is one of the many highlights set to be featured on the Estonian’s forthcoming Rocking Boat EP.
Turn to the flipside and you’ll find three more inspired, immersive treats. Dan Dub Lounge, Muzka and Simon Sheldon being their Visions of Light project back to NuNorthern Soul with the borderline genius ‘ReBorn Slippy’, an exotic, intoxicating and sitar-laden slow-motion instrumental cover of the Underworld favourite taken from their soon-come collection of ‘mild pitch’ takes of dance and electronic classics.
To complete another stellar Summer Selections 12-inch label founder Phil Cooper platforms two recent additions to the roster. First is Potteries-based producer Andrew Wright AKA Lonely Deckchair. Wright offers up ‘Adaflo’ from his forthcoming debut album. Atmospheric and magical, ‘Adaflo’ is a simmering, slowly unfurling fusion of poignant pianos, minimalist beats, shuffling bass and tumble-down chords.
Then there’s Aussie artist Perth Lewis, whose first two self-released albums (Moments In Time and Distance Between) were recently reissued by NuNorthern Soul. The Sydney-based producer is set to release a new EP, Cherry Moon, soon, and ‘Monolith’ is taken from that collection. Deep, dubby and beguiling, it sees Lewis pepper a head-nodding, effects-laden beat with spacey sonics, cascading piano motifs and some seriously sparkling synths.
Scaler are the electrifying Bristol-based band hailed as the city’s “next national breakthrough” thanks to their pulverising live show and meticulous, mind-warping sound. Hot off their critically acclaimed sophomore record ‘Endlessly’ which was nominated for an AIM award for ‘Best Independent Album’ comes Reflex. An EP full of kinetic energy satisfying a craving for immediacy within the project. The layers of intricate collaboration of Endlessly are peeled back and the raw energy of SCALER is cast forth. “These songs were made with the four of us in the room together with our machines, reacting to what the others were doing. Trying to capture the feeling of when your body outruns your head, no second guessing or holding back. Together they work as both fight and flight. A chase and a reaction. Instinct not thought. A reflex.
The world of discovering Soul music and artists can lead to sheer moments of jubilation. The thought of igniting a long lost sound, reviving the energy of a once exuberant individual . But not every story that's told is filled with joy. Some are peppered along the way with struggles and heartache. Over time artists have battled with over powering label owners, record executives who just don't back what you do. The story of Tommy Hill is one such story. Tommy along with friend and longtime collaborator Ricky Tarbo had a deal with Motown records back in the early 1980's which turned sour very quickly. His release "Flame"/"Super Star Of Love' was dropped pretty quickly with no promotion and record boss Sylvia Rhône calling the shots within the duo questioning skin colour within the group and even trying to get vocals wiped off the release to sabotage it.
This said the single didn't amount to much and nothing else was recorded for Motown records. The duo did record some 4 demo's in LA before Tommy headed to re-record them again in New York circa 1982.
The A side has never been released until now, which is such a crying shame as the quality is so damn good. It's an uptempo boogie cut called "All My Love" which we gave a sexy 45 mix so you get some slamming synth work half way in. Tommy Hill's vocal range is nothing but astonishing. Just check out the 2 step ballad of "Can't Get Over You", which was recorded and released back in 1980 by The James Simpson penetration Band written by Tommy Hill, who went back into the studio 2 years later to give the song much more depth not only within the production but also to his vocal range. Tommy Hill headed back to LA after not securing a record deal and a few years later tried to get this singing career back on track. Like many of the artists who have moved on to a higher place Tommy succumbed to his own mental health issues and took his life. We hope this record does you proud Tommy Hill
A dynamic DJ and producer, the Galway-born, Berlin-based artist is driven by mood not genre, gleefully scribbling outside the lines to craft rhythmic, high-vibration dancefloor cuts that make them a delicious match for the Chunkers. Just reference their pin-sharp releases on Radiant, Punctuality, Planet Euphorique and their own World of Worlds imprint. While anyone who’s caught their throwdowns at Draaimolen’s legendary forest stage, Horst Festival or London’s infamous queer party Club Are already knows what’s up.
Their contribution to the BSC catalogue is bang on. Lead cut ‘Track Like’ is a straight-up Chunker. Beginning life as an instrumental, it’s a pumping house cut marked by a grooving bassline, tight drums and a contained ravey energy, before Eoin DJ added that vocal that took the production into peak-time party territory.
A producer who requires no introduction – Jennifer Loveless join the Chunkers fold with a full-bodied remix of ‘Track Like’. Lock in for a funky maximal re-rub with the attitude turned up to 11. Back in Eoin DJ’s corner, the crisp ‘n’ punchy ‘Pure U’ is driven by fat kick drums, euphoric chords and a chunky rolling bassline. Exquisite stuff. A tight Dub version is included in the pack. The EP rounds out with the perky ‘Feel Deeper’, which channels ‘90s New York house and circuit sounds and is built around a hooky vocal line and rhythmic drums.
Eoin DJ follows BELLA, Eliza Rose, Papa Nugs, Paperkraft and remixes Peach and CARISTA in joining the Big Saldo’s Chunkers family as Sally C delights in growing the label via a carefully curated roster of artists.
“I loved the label already, so I was super stoked when Sally asked me to do a release. Chunkers is always
so on-point and consistent with its output. All of the releases are certified party starters – fat basslines, catchy vocals, full of energy and tuned to perfection to hit on the soundsystem. I used that as a jumping off point when making the EP. You could say it’s Chunkers – Eoin DJ style.” – Eoin DJ
“I was hooked on Eoin’s sound since they released ‘Ode to Beachball’ in 2024 on Punctuality Records. I love their ability to weave emotion and groove so seamlessly. It’s been a pleasure working on this EP – I’ve been endlessly rinsing all of the tracks. Such a great producer!” – Sally C
Active in London’s electronic underground since the late 80s, Paul Hierophant has long worked in the space between techno, ambient, and dub, preferring atmosphere, tone, and slow-burn tension to obvious dancefloor tricks.
The Elder Gods finds him further out on the fringes of electro, where the synths loom large and the delay and reverb units are given a proper workout. The result is widescreen, ominous, and immersive.
The title track is a monolithic slab of rhythm where corroded synth pressure and ritualistic percussion feel less like a groove than some ancient machine grinding slowly back into life.
Titans stalks forward on a cavernous half-step pulse, all foggy bass weight and fractured metallic vocal echos, like dub techno that has wandered into darker mythological territory and decided to stay there.
The Hydra coils around a lurching low-end spine, its tentacular FX flickering and mutating while the groove stubbornly regenerates.
Works and Days rounds things off with a standout alien vocal loop drifting through pulsing bass and drums, lending the track a meditative feel that works just as well for late-night headphone sessions as it does in the deeper end of a DJ set.
This is an EP for selectors who like their electro expansive, slightly strange, and built for proper sound systems.
Back on PANORAMA Records, we turn to a beautiful slice of under-the-radar Jamaican reggae with Horace Martin – “Me Rule.”
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Horace Martin was just 20 years old when he stepped into Channel One Studio to record the track in 1974. At the time he was building his name locally, performing in clubs and talent shows around the city while cutting sides in Kingston’s vibrant studio scene. “Me Rule” captures that moment perfectly — youthful confidence over a deep, steady rhythm.
This record earned its place among the deepest collectors: Proper rootsy dancefloor reggae that feels just as good today as it did when it first came out of Kingston.
On the flip, things open up with a dubbed-out version of the rhythm titled “Rule,” credited to Prince Huntly. Stripped back, the dub extends the track — echo, percussion, and bass doing the work.
As always, PANORAMA Records continues its search for overlooked gems from across the globe — records with history, character, and real musical weight. Carefully remastered and brought back on 7inch, PAN013 is another example of these records finding their way back to the turntable.
We are back again in 2026 with more DJ Seduction - this time his very sought after Papillion alias that he released back in 1992 on a private pressing. All headz that use to go out raving back in the day will recognise So Good for those days, plus its been well sampled over the years too. A total anthem!
“One of Berghain’s longest-serving residents, Luke Slater has been defining bleepy, polyrhythmic, industrial-strength techno as Planetary Assault Systems since the mid-nineties. P.A.S albums tend to come together in their own time:
“External signals and signs combine until the recipe feels right, both musically and from being ‘out there’,” Slater adds. “10 years since I released Arc Angel on Ostgut Ton, and it’s a fitting pleasure to combine live show ideas and studio work for the new album, served up with raw energy” That patience runs through his whole Ostgut catalogue; since Temporary Suspension brought its machine-tooled weight and alien feeling to the label in 2009, each P.A.S. release on Ostgut Ton has been its own quest for discovery, from The Messenger’s search for sounds not yet present in club music to Arc Angel’s focus on melody to the deep hypnosis of Plantae.
His new album, Planetary People has the deliberate imagination and depth of a record that took its time, shaped as much by live rooms and crowds as by the studio.
“Into The Night” creates a haunting, dystopic environment of corroded acid saturated in echo, absorbing from the first second. “Labyrinth” breaks into buoyant tribal percussion, modulated chirps trading off over propulsive drums. “Quadrant 10” is clean, delay-drenched techno, buzzing with noise splatters over saturated thuds. “Sermon Of The Light Tides” scrambles metallic bell sequences that distort and evolve throughout, reminiscent of a dial-up modem crossed with a game of Frogger, squelching between percussive bursts and stripped-back kicks. “Brave Cosmo” is tormentingly menacing, eerie synths panning around buried vocal fragments over frantic percussion. “Retina Burn” rolls on fierce, cement-mixer 909 cycles, rave stabs over a ride that locks you in, the whole track stuttering and repeating before stripping back to a bare echoing kick and building itself again. “Thunder Major” barrels on open hats and reverb-drenched claps ricocheting through twisting wreaths of delay, mesmeric and relentless. “Beton Brut” marches juggernaut percussion stamping through hall reverb so vast you can visualise the room, the darkest and most unrelenting track on the record. “No Ninja” crunches in metallic and immediate, a wiry plucked lead threading through glitch with the bass held low and deep, mixed so precisely you can see every layer stacked in your mind’s eye. “Ha Jam” is danceable techno with plenty of funk and a sophisticated looseness, a vocal laugh bouncing off clanging metal blocks and rave stabs. “Lynx” lowpasses its rave stabs and crystalline beeps, chirpy hats ticking, cold metal repeats, old school and mesmeric. “Generation Slip” closes everything out, ominous and churning, skittering percussion and electrical sparks rattling through steel, a freight train barrelling on into oblivion.
For two decades, Gun Outfit has been a band defined less by genre than by continuity, patience, and a commitment to making music that reflects their lived experience.
Formed in Olympia, Washington in 2006 but long since rooted in Los Angeles, the group has evolved from a raw duo into a quietly formidable five-piece, their sound growing from scrappy post-punk beginnings into something spacious yet intimate, and always underpinned by an experimental edge.
On Process & Reality, Gun Outfit return with their most ambitious and immersive work to-date, a sprawling 80-minute double album shaped by time, environment, and philosophy. Recorded over the course of a single month in the late summer of 2020, on an 80-acre ranch in Pine Flat, California, while a massive forest fire burned less than ten miles away, the seeds of these songs were stark and strange.
Its title, Process & Reality, draws from the central work of philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, whose philosophy places intuition, experience, creativity, and relationality at the center of existence.
The band’s current lineup reflects both longevity and openness. Sharp and Keith remain the band’s primary architects, joined by longtime drummer Daniel Swire, multi-instrumentalist Henry Barnes, and bassist Kayla Cohen. Additional collaborators include Chris Cohen, Warren Lee, and Danny Sasaki all of whom add further depth, leaving subtle fingerprints across the album.
Musically, the album expands the band’s palette without abandoning its core sensibility. Dulcimer, autoharp, sitar, melodica, keyboards, homemade electronics, and a wide range of acoustic and electric textures appear throughout. The sound is mellow yet expansive, songs move between fragility and hefty atmospheric passages.
Influences surface obliquely rather than overtly. Elements of reggae and dub inform the production’s spatial sensibility. Echoes of long-form European jam bands coexist with sharp post-punk. British folk traditions, American country, and classic West Coast songwriting drift in and out of focus; the band is never afraid to lead or follow.
4/5 Mojo review: ‘Sparse, hypnotic big-room techno that builds from the bass drum up
Double LP is released on 140gm black vinyl in a transparent gloss foil sleeve, artwork and design by Ian Anderson for Designers Republic. Circuitry Electronic launches with a release that stands as a statement of intent - an artist with few true peers within English electronic music, with an album that jumps out of the speakers and slaps you around the chops. G-Man is Gez Varley - one half of Sheffield pioneers LFO, and thirty years into his solo career, with his first vinyl album release since Avanti on Force Inc way back in 2002. Speaking to DJ magazine in 2014 Gez recalled his early days working with Mark Bell as LFO: “We were influenced by groups like 808 State. Unique 3, Nightmares On Wax and also stuff like Kraftwerk, Detroit techno and early electro. So when we first hooked up and made tunes together we just wanted to rock the dancefloor at our local club The Warehouse”.
Their eponymous track ‘LFO’ – a classic of the bleep and bass techno movement – was one of the first releases on the Warp label, gate- crashing the UK’s Top 20 whilst annoying Simon Mayo along the way. Having worked with the likes of Richie Hawtin, Karl Bartos, Laurent Garnier, Art of Noise, Radiohead, YMO and Alan Wilder, in addition to the LFO output, you'd expect Gez to know his way around a techno dancefloor rhythm and drum pattern, and this is an inventive funk-filled journey that never veers too far into experimental territory yet avoids the cliches and generic tropes that too often lose the listener when techno manifests in album form.
I first encountered Pascal Comelade’s music thirty years ago—and nothing has sounded quite the same since. I was immediately captivated: he is an artist like no other, whose sincere and selfless love of music is always evident, especially in his tender reworkings of other people’s songs.
Comelade seems to work like a watchmaker: meticulous, precise, and obsessive—yet always drifting into something dreamlike. His music opens hidden doors, telling strange and beguiling stories filled with obscurity, kindness, and reserved humour.
Back then, my fascination was instinctive. Today, with a few more words at my disposal, I look to this exceptional 70-year-old French musician and feel exactly the same pull.
Métaphysique Du Hit-Parade is the first vinyl compilation devoted to Pascal Comelade’s favourite cover versions. It spans a forty-year career and traces sixty years of rock and roll history along the way. “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” becomes a soft, soothing lullaby that may well have made the Ramones weep. Then there are his idiosyncratic tributes to Jonathan Richman (“Egyptian Reggae”) and The Kinks (“Sunny Afternoon”), alongside nods to formative heroes such as The Gun Club, Captain Beefheart, and MC5.
Two exclusive recordings stand out particularly: Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” and Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”—a song that shaped my early youth. Both were recorded especially for this release.
Sirens" resonate a lot in 2026. "Sirens" are everywhere right now, in the many fields of the human reign, sounding at its highest level ever... Pioneering Swiss DJ and electronic music producer Ripperton joins forces with Berlin-based singer, composer and passionate aural storyteller Joy Frempong (OY) to create a beautiful and deeply moving piece of electronic music. And after three years in the making, “Sirens” finally emerges. The roots of this collaboration however reach back more than a decade. Around 2010, Ripperton first encountered Joy’s first album with Oy after hearing it on Swiss national radio Couleur 3. Shortly after, he saw her playing live — a moment he describes as pure magic. So inspired, Ripperton approached her label with a request to remix her music. The label agreed, and in exchange, Joy promised to feature on one of his future productions. What began as a mutual artistic gesture quietly planted a seed and eventually, pretty much fifteen years later, that seed has fully grown. “Sirens” began as one of Ripperton’s nocturnal modular jams — exploring and playing around with pulsating sequences, pure analogue sound textures and fluid, hypnotic structures. The track was then elevated to an entirely new level by Joy Frempong’s deep, evocative lyrics and her celestial voice, transforming the song into something haunting and profoundly human. The song also grew on a shared work ethos rooted in patience, trust and refinement. A slow process, shaped by intuition and feeling rather than pressure. Listening over noise. The result is an emotionally charged composition that blurs the line between inner reflection and collective awareness — a sonic response to the sirens of our time.
Quotes: Laurent Garnier: “This is lovelyyyyy * “ Aera: “Love it! A brooding masterpiece. Simple yet multilayered, the real action is happening beyond the surface.” Acid Pauli: "This is really special. Like it a lot." Kalabrese: "Wonderful collaboration between two outstanding artists. Fresh sounds, deeper rauschen, beautiful vocals, hypnotic tribe. a bliss!” Vladimir Ivcovic: "Das ist so gut, aufrichtig, rein und kommt zum richtigen Zeitpunkt. Die Abwesenheit von Hysterie. Ich liebe es. Downcast Euphoria of the highest order und gerade. In der Tat wunderschön. Besonders Clouds Mix, gerade."
Celestial Echo returns with a proper UK soul classic — The Cool-Notes “I Forgot How To Love You”, back on 12” and cut loud for the dancefloor.
Hailing from South London, The Cool-Notes were one of the UK’s most consistent soul outfits through the late ’70s and ’80s. While many know them for their chart successes later in the decade, this early period shows the band in a formative state — warm basslines, tight rhythm section, rich harmonies and that unmistakable Britfunk feel.
“I Forgot How To Love You” is one of those records that’s quietly done the rounds for years. A favourite of Frederika’s back in the day, it’s about time it has it’s first ever reissue.
Presented on 12” in a clean company sleeve, this edition gives the record a new lease of life.
Celestial Echo is here to put proper soul records back into circulation — Buy or Cry
Fresh from the success of his debut solo LP ‘How To Kill A Butterfly’ out last year on High Focus Records, Farma G returns with the anticipated full-length follow up ’Nearly Nothing’s Enough’.
An album anchored in his notorious musical adventures as 1/2 of Task Force, Bury Crew and Mud Family, but very much informed by the state of 2026 Britain and beyond, Farma’s new body of work is fuelled by equal parts venom and deep introspection across 12-tracks courtesy of Brighton based producer Relense.
With one eye on following ‘How To Kill A Butterfly’ with something of equal standing, Farma revisited the fundamentals in the hope of better understanding what he really wants to say with the music he makes. By channelling feelings of familiarity and seeking out emotional connections to his past he created a record that feels both concise and expansive.
With the help of Relense’s gritty analog instrumentals, Farma found himself journeying across subjects and bandwidths; from exploring the mind of a conspiracy theorist on ‘X-Files’, to being a zen master with a mountain on his back on ‘Sun Wukong’, before returning to earth for a typical day in the life on ‘Mr Moany’, ‘Nearly Nothing’s Enough’ is an album that took Farma home and he is delighted to welcome you on the journey.
"Know Your Toms", it struck us that we have in our collections a number of amazing releases from artists writing deep and underground house music all going by the name Tom. The mission - to collect a track from each of them and make the kind of release which finds its way into only the best record collections. Tom Lown records as Lucky Sun and runs his own label of the same name. His track "Tomcat" is deep, pad drenched house for when the sun is out and the dancefloor is heating up.
Tom Gilbert is a master at crafting melody-rich, future-facing electronic music that's as timeless as it is tuneful, atmospheric and pleasingly nostalgic as can be heard in his track "Tom & Roland". Tom Churchill is a Scottish-based electronic music DJ, producer, and label owner involved in the scene since the mid-90s, his track "Backwards Glance" is his trademark deep house at its finest.
Tom (Shur-i-kan) Szirtes needs no introduction and has produced the kind of track which lights up the dance floor in a peak time house set, "Round Robin" is an instant classic. Between them they have been signed to the cream of the crop in underground house labels: Freerange, Headspace, We're Going Deep, Winding Road, Innate, Tronicsole, M>O>S, Nordic Trax, DiY Discs, Echocentric, Lost My Dog, 2Sox, Distant Worlds. The EP Comes on eco marbled vinyl, with "Know Your Toms" sticker and insert which is a guide to identifying the different types of Toms out there. A limited run of T-shirts available from Fourier Transforms Bandcamp
Logistics makes a highly anticipated return after a three-year hiatus, with a whopping 24-track album.
Released across four 12 inch records, housed in spined sleeves, and presented in a premium two-piece lift-off box with scratch resistant matt laminate, matt varnish, and with fully printed packaging throughout. It is a beautiful presentation of this new LP from a Hospital Records legend.
Dropping almost out of the blue, the current reception from fans, artists & industry heads off the back of the 'ambush' announcement has been incredible. The album campaign is illusive, but rewarding to fans who have been waiting so long for brand new music from Logistics, they've now got 24 brand new tracks to get stuck into!
"Life & Death has been a bucketlist label for me since day one. I've always been inspired by the way DJ Tennis approaches music and the whole philosophy around the label. What always stood out to me is the variety in the releases. One record can be deep and emotional, the next one raw and club-focused, but it still feels like it belongs to the same world. That balance is something I am always chasing in my music. Next to this: in a world that is focussed more and more on short term wins and commercial performance, i really can tell that Tennis still values the art and process of making music the most, which is something i really appreciate"
I remember hearing him play at Circoloco in Ibiza and later in the Loft in Amsterdam and thinking: 'fuck, I should've send him the tune I made last week.' When I came back home, I immediately put together a pack of tracks to send to him. Two were released as part of the Fabric release, and 4 of them are on this EP.
For me, this release is a next step in my career, and I'm happy and proud to be part of a label that is both legendary and super relevant in 2026."
Paul Weller releases Weller At The BBC (Vol.2) on Friday 24th April.
This second BBC outing gathers live session and live in concert performances, including intimate stripped back acoustic versions and re-workings of tracks across The Jam, The Style Council and Paul’s extensive solo career.
From timeless classics such as Start!, Shout To The Top and Wild Wood, to deep cuts and covers, like The Zombies’ Time Of The Season and Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For?
The album also features some beautifully orchestrated tracks with the London Metropolitan Orchestra, arranged and conducted by Hannah Peel, including Aspects, Boy About Town and Have You Ever Had It Blue.
After a short break, Vibes and Grooves is back with Collab Grooves Part 2. Following the success of our initial collaborative venture, we continue our mission of uniting visionary producers under a single sonic umbrella. This time Jemaho, Shaka and DFRA come together for another deep collaboration.
With “Joudia’s Groove (Drifting Away – The DAT Version)” on the A side, we are delighted to have Jemaho on board. He delivers an outstanding, warm and soulful vocal house cut driven by a smooth, uplifting groove and rich musical depth. With its unique tape sound aesthetic, a true masterpiece. Certainly a future club classic.
The B side opens with „Sparkling Soul“ from label resident Shaka. A jazzy house affair that blends vibrant piano melodies, a hypnotic lead synth line, and a tight bassline. It radiates warmth, sophistication, and an ever-present sense of romance.
The second track comes from DFRA, the man from Buenos Aires, who is already well known on the label for his outstanding tracks from the latest Collab Grooves. With “New York Style”, DFRA delivers a deep house tune shaped by warmth, restraint, and a steady underground groove. Subtle textures and raw rhythms create a smooth, flowing atmosphere that feels natural and unforced.
Timeless in feel and refined in production, Collab Grooves Part 2 captures an effortless flow that speaks directly to both the heart and the dancefloor.
The Deku Trio's cozy Legend of Zelda coffeehouse jazz album
Jazz band The Deku Trio is back for an encore in Zelda & Jazz II, an 18-track smooth jazz Legend of Zelda tribute album. Featuring intimate piano, upright bass, and mellow drums, The Deku Trio reimagines the music of The Legend of Zelda with influences ranging from lounging bossa nova to coffeehouse jazz. Zelda & Jazz II features music from across The Legend of Zelda series. Highlights include Nintendo 64 classics Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time, GameCube releases Twilight Princess and The Wind Waker, hand-held titles Link's Awakening and Spirit Tracks, Skyward Sword for the Wii, and the Super Nintendo's A Link to the Past. This wide-ranging tribute is topped off with artwork and character designs by comic and environmental artist Christian Benavides (League of Legends). The brainchild of Rob Araujo (Chillhop) and Chris Davidson (GameChops), The Deku Trio features rich reharmonizations on piano, gentle drums, and lush upright basslines, with mixes by Curran Sinha in Los Angeles.
The Deku Trio crafts an intimate smooth jazz tribute to the timeless Legend of Zelda series.
Joe Rolét joins Subtil Records with Get The Frequencies EP.
Get The Frequencies EP contains four stripped-back, heavy-hitting tools built for dark rooms and deep sessions. Sub-bass pressure, dark spaced-out tones and hypnotic movements — no filler, just a functional minimal techno vinyl for DJs who get it.
These tracks were custom built for Subtil Records, aligning closely with the label’s vision of underground, uncompromising music designed for long nights with serious selectors.
The highly respected Swiss producer Deetron steps up to Defected’s acclaimed House Masters series. Known for his deep, groove-driven approach to house and techno, his output has graced the likes of Rekids, Nu Groove, Running Back , Classic and Clone amongst others, earning acclaim for both his original productions and remixes.
This 2LP collection from Defected collates some of his finest productions and remixes to date showcasing his signature deep house sound. From his peak time club focused releases ’Starblazer’, ‘Runnin’ and his remix of Gerd’s ‘Palm Leaves’ to his remixes of Fred Everything, Wallflower and his own ‘I Cling’ highlighting his soulful and vocal-driven depth.
Featuring his most recent collaboration with Seth Troxler and remix of Todd Terje also on the compilation, House Masters Deetron underlines Deetron’s status as one of the scenes most prolific and finest producers.
Mark Pritchard (Global Communication / Africa Hi-Tech / Reload / Harmonic 313) produced gem from 2004. Featuring Eska, Nina Miranda and other vocalists. TIP!
An expanded edition of a long out of print Far Out classic. This double vinyl edition will include the track 'Strikehard' for the first time, which was omitted from the original pressing, only released on a separate 12" and CD.
Far Out Recordings announces the Record Store Day 2026 deluxe double LP reissue of Troubleman’s Time Out of Mind. Originally released in 2004, the album marked a distinctive turn in Mark Pritchard’s expansive career, channeling his pioneering electronic instincts through a filter of Brazilian grooves, African rhythms, and global soul. This special edition includes the underground club classic “Strike Hard” (previously unavailable on the original vinyl), alongside the album’s flawless blend of early-noughties space-age bossa, broken beat, future soul, and psychedelic downtempo.
Under the Troubleman alias, Pritchard stretched his focus outward in every direction. From the UK rave continuum to Brazil, the US, Africa, and beyond, he drew on the psychedelic soul of Dorothy Ashby and David Axelrod, the Afrobeat drive of Fela Kuti and Tony Allen, and the samba-doido energy of Azymuth. Filtering golden-era seventies influences through early-2000s pop, club, and rave lenses, the album moves effortlessly between club-ready tracks like “Strike Hard,” and more laid-back, tripped-out moments that highlight Pritchard’s range, shifting seamlessly from dancefloor heat to outer-bongolian cloud watching.
Featuring vocal contributions from Nina Miranda (Smoke City, Da Lata), Steve Spacek (Spacek, !K7), and Eska (New Sector Movements), the record captures Pritchard at a pivotal moment, exploring how electronic production could absorb and expand the rhythmic complexity of global sounds.
One half of Global Communication and Jedi Knights with Tom Middleton, and Harmonic 313 with Dave Brinkworth, Pritchard has since built a dense, acclaimed discography across numerous aliases and labels. His work on Warp Records has included collaborations with Thom Yorke, and his remix portfolio spans Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, Underworld, Aphex Twin, Lamb, KRS-One, A Tribe Called Quest, The Orb, and The Beloved.
Remastered from the original sources and pressed to vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day 2026, this edition also faithfully reproduces the album’s psychedelic artwork by renowned British artist and designer Swifty.
"I think I have never met anybody, with the exception of Brazilian guitarists Baden Powell and Toquinho, as connected to his instrument as Agustín Pereyra Lucena" – Vinicius de Moraes
Far Out continues its exploration into the singular catalogue of Argentine guitarist and songwriter Agustin Pereyra Lucena with a special Record Store Day edition of his most celebrated album Ese Dia Va A Llegar.
Agustín Pereyra Lucena was one of South America’s outstanding guitarists. Hailing from Buenos Aires but obsessed with the music of neighbouring Brazil, Agustin abandoned his architecture studies to pursue music full-time, earning friendship and collaborations with Brazilian music's greatest figures including Vinicius de Moraes, Baden Powell, Toquinho, Dorival Caymmi, Maria Bethania and Chico Buarque.
Originally released in 1975, the album has been better known in some parts of the world as Brasiliana – a title repurposed by Agustín's European record label in the 70s to exoticize the sounds of South America for the continental market. It finds Agustin and band—which includes key collaborators Guillermo Reuter on contrabass, and Carlos Carli on drums and percussion— at their most blissfully laid back. The album features idiosyncratic renditions of classics by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, João Donato and Agustin’s personal hero and friend Baden Powell, alongside Agustín's own works which ooze with captivating mystical wonder.
The analog warmth of the recording is such that it feels like you’re there in mid-seventies Buenos Aires, on a balmy late night session at Estudios Audión, with a group of phenomenally impressive musicians. The heat generated is offset only by the cool temperament of everyone involved. On the handful of vocal tracks on the album, Agustin’s gentle voice is responded to by the liquid smooth vocals of Laura Hatton, Luis Maria Cosenza and Patricia Scheuer.
Agustin’s unique position in the annals of his continent’s musical history has been lovingly maintained by Agustin’s nephew Jose Luis Pereyra Lucena, who has entrusted Far Out Recordings to preserve and re-release Agustin’s works. The music has been professionally remastered at London’s Metropolis Studios, using multiple copies of well kept original vinyl.
Reissued worldwide for the first time under its original title and cover as Agustin originally intended, Ese Dia Va A Llegar will be presented in a limited edition obi-stripped gatefold replica sleeve.
May 2026 marks the arrival of TYGAPAW (aka Dion McKenzie)’s first full-length album on Tresor Records, entitled Together You Gather All Power Applied Worldwide. An acronym of its creator’s name, TYGAPAW’s third studio album is a deeply personal collection of music building worlds where Black queer and trans siblings can thrive, while unifying dancefloors worldwide. A proposition that collective wisdom liberates us from the matrix of domination we live within. The album unfolds as the latest chapter in TYGAPAW’s ongoing techno opera opus, continuing to center the voices of Black women, which surface as layered incantations rather than lyrics - powerful, haunting, sensual, activating.
With the process of creating the album starting in 2023, as TYGAPAW (Dion McKenzie) was in the first year of their transition, the music reflects the intensity of that period, where they were experiencing deplatforming as a response to the shift in their physical appearance: Tracks like ‘M32 Riddim’ and ‘Helicopter hovers over my Crown Heights Apartment’ feature high-paced rhythms intersecting with intense siren-like synths to form demanding compositions echoing a heightened sense of alert. Yet throughout the album, relief comes in the form of TYGAPAW’s vocal features, co-conspirators, and chosen family, whose voices are treated with reverb and echo, a sonic fingerprint that leads back to the pioneers in the legendary studios of TYGAPAW’s native land, Jamaica, an important reminder that the past will always inform the future. It is an album for dancers first and foremost, where joy, defiance, and integration with the natural body coexist, and every drop feels less like a climax than a transformation. Expect a bass that permeates your soul and melodic synthesized sequenced phrases echoing the dancehall eras of TYGAPAW’s youth, reshaped into hypnotic melodies that glow over industrial kicks designed to command attention, reasserting Jamaica's pioneering yet often overlooked contribution to electronic music.
In the opening track, ‘Can I Live’, Precious Okoyomon’s words feel like the beginning of a ritual; setting the intentions for the rest of the proceedings. As McKenzie puts it, their “work is about regeneration, resetting, getting integrated into nature, and about rebirth. That’s the tone I wanted to set at the outset of the album.” Ms Carrie Stacks continues this thread of support in ‘Don’t Panic’ with heavily processed vocals on top of a beat that takes inspiration from another important ingredient in the antidote to the oppression of isolation: Ballroom culture. “ I feel like I found my queerness in Ballroom, that’s why this track is very important to me.”
Echoes of NYC Black queer nightlife scene also permeate in the energetic drums of ‘Exorcise the Language of Domination’, in which Julianna Huxtable’s spoken performance complements the various movements and tones of the music. “My producer brain thought this was the one that Juliana’s vocals would be best suited for. I hinted: ‘what do you think of this one?’ She just went into her notes and picked some passages to go with the first section of the track. From there, it was a year-long process of development. It required time and space for this thing to evolve, but I think it’s one of the most powerful tracks on the album.” London’s SUUTOO contributes the album’s only musical collaboration on ‘B2B’, a track that emerged from sessions in McKenzie’s New York studio where the real objective was to connect and have fun; a time out from the demands of life outside.
The album closes out with a double hit of emotion in the form of ‘Effects of Resistance and Black Trans Masculine Experience’. The former features South African scholar Khanyisile Mbongwa drawing connections that exist between Africa and the Black diaspora, whilst looking to the future and calling for a shared sense of community.
The latter piece, an instrumental version of the piece which featured on the IMMIGRANT E.P. of 2025 is a gentle and deeply affecting end to the record, a place of peace and acceptance. This end-of-cycle tone is mirrored in the sleeve photography, which also ties back to IMMIGRANT by finally revealing what was hidden: a portrait of the artist fully self-actualized; a step towards true inner liberation. TYGAPAW is sonically defiant across this album; bass frequencies feel tactile — less heard than inhabited — infectious lead synth melodies remain with you long after the track ends. An overall sound that leaves asserting an urgent need for connection. From Detroit to New York to Berlin to Jamaica, despite geographic distance, this album reminds us that we remain in solidarity, recognising that meaningful world-building requires collective input and action, both personal and communal, if we are to move toward liberation.
4LP vinyl boxset - pressed on opaque red, green, blue and yellow vinyl housed in printed inner sleeves with disco holes within a hardbound book jacket. The back cover is a Ludo board and the package contains Ludo game pieces, dice and instructions on how to play.
The Best of the Black President is the 13 track guide to Fela Kuti’s massive and manifold creative career. Fela was a musician, arranger, producer, political radical, outlaw and the originator of Afrobeat. This is the first time the complete compilation is available on vinyl. It is a 4 LP set, with updated cover art in a hardbound book jacket and printed inner sleeves. The individual LPs are pressed on red (sides A/B), green (sides C/D), blue (sides E/F) and yellow (sides G/H) vinyl. This edition features a Ludo game board as the back cover and comes with a perforated set of game pieces, dice, and instructions on how to play. Limited edition of 3000 for the world.
The release of this special edition coincides with the 12 episode podcast on the life and legacy of Fela, Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, produced by the Obamas and hosted by Jad Abumrad (Radiolab, Dolly Parton’s America). The series features dozens of interviews including Burna Boy, Paul McCartney, Questlove, Ayo Edebiri, David Byrne, Santigold, and President Obama himself. It was initially released on Audible on 9/15/25 and had a wide release across all podcast platforms on 10/15/25
Italy's Di Saronno (can you see what he did there? Almond liqueur? No?) drops a couple of nicely raw house jams here and the first one features Parris Mitchell. 'Street Walls' has swirling melodies lopping endlessly in the midst of big, lolloping kicks and chopped up vocals bring some playful vibes. 'Out Of Control' is more tight and tech-y - constructed under Di Saronno's Mindbuster alter-ego - with a jazz-inflected but tough MAW style groove and horns up top, adding a softer, more musical counter point. Last of all is Di Saronno's On The Rocks mix of a much loved Inland Knights tune, 'Like This', which flips it into a filter-heavy house jam with swing, jazz and the sort of energy you want in cosy back rooms.
Mood Child returns with Various Moods Vol. 5, a razor-sharp six-track album curated by Manda Moor and Sirus Hood. Bringing together some of their biggest weapons in their sets, the release delivers a standout selection of special records and high-impact dancefloor cuts from a finely tuned cast of artists.
Built with the club in mind, Various Moods Vol. 5 moves through deep, rolling grooves, stripped-back minimal flavours and tougher tech-driven moments, with each track carrying its own identity while hitting with real force. The result is a versatile and powerful package made for peak-time pressure, late-night sessions and serious selectors.
The release marks the return of Antss, Paul C and Francis De Simone, while also welcoming RSquared and Drumcapelli for their first outing on Mood Child. Adding further weight to the project is a standout contribution from highly respected UK artist wAFF, rounding out a release full of character, energy and club-ready impact.
Charlotte de Witte announces three brand new tracks in the form of her richly resonant EP ‘Amor’, out April 30th on her KNTXT imprint. The vinyl will include an additional Instrumental Mix of her track ‘O Movimento’.
The world's number one techno artist recently celebrated her 15th career anniversary with two monumental Flanders Expo 23k capacity performances, her long-awaited debut album (plus a new Deluxe Edition), and press support from Vogue, Grammy Museum, BBC 6 Music, DJ Mag (with cover), Mixmag, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Zane Lowe, Clash, Flood Magazine (cover).
‘Amor’ EP: each track features the breathy, full-toned vocals and Portuguese lyrics of CERES. The Brazilian singer, DJ & producer favours techno with tasty slices of UKG. Add to that, subtle motifs link the three tracks, giving the impression they form a suite. ‘This EP is inspired by my love for Portugal and Brazil, the countries, the people, the food, the culture. Made with lots of amor.’ - Charlotte de Witte
Title track ‘Amor’ (feat. CERES) delivers a galloping beat starred with spacey FX, as a hoover siren builds tension and CERES begins her rhyming chant. A sprinkle of acid becomes a sulphuric tidal wave. Next, ‘Sem Ar’ (feat. CERES): ‘Airless’; frantic rattling percussion overlays the fast beat to breakbeat-adjacent. CERES’ resonant voice is showcased in an acapella breakdown before her soulful voice becomes an acid robot’s, sharp and penetrating. Finally, ‘O Movimento’ (feat. CERES); ‘Movement/motion’, speeding beat with hi-hat backbeat duels with CERES’ voice, now sounding almost breathless, before acid filters in as the track builds.
With Get Together III, the journey moves into its next chapter, as four artists come together once again to bring the many colors of electronic music to life.
modul808 opens the journey with deep, warm chords and a driving groove that instantly pulls the listener into the depths of its sonic landscape. In “Kamuro”, shimmering details line the explorer’s path, while the magical vocals of Igor Pose are elegantly woven into the arrangement, creating a dense and hypnotic atmosphere. With “Habits”, Heidmann continues the journey in a similarly groovy fashion, leading the way to sunlit clearings filled with memorable melodic gems. Cie effortlessly picks up the uplifting mood on the B-side, where the magnificent “Schlosshotel” unfolds with majestic chords and shimmering strings, inviting every house lover to stay for a while.
Finally, the journey home begins with Dip’s “Module”, which follows a deep path once more, uncovering sparkling sonic secrets along the way.
Together, the four tracks form another chapter in the Get Together series - a warm and timeless deep house journey shaped by four distinct artistic voices.
Mit Get Together III geht die Reise in ihr nächstes Kapitel: Vier Künstler kommen erneut zusammen und bringen die vielfältigen Farben elektronischer Musik zum Leuchten.
modul808 eröffnet die Reise mit tiefen, warmen Chords und einem treibenden Groove, der den Hörer sofort in die Tiefen seiner Klangwelt zieht. In „Kamuro“ säumen glitzernde Details den Weg des Entdeckers, während die magischen Vocals von Igor Pose elegant in das Arrangement verwoben sind und eine dichte, hypnotische Atmosphäre entstehen lassen. Mit „Habits“ führt Heidmann die Reise ebenso groovig fort und öffnet den Weg zu sonnendurchfluteten Lichtungen voller einprägsamer melodischer Klangperlen. Die gute Laune greift Cie auf der B-Seite mühelos auf: Vor ihm erhebt sich das prächtige „Schlosshotel“, das mit majestätischen Chords und schimmernden Strings jeden House Liebhaber zum Verweilen einlädt. Beschwingt beginnt schließlich die Heimreise mit Dip’s „Module“, das erneut einen deepen Pfad einschlägt und auf seinem Weg funkelnde klangliche Geheimnisse offenbart. So entsteht ein weiteres stimmiges Kapitel der Get Together-Reihe - vier Künstler, vier Perspektiven und eine gemeinsame Reise durch warme, zeitlose Deep-House-Landschaften.
Early DJ Feedback:
Christian Seitz / Show "Neuland" on Radio Z
A beautiful compilation that brings together deepness and dancefloor
Sebastian / f.a.r.e.s / Bass And Space
Great EP, thanks!
ed2000 / Dangerous Drums, Cashmere Radio, Face Radio, dub intervention
Very nice set of tracks, support and thanks radio and dj set plays.
Sasha / Circus Recordings, Renaissance, Global Underground
Cool from Cie
Anthony Pappa / Selador / Renaissance
Nice tunes. Thank you.
Timo Maas / Cocoon Recordings, Crosstown Rebels, Rockets and Ponies, Mobilee, Moon
Harbour, Tenampa, etc etc
Nice Heidmann
Stéphane Chambord / Radio Resonance ("DeeJay Academy" Radio Show)
repérages : Kamuro & Habits je prépare une émission spéciale avec un mix des productions du label
Cyprien Rose / Lui, Houz-Motik, Waxdoesmatter
Amazing > Modul808 - Kamuro feat. Igor Pose
Rob Zile / Brain Food Radio (Kiss FM) / Brain Food Records
Great deep tunes
John Digweed / Bedrock Records
Downloading
T. Carlita / In My House
Good Vibe
Laurent / WTM
Another wtm's playlist is coming soon…;)
Douglas Arellanes / Radio 1
Cool chilled out vibe on this record.
Valerio Vaudano
I like "Kamuro" and "Habits". Will try these warming up the dance floor. thx for sending
Stuart Bruce / Chain DLK
Downloading for possible review on ChainDK
Noah Pred / Thoughtless, Biotop, Highgrade
Some nice ones here, thanks.
Ninu / Hipodrome
I like Habits
BARRcode / Backseat Mafia
Solid release.
Carl Craig / Planet-E
dl 4 erno thx!
Ilario Alicante / Cocoon Recordings, Alphahouse, Bosconi, Prism
Downloading for Ilario Alicante, thanks for the music!
Andrew Till / Machine, Fnoob
Cool dubbed out grooves ,,,Heidmann - Habits is my pick.
Ju / Upperberry
Dope =)
Kat Davids
nice and smooth!
Como Las Grecas / Kali Modernphase, Denis Yurgens, Alejandro Club, German MT, Como Las
Grecas
Deep mind in house groove. Interesting VA of deep house.
Dole & Kom / Death By Disco, Mixmag
Really liking Modul808's and Cie's traxxx Thank you
A. WandalHouz – Jazz Do it
Full 13 and a half minute ride, Wandalhouz wanted you to nab some quality use of your favorite material on this earth (vinyl) to its fullest potential. “Jazz Do It” sparks the same feeling and vibe as a sit in studio in session. Using a unique spacey Sci Fi sound creation as its main loop character, its main stand out is its big, bouncing fatty synth bass. Each introduced sound is eloquently placed upon its next, giving each individual sound its own time to welcome itself to the greater whole, and no moment is wasted. Each sound is playfully placed, perpetuating a bounce between the synths rubbing the low end frequencies, while the melodic pipe organ stabs shine bright through the ebbs and flows of sweeping fx to give it movement through the entire wave of sound. Its a driving deep, jazzy, and funky House track that truly encourages you to “Jazz Do It” on the dance floor, and as much as you can, for as long as you can.
B. Dj Mourad TD216 – Summer night talk
“Summer Night Talk” is Deep House cut that meets Electronic Jazz for a drink, at a Broken Beat art show, thats coming from the brain of a Techno OG, and Professor with years of producing, Djing, remixing, and sound design.
Mourad uses “Summer Night Talk” as his latest musical canvas. His machines are his paint brushes, and this song is his poem for its soundtrack. Mourad delivers thumping bass, peppy percussion, skippity snares, and fx that grab attention like poppin off fire crackers inside an art museum. Hypnotizing bass rumbles up your backside, creeps over your shoulders, and then whispers in your ear with a moist breath “Listen….” With each kick of the drum, each new brassy and chunky horn that graces your ear drum, you get further lost in the groove. His melody grab and spin you around, making you take another moment to catch your balance. “Summer Night Talk” is thumping and melodically techy in all the right ways to keep it deep, and true to its title.
SK_eleven celebrates a decade of sonic exploration with a 13-track compilation showcasing its signature tension, technical discipline, and stylistic spectrum. Reuniting a tight circle of artists whose contributions have helped shape the label, the release offers an unrelenting sequence of pressure, mental twists, and textural collisions; a multifaceted snapshot of techno's enduring capacity to evolve, disturb, and seduce.
The compilation resists uniformity. Instead, it thrives on contrast: tension versus release, density against spaciousness, rhythm in all its permutations. From high-energy metallic openers and dub-inflected body rollers, to disorienting, delay-heavy experiments and stripped-back percussive tools, each contribution reveals a unique grip on groove and detail. Some tracks move like engineered machines: sharp, robotic, and syncopated to surgical precision. Others embrace sensuality and unpredictability, exploring spatial motion, layered harmonic friction, and states of controlled chaos. Each piece acts as a structural component in a larger sonic architecture, where tension is built, collapsed, and rebuilt. Friction becomes a form of choreography. Across the record, a shifting palette of emotional mechanisms takes form; granular and magnetic, haunting and quietly forceful, restrained, then disruptive.
More than a retrospective, SK_eleven's first compilation becomes a collective gesture toward techno's unresolved possibilities: its ability to hold contradiction, remain in flux, and mutate without conclusion.
As one of the foundational artists of Flipsight, it is only fitting that ColorJaxx gives the first major 2 x 12" gatefold statement on the label. The debut album 'In Between' of the Belgian producer gives a full overview of his trademark deep grooves with a re-invention of his club sound.
The first record is your invitation to the beach. The A-side kicks off with the ambient "Playamer", setting a scene of salt air and warm breeze. The shoreline waves combine with an electric piano groove to "Out The Door". This is where a slick trumpet gets the parole and cuts through the atmosphere, signalling to the dancefloor. "Never Enough" serves as a spiritual successor of his first EP on the label "Tales of never": shimmering guitar samples, a warm, everlasting groove, and that unmistakable "ColorJaxx" swing that we fell in love with initially.
The B-side is where Jordy catches the first hints of Spring with "Just Around" by blending uplifting trumpets and sax melodies with a fresh forward-moving baseline. "Higher" elevates the mood further with smooth rhodes keys and a jazzy piano lead. As the evening chill sets in, the first disc concludes with the literal end of the day: "The Beach Is Closed".
Time to grab the second wax out of your gatefold: leave the sand behind for the strobe light as this is where the maestro gets in club mode. "Back Then" serves as the bridge into "Discotheques," a heavy-hitting wink to the old-school Belgian club scene that shaped the underground of the early 2000's. This vibe created "Moving On," a sophisticated French-like house tune with Chris Farmer where the vocalist enters into a constant conversation with rhythmic elements, creating a versatile track that fits in any part of a DJ set.
The finale is reserved for heavy hitters: "This This" and "Disco Trouble" are pure, pumpy club rollers. Peak-time bangers designed for maximum impact, before the album dissolves into the hazy, cinematic outro of "Blurred Lines."
"After being praised as one of the best releases of 2025 by multiple platforms, the highly praised debut album from Obeka lands on vinyl via YUKU.
The rhythmic dynamics and emotive attitudes of A World No More captures the density of soundsystem culture in Obeka's ancestral roots. YUKU presents the Bermudians debut album capturing a Neo-Colonial dystopia, protest and Afro-Futurism hyperextended through decaying sonic structures of a dark past and its grievances which very much exist today.
Growing into adulthood within the walls of British and European Colonial systems meant the disconnection and lostness in a new country hid me from the world at a young age. Unlike London's vast and culturally engaging migrant communities, the industrial milling town of Stockport introduced a coldness towards people from other countries I experienced in my first year after relocating from Bermuda. I couldn't understand why. Whether cold words thrown towards me or actions upon other people who look like me, it has shown to be a dooming societal virus with no cure. The most comfort was found through what was familiar - drums and rhythmic spirituality of my homeland. It was a safe-haven, a place to empty the anger and confusion. It's been 15 years since relocating and as my sound evolved, it seems classism, racism, oppression and civil control of ethnic peoples has become worse - even now more legalised and normalised. Ogun (a powerful Yoruba deity associated with anger, justice and war) acts as the opening sequence of the record and its symbolism. Using distorted bass frequencies and dissected Regga-Dub immersed in live-sampled ghostly voices of the lost ones. This sonic exercising is also applied in Drillaman - a stampede of industrial framework and metallic instruments wielded over moody Dancehall MC'ing, magnifying two parallel worlds in cocooned evolution. The resurrection of Transatlantic African cultures and identity have never been silenced, rather carried elsewhere through trade routes of enslavement, which was pivotal when composing and completing the album upon returning home to the Caribbean for the first time ever. After reconnecting with my heritage my blurred vision of what's wrong in the world became so clear. Guidance in empty plains seek truth throughout the pain - A statement of finding oneself expressed on the poetic closing track A World No More.
On Fawohodie (A West African Adinkra symbol that represents independence, freedom, and emancipation stamped on the album cover) the motive and atmosphere begins to change. Afro-Caribbean idealism which refers to the philosophical concept that emphasizes the interconnectedness of individuals and the importance of community, often contrasting with Western individualism, begins to take shape in a new universe. We can co-exist. The track framework uses machine-led software forming frequencies we have no control over, then manipulated through decomposing soundscapes, scattered hand-drums and human-made weapons of control - exposing the hidden disparity that's been carried over generations whilst balancing hopeful and musical foundations towards equality and peace. On Pressure and Kuduro! the writing direction attempts to wake people up. Not settling for a composed approach like in past projects, quite the opposite. A call for native sonic awareness, dismantled vocals of protests, eroded percussion using chains, gears and motorised harmonies sculpted in challenging abstract behaviors far outside my comfort zone. A direct abrasiveness and weight I want people to feel, whilst finding hope and solace through enchanting choirs and hypnotic basslines in complete synchrony.
"Purity in sound manifests when you least expect it. The smallest memory or feeling grows from a seed into a sonic language that you, and only you can interpret and release back into the world." "
Gap Mangione's monumentally influential Diana In The Autumn Wind. AKA BEWITH200LP. And, without question, Be With's White Whale.
They said it could never be done. And with good reason.
We've spent the past 12 years trying to license this legendary 1968 recording from Gap and, after much work, it's finally here. Remarkably, this is the first ever vinyl reissue of Gap Mangione's Diana In The Autumn Wind, produced with the full and extensive participation of Gap. An exceedingly rare album, it's been coveted by funk, soul, jazz and hip-hop sample fiends for decades.
It's unarguably *the* most sought after album for J Dilla / Madlib sample collectors. It has also been brilliantly sampled by A Tribe Called Quest, Large Professor, Ghostface Killah, Kendrick Lamar and Talib Kweli.
But this record is so much more than a sample-spotters curio. It's solid gold throughout. Bursting with killer funky-jazz grooves and tracks adorned with warm electric piano, the release is notable for featuring some extremely significant players at the very outset of their careers; Tony Levin, at 21, whose superb playing on both acoustic and electric bass was the harmonic mainstay of the trio and Steve Gadd, at 23, one of the greatest drummers of his generation.
With acceptable copies of this holy grail changing hands for $400, to call this reissue "much-needed" underplays just how vital it is. Gap's story is told in his words alongside rare photos across a sumptuously designed 2-page insert and, to augment this deluxe edition further, its all wrapped up in a beautiful, no-expense-spared luxury tip-on sleeve, as per the original hens-teeth release. And, while we're talking packaging, just take a look at that cover - a work of art in and of itself.
The tracks are short but complex, with that extraordinary rhythm section backing the beautiful piano, organ and electric piano work of Gap. It's like the best ever library funk breaks record you never heard - but all your favourite golden age rap producers were all over it, long ago. It's a stunning blend of the vibrant, driving music of the Gap Mangione Trio coupled with the sensitive composition and superb orchestration of Gap's legendary brother, Chuck Mangione, who helmed an amalgam of seemingly disparate elements – rock, big band jazz, solo improvisation and "classical" music - into a spectacularly cohesive whole that has aged wonderfully well. As Gap himself notes in the liners, "with this group I was able to explore and add new and exciting elements from rock, Brazilian and then-current pop music."
Opener "Boy With Toys" triumphantly swaggers out the gate, all big band horns, flutes and dextrous organ work. The synthesis of everything going on is nothing short of stunning. When one wise YouTube commentator called this tune "old school superhero music", Gap agreed. Rap luminaries did, too, amongst them Talib Kweli, who rapped over DJ Scratch's chopped up intro for "Shock Body" on his Quality album back in 2002.
You've barely recovered from that incredibly affecting opener when you get hit over the head with the exquisite title-track. And now you see how two of the greatest beats of all time emerged from one single track produced nearly 50 years earlier. Unforgettably utilised by Dilla for Slum Village's heartbreakingly good "Fall In Love" and then Madlib for his "Official" beat for Dilla to rap over, on the Jaylib record. Regardless of the records it went on to spawn, this is just a staggering tune in its own right. Be beguiled by the flutes and the flutter tonguing, the counter-melody from the trombones, the soprano sax solo. All of it. Simply beautiful.
The questing organ and horn workout "Long Hair Soulful" deserves a lot more attention, overshadowed somewhat by the opening two monsters but no less fantastic. It swings, it grooves and Gadd and Levin truly cook. Up next, Gap's wonderfully percussive, mellifluously piano-heavy cover of "Yesterday" by some fellas called The Beatles. It's a subtly arresting gem. "The XIth Commandment" is damn fine, with thick, gorgeous electric piano and snappy drum work underpinning chaotic soundtracky horns. To close out the side, "St. Thomas" showcases the "fourth" member of the Gap Mangione Trio, conga drummer Dhui Mandingo. Having performed with the Trio since 1965, Dhui‘s African-based and jazz-latin-influenced style amazed listeners and its way to hear why.
Opening the B-Side, standard "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You" breezes along in the late-night jazz club fashion before things get super deep with the outstanding and - up to now - un-sampled "Pond With Swans". It's simply heavenly, and how its moody, melancholic intro has yet to be pilfered is anybody's guess. It oscillates between gentle, sombre movements and bombastic grooves, equally hypnotic and joyous. The rendition of "You Are My Sunshine" is yet another showcase for Gap's virtuoso playing and Gadd's mastery of the pocket. Indeed Gadd's drumming on "Free Again" is nothing short of neck-SNAPPING! Ghostface took it for not one but two "Iron's Theme" tracks across his seminal Supreme Clientele. It's got that Galt MacDermot "Coffee Cold" feel. Suuuuuper cool. The frantic "Dream On Little Dreamer" hurtles along and must've surely had the whole room absolutely swinging from the chandeliers back in Rochester in the late 60s. The album closes with the magnificent Graduate Medley, featuring memorable renditions of "Scarborough Fair", "The Sounds of Silence" and "Mrs. Robinson". The warm electric piano lines of the former were sampled by The Ummah (Dilla again!) for Tribe's "Pad & Pen" from their reappraised final album, The Love Movement, as well as by Large Professor on his much-loved "The LP (For My People)".
Under the watchful eye - and extremely attentive ears - of Gap Mangione himself, the audio for Diana In The Autumn Wind has been carefully remastered by Be With regular Simon Francis, with a few much needed tweaks here and there, according to the artist's wishes. At the prestigious Abbey Road Studios, Cicely Balston's expert skills have made sure nothing is lost in the cut whilst the records have been pressed to the highest possible standard at the always stellar Record Industry in Holland. The artwork restoration has taken place here at Be With HQ and has that drop-dead gorgeous cover artwork popping like new. Buy on sight!
Mark Reeve starts 2026 in prime form with ‘Body Drops’, a quick-fire follow-up to his recent A-Sides contribution ‘My Mind’.The veteran artist has an inimitable touch in the studio going back over 15 years and can always be relied upon to deliver high-impact techno creations. Tracks such as ‘Run Back’, ‘Distance’ and his collaboration with Adam Beyer ‘Nine of You’ make thrilling reference points.‘Body Drops’ found its way onto Drumcode via Bart Skils. “Bart and I have a very good musical understanding and we really respect eachother. So, when he said I think this would fit to Drumcode, I was like ok let me send it. Adam came back to me with a massive yes, and it went from there.”He continues: “I can see that a new peak-time sound is evolving. Very modern and groovy sounding, which is exactly what I like. I guess all the other tracks on Drumcode that have come out recently got me very inspired.”The track is a gem. Driven by an otherworldly stomping riff, it immediately strikes you with its unique sonic character. Huge without being banging, watch this fit a variety of high-impact moments.‘Feed My Fire’ is a rolling big-bodied track that sees elements of prog,techno, psy and silky chords combine for a chugging dancefloor cut.“This is a personal favourite of mine simply because it’s so groovy andfits more intimate sessions. But I also tested it in front of bigger crowds and it really does the job.
Agustín Giri returns to Rummel with his first album, Universal Maps. The Argentinian producer moves from slower BPM's to faster club music through a dub-influenced selection that represents his unique sound.
In discotheques and dark rooms across Europe, Boys’ Shorts have earned the trust of the queer and wider clubbing communities as generous stewards of a timeless sound that, like themselves, never stops moving forward. The duo of Vangelis and Tareq initially met at an underground club in their native Greece. Sensing a rare sonic connection, the pair became friends, forming Boys’ Shorts to meet again and again, travelling from their adopted cities of Thessaloniki and London to appear as far afield as Berlin’s Panorama Bar and New York’s Le Bain, as well as supporting Goldfrapp and Hot Chip on tour. Their motivation? In their own words, “we make people dance!”
Following years of gradual, thoughtful studio sessions, and EP releases on tastemaking electronic labels including Phantasy Sound and Live At Robert Johnson, Boys’ Shorts establish their own imprint, ALL SORTS, in order to deliver a fantastically ambitious debut album, ‘What Does It Take To Make These Men Happy?’
The LP opens with the grandiose, cosmic vista of ‘The Space Between Us’, a classic passage of strings and synthesis, before the shared Boys’ Shorts vision falls back to earthier territory with deep groove of ‘Let’s Fall In Love’, mixing universal sentiment with a patient vision of human potential and the voice of Greek electronic pioneer, K.BHTA. ‘Come’ aligns with NYC’s Michael Cignarale, offering an excitable invitation to the mind and body sculpted by the way of a throbbing, warehouse-sized statement of nineties house sensuality. Channeling heroes Lowe and Tennant at their most introspective, ‘Short Life’ maintains the dance, yet dares to ask, “what if the parties aren’t enough anymore… Can you ask for something more?”
Out of the pet shop and straight into the strobe lights, ‘Disco Romantica’ makes true on the promise of its title, a lovelorn monologue giving way and slipping into rave stabs and whirring synthesis that looks forward to a memorable, emotionally-charged night ahead. Underpinning this feeling of anticipation, ‘Going Out Hoping To See You’ introduces the voice of Justin Strauss to Boys’ Shorts' musical world. A certified icon of club culture, spinning from The Mudd Club to modern day DJ booths, Strauss’s generation spanning experience of nightlife leans into the fundamentals of human connection and the pleasure of musical discovery, wrapped in irresistible chug.
Another transformative figure in club music, Fischerspooner’s own Casey Spooner dips into French for the Motorik cyber sleaze of ‘MECANIMAUX’, their own vocals pitching up and down with playful EBM abandon. ‘Montage’ offers a different kind of composition, conjuring an ecstatic club banger that finds inspiration in nineties indie rock motifs alongside the rave scene, while ‘Run’ promises to blow out sound systems before its weighty electro bassline succumbs to waves of glistening synths.
Such bombast into beauty perfectly sets up the record’s blissful conclusion; ‘The Stars Are Out For You’ is electro-pop so delicate as to heal aching feet (and mend broken hearts), while offering the final tender moments of the album as a form of tribute on ‘Untitled (For Mitsi)’. It’s a thoughtful ending to a thrilling trip through a shared passion for electronic and pop music in all its glorious potential. What does it take to make these men happy? It’s a pleasure to find out.
After some time, we are back with a new release. This one moves slightly away from our usual sound to make room for a brand-new project by two outstanding artists. Please welcome to the crew the legendary San Proper together with the excellent Angelo D’Onorio. Joining forces under the name SANGELO DIPROPRIO, they deliver three vibrant house tracks designed with the dancefloor in mind. Fresh grooves, playful energy, and unmistakable personality make this EP a strong addition to the catalogue. A meeting of two distinctive styles that results in a dynamic and highly effective club release.
Jorge Gamarra and D’Marc Cantu - two true hardware heavyweights - come together for a split EP, marking the sixth release on Zonate.
Jorge Gamarra takes the A-side with two emotion fuelled productions. Eleven Minute Shrink opens - an instantly memorable, ear-worm melody underpinned by driving electro. A standout production with real versatility. This is followed by Prolonged Grief Disorder, a more textured and immersive piece, with tension conveying a real sense of raw emotion. D’Marc Cantu handles the B-side. Based on the outskirts of Detroit, and with over two decades of stellar releases behind him, he delivers two tracks written between 2019–2020.
Haystack explores the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack - a peak-time weapon that toys with chaos through rising energy and chopped vocals, before pulling itself back into tightly controlled club pressure. Closing the record is Madripoor, a deeper cut built around floating synth lines, capturing the essence of electro’s golden era.
When Henry Street & Sacred Rhythm Music join forces for a remix outing, it should be obvious the source material and resulting productions are of the utmost caliber. This record proves such a case in point: Johnny "D" DeMairo & Joe Claussell team up for two takes on Candi Staton’s 1979 disco opus 'When You Wake Up Tomorrow.’ The original, whose pedigree could be inferred simply by reading Patrick Adams’ and Jimmy Simpson’s names on the label, is a faultless dance floor cut featuring all the elements you’d expect—lavish horn and string arrangements, sparkling synthesizer accents, and plenty of hand-beat drumming—along with with Staton’s peerless voice. Johnny D’s mix starts carefully, the vocal refrain accented with auxiliary percussion until the rug is pulled out from under us, the ensuing chasm making the following thrust of the track that much more powerful. On the flip.
Claussell’s take starts with reinforced four-on-the-floor, along with a studio count-in, perhaps alluding back to his previous ‘It Seems To Hang On’ edit. As the track establishes itself, ample room is afforded for interplay between bass and guitar, with all the interlacing elements aggrandizing the mood with careful shots of delay and expertly-timed pivots in atmosphere. Both sides are proof of what shouldn’t need evidence: two masters of their craft assembling two wholly new mixes that far surpass the banal copy and paste, add and subtract methodology slung by the less blessed. Pressed on white vinyl, with a custom jacket to boot.
Guests is the home recording project of Jessica Higgins and Matthew Walkerdine. Vaguely named as such to avoid any problems with the poster if they pull out of a gig (which has only happened once, about a year and half before any songs were actually written to be fair) but also to capture a sense of reverse hospitality. That is, arriving at your door with a bottle of good wine (can’t turn up empty handed) or a fist full of savoury or sweet snacks (time of day dependant); oversharing at the afters (and then passing out on your couch); reading to your toddler while you make their lunch or put everything back where it was meant to go (only to get torn apart again). So, something about what happens when private worlds meet each other, making or having been made a space for. But at times, it’s a different kind of intimacy, a temporal or material one, like the feeling of crisp fresh sheets, and abundant and soft, body-part appropriate towels in a hotel in a city you’ve been to before and love to go back to.
Their debut record, “I wish I was special”, was variously described as “a collage of concrète experiments and outerzone pop gestures, music that sounds as if it’s been written from the depths of a dream”; “music for people who love music but also hate it too”; “something like chasing ghosts or befriending a wild animal”; “pulling apart nervous sensations with haphazard ease and requisite humour”; and “a melody of refusal, of being all-in (…) finding the exact right WRONG sound to express the discontent”. Common Domestic Bird continues in this vein, layering synthesiser, keyboards and samples over rudimentary drum rhythms and field recordings, which are in turn sung or spoken with to create nine new songs.
Written and recorded between autumn 2024 and summer 2025 in Reading, Berkshire, the music has matured since its last outing, in a way, leaning less into collage and more toward structured composition and melodic depth, yet retains a healthy dose of indeterminacy and off-kilter rhythms for the forever-amateur. The songs on Common Domestic Bird hint at some “about”-ness through a series of discrete vignettes which sound a bit like architecture or end of year lists, gossip or over-thinking subjectivity, like disappearances and impressions, the support structure of the spine, letters and signs offs, things you could really do without and where they should go, hoping you’ll see something that isn’t there, pretences and performance. At times they feel kind of funny, others kind of sad or a bit angry and annoyed, a bit like you really.
Swedish producer Robert Leiner’s landmark 1994 album ‘Visions Of The Past’ finally gets a vinyl LP reissue on Apollo, the ‘ambient division’ of R&S Records. Long regarded as one of the pivotal ambient/electronic long players, the album has stood the test of time and serves as a reminder on how potent the early ambient techno releases were.
Leiner was a central figure in the early European techno and ambient landscape, carving out a distinctive sound that bridged atmospheric depth and rhythmic intensity. Known for his releases as The Source Experience and contributions to the R&S/Apollo catalogue, as a producer and engineer, Leiner’s work resonated across the underground, earning him a reputation for visionary, emotionally charged productions that stood apart from his contemporaries.
'Visions Of The Past’ captures this duality perfectly with expansive ambient passages that drift into hypnotic techno, while layers of intricate sound design and pulsating low end create a timeless and immersive listening experience. Tracks unfold with patience and precision, like the 12-minute-long marine epic ‘Aqua Viva’, balancing introspection with kinetic dance energy, and the new age ambience of ‘Dream Or Reality’ and ‘Northern Dark’ embodying the forward-thinking ethos that defined Apollo’s golden era.
Three decades on, this long out of print album finally returns on vinyl format, freshly remastered and restored, reaffirming its status as an essential document of electronic music’s evolution and Robert Leiner’s enduring influence.
‘Visions Of The Past’ by Robert Leiner is available on Apollo Records from 7th November 2025.
Back in 2022, Is It Balearic? Recordings founders Coyote (AKA long-serving producers Richard Hampson aka Ampo and Timm Sure) took time out from releasing music on their own labels to deliver a near perfect mini-album on Phil Cooper’s similarly mind-ed NuNorthern Soul imprint, Everything Moves, Nothing Rests.
A superb exploration of their trademark sound, where gentle downtempo rhythms and nods to dub came cloaked in colourful ambient chords, sun-bright melodic motifs, organic instrumenta-tion and quirky spoken word samples, Everything Moves, Nothing Rests deserved a sequel. So, three and a half years on, the duo has delivered just that: a fine six-track EP that offers an even deeper and more atmospheric exploration of their signature sound.
It is a sonic approach that should now be familiar to Balearic en-thusiasts the world over. Aside from delivering a steady stream of singles, albums and remixes on their own imprint, Hampson and Sure have also showcased their skills and loved-up musical mis-sives on International Feel, Music For Dreams, Needwant, MM Discos and Citizens of Vice.
The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean, their hotly anticipated NuNorthern Soul return, is named in honour of a quote from Ped-ro Alonso’s documentary series On the Ship of Enchantment, an extended voyage in which the Money Heist movie star meets healers and masters of ancestral medicine across his native Mexi-co.
There’s naturally a meditative and slightly psychedelic sound to much of The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean, which offers a subtly varied exploration of Coyote’s style and influence. Yearning, soft-focus opener ‘Muted Beauty’ – the kind of immersive, effects-laden and sample-sporting ambient bliss found nestling on Fila Brazillia albums of the mid 1990s – is followed by the similarly gentle ‘Go All The Way’, where delay-laden acoustic guitars, spo-ken word snippets and gaseous chords stretch out atop a languid, slow-motion groove.
‘A Drop in the Ocean’ picks up the pace a little via a glorious hat-tip to turn of the 90s ambient house – all dub-wise bass, heady deep house sonics, spaced-out chords and half-buried references to sunrise-ready Balearic synth-pop records of the late 1980s. Late psychedelic guru Terrence McKenna appears in sampled form on ‘Dolce Far Niente’, a tabla-driven drift and musical hallucination which conjures mental images of lying in the Mexican desert, gazing intently at a starry sky.
In contrast, ‘Riviera Sound’ is a chunkier, brighter and more sun-splashed affair – all deep, dubby bass, sustained piano parts, punchy downtempo breaks and the duo’s trademark ambient pads – while superb closing cut ‘No Coincidences’ fixes jazzy double bass samples, twinkling keyboard motifs, subtle acid lines and Latin-laced percussion to a street soul-adjacent beat.
Heady, impeccably crafted and thoroughly enveloping, The Higher The Sky, The Deeper The Ocean is Coyote at their dazzling best. It marks another significant chapter in their ever-evolving musical journey.
Music never exists in a vacuum — every scene and sound evolves from the non-stop exchange of ideas between different groups and cultures. Traditions get passed down from one generation to the next, and then individual heads take influence from their own unique perspective. Sometimes, certain people strike upon fusions that spark massive new movements, but even those rarest innovations came from somewhere.
Jon E Cash knows this more than most — the legendary beats he started putting out at the turn of the millennium had their own disparate roots and influences which he had the motivation to put together into a sound he called sublow. There wasn't any other reference point for this music — when he took the first white labels of 'Drop Top Bimmer Kid' into Blackmarket Records in Soho, London, he had to describe it to a puzzled Nicky Blackmarket and J Da Flex as being, "between garage and hip-hop."
Playing catch-up in 2004, Rephlex Records nodded to sublow when trying to introduce a wider audience to the sounds which had been tearing up the London underground. "Grime. Sublow. Dubstep... It's Music. Different people call it different things depending on when they discovered it." But Jon E Cash's sound was rooted in more than the UK garage that had dominated the clubs through the late 90s, reaching way back to his pre-teen days when the first waves of hip-hop culture crossed the Atlantic and broke in the UK.
25 years on, it's a fine time to reflect on the impact of the music Cash made at the turn of the millennium. History looks back favourably on what he and the Black Ops crew were doing with sublow in the early 00s. The timing meant it ran in parallel with what was happening over East with Pay As U Go, Roll Deep et al, and of course there was crossover. Every DJ and every MC was on the hunt for the best beats they could find. But there's a whole different swagger to sublow — a different web of influences, a different intention and so a different outcome. It's still there in the beats Cash is making more than 20 years later — his 3dom Music label is carrying upfront productions with that sublow DNA coursing through their veins. Whatever the beat or the tempo, the drums are still hard as nails, and the bass is tuned for maximum rave damage.
Stevie Cox and Ansboy: two powerhouses of the Glaswegian club scene join forces for their collaborative debut EP on Rhythm Section INTL- ‘Twice Like Rice’. It’s a weighty four-track EP designed for the dancefloor, taking in myriad influences from dub techno, breaks, trance and good old fashioned house music. The Ep is full of deep, pulsating rhythms, lush textures and emotive peaks - all road tested in Stevie’s Iconic home turf: Sub Club.
Stevie Cox has long been a name long ruminating on everyone's lips, as a resident DJ of the iconic ‘Sub Club’ with an ever-growing tour schedule and back catalogue of releases via the likes of Klasse Wrecks and Optimo. Whilst the name Ansboy may be new to some, it is a fresh alias for the grammy nominated producer and mixdown engineer Robert Etherson who has long been a staple in the Scottish scene with an international touring repertoire under his belt.
The two friends met in their hometown of Glasgow and began their musical journey together last year after Robert taught Stevie how to do mixdowns. The pair clicked effortlessly, quickly discovering they shared the same passion for emotive, deep and progressive dance music. Their first track together - which took shape in the form of ‘Drift’ - a high-energy synth led anthem, came out with a special selection of tracks curated by Bradley Zero for his exclusive SHOUTS Summer sampler in 2025.
For the Twice Like Rice EP, their work evokes all corners of the dancefloor, kicking things off with ‘GC’ - a peak time breaks-infused trancey-heater - a master class in building dancefloor tension which gives way into a searing crescendo. Things spin towards a darker percussive focus on the more intense ‘Twice Like Rice’.
On the b-side things return to blissful euphoria with ‘Virgil’ - a warm up dub-techno ballad, before the emotional release of ‘Subculture closure’ inspired ‘Carter21’.
VISOLUX is back and excited with a very special release.
This one was crafted in Lille by our homegrown artist and dear friend, Dyswalter, in the very garage where all the Kepler-129 adventures started, where generators and equipment were stored, after-parties went on and special music was made.
Dyswalter has been performing live with Kepler for years, bringing his special energy and obvious UK influence to the dancefloor. Finally printing his music feels as a most satisfying outcome for the label.
Argentinian newbie Guile bossing it on the debut proper.
Moving mad from the off. Real ones will have been acquainted via last year’s ‘Access’ EP cameo, otherwise, you better get to know.
Fellow ‘Access’ alumni Boss Priester and DJ Life tore it up with their respective solo EPs, and not to be outdone, Guile is taking on all comers. Expect some of the rudest incursions on the label to date rubbing shoulders with unreservedly utopian gear.
Some shades of Rolando, AKA The Aztec Mystic, as the anthemic potential shines through on ‘Funky Rain’. Elsewhere, he’s fronting up with Euro-centric party-starters, third portal acid prog and 808 breakbeat menace. Dancefloor wreckers front to back.
Having only emerged in 2024, the hit-rate over such a short period is nothing short of prolific. Big flex.
Regal delivers his first full EP on Backspin, marking a defining moment for the label he founded. More than just another release, the Forgotten Heroes EP captures the essence of Regal's vision: groovy, forward-moving techno that balances raw club energy with atmosphere, emotion and narrative.
The title track 'Forgotten Heroes' sets the EP in motion with a sense of controlled urgency. A rolling, slightly breaktinged groove pushes forward relentlessly, while an eerie, almost nostalgic synth melody hovers in the background, giving the track an emotional pull. 'Concentrate' shifts the focus inward_ bleeping motifs, tight claps and restless hihats circle around spoken fragments that feel like thoughts caught between the peak of the night and the quiet hours before sunrise.
On the B-side, 'Forte' accelerates into pure momentum: sharp, bleep-led sequences and forward pressure combine into a rush that feels like racing through the city at night. 'Soft Killer' deepens the mood with a darker, dominant edge, its stripped back power and razor-sharp sounds cutting clean through the mix. Closing track 'Wild Magic' offers a final release of tension, slowing the pace into a lighter, more house-leaning groove. Warm pads and a catchy, uplifting melody bring a sense of air and openness, letting the EP drift out on a hopeful, almost euphoric note.
Regal's comeback EP 'Forgotten Heroes' stands as a personal statement and a cornerstone release for Backspin. It's techno built on groove, contrast and character, made to leave a lasting impression on the dancefloor.
PAPER ROUTE iLLUMINATi is the compilation album from Paper Route EMPIRE, the label founded by late Memphis legend, Young Dolph, and home to the equally iconic Key Glock and an impressive roster of additional artists including Snupe Bandz & Big Moochie Grape. Including the hit songs, "Talking To My Scale," "I Do This," & "Mister Glock 2," as well as deep cuts like "Broccoli & Cheese," this album is a must have for Southern rap fans and encapsulates a time when PRE was at the height of their game, shortly before Young Dolph's untimely passing. 2xLP pressed on Red Snake Eyes Galaxy vinyl, and housed in a gatefold jacket. Long Live Young Dolph.
Diplo—the prolific artist's self-titled album and first full-length of electronic/dance music in 18 years—is the realization of a three-year deep dive into the house music that first blew Diplo's mind as a teenager and that he has now founded Higher Ground to champion worldwide. A titan of electronic music, he’s now turned his focus back to these roots.
The album includes the Grammy-nominated “On My Mind” with Sidepiece, "Don't Forget My Love" with Miguel, “Looking For Me” and “Promises” with Paul Woolford and Kareen Lomax, “Don’t Be Afraid” with Jungle and Damian Lazarus and “One By One” with Elderbrook and Andhim—classic house records that have soundtracked the reopening of clubs worldwide—as well as collaborations with Aluna, TSHA, Leon Bridges, Lil Yachty, Busta Rhymes, Seth Troxler, Amtrac, RY X and more.
A special Australian export edition from Sweat It Out featuring a curated selection of remixes by Barry Can’t Swim, DJ Seinfeld, Andhim, and more. This 3x LP set is the exclusive physical home for these remixes. Each of the three discs comes in a unique color: Green, Red, and Blue.
b A2 - Diplo & TSHA – Let You Go (feat. Kareen Lomax) Sebastian Ingrosso & Desembra Remix
c A3 - Diplo & Seth Troxler – Waiting For You (feat. Desire) Extended
[e] B1 - Diplo & SIDEPIECE – On My Mind (Purple Disco Machine Remix) [Extended]
A criminally overlooked P-Funk treasure from 1981, Tighten It Up captures Chicago’s funk underground at its raw, electric best — with none other than Frankie Knuckles contributing as mixing consultant, giving the record an unmistakable dance-floor edge ahead of the house era. Long out of print and increasingly hard to find, this beautifully remastered RSD edition brings the Gold Coast classic back into circulation, this time on a Transparent red vinyl with restored artwork. An essential 2026 pick that shines a light on a missing link between P-Funk, disco, and early Chicago club culture — exactly the kind of deep, collector-grade rediscovery Record Store Day was made for. 1xLP, Picture Sleeve, Remastered, Transparent Red Vinyl.
Straight out of Toronto, Waspriders )) issue an ultimatum to the current state of things - smashing heavyweight bass music into the sonic DNA of transcendental techno raves. Modern esoteric experience, engineered for those who know how to lose themselves on a sweaty dance floor. Tss - stay quiet when the bass talks. Bass is the source of truth. Bass is your new god! Behind Waspriders )) are two unhinged creative minds - Danny Voicu (aka Dan Only, ½ Cloudsteppers) and Alex Pletnev (aka Pletnev, Moisk). These transmissions started taking shape in a Toronto studio back in 2024. Toronto's own Cindy Ciel - also ½ of Cloudsteppers - blessed the EP with a body-moving banger of her own.
In the spring of 1977, Millie Jackson was in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, laying down tracks for what became “Feelin’ Bitchy” with co-producer Brad Shapiro. Released in August 1977, the album reached #4 and #34 in America’s Billboard’s R&B and Hot 100, going gold with over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson’s cover of ‘If You’re Not Back In Love By Monday’ – already a hit for Merle Haggard in March 1977 – also reached #5 R&B and #43 in the Hot 100 in August. Although the album did not chart in the UK, “Feelin’ Bitchy” sold strongly to a dedicated fanbase who had voted her the #1 female singer in the Blues & Soul magazine annual poll. Jackson also performed much of the material on her sold-out UK dates in early 1978.
“Feelin’ Bitchy” was not only a commercial success, cementing Jackson’s no-nonsense reputation, but is now considered an all-time classic. Her rap on Benny Latimore’s ‘All The Way Lover’ stretched the original out like chewing gum to 10 minutes. “’Back In Love By Monday’ is a great song an’ that,” she told Black Echoes, “but it didn’t sell the album. ‘All The Way Lover’ sold the album.” Indeed it did, but other tracks like ‘A Little Taste Of Outside Love’ ‘Lovin’ Your Good Thing Away’, ‘Cheatin’ Is’ and ‘Feelin’ Like A Woman’ show that while Jackson’s tongue – front and centre on the LP cover – was always ready to hand out a lashing, it also helped her sing beautifully.
Ace are delighted to reissue “Feelin’ Bitchy’ on vinyl and Millie Jackson spoke to Ian Shirley about the recording of the album. This interview runs on an inner sleeve along with classic photographs of Jackson from this period.
Following Parnell March’s Back Bar Grooves EP in February and November’s release of the Dust Tears (lead song from Sarah/Shaun’s debut) remixes, Edinburgh’s Hobbes Music label returns with a second EP of dream pop from husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), alias Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced McLochlun), who wooed hearts and wowed critics with debut EP ‘It’s True What They Say?’ last year.
‘It’s True What They Say?’ attracted fans across the board: Artist Of The Week in The Scotsman, rapturous reviews from The Skinny and Tokyo's Ban Ban Ton Ton blog, BBC 6Music airplay courtesy of Nemone (Mary Anne Hobbs' Morning Show), more radio play from Radio Scotland's Roddy Hart & Vic Galloway, plus Simone Butler (Primal Scream) and Jim Sclavunos (Bad Seeds) via their respective Soho Radio shows, not forgetting ringing endorsements from the likes of David Holmes, Youth, Kevin Bales (Spiritualized), Brent Rademaker (Beachwood Sparks) and Julian Corrie (Franz Ferdinand).
They played gigs supporting Glasgow's huge Glasvegas, at festivals (Kendall Calling, Dunbar Music, Hidden Door), plus a slew of venues across the Scottish capital, ending the year with a trio of shows supporting Glaswegian 80s pop legends The Bluebells at Aberdeen’s Tunnels, Dunfermline’s PJ Molloys and Edinburgh’s Liquid Rooms, while The List magazine tipped them among their Ones To Watch For 2025, with journalist Fiona Shepherd suggesting they were “blending the starry-eyed pop of Sonny & Cher with the electronic experimentation of Chris & Cosey.”
Very much the companion piece to the debut EP but arriving a full twelve months later, Someone’s Ghost is emblematic of the duo’s desire not to rush things or release anything half-baked.
“I’ve always wanted to create the perfect pop record and I do really feel that we’ve achieved that with this one,” says Shaun. And he’s clearly not the only person who thinks so.
REVIEWS, FEEDBACK ETC:
"I LOVE that! Dreamy dreamy pop." ROY MOLLOY (Marvellous Crane/Alex Cameron) on BLAST RADIO, Sydney
“the Scottish music scene’s cream of the cool... buzzy drum beats, high, distant chimes, and heavenly electronics…. very ethereal.” THE SKINNY
"Listening to Sarah/Shaun is like eavesdropping on a noir dreampop, long-distance phone call between them both, across two separate sonic locations. On this stunning 4-song EP, Sarah’s voice, effortlessly mesmerising, draws you into these big beautiful and haunting passages of perfect dream-pop. All beautifully produced in a multi-layered-scape of low-fi analogue textures, epic cinematic crescendos, intense electro-pulse grooves and warped psycho-pop guitar riffs. Within the songs lurk a sense of unresolved emotions, longing and pathos. There are shades of classic Lee Hazelwood & Nancy Sinatra but also Post-Punk Electronica and Beach House. But what a unique sound they’ve created of their own. I love it" DAVID MCCLUSKEY (The Bluebells)
"Absolutely beautiful" SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"Lovely stuff here! Total quality." MARTYN 'MASH' HENDERSON
"Ooooh. Everything the last record promised is here. Well done" GEORGE T aka George Demure (Accident Machine)
"Vince clark Era Depeche Mode in places" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized)
"Sounds cool. Well done" PETE KEMBER (Sonic Boom, Spacemen 3)
"Glorious, it (Debbie Harry) grabs hold of you and doesn't let go." IAIN DAWSON aka RAVECHILD (Everyone Wants To Play The Hits Podcast)
SOMEONE’S GHOST
Born out of an incredibly anxious, stressful time, the songwriting process for these recordings has been something of a personal tonic for Shaun…
“There was a period when I was having nightmares,” he reveals. “Apparently I was saying there was someone in the room, I was talking to that person and Sarah was seeing all this while I was still asleep.
So, I was thinking that this was my ghost. I started writing songs because I was going through something and I was dealing with something and writing songs was a comfort. My ghost was a comfort, whether it was real or not. The idea of it was a comfort.”
“I firmly believe that everyone has someone who watches over them but all of the songs are essentially about being there for someone,” he says. “Everybody needs someone but also everyone needs to stay real and keep what you have, keep it close, never let it go. If you don’t have it, continue to tell people you’re there for them. It’s about loving and hoping people will be good to you in return.”
While Shaun took the songwriting lead on Filter Of Love and EP closer The Sound Which Stresses The Sound Of My Ears, Debbie Harry was originally instrumentally conceived by producer Jaguar Eyes, alias Ali Chisholm, later lyrically completed by Shaun, and the EP’s lead track, Anhedonia, and one of its stand-outs (much like Starbed on the debut) was conceived by Sarah, as a result of experiencing a bit of a spiritual epiphany of her own.
“When I first heard the word Anhedonia, I didn't know what it meant but when I found out I thought about it quite a bit. How sad it would be to have no enjoyment in anything,” she explains. “This song is really about my own personal beliefs. When I have been down, that's one of the things that helps me the most. It talks about trying to make amends but realising, for some things, you can't. But I think with any kind of faith comes hope… which is always a good thing.”
A record about hope, truth, honesty, a belief in something bigger than oneself… and all set to a soundtrack that wouldn’t feel out of place in a David Lynch or Eighties feature film. What more could anyone ask for, really?
There’s equally a desire to offer something universal and positive to anyone who tunes in. The labels for the 12” edition reveal the dual mantras “Who just wants to survive?” and “It’s about time to live a little”, with both messages also engraved in each record’s run-out grooves. T-shirts accompanying debut EP It’s True What They Say? bore the slogan “Kill Them With Kindness” - leading caps intentional. Shaun carries the acronym KTWK everywhere he plays, as a reminder: it’s stitched into his guitar strap. And this particular wee pebble has already caused a few ripples: people have been approaching him at gigs to acknowledge their appreciation and respect for it.
"We feel we have made an honest, open, colourful, body of work,” say the duo. “We hope to go out and play the songs with the guys (our band) and then potentially make more records. We are taking things as they come. Everything has been organic so far, after all. We are looking forward to whatever this brings."
It’s True What They Say is the debut EP from Edinburgh-based, husband-and-wife duo Sarah/Shaun (pronounced simply Sarah Shaun), aka Sarah and Shaun McLachlan (pronounced “McLochlin”).
“Sarah and I both have a love for nostalgia,” explains Shaun. “We watched that amazing old 80’s Sci-Fi, (John) Carpenter movie, Starman, a few months back. Myself and my brother David used to watch it all the time. We must have been, roughly, 5-7 at the time. I remember loving the movie but the end, you know, with the beautiful, atmospheric, synth ending, I love that particular moment the most - best part of the movie, you know, when he goes home… It’s heartbreaking but stunning, all the same. It’s the music that moves you most… It did when I was 5 and it still does to this day. It must have had some form of a (much deeper) impact on me.”
The duo narrates stories across themes of love, hope, family, friends, dreams and sadness - the good that comes with the bad in everyday life, not just on a personal scale but within a community as well.
“Starbed is the first song I have ever written and just came out of the blue really, with Shaun playing a melody and me singing along,” says Sarah. “It’s simple and just about two people in love. Love songs are always the best songs, after all… Music has been a big part of my life from a young age. I was unwillingly dragged to piano and violin lessons, which I’m thankful for now! I’d say the first band I really became obsessed with growing up were the Beatles, and on the back of that a lot of 60s music and fashion. From then on, I had a love for music.”
“Shaun definitely opened my ears to a lot of sounds and got me thinking about soundtracks and all the noises that can be made,” she goes on. “We love just spending time experimenting in the house with instruments, pedals etc and Ali is a real magician to work with, too…”
The recordings took place over the summers of 2022 and 2023, with fellow Delta Mainline member Ali Chisholm (aka Jaguar Eyes) plus long-term friend and collaborator Gavin King. Further collaboration then came via the ‘net from the (international) likes of Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty), Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz) and Daniel Land (The Modern Painters), among others (see a full list of credits below).
Both Sarah and Shaun have a love for uber-soundtrack producers such as Hanz Zimmer, Max Richter, Cliff Martinez plus live acts such as Beach House, Spiritualized, M83, Suicide, Moby and OMD (to name a few). Shaun also credits the work of Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein (from Survive) on the Stranger Things score… “Even a moment in a movie, whether it be just 30 seconds during a particular scene, it grips you,” he says. But there’s something much deeper at play as well. “Music is a healer,” he goes on, “and I write from my own perspective but more so for others. Once I've done my bit, it doesn't belong to me any longer. It belongs to whoever wants it or needs it.”
The result is a cinematic, synth-wavey, dream poppy and downright beguilingly beautiful body of work. And they’re just getting started…
REVIEWS/RADIO/FEEDBACK:
“Starbed is folky, flavoured by pedal steel, cello, and brass. Dust Tears, in stark contrast, is a mini synth-pop rave epic. Part Bicep. Part Human League. Keep Your Eyes Closed summons a mood that’s romantic, but also dark and potentially doomed – like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks meets Cliff Martinez’s Drive score. My pick though is It’s True What They Say, whose interwoven jangle and picking recalls New Order’s more introspective moments (Love Vigilantes, Love Less… ). Drums crashing, cathartic. Guitar raising dramatic arcs. Its chorus a rush, like a reprise of Pains Of Being Pure Of Heart’s ‘Higher Than The Stars’.” BAN BAN TON TON
"Dust Tears sees them sharing vocal duties over a synth foundation reminiscent of Moby’s Go - Artist Of The Week” THE SCOTSMAN
"Woozy pop" NEMONE (Mary Anne Hobbs Morning Show, BBC 6Music)
"Nice one, very David Lynch meets Euro dream pop" YOUTH (Killing Joke, Paul McCartney, U2, The Orb, Spiritualized etc)
"Music sounds killer! Real emotion” DAVID HOLMES
"I’m enjoying it” TIM BRINKHURST aka LONDON (IKLAN, Young Fathers, Callum Easter)
“Oh, this is lovely!” SEAN JOHNSTON (A Love From Outer Space)
"It’s totally my cup of tea with milk and biscuit" BRENT RADEMAKER (Beachwood Sparks/GospelBeach)
"Beautiful, ecstatic electronica! Short and to the point" KEVIN BALES (Spiritualized, Julian Cope, Soulsavers, BE)
"Makes me wanna sit in the sun and sip an Arnold Palmer" CHRIS DIXIE DARLEY (Father John Misty)
“Really beautiful - Cocteau Twins / Spiritualized vibes but has its own thing going on, too - worth checking out!” JULIAN CORRIE (Franz Ferdinand, Miaoux Miaoux)
‘Sounded nice on a sunny day, makes me think of Twin Peaks, nice moods’ EAMON HAMILTON (Sea Power)
"Dealing in nostalgia, no bad thing at all, great to play that (Dust Tears) for you” RODDY HART (BBC Radio Scotland)
“I'll give the vocal tracks a spin before the release." VIC GALLOWAY (BBC Radio Scotland)
"Rather good!" IAIN ANDERSON (BBC Radio Scotland)
CREDITS:
Lyrics, Guitars, Keys, Synths, Drums, Drum Programming, Percussion, Mandolin, Glockenspiel: Shaun McLachlan
Lyrics, Vocals, Keys by Sarah McLachlan
Guitars, Synths, String Arrangements, Drum Programming, Engineering: Jaguar Eyes Percussion/Drums/Effects, Fire Extinguisher: Darren Coghill (Neon Waltz)
Guitars by Daniel Land
Slide Guitar by Chris Dixie Darley (Father John Misty)
Brass by Bruce Michie
Keys, pre-production & engineering on “It’s true what they say”: Gavin King
All produced by Jaguar Eyes and Shaun McLachlan and then mixed at Glasgow’s Chem19 Studios by David McCaulay (From Scotland With Love, Rick Redbeard, BBC TV’s Attenborough and The Mammoth Graveyard score).
Artwork: Jamie Walman (Fourteen Admirals)
MORE INFO:
Although Shaun released a pair of solo singles (When We Dance and Give Your Love To Me) during Lockdown, he will be better known to many via his work as the multi-instrumentalist in Edinburgh band Delta Mainline. With two albums released to date, Oh! Enlightened and Bel Avenir, both rapturously received by fans and critics alike, Delta Mainline have developed an international, cult following. Oh Enlightened (2013) achieved widespread critical acclaim on release, earning the band comparisons to Arcade Fire and Echo & The Bunnymen, while 2019’s Bel Avenir pulled in references to The Flaming Lips, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and krautrock. A third DM album is currently being mixed and due for release later this year…
LP Purple Splash Vinyl in Picture Sleeve + Sticker
Rediscover the vibrant energy of Crooked Colours' debut album, ‘Vera’, as they release a limited edition ‘Purple Splash’ vinyl pressing. This seminal 2017 record introduced the world to the trio's signature sound, blending deep, atmospheric house with sun-drenched, indie-electronic pop. Featuring breakout tracks such as platinum-certified ‘Flow’ and fan favourites ‘Come Back To You’ and ‘I Hope You Get It.
‘Red Moon’ is Alannah’s second solo single and marks her first ever physical vinyl release. The song reflects on growth, misdirection and self-reconnection, told through a woman looking back at her younger self. Written on a quiet beach in the Algarve, under a striking red moon, the moment became the catalyst for the lyrics, carrying a deep, spiritual stillness into the music. Alannah is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter whose sound blends RnB, jazz and hip-hop with soulful, storytelling vocals. Influenced by artists such as Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, she views songwriting as a form of emotional release and shared healing. With performances at iconic venues including Ronnie Scott’s and Pizza Express Jazz Club, her voice carries a timeless energy, full of heart, vulnerability, and quiet power. Stanley Hood’s remix reimagines ‘Red Moon’ into a moody Deep House cut. Alannah’s layered vocals float over warm keys, late-night percussion, and thick, club-ready production, shifting the emotional core towards the dancefloor while preserving the intimacy of the lyrics. Supported across specialist radio and tastemaker sets. Released as a Record Store Day exclusive on coloured 7" vinyl with full picture artwork. Strictly limited run. When it’s gone, it’s gone.
Polytechnic Recordings - sublabel of Disctechno Music - presents a split EP of jacking house and psychedelic rhythms from Detroit’s DJ Slush and Dretraxx. Label co-founder DJ Slush follows up his Model Collapse EP with 2 jacking, sleazy, 80's-tinged house tracks with garbled vocal samples on A1 and B2. Dretraxx - head of Detroit’s acid-forward Body Worx party - delivers dubbed out modular grooves and on A2. On B1, Interdimensional Transmissions’ BMG remixes Dretraxx for the No Way Back Mix, with some freaky heart-pumping analog techno. Recommended for fans of Midwest rhythms.
Love For Love Vol.1 is a sumptuous two-tracker that takes you into both the unknown and the familiar.
On Side A, Mauritzio’s mesmerising, swirling ‘Sympathy’ (Gamma Reshape Boot) acts like a sonic shower that hits your body wherever it aches. The track kicks off with a subtle beat and acid-tinged backbone, spreading out into a deep, bass-laden symphony of sounds, detached vocals and warm synth chords. One for the late-night crowd searching for the darker corners of the dance floor for inspiration.
Flip over to Side B and Luber's ‘Somebody’ is waiting in the alley for you. At 124 bpm, ‘Somebody’ chugs along from the off with a curiously swingy beat, complete with perfectly trimmed hi-hats and a heavy double bassline. The familiar vocal acts as the track’s calling card – melancholic yet soaringly beautiful. ‘Somebody’ hits your nostalgia nodes with the flick of an ethereal finger, delivering low-end shuffle and hypnotic rhythms to lose yourself in.
Love For Love Vol.1 feels like the start of something special – and it would be wise to have these first steps in your record bag.
HAVEN co-founder Keepsakes is finally back on his own imprint with 5 fresh originals filled to the brim with warped alien sound design, driving and grooving drum rhythms, and acerbic track titles fresh out of a twisted after-hours chat. Following on from releases in recent years on KAOS/OAKS, Turbo Recordings, Perc Trax, and Boys Noize Records, this latest EP maintains his signature toughness alongside his fun and quirky sound choices while taking his sound further in to jacking and groovy territory.
The EP launches with 'Vocoding Your Nan Out Of Existence' on the A1 - full of growling and tortured alien vocoder melodic experimentation combined with driving funky drum work and organic atmospherics, this slab of freaky techno weight is aimed directly at the most debauched of dance-floors. 'Get To Know It In The Flesh' follows up on the A2 with rolling, grooving rhythms and dramatic string stabs alongside outlandish synth melodies, looping vocals and eerie creatures lurking in the background.
On the flip 'Ready2BeginWot?' gets things jacking with swinging rhythmic funk and and ear-worm repeating vocal line in a fast house-inspired slammer. 'Hollow And Suited' follows on the B2 with its tribal driving drum work and mutating resonated vocals sitting alongside debased synth melodics for the most haunted club creatures. Finally, 'Corvid House' closes out the record with its swung and grooving drum loops, bird call sound effects, vocal hooks and euphoric pad bliss to finish off another plate of dance-floor degeneracy.
To celebrate over ten years of groove and sonic elegance, Roche Musique presents its “BEST OF” compilation, available exclusively on vinyl. A handpicked selection of 20 essential tracks tracing the label’s DNA — a refined blend of modern soul, nuanced electronics, and timeless groove.
Featuring the label’s cornerstone artists — FKJ, Darius, Kartell, Zimmer, Cezaire, Crayon, Dabeull, Lossapardo — alongside acclaimed collaborators such as Reva De Vito, Darianna Everett, Ayelle, Leven Kali, Panama, Chester Watson, Sølv, and more. From “Vibin’ Out” to “Espoir”, through “Wildflowers” and “I Can’t Stop”, this compilation captures the very essence of Roche’s sound: warm, heartfelt, and endlessly groovy. A pure analog listening experience designed for true music lovers and vinyl collectors — every groove telling the story of a decade of passion and sound.
![Dolphin - Cunts Rule Everything Around Me EP [full colour sleeve / incl. dl code]](https://www.deejay.de/images/l/8/7/945087.jpg)
