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2025 Repress

(remastered classic incl DL card) Environ is proud to present the Metro Area 15th Anniversary Edition, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The12-track triple LP and digital package combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition. In the late nineties, the budding producers Morgan Geist and Darshan Jesrani bonded over their shared love of slower tempos and '70s and '80s NYC club culture. Obsessed with record digging and the sounds they heard on late-night "club classics" radio shows—and turned off by current releases they saw as artlessly "updating" sublime disco by sampling, filtering and subjugating them with huge kick drums —the duo set out to discover how their favorite old 12" records were made. They naturally gravitated towards extended dubs of songs—full of strange mistakes and echoing backing tracks—instead of the better-known vocal versions. Lacking the big budgets and gear that made so many of their favorite classic records come together, they were forced to take a guerrilla approach. They reprogrammed their techno-oriented arsenal of secondhand synths and samplers, using novel digital recording technology to capture live instrumentation and prioritizing mood over hooks, and the resulting music was just wrong enough to sound unlike anything else being released at the time.After just four underground 12" releases, the duo—now well-known as Metro Area—released their first and only album, Metro Area, in the fall of 2002. Fifteen years later, it's time to celebrate the culmination of their shared history and inspiration once again. Environ is proud to present the Metro Area 15th Anniversary Edition, Metro Area's eponymous debut album, meticulously remastered using the original source tapes and generously spread across three slabs of vinyl. The 12-track triple LP and digital package combines all the songs from both the original US and licensed European releases, and features new commemorative artwork unique to this edition.

Ryo Fukui, who passed away in 2016 after releasing only five albums, recorded this fourth work in 1999. Featuring bassist Lyle Atkinson and drummer Leroy Williams—the longtime rhythm section of Barry Harris this New York-recorded album captures the full appeal of Fukui as a bebop pianist. Centered around standards, the track selection, structure, and of course the performances all radiate intent and vitality. His assured and weighty touch, the firm yet elastic swing, and the emotion and lyricism that permeate his dynamic phrasing everything here conveys Fukui’s breath, will, and presence in vivid form. The re-performance of his signature piece “Mellow Dream” is also a welcome highlight.

“From Birmingham and centred around the extraordinary songwriting talent of James and Patrick Roberts – initially as The Sea Urchins and since 1993 as Delta – they’ve only just got round to releasing their debut album, Slippin’ Out. It is a work of some beauty”. 9/10 NME ALBUM OF THE MONTH, 2000

“It’s classicist for sure, shot through with the influence of The Beatles, Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. In James’ downright beautiful closing ballad ‘I Want You’ one can also discern the school of ambitious English balladry that peaked in about 1968: The Casuals, Love Affair, Barry Ryan. The impression of accomplished old-schoolery is only furthered by the dizzying string arrangements penned by Louis Clark Jnr, son and namesake of the one-time orchestral chief of Electric Light Orchestra” – Mojo lead review, 2000


Having ended the 90s with the spirited ‘Laughing Mostly’ compilation of singles and demos (Guardian Album Of The Week) Delta finally released their debut studio album of twelve songs in the summer of 2000 on the Dishy Recordings label. Accepting that this might be their sole studio album the band threw everything at these recordings allowing it to exist in its own sphere, unbothered by their contemporary generation and disregarding the idea of even releasing a single.

Recorded at DEP International there was a notable difference to the scruffier, looser charm of their 1990s recordings, a tighter focus developed by having the experienced Lenny Franchi mixing the LP with them. Lenny had been working with a number of Island artists including My Bloody Valentine and Tricky so knew his way around a desk. There was also the question of budget (a few months passed between recording and mixing whilst funds were raised) so every day counted. Ultimately though you can hear the joy in the recordings, even amongst the melancholy and angst. As James recently recalled in an interview in Shindig! Magazine: “It was such a big deal for us. It’s one of my fondest memories doing that record. Everyone was happy. If there’s anything that I’d stand by, I think it would be that”

Louis Clark Jr joined the band towards the end of the ‘90s and brought a classically-trained element to the recordings particularly with his string arrangements. For ‘Cuckoo’, ‘I Want You’ and the prophetic ‘We Come Back’ Louis brought in eight players from the Birmingham Conservatoire; the baroque style is partly why the record often receives comparisons to Love’s ‘Forever Changes’.

On release ‘Slippin’ Out’ was a big favourite with writers at the NME, Mojo and The Guardian again and before long the band were signed to Mercury/Universal for their second studio album ‘Hard Light’, a far more expensive and expansive love affair. It was a temporary palatial home where things quietly fell apart again, but that’s another chapter.

“If long-term memory is nothing more than selective editing and only pop’s most weighty visceral works are built to last then it’s quite possible that in 50 years the Britpop era will be best recollected for the two bands it ostracised. Earlier this year we met Shack and thought their story of mercurial brilliance indicated the biggest music biz oversight of the 90s. We were wrong because we hadn’t met Delta yet. This is richer and more engrossing than anything by Shack” 

Der legendäre Frank Sinatra (1915 - 1998) war zweifellos einer der größten Sänger aller Zeiten. Diese großartige Sammlung präsentiert 75 Highlights aus seiner Karriere begleitet von herausragenden Orchestern unter der Leitung von wichtigen Persönlichkeiten wie unter anderem Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Billy May, Sy Oliver und Don Costa. Die erste CD zeigt The Voice in seiner schwungvollsten Stimmung, während sich die zweite einigen seiner besten Balladeninterpretationen widmet und die dritte schließlich Songs aus berühmten Filmen kompiliert, von denen er in vielen auch die Hauptrollen spielte.

Esteemed soul man of Panama Mr. Ralph Weeks has in recent years been enjoying a much overdue retrospective of his remarkable six decades-long musical journey with the help of Names You Can Trust. Now onto their fifth record release together since 2019, the label has covered both Weeks' original holy grail material as well as re-cuts and reimagining of some of his rarefied and unreleased songs.

One of Mr. Weeks' two iconic 45 releases on Panamanian label Sally Ruth was a funky soul side called "Let Me Do My Thing," originally recorded in 1971 as Weeks' answer to Charles Wright's big tune "Express Yourself," which had just hit the airwaves in 1970. Weeks' musical response would help define his legacy. He was gonna express himself, he was gonna Do His Thing. This golden age ultimatum recorded with the Dynamic Exciters of Panama as the backing band was a simple, straight ahead number with a defining message that would be carried on throughout Weeks' independent career. The funkified air and creative freedom of the original tune is a prime example of the crossover Combos Nationales sound that flourished in the prolific Panama recording industry of the era, and in the ensuing decades Weeks' tune would live on as a cherished rare groove for souleros, funk fans, and bootleggers alike.

Fast forward to 2023, when Ralph Weeks and Names You Can Trust prepared for a Bay Area appearance at the wonderful Latinos Con Soul weekender put on by San Francisco's Discodelic record shop, the groundwork was laid in the studio for a revival, a reawakening of Weeks' funky fan favorite. A spectacular ensemble of NYCT's All-Star artists and alumni was convened in the studio, including Caito Sánchez on drums, Victor Axelrod (Daptone Records) on clavinet and Sam Day Harmet (La Banda Chuska) on guitar. Anant Pradhan (The Skatalites), Eric Biondo (The Budos Band) and Alex Asher (Los Cumpleaños) occupied the brass section, and Ralph Weeks even lent his still formidable chops on electric bass and keyboards, a little OG flare to back up his silky voice with a deft musical touch. What came out of the sessions was a chance for NYCT to pay homage to Weeks' iconic original, without replacing it, and build a brand new version from the ground up with the maestro and composer himself!

“The high priest of country cool” - Rolling Stone

“I like him very much. He’s very special. He’s singing with a voice I never heard before” - Townes Van Zandt

“A conscious, soulful brother” - Horace Andy

“He’s a brother to me - one of the best singer/songwriters I’ve ever met” - Adrian Sherwood

“Unearthed mine of gems from inner Wales - a songbook of ideas - that's Jeb!” - Gilles Peterson

Jeb Loy Nichols is a bonafide Country (Got) Soul legend. The Music Maker presents 21 incredibly deep, grooving and soulful songs from the cream of Jeb's catalogue; from its earliest days to his latest unreleased gems via countless rare and unbelievably good lost-classics. This 2LP set is presented in a gatefold sleeve complete with freshly commissioned artwork courtesy of Jeb himself.

In collecting these uncut, under-heard gems, we hope to do justice to Jeb's jaw-dropping artistic brilliance. A man who, in working with Adrian Sherwood, Dennis Bovell, Dan Penn, Larry Jon Wilson and countless other legendary characters, has crafted some of the most deeply affecting folk, country, soul, funk, blues, dub, reggae, gospel, rap and electronic music, ever heard.

The first music Jeb really felt a connection with was southern soul: "I used to listen to the radio at night and fell in love with Bobby Womack and Al Green, The Staple Singers and Joe Simon – that whole Nashville/Memphis/Muscle Shoals thing.” But Jeb was so much more than a soul boy, Indeed, he "went to bluegrass festivals with my dad and come home and listened to jazz records with my mother.” And, when he was fifteen, he heard his first punk record: "God Save The Queen" by The Sex Pistols. “That and The Ramones completely changed me.” In 1979 he got a scholarship to go to art school in New York: “A great time. Punk was over but hip-hop was starting and I got into that in an obsessive way.”

His first recording, in 1980, was an unreleased rap song called "I’m A Country Boy". If that isn't an insight enough into Jeb's kaleidoscopic path through music, in 1981 he visited friends in London and found himself living in a squat with Adrian Sherwood, Ari Up (from the Slits), and Neneh Cherry. “Adrian put me to work immediately, moving boxes of records all across London. It was Adrian that was and is my biggest influence – in his complete disregard for genre purity.” So, presumably you're getting the picture? A veritable musical magpie with a voracious appetite and unimpeachable taste.

"Mine has always been a meandering career. I've done what I've done, and made the music I've made, due to chance meetings. I'm not particularly ambitious; it's more important to me that I work with friends and like-minded people. I've been a big fan of Be With for years. Everything they release is essential. When they asked about rereleasing "Countrymusicdisco45" I was both pleased and flattered. We began talking about how we'd do it; two years and twenty-one tracks later, here we are. I've always thought of the music I make as Country Music. Music conceived in the country, written in the country, recorded in the country. I left London and moved back to the country so I could live among the trees, the grasses, the animals, those things that don't go to war and get greedy. This compilation is the story of that life. Hand made, lo-fi, ramshackle, stripped down, real deal music. Heartworn and funky. Music made in the kitchen, not in the studio. As the great Skip Mcdonald said, Perfect ain't perfect. It's great to see all these tracks gathered together. It feels like a family reunion. Some older members of the tribe, some newer arrivals."

Opener "countrymusicdisco45" is a song Jeb wrote about how his crew lives, tucked up blissfully in the hills: "House parties full of country folk dancing to disco, reggae, soul, country, hip-hop. All night. I recorded it at home under the influence of Stevie Wonder." It's one of the funkiest records you'll ever hear. "Sometimes Shooting Stars" was recorded in Nashville and mixed by the legendary Dennis Bovell. It's deep, dubby, majestic. A thing of fragile, melodic beauty. The party ramps back up again with the undeniable groove of "Short Cut Home" before the profoundly moving "Disappointment" arrives. One of many songs he's recorded with good buddy Benedic Lamdin (aka Nostalgia 77): "We were going for a Leon Thomas meets Richard Brautigan meets Alice Coltrane kind of thing". We think they nailed it. "Days Are Mighty", like a lot of the tracks on this collection, "started life as a demo, an attempt to get something down while it was fresh. No frills, nothing fancy, just feel." And what feels!

The irrepressibly funky "Don't Dance With Me Tonight" is a deeply moving, slow-mo organ-drenched head-nod-funky country-ballad. Next up, the breezy "You Got It Wrong" was recorded in Wales with some of Jeb's good friends and neighbours, The Westwood All Stars, featuring Clovis Phillips and Will Barnes. Skanking fiddle-flecked gem "Ring The Bells" was the first thing Jeb recorded when he moved to Wales. A combination of all his loves; country, reggae, soul. It's followed by "Let's Make It Up", a truly sumptuous string-drenched emotional groover. "When Did You Stop Loving Me" is another Nashville track, written and recorded during a time Jeb was spending a lot of time with the Muscle Shoals crew, Donnie Fritts, Spooner Oldham, George Soule and Dan Penn: "It shows, I'm sure, their influence." Oh, you bet it does!

The swaggering country-funk of "Just Beginning" should grace many groove-focused DJs' sets whilst "Wintering Of The Year", again made with Clovis, is pastoral, campfire soul. The glacial, gorgeous "Let It Rain" is from an unreleased record Jeb made with the great British jazz bass player Andy Hamill and "We Tell Each Other Who We Are" is freaky country-soul made by a man with a love for strutting, wonky hip-hop stylings. Rounding out the side, "Trip To You" is pure, uncut amphetamine-propelled drum-machine soul.

The spare, beautiful "Dirt" is from an EP Jeb made with Julian Moore in his house in South London: "All first takes, straight to tape." Swoon! "Heaven Right Here" was a very minor league hit in America: "It was produced by the brilliant and much missed Wayne Nunes. It was started in the countryside of Missouri, finished in the countryside of Wales, and recorded in the countryside of Sussex." Double swoon! "If Later Ever Comes" is electronica meets J.J. Cale business whilst "Remember The Season" is truly wonderful and breezy guitar soul. "A Little Love" was made with Wayne Nunes as well, after a night of listening to Studio One and Northern Soul. Bouncy dub closer "Weary Traveller" was written by Bill Monroe, the hero of Jeb's youth: "Monroe's music was heavily influenced by black southern churches; I've tried to keep some of that feral feel." This was the final recording by Jeb's 1990s Country-Dub band, Fellow Travellers.

The name of this compilation comes from a time when Jeb lived in Peckham, south London and he used to DJ and sometimes perform at a local bar: "The owner of the bar, a Jamaican named Count Percy, once asked me what I called my music. I told him I wasn't sure, I guess just pop music. He thought about it for a minute and then said, 'no, more like mom and pop music'. Rather than call me a country singer or a folk singer he always referred to me as The Music Maker."

With the long overdue deluxe overview of his beloved music, we hope to finally shine a light on the unheralded genius of Jeb Loy Nichols. RIYL Larry Jon Wilson, Townes Van Zandt, Bobby Charles, country got soul artists, dub, deep soul, disco, dancing, heartbreak. This deluxe collection, spellbinding from beginning to end, should hopefully go some way to ensuring Jeb reaches an ever bigger, ever more appreciative crowd of followers. Mastering for this special double vinyl edition was overseen by Be With regular Simon Francis and it was cut by the esteemed Cicely Balston at Abbey Road Studios to be pressed in the Netherlands by Record Industry. The artwork has been lovingly put together by The Music Maker, himself, Jeb Loy Nichols. "Be With is the perfect home for this mongrel music. I am forever in their debt." The pleasure is all ours, Jeb.

The 12th release on ALIM Music, Brazilian singer-songwriter Rogê delivers a radiant and rhythmically rich reinterpretation of Talking Heads’ “Road to Nowhere,” setting the tone for BBE's Naive Melodies - a bold and visionary tribute to the music of Talking Heads, reinterpreted through the lens of Black musical innovation. Curated by Drew McFadden - the creative mind behind BBE’s acclaimed Modern Love (David Bowie tribute album) releasing this October via BBE Music. Now based in Los Angeles, Rogê, a Latin Grammy nominee and longtime torchbearer of Rio’s samba-soul vanguard - reimagines the Talking Heads classic as a soulful samba jam, infused with earthy guitar, syncopated percussion, and his signature smoky, magnetic vocals. Where the original rides on quirky tension, Rogê’s version flows with saudade and sway, steeped in the Afro-Brazilian traditions that have defined his sound for over a decade.

Produced by Tommy Brenneck (Amy Winehouse, Mark Ronson, Cuco, Charles Bradley, The Budos Band), the track carries a raw, analog warmth that nods to classic MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) and the golden age of 1970s samba-rock, while subtly weaving in the existential overtones of the song’s lyrics. Rogê's “Road to Nowhere” captures the essence of Naive Melodies: a reimagining of Talking Heads’ catalog through the rhythmic and cultural lens of the global Black music traditions that helped shape it. From samba and funk to soul, dub and jazz, the album brings together forward-thinking artists from across the diaspora to revisit, reinterpret, and revive the sounds that have always lived in the band’s DNA.

The second instalment of SCHNRZ formed by LI & ZOL gathers resources from the thermal baths of Budapest. Exquisite blend of field recordings, floating dub athmospheres and fullfilling bass-adventures balanced out on mid-tempo minimalism. Shapeshifting series of releases by the two local heroes under the flag of Budapest-based SCHNRZ, that refers to Schonherz, the name of the neighbour dormitory of their basement studio - forged by Berlin-like mid-tempo minimalism with a pinch of Balkan, developed to the next level by dub carpets of the north.

Chicago's premier boogie purveyors STAR CREATURE dig deep with 4 extremely rare cuts, 3 of them being white whale level impossible to find & the 4th commanding big bucks online! Includes songs by TIGER JACK, SOUL INVADERS, MOTHERFOX, and PYRAMID PLUS. Heavyweight vinyl and heavyweight reverse board jacket. Due out Nov. 10.

“Let’s Bounce” was originally issued on Ajana as one of their only 2 releases, the first being earlier from Central Power System on Numero Group’s The Chicago Party compilation. Tiger Jack remained elusive, both Jack and a copy of his record until we stumbled upon a contact and were able to get in touch and stitch together the fully extended mix of this Punk Funk Boogie Bopper. Speaking of Numero Group, The 2nd track of Side 1 comes from an assist from the reissue Gods themselves as they blessed us with this never-sold-on-discogs soulful side of Boogie Slap issued on one-and-done label Magikal. When asked about the track, songwriter CA Williams said they recorded it for a restaurant jingle. Probably the best one we’ve ever heard.

Side 2 starts off with an absolute Modern Soul Monster with Motherfox’s Hot Shot. John Harris came by Star Creature’s South Side of Chicago HQ to chop it up and share some stories on Motherfox and his other passion project most deep funkers would known as Carver High. This record has reached insane demand the past few years as it’s a certified floor filler for all scenes - peak big budget sound packed into a small DIY package, total package. Track 2 delivers the full version of the ever mysterious Pyramid Plus providing the Titular Tune “Comin’ At Ya’” as vocoded talkboxed low slung, spaced out Boogie Banger.

By the time of their second album, 1989’s ‘Unfinished Business’, EPMD were firmly cemented in the rap stratosphere. With one certified classic album under their belts, they proved they were no one-hit wonders, with the sequel possibly even better. A concise 12 tracker once again produced by the artists themselves, it saw them adhering to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ maxim, while going somewhat ‘bigger’.
In other words, guests started to appear – not just on the records, but in the videos – and marketing budgets were higher. None of which watered down their sound. In fact, this is the ultimate EPMD record: a beat that’s simple but perfect, and two top-of-their-game MC’s going back and forth. But the appearance of NWA in the video for ‘The Big Payback’ hints at their reputation at the time – and at the cordial relations between coasts before the deadly beef that was to come.

‘Payback’ takes both its title and core sample from James Brown’s ‘The Payback’ from 1973, and then weaves two more JB elements with it, including the addictive stabs from ‘Baby, Here I Come’. It’s a golden track from the golden age.

The B-side is another gem from the same album, and only released before on 7” in a very rare, limited pressing. ‘So Wat Cha Sayin’ was the album’s lead single, and shows EPMD’s wide sampling palette. There’s bits of BT Express, a whole lot of Funkadelic and, brilliantly, some drums lifted from Soul II Soul’s gem from just the year before, ‘Fairplay’. Lyrically, it’s just all about threats to sucker’s MC’s – what else do you want from EPMD?


• A certified Hip Hop classic.

• Samples James Brown’s ‘The Payback’ from 1973.

When Radial Gaze meets Nicola Kubebe, the result is Iron Pinky Toad — a title that sounds either like a secret kung-fu move or a lost cartoon book. But don’t be fooled — this one hits hard.

The long-awaited collab brings three original tracks — Phantom Limb, Lights of Phoenix and the title cut Iron Pinky Toad — that effortlessly bridge the gap between slow-burning tribal techno and the raw pulse of new beat nested into an early techno nutshell. Imagine dancing barefoot in a ritual under a disco eclipse — you’re getting close.

To seal the record, Playground Records boss Martin Noise steps in alongside rising sensation Anastasia Zems, pushing the release into full-blown dancefloor sorcery. The groove is deep, the bass is sweaty, and the toad… well, the toad is on fire !

Dropping Friday, July 18, 2025, via THISBE Recordings — available on vinyl and digital. Spin it, stream it, or whisper its name into the smoke at 3AM — either way, the dancefloor won’t know what hit it.

Let the amphibian groove begin.

Artwork by Christoffer Budtz

Double 7” vinyl, both packaged in one heavy PVC clear wallet, with centre label & sticker design by Ciaran Birch.

I Jahbar, G Sudden, Buddy Don & RDL Shellah representing Portmore, Jamaica's DUPPY GUN meet Lyon's Warzou, where each vocalist tee up a track off Warzou's mutant inspirations of the 94' Corduroy Riddim.

Cooked up at Record Studio Congos in Portmore, the Duppy vocalists go to town on the pressured & twisted dancehall excursions, referencing one of the most important riddims of the 90s. The DG collective have been making waves over the past two decades and this recent collaboration is another inter-continental link up of the highest order.

The meeting of the two finds it's home on Bristol imprint, Accidental Meetings.

In a changing, unpredictable and turbulent world, something we can always rely on is a new Orb album, with the next holiday-for-the-head never far away. On what is quite possibly the millionth longplayer helmed by electronic lifer Alex Paterson; partnered with the now firmly-entrenched boy wonder Michael Rendall; the inspirationally productive outfit yet again deliver the goods, with one of their best yet.

More dancefloor jazz gems from the Messin About label - two well loved classics back to back for maximum playability!

Before he became better known as Porn Sword Tobacco (PST), Swedish producer Henrik Jonsson released two albums under the name of Stress Assassin. Like his later oeuvre, the tunes are spacious, cinematic and multi-layered, influenced by the likes of Harold Budd and Tangerine Dream, but for this project there is additional guidance from Lee Perry and Moritz von Oswald.

Released on vinyl for the first time, Within the Office of Eye and Ear’s smoked-out ambience and blissful beats are permeated with melodic bass and cinematic space. Found sounds, floating voices and intermittent pops ripple amongst the sweet harmonies, lush atmospheres and pulsating basslines, creating a captivating other-worldly dreamspace.

As Henrik explains: “Made often at night in an attic in Gothenburg, it’s music I did in a world far away from today: the music was, and is, about not running along with a stress-y society soaked in TV, media and materialism, out of touch with the calm beauty this world gives us”

He certainly succeeded as Within the Office of Eye and Ear offers the ultimate stress assassination.

Call Sender is the collaborative brainchild that unites the talents of Paul Elliott, a versatile multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and recording engineer from Suffolk/UK and Michael Reed, a multi-talented instrumentalist, recording engineer, and drummer residing in the Bay Area/USA. Despite working together for the past four years, the pair are yet to meet in person!

After connecting on social media over their love of drum breaks and vintage reverbs Elliott and Reed fostered their creative partnership by bouncing recordings back and forth via email and this virtual collaboration resulted in their first album, the jazz-funk inspired “Lost To The Storm” (Tru Thoughts, 2023). With four singles from the album gaining radio play and becoming a favourite for tastemakers and DJs, the pair began work on the follow up “Golden Langur”. With this new record, the aim was to retain their signature Call Sender sound, a heady mix of B-movie soundtracks, classic library music and psychedelic funk and soul, but also introduce elements of lo-fi soul as well as collaborating with some of their talented friends as featured artists.

These features include fantastic instrumental contributions from the incomparable funkmaster Shawn Lee (Ping Pong Orchestra/Young Gun Silver Fox) on “Brainforests” and the legendary JJ Whitefield (Poets Of Rhythm/Whitefield Brothers) who kicks ass in two tempos on “Two Tails”. Not to mention the silky-smooth vocals from the Bay Area’s Andre Cruz, vocal duet from Lucid Paradise that is reminiscent of Gil Scott Heron and Paul Elliott’s seven year old son Buddy drops a vocal on the future B-boy classic “Rainbow”. Together Call Sender has an old-school vintage foundation with a modern perspective. Influenced by iconic acts such as Klaus Weiss, Miles Davis and Nino Nardini and with a hip and funky sonic aesthetic, Call Sender’s music is nostalgic without being pastiche, has a sense of travelling at its core, having been recorded in different parts of the globe, while never hesitating on the direction of the music.

The year is 1989 and it's the peak of the Belgium New Beat craze. Not limited to records and clubs, the New Beat lifestyle was marketed to death with all sorts of fashion items, a plethora of accessories, and at least one erotic movie.

Fast forward a few decades. In the middle of nowhere, Switzerland, tucked inside a long-forgotten video store that closed its doors in 1999 and sat untouched for 20 years, we stumbled upon a strange treasure amongst tons of VHS hidden in the adult section. A mysterious VHS labeled "Erotiques New Beat."

What we found was pure 1989 Belgian erotica-low budget, fog-drenched, and neon-soaked. Minimalist sets. Girls in PVC. Flashing lights. Mirrors. Fog machines. Loud colors. It was erotic, sure-but also oddly sweet, almost innocent in its surreal, lo-fi dreaminess.

And then came the soundtrack.

That's what really floored us. A collection of New Beat gems, raw, simple, irresistible. Somehow, it captured the full spectrum of the genre: 100-110 bpm grooves with shades of EBM, sleazy coldwave rhythms, sensual synths, proto-Goa pulses, monk choirs, oriental melodies, and a healthy dose of movie samples. It felt alive. Timeless. Utterly perfect.

We had to know more. We dug, tracked down the source, and in 2020, reissued the soundtrack on vinyl. It sold out fast. Now, five years later, we thought about pressing one final batch. A special edition on picture disc, featuring the original smileys from the VHS.

When billy woods released Today, I Wrote Nothing ten years ago, it was an unexpected departure from a rapper who was just starting to make waves in the indie rap scene. After spending the earlier part of his career in the wilderness, woods had managed to crawl out of obscurity with the minor success of 2012’s History Will Absolve Me. Dour Candy, 2013’s collaboration with underground legend Blockhead drew accolades, which only increased with Armand Hammer’s debut Race Music.

Then, woods dropped out of sight for two years before returning with Today, I Wrote Nothing, a record that deviated significantly from what had come before. Where Dour Candy had been concise and focused, TIWN was a sprawling 24 tracks. Where History Will Absolve Me was anchored by hard-hitting beats, anthemic songs, and a couple high powered features, TIWN was comprised of short vignettes, quietly eclectic production, and the only guests were his Backwoodz label-mates. Only one video was released; the claustrophobic “Flatlands”, shot on a shoestring budget in a Brooklyn housing project. Reviewers didn’t know quite what to make of the record, and in many cases, neither did fans.

As is often the case for woods’ albums, many perspectives shifted as the years passed. Listeners came to see the sad, quiet beauty of Today, I Wrote Nothing; a road trip album that doubles as a meditation on life’s journeys and death’s hiding places. The album’s power is in it’s intimacy, it’s insistence on holding your hand through the darkness. Now, TIWN is considered one of the more unique and vital records in woods catalogue. The dynamic woods created with TIWN vis-a-vis History Will Absolve Me and Dour Candy is one that would come to define his ouerve; constant experimentation, a refusal to be pigeonholed, and an unwavering search for the emotional heart of his subject. For us at Backwoodz, being able to repress this album on it’s ten year anniversary is especially sweet, because we remember how long it took us to sell that original run of 500. To everyone who copped one of those and helped us keep the lights on, this is for you too, we couldn’t have gotten here otherwise.

With two critically acclaimed compilations already under his belt, DJ / collector miche returns to Mr Bongo with the third instalment of his With Love series. Testament to his ever-expanding taste, Volume 3 isn’t just a subs bench call-up from the past compilations, it’s an evolution and progression casting the net deeper and wider than before.

Keeping true to the series, but with some fresh surprises along the way, this carefully curated compilation is a celebration of soulful, independently released music from across the globe, and the amazing (often unsung) musicians and vocalists that made these sublime records.

Across the third volume, miche explores a jazzier side of his tastes. “The deeper I went, the more I found myself gravitating towards jazzier music - not leaving soul behind, but following that same feeling into new territory”, he explains. Tracks like the gliding jazz funk found on Late Nite Music Band’s ‘Sundance’, or the glorious jazz-soul number ‘In Flight’ by Spectrym are shining examples of this.

That defining soulful thread of previous volumes is still in full effect throughout this latest edition. “There’s a healthy dose of impossible-to-find soul gems that have that unmistakable, heartwarming feel. Tracks like John Simmons' 'Ain't Nothing Like The Love', which I've adored ever since Zaf Love Vinyl played it, sit perfectly alongside records like Le Cop and New Way”, states miche.

The addition of some top-tier Turkish music showcases another side to his ever-broadening taste. Nükhet Ruacan's 'Gölge' is something unique, a floaty Brazilian-inspired gem recorded in Turkey and not what you’d typically expect from Turkish records of this era. 

It also wouldn’t feel right to leave out a stop in Brazil, with miche looking to the work of Carlos Bivar whose track 'Amargo Amar' carries that undeniable groove of samba-funk from Rio.

Spreading the With Love message far and wide the series has led to miche DJing across the globe, “from batucada sessions in Timisoara, to all-night sets in a club in Beijing, and even an eight-hour Root Down With Love stage takeover at We Out Here festival, joined by Danilo Plessow, Jeremy Underground, and of course, my mentor and buddy Rainer Trüby.”

Volume 3 then, carries that message even further. It’s an eclectic but intentional collection, built for the music lover who wants to discover something new. Working just as well as a soundtrack to cook dinner to, as it does keeping a packed dancefloor moving into the small hours.

"Anti Todo" is Eskorbuto's most celebrated album, recorded in the shortest time imaginable and released in 1985. It shows what the Spanish punk band did best: hitting the studio with as much raw energy, provocation, inspiration, and natural talent as possible. A new remastering for this edition has given the album the richer, more vibrant sound it always deserved. We can once again enjoy the urgency, simplicity, and rage of this refreshed "Anti Todo", a true classic recorded at Eskorbuto's peak of their creativity and energy. It includes a large poster and insert with notes. DESCRIPTION 1985 was a landmark year for punk rock in the Basque country, and possibly for the whole of Spain. Punk merged with the Basque Radical Rock (Rock Radikal Vasco or RRV) movement, although this was not necessarily always the case. For instance, Eskorbuto invariably kept their distance from the movement and everything related to it. Hardship was part and parcel of Eskorbuto's life and musical career. All their albums were recorded in the shortest time imaginable, partly due to tight budgets (studios were expensive, labels were close-fisted), and partly because Josu and Jualma needed to spend the money on other things_ When it came to recording "Anti Todo", Eskorbuto stuck to what they did best: hitting the studio with as much raw energy, provocation, inspiration, and natural talent as possible. It was their best record and we have to ask: what would Eskorbuto have been capable of if they had more time, a bigger budget, and tighter control? The song 'Tamara' was practically composed on the spot in the studio in less than two recording days, as was much of 'Ha llegado el momento'. The experienced sound technician did an outstanding job, but a new remastering for this rerelease has given the album the richer, more vibrant sound it always deserved. We can once again enjoy the urgency, simplicity, and rage of this refreshed "Anti Todo", a true classic in our musical history, originally released in 1985 at Eskorbuto's peak of their creativity and energy. This edition of the album includes a large poster and insert with notes.

With two critically acclaimed compilations already under his belt, DJ / collector miche returns to Mr Bongo with the third instalment of his With Love series. Testament to his ever-expanding taste, Volume 3 isn’t just a subs bench call-up from the past compilations, it’s an evolution and progression casting the net deeper and wider than before.

Keeping true to the series, but with some fresh surprises along the way, this carefully curated compilation is a celebration of soulful, independently released music from across the globe, and the amazing (often unsung) musicians and vocalists that made these sublime records.

Across the third volume, miche explores a jazzier side of his tastes. “The deeper I went, the more I found myself gravitating towards jazzier music - not leaving soul behind, but following that same feeling into new territory”, he explains. Tracks like the gliding jazz funk found on Late Nite Music Band’s ‘Sundance’, or the glorious jazz-soul number ‘In Flight’ by Spectrym are shining examples of this.

That defining soulful thread of previous volumes is still in full effect throughout this latest edition. “There’s a healthy dose of impossible-to-find soul gems that have that unmistakable, heartwarming feel. Tracks like John Simmons' 'Ain't Nothing Like The Love', which I've adored ever since Zaf Love Vinyl played it, sit perfectly alongside records like Le Cop and New Way”, states miche.

The addition of some top-tier Turkish music showcases another side to his ever-broadening taste. Nükhet Ruacan's 'Gölge' is something unique, a floaty Brazilian-inspired gem recorded in Turkey and not what you’d typically expect from Turkish records of this era. 

It also wouldn’t feel right to leave out a stop in Brazil, with miche looking to the work of Carlos Bivar whose track 'Amargo Amar' carries that undeniable groove of samba-funk from Rio.

Spreading the With Love message far and wide the series has led to miche DJing across the globe, “from batucada sessions in Timisoara, to all-night sets in a club in Beijing, and even an eight-hour Root Down With Love stage takeover at We Out Here festival, joined by Danilo Plessow, Jeremy Underground, and of course, my mentor and buddy Rainer Trüby.”

Volume 3 then, carries that message even further. It’s an eclectic but intentional collection, built for the music lover who wants to discover something new. Working just as well as a soundtrack to cook dinner to, as it does keeping a packed dancefloor moving into the small hours.

Efficient Space charts Ghost Riders’ North American roadmap, crashing into 1973 New York to ignite the unfiltered teen dreams of Dennis Harte.

In the late ’60s, 11-year-old prodigy Dennis Harte was handed a Sears-bought Silvertone 1448, its in-case amplifier primed for street-level incantations. Recruiting two neighbourhood friends, the trio hammered out raw rhythms, drawing in Brooklyn’s wandering bohemians, keen to glimpse a prepubescent Alex Chilton in the making.

Also jamming with his older brothers, Bart and John, a family friend introduced the siblings to budding music exec Carl Edelson, who had spent the better part of two decades hustling through a string of local labels. A father figure of sorts, Edelson backed them immediately, facilitating sessions at the famed A-1 Sound Studios and Sanders Recording Studio and pressing four 7”s on his newly minted Roundtable Records. To maximise his chances of courting major labels, he strategically assigned each release a different artist name - Dennis Harte, Pure Madness, Harte Brothers and the wryly titled Harte Attack.

Dennis’ emotional maturity and sheer talent bleed into the defining ‘Summer’s Over’, penned by Edelson and once recorded by mid-'60s New Jersey garage vocal group The Wouldsmen. Morphing into an unfathomably teenage, blue-eyed soul/psych lament, it aches for a season slipping away forever. Its Harte Attack edition counterpart - the candied ballad ‘Running Thru My Mind’ - delivers unison harmonies and kinetic guitar interplay with a streetwise punch, channeling the spirit of NYC-area icons The Rascals, The Lovin’ Spoonful, and The Youngbloods.

Roaring like the Spencer Davis Group, Pure Madness’ organ-driven bruiser ‘Freedom Rides’ screams of biker gangs, yet its true subject - ’60s civil rights activists the Freedom Riders - looms as another towering theme for an adolescent perspective. Meanwhile, the loose, bluesy ruckus ‘Treat Me Like a Man’ digs back into Edelson’s catalogue, covering the Beatles-inflected Levittown group The Shandels.

Though Dennis later found success touring with Wilson Pickett and now doubles as a piano tuner to the stars, these four snapshots frame ambition on its outer edge - a heartfelt homage to an unbreakable brotherhood.

Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.

All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.

At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.

There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.

The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.

The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?

Bud Records is proud to unveil Jellyfish - Summer Buds (Reworks), a compelling new vinyl release. This meticulously crafted 6-track EP showcases Jellyfish's distinctive touch, delivering three sophisticated nu-disco edits alongside three vibrant afro-latin reworks. An essential addition for discerning collectors, ready to elevate any sonic landscape.

A retrospective of collaborations and remixes by composer/producer David Javelosa (Los Microwaves and Baby Buddha). Featured artists include L.A. punk producer Geza X, Chip Kinman of Rank and File and the Dils, Bebe Barron of the Forbidden Planet soundtrack, Japanese power pop band Orange Kandy, upcoming synth artists Pink Stiletto, and more. Each track is unique in it's back story as well as its sound. Offered as a limited run of 300 copies, this collectors item is sure to become a rarity.

Heads up, we got a hot premiere on GAMM from Chicago's finest Emmaculate and Basement Boys legend DJ Spen !

The story behind this release goes something like this...

Our buddy and GAMM contributor Coflo spins at a dope house party, drops the A side 'Step Into A Black Whole' and the club literally explodes when the track hits the massive hip hop breakdown (KRS!) and returns and transforms into a jazzy Afrobeat house stomper. It's an +11 min long musical journey going from house to hip hop to Disco-Afrobeat. The GAMM representative in the house "feels it" and asks Coflo who's behind the tune, and after a few months, the connection is made with Emmaculate and DJ Spen to secure the release for GAMM.

A few weeks later, Emmaculate delivers a second track, 'Boogie On Disco Woman', which is a killer Funk/Disco/Soul rework with raw drums, nasty clavinets and soulful female vocals.
This could easily have been the feature track, but lands on the B side this time.

Incredible jams !

Hell Yeah have been busy making musical connections and reaching out to like-minded beatmakers once again. This time, it is Pier Paolo Polcari aka Polcari, a founding member of cult Italian band Almamegretta, who steps up with the magnificent new album I Will Try To Imitate The Birds. The eight-track record also features Adriano Viterbini, another Italian music icon and guitarist with the revered Bud Spencer Blues Explosion and I Hate My Village as well as Ubjk, San Ignacio and Sergio Dileo.

Label head Marco first got in touch with Polcari after he remixed Italian cultural hero Sergio Messina's cover of 'Fly Away' back in 2021. The pair began sharing music, discussing their favourite records and, eventually, the natural next step was to work towards the album now served up here.

The multi-talented Polcari is a master of downtempo sounds and as well as several solo projects that fuse trip hop, folk, dub and world music, he made a global mark as part of Almamegretta. The revered Naples band formed in the late 80s and has worked with greats like Massive Attack and Adrian Sherwood across more than 15 albums and are currently on a special 30th anniversary tour. Also playing on the album are Adriano Viterbini, a composer and member of blues-rock outfit Bud Spencer Blues Explosion, San Ignacio who is a downtempo and cumbia innovator behind the much sought-after albums like La Identidad Es Una Trampa and Sergio Dileo, sax player in the much-loved Naples band Nu Genea as well as being a busy jazz collaborator.

Opener 'Jardino' Feat. San Ignacio sets a laidback vibe from the off with gently breaking drums topped with whimsical melodies. 'Vita Nova' is cavernous dub with more lush instrumentals, xylophones and wispy synth motifs making for a world escape and 'Mundo' (Feat. Ubjk) has an air of Eastern melody with delicate pads and glowing keys floating above the pillowy drums. 'The Birds' (Feat. Adriano Viterbini) has fluttering harp strings that bring real beauty to a downtempo groove packed with vocoder vocals, synth smears and organic percussion.

'Orcos Ou Fadas' carries on with a rich blend of strings and percussion, shuffling rhythms and curious moods, 'Raifuki' lurches on moody drums and introverted melodies and 'Ligea' Feat. Sergio Dileo brings some romantic Latin rhythms and seductive clarinet while 'Superluna' completes the odyssey with more wavy dub and magnificent collages of melody and percussion.

I Will Try To Imitate The Birds will lift you off your feet and carry you away to a lush world of cathartic, sun-kissed musical pleasure.

Collecting Orders For 2026 Repress

It's reissue time for one of the most in demand records from the Trelik catalogue, featuring Baby Ford and Thomas Melchior under their Sunpeople alias. The flip side's opening track 'Check Your Buddah' is probably the best known of the four tracks here, with its spacious echoes, mantra-like voices and heads down beats, but there's plenty to be said for the other three. 'Lovers Eyes' is an equally dubby techno affair, but pinned down by sturdy, infectious beats, 'Sungods Wedding' is blessed with churning, warm bass action and just a smidge of cowbell and 'Make It Right' is properly hypnotic 3am gear that's a dream to mix and draws in the listener with its imperceptible builds and three note bleep magic. Worship the Sun!

Salon Records is proud to welcome Lil Mark & Jason Hodges for the single Wait. Pure house anthem with a strong focus on groove and funky drums declined also in an instrumental version. Stuttgart based producer Anneke Laurent, known for his production with Markus Schatz under Neverm!nd, delivers a classy deep house version of Wait, while Moritz Piske & Antislash, long label buddies joined their forces to produce a badass remix, slightly more funky, minimal and full of off beat humour.

Limited, 500 copies black gatefold 2LP...

Originally released in 2013, the long-awaited second album from Lulu Rouge finally returns to vinyl in its first-ever limited repress — revived after years of growing demand.

The Song Is In The Drum captures the duo at their most fearless and immersive. Known for their deep melancholia and anti-traditional pop structures, Lulu Rouge blur the lines between dark dub, cinematic electronica, and left-field songwriting. Intense, soul-cutting vocal pieces unfold alongside towering instrumentals — brooding, beautiful, and unapologetically atmospheric.

The album features standout appearances from Danish indie pop visionary Asbjørn and Icelandic-born vocalist Fanney Osk, adding further depth to an already richly textured sonic landscape.

Across 11 meticulously crafted tracks, producers Torsten “Buda” Jacobsen and Thomas “T.O.M” Bertelsen shape a world that feels both intimate and vast. Every beat is deliberate, every space intentional. This is music that doesn’t simply play — it envelops.

Fifty-three minutes that grip you by the heart and refuse to let go.

Welcome to the brightest dark place you’ve ever been.

Look out for a much anticipated new album coming later this year from Lulu Rouge - making this re-issue a timely reminder of the power of their work.

**CASSETTE**

Budapest based independent concept label Blue Sun celebrates its first anniversary with their second VA cassette, showcasing artists from the local underground and/or electronic music scene, along with some international guests.

Bound together by an aesthetic rooted in the "listening" culture, the release features mostly downtempo tracks with a colorful palette of genres like ambient, trip-hop, jazz, experimental electronica, new wave and even modern classical music. With a contemplative, wandering feel, it shifts the focus from music consumption at dancefloors to the listening-at-home experience.

Just as on the first VA (BLSN001VA) there are no ‘A’ or ‘B’ sides on this release. Instead the label uses colors to distinguish them, largely based on the mood of the tracks. The ‘orange side’ covers a more upbeat line of music, while ‘blue side’ takes us on a more introverted, experimental journey.

Curated with a ‘circular listening concept’ by the founders of the label, the tracks are sorted in such a specific order that they are designed to take the listener on an endless auditory loop - wherever the journey begins.

Curated by Hanussen & Kozmo D

Designed by Idil Emiroğlu

Mastered by Márton Grema Gregus

Manufactured by Headless Duplicated Tapes

Released under the Blue Sun.

interloot returns with a stellar compilation, assembling a cadre of versatile heads to deliver a bulletproof warehouse set for your gear bag. kicking off the a-side is »once again« by stuttgart's jakob mäder. known for his eclectic blend of ambient, disco, house and techno, mäder crafts a heavy opener boosted by a propulsive rhythm, seamlessly melding forceful chords with swirling acid echoes. »tick« by bristol-based fella thrilogy screws down the force and untwines the groove with a more mellow, bass-driven foundation and intricate percussive patterns to a subtle yet weighty synth journey through space and time. flipping to the b-side, »back on back« by renowned duo decent rides instantly slaps your face and unfolds its raw energy with a stomping infectious vibe urging forward unchecked. supplemented by delicate vocal rollbacks this guy’s a real peak-time pusher. rounding out the little concrete jungle voyage, »groove got me« by vienna’s moff & tarkin proves the name’s the product. A massive breakbeat blast tenderly detailed and beautifully arranged builds up to a complex raw and punchy climax leaving no one’s body parts unmoved. savour this collection poised to satiate the appetites of discerning nightlife buds and sistas.

Poni Hoax, a French band born in the early 2000s under the impulse of Laurent Bardainne, immediately emerged as the union of converging forces: on one side, the precision of a composer and instrumentalist breaking away from jazz conservatory traditions; on the other, the magnetic presence of Nicolas Ker, a terminal new wave crooner with a sepulchral voice. Surrounded by Arnaud Roulin on keyboards, Vincent Taeger on drums, and Nicolas Villebrun on guitar, they made an instant mark with Budapest—dark and haunting—followed by the unstoppable She’s on the Radio, crafting a unique identity that blended the venomous elegance of Roxy Music, the tension of New Order, and the fervor of Larry Levan. With Images of Sigrid, Poni Hoax achieved the miracle of an instant classic before continuing their journey with A State of War and Tropical Suite, sonic odysseys haunted by memory and distant horizons. On stage, it was either an apocalypse or a revelation—a Formula 1 driven by a gang of Gremlins, a blazing energy leaving only burning embers in its wake. The adventure came to a tragic end with the passing of Nicolas Ker in 2021, as the notes of Laurent Bardainne’s saxophone rose into the gray skies of Père-Lachaise, the final echo of a dazzling odyssey.In 2025, Poni Hoax celebrates its 20th anniversary with the release of Greatest Hits: Everything is Real.

Announcing the debut album from one of London’s most electrifying acts, New Regency Orchestra. An 18-piece Afro-Cuban big band, inspired by the musical melting pot of NYC in the 1950s, but with the punch and power of a whole host of London’s best Latin and jazz musicians. Blowing new life into these compositions, the album is a reimagining of some of the finest music from that golden era. From early 1950s René Hernandez and Tito Puente, through to the 1970s salsa of Rafael Labasta and Orlando Marin, produced and performed with fresh fire.

NRO is the brainchild of its artistic director, and the man behind Total Refreshment Centre and Church of Sound, Lex Blondin. Through a long-held passion for jazz, Lex discovered the explosive Afro-Cuban rhythms of mid-1940s NYC via the godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz, Mario Bauzá. A time when two musical worlds collided in a fusion of creativity and energy, jazz luminaries like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker joining forces with Cuban greats like Machito and Chano Pozo. This vibrant sound was music to dance to and found a home at The New York Palladium, a formative space of freedom and expression that was key to the scene’s development.

Although dance-focussed in their makeup, those early recordings are not often heard in modern club environments and Lex dreamt of retelling their story with a contemporary dynamism. A slice of serendipity followed, as a slot at a new festival opened up and Lex jumped at the chance to make this idea a reality, an 18-piece big band breathing new life into these beloved songs.

Enlisting the expertise of some of the capital’s finest talent, Lex and co-captain Andy Wood, of Como No fame, put together a world-class line-up of talent. Bringing in Eliane Correa as musical director and bandleader, a fluid and interchanging 18-piece band was formed.

The album itself is a hand-picked selection of timeless Afro-Cuban jazz classics, reimagined with NRO’s unbridled energy. It contains ten incredible instrumental tracks including 'Pregon' with its anthemic horn stabs and the addictive head nod bounce of 'Mambo Rama', alongside two scorching vocal numbers in 'Papa Boco' and 'Labasta Llego'. Coupling a heavyweight rhythm section with a wall of horns, they provide a fresh spin on songs from Tito Puente and Chico O'Farrill, René Hernandez through to Rafael Labasta.

“Some of the tunes like Tito Puente’s ‘Mambo Rama’ and ‘Scarlet Mambo’ might sound like they went to a gym as extra drums and bass synth were added to them whilst the tune ‘Sahib & Tito’ is a mix of Tito’s ‘Mambo Buda’ and Sahib Shihab’s ‘Nus’. Our intention is to be both respectful to the innovators and inventors of this incredible music and to pay our dues, but also to add something special from London where the city’s new jazz scene connects with its Latin American musicians and the musical influences around us.”

This pure collective joy, shared experience and music you can’t help but move to.

Classic 1988 'early' house LP reissued on yellow vinyl for the first time for RSD 2025. Made by Royal House aka Todd Terry, the legendary producer & DJ from New York who was a staple for house music and produced under many different aliases throughout his time such as Black Riot, CLS, D'Effect, Dred Stock, Frontline, Frozen Inc., Gypsymen, Hardhouse, House Of Gypsies, Limelife, and amongst many others, Masters At Work (Before he gifted the name to Louie Vega & Kenny Dope). Everybody who was into house and it’s culture in 1988 owned this record, now you have the chance to own this on yellow vinyl for the first time. 'Can you Party' is still played on national radio stations and one of the staples in rave and it’s scenes. Remastered for 2025 in the original 'PAID' designed sleeve but now in transparent yellow vinyl for RSD. Limited edition.

Googling “paradise house”, the first results to pop up are an endless list of European b&b’s with whitewashed lime façades, all of them promising “…an unmatched travel experience a few steps from the sea”. Next, a little further down, are the institutional websites of a few select semi-luxury retirement homes (no photos shown, but lots of stock images of smiling nurses with reassuring looks). To find the “paradise house” we’re after, we have to scroll even further down. Much further down.

It feels like yesterday, and at the same time it seems like a million years ago. The Eighties had just ended, and it was still unclear what to expect from the Nineties. Mobile phones that were not the size of a briefcase and did not cost as much as a car? A frightening economic crisis? The guitar-rock revival?! Certainly, the best place to observe that moment of transition was the dancefloor. Truly epochal transformations were happening there. From America, within a short distance one from the other, two revolutionary new musical styles had arrived: the first one sounded a bit like an “on a budget” version of the best Seventies disco-music – Philly sound made with a set of piano-bar keyboards! – the other was even more sparse, futuristic and extraterrestrial. It was a music with a quite distinct “physical” component, which at the same time, to be fully grasped, seemed to call for the knotty theories of certain French post-modern philosophers: Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Paul Virilio... Both those genres – we would learn shortly after – were born in the black communities of Chicago and Detroit, although listening to those vinyl 12” (often wrapped in generic white covers, and with little indication in the label) you could not easily guess whether behind them there was a black boy from somewhere in the Usa, or a girl from Berlin, or a pale kid from a Cornish coastal town.

Quickly, similar sounds began to show up from all corners of Europe. A thousand variations of the same intuition: leaner, less lean, happier, slightly less intoxicated, more broken, slower, faster, much faster... Boom! From the dancefloors – the London ones at least, whose chronicles we eagerly read every month in the pages of The Face and i-D – came tales of a new generation of clubbers who had completely stopped “dressing up” to go dancing; of hot tempered hooligans bursting into tears and hugging everyone under the strobe lights as the notes of Strings of Life rose up through the fumes of dry ice (certain “smiling” pills were also involved, sure). At this point, however, we must move on to Switzerland.

In Switzerland, in the quiet and diligent town of Lugano, between the 1980s and 1990s there was a club called “Morandi”. Its hot night was on Wednesdays, when the audience also came from Milan, Como, Varese and Zurich. Legend goes that, one night, none less than Prince and Sheila E were spotted hiding among the sofas, on a day-off of the Italian dates of the Nude Tour… The Wednesday resident and superstar was an Italian dj with an exotic name: Don Carlos. The soundtrack he devised was a mixture of Chicago, Detroit, the most progressive R&B and certain forgotten classics of old disco music: practically, what the Paradise Garage in New York might have sounded like had it not closed in 1987. In between, Don Carlos also managed to squeeze in some tracks he had worked on in his studio on Lago Maggiore. One in particular: a track that was rather slow compared to the BPM in fashion at the time, but which was a perfect bridge between house and R&B. The title was Alone: Don Carlos would explain years later that it had to be intended both in the English meaning of “by itself” and like the Italian word meaning “halo”. That wasn’t the only double entendre about the song, anyway. Its own very deep nature was, indeed, double. On the one hand, Alone was built around an angelic keyboard pattern and a romantic piano riff that took you straight to heaven; on the other, it showcased enough electronic squelches (plus a sax part that sounded like it had been dissolved by acid rain) to pigeonhole the tune into the “junk modernity” section, aka the hallmark of all the most innovative sounds of the time: music that sounded like it was hand-crafted from the scraps of glittering overground pop.

No one knows who was the first to call it “paradise house”, nor when it happened. Alternative definitions on the same topic one happened to hear included “ambient house”, “dream house”, “Mediterranean progressive”… but of course none were as good (and alluring) as “paradise house”. What is certain is that such inclination for sounds that were in equal measure angelic and neurotic, romantic and unaffective, quickly became the trademark of the second generation of Italian house. Music that seemed shyly equidistant from all the rhythmic and electronic revolutions that had happened up to that moment (“Music perfectly adept at going nowhere slowly” as noted by English journalist Craig McLean in a legendary field report for Blah Blah Blah magazine). Music that to a inattentive ear might have sounded as anonymous as a snapshot of a random group of passers-by at 10AM in the centre of any major city, but perfectly described the (slow) awakening in the real world after the universal love binge of the so-called Second Summer of Love.

For a brief but unforgettable season, in Italy “paradise house” was the official soundtrack of interminable weekends spent inside the car, darting from one club to another, cutting the peninsula from North to centre, from East to West coast in pursuit of the latest after-hours disco, trading kilometres per hour with beats per minute: practically, a new New Year’s Eve every Friday and Saturday night. This too was no small transformation, as well as a shock for an adult Italy that was encountering for the first time – thanks to its sons and daughters – the wild side of industrial modernity. The clubbers of the so-called “fuoriorario” scene were the balls gone mad in the pinball machine most feared by newspapers, magazines and TV pundits. What they did each and every weekend, apart from going crazy to the sound of the current white labels, was linking distant geographical points and non-places (thank you Marc Augé!) – old dance halls, farmhouses and business centres – transformed for one night into house music heaven. As Marco D’Eramo wrote in his 1995 essay on Chicago, Il maiale e il grattacielo: “Four-wheeled capitalism distorts our age-old image of the city, it allows the suburbs to be connected to each other, whereas before they were connected only by the centre (…) It makes possible a metropolitan area without a metropolis, without a city centre, without downtown. The periphery is no longer a periphery of any centre, but is self-centred”.

“Paradise house” perfectly understood all of this and turned it into a sort of cyber-blues that didn’t even need words, and unexpectedly brought back a drop of melancholic (post?)-humanity within a world that by then – as we would wholly realise in the decades to come – was fully inhuman and heartless. A world where we were all alone, and surrounded by a sinister yellowish halo, like a neon at the end of its life cycle. But, for one night at least, happy."

Founded by Robbie Redway and psychedelic researchers Mathieu Seynaeve and WaiFung Tsang, UK-based 'United Freedom Collective' has grown into a network of artists including Jordan Stephens, Falle Nioke, Eliza Shaddad, Labdi, William Rees and Facesoul. Originally conceived around psychedelic therapy sessions, online yoga and breathwork channels, the musical scope has expanded on each of the four EPs released on Maribou State's 'Dama Dama' label, and here continues with their debut on Multi Culti. This time Robbie takes the lead on production and sole vocal duties on all five tracks, presenting a range of influences and style. Lead single 'Between Memories' blends tropes of ecstatic dance with uplifting vocal piano house, somehow making flutes fit in with Detroit strings to epic, hands-in-the-air effect.' Title track ‘Bright Patterns’ bridges the gap between Jungle, Jai Paul, and Jamiroquai, a fusion of funky filtered disco-house and electroclash with side-chained pop vocal hooks. ’El Yo’ smooths things out, a dope, laid back groove with a measured reflection on psychedelic healing and the perils of spiritual bypassing. ‘Higher Drums’ warms things back up for the dancefloor with trumpet, afro-latin percussion, and flute flourishes. Finally, ‘Moonshine’ is a soaring, Amapiano-inflected post-desert-house ballad. Influenced, in their words, 'by birds, trees, Buddhism, yoga, headless way meditations, Jungian analysis, Zen Taoism, Chinese plant medicines, indigeneity, Amazonian and psychedelic cultures, icaros and world healing traditions,' the music is eclectic, ranging from afro-inspired jazz to Chinese folk, psych-rock to dub and dance music, an ambitious and inclusive range, collabs that extend well beyond the borders of western musical traditions. Their sound was described by Clash Magazine as an 'aural mosaic that glitters with colour and potential,' and while the sheen of the production and precision of the arrangements might seem a departure from Multi Culti's left-field endeavours, the psychedelic idealism and global connectivity make it a natural fit with the open-ended ethos of the label. Having already had radio support from KEXP, BBC6 Music (Laverne, Ravenscroft, Charles, Nemone, Letts), Jazz FM and Worldwide FM (Gilles Peterson), with a live show that sold out Dalston Curve Garde and The Waiting Room as well as supporting Maribou State for their recent comeback show at Islington Assembly Hall in London the collective's future is looking exceptionally bright.

At the start of the 60s, a new wave of gospel-influenced jazz started to emerge, with hits such as Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers' "Moanin'" and Cannonball Adderley's "Work Song" epitomizing this evolution in the genre. The terms "soul jazz" and "funky jazz" were coined as a way to describe this new sound that was making an impact in the US and also on the other sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In 1964, Ray Charles made his first visit to Japan. Then, in 1968, Martha & The Vandellas and Stevie Wonder set foot in the country, followed by Sam & Dave in 1969, Ike & Tina Turner in 1970, and B.B. King in 1971. The TV show "Soul Train" also began airing in Japan in the early 1970s. A watershed moment happened in 1973 when Sammy Davis Jr. was cast in a TV commercial for Suntory whisky — and the influence of the US Black entertainment world had really landed, with soul, jazz, and funk artists becoming household names.

Nippon Columbia played a pivotal role during this turning point. The company had contracts with Buddah Records and Blue Thumb Records, releasing notable works by artists such as Gladys Knight & The Pips, Curtis Mayfield, The Crusaders, and The Pointer Sisters. At the same time, the label was also releasing several Japanese soul, jazz, and funk projects under the lead of music director Jiro Inagaki. Inagaki, a saxophonist who began his professional career in the early 1950s, honed his skills at U.S. military camps, where he shared his love of music with the Black servicemen. In the 1960s, he played with drummer Hideo Shiraki's band, which was widely considered to be Japan's representative group of the funky jazz movement. Later, Inagaki went on to pursue more cutting-edge sounds with his Soul Media project, including being a pioneering figure in the "jazz rock" genre. By working closely with Inagaki and his various musical projects, Nippon Columbia really placed the company at the center of an exciting and important period in Japanese music.

In 1965, Nippon Columbia opened a recording studio in Tokyo's Akasaka neighborhood. Akasaka was also home to the first ever discotheque in Japan, the legendary MUGEN, which ran from 1968 to 1987 and where many acts performed, including Con Funk Shun, the Bar-Kays, Ike & Tina Turner, B.B. King, Sam & Dave, Three Degrees, and Edwin Starr, as well as many local Japanese singers and musicians. This melting pot of creativity in the area led to the recording of many singles and albums by Japanese artists that were infused with the sounds of soul and funk. Most of these recordings were not available outside of Japan and remain rare and unknown musical gems. The selection you are holding in your hands is an explosive collection of 10 essential tracks released by the legendary Nippon Columbia label between 1969 and 1977, capturing the raw, unapparelled energy that was flowing through the air of the Akasaka streets at this electrifying time. Enjoy!

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180GWALP07 - Manufactured and distributed by 180g.

Marbles is the legendary 1970 proto punk / dance classic from John McLaughlin’s US debut album 'De?otion', recorded at the time in which he played on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and taped the Record Plant session with Jimi Hendrix.
Marbles didn't just deliver jazz rock's most danceable 4/4 beat, played by Band of Gypsies / Electric Flag drummer Buddy Miles. It is also centered with a once-in-ageneration bass line performed by Billy Rich. Larry Young's otherworldly Hammond textures predate a lot of what synthesizers were about to do much later, and the blowtorch energy emanating from John McLaughlin's cranked amp went beyond what most would had dared during the defining era of heavy rock guitar. An apex achievement at the intersection of jazz rock, guitar rock and dance music without parallel, before or since.
Background: John McLaughlin arrived in New York in 1969 to join Tony Williams' new group Lifetime which also featured Larry Young and eventually Jack Bruce (of Cream). On the second day in town he found himself in the studio with Miles Davis, recording 'In a Silent Way.' His playing would also take center stage in Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, On The Corner and several other Davis key works of his much beloved first electric era. In between a busy schedule with Lifetime and Davis, McLaughlin also recorded two solo albums in 1970, 'De?otion' with an all-electric group and ‚'My Goa|’s B?y?nd' as its acoustic counterpart. By the time he formed his group Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1972, John McLaughlin was firmly established as the most important practitioner of his instrument of his generation within and well beyond the emerging jazz rock / fusion genre, and he has continued to evolve and surprise until today.
Here, a thorough remaster is supplemented by a new and throbbing techno version by Stefan Goldmann.