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The word "amateur" originates from the Latin word "amator," meaning "lover" or "admirer". This Latin term is derived from "amare," which means "to love". The French adopted "amateur" from Latin, and the English then borrowed it from French, initially retaining the sense of someone who loves or is devoted to something. Over time, the English usage of "amateur" also developed a meaning related to a lack of professional skill or experience. How did a word derived from love become a slur? Is love really so defenseless? They say love conquers all, but in reality isn’t love quite ridiculous? It has no intention, no motive, no agenda. How could it possibly prevail? It can’t be bought or sold, or so they say.Its mere existence can't be proven or even measured. What an impossible thing. Trying and failing, time and time again, no wonder cynicism always seems to win. I see “amateurism” as a delighted, even foolish, protest. Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that? I just want to have fun. I want to want. I want to love. And keep doing it, forever. I want to have fun, even when it’s tiring and sometimes even heaven is boring as hell. I want to be bad. I want to do my own thing. “I vant to be alone”. I want to be someone so dedicated to their passion that it starts to seem like there’s something wrong with them. All the way. We can take it all the way, and never get it back. ” - Molly Nilsson Amateur is the 12th studio album by Molly Nilsson. Deep in the teeth of a career that threatens to tip into something resembling a “legacy,” Molly Nilsson celebrates with an album recorded instinctively, quickly and bursting with so many moments of emotional brilliance and clarity it may be her greatest yet. Hers has been a career spent reaching out, perennially powerful in her earnestness, a warrior ridiculously defenceless and armed with a glittering sincerity. Shearing herself of the machinations of the music industry, recording at home, writing direct to the heart. Amateur is a jubilee for losers. A treatise in 13 songs, Amateur states clearly that we should live our life with eternal curiosity, offers us an open hand of comradeship out of the rat race. The songs on the album are both some of the most personal of Nilsson’s career and the most anthemic. First single How Much Is The World asks us to re-evaluate value in the face of a Neo-liberal system squeezing the life out of our loves. Pulsing opener Die Cry Lie satirises the commercialisation of emotion in the form of a shout-along diss-track. With a pounding rhythm track held down by gorgeous chord changes, heartbreaker Valhalla carries the torch for the main themes of the album: never growing up, making mistakes with kindness, moving on. When the drums crash in on the line “It’s going to get better now, you’ll see, going to be much better off without me” there is a world of feeling swirling about in the vocal delivery. One reading of the track might be that it’s a break up song but the subtext is classic Molly Nilsson: by living truthfully, making mistakes, we’re active agents against the myriad oppressions of the world. All The Way takes the theme for a run into the eternal sunset. It’s a manifesto for living fully. “Take it all the way, and never get it back” - it’s the process that’s the important point. The journey not the destination. Big Life, follows on like a part 2: An ode not only to Molly Nilsson’s career of endless gigs, endless connections with people, it’s a massive ode for following your dreams, doing it yourself. Closer The Bitter End is a powerful anthem for friendship, another definition of love infused in Nilsson’s work, A beautifully poignant ode to comradeship til the end, it seems to be the songwriter approaching aging, approaching life’s inevitability with the same vigour and earnestness, the same love of life she enjoyed at the onset of her career. There are moments on Amateur shrouded in reverb, slightly out of focus, forcing the listener to step deeper into the Mollyverse.. Nilsson’s open-armed beseeching to the world permeates every beat, every chord. These are songs exploding with life: the chunky, aggressive bassline on the punker Get A Life can’t hide its massive, catchy chorus. The sweeping Swedish Nightmare might be a tongue-in-cheek self-reference, but at its heart it’s a song about the duality of living life large, what is a dream, what is a nightmare? Molly Nilsson says you can’t have one without the other, and why would you want to? Here’s to making mistakes.

Downwards present Alexander Tucker in metamorphosis from psych folk to techgnostic bard, aided by notable guests – Justin K Broadrick, Regis, Phew, Karl D’Silva, JJOWDY, and Elvin Brandhi – in a quest for disordered convention and new thrills. One up to Tucker’s outings for Alter and The Tapeworm, and spiritual successor to his »Nonexistant« trio on Downwards, »Clear Vortex Chamber« is an enigmatic take on the brownfield edgelands where the eldritch intersects electronic heck. Decades of work spread between hardcore punk, psych rock, folk, and drone — including work with Stephen O’Malley (Ginnungap) and Neil Campbell (Astral Social Club, ESP Kinetic) — feed forward into this album’s unsteady machine rhythms and cranky junkyard atonalities, where Tucker panel-beats aspects of his previous sound with a newfound industrial thrust and cyber-punky lust that suits him dead well.

A crafty example of how to mutate without losing sight of yourself, the album’s eight parts feel like a cyborg patching itself into modernity. On opener »Udug« Tucker’s signature falsetto peals from a A Scanner Darkly-style scramble suit of stereo-strobing electronics, setting a melodramatic, neo-gothic tension that riddles the album thru the knotted, fractured industrial dancehall bullishness of »Mallets« with Yeah You’s feral gob Elvin Brandhi, via a pair of standout »Fedbck« parts with Tucker’s personal idol, Justin K Broadrick (Godflesh, Jesu, and the rest), featuring the Brum deity’s claw-handed riffs and howl on the first, and smeared with Karl D’Silva’s brass in its noctilucent second part.

Regis also proves a staunch foil for the album’s most robust, club-ready cut »Zona«, hammered out from buzzing metallic drums and monotone bass drones, and pitting his severed vox against Tucker’s own androgynous harmonies to recall aspects of The Ephemeron Loop via British Murder Boys, whilst scene legend, Can and Ryuichi Sakamoto spar Phew (aka Aunt Sally) ideally tempers the flow in a relatively soothing »Sansu«, sharing more cyber-romantic, recombinant sentiments with the channelling of Robert Wyatt gone Funk Bruxaria on »Folded«.

Thank You For Almost Everything is the sophomore album for Headache, a collaboration between writer and poet Francis Hornsby Clark and music-producer Joseph Thornalley aka Vegyn. This new album follows on the surprise underground success of their debut: The Head Hurts But The Heart Knows The Truth (released 31 May 2023) releasing on Vegyn's own PLZ Make It Ruins label. The debut record has streamed over 19.4 million times on Spotify alone and sold over 8,000 physical copies worldwide. The debut gained its popularity entirely organically with zero marketing or PR spend. Since its release, Headache has built a dedicated global fanbase, with several fans even going so far as to get lyrics or the project's logo tattooed on themselves. Thank You For Almost Everything continues the original's distinct style of Trip-Hop / Downtempo Electronica but combining with its own unique (and now imitated) AI-voiced spoken word. For this new album, Headache steps away from the hum-drum of Blighty and instead focuses his gaze to sunnier shores. Recalling personal histories of ruffled hair and school cafeterias, ancient unsolved Albionic riddles, Rome's changing seasons and its poignant graffiti, arguments with girlfriends at luxury hotel beachfront restaurants, and what it truly feels like to be alive in this inscrutable but beautiful world. The project features a further collaboration with artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt who returns to design the packaging and cover for this new album. This double 12" vinyl release, like the first, includes the instrumental versions exclusive to the vinyl version. The album, mixed and mastered by Margo Broom at RAK Studios, will use a similar surprise drop strategy as with the first album. "Follow up to the 2023 debut that gained its popularity entirely organically with zero marketing or PR spend. "Total Streams Since Release (31 May 2023): 19,413,173 (Spotify alone) "Previous vinyl album sold over 8,000 physical copies worldwide. "2nd Disc contains instrumental versions exclusive to vinyl format

Broken District presents Theoric Proximity, the debut album from French producer and label co-founder Jus Jam. Known for his blend of dreamy atmospheres and groove-driven productions, Jus Jam delivers a 12-track journey exploring the subtle balance between introspection and the dancefloor.

The record flows between ambient textures, deep and leftfield house, broken beat, hip-hop, and jazz influences, creating a cohesive yet versatile soundscape. From late-night moods to club-ready moments, Theoric Proximity reflects the artist’s unique approach: instinctive, emotional, and personal.

A milestone release for both the artist and the Bordeaux-based label, Theoric Proximity positions Broken District among today’s forward-thinking electronic imprints.

In between the folds of ceremony and commonality lies a perennial spring of musical expression.

A statement along the time continuum, or a testament to the resilient resourcefulness embedded in that truth, forms the philosophical approach of this album – the first outing of Dídac.
Studying an extensive archive of instruments, artifacts, and field recordings at the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève—a space steeped in folkloric gesture – Dídac encountered a cosmos of liturgical music and folk song. Anchored in reverance for tradition and transformation alike, this album navigates the old-world Mediterranean lore through a post-modern ambient lens, threading drone, gentle rhythm, electroacoustic textures and the crude tactility of archival material into one woven tapestry.

Under the guidance of Dr. Madeleine Leclair, Dídac was invited to work within one of the world’s most extensive ethno- musicological archives—L’AIMP. In the saturated basements and tape-lined backrooms of the museum, he submerged himself in the sounds of ritual and rural life: wax cylinders from the Eastern Mediterranean, tapes of liturgical hymn, the worn edges of communal song.
In a makeshift studio on the fourth floor of the museum, he sifted through the hours of material he collected, gradually discovering that the archive was no static source – It did not dictate; rather, it served as a companion—offering not answers, but questions. Not a beaten track, but a cluster of sonic clues and riddles. Samples do appear occasionally, tenderly interwoven into the dialogue of the songs. In Dídac’s self-titled debut, the past is not worn as ornament or kitsch; it is listened to and responded to. The museum, its archives, and the visit to Geneva became a foundational culisse of sorts, igniting a myriad of rough cuts and improvisational outtakes.
Dídac, or Diego Ocejo Muñoz, was born in Madrid in 1994 to a family of both Catalan and Castilian origin.

Brought up in a religious household, the influence of the Catholic Church innately shaped the social fabric, schooling and daily life. This lingering dominance led the adolescent Diego into a path of rejection of everything sacramental, promptly resorting to subversion in the shape of grafitti, skateboarding and underground music. Only later in life, after a rigorous venture as an acid and electro producer, the Church re-emerged before him in new light, invoking a deep fascination for its mysticism, iconography and choral tradition.

Spain in general and Catalonia in particular, has long served as a crossroads of the eastern–western Mediterranean continuum, with many of its cultures sharing aspects of way of life and ceremony. At the MEG, Diego found himself puzzled with this realization, resulting in a sonic amalgamation that reaches farther away from the rugged mountains of Catalonia than you might perceive at first encounter.

The deeply embedded memory of rite and public ceremony, religious hymn and landscape—sieved through the undercurrent of personal re-emergence, forms the emotional topography of this album. The record does not trace this landscape; it inhabits it. Its repetitive mysticism and ambient, wide-eyed gaze could possibly evoke (perhaps redundant) comparisons to artists such as Dimitris Petsetakis, or Popol Vuh’s late 70’s cinema scores.
The delicate lines between the sacred and the secular – between memory and re-invention – serve as a cipher to understanding this album in its entirety. Titles like Malpàs Mines or Pantocrator’s Portal Outro nudge toward a folkloric and devotional bedrock—places where labor and spirituality coexist, where names preserve both dust and veneration.

Nevertheless, this is far from mere nostalgia. It is a reclamation — singing alongside the spirits of the past, nurturing what still hums beneath the soil. It is an intimate reflection on tradition, rebellion, adolescence, ceremony and fantasy – a pastoral contemplation on what once was and what is to be.

Hailing from Raw Culture, Anna Funk Damage returns with his third release on the Roman label, delivering a record as fierce as it is intimate. Tarantola was born out of a winter suspended between contrasting emotions – melancholy, anger, love, confusion – distilled into a sound that transforms personal fragility into collective energy. There’s no pursuit of perfection here, but rather an urgency running through the veins, taking shape across supersonic punk, wave, ambient and industrial.

Each track is an emotional fragment, a bite that leaves its mark: from the electric tension of Vivere Distaccati to the feverish rush of Trasmissione, from the rawness of Decadente to the hypnotic title track Tarantola, which embodies the beating heart of the album. Side B unfolds into more nocturnal and intimate landscapes, from Chiang Mai to the disenchanted sincerity of Lavoro Troppo, closing with a party that carries the bittersweet taste of reality.

Tarantola is a journey into the chaos of human emotions, an album that doesn’t just narrate but pulls you deep into its sonic labyrinth, giving noise back its vulnerable yet powerful soul.

Shell Company featuring Richie Culver, LINTD, Older Brother. Full artwork sleeves & label design by Ciaran Birch ///

Hazy & dark contemporary pop from Shell Company, drenched in spoken word dreamscapes...

Manchester / Glasgow trio Shell Company debut on Accidental Meetings with a record of dark hued, noise pop adjacent pieces. The trio is spearheaded by poet Rosabella Allen, whose misted balladry pierces through the textured backdrops of Chris and Rob Banks, all three complimenting and melding perfectly.

Following stand out releases for Glasgow imprint Numbers, and Rainy Miller's Fixed Abode, Locket sees the band push the boat out for AM which sees them unite with fellow collaborators Richie Culver & LINTD on the project. A deeply personal record that fuses fractured electronics, post-rock and spoken word, with the end product being a damp, noir masterpiece.

Autodidactic musicologist and sample collagist U turned his archival eye on the melting pot of ‘80s post-punk with his debut ‘Life Isn’t A Fountain?’ EP for Lex. He follows up with an experimental exploration of regional identity with ARCHENFIELD, a deeply personal collection of ambient music and found sound that examines the relationship between geographical space and aural histories.

To construct this record U mined a wealth of recorded material relevant to the area. With a nod to traditional music, he takes samples from these records and creates beautifully atmospheric sound pieces that are often mixed with painstakingly researched snippets to create a stirring reflection on local history and broader themes of how we interact, or even fail to interact, with English folklore today.

Pressed on 180g vinyl, the album comes with a 24-page visual companion that expands on its themes and folk stories through imagery and narrative, echoing the album’s soundscape. : The Caretaker, Oneohtrix Point Never, JG Bie1berkopf, Maxime Denuc, Leon Vynehall

Denmarks leading outlet for fresh, forward forward-thinking jazz, April Records, proudly presents the debut release from award award-winning Danish vibraphonist Viktoria Sondergaard. With wide ranging influences from jazz, chamber music, cabaret, pop, rap and SukumaSukuma-inspired grooves, as well as the hymns and melodies of the Danish Hojskolesangbog traditional/folk songbook, the music is grounded in collective expression and responsibility. The album s bold, boundary boundary-pushing sound was built on a strong sense of musical community, as well as Sondergaard s desire to integrate spoken word and lyrics into her practice to convey her thoughts and feelings on the world around her on a deeper, more personal level. Composing with her four collaborators in mind, Viktoria imagined her quintet playing each note as she composed, making the music inseparable from their presence. The album integrates spoken word, rap, singing, screaming, and whispering - a shared sonic tapestry that expresses joy, wonder, questioning and celebration. It s a band built on inspiration, joy, dreams and love, Viktoria says. For me, one of the most beautiful things in art is that we have a platform to say something about the society and world around us. This album is an attempt to do just this. this." Balancing warmth and intimacy with tension and exploration, the music weaves rich instrumental textures and spacious soundscapes with intricate vocal arrangements - intertwining voices that move between comforting folk folk-like harmonies and angular, avant avant-garde expression. The quartet s deep listening and intuitive interplay are evident throughout, shifting fluidly from open, exploratory passages to tightly locked grooves. The result is a sound that feels both grounded and searching: a sonic conversation inviting the listener into a space of vulnerability, curiosity, and connection. With a sparkling tone, emotive improvisation and refined control over her instrument Viktoria is recognised as a fearless explorer and bold musical voice. A recipient of the Aarhus Jazz Talent Prize, Tivoli Jazz Prize and the 2025 Carl Prize Honorary Award presented by Marilyn Mazur, she balances adventurous writing and collective invention with melodic immediacy and emotional power.

Yarni's "Anemoia" blends disco, soul, jazz-funk, hip-hop, and trip-hop across ten collaborative tracks, arriving with an unexpected bonus record due to a pressing plant mix-up that transformed a costly mistake into a collector's item. When the pressing plant accidentally pressed the full run using a rejected master, Yarni included both the louder original test pressing and the final audiophile version rather than waste the pressing.

The project has garnered significant BBC Radio support, with Craig Charles, Stuart Maconie, Romesh Ranganathan and Huey Morgan championing tracks as essential listening. Exploring the Greek concept of nostalgia for a time never known, the self-taught multi-instrumentalist collaborates with ten musicians and vocalists, weaving genres into a thoroughly modern tapestry.

Standout collaborations include the orchestral jazz-funk opener "Neon Gods," epic "S.W.A.L.K" featuring Scarlett Fae, hip-hop fusion "Natural Light" with Franz Von and Jeff Darko, and the Afrobeat-influenced closer "Nino." Rather than a retro tribute, Yarni crafts a forward-thinking collection that reimagines classic genres through a contemporary lens, bridging past and present with fearless experimentation.

The bonus record features slight distortion and louder mastering from the original test pressing that wasn't quite right - offering fans both the intended audiophile experience and this alternate version with added character. Each package includes a personal letter explaining this happy accident, making it essential for collectors seeking authentic independent music experiences.

Tensal is the solo project of Héctor Sandoval, also known as half of Exium and Komatssu. Since its creation in 2014,
Tensal has become the channel for his most personal vision of Techno, blending diverse rhythms and textures with a
powerful and distinctive identity. Alongside his own imprint Tensal Ltd, he has released on some of the scene’s most influential labels, including Mord, Modularz, Perc Trax, Blueprint, Arcing Seas, PoleGroup, Float, Kynant, KR3, A.R.T.S,
Warm Up and Soma, where he delivered his first LP in 2018.

He has remixed artists such as Slam, Electric Indigo, Anthony Linell, Mike Parker, Shed, Pangaea and Shifted, while his
tracks are championed by leading DJs like Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Marcel Dettmann, Ben Klock, Ellen Allien, Laurent Garnier and DVS1. His DJ sets, built largely from his own productions, have taken him to more than 60 countries
worldwide, with performances at iconic clubs and festivals including Berghain, Tresor, Awakenings and Fabrik.

Beyond Tensal, Sandoval explores different frontiers of electronic music: with Juan Rico (Reeko) he formed Komando Terrorismo Sonico (K.T.S.), releasing the album Insurrección in 2021; in 2022 he launched Syndromania on Oaks
Records, a vinyl-only project fusing Techno with Trance, EBM, Electro and Acid. In 2023 he joined BPitch Control,
releasing several EPs and performing at the label’s We Are Not Alone events, while in late 2024 he debuted on Blueprint
Records with Highland Landscapes, a collaboration with Vince Watson (Amorphic), followed by a joint EP on Mord in
2025.

effgee returns on his own imprint fellice with three deep house cuts, warm, soul-inspired and topped with dreamy sampled vocals. fellice 005 comes as a special edition: each sleeve is hand screen-printed by the artist, limited to 250 copies.

Another special feature is the label's first remix: a greeting from sunny Bari to the dance floors by Italian deep house fratello Nico Lahs.

"Your Light" reaches back to effgee's production roots - soulful sampling, dreamy textures and groove-heavy. "Birds" shifts into a fresher club direction, while "Roland Bass" brings together the essentials of his production recipe: analogue synths, sampling, and a punchy kick at the core. fellice 005 is a deeply personal record - both musically and visually.

One of the most exciting voices in modern soul returns with Lilly - a deeply personal new album from Amsterdam-born singer, songwriter, and producer Danny Kuttner.

Blending 90s neo-soul, ECM-inspired jazz, and leftfield electronics, Lilly will resonate with fans of Hiatus Kaiyote, James Blake, and Billie Holiday – which Kuttner cites as some of the album’s key influences.

An emotional tour-de-force, the album is shaped by raw introspection and inspired by the passing of her grandmother. A stunning record that invites listeners into a world of vulnerability and sonic depth, and a must-have for vinyl lovers seeking soul, story, and standout production.

For the first time in full, a unique anthology of Hungarian TV and radio recordings by the legendary guitarist Gábor Szabó, captured during his return visits to Budapest in 1974, 1978, and 1981. This historic collection documents the deeply personal reconnection of an exiled artist with his homeland, bridging musical worlds and emotional landscapes.


The first disc features both studio and concert recordings with some of Hungary’s top jazz players of the era, including the legendary double bassist Aladár Pege and renowned vocalist Kati Kovács. The second disc includes a rare televised concert from the Hilton Hotel (1978) and Szabó’s final known performance — a moving rendition of “From a Dream” recorded in 1981.


The music collected here captures a poignant duality: Szabó as both American and Hungarian, outsider and homecomer. This is one of the most intimate and emotionally charged chapters of his career and a musical homecoming, rich in atmosphere and soul.


As always with Ebalunga!!!, Gábor Szabó’s legacy is treated with great care and passion. This edition features a 2LP gatefold vinyl release, complete with an in-depth essay by Szabó’s official biographer Douglas Payne — a fascinating piece of cultural and musical research in its own right.
The visual design is the work of artist and industrial designer Anton Bogdanov. With no use of AI tools — just handwork, imagination, and deep respect for the material — the artwork invites the listener to spend long evenings in its layered atmosphere.


Mastering is by Grammy-nominated engineer Jessica Thompson, whose work has revived dozens of legendary archival recordings — including the previous four Szabó releases on Ebalunga!!!.


This album is also available as a 2CD set in an elegant 6-panel digipak, crafted with the same care and attention as the vinyl edition.


Two hours of sublime music, stunning sound, and timeless packaging — a true gift for fans of Szabó and those who cherish deep, living jazz traditions.

OOOOH! by Alex Bad Baby Lukashevsky with Cocoa Corner (2025)

Celebrated veteran of Toronto’s music scene, known for his boundary-pushing approach to folk and avant-garde music, twists rock music into strange and brilliant new shapes with the help of young jazz players, U.S. Girls, and his own immensely talented son.



OOOOH! is hard on the outside and soft on the inside. Made in the spirit of unity,
humanity, and poetry — disobediently renouncing the glory of personal triumph for the
generosity of an honest experiment. On the last track of the album you’ll hear “Or do you only ever never want to make a single enemy? / That’s not freedom or humility / It’s nothing, honestly.” Oooh, that's a bad baby!

A celebrated Toronto songwriter and performer, Alex Lukashevsky has always been disobedient. Which simply means, nothing is off the table when he’s looking for his
poetic voice; when trying to find the realest I of the teller. As he sings on the lead track “that musician that’s dead” The musician is radical/ it’s the world that’s demented/ listening with their eyes, the music looks dented/ they’re over-represented.
OOOOH! was recorded in January 2024 at Sound Department in Toronto, engineered by Patrick Lefler (ROY), mixed by Grammy-nominated producer Matt Smith. All the songs were tracked live off the floor in two days, with one extra day for recording vocals, to keep the recording fully alive and breathing. As leader of Deep Dark United, as a solo performer, and a sideman in Brodie Wests’ Eucalyptus and Luka Kuplowsky’s Ryokan Band, Alex has been an outsized influence on the Toronto music scene that spawned acts like Broken Social Scene and Owen Pallett. (Pallett, who has toured with Lukashevsky, went so far as to record an entire album’s worth of Alex’s songs, backed
by a full orchestra.)

Lukashevsky has approached each of his albums and projects as something completely new, using only the musical boundaries he creates with each song. Even when he
has recorded songs with nothing but his voice and his own acoustic guitar accompaniment, the results are never “stripped down” or “back to basics,”
Gong! How do you get to heaven / have fun! have fun!
It’s cool to approach music as a game of “spot the influence”; Burt Bacharach-meets-Black Flag; Lana Del Rey-meets-LCD Soundsystem etc. Glorified mash-ups are promising because of their conversational nature. But they can turn us into hyperboreans; blowing cold air beyond ourselves while doing what we can to remain warm. To devise a game or a narrative is to have a winner and a loser, but we all know that just as you win/ so you lose. And does anything really change? Alex Lukashevsky and Cocoa Corner are more at ease drawing blind contours or playing an old game like consequences. They let things add up without knowing particularly how. Cognition is recognition.

Lukashevsky, in addition to writing all the songs, plays guitar and sings on OOOOH!, doing both in ways that are soulful and spikey at the same time. Joining him on guitar and vocals is his oldest child, Charlie Lukashevsky, who, at 23, is already a talented performer and songwriter in his own right. Cocoa Corner also includes Aidan McConnell, an in-demand drummer and composer, Jack Johnston, a jazz bassist and Barry Harris acolyte, and percussionist Evan Cartwright (The Weather Station, U.S. Girls, Cola, Tasseomancy), who plays steel pan and marching drum.

Working with his son and with other younger musicians is central to the album’s
unpredictable aesthetic. It reinvigorated the sound in unexpected ways. Lukashevsky says, “I had to reconsider my own instincts. I had to deal with being 99 years old.”
In addition to these performers, the album includes a tasty contribution from Meg
Remy, the visionary musician and producer who is the leader of the critically acclaimed
project U.S. Girls. Remy duets with Lukashevsky on the imagistic and sprawling album
closer “things keep happening.”
About that album title: OOOOH! is taken straight from “that musician that’s dead” an
arch and unhinged comment on the exertion required to navigate a lifetime of music making.
Lukashevsky’s delivery of that one emotive word is a kind of cultural posture, but also a
hundred percent primitive expression. The impact is never less than visceral. His vocal
delivery ranges through rich baritone blues to keening falsettos to a kind of sprechstimme that periodically steps out from the music to grab the listener’s shirt. He
doesn’t sound too nice, but he is sincere. When life gives you lemons lament.
For OOOOH! his first official full-length album since 2012’s Too Late Blues, (a collection of knotty-yet-effervescent tunes built upon the enchantingly serpentine harmonies of Lukashevsky and his vocal collaborators, Felicity Williams (Bahamas, Bernice) and Daniela Gesundheit (Snowblink, HYDRA)), Alex has once again broken apart and rebuilt his own approach to music. Or rather (because that sounds too over-determined), he
has allowed his music to build itself into strange new shapes that only fleetingly and
coincidentally, but happily, resemble anything that might be called rock and roll. There is some editorializing within the song’s lyrics— Lukashevsky even cheekily contributes to the “spot the influence” game with the line “Muddy Waters, Rite of Spring!” a funny preemptive strike against anyone already reaching for some variation of avant-blues to describe what the song is up to here. In fact there are many names checked on this record (literally and in spirit); they are the lily pads that trace the path of this expression! Palestrina, Peter Pears and Benjamin Brittain, Andrés Segovia, Stravinsky, Lotte Lenya, Alice Coltrane, Skip James, Chuck Berry, D’Gary, Betty Carter, Mukhtiyar Ali, Chuck D, Yoko Ono, Hailu Mergia, David Bowie, Jane Siberry. rhythm is a skeleton mansion / haunted by melody / feckless prodigy / the world is under a spell / cast by some demon angel / Practice day and night / Try as hard as hell / no one can sing that well Musicians are often worried by the way in which they are prepared to fail rather
than how they would like to succeed; it’s such a deep concern that it tempers their creativity and shackles their process. Current cultural proclivities, tend to comfort a certain kind of artistic failure and abnegate another kind. How many testimonials, full of heartfelt care and investment, have you heard for Taylor Swift, and yet a craftsman like Chris Weisman is often dismissed easily as though he’s doing something anti-social. what’s throwing itself in my ears and my eyes / arrogant devil ad hominem christ.
The music you will hear on this recording veers off in multiple directions at once,
and features a rock and roll spirit with a divergent heart. This is no sclerotic clomp of the Average Rock Song, but in fact a flood of humanity in all its darkness and moodiness and unpredictability. If most performers make songs that are like sports cars or pickup trucks to drive around, Lukashevsky has built something more akin to a rowboat in a tree: it’s weird and beautiful.

Das Dance Arts Center ist ein maximalistisches, genreübergreifendes Musik- und Performance-Projekt der in Los Angeles lebenden Künstlerin Nicolette Norgaard. Angetrieben von Tanzmusik und verwurzelt im Geschichtenerzählen, ist DAC der Ort, an dem Club auf Theater trifft und die Seele des Performers auf das Werkzeug des Produzenten. Ihr Debütalbum ,dance arts center presents" ist ein Konzept-Mixtape im Stil einer fiktiven Broadway-Cast-Aufnahme, komplett mit Ouvertüre und Entr'acte. Es untersucht, wie wir uns in Beziehungen verhalten, uns emotional verkleiden, uns für die Liebe verwandeln und wie die Show manchmal auch nach dem Fallen des Vorhangs nicht endet. Klanglich bewegt es sich in einer Welt aus synthlastiger, grooviger Tanzmusik, die von Indie-Pop-Sensibilität und durchdachtem Songwriting geprägt ist. Jeder Song ist eine Geschichte, und jeder Beat trägt etwas Schwereres in sich, als er vermuten lässt. Aber DAC ist nicht nur aufgenommene Musik, sondern ein sich ständig weiterentwickelndes Live-Erlebnis. Norgaard bringt das Projekt mit der Präzision einer ausgebildeten Performerin und der Freiheit einer Person, die auf der Tanzfläche erwachsen geworden ist, auf die Bühne. Die Live-Show ist theatralisch, narrativ, verspielt und selbstbewusst. Sie bezeichnet es als ,dekonstruiertes Theater" und verwendet von Fosse inspirierte Choreografien, Personas, Metafiktion und Sketche, um etwas zu schaffen, das die Grenzen dessen, was Musik und Theater ,sein sollten", sprengt.

For Martin Gretschmann, the ever-evolving Berlin artist known as both Acid Pauli and Console, music has always been a deeply personal journey.
His new imprint, All Is Acid, is the destination, a creative home for his uncompromising and experimental sound. Breaking from the cycle of trends, the label is a return to the essential, offering just a few curated releases a year. Each is intended as a timeless artifact for deep listening, primarily showcasing Acid Pauli's own intricate and intimate productions.
The label debuts with a newly remastered version of his classic 2010 EP "Den Mahlstrom rauf." But the release is given a powerful new dimension by a standout remix from Italian artist Adiel. Their collaboration was sparked by pure serendipity: a fan video of Acid Pauli playing her music in Milan reached Adiel, who responded with a short film for Vogue. In it, she revealed that "Den Mahlstrom rauf" was a formative influence and one of the very first records she ever bought.
Inviting her to remix the track that helped shape her sound was a full-circle moment, artistically and emotionally. Her bold, reverent reinterpretation honors the original's spirit while imprinting it with her own unique signature. With this release, All Is Acid launches not just with music, but with a story of connection, community and a shared artistic lineage

Found Keys is the debut album by American artist Ruth Maine. Although Ruth has been playing and composing music for over two decades, this is the first time she decided to record some of her varied compositions and share them with the public. But in times when it is the norm to clamour for attention, she prefers to go the opposite way. Ruth likes to let her music speak for itself and stay in the shadows.

The 16 short piano pieces heard on this album, each about two to three minutes long, were recorded remotely and purely surrounded by nature. Once a composition was found and Ruth considered it mature, she only recorded it once, embracing the beauty of doing something for the first time with all its little imperfections. Found Keys sounds anything but imperfect though. These compositions feel timeless, intimate and comforting, as if they have been around for a long time, like an old friend. Gently played keys slowly evolve into minimal pieces through repetitive melodies. There’s stillness as much as there’s brightness, sadness as much as joy; welcome to a beautiful journey through Ruth’s world of wonder.

In many ways, Found Keys is a deeply personal record that takes Sonic Pieces back to its roots. And it leaves a feeling of nostalgia while reviving memories of the past.

Found Keys is the debut album by American artist Ruth Maine. Although Ruth has been playing and composing music for over two decades, this is the first time she decided to record some of her varied compositions and share them with the public. But in times when it is the norm to clamour for attention, she prefers to go the opposite way. Ruth likes to let her music speak for itself and stay in the shadows.

The 16 short piano pieces heard on this album, each about two to three minutes long, were recorded remotely and purely surrounded by nature. Once a composition was found and Ruth considered it mature, she only recorded it once, embracing the beauty of doing something for the first time with all its little imperfections. Found Keys sounds anything but imperfect though. These compositions feel timeless, intimate and comforting, as if they have been around for a long time, like an old friend. Gently played keys slowly evolve into minimal pieces through repetitive melodies. There’s stillness as much as there’s brightness, sadness as much as joy; welcome to a beautiful journey through Ruth’s world of wonder.

In many ways, Found Keys is a deeply personal record that takes Sonic Pieces back to its roots. And it leaves a feeling of nostalgia while reviving memories of the past.

In March 2024, Jim White released his first-ever solo album, All Hits: Memories. Coming forty years into his career, it felt like some kind of breakthrough happening. His second solo album confirms it: Jim"s deep percussive intuition is fueling a new musical vehicle in his life. Inner Day finds him dancing ever more deftly with himself on an expressionistic set of drum kit and keyboard duets. Developing meditations on his personal arcana into expressive keyboard feels, he crafts parts as he would on the kit, further interacting with them on drums as well. Jim takes another big step on Inner Day, singing on two standout tracks, "Inner Day" and "I Don"t Do / Grand Central," his words and voice in the mix for the first time. A drummer of exquisite powers, great and small - his Dirty Three compatriot Warren Ellis contends his playing long ago "split the atom" - Jim"s capable of driving a band one minute, then slipping past accompaniment and into the cracks of the subliminal in the next breath. He"s got qualities - deep pockets, a lovely sense of the moment - that serve him and those he drums with well. His collaborators include Bill Callahan, Cat Power, Marisa Anderson, Daniel Blumberg, T. Griffin, Phosphorescent, Jess Ribeiro, Ed Kuepper and Mess Esque, alongside communal experiences in Xylouris White, The Double, Beings, The Hard Quartet and Dirty Three. And all that"s just in the past five years!