quête:point music

Gyros Heroes is the latest release from Adlibitum Tum Tunes, showcasing the unmistakable synergy between label curator Kirill Matveev and trusted maestro Nicolas Barnes, a resident artist renowned for his consistently refined and emotive sound.

The EP unfolds as a sophisticated blend of deep- and tech-house aesthetics, designed to uplift, move, and connect. It balances percussive bounce with emotional subtlety, offering a graceful flow that is both club-ready and sonically rich.

A1. Kirill Matveev – Am I Happy With That and A2. Kirill Matveev – Once At Dawn deliver the opening momentum, channeling sleek grooves and playful introspection with polished restraint. These tracks glide effortlessly between warmth and drive—embracing the listener without overwhelming.

On the flip side, B1. Nicolas Barnes & Kirill Matveev – Naar Shada blends the duo’s sonic sensibilities into a mood-driven piece with elegant progression and percussive intricacy. Closing with B2. Nicolas Barnes – Qeezy, the record reaches its emotional high point: a dancefloor-oriented yet soul-touched cut that radiates both sensuality and controlled energy.

Gyros Heroes is a finely tuned experience—bright yet deep, emotive yet precise—crafted for selectors who value atmosphere as much as movement. This is an EP that invites you into its positive orbit, reminding us how expressive and graceful club music can be when shaped by masters of tone and detail.

Adlibitum Tum Tunes is a division of MixCult Records

The Éthiopiques series returns! Essential archive recordings from an extremely fruitful period in Ethiopian music.

Before “Swinging Addis” took over the world, there was Moussié Nerses Nalbandian — the Armenian-born composer who shaped modern Ethiopian music. Mentor, arranger, and pioneer, he laid the foundations of Ethio-jazz.

This Éthiopiques volume revives his forgotten legacy, recorded live by Either/ Orchestra First issue ever with new exclusive photos and in depth liner 8-page insert.

“Ethiopian jazzmen are the best musicians that we have seen so far in Africa.
They really are promising handlers of jazz instruments.”

Wilbur De Paris
(1959, after a concert in Addis Ababa)

አዲስ፡ዘመን። *Addis zèmèn* **A new era.**
The time is the mid-1950s and early 1960s, just before "Swinging Addis" bloomed – or rather boomed – onto the scene. Brass instruments are still dominant, but the advent of the electric guitar, and the very first electronic organs, are just around the corner. Rock’n'Roll, R’n’B, Soul and the Twist have not yet barged their way in. Addis Ababa is steeped in the big band atmosphere of the post-war era, with Glenn Miller's *In the* *Mood* as its world-wide theme song, neck and neck with the Latin craze that was in vogue at the same period. Life has become enjoyable once again, with the return of peace after the terrible Italian Fascist invasion of Ethiopia (1935-1941). The redeployment of modern music is part and parcel of the postwar reconstruction. *Addis zèmèn* – a new era – is the watchword of the postwar period, just as it was all across war-torn Europe.
The generation who were the young parents of baby boomers** were the first to enjoy this musical renaissance, before the baby boomers themselves took over and forever super-charged the soundtrack of the final days of imperial reign. Music is Ethiopia's most popular art form, and very often serves as the best barometer for the upsurge of energy that is critical for reconstruction. Whether it be jazz in Saint-Germain-des-Prés or the *zazous* who revolutionised both jazz and French *chanson* after the *Libération*, be it Madrid's post-Franco Movida, or Dada, the Surrealists and *les années folles* that followed World War I, the periods just after mourning and hardship always give rise to brighter and more tuneful tomorrows. Addis Ababa, as the country's capital, and the epicentre of change, was no exception to this vital rule.

**Two generations of Nalbandian musicians**
Nersès Nalbandian belonged to a family of Armenian exiles, who had moved to Ethiopia in the mid-1920s. The uncle Kevork arrived along with the fabled "*Arba Lidjotch*", the** "*40 Kids*", young Armenian orphans and musicians that the Ras Tafari had recruited when he visited Jerusalem in 1924, intending to turn their brass band into the official imperial band. If Kevork Nalbandian was the one who first opened the way of modernism, pushing innovation so far as to invent musical theatre, it was his nephew Nersès who would go on to become, from the 1940s and until his death in 1977, a pivotal figure of modern Ethiopian music and of the heights it. Going all the way back to the 1950s. Nothing less. And it is Nersès who is largely to thank for the brassy colours that so greatly contributed to the international renown of Ethiopian groove. While the younger generations today venture timidly into the genealogy of their country's modern music, often losing their way amidst a distinctly xenophobic historiographical complacency, many survivors of the imperial period are still around to bear witness and pay tribute to the essential role that "Moussié Nersès" played in the rise of Abyssinia's musical modernity.
Given the year of his birth (15 March 1915), no one knows for sure if Nersès Nalbandian was born in Aintab, today Gaziantep (Turkiye/former Ottoman Empire) or on the other side of the border in Alep, Syria... What is certain is that his family, like the entire Armenian community, was amongst the victims of the genocide perpetrated by the Turks. Alep, the place of safety – today in ruins.
Before Nersès then, there was uncle Kevork (1887-1963). For a quarter of a century, he was a whirlwind of activity in music teaching and theatrical innovation. *Guèbrè Mariam le Gondaré* (የጎንደሬ ገብረ ማርያም አጥቶ ማግኘት, 1926 EC=1934) is his most famous creation. This play included "ten Ethiopian songs" — a totally innovative approach. According to his autobiographical notes, preserved by the Nalbandian family, Kevork indicates that he composed some 50 such pieces over the course of his career. This shows just how much he understood, very early on, the critical importance of song as Ethiopia's crowning artistic form. Indeed, for Ethiopian listeners, the most important thing is the lyrics, with all their multifarious mischief, far more than a strong melody, sophisticated arrangements or even an exceptional voice. (This is also why Ethiopians by and large, and beginning with the artists and producers themselves, believed for a long time — and wrongly — that their music could not possibly be exported, and could never win over audiences abroad, who did not speak the country's languages).

Last but not least, one of Kevork's major contributions remains composing Ethiopia's first national anthem – with lyrics by Yoftahé Negussié.
Nersès Nalbandian moved to Ethiopia at the end of the 1930s, at the behest of his ground-breaking uncle. Proficient in many instruments (pretty much everything but the drums), conductor, choir director, composer, arranger, adapter, creator, piano tuner, purveyor of rented pianos,... he was above all an energetic and influential teacher. From 1946 onwards, thanks to Kevork's connexion, Nersès was appointed musical director of the Addis Ababa Municipality Band. In just a few years, Nersès transformed it into the first truly modern ensemble, thanks to the quality of his teaching, his choice of repertoire, and the sophistication of his arrangements. It was this group that would go on to become the orchestra of the Haile Selassie Theatre shortly after its inauguration in 1955, which was a major celebration of the Emperor's jubilee, marking the 25th anniversary of his on-again-off-again reign.

At some point or other in his long career, Nersès Nalbandian had a hand in the creation of just about every institutional band (Municipality Band, Police Orchestra, Imperial Bodyguard Band, Army Band, Yared Music School…), but it was with the Haile Selassie Theatre – today the National Theatre – that his abilities were most on display, up until his death in 1977. To this must be added the development of choral singing in Ethiopia, hitherto unknown, and a sort of secret garden dedicated to the memory of Armenian sacred music, and brought together in two thick, unpublished volumes. Shortly before his death (November 13, 1977), he was appointed to lead the impressive Ethiopian delegation at Festac in Lagos, Nigeria (January-February 1977).

His status as a stateless foreigner regularly excluded him from the most senior positions, in spite of the respect he commanded (and commands to this day) from the musicians of his era. Naturally gifted and largely self-taught, Nerses was tirelessly curious about new musical developments, drawing inspiration from the very first imported records, and especially from listening intensely to the musical programmes broadcast over short-wave radio – BBC *First*. A prolific composer and arranger, he was constantly mindful of formalising and integrating Ethiopian parameters (specific “musical modes”, pentatonic scale, and the dominance of ternary rhythms) into his “modernisation” of the musical culture, rather than trying to over-westernise it. It even seems very probable that *Moussié* Nerses made a decisive contribution to the development of tighter music-teaching methods, in order to revitalise musical education during this period of prodigious cultural ferment. Flying in the face of all the historiographical and musicological evidence, it is taken as sacrosanct dogma that the four musical modes or chords officially recognised today, the *qǝñǝt* or *qiñit* (ቅኝት), are every bit as millennial as Ethiopia itself. It would appear however that some streamlining of these chords actually took place in around 1960. It was only from this time onward that music teaching was structured around these four fundamental musical modes and chords: *Ambassel*, *Bati*, *Tezeta* and *Antchi Hoyé*. A historical and musical “details” that is, apparently, difficult to swallow, especially if that should honour a *foreigner*. Modern Ethiopian music has Nersès to thank for many of its standards and, to this day, it is not unusual for the National Radio to broadcast thunderous oldies that bear unmistakable traces of his outrageously groovy touch.

The Tuff Fluff EP from Joe Koshin channels the spirit of classic Tech House while pushing it somewhere new. Bouncy and full of groove, each track brims with fresh ideas and details that give the EP its own unique character. Born from a shared musical connection between Joe and label
head A for Alpha, Tuff Fluff began taking shape a few years back. After patiently waiting, the record now arrives feeling more relevant than ever - vibrant, groovy, and timeless all at once.
Marking the first release on Alpha’s Trip in two years, Tuff Fluff also celebrates the label’s relaunch, complete with a fresh new look crafted by the legendary Pointless Illustrations. It’s the start of an exciting new chapter for the imprint, setting the tone for what’s to come. Rounding out
the release is A for Alpha’s remix, a darker, moodier take built around the unmistakable sound of the Roland SH-101 bassline, whilst lifted with floaty, luscious pads - the perfect counterpoint to Joe’s bright and bouncy originals.

2026 Repress
Temudo - Meteora (FUSE06) by Noah Hocker

A leader of the Portuguese wave in techno co-founding Hayes Collective while boasting acclaimed releases on Klockworks, Blueprint, and Soma, Temudo grabs the reins to take club music back to its days of audacity and risk taking. A more than promising up-and-comer turned modern reference, Temudo defends his reputation with a release showcasing depth in his various sonic universes and a deep understanding of his music's history. For its seventh release, Temudo's 'Meteora' is a logical next step for the club's direction - a sweet spot between dancefloor efficiency and enduring aesthetic.

Combining the intrigue of mental soundscapes with the reliability of imposing rhythm, 'Meteora' finds itself collected, expressing effect through restraint. The title track, claiming the EP's A1, is just that - a force of interweaving sound design and powerful micro transitions. Some believe the best techno records are able to express emotion and attitude despite its dissonant and machinelike nature; if that's the case then Temudo has mastered the craft. 'When I Grow Up', however, puts the focus back on the body. What sounds like warbling tape modulation over a percussive lead makes this record an addictively delirious ride from start to finish, fitting in with the track before while shifting to different priorities. Proving his versatility, 'Vrthng' at first seems reminiscent of the minimal Berlin style with a higher pace, but quickly progresses into something intensely euphoric. With experience and measure, an out of the box approach can really pay off, and the added emotion in 'Vrthng' is certainly a turning point in the EP. This mindset is clearly carried over in the project's conclusion : 'It's Always Past'. A surprising use of harmony and storytelling, this final chapter ends with Temudo sealing his style with confidence. The track is mystified by its chords, ending 'Meteora' with a question mark that leaves us in anticipation for what Temudo dares to do next.

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

With Samplers 9 & 10, they surprise again with a mix of modern classics and tracks that have never been released on vinyl or are difficult to find. By adding unique and exclusive tracks, the 12 Inch Lovers samplers remain innovative and high-quality. They are a must-have for DJs, collectors, and fans of contemporary classics!

SAMPLER 10

A1) GusGus - Crossfade (Maceo Plex Remix) (Original Release 2014)

Released in 2014 on the German label KOMPAKT, this remix by Maceo Plex features Ten Walls-like horns, vocals, and pumping drums, making it a true Ibiza floorkiller. The vocals are by Konstantin Sibold. This remix was only released as a white label (Kompakt Exclusive) and has yet to have an official vinyl release. Despite this, it remains a favorite among DJs and clubbers worldwide, regularly played at festivals and clubs.

A2) Plaything - Into Space (Original Release 2001)

This groovy track, released in 2001, contains a sample from Sheila & B. Devotion's Spacer, with Nile Rodgers as one of the producers. The original trackSpacer is an iconic disco hit from the 1970s, and Plaything put a contemporary spin on this classic. The track was a hit in Belgian clubs in the early 2000s, often played by prominent DJs. It has since been released on various labels and remains a timeless favorite in the electronic music scene.

B1) Ion - W.B. (Original Release 2002)

This trance classic by DJ Ion was first released in 2002 on the Belgian label B². The track quickly became a beloved classic within the trance community. Danny Casseau, the producer behind this track, is also known for other legendary works, including the trance classic Ion 98 - Tructure, which had a significant impact on the trance scene. W.B. is a pure, old-school trance track, crafted in the way only tracks from that era were!

This vinyl is extremely rare and hard to find, making it a sought-after item for collectors and trance lovers. It is still played in the sets of DJs who cherish the older trance sound, and it fits perfectly in contemporary sets as well!

B2) Subaltern - Forever (Ledge Forever Remix) (Original Release 2007)

This club banger was released in 2007 on the French label Voices Records and was a popular track in well-known Belgian clubs like Illusion and La Rocca. The Ledge Remix added an energetic, infectious vibe that made it a true hit on the dancefloor. It received an official vinyl release in 2007, but it is now difficult to obtain. Subaltern's Forever remains an unforgettable club classic still appreciated by electronic music lovers.

C1) Lykke Li - No Rest For The Wicked (Joris Voorn Remix) (Original Release 2014)

Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li scored a worldwide hit with I Follow Rivers, but also had great success with the powerful track No Rest For The Wicked. The Dutch producer Joris Voorn gave his own tech-house spin to the track in his known style!

Voorn's remix keeps the atmospheric mood of the original but adds a new, dancefloor-friendly dynamic that makes it suitable for the electronic music world.

This is the first time this remix is being released on vinyl since the original release in 2014, making it a rare and desirable item for both collectors and DJs. Thanks to the powerful mix of melody and rhythm, this remix of No Rest For The Wicked remains a timeless favorite that has found its place both in clubs and in vinyl collections of music enthusiasts and DJs.

C2) The Roc Project feat. Tina Arena - Never (Filterheadz Luv Tina Remix) (Original Release 2002)

This Spanish dance track hit Europe in 2003, thanks in part to the legendary remix by the Belgian techno duo Filterheadz. Brothers Bert and Maarten Wilmaers, known for their distinctive techno sound, gave the track their own twist with strong beats and an uplifting bassline, creating a timeless club hit that was heard everywhere in the early 2000s.

The vocals by Tina Arena add an emotional layer, while the Filterheadz Luv Tina Remix has stood the test of time and still gets everyone moving. At 12 Inch Lovers parties, this track never goes unnoticed and often brings the night to a high point. This track is a must-have for both collectors and DJs who love a mix of emotion, energy, and a solid techno sound.

D1) Soul Syndicate - Inside Of Me (Steel Union Remix) (Original Release 1995)

Speaking of a trance classic, this one is a true gem! Inside Of Me was released in 1995 during the golden years of Belgian trance music on the legendary Belgian label Aquatic Records. The Steel Union Remix by Zzino is an absolute favorite among trance lovers.

With its iconic sound and unmatched energy, this track is a true ode to the Belgian trance scene. It remains an unadulterated classic that still makes an irresistible impact, not only at retro trance events but also in the sets of contemporary DJs. Since its release, this remix has been hard to find, making it an even rarer piece of trance history. A track that has stood the test of time and is a must-have for collectors and fans of old-school trance.

D2) Ken Laszlo vs. Disco Dice - Hey Hey Guy (House Dub) (Original Release 2003)

Ken Laszlo, the Italian singer who became globally famous in the 1980s with the iconic Italo-disco hit Hey Hey Guy, received a re-release in 2003 on the house label Dubmental. This version was reimagined by Disco Dice, who gave the track a fresh house vibe with a more modern sound. Belgian DJ Jean, known for his influence on the Belgian nightlife scene, introduced this track into the clubs and transformed it into a club classic.

This release, although released in 2003, is now very rare and hard to find on vinyl. It's a hidden gem that continues to withstand the test of time, making it a valuable collector's item for lovers of both Italo-disco and house.

D3) Icehouse - Hey Little Girl (Infusion Remix) (Original Release 2002)

The Australian band Icehouse released the iconic track Hey Little Girl in 1982 on the British label Chrysalis. This synth-pop track was a big hit and still remains one of the classics from the 1980s. The original track was later included in the remix album Meltdown in 2003, where the Australian duo Infusion created a contemporary electronic remix that gave the track a new dimension.

The Infusion Remix adds a modern, danceable twist to the original synth-pop sound. This version surprised both fans of the original hit and lovers of electronic music, remaining a sought-after track in DJ sets.

This track has been unavailable on vinyl since its original release in 2003, making it a rare collector's item.

Finally out is this eagerly-awaited release of SUNANDBASS Recordings, Hits Me In Waves EP by Mark System. Friends and close members of the SAB family know it's been brewing for the last decade, appearing in bits in aftermovies and we are beyond excited to now share it with the world.

'Hits Me In Waves' unveils three currents at once, the surging pull of inspiration, the sweep of new love, and the beautiful embrace of La Cinta's waters, all washing over in unison. Thus, each track of the EP explores a wide range of emotions and moods, expressed in multiple styles within drum & bass; the lead single 'On An Island', sets the tone with unmatched sound design, rich musical elements, and raw, uncompromising production. Next comes 'Point Of Reference', built for the dancefloor and eternally young in its refined appeal. 'Celebration' follows, a powerful track that ties the listening journey together, pairing heavy low-end weight with slick musicality to keep it both melodic and full of energy. 'Where's The Dog' stands out for its playability and tough bass synthesis, making it the hardest-hitting cut on the record. Closing the EP is the beautiful and introspective 'Started At The End', a deep dive into Mark's musical mind, offering a classic, emotive finale.

Hits Me In Waves is more than just a collection of tracks, it's a reflection of Mark's long-standing relationship with SUNANDBASS and our shared vision for music that speaks to the soul and stands the test of time. Spanning from Ibiza, this release embodies the SAB spirit: pushing the boundaries of drum & bass while fostering connection through rhythm, movement, and community.

The first act signed to The Neptunes' newly formed Star Trak label was a Virginia based duo known as the Clipse. The first single “Grindin’” impacted the streets with its bare boned but infectious drum beat in the same way that “Sucker MC’s” did almost 20 years earlier. These brothers - Pusha T and Malice combined with The Neptunes groundbreaking production sent a clear message to the rap world – “we are not the same” (as rapped by Malice on his opening verse on “Cot’ Dam”). Clipse brings an authentic Virginia sound into the game and created a movement, with not only their darkly layered raps but The Neptunes as well. Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were able to combine their cyberpunk production with just the right group to create a street masterpiece. Following in the footsteps of such rap criminologists as Kool G Rap, Nas, Jay-Z, and Mobb Deep, the Clipse offer the Virginia hustler's viewpoint with clever, hard-hitting lyrics that is sprinkled throughout the entire album. With so many standout tracks on Lord Willin’ the album starts pulling no punches. On Track 1 simply (or maybe not) titled “Intro” you get a very personal and deep testament of crack and the drug game, a theme that is throughout this album…HEAVY. Songs like “Virginia” or “I’m Not You” (featuring Jadakiss, Styles P and Roscoe P Coldchain), have lyrics that play as a musical notes alongside The Neptunes tailored beats. “Young Boy”, “Comedy Central”… all fit perfectly alongside “When the Last Time” and “Cot Dam” as each song plays its part as chapters to the Lord Wilin’ masterpiece. “Gangsta Lean” (another one of the albums standout tracks) features a slightly lighter feel while paired with Pharrell's trademark falsetto hook. The truth of it is, it’s hard to just pick one track, or point out which is the albums star. Each song on Lord Willin’ is essential to making it the classic that it is. The Neptunes (who were busy turning out every other Pop hit on the radio) crafted an album that was deemed an instant classic, and cemented Clipse as Rap’s newest superstars.

MOb return this November with their second album on Veego Records, continuing the adventurous journey they began with their 2023 debut MOb 1. Hailed by the press as one of the boldest and freshest statements in the Greek scene, their first record moved seamlessly between jazz, punk, and electronic forms, creating a sound often described as “an entire orchestra played by just three musicians.”

On their new release, Marios Valinakis (saxophone, effects, synthesizers), Alexandros Delis (bass, double bass), and Panagiotis Kostopoulos (drums) construct an even more intricate and ambitious sonic universe. The compositions range from the explosive energy of “Tipping Point” and the dark atmospheres of “Utu and Sin”, to the radical reimagining of Wayne Shorter’s “Fall” and the polyphonic outburst of “The Listener”, featuring the Kos Choir.

Guest appearances further expand the palette: Phillip “Felipe MC” Manev lends his voice to “Tipping Point” and “Encounters”, while Angelos Polychronou enriches “Encounters” and “The Listener” with his percussions.

The album was produced and recorded by MOb themselves, with Bruno Ellingham handling mixing and mastering for most tracks, while “Utu and Sin” was mixed by Malcolm Catto at the Quatermass Sound Lab. The cover artwork is designed by Apostolos Mitrelis, and the back cover features a photograph by Maciej Moskwa.

If MOb 1 revealed a band capable of fusing free improvisation with rhythm-driven “bangers” that reached audiences beyond Greece, the new album confirms their evolution: more intense, more diverse, and more imaginative. With one foot rooted in tradition and the other firmly in the present, MOb deliver a work that breaks boundaries and builds bridges across genres and audiences, solidifying their reputation as one of the most exciting groups in today’s Greek music scene.

MOb return this November with their second album on Veego Records, continuing the adventurous journey they began with their 2023 debut MOb 1. Hailed by the press as one of the boldest and freshest statements in the Greek scene, their first record moved seamlessly between jazz, punk, and electronic forms, creating a sound often described as “an entire orchestra played by just three musicians.”

On their new release, Marios Valinakis (saxophone, effects, synthesizers), Alexandros Delis (bass, double bass), and Panagiotis Kostopoulos (drums) construct an even more intricate and ambitious sonic universe. The compositions range from the explosive energy of “Tipping Point” and the dark atmospheres of “Utu and Sin”, to the radical reimagining of Wayne Shorter’s “Fall” and the polyphonic outburst of “The Listener”, featuring the Kos Choir.

Guest appearances further expand the palette: Phillip “Felipe MC” Manev lends his voice to “Tipping Point” and “Encounters”, while Angelos Polychronou enriches “Encounters” and “The Listener” with his percussions.

The album was produced and recorded by MOb themselves, with Bruno Ellingham handling mixing and mastering for most tracks, while “Utu and Sin” was mixed by Malcolm Catto at the Quatermass Sound Lab. The cover artwork is designed by Apostolos Mitrelis, and the back cover features a photograph by Maciej Moskwa.

If MOb 1 revealed a band capable of fusing free improvisation with rhythm-driven “bangers” that reached audiences beyond Greece, the new album confirms their evolution: more intense, more diverse, and more imaginative. With one foot rooted in tradition and the other firmly in the present, MOb deliver a work that breaks boundaries and builds bridges across genres and audiences, solidifying their reputation as one of the most exciting groups in today’s Greek music scene.

Continuing his refraction of the rave continuum into pointedly dislocated, delicately bruising sound system meditations, Low End Activist returns to Peak Oil with a second instalment in his Airdrop series. This time around, he channels the ghosts of foundational tech-step and the quantum leaps of late-90s D&B to provide the inspirational fuel for his skeletal, astral constructions. A strong stylistic thread continues to weave through the LEA output from his earlier self-released EPs and Sneaker Social Club albums, where haunted atmospherics, blown out subs and snatches of breaks dart around each other in empty dancehalls, but the finer point of the sound design and synthesis makes very specific references to landmark moments in hardcore's evolution.

By weaving his own autobiography into the music, the Activist maintains a fundamental theme of his work to date. 'Colin's Golf', 'Smithy's Porsche,' 'Merv's Lazy Eye' and 'Brillo's Teeth' are all personal codes harking back to the formative Oxford rave scene. With the framework in place, he uses textures, timbres and studio tricks from scene-leading pioneers and local heroes of the era as ingredients in thoroughly modernist concoctions. None of the reference points are deployed as literal callbacks — they're waymarkers for the creative process and faint triggers bedded deep into Airdrop II's strange formations. Fleeting sonics might trigger latent memories for those who were there. For everyone else, Airdrop II is another step further along rave's eternally unspooling odyssey, guided by decades of precedents on a path into the future.

First Contact features CROÍ, Lukey, KAIR, Sahm, and HVSN. Our first release is a compilation of tracks that we’ve been collecting and to seize all the styles and genres which we will deal with in the future.

‘First Contact’ is the first song of the VA, opening with an invitation with a combination of a nostalgic ambience followed by the drums that go along with the vocals pointing to the start for our journey. In Irish, the word "CROÍ" (pronounced KREE) means "heart". ‘Target Lock’ from Lukey, is a track that will definitely surprise you. This song is meant to push you back to the dance floor with a feeling which you don’t get very often from listening to these kinds of songs. Everything is cool with ‘Target Lock’, drums, nice trippy vibes, and how the bass fits there… You should be blown away by this song. In a real old school style! Lukey has previously caught the eye of industry labels like Hot Creations, also his release on Carpet & Snares Records, Into The Wizard's Sleeve, The Void Project was hammered by some of the great DJ’s in the world.

KAIR introduces himself to us in his own way with ‘Let's Get it!’ Because this bomb won’t fail to make you dance and feel good! It’s pure house and joyful music that makes you dance and get lost within the music. Also, ‘Let's Get it!’ is just a preview of the upcoming EP. ‘Rainbown’ is a track which shows us that Sahm knows how to come out with a brilliant house track. A groovy old school house with heavy percussion, comes from a young talented producer from Brazil! This will be the track that you’ll be playing years from now on. And ‘Bust This’, you will hear among the bass, the claps and drums, a high energy that will make you move your body. HVSN presents his vision of how to bring the right emotions of a dance floor full of energy and the connection between the bass, synth, drums and melody is back!

Enjoy, This Is Real Talks Records.

VA – First Contact RTR001 incl CROÍ, Lukey, KAIR, Sahm, HVSN

After years of shaping the UK underground from behind the scenes, Alex Nut steps out with his first official solo EP, serving up an intoxicating blend of Spiritual Jazz, Deep House, Dub, Hip Hop and analog electronics. The Present Under Construction EP is rooted in a deep musical language and future-facing energy, it captures a moment of creative transformation and exploration.
Built up over a few years from rough sketches made on an old MPC2000XL, the tracks were revisited, reshaped and eventually brought to life in the studio with longtime friend and collaborator Sam Crowe (Cleo Sol, Lianne La Havas). Together, they added a range of analogue sounds using the Dave Smith Prophet Rev 2, a Fender Rhodes, and a Moog Sub 37. Those recordings were then chopped, resampled, and restructured into the versions you hear on the record today. The records lead track 'andthenitstarted' features saxophonist James Mollison (Ezra Collective, Nala Sinephro) and includes remixes from Detroit House legend Patrice Scott and fellow Eglo Records alumni Last Nubian.

Best known as a DJ, broadcaster, curator and co-founder of Eglo Records, Alex has spent over a decade championing soulful underground music, through fabled Radio shows to legendary club nights, his fingerprints are all over a scene that continues to evolve. Initially making noise alongside the likes of Floating Points, Steven Julien, and Fatima, Alex Nut has long been a cornerstone of the UK's soulful underground. His work continues to champion the evolution of Jazz, Soul, House, and Broken Beat — nurturing a generation of artists now reshaping the global soundscape.

2026 Repress

Atmospheric Vol 2 is the second single to be taken from Deepchord's latest full length but sees him stray from the album tracks, bringing 3 exclusive pieces to the vinyl, keeping in the same musical vein as Ultraviolet Music.

Exploring the North & Pinewood Lodge see Rod Modell on more Deep Techno excursions as beautifully sweeping pads and glistening synths drift by ever evolving, perfectly processed atmospheres. Deepchord's unique use of subtle field recordings throughout give both of these tracks a real heady/druggy quality and his seamless loops allow you to drift of into his fully developed dream world. Shot Point delves into straight up ambient territory with Deepchord striking an unearthly balance between the natural and synthetic world. Yet more flawlessly collected field recordings wash away on an ocean of reverb soaked pads, drowning the listener within its mesmerising tides.

Dana Ruh offers up part 2 of her ‘This Journey So Far’ project via Yecad here.

As a long standing and widely respected figure in the world of underground house and techno through her releases on the likes of Slices Of Life, Ostgut Ton, Cocoon, Cave and of course her own Brouqade, Dana Ruh’s reputation stands tall as one of the finest purveyors of this sound. Amongst her releases, Dana maintains a heavy tour schedule taking her across the globe each year to many hotspots in key cities, here she marks another milestone in her career with a double 12’’ release, entitled ‘This Journey So Far’, as a musical reflection on all that’s led to this point.

Following the success of Part one, the second instalment now follows - kicking off the release is ‘MF Now’, stripping things back to a shuffled, bumpy rhythm section, resonant synth chimes and billowing textures. ‘Grey With Some Light’ then leans into a more experimental glitch realm via twitchy oscillating percussion, unfurling atmospherics and drifting keys. ‘The Look’ leans back into House territory with raw stabs, sax lines, metallic chimes and vacillating low-end tones before ‘Song For The Lonely’ concludes the project, encapsulating the essence of deep house with ethereal pad swells, circling stab sequences, low-slung drums and cossetting subs.

Vibe Ride is the sixth release of Adam Rudolph's Hu Vibrational project and marks his 60th release as a leader or co-leader. Comes with insert and download code.

“With every record, the goal is to explore new creative territory,” explains Rudolph. Vibe Ride continues a deeper exploration of a trance-like groove and a conceptual framework known as Sonic Mandala. This album marks the most complete realization of that idea, partly due to the group's experience touring beforehand. That time on the road helped to refine ideas and strengthen musical chemistry. The recording process unfolded organically—likely due to the long-standing collaboration within ensembles like Go: Organic Orchestra and Moving Pictures, where the musicians have developed a deep familiarity with the shared musical language.

Sonic Mandala refers to a musical approach distinct from traditional linear structures of theme and development. Found in cultures across the globe, it may represent one of the oldest forms of musical expression—predating written history by tens of thousands of years. Today, it is most vividly preserved in the music of the Ituri Forest peoples (Aka, Baka, Ba Benzele, Mbuti), whose sound traditions revolve in cyclical, orbit-like patterns. Vibe Ride seeks to bring that ancient sense of circularity into a contemporary—and perhaps even futuristic—context.

The ensemble of Vibe Ride—Alexis Marcelo, Jerome Harris, Harris Eisenstadt, Neel Murgai, Tim Kieper, and Tripp Dudley—brings exceptional creativity and skill to the project. While grounded in the sonic languages of today, their performance channels an ancient vibrational lineage, connecting with ancestral sound makers who were attuned to the rhythms of the sun, moon, stars, and seasons. Human beings have always been deeply responsive to natural cycles.

Like a mandala, where the circle reveals itself as a spiral—always returning, but never to the exact same point—the Sonic Mandala musical experience spirals through motion. Refined signal patterns emerge through overtone-rich instrumentation. The groove becomes a threshold, shifting the listener from passive observation into active, even transcendent, participation. With open ears and an open mind, the sound spirals inward—toward a primal center—and outward into the cosmos. When this elevated state is shared among participants, it creates what mystics describe as resonance.

Vibe Ride thrives on the distinctive sonic voices of its players, interwoven with care and nuance into the compositions. Hu Vibrational merges elements of world music, electronica, and improvised jazz into something both funky and spiritual, intense and soothing.

Using signature techniques of organic orchestration, layered arrangement, and electronic processing, the compositions are sculpted from percussion, electronics, and ethereal textures. Rhythmic foundations drawn from diverse traditions serve not as endpoints, but as building blocks. As the saying goes, “Orchestration is the key.” In shaping the sound, the aim was to discover fresh ways of balancing structure and sonic color. As Don Cherry once said: “The swing is in the sound.”

The audiophile LP was carefully recorded, mixed, and mastered by James Dellatacoma—longtime engineer for both Bill Laswell and Rudolph—at Laswell’s Orange Studio.

“This crew artfully blends together to create a seamless tapestry of rhythm… the end results are mesmerizing. Hu Vibrational is all about communing with the groove spirits and creating worlds where earthy rhythms and other-worldly sounds are one.”
— Dan Bilawsky, All Music Guide

“You can be sure that when Adam Rudolph and an ensemble of breathtaking drummers get together mystical and wonderful things will happen.”
— Raul da Gama,

“A stunning effort, enjoyable and grows with repeated listening.”
— Stefan Wood, Freejazzcollective

Makyo taps into his love of roots reggae for this deep, dark and dreamy cover of Things Ah Get Tough by the legendary Bristol band Talisman. The Tokyo-based producer transforms the original, while keeping true to the essence of the original, whose lyrics meditate on the greed and destruction caused when corporations benefit from a nation’s downfall.

Makyo has charted his own course through the world of dub, often with an eastern or tribal twist, since the early 90s, working with collaborators like Bill Laswell, Natacha Atlas and Muslimgauze, but with this release, he’s entering a new phase.

“I’ve listened to this song for years,“ notes Makyo, “and it just felt more relevant than ever when I started working on it in 2024, with all the wars, election madness, wildfires, inflation and nuclear posturing. The mood just seemed to reflect where people were at.”

Having overcome crippling tinnitus and hyperacusis (to the point that he couldn’t even listen to music for several years), Makyo’s finding joy in the past whilst looking to the future, with this sparse and bittersweet version of Talisman’s tune the first in a series of contemporary covers he has planned.

The Vibracid operation has cracked the code. With control systems collapsing, the third transmission pierces the very fabric of reality, unleashing patterns that overflow any known algorithm.

From Earth to the far reaches of the interplanetary galactic network, six architects of sound unite to chart routes beyond logic: corrosive FM sequences, blasts of mutant acid, haunting vocoders, and electromagnetic pulses engineered to infiltrate both bodies and machines.

Each track is a node in the insurgent network, an access point to the domain where matter, music, and mind can no longer be separated.

Careful sound and mastering, and exceptional design for a limited edition of 150 copies solid orange vinyl.

Promises is an extraordinary, collaborative album by the electronic giant Floating Points and saxophone titan Pharoah Sanders. The album features the London Symphony Orchestra and cover art by the acclaimed American artist, Julie Mehretu. Five years in the making, it will be released on Luaka Bop, March 26, 2021. The album is composed and engineered by Sam Shepherd aka Floating Points, who's second album Crush earned Best New Music from Pitchfork and a major feature in the New York Times, and placed him on several 2019 critics lists. His debut album Elaenia, released by Luaka Bop, was another Best New Music pick and hailed as one of the best debuts of the decade. It is also the release that made Pharoah Sanders want to work with him in the first place. A restless, ever- evolving producer and composer, Shepherd has toured with the xx, and also holds a doctorate in neuroscience. For Pharoah Sanders, who recently turned 80, this is a rare outing and his first album in fifteen years. One of the last icons of his generation, Pharoah performed with John Coltrane on his late-career free jazz masterpieces, and released a string of expansive recordings under his own name for the Impulse! label which have been cited as a pivotal influence by everyone from The Stooges to Marvin Gaye. Most recently, he was featured in a 2020 Supreme campaign. The music unfurls, patiently, over nine movements, and 46 ever-undulating minutes. It's a work of pure feeling, like no other record you'll hear this or any other year.

The electronic producer Franz Kirmann returns to Bytes for his eighth solo album. The “Almadies” are long wooden boats used by Senegalese fishermen. It is also the name of the neighborhood where Kirmann grew up, in the suburbs of Dakar, Senegal, near the Atlantic Ocean. "These new compositions are the result of sound experiments conducted over the past few months and reflections on the concept of mind-constructed geographies," Kirmann explains. "The way memories and souvenirs shape an image of a place or country that is part reality, part fantasy, part cliché, yet also deeply personal. This experience is influenced by education, social background, history, and other socio-economic factors. " The ten tracks are crafted from collages of electronic sounds blended with field recordings from various places Kirmann has visited — from Dakar to the Caribbean, as well as London and Paris. His aim is to blur the line between electronically generated sounds and real soundscapes, creating music where it becomes difficult to distinguish the real from the constructed. All the sounds on the album were produced using synthesizers and field recordings. No drum machines, percussion or traditional acoustic instruments were used. Influences include Brian Eno and John Hassell’s Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics (1980), described by Hassell as "a unified primitive/futuristic sound combining features of world ethnic styles with advanced electronic techniques" , which also works in the context of Almadies. Another big influence was Ariel Kalma’s Le Temps Des Moissons (1975) as well as artists including O Yuki Conjugate and Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe to Susumu Yokota and Michael Banabila.

Danny Krivit pairs a powerful reworking of a rare groove classic with a NYC boogie classic on this highly useful single from the ever-reliable Most Excellent Unlimited. Billy Paul’s ‘East’ was the opening track on the very first Philadelphia International Records LP release from Gamble and Huff’s legendary label. Written by bassist Tyrone Brown, it naturally has a monster bass groove that Mr. K makes the centerpiece of his DJ-friendly rework, which tightens the tempo while retaining the spiritual vibe of the original. Final Edition move us to the dancefloors of early 80s NYC with their ‘Can’t Keep Running Away’, a musical halfway point between the disco funk of the 70s and the boogie sound to come. Krivit’s edit pares the song down to its propulsive highlights, with the catchy chorus taking centre stage. As always, these handpicked classics from the crates of the renowned Mr. Krivit are mastered and pressed to the highest standards with the dancefloor in mind!

Sex Tapes From Mars presents Outdom Records' boss, LATENT, who shares a brand-new four-track EP that spars with breakbeat, electro, house, and left-field electronics, neatly centring them all into a steady, sexy collision. The record as a whole captures genuinely original-sounding, rough-edged b-boy breaking badness - nostalgic, but never polite. It's a few BPMs slower than Sex Tapes' last few outings, but no less effective. Arguably, it's more late '80s sounding than ever, although, in fact, it's a brand-new, stonking release that showcases the label's versatility and unpredictability.

The opening track, "Break Machine", sets the pace with a clear nod to the '80s US group of the same name, bringing tidy drum workouts and clipped vocal samples that recall early Chicago, as well as choppy rave and street party energy at its most unfiltered.

"Disco Hijack" pushes the clutch into a more functional gear, merging delay-heavy, druggy, chuggy, sludgy bass with more robotic vocoder tropes, sharing something playful but IDM and European skewed. It's a dancefloor tool with a wink - just the style this now accomplished label has made its identity. Oh, don't forget the amens and clattering jungle breaks. 1990 or 2040? Fuck knows.

On "Distress Robot", pneumatic percussion and malfunctioning android chatter bring a darker, more mechanical edge, while "Virtual Body" closes with a spacious, garage-leaning shuffle that pulls the EP into recognisable contemporary yet still very much peak-time territory.

LATENT gives lean grit, pushes the edges, and lets the tracks feel alive in their imperfections. It’s music that thrives on tension between old-school reference points and modern floor pressure.

Bristol's label head Elon Dust HAS done it again.

Vinyl-only as per, don't sleep."

The third installment in Lance Ferguson's acclaimed Rare Groove Spectrum series builds on the success of Vol. 1 & 2, offering a fresh set of reimagined classics. From '70s Australian jazz-funk and Latin-fusion to big band soul and golden-era funk, Ferguson blends crate-digger sensibilities with modern studio craft.

Standout cuts include bold reworks of Idris Muhammad, Billie Eilish, Jungle, Billy Brooks and more, with the focus track "Losalamitoslatinfunklovesong" delivering a Gene Harris reinterpretation infused with Bossa Nova and Brasil '66 flair. Showcasing Ferguson's mastery as a multi-instrumentalist and arranger, the album brims with rich, cinematic productions throughout.

Selling Points

Known for projects The Bamboos, Menagerie, Lanu — widely regarded as one of Australia's most versatile producers.
Previously released 45 full-length albums and 100+ singles/remixes across labels including Atlantic, Universal, Sony, BMG, Tru Thoughts, and Ubiquity.
7× ARIA Award & 5× APRA Music Award nominations.
Co-writer/producer of the global hit "This Girl" by Kungs vs Cookin' On 3 Burners
#1 in 10+ countries
1.27 billion Spotify streams & 545M YouTube views
Multi-Platinum & Diamond certifications worldwide.
Collaborations with Aloe Blacc, Roy Ayers, Alice Russell, Durand Jones, Quantic, Joey Dosik and more.
Music featured in 200+ compilations and major syncs, including CSI NYC, Grey's Anatomy, Homeland, Suits, and House of Cards.

Musiq Voyage sets sail with its debut release by TORRE Bros, a producer duo from Aix-en-Provence. A heartfelt tribute to Marseille and the Mediterranean through two shimmering Space Disco cuts: Gyptis and La Pointe Rouge.
Remixed by the legendary Moplen, Alex From Tokyo, and Julien HBT, this EP blends house, boogie, and balearic vibes into a warm and elegant sonic journey.
//
After cruising their native Provence and spinning on the mythical shores of Ibiza with their iconic pink-and-blue DJ truck, the Musiq Voyage crew is proud to launch their new label with a sun-soaked debut EP.
Rooted in Mediterranean soul, Phocaea Vol. 1 features longtime friends and local legends TORRE Bros (Jean-Marc & Patrick Torre), producers from Aix-en-Provence with over two decades of musical exploration—from disco and house to hybrid electronic jams. Known for underground hits like Corps à Corps and Baleora, supported by artists such as Carl Craig, the duo now pays tribute to Marseille, their beloved coastal city.

A1 – Gyptis
Named after the legendary princess said to have founded Marseille, Gyptis is a lush space-disco homage to the city’s ancient roots—where Greek sailors met local tribes, and myth met the Mediterranean.
A2 – Gyptis (Moplen Remix)
Italian disco don Moplen (Chaka Khan, Talking Heads, Loose Change) delivers a floor-ready rework—elevating the groove with cosmic flair while keeping the original’s dreamy vibe.
B1 – La Pointe Rouge
A sonic postcard of one of Marseille’s most iconic seaside spots—sunsets, sailing, and slow walks by the sea. Built on a strong boogie beat, 80s synths, and balearic textures.
B2 – La Pointe Rouge (Alex From Tokyo & Julien HBT Remix)
Legendary DJ/producer Alex From Tokyo (Tokyo Black Star, Innervisions) teams up with Parisian underground figure Julien HBT (Demented, with François X) for a deep, syncopated reimagining. Infused with Chicago house and leftfield boogie influences, this remix flips the original into a spaced-out late-night groover.
More than just a legendary DJ, Alex From Tokyo has built a global career bridging cultures and sounds. After growing up in Japan, he returned to Paris in the early ’90s and co-founded A Deep Groove with DJ Deep and DJ Gregory, launching one of France’s first underground dance radio shows on FG 98.2 FM.
A key link between Europe and Japan, Alex worked with labels like F Com, Mr Bongo, and Yellow Productions, before living in NYC, Berlin, and beyond.

Rights: World excluding FR & UK

Packaging: 2 x Gold-On-Clear Splatter Vinyl, 5mm spine sleeve, 2 x printer inner sleeve, marketing sticker

SHORT BIOG & KEY POINTS
" Goldie's 1995 debut Timeless is often described as one of the greatest dance music albums of all time. As one of the founders of Metalheadz, one of the most influential drum and bass labels, Goldie helped shape the sound of a generation, and a genre that has spanned over 3 decades.
" "Listening to Timeless is like taking an adventure. If the limits of music are the limits of society, then Timeless is going to create new worlds. It's a record that travels from darkness to light across electronic oceans, across streetsoul, ambience and jazz."

" London Records celebrate 30 years of Timeless with limited edition vinyl formats, re-imagining the original white sleeve and putting the album on double vinyl for the first time since '96, with new liner notes from Tim Carr. Remastered audio.

Rights: World excluding FR & UK

Packaging: 2 x Gold-On-Clear Splatter Vinyl, 5mm spine sleeve, 2 x printer inner sleeve, marketing sticker

SHORT BIOG & KEY POINTS
" Goldie's 1995 debut Timeless is often described as one of the greatest dance music albums of all time. As one of the founders of Metalheadz, one of the most influential drum and bass labels, Goldie helped shape the sound of a generation, and a genre that has spanned over 3 decades.
" "Listening to Timeless is like taking an adventure. If the limits of music are the limits of society, then Timeless is going to create new worlds. It's a record that travels from darkness to light across electronic oceans, across streetsoul, ambience and jazz."

" London Records celebrate 30 years of Timeless with limited edition vinyl formats, re-imagining the original white sleeve and putting the album on double vinyl for the first time since '96, with new liner notes from Tim Carr. Remastered audio.

Marcel Dettmann's 'My Own Shadow' is the latest chapter in the Berlin-based legend's illustrious career. The live project is, in his own words, "a space where all of my artistic expressions meet," blending techno with film, sketches and photography. The shows are less club sets and more immersive experiences, where the audience gets lost in a "full sensory narrative." "My solo work has always been open, evolving across records and remixes," Dettmann added.

My Own Shadow's first official release, Approaching, is a five-track EP landing on !K7 Records in November. Complemented by his own photography on the artwork, the music spans techno and ambient, fizzing with a madcap funk and energy quite unlike any of his previous productions.

VITAL SALES POINTS
Renowned Berghain resident and contemporary techno stalwart Marcel Dettmann introduces his brand new project and alias My Own Shadow - after his latest releases on Running Back and Dekmantel. EU, UK and US tour dates during the campaign.

Bringing together the elder statesman of the Zulu guitar Madala Kunene and internationally acclaimed Sibusile Xaba, kwaNTU pulls two generations of South African guitar mastery into a single point of focus. Under-represented on recordings outside of South Africa, Madala Kunene (b. 1951), the ‘King of the Zulu Guitar’, is revered as the greatest living master of the Zulu guitar tradition. Sibusile Xaba, whose collaboration with Mushroom Hour Half Hour reaches back to his first recording in 2017 (Open Letter To Adoniah/Unlearning), has garnered international acclaim for his unique voice and virtuoso guitar stylings, which bring together multiple South African guitar lineages in an original, spiritualised fusion. Collaborating with Mushroom Hour and New Soil for kwaNTU, the two players come together to weave a filigree sonic fabric which reaches down to the heartwood of Zulu guitar music but moves resolutely outward, building on the past to create a deeply rooted statement about present conditions and future travels. kwaNTU – which can be roughly translated ‘the place of the life-spirit’ – is also conclave of teacher and student, as Xaba has been taught by Kunene for the last decade. Meditative, rich and sonically sui generis, kwaNTU finds these two musicians linking up within the inimitable space of sound and spirit that they share through Kunene’s teaching.

The great masters of South African music have not all had equal exposure. For many years the generation of musicians who were exiled during apartheid took centre stage, as the regime made it very difficult for those at home to be heard. More recently, a new cohort of important voices, especially in jazz, has broken through to international consciousness. But for the generation of musicians in between – those who shone like beacons in the most difficult final years of apartheid and immediately afterward – international recognition has been slow in coming.

Madala Kunene, ‘the King of the Zulu Guitar’, is among this number. A revered figure for current generations of South African musicians, Kunene began his recording career in 1990, at the bitter end of apartheid, with a now classic self-titled LP for David Marks’ storied Third Ear imprint. Born in 1951 in Cato Manor, near Durban, he had determined to be a musician from early childhood, and by the time he first entered a recording studio he had already had a long career as a popular performer. His virtuoso absorption and transformation of the venerable Zulu maskanda guitar tradition and his richly spiritualised approach to music immediately marked him out as someone special, and in the years that followed, Kunene cemented his position as one of South Africa’s musical elders. He is without doubt the grand master of the Zulu guitar tradition, but his sound and sensibility ranges far beyond it into varied sonic terrain, and he has collaborated with a wide range of musicians both at home and abroad. Now in his mid-seventies, he remains a shining light for those that are making music in contemporary South Africa.

‘He is really an amazing person,’ says the guitarist Sibusile Xaba, who has been mentored by Kunene for over a decade, and now invites a collaboration with him on kwaNTU. ‘As a mentor, he's really powerful in showing us the way. For us to have this opportunity to make music together and have a project together is really a blessing to me.’

Xaba himself grew up in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal, where his mother had been in a band and his father sang in a church choir, and from early childhood Xaba played homemade tin guitars. He only later realised that music was his calling. ‘I just loved music. I was fortunate. My parents loved music. And when it was time for me to leave home and go to study outside Newcastle, I knew that music was what I wanted to do. There was no second option. It was just music.’ Moving to Pretoria to study music formally, Xaba committed himself to his craft, developing a unique style that draws on both US jazz masters such as Wes Montgomery and Jim Hall, and the rich and varied heritage of the South African guitar, from inspirational jazz players such as Allen Kwela and Enoch Mthalane, to the music of the Malombo groups and Dr. Philip Tabane (Xaba has previously collaborated with Dr. Tabane’s late son, Thabang), and the Zulu guitar tradition embodied by Kunene.

‘I was really in love with the jazz guitar, I really admired it, and I was digging a lot in that direction,’ says Xaba, recalling his first encounter with Kunene’s music, over a decade ago. ‘And then one day on my timeline, Kunene popped up, and I was like – “What's this sound?” I was so connected to it. It really touched me deep. I started checking out his records, and then I found out he's from the same region as I am, which is Zululand.’ After Kunene played a show at the Afrikan Freedom Station in Johannesburg, Xaba make contact with him, and visited him at home in Durban. They struck up a friendship, and Xaba became the elder’s student, as Kunene began to pass on his knowledge and his inimitable way of playing.

kwaNTU is a tribute to this relationship and the deep learning that has defined it. The album was recorded in Zululand in the town of Utrecht, at a cultural centre called Kwantu Village, which gives its name to the album. ‘It's such a broad word,’ Xaba says, ‘but the elders teach us that Ntu is basically an energy, almost chi, an energy, a force that all living beings have within them. It's a living energy, so kwaNTU is like, almost the place of this energy.’ The two men sequestered themselves for five days of jamming, improvising and planning, and then the session was recorded in one take over a single night, with Gontse Makhene joining on percussion and backing vocals and Fakazile on vocals. Other voices and overdubs were later added in the studio in Johannesburg.

The result is a rich and meditative recording that finds two generations in a deeply engaged dialogue. Teaching and passing on his knowledge, the elder Kunene has brought Xaba into a space of sound and knowledge that they now share; Xaba’s own practice of deep communion with nature and his dedication to his musical craft make him the perfect interlocutor for Kunene. The result is an album that foregrounds the two musicians engaged at the highest levels of responsive listening, sympathetic unity, and collaborative concentration. Bringing an elder statesman of South African music to an international listening audience for the first time in decades by pairing him with one of South Africa’s most important new voices, kwaNTU is a meeting of generations and a powerful demonstration of musical lineage and continuity.

‘Before music, there is sound,’ Xaba observes, speaking of Kunene’s unique approach to music. ‘And sound is like a common compartment…it's not restricted to particular people or particular geographic places, you know what I mean? It's sound. Everybody can hear it. So when he constructs that sound into music, I think everybody resonates with the energy behind his construction of sound into song. Here at home, we really love him for preserving our history through the guitar, through his stories as well the music, the songs that he writes. We really, really admire him.’

Interception, the second long player from Jensen Interceptor following 2018's Mother, is something of a state-of-the-nation that finds Melas consolidating several eras of his career, past and present, to form a distinct new sound that is the most experimental work he has produced to date.

In 2024, a freak accident at an event he was playing left him with multiple broken bones in his foot. The forced downtime became an opportunity for introspection, allowing him to revisit earlier projects and explore new musical territories. Blending his signature electro with genres such as IDM, footwork, and baile funk, Melas used this recovery period to fuse old influences with fresh global sounds. "Since I started making music I've always made music geared towards use in my DJ sets but there's always been an urge to explore the deeper side of electronic music.
That time off after the accident gave me the space to dive into genres and really experiment.
" The accident came at a time when he had already spent time, like so many others though the COVID-19 pandemic, assessing his next move. A full tour schedule had left him feeling constrained by the limitations of working in a single genre. As such, Interception is the end point of this reassessment and the start point of what Melas sees as the next stage of his musical evolution.
"I really wanted to challenge and, I guess, prove myself in other spheres, to take my music to a new place. I've never wanted to be too repetitive and found that expectations, imagined or real, were forcing me to get stuck on a specific sound both in my productions and DJ sets." This renewal is reflected in the title of the album, which eagle-eyed fans will note is the same as the first EP that was released under the Jensen Interceptor moniker, and the emotional and personal nature of the LP is likewise mirrored in the abstract impressionism of the artwork created by fellow Australian, Brodie Kaman, the artist behind the visual look of Lady Gaga's recent Mayhem LP as well as works for FKA Twigs, Nine Inch Nails, and more.
The design-resembling oil drifting across a microscope slide-uses a mix of vivid pastels and moody darks to express the album's emotional depth: a collection of distinct elements coalescing into something richer and more evocative.

Arriving two years after the first chapter, Absurd Matter 2 isn’t just a sequel, it’s an evolution, redrawing the boundaries established by its acclaimed predecessor. The Berlin-based Italian producer tempers his confrontational sonics with rare moments of introspection, shifting seamlessly between blown-out noise, warped hip-hop, mutant club experimentation, and weightless ambience. Textures disintegrate and reassemble, rhythms flex and crumble, and every detail balances on the edge of fantasy. It’s a poetic, layered response to Nino Pedone’s changing physical reality: the gradual hearing loss and perceptual renegotiation triggered by Ménière’s disease, which struck him in 2022. At first, the experience felt like betrayal, a brutal disconnection from the very sense that had shaped his life. But over time, the disorientation turned into a strange kind of focus. The silence between sounds became as expressive as the sounds themselves.
The first Absurd Matter was a visceral reaction to trauma; the second is more reflective – an ambiguous chronicle of sensory recalibration. Pedone doesn’t represent his altered inner reality through extremes, but through depth, zooming in on illusory distortions, tense rhythmic fluctuations, and fragmented sonics. Dense, immersive, and mystical, the album mirrors Pedone’s evolving relationship with perception itself.
Tinnitus-like feedback wails and noir-ish strings introduce “Repeater”, making it immediately clear that Pedone is painting a more delicately finessed image this time around. Fleshed out by raps from cult MCs billy woods and E L U C I D, the track is marked by subtle, sophisticated contrasts: the blurred, inverted rhythms that couch Armand Hammer’s haunted back-and-forth, and the glitchy interference that offsets the lavish orchestral phrases. Backwoodz associate Fatboi Sharif lends his Lynchian drawl to “Bandage Chipped Wings”, grounding Pedone’s lysergic rhythmic distortions with syrupy, horror-inspired couplets. Pedone also invites discomfort into “Crash Landing”, with droning, metallic tones that contradict South Central rapper ICECOLDBISHOP’s elastic flow. “Bitch, I don't give a fuck about anybody,” he squawks over Pedone’s incongruous rasping textures and time-warped beats, “cash out at any party.” Working alongside London’s Loraine James on production, Pedone reunites with Moor Mother on “I Saw The Light”, blending James’ soft-focus atmospherics with soundsystem-damaging, overdriven bass hits and rusted percussive snips. Moor Mother’s assertive words hover over the wreckage, tightening Pedone’s themes of overstimulation and altered awareness as they stutter and veer off course, vanishing into the backdrop.
Contrasting his more pensive experiments, Pedone’s dancefloor deviations are more concentrated on Absurd Matter 2 than ever before. He torches a stuttering dembow structure on “X”, obfuscating the rhythm’s familiar energy with disturbing audio hallucinations. On “Splintered”, he reunites with Kenyan prodigy Slikback, mangling neon-lit trance arpeggios with dissociated trap rhythms. He sharpens his skills to a fine point on “Oblivion Step”, observing 2- step through a lens of distortion and personal abstraction, shaking blipping synth leads over neck-snapping drums and counteracting the momentum with airless sci-fi soundscapes.
Perhaps the album’s most surprising moment arrives with “Viel”, which features vocals from Los Angeles-based composer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith. Together, Pedone and Smith chance upon their notion of dub techno, fogging synth stabs and ghostly vocal traces into eerie harmonic distortions. On some level, it’s almost pop music, a far cry from the bleak dissonance of Absurd Matter and a hopeful way to reframe turbulence as transformation. Absurd Matter 2 doesn’t simply document a process; it enacts one. It doesn’t offer clarity; it invites disorientation. It’s not a map of the labyrinth, but a foghorn piercing the darkness.

fabric presents salute features music from pioneers and contemporaries alike, including Kerri Chandler, Bodhi, Dorian Concept, Junior Sanchez, Redhead and more, alongside two originals from salute. More than a collection of tracks, it’s a cultural statement: a journey through club culture, personal identity, and global roots. To celebrate the release, salute will headline fabric’s Room 2 on 10th October, joined by a handpicked lineup (TBA), bringing their vision full circle from mix to dancefloor.

Lead single ‘double luxury’ sets the tone for the project, capturing salute’s signature blend of soulful energy, deep groove, and euphoric release. Built on spacious low-end and an undercurrent of euphoria, warped vocals twist through sleek, propulsive drums to form a house cut that channels the emotional intensity and groove at the heart of their sound. Arriving off the back of a huge summer, with standout sets at Coachella, Glastonbury, a North American tour and All Points East, ‘double luxury’ provides a fitting entry into a milestone chapter for one of the most vital voices in club culture.

salute says:

“my contribution to the fabric presents compilation series is my way of contextualising the music i've been writing over the last couple of years. i wanted to include bits of all the things that make up the salute sonic palette: loopy, sample based house music, dense and soulful chords and beautiful synths, slick and groovy drum work. it's an exercise in beautiful house and techno music, or my definition of it anyway.”

Launched in 2019, fabric presents has become one of electronic music’s most respected mix platforms, with contributions from Andrew Weatherall, Laurent Garnier, The Martinez Brothers, SHERELLE, Bonobo, Overmono, Confidence Man, The Streets, and more. Rooted in the legacy of fabric’s monthly CD mixes, the series now embraces a wider range of releases across digital, CD, and vinyl, each paired with a performance at the iconic London venue. With fabric presents: salute, they take their place in this lineage, joining the dots between underground heritage and the future of club culture.

Vienna-born salute has become more than a producer: they are a cultural innovator representing a club scene that is diverse, queer, and community-driven. Since emerging as one of the UK’s most exciting electronic voices, they have built a reputation for balancing raw emotion with dancefloor ecstasy, weaving grime, UK garage, electro, French house, jazz, gospel, R&B and hip hop into a singular, unmistakable vision.

Their music channels as much emotional resonance as physical release, tracks that turn longing into euphoria, intimacy into collective celebration. This ability has not only won over audiences worldwide but also earned praise from heavyweights including Four Tet, DJ Seinfeld, Floating Points, Skrillex, Fred again.., Annie Mac and Benji B. Their now-legendary Melbourne Boiler Room set, one of the platform’s most-watched, further cemented salute’s reputation as a defining force in the global underground.

The release of their 2024 debut album True Magic on Ninja Tune solidified salute as one of dance music’s most vital voices, its success confirming what the underground had long known. With fabric presents, they mark another milestone, bringing their curatorial vision and boundary-pushing sound to one of electronic music’s most iconic platforms.

Composer, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Laufey continues her story by writing and recording Bewitched, her second album. Inspired by jazz greats and classical masters while possessing a point of view that could only be conveyed by a 21st-century twentysomething, Bewitched represents an expansion of Laufey’s sonic palette.

Tracks like the breezy bossa nova cut “From The Start” and the smoldering string-assisted ballad “Promise” have classic songcraft and intricate arrangements that make them feel instantly
timeless, while Laufey’s conversational lyrics give her music a relatability to the next generation of jazz, pop, and classical aficionados.

For the 58th outing of the Wrecks anthology we're very happy to welcome the new Argentinian producer Gaston Cabrera to the ranks. Gaston has piqued our interest for a while now with his unique and atmospheric productions and it's a pleasure to have him join the Klasse Wrecks family. The 'Prohibido' EP doesnt waste anytime getting to the point, a snarling beast that goes straight for the jugular. Spooky techno tropes mix with the best of yesteryear electro house stylings, it's a sound that feels new and exciting yet at the same time very familiar. Both raw and musical, the 4 song record could soundtrack either a long lost John Carpenter horror or a Tron-esque retro sci-fi movie.

Mister Joshooa consolidates his delivery on Party store this time with a proper full length EP,
with 3 originals and 2 remixes from Delano Smith and Mass Prod that will keep the dancefloor
busy for a while.
A very solid release that goes from Bass to House to Techno, all solid club tools that will keep
the club busy, five bangers that all evoke the Party Store blueprint feeling: FRESH OUTTA JAIL
Strong of his release on Planet E and his Performances in the world's temple of Techno Music
between his own Detroit and Berlin, Josh is always on point with cutting edge productions that
go straight to the point, to party.
Cosmo is a timeshifting bass tool, so abstract yet so powerful, so empty yet so present that it
will allow you to take your crowd towards the most twisted cuts of club music, perfect to merge
Bass, Minimal House and Techno.
Delano Smith and Mass Prod both deliver a more 4 to the floor/ Club friendly version of Cosmo.
Delano takes the core groove of the track and brings it up on a monstrous Detroit House Tool,
heavy on basseline and chords, it flows like water on day 3. you just wanna play this more and
more, the more you listen to it.
Mass Prod delivers a darker, lower body versions of the title track, a Minimalistic after hour tool
where aerie vocals and percussions are rolling over a primitive House groove that will keep the
dancefloor simmerin for a while.
Adult use is a perfect party track to set the vibe and to get completely weird. Dub Acid Stepper
at his best, proper after party fuel, one to make people stand from couches and blankets in the
morning!
Ketchup popsicle is a pure Detroit Banger with psych vocals and digital acid at his best with full
on trancey effects and percussions, not for the faint of heart, a track that will take you to new
levels of party time!

Wally Badarou is a synth pioneer and musical polymath. But rarely does he sing over his sumptuous tracks. The 6 songs that comprise new record Simple Things finally realise Wally's vision for select backing tracks from his beloved Colors Of Silence.

The tracks were originally developed back in 2001 for the release of the original CD; here, Wally has “simply" added overdubs and vocals to their mastered mixes with some discerning edits. Simply put, Simple Things is another slice of simply stunning Wally Badarou genius.

Simple Things has been decades in the making. Indeed, Wally struggled not only with the idea of singing these wonderful songs himself but singing them in English and writing his own lyrics, while wrestling with the sensational backing tracks, which themselves seemed to have taken on a life of their own.

As Wally explained to us: "In addition to the instrumental artist I have been known as, so far, there has always been a singer who simply was not sure he was, up until now. Even though “Back To Scales Tonight”, my very first album, was, indeed, a song album."

Opener "It Couldn't Be You" embellishes the uptempo groove of soca-funk gem "The Lights Of Kinshasa". As Wally explained to us, it's about “a simple love story somewhere, one rainy night, under the lights of Kinshasa. A woman, a man, online dating, quite usual in our times. Then they meet, almost missing each other." The guide vocal Wally had laid for Colors Of Silence - with an organ sound - seemed striving for words in Linguala, a Congolese language he could not speak. Therefore the decision to do it himself was not an easy one, for it had to be in English to fit his singing. We think it turned out pretty good!

"You Can't Hide Always" vocalises Wally's deep concerns set to the propulsive "Smiles By The Millions": "Populism, ostracism, radicalism, ethics and values all turned upside down worldwide, are they all inevitably exacerbated by our social networks? It could all melt down one day, like a house of cards in the ocean of fake news and false prophecies”. Wally wanted to keep the track as bare as possible but, inevitably, the backing vocals and the synth-brass arrive ultimately to present a welcome 70s flavour, with no snare-drum added.

The bright and breezy "We'll Make It Again" adds vocals to "Where Were We", a tropical, reggae-tinged bounce through the islands. Here's Waly: "Where were we when we last said: "I love you"? Simple words to express something quite common, but never quite simple to deal with. A simple song about the resilience of the broken hearts.” The reggae came from it being conceived when Wally was scoring for “Third World Cop”, a 1999 Jamaican action movie.

"Walk Straight Ahead" provides Wally's gorgeous, contemplative and idiosyncratic vocals to the deep serenity of Colors Of Silence highlight, "Amber Whispers". It's a gliding, divine, mini melodic masterpiece. It'll make you swoon in its extreme beauty. As Wally describes, "it started as just whispers, sweet amber whispers. Then the colour turned darker, as darker skies seemed to fall upon us while the whole world keeps on walking ahead, straight ahead, regardless of the blatant warnings, feeling much too comfortable in conformity. Initially, the verses were to be spoken only. I realised they could be sung all the while, without overshadowing the ethereal atmosphere." Amen.

The serene, celestial "Painting My Life Blue" presents the vocal version of "Days To Wonder". Says Wally, "how does it feel when your second half is gone after decades of riding life together? Past the temporary loss of your bearings, you come to realise you've been blind to the essential, and suddenly you can see...For this most intimate song of mine, I had tried to come up with a melody on top of the existing backing track, long before realising the melody was in the keyboard part already. It just needed to be properly mixed with it."

The profoundly emotional "Just Two Lovers" works up the formerly-too-brief and glorious "Crystal Falls" into a much fuller masterpiece and features acoustic guitar sparkle before fully glistening with some gentle head-nod percussion. Waly explains further: "Dear little green men, please tell me, what is it about us that makes you want to come and visit us so often (contrary to Fermi's assertion)? And here is the reply I believe I heard them sing: "You've got the key you've been searching for: Love”. I reverted to the initial backing track I had made around 1985, which already bore the melody, and which I added acoustic guitars to, before singing it." An astounding closer.

A synth specialist, there can be few artists more under-appreciated given their vast influence than Wally Badarou. His solo work practically defined the sound of the Balearic DJs of the 1980s, and thus the more sophisticated sound of dance culture thereafter. He was one of the Compass Point All Stars (with Sly and Robbie, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson), the in-house recording team of Compass Point Studios responsible for a series of albums in the 1980s recorded by Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, Mick Jagger, Black Uhuru, Gwen Guthrie, Jimmy Cliff and Gregory Isaacs. Badarou's keyboard playing could also be heard on albums by Robert Palmer, Marianne Faithfull, Herbie Hancock, M (Pop Muzik), Talking Heads, Manu Dibango and Miriam Makeba. He also produced Fela Kuti. Phew!

When we asked Wally about the significance of this collection's title, he explained: "These are "Simple things” that everyday’s life seems to build upon. The simplest are the harder to describe, but when satisfactorily described i.e. with simple words, they are the more genuine and authentic to express and share. I’ve immersed myself in other classic song lyrics, something I hardly did before, just to appreciate the genius behind the simple words they were made of, and had a great time studying how powerful they were in expressing complex ideas such as love."

Recording was twofold: first, most of the backing tracks were recorded in 2001, in Wally's studio in Normandy, mostly using hardware synths and Yamaha digital consoles. Then, he fine-tuned the melodies and wrote the lyrics in late 2023, then added some overdubs and sang them all during summer 2024. States Wally, "Digital Performer was and remains the DAW I’ve been using throughout, ever since the 80s."

Wally's sophisticated synth textures and expressive keyboard runs are so full of character, so full of life, that this work of art transcends any easy genre categorisation. Meticulously remastered and cut by both Simon Francis and Cicely Balston respectively, it has been pressed to the highest possibly quality at Record Industry in Holland. Sometimes, the simple things are the most extraordinary.

A record born of insurmountable joy and simultaneous profound loss; World Maker marks a time of great change for Psychonaut, both personally and musically, as the band burn away the philosophical narrative complexities of previous offerings with a searing, panoramic clarity that implores us to savour the beauty of the now as a means of leaving a legacy for the future. The traditional, three-piece line up of Belgian, psychedelic post-metal collective Psychonaut has long belied the compositional prowess, captivating narrative depth and crushing live presence of a band now operating at the forefront of forward-thinking, contemporary heavy music. Having sent a shockwave through the post-metal and prog scenes with their three times repressed Pelagic Records debut Unfold The God Man in 2020 before following it up with the transformative metaphysical complexities of 2022's Violate Consensus Reality, Psychonaut have played prestigious Belgian open-air festivals like Alcatraz, Rock Herk and Boomtown Festival as well as boutique events such as Soulcrusher, Roadburn Redux and A Colossal Weekend whilst sharing stages across Europe with the likes of Amenra, Brutus and Pelagic labelmates The Ocean and PG.Lost. The seed of World Maker took shape just as the campaign for Violate Consensus Reality came to a close, with the news that guitarist/vocalist Stefan De Graef was to become a father. This tilting of life's axis led De Graef, like most fathers-to-be, to re-assess what was really important. As such, the music he was inspired to write felt free of the band's previous philosophical and spiritual foundations and instead took the form of life lessons for his unborn son, a legacy of love in case something were ever to happen. This hopeful euphoria shines keenly throughout World Maker as an uncharacteristically optimistic warmth; from the reverberating Rhodes organ on the titular opening track and the meandering, free-jazz inspired guitar solo that introduces `Everything Else is Just The Weather' to elements of world music, electronica and the otherworldly voice of Dutch multi-instrumentalist and old friend Anthe Huybrechts (Anthe/Helion Creek) most notably on tracks like `Origins' which also features tabla, a pair of indian hand drums, as its propulsive heartbeat. Whilst Psychonaut's giant riffs, punishing polyrhythms and guttural vocal rage are more resplendent than ever, there is a wider dynamic spectrum to World Maker that sees the band proudly exploring their more delicate, intimate extremes as well as their most aggressive and abrasive. Not long after the birth of De Graef's son came the devastating news that both his own father and Psychonaut bassist/vocalist Thomas Michiels' father had been diagnosed with advanced cancers. Living day-to-day and torn between joy and grief, the band found themselves shedding the grand scope and world-shattering agenda of Violate Consensus Reality to focus on the here and now. Lead single `Endless Currents', the first full track on the album, explodes in a barrage of staccato guitar tapping but mellows to let the powerful, newly pared back lyrics ring out as a call to embrace the flow and follow joy. The song's final few words `Lead the way. / Soar. / Everlong.' double as both a greeting and a goodbye as the trio build their formidable post-metal might to a thunderous breaking point. Similarly, the pulsing, propellant `Stargazer', named so for De Graef's son being born in stargazer position, pairs delicate guitar motifs and folk-inflected optimism with huge and sprawling breakdowns as some of the band's most genre-pushing work to date; asking difficult but important questions of what happens next. It is `And You Came With Searing Light' though that most immediately exemplifies Psychonaut's redirected ambition on World Maker, as euphoria collides with blinding fury. The first track written for the album, `_Searing Light' is easily the most complex and initially wouldn't sound out of place on Violate Consensus Reality. Originally meant to be the new album's opening track; the decision to defer its impact, not to mention its compositional and dynamic gravity, speaks of a fundamental change to the band's very core. The words "Discover the world with wide eyes" recurring throughout speak as much to those having lost a part of their world as they do to those seeing it for the first time. Amidst such turbulent times, the band found strength and support within their Post-Metal community. The album was recorded and produced by the band alongside their longtime collaborator and close friend Chiaran Verheyden (Hippotraktor) with help and advice from Psychonaut's live engineer Victor, who will no doubt make this album sound just as awesome on stage. Even the artwork for World Maker was a family affair, being designed by close friend Sam Coussens of Belgian cosmic sludge metallers Pothamus. In the face of life's soaring highs and desolate lows, World Maker is direct and brave without sacrificing any of Psychonaut's raw power, creative innovation or inimitable musical depth. Where their previous full-length offerings have charted grand introspective courses through time and space, World Maker is breathtaking in its uncompromising clarity: a father singing to his newborn son as a son bids his own father farewell. FOR FANS OF Mastodon, Russian Circles, Tool, Gojira, The Ocean, Pelican, Hypno5e, Cult Of Luna, Amenra

Perhaps you've chanced upon a Number Station, unwittingly as you scour the shortwave bands, and heard a cold, disconnected voice repeating simple commands endlessly into the ether. Or maybe you've scanned past a series of bleeps and pips, or pockets of noise, thinking nothing of them, as you seek a favoured music station. These are messages, to those who know how to receive them, and are able decode them in their various forms and configurations.

Shropshire Number Stations - Recordings of Covert Shortwave Radio Stations charts the covert shortwave radio stations broadcasting silently through the air around us, to aspirant agents in the fields of Shropshire, UK and the counties which surround it. These two continuous sides include recordings of 19 such lay-stations, captured by Eric Loveland Heath at various points over the last few years. The true nature of these amateur networks may never be known, nor might their cyphers ever be revealed. These are recordings of their activities, made conceivably for the sake of posterity alone, offering a glimpse into clandestine worlds otherwise obscured from view.

Words courtesy of FOND/SOUND –

What makes チトチック/クラクラ (CHITOTIHC/KULA-kura) so fascinating is that, in some weird way, it’s a meeting of minds and musical language of disparate artists at the forefront of a new kind of groove. There might be no “L” in the Japanese language but that doesn’t stop it from trying to find a working substitute. Similarly, Chito enlisted members from his Asiabeat and East Pulse, others from Mu-Project, K2, and Adi, and brought in Haruomi Hosono to play mercurial bass. In the great expanse of experimental Japanese-made pop music all of them might have gone in “out-there” in separate directions but on this record it was Chito who pointed their focus all on the same track.

“Bayou (バイヨー)” presents this floating idea of dance music with beats and rhythms that hover among the ethereal. Other like “Scribble Dance (らくがき)” use Harry’s acid bass lines to dig cavernous grooves that only come up for air via adrenaline-fueled jumps by Haruo Kubota’s quite Adrian Belew-esque guitar lines. Perhaps, Discipline-era King Crimson is an apt comparison to what Chito and his crew pull off here.

Where Discipline signaled a way to reconcile the most out-there polymeter music of prog with the more satisfying parts of post-punk and the new electronic wave, so to do I think チトチック/クラクラ (CHITOTIHC/KULA-kura) has that bit of heart/spirit in mind. This is the out-there of Japanese experimental music satisfying the best parts of the, then, new electronic wave. It takes a certain degree of proficiency and sheer chutzpah to go from “11” to the wonderfully impressionistic, ambient minimalism of a track like “Sanghyang (サンヤン)”.

It’s the joy of not knowing what each new track will hold and just letting yourself follow the hard-working hands of such learned musicians that brings the most out of Chito’s vision. It’s this very liquid music that keeps you on your toes on tracks like “Astral Lamp (無影灯)”. Tracks like “Jagg-chagg (ジャグチャグ)” and “Filament (フィラメント)” present a fourth world music bifurcated in exponential parts by the glitch of newer, modern, electronic modalities, intersected by expressions by differing voices. Every track you switch to presents a new way to get lost in the many phases and places Chito wants you to travel to.

In the end, as always, it’s not the destination but the journey through it that plants this album in your memory. – Diego Olivas

2025 Repress

“In stark contrast to the stress-makingly staccato assault of your average 'ardcore rave, Telepathic Fish was a wombeldelic sound-and-light bath"

Simon Reynolds (Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music And Dance Culture)

The first-ever illustrated compendium recounting the seminal underground South London ambient party that surfaced at the axis through which the likes of Ninja Tune, Warp and Rising High flowed. Telepathic Fish shared fertile waters with Megatripolis and The Big Chill, moving the early 90s London back room chill-out space into the kaleidoscopic spotlight.

Documenting the sights and sounds of South London’s seminal Telepathic Fish ambient parties. Hosted by Chantal Passamonte (aka Mira Calix - RIP), David Vallade, Mario Aguera and Kevin Foakes (aka DJ Food) - collectively named Openmind. With the help of Mixmaster Morris (The Irresistible Force) and Matt Black (Coldcut), they put on some of the earliest chill out events in London.

Rooted deep in the heart of the electronic underground they started DJing and decorating house parties or squats with mind-blowing installations and wholly idiosyncratic design, hosting the likes of Aphex Twin, Andrea Parker and Tony Morley (The Leaf Label). Within a year they were playing VIP after shows for the likes of Orbital and illegal New Year’s gatherings at the disused Roundhouse whilst guesting on Coldcut’s Solid Steel radio show on London’s KISS FM.

Whilst collaborations with legendary club nights such as Megatripolis saw them share bills with Autechre, Higher Intelligence Agency, Scanner and Global Communication, they also created their own ambient fanzine - Mindfood – to document the scene evolving around them. A 20-page history of their parties is included in the release, richly illustrated with personal photos, artwork and memorabilia from their adventures between 1992-95. The gatefold sleeve also features their Telepathic Fish logo, mirroring an original T-shirt design they sold in Ambient Soho, a record shop three of the four worked in at different times.

The selections featured here are all personal favourites that were played at the Telepathic Fish parties during the 90s. Picked and arranged by Mario, David and Kevin who combed their collections for key pieces they associate with the time and Chantal’s music tastes. Over a hundred tracks were selected, totalling nearly 11 hours of playing time, before being whittled down to the essentials by the trio, forming a snapshot of their world back in the day.

KEY POINTS:

* Features long deleted and hard to find tracks by Caustic Window (Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin), Tranquility Bass, Spacetime Continuum and Global Communication (Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton).

• Pressed on DJ friendly double black vinyl

• Includes A 20-page history of their parties is included in the release, richly illustrated with unseen personal photos, artwork and memorabilia from the Telepathic Fish crew’s adventures between 1992-95, as well as detailed liner notes courtesy of founding members Mario Ageura and Kevin Foakes.

• Cover includes horizontal obi sticker with quote from Simon Reynolds' book Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music And Dance Culture, describing the Telepathic Fish parties' place in the dance music landscape.

• Lacquer cut by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering

Simon Popp is back on Squama with his fourth album Trio.
At its heart, Trio is a work about collaboration, playfulness and unification. It is music as a means of coming together, a sonic equivalent to the Japanese philosophy of Kintsugi, in which broken ceramics are repaired with a visible golden lacquer. Rather than hiding the breaks, Kintsugi embraces them, making them part of the story, a form of delicate transformation. Popp and his collaborators Flurin Mück and Sebastian Wolfgruber take a similar approach: three distinct drummers, three different temperaments, three personal styles. Fused together into a single expressive instrument.
The album is a celebration of timbre, texture, and touch, its sound palette drawn from across continents and traditions. Human beings at all points of time, across all cultures and continents have used music to celebrate, mourn, worship and bond. Along with our voices, creating rhythm with our bodies. Clapping, stomping, hitting with sticks. A celebration of rhythm as both a shared human memory and an audible expression of close bonds.
Trio is a reflection of the beauty of imperfection and the timeless pull of rhythm as a shared human force. The cracks are not hidden. They are filled with gold.

"The Happening by Tomorrow Comes The Harvest is the least case, a provocative confrontation. It's a challenge or dare to the idea that music can be useful if we are able to experience it. I would imagine that to many, music having an objective beyond the listener doesn't make sense because the general thought is that Music is made for us to consume, to make us remember, to influence us and to make us feel something. The Happening does all those things but much more. What it does is expand the scope from us to "it". Creating and constructing music for the subject of existence is a tall order.

The concept of The Happening is about the beginning and the end of Time and Space; the initial point of when reality starts and its conclusional apex. In the beginning, there is a great light. And from this light, comes life. Life is lived until it isn't.

This is what The Happening implies. It speaks about a 9-minute frame in reality, used to emphasize something that happened a very long time ago, something that happened in its creation and what will eventually happen far in the future.

The Happening was of an accidental birth. The love child of three musicians (Jeff Mills, Prabhu Edouard and Jean-Phillippe Dary) who was just asked to play "something" so that the camera crew could have extra b-roll for all the previous footages of the band while they were working in the recording studio in the North of Paris for their album Forbidden Planet. There was no discussion of what they'll do, no plan, no direction other than to use music to reach a level of consciousness.

Somehow within these transformative 9 minutes, something was felt by each of them, explored to its furthest point, which lead to this extraordinary creation. The Happening refers to the life and death of everything living thing. Infinity."

Jeff Mills

With their musical roots deeply immersed in the fertile soil of Afro-American music, the Buttshakers have found a new direction for their nostalgia-heavy soul music. With Lessons In Love, their third album on Underdog Records, their early heartaches and furies have faded in favor of a more composed harmony – a sound enveloped in love and soaked in the blues. Guided by their singer Ciara Thompson, the Buttshakers have taken a more intimate path, whose compass, in the chaos of emotions and the modern world, points only in one direction: the light.



Seen from the sky, the view appears limitless. Accentuated by the sun, the ochre and sandy hues of the open road only reinforce this feeling of immensity. The sky stretches and the green stands out in striking contrast. In lighter tones, a road is drawn -- without bends or contours. This is the worn and weary road of soul music, which The Buttshakers explore on each album in new and unique ways. Soul music – a rare place to find a French band.

Vast, the musical direction could have taken them to lighter pastures. Yet the Buttshakers chose to evolve in a different way; to take a heavier load. Two paths – one sparked by social unrest, the other purely sentimental, Lessons In Love explores the deep roots of soul music, in the steps of Curtis Mayfield or Al Green. It is here that the heart and mind cross paths, merge, and become one. A weary road -- that brings together the agitation of a world where good intentions never rise above the level of digital outrage, and a faith in love which, however it manifests and expresses itself, remains the only truth that never loses its power.



Less rage and more compassion, it is through the haunting words and now tempered inflection of Ciara Thompson's voice, which opens to distinct emotions and perspectives, that the listener is guided. With its gaze fixed on the horizon, the acoustic guitar of Gotta Believe invites us on an intimate stroll through the open plains, while Dream On carries us away with a clavinet riff and a possessed saxophone; reconnecting the electric heat and neurosis of a city full of dreams. The senses are moved by the conjuring potion of the guitar which distills throughout Troubled Waters; the body is brought back into a visceral dance by the keys and brass section that are put to the test by Sure As Sin and its irrepressible rhythm. Passing through clouds of dust and sand has left a bluesy imprint on their groove: the miles travelled became hundreds, then thousands.



All of this leaves the listener bewitched by the halo of resilience that now surrounds Ciara's performance, as the ten tracks let the light fade. But certainly not hope in a better day. Like the sunflower that always lifts its head towards the sun’s rays, the Buttshakers continue to resource their sounds in the deep roots of soul music. Into the rich layers of African-American music of the 60s and 70s, The Buttshakers capture the spirit as much as the musical aesthetics of the epoch. A sound that reaches into the meanderings of the soul, bringing light to dark places and hope for all. A sound for the most parched of hearts, living in a damaged world, Lessons In Love confirms that even the tiniest beam of light can illuminate one’s path.

SCALER are the electrifying Bristol-based band hailed as the city’s “next national breakthrough” thanks to their pulverising live show and meticulous, mind-warping sound. Now they’re back with ‘Endlessly’, a sublime and stylistically expansive new album. 10 potent tracks written and recorded more collaboratively than ever before, as SCALER explore what it means to make music with no ceiling.


Building on what they know and taking it in new directions has been a constant throughout the three-year journey behind ‘Endlessly’, which came together in the studio beneath Bristol’s legendary The Louisiana. Inspired by time apart, the album finds them reconnecting with their diverse sonic touchpoints – many tangled in their city’s much-mused-on musical heritage – and the creative energy of collaborators around them. Close friends and long-admired peers, including Akiko Haruna, Art School Girlfriend, Tlya X An, Shadow Stevie, Thomas Ridley and Cold Light’s ELDON add colour to SCALER’s darkened palette and point to the left-turns they’re leaning into. The intense softens into introspection. The blistering becomes a balm.


‘Endlessly’ is the second album from SCALER, a.k.a. Alex Hill, Isaac Jones, James Rushforth and Nick Berthoud, alongside visual artist Jason Baker. The record follows 2022’s acclaimed ‘Void’ and marks their debut for Bristol’s revered Black Acre, a longtime champion of genre-defying electronic music.

Among the true Keiji Haino devotees, Nijiumu’s Era of Sad Wings (released on P.S.F. in 1993) has always held a special place in the pantheon. Operating for only a few years in the early 90s and apparently only performing a handful of shows, Nijiumu operated at the opposite end of the dynamic spectrum to Haino’s famed power trio Fushitsusha, dwelling in a hushed, meditative realm of mysterious droning sonorities and free-floating melodies that occasionally erupts into violence. Black Truffle is pleased to announce a new double-LP edition of a lesser-known 1994 Nijiumu recording, When I sing, I slip into the microphone. Into that void, I bring comrade “prayers”, then, turning to face the outside, together we explode. Here, Nijiumu is the trio of Haino, Tetuzi Akiyama and the obscure Takashi Matsuoka, the three performing on a wide variety of string, wind and percussion instruments, as well as electric guitar and bass, and Haino’s unmistakeable voice.

Like on the early solo Haino album that shares the group’s name (released on P.S.F. in 1993), the instrumentation swims in reverb (the use of which Akiyama recalls as ‘a kind of point of the band’), often obscuring the instrumental sources. On the short opening piece, a distant reed instrument arcs long buzzing melodies over a bed of cymbals and gongs, like a psychedelic take on Tibetan music. The epic second part, occupying almost 50 minutes, begins as a splayed, near-formless cloud of electric guitar and bass, shadowed by bowed and plucked strings, the three elements working through twisting atonal shapes. At various points in the recording, we hear what seems to be the sounds of musicians moving between instruments, their shuffling and bumps fitting seamlessly into this radically open music. Eventually, what sounds like electric guitar moves closer to the foreground, fixing on a repeated melodic cell around which hover mysterious clouds of long tones and a sporadic shaker. At the half-hour mark, the music begins to build to a violently emotive climax, Haino’s impassioned vocal cries punctuating a lumbering, bass-heavy murk, contrasted at points by what sounds like a tin whistle. Suddenly, the volume drops to a near-whisper, opening the way for the stunning final moments, which touch on the slow-motion balladry of Haino’s classic Affection, here given an eccentric twist by an occasional woodblock hit. The third piece opens with a hazy trio of rumbling bass, bowed strings and abstracted slide guitar, the latter calling to mind some of Akiyama’s later solo work. Eventually joined by Haino’s voice, its fragile, haunted tone might remind the listener of the man in black’s documented love of the madrigals of the murderous Count Gesualdo, before the recording abruptly breaks off mid-note. In this new edition, the Nijiumu trio recording is supplemented by a piece recorded solo by Haino in 1973, a bracing electronic blowout stretching almost half an hour. Using a homemade electronics setup to unleash a barrage of crunching distortion and shuddering harmonic fuzz, it takes its place in the canon of extreme live electronics next to Robert Ashley’s Wolfman and Walter Marchetti’s Osmanthus fragrans, looking forward to extreme noise years before Merzbow. Taken as a whole, these four sides of music are a stunning document of some of the lesser-known waystations of Haino’s singular creative path.

‘When The 2000s Clashed: Machine Music For A New Millenium’ is the story of how, 25 years ago, a new form of electronic music – known as electroclash - reignited a tired clubland and gave the indie scene and mainstream pop a shot in the arm in the process. Over this 3LP highlights set, carefully curated from the 5CD box of the same name (also released, 3rd October) the collection showcases the back-to-basics electronic beats that heralded in a new generation of exciting and innovative new artists - Hot Chip, Peaches, LCD Soundystem, and Ladytron, to name a handful. It also shows how the sound and attitude of electroclash plugged into the decade’s cutting-edge indie bands, (Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party), and became intrinsic to the way chart pop would sound in the first decade of the 2000s (Kylie, Goldfrapp).

The collection also shows how the scene’s underground DIY ethos evolved and inspired the next generation of electronic buccaneers (Simian Mobile Disco, Justice Vs. Simian). ‘When The 2000s Clashed’ brings together a dazzling, diverse selection of artists, producers and remixers from right across the 2000s zeitgeist – from The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, from M.I.A. to Soulwax and many points in-between. For good measure, there’s also one side of LP3 given over to the original post punk and electronic sounds (including Kraftwerk, The Human League and Cabaret Voltaire) who’d played such a big influence on the electroclash sound. ‘

When The 2000s Clashed’ was compiled and sequenced for Demon / Edsel by Jonny Slut, founder of London’s electroclash citadel Nag Nag Nag. Established in 2002, in a small Soho venue called Ghetto, ‘Nag’ quickly became THE hottest club, first in London and then in the whole world. A glorious mess and hedonists’ hotspot, a night at ‘Nag Nag Nag’ (if you could get in!) saw the capital’s club kids, students and creatives rub up alongside names from the fashion and music worlds - Björk, Pet Shop Boys, Kate Moss, Boy George, Alexander McQueen, and Pam Hogg were among the regulars. Madonna visited, so did John Peel, Yoko Ono asked to perform and did, Throbbing Gristle’s Chris and Cosey DJ’d, so did Marc Almond, and Too Many DJ’s.

Justin Timberlake was refused entry (too many bodyguards)… even Cilla Black was spotted getting down! Jonny shares these reminisces – and many more - in the collection’s sleevenotes. Named after the 1979 Cabaret Voltaire classic, ‘Nag, Nag, Nag’ became the first place to hear the seemingly endless flow of thrilling new tunes coming from every direction during that decade of dance. Many of them are included on this collection.

Wrong Filament embodies Robert Piotrowicz's creation of fictional traditional music - not studied but invented, a utopian and oniric construct that becomes tangible in sound. These imagined traditions act as communal forces of music-making, resisting dominant structures of power.

The album unfolds in six dense compositions built on rhythm, repetition and minimal melodic gestures that draw on archetypal patterns of Eastern European traditions. Entirely synthetic yet strikingly instrumental in character, they develop as autonomous sound events, expanding into multi-part forms that evoke the physicality of ensemble performance - as if played by an imagined community of musicians.

Rather than reconstruction, Piotrowicz invents forged dances - a pre-techno of sorts, where complex meters and dense textures point to a parallel history of collective sound beyond industrial uniformity. They imagine a utopian and fictional genealogy of collective sound: one where industrial modernity yields to more unstable, communal energies.

This is celebratory music with invocatory charge: calls to dance, echoes of ceremony, microtonal melodies shaped by emotional weight, and traces of Eastern ornamentation stretched through synthetic means. Wrong Filament sacralises performance through sound alone, spinning a world where spectres of collective experience vibrate against the limits of rupture and resistance.

These pieces confront the traces of violence inscribed in body and memory, yet also affirm freedom, emancipation and integration. They manifest celebration, identity and resistance while opening a path toward liberation and shared needs that exceed social, private and intimate categories.

Following the lush listening LP outing by KAMM, the EG team is back in fine floorrocking form, this time with both label operatives on the dials as Rodney joins Dave Aju for his debut co-production. And what a debut it is: Highly-potent, raw, swinging house music of the highest order, complete with knocking 909 kicks, thick slapping snares, and a hypnotic melodic call-and-response tonal section that keeps things properly lifted and moving throughout. The vox evoke label boss Aju’s earlier catalog work, and he’s in particularly pointed mode here, spitting fire spoken word lines calling out various questionable corners of the dance music scene and humanity on the whole. A bold light-shining display during notably dark times, defending the once-sacred underground dance space against runaway trends of ego-driven capitalism, online image over actual skill sets, and the beyond low-ball barrier of entry into the arena. But by the time the soulful chorus lines hit and rise us up and onward toward the blissful musical finish, it is clear that this is in fact a unifying floor anthem and that indeed despite our differences amidst disheartening global chaos, at least “We Still Dancin". As always with the seasoned DJ-focussed three-piece Elbow Grease EP offerings, here we have the full A-side OG Vocal Mix cut at a crispy and tight 45rpm, a deliciously stripped and leveled-up EG Dub Mix on the B1, and finally the uplifting B2 Vibe Mix which doubles-down as half ambient instrumental builder and essential acapellacapella

In 2025, Roger 23 makes his return to Night Defined Recordings. Following his 2022 album “Bounds of a Moral Principle and Established Standard Behavior”, the unmistakable Saarländer revisits his teenage memories of the Saarbrücken-Leicester connection through a collaboration with his UK kindred spirit, Tom Dicicco. In just two months, the duo has created a collection of ten tracks rich in sonic depth, embodying their dedication to and belief in the power of exploration.

In a world where it’s easy to point fingers or resist change, Tom Dicicco and Roger 23 choose a different path. They see creativity not just as self-expression but as a way to inspire future generations. Their mission is to challenge norms, trust the process, and create with purpose.

This album is more than just a musical project — it’s a statement that true innovation arises from freedom and risk-taking. The journey has taught them more than music production — it has reinforced the importance of conviction and trusting their vision. Their work serves as a reminder that leadership is about breaking new ground and inspiring others to do the same.

WE CANNOT COMPLAIN, IF WE DON’T DO IT BETTER

for UK: please contact Rubadub

Limited edition transparent vinyl pressing of Tom Rowlands' first release on Phantasy. ‘Through Me’ is an all-cylinders, propulsive elasticated house track while ‘Nothing But Pleasure’ is eight-plus minutes of unstoppable Metallic KO disco. Both tracks reiterate the point that Tom is unarguably one of the greatest producers of club music around.

Clear vinyl comes in a stickered heavyweight reverse board sleeve..

Mysticisms' is delighted to reissue Nail's timeless debut release, Cassiopeia. Appearing on the DiY Collective's 'Strictly 4 Groovers' compilation album for Warp Records in 1993, the original appears as a stand alone at last and is backed with a specially created 2019 Remix.
Starting in 1989 and centered around Nottingham, the collective, also known as DiY Sound System, were a focal point for the burgeoning house scene in the midlands. Promoting an alternative take on post-acid house's creeping commercialisation, DiY kept to simple ethos of good music and a good party and were at the forefront of the new Free Party movement.
Alongside parties, the collective set up a studio and label and young Neil Tolliday was introduced by in-house engineer Damian Stanley. 'Nail' was born and during studio downtime, the 18 year old wrote Cassiopeia around the S1000 sampler, Juno 106, Oberheim Matrix 1000 and Roland SH101.
Cassiopeia became the stand out inclusion on the compilation and rightly, is still highly prized. Fitting in and outside the Deep House vibe DiY were known, it fuses elements of ambient and even trance, with a beautiful arpeggio and vocal sample atop simple, but killer bass line and claps. Tolliday's 2019 Remix is a fitting accompaniment, stretching towards dub techno before house kicks back perfectly for today's heads.
Bounce the Mystery.

On point, until it hurts. With a decade-spanning discography, several bands and half of SHXCXCHCXSH this restless creator presents himself. SSTROM embodies the calmly bold. Building a version of the modern disco that nobody asked for. SSTROM is the capsule that shocks and comforts, gathers and spark a new thought. The robust shell acts as a camouflage for the wild and wicked bleakness of the music he produces. If the contemporary club urge could be described as a helmet waiting to brake this experience is what you are after; surprising, uplifting and changing. With 'Avvik' SSTROM carves out 6 somatically clear scenes articulating diverse textures, densities and states of aggregation. The constructions evolves as fractious rhythms strives for another order. Trial and errors bungys droughty, moist, stiff and tensile. Sstrom forces us to flicker in twitches between layers and dimensions beyond the given three.

After two albums inspired by vast northern landscapes, the forces of nature, and an ever-present sense of duality, Glass Museum shifts gears. The Brussels-based group-originally formed in 2016 by pianist Antoine Flipo and drummer Martin Grégoire-welcomes bassist Issam Labbene as an official third member, opening up a richer, more immersive sound and setting its sights on the rhythms of the modern city.

A true turning point in Glass Museum's career, the new album 4N4LOG CITY twists the codes of electronic music, explores the depths of jazz, and asserts its eclecticism through a fresh and infectious groove.

Signed to the forward-thinking Belgian label Sdban Records, the group shapes its identity within the vaulted ceilings of Volta, a creative hub in Brussels frequented by the vanguard of Belgium's "new scene." Sharing space with acts like ECHT!, Lander & Adriaan, and Tukan, the band continues to push its boundaries through collaboration and reinvention.

Recorded between the French countryside of Drôme, the industrial edges of Brussels, and Volta, 4N4LOG CITY features striking guest appearances. Swiss drummer Arthur Hnatek-known for his work with Tigran Hamasyan and Erik Truffaz, and praised by Gilles Peterson and Laurent Garnier-drives the opener "GATE 1" into hypnotic, krautrock-inspired territory. Meanwhile, rising vocalist JDS lends soulful grace to "Call Me Names", evoking the emotive textures and elegance of vintage soul-jazz reminiscent of the likes of Jordan Rakei or Tom Misch & Yussef Dayes.

Without abandoning their melodic roots and foundational approach, the trio takes daring steps into new terrain. The experimental centerpiece "III" explores the piano as a textural and rhythmic force, drifting between ambient and breakbeat. Elsewhere, the gritty "VAN GLAS"-a hip-hop-tinged track featuring rapper JAZZ BRAK of STIKSTOF-the band ventures far beyond their comfort zone, injecting streetwise lyricism in their mix of electronics and jazz.

Fueled by the heartbeat of the city, 4N4LOG CITY captures the mechanical ebb and flow beneath concrete towers-the anonymous rhythms of daily life moving over the asphalt, and the fleeting, meaningful connections made along the way. Produced by Antoine Flipo and mixed by Elsa Grelot (Avalanche Kaito), the album stands at the intersection of human emotion and urban architecture-a post-modern, deeply cinematic work that asserts Glass Museum's place at the cutting edge of European music.

We Release JAZZ is honored to announce the release Shoals, a magnificent full-length album from Earth and Bones, the duo consisting of Liran Donin and Idris Rahman of acclaimed jazz outfit Ill Considered. Their majestic offering is available in an ultra limited edition 180g vinyl LP housed in a heavyweight sleeve with an original artwork by Dutch artist Vincent de Boer.

Carried by Liran Donin on double bass and shakers, and Idris Rahman on bass clarinet, tenor sax, shell, and Tibetan singing bowl, the 5-track album is a deeply entrancing meditative-shamanistic-ambient-jazz journey. The members of Earth and Bones poured their heart and beliefs into the project:

"From shamanic cultures and forgotten traditions, we delved deeper searching our ancient healers, exploring who they heal, what they heal, and how they do it. We wanted to focus on the poisonous human attributes that affect our animal kingdom, as well as how we can heal ourselves by balancing darkness and light. We express our forever gratitude to our community, tribe and animal kingdom.

Despite how governments and multinational corporations try to isolate us from one another, we can't make it alone without our shoal. To truly have a shoal, we need to accept each other for what we are."

Their friend, Vincent de Boer, delivers the visual side of Shoals:

"The living world and all its particular (eco)systems s increasingly a source of inspiration for my art process. When Idris and Liran showed me the new recording and the thoughts behind it, it immediately fell onto good grounds. A school of fish is eminently a metaphor for collective improvisation, something we are all engaged in on an artistic level. The group decisions go beyond causality, the energies provide a simultaneous awareness for choices of direction. The space between the entities thus form a new entity. Non-matter becomes matter and vice versa: an area where music and visual art meet.

I drew a school of fish and tried to make it look like a fixed entity, so that multiple lives become one collective. As a bird and perhaps as a rock or cave: outside becomes inside becomes outside: so that all domains of the living world are linked: the swimming, the crawling, the flying and the playing. The spiritual connection with the music of Idris and Liran is grand, the places it takes me are at once very distant and extremely close. From otherworldly to within the body: the opposites as well as the harmonies are of shamanistic proportions."

Points of interests

For fans of ambient-jazz, meditative music, shamanistic rituals, improvisational process, deep vibes, Ill Considered, Vincent de Boer, heartful connections, healers and healing, the body, the otherworld, life within and outside.

.Super limited edition vinyl of Earth and Bones' debut !

Bruce Dickinson, More Balls To Picasso. Sein klassisches Album von 1994 neu interpretiert und neu
aufgelegt!
Bruce sagt dazu: „Während ich meinen gesamten Katalog in Dolby Atmos abmischte, verspürte ich den
brennenden Wunsch, die Platte neu zu interpretieren und neu zu erfinden. ‚More Balls To Picasso‘ war
eine Herzensangelegenheit. Natürlich haben wir die Gitarren verstärkt und sogar neue hinzugefügt. Der
brasilianische Komponist Antonio Teoli steuerte atemberaubende Orchesterarrangements bei und fügte – als
einzigartigen Beitrag – am Anfang von ‚Gods Of War‘ einheimische Instrumente aus dem Amazonasgebiet
hinzu (die er selbst aufgenommen hatte, als er dort lebte!).
‚Shoot All The Clowns‘ profitiert von einer Bläsersektion unter der Leitung von Professoren des Berkeley
College of Music, und die gesamte Platte profitiert vom Mix von Brendan Duffey (The Mandrake Project),
ergänzt durch Anmerkungen von Shay Baby, dem ursprünglichen Vater des Albums.
Enthält zwei bisher unveröffentlichte Live-Studio-Tracks: ‚Gods of War‘ und ‚Shoot All The Clowns‘.“

Slowly yet firmly blooming into focus, An Unfinished Rose is the new album from Australian duo Troth.

This is their first since relocating to Hobart, Tasmania and their introduction to Night School Records. With a detailed web of past releases on labels A Colourful Storm, Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox, Knekelhuis and Bowman’s own Altered States Tapes imprint, An Unfinished Rose is the group’s most realised and composed work thus far. While still drawing on the improvisatory and DIY practices that informed Troth’s beginnings, it points to a new incarnation of the duo’s music; an intentional language emerging from the fog of obfuscation and mists of uncertainty.

Over these 9 meditations on change, acceptance, renewal and rebirth, An Unfinished Rose finds Amelia Besseny and Cooper Bowman peeling back some of the roughhewn architecture that defined their earlier releases to reveal a masterful - if auto-didactic - use of space and melody. Composition and improvisation compliment and feed each other throughout, with locked-loop earworms providing the springboard for lines of clarinet or synth melody, and the negative space between chord clusters giving ample room for Besseny’s most confident vocal performances to date. Shaving off a little of the defining dissonance and tape compression of old reveals Troth’s music in radiant daylight, humbly accepting of its place in the world while yearning for better, more sympathetic modes of living. Leaning more heavily on acoustic instrumentation and post-production processes than previously, the result is a transcendent body of work infused with an almost zen-like presence.

Troth’s music exists in the border between forming and becoming, its goal to project a kind of preternatural beauty, leaving interpretation open to the listener. Field recordings, happenstance and improvisation may provide seeds for the duo’s compositions, particularly on Side A, but there is a deft touch of songcraft on show. Loam Loom Leaf Litter opens An Unfinished Rose, directly referencing natural cycles of life, death and regeneration, before the blissed-out drum machine groove of Gold Plum continues a discussion concerning the totality of nature and one’s place in it. Besseny’s vocal, swelling like an ocean churn in duet with itself is adorned with synthesised harp and a revolving synth pattern, conjuring plumes of medieval smoke. Thistle’s rounded, bass-heavy drums, nodding to the vast echo of dub, is a relatively new terrain for Troth. It’s propulsive and thumping, pulsing with a meaning and symbolism consistent with Troth’s past work, referenced overtly in Bessey’s lyrics - “Say it too much and it loses its meaning…”. Similarly, the sprawling modern-classical suite, Tides Reflected In Her Eyes, is intentional in its lyrical themes while traversing new ground, revelling in layers of bowed cello and vocal intonations. Side B’s 4 tracks feel like Troth’s most thoroughly accessible and affecting music to date. Leaning into their own detoured version of Synth Pop, Cocoonist explores downtempoisms via a crunchy low frequency synth, and dream-like, fuzzy trip-hop modalities, not unlike Besseny and Bowman’s other group, Th Blisks. Following on, Myrtle Mystes is an open and searching DIY pop song, forged out of drum machine, bass guitar and cello. (An) Unfinished Rose’s title-track is a clear stand-out, built upon an evocative rhythm sample that appears to change emotional resonance with each undulating repetition. Its cascading waves of affect, interjected with a subtle breeze of synth, bowed instrumentation and soaring, densely-layered vocals.

An Unfinished Rose is enveloping, warm, forgiving. Difficult, yet retaining a unique beauty. Troth’s music aims to celebrate the duo;s shared experiences of being in the world, despite the complexity often surrounding us all. Theirs is a message of hope and perseverance, learning and patience.

Tech-Nology was launched in 2003 specifically to make records with the artist Bjorn Svin. Bjorn was the first Danish artist who made underground crossover into commercial hit territory via "Mer Strom" - but still keeping respect in the "real" music world for his enthusiasm, non-compromising style, persona, and sweaty live performance skills - his musical understanding and need to explore new directions took the crowd on a personal musical journey from jazz and classical musicians to early electronic pioneers - but always in a tone of his own. Bjorn always felt a need to escape norms, to grow and not to repeat, but investigate and create. The first record on Tech-Nology was born under the alias - El Far: Couples of lonely dancers. "Bjorn is maybe the most talented electronic producer ever in Denmark" and he was celebrated as a wonder kid by the media back in the 90's. An insider with new knowledge of Bjorn told us: "Yeah I think its good music.. It's not for everyone I must add, but it's definitely quality music for those who dig this sound.. sometimes a bit too deep.. which kind of works against it, cause you really need to listen to it.. you cannot just skip through it, cause then you don't really grasp the soul of it.. so this is what makes it more difficult to sell - but if a guy like this was a bigger name he would sell much better.."

We love Bjorn and we agree - We have tried to sell Bjorn and his music for over 2 decades now - But you can't capture Bjorn, you can't own him - he is only making music for himself - and you can get on the ride if you want to, but don't expect all the rides to be fun - sometimes it hurts! Bjorn is difficult to sell, but we don't think Bjorn really would like to sell much better if he had the option to do a more commercial approach to his music - because Bjorn is about not selling out, he's a purist at heart, making music documents for the few. Bjorn is bigger than superficial success and streaming numbers. He made jingles for Nokia, toured and played Roskilde's main stage, the biggest Festival in Denmark, but he still doesn't care... and that is important if you want to make interesting music that last for the future. When Bjorn met Mester Jakobsen, label boss of Tech-Nology, he has been releasing on numerous underground labels, made the jump to a major label, and everything more or less turned out as a big disappointment, so Bjorn presented a completely experimental album to the Tech-Nology label under the moniker Prinz Ezo - The Body Offset. We loved it then - we still love it now - and a truly collectors item and a secret DJ tool.

Today, Bjorn is still breaking all habits and rules, still doing the same thing - just in new ways, but he has gained insight on another level, adding even more nuances and textures to his post-genre compositions.

Welcome to the second album by Prinz Ezo on Tech-Nology: KURIER Why Kurier? Because Bjorn left to explore the Berlin Underground, shortly after the first two releases on Tech-Nology - he left his roots to search for a bigger meaning, a bigger understanding, to compose real mature sounds and understanding his skills, at the point where you understand why you have to cross borders, still incognito, doing smuggler-sounds, always in transit - between cities, between cultures, between worlds, time and space. Not Restless nor rootless, just forever on the move, always discovering new landscapes! But now Bjorn is settling down - accordingly with the music - to find - not inner peace, but to be completely in balance with the music inside of him. Prinz Ezo is raw, narrative, minimalistic electronic storytelling that refuses to freeze. Tension builds and releases - feel the energy and the drama for the last 2 decades if you dare to take the journey?

Almost twenty years after the first Prinz Ezo album, it has now been possible to make the music for those who never arrived.

Death Is Not The End release a second part collecting pre-partition film music, compiled by Gary Sullivan of Bodega Pop.

As the 1940s began, South Asian cinema entered a transformative phase. Playback singing, still a new idea in the previous decade, quickly became standard practice. Actors no longer had to sing, and singers no longer had to act, opening the door to a wave of dedicated vocal talent that redefined the sound of the industry.

Voices like Noor Jehan, Shamshad Begum, and Suraiya rose to prominence, becoming household names across the subcontinent. Behind them, composers like Naushad, Anil Biswas, and Ghulam Haider were expanding the sonic palette of film music, blending ragas with Western orchestration, folk tunes with jazz-era instrumentation. Harmoniums, sarangis, violins, accordions, and clarinets filled out increasingly complex arrangements, while ghazals and qawwalis continued to influence mood and structure.

Although the post-Partition years are often considered to be Bollywood's "Golden Age," thanks to filmmakers like Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, and Guru Dutt, the music started its peak just before the divide. By 1947, Naushad and others were producing some of the most emotionally rich and musically intricate work in the industry's history, compositions that would prove challenging to surpass in the decades that followed.

Yet this high point came during a time of immense upheaval. The Second World War, the Bengal famine, and the crumbling of colonial rule all loomed large. Film songs often reflected the uncertainty, sometimes mournful, sometimes romantic, sometimes defiant. And when the Partition finally came, it fractured the world that had created this music. Artists became refugees, studios were split, and careers were thrown into flux. Noor Jehan, who would go on to become Pakistan's most iconic singer, recorded many of her most beloved songs in Bombay. Khursheed, another major star, faded from public life after migrating. K.L. Saigal, a towering figure of the 1930s and '40s, died in Lahore just months before the split.

This collection spans those final years before Partition, a time of creative flowering and looming catastrophe. Like Part 1, these songs were sourced from immigrant-run music shops in New York and New Jersey. They are fragments of a vanishing world, each one a snapshot of the art, longing, and resilience that defined this extraordinary era.

Soul Flip is back with the 18th chapter of this apparently never-ending story! And this time, Mr Soul Flip himself Del Gazeebo welcomes the return of super-producer Wonderlove for backup.

First up, Del gives his full attention to the Pointers Sisters' "Send Him Back" - a firm favourite with the Northern Soul crowd back in the day, and respectfully freshened up for 2025.

As you probably know by now, we love a "version", so on the flip, Wonderlove breathes new life into Johnny Mathis' cover of Willy Bobo's "Evil Ways" in devastating fashion.

Early support from Craig Charles Funk and Soul Show on BBC6 Music.

The writer Max Sebald often pondered over the nature of human memory, specifically, how our thoughts and desires - and their results - overlap and mutate over time. In A Place in the Country, he writes of the significance of what see as “similarities, overlaps and coincidences”. Are they the “delusions” of the self and senses, or manifestations of “an order underlying the chaos of human relationships, ... which lies beyond our comprehension”?

Song of the Night Mists, the new album by post-classical composer Stefan Wesołowski, often feels it draws on Sebald’s premise.

On a simpler plane, the one where the market dictates the neatly ordered information we consume, Song of the Night Mists can be described thus: recorded in the main by Stefan Wesołowski in Gdańsk, both in his studio and in Saint Nicholas' Basilica, the album incorporates acoustic instruments - piano, violin, double bass - and classic synthesizers such as the Roland Jupiter-8, the Soviet Polivoks. A Roland Space Echo RE-150 tape delay was also pressed into service as an instrument. We also hear the basillica’s organ and field recordings from the Tatra Mountains. Other musicians were Maja Miro, who played the flute parts on ‘Glacial Troughs’ and brother Piotr Wesołowski, who played the organ on ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’. Sound engineer was Marcin Nenko, who was also on hand to record the basilica organ parts. The album was mixed in New York by Al Carlson (Oneohtrix Point Never, Jessica Pratt, Zola Jesus, Lady Gaga, and Liturgy) and Rafael Anton Irisarri handled the mastering.

Ostensibly, Song of the Night Mists is the last in a trilogy, following on from albums Liebestod (2013) and Rite of the End (2017). All three deal with existential matters such as love, death, decay and “an ultimate end”; apocalyptic and Promethean in spirit, and betraying very human conceits. The Sebaldian nature of the new record starts to make itself felt when Wesołowski talks of how he used sampling. One element is unexpected, that of sampling himself: “I go back to dozens of my own unused sketches and recordings, treating them as raw material to cut, slow down, reverse, and transform in every possible way.” Memory as sound, to be reemployed by the listener through their own imaginings.

Another set of samples made by Wesołowski plays another role. These are field recordings, originally created for an audio illustration of the formation of the Tatra Mountains, and used in a film by sound designer Michał Fojcik. Wesołowski: “You can hear cracking ice, streams, footsteps in the snow and the wind, and a real avalanche, recorded from the inside.” The “Tatra connection” on the album is also found in samples referencing composer Karol Szymanowski. The album’s title alludes to a poem about the mountains by Polish poet, Kazimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer.

Wesołowski’s Tatra recordings are “about a world without humans - about the fact that the world existed, was beautiful, and had meaning long before people arrived, and for the vast majority of its history, it was a place without us.” Wesołowski, using one iteration of the natural world, plays out in sound Sebald’s idea of another order, underlying the chaos of human relationships lying beyond human comprehension.

These feelings play themselves out on the five album tracks. Sonorous and rich, they illustrate tectonic shifts we have no control over. Wesołowski hints that the overall sound is a “meditation on the metaphysics of the non-human set against the spirituality that human presence has brought into it.” In that light, the opening number, ‘Core’, with its slow build, and crackling and straining sound effects, create an effect of the earth groaning into life in a creation myth. Once the piano part raps out a simple melody and modulated tonguing trumpet samples add to the overall atmosphere, the listener can certainly find a cue in the “spiritual”, or “human” side of the story. Human versus nature: from the strains and harmonic muscle stretches of the second number, ‘Glacial Troughs’, through to the powerful and filmic ‘Stalagmite’ and heart-on-sleeve romance expressed in closer, ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’, we listeners are cast as Friedrich’s wanderer, looking out over a landscape that will appear only if we engage with it.

Formations of melody appear incrementally, almost appearing by chance - like hidden footings in the rock shelves to give us something to grasp onto. Rhythms are used sparsely: the prolonged percussive taps on ‘Glacial Troughs’ are an anomaly and maybe there to give pace to the album to come; essentially to keep the listener strapped in. Elsewhere, percussion is used as an aid to mood, the two thudding, timpani-style passages on ‘Peak’ there to offset the short, beautiful, kosmische passage that splits them.

Elements of the borderline religious spirit that drove German electronic music in the late 1960s and 1970s also find a place on Song of the Night Mists. The swells and recessions of the organ find their emotional climax on ‘Wilhelm Tombeau’, a track which summons up echoes of the “mountain magic” vistas created by Popol Vuh or Tangerine Dream, especially with the slightly atonal wobble of the Mellotron that counters it.

This is a dramatic album, but it does feel a strangely short, or curtailed listen on ending, evoking the feeling one gets when waking from a dream, and, for all its incipient grandeur, a track like ‘Stalagmite’, for instance, ends on a minor note. Wesołowski admits that Song of the Night Mists is born of the all too human process of temptation, doubt and recalibration - Sebaldian overlaps and coincidences forming something that must live another life, away from its creator. In Wesołowski’s words, the album is “a newborn foal must stand up and walk right after birth.” Now it is yours to ponder.

What happens when you combine SUMAC: a band that uses the volume, distortion, and guitar-centric approach of metal to make music that has the malleability of jazz and textural exploration of noise with Moor Mother: a poet and sound artist that has deconstructed hip hop to a point where it"s less about rhyme and rhythm (though obviously both are present in her work) and more about oratorical cadence and power.

The Film is an album that takes attributes of both artists" work and finds common ground in shifting musical patterns, and expressive force. The record is a musical thumbing of their noses at the more traditional approaches of their respective fields, an innovative, powerhouse of an album. The Film"s moniker speaks to the fact that it is conceived and delivered as a complete album, a full story or narrative. Moor Mother puts it best: "The idea is to create a moment outside of the convention. This is a work of art.

Thinking about the work as a Film, instead of an album or a collection of songs. This task is impossible in an industry that wants to force everything into a box of consumption. You won"t understand or get the full picture until the artwork is completed. This work is developing and is requesting more agency within the creative process." The Film is just such a work, a nebulitic collaboration between SUMAC and Moor Mother.

Portuguese based Nørbak returns to Soma with his second single for the label, the Myelination EP. Nørbak is quickly making a name for himself in the global scene and has just completed his debut album to much critical acclaim. The young producer has built a wealth of knowledge on sound design and is clearly represented in his music which is deep and rich in sonic experiments whilst retaining dancefloor focus. This latest EP has Spanish techno maestro Oscar Mulero & fellow Portuguese talent Lewis Fautzi, deliver two fantastic remixes that perfectly compliment the originals.

Nørbak's "Myelination" starts the EP with driving percussive elements that propel the track from the opening. Swamped with light & ethereal FX, dark and droning sounds take the track down a ominous path. Lewis Fautzi steps up next with his remix of Myelination. With a more minimalistic interpretation he manages to continue the dark and direct momentum of the original. On the flip, Mirante rattle hards with steady and precise percussion, bolted together with heavy rolling kicks and sub and a perfectly muted rhythm throughout. Techno don Oscar Mulero closes the EP with his version of Mirante. He immediately ups the ante with driving 909 beats and huge atmospheric FX that guide the rhythms. Mulero always on point with his signature sound design and techno aesthetic.

Mastered By Conor Dalton @ Glowcast Mastering.

HARMONY020— One year from Ayū’s debut on Harmony—Neon Affair, four artists closely connected to the release were invited to remix their favorite track from the record. The result is a new remix EP featuring a dancefloor-driven A-side, crafted for peak-time energy, and a B-side dedicated to closing sets and trippy storytelling.

Side A opens with Maara’s remix of “Space to Come”- a progressive, sexy spacey journey with muttered vocals and a blissed-out groove, blended with her iconic sound. Keeping up with the dance-floor energy, Spray delivers a dreamy yet bubbly take on “Point Nemo.” Spray’s take showcases his distinctive musical patterns and fuzzy textures.

The B-side remix by Harmony’s Alfred Czital and Jeku sends the record to the late hours of the party. Jeku’s version of “Neon Affair” brings driving drumlines and euphoric prog beats, layered with hypnotic, trippy touches – sweet, yet dirty. Alfred Czital closes the record with his Dream Mix of “Space to Come,” an exciting and misty journey through sound – playful, metaphysical, and the perfect closing track for extended parties.

To mark a decade as one of Ibiza's most iconic musical sanctuaries, Hostal La Torre announces 'La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cinco', a new compilation curated by long-standing residents Pete Gooding and Mark Barrott. Released June 27 on CD and double vinyl, the 15-track collection captures the spirit of the venue that has come to define the golden-hour soundtrack ofthe island's west coast.

Since opening in 2015, La Torre has established itself as a bastion of Balearic culture-set high on the cliffs overlooking the sea, where music flows with the sun rather than the clock. The fifth volume in the celebrated La Torre series is a journey through Brazilian soul, ambient electronica, classic deep house, orchestral minimalism, and dusk-lit Detroit techno-an emotional arc designed to mirror the progression of an evening at the venue.

From timeless icons like Nina Simone, Mazzy Star, Talk Talk (with their Spirit of Eden closer "Wealth"), and Boards of Canada, to boundary-pushers like Auntie Flo, Eden Burns, and µ-Ziq (aka Mike Paradinas), Volumen Cinco weaves together deep-rooted classics and leftfield discoveries. Mark Barrott contributes a brand-new exclusive, 'When Devils Become Gods', while the compilation closes on a rare gem from Yellow Magic Orchestra's Yukihiro Takahashi. Also includedis Software's 'Present Voice', a quietly powerful tribute to the late José Padilla, the spiritual architect of Ibiza's sunset sound.

Volumen Cinco is more than just a listening experience-it's a tribute to La Torre's ethos: open-hearted, genre-fluid, rooted in place and time. Each track is carefully sequenced to evoke a feeling, a shift in light, or a shared memory beneath the fading sun.

Over the years, La Torre has welcomed some of the most influential names in Balearic and electronic music, from José Padilla, Alfredo, and Jon Sa Trinxa to DJ Harvey, David Holmes, Lovefingers, Heidi Lawden, Wolf Müller, Don Carlos, and Phil Mison. With each summer season and each release, the venue continues to build a musical legacy that has earned critical acclaim from Resident Advisor, Phonica Records, Juno, and Piccadilly Records, regularly featuring in their year-end lists.

As Test Pressing once wrote, "La Torre is not a party, it's a place of pilgrimage. It feels almost sacred." That spirit resonates deeply in this anniversary compilation-a celebration of music, community, and connection that spans a decade.

La Torre Ibiza Volumen Cinco is dedicated to the artists, friends, collaborators, and guests who've shaped its story so far-and to everyone who continues to gather, listen, and lose track of time as the sun slips beneath the horizon.

For the first time on vinyl a collection of tracks by Cortex, Alain Neffe (Bene Gesserit,Insane Music) experimental spoken-word project originally released on tape in 1984.

Cortex was never intended to be a conventional musical project.
From the very beginning it was centered around free live performances. These encounters were stripped down and highly visual: Alain Neffe constructed a trapezoidal fluorescent white screen lit by black light.

The narrator—la récitante—was only illuminated in the face, while the rest of the stage remained in complete darkness.
This created a ghostly effect where the audience could see only her glowing face and dark silhouette. She was a beautiful young woman, with a striking presence, and beside her, Alain Neffe played synthesizer and created sonic effects.
The aim of Cortex was to deliver a minimalist and emotional experience, one centered on text and the voice of the narrator.

Most of the tracks that exist today were recorded informally during rehearsals, using two microphones placed in front of Marshall amps, captured directly to cassette.
La récitante could choose a text from a collection of hundreds. Then, the music was improvised in real time around her voice. That process, simple, direct, and instinctive produced a body of work that’s rough around the edges, but full of presence. It’s not polished, but that’s the point.

Cortex was focused entirely on the connection between voice and sound.

Limited to 300 copies

LA underground hubs DISCOS XXX aka DX3 and Elbow Grease join forces to proudly present Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1 — featuring 20 distinct artists from the inspired local dance music scene, working under one unified studio roof in various collaborative
formation at the mighty Los Feliz hilltop palace Point Winona, overseeing the city they collectively represent. These timeless warehouse-wrecking tracks all stand on their own, but the compilation as a whole offers a solid geographic sonic statement with shared rhythmic DNA and bold rooted-futurist production blueprints, guided by the champion efforts of studio executive producers/curators Tavish DJ and Dave Aju.
The BPS stage-setting opener evokes crispy A.M. hours with lush Detroit-meets-Cali feels on “Within Reason” — then studio dream team 5 ATMs bring the dubwise floor vibes up a notch on “A Dub Called Mondo” and Chitown-to-LA legend Scott K lays down an FM bass-laced acid house heater with “Tighter & Tighter”. Nashville-born producer Gryph funks things up on the live space boogie bump of “Winona at Sunset” while SSRI, comprised of Underground Resistance’s DJ Dex/Nomadico, Aju, and Black Lodge’s fearless leader Kosmik, drop fierce robo-Italo bliss on “Omnicallora”. Things take a further psychedelic twist with the PW edit of Scotty Coats’ sublime midtempo tripper “Be Work Zone Alert”, then Omakase’s own Gold Code alongside longtime rave brother Aju drop the nasty J Saul-salute “Yolo Jungle”, and Warehouse Preservation Society aka Tavish DJ & TK fully detonate floors inna raucous Wicked Crew stylee with “Data Bliss”. Undisputed LA scene queen Stacy Christine arrives with her shining debut “Smart Move”, where she and Aju trade sly vox lines of party advice over a bouncing tech banger for the ages, before the “Obsesion Romantica (Free Winona Dub)” sees Sisters Of Sound aka Maddy Maia and Tottie's, OG track getting stripped back and fired up to acidic peak time form. Then Dave Aju and SF homies Moniker aka EO & Kenneth Scott unleash wild uptempo melodic bruk heaven on “Chuy Luis”, and Vastir sends us home with the stratospheric drum n bass closer "Turnpike"

At the end of the project’s 20th anniversary celebrations, ROME tolls in the next era of the band with a fresh and visionary album: ‘The Tower’.  ROME’s new and ever more mature sound is informed by a radically minimalist folk approach, with nonetheless charmingly lush arrangements. ‘The Tower’ is an introspective and enigmatic work at whose centre stands nothing less than ROME’s raison d’etre: The Great Work and the sacrifices both necessary and essential on the demanding path to light. As an unreachable bulwark against the general decline of every value in life, the tower would have been erected long ago to defend the coast.

It would have been raised on a rocky platform resting on the sea floor. It would have been joined to the continent by a thin tongue of sand. It would have offered a heroic, magical point of view. A place for our claim to know and point out vaster horizons. It would have stood firm on the ramparts. This isolated tower would not have been just a refuge for more or less mystic escape, but also a post of resistance and combat.

Next in the We’re Going Deep label series, he welcomes 4 tracks of completely fresh material from a relatively unknown Italian producer, Davide Tonini. Hailing from the much fabled Adriatic coastal party town of Rimini in Italy, Davide has been shaping and sculpting Electronic sounds for well over 3 decades now. Having first started releasing music under his ‘Wet Basement’ alias back in 2015, his sonic palette traverses IDM, Techno, Deep House, Acid and Ambient soundscapes.

Having spent decades honing his practice, he has both self-released his music and worked with the long standing Odrex Music in Berlin. And there’s something deeply irresistible about his output that screams class and quiet dedication. In his own words, in around 2005 he got into the world of Eurorack and a few years later, Serge Modular. Since then, he’s been totally hooked...

In more recent times, Davide has recorded and released 2 digital LPs worth of material for ‘Detroit Underground’ under his own name, so it seems fitting that We’re Going Deep are now hosting a debut 12” cut – offering up 4 cuts of trademark sumptuousness. Bringing together the best of influences that touch on the likes of Aril Brikha, David Alvarado, Deepchord, Convextion and Basic Channel, he weaves together their respective magic to a new whole point of inflection that is both of this world and the other. All tinged with a warmth and smile that could only originate in Mediterranean climes.

The aptly named ‘A-1’ kick starts the EP in fine fashion as shimmering chords cut through rays of floatingly filtered synthesis, all beautifully dubbed out to a steady rolling kick and neatly shuffled high-hats, with precision bass notes interjecting to add an additional layer of funk. With bliss set to maximum, this is nothing short of genius. Followed by ‘Bilateral’, Davide offers a touch more space and lets the bottom end lead, whilst neatly filtered chords flicker to and fro - seeping their way into your consciousness as the tight drum work brings you to groove mode.

On the reverse, ‘Drive’ burrows further into emotive depths as Davide bathes you in layers of dub and twinkling melodics, all passed through a hazy film of goodness. Rounding off the EP with the deft touch of Distanze Logaritmiche – a soft roller that steeps you in undulating chords and cavernous effects. This is high class music that deserves patience and your attention to reap the ultimate rewards from a true master of his craft.

Can’t go over it. Can’t go under it. Gotta go through it. And somewhere out there in the Pitch black beyond all darkness lies Peace & Purpose. The horizon you never quite crest until the inevitable end. Breathe deep — this fearful moment is the most alive you’re ever gonna feel. For the last decade, Crack Cloud’s vision has grown ever more expansive, more cinematic. Last go around, they dropped from The Heavens and then performed with their bare backs to an endless darkening desert. Now they’ve crammed all that life into some metallic and strange object called Peace & Purpose. All the terror of living. All the helplessness. All the raw human will. All glued and screwed and locked into this impossible tactile shape of dungeon dub; sour milk vox; Avant-protest music. Music arm wrestling itself to the ground. Far afield of beauty. The discordant symphony of factory farming and grim timber of the meat processing plant. The grinding din of the cogs. And yet, never giving up in spite of all good sense. Even in death, we are a coterie of survivors. Look now: There’s Terry Fox on his one-legged Marathon of Hope across The Great White North while cancer spreads through his lungs. A self-annihilating drive to feel alive. Rage against the dying of the light, they say. Well, how ‘bout it then!??! Peace & Purpose is not in any way some art project meditation on Punk Rock. It is Punk Rock. Terrifying, inspiring, vital, invigorating and most importantly, utterly unexpected. Every goddamn stupid day is a sublime slice of fresh hell. That’s the point. Gotta go through it. Wishing you Peace & Purpose — if only in that last big breath.

2026 Repress

Thirteen years after their landmark debut, Italian duo Voices From The Lake (Donato Dozzy & Neel) return with their much-anticipated second album, 'II' (two) on their own Spazio Disponibile.The record marks a new chapter in one of electronic music's most revered projects. Born from a friendship and a singular musical vision, Voices From The Lake first emerged as a one-off live performance in the Japanese Alps, later distilled into their self-titled 2012 album. That record has since become a touchstone in ambient techno, reshaping the global landscape of hypnotic and atmospheric electronic music. In the years since, the duo have performed worldwide, released a handful of EPs, worked on installations, and founded record labels, all while continuing to refine the project's unique identity. Yet the core of Voices From The Lake has always been its deep, aqueous approach to sound, a sensibility that returns in full force on II. "The project was never meant to become what it did," the duo reflect. "At one point, we even paused it. Only to later embrace it in all its forms. II is both a continuation and a reinvention." True to that spirit, Voices From The Lake have explored extremes in recent years, from high-tempo live sets to seated listening concerts, while remaining anchored in the meditative pulse of ambient techno. II extends this lineage, carrying forward the immersive sound design and boundary-pushing vision that has defined their work from the beginning.

Nina Kraviz launches a new label.

treats is the younger, bratty sister label to trip, specialised in cool music for the dance floor that seems to ignore the idea of genres. To prove this point the first release brings together two tracks that have been roasted in Nina's sets for months and are genre bending.

On the A-side, Brazilian phenomenon and SoundCloud cowboy Joao Lagrima de Ouro teams up with Baile Funk legend MC Pogba. "Pitbull de Glocada" is an excessively naughty heater, with a serious nod to the regional Brazilian electronic music, creating an authentic blend of sounds.

On the B-side, Nina herself teams up with Rio de Janeiro marvel Mc Nick. The two met online, as Nina came across Nick's sensual hit "Mete com forza e com talento" and made her own version of it. Later during a Brazilian tour, the two finally met up on the mythical beach of Mc Nick's hometown where "sem amor" was recorded. Nina's signature minimalist production and approach to vocals pairs idyllically with Mc Nick's fiercely carnal and feminine raps.

treats 001 consists of two tracks with a fluctuating identity, spilling over with risque playfulness that might require parental advisory for some, but it's hard to deny the sheer joy these tracks exude.

Dutch electronic maverick Spekki Webu stretches out on an expansive album for new label Outer Orbit Records, exploring his deep and wide-ranging influences across a captivating narrative of tripped-out beatdowns and evocative dreamscapes. Spekki Webu is someone who was naturally drawn into the magnetic pull of Outer Orbit after playing for their sister party Mizz Softee. As the time-travelling album title suggests, it's a meditation on formative sounds that propelled him on to myriad adventures across the many microcosms of electronic music. That means indulging in slower tempos and crooked grooves, with the influence of trip hop and illbient looming large in the boom bap drums that punctuate many of the album's passages. There is also space for immersive techno that operates as a lighter reflection of the sound he is best known for, as well as hints of buoyant house music, rolling breakbeat, dislocated ambient and intricate electronica. Cari Lekebusch, a key influence, contributes a rolling, heavy-grooving remix that closes out the record.

SKYLAX RECORDS proudly unveils the final chapter in its monumental 4-part saga — SKYLAX BLACK 4: Enlightenment Theory. This visionary series, bringing together two of France’s most iconic electronic artists — ARNAUD REBOTINI and ACID WASHED — was never just a collection of records. It was a journey through the deepest layers of the underground — a conceptual project where each release was a coded message, each track a fragment of a greater whole. On the A-side, Enlightenment Theory explodes with fierce urgency — an anthem forged in the spirit of Underground Resistance, echoing the soulful intensity of early ’90s Detroit without imitation. It’s bold, emotional, and militantly underground — a future classic cloaked in defiance and elegance. On the B-side: B1. Space Is The Place channels the weightless gravity of dub techno at its purest — all echo chambers and endless delay, a direct line to the Berlin school of Basic Channel, Maurizio, and Deepchord. B2. Beyond Current Biological Constraints closes the chapter in deep space — an electro masterwork evoking Drexciya, full of aquatic melancholy and cybernetic funk. It’s not retro — it’s timeless. With this last installment, the puzzle is complete. The meaning is revealed: R.A.V.E. — four records forming one powerful word. One timeless idea. A tribute to everything this culture stands for: raw energy, emotional truth, sonic innovation, and spiritual depth. This project could only be born on SKYLAX RECORDS — a label that has always stood apart. Uncompromising. Devoted to physical formats. Fiercely loyal to the culture. While others chase trends, SKYLAX continues to chart a different course — one rooted in the sacred codes of house, techno, electro, and beyond. It is no exaggeration to say that SKYLAX is one of the last true purist strongholds of underground music — and this series, with its layered meanings and fearless artistry, is proof. From Redshifts to Blueshifts to Artificial Darwinism then Vision Quest, every chapter has pointed toward this moment. Now, with Enlightenment Theory, the full vision is revealed. RAVE is not just a word — it is the truth. A philosophy. A myth reborn. The circle is complete. The message endures. The legacy lives on.

When The Style Council’s debut album Café Bleu was released in 1984, Weller and wing-man Mick Talbot unveiled a cosmopolitan blend of jazz, soul, and pop that felt effortlessly sophisticated and daringly fresh. Café Bleu was more than a debut—it was a statement of intent, redefining what British pop could sound like in a new decade.

Since then, fans have been waiting for a deep dive into the Style Council vaults eager to hear any unreleased material. And now the wait is over.

The Café Bleu Special Edition is a treasure trove for Style Council devotees and music lovers alike - an immersive journey into one of the most inventive eras of Paul Weller’s career. This lavish release unveils a wealth of previously unheard material, including early demos, alternate takes, and unreleased songs that showcase the band’s restless drive for experimentation and evolution.

Since launching in 2018, Innate has been synonymous with cultured techno and now, finally, we get to hear from co-founder Gilbert with his first full release on the label. overdue. The Bristol producer delivers three originals rooted in electro futurism, deep house emotion and Detroit lineage. 'Passage Of Time' rolls with acid detail and warm chords, while 'We Are All Made of Stars' leans into melancholic melody and gentle propulsion. 'Natural Dimension' pushes outward with driving rhythms and shimmering motifs. The remixes are on point too - Nuron reshapes 'Furthest Planet' into raw, emotive electro, while Apiento and Diego Herrera rework 'We Are All Made of Stars' into hazy, analogue proto-house.

DJ Feedback

Laurent Garnier:
"Ohhh wahouuu this is a brilliant release indeed. Loooove it!"

Lexx (Wavetest):
"Good stuff! Full support as usual. "

Sven Weisemann:
"perfecto =)"

Aroy Dee (MOS):
"Well, that sounds absolutely lovely! "

Cignol:
"That Nuron remix too, holy shit, amazing!"

Colin Dale (Abstract Dance):
"This Gilbert EP is killer! Will be rotating and supporting it for sure."

Gilbr (Versatile):
"Love what I hear..."

Jorge Caiado (Carpet & Snares):
"What a record!! Every track is beautiful and the remixes are sooooo good."

Marco Passarani:
"Some good stuff here mate! Will surely play this out."

Miles Atmospheric:
"Lovely package! Superb music!"

Thorgerdur:
"I really love this release! Amazing tunes :)"

Liferecorder :
"This sounds superb ! Solid productions by Gilbert for sure.."

Ivan Smagghe :
"Great originals and great Apiento/Diego Remix..."

Lovefingers :
"Sounds sick!"

Joe Bataan's extensive discography was expanded in 2022 with the release of some old recordings from the King of Latin Soul that had never been previously published. After the success of his album "Riot!" (1968), Bataan had easy access to a studio whenever inspiration struck to record a new song sketch or even a complete track. Sometimes, he would finish the recording entirely and offer it in its final version to Fania for release. This usually worked, although on some occasions, the song was rejected. In the case of 'Drug Story,' the track was recorded without a clear final purpose, even though Bataan hoped it would become part of an album. When the Fania executives heard the result, they immediately rejected it, thinking it promoted drug use. The tapes were filed away and lost in oblivion until they ended up in a thrift store in New York. From there, they were rescued by a Latin music specialist and later sold, eventually making their way to the Vampisoul archives. The song was finally released in its entirety in 2022 on the LP "Drug Story" by Now Again. It features a long, slow vocal intro that evolves into a more uptempo track with two very distinct parts, to the point that it almost feels like two different songs. It transports us to the best moment of Joe Bataan's career, with all of his classic ingredients, delivering a track as good as his most famous songs. Bataan himself takes on the lead vocals and piano, Bobby Rodríguez handles the flute, sax, and bass, Pete 'Choki' Quintero plays the drums, and William Howes Jr. plays the electric guitar with wah-wah effects. Vampisoul strongly believes that the song deserved to be released as a single as well, and that its structure was perfect for each side to have a separate identity. So here it is, for the first time on a 45, 'Drug Story,', parts one & two, the long lost track by Joe Bataan. Pure Latin soul, recorded at the peak of the artist's career!

With a steely sound matching fathoms-deep echo chambers with metallic textures and precision drums, Sciama arrives on Samurai Music to press into the inspiring hinterland between techno and drum & bass.

Sciama is the production alias for Michael Watters, a producer who since 2019 has carved out a formidable reputation across a stellar run of releases on ASC's Auxiliary label. While his music references UK bass, transcendental techno and industrial, the end result is a taut, focused journey through fractured, weighty rhythms and vast, ranging atmospherics tilted towards the darkness.
Between Veils is testament to Watters' refined production, steeped in intensely detailed and layered sound design in constant fluid motion, whether locked to the grid or shifting across the surface of the track like grayscale snow drifts. Noise becomes a subtle tool in his hands, capable of delicacy as much as abrasion, and discord evokes a haunting beauty if you listen past the clangorous overtones he elicits from his pads.

For all the writhing, artful sonics, there is still ample weight in the Sciama sound to hold court over a sound system. 'Figures In Mist' rests on a constant half time cycle underpinned by monolithic bass pulses and 'Ghost Trail' finds deadly energy in the faintest flicker of double-time hats above the slow march of a 4/4 kick clocking around 85BPM. Restraint is paramount, even in the fuller rhythm section that drives 'Anima Trace', creating tension through what isn't sequenced as much as what is. 'Veil Of Mirrors' has an especially punchy kick propelling the cavernous echos and ripples that shape out yet another vivid soundscape, but at all times Watters keeps a tight grip on his arrangement to keep the energy simmering just below boiling point.
Moving well beyond the boundaries of any specific genre, Between Veils winds upas a strong, independent statement on the meeting point between broad influences and clear intentions - a formidable addition to Samurai Music's explorations beyond drum & bass and Sciama's steadily evolving, singular style.

Plying refracted rhythms with an exacting poise, Aerae arrives on Samurai Music with a fully formed sound that plumbs the depths between techno immersion and D&B beat science.

An accomplished, palpable tension runs throughout Nefanda, Aerae's second solo release. Following up on the meditative pulse of her debut album on Annulled Music last year, the Paris-based artist digs deeper into ominous atmospheres filled with evocative reverb decays and taut, dynamic drum work - tools she wields to Redner tracks with specific meaning, coded by the Latin framing that runs through all aspects of her musical output. Contemplating the ancient language as an inescapable part of her European roots, on Nefanda Aerae ruminates on external trials and inner impulses, and conjures a jaw-clenching soundtrack to match.

'Mons' (translation: 'Mountain') speaks to challenges, strength and spiritual ascent, marked out by an urgent thrum of conga slaps and a 4/4 kick around the 170 BPM mark that finds power in minimalism even at the relatively high tempo.
The title track opts for a more broken framework, pivoting pointed percussion around a deft sub pulse while turning up the intensity with an exacting poise.

'Nefanda' translates as 'unspeakable,' or 'too horrific to name,' and the fraught, synthetic wraiths contorting through the track convey the dread the title implies.
'Fovea' (translation: 'pit') burrows deeper into spatial design with a looming low end rumble and subliminal sound sculpture, shaping out a dark, introspective chasm tipped towards disassociation. It's a powerful statement in any setting, but the all-consuming bass feels especially crafted for full, physical sound system immersion.

'Phrenesis' (translation: 'frenzy') rounds the EP out in fierce form, building up a high-pressure arrangement from ambient beginnings with ruthless control. There's a sense of duality in motion between half-time and double-time rhythmic elements, every incremental shift adding to the intensity of the track with the elegant, impactful touch that has fast become Aerae's calling card.

Finding her own language within the dialogue between techno, D&B and dark ambient, Aerae's music makes a vivid impression thanks to the ideas and intention that drive her in the studio. Nefanda confirms her status as a leading light in deep, psychedelic dance music, making something extremely personal that also reaches out beyond notions of the self like all the best transcendental music.

Originally released following his acclaimed sophomore album, HYBRIDISM finds Ecuadorian producer Nicola Cruz at the height of his exploratory powers. Now reissued on limited editon green vinyl, this expansive EP re-emerges with renewed relevance—blending North African rhythms, ethereal Persian motifs, and vocal fragments that evoke both ancient traditions and imagined worlds. A contemporary take on global exotica, HYBRIDISM is a vital entry in Cruz’s ever-evolving sonic journey.

'Aima’, named after the refrain sung by Igbo girls from Nigeria, creates the illusion that you’ve dusted off a lost LP. The aesthetic details recall expertly produced French exotica from the 70s, an overall feeling of warmth and character rarely pulled off with such panache.

‘Naeku,' in Cruz’s words, is "a sorrowful song in minor tonalities, but with a warrior energy, strength and forward vision: a soul departs, but a new one arrives in the name of Naeku, a maasai child. Not all grief needs to be a suffering; a feeling which I can relate to the place I come from with a Quechua word: Llaquilla - triste, pero feliz (sad, but happy). As always, the 303 adds that heart touching feeling.” If there’s a template for Multi Culti’s ethos, Cruz has synthesized the formula: Masai lamentation filtered through Quechua wisdom with a touch of 303 for the soul.

'Drom Tradisie' is a nostalgic vignette that captures the fantasy of a scenic horizon on a lost beach, a portrait done with the FM domain of synths that somehow associates with tropical imagery.

'Third Eye Dub’ takes things deeper, exploring the fractal realm of concentration, a point where the Oud (played by Nasiri) acts on the pineal gland. This inward journey through the cavernous depths of the subconscious sails on a smooth modular groove that transports the listener across this psychic expanse, a filigree of Persian harmonies (in Shur, to be exact) tracing outlines in the dark.

Finally, 'Kawe’s Dream’ ventures even further into the imaginary spaces of the mind. It is an aural reconstruction of the Tibetan Bardo Thodol, or ‘Book of the Dead’, a sacred text that guides the spirit through the passage out of the body. In Nicola’s words "To paint that depth, I had these Tibetan chants in mind, that I ended up crafting with Ableton's vocoder over a piece of Ayan’s vocals (sung in a made-up language). A few notes, and it gave the gravity I was looking for in the song.” Stuff that only a producer as capable as Cruz could pull off.

Hybridism’s five tracks are sonically diverse, yet all possess an ephemeral quality, a pastoral, transitory feeling that travels through the music - we listen to the sounds pass us by, we might even catch a hook or two, but the feeling is of sand running through our hands, deep, elusive, beautiful.

Informed by all the sub strains of UK Bass music and the Hardcore Continuum, Analias’s hazy sound straddles both poles between melancholy and euphoria, with an underlying greying hue in the center where all the disparate colors of the underground meld into one. Preferring to let the music speak on his behalf, (You will not find him on social media) Analias’s already substantial discography is an accomplished body of work that deserves all of the attention and praise soon to come his way. LGHPS is incredibly happy to help amplify this phenomenal artist to the world.

Drenched in mournful atmosphere and longing tones, all four cuts hold an emotive, introspective motif with subtle drum work that holds back the bubbling aggression of the punching 808 B lines brooding underneath. “Falling Falling Falling” loops sensual yet familiar vocal chops into a hypnotizing hook while the drums and bass step with enough weight and grit to make this the perfect set opener. “Cardio” up’s the tension to the boiling point with undulating strings churning the waters before unleashing a monster B line tidal wave. The sun ray’s break through the clouds on “Pass Me By” as the pummeling bass is tempered by lively Rhodes keys. The mood ascends further on the playful stomp of “Again n Again” using morphing 303 melodies and upbeat handclaps with Mood II Swing club sensibilities.

Teasing dread atmospheres and zooming in on microscopic details that bring every beat in every bar to life, Seb Uncles returns to Samurai Music with another deep dive into his exquisitely crafted, cinematic progression of the drum & bass tradition.

Even a cursory glance at the Eusebeia back catalogue tells you Uncles is an artist committed to the storytelling promise of breakbeat culture. His work has been heavily tipped towards albums since he first broke through around 2015, and across more than 10 long-players he's cultivated a strong line in moody, evocative jungle and drum & bass more concerned with world-building and subtle detail rather than aggression and intensity.

Following up on his 2023 LP for Samurai, X, on Undertones Uncles applies his signature meditative tones to a broad expanse. There's a consistent sound palette that leans on the warm snarl of monosynth low end and aqueous pads, delicately edited breaks and crisply sculpted synth percussion, but Uncles moves with dexterity around different tempos and structures within this considered sound world. The overarching notion is one of things lurking beneath the surface - a comfortably open theme to be approached and understood from any number of angles. It certainly chimes with the upfront detail and brooding tension that gives the Eusebeia sound such depth.

There are moments of direct drum pressure, such as fierce opener 'Undertones' with its diced-up breaks and icy chords, the boisterous jungle dread of 'Uncover' and chasmic roller 'Root Out', but on the likes of 'Beneath The Surface' and 'Out In The Open' it's the mellow elements that take precedence over the deft drum science. The motion is persistent and nuanced, but it's achieved without deferring to default dancefloor tropes.

'Emergence' marks a pointed shift towards a delicate strain of techno that maintains the album's sound at a mid-paced pulse, focusing on synth shapes and textures to achieve propulsion with only the lightest of drum parts. Alongside the energetic intrigue of Uncles' sonic choices, the melodic make-up of the track is a compelling showcase for his emotionally ambiguous approach, both rousing and chilling in the same curious chord shapes.

From the half-time prowl of 'Lifting The Veil' to the creeping textures and haunted phrasing of 'Brought To Light', Undertones is another stunning exercise in widescreen jungle. It flows naturally from the rich body of work Uncles has cultivated over the past 10 years while carving out its own unique pocket - a reminder if you needed one of the profound sound bedded into the Eusebeia project.

Netherlands-based artist Jonny Nash returns to Melody As Truth with his new solo album, ‘Once Was Ours Forever.’ Building on 2023’s ‘Point Of Entry,’ this collection of eleven compositions draws us further into Nash’s immersive, slowly expanding world, effortlessly connecting the dots somewhere between folk, ambient jazz and dreampop.

While ‘Point Of Entry’ was characterised by it’s laid-back, daytime ambience, ‘Once Was Ours Forever’ arrives wrapped in shades of dusk and hazy light, unfolding like a slow-moving sunset. Built from layers of gentle fingerpicked guitar, textural brush strokes, floating melodies and reverb-soaked vocals, moments come and go, fleeting and ephemeral.

From the cosmic Americana of ‘Bright Belief’ to the lush, layered shoegaze textures of ‘The Way Things Looked’, Nash’s versatile guitar playing lies at the heart of this album, gently supported by a cast of collaborators who each add their unique touches. Canadian ambient jazz saxophonist Joseph Shabason makes a return appearance, providing his delicate swells to ‘Angel.’ Saxophone is also provided by Shoei Ikeda (Maya Ongaku), cello by Tomo Katsurada (ex-Kikagaku Moyo) and Tokyo acid folk artist Satomimagae (RVNG) lends her haunting multilayered vocals to ‘Rain Song.’

As with much of Nash’s work, ‘Once Was Ours Forever’ deftly finds an equilibrium between softness and weight, offering the listener ample space to interpret and inhabit the music on their own terms. Through his uncanny ability to blend the pastoral and the profound, the idyllic and the insightful, ‘Once Was Ours Forever’ arrives as a tender and understated offering, infused with warmth and compassion.