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‘I have always been drawn to those ambiguous territories between beauty and terror, and the Trinity test is their epitome: magnificent, sublime, terrifying, annihilating. A destructive power that, somehow, only love can compare with.’

The prescriptive art and performance of Berlin based, French producer, Julienne Dessagne, has concluded with a starkly beautiful reimagining of Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game.

As Fantastic Twins, her continuing creative manifestation for music and performance, has released an array of electronic art for the body and mind. A sonic exploration of dual characters shaped through experimental pop, cinematic electronics and the outer edges of techno.

First appearing on the cult Hippie Dance label, before establishing a long and warm collaboration with Keith McIvor aka JD Twitch and his inspiring Optimo Music label, as well as her own House Of Slessor label, this release comes full of mythology and symbolism.
Immersive sound design, narrative tension, and emotionally charged atmospheres, the origin of the project – Wicked Game (Trinity Version) – was composed for a live performance at the Beta Biennale Of Architecture Of Timișoara in September 2024 and given a limited digital release soon after.

The impact on the artist and the music was multi-layered:

‘While recording this cover, images of the Trinity nuclear test, as reimagined by David Lynch in Twin Peaks (Season 3 / Episode 8) kept resurfacing, almost on a subliminal level, suggesting another wicked game: humanity’s love affair with science and technology, driven by the same mix of desire fascination and inevitability that animates Chris Isaak’s original song.’

Approached by Emotional Response, this updated “vinyl” edition is re-recorded / remastered and comes with new interpretations by Julienne herself, as well as remixes by Aho Ssan and Optimo (Espacio).

Dessagne offers a spectrum of mixes and moods; the centrifugal ‘Trinity Version’ a sweeping cinematic masterpiece, between beauty and terror, the artist transmits the aesthetics of sublime; while ‘Thousand Suns Version’ fuses industrial and techno soundscapes for a beatdown reimagining; the melancholia ‘Atomic Love Version’, where the beautiful vocals are matched with a glitchy, clipping ambience; and the finale, the ‘Core Version’ shines a personal, drifting odyssey.

The accompanying remixes see Aho Ssan (Niamké Désiré), composer and sound artist, his remake merging a love of darkcore drone with moments of uplifting energy, the ‘Core Version Aho Ssan Remix’, a fusion of craft and Dessagne’s vocals.

To close, taking up the Optimo remix mantle, Jonnie Wilkes embraces the propulsion, his ‘Thousand Suns Version Optimo (Espacio) Remix’, offering brooding, electro-driven percussion that overflows with emotion and completes this stunning, evolving, organic and singular remake.

Hopsydian are an Italian pop-metalcore outfit from Milan, formed in 2024, combining alluring and sacral atmospheres with modern metalcore power, alt-metal edge, and post-hardcore urgency.
Built on cinematic tension and explosive dynamics, their sound fuses dark, ritualistic undertones with sleek contemporary production and massive, chant-ready choruses
where beauty and brutality collide in equal measure.
The band was formed by vocalist Myles Idolo alongside guitarists Loris Ronchi and Nikolay Deliyski, later completed by bassist Roberto Vezi. The drummer remains anonymous. Their name--Hopsydian--comes from Hope and Obsidian, a ""magic rock"" symbolizing resilience, shadow, and rebirth, perfectly reflecting the duality at the heart of their music.
Hopsydian revolve around worship, love, obsession, sin, and the temptation of becoming God--balancing the holiness of gold with the black of transgression. Hopsydian balance modern heaviness with cinematic elegance--where intimate melodies and shimmering textures collide with crushing riffs and commanding rhythm sections. Their songs move like a ceremony: building atmosphere, sharpening emotion, and detonating into choruses designed to be shouted back from the crowd. Hopsydian explore the most dangerous forms of faith:
worship, love, obsession, sin, and the seduction of becoming God. Their narratives live in extremes:
desire framed as devotion, temptation disguised as salvation, and beauty that burns at the edges. It's an aesthetic of contrast: the holiness of gold set against the darkness that it can't fully conquer.
Benjamin Wilson from band Caskets helped the band develop their album artistic direction
Despite having released only six songs, Hopsydian have already proven their live impact. In 2025, they debuted on the Slam Dunk Italy main stage, sharing the bill with names such as LANDMVRKS, A Day To Remember, and Caskets, before going on to support Caskets in Milan shortly after. Momentum is building fast--and with a fanbase already demanding the next step, Hopsydian are poised to turn their growing catalogue into what it's meant to become: a fully-fledged era, and the tour that brings it to life.

With Golden Crown and his interpretation of Prefab Sprout’s Enchanted, Forest Law brings together two songs that reflect both his songwriting and his musical influences. One is an original composition from 2018, rediscovered years later and revived almost unchanged, pairing bright pop melodies with a sharp meditation on power.

The other pays tribute to a song that became a personal obsession after his long-overdue discovery of Prefab Sprout. Together, these recordings highlight Forest Law’s gift for understated arrangements, memorable melodies and lyrics whose depth unfolds with every listen.

After establishing their identity with their debut EP, Alma de Baile, Geneva-based duo Roshâni unveil Planet R, their first album, set for release on October 15, 2026, via Stonepixels and distributed by The Orchard.

More than just a record, Planet R is a world of its own: a planet shaped like a disco ball, where languages blend, synthesizers intertwine with organic grooves, and dancing becomes a form of futuristic therapy. Sung in Farsi, Spanish, French, and English, the album moves freely between futuristic disco, alternative pop, experimental electronic music, and contemplative ballads, never seeking to belong to a single scene or territory.

Marcos Valle is one of those artists you simply can't overlook if you have even a passing interest in Brazilian music. Whether your taste leans toward bossa jazz, samba, psychedelic folk, or modern soul, Valle has surely recorded a great album for you. By the late 1960s he had already released enough outstanding records to secure a place among the greatest Brazilian artists of all time, but fortunately his career didn't stop there. He has continued recording fabulous albums over the following decades, right up to the present day. Widely regarded as one of the finest recordings in Marcos Valle's catalog, Vento Sul (1972) represents a pivotal moment in his artistic evolution, revealing a composer unafraid to reinvent himself and push the boundaries of Brazilian popular music. From the hypnotic title track to highlights such as "Democústico," "Revolução Orgânica," "Paisagem de Mariana," and "Pista O2," the album remains a breathtaking achievement whose influence continues to resonate more than five decades later. This reissue shines a well-deserved spotlight on a landmark recording -- an essential chapter in Brazilian music and an indispensable addition to any collection of psychedelic, progressive, jazz, or MPB classics. Pressed on 180g vinyl.

Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.

Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.

Fontaines D.C. announce their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, released on 16th October via XL Recordings. Produced by James Ford, it is the follow-up to 2024’s UK platinum-certified Romance – and the sound of a band moving decisively away from the guitar language of their early records into something colder, stranger and more synthetic. It arrives today alongside lead single “Marianne” and its accompanying video, directed by Dave Meyers.

Dopamine Chamber arrives like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog: potent balladry, anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. In a world tipping towards collapse, it asks how pleasure mutates amid peril—and what our pursuit of it reveals about us. Across the album, Fontaines D.C. – Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll – move between gratification and dread until the two meld together, reflecting the overwhelm of artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence all riding the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” says Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

Where Romance held its tension in balance, this record tips it. “I think Romance was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” says Chatten, who spent time among the faded grandeur of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration. “This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more.” He resisted any pull towards easy optimism: “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor Deegan. “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere. On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Into the self, perhaps – or hedonism, fantasy, cosmetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless refresh of a screen.

Fontaines D.C. have spent five albums refusing to repeat themselves – from Dogrel (2019) through A Hero’s Death (2020), the No. 1 Skinty Fia (2022) and the anarchic, kaleidoscopic Romance (2024). Dopamine Chamber is their most radical turn yet: cold synthesiser tones, marching drums, samples and triggers, several songs with no guitars at all, and the swooning strings of 1960s Italian pop pulled into something synthetic. For guitarist Conor Curley, the aim was to break from the band’s own reference points: “I was trying to find stuff that pointed into the future.” It was made with James Ford between London, the English countryside and Palermo, where Chatten recorded vocals in a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” says Chatten. For their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have built the chamber. What happens to the listener inside it will be the experiment.

The Lemonheads release a strictly limited edition 12” single on 21st September featuring three classic tracks on white vinyl. Lead cut is ‘Roky’, Evan Dando’s homage to the late, great outsider genius Roky Erickson (of garage psyche legends 13th Floor Elevator and much solo strangeness).


"If Roky Erickson had vanished from the face of the earth after The 13th Floor Elevators released their epochal debut single, ‘You're Gonna Miss Me’, in early 1966, in all likelihood he'd still be regarded as a legend among garage rock fanatics for his primal vocal wailing and feral harmonica work." AllMusic


‘Roky’ is Evan's incisive take on the songwriter’s struggles and features a searing guitar break from the song's co-writer Nick Saloman (The Bevis Frond)


The Bevis Frond toured with The Lemonheads in support of the latter’s much-praised ‘Love Chant’ album of 2025 from where ‘Roky’ originally comes. And, to complete this unique package, the Frond cover two Lemonheads’ songs, ‘The Great Big No’ and ‘My Drug Buddy’; both sounding like the kind of UK-based left field power pop that inspired Kurt Cobain in the formative days of grunge – indeed, they could have snook out on the original Rough Trade or 53rd & 3rd labels at any time.


Fact fans looking for Roky-styled curveball ley line between events, might note that The Lemonheads covered The Bevis Frond’s ‘Old Man Blank’ on 2019’s ‘Varshons II’, the same year that Roky sadly passed.


Stars & Quotes:
“One of the most distinctive voices of the ‘90s” The New York Times
“The Lemonheads are one of my favorite bands” Jimmy Fallon
“Gloriously euphoric melancholy” MOJO (on Roky)

Für die Feier des Miteinanders! Mit ihrem zweiten Album "Wenn man das Licht zurückverfolgt, weiß man, wie alt die Sterne sind" gelingt WIM ein eindrucksvoller Schritt nach vorn. Die Hamburger Künstlerin verbindet erstmals ihre poetische Tiefe mit einem neuen, synth-poppigen Sound, der Raum für Leichtigkeit und Bewegung schafft. In zehn Songs erzählt sie von prägenden Momenten, Verlust, Erinnerung und dem, was Menschen im Verborgenen formt. Dabei entsteht ein Album, das Empathie einfordert, ohne zu beschweren - und das zeigt, dass selbst schwere Themen tanzbar sein können. Produziert von Tobias Siebert (Kettcar, Enno Bunger), klingt die Platte organisch und frisch - unverkennbar WIM, aber mutiger und offener als je zuvor, fast schon moderner, urbaner XL-Pop: Die Songs werden rhythmusgetriebener, luftiger und teils konsequent vom Beat getragen. Und wenn es inhaltlich doch zu schwer wird, tanzt WIM im Studio zu Paula Hartmann, hört Chappell Roan und lässt sich von Wir Sind Helden inspirieren. LP farbiges Coke Bottle Green Vinyl (140g), CD Digipak mit Posterbooklet.

The Crystal Teardrop's first album, THE CRYSTAL TEARDROP IS FORMING, came out on Rise Above Records' subsidiary Popclaw in May 2025. Steeped in classic psychedelic guitar pop and the Paisley Underground scene, not to mention the broader 60s cultural aesthetic, it has made them firm favourites with audiences in the UK and Europe. Now, barely a year later, comes its infectious follow-up, LOVE YOU MORE, also on Popclaw. The songs on LOVE YOU MORE are fundamentally upbeat, but there are hard edges, both musically (check out the guitar solo on It's Too Late!) and lyrically.

Die 12 Songs des neuen Giant Rooks Albums „IF HEAVEN EXISTS, THIS MIGHT BE IT“ erzählen von
Liebe, Verlust, Einsamkeit und der Suche nach echter Verbindung.
Der Titel ist dabei weniger Versprechen als Perspektivwechsel: Was, wenn das, wonach wir suchen, nicht
irgendwo vor uns liegt, sondern längst da ist? In den Menschen um uns herum. In den kleinen Momenten.
In dem, was uns verbindet.
Ein Album über das Gefühl, in einer lauten Welt nach Nähe zu suchen. Und über die Möglichkeit, dass
das Hier und Jetzt schon mehr enthält, als wir manchmal sehen.
Mit ihrem charakteristischen Indie-Pop-Sound, der längst international etabliert ist,
bespielen und besingen Giant Rooks das Himmlische im Irdischen.

Gold Colored Vinyl LP Edition zum 25jährigen Jubiläum des Jan Delay Solo Debüt Albums! Zusammen mit der Sam Ragga Band produzierte der Beginner-Frontmann Jan Delay ein Album, das die deutsche Pop-Landschaft nachhaltig veränderte. Noch nie war Reggae mit deutschen Texten so authentisch, so fett und so erfolgreich. Mit der Interpretation des Nena-Hits "Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann" schaffte Jan Delay den Durchbruch auch außerhalb der HipHop-Community und legte 2001 mit "Searching For Jan Soul Rebels" weiter nach. Jan Delay zeigt sich als scharfzüngiger Kritiker und Zyniker, Songs wie "Ich Möchte Nicht, dass Ihr Meine Lieder Singt" und "Vergiftet" polarisieren, wurden aber trotz aller textlichen Radikalität zu veritablen Hits.

The fifteenth release of Barro comes with an exclusive: behind the Transylvanian mask of Orlok 101 lies Nöle himself, the boss of the label.

Remember that he used this vampiric AKA to kick off Barro—his The End Of The Beginning being the first release, published in late 2018. That same year, his techno-industrial sound—packed with references from the famous work of Bram Stoker and nightmare atmospheres—helped launch another label: Soil, the Valencia-based imprint, with a project that included a suitably fitting remix of The Horrorist. The following year, he released an EP with five original tracks, titled Runaway, while also “spreading blood” on Antikhrist Visions Vol I alongside his Industrias Mekanikas comrades.

His dark influence has been felt across Barro’s catalogue, whether through his own tracks or remixes—sinking his teeth into artists like The Hacker (under his real name, Amato) or Nebula Circuit. In 2025, Orlok made his debut on Aspecto Humano with a powerful EP, equally gritty and dark. In Barro, we’ve recently had Nöle—the most techno side of Imanol Pagola—with the EPs Electro Bloody Music and Demencial Chico Aceleradom, two great showcases of his ability to keep us dancing nonstop, following the popular Mendekua, released by Xtraperlo.

For Barro 15, the two sides of the producer and DJ come together on this EP, titled Sex With a Cop—four tracks released on vinyl and digitally, plus an alternate version of the final composition as a bonus track.

Nöle's knowledge of the dancefloor and Orlok 101's ability to create atmospheres that will give you goosebumps come together on this EP to create an explosive mix.

Sex With a Cop starts with Hilerri, a techno EBM track where Orlok provides repetitive, screeching sounds and a ghostly melody, while Nöle adds incisive synths and a catchy, addictive vocal sample that warns you of the danger of the material you’re listening to. Orlok then takes over with his industrial and metallic sonorities on the next track, Amets Fabrika, although Nöle’s influence still comes through with his powerful bass and addictive synth lines. A stifled scream and a production packed with a thousand details create an unsettling atmosphere that will surprise you on the dancefloor.

The flip side begins with No Voy A Quedar Con Nadie, a track closer to Nöle’s technooid world. Even with its unsettling opening, it doesn’t take long to turn into a danceable bomb, with that dark touch typical of the Navarro producer.

Surprisingly, he saves the best for last: Harina de Huesos Humanos is one of the most interesting tracks created by Imanol Pagoda, and we can hear it in two versions, one as a bonus track. Thanks to complex production full of details and sounds that come and go, a punchy, hard as granite kick drum, and a carefully crafted industrial atmosphere, it all ends up being the perfect union between the two sonic worlds. A spectacular finale for the label’s fifteenth release.

You've never played a game like Blippo+ before, and you've never heard a video game soundtrack quite like Greatest Hits from Planet Blip.

Composed by Rob Kieswetter and Jona Bechtolt from the LA-based trio YACHT, the soundtrack collects 71 tracks from the cult classic video game Blippo+, reworked and sequenced into a continuous listen for this special release —a TV static-speckled gatefold double LP, out Oct. 16 via Hologram Opera, marking the soundtrack’s physical debut.

Taking the form of a cable TV simulator, Blippo+ captures the magical feeling of seizing a mysterious signal from outer space and discovering the television programming of an alien culture. Soundtracking the game’s pastiche of programs is Rob and Jona’s genre-spanning score—synth-heavy, eccentrically electronic, with a skewed sensibility that pays homage to cable access, library music, video art, and the late-night margins of the 80s and 90s underground.

TV obsessives will find plenty to love in Greatest Hits from Planet Blip: with surreal theme songs, jangly jingles, zippystings, catchy kitsch, period-accurate menu music and even pop hits from the alien airwaves, this propulsively playful soundtrack will have channel-flippers tingling with nostalgia.

“Planet Blip is an alien planet where art and music are the only currency and ‘consciousness particles’ form the basis of all media. To capture the spirit of this world, we drew inspiration
from all the music we felt best embodied this ethos and ran it through our own utopian blender,” say Bechtolt and Kieswetter.

Blippo+ is an award-winning, experimental, live-action video game created by YACHT and Telefantasy Studios, along with developers Noble Robot and Dustin Mierau, and published by Panic Games. It was released for Steam, Playdate and Nintendo Switch in 2025 to widespread
critical acclaim and has earned a devoted fandom. A Mac version followed earlier this year, and was nominated for an Apple Design Award.

"Simultaneously nostalgic and futuristic, otherworldly yet
welcoming, Blippo+ is an absolute artistic triumph.
" —Deven McClure, Screen Rant

"Blippo+’s presentation might ape old traditions, but the collective impact of its content is richer, deeper, and more entertaining than any mere remembrance.
" —Garrett Martin, Paste/Endless Mode

"In the increasingly reactionary and prescriptive landscape of video games, it is remarkable to encounter something so distinctive, so hopeful, so celebratory, so devoted to expanding the possibility space of art beyond a single medium." —Sam Bodrojan

For Louis Johnstone, making music has never been about waiting for the right equipment, the right environment or the right moment. Across more than a decade of work as both Wanda Group and A Large Sheet Of Muscle, the Huddersfield-based musician has built one of British experimental music's most singular bodies of work by embracing whatever happens to be within reach, allowing instinct, improvisation and circumstance to shape the outcome as much as conscious composition.
"'Chinese Benefits' was made over a year ago on an iPhone that had a broken microphone and was on its way out," he explains. "I have made many records after this with clearer sounds. Sharper ideas. That is never the point, though. You work with what you hold in your hands."
Recorded entirely on a failing iPhone 6 that stopped working shortly afterwards, 'Chinese Benefits' isn't a record about damaged technology. It is a record shaped by it. Rather than resisting the limitations of the device, Johnstone allows them to become part of the music itself, where distortion, interference and deteriorating fidelity are inseparable from the recording process.
Across twenty brief but disquieting pieces, corroded spoken word, environmental recordings, abrasive noise and fractured electronics continually emerge and dissolve. Voices drift in and out of range, reverberation stretches everyday sounds beyond recognition, and bursts of white noise interrupt moments of uneasy calm. There are echoes of radio transmissions, field recordings and musique concrète throughout, yet 'Chinese Benefits' never settles comfortably into any one tradition. Instead, it inhabits a space where accident and intention become almost impossible to separate.

That philosophy has long defined Johnstone's work. Through a vast catalogue of self-released recordings on his Umbro G imprint, alongside releases for labels including The Trilogy Tapes, he has consistently favoured immediacy over refinement, embracing imperfection not as an aesthetic but as a practical reality. His recordings are less concerned with perfection than with capturing the conditions in which they were made.
Looking back on 'Chinese Benefits', however, Johnstone's own assessment is characteristically understated.
"Listening back fully, it's quite a nice record actually. Fair enough, I make them and never really listen again TBH. Even better, it was the last Large Sheet Of Muscle record made on that phone with grit and damaged guts."

Like much of his work, 'Chinese Benefits' offers few fixed meanings. Its titles remain cryptic, its voices partially obscured and its structures deliberately unstable. What emerges instead is a deeply personal document of process over perfection, where the limitations of the tools become inseparable from the music they produce, and where the act of making something matters far more than the conditions in which it was made.

Murmuration’ is the low hum made by vast, beautifully choreographed flocks of starlings as they simultaneously flap their wings and take to the sky. Some people say that the frequency of this unique, rumbling, oscillating sound can cure diseases...

One of the most exciting live bands in the UK, British Birds combine the garage-punk energy of Billy Childish, the wry English sophistication of XTC and the witty pop inventiveness of The Lovely Eggs. Like a murmurating flock of starlings, they create a unique sound, and might even be able to cure diseases.

Based in Chorley, Lancashire, British Birds are a resolutely DIY band. Bobby records and mixes all the music; Emma creates all the artwork. Their first two albums were self-released, selling hundreds of copies at gigs and at a few chosen record stores. British Birds didn’t wait for permission to take flight. They just got on with it. Their songs are sophisticated, hard-hitting, and very skilful. It may be DIY, but it’s big and it’s ambitious.

Sessions for Marc Riley and Gideon Coe have followed, along with tours supporting The Bug Club, BC Camplight and Lovely Eggs.

‘Murmurate, Oscillate’ kicks off with Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas, a rousing expression of exasperation at our passivity in the face of lame authority. British Birds are acute observers of the English political scene, shrouding their observations in humour and surrealism. Polka Dot Eyes is another piece of sharp social observation: it portrays Lancashire lads – friends from school – who join the Army and return home physically and mentally damaged. The song is simultaneously disturbing, funny and catchy as hell. From the fog of disinformation and doubt that surrounds us all in 2020s Britian, British Birds embrace the darkness, but with wit and verve – no slogans, no easy answers – and with an energy that helps us escape the mundanity of a declining island. This might all sound a bit bleak, but it’s not: every single one of the songs on this album has a chorus as big as a house.

There are personal songs too: Scary Movies is a poignant description of Bobby and Emma’s grandfather, who delighted in showing them horror films when they were kids – giving them sneak previews of the darkness they’d come to embrace as adults; Just Like Them is a celebration of introversion: it might not be fun, but it’s better than being an idiot. (Paradoxically, any other introverts who hear this song will feel impelled to join in in the chorus.) Blame Game and Thunder Claps examine the darkness inherent in relationships: there is always an impending storm, if you recognise the low hum of the imminent thunder. Once again: the choruses of these songs confound the melancholy sentiment.

You’ll get the same impression if you see British Birds live: Bobby’s ferocious guitar and dark lyrics are counterpointed with Emma’s sometimes haunting, sometimes playful vocal responses and insistent rhythms. You’ll be swept away by the energy of a band who don’t know the meaning of limits. And as the songs get darker and darker the smile on your face gets wider and wider.

The core members of British Birds are siblings Bobby and Emma Townson, working from their HQ-cum-nest in Chorley. Drums are by Dominic Lawson (apart from Michael Aindley on ‘Just Like Them’). Bass is by James Robinson.

British Birds will be embarking on a headline tour of the UK in early 2027.

On Dummy’s new album, do you love the color of the sky?, the Los Angeles-based 5-piece deliver a breathtaking piece of work that introduces new textures and rhythms to their already varied and refined catalog. For the band’s third album, and first for new label home Polyvinyl, the group split time between self-recording at their home studio as well as Studio 22, linking up with frequent collaborator and engineer Joo-Joo Ashworth (Corridor, Automatic, Spiral XP). The band focused on intentionality and experimentation, exploring downtempo dance beats and electronic music while pushing the guitar as far as they could, using new self-sampling and processing techniques. Percussionist Alex Ewell’s overall sound design and production skills can be heard across the album, with layered drum sounds and rhythmic tremolo techniques shining throughout. Tracks like “Full Spectrum Dominance” and “Alluvial Fan” showcase the band’s tasteful pop sensibilities, while closing track “Heaven’s What You Make Of

It” features perhaps the strongest vocal delivery yet from vocalist/keyboardist
Emma Maatman. Additionally, the dynamic exchange between guitarists Joe Trainor and Nathan O’Dell is absolutely gorgeous, adding a new layer of immersion and directness that is unlike anything the band has done before. The result is Dummy’s most ethereal and sincere record to date, with more feminine and delicate undertones that sit beautifully alongside the gritty and noisy textures the band has become known for. Dummy has been praised in numerous outlets such as Paste, Stereogum, Aquarium Drunkard and Pitchfork, who described their second album, Free Energy, as “the
sound of a band turning all its potential energy into music that’s dazzlingly kinetic and powerful." The band has toured the US, UK, and EU extensively, with festival appearances at Austin Psych Fest, Treefort Music Festival, and others. In addition to larger outlets and festivals, the band’s strong ties to community and DIY ethos are ever-present, oftentimes preferring to play and connect with different local artists on tour, uplifting those around them while shining a light on the history of independent music.

On Dummy’s new album, do you love the color of the sky?, the Los Angeles-based 5-piece deliver a breathtaking piece of work that introduces new textures and rhythms to their already varied and refined catalog. For the band’s third album, and first for new label home Polyvinyl, the group split time between self-recording at their home studio as well as Studio 22, linking up with frequent collaborator and engineer Joo-Joo Ashworth (Corridor, Automatic, Spiral XP). The band focused on intentionality and experimentation, exploring downtempo dance beats and electronic music while pushing the guitar as far as they could, using new self-sampling and processing techniques. Percussionist Alex Ewell’s overall sound design and production skills can be heard across the album, with layered drum sounds and rhythmic tremolo techniques shining throughout. Tracks like “Full Spectrum Dominance” and “Alluvial Fan” showcase the band’s tasteful pop sensibilities, while closing track “Heaven’s What You Make Of

It” features perhaps the strongest vocal delivery yet from vocalist/keyboardist
Emma Maatman. Additionally, the dynamic exchange between guitarists Joe Trainor and Nathan O’Dell is absolutely gorgeous, adding a new layer of immersion and directness that is unlike anything the band has done before. The result is Dummy’s most ethereal and sincere record to date, with more feminine and delicate undertones that sit beautifully alongside the gritty and noisy textures the band has become known for. Dummy has been praised in numerous outlets such as Paste, Stereogum, Aquarium Drunkard and Pitchfork, who described their second album, Free Energy, as “the
sound of a band turning all its potential energy into music that’s dazzlingly kinetic and powerful." The band has toured the US, UK, and EU extensively, with festival appearances at Austin Psych Fest, Treefort Music Festival, and others. In addition to larger outlets and festivals, the band’s strong ties to community and DIY ethos are ever-present, oftentimes preferring to play and connect with different local artists on tour, uplifting those around them while shining a light on the history of independent music.

10" vinyl limited pressing (Pink vinyl) from this popular and quirky UK band who have released 3 CD albums and 2 10" LP's in the past

Das Aufeinandertreffen zweier Pop-Ikonen: Madonna und Kylie Minogue veröffentlichen mit "Love Sensation" eine gemeinsame Nu-Disco-Hymne. Die Kollaboration erscheint als limitierte 7"-Single auf Coloured Vinyl und kombiniert pulsierende Synth-Basslines mit glamourösen Vocals. Neben der Main Version auf der A-Seite enthält das Release einen Extended Club Mix auf der B-Seite und kommt in einem veredelten Sleeve mit exklusivem Artwork auf den Markt.

"Fragments of Light" documents seven years of creative dialogue between Purl (Ludvig Cimbrelius) and Ecovillage (Emil Holmström & Peter Wikström). Their journey began with a spontaneous meeting in Los Angeles during October 2019, evolving into a transcontinental process where Ludvig refined ideas during Sri Lankan train journeys while Emil and Peter furthered their ambient dreaming in northern Sweden. Sonically, the album inhabits a space between pop ambient and new age—combining atmospheric textural depth with accessible melodies, while also carrying forward the contemplative nature central to the artists' work and personal lives. Ecovillage, who has collaborated with many revered artists (such as Laraaji, Carlos Niño, and Fennesz), here pour their own deep sensibilities into the ever widening river of Purl—this initial, ambient-rooted alias of Ludvig Cimbrelius. Featuring original, hand-painted artwork by Steven Jackson and delicate mastering work by Ludvig for a special limited physical edition released via his own LILA लीला imprint, “Fragments of Light” carries the hallmarks of an ambient classic-to-be. The album fits naturally alongside works by artists like Brian Eno, Harold Budd, and Hiroshi Yoshimura, as well as contemporary artists who bridge the ethereal with melodic sensibility.

Die französischen Brüder Carl und Renaud alias Jersey verbinden UK-Rock-Energie, 2010er-EDM und French Touch zu einem emotionalen, live-orientierten elektronischen Sound. Nach gefeierten EPs, Arbeiten mit Justice und Phoenix sowie Shows bei Coachella, Portola und Primavera erscheint mit „Nothing’s Fake“ ihr Debütalbum – zwischen explosiven Electronic-Tracks, Pop-Hymnen und introspektiven Momenten.

Einige Alben schlagen ein wie ein Blitz, andere entfalten ihre Wirkung über Jahrzehnte hinweg. Robert Lester Folsoms Kultalbum Music and Dreams, ursprünglich 1976 im Eigenverlag erschienen, feiert sein 50-jähriges Jubiläum mit einer besonderen Neuauflage.
Die 50th Anniversary Edition präsentiert das remasterte Originalalbum erstmals zusammen mit den bislang unveröffentlichten Reel-to-Reel-Demos auf einem Doppelvinyl. Geprägt von Folsoms Liebe zu den Beatles sowie Songwriter-Größen wie Neil Young, Joni Mitchell und Crosby, Stills & Nash, verbindet Music and Dreams zeitlosen Folk-Pop mit jugendlicher Sehnsucht, Melancholie und großer musikalischer Vision.

GEORG DANZER - "JAHRESZEITEN" - Das Beste aus fünf Jahrzehnten Anlässlich des 80. Geburtstags des großen österreichischen Liedermachers GEORG DANZER veröffentlicht Sony Music eine von Georg Danzers langjährigem Wegbegleiter und Manager Franz Christian Schwarz liebevoll kompilierte Best Of mit dem Titel "Jahreszeiten". Das auf farbiger 2LP sowie auf 1CD erhältliche Album umfasst Lieder aus jeder Schaffensphase des 2007 verstorbenen Künstlers, dessen musikalisches Erbe die österreichische Musik nachhaltig prägte. Das Albumcover setzt sich aus vier Portraits Georg Danzers zusammen, die von Nina Maron, Tochter des unvergessenen Sigi Maron, gemalt wurden. Franz Christian Schwarz beschreibt die Zusammenstellung der Best Of mit folgenden Worten: "Alle meine Lieder sind wie Sonne Mond & Sterne" ist der Beginn eines Liedes auf der CD-Single "Sonne, Mond & Sterne", die anlässlich der gleichnamigen DVD-Veröffentlichung von Georg Danzer erschienen ist. Diese Liedzeile gab auch den Ausschlag, die vorliegende Doppel-LP "Jahreszeiten" zu nennen, um die Bandbreite von Danzers musikalischer Vielfalt unter Beweis zu stellen. Danzer schaffte es wie kaum ein anderer Beobachtungen, Erzählungen, Gedanken und Emotionen in Worte und Melodien zu fassen. Mit über fünfhundert veröffentlichten Liedern für sich selbst und andere Interpretinnen und Interpreten zählt Danzer zu den produktivsten Liederschreibern des Landes. Einige seiner Lieder hielten auch in Schul- und Notenheften Einzug. Die vorliegende Doppel-Vinyl und die um einen Titel verkürzte CD-Version wurden eine spezielle Zusammenstellung, auf der neben bekannten Liedern auch solche zu hören sind, die entweder bisher unbekannt oder dem Zuhörer nicht so geläufig sind, aber das musikalische Spektrum des großartigen Poppoeten widerspiegeln. Sie dient zur Auffrischung von Erinnerungen ebenso wie als Anreiz, sich mit dem Werk Danzers vertraut zu machen oder es neu zu entdecken. Der Frühling ist für viele Menschen ein Zeichen dafür, das

Mit „GAMER“ veröffentlicht CG5 sein bislang ambitioniertestes Album. Zwischen Pop, Rock und elektronischen Einflüssen widmet sich der YouTube-Star Gaming, Internetkultur und Fantasie und verbindet hymnische Hooks mit cineastischer Produktion und seinem charakteristischen, energiegeladenen Storytelling.

DJ Support: Moodyman, Groove Armada, Folamour, Horsemeat Disco, DJ Deep, Art Of Tones, Sophie Lloyd, Terry Farley, Stuart Patterson and Seamus Haji

Al Kent needs no introduction when it comes to being one the most prolific kings of disco in the UK. He reimagines hidden treasure and takes inspiration from the glory days of 70’s dancefloor nuggets to create modern day classics. Come Back Home (Again) is probably his most popular track to date and here he re-works it with his Disco Love Orchestra updating this disco gem for a new generation. A Philly style musical sound-bed with hooks galore topped by one of the most rousing, soulful male vocals you’ll hear in a long time.

Pressed on a tasty 7 inch with dinked hole limited stock so act fast!

This limited-edition remix of popular Hong Kong singer KENDY SUEN, featuring exotic breakbeats by top producer K.U.D.O, of Major Force
Productions, which relaunched in 2025, is now available in clear vinyl and special packaging!

This 7" remix of popular Hong Kong singer KENDY SUEN, by top producer K.U.D.O, of Major Force Productions, which relaunched in 2025,
is now available in a special edition!
KENDY's exotic vocals evoke danceable breakbeats over a dreamy sound reminiscent of the jungles of South Asia. A must-have limited edition
for all DJs from this club music legend! Mastered by Bernie Grundman Mastering

The new album ‘Notte Davvero’ will be a surprise for Castelli's fans and lovers of the Italic synth-pop scene. The solo project of Milanese Stefano Castelli, former frontman of the post-punk band Clone Culture, combines 80s-inspired synth-pop and new wave

NOAHFINNCE’s ‘STUFF FROM MY BRAIN / MY BRAIN AFTER THERAPY’ is a collection of songs written before and after therapy.

The debut double EP collection features guest vocals from Chris Freeman of Hot Mulligan and builds the world of NOAHFINNCE’s unique, hyperactive brain.

The project tackles issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, past trauma and the path toward prioritizing mental health.

Deeply personal, but always expressed with a cheeky, quirky, not-so-serious sense of humour, NOAHFINNCE showcases the big personality that has amassed a huge YouTube following and led
him toward being a leading voice in Trans/LGBTQ+ youth issues.

With songs like ‘AFTER THERAPY’ and ‘LIFE'S A
BIT’, NOAHFINNCE is poised to break out as this
year’s new star of the new wave of pop punk.

For fans of YUNGBLUD, Waterparks, Set It Off.

LP pressed on cloudy blue vinyl.

Dire Straits' arresting self-titled debut arrived in the midst of punk's reign but couldn't have been further removed from the era's slash-and-burn style. Recorded in West London in February 1978, the band's tasteful, jazz-inflected set embraces folk, blues, and pub rock while also tracing a direct line back to the beat-oriented sound of early rock n' roll. Country and roots accents further distinguish the British quartet's stripped-down music from any 1970s peers, as does the transparent production, which has remained revered among audiophiles the world over – and which has never been better than on this meticulous pressing.

Mastered from the original master tapes and pressed at RTI, Mobile Fidelity's 180g 45RPM 2LP version of Dire Straits features natural tonalities, superb balances, you-are-there imaging, deep-black backgrounds, and pristine clarity. Even if you've heard this album hundreds of times before, you've never experienced it with such lifelike sonics and premium richness. This numbered-edition collector's set immerses you within the smoky, laidback atmospherics of every song. This is how all vinyl should sound.

Crucial to every arrangement, Mark Knopfler's winding guitar lines emerge with supreme transparency and multi-hued textural detail. His intricate playing comes across as if it's being transmitted via his 60s-era Fender Vibrolux amplifier placed right before you. The cleanliness, dimensions, and live feel are that good. His bandmates, too, benefit from the extra groove space afforded by this 45RPM edition. Rhythms skate and swirl; percussive effects resonate with crispness and attack; the leading edges of notes naturally decay.

Dire Straits' strong, well-edited batch of original material further enhances the overall enjoyment and makes the record one whose pleasures go far beyond the organic sonics. Just as Knopfler's narratives pour forth with poetic and surrealist texts, the musical settings – an intoxicating combination of easygoing shuffles, back-hall boogies, and pop-honed ballads – mirror the old-fashioned soulfulness inherent in the classic recordings of the late 50s and early 60s. The lyrics are equally captivating.

Drawing from his time as a youth in Newcastle, Leeds, and London, Knopfler invests tunes with an autobiographical slant and emotional connectivity that become obvious the moment he opens his mouth to sing. "Down to the Waterline," "Wild West End," and "Lions" all feature colloquial touches that add to their reach. By extension, "In the Gallery" functions as a tribute to Leeds sculptor Harry Phillips (father of future Knoplfer collaborator, Steve Phillips) while the record's breakout smash, "Sultans of Swing," pays homage to struggling bar bands.


Through it all, Dire Straits performs with a subtle cool and clever poise that no band ever matched. Just how good is the chemistry? Bob Dylan heard the quartet and invited Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers to play on Slow Train Coming. But even Dylan himself didn't hear Dire Straits sound this magnetic back in its original heyday. Now, everyone can.

Follow up to Goodge's 2023 album Echoes Of Yesterday. Previous releases found on Hip Dozer and Cascade Records. Tracks found on the popular Spotify Mellow Beats playlist. 11th in 'Jet Set' Cold Busted series. Designed and manufactured similar to the vintage 60's style rice paper sleeves. In his latest EP, Sunday Soul, Goodge takes listeners on a four-track journey through the heart of funk, masterfully blending elements of R&B, jazz, and chilled lo-fi. Released as part of Cold Busted's Jet Set series, this four-song offering follows Goodge's 2023 album Echoes Of Yesterday and showcases his dedication to crafting timeless music. "Lights Out" kicks off the EP with heavy funk and stirring breakbeats, accompanied by a scratchy guitar that summons the revolutionary spirit of the '70s. Horns serve as a call to action, while a rollicking bass line and chunky electric piano might inspire listeners to go out and fight crime. "Promised Land" follows, featuring a formidable funk bass guitar and lead guitar chords that rhythmically play off the delightfully busy drums, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the city's bustle. The title track, "Sunday Soul," is a rowdy affair with a speech-over-beats leading to crispy snare rolls and chiming electric piano. Shaker magic, staccato horn bleats, and spiral flute bits combine to create a swirling vintage-hued photograph of sound. The EP concludes with "Within Myself," a spacier sonic experience that could serve as the soundtrack for chasing someone across rooftops. It's funk spelled with a capital K. Sunday Soul is a must-listen for fans of of the heavier side of funk, solidifying Goodge's position as a master of his craft, creating a nostalgic yet fresh soundscape that keeps listeners grooving back for more.

Originally released on CD in Japan in 2003, as a love letter & thank you to his Japanese fans. Recorded at home, produced, engineered & mixed by Matthew Sweet (bass, guirars & vocals) with the classic ‘Girlfriend’ era lineup of Ric Menck (drums), Greg Leisz (guitars) and the genius electric lead guitar of Television’s Richard Lloyd. The sleeve art is by renowned artist Yoshimoto Nara. In the liner notes, Sweet describes the album's title as an attempt at reverse English: "If I did it correctly, the title should seem a little strange or wrong, but still meaningful! The true definition is supposed to be a 'love you' life, one devoted to loving someone or something, even life itself!"

“an excellent modern guitar pop album, filled with great hooks and harmonies and irresistible ringing six-strings”
Allmusic

“Kimi crackles with Girlfriend‘s energy, as Lloyd and Sweet’s guitars provide antagonistic foils as they did more than a decade before on cuts like “Tonight We Ride.”
Rolling Stone

The song showcases Prince's signature blend of funk, rock, and pop, featuring catchy melodies and his iconic guitar work.

Tomu DJ’s debut on CST Imprint shares ten atmospheric wistful ruminations on being, living, and the spiritual undercurrents that alchemize these experiences into song. Hazy memories recalled through glitchy lush lullabies, moving through whispered skittery percussive states into warm melodic vocal confessions. Playful yet exacting productions ebb and flow between pensive indietronica pop interspersed with blissful club tracks that swing from ambient, drum and bass, breaks and house for the dancers. A sanguine daydream, to be free.

Her fourth album since 2021 but first on vinyl, Tomu’s deceptively simple compositions bely complex emotions. Minimal, every element just so, nothing unnecessary. Her ability to create ideal environments for collaboration on full display.

Includes download code and riso-printed insert.

One of the most popular and notorious of all British hardcore acts, the Exploited were formed on a dire Edinburgh council estate in 1978 by singer Terry Buchan and guitarist Stevie Ross, although Buchan’s brother Wattie would soon become leader and the lineup seldom stayed stable. Influenced by the Pistols, they built their large working class and skinhead following through an aggressive, fast-paced, and uncensored hardcore style. Gathering singles from their street punk days and the best tracks from their first three albums, Totally Exploited was the band’s first compilation and it remains the best by far. Essential Exploited!

Released in 1982, Upstairs at Eric's is the groundbreaking debut album by Yazoo. It features the international hits ‘Don’t Go’ and ‘Only You’, alongside fan favorites ‘Goodbye 70s’ and ‘Midnight’ plus the haunting ballad “Winter Kills.” Produced by Eric Radcliffe and Yazoo, the album is a masterclass in electronic pop, blending Vince Clarke’s innovative synth work with Alison Moyet’s idiosyncratic vocals. Pressed on limited edition Crystal Clear Vinyl.

Includes smash-hit singles "Boys & Girls" "To Be," and "appears"
This smash hit, which catapulted Ayumi Hamasaki to the darling of the era, along with the accompanying single "appears" drew attention for its shocking
cover art, earning it the nickname "white ayu" and "black ayu." A shining milestone in the history of J-pop.

RANDY'S 50th ANNIVERSARY CHAPTER ONE / VARIOUS - First time on vinyl for Chapter Two second part of the acclaimed previously CD only set that was released to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Randy's Records. From Augustus Pablo's groundbreaking 'Java' to Carl Malcolm's UK pop crossover hit 'Fattie Bum Bum' Chapter Two showcase classic after classic from a all-star line up of the 70's reggae music greats including Black Uhuru, Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, The Heptones & Big Youth. Beautifully packaged with inner sleeves featuring rare photos and liner notes by reggae historian, Dennis Katz.

Rob Smith, RSD is not only a successful dubstep producer and pioneer of the Bristol sound, but also a very popular deejay travelling the world sharing his music. Coming from a reggae background and well-versed in sound system culture, Rob kept some of his best productions for his exclusive use when deejaying, the only way you would hear these gems was being played in one of Rob's sets. Fortunately, we've managed to persuade Rob to let Reggae Archive Records share these dubplate specials with a wider audience on a limited-edition vinyl LP. Compiled and sequenced in conjunction with Rob, the LP features nine tracks newly edited and mastered by Rob to enhance the bass playback on vinyl - it's cut heavy!
The tracks were recorded between 2006 and 2011, a time when one strand of dubstep heavilyembraced reggae and dub. Rob calls these tracks reggae infused dubstep and that's what they are, but Reggae Archive Records is a reggae label and this selection of dubstep tracks will most certainly appeal just as much to reggae and dub fans. Fusing dubstep beats, reggae samples, and seriously heavy basslines, this is a joyous celebration of musical cross fertilisation that has been tried and tested in clubs worldwide. In keeping with the dubplate origins of the tracks, we have designed the labels to replicate an old school acetate, while the sleeve pays tribute to seventies pre-releases albums with a replica stamp giving just the artist and title on a plain white sleeve with aged effect.

Knocked Loose kündigen mit "You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To " ihr neues Album an.
Die Hardcore-Band aus Louisville, Kentucky, die für ihre mitreißenden Live-Shows bekannt ist, verbindet verschiedene Einflüsse aus Hardcore, Metal
und Punk und verspricht ein überwältigendes neues Werk.

In Gianfranco Rosi’s portrait of Naples, Sotto le Nuvole, the ground shakes periodically. Between Mount Vesuvius and the Tyrrhenian Sea, the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields hiss volcanic gas and steam. Below the sleeping volcano, modern day Naples emerges in black and white and fills with voices, with lives. From the traces of history and the concerns of the present, Rosi documents a city immersed in its continuous past, with Daniel Blumberg’s minimal soundscape hovering in a sonic space between liquid and air.
Tasked with creating a soundscape that would suspend space within Rosi’s film, Blumberg called upon the extended technique of saxophonists Seymour Wright and John Butcher to create a gossamer fabric of traces and sounds abstracted from their instruments. Having transitioned from theoretical physics to the saxophone, John Butcher has always deeply considered space in the context of his playing. His concerns are with flow, density and how the saxophone is situated in the living world. Zeroing in on the core sonic properties of the mechanical and acoustic components of the saxophone, Seymour Wright has integrated its every breath, reed vibration, keypad clatter and hissed microtone of his alto into his own, unique improvisational language. In his work with these two seminal players, Blumberg makes his most concentrated soundtrack to date - reinforcing the film's sense of overlapping time and space, and pushing at the limits of experimentation.

Initially recorded in Daniel’s flat in London, Butcher and Wright centre themselves around long, consistent tones, so soft that it seems breath is being gently pulled from the saxophone's bell by an invisible hand. Blumberg himself adds haunting bass harmonica, and recordings of Wright’s launeddas - a traditional and ancient triple pipe polyphonic reed instrument from Sardinia, Italy. Blumberg then travelled to the volcanic region of Baia, next to Pompeii. Once a flourishing classical Roman city loved by Nero, Baia slowly sank under hydrothermal pressure, leaving the city in a kind of geological purgatory. Using specialised geophones and hydrophones, Blumberg took those initial recordings and amplified them underwater, sending them calling out across the ruins of Baia’s mosaics, Nymphaeum statues and villas.

“It was important to me that the music was whispered in the same landscape that Gianfranco has worked for the past three years, so that you can hear the volcanic air gulping, the lapping of the waves, the steam and bubbles popping against John and Seymour’s saxophone breaths – an echo from a suspended time.”
What emerges is deeply melancholic, tender, subtle and right at the edges of audio technology. Submerged in an aquarian mausoleum, the mysterious vibrations of the saxophone and its bell become an echo of an echo, wading from the future into the past. ‘Sotto le Nuvole’ is less a soundtrack than a process of aeration - a sonic puncture in the material of the film which allows its central message to breathe, and a remarkable experiment at the limits of the saxophone’s possibility.

Ismael Pinkler lives in Buenos Aires. Belly Dance Services head Nick Hanzo in Vienna. Turns out the exact midpoint between the two is somewhere in open ocean. So they abandoned the plan to meet on Earth at all, and met on planet 126 in outer space.

It turned out to be a strange, hospitable little world — spinning at its own pulse, 126 beats per minute, changing landscape every few kilometers, as if it couldn't decide what kind of planet it wanted to be either. Ismael and Nick wandered it together, letting each new terrain talk them into a different song, until ten tracks had quietly assembled themselves. What they brought back drifts somewhere between shoegaze, techno, ambient, trippy tribal house and pop — grounded and gravitational, emotional and mental, to put it in terms Earthlings might understand.

Now, speaking seriously: Ismael and Nick built Planet 126 by passing sounds and ideas back and forth across the ocean, night after night, for eight months. The entire process — composition, vocal recording, production and mixing — took just eight months, a dream scenario for any electronic musician. The collaboration stayed positive, proactive and fresh throughout, letting the project move forward effortlessly. All tracks were written and produced by both musicians together; Nick wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals, Ismael handled the mix. No samples, no references — just two people building a world from scratch.

Planet 126 also marks a milestone for Belly Dance Services: the label's 30th release, and likely its last. BDS began with BDS001, a vinyl EP by label founders Hanzo & Yaman, and has been solely helmed by Nick Hanzo for the past five years. Now it comes full circle — laid to rest with a big bang: a double vinyl gatefold album co-produced by Ismael Pinkler and label head Nick Hanzo.

Mihail A. Popov is a Russian with two decades in the game behind him, partly under his given name, but half of that time has also seen him work as I Gemin. Now he lands on Deeppa Records with a conceptual EP "built around depth, patience and underground exploration." The aim is to explore all new musical ground and follow newly emerging paths, and the result is a fine four-tracker. 'Like The Star' is a lush, deep nu-disco jam, 'Love Undercover' has a seductive slide to the live-sounding drums and playfulness in the horns, while 'Terra Incognita' brings jazzy chords and a balmy late-night warmth. 'Melancholy' gets more heavy and roughed up with smudged neo-soul and r&b samples, making it a romantic affair. Kid Sublime and 6th Borough Project drop remixes that bring more club-ready grooves and complete a superb EP.

Hidden Sounds Record store – with the help of Emotional Recordings – launches the Dark Times label with the first of two club orientated EPs from Canadian brother-production duo Lex and Rew MacCrimmon and their project Alkahest.

Released on their own Post Contemporary label between 1994 – 1996, Alkahest contrasted with the spacious electronica of their influential and still on-going project, Legion Of Green Men.

Growing up in suburban city life in Burlington, Ontario, the MacCrimmon brothers’ interest in music and collecting records started early, always looking for interesting sounds in new places. With a limited local music scene or record stores, the alternative and college radio stations were the only way to discover new music or the type of music they sought.

The German electronic sounds of Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream were early obsessions, alongside Neu, Cluster (& Eno) and the post punk and synth pop emanating from Britain. The Flying Lizards, John Foxx / Ultravox, Gary Numan and The Normal were favourites, before diving into the 80s industrial experiments of Cabaret Voltaire, Severed Heads, Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle.

Making their own music soon followed, first experimenting with 4 track cassette and digital delay, drum machines and synths soon followed, steadily building their own studio. All these influences merged in the early 90s with the dawn of house and techno and the progression to start the Post Contemporary label launched in 1992.

With the project Legion Of Green Men achieving early success, their diversion with Alkahest explored a post-industrial techno hybrid. Unsubtle, night music, the rhythm and sonic textures are more prominent over melody.

Contact High covers this Alkahest sound, from the 133 bpm trippy, psychedelics of opener Black Tabs, the acid breaks of Ground Zero or the charging nature of closing Séance 333, where all bets are off – together this 4 track EP perfectly captures the early spirit of Canada’s electronic music scene finding its place in dance culture, from the raves of the Toronto’s outer rim to the beaches of Anjuna.

However, in the title cut Contact High, there is something else happening, as electronic dub is explored, where the space in the music, between the beats, is as important at what happens on the surface. A love of this ethereal feeling would lead the brothers to head further in this direction and here is a perfect example of that early journey.

French producer Moar is back with a brand-new, 100 per cent Boom Bap project, surrounded by his trusty old MPCs and SPs, just as he does so well!! An album infused with soulful and jazzy sounds, featuring top-class MCs such as Rasco, J-Live, El da Sensei (Artifacts), Awon, John Robinson, Napoléon da Legend, Dumi Right, Mikal and his Beatmatics colleague DJ Vince on the cuts!!

This record is a real treat for fans of 90s hip-hop, with samples that really pop on a beautifully marbled vinyl!
Already a boom bap classic…

Teal return on October 2 with Love Comes Thru, the trio's nine-track debut album. Expanding their emotionally resonant blend of downtempo trip-pop, the record reaches into street soul, dub, and experimental grooves, marking a confident new chapter for the group.

At its core, Love Comes Thru is a reflection on the quiet strength of love—not through grand gestures, but through the steady presence that carries us through uncertainty, change, and connection. Written over the course of a year of bi-coastal collaboration, the album became a testament to the bond Teal share as artists, friends, and family.

From the lush synth landscapes of "Aries Moon" to the footwork-inspired pulse of "Time Is Blind," the album explores themes of patience, vulnerability, longing, and intimacy. Standout singles "Kissing in a Dream" and the title track lean into left-field street soul, while stripped-back, 808-driven tracks like "Change Your Mind" and "Anomaly" demonstrate the power of restraint without sacrificing momentum. Building on the group's love of ambient improvisation, Love Comes Thru also features instrumental pieces with percussion by Brandon Valdivia (Mas Aya/Lido Pimienta).

The album closes with the sensual "Bubbling," bringing the journey full circle with a reminder that love ultimately comes through in its most embodied, physical form. Love Comes Thru is presented in a deluxe, limited-edition matte-finish, double-embossed jacket with a printed inner sleeve. Available on LP and digitally through Rubadub, In Sheep's Clothing, and Forced Exposure beginning October 2.

Wewantsounds is delighted to continue its Ziad Rahbani reissue program with Ana Moush Kafer, a classic album by the Lebanese legend Ziad Rahbani, recorded at his By-Pass Studio in Beirut during the height of the Lebanese Civil War in 1985. Showcasing Rahbani’s signature blend of Arabic music infused with touches of jazz-funk and bossa nova, the album has attained cult status over the years. Originally released on cassette, it has never before been available on vinyl. Newly remastered, this edition features the original Relax-In cassette artwork from 1985 and includes new liner notes by Mario Choueiry of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.

Ziad Rahbani, who passed away in 2025, remains one of the most influential figures in modern Arabic music and a cultural icon in Lebanon. A musician, composer, pianist, producer and playwright, he helped modernize Arabic music over five decades. The son of composer Assi Rahbani and singer Fairuz, he shaped her late 70s–80s recordings producing Wahdon and Maarifti Feek, while building a major solo career with classics such as Abu Ali and Houdou Nisbi, which have become cult favourites for a new generation of DJs and music lovers.
Released in 1985 in Lebanon, Ana Moush Kafer stands as one of Rahbani’s key achievements. Recorded at his By-Pass Studio during the Lebanese Civil War, it blends Arabic melodic traditions with jazz-funk, bossa nova and Western arrangements. Originally cassette-only, it became one of his most revered releases. Throughout the album, Rahbani’s writing reflects the turbulence of wartime Beirut with a blend of sharp social observation, political satire and melancholy. It captures a moment in Lebanese cultural history where experimentation, satire and popular song intersected, giving the album its enduring influence among music lovers.

Sung by Rahbani and Sami Hawat, alongside Beirut-based musicians, the album features both Western and traditional Arabic instruments. It balances refined arrangements with lyrical irony, social commentary and political reflection, which remain deeply resonant in today’s context in Lebanon.
One of the highlights of the album is the song “Shou A’ada Ma Bada,” with lyrics by Joseph Harb, which reveals a clear bossa nova influence, while the closing track, “Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani,” offers a deeply human view of war, avoiding patriotic cliché in favour of a nuanced perspective rooted in lived experience.
As Mario Choueiry observes in his liner notes, “Ana Moush Kafer stands as one of the high points of modern Arab political songwriting, yet transcends its historical and geographical context through the universal relevance of its themes and the timeless quality of its music.”
Forty years on, Ana Moush Kafer remains a landmark of Arab music. Wewantsounds presents it on vinyl for the first time, newly remastered and featuring original artwork. This long-awaited reissue restores one of Ziad Rahbani’s most important works to circulation, reaffirming its place as a defining statement in modern Arabic music.

a 1. Ana Moush Kafer 5:03
b 2. Shou Hal Ayyam 5:46
c 3. A'anitham 4:37
d 4. Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3:45]
[e] 5. Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5:05]
[f] 6. Bi Halyawmayn [3:46]
[g] 7. Bharf Esheen [1:12]
[h] 8. Bhaneek [5:34]
[i] 9. Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3:06]

[a] 1. Ana Moush Kafer [5:03]
[b] 2. Shou Hal Ayyam [5:46]
[c] 3. A'anitham [4:37]
[d] 4. Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3:45]
[e] 5. Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5:05]
[f] 6. Bi Halyawmayn [3:46]
[g] 7. Bharf Esheen [1:12]
[h] 8. Bhaneek [5:34]
[i] 9. Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3:06]

[a] 1. Ana Moush Kafer [5:03]
[b] 2. Shou Hal Ayyam [5:46]
[c] 3. A'anitham [4:37]
[d] 4. Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3:45]
[e] 5. Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5:05]
[f] 6. Bi Halyawmayn [3:46]
[g] 7. Bharf Esheen [1:12]
[h] 8. Bhaneek [5:34]
[i] 9. Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3:06]

[a] 1. Ana Moush Kafer [5:03]
[b] 2. Shou Hal Ayyam [5:46]
[c] 3. A'anitham [4:37]
[d] 4. Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3:45]
[e] 5. Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5:05]
[f] 6. Bi Halyawmayn [3:46]
[g] 7. Bharf Esheen [1:12]
[h] 8. Bhaneek [5:34]
[i] 9. Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3:06]

[a] a1. Ana Moush Kafer [5:03]
[b] a2. Shou Hal Ayyam [5:46]
[c] a3. A'anitham [4:37]
[d] a4. Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3:45]
[e] b1. Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5:05]
[f] b2. Bi Halyawmayn [3:46]
[g] b3. Bharf Esheen [1:12]
[h] b4. Bhaneek [5:34]
[i] b5 Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3:06]

[a] a1 | Ana Moush Kafer [5 03]
[b] a2 | Shou Hal Ayyam [5 46]
[c] a3 | A'anitham [4 37]
[d] a4 | Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3 45]
[e] b1 | Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5 05]
[f] b2 | Bi Halyawmayn [3 46]
[g] b3 | Bharf Esheen [1 12]
[h] b4 | Bhaneek [5 34]
[i] b5 | Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3 06]

[a] a1 | Ana Moush Kafer [5 03]
[b] a2 | Shou Hal Ayyam [5 46]
[c] a3 | A'anitham [4 37]
[d] a4 | Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3 45]
[e] b1 | Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5 05]
[f] b2 | Bi Halyawmayn [3 46]
[g] b3 | Bharf Esheen [1 12]
[h] b4 | Bhaneek [5 34]
[i] b5 | Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3 06]

[a] a1 | Ana Moush Kafer [5 03]
[b] a2 | Shou Hal Ayyam [5 46]
[c] a3 | A'anitham [4 37]
[d] a4 | Shou A'ada Ma Bada [3 45]
[e] b1 | Yessa'ed we Yea'en [5 05]
[f] b2 | Bi Halyawmayn [3 46]
[g] b3 | Bharf Esheen [1 12]
[h] b4 | Bhaneek [5 34]
[i] b5 | Al Mokawama Al Watania Al Lobnani [3 06]

Party Store Records is back with their third release and are digging deep into the current Detroit
underground with a debut EP from live duo Lock & Hammer and an ethereal remix from legend
Terrence Dixon as Population One.
The four cuts are locked in across a range of vibes making this record a useful weapon across
the spectrum of peak time intensity to deep after-hours absurdity.
The title track, “Hofmann’s Bicycle”, is a mind melter that has the promise of a psychedelic
anthem. A driving, swirling stomper that will push you to limits you didn’t know existed. Fire up
the grill as your brain’s about to get cooked.
Population one aka Terrence Dixon delivers a cathartic and ultra deep remix of “Hofmann’s
Bicycle”, injecting a classic Detroit take with heavy strings overlaying a dense kick and hypnotic
groove.
“Freq” is a trip into the void, with sinister synth lines and hard hitting percussion propelling the
journey. Peak time engagement awaits any dancefloor it’s played on.
To round the package out “Sour Monkey” dives right back into pure absurdity, hanging at the
edge of right and wrong with drug addled rhythms and low end attack, this is already a cult hit in
the darkest of rooms.

Though Scratch may have at times seemed crazy, it is worth noting that creative
genius appears so because geniuses see things others do not see and inhabit
realities unseen. As the music on this album reveals, Lee Perry's Black Ark creations
re-arrange the familiar into something new and magical.
Lee spent his early days working with legendary producers Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid,
Joe Gibbs, Clancy Eccles and Prince Buster, and by 1968 he was an independent
producer, naming his studio musicians The Upsetters and scoring instrumental hits
with innovative rhythms that helped forge the new reggae style. In 1970-1971 he
produced what many consider the greatest works by the Wailers; in 1968 one of his
Upsetters productions hit #5 on the UK pop chart and more hits followed. That gave
him the funds to build his own studio and in 1973 the legendary Black Ark was born.
Among the many landmark classics cut at Black Ark are such incisive political
commentaries as Max Romeo's "War Ina Babylon," and Junior Murvin's "Police and
Thieves" (covered by the Clash). The Congos' "Heart of the Congos" album is a roots
classic and there are many wonderful obscure singles such as Carlton and the Shoes'
"Better Days." Many dub creations made innovative use of Scratch's sonic wizardry via
echo, phasing, reverb, fanging, wah-wah and various sound effects.
It all came to an end in 1978 as Lee, besieged by extortionists, freeloaders, religious
fanatics and assorted pilgrims, let the studio lapse. And then he set it on fre, some
say due to frustration, others say from mental collapse. He left Jamaica, collaborated
with musicians around the world, toured as a sort of mystic trickster/ shaman and
prospered. But his work at Black Ark will always stand as his ultimate creative
achievement.

Fasme and Quadratschulz join forces for a very special record: Ghost in the Machine. Finding cacophony and harmony through their blinking music boxes, these two knob-twiddlers melt genres. Through live jam sessions, a week of braindance shenanigans, the pair emerged from a Hamburg studio with five spur-of-the-moment cuts. Bubbles of acid pop, dreamy notes float, keys dash and race as robotic voices slice through this helter-skelter interplay of melody and percussion. A celebration of impromptu experimentation where analogue alchemy reacts with impulsive energy.

Open Universe is a new record label founded in 2025 following an invitation to envision a series of releases for the German production music library Sonoton.

Curated by Jon Tye (Lo Recordings, Ocean Moon, Seahawks, MLO) with a remit to explore and create new worlds of sound in which to dwell and discover. Prismatic Fields is a collaboration between Ocean Moon and Silver Ley (Jon Tye & Bethany Ley), together they create metaphysical pop from another dimension where warm oscillations mingle and resonate to conjure a world alive with light and life.

An album that leans lightly into the worlds of fantasy synth and sacral medievalist electronics where silken harp glissandos, synth waves and enchanted vocal tones mix with lush fourth world textures and clusters of rhythmic invention.

Tripping into spaces modern and game-like, soundtrack moods that dip into the liminal dream states found in the work of Daniel Lopatin, Susumu Yokota and Boards Of Canada. Music that is both functional and formless, designed to stimulate and facilitate, to inspire and motivate.

Ocean Moon & Silver Ley will be performing live alongside Sonic Boom and Alexis Taylor at the Sonoton Music Label showcase @Schmidtchen, Hamburg 17th September 26.

Hector Ram and Ricky Ramirez are starting to celebrate ten years of Short Attention Records and it's US house stalwart DJ Aakmael they've enlisted to pop the champagne cork and cut the cake. He's one of those artists who turns out plenty of music, much of it sounding within the same consistent deep house framework. But there's always a little something to his tunes that keeps you coming back for more - a perfectly chosen sample, a nagging bassline, a sense of melancholy that you cannot escape. All of that is true on his latest. 'Things Always Happen' has keys that convey beautiful pain, then 'If You Believe' is a deep house haze with smudgy samples and blues-y ache. 'Free' is more light with trilling jazz-funk keys and earthy guitar frets sprinkled into the mix. 'Stopmotion' shuts down with a signature Aakmael bump. Just timeless stuff.

Coil’s 17-minute soundtrack for »How to Destroy Angels«, performed on January 19, 1984: ritual music ›for the accumulation of male sexual energy‹, structured around magickal and numerological concepts.

Throughout history man has made and used music for two distinct and separate purposes. In recent years, particularly since the advent of sound recording, the most popular use of music has been for entertainment - the temporary amusement and distraction of as large a number as possible. As a consequence, many people tend to overlook its more fundamental and ancient use as a tool for affecting man's body and spirit. The many varieties of religious music from around the world contain a vast quantity of clues to the way in which sound can affect the physical and mental state of the serious listener, yet many find their associations with religion itself too difficult a stigma to overlook in their appreciation of the sound and its potential, for its own sake.

On this record, hopefully the first in a series, we have tried to produce sound which has a real, practical and beneficial power in this modern Era. Specifically, it is intended as an accumulator of male sexual energy. Although we make neither claims nor rules for its use, we do suggest that for maximum potency it should only be played in circumstances that exclusively male and/or onanistic in nature. What these are is entirely up to you.

The execution of the piece was structured around concepts we felt would work for us - in this case magickal and numerological rather than conventionally musical in form. One image or symbol which we drew upon that may be useful to bear in mind is that of Mars, often indicated by the male symbol.

Should this music have any power, over and above the banal and transitory titillation achieved by most records available now, it is a positive and beneficial power to be used and controlled by the listener, as he desires.

Coil’s 17-minute soundtrack for »How to Destroy Angels«, performed on January 19, 1984: ritual music ›for the accumulation of male sexual energy‹, structured around magickal and numerological concepts.

Throughout history man has made and used music for two distinct and separate purposes. In recent years, particularly since the advent of sound recording, the most popular use of music has been for entertainment - the temporary amusement and distraction of as large a number as possible. As a consequence, many people tend to overlook its more fundamental and ancient use as a tool for affecting man's body and spirit. The many varieties of religious music from around the world contain a vast quantity of clues to the way in which sound can affect the physical and mental state of the serious listener, yet many find their associations with religion itself too difficult a stigma to overlook in their appreciation of the sound and its potential, for its own sake.

On this record, hopefully the first in a series, we have tried to produce sound which has a real, practical and beneficial power in this modern Era. Specifically, it is intended as an accumulator of male sexual energy. Although we make neither claims nor rules for its use, we do suggest that for maximum potency it should only be played in circumstances that exclusively male and/or onanistic in nature. What these are is entirely up to you.

The execution of the piece was structured around concepts we felt would work for us - in this case magickal and numerological rather than conventionally musical in form. One image or symbol which we drew upon that may be useful to bear in mind is that of Mars, often indicated by the male symbol.

Should this music have any power, over and above the banal and transitory titillation achieved by most records available now, it is a positive and beneficial power to be used and controlled by the listener, as he desires.

Madelyn Byrd returns to Glasgow’s Somewhere Press with a hazed set of weightless soundscapes. »Night Rider« opens in widescreen with the chirp of cicadas dancing across a desert landscape, before Shiroishi’s saxophone eventually cuts through the dark like neon. The story Byrd tells is close to their heart: they spent their teenage years in the Sonoran Desert, the vast subtropical expanse spanning parts of Arizona, California, and Mexico. Its seemingly alien landscape — pocked with giant, tree-like cacti and looming rocky outcrops — is lodged in the cultural memory, a quality Byrd draws on as they slowly reveal their poetic narrative.

The album plays like a road movie of sorts, moving through Byrd’s memories and setting them to very different rhythms. Clattering drums emerge on »Of Nature, Of Bodies, Of Dreams«, while Byrd’s soft tones, processed to sound almost otherworldly, glide gently across the metallic clangs. Each track highlights a form of movement: there is the microscopic, insectoid crunch of »Imprint«, where guitar prangs meet Shiroishi’s spirited runs, while »Into Sonoran Pool« creates motion from the atmosphere itself, recreating the thick desert air with shimmering electrical currents and psychedelic processes.

At this point, the album begins to echo Robert Ashley’s late-period theatrical work: compositions that broke with familiar formats, juxtaposing dialogue with knowingly experimental orchestral flourishes. Byrd strikes a similar note through a fusion of poetry, sound design, choral music, and chiming, listless ambient elements that also recall Harold Budd. Budd grew up in the Mojave Desert, which borders the Sonoran, creating an eerie parallel with the moods he conjured throughout his long career.

Byrd finds a similarly aesthetic link to the West Coast landscape, referencing the history of experimental music while establishing their own voice. As the album rides into the sunset with a roar of engines, they offer a distinct vision of pop: »What Is, What Was« integrates a chugging break and ketamised vocal hook, while the finale, »In Perfume, Remember«, lands as a James K-like heartmelter.

*Import Exclusive*

Discover the world of Swiss artist Dominique Savioz. An anthology of self-released rarities, made between 1984 and 1997, that blend funk, synth-pop, and balearic vibes.

Limited pressing, comes with insert - carefully remastered, fully licensed, and including previously unreleased tracks.

A1, A3 Originally released on Jambo and Evasion Disques « Jambo » (EB 100 129)
A2 - Originally released on Dominique Savioz’s record «Intime»
A4 - Originally released on Dominique Savioz’s record «Nous sommes du soleil»
B1, B2, B3 - Previously unreleased

Following the acclaimed Milano Undiscovered, Italia Undiscovered and Italia Synthetica series comes Italo International: a new collection celebrating the enduring legacy of Italo Disco. Eight exclusive tracks by established European artists reimagining one of Italy's most influential musical movements with originality, respect, and a contemporary vision.

Italo International is a journey through the many shades of elegant and visionary electronic music, moving between Italo Disco, Synth Pop and dancefloor-oriented sounds. The talented and steadily rising Polish producer Rafał Lachmirowicz, aka Also Playable Mono; Hungarian artist Gianni Durante, aka Electro Potato, who for years has been bringing back the sound of early-Eighties Italo Disco with passion and a contemporary sensibility; Norwegian Tommy Holsen, aka DJ TinTin, who together with the Eighties band Go explores the classic sounds of Nordic Synth Pop; British producer Mark Wilkinson, aka Kid Machine, who for over fifteen years has been creating productions made for the dancefloor; Tyrell Corporation, the alias of Dutch producer Alden Tyrell, who joins forces with Italian duo Italoconnection to rework a track destined to set the dancefloor on fire; Swedish multidisciplinary artist Tobias Bernstrup, who for three decades has been reinventing the more sophisticated side of Italo Disco with elegance and a distinctive vision; the Dutch project Sfera Celeste Project, which blends Moroder-inspired sounds with a hypnotic minimalism reminiscent of Jeff Mills; and, closing the journey, British artists Heartbreak, Ali Renault and Sebastian Muravchik, with a poignant and slow-burning excursion into the melancholic world of Synth Pop.

Muss sich alles ständig so schwer anfühlen? Claud Mintz ringt ständig mit dieser Frage. Und zwar nicht in Form von höflichen kleinen Wortgefechten, sondern in Form von großen, langwierigen, existenziellen Kämpfen - von der Art, die einen letztendlich dazu bringen könnte, den Kurs des gesamten Lebens zu ändern. Die 10 Songs auf seinem facettenreichen und glanzvollen dritten Album ,Me and the Music" zeigen den 27-jährigen Singer-Songwriter und Produzenten aus Brooklyn, wie er sich mit dieser Frage auseinandersetzt und schließlich triumphierend zu etwas gelangt, das einer Antwort nahekommt: Die Dinge können schwer sein, aber das bedeutet nicht, dass man keinen Spaß haben kann. Das Leben kann schwer sein, aber das Bier in Ihrer Hand ist es nicht - warum sollten Sie es nicht für einen Moment in die Höhe recken, mit den Freunden um Sie herum mitsingen und Ihre Sorgen für die Dauer eines perfekten Indie-Pop- Songs vergessen? ,Me and the Music" ist Clauds erstes Album seit drei Jahren, seit dem 2023 erschienenen, hochgelobten ,Supermodels". Sowohl ,Supermodels" als auch ,Super Monster" aus dem Jahr 2021 waren weitgehend inspiriert von ,dieser einen unklaren Beziehung", von der er irgendwann während des Schreibens von ,Me and the Music" erkannte, dass sie ,eigentlich nie wirklich etwas war". ,Supermodels" war ein so ernstes Album, und ,ich habe einfach so lange in meinen Gefühlen geschwelgt", sagt Claud. ,Es gibt einen Unterschied zwischen Aufrichtigkeit gegenüber dem Leben und dem Leben zu ernst zu nehmen." Diese Erkenntnis veränderte alles: Im Titelsong von ,Me and the Music" singen sie: ,Das ist der letzte Song, den ich von dir ruinieren lasse", und das meinten sie auch so. Nachdem Claud diesen Song geschrieben hatte - in den berühmten Electric Lady Studios zusammen mit ihren Freunden Hank Heaven und Annie DiRusso -, begannen sie, sich völlig befreit zu fühlen. ,Dadurch wurde viel Bedauern losgelassen, das ich mit mir herumgetragen hatte, und es ermöglichte mir, zu denken _ das macht so viel Spaß", sagen sie. ,Musik zu machen macht so viel Spaß." Das Markenzeichen von Me and the Music sind also Songs, die die Komplexität des Erwachsenwerdens und des Lebens in der Welt einfangen, ohne dabei den Sinn für Verspieltheit oder Spaß zu verlieren. Es ist ein typisches ,Slice-of-Life"-Album , das neue Romanzen, Insider-Witze, Gap-Werbespots, die Band ,America" und das Land Amerika thematisiert und all diese Dinge mit Sorgfalt und Rücksicht behandelt. Die Lead-Single ,She Doesn't Love Me" von ,Me and the Music" ist in vielerlei Hinsicht der Kern des Albums - ein leichtfühliges Lied darüber, wie es ist, in den 2020er Jahren in Amerika queer und trans zu sein. (Es ist eine kraftvolle, mitreißende Hymne, die vor Schmerz nicht zurückschreckt - und trotzdem Lust macht, wie Claud in dem Titel singt, die ,Biere in die Luft zu recken".) Als Claud den Song gemeinsam mit Heaven und DiRusso schrieb, waren sie fest davon überzeugt, dass es ein Yacht-Rock-Song werden sollte; das Demo klang letztendlich dennoch ,Lo-Fi und Indie". ,Me and the Music" wurde von Claud und John Congleton (Alvvays, St. Vincent) produziert und bedeutet für Claud, dass sich der Kreis schließt: Mit diesem Album hatte Claud endlich das Gefühl, als Produzent selbstbewusst genug zu sein, um die Rolle des Co-Produzenten zu übernehmen (und hat seitdem eine Reihe viraler Singles von Romy Mars produziert). Die Zusammenarbeit ist natürlich ein wesentlicher Bestandteil von Clauds Arbeit - wer wären wir ohne unsere Freunde? Neben Claud gehört er zu einem Viertel zu Shelly, einer Band, die er gemeinsam mit Clairo, Noa Getzug und Josh Mehling gegründet hat. Auf ,Me and the Music" arbeitet Claud bei dem Titel ,The Legend" erneut mit ihrem langjährigen Kollaborateur Dan Nigro (Olivia Rodrigo, Chappell Roan) zusammen. Der Song thematisiert das Gefühl, tief in jemanden verliebt zu sein, der nicht mit einem gesehen werden möchte, sagt Claud: ,Es geht gewissermaßen um eine beschissene Beziehung und den Wunsch, die Liebe zur Schau zu stellen, ohne jedoch dazu in der Lage zu sein ", erklären sie. Doch wenn es auf ,Me and the Music" ein echtes Liebeslied gibt, dann ist es ,I Owe You", ein Dream-Pop-Road-Song, der hingebungsvoll und facettenreich ist. Er fängt den Geist von ,Me and the Music" als Ganzes ein: die Dinge Tag für Tag zu nehmen, Bilanz über das zu ziehen, was einen umgibt, und die schönen Dinge anzunehmen, wenn sie sich bieten. Das fühlt sich gar nicht so schwer an.