The “Late Loop” LP by Andy Stott is released on Modern Love and marks the producer’s return after a five-year break from the studio. The album brings Alison Skidmore, Stott’s long-time vocal partner, and for the first time Elaine Howley to the forefront; their voices are used partly as full vocal performances and partly as fragmented, pitch-shifted loops, forming the emotional center of the record. Stott largely avoided established production tricks: no basslines, no reverb, just a delay as the sole effect, giving the arrangements an unusual clarity and fragility.
“Late Loop” sits somewhere between downbeat, electronica, and leftfield, and emerged from an experimental process that ranged from drone passages and brass-like concrète moments to song-oriented structures. Rhythm often emerges indirectly here: a drum machine was played back into the room, re-recorded, and pitched down; a pump organ was recorded with a microphone placed on the floor; valves and an aging mixing console audibly contribute to the atmosphere. Lyrically, themes of separation predominate; the voices were layered multiple times, then pared back until only the essentials remained. Mastering was handled by Rashad Becker, and the cover photo is by Myriam Boulos. With “Late Loop,” Modern Love presents an austere, meticulously crafted album whose details gradually reveal themselves with repeated listening.
Welcome back, hope you've had a good trip so far. While we're digging global tunes, let's not forget what's cooking in our own yards. No less then a new dub don has risen from the wastelands of bratwursts, nutcrackers and garden gnomes: Toni Wobble is looking back on over 20 years of roots in punk, free parties and political movements. From anti-nuclear activism to the Gaggeldub performances, Toni's dug deep into the Dub universe: from Dubstation to Rootsbase to Subardo. By 2012, Toni became a respected operator of Leipzig's Plug Dub Soundsystem. Soon after, he didn't hesitate to create the very own solarpowered Sunplugged sound. Toni's live dub sets hit with all depth and energy of low bass sound culture, shaking the foundations with refreshing freakuency adventures. After a guest spot on our 18th release, helping RUZ dubbing out a deep b-side, it's time to unleash the full Wobble fury on 45Seven!
Out In Da Streetz was born in a lockdown, when urban life got stall, opening space for experiments. Inspired by Juke and Footwork at nights such as Bassmæssage, Toni ventured into Jungle production - the genre him love from way back. The result is an opus of subs, breaks, skanks and dubs. Expect 30 Hertz bass, wobbly midranges, halftime snares and Jungle edits sharp like razor. Don't miss the Ini cameo and hand-made skank work straight from the lab. The result ain't just a track, it's a state of inner and outer emergency, a deep dive into groove, texture and creative chaos.
Irie Cruise rolls up like a cloud of green smoke riding through the streets with a sick ride in a surreal vibe. Rootsy rhythms meet subtle Jungle twists inbetween the twinkles of Dub and the flickers of breakbeats. When the hook drops, the impulse fires up, the lowrider bounces through the turns of skanks, throwing dub delays and gliding deep into the night. By the final tone, you didn't just take a ride, you're actually a bit closer to the sun.
Toni Wobble is giving the full hundred. Dub ain't just a genre, it's a portal to infinite spaces of sound. It's a culture, a process and an attitude, all about echo, bass and space. But it's also about experimentation, consciousness and transformation. Each delay loop is reshaping reality, tearing it down and rebuilding it from the ground up. D.U.B. equals to deep universal beats, the universal frequency... Deep, wide and open. Tune in and dub out!
Devo Marries Gritty Guitars with Expansive Keyboard Canvasses on Duty Now for the Future:
Transitional Album Furthers the Band’s Satirical Stance, Includes Cover of “Secret Agent Man”
Hear the 1979 Record in Audiophile-Grade Sound and at 45RPM for the First Time:
Mobile Fidelity’s Numbered-Edition 180g 45RPM 2LP Set
Benefits from Enhanced Definition and Presence
1/4” / 15 IPS Dolby A analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe
“Pop music needs a big enema.” Devo created Duty Now for the Future with that mission statement, relayed to the press by co-founding bassist/vocalist Gerald Casale, in mind. Though unfairly pegged by some as an example of the common sophomore slump, the record spurred the group’s interest in electronic instrumentation, extended its penchant for biting social satire, and contained another transformative cover song in the form of “Secret Agent Man.” Above all, the 1979 work proved the Ohio pranksters were anything but a joke even if they would have to wait one more year until for their mainstream breakthrough.
Sourced from the original master tapes, mastered by engineer Krieg Wunderlich, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents Duty Now for the Future in audiophile-grade sound. Benefitting from the extra groove space on this first-ever 45RPM version, it plays with enhanced definition, deep-black backgrounds, and ultra-quiet surfaces.
Though certain band members later expressed regret with some of his decisions, the merits of Ken Scott’s production emerge like never before. A lurking edginess serves as a signpost in Devo’s progression before it fully embraced keyboards as a primary tool. Guitars possess punch and grit and, along with the crisp arrangements, are sharpened with an ear toward accuracy and vibrancy. It all helps give Duty Now for the Future a direct immediacy that answers the complaints of listeners who felt the affair too processed or sterilized.
Notably, a majority of the material here stems from the same grab bag of songs Devo banked before Warner Bros. signed it to a deal. The album marks a capstone to Phase One of a career that for all intents and purposes began in 1973. And just like many of the group’s performances of that era, Duty Now for the Future remains just as famous for the critical disdain it inspired as the music itself. A vicious review in Rolling Stone — the very publication that a few decades later would trumpet the band as one of the most important of its age — ended with the writer offering to send readers shards of the LP he planned on smashing to bits.
Perhaps he just needed to experience this new-wave effort with the restored sound that makes everything now feel so explosive and urgent. Whatever the case, the songs hold up and, amid a contemporary period which gives increasing license to artificial intelligence and behemoth conglomerates, seem more apt than ever before.
Consider “Blockhead,” which skewers the predictable appearances and numb-to-the-world actions of a rule follower. Or the similarly themed “Clockout,” an uptempo ditty whose thumbing-its-nose bravado and sardonic lyrics send up corporate culture with an irresistible smirk. As for the wiry, hard-hitting urgency of “Wiggly World” and Mark Mothersbaugh’s loud declaration that “They say the fittest shall survive/Yet the unfit may live”: Evidence these art-school rabble-rousers still had some punk fury to flush out of their system. And the sincere allure of the charged power pop and wishful circumstances of “The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize” cannot be denied.
To point to an interesting bit of history that makes Duty Now for the Future all the more intriguing, particularly for the most committed Spuds, more than half its tracks were selected for Greatest Misses — a 1990 anthology that celebrates lesser-known cuts and functions as a rejoinder to a hits compilation from the same year. (The only track from the 1979 album to make the “hits” disc: “Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA.”)
Indeed, tunes like the riff-driven albeit controversial “Pink Pussycat,” atmospherically twitching “S.I.B. (Swelling Itching Brain),” and ceremonial instrumental “Devo Corporate Anthem” may lack the catchy appeal and all-together coherence of what follows on the group’s third and most commercially successful effort, Freedom of Choice. Yet in order to get there, to de-evolve if you will, the band needed the smorgasbord that is Duty Now for the Future.
20:20 Vision has been defining the house underground for decades now, and much of its earlier material remains as revealing as its newer output. A case in point is this reissue of the rare Echo Beach release. Founder Ralph Lawson and his old pal Carl Finlow's recordings from The Farm in the Rhubarb Triangle retain a warmth and analogue weight that contemporary production struggles to replicate - all hands-on-deck live passes through drum machines, synths and outboard desks, the process audible in every groove. The discovery of unreleased cut 'Blues Dimensions', which was rescued from corrupted DATs, is the real find here: rasping Moog bass, P-Funk refrain and heavy Rhodes that sounds anything but archival. Top drawer excavation.
Music From Memory presents 'Mood Programs – Extended Play', a two-track release by LA MARR, a new project conceived by Ron Trent. Representing the first in an ongoing series of releases on Music From Memory, ‘Mood Programs - Extended Play’ opens a new chapter within Trent’s deep and continually evolving body of work, rooted in mood-driven composition, spatial depth and the emotional resonance of sound within physical space.
Influenced by ambient and environmental music, New Age, dub traditions, New Wave, Krautrock and HiFi sound system culture, LA MARR reflects many of the formative ideas that informed Trent’s evolving approach to sound and sonic architecture from the early 1980s onward. Rather than revisiting these influences nostalgically, the project recontextualises them through a contemporary production language, balancing analog warmth with precision and spatial depth.
Developed through years of sonic experimentation and research into the physical and psychological qualities of sound, LA MARR extends Ron Trent’s long-standing interest in the relationship between rhythm, acoustics and human connection. Built through a combination of analog processes and contemporary computer-assisted production, the project explores warmth, resonance, depth and sonic clarity through carefully sculpted environments of tone and texture.
Gently unfolding within a spacious, ambient-leaning framework, 'Mood Programs – Extended Play' moves beyond passive background listening toward something more intentional and immersive. Across both tracks, ‘Good Magic’ and ‘Clear’, layers of hypnotic synthesizer arpeggios and gently floating pads gradually unfold alongside organic percussion and subtle low-end movement, creating compositions that feel simultaneously meditative, physical and emotionally responsive. Sound is treated not simply as musical information, but as an environmental force capable of shaping perception, mood and awareness within a room.
'Mood Programs – Extended Play' will be released digitally and on vinyl through Music From Memory on July 15th. Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.
Our previous remix-EP of Ness' classic album "Flesh Of The Gods" was, for various reasons, a long and slow process. When Ness himself suggested us to ask Vladw for a contribution we finally had a good reason to reach out to a long time favorite @ the Navigare HQ. Although located, literally, on the other side of the planet, his deep, driving and breezy productions ring true to our, slightly northern, musical vision. So we are not surprised that his excellent remix of "Transilient" is, already, one of the most celebrated tracks in our half decade long history. We asked for more, and finally we are able to present three brand new originals, seeded, watered and harvested with a Navigarean intent. Three highly functional pieces, aimed at focused dancefloors underneath open skies, balancing the beautiful and lush with the edgy and slightly twisted. Although being our first ever collaboration, any Navigare listener would understand that Luigi Tozzi has played a huge role for us on our path. Since his first releases with Hypnus we've listened carefully, on repeat, for a dozen years by now. A guiding light for our scene, always curious, always pioneering, yet always on point. His remix of "Drya" takes the harmonix of the original, adds a monstrous bassline and - trust us on this one - that massive clap will cause a mass frisson on the dancefloor. Trust Navigare Audio...
There’s no direct English translation for the word “hiraeth”. In the Welsh language, it describes a form of longing for an intangible something, somewhere or someone that no longer exists. Sofie Birch and Antonina Nowacka draw on the concept to guide their second collaborative album, a suite of vulnerable, open-hearted improvisations and reflections that attempt to grasp an image of the past that’s chimeric, dissolving almost as soon as it materializes. The duo’s process follows the same distant beacon; unlike Languoria, their critically acclaimed debut, Hiraeth is, at heart, an acoustic record, informed by in-person improvisations with voices and string instruments that gesture to an era before computers, AI and DAWs. It’s just as lush, but Hiraeth is warmer and more muted than its predecessor.
Nowacka and Birch conceived the album in the wake of a slew of collaborative live concerts, spurred on by serendipitous improvisations and an interest in paring down their setup. Unsound arranged a retreat in Sokołowsko, an idyllic village nestled in the verdant hills of Southern Poland, close to the Czech border. Sokołowsko surrounds a large ruined sanatorium that’s rumored to have inspired Thomas Mann’s 1924 novel The Magic Mountain, and has long been a magnet for artists. The two took the opportunity to rethink their approach completely, arriving with just a guitar, a zither and a portable Nagra reel-to-reel machine. Recording directly to tape, they sketched out ideas with just their voices and instruments, reflecting their surroundings without being distracted or mediated by modern technology.
“We wanted to get away from screens as much as possible,” says Birch, “to bring to the world something vulnerable and honest. Without advance preparation, every day we went out into the open air, finding places to sit, during sunset or the midday sun. We discovered new tunings on our instruments, picked up a melody, and started the machine, playing over
and over till we got a take.” In the autumn, they met again in a Copenhagen studio, sparingly and carefully layering old synths and organs to add more depth without muddying the mix.
Both Nowacka and Birch sing throughout, their voices threading the acoustic instruments and tangling with each other, almost becoming one. But it’s the environment of Sokołowsko, “the birds and the light, even the wind playing against the harps,” that’s woven into the music’s lining. Affected by time spent meditating and in nature, as well as the fact that Birch was pregnant whilst recording, the album feels alive and remarkably present. Even the sound quality of the tape machine gives Hiraeth a tactile, organic quality, as Nowacka puts it, “like being in a warm bath.”
They still have the raw recordings from Sokołowsko on old reels, physical souvenirs of their time spent making music in a “habitat for intuitive songs, a little ecosystem, alive and spirited.” The outmoded gear and remote setting helped the duo disengage from the modern world for a few moments and imagine an existence that’s been lost to time and nominal progress. With digital technology receding into the background, Nowacka and Birch had space to make “intuitive connections with frequencies and people,” as Birch explains. Hiraeth is a testament not to nostalgia, but to the power of kinship.
Georgian powerhouse Yanamaste drops long-anticipated new EP on Mutual Rytm.
In-demand DJ/producer Yanamaste is a resident at Georgia's renowned Khidi Club and a key part of Amsterdam's Vault Sessions crew. His unique sound and fresh creative approach result in raw and visceral techno, reflecting his passion for pushing boundaries and showcased perfectly via his 'Dance' EP on Vault last year. Now, he returns with an EP born out of the creative process behind his live set with a debut appearance on SHDW's Mutual Rytm, 'Evil' - a collection of heavily-requested tracks that have already made an impact after featuring in his Boiler Room and Stone Techno Festival livestream.
'Evil' kicks things off with perfectly rubbery, funky drum patterns and an urgent sense of movement that sweeps you off your feet. 'Lahante' is more percussive, with busy snares riding the rolling, forceful drums and stark synths arresting your attention. 'Dragonfly' is perfectly reduced via minimal drums intertwined with thunderous effects and ghoulish energy, while 'Modulation Detected' has a more cosmic feel as it journeys into the future with whispered spoken words and synths searching across the face of the groove. Last but not least is the irresistible broken beat goodness of 'Walking On Mars', with its swinging kicks and vast bassline spraying about the mix beneath hypnotic melodic patterns.
Two superb bonus cuts, 'Ohohoi' and 'Pwiu', are also provided for digital buyers, bringing further gems loaded with moody depths and compelling rhythms.
Julian Sanza clearly knows the difference between an edit and a rewrite, and both cuts here lean toward respectful expansion rather than reinvention. The A-side takes that unmistakable 80s pop groove and stretches it into genuine nu disco and house territory while allowing subtle dub and London-inflected touches from the original to still bubble up, and in the process also gives DJs a nice extended tool to work with. The flip does similar work on an 80s Argentine classic, deepening the rhythm and adding modern electronic polish without losing the emotional heat. Two well-judged edits.
This 2 x 12-inch vinyl release is a reissue of the original soundtrack to the animated feature Ambient Trip Commander. With a running time of 70 minutes, the soundtrack was first performed as a live synthesizer improvisation by Danny Wolfers (Legowelt) at the film's premiere on May 28, 2022, at EYE Filmmuseum. Wolfers continued to perform the soundtrack live at numerous subsequent screenings before releasing it on cassette on August 4, 2023. The 2026 vinyl reissue presents the compositions in four parts, aiming to put weight on the listening experience as a cohesive album.
Ambient Trip Commander is a hand-drawn and painted feature-length animated film by Danny Wolfers (Legowelt), marking his first feature in the medium. The animation brings Wolfers' paintings to life through frame-by-frame watercolor techniques. The production process spanned eighteen months.
The film follows Samantha Tapferstern, a geeky young woman who works a mundane job at a synthesizer store in a medium-sized European city. She spends her nights playing RPGs and browsing dating apps. One day, she receives a train ticket and a cryptic message from a hacker group inviting her to Lonetal, a secluded village deep in the European Alps. As she boards the night train, a sinister adventure begins to unfold.
Four cuts destined to take you on an Adventure In Paradise. No additives, just raw records spliced, diced, and processed through the blender to better feed the dancefloor and DJs alike.
A1 - If you’re asking yourself if something can be chuggy at 128 bpm then you’re in the right place. Disco-stomping belter ploughing its way down the M20 searching for the port, then the south of France and finally Freddie’s bedroom. Don’t forget the stops for a breather.
A2 - Four films?? That’s about as insane as this edit; a swaggering, mop-topped and dubbed-out groover boasting a ph-fat flamenco freakout at its klymaxxx. Would Harvey play it? Dunno, but the bootleg variety definitely already does.
B1 - Shades of Rimini as the pianos set over another rubbery bassline and the Adriatic Sea arpeggiates its ocean spray all over the gaffe. If this ain’t heaven, we’re not sure what is.
B2 - Nothing like a lashing of nutritious Italo-dance slop to carb-o-load the dancefloor at its peak. Just watch as the crowd devours this Ragú of musical flavours, with elements of Disco, New Wave, Acid House and Jazz all thrown in the pot.
A counterculture movement united by an expansive, experimental and deeply soulful sensibility, Japan’s rebel protest music challenged the status quo and changed the country’s music industry in the process.
The birth of Japan’s nascent acid folk scene was rooted in the messy and invigorating political climate of the late 1960s. It is a story of Dadaists, communists, pharmacists and cult leaders, led by a young generation of upstart students, artists and dreamers hellbent on turning their world upside down.
Born on the campuses of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, and centred around newly formed independent label and left-wing stronghold URC, this uniquely Japanese form of folk expression provided an outlet for musicians who were tired of aping Western sounds and instead found ways to sing in Japanese and integrate traditional forms in new ways.
At the forefront of this movement was Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Haroumi Hosono, a polymath innovator whose band Happy End released the first Japanese language rock album, and whose influence would go on to be felt across Japanese music for decades. Alongside, and informed by the Kansai scene’s Takashi Nishioka and Happy End collaborator Ken Narita, they experimented with cadences and accents of the Japanese language to open the door for others to experiment with their own forms of psychedelic folk too.
Some, like Nishioka, were more inspired by Dadaism than drugs, while others, like Kazuhisa Okubo, would ultimately find work as a chemist, having founded two further folk groups that flirted with varying levels of success. Obstinately uncommercial, relentlessly creative, the music featured on Time Capsule’s Nippon Acid Folk represents a broad church of influences.
Perhaps the wildest addition to this congregation however was Hiroki Tamaki, a classically-trained violinist and committed iconoclast, whose synth-prog odysseys hinted at his obsession with the divine. Subsumed by the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, he penned an album in praise of the infamous religious leader of which two superbly mind-bending tracks are featured on this compilation.
Charting the decade from 1970 to 1980 as the dreams of political and spiritual liberation seeded in the ‘60s turned to dust, Nippon Acid Folk surveys a little explored corner of Japanese music history, but one which ultimately laid the foundations for an independent music industry, launching the careers of Hosono and others in the process.
Nippon Acid Folk 1970-1980 is pressed on 12” vinyl and represents the start of Time Capsule’s deep dive into Japan’s rich history of folk and psychedelic soul music.
Curió Curió came to flight by chance. Two artists, Rio-born, Austria-based singer and actress Luiza Monteiro and German producer Dustin Braun, had separately reached a fork in their journeys. An opportune encounter soon blossomed into an uplifting, heartfelt Brazilian MPB-groove project shaped by psychedelic disco and studio experimentation. In their own words Curió Curió’s sonic vision “is not straight disco, not straight samba, not strictly old-school but inspired by all of them, creating something contemporary but still nostalgic”.
A modern fusion influenced as much by Gal Costa and Jorge Ben Jor as Say She She and Bala Desejo, their sound deftly plots a course all of its own. A celebration of freedom, movement, love and life, intertwined with introspective moments of reflection. Treating tradition as something alive, migratory and unresolved, the album is not simply bound by a shared love of Brazilian music, but by a deeper question that runs through every track; where does one belong when home becomes plural? As a Brazilian living in Europe, Luiza's lyrics explore themes of identity, culture, and existence. The tracks move between cities and emotional registers without settling, tracing a sense of identity that shifts rather than resolves. Songs like ‘Amor Doente’ and ‘Mar sem Dar Pé’ circle around relationships that resist clarity, while ‘Menina Passarinho’ captures the fear and necessity of committing to music as a path. For Luiza, deepening her commitment to music alongside years in theatre was both inevitable and difficult. Braun’s production follows a similar logic. Initial ideas were often built without obvious reference points, only later incorporating rhythmic and vocal elements that hint at Brazil without reproducing it. Analogue techniques, tape, ribbon microphones and live ensemble recording bring a tactile quality that reflects the duo’s interest in process as much as outcome. Highlights include ‘Bem Querer’, built on an authentic samba street vibe with a super-catchy sing-along chorus, and ‘Vem pra Casa’ with its cosmic-tinged Brazilian boogie flavour. The album closes with ‘A Cor do Meu Sonho’, a quiet act of insistence. A refusal to shrink in unfamiliar environments, and a belief in the strength of difference. It is less a conclusion than a continuation, leaving the central question open. “I started to understand that I can belong to many places at once”, Luiza reflects. “And that can be something to embrace”. Lyrics from the song ‘Raiz’ translate in English to “I value a burning sun and the cold in the air. Constant change is my companion”. With Curió Curió, that idea is lived through sound, story and collaboration. A debut that feels both searching and assured, grounded in heritage yet shaped by distance.
* Edition of 500 colored vinyl (transparent purple)
* Artwork developed in collaboration with Paris-based visual artist Caroline Ventura
* Including download code
i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is the highly anticipated new album by Sirens Of Lesbos, led by sisters Jasmina and Nabyla Serag. The dynamic release is a vibrant showcase of the group's expansive musical range, blending R’n’B/Soul, Afrobeats, electronic music, and lo-fi indie pop into a rich, genre-defying experience. With its eclectic sound and captivating melodies, the album solidifies Sirens Of Lesbos as a standout force in modern music.
Featuring on the album are the singles “Room 333” feat. Kendrick-Lamar-collaborator Zacari, a futuristic R’n’B song with progressive club beats; the epic “Call Me Back” (feat. Drake-co-signed rapper SadBoi and the Kabusa Oriental Choir); and dub-infused reggae song “Let It Hurt”, plus new song “My Moon”, which draws inspiration from artists like Bruce Hornsby, Justin Vernon, and Jai Paul. Sirens Of Lesbos have earned widespread acclaim from outlets like CLASH, COLORS, Dork, Tsugi and Earmilk, with BBC 1Xtra’s CassKidd calling the collective “magical.”
As Black women living in the diaspora, Jasmina and Nabyla navigate the intersection of their parents’ collectivist North-East African culture and the Western emphasis on individuality. Questions of identity have always been central to their journey. While society often demands clear-cut definitions, the sisters have come to embrace their multifaceted identities: “We have always been many things.”
Both artists are deeply rooted in the technical and philosophical dimensions of sound. Jasmina recently completed her Sound Arts degree, and Nabyla is now finishing hers. Their academic pursuits have included creating abstract sound installations in exhibition spaces. However, their focus for the foreseeable future is on elevating the Sirens Of Lesbos project, writing and producing standout indie pop tracks, performing live, and delivering unforgettable experiences for their audiences.
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The vinyl version of i got a song, it’s gonna make us millions is published by Präsens Editionen, a Switzerland-based publishing house and music label. Founded in 2011 in the process of launching zweikommasieben Magazin, Präsens Editionen has since released music on vinyl, cassette, CD, and digital formats—alongside magazines, books, and other printed matter. Recent audio releases include works by Martina Lussi, spalarnia, Magda Drozd, Anom Vitruv, Belia Winnewisser, and Red On, among others.
“Twenty-five years into their existence, The Album Leaf are an old comfy sweater. It might not be the most fashionable thing in your collection but it always feels good when you put it on. Jimmy LaValle’s synth textures are warm, nostalgic and steeped in Boards of Canada / Ulrich Schnauss-style soundscapes that are relaxing, otherworldly and melodic” – Brooklyn Vegan
The Album Leaf shares his new ambient LP, Rotations. The record is a mediative experiment into atmospheric sound. Creator Jimmy LaValle explains, “This collection of music is a true reflection of my creative process—rooted in sound exploration, experimentation, and spontaneous response. Each track captures a moment of creative discovery, free from the pressure of achieving a polished result. Throughout my career, I’ve often placed significant weight on what an album should be. With this release, I’ve let go of those expectations to share a body of work that feels genuine and authentic.
The Album Leaf began as the solo project of Jimmy LaValle, who came up in the San Diego music scene playing in hardcore bands and the instrumental rock band Tristeza. He had inked a deal to release his next solo album through the indie label Tigerstyle Records, so he put the modest advance towards a self-recording starter setup, building out the sound with occasional studio access. The music that emerged — vivid, rhythmic, soaring instrumentals guided by lines of Guitar and Rhodes — not only set the path for The Album Leaf over the next two decades of acclaimed releases (for Sub Pop, City Slang, and others), it became a touchstone for the next generation's wave of melodic and meditative electro-organic music.
Portuguese techno mainstay Dextro drops cultured EP 'Covil Dos Abutres' for his label debut on Mutual Rytm.
Dextro has been immersed in electronic music and DJing since the early 90s. In the decades since, he has become synonymous with a sound deeply rooted in simplicity and authenticity. Fuelled by a passion for his craft, his production process is guided by intuition and spans a diverse range of styles, from tunnelling grooves to more potent techno with deep and hypnotic layers. He has held several key residencies and released on top labels like CLR and Missile Records, and he adds to those with a first outing on SHDW's Mutual Rytm with 'Covil Dos Abutres'.
The five-track 12" and eight-track digital EP has a sleek, stripped-back style, with wide-spanning corners of the techno realm explored. 'Covil Dos Abutres' is a deep space transmission with journeying, frictionless beats and deft sci-fi motifs that recall classic touches synonymous with the genre's pioneers. 'Correct Incorrect' keeps the pressure on with more rubbery, dubbed-out groves beautifully decorated with delicate melodies. 'Vida E Morte' is another sublime and hypotonic minimal techno sound with funk in the kicks and a freaky late-night spirit. 'Element One' again combines perfectly reduced drum groves with atmospheric pads and curious samples that keep you intrigued, and 'Beautiful Day' closes out with sonar-like synth pulses over the most skeletal but captivating rhythms. Digital cuts 'Time Line', 'Savana Urbana', and 'Diferencas' further explore the intersection of minimalism with cosmic synth designs that take you off into distant astral worlds.
The free folk/jazz sound of modern Los Angeles. Featuring a heavy bunch of musicians and vocalists including Moor Mother.
"Fearlessly Accessing the Divine Spirit From Here on Out" is the vinyl debut from pianist, composer, and producer Diego Gaeta. He has previously released projects as Club Diego and with the trio Human Error Club (whose members Mekala Session and Jesse Justice helped produce this record). He has quickly become a fixture in a number of Los Angeles musical environments, working with Lionmilk, The Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, Carlos Niño, Black Nile among others. This album is a synthesis of these many LA environments, and carries chamber, jazz, ambient, and folk influences, ultimately giving it an uncategorizable feel similar to works by Arthur Verocai or David Axelrod.
Gaeta recorded the initial ideas for the album by himself after experiencing a burst of creativity during the lockdown of 2020, in the aftermath of a season of protests in Los Angeles, on a piano at his home in El Sereno. "I was constantly not in tune with myself, always awaiting outrage and tragedy in a very unstable world. However, hitting the streets in support of various ongoing pandemic community actions felt necessary and it marked a point in time that ushered in large societal changes. The weight of that era made me feel allergic to making art at the time. All of these ideas came after that period, expressing my reflections subconsciously. I remember that the ideas came in a short amount of time, and then they developed."
Once he had created the tracks as Ableton sessions, he realized the gravity and context of how he was processing his ideas so he, as he puts it, "felt like taking them outside the hands of midi and into the hands of friends." Gaeta was able to assemble his dream band, which ended up being a 9-piece ensemble, or a nonet. "I felt that at some point I was channeling the geometrical balance of that nonet...it's almost as if I had a sextet and then the three of the sextet that's not the rhythm section were doubled. It's a really dense sextet, that's how I see it."
The recording process began the following summer in June 2021 as the musicians were all adjusting to the newfound dynamic of getting tested for COVID, waiting a few days, and then meeting up to record. "We were eating Indian food, some of us were smoking, it was a nice memory, but I felt a little stressed, because I was the bandleader, and I felt the emotional weight of my music."
The title track and single, featuring vocals by Jimetta Rose, begins with a speech by Gaeta delivered when playing with Black Nile in 2019 at the Levitt Amphitheatre in MacArthur park. Gaeta provides the following account: "Even though it was in 2019, socio-political tensions and issues were at the forefront for me at that time. I wrote a speech that was intended to be critical of the US but it ended up becoming a collage inspired by different women that had messages of freedom that spoke to me the most. I quoted Nina Simone and Georgia Anne Muldrow, it wasn't something that I read but something that she said "kicking it with consciousness and style" that phrase stuck with me, so I used it in that speech. Although critical, the speech had a positive feeling to it, and it was hopeful. I gave that speech while fireworks were going off."
Moor Mother & Zeroh are found on their respective tracks, Memory Screen & Eccolo - both delivering a distinct, commanding vocal performance. Low Leaf colors the track Soft Spot with harp, a beautiful ballad nestled in the center of the album. Other players include Gregory Uhlmann on guitar, Jon Kaye on violin, Devin Daniels on alto saxophone, Caleb Buchanan on bass, Dante Luna on vibraphone, Patrick Behnke on viola, Bryan Baker on tenor saxophone/flute, and Mekala Session on drums.
"I’d like for us tonight to embody a freedom oriented life. Freedom isn’t just a dream, it’s a place we must all arrive at together, as one by one the people of the Earth help each other to be Free of power, hate, and insecurities. Let’s kick it with consciousness and style. Can y’all dig that? YEAH. I can too. So now we’d like to present to you a spiritual transmission I like to call: 'Fearlessly Accessing the Divine Spirit of Freedom From Here On Out.' YEAH" - Diego Gaeta
Acclaimed British ambient / neo-classical artist Digitonal (aka Andrew Dobson) returns with The Night Album - a deeply introspective and transportive new full-length, marking his fifth studio album across a 25-year journey and his first to be written, performed and produced entirely solo. With The Night Album, Dobson turns inward Created in solitude and shaped by generative processes alongside his own musicianship, the record is a study in quietude, self- reflection and artistic reconciliation. Jazz-inflected in spirit (though never confined by genre), it captures a sense of peace and acceptance. The sound of an artist settling into his own voice after decades of evolution.
FIG thief is an Amsterdam-based artist from Greece. This album refers to the healing process of opening up the self to diverse encounters. This diversity represents the transgression of the material and immaterial boundaries. Peonies are the healing flowers. Planting the peonies led this creation to bloom. It is a trip-hop album with pure hip-hop elements. It portrays the playfulness of making music and accepting transformations . Slam poetry, bars, and travelling melodies with punchy breaks. Art doesn't belong to the artist. It is a co-creation.
Brutkho strikes back on Goldmin Music with his very first vinyl release. A first physical release is always something special and exciting, So of course, it had to be a very personal and deeply touching package of music. Horvath Tamas alias Brutkho is actually one of the artists we feel since the first listen of his music. This hungarian producer has the power to play with the unexpected, to build captivating structures without losing sight of the essential simplicity this music needs."Now & then", his first ep on Goldmin Music and "Magic 32" on the compilation were already authentic demonstrations of this guy's assertive personality and aspirations but he definitely pushed the process further on this record.
Gabriella and Coleman are two massive deep-techno stompers focused on the atmosphere, the texture, the immersion which will play with your senses from the beginning to the end and fool your previous certainties without any doubt.Tel-Aviv based producers Deep'a & Biri who recently joined Derrick May's Transmat agency and who deliver some of the finest dub techno cuts of today catched the original track delicious pianos and dropped them into their sumptuous cinetic industrial groove.French producer Jan Hendez drives it into a pure rhythmic and organic piece of music unbound by usual genre limits. Menacing, very cold yet still deep and sexy remix that reminds both his first releases and his newer strictly atmospheric and mental approach.That's exactly the point with this record. It's a meeting of spontaneous artists who never stop their musical research, who don't mind about fleeting trends and who push boundaries further on every single track they do.
Life In Patterns welcomes Amsterdam-based live act and producer VNTM for his debut appearance on the label with “Ostbahn”, a five-track EP arriving on vinyl and digital formats on 24 July 2026. For VNTM, Ostbahn marks a departure from his usual creative process. While most of his productions are conceived and developed within the familiarity of his studio, every track on this release originated elsewhere — each one tied to a specific place, encounter, or moment beyond its walls. These external sparks became the foundation for a collection that feels both deeply personal and unmistakably geared towards the dance floor. Across the EP, VNTM explores the intersection of emotional depth and physical intensity. Dark, immersive pads and melancholic atmospheres are woven into powerful techno frameworks, driven by heavy low frequencies, tightly locked grooves, and a precise sense of movement. The result is a body of work that balances introspection with impact, equally suited to peak-time systems and solitary listening. Based in Amsterdam, VNTM has established himself as one of techno's most distinctive live performers, appearing at major festivals and clubs worldwide with a hardware-focused setup dedicated entirely to his own productions. His sound combines harmonic exploration and narrative-driven composition with distorted percussion, futuristic sound design, and a constant embrace of emerging synthesizer technologies. Beyond his performances, VNTM is the driving force behind the acclaimed Mindscape events at Amsterdam's Lofi, where he has hosted artists including Len Faki, Kangding Ray, Sterac, Âme, Recondite, Polygonia, Luigi Tozzi, Vril, and JakoJako. Recent highlights include his debut on the Awakenings Festival Mainstage, an all-night-long live set at Lofi Amsterdam, and a sold-out debut performance at Refuge in New York City. With “Ostbahn”, VNTM delivers a compelling first chapter on Life In Patterns — a release shaped by experiences beyond the studio, translated into hypnotic, emotionally charged techno built for deep immersion and maximum physicality.
Constantly pushing his studio craft into unexplored realms, Pugilist returns to Samurai with a fresh clutch of innovative hybridised meditations transmitting from upper tempos. The versatility in Alex Dickson's approach is proven by the broad spectrum of labels he releases on — as comfortable shelling down for Shall Not Fade as he is tearing out on Rupture London. As the Melbourne / Naarm-based producer opens up the Triads EP with 'Rune', he hones in on a dynamic fusion of insistent technoid propulsion and brooding bass snarls with a mysterious portent. 'Pyre' swiftly turns up the percussive intensity with bludgeoning kicks and whipcrack snares that evoke classic electronica as much as D&B. For all the sharp attack of the drums, though, Dickson manages his ingredients with ruthless restraint, creating a fierce kind of meditation in the process. 'Woven' allows a rich variety of snaking synth lines to take centre stage as we tunnel into the second half of the EP, relishing the space for dynamic modulation and slowly evolving, cinematic pads that offer a glacial foil to the twitchy pace of the snappier elements in the mix. 'Machiavellian' plays the consummate closer in its lead in, playing a patient game in ritualistic drums before the herald of rave tropes rear up in some pronounced, choppy snare science. Yet again, Dickson opts for a softer approach where you might be expecting an explosive drop, allowing the skittering drums to roll on until they become a mesmerising texture in the track. In the end, it's an expert flourish demonstrating the energetic possibilities that lie in the spaces beyond more obvious peaks and troughs. Across four brilliantly original, highly advanced rollers, Pugilist nails the balance between subtlety and impact and proves himself a worthy advocate for the path less travelled.
RB013 marks Rhythm Buro's 13th release, arriving in the form of a Various Artists compilation titled 'All Things Broken'. Much like its predecessor 'There Will Be Light' - the label's ambient compilation - this project was built around a single unifying idea: bringing together a diverse set of tracks centred on deep breakbeat sounds, for lack of a better term. With that vision in mind, curator Igor Glushko reached out to a dozen like-minded artists - Ukrainian and international, long-time collaborators and fresh faces alike. A year and a half later, 'All Things Broken' is finally here.
Contributing artists (in alphabetical order): Alex Albrecht, Forest On Stasys, Haze, Hidden Element, HVL, Ina Kacz, Na Nich, Orion, Radiant Futur, SI Process, The Sailing Oysterman (aka Shjva and Ilya Semashkevich), Volodymyr Gnatenko.
The compilation comes as a 2xLP and includes an insert poster featuring 'Flame and Water', a drawing by Ukrainian artist Oleksandr Kryzhanovskyi that serves as the centrepiece of the release's artwork. Oleksandr also contributed additional works from the same series, which appear on the labels of both records.
MASK Records founder ZentaSkai joins forces with Berlin-based creative Laura Merino Allue under the name Cuddling Monsters, a project centered on analog processes and tactile sound design. Debuting in March 2024, the project explores Detroit-infused House, dub Techno, and minimal soundscapes shaped by raw texture and spatial depth. Working exclusively with analogue instruments, the duo prioritise warmth, imperfection, and presence over polish. Alongside her music work, Laura Merino Allue is also a graphic designer, bringing a strong visual identity to the project’s wider aesthetic.
‘Cuddling Monsters' is inspired by real-life experiences — the raw, imperfect, beautiful moments we move through. We believe in staying present, feeling everything deeply, and embracing the analog flow of the now. It’s about living the moment fully — and like a cuddle on the dancefloor, creating a space where sound holds you, warmth surrounds you, and even the wildest monsters feel safe enough to soften.’ -
Cuddling Monsters
The Cuddling Monsters ‘Vol. 3’ EP opens with ‘Bubble Bloom’, a melodic house track featuring warped, filtered synth tones that set a hazy foundation before a dub-leaning beat settles in. It’s layered with aquatic, bubbly textures and fragmented samples, adding warmth and movement. ‘Warm Waves’ shifts into a lighter, more atmospheric space, increasing the tempo slightly while maintaining a restrained, ethereal character. The B-side closes with ‘Secret Signal’, a long-form techno piece stretching over ten minutes, where evolving synth lines gradually merge with soft, dubby drums and analogue percussion, building steadily without excess before easing out.
The album Archiv 1 by Michael Oswald is a collection of various works from the years 2017 to 2023. It shows roughly all the directions that influence Michael Oswald and are processed in his studio works
Inweys is the new project from Scottish musicians Conal Blake (Feedback Moves, Domestic Exile, Infant Tree) and Murray Collier (Dip Friso, Grim Lusk, Real Landscape). Their debut self-titled 12’ was recorded in the summer of 2024 at La Chunky Studios in Glasgow.
They asked Fielding Hope of Counterflows Festival to write a short summary of the record:
“Inweys debut release arrives as four pieces of broken body music. Lurking, barely human fragments brought into the present. Using a short drum-machine improvisation as core material, the pieces are formed from a processes of mining and re-mining for small details, with each fragment zoomed in on and turned into new pieces. There’s a transformation taking place, but one that doesn’t obscure the materiality of the recording tapes as sticky, corrosive matter. On skewed and stretched fabric they enact their palimpsestic play, sketching and altering the grid with itchy technologies. What their edits and improvisations don’t say they let space say the rest, with vacuum aerated frames for bass to diffuse and beats to wriggle. More King Tubby than Cage, more Mantronix than Reich: minimalism with molten tips.
Both Conal and Murray’s past work has embraced malleable and iterative technologies; music whose feeliness figures itself out in space in a messy precomposed/improvised dialectic. This is the sort of thing most “new music” experimentalists (or anyone who spends most of their time obsessively manipulating tapes in expensive studios) often can’t achieve; a liveness, birthed from learning in situated play. Like the lore of Phuture’s Acid Trax, a poverty of material is at the heart of this, rendering the work with an abortive conviction: a corpse waking to consciousness becomes amphibious. Instead of the composer we have a relation, two people navigating the awkward spooling between the two reels of tape. Inweys is scots for “inwards”, and in their working process this is what they do. But the result is circular motion. Until the tape runs out, all in ways move out.”
What's the point of the howl of string to speaker, the hammering of stick-on skin? Is it transcendence, elevating the human spirit by catharsis in sound? Or is it summoning chaos, a purgatory in which to bask in all that’s unclean, the better to feel alive?
Why not both? Because that’s what’s on offer on Diet Of Worms, the second Rocket release by The Shits, Leeds via Newcastle’s titans of disgust and deliverance. This is a feast for the senses in the worst way possible - primal rock boiled down to its essence and flung full in your face. Using repetition, tortured vocal invective and heads-down intensity as blunt instruments, these eight tracks are an unprecedented torrent of acidic salvation. Whilst lurking somewhere on the decadence-destruction axis between the nihilism of prime Stooges and the bloody blackout of Braimbombs, Diet Of Worms is possessed of a legitimately uncompromising hostility that both elevates and debases it to co-ordinates unknown.
There are revelations here in the riffage and the rancour, even if they are the kind that occur in the bleary miasma of the lock-in, or witnessing the streetlight blur of the subsequent stagger home. Even more single-minded and remorseless than the band’s Rocket debut ‘You’re A Mess’, this is a record that demands full immersion. Whether it’s ‘Then You’re Dead’ hammering on a pulverising garage-stinking riff until it begs for mercy, or ‘Change My Ways’, whose Creedence-In-Hell swagger and lurch is that of abjection transmuted into joy, this is psychedelia forcibly removed from its comfort zone of pastiche, and thrust into a bad-trip realm of the vivid and nightmarish.
But rarely has the process of making beauty and horror indivisible seemed like so much fun. If Werner Herzog was right, and the only harmony in the universe is that of overwhelming and collective murder, then The Shits are the true music of the spheres.
Turn On The Sunlight is the long-running project of Texas-born, Maui-based musician and producer Jesse Peterson.
Originally formed in New York in the late 2000s, Turn On The Sunlight has evolved into a fluid, location-spanning practice rooted in collaboration, intuition and process. Now based on Maui, Peterson’s work draws together a wide network of musicians and environments, with recordings taking shape across Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, San Miguel de Allende and Haʻikū.
Loosely situated within a framework of organic, ambient-leaning jazz, 'Iseo' unfolds as a series of open, exploratory pieces, with electronics sitting subtly beneath acoustic and environmental elements. Built from layered instrumentation including synthesizers, guitar, zither, flutes, voice and field recordings, Peterson moves between grounded, tactile detail and more expansive, immersive states. A sense of warmth and permeability runs throughout: organic percussion, environmental textures and drifting rhythmic elements lend the record a gently saturated humidity, reflecting Peterson’s base in Hawaii, where the presence of nature is felt as much as it is heard.
Underlying the project is a way of working rooted in gathering, listening and tending. Instruments, ensemble sessions, field recordings and everyday environments are approached with attentiveness, shaped through collecting, refining and allowing things to settle. Relationships, landscape and lived experience shape the sound, giving 'Iseo' a tactile, almost hand-made quality.
Rather than fixed arrangements, the album feels as if it has been organically and lovingly assembled through a process of listening and response, each element finding its place within a wider, evolving whole. This approach reaches a natural centre point in the 15-minute piece 'Medianoche En La Calle Aurora', which unfolds patiently, bending through shifting environments as motifs and textures emerge and dissolve with quiet continuity.
Peterson’s role as both instigator and facilitator is central to the project. Bringing together a diverse group of collaborators including Carlos Niño, Mia Doi Todd, Laraaji, Ko Ishikawa, Luis Pérez Ixoneztli and Miles Spilsbury, he creates space for individual voices to emerge within a shared language. The result is a music defined by openness and generosity.
'Iseo' takes its title from Peterson’s son’s middle name, a word that can be understood to mean ‘one-world life’. The piece itself takes the form of a gentle lullaby, its melody loosely shaped around the syllables of his name and sung to Peterson’s son by Luis Pérez Ixoneztli, a close collaborator whose presence across the record reflects a long-standing relationship that extends beyond the music itself.
Sleeve art and design by Michael Willis.
New 4-track Ep From Austin, Texas Analogue Hardware Enthusiast Bill Converse. Immersed In The Early Days Of The 90s Midwest Rave Scene, Bill Began Djing At A Young Age In Lansing, Michigan. Luminaries Such As Claude Young, Traxx, And Derrick May Were Key Early Influences. Techno, Noise, Ambient And Tape Processing Are All Part Of His Uncanny Sound Palette. His Debut Album 'meditations/industry' Was Released On Cassette In 2013 And Edited For A Vinyl Release On Dark Entries In 2016 Followed By Two 12' Singles 'warehouse Invocation' And '7 Of 9' The Same Year. In 2017 Converse Released His Second Album 'the Shape Of Things To Come' Followed By The Double Ep 'salt Of Mars'.
'hulled' Is A 25 Minute Journey Spread Across 4 Tracks Of Glacial Abandon. All Tracks Were Recorded Directly To Tape With No Overdubs, Made At Converse's Home Studio. Bill Says These Tracks Represent 'ocean Waves In Stormy Conditions, Dark Grey Blue Water, Or More Generally Speaking Something Ominous And Beautiful.' The Songs On This Album Reveal A Sublime Influence From Detroit Techno, Idm, And Acid. Built Around Vintage Synthesizer Lines And Gritty Drum Machine Percussion, The Tracks Ebb And Flow Like The Effect Of Sun Shimmering On Water, Woozy, Gauzy And Ephemeral. All Songs Were Mastered For Vinyl By George Horn At Fantasy Studios In Berkeley.
Each Ep Is Housed In A Die-cute Jacket Designed By Eloise Leigh With Peachy Pink Patterns Landing On An Alien Water Planet And Seeing Mysterious Playing Forms Under The Turquoise Water. Each Copy Includes A Postcard Featuring Photo Of Bill With Notes.
Melody As Truth and Future Days Radio present ‘At the Emerald Pool’, an album by Tomo Katsurada and Jonny Nash.
Netherlands-based artists Tomo Katsurada (Ex-Kikagaku Moyo / Future Days Radio) and Jonny Nash (Melody As Truth) combine forces for an exploration into the sonic potential of the guitar duo, rooted in their experiences performing together over the last 12 months.
Friends and admirers of each other’s work for a decade, their musical collaboration began in 2024 with Katsurada asking Nash to contribute guitar to his debut EP ‘Dream Of The Egg’. Sensing the need to explore this further, they spent the following year performing together in different configurations, with Nash joining Katsurada’s trio and Katsurada in turn playing with Nash as a duo, across a wide spectrum of spaces, from churches and temples to concert halls, theatres and outdoor festivals. With new ideas developing organically out of these performances, recording new material became the next logical step. A short period of three days was set aside with a clear goal: to capture the essence of their fluid, intertwining melodies and guitar playing in a way that felt as direct and unfiltered as possible. Working from a handful of pre-existing sketches, they left ample room for experimentation to unfold within the process.
The results are presented on ‘At The Emerald Pool’, a collection of ten pieces that offer the listener a full immersion into the pair’s sound. With guitar as the primary instrument for both artists, it is no surprise that the core of the album lies here, specifically in the fluid interplay between the two players. Layers of gentle, delay-soaked fingerpicking often make it almost impossible to distinguish where one player ends and the other begins. As soloists, both Katsurada and Nash have a gift for crafting melodic lines that feel open and ascending, expressive and hopeful without becoming saccharine. Longer, more abstract pieces are counterbalanced by a series of shorter songs, with five vocal tracks appearing across the album. The decision to share vocal duties lends the record a unique quality and a strong sense of variation, bringing a wide expressive range out of a deliberately focused musical framework.
‘At The Emerald Pool’ represents the first chapter in an ongoing musical dialogue, an attempt to capture a moment of connection, openness and discovery, laying the foundation for what continues to unfold.
JKS is back on his own imprint with Temples, opening a different chapter of his sound. Across three original tracks, he explores a more melodic and expansive direction, while keeping the raw rhythmic energy and distinctive percussion that have always defined his productions. Processed instruments, playful synth lines and organic textures come together with a sense of openness and curiosity, always anchored in movement and groove. Alongside the originals, three remixes by Aloka, A Strange Wedding and Olympe4000 extend the scope of the release. Each artist brings their own sensibility to the project, reinterpreting the material in their own language and broadening the spectrum of both the record and the imprint. Together, they highlight different facets of JKS’s influences while keeping a shared sense of drive and tension. The result is a collection that balances movement and emotion, precision and spontaneity. Deeply rooted in the dancefloor, yet unafraid to venture beyond familiar boundaries, the release captures an artist and a label continuing to evolve while staying true to their core.
Much like the fusion resulting in the output of light and heat within a star, the last seven years for Dave Sumner, aka Function, have been defined by immense change and an outpouring of creative energy. What began in late 2016 as a period of burnout from a relentless touring life became a catalyst for the most prolific recording era of his career. At the time, the studio became the only viable escape, a space to transmute exhaustion into a gestalt work.
Aeternum (Existenz) serves as the missing element in this creative arc. It acts as the final chapter of a cycle, that began with the 2019 album Existenz and moved through Subject f (Transcendence), Awakening from the Illusory Self, and Green EP. Drawing inspiration from the seven stages of alchemy, this mini-album represents a cathartic process; a natural end point of a psychological cycle and the beginning of a new curve.
Across the six tracks on the mini-LP, recorded 2016-2019, Function builds a unique world, one which underlines his place as one of the luminaries of contemporary techno. Opening track, Ascent, traverses the space between ambient and techno; second track City Of Luz almost fades into itself across its twelve minutes before Transmutation brings around a reawakening with a beat that would not have sounded out of place on an early Rephlex or even a Sähko release. Final track on the 12”, Growth Cycle is fittingly a re-version/re-vision of a track on the Existenz LP; Robert Owens’ soulful vocal now Stefanie Parnow's floating Siren-like voice with music that feels reborn: fresh, strong and insistent. The digital pack contains two further tracks, the deep electro of November 29, as well as Rubedo, a spacial ambient track that feels like the final glowing red embers of a fire turning to ash as the sun rises to reveal a new, golden dawn.
Aeternum (Existenz) is the final chapter of the soundtrack to Function’s spiritual awakening, the closing of a door and the clearing of a path. It’s a sonic manifestation of the Magnum Opus completed, a moment of total integration, where the leaden weight of the journey is finally perfected into the incorruptible gold of the spirit.
It is dedicated to John Mendez, aka Silent Servant, Sumner’s dear friend and lifelong collaborator.
Digi Dub re-enter the vinyl world with a handful of archival 10” releases, the first collating tracks harvested from four releases which originally came out in the early 90s.
The Aliens EP provides a perfect showcase of the adventurous and experimental approach that the label took at a time when breakbeat hardcore was starting to fragment. Taking none of the paths that their peers took, the artists in the Digi Dub stable infused their breakbeat science with a playful dubwise methodology to create idiosyncratic dance music operating at the interstice between modern dub mechanics and rave dynamics that was a premonition of much of the experimental bass music that the UK has become known for.
The first track comes from the trio L.S. Diezel whose Alien In The Woods marries cosmic interference with a steppers reinforced breakbeat and a tough digital bassline. The Diezel boys are joined by label owner Lee Berwick under his Launch DAT pseudonym for the second track Rougher Than A Lion. Beginning with what sounds like a sort of distorted tribal ritual, the track erupts into a symphony of skittering breakbeats, processed jazz lines, bursts of acid and discombobulated ragga chat.
On the second side the collaboration between Diezel and DAT continues with Poor Mans Glory that sees a weighty sped-up funk break allied with a suitably robust dub bassline overlaid with bursts of rasta invocation rattling around in the echo chamber. L.S. Diezel’s Get Your Spear Out rounds out the package with a clangorous proto-dubstep breaker forging the link between a Jah Shaka dance and Horsepower Productions.
With the original 12s now rare as rocking horse shit, grab yourself a 10” and make your bass bins smile.
In the beginning of the 1970’s, Guinea-Bissau was a country broken up into many ethnic groups and at the heart of a war for independence. By reviving traditional musical genres as Gumbé and singing in guinean Kriol, José Carlos Schwarz & Cobiana Djazz established an immediate affective bond with their audiences. Through its music and politically engaged spirit of the lyrics, the band played a significant role in shaping the social and political consciousness of the masses. As well as influencing local bands like Super Mama Djombo and giving back a deep sense of cultural identity to bissau-guineans.
The explosive birth of Cobiana Djazz brought about other kinds of detonation. Schwarz became involved in urban guerilla activities which resulted in several bombings in the centre of Bissau, leading to his imprisonment and torture. He remained in lockup for a total period of about 2 years, between 1972 and 1974.
The process of decolonisation, in the wake of the Portuguese revolution of 25 April 1974, led to the recognition, during the same year, of the sovereign nation of Guinea-Bissau.
Schwarz, a key figure in the fight for independence, played an important part in the transition to the democratic regime, profiting from his popularity as an artist. Soon, his criticism (underscoring opportunism and irresponsibility in high places) became a thorn in the side of the political elite. Uneasy with the disquieting effects of his work, government officials effectively separated the author from the masses by assigning him to the embassy in Havana.
José Carlos Schwarz met a tragic and untimely death at the age of 27, when his plane crashed on arrival at Cuba's José Martí International Airport, on May 271th 1977.
Hailed by african giants like Orchestra Baobab, Letta Mbulu or Miriam Makeba (with whom he recorded his first and only solo album), “Zé Carlos” and his poetry won a lasting position in the annals of Guinea-Bissau. However, this collection of songs remains relatively unknown outside the country and its diasporas.
We are proud to offer, in close collaboration with the Schwarz family, this first official reissue on vinyl. Remastered and pressed on heavyweight vinyl.
Curated by Brian d'Souza (aka Auntie Flo), Plants Can Dance is a forthcoming new compilation bringing together a global community of artists, exploring the creative possibilities of biosonification - transforming signals from plants, ecosystems and the natural world into sound. Out June 26th, the project marks the culmination of several years of d'Souza’s work across music, ecology and technology.
The album arrives at a time when more artists are turning toward nature as both subject and collaborator, such as Brian Eno’s Earth Percent, which formally recognises “Nature” as an artist. Plants Can Dance sits within a wider cultural shift, which is redefining the relationship between sound and the living world.
The project builds on several years of work by d'Souza, whose Plants Can Dance events have taken place across the UK, Europe, India and Africa, appearing in institutions including the V&A, Tate and the Design Museum. What began as a series of intimate gatherings has since evolved into a global platform, reflecting a growing appetite for work that reconnects music with the natural world.
The compilation features contributions from leading practitioners including Modern Biology (Tarun Nayar) in collaboration with saxophonist Zekarias Musele Thompson, OMMA (Olga Maximovam founder of Playtronica), Jason Singh, Dr Helen Anahita Wilson, Justin Wiggan in collaboration with celebrated Norwegian jazz musician Arve Henriksen, Lamine Touré, Bit Marten and Balam, alongside new work from d'Souza himself. Using a range of tools - from commercially available devices to bespoke modular systems - artists translate electrical activity, environmental data and organic processes into musical material.
The processes behind each piece differ - from interpreting plant biodata to translating wind patterns into compositional structures - and the results are as varied as they are compelling. The record spans ambient, jazz, electronica and modern classical, yet all pieces are unified by a shared intent: to reimagine music as a space of collaboration between human and more-than-human worlds.
At the core of Plants Can Dance is a question about how we define music, and how we choose to listen. Traditional musical forms, with their fixed tempos and predictable structures, give way here to something more fluid and less easily controlled. The listener is invited to surrender expectation and engage with sound as an evolving environment rather than a linear narrative. In this context, the compositions function as what d'Souza describes as “acoustic ecologies” - sonic systems shaped by biological, environmental and elemental forces unfolding in real time.
Accompanying the release is a printed zine offering reflections from each artist, and deeper insight into the ideas and debates surrounding this practice. Rather than presenting definitive answers, Plants Can Dance positions itself as an artistic exploration grounded in curiosity, experimentation and critical thought.
Ultimately, Plants Can Dance is less concerned with proving whether plants “make music” than with changing how we listen. By inviting audiences to engage with sound shaped by non-humans, it opens up new ways of perceiving the environments we inhabit - not as passive backdrops, but as active, dynamic participants in a shared ecological network. In doing so, it offers a quietly radical proposition: that by listening differently, we might begin to relate to the natural world differently too.
The 41st release on TECHNO Records marks a defining milestone: the first full- scale solo record by the label’s founder, Nastia, in her music career. It opens up a new depth of detail within the character and identity of both the artist and the catalogue.
Rather than making a loud statement, Nastia focuses on a restrained and functional approach to techno, shaped through subtle shifts in tension, texture, and rhythm. The tracks move with intention, avoiding obvious peaks in favour of gradual development and controlled energy—a familiar methodology and a direct analogy to the evolution of the label itself. Crafted with dancefloor energy in mind but not bound by it, the release offers a fresh perspective on the author’s persona, stripping away excess and overexplanation. It leaves ample room for the listener’s imagination and a versatile, expert application within a DJ set.
The trajectory of ascents and shifting attention in an artist’s career is the only honest path, providing material for reflection and the anchoring of values. This depth of experience cannot be replicated by overnight success or short-lived peaks—only decades of exploration, trial, and error can forge a work built to endure. Studio work becomes a new instrument for Nastia to build value capital, while her debut solo EP stands as an artefact marking a historic point for the author and the label.
TECH041
A1 “Indoctrinated” — a masterclass in rhythmic interplay used as a narrative device. It functions as a sonic manifesto: universally accessible yet distinctly individual. A process-driven track, its strength lies in its ability to repeatedly shift the listener’s focus. It serves as an ideal transitional tool, offering a calculated awakening from a hypnotic state.
A2 “Ignorance Is Keelleeng” — a structured dancefloor powerhouse built on a precise understanding of peak-time energy. Functioning as a set-defining anchor, it allows the DJ to pivot the mix in any direction without losing momentum. A true catalyst track that opens up new sonic horizons.
B1 “True Majority” — the most forward-thinking cut on the record, providing a definitive blueprint for the hypnotic techno sound of summer 2026. It presents a multi-layered, all-encompassing sonic tapestry that interacts with the listener while maintaining a strictly restrained narrative. A motif-driven track that subtly exposes an underlying tension.
B2 “Additive Integration” — best conceptualised within an extended set where the goal is to gradually establish the atmosphere and dictate the rules of the journey. A track built on anticipation, it conserves energy and conceals its inner mechanics until the final acts. It compels the listener to decode its sonic language for full comprehension.
LP Limited Edition (500 copies) ‘Draw Out Your World” LP on Pink Marble Vinyl with signed postcard.
Caoilfhionn Rose's completely immersive fourth full-length offering - her first for Lost Map - is a powerful statement about new motherhood, strength and resilience through change and the importance of collaboration, community and placing trust in others. A softly unravelling collection of songs grown from dreamy improvisations and driving, beat-led folktronica. 'Draw Out Your World' arrives in the wake of Caoilfhionn having scored a #1 on the UK Official Independent Albums Chart, as a key contributor to Mancunian post-punk cult heroes The Durutti Column's critically-acclaimed 2026 release Renascent.
Raised in Manchester, Caoilfhionn developed a "deep, almost spiritual appreciation" of music in all its diversity. Drawing inspiration from nature, dreams, and personal experiences, she crafts songs that are both intimate and universal in their themes.
A performance at a local café caught the attention of Gondwana Records founder Matthew Halsall, who invited Caoilfhionn to work on her debut album 2018's Awaken. It became the first of three albums for the label; followed by 2021's Truly and 2024's Constellation. As a bandleader she headlined tours across the UK and Europe and has also supported artists such as Mammal Hands, The Breath, GoGo Penguin, Alabaster dePlume and Hania Rani.
Scattered ideas for what would become Caoilfhionn Rose's fourth album began accumulating long ago, in fits and starts and multiple iterations, with some tracks lying finished but unheard for years. Yet the record only truly began to take shape in the midst of a period of profound personal change. During a trip to Marrakesh, Morocco with her husband and long-time creative partner Rich Williams in January 2025, the pair spent evenings among the musicians and communities gathered beneath the night sky in Jemaa el-Fnaa. "The trip really reinvigorated us and led to lots of conversations about why we make music and why we love it," she remembers.
Several of Draw Out Your World's newest songs were born during Caoilfhionn's pregnancy with her first child. Although a deeply joyful time, she experienced severe sickness throughout, making music difficult (her voice changed so much during pregnancy that some vocals had to be re-recorded after her daughter arrived). In moments when she felt well enough, Caoilfhionn and Rich began shaping new ideas and songs from loops and fragments he had been creating, later bringing musicians together to record and remodel the compositions live in the studio. A combination of impulse and patience, individual expression and collective improvisation lies at the heart of Draw Out Your World. Four tracks emerged during two days of spontaneous invention in Copenhagen with multi-award-winning Danish electronic jazz duo Svaneborg Kardyb. Other, older pieces were patiently revisited and reworked with keyboardist John Ellis (a founding member of The Cinematic Orchestra). Caoilfhionn's ongoing collaborations with The Durutti Column have long informed her carefree approach to making music ("lots of improvising and experimenting… seeing what sticks"); here she pushes it further than ever. "It's been a lot about following my intuition and trusting in the process and musicians in the room," she says.
Started from a sweet little mini-hand-drum loop by Rich and finished with Awen Blandford's swooping cello lines, lullaby-like opener 'Reflecting The Light' was inspired by Caoilfhionn's pregnancy - "the feeling of my little girl growing inside me," as she puts it, and the almost supernatural feeling of connection to another person it brings. The much older 'Grow' - a song about how a person "keeps unfolding" through good times and bad - came close to appearing on Caoilfhionn's previous record Constellation in 2024 before finding renewed meaning and purpose here, reinvigorated by John Ellis's rolling Fender Rhodes. Set to finger-picked guitar and hazy electronics, the album's title track 'Draw Out Your World' drifts into view like a gentle parting of the clouds - a mellow but vivid reflection on dreams and realities and the pathways in between, with shades of Judee Sill and Linda Perhacs. By sharp contrast, 'Hidden Wars' - a song about trying to get away from spiralling negative thoughts - is set to a fiercely snaking groove inspired by Caoilfhionn's love of artists like Portishead and The Smile. The moodily languid and sparse 'Just To Be Alive' leans into Caoilfhionn's more electronic side, Nikolaj from Svaneborg Kardyb conjuring pure atmosphere on his swirling Juno synth, before 'To A Feeling' collides into a wild, wonky and raw jazz jam rising to Eleanor Colee's ripping saxophone solo. 'As I Find Myself Again' lands the album on a subtle ellipsis - its feeling of calm finality unsettled by the faintest flicker of a new melodic phrase at the end.
Originally released by Time Capsule in 2021 and long out of print, Stories From Another Time 1982-1988 returns in an upgraded edition following years of demand and rising collector prices on the secondhand market. Widely regarded as a modern cult classic, Mário Rui Silva’s visionary recordings blend acoustic folk, cinematic soul, spiritual jazz and saudade-filled Lusophone rhythm into a deeply timeless and universal work that transcends genre and geography.
This new edition features half-speed mastering cut at Metropolis alongside an expanded 4-page insert with a tribute essay and unseen photographs following Silva’s passing in 2024.
The roots of Angolan popular music explored in the meticulous guitar studies of Mário Rui Silva. For fans of Naná Vasconcelos, John Hassell’s Fourth World ambient, Eduardo Mateo’s psychedelic folk and Cameroonian electronic music visionary Francis Bebey.
Whether on mesmerising acoustic ballads or hypnotic groove-led tracks, the music of Angolan guitarist, researcher and intellectual Mário Rui Silva has a beguiling, melancholy quality, woven into the dynamics of his deft guitar playing.Rhythmically complex yet supremely effortless, the music collected here stems from three albums Mário released in Luanda in the 1980s that reflect his diverse range of influences, from traditional Angolan and West African rhythms to European jazz and classical instrumentation. It is united by a sense of low-key beauty, whether on the chugging opener ‘Kazum-zum-zum’, the jazz-funk keys of ‘Lembrança Dum Velho’, or the twinkling, late-night poly-rhythms of ‘Kizomba Kya Kisanji’.
Born in Luanda, Angola in 1953, Mário dedicated his life to Angolan popular music. His fifty-year career has seen him live between Angola and Europe, rub shoulders with Cameroonian musicians Francis Bebey and Ewanjé, record the seminal album Angola ’72 with fellow Angolan musician Bonga, and draw influence from Brazilian guitarist Baden Powell.
It was the teaching of Angolan legend and Ngola Ritmos co-founder Liceu Vieira Dias that Mário gained a technical, political and spiritual understanding of Angolan musical culture. In the hands of Liceu, the traditional Angolan semba and kazukuta rhythms of the 1940s and ‘50s helped create an emancipatory sense of national pride and collective agency that awakened its listeners to the racism and tyranny of colonial rule, underpinning the country’s push for independence in the process.
What might sound like the intonations of Brazilian influence are what Mário attributes to the “African rhythms taken by the slaves which gave rise to other musical cultures” around the globe. Instead, this music emerged from a collective instinct to assert a cosmopolitan Angolan identity free from the patronising falsehoods of Lusotropicalism.
“There was a need within me to contribute in doing new things,” Mário describes. “In the sense of solidifying the music of Angola that was the result of the meeting of two cultures, and wanting to value the Angolan part whenever possible.”A selection from Mário’s three 1980s albums, Sung’Ali (1982), Tunapenda Afrika (1985) and Koizas dum Outru Tempu (1988) have been compiled here as a 2xLP release by Time Capsule’s Sam Jacob and Kay Suzuki. Together, they provide a snapshot of one man’s journey to the core of his nation’s music, charged with the search for a culture uprooted by colonialism
We welcome Blade back to Metalheadz for his second release, the 4 track 'Times Gone Bye EP' arriving on Metalheadz Platinum vinyl.
Drawing influence from across the spectrum, from foundational artists to contemporary producers, Blade channels those reference points into a sound that feels rooted in the past but firmly present. There's a looseness to his process that gives the music its character, something that has remained consistent throughout his discography over the last 15 years.
Música para Plátanos takes its name — and much of its inspiration — from the group’s recording studio, situated in the heart of a banana plantation on the humid north shore of Tenerife, Canary Islands. The ever-present sight of the green, sun-drenched fields surrounding their weekly sessions seeped directly into the music: improvised jams that are playful, layered, and deeply connected to place.
This release gathers a distilled selection from those sessions — a kind of “greatest rotten hits” distinct from their ongoing Imaginary Island Music volumes.
The album functions as a living archive bringing together a distilled selection of recordings spanning more than five years: from dusty, long-forgotten sessions to evolving tunes that have become staples of the band's live sets but have never before been committed to record. These long-form sessions served as a petri dish for the Lagoss sound, allowing their experiments to putrefy into their chaotic signature strain of cyber-exotica, unstable kosmische or heavily-corroded dub.
The title obvs nods to Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, but the logic is inverted. Instead of clean, ambient drift, the record inhabits a dense and fertile environment: polyrhythmic structures, Latin-infused electronics, and shifting counter-tempos that feel weighted by the local humidity.
Ultimately, Música para Plátanos is as much about the process as it is the place. Like the plantation outside, the music is subject to the elements; the tracks change shape depending on the heat of the day, what we drank, what we ate. It’s an unstable, honest harvest of sound—shaped by the weather and the state(s) of mind alike.
