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'Double Seven, released by Trojan in late 1973, was the last album Lee 'Scratch' Perry would release on the label for some considerable time, and it was essentially the final album project he put together before establishing his own Black Ark studio. Opening track 'Kentucky Skank' sets the tone with a slow creeper whose frying sounds underscore its role as a praise song to the Colonel's KFC recipes; the cosmic Moog blips come courtesy of Ken Elliott at Camden's Chalk Farm studio, also prominently featured on U-Roy's double-tracked, stereo-panned gambling ode 'Double Six.' David Isaacs' 'Just Enough' was cut a few years prior, which makes it slightly out of phase with the rest of the set, though the enigmatic 'In The Iaah' sounds mightily fresh, with its uncredited chorus said to come courtesy of the Wailers. Perry's own 'Jungle Lion' has hilarious roars from the maestro at the start, strangely grafted atop a reggae re-make of Al Green's 'Love and Happiness.'

'Overall, Double Seven melds the soul, funk, reggae and dub elements that were constant in Perry's work during this phase. His enhanced audio spectrum and endless reference points would keep his music continually apart from that made by his peers.'
—David Katz (excerpt from the liner notes)

NOSUCHKEY makes a bold debut on the Art of Memory label with a deadly four track EP of masterfully reduced but stylish and evocative minimal techno. NOSUCHKEY is actually a side project from Nico Purman. He served up the first two releases on the label and this new alias is focused on straight forward techno. Over more than a decade Purman has established himself on Vakant, Crosstown Rebels and Curle, and now heads in an exciting new direction designed to make a huge impact on the floor. Opener 'Stages' is post minimal techno with a focus on mind melting melodic riffs that ripple over the rooted drums. It is sci-fi in style with a hint of Detroit greats like Jeff Mills and really takes you into the future. The excellent 'FMFMFM' is another fluid bit of deep techno that is wired up with languid synths constantly wrapping and warping round the drums. Keeping up the pressure is 'Lunch', with a stripped back but impactful techno style built on rubbery kicks and with modulated synth lines constantly shapeshifting throughout the mix. Direct but dynamic, it is excellently timeless techno that leads on to closer 'ACD RDFN'. There is urgency, paranoia and cyber tension in this one that really keeps you locked as it journeys deep into a blackened yet cinematic cosmic abyss. NOSUCHKEY is a false address, a lack of a word, a character or sign that makes a whole code unable to find its final path: The Specified Key does not exist.

180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.

The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.

Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.

Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”

After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.

This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.

Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.

Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.

A few words for the album
Moment’s Aeternity:
a 12/8 composition celebrating the raw power of the “moment”, marked by whirling improvised moments between drums, bass clarinet and Harris P’s Armenian duduk.

Pajko, fire in the forest on the mountain:
in Sokratis own words: “I have a really vivid memory as a child. I was staring at the Djena mountain from my window in Archangellos which sits on the Pajko mountain. A little beam of light shone far in the horizon; it was a fire that in my little eyes looked as if the giants of Almopia were trying to communicate with each other using phryktoria (a way of contacting through fire in Ancient Greece).”

Footprints of some Giant Steps:
While the classic compositions of two true Jazz Giants- Wayne Shorter and John Coltrane- are certainly different, they do both connect in a mystical way. Rearranged in 5/8 combining half of each melody and half of each one’s chord progression, keeping the form of the piece for improvisation, still in 5.

Oson Zeis Fainou (Seikilo’s Epitaph):
found in a tomb stone in the Northeast of Greece, this is the only melody saved from the ancient times. It is accompanied by lyrics contemplating the meaning of life:
Ὅσον ζῇς φαίνου
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
‘’While you live, shine
don’t feel blue for anything because our life is short and time demands an end.’’

Here is to Oghene K:
’’Hey man, where is the groove?’’, he would say, just to trigger another wave of inspiration for Sokratis. Oghene was a true force of nature, a well of kindness, a masterful artist that left this world too early. This one is for him.

Balkan Riff (for Milcho Leviev):
Milcho Leviev (1936-2019), was a long-time friend and collaborator and a true inspiration for expression, creativity and colorfulness. Expressing the deep sentiments evoked by the Balkan sound and history, this is a sorrowful dialogue between bass clarinet and contrabass.

Spirits of Djena:
one of the most esoteric and personal moments of the album. Composed and recorded during the challenging times of the COVID-era, you can hear the baritone and tenor saxophone firmly grounded on a crispy, hypnotizing contrabass groove.

Sokratis Votskos Quartet
Kostas Anastasiadis / Giorgos Klountzos - Chrysidis: Drums
Leandros Pasias: Piano
Vaggelis Vrachnos: Contrabass
Sokratis Votskos: Soprano Saxophone, Bass Clarinet and Compositions


Sokratis Votskos is a jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, educator, and bandleader from Greece. Deeply invested in unearthing the folk sounds and heritage music of Greece and Eastern Europe, he weaves these into modern jazz compositions though the use of melodies, polyrhythms, and his reedy, timeless tone. He leads the Sokratis Votskos Quartet, he is one half of Kolida Babo and member of the Reggetiko Project. A highly regarded sideman and ensemble player, he has worked extensively with renowned jazz musicians with several highly acclaimed releases (MiC, Jazzman, Walt Disney and now Fair Weather Friends Records).

He has performed his music in numerous venues and festivals worldwide from Vinterjazz in Copenhagen, to the EFG London Jazz Festival where he performed at the legendary Ronnie Scott’s alongside Greg Foat.

He is also an archaeoacoustics researcher and enthusiast, having completed his Master studies on the field of ancient ritualistic caves of Greece research.

Leandros Pasias was born in Thessaloniki, Greece. At age 10 was introduced to piano, continuing his studies at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki and later at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in the department of jazz piano.Ηe holds a classical harmony diploma and a BA at the Department of Music Studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2020 he received jazz improvisation lessons from Aaron Parks.

With a series of appearances in multiple international jazz festivals, Leandros has collaborated with a wide range of musicians from Nicolas Masson and James Wylie to Marina Osk, Ivo Papasov and Haris Lambrakis, among others.

A member of the Yako Trio, he released “OdesSea” on Fair Weather Friends Records (2021).

Vangelis Vrachnos was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1989. While he started playing the bass at the age of 12, alongside his brother, his studies would commence a few years later. Introduced to double bass at the age of 23, he undertook jazz double bass studies at the Codarts Αcademy of Rotterdam. He has participated in several festivals such as the Technopolis and Odessa international jazz festivals. Since returning to his hometown, in 2015, he has been a founding member of Mordana and Yako Trio and has collaborated with a series of musicians like James Wyllie, Sokrates Votskos and Dimitis Agelakis, among others.

Kostas Anastasiadis is a tireless researcher, that has been diligently studying Tradition and its evolution, creating a fresh amalgam of sound moods. His mature improvisational virtuosity highlights a uniquely individual artistic expression and was recognized with the ̈Unique Individual Stylist" award by the PIT (Percussion Institute of Technology) in Los Angeles, California. He has been associated with various ensembles that have garnered significant interest in the global music scene. As an educator, he is the founder of "The Harmony of Rhythm" musical method, which aims to explore and establish the elements that constitute the concept of rhythm.

Giorgos Klountzos-Chrysidis was born in Thessaloniki in 1991. Following studies at the Modern Conservatory of Thessaloniki, he moved to France and the Conservatoire de Nice. With performances at well-known festivals like Nice Jazz Festival, Nuits du Sud and Jazz à Vienne, he had the opportunity to meet the American drummer Leon Parker, who encouraged him to move to Paris, where he spent the next two years under his tutoring and guidance.

In 2016, came a defining moment in his career as he traveled to New York for the first time. He participated in the quartet of saxophonist Diego Rivera for a series of performances and attended lessons by Rodney Whitaker and Randy "Uncle G" Gelispie at Michigan's State University.

Collaborations include Xavier Davis, Ricky Ford, Nicolas Masson, Diego Rivera, Craig Bailey, Baptiste Herbin, Marc Abrams, Pantelis Stoikos, Antonis Anissegos, David Lynch, Ziad Rajab and Ivo Papasov, among others.

Is the result of an unexpected and powerful connection between Meeks and Jedsa Soundorom.
Both have spent over 25 years immersed in music, coming from very different backgrounds but combining them to create something completely original.
Meeks, an experienced producer and beat-maker, made his mark during the French Touch boom of the early 2000s.
He worked with artists like Hernest Saint Laurent and Scratch Massive, earning respect for his attention to detail and his love of exploring sounds and textures.
Jedsa Soundorom, meanwhile, is a DJ and producer who’s traveled the world, always bringing new influences into his music and growing his unique style.
When they met a year and a half ago, it clicked right away. That connection became BUG DIVIsion, a project that blends Meeks’ careful precision with Jedsa’s raw energy, creating electronic music that feels both deep and natural.

Hip Horns Brass Collective presents Brassvillain, a tribute to the cult album Madvillany by MF DOOM and Madlib with the collaboration of Las Ninyas del Corro, Ana Tijoux, Escandaloso Xpósito and Rodrigo Laviña. The catalan brass band covers iconic songs like Figaro, Meat Grinder or All Caps, with the metallic explosion that characterizes them and the voices of some of the best artists on the current rap scene. Daniel Dumile, aka, MF DOOM is not only a musical reference, but also the illustrations that accompanied his project have a great role in the history of hip hop. For this reason, Brassvillain is also a great graphic epic where the versatile artist Hermes LeBleu displays all his versatility. In the featurings appears HO$$$ Benítez, one of the most renowned drummers on the hip hop scene, who has already accompanied them on their previous releases, “The Dream” and “Thunder”. The production is by Hip Horns together with one of the best bassists and musicians in our country, Tito Bonacera, making this tribute a multidisciplinary meeting point between artists who grew up with the masked hero. On the B side we have two new singles from the band, BRAM! and Mulligan, in which they unleash their full potential both in composition and in execution to prove once again that they are one of the leading brass bands of the moment.

The Five Techniques feat. Roisin El Cherif & Paul Weller – Resistance In The Dark. Released via Heavenly Recordings. Available on 7″ Vinyl

The Five Techniques, a music project created by Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes, are a collective of artists who believe music, art and humanity can be acts of resistance.
The trio first connected at Gig For Gaza – curated by Weller himself – and have come together again for a vital cause.
Their first single, ‘Resistance In The Dark’, features Róisín El Cherif and Paul Weller.
All proceeds will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

This journey officially debuts with a Various Artists EP that perfectly embodies our sonic research, transcending musical genres and form to focus on pure feeling and connect to a timeless energy.

Opening the EP is Dismal with Holocryptic Woods, a 'psychedelic jungle' progressing vortex that challenges perception. Following is Little Sea with Jaguaro, a journey that evokes the golden-age aesthetic of progressive trance, balancing hypnotic structures and organic references to nature.

On the B side, Rambal Cochet presents Unreal Engine, a dark ritual at 135 BPM where Memphis rap meets acid spirals and neon atmospheres. Closing the VA, Electrodynamique delivers Ezo, an immersive electro trance dedication to the magic festivals’ nights feelings, rounding out the mosaic of identities of this project.

Surrender to the flow.

It’s time to unleash the mini-album from pothOles: Today Tomorrow Whichever Comes First. This project started well over a decade ago and has evolved into six tracks. It’s a lush journey of deep house, built on scattered breaks, sample chops, and growling acid lines. The release features unique sonic textures, including field recordings captured during a sabbatical in Western Kenya back in 2011. The full pothOles package.

For the first time ever, this Common Labour wax arrives in a fully printed sleeve, featuring amazing artwork by Jessica Michaela. Don’t miss out on this limited run—only 195 hand-stamped and numbered copies are available worldwide.

SLF IMG is a dark synth pop project channeling the shadowy elegance of the 80s while injecting raw EBM drive and the hypnotic, sun-bleached nostalgia of classic italo disco. Their forthcoming EP “Carne” – Italian for meat – sinks its teeth into the genre with sleek, modern production, razor-sharp hooks, and basslines so catchy they feel almost carnal. Seductive yet menacing, “Carne” strips the sound back to its pulsing, flesh-and-wire core: dancefloor-ready grooves wrapped in velvet darkness.

Limited to 200 copies on splattered vinyl.

Fresh Hold Releases presents Helen Ripley-Marshall's mysterious Australian ambient electronic album "Green Chaos", reissued for the first time on vinyl LP. Originally released in 1988 on Sydney based private press label Freefall, "Green Chaos" marks the sole release from Ripley-Marshall.

In the late 80's Ripley-Marshall lived a Bohemian lifestyle in inner city Sydney; "surrounded by musicians, actors and artists, there was an amazing creative experimental vibe going on". While playing in new wave/art rock band "D Face" she began Green Chaos as a personal project to counteract the creative friction sometimes experienced within a group dynamic, heavily inspired by Arnold Frolows' "Ambience" radio show on Australia's Triple J and particularly the music of Tangerine Dream, Harold Budd and Brian Eno.

Initially a solitary endeavour, once she decided to record in a studio Green Chaos morphed into a somewhat collaborative, improvisational project with other musicians invited into the studio to improvise and add their own interpretations and ideas, additional layers and dimensions, resulting in a work that combines a clear influence from the electronic repetition of the Berlin school with a meandering, futuristic lyricism. Although influenced by the long form sonic journeys of artists like Tangerine Dream, Ripley-Marshall's background in art rock and new wave brings a more concise approach, each song a self-contained universe that says only what is necessary in the arrangement.

After completing a sound engineering course Ripley-Marshall recorded the album at Sydney's Exeter House Studio over several months alongside studio engineer Andrew Knight, met through a fellow member of D Face. Knight ran Freefall, a private press recording label releasing folk and bluegrass music, which had Green Chaos as its sole ambient release. Ripley-Marshall self distributed the album to local inner city record stores and dropped a copy to Triple J, where it became a regular staple of Arnold Frolows' show.

These days Ripley-Marshall has moved away from music and is predominantly focused on visual art. "Green Chaos" stands as the only released product of her musical years, both a personal window into the vibrant experimental art scene of late 1980s Sydney and a deep, timeless anomaly of Australian electronic music.

DJ Support: Paul Woolford, Machinedrum, Kettama, LDLDN, Sinistarr, A.Fruit, Machine Woman, Octo Octa, Paco Osuna, Bradley Zero, Tzusing, Lefto, Synkro, John Tejada, 12x12 and many more

BBC6Music - Gilles Peterson

NTS - LDLDN

BBC6Music - SHERELLE - DJ Mix and Interview

NTS - Ross Allen
Enter the kaleidoscopic world of Lone - returning to Greco-Roman for his first album in five years, ‘Hyperphantasia’

An artist who has been soundtracking dancefloors since the early 2000s, Lonemade his production debut in 2008 with “Lemurian”, a hip-hop inspired release before moving into the vibrant future-facing soundscapes we have come to know. His back catalogue ranges through house, rave, ambient and electronica, and on ‘Hyperphantasia’, Cutler sets himself the challenge to bring all of those influences together for one body of work that he describes ‘like an album in my mind’. Referring back to the album title, the definition of hyperphantasia is a condition characterized by exceptionally vivid and detailed mental imagery and for this album he tested himself to see how close he could get the music to sound exactly like what he was hearing in his imagination.

On Hyperphantasia, Lone deepens his relationship with vocals. Having previously relied on vocal samples or more abstract live vocal treatments, this latest album marks a shift toward richer, more pop-leaning sensibilities. Cutler makes a clear lyrical statement, enlisting a diverse and carefully chosen cast of collaborators: London-based artists and fellow Greco-Roman affiliates Ell Murphy and Lou Hayter, Barcelona’s breakthrough singer Bikôkô, cult Nottingham rapper Juga-Naut, and Hong Kong-born, London-based musician Merry Lamb Lamb. Together, they contribute to what stands as a career-defining project.

The end result is a cinematic experience exploding full of colour. You are introduced to the album with an old school rave anthem ‘Life Spark’ and an interlude welcoming you into this musical world. Like chapters in a novel, the album ebbs and flows beautifully between stripped-back melodies ‘Opening A Portal’, ‘Photographs That Don’t Exist’, ‘Sickly, Sweetly, Summer Movie’ and ‘Fruit Rots, Water Floats Downstream’, bubbling feel-good house ‘Affinity (Cloud Four Four Mix)’, ‘Triton’ and ‘ Wemove’, the rap-influenced ‘Throw The Ember’ and epic future-pop tracks ‘Miracle Mile’, ‘Big World’, ‘Scattergun’ and ‘Home’. The album ends with a full circle moment, back to the early hardcore and jungle rave scene, on ‘Ascenscion.png’.

We here at TSTD are longtime fans of UK producer/musician/Label maker MATT HUGHES. For a few years he is delivering tasteful, deep, dubbed reworks for Too Slow To Disco, some in Edit form, but also his 2 official remixes for Goodvibes Sound on The Sunset Manifesto 2.
Both new TSTD Edits on this 7 inch are slow disco masterworks, he is giving the originals his trademark deep, warm versions. Who is the guy….?
Matt Hughes is a music producer from the north of England. A purveyor of all things funk, soul, disco, jazz and house! Most recent releases have been with Outcross Records, Bubblegum Pop, Editorial and Too Slow To Disco. A large number of Matt's works have been released under the MAM project with Miguel Campbell remixing the likesof the Climbers, Deadmau5 and Flight Facilities, as well as putting out releases via Wolf+Lamb, Future Classic, Hot Creations, Outcross Records, BPitch Control and Editorial Records to name a few.
Among his most notable collaborations are works with Derrick McKenzie, drummer of Jamiroquai; Drop Out Orchestra, Art Of Tones, amongst others. Each of these collaborations has allowed him to explore new musical dimensions, enriching his characteristic sound with diverse and fresh influences.

With a musical style deeply rooted in disco, funk and jazz, Monsieur Van Pratt combines classical elements with contemporary touches, creating a sound experience that is both nostalgic and innovative. His work not only stands out for its technical quality, but also for its ability to connect emotionally with the listener, making him a central figure in the evolution of modern dance sound.

Guests is the home recording project of Jessica Higgins and Matthew Walkerdine. Vaguely named as such to avoid any problems with the poster if they pull out of a gig (which has only happened once, about a year and half before any songs were actually written to be fair) but also to capture a sense of reverse hospitality. That is, arriving at your door with a bottle of good wine (can’t turn up empty handed) or a fist full of savoury or sweet snacks (time of day dependant); oversharing at the afters (and then passing out on your couch); reading to your toddler while you make their lunch or put everything back where it was meant to go (only to get torn apart again). So, something about what happens when private worlds meet each other, making or having been made a space for. But at times, it’s a different kind of intimacy, a temporal or material one, like the feeling of crisp fresh sheets, and abundant and soft, body-part appropriate towels in a hotel in a city you’ve been to before and love to go back to.

Their debut record, “I wish I was special”, was variously described as “a collage of concrète experiments and outerzone pop gestures, music that sounds as if it’s been written from the depths of a dream”; “music for people who love music but also hate it too”; “something like chasing ghosts or befriending a wild animal”; “pulling apart nervous sensations with haphazard ease and requisite humour”; and “a melody of refusal, of being all-in (…) finding the exact right WRONG sound to express the discontent”. Common Domestic Bird continues in this vein, layering synthesiser, keyboards and samples over rudimentary drum rhythms and field recordings, which are in turn sung or spoken with to create nine new songs.

Written and recorded between autumn 2024 and summer 2025 in Reading, Berkshire, the music has matured since its last outing, in a way, leaning less into collage and more toward structured composition and melodic depth, yet retains a healthy dose of indeterminacy and off-kilter rhythms for the forever-amateur. The songs on Common Domestic Bird hint at some “about”-ness through a series of discrete vignettes which sound a bit like architecture or end of year lists, gossip or over-thinking subjectivity, like disappearances and impressions, the support structure of the spine, letters and signs offs, things you could really do without and where they should go, hoping you’ll see something that isn’t there, pretences and performance. At times they feel kind of funny, others kind of sad or a bit angry and annoyed, a bit like you really.

The long-awaited reissue of Toba makes it clear, once and for all, to fans and industry insiders that disco music produced in Italy between the late 70s and early 80s had no chance of success. What was disparagingly called "spaghetti disco", considered a poor imitation of real American disco music, only good for Japanese cartoons. This was the main reason that prompted Italians to record their songs abroad, as Fratelli La Bionda with their pseudonym D.D.Sound in Munich. Luigi Figini, with "Supercool" and "Percussion Sundance" by Edo Martin and Pino Santapaga (the same as "Step By Step" by Koxo), claimed that Kash was a one-off Swedish disco project, a lie that came to light when an Italian test pressing from the previous year, made by GDB, was posted !!! Amin-Peck followed the trend of passing off their songs as foreign music on the intuition of their Roman producers. So ''Love Disgrace'' was released on 7'' by a label called Connection, which never really existed, created for the purpose by Giancarlo Meo, confident that this would bring success to the Bolognese duo who were already creating 'proto Italo-Disco tracks' with a new-wave trend. To make the whole operation seem real, the London agency Ellie Jay Ltd. was involved, contacting Andy Fernbach of Jacobs Studios Ltd. The vinyl was also produced in the UK, otherwise the deception would have been discovered, then imported to Italy by Best Record. Italo-Disco was officially born after this, in 1982, not before! Everything makes sense now ! Real events that actually happened and purely invented names and anecdotes. Just think, even the image of Tony Balch used for the cover of Toba was taken from Grand Theft's 1978 album "Have You Seen This Band?" and reproduced on the new redesigned cover, as were the heads of the other musicians. The idea of a real band called Toba had finally come to fruition and would lead to a second sensational success the following year. Now it all makes sense! Facts and anecdotes that really happened and names and circumstances that are purely fictional. Finally, everything adds up! Real things and invented names of musicians and collaborators. It's important to clarify what we've said above, but we haven't talked about "Make Your Mind Up" and "Don't Take It" and the two masterful remixes performed by Dave Mathmos. In short: with the original versions we'll make Italo-Disco purists happy, with the remix versions we'll please new younger followers with more modern sounds and versions more in line with today's tastes and trends.

Drawn from the wider Microliths and Momentary Drifts project, this EP finds zak�, Ossa and ASC working in miniature form with signature restraint but real emotional resonance. Each piece functions as a fleeting vignette where tone and texture carry more weight than the structures. ‘Microlith 1’ opens with soft, cascading keys, while ‘Microlith 2’ drifts further into distant, spectral territory. By the time ‘Microlith 8’ arrives, its gentle fade into static leaves a quiet sense of unresolved possibility. It is a concise, thoughtful collection that will have you keen to hear the whole LP.

With acute focus on dance floor hypnotism and percussive pressure, SIDEB003 offers German collaboration IGLO and Paul Hauck's debut vinyl release. A third project for this duo, 'Stable Fusion' plays to the producers strengths as biting sound design unfolds through reliable groove.

'Stable Fusion' - and, in turn, its title track - presents as an uncompromising dance floor record, complete with pressing arrangements and powerful tension shifts. The infectious nature of club music comes largely from the power and insistence of its minimal elements and IGLO & Paul Hauck put chisel to stone to showcase just that. To add soul to skill, 'Neustadt' claims the A2 with added color and a silver lining in the its mood. Festive chord stabs stutter along with percussion riding up and down the spectrum, maintaining energy without losing impact. Flipping sides, 'Initiator' returns to minimalism and spaced out sequences. Dub chords boom through a low lying swing, complete with unfolding ambient textures. The track is focused and its intentions aren't shy, the slow creep to the EP's conclusion 'Celestis' is met with intrigue. Warbly synth work warms up a pulsating core, creating a more tonal sound system experience than any of its predecessors. Here, ferocity hides behind humility, and 'Celestis' is a crowd pusher with deceptive arrangement to close out 'Stable Fusion' with confirmation of quality and effect.

Words by Noah Hocker

Metrica Recordings presents its third release, marking the label’s first various artists project. The record brings together Memoryman aka Uovo and Dj Rou from Bologna together with Neg, Marco Spinetti and Franz Di Maio, the label’s owners. The result is a journey across house and electro vibes, where different influences blend naturally into a shared identity.