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Koma Saxo, the explosive quintet led by Berlin-based Swedish bassist/producer Petter Eldh, returns on We Jazz Records with their new album, cut live at We Jazz Festival in Helsinki, December 2019. Whereas their lauded debut was a triumph of remapping the goal posts for an acoustic jazz combo for the 2020's, "LIVE" takes you right to the heart of the actual ensemble sound, with 5 musicians tearing the place down, no post production. From the fiery opening sequence kicking off with "Euro Koma", on to the much calmer beauty of "Waltz Me, Waltz Me Baby, All Night Long" and the first single "Fiskeskärsmelodin", the 8-song set is pure fire, never failing to convey the extraordinary intensity of the group: Eldh on bass, Otis Sandsjö (Y-OTIS), Jonas Kullhammar and Mikko Innanen on saxes, and Christian Lillinger on drums.

An excerpt of liner notes by Peter Margasak:

"When I first saw Petter Eldh's quintet Koma Saxo in Berlin in September of 2019 I was floored. The raw, sprinting energy of the band was both infectious and astonishing, but what I most remember was a sense of cognitive dissonance. Was this the same combo that recorded a fantastic eponymous 2019 studio album that represented one of the most convincing, pleasurable, and driving hybrid's of searing post-bop and the production ethos of hip-hop? There have been endless stabs by producers trying to remap the machinations of an organic, all-acoustic jazz band with electronic post-production, but Eldh, channeling a sonic language heavily informed by J Dilla, nailed it in a way I'd never experienced before. Having the trust of his three imaginative, high-octane saxophonists—Jonas Kullhammar, Otis Sandsjö, and Mikko Innanen—he used their grainy sound as raw material, smudging and smearing it like a painter creating new hues on a palette, and then extending, editing, and powering it up within the imperturbable grooves meted out by he and drummer Christian Lillinger. He didn't really alter the essential core of the band's performances. There's no question that a seriously burning quintet had laid the tracks down, even if the performances reflected the kind of concision many jazz groups adapt for a studio endeavor. But the way his jacked-up bass lines and Lillinger's impossibly peripatetic, stuttering rhythms buffeted the massed saxophones elevated Koma Saxo to plane all its own, and I repeatedly returned to that place—half the time trying to figure out what the hell Eldh had done, and the other half lost in giddy ecstasy.

The live show, on the other hand, featured the band without any production tricks. Its soaring, pithy repertoire came alive in a different way, and this excellent live recording from the 2019 We Jazz Festival, has reminded me of how fun and visceral that experience was."

Koma Saxo "LIVE" is released by We Jazz Records on 30 April 2021 on two vinyl editions (silver + black), as a bundle with an unreleased 7" (+ silver vinyl edition), on CD and digitally. The vinyl versions plus the CD come complete with silver embossed lettering. The vinyl is delivered on heavy-duty tip-on sleeve, complete with an insert featuring liner notes by Peter Margasak, Andreas Müller, Matti Nives and Petter Eldh.

a 01: Euro Koma (Live) feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger
b 02: Puls Koma (Live) feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger
c 03: Fanfarum for Komarum III (Live) feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger
d 04: Waltz Me Baby, Waltz Me All Night Long (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[e] 05: Otis and Christian (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö & Christian Lillinger]
[f] 06: Blumer (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[g] 07: Fiskeskärsmelodin (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]

[a] 01: Euro Koma (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[b] 02: Puls Koma (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[c] 03: Fanfarum for Komarum III (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[d] 04: Waltz Me Baby, Waltz Me All Night Long (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[e] 05: Otis and Christian (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö & Christian Lillinger]
[f] 06: Blumer (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[g] 07: Fiskeskärsmelodin (Live) [feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]
[feat. Otis Sandsjö, Jonas Kullhammar, Mikko Innanen & Christian Lillinger]

Yore Records proudly presents Yore 060 by DJ Alone Again from NYC - four deep, driving cuts channeling the essence of 90s New York House. Fusing raw groove, crisp percussion, and soulful undercurrents, this EP delivers pure dancefloor authenticity with a modern touch.

On her debut LP 'Memoria', songwriter/producer Lilian Mikorey aka PILLBERT contemplates themes of identity and belonging, hardships and heartbreak in her signature blend of bendy folk guitars, field recordings and intimate vocals.
Moving to London from Munich, not yet 20 years old, Mikorey realized she was leaving her home behind for good. The subsequent state of being lost and alone in a place too temporary to start building the foundation for a new one led her to question the concept of home itself.
Is it friends? Family? A house?
"I started collecting objects, bones, sticks, stones and kept them close", she says, as to create a cosmos traveling with her.
"I was tracing the actual feeling of being home to the point where I built a dreamhouse in my head, as an idea, just to evoke that feeling." Soon enough she would learn that yielding to the yearning of actually going to that house, must be an inevitably sad experience.
A photo she took on a family visit to East-Munich became a reference and starting point for Memoria. It was a small house in her neighbourhood, the windows lit as dusk sets in. To Mikorey, it looked haunting, radiating warmth but somehow looking abandoned at the some time.
"I wanted to make music that sounds like this photo"
She started recording the sounds of the objects she had gathered and of her surroundings, building an archive and sonic material to work with.
From her mid-teens she had learned to produce with Ableton and now she picked up the guitar, too, learning it autodidactically by playing around, creating sounds.
At some point in the process, she realized it's okay to be lost for a while and by enduring the feeling, there's room for something new to grow, far off from any general idea of what home should mean.

The album, over the course of 10 tracks, traces these three phases of building a home in your head, realizing it's not a remedy, nor forever and coming to terms with it. You've grown in the process and the album is a guiding light for everyone who strives to do so, too.

Technological agitation. Narcissism fatigue. A galaxy of isolation. These are the new norms keeping Weyes Blood (aka Natalie Mering) up at night and the themes at the heart of her latest release, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow. The celestial-influenced folk album is her follow-up to the acclaimed Titanic Rising. (Pitchfork, NPR, and The Guardian admiringly named it one of 2019's best.) While Titanic Rising was an observation of doom to come, And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow is about being in the thick of it: a search for an escape hatch to liberate us from algorithms and ideological chaos. "We're in a fully functional shit show," Mering says. "My heart is a glow stick that's been cracked, lighting up my chest in an explosion of earnestness." And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow opens with the wistful, winsome "It's Not Just Me, It's Everybody," a song about the interconnectivity of all beings, despite the fraying of society around us. "I was asking a lot of questions while writing these songs. Hyper-isolation kept coming up," Mering says. "Our culture relies less and less on people. Something is off, and even though the feeling appears differently for each individual, it is universal." Other tracks follow in kind. The lullaby-like "Grapevine" chronicles the splintering of a human connection. The otherworldly dirge "God Turn Me into a Flower" serves as allegory about our collective hubris. "The Worst Is Done" is an ominous warning, set against a deceivingly breezy pop melody. "Chaos is natural. But so is negentropy, or the tendency for things to fall into order," she says. "These songs may not be manifestos or solutions, but I know they shed light on the meaning of our contemporary disillusionment."

The 2 Smooth World Vol. 1 Album broadcasts a highly addictive tale of electronic frequencies. A whole universe of musical explorations, ranging from twisted electro to more dubby compositions, beatless ambient ballads, classic house nostalgia - naturally flowing into oceans of acid & bass.

Do you remember the last time you were breathing consciously? Either way, you are likely doing it now. On his new album Observation of Breath« for the Swiss-based Hallow Ground label, Lawrence English worked exclusively with an organ for four compositions that are exercises in »maximal minimalism,« as their creator himself notes in a nod to Charlemagne Palestine, who coined this term. While it seems somewhat fitting that those four pieces based on a steady flow of air were conceived and recorded in a situation of accelerated standstill caused by a respiratory disease, the Room40 founder is not so much concerned with capturing the zeitgeist than rather incorporating the spirit of time itself. »It is a record about presence and patience,« he explains. Exploring the unique sonic affordances of a singular instrument, »Observation of Breath« is not only devoted to the durability of sound but also to its density. That it marks his debut on Hallow Ground after having shaped its sound by mastering most of the label’s releases in recent years is just as fitting then as its release following albums by Kali Malone and FUJI|||||||||||TA, whose innovative work with organ instruments have facilitated a rediscovery of their possibilities.English’s compositions however are neither directly indebted nor responding to these musicians. His exploration of the organ’s many facets started a decade ago when the composer was given access to an instrument built in 1889 that is presently housed at The Old Museum in Brisbane. After it had already played a crucial role on his seminal albums »Wilderness Of Mirrors« and »Cruel Optimism,« last year’s self-released »Lassitude« was the first record that English entirely composed and recorded with that instrument. »During the soft lockdowns, I spent many days playing to an empty concert hall, recording the pieces that became ›Lassitude‹ and then, this album,« says English in regards to an unfortunate situation that fortunately provided him with time and space—two major themes but also key qualities of the four new compositions. In this sense, he goes on, »Observation of Breath« resolves a number of the questions originally raised by »Lassitude.

Inspired by Sam Kidel’s ›mimetic hacking‹ concept, Berlin-based composer Jasminev Guffond pipes opiated brass and woodwind motifs into a reverb chamber modelled on an Amazon fulfilment centre.

»Muzak for the Encouragement of Unproductivity« is a poetic inversion of Muzak’s traditional role in stimulating seamless productivity in the workplace. Beginning as a pre-radio music distribution network (1934, U.S.), Muzak was transmitted along electrical wires with the intention of being at once ubiquitous and indiscernible, always present yet easily ignorable. As a pseudo-science the aim was to capitalize on the potential of music to have a psychological effect on listeners, and with the goal of maximum productivity, was employed as a sonic disciplinary force in the work place.

Previously installed for Dystopia Sound Art Biennial (2024), at the Amazon Packing Station located before HAUNT-Frontviews in Berlin, Muzak for the Encouragement of Unproductivity sonically addresses utopic notions of seamless, efficient productivity, inherent to capitalist cultures, and their very real dystopic effects from labour exploitation to the impacts of over-production on the environment. This poetic inversion, further developed as an album, is not meant as a kind of melodic control but rather a reflective space in which to consider the benefits personally, globally and environmentally, of slowing down.

Reverb, essential to the Muzak aesthetic, is programmed (using convolution reverb) with the dimensions of the Berlin Amazon fulfillment centre, DBE2. Amazon fulfillment centers are global contemporary factories, promising a consumer utopia of next day delivery of almost any product imaginable. Inspired by Sam Kidel’s concept of »mimetic hacking«(1), the reverberation characteristics of the DBE2 facility perform a symbolic sonic break-in to the guarded Amazon fulfillment center, a trespass to the flow of production.

Guffond’s ambient Muzak with its drifting horn, clarinet and synth-like modulations is just too down-tempo for upbeat spending. If this is Muzak it is possibly Muzak for the end of the world, thoughtfully seeking transcendence through implied questioning after all avenues for shopping have been exhausted.

Have you noticed that Western music emphasises linear time? Melody is a continuous sequence of sounds. Harmony and rhythm follow a progression from beginning through climax and resolution. Is it possible to have an art that is based on non-linear time? Can we even experience non-linear time? Efrain Rozas' Still posed this question in the form of an installation made for quadraphonic sound, architecture and light. A document of his installation at Queenslab--part of a one-month residency with The Kitchen, New York City in April 2021--the album is a live, stereo room recording of Still as it was presented over three one-hour viewings. Efrain Rozas is a Peruvian interdisciplinary artist working with Latin American music, robotics, sculpture and installation. He holds a PhD in composition and ethnomusicology from New York University, and is a 2023-2024 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. He has published Fusi?n: a soundtrack for Peru, a publication, video documentary, and music compilation; and has released several albums internationally via Names You can Trust, the Ethnomusicology Institute of Peru, the Embassy of Spain and Buh Records.

2026 Repress

Flickering in ultraviolet, there is an elusive place where blue pill meets red, ups become downs, and day merges with night. Those liminal spaces where anything is possible is where you’ll find Nightbus and their hypnotic debut album Passenger. Doom, uncertainty, and opportunity lurk in the shadowy corners of their murky existence with stops at disassociation, co-dependency, and addiction before reaching its final destination - a glimmer of hope.

The in-between of Nightbus’ own Gotham lies where Manchester’s city pulse meets Stockport’s outer realm. An audio-visual entity formed among a musical family of friends, freaks, and foes in messy mills and after hours on dancefloors alike, their sound bleeds from tension where collective creative forces are bound together and collide with the fallout of being torn apart. Before even playing a show, their So Young released single ‘Mirrors’ – a knowing nod of respect to some well-known gloomy Northerners - may have made old school indie heads shimmy at shows in Salford’s The White Hotel but also signalled the duo’s knack for offering listeners a Bandersnatch approach to hitchhiking their own personal Nightbus in whatever direction they choose to take. “Everyone can have their moment with our songs; the music is our response to who we are as young people, living in the city full of this energy right now,” they say.

Whilst reverb hefty melodies and dread-filled loops embody isolation from writing at each of their home studio set-ups, magic happens in the ether across 90s trip-hop, indie sleaze and electronica; Jake’s production layers Olive’s pop sentimentality with drums and samples whilst tales of a cast of faceless characters place Olive as puppet master; her severed self’s perspective manipulating their stringed limbs at arm’s length to see how their stories play out when scenes reflecting her own lie close to the bone. “It’s a bit fucked; like having this out of body experience with a made-up movie running through my head,” she says. “As I write I can see they’re all from a similar world, but they allow me to explore different feelings without giving away part of myself.”

Recorded at The Nave in Leeds with producer-engineer Alex Greaves (Heavy Lungs, Working Men’s Club), surprise and danger lies in every crevice. Brooding whispers turn to chants on 6-minute opus ‘Host.’ Improvised when performed live, its immersive shift in tempo leads to hefty dub courtesy of Jake’s pedals. Even then, you won’t know shit’s hit the fan until its mid-point reveal when ominous bass blasts a thunderous soundtrack as its protagonist defiantly walks away after committing the perfect crime. “It makes you wait, and more songs should have sirens,” Olive grins.

Leaning deeper into alter-egos via the video game-psychological horror of a Silent Hill dystopia, the band’s Fight Club moment ‘Angles Mortz’ turns its literal translation of death angles on its head as it reflects upon kink and internalised shame reincarnated as pride. Elsewhere the ice cool ‘Landslide’ is a Requiem for a Dream about the addiction of being in a band; ‘The Void’ explores co-dependency and estranged relationships; and carefully selected samples revive house track ‘Just A Kid’ from the band’s early incarnation. Passenger’s every direction is to face challenges head on. “That is what’s so great about horror; you can see through predictable patterns so when the unexpected occurs it's more realistic and uncomfortable… I want to own the dark stuff!”

As for Passenger’s first single, the pulsating ‘Ascension’ is a spiralling deep dive into death, suicide, and legacy around who or what we leave behind. A noughties club banger by way of NYC beats - ergonomically designed for those who like to stay out a little too often and too late - it throbs like a house party’s partition wall as the literal levelling up undergoes a neon transformation; blue glitching to pink, diffusing the white construct of the Nightbus Matrix. “It really does feel like the end of something and was purposely written that way,” they say, “the ascension is like a firework going off!”

With wheels in motion, Nightbus has become a movement surpassing sonic realms. Between shows from Porto to Brighton taking in The Great Escape, Rotterdam’s Left Of The Dial and Paris’ Supersonic; DJing; remixing; guesting (BDRMM’s Microtonic album); and even enlisting talented like-minds to craft a 3-part queer coming-of-age music video series which ties in with a new ‘hyperpop’ phase in the evolution of their popular Nightbus Soundsystem club night, heads are now being turned from sports brands to high-end fashion designers. “There are things we can’t reveal just yet,” tells Olive, “but we’re excited about the direction this beast we’ve created is heading.” As the album philosophises and asks one ultimate question; what does it truly mean to be ‘Passenger’? Nightbus may not claim to offer a definitive answer, but it might make you feel a bit better about those demons.

With WHERE IS MY HEAD?, his first full-length album since 2019, Indonesian-born artist Rich Brian redefines success on his own terms. No longer chasing hits, he turns inward — creating the most vulnerable and honest music of his career. The result is a cohesive, deeply personal body of work that strengthens his bond with an ever-growing fanbase. Brian handled most of the production himself, shaping an analog-forward sound rooted in his self-taught mastery of synthesizers and keyboards. He sings more than ever before, with a newfound confidence and maturity that signals real artistic growth. WHERE IS MY HEAD? isn’t just a return — it’s a revelation. Each track answers one central question: how can I make art that truly makes me happy? To visually explore this feeling of self-reflection, the album introduces two versions of Brian — a MAESTRO who scores music for the dreams of MOVIE BRIAN, who exists unaware inside the world the Maestro has created. This surreal, introspective concept is brought to life through a series of cinematic music videos and visualizers, all directed by Jared Hogan, expanding the depth of the album into a fully realized narrative world.

Baro Sura’s Today & Always is a cinematic album told in three parts; it’s cosmic, cyclical, and impossibly human. As Baro writes, “Love is the universe… it is not linear… it can be lonely… it is recursive & contradictory yet eternal.” This album moves through devotion, doubt, persistence, and quiet reconciliation with each track as a signpost in an astrological journey. “Yours Now, Yours Next” opens the project with a Taurus-like groundedness, capturing the paradox of steadfastness and emotional weight. “i Still Care” teeters like Libra’s scales, a reflection on indecision, contradiction, and the heart’s refusal to let go. Blending spiritual storytelling with an ambient soul, Baro invites listeners into a world of intentional vulnerability where silence speaks and love echoes, today & always.

Editions Mego is proud to release the new album by Australian producer Jasmine Guffond. Developed over a two year period, Microphone Permission is an unsettling musical journey utilising contemporary tools of communication to display Guffond's ongoing research into online surveillance and sound as a method of investigation.

Source material on Microphone Permission are from various projects Guffond has been working on; a commission to sonify the data of the city of Melbourne, a dance performance about the future sounds of an extinct forest, an installation that sonifies Twitter meta data in real time, a job as a composer for a theatre work about music and feminism by five young female identifying performers in Western Sydney and a site specific installation at the Linachtalsperre dam that employed the harmonic frequencies of electric currents.

The results are a stark, brooding, disorientating journey into a paranoid musical field that sits somewhere between ambient club music and a dystopian soundtrack. Elements of techno, classical music and sound art form a dark intriguing masterwork that questions the nature of invasive, algorithmic and computational listening practices.

For example Microphone Permission refers to the consent we routinely give when installing various apps. onto our smart devices. Inspired by a 2018 scandal in which fans of Spain's most popular soccer team were effectively turned into unwitting spies by granting the La Liga application microphone permission. No matter which make or model, all smart devices are built with a microphone that is by default, forever listening. Listening in these situations often takes on an algorithmic form that enables tech developers to bypass public response to what is intuitively considered invasive practice, that is, traditional modes of eavesdropping such as using the microphone to listen and record audio.

Gonzen, uminari or retumbos. Perhaps you've heard these sounds? They're known to occur all over the world and, as one might expect, humans have strained to offer various explanations for these unsettling emissions that materialise unbidden from the sky.

We like to say that we've understood what's happening so that we can move on. Tidy up the loose ends and don't scare the horses. Nothing wrong with that in good measure, but there's something to be said for the Haudenosaunee peoples' explanation. They pointed out that the Great Spirit hasn't finished their work of shaping the earth and is making a fair bit of noise while they're at it.

If you accept that many questions never truly get answered, in fact can or should never truly be answered, you may be able to tune your mind to this collection of lingering sonic detonations. If you accept that the work is ongoing, our labours seldom done, that there's not much point talking about the end of anything, you may be ready to join us. It's not our task to finish it, nor are we free to desist.

Swan Song

The vinyl LP at the heart of this éthiopiques 31 tracks 2 to 11 was one of the very last vinyl records ever released in Ethiopia. But above all it represents, we felt, the absolute masterpiece of the Ethiopian Groove – the Swan Song of Swinging Addis. The album leaves a clear idea for posterity of the level of sophistication and mastery that modern Ethiopian music had achieved, before being crushed under the Stalino-military heel of the Derg – as the bloody revolution that was unfolding came to be called.

Ethiopia1976.

The Revolution that broke out in February 1974 rolled on in a ruthless march. The whole of Ethiopian society was utterly stunned. The bouquets of flowers handed joyfully to the first tanks of the coup d'état were to wilt very rapidly. From September 1976 to February 1978, 18 months of Red Terror (the name given by the junta itself) spilled blood throughout the country. This fratricidal conflict took its heaviest toll among students and youth. The shift from feudalism to a cruel and primitive Stalinism left the country's citizens deeply traumatised, and snuffed out any pretence of activism, whatever the sector of society. This ice age was to last for seventeen long years.

ሙሉቀን፡መለሰ Mulukèn Mellèssè Muluqän Mälläsä

It was three tracks by Muluken that served as the opener for éthiopiques-1 more than 25 years ago. Seven more tracks appeared on éthiopiques-3 and 13, all accompanied by The Equators, which was soon to become the Dahlak Band.

The first track, Hédètch alu, also the very first piece that Muluken ever recorded, left audiences both unsettled and amazed. Reflecting the singer's extremely young age (he was just 17 at the time), this angelic voice mystified many, who thought they were in fact listening to a feminine voice. He was not yet 22 when he released his last vinyl record in 1976 with Kaifa Records (KF 39LP), one of the very last to be issued in Ethiopia, before the cassette tape became the dominant medium for music distribution – and before the new revolutionary regime put a stop to all independent musical life, via an unspeakable barrage of prohibitions and other persecutions.

Mulu qèn, literally, “A well filled day”. This tender maternal intention wasn't enough to ward off the cruelty of fate. His mother's premature death drove Muluken to leave his native Godjam, in northeast Ethiopia, to live with an uncle in Addis Ababa. Born Muluken Tamer, he took his uncle's last name – Mèllèssè.

The spelling Muluken appeared in his administrative records. Transcription of Amharic to the Latin alphabet, both in Ethiopia and for scholars, gives rise to controversies and quibbles that can never be neatly settled. French allows for a closer approximation of the original pronunciation, thanks to its battery of accent marks, confusing as they may be to anglophones.

Between rather accommodating administrative record-keepers and the various versions that pop up in interviews given by the artist, Muluken's year of birth oscillates between 1953 and 1955…

1954? One thing is certain: the artist's talent made itself known very early indeed, because he got his start in 1966-67, at the age of 13 or 14. Photos from the period attest to his extreme youth. It's a strange sort of initiation for a very young teenager to become a sensation in the heart of Addis's nightlife at the time, Woubé Bèrèha – the Wilds of Woubé. And what's more, in the club of the Queen of the Night, the Godjamé Assègèdètch Alamrèw herself, the very same that was portrayed by Sebhat Guèbrè-Egziabhér in his novel-memoir Les Nuits d’Addis Abeba2… The legendary female club owner who is remembered to this day by the capital's ageing boomers.

Muluken first tried his hand at the drums, before he grabbed the microphone. He emigrated briefly to the Zula Club, across the street from the old Addis Post Office, one of the ground-breaking bars of the burgeoning musical scene, before joining the Second Police Band in 1968, for around three years. He spent a few months with the short-lived Blue Nile Band founded by saxophonist Besrat Tammènè. As the musical scene grew increasingly successful, and pulled slowly but decisively away from its institutional ties, Muluken released his first 45rpm single in February 1972 (Amha Records AE 440). It was included in two LP Ethiopian Hit Parade compilation albums in September of the same year. All in all, Muluken released eight two-track 45s and the same number of original cassette tapes between February 1972 and 1984, the year that he departed for permanent exile in the USA. After converting to Pentecostalism in 1980, Muluken gradually abandoned all secular musical activity. In 1985, at the end of a concert in Philadelphia, he decided to quit concerts and recording for good. Mèlakè Gèbré, the historic bass player from the Walias band who was playing with him that night, recalls that everything appeared so irredeemably diabolical in Muluken's eyes, that it was to be the end of his contribution to Ethiopian Groove.

The end of the story, the beginning of a legend.

Dahlak Band, forgotten by History

Aside from his personal history and vocal talents, it must be remembered that Muluken Mèllèssè was one of the biggest names in the musical innovations that marked the end of the imperial period. These éthiopiques aim to convince those who are just discovering this hidden gem... As for Ethiopians themselves, they are to this day captivated by this singular and atypical figure in the Abyssinian pop landscape – even though he withdrew from public life some 40 years ago. Incorrigible devotees of poetic twists, of more or less hidden meanings, Ethiopians appreciate above all the care Muluken took in choosing his lyrics and the writers who penned them, such as Feqerte Haylou, Alemtsehay Wodajo and, here, Shewalul Mengistu (1944-1977). Love songs, written by women, a far cry from the conventional drivel that pleases sappy sentimentalists.

Muluken is equally acclaimed for his perfectionism when it came to music, the opposite of the overly casual approach that is all too common. He remained a faithful partner of musicians who came from a lineage that borrowed from several inventive and pioneering bands (Venus, Equators, Dahlak). Amongst them were certain artists who began their musical lives with Nersès Nalbandian at the Haile Sellassie Theatre and who come of age in around 1973 – at just the wrong time, you might say. Among them were the pillars Shimèlis Bèyènè (trumpet), Dawit Yifru (keyboards) and Tilayé Gèbrè (sax & flute). Most notably Tilayé Gèbrè, certainly one of the most important musicians, composers and arrangers of his generation, of the end of the imperial era, and of the early years of the Derg.

It was only in 1981 that a miraculous opportunity arose for Tilayé to escape the Stalinist paradise of the dictator Menguistou Haylè-Maryam. Once again it was Amha Eshèté (1946-2021) who provided a solution. The spirited and courageous producer, who had been in exile in Washington since 1975, succeeded, thanks to his incredible perseverence, in bringing the Walias Band to the USA. It was, in fact an extended Walias Band comprising ten musicians3, six of whom chose to slip away after a few concerts and the recording of an LP (The Best of Walias, WRS 100). Tilayé Gèbrè was one of these. He has been living in the USA ever since. There he joined the then-nascent Ethiopian diaspora, which lived largely unto itself, and was making only very modest headway in the American musical market. It seems unfair that Tilayé Gèbrè and the Dahlak Band were not able to benefit earlier from the public recognition that they do deserve.

A similar draining away of the top-rate talents would lead to the reorganization of the major groups of the “Derg Time”. The remaining artists spread themselves around between Ibex Band (renamed Roha Band), Ethio Star Band and a remodeled Walias Band. That spelled the end of the Dahlak Band.

With this record, produced by the essential Ali Abdella Kaifa a.k.a. Ali Tango, we can appreciate everything that the Derg not only destroyed, but also prevented from flourishing. This gem of Ethiopian-style afrobeat came out in 1976 (and, by way of a parenthesis, before the FESTAC 1977 in Lagos, which was attended by an impressive delegation of Ethiopian musicians — although Fela was already personna non grata in his own country). Despite everything that might distinguish this ethio-groove from Fela’s music – no colonial axe to grind, no question of political confrontation with the authorities, no claims to negritude or Africanism for the Ethiopian musicians, and less extrovertion! –, this LP fits beautifully into the saga of intense and electrified soul of the new “African” groove that Fela and Manu Dibango embodied so well from that point onwards.

In restoring this record to its place in the afrobeat epic, it can be seen that, if nothing else, the timeline bestows a legitimate pedigree and a historical primacy to works that had no international impact when they were originally released.

Warning! Masterpiece!

Think for yourself, question everything...

“So, how did this band even happen?” That’s the question most often asked of Winged Wheel, a creatively and geographically scattered collective who have somehow congregated to make a noise that’s unexpected but undeniable. The band includes Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of the dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack, and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek), each player living in a different city and bringing their own unique element to the group’s chain reactions. Early long distance file-trading between a few members yielded 2022’s No Island, a debut album that was accidentally really good. Good enough for the band to expand their membership and meet in person for the sessions that became 2024’s Big Hotel, a surgically-assembled murk of high energy kosmische rock with jammed-out tendencies.

Fast forward just a little and all of a sudden the band that started out as a passing idea has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen on their third album, Desert So Green. After a run of shows across the Midwest in the spring of 2025, the group settled into a studio on the outskirts of Chicago to track their next record. Though the full lineup had only been solidified for a little over a year at this point, time together on stage led to a quickly-expanding sound and a unified vision of always going somewhere new. To this end, Winged Wheel abandoned the play-now-sort-it-out-later approach of Big Hotel and instead spent hours refining flashes of inspiration into coherent songs.

The pinnacle of total art pop, "yes, mama ok?", celebrates its 30th anniversary.

The album includes a 14-track best-of LP featuring a comprehensive selection of tracks released between 1995 and 2000 on labels like LD&K, Nippon Columbia,
and Etiquette Recordings; a 26-track cassette tape featuring more best selections; a 7-inch single featuring the band's best killer tunes; and a long-awaited
two-disc CD featuring the works of legendary songwriter Takeshi Kongochi. These four titles, overseen by Takeshi Kongochi and Wataru Sawabe (Skirt), who
self-proclaims himself the world's biggest fan, are officially released in celebration of the band's 30th anniversary.

The long-awaited "yes, mama ok?" best-of album, a 14-track vinyl LP, is now available!

Faellesskab reveals their most critical and emotionally charged work to date, a deeply personal voyage into the heart of Nordic black metal, where raw emotion and melodic depth keep reveling in sorrow and longing beauty. Translating to "Community", Faellesskab's six tracks weave a strong musical oeuvre within the Afsky canon; their walls of haunting melancholia, interwoven with vital intensity, have never been more powerful. Yet, this new work also sees the band at its sharpest in social criticism, as Ole Luk of Afsky notes: Faellesskab - Overture to the Downfall. Here, community is praised like herd animals fleeing responsibility.

A parade of moral superiority, where truth is trampled in the name of consensus. Where unity means silence, and doubt is a crime. Six songs of shame disguised as care, of freedom suffocated, and of the solitary few who still dare to question. A chorus of hollow words, where silence screams the loudest. Welcome to the celebration - the curtain hasn't just risen, it's been torn away! Afsky will mark the release with a special show in Copenhagen on October 17, graced by a full European album release tour kicking off the following week. Two singles are set to be unveiled in the lead-up to the release. While Afsky continues to refine their signature sound, this release is set to be another landmark in the band's uncompromising discography.

Lego Dave du Shit, a noble aristocrat from the vallée du Shit, traveled to the RCK JUMEAUX planet to answer the Bleast’s question: “Qui A Dub Maman?”


To do so, he had to explore the Îles Nvlles, inhabited by robots, where he learned the ancestral chant of the Witches of Good: “Which is Good.”
He’s waiting to return to Earth in September to reunite with his friend Loba from Gagra, and to take part in the LAST JAM of October.


That being said, he must also visit in November the guardian Mezacidub III, son of Mezacidub II and Valprius Organo (a clone of the Bilrituel Cyborg of Tarza Y7).


In a few words, APR7S is simply an expression used after the party – or “after” in English.

Live music needs to offer you something that you cannot get on a studio recording. It's the sense of freedom and intimacy, wondering how the songs will be played and what the reaction will be. Live concerts give you the tingle where the hair stands up on the back of your neck. "Live audiences give you the tension and responsibility to be creative, for me that's the challenge I like," says the iconic Dutch guitarist. After all of these years, you ponder what keeps Jan going out there, night after night. "It's my love to play for people all around the world," he smiles. The supremely gifted guitarist is equaled by very few, and his legendary ability makes him impossible to pigeonhole. His position as Dutch royalty has been cemented; he received the Golden Harp Award in early 2005, Holland's most prestigious music prize, and in 2012, he was appointed Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. This royal honour recognized his contributions to Dutch music and his influence on musicians worldwide.

“From Birmingham and centred around the extraordinary songwriting talent of James and Patrick Roberts – initially as The Sea Urchins and since 1993 as Delta – they’ve only just got round to releasing their debut album, Slippin’ Out. It is a work of some beauty”. 9/10 NME ALBUM OF THE MONTH, 2000

“It’s classicist for sure, shot through with the influence of The Beatles, Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. In James’ downright beautiful closing ballad ‘I Want You’ one can also discern the school of ambitious English balladry that peaked in about 1968: The Casuals, Love Affair, Barry Ryan. The impression of accomplished old-schoolery is only furthered by the dizzying string arrangements penned by Louis Clark Jnr, son and namesake of the one-time orchestral chief of Electric Light Orchestra” – Mojo lead review, 2000


Having ended the 90s with the spirited ‘Laughing Mostly’ compilation of singles and demos (Guardian Album Of The Week) Delta finally released their debut studio album of twelve songs in the summer of 2000 on the Dishy Recordings label. Accepting that this might be their sole studio album the band threw everything at these recordings allowing it to exist in its own sphere, unbothered by their contemporary generation and disregarding the idea of even releasing a single.

Recorded at DEP International there was a notable difference to the scruffier, looser charm of their 1990s recordings, a tighter focus developed by having the experienced Lenny Franchi mixing the LP with them. Lenny had been working with a number of Island artists including My Bloody Valentine and Tricky so knew his way around a desk. There was also the question of budget (a few months passed between recording and mixing whilst funds were raised) so every day counted. Ultimately though you can hear the joy in the recordings, even amongst the melancholy and angst. As James recently recalled in an interview in Shindig! Magazine: “It was such a big deal for us. It’s one of my fondest memories doing that record. Everyone was happy. If there’s anything that I’d stand by, I think it would be that”

Louis Clark Jr joined the band towards the end of the ‘90s and brought a classically-trained element to the recordings particularly with his string arrangements. For ‘Cuckoo’, ‘I Want You’ and the prophetic ‘We Come Back’ Louis brought in eight players from the Birmingham Conservatoire; the baroque style is partly why the record often receives comparisons to Love’s ‘Forever Changes’.

On release ‘Slippin’ Out’ was a big favourite with writers at the NME, Mojo and The Guardian again and before long the band were signed to Mercury/Universal for their second studio album ‘Hard Light’, a far more expensive and expansive love affair. It was a temporary palatial home where things quietly fell apart again, but that’s another chapter.

“If long-term memory is nothing more than selective editing and only pop’s most weighty visceral works are built to last then it’s quite possible that in 50 years the Britpop era will be best recollected for the two bands it ostracised. Earlier this year we met Shack and thought their story of mercurial brilliance indicated the biggest music biz oversight of the 90s. We were wrong because we hadn’t met Delta yet. This is richer and more engrossing than anything by Shack” 

Harrison BDP stands as one of the true masters of that off-world deep house sound. Easily one of the most consistent producers, so having the Welsh wizard launch the first 12” on Jupiter’s Depth is iconic. The EP delivers it all — from deep, trippy journeys to pacey dub-techno rollers. No question, another Discogs relic in the making — 300 press, so move quick.

Spike Lees neuester Film ,Highest 2 Lowest" zeigt das Leben des Gründers des fiktiven Plattenlabels Stackin Hit's, gespielt von Denzel Washington. Der Soundtrack hat eine coole Auswahl an Original-Songs von etablierten Musikgrößen und neuen Künstlern. Die aufstrebenden Sängerinnen Jensen McCrae und Aiyana-Lee bringen ihre einzigartigen Stimmen ins Album ein, während die Harlem-Legende Eddie Palmieri mit seinem Salsa-Orchester für energiegeladene Auftritte sorgt. Das absolute Highlight ist der ebenfalls aus New York stammende A$AP Rocky (der auch in dem Film mitspielt), der zwei knallharte Ohrwürmer beisteuert, die uns daran erinnern, warum er einer der modernen Superstars des Rap ist. Die Starpower des Soundtracks wird durch eine mitreißende Orchesterpartitur von Howard Drossin untermalt und durch ein vom Jazzpianisten Fergus McCreadie angeführtes Trio ergänzt.

When the ghost in the machine meets the breath in the reed, expect sparks. Electronic sound artist Robin Rimbaud – Scanner joins forces with acclaimed British bass clarinetist Gareth Davis to create an album where circuitry hums, wood vibrates, and the air between notes crackles with possibility.

This is no polite meeting of minds — it’s an elegant collision. Scanner’s intricate electronic textures weave around Davis’s deep, resonant tones, blurring the boundary between acoustic breath and digital pulse. The result is a sound world that’s at once intimate and expansive, familiar yet thrillingly unpredictable.

Think late-night conversations in abandoned buildings. Think fog rolling over neon. Think sound that slips through your fingers even as it takes hold of you.

The songlines in question , memories and distorted images of travels across various continents, form an imagined biography of places that might or might not have been but somehow seem to exist . Landscapes of blurred statements , lost words and echoes of meandering structures.

"If Miles Davis had been raised on shortwave radio static and midnight phone calls, it might have sounded like this."

Their original pop-infused songs blend rock, punk, and garage rock, and--together with their wild stage presence--have made them unforgettable to anyone who sees them live. Last year, the power trio even provided the soundtrack for a Ryukyu Nissan commercial--appearing in it themselves. Now, it's time for their debut LP: "Best Answer"! The album is incredibly catchy and versatile. From wild, lo-fi punk instrumentals like "Beehive!!" and "Howling Bowl", to cool pop- punk tracks like "I Want You", "45", and "Questions- theme".

There are also danceable garage punk songs like "Brighton Beach", "Koi no yokan", and "Yoakenotori ga naita". The track "I am I" references the SONICS' guitar sound and adds cool Japanese female vocals, screams, and harmonies. The album also includes two wild, punky cover versions: the R&B classic "I Got My Mojo Working", and a charming yet incredibly cool take on Jacques Dutronc's "Les Cactus". And with "Honey Pye", they even deliver a catchy off- beat tune with a feelgood pop-punk attitude. This album is top-quality Japanese rock--from beginning to end!

Xexa is still undefined, gliding over her origins, influences, and points of reference. Her music is informed by uploads from all that, processing heritage and future in much the same democratic way, sure of its (her!) path. Synthetic as it may sound, »Kissom« contains the very human element of Xexa's presence, not only through her instantly recognizable ethereal vocals but also manifest in the web of grooves stopping short of »dance«. »Kizomba 003« is the closest she comes to the dancefloor, a reduced take on the popular style of kizomba, a low-key interpretation but with the vocals atypically high in the mix. A brief breath of nostalgia. »Kissom« (title track) prolongs the slow pace, almost as an extended mix of »Kizomba 003«, stretching the sexy bounce for close to 4 extra-delightful minutes.

Everything seems to dissolve into space, as if every track gently expires only to be reconfigured somewhere else, molecule by molecule, perhaps in a different location within our mind. The artist somehow corroborates the feeling, particularly regarding »Será«, »Xtinti«, and »Txe«, which she says »finish exactly where I wanted. They all end with an EQ that mutes the frequencies until they cease to exist«. Here, there, sparse beats, successive waves of ambience, half-machine lips singing close to our ears, a blend of classic 4AD and a metallic environment warmly wrapping around the music. Extra-long, »Quem és tu?« poses the question – Who are we? Who is she? And the title »Kissom« stems from another question Xexa often hears from people, »Ki som é este?« (What is this music?). The answer might well be the artist's own paste of the words »kiss« and »som«. Lovely.

Paul Murphy’s Claremont 56 label welcomes a genuine legend of UK music to its roster – Chaz Jankel, the man whose dizzying musicality and love of soul, funk and disco did much to shape the sound of Ian Dury’s Blockheads band in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.

A virtuoso keyboardist with a deep love of Black American music, Jankel’s arrangements and compositional skills were key to the success of their records, the funkiest of which not only became crossover pop hits – see ‘Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick’ and ‘Reasons To be Cheerful, Part 3’ in particular – but also saw heavy rotation in now iconic New York clubs including the Paradise Garage and Studio 54.

This continued during the formative years of his solo career, with ‘My Occupation’, ‘Questionnaire’ and ‘Glad To Know You’ (later famously re-edited and dubbed out for nu-disco dancefloors by Todd Terje) all becoming club hits. The great Quincy Jones also covered Jankel’s infectious single ‘Ai No Carrida’, while experimental, club-ready synth-jam ‘3,000,000 Synths’ was also influential during the early years of the electro movement.

For his Claremont 56 bow, Jankel has delivered an all-new workout recorded earlier this year, the simply titled ‘Rhumba Jam’. A typically warm, groovy and rolling affair, it features Jankel delivering infectious, stretched-out Rhodes electric piano solos over toasty bass, clipped guitar licks, warm bass, accordion-style synth motifs and a densely layered Rhumba rhythm. While relaxed and sun-soaked, it also has bags of Balearic dancefloor potential.

Murphy remixes under his now familiar Mudd alias, leaning into the track’s languid Balearic vibe while keeping a firm focus on the dancefloor. Beginning with an enticing mix of metronomic drums and jangly acoustic guitars, Murphy slowly layers up key elements of Jankel’s original – think rubbery bass, rhythmic handclaps, mazy synth sounds and those wonderful, stretched-out solos. It’s a version that pays due reverence to the quality of Jankel’s musicianship, production and arrangement while subtly extending it and reframing it for 21st century Balearic dancefloors.

No Speakers scores a major coup here by signing a Detroit legend from Underground Resistance's Galaxy 2 Galaxy. This guy's shared stages with figureheads like Jeff Mills, Carl Craig and Goldie so his creds cannot be questioned. His signature fusion of jazz and electronic fire burns bright here with A-side bangers 'Layers to This' and 'Bridgehouse' primed for future classic status as well as peak-time destruction. Flip it for South London's L.A. Synthesis remix. No stranger to dropping their own iconic techno, their take twists and turns into otherworldly soundscapes. Label boss El Prevost closes the EP with a savage twist of 'Bridgehouse' that is dark and twisted in all the right ways.

DJ Feedback

Kai Alce:
"Bridgehouse is just that, a bridge to the future."

Chris Udoh:
"Bridgehouse is an exceptional cut! "

Kosh:
"Nice release."

D'Julz:
"Best EP I heard in a long time. Lovely."

Radio Slave:
"So good to see La Synthesis here !!! and another great EP. from Jon. Full support."

ICYKOF:
"This is really fun. Love the first track."

Barbara Preisinger:
"The original tracks are sounding great to me and will go into the box. Thanks a lot!"

Orlando Voorn:
"Dopeness, all killer no filler."

Okain:
"Classy stuff."

Cristi Cons:
"Very nice, thanks."

Ryan Crosson:
"El Prevost remix is great, also enjoying the la synthesis remix."

Harri:
"Nice, will play and support."

Domenic Cappello:
"Jon is Detroit royalty, love this."

DJ Hutch:
"Love this release. Bridgehouse remix is crazy."

Harvey Sutherland:
"Bridgehouse is hot, thanks!"

Colin Dale:
"Excellent EP. All the cuts rock."

Greg Gow:
"Nice soulful tracks full support."

Laurent Garnier:
"Cool deepness."

Aleqs Notal:
"Jon Dixon, always on fire!!!"

Man Power:
"Layers to this is great."

DJ Bone:
"Smooth and funky release. Very nice."

Sugaring a Strawberry, the sophomore record from Julia, Julia, is a study in coming undone—on purpose. Recorded at COMA, Julia Kugel's home studio, and mixed through a custom Flickenger clone, the album drifts in and out of clarity like memory itself. It's emotionally retrospective, creatively unvarnished, and deeply human. You can hear it in the hiss, the warmth, in the vocals so raw they're like an open window. These songs weren't engineered for perfection. They were built to breathe. Her long-time collaborator and husband, Scott Montoya, mixes it all so loosely that you can hear the air between tracks— a space that makes the music feel inhabited rather than recorded.


"Bound" opens the album like a secret passed between sisters, solemn and unspeakably close. It begins with the softest of touches: hushed guitar, a near- whispered delivery that carries the intimacy of someone singing only for one other person. It's a love song, but not romantic, more ancestral in the way long bonds can be. All glow and undercurrent, "I Know," is like hearing someone hum through a wound. The track arrives as if it had been waiting, coiled and complete, to be sung. Its pulse is slow but insistent, anchored on a hypnotic loop and a vocal that's half-incantation, half-confession. One of the most outward-facing songs on the record, "Feeling Lucky," opens like a cigarette flicked in the dark– smoky and a little bit slick. Built on a skeletal beat and a nearly detached vocal, it leans into a sarcastic swagger that barely masks the ache beneath. The delivery is droll and glazed, the instrumentation is sparse and a little woozy, leaving space for her voice to sway—a shrug of a song, stylish in its sadness. "A Love That Hurts" drifts in on soft, fingerpicked guitar and a dry, close-mic vocal that feels both haunted and immediate. The mix is stripped down and analog-warm, letting tape hum and silence frame the emotion. Julia sings like she's remembering something she doesn't want to, each line a slight unraveling. Like the rest of the album, "A Love That Hurts" doesn't push toward resolution. It sits in the ache, sifts through it, makes it beautiful.

Sugaring a Strawberry doesn't seek catharsis so much as stumbles into it. There's a quiet volatility to these songs like they might fall apart if you press too hard. It moves in shadow and softness, asking questions it doesn't answer. It doesn’t end with closure. It ends with truth.

Do you believe in spring? Simon Wangen (cello) and Philipp Sutter (piano) pose this question as the title for their new project. Whereas Bill Evans made a demand in 1981, the two Cologne-based musicians believe that in times of uncertainty, crisis, and environmental destruction, it is ok to set a questin mark here. But politics and world events aside: Do you believe in spring? Of course! It's never too late to start something new, get creative, and test your own limits. Simon Wangen is a classically trained cellist, Philipp Sutter a trained jazz pianist. Their different musical roots merge on this instrumental album into a lively mix of neoclassical, new jazz, and Cinéma Nordique. Ten pieces come across as sometimes dark, sometimes wild, sometimes delicate, always focusing on the dialogue between the two instruments that harmonize so well. The subtle use of electronic effects constantly opens up new perspectives and builds a bridge to contemporary sound aesthetics. Cello and piano—this combination has been established for centuries, but can still add new facets today. Do you believe in spring? begins stormily and turbulently, oscillating between romantic, sad, and beautiful moments, and leads from a rather dark beginning to the final and eponymous piece in C major, which leaves the listener with a glimmer of hope. Do you believe in spring? From October 24, 2025!


Do you believe in spring? Simon Wangen (Cello) und Philipp Sutter (Klavier) werfen den Titel für ihr neues Projekt als Frage in den Raum. Wo Bill Evans 1981 eine Forderung formulierte, sind die beiden Kölner Musiker der Ansicht, in Zeiten der Unsicherheit, der Krisen und Umweltzerstörung durchaus ein Fragezeichen setzen zu können. Aber abgesehen von Politik und Weltgeschehen: Do you believe in spring? Natürlich! Es ist nie zu spät, etwas Neues zu beginnen, kreativ zu werden und die eigenen Grenzen zu testen. Simon Wangen ist klassisch ausgebildeter Cellist, Philipp Sutter studierter Jazzpianist. Die unterschiedlichen musikalischen Wurzeln verschmelzen auf diesem Instrumentalalbum zu einer lebendigen Mischung aus Neoklassik, New Jazz und Cinéma Nordique. Zehn Stücke kommen mal düster, mal wild, mal zart daher, stets die Zwiesprache der beiden so gut harmonierenden Instrumente im Fokus. Der dezente Einsatz elektronischer Effekte öffnet immer wieder neue Perspektiven und schlägt eine Brücke zur zeitgenössischen Klangästhetik. Cello und Klavier - diese Besetzung ist seit Jahrhunderten etabliert, aber kann auch aktuell immer wieder neue Facetten hinzubekommen. Do you believe in spring? beginnt stürmisch und aufgewühlt, changiert zwischen romantisch - traurig - schönen Momenten und führt von einem eher düsteren Beginn hin zum letzten und namensgebenden Stück in C-Dur, das die Zuhörenden mit einem Hoffnungsschimmer entlässt. Do you believe in spring? Ab 24.10.2025!

After two self-produced EPs, Sarah Maison (2018) and Soleils (2021), and the EP Karma (2021) with Anoraak, French singer, musician, author, composer, arranger, and producer Sarah Maison finally unveils her first album, DIVAD, the fruit of four years of creation. Sarah opens up, tackling personal themes through an exploration of the soul and existential questions. She also ventures into more autobiographical subjects such as melancholy, derealization, the search for meaning, and the breakdown of romantic or friendly relationships: often through coded language but always with a touch of humor. DIVAD is a manifesto of artistic independence, boldly and uncompromisingly fusing French chanson, Egyptian music, 70s disco, synth-pop, and English pop. Her influences draw on musical history while reinventing it, bringing together Alan Vega and Martin Rev, the 70s Egyptian band Al Massrieen, the king of Iranian psychedelia Kourosh Yaghmei, as well as Brigitte Fontaine and Françoise Hardy. Each track is a cinematic tableau, where the artist"s theatrical voice, both imperious and vulnerable, carries an intimate narrative with universal overtones. Co-produced with Steve Surmely (sound engineer) and Timotée Pédron (sound designer), the album blurs the lines and asserts an artist who defies categorization. Throughout these twelve tracks, we witnessa rebirth, with Sarah fully embracing her character as a dark, grandiose, and tragicomic diva straight out of a Dario Argentofilm, a sort of tribute to her Italian muses. Danceable, elegant, and elusive, DIVAD is a flamboyant work that reflects Sarah Maison"s image: free, sunny, and daring.

PD002 takes flight in the form of a lost, deadeye jungle bird scavenging for his next trinket. It captures the raw energy and playful, feral sound that defines the Pelican Dub aesthetic: a blend of primal rhythms, hypnotic textures, and experimental intensity.

Pelican Dub 002 features three original tracks by DJ Merlín, alongside one co-production with Adam Pits:

Obsession
Obsessed once again… Nearly lost my head rocking it like a madman.
These drums weren’t simply made. They were forged by a blacksmith with a big blade and a bad temper. It boasts a peculiar flow and a three verse arrangement. Not a mix tool, or is it?

Down the Wrong Road
A futuristic techno-dub track featuring pinched, glassy drumwork wrapped around a pseudo-acid riff. Born during the aftermath of a questionable decision of two friends meeting early in the morning after separate all-night adventures, hence the title: Down the Wrong Road…..

Dirt Bubble
Dirty, unpredictable, and uncompromising. The original version of Dirt Bubble is a raw and visceral workout, chaotic in just the right way.

Dirt Bubble (DnB Mix)
The younger sibling that has outgrown its original prototype. This DnB rework has rightfully become a flagship for the Pelican Dub sound. Expect primal rhythms, wild experimental drum design, and a savage, stretched-out analog bassline that dominates the low end.

Infotext ENG

After establishing himself as one of Europe's most distinctive voices in instrumental hip-hop, Mr. Käfer is ready to tell a different story. His third solo album, A Past Sense, arriving via Melting Pot Music on 11th November, shows a bold creative evolution from his signature lo-fi aesthetic into lush, collaborative territory that spans continents and genres.

His sixth project for Melting Pot Music marks a creative leap from the mood-driven, jazz-tinged instrumentals that built his reputation on releases like Lost Reflections (2019), Orientation (2020), and Now/Again I and II (2021, 2023). Now he's orchestrating a 14-track journey that weaves together hip-hop, soul, jazz, and North African rhythms through collaborations with carefully selected artists including Novine (GER), J-Tek (US), Kenji (US) and Cloudhead (AT).
Thematically, the album explores how memory reshapes identity, questioning the gap between who we were and who we've become. The visual side comes courtesy of acclaimed photographer and art director Robert Winter, capturing this nostalgic-yet-progressive spirit. A Past Sense will also be released on LP.
With A Past Sense, Mr. Käfer steps out from behind the boards and into the spotlight—trading lo-fi playlist comfort and algorithm-driven streams for something deeper. A past sense, maybe. But definitely a future sound.
Infotext DE
Europas instrumentaler Hip-Hop bekommt einen neuen Sound. Mit seinem dritten Soloalbum „A Past Sense“ verabschiedet sich Mr. Käfer von seiner lo-fi-geprägten Vergangenheit und erschafft ein Werk, das über Genres und Kontinente hinausgeht.
Wo frühere Veröffentlichungen wie „Orientation“ (2020) und die „Now/Again“-Serie (2021/2023) durch intime, jazzgetränkte Instrumentals bestachen, öffnet sich „A Past Sense" neuen Horizonten. Auf 14 Tracks verschmelzen Hip-Hop-Fundamentals mit Soul-Harmonien, Jazz-Improvisationen und nordafrikanischen Rhythmus-Patterns.
Die Kollaborationen mit Novine (Deutschland), J-Tek und Kenji (beide USA) sowie Cloudhead (Österreich) sind dabei keine Gastauftritte, sondern organische Begegnungen, die Mr. Käfers Musik in unerwartete Richtungen lenken. Er bricht bewusst aus der Blase algorithmusgetriebener Lo-Fi-Playlists aus und setzt auf echte musikalische wie menschliche Verbindungen.
Thematisch kreist „A Past Sense" um die Macht der Erinnerung und die Frage, wie Vergangenheit unsere Gegenwart formt. Diese konzeptionelle Tiefe spiegelt sich auch in der visuellen Umsetzung wider: Fotograf und Art Director Robert Winter entwickelte eine Bildsprache, die Nostalgie und Zukunftsvision in perfekter Balance hält.
Mit „A Past Sense" positioniert sich Mr. Käfer neu im internationalen Beat-Kosmos. Das Album erscheint am 11. November über Melting Pot Music – digital und auf Vinyl.