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For some time now, followers of Field Medic have been piecing together clues about Floral Prince. The name has been mentioned in late night Twitter hints, secret YouTube leaks, teaser riddles, Instagram live sets, and standalone single drops. This unconventional approach paints a bigger picture for the 11-track project as a whole, set for release October 2nd from Run For Cover Records. Part mixtape, part album, part collection, part musical patchwork quilt, Floral Prince is the latest offering from Field Medic, aka the preeminent Bay Area freak folk artist Kevin Patrick Sullivan. It’s a reflection of his unique approach to songwriting and a creative drive that can’t be contained to the traditional album format. Field Medic’s songwriting rarely slows down; even after the release of his 2019 full-length fade into the dawn and the busy touring schedule that followed, Sullivan still found himself flush with new songs and ideas. As he attempted to earmark certain songs for his next release Sullivan began to chafe at the pressures of a follow-up album. Longing for the spontaneity of Field Medic’s earlier work, Sullivan found inspiration in what he calls the “full-time freestyle” mindset where he writes and records songs on the fly with a four-track, usually with a self-imposed limit of three takes. “This style lends itself to more off-the-cuff lyrics and recordings that communicate their point much clearer to my ears,” he explains. “It’s also fun.”

The process proved surprisingly satisfying, often capturing the diary-like nature of Sullivan’s songwriting more accurately than some of the music he’d been poring over. “The songs born from this method aren’t always ‘hits,’ he says. “But they feel much more important to me…closer to how I really feel.” Some of these charming homespun missives made their way onto the internet, spurring fans to follow the breadcrumbs towards these first glimpses into Floral Prince and the ever-expanding Field Medic mythology. “I realized the songs I was saving for another album were much less focused and effective than some of the freestyles I had been creating and subsequently leaking,” Sullivan says. “I think that’s because I really enjoyed the process of writing and recording the freestyles, whereas the ‘hits’ I was attempting to make were being approached as more of a chore.” Floral Prince officially began to see the light of day through a series of stand-alone singles released throughout early 2020 in tandem with episodes of Sullivan’s homemade webseries, the field medic show. To invite fans further into Field Medic’s unique world of achingly beautiful melodies and conversational lyricism, songs like the atmospheric ballad “better way” and the Alex Menne (pickleboy/Great Grandpa) collaboration “talkin johnny & june (your arms around me)” were shared alongside the YouTube show’s accompanying live versions. Other tracks—like rousing opener “-h-o-u-s-e-k-e-y-z-” and the longing “i want you so bad it hurts”—were repurposed from the fade into the dawn sessions to finally find a home on Floral Prince. Elsewhere “it’s so lonely being sober” exemplifies the unvarnished appeal of the full-time freestyle attitude. The song’s direct lyrics and single-take phone recording preserve the deeply personal storytelling, relatable details, and palpable emotions that make Field Medic’s work so intimate and enthralling.

Although Floral Prince is culled from several years of Field Medic songs, its 11 tracks have a sense of cohesion that can be attributed to Sullivan’s singular vision and willingness to allow the listener into his life. “These songs were written through different seasons of my life but they all share a common theme of quiet, nagging, yet somehow defiant insecurity,” he explains. “To hear them all grouped together reminds me that I’ve always felt more or less the same way, and have had the same obsessive tendencies my whole life that have often led to self-destructive behavior. Maybe this is catharsis.” In the end Floral Prince is actually many things at once: a snapshot of an artist shaking off the perceived boundaries of his medium; a document of years of Sullivan’s life preserved in musical form; the closing of one songwriting chapter and the start of another. Or perhaps as Sullivan puts it, “All songs have their day…”

Sam Cooke, inventor and true King of Soul, recorded Mr. Soul in 1963, the same year as Night Beat, and seems to be its more adult counterpart, with soulful ballads taking up most of the album. A laidback tempo and rich arrangements lay the foundation for Sam's somewhat melancholy voice floats, creating an uplifting spirit that can mend anyone's broken heart.

With standards such as "Willow Weep For Me", "I Wish You Love", and "For Sentimental Reasons", Cooke shows a quiet emotive side of himself without losing his keen sense of melody, using the strength of his voice without overpowering the listener. Had Sam Cooke lived longer, we might have had more music of this rare quality. As it stands, we must make do with the treasures he left behind.

Mr. Soul is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on orange vinyl.

Colombian Drone Mafia's second album is a story of collective becoming: SueNo en Flor distils a year-long residency at London's Space Talk into music that moves like organic matter as field recordings, abstracted rhythms and distant infrastructures intertwine seamlessly. Where their debut Memoria confronted, this expands and transforms with a sound that is quieter, more patient, and more profound. Contributions from DJ Python, Ayu, Tristan Arp, Maria Velez Gallo and Gibrana Cervantes all add up to a porous, fluid whole that shifts through blurry pads, painterly synths and hazy textures designed for mental catharisis and full body submersion. The accompanying 24-page publication with texts from Philip Sherburne, Raime and Felicia Atkinson, among others, makes this an even classier release.

Even in these most turbulent of times, dub musician and fatigued onlooker Elijah Minnelli remains an inexplicable stalwart on the lower rungs of the Breadminster County Council.

His latest record ‘Clams As A Main Meal’ continues his astute siphoning of council funds, this time with help from the Breadminster Board of Abstinence. As a further mark of respect, the original head of the Board, Dr. K'houldoux, graces the cover art in his infamous ‘Looming Moon of Desire’ guise.*

As fine a backdrop as any for Minneli’s off-brand dub experiments, and ‘Clams...’ is the truest representation of his varied wheelhouse yet...

We find vocal appearances from dub goliath Dennis Bovell and Welsh-language singer Carwyn Ellis. A pair of tracks which build on 2024’s acclaimed ‘Perpetual Musket’, a collection of folk songs reworked alongside reggae vocalists, released by FatCat Records. It garnered glowing reviews, with nods from The Guardian and The Quietus concluding with prominent appearances on their respective yearly round-up lists.

Elsewhere, the album finds Minnelli in a more experimental mode, all wheezing contraptions and cockeyed bass, creaking with the weight of creation, a satisfying tactility laid seam-side up.

As well as ‘Perpetual Musket’, the new album follows years of sold out 7" singles, handmade and self-released. Online, the tracks have amassed global streams numbering in the millions. His tracks have found play across an eclectic range of radio mixes and dance floors, most notably the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Batu, Optimo and Zakia Sewell (BBC6Music).

It is perhaps worth mentioning that this everbuilding interest in his work is at great odds with the growing suspicions amongst his fellow townsfolk, who see his Breadminster County Council Music Initiative as nothing more than an empty cash-grab.

Further Reading on the Breadminster Board of Abstinence

In the late 70s, Breadminster was awash with the last vestiges of the hippy era. Though the flared silhouette of the lower leg remained, the utopian ideals that had once flowed merrily around the youth's shaded ankles had begun to wane. LSD and free love had led to a sharp spike in population and a generation of children raised by air-headed psychonauts unprepared for the bleary-eyed strictures of parenthood.

Aware of the crisis, the County Council entrusted Dr. Paulinque K'houldoux to spearhead a pushback, and it was his pro-abstinence movement - a mixture of education initiatives and radical renutrition campaigns - that came to impact Breadminster's census deep into the new millennium.

Being a pseudo-archipelago Breadminster has fundamentally limited resources, however deep-seated ties to distant coastal villages meant that oysters were a regular part of the local diet. K'houldoux pinpointed this as a factor in the town's overpopulation, and believed that simply replacing these with clams (a “lesser mollusk”) would help lower the erotic urges of the people. It was his “anti-aphrodesia” movement that first championed the idea of “Clams As A Main Meal,” and the slogan “Consider Abstinence” carried the message yet further.

The Breadminster Board of Abstinence soon became involved in all cultural happenings in the area, with K'houldoux MCing at prominent festivals and performances, sometimes dressed as the “Looming Moon of Desire” - an idea of his relating to the tide, seafood, menstrual cycles, and his privately held celestial predilections.

It was in 1981 that it was revealed Dr. K'houldoux had never fully qualified as a doctor and was seeking exile in Breadminster due to a series of botched bracelet heists in which he had previously been involved. K'houldoux was subsequently extradited to Basingstoke, where he served 3 of a 12-year sentence, owing to the lunar-oriented prisoner health campaigns he helped implement.

It has been a strange twist of bureaucratic fate that the Breadminster Board of Abstinence has never stopped receiving public funding, despite its lack of clear utility. And while its roots are tied to a rose-tinted past, the Board continues to sponsor cultural events and projects to this day.

An extract from: Eugeniq Schooner's article in Sydney Parishioner: “Clams, Breadminster and Countercultural Abstinence Trends” (2008)

These days – on the new, ninth Fink album – Greenall is operating within a lineage of authentic, quietly revolutionary artists from England’s verdant southwestern toe. Artists like Michael Chapman. In 1970, the elusive acoustic guitar wizard released an album called Fully Qualified Survivor. The cult-classic served as a lodestar for Greenall – along with bandmates Tim Thornton and Guy Whittaker – as he began jigsawing together The City Is Coming to Erase it All, the follow-up to 2024’s Beauty In Your Wake. He even considered covering a song from it, but in the process, inadvertently stumbled into what became the album’s opener. ‘Wishing For Blue Sky’ circles a universal teenage ache: waiting for life to start. “No point dying of patience” goes the first lyric as crunching footsteps cue a resonant, open-tuned acoustic swaying into view. By 18, Greenall was fed up with waiting, so he left suburban Bristol and saw the world, sending postcards from the edge, waiting tables, squirreling away tips for the next flight. Thornton had similar experiences when the guitarist/drummer busked across Eur

This is nowstalgia more than nostalgia, though; there’s a parallel between these 18-year-olds and Fink’s autumn-aged family men. “You’re expected to be boring and settling down at this age,” Thornton says. “But we’ve still got this tremendous wanderlust. We want to go and discover, and also achieve things. It’s a nice life – home and family – but fuck, I can’t wait to get back out there.” City is a product of this hunger for discovery, and idolatry of the album as a form – like we had in 1974. City’s cover mirrors its interior, the first song is the greeting, the instrumental closer the conclusion. It’s a story. It’s a record for people who, like its creators, are curious. People who happily face a little cold for music, who light a crackling fire back home, who sit with these songs until they’re ready to chase after their own blue sky

In 1979, the Soviet label Melodiya released a record that immediately stood apart from most Soviet jazz of its time and perhaps for that very reason never became widely known. Oriental Suite by Oleg Gotskosik Quintet is a rare example of jazz, Eastern musical tradition, and compositional thinking coming together not as an exotic stylization but as a fully formed artistic statement.

This is not “Oriental colour” used as decoration, nor folklore treated as an ornament. Oriental Suite grows from within another musical tradition, with its monody, modal logic, slow unfolding of form, and focus on inner states rather than outward effect. The music is calm and concentrated. It does not try to impress, but gradually draws the listener into its own space.
Oleg Gotskozik was born in Tashkent in 1951, a city where Eastern music was part of everyday life rather than something distant or exotic. That may explain why his engagement with traditional material sounds so natural. He does not quote or stylize; he thinks in the same musical categories. By temperament, he was closer to a composer than to a jazz musician in the conventional sense. For him, jazz was not a style but a way of working with form and improvisation.There is no standard “theme and solos” logic in Oriental Suite. Improvisation is woven into the fabric of the music itself and unfolds in the same way as in oral traditions, gradually, with rising tension and a clear sense of arrival. Individual sections refer to traditional Uzbek genres such as lullabies, lyrical songs, and funeral laments, but these are not genre sketches. They are states of being. The music unfolds slowly, avoiding familiar harmonic drama and relying instead on modal scales and subtle internal movement.

A special role is played by trumpeter Yuri Parfyonov. His approach, with delayed vibrato, micro-glissandi, and melismatic phrasing, sounded unexpected at the end of the 1970s and still feels remarkably fresh today. This is not expressive jazz virtuosity but a focused, almost meditative voice, where improvisation becomes a form of inner speech.
It is also important to note that the original recording was not without technical flaws. Like many Soviet jazz releases of the time, Oriental Suite was captured under far from ideal conditions, and the master contained audible imperfections that were never part of the music itself. For this edition, the restoration was approached with great care and respect, working through the recording moment by moment to remove unwanted artifacts while preserving the character and atmosphere of the original. The aim was simple: to make sure nothing stands in the way of fully experiencing the music.

In the early 1980s, Oleg Gotskozik left the Soviet Union, and after that his name virtually disappeared from Soviet music journalism and literature. There were no official bans or public statements. He was simply no longer mentioned. Oriental Suite continued to exist on its own, without an author and without context. The record never entered the canon, received no continuation, and was never officially reissued. It seemed to fall out of time.
The original vinyl pressing was released in a run of around 32,000 copies, but most of them remained within the republic and never reached wide circulation. Today, original copies are hard to find and have long become objects of interest for collectors. There have been no official reissues, only attempts that never went beyond test pressings.
Today, Oriental Suite sounds surprisingly contemporary. It is music that can be described as deep ethno-jazz and even, in a certain sense, spiritual jazz. There is no exoticism here, no decorative borrowing, only a complete immersion in another musical way of thinking. It does not require explanations and does not need to be justified by its time.
This is not a forgotten curiosity revived for collectors’ sake. It is music that simply waited for the moment when it could be heard without ideological filters or genre expectations. Now it is returning quietly, without noise or hype, but with the clear sense that this is not an artifact of an era, but a living and genuinely rare artistic statement.

Originally released in 2014 on cassette and digital only, Till Human Voices Wake Us was the first album by the Iranian artist on Umor Rex. It became a key work in our catalog, and now, 12 years later, it is available on vinyl for the first time. This is the first in a series of four special, limited reissues to be released in 2026 to mark the 20th anniversary of Umor Rex.

Till Human Voices Wake Us comprises ten tracks with a clear and carefully structured script, based on poems by T.S. Eliot, highlighting Siavash Amini’s work as a composer for theater, film, and art exhibitions. His music deliberately leans toward ambient expressions, at times recalling Morricone’s Western film scores. The interplay between synthetic and digital elements, together with multilayered, soul-healing electric guitar passages, creates an opulent sonic texture that moves between dramatic and melancholic moments with a finely constructed, fluid dynamism.

There is an emotional depth in each piece, guided by tonal variations and shifting textures that turn the music into a mental journey, with landscapes, a sense of cold resolution, and the quiet inevitability of an ending. Till Human Voices Wake Us was Amini’s first album on a non-Iranian label. Following this release, he has also published work, in addition to Umor Rex, on labels such as Room40, Hallow Ground, and Opal Tapes, among others, and is now considered one of the most prominent figures in Iran’s experimental music scene.

All music by Siavash Amini. Original master by Nicholas Szczepanik. Remastered for vinyl by Rafael Anton Irisarri. Artwork by Daniel Castrejón.

"Already established within Iran’s music scene, Siavash Amini has crafted a powerful signature sound that blends meticulously assembled ambient synthesis with languid electric guitar melodies, recalling Lanois and Eno’s classic Apollo." — THE QUIETUS (Tristan Bath)

More than a decade into one of contemporary folk’s most quietly extraordinary careers, Alela Diane returns with Who's Keeping Time? The Portland songwriter’s seventh full-length came as the consequence of intuition, coincidence, and community. “I came to the end of a season last year,” Alela shares. “My daughters had grown a bit. I no longer had babies waking me in the middle of the night. I could hear myself think again.” More and more, those thoughts circled music.

The ultimate spark for Alela’s return to her music community came in April of last year with the death of her close friend and mentor Michael Hurley — folk legend and indispensable presence in the Portland music scene. Tracked live in the attic of her 1892 Victorian home, Who’s Keeping Time? was produced by Sam Weber (Madison Cunningham, Anna Tivel) and brought to life with staples from the local music orbit, including members of the bands Lucius and Blind Pilot and fellow singer-songwriters Anna Tivel and AC Sapphire. Over the years, Alela's lustrous discography has gathered major critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR Music, The Guardian, and plenty more. UNCUT counted her work in their ambitious “50 best singer-songwriter albums” of all time roundup—a canon comprising John Lennon, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Paul Simon—with Consequence echoing that significance, declaring, “Hers is a timeless sound, that of a wayfaring troubadour, which only seems to come a few times a generation.” The Portland songwriter’s seventh full-length album, ‘Who’s Keeping Time?’ will be available on LP, CD and Digitally.

Isle Of Men is the band led by guitarist Dirk Fryns, featuring Gunther Verspecht (Stash) and all-round keyboard maestro Tom Van der Schueren, Herman Temmerman (bass and production), Niels Delvaux (drums) and Sara De Smedt (backing vocals). They made an impressive debut in 2015 with the album ‘Voluntary Blindness’.

Here is what the press had to say at the time:
De Morgen ****: “Subtle night music that inhabits the same world as David Sylvian, The Blue Nile, Ray Lamontagne… an excellent debut.
Focus: *** “A fine Belgian debut with an album that willingly lets itself be enveloped by the quiet twilight of the night.
Het Nieuwsblad/GVA ***: “Refined, intimate songs carried by the deep voice of Gunter Verspecht”.
RifRaf: “An impressive nocturnal record for fans of, say, Talk Talk, Tindersticks, Nick Cave or Nick Drake. Welcome to the fragile world of Homo Melancholicus”.
Now, at last, there is an equally atmospheric and impressive follow-up with the album “The Soul Of Kindness”.

When five-time Grammy award winner Taj Mahal intersects with The Phantom Blues Band, it’s one of those rare joints that hits you before you even know you’ve been hit. They walk in, plug in, and the whole room shifts. Studio assassins, road lifers, groove keepers and somehow still hungry. They are an internationally renowned Two-Time Grammy Award winning group. Taj Mahal’s fearless, open-hearted spirit still shadows the whole thing with that genre-hopping joy. He leads you down the road with a history lesson and the Phantoms carry it with honor to the Griot.

Mahal sings and plays harp as he fronts an all-star lineup of legendary musicians with the three ringleaders for the Phantoms--Johnny Lee Schell, the soulful gunslinger with tone for days, Tony Braunagel keeps the whole ship steered straight and on time, every time, and Larry Fulcher, the anchor, the heartbeat, the quiet storm on bass. Additionally, Jon Cleary, with that unmistakable New Orleans piano swagger, Mick Weaver, a session master who’s playing slides in with an undeniable velvet magic, and in the horn section, Joe Sublett on sax and Les Lovitt on trumpet bring the orchestration into the full view of this genre. This band doesn’t ‘back” anybody. They lift you up, carry you, and dare you to rise higher. On this record they slide through blues, soul, R&B, and island color with the ease of men who’ve lived every bit of it. This is deep-groove, grown-folks music from a band that still plays like the night is young. ‘Time’ is their new release on Resonatin’ Records / Thirty Tigers and celebrates over thirty years of making this uplifting inspiring and aspiring music together.

For over four decades, Mr. Fingers has been shaping the core of house music. Now he returns with a new album that continues his timeless journey through deep rhythms, soulful melodies, and immersive atmospheres. Crafted with the warmth and musicality that define him, the record blends deep house, jazz-infused harmonies, and subtle R&B textures. Mr. Fingers once again reminds us why his music remains essential: hypnotic grooves and heartfelt compositions. Not just music for the club, but also for the quiet spaces...

Cititrax release Sand Clock, the new full-length album by Men With Secrets, the Italian trio of Donato Dozzy, Lino Monaco, and Nicola Buono (Retina.it). Originally emerging from a shared background in experimental techno under the name Le Officine Di Efesto, the three musicians turned toward classic post-punk, minimal wave, and synth-driven pop with the formation of Men With Secrets. Their debut album Psycho Romance (2020), released on Bunker Records, introduced a meticulously produced body of work that felt like a rediscovered European darkwave recording from the early 1980s—yet was entirely contemporary in its construction.

With Sand Clock, the trio deepen this language. The album leans more directly into the melodic clarity and romantic tension of late-80s and early-90s darkwave and synthpop while maintaining the stark restraint that defines the project. Icy synthesizers, shuddering basslines, and precise drum machine programming frame baritone vocals that are intimate, emotionally exposed, and quietly apocalyptic.

Balancing pop structure with gothic atmosphere, Sand Clock moves between shadowed dance floor momentum and solitary headphone introspection. It is not an exercise in revivalism, but a continuation—an acknowledgment that the emotional architecture of that era remains unresolved and still relevant. Written and produced by Donato Dozzy, Lino Monaco, and Nicola Buono and recorded in Rome and Pompeii.

The vinyl edition is pressed on clear 160-gram vinyl, limited to 500 copies worldwide. Each record is housed in a heavy printed jacket with a printed inner sleeve.

Heavyweight psychedelic improvisers EarthBall are back with their third and most monstrous record to date: ‘Outside Over There’, released on Upset The Rhythm (Nov 7th). Born from the haunted basements of Nanaimo, Canada, the quintet thrives on spontaneity, shaping improvisation into jagged hallucinations and ecstatic eruptions.
Recorded live-off-the-floor in 2024 in Jeremy, Izzy, and Kellen’s basement, and mixed by drummer John Brennan, ‘Outside Over There’ is an album that feels both summoned and inevitable. Each track lands with uncanny purpose, as if uncovered rather than written.
The opener, 100%, features a cameo from comedian and English icon Stewart Lee, who lent his blessing for the band to use a fragment of his stand-up. The album was mastered by John Dieterich (Deerhoof), with liner text contributed by longtime comrade John Olson (Wolf Eyes). Olson describes the album in his unmistakable style:
“This eight-track odyssey unfolds like a dreamscape, where whispered incantations brush against the shadowy fringes of the cosmos, and wild, Cézanne-inspired rock anthems erupt like geysers of color in the midst of a western warm and wet rain storm… culminating in the sprawling eleven minute masterpiece, ‘And The Music Shall Untune The Sky,’ aptly dubbed the Earth Crusher. A creation so utterly deconstructed and intertwined with the pulse of nature itself that if AI was called upon to conceive ‘Outside Over There’ anew, it would just spit back, “F.U. in Tree Font”. An enchanting invitation for even the flat-earthers to join the circle, if only just a little.”
EarthBall’s trajectory has been relentless. Their 2024 album ‘It’s Yours’ was praised by The Quietus as “fully aggressive and fully life-affirming,” and by The Wire as "a boisterous mind-melting album”. The band’s live double set LP ‘Actual Earth Music Vol. 1 & 2’ (2025) captured blistering performances: a performance opening for Wolf Eyes at the Fox Cabaret, and a Café OTO improvised throw-down featuring Chris Corsano and Steve Beresford. These releases on their own confirm them as one of Canada’s most vital experimental exports, not to mention the impressive self-released discography on their Bandcamp. The band’s reach has stretched far beyond their west coast roots with a UK tour May 2024, plus this past June, EarthBall closed Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon. This November they will perform at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, with a European tour to follow (tour dates below). Outside of EarthBall, each member carries their own torch. Jeremy Van Wyck, founding member of the legendary Shearing Pinx, has toured extensively, released over 100 records, and has been a vital force in the Vancouver and West Coast underground for the past 25 years. He and Isabel Ford (Izzy) play together not only in EarthBall, but also in Psychedelic Dirt, Shearing Pinx, Behaviours, and Crotch.
John Brennan collaborates widely, including recently with Endlings (Raven Chacon and John Dieterich), Evichen (Victoria Shen), Francesco Fonassi, Plan Your Future (with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof), Brennan/Corsano duo and Physics with John Dieterich. Kellen Maclaughlin performs with KVMP and Ora Corgan, while saxophonist Liam Murphy is a west coast staple, playing with the best across Vancouver Island and the mainland. On three of the tracks of ‘Outside Over There’, the band is joined by their comrade Justin Patterson, who also plays with Brennan in the duo Modale. This cross-pollination fuels EarthBall’s sound - a collective improvisation, psychically overdriven, and grinding into bloom.
Outside Over There’ is more than an album though, it is a ritual, a gathering of sound at the forest’s edge; where feedback, saxophone screams, and ecstatic vocals dissolve the boundary between chaos and clarity. EarthBall invite you into their circle, to share in the joyful terror of spontaneous creation. ‘Outside Over There’ will be released on November 7th through Upset The Rhythm digitally and as a limited blue-in-black vinyl LP.

Good As True (2026), the 12th studio album from Yonder Mountain String Band, leans into a warm, expressive sound — bluegrass shaped with an indie edge, rock undertones, and a hint of country. Recorded live in the studio, its eight original tracks trace romantic, personal, and societal relationships and the work it takes to stay connected. The lead single “Brand New Heartache” pairs rock-driven verses with a bluegrass-lifted chorus as it follows the fallout of a breakup and the uneasy hope of starting again, while “Blind” opens with a striking instrumental riff that lingers long after the song ends, while its lyrics confront regret, mental health struggles, and the pull to become something better. “Long Ride” delivers a sharp, sarcastic look at life in a touring band; “Nothing New” and “The Lie” confront political rigidity and division; “One to One Another” and “Always Almost” pull toward quieter emotional corners; and “Barroom Feather” drifts into indie-folk terrain with one of the album’s most atmospheric jams. Across Good As True, Yonder moves between high-tempo runs, layered harmonies, and moments that breathe — a reminder that nearly three decades in, they’re still charting new ground.

Folk-Punkrock, Bier & Wahrheiten. Mit ihrem Album "This Ain't Quiet" legen die Schweizer Saint City Orchestra ein dreckiges neues Manifest vor - gegen die Stille, gegen das Schweigen, gegen das brave Mitlaufen. Was hier aus den Boxen knallt, ist ein rotzfrecher Mix aus Irish Punkrock und der ungeschönten Realität des Lebens - laut, wild, ehrlich und mit ordentlich Portion Ironie. Die Songs klingen wie durchzechte Nächte mit besten Freunden, wie Kneipentresen voller Geschichten, wie Stadionrufe aus rauen Kehlen und wie der letzte Schluck vor dem Zusammenbruch. Sie erzählen von verlorenen Träumen, gebrochenen Herzen, wütenden Mittelfingern und unbeugsamer Liebe - zur Familie, zur Crew, zum Verein und zum verdammten Leben selbst. This Ain't Quiet ist kein Album für die Playlist im Fahrstuhl - es ist der Soundtrack für Nächte, die man sich tätowieren lassen will. Für Menschen mit Ecken, Kanten und Haltung. Für alle, die lieber grölen als jammern. Das Saint City Orchestra ist zurück - und sie haben Durst. Das SCO ist im 12. Jahr unterwegs, hat bereits je ein Top 30 und ein Top 20-Album in der Schweiz im Gepäck, vielleicht geht's dieses Mal unter den ersten 10? Für Fans von Fiddler's Green, Flogging Molly, The Rumjacks, Dropkick Murphys und The Real McKenzies. Als CD oder farbige (Neon Orange w/ White & Black Splatter) LP erhältlich

With `The devil's door' And Also The Trees, one true original Post-Punk/New Wave band, presents a quiet storm of an album. At times filmic, poetic and intense with an undercurrent of dark psychedelia. It completes a trilogy of works `The Bone Carver', `Mother-of-pearl Moon' and now `The devil's door' created by the current line-up. Here there are signature `And also the trees' poetic lyrics, orchestral guitar and soundtrack influenced songs inspired by newsreel, oil paintings and folklore. But with this work we have the addition of some surprising instruments that skew the album towards a world where John Barry meets Bela Bartok. And also the trees (AATT) formed during the original post-punk era in rural Worcestershire, an environment that has provided a constant inspiration to a group whose music has often explored the dark underbelly as well as the beauty of the British countryside. They are renowned for their captivating live performances, a unique style of mandolin-like electric guitar, evocative lyrics and dark jazz rhythms - not to mention a creative independence fiercely preserved for over four decades. Back then AATT immediately caught the attention of Robert Smith of The Cure, who invited them to tour with his group on several occasions. Smith was also involved with their early recordings alongside his bandmate Lol Tolhurst, who produced their first records. This longterm friendship and mutual respect was further solidified when AATT were invited to perform at the Robert Smith curated 2018 Meltdown festival in London. This July AATT appear as The Cure's special guests at the Nimes festival. Founded by singer Simon Jones and his guitarist brother Justin, AATT have maintained a continuous presence on the post-punk, and alternative rock scenes worldwide, with a solid fanbase e.g. in Germany.

Stoop Kid is the jangly indie rock project of Diest-born Jens Rubens. After Camp Careful (2021) and Mount Cope (2023), Stoop Kid returns with his third full-length album Office Overdue, a ten-song collection that captures the quiet fatigue, flickering humor, and
fragile hope of keeping it together in a world that won't slow down.

'Office Overdue' is a collection of songs Jens made at home in his modest home studio. For this album, he wanted to let go of pressure and expectations more than ever, and only work on music when he genuinely felt like it.No fancy studio, no producer, just walking upstairs and messing around. The result doesn't always sound perfectly polished: the drums are sometimes clumsily programmed and more than a few wrong notes made it onto the record. The guitars were allowed to hit a bit harder this time, with the '90s slacker vibes coming through more prominently. The result is a record that feels raw and honest, and above all, was made purely out of enthusiasm.

Office Overdue explores the attempt to keep functioning in everyday life while the world around us feels on the verge of collapse. The songs move between mental exhaustion and self-reflection, carried by a dry, sometimes bitter humour that helps lighten the weight. The album focuses on repetition and routine, and on the tension between wanting to care for others and being trapped inside one's own head. Themes of anxiety, guilt and dissociation recur throughout, but are always accompanied by small moments of connection, gentle resistance and acceptance. Office Overdue embraces the mess, the doubt and the false notes, without drawing grand conclusions. Not everything is resolved, but the persistence remains.

Das zweite wunderschöne Album vom Duo Jessika Kenney - einer Sängerin, die für ihren eindringlichen Klang und ihre tiefgründige Interpretation persischer Gesangstraditionen bekannt ist - und Eyvind Kang - einem Bratschisten, für den Musik und Lernen eine spirituelle Disziplin sind. ,Ein Werk von zarter Schönheit, so makellos wie die Oberfläche eines Sees im Morgengrauen eines Sommertages." - The Quietus Die Kompositionen auf diesem Album handeln davon, aus dem Einfachen das Doppelte zu ziehen, wie Reflexionen aus einem Spiegel, und dessen Umkehrung, die verborgene Einheit. Zuhörer/Leser, Übersetzung/Komposition, Erinnerung/Vorstellungskraft - sie spiegeln sich gegenseitig wider und eröffnen einen Strom, der in einer plötzlichen Schwingung fließt. Hier sind wir einem geologischen Bild gefolgt; im Ausdruck des Antlitzes der Erde (aus dem Persischen ,rokh-e khåk") offenbart sich ein neues Spektrum von Dualitäten. In den klassischen persischen Traditionen findet sich dies in der dynamischen Vielfalt wieder, die durch den Begriff ,radif" veranschaulicht wird, der sowohl in der Poesie als auch in der Musik verwendet wird, sowohl als Poeme als auch als Matheme. Wir laden den Zuhörer als Leser ein, durch die Erstellung unserer ,Lesekarten" im Einleger an der Schaffung von Bedeutung teilzunehmen, einschließlich Übersetzungsprozessen, die nach entsprechenden musikalischen Atmosphären suchen, zum Beispiel: Das zentraljavanische Wangsalan ist eine Art Rätsel (zwei Zeilen mit jeweils 12 Silben, unterteilt in 4 und 8), das von der Sängerin im Gamelan gesungen wird und oft Bilder von Naturphänomenen neben Beschreibungen menschlicher Eigenschaften verwendet, um Atmosphären von uraltem Wissen, Humor, gesteigerten Empfindungen und Philosophie mit vielen versteckten Wortspielen und Anspielungen heraufzubeschwören.

Following her compelling debut EP Mending, Frida Touray returns with Homebody, a work of raw emotional clarity, crafted duringa time when her voice was literally fighting back. Diagnosed mid-process with a rare condition that forced her into silence andstillness, Touray chose not retreat, but rebuild. From the quiet corners of domestic life, she’s shaped a collection of songs thatradiate warmth, vulnerability and quiet endurance.Musically, Homebody expands on Touray’s jazz-soul foundations with sparse, atmospheric production that amplifies her voiceand message. There’s a newfound looseness in her phrasing, a deeper sense of presence in every word she sings. You can hearthe letting go, of perfection, of control, and the deepening of purpose in its place. Each track lands with unfiltered intimacy andemotional architecture, a subtle act of defiance wrapped in softness.This is music built on stillness and shaped by resilience. A reflection on self-worth, illness, femininity, community and healing.Songs that speak to the unseen parts of recovery and the small rooms we build ourselves back up in. Homebody is a record foranyone rebuilding from the inside.

Força Maior combines the vital saxophone explorations of Pedro Alves Sousa with the infinitely subtle electronic processing of Pedro Tavares. Sousa (aka Má Estrela) is known for manipulating his woodwind through guitar pedalboards & amplifiers, creating far-from-ordinary sonics rooted in unceasing curiosity. For his part, Tavares (aka funcionário) conjoins video & sound work to create space for the pensive wanderings where memory and imagination interlace.

The album Morte Lilás was recorded over a week in June 2023 in Pedro Alves Sousa's family farm, located in the village of Ferreirim, near Lamego, in Portugal. The partly abandoned farm served as the residency, studio, and inspiration for the album: it is a 400-year-old granite farm that belonged to a member of the "40 conspirators"—a group that led the revolution for Portugal's independence from Spain in the 17th century.

Morte Lilás is a remarkable album of committed meditation. Each day on the farm was a recording day for the two Pedros: Sousa on sax & electronics, Tavares on sampler & processing. Apart from slight sonic incursions from the surrounds—the birds on 'Quinta à tarde'—and the sporadic use of sine tones, the source sounds all start from the saxophone. It is then processed both by Sousa & Tavares. The album unfolds as a saxophonic tapestry that breathes with quiet intensity. Each piece invites close listening, revealing fine gestures and tonal shifts that shape a contemplative, ambient space. Força Maior move with calm precision.

The album opens with the unhurried overture 'Quinta à Tarde' a Portuguese pun on Eno's Thursday Afternoon that announces the textures at play. Sousa's breathy entrance is paired with a soft, delicately shifting, backdrop. As the track progresses, time seems to stretch. The arrangement resists urgency, favouring subtle evolution over dramatic turns. Pensive layers shift & drift, creating a sense of suspended motion that brings the listener into the environs of Morte Lilás. 'Quinta à Tarde' is a long-form fade, shifting emphasis from Sousa to Tavares.

'Cubos' continues the gauzy feel, but with a more up-tempo tilt. Rhythmic clicks & pings setup a swung time for the sax to interpose melodic lines that are fed back & bent with cascading delays. Força Maior in distilled form.

Força Maior is in top form on the title track 'Morte Lilás', a sprawling centrepiece that showcases their command of atmosphere & emotional pacing. By turning up the reverberation & leaning into a continuous format, they dissolve the gap between hypnotic trance & articulate reverie. Then, a moment of stillness. The track pauses, not abruptly but like a tide pulling back, revealing the contours beneath. What follows is a return to the album's more relaxed architecture: understated rhythms, softened textures, and a sense of spaciousness that opens space for reflection. It is a transition that feels organic, as if the song itself needed to exhale before settling back into its contemplative groove.

'Menta' is another short-form miniature of the band's signature contours: beautiful loops of air pressure gradients that carry an emotive weight & light.

The album closes with 'Cascata do Inferno'. The title suggests violence, but the music whispers instead—an atmospheric cascade of breath & tone that emerges in slow, deliberate waves. Short melodic cycles are matched by shimmering electronic chords. It's a piece that rewards patience, draws the listener in to drift downstream, eyes closed, into the serene turbulence of its current.

The song titles on Van Halen's aptly titled Fair Warning don't lie. The likes of "Unchained," "Mean Street," "Push Comes to Shove," "One Foot Out the Door," and more indicate the mood the band channels on its double-platinum 1981 record — the nastiest, darkest, and fiercest album of the group's storied career. For the fourth time in four years, Van Halen throws down the gauntlet to all challengers and emerges victorious.


Sourced from the original analog tapes, pressed on MoFi SuperVinyl at Fidelity Record Pressing, and strictly limited to 5,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set plays with unfettered clarity, dynamics, and immediacy. Benefitting from superb groove definition, an ultra-low noise floor, and dead-quiet surfaces, this vinyl edition captures what went down in the studio with tremendous realism and involving presence.

Taking a more controlled approach in the studio and still completing everything in less than two weeks, Van Halen and producer Ted Templeman relied on studio amplifiers to direct the sound. Further diverging from the live-on-the-floor approach of its earlier albums, the ensemble also employed overdubs to great effect. The result: Dense, stacked architecture that underlines the hard-hitting tenor of the songs — and which comes alive like never before on this reference edition that looks as good as it sounds.

The premium packaging and gorgeous presentation befit the reissue's select status. Housed in a deluxe slipcase, it features special foil-stamped jackets and faithful-to-the-original graphics that illuminate the splendor of the recording. Aurally and visually, it is made for listeners who want to immerse themselves in everything involved with the album, including the iconic cover art adopted from William Kurelek's haunting painting, "The Maze."

Isolated frames from Kurelek's childhood-inspired work — including a man bashing his head into a brick wall, a guy pinning down an adversary as he delivers bare-fist blows to his face and others watch with apparent glee, a boy tied down on a conveyer belt and being sent through the equivalent of a meat saw — adorn the front and back covers. The sunnier visual disposition of Van Halen's prior efforts gives way to something sinister and tortured, traits reflective of the music within. The band members, too, are visually depicted not in glamorous shots but in a serious black-and-white portrait in which the quartet is clad in black leather jackets.

Tough, aggressive, stark: Fair Warning comes on like a series of bare-knuckled punches to the solar plexus and boasts lyrical narratives to match. Though not a concept record, the concise album revolves around themes of roughing it on the streets and struggling to survive amid dim prospects. Singer David Lee Roth reportedly penned many of the initial lyrics after traveling to Haiti and observing extreme poverty. The characters and situations populating Fair Warning reflect hardscrabble existence, last-chance desperation, and underlying danger.

Witness the crazies, poor folks, and hunters of “Mean Street”; the former prom queen turned pornographic actress on “Dirty Movies”; the menace and vice of “Sinners Swing!”; the streetwise hustle of “Unchained”; the isolation and alienation of “Push Comes to Shove”; the desire for escape on “One Foot Out the Door”: A carefree California beach party Fair Warning is not.

Having said he felt angry and frustrated during the sessions, guitarist Eddie Van Halen uses the forceful arrangements as a playground for his seemingly unlimited arsenal. Supported by a crack rhythm section and a hyped-up Roth, he performs with an almost impossible combination of punk-like intensity, technical finesse, lyrical fluidity, and unbridled emotion. The virtuoso was increasingly butting heads with Templeton and seeking a freedom in the studio he believed denied him.

No wonder he plays like a bat out of hell. Listen to the rapid-fire manner in which he slaps the high and low E strings on the 12th fret of his instrument on “Mean Street,” instilling the tune with funk flair and metal-spiked sharpness. For the pouty strut of “Dirty Movies,” Eddie Van Halen contributes slide guitar magic made possible after he sawed off the lower portion of a Gibson SG so he could reach further down the fretboard.

Related intensity, urgency, and daredevil momentum punctuate the surging “Sinner’s Swing!” A heavily flanged, delicately melodic introduction frames the attitudinal “Hear About It Later,” among the most creative arrangements of Van Halen’s career. And do riffs come any bigger or magnetic than those on the high-wire kick of “Unchained”? As for the out-of-left-field “Sunday in the Park,” an instrumental composed on an Electro-Harmonix micro-synthesizer: Who but Eddie Van Halen to supply creep factor in such an ingenious way?

Despite selling fewer quantities than Van Halen’s prior efforts, Fair Warning remains for many diehards the record that epitomizes all of the band’s immense strengths —Roth’s manic energy and tongue-wagging humor, Alex Van Halen’s rhythmic heartbeat-in-your-chest bombast, and Michael Anthony’s lucid bass lines included. Arriving when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and new-wave movements were taking flight, it signaled a shot across the bow from a band determined to stay a step ahead and provide proof nobody could touch what it delivered.

More than four decades later, Fair Warning still sounds that alarm.

Heavyweight psychedelic improvisers EarthBall are back with their third and most monstrous record to date: ‘Outside Over There’, released on Upset The Rhythm (Nov 7th). Born from the haunted basements of Nanaimo, Canada, the quintet thrives on spontaneity, shaping improvisation into jagged hallucinations and ecstatic eruptions.
Recorded live-off-the-floor in 2024 in Jeremy, Izzy, and Kellen’s basement, and mixed by drummer John Brennan, ‘Outside Over There’ is an album that feels both summoned and inevitable. Each track lands with uncanny purpose, as if uncovered rather than written.
The opener, 100%, features a cameo from comedian and English icon Stewart Lee, who lent his blessing for the band to use a fragment of his stand-up. The album was mastered by John Dieterich (Deerhoof), with liner text contributed by longtime comrade John Olson (Wolf Eyes). Olson describes the album in his unmistakable style:
“This eight-track odyssey unfolds like a dreamscape, where whispered incantations brush against the shadowy fringes of the cosmos, and wild, Cézanne-inspired rock anthems erupt like geysers of color in the midst of a western warm and wet rain storm… culminating in the sprawling eleven minute masterpiece, ‘And The Music Shall Untune The Sky,’ aptly dubbed the Earth Crusher. A creation so utterly deconstructed and intertwined with the pulse of nature itself that if AI was called upon to conceive ‘Outside Over There’ anew, it would just spit back, “F.U. in Tree Font”. An enchanting invitation for even the flat-earthers to join the circle, if only just a little.”
EarthBall’s trajectory has been relentless. Their 2024 album ‘It’s Yours’ was praised by The Quietus as “fully aggressive and fully life-affirming,” and by The Wire as "a boisterous mind-melting album”. The band’s live double set LP ‘Actual Earth Music Vol. 1 & 2’ (2025) captured blistering performances: a performance opening for Wolf Eyes at the Fox Cabaret, and a Café OTO improvised throw-down featuring Chris Corsano and Steve Beresford. These releases on their own confirm them as one of Canada’s most vital experimental exports, not to mention the impressive self-released discography on their Bandcamp. The band’s reach has stretched far beyond their west coast roots with a UK tour May 2024, plus this past June, EarthBall closed Montreal’s Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival alongside Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Raven Chacon. This November they will perform at Le Guess Who? Festival in Utrecht, with a European tour to follow (tour dates below). Outside of EarthBall, each member carries their own torch. Jeremy Van Wyck, founding member of the legendary Shearing Pinx, has toured extensively, released over 100 records, and has been a vital force in the Vancouver and West Coast underground for the past 25 years. He and Isabel Ford (Izzy) play together not only in EarthBall, but also in Psychedelic Dirt, Shearing Pinx, Behaviours, and Crotch.
John Brennan collaborates widely, including recently with Endlings (Raven Chacon and John Dieterich), Evichen (Victoria Shen), Francesco Fonassi, Plan Your Future (with Greg Saunier of Deerhoof), Brennan/Corsano duo and Physics with John Dieterich. Kellen Maclaughlin performs with KVMP and Ora Corgan, while saxophonist Liam Murphy is a west coast staple, playing with the best across Vancouver Island and the mainland. On three of the tracks of ‘Outside Over There’, the band is joined by their comrade Justin Patterson, who also plays with Brennan in the duo Modale. This cross-pollination fuels EarthBall’s sound - a collective improvisation, psychically overdriven, and grinding into bloom.
Outside Over There’ is more than an album though, it is a ritual, a gathering of sound at the forest’s edge; where feedback, saxophone screams, and ecstatic vocals dissolve the boundary between chaos and clarity. EarthBall invite you into their circle, to share in the joyful terror of spontaneous creation. ‘Outside Over There’ will be released on November 7th through Upset The Rhythm digitally and as a limited blue-in-black vinyl LP.

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

Gegründet von Sänger/Gitarrist Askhan Avagchuud im Jahr 2010 in der autonomen Region Innere Mongolei in China, sind Nine Treasures eine einzigartige Kombination aus Heavy Metal und traditioneller mongolischer Instrumentierung. Die Band nutzt sowohl konventionelle Gesangstechniken als auch mongolischen Kehlkopfgesang und erschafft ein klangliches Kaleidoskop, in dem Gitarren, Bass und Schlagzeug auf traditionelle Saiteninstrumente wie Balalaika und Morin Khuur (Pferdekopfgeige) treffen.Mit vier Alben und über 100 Festival-Shows pro Jahr in Asien vor Publikum von bis zu 50.000 Menschen sind Nine Treasures bereit, Nordamerika und Europa zu erobern. Seeking the Absolute markiert ihr Metal Blade Records Debüt und ihre erste LP mit weltweiter Veröffentlichung - der Höhepunkt ihrer künstlerischen Entwicklung und ihr bisher ehrgeizigstes Werk.Aktuelle Besetzung:• Askhan - Gitarren, Gesang, Balalaika, Tovshuur• Orgil - Bass, Backing Vocals• Saina - Balalaika, Backing Vocals, Gitarren• Namra - Schlagzeug• Nars - Morin Khuur, Backing VocalsGenre: Progressive Metal / Indie Metal (kein Folk Metal) Aktiv seit: 2010 Land: China (Innere Mongolei) Sprache: Mongolisch Sales Points/Treiber (Karriere-Highlights/Fakten/Marketing-Info):• Metal Blade Records Debüt - Erste weltweite Veröffentlichung der mongolischen Metal-Pioniere• Einzigartige kulturelle Fusion - Die einzige Band, die traditionelle mongolische Instrumente (Morin Khuur, Balalaika, Tovshuur) mit Progressive Metal kombiniert• Authentischer Kehlkopfgesang kombiniert mit modernen Metal-Vocals• Massive asiatische Fanbasis - Auftritte vor bis zu 50.000 Fans in ganz Asien• 100+ Shows pro Jahr beweisen ihre Live-Stärke und Hingabe• TOOL-beeinflusster progressiver Ansatz - Komplexe Kompositionen ohne Kompromisse bei der Zugänglichkeit• Kulturübergreifende Anziehungskraft - Musik überwindet Sprachbarrieren durch pure Emotion und Energie• Kritikerlob von großen Metal-Publikationen wie The Quietus, At The Barrier und Noizze UK• Kulturbotschafter bringen mongolisches Erbe in die globale Metal-Szene

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

Chris Hontos und Aaron Anderson sind sowohl als Nuke Watch als auch als ihre auf Samples basierenden Cousins Beat Detectives tätig. Die Detectives sind das, was The Beatnuts unter dem Einfluss einer experimentellen dissoziativen Droge produzieren würden, während Nuke Watch eine freie Improvisationsband ist, die keinen Grund sieht, zu quietschen, und an Vergnügen glaubt. Das neue Album von Nuke Watch, "Grave New World", ist ihr zehntes seit Beginn des Projekts im Jahr 2020. Diese Musik taucht ein, kollidiert und quillt aus einer Tasche heraus, der Sound einer elektrischen Welt, die sich selbst mulcht. Modulare Synthesizer breiten sich wie Cordyceps in Räumen voller Bass, Saxophon und Handtrommeln aus und hinterlassen einen neuen, verseuchten Raum: leuchtend, sicher und verrückt. Diese Musik wurde mit Instrumenten gespielt, ein Großteil davon komplett live. Die meisten Tracks sind Aufnahmen von Hontos und Anderson mit ein oder zwei weiteren Musikern, es handelt sich also größtenteils um Trio-Aufnahmen. Man ist versucht, Grave New World als Fusion zu bezeichnen, aber das trifft es nicht ganz. Otto Willbergs Bassspiel ist so versiert, dass es Giganten wie Percy Jones und Jaco heraufbeschwört, und Leonard King nähert sich dem Bass ein wenig wie jemand aus Felas Africa 70. Die drei verarbeiteten Blasinstrumente - Zack Stafford an der verarbeiteten Flöte, Christopher Farstad am MIDI-Blasinstrument und Cole Pulice am verarbeiteten Saxophon - bringen die Musik in die Nähe des Jazz, obwohl keine der Kompositionen der Band wirklich nach Jazz klingt. Outtakes aus der Star Wars Foley-Datenbank? Eine berührungsempfindliche Multimedia-Gewächshausausstellung, die von einer Kindergartengruppe übernommen wurde? Eine Zoom-Session mit Latenzproblemen, verursacht durch Musiker auf fünf verschiedenen Kontinenten? "Grave New World" könnte man als Weltmusik bezeichnen, in dem Sinne, dass, wenn man die Welt zu einem Trichter zusammenfalten, schütteln und alle auf einen Teller voller Menschen rutschen lassen würde, mit denen sie nicht aufgewachsen sind, sie am Ende vielleicht genau das hier produzieren würden. - Sasha Frere-Jones, 2025

Los Angeles trio Faetooth sophomore album Labyrinthine is a deeply felt exploration of emotional weight: grief, memory, uncertainty, and the quiet work of growing around your own wounds. Following the band's 2022 debut Remnants of the Vessel, which introduced the band’s signature blend of heaviness and mysticism, Labyrinthine pushes further inward. True to its name, the album winds through a maze of feeling and form, where meaning is never handed over easily. It’s rooted in self-discovery through disorientation, the idea that understanding comes not from escape, but from getting lost. Ari May (guitars and vocals), Jenna Garcia (bass and vocals), and Rah Kanan (drums) manage to stay grounded in the immediate in parallel with fantasy themes of the band's namesake. Labyrinthine holds space for this contradiction; tenderness and intensity, restraint and release. The band's self-branded “fairy doom” sound fits between shoegaze, doom, and grunge. It isn’t just texture; it’s a framework for navigating the unsaid. Like the myth that inspired its title, Labyrinthine doesn’t end in victory, but in confrontation—not with escape, but with the Minotaur. Only here, the Minotaur isn’t a monster. It’s something quiet and more familiar: unresolved feelings, old memories, and sadness that refuse to stay buried. The album winds like a maze, sometimes heavy, sometimes hushed, always intentional. Faetooth isn’t chasing catharsis. They’re creating space to reflect, to feel, and maybe to get a little lost along the way.
Artist quote: "White Noise" emerged from a diary entry, and is a relentless and intense reflection on inner turmoil. We’re often drawn to the familiar, even when we don’t realize we’re reaching out for it. It is an emotional upheaval, carrying harsh truths that weigh heavily on the heart. Guitarist, Ari May mentions, “Performing the song always takes me back to a specific place, even if just for a moment.”
“Riffs and melodies brimming with loneliness and longing… this band’s incantations affect my mood the whole day after listening.” — The Sleeping Shaman
“Bringing otherworldly hazy doom goodness… dreamy clean vocals, echoing harsh vocals, entrancing riffs, meditative shoegaze melodies.” — Nine Circles
“Slow, lumbering behemoths of great weight… couched in a melancholy atmosphere and explosions of crushing heaviness.” - Where Strides The Behemoth

Los Angeles trio Faetooth sophomore album Labyrinthine is a deeply felt exploration of emotional weight: grief, memory, uncertainty, and the quiet work of growing around your own wounds. Following the band's 2022 debut Remnants of the Vessel, which introduced the band’s signature blend of heaviness and mysticism, Labyrinthine pushes further inward. True to its name, the album winds through a maze of feeling and form, where meaning is never handed over easily. It’s rooted in self-discovery through disorientation, the idea that understanding comes not from escape, but from getting lost. Ari May (guitars and vocals), Jenna Garcia (bass and vocals), and Rah Kanan (drums) manage to stay grounded in the immediate in parallel with fantasy themes of the band's namesake. Labyrinthine holds space for this contradiction; tenderness and intensity, restraint and release. The band's self-branded “fairy doom” sound fits between shoegaze, doom, and grunge. It isn’t just texture; it’s a framework for navigating the unsaid. Like the myth that inspired its title, Labyrinthine doesn’t end in victory, but in confrontation—not with escape, but with the Minotaur. Only here, the Minotaur isn’t a monster. It’s something quiet and more familiar: unresolved feelings, old memories, and sadness that refuse to stay buried. The album winds like a maze, sometimes heavy, sometimes hushed, always intentional. Faetooth isn’t chasing catharsis. They’re creating space to reflect, to feel, and maybe to get a little lost along the way.
Artist quote: "White Noise" emerged from a diary entry, and is a relentless and intense reflection on inner turmoil. We’re often drawn to the familiar, even when we don’t realize we’re reaching out for it. It is an emotional upheaval, carrying harsh truths that weigh heavily on the heart. Guitarist, Ari May mentions, “Performing the song always takes me back to a specific place, even if just for a moment.”
“Riffs and melodies brimming with loneliness and longing… this band’s incantations affect my mood the whole day after listening.” — The Sleeping Shaman
“Bringing otherworldly hazy doom goodness… dreamy clean vocals, echoing harsh vocals, entrancing riffs, meditative shoegaze melodies.” — Nine Circles
“Slow, lumbering behemoths of great weight… couched in a melancholy atmosphere and explosions of crushing heaviness.” - Where Strides The Behemoth

Los Angeles trio Faetooth sophomore album Labyrinthine is a deeply felt exploration of emotional weight: grief, memory, uncertainty, and the quiet work of growing around your own wounds. Following the band's 2022 debut Remnants of the Vessel, which introduced the band’s signature blend of heaviness and mysticism, Labyrinthine pushes further inward. True to its name, the album winds through a maze of feeling and form, where meaning is never handed over easily. It’s rooted in self-discovery through disorientation, the idea that understanding comes not from escape, but from getting lost. Ari May (guitars and vocals), Jenna Garcia (bass and vocals), and Rah Kanan (drums) manage to stay grounded in the immediate in parallel with fantasy themes of the band's namesake. Labyrinthine holds space for this contradiction; tenderness and intensity, restraint and release. The band's self-branded “fairy doom” sound fits between shoegaze, doom, and grunge. It isn’t just texture; it’s a framework for navigating the unsaid. Like the myth that inspired its title, Labyrinthine doesn’t end in victory, but in confrontation—not with escape, but with the Minotaur. Only here, the Minotaur isn’t a monster. It’s something quiet and more familiar: unresolved feelings, old memories, and sadness that refuse to stay buried. The album winds like a maze, sometimes heavy, sometimes hushed, always intentional. Faetooth isn’t chasing catharsis. They’re creating space to reflect, to feel, and maybe to get a little lost along the way.
Artist quote: "White Noise" emerged from a diary entry, and is a relentless and intense reflection on inner turmoil. We’re often drawn to the familiar, even when we don’t realize we’re reaching out for it. It is an emotional upheaval, carrying harsh truths that weigh heavily on the heart. Guitarist, Ari May mentions, “Performing the song always takes me back to a specific place, even if just for a moment.”
“Riffs and melodies brimming with loneliness and longing… this band’s incantations affect my mood the whole day after listening.” — The Sleeping Shaman
“Bringing otherworldly hazy doom goodness… dreamy clean vocals, echoing harsh vocals, entrancing riffs, meditative shoegaze melodies.” — Nine Circles
“Slow, lumbering behemoths of great weight… couched in a melancholy atmosphere and explosions of crushing heaviness.” - Where Strides The Behemoth

"Cutthroat ist eine wilde Fahrt. Es ist für den unerfahrenen Fahrer. Für denjenigen, der einfach nur schnell fahren will, ohne einen anderen Grund als den, dass es Spaß macht. Es wird von Hunger angetrieben. Hunger nach etwas Besserem. Nach etwas, von dem man einem gesagt hat, dass man es nicht verdient. Es ist instinktiv. Es ist roh. Es ist kompromisslos. Es ist die Person, die unangekündigt auf der Party auftaucht. Denn wenn du am Boden liegst, gibt es nur einen Weg - nach oben. Wenn du nichts hast, hast du nichts zu verlieren." - shame "Cutthroat" ist shame in seiner besten Form. Das neue Album mit Grammy-Preisträger John Congleton am Ruder ist unerbittlich, aufgemotzt und überladen. Es ist genau da, wo man shame haben möchte. "It's about the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites", sagt Sänger Charlie Steen und ergänzt: "Seien wir ehrlich, von denen gibt es im Moment eine Menge." Die fünf Freunde aus Kindertagen - Charlie Steen, die Gitarristen Sean Coyle-Smith und Eddie Green, Bassist Josh Finerty und Schlagzeuger Charlie Forbes - sind noch in ihren Zwanzigern und haben shame exponentiell wachsen lassen, mit ehrgeizigen klanglichen Ideen und den technischen Möglichkeiten, sie umzusetzen. shame haben sich mit ihren legendären Liveshows und drei von der Kritik gefeierten Alben bereits mehrfach bewährt und waren bereit, mit "Cutthroat" ein neues Ground Zero zu schaffen. "Hier geht es darum, wer wir sind", sagt Steen. "Unsere Live-Shows sind keine Performance-Kunst - sie sind direkt, konfrontativ und roh. Das war schon immer der Kern von uns. Wir leben in verrückten Zeiten. Aber es geht nicht um 'Armes Ich'. Es geht um 'Fick dich'." Entscheidend für diese aufrüttelnde neue Sichtweise war Produzent John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen). Von ihrem ersten Treffen an wurde Congletons "No-Bullshit"-Herangehensweise zu einer treibenden Kraft, um die Ideen der Band zu optimieren. Das Album ist durch und durch von shames typischen Sinn für Humor geprägt und nimmt sich der großen Themen unserer Zeit an und spielt fröhlich mit ihnen. Mit Trump im Weißen Haus und shame in den Salvation Studios in Brighton, werfen sie einen gnadenlosen Blick auf Themen wie Konflikte und Korruption, Hunger und Begehren, Lust, Neid und den allgegenwärtigen Schatten der Feigheit. Auch musikalisch spielt die Platte mit neuen Ideen, die ins Herz gehen. Coyle-Smith, der auf Tournee zum Spaß elektronische Musik macht, hatte die Loops, die er herstellte, zuvor als etwas anderes betrachtet als das, was er für shame schrieb. Dann wurde ihm klar, dass sie das vielleicht gar nicht sein müssen. "Diesmal konnte man alles verwenden, wenn es gut klang und man es richtig machte", sagt er. Die erste Single und der Titeltrack von "Cutthroat" greifen diese Idee auf und machen daraus den vielleicht besten Song, den shame je auf Band gebracht haben. Es ist ein Knäuel kaum zu bändigender Attitüde, verpackt in drei Minuten Indie-Dancefloor-Hedonismus. Er führt auch meisterhaft in die lyrische Perspektive des Albums ein: eine, in der selbstsichere Arroganz und tiefe Unsicherheit zwei Seiten der gleichen Medaille sind. "Ich habe viele Stücke von Oscar Wilde gelesen, in denen sich alles um Paradoxe dreht", erklärt Steen. "In 'Cutthroat' geht es um diese ganze Idee aus 'Lady Windermere's Fan': 'Das Leben ist viel zu wichtig, um ernst genommen zu werden'." Auch diese freche Selbsterkenntnis ist wichtig. So sehr shame die Seifenblasen des Getöses und des Egos zerplatzen lassen wollen und uns ermutigen, in den Spiegel zu schauen und uns zu fragen: "Wer den ersten Stein wirft...", so sehr verstehen sie auch, dass das Leben im Grunde genommen oft lächerlich ist. Das Ergebnis ist ein Album, das in den Idiosynkrasien des Lebens schwelgt, eine Augenbraue hochzieht und die unangenehmen Fragen stellt, die so oft taktvoll übergangen werden. Aber die einzige Antwort, die "Cutthroat" mit durchschlagendem Erfolg gibt, ist, dass shame im Moment nie besser klangen.

"Cutthroat ist eine wilde Fahrt. Es ist für den unerfahrenen Fahrer. Für denjenigen, der einfach nur schnell fahren will, ohne einen anderen Grund als den, dass es Spaß macht. Es wird von Hunger angetrieben. Hunger nach etwas Besserem. Nach etwas, von dem man einem gesagt hat, dass man es nicht verdient. Es ist instinktiv. Es ist roh. Es ist kompromisslos. Es ist die Person, die unangekündigt auf der Party auftaucht. Denn wenn du am Boden liegst, gibt es nur einen Weg - nach oben. Wenn du nichts hast, hast du nichts zu verlieren." - shame "Cutthroat" ist shame in seiner besten Form. Das neue Album mit Grammy-Preisträger John Congleton am Ruder ist unerbittlich, aufgemotzt und überladen. Es ist genau da, wo man shame haben möchte. "It's about the cowards, the cunts, the hypocrites", sagt Sänger Charlie Steen und ergänzt: "Seien wir ehrlich, von denen gibt es im Moment eine Menge." Die fünf Freunde aus Kindertagen - Charlie Steen, die Gitarristen Sean Coyle-Smith und Eddie Green, Bassist Josh Finerty und Schlagzeuger Charlie Forbes - sind noch in ihren Zwanzigern und haben shame exponentiell wachsen lassen, mit ehrgeizigen klanglichen Ideen und den technischen Möglichkeiten, sie umzusetzen. shame haben sich mit ihren legendären Liveshows und drei von der Kritik gefeierten Alben bereits mehrfach bewährt und waren bereit, mit "Cutthroat" ein neues Ground Zero zu schaffen. "Hier geht es darum, wer wir sind", sagt Steen. "Unsere Live-Shows sind keine Performance-Kunst - sie sind direkt, konfrontativ und roh. Das war schon immer der Kern von uns. Wir leben in verrückten Zeiten. Aber es geht nicht um 'Armes Ich'. Es geht um 'Fick dich'." Entscheidend für diese aufrüttelnde neue Sichtweise war Produzent John Congleton (St. Vincent, Angel Olsen). Von ihrem ersten Treffen an wurde Congletons "No-Bullshit"-Herangehensweise zu einer treibenden Kraft, um die Ideen der Band zu optimieren. Das Album ist durch und durch von shames typischen Sinn für Humor geprägt und nimmt sich der großen Themen unserer Zeit an und spielt fröhlich mit ihnen. Mit Trump im Weißen Haus und shame in den Salvation Studios in Brighton, werfen sie einen gnadenlosen Blick auf Themen wie Konflikte und Korruption, Hunger und Begehren, Lust, Neid und den allgegenwärtigen Schatten der Feigheit. Auch musikalisch spielt die Platte mit neuen Ideen, die ins Herz gehen. Coyle-Smith, der auf Tournee zum Spaß elektronische Musik macht, hatte die Loops, die er herstellte, zuvor als etwas anderes betrachtet als das, was er für shame schrieb. Dann wurde ihm klar, dass sie das vielleicht gar nicht sein müssen. "Diesmal konnte man alles verwenden, wenn es gut klang und man es richtig machte", sagt er. Die erste Single und der Titeltrack von "Cutthroat" greifen diese Idee auf und machen daraus den vielleicht besten Song, den shame je auf Band gebracht haben. Es ist ein Knäuel kaum zu bändigender Attitüde, verpackt in drei Minuten Indie-Dancefloor-Hedonismus. Er führt auch meisterhaft in die lyrische Perspektive des Albums ein: eine, in der selbstsichere Arroganz und tiefe Unsicherheit zwei Seiten der gleichen Medaille sind. "Ich habe viele Stücke von Oscar Wilde gelesen, in denen sich alles um Paradoxe dreht", erklärt Steen. "In 'Cutthroat' geht es um diese ganze Idee aus 'Lady Windermere's Fan': 'Das Leben ist viel zu wichtig, um ernst genommen zu werden'." Auch diese freche Selbsterkenntnis ist wichtig. So sehr shame die Seifenblasen des Getöses und des Egos zerplatzen lassen wollen und uns ermutigen, in den Spiegel zu schauen und uns zu fragen: "Wer den ersten Stein wirft...", so sehr verstehen sie auch, dass das Leben im Grunde genommen oft lächerlich ist. Das Ergebnis ist ein Album, das in den Idiosynkrasien des Lebens schwelgt, eine Augenbraue hochzieht und die unangenehmen Fragen stellt, die so oft taktvoll übergangen werden. Aber die einzige Antwort, die "Cutthroat" mit durchschlagendem Erfolg gibt, ist, dass shame im Moment nie besser klangen.

GER Das gefeierte ruandische Folk-Duo The Good Ones kehrt mit einem besonderen Album zurück: Rwanda Sings with Strings verbindet ihre charakteristischen akustischen Songs mit feinfühligen, improvisierten Arrangements für Cello und Violine. Produziert von Grammy-Gewinner Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin" Jack Elliott), wurde das Album komplett live und ohne Overdubs in einem Hotelzimmer aufgenommen - nur einen Tag vor ihrem NPR Tiny Desk-Auftritt. Die Streicher - Gordon Withers (Cello) und Matvei Sigalov (Violine) - kannten sich vorher nicht, spielten ohne Noten oder Proben, und schufen dennoch in einem Take eine magische Klangwelt. Sänger und Gitarrist Adrien Kazigira schrieb über 23 neue Songs, von denen 19 aufgenommen wurden. Wie immer singt er in Kinyarwanda, der Landessprache Ruandas. Die Lieder handeln von Liebe, Verlust, ländlichem Leben und gesellschaftlichem Wandel - mit einer emotionalen Tiefe, die an Nick Drake, Boubacar Traoré oder Astral Weeks erinnert. Begleitet wird Kazigira von Janvier Havugimana, der wie gewohnt auf Alltagsgegenständen Perkussion spielt. Ein zutiefst menschliches, intimes Album - roh, poetisch und voller Hoffnung. Celebrated Rwandan folk duo The Good Ones return with a deeply intimate and emotionally rich album. Rwanda Sings with Strings pairs their signature acoustic sound with delicate, improvised arrangements for cello and violin. Produced by Grammy-winner Ian Brennan (Tinariwen, Ramblin" Jack Elliott), the album was recorded entirely live-no overdubs-in a Washington, D.C. hotel room, just one day before their NPR Tiny Desk performance. The string players-Gordon Withers (cello) and Matvei Sigalov (violin)-had never met before the session and played without sheet music or rehearsals. Yet, in a single take, they created a soundscape that feels both spontaneous and transcendent. Lead singer and guitarist Adrien Kazigira wrote over 23 new songs for the project, 19 of which were recorded. As always, he sings in Kinyarwanda, Rwanda"s national language. The songs explore themes of love, loss, rural life, and cultural change, with a poetic depth reminiscent of Nick Drake, Boubacar Traoré, or Astral Weeks. Kazigira is joined by Janvier Havugimana, who provides harmonies and percussion using everyday objects like cups, plastic wrap, and old boots. A raw, heartfelt, and hopeful album-quietly powerful and profoundly human.

The quietest voices can be the most durable.

American Football’s original triumph, on their 1999 self-titled debut, was to reunite two shy siblings: emo and post-rock. It was a pioneering album where lyrical clarity was obscured and complicated by the stealth musical textures surrounding it.

Like Slint’s Spiderland, or Codeine’s The White Birch, even Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, American Football asked far more questions than it cared to answer. But there wasn’t a band around anymore to explain it, anyway. The three young men who made the album – Mike Kinsella, Steve Holmes, and Steve Lamos – split up pretty much on its release.

Fifteen years later, American Football reunited (now as a four-piece, with the addition of Nate Kinsella). They played far larger shows than in their original incarnation and recorded their long-anticipated second album, 2016’s American Football (LP2). The release was widely praised, but the band members still felt like their best work was yet to come.

‘I feel like the second album was us figuring it out,’ says Nate. ‘For me, it wasn’t quite done. I knew there was still more.’

Enter American Football (LP3). ‘We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,’ says Mike. ‘We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like – Ok we have these arms, let’s use them.’ The band used the same producer, Jason Cupp, and recorded the album at the same studio (Arc Studios in Omaha, Nebraska) as its predecessor – yet they approached it in a markedly different way. There was a determination to let the songs breathe, to trust in ideas finding their own pace. The final result is a definite, and deliberate, stretching of the band.

As a result, LP3 is less obviously tethered to the band’s past than the second album. An immediate contrast between LP3 and its two predecessors is its cover. The two previous albums featured the exterior and interior of a residence in the band’s original hometown of Urbana, Illinois (now attracting fans for pilgrimages and photo opportunities), by the photographer Chris Strong. But American Football knew that LP3 was an outside record. Instead of the familiar house, this time the cover photo (again by Strong) features open, rolling fields on Urbana’s borders. It is a sign of the album’s magnitude in sound, and of the band’s boldness in breaking away from home comforts.

American Football also joked that LP3’s genre was ‘post-house’, because of this very conscious visual break. But, in a strange way, there are links in LP3 with an actual post-house genre: shoegaze. The more exploratory members of the original British shoegaze scene were inspired by the dreamtime and circularity of house music (ambient house in particular), cherishing its sonic possibilities. That spirit drips into LP3, most obviously on ‘I Can’t Feel You’, a collaboration with Rachel Goswell of Slowdive.

The album also features Hayley Williams from Paramore on the album’s catchiest moment, ‘Uncomfortably Numb’, and Elizabeth Powell, of the Québécoise act Land Of Talk. Mike wrote lyrics in French especially for her.

LP3 is contemplative, rich, expressive, yet with a queasy undercurrent. It is heavy with expectancy, revealing its ideas slowly, eliciting the hidden stories people carry around with them. ‘I feel like my lyric writing has changed a lot over the years,’ says Mike. ‘The goal is to be conversational, maybe to state something giant and heavy, but in a very plain way. But, definitely in this record, I keep things a little more vague.’ As on the first album, the lyrics on LP3 may seem confessional and concentrated, but the more you scrutinize them, the further their meaning slinks away. Or, as Mike tellingly sings on ‘I Can’t Feel You”: I’m fluent in subtlety.

‘Somewhere along the way we moved from being a reunion band to just being a band,’ says Steve Holmes. American Football is now a bona fide ongoing focus, and they are making some of the best music of their lives. American Football (LP3) stands with two other rare reunion successes – Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine’s mbv – as a fine example of how a band refinding one another can augment, rather than taint, their legacy.

‘I think that there are those albums, or the music that you heard when you were younger, and they imprint on you,’ says Nate. ‘And no matter where you go, or what you do they’re always there.’ He is talking of Steve Reich – an early and ongoing influence on American Football – but he might as well be reflecting what is said of his own band, and the ardent following they inspire. American Football stands as an enduring symbol of elusive emotional landscapes, where introspection can be as dramatic as confrontation

LTD BRIGHT GREEN VINYL W/ 4 PAGE INSERT** **JEWEL CASE CD W/ 12 PAGE BOOKLET** A gloriously off-kilter yet deeply personal record that mixes absurdist punk theatre with an unexpectedly tender dive into mental health, Catholic guilt, and the surreal poetry of everyday life. “It’s more personal than the previous ones,” frontman Pete explains, “but not in a heavy way – more like Mortimer & Whitehouse than The Bell Jar”, succinctly summing up the Dinner Ladies’ approach: taking the kitchen sink, giving it a saxophone solo, and letting it spill over with charm, wit, and a fair helping of existential unease. Parody and poignancy runs through every song. Tracks like ‘Is There Life in Rhyl?’ and ‘Holy Pictures’ explore personal trauma and social conditioning through an unmistakably British filter; Catholicism, childhood fear, seaside holidays, and haunted toilet trips included. For fans of: The Fall, The Kinks, John Cooper Clarke, X-Ray Spex, Madness, cabaret, collage, chaos, and joyfully honest punk.

Rooted in acoustic instrumentation, their music features intricate melodies and
soulful vocals that resonate deeply with listeners. The band has toured the US and
Europe and contributed music to the Vikings series on Netfix, further cementing their
connection to Norse mythology.
Larvatus marks a return to the band's earlier, more mystical sound, evoking the
haunting qualities of albums like Uthuling Hyl and Nordlige Runaskog. This album,
which began taking shape during the uncertain years of 2020 and 2021, refects the
emotional turbulence of the pandemic. Despite the chaos surrounding its creation,
Larvatus is a demonstration of resilience and its introspective and contemplative
nature offering a sense of refuge amid a world in fux.
Over the past two years, Larvatus has been carefully revisited, refned, and expanded.
The album has taken on new layers of complexity, enriched with the addition of
Kakophonix's stunning cello work, which adds an ethereal depth to the intimate
soundscapes. The fnal mix, done by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studios,
brings out the full emotional resonance of the music, ensuring the band's earthy,
organic style is preserved while allowing every instrument and vocal to shine with
clarity.
At its core, Larvatus explores the passage of time, the fragility of existence, and the
quiet power of nature. It invites listeners to refect on their place in the world and fnd
solace in the timeless tradition of folk music. The fusion of Nordic folk melodies and
Americana storytelling creates a rich listening experience, staying true to the band's
signature blend of ancient sounds and modern sensibilities.
With Larvatus, Osi and the Jupiter offers a soundtrack for those seeking comfort in
difcult times, reminding us that even in the darkest moments, music can provide
solace, connection, and a sense of healing. It is a celebration of the enduring power of
music to unite and inspire, inviting listeners on a deeply personal journey into the
heart of both nature and self.

Rooted in acoustic instrumentation, their music features intricate melodies and
soulful vocals that resonate deeply with listeners. The band has toured the US and
Europe and contributed music to the Vikings series on Netfix, further cementing their
connection to Norse mythology.
Larvatus marks a return to the band's earlier, more mystical sound, evoking the
haunting qualities of albums like Uthuling Hyl and Nordlige Runaskog. This album,
which began taking shape during the uncertain years of 2020 and 2021, refects the
emotional turbulence of the pandemic. Despite the chaos surrounding its creation,
Larvatus is a demonstration of resilience and its introspective and contemplative
nature offering a sense of refuge amid a world in fux.
Over the past two years, Larvatus has been carefully revisited, refned, and expanded.
The album has taken on new layers of complexity, enriched with the addition of
Kakophonix's stunning cello work, which adds an ethereal depth to the intimate
soundscapes. The fnal mix, done by Greg Chandler at Priory Recording Studios,
brings out the full emotional resonance of the music, ensuring the band's earthy,
organic style is preserved while allowing every instrument and vocal to shine with
clarity.
At its core, Larvatus explores the passage of time, the fragility of existence, and the
quiet power of nature. It invites listeners to refect on their place in the world and fnd
solace in the timeless tradition of folk music. The fusion of Nordic folk melodies and
Americana storytelling creates a rich listening experience, staying true to the band's
signature blend of ancient sounds and modern sensibilities.
With Larvatus, Osi and the Jupiter offers a soundtrack for those seeking comfort in
difcult times, reminding us that even in the darkest moments, music can provide
solace, connection, and a sense of healing. It is a celebration of the enduring power of
music to unite and inspire, inviting listeners on a deeply personal journey into the
heart of both nature and self.

Rhiza Semar returns with Scarlet Cloak, the second instalment from Dutch-Indonesian producer and label founder Hitam. Emerging from the depths of sonic experimentation, Scarlet Cloak continues Rhiza Semar's mission - blending club-oriented tracks with a left-field approach. With three tracks from Hitam and a remix by Nawaz, the EP offers a subtle nod to early 00's mental tribe, reimagining it with a sleek, contemporary, edge. Pulsing tentatively, Scarlet Cloak opens with delicate drum patterns, paving the way for gritty, heady sonic immersion. Meticulously crafted, faint and distant synths emerge on the horizon, orchestrating an ambience that conjures quiet anticipation - a peaceful wonder drifting through the shadows. Blissfully snaking into the next production, Nawaz remixes the track with a razor-sharp switch in tempo, locking the mental trip. Setting the pace for deep introspection, fast and obscure aquatic layers ripple, submerging the listener into dark, murky textures. Flashes of club lights dissolve into a distorted memory, intangible yet electrifying as Future Kill seizes the mind. Pangs of liquid acid spread through an aphotic tunnel of sound, while percussive elements pump the heart, mirroring the adrenaline rush before stepping into a cavernous rave. In Your Head spins forward, stripped-back minimal layers congregate, spiraling the EP toward a hard climax. Rough-cut textures and skittish vocals lay on a soft bed of snares, creating psychedelic dissonance. The atmosphere thickens and breaks with permeating, rolling kick drums, drawing this 10-minute odyssey to a close. Lose yourself in a sonic labyrinth as Hitam masterfully crafts Scarlet Cloak - a volatile minefield seeping with rude, mental, teeth-gritting energy. credits Words by Charlotte Hingley

Far above the skylark sings And beats the air with joyful wings Till all the sky with music rings At high noon of the day With 2022's critically acclaimed album Ghosts, enigmatic Shropshire group HARESS markedout their own place in a growing landscape of artists navigating the world of the traditional and the rural in new ways. Ghosts led to the normally reclusive Haress venturing out from their base in the Shropshire Hills for live performances with the likes of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Shovel Dance Collective, Big Brave, Steve Von Till and appearances at Supersonic and Krankenhaus Festivals - not to mention making fans of everyone from Kevin Martin to James Holden in the process. Skylarks is perhaps the natural conclusion of these past few years for the group. Whereas previous Haress recordings have embraced something of the unknown in the process of their making, Skylarks sees a well-travelled group of musicians carefully craft long and expressive pieces of music in a powerful and instinctual way. The music here might be long, but it never sprawls out of control. The telepathy present in live performance has been harnessed and used to carefully compose and arrange these four pieces, narrating a journey through landscape and time that is as powerful as it is beautiful. Inspired by found folk songs, the power of nature and the power of community and Ben Myers' brutal tale of resistance The Gallows Pole, Haress have created a genuinely epic soundtrack to a world both past and future, real and imagined. The ambience and atmosphere of the recording (expertly captured by Phil Booth of JT Soar Studio on location in the group's hometown of Bishop's Castle) is entirely natural, the sound of an ensemble playing live in the room around you. The only vocal interjection this time comes from a choir of voices, replicating the communal singing that has been the centrepiece of Haress live performances. When the voices emerge, it feels truly euphoric and heavy. Not heavy as in metal, but heavy as in the Earth itself - a primal, joyful gut punch to the system. "This blissed-out psychedelia is not quite pastoral – there’s nothing twee about these unwinding grooves – yet evokes water and wood, light and shadow, a place of forgotten labour and the absent human form with a beguiling grace" - Luke Turner on Ghosts, The Quietus Albums Of The Year 2022 "That timelessness of the old sounds but with an added tripped out modernity and dissonance hooked into the past by the power of drone is magical and exhilarating stuff – they are truly spellbinding – ancient and modern like British ragas or a damp searching for the soul of England take on the desert blues of a Tinariwen" - Jon Robb reviews Krankenhaus Festival 2023, Louder Than War

Das Dream-Pop-Duo Sorry Girls aus Montreal kehrt mit seinem dritten Album "Dreamwalker" zurück, das über Arbutus Records erscheint. Ihre exzentrische Mischung aus nostalgischen 70er-Jahre-Powerballaden und 80er-Jahre-Kitsch durchbricht neue Schwellen, zerlegt vergebliche Illusionen, um der Kälte zu trotzen und zu fragen, was vor uns liegt. Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 2015 haben Heather Foster Kirkpatrick und Dylan Konrad Obront ihre eigene Marke von üppigem, vergnügungssüchtigem Synth-Pop geschaffen. Dank ihrem Talent, persönliche Texte mit einem schrägen Sound zu verbinden, ist ihre durch David Lynch geprägte Welt frei und unheimlich. Alles scheint vertraut, eine Melodie plätschert durch eine alte Traumlandschaft, und doch ist etwas nicht in Ordnung. Die Band debütierte 2019 mit dem selbstproduzierten "Deborah", das von Pitchfork und Gorilla vs Bear gelobt wurde. Ihr temperamentvolles zweites Album "Bravo!" aus dem Jahr 2023 präsentierte einen mehr auf die erweiterte Live-Band ausgerichteten Sound. Inspiriert von Fleetwood Macs Tusk-Ära schlugen Sorry Girls ihr Lager für mehrere Monate im Two Sisters Recording Studio in Montreal auf, um "Dreamwalker" aufzunehmen. Da die Zeit knapp bemessen war, wollten sie mehr mit den Livemusikern zusammenarbeiten und schnelle und entschiedene künstlerische Entscheidungen treffen, um der Musik so treu wie möglich zu bleiben. Das Ergebnis ist ein Sound, der ernsthaft, emotional und klar ist. Verwaschene Produktionstechniken und druckvolle Basslinien paaren sich mit sanfteren, skurrilen Klaviertrillern und entspannten Drums, die das thematische Hin und Her zwischen zwei Welten wiedergeben. Die Texte spielen mit idyllischen Visionen von Liebesobjekten, Fantasien von zukünftigen Utopien und der obsessiven Sehnsucht nach einer Leichtigkeit und Neuheit, die sich durchsetzt. "Dreamwalker" ist selbstbewusst und ironisch selbstbescheiden, gefangen in der Spiegelung eines Fensters. Das Album fordert dazu auf, mutig zu sein - die Griffe aufzuschieben und ins Unbekannte zu treten. Musik für Fans von Haim, Men I Trust, Fleetwood Mac, TOPS