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Rick James Blends Brazen Attitude, Fearless Sexuality, and Shrewd Charisma on Street Songs:

Punk-Funk Album Aims for the Hips and Head, Includes the Timeless Hit “Super Freak”
Sourced from the Original Master Tapes and Strictly Limited to 4,000 Numbered Copies:

Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP Set Presents 1981 Smash in Audiophile Sound for the First Time
1/4” / 30 IPS analogue master to DSD 256 to analogue console to lathe


“Punk funk” was a relatively unknown concept before 1981. But once Street Songs took the charts by storm that year, the world soon knew about what became Rick James’ signature style. And how. True to its name, Street Songs blends outspoken sexuality, brazen attitude, and edgy commentary amid contagious R&B-fueled arrangements that simultaneously aim for the hips, head, and various nether regions. And it’s never sounded better.

Sourced from the original master tapes, strictly limited to 4,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents James’ platinum-certified effort in audiophile quality for the first time. Playing with crisp dynamics, lively textures, airy headroom, and revealing clarity, this collectible edition of the record that stayed at the No. 1 spot on the R&B Album Charts for 20 weeks invites you to get closer to music that beckons you to turn your space into a private dance floor.

Then again, you’ll likely be so taken by how the taut bass lines, snappy rhythms, and four-on-the-floor beats — all rendered in stunning detail and with full-bodied architecture — come across with such accuracy and presence, you might stay pinned to your seat. On this pressing, the soundstaging, imaging, and lit-fuse energy of Street Songs reach new heights. Everything from the rubbery feel of the guitar lines to the depth of James’ temperature-raising vocals to the scale of the horn charts emerges as if James and his ace session crew set up in your room.

The Buffalo native and his ensemble waste no time getting their message across. On the album-opening “Give It to Me Baby,” James and company lay down a mix of sleek funk and pulsing disco that practically activates the bright lights of a discotheque and stimulates the libido of anyone within earshot. Having reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul charts, the song is pure sex — and just one of the carnal delights on a record that embraces the subject as fearlessly as James does his identity.

Of course, the most famous of James’ erotic excursions — the timeless “Super Freak” — hit No. 1 on Hot Dance Club Play charts, No. 16 on the Hot 100, and, later, No. 153 on Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 500 Songs of All Time. Bolstered by a quavering keyboard theme and electro riffs, the much-sampled track worms itself inside your muscles with smile-inducing subject matter, gliding vocals, nimble movements, a hot tenor-saxophone solo, and backing vocals by the Temptations.

The iconic Motown group isn’t the only celebrated guest artist on the Grammy-nominated Street Songs. James’ then-labelmate, Stevie Wonder, lends harmonica to the frank sociopolitical narrative on “Mr. Policeman,” a protest tune that also manages to stroll ’n’ strut via simmering organ, staggering brass accents, and James’ gritty vocal performance. In addition to contributing backing vocals on several cuts, Teena Marie turns in one of the album’s signature moments on “Fire and Desire,” a romantic old-school duet with James that impresses with smoothness, sensitivity, and smokiness.

High-profile colleagues aside, James remains the undisputed star, a figure whose leather-and-latex attire, braided hair, and natural swagger made him misunderstood by some in the mainstream and embraced by everyone in the know as a true original. As a testament to his magnetism and skills, his charisma and rawness seemingly seep through every note, whether on the balladic sweep of the risqué “Make Love to Me” or strident, poke-and-prod persuasion of the moonwalking “Call Me Up.”

On the closing “Below the Funk (Pass the J),” an uptempo autobiographical tale that addresses the visionary musician’s second-favorite love, the singer acknowledges his upbringing and inseparable connection with his roots — an homage to where he began and a toast to where he’s gone.

Rick James, keepin’ it real on Street Songs, still as real as it gets.

Impatience is thrilled to present Leaving Memory, the latest album-length work by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova. Leaving Memory is a searing distillation of the duo’s ouevre - it’s eleven prismatic electronic seances combining for a mind warping wormhole with it’s own internal (il)llogic, where pop, ambient, and industrial music convene beneath a rugged HD of digital processing and brain fog. Equally rosy with nostalgia as it is ominously forward looking, Leaving Memory defies easy categorization and makes for an astounding, confounding listen.

By turns violently abrasive and disarmingly touching, Piper and Lena deploy sounds that fracture and disintegrate, burn up and explode, synthetic supernovas that give the record an unmistakable, inimitable texture. Song structures often abide by their own blueprint - heading in one direction before making an abrupt dive elsewhere. Bursts of vibrant colour lurk below layers of grayscale noise. Unidentifiable voices deliver secret messages from the murk. When rhythm’s emerge they ground the tracks to some unknown terrain and invigorate.

Lame Line veers towards the sweeter end of their spectrum, a hazy plaintive repetition increasingly lashed with friction, before Exit erupts with clanging rhythm and shards of distortion. Diagnosis is an almost sweet alt-pop song, Lena’s vocals yearning beneath a dubby shuffle, while Keeper Of The Void’s possessed incantations open up to a ripping, fried climax. Beryl Grey releases the pressure gauge, a gently lilting drift arpeggiating as the sun sets, and Lost Cars sweats through claustrophobic drones and bird song before the clouds part on a serene scene. Leaving Memory closes with Shin, offering a genuinely sweet resolution and a gentle landing back down to earth of either footsteps or fireworks, swelling synthesized horns and woodwinds, a kiss on the cheek for making it out the other side.

On Leaving Memory, Piper Spray & Lena Tsibizova share their uniquely discordant take on freaky music for unsettled minds, an intensely energized set that offers a deeply evocative, unimaginable otherworld for adventurous ears.

Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova have been producing music together since 2020. Leaving Memory is the first to be presented in the LP format. Piper has previously released music via Orange Milk, Hausu Mountain and Gost Zvuk, as well as his own Singapore Sling Tapes label. Lena works predominantly as a photographer, and together Piper and Lena have released music via radio.syg.ma and Kartaskvazhin. Both make music as part of Air Krew, who have released music on the Echotourist and Motion Ward labels. They’re both currently based nowhere.

Leaving Memory was written, produced and mixed by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova, and mastered by Sergey Podluzhniy. Cover photo by Lena Tsibizova, design and layout by Justin Sloane.

WILDSTYLE HOUSE is a new compilation series where Toy Tonics invites producers and DJs that have a very special, funky, unique sound to make one new track. The compilation should show the variability and diversity of house and disco TODAY. Like the wild music mix you can hear at the Toy Tonics events and the way Toy Tonics DJs combine many different styles of "4 to the floor" music into one new soulful, multi-style, and warm-sounding blended "genre." It's about the groove, about a new soul sound, the human feel, the organic and Y2K-inspired dance music that is growing and appeals to a new generation of dance music lovers.

This first part of the compilation includes unreleased music by:

Afro-funk and salsa-house producer talents ELADO, MUSTA, and ALMA NEGRA.

Garage house maestros MELON BOMB and Italian musician DANIEL MONACO (known for his New Wave disco and proto-house releases on Rush Hour and his work for Antal).

MARLA KETHER, the London bass player and DJ, who is known for her work with Little Simz, Oscar Jerome, and Loyle Carner, and has now started to release her own tracks.

Argentinian singer, musician, and DJ ALOT, combining proto-house vibes with Spanish rap.

Funk house producer and edit maestro PAUL OLDER, who is starting to become one of the key names of the new soul house scene (supported by DJs like Folamour, David Penn, Seth Troxler, Kirollus, Breakbot...).

And also Toy Tonics' own GEE LANE, KAPOTE, and ARPY BROWN contributed new tracks.

For their fourth release, Slush turns back the clock to a cult classic - Phonogen, the groundbreaking debut album from German DJ and producer, Alegria. First issued in 2002, Phonogen captures the raw emotion of dancefloors around the turn of the millennium, fusing driving basslines with infectious grooves to evoke the era’s radiant energy. Now, over two decades later, it’s reborn for a new generation, newly remastered and complete with a refreshed sleeve design and insert.

In an engrossing lattice of polyrhythmic beat science and deep atmospheric meditation, Samurai Music is thrilled to welcome Marco Shuttle to the fold for the Sumud EP.

Since his early years locked into the 00s London techno scene, Marco Sartorelli has developed as an artist entirely on his own terms. Through the rush of new ideas and cross-pollination that has characterised cutting-edge techno over the past 20-odd years, Sartorelli has travelled as Marco Shuttle from one considered stylistic concept to the next. On his own Eerie label and across expansive releases for respected outposts such as Spazio Disponibile, Incensio and Astral Industries, he's taken an exploratory approach to rhythm and spatial design while always drawing on intentional thematic frameworks, creating distinctive and immersive dance music in the process.

As Samurai Music continues to celebrate the rich seams of inspiration where deep techno and drum & bass intersect, Sartorelli's malleable, mysterious strain of drum work fits right in and sets a captivating tone for the label's operations in 2026. 'Sumud' is a steely drum mantra dealing in fractured patterns with the primal patina of the early Artificial Intelligence era, while 'Las Dunas de Taroa' leans on gently pulsing melancholia undulating at a half-time pace. 'Iso 50' taps into raw, analogue minimalism once more, evoking the sound of Roman Flugel's Ro70 records in their icy, alien formation. Completing the set, we're guided towards the tense electronica of 'Polylayering What I've Got', where uneasy melodic chimes interlock with intricately programmed drum machines.

There's a distinct sense of golden-era, mid-90s electronica coursing through Sumud EP, but Sartorelli shrouds the classic tools at his disposal in his subtle signature atmospherics, pushing towards a plain of expression that transcends time.

Synthpop, minimal wave, post-punk, goth, new romantic - fans and critics alike have dug deeply into their vintage thesauruses to describe the beguiling work of Nation of Language. And if you can't precisely define the band, that's the point. Frontman Ian Richard Devaney has become prodigious in expanding what synthesizer-driven music can evoke, such that his output is as much an extrasensory journey as it is an all-too-human destination. With that experience in mind, he wrote the band's fourth album - the spectral, spacious Dance Called Memory - in the most humble of ways: chipping away at melancholia by sitting around and strumming his guitar. Nation of Language's first two albums, Introduction, Presence (2020), and A Way Forward (2021), came as pandemic godsends: gorgeous, relatable soundtracks to our collective doldrums. But it was their last LP, Strange Disciple (2023), that catapulted the group from cultural standouts to critical darlings, with the album being named Rough Trade's Album of the Year. With that release, Pitchfork wrote that the band "are learning what it means to get bigger and better." This is Devaney's calling: soulfully translating individual despair into a comforting, collective mourning. The single "Now That You're Gone," which radiates and reverberates with a devastating wistfulness, was inspired by witnessing his godfather's tragic death from ALS, and his parents' role as caretakers for this ailing friend. At its heart, the song is a reflection of how friends can be there for each other, and also highlights a theme throughout the record: the pain and lost promise of friendships that fall apart. On Dance Called Memory, the band once again collaborated with friend and Strange Disciple producer Nick Millhiser (LCD Soundsystem, Holy Ghost!). "What's so great about Nick is his ability to make us feel like we don't need to do what might be expected of us," says synth player Aidan Noell, who, along with bassist Alex MacKay, rounds out the Nation of Language lineup. They imbued Dance Called Memory with a shifted palette - sampling chopped-up drum breaks on "I'm Not Ready for the Change" for a touch of Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine or smashing all of the percussion of "In Another Life" through a synthesizer to cast a shade of early-2000s electronic music. Ultimately, the hope was to weave raw vulnerability and humanity into a synth-heavy album. "There is a dichotomy between the Kraftwerk school of thought and the Brian Eno school of thought, each of which I've been drawn to at different points. I've read about how Kraftwerk wanted to remove all the humanity from their music, but Eno often spoke about wanting to make synthesized music that felt distinctly human," Devaney says. "As much as Kraftwerk is a sonically foundational influence, with this record I leaned much more towards the Eno school of thought. In this era quickly being defined by the rise of AI supplanting human creators I'm focusing more on the human condition, and I need the underlying music to support that_ Instead of hopelessness, I want to leave the listener with a feeling of us really seeing one another, that our individual struggles can actually unite us in empathy."

Nachdem Ásgeir jahrelang mit Übersetzern wie John Grant zusammengearbeitet und die Poesie seines Vaters, Einar Georg Einarsson, vertont hat, betritt er nun neues Terrain: Zum ersten Mal in seiner langen und gefeierten Karriere hat er die Texte komplett selbst verfasst.

Ásgeir wird seit Langem für seinen detailreichen Folk-Pop, die opulente Produktion und sein sehnsüchtiges, gefühlvolles Falsett gefeiert. „Julia“ markiert eine Wende – nicht nur hin zu lyrischer Eigenständigkeit, sondern auch zu kathartischer Direktheit, mit Songs, die nicht nur meisterhaft vorgetragen, sondern auch durchlebt wirken. „Das war irgendwie das erste Mal, dass ich die Texte völlig allein geschrieben habe“, erzählt er. „Es war beängstigend. Ich versuche immer noch, mich darin zu finden. Aber ich habe versucht, mich zu öffnen, und habe in diesem Prozess viel gelernt. Es war auf jeden Fall therapeutisch für mich.“

Dieses neue Gefühl der Verletzlichkeit zieht sich durch die zehn Stücke des Albums, die über einen Zeitraum von fast zwei Jahren geschrieben und aufgenommen wurden. Viele der Songs entstanden zunächst auf der Gitarre, wobei Ásgeir auf Schlichtheit setzte und Melodie, Klarheit und Bedeutung in den Vordergrund stellte. Die Produktion, gemeinsam mit seinem langjährigen Weggefährten Guðm. „Kiddi“ Kristinn Jónsson entwickelt, bleibt organisch und zurückhaltend – und gibt so Ásgeirs Stimme, und vor allem seiner Stimme als Songwriter, den nötigen Raum.

Der aus Nashville stammende Cellist Nathaniel Smith, den Ásgeir als „Zauberer“ beschreibt, steuert hier und im gesamten Album atmosphärische Klangteppiche bei. Mit improvisierten Melodien verleiht er den Stücken Leben und Tiefe – auf eine Weise, die Ásgeir sich zuvor nicht vorgestellt hatte.

Heavenly return! As fiercely independent as any punk band, but as sweetly melodic as any chart-topping act, Heavenly combine sharp-edged lyrics with shamelessly joyful pop music. The band comprises original members Amelia Fletcher, Peter Momtchiloff, Cathy Rogers and Rob Pursey, who are now joined on drums by Ian Button. An important element of the Heavenly story was the loss of Mathew Fletcher, who took his own life just before the fourth album was released. It took Amelia, Peter, Cathy and Rob a long time to get over the loss; maybe it took even longer to find a drummer as good as Ian. 'Highway To Heavenly' shares its musical recipe with the band's first four albums, all of which were released in the 1990s at a time when sensitive indie types in the UK were sheltering from the prevailing macho-rock storm under the Sarah Records umbrella, and when women in the US were starting to find their Riot Grrrl voices in the small town of Olympia, where labels like K and Kill Rock Stars were designing a new creative space. The new songs are full of anger, of grief, of empathy, of love, and set themselves in opposition to the resurgence of the cold 'masculine energy' that is making the world a miserable, aggressive place today. It's all pop here, but Highway To Heavenly has a huge range of tones and moods. Heavenly have recently enjoyed a huge resurgence of interest from a younger generation of fans, who have cottoned on to Heavenly's music, but also embraced the band's inclusive version of feminism. The new Heavenly have played a number of sell-out shows in the past couple of years, where older fans have mingled with new devotees. Still our love is Heavenly!

Stefan Missios, one of Gothenburg’s most distinctive and soulful voices, returns with his fourth solo album “Fæst i verkligheten” – a raw blend of Swedish folk, soul, groove, and gospel. With unfiltered emotion and poetic urgency, Missios explores themes of faith, longing, and resilience. The result is a deeply human record – timeless, rhythmically alive, and impossible to ignore..

"Nearly two decades after their 2007 debut and a 2010–2022 hiatus, Austin, TX’s Voxtrot return with Dreamers in Exile, a new LP that turns an underdog story into a true second act.

The band who quietly became cult heroes in the streaming era deliver a record that carries the electric rush longtime fans remember while speaking directly to the new era of youth who discovered them through playlists and word of mouth.

Musically, Dreamers in Exile folds Voxtrot’s classic DNA—C86 sparkle, Sarah Records romanticism, the pulse of The Velvet Underground, the elegance of Felt—into a sharper, more confident sound.

Guitars chime and sprint, rhythms push forward, and Ramesh Srivastava’s literate, heart-forward lyrics trace the distance between youth and maturity, exile and home, regret and renewal. Mixed by Dean Reid (Lana Del Rey, James Blake), it reads as both reintroduction and redemption.

For a band born of the 2000s blog wave alongside Vampire Weekend, The National, and Grizzly Bear, Dreamers in Exile is less nostalgia than proof of life. It’s the sound of a beloved group returning on their own terms and finding their songs resonating more widely than ever."

Aspen Edities is pleased to present Aerial, the third album of the experimental quartet Oker.

Whereas their album debut Husene våre er museer (2018) and its follow-up Susurrus (2021) focused on collective and individual compositions, Aerial features two longform pieces of fully improvised music, sculpted from the recognizable acoustic sound palette that the quartet has developed across a decade of extensive touring. The titles, Aerial, Equinoctial Tide and Crepuscular Rays refer to meteorological and planetary phenomena, and in Oker’s interplay we hear light, wind, clouds, and tidal cycles transpire as shimmering, roaring, rubbing, coalescing and diverging environments of sound. The sonic stoicism and minimalism in their expression is challenged by frictioning micro-chaoses, combining to create calm, winding paths of musical detail and form. Echoing our planet and its meteorological reality, Aerial yields both consistency and perpetual change.

Bringing together some of the most compelling musicians from the Norwegian improvised music scene, Oker operates as an acoustic experimental quartet devoted to the amalgamation of improvised and composed modes of expression. Their music combines fine-tuned tonalities, deconstructed grooves, acoustic noise and other sonic events, taking their rather conventional instrumentation as a point of departure. Textures in gradual change coexisting with responsive and spontaneous gestures create a varied but coherent musical ecosystem which can be airy or dense, dry or blooming. A certain minimalist or stoic approach to sound production is an overarching and recurring element in all of Oker’s music, differentiating their sound from the majority of music in the field of improvised music or free jazz.

Roberto y su Nuevo Montuno recorded their first album, “El Nuevo Montuno Llegó” (1970), when Roberto Berríos was just 22 years old. This was also the debut release on Haddock’s own Uniart label. Berríos remembers that they did the recording in two sessions, splitting it up into four tracks per visit. The engineer was the famed Pedro “Pedrito” Henríquez, who recorded El Gran Combo, Roberto Roena and many others. The band had a mix of tasty, powerful originals, from Tony Cintrón’s title track that announced the band had arrived, ‘El Nuevo Montuno Llegó,’ to Quique Dávila’s mournful ‘Triste Arrabal.’ Then there was the hit Santería themed tune, ‘Llamé a Changó,’ which was a song that Quique Dávila brought to the band, but had been originally composed by Carlos Pinto, though Quique was given the credit. Dávila also composed ‘Me Queda Un Guaguancó,’ which is Roberto’s favorite song on the record (as well as a fan favorite), with Papo sounding like his friend Héctor Lavoe, and Quique Dávila’s proud manifesto declaring that Puerto Rico now had its own son montuno, ‘Oye Tu Son, Borinquen,’ featuring the pianist’s tasty but brief solo. The cover versions came from the group’s earliest period when most of their repertoire consisted of renditions of beloved but lesser known tunes, and include Louie Ramírez’s ‘Balancéate’ (a favorite of Roberto’s from Ray Barretto’s songbook), Bobby Valentín’s ‘Monina y Ramón’ (recorded during his stint with Willie Rosario), and a bolero indelibly sung by Cheo Feliciano when he was with the Joe Cuba Sextet, ‘Dichoso,’ written by Joe Cuba’s talented pianist, Nick Jiménez. Some of the arranging was done by Cintrón and some by Dávila, though Quique had some help from his old friend from El Combo Moderno, Freddie Miranda, who at that time was with Roberto Roena’s Apollo Sound. Roberto says that the arrangements of the cover tunes were made specifically to be different and more contemporary sounding than the originals. “El Nuevo Montuno Llegó” has become a legendary salsa dura classic from Puerto Rico and we are thrilled to present this first legitimately licensed and remastered vinyl reissue. It includes detailed liner notes that reveal the untold story of the band and their debut album, and rare photos.

Rikk Agnew's All by Myself is one of those records that feels like a secret you're lucky to stumble upon -- a raw, weird, totally personal snapshot of a restless artist at a pivotal moment. Originally released in 1982 on Frontier Records, the album stands apart from most of what was coming out of Southern California at the time, even though it was born right in the middle of the exploding hardcore punk scene. By 1982, Rikk Agnew was already a big deal underground. As the guitarist for Adolescents, he helped shape the sound of Orange County hardcore with sharp riffs, surf-inflected melodies, and a sense of urgency that became hugely influential. He also played in bands like D.I. and later Christian Death, moving fluidly between hardcore punk, post-punk, and darker, more experimental territory. Agnew wasn't just a fast, aggressive guitarist -- he was a songwriter with range, curiosity, and a strong DIY instinct. All by Myself lives up to its title in the most literal way. Agnew recorded the album largely on his own, playing all the instruments and handling vocals himself. Instead of delivering another straight-up hardcore record, he went inward. The result is a lo-fi, home-recorded collection of songs that blend punk energy with new wave, post-punk, psychedelic touches, and even moments of pop sensitivity. It's rough around the edges, but that's exactly the point -- the album feels intimate, unfiltered, and honest. In the early '80s, Southern California punk was loud, fast, and often confrontational. Bands were pushing against the mainstream and even against each other, racing toward more extreme sounds. While All by Myself shares that DIY spirit, it doesn't fully play by hardcore rules. The tempos shift, the moods wander, and the songs feel more like personal experiments than scene anthems. That made the record a bit of an outlier at the time -- but also what gives it lasting appeal. Frontier Records was the perfect home for a release like this. The label was known for supporting artists who didn't quite fit into neat categories, and All by Myself captured that ethos perfectly. Today, All by Myself is often seen as a cult classic. For fans of early punk, post-punk, or anyone interested in the roots of DIY recording culture, this album is essential listening

Jason ".idk." Mills' neuestes Projekt, Even The Devil Smiles, ist eine fesselnde Reflexion über Überleben, Transformation und die Schicksalsmomente, die seinen Weg für immer verändert haben. Ausgehend von seiner eigenen Geschichte der Inhaftierung und einer entscheidenden Wendung des Schicksals, die es ihm ermöglichte, seine Freiheit vorzeitig wiederzuerlangen, lässt er diese gelebte Erfahrung in ein Werk einfließen, das sowohl eindringlich als auch unerschrocken ehrlich wirkt. Durch seine lebhafte Erzählweise behandelt er Themen wie Verrat, spirituelle Konflikte und Widerstandsfähigkeit. Jeder Track pulsiert vor der Spannung gelebter Erfahrungen und fängt die Herausforderungen, Entscheidungen und Durchbrüche ein, die seinen Weg geprägt haben. Getreu Mills' multidisziplinärer Vision ist ,Even The Devil Smiles" mehr als nur Musik. Es präsentiert sich als kulturelles Artefakt, das eine Brücke zwischen der Mixtape-Ära des Hip-Hop und zeitgenössischem Design und hoher Kunst schlägt. Das Ergebnis ist ein Projekt, das die Härte und Unmittelbarkeit des rohen, Hardcore-Rap in sich trägt und sich gleichzeitig als Sammlerstück positioniert, das über die Musik hinaus Resonanz findet und Zuhörer und Trendsetter gleichermaßen einlädt, sich sowohl mit einer zutiefst persönlichen Erzählung als auch mit einem bleibenden kulturellen Statement auseinanderzusetzen.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, XL Recordings today announce a special, expanded version of Leila’s acclaimed second album Courtesy Of Choice. Originally released on 11th September 2000, the album followed the success of her Rephlex Records debut Like Weather and felt like a broadcast from a futuristic radio station no one else could tune into. Twenty-five years on, alongside collaborations with the likes of Bjork, Aphex Twin and Terry Hall and iconic performances at the likes of the V&A and Venice Biennale, more and more listeners have found the frequency. While Courtesy of Choice's influence continues to transmit through contemporary culture. the Iranian-born, London-raised producer remains utterly singular:

"I realised very early on that people don't really belong anywhere. That's what gives me the freedom to do any kind of music...I don't feel any commitment or loyalty to anything. My commitment is to noise." – Leila


This new version, Courtesy Of Choice… asides and besides, re-presents the original 14 track album — including the previously vinyl-only “Relax the Pleasuredome” — alongside a wealth of unreleased material. Leila chose to re-edit rather than remake the album (she has all the original data… midi and audio), choosing to set the parameters of only recovering buried details while preserving its spirit. “I wanted this reissue to be honest,” she explains. “Nothing added, just making sure the performances came through as they were meant to.” Among the twenty unheard tracks are Roya Arab’s striking collaboration on Cabaret classic “Mein Herr,” the surrealist collage “A Reasoning” with a sample of Max Ernst, the hypnotic “Acid Frog Fave,” the digi rave blowout “Birdie Rave,” and “techyarr”’s future forever funk from the realm of primetime Neptunes. Together they reveal both the breadth of Leila’s vision and the enduring power of an album that continues to sound ahead of its time.

Idriss D returns to Memento Records with his brand new track "Oct. 13", kickstarting the label's 20th anniversary in 2026, a year that will see quite a few special events to celebrate this milestone.
True to his musical roots and upbringing, Idriss heads right into experimental territory here, merging different styles and vibes: echoes of the upbeat mid '00s Minimal Techno craze fuse masterfully with sci-fi sounds and robotic vocals, with glitchy percussions and an infectious funky bassline creating an irresistible groovy rhythm. It's a track that boldly encapsulates the history of the label, from its raw beginnings in Italy's underground clubs to the more sophisticated latest outputs, a nod to its past while looking at the future.
Mr. Marc Houle is onboard here on remix duties: the man responsible for tracks like Bay Of Figs and Techno Vocals graces the release with an outstanding production. Slightly speeding up the pace, Marc adds spacey acid synth melodies and frenetic vocal loops drenched in delay, making this even trippier and more energetic than the original.
Black and House Music fan Munir Nadir rounds off the EP with a personal rendition playing squelchy keyboard arpeggios and hard slapping synth stabs, bringing a musical live-session feel to his contribution.

The second release from Irish label IL Corpo Records comes from Dublin native Dave Hughes. The Fastplay E.P. sees the accomplished audio engineer and Dj return to production duties with 4 carefully crafted excursions into mid tempo deep house with elements of dub and techno. Having had multiple releases on John Tejada’s legendary Palette label and iRecords amongst others, the production values are top notch and well executed making this an interesting listen indeed.

Fastplay chugs along building gradually before sultry vocals from Svelte weave their way into the mix and beckon the listener to the dance floor for the night ahead.

Feel Better is a downtempo dubby experiment inflected with a dose of rave nostalgia.

Walk Alone sees more atmospheric chord work and well chosen percussion that cements the sentimental feel of the E.P.

Tabouli rounds out the release with broken beats wrapped up in mid eastern rhythms. Moody chords and a G Funk lead line keep the groove evolving to the end.

RAWAX welcomes Demuja to the artist family!
We are very happy to present you this outstanding artist from Austria with his first release on CHIWAX. Great house vibes full of groove and good vibrations!
Highly recommended!