Search:rhythm is rhythm

When Chuck D proclaimed "Bass, how low can you go?" on Public Enemy's anthemic 'Bring the Noise,' maybe he was pre-empting or inciting the 10,000 fathoms-deep, spine-bending basslines and sub-quake tremors of 'Implosion.'

Implosion is a crushing split album, appropriately released on The Bug's own PRESSURE label. Mapping out a new form of spectral dub, the sound is deliberately immersive, introverted, and yes, definitely implosive. In pursuit of heavy lids, blurred vision, and merciless bass bin punishment, it’s one part meditation, two parts low-end theory, and essentially a confession of devoted sound system addiction.

As expected from a tag team featuring British soundlab explorer and 'London Zoo' composer Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, and Michael Fiedler, aka Jah Schulz—a long-time graduate of Germany's new school of sound system reggae culture—the duo approaches their target differently yet share the goal of keeping their sound "raw" (Fiedler) and "brutally minimal" (Martin). This proves that opposites can attract, even if their tools are different and their methods sometimes diverge.

From such a disparate combo, hailing from different geographical and aesthetic backgrounds, contrasts are certainly on display, even within each artist's own contributions. From the melancholia and transcendence of 'Alien Virus (West Indian Centre, Leeds),' to the duality of ascension and descension on 'Hope,' or the Sunn 0))) in dub, visceral drone of 'Dread (The End, London),' to the tripped-out repetitions of 'Midnight,' which reinvents Chain Reaction for post-millennials, the result is both sacred and narcotic. Each track illuminates the emotional impact and atmospheric pressure being explored across this deceptively sparse album—a mastery of tone and texture.

This collection might be as reduced, minimal, and deep as The Bug has ever gone, perhaps echoing the solemnity of his recent Kevin Richard Martin Black release and invoking the futurist steppas self-pioneered on his previous Pressure album. Alternatively, Fiedler‘s Ghost Dubs project ventures into his most heavyweight direction yet, which is no mean feat considering his previous, the critically acclaimed album Damaged, was a monstrously massive triumph of analogue weight and enviable sound design.

Implosion is ice-cool, a stark contrast to the warmth and sociability of traditional Jamaican roots and the current trends in digi-dub. Instead, the mood is soaked in tension and intense dread, finding an unexpected melting point where classic dub's stark rhythm attack, isolationist ambience's eerie drift, dub techno's floatation strategies, and even the relentless riffs of doom metal collide. As the bass-obsessed pair drop what is arguably the heaviest ambient dub album to emerge from any electronic sector—a moody counterpoint to The Orb's fluffy clouds, etc, Martin has cited The Roots Radics, Black Jade, and On U Sound's Pounding System as heavily influencing his approach to the album, while Fiedler has expressed his admiration for Adrian Sherwood's productions and Rhythm & Sound's enchanting soundscape. Yet, the super heavyweight pulsations, emotive resonances, and bone-rattling vibrations detonated here effortlessly go far beyond these influences.

Shadowy and elusive, there’s a mysteriousness at this record's core. A haunting moodiness oscillating between nostalgia and future shock. Despite the deadly fixation with SLOW and HEAVY, the album maintains a totally hypnotic swing throughout. Implosion and its lead single 'Imploded Versions' are testaments to being enveloped in bass, seduced by bass, submerged in bass, and utterly crushed by bass, as The Bug and Ghost Dubs seek to craft a new form of dub for zonal headz and Babylon seekers.

Mastered by Stefan Betke (a.k.a. POLE) at Scape Mastering studio, this record is heavy as f-ck without resorting to continuous distortion. It’s low-end worship taken to an absolute extreme, yet remains highly listenable and definitely danceable, albeit at the slowest of paces. Sacred and narcotic, this is low-end worship amplified to the max. Dive in if you dare.

Clear Red Vinyl. In den späten 1990er Jahren zog Peter ,Sleazy" Christopherson mit Jhonn Balance - seinem Lebens- und Coil-Partner - von London ins ländliche Weston-super-Mare, und schuf ein Umfeld für alles, was ,musick, musick, musick!" heißt, mit einer wechselnden Mitgliedern, darunter Thighpaulsandra. Coil's Coil verdoppelte sich fast, und inmitten dieser fruchtbaren Zeit stellte Thighpaulsandra die einfache Frage: Warum spielt Coil nicht live? Nach einer 16 Jahren Wartezeit, dank des rasanten technischen Fortschritts in Form von MacBooks, DAWs, VSTs und Plug-ins waren Coil in der Lage, ihre Musik auf die Bühne zu bringen, wie sie es sich immer vorgestellt hatten. Mit der Performance konnten sie die Risiken und Freiheiten der Echtzeit-Klangmanipulation, wie Sleazy anmerkt: ,Die Show wird Minute für Minute umgestaltet die Show Minute für Minute... die Richtung ist sehr spontan, nicht so sehr in Jazz-Improvisation, sondern in einer Art Bewusstseinsstrom - Thighpaulsandra brachte uns seine Weisheit, und er konnte uns überzeugen, dass wir es schaffen konnten." Wenn Coil live spielten, waren sie, wie eine Schlange, die sich häutet" alle sechs Monate in etwas völlig anderes; in der Vorbereitung auf das 2004er "Even an Evil Fatigue"-Liveserie vorbereiteten, begannen Coil mit der Arbeit an ihrem nächsten, die Zeit definierenden Meisterwerk Black Antlers. Black Antlers zeigt die späte Coil-Periode: reduzierter, straffer und schlanker. Die Musik wurde rhythmischer, mit einer größeren Betonung auf Beats: ,Die Songs, die wir gemacht haben, sind eher... nicht Rock im eigentlichen Sinne, aber du weißt schon, konventioneller in Bezug auf die Struktur, aber jetzt ist das, was wir tun, eine Art elektronischen' Genre." Der Sound von Black Antlers ist eine mitreißende Energie, die Thighpaulsandras fortschrittliche Synthese, Balances poetische Lyrik und Christophersons Flirten mit Jazz und Ableton-gestütztem PowerBook Maximalismus. Vervollständigt wurde das Trio durch den renommierten Drehleierspieler Cliff Stapleton auf einer ,speziell in Auftrag gegebenen" elektrischen Variante, die sich in die ,seltsame und weltfremde Musik" der Band zu integrieren; der an der Royal Academy of Music ausgebildete Perkussionist Tom Edwards (der auch mit Thighpaulsandra in der der Live-Band von Spiritualized auftrat); und der Spezialist für europäische und nahöstliche Blasinstrumente Mike York an Pfeifen, Bombarde, Duduk und Balalaika.

Inhale. Exhale. Remember to breathe. In that rhythm lies the pulse of being - the ancient echo of stars from which we are made. Breathing is the bridge between the inner cosmos and the outer void. When you breathe, you testify to existence itself: "I am." The Moonrover - a child of reason - abandoned on the cold, dead Moon. It does not feel time, know fear, or comprehend solitude. But a human, in its place, would understand: Silence is not emptiness. It is a mirror. And in that mirror arises the question: "If I am alone, and silence is infinite - who hears my breath?" The answer lies in the breath. Each inhale is resistance against entropy. Each exhale is an act of remembrance. To breathe is to remember that you are not just part of the Universe - you are its awakened part. And just as the Moonrover crawls across grey lunar plains, driven by an unknown purpose, so do you move through life, led by an inner light, until you realize: breath is not just life. It is a prayer sent into silence. And if you can hear it - you are alive.

Extended Field vereint Horse Lords und Arnold Dreyblatt für die achtzehnte Ausgabe von FRKWYS, einer generationsübergreifenden Zusammenarbeit abenteuerlustiger Musiker, die sich von der klanglich strahlenden Welt der reinen Stimmung angezogen fühlen - einem alten Stimmungssystem, bei dem die Tonintervalle aus ganzzahligen Verhältnissen abgeleitet werden. Dreyblatt tauchte erstmals in den 1970er Jahren in New York in diesen Ansatz ein, während Horse Lords fast vier Jahrzehnte später begannen, dessen Möglichkeiten zu erforschen und anzuwenden. Gemeinsam schaffen sie eine lebendige harmonische Umgebung, die von ihrer gemeinsamen Leidenschaft für Rhythmus angetrieben wird und eine Verbindung von diskreter, aber verwandter Ästhetik für die Ewigkeit herstellt. Dreyblatt ist ein Pionier des psychoakustischen Phänomens und war von 1975 bis 1977 Assistent von La Monte Young, bevor er bei dem legendären Alvin Lucier an der Wesleyan University studierte. Er entdeckte die klangliche Kraft angeregter Saiten, rüstete einen Kontrabass mit Klaviersaiten nach und schlug mit schnellen Schlägen darauf, um einhüllende Wolken metallischer Obertöne zu erzeugen. Dreyblatts Album Nodal Excitation aus dem Jahr 1982 legte einen klanglichen Entwurf fest, der bis heute das Herzstück seiner pulsierenden Musik bildet. Schließlich zog er nach Berlin und leitete im Laufe der Jahre verschiedene Ensembles, die das kompositorische Gerüst, das er um seine klingenden Töne herum aufgebaut hatte, verstärkten und interpretierten. Im Gegensatz zu Dreyblatts hyperfokussierter Praxis haben Horse Lords einen ganz eigenen ekstatischen, hybriden Sound entwickelt: Hard-Driving-Rhythmen unterstützen eine Kollision aus traditioneller Ritualmusik, Free Jazz und spektral brillanten elektronischen Schauern psychoakustischer Klänge. Nachdem sie sich mit ihrem 2020 erschienenen Album ,The Common Task" eine treue Fangemeinde aufgebaut hatten, zog der Großteil der Band 2021 nach Deutschland, wobei sich Gitarrist Owen Gardner und Bassist Max Eilbacher in Berlin niederließen und Saxophonist Andrew Bernstein nur wenige Stunden entfernt in Bayern. Schlagzeuger Sam Haberman blieb in Baltimore, trifft sich aber weiterhin mit der Band für Albumaufnahmen, darunter das 2023 erscheinende Album ,Comradely Objects", und ausgedehnte Tourneen. Ohne es zu wissen, teilten beide Seiten ein gegenseitiges Interesse an der Musik des anderen. Anfang 2017 schlug Dreyblatts langjähriger Kollege und Freund Werner Durand ihm vor, sich die Band anzuhören. Er erinnert sich: ,Nachdem ich sie gehört hatte, antwortete ich schnell: ,Klingt großartig! Ein bisschen wie meine Musik. Ich habe noch nie von ihnen gehört!` Ich schickte ihnen eine Nachricht über ihre Bandcamp-Seite, und sie antworteten: ,Hallo! Danke für die Nachricht, wir sind große Fans deiner Musik!` Aber erst als Dreyblatt die Band im Oktober 2021 in Berlin sah, kreuzten sich ihre Wege endlich. Einige Tage später schlug Bernstein eine Zusammenarbeit vor. Dieser Prozess verlief langsam, aber sicher; beide Seiten waren sehr beschäftigt, und als die Musiker schließlich zusammenkamen, mussten sie unterschiedliche harmonische Vorstellungen miteinander in Einklang bringen und brauchten jemanden, der Haberman am Schlagzeug ersetzte. Dreyblatt schlug Andrea Belfi vor, einen angesehenen italienischen Schlagzeuger und Komponisten, der in Berlin lebt. In den folgenden Kompositionssitzungen lernten Horse Lords und Dreyblatt die Feinheiten der harmonischen Vorlieben des jeweils anderen kennen und fanden Wege, diese zu einem einheitlichen Klang zu verschmelzen. ,Andrew und Owen schlugen Strukturen für die Navigation durch meine Tonsysteme vor", erklärt Dreyblatt, ,während Max in SuperCollider gewichtete algorithmische Frequenzmuster entwickelte." Viele Bewohner des Stimmungsuniversums haben hartnäckige Überzeugungen darüber, was richtig und was falsch ist, daher ist die Geduld und Offenheit beider Seiten ziemlich ungewöhnlich, wobei die Partnerschaft faszinierende Akzente und Veränderungen hervorbringt. ,Als Fans von eingeschränkter/algorithmischer Kunst (nicht der schlechten Art!) haben wir beschlossen, diese Matrix in den Mittelpunkt unserer Entscheidungsfindung zu stellen, um uns sowohl eine nicht willkürliche Möglichkeit zu geben, die ansonsten unendlichen Möglichkeiten zu begrenzen, mit denen man bei der Komposition mit Zahlen konfrontiert ist, als auch einen Ausweg aus festgefahrenen Gewohnheiten", schreibt Gardner über die Schaffung von Grenzen für ihre harmonischen Welten. Anstatt den Prozess einzuschränken, zwang diese Entscheidung die Musiker, ihre Komfortzone zu verlassen, und erforderte mehr Einfallsreichtum und Bedachtsamkeit bei ihren Entscheidungen. Das Endergebnis ist weit mehr als die Summe seiner Teile, da beide Parteien sich auf die Ideen des anderen einlassen, ohne die Vorrangstellung ihrer eigenen Ideen zu opfern. Der galoppierende polyrhythmische Antrieb, der ein charakteristisches Merkmal der Musik von Horse Lords ist, bleibt allgegenwärtig, und ein Stück wie ,Extended Field" nutzt die numerische Matrix von Dreyblatts System sowohl harmonisch als auch rhythmisch. In dem sich endlos wandelnden Drone-Stück ,Suspension" umschmeicheln Horse Lords Dreyblatts gestreifte Bogenstriche mit ihren eigenen pulsierenden Tönen. Obwohl ihre Rolle in den jeweiligen Werken unterschiedlich ist und sie im Verhältnis zu anderen Elementen in unterschiedlichen Anteilen vorkommen, ist die harmonische Erforschung das Herzstück dieser atemberaubenden Zusammenarbeit. Wie man im Schlussstück ,Impulse Array" erkennen kann, führt das Stöbern der Horse Lords in Dreyblatts Matrix zu den klanglichen Entdeckungen, für die sie leben. Wie Gardner bemerkt: ,Jede Wendung offenbart einen überraschenden, aber irgendwie unvermeidlichen neuen Akkord, dessen Verlauf seltsamerweise an einen Bach-Choral erinnert, der sowohl sehr zielgerichtet als auch ohne Ziel ist."

Since the early 90s the name Aubrey has stood for authentic UK Techno with deep roots in Chicago, Detroit and New York. His "Super Analog EP" for Mojuba sublabel a.r.t.less isn't a look back, but a statement on the timeless power of analog sound.
The four tracks are a journey through a spectrum of moods: from the cosmic expanse of "Big Six" and the playful acid touches of "Time Flying" to the raw, hypnotic energy of "Robber Nose" and the wistful depth of "Mysterious Rhythm."
This is music that can connect generations, an inspiration for seasoned listeners and new explorers alike. A stunning label debut that needs no grand explanation because it tells its own powerful story.

Sonetos del Amor Oscuro is an ode performed by four enchanted souls who have intertwined their hearts and conjured harmonies and rhythms that wander endlessly among the spellbinding words of a poet from Granada... Federico García Lorca;
He wrung, pushed and vibrated words like tectonic plates, transforming plains into poetic mountain landscapes. He then covered them with a Moorish carpet of snow crystals and had them reflected by the dark locks of hair of a gypsy girl from Albaicín who, with a voice forged in gold and silver, sings her little sister to sleep with a soothing lullaby.

Helena Casella – vocals
Myrddin De Cauter – flamenco guitar
Stijn Kuppens – cello
Stefan Bracaval – flute, bass flute

Helena Casella, the Belgian-Brazilian vocalist with a deep, soft and warm voice, translates her multicultural background and personal thoughts into music in a passionate, soulful and refined way. With her roots in an exceptionally musical family, her music exudes this unique heritage. She effortlessly interweaves genres such as R&B, soul, hip hop and modern jazz, while remaining true to the vibrant sounds of Brazil, an essential part of her roots.
Her debut album was released earlier this year on W.E.R.F. records.

Myrddin De Cauter's music is deeply moving, complex, passionately rhythmic and deeply emotional. He has mastered the compás of flamenco, which gives him the freedom to converse with elements from jazz or classical music. His speed sometimes seems otherworldly, but those who take the time to listen closely to his music will quickly discover an immense world of pure emotion, beauty and tranquillity. After six albums and countless concerts, Myrddin proves that great virtuosos do not necessarily have to come from Spain. At the tender age of eleven, his father taught him to play the clarinet in jazz and gypsy swing style; he became part of the family orchestra and gained his first experiences on stage. A classical melody composed on the guitar prompted him to ask his father to teach him the basics of flamenco guitar. Soon after, Myrddin seemed ready for the real thing and went to Andalusia to learn from Manolo Sanlucar and Gerardo Núñez. This inspired him to compose in his own unique language, deeply rooted in the pure flamenco tradition but enriched by boundless creativity.

Stijn Kuppens is a cellist, composer and producer. In his own genre, which he describes as non-classical cello, he uses the cello in his own unique way. His profound knowledge of the complex history and techniques of the style is clearly audible: Kuppens' mastery of classical music is evident in every note he plays, whether he is performing solo or collaborating with other musicians. His skill as a musician and ambition to explore the boundaries of conventional classical music is evident in his ability to seamlessly blend different genres.

Stefan Bracaval is a classically trained flutist who graduated from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp. His fascination with the expressive potential of improvisation led him to jazz, where he became a self-taught jazz flutist. Bracaval has collaborated on projects with prominent jazz figures such as Charles Loos, Bert Joris and the Brussels Jazz Orchestra. In addition, he worked as a soloist and arranger with the VRT Radio Choir in 2016. Bracaval leads the Stefan Bracaval QU4RTET, which emphasises the flute as a central jazz instrument and brings new repertoire rooted in jazz traditions.

Live
31/10/2025 – Café Silverio, Gent (BE)
15/01/2026 – Kloosterkapel Diepenbeek (BE)
16/01/2026 – ‘t Ey, Belsele (BE)
17/01/2026 – Sint-Luciakerk (kerkconcerten Merode), Engsbergen (BE)
23/01/2026 – Muziekcentrum Dranouter (BE)

Hailing from Aachen, the Brandwerk resident Danieli is less a producer and more a sound archaeologist. An artist who uncovers the hidden rhythms of nature and translates them into deep, textured techno. His debut EP on a.r.t.less, "Shifting Clouds," is the consistent continuation of this path. The title is not just a name, but a mission statement and a metaphor for his entire approach: music that is organic, fleeting, and full of emotional depth. The four tracks are a journey through soundscapes distilled from field recordings, synths, percussion with analog warmth and dub ethos. From the atmospheric melodic expanses of the title track, "Shifting Clouds," and the almost microscopic detail of "Minutiae," to the hypnotic evolving pull of "Between Layers" and "Reduce", this EP is a masterclass in subtle dynamics. For Mojuba sublabel a.r.t.less, this release is a more than welcome extension of its own sonic cosmos as well as its artist roster.

Slip is Paul Abbott’s response to his 3 day residency at OTO in 2023. It’s a continued exploration of the acoustic-digital hybrid drum setup Abbott has been developing for some time, which involves drum kit and synthetic sounds combined closely—through an entanglement of limbs and cables—in an intimate but strange relationship with each other.

Paul Abbott hasn’t had any formal musical training, but has a long history of making music, having collaborated for years with Seymour Wright, Pat Thomas, Michael Speers, Cara Tolmie, Anne Gillis and many others. Eventually, led by a profound suspicion of what is fixed or limited, Abbott began finding other ways to organise sound - or what he calls ‘material’:

“I wanted a way to 'persuade' or guide the possibility of something happening - my activity or the events of an algorithmic composition - for example, but without certainty or formalism. It felt to me, during playing, that certain ideas had a particular sort of shape, but more than the form of a line. I began to write alongside (before/after) playing the drums, and ‘characters’ began to enter the scene as a more wobbly, and therefore appropriate option to notation. Working with these characters allowed me to simultaneously approach body, imagination, language and music: without dividing things up or separating these aspects from each other. It allowed me to leave things messy and entangled, whilst trying to deal with form and specificity: wanting to have some things feel or respond differently to other things at other times.”

In approaching his residency, Abbott developed a fixed cast of characters - crystal, lleaf, reiy.F, reiy.C, strike, nee, qosel, sphu and aahn. They each communicate using different kinds of movement and drum kit/s, and Abbott choreographed them as ‘dances’ based on different feelings, or outlines of behaviours suggestive of ways of moving (body, drums, sounds). He then arranged these characters into ‘compositions’: one for each performance day, with each composition featuring multi-layered activity - options for behaviours, ways to move around the rooms, play drums, develop synthetic sounds, change the lights or re-distribute the sound in the space.

After the performances, Abbott took home 9 hours of recordings split into up to 28 multitrack channels for each day, and re-organised his cast once more into a performance for 2LP, CD and digital. It’s an enormous amount of work - but Abbott is activated by the process. For him, the pleasure of unstable edges, possibilities, slippages, is the vital attraction. Like all living organisms, Abbott’s characters have malleability and responsivity. They stimulate a bundle of possible behaviours, a tendency to act a certain way, a temperament, a boundary of respective limits or affordances.

It’s an affective way of working, inclusive of Roscoe Mitchell, Sun Ra, Nathaniel Mackey and Milford Graves. In ‘Pulseology’(2022), Milford Graves reminds us, ‘Breath varies, so cardiac rhythm never has that (metronomic) tempo. It’s always changing. All the alignments of the heart are determined based on the needs of the cells, specifically tissues and organs. The heart knows if it needs to speed up.’ In Slip, to slip, in a heartbeat, is to descend not into the grid of the even metre accorded to the heartbeat, but into a play of mutability and modality. To change is the condition of the heart.

Recorded in concert at the University of Sheffield in March 2025, Reality Is Not A Theory is the first collaboration between Mark Fell and Pat Thomas. Major figures in British experimental music since the 1990s, Fell and Thomas have developed their rigorous practices from radically different backgrounds and perspectives: where Fell’s singular take on synthetic abstraction emerged from Sheffield’s electronic underground, Thomas is a virtuoso improvising pianist steeped in jazz and modernist art music who has simultaneously worked with sampler-based electronics for decades. As the record’s wonderfully academic subtitle explains, we are presented here with two sides of ‘algorithmic and improvised music for computer and piano’, exemplifying both players’ insatiable search for new (and sometimes uncomfortable) playing situations.

The performance begins with Fell’s electronics close to the timbres of acoustic percussion, attacks that suggest wood, metal or glass threaded along a rapid pulse while Thomas focuses on the lowest registers of the piano, deadening the strings. As Fell’s electronics start to ring out and occupy more harmonic space, Thomas turns to wide, repeated clusters, which slowly expand into patterns of chords. Like in his recent solo recordings and his trio work with Joel Grip and Anton Gerbal, Thomas’ playing combines extreme dissonance with a deep lyrical sense. Fell’s work gradually shifts its focus toward drum sounds, drawing on the microtemporal processes that have characterized his practice in recent decades. Heard together with Thomas’ probing piano, the computer sounds call up unexpected associations with the klangfarben antics of improv drummers like Paul Lovens or Tony Oxley. Throughout its second half, the music grows increasingly frenetic, as Thomas sounds out rapid, irregularly repeated figures and beautifully sour chords in the upper register, while Fell’s percussion develops into angular pan-pipe-like feedback and waves of glissandi.

With great confidence and patience, Fell and Thomas often let their individual contributions remain rhythmically distinct and unsynchronised, allowing unexpected correspondence and coincidence to guide the music’s development. Recorded in a hall named after Sheffield steel manufacturer and Master Cutler Mark Firth, the location might suggest a model for understanding how Fell and Thomas interact here: two workers in the same workshop, each immersed in their own part of the production process. Arriving in a striking sleeve designed by Mark Fell, with liner notes by Francis Plagne, Reality Is Not A Theory is an invigorating document of the meeting of two mavericks of contemporary music.

'Songs and Bodies' is best described as hypnagogic post-rock, an impressionistic blur of dissociated riffs, jazzy rhythms and half-heard voices that casts a beguiling digital silhouette of '90s indie music. The album began as a personal experiment, a question that emerged as Piotr Kurek cast his mind back to the era that birthed bands like Gastr del Sol, Bark Psychosis, Labradford and The Sea and Cake. Curious how this music might sound in today’s cultural climate, he started recording sketches at home on guitar and keyboard, applying the same advanced processing, editing and manipulation techniques that had nourished his last run of albums. Early on, he brought in drummer Mateusz Rychlicki and bassist Wojciech Traczyk, layering their performances into the evolving material. These ideas might have remained in that unvarnished state had Unsound not suggested a live performance of the work in October 2024. Spurred by the invitation, Kurek hardened his resolve, finishing a crumpled, uncanny set of half-songs that extend the chimerical sonic universe of the jazz-inspired 'Smartwoods' and its baroque predecessor 'Peach Blossom'.

Not an exercise in nostalgia, 'Songs and Bodies' is an examination of the '90s and '00s experimental rock canon that isolates its humanity as the world stares down a new technological dawn. At a glance, Kurek's songs are remarkably organic, diaphanous guitar-led meditations embellished with era-specific organ and electric piano vamps, cryptic vocal utterances and dusty drums, but it's all an illusion. Listen a little closer and the wrinkles appear—the robotic, garbled articulations, awkward tempo fluctuations and charming hiccups.

Kurek distills these vulnerabilities and blemishes to present a deeply personal but relatable abstraction of familiar sounds and gestures. It's the closest the composer has come to old-fashioned songwriting, but the end result is the same: an invitation to look beyond the frosted glass of an increasingly digital existence.

One Instrument welcomes Morning Seance, composer and sound artist, originally from Italy and based in Vienna. On this debut LP, Morning Seance traces a drifting narrative composed of unstable harmonies, fluid structures, and ghostlike forms. The album unfolds like a dream told in fragments, oscillating between fluctuating pulses and decaying transmissions, from nocturnal stillness to acoustic mirages. The first half of the record moves through zones of suspended tension and evanescent contours, where tracks like “Be faster than your own depression” and “The tenderness of our own autobiography” sketch fragile architectures of affect. The second half enters a more spectral terrain — “Breakfast in a night club,” “A visit to the Brion-Vega tomb” — not places, but agglomerates of sonic sensation, detached from any personal frame.

With each piece, the music dissolves and reconstitutes itself, resisting finality or form, and doing so with an indestructible joy that hums beneath the wreckage. This is degenerate ambient music: anti-geometric and subject to emotional weather — not a refuge, but a slow collapse of structure and purity, where atmosphere gives way to excess and disobedience.

The album is crafted entirely from a single source: the Roland Alpha Juno-1. Despite this constraint, it achieves a vast sound spectrum, transforming one synthesizer’s voice into a layered landscape of textures and moods.

The electronic music of Morning Seance is built on constant variation and intricate, looping patterns with no clear beginning or end. This variation is not simply applied to an audio element, but enacted as a compositional logic — avoiding mechanical combinations and obvious rhythms. The result is a mutable mass of audio matter and tonal debris, guiding the listener through richly divergent environments.

Berlin’s ZentaSkai returns to his Mask Records with the ‘Billie’ EP, collaborating with Palawan, Jeremy Reinhard, and Thomas Grün for release on vinyl only, 2nd November 2025. He kicks off with the solo cut 'A1', which is quick, sophisticated, raw House with a funky clip to the beats that diffuses heat in the grainy sustained pads. It brings serene emotional release through stylish hypnosis and gorgeous vocals that blend seamlessly into the mix. Next, ZentaSkai collaborates with the mysterious Palawan, as he did on one track of his 2023 album The Architecture Of The Mind, on 'A2.' This one suspends you in backlit synth glows while rounded drums and funky claps tap out the supple rhythm. Cautious hope comes from the quiet chord stabs and soft focus melodies in what is a masterclass in deep Techno minimalism. 'B1' reunites ZentaSkai with Cologne's Jeremy Reinhard following previous cuts on that same 2023 album. Reinhard has long been a pillar of his local Berlin scene as a resident DJ, but also the wider underground with his own label Lekker Record. Their track taps into dub depths but ups the pace and allows radiant synths to piece the surface next to muttered spoken word that keep it intimate and perfectly seductive for body and mind. Last of all is a collab with Austrian Thomas Grün, who has been shaping deep and Tech House with his immaculate grooves for decades. Their 'B2' brings US garage snares to buoyant drums and douses them in layers of fuzzy synth warmth. It's meditative yet direct with an ever-rising sense of hope that makes it all the more indelible. ZentaSkai (aka No Mad Ronin, Matt Nowak, and MASK) is a German DJ and producer active since 1997. Based out of his studio in Berlin, ZentaSkai runs the Zaijenroots label and, since 2017, the Mask sub-label, which houses his stunning 2023 ‘Architecture of the Mind’ LP as well as his Cuddling Monsters project with Laura Merino Allue, who has been significantly involved in the label's work since 2023. - with other credits including a release on Jerome Sydenham’s Ibadan Records and support from the likes of Richie Hawtin, Joseph Capriati, Marcel Dettmann, Luke Slater, Laurent Garnier, DVS1, Ben Sims, and Radio Slave.

Interstitial Spaces is Martin Brandlmayr’s debut release on Faitiche. In this award-winning radio collage, the well-known drummer and composer (Radian, Polwechsel) explores the quiet moments in music and film recordings.

The last notes of a piece of music fade out in the space. The pianist and the violinist remain frozen in place, holding their breath. The sound engineer sits silently at the desk. Once he has switched off his tape machine, the dull drone of a ship’s horn is heard in the distance. Otherwise, not a sound. Or was there something else hidden in the white noise?

Interstitial Spaces is based on short excerpts from music recordings, films, TV adverts and field recordings. Brandlmayr takes these quiet scenes, intervals in which nothing seems to happen, and brings them into the foreground, subjecting them to a microscopic spotlight. Moments in which one hears only the space itself, or the subtle presence of someone in the space: faint breathing, footsteps and the soft creak of a chair. We also hear preparations for an orchestra rehearsal: the musicians are all busy tuning their instruments, talking to each other, the concert has not yet begun.

This leads to a shift in perception: incidental details hidden in the hubbub of voices or in the silence suddenly take on a leading role. In the empty spaces, we discover various shades of noise, sharpening our awareness of sonic peculiarities. In a gentle rhythm, Brandlmayr’s radio collage offers a sequence of strange, not immediately identifiable sounds that are woven in the second part into a dense structure. At the end, the carefully captured sounds are released back into the empty space. Interstitial Spaces is a bold spectacle that celebrates the eventful uneventfulness.

Pablo Sánchez´s new solo album “Archipiélago” is out now. The new long player, a follow-up to his “Nocturnal” album as Basic Need will be released on Sisternoise Records and is a 42 minute voyage sailing through uncharted waters.

Every archipelago is a constellation of islands, distinct yet bound by invisible tides. Archipiélago, the latest work from Pablo Sánchez, follows this same geography of sound and memory. Its islands are not of sand and rock, but of places which inspired the artist throughout his life; Buenos Aires, Caracas, Puerto Rico, New York, Madrid, Berlin, and Barcelona. Each city has left a trace, a shoreline carved into Sánchez’s musical journey and left a distinctive musical mark.

The ten songs gathered here are like sovereign entities, each with its own character, its own rhythm, its own language. Together they form a single territory, a map drawn by musical experience, longing, and imagination. They are ports of call, but also fragments of a larger voyage, where tradition and experimentation, nostalgia and discovery, coexist to create a common territory. Along the way guest magicians Animal Feelings and Salomeya add their vocal sparks to the voyage.

Archipiélago is not a destination but a map of crossings, a territory of sound where the journey itself becomes home.

Blue Camel, offensichtlich eine Anspielung auf die Verschmelzung arabischer Kamele mit blauen Noten, ist genau die Platte, die ihr Name vermuten lässt: irgendwie blau, aber nicht ganz. Die Platte ist nicht nur die bisher beste Leistung des Oud-Spielers und Komponisten Rabih Abou-Khalil, sie wurde sogar als "a new Kind Of Blue" bezeichnet.

Abgesehen von den individuellen Qualitäten aller Spieler ist das Zusammenspiel und die Selbstlosigkeit auf Blue Camel wirklich bemerkenswert. Abou-Khalil wechselt in der Regel Soli mit Charlie Mariano am Altsaxophon und der Trompete und von Kenny Wheeler ab, aber eine breite Skala von Instrumenten wird angeboten, um das Handtuch zu werfen, vor allem variierende Perkussion, die afrikanische, indische und südamerikanische Musik erforscht. Man könnte allein aus rhythmischer Befriedigung zuhören.

On Beacon Hill: at twilight we find Anthony Moore, roots winding backwards to the halcyon days of Slapp Happy and the "70s progressive art rock scene, at guitar and piano. With the atmospheres and accompaniments of AKA & Friends, he breathes infernal new life into songs from his six decades of multivarious music making. This new delivery system is unto a séance, a communal incantation, twining Anthony"s avant and pop traditions together in a darkly radiant coil of folky chamber music; a rope to lower the listener through cobwebs and murk, unveiling new life beneath Anthony"s mad old lines. AKA are Anthony Moore, Keith Rodway and Amanda Thompson. A pagan family of sound worshipers hailing from that unholiest of all places: Hastings UK, home of Crowley and Turing. Like their sinister forbears in that infamous tradition, this latest trinity shares a passion for subverting pattern and number, factoring unlikely permutations arising from sea and horizon, greensward, the southerly aspect, and the planisphere as half-world. Their equatorial shore speaks of a planet of water and earth, fire and air. AKA"s humble tools of choice for this endeavor are guitar, piano, organ, synthesizer and vocals. The Friends of AKA are Tullis Rennie, trombone and electronics; Olie Brice, double bass; Richard Moore, violin; and Haydn Ackerley, guitar. They too navigate the shoreline of the south coast, haunt the same taverns and regularly play together in whatever combinations fit the bill. Leaving the drums (and their drummer) at home to realize anew these dreamladen songs, AKA & Friends ensure that the notes fall around the beat and not on it, so as to define the pulse with absence. As such, time is liberated, prised free from the merciless clock; a rhythm of waves, passing through a steady-state universe of no beginnings and no endings. Discontinuities are dissolved, all is transition.

EPICA’s seventh full-length studio effort “The Holographic Principle” signified a significant upping of the musical ante for this most adventurous of modern bands. Recorded once with esteemed producer Joost van den Broek at the controls, “The Holographic Principle” represents the most impressive and powerful expression of EPICA’s boldly inventive sound yet. One listen to thunderous songs like ‘Edge Of The Blade’ and ‘Universal Death Squad’ will confirm that “The Holographic Principle” is EPICA’s heaviest album to date. Meanwhile, the shimmering soundscapes and multi-layered melodrama of ‘Once Upon A Nightmare’ and the towering 11-minute title track confirm that “The Holographic Principle” is also the band’s most musically extravagant and daring release so far. With lashings of sumptuous orchestration and a never-ending stream of ingenious but brutal metal riffs and propulsive rhythms underpinning the whole explosive enterprise, this is an album that raises the bar for the entire symphonic metal genre.

Mit Live in Bangalore legt der Kölner Schlagzeuger und Komponist Jo Beyer das dritte Album seines Quartetts vor - ein fulminantes Live-Dokument aus dem renommierten Windmills in der südindischen Metropole Bangalore. Fünf hochenergetische Tracks voller Spiellust, Wucht und Tour-de-Force-Momenten zeigen die Band in absoluter Topform. Entstanden gegen Ende einer intensiven Indien-Tournee, fängt die Aufnahme einen Abend ein, an dem alles stimmte: ein extrem gut eingespieltes Ensemble, ein Raumklang von Weltklasse und ein Publikum, das restlos aus dem Häuschen war. Sämtliche Titel existieren bereits in Studioversionen, doch hier sind sie hörbar gereift - durch jahrelanges Zusammenspiel, erweiterte Improvisationen und radikale Interaktion. Besonders prägnant ist die ungewöhnliche Besetzung ohne Bass, die ein unverwechselbares, rhythmisch starkes Klangbild schafft. Mit Pianist Felix Elsner an Bord hebt Beyer das Quartett endgültig auf ein neues Level - kraftvoll, kompromisslos und voller Überraschungen.

2025 Repress

DJ Koze doesn't aim for technical perfection for its own sake, but rather to serve the purpose of giving birth to great music. On his debut 'Rue Burnout EP' from his own Pampa label, he plays with finesse and sophistication, and implicitly understands the importance of subtlety, leading from dreamy and restrained parts to a noisy frenzy at the end. 'Blume der Nacht' starts with a looped piano solo from Arabian dodecaphony, interwoven with bangs of violine bows, piercing high-pitched strings, almost shrieking glissandi, deep angel chants and obsessive sharp rhythms. The 37 year old constantly horny wunderkind producer has made a habit of creatively foiling expectations, and works also under the pseudonyms Adolf Noise, Swahimi and recently Madima Lokkah to redefine the boundaries of electronic music. This daring concept works perfectly in the title track 'Rue Burnout' - it is very rare that you find house music this excitingly light-fooded and precisely transparent. The musician cuts the pigtail off the term 'Kackmusik' for good, and demonstrates how sounds are capable of creating the most delicate musical interplay.
Amen.
DJ Koze, Germany, April 2010.

Smashed Sunset Vinyl, limitiert auf 400 Exemplare. Energiegeladen - so lässt sich The Birch am besten beschreiben. Treffende Riffs, druckvolle Rhythmen und alles eingebettet in psychedelische Klangfarben - so erschaffen sie eine Atmosphäre purer Ekstase. Vicious Mind ist ein Abstieg in die moderne Psych-Rock-Welt. Mit seinen sieben Tracks zeigt es auf Seite A eine eher düstere Facette der Band, die sich auf Seite B in eine weichere, mehr Rock'n'Roll-geprägte Stimmung auflöst. Mit einer Reise ins Ausland verschlug es The Birch nach Miami Beach, wo sie ihr zweites Studioalbum aufnahmen - ein Aufenthalt, der dem Album durch die Eindrücke aus dem ,Land of the Free" eine neue Note verlieh. Twangy Gitarren und eine geradeaus treibende Rhythmussektion führen den Hörer in psychedelische Klanglandschaften, die durch einen konstanten Beat lebendig gehalten werden, der einen durch die 30 Minuten von Vicious Mind begleitet.

Green Vinyl. Twenty-five years after their first recording, Panzerpappa - perhaps Norway's most cordial avant-prog ensemble - felt the time had finally come to release their first-ever concept album. In 2025 the band will launch Landsbysladder, their eighth studio release. Landsbysladder is Norwegian for "village gossip" and the album comprises seven instrumental pieces centred on the themes of rumours, tales, and gossip in a small village - a musical chronicle of minor and major dramas unfolding in a tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone - or at least thinks they do. Landsbysladder tells a vivid story without uttering a single word. The music shifts between open, melodic passages and sudden bursts of intensity, drive, and complexity. Tempo changes, rhythmic twists, and harmonic detours mirror the unpredictable way gossip can spread, grow, and shift the mood in an instant. The album features several distinguished guest musicians: renowned folk artist Rannveig Djonne on diatonic accordion, seasoned performer Silje Hveem Lofthus on flute, internationally acclaimed soloist and professor Håkon Stene on tuned percussion, Håkon Borve on the rarely heard contra-alto clarinet, and last but not least, jazz luminary Ståle Storlokken - known from Elephant9, Terje Rypdal, Motorpsycho, and Supersilent - on synthesizer.

Damit eins gleich klar ist: Auf FARIN URLAUBs zweitem Album ist erst mal Schluss mit lustig.
Es dauert ganze vier Verse, und ein unmissverständliches „Feuer frei“ legt einem nahe, den Kopf für den
Rest des Albums lieber unten zu halten … und besser isses, denn es wird fortan konsequent mit der Gitarre
niedergemäht, was nicht in geduckter Haltung hinterm umgekippten Esstisch kauert*. Sogar die SkaAnleihen klingen nach Ska-ta-ta-ta-ta.
Und Pustekuchen für jeden, der glaubt, sich am wohlvertrauten Sound durch das hangeln zu können, was
da auf einen niederhagelt.
Da kommt einer eigenständig – aber diesmal nicht allein. FARIN URLAUB schart erstmals Teile seines
„Orchester voll Dynamit“ um sich, das ihn fortan live begleitet: Zwar spielt er – Bläser ausgenommen –
wieder alle Instrumente selbst ein, doch die Damen vom RACING TEAM leihen ihm diesmal ihre Stimmen.
Kein Wunder also, dass AM ENDE DER SONNE schnurstracks auf die 1 ging.
URLAUB hat ein fieses Album in eine fiese Welt geworfen. Eine Welt, über der ein teilnahmsloser Lichtball
prangt, um irdisches Elend unbarmherzig auszuleuchten („Sonne“). Eine Welt, in der man’s nicht einmal
mehr schafft, das Meer romantisch zu verklären („Unter Wasser“), weil man vom eigenen Haushalt mit
Anlauf aufs Maul kriegt („Dusche“), während einer mit dem Schraubenschlüssel rhythmisch auf die Heizung
hämmert.
Die 180-Gramm-Vinyl-Wiederveröffentlichung von AM ENDE DER SONNE erscheint am 21.11.2025 mit
Downloadcode.
*) Das Album ist nicht nur gewaltig, es ist auch großzügig, denn eventuell gibt’s einen Hidden-Track.

Los Angeles-based producer and composer Hayes Bradley returns with his most ambitious work yet, Audience, out now via StrataSonic Records. A departure from his years composing for film and fashion, the 14-track album marks a return to his dancefloor roots by melding breakbeats, trip-hop, and ambient textures into something both nostalgic and forward-thinking.

After two beatless, melodic LPs on Secular Sabbath, Bradley arrives at Los Angeles’ StrataSonic—an independent label celebrated for prioritizing artistic freedom—with Audience, a record defined by moody, churning breaks and rich soundscapes. Across the album, he merges the emotional depth of his scoring work with the kinetic energy of underground dance music, crafting a deeply-layed and adventurous project that exists beyond trends while highlighting his versatility as both producer and performer.

The album features collaborations with Luna on the ethereal “Dear Treasure” (accompanied by a music video with collaborator and partner Luna Blaise) Amtrac on “Be Right With You,” and Oxis on “Wishes,” alongside a range of instrumental cuts that highlight Bradley’s approach to rhythm and sound design.

At its core, Audience is an exploration of embracing personal and musical chaos. Bradley channels moments of anxiety, uncertainty, and raw emotion into tracks that are unpredictable and immersive. The album reflects his philosophy of leaning into disorder—turning moments of anxiety, unpredictability, and chaos into kinetic music that moves both body and mind.

Silat Beksi is back on Afterhours. with Infinite O’Clock, the labels eighth release — an assured statement where minimal house, tech-house, and groove converge. Over recent years, the label has consistently delivered stripped-back club tools with subtle depth, and Beksi’s latest reinvigorates that tradition with fresh energy rather than repetition.

The EP opens with Infinite O’Clock, a hypnotic minimal-house piece built from syncopated rhythms, deep, lush pads, ambient vocal samples, and a groovy low-end that perfectly fits the early club hours — those moments when the light begins to cut through the windows. On the Flip Side, Beksi shifts into early-00s micro-house mode: shuffled hi-hats, crisp claps, and playful, wonky grooves take the lead, while warm aerial pads reminiscent of 90s video games and acid-tinged basslines elevate the track with sophistication. Closing the record, Godbrother turns up the jacking energy — metallic and robotic samples, an infectious bassline, spatial pads, and delayed vocals give it a menacing, dancefloor-ready drive that ends the EP in full swing.

With Infinite O’Clock, Silat Beksi builds on Afterhours.’ reputation for club-focused minimalism and sound-system fidelity — a release that reaffirms the label’s consistent quality while confidently steering its sound forward.

MD008 is here! — a bold new chapter in theever-evolving world of re-edits. This latest instalmentis a masterclass in versatility and emotion: four distinct cuts, four immersivesoundscapes, each crafted to ignite the dancefloor in its own unforgettableway. From hypnotic vocal firestorms to cinematic tributes, MD008 is a recordthat transcends trends and celebrates the timeless art of groove. Vinyl-only,limited edition — a future classic in the making.



A1 –TVGLips
A relentless vocal workout built to commandattention from the very first beat. “TVGLips” is a powerhouse opener —hypnotic, high-energy, and unapologetically intense. Its driving rhythm andsoaring vocal lines lock dancers into a euphoric trance, pushing momentumhigher with every bar. A weapon of choice for peak-time sets.



A2 –Tu Sei
Radiating pure nostalgia, “Tu Sei” channelsthe neon-lit spirit of the 1980s with a contemporary twist. Shimmering synths,heartfelt melodies, and a groove steeped in retro romance make this track anirresistible dancefloor moment. Equal parts cinematic and soulful, it’s a loveletter to a bygone era — and a timeless anthem for now.



B1 –Inquinada
Where new wave attitude meets disco power.“Inquinada” is a darkly seductive cut that pulses with underground energy — rawbasslines, mechanical percussion, and shimmering synth layers collide to createa sound that’s both nostalgic and futuristic. Perfectly balancing edge andallure, it’s a track that keeps the floor moving deep into the night.



B2 –Gatto Fresco
Closing the EP is aheartfelt homage to one of music’s greatest icons. This is a tribute toFreddie, and it’s pure celebration — anthemic, uplifting, and full of life.With its soaring melodies and infectious groove, it captures the unbreakablespirit and theatrical brilliance of Freddie’s legacy, leaving dancersexhilarated and inspired as the lights come up.



LimitedEdition, Vinyl Only
True to form, MD008 ispressed in strictly limited quantities — once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.Collectors, selectors, and lovers of the edit craft: this is a piece you’llwant in your collection.

ORANGE SWIRL VINYL

Public Memory is the solo project of Brooklyn's Robert Toher, recorded over the course of a year as he lived in Los Angeles temporarily. Previously of the group ERAAS, Robert places a greater emphasis on electronics in this new project. Rhythm is at the forefront, with the tone informed by stripped down, narcotic impressions of krautrock, hypnotic percussion, and subtly layered atmospherics. Spectral vocals meld with delicate piano against hip hop beats and a dub sensibility, conjuring clouded lights, foggy glass in empty buildings, urban wraiths.To call it minimal would, on the surface, seem appropriate. Wuthering Drum does not need an abundance of flashes and frills to illustrate its point, nor does it need smoke and mirrors to mask a lack of vision. However, repeated listens yield layers of tonal variations, textural nuance, and tastefully placed overdubs. There is a slightly religious or spiritual element at Wuthering Drum's core; a sense of being in an existential crisis, while simultaneously being uplifted, in the face of change. This is the search for redemption in a far away place, away from comfort; it is adjustment to an inner dissonance, rather than the washing over of past fears and regrets with sterile holy waters.

The Heinz Beauvaix project dates back to the mid-1990’s when Niels Rønne and Flemming Kaspersen played in Danish ambient act Swimwear Catalogue. On an ever growing number of DAT tapes they recorded semi-improvised synth/sampler/sequencer jams that mixed influences from ambient, electro and industrial. Later they began working with more detailed studio productions.

The seven tracks on “Vision Man” combine complex synth pads, interweaving monophonic synth lines, discrete drum rhythms, and strange voice samples. The sound is experimental and melodic at the same time. Influences range from early industrial to IDM, techno and synth pop. Rønne and Kaspersen originally met through a shared obsession with Canadian industrial giants Skinny Puppy. And if there is one seminal album that has influenced the Heinz Beauvaix sound, it is the obscure Skinny Puppy side project Doubting Thomas and their solitary album “The Infidel”, released in 1990.

Others have mentioned influences from bands such as Coil, Severed Heads, Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber’s Delerium and Future Sound Of London.

“Vision Man” is old school synthesizer music with tunes you can hum.

Secretsundaze’s recently minted 9FINITY continues its stellar run of explorations into the outer regions of modern club music with an imprint debut from fast-rising talent Milès Borghese.

Borrowing elements from early Detroit techno, and Perlonized minimal, the ‘Antic Drive’ EP distills the German-born, Austria-based producer’s broad spectrum of influences into a highly functional, club-ready collection of tracks that perfectly fits the imprint’s modus operandi.

The A-side kicks off with ‘Do You Ever Fantasize’, a deep club tool built around the vocal sample of the title and punctuated by building drums, alien sonics at every turn, and a mean, highly danceable bassline to boot. The peak time worthy ‘Sustain’ follows an impressive opening, as an incessant mind-looping hypnotic groover aimed straight at the floor.

The EP’s title track ‘Antic Drive’ opens up the flip. Leaning on subtle textures and almost off kilter percussion, minimal broody deepness is the motive here. Borghese’s impressive first outing wraps up with ‘Mateo Does’, a driving rhythm-heavy track built for late nights and early mornings.

DarkSonicTales is a project by Rolf Gisler and his eponymous album his first for Hallow Ground. Having been granted an artist residency by the label in a 300 year-old farm house in the Swiss countryside in autumn 2019, the Lucerne-based musician and sound artist explored the peculiar sonic environment of the building and its surroundings through the use of field recordings, modular synthesizers, guitar, bass, kalimbas, a singing saw as well as self-built instruments. "DarkSonicTales" starts with kalimba sounds and field recordings, setting the stage for "Sonic Darkness"- a self-referential spoken word piece whose sinister jazz-like sound calls to mind Bohren & der Club of Gore. The following "Spring Feelings" contrasts insect sounds with harsh noise elements, elegiac drones and a throbbing rhythm. It's not quite what you'd expect from a piece with such a title, but the stories that Gisler tells throughout the record are more concerned with uncovering the hidden histories underneath what meets the eyes than (re-)creating idylls. The nine minute-long "I Still Believe" further underlines that by bringing together glistening synthesizer notes with industrial-like drones and field recordings that give it a palpable effect before Gisler unexpectedly changes course and quite literally bursts into song. Towards the end of "DarkSonicTales," the music becomes notably more minimalistic. Gisler experiments with the dynamics of modular drones on "Kind of Restless," juxtaposing birdsong and ominous electronic noises on "Best Buddies" before a mid-tempo beat emerges, making the record close on a decidedly hopeful note. These dark sonic tales, they have a happy ending. "DarkSonicTales" is an organic album in more than one sense of the word. Reacting to and reflecting the world around him as well as expressing his inner one, Gisler gives the sounds at the core of his multifaceted compositions space and lets them breathe. Working along stark contrasts and with surprising twists, he also shines a light on the atmospheric and emotional ambiguity of the world he encountered during his solitary artist residency-unearthing the hidden layers underneath what is perceivable.

Roy Ayers – Delfonic Reworked #1 A soulful rework story – from an edit to an official release Berlin’s own Delfonic kicks off a very special series of Roy Ayers reworks with this four-track EP on BBE Music. Originally sparked by a spontaneous edit of “What’s the T?”, which Delfonic shared with BBE’s Pete Adarkwah, the project quickly gained momentum. With listeners asking for a vinyl version, this initial idea soon grew into an official release – and the beginning of a larger tribute. Drawing from BBE’s 2004 compilation Virgin Ubiquity—a treasure trove of previously unreleased Roy Ayers recordings from 1976 to 1981—Roy Ayers – Delfonic Reworked #1 offers a fresh take on the legendary vibraphonist’s sound, rooted in soul, jazz and groove. The EP opens with Green and Gold, followed by the original spark What’s the T? featuring the incredible Merry Clayton.

Also featured are Sugar with Carla Vaughan and Oh What a Lonely Feeling, again showcasing Clayton’s emotive vocals—all reimagined with Delfonic’s signature flair for rhythmic depth and dancefloor flow. Known for his extensive output of remixes and EPs on respected disco and edit labels, Delfonic brings a deep understanding of groove and arrangement to these respectful yet forward-thinking versions. His connection to Roy Ayers’ musical universe is evident in every bar. Mastered by Frank Merritt at the Grammy-nominated The Carvery, Roy Ayers – Delfonic Reworked #1 is available on vinyl and digital download—a must for fans, collectors and groove connoisseurs alike.

Parlour Records unveils its debut release, produced by Tvowi — a versatile producer shaping his sound around house and techno, laced with synth - driven, electro force.

Nocturnal Rites is a 4 - tracker journey through the shadowy hours, filled with pulsing synths, electro rhythms, and breakbeat textures, it blends dark, cinematic atmospheres with dancefloor energy. Each track has its own mood, raw, and charged with mystery.

On The Arboretum, Analogue Attic co-founder Alex Albrecht leans further into the dancefloor, channelling the more hypnotic and driving energy that Butter Sessions is known for. Across the five tracks, listeners are treated to Albrecht's signature melody-driven deep house, bolstered by intricate rhythms, a deeper low end, and hypnotic loops designed for larger systems and later hours.

The tracks are playful yet serious, functional yet full of personality. There's the joy of long blends and the tiny details that bubble up in the mix: field recordings from time spent away, nostalgic archival material, and subtle harmonic shifts that keep the tension simmering.

It's a record built for dancers, but also for home listening. By embracing a tougher, more energetic sound, this release expands Albrecht's sonic world while staying true to the textural depth and sense of journey that run through all his work.credits

Voal — Vand and Shoal — reveal five more cuts on their home label Isotoop, taken from the pair’s time living together in Utrecht. Whereas the debut EP, ‘Saffron’, dropped the listener into psychedelic aesthetics and atypical rhythmic structures, the sequel ‘Jinx’ has a more crystal-cut vision of club music, made for no less exploratory dancefloors.

Possessing a natural progression almost as fluid as a contiguous live set, with imagination each track can form the basis of the next through the fingerprints of a barely-perceptible ghost leaving a piecemeal narrative impression, an exposure in negative that develops over repeated exposure to the five versatile tracks.

Relative to Saffron’s sidestepping repertoire, this latest EP goes for the jugular with insistent club dynamics from the get-go. Summoning steps on air, a self-contained package of breezy dancefloor initiation and escalation, all-in-one, and from the foothold of this thermal vortex Crosswind ups the drama with storm-hued dynamics and blustery club debris.

The knife of aesthetics is freshly sharpened for the flip: Jinx takes the record out of earthbound atmospheres and deep into sci-fi territory. A jigsawwing bassline seems to drill ever-deeper into an expanding landscape, as it does so uncovering small sonic treasures locked in the bedrock. A mirror to this scene, The Chain digresses with bubbling verve and psychedelic strut, a combo-finishing left hook that simultaneously holds playfulness alongside dour dramatics, a duality shared by vinyl-exclusive closing track Ouah, which blows out the lights with a smirk, and premium hallucinatory dub psychosis.

"Die unangefochtenen Könige des Garage Rock" sind wieder da! Zwei Jahre nach ihrem Album "Irregularis (The Great Hiatus)" aus dem Jahr 2023 melden sich Thee Headcoats mit einer neuen Platte zurück, die sich nahtlos in die Reihe ihrer besten Alben aus den 1990er Jahren einreiht. Wir präsentieren Ihnen stolz "The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm ,n` Beat Vernacular". Mit 12 fantastischen Stücken (oder Liedchen, wenn Sie so wollen), die letztes Jahr in den Ranscombe Studios in Rochester aufgenommen wurden. "The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm 'n' Beat Vernacular" erscheint am selben Tag wie "Man-Trap", das brandneue Album von Thee Headcoatees, auf dem die Jungs als Backing-Band fungieren. Thee Headcoats ist eine der vielen Musikgruppen unter der Leitung von Billy Childish und (soweit wir wissen) seine bislang produktivste. Kein Wunder, wenn man Billys unermüdliche Kreativität und seinen vollen Veröffentlichungsplan bedenkt. Thee Headcoats spielen harten R&B, Rock 'n' Roll und Punk Rock, beeinflusst von den frühen Kinks, Pretty Things und vor allem The Downliners Sect, mit einem zusätzlichen Sinn für Humor, der durch Bruce, die Vorliebe des Schlagzeugers für Deerstalker-Hüte, geprägt ist. Thee Headcoats etablierten ihren Stil auf ihrer ersten LP "Headcoats Down" Hangman, 1988 und setzten ihn mit "The Earls of Suavedom" [Crypt, 1989] und "Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It's Thee Headcoats! (Already)" [SubPop, 1990] fort. Auf späteren Alben wie "The Messerschmitt Pilot's Severed Hand" aus dem Jahr 1998 kam ein schlankerer, punkigerer Sound zum Vorschein, doch die Jungs blieben ihrem rauen, von den 60ern inspirierten R'n'B treu und klangen auf ihrem Comeback-Meisterwerk "Irregularis (The Great Hiatus)" aus dem Jahr 2023 im Wesentlichen unverändert. "The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm 'n' Beat Vernacular" setzt da noch einen drauf und ist beeindruckenderweise eines der absolut besten Billy Childish Alben der letzten 25 Jahre. Das glauben Sie nicht? Dann kaufen und hören Sie es und lassen sich eines Besseren belehren_

For Marcela Dias Sindaco’s third release on the Oklahoma City label Fixed Rhythms, she delivers a full-length 2xLP of her characteristically magical electro. These songs were recorded in various studios across Brazil, capturing the intangibles of Brazilian city life. You can hear her influences (Detroit techno, kosmische synth travel, electro, etc.), but she distills it all yet again into something completely her own. Whenever you listen to her music, you know it’s her. Hypnotizing electro made on warm machines with her sung/spoken Portuguese woven enchantedly throughout…truly sublime listening. This is a 16 track groove journey that will make you a Marcela fan if you aren’t already one.

The two black 12 “s come housed in a beautiful jacket that offers you a glimpse into Marcela’s world. The background of the artwork on the backside features a wallpaper design that you may find in an old home in Brazil. Inside is an insert written by Italian curator and philosopher Massimo Torrigiani. Only 300 copies pressed…don’t sleep on this one.

2025 REPRESS

A DJ, producer and significant figure in contemporary electronic music, Marcel Dettmann steps forward to contribute to Running Back’s ongoing Mastermix series. Whereas previous editions of Mastermix have taken an ear to the sound of lapsed, legendary clubs such as Wild Pitch and Front, Dettmann’s curation deftly captures the man himself in ongoing perpetual motion, raiding the vault for his own precision-tooled edits, long-employed on dancefloors to devastating effect. Alongside a continuous mix, this release arrives as a 3LP gatefold, and as a limited edition cassette.

Closely associated with Berlin’s techno landscape, Dettmann was born and raised in the former GDR, then later immersed in the bleary-eyed counter cultural landscape of post-unification Berlin. Initially oriented by post-punk, industrial and new-wave music, Dettmann has been DJing since 1993, always expanding and perfecting his repertoire. He later began working behind the counter at the city’s tastemaking rave boutique Hard Wax, and a decade after he first dropped a needle, became (and remains) resident at notable local nightspot Berghain/Panorama Bar, where his instincts have helped sculpt the signature sound of both main dancefloors.

Of course, you’re probably not asking, “Who is Marcel Dettmann?” More importantly, you might want to know; just what treats has he gifted us here? The trip begins with a simple pitch-shift skywards, transforming Identified Patient’s creeping ‘The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania’ into a peak-time freakout, before an alternate take on Toctronic’s ‘Bis uns das Licht vertreibt’ emerges from the vaults for the first time. Dating from 1995, and one of Dettmann’s all-time favourites, Cristian Vogel’s ‘Untitled’ clambers back into the box with respectable cuts, while John Bender’s ‘Victims of A Victimless Crime’ kicks off the flip sporting a new arrangement, transporting us back to the foundations of a confident, stripped-back sound.

A few subtle edits to Clark’s perilously funky ‘Dirty Pixie’ takes us to Dettmann’s remix of Junior Boys. Produced in 2010, it transposes the Canadian duo’s sophisticated pop with our curator in his minimal prime, and has since become an irresistible prize for high-minded diggers. The same can be said for Experimental Products’ explosive proto-electro anthem ‘Who Is Kip Jones?’, empowered from pricey Discogs purgatory with just the slightest of tweaks. It’s deservedly sandwiched between the guiding influences of Chicago and Detroit in the form of Mutant Beat Dance’s raw ‘The Human Factor’ and a shimmering new version of previous solo production ‘Water’, featuring close friend and Ostgut Ton ally, Ryan Elliot.

The second half of the Mastermix seamlessly connects the mechanical past and digital present of EBM and industrial in the dance, with Dettmann’s instincts as a guiding hand. Severed Heads’ iconic ‘We Have Come To Bless This House’ emerges with mere nips and tucks, while Nitzer Ebb’s ‘Shame’ is significantly reimagined as a highwire act of rhythm and tension, setting up a sensual second take on a 2017 remix of ‘Limbo’ from Swiss synth heroes, Yello.

Core musical memories are shaken and stirred with a context-shifting take on Frank Duval’s emotional classic ‘Ogon’, while Ian North’s ‘Sex Lust You’ and Ford Proco’s notable Coil collaboration ‘Expansion Naranja’ effectively throb with only minor adjustments, respectfully imagined as “shadow versions”. Meanwhile, a simple breakbeat lifts Albert Kuningas’s ‘Astraalprojektio’ in the direction of wide-eyed dancefloors, while a fresh take on K-Alexi Shelby’s ‘Season of The Real’ inexplicably emerges somehow even funkier than before.

The conclusion of the compilation leads back to Das Tier from the prolific experimentalist Conrad Schnitzler, whose swirling synths and hypnotic vocals are duly tightened by Dettmann, but only as he puts it, “in conversation with the original.” Concluding three discs and thirty years of commitment to the dancefloor, this Mastermix not only offers us the opportunity to eavesdrop on this endless exchange, but to gain some sought-after material for our own record collections.

Wanda Felicias beeindruckendes Debütalbum ,Now Is The Time_" bei Timmion Records bietet eine dynamische Auswahl an Soul-Songs, die sowohl zeitlos als auch erfrischend aktuell wirken. Unterstützt von den analogen Grooves von Cold Diamond & Mink präsentiert Felicia eine Reihe von Geschichten, die in Vintage-Grooves versunken sind, aber für jede Zeit genau richtig sind.Mit Wurzeln in der New Yorker House- und Acid-Jazz-Szene - und nachdem sie sich jahrzehntelang aus dem Rampenlicht zurückgezogen hatte - kehrt Wanda mit einer gereiften Stimme und einem gereiften Geist zurück, bereit, jeden mit einem schlagenden Herzen zu beeindrucken. Jeder Track auf ,Now Is The Time_" fühlt sich gelebt an: vom schlurfenden Bounce von ,Stuck On You" über den blühenden Optimismus von ,Flowers in the Garden" bis hin zur introspektiven, funkigen Poesie von ,Reflections of Love".Auf dem gesamten Album singt Felicia mühelos, unterstützt von Cold Diamond & Minks reichhaltiger, aber dicht gewebter Palette aus Rhythmusgruppe und Horn-Riffs. Zusammen schaffen sie eine rootsige Klanglandschaft, die den Soul der späten 1960er bis frühen 1970er Jahre mit einem modernen Touch verbindet. Ob Sie sich nun von der Beat-Ballade ,All in the Game" oder dem Southern Soul von ,Until You're Mine" angezogen fühlen, dieses Album schafft seinen eigenen Raum jenseits von Trends - es zelebriert Handwerkskunst, Emotionen und zeitlosen Groove.

Wanda Felicias beeindruckendes Debütalbum ,Now Is The Time_" bei Timmion Records bietet eine dynamische Auswahl an Soul-Songs, die sowohl zeitlos als auch erfrischend aktuell wirken. Unterstützt von den analogen Grooves von Cold Diamond & Mink präsentiert Felicia eine Reihe von Geschichten, die in Vintage-Grooves versunken sind, aber für jede Zeit genau richtig sind.Mit Wurzeln in der New Yorker House- und Acid-Jazz-Szene - und nachdem sie sich jahrzehntelang aus dem Rampenlicht zurückgezogen hatte - kehrt Wanda mit einer gereiften Stimme und einem gereiften Geist zurück, bereit, jeden mit einem schlagenden Herzen zu beeindrucken. Jeder Track auf ,Now Is The Time_" fühlt sich gelebt an: vom schlurfenden Bounce von ,Stuck On You" über den blühenden Optimismus von ,Flowers in the Garden" bis hin zur introspektiven, funkigen Poesie von ,Reflections of Love".Auf dem gesamten Album singt Felicia mühelos, unterstützt von Cold Diamond & Minks reichhaltiger, aber dicht gewebter Palette aus Rhythmusgruppe und Horn-Riffs. Zusammen schaffen sie eine rootsige Klanglandschaft, die den Soul der späten 1960er bis frühen 1970er Jahre mit einem modernen Touch verbindet. Ob Sie sich nun von der Beat-Ballade ,All in the Game" oder dem Southern Soul von ,Until You're Mine" angezogen fühlen, dieses Album schafft seinen eigenen Raum jenseits von Trends - es zelebriert Handwerkskunst, Emotionen und zeitlosen Groove.

2025 Repress

Mihai Popoviciu, one of the most esteemed names in the deep house and minimal scene, is set to unveil his anticipated new album, ‘Puzzle Box’, on Bondage Music. As one of the label’s core artists, Popoviciu returns for his second full-length album release on the imprint following his successful 2016 album, ‘Home’ - available on vinyl from 15th November 2024.

With a career spanning over a decade and with releases on numerous influential labels such as 8Bit to Berg Audio, Popoviciu has firmly established himself as a go-to within the minimal-leaning realms of house music. Known for intricate soundscapes and deep, hypnotic grooves, his work continues to captivate audiences globally. On ‘Puzzle Box’, he delves deeper into his signature stripped-back yet soulful aesthetic, offering a diverse collection of tracks that traverse through various sonic textures.

“With Puzzle Box, each track unlocks something deeper with every listen” - Mihai Popoviciu.

Consisting of thirteen tracks in total, ‘Puzzle Box’ showcases the Romanian’s sound to its fullest. On the vinyl edition, fans are treated to standout tracks like ‘Batiscaf’, ‘Storm Rider’, and ‘Far Gone’ — vinyl-only gems that capture Popoviciu’s talent for layering subtle, dubby tones with groovy rhythms. The opening track, ‘They All Say’, sets the mood with smooth, atmospheric beats with a skippy groove, followed by the dynamic “Video” and the driving, pulsating energy of “Frankfurt.”

Popoviciu’s skill in crafting versatile productions is showcased throughout the album, with each track offering something unique.
From the sleek, melodic strains of ‘Puzzle Box’ to the hypnotic, rolling basslines of ‘Kinetic’, this LP is a journey into his meticulously constructed sound. The digital version also features the bonus track ‘Body Count 2’, offering a final, rhythmic flourish to round off the release.
‘Puzzle Box’ further cements Mihai Popoviciu’s role as a mainstay on Bondage Music, a label which continues to champion forward-thinking, minimal-leaning house music. With this latest LP, Popoviciu once again proves why he remains a favourite, building on his storied career with another masterclass in refined, deep electronic music.

Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation is a studio album by American jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, released in September 1961.
The album features what Coleman called a "double quartet," i.e., two self-contained jazz quartets: each with a reed instrument, trumpet, bass, and drums.

The two quartets are heard in separate channels, with Coleman's working quartet at the time in the left channel, and the second quartet, including
the former Coleman rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell, on the right.

The two quartets play simultaneously. Free Jazz was the first album-length improvisation at thirty-seven minutes, unheard of at the time.

The original LP package incorporated Jackson Pollock's 1954 painting The White Light. The cover is a gatefold with a cutout window in the lower right corner allowing a glimpse of the painting;

opening the cover revealed the full artwork, along with liner notes by critic Martin Williams.
Free Jazz served as the blueprint for later large-ensemble free jazz recordings such as Ascension by John Coltrane and Machine Gun by Peter Brötzmann.

Free Jazz is available as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on white vinyl.

CAF? is really happy to welcome a new member in their family. Active in various projects since 1993(!), Héloïse is the latest solo project of Zurich-based singer and musician Sabina Leone. With her second EP “Rubbish Rubbish”, she explores endless musical possibilities with healthy greed. Her music builds on multiple layers, combining loops to merge voices and drums into hypnotic rhythms. Genuine, generous, gritty, Rubbish Rubbish is an adventurous journey through different genres: expect weird dub, Casio pop anthem, droney laments, and drums extravaganzas.

DOUBLE VINYL
The full album on vinyl for the first time, packaged with the classic original Designers Republic artwork


ABOUT
To celebrate the 20th anniversary, Collabs 3000: Metalism, the original classic pure techno album and first full-length collaboration between techno innovators Chris Liebing and Speedy J, is remastered and reissued via NovaMute.

Originally launched by Speedy J (aka Jochem Paap) as a platform for 12" collaborations with other artists, the Collabs series laid the groundwork for what would become one of techno's most compelling partnerships. The first release with Chris Liebing, Collabs 300 (featuring 'Trick_' / 'Treflon_'), landed in 2004 to a rapturous response; its machine-funk intensity and unmistakable breakdowns helped define the sound of early 2000s techno whilst revealing a writing and production chemistry that demanded a larger playground for their work.

That creative spark ultimately manifested in Collabs 3000: Metalism, a landmark record for techno. Combining the pair's mastery of subversive electronics and peak-time techno, the album remains a career highlight for both artists: a smouldering collision of taut techno rhythms, sonic abstraction, and, as the title suggests, robust metallic beats.

The 20th anniversary edition of this timeless techno masterpiece has been fully remastered by Liebing himself and is available on CD and for the first time on vinyl across 2 discs.

After a long hiatus from his world of Edits & Overdubs, Joaquin Joe Claussell brings you this Limited Edition 12" sampler taken from the forthcoming Joe Claussell "Praise" 6xLP box set. Joe raids the vaults of the legendary Savoy Records, the Strictly Rhythm of Gospel music! On the A-Side he takes the mid-tempo stomper 'So Much to Live For' by Myrna Summers and invokes the Holy Ghost, fortifying the drums and rearranging the vocals so you are left humming the chorus long after it has ended. The hook 'So Much to Live For' in itself sums up all of the 'Praise' series, a cry to instill hope and meaning in what is often perceived as the mundane of daily life. On the flip is a previously unreleased Joe Claussell takes of 'Jerusalem' by Bishop Jeff Banks. Here the sermon takes off right from the jump, a floor filling call and response four to the floor version finished in classic Claussell style. Wailing organs, driving percussion and vocals that will make you want to jump out of your skin. Both sides cut LOUD at 45RPM!

Very limited one time run of special color vinyl.

When Harmonia made an album, it was about more than just music – it was about a vision. Released in 1975, Deluxe was the band’s second album. Compared to their debut, it focused more on structure, melody, and rhythm. Harmonia showed a more accessible side without losing their depth.

Now, 50 years later, Deluxe returns in a special anniversary edition: a high-quality gatefold with previously unreleased photos and orange vinyl inspired by the original artwork. This edition is for collectors and anyone curious why artists like Brian Eno and David Bowie considered Harmonia a major influence – and why Deluxe remains a blueprint for electronic music today. Brian Eno once called Harmonia “the world’s most important rock band”¹ – a quote that captures just how visionary their music was, and still is.

High-quality gatefold sleeve with unreleased archival photographs

50th anniversary reissue

orange colored vinyl, inspired by original artwork

Impérieux (aka Alper Durmush) is a beatmaker extraordinaire hailing from Kircaali / Kardjali: since antiquity a hub of mythical music, located at the crossroads of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece.
After conquering the hearts and feet of the scene with his stunning debut album Rezil and the follow-up Fena EP, Impérieux caps off his stellar year with a seven track mini album on Macro. Its effortlessly mesmerizing tracks consolidate the outlines of
forward-leaning club music.
Experimentation is a well-established facet of Impérieux’ approach to the adventurous techno (left)field, but the In and Out EP brings to the table his most condensed dance floor material so far. Holistically captivating hooks, bass lines and rolling rhythms: The next step after several years of exploration and refinement.
Unpredictability, bound together by a consistent, modernist glint. From the raw jacking of Gips to the warm euphoria of Baka, from the darbuka frenzy of Duman to the cutting friction of Trese – a triumph.

Four years on from their landmark Grassroots, visionary half-time heavyweights The Untouchables return with their third album, Lost Knowledge. The duo of Kate McGill and Ajit 'Nitrox' Steyns have carved out a space in modern D&B all their own, building on a legacy that reaches back to the late 00s to keep pushing into unexplored terrain with an assured and deadly line in rhythmic intrigue and atmospheric immersion.

Lost Knowledge launches into action instantly with the high-pressure drum science and dubby splashes of 'Drunken Bells', capturing the loopy techno propulsion and rolling intensity that drives so much of the output on Samurai Music. Where The Untouchables excel is in finding variety and nuance in their relatively forbidding, pared down sound. The heads-down groove of 'Mafia Town' owes as much to dembow and dancehall as D&B, while 'Lost Knowledge' spirals out into psychoactive flurries of synth strafes and organic percussion slathered in tight-locked delay trails. There's no light relief from strident hooks or riffs, just a pure, unshakeable commitment to the power of the beat and deeply designed layers of sound shaping out the space around.

'Busy Bones' makes space for carefully deployed hints of pad tone while the snares snap out of the mix with a sharp set of teeth. 'Four Eared Demon' baits the gabber crowd with its rapid-fire 4/4 hats atop seasick creaks across the midrange, keeping subtlety and patience in the lower frequencies to maintain the signature elegance readily associated with The Untouchables. 'Phase Correlation' teases an artfully unhinged ripple of synth that stands out amongst the murky murmurs filling out the middle distance, but it's still exercised with brutal precision.

Nothing happens by accident or feels out of place - McGill and Steyns are in total control, and they demonstrate incredible range and inventive approaches within their focused style. The accent of the grooves shifts, and individual sounds carry all kinds of artefacts, yet everything gets folded into the exacting Untouchables sound with a liberal dubwise sensibility. Brimming with inspiration and immaculately produced, on Lost Knowledge their one-of-a-kind sound is stronger than ever.

Guilherme Granado & Bruno Abdala reunite for a second volume of beats, jazz ghosts and synth-funk dust.
Following their first outing earlier this year (Vol. 1 on Sucata Tapes / SUC66), the duo returns with a bigger, deeper, and smoother bang on Vol. 2 – Filhos.
The grooves remain intact, expanding on the raw funk blueprint of Vol. 1 — now infused with Tropicália-rooted freedom, Sun Ra-style celestial chaos, and a tighter, more confident feel. The sonic palette is rich and eclectic: samplers, bells, analog synths, drums, marimba, vibraphone, bass, violas, and more are layered into a warm, rhythmic tapestry that honours the past while forging new sonic terrain.
At its core, Filhos (Portuguese for "Sons") is a tribute to lineage and tradition. It reflects the idea that we are all shaped by what came before — and through music, Guilherme & Bruno honor that legacy while pushing it into the future.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1934, Hector 'Costita' Bisignani is one of the leading figures in Latin American jazz. Settling in São Paulo in the late 1950s,
he quickly established himself as one of Brazil's most renowned flutists and saxophonists, collaborating with major artists such as Sérgio Mendes, Elis Regina,
Hermeto Pascoal, João Donato, and Gato Barbieri. His career also led him to play alongside Michel Legrand, Lalo Schifrin, Burt Bacharach, and Ray Conniff,

demonstrating his international influence. A founding member of Sérgio Mendes' Sexteto Bossa Rio, he contributed to the rise of Brazilian jazz by incorporating
local rhythms and bold compositions. He is also renowned as a teacher, making him a respected figure for several generations of musicians. With a career
spanning more than 70 years, he remains a pioneering figure in the history of Latin American jazz. 1981, now reissued, perfectly illustrates this creative freedom.

Recorded in the exuberant spirit of the 1970s and 1980s, it blendsbaião, jazz-funk, and Braziliansoul. Ledbyhissaxophone, flute,and clarone,andbackedbyhisGalleryClubband,

thisrarerecordingembodies the vibrant energy of a scene where experimentation and virtuosity went hand in hand.

Infotext ENG

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

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

Valby Vokalgruppe was initiated in 2008 by Anja Jacobsen, the Danish collective’s current line-cup is completed by Lil Lacy, Sonja LaBianca, Cæcilie Trier and Laura Marie Madsen. The group has written and performed a large number of cross-aesthetic pieces over the years, including an album Bah New Era released in 2012 on Eget Værelse.

Sharpened to its core, the group dives deep into rhythmical architectures built almost solely from the voice - think Platonic solids reimagined as sound objects. Think trance without electronics. These new compositions are compressed, sparkling forms — vocal geometries that spin, collide, and dissolve through repetition. From inside the circle: radical precision, soft dissonance, and playful intuition guide the way. The group explores the voice not as melody alone, but as material — vibrating, modulating, refracting.

Solids For Voices transcends into deep concentration calling for a clear state of mind, in recognition of an increasingly fragmented and incoherent reality. Valby Vokalgruppe endeavours a total absorption into the voice, the rhythm and the trance.

Release 87 is our fourth release of Cherry Moon Records already.

This strictly limited release includes a selection of best selling tracks of the techno label based out of the legendary Belgian club Cherry Moon.

Vinyl includes artists Dj Ghost, Joris Turnhour, Drumsauw, Dimitri Cooman, James D, Danny Corten & Justine Pierre.

Die erste Single von einem der vielversprechendsten neuen Stars der aktuellen Soul-Szene. Tauche ein in die Welt von Taylor Williams, einem talentierten jungen Soulsänger aus Greensboro, North Carolina. Er wurde der Colemine-Familie durch Blake Rhein, dem Gitarristen der Indications, vorgestellt und fand sofort eine kreative Verbindung zu Label-Besitzer Terry Cole. Seine erste Single für Colemine wurde in der Portage Lounge in Loveland, Ohio, mit Charles Alley am Schlagzeug aufgenommen. Taylor strahlt einfach Talent, Charisma und Freundlichkeit aus. Kurz nachdem die Rhythmus-Tracks für ,Dreaming" aufgenommen waren, schrieb er schnell den Refrain und die Strophen und nahm seinen Gesang im ersten Anlauf auf. Auf der B-Seite dieser 45er-Single ist Taylor Williams mit seiner Interpretation eines Juwels der Numero Group von The Exceptional Three zu hören. Produziert von Leroi Conroy in roher und minimalistischer Weise, bringt Taylor diesen staubigen Song ins Jahr 2025, ohne dabei die eindringliche Authentizität des Originals zu verlieren. Mr. Williams verleiht dem Track nicht nur seine hochfliegende und gefühlvolle Stimme, sondern spielt auch Gitarre, Orgel und Vibraphon. Ein wahrer Renaissance-Soul-Mann!

Analog Decay 001 Artist: Translate Remix by Jonas Kopp Format: 12" Vinyl & Digital Release Date: 14.11.2025 Analog Decay proudly announces its debut release: a powerful statement of intent from the label, rooted in raw aesthetics and a deep reverence for the analog medium. For this first chapter, the imprint calls upon Argentine producer Translate, whose distinctive take on sci-fi-infused techno sets the tone for what's to come. The A-side opens with "RAD-100", a hypnotic journey into mechanical rhythm and spectral textures, followed by a forceful reinterpretation by the legendary Jonas Kopp, whose remix brings heightened tension and propulsion to the original narrative. On the B-side, "Pyramids" explores geometric pulse patterns and atmospheric depth, while "Infrared" closes the EP with a dense, pulsating groove designed for late-night transcendence. This release has been meticulously mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci (Neel) at Enisslab (Rome), ensuring a dynamic and immersive sound experience. The visual identity is completed by artwork from Mauricio Atencia, with photography by Paula Romero, reflecting the label's commitment to brutalist minimalism and analog imperfection.

Obwohl "Suffer" lediglich eine Laufzeit von 26 Minuten hat, war die Platte für Fat Mike, den Sänger und Bassisten von NoFX, in Bezug auf das amerikanische Punk-Revival der Neunziger "das Album, das alles veränderte". Tatsächlich bedeutete der dritte Langspieler der Band 1988 nicht nur den internationalen Szenedurchbruch für Bad Religion, er schuf auch die Grundlage für den massiven Erfolg des Epitaph-Labels, das mit The Offspring, NoFX, Rancid und Pennywise just jene Gruppen unter Vertrag nahm, die in den Neunzigern mit Melodic Hardcore, Pop-Punk und Skatepunk für Furore sorgten. "Suffer" bot für die damalige Zeit etwas völlig Neues: Schnelle, aber sehr melodische Songs mit mehrstimmigen Gesängen und Hintergrundchören sowie abrupte Rhythmuswechsel; hinzu kamen der klare Gesang Greg Graffins, der durch eine exakte Aussprache und Metrik gekennzeichnet ist, sowie intellektuell inspirierte Lyrics. Bad Religion spielten die 15 Songs von "Suffer" in der Originalbesetzung - Greg Graffin (Gesang), Brett Gurewitz (Gitarre), Greg Hetson (Gitarre), Jay Bentley (Bass), Pete Finestone (Schlagzeug) - im April 1988 im Westbeach Recorders-Studio in Hollywood ein. Das Album wurde von Brett Gurewitz und Donnell Cameron in acht Tagen aufgenommen und gemixt.

Noumen returns to Central Processing Unit after a six-year absence with Altum. This bumper record, the Ukrainian artist's fourth release for the Sheffield label and first since 2019 double-LPObscurium, serves to remind us all why Noumen's music has been lauded by the likes of Mixmag and Resident Advisor in the past.Altumis a consummate piece of contemporary electronic production, a technoid exploration of outer-edges electronica that nods to genre greats like Autechre while still maintaining its own unconventional charm.

Across well over an hour of music here we find Noumen repeatedly playing punchy mid-tempo beat work off of some more cerebral tuned synths.Altumkicks off with the epic 'Oion' - beginning in that Autechre/AFX mid-tempo zone, full of deep-sea bangs and whirrs, the track slowly builds to a final stretch of delay-drenched keys which set us free amidst the outer cosmos, almost Sun Ra-style. It's a perfect liminal-space roller and an apt scene-setter forAltum.

'Oion' provides a blueprint for several of the album's other highlights - plenty of the joints here adopt that same approach of hitting hard with the drums and soft with the synths. Second track 'Splitter' takes on the baton from 'Oion' while souping up the kick to warehouse levels; the beats in 'Far Wind' splutter like a needle skipping on a mid-90s Tresor drop; 'Fate Carette', all eerie looped synth leads, is a highlight as the album enters the home straight.

The rhythm production (which, it should be noted, is exemplary throughoutAltum) is ratched up in intensity on a handful of numbers. 'Telemask' displays a delightful breakbeat - if you'd told me this was sampled from golden age A Tribe Called Quest, I'd have believed you. Mid-section anchors 'Awe' and 'Axis' are glitchers in the Mike Paradinas mould, with the latter showing off some pleasing steel pan-esque synth leads for good measure. And whileAltumgenerally maintains a processional pace throughout, there are points where Noumen toughens up the drums for club deployment - 'Unveilness' shows off a real chunkiness in the low end, closer 'Spurling Sign' plays a satisfying rolling groove off of ever-layering synths, and the title-track is an alien machine-funker in keeping with fellow CPU electronauts like Silicon Scally and Cygnus.

Noumen's third album for Central Processing Unit is a pleasingly hefty double-LP which builds on the zany invention of acts like Modeselektor and Autechre to delightful effect.

FFO: Autechre, Aphex Twin, Modeselektor, Bochum Welt, LFO

NDATL continues with the latest release from the legendary UK producer Mr. G, delivering another timeless installment to his already heavyweight catalog. Black Jammies brings two top-tier cuts that showcase why Mr. G continues to stand as one of house music’s most respected and uncompromising figures.

The A-side, “Saved”, is a raw yet soulful groove that locks you in with its chords, hypnotic rhythm & sample. It’s Mr. G at his most essential—stripped back, powerful, and full of swing. On the flip, “So Wrong Yet So…..” dives even deeper, with it's deep bassline, while he asks "Are You Having Fun?" a true masterclass in tension and release, balancing grit and warmth with his signature touch.

These two tracks highlight the unique craftsmanship and uncompromising vision that have made Mr. G a true legend in the underground. Black Jammies is a must-have for DJs and listeners alike, capturing the spirit of NDATL: soulful, raw, and timeless.

Mit 3 - The Shackleton Versions erscheint eine faszinierende Neuinterpretation des gefeierten Saagara-Albums 3. Der britische Produzent Shackleton verwandelt die Originalstücke in ein düsteres, hypnotisches Paralleluniversum zwischen Dub, Ambient und globaler Rhythmik. Statt klassischer Remixe liefert er ein ganzes "Schattenalbum", das die Klangsprache von 3 aufgreift, erweitert und neu beleuchtet. Waclaw Zimpel, einer der spannendsten Musiker Europas, hat sich in den letzten Jahren vom Jazz-Klarinettisten zum innovativen Elektronik-Produzenten entwickelt. Gemeinsam mit Saagara - einer virtuosen Formation südindischer Perkussionisten - erschafft er Klangräume, die zwischen Tradition und futuristischer Clubästhetik oszillieren. Shackleton greift diese Vision auf und führt sie weiter: Die Tracks wirken wie ein Dialog zwischen zwei musikalischen Welten, voller Respekt, Tiefe und rhythmischer Spannung. Besonders eindrucksvoll: "Northern Wind Brings Redemption" und "Where Is That Blossom" - im Original stark, in Shackletons Version nahezu magisch.

Die erste Single von einem der vielversprechendsten neuen Stars der aktuellen Soul-Szene. Tauche ein in die Welt von Taylor Williams, einem talentierten jungen Soulsänger aus Greensboro, North Carolina. Er wurde der Colemine-Familie durch Blake Rhein, dem Gitarristen der Indications, vorgestellt und fand sofort eine kreative Verbindung zu Label-Besitzer Terry Cole. Seine erste Single für Colemine wurde in der Portage Lounge in Loveland, Ohio, mit Charles Alley am Schlagzeug aufgenommen. Taylor strahlt einfach Talent, Charisma und Freundlichkeit aus. Kurz nachdem die Rhythmus-Tracks für ,Dreaming" aufgenommen waren, schrieb er schnell den Refrain und die Strophen und nahm seinen Gesang im ersten Anlauf auf. Auf der B-Seite dieser 45er-Single ist Taylor Williams mit seiner Interpretation eines Juwels der Numero Group von The Exceptional Three zu hören. Produziert von Leroi Conroy in roher und minimalistischer Weise, bringt Taylor diesen staubigen Song ins Jahr 2025, ohne dabei die eindringliche Authentizität des Originals zu verlieren. Mr. Williams verleiht dem Track nicht nur seine hochfliegende und gefühlvolle Stimme, sondern spielt auch Gitarre, Orgel und Vibraphon. Ein wahrer Renaissance-Soul-Mann!

Three years after his debut album, London-based Jeigo levels up with a new long player that displays his knack for meaningful melodies and deft rhythms while blurring the lines between ambient, garage and breaks. Inspired by three months on an olive oil farm in rural Italy, there is a beautiful sense of isolation and inward reflection to these sounds, even when the energy ramps up. Sultry, airy vocals and delicate strings weave between organic grooves on the opener, while pitched-up and pained tones bring a futurist twist to the paddy garage beats of 'Echoes.' There is a more warped low end and hints of Burial's ghostly vocal and drum designs on 'Emptiness' while 'Groundwater' is shuffling house suffused with luminous synth work that brings a nostalgic pang. Etum is a masterfully melancholic study that leaves a lasting emotional impact.

‘Cataclysm’ is a poignant call for revolution of both politics and consciousness, conveyed through ten distinct songs written and produced by Zanias between 2020 and 2024. Each piece of music inhabits its own aesthetic universe and rhythm, featuring elemental fusions of coldwave, italo disco, witchhouse, trance, breakbeats, hyperpop and even a touch of drum and bass. The unique amalgamation is best described as post-industrial ethereal wave, of Zanias’s very own signature. The subject matter grapples with how to move forward through times when civilisation and the entire ecosystem of the planet feel like they are on the brink of total collapse, while gazing back over hundreds of thousands of years of human survival in total awe of how far we’ve come. The lyrics aim for a balance of vulnerability and poetic strength, as the audience is beckoned to “thread the power through the pain”. While darker atmospheres are conjured through the sound design and instrumentation, the album ultimately directs itself steadfast toward the glittering sheen of hope. As the tempo ascends through the course of the album’s tracklist, so too does Zanias’s deep attachment to our sacred humanity and refusal to give in to despair.

‘Cataclysm’ represents an ambitious defiance of genre tropes in pursuit of pure artistry, with a potent political message delivered with assertive fervour and playful sincerity. Additional production was contributed by mixing engineer Trey Frye, best known for his work in the band Korine, and the album was mastered by Alain Paul.

In the two years since Parallel Minds’ Juno-Award-winning 5th release Homesick by label co-founder Ciel, we have taken our time reassessing our next moves as the larger dance music scene experienced a paradigm shift. What does it mean to release music made by underground artists from lesser-known scenes like Toronto at a time when bookers and A&Rs are taking fewer risks than ever before? How do we truly celebrate the musical diversity of electronic music when the bottom line threatens to reduce any and all forms of risk-taking?

You just do it, of course.

In truth, few artists have come to represent the music scene in the Big Smoke more than Phèdre, and having seen the duo’s progression from indie weirdo-pop to live hardware act to breakbeat wunderkind in the last decade has been nothing short of amazing. It’s really artists like these that inspired us to start the label in 2018, and we are super elated to usher in PM006 with their long-awaited album, Liquid Constancy.

On its face, Liquid Constancy is a breakbeat record. There are housier joints, to more bassy Baltimore club bangers, to breakneck footwork and jungle steeped in sunshine. All of them share a distinctly syncopated, dubwise rhythm that grounds the album’s tracks. With some having been developed as early as seven years ago, these tracks had their genesis in Phèdre’s mostly improvised live hardware sets from some of Toronto’s most notorious warehouse raves. Primarily powered by two Korg Electribe ESX-1s and the semi-modular Moog Mother-32, the jams found new life in the studio when the duo began recording them as tracks, which demanded a mindfulness of their permanence that Daniel Lee and apè Aliermo at first found intimidating.

Over time, the pair developed a synergistic workflow that pulls from Daniel’s background in drums and apè’s keen ear for texture and movement. They sourced samples featuring voices of BIPOC and feminist icons, drew from their shared love of sci-fi and kung fu movies, and from their Filipino, Chinese, German, and Surinamese backgrounds. Samples were manipulated via techniques like lowering bit rates and adjusting speed to maximize usage due to the Electribe’s limited sample time, which was a subtle way of injecting their interests into their music without being too on the nose. Growing up in the melting pot of the GTA, going to raves as teens, bumping post-punk, industrial, electro, hip-hop and 90s R&B — these experiences all had an undeniable influence on Liquid Constancy. As kids of immigrant parents, equally informed by both their adopted and native cultures, Phèdre makes music informed by sampling and defined by cultural hybridity. In times like these, what is more feel-good than believing in music as a universal language that brings our different backgrounds together?

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.

The perfect accompaniment to that deep fall feeling, Frank Maston's beloved 2025 single finally gets its long overdue vinyl release! As our friends New Commute articulated beautifully, "Foreign Affairs" drifts through London fog and Paris shimmer, its avant-lounge glow wrapping each melody in a wistful ache. On B-side "Liaison," ghostly strings and a solitary piano paint a deserted twilight shoreline, Pacôme Henry's distinct 16mm cinematography hovering nearby." We've pressed just 500 of these gorgeous records so, be quick, Maston always flies.

Originally written for a film Maston was scoring in 2024, he decided to keep it aside for himself. And, well, us all. The song has a vibe Maston has previously flirted with; he wanted to dive in...all the way: "The arrangement is huge, definitely the biggest I've written, and it merited live musicians playing together. Also another experiment, to do it with all live musicians playing my arrangements. I wanted to make something that you'd want to put on when you bring a date back to your place. It's on the edge of sappy but that's sort of the point. I decided to give myself an unlimited budget - just spend whatever was necessary to get the right musicians and record it the best way possible."

It's this dedication to sonic perfection which Maston is rightly lauded for. We couldn't not put this on a cute wee 7" when we heard it.

The A side, "Foreign Affairs", is a brilliant, Bacharach-esque romp with a bit of that unapologetically romantic Morricone angle. Says Frank: "I was trying to synthesize that sort of jazzy/sexy/classy/romantic mature sound, where the edginess is in these surprising chord changes and subtle arrangement cues."

A wonderful complement, the flipside "Liaison", evokes Martin Denny, but Eden's Island was in Frank's head, too. He wanted to take a deep dive into that exotica sound - a genre he'd referenced a bit but never fully committed to - so the piece is lavished with those big sighing strings and a pretty lush arrangement. Happily, it all sounds super rich. Also, "Umiliani is always a reference for this sort of thing (Il Corpo etc.), That almost mechanical arrangement of things moving together and a simple melody over it (something I nicked from Ennio)".

The two songs were recorded in Paris and London in the summer of 2024. Aside from the rhythm section and piano, there's vibraphone, a full string section, trombones and alto and concert flutes. "Liaison" boasts strings, vibraphone, a female choir and tenor sax. Maston played piano and acoustic guitar but that's it (as opposed to playing basically everything on Tulips). His friend Oscar Sholto Robertson played drums and percussion whilst Maston mainstay Elie Ghersinu (formerly of L'Eclair) played bass.

The theme for a lot of Maston's titles is that they have two meanings. So "Foreign Affairs" is both a reference to him living abroad and the idea of constant cultural diplomacy and then there's this sexy/cheeky interpretation of foreign affairs in a literal way - "an affair abroad, ooh la la!". The artwork for this 7" single has Roman campaign flags, referencing the foreign affairs in sort of a sassy way. There's a violence implied. But then if you look from a bit of a distance it looks like a bouquet of flowers. So Frank thought it went with the spirit of the title. Also, he's used a lot of roman motifs now so he kept that theme going, even with the terracotta cover.

This is a vitally important project for our Frank. He explains why, here: "For whatever reason, these songs really resonated with me. I feel like they are either the end of a stylistic era for me or the beginning of a new one. They're sonically the culmination of what I'd been working towards and trying to get better at since I started. If I heard this when I was making Tulips I would have said "YES! *This* is what I want to be doing!". So that's the essence of it. It's a statement and the intended reaction is "This is really good, but why now?". Like the edge to it is the context of someone making this sort of thing in 2025, which I think is a huge strength. The real heads will get it. My music always has like a 2-3 year latency until people really catch onto it, and these ones will have a nice payoff I think."

We couldn't put it better ourselves. So we haven't.

Recorded during that unique period in the late ‘60s when jazz, blues and rock musicians found common ground in London’s vibrant subterranean clubs, 1968s Definitely What! was the second of the run of the four ground-breaking Trinity albums. Showcasing Auger's open-minded approach and his masterful organ & piano skills, the album whips up a rich blend of jazz, R&B, psychedelic touches and soulful grooves, complemented by the tight, dynamic rhythm section of Dave Ambrose (bass) and Clive Thacker (drums).

After the previous year’s Open (1967) with its 'Summer of Love' feel and its melting pot of Mod R&B, cover versions of US soul hits led by Julie Driscoll’s inimitable vocals, Auger considered Definitely What! as his first solo album, and so he travelled deeper into jazz territory, balancing original pieces with audacious covers. Tracks include versions of Mose Allison's 'If You Live' and of Wes Montgomery’s ‘Bumpin’ On Sunset’. “I got a letter from Wes's wife,” recalls Auger, “saying that it was Wes' favourite version. Can you believe that, Wes's wife wrote to me!”

Elsewhere, we find a dramatic re-arrangement of The Beatles’ ‘A Day In The Life’ complete with orchestral strings and a punchy horn section, alongside a supercharged version of Booker T & The MGs’ ‘Red Beans & Rice’ . 'George Bruno Money' was dedicated to Auger's drinking pal of the era, Zoot Money, and 'John Browns Body' both combine prime Hammond jazz with the very British surrealist humour that was in vogue at the time. The title track goes further “out” in a sprawling instrumental piece rooted in experimentation. Brian himself specifically states in his sleeve notes that his concept “lies along a straight line drawn between pop and jazz and aims at the 'fusion' of both elements” - ‘fusion’ at that time was not even a recognised musical term, further reinforcing Auger’s credentials as an innovator.

That forward-thinking approach was developed in Open and Definitely What! would come to fruition a year later with the release of Streetnoise (1969) featuring the Trinity and Julie Driscoll. At the time, the move to bring together jazz, rhythm & blues, folk, gospel and pop into a progressive new sound may have annoyed the purists and confused the less open- minded, but these albums stand today as a testament to Auger’s unique position within British music, foreshadowing his future 1970s explorations with the Oblivion Express and beyond. Definitely What! remains a fascinating snapshot of 1960s musical experimentation - raw, eclectic, and unapologetically Auger!

This new Strut reissue is curated by Impressive Collective’s Greg Boraman in partnership with Brian and Karma Auger. The album is remastered by Cosmic Audio from the original tapes, and is packaged in Brian's favourite version of the 3 different sleeves the album was originally issued in.

The Klezmaticsare thrilled to announce the re-issue of their seminal 1990 album, "Rhythm & Jews Revisited", set for release on limited-edition vinyl LP pressed on Bio Vinyl. In 2026, The Klezmatics will be celebrating their 40th anniversary. This milestone will include the re-issue of many of their landmark recordings which will include previously unpublished material. Originally released in the pre-digital era, this groundbreaking album never made its way to modern platforms, until now. The re-issue features alternate versions of the album"s iconic tracks, unearthed from recently discovered master files, offering fans and new listeners alike a fresh perspective on this klezmer masterpiece.

Später, in den Tagen der funkelnden weißen Overalls, erreichte Elvis einen Höhepunkt, als die Musik ihn so tief bewegte, ihn in solche Höhen hob, dass es nur noch eines zu tun gab: "die umgekehrte Klaue". Wenn Musik dich dazu bringt, ist das ein wirklich großartiges Gefühl. "Die umgekehrte Klaue" ist das, worum es bei Deerhoof geht. Ihre jubelnde Musik zieht dich in den Moment hinein, und dort freust du dich. Auf dem transzendenten Album ,Friend Opportunity" überrascht die Musik immer wieder: Songs wie ,Perfect Me" haben drei oder vier Abschnitte mit atemberaubenden Offenbarungen des Erhabenen; ,Matchbook Seeks Maniac" zieht in der Mitte einen ,99 Luftballoons"-Breakdown-Move durch, rockt ein Brahms-Intervall im pop-narkotischen Refrain, und die Beach Boys und The Who sind überall im Mix zu hören - es ist eines der glorreichsten Dinge, die man je hören wird. Auf früheren Alben war eine der Hauptwaffen von Deerhoof der negative Raum - die atemberaubenden Stille zwischen den Beats und Akkorden schlugen härter zu als jedes Klirren und Klirren von Gitarren und Becken. Deerhoof waren wie Maler, die leere Stellen auf der Leinwand ließen, um ihre Pinselstriche hervorzuheben; jetzt neigen sie dazu, jeden Quadratzentimeter auszufüllen und laden uns ein, jeden brillanten Winkel zu genießen. Und Songs wie ,Perfect Me", ,Believe in E.S.P." und ,Choco Fight" sind weitaus groove-orientierter - und ja, auch sexier - als alles, was sie bisher gemacht haben. Das alles ist in Gegenüberstellungen integriert, die eigentlich irritierend sein müssten, aber einfach nur erstaunlich klingen. ,Believe E.S.P." beginnt mit Deerhoofs Interpretation von funkiger Slinkopation, aber der nächste Abschnitt klingt wie etwas aus Palestrina; wie so viele dieser Songs ist es eine malerische Fahrt, die von einer erstaunlichen Aussicht zur nächsten führt, von weiten, schimmernden Wüsten über neblige Schluchten bis hin zu atemberaubenden, schneebedeckten Berggipfeln. Wie Mike Watt einmal über seine Band The Minutemen sagte, schreiben Deerhoof keine Songs, sondern Flüsse. Woher kommt dieses Zeug? Da ist das hoch aufragende, ungerade getaktete Gitarrenriffarama von Chavez, der Heavy-Metal-Donner von Strawinsky, die beschädigten Schnörkel von Gastr del Sol, der Klang und Stomp von Led Zeppelin, Japans illustre Reihe atemberaubend innovativer, von Frauen dominierter Bands wie Ex-Girl und Melt Banana. Und jetzt gibt es diese Mensch-Maschine-Beatbox-Rhythmen, bei denen der titanische Schlagzeuger Greg Saunier die Technologie übertrifft wie ein John Henry mit zwei Holzstiften in den Händen anstelle eines Vorschlaghammers. Manchmal erinnern sie an The Who - wie ,Underture" aus Tommy oder die großartige Live-Version von ,A Quick One", eine Rockband, die die Arbeit eines Orchesters leistet, fesselnde Träumereien im Wechsel mit kraftvollen Ausbrüchen gewundener Melodien, lyrischen Machtspielen und Inverted Claws, die überwältigende Freude hervorrufen. Aber es gibt noch eine weitere wichtige Quelle: Seit mindestens 20 Jahren hat der Hip-Hop die ausgefallenste und experimentellste Musik hervorgebracht, die die Popmusik je gesehen hat. Warum kann Rockmusik nicht das Gleiche tun, auf ihre eigene Weise? Während ,Friend Opportunity" also tangential den Hip-Hop (und verschiedene Epochen des Rock in seiner abenteuerlichsten Form) zitiert, wendet es meist nur die gleiche Denkweise an - was wäre, wenn wir einfach unserer Fantasie freien Lauf lassen würden? ,Friend Opportunity" ist eine Meisterleistung der Neuerfindung, die nur von Künstlern kommen konnte, die bereit waren, alles zu überdenken. ,Es ist, als wäre man wieder ein Kind", sagte Saunier einmal zu Pitchfork, ,denn das ist es, was Kinder die ganze Zeit tun. Jeden Tag lernen sie neue Dinge, von denen sie nicht wussten, dass sie sie tun können." Mann, wenn man von Sonic Youth spricht - Deerhoofs Frühling ist ewig. - Michael Azerrad

During the past 50 years, tenor-saxophonist Scott Hamilton has been one of the most consistent jazz artists, always taking thoughtful and swinging solos while displaying a warm tone. His 2004 live recording brought a top-notch quartet to the Jazzclub De Tor, Enschede, the Netherlands. Accompanied by pianist Rein de Graaf, bassplayer Marius Beets and on drums Eric Ineke, Scott Hamilton plays six jazz tracks from the set including "Rhythm Riff", a 12-chorus solo that gradually builds in excitement. Live at De Tor is available as a limited edition on silver coloured vinyl, contains liner notes on back of the sleeve by jazz journalist/author Scott Yanow.

"Straight up, no one is having more fun than me when we"re up there!" beams DRAIN frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro, whose face is perpetually glued in a grin. For anyone that"s seen the Santa Cruz hardcore firebrands live, there"s no mistaking that fact. DRAIN isn"t just a good time as Sammy presides over the chaos of stage diving bodies and mic-grabbing frontline; it"s a party-and everyone is invited. (Dolphin shorts and boogie boards are optional but encouraged.) "The vibe of it is, enthusiastic, hectic," says the vocalist. "Five people deep singing and stagediving, then kids going berserk behind that. It"s a great vibe and I think people pick up on that." That, in a nutshell is DRAIN. The trio inject a serious dose of relatability-not to mention catchiness-into hardcore"s penchant for toughness and brutality on their new Epitaph album, ...IS YOUR FRIEND. Ciaramitaro"s desperate, snotty howl rides roughshod over thrash-leaning riffage as rhythms bounce in a big way. If you"re picturing the Pacific Ocean waves that rise and fall along the coastal town, occasionally violently so, you"re not far off.

"Straight up, no one is having more fun than me when we"re up there!" beams DRAIN frontman Sammy Ciaramitaro, whose face is perpetually glued in a grin. For anyone that"s seen the Santa Cruz hardcore firebrands live, there"s no mistaking that fact. DRAIN isn"t just a good time as Sammy presides over the chaos of stage diving bodies and mic-grabbing frontline; it"s a party-and everyone is invited. (Dolphin shorts and boogie boards are optional but encouraged.) "The vibe of it is, enthusiastic, hectic," says the vocalist. "Five people deep singing and stagediving, then kids going berserk behind that. It"s a great vibe and I think people pick up on that." That, in a nutshell is DRAIN. The trio inject a serious dose of relatability-not to mention catchiness-into hardcore"s penchant for toughness and brutality on their new Epitaph album, ...IS YOUR FRIEND. Ciaramitaro"s desperate, snotty howl rides roughshod over thrash-leaning riffage as rhythms bounce in a big way. If you"re picturing the Pacific Ocean waves that rise and fall along the coastal town, occasionally violently so, you"re not far off.

"“Veruschka” is a unique film within the Italian cinematic landscape of the early 1970s — halfway between experimental cinema, visual art, and fashion. Directed by photographer Franco Rubartelli, it tells (in a highly symbolic and almost dreamlike way) the story of Veruschka von Lehndorff, the famous model and muse of the director, who plays herself in a journey of inner exploration and alienation through Africa and the world of fashion photography.
It is not a narrative film in the traditional sense, but rather a visual and sensory experience, made of extraordinary imagery, contemplative rhythm, and a constant sense of aesthetic melancholy. And for this very reason, Ennio Morricone’s score plays a fundamental role: it is the true emotional voice of the film.
For Veruschka, Morricone composed one of his most delicate and spiritual works. The soundtrack is a perfect balance between avant- garde and lyricism, between melody and sonic experimentation."

Unchained is the long-standing guitar-based project of Nate Davis, originally from Providence, RI, and based in France for over a decade. In his two most recent LPs—Gabbeh (2024, A Colourful Storm) and Frontalier (2025, Stern Records)—Davis strives to describe a new path for outsider jazz instrumentalism that remains committed to harmonic and rhythmic form while placing greater emphasis on sonic texture through experimental production techniques.

Release Description:

Unchained—a name which at the project's inception or on earlier recordings spoke perhaps to the ecstatic saturation of high gain guitar—has over the past three albums (N.D. Visitor, Pic, and Gabbeh) come to represent more and more an acknowledgement of and sensitive remove from a crashing world. An excuse of oneself from trend towards a siloed artistic development.

On Frontalier, Nate Davis crosses further into this patient personal lexicon of guitar composition, presenting a new set of richly developed songs and leaps in arrangement which may very well shock Unchained fans the world over. The sympathetic geometric guitar themes of the earlier second-period Unchained style are almost entirely absent, making way for a fully realized presentation of the jazz, MPB, and fusion influence present to varying degrees on the previous three albums. Davis's keen sense of melody and songcraft have never been stronger, here landing on music which is at moments evocative of Wes Montgomery, Allan Holdsworth, Jobim, or the jazzier impulses of Lô Borges. Distinct in Davis's music, however, is what these references might belie: an innate tending towards repetition as an affective tool—one which has less to do with the aesthetics of the scene from which the project emerged than it does with devotional prayer. In this way it feels as if Unchained has always been music for living. What was once a maximalist expression of youth has matured into the sound of living with and in the world and an empathic transmuting of all the joy, disappointment, and ambivalence that comes with it. Songs that feel like the sort of thinking one does looking out the window on a long train ride, or the routinism of internal and external life and the breaking out of it. As much as it will be recognized by the fandom as a significant step forward, Frontalier serves also as a perfect gateway for new listeners to the singular music of Unchained.

Based in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, Dark Circles Recordings has

rediscovered and is reissuing an album originally recorded and released in 2008 by

Dog Soup, a then London-based quartet that played a handful of gigs and recorded

just one exemplary album before, seemingly, disappearing. Fragments, that album, is

a crucial chapter in the British jazz story that can now be told again.

The brainchild of trumpeter and composer Robbie Robson, Dog Soup was briefly part

of the Loop Collective, a group of musicians founded in London in 2005. Dog Soup

cut one mesmerising album of rhythmic shapes and melodic colours that still

sounds fresh, exciting and dynamic 17 years later. An intoxicating mix of composed

and freely improvised playing, Fragments keeps the listener guessing just where the

music is coming from.

Released in 2008, Fragments just preceded the revitalised British jazz scene and slipped

under the radar of even the most ardent aficionados, becoming a lost classic—until Dark

Circles Recordings recognised its brilliance 17 years later and persuaded Robson to reissue

it.


'...prefigures the post-rock into jazz trajectory which Chicago's International Anthem label would later inscribe so joyfully'
* * * * Mojo

'...original, free and dramatic...'

The Guardian

Originally commissioned by TBA during the COVID pandemic of 2020 as part of their Curfew programming O Morto, aka Mestre André now presents the full length version of his Lila composition, a collaboration with Moroccan musicians Ayoub ElAyady and Khalid Boulhamam.

Lila is the Arabic word for night and is also the name of the liturgic ceremony manifested in a trance, as a process of healing and therapy, through a ritual of sensory immersion conducted by music (gnawa), incense, colour and dance. From sunset to dawn, seven colours are revealed, associated with different rhythms and stages of ecstasy.

In »Lila«, Ayoub ElAyady, Khalid Boulhamam and O Morto summarily travel through the seven colours of the nocturnal ritual in all its scope – using both the form of tradition and electronic manipulation.!:

As trans-Atlantic alchemists pulling from a shared dialectic that somehow encompassed both postmodern deconstructionist tendencies and a delightfully subversive sense of poptimism, it’s easy to see how David Cunningham and Peter Gordon immediately hit it off upon initially meeting each other back in the late-1970s at the height of their youthful transgressions. Having initially worked together on the second Flying Lizards’ LP fourth wall, with its ingenious fusion of dismantled rhythms and rearranged melodies juxtaposed against the slyly sultry singing of Snatch’s Patti Palladin— with Gordon adding a few sprinkles of mischievous sax in the mix— it’s no wonder the collaboration would lead to further musical adventures.

Which leads us directly to the genesis of The Yellow Box. Embarking on a collaborative exercise in the structural repurposing of music as untethered puzzle pieces in need of rearrangement with no predetermined outcomes, the duo gave birth to a project that would see them move through both time and recording studios across Europe, taking nearly two years from 1981-1983 to complete. Enlisting the great Anton Fier on drums from The Feelies/Lounge Lizards nexus and John Greaves on bass from Henry Cow/Soft Heap lore to round out their dueling creative counterparts, the album would be something of a lost treasure until its eventual release on Cunningham’s Piano imprint in 1996.

Cinematic in scope, and filled with drifting drones, beautiful counter-melodies, eery minimalism, Kraftwerkian synthesizers, looped voices, skronky interludes, and other shifting undercurrents of sound, it was an album that utilized both a diverse array of expressive languages, as well as early sampling techniques and prepared instruments, well before most people were thinking in such expansive, integrated terms at the dawn of the 80’s. But such is life at the vanguard of new music. And one of the reasons that it likely sat on the shelf for so long before finally being released well over a decade later. Like a sparser, less groove-oriented version of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, or a more radical take on the experimental work of Can’s Holger Czukay, The Yellow Box stands at the crossroads of time and technology, fusing multiple strands of musical thought and compositional techniques into a disjointed whole that somehow still comes off as a conceptually complete record.

Now, here it is again, over 40 years later, with perhaps even more historical resonance than it had before, remade and remodeled just waiting to be rediscovered again.

Sometimes there are discoveries that hit like thunderbolts! Matt Pascale & The Stomps are undoubtedly one of them-and a major one at that. Everything here is simply perfect. Musically, the backbone of this album remains blues, but rock, funk, soul, and even hip-hop are never far off. The compositions flow like a string of potential hits. It only takes listening to this album once or twice for certain melodies to lodge themselves firmly in your brain. As for the performance, it"s downright incredible. Matt Pascale has a raspy voice with a "more Italian you couldn"t get" vibe, his guitar playing is a sheer marvel of precision and feel, and The Stomps are a rhythmic and groovy powerhouse capable of waking the dead. Un-be-lie-va-ble!

On the streets of Berlin, it's easy to spot people who know their electronic music. You'll see curious partygoers as well as picky listeners whose appreciation isn't easy to win. Tonight, both crowds are heading to the presentation of Daniel Gardner's record. A cult album that was revived thanks to a fresh concept and a remaster. By evening, Jonny Knuppel was packed. Among the guests - a flamboyant duo that couldn't go unnoticed. Some swayed to rhythms that felt like old friends, while others - luckier ones, perhaps - were discovering an entire world for the first time. As they approached the booth, Plate leaned in with a warm smile:

Ein inspiriertes Treffen musikalischer Köpfe erzeugt eine mehrdimensionale Noir-Welt auf diesem luftig-intimen, wunderschönen Kooperationsalbum. Zugleich der Höhepunkt seiner Disciples-Trilogie, treibt Ruth Mascelli (Special Interest) zusammen mit Mary Hanson Scott die paranoiden Torch-Songs des Vorgängers "Non-Stop Healing Frequency" in noch liminalere und abgehobenere Gefilde. Die Songseite ist stärker denn je, während die FX-beschallten Rohrblatt-Klänge von Mary Hanson Scott nicht nur Ruths verführerisches Gesäusel perfekt untermalen, sondern auch ein wolkig-ambientes Klangbett für die Instrumentals bilden, die die Sequenzen zusammenhalten und zu einer wahrhaft emotional mitreißenden Reise formen. Mit Gastauftritten von Jae Matthews (Boy Harsher) und Maria Elena (Special Interest). Im Coverdesign von Brett LaBauve von der Queer-Dance-Party-Institution Gimme A Reason, New Orleans. Zu den Höhepunkten zählt die episch-sehnsuchtsvolle Power-Ballade "Haunted Hearts", das hinreißende Zeitlupen-Cover des Hi-NRG-Pop(per)-Knallers "Self Control" und die zerhackten Rhythmen von "A Lover's Theory Of Value" zwischen abgestumpftem Trip-Hop und Julee Cruise, während "Vaseline Lens" an die elegischen Klagelieder über den Niedergang auf Seite 2 des Debütalbums "A Night At The Baths" erinnert.

Acclaimed electronic musicians, producers and sound architects Max Cooper and Rob Clouth team up for a new collaborative EP; a dark, playful four-track dive into ambient, breakbeat and techno’s subconscious flow, featuring a standout vocal performance from South London rapper FLOHIO.

Recorded over a series of spontaneous London sessions, “8 Billion Realities” channels years of creative exchange between two of the genre’s most quietly innovative artists and is a result of a decision between the longtime friends to refrain from conceptual overthinking in favour of instinct and joy.

As long-time admirers of each other’s audio/visual work, Cooper and Clouth collaborated in London together after both emerging from intense, idea-heavy album cycles. What followed was a series of exploratory sessions, half-improvised, half-built around half-formed thoughts.

The result is a club-ready EP that feels alive and human: imperfect and hypnotically rich.

“Rob Clouth has been one of my favourite electronic music producers since I first heard his work in 2011,” says Cooper. “His work is more full of ideas and structure than anyone else.” “We were both coming from extensive conceptual studio albums and both in the mood for simplifying things and having some fun with the music, so that’s what we did”.

For Clouth, no stranger to Max Coopers Mesh label having previously released an array of EP’s plus his 2020 debut album “Zero Point” this record marks a new chapter, both creatively and personally.“Something pretty new for me is collaborating,” he says. “You kind of have to when to stop, because if you develop an idea all the way to its endpoint, the other person has nowhere to jump in.”

The first “A Moment Set Aside” began as a break from another idea, a live, unplanned improvisation based around arps and ambience. “The track was written in about as long as it took to play it,” says Cooper. “It was pulled from a 1 hour recording session, more or less as you hear it… the energy and excitement grew as the unplanned moment bore some magic.”

“The lesson being that sometimes it’s helpful to set aside a moment without forcing results, and let the subconscious have something to say.” What followed was darker, heavier. “Asymptote” is detuned techno. Subversive and euphoric in its descent. “We found a sort of brain mangling, half consonant, half wandering detuned techno pulse, which we started chatting about being a sort of pit of spiralling body parts we were falling into,” says Cooper. “It was a lot of fun to work on and let loose with bigger kicks than I usually ever get to unleash.”

Then came “8 Billion Realities”, featuring a standout rap performance from FLOHIO; an emerging figure in the UK grime and rap scene. The track was inspired by conversations about algorithmic echo chambers and hyper-personalised online worlds. Frantic, direct, and South London to the core, FLOHIO brings this tension to life. Her sharp, intense flow cuts through distortion and rhythm, landing the track somewhere between chaos and control instantly making it one of the most striking moments in either artist’s catalogue. “A different reality for all 8 billion of us,” says Cooper. “We weren’t sure if it would work… but there was something about the energy of the percussive idea and the story which felt like it might fit.” “Then FLOHIO had a play with it and straight off the bat absolutely killed it, not just with the lyrics and energy, but the harmonising too, it was a beautiful process.”

The final piece on the EP “Candeleda” originated from Clouth’s solo experiments with a live rig made entirely of vocals and keys, using his self-developed “cheatbox” system. “He put forward a beautiful stumbling melodic sequence which we bounced back and forth adding harmonies and synth layers,” says Cooper. “It rounds off a collection covering some of the breadth of music that we both love.”

Munich-based duo Glaskin, brothers Jonathan and Ferdinand Bockelmann, have become pivotal voices in modern techno, known for their residency at the legendary Blitz Club and standout releases on labels like Mutual Rytm and Figure. Their live sets channel dynamic, forward-thinking energy, and now they bring that momentum to FJAAK's ever-expanding CROWD family. With the Blue Light EP, Glaskin deliver four impeccably groovy tracks that balance stripped-down flair and shimmering texture. "Blue Light" opens the EP with mellow synth tones, a lean, hypnotic beat and a vocal loop murmuring 'here we go' that signals the underground journey ahead. Next up is "Captcha", releasing as the single, where a spoken female voice is layered atop rhythmic percussion, marrying atmosphere with groove-driven momentum. On the B-side, "Tape", digs deep into rolling uncompromising techno territory, strict in structure yet irresistibly danceable. The EP rounds out with "Prophat Tool Board", stepping slightly into house-leaning warmth, its broader rhythm and melodic warmth offering a fitting counterpoint to the brooding energy before it. The Blue Light EP is Glaskin's debut on CROWD and a shrewd expansion of the label's sound palette: richly textured techno made for both peak-time impact and immersive listening. To celebrate the release on the label, Glaskin will join label-founders FJAAK for a CROWD night at Nitsa Club in Barcelona on October 10, an event primed to showcase the raw energy and precision behind their studio work. Don't miss this one!

"Colombian artist Nicolas Duque is the latest to join the LONEWOLF catalog with his WE DRIFT IN PIECES EP. The record is a journey into the unspoken and the unknown, a deep dive into emotional abstraction, dressed in the sleek, hypnotic rhythms of techno and acid. Seoul-based Krijka's remix of Consciousness Energy adds depth and a propulsive, trancey flair, completing this astonishing work. Limited to 300 copies worldwide."

In an intricate lattice of ever-evolving electro exploration, Samuel Van Dijk is back on Delsin with a new EP. Under his VC-118A alias, the Helsinki based producer presents a richly textured, cinematic strain of machine funk that reaches beyond dancefloor functionality to test the expressive potential locked within electro's crisp rhythmic framework. There's a melancholic mood hovering over Avian as Van Dijk allows a subtle edge of distortion to creep into his flickering drum programming. The end result is a pensive sound that touches on the moodiness of orchestral composition, unfurling patiently across extended run times without losing focus. With his characteristic attention to detail and broad dynamic range, Van Dijk continues to offer up a sophisticated, emotionally-charged strain of electro like no other.

The word "amateur" originates from the Latin word "amator," meaning "lover" or "admirer". This Latin term is derived from "amare," which means "to love". The French adopted "amateur" from Latin, and the English then borrowed it from French, initially retaining the sense of someone who loves or is devoted to something. Over time, the English usage of "amateur" also developed a meaning related to a lack of professional skill or experience. How did a word derived from love become a slur? Is love really so defenseless? They say love conquers all, but in reality isn’t love quite ridiculous? It has no intention, no motive, no agenda. How could it possibly prevail? It can’t be bought or sold, or so they say.Its mere existence can't be proven or even measured. What an impossible thing. Trying and failing, time and time again, no wonder cynicism always seems to win. I see “amateurism” as a delighted, even foolish, protest. Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that? I just want to have fun. I want to want. I want to love. And keep doing it, forever. I want to have fun, even when it’s tiring and sometimes even heaven is boring as hell. I want to be bad. I want to do my own thing. “I vant to be alone”. I want to be someone so dedicated to their passion that it starts to seem like there’s something wrong with them. All the way. We can take it all the way, and never get it back. ” - Molly Nilsson Amateur is the 12th studio album by Molly Nilsson. Deep in the teeth of a career that threatens to tip into something resembling a “legacy,” Molly Nilsson celebrates with an album recorded instinctively, quickly and bursting with so many moments of emotional brilliance and clarity it may be her greatest yet. Hers has been a career spent reaching out, perennially powerful in her earnestness, a warrior ridiculously defenceless and armed with a glittering sincerity. Shearing herself of the machinations of the music industry, recording at home, writing direct to the heart. Amateur is a jubilee for losers. A treatise in 13 songs, Amateur states clearly that we should live our life with eternal curiosity, offers us an open hand of comradeship out of the rat race. The songs on the album are both some of the most personal of Nilsson’s career and the most anthemic. First single How Much Is The World asks us to re-evaluate value in the face of a Neo-liberal system squeezing the life out of our loves. Pulsing opener Die Cry Lie satirises the commercialisation of emotion in the form of a shout-along diss-track. With a pounding rhythm track held down by gorgeous chord changes, heartbreaker Valhalla carries the torch for the main themes of the album: never growing up, making mistakes with kindness, moving on. When the drums crash in on the line “It’s going to get better now, you’ll see, going to be much better off without me” there is a world of feeling swirling about in the vocal delivery. One reading of the track might be that it’s a break up song but the subtext is classic Molly Nilsson: by living truthfully, making mistakes, we’re active agents against the myriad oppressions of the world. All The Way takes the theme for a run into the eternal sunset. It’s a manifesto for living fully. “Take it all the way, and never get it back” - it’s the process that’s the important point. The journey not the destination. Big Life, follows on like a part 2: An ode not only to Molly Nilsson’s career of endless gigs, endless connections with people, it’s a massive ode for following your dreams, doing it yourself. Closer The Bitter End is a powerful anthem for friendship, another definition of love infused in Nilsson’s work, A beautifully poignant ode to comradeship til the end, it seems to be the songwriter approaching aging, approaching life’s inevitability with the same vigour and earnestness, the same love of life she enjoyed at the onset of her career. There are moments on Amateur shrouded in reverb, slightly out of focus, forcing the listener to step deeper into the Mollyverse.. Nilsson’s open-armed beseeching to the world permeates every beat, every chord. These are songs exploding with life: the chunky, aggressive bassline on the punker Get A Life can’t hide its massive, catchy chorus. The sweeping Swedish Nightmare might be a tongue-in-cheek self-reference, but at its heart it’s a song about the duality of living life large, what is a dream, what is a nightmare? Molly Nilsson says you can’t have one without the other, and why would you want to? Here’s to making mistakes.

Alina Kalancea's Impedance is an entirely instrumental album spanning four sides, contains powerful rhythmic sequences, heart-beating frequencies and hypnotic loops that are paradoxically encapsulated in carefully crafted compositions which are full of secret passages and hidden doors. Kalancea's work creates ungraspable sonic experiences, which overtakes you, immersing its listeners in powerful and mind-altering soundscapes. There's no quick payoff on Impedance. This is the sound of new, patient electronic music, full of depth and substance.

Alina Kalancea is a Romanian sound artist and composer based in Modena, Italy. She has studied sound design and synthesis with Enrico Cossimi and collaborated with producer Alex Gamez, and artists Julia Kent and Raven Bush. Highly recommended to fans of Eleh, Caterina Barbieri, Shasta Cults, Jessica Ekomane, Eliane Radigue, and Alessandro Cortini. Packaged in a deluxe, heavy duty tip-on gatefold sleeves printed by Stoughton; cut by Golden Mastering and pressed at RTI.

Latest record off the Kalahari production line comes courtesy of a real one. Klon Dump in the building, moving like a madman across four barrelling tech house scorchers.

Part-producer, part-engineer and a long time co-conspirator of A Colourful Storm’s Moopie. Better known to some under the alias Mark, but always surefire for some serious dancefloor potency. Doubters, look no further-this is another demonstration of his mastery.

Big with the radiant stabs, even bigger on the earworm groove. Ploughing the furrow of tough, direct but deft as the Klon Dump faithful will have come to expect by now. Proper belters.

Always flexing outstanding rhythmic ingenuity, whether it’s hardcore hybridity as Mark or the tech house innovation shown here. If anything in life is certain, it’s that a KD record will lay down some serious torque.

There’s also an off-kilter playfulness that kinda feels reminiscent of T+++’s ‘Space Pong’ or Fiedel and Errorsmith’s MMM project. Another ace in the hole from the Antipodean shapeshifter.

Dream Dancing have been on the hunt for something special and find it with the return of Blueless.

On the A side, two highly sought after tracks originally released on her own Capture Records in 2007.
'Groove Me' is a stunning emotive deep tech house moment which will raise the hairs on your neck on every listen.
'OK' enters more club territory, still keeping within the soulful spectrum. Restored and remastered from Blueless' own vault.

On the B side, 'Trueness' and 'Outsounding' are both fresh from the studio, offering organic rhythms, effortlessly gliding with classy musical atmospheres and warm rolling grooves.

Almost 20 years between the productions, Blueless remains true to her unique soulful style with these much welcomed heartfelt, timeless and deep sounds.

Something old, something new, all Blue!

Cyphon Recordings proudly presents the latest release from Berwick, a Sheffield by Bristol
producer and DJ carving out a reputation for razor-sharp electro and forward-thinking club
sounds. With a background steeped in underground electronic music, Berwick has steadily built
his name through a string of uncompromising releases and energetic live and DJ sets, blending
the grit of classic electro with a modern rave-inspired touch. His new EP showcases his most
refined work yet—four tracks built for the floor, designed to move bodies and shake systems.
Opening with Fall & Melt, Berwick sets the tone with a punchy, contemporary electro cut. Its
driving percussion, crisp groove, and propulsive energy make it a peak-time weapon, balancing
raw dancefloor impact with seriously fat production finesse. Next up, Powerflip dives deeper
into the shadows. Gnarly synth lines, guttural bass, and clipped vocal hits collide to create a
darker, more menacing side of Berwick’s electro vision. With eyeball-rattling low-end, it’s a track
that demands a big system to unleash its full force.
On Impossible, Berwick shifts gears into an even faster lane. Elasticated bass and synths bounce
around the crisp drum groove, pushing the pace with an adrenaline-fuelled rhythm that’s as
urgent as it is infectious. Rounding off the EP, fellow Bristolian Sam Lester takes Powerflip into
new territory with a remix that leans towards wonky tech house. Stripping back some of the
raw menace of the original, Lester reshapes it with a 4 on the floor kick, layering in hypnotic
textures and a slick low-end that makes it a tripped-out weapon for house and techno sets
alike.
This release cements Berwick’s position as an artist unafraid to push electro into bold and
uncompromising spaces, while also opening the door to cross-genre interpretations.