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We Jazz Records continues their 7" series with a new release by Oaagaada, a fresh quartet from the rural parts of Southern Finland. "Oag-ada / A Swimming Trip" appears on 30 October and presents the band's ability to create fiery and flowing jazz music with strong avantgarde leanings. Think Art Ensemble Of Chicago on their groovy mode and add a strong DIY mentality, four people in a room creating music in the now. The lows are low and the highs are high, with the trumpet firmly on the red, adding just the right amount of blurriness into the picture. Perhaps it's not "lo-fi jazz" per se, but rather music which is more concerned with other things than the cleanest of hi-fi imagery. This is "real jazz for real people".

The quartet includes Tuure Tammi (trumpet), Sami Pekkola (sax), Tero Kemppainen (bass) and Simo Laihonen (drums). Laihonen has recently appeared on We Jazz Records with Stanley J. Zappa and previously with Black Motor, and more Oaagaada can be heard on the recent "We Jazz Live Plates" album "Lonna 2019".

True to We Jazz style, the 7" single comes with old school heat-pressed labels and a plain brown paper sleeve.

Helsinki bassist Antti Lötjönen follows up his 2020 We Jazz Records debut LP with a new 7" introducing a fresh version of key album cut "Erzeben Strasse" and throws in a wild treatment by Petter Eldh's Koma Saxo on the flipside. "Erzeben Strasse" presents Lötjönen's Quintet East lineup in fine form, swinging steadily but also adding enough sideways movement to blur the lines just a little bit. The band features a stellar Finnish cast in Lötjönen (bass), Verneri Pohjola (trumpet), Mikko Innanen (baritone sax), Jussi Kannaste (tenor sax) and Joonas Riippa (drums).

The Koma Saxo treatment of the track, dubbed here as "Erzeben Koma" is full of fire. Uplifting, a bit hectic, beat-driven and jubilant, Eldh's band of brothers double the ensemble heard on Side A, both sampling and adding new recording into the mix. The entire Koma Saxo live band is featured here: Eldh (bass/production), Otis Sandsjö (tenor sax), Jonas Kullhammar (tenor sax), Innanen (alto sax) and Christian Lillinger (drums). The modern sound of Helsinki meet Mauerpark Liquid Jazz.

Since their formation, The Hirsch Effekt have carved out a unique niche in the German-speaking music scene. Yet, despite—or perhaps because of—their elusiveness, the band has captivated a devoted audience. Musically, The Hirsch Effekt have always embraced limitless possibilities. Acoustic, introspective moments—where bassist Ilja John Lappin brings out his cello or guitarist Nils Wittrock returns to his classical roots—sit naturally alongside massive progressive metal onslaughts. The band is equally at home on intimate club stages as they are at international festivals, evidenced by repeated appearances at Euroblast and numerous events across the UK. Recently, they toured Germany alongside scene giants like Leprous, Tesseract and traversed Europe with Caligula’s Horse. Yet between these extremes, The Hirsch Effekt continually create songs that flirt with radio accessibility—almost—because the band steadfastly resists any form of standardization. With their seventh album, Der Brauch, they continue this course uncompromisingly. While earlier works, despite their diversity, were still labeled “metal albums,” this new record explores paths first hinted at on the multilayered second album, Holon : Anamnesis—the same album that fans of VISIONS magazine voted the only German-language entry among the 20 best albums of all time. Der Brauch can be seen as a return to that pivotal point—and simultaneously as a bold step forward. Drummer Moritz Schmidt doesn’t entirely forgot blast beats, but the record demands a new heading. In the end, though, there is only one truth: it unmistakably sounds like The Hirsch Effekt.

The second single from the Skinshape x Horus dub album, “N’tero” is a soulful, dub track featuring Senegalese vocalist Modou Touré, singing in his native tongue Wolof.
Produced using fully analogue techniques and recorded in the spirit of vintage Jamaican dub, this 7" is a perfect blend of old-school authenticity and modern production finesse.
Skinshape (Will Dorey) and Ben Bell (Horus Records / Lion Vibes) bring over two decades of collaboration and deep roots to this project.
Known for their love of rare roots reggae and dub, the pair are now crafting original material with the same dedication to sound and detail that defined the golden era of Jamaican music.

" A very limited 7” for the tropical heads, beat travellers and cosmic cumbia astronauts on the new imprint Sun Of A Beach — the free-spirited daughter of Editions de Lux, who skipped town, fell in love somewhere between Kingston and Cartagena, and came back glowing, barefoot, and heavy on the bass.

At home in the steaming rainforest as much as the urban jungle of the Chapinero district of Bogotá, Colombia’s psychedelic groove pilots Ácido Pantera deliver a double-sided tropical weapon aimed straight at late-night sweatboxes, boat parties, and sun-soaked terraces.

"Te quiero, te amo” is a declaration of love at 132 bpm, bouncing along like a low-rider over cobblestones while neon synths float in the humid air.

Flip it for “Pájaro cantor”, a sound system destroyer that will lock the floor in an acid trance that feels both ancestral and futuristic in the same breath. This one’s featured on the FC26 soundtrack and will have you shimmying like Luis Díaz right before he bangs one into the top corner!

You know what to do!"

CAY unveils his personal side on Another Life, a debut album rich in melancholic euphoria

The expressive, multi-faceted 10 tracker comes on Mind Against's HABITAT label in January 2026

Cologne-born producer CAY explores beyond the dancefloor with Another Life, a debut album that trades peak-time pressure for an ambitious and artful exploration of self. Far from being rooted in one genre, the record weaves his own honest vocals with a wide range of powerful rhythms that pull from progressive, broken beat, techno and trance.

For CAY, making music has always offered refuge and a place to calm his mind, process life’s chaos and channel personal experiences into sound. His journey started in the clubs of Cologne, in illegal forest raves and with trips to Berlin to soak up big room techno. His search for more purpose, away from mental demons and the darker side of the party lifestyle, led him to production. DJing followed after a push from his brother turned Manager, and while those experiences around Europe shaped his understanding of dance floor dynamics, he was never in a rush to release his early experiments.

Instead, CAY took private time to evolve into an accomplished artist with his own musical voice. Label heads Mind Against were so impressed when they heard what he sent to their demo inbox, they both reached out to collaborate, and he has since released on their label HABITAT.

With Another Life, he is making music that is multilayered and rich in narrative, rather than defined purely by big moments. It is drawn from years of writing, with more than 60 tracks whittled down to one concise, impactful statement. "There wasn't one big concept,” says CAY “but there was direction. It's a big risk for me, but I wanted to introduce people who like club music to something deeper. I want the music to say something real.”

Because of that, Another Life introduces CAY the vocalist. For the first time, he sings on several tracks. The subjects are real, whether that's an important friend, a moment with his girlfriend or, on 'Runaway', the thought of giving up and escaping everything. The lyrics are honest but often slightly oblique, so they invite your own readings rather than spelling everything out.

Sonically, the album moves between optimistic grandeur and introspective reality. It's cinematic but personal and bridges the gap between dancefloor drive and vulnerable storytelling. There is a grand scale to many of the tracks, with arching synths reaching and heavyhearted drums anchoring a groove: you'll dance, you'll cry, maybe both at the same time.

Another Life is the sound of a producer granting himself permission to sing, turn inwards and risk audience expectations. It’s intimate without being insular, club-capable without being confined, and a compelling first chapter for an artist who has spent years building toward this moment of truth.

In 2016, a year after the 50th entry in the long-running series, none other but the iconic Detroit artist, DJ and producer Moodymann stepped up to helm the next landmark edition of DJ-Kicks, his first ever multi-artist DJ mix compilation. Following !K7's 40 th anniversary, this classic DJ-Kicks mix is now being repressed on coke bottle clear vinyl.
Born Kenny Dixon Jr., Moodymann is a one-of-a-kind electronic music icon, hailing from, and wholly synonymous with the Motor City. He is an outspoken, impossibly charismatic artist who has been putting a distinctive and soulful stamp on house and techno since the early 90s. Melting together jazz, funk, soul, blues and rock in captivating ways, he is responsible for some of electronic music’s most definitive tracks, EPs and LPs on labels like Planet E, Peacefrog and his own KDJ and Mahogani Music imprints. As able to serve up the sweetest and most sensual sounds as he is the darkest and most depraved grooves, his own unique voice and stream of conscious musings infuse expertly sought-out samples for music that is decisively alive and authentic.

Across 75 minutes and 30 tracks, Moodymann does not disappoint: despite being a notorious vinyl fetishist, Dixon’s aim is to present music of quality, not to one-up fellow collectors. Rather than serving up ridiculously rare or hard- to-find records, he instead focuses on creating a libidinous, blues-drenched mood that takes in heart-breaking soul, gorgeous hip-hop and love-fuelled house.

In addition to cuts from his own creative circle, the mix features 11 exclusive Moodymann edits. Like everything Kenny Dixon Jr. touches, his DJ-Kicks showcases the taste, skill, and soul of a dance music original.

High-definition audiophile pressing - 180g premium vinyl - the complete album plus bonus track from the same session, but not included on the original LP

This special edition presents the complete Grant Green LP 'Gooden's Corner' (1961) with an additional track recorded at the same session with saxophonist Ike Quebec joining the quartet on the seldom heard standard, Count Every Star by Bruno Coquatrix and Sammy Gallop. Grant Green - guitar Sonny Clark - piano Sam Jones - bass Louis Hayes - drums Ike Quebec - tenor sax (on 'Count Every Star' only) Rudy Van Gelder Studios, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, December 23, 1961. Original sessions recorded by Rudy Van Gelder & produced by Alfred Lion. "This is an album of real beauty and synergy between Green and pianist Sonny Clark, who along with Sam Jones on bass and Louis Hayes on drums rounds out the quartet. Green, an expert with standards, offers 'Moon River', 'What Is This Thing Called Love?', and 'On Green Dolphin Street'." - ****1/2 Michael Erlewine, All Music

Hot Creations Winter 2025 Vinyl Sampler featuring four of the Hottest recent releases on Hot Creations.

First up Jamie Jones marks Hot Creations’ 15th Anniversary with solo return with this year’s anthem: “Murder Mystery. His first solo release on Hot Creations since 2022’s ‘Bionic Boy’ EP, it’s a track designed to move, mesmerize, and captivate with every listen. Rolling basslines, intricate percussion, and a subtle tension pulse beneath the playful surface, making it a record built for late nights, festival main stages, and intimate spaces alike. It’s a statement of intent, and a reminder of why Jamie’s groove-driven productions continue to set the standard for house music worldwide. Next up Darius Syrossian returns to Hot Creations with ‘Bass In Ya Face’, featuring Cortez Walls is a driving, bass-fuelled floor-filler that combines weighty low-end grooves with hooky vocals.

On the flip, Joe Rolét makes his Hot Creations debut with this summer’s underground anthem. Enter: ‘No Hesitating’, the definition of a bassline mover. Stacked with rave-ready pressure and designed for full dancefloor impact, it’s a cut that has already been road-tested to devastating effect by Rolét himself alongside names such as Chris Stussy, Max Dean, and the Hot Creations head honcho himself, quickly becoming one of the most sought-after IDs of the year. Finally Manchester’s AJ Christou is back on Hot Creations with the incredibly infectious: ‘Bang Bang’, which leads with crisp percussion, slinky grooves, and a hook that’s been igniting AJ’s sets worldwide.

After making her professional debut as the cool, breathy voice behind the historic 1964 crossover smash “The Girl from Ipanema”, Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto became a major force in popularizing the bossa nova sound. Her understated yet magnetic delivery is spotlighted on this collection, showcasing her instantly-recognizable approach to songs drawn from a variety of sources—Brazil, pop hits and standards.

It’s been over 20 years since Kenny Dixon Jr., better known as Moodymann, released Black Mahogani—an album rich in atmosphere and emotion, offering a quintessential journey through deep house, soul, and jazz. Timeless yet modern, it’s an immersive and emotionally resonant experience that reflects the singular character of Detroit’s deep musical heritage.

Originally released in 2004, Black Mahogani is arguably one of Moodymann’s most revered and sought-after works. It completes the puzzle laid out by his rare and elusive KDJ 12” releases from the mid to late '90s. With the help of Detroit legends like the late Amp Fiddler, Roberta Sweed, and Norma Jean Bell, Dixon infused his analog soundscapes and samples with a new organic warmth—expanding the deep house genre while simultaneously paying homage to 1970s soul and cinematic soundtracks.

Dixon’s masterful control of tension—knowing exactly when to hold back and when to let go—makes Black Mahogani an enduring masterpiece. It's not just a landmark in electronic music, but a definitive statement in 21st-century Black American music.

Following his debut EP God Iz Enough, South London artist Tomi Ahmedeus unveils “Sereniti Praya” a striking new chapter that deepens his sonic identity. Once again collaborating with Grammy Award-winning engineer IRKO, Ahmedeus crafts an immersive soundscape where brutalist textures, cinematic layers, and visceral rhythms converge. At it's core, Sereniti Praya is both dance driven and emotionally resonant: intricate sampling and percussive detail form the cadence of a project that speaks to love, loss, and self-discovery.

It is a record that moves between the personal and the ephemeral, designed as much for reflective listening as for the energy of the dance floor.

Perros' third installment is a sequel release from various artists that develops the theme Canerêve. Holding the usual multi-functional-tracker mission, this Volume 2 features four dancefloor house-lines facets.

DJ Cream struts with solid drum kicks that mellows into a structure that humps atmosphere dreams through a cheeky R'n'B sample, opening the record with warm charisma. A deep house blowgun truly on point. Following the info side of the record, we found a rising french producer based in Barcelona by the name of Groenogen, setting an elektrisch-soaked trip to tech house, throughout chunky basslines and infectious grooves that move inside a stridulous synth in combo with a sexy vocal chorus.

Artwork side, by the italian painter and tattoo guru FASE, starts with a showcase of layered high-quality projects throughout instruments knowledge and improvisation that just a live-act maestro like Emi Ömar can guarantee. Tribal, Deep, Acid, Electro,Funky. An immersive mixture of textures and emotions that enhances a full storytelling, a whole venture narrated by a hypnotic vocoder. The fourth and final track, comes up with a glimpse criteria, climbing the heights gradually. Then, when DJ Rou finally decides to start, that moment is just a boom! The break comes with energetic grooves, intricate percussions, sci-fi samples bounce all around with both acid and melodic flows of a potential hard-house hit.

Brooklyn's elusive Tom returns with the first release on Sweet Breeze Sound, a new label launched by Washington, DC's Marc Meistro of Sol Power All-Stars, aka Glenn Echo. He has already turned heads with a fine set of 12"s on Razor-N-Tape and Sol Power Sound, and here brings some dubby disco grooves and infectious samples. Side A leans into loved-up feels, looping an irresistible 80s r&b vocal over bouncing bass and layers of percussion. The B-side shifts to a more melancholic mood and is run through with a feeling of longing through a single repeated phrase supported by deep dub bass and driving disco rhythm. This is a great inaugural release from a label sure to become essential.

Kaninchenbau label head The Funk District has joined forces with Argentinian keys specialist Sokur for a new four-tracker that collides bluesy samples with sleek electronic grooves. 'Till My Feet Got Numb' kicks off with waves of synth energy run through with sampled vocals that hark back to Robert Johnson. 'Never Satisfied' is another mix of funky drums, jazzy pianos and crackly blues vocals that is unusual but effective. 'Took My Babe Away' repeats this combination, this time with hints of St Germain in the melancholic spoken words and ever more thumping and acid-laced beats. 'Sunshine From The Sky' completes the quartet with more hurried grooves laced with wonky synth work. It's peak time stuff with plenty of deeper meaning.

The frankly ridiculous Burnski is back as Instinct with more face-melting garage and bassline slammers that update the classic sound with just the right amount of evolution. All of these on his latest for his self-title label are 10/10 weapons: 'Halt' is hurried, swinging and syncopated to perfection. 'Choose One' is less streamlined; instead, there are warped and squelchy lines, bursts of static and a more futuristic twist getting you going. 'Crazy' brings brilliantly chosen and well-deployed samples to the fore over a beat that harks back to percussive UK funky at its finest. The flip side offers a trio of slick bouncers, body-popping movers and brightly lit vibes. Superb.

Back when the first white labels started floating through the hands of German, British, American and Canadian DJs in late ’84, nobody was ready for what was coming. The official drop hit in early ’85 and the scene was never the same again. This was the moment Mike Mareen broke through the static. Yeah, he’d been working with Chris Evans-Ironside since the ’70s but nothing hinted that together they’d channel something this futuristic. “Dancing In The Dark” sounded like it had slipped through a wormhole: melancholic, hypnotic vocals wrapped in vocoder haze, riding an arrangement so razor-sharp it made most releases of the era feel prehistoric. It didn’t need the pop charts… It owned the clubs. And the clubs listened.

London. Berlin. Madrid. Rome. Paris. Lisbon. Amsterdam. Athens. Toronto. NYC. Tokyo. Mexico City.

One drop of that electro bassline and DJs were hooked. Crowds were hooked. The whole underground was hooked. Soon Europe’s radio charts caved under its pressure, and the track crossed borders on mixtapes, becoming a cult anthem behind the Iron Curtain. It was everywhere, even where it technically wasn’t allowed to be.

Fast-forward four decades and the spell hasn’t faded. “Dancing In The Dark” still shows up in indie dance, italo wave, house and deep house sets. Producers keep re-editing it like it’s sacred material. It’s one of those tracks that DJs treasure, a timeless weapon, one of the top three defining singles of Mareen’s entire career.

And now for the 40th anniversary of its official release, Vintage Pleasure Boutique and Night’n Day Records drop the vinyl every collector and selector has been waiting for: a special reissue loaded with four brand-new remixes spanning the full spectrum of today’s underground indie/disco/italo/house energy.

Tallac – the American Berlin dweller – dives deep into the hypnotic soul of the original, pulling out its buried deep-house DNA and carving out a spacious, emotional roller.

Luksek, Italian producer & DJ, goes raw and dirty: loop-driven, gritty, underground, hypnotic, the kind of edit that eats dancefloors alive.

Flemming Dalum, the Danish Italo grandmaster, finally gets to remix the track he’d always dreamed of touching and of course it’s pure Flemingish electro-italo magic.

And the Polish sparkle: A.P. Mono delivers a shimmering mix of italo disco, glitterbox groove, disco glamour and synthwave glow, all while keeping the spirit of Mareen’s original heartbeat intact.

The wax also features two historical heavy-hitters: the 1985 Jens Lissat’s team remix and Luis Rodriguez’s original arrangement, essential cuts in the Mareen universe.

This release isn’t nostalgia. It’s a resurrection. A celebration. A reminder. “Dancing In The Dark” didn’t survive 40 years by accident, it survived because it still moves bodies, breaks hearts and lights up floors in ways modern tracks can only wish for.

If you’re an indie, italo, wave, house or disco DJ… This record isn’t just worth owning… It’s mandatory.

For AI-41 Astral Industries presents a vinyl reissue of Robert Henke’s multifaceted concept album ‘Layering Buddha’. An erudite masterclass on sampling and composition, ‘Layering Buddha’ encapsulates the material process of metamorphosis and a well of nascent, ever-present potentialities. This new edition comes remastered by Henke himself. 

Originally released in 2006, ‘Layering Buddha’ began with a curious encounter with the ‘Buddha Machine’ - a pocket-sized, battery powered playback device that, over the past two decades, has quietly achieved a cult status around the world. Conceived by the Beijing-based group FM3 (Christiaan Virant, Zhang Jian), the machine takes inspiration from Tibetan Buddhist prayer boxes and consists of nine sound loop compositions of varying length, which can be toggled with a single switch. Due to low production cost and manufacturing imperfections, each Buddha Machine is unique, giving slight variations in sound, pitch and duration.

Using a state of the art A/D converter Henke made high quality recordings from a single machine, providing the source material for the album. Through various processing and arrangement methods, new pieces emerged, most of them all deriving from a single source loop. The pieces were then set up on the computer as generative arrangements, living as continuously permutating structures that could theoretically go on forever - just as the loops do within the Buddha Machines… 

The final pieces featured on the album are rendered excerpts of these infinite permutations, and therefore exist as momentary views on a perpetual machinery, as opposed to closed works. Upon initial exploration, it also became a natural development to format the work into an immersive multi-speaker performance - which premiered on January 31, 2007.

Within the music, subtle artefacts and idiosyncrasies are transmuted into new realms of texture and timbre. Through the extractive hand of subtle augmentations, an array of ethereal dimensions emerge from the vast unseen ocean. Suspended in a sense of timelessness, their undulating rhythms point to a pool of endless mysteries. 

Recollection V-VI marks the third in a planned series of 7” releases, each built from Glonti’s expanding archive of Soviet-era recordings. The artwork by Dmytro Nikolaienko (Day Night) once again reflects the utilitarian aesthetic of Soviet-era record design.

In 2018, Glonti started collecting LPs of Soviet-era Georgian composers at Tbilisi’s “Dry Bridge” flea market.The records mostly consisted of classical and chamber music released on Melodiya, the singular, state owned record label of the USSR. It was through this process that the idea of Recollection was born, as Glonti aimed to create an album that would utilize samples from his growing collection.