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"Hasabe" is a thoughtfully curated collection of Ethio-groove recordings from one of the overlooked pioneers of 1970s Addis Ababa's vibrant music scene-Ayalew Mesfin and his Black Lion Band. Expect trap drum kits, jazz big-band styled horn sections, funky guitars played through wah wah and fuzz pedals- all seasoned with a unique Ethiopian touch_ For many, the music created in 1970s Ethiopia will sound both familiar and alien: while the trappings of '70s Ethiopian music carry some aspects that those in the West will easily identify with-trap drum kits, jazz big-band styled horn sections, guitars played through wah wah and fuzz pedals-the Ethiopian style of singing, and the modes in which the musicians move, may confound. Perhaps some who have delved into the instrumental Ethio-Jazz of Mulatu Astatke-a well-known Ethiopian musical export, relatively unknown in his homeland-will have a context in which to engage this great compilation of '70s Ethiopian music by Ayalew Mesfin. The music Mesfin created with his Black Lion Band is amongst the funkiest to arise from Addis Ababa; his recording career, captured in nearly two dozen 7" singles and numerous reel-to-reel tapes, shows the strata of the most fertile decade in Ethiopia's 20th century recording industry, when records were pressed constantly by both independent upstarts and corporate behemoths, even if they were only distributed within the confines of the unconquerable East African nation. Ayalew was forced underground by the Derg regime that took control of the country in 1974. Until recently, only four of Ayalew Mesfin's tracks had been reissued, appearing in the well-known "Éthiopiques" series. "Hasabe", a carefully curated collection of his singles, marks the first comprehensive release of this powerful and long-overlooked body of work by an artist whose originality and resistance defined a genre: Ethio-groove. More than four decades later, this album offers the rare opportunity to rediscover a vital and beautiful chapter in global music history. We are now reissuing "Hasabe" once again thanks to a collaboration with Now Again. Pressed on 180g vinyl.

Punk pioneer/Eater main-man, Andy Blade's 7th solo album and follow up to 2024's critically acclaimed & heavily rotated, Sparks bros endorsed "Being Alive Is Fun". It is imbued with the usual left-of-centre Blade-ism's & themes: star maps, UFO's & a slightly twisted nod to tragic 70's heroine Karen Carpenter. You get what you deserve with Blade, and with Tiny Specks you are rewarded with a rich code to decipher at your leisure. Most of all, however, it is all about the quality of his songwriting. Opening track 'Karen Is The Drummer' (featuring Blade's regular singing collaborator - PseudoPomp's Katerina Sharkova) seems unsettlingly self-explanatory, but all does not seem well in the Carpenter M.O.R world - 'It's just her & her brother & her folks indifference to that girl'. Occasional Dinosaur Jr vocalist Tiffany Anders gives 'I'm Not Myself' a poppy but eerie nuance. PollyPikPocketz's Myura Amara pops up on the short but very sweet 'About That'. Matilda Scotland, Quick Romance's uber-cool punky-chanteuse - adds her Gen Z aura to the summery 'I Like It When You're Happy'. Former Generation X guitarist Bob 'Derwood' Andrews, with whom Blade has worked with consistently of late, once again features heavily on 'Tiny Specks'_ Like with Katerina Sharkova's voice, Derwood guitar lines interweave with Blade's honeyed vocal as though they made for each other. 'This Place' is another key track, capturing the claustrophobic-genocidal mood of what has been taking place in Gaza/Palestine for over two years now, and counting. 'This is not so much a protest song as it is the noise in my head'. If John Lydon is the Widow Twanky of Punk, and Billy Idol, its Elvis, then Andy Blade must surely be the Sinatra of Punk.

Pruillip is a new Belgian band founded by Louis Evrard (Bert Dockx Band, Grid Ravage, Ottla) and Annelies Van Dinter (Echo Beatty, Takh & Naga Ghost). The duo started about 2 years ago after a request to play at De Nor, the open air sculpture park and venue of Dennis Tyfus. For this occasion Annelies and Louis decided to do a position switch and play each other's instruments: Annelies beating the hell out of the drums and Louis ripping up the guitar.

Pruillip: the record

Visceral meditation: that's what the self titled debut album of Pruillip is all about. Eight songs channeling elemental emotions, kickin' deep into the internal organs of the body. Low end frequency swagger droning up from Louis Evrard's amp, ready to slip into 'Place All Your Cards', slow burning sludge nugget, bolstered by the steady drum kicks of Annelies Van Dinter, where every note and strike seems to carry the weight of the world. Navigating through life, seducing you with her gloomy voice. Entering a quest into the unknown, a place you don't want to leave. A feeling increased by the abrasive and brutal 'Boterham': a punk sludge anthem for the hungry and the wild at heart, countered with the reverb-shrouded murmur 'Distracted Enthusiasm'. The lonely 'Zonnedauw' sets the mark of an apparently more resigned B-side, stretching the Pruillip universe with primitive, but so addictive, riffs in 'Mirrors', echoing vibes of 90's desert sessions while 'Offload' and the lucid state of Ataraxia seems to drift on raw emotions and a sweaty claustrophobic tension, which would fit perfectly in Wim Wenders Paris Texas movie. A whirlwind of a record, straight to the bone, leaving you flabbergasted and wanting for more.

Le Motel and Bruce Wijn met at school, during a school art trip to Munich. They went separate ways for a long time.

Hailing from Brussels, Le Motel's world is a vortex of sight and sound that takes in the many and varied corners of the planet. As a music producer and film composer his versatility has taken him to festivals and clubs in every direction as naturally as he has ventured out to the less accessible areas of the globe as a field recordist. It's somewhere in between these spaces that Le Motel operates, gathering unique experiences and sounds to channel through his studio.

Bruce Wijn is a Brussels-based guitarist who played in several postrock kind projects such as Sound Film, 52 Commercial Road, or more shoegaze Lazy Sin. These collaborations gave him the opportunity to perform in various locations in Belgium, France, England, and the USA. As a musician, his focus has always been attracted by progressively built rhythmic melodies, which would eventually turn into long reverberated or distorted swells, or the otherway round.

All these experiences brought them both to the idea of scoring movies with different yet similar approaches.

That's how their first collaboration happened as Le Motel was working on the soundtrack of the movie Binti, and invited Bruce Wijn for the track Exode, in 2018. Since then, they've been working on other scoring projects, such as the feature film 'Aller Retour' more recently.

Alongside the movie scoring activities another audiovisual live project was born, in collaboration with Antoine de Schuyter and his mesmerizing images.

This one is more focusing on tape textures, field recordings and glitchy effects in order to build atmospheric tracks that they decided to bring together in a first E.P. 'MAAR'.

'MAAR' is elaborated as a soundtrack for an imaginary journey between cold seas and volcanoes explorations.

From the first echoing sounds of playing kids on the shoreside in the opening track 'La Perche' Le Motel & Bruce Wijn let you slide in a technicolor dreamworld, reverbing slowly innocent childhood memories into a chilled, out of range, future.

'MAAR' dives deep into a kaleidoscopic microcosmos watching Nautilus playing hide and seek with 'Captain Ahab' floating on sonic breaking waves, while seagulls gently spread their wings flying through the breezy and misty clouds of Blankenberge.

Lava vulcanica slowly melts in the sad euphorica of the cold North Sea, crystallizing sounds only Le Motel and Bruce Wijn can deliver.

Seefeel - eine der visionärsten und experimentierfreudigsten Elektronik-Bands der frühen 1990er - formte in London einen Klang, der Brücken schlug zwischen Shoegaze und elektronischer Musik. Mit ihren schimmernden Soundlandschaften, hypnotischen Minimal-Rhythmen und einer einzigartigen Ambient-Sensibilität schufen sie einen völlig neuen Kosmos. Die neu erweiterte Ausgabe von Pure, Impure vereint drei ikonische EPs der Band zu einem faszinierenden Gesamtwerk. In den legendären Abbey Road Studios von Geoff Pesche neu gemastert, umfasst die 11 Tracks starke Sammlung zudem ein frisch interpretiertes Artwork. Erhältlich als Doppel-LP oder CD, erscheint diese Edition als wahres Sammlerstück. Die enthaltenen EPs - More Like Space, Plainsong und Time to Find Me - präsentieren nicht nur Mixe von Aphex Twin, sondern auch ein bislang unveröffentlichtes Demo des Stücks "Moodswing". Bereits 1993 markierte Pure, Impure, erschienen auf Too Pure, einen Wendepunkt in der Entwicklung von Seefeel: reduzierter, intensiver, hypnotischer als das Debüt Quique. Die Tracks entfalten sich in endlos kreisenden Loops, sanften melodischen Verschiebungen und einem atemberaubenden Zusammenspiel von organischen Gitarrentexturen und maschineller Präzision. Sie spiegeln die wachsende Faszination der Band für Dub, Ambient Techno und Post-Rock wider. Mit Pure, Impure legten Seefeel den Grundstein für ihre weitere Reise - ein Werk von zeitloser Schönheit, das sich jeder Genregrenze entzieht und bis heute als Schlüsselstück ihres Ouvres erstrahlt.

The Sator Arepo, or Sator Square, is an ancient word puzzle comprising five palindromes that's etched on various historical sites throughout the Western world. Its origins are unknown, but the square has long been thought to hold magical properties, used as a charm against illness and evil, to cure insanity or to determine whether someone was guilty of witchcraft. Self-styled "punk ethnomusicologist", acoustician and musician Julien Hairon uses this mystical symbol as the starting point for his debut Judgitzu album in an attempt to reconnect with his Celtic heritage, exploring how its hallowed messages might harmonize with contemporary Tanzanian dance music.Hairon has been traveling across the world for over a decade, collecting field recordings from countries such as Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, China and Bangladesh, and presenting them on his Les Cartes Postales Sonores label, re-issuing any curious cassettes and CDs he came across on the PetPets' TAPES imprint. It was during this time that he became fascinated by rituals that involved spirits, prompting him to examine his own ancestry when he returned to Brittany. "Many artifacts in the landscape remain," Hairon explains, "and the power of spirits is still palpable." He represents this Celtic mysticism on 'Sator Arepo' with murky drones and magickal synth tones, using xenharmonic scales (tuning outside of standard 12-tone equal temperament) that reach back to the ancient world. These sounds are augmented with fast-paced, sci-fi rhythms informed by his time in Tanzania; "Singeli has contaminated me," admits the producer.The most astonishing example of this is 'Miracle', a thrusting soundsystem experiment that layers serpentine, bagpipe-esque electronic wails over extravagant clusters of blocky percussion. Driven by the frenetic 175BPM pulse that echoes through the streets of Dar Es Salaam - popularized globally by forward-thinking producers like Sisso, Duke and Jay Mitta - Hairon opens up a rare conversation, seeking to draw parallels between today's most urgent dance forms and the archaic rituals of antiquity. On 'Vitalimetre', Hairon drives his sonic palette into the red, harmonizing with Dutch hardstyle and gabber, and splaying distorted drones over maddeningly blown-out kicks and ratcheting percussion. 'L'or Des Fous' takes a more meditative route, prioritizing Hairon's eccentric tonality with expressive sheets of pitch-warped sound that ghost walk across energized, rattling beats.If you heard Hairon's last Judgitzu release 'Umeme / Kelele', described by Boomkat as "one of 2019's deadliest dancefloor sessions," then you'll know how mindboggling this material can be. And with 'Sator Arepo', the French producer deepens his reach, grasping a world that we've almost forgotten and juxtaposing it with a landscape most of us barely comprehend.

‘3, 10, WHY, WHEN.’ is the third studio album from Jamie Woon, his first since 2015’s Mercury Prize nominated ‘Making Time’.

Co-produced by Jamie and Grammy award-winning Swedish producer Martin Terefe, the release comes after Jamie’s notable time away from the public sphere, reminding us of his distinctive talent. Soulful and catchy as ever, this album sees Jamie explore themes of meaning and purpose with startling vulnerability. Tight songwriting meets expansive, genre-hopping moods. Woon’s previous work includes collaborations with Disclosure, Lil Silva, Elmiene, Holly Walker, and Burial.

Includes the singles ‘Heavy Going...’ & ‘When’.

A decade after its release, A Fragile Geography returns transformed. This limited edition cassette accompanies the AFG10 anniversary reissue, offering an inspired re-envisioning of Rafael Anton Irisarri’s landmark compositions. Reworks presents distinctive readings of these pieces, with each artist leaving their personal mark on the material. The titles remain unchanged, with the sole exception of “Hiatus,” reborn here as “Ausencia.” Together, these reimaginings extend the emotional cartography of the album into new terrains.

KMRU reframes “Displacement” with expansive, glimmering layers that open into meditative ambient landscapes. Nairobi born and Berlin based, he is known for morphing field recordings into vivid aural experiences, often capturing the texture of footsteps, foliage, and distant city life and weaving them into contemplative soundscapes. In this version he introduces subtle new sounds, including stringlike synths that trace and heighten the piece’s emotional arc. The result invites close listening, offering enveloping tones where the organic and the synthetic gently collide and flow.

Penelope Trappes renders “Reprisal” as a voice-led invocation of the delicate and the intimate. Her wistful vocals bloom with fragile sorrow, rising over shimmering strands of strings to create a sound world at once sacred and shadowed. She is adept at channeling inherited grief into music that is transcendent and otherworldly. The interplay of her voice, the strings, and her use of space and depth draws those qualities into Irisarri’s orbit, imbuing “Reprisal” with the same spiritual weight and clarity that define her most powerful work.

Kevin Richard Martin (a.k.a. The Bug) transforms “Empire Systems” into a cavernous “Iced Mix,” driven by polyrhythmic double bass motifs and sculpted from subterranean pressure and negative space. Known for pushing sound to its physical limits, Martin brings the stark intensity of his dub and noise infused practice into Irisarri’s architecture. The track seethes with harmonic distortion and erupts in white noise rhythms, its brooding low end depth and icy reverberant textures amplifying the tension. Vulnerability and force are set in stark relief, as silences feel as heavy as the bursts of sound themselves. The result is a stark study in atmosphere, restraint and impact, reframed through Martin’s singular lens of sonic mass and low end intensity.

On Side B, Mabe Fratti opens with a cinematic, dreamlike, Lynchian reimagining of “Hiatus” in her native Spanish (“Ausencia”). She threads cello and voice so wondrously that her rendering feels at once hauntingly beautiful and disquieting. Emotionally charged melodies shift in unexpected directions, while her soft, intimate vocals hover above Irisarri’s brooding synth textures. Fratti’s gift for blending experimental and avant pop sensibilities with visceral, emotionally powerful expression shines resplendently here. She gives voice to Irisarri’s reflections on the passage of time and his growing desire to reconnect with his familial roots.

Abul Mogard stretches “Persistence” into a vast drone elegy. A master of patient sound sculpting, Mogard layers evolving waves of analog synths into a dense shroud that radiates its own internal light. Gradual surges of tone and subtle harmonic shifts emphasize the piece’s endurance and inevitability. Irisarri’s original composition, in Mogard's hands, becomes a rumination on time’s unrelenting flow. Melancholy and transcendence coexist in equal measure in this engulfing, cathartic rework.

William Basinski and Gary Thomas Wright close the cycle with a spectral version of “Secretly Wishing for Rain.” Basinski’s field recordings of Reseda rainfall and birdsong, which open and close the rework, add a personal touch and evoke the imagined sound of a grainy film reel flickering to life. The piece suspends Irisarri’s yearning for the Pacific Northwest, lodging it hazily between memory, place and an unreachable dream. It feels like a fading recollection, half forgotten and half felt. A final gesture that dissolves the album into vapor, leaving the listener adrift in its lingering afterglow.

Mastered with great care by Stephan Mathieu and featuring a remixed version of the original artwork by Daniel Castrejón, this edition refracts the language of the original through new prisms. Less a return than a passage, across time, across interpretation, into uncharted emotional realms.

An’archives presents Kagome Kagome, the first collaboration between France’s Delphine Dora and Japan’s Ayami Suzuki. Curious listeners might know Dora from the string of lovely, idiosyncratic albums she’s released over the past two decades, most recently for labels like Modern Love, Morc and Recital; she’s also worked with the likes of Michel Henritzi and Sophie Cooper. Suzuki’s performances, predominantly for voice, place her within a tradition of Japanese improvised music – see the music she’s made with artists such as Takashi Masubuchi, TOMO and Leo Okagawa – but her approach also takes in folk song, ambience and claustrophobic drone.

On Kagome Kagome, Dora and Suzuki play to their many strengths: a gentle, free-willed folksiness; long, aerated drone constructs; ghostly, time-warping explorations for voice. They met on Dora’s May 2024 tour of Japan, though they’d been in touch beforehand, with Dora proposing the collaboration to Suzuki, developed around “concepts of ‘otherworldliness’ and ‘impermanence’,” the latter says, “and explored the relationship between ‘the invisible’ and sound in Japanese culture – a common interest we share.”

They recorded across several days that month, with the sessions for Kagome Kagome taking place in Kanumi, in Tochigi prefecture, at a space named Center. “I was particularly looking forward to seeing Delphine encounter the vintage 104-year-old harmonium from Nippon Gakki Seizo Co. that had just been repaired at Center,” Suzuki recalls. “It was as if the harmonium had been waiting for Delphine to draw sound from it. I felt it was a beautiful relationship where they could guide each other.”

Indeed, there’s something channelled about the music that Dora and Suzuki made together in the session that constitutes Kagome Kagome. Dora’s harmonium might be the spine of the album, but Suzuki’s free- floating voice, and gaseous, muddied banks of electronics, wrap around the wheezing, ancient tonality of the harmonium beautifully – they, too, sound as though they were just waiting to be willed out of the daytime air. Their voices nestle together beautifully – “when we sang together in a tunnel,” Suzuki says, “there were times when we sang the exact same melody without planning. It happened so naturally that the boundaries between us became blurred.”

And that title? It’s drawn from a Japanese children’s song, and the song titles themselves constitute the song’s lyrics, in alternating Japanese (Romanized) and French language. Urban legend connects the song “Kagome Kagome” to the Nikko Toshogu Shrine, nearby Center, that Suzuki and Dora visited while they were in Kanumi. “The mysterious lyrics of ‘Kagome Kagome’ and its puzzle-like connection to Nikko Toshogu were a perfect fit for this mysterious album,” Suzuki reflects, “which I think has its own kind of puzzle-like elements.”

A deep album of prayer and magic, of divination and ritual, Kagome Kagome’s sense of serious play, its rich beauty, feels somehow dislocated from our time. If you’ve ever enjoyed the music of Nico, Kendra Smith, Charalambides, or other channelers of ghostly mystery, its eerie otherness will, somehow, feel oddly familiar.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left. So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

ULURU is a large sandstone rock formation in Australia. It's sacred to the Anangu, the local Indigenous of the area. For many years it had been deprived of its spiritual significance, due to mass tourism, capitalism, as well as greedy and selfishness of people who just want to make money out of it. However, as a result of the Anangu’s resilience, care and staunchness, huge changes took place in the national park around Uluru as well as in the broader public's consciousness, giving again to the Uluru the sacred identity that had been lost.

You might be reading and thinking now: so what's the point? Actually, there's no real point. I would rather say, there’s hope. The hope of seeing humans all around the world following the example of the Anangu. The hope of seeing humans finally stopping to treat the earth and all what’s part of it, what’s on and what’s in it, as a slave without soul. The hope of changing today, and if not today at latest by tomorrow. This system is failing. It's no longer sustainable, and there's no much time left. So everybody, don't sleep, be critical.

Next up on Luke Slater's Mote-Evolver is Primal Instinct co-founder Chlär with the 'Topography' EP. It follows his debut album, 'The Architects of Shadows', which came out on Primal Instinct at the tail end of 2024, and sees the Swiss-bom, Germany-based artist deliver four more tracks of unmistakable, dance-floor-primed Chlär sound.

Chlär's 'Topography' EP embraces Mote-Evolver's tradition of deeper groove Techno with finesse, seeing 'Altitude' kick off proceedings as a heads-down slice of hypnotism featuring can't-miss Techno rhythm while otherworldly creatures add to the atmosphere. 'Serac' then delves even further, its effective bassline welded together with subtle sequences before we flip the record around for 'Lamin', a track rife with ghostly dub chords and remnants of a vocal sample. Closing out the trip is 'Phantom Grid', a clap riding its groove as it builds the intensity, dropping the pressure with hammering kickdrums and excellent, warped percussion for another lose-yourself club offering from the ever-promising Chlär.

Effortlessly picking up from their excellent demonstration cassette, it sees the band refining their sound even further. An audio amalgamation combining the profoundness of early Ulver, with the gloom of old Katatonia and exalted boldness of Fields of the Nephilim, thus adding unique elements of nostalgia and atmosphere to their own melodic interplay of guitars and excellent musical framework.

The album contains strong signs of a band that knew at a young age how to draw their canvas. Very Scandinavian in nature, and influenced by the American landscape of the Pacific Northwest, it firmly put Agalloch on the map and raised eyebrows about what a band from North America would be capable of. As a person that grew up checking out records based on their cover-artwork alone, this album is particularly notable for such an experience, considering the wooden cover with a gold emblazoned logo engraved. This is music that glorifies the night sky, envisions campfire magic, heralds nature over humans, arcane arts & poetry, and worships the beauty of a crackling fireplace. It could be the soundtrack for a lone wanderer striving through a wintry storm, only to end up knocking on a faded
wooden door to find shelter in a desolate cabin. In many ways the sound of forlorn times.

If you are looking to fill your heart with woodsmoke and the fire of
the mountain's spirit, look no further.

"Pale Folklore was a watershed moment in American heavy music, when a few young musicians with a shared love of underground death metal - and broad personal tastes beyond - turned their already virtuosic talents toward a fresh hybrid of metal and neofolk through a gothic lens." - Daniel Lake / author of USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal

In 2005, teenage trio The Subways made a phenomenal breakthrough with their Gold-certified debut album "Young For Eternity". It set them on the road to an endless succession of highlights, including their iconic "Rock & Roll Queen" becoming a mainstay of rock radio and streaming playlists. Twenty years on, and now five albums deep into their career, The Subways celebrate their 20th anniversary with the career-spanning collection "When I"m With You". The compilation brings new material too. It includes two new songs: "I Need To Feel You Closer", and "Passenger"s Side". The collection features the band"s work with some of the most influential producers around, including Butch Vig (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) and The Lightning Seeds" Ian Broudie (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Coral). The tracks taken from their self-titled album and "Uncertain Joys" were produced by Billy Lunn.

"Rumah Sakit 25" vereint das Debütalbum von Rumah Sakit und ihre lange vergriffene EP Travels In Constants in einem außergewöhnlichen Paket. Die Band hat sich erneut mit Bob Weston zusammengetan, um die Original-Masterbänder sorgfältig zu remastern. "Rumah Sakit 25" enthält neues Cover-Artwork von alten Freunden und Mitarbeitern, Jeremiah Maddock und Marty Anderson. Die umfangreiche 180-Gramm-Gatefold-2xLP in Audiophile-Qualität enthält vollfarbige Innenhüllen mit Hunderten von bisher unveröffentlichten Fotos, die die inspirierte Anfangszeit der Band dokumentieren, sowie ein massives 24-seitiges Kunstbuch im Format mit bisher unveröffentlichten Kunstwerken von Maddock. Es ist ein exquisites Werk, das eine Band meisterhaft einfängt, die letztendlich die nachfolgenden Künstler inspirierte und deren spätere Zusammenarbeit mit Foals, Pinback, Sweep the Leg Johnny, Sleeping People und HEY!TONAL unterstreicht, wie einzigartig vielfältig und produktiv Rumah Sakit wirklich waren. Rumah Sakit war eine vierköpfige Rockband aus San Francisco, Kalifornien. Die Gruppe begann 1998 Gestalt anzunehmen, nachdem Gitarrist John Baez, Bassist Kenseth Thibideau und Schlagzeuger Jeff Shannon alle von Redlands nach San Francisco gezogen waren. Nachdem Gitarrist Mitch Cheney schnell hinzukam, war die Band komplett und entschied sich für den Namen Rumah Sakit - eine wörtliche indonesische Übersetzung von ,Krankenzimmer" (alias Krankenhaus) - und einen Sound, der die frenetische Energie von King Crimson aus der "Red"-Ära mit einer meditativen Melodik verband, die in starkem Kontrast zu den meisten ,Math-Rock"-Bands dieser Zeit stand. Bald darauf betrat Rumah Sakit zum ersten Mal das Studio, um ihr gleichnamiges Debütalbum aufzunehmen. "Rumah Sakit" wurde 1999 im ehrwürdigen Music Annex Studio in zwei etwas geheimen Nachtsessions mit den Studio Praktikanten/guten Freunden/angehenden Toningenieuren Jay & Ian Pellicci aufgenommen. Das Album entstand nach einer ,No Tricks"-Philosophie, die den Ansatz der Band beim Spielen und Aufnehmen ihrer Musik prägen sollte. Aufgenommen vollständig live ohne Overdubs in nur wenigen Takes, nutzte die Band die Kunst, die natürliche Präsenz des Raumes und die strategische Platzierung der Geräte, um die reinste und genaueste Darstellung dieser Songs in diesen Momenten einzufangen. In einer Zeit, die schnell durch die aufkommende Popularität von ProTools und akribisch manikürten, maximalistischen Mixes verändert wurde, war die Welt von Rumah Sakit eine erfrischende Atempause. Ein Jahr später, im Herbst 2000, flog Rumah Sakit den renommierten Chicagoer Toningenieur und Shellac-Bassist Bob Weston nach San Francisco, um zwei kurze Tage lang eine neue EP im schäbigen Tiny Telephone Recording aufzunehmen. Diese EP wurde Teil der Abonnement-CD-Reihe ,Travels In Constants" von Temporary Residence (neben Veröfffentlichungen von Mogwai, Low, Explosions In The Sky, Eluvium und MONO). Abgesehen von der Originalauflage von 1.000 CDs, die für Abonnenten reserviert waren, waren die Studioaufnahmen auf Travels In Constants bis jetzt nie wieder erhältlich.

For her sophomore outing on Razor-N-Tape, Megatronic drops There’s Truth in Gospel, an extended concept EP built around the idea of a modern-day gospel congregation, reimagined through the lens of soulful, high-energy club sounds. Its six soulful house tracks explore vibrant layers of live instrumentation, from trumpets, flutes, and diverse percussion styles that breathe warmth into the sonic palette of the record. Featuring the voices of Fawziyya Heart, Aku, and Chiqo Casidi, and gorgeous artwork that perfectly captures the rich concept of the music, There’s Truth in Gospel is an ode to unity, joy, and collective celebration.

Debuting on Curvature with an impressively deep EP, Reviver delivers a sound that aligns perfectly with the core ethos of the Spatial family - incredible atmospherics and classic breakbeats.

A1 - Call From Space
Opening the EP we are treated to a DJ-friendly intro with thick breaks and crackly backdrops reminiscent of classic sci-fi movies with a slightly oppressive aura. A tapestry of melodies created from intertwining synths and samples follows, as Reviver tells a story of intrigue and redemption through this wonderful medium - a
stunning, rousing melody soon develops and elevates things to otherworldly levels for the latter stages. Quite simply, you've got to hear this.

A2 - Way Of Paradox
Old-school, finely edited breaks open a DJ-friendly intro to Way Of Paradox, a track which quickly builds a darkly suspenseful vibe through synths and pads, rising and swirling across the soundscape with mystique and a sullen vigor, before a mournfully intense earworm melody joins the proceedings. The atmosphere builds and envelops the listener like gathering storm clouds leaving this one etched firmly in the memory.

B1 - Define Or Destroy
Strap in as there is no let up with the intensity - Reviver unleashes Define or Destroy which sees that classic amen break deftly programmed with a variety of filtering and editing techniques on show, while sumptuous operatic female vocals add further depth along with melodic keys. This track rolls and rolls with the best of
them as you appreciate the subtleties of Reviver's varied edits with each listen.

B2 - Journey Alone
Generating an immediate sense of unease straight out of The X Files with delicate pads and synths, Reviver closes the EP in style, serving up a track dripping with atmosphere and intrigue. A wonderfully old-school breakbeat drives proceedings along with sparse kicks and excitable snares, patterns filtered to perfection with swirling micro melodies adding layer upon layer to an already impressive piece. A fitting end to an incredibly intense EP.

Am 13. Oktober 2023 verabschiedete sich die Melbourne-Band Camp Cope mit einem letzten Auftritt vor einem begeisterten, ausverkauften Publikum in der legendären Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. Zwei Jahre später haben Run For Cover & Poison City Records ,The Final Show - Live at Sydney Opera House", um diesen besonderen Moment der Band bei ihrem letzten Live-Auftritt zu feiern. Die Vinylversion dieser Veröffentlichung enthält neun Songs aus dem letzten Auftritt, darunter Titel aus jedem der beliebten Alben der Band. Dazu gehören Songs wie ,Lost (Season One)" aus ihrem selbstbetitelten Debütalbum sowie Titel aus ,How to Socialise Make Friends" von 2018 und ihrem Abschiedsalbum ,Running with the Hurricane" von 2022. Alle Elemente, die die Musik von Camp Cope so besonders machen, sind hier versammelt - Bassistin Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich und Sarah Thompsons Schlagzeug harmonieren wieder einmal perfekt miteinander, während Gitarristin Jennifer Aslett die unverwechselbare Stimme von Sängerin Georgia Maq mit noch mehr Stimmung untermalt. Die Band ist auch nicht allein - Julia Jacklin ist bei ,The Screaming Planet" dabei, und ein Chor aus Freunden wie Rin McArdle und Courtney Hartmann singt bei ,Sing Your Heart Out" mit. Camp Cope beendet diesen letzten Auftritt passenderweise mit ,The Opener" - einem Song, der von den unglücklichen Erfahrungen einer Band inspiriert ist, die versucht, sich in einer sexistischen, von Männern dominierten Musikszene zurechtzufinden. Hellmrichs unverkennbare Basslinie eröffnet diese letzte, erweiterte Version des Songs, den die Band über zehn Minuten lang spielt. Begleitet von einem Chor aus Freunden auf der Bühne und einem ganzen Opernhaus voller Fans, die mitsingen, wirken die letzten Zeilen des Songs über anfängliche Ablehnung wie eine erfüllte Prophezeiung: ,See how far we've come not listening to you."

Welcome aboard captain, long-serving funkadelic maestro Luke Vibert returns to De:tuned with his first new Wagon Christ album in 5 years entitled 'Planet Roll'. Genre-bending as ever, this 16 track collection of electronic lushness sees Luke creating his own innovative take on a multi-diverse sonic world interspersed with rare breakbeats and groovy melodies. Expertly executed by a true pioneer of electronic music. Lay back and see you in an hour!

Animation Director and Illustrator Celyn Brazier created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

Welcome aboard captain, long-serving funkadelic maestro Luke Vibert returns to De:tuned with his first new Wagon Christ album in 5 years entitled 'Planet Roll'. Genre-bending as ever, this 16 track collection of electronic lushness sees Luke creating his own innovative take on a multi-diverse sonic world interspersed with rare breakbeats and groovy melodies. Expertly executed by a true pioneer of electronic music. Lay back and see you in an hour!

Animation Director and Illustrator Celyn Brazier created all the graphic work. Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis. A separate digital release will also be available at the usual digital shops. Stay tuned!

Developed over three years across residencies, tours, and periods of deep listening, “Your Whistle Tells of Landscape” finds Australian sound artist Alexandra Spence continuing her investigations into the perceptual entanglements of sound, place, memory, and imagination. Like much of the artist’s work, it unfolds at the liminal edge between the real and the imagined — between what is heard and what is remembered.

Composed from a constellation of materials gathered across sites and seasons — snowscapes recorded in Vancouver, insect choruses from a Sydney backyard, ceramic fragments unearthed while mudlarking with tinysound — it renders an intimate cartography of experience: one shaped equally by ecological resonance and internal drift. Each piece traces a kind of imaginary geography, where sonic ephemera become proxies for topography, weather, or myth.

The album is informed by time spent at EMS (Stockholm) and MESS (Melbourne), where Spence deepened her engagement with microtonality and tuned feedback systems, and by dialogues with sympathetic artists such as Tashi Wada and Patrick Farmer. Sound materials were sourced from Serge Modular systems, a custom lyre built by Tim Wall, amplified objects, handmade electronics, and Spence’s own field recordings captured within rockpools, beneath sand, and among a flock of sheep in the French Pyrenees. On “Magenta,” a collaboration with Delphine Dora, the domestic and mythic intertwine, as layers of voice, environmental recordings, and Halldorophone feedback drift in and out of one another like overlapping weather systems.

Despite its diverse material palette, the album resists spectacle or accumulation. Instead, it moves with a quiet sense of continuity and a rich interiority — less a sequence of compositions than a set of situated attunements. Across its duration, sounds seem to murmur, glint, or hover right at the edge of presence, invoking a listening practice that is as much about orientation as it is about reception. These are pieces not simply about place, but of place — etched with the grains of time, vibration, and breath.

“Vox Flora Vox Fauna” is an invocation in which ECE CANLI channels the voice of Earth itself. A ritual of breath, rebirth, bone, and buried memory. Like the most transcendent moments of Dead Can Dance, the soundscapes are primitive, tribal, atmospheric, and utterly cathartic: echoes of a wounded planet, mourning and resisting at once. They unleash the raw force of Gaia, vibrating through ancient rhythms and spectral chants that seem to rise from the soil itself. In an age of collapse, this is music as prayer, protest, and purification, an elemental cry from the Mother to all who still listen. ECE CANLI “Vox Flora Vox Fauna”. Ltd. Edition Album presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 100 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl. Includes a printed innersleeve.

Many Amerindian cultures share the belief that the future lies behind us, while the past is what we face ahead. This challenge to Western chronology is, however, rooted in common sense: the open possibilities of what is to come are, in theory, what we cannot see—the uncertain—whereas the events that have already happened unfold before our eyes and are available for us to learn from.



This second album by Chilean producer, live performer, and DJ Valesuchi could be described as an experiment with time through music. Some years after relocating to Rio de Janeiro, she released Tragicomic LP (2019) on MAMBA rec—a label founded by the boundary-pushing Brazilian party Mamba Negra—and the self-released EP Cascada (2024). In both works, we can already appreciate her musical imprint: rhythmic and emotional timbral lines—wet, filtered, mathematical,

devotional, multilingual, fantastic, and unreal. However, in Futuro Cercano (Discos Nutabe, 2025), we can hear a leap: the sedimentation of her lived experiences in electronic communities across Latin America, her search for a universal yet personal language to convey emotion and new spiritual meaning, finds in this release a consistency and spontaneity that is rarely heard these days.



In a time when all cultural expression is not only expected to be taggable, but is also increasingly produced from templates that precondition our perception—favoring categorization and connections to works or scenes of the past—the tracks on this album are generically unclassifiable. They represent an openness to experiment without prejudice with electronic instruments and rhythms that are asancestral as they are futuristic. They publicly reveal an intimacy born from the compositional process, a bond formed through the encounter—sometimes tense, sometimes harmonious—between human will and that of the machines themselves. Or, as Valesuchi put it, "cyborging my friendship with the machine and becoming a tempest." Tempest as an eruption of the unknown into the present, the result of opening oneself to a nearly meditative state to uncover the deepest feelings through improvisation on cybernetic feedback and loops. And in that improvisation, to develop “técnicas para estirar o medir el tiempo”

“techniques to stretch or measure time” as she sings in 22, the album’s first track. “Connecting knowledges” as a portal to access that future so near it lies behind us, and to anticipate it as intuition and prospection.



That’s why Futuro Cercano is more than just electronic music: it is a technological ritual, an immersion into the secrets that machines hold as artifacts of human and non-human knowledge, as mysterious objects that allow us to connect with our own otherness—the personal alien hiding beneath the skin that opens us up to uncertainty as possibility rather than catastrophe.

Following the reissue of their acclaimed debut album in July - Rocket Girl Records is proud to announce the second transmission in the triptych of releases from Welsh sonic alchemists, White Noise Sound (WNS): an exultant, transmutational remix album celebrating the band’s admired self-titled inaugural LP featuring Pete Kember/Sonic Boom, Cian Ciaran (Super Furry Animals), Phil Kieran (techno producer/DJ), Sean Johnson (Hardway Bros) and Timothy J Fairplay (Andrew Weatherall’s Scrutton Street Circle).

WNS’s cult 2010 self-titled debut saw the band channelling their own chimeric wall-of-sound - an incantation in layers of feedback, kosmische rhythms and celestial distortion.  Now, that spell is rewritten.

Fold In Time - WNS1 Remixed sees an extraordinary line-up of artists from across the psychedelic and electronic spectrums dive deep into the band’s original recordings, dynamically reimagining the sonic architecture - unearthing new forms, hidden frequencies and arcane resonances.

Furthering the mythology of an album revered in underground circles - by peers and critics alike - these remixes push the band’s hypnotic, feedback-soaked sound into entirely new dimensions.  Expect deep psych, repetitive beats, acid purity, expansive dubbed-out landscapes and spectral ambient drones.  Tracks collapse and re-emerge, shimmering with new light.

“We wanted to honour the spirit of the original album while inviting some of our favourite artists to completely destroy it,” says White Noise Sound’s Adam Tovey.

Talulah’s Tape is the debut offering from magnetic Midwest-jangle collective Good Flying Birds. Across a patchwork mixtape of stripped-down home recordings that span the independent-guitar spectrum, the band delivers colorful, intricate pop songs perched between the immediacy of DIY punk and the intimate sweetness of twee. Breakbeats, memes, and noise glue everything together, making the album feel as chronically online as it is timeless.

Originally released on cassette in January 2025 by Midwest-punk legend Martin Meyers’s Rotten Apple label, the tape sold more than 300 copies in under a month and quickly became an out-of-print and coveted item. Meyers called it “certified catnip for popheads.” Now, with a refined track list and a fresh master from Greg Obis, Talulah’s Tape returns on LP and CD via Carpark and Smoking Room in October 2025.

While production and approach vary, a through-line of sensitive self-contemplation rests on bright, scrappy guitars and hyperactive melodic bass. Opener “Down on Me” rides a buoyant bass line while jangling guitars frame reflections on overcoming trauma: “I see you in the mirror every time I cry / I hear your voice every time I try.” Next, the guitars trade twinkling counter-melodies on “I Care for You,” pairing sugary, lovestruck lyrics with effervescent strums: “You catch me when I fall / You build me up so tall.”

The rosy grin occasionally twists into a wicked smirk. “Dynamic” warns, “You used to paint the face, but now you’re just the clown,” while “Glass” asks, “Is it lonely at the top when everyone follows the trend, and you hold the pen?” Both tracks brim with sparkling guitar interplay. By the closing, nearly five-minute “Last Straw,” Good Flying Birds stand far beyond conventional indie-pop or 4-track punk, unveiling a roller-coaster of unpredictable changes, vocal harmonies, and instrumental cross-talk.

Altogether, Talulah’s Tape is a pastel-yellow, candy-coated shell filled with thoughtful juxtapositions and melodic experiments. Standing on the same ground as idiosyncratic songwriters like Connie Converse and Daniel Johnston, Good Flying Birds find sweetness in sadness, tear stains on a colorful flower-print couch. Simultaneously, it’s packed with the scratchy guitars and vibrant rhythms of Scottish guitar groups like The Pastels, Orange Juice, and Josef K. It’s a tremendous opening statement from a band just getting started.

"The very last day of recording the album that became checkmate, Ron Gallo wrote and recorded the title track. Which, in his words, half-jokingly, is ""my first true love song that also happens to be the best love song ever written"". It encapsulates the entire purpose of the album which takes his previous motto - ""The world is fucked, but the universe is inside you"" and changes it to ""The world is ending, what can I hold on to?"".

After years of navigating artistic reinvention and resisting change, Ron Gallo arrives at his latest album, checkmate, with a newfound clarity and sense of purpose. Stripped down and direct, checkmate marks a reset: a shedding of old selves, old anger, and the need for introspection. Social commentary has always been a driving force behind Gallo’s music, and checkmate finds the bridge between personal inner dialogues and cultural analysis, grasping the vulnerability he once avoided.

What remains here is distilled: raw thoughts about love, identity, and survival in a collapsing world. Gallo calls it “a process to kill off my old self,” a release from years of hiding, whether it’s behind a comic veil or a wall of instruments and noise. With checkmate, he finds himself aligned with a new audience who have found his music through social media riffs turned viral smashes, 7am Songs, who come with no preconceived notions—only a desire to connect. The personal vulnerability found in these songs are far more relatable than Gallo could have first imagined. Inner dialogues we all seem to be having, but struggling to find the words for, until now."

SHADOWY FIGMENTS OF UNRELENTING SONIC SEEKINGS
The magic lantern music of Razen spirals into ever more fanatic territory with the addition of turntablist Guilhem All from Brest. Vietnamese flute, oscillator, chopped-up vinyls and a range of
uncomfortable techniques bring about a series of sandblown, rock-encrusted desert mirages.
MORE INFO SOON
credits
releases October 15, 2025

Recorded by Mathieu Grillo, with assistant engineer Gaia Lufrano
Recorded at Echo Chamber in Volta, Molenbeek on March 4,5 & 6, 2025
Mixed by Mathieu Grillo, with assistant engineer Gaia Lufrano
Mastered by Frédéric Alstadt

Artwork: Aurora/ ChromaGrid drawing by Wilfried Pulinckx

Brecht Ameel: oscillator & harmonium
Kim Delcour: sáo trúc, fijfer, chalumeau, santur
Guilhem All: turntables

Thank you: Arne and Mich at Volta & AB

Effortlessly picking up from their excellent demonstration cassette, it sees the band refining their sound even further. An audio amalgamation combining the profoundness of early Ulver, with the gloom of old Katatonia and exalted boldness of Fields of the Nephilim, thus adding unique elements of nostalgia and atmosphere to their own melodic interplay of guitars and excellent musical framework.

The album contains strong signs of a band that knew at a young age how to draw their canvas. Very Scandinavian in nature, and influenced by the American landscape of the Pacific Northwest, it firmly put Agalloch on the map and raised eyebrows about what a band from North America would be capable of. As a person that grew up checking out records based on their cover-artwork alone, this album is particularly notable for such an experience, considering the wooden cover with a gold emblazoned logo engraved. This is music that glorifies the night sky, envisions campfire magic, heralds nature over humans, arcane arts & poetry, and worships the beauty of a crackling fireplace. It could be the soundtrack for a lone wanderer striving through a wintry storm, only to end up knocking on a faded
wooden door to find shelter in a desolate cabin. In many ways the sound of forlorn times.

If you are looking to fill your heart with woodsmoke and the fire of
the mountain's spirit, look no further.

"Pale Folklore was a watershed moment in American heavy music, when a few young musicians with a shared love of underground death metal - and broad personal tastes beyond - turned their already virtuosic talents toward a fresh hybrid of metal and neofolk through a gothic lens." - Daniel Lake / author of USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal

Chicago-based indie punks Sincere Engineer started as a solo acoustic punk act playing dive bars and open mics. Singer/guitarist/songwriter, Deanna Belos, decided to forego dental school for punk music, trading in teeth for corn dogs (as referenced in her fan favorite song "Corn Dog Sonnet No. 7"), and touring the world with bands like Hot Mulligan, Alkaline Trio, The Menzingers, and Joyce Manor. In 2020, she released Bless My Psyche, her first sophomore album on independent powerhouse Hopeless Records. Featuring the Sirius XM Faction hit "Trust Me," the album explored themes of insecurity, failure, and coming of age and was built for gut wrenching sing-a-longs. With the upcoming Cheap Grills, Sincere Engineer now takes a massive leap forward with catchy melodies, witty and sharp lyrics, and the sincerity of a person that wants to do the right thing in a world that doesn't always reward that. Working with producer Mike Sapone (Taking Back Sunday, Brand New), Sincere Engineer/Deanna Belos has crafted an album that sees her emerge as a face of the new generation of melodic punk. For Fans Of: The Menzingers, Alkaline Trio, Hot Mulligan, Jeff Rosenstock

Talulah’s Tape is the debut offering from magnetic Midwest-jangle collective Good Flying Birds. Across a patchwork mixtape of stripped-down home recordings that span the independent-guitar spectrum, the band delivers colorful, intricate pop songs perched between the immediacy of DIY punk and the intimate sweetness of twee. Breakbeats, memes, and noise glue everything together, making the album feel as chronically online as it is timeless.

Originally released on cassette in January 2025 by Midwest-punk legend Martin Meyers’s Rotten Apple label, the tape sold more than 300 copies in under a month and quickly became an out-of-print and coveted item. Meyers called it “certified catnip for popheads.” Now, with a refined track list and a fresh master from Greg Obis, Talulah’s Tape returns on LP and CD via Carpark and Smoking Room in October 2025.

While production and approach vary, a through-line of sensitive self-contemplation rests on bright, scrappy guitars and hyperactive melodic bass. Opener “Down on Me” rides a buoyant bass line while jangling guitars frame reflections on overcoming trauma: “I see you in the mirror every time I cry / I hear your voice every time I try.” Next, the guitars trade twinkling counter-melodies on “I Care for You,” pairing sugary, lovestruck lyrics with effervescent strums: “You catch me when I fall / You build me up so tall.”

The rosy grin occasionally twists into a wicked smirk. “Dynamic” warns, “You used to paint the face, but now you’re just the clown,” while “Glass” asks, “Is it lonely at the top when everyone follows the trend, and you hold the pen?” Both tracks brim with sparkling guitar interplay. By the closing, nearly five-minute “Last Straw,” Good Flying Birds stand far beyond conventional indie-pop or 4-track punk, unveiling a roller-coaster of unpredictable changes, vocal harmonies, and instrumental cross-talk.

Altogether, Talulah’s Tape is a pastel-yellow, candy-coated shell filled with thoughtful juxtapositions and melodic experiments. Standing on the same ground as idiosyncratic songwriters like Connie Converse and Daniel Johnston, Good Flying Birds find sweetness in sadness, tear stains on a colorful flower-print couch. Simultaneously, it’s packed with the scratchy guitars and vibrant rhythms of Scottish guitar groups like The Pastels, Orange Juice, and Josef K. It’s a tremendous opening statement from a band just getting started.

Here to dazzle you by the power of the disco ball, Lack of Afro is your friendly neighbourhood ‘Love Dealer’. Two years on from the funk & soul rebirth of ‘Square One’, powered by the ubiquitous ‘Loving Arms’ featuring Greg Blackman, Lack of Afro aka Adam Gibbons is now close to two decades deep in the game with soundtrack credits galore and online streams doing calculator-busting numbers. With extensive touring taking ‘Love Dealer’ up and down the country this Autumn, Gibbons’ ninth studio album is all for "the thrill of seeing people on a dancefloor, all collectively locked into a track that you've produced - there’s nothing like it!”.


‘Love Dealer’ is the authentic modern disco experience, packing a stacked sole’s worth of club beats full of stardusted sing-alongs, style-outs and French touch-style cool. Despite being “written during one of the longest winters in living memory”, ‘Love Dealer’, featuring some co-production from fellow South Coast dancefloor scholar Flevans (and influenced by producer du jour Barry Can’t Swim), exudes warmth and will make you sweat when its highs take effect.


Entering the scene with the radiance of ‘Make It Shine’ featuring Greg Blackman, washing over the airwaves of BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and taking up a 10-week residency on the Jazz FM playlist, Gibbons and his crack line-up of discotheque players are your go-to team when you can’t wait for the weekend to begin, as subtle as they are straight down to business. ‘Love Dealer’ offers you nothing but the best in sparkling string symphonies, the hippest guitar licks, samples of those invited beyond the velvet rope and struts soaked in night fever.


Double A-side ‘Walls Start Rockin’ and ‘Heart & Soul’ guide the album’s glamour-and-groove, while ‘Love Saves The Day’ and ‘Plain to See’ dramatically take to the podium in a shimmer of pure peak 70s theatre. ‘Keeping Me Strong’ is the synergy of disco chic and the sound of a global advertising tie-in with Dyson, ahead of Gibbons taking a slightly Moroder/Cerrone-ish detour on ‘Idolising People Like Madlib’. “'Love Dealer' is aimed unequivocally at the dancefloor" says Adam. "As an artist, I wanted to push myself in a slightly new direction - more into the land of disco and a four to the floor sound. 'Love Dealer' is quintessentially an upbeat record, full of joy, optimism and hope for the future”. Seek your inner ‘Love Dealer’, kink your ‘fro and let your funk flag fly.
















n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) BONUS TRACK














n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) BONUS TRACK














[n] B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) [BONUS TRACK]














[BONUS TRACK]

Young Gun Silver Fox are the captains of AM Waves, setting sail towards an isle where melodies soak the shoreline and grooves sway like palm trees. Their route traces a natural progression fromWest End Coast, an album that cast Andy Platts (Young Gun) and Shawn Lee (Silver Fox) as musical virtuosos of SoCal-infused pop. AM Waves does more than duplicate the perfection of West End Coast. It improves it.

Recorded at The Shop in London and Roffey Hall in the English countryside, AM Waves burnishes the blend between the duo's modern aesthetic and their sumptuously crafted homage to '70s-styled pop, rock, and soul. "This music hits a certain spot for me personally that nothing else quite does," says Shawn, who produced the album amidst his projects for Saint Etienne, Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra, and several other acts. "It's real high-caliber music. It's easy and breezy to listen to but it's really hard to make. Every aspect is A game."

The A game behind AM Waves fuels 43 minutes of Young Gun Silver Fox in peak form. "AM Waves is much more instinctive," says Andy, whose penchant for writing irresistible hooks and melodies also shapes his role as lead singer and lyricist/composer for the band Mamas Gun. "It's more vivid. You can see the clarity to the colors of AM Waves whereas West End Coast is slightly more impressionist, as it were."

Originally issued as a single in September 2017, "Midnight in Richmond" is the anchor of AM Waves. "I hit one chord, which I'd never played before, and the song sort of wrote itself," notes Shawn. "It was intuitive. In many ways, the primary function of what I'm doing is trying to find that chord that opens a door and takes you someplace else. Those chords have magic." Andy embellishes the song's appeal by nimbly juxtaposing wistful emotions with a sun-kissed melody, his voice evoking richly drawn memories. The qualities that make "Midnight in Richmond" an instant classic abound throughout the album.

"Lenny" and "Take It or Leave It" spotlight Andy's versatility as a songwriter. The former was inspired by a dream he had where Lenny Kravitz owned a bar. "It was surreal," he says. "He was polishing the glasses and just serving me hit after hit." Like swimming through moonshine, Andy languorously savors every syllable in the song. "Take It or Leave It" is pure pop bliss. "That was one of those songs that fell out in half an hour," he says. "I had everything and it was done." Shawn adds, "It's such a perfect song in itself. When I listen to it, it's like you've created a record that already existed."

Young Gun Silver Fox introduce a five-piece horn section on "Underdog" that literally trumpets the song's protagonist. Shawn affectionately dubbed them the "Seaweed Horns" in honor of the Seawind Horns, an LA-based unit that recorded with powerhouses like Michael Jackson,Rufus & Chaka Khan,and Earth, Wind & Fire during the late-'70s. Andy explains, "The horns grab another hue of the west coast sound, which is the starting point, but it's also maybe the point where we're injecting a little bit more of ourselves and some outside colors into the familiar west coast palette."

A bounty of treasures course through AM Waves' ebb and flow. "Mojo Rising," which the duo penned with Rob Johnson, is a veritable retreat to paradise. "Sky-bound, heaven sent / Way above the clouds watching shootingstars descend," Andy sings, mirroring the music's celestial undertones. Sensuality contours the notes on "Just a Man," a song that basks in the allure of a woman who leaves "footprints on the water" while "Love Guarantee" is festooned with the Seaweed Horns. "I wanted to bring more of that R&B slickness into the mix," Shawn notes about the latter track. "We hadn't done a tune with that sort of groove." Similar to his work on "Underdog," Nichol Thomson's intricate horn arrangement on "LoveGuarantee"exemplifies another distinction between AM Waves and its predecessor.

"Caroline" occupies a special place on AM Waves, beyond spawning the album title. It tells the story of Radio Caroline, a pirate radio station that broadcast from an offshore vessel during the '60s and '70s. "They played the music that kids wanted to hear, whether it was the old stuff or cutting edge stuff," says Andy. "'Caroline' is about Radio Caroline's eventual capture." Complementing Andy Platts' deft wordplay, which draws parallels between radio airwaves and the station's literal home on the ocean, Shawn Lee layers nearly a dozen different parts on "Caroline," showcasing the vastness of his musicality. "I loved that track as soon as I heard it," Andy continues. "It's a beautiful fusion of me and Shawn."

The Seaweed Horns joinYoung Gun Silver Foxas they detour to the dance floor on "Kingston Boogie." Shawn explains the track's genesis, "I was thinking, what have we not done yet We definitely should get an AOR disco thing happening. I quite like disco. The beat is so metronomic that it allows you to be really sophisticated on top. 'Kingston Boogie' just laid itself out. I call it 'midnight disco.'" With a nod to "Lenny," Andy Platts sets "Kingston Boogie" back at Lenny's Bar, this time revealing a detail or two about its mysterious proprietor as he pours sweet wine and moonshine.

In a sense, AM Waves ends with the beginning. Even before there was Young Gun Silver Fox, there was "Lolita," the first song Andy Platts and Shawn Lee wrote together and a crowd-pleasing staple of the duo's live sets. The tale of a femme fatale who harbors a secret was recorded for West End Coast but instead furnished the B-side to "Long Way Back" as well as a bonus track on the North American edition of the album. Despite the song's checkered trajectory, its infectious chorus sparked the brighter, more buoyant orientation of AM Waves.

Like the moon pulling the tide, Young Gun Silver Fox are a magnet for good songs. "We're both so obsessed and constantly interested in music-making," says Andy. "We're both thinking about it all the time. When you know you have an accomplice with you that's the same as you, it's very liberating. Suddenly, worlds of color start to appear." Indeed, AM Waves is elemental in its power to induce pleasure. Dive right in.

Christian John Wikane

(New York City / February 2018)

Emily A. Sprague's Cloud Time traces an audio-spiritual journey through time and place, recorded across a long-awaited debut tour of Japan in the fall of 2024. Compiled from environmental improvisations captured in and for the moment, material at once welcoming, responsive, and inimitable, the album distills a voyage guided by psychic wayfaring, unbound presence, and activating performance for a reciprocal exchange with space, listener, and each fully engaged instant. The Japanese tour documented on Cloud Time held an almost mythic significance for Sprague, taking on properties of her own sonic white whale. After many near-departures and dropped plans to play in the country, "the empty spaces of cancelled trips and forgotten music turned into strange little misty spirits that I felt followed by," she says. "When I began preparing for the tour, I couldn't shake a sense that the invitation to Japan was more about opening myself up to this new place instead of bringing something into it tightly under my control. Improvisation has always been such a pillar in my music practice, and I really wanted to meet the country, spaces and people through that process." To amplify these intuitive whispers on-stage, Sprague reimagined her time-tested live rig, designed to be as free from error as possible, as a looser, more flexible set up that would allow her to interface with what was essentially a blank sonic canvas every night. Each performance became a collaboration between environment and instinct, Sprague processing the events, energies, and emotions informing the evening through her new sound ecosystem, and projecting an entirely present and unique version of herself to each open-eared and hearted crowd. "It was very much more than just an act of playing for me, but a total experience of time and place," she says. The seven long-form pieces that plot the course of Cloud Time, excerpted from over eight hours of recordings archived on the artist's on-stage recorder and generously shared on the album with no additional mixing and only minimal editing, invite listeners to become still in these deep-rooted moments of presence as the album moves from city to city, venue to venue. Cloud Time chronicles material recorded at each tour stop, Sprague selecting and sequencing the album around mood-based storytelling more so than linear chronology. "I tried to make the whole album flow in the way that any one of the complete live performances did," she explains, "while also keeping the spirit of the whole thing as a journey." The result is equal parts travelog, love letter, and impressionistic collage channeled from the potent ferment of a now encased in the glowing amber of memory. Intrinsically inspired by kankyo ongaku, an environmental music philosophy, known both in and widely outside of Japan that tunes into the similarly expansive ethos as Pauline Oliveros' deep listening practice and posits the listener as composer, Cloud Time is ambient music that seems to be listening right back, grounded in heartfelt synthesized frequencies that abundantly hold and heal. Pieces like "Nagoya," "Tokyo 1," and the ten minute "Matsumoto" in particular hum with the atomic resonance of gently tended landscapes, offering space for tuning way in and dropping far out from perspectives that stifle and bind. Cloud Time is an invitation to embrace each moment as both fleeting and eternal, floating by with nothing to grasp onto and absolutely everything to gain. The exercise in acceptance and letting go that Sprague practiced throughout the tour deeply impacted her understanding of self as both a guest and venerable performer. "The process of loving wherever I am, being present and focusing on a clear channel of communication for mind and emotion, rooted so deeply in respect for the space, those within it, and myself, ended up being profoundly healing," she says. "My vision and hope is that this album can be released as a gift back to anyone who either was or wasn't there. A cloud time of life passing by."

The Reds, Pinks & Purples is a San Francisco indie band led by Glenn Donaldson (The Ivy Tree, Skygreen Leopards, Art Museums and Painted Shrine). For fans of_ Guided By Voices, The Chills, Teenage Fanclub, The Shins, The Replacements, Leonard Cohen, The Go-Betweens, Robert Wyatt. Having penned over 200 songs in the last six years, The Reds, Pinks and Purples release a collection of tracks previously unreleased on physical format that continues to romanticise the wonders and woes of the world. With song titles that read like chapter sub-heads for a post-Douglas Coupland novella, 'The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed' takes The Reds, Pinks and Purples central orator Glenn Donaldson through the turmoil of small talk and everyday water cooler moments with a fine sense of pathos and irony. Set to a soundtrack that swerves between the dark days of Television Personalities and Byrdsian twang to the Jarvis Cocker-styled rhetoric and vocal tenderness of 'Richard In the Age Of The Corporation' with hints of everything from Husker Du's fuzzed splendour to the chiming majesty of The Chameleons it's an empowering listen. The pathos and irony of the glorious track 'The World Doesn't Need Another Band' sets out the band's store, it's a measured and quietly outspoken rant at lacklustre opposition peppered with a gorgeous guitar break. Meanwhile, 'I Only Ever Wanted To See You Fail' rumbles with an Eddie And The Hot Rods pre-punk riff before dissolving into a tale of self-doubt and remorse, bemoaning others' good luck. 'Toxic Friend' is from the book of the TVP's Daniel Treacey with an upbeat chorus that smacks of all that was good in old school indie in a hail of fuzzy logic and guitars. From humble beginnings as a home recording project, The Reds, Pinks and Purples has blossomed into a sporadic live unit with tours on both sides of the Atlantic and appearances at Pitchfork Fest London and Woodsist Fest as well as support slots for indie legends such as Destroyer, Guided By Voices, and The Feelies. "Donaldson's best work hides allure within a bigger picture, like a jangle-pop egg hunt" Pitchfork.

STANDFIRST Titanic, the project spearheaded by Mabe Fratti and Hector Tosta (aka I. la Católica), return with a sumptuous and life-affirming new album.



In her sensational 1929 biography Tiger Woman, dancer and socialite Betty May claimed her ‘coster’s eye’ meant she liked to wear as many colours as possible. “Colours to me are like children to a loving mother. Each is my favourite, yet I can never bring myself to deny the others by preferring one.” May’s bold and inclusive strategy is one that manages to transfer itself, almost a century later, to Hagen, the new record by Titanic.


Many will know Titanic as the Mexico City-based brainchild of cellist and singer Mabe Fratti and multiinstrumentalist Hector Tosta who is now operating under the pseudonym, I. la Católica, (taken, rather unusually, from the name of the street the pair live on). With Hagen, and their previous release, Vidrio, (2023), the pair are creating a distinctive signature sound in modern alternative pop music. Nobody else sounds quite like them. Both records have an open hearted nature and simple, winning melodies that play off against a taste for drama, spectacular orchestration and a feeling of otherworldly mystery. Hagen is the more ambitious, sometimes more mystical effort. From the opening handclaps of ‘Lágrima del Sol’, (a wonderfully uptempo playground chant translating as a tear from the sun but, surely, not referencing the brand of pineapple wine?), the record dances its way through various mid-to-late-eighties inspirations, lush and widescreen passages of melancholy and vertiginous contrasts.


Mystery is often found in the simple but slightly odd song titles. English translations of various track titles give, ‘you swallowed the gum’, ‘leak’, ‘a tear from the sun’, ‘raising the trophy’ ‘digging dimensions’, ‘the owner’, ‘the decapitated hen’ and ‘the trap is exposed’. All denote striking images, metaphysical hints and emotional cues or simple, even childlike actions. Though Fratti and Tosta don’t reveal its provenance, the album’s title could even be a crafty play on words: the listener would be forgiven in thinking the moments of brash contrast and eyebrow raising theatricalism in the music constitute a musical nod to German punk chanteuse, Nina Hagen.


On Hagen, singer and cellist Mabe Fratti once again displays her brilliant knack of speaking to us directly. There is never the suspicion of her playing to the gallery, and the directness of many of the lyrics don’t allow it. Parallel to this, Fratti has an almost magical ability to give Hector Tosta’s melodies, and her and Tosta’s lyrics ones imbued with an insight and meaning that feels otherworldly. Tosta admitted it was “pretty wild to hear Mabe take the interpretations to a different place” and the listener can pick up on the delight Fratti takes in (literally) adding a voice to the many narratives.


Two examples can be shown here: ‘Gotera’ (Leak) uses harsh slashes of cello and tough, gunfire-like guitars and drums and multiple vocal lines that could be acting as a Greek chorus. They play off brilliantly against Fratti’s soft, slightly baleful vocal take that delivers lyrics such as: ‘nobody knows where the leak is / but I know where it is / they fight in front of the door and / nobody can go in’. With ‘La Gallina Degollada’ the somewhat blithe melody melody line, sung with what could be sarcastic brio by Fratti, plays against an itchting rhythm and rasping guitar part. The punch comes when you see that the song is about a chicken that has been decapitated and read lyrics such as: ‘I already saw it, it moved, the decapitated chicken’ / ‘could it be that I'm broken’ and ‘Two people hurt each other by thinking that they no longer agree’/ ‘Hours pass and the chicken represents what scares me’.


There may be death and fights to deal with, but there is also a quality of chirpy self-reliance about Hagen that is a key part of its nature. Like Betty May and her colourful outfits, Hagen’s sound often revels in its own sense of richness. Throughout, the record delivers vaulting string sections or glutinous guitar squeals that could, like the powerful, driving ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ (Digging Dimensions) have come directly from a glossy 1980s TV series. Fratti sees this “glam sound” developed by Tosta on the aforementioned track and ‘Te Tragaste el Chicle’ (You Swallowed The Gum), as moments that were truly “revealing” for the album as a whole during its making.


What else? The thud and thump of ‘La Trampa Sale’ (The Trap is Exposed), and its sudden change of tempo and mood betrays a monstrously ambitious piece of music, the players almost greedily creating the sounds. Other moments are heart wrenching: ‘Libra’ ends on a poppy chord switch that cleverly ramps up the emotion inherent in the music’s notation. You could almost imagine a teenager in a bedroom forty years ago, rewinding the track over and over on a small, cheap cassette player, unable to get enough of that sugarsweet switch. Elsewhere, Oneohtrix Point Never adds stardust and an unearthly sense of space on the changeable, slightly moody meditation, ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ (Firebird). The record ends with ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ (Lifting the Trophy), a track that could soundtrack a state wedding, what with its beautiful cascading piano parts, a sugary vocal and short triumphal guitar riffs that add a rich patina to the overall sound. Fratti: “When I doubled those vocals on ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ I felt there was an epiphany happening, right at that moment.”


Making a good record is a team game. Tosta and Fratti recall seeing Randall from Circular Ruin Studios in NYC “tweak the drums in ‘Libra’ to make that amazing effect of the gated reverb”, or the shaping of ‘Gotera’, “when (recording engineer) Nate Salon added some synths to the track.” Drummer Eli Keszler, “an amazing and versatile player” had the songs down pat in a couple of days” and, according to Tosta, Oneohtrix Point Never “just came to one of the sessions and we hung out, and after all the recordings he and Nate were together in some studio and out of nowhere they sent us some beautiful tracks for ‘Pájaro de Fuego’! Fratti concurs. “He decided that he wanted to record because he was listening to the record (Nate works closely with him) and he really liked it! It was a total honour, indeed!”


Bedazzled by the playing, the skyscraping ambition in the arrangements and the giddy moments of contrast thrown up by Hagen, we could allow ourselves a brief moment of flippancy and state that Titanic’s new record is Yacht Rock meets Aeschylus, full-on. It’s also worth speculating that, in this hyper-sensitive, intemperate age, Titanic’s music has the power, however fleetingly, to heal hurts. Hagen is a brilliant showcase for a fresh and enriching form of pop music: displaying a magpie eye for what glints and plundering what has gone before.


Like Vidrio, Hagen was partially and additionally recorded at Fratti and Tosta’s house, aka Tinho Studios in Mexico City, as well as Golden Girl Studios & Circular Ruin Studios in New York City. Mixing was done by Santiago Parra in Pedro y el Lobo Studios, Mexico City and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York City. The recording engineer was Nate Salon.


Hagen featured Mabe Fratti on cello, vocals & backing vocals, I. la Católica on guitar, keyboards, prepared piano, bass & backing vocals, drums by Eli Keszler and synths in ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ from Daniel Lopatin and Nate Salon.


All compositions on Hagen are written by I. la Católica, except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were composed by I. la Católica and Mabe Fratti. The record was produced by I. la Católica and co-produced by Nate Salon & Mabe Fratti. And all lyrics are by I. la Católica except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’, ‘Gotera’, ‘Gallina degollada’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were written by I. la Católica & Mabe Fratti.

STANDFIRST Titanic, the project spearheaded by Mabe Fratti and Hector Tosta (aka I. la Católica), return with a sumptuous and life-affirming new album.



In her sensational 1929 biography Tiger Woman, dancer and socialite Betty May claimed her ‘coster’s eye’ meant she liked to wear as many colours as possible. “Colours to me are like children to a loving mother. Each is my favourite, yet I can never bring myself to deny the others by preferring one.” May’s bold and inclusive strategy is one that manages to transfer itself, almost a century later, to Hagen, the new record by Titanic.


Many will know Titanic as the Mexico City-based brainchild of cellist and singer Mabe Fratti and multiinstrumentalist Hector Tosta who is now operating under the pseudonym, I. la Católica, (taken, rather unusually, from the name of the street the pair live on). With Hagen, and their previous release, Vidrio, (2023), the pair are creating a distinctive signature sound in modern alternative pop music. Nobody else sounds quite like them. Both records have an open hearted nature and simple, winning melodies that play off against a taste for drama, spectacular orchestration and a feeling of otherworldly mystery. Hagen is the more ambitious, sometimes more mystical effort. From the opening handclaps of ‘Lágrima del Sol’, (a wonderfully uptempo playground chant translating as a tear from the sun but, surely, not referencing the brand of pineapple wine?), the record dances its way through various mid-to-late-eighties inspirations, lush and widescreen passages of melancholy and vertiginous contrasts.


Mystery is often found in the simple but slightly odd song titles. English translations of various track titles give, ‘you swallowed the gum’, ‘leak’, ‘a tear from the sun’, ‘raising the trophy’ ‘digging dimensions’, ‘the owner’, ‘the decapitated hen’ and ‘the trap is exposed’. All denote striking images, metaphysical hints and emotional cues or simple, even childlike actions. Though Fratti and Tosta don’t reveal its provenance, the album’s title could even be a crafty play on words: the listener would be forgiven in thinking the moments of brash contrast and eyebrow raising theatricalism in the music constitute a musical nod to German punk chanteuse, Nina Hagen.


On Hagen, singer and cellist Mabe Fratti once again displays her brilliant knack of speaking to us directly. There is never the suspicion of her playing to the gallery, and the directness of many of the lyrics don’t allow it. Parallel to this, Fratti has an almost magical ability to give Hector Tosta’s melodies, and her and Tosta’s lyrics ones imbued with an insight and meaning that feels otherworldly. Tosta admitted it was “pretty wild to hear Mabe take the interpretations to a different place” and the listener can pick up on the delight Fratti takes in (literally) adding a voice to the many narratives.


Two examples can be shown here: ‘Gotera’ (Leak) uses harsh slashes of cello and tough, gunfire-like guitars and drums and multiple vocal lines that could be acting as a Greek chorus. They play off brilliantly against Fratti’s soft, slightly baleful vocal take that delivers lyrics such as: ‘nobody knows where the leak is / but I know where it is / they fight in front of the door and / nobody can go in’. With ‘La Gallina Degollada’ the somewhat blithe melody melody line, sung with what could be sarcastic brio by Fratti, plays against an itchting rhythm and rasping guitar part. The punch comes when you see that the song is about a chicken that has been decapitated and read lyrics such as: ‘I already saw it, it moved, the decapitated chicken’ / ‘could it be that I'm broken’ and ‘Two people hurt each other by thinking that they no longer agree’/ ‘Hours pass and the chicken represents what scares me’.


There may be death and fights to deal with, but there is also a quality of chirpy self-reliance about Hagen that is a key part of its nature. Like Betty May and her colourful outfits, Hagen’s sound often revels in its own sense of richness. Throughout, the record delivers vaulting string sections or glutinous guitar squeals that could, like the powerful, driving ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ (Digging Dimensions) have come directly from a glossy 1980s TV series. Fratti sees this “glam sound” developed by Tosta on the aforementioned track and ‘Te Tragaste el Chicle’ (You Swallowed The Gum), as moments that were truly “revealing” for the album as a whole during its making.


What else? The thud and thump of ‘La Trampa Sale’ (The Trap is Exposed), and its sudden change of tempo and mood betrays a monstrously ambitious piece of music, the players almost greedily creating the sounds. Other moments are heart wrenching: ‘Libra’ ends on a poppy chord switch that cleverly ramps up the emotion inherent in the music’s notation. You could almost imagine a teenager in a bedroom forty years ago, rewinding the track over and over on a small, cheap cassette player, unable to get enough of that sugarsweet switch. Elsewhere, Oneohtrix Point Never adds stardust and an unearthly sense of space on the changeable, slightly moody meditation, ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ (Firebird). The record ends with ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ (Lifting the Trophy), a track that could soundtrack a state wedding, what with its beautiful cascading piano parts, a sugary vocal and short triumphal guitar riffs that add a rich patina to the overall sound. Fratti: “When I doubled those vocals on ‘Alzando el Trofeo’ I felt there was an epiphany happening, right at that moment.”


Making a good record is a team game. Tosta and Fratti recall seeing Randall from Circular Ruin Studios in NYC “tweak the drums in ‘Libra’ to make that amazing effect of the gated reverb”, or the shaping of ‘Gotera’, “when (recording engineer) Nate Salon added some synths to the track.” Drummer Eli Keszler, “an amazing and versatile player” had the songs down pat in a couple of days” and, according to Tosta, Oneohtrix Point Never “just came to one of the sessions and we hung out, and after all the recordings he and Nate were together in some studio and out of nowhere they sent us some beautiful tracks for ‘Pájaro de Fuego’! Fratti concurs. “He decided that he wanted to record because he was listening to the record (Nate works closely with him) and he really liked it! It was a total honour, indeed!”


Bedazzled by the playing, the skyscraping ambition in the arrangements and the giddy moments of contrast thrown up by Hagen, we could allow ourselves a brief moment of flippancy and state that Titanic’s new record is Yacht Rock meets Aeschylus, full-on. It’s also worth speculating that, in this hyper-sensitive, intemperate age, Titanic’s music has the power, however fleetingly, to heal hurts. Hagen is a brilliant showcase for a fresh and enriching form of pop music: displaying a magpie eye for what glints and plundering what has gone before.


Like Vidrio, Hagen was partially and additionally recorded at Fratti and Tosta’s house, aka Tinho Studios in Mexico City, as well as Golden Girl Studios & Circular Ruin Studios in New York City. Mixing was done by Santiago Parra in Pedro y el Lobo Studios, Mexico City and mastered by Rafael Anton Irisarri at Black Knoll Studios, New York City. The recording engineer was Nate Salon.


Hagen featured Mabe Fratti on cello, vocals & backing vocals, I. la Católica on guitar, keyboards, prepared piano, bass & backing vocals, drums by Eli Keszler and synths in ‘Pájaro de Fuego’ from Daniel Lopatin and Nate Salon.


All compositions on Hagen are written by I. la Católica, except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were composed by I. la Católica and Mabe Fratti. The record was produced by I. la Católica and co-produced by Nate Salon & Mabe Fratti. And all lyrics are by I. la Católica except ‘Escarbo Dimensiones’, ‘Gotera’, ‘Gallina degollada’ & ‘Pájaro de Fuego’, which were written by I. la Católica & Mabe Fratti.

Following their eponymous debut album and the vertiginous Everest, Rue des Garderies continue their semi-narcotic explorations with Jiddu.


Around a stretched, distorted sample, a 16-minute improvisation recorded on a summer's night, interacting with their immediate environment: truncated discussions, laughter, noises of joy, silences, love...


The whole piece seems to exist in an unknown zone of our psyche - unknown until then, but which was obvious at the time: an automatic writing done in total freedom, reminiscent of trip-hop and abstract electronic from the 90s.
Was it a dream?


On the b-side; a drawing by French artist Rebecca Bournigault is etched.

Amonita, the ethereal musician known for her enchanting compositions and captivating live performances, is set to release her latest body of work, the Rainbow EP, under Lee Burridge’s esteemed record label All Day I Dream.

Since her debut in 2017, Amonita has been on a steadfast mission to craft iconic melodies that resonate deeply with listeners, evoking emotions that linger long after the music fades. She seamlessly blends live instrumentation with electronic elements, creating an immersive sonic experience that transports audiences to a world of serenity and wonder. Amonita is no stranger to All Day I Dream; In addition to her Secret of Happiness EP in 2019 and Aura EP in 2021, Amonita has contributed tracks on two A Winter Samplercompilations, and was featured on Gorje Hewek’s 2021 Collages album released on the label.

Drawing inspiration from her time spent in Turkey surrounded by nature, Amonita infuses the Rainbow EP with the essence of the awe-inspiring beauty she experienced: sun-kissed landscapes, tranquil seas, and the vibrant hues of a majestic rainbow. Her music speaks to the hearts of true dreamers – those who believe in love, walk barefoot in the rain, watch sunsets, admire the stars, and are impressed by the mystery and beauty of the moon.

In her own words, Amonita shares, "No matter how difficult your path through storms and thunder is, after that you will see a rainbow!"
This sentiment encapsulates the overarching theme of resilience and hope that resonates throughout the EP, serving as a beacon of light in challenging times. The Rainbow EP is a testament to Amonita's boundless creativity and passion for storytelling through music. From the shimmering melodies of title track ‘Rainbow’ to the hypnotic rhythms of ‘Amulet’ to the dark and mysterious ‘Moon Dust’, each track invites listeners on a transcendent voyage of discovery.

Prepare to be spellbound as Amonita unveils the Rainbow EP on March 29th. Experience the magic for yourself and let the music transport you to a world where you can dream while awake and rainbows reign supreme.

Es hat sich angedeutet, seit vor ein paar Tagen große Billboards in L.A. aufgetaucht sind, jetzt ist es amtlich: TURNSTILE sind zurück! Am 6. Juni erscheint NEVER ENOUGH, das sehnlich erwartete neue Album der Band und ihr erstes seit vier Jahren.

Aufgenommen zwischen Los Angeles und dem heimischen Baltimore wurde, wurde NEVER ENOUGH von TURNSTILE-Frontmann Brendan Yates produziert. Das Ergebnis: ein wuchtiges, ruheloses Album, das den unverwechselbaren, genreübergreifenden Sound der Band weiterdenkt – energiegeladen, unerschrocken und voller Leben. Eine musikalische Metamorphose von einer der spannendsten und einflussreichsten Bands ihrer Generation.

NEVER ENOUGH folgt auf das gefeierte Vorgängeralbum GLOW ON, das TURNSTILE vier Grammy-Nominierungen einbrachte und in Deutschland die Top 10 der offiziellen Charts erreichte.

Bone White & Orange Splatter Vinyl. John Carpenters Soundtracks für die jüngste Halloween-Trilogie, die er zusammen mit seinen langjährigen Mitarbeitern Cody Carpenter und Daniel Davies komponierte, markierten die Rückkehr des legendären Regisseurs und Komponisten zur Filmmusik nach fast zwei Jahrzehnten Pause. Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021) und Halloween Ends (2022) wurden alle von David Gordon Green inszeniert, der Carpenter bereits früh in die Vorproduktion einbezog und ihn schließlich als ausführenden Produzenten und Soundtrack-Komponisten für die Trilogie engagierte. Halloween Expanded, ursprünglich 2019 veröffentlicht, erscheint nun in einer brandneuen Verpackung und ist damit ein neues Highlight für Fans, das sie ihrer Sammlung hinzufügen können. Halloween aus dem Jahr 2018 war ein Erfolg, der die kühnsten Träume aller Beteiligten übertraf. Der Film startete mit den höchsten Einspielzahlen in der Geschichte von Blumhouse und den höchsten in der Geschichte der Halloween-Reihe. Es war unvermeidlich, dass bald zwei Fortsetzungen, Halloween Kills und Halloween Ends, grünes Licht erhielten. Green unterschrieb für die Regie beider Filme, wollte aber nicht davon ausgehen, dass John, Cody und Daniel für die Filmmusik zurückkehren würden. ,Ich nehme nichts als selbstverständlich hin", sagt er. ,Man hofft also, dass sie eine gute Erfahrung gemacht haben. Ich weiß, dass wir Spaß an dem Projekt hatten, aber man weiß nie, wie die zeitlichen und finanziellen Interessen der Leute aussehen und all diese Dinge. Die Realitäten des Geschäfts, des Filmemachens, laufen nicht immer so reibungslos ab. Aber es gab keine Probleme. Wir sahen uns an und sagten: ,Wie können wir das hinbekommen? Lassen Sie es uns noch einmal versuchen.` Zweimal." Die erweiterte Version von Halloween enthält mehr als 28 Minuten zusätzliche Musik aus dem Film und bietet ein noch vollständigeres, immersives Hörerlebnis. Das zusätzliche Material der erweiterten Ausgabe umfasst insgesamt 24 neue Titel, die auf zwei weiteren Seiten der Deluxe-Doppel-LP verteilt sind. Diese neue erweiterte Ausgabe enthält brandneues Artwork von Chris Bilheimer und ein exklusives 24x36-Zoll-Poster, das von Creepy Duck entworfen wurde. Erweiterte Versionen der Soundtracks zu ,Halloween Kills" und ,Halloween Ends" sowie ein Box-Set mit allen drei erweiterten Editionen werden ebenfalls am selben Veröffentlichungstag bei Sacred Bones erhältlich sein.

Modularz 93: UHFVHF – A Sonic Exploration of Analog and Digital Frequencies
Modularz is proud to present Modularz 93, a groundbreaking collaborative project between two heavyweights in the techno scene: Developer, the visionary producer and label head, and Stanislav Tolkachev, the Ukrainian techno ambassador known for his raw and experimental approach to sound. Their new release, UHFVHF, is a deep and immersive journey into the sonic interplay of analog and digital frequencies, a love letter to the mystique of over-the-air signals and the grey areas where the known meets the unknown. This project marks the culmination of countless hours spent in the studio in Berlin, where Developer and Stanislav have fused their unique creative processes. By blending analog hardware with cutting-edge digital techniques, the duo has crafted a sound that is both timeless and forward-thinking. The result is a series of tracks that explore rhythm and texture in their rawest form, pushing the boundaries of techno’s narrative and embracing the unfiltered power of sound. Through UHFVHF, Developer and Stanislav continue to redefine the parameters of contemporary techno, offering an uncompromising experience that speaks to both the mind and the body. This release is a testament to their dedication to the art of sound, offering a sonic landscape that pushes the boundaries of what techno can be. Modularz 93 – UHFVHF is a must-listen for anyone who seeks the raw energy and unapologetic power that defines the heart of true techno.

Gone to Earth ist das dritte Soloalbum von David Sylvian, ursprünglich erschienen am 1. September 1986. Das Doppelalbum folgte auf Brilliant Trees und erreichte Platz 24 der UK Album Charts.

Die zwei LPs bieten einen besonderen Kontrast: Eine Seite mit experimentellen Rock-Songs und Gesang, die andere rein instrumental und ambient. Gastmusiker sind u. a. Robert Fripp (Co-Autor von drei Songs) und Bill Nelson (Co-Autor von einem Song).

Diese Neuauflage erscheint als Corona White, Brown Opaque Black Vinyl und basiert auf dem neuesten Remaster.

Limitierte Picture-Disc-Neuauflage zum 50. Jubiläum des dritten NEU! Albums, das 1975 das Licht der Welt erblickte. Nach einer dreijährigen Pause legten die NEU!-Mitglieder Klaus Dinger und Michael Rother ihre Differenzen vorübergehend bei und kamen wieder zusammen, um den Motorik-Sound, den sie mit ihrem Debüt 1971 entwickelt hatten, noch einmal zu versuchen. Die seltsame Spannung und Präsentation von NEU! 2 und das Auftauchen ihrer früheren Band Kraftwerk mögen die Wiedervereinigung beschleunigt haben, aber was auch immer der Grund war, das Endergebnis war die Zeit, die Mühe und die Streitereien wert, die es gekostet hatte, dieses Album herauszubringen.

Hinter dem Album steht Kilian Bungert, der sich mit seinem Alter Ego "stoic mind" einen Raum geschaffen hat, in dem sich Stärke und Verletzlichkeit nicht gegenseitig ausschließen. Die Songs auf seinem beeindruckenden Debüt "to know what i"m scared of" sind ein Blick nach innen - reduziert, ehrlich, suchend. Hier gibt es kein Pathos und keine Statements. Es gibt nur die leise, emotionale Einladung Teil einer Reise zu werden, die bereits vor drei Jahren begonnen hat und die mit Stücken wie der Single "see what you don"t see" oder dem ergreifenden "the boat" einen vorläufigen Höhepunkt erreicht. Musikalisch bewegt sich das Album zwischen Indie, Folk, Country und kontemporärem Pop. Aber mehr noch als der Stil ist es die Haltung, die hier Relevanz schafft: Musik, die nichts beweisen will, aber viel zeigt. Von der Suche nach Klarheit. Von Selbstzweifeln, die zu Verbündeten werden. Von Momenten, in denen Kontrolle auf Intuition trifft. Und von dem Mut, loszulassen - ohne zu wissen, was danach kommt.

Here to dazzle you by the power of the disco ball, Lack of Afro is your friendly neighbourhood ‘Love Dealer’. Two years on from the funk & soul rebirth of ‘Square One’, powered by the ubiquitous ‘Loving Arms’ featuring Greg Blackman, Lack of Afro aka Adam Gibbons is now close to two decades deep in the game with soundtrack credits galore and online streams doing calculator-busting numbers. With extensive touring taking ‘Love Dealer’ up and down the country this Autumn, Gibbons’ ninth studio album is all for "the thrill of seeing people on a dancefloor, all collectively locked into a track that you've produced - there’s nothing like it!”.


‘Love Dealer’ is the authentic modern disco experience, packing a stacked sole’s worth of club beats full of stardusted sing-alongs, style-outs and French touch-style cool. Despite being “written during one of the longest winters in living memory”, ‘Love Dealer’, featuring some co-production from fellow South Coast dancefloor scholar Flevans (and influenced by producer du jour Barry Can’t Swim), exudes warmth and will make you sweat when its highs take effect.


Entering the scene with the radiance of ‘Make It Shine’ featuring Greg Blackman, washing over the airwaves of BBC 6 Music and Radio 2 and taking up a 10-week residency on the Jazz FM playlist, Gibbons and his crack line-up of discotheque players are your go-to team when you can’t wait for the weekend to begin, as subtle as they are straight down to business. ‘Love Dealer’ offers you nothing but the best in sparkling string symphonies, the hippest guitar licks, samples of those invited beyond the velvet rope and struts soaked in night fever.


Double A-side ‘Walls Start Rockin’ and ‘Heart & Soul’ guide the album’s glamour-and-groove, while ‘Love Saves The Day’ and ‘Plain to See’ dramatically take to the podium in a shimmer of pure peak 70s theatre. ‘Keeping Me Strong’ is the synergy of disco chic and the sound of a global advertising tie-in with Dyson, ahead of Gibbons taking a slightly Moroder/Cerrone-ish detour on ‘Idolising People Like Madlib’. “'Love Dealer' is aimed unequivocally at the dancefloor" says Adam. "As an artist, I wanted to push myself in a slightly new direction - more into the land of disco and a four to the floor sound. 'Love Dealer' is quintessentially an upbeat record, full of joy, optimism and hope for the future”. Seek your inner ‘Love Dealer’, kink your ‘fro and let your funk flag fly.
















n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) BONUS TRACK














n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) BONUS TRACK














n B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) [BONUS TRACK]














[n] B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) [BONUS TRACK]














[n] B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) [BONUS TRACK]














[n] B7. 14 Your Love (feat. Jonah Hitchens) [BONUS TRACK]

For Mal-One’s second dub album he pulled the dub versions of these tracks, as they seemed to work together as an album. New York City Punk (New York Dub), 45 Random Punk Memories (45 Random Dub), Machine Bubble Disco (Machine Bubble Dub), I Used To Play Bass In A Punk Rock Band (I used to play Dub), Never Seen A Bad Picture of Debbie Harry ( Never seen a Bad Dub), Punk Rock Fanzines (Punk Rock Fanzine Dub). JJ’s Alright (JJ is Dub) The Buzz-cocks Are Coming (The Buzz-cocks are Dub), Damned
Disciple (Damned Dub), The Satellite Kid (Satellite Dub), Punk Rock is Back! (Punk Rock is Dub) and The Revolution Is Coming ( Revolution Dub).

The cover of the album is a collage of various mementos culled together over a target painted canvas. The style and objects seemed to suit the cut up style of the tracks. To add another dub layer to the project he also took the lyrics to these tracks and cut and reworked them into a Punk Art Poem for the back side of the record sleeve. A dub reworking of words, music and image.

Hope you enjoy the indulgence.

Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released worldwide October 3, 2025. The LP includes 12 songs, Portofino Orange Glitter Vinyl, Double gatefold jacket, unique front and back cover, and never-before-seen photos and album lyrics. The Life of a Showgirl CD includes 1 double-sided folded poster, collectible disc artwork and an 8-page lyric booklet that includes never-before-seen photos and song lyrics.

Battle Scars by American blues rock musician Walter Trout is a studio album originally released in 2015. The album is a deeply personal one, as it chronicles Trout's battle with a life-threatening liver disease and transplant. It serves as a reflection on his illness, hospitalization, and survival, including lyrics that document key moments during this period. Battle Scars was produced by Grammy-nominated producer Eric Corne and features the tracks "Almost Gone", "Playin' Hideaway", "Omaha" and "Gonna Live Again", amongst others._x000d__x000a_Battle Scars is available as a 10th anniversary edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on aquamarine coloured vinyl and is housed in a gatefold sleeve.

Zelienople frontman Matt Christensen returns to Miasmah with Constant Green - a record of reverberant country inspired songs that puts the weight somewhere between Johnny Cash and Slowdive. Matt pours out his soul through flashes of life - small and large. His voice roaming over the guitars in a way which feels like a floating poetic deluge.

Appearing fresh from last years Zelienople album Hold You Up, Matt has made a very personal record that arrives as perfectly as it could be. It is full of beautiful sparse moments that capture the feeling of time standing still while simultaneously flashing in front of your eyes. As a child of the 70ies, growing up with country influenced AM rock on the radio, riding around in cars without seatbelts, Matt creates this nostalgic feeling of free riding through the city streets at dusk : a dream world where one can see green as a symbol for humanity and optimism. Not to say the album doesn't have it's share of darkness. Christensen always lingers deep in melancholy, driving his fears and anxieties out through music.

Visions of being able to move anywhere, picking his mother up from jail, family matters, change, the small things in life - all outtakes from what he sings about. Although it's hard to pick up on unless you really listen, as his ramblings can at one moment be fully clear while in the next drowned or muffled - becoming a mere meditative element to the music. Steady collaborators Brian Harding and Eric Eleazer from Zelienople accompanies on pedal steel and keys to further fill the sound into a warm dream, following in the footsteps of Matt ́s previous Miasmah album Honeymoons (2016). That said, while Honeymoons used drum machines and vast open spaces, Constant Green is another step closer towards the classic singer-songwriter folklore. Timeless gold from an artist that never stops creating.

“Oh damn I got fired suddenly, replaced by a hydraulic pump with life long guarantee”.

The undefinable Kaboom Karavan returns to the dusty Belgian roads with a total Fiasko! - or a full blown disaster if you will (seen from a minimalist perspective), although one that might be the antidote to the sterilised and scattered world that increasingly surrounds us. Fiasko! represents a musical chaos that feels both ecstatic, fun, as well as deeply melancholic. Like an overwhelming moment where the world seems to touch you on all senses. This is music for a new underground of black tie workers raising up to the dullness of societal norms by connecting to their inner child. It’s protest music towards the new normal, where the rules are thrown out of the window and unpredictable sense of joy prevails. Shortly said, Fiasko! Is contemporary exotica made by a madman with too much time on his hands.

As usual, Kaboom Karavan releases contains a conglomerate of strange, mostly home made instrumentation, which will be too long to list here. To shorten it down… Bram Bosteels himself, the captain of the ship, plays all kinds of acoustic instruments, guitars, electronics and uses his voice. Additionally we have Bart Maris on trumpet, tuba and trombone. Stefaan Smagghe plays violin and sarangi. Lastly we have Raphael de Cock on such typical instruments as igir, jadagan and uillean pipes. All that remains to be said is: Bring your neighbour, let yourself loose and have some fun. Listen to Fiasko!

Furthering the passionate exploration of cinema that has guided her two previous LPs - 2017’s ‘Fassbinder Wunderkammer’ and 2020’s ‘I Should Have Been a Gardener’ - the Milanese guitarist/composer, Alessandra Novaga, returns to Die Schachtel with ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’, two sides off shimmering, tense compositions – culminating as one of her most creatively ambitious and conceptually rich outings to date – freely inspired by the life and work of the Russian director Andrej Tarkovsky and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Classically trained at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland, over the last decade Alessandra Novaga has emerged as one of the leading figures within northern Italy’s thriving new, experimental, and improvised music scene, rendering striking solo efforts, in addition to collaborations with Loren Connors, Stefano Pilia, Elliott Sharp, Nicola Ratti, Paula Matthusen, Sandro Mussida, Kid Millions, Travis Just, Francesco Gagliardi, and others. Remarkably ambitious and forward thinking, her approach to the guitar embarks upon a relentless deconstruction and rethinking of her instrument’s unique properties through distinct applications of structure, resonance, space, and tone, creating in a deeply personal and emotive music, seeking narrative and meaning within the abstractions of sound.

In 2017, with the LP, ‘Fassbinder Wunderkammer’, issued by Setola Di Maiale, Novaga embarked upon the exploration of her love of film. Having begun with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, this was followed in 2020 by Die Schachtel’s release of ‘I Should Have Been a Gardener’, a deeply intimate mediation on the life and work of Derek Jarman. Rather than focusing on a fixed point of inspiration or a single film to work from, these pieces achieve a form of abstract portraiture, distilling elements drawn from these filmmaker’s life and work into ambient networks of texture and tonality. ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle”’ freely inspired by the Russian director Andrej Tarkovsky and the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, finds Novaga radically expanding her sonic palette within this approach.

The seeds of ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ can be traced to a conversation that Novaga had with Alan Licht (contained in the highly regarded Common Tones: Selected interviews with artists and musicians 1995–2020, Blank Forms, 2021), relating to the connections between music and cinema, which led her to consider Andrej Tarkovsky’s use of Bach's music within a symbiotic framework: how the music illuminates the imagism of the films, and the film illuminates new dimensions of the music. Slowly developing over the subsequent years, the resulting album comprises six individual works, some of which draw directly upon pieces of Bach’s music that Tarkovsky used in his films – specifically 'Erbarme dich, Mein Gott', 'Das alte Jahr vergangen ist', and 'Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ' - while others draw upon the sensibilities and moods evoked in the imagination by the director’s films.

As a point of departure and illumination into the process and spirit that underscored the creation of the album, Novaga points toward a passage in Tarkovsky’s "Sculpting in Time”:

“Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken a wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for its own sake. What purports to be art begins to look like an eccentric occupation for suspect characters who maintain that any personalized action is of intrinsic value simply as a display of self-will. But in artistic creation the personality does not assert itself, it serves another, higher and communal idea.”

‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ can be understood as a realisation of the collectivism of which Tarkovsky speaks, in the service of something far beyond the expression of self. Encountering Novaga moving into fairly uncharted waters, three of the album’s pieces incorporate the human voice we encounter the voices of others: that of the poet Arsenij Tarkovsky, the director’s father; a singer from Bach’s ‘Erbarme dich, Mein Gott’, capturing a broadcast in an underground parking lot, and Novaga’s own, rendering the melody from Bach’s “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ”. Roughly alternating between solo excursions on guitar and bristling electroacoustic pieces, over the course of the album’s two sides Novaga weaves one of her most abstract and ambitious bodies of recordings to date, shifting between the complex tonal mediations generated by the six strings of her instrument, and phycological densities activated by the expanded pallet of sonority made possible by the tactics and approaches of musique concrète.

An immersive, deeply engaging meeting of beauty and melancholy within a labyrinth of voices and ideas, ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ transfigures the life and work of Andrej Tarkovski – one of the greatest auteurs in the history of cinema – into a singular, experimental statement of collective truth. Belonging to recent, ambitious stream of contemporary new music releases on Die Schachtel that’s already included Novaga’s ‘I Should Have Been a Gardener’, Stefano Pilia’s ‘Spiralis Aurea’, Jim O'Rourke & Giovanni Di Domenico’ ‘Immanent In Nervous Activity’, Claudio Rocchetti’s ‘Labirinto Verticale’, and Damāvand’s ‘As Long As You Come To My Garden’, among others, ‘The Artistic Image Is Always a Miracle’ is available on as a limited edition of 300 dark turquoise vinyl LPs released on June 21, 2024. The LP, designed by Bruno Stucchi / dinamomilano, comes with an 8-pages insert illuminated by Alessandra’s text as well as the lovely and intense photographs of Matilde Piazzi.

37 years after the release of her multi-million selling debut album "Ancient Heart" Tanita Tikaram will release the sequel entitled "LIAR (Love Isn"t A Right)". The long-awaited new album reveals the emotional and societal differences between the woman Tanita was at just 18 when she made "Ancient Heart" to the woman she is today, taking in four decades of life experience. Her first album in almost a decade, "LIAR (Love Isn"t A Right)" is an album of haunting beauty and exquisite musicianship underplaying her unique voice that tells a masterful story of emotional, political and personal truths. When it was released in 1988, the multi-million selling "Ancient Heart" was the story of an uncertain 18-year-old brown gay woman living in middle England feeling like a stranger in her own home. Almost 40 years later that same woman, now feeling like a stranger in her own country as politics and society become more divisive. "LIAR (Love Is A Right)" is a full circle moment: a comment on community and its importance for all our futures and the perfect accompaniment to her classic breakthrough.

37 years after the release of her multi-million selling debut album "Ancient Heart" Tanita Tikaram will release the sequel entitled "LIAR (Love Isn"t A Right)". The long-awaited new album reveals the emotional and societal differences between the woman Tanita was at just 18 when she made "Ancient Heart" to the woman she is today, taking in four decades of life experience. Her first album in almost a decade, "LIAR (Love Isn"t A Right)" is an album of haunting beauty and exquisite musicianship underplaying her unique voice that tells a masterful story of emotional, political and personal truths. When it was released in 1988, the multi-million selling "Ancient Heart" was the story of an uncertain 18-year-old brown gay woman living in middle England feeling like a stranger in her own home. Almost 40 years later that same woman, now feeling like a stranger in her own country as politics and society become more divisive. "LIAR (Love Is A Right)" is a full circle moment: a comment on community and its importance for all our futures and the perfect accompaniment to her classic breakthrough.

Almost fifteen years since the release of her self-titled debut LP on Mr Bongo, reggae’s orator of love Hollie Cook is returning to the label for Shy Girl, her fifth studio album and her most authentic yet. Woven with tight grooves, beautiful vocals and catchy melodies, Shy Girl hears singer and songwriter Hollie Cook revel in her contemporary lovers rock sound, more confident and open to vulnerability than ever before.

A sun-drenched exploration of love in all its guises, Shy Girl tells stories of the magical and the melancholy, the heart-lifting and heart-breaking, across 12 luscious, analogue reggae compositions - the culmination of a soft-hued and instantly recognisable “tropical pop” sound that Cook has made her own.

Put together across three years and four cities – from LA and NYC, to Vejer de la Frontera in Spain and Cook’s hometown London – Shy Girl was written with long-time collaborators, The General Roots Band, and features a contribution from legendary dub MC Horseman, who lends his voice to the album’s first single ‘Night Night’.

The album opens with the title track ‘Shy Girl’, a buoyant and elastic slice of lovers rock that was written in a moment of spontaneous intuition, and bubbles with a charisma and positivity that Cook radiates. “I’m not a natural show-off,” Cook explains. “The Shy Girl theme is me. It’s just about being my most vulnerable self and being as true to the music that Iove as possible.” It is this honesty which shines throughout, from the chugging deep dub of ‘Frontline’, complete with raking electric guitar lines, to the bittersweet roots ballad ‘We Share Love’, which closes out the album.

It's clear to see that Cook’s songwriting draws on a lifetime of musical influences and inspirations. From her father, Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook’s record collection and touring with post-punk icon Ari Up’s The Slits, to her love for strong female-led pop music and the bassweight of London’s sound system culture. Enamoured with the music of Janet Kay and Phyllis Dillon, Shy Girl represents a homecoming and a coming-of-age for Hollie Cook, distilling and refining a shimmering reggae sound that will capture your heart, as it first captured hers.

Almost fifteen years since the release of her self-titled debut LP on Mr Bongo, reggae’s orator of love Hollie Cook is returning to the label for Shy Girl, her fifth studio album and her most authentic yet. Woven with tight grooves, beautiful vocals and catchy melodies, Shy Girl hears singer and songwriter Hollie Cook revel in her contemporary lovers rock sound, more confident and open to vulnerability than ever before.

A sun-drenched exploration of love in all its guises, Shy Girl tells stories of the magical and the melancholy, the heart-lifting and heart-breaking, across 12 luscious, analogue reggae compositions - the culmination of a soft-hued and instantly recognisable “tropical pop” sound that Cook has made her own.

Put together across three years and four cities – from LA and NYC, to Vejer de la Frontera in Spain and Cook’s hometown London – Shy Girl was written with long-time collaborators, The General Roots Band, and features a contribution from legendary dub MC Horseman, who lends his voice to the album’s first single ‘Night Night’.

The album opens with the title track ‘Shy Girl’, a buoyant and elastic slice of lovers rock that was written in a moment of spontaneous intuition, and bubbles with a charisma and positivity that Cook radiates. “I’m not a natural show-off,” Cook explains. “The Shy Girl theme is me. It’s just about being my most vulnerable self and being as true to the music that Iove as possible.” It is this honesty which shines throughout, from the chugging deep dub of ‘Frontline’, complete with raking electric guitar lines, to the bittersweet roots ballad ‘We Share Love’, which closes out the album.

It's clear to see that Cook’s songwriting draws on a lifetime of musical influences and inspirations. From her father, Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook’s record collection and touring with post-punk icon Ari Up’s The Slits, to her love for strong female-led pop music and the bassweight of London’s sound system culture. Enamoured with the music of Janet Kay and Phyllis Dillon, Shy Girl represents a homecoming and a coming-of-age for Hollie Cook, distilling and refining a shimmering reggae sound that will capture your heart, as it first captured hers.

Das Break-up-Konzeptalbum, nach dem niemand gefragt hat, The Appleseed Cast erschien 2003 auf Tiger Style inmitten einer zweiten Welle der Emo-Gegenbewegung. Jahrzehnte später gilt Two Conversations weithin als das Meisterwerk des Quintetts aus Lawrence, Kansas, ein atmosphärisches, seelenvolles Werk, das sich von den Klischees des Mittleren Westens distanziert. Verlieren Sie sich in den verträumten Klängen von Keyboards und Synthesizern und den Klängen von Stahlsaiten, aber seien Sie vor der Ausgangssperre wieder zu Hause.

Das Break-up-Konzeptalbum, nach dem niemand gefragt hat, The Appleseed Cast erschien 2003 auf Tiger Style inmitten einer zweiten Welle der Emo-Gegenbewegung. Jahrzehnte später gilt Two Conversations weithin als das Meisterwerk des Quintetts aus Lawrence, Kansas, ein atmosphärisches, seelenvolles Werk, das sich von den Klischees des Mittleren Westens distanziert. Verlieren Sie sich in den verträumten Klängen von Keyboards und Synthesizern und den Klängen von Stahlsaiten, aber seien Sie vor der Ausgangssperre wieder zu Hause.

Als Villagerrr sind Mark Allen Scotts geduldige Songs faszinierend und unverkennbar vom Mittleren Westen geprägt. Auf seinem neuesten Album ,Tear Your Heart Out" fängt der produktive Künstler aus Ohio ruhige, alltägliche Erlebnisse ein und verleiht ihnen eine entwaffnende emotionale Klarheit. Es ist ein Album für lange Autofahrten im Sonnenlicht und für kleine Stadtfeste. Das Album ist vollgepackt mit zu Hause aufgenommenen Songs aus dem Bereich des geschmackvollen Indie-Rock mit dezentem Twang und festigt Scotts Stellung als unverzichtbare Stimme neben der aufstrebenden Welle seiner Kollegen und Kollaborateure. Ursprünglich 2024 von Darling Recordings veröffentlicht, wurde ,Tear Your Heart Out" begeistert aufgenommen und erfolgte auf einer Welle der Begeisterung, die zu einer Handvoll ausverkaufter Kassettenauflagen, Tourneen mit Real Estate, Horse Jumper of Love und Momma und zuletzt einen Plattenvertrag bei Winspear, dem in LA ansässigen Label, das bereits die Durchbruchsalben von Slow Pulp, Barrie und Wishy veröffentlicht hat. Das Label wird die LP zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl veröffentlichen.

Als Villagerrr sind Mark Allen Scotts geduldige Songs faszinierend und unverkennbar vom Mittleren Westen geprägt. Auf seinem neuesten Album ,Tear Your Heart Out" fängt der produktive Künstler aus Ohio ruhige, alltägliche Erlebnisse ein und verleiht ihnen eine entwaffnende emotionale Klarheit. Es ist ein Album für lange Autofahrten im Sonnenlicht und für kleine Stadtfeste. Das Album ist vollgepackt mit zu Hause aufgenommenen Songs aus dem Bereich des geschmackvollen Indie-Rock mit dezentem Twang und festigt Scotts Stellung als unverzichtbare Stimme neben der aufstrebenden Welle seiner Kollegen und Kollaborateure. Ursprünglich 2024 von Darling Recordings veröffentlicht, wurde ,Tear Your Heart Out" begeistert aufgenommen und erfolgte auf einer Welle der Begeisterung, die zu einer Handvoll ausverkaufter Kassettenauflagen, Tourneen mit Real Estate, Horse Jumper of Love und Momma und zuletzt einen Plattenvertrag bei Winspear, dem in LA ansässigen Label, das bereits die Durchbruchsalben von Slow Pulp, Barrie und Wishy veröffentlicht hat. Das Label wird die LP zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl veröffentlichen.

"Prudência / Praga", or "Prudence / Plague", is a double single with these two songs that I composed and which were originally recorded by two of my heroes: Maria Bethânia and Alaíde Costa. Curiously, they are two sambas: although I come from the rock and roll scene in Sao Paulo, I wound up writing a samba as if it were the 50s. At the time of my first heartbreak, at the age of 17, I had the record Jamelao canta Lupicínio with the Orquestra Tabajara on my iPod, and I identified with those dramatic sorrows, almost a hundred years old. In a way, I felt that Lupicínio Rodrigues was bloody and direct, like Tarantino, and Nelson Cavaquinho, heavy metal like Black Sabbath. So, I feel it's a compact 45 of sambas but it's also very Rock n Roll to me. Raw and coming from hell. "Prudência" is that internal battle between the passionate side and the controlling side in the head of the former romantic bohemian. I wrote it for Bethânia to record on her album Noturno. Her version turned into a moving bolero. When I saw her singing it live and the audience singing along with her, I couldn't believe it. I cried, hidden in the audience. She said that when she showed the record to her brother, Caetano Veloso, he thought that "Prudência" was some old classic that she had dug up to bring back to light. Nothing could be a greater compliment than this mistake on Caetano's part. "Praga" also has to do with MPB heroes of mine that I never imagined I'd see up close or have any relationship with or any connection with. I was asked to write these lyrics in partnership with the main man Erasmo Carlos for Alaíde Costa's album! Surreal. Like many people, I got acquainted with Alaíde listening to "Clube da Esquina," her singing with Milton Nascimento. And the idea was to do a poisonous cabaret song samba. The curse of a woman who has dumped a drunk. I love it when Alaíde sings "BIBIDA" in her recording of the song_a total legend. I wanted to produce a kind of horror samba recording, because if it wasn't rock and roll, it wouldn't be much fun for me. I went over to Bielzinho's, and we recorded this chorus that explodes with the percussion and the choir of my friends Tulipa, Maria Beraldo, and Luiza Lian. This take of "Prudência" came from the unpretentiousness of recording two live sessions of the song with Fred Joseph with the cameras of the 70s' program "Ensaio" (MPB Especial) by the great Fernando Faro. The video take ended up being so unexpected and raw that it unseated the studio version, and that's what you hear on the single. The idea behind the video is a sort of this temporal mindfuck; like found lost tapes of the MPB Especial from the early the 70s. Same microphones, same cameras, that zoom_time travel. Between Mil Coisas Invisíveis, the end of the cycle with O Terno, and starting the new album process, I decided to take advantage of the respite to release this rock and roll 45 of sambas, without thinking too much or over-producing the thing. "Prudence? Don't talk to me about prudence!" ;) Tim Bernardes, 2025

Zurück zu den Anfängen. Sharp Pins' Nummer-1-Hit und Wendepunkt in der Jugendrevolution-Propaganda. Ein klarer Aufruf an alle Mods, die noch zu jung waren, um sich in der Quadrophenia Alley die Knie aufzuschürfen: Robinsons Garten auf dem Weg der neuen Welle.

Als Villagerrr sind Mark Allen Scotts geduldige Songs faszinierend und unverkennbar vom Mittleren Westen geprägt. Auf seinem neuesten Album ,Tear Your Heart Out" fängt der produktive Künstler aus Ohio ruhige, alltägliche Erlebnisse ein und verleiht ihnen eine entwaffnende emotionale Klarheit. Es ist ein Album für lange Autofahrten im Sonnenlicht und für kleine Stadtfeste. Das Album ist vollgepackt mit zu Hause aufgenommenen Songs aus dem Bereich des geschmackvollen Indie-Rock mit dezentem Twang und festigt Scotts Stellung als unverzichtbare Stimme neben der aufstrebenden Welle seiner Kollegen und Kollaborateure. Ursprünglich 2024 von Darling Recordings veröffentlicht, wurde ,Tear Your Heart Out" begeistert aufgenommen und erfolgte auf einer Welle der Begeisterung, die zu einer Handvoll ausverkaufter Kassettenauflagen, Tourneen mit Real Estate, Horse Jumper of Love und Momma und zuletzt einen Plattenvertrag bei Winspear, dem in LA ansässigen Label, das bereits die Durchbruchsalben von Slow Pulp, Barrie und Wishy veröffentlicht hat. Das Label wird die LP zum ersten Mal auf Vinyl veröffentlichen.

LA-based producer Real Bad Man and Michigan rapper Willie the Kid release their new collaborative album, Midnight, via the producer’s own Real Bad Man Records label. The album, which marks the producer’s second collaborative project of the year following Dear Psilocybin with ZelooperZ, includes guest appearances from UK rapper Sonnyjim, New York’s Lord Sko and frequent RBM collaborator Boldy James, who will be releasing his own Real Bad Man-produced album in May.

The album came together naturally for the pair, letting each new song inform the identity of the project as a whole. Speaking about how they identified that central theme of the album, Willie says, “I think where Adam and I agreed upon is that the stand out records were all themes for the night, late night drive, after hours dinners, shopping, private rooftop hotel suites, it’s a thinking album, a cruising album preferably enjoyed at night…midnight””

Midnight marks the early stages of what’s shaping up to be a prolific run of collaborations for Real Bad Man in 2025. His second album of the year builds off of the momentum he sparked last month with his first full-length album with ZelooperZ, Dear Psilocybin, which The FADER called “clear-eyed and focused in its own fantastical way”. Working as a duo with the dynamic lyricism of Willie the Kid after the psychedelic sounds of Dear Psilocybin, Real Bad Man returns to the essential underground beatmaking that he first emerged onto the scene with through his On High Alert series. His crackling, lo-fi production pairs perfectly with Willie’s gritty delivery, laying a foundation for the longtime lyrical stylist who has worked alongside some of the genre’s modern heroes including Nas, Lil Wayne, The Alchemist, Roc Marciano, Curren$y and more.

Listen to Midnight above, see below for more details on Midnight and stay tuned for more from Real Bad Man coming soon

Emily A. Sprague's Cloud Time traces an audio-spiritual journey through time and place, recorded across a long-awaited debut tour of Japan in the fall of 2024. Compiled from environmental improvisations captured in and for the moment, material at once welcoming, responsive, and inimitable, the album distills a voyage guided by psychic wayfaring, unbound presence, and activating performance for a reciprocal exchange with space, listener, and each fully engaged instant. The Japanese tour documented on Cloud Time held an almost mythic significance for Sprague, taking on properties of her own sonic white whale. After many near-departures and dropped plans to play in the country, "the empty spaces of cancelled trips and forgotten music turned into strange little misty spirits that I felt followed by," she says. "When I began preparing for the tour, I couldn't shake a sense that the invitation to Japan was more about opening myself up to this new place instead of bringing something into it tightly under my control. Improvisation has always been such a pillar in my music practice, and I really wanted to meet the country, spaces and people through that process." To amplify these intuitive whispers on-stage, Sprague reimagined her time-tested live rig, designed to be as free from error as possible, as a looser, more flexible set up that would allow her to interface with what was essentially a blank sonic canvas every night. Each performance became a collaboration between environment and instinct, Sprague processing the events, energies, and emotions informing the evening through her new sound ecosystem, and projecting an entirely present and unique version of herself to each open-eared and hearted crowd. "It was very much more than just an act of playing for me, but a total experience of time and place," she says. The seven long-form pieces that plot the course of Cloud Time, excerpted from over eight hours of recordings archived on the artist's on-stage recorder and generously shared on the album with no additional mixing and only minimal editing, invite listeners to become still in these deep-rooted moments of presence as the album moves from city to city, venue to venue. Cloud Time chronicles material recorded at each tour stop, Sprague selecting and sequencing the album around mood-based storytelling more so than linear chronology. "I tried to make the whole album flow in the way that any one of the complete live performances did," she explains, "while also keeping the spirit of the whole thing as a journey." The result is equal parts travelog, love letter, and impressionistic collage channeled from the potent ferment of a now encased in the glowing amber of memory. Intrinsically inspired by kankyo ongaku, an environmental music philosophy, known both in and widely outside of Japan that tunes into the similarly expansive ethos as Pauline Oliveros' deep listening practice and posits the listener as composer, Cloud Time is ambient music that seems to be listening right back, grounded in heartfelt synthesized frequencies that abundantly hold and heal. Pieces like "Nagoya," "Tokyo 1," and the ten minute "Matsumoto" in particular hum with the atomic resonance of gently tended landscapes, offering space for tuning way in and dropping far out from perspectives that stifle and bind. Cloud Time is an invitation to embrace each moment as both fleeting and eternal, floating by with nothing to grasp onto and absolutely everything to gain. The exercise in acceptance and letting go that Sprague practiced throughout the tour deeply impacted her understanding of self as both a guest and venerable performer. "The process of loving wherever I am, being present and focusing on a clear channel of communication for mind and emotion, rooted so deeply in respect for the space, those within it, and myself, ended up being profoundly healing," she says. "My vision and hope is that this album can be released as a gift back to anyone who either was or wasn't there. A cloud time of life passing by." Emily A. Sprague's Cloud Time will be released Friday, October 10th in vinyl, Japanese import CD (via Plancha), and digital editions.

Steve Hauschildt returns after 6 years with a new album titled Aeropsia. After a transcontinental relocation from the US to Tbilisi, Georgia, the electronic composer emerges from a personal and global transformation to explore themes of perceptual distortion, disconnection, and renewal.

Aeropsia (which roughly translates as “seeing the air”) refers to a visual phenomenon in which objects appear to float or shimmer, often due to changes in pressure, perception, atmospheric shifts or neurological disturbance. This becomes a metaphor for the liminality that informs the record: blurry visions, dreamlike displacements, and the fragile membrane separating what is seen from what is felt.

In the years since his last solo release, Hauschildt’s world has been marked by relocation and a growing sense of global turbulence. These experiences became the raw material for a work that navigates institutional haze and uncertainty itself. The result is music that employs decay as method, structure as entropy, and mutation as expression.

While Aeropsia remains subjective in its vision, Hauschildt invited two previous collaborators to expand the album’s gravitational pull. Cellist Lia Kohl, who previously performed on Nonlin, returns and brings a tactile warmth to select tracks, while guitarist Michael Vallera threads spectral harmonics into the mix. The album’s electronic foundation and its tactile elements meet in a state of luminous suspension to navigate the shifting in physical and psychological terrain.

Victor Démé loved life, music, friends, his hometown of Bobo Dioulasso, and above all, his family — by blood and by heart. Jovial and generous, he would have been delighted to see his world gathered once again in celebration: with concerts, unreleased tracks, live recordings, and a podcast retracing his finest musical years. Ten years after his sudden passing, this album carries the simple ambition of honoring his music and memory.

Victor passed away on September 21, 2015, in Bobo Dioulasso, during the coup d’État in Burkina Faso. The hospital he rushed to for malaria treatment was closed… His third album was due to be released just days later, but he never had the chance to sing it on stage.

A prolific and unique songwriter, Victor often revived songs he had composed in his youth during sessions at the OuagaJungle studio. With his guitar, he would breathe new life into them, refining them with his musicians — making the final choices sometimes difficult. Among the previously unreleased tracks on this record are Djilon, a reggae piece from Abidjan; Sira, a radiant yet solitary blues; Ambideu, a crooner-style ballad reimagined as an elegant cello-and-voice duet; Mousso mina mousso, a love song meant for a djandjoba celebration; and Bara, a heartfelt choral tribute to the workers of Burkina Faso.

These songs remained in the studio after Victor’s passing and have now been brought to life by the talented musicians Clément Petit, Alex Finkin, and Max “Blundetto” Guiguet. On Side B, the album captures the energy and sincerity of Victor and his band live on stage, with recordings from the May 19, 2009 concert at Théâtre de la Ville in Rouen. The performance opens with Labanko — a song never recorded in studio — followed by several classics, including the iconic Djon Maya, delivered here in its most blues-infused version, carried by Issouf Diabaté’s magical guitar.

Unforgettable memories for his musicians and for all who had the chance to applaud him live. We can only hope that, wherever he is, Victor is smiling and dancing as we celebrate him once more through music.

Ruby Rushton"s fifth studio album Legacy! written by band leader Tenderlonious and keys player Aidan Shepherd, marks a new chapter for the hugely influential UK jazz group. In the past the band - which also includes trumpeter Nick Walters and drummer Tim Carnegie - worked with a "one take" live approach; avoiding the use of overdubs. For Legacy! the four musicians decided to combine their virtuosic abilities with Tenderlonious" studio production skills. Each of the compositions sees layers of horn and flute lines added to the melodies on top of the original live takes. The result is impressive; the listener is left with a wider sonic spectrum than previously heard on Ruby Rushton albums.