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The long-standing artistic director, resident DJ, and co-founder of Closer Kyiv, Timur Basha steps up after 15 years of producing in the shadows with his first-ever solo EP. The daughter of Timur's best friends (Karine + Shakolin) gave us these words to accompany the record on its journey into the world: "sensitivity, serenity, loyalty, hope, luck & love...<3"

´Salva´ unfolds as a slow-moving sonic passage, suspended between stillness and transformation. Rooted in a deeply personal lineage, the album reimagines a long-standing family wound through the lens of myth, with the intention of altering its direction. Rather than recounting events, DIMA constructs a parallel narrative, one where sound becomes a means of reconfiguring what was once haunted.

Emerging from an intuitive and studio-centered process, Salva is shaped through experimentation, co-creation, and temporal patience. Working primarily with the computer as her main instrument, DIMA assembles fragments of sound, plugins, sampled material, improvised gestures, and stems drawn from cinematic sources into a porous and evolving sonic architecture. Composition here is accumulative, guided by sensation. Within this framework, certain tracks introduce restrained pop sensibilities, glimpses of melody, song structure, and tonal clarity that surface briefly before dissolving back into the broader sonic language.

´Salva´ is a passage. A listening experience that invites the audience to inhabit uncertainty, to stay with sensation, and to consider how sound can hold stories that language alone can´t resolve.

Für sein treffend betiteltes Solo-Debütalbum "Introducing..." hat Aaron Frazer mit Dan Auerbach von The Black Keys zusammengearbeitet. Soft spoken und mit dem Aussehen eines leicht unzufriedenen Matinee-Idols aus den 1950er Jahren gesegnet, besitzt Frazer eine einzigartige Stimme, die sowohl zeitgemäß als auch zeitlos klingt. Der in Baltimore aufgewachsene, zurzeit in Brooklyn lebende Songwriter wurde als Schlagzeuger und Co-Vokalist von Durand Jones & The Indications bekannt. Jetzt tritt er mit "Introducing..." als Solist hinter dem Drumkit hervor und demonstriert nicht nur seine beeindruckenden stimmlichen Qualitäten, sondern auch sein Können als hochklassiger Songschreiber. Schon die erste Single "Bad News" sorgte für Aufsehen ("a gorgeous piece of vintage R&B" - CLASH), die sich anschließende Lead-Single "Over You" ist inspiriert von elektrisierenden Northern Soul 45s der 60er Jahre. Nur zwei Belege der erfolgreichen Zusammenarbeit zwischen Frazer und Auerbach. Die zwölf Songs auf "Introducing..." verbinden gekonnt den Soul der 70er Jahre mit Dan Auerbachs besonderer Sensibilität für Vintage-Sounds im neuen Gewand. "Introducing..." enthält klassische Message-Songs im Stil von Künstlern wie Gil Scott-Heron sowie motivierende Liebeslieder, die von Disco-, Gospel- und Doo-Wop-Einflüssen durchzogen sind. Das gesamte Album wurde innerhalb nur einer Woche in Auerbachs berühmten Nashville-Studio nach einer schnellen und produktiven Songwriting-Session aufgenommen. Auerbach holte auch den legendären Songwriter und Falsettspezialisten L. Russell Brown (schrieb früher Hits für Frankie Valli von The Four Seasons) an Bord, der den wunderschönen Opener "You Don't Wanna Be My Baby" auf dem Album mitkopmponierte. Für "Introducing..." rekrutierte Frazer eine beeindruckende Schar alteingesessener Session-Musiker aus Nashville. Darunter Mitglieder der legendären Memphis Boys (die in Dusty Springfields "Son of A Preacher Man" und Aretha Franklins "You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman" mitspielten), den Perkussionisten Sam Bacco sowie diverse Musiker aus dem Daptone/Big Crown Records-Umfeld.

Butter Side Up’s 15th release comes from a familiar face. DANCE PROTOCOL (FKA Midge Thompson), responsible for the label’s second release some 7 years ago, returns to the label with The Shop Floor EP, another chapter in a relationship that stretches back to the party’s earliest years.

A self professed audio nerd, Midge has been operating quietly but consistently for well over a decade in Leeds and more recently London, honing an intentional studio-craft which draws inspiration from quite literally anything he can get his hands on, from 12-bit samplers and vintage synths to YouTube interviews and iPhone field recordings.

If his productions have earned their place through character and an unmistakable sense of groove, The Shop Floor EP is a culmination, presenting perhaps his strongest work to date.

Across four tracks, subtle textures and repeated vocal samples are stretched and twisted over broken beat rhythms and heavy sub-bass. A fine balance of UK-rave tropes and European minimal sensibilities that glide patiently, building and dissipating tension. From the driving, acid-tinged The Shop Floor to the bouncy, breaksy Riding Up Front and deeper Perry Lane, there’s a breadth of moods across the EP, which peaks with the celestial The Back Bench, surely one of the BSU’s most sunrise coded tunes, an softly inviting ‘Give Me Some More’ vocal refrain accompanied with woozy chords, pads and a chunky slap baseline.

Following his recent appearance on Blueprint, Mark Broom returns to the label with a unique project, revisiting the work of techno pioneer Regis. Entitled "Power Is Neutral", the release sees Broom rework a selection of seminal Regis recordings originally released on Downwards Records across the albums Gymnastics (1996), Delivered Into The Hands Of Indifference (1998) and Penetration (2001).

Known as one of the key architects of the Birmingham techno sound, Regis (Karl O'Connor) helped shape British techno through his work as co-founder of Downwards Records and a catalogue that continues to influence generations of artists.

For Mark Broom, few artists embody British rave culture quite like Regis. Drawing on source material that has long stood as a cornerstone of UK techno, Broom approaches these edits with both respect and imagination. As Regis puts it, "Mark Broom is like some modern day Bagpuss... he has fired up his techno mouseorgan and polished old relics to make them all shiny and new."

Power Is Neutral delivers six expertly crafted reinterpretations that bridge the raw energy of Regis' original works with Broom's unmistakable contemporary dancefloor sensibility, bringing these timeless tracks to a new generation of listeners.

In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

In spring 2025, Abul Mogard and Rafael Anton Irisarri created the source material for their second album, Where Light Pauses in the Silence of the Sun, during a three-day residency at Morphine Raum in Berlin. Functioning as both recording studio and performance venue, the space has no stage, with the audience gathered around the performers. Working within an open framework, the duo reshaped the music each evening while recording the performances live to multitrack. Rotary speakers, modular synthesizers and bowed guitar formed the core of their sonic language, captured through a 1970s mixing console and microphones placed around the room.

Back in Mogard’s studio in Rome, the material was further crafted as motifs were stretched, fragments isolated, and tempos dissolved. Irisarri recorded additional guitar textures and treatments in New York, while passages recorded by Martina Bertoni and Andrea Burelli in Berlin reinforced the harmonic centres and brought breath, refinement and a new sensibility to their compositions. The process continued as Mogard’s layering and subtraction reassembled everyone’s parts into the final arrangement.

The album opens with “In the Eastern Wild,” building from a sparse outline into a monumental formation of low-frequency weight, its internal motion shaped by the rotating Leslie speaker. “Over the Domes” widens into a broader acoustic field, where sustained modular tones meet waves of softly plucked guitar. The music then turns inward with “A Blue Descent,” centred on Bertoni’s cello, whose growling timbre introduces a melancholic depth.

At the album’s centre, “In a Quiet Radiance” unfolds around a slow guitar ostinato, its luminous stillness opening into a more expansive and reflective state. Across its ten-minute span, Burelli’s violin lines and Bertoni’s lower cello phrases gradually surface, weaving through the harmonic field. Mogard brings Burelli’s processed voice to the fore, its emotive, operatic presence becoming one of the record’s pivotal moments. “Of Blessed Ages” suspends the sonic flow, shifting between parallel major and minor chords as lingering, slowly decaying melodies shape the music’s internal drift. The closing “Among Shadows” settles into a darker resonance as layered textures recede.

Mogard and Irisarri’s shared language balances restraint and maximalism. UK magazine Crack describes the music as “a tidal wave held in suspension,” while Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes, “What a colossal sound, and how this music strikes at the emotions.” Reflecting on the residency sessions, Irisarri recalls: “At moments I genuinely couldn’t tell if a sound was coming from me or from Abul. It stopped feeling like two people making decisions and began to feel like we were inside a system moving on its own."

Marja de Sanctis’ cover artwork revisits the vessel sculpture from the duo’s first album, Impossibly Distant, Impossibly Close. There it appeared as raw, unfired clay. Here it has been fired in the kiln and finished with a glaze. Light gathers on its polished surface and spills into the surrounding space. As she explains, “I wanted to convey the idea of continuity within the duo, and the vessel became a kind of container for that idea. However, their music felt different this time, and with the collaboration of Martina and Andrea, I felt it should have a sleeker, softer, more glamorous look, very distant from the first raw appearance.” The transformation of the vessel from raw clay to fired form suggests a passage from immediacy toward permanence, mirroring the music’s gradual expansion.

UK electronic duo Prospa unveil their long-awaited debut album Free Your Mind, a bold, emotionally charged, and club-focused statement from one of dance music’s most exciting acts out now via CircoLoco Records.

Years in the making, Free Your Mind captures the full scope of Prospa’s evolution: from breakout underground producers to globally recognized festival headliners and chart-topping innovators. Across the album, the Leeds duo seamlessly blend euphoric house, rave nostalgia, breakbeat experimentation, progressive emotion, and peak-time club energy into a body of work that feels both deeply personal and built for massive communal release.

The album’s final moment is the focus track “Dreams,” a euphoric anthem that drives home Prospa’s songwriting and production sensibilities. Balancing cinematic atmosphere with the duo’s unmistakable dancefloor instincts, “Dreams” channels the reflective, ecstatic energy that defines the album as a whole, equally suited to sunrise festival moments as late-night club systems.

The album arrives following a string of major singles that have propelled Prospa to new heights over the past year. Most recently, “Baby” with Murda Beatz became one of Miami Music Week’s most talked-about track IDs after being teased during a back-to-back set with Josh Baker, quickly spreading across social media thanks to its infectious vocal hook and stripped-back club precision.

Before that came the album’s title track “Free Your Mind” with Cloonee — a vocal house anthem that climbed into the Official Singles Chart top 20, alongside Beatport chart-topper “Love Songs” featuring Kosmo Kint. Together, the tracks established the foundation for an album that represents Prospa at their most expansive and fully realized.

Hailing from Leeds, childhood friends Harvey Blumler and Gosha Smith connected over their shared passion for electronic music – drawing inspiration from the likes of Daft Punk, Disclosure, The Chemical Brothers, and The Prodigy as they first started producing under the Prospa moniker in 2013. The duo broke out in late 2018 with the anthem “Prayer” earning support from high-profile tastemakers including The Fader and NME, while helping relaunch heritage house label Stress Records after a 13-year hiatus. Since then, Prospa have embarked on a rapid ascent to consolidate their status as one of the UK’s most exciting electronic acts.

Experts at crafting high-octane dancefloor-focused anthems as much as they are at composing more heartfelt, meditative moments, Prospa’s work continues to evolve, blurring and pushing the edges of these boundaries into their biggest statement yet

New edition; new cover, black vinyl



Winner of the 2026 César Award for Best Original Music, the Arco soundtrack is composed by Arnaud Toulon.



Blending sweeping orchestral passages with delicate electronic textures, Toulon’s music accompanies Arco’s temporal wanderings in an expansive sonic journey. An immersive, sensitive, and luminous soundtrack that echoes the great works of Joe Hisaishi while asserting a distinctly contemporary identity. Balancing poetry and dramatic tension, the score stands as a fully-fledged experience in its own right, emerging as a striking cinematic work.


Directed by Ugo Bienvenu, Arco won the César Award and the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature in 2026. It also won the Cristal for Best Feature Film at Annecy in 2025, and was presented at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and selected for the 2026 Oscars.



Film:

Best Animated Film and Best Original Score at the 2026 César Awards / 2026 European Film Awards / 2025 Cristal Award for Best Feature Film at Annecy

Screened at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

Nominated for the 2026 Academy Awards



Distributed in over 40 countries

VOD already available in France



Music:

Nearly 1.5 million streams

1,000 vinyl records sold

Over 177,000 views on the live session of “Clouds Away” by Arnaud Toulon x November Ultra

CD released in Japan in April 2026



International releases (movie)

2025

October: France + Belgium

December: Netherlands

2026

January: Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, China

February: Latin America, Taiwan, Turkey, India

March: Greece, South Korea, Italy, Australia, Estonia, UK, Hungary, Romania

April: Latvia, Germany, Hong Kong, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Austria, Poland, Japan, Switzerland

August: Sweden

October: Lithuania

Cymbals' second album, ‘Mr. Noone Special’, released in 2000, makes its debut on vinyl.
Building on the pop sensibility of their first album, this record evolves into a more soulful and mature sound.
Featuring expressive vocals by Asako Toki and mellow, refined compositions by Reiji Okii, it includes classics like “Do You Believe In Magic” and “Highway Star,
Speed Star.”
A defining work from Cymbals' mid-period, distinguished by its sophisticated, urban sound and assured melodic sense.
This essential album for any discussion of Japanese pop from the 90s to the early 2000s finally gets its long-awaited first vinyl release.

Towa Mafune is a rare singer-songwriter known for her gentle voice and warmly embracing melodic sensibility. As suggested by the title, means "Sleeping with the sea in my arms",
this record is a conceptual work inspired by Mafune’s upbringing in a seaside town and her lifelong connection with nature.
The album imagines a dialogue between the artist herself and natural elements such as the sea, wind, and light.

Layered arrangements featuring the album’s striking introductory piano, along with strings, horns, acoustic and nylon-string guitars, and rich vocal ensembles, create a liberating and
expansive soundscape. The album also marks new artistic territory for Mafune, supported by trusted musicians including paya (Yūtai Communications), Kota Yamauchi, and
Keitaro Kanamine.

The Mantecas represent one of the finest concentrations of experience and talent in Latin and Jazz music ever to be based in the UK. A pure uplifting Latin Jazz music celebration, limited edition 250 copies: not-to-be-missed, recorded at different locations in London during 2025/26 "On their fabulous fourth album, The Mantecas (formerly Manteca) have moved the needle all the way in the direction of Latin jazz (or jazz latino). In their early years, the London-based eight-piece played a mix of salsa, Cuban timba, boogaloo, Latin funk and descarga (jazzy, improvised Latin jam session), with plenty of vocals, strictly geared for the dance floor. Along the way, the jazz-descarga aspect emerged as a stronger force, though all sorts of other ingredients, from afrobeat to Afro-Cuban, cumbia to samba, ebbed and flowed throughout. Although there's nothing new with the concept of doing an album of instrumental Latin tracks in a jazz mode that's still dance-friendly (Machito, Sabú Martínez, Tito Puente and Tito Rodríguez all waxed jazz latino albums like that long ago), what's new here is The Mantecas' very fresh and confident interpretation of the idiom. And while they share something in common with the accessible, danceable Latinized soul jazz of someone like Mongo Santamaría or Willie Bobo, as well as the Afro-Cubop roots of Chano Pozo, they also bring to mind the more jazz-oriented improvisational legacy of Pozo's amigo Dizzy Gillespie, which is reflected in The Mantecas' explorations of a handful of 20th Century modern jazz giants as they rework timeless classics by John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Oliver Nelson and Wayne Shorter. For this release, all seven tracks are essentially Latin renditions of jazz standards or are Latin jazz originals. There's a mix of jazz and Latin rhythmic structures, instrumentation, arranging, and sensibilities at play, and it's a very natural sounding mélange. Like their previous albums, some of the tunes feature a club-ready blend of hot and cool, in a Latinized British acid jazz / soul jazz way." - Pablo "DJ Bongohead" Yglesias, 2026

Joa Joys (Joaquín Ledesma) is a visual artist and musician from Santa Fe, Argentina, now based in Buenos Aires. Since 2015, he has released solo and collaborative works on labels across Argentina, Japan, Belgium, and France — and now with Discrepant — while also composing for documentaries and installations. His music approaches sound as a habitable space, closely intertwined with a visual sensibility, creating cinematic soundscapes that oscillate between everyday observation, dream states, and surreal fantasy.

His new album Alivie explores the experience of physical pain, its different phases, and the ways we cope with it. Built from a palette that merges analog synthesizers (some hand-built by the artist) with flute, mandolin, guitar, and other textures, the record shifts between atmospheric passages, folk-like elements, and moments of energy and abstraction. Alivie is not confessional but poetic — an attempt to translate the weight of pain into images, sounds, and atmospheres that also carry humor, joy, and relief.

Norwegian folk artist Juni Habel's latest album Evergreen In Your Mind is largely an ode to letting go, and at it’s inquisitive heart can be found ‘Pearl Cloud Song’. An instrumental four-and-a-half minutes, it came from a guitar tuning that Habel stumbled upon, the song tumbling out of the discovery on its own accord. Lush and vibrant and bristling with life, it’s a beautiful backdrop to stepping into nature, bringing together a simple drum machine pattern, steel-string guitar, pedal steel, considered effects, and the flicker of a voice somewhere in the far-off distance. Juni says "it gives the sensation of flying." With such ingredients it was rife for a remix.

'Pearl Cloud Song Reformations' is a very limited 12" (also available digitally) which features two remixes/reformations from Tom Sharkett and Minotaur Shock and also includes Juni Habel's original version. There will only be 200 ever made.

Tom Sharkett is a producer from Manchester, now based in Todmorden. Having cut his teeth as a founding member of synth-wave band W. H. Lung. Tom has gone on to forge his own path as an electronic artist with music on Optimo Music, DFA and Test Pressing. His work leans towards dark, wonky and psychedelic electronics and his edit of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Home’ grabbed the attention of James Murphy which led to an official DFA release. The cosmic choogle of his 'Pearl Cloud Song Reformation' is Sharkett's first remix committed to vinyl since.

Minotaur Shock is the long-standing electronic project of Bristol-based producer David Edwards. With a discography spanning labels like 4AD, Melodic and Bytes, Edwards balances pastoral charm with IDM sensibilities, creating soundscapes that are as much about the heart as they are the head.

HARTHBALL are an avant/noise/rock wrecking ball of a band from Nanaimo, Canada. Rooted in total improvisation, free expression, and a deeply psychedelic sensibility, EarthBall operate on pure instinct.
They hurtle onwards in a combustion of spontaneous composition, shooting from the hip, as they fall out of the sky ablaze. The group encompasses Isabel Ford (vocals, bass), John Brennan (drums, percussion), Jeremy Van Wyke (vocals, guitar, trumpet), Kellan Maclaughlin (guitar, talkbox), and Liam Murphy (saxophone). Each member brings a rich and varied musical history, with past and present projects including Shearing Pinx, Plan Your Future, Kamikaze Nurse, Eschatons, and Psychedelic Dirt. Collectively and individually, they have collaborated with artists such as Deerhoof, Raven Chacon, Chris Corsano, and William Hooker, deepening the band’s exploratory reach and collective language.
Since forming in 2021, EarthBall have released six cassettes and three fervently received LPs on Upset The Rhythm, including November’s widely acclaimed Outside Over There. Their latest release, Actual Earth Music - Volume 3 & 4, follows the first instalment in the series and captures two mind-quaking highlights from last winter’s European tour. This is EarthBall plunging to full fathom five, transforming into something rich and strange - channeling the fleeting moment as it fractures, erupts, and dissolves into the unknown.
Side A captures a thumping performance at Cave12 in Geneva. Frazzled from a white-knuckle alpine descent, the group settles into a hypnotic sprawl, stretching time and form across a colossal 53-minute set (with the first 22 minutes presented on the LP; the full performance appears on the CD edition). The Cave12 recording is a study in tension and release; ruminative, volatile, and barely contained. Drums stumble and surge, saxophone howls cut through the air, and Ford and Van Wyke’s voices briefly pull together the circle twice, before the tumult lapses into a spinning maelstrom.
Side B meanwhile presents a scorched excerpt from EarthBall’s crushing performance at Le Guess Who? Festival. As Van Wyke reflects: “Having the most excellent Dwarfs of East Agouza play before us only heightened our intention to bring the noise. Listening back, the thing that strikes me most is how we truly were operating in the ever-elusive but always sought-after ‘group mind’. Ninety-degree changes are super tight. Izzy and I are finishing each other’s sentences. Liam’s horn is cradling our outer and inner space. Kellan’s talk box rains down like the voice of a reawakened spirit, and all this havoc is safely stowed in the rumbling ox-cart of John’s solid drumming”.
Actual Earth Music - Volume 3 & 4 marks another ascent in EarthBall’s ever-expanding, totemic discography, an ecstatic storm of raw immediacy and unfiltered expression.

Santana III is an album of 'lasts'. It was the last album recorded with the original Woodstock-line up and the last to hit #1 in the Billboard charts until 1999's Supernatural. But there are also a number of important 'firsts' on this album; Coke Escovedo joins in for the first time on percussion, as does Neal Schon (Journey) - who was a mere 17 of age when they recorded the album - on guitar. Santana III is viewed by many as the band's commercial and creative highpoint. The band sounds darker, rawer, and more eager with the doubling up on guitar of Schon's Rock 'n' Roll sensibilities and Santana's ecstatic high notes and soulful fills. Escovedo and Chepito's percussion are as fast as it is furious, and the minimal production adds greatly to the timeless appeal of this album. Santana III is available as a limited edition of 1500 individually numbered copies on translucent yellow coloured vinyl, housed in a deluxe heavyweight gatefold sleeve.

The album takes its name from the seaside neighbourhood of Havana, Cuba, where Maza was born. Written and composed by the Maza, Alamar unfolds through a singular dialogue between voice and cello, blending musical traditions from the Americas with a refined, modern sensibility. The album tells a coherent story - an artistic journey shaped by roots, departure, healing and joy. Sung in Spanish, French, Portuguese and English, Alamar reflects the international path of a world-class independent artist capable of transforming intimate history into a shared emotional experience.

Planar Traits adds to the Spectral Bounce catalog with SPEC08: Distance EP. Since 2021 the Stockholm-based artist’s creations have combined evocative soundscapes with dancefloor functionality. Here he steps up with four hydrographic cuts spanning the groove-led, the mysterious and the cerebral.

Beginning the expedition with the type of psychedelic and lithe tech-house for which Spectral Bounce is known, the A-side is glistening with aquatic shimmer. “Variations in Hue” and “Distance” are club cuts embellished with mystical melodies and sonar pulses, both propelled by chunky drums and driving sub frequencies.

The B-side goes deeper, revealing a more contemplative zone in which soft echoes of Detroit (“Bloom”) are spliced with 1990s Artificial Intelligence sensibilities (“Never-ending Light”). A perfect soundtrack for living room transcendence, as much as pelagic immersion.

SPEC08 — Dive in!

Credits:
Words by Cameron Leaf
Art by Susanne Janssen
Mastering & Cut by Analogcut

After a two-year pause, CHILDHOOD returns with a new 12", GROUND SUPPORT by REDUKS The release introduces REDUKS, a young Munich-based artist whose path crossed with Muallem through Blitz. What began as a working relationship quickly turned into a shared musical understanding. Despite the difference in generation, both are connected by a similar sensitivity: a deep respect for the past, an awareness of the present, and a clear instinct for what lies ahead. Sharing a studio, this connection naturally translated into music. REDUKS brings a rare combination of emotional intuition and technical precision -- a producer with a deep-rooted understanding of club music, yet unbound by formula. The result is a collection of four dub house cuts, each shaped for a different moment across the night. Timeless in character, the tracks lean into subtlety and function -- built for the dance floor, but never confined to it. This record also marks the beginning as the first release of an ongoing series.

Norwegian folk artist Juni Habel's latest album Evergreen In Your Mind (BR025) is largely an ode to letting go, and at it’s inquisitive heart can be found ‘Pearl Cloud Song’. An instrumental four-and-a-half minutes, it came from a guitar tuning that Habel stumbled upon, the song tumbling out of the discovery on its own accord. Lush and vibrant and bristling with life, it’s a beautiful backdrop to stepping into nature, bringing together a simple drum machine pattern, steel-string guitar, pedal steel, considered effects, and the flicker of a voice somewhere in the far-off distance. Juni says "it gives the sensation of flying." With such ingredients it was rife for a remix.

'Pearl Cloud Song Reformations' is a very limited 12" (also available digitally) which features two remixes/reformations from Tom Sharkett and Minotaur Shock and also includes Juni Habel's original version. There will only be 200 ever made.

Tom Sharkett is a producer from Manchester, now based in Todmorden. Having cut his teeth as a founding member of synth-wave band W. H. Lung. Tom has gone on to forge his own path as an electronic artist with music on Optimo Music, DFA and Test Pressing. His work leans towards dark, wonky and psychedelic electronics and his edit of LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Home’ grabbed the attention of James Murphy which led to an official DFA release. The cosmic choogle of his 'Pearl Cloud Song Reformation' is Sharkett's first remix committed to vinyl since.

Minotaur Shock is the long-standing electronic project of Bristol-based producer David Edwards. With a discography spanning labels like 4AD, Melodic and Bytes, Edwards balances pastoral charm with IDM sensibilities, creating soundscapes that are as much about the heart as they are the head.

Odysee’s vinyl release schedule for 2026 kicks off with this superb 3-track E.P. from none other than the labels founder, T-Mirage. Following up from his 2024 release Dark Rhodes, this E.P. is an embodiment of the raw Mirage sound; a melting pot of Atmospheric D&B with hard hitting dance-floor sensibilities, where 70's OST & Film Noire sounds are blended with deep Techno and electronica elements.

From the blistering amens and deep textures of 'Expressive Thoughts', to the dreamy atmosphere of 'Dawnbreaker' and the dystopian menace of the breakbeat-driven 'Machines Of London', this E.P. is an absolute must for all true Odysee fans!

In 1994, Tilla was just 17 years old, and an integral part of the original St Albans collective that comprised Jim Baker & Phil Aslett (Source Direct) and Rupert Parkes (Photek), when he set up the Odysee imprint and released the first Source Direct record (Future London/Shimmer). With a follow-up release from Photek (Phaze 1/Try A Style) and a second from Source Direct, the profile of the label began to grow exponentially.

It was the 3 Mirage releases however that really put the label on the map. These tracks were engineered by Jim Baker but heavily co-produced by Tilla himself with a major focus on his keen ear for dark 70’s Noire samples and eerie abstract electronica pitted against soulful R&B vocals. In hindsight, the impact of this rather different soundscape on the Source Direct material that followed is unmistakable.

London Jazz Classics originally came out in 1993 - the first album ever to be released on Soul Jazz Records. The album brought together rare and obscure dance tracks in a unique mix of jazz dance and fusion, funk, Brazilian and Latin grooves. 

The album was ironically titled - none of the music was from London, none of the music was traditionally classified as jazz, and all of the tracks were at the time practically unknown to most people. Instead these were tracks that were filling dancefloors in a nascent jazz dance scene in London being created by a small group of DJs – Paul Murphy, Gilles Peterson, Sylvester, Patrick Forge and a few others.

As demand for these rare groove jazz tracks grew, previously unknown records such as Alive!’s ‘Skindo Le Le’, Doug Richardson’s ‘Salsa Mama’, Carlos Franzetti’s ‘Cocoa Funk’ and Emilio Santiago’s ‘Bananeira’ became sort after and even-harder-to-find items with original copies going for £100s of pounds. 
These tracks became part of the soundtrack to this jazz dance scene which has now spread across the world. This music paved the way for the arrival of many of the UK’s new wave of current artists such Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective who today offer a uniquely London sensibility of fusing jazz with wide-ranging cultural influences – everything from afrobeat to soul.

London Jazz Classics was the first album to bring this jazz dance music featured here to a wider audience. More than 30 years since its initial release Soul Jazz Records are releasing this new 2026 edition, bringing the music once more to a new generation of listeners.

Somewhere between the after-hours haze and the first flicker of sunrise, Nebraska re-emerges - this time with a twist in the signal. Long respected for his deep-cut sensibilities and dancefloor intuition, Ali Gibbs returns to Delusions Of Grandeur not just as Nebraska, but with a handover to his new alias: Dubl Drat. The Alter Alter Ego EP plays like a transmission from both sides of his creative psyche - one rooted in warm, groove-led house and disco mutations, the other drifting deeper into dubbed-out, heady abstraction.

The A-side opens with Alter Alter Ego in its Nebraska OG Mix form - a crunchy, funked-up mid-tempo burner. Chopped Rhodes solos flicker in and out of the mix while a rolling bassline locks into a low-slung groove - equal parts party-starter and late-night dancefloor hypnosis. Next, The Teckel Track slides the tempo down into a proper slo-mo four-on-the-floor bumpy groove. Fat stabs punch through layers of glitchy FX while a melodic bassline snakes underneath, forming a hazy, infectious earworm tailor-made for those early-night mood-setting sessions. Closing the A-side, Olive (Dubl Drat Dub) signals a shift. Here, Gibbs leans fully into his Dubl Drat persona, dissolving structure into a blissed-out dub excursion.

Chopped breaks scatter across the stereo field, chiming melodies echo into the distance, and granulated percussion parts build a dense, immersive landscape - one to get lost in rather than dance through. Flipping over we have Alter Alter Ego (Dubl Drat Remix) which reconfigures the title track into a stripped-back boogie workout. The groove is leaner but no less potent, driven by a killer bassline and punctuated with signature Rhodes licks - pure, understated club pressure. Finally, Olive (Nebraska Version) offers a gentle comedown. This alternate take softens the edges, introducing additional guitar textures that drift into Balearic territory. It’s nostalgic, introspective, and quietly expansive - a closing chapter that lingers long after the last note fades. The Alter Alter Ego EP isn’t just a new release - it’s a dual-state exploration, a conversation between rhythm and space, between Nebraska and Dubl Drat, and marks the last ever Nebraska release as Ali closes the chapter and the alias for the final time.

Insane Teknology's label new batch !!

Double LP for the newskool Resist-Dance !!!
Bloody tunes bringing Insane Teknology or Protokick... in the meantime than discrete talents since ages like Piou... and new sounds...

This label is totally awake !!!

ENJOY !

Originally self-released in 2023, Stella Kola, the debut album from Beverly Ketch (Jow Jow, Weeping Bong Band) and Robert Thomas (Sunburned Hand of the Man, Dalthom), now returns in a renewed edition—bringing wider attention to a record that already felt like a quietly essential artifact from the moment it first appeared.

Given the pair’s respective roots—and the presence of collaborators drawn from across the Northeast experimental underground—one might expect “a brutal blast of acid swirl.” Instead, what emerges is something far more unexpected. The album is “steeped, not in noise and dissonance, but in the fragrant, captivating folk of Linda Perhacs, Judee Sill, Karen Dalton, and Bridget St John.”

From the opening moments, especially on “Rosa,” the record reveals its core sensibility: “a ballad that digs deep into the psychedelic-folk tradition until it takes root in a freshly sporous permaculture.” What follows is a set of songs that feel both carefully assembled and organically grown—delicate structures held together by a wide circle of contributing musicians, including Wednesday Knudsen (flute), P.G. Six (harp, guitars, keys), Gary War (synth), Jen Gellineau (viola, violin), Willie Lane, L. Gray, and others.

Rather than functioning as studio additions, these collaborators form a genuine collective presence. “The family affair feeds into the album’s charms,” and the feeling is unmistakably communal. Like many of the ‘60s folk records it echoes, Stella Kola carries “the feeling of community and camaraderie” at its core, shaping a warmth that runs through the entire release.

The album’s emotional palette leans toward a quiet, persistent melancholy: “the best records from that era also carried with them an inherent sadness and Stella Kola’s songs wash over the listener with a beautiful woe.” Its sound edges into the terrain of Fairport Convention and Pentangle, with references to “Beggar’s, Kings, Dark Damsels, and Tarot,” yet never settles into revivalism. Instead, Ketch and Thomas extend the tradition outward, refracting it through their own distinctly American, underground language.

As one early description of the album notes, “the masterful restraint of ‘Rosa’ and the rest of Stella Kola’s shimmering debut evokes Anne Briggs, C.O.B., Pentangle and similar ancestors that knew the best way to honor traditions was to widen the heritage even further.”

Even among a prolific and unpredictable network of underground musicians, Stella Kola stands apart. “It’s early in the year, but it’s hard to see an album, especially a debut, capturing the heart as hard as this one.” With its return in reissue form, the album reasserts itself not just as a hidden gem, but as an essential document of contemporary folk experimentation—an intimate, collective work that continues to unfold with time.

Unit Nine is a The Hague-based musical collective weaving together soulful melancholy, minimalist composition and soft grooves. Their debut album, Disaster Jester, will be released digitally and on 12?? vinyl on The Hague imprint PIP Records on November 14th, 2025, celebrated with a release show at Paard, Den Haag. The album was recorded under guidance of renowned producer Tijmen van Wageningen, at The Womb Studio. Disaster Jester revolves around the archetype of the jester, the trickster who embodies both chaos and wisdom, humour and tragedy. Across the album, music video and cover artwork, he appears as a clown in a shadowy crime narrative and as a weary detective who eventually dons the fool?s hat himself. The image becomes a mirror for the artist: observing, stumbling, laughing & fooling. The track ?Afgesproken Plek? features rap artists KC and MC Lost, who provided an imaginary crime skit playing on the detective persona central in the story telling of the album. While their universal and timeless sound could travel anywhere, there?s something distinctly The Hague about Unit Nine; a mix of irony, unpolished charm, and understated design sensibility. Their city?s blend of rough edges and refined aesthetics runs through their work and places the debut album within a historical tapestry of not-so-mainstream culture and art that the sea town is known to embody.

Epsie steps up on Secretsundaze’s 9FINITY imprint with ‘Any Colour You Like’, a four-track EP weaving trippy, techy, and subtly progressive elements juxtaposed with darker, electro-orientated moments for a heady dancefloor statement.
Built with a live-first mentality, his productions mirror the fluidity of his sets—intricate rhythms and elastic basslines ground the EP in pace and movement. The release oscillates from the sleek to the abrasive with punchy drums and otherworldly synths existing in tandem with deep tech house grooves. A distinctly European sensibility runs throughout: restrained yet exploratory, minimal yet richly detailed, all landing with understated psychedelia and deep functionality tailored for the heads.

Soul Jazz Records journey into early 1990s ragga, drum & bass and jungle. The album features all-time classic jungle anthems such as General Levy’s ‘Incredible’ alongside some serious Ragga heavyweight tunes like Cutty Ranks ‘Limb By Limb’ and Congo Natty’s classic re-make of Barrington Levy’s Under Me Sensi’.
The renowned album tells the story of how Jungle developed out of acid house but with its roots in the UK Dancehall scene of the 1980s and comes with extensive sleevenotes, exclusive interviews and photography.

His fresh, delicate playing has captivated countless listeners, and his debut album Scenery has come to be highly acclaimed around the world. Fukui, who began playing the piano at the age of 22, recorded this album when he was just 28. The earnest passion of his youth resonates throughout the music, gently stirring the emotions of those who listen. The spacious, confident swing of “It Could Happen To You”, the refreshing joy radiating from “Early Summer”, the late autumn coolness imbued in the title track “Scenery” each embodies the uniquely expansive yet nuanced “Hokkaido sensibility” that flowed naturally from Fukui’s artistry.
Within this album, the beautiful landscapes that Ryo Fukui crafted his Scenery continue to breathe eternally.
text by Yusuke Ogawa (UNIVERSOUNDS / DEEP JAZZ REALITY)

This third album by Ryo Fukui arrived a full 17 years after Mellow Dream, marking his first and only solo piano recording. Alongside signature pieces like “Scenery” and “Mellow Dream”, the album includes “Voyage” and “Nord”, both written during a trip toward the northern regions, as well as “Nobody’s”, a piece imbued with Fukui’s deep respect for his mentor Barry Harris. The selection is nothing short of a delight for fans.

Here, the depth and weight Fukui cultivated as a bebop pianist blend seamlessly with the profound “Hokkaido sensibility” that had always resided within him. It is a masterpiece that truly deserves to be passed down through time.

"Songs Album II" is LA musician Aaron MF Olson"s Country Thyme Records debut, the second "sung songs" album from the L.A. Takedown architect in just over a decade of releasing music. Mixing satiric, confessional and experimental lyric modes in his songs, Songs Album II is an overwhelming show of Aaron"s compositional gifts and pop sensibilities, cut from a fine cloth of head-informed, classically sweet and soft pop/rock modes. "Songs Album II" is a collection of widescreen, hi-def songs and sounds. With moments of sound laced into song, functioning both as toe-tapping sweet melodies and near-Joycean full-function index of personal reference, Aaron MF Olson"s music is meant for listening to in the spirit of listening, and higher calling.

Odysee’s vinyl release schedule for 2026 kicks off with this superb 3-track E.P. from none other than the labels founder, T-Mirage. Following up from his 2024 release Dark Rhodes, this E.P. is an embodiment of the raw Mirage sound; a melting pot of Atmospheric D&B with hard hitting dance-floor sensibilities, where 70's OST & Film Noire sounds are blended with deep Techno and electronica elements.

From the blistering amens and deep textures of 'Expressive Thoughts', to the dreamy atmosphere of 'Dawnbreaker' and the dystopian menace of the breakbeat-driven 'Machines Of London', this E.P. is an absolute must for all true Odysee fans!

In 1994, Tilla was just 17 years old, and an integral part of the original St Albans collective that comprised Jim Baker & Phil Aslett (Source Direct) and Rupert Parkes (Photek), when he set up the Odysee imprint and released the first Source Direct record (Future London/Shimmer). With a follow-up release from Photek (Phaze 1/Try A Style) and a second from Source Direct, the profile of the label began to grow exponentially.

It was the 3 Mirage releases however that really put the label on the map. These tracks were engineered by Jim Baker but heavily co-produced by Tilla himself with a major focus on his keen ear for dark 70’s Noire samples and eerie abstract electronica pitted against soulful R&B vocals. In hindsight, the impact of this rather different soundscape on the Source Direct material that followed is unmistakable.

For nearly four decades, since its founding during the mid 1980s, the Belgian imprint, Sub Rosa, has continuously plumbed the depths of numerous, radical creative histories, assembling a catalog of releases that has almost no equivalent, while remaining nearly impossible to nail down. That said, for most of its run, Sub Rosa has been primarily recognized for its rigorous explorations of the lesser explored shadows of experimental sound practice (sound-art, sound-poetry, early electronic and electroacoustic music, free-improvisation, etc.), delivering a remarkable body of artifacts that have collectively helped to rewrite history in their wake. While it's always been impossible to anticipate where the label might take us next, threading their catalog are plenty of releases that throw further wrenches in the cogs, expanding our understanding of what they pursue, as in the case of a handful of titles, appearing as early as the 1980s, dedicated to ethnographic field-recordings from various parts of the world. Among the most striking and celebrated of these was 2017's Ethiopian Urban And Tribal Music: Mindanoo Mistiru / Gold From Wax, comprising an astounding body of recordings made by Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson in Ethiopia during 1971, reissuing material originally released by Lyrichord the following year. Now, Sub Rosa returns to the incredible work embarked upon by the pair and captured on that same trip with Ethiopian Musics 1971, comprising the recordings originally released by Ocora shortly after their completion, expanded in this edition to include an entire disc of never before released music. Widely regarded as some of the most important field-recordings ever made of indigenous Ethiopian folk music (as captivating and intoxicating as they are revelatory: providing insights into the roots of the country's singular traditions of popular music and jazz that have come to be celebrated the world over), this incredible collection is issued by Sub Rosa in a beautifully produced 2LP edition, complemented by a four page insert providing detailed descriptions of each song, as well as notes by the ethnomusicologists and recordists, as well as a 2CD edition, with a twelve page booklet. Insanely good and absolutely essential for any fan of field-recording, ethnomusicology, the music of Ethiopia, or the label's mission at large. Once again, Sub Rosa has defied our expectations and delivered a remarkably important intervention in the history of recorded sound.

Located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, few cultures are distinctly singular, while being so diverse (containing 80 distinct ethnic groups who speak 70 languages and 200 dialects) as that of Ethiopia. The home to some of the oldest surviving sects of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (each contributing important aspects of its collective cultural body), particularly the country's culinary and musical traditions have become celebrated the world over, and (generally speaking) feel entirely independent of those of its neighbors. Given this, it's unsurprising that, during the summer of 1971, the young ethnographer, Ragnar Johnson, accompanied by Ralph Harrisson, traveled to Ethiopia to begin his brief career as a field recording ethnomusicologist, capturing material on reels of magnetic tape that would be subsequently released across three LPs for Lyrichord and Ocora, respectively, coming to form a cornerstone of documentation and study of the country's many indigenous musical traditions, as well as providing wide, global access to them for the first time. While Johnson's recording career was relatively brief, ending toward the end of the decade when he began to focus more on teaching in UK universities, with a focus on the anthropology of art and social anthropology, his impact on the field was lasting. Between 1971 and 1979, in addition to those he made in Ethiopia, he made hugely significant recordings in Yemen (also issued by Lyrichord before being reissued by Sub Rosa) and Papua New Guinea, which were originally released by David Toop's Quartz Publications to wide celebration, before being revisited by Ideologic Organ in 2023.

While it's worth noting that commercial releases of ethnomusicological recordings by labels like Folkways, Lyrichord, and Ocora were still in their relatively early days when he entered the field, Johnson's recordings quickly stood apart for their vivid qualities and clarity of space, allowing them to stand the test of time. As he later stated: "I used a Uher Report L stereo tape recorder, BASF quarter inch tapes at a recording speed of seven and a half inches per second with two directional microphones mounted to record an isosceles triangle of stereo sound," he reveals. "The location of the microphones and musicians was critical. The musicians were fully informed of all aspects of the recording process."

Johnson's recordings are extremely vivid, there is a clear sense of space and the cries of the flutes exist across the entire stereo field. It's a reflection of Johnson's skill as a field recordist that his recordings continue to be reissued over forty years later. "I used a Uher Report L stereo tape recorder, BASF quarter inch tapes at a recording speed of seven and a half inches per second with two directional microphones mounted to record an isosceles triangle of stereo sound," he reveals. "The location of the microphones and musicians was critical. The musicians were fully informed of all aspects of the recording process… I used to enjoy being in the moment and hearing something wonderful despite the stress of the vigilance required to ensure that the recordings were accomplished according to plan. The responsibility is to record and document the music as effectively as possible so that it has been preserved for posterity. It is better to actually record music than to sit in a seminar room debating the ethics of recording music." It is this very ethos and sense of clarity that can be encountered across the length of Ethiopian Musics 1971.

For the sake of clarity, the two LPs of material that comprise Ethiopian Musics 1971 should be regarded as a single body of recordings alongside those made in Ethiopia by Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson during the summer of 1971 (previously issued by Lyrichord and reissued by Sub Rosa), and as two that have, until now, remained historically distinct. The first LP gathers that material released by Ocora during the early 1970s on Musiques Ethiopiennes, while the second comprises (as far as we can tell) twelve never before issued recordings, expanding the journey and making this the definitive edition of the release with its incredible total of 23 recordings of songs, allowing it ever greater scope to achieve the recordists' modus operandi of capturing the broadest and most diverse cross section of Ethiopia's many musical cultures, ranging from different forms of urban music captured in Addis Ababa, documenting largely orally transmitted idioms within which lyrical content is given greater emphasis than the instrumental components (played on masenko fiddles, craar and bagana lyres, washint flutes and kabaro drums), to folk idioms hailing from the Danakil desert and the border regions with Sudan and Kenya. There are songs sung and played in bars, divination chants, laments, dances, Christian songs, and Amharic sung poetry, to only begin to scratch the surface.

Ethiopian Musics 1971 is one of those rare albums where each musical moment is pure, intoxicating gold, while also being greater through the sum of its parts. There are the many songs, forming a rich tapestry of remarkable range across the respective two LPs/CDs (moments that wondrously flirt with sonic abstraction; hypnotic rhythms; pulsing chant; melodies that, in structural arrangement and tonal combination, help us reframe how such a thing might be understood, and a great deal more), each imbued with a remarkable directness and emotive sensibility, and there is the stunning quality of these recordings themselves, transporting each sound to our ears as though we intimately share its creator's space, while being imbued with the pure heart and remarkable spirit with which they were made. As we said before, it's little wonder, once heard, why these recordings and this music feels as fresh and relevant (enduring more than 50 years) today as when they were made. Once again, Sub Rosa has raised the bar with this essential addition to the incredible work that Ragnar Johnson and Ralph Harrisson did back in Ethiopia during 1971, radically expanding our access to the sounds that they captured with these stunning, beautifully produced 2LP and 2CD editions. Absolutely engrossing from the first sounding to the last, this one can't be missed.

Emanuel Satie returns to Crosstown Rebels with his expansive new three-track EP, ‘A Love Fantasy’. Releasing on 19th June 2026, the Lisbon-based artist delivers his first full EP in three years, exploring the deeper, more emotive corners of his sound, alongside a collaboration with Bruno Roth.

German DJ/producer Emanuel Satie returns to Damian Lazarus’ Crosstown Rebels with ‘A Love Fantasy’, a three-track EP that captures an artist equally at home in peak-time spaces as in more introspective territory. Bending emotional depth with groove-led energy, Emanuel continues to refine a sound that balances timeless house sensibilities with a sharp modern edge, following acclaimed releases on Innervisions, Diynamic, Cocoon, and more. Having already released on the label with ‘Personal Liberation’ back in 2021, his return brings three tracks of late-night house bliss.

Title cut ‘A Love Fantasy’ brings soulful vocals, vibrant chords, and crisp rhythms, shaping the deep-rooted energy felt across the EP. On ‘Touch’, he links with Ibiza’s Bruno Roth for a deeper excursion guided by sweeping melodies and fluid movement – born from collaborations between the pair that began in the years following the pandemic. To close, second solo track ‘Some Love’ leans further into melody and emotion, rounding out the release with an uplifting finish.

Over the past few years, Emanuel has continued to solidify his place as one of the most consistent artists around. From Beatport chart-toppers and DJ Awards recognition to standout records and his role within internationally renowned collective SCENARIOS, his output continues to bridge underground credibility with global dancefloor appeal.

Solid Ragga Jungle and hard Drum on the A side, with a kicker on B1 and an old school Jungle tune for the finish.

Printed sleeve !

ALERT: BIG 90s ITALIAN RAVE COMP - a lot of very in demand tunes on here.

Navigators

Franco Falsini and the Interactive Test Universe

There are musicians who follow their time.

And then there are those who seem to move along a different trajectory—like navigators crossing sonic eras without ever truly belonging to any one of them. The story of Franco Falsini belongs to the latter. It is a story that begins long before raves, before techno, before the word “electronic” had even become a recognizable musical genre. A story that moves across continents, technologies, and sonic visions, eventually arriving at a small creative laboratory born in Italy in the early 1990s: Interactive Test. This compilation is a fragment of that universe. But as often happens with the hidden histories of music, understanding it requires going back. Far back.

The Beginning: Machines, Tape and Space

In the late 1960s Franco Falsini leaves Italy and moves to the United States. It is not merely a geographical journey—it is also a journey into a new idea of music. At the time, synthesizers are only just emerging from research laboratories. Multitrack tape recorders allow musicians to build entire sonic worlds on their own. Technology is still far from standardized: every studio is almost an experimental workshop. In Virginia, Falsini builds one of his own. Among cables, oscillators, electric guitars and reels of magnetic tape, a kind of music begins to take shape that resembles nothing else being made at the time. It is not simply rock, and it is not yet truly electronic. It moves somewhere in the space between the two. Out of these explorations emerges Sensations' Fix, the project through which Falsini releases a series of albums during the 1970s. Records that seem to come from a parallel dimension: cosmic landscapes, electronically treated guitars, synthesizers drifting like satellites. Many years later those albums would be rediscovered as visionary works. But at the time they were simply the result of relentless curiosity. A curiosity that would never fade.

The City That Never Sleeps

In the 1980s Falsini’s trajectory leads him to New York. The city is a sonic organism in constant transformation. In its clubs and recording studios something entirely new is beginning to take shape: music built from drum machines, sequencers, and samplers, created for the body before the living room. It is the dawn of modern dance culture. Falsini works as a sound engineer, producer and experimenter. From close range he observes electronic music transforming into a global language. Machines become more accessible, computers begin entering studios, and rhythm takes on an increasingly central role. Yet even in this phase Falsini does not simply follow what is happening. He absorbs. Observes. Reimagines. When he eventually returns to Italy, he brings back not only technical experience but also a clear vision: the conviction that electronic music is an open space, a territory still waiting to be explored.

Tuscany, Early 1990s

At the beginning of the 1990s something is happening in Italy as well. In clubs, abandoned industrial warehouses and clandestine parties, a new scene is beginning to form. It is rave culture: a spontaneous movement bringing together DJs, producers and listeners in a collective experience driven by rhythm, technology, and creative freedom. It is within this context that Franco Falsini, together with his brother Riccardo, creates Interactive Test.

The name almost sounds like a scientific experiment. In many ways, it is. Interactive Test does not emerge as a traditional record label. It begins as a laboratory—a place where ideas, sounds and musical identities can be tested and explored. Around the Falsini studio in Tuscany a small constellation of artists and DJs begins to gather, helping to shape the sound of Italy’s emerging electronic scene. Among them are Andrea Giuditta, Francesco Farfa, Gabry Fasano, Roby Mastelloni, Roby J and many others. Each brings a different musical sensibility. But they all share the same intuition: electronic music is not a genre. It is a language.

The Laboratory of Identities

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Interactive Test universe is its constant play with identity. Franco Falsini releases music under several different names: Open Space, Youth Wave, Agent Fylfoyt, Man Myth Magic. These are not simply pseudonyms.

They are different sonic perspectives, as if each project were a window opening onto a parallel musical universe. Open Space, for example, explores more atmospheric and visionary territories. Youth Wave moves between electronic groove and club-oriented rhythms. Other projects experiment with digital psychedelia or hypnotic techno textures. Interactive Test becomes something more than a label. it becomes an ecosystem.

Domestic Machines, Infinite Worlds

Looking back today at the technology used in those productions, one might almost smile. Many tracks were created on Amiga computers, MIDI sequencers and analog synthesizers wired together in home studios—tools that appear modest when compared to today’s digital possibilities.

Yet precisely these limitations became a creative force. Every sound had to be built, shaped and reinvented. Sequences developed slowly, almost like living organisms. The tracks did not always follow traditional dance music structures; often they felt like genuine sonic journeys. Music built from space.

A Hidden Constellation

Many of the records released by Interactive Test in the 1990s remained for years almost invisible objects, circulating quietly among DJs, collectors, and devoted listeners. Yet it is precisely this underground existence that helped preserve them. Listening again today, one perceives something rare: the feeling of music that does not fully belong to its own time. Music suspended between different eras. Perhaps because it comes from a vision that both precedes and transcends trends.

Continuing the Journey

Looking at Franco Falsini’s entire path—from the electronic psychedelia of Sensations’ Fix to the rave culture of the 1990s—a surprisingly coherent line emerges.

A line defined by exploration.

Each project, each pseudonym, each record appears as a new route within the same great sonic voyage.

Interactive Test was one of its stations.

A laboratory.
A community.
A creative platform.

This compilation gathers some of its traces.

Not as a simple archive of the past, but as a map of a musical territory that continues to expand even today.

Like all true sonic explorations.

Marking twenty years since South African producer and DJ Esa Williams left Cape Town, Dala What We Must is a deeply personal and expansive debut LP, an exploration of movement, memory, and sound shaped by two decades of creative evolution. Co-created with collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Robin G. Breeze, the album deftly combines field recordings, layered instrumentation, and emotionally resonant compositions into a nuanced, globally influenced body of work. It also stands as Esa’s most collaborative release to date, featuring contributions from musicians across London, Oaxaca, Nairobi, and Cape Town, each adding their own creative energy to a project built on openness, trust, and shared experience. The album draws inspiration from Esa’s recent ventures into documentary scoring and soundtracking, with projects like Cursed (Audible) and The Invisible Hand teaching him to listen differently, to honour space, to serve the story. That sensibility permeates the album, resulting in music that breathes, lingers, and listens as much as it speaks.

The title, Dala What We Must, is a South African call to action: a reminder to do what’s necessary, even in uncertainty. Finalised in the months leading up to Esa’s transition into fatherhood, the record carries a sense of grounding, care, and quiet transformation. Dala What We Must is a sonic reflection of journey and community, a deeply collaborative project rooted in connection and guided by intention.

Brussels based pianist Giovanni Di Domenicowas born in Rome in 1977. Majoring in 'jazz piano' at music school - he further built on an encyclopaedic technique; rhythm, harmony and tone are informed by non-western traditions yet equally sensitive to Debussy's "Préludes", Luciano Berio's "Sequenzas", to the 'ambi-ideation' heard in Borah Bergman's Soul Note recordings, Cecil Taylor's polissemic density, Paul Bley's bruised transparency and of course, the most radical manifestations stemming from the underworld of pop music, invariably tied together by his own original praxis.
A distinction - one would call it generational - he shares with many of the musicians he has crossed paths with recently, of which we could enumerate Nate Wooley, Chris Corsano, ArveHenriksen, Jim O'Rourke, Alexandra Grimal, Tetuzi Akiyama, João Lobo or Toshimaru Nakamura.
At the request of W.E.R.F. Records, Giovanni created an entirely new repertoire, teaming up with saxophonist Alexandra Grimal and drummer Eric Thielemans. This collaboration resulted in Echolalia, a suite consisting of three parts: Aoede, Melete, and Mneme. The music is captivating, adventurous, and above all, fascinating.

Following the underground cult success of Mystical Funk, Gerardo Frisina returns to the 7” format with a new double-sider aimed at dancefloors, collectors, and selectors with a taste for cinematic funk. A record that feels as though it emerged from a lost Afro-funk session, where cosmic funk and Afro-Latin grooves are filtered through a distinctly modern electronic sensibility.
On the A-side, “Duala”, inspired by the African city of Douala, pays tribute to Afro-funk in its most visionary era, evoking the unmistakable sound made famous by the great Manu Dibango. The track opens into a dense and hypnotic electronic funk journey: pulsating basslines, fluid guitars, psychedelic synthesizers, and a rhythmic tension that recalls the golden age of Afro-funk. A nocturnal voyage through rare groove and cinematic atmospheres, with the groove constantly remaining at the heart of the composition.
On the B-side, “Lindeza” is a tribute to the beauty and richness of Brazilian musical culture. A track that shifts perspective while keeping the temperature high: elegant, percussion-driven electronics with a Latin spirit, flowing at around 110 BPM. Warm and magnetic, the piece carries all the hallmarks of Gerardo Frisina’s sound, where futuristic jazz, tropical funk, batucada, and club culture meet in a refined production designed equally for deep listening and the dancefloor.