There's something about summer that makes everything fall into place. Maybe it feels even more significant to us, especially if you know MM Discos through its Balearic leanings. It's that time of year when the whole scene reaches its peak, with everyone dreaming of being in Ibiza-or at the very least, somewhere on a forgotten beach or island in the Mediterranean.
For that very moment, Desert Island Disco make their MM Discos debut with a record tailor-made for the summer of 2026. Splitting their time between London and Lisbon, the collective have already shown a deep affinity for African-rooted midtempo sounds through releases on Shades of Sound and Mister T Records, alongside a steady stream of sought-after self-released edits on their Bandcamp.
This time, Desert Island Disco dive headfirst into South Africa, drawing deeply from the worlds of Kwaito and Bubblegum to deliver a record steeped in the warmth, groove and unmistakable spirit of both genres.
From its South African foundations, *World View* reaches far beyond, weaving together tropical textures, Caribbean flavours and Balearic sensibilities into something fluid and difficult to pin down. A borderless collection where geography becomes secondary to feeling, yet every track remains firmly rooted in the dancefloor.
Keen listeners who have dug below the surface of Oren Ambarchi"s triple-digit discography know that alongside hypnotic minimalism, veins of irreverent and joyously wayward exploration run deep. Cooked is something of a landmark in Oren"s work, bringing this gloriously cuckoo sensibility right into the heart of his most high-profile solo work. Carrying on the grand Ambarchi tradition of meticulously constructed all-star studio jams (which reached new heights with Shebang), Cooked brings together collaborators from Australia, Germany, Japan and Sweden for two side-long epics where the foot keeps tapping even as the mind boggles. Cooked is a long way from the spacious, light-dappled grooves of Ghosted, but Oren"s Swedish bandmates play starring roles here, with Johan Berthling"s double bass anchoring both sides, and drummer Andreas Werliin lending his delicate touch to the second piece, "Sleight of Hand". Beginning with glistening layers of electric 12-string guitar, "Sleight of Hand" takes some key cues from electric Miles touchstones like "Feio" or his epic take on David Crosby"s "Guinnevere", with Berthling"s sparse basslines punctuating an almost weightless cornucopia of shifting detail, glimmering with subtle contributions from Michiko Ogawa on sho and James Rushford on a panoply of acoustic keyboards. Suddenly, everything is overwhelmed by a knotty, hyper-complex "solo" from Marcus Pal on digital synthesis, teleporting us to an alternate history where Allan Holdsworth traded the SynthAxe for Xenakis" UPIC. Building with additional drums and percussion from Will Guthrie to a peak of sizzling intensity, the music then goes sideways into a gently surreal coda, where some distinctly Zawinul-esque chords and Fredrik Rasten"s guitar float over a sprightly rhythm box, the avian inventions of Swedish virtuoso whistler Isak Hedtjärn wafting atop the sunlit stew.
A dream come true for A Colourful Storm to be releasing an early gem by Tenniscoats, a duo whose DIY spirit, boundless creativity and lust for life and collaboration has left an indelible mark. From self-releasing albums and tapes on their own Majikick imprint to meeting kindred spirits The Pastels, Bill Wells and Jad Fair in between outings for Morr Music, Chapter and Häpna, to name but a few, Tenniscoats have embodied an understated determination and optimism for over two decades.
"A foghorn melodica, voice, fractions, fragments, nothing and everything all at once. We Are Everyone opens out slowly, a little eerily, magic tumbles into play in well-measured rations. Meanwhile, on the cover, Saya and Ueno's heads seem to merge into the sky as if living amongst the wisdom of the clouds. Or maybe somewhere between sleep and reality, like Ueno's description of Tenniscoats' music. We Are Everyone is one of those records where you almost feel engulfed in its making - you feel like you're in the room with Tenniscoats as they push themselves to the limit, trying to make the very best record they can." - Stephen Pastel
Born in São Paulo, Caetano Malta embodies the vibrant creative energy of one of Latin America's most dynamic cities. A singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, he has spent more than twenty years crafting a distinctive musical universe shaped by Brazil's rich and diverse traditions. Tropicalia, MPB, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, psychedelic folk, and contemporary pop blend seamlessly in his work with effortless elegance.
Over the years, he has become a highly sought-after collaborator. Since 2004, he has performed with numerous leading Brazilian artists, including Lucas Santtana, Bixiga 70, Karina Buhr, and many others. After two decades of international touring, he eventually settled in Paris, where he became the guitarist for Flavia Coelho, Luiza, Guts, among others. As a songwriter, he has also co-written with artists such as Lucas Santtana, Wado, MOMO, Rubinho Jacobina, and Arto Lindsay.
With Eterna Juventude, his long-awaited debut solo album, due for release in autumn 2026, Caetano Malta reaches a new artistic milestone. The record reveals a radiant songwriting style where harmonic sophistication, organic rhythms, and instantly memorable melodies come together naturally. Filled with joyful energy and deep tenderness, Eterna Juventude celebrates imagination, movement, and childhood's unique ability to reinvent the world. It is a remarkably accomplished debut, showcasing an artist whose singular voice and musical identity are already fully formed.
Silk Cuts fresh drop of more ”nameless and shameless" goodness. Essential 7-inch mashups delivering floor-fillers lovingly crafted for all the party DJs, turntablists and heads. This time we’re deep into early 90s source, these are limited edition 7 inches, when they’re gone they’re gone. Highly recommended and available exclusively through prime distribution. More Silk adventures to follow……
Tiki for the Atomic Age feels like a mid-century transmission intercepted from a parallel timeline—one where hi-fi futurism, Polynesian fantasy, and postwar optimism never lost their sense of wonder. Kava Kon isn’t recreating exotica so much as reviving its original promise: escape, elegance, and possibility, rendered in warm, widescreen stereo.
Built on shimmering vibraphones, reverb-drenched guitars, analog organs, and ritual-leaning percussion, these tracks move at an unhurried pace. This is oceanic music—designed for dim lights, glowing glassware, and time stretched just enough to breathe. The lineage is clear: lounge exotica, bachelor-pad modernism, space-age pop. But this isn’t pastiche or museum work. It’s retro-futurism with intention, imagined from the future looking back.
The “Atomic Age” isn’t just aesthetic shorthand. It speaks to contrast—leisure in the shadow of anxiety, beauty alongside uncertainty, fantasy as a necessary technology. Kava Kon understands that tiki was never about geography; it was about psychology. A constructed elsewhere. A permission slip to slow down.
Pressed on vinyl, Tiki for the Atomic Age comes fully alive: tactile, immersive, and meant to be lived with. For listeners drawn to mid-century dreamscapes and modern exotica that honors the past without freezing it, this is an invitation—step sideways out of the present and into something more elegant.
Special poster on 250gram paper. Postcard with photo taken by Sandrien. Hand-numbered sticker. Shrinwrap
After more than a decade without releasing new music, Amsterdam DJ and producer Sandrien returns with her debut album Compass, released on her own new label, inspi. Created during a stay in Spain, where she finally found the space to create freely again, the album marks a new chapter: no genres, no expectations, just music made purely on feeling. Compass is an album about finding your own path, personally and musically, a cycle of searching and finding, letting go and beginning again. Lead single 'Life' laid the foundation for it all. The visual world of the album is just as personal: photographs Sandrien took around her house formed the basis for its artwork and imagery. With 27 years of experience behind her, Compass proves that mastery doesn't lead to routine, but to exploration. This double LP includes a beautiful double-sided poster featuring two original artworks of ‘Compass’ by Dutch artist Pieter Jan Boterkoek. Releases October 9, 2026 Written and produced by Sandrien Mixed by Julien Chaptal Mastered by Giuseppe Tillieci at Enisslab Artwork by Studio Pieter Jan Boterhoek This album is made with love in Spain, Volkshotel Amsterdam and Groenekan.
American DJ, producer, and Ovum label boss Josh Wink remixes Chris Liebing's 'Eye C' via CLR on 25th September 2026, one of the standout tracks from Liebing's first fully solo-produced LP, 'Evolver', which landed in March. The album featured collaborations with the likes of Luke Slater, Charlotte de Witte, and Daniel Miller, with Josh Wink the latest to rework material from the project. The Philadelphian is an electronic music veteran who has shaped countless releases on his own Ovum, while also remixing the likes of Depeche Mode, Moby, and Radiohead.
Josh Wink showcases his production skills once again with a blistering take on Chris Liebing's 'Eye C', rewriting it with fizzing synth modulations and prickly acid lines. The track grows in intensity as rumbling drums march on, and the synths become ever wilder before pulling back into a deep, atmospheric groove, rebuilding beneath the menacing vocals and icy, incendiary hi-hats.
The original version of Chris Liebing's 'Eye C' is a deep, rolling techno masterclass with pulsing synths and deft percussion peeling away from the groove. It's linear and heady, perfect for the small hours, with unsettling vocal fragments refracted around the mix and subtle hypnotism floating overhead as the drums grow ever harder.
Die Welt war nie bereit für The Monsters, und The Monsters waren nie bereit für diese Welt. Nach vierzig Jahren, in denen sie zu einem echten Monster aus Fleisch und Blut herangereift sind, präsentieren sie ihr neuntes Album: gut ein Dutzend kompromissloser, wilder, lärmiger und fuzz-geladener Tracks. Ein Mix aus Ein-Riff-Beat, Trash, Garage, "Bern Metal", Boogie, Punk und Grunge - Songs, die einen von innen nach außen stülpen, aufgenommen mit "Miracle" Robert "Worker" Butler und abgemischt von Jim "Dirtbomb" Diamond - ein echtes Garage-Punk-Dreamteam. Vor vierzig Jahren, 1986, war die Jugendkultur-Revolution in Bern (Schweiz) in vollem Gange, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene wollten sich aus den konservativen Fesseln befreien. Die Straßen brannten, Clubs entstanden und eine neue Schweizer Musikkultur wurde geboren. Dies markierte auch den Beginn von The Monsters. Vierzig Jahre später hat sich der Zustand der Musikkultur - oder vielmehr der Welt im Allgemeinen - wohl eher verschlechtert. Individuelles Denken und Schaffen sind nach wie vor nicht sonderlich anerkannt oder gar erwünscht (Hey KI!). Im März 2026 blieb der Band also nichts anderes übrig, als ihre Instrumente, das Aufnahme-Equipment und ihre Ideen in den Proberaum zu verfrachten. Sie verbrachten einen Monat mit Robert Butler (u. a. The Miracle Workers) und seinem mobilen "Two Cent Recording Studio". Sie schrieben Texte (insgesamt etwa 100 Wörter - mal sinnvoll, mal unsinnig, über das ganze Album verstreut), tüftelten am Sound und nahmen Gitarren in allen erdenklichen Variationen auf. Das Ganze wurde gewürzt mit Percussion, Schlagzeug, Bass sowie obskuren Orgeln und Synthesizern, die sie auf Flohmärkten oder in den Kellern von Freunden aufgetrieben hatten. Nach diesem vierwöchigen Trip schickten sie das gesamte Chaos an Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders Studios in Detroit, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Gories, André Williams... klar, worum es geht, ne?!), um es einem umwerfenden Mix-Abenteuer zu unterziehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Dutzend Songs ohne Kompromisse, Schwächen oder Stärken. Einfach nur roher, ungeschliffener Lo-Fi-Garage-Punk'n'Roll voller Energie - und das mit vierzig Jahren "Nicht-Erfahrung". Erhältlich sind schwarzes Vinyl und eine pinke Picture-Disc (beide mit Insert & DLC), eine höchst audiophile CD sowie Kassette, die bei doppelter Geschwindigkeit leiert! Für Fans von Reverend Beat-Man, VRR, The Mummies, Oblivians, Billy Childish, Damaged Goods, Monks, very early Hives, Garagepunk, Lo-Fi-Roll, Alternative Beat
Die Welt war nie bereit für The Monsters, und The Monsters waren nie bereit für diese Welt. Nach vierzig Jahren, in denen sie zu einem echten Monster aus Fleisch und Blut herangereift sind, präsentieren sie ihr neuntes Album: gut ein Dutzend kompromissloser, wilder, lärmiger und fuzz-geladener Tracks. Ein Mix aus Ein-Riff-Beat, Trash, Garage, "Bern Metal", Boogie, Punk und Grunge - Songs, die einen von innen nach außen stülpen, aufgenommen mit "Miracle" Robert "Worker" Butler und abgemischt von Jim "Dirtbomb" Diamond - ein echtes Garage-Punk-Dreamteam. Vor vierzig Jahren, 1986, war die Jugendkultur-Revolution in Bern (Schweiz) in vollem Gange, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene wollten sich aus den konservativen Fesseln befreien. Die Straßen brannten, Clubs entstanden und eine neue Schweizer Musikkultur wurde geboren. Dies markierte auch den Beginn von The Monsters. Vierzig Jahre später hat sich der Zustand der Musikkultur - oder vielmehr der Welt im Allgemeinen - wohl eher verschlechtert. Individuelles Denken und Schaffen sind nach wie vor nicht sonderlich anerkannt oder gar erwünscht (Hey KI!). Im März 2026 blieb der Band also nichts anderes übrig, als ihre Instrumente, das Aufnahme-Equipment und ihre Ideen in den Proberaum zu verfrachten. Sie verbrachten einen Monat mit Robert Butler (u. a. The Miracle Workers) und seinem mobilen "Two Cent Recording Studio". Sie schrieben Texte (insgesamt etwa 100 Wörter - mal sinnvoll, mal unsinnig, über das ganze Album verstreut), tüftelten am Sound und nahmen Gitarren in allen erdenklichen Variationen auf. Das Ganze wurde gewürzt mit Percussion, Schlagzeug, Bass sowie obskuren Orgeln und Synthesizern, die sie auf Flohmärkten oder in den Kellern von Freunden aufgetrieben hatten. Nach diesem vierwöchigen Trip schickten sie das gesamte Chaos an Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders Studios in Detroit, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Gories, André Williams... klar, worum es geht, ne?!), um es einem umwerfenden Mix-Abenteuer zu unterziehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Dutzend Songs ohne Kompromisse, Schwächen oder Stärken. Einfach nur roher, ungeschliffener Lo-Fi-Garage-Punk'n'Roll voller Energie - und das mit vierzig Jahren "Nicht-Erfahrung". Erhältlich sind schwarzes Vinyl und eine pinke Picture-Disc (beide mit Insert & DLC), eine höchst audiophile CD sowie Kassette, die bei doppelter Geschwindigkeit leiert! Für Fans von Reverend Beat-Man, VRR, The Mummies, Oblivians, Billy Childish, Damaged Goods, Monks, very early Hives, Garagepunk, Lo-Fi-Roll, Alternative Beat
Die Welt war nie bereit für The Monsters, und The Monsters waren nie bereit für diese Welt. Nach vierzig Jahren, in denen sie zu einem echten Monster aus Fleisch und Blut herangereift sind, präsentieren sie ihr neuntes Album: gut ein Dutzend kompromissloser, wilder, lärmiger und fuzz-geladener Tracks. Ein Mix aus Ein-Riff-Beat, Trash, Garage, "Bern Metal", Boogie, Punk und Grunge - Songs, die einen von innen nach außen stülpen, aufgenommen mit "Miracle" Robert "Worker" Butler und abgemischt von Jim "Dirtbomb" Diamond - ein echtes Garage-Punk-Dreamteam. Vor vierzig Jahren, 1986, war die Jugendkultur-Revolution in Bern (Schweiz) in vollem Gange, Jugendliche und junge Erwachsene wollten sich aus den konservativen Fesseln befreien. Die Straßen brannten, Clubs entstanden und eine neue Schweizer Musikkultur wurde geboren. Dies markierte auch den Beginn von The Monsters. Vierzig Jahre später hat sich der Zustand der Musikkultur - oder vielmehr der Welt im Allgemeinen - wohl eher verschlechtert. Individuelles Denken und Schaffen sind nach wie vor nicht sonderlich anerkannt oder gar erwünscht (Hey KI!). Im März 2026 blieb der Band also nichts anderes übrig, als ihre Instrumente, das Aufnahme-Equipment und ihre Ideen in den Proberaum zu verfrachten. Sie verbrachten einen Monat mit Robert Butler (u. a. The Miracle Workers) und seinem mobilen "Two Cent Recording Studio". Sie schrieben Texte (insgesamt etwa 100 Wörter - mal sinnvoll, mal unsinnig, über das ganze Album verstreut), tüftelten am Sound und nahmen Gitarren in allen erdenklichen Variationen auf. Das Ganze wurde gewürzt mit Percussion, Schlagzeug, Bass sowie obskuren Orgeln und Synthesizern, die sie auf Flohmärkten oder in den Kellern von Freunden aufgetrieben hatten. Nach diesem vierwöchigen Trip schickten sie das gesamte Chaos an Jim Diamond (Ghetto Recorders Studios in Detroit, Dirtbombs, White Stripes, Gories, André Williams... klar, worum es geht, ne?!), um es einem umwerfenden Mix-Abenteuer zu unterziehen. Das Ergebnis ist ein Dutzend Songs ohne Kompromisse, Schwächen oder Stärken. Einfach nur roher, ungeschliffener Lo-Fi-Garage-Punk'n'Roll voller Energie - und das mit vierzig Jahren "Nicht-Erfahrung". Erhältlich sind schwarzes Vinyl und eine pinke Picture-Disc (beide mit Insert & DLC), eine höchst audiophile CD sowie Kassette, die bei doppelter Geschwindigkeit leiert! Für Fans von Reverend Beat-Man, VRR, The Mummies, Oblivians, Billy Childish, Damaged Goods, Monks, very early Hives, Garagepunk, Lo-Fi-Roll, Alternative Beat
What an unbelievable record. From the wild cover to the iconic breakbeats, Roots from Ian Carr’s Nucleus is one of the dopest albums we know. This is seriously thick, funky-prog jazz-rock heaven. Originally released on Vertigo in 1973, other than a couple of versions at the time for other territories, Roots was never re-pressed since so it’s gone on to become another one of those impossible to find records.
Maybe it was a little too out there for the time, but it’s aged very, very well indeed and this Be With re-issue, re-mastered from the original analogue tapes, shows off just why this deserves to be back in press.
Genius trumpeter and visionary composer Ian Carr was one of the most respected British musicians of his era. He was a true pioneer and saw the potential in fusing the worlds of jazz with rock, just as Miles Davis and The Tony Williams Lifetime did in the US. In late 1969, following the demise of the Rendell-Carr quintet, and tiring of British jazz, Carr assembled the legendary Nucleus. Regarding music as a continuous process, Nucleus refused to “recognise rigid boundaries” and worked on delivering what they saw as a “total musical experience”. We can get behind that.
Under bandleader Carr, Nucleus existed as a fluid line-up of inventive, skilled musicians. This constant evolution and revolution was all part of the continuous musical exploration and discovery that took jazz to new levels.
Working together with producer Fritz Fryer and engineer Roger Wake, the seven compositions by Carr, Brian Smith and Dave MacRae that make up Roots flirt with perfection, and Nucleus at that time made up of the cream of 1970s UK jazz with Brian Smith on tenor saxophones and flutes, Dave MacRae on piano and electric piano, Jocelyn Pitchen on guitar, Roger Sutton on bass, both Clive Thacker and Aureo De Souza on drums and percussion, Joy Yates delivering the vocals and of course Carr on trumpet.
The spellbinding title track immediately renders the album indispensable. Riding the illest of loping breakbeats, “Roots” is low-slung, doped-out heist-funk. An absolute monster. If it sounds familiar then that’s likely down to it being sampled by Madlib for Lootpack and Quasimoto’s “Loop Digga”, as well as by a whole host of beat manipulators. “Roots” conjures prime instrumental hip-hop / beat music, only 20 years ahead of its time. Truly, these are the roots. Through sinuous bass, twinkling keys and a hypnotic guitar riff, a smoky brass motif weaves its way into a gloriously deep haze around Carr’s solos. “Roots” is over 9 minutes long, but there’s not a single wasted second, not surprising given that this is a condensed version of an originally 40 minute long commissioned composition.
The soothing vocal fusion delight of “Images” follows. Meticulously constructed, with gorgeous flute work from Brian Smith, with Joy Yates’ silky vocals and Dave MacRae’s Rhodes never sounding better. The cool, driving “Caliban” closes out the first side. Originally the third movement in a four part commission to celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday it stands up on its own, all robust rhythms and blended brass. Keyboard colour and Carr’s trumpet are splashed across the funk drums and basslines (and there’s even some bamboo flute). This really is fusion: the elements of jazz and rock coming together in beautifully synthesis.
Side two opens in riotous fashion with the short, thrilling samba of “Wapatiti”. Next up, “Capricorn” forms a smoothed-out, jazzy constellation. Mellow and dreamy, its twinkling percussion and languid horns slowly build the vibe before head-nod drums and a killer bassline enter the fray. With a distinct heaviness that Black Sabbath would’ve envied, “Odokamona” is a venomous slice of riff-soaked jazz metal (yes, you read that right), elevated by Carr’s wah-wah horns.
The album closes with MacRae’s exceptionally cosmic “Southern Roots and Celebration”. Very much in conversation with Weather Report, it opens as a languorous, spiritual jazz of chiming keys and serene guitar that turns slowly, gorgeously into a mid-paced, brass-laced banger. It’s another sure-fire party starter and the sound of the band having a righteous blast, building an ecstatic chaos that ends with Yates screaming.
And of course we need to talk about Keith Davis’ cover for Roots. Perhaps the coolest record cover of all time? Certainly one of the most bonkers. Just your run-of-the-mill high-gloss, acid-tinged airbrush dystopian/utopian living-room party scene. Consider this your chemical flashback trigger warning.
Front-and-centre the hip-to-death green robot holds court with their giant ball of yellow barbwire wool, hooked up to… something(?) being teased out from under the stairs (probably best not to ask). A thoroughly zoned-out, long-legged Pop Art party-goer lounges half-plugged in to the painting behind her as a pair of legs flail into shot from the the top of the stairs opposite. We won’t even begin to guess what the chap’s up to in the middle, but the view out of the windows is rather nice, and someone’s already got the hoover out ready to tidy up. All of the Nucleus sleeves are something special, but this particular one? Crikey.
This Be With edition of Roots has been re-mastered from the original Vertigo master tapes, Simon Francis’ mastering working together with Pete Norman’s cut to weave their usual magic with these wonderful recordings. The crazy cover has been restored at Be With HQ as the finishing touch to this long overdue re-issue.
Riding high off their Movement Detroit b2b set at the Pyramid stage, Rocksteady Disco right-hand man Eddie Logix and head-honcho Peter Croce finally share a split 12" of some of their choicest edits. Eddie takes the A-side, starting the release with the blistering and tropical "Fire Dance". "Good Time" is up next, a midtempo groover full of talking drum and juju guitar dubness. Mr. PC takes the flip, with the disco-meets-folk-meets-almost-gospel "Brothers & Sisters", which he originally made for his first Movement Detroit set. The slomo sleazy groove of "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You" rounds out the release. Instant cop!
Ian Pooley returns with a brand-new collection of original productions, delivering exactly what you'd expect from one of house music's true craftsmen.
Road-tested throughout his recent live shows, these tracks have already proven themselves where it matters most: on the dancefloor. Staying faithful to his unmistakable MPC-driven approach, Ian delivers groove, feel and musical restraint in equal measure. Crisp drums, warm sampling, infectious basslines and subtle arrangements come together in a way that only he can deliver.
No overproduction, no unnecessary breakdowns, no gimmicks-just pure, functional house music built for DJs. Timeless, stripped-back and effortlessly effective, this is another reminder why Ian Pooley remains one of the genre's most respected producers.
December 2012 I showed up totally exhausted in Vancouver BC after touring stupidly and relentlessly for however many straight months and got a job at a call centre raising money for the Red Cross. It was a scent free office but one time this woman cooked a piece of fish in the microwave for 10 minutes on low and hot boxed the whole office - we got sent home early no pay. There was the other woman I named the Call Centre Coltrane because her pitch and routine usually involved improvised flights of fancy that went off in both directions at once somehow landing back down with a credit card number and a donation. I used to sleep under the desk. I was there a few months and at the time I reconnected with John Brennan who I had played with briefly in Montreal at the Mutek Festival. In Montreal John was running an experimental music night at a burrito shop downtown called Garbage Night. While in Vancouver I began connecting with the music scene there and would go hang out with the Shearing Pinx lads who I think lived with Sydney the bass player at the time. I knew Nic and Jer from an AIDS Wolf Tour and was so stoked to get to know them both better. I really fell in love with that era of Vancouver's music scene.
Fast Forward to today. 2024
Actually it was the dying days of 2023 but you get it and John asks if I'll sit in with Earth Ball and I keep thinking about Earth Balance, the vegan butter everyone eats here. I brought my aching bones and my ipads on the beautiful ferry named the Queen of Oak Bay and out to Nanaimo BC, home of the nanaimo bar (a dessert treat - special to this region - that seems to be more popularly found under the weird glass sneeze guards in office building deli's out east in Ontario.... anyhoops ). No one in Nanaimo wants to talk to me about the famous treat. I asked a couple of people. Silence. Nanaimo is like London, Ontario but more fried and by the sea. The town is filled with blown out old sea dawgs with tin coffee pots and loose leaf tobacco, then there's the usual streetfolk you find in this part of the Canadian Pacific Northwest and a bunch of bohemians who I guess have left Vancouver behind - that fine city having become uninhabitable for those not making over 100k a year. And then up the way are all the retirees.
Yup Nanaimo is a strange one. They mined the shit out of this region and Nanaimo is surely haunted by those buried in mining shafts or maimed by the heavy machinery or blown up by accident in the explosives store house. And when Earth Ball fire up the amps in Izzy and Jer's basement you can hear the voices of the ghosts hum through electrical lines and out the speakers, Kellen's hued feedback, Izy's sturdy basslines, Jer's paperbag guitar tone and rumble pack zaps, Liam's (aka the Kid) sheets of sound and Brennen's multidirectional drums.
You wouldn't guess Earth Ball was auto-composing and from what my rat brain can tell - the lyrics are improvised too...Improvising lyrics and singing them is the hardest thing to do in all of music.. Izzy and Jer are pros. And their attitudes are pro too.
The live show is scorched and without naming names they've been known to make headliners nervous. Lucky ones will get to see them live as they tour this beast of a record entitled ‘It’s Yours’ (out May 17th on Upset The Rhythm) and I hope I'm one of them.
But now you, fan of fun but totally fucked up music, have the opportunity to Ball with them thanks to Upset The Rhythm. Enjoy
-Alex Moskos, Montreal QC, Feb 2024
In Living Color proudly presents Wasi Wasi EP, the debut label release from
Kenyan-born, Berlin-based artist Emo Rugene.
A striking first statement from one of the most exciting emerging voices in African electronic music, Wasi Wasi introduces Rugene's distinctive sound while reflecting the bold, forward-thinking vision at the heart of Living Color. Blending deep cultural roots with contemporary electronic production, the EP marks the arrival of an artist helping shape the future of the genre.
Deeply rooted in African rhythm and musical heritage, Wasi Wasi is a body of work that embraces the past while looking confidently toward the future. Blending hypnotic grooves, organic percussion, and contemporary electronic production, the EP reflects a new generation of artists drawing inspiration from their roots while carving out their own unique artistic identity.
The release features two compelling vocal collaborations that enrich its storytelling. “Wasi Wasi (Vocal Mix)” features Alai K, whose deep ancestral vocal brings a powerful spiritual presence to the title track. “Sahara Dena” features Soukou, whose soulful vocal performance adds warmth, emotion, and depth, creating a beautiful dialogue between tradition and contemporary sound.
With Wasi Wasi EP, Emo Rugene stands among a new generation of African electronic music artists redefining the future on their own terms. His music is deeply connected to where it comes from, yet unafraid to explore new ideas, proving that heritage is not something to preserve behind glass, but something to carry forward with imagination and purpose.
More than a collection of tracks, Wasi Wasi EP is a celebration of movement, identity, and possibility, a record that honours the voices of those who came before while contributing to the sound of tomorrow.
"Collect Records welcomes Byron the Aquarius to the family! Hailing from Alabama, Byron the Aquarius has established himself as one of the most respected names in contemporary underground house music. Classically trained as a pianist, his productions effortlessly blend deep house, jazz, soul and broken beat, earning support from artists such as Theo Parrish, Moodymann, Gilles Peterson and Floating Points, while releasing on labels including Sound Signature, Wild Oats, Shall Not Fade and Atjazz Record Company. Last Dance in Church features five original productions that perfectly capture Byron's unmistakable sound, warm, soulful and deeply musical. From stripped-back dancefloor grooves to rich harmonic compositions, the EP is a timeless journey through deep house, house and jazz-infused rhythms."
There is a hush most of us only knew as children, the warm drift between familiar household sounds and being carried to bed, a place that belongs to you and to some self you have not met yet. June McDoom’s debut full-length, Follow the Light, lives in that dream space and then keeps walking, slipping out of time and waking somewhere new, barely familiar enough to feel like home yet wholly your own. She came up in a Jamaican household on the edge of the Florida Everglades, an existence built of extended family, communal care, bass and harmonics. Her father, a carpenter and a student of sound, built his own speakers and kept three sound systems going across as many rooms. His low end would rise through her bedroom floor like some wayward cat while she lay above it with folk records, finding harmonies that were new and hers alone. Two musics in one room. Lushness as past and premonition. She found folk on her own, somewhere between the cast recording of The Sound of Music and Simon and Garfunkel, while everyone around her called it sleepy music. She did not mind being the only one. The solitude let her fall for harmony first, before words, before anything else, and harmony is still the thing she reaches for. Generationally speaking, the music was already in the air. Her grandfather, Colin Smith, is a distinguished mento man who played banjo and guitar and built his own rumba boxes, worked to keep Jamaica’s oldest acoustic folk form alive. Mento is the root of all of it: ska, rock steady, reggae, dub and everything after. He is the one who put a guitar in her hands. An inheritance, a gift and a map. Even her name is part of it, though she will tell you she landed on it more by feel than reason. She records as June McDoom, born Alyssa, June being a nickname one of her grandmothers, Joan, went by, a name she thought was cool to carry and simply liked the sound of. An etheric channel that reverberates all the same. A dub all its own.
Made slowly and by hand with her longtime partner Evan Wright, Follow the Light lays the harmony of folk over the rhythm of dub, with Dionne Warwick, Minnie Riperton, Pentangle and the washed guitars of Cocteau Twins haunting its outer edges. Voice and guitar seeking each other out first, then everything else stacked across long days in the studio they keep at home, restraint kept on purpose. The lead single “Without You” is the whole method surfacing, split open and sparkling like a geode in a creek bed. Angelic heroics, and nothing less.
At the heart is family. Her grandmother Aggie, the light behind “Memory,” guiding still. And underneath, the quieter truth the record keeps: none of us are only one person, but a continuum of selves, the ones who shaped us and the ones we have yet to meet. Future you is an ancestor your current self gets to greet. Press play and the same invitation is yours: A few minutes out of time, a place that turns familiar the longer you stay until you surface somewhere new and find it was yours all along
There is a hush most of us only knew as children, the warm drift between familiar household sounds and being carried to bed, a place that belongs to you and to some self you have not met yet. June McDoom’s debut full-length, Follow the Light, lives in that dream space and then keeps walking, slipping out of time and waking somewhere new, barely familiar enough to feel like home yet wholly your own. She came up in a Jamaican household on the edge of the Florida Everglades, an existence built of extended family, communal care, bass and harmonics. Her father, a carpenter and a student of sound, built his own speakers and kept three sound systems going across as many rooms. His low end would rise through her bedroom floor like some wayward cat while she lay above it with folk records, finding harmonies that were new and hers alone. Two musics in one room. Lushness as past and premonition. She found folk on her own, somewhere between the cast recording of The Sound of Music and Simon and Garfunkel, while everyone around her called it sleepy music. She did not mind being the only one. The solitude let her fall for harmony first, before words, before anything else, and harmony is still the thing she reaches for. Generationally speaking, the music was already in the air. Her grandfather, Colin Smith, is a distinguished mento man who played banjo and guitar and built his own rumba boxes, worked to keep Jamaica’s oldest acoustic folk form alive. Mento is the root of all of it: ska, rock steady, reggae, dub and everything after. He is the one who put a guitar in her hands. An inheritance, a gift and a map. Even her name is part of it, though she will tell you she landed on it more by feel than reason. She records as June McDoom, born Alyssa, June being a nickname one of her grandmothers, Joan, went by, a name she thought was cool to carry and simply liked the sound of. An etheric channel that reverberates all the same. A dub all its own.
Made slowly and by hand with her longtime partner Evan Wright, Follow the Light lays the harmony of folk over the rhythm of dub, with Dionne Warwick, Minnie Riperton, Pentangle and the washed guitars of Cocteau Twins haunting its outer edges. Voice and guitar seeking each other out first, then everything else stacked across long days in the studio they keep at home, restraint kept on purpose. The lead single “Without You” is the whole method surfacing, split open and sparkling like a geode in a creek bed. Angelic heroics, and nothing less.
At the heart is family. Her grandmother Aggie, the light behind “Memory,” guiding still. And underneath, the quieter truth the record keeps: none of us are only one person, but a continuum of selves, the ones who shaped us and the ones we have yet to meet. Future you is an ancestor your current self gets to greet. Press play and the same invitation is yours: A few minutes out of time, a place that turns familiar the longer you stay until you surface somewhere new and find it was yours all along
R.M.F.C. sound like? Let’s stay with the overused descriptors – I think R.M.F.C. is rock music band, more specifically a post-punk band. Indulge me. If you could say anything about post punk it means post-Wire, who were past punk before punk had an opportunity to codify and become everything brilliant and stupid that we’ve spent 40 years unpacking. Wire’s opening Pink Flag jab – Chairs Missing straight – and 154 hook knockout has haunted the mixing desks of ambitious post-punk bands since, and every major city in the western world has at least one Pink Flag band, one Chairs Missing band, one 154 band. Few bands manage to sound like all 3 records, but R.M.F.C. are a Rock Music Fan Club...
Anyone paying attention to underground Australian guitar overdose would relate: the R.M.F.C. Club Hits LP has been the culmination of five years of work, patience and discipline. If you’ve heard these songs live at any of their shows over the past couple of years you’ll understand – the wait is over and the result is exhilarating.
‘Bands like Devo, The Fall, and The Birthday Party have set the way for this type of post-punk rock (all in their own way). Surely, also, the rock scenes of the past fifteen years in Australia have also been influential. Thinking of bands like Royal Headache, Dick Diver, and Eddy Current Suppression Ring, there’s even been a fairly recent tradition of expanding styles of rock and roll (let alone the bigger, famous rock-centered acts). The Sydney based R.M.F.C., and the scene (or friend circle) from which it’s emerging, is carrying a torch of rock music which has the potential of a wider appeal.’ - POST-TRASH
