Buscar:shapes

Am 28. März 2025 erscheint das neue Album ”Shapeshifter” von Memphis May Fire als CD und Vinyl:

45 Pounds is a record of thrilling cacophony: whirring drums meet the sound of instruments which have been twisted and bent into new shapes, all of which are paired with the arresting growls of Zack Borzone. Across the record the four-piece re-imagine what is possible within the confines of a band set up, creating music that perfectly encapsulates the information overload of our times.

The band have become known for their stellar live performances and now with 45 Pounds they have set that electrifying feeling to record. With 45 Pounds YHWH Nailgun have created a statement that is short to cut through the modern day post-algorithmic sludge. Stay tuned for more news.

It has been over a decade since Anthony Mills created Wildcookie, his most celebrated project. With tracks like Heroine and Serious Drug, the album Cookie Dough gained worldwide recognition, landing on numerous radio playlists, including Gilles Peterson’s show. Even after all these years, it remains a favorite on streaming platforms. Now, fourteen years later, Mills returns, teaming up with Marek “Latarnik” Pędziwiatr to create Crack Rock—a bold evolution of Wildcookie’s legacy.
While Wildcookie’s signature warm, jazzy Fender Rhodes sound defined its identity, Crack Rock shifts toward 1980s-inspired compositions crafted by Pędziwiatr, known for his work with EABS, Błoto, and Zima Stulecia. The duo explored yacht rock, drawing inspiration from Fleetwood Mac and Michael McDonald, maintaining the genre’s clean vocals and catchy melodies. However, their experimental spirit pushed the sound further, distorting the polished yacht rock aesthetic—leading to Crack Rock, a clever wordplay reflecting both the music and its themes.
Anthony Mills is known for layered wordplay, and the album’s name nods to deeper personal struggles. “I listened to the song Crack on repeat—it brought me to tears. Growing up in the crack era was painful. The PTSD I endured is now a powerful source of inspiration.” This raw emotional backdrop adds an edge to Crack Rock’s themes of love and human relationships—what Mills calls “cold love”: alluring, grand, yet ultimately destructive. Like an addiction, you keep coming back for more.
This idea of addiction shapes the duo’s sonic exploration—beneath the catchy melodies lie deeper, pain-laden themes wrapped in metaphor. “I see this album as therapy, a testament to the magic we create in the studio,” says Pędziwiatr. “Our process is a mix of musical mastery and deep conversations about life. For me, it feels like soul cleansing.

Joni Void, the artistic persona of Montréal-based French-British producer Jean Néant (he/them) returns to songcraft on their warmest and most welcoming record yet, where the acclaimed sampledelic sound collagist chills out with an emotionally resonant song cycle tinged by downtempo, lo-fi, avant-pop, and trip-hop. Guests include Haco, Ytamo, Sook-Yin Lee, Pink Navel and N NAO. Every Life Is A Light expands on Void's recent stylistic turn towards more languorous and mellow lo-fi production, foreshadowed by the drifting looseness and ambient bricolage of their preceding experimental sound-art record. This transitional sensibility now shapes more defined song structures and styles, with loops are given time and space to unspool, and rhythms shot through the softer-focus lens of trip-hop and dub. Every Life Is A Light swaps the twitchy insistence of Void's acclaimed early albums for a newfound lightness and suppleness, still imbued with all the restlessness, sonic detailing, and emotional resonance that made their name. The neurotic brokenmachine kinetics of earlier Void, summarized by Sasha Geffen as "drawing despair and wonder from within the vast unfeeling of digital communication" in an 8.0 Pitchfork review, may be chilling out, but Void is becoming an ever better conjurer of hauntological feeling. Every Life Is A Light summons this in a comparatively buoyant, benevolent, head-nodding journey more open to tenderness and modest joys. Perhaps it's the sound of Void at greater peace with themselves and the world, despite the bittersweet cost: even as it channels grief, memorializing comrades and companions recently deceased, this album wants light. Void's raw materials continue to draw heavily from samples (their own Walkman cassette fieldrecordings and songs by others) and from a wide community of musical guests. Vocalists Haco on "Time Zone" and Ytamo on "Cloud Level" help levitate what could be lost tracks from a mid-90s Too Pure Records compilation of skewed-lounge electronica. Canadian musician Sook-Yin Lee sings on lead single "Vertigo," a sinewy 80bpm tape-loop and bassline groove propelled by psychedelically-layered lyrics that eventually turn the song in on itself entirely, like Grace Jones' "Nightclubbing" covered by Animal Collective. One of Void's greatest hip-hop loves is the Ruby Yacht collective; charter member Pink Navel drops some brilliant verses on "Story Board." The album's two minimal tracks, an extended piano loop set to a slow beat and shimmering electronics on "Muffin-A Song For My Cat" and the languid sampled bass riff and breakbeat of "Event Flow," are perhaps most overtly `lofi chill.' Indeed the whole album could be said to sit adjacent to those viral (if not already AI-generated) genre trends, which maybe begs the question on a lot of our minds: can specificity and authenticity of musical materials still be heard, still meaningfully signify substance and difference, still matter? Perhaps a question that fades in comparison to the career break Void could catch by landing on generic streaming playlists. More likely, these tracks remain too off-kilter, too genuinely lo-fi and ineffable, and too disqualified by the status of its peasant rights-holders, to catch the algos. Context remains the poor cousin of content. Meanwhile Void marches on, as a tireless organizer of local music events, bouncing around and often living in DIY venue, depending on the latest apartment eviction. With an ubiquitous polaroid camera in tow, they also document each communal happening with a single shot (and often a blinding flash bulb): a memory and metaphor for lives illuminated preciously, singularly, `imperfectly' in the moment. Dozens of these polaroids adorn the album's back cover and inner sleeve art in grid-like montages, as a fitting analog for the careful construction, grainy intimate materiality, and ephemeral feeling of these songs. Every Life Is A Light is Joni Void's most coherent and congenial record while relinquishing none of their experimentalist acumen as a producer or emotional attunement as a composer. Instead these qualities flourish, on an album that lights a humble flame for the fragile promise of homespun creative collaboration as unalienated labour and therapeutic communion, making an enchantingly idiosyncratic contribution to downtempo sample music along the way. Thanks for listening.

My Boy, the third solo record from New Zealand singer/ songwriter Marlon Williams, announces an artist emerging anew. Gone is the solemn, country-indebted crooner with the velvet voice - in his place comes a playful, shapeshifting creature. Following the release of his second album, 2018's Make Way For Love, Williams' toured the world, playing major festivals and collaborating with Lorde, Yo-Yo Ma and Florence Welch. He also forged a fledgling acting career with roles in films The True History of the Kelly Gang and Netflix series Sweet Tooth, as well as a cameo in Oscar winning film A Star Is Born. My Boy parlays this flush of worldly experience into a vivid record as spirited and kinetic as the unfolding life of its performer. "I've always explored different character elements in my music," says Williams. "And the more I get into acting, the more tricks I'm learning about representation and presentation. To get braver and bolder with exploring shifting contexts and new ways of doing things." As the pandemic paused global travel, Williams found himself at home in New Zealand, reconnecting with family and friends. Soon new demos and lyrical themes emerged: of self-identity and escapism; tribalism and a gnarled family tree; and ruminations on the role of masculinity and mateship. Co-produced with Tom Healy and recorded at Roundhead Studios in New Zealand, My Boy finds Williams' leading a new band through a set of genre-hopping tunes: from the cheery sway of `My Boy' and chugging `80s noir sheen of `Thinking Of Nina', to the charging synth of `River Rival', and the sultry pop jam `Don't Go Back.' All this sonic and emotional whiplash is intentional, and ultimately My Boy sees Williams having fun, even while interrogating the behaviors of himself and those around him.

My Boy, the third solo record from New Zealand singer/ songwriter Marlon Williams, announces an artist emerging anew. Gone is the solemn, country-indebted crooner with the velvet voice - in his place comes a playful, shapeshifting creature. Following the release of his second album, 2018's Make Way For Love, Williams' toured the world, playing major festivals and collaborating with Lorde, Yo-Yo Ma and Florence Welch. He also forged a fledgling acting career with roles in films The True History of the Kelly Gang and Netflix series Sweet Tooth, as well as a cameo in Oscar winning film A Star Is Born. My Boy parlays this flush of worldly experience into a vivid record as spirited and kinetic as the unfolding life of its performer. "I've always explored different character elements in my music," says Williams. "And the more I get into acting, the more tricks I'm learning about representation and presentation. To get braver and bolder with exploring shifting contexts and new ways of doing things." As the pandemic paused global travel, Williams found himself at home in New Zealand, reconnecting with family and friends. Soon new demos and lyrical themes emerged: of self-identity and escapism; tribalism and a gnarled family tree; and ruminations on the role of masculinity and mateship. Co-produced with Tom Healy and recorded at Roundhead Studios in New Zealand, My Boy finds Williams' leading a new band through a set of genre-hopping tunes: from the cheery sway of `My Boy' and chugging `80s noir sheen of `Thinking Of Nina', to the charging synth of `River Rival', and the sultry pop jam `Don't Go Back.' All this sonic and emotional whiplash is intentional, and ultimately My Boy sees Williams having fun, even while interrogating the behaviors of himself and those around him.

Demonstrating the poignant power of experience + human connection + innate musicality + operating in the present moment, Jeff Mills' Spiral Deluxe collective unveil their second album - The Love Pretender. Driven by the free expression and creativity of improvised performance, Spiral Deluxe is an electronic jazz fusion project comprised electronic music visionary Jeff, along with legendary keyboardist Gerald Mitchell (Underground Resistance/ Los Hermanos), Japanese rocker Yumiko Ohno (Buffalo Daughter/Cornelius) on Moog synthesizer and the Japanese bassist, adopted New Yorker, Kenji "Jino" Hino - son of Terumasa Hino, the world famous jazz trumpeter. Together, the four key players formed a band centred around completely improvised journeys through sound.

During their unrestrained performances, what Jeff describes as sonic "conversations" arose between the musicians, as they each contributed to full-length live shows, and studio sessions. Within the boundless parameters of freeform spontaneity, they developed an unspoken understanding of one another, finding balance and poise within the unplanned performances. The resulting recordings have been used for three releases so far: Two EPs, Kobe Session (2016) and Tathata (2017), and their debut album Voodoo Magic in 2018. With The Love Pretender, we're presented with another stunning collection of "tracks" extracted from one long improv session.

With each musician proficient in their specialism and, of course, an all-out music lover, the communication between the group members became almost telepathic. Very little preparation was needed, and their performances flowed naturally and organically. This can be heard, and felt, throughout The Love Pretender. Tracks like 'The Soloist' evolve effortlessly, each new shift subtly influenced by one of the musicians nudging the conversation into a different phase, and the rest responding accordingly, or vice versa. It's music that embodies the true nature of mindfulness and letting go of fear. In their unstructured, liberated cocoon the artists thrive and create musical moments that have, fortunately, been captured for us all to immerse ourselves in. Jazzy notes fill the air, combined with electronic bass, synthesised beats, sparkling keys and an all-round warm and welcoming atmosphere, with the slight edge you can only get from improvised performance.

Sylvain Luc's posthumous appearance on the album is of significance too. The French guitarist died in March 2024 at the age of 59. His natural flair adds another dimension to the album, bringing a touch of that laid back 1980s American California Coast feeling to tracks such as 'Society's Man'. These contributions to the LP, recorded separately, add character - a final sprinkling of humanity to complement the aliveness and presence of this body of work. Three other musicians also added their creative energy to the project. They were; TOKU, a Japanese jazz musician who specialises in wind instruments, especially the cornet, trumpet and flugel horn. And there's Masa Shimizu, who also has wide-ranging with the guitar, as well as being a producer.

Themes on the album include the optimism one can have by simply trusting the process and trusting that everything will work out in the end. By playing together in the way they do, Spiral Deluxe place their trust in the mystery of what will happen next. Getting comfortable with not knowing is key to a sense of peace with regard to the future and this energy is vital to their collective musical output. By embracing the notion of the unknown, you become an eternal optimist, living in the moment, rather than projecting into the future. This cultivates excitement, an antidote to anxiety.

Meanwhile, the title alludes to the shifts and changes that have occurred in today's society, whereby it's possible to achieve success through pretending. The superficiality, and falsehood, that can often be presented via social media, can lead to questions about what's real and what's not. From AI to the fake personas that populate the dominant platforms, The Love Pretender speaks to a process that is symbolic of the time we're living in. Behaviour that has become acceptable in today's world, which may not have been as welcomed a few decades ago. But this is part of the cycle of life...

Jeff's intention with this music is to present it in high-fidelity, to be listened to over and over and over again. In post-recording he worked for hours to ensure the audio quality was as high as it could be. The goal is to create music that people can live with their entire lives, from his solo work to these masterful improvisations. Music that comes to life, music that has a voice we can replicate with our own vocals. Expressive, unstructured, and alive...

With The Love Pretender Jeff Mills continues his mission to experiment with music outside the bounds of what is typically expected. It's freeing, enlivening, vibrant and uniquely human. As ever, Jeff's visionary outlook and bold approach to musical performance and recording has produced a body of work that epitomises his often revolutionary capabilities. There's no pretending here, just pure unadulterated sonic transmissions from a wonderfully daring, inspiring and optimistic ensemble...

A side is a full side tune in the vein of Whiston Road Hardfloor spirit ! At the end of the side you'll get a kicking perfect locked groove.

The flip bring 2 Melly's bangers...

A western tradition !

"The title track here ebbs and flows in and out of Amen break cascades, as the drones hovering beneath give a sense of flying through an electrical storm. Dooky' is better still, its sparser rhythm recalling Reinforced stalwart Paradox in its ability to be simultaneously woody and ultra-digital, human and alien." THE WIRE

Those who are aware of dgoHn will by now be familiar with his sound and those who aren't should be. Back with his third single on Love Love, the drum maestro makes skin prickle once again with two shining original tracks laced with impeccable moments. Only dgoHn can create the kind of drum and bass that sounds like the tightest of ensembles playing meticulously rehearsed arrangements, painting intricate shapes with the percussion.

The title track takes a fresh look at the amen break, finding ways to breathe new life into it. Soaring above the clouds on thick warm pads, the drums thunder with a blissful rage propelled forwards by a rumbling bassline.

On the B-side 'Dooky' serves up a dgoHn masterclass in spatial control that could well be a future-classic of his. A formidable groove with serious punch, hi-hats skip along as the delicate balance of frequencies gives the listener just enough headspace not to get lost in the deep, dark world it creates. A subtle demonstration of tension and release, this single floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee whilst dripping with funk.

Lastly, Rognvald switches up the title track with a jam that triples the edits and doubles the bass, tipping the scales from the side of restraint to that of chaos without losing the feel of the original. Artwork once again provided by Colin 'Snublic' McCallister.

DJ Support: The Shapeshifters, Riva Starr, Mousse T., Michael Gray, Dr. Packer, Richard Earnshaw

Serge Funk having made a recent name for himself as a wonderkid for disco- and funky-house versions. A re-editor for the diggers as opposed to the baitheads, 'Groovy Theme' and 'Cherry Bomb' are utter bangers devoid of much relation to their originals (indeed, there's no way of telling what the samples are without a record buyers' knowledge), in large part thanks to their working into beat-centric structures that drown out the vocals in favour of kick slappage and gut-punchage. Rhythm over theme; keeping things vibey, felt.

"Every night we've been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking." Thurston Moore
“Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate.” The Quietus
“Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea.” MOJO
Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. They’ve since released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!
Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. ‘Encircle’ was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattle’s other mesmeric covers.
‘All Burning’ opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. ‘All Burning’ was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresa’s cumulative snare work and Katherine’s urgent calls for action: “hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses”. If ‘All Burning’ represents fire, then it’s accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, ‘Argot’, is informed by the air. ‘Argot’ is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. “I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal” asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. ‘Ritual’ is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers ‘Ritual’ as “very earthy song - lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something”! ‘Ritual’ was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. ‘Your Move’ is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, ‘Your Move’, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.
With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.
Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.

"Every night we've been listening to RATTLE. They have a stark yet deep trance percussion vibe that is both holistic and rocking." Thurston Moore
“Quietly dramatic and loudly intimate.” The Quietus
“Two drum sets. Two voices. One great idea.” MOJO
Rattle are Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley, they formed in 2011 after meeting on the live circuit whilst both playing in other bands. Katharine was a guitarist who had recently started playing drums in the band Kogumaza, whilst Theresa was the drummer in Nottingham band Fists. They’ve since released two long-players, 2016’s self-titled debut album Rattle (Upset The Rhythm / I Own You) and 2018’s Sequence (Upset The Rhythm) to much critical acclaim in the music press, and with James Acaster discussing the debut on his BBC Sounds podcast Perfect Sounds!
Rattle have honed the four songs that make up ‘Encircle’ by playing them live over the last few years, adapting and stretching them into endlessly inventive new shapes, playing with the concept of time and expectation. ‘Encircle’ was recorded at Foel Studios, Wales, produced and mixed by Mark Jasper, and mastered at Liminal Audio by Shaun Crook. The stunningly colourful artwork was created by Martha Glazzard, who was also responsible for Rattle’s other mesmeric covers.
‘All Burning’ opens the album, a live favourite of cyclical tumbling and evolving wordplay. ‘All Burning’ was built up gradually layer by layer with Theresa’s cumulative snare work and Katherine’s urgent calls for action: “hold your doctor, hold your daughter, hold your horses”. If ‘All Burning’ represents fire, then it’s accompanying 12-minute long track on Side 1, ‘Argot’, is informed by the air. ‘Argot’ is a song about uncertainty, with Katherine singing wordlessly across the majority of the track. “I prefer to sing wordlessly often because it feels a bit more expressive and universal” asserts Katherine. The track feels truly epic with a satisfying release that comes with the eventual introduction of the bass drum and snappy hi-hat section.

Side 2 also pairs a shorter song with a long-form composition. ‘Ritual’ is worked up from a simple snare drum pattern which becomes more and more overlapped into an elliptical form of waltz. Katherine considers ‘Ritual’ as “very earthy song - lots of low lying mist on the ground swirling around and the drums coming together to summon something”! ‘Ritual’ was inspired by a visit to the ruins of Boleskine House so multi-dimensional themes and occult practice loom large. ‘Your Move’ is a step-up gear change with the band wanting it to feel like the tape had suddenly started to spin faster, urging movement, venturing action. Clocking in at over 15 minutes, ‘Your Move’, is mesmeric and boundless, hypnotic in its minimalism of doubled-drums and almost tribal vocal cycles.
With ‘Encircle’ Rattle have grown again, these songs are alive with elemental power. They build-up and disintegrate, existing in two places at once, embracing the nuance, tracing the circle’s edge. These are modes of song as pure gesture and eternal imagination, refined in mirrors after midnight.
Rattle has performed at The Barbican, London and toured the UK with Animal Collective and Thurston Moore Group and Europe with The Julie Ruin and Protomartyr, and performed with Hot Snakes, Bill Orcutt Quartetand Codeine.

China Crisis BBC Sessions have been compiled onto vinyl by Scottish label Last Night From Glasgow, released in early 2025. The release features the band's two John Peel sessions recorded with the BBC in March 1982 and January 1983, now remastered and available on vinyl and CD. The album includes the BBC session recording of hit single Wishful Thinking. The Complete Sessions follows on from recent album China Greatness released in May 2024, a collection of the band's best tracks now newly arranged and mixed. China Crisis remain one of the UK's most beloved pop bands. Formed in Merseyside in 1979, the core duo of Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon remains unchanged 45 years on. They rose to fame in the early 80s with chart success single Christian and single Wishful Thinking, album Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms reached No.21 in the UK album charts in 1982. China Crisis continue to tour extensively and boast over 325,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Shards is a collection of pieces originally written for various film and TV soundtracks
Tim Hecker has scored over the last half decade.

These compositions were originally written for scoring projects including Infinity Pool, The North Water, Luzifer, and La Tour.

Press quotes for No Highs (2023):

"Tim Hecker has become one of the most pre-eminent and nuanced electronic producers of his
generation." New York Times

"Hecker pairs expansive and bright songs with more repetitive compositions, capturing the beauty in uneasiness and vice versa…” Resident Advisor

“It's somewhere between a replenishing bath and an out-of-body experience.” All Music

"The shapes it makes in the air are often wounding, but also graceful. And like all of his work, it is
devastating in the best way possible.” The Quietus

"The love of creation seems to be what drives him and that’s a special thing to be cherished.” New Noise Magazine

“To his credit, Hecker isn't just good at this stuff - he helped write the playbook.” Boomkat

Introduced by the digital single ‘Deixa Passar’, this 12” EP concretises on physical support the renewed collaboration between the two Schema Records artists Gerardo Frisina and Tomaz ”Toco” Di Cunto, working together again five years after the release of the EP “Frisina Meets Toco” (SCEP 487): the two unreleased songs here included, the aforementioned “Deixa Passar” and “Ilê”, are featured both in their original and reworked versions, and represent an excellent blend of samba jazz and Brazilian popular music. In both tracks, the music composed and arranged by Gerardo backs up the Portuguese language lyrics and melodic lines of Toco, who duets with Luzia Dvorek in an almost surprising contrast between serious and graceful sounds. The instrumental department features Gianluca Petrella on trombone, Eduardo Taufic on piano (Deixa Passar) and Fender Rhodes (Ilê), and Edu Moreno on flute (Ilê), in an excellent ‘union of opposites’, between popular music and modern sounds, between acoustic instruments and electronics, with mystical influences that envelop the songs with a mysterious and attractive aura. Not only musically, but also visually and lyrically, this EP is a tribute to the Brazilian culture and lands, already from a cover that re-imagines the iconic shapes of the famous Copacabana pavement in Rio De Janeiro: while “Deixa Passar” celebrates Rio’s carnival as an opportunity to momentarily free oneself from the burdens of life, “Ilê” recalls the traditions of Salvador De Bahia’s historic ‘bloco afro’ quarter called Ilê Aiyê.

Bandler Ching makes a bold return from within the vibrant, Brussels music scene with their sophomore album, Mercurial. In this latest offering, the band edges even closer to the ever-evolving world of electronics and dance music while retaining the improvisational spirit that has always defined their sound at its core.
On Mercurial, the band navigates the fringes of industrial trap, while expertly bending and pushing the possibilities of their instruments. Ambroos De Schepper's saxophone transcends its traditional role even more, becoming a dynamic, shapeshifting entity capable of evoking haunting melodies one moment and otherworldly harmonies the next. Federico Pecoraro's bass transforms into ethereal ambient pads that drift through the mix like vapor, adding depth. Meanwhile, Olivier Penu's drums form the rhythmic backbone, laying down eclectic grooves that defy the constraints of any single genre, merging seamlessly from trap to electronica, hip-hop, and beyond.
Known for their ability to blend disparate genres and experiment with textures, Bandler Ching forges a new instrumental language, one that feels untethered to convention and free from classification. It's not a genre-crossing experiment-but a daring move towards a new instrumental genre in the digital age.
Fans of experimental electronic icons like Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Ceephax Acid Crew will find much to admire in the upcoming Mercurial album- it's a next step in pushing to a new musical territory and boldly casting off the jazz genre in the process.
It's been two years since Bandler Ching first released their debut album Coaxial on Sdban Ultra. Kicking off the album campaign with an album release show in Volta, the Brussels hotbed for a new generation of Belgian artists. What followed was a series of concerts in key venues and festivals across Belgium and the Netherlands to honorable reviews in national and specialized press.

"‘man oh man !’ is the sophomore 11 track album from indie singer-songwriter Martin Luke Brown.

Marking a significant new era in both his personal and musical life, Martin tackles a myriad of themes; self-awareness and personal growth, treasured friendships, swept-off-your-feet romance and gut wrenching heartbreak - all with a laidback, indie singer-songwriter sound that naturally shapes the album into three linear phases: the end of a relationship, new beginnings and the consequential feeling of accepting change.

Described by Martin as a ‘time capsule’, each track on the album was written and recorded in one day, making for a raw and honest snapshot of Martin’s life experiences at the time. Instrumentation is simple and recorded with producer and friend Matt Zara using almost exclusively analog technology – tape machines and vintage mics, a messiness that the duo embraced from the get go.

Martin has released over 100 songs as either a co-writer or a producer, with BTS, Dylan, Jacob Banks, Gavin James, Sam Tompkins,James Smith, Sody andJack Kane. He has also seen a wealth of success as part of pop supergroup FIZZ alongside Orla Gartland, dodie, and Greta Isaac, earning widespread praise from the likes of Rolling Stone UK, Dork, DIY, Clash & more."

Tradition shapes your work. For saxophonist and bandleader Shabaka Hutchings, that's something he's long understood. After years spent in the orbit of London's jazz circuit, he examines and reimagines his influences with a dexterity that's unique. Drawing out the vision underlying his new album, he says, I see energy as being a form of wisdom to be passed down through the ages.'

Unpicking the album's title, he continues, "When we study the music, the lives, the words of our master musicians we obtain a glimpse of that artist's essential energy source. This is the core vitality of the individual which leads them to utilise the musical specifics of their chosen genre in a way that mirrors their inner source of power. This is an intuited wisdom that's handed to us from the legacies of our elders.

The album is a document of sessions combining Hutchings with a group of South African jazz musicians he's long admired. His connection to the group was Mandla Mlangeni (bandleader of the Amandla Freedom Ensemble), whom he'd flown there to play with over the past few years. Recorded across just one day, the group drew on their South African lineage - heroes like Zim Ngquwana and Bheki Mseleku - to bring their own slant to the American jazz lineage which is reconfigured in Hutchings' compositions themselves.

Going beyond the jazz greats Hutchings cites, influences are drawn from plenty of other sources: Caribbean calypso, central African song structures and Southern African Nguni music all play a part. Bringing together those ideas with the contributions of his bandmates is, he explains, crucial to what he sees in the role of an album artist. Even though I wrote all the music, for me, the leader of the project isn't the person who writes all the music but the one who has a vision for how certain musical elements will be combined."

A regular sight on stages around London and beyond, playing - and often leading - groups like The Comet Is Coming, Sons of Kemet and Melt Yourself Down, he's part of a generation whose idea of jazz is pointedly unrefined. That's to say, Wisdom of the Elders comes from an artist interested in the indefinable gaps more than fitting into boxes.

The New Duo Album by Piers Faccini & Ballaké Sissoko: Our Calling Two decades after their very first collaboration, British-Italian folk songwriter Piers Faccini and Malian kora virtuoso, Ballaké Sissoko return with a mesmerizing album: Our Calling. Set for release in February 2025, this fascinating dialogue between a virtuoso instrumentalist at the peak of his powers and an inspired songwriter and wordsmith, succeeds in creating new song forms with a lightness of touch that bridges continents and plays with tradition.Through ten exquisitely crafted tracks, Our Calling is a sonic and narrative praise song for migration in all its forms. The two friends"s entirely acoustic dialogue was recorded in Paris side by side and live in the studio over five days. The album"s originality is that it feels deeply Malian at i s musical core, all the while being seamlessly infused with an essence of folk songwriting, sung in the English language. Recorded by Frédéric Soulard (Shapes of the Fall), the album unites an extraordinary cast of musicians, including Vincent Segal, Badjé Tounkara, and Malik Ziad.