2025 Repress
It's rare that a certain sound is entirely an artist's own. Although undeniably a stew of impeccable influences - from blues to folk to Latin to dusty funk, soul and hip-hop - one cannot hear a Tommy Guerrero song without immediately recognising it as his - and his only.The cult skater from San Francisco is globally renowned as one of the original members of the legendary "Bones Brigade" team. And as an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, his laid-back soul is beloved by all who've basked in its blissful glow.There's something elemental about this music that really stirs the soul. Strikingly beautiful and instantly addictive, it's a kind of funk-fuelled, melody-driven, groove-based magic. There's a serenity and heart in the playing that radiates warmth and splendour, as if crafted for endless sunsets. His albums that surfaced on Mo Wax at the turn of the century have been treasured since their release and it's two of his most vital LPs that we're honoured to reintroduce.The originals were quietly pressed on to a single piece of vinyl so we've worked closely with Tommy this year to bring you these fresh, limited editions. They have been lovingly remastered, cut nice and loud on to heavyweight double vinyl and presented in deluxe gatefold jackets.A Little Bit Of Somethin' is a quietly majestic gem. Brimming with Guerrero's horizontal "loose grooves", these brief but innovative instrumentals demonstrate a rich variety and, as such, comprise an LP that is aptly titled. An enchanting start-to-finish listen, it was instantly regarded as essential upon release via Mo Wax in 2000. It has aged remarkably well.Throughout this inspired collection, simplicity is key. In deploying it, Guerrero presents a beautifully crafted melodic soundscape. The distinctive, mellifluous approach of his guitar style, blending Brazilian, Cuban, Mexican, soul and jazz motifs, is at once startlingly new and tantalisingly familiar. Set against unrushed percussion, the music releases a crystal clear stream of healing frequencies to create a fragile, hypnotic atmosphere.Each track clocks in at around three minutes and, with a lack of studio polish or commitment to traditional song structure, it's a wonder how this enigmatic record demands your attention. However, through its gentle dynamism and impressive playing, it does just that. Whilst resolutely low-key, this lo-fi aesthetic feels genuinely organic and remarkably personal, its powerful intimacy truly connects. It's what makes this album so beloved of those lucky enough to be already familiar with it. From Margaret Kilgallen's truly iconic cover artwork to the music contained within, it's all brilliantly effortless.Guerrero's musical ideas are consistently compelling throughout, making it impossible to select highlights. The album's laconic drift touches upon jazz-fusion workouts and slow-mo hip-hop drums, Tortoise-style experimental post-rock and cinematic sound textures. It's at once hazy, light and bouncy yet sombre and bluesy. The Latin soul of El Chicano blends with the breezy jazz of Grant Green. By employing guitars and drum machines to create a stripped down rhythmic tapestry of spellbinding, addictive songs, there are even traces of The Durutti Column. A little bit of country, a little bit of rock & roll. A Little Bit Of Somethin', indeed.
Suche:sim one
Facta returns to Wisdom Teeth with ‘GULP’: a zippy, hi-def mini-album full of scrambled vocals, blown-out basslines, dripping synths and spring-loaded grooves that together map out his playfully psychedelic corner of contemporary club music. Written in a quick creative burst in late 2024, the record brings together a range of the producer’s distinct creative strands into a sharp, cohesive whole. Sitting snugly within the stylistic niche carved out by his A&Ring and DJ sets (alongside label co-founder K-LONE), we hear the influence of 00’s minimal, tech house, UK soundsystem music, ambient electronica, dub and more rubbing shoulders in a way that feels effortless and personal. Many of the tracks began life as sketches penned on the road - dotting between festivals, European club shows, and on tour in Japan - and so the record carries with it a sense of movement and forward momentum, and feels populated by voices, memories, people and places.
The Londoner’s characteristic approach to sound design and genre interplay are on full display here. Generative vocal hooks melt and warp into strange fluid forms, while synths stretch, detune, bend and dissolve into space before snapping back into shape again. Keyboards mirror human vocal formants, forming melodies that feel at once organic and alien. Basslines warp and distort, as if being re-moulded out of different synthetic properties.
Across the record there’s a commitment to expressing simple or familiar ideas in new and unexpected ways, whilst experimentations and innovations are presented clearly and intuitively. Cherished genre references are lovingly deployed as personal touchstones across the record - bleeping minimal- and tech-house; breakbeat dubstep and funky; Chicago house; dub techno - yet sounds and influences are combined and meshed in unexpected ways. Each track is tightly engineered and reduced down to its key elements, which are then manipulated, flipped, warped and pushed to breaking point. As is typical of Facta’s music, uncanny contrasts are worked throughout the music in unexpected ways. Warm, balmy moods come laced with seams of tension or uncertainty, whilst the record’s darker moments are handled with a light, playful touch.
With 15 years experience writing, DJing and A&Ring under his belt, ‘GULP’ is testament to Facta’s love of creation and curation - of seeking out, absorbing, experimenting, and channeling new sounds to create your own sonic world. A record borne of playful experimentation and happy accidents, ‘GULP’ shines bright with a simple, pure energy - a testament to writing quickly and intuitively and, above all else, enjoying the process.
The album’s artwork features photography by award-winning Boston-based photographer, Pelle Cass, whose complex time-lapse composites present hyperreal yet impossible tableaus of seemingly simple everyday scenes - an approach that parallels the record’s blurring of the familiar and the unfamiliar. Cass’s work has been widely exhibited, collected, and published, including solo shows at Gallery Kayafas, Boston, the Photographic Resource Center, Boston, and the Houston Center for Photography, and in collections such as the Fogg Art Museum, the Peabody Essex Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He was twice a Critical Mass Top 50 photographer and has received two fellowships from Yaddo and one from the Berkshire Taconic Foundation.
Facta and K-LONE’s Wisdom Teeth imprint returns to the V/A format with ‘Pattern Gardening’: a new collaborative project that leans head-first into the label’s love of minimal-, micro- and tech-house, carving out the label’s distinct, contemporary take on the sound - one that swims between warm, bleepy, rolling, dubby, psychedelic and bass-heavy channels across its duration. The vinyl sampler brings together 6 highlights from the wider 22 track digital project. Wisdom Teeth heads Facta and K-LONE appear alongside longtime label associate Lurka and new signees Polygonia, rRoxymore, Sub Basics and Jichael Mackson.
By now, Wisdom Teeth and its founders are well known for their unabashed love of minimal and tech house, which - alongside ambient, UK club music, experimental electronics and a broad palette of other influences - makes up a key cornerstone of their distinctive sound. The duo’s DJ sets often see them mixing ‘00s gems from labels like Perlon, Mosaic, Minibar and a:rpia:r with more contemporary club sounds, creating a hybrid style that sits somewhere between Balearic terraces and dark UK club basements. Likewise, the label has become known as a go-to outlet for artists occupying a similar crossover space, with names like Jorg Kuning, Parris, Steevio, Duckett, Leif and LUXE all known for pushing house and techno into experimental and refreshing new territories.
‘Pattern Gardening’ follows loosely on from the label’s previous V/A releases ‘To Illustrate’ (2021) and ‘Club Moss’ (2023), which explored downtempo (100bpm) and uptempo (150-170bpm) styles respectively. Here, the focus is fixed on lush, groovy, quirky 4x4 jams, joining the dots between a global spread of producers that bring new energy and perspective to these well-explored frameworks.
As is always the case with Wisdom Teeth’s output, the results fit somewhere between the club and a more contemplative, home-listening headspace, with texture, melody and mood afforded as much significance as rhythm and functionality.
The artwork features photography by Hong Kong-based photographer Jimi Chiu, who captures seemingly ordinary corners of city life in glossy, cinematic detail.
Here's a true double-A 45. The A-side, "If We Try," a new cut from Thee Sinseers finds them in a more uptempo pace the band, and thriving! With Joey Quinones and Adriana Flores trading leads on this one, this tune is sure to get the dance floors packed! The B-side, "Give It Up You Fool," features the unmistakable voice of Brian Ponce on lead and finds Thee Sinseers right in their slow and sweet pocket. It's an album cut that simply had to be put on a 45.
2025 Repress
Growing up on the north Atlantic island of Iceland bestows one with an unusual and often intense relationship with light and colour: Summers come with endless days, Winters with scant sunlight yet increased sightings of the Aurora Borealis; the mysterious and awe-inspiring glow across the sky. Channelling these energies, Exos
comes to Tresor with his Green Light EP, a five-track collection of the sort of spectrally rich techno synonymous with the Northman’s 27-year career.
Across the EP, the five tracks fizz and pulsate driving ever forward, making the release’s title a three-way play on words referencing the continuous travelling of photons, the verdant warping of the Northern Lights, and the universal colour for Go, for forward propulsion. Smart wordplay can also be found in titles like Grátt Silfur, a term in Íslenska (literally “grey sliver”) which signifies a tension between two parties, further extending the colour metaphor and dark/light dichotomy found elsewhere.
The digital release comes with three extra tracks that continue the dynamic energy, pushed along by the same shifting, mutating force where the music often feels like voices calling out from the darkness or the shimmer of light as the sun rises across the horizon.
Green Light EP continues this year’s blazing return from an artist who, similar to his output, is never stagnant: ever changing form yet ever moving forward.
System Error introduces Immer Feierabend - a strictly afterwork series. Kicking things off is Buenos Aires’ own Guile. Off the back of super slick releases on imprints such as Limousine Dream and Proper Grub, the Freak EP delivers four sophisticated movers built for dancefloor release - good house music, pure and simple, with just the right amount of wiggle to move heads and toes.
It's the end of the workday, and if it isn’t, it’s always quitting time somewhere…
This one’s vinyl only, no digital release.
Black Vinyl[14,08 €]
Imagine having a song go viral for 17 years - without even knowing it. That's exactly what happened to the German 1980s band FEX. And this isn't just any song - it's The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet, a track that puzzled music detectives for decades before finally being identified in November 2024. Now, it has been officially released - twice.
The Story in Brief:
Sometime around 1984, a song was broadcasted on NDR Radio. The name of the song was Subways Of Your Mind - only found out 40 years later in November 2024. Back then, a listener recorded the NDR show on cassette, a common practice at the time. Decades later, the tape resurfaced, but while most songs from the recording were identified, one remained an enigma. On March 18, 2007, the track was uploaded to the internet in an attempt to uncover its origins. Due to its now-iconic opening lyric, it was tentatively titled Like The Wind. Over time, the mystery deepened, and the song was given a nickname: The Most Mysterious Song - or simply TMMS.
Starting in 2019, a dedicated Reddit group, TheMysteriousSong, now boasting over 63,000 members, took up the search. They meticulously documented every lead, hoping to solve the riddle of the song's origins. Then, in 2024, the breakthrough: Reddit user marjin1412 reached out to musician Michael Hädrich after discovering a reference to his band FEX in an old newspaper article. Hädrich, FEX's keyboardist, provided a recording from an old demo cassette which included an alternative version of the song. On November 4, 2024, the mystery was officially solved: FEX was the band, Subways Of Your Mind was the title.
What Happened Next:
Since then, FEX has released two singles - both featuring Subways Of Your Mind - through the Berlin-based independent label The Outer Edge. First, the demo cassette version was pressed onto vinyl, as the original NDR radio recording remained lost (see EDGE-028). The Remastered Demo Mix single instantly topped Bandcamp's global charts, holding the #1 spot for several days. By then, it was clear: this was more than just an internet curiosity. A real fanbase had formed. Enthusiastic comments on the sales page ranged from "best post-punk song to ever exist" to "FEX themselves (are) perhaps the most underrated musicians of all time."
But the story didn't end there. A higher-quality version of the NDR radio recording was rediscovered in late december, remastered, and now sent for a second vinyl pressing: the TMMS Version. This new vinyl 7" is backed with Talking Hands another great and unissued song that was found on the demo cassette.
Fame Comes with a Price
Suddenly, time isn't standing still for FEX. The band had to come to terms with the fact that they had become Lostwave super stars. A FEX fan club quickly formed on Reddit, fan-hosted FEX parties are popping up, and the internet is demanding more - an album, merchandise, live performances. But how does a band prepare for a comeback after a 40-year hiatus?
For now, FEX is carefully considering their next steps. Their demo cassette contains six songs - and a few other recordings have resurfaced which probably could be restored and compiled. But foremost, a brand new re-recording of Subways Of Your Mind is in progress.
One thing is certain: The Most Mysterious Song will continue its unstoppable journey around the world. Don't miss this (second) chance to own a piece of music history!
- A1: Design - Premonition
- A2: Vision - Lucifer’s Friend
- A3: Richard Bone - Alien Girl
- A4: John Howard - I Tune Into You
- A5: Ian North - We’re Not Lonely
- A6: Selwin Image - The Unknown
- B1: Harry Kakoulli - I’m On A Rocket
- B2: Rich Wilde - The Lady Wants To Be Alone
- B3: Billy London - Woman
- B4: Alan Burnham - Science Fiction
- B5: The Microbes - Computer
- B6: The Goo-Q - I’m A Computer
- C1: Gerry & The Holograms - Gerry & The Holograms
- C2: The Warlord - The Ultimate Warlord
- C3: Die Marinas - Fred From Jupiter
- C4: Dee Jay Bert & Eagle - I Am Your Master
- C5: Peta Lily & Michael Process - I Am A Time Bomb
- C6: Sole Sister - It’s Not What You Are But How
- D1: Alasdair Riddell - Do You Read Me?
- D2: Karel Fialka - Armband (The Mystery Song)
- D3: John Springate - My Life
- D4: Incandescent Luminaire - Famous Names
- D5: Disco Volante - No Motion
- D6: Dream Unit - A Drop In The Ocean
Compiled by Philip King
“And then came the rise of synth pop : blokes with dodgy haircuts hunched over keyboard-operated
machines stuffed with wires and do-it-yourself tone oscillators making sounds like a brood of geese
passing gas in a wind tunnel. Whoopee! This is the way the ‘70s ended : not with a blood-curdling bang
bang but with a cheap, synthesized, emasculating whimper.”
NICK KENT, NME.
All The Young Droids: Junkshop Synth Pop 1978-1985 is a new compilation that charts the
underbelly of the epoch-defining sound of the synthesiser in 80s popular music. Compiled by Philip
King (previously seen compiling All The Young Droogs, Glitterbest and Boobs - The Junkshop
Glam Discotheque), the music here connects the dots between DIY synth enthusiasts grappling with
new, cheap synthesisers at the tail-end of punk and wannabe, jobbing songwriters enthral to the new
music pioneered by Gary Numan, Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller’s Mute Records. Featuring rare
tracks of auto-didactic progressive pop music, proto-techno punk, shoot-for-the-stars-land-in-the-gutter
chart flops and heralded, underground synth classics, School Daze paints a picture of beautiful failure.
Complete with extensive sleeve notes written by King and never before seen imagery, all 24 tracks
were remastered by RPM in-house engineer Simon Murphy, many from vinyl copies due to lost master
tapes. The story told on All The Young Droids is one of the dawning opportunity presented by both the
emergence to the market of cheaper analog synthesisers and the distribution networks plus indie labels
that exploded with the advent of punk music in 1976. While the music that sprouted out all over the
globe in the wake of these factors was decried as fake, plastic, a refutation of punk’s guitar-led
revolution, it’s telling that much of the music on All The Young Droids.. was created in bedrooms,
ramshackle studios and home-made set ups with often borrowed equipment. In the era of record labels
jumping to capitalise on the success of The Sex Pistols, The Clash (both on major labels, of course)
these artists struggled to stand out from a new gold-rush with next to no budget or PR team. With radio
and labels desperate for the new Yazoo, what resulted was a testament to necessity being the mother
of invention.
At the time, the synthesiser was the music of the future, a shiny new machine that could paint like an
orchestra with a single finger and a 4-track. In the hands of Manchester avant-pranksters Gerry & The
Holograms it’s a pulsing, sardonic weapon.. the only instrument on the Messthetics classic lampooning
of New Wave fashion. In Hamburg, a 16 year old Andreas Dorau used it to write and record (with his
female classmates on vocals) a global smash in Fred Vom Jupiter (later licensed to Mute Records).
The hard-to-find English version (Fred From Jupiter, natch) is included here. Many artists with alreadystoried careers caught the bug and recorded synthesiser-fuelled peons to space, computers, the future
and, of course, love-interests. Harry Kakoulli, late of Squeeze, recorded a solo album in 1979 that
included the incredible power-synth-pop smash-that-never-smashed I’m On A Rocket. Similarly, Ian
North of Neo and American Power Pop stalwarts Milk ’n’ Cookies bought a Korg MS20 and used a
tape machine to record We’re Not Lonely, an absolute lost-classic of minimal synth pop. We’re Not
Lonely also features on the Junkshop Synth Pop sampler 7” twinned with John Howard unreleased
track You Will See, released April 12th 2025.
There are plenty of compilation debuts in evidence. Sole Sister were a mysterious trio who were
featured on the Scaling Triangles compilation of female-fronted, queer-adjacent post-punk /
underground music that also featured The Petticoats. Selwin Image were from San Francisco and
featured members of the recently defunct power pop/punk group The Pushups. Their stupidly catchy
The Unknown fizzes with New Wave energy - think XTC to Sparks but remains unreleased until now.
Dream Unit’s A Drop In The Ocean is an early synth wave cut, positively teaming with Joy Division
instrumentation, previously only released on a long-forgotten and super rare, self-released EP.
Incandescent Luminaire’s Famous Names belies an archetypal struggle of a small-town trying to
make it in a cruel industry but is a thrilling New Romantic-Synth Wave cross over with a OMD
gloominess that’s a joy to hear. Feminist Minimal Wave track I Am A Time Bomb by performance artist
Peta Lilly and Michael Chance is a revelation destined for new found cult status. It was released on 7”
and lost until now.
The flipside to the subterranean, never-made-it synth pop mentioned above are the ambitious, even
fruity attempts at success that have a perennial elegance to their confidence. New Jersey-ite Billy
London (real name Ed Barth) tried to cash in on the synth boom with Woman, released by a major
label, a lurching new wave track built on the Louie Louie rhythm and a wonderfully camp Lou Reedstyle sleazy vocal before exploding in the synthesised chorus. The song bombed but with a chorus like
this, you have to wonder why? Ex-Glitter Band member John Springate’s My Life is truly epic, with
doomed chord progressions and massive sounding drums turning into at least 3 different songs in the
course of the track. Before you wonder what’s going on the song resolves with a glorious return to the
main refrain.
The dry-ice-dressed dance floor is well catered for too. Design’s Premonition and Vision’s Lucifer’s
Friend are stone-cold minimal synth bangers, well loved but given a new lease of life here. The
Warlord’s The Ultimate Warlord was released in 1978, a homespun proto Hi NRG banger that was
later re-recorded by The Immortals in Canada who had a club hit with it. One-man- band Disco
Volante’s No Motion was re-issued by Synth wave label Medical in 2012 but makes its first vinyl
compilation appearance here. Close your eyes and you can imagine what Lawrence of Felt would have
sounded like with some cheap Korgs a little earlier in his career. Gibraltar-based trio The Microbes
imagined a computer programming people to dance - how prescient - and ended up with a propulsive,
robo-funk track with splendid rubbery bass playing over a tectonic drum machine. Previously picked up
by Belgian label Stroom TV, Dee Jay Bert & Eagle’s heavily Euro-accented I Am Your Master
demands the listener to “come to paradise!” In a frankly terrifying manner.
All The Young Droids is the first compilation to peel away from the narrative that dour, Minimal Synth
and Cold Wave were the only musical children of the first rush of synth pop. Philip King and School
Daze Records describe a much more complicated world: along with the austere, Brutalist children of
Daniel Miller (who produced Alan Burnham’s Bowie-Low-influenced Science Fiction here) was a
plethora of desperate cash-ins, accidental mainstream hits, ambitious pop dramas and major label
punts that went nowhere. Crucially, the compilation blurs the line between junk and treasure. What if the
two things are interchangeable. What if it’s all science fiction?
- A1: Coaster - Simon Park
- A2: Rippling Reeds - Wozo
- A3: Leaving - Sam Spence
- A4: Northern Lights 1 - John Cameron
- A5: Spaghetti Junction - Peter Reno
- A6: Space Walk - Rubba
- A7: Prospect - Paul Hart
- B1: Tomorrow's Fashions - Geoff Bastow
- B2: Blue Movies - Brian Wade
- B3: Videodisc - Trevor Bastow
- B4: Interface - Astral Sounds
- B5: Starways - Brian Chatton
- B6: Optics - Unit 9
- B7: Atomic Station - Wozo
- C1: Future Prospect - Adrian Baker
- C2: Planned Production - Warren Bennett
- C3: Future Perspectives - Anthony Hobson Aka Tektron
- C4: Waterfall - Chameleon
- C5: Telecom - James Asher
- C6: Eagle - Simon Park Aka Soul City Orchestra
- C7: Astral Plain - Alan Hawkshaw
- D1: Drifting In Time - Paul Williams
- D2: Earth Born - Brian Bennett
- D3: Soft Waves - Harry Forbes
- D6: Infinity - John Cameron
- D7: Morning Dew - Andy Grossart & Paul Williams
- D4: Topaz - Astral Sounds
- D5: Eternity - Alan Hawkshaw
Nothing said new or modern or futuristic quite like a synthesiser in the 70s and 80s. If you were shooting an advert and you wanted your product or your company to appear forward-thinking and ahead of the game, then you would want something electronic, something out of the ordinary. When TV producers and advertising directors started searching for music that sounded like “Tubular Bells” – and then Tomita, and later Jean Michel Jarre – music libraries such De Wolfe, Bruton, Parry and Chappell had to have the tracks readily available.
Compiled by Bob Stanley, “Tomorrow’s Fashions” varies from advertising jingles and TV themes to space exploration and gorgeous, beatless ambience. Though it’s 40-to-50 years old there’s a real freshness to this music. Older jazz players Brian Bennett, John Cameron, Alan Hawkshaw and others seized the chance to operate a synth; younger pups including John Saunders and Monica Beale were simply intrigued by the new technology being wheeled into the studios. There’s a tangible sense of adventure.
“Tomorrow’s Fashions’” brand of electronica anticipated new age and ambient music. It also had both a direct and indirect influence on pop – the early Human League and the future sounds of Warp Records are all over this collection. Electronic library tracks have been sampled by everyone from MF Doom to Kendrick Lamar.
One person’s primitive and experimental is another person’s space-age lullaby. This was music made in the shadows – in Soho’s secretive music library studios – that has now become desirable and influential. The chances are chunks of it will be sampled and used on hit records that have yet to be written. If the musicians’ aim was to soundtrack tomorrow’s fashions, they couldn’t have got it more right.
Le Chatroom, a record label established in 2016 by the English producer Kouslin, searches for the missing link between underground bass music and outer national sounds. Its music is defined by the blend of synthetic and organic tones, modern / classic instruments and low- end heavy percussive rhythms.
Pushing artists from all around the globe that share the same love for this newfound sound, Kouslin's aim with Le Chatroom is to promote musical diversity, open-mindedness and experimentation at a time when unity between cultures is crucial. With 'LCR001' the label advances into a new physical environment from which this release should be experienced.
Real talk and native percussion establish the steady climax of 'Brothers', the A-side of Le Chatroom's inaugural wax release. Kouslin cuts through this sediment with a bright flute, before the state of the sound switches into something far darker and meditative. By placing several samples at irregular intervals, the Londoner achieves a fascinating charm that'll unite us all.
Booming bass in 'Gyals' lingers with a steady pace while percy tribal hits forge a raw groove that's far from common. With this movement, the producer from Bristol disintegrates the sense of a generic production and sticks to his true nature. Through this it becomes clear that Galtier has his polyrhythms down to a science.
Londoner Sheik clinches the B-side with a craze that unveils a nearly psychotic sense of sample architecture. Pushing crystal clear 808 kicks in- between the haunting atmospheres and a wall of pressure simply becomes one of his most inventive takes documented on wax. If you love to swerve through a minefield, the odd 'Oxram' would be your favourite pick off this first outline.
The three producers that feature on 'LCR001' pass on their fundamentals to conjure Le Chatroom's philosophy red-handed. Together they do the imprint's name justice by handing over critical bass repertoire that'll excite many!
For the latest Klasse Wrecks release, the label combine with Japan's finest festival and events crew Rainbow Disco Club to collaboratively present WRECKSRDC. Overrocket were an electro-pop band from Tokyo that enjoyed a grip of great releases in the early 2000s while signed to Neon Discs and its parent label Aten. During a digging session Luca Lozano discovered the forgotten tracks 'Duralumin' and 'Shadow of the Sun' and immediately set out trying to contact the band's members to arrange a re-release and remix. A few months of patient trying, the connection was finally made and wheels were set in motion. Musically the EP conjures up perfectly the sonics of that time, a grey area between analog convention and the unexplored territories of new digital freedom. Shadow Of The Sun is electro-pop perfection, with breezy vocals and a bouncing beat that sounds like nothing else around...past, present or future. Duralumin is a more dancey collection of blips and beats, one that will make sense in the current return to early 2000s aesthetics. To round out the release and propel it into 2025, KW label bosses take a track each and interpret in their own way. Lozano revisits his electro roots with two remixes of Shadow of the Sun, distorted 808s and growling 101 basslines provide a simple backdrop for the perfect vocals. Mr. Ho takes Duralumin into a more driving and pacey direction, upping the energy and excitement with fast percussion and a huge side chained breakdown that recalls the unbridled rawness of the early 2000s, when everything was just a little bit more fun. Keeping within the confines of Japan and in an effort to bring everything full circle, the label enlisted Japanese artist Gonno to master the tracks for an updated modern sound. The tracks themselves being mastered a few miles from where they were originally penned over 20 years ago.
AN ATLAS OF LOSS
Do minerals dream of becoming semiconductors? Do they yearn to carry charges, amplify, switch, and convert energy into emotions comprehensible to humans? And what if, from the darkness of the underground, they had been listening to us sing in caves before the emergence of the first flute? Could they have guided us, through the course of history, to find them, extract them, and create new sounds through sinusoidal waves, to form valves and bend circuits?
If so, minerals would transition from what philosopher Eugene Thacker defines as the ‘planet’—that virginal and unreachable realm for humans that we study through geology, paleontology, and environmental sciences—to the ‘world,’ the space we inhabit, interpret, and synthesise in our daily lives. Sadly, we only remember the world when it erupts violently, through climate catastrophes or when a new virus emerges. Sometimes a tsunami collides with a nuclear plant, or viruses are cultivated as biological weapons in high-security laboratories, provoking a deep biological anxiety, hard to quell, which we all feel beneath our skin.
There exists a third realm, disconnected from both the world and the planet: the ‘earth’, an immense, dense rock floating in space alongside other planets, situated in the cosmological dimension. Relating to the earth is so complex that we only do so through theoretical speculations of a scientific nature or through science fiction, interweaving until one becomes the prophecy of the other, in an infinite, pendular dance. Beyond the darkness of space and Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, the fantasy of human extinction is the most recurrent: to reach a collapse so devastating that we do not survive it, even though the earth does, without us.
In a world where we quantify everything through body sensors, financial algorithms, nanometre-scale robots, and surveillance drones—a world in which everything that can be domesticated and controlled can also be commodified—a superior artificial intelligence would survive the collapse of the species (some speculate it might even cause it) and learn from our mistakes, thanks to our obsessive gathering of data.
Long after our voices fade, minerals will persist in the darkness of screens, in the silicon of chips, and in their pure form, still unexploited underground. Over the millennia, this intelligence might piece together fragments of our reasoning, as if an alien civilization finally connected with one of our spacecrafts loaded with messages cast into the void. It would sort through endless streams of data, unable to grasp the depths of emotion behind what it quantified, recreating simulations of our past, stripped of the nuance that once defined us and conducting experiments in sandboxes.
Some remnants of our existence—faint echoes of forgotten beauty—would be pieced together in an atlas of loss, buried beneath layers of numbers, decayed bots, and corroded hard drives. What will follow? Perhaps bison will once again roam—trotting to the strange pulse of techno, their ancient forms framed by the ruins of our cities.
Buildings will crumble, slowly dissolving under the soft touch of ambient music, and a thousand flowers will bloom with that ancient music created through electrical signals and computation. 7 songs for a future both improbable and inevitable—a final message from a world lost to itself, from planet Earth to planet Earth.
Alfons Pich, 2025
Marcos Valle is one of the few artists you cannot miss if you have the slightest interest in Brazilian music. Whether your taste is focused on bossa jazz, samba, psych folk or soul, Valle has surely recorded a great album for you. His much sought-after and stunning self-titled album from 1970 includes ‘Ele E Ela’, as sampled on Jay-Z’s ‘Thank You’, as well as some of his most popular songs like ‘Freio Aerodinamico’ and ‘Os Grilos’, swinging between sophistication and groove… Remastered from the original tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl. This release is part of our new reissue series that comprises many other outstanding Brazilian classics by the likes of Evinha, Cassiano, Gerson King Combo, Hyldon... Marcos Valle is one of the few artists you cannot miss if you have the slightest interest in Brazilian music. Whether your taste is focused on bossa jazz, samba, psych folk or soul, Valle has surely recorded a great album for you. By the late 60s he had already put out enough quality records to secure a place within the top Brazilian songwriters of all time, but his career luckily did not stop there and he continued releasing amazing music over the following decades until this day. By the dawn of the 1970s, the multi-talented Valle was entering a new era, ready to test the government censors (Brazil was under strict military rule since a coup d’état in 1964) and express a socially aware stance and a playful hodge-podge of musical styles including samba, bossa nova, baião (a rhythmic beat from the rural northeast of Brazil), black American music, and rock. “Marcos Valle” was originally released in 1970 and features a dynamic musical backing from some of Brazil’s most gifted players. Hip-hop fans may even recognize the opening horn blasts of ‘Ele E Ela,’ sampled to great effect on Jay-Z’s “Thank You.” It includes some of his most popular songs like ‘Freio Aerodinamico’ and ‘Os Grilos’, swinging between sophistication and groove…
Early support from Luke Slater, Ben Sims, Sverca, Staffan Linzatti,
Voyager Recordings returns, this time with well known artist - Ecilo, and his album entitled "Interstellar Shaman". An 8 track vinyl and 10 track digital release, with additional bonus digital tracks. This one being a lot more dancefloor focused, while retaining that sci-fi, future sound.
An eclectic and innovative artist from Indonesia, he started his journey into the world of electronic music in 2008. Making his mark on the South East Asian scene. His music found influence in the rhythms of jazz, soul, and blues, as well as the atmospheric resonances of Sci-Fi soundtracks.
With releases on noteworthy labels such as AXIS, ARTS, Planet Rhythm, Olympian, and more, Ecilo has strengthened his reputation as a producer and DJ with his percussive beats resonating around the world
- A1: One O'clock Junk
- A2: Before The Rain
- A3: Circles
- A4: Dark Eyes Of Martha Hirsch
- A5: The Bridge That Broke On A Blue Monday
For years, whispers circulated through the jazz scenes of Denmark and Poland - rumours of a lost recording session featuring the legendary Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and a group of Scandinavian and Polish musicians. Now, nearly a decade after the session and seven years after Stanko's passing, these long-awaited recordings are finally seeing the light of day. The project originated at Vallekilde Højskole in Denmark, where Stanko was invited to teach at JazzDanmark's annual Summer Session. A storied program that has hosted luminaries including Bill Frisell and Anat Cohen, the summer school became the birthplace of this unexpected ensemble. Here, alongside a dynamic ensemble of young musicians, Stanko found renewed inspiration, embracing their compositions as much as his own - a rare occurrence for an artist known for leading his own groups. Scandinavian Art Ensemble with Tomasz Stanko is the result: two albums of expansive, deeply expressive music that merge the melancholic depth of Polish jazz with the spacious, atmospheric qualities of the Scandinavian sound. As trumpeter Tomasz Dabrowski recalls, Stanko wasn't just a mentor - he was an equal, driven by curiosity and the desire to push boundaries. "He wanted to play our music. He was always listening, always searching." Across these two albums recorded at The Village Recordings in 2016, listeners will hear Stanko's unmistakable tone interwoven with compositions by both himself and the ensemble members. Pieces like 'The Dark Eyes of Martha Hirsch' and 'Before the Rain' showcase not just his signature lyricism, but also his willingness to step back, listen, and let the younger generation shape the sound. Beyond his unmistakable sound, Stanko's influence was about energy - his presence elevated those around him. Bassist Richard Andersson put it simply: "He brings together the energies, and makes us all play better than usual." This project captures that essence: a legendary artist meeting the next generation on equal footing, creating something entirely unexpected. A decade after the session, the members of the Scandinavian Art Ensemble have forged their own paths, shaping the jazz landscapes of Copenhagen, Malmö, Reykjavik, and beyond. But the impact of their time with Stanko remains profound. "Releasing these albums is about more than just the music," D?browski says. "It's about preserving the spirit of Stanko - his generosity, his curiosity, his way of bringing people together. Even after all these years, his presence can still be felt in every note we played."
When SW. AKA, Stefan Wust, first established SUED in 2011, their compelling, cosmic and anonymous material struck a rare chord, emanating far beyond the freeform Berlin underground in which it was written. Unknowingly, Los Angelean Oliver Bristow had
established a parallel musical universe, founding the hyper-specific label Acid Test, inviting pioneering artists such as Donato Dozzy, Tin Man and Pepe Bradock to indulge in glorious interpretations of 303 control. Without compromise, these were records that quietly
reinvigorated electronic music.
Some years later, a new label, SWOB, unites Wust and Bristow in a very different landscape. And while it would be easy to transform the purity and integrity of this special alchemy into something like nostalgia, yearning for an alternative culture before
influencers and against algorithms, SWOB endeavours to find inspiration in arguably tougher truths.
“By the mid-90s, the techno scene had already reached a breaking point”, recalls Wust.
“Today, the scene is so highly professionalized that it barely resembles what was once called the "underground. But "underground" was never more than the simple reality that music circulated on cassettes among friends or that dubplates were played at illegal
parties... The consequence of today’s professionalization is the death of the original movement.”
Still, no one can kill an idea. Here, inspired by the “Outside Tekno” or “Outkast Techno” that emerged to subvert even back in the day, SWOB are proud to introduce the tekkNOthing trilogy, a new project from SW. beginning on cassette and culminating later
on vinyl. Some years in development, tekkNOthing first began to take shape during the 2020 global pandemic, when ‘the underground’ quickly began to mean something radically different once again.
“I noticed how everything was accelerating while simultaneously spinning in circles – existing in a kind of creative limbo on a global scale”, recalls Wust. “And that’s where true freedom lies: for artists – in any sense – to consciously engage with this necessity. In
other words, irrationality or nonsense can eventually generate meaning.” While hardly capitulating to the contemporary hammering of techno’s most recent developments, tekkNOthing’s first chapter quickly establishes a frenetic pace; tracks like ‘nuclearFALLoutX’ and ‘paslolESmess’ interlock and unfold at a tempo removed from that typically associated with SW. while ‘euroBSS’ and ‘viscousHEAT’ successfully experiment with a more guttural palette, veering far into a rejuvenating and previously uncharted leftfield.
A resolutely human endeavour, the music of SW. is nonetheless written and recorded in the looming shadow of AI, whose free-form adoption of pop culture, hip-hop and techno reminds Wust of “when photography emerged in the 19th century... painting was no
longer bound to naturalism. Similarly, music today is no longer bound to fixed standards – through AI, it can become truly free.”
If not in competition, than taking inspiration from this landscape of new opportunity, tekkNOthing diversifies further with eight unpredictable tracks across part II, taking in stuttering machine-funk on ‘crAMPDUNK’, a freeform organ jam via ‘sonicENdo’ and the
inexplicable piston-percussive, post-punk exotica heard on ‘poorTENOOR#a#01’ DJs with dual cassette decks skills might even find function in the more overtly floor-focused ‘DU ¨NEhowSE#1takeÄ’ or ‘lookLOOK’.
The times may have changed, but the promise remains simple; more music, more freedom.
Bomj Diego had one simple dream – to spend a lazy summer weekend at his friend’s dacha, kicking back in a plastic lawn chair, sipping on Ovip Lokos, and letting the world spin as slowly as the rusty ceiling fan in the old guest house.
One Friday, he finally got his chance. He loaded up a plastic bag with a few cans of Ovip Lokos, an ancient Bluetooth speaker, and a single flip-flop (he’d lost the other one in a heated game of dominoes the week before). But as soon as he got off the train at the dacha station, Diego realized he had no idea where the actual dacha was. No address, no signal, just the distant sound of a chainsaw and the smell of freshly cut grass.
Undeterred, he followed the smoke of a barbecue like a hungry wolf. After an hour of wandering, he stumbled into a random backyard where a group of old timers were playing cards around a makeshift table. “Ah, Diego! You made it!” one of them shouted, raising a can of Ovip Lokos. Diego had no idea who the guy was, but he immediately sat down, cracked open his own can, and joined the game.
Hours later, as the sun dipped behind the trees and the mosquitoes started their evening shift, Diego realized – this wasn’t his friend’s dacha. In fact, it wasn’t even the right village. But the old men insisted he stay for shashlik, and as the Ovip Lokos flowed, Diego figured, “Eh, close enough.”
He never did make it to the right dacha, but sometimes, it’s the wrong turn that makes the best story.
2025 Repress
Jim Coles once again turns the tide towards a new horizon and travels further into the echo chamber. Leading on from the much-lauded ‘Secret Location’ mini-album with Seekersinternational, one-offs such as ‘Open Palms dub’ (Dub Stuy) and other teasings, ‘Acid Dub Studies’ is the fully-fledged result of the merging of the calligraphic expression of the 303 Acid bassline with the stern sway of Dub Reggae and the hazier edges of Dub Techno and Ambient music.
For those who have been paying close attention, this project will come as a welcome return to the vulnerability and playfulness of early Om Unit records such as his sub-radar single from 2010 ‘Lightgrids/Lavender’ (All City Records) or the unearthed chugging ambience of ‘Friend of Day’ (Idle Hands) and indeed in some sense draws from similar wellsprings as moments on 2013’s Bass classic ‘Threads’.
Whilst being perhaps an ‘interim project’ this is still a vital and important expression of exploration and playfulness. A study in the true sense and borne out of a subtle but pervasive frustration with the rigidity found in musical words he has up to now been cohabiting, Acid Dub Studies comes from the pressing need to break with perceived expectation and to explore an honest and natural space away from the genre labels and tags that had been often lazily applied to his sizeable catalogue of music.
With no desire to reinvent the wheel, rather to paint pictures in an honest framework, the LP was crafted using a medley of classic analogue mixing techniques inspired as much by the adventurous dubbing of Adrian Sherwood as by the inward-delving haze of Scott Monteith’s Deadbeat project. Created during a period of lonely introspective walks through his home town of Bristol, the cover art is a photograph of some of the iron kerbstones that are found almost exclusively in the characterful and hardy city which were installed in the late 1800’s to protect pavements from cart wheels. Something about the permanence of those iron slabs and cobblestones inspired a sense of comfort and determination.
Acid Dub Studies is due for release as yet another self-released label-free project leading on from recent EP titles ‘Violet’ and ‘Submerged’ both of which hinted at some of the shapes found in this full length album.
Once again Jim has shown a rare convincing adaptability that few electronic artists can embody. Another step on the journey of personal and creative curiosity that fans are sure to appreciate.
- A1: Winter Wonderland (Feat Kansas Smitty's) (2 40)
- A2: I Believe In Father Christmas (3 51)
- A3: Man With The Bag (Feat Kansas Smitty's) (2 54)
- A4: Christmas Don't Let Me Down (3 21)
- A5: Sleigh Ride (Feat Kansas Smitty's) (2 24)
- A6: Amazing Grace (Feat The Vernon Spring) (2 53)
- B1: This Winter (Feat Lady Blackbird & Kansas Smitty's) (2 54)
- B2: Silent Night (3 50)
- B3: Jingle Bells (Feat Kansas Smitty's) (2 55)
- B4: Frosty The Snowman (Feat Kansas Smitty's) (2 09)
- B5: Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (5 34)
- B6: God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Feat Kansas Smitty's) (2 15)
- B7: Let No Walls Divide (3 21)
- C1: It's Christmas (3 12)
- C2: Beautiful, Together (3 26)
- C3: Hang Your Lights (4 57)
- C4: The Jolly Fat Man (3 05)
- C5: The Pianoman At Christmas (4 27)
- D1: Turn On The Lights (4 16)
- D2: So Many Santas (3 28)
- D3: Christmas Never Gets Old (2 43)
- D4: How Do You Fly (5 55)
- D5: Christmas Caught Me Crying (3 17)
Multi platinum-selling musician and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Cullum today announces The Pianoman At Christmas - The Complete Edition. Due for release on 19th November via Island Records. The deluxe album completes last year’s critically acclaimed hit album The Pianoman At Christmas Part 1, with its Second Part - featuring 11 covers of classic Christmas songs, as well as two original songs, including lead single ‘Christmas Don’t Let Me Down’, out now.
Drawing from the past and inspired by the present, The Pianoman At Christmas - The Complete Edition sees Jamie team up with London jazz innovators Kansas Smitty’s, as well as composer and producer The Vernon Spring and acclaimed LA-based jazz singer Lady Blackbird to complete a piece of work that is imbued with seasonal sophistication. Alongside his two original tracks, Jamie breathes new life into classics such as ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Frosty The Snowman’, ranging from ‘Amazing Grace’ to ‘Man With The Bag’ and ‘Sleigh Ride’. The Complete Edition will be released on double CD and double black vinyl formats, alongside a limited run of 180G Heavyweight coloured vinyl in red and gold.
Speaking on the release, Jamie said -
“I had a huge amount of fun creating part two of TPAC. Recorded live, all in the room together - it’s the party after the big show, with friends, drinks and some of the finest musicians on planet earth.”
Released almost a year to the day before The Complete Edition is due out, The Pianoman At Christmas featured 11 original songs played by 57 of Britain’s best musicians, recorded in Abbey Road’s famous Studio 2 and produced by Greg Wells whose The Greatest Showman soundtrack spent 28 weeks at number 1. The album sold over 37,000 copies, spending 6 weeks in the album chart and peaking at number 11. In December Jamie broke the Guinness World Record for the largest music lesson ever, when he held a virtual piano lesson for 2,282 people, teaching them the carol ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ with special guests Robbie Williams, Sigrid and Dodie.
With 10 million album sales and over 890 million streams to date, Jamie is a celebrated musician the world over with loyal fans in every corner of the globe. With a career spanning over 20 years, his legendary live shows have seen him perform and work alongside artists as diverse as Herbie Hancock, Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar and IDLES - Jamie writing on the latter’s album Ultra Mono. The success of Jamie’s major label breakthrough, Twentysomething in 2003 and its follow up Catching Tales saw him nominated for a BRIT, Grammy and numerous other awards around the world. In 2020 he won an Ivor Novello Award for his track ‘Age of Anxiety’, taken from his acclaimed 9th studio album Taller. In addition to his enduringly successful recording career, Jamie has also established himself as a multi-award winning music broadcaster; his BBC Radio 2 show celebrated its 11th year on air this year.
With her debut album Black Acid Soul earning critical praise, Lady Blackbird is a revelatory new talent with music that transcends the jazz scene through which the LA-based artist is rooted. Reflecting influences as varied as Billie Holiday, Gladys Knight, Tina Turner and Chaka Khan, with critics drawing comparisons to Adele, Amy and Celeste, Lady Blackbird’s distinct and beguiling voice is not one to be missed.
UK band Kansas Smitty’s have developed a musical voice wholly unique from what’s happening around them. They are led by band leader and producer Giacomo Smith who's cinematic compositions feature on their releases, most recently 2021's acclaimed Things Happened Here for Berlin based label !K7. In 2015 they launched their own east London venue and bar, of the same name, which became one of the conception points for the current UK jazz boom.
Londoner Sam Beste aka The Vernon Spring is a polymath in music who has production, writing and performance credits as eclectic as Amy Winehouse, Matthew Herbert, Kano, Joy Crookes, Beth Orton, Blood Orange, Gabriels and MF DOOM. Since 2019 he has been making waves with solo project The Vernon Spring, which foregrounds his rare capacity to hold sophistication and simplicity in the same hands through highly intimate muted-piano compositions and improvisations.
NINE CHANNEL is a new label from GRANT DELL and is the sister label to LEGSMAN records which brings a more STEPPERS - DIGI DUB - DUBBY TECHNO vibe to the offering. Tuff rhythms built by Grant Dell and featuring vocals from some of reggae’s most revered artists, like, TRINITY - MAX ROMEO - JOSEY WALES - SYLFORD WALKER - DELTON SCREECHIE - GEORGE NOOKS - FRED LOCKS and the UK’s COREYSAN. With remixes coming from Techno don BEN SIMS and Andrew Weatherall’s prolific writing partner NINA WALSH where both join the dots between Dub and their respected genres. The First release is from toasting legend TRINITY. Sadly, one of his last recordings before his untimely passing. JAH MI PROTECTOR has all the hall marks of Trinity’s righteous chanting style, reminiscent of his chat on the classic FIVE MAN ARMY song from 1982




















