The tapes for “Ronnie McNeir Makes A Move” were found in Mickey Stevenson’s extensive master tape collection. A full new LP of classic McNeir is an absolute treat for his many soul fans; particularly in Europe where he is so admired.
Ronnie recorded over twenty tracks with Mickey Stevenson’s production company in 1971. Eleven of these were featured on his RCA LP “Ronnie McNeir”, but another ten were left in the vaults.
The title track, ‘Let’s Make A Move’ is an urgent, exciting funk sound, composed with Ronnie’s frequent writing partner, Andre Moore. ‘I’m Sorry’ is an earlier version of ‘Gone Away’ which featured on the 1972 RCA “Ronnie McNeir” LP, without the female singer’s vocal response track.
‘Say You’ is the Motown song first recorded by the Monitors in 1965. It has a more laid-back treatment here, giving it a whole new dimension. We issued the single version on a Kent Select 45 in 2022; both versions are featured on the CD. Another re-envisaged Motown number is ‘The Girl’s Alright With Me’ which features Hodges, James, Smith & Crawford’s backing vocals − as do other tracks on this album. Surprisingly, Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowing In The Wind’ is also covered; in a pleasing, jaunty treatment.
‘My Day Will Come’ is a slow-burning number Ronnie co-wrote with his wife Mona. It is one he is particularly proud of and has been picked up by modern soul DJs as a potential crossover hit. ‘Tell Your Mama’ is a sensuous, Marvin Gaye-influenced groove, while ‘East Side, West Side’ is more streetwise, dealing with the social problems that face many young people.
As a multi-instrumentalist, heavily influenced by jazz, it comes as no surprise that Ronnie would record two jazz / soul instrumental jams which he simply named ‘Ronnie’s Bag #1’ and ‘Ronnie’s Bag #2’. The tracks are keyboard-lead, piano and possibly organ – or more likely one of the early synthesisers that Ronnie pioneered. ‘Ronnie’s Bag #1’ is more jazz-oriented, while ‘Ronnie’s Bag #2’ goes funky.
Cerca:slow
‘Get A Life, Listen To Autumns’ is a statement that tells you everything you need to know about the quality and attitude of the Irish producer’s latest EP. His DNO debut presents five tracks of steel-studded EBM and industrial run through with his trademark dub aesthetics.
A1 ‘100 Ways To Get Fucked’ — another bold title — struts its stuff to a methodical stomp; strained vocals pulled out of shape and fed back into macabre forms; low-end chugging like some smoke-billowing, grease-slicked machine.
‘Let It Melt’ picks up the pace, making judicious use of the reverse function, while subtle acid chirps and woozy arpeggios provide a chaotic, though not unpleasant, dissonance that induces a feeling of headrush.
‘Petted’ swaggers like sex incarnate, alongside snatches of diva vox and the kind of sweeping space-age pads that Holst might have used had he been born a century later, seemingly taking cues from the hot and sweaty nights of ’80s Chicago.
Over on the B-side, ‘LDRO’ sets its kicks and snares thrusting at full tilt over an inexorable bassline; Autumns’ favourite effect, delay, keeping things squelching like the jellified flesh of a ballistics dummy.
And to finish, ‘God’s Gift’ drops down to a sludgy rhythm — though with surprisingly spritely percussion — to match its tortured guitar, shrieking horns, and deadly subs. A fever dream of twisted metal and hot breath, like the gradual slowing after the climax of debauchery.
Marking a sultry new route for DNO, Autumns’ first for the label is confident, confrontational, and
not to be missed.
Rhythms of postmodern realism at the very bottom of the DNO.
DJ Minx, Boogie Vice & N-You-Up, The People in Fog, and Jabes remix Radio Slave & Kameelah Waheed’s ‘All Rize’ on Rekids
Radio Slave presents the second remix EP for ‘All Rize’, releasing 19th December 2025, a follow-up to his May collaboration with Kameelah Waheed, enlisting DJ Minx, Boogie Vice & N-You-Up, DJ Sodeyama’s The People in Fog alias, and Jabes to reimagine the track. It follows the first remix package, featuring Harry Romero and Samaran in October, which won support from Laurent Garnier, Chloé Caillet, Saoirse, Honey Dijon, and many more.
Detroit’s First Lady of Wax, DJ Minx, follows her appearance at Rekids’ Panorama Bar takeover in August and steps up first. Her remix is a raw, club-ready workout built around a relentless groove and Kameelah Waheed’s commanding vocal mantra, as bleeps and whistles dance across the mix. Linking Cape Town and Southern France, Boogie Vice & N-You-Up follow their 2025 EP on REK’D and deliver a deep cut that slowly builds tension, its organic percussion and warm bassline leading toward a strobe-lit, tripped-out drop.
On the flip of the second ‘All Rize’ remix EP, Japan’s DJ Sodeyama, under his The People in Fog alias, drifts into more hypnotic territory. Lush pads wash over a low-slung beat and bassline, trading the club for the walk to the after-hours by carrying Waheed’s vocal into something surreal and dreamlike. Completing this left-of-centre B-side, Timedance and Kindergarten’s Jabes twists the original into a warped, textural trip with scratching layers and distorted vocal fragments that pierce through a dense atmosphere. If Sodeyama’s version is the dream, Jabes’ is the chaotic counterpart that follows.
Shoegaze slow dance where distortion and desire merge into a single narcotic pulse. Each track feels like a transmission from a beautiful but broken future, numbing the senses before consuming them completely. Much like the most immersive works of Tropic of Cancer or Death in Vegas, the album drifts beneath a flickering sodium sky, lost in reverb and ritual. This is not just another new release—it’s an unforgettable sonic hallucination, a cinematic comedown carved in echo and melancholy, where time and thought dissolve in waves of velvet static. Presented in ONE-OFF truly limited edition of 300 copies lacquered pressed on 180 gr. high quality solid BLACK vinyl, including printed innersleeve with lyrics.
Two musicians, two different folk music traditions, two soundscapes hundreds of miles apart and one nightingale song. Nightingale melodies inspired this intoxicating folk album by Slovakian flautist Michaela Antalová and Norwegian double bassist Adrian Myhr. The Oslo-based duo’s album follows their meditative 2021 debut Zvony (Bells), which featured harmonium, field recordings of crickets and a Slovak male choir.
Sing Nightingale is a translation of ‘Zaspievaj Slavicku’, a traditional Slovakian song. The duo experiments with this theme of the songbird; exploring instrumentation from around the world and its rich tonal textures. On ‘Night Singing’, Michaela plays a Slovakian fujara, a tall, upright wooden bass flute originally played by shepherds. The fujara’s smooth, deep tones are laid over a recording of a nightingale by musicologist Tomáš Šenkyřík, with Michaela’s flute mimicking the bird’s nocturnal chirps and warbles to attract a mate. Michaela is carefully imitating the bird, who is in turn improvising his melody. In ‘Worm Moon’, named after the springtime full moon in March, when nightingales return from Africa where they have spent the cold winter, Adrian’s slow and resonant double bass is brightened by the sweet trills of a real nightingale and Michaela’s fujara.
The Norwegian Hardanger fiddle or hardingfele, features on two specially written songs; ‘Lament’ and ‘Rosenhave’ (rose garden) which bring together the nightingale’s symbolic associations with undying love, sacrifice, deep sorrow and loss. Celebrated Hardanger fiddle player Helga Myhr plays alongside Adrian’s double bass and Michaela’s seljefløyte or willow flute. Helga also plays on ‘Flagre’ (Flutter) and ‘Dance Nightingale’. The seljefløyte is very similar to the Slovak overtone flute koncovka. By using this Norwegian instrument, Adrian and Michaela’s new compositions are reminiscent of both countries’ folk traditions. Folk music often comes from unknown sources; the original writer may not be known and the melodies are typically passed down orally. Michaela and Adrian’s project merges the different folk musics from their respective countries, finding common ground in the sonic qualities of instruments and evolving a new hybrid folk style, authentic in its own right.
For the stunning adaptation of the traditional Slovakian fujara song ‘Dolu Ovce Dolinami’ (‘Sheep down the valleys’), Adrian’s friend Javid Afsari Rad plays the Iranian santur, similar to the traditional Slovak string instrument cimbalom. By coincidence, Iran’s national bird is the nightingale, making another unexpected connection to the symbolic bird. These 11 tracks are a beguiling fusion of traditional folk styles, approached by musicians from an avant-garde, improv and jazz background. The album pays tribute to a hugely expressive bird and finds a strange, soothing universality in the folk sounds of different countries.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Summer of Love, originally a Bandcamp-exclusive, Torus released it on all streaming platforms in September. The limited edition vinyl is now available for preorder. The 12'' double-sided black vinyl is packaged in a double-holed front sleeve and complemented by a custom orange inner sleeve, paying homage to the double sun motif featured on the digital cover. The A-side displays a printed tracklist in the center label area, while the B-side is marked by a unique hand-drawn, hand-cut design made by the cutter.
This album cover is quite mysterious, isn't it? Let's uncover what's behind it. The first notes of the opening track immediately set the tone: the journey begins. Take the album title literally and allow yourself to be comforted by the tenderness the British band is about to offer.
Dream pop is a genre of its own, characterized by a warm sound, enveloping bass lines, dreamy synths, and beautiful vocals. With "No Rush," Tokyo Tea Room guides the listener through an exploration of their emotions and an escape from everyday life.
Each of the 12 tracks on this project exudes the same tender energy, yet stands out with creative and meticulously crafted compositions. This project is poised to become a staple of the genre.
American ambient powerhouse zake is back with a meditation on stillness, memory and the quiet power of seasonal change. Rooted in the Midwestern winter that inspires much of his work, his latest album Cantus for Winter in Six Parts unfolds in slow-moving analogue drones, soft hiss and faint environmental textures that are both intimate and expansive and true to his signature style. Each piece drifts gently into the next, evoking cracked wood, falling snow, distant strings and the eerie calm of frozen landscapes. By the time the 19-minute finale arrives, you are lost in a world of solitude and reflecting deeply on many things that will ultimately leave you feeling restored.
On her fourth full-length album as Shedir, Sardinian sound artist Martina Betti offers a profound meditation on what it means to be human on the threshold of uncertainty.
We Are All Strangers is a series of ambient tapes-tries shaped by duality and introspection, where sound becomes a space to explore the tension between identity and ambiguity, presence and disappearance, connection and solitude. Inspired by the idea that we are all strangers, however, first and foremost to ourselves, Betti crafts seven fluid, slow-burn compositions that inhabit a sociological liminal zone—what she comments as an “inner elsewhere.”
These aren’t songs in the traditional sense, but evolving sonic environments that feel like emotional states made audible. Environmental textures, submerged electronics, and deep low-end pulses coalesce into a dreamlike architecture of sound: immersive, fragile, and quietly transformative.
Rather than offering answers or closure, the album invites us to live in radical openness—to stop trying to define everything we see and feel, and instead bathe in what remains unnamed. In this sense, We Are All Strangers is an invitation: to sit with uncertainty, to embrace the unfinished, and to find resonance even in our collective disconnection.
For listeners drawn to the introspective frequencies of Rafael Anton Irisarri, Félicia Atkinson, or Lawrence English, Betti’s music offers a similarly haunting and immersive experience—one where strangeness is not a flaw, but a starting point. In her hands, ambient music becomes a kind of reflective shelter: a place to brush against each other in the dark and begin to learn, as she puts it, “the difficult art of closeness.”
- Threetoone
- Freaks Of Nature
- Burning Air
- First Contact
- Humans
- March Of The Lost Souls
- Underground
- Ashes To Ashes
- It Up To You
- This Means War
- The Hum
Rot/Schwarzes Ink-Spot Vinyl, limitiert auf 300 Exemplare. Drei Buchstaben. Drei Musiker. Drei Instrumente. Drei Jahre. Graf Zahl hätte seine Freude an diesem Album_ HUM loten ihre dunklen Stoner-Klangwelten weiter aus. ,three" bringt sowohl druckvolle Post-Rock-Songs als auch psychedelische Klangexperimente. Jeder Track scheint eine Idee zu verfolgen; jeder eine 4-Minuten-Reise. Die Themen drehen sich um Umweltzerstörung, gesellschaftliche Irrwege und Spacetrips. ,three" ist das Album für die Apokalypse oder für einen Abend im Weltraum. Der Spaß kommt dabei nicht zu kurz: Die Dunkelheit wird auf fetten, langsamen Grooves präsentiert. Die Stücke sind kompakt und melodisch. Katharsis ist das Ziel: Wer mit offenen Ohren hört, dem könnte es nach den 11 Tracks und 41 min besser gehen_ Eine aufregende Reise durch musikalische Klangwelten (Surf, Gothic/Dark Wave, Kraut und Prog-Rock) mehrerer Jahrzehnte. Die HUM-typischen schweren Riffs (im Schatten von Godzilla) mit komplexen Rhythmen und Breaks werden erweitert durch neue Elemente wie Surfgitarre, Synthiesounds und gesangliche Experimente. Der meist mit Effekten verfremdete Gesang wird spärlich und gezielt eingesetzt mit oft kurzen Textfragmenten, welche die Stimmung der Songs textlich untermalen. Dazu kommen drei instrumentale Soundcollagen, die als düstere Überleitung zwischen den Songs dienen. Ein gewisser roter Faden scheint sich thematisch durch das Album zu ziehen. Red/black ink spot vinyl. Limited to 300 copies. Three letters. Three musicians. Three instruments. Three years. The Count would have loved this album...HUM continue to explore their dark stoner soundscapes. "three" features both powerful post-rock songs andpsychedelic sound experiments. Each track seems to pursue an idea; each one a 4-minute journey. The themesrevolve around environmental destruction, social aberrations, and space trips."three" is the album for the apocalypse or for an evening in space. But there's no shortage of fun: thedarkness is presented on fat, slow grooves. The pieces are compact and melodic. Catharsis is thegoal: if you listen with open ears, you might feel better after the 11 tracks and 41 minutes...An exciting journey through musical soundscapes (surf, gothic/dark wave, kraut and prog rock) spanning severaldecades. The heavy riffs typical of HUM (in the shadow of Godzilla) with complex rhythms and breaksare expanded by new elements such as surf guitar, synth sounds and vocal experiments. The vocals, mostlydistorted with effects, are used sparingly and purposefully, often with short text fragments that underscore the moodof the songs lyrically. In addition, there are three instrumental sound collages that serve as dark transitions betweenthe songs. A certain common thread seems to run through the album thematically.
Sermon On The Rocks is Josh Ritter's eight studio album, released in 2015. Singles from the album include "Getting Ready To Get Down" and "Homecoming." According to Ritter, the album is "messianic oracular honky-tonk." Produced by Trina Shoemaker and Josh, the 12-song album was recorded over two weeks at New Orleans’ The Parlor Recording Studio and features Matt Barrick from The Walkmen on drums, Zachariah Hickman on bass, Josh Kaufman on guitars, and Sam Kassirer on keyboards. Josh Ritter is the definition of an experienced songwriter. After graduating from Oberlin College in 1999 Ritter devoted his life to a songwriting career, releasing albums independently and garnering word-of-mouth popularity. He eventually caught the attention of Irish- songwriter Glen Hansard (writer of the song 'Falling Slowly' from the movie Once) and was invited to be the tour opener for his band The Frames. This then resulted in Josh gaining international success, with his third record 'Hello Starling', becoming a charting hit in Ireland. His songs have been featured on the TV show Parenthood, and in movies like The Other Woman and Typeface. Josh Ritter has so far released 7 studio albums, is an author, husband, father, and is considered one of the best living songwriters by Paste Magazine.
Dead Bird is AK-Industry's very first EP for Industrial Propaganda's sub-label: Totentanz Recordings. This new EP explores the limits of the hard techno and techno hardcore genres.
AK-Industry, the founder of Nekrolog1k Recordings, has been a driving force in the Industrial Crossbreed and Hardcore Techno scene since 2008.
His signature sound blends breakbeats with hardcore and techno, resulting in a unique and powerful style that has garnered attention from major labels such as The Third Movement (NL), Industrial Strength (USA), Dark Descent (NL) Industrial Propaganda (CH) and Ad Noiseam (DE).
Having performed at some of the biggest hardcore events in Europe, including Dominator, Q-Base, Defqon, Army of Hardcore Festivals, Club r_AW, and PRSPCT XL, AK-Industry has cemented his place as a top-tier artist in the genre.
He has also collaborated with heavyweight artists such as Mindustries, I:gor, N-Vitral, Ophidian, The Teknoist, Bryan Fury, Switch Technique, Igneon System, Delta9 and Fiend.
With brand new releases on the horizon, AK-Industry shows no signs of slowing down and continues to push the boundaries of the Industrial Crossbreed & Hardcore Techno genres.
- A1: Love's Coming Back
- B1: Houston (7" Exclusive)
Slinging back on the electric guitar, ditching the job, upping the BPMs, and falling in love again has resulted in Pete embracing his fuzzed up dream- pop past but also throwing in elements of pop and electronica.
The first fruits of this new-found labour is a brand new single "LOVE'S COMING BACK" which sums up the ethos for his new project all squeezed into 136 amp-frying seconds. Pete first burst onto the scene in the early 90s as the frontman and guitarist of postshoegaze / pre- Britpop band Adorable, whose 1993 album Against Perfection, released on Creation Records, is regularly referred to as a lost indie classic, with the band picking up multiple 'Single of the Week' awards in the NME, and topping the Indie charts. Noel Gallagher once told Creation Records' Alan McGhee that dropping Adorable from the label was one of his biggest mistakes, whilst other artists such as Ash, Slowdive and Brian Jonestown Massacre amongst others have all expressed their admiration for the band. Following this he joined up with his brother Krzys to form One Little Indian band Polak (Swansongs 2000 / Rubbernecking 2002) which took in influences from the likes of Sparklehorse, Radiohead and dEUS, and led The Independent to call him "the most gifted lyricist since Jarvis Cocker last put pen to paper".
There then followed a musical exile, after having what Pete now describes as 'a musical breakdown' before re-emerging alongside celebrated House of Love guitarist Terry Bickers to release two critically acclaimed albums as Pete Fij / Terry Bickers on 2014's Broken Heart Surgery, and 2017's We Are Millionaires, winning the Roundtable 'Single of The Week' on Steve Lamacq's BBC 6Music show - "Beautiful" (MOJO) "Unfailingly lovely" (UNCUT) "Stunning" (OHM) "Beautifully constructed" (Q). Adorable then reformed for a few weeks in 2019 for a series of one off dates that sold out in record time, playing bigger venues than they did in their heyday - and then broke up again.
- 01: Okada Tokage
- 02: Butiki (Feat. Nicklas Roots)
- 03: Shibatai
- 04: Habu (Live At Tanner, Helsinki 23.11.2019)
- 05: Kwangsi
- 06: Mamushi (Feat. Nicklas Roots)
- 07: Toyamai
- 08: Erabu
- 09: Kikuzato (Feat. Tapani Rinne)
- 10: Yamori (Feat. Kristo&Apos;S)
- 11: Tawa Gecko (Feat. Pako)
- 12: Barbouri
Vesu's goes dub!
Vesa-Matti Kivioja, aka Vesu's aka Torolf Stendik has been making waves as an integral part of the multi-faceted Ljudverket & Meltdown Deejays crews in his native Finland for many years. He is perhaps most recognised for his "List of Lizards" saga which began in 2019 on Brian Not Brian's Going Good imprint.
Tokage No Risuto, the third instalment in the lizard saga, sees Vesu's migrate deeper into the dub tradition. The beats have slowed down; the atmospheres thickened. Downtempo rhythms, ambient drifts, and dub-infused echoes weave through the landscape, joined at times by guest voices that shimmer and dissolve into the mix.
The 12-track album is available on a special edition cassette with a vibrantly riso-printed card housed inside a laser printed case, with a striking green cassette. Mastered for tape by Giuseppe Ielasi.
Tokage No Risuto has a number of guest appearances, most notably the legendary musical pioneer and woodwind instrumentalist Tapani Rinne of RinneRadio.
- 1: Drugdealer Feat. Weyes Blood - Real Thing
- 2: Drugdealer - The News
Over two years in the making, and many more in the two musician’s shared dream, ‘Real Thing’ unites longtime collaborators Michael Collins (Drugdealer) and Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood). Recorded across continents, ‘Real Thing’ is a return, a refinement and a reminder of the deep connection that has bound these two titans of song over multiple collaborations. The journey of ‘Real Thing’ began when Collins, while on a European sojourn, crossed paths with Parisian producer Max Baby. As one does while in Paris, they found themselves in a studio owned by a member of the 1970s French prog rock band Magma. There, a chord progression long-gestating in Collins’ brain blossomed into a bonafide demo.
Collins recalls, “I realized immediately that it was the perfect thing to show Nat, who I had been wanting to collaborate with again for years.” The connection and musical camaraderie between Collins and Mering dates back to 2014 in Oakland, where a chance meeting and studio session marked the genesis of their enduring partnership. Collins reflects, “Since then, I’ve felt like she’s my musical family. I can’t really ask for more in terms of someone who inspired me to even get to this place in my songwriting.” On the B-side is ‘The News’, Drugdealer’s first collaboration with Robbie Chemical. What began as a simple harmony grew into a panoramic partnership, the musician’s voices effortlessly entwined, and a pop paragon envisioned. Inspired by generational conversations on chaos, change and connection, the track opens a new chapter - topical, personal and unmistakably Drugdealer. As Drugdealer, Michael Collins has crafted a career that blends introspective songwriting with a reverence for classic pop and R&B. A native of the East Coast, Collins’ musical adventure began with the experimental pop collages of Run DMT and Salvia Plath before evolving into the more melodic, refined songwriting heard in Drugdealer’s acclaimed albums ‘Raw Honey’ and ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’. Natalie Mering, better known as Weyes Blood, has similarly forged a path of emotive, transcendental folk-pop that delves into themes of myth, love and existential longing.
Known for her ethereal voice and evocative lyrics, Mering’s latest works, ‘Titanic Rising’ and ‘And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow’, are nothing short of modern classics, though also feel like just the start of this artist’s undeniable ascent. “For both artists, this is their first song since their respective 2022 albums, and what a way to come back. ‘Real Thing’ feels like uncovering a forgotten ’70s disco duet” - PASTE “A lush and insistent folk-pop jam” - Stereogum For fans of Mac Demarco, Kate Bollinger, Men I Trust, Toro y Moi, TOPS, Alice Phoebe Lou, Tame Impala, Thee Sacred Souls, Vacations, Allah-Las, Kurt Vile, Beach Fossils, Slow Pulp, Foxygen, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Hand Habits, Father John Misty, Oracle Sisters, Whitney, The Lemon Twigs, Mild High Club, Khruangbin, Angel Olsen.
“Detraex Corp arrives on Sagome to deliver a heady journey through experimental rhythm and dub-informed weight and release with their new album Live at Pompeii. The album, much like its Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli created artwork, represents a journey, a collection of sounds and emotions, sequenced to share with us, the listener, a variety of experience, and of memory, which are at once familiar and other.
"Live at Pompeii sets things off with the tone-setting Tykes of, where frazzled, shuffling drums meet sub bass weight and ketamine oud, sounding something like Wordsound’s Scarab leaving the 90s and entering the future. Tombaroli invites the head nods, clearly communicating the album’s intentions and inviting us to that party under that out-of-town bridge with its insistent percussion and pulsing weight.
"Other tracks, such as Bullet Holes, carry us further into a psychedelic alternative, with its lysergic fever-dream soundtrack to an unnamed mediterranean plaza, and No Minus’s sounding like a nascent, primitive distant cousin to Jeru’s Premier-produced Come Clean.
"Channel 83 firmly returns us to the club, weaving mystical soundsystem magic with its stunted horns and swirl of voice, driven forward with the most chest-rattling of stomps, before the album enters its finale, where the grimey judder of Expect Excerpt slides to a bleary-eyed half-speed, evoking the club which won’t let you leave.
"Mount Point eventually provides that release, an early morning sunrise of a track, with rich, slow trudge and post-club shimmer, before Landings Dub signals the end of the journey, a metallic elegy to what has preceded, and a contemplation of your upcoming repeat listen, and re-entry, to the world of Detraex Corp.”
Words by Daniel Magee
Music by Detraex Corp
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Artwork and Layout by Carlo Gabriele Tribbioli
Joel Shearer’s Listening Immerses Itself in Ambient Guitar, Restraint, and the Beauty of Repetition
With guitarist and ambient composer Joel Shearer’s new album, Listening, he took the path of repetition, subtle movement, and pure sound rather than conventional songwriting. What began as a disciplined experiment — limiting himself to just electric guitar — soon expanded. At various points, he introduced piano, cello, and trumpet, allowing the record to evolve organically. "I didn’t know I was making another record,” Shearer says. “I was experimenting, wanting to do something beyond just the electric guitar. So, I started these other tracks, and that’s how Listening came about.”
Unlike albums built around hooks or dramatic shifts, Listening unfolds gradually, moving with patience and restraint. There are no choruses, no obvious climaxes — just sound evolving over time. “Instead of a traditional song structure with a verse, chorus, or B section, it’s one continuous movement that grows and dissolves,” Shearer explains. “It’s not about anticipating the next moment—it’s about sitting inside the sound, getting comfortable with patience.” A Topanga-based session musician, composer, and producer, Shearer’s previous solo albums, Morning Loops and Hours, explored the manipulation of only the electric guitar, using texture and repetition to push beyond conventions. Listening continues that journey, offering music that resists distraction and rewards deep attention.
Shearer recorded Listening without a click track, working in long, freeform takes. His shimmering, clean guitar tones—often unrecognizable, processed through looping pedals and effects—became a foundation, with layers of sound building around it. “I love making the guitar sound like anything but a guitar,” he says. “I might play for just a minute, but once the sound enters the effects chain, it takes on a life of its own. The music keeps evolving, stretching time in ways I couldn’t predict.”
The opening piece, “Big Sur,” is an 11-minute meditation that drifts in slow, hypnotic waves, its layered guitar textures sparkling like light over water. The piece moves without urgency, subtly transforming as it pulls the listener deeper into its atmosphere. “Threshold” features a delicate piano melody that gradually unfurls, allowing its essence to fully settle before the next emerges. Subtle layers of ambient guitar weave around the piano, stretching and dissolving into the background, creating a sense of stillness and slow expansion.
At nearly 15-minutes, “The Clear Light of the Void” is a slow-burning study in sustain and resonance. Layers of guitar stretch and dissolve into an open, drifting soundscape, each note lingering and shifting like a breath held in suspension. Subtle tonal variations emerge over time, creating a sense of vastness—an expanse where sound is less about movement and more about presence.
“The world is noisy—so much information, so much distraction,” Shearer says. “I wanted to create something that allows people to just be present with the sound, without expectation.” It’s an album that demands nothing from the listener but offers space — to focus, to drift, to listen without waiting for what comes next.
AF1268 is thrilled to welcome Nikol, the rising soundscaper from Manchester, for its third release. After making his mark on various outings for MASS, his own label, and O.C.D., this installment sees him deliver his first solo EP in full force. Across four meticulously crafted tracks, he chisels his own path through modern minimal and electro, honing his eerie yet hallucinatory sonic signature.
This EP unfolds like a spectral journey where Halloween meets tech-house—haunted by ghostly high-pitched whistlings, piercing acid stabs, and hypnotic rolling basslines. It conjures the image of a sweat-drenched, crumbling club cave under a rainy full moon, where bodies sway in slow motion, lost between dreamlike introspection and raw, unhinged grooves.
- A1: In 100 Years (Thomas’ Version)
- A2: Don’t Let It Get You Down (Thomas’ Version)
- A3: Who Will Save The World (Thomas’ Version)
- B1: A Telegram To Your Heart (Thomas’ Version)
- B2: It’s Christmas (Thomas’ Version)
- B3: Don’t Lose My Number (Thomas’ Version)
- C1: Slow Motion (Thomas’ Version)
- C2: Locomotion Tango (Thomas’ Version)
- C3: Good Girls Go To Heaven - Bad Girls Go To Everywhere (Thomas’ Version)
- D1: In The Garden Of Venus (Thomas’ Version)
- D2: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (New Bonus Track)
- D3: Nevergonna Love Again (New Bonus Track)
Thomas Anders celebrates 40 years of Modern Talking with the re-imagined sixth and final chapter: In the Garden of Venus
Leading-pop icon Thomas Anders returns with the culminating album of his tribute project …Sings Modern Talking, re-interpreting the timeless hits of Modern Talking’s sixth studio album. On In the Garden of Venus, Anders offers fresh versions of the original tracks, infused with contemporary production, along with two new bonus songs crafted especially for this milestone.
Info: Slow-burn funk, tribal wrong-speed chug and a boogie-disco breaker — three floor-fillers that creep, groove and bounce.
A low & loose opening with a reworking of 'Night People' – with intro and outro stretched, drum breaks extended, and percussive overdubs layered - the EP sets the tone with a warm-up tool that fills a floor almost unnoticed at 98 BPM. From there, 'Lions' prowls as a 45rpm slowed down to a hypnotic, percussive workout laced with chants and tribal drive, closing with 'Breakin’, a rogue boogie–disco hybrid bursting with bongos and breakbeats: Absolute DJ fuel.




















