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ELEPHANT is an album that doesn’t ask for space, it takes it.
Built on weight, grit, and undeniable presence, ELEPHANT moves like its namesake: loud, heavy, and impossible to ignore. There’s a swagger to it, a confidence that leans into chaos, desire, and the pull of living all the way, even when it leaves a mark.
But like an elephant, it’s not all brute force. Beneath the heavy stomp is something more human. There are moments of vulnerability, cracks where emotion slips through, where longing, doubt, and reflection take over. The album balances power with sensitivity, and strength with softness. A notion that even the biggest presence can feel deeply.

Like the massive creature pushing through brush and unbroken paths, ELEPHANT is about confronting what’s right in front of you; the noise, the weight, the truth, and choosing to move through it anyway.

When hip hop trio FU-Schnickens emerged in Brooklyn in 1992 with a unique style that combined high-speed rapping, dancehall chatting, and backward rhymes with Looney Tunes-inspired voice impressions and craftily arranged grooves, the Rap world had never heard anything like it.

Following up on their debut F.U.: Don't Take It Personal, Nervous Breakdown, originally released in 1994, proved that the Fu-Schnickens could deliver the goods. The album shows an improved lyrical maturity among all three members, but most noticeably Chip Fu, whose hyperactive flow has more hilarious, colorful cartoon imagery than ever.

From the opening track, "Breakdown," on, this is a frenzied, fast-paced roller coaster ride of originality that doesn't let up until the last song ends. The album reached the nineteenth spot on the R&B Albums chart, and managed to

Flaw is an American nu‑metal band from Louisville, Kentucky, formed in 1996 by guitarist Jason Daunt. Lead vocalist Chris Volz joined after responding to an ad in a local newspaper. Following a series of raw independent recordings throughout the 1990s, the band signed with Republic and Universal Music Group, releasing two major‑label albums Through the Eyes in 2001 and Endangered Species in 2004. Breakups, lineup changes, and internal conflicts affected the band for much of the decade, though from 2015 to 2017 they reunited with three core members to tour and write new material.

Originally released at the height of the early‑2000s alt‑metal wave, Flaw’s explosive debut Through The Eyes quickly became a defining record of the era. Led by the unmistakable voice of Chris Volz, the band crafted a sound that fused emotional intensity, sharp guitar work, and melodic hooks that resonated with a generation. The album reached #119 on the Billboard 200, and produced two singles, “Payback” and “Whole”. Another standout track, “Only the Strong”, was featured on the soundtrack of the 2002 action film The Scorpion King.

Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, Through the Eyes is available on vinyl for the first time as a double album. This edition includes an insert with lyrics and features a bonus hidden track.

Appleton announce the release of a brand new EP, 'Side By Side', which will be released Friday September 4th, marking the first new Appleton body of work in over two decades.
Nicole says: "The reaction to 'Falling Into You' and our first Appleton show in over twenty years has been incredible We feel so grateful that people still connect with these songs and are excited about what we're doing now. This EP feels like the natural next chapter." After reissuing their cult- classic 2003 album 'Everything's Eventual' on vinyl, this January Appleton returned with 'Falling Into You' their first new music as a duo in 23 years.
While nostalgia may have sparked the reunion, 'Side By Side' is firmly focused on the present. Across four original tracks, the EP blends the melodic pop songwriting and distinctive harmonies that made Appleton favourites first time around with a fresh, contemporary sound that reflects where Natalie and Nicole are today. For both sisters, the project has been a reminder of the unique creative bond they've always shared. "We've always had a special connection when we sing together" says Nicole. "Making these songs reminded us of that. It never feels forced it just feels natural." More than twenty years after they first burst into the charts, Appleton aren't looking backwards. They're simply enjoying making music together again side by side.

Casual's latest self-produced release, Black Magic featuring Del The Funky Homosapien, Tajai of Souls of Mischief and Thirstin Howl.

"There are two versions of this album," says Hollow Hand's Max Kinghorn-Mills. "But there's only one that exists." Kinghorn-Mills is reflecting on a period when he was at something of a crossroads. He had written songs for his forthcoming fourth album but, after coming back off tour, something needed to change. “When I listened back to where I’d left the album, it wasn't exciting enough for me,” he says. “I was like: that's not really what I want to do anymore.” Since releasing 2023’s Your Own Adventure – which drew acclaim from the likes of Mojo, Uncut, and Shindig! – he found himself touring and collaborating with a variety of other artists. Hollow Hand became the house band for Caitlin Rose on tour, while Kinghorn-Mills was also collaborating with Aoife Nessa Frances and playing in her touring band. There was countless exposure to incredible Irish bands along the way, and then came a sold-out European tour with Hollow Hand supporting MJ Lenderman.

Love as Art, Love under the Patriarchy, Love as a political and radical act - in short 'The Fatal Flaw' examines Love from a deeper and philosophical perspective. Even the songs that aren't about Love, also are. They are about the absence of love, and what happens in those spaces, so they are songs about the necessity of love, and the consequences of its absences.

Rasco are Eden Atiya on guitar and vocals, Gaya Wajsman on bass and vocals, and Itay Hamudi on drums. Named after Charlie Megira’s “At the Rasco”, the trio draw on the melodic language of sixties surf, garage rock and pop, alongside the heavier textures of shoegaze and psychedelia. Influenced by artists including The Cramps, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley and April March, their music is defined by electric guitar lines, close vocal harmonies and direct, melodic songwriting. The contrast between urban life and the natural world remains central to their work, reflected in songs that move between raw rhythmic energy and more intimate, atmospheric arrangements. Following their debut album Dmaot, Rasco’s forthcoming second album develops this sound through a broader dynamic range, more spacious production and a more focused approach to songwriting, while retaining the warmth and immediacy at the core of the band.

Across two song cycles separated by nearly four decades – Richard Wagner’s »Fünf Gedichte für eine Frauenstimme« (the »Wesendonck Lieder«) and Johannes Brahms’ late »Vier ernste Gesänge« (»Four Serious Songs«) – Wagner’s songs, written under the spell of his relationship with Mathilde Wesendonck and already pointing towards »Tristan und Isolde«, and Brahms’ final composition, which gives the album its name and was shaped by grief, illness, and meditations on biblical texts, circle the same existential questions.

Desire and mortality, ecstasy and resignation appear less as opposites than as mirrored states. The voices of Wesendonck’s poetry seem to answer the solemn reflections of Ecclesiastes and Corinthians, revealing an unexpected dialogue across time.

Without seeking historical authenticity or revisionist spectacle, »Serious Songs« listens for what still resonates beneath these works: the suspended moment where love, loss, and transcendence become indistinguishable. The harp assumes the role of the piano as the foundation, pulse, and emotional compass. The vocal line, liberated from classical convention, inhabits a contemporary expressive space without severing its bond to the original scores. It is Romantic music viewed through the acoustics of the present. The project emerged from a moment of professional disillusionment familiar to many classically trained musicians. This led to a confrontation with some of classical music’s traditional flaws that became an invitation to reimagine it.

Sissi Rada approaches the spinal properties of the Romantic Lieder, fragile enough to transform and resilient enough to survive. Intimate, lucid, and quietly radical.

When We Froze is Ignez's entry into the Primal Instinct catalogue. A world held between ice and water. A kiss preserved beneath the frost, where winter finds its quiet shape. Yet somewhere below, the water keeps its own flow. It's a record about what happens beneath a frozen surface, about the quiet flow that never actually stops, even when everything above it looks still.

Spanish producer Notzing joins Alpenglühen with Vermiström, a four-track EP exploring the deeper edges of experimental dance music.
Over the past few years, Notzing has established himself as one of the most compelling voices in Spain's underground techno scene. His sound is stripped back yet immersive, built from hypnotic drones, stretched loops, and subtle rhythmic developments that gradually pull the listener into a trance-like state.
With Vermiström, each of the four tracks unfolds organically, evolving with patience and precision. Intricate, unconventional rhythms intertwine with long-form sequences and richly processed textures, creating a constantly shifting sonic landscape.
What truly defines this EP, however, is its profound sense of depth and its unmistakable dub aesthetic. Every element occupies its own carefully crafted space: textured atmospheres, meticulously sculpted percussion, and syncopated sequences that seem to exist at two different tempos simultaneously. Creative use of delays and spatial effects subtly references the language of Jamaican dub, while an exceptional level of sound design and mixing gives the record remarkable clarity and dynamic range.
Rather than revealing everything at once, Vermiström unfolds gradually. Each listen brings new details to the surface, as subtle shifts in texture, rhythm and space slowly reshape the music from within.

Multi-award-winning singer and songwriter Jorja Smith announces her new album, What Are The Odds featuring sole production from P2J and collaborations with Afrobeat star Wizkid and Grime icon Devlin.

With her third album What Are The Odds, Jorja continues to build on her legacy with a euphoric offering rooted firmly in dance music. Confidently channelling UKG, Grime, 2Step, Funky House, Soulful House and Afro House, this thrilling, pulsating record rarely dips below 140 BPM.

This is music to make you move says Jorja. I want people to hear it on the dancefloor, where the sun is shining, in the car and in their headphones on the night bus home. This is a record for driving and vibing.

Fresh off of their 2020 offering Adult Themes, El Michels Affair is back with a new full-length release. Titled Yeti Season, this newest album has everything we've come to expect from EMA's patented cinematic style of instrumental soul music. Where Adult Themes inspired a soundtrack to an imaginary film, Yeti Season brings us to a different place in time_with new inspirations. Taken with Turkish-styled funk and an almost Mumbai-esque take on soul, El Michels Affair offers us a different kind of drama and imagination with Yeti Season. If you've been following along, this shouldn't be viewed as too far a departure for El Michels Affair. The first single off of Yeti Season showed their hand back in 2018. A double-sided banger, that release brought the musical textures to the fore that dominate this record. The first song, titled "Unathi," is fully realized with the beautifully haunting-yet-hopeful vocals of Piya Malik, formally of 79.5_another Big Crown artist. Singing in Hindi, Piya's ethereal voice is telling us to work and strive together toward progress. Even if you don't understand her language, you can still hear the urgency of purpose, creating a lasting vibe that sits on top of it all. Leon Michels explains that Piya had a vital influence on this record: "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone. I knew we had to do something together." And so Piya appears on three other songs on Yeti Season: "Zaharila," "Murkit Gem," and "Dhuaan." Each providing particular signatures to the album. "Zaharila" is a building and changing love song punctuated by blaring trumpets, driving drums, and Piya's pleading lyrics. While the more upbeat "Murkit Gem" opens with a fuzzed out, Wu-Tang-esque baseline that buoys Piya's stylings. The psychedelic guitar and Piya's changing tones and textures singing about an all-consuming love are what pushed "Dhuaan" on to the second single from Yeti Season. There is also a vocal appearance from Shannon Wise of The Shacks, yet another Big Crown artist. Her song called "Sha Na Na," lies more in the familiar EMA vein: melodic, hypnotic, soulfully visual. But between Shannon's airy singing, the jumpy baseline, moody vibes, the active drum lines, it sounds like a pensive walk home after a strangely dramatic night. So what is Yeti Season? It could be more of a feeling than an actual place or time of year. It's a heavy album_as evidenced by the signature musicianship and dramatic vocal expressions. But it's also a hopeful record, with phrasings, textures, and chord changes that hint at something better_or fuller_coming our way. You hear it in songs like "Ala Vida," with its stabby, pulsing chords laying a bedrock for EMA's bright, atmospheric horn lines. Or even in "Fazed Out," which leaves you with a feeling of determination, a striving for resolution even though the driving, march-like song structure should accompany some conquering army. This persistence has to come from the fact that Leon Michels and company finished this record during the lockdown. It was a tough and troublesome time. But look at what has come of it: Yeti Season_a record of high and heavy drama, but also one of hope and promise. It may take a year like 2020 behind us to find hope in a winter big footed creature like a Yeti, but that's where we are.

Tape

When Leon Michels and El Michels Affair released their rst record, Sounding Out The City, in 2005, it was hard to guess what was next for Michels and his then-introduced, now-patented "cinematic soul" sound. Now, four EMA studio albums and scores of tribute and remix projects later - all while producing for some of the biggest names in the industry - Michels has trademarked his sound, with each project taking audiences somewhere new and pushing the boundaries of what he is known for. The man is a river, not a lake and this time he takes his golden touch into the realm of hip-hop laying down a musical bed for one of the greatest to ever rhyme into a microphone: Black Thought of The Roots crew. Releasing on Big Crown Records, the LP is called Glorious Game and it is a remarkable debut partnership in more ways than one. Michels provides his bottom-heavy, soul-tinged production for Black Thought who gives us some of the more personal and transparent verses we've ever heard from him. Michels and Black Thought have been in each other's orbit for a while now. The two first met in the 2000s when Thought was first getting familiar with the contemporary soul scene. "Out of that whole world, Menahan Street Band was probably my favorite," recalling the funk and soul group Michels was a founding member of back in 2007. Fast forward a few years and musicians from that collective - Dave Guy on trumpet and Ian Hendrickson-Smith on sax - are now full time players with The Roots. This connection eventually led Leon and Thought to doing a few fundraising events around NYC and Philly together. "Before long, Black Thought was coming around the studio and would jam with us from time to time," Michels explains. "Then, fast forward to 2020 and COVID lockdowns, he just hit me up out of the blue, wanting me to send him stuff to write to. We both were looking to stay busy" Being that Black Thought is the co-founder and emcee for, hands down, the best live-band group in hip-hop. Michels took a decidedly different approach to this project and instead of sending recorded tracks of live compositions, he pulled out the sampler and sampled himself and some records from his collection. "I'm a big fan of soul music," as if Michels has to remind us. "And part of hip-hop's appeal to me has always been the sample-based production" For Glorious Game, Michels would make wholly composed and recorded soul songs in his studio, sample himself, then chop and/or loop up his sounds and create instrumentals for Black Thought. On some tracks he took a more traditional hip-hop approach, starting from samples of other people's music but then adding live instrumentation on top. But for the most part, it's him reinterpreting his own compositions into something new. The result is an organic feel of loop-based tracks that breathe and uctuate enough for Black Thought to ex on. "What I write about is determined by the equation of the producer's energy and my energy," Black Thought says. "It's about where we meet." So armed with Michels sampled and re-sampled soul cinematics, Black Thought rhymes through personal memories.

“Ruins are the style of our future cities, future cities are themselves ruins.” - Izosaki Arata

A note from Lawrence English: Nostalgia is not an ideology, though in this moment, we could be mistaken for thinking it might be just that. Over the past years, the idea of nostalgia has been filtered through various political and technological lenses and has become a tool used for forgetting, rather than remembering. Instead of embracing histories’ complexities and inconsistencies, this version of nostalgia seeks only singular recollection. This contemporary phenomenon of nostalgia has become a methodology at best, and a weapon at worst, used to erode the past and project forward a collapsed and unimaginably sanitised version of things, places, and ways of being from former times. It’s this projection that sees it playing a mounting role in a social pathology associated with reducing the imagined possibilities of future.

The Rest Is My Ghost is a record that interrogates the manifestations of this reductive futuring and celebrates those that have tried (and failed), and those who continue to push back against decayed and revisionist positions. It’s a record that considers the weaponisation of nostalgia for the purposes of cloaking possible futures.

In recent times, I’ve proposed a term for this weaponised use of nostalgia, something I have called Acid Nostalgia. I offer it as a shorthand to describe the de-contouring of the future through a corrosive fixation on a flatten rendering of the preceding times. It is, in part, a certain type of lazy cultural scripting where tropes of the past are presented in the absolute, as empty pictorials; photocopies without any original from which to draw actual meaning, or useful detail.

Acid Nostalgia describes an increasingly common political projection of nostalgia that exists without any subjective connection to the memory surrounding and contained within it. Like acid poured onto a surface, this use of nostalgia seeks to erodes and smooth out the complexity and texture of lived connection and longing, which has until recently guided contemplations of nostalgia. Acid Nostalgia instead erases the texture of histories and de-contours the past, and in doing so dematerialises the horizon of possibility, which by its very nature marks the beginning point for any (and all) imaginable futures. Acid Nostalgia is a dreamless screen, where uncertainty, restlessness and aspiration are subjected to corrosion, breaking down and neutralising the wellspring of futures which are birthed from within the ambiguously charged, complex and at times chaotic atmospheres of the present.

The Rest Is My Ghost is not however some universal reading of these things and happenings. Rather it draws its breath from a very personal pathway carved through my own fraught experiences of nostalgia and framed through a disparate collage of chance encounters, situations, places and provocations. It takes oblique notes from civic and architectural references such as Japan’s Metabolist movement, Hong Kong’s ‘one line sky’ and Los Angeles’s vanished Sodium Vapour lights. It interpolates texts – factual and fictional – by authors such as Franco Berardi, Kate Crawford, JG Ballard, Katsuhiro Otomo, Mark Fisher and Alexei Yurchak who have each so wonderfully sought to rupture the familiarity of now, and push us towards other ways of imaging ourselves, our surroundings and our very ways of being in this world.

I also owe a debt of thanks to Adam Curtis in helping launch what has become this edition. It was his provocation, in a conversation we shared about an overwhelming and profound sense of uncertainty around being able to predict the immediate future and how to respond to that, which sparked the earliest inklings of this edition.

The Rest Is My Ghost is ultimately a record about the promise of constructions and connections to come, material, social and political. It's a record that accepts the fragility of failure as a source of ultimate potential, and a position from which the deepest freedom of imagination might be sought and summoned forth to conjure even the most unimaginable, (but) possible futures.

You have to imagine that American ambient obsessive zake never actually steps away from his machines, let alone turns them off. He is one of the most prolific artists in any genre, and his Past Inside The Present label is where it all gets served up. Next up is a lovingly assembled picture disc with fitting artwork that represents the sounds inside: sorrowful but charming drones, long-held chords that pass at glacial speed like clouds on a windless day. There is just one piece per side, and both are signature meditations and mindfulness exercises that leave you feeling completely at peace with the world, no matter what was going on before you hit play.

Bristol's Ben Pest returns to Co-Accused Records with four drops of full-pelt electro and techno on Lacquer of Empathy EP. A respected live artist and producer known for his production nouse, he’s taken his sound to Co-Accused’s Glasgow parties, Tresor and Glastonbury and released across respected imprints that include Mechatronica, Cultivated Electronics, I Love Acid and more. This release is exactly what he’s become known for turning out: rave-touched and highly effective dancefloor material.

The EP opens with 'D-Transfer', a pacey piece of machine funk which leads into ‘Mam Assid’ which right off the bat is an intensive, driving acid techno number. Over on the B Side, ‘Shruthi EB’ is a twisted machine workout, building and rebuilding through distorted synths before locking into a relentless groove. After being self-released on digital format on his own label The Glutch now gets a vinyl pressing on this EP riffing off a mechanical melody over an air-tight beat. To close out the EP is a digital bonus track with a ‘Rolling Edit’ of Shruthi EB.

»Ampersand Curve« initiates a brilliant new phase of work by North Manchester’s most elusive artist, best known as Michael J. Blood. His string of ruffkut club bangers, as well as jams with Rat Heart & Samizdat over the past seven years, have made his records a true cult property, and now find him signed to one of the UK’s most foundational techno imprints – more of which later this year.

But under the Sees aegis, he swims in very different waters, following his instincts to use the studio-as-instrument to produce his most impressive, deep-minded work, made from – and for – the heart. Where MJB was all about off-the-cuff club jams cooked for immediacy, his new stylistic switch reveals myriad worlds of influence swirling under the hood, where interrelated spheres of spiritual jazz, dub, ambient, and concrète more clearly light up his rich inner world.

As the story goes, MJB was burgled a few years back and lost most of his studio just as the project was hitting its stride. It prompted a personal review of his practice, re-learning new kit, allowing him to bend the rules. Adopting a sort of first-thought, best-thought approach to composition, the new methodology fuelled a renewed imagination in flux, or what he identifies as Sees: a personalised way of conveying complex emotions. That undoing of musical and mental conditioning opens the walls of his music to vast new horizons. Opener »Ithaca« fathoms sonorous midnight jazz with 10 mins of a plangent, searching sax solo in HD widescreen, like some alternate version to the Blade Runner Love Theme, while a resonant vocoder soliloquy, »Unseem«, reaches into space harmonised between Alvin Lucier and Ron Trent, and »Sheer« chases the devil out of labyrinthine dub dimensions.

The floating dream architecture of »Caprices« caps the LP’s underlying narrative and painterly qualities with a romantic conclusion of blushing pads and shivered, metallic echoes of the subtropical that suggest a coming-to-terms with worries, refreshed and good to go again.

Amelie Lens' debut album 'AURA' is the first full-length studio album to come from the Belgian artist despite being one of the most respected and sought-after acts in electronic music today.

Of the album, Amelie says:

"'AURA' is my story. Aura is about the connection between the crowd and me. Music has always been my escape, my way of turning my emotions and energy into something new. When I was younger, I would disappear into nightclubs and create myown world in my head. Being in the nightclubs gave me this feeling of belonging somewhere, I felt connection and freedom I had never experienced before. That feeling changed my life completely. So this album really reflects that whole journey. From playing tiny local clubs and driving myself through the night for gigs, to standing on huge festival stages, becoming a mother, building EXHALE and learning how to balance it all in life.

I wanted 'AURA' to feel emotional but still powerful, uplifting but raw. From big festival tracks to the trippy tracks I'd play at 4am at RSO. Although making this album is one of the biggest things I have ever done in my life, I wanted to keep it light and somehow playful. Because that is also how I am as a person. This is the most honest version of myself I've ever shared. I hope it brings some light, happiness and connection to others as it does to me. Because Aura is and always will be about my connection to you."

The album will consist of 11 brand new tracks, all produced by Lens - with one stellar collab, who will be announced in due course.

Dark Entries helps Suzanne Ciani come out of the closet as Steve! Legendary composer, sound designer, and Buchla maestra Suzanne Ciani has a staggering list of accolades and accomplishments, from scoring Hollywood films to releasing influential new age records to literally designing the Coca-Cola bottle-opening sound. In the late 70s/early 80s, Ciani, while living in New York, acquired an Eventide H 949 harmonizer, which offered high fidelity pitch-shifting. In her words, “When I adjusted the pitch of my voice to 0.80, my natural voice became re-invented as what was clearly a gay man, who I called Steve. I became Steve; and Steve expressed himself as only he could.” Ciani adopted the male persona and collaborated with Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream on “Steve Goes to a Party.” The track features Ciani-as-Steve adlibbing in decadent and delirious fashion alongside Baumann’s robotically funky beats. Steve would emerge again a few years later at George Louvis’s Stardust Studios in New Jersey, to create “Steve Saves the World,” an absurdist and ecstatic proto-house groover complete with a gospel-esque chorus from the Stardust All-Stars. This EP is rounded out by a birthday wish to Ciani’s then-boyfriend Alfred on “Steve Happy Birthday Wishes” featuring Suzanne. Steve’s Out of the Closet perfectly captures the delirious techno-poptimism of the 1980s downtown avant-garde, with parallels in Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives or Lynn Goldsmith’s project Will Powers, responsible for the track “Adventures in Success.” The Steve sleeve was designed by Eloise Shir-Juen Leigh, and the record also includes a birthday card with liner notes from Ciani.

Manonmars’ 3rd album sees him at his most amorphous and psychedelic, at points sharper and laser focused, and at others more blurred and impressionistic than his previous records. Many of the core players remain the same, all of the production is once again handled by O$VMV$M (the duo of Neek and Amos Childs of Jabu) while Paulina Korobkiewicz (also of Young Echo) makes a return handling both the album’s cover artwork and contributing a series of diaristic field recordings and voice notes.

‘The project references movies, cartoons, fictional characters and video games, among other things. The album title is open to interpretation but all of these elements are forms of visual entertainment which have their own unique ability to transcend things like language barriers and cultural divides. The visual element is key because those details bridge the gap on a communicative level.’ - Manonmars

The album blends abstract, blurred braggadocio with more immediate personal details such as on ‘Volcanic Shield’ a posse cut of sorts featuring Bristol improv luminary Dali de Saint Paul and Franco Franco (½ of cyborg rap duo Kinlaw & Franco Franco) - where Mars recalls;

‘Memories of brighter days, happy meal hit the spot
Mum was spinning vinyl playing Super Ape or Pressure Drop
I would spend the weekend with the Turkish mandem on the block
single parent household, mum was studying or on the job
money came and went always was an on and off
made it back from school time to see what’s on the box’


The beat fades away to leave one of Korobkiewicz’s recordings of Mars’ mum talking about her life in London in the 80s, spending her money on reggae records as an ambient chord fades in like an echo of a jungle intro – stretching out as a link between generations of UK music.

The production by and large is brighter and more kinetic than earlier Manonmars records – with O$VMV$M drawing on everything from modern underground rap and drill through to jazz and acid ambient passages.

London is also a central character here, bustling and constantly shifting, either when bleeding in through field recordings, or as an ever-present backdrop in the lyrics;

‘I’m a fusion of Tippa Irie and Topper Harley
Hit the target like the black Atari
I dropped a tab now shit’s A Scanner Darkly
Got the munchies, Imma yam a sarnie
Pour the Wray and Ting like man at Carni
Exit Peckham Rye and turn left, walk past Hannah Barry
Get your (w)raps up like its January’

‘I've always considered London my home, despite spending some time in the South West of England too. My mum had been living in London for 25 years (...) That was a pretty big deal in some ways because it removed us from multicultural society during the period which overlapped with my teenage years. (...) I never got used to how quiet it was in the countryside (...) Bristol was the closest city to where we lived and it was through travelling there and making connections that I became involved in making music and playing gigs.’ - Manonmars

Mars’ practice as a painter (under his given name Jack Martyn Richardson) and photographer also loom heavy over the album, he cites Paul Verhoeven, Abdul Mati Klariwein and H.R Giger as influences – as well as Miles Davis, Drakeo the Ruler and DJ Rashad.

As with much of Richardson’s work the raps at times feel blurred to a point of almost inscrutability, creating a distance between the audience and himself. A process that ties into his visual work and the way he experiences the world as mainly abstract colour without his glasses. He explores this further in an ongoing visual collaboration with Korobkiewicz, ‘Fun and Games’ which serves as a visual archive of one of London's largest and oldest travelling fairgrounds.

‘I was diagnosed with very severe short-sightedness at the age of seven. I remember my early formative years as visually blurred. Some of my photography reflects this experience of partial vision and uncertainty, referencing memory and perception rather than fixed representation.’

Manonmars’ first public outing as a rapper was at a Young Echo radio event, broadcast shambolically from a practice room just off Jamaica street, Bristol in 2011, as much as things have moved on both stylistically and in terms of focus - strong links back to the city remain a key foundation throughout the collaborations and guest appearances.

‘I have no problem with being an outsider looking in. One of the things I enjoy about London is the anonymity (...) it's easy to be a stranger here when so much is happening. I feel like thats more valuable than people may realise.’

In the early ‘10’s the WPH Summer Special was a yearly tradition: a stamped vinyl only releases featuring lost tracks, one-off collabs, dreaded digital only gems, etc. Some summer specials were so hot we released them in the winter to battle the cold…

Guess what? It’s back! Four killer tracks on one slice of vinyl. Satoshi Fumi remixing Ian O’Donovan to devastating Detroit-styled effect, Red D taking things deep with some dreamy deep house magic, Fabrice Lig going from ‘Border 2 Border’ on vinyl with Red D & Lady Linn and then Uit De Hoogte teaming up with Lefto for an oldskool house jam that will only be available on this release.

If this doesn’t get your heat up…

Ame: Thanks for ‘Border 2 Border’

Frankey & Sandrino: Great music in here, thanks!

Ben Sims: Ian O’Donovan one…asap!

Axel Boman: The dancefloor is open indeed.

Terre Theamlitz: Thank you for ‘Sweet Synthie Pauline’.

Simon Caldwell: Lovely E.P. of reminiscence!

Satoshi Fumi: Cool pack J

Red Rack’em: Love the Satoshi Fumi remix.

Severino Panzetta: Grooovy!

Jimpster: I can imagine the Ian O’Donovan working nicely. Classy stuff!

Harri Subclub: Play and support from me.

Massimiliano Pagliara: Great tunes!

For the first time ever, Los Campesinos! are proud to offer new pressings of their first three studio albums on their very own record label; Heart Swells.
2026 marks the 20th anniversary of LC!’s formation, and coincides with the band being more popular and relevant than ever before. The 3 albums are available for the first time since 2020, on brand new colour ways, on 12” vinyl and CD, with updated artwork and packaging.

What the press said:

“an absolutely astounding album” 4.5/5 - DIY

“Romance Is Boring is a triumph.” - 8.3/10 - Pitchfork

“The fact that the seven-piece manage to make music that is as orchestrated and coherent as it is invigorating is only one of the few astonishing things about them.” - 9/10 Popmatters

“What primarily sets ‘Romance Is Boring’ up as a significant step forward is that it’s incredibly structurally cohesive, and yet blows anything they’ve previously released out of the water in terms of textural intricacy, technical prowess and general experimentation.” - 4/5 NME

Comes with liner notes and interview on the back of the sleeve.

Dennis & Christy Soares are a husband-and-wife duo whose prolific output - over 100 albums and nearly 2,000 songs recorded across CD, cassette, vinyl, and streaming - stands as one of the most quietly remarkable self-made catalogs in contemporary music. Based for two decades on the Big Island of Hawai'i before recently relocating to Centralia, Washington, the pair have been making music together since meeting at San Joaquin Delta College in 1986, channeling a DIY spirit rooted in sincerity, spirituality, and an unshakeable belief in the power of a song. Their work spans platforms most listeners have never heard of, distributed through sheer determination and an infectious enthusiasm for reaching new ears.

Free At Last is an 11-track anthology compiled by AGS founder Roger Bong, representing less than 1% of Dennis & Christy's total recorded output. Drawing from more than 600 songs considered over the course of 12 years, the collection makes no claim to being definitive - instead, it offers what Bong calls "simply an invitation": a way in for new listeners, and a distillation of the warmth and pure intention that runs through everything this duo creates. From their earliest recordings to the present day, Dennis & Christy have never stopped making music on their own terms. Free At Last is an introduction long in the making, and very much overdue.

'Palle Mikkelborg (b. 1941) - a spiritual jazz legend, acclaimed composer, trumpet player and electronic music pioneer - is back in the studio recording his first solo album in more than 25 years. Working with him as a producer is Jakob Bro, with whom he has recorded the great ECM albums Returnings with Jon Christensen and Thomas Morgan, and Strands with Marilyn Mazur.
'"When Palle decided to stop touring and performing live, I suggested that we sit down together and listen through the many MiniDiscs and DAT tapes he had tucked away, hoping we might find a new direction for making music together. We went through everything - recordings of orchestras and choirs, soundscapes, and so on - material he had worked on throughout his career,” says Jakob Bro. “I can still remember the first time we said it out loud. Suddenly, it made perfect sense in my mind: a solo album. An album devoted entirely to Palle - his sound, his vision, his voice. It felt like something the world truly needed.”
'This final opus sees Palle Mikkelborg re-interpret and record his own orchestral works and two pieces by Per Nørgaard and Thomas Laub as 'meditations' on solo piano, trumpet and flugelhorn mixed with soundscapes and guest performances by longtime collaborators Helen Davis, Jakob Bro and Thomas Li.
'As a soloist his sound on trumpet and flugelhorn is both much loved and familiar after decades at the forefront of Nordic Music, but on Light one is struck by the weight Palle Mikkelborg has given his soundscapes and the grand piano. Forever curious on what's ahead, the album underlines his spiritual and ever-seeking approach to free improvisation, classical composition, choral works and experimental sound landcapes.'

Broshuda returns on the newly born label Ballads Infinite with another array of absurdist vignettes, lowercase hi-tech ambience and textural degradations of radio transmissions from the bicameral mind. Weaving multiple sonic timelines into silky yet slippery articulations, he sculpts each sound with deliberate care making it breathe, slither and shimmer. Spells conjures a subterranean force through its vanishing presence, with the restraint in the sonic palette feeling utterly refreshing, as watering, drop by drop, a ghostly flower in the dromoscopic netscape of overreaching stimuli.

Deliriously patching fragments of unnoticed memories, gliding freely— slightly inebriated—through the ocean of sound: what does it take to capture the transitory entities inhabiting the latent space of this hyperconnected manifold? An assemblage of mechanical debris reduced to their bare-bone essentials; the Tao of discharge brings life to corrupted data, unpacked through textural ruminations.

Broshuda doesn’t just cast the spell, he patiently coils it around you, dissolving each and every thought in the hiss, manipulating subtle energies by making them move beyond and outward. What’s the sound of matter silently falling apart? The serpent sheds its subtle yet solid armor, revealing the space between each spire blooming with gentle eruptions of broken melodies. Where do we land now? What are we turning into? An ontological enigma still awaits to be solved.

Mastered by: Inner Lakes @ Tapewave Studio

Formed in 1981 by two Rockford, Illinois, and two Brookfield, Wisconsin, natives in the midpoint of Milwaukee, Die Kreuzen (pronounced dee kroyt-zen) chose their name specifically to avoid stereotyping because “no one knows what it means. 'Die Kreuzen' roughly translates out of German meaning 'to intersect' or 'to hybridize,' which is exactly what they did on their five LP's for Touch and Go. Their self titled debut is considered one of the most seminal hardcore records of the early 80’s. As far as October File is concerned, remember that flannel shirt movement in the 90's? This is what those guys were listening to.

In Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”, he posits that the aura of art objects is destroyed by the ability to photographically reproduce them. When you had to make a pilgrimage to a work it remained elusive, charged, ever distant; but when you can easily see a reproduction, such aura dissipates. What Benjamin did not anticipate is that in the age of AI and the frictionless fount of digital content, we have imbued mechanical and analog means of media production with aura. Film cameras from the last 100 years are in high demand (the point and shoot Olympus Mju I featured in Wim Wenders film Perfect Days still sells for $200), vinyl sales continue to grow year by year, 35mm and 70mm film screenings have become aura-drenched events people travel across country for, and as to the world of vintage and analog synthesizers, when a friend asked for the price on the Yamaha CS-80 synth used on Toto’s “Africa”, the answer was a cool $60,000.

Despite the ability to simulate almost any synthesizer on a computer, the original physical units retain their mystique. Perhaps this lies in the physical process, many of these synths are temperamental and difficult to fully utilize, and the effort and ingenuity can be felt in ways that will always be absent from easy digital simulacra. Perhaps there is an aura in their imperfection, as Brian Eno wrote: “Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided.” Some may call this nostalgia, but such sonic imperfections are the sounds of humans interacting with the physical world, and it is understandable to feel a pang of emotion and attachment in a time of exponential alienation.

Marche 22 was recorded over a week at the Museo Del Synth Marchigiano in Macerata, Italy. The museum is filled with rare and obscure synths (especially CRB, GEM & Elka) as well as salvaged materials from a nearby shuttered Farfisa organ factory, including MARS, an unfinished realtime audio processing application developed by IRIS - similar to the now well known MAX/MSP. Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein play a suite of pieces that encompasses the last sixty years of synthesizer music—there are nods to Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, and Morton Subotnick. Dixon and Stein are like jazz masters playing the American songbook with their own riffs and quotations. What shines through in these varied works that are sometimes rhythmic, sometimes melancholic, and sometimes both, is a soul, a spirit, an emotion vibrating through the tones like the charge of coming rain or the thrum of a distant train on the tracks. - Neil Fauerso

Mit "Olden" liegt eines der wichtigsten Frühwerke von 16 Horsepower wieder vor - erstmals als Oxblood Vinyl Edition. Die Sammlung vereint die ersten beiden Studio-Sessions von 1993/94 und zeigt die Band in ihrer rohsten, intensivsten Form. Klassiker wie "American Wheeze", "South Pennsylvania Waltz" oder "I Seen What I Saw" erscheinen hier in ihren ursprünglichen, ungezähmten Fassungen und werden durch rare, bislang unveröffentlichte Aufnahmen ergänzt. Dazu kommen Live-Mitschnitte aus dem Mercury Café in Denver, die die hypnotische Bühnenpräsenz der frühen Band dokumentieren. Olden ist damit nicht nur ein essenzielles Dokument der "Denver Sound"-Geburtsphase - sondern auch ein zentrales Werk für eine neue Generation von Hörern.

Buckshot returns with The Package, his latest solo album and his first to be entirely self-produced. The Brooklyn legend handles every beat himself this time, with features from General Steele of Smif-N-Wessun bringing the Boot Camp Clik brotherhood full circle.
Co-founder of Duck Down Music with Drew "Dru-Ha" Friedman, Buckshot has spent over three decades building one of hip-hop's most respected independent labels while staying prolific on the mic: a solo studio album, three with producer 9th Wonder, one with KRS-One, four with Black Moon, and four with the Boot Camp Clik. He's the voice behind "Straight from Crooklyn, better known as Brooklyn," a line that still echoes through the culture, prominently featured on two Crooklyn Dodgers tracks.

Ein Konzert ist ein Ereignis, bei dem Songs zu neuem Leben erwachen. Deshalb trägt dieses Album den Titel "Live!", erklärt Jarvis Cocker zu diesem besonderen Werk im Pulp-Kanon. "Es ist sowohl eine Tatsachenfeststellung (es handelt sich um die Aufnahme einer Liveband) als auch eine Herausforderung (kommt schon! Alle sollen lebendig werden!)." Gleichzeitig ist es auch sowas wie der erste Filmsoundtrack von Pulp: Der von Garth Jennings inszenierte Film "What Do You Do For an Encore?" erscheint weltweit am 25. September. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Pulp und Garth Jennings reicht bis ins Jahr 1997 zurück, als er das Musikvideo zu "Help the Aged" drehte. Als Pulp 2023 ihre Rückkehr auf die Bühne ankündigten, nahm Garth Kontakt auf und bot an, das Bühnenkonzept mitzugestalten. Im Juni 2025 filmte er schließlich die beiden Auftritte der Band in der Londoner O2 Arena, die das Herzstück des Films bilden. Diese Konzerte liefern auch das Material für das Livealbum. Es waren die 566. und 567. Shows der Bandgeschichte und zeigen eine Gruppe auf dem Höhepunkt ihres Könnens. Aufgenommen in der Woche, in der "More" - Pulps erstes Album seit 24 Jahren - Platz 1 der offiziellen UK-Charts erreichte, fängt das Album genau den Moment ein, in dem die Band als kreative Kraft zurückkehrt: alte und neue Klassiker erstmals vereint.

Mit Afterlight legt das Londoner Indie-Quartett Starter Car ein beeindruckendes Debüt vor, das sofort unter die Haut geht. Gegründet von Songwriter Oisean Burnett nach seinem Umzug aus Glasgow, hat sich die Band schnell als Geheimtipp der South London Szene etabliert. Ihr Sound verbindet warmen, country-inspirierten Indie mit introspektiven Texten über Angst, Verlust und Hoffnung. Produziert von Joe Futák und veredelt durch Kollaborationen aus der Szene, entfaltet sich ein organisch gewachsenes Klangbild voller Harmonien, Fiddle, Banjo und emotionaler Tiefe. Zwischen melancholischer Reflexion und euphorischem Aufbruch entsteht ein Album, das gleichermaßen tröstet und mitreißt - ein intensives Hörerlebnis zwischen Schönheit und Zerbrechlichkeit. With Afterlight, London-based indie outfit Starter Car deliver a striking debut that resonates instantly. Formed by songwriter Oisean Burnett after relocating from Glasgow, the band quickly became a standout in the South London scene. Their sound blends warm, country-influenced indie with deeply introspective songwriting, exploring themes of anxiety, loss and hope. Produced by Joe Futák and enriched by collaborations within the scene, the album unfolds as an organic sonic landscape full of lush harmonies, fiddle, banjo and emotional nuance. Balancing melancholy reflection with uplifting energy, Afterlight captures a rare emotional intensity - a compelling listening experience poised between beauty and vulnerability.

Celebrating 45 years since its original release, ‘I Love Rock ’N Roll’, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ seminal, groundbreaking album, is a landmark of rock history, selling over 10 million copies worldwide. The title track dominated the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks, becoming a global anthem and earning spots on multiple “greatest songs” lists. The album also delivered the Top 10 hit “Crimson & Clover.” Featuring its instantly recognizable, iconic cover, ‘I Love Rock ’N Roll’ remains a bold, enduring statement of raw attitude and timeless rock power.

For any other artist, an album like Asher White’s Love Aggregates might come out of a conscious push to treat no idea as off-limits, to make something bold and new. Jubilant art-funk about cocaine addiction—absolutely. Swooning orchestral pop about Jerry Garcia—why not? Rippling electronic noise, jazzy brushed drums, an elderly motorcyclist with dementia, a profoundly emotional bass solo—put them all in one song. There are threadbare folk tunes, glammed-up power-pop bangers, “Sir Duke” horn charts, Morton Feldman string arrangements, layers of guitar feedback like violins made of liquid chrome. Yes, for another artist, Love Aggregates might be the most adventurous album in their catalog. For Asher White, it’s what passes for settling down.

White is 25 years old and has been making records—writing, recording, producing, and playing almost everything herself—for over a decade. She’d released two dozen of them on Bandcamp before catching the indie-rock industry’s attention with 2024’s Home Constellation Study and last year’s 8 Tips for Full Catastrophe Living. The latter album’s dizzy eclecticism and formidable craft landed her on Rolling Stone’s Future 25 list with the likes of xaviersobased and Oklou, along with a slew of other accolades. That came as something of a surprise to White, who didn’t craft the chaotic 8 Tips with a breakthrough in mind. Love Aggregates feels like a chance, for one of the most thrilling musical talents of her generation, at a more deliberate introduction.

She wrote and recorded her new album while her previous one was gathering
momentum, tinkering in the DIY recording studio where she always works, acutely conscious now that people would be listening to whatever she came up with. At around the same time, her years-long romantic relationship ended in a flurry of betrayal and addiction, her first experience of devastating heartbreak. Even so, Love Aggregates is not a bitter album about wallowing or seething, but instead making use of those impulses as raw materials in work that transcends the specificity of its origins, fashioning them into something surprising and new.

What is Buck? Buck is a state of mind, a way of life, a demeanor that gets you through the good times and the bad. If you ask Brainstory, It is also the energy that permeates their debut album. Kevin, Tony, and Eric are a trio of brothers bounded by blood, fate, and a small town with nothing to do. Their story begins in the long lost lands of the San Bernardino Valley, in the twilight zone known as Rialto, California: An arid wasteland of boredom and empty lots. Through punk rock and skateboarding they found temporary liberation from the local monotony. However, it wouldn't be long before a hunger for more led them to explore musical realms beyond that of the hardcore punk they admired. After stints at music school and steady disappointment trying to navigate their local jazz scene they moved to Los Angeles and Brainstory was born. Through a introduction from Chicano Batman's bassist, Brainstory caught the ears of Big Crown head honchos Danny Akalepse and Leon Michels. Shortly thereafter they were on their way to Queens, to record at The Legendary Diamond Mine with Michels at the helm. An instant chemistry yielded 10 songs in 10 days and now Brainstory has gifted the world with one hell of an introduction to all things Buck. Highlights include the sublime slow burner, "Dead End" which was the A-side to their first 45 on Big Crown that sold out in a matter of days. With Kevin's sublime falsetto floating atop Tony and Eric's unflappable and unmistakable backbeat, this tune has become a favorite with the ballad heads, the low-riders, and the slowie collectors. "Breathe" showcases another side of their sound taking a page out of the Shuggie Otis playbook and flipping the script with some stoned out west coast swag. Kev and Tony's father, Big Tone, an accomplished performer himself, steps in on "Peter Pan" to sing lead vocals over a chorus of friends and family. Bassist extraordinaire, Tony, takes over lead vocal duties on "Sorry", a smoked out, G Funk groove that is just waiting to be sampled. These guys have come a long way from their self released EPs and opening tours with Chicano Batman. Their musical growth is undeniable, and taking their California sunshine vibes and mixing them with Michels' NYC aesthetic has proven to be an amazing combination. It's a debut record that pulls influences from so many genres seamlessly it's hard to nail down. Call it Funk, call it Rock, call it Soul, but over here at Big Crown HQ, we've decided to call it BUCK.

God Bless The Band is released on 28th August 2026. God Bless The Band celebrates an incredible two decades of Courteeners, featuring tracks from their seven studio albums - St. Jude (2008), Falcon (2010), Anna (2013), Concrete Love (2014), Mapping the Rendezvous (2016), More. Again. Forever. (2020) and Pink Cactus Cafe (2024) - along with two brand new tracks ‘The Luckiest Man Alive’ and ‘Plus One Forever’ produced by Liam Fray and James Skelly. Formats include heavyweight black 2LP and CD plus retail exclusive Crystal Clear 2LP.