Live Ones is an LP compilation of refixes and remixes of older material and brand new tracks that have all featured in New Jackson live sets in recent years available on vinyl for the first time.
It features contributions from Rory Sweeney and Rita Lynn and long-term collaborator Richie 'Jape' Egan. Cover photography shot by long time collaborator Rich Gilligan at a New Jackson show in Dublin.
According to New Jackson himself 'This started out as a way to put out new tracks and remixes of older stuff as quickfire digi releases without the pressure of making a cohesive body of work that normally comes with making an album yet ironically I feel this works better as a cohesive vinyl release then my last album proper and features some of my favourite music I've made.'
MEMORIALS jump off the waterslides and head above the clouds with their stunning second album, ‘All Clouds Bring Not Rain’. The duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms (formerly of Electrelane and WIRE) locked themselves away in a studio in a barn secluded deep in the woods in southwestern France and re-emerged with a beautiful, unusual record that is both melodic and unconventional. For such an ambitious album it’s striking that it was written, performed, recorded and mixed solely by the two of them. Sounding like an unearthed classic, MEMORIALS twist their influences into their own unmistakable sound. Imagine Nico singing with Can produced by David Axelrod and you’re somewhere in the right ballpark.
The record draws inspiration from a wide range of music including folk, dub, post punk, experimental tape music, 60s soul, garage rock, 70s spiritual jazz and Canterbury prog. This attention to detail in their sound meant finding several other studios to get what they needed to record with, including a harpsichord at 4AD’s studio in London and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker in Stereolab drummer Andy Ramsay’s studio Press Play. Verity’s distinctive, unadorned singing is a focal point of the record, moving from tender to wild. Her vocal melodies quickly become earworms, providing the tuneful heart around which the songs’ more unorthodox elements are arranged, which is where Matthew’s unconventional approach to recording and production comes to the fore. With their adventurous arrangements, classic songwriting skills and innovative production techniques, MEMORIALS have created another mesmerising listen that’s accomplished and compelling in its unique approach yet remains dizzyingly immersive - just like their acclaimed live shows.
For Louis Johnstone, making music has never been about waiting for the right equipment, the right environment or the right moment. Across more than a decade of work as both Wanda Group and A Large Sheet Of Muscle, the Huddersfield-based musician has built one of British experimental music's most singular bodies of work by embracing whatever happens to be within reach, allowing instinct, improvisation and circumstance to shape the outcome as much as conscious composition.
"'Chinese Benefits' was made over a year ago on an iPhone that had a broken microphone and was on its way out," he explains. "I have made many records after this with clearer sounds. Sharper ideas. That is never the point, though. You work with what you hold in your hands."
Recorded entirely on a failing iPhone 6 that stopped working shortly afterwards, 'Chinese Benefits' isn't a record about damaged technology. It is a record shaped by it. Rather than resisting the limitations of the device, Johnstone allows them to become part of the music itself, where distortion, interference and deteriorating fidelity are inseparable from the recording process.
Across twenty brief but disquieting pieces, corroded spoken word, environmental recordings, abrasive noise and fractured electronics continually emerge and dissolve. Voices drift in and out of range, reverberation stretches everyday sounds beyond recognition, and bursts of white noise interrupt moments of uneasy calm. There are echoes of radio transmissions, field recordings and musique concrète throughout, yet 'Chinese Benefits' never settles comfortably into any one tradition. Instead, it inhabits a space where accident and intention become almost impossible to separate.
That philosophy has long defined Johnstone's work. Through a vast catalogue of self-released recordings on his Umbro G imprint, alongside releases for labels including The Trilogy Tapes, he has consistently favoured immediacy over refinement, embracing imperfection not as an aesthetic but as a practical reality. His recordings are less concerned with perfection than with capturing the conditions in which they were made.
Looking back on 'Chinese Benefits', however, Johnstone's own assessment is characteristically understated.
"Listening back fully, it's quite a nice record actually. Fair enough, I make them and never really listen again TBH. Even better, it was the last Large Sheet Of Muscle record made on that phone with grit and damaged guts."
Like much of his work, 'Chinese Benefits' offers few fixed meanings. Its titles remain cryptic, its voices partially obscured and its structures deliberately unstable. What emerges instead is a deeply personal document of process over perfection, where the limitations of the tools become inseparable from the music they produce, and where the act of making something matters far more than the conditions in which it was made.
Van Ghost is the sinister collision of fine art and grimy underground Hip Hop. Released in 2018, the album pairs Washington, D.C. MC ANKHLEJOHN with producer Big Ghost Ltd. for an 11-track journey inspired entirely by the paintings and troubled world of Vincent van Gogh.
Each song takes its name from a Van Gogh work, from The Night Café and The Yellow House to The Starry Night, The Red Vineyard, and The Potato Eaters. But rather than simply paying tribute to the painter, ANKHLEJOHN and Big Ghost translate that imagery into something darker, rawer, and distinctly their own. Big Ghost's ominous, cinematic production creates a bleak and atmospheric backdrop for ANKHLEJOHN's abrasive, unpredictable delivery and vividly street-centered lyricism.
Murmuration’ is the low hum made by vast, beautifully choreographed flocks of starlings as they simultaneously flap their wings and take to the sky. Some people say that the frequency of this unique, rumbling, oscillating sound can cure diseases...
One of the most exciting live bands in the UK, British Birds combine the garage-punk energy of Billy Childish, the wry English sophistication of XTC and the witty pop inventiveness of The Lovely Eggs. Like a murmurating flock of starlings, they create a unique sound, and might even be able to cure diseases.
Based in Chorley, Lancashire, British Birds are a resolutely DIY band. Bobby records and mixes all the music; Emma creates all the artwork. Their first two albums were self-released, selling hundreds of copies at gigs and at a few chosen record stores. British Birds didn’t wait for permission to take flight. They just got on with it. Their songs are sophisticated, hard-hitting, and very skilful. It may be DIY, but it’s big and it’s ambitious.
Sessions for Marc Riley and Gideon Coe have followed, along with tours supporting The Bug Club, BC Camplight and Lovely Eggs.
‘Murmurate, Oscillate’ kicks off with Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas, a rousing expression of exasperation at our passivity in the face of lame authority. British Birds are acute observers of the English political scene, shrouding their observations in humour and surrealism. Polka Dot Eyes is another piece of sharp social observation: it portrays Lancashire lads – friends from school – who join the Army and return home physically and mentally damaged. The song is simultaneously disturbing, funny and catchy as hell. From the fog of disinformation and doubt that surrounds us all in 2020s Britian, British Birds embrace the darkness, but with wit and verve – no slogans, no easy answers – and with an energy that helps us escape the mundanity of a declining island. This might all sound a bit bleak, but it’s not: every single one of the songs on this album has a chorus as big as a house.
There are personal songs too: Scary Movies is a poignant description of Bobby and Emma’s grandfather, who delighted in showing them horror films when they were kids – giving them sneak previews of the darkness they’d come to embrace as adults; Just Like Them is a celebration of introversion: it might not be fun, but it’s better than being an idiot. (Paradoxically, any other introverts who hear this song will feel impelled to join in in the chorus.) Blame Game and Thunder Claps examine the darkness inherent in relationships: there is always an impending storm, if you recognise the low hum of the imminent thunder. Once again: the choruses of these songs confound the melancholy sentiment.
You’ll get the same impression if you see British Birds live: Bobby’s ferocious guitar and dark lyrics are counterpointed with Emma’s sometimes haunting, sometimes playful vocal responses and insistent rhythms. You’ll be swept away by the energy of a band who don’t know the meaning of limits. And as the songs get darker and darker the smile on your face gets wider and wider.
The core members of British Birds are siblings Bobby and Emma Townson, working from their HQ-cum-nest in Chorley. Drums are by Dominic Lawson (apart from Michael Aindley on ‘Just Like Them’). Bass is by James Robinson.
British Birds will be embarking on a headline tour of the UK in early 2027.
Curren$y & Wiz Khalifa link up with Harry Fraud on Roofless Records For Drop Tops, the latest chapter in the rappers collaborative series. This Fraud-produced installment is considered Disc 2 in the series and follows up the Digital-Only 'Disc 1', which was produced by Cardo. Backed by Fraud's smooth production, Curren$y and Wiz deliver the laid-back flows, sharp lyricism, and effortless chemistry fans have come to expect. Built for cruising and easy listening, the project continues the sound and style that has made these three some of hip hop's most consistent names for a decade. Now available on vinyl, Roofless Records For Drop Tops is a must have for collectors and fans looking to add another essential release from Curren$y, Wiz Khalifa, and Harry Fraud to their shelves.
Tropical Fu*k Storm revisit the live album concept on ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Fairyland Codex’. Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable.
Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad “Stepping on a Rake” takes on heavier undertones, “Irukandji Syndrome” becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Moscovium” sounds more urgent than ever.
The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including “Who’s My Eugene” and “You Let My Tyres Down”, alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ “This Perfect Day”.
Tropical Fu*k Storm have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’ catches that chaos in the act.
Key Quotes:
“Tropical Fuck Storm are masters of tension and release.” The Guardian.
“If anyone's qualified to make music about all-encompassing terror, it ought to be Tropical Fuck Storm.” Pitchfork.
“Thrilling noise-rock pranksters” Uncut.
“End times chaos… A gloriously imperfect storm” MOJO.
“A galvanising opus of incredible political bite” The Line Of Best Fit.
“One of the most rewarding listens in rock music” Consequence Of Sound.
A stylish selection of city pop, funk and modern soul from Japanese label Nippon Columbia, selected by DJ Notoya and featuring cult classics and rarities by Hiroshi Sato, Hatsumi Shibata, Hitomi 'Penny' Tohyama & many more.
Annotated by Notoya with journalist Nick Luscombe and artwork by Optigram.
Newly remastered audio.
The selection on ‘Tokyo Glow’ starts with 'Kimugare' a relaxed mid-tempo track by Kumi Nakamura, actually a famous actress who only recorded one album in 1980 for Columbia.
The set continues and flows effortlessly with the sunshine grooves of Miyuki Maki, Hatsumi Shibata and cult keyboard player Hiroshi Sato before the pace starts going faster and funkier with New Generation Company, Kengo Kurozumi - with his superb boogie, 'Juggler'
- and one of the queens of the genre, Hitomi 'Penny' Tohyama with 'Tuxedo Connection'.
Another fine example on the set is the mid-tempo groove of "I Wander All Alone Part III" by New Generation Company, an aggregate group of some of the best Japanese session musicians led by arranger Katz Hoshi and including Hiroyuki Namba (key), Kazuo Shiina (gtr) and Yutaka Uehara (ds) who all played with Tatsuro Yamashita among many others.
There are many other excellent examples in 'Tokyo Glow', showcasing the diversity and specificity of Japanese City Pop during the late 70s and 80s.
Nippon Columbia opened their much-guarded vaults to curator DJ Natoya. Tracks were remastered in Tokyo and the result, ‘Tokyo Glow’, is a unique insight into a most creative period in Japanese music.
A genre- blurring statement born from bedrooms and late- night studio sessions, the album fuses live drums, analogue synths, samples, and dense percussion into something critics struggled to pin down - baggy grooves meet electro-pop meets rave culture. Originally designed as an extension of the band's unpredictable live shows, Harder Than It Should Be captures a rotating cast of collaborators and a core four-piece that expanded into an eight-member spectacle. Tracks like Atom Bomb City, Cut It Loose and the cult single These Boys Are Athletes (featuring Bis vocalist Manda Rin) earned radio play and industry buzz - yet the album itself was never formally released. Recovered from early recordings and demos, this reconstruction reflects the original intent: a high- energy journey mirroring the band's live intensity. A document of a moment when MySpace buzz, indie discos and electro experimentation collided in small venues and word-of-mouth scenes.
Tropical Fu*k Storm revisit the live album concept on ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’, their second live album and the follow-up to the critically acclaimed ‘Fairyland Codex’. Recorded over three nights during a sold-out residency at New York venue TV Eye, the album finds the band at the height of their incendiary powers, turning already combustible songs into something even more ferocious and unpredictable.
Fine-tuned and road-tested through heavy touring, songs from ‘Fairyland Codex’ are stretched into new forms. Ballad “Stepping on a Rake” takes on heavier undertones, “Irukandji Syndrome” becomes a launchpad for a guitar solo worthy of the Velvets’ “I Heard Her Call My Name” and “Moscovium” sounds more urgent than ever.
The band also revisit back catalogue favourites including “Who’s My Eugene” and “You Let My Tyres Down”, alongside a cover of Australian punk heroes The Saints’ “This Perfect Day”.
Tropical Fu*k Storm have built a catalogue worth obsessing over, but their live show is where the band’s brilliance really breaks open, and ‘Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2’ catches that chaos in the act.
Key Quotes:
“Tropical Fuck Storm are masters of tension and release.” The Guardian.
“If anyone's qualified to make music about all-encompassing terror, it ought to be Tropical Fuck Storm.” Pitchfork.
“Thrilling noise-rock pranksters” Uncut.
“End times chaos… A gloriously imperfect storm” MOJO.
“A galvanising opus of incredible political bite” The Line Of Best Fit.
“One of the most rewarding listens in rock music” Consequence Of Sound.
In their own words, it's "more focussed, paced and thought-out." Over 13 tracks that explore the horrors of the outside world and the internal minefield of the brain, Mould's debut also hits with the thrills of a brilliant live band who've distilled that energy to tape. The title comes from a line taken from the time signature-warping 'Emotive Language' that distills what it means to be a band in 2026 down to one concise sentiment. "This has always been the dream, playing with your mates and making good songs and getting to tour and make records," says Kane. "But the realities of trying to start a band now, when you're 30 and also have other goals at the same time are hard. We'd be doing it regardless, but you have to learn a lot. " This duality runs throughout the record, where tracks like lead single 'Float' speak of "strolling through hellscapes" of social media yet surround their frustrations with the sort of barbed, visceral musicality that sounds like if Interpol had grown up in gloomy, rain- soaked Britain. "You're endlessly doom scrolling, past a funny video of a sausage, and then there's Farage and then there's an ad for something," Joe says of the track. "That mindnumbing flashy distraction turns you into idiots."
In their own words, it's "more focussed, paced and thought-out." Over 13 tracks that explore the horrors of the outside world and the internal minefield of the brain, Mould's debut also hits with the thrills of a brilliant live band who've distilled that energy to tape. The title comes from a line taken from the time signature-warping 'Emotive Language' that distills what it means to be a band in 2026 down to one concise sentiment. "This has always been the dream, playing with your mates and making good songs and getting to tour and make records," says Kane. "But the realities of trying to start a band now, when you're 30 and also have other goals at the same time are hard. We'd be doing it regardless, but you have to learn a lot. " This duality runs throughout the record, where tracks like lead single 'Float' speak of "strolling through hellscapes" of social media yet surround their frustrations with the sort of barbed, visceral musicality that sounds like if Interpol had grown up in gloomy, rain- soaked Britain. "You're endlessly doom scrolling, past a funny video of a sausage, and then there's Farage and then there's an ad for something," Joe says of the track. "That mindnumbing flashy distraction turns you into idiots."
For UnExposed Records first vinyl release, Uruguay’s Marcos Coya wanted to show the world a different side of his artistic approach. In a world of monotonous copy/paste, Marcos wanted to bring something unique to the table. A compilation of spacey, dreamy & emotional tunes custom built for the dance floor yet still experimental as well. Deep grooves & long developments. No fluff. No overbearing bangers. True underground production principles. Crafted for those with a refined palate.
The A-side is dedicated to Marcos Coya’s four to the floor production work. This sonic expedition begins w/ a bang: the record’s title track “Moon Trippin”! A showcase of freaky melodies accompanied by groovy percussions which bolster a vocal of Prince speaking his mind about the true essence of creating musical art & his disdain for mainstream music industry critics.
“Delirium” closes out the A-side w/ a dreamy acid house tune adding an emotional touch to the record. After hours material. A real step forward for Marcos and his production work. Leaning heavier than ever into trusting his melodies. Taking a bit more risk with his approach by creating something you’ve never heard from him on any of his nearly 20 vinyl releases over his career.
For the B-side we shift over to a more breakbeat approach with 2 absolute heaters. B1 introduces the track Hearthug has claimed to be one of the tracks of the year: “Rage Dog”. Rage Dog is a Marcos Coya signature track due to its rock & hip hop influences developed during his adolescence. Marcos even purchased new synthesizers specifically to improve this track & its melodies. The cherry on top is the vocal from Rage Against The Machine’s front man, Zack de la Rocha, which adds a rebelliously political undertone to the record, something UnExposed & Marcos both are very proud to address w/ passionate conviction during this time of war and injustice.
We close out the record with “D.N.A.”, the most experimental piece of art on this vinyl release. A wild combination of breakbeats, guitars, melodies & crazy vocals. The perfect bizarrely fascinating conclusion to this wild trip to the moon and back.
Early support from heavy hitters such as: DJ Koolt, Anthea, Velasco, KT, Hearthug, Mario Liberti, Daïf & many more!
Om Unit says of this release 'For me it's another milestone as a DNB fan.. Being allowed to come back to 31 again with another shadow boxing version, being one of only a tiny handful of people being allowed to remix this classic truly is an honour, let alone twice! Also working with Thing on "something ancient" was a real blessing not only because he's original and convincing with his own work but also I think he's like me, he does his own thing without adhering to too many of the insular rules that have made dnb such a closed room over the years, and so creating this cinematic piece just happened naturally and I really love the results.
Calibre & Marcus Intalex team up with Fox for Signature Recordings number 20. Manchester born, Jamaican bred, Fox is a stalwart of the Mancunian music scene. Known as much for his Yardie inflected Mancunian accented Mcing as his sweet melodic singing. It is fair to say both tracks Run Away & Somethin Heavy are massive.
With 'Songs For Tova' Dolly introduces a brand new producer called Afik Naim. This rough diamond was pulled out of a cave near Jerusalem. He has a cinematic experimental take on what you would call Techno but he is rather hard to classify to be honest. Exactly what we like, somebody who stands out with his typical sound pallet! Another perfect player on this 'Songs For Tova' team is the never disappointing Kassem Mosse with a killer remix to wrap up this high class 4 tracker!
San Francisco electronic pioneers Darwin Chamber and DJ Spun head down the arcade for four tracks of the unmistakable flavour of modified 8 Bit sound chips from the 80s. 'LFO's Are Real' definitely nods to the Leeds duo that kicked the Warp Records revolution off, but that's just a starting point for some rough edged electro machinations and some spooky extra-terrestrial samplings. '8-Bit Phantasy' connects Chicago-style piano magic with acid undertows and gets brought to dancefloor life by a serious injections of funky ass breakbeatery. 'Intruder Alert' is the gnarliest of the lot, the bass end nothing if not speaker threatening, before 'We Gotta Get' is wonderfully disorientating disco dub delirium. Raw and direct, this will set the floor alight quicker than a can of petrol and lit match.
UK-based DJ and producer Drum Dance returns with a fresh three-track dance 12” on his Into The Cosmos label. Opening title track ‘Space Ritual’ is an almost 12-minute-long journey beginning somewhere in dreamy ambient, dub techno territory before evolving into a deep meditative trance with hypnotic percussive rhythms, rolling dubbed out hi-hats and euphoric synths; like Balearic meets Black Ark. The track then veers off in a new direction; playful arpeggiated synthesizers and stripped-back electronic drums taking it somewhere resembling early house or a cosmic Italo disco dub mix.
Techno goes outernational on ‘Arp Sequence 3 Dub’; stuttering lo-fi machine sounds and samples collide with pitched calypso percussion, dubbed out roots steppers drums and a deep walking bassline before heating up into a driving frenzy of 4/4 drums, siren synths and run-away FX.
‘Cosmo Jam’ starts life like a raw, moody Detroit house jam; tape-saturated kalimba, electric keys and loose drums skipping in and out of time. The track eventually gives way to a more ruff UK broken beat sound; cosmic jazz keys weave around outernational percussion, rhythmic vocals and a heavy low-end.
The SOUP collective return with their another premium slice of cultural reincarnation.
Four more soundsystem specific artefacts taking in a quintessentially Balearic holy grail, some crisp modern machine-soul, a fine, fine Gospel/Soul end-of-nighter and a Jazz-Rock sunset anthem - for the discerning dancers...
Over the last decade and a half, Rotation Sound System’s annual gathering in the Staffordshire countryside has become one of underground dance music culture’s true success stories – an intimate gathering of like-minded friends and partygoers, powered by a custom-built six-way sound system, with music provided by a carefully curated line-up of dusty-fingered diggers, selectors and hand-picked live performers.
At the heart of the collective’s unique and much-loved approach lies a dedication to finding and sharing lesser-known gems and audio obscurities – fantastic records whose charm and quality has long been overlooked.
Last year, the core members of the crew – founders Dean Meredith and Ben Shenton (renowned for their productions as Mind Fair), and Wrekin’ Havoc trio Rob J, Stuart Robinson and Rich Hall – offered a snapshot of their unique musical approach via debut compilation Everything You Are About To Hear Is True, Volume 1, in the process introducing a global audience to some of the countless unknown mid-tempo classics nestled in their collections.
Fresh from another sold out edition of their acclaimed micro-festival, they’re back with volume two, another must-have collection of slept-on classics, loved-up shufflers and wide-eyed Balearic beats, all of which have played a part in Rotation’s story over the last 13 years.
Appearing on gatefold double vinyl with extensive liner notes telling the stories behind the tracks, Everything You’re About To Hear Is True, Volume 2 is full to bursting with music that sounds mind-blowing on the crew’s high-end sound system.
For proof, check the analogue-rich intergalactic shuffle of Paul Atreides’ 2015 jam ‘Arrakis Walk’, the relaxed boogie-soul of Rocky Winters’ Chaz Jankel produced ‘Vicious Circle’, the easy-listening-jazz-rock bliss of Vincent Maclin’s ‘Should’ve Took a Chance’, the 80s soul squelch of ‘Ecstasy (Centurion Mix)’ by Endgames and the immersive British dub drift of Sigma’s ‘Remember (Dub Style)’.
Everywhere you look, you’ll find eye-opening and ear-pleasing delights. There’s Pinky’s lightly acid-flecked, breakbeat-fuelled, acid house-era street soul classic ‘I Wanna Be The One (Instrumental Groove)’, the 1992 new age downtempo seduction of Linda Myers (‘Shine On Me’), the Clavinet-and-synth sporting jazz-rock/space-rock fusion of Wolfhound (1984 gem ‘Another Moon Song’), the Gallic colour of Buzy’s ‘Keep Cool (Version Maxi)’ and the guitar solo-laden electrofunk explorations of mid-80s UK act Lifesighs (‘Get Serious’, here presented in its extended instrumental form).
Australia's Dancing in Space crew have thus far kept their vinyl releases to a minimum, reappearing every so often with a fresh batch of their own excellent disco edits. Here they try something different, delivering a typically assured two tracker from one of the most talented and productive scalpel fiends in the business, Chicago scene stalwart Rahaan. A-side 'Allright' is a typical Rahaan rub, with the talented re-editor skilfully rearranging and lightly dubbing out what sounds like a turn-of-the-80s fusion of classic disco, synth-splattered boogie and soaring jazz-funk. On 'My Strategy', he successfully breathes new life into an old Philadelphia International favourite, opting for a largely instrumental extension that subtly pitches the track up, tempo wise, for greater dancefloor pleasure.
Hector Ram and Ricky Ramirez are starting to celebrate ten years of Short Attention Records and it's US house stalwart DJ Aakmael they've enlisted to pop the champagne cork and cut the cake. He's one of those artists who turns out plenty of music, much of it sounding within the same consistent deep house framework. But there's always a little something to his tunes that keeps you coming back for more - a perfectly chosen sample, a nagging bassline, a sense of melancholy that you cannot escape. All of that is true on his latest. 'Things Always Happen' has keys that convey beautiful pain, then 'If You Believe' is a deep house haze with smudgy samples and blues-y ache. 'Free' is more light with trilling jazz-funk keys and earthy guitar frets sprinkled into the mix. 'Stopmotion' shuts down with a signature Aakmael bump. Just timeless stuff.
The Synewave label has legendary status amongst those who know and now boss man Damon Wild is back on it with a quartet of deep techno treasures. 'Avoidant' is a roaming, cavernous sound with gentle synth notes rising and falling over hefty kicks. 'Invincible' is more sci-fi in style with icy modulations and roaming pads over slinky, kinetic drum patterns and 'Organica' is a jumbled mix of feather hi-hats and more bleeping pulses with kicks pulled far apart. After the Detroit stylings of 'Coronas,' Sonic Mind records boss Donnel Knox aka D-Knox remixes it into something more direct and rhythmically rugged.
Phwoar! TD go four for the floor on Volume 9, letting loose with a set of sure-shot hits from all corners of their sonic spectrum.
A tag team match up, this action spectacular trades peak-time pump, Balearic cool, Italo thrust and dance-punk theatrics on its way to snatch the championship.
Obviously TD ooze subtlety and taste, so as we sat sipping Schnapps from our Stanley cups, we couldn't help but take a little inspo from our kitchen decor. 'Live Love Pump' - what a mantra. In musical form, this philosophy takes the shape of a capital D-isco delight, equal Pats Cowley & Adams, EQ-freaked and filtered into something dafter than a pair of chrome clad millionaires. Big room mirrorball magic if ever we've heard it.
The A2 sees the drunk AOR funk of 'Sure Line' take a leisurely stroll down the coast, a Gauloises in the gob and tattered Baldwin in the back pocket, flipping and flopping along the prom to buoyant bass, melting brass and more than a little melancholy.
Booting off the B-side, 'Un America' is a massive mid-tempo chugger replete with laser fire, synth scree and nipple high guitar. Powering along on a serious bass sequence armed with hooks-a-plenty, mostly incomprehensible lyrics and a groove which won't quit, this has all the ingredients required for an Italo all-timer.
The finale finds us in the company of some punk pioneers at their absolute silliest, bringing the kind of whacky vocal vibe, surf-centric style and off kilter groove the B-52s made a career of. Add in animal chatter and scratchy guitars and you've got the sort of secret weapon the Idjuts unleash waaaay post peak.
Limited Press - Numbered Insert - Drum Fun Guaranteed
Ursprünglich 1968 in New York auf Barakas eigenem Label Jihad veröffentlicht, ist "Black And Beautiful Soul And Madness" ein leidenschaftliches Zeitdokument der 1960er Jahre. Man könnte es leicht für eine verschollene Veröffentlichung von ESP-DISK halten, fügt es sich doch nahtlos zwischen Sun Ra, The Fugs und Albert Ayler ein. Die Band nutzte ihre Stimmen auf vielfältige Weise: mal singend im Stil von Doo-Wop und Soul, mal rappend im Stil der Last Poets, und oft auch beides gleichzeitig. Emotional fesselnd und von enormer Kraft, wird dieses Werk nun erstmals wieder auf Vinyl zugänglich.
Since the release of DAMAGED in 2024, Michael Fiedler aka GHOST DUBS has been surfing intensifying waves of adulation, earning praise from such diverse underground legends as Justin Broadrick (Godflesh/Jesu), Regis, Stefan Betke (Pole) and Steve Von Till (Neurosis). With second album Oblique, his mastery of sculpting sound waves results in a spellbinding set of alien soundscapes: larger in scale, richer in tone and considerably more cinematic than its predecessor. Lower, deeper and moodier, its cloudy abstractions, shadowy pulsations and submerged rhythms find Fiedler reaching further into his own sonic void, crafting blurred melodies and addictive narco loops into something simultaneously heavyweight and hypnotic.
Lead single and album opener “Low Times” sets the atmospheric pressure to maximum, resembling a dream date between prime dirt-house era Andy Stott and Berlin dub-tech pioneers Basic Channel. From there, Oblique descends into a series of enchanting mood scenes: the furtive, balletic gyrations of “After All”, the haunting ambience and buried heartbeat throb of “Soft Collapse”, and the noirish atmospherics of “Blackout Dust”, which worms its way into the mind like some forgotten David Lynch scene. The spirit of reggae is more distanced here than on DAMAGED, but the ghost of Jamaican dub still permeates these foggy soundscapes, particularly on “Bombed Suburbs”, where Augustus Pablo-style melodicism is chopped, screwed and slowed into a magnetic lock groove.
Superficially minimal but maximal in its minute detail, Oblique is a record of contorted reflections, mesmeric echoes and tantalising audio mirages. By the vaporous mist of closing track “Almost a Structure”, obvious rhythm has been craftily filtered away, leaving a blurred and blunted residue full of mystery and implied narrative. Dense in the best possible sense and crushing when played loud yet equally potent played quiet, Oblique imagines dub techno burning its own rigid rulebook: sensual, funky and concussive rather than dry or alienating. Following Fiedler’s recent work scoring Sound of Falling, recognised at Cannes in 2025, Oblique finds Ghost Dubs shedding his influences and making it clear he has arrived at a sound entirely his own — essential deep listening and a bewitching dose of future shock.
Released in 2000 on Tommy Boy, the album fi nds Capone and Noreaga leaning into their chemistry: Capone's colder, clipped delivery grounding Nore's wild-eyed charisma and off-kilter bounce. The record features heavyweight production and appearances from names like DJ Premier, The Alchemist, Havoc, L.E.S., Nas, Mobb Deep, Foxy Brown, and Carl Thomas, surrounding CNN with some of New York rap's most recognizable voices and architects. Highlights like "Bang Bang," "Invincible," "Queens Finest," and "Phonetime" keep the album rooted in hard drums, prison- call tension, borough pride, and that unmistakable CNN slang. Commercially, it made a solid showing, reaching No. 31 on the Billboard 200 and No. 8 on Top R&B/ Hip- Hop Albums, with "Phonetime" hitting No. 22 on Hot Rap Songs. The Reunion stands as a hard-nosed second chapter for CNN: a tough, guest-heavy, post- millennium Queens record that captures Capone and Noreaga reconnecting without sanding off the grime. This deluxe edition features the remastered original album with 3 bonus tracks.
On Chuck Strangers’ latest opus, Glory Of The King’s Hand, he raps, “I still rap from the perspective of my government name…” The stage name “Chuck Strangers” is, of course, an alias but it’s not necessarily an alter ego. For the man born Che Jessamy, his rap moniker isn’t some over-the-top rock star persona contrived for public consumption, it’s just a name. What you hear on his records is really who he is - a heavy-tongued griot from East Flatbush, Brooklyn with a gift for vivid stream-of-consciousness storytelling. His bars are imbued with the wisdom he’s gained in his lifetime - especially in the 14 years since he first made his debut with the Pro Era collective.
The elaborate title of his new album, Glory Of The King’s Hand, speaks to his gratitude for the hand that life’s dealt him, which is a pretty good one. At age 34, he does what he loves professionally and does it on his own terms. That’s something to be thankful for.
Glory Of The King’s Hand, not only represents Chuck’s matured attiGlory attitude but also his matured sound. Key to this refined approach was tude collaboration. Chuck is a proficient beatmaker in his own right as evidenced by his production for himself and artists like Joey Baevidenced Badass, and Boldy James. But this time around Chuck chose to be a dass, producer in the Quincy Jones sense of the word, bringing together vocalists, producers, and musicians instead of handling all of the beats and rhymes himself. d Up Reprise
The list of contributing producers is a who’s who of underground sound scientists including The Alchemist, Animoss, Theravada, Kensound Kenny Segal, Preservation, Child Actor, and Morriarchi.
An absolute, hard-charging funk hammer from the Dap-Kings - an incredible instrumental co-written and co-produced by Dapper Bosco Mann and Kenny Dope! If "Nervous Like Me" has a title that reflects some kind of apprehension, the track is anything but! It's simply pummeling - with a rhythm that kicks out from some stealth bongo and rolling trap that build into some playful guitar and bass response until the horns crash and boom! The beats on the flip isolate the funky drums, providing a sizzling beat track.
New pressing on black vinyl (500 units). Following the recently released and highly praised Trees 50th Anniversary box set on Earth Recordings, Trees reissue their debut album ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’as a standalone release. It’s now over fifty years since Trees’ formation, a band who helped define ‘Acid Folk’, creating a sub-category in the lexicon of record dealers and music critics alike. “When we are talking about psych folk or acid folk, we are really talking about music like this by Trees” Stuart Maconie, BBC6 Music. Trees first album, ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ (1970) snuggles nicely into contemporary nu-folkies’ idea of the genre, and shares some of the pastoral-whimsy that characterised The Incredible String Band or Donovan, offset by some stunning interpretations of traditional material and Bias’ own songs. The record includes readings of ‘Lady Margaret’, ‘Glasgerion’, the old standard ‘She Moved Thro’ The Fair’, and the extended fade of the group’s own ‘Road’, presage the explosive instrumental duelling that would come to characterise the follow up album, ‘On The Shore’. // “The music’s arcane power remains intact” Mojo. // “A fantastic band” Record Collector. // “Spectacular” Uncut. // “Sublime” Shindig. // Timeless” Prog. // “It’s these two original albums that stand as pinnacles of form” The Wire. // Track listing: A1. Nothing Special A2. The Great Silkie A3. The Garden of Jane Delawney A4. Lady Margaret B1. Glasgerion B2. She Moved Thro' The Fair B3. Road B4. Epitaph B5. Snail's Lament
The first Jet Set series is back in print and now repressed on colored vinyl. St. Louis producer Bonus Points scores high with Off Topic, an outstanding four-song EP for the Cold Busted label. With previous appearances on Chillhop Records, Sundae Sauuce, Horizon, and others, Bonus Points delivers a dazzling take on boom-bap beats and future funk. Bonus Points is a graphic designer by day and, in turn, his musical compositions reflect attention to color, form, and detail. These beats are visual. The release’s title cut opens things with a spacey intro before delving into some serious sunshine lounge vibes. A cool breeze wafts through these melodies. “Zoned Out” follows with a distant, romantic guitar and a lonesome, pensive feeling that’s perfect for seaside pondering. Next up is the old-timey jazz bop of “Coffee Lounge,” recalling the St. Louis swing of yesteryear over some phat beats. Off Topic closes with “Back And Forth
Chicago's finest lyricist MC Juice, infamous from the mid 90s from beating Eminem in the Rap Olympics, is back with a scorching 9 track EP (3 instrumentals and an accapella included) on 12" vinyl! Following on from his two 45s on Nobody Buys Records and well as the hit album The Man, all of 3 of which rapidly sold out this is some of Juice's best work displaying his razor sharp wordplay and effortless flow to its fullest. The sound scape provided by Bankrupt Europeans for their 3rd collabo with Juice ranges from the upbeat & funky original version of All Day to the murky oboe of its remix, the dramatic strings on Where You Go and the sinister vibes of Unseen, in short, the perfect set up for Juice to get loose! We are beyond excited to be delivering some of MC JUICE’s finest ever work and there is a general feeling around Nobody-Buys-Records HQ that this may just be our finest release yet. Between the absolutely incredible artwork by the immensely talented Big Crunch, the beautiful marble vinyl, and the exquisite beats and rhymes, this EP is quite simply the perfect summer package. As always, every record is hand numbered!
Apex militant late '70s style here, if you think you are into steppers you should have this one firmly in your sights. One of Mr. Smart's hardest records, this originally appeared only as an album track, but also had some fame as a dubplate played at the time by Jah Shaka and others. We've long had that cut in our sights, and while some nice new re-mixes of this tune appeared in the last few years, here is the real thing from '79 steel. The A-side features the raw dubplate cut vocal, no horns or other adornment, HARD to the point stepping drum and bass style. The B-side features the original Gussie Clarke dub mix aptly titled "Hot Steppers", also previously released only on album. This cut as well was run on dubplate back at the time, a killer mix with full horns but no vocal. Leroy Smart is one of our all time favorite artists and we take pride in having re-released a handful of his all time best records, this one now added to that list.
Ismael Pinkler lives in Buenos Aires. Belly Dance Services head Nick Hanzo in Vienna. Turns out the exact midpoint between the two is somewhere in open ocean. So they abandoned the plan to meet on Earth at all, and met on planet 126 in outer space.
It turned out to be a strange, hospitable little world — spinning at its own pulse, 126 beats per minute, changing landscape every few kilometers, as if it couldn't decide what kind of planet it wanted to be either. Ismael and Nick wandered it together, letting each new terrain talk them into a different song, until ten tracks had quietly assembled themselves. What they brought back drifts somewhere between shoegaze, techno, ambient, trippy tribal house and pop — grounded and gravitational, emotional and mental, to put it in terms Earthlings might understand.
Now, speaking seriously: Ismael and Nick built Planet 126 by passing sounds and ideas back and forth across the ocean, night after night, for eight months. The entire process — composition, vocal recording, production and mixing — took just eight months, a dream scenario for any electronic musician. The collaboration stayed positive, proactive and fresh throughout, letting the project move forward effortlessly. All tracks were written and produced by both musicians together; Nick wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals, Ismael handled the mix. No samples, no references — just two people building a world from scratch.
Planet 126 also marks a milestone for Belly Dance Services: the label's 30th release, and likely its last. BDS began with BDS001, a vinyl EP by label founders Hanzo & Yaman, and has been solely helmed by Nick Hanzo for the past five years. Now it comes full circle — laid to rest with a big bang: a double vinyl gatefold album co-produced by Ismael Pinkler and label head Nick Hanzo.
A key architect of European minimal house returns here and it seems that the years have only deepened the German's craft. Following the acclaimed Belongs on the legendary Playhouse label, Losoul's latest for Logistic Records is organic and rich with musical narrative that reveals itself slowly. 'Cult Rodeo' is a deep cut and dubby swinger that teases with crowd noise and 'Shake' then gets more glitchy as sounds pan across the setter field and a jerking rhythm slowly manifests. 'No Jacks Given' swings low and heavy as a freaky vocal injects arresting immediacy and 'Some Pals Were Sleepers' slips into a more foggy and atmospheric minimal dub world. 'The Peek A Boo Scratch' is an abstraction of the afterparty kind and improves with time.
History Of Modern is the band's first record since 1996's Universal. Andy McCluskey has described it as their "best album since Architecture and Morality - high praise indeed.
All artwork for the release has been designed by OMD's longtime cohort Peter Saville.
This autumn also sees OMD embark on the 'History of Modern' tour, with the classic line up of Andy McCluskey, Paul Humphreys, Martin Cooper and Malcolm Holmes. The dates will see a mix of new songs with classic hits.
'Double Seven, released by Trojan in late 1973, was the last album Lee 'Scratch' Perry would release on the label for some considerable time, and it was essentially the final album project he put together before establishing his own Black Ark studio. Opening track 'Kentucky Skank' sets the tone with a slow creeper whose frying sounds underscore its role as a praise song to the Colonel's KFC recipes; the cosmic Moog blips come courtesy of Ken Elliott at Camden's Chalk Farm studio, also prominently featured on U-Roy's double-tracked, stereo-panned gambling ode 'Double Six.' David Isaacs' 'Just Enough' was cut a few years prior, which makes it slightly out of phase with the rest of the set, though the enigmatic 'In The Iaah' sounds mightily fresh, with its uncredited chorus said to come courtesy of the Wailers. Perry's own 'Jungle Lion' has hilarious roars from the maestro at the start, strangely grafted atop a reggae re-make of Al Green's 'Love and Happiness.'
'Overall, Double Seven melds the soul, funk, reggae and dub elements that were constant in Perry's work during this phase. His enhanced audio spectrum and endless reference points would keep his music continually apart from that made by his peers.'
—David Katz (excerpt from the liner notes)
180g Heavy double vinyl LP with liner notes by Tyran Grillo. Limited Japanese Obi for the first pressing. Original artwork by Russell Mills and photography by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
The third Time Capsule is a body of dub reinterpretations by celebrated producer Bill Laswell of Ethiopian singer Gigi. Curated by Tokyo record collector, music researcher and seasoned reissue supervisor Ken Hidaka, it is the first time Illuminated Audio is pressed to vinyl after its CD release in 2003.
Ejigayehu Shibabaw was born in 1974 in Chagni, northwestern Ethiopia and by pursuing a career as a singer, went against her father’s strict, traditional gender roles. As Gigi, she embraced the same musical freedom she had strived for in her personal life, incorporating the Ethiopian church, funk, hip-hop, West and South African music into her work. She first settled in Nairobi, then Addis Ababa, where she quickly established herself as one of the city’s leading singers. A move to San Francisco in 1998 led to a long and fruitful creative partnership with bassist and producer Bill Laswell.
Around the same time, Chris Blackwell had stepped away from Island Records to start the art house film company and label Palm Pictures. He took an interest in Gigi and together with Laswell, pulled together an all-star cast of musicians for her self-titled US debut album, including Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders and Wayne Shorter. It won international critical acclaim, not just for its musicianship but for making Gigi a “defining voice for the Ethiopian expatriate community”, as journalist Tyran Grillo praises in his Time Capsule liner notes. From the nation-defining 1896 victory over Italian invaders to the quiet revolutionaries who wear simple shemma garments, Grillo believes the themes in Gigi make it “a shower of sunlight on her homeland for those ignorant of its struggles.”
After its success, Blackwell encouraged them to go back into the studio to rethink the album and Illuminated Audio was born. “Anyone can make a voice sound worldly”, Grillo remarks, “but rare are those who can make one sound inner-worldly.” Gigi was clear with Laswell to give her vocals a minor role “because it’s already been done.” Instead her Amharic verse is fleeting, exhaling through the textures like ghostly fragments; soaring yet muted. Yet the album is still titled under her name, an assertion by Laswell of her central role in the album’s creation. Not only was it a fully endorsed project by Gigi, but she would be present throughout its development, giving feedback on half-finished ideas as Laswell played them back in the studio. “It works perfectly”, she reflected after the album’s release. “We wanted to capture the whole spirit of each track, and Bill’s remixes create a different music language that really puts you in a pleasant place”.
This new vocabulary takes its lead from a technical approach that Laswell had been perfecting during a furtive creative period at the turn of the millennium. Much like his ambient interpretations of Miles Davis (Panthalassa, 1998), Bob Marley (Dreams of Freedom, 1997), and Carlos Santana (Divine Light, 2001), Laswell approached Illuminated Audio by returning to the original multitrack masters. Gigi wasn’t just reworked, but recomposed into an expansive lattice of instruments, submerged in a watery ambience of dub and trance undercurrents.
Sonically, this new language that Gigi refers to, is manifested by the original album’s more understated parts being pushed to the fore. Explaining his contrasting methods, Laswell saw Gigi as being “put together in a way that fits”. Contrastingly, in Illuminated Audio, “a lot of things that I featured in the remix weren’t as audible in the original.” Instrumentation laying near-dormant, deep in the mix, are brought to the fore: the acid rock guitar and Wayne Shorter’s saxophone on ‘Tew Ante Sew’, Graham Haynes’ flugelhorn on ‘Nafekeñ’, Laswell’s bass on ‘Kahn’, the melodica in Mengedegna or the floating synths and talking drums in ‘Gud Fella’.
Brought to his attention by mentor DJ Nori, Hidaka describes Illuminated Audio as a “masterful sonic exploration into ethereal ambience and dub” and made sure this reissue also contained a full remaster to give its “deep musicality” much better dynamics and density in the overall sound. Hidaka admits that Laswell's music “is sometimes so out-there, it is often misunderstood” and, indeed, to dub album non-believers this might seem like a prolific producer imposing himself on another artist’s work; eternally developing rearrangements that never quite get to its destination. But that’s missing its true power and triumph. This is more than the reissue of a remix, but “a wholly unique musical entity”, as Hidaka describes. Illuminated Audio refers to the illuminated manuscripts that comprise the major part of Ethiopian art and its new compositions stand in proud solitude as a rare body of reworks that both informs and enhances their originals.
Who Cares A Lot? The Greatest Hits spotlights some of the biggest tracks released by Faith No More between 1987 and 1997. It includes massive hits such as “Epic”, “Easy”, “Evidence” and their first single “We Care A Lot.”
Presented in chronological order, this collection highlights the journey Faith No More went on, starting with tracks such as “We Care A Lot” and “Introduce Yourself”; tracks sung by original lead singer Chuck Mosley. After his departure in 1988, the band turned to current frontman Mike Patton, who’s first album with the band was the renowned “The Real Thing.”
Faith No More have maintained a cult status, being widely credited for developing alternative metal and having influence on bands such as Limp Bizkit and Slipknot. Founding member and bassist of Nirvana, Krist Novoselic, cites Faith No More as one of the bands who paved the way for Nirvana. This record presents a true celebration of Faith No More’s music and is on gold vinyl for the first time.
The band had previously announced a European tour in 2020, which had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These dates have now been rearranged for dates across the UK and rest of Europe during June and July of 2021, with an Australia and New Zealand tour to follow.
High Focus Records are proud to present the latest collaboration from Verb T & Illinformed. ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ both continues and completes the trilogy that began back in 2015, with ‘The Man with the Foggy Eyes’, before broadening the horizons with last year’s release ‘The Land of the Foggy Skies’. This final chapter returns to the same conceptual landscape as its predecessors, but also sees Verb T & Illinformed returning to a more classic approach to album making. In spite of its concept, the Foggy Trilogy is something of a personal outpouring for Verb T, with the original aim being to vicariously discuss the trials and tribulations that play a part in his life, including his struggles with chronic illness and the feeling of alienation from leaving his hometown, while also reflecting on the state of the world as a whole. Their approach to making the album meant taking it back to the most natural form, where the idea for the track would be outlined, Illinformed would make the beat, Verb T would write to it and then they would tweak and adjust accordingly. The result is 19 of the most finely crafted tracks to emerge from the UK shores this year. As with the previous albums, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ finds Illinformed moving away from the more rugged sound that has shrouded the British scene over the last few months, thanks to his collaborations with the likes of Datkid and Wish Master, instead providing Verb T with an arguably more mellow backdrop. From the string and piano driven introduction on ‘Legacy’, to the blissful head-nod vibes of the closing track, ‘Blind Faith’, the union between beats and rhymes sits at the perfect level. The album also boasts one of the most impressive guestlists of the year, one that is very much a product of both players’ worlds. Thanks to Illinformed’s Bristol connection, there are features from the likes of Res One, Datkid, Leaf Dog, Smellington Piff and Chillman, as well as some locally sourced cuts from DJ Rogue. While on Verb T’s side of the fence, we have features from Rye Shabby and Moreone, along with a collaboration that reignites the same creative spark he found in his early days, as King Kashmere steps into the booth on Feeling Strange. All in all, ‘Stranded in Foggy Times’ does exactly what it sets out to do, by drawing the trilogy to a close while also providing insights into Verb T’s personal world and the world at large. The fact that it also happens to be one of the strongest rap albums of the year is the icing on the cake
Split System, the Aussie group featuring Jackson Reid Briggs (Jackson Reid Briggs & The Heaters) on vocals and Arron Mawson (Stiff Richards) on guitar, took the punk world by storm with its debut EP this past spring. That was hardly surprising given the talent involved. But whatever my expectations were for Split System, the Melbourne-based outfit far exceeded them. Not just another "super group" (also on board are guitarist Ryan Webb Speed Week, bassist Deon Slaviero, and drummer Mitch McGregor [No Zu]), Split System is straight-up one of the most powerful and exciting punk rock and roll bands of recent memory. The band's EP was a smasher, and now debut album Vol. 1 emphatically follows suit. My god, this record is a monster! Essentially Split System's sound is classic Aussie punk. That may sound like nothing new, but this band executes the style with a force and fury rarely heard these days. It doesn't hurt that Jackson Reid Briggs is one of the best rock and roll screamers going. He's got a fire inside of him. Meanwhile, Mawson and Webb form one hell of a guitar tandem. And that rhythm section is insane. These are all brilliant players who come together to make an extraordinary band. Vol. 1 comes storming out of the gates with "The End" and never lets up. Of course we knew some of the previously-released tracks ("Hit Me," "Demolition," "Climbing") were going to rip. But the newer material is just as good and will just about melt your face off. Songs like "Ringing In My Head" and "Grip" are pure energy and ferocity, while closing track "Feelings" has a mellowed-out Saints feel. This band knows how to rock and roll, and there are literally no songs on this album that don't entirely kick ass. Sometimes we think of these all-star groups as "side projects," but such categorization would sell Split System woefully short. If we're talking about the top three or four punk bands in Australia right now, this has to be one of them! Josh Rutledge/ Faster and Louder
Spiritual, intimate and revolutionary, yet firmly rooted in Brazil's folklore. Africadeus was the breakthrough album of the mighty Naná Vasconcelos, in which he discovered the berimbau to the world and took the instrument to a universal level, abstracting it from its original context of capoeira. Having played in the shadows for other artists such as Milton Nascimento, Gato Barbieri or Som Imaginario, Naná is here finally in the spotlight.
Recorded in 1973 in France for Pierre Barouh's Saravah label, this is the album that definitely imprinted Naná's name in the international scene, on his track to becoming one of the best percussionists of all times.
Immensely proud to offer a quality reissue of both his early 70s albums for the French label Saravah.
Africadeus comes in its original gatefold cover, and is available in standard black vinyl and a limited edition of 200 copies on red transparent vinyl.
After running a sound system and studying electronics overseas, Spanish Town-based Harry Mudie began releasing rhythm and blues recordings by local performers, enjoying more concerted success during the reggae era of the late 1960s and mid-1970s, crafting lasting hits with artists like Dennis Walks and the Spanish Town-based toaster I Roy.
The first volume of the Dub Conference series, made with King Tubby, has stripped-down cuts of some of Mudie’s greatest productions, including ‘Lorna’s Dance,’ a percussion and horns take of ‘Caught You In A Lie’, and a strings cut of the Heptones’ ‘Love Without Feeling.’
Project Pat, the older brother of Three 6 Mafia’s Juicy J, is a legend in the Memphis rap scene. He began rapping in the 90s with Killa Klan Kaze and released several independent mixtapes. In 1999 he released his debut album Ghetty Green via Hypnotize Minds/Loud Records. In December of 2000, he released a new single and video “Chickenhead” which blew up on the charts and led to the release of his second album Mista Don’t Play: Everythangs Working. Mista Don’t Play produced by Three 6 Mafia’s DJ Paul and Juicy J was certified Gold a mere two months after its release.
Follow up to Goodge's 2023 album Echoes Of Yesterday. Previous releases found on Hip Dozer and Cascade Records. Tracks found on the popular Spotify Mellow Beats playlist. 11th in 'Jet Set' Cold Busted series. Designed and manufactured similar to the vintage 60's style rice paper sleeves. In his latest EP, Sunday Soul, Goodge takes listeners on a four-track journey through the heart of funk, masterfully blending elements of R&B, jazz, and chilled lo-fi. Released as part of Cold Busted's Jet Set series, this four-song offering follows Goodge's 2023 album Echoes Of Yesterday and showcases his dedication to crafting timeless music. "Lights Out" kicks off the EP with heavy funk and stirring breakbeats, accompanied by a scratchy guitar that summons the revolutionary spirit of the '70s. Horns serve as a call to action, while a rollicking bass line and chunky electric piano might inspire listeners to go out and fight crime. "Promised Land" follows, featuring a formidable funk bass guitar and lead guitar chords that rhythmically play off the delightfully busy drums, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the city's bustle. The title track, "Sunday Soul," is a rowdy affair with a speech-over-beats leading to crispy snare rolls and chiming electric piano. Shaker magic, staccato horn bleats, and spiral flute bits combine to create a swirling vintage-hued photograph of sound. The EP concludes with "Within Myself," a spacier sonic experience that could serve as the soundtrack for chasing someone across rooftops. It's funk spelled with a capital K. Sunday Soul is a must-listen for fans of of the heavier side of funk, solidifying Goodge's position as a master of his craft, creating a nostalgic yet fresh soundscape that keeps listeners grooving back for more.
Djrum's first release since 2019, the Meaning’s Edge EP is an introduction to a whole new world. For the artist also known as Felix Manuel, it was created in the final stretches of six rather traumatic years work. Having carefully honed his techniques and aesthetics, and learned some hard-won emotional lessons over this time, finally he began to work in a quicker, lighter fashion – and to cleanse his palate a little by bringing in a fresh ingredient: his own flute playing. For listeners, though, it will serve as an appetiser, a way into the delights and complexities of this new phase of his creativity.
It’s a serious work in its own right, mind. The use of flutes – including Bansuri, Shakuhatchi, Western Classical, and synthesised all blending and blurring into one another – gives it a coherence and a sense of airiness that unites the five tracks over half an hour, however divergent their beats get. And as in all his music, Felix’s whole life is in here. Ethnomusicology studies, untold hours of DJing everywhere from the gnarliest squat raves to the most rarefied deep house clubs, explorations of his own neurological and emotional makeup, and the technical finesse of someone who is never not creating music or art, all roll into an experience that’s dazzling, delightful and keeps on giving.
Just the opening track ‘Codex’ alone touches on OG dubstep, Aphex Twin-like braindance, post-classical exploration, movie themes and more. The gentle tones and melodies that rise up out of it perfectly conjure Felix’s running theme of a protective bubble that provides a sense of safety and tranquillity even as the beats and acid gurgles and spurts all around it conjure up the slings and arrows of life’s difficulties.
The tone set, the EP moves through ultra-rarefied glass-like percussion in an almost ambient setting, hints of grime’s counterintuitive patterns, and even more hectic patterns influenced by Tanzania’s hyperspeed singeli style of dance music – but always with that perfect balance of chaos and control, unpredictability and protection. It rewards playing and replaying endlessly, it’s a profound and often joyous experience… and it’s only just the beginning. This is the return of a master craftsperson more focused than ever on his vision and vocation and ready to blow your mind all over again.
Mastered and cut on 140g black vinyl by legendary mastering engineer Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios, London. Pressed at optimal media, Germany.
Originally released on CD in Japan in 2003, as a love letter & thank you to his Japanese fans. Recorded at home, produced, engineered & mixed by Matthew Sweet (bass, guirars & vocals) with the classic ‘Girlfriend’ era lineup of Ric Menck (drums), Greg Leisz (guitars) and the genius electric lead guitar of Television’s Richard Lloyd. The sleeve art is by renowned artist Yoshimoto Nara. In the liner notes, Sweet describes the album's title as an attempt at reverse English: "If I did it correctly, the title should seem a little strange or wrong, but still meaningful! The true definition is supposed to be a 'love you' life, one devoted to loving someone or something, even life itself!"
“an excellent modern guitar pop album, filled with great hooks and harmonies and irresistible ringing six-strings”
Allmusic
“Kimi crackles with Girlfriend‘s energy, as Lloyd and Sweet’s guitars provide antagonistic foils as they did more than a decade before on cuts like “Tonight We Ride.”
Rolling Stone
Hot on the heels of the double vinyl release comes this stylish boutique piece of merchandise using the classic Nas/Doom face design logo. Comes in multiple sizes and some very cool colours just in time for the years summer festival season!
Known for his deep, melodic sound and genre- blending approach, Bop enlists the vocal talents of DRIIA and Doktor, alongside a collaboration with bass music specialist Chime. 'Cravings' sets the tone with lush melodies and deep atmospherics and a hypnotic vocal. Minimal yet powerful, this is some of Bop's drum & bass work at its finest. The second track on the EP, 'Siren Eyes', sees DRIIA's ethereal toplines intertwine with Doktor's signature dancehall energy. DRIIA, a rising star in the electronic scene, has been named one of BBC Radio 1's Future Stars for 2024, while Doktor's powerhouse vocals have graced multiple collaborations with the likes of Chase & Status, Sigma, and Friction.
'Dormant' brings a fresh twist with Leeds- based producer Chime who's influence injects a unique blend of melody and weight, crafting an immersive soundscape through mind- boggling sound design. Closing the EP, 'Fungification' dives into Bop's garage influences. Weighty and stepping, expect intricate rhythms, evolving textures and an absolute bouncer of a bassline.
RANDY'S 50th ANNIVERSARY CHAPTER ONE / VARIOUS - First time on vinyl for Chapter Two second part of the acclaimed previously CD only set that was released to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Randy's Records. From Augustus Pablo's groundbreaking 'Java' to Carl Malcolm's UK pop crossover hit 'Fattie Bum Bum' Chapter Two showcase classic after classic from a all-star line up of the 70's reggae music greats including Black Uhuru, Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, The Heptones & Big Youth. Beautifully packaged with inner sleeves featuring rare photos and liner notes by reggae historian, Dennis Katz.
Rob Smith, RSD is not only a successful dubstep producer and pioneer of the Bristol sound, but also a very popular deejay travelling the world sharing his music. Coming from a reggae background and well-versed in sound system culture, Rob kept some of his best productions for his exclusive use when deejaying, the only way you would hear these gems was being played in one of Rob's sets. Fortunately, we've managed to persuade Rob to let Reggae Archive Records share these dubplate specials with a wider audience on a limited-edition vinyl LP. Compiled and sequenced in conjunction with Rob, the LP features nine tracks newly edited and mastered by Rob to enhance the bass playback on vinyl - it's cut heavy!
The tracks were recorded between 2006 and 2011, a time when one strand of dubstep heavilyembraced reggae and dub. Rob calls these tracks reggae infused dubstep and that's what they are, but Reggae Archive Records is a reggae label and this selection of dubstep tracks will most certainly appeal just as much to reggae and dub fans. Fusing dubstep beats, reggae samples, and seriously heavy basslines, this is a joyous celebration of musical cross fertilisation that has been tried and tested in clubs worldwide. In keeping with the dubplate origins of the tracks, we have designed the labels to replicate an old school acetate, while the sleeve pays tribute to seventies pre-releases albums with a replica stamp giving just the artist and title on a plain white sleeve with aged effect.
In 1991 Coil released the third of their early classic full-length albums “Love’s Secret Domain”, seemingly casting aside the gloom and funeral beauty of its predecessors in favour of a painstakingly multi-layered hallucinogenic electronic beast, which unlike some of their fellow ex-industrial contemporaries’ releases of the time wasn’t an attempt at easy accessibility or (the-gods-forbid) danceability, but a vibrating psychedelic masterpiece unrivalled in their discography and still a landmark album. artwork by Steven Stapleton released in co-production with Infinite Fog Prod.
Hip Horns Brass Collective presents Brassvillain, a tribute to the cult album Madvillany by MF DOOM and Madlib with the collaboration of Las Ninyas del Corro, Ana Tijoux, Escandaloso Xpósito and Rodrigo Laviña. The catalan brass band covers iconic songs like Figaro, Meat Grinder or All Caps, with the metallic explosion that characterizes them and the voices of some of the best artists on the current rap scene. Daniel Dumile, aka, MF DOOM is not only a musical reference, but also the illustrations that accompanied his project have a great role in the history of hip hop. For this reason, Brassvillain is also a great graphic epic where the versatile artist Hermes LeBleu displays all his versatility. In the featurings appears HO$$$ Benítez, one of the most renowned drummers on the hip hop scene, who has already accompanied them on their previous releases, “The Dream” and “Thunder”. The production is by Hip Horns together with one of the best bassists and musicians in our country, Tito Bonacera, making this tribute a multidisciplinary meeting point between artists who grew up with the masked hero. On the B side we have two new singles from the band, BRAM! and Mulligan, in which they unleash their full potential both in composition and in execution to prove once again that they are one of the leading brass bands of the moment.
Fast-rising pianist and producer Yoni Mayraz presents his debut LP ‘Dybbuk Tse!’ revealing the story of a malicious possession that is taking over one’s body and soul.
Dybbuk, known from Jewish folklore, is a malevolent wandering spirit that enters and possesses the body of a living person. It’s a cursed soul of a dead one that wanders tirelessly for sins committed during their life. The most vulnerable victims are the young and the sinful. Possession can be taken literally or as an analogy to the burden that young people carry generations back, which they have no influence on, and which they have to accept. Dybbuk can only be removed by exorcism. The titular ‘Dybbuk Tse!’ is a command to remove the spirit from the possessed body. The album is a story about possession but also about exorcism through music.
Recorded live with his band over the course of a spring week last year, ‘Dybbuk Tse!’ is indeed experimenting with the ‘darker side of things’, but yet with a somewhat lighthearted approach which is so typical of Yoni’s work. He easily combines jazz with the sound of 90’s New York hip hop and raw old school breakbeat. The album interweaves unique Middle Eastern melodies, sophisticated structures and sounds, and beautifully crafted solos played by some of the promising talents on the scene.
London based Israeli born pianist and producer Yoni Mayraz has set foot in the instrumental music scene with his EP ‘Rough Cuts’ released in 2020. Since then, Yoni and his band have been playing major venues and festivals around the world including the legendary Ronnie Scott’s and The Jazz Cafe, to name a few, bringing raw energy to stage with live versions of the studio materials, and stretching the melodies and structures into a Dancefloor-focused take on jazz.
Joe Fujinoki centered the compositions of his latest album Glass Torso round the idea of the fragility of the human body. Fujinoki described the narrative thread of the album as that of “holding the shape of a human body as if it might shatter like glass”. The precariousness of the body, the essence of the body as defined by Fujinoki as the torso, and the object relations between the boundaries of dialectical exercises pack themselves into his creative process.
Fujinoki recorded Glass Torso exclusively with analog synthesizers, stumbling in and out of structural loops to find space for accidental discoveries. The ten pieces of recorded material feel somewhere on the edge of typified form, feeling like a vascular system pumping in and out its undulating liquidities. Maybe this is the hollowed space held together by Fujinoki’s notion of the torso where you hear a microscopic world, dubby and generative. Fujinoki is adept at organizing this realm of subtle sound sources, giving proper considerations of shared tonal space. Seemingly, this handling of the precarity of sonic material elucidates Fujinoki’s mature attention to detail.
Ambient music genre tropes often affirm the listeners vessel for escape and dissociation. It provides an intoxicating allure by respite from an overwhelming exterior reality far outside the listeners controls. Here this space becomes apolitical, or its protest vocabulary softer and subtle. Fujinoki does not aim to tackle hyperobject topics on how to course correct the world, but he does something increasingly rarer to come across. On Glass Torso an alternative space is created not as shelter, but as a meditation on negotiation and compromise. This twenty eight minutes of audio lays down a foundation for imagination, for imagining how to negotiate the fragility of the self. Zoomed out, the implications of his negotiative sonics can be a playground for broader reflections on distributive care and attention.
Fujinoki says he feels “alert” to his physicality and placement in the world amidst vast digital cultures creating impositions on him and his surroundings. On Glass Torso he creates a concretized space on a vinyl record, where the virtual and the tangible antagonize one another that create the spectacle of the listening experience. This spectacle is a soft one, a considered one, and an utmost enjoyable one. Fujinoki juggles opposing forces brilliantly, and formulates an exquisite palette of soft passing music so he can also help the listener with the exquisite burden of their own Glass Torso.”
Midway through Martin Luther King, Jr's historic speech at the 1963 March on Washington, a voice rang out from behind him: "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" That voice belonged to Mahalia Jackson, King's close friend and one of the most revered gospel singers of the 20th century - Glorious Mahalia, a visionary tribute to Jackson's life by the internationally renowned Kronos Quartet, uses that moment as a springboard to explore the depth of Jackson's musical craft and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement, including her relationship with Clarence Jones and Studs Terkel, other luminaries of the time
RAWAX welcomes Jakobin to the artist family!
We are very happy to present you this fulminant debut by Georg Nadler on CHIWAX.
Somehow we feel this is just the first of many great releases fo us.
Highly recommended!
You wake up abruptly on cold floorboards, your body aching as if from a great fall. White light floods your vision. Where are you? Last thing you can remember you were hurtling through the Genesis Domain at breakneck speed, but this is definitely somewhere different. As your eyes come into focus you see the hall is grand, intimidatingly opulent. A full house of seated onlookers peers at you expectantly. You’re on a stage, you realize. Flames creep up the walls, engulfing the room and lighting the faces in the audience; the heat is oppressive, but nobody seems to notice. A voice booms out.
“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! Presenting: a performer of great renown all across the land, yours for one night only… introducing—”
Tiny bells jangle around your head as you shift your weight, obscuring whatever name the announcer just called out. You try to sit up. The jester’s hat tumbles off with a clatter. Not this again, you groan. Your head spins with vertigo. You grimace, trying to remember something. You had just gleaned an urgent and existential truth in the Genesis Domain, but it’s slipping away now… what was it?
Off to your left, a whip cracks. The impresario glares at you from the wings, fist clenched around a diamond-encrusted whip, mouthing at you to get up.
You try to run, but the weight of an incorporeal authority bears down upon you. The impresario cracks his whip again, an impish smirk forming on his lips.
With resignation, you begin to work the room. What else can you do? Tendrils of giggling and gossip creep through your periphery. The heat is suffocating and the smoke stings your eyes, but the show goes on. Remembering your bag of tricks as if from a dream, you raise your hands in the air, invoking the universal call to audience participation. The crowd goes wild. You feel the rush of a familiar thrill. Being the Fool comes naturally to you, you realize, as the palace burns around you.
Unsighted is a remarkable New Yorker mentored by legendary New Yorker, ALONZO. Unsighted’s understanding of rhythm, funk, and texture is world class and welcomed into the Kraftjerkz family of USA electro. Kid Ginseng’s Punk Funk Remix rounds out the 12” EP nicely. Some would say that Kraftjerkz is USA’s answer to Bunker Den Haag. Let the DJ’s decide. Salute!
Trumpet player Freddie Hubbard's fusion jazz on Red Clay is something that the younger generations within jazz and hip hop admire and aspire to. The title track "Red Clay" was sampled by both A Tribe Called Quest on "Jazz (We've Got)" and Freestyle Fellowship in "Parkbench People", only to be covered by today's new vocal jazz singer José James.
It would take half a day to explain the intricacies of a song like "The Intrepid Fox". Red Clay seamlessly blends bop with soul jazz and fusion in a way that will remain unsurpassed for a long time. Red Clay was Hubbard's first album on CTI Records, after his long stint with Blue Note Records. Accompanying Freddie on this album are Joe Henderson (sax), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass) and Lenny White (drums). The album was produced by Creed Taylor and recorded and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder in his legendary studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
Luca Lozano has long been an artist whose output as both a producer and designer we've admired and after many years of seeing his records fly off the shelves here at Phonica, we're delighted to be releasing the 'Da Vinci' EP by the Klasse Wrecks boss on our main label. We'll let Lucas, the modern day renaissance man himself, take it from here:
"These four tracks were created over a few sessions while I was settling into a dank basement studio (which was new at the time and now long gone).
‘The Magnificent’ and ‘Delta Force’ were made just after I acquired an old Korg Delta synth, I spent a lot of time getting the 1970s beast to sync up with modern equipment and both tracks make use of it in various elements.
‘Eau De Dave’ is a cheeky homage to a UK producer legend, I’ve been digging into his various older productions recently and went back to a fidget sound for the fun of it.
‘Crunchy Nut’ was kind of inspired by early U.K. tech house, it was the last track confirmed on the EP and came together super quick. As usual it’s a mix of old drum machines like a modded 707 and a bunch of old samples I’ve had on my computer for a couple of decades now. I’m happy I managed to work some slap bass into a track finally…"
Original Press Release: ‘Headsoup’ is a new compilation that deepens the legend of mysterious Swedish psych collective Goat even further. Collecting rarities from across band’s celebrated career, including standalone singles, B-sides and digital edits and two enormous brand new tracks. It’s a globetrotting acid trip of a record that’s even bigger in its scope than their acclaimed studio LPs.
From the incendiary heavy psych of their earliest work, like debut B-side ‘The Sun And Moon’, to the serene Requiem’-era alternate take ‘Union Of Mind And Soul’, to the simmering menace of their latest material, it’s a record as multifaceted as Goat themselves, packed with detours in every conceivable direction. Taking in jazz-flute solos, pounding Afrobeat rhythms, ferocious desert blues, drifting Ethio-jazz, this is, as the name of Goat’s first album made clear, ‘World Music’ in its most complete form, a sound unrestrained by genre boundaries. Yet the band are anything but lazy appropriators. They approach their forebears with upmost reverence, articulating a celebratory cultural cross-pollination.And what about these two new tracks? ‘Fill My Mouth’ is a scuzzy psychedelic funk knockout, the sleaziest thing the band have ever recorded. ‘Queen Of The Underground’, meanwhile, is truly herculean, a swaggering psychedelic powerhouse of the very highest order. Sometimes dark and heavy, at others joyous and beautiful, like Goat themselves ‘Headsoup’ is mysterious, and constantly shapeshifting, difficult to properly pin down but constantly enthralling. Almost a decade since Goat first emerged from the depths of Korpilombo, there is still no other band on earth that sounds quite like them.
A former architect of the cult DiY sound in Nottingham, as well as being a member of downtempo outfit Bent, Nail is a house making machine whose own distinct fingerprint is all over everything he makes. His sound is raw but never hostile - he always finds a neat sample to bring some soul to his louche, loose drums. This EP for his In The Dance label starts with 'And So', a wonky sound infused with sensual whispers, while 'Before' blends woozy pad work with deep drums and prickly percussion. 'Grief' is a sombre affair with bluesy sax lines weaving between the dusty drums, and 'Size A Dat' gets choppy, playful, and funky. Another majestic EP.
Wax Digits keep rolling out the groovy jams with an eight instalment, and this time it is back to the Various Artists format. Fingerman is the label owner and he goes first here with 'Phunkee Party', a seductive sound with twanging bass riffs and chunky drums under soaring vocals. The talented I Gemin then drops 'Sambalike', a more nuance and subtle groove that worms its way under your skin and then the love gets dialled up on the flip side thanks to Chuggin Edits and 'Anita's Mystery', a blissed-out roller bathed in sun. Smokecloud Records boss Osmose shuts down with some bright, retro disco soul in the form of an edgy rework of 'Ur Luv.'
Often credited as the father of multi-media theatre, Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) took complete creative control over his productions - including cutting-edge approaches to lighting and costume that transformed human bodies into shifting sculptural shapes, while also composing wildly innovative electro-acoustic and synth-based audio as accompaniment.
After initially experimenting with musique concrète and tape manipulation (as demonstrated on the 1959 LP Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais) Nikolais became the first owner of Robert Moog's synthesizer at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York in late 1964. Relying heavily on the Moog and later the Synclavier synth/sampler, these 21 tracks document Nikolais' highly-prescient compositions across the mid 1960s through to the late 1980s - existing not only as extensions of his other-worldly choreographic productions, but standalone pieces of foundational mid-century American electronic and experimental music.
"Born in Southington, Connecticut in 1910, Nikolais’s early years and early career were in acting, music and puppetry. It was not until the late 1930s that he began his work as dancer/choreographer in Hartford, Connecticut, where he was commissioned by the Avery Memorial Theatre, a part of the Wadsworth Atheneum, to create an evening-length work to the music of Ernst Krenek. Previously his work and study as a pianist-organist found him accompanying silent films. This sort of accompaniment required from the musician not only a playing skill but also a versatility in improvisation, matching movement to sound, and evoking mood to situation.
Nik was drawn initially to dance by his involvement with the percussion scores used by the illustrious early twentieth century German dancer Mary Wigman. In trying to learn more about percussion, he was lured into dance class and thus his career began. His development of music and dance occurred simultaneously. His introduction to the twelve-tone technique opened his mind to the expanding areas of atonal music, and his dealing with music as sound per se. In 1948, after being appointed director of the Henry Street Playhouse in New York, Nikolais formed the Playhouse Dance Company, later known as the Nikolais Dance Theater, and began his aesthetic orientation toward dance as a study of motion. By the 1950s, he had ceased creating literal dances and began his explorations and eventual milieu as an abstractionist.
Sound became an important part of his abstract theatre. For his first dances, which involved his new thinking of dance as both a visual and kinetic art, he used live percussion scores in which he directed his dancers to play instruments of all nature. There was a combination of children’s toy instruments as well as harsh and resonant automobile brake drums, and other pitched auto parts which he also used to accompany classes. Once he installed his own tape recording machines, he quickly used the limited range these instruments provided in a new way, slowing and increasing speed and reversing sound. He also made the sounds adhere to the choreographic structure (not the other way around), thereby giving the dance its independence from the musical phrasing. But the real need remained: the search for new sound. Nik made a sound library, recording noises and percussion and vocal sounds, which the French aptly called musique concrète. Needless to say, he became a master at splicing bits and pieces.
From 1956 to 1962 Nikolais composed eleven major scores for his theatre pieces using such techniques. In 1963, James Seawright, who at the time was assisting Nik in his productions and also working at the Columbia-Princeton Center for Electronic Music, recorded a sound bank for the production Imago (1963). With this material, Nikolais created his first synthesizer score. Imago won the Paris Grand Prix in 1968 and launched the Nikolais Dance Theatre towards its national and primarily international acclaim.
During the same period, Seawright came to Nik and told him of a young man who had invented and constructed a simplified synthesizer and insisted that Nik visit the electronic fair currently being held in New York. Nik did so and met Robert Moog. He was completely taken by the new machine and after making some suggestions to Moog, (which Moog made), Nik bought the inventor’s first machine with the aid of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Moog himself was astonished by what his machine could produce for Nik. This machine was later acquired by the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as the first Moog synthesizer. The Synclavier was Nik’s next source of sound and since the mid-1970s remained the major instrument in the Nikolais soundroom.
Alwin Nikolais has been honored and awarded throughout the world. He has received the French Legion of Honor, the Kennedy Center Honors, National Medal of the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as Mellon, Ford, and Rockefeller grants. He has been a recipient of NEA grants since 1966, been awarded five honorary doctorates, all for his remarkable achievements in Dance Theater. His genius has influenced several generations of artists."
—Murray Louis
New York's contemporary deep house guardian Fred P has a smoky, spiritual sound that is always inescapably immersive and evocative. For this new EP on Base, he kicks off with something brighter and more extroverted: 'Pardon Me' has long been a staple of his sets and balances his signature musicality with a more playful sax lead and bold rhythm that will get floors bumping. 'Freedom Fam' has one of his classic spoken word monologues drifting next to starry cosmic keys like a voice from the heavens. 'In The Light (Still Wanting)' rewires soulful house in his own vision - deep, insular, brilliantly humid. 'Factory Sound (Edit 1)' is as peak as Fred gets - a driving, musical house rhythm that twists and turns freely as sustained chords layer in some of that trademark emotional pull. Superb.
Galcher Lustwerk's 'Vestibule EP' is one of the best of the year if you ask us, (and the remix package by some genuine heavyweights is also worth seeking out). That the leftfield US producer is now back with another outing is literal and metaphorical music to our ears. This one strips away his usual muttered vocals and opens with the stuttering, dubby rhythms of 'North Coast Nostalgia' before 'Cat Video' suspends you in uneasy synths and a skeletal minimal rhythm. 'Thick Description is a deeper, more insular sound for the afters and 'Mock Tudor' is dusty, beautifully imperfect analogue house that is scuffed up and soulful in Lustwerk's signature low-key style.
Charles Webster was one of the architects of the early UK house scene but has never got the flowers he deserves. Maybe this first win a new series of reissues from his incredible vaults, will change it. Unreleased Stuff comes on Remote and opens with a louche tech house sound that's deep and emotionally dialled in. 'Don't Work' is great advice for anyone as well as being a humid house roller for the backroom. 'How To Live' brings more of a steamy energy that encourages you to get up on your toes and then 'Bad Year' slows it down and layers in some lovely liquid West Coast chords. Two more brilliantly vibey cuts close an EP that must not be sniffed at.
Hidden Sounds Record store – with the help of Emotional Recordings – launches the Dark Times label with the first of two club orientated EPs from Canadian brother-production duo Lex and Rew MacCrimmon and their project Alkahest.
Released on their own Post Contemporary label between 1994 – 1996, Alkahest contrasted with the spacious electronica of their influential and still on-going project, Legion Of Green Men.
Growing up in suburban city life in Burlington, Ontario, the MacCrimmon brothers’ interest in music and collecting records started early, always looking for interesting sounds in new places. With a limited local music scene or record stores, the alternative and college radio stations were the only way to discover new music or the type of music they sought.
The German electronic sounds of Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream were early obsessions, alongside Neu, Cluster (& Eno) and the post punk and synth pop emanating from Britain. The Flying Lizards, John Foxx / Ultravox, Gary Numan and The Normal were favourites, before diving into the 80s industrial experiments of Cabaret Voltaire, Severed Heads, Nurse With Wound and Throbbing Gristle.
Making their own music soon followed, first experimenting with 4 track cassette and digital delay, drum machines and synths soon followed, steadily building their own studio. All these influences merged in the early 90s with the dawn of house and techno and the progression to start the Post Contemporary label launched in 1992.
With the project Legion Of Green Men achieving early success, their diversion with Alkahest explored a post-industrial techno hybrid. Unsubtle, night music, the rhythm and sonic textures are more prominent over melody.
Contact High covers this Alkahest sound, from the 133 bpm trippy, psychedelics of opener Black Tabs, the acid breaks of Ground Zero or the charging nature of closing Séance 333, where all bets are off – together this 4 track EP perfectly captures the early spirit of Canada’s electronic music scene finding its place in dance culture, from the raves of the Toronto’s outer rim to the beaches of Anjuna.
However, in the title cut Contact High, there is something else happening, as electronic dub is explored, where the space in the music, between the beats, is as important at what happens on the surface. A love of this ethereal feeling would lead the brothers to head further in this direction and here is a perfect example of that early journey.
Paraiso has been doing vital work in Portugal - documenting the underground dance scene's history and pioneers in various mediums while also showcasing equally brilliant artists from newer generations. And they've been doing it for a decade now: we all know that a label dedicated to its local scene through and through is something rare and should be celebrated. This compilation 'X - 10 Years of Underground House Music from a Paradise Called Portugal' is a manifestation of that cross-generational spirit, with ten never-before-heard pieces of music by initiators and legends like The Advent alongside more recent veterans like Roundhouse Kick and Vil or younger talent like Phoebe or Van Der. Things start off with Salbany's 'Trax 10', oozing a techno elegance and irrefutable groove that wonderfully portrays the spirit of the Lisbon sound: raw yet ethereal, disarming in its simplicity while containing rave, romance and rhythmic complexities. Label founders Maria Amor & Shcuro firmly carry on the torch with 'Intracellular', gelled by dubby washes, syncopated drums, infectious rhythmic sense and layered with a melodic vocal motif. Vil's 'Cave' brings in stone-cold tight percussion offset by rich, evocative pads and technoid know-how for days. The Advent steps in with an ode to acid-minimalism, raw and slow-burning, with curious and twisted moments peppered with the skill of an expert. Van Der storms in with a piece of hybrid qualities, impeccably blending a swing onto industrial territories for a hypnotic-yet-banging hands in the air dancefloor moment. Scam Dust (the duo of Tiago and Shcuro, from adjacent generations) picks up on the industrial flavours, adds furious jacking rhythmics and live sonic experimentation that takes us to peak-quality effect and noise manipulation. 'Subvert' follows and goes deeper, as if into the depths of the ocean, with aquatic arpeggios and sparse drums that morph into an 303-driven state of mysterious oceanfloor mania - Roundhouse Kick sending us messages from the South. Violet and her 'Dream Machine' emerge with its mutant noisy motif, delay-drenched percussion and steady beat interrupted by keys, drum variations - and a u-turn to its paranoid loopy beginnings. Phoebe enters the chat and brings sonic sun rays in 'Galaxia 2000', a wide-eyed moment lead by colourful, open synthesisers with gates and filters taking us on a beautiful ride on tense, swingy drum patterns. The tenth track comes from Lisbon's rkeat and is full of closing act ear-candy with its beautifully chiseled, groovy as hell percussion, organic sonics and metallic instruments that seem to announce that the next decade is about to be just as good, if not better than this lovely 2016-2026 stint of boundary and scene-pushing.
Rhythm Section International proudly presents it's 8th offering from local boys Chaos in the CBD. Born in New Zealand, but based in Peckham for the last few years (literally just around the corner from Henry Wu and Bradley Zero), these brothers have made a real mark on the scene here in London town and with their latest set of productions are set to take this message further afield.
Having already released internationally on labels such as ClekClekBoom (Paris), Hot Haus (London) and Amadeus (Montreal), the duo's approach to production has matured immeasurably in the last year, as is evident in the restrained potency and poetic subtlety on the 4 tracks across this accomplished EP, Midnight in Peckham.
Taking it's title from the locale the boys have come to know as home, the record channels a delicate late night energy - equally indebted to the hypnotic incantations of Ron Trent as it is to the hazy suburban atmospheres of Burial. These 4 classic cuts pay homage to deep house in it's truest sense - at once sublime, melancholy and meditative . Chaos in the CBD have clearly taken their cue from the mid-west masters of the genre but have not been afraid to let their own influences and environ creep in, and in doing so have created something that is unmistakablely London and infact, timeless.
Compiled onto one vinyl album for the first time, Landlocked (Numbers, 2026) presents Hallucinator’s 1999 debut album originally released under Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald’s label Chain Reaction. Writing much surrounding the culture of what would be later considered ‘Dub Techno’ and its’ primary distribution center, Hard Wax, leads one down roads of shifting primary sources and decades old overheard smoke break recollections. Maybe brevity primes the listener to the paralinguistic to approach the sound on its terms; focusing on how things are uttered and not what.
This theory will remain unconfirmed. Hallucinator original press release left us with three or so gestures to consider over the years since:
“A new act on CHAIN REACTION”s distinct productional thesis. HALLUCINATOR are 3 people from he UK/London and this their first release ever- that’s all what the artists want to let us know…. This record is dedidacted to the memory of Stephen Lawrence!”
The first gesture is one of personnel. Since ’99, we’ve gotten to learn a bit more about the artists behind the Hallucinator project. All London-based, all writers, composers, and sound-designers— Anna Piva, Edward George, Trevor Mathison. These three seem to flow between parameters as aesthetic tactic and tacit structure to the work itself. For example, other collaborative shapes have come from this lineup including Flow Motion (Piva, George and Mathison) as well as the now defunct Black Audio Film Collective of which George and Mathison are founding members.
The second gesture is in the second line of the previous press release, “distinct productional thesis.” Much of Landlocked’s affect and sequencing seems to suggest an emotional study of entropy at the level of sediment. Rhythms play with space and capacity through polyvalence. The production chose subtractive vertigo, often switching and bringing back in elements that vanished from the track 6 minutes ago. Dubbing out so much of a track, one begins to associate sound akin to memories held in the experience of running your hand across a concrete block as a child. Felt (re)memberance in lieu of narrative tale. Using textures that flicker between colour and percussion, Hallucinator’s 12-tracker of loudspeaker perception music might be a mediation on the psychic wake of the Cold War. Intermittent strata of ambience and groove convects an active margin rifting event underneath a scorched geology of power in Western Europe. Again, this is all grapevine hearsay.
But it’s silence that voices the third gesture. The album’s sparse application of the written word touches on the ennui paradox of being landlocked on an island. Stuck. Trapped in the psychosis of occidental hypercentricism. A looping silence of Black British tragedy: “to the memory of Stephen Lawrence”. 18 year-old Lawrence was stabbed to death at a bus stop in southeast London by six white men in 1993. The rift of grief and implicit reiteration of modern subordination left by this hate act went legally silent for almost two decades until Lawrence’s killers were ultimately sentenced to virtually life in jail in 2012. Only six years removed at the time of Hallucinator’s initial invocation of rememory, the mind-numbing accretion of what Black Studies Professor Denise Ferreira da Silva might call “unpayable debt”, finds demonic ground across Landlocked, forming an aural sense of what continues to be refused.
The album ventures through spaces of overactive non-happenings: ‘Red Angel’’s factory floor dub flashes between smokestack and jungle visions, or the halfway mark’s stilted breath of ‘Dusk’ lending its mood to the sort of sedated dreams built from daily life under colony rule for instance. That linked rhythm links us back to our linked fates across Black and Brown folk is real, thus the syncopated signals through this work behave on the level of transnational radiotelegraphy, sounding out its windswept tension of a body negotiating a meat-grinder schema of linear production and wage for others to know that unspeakable thing can be broadcast in every drum tongue.
As the silence continues to reverb, we return to the sort of meaning-making that cannot be told but felt. Soothing to some, disturbing to others. Landlocked, a Rorschach test for a crumbled empire.
Deep, deep stuff on the debut album from K Wata. Long and dubwise, dark and detailed. With bass that fills and warms a space.
All noir. Cast shadows against the wall. Weight being shifted and distributed with singularly delicate poise, like a knife being balanced on the end of a finger.
There’s a silvery, loose flow state to this record that maybe reveals the way some tracks were first written to be deployed live at Sustain Release 2025. Then taken back to the lab and tightened up further into the album’s final form, with beautiful mixing work between Kenzo and Chris Botta.
With that in mind, Give U Space unfolds slowly and fluidly, giving the listener the chance to access and open up to the deepness of the sound, being led down a path. It rolls and builds momentum and groove, and ratchets tensions up toward peaks of energy "Whisper Dub" and "There Will Be Love".
The tunes feel architectural. Rooms to be in and settle into. Simultaneously stripped back and then etched with neat little details and characterful or atmospheric sound choices. The silhouette of slo mo Memphis and Houston trap is a leading influence, especially with the drums. Mixing with bits of click’n’cut sampling and psychoacoustic tricks, the penumbra of dub techno and drowsier dubstep, and SG’s soft vocals rising in the ether.
The presence and inspiration of the sound system is obvious in all of Kenzo’s work, the music can rattle when spun up louder or blended into the club. But K Wata’s uniqueness and signature comes from an often equally inward facing quality, touched by distance and longing and a sort of chiaroscuro incandescent light set up.
Written and produced by K Wata.
Mixed by K Wata and Christopher Botta at Fer Sound Studio.
The open skies of Ochre's new album, Oversail, replace the dense canopies of his last, Understory back in 2020. This time, UK-born, Netherlands-based talent Christopher Leary trades rhythmic intricacy for something more exposed and reflective on a record that unfolds in measured steps, with each passage revealing fragile melodies set against sparse, shifting frameworks. There's a tactile quality to the sound design, hardware elements clicking and sighing like ageing machinery still in motion. Tracks feel suspended and the focus is on slow revelation across the quietly affecting 'Casadastra', airy beauty of 'Meristem' and hopeful synth sequencing of 'Canthropa.'
Presenting this limited edition 300 picture disc vinyl on Warehouse Manifesto from label boss GAMADON with the original track TERMINATION and five amazing remixes. Each remix is a collaboration between two different artists. The original tracks is a mind-bending, hard-edged electro stomper, shaped with harsh, distorted industrial beats, warped synths and hypnotic bleeps that will make you bounce! Power & X-Tuder's menacing remix growls throughout and drenches you in dystopian dread. Nasty Boxes & Robodrum's cyber-punk banger is filled with cinematic soundscapes and 80's synth-lines, that invite you on an epic electro journey. Code Rising & Geon bring some Miami Bass to the table and provide us with a brutal, percussion heavy, monster. ADJ & Errorbeauty's remix is a metallic, blisteringly harsh journey across a desolate electro wasteland. EXM & Kim Cosmik end the proceedings with an experimental, IDM, glitchy, anthem.