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Claire Chicha aka Spill Tab is feeling more free than ever before. The LA-based, French-Korean songwriter and producer,has spent the past five years as spill tab honing a sound that is as raw-edged as it is refined, channelling low-slung guitar-strumming confessionals as well as the earworming melodic hooks of anthemic pop to produce a heady and distinctive mix.

Following the 2019 release of her intimate and infectious debut single “Decompose”, Spill Tab has evolved her spill tab project through three EPs: 2020’s synth-pop influenced Oatmilk, 2021’s playful, uptempo Bonnie, featuring Gus Dapperton and Tommy Genesis, and 2023’s co-produced, sonically-intricate Klepto, which gleefully meanders from the Hiatus Kaiyote-influenced jazz freakouts of “CRÈME BRÛLÉE!” to the guitar-chugging thump of “Splinter”. Live, meanwhile, Spill Tab has been tapped for her explosively energetic presence to open the North American leg of popstar Sabrina Carpenter’s tour, as well as touring through Australia with alt-rock trio Wallows.
With “PINK LEMONADE”, opening single from her forthcoming debut album “ANGIE” , spill tab’s freewheeling sound finds its fullest expression, harnessing this onstage experience and recorded experimentation with her bass-weight and pitched-up vocals. Here we find Chicha only ever chasing that “weird thing”, fizzing with an infectious enthusiasm and intricate musicianship. “The best songs come from writing the main idea in a day, as it’s so instinctual,” she says, such as “PINK LEMONADE” recorded “from a clip taken out of a 40-minute jam that we then chopped and spliced”.
Born to her French Algerian composer father and Korean pianist mother, Claire Chicha spent her early childhood in the mixing room of her parents’ LA post-production studio, bringing coffees to artists as they tracked scores for exciting new projects. “I hung out in that studio all the time until I was around 10 years old, absorbing jazz music my dad was into and classical music that my mom loved,” Chicha says. “My mom had a big hand in making me an adventurous kid, always trying new things from piano to harp and violin, forever soaking up new sounds.”

At 12, Chicha’s life was uprooted as she relocated to Thailand to live with her mother’s family following the collapse of her parents’ business after the 2008 recession. What followed was an unstable and formative few years of early teenagedom, navigating new cultures and life changes. In Thailand, Chicha began learning guitar to cover the Paramore and Green Day tracks she had grown to love while also becoming immersed in Thai traditional music. After a year, she moved once more to live with her aunt in Paris and there she was introduced to the classic sound of Serge Gainsbourg and Édith Piaf before ultimately returning to LA following the untimely death of her father.

“I had to become a real people person to fit in everywhere I was moving, and it immersed me into so many different styles of music,” she says. “I went from listening to the nasal singing of Thai traditional music at muay thai fights in Bangkok, to emotive classic French songs. It definitely informed the need to experiment with my sound as I became more interested in making music.”

At high school in LA, Chicha joined one of the country’s foremost show choirs and realised a natural aptitude for stagecraft and performance as she sang medleys in competitions throughout the US. Going on to study Music Business at NYU, Chicha found a love for the alternative soul and singer-songwriting of the likes of Moses Sumney and Bon Iver, as well as developing her own sound while spending summers interning as an A&R at Atlantic Records and being exposed to the gamut of New York’s live music scene.

“I was going to so many shows as an A&R intern and seeing just how much a lot of music sounded alike,” she says. “It made me realise I wanted my music to feel different, to cut through the noise but still make something that felt honest to me.”

Beginning to independently release tracks, Soill Tab gradually built a loyal fanbase with the release of wistful early numbers “Calvaire” and “Cotton Candy” and soon found herself signed to a major label. Yet, as her career progressed through the COVID pandemic the demands of a corporate major began to conflict with her own searching style. “My last two EPs were under contract and it felt like I was always chasing the carrot,” she says, “I felt a certain pressure to put out tracks quickly and find that ‘hit’. It wasn’t the right environment to truly make what I wanted.”

Ultimately parting ways with her label, Chicha began work on a new album, exploring new sounds and ideas with her LA-based community of collaborators like producer David Marinelli, Solomonophonic, Wyatt and Austin and John DeBold, without expectation. “It became this beautiful experience of only following ideas that I really believed in and exploring all the musical avenues I hadn’t before,” she says. “I’ve never been more excited about songs and I’ve never felt like a project is more mine.”

Writing and recording while touring with Sabrina Carpenter and Wallows, Chicha road-tested her new tracks to see what might land best with an audience who had likely never heard her music before. “You have to win people’s hearts as an opener and you can see what resonates and what doesn’t,” she says. “I would watch people fall in love or not and it’s usually always the song you’re having the most fun with that does the best. That’s what I put on the record.”

« Angie », Spill’s Tab debut album is relased on because Music and expected for May 16th release.

Objects is Fandisk’s first EP. The album presents his interpretation of surrounding objects and entities with distinctive sound design and daring rhythmic elements. The core sounds of each track are sonic interpretations, presenting complex sounds and various modulations. Throughout this EP, Fandisk reveals the results of his exploration and subjectivity.

­- About Fandisk
Fandisk is an electronic music artist based in Seoul, who builds on diverse rhythmic structures and unique sounds. Utilizing sharp oscillators and anomalous drum patterns, he delivers an immersive musical experience. Unbound by a specific genre, he blends various styles to express his unique identity.

AIR 's Jean-Benoît Dunckel & Jonathan Fitoussi have joined forces to release Mirages II, a sonic exploration of analogue synthesis, moving from the minimal to the cinematic.

"After their first album as a duo, released in 2019, JB & Jonathan have gone back together to build another work, in which their two personalities unfold even more surreptitiously, always very attentive to each other.

At their heart, an electronic spirit, anchored to a very mineral rhythm.

There are glimpses and echoes of the great German musicians of the 70s, with their infallible metronome.
There are also ghosts of Detroit's hypnotic machines.

Above all, this album moves forward as if it were running slowly, its rhythms giving a cadence that calms and radiates, in sparkling harmony...

These mirages, second chapter of that name, are at their zenith."

J. Ghosn

2025 marks the return of Cologne-based electronic outfit Urban Homes with their first new music in over eight years, following an unintentional hiatus driven by side projects, relocations, the pandemic, and the unpredictability of »life.« After over eight years, the duo is back with their first new material: a fresh batch of purely instrumental downtempo and dub-influenced tracks, marked by a somber and atmospheric vibe that distinctly separates this new material from their previous work. Inspired by themes of extraterrestrial life and the paranormal, the four new tracks compiled on the »U.F.O.« EP release were crafted during recording sessions split between Cologne and Berlin before languishing for years on neglected hard drives, finally »ripening« into their current form.

Formed in 2008, Urban Homes initially emerged as a post-punk group, debuting live in 2009. Their first release—a four-track demo tape recorded in late 2010—already hinted at an evolving sound that would soon embrace a more experimental and electronic direction. By 2011, the band swapped their live drums for a drum machine, a shift that would profoundly shape their sound in the years to follow. Over the years, Urban Homes has explored a broad sonic landscape, merging electronic production, rhythm-driven compositions, and experimental song structures. Drawing influences from early house, balearic, disco, dub, avant-garde electronica, and pop, their music continues to defy easy categorization.

In March 2013, the duo released their debut album »Centres«, earning the Pop NRW Prize for Best Newcomers that same year. Their 2016 follow-up, »Jams«, was met with critical acclaim. A love letter to dance music's roots, Jams fused pop sensibilities with open-ended experimentation, built from years of MIDI-driven jam sessions that were painstakingly edited and reconstructed. Both released by Altin Village & Mine, »Jams« was also licensed by the Japanese label Fennely / Moorworks for an exclusive CD edition in 2017. Over the years, Urban Homes supported their releases with numerous tours and festival appearances across Germany and a memorable tour of Japan in 2017.

Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg returns to Altin Village & Mine with his second album as Memory Pearl. »Cosmic-Astral« reimagines a music programme used by psychotherapists in the 1970s in combination with LSD. While the original album was designed to take the listener on a cosmic journey of personal discovery through classical music, Fisher-Rozenberg draws on the sounds of electronic instruments and a collage-like approach: he converted the scores of the original pieces by Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin, and others into MIDI files, manipulated those into entirely new shapes and sounds using a variety of techniques, while also combining them with improvisational input from artists such as Sam Prekop, Joseph Shabason, Moritz Fasbender, Alec O’Hanley, Bram Gielen, and Brandon Valdivia.

Besides his work as a multi-instrumentalist, producer and collaborator of bands such as Alvvays as well as a member of the group Absolutely Free, Fisher-Rozenberg is also a registered psychotherapist and certified music therapist. »Cosmic-Astral« is hence marked by his expertise in both fields while also displaying the conceptual rigour and aesthetic playfulness that had already been in full effect on his Memory Pearl debut, 2021’s »Music for 7 Paintings« for Altin Village & Mine. Aiming to create his own version of the »Cosmic-Astral« programme, but making it more »delicate and tender,« as he puts it, Fisher-Rozenberg combines the ethereal with the terrestrial, abstraction and concretion, synthesization and the organic across these nine tracks.

As a whole, the resulting album is quite literally trippy. »Each piece is meant to bring the listener deeper into their journey,« explains the Toronto-based artist. »You can think of it in terms of space travel, with each tune taking you further out of yourself and deeper into a cosmic realm.« Think about »Cosmic Astral« as a map through which you can find your way towards sonic healing.

Mint Condition - A record label focused on excavating the outer fringes of classic House and Techno. Unreleased mixes, classics, overlooked gems and never heard before material, mined from the last 30+ years of contemporary dance music are the order of the day. From Chicago, Detroit and New York, London, Berlin and beyond. Mint Condition have got their digging hats on to bring you exclusive heat and those rarer than rare jams that have been in your wants list for years. Dig in......

Rewind to 1997 and Uk's finest clubs are alight to the tech-house sounds emanating from South London. Terry Francis, a key figure in the scene, needs no introduction, Fabric resident, Wiggle co-founder, as well as part of the seminal Housey Doingz collective, 'Dubtown' was his first solo outing, all 4 tracks are instant classics, and the EP itself has become his most sought after release to date.

The tracks themselves are varied and brilliant, EP opener 'Hannah's House' kicks off with an infectious bass line and builds with expertly programmed percussion. Simple yet effective riffs intertwine with warm pads and deep chord stabs. 'Hannah's Dub' strips the track down, eerie synths add a tuneful swagger without ever losing dancefloor appeal. 'As You Cry' broadens the sonic palette with swinging rhythms, crisp snares and dreamy chords that deliver the peak time funk and bump. Lastly 'Reggae's House' is a deep dub infused jam, acidic 303 touches combine effortlessly with pads and stabs, whilst echoing bursts of percussion make some real tripped out musical moments.

All 4 tracks are deep winners, tweaked to maximum effect by a master of the genre. A rarity for decades now available once more. 'Dubtown' has been legitimately re-released with the full involvement of Terry Francis, lovingly remastered by London's Curve Pusher from the original sources especially for Mint Condition. 100% legit, licensed and released. Dug, remastered, repackaged and brought to you by the caring folks at your favourite reissue label - Mint Condition!!

"Alternative History: A Cracker Retrospective" is a dynamic journey through the sonic landscape of Cracker, one of alt-rock"s most enduring and beloved bands. This special compilation album offers fans a fresh perspective on Cracker"s rich musical catalogue, featuring alternative versions, re-recordings, and live takes from the band"s history. Spanning their entire career, this retrospective highlights the band"s evolution, revisiting classic songs with new energy, creative arrangements, and live recordings that capture their unfiltered spirit. Featuring 5 previously unreleased versions and 6 rare live recordings the album presents a mix of fan favourites and deeper cuts.




[b] Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now) [Redux Version]

Ava Mendoza has never made an album quite as personal as her second solo full-length, The Circular Train. Through her decades of collaborations with Nels Cline, Carla Bozulich, William Parker, Fred Frith, Matana Roberts, and Mick Barr—plus years leading her power trio Unnatural Ways and playing in Bill Orcutt’s quartet—the guitarist’s name has become synonymous with virtuoso technique, raw passion, and visceral resonance, a player pushing the edges of the guitar’s possibilities. Along the way, from 2007 to 2023, Mendoza was writing these slow-burning, incandescent songs. The Circular Train is comprised solely of her single-tracked guitar playing and, on two songs, her corporeal singing. Her first solo LP of original material since relocating from California to New York City a decade ago, much of The Circular Train was honed amid pandemic years that clarified the virtues of slowing down. This expressive avant-rock is a definitive introduction to one of the most uncompromising and inquisitive visions in creative music. Mendoza’s thrilling melange of free jazz, blues, noise, classical training, and blazing experimental rock’n’roll all coheres with ecstatic feedback, with picking and solos that crest with shimmer. Sometimes she sounds like a one-woman Sonic Youth with guttural and poised vocals that equally evoke Patti Smith and blues greats like Jessie Mae Hemphill. Conceptually, The Circular Train is presented as a psychogeographical train ride through certain of Mendoza’s musical homelands. The songs draw on ancestral and recent familial memories, notably of her parents’ roots in mining towns—in her father’s home country of Bolivia and mother’s hometown of Butte, Montana, each country with its own history of colonialism, racism, forced labor, the eradication of culture and the subsequent excavation of it. These adventurous songs were composed in cars and planes, in the heart of the Mississippi Delta, in Los Angeles and upstate New York—which is to say in motion. “Ride to Cerro Rico,” named for the mountain and silver mine at the center of Potosi, Bolivia, was inspired by Mendoza’s great grandmother’s life there in a Quechua mining family. “Dust From the Mines” drew from that history as well as Mendoza’s familial lineage of miners in Montana, building up to stunning swaths of shredded iridescence. “Pink River Dolphins” was inspired by a visit to the Amazon rainforest, swimming with dolphins alongside her father—the pink bufeos that inhabit both Bolivia and Columbia—and the song is dedicated to the memory of Mendoza’s late friend, the Colombian-American trumpeter jaimie branch. They shared a fascination with those intelligent and agile creatures who often communicate by echolocation. “Make a sound, it comes back around,” Mendoza sings, and later, “Echo, echo/The answer in a sound,” evoking what branch knew well: through music we navigate life. The Circular Train contains one cover, “Irene, Goodnight,” composed by Gussie Lord Davis and popularized by Leadbelly; Mendoza has been performing it for over 20 years. Almost as deeply embedded in her repertoire is the penultimate track, “The Shadow Song.” “Treat your shadow kind and it might treat you good,” Mendoza sings on this song that she’s been reworking for over a decade, an emblem of devotion. “Treat your shadow kind and it might treat you right,” she repeats, becoming a blues mantra. What is a shadow self if not one’s secret world, which, once laid bare, awaits an echo, a return?

“Commencement/Mineral Blend” delivers a fusion of rough and ready dub-adjacent bass music compositions from the London based trio Damos Room. Also featured are eclectic remixes from artists Gonjasufi, Lewi Boome, Dome Zero, and Nudibranch residents Polyop.

The bulk of the EP came from a rare in-person collaboration at Elijah Minnelli’s loft. The Horse Militia laid belly to the ground, endlessly feeding an effects chain like a battery hen with noises from multiple contrasting sources. It was particularly hot that day and the windows were wide open, so if you listen closely you can hear the humid Selhurst skyline bleeding into the recordings. This long weekend was punctuated by visits to the local swamp and an outing to see Channel One Soundsystem.

"Commencement," the EP's inaugural offering, unfolds with a hypnotic, droning bass groove, providing the floor for a paranoid stream of consciousness.

"Mineral Blend" takes a lazier dancehall-esque approach. Littered with unloved sounds from previous sessions and repurposing the lyrics ("I want to be a vessel") from Damos Room's DR Viewings #2 release with Polyop, this track weaves in and out of consciousness without ever truly bubbling over.

Remixers Lewi Boome and Dome Zero contribute imaginative 150bpm takes on both "Commencement" and "Mineral Blend” respectively, drawing inspiration from their backgrounds in bass, techno and experimental electronic music.

Polyop's remix of "Mineral Blend" leans further into dub techno stylings, infusing a refreshing and spacious perspective that echoes their acid roots.

The LA-based artist Gonjasufi transforms "Commencement" into a foggy and mysterious rendition, using his unique production techniques to transcend the dancefloor and immerse listeners in a misty sonic landscape.

Emma Anderson, Mitbegründerin von Lush und Sing-Sing, veröffentlicht Spiralée: Pearlies Rearranged. Es besteht aus neuen Versionen aller 10 Tracks ihres letztjährigen Solo-Debütalbums Pearlies, die von Julia Holter, LoneLady, The Orielles, deary, Daniel Hunt (Ladytron), Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, MEMORIALS, Concretism, Masal und dem Produzenten des Originalalbums, James Chapman alias Maps, neu interpretiert wurden. Wir nennen es nicht Remix-Album, denn es ist so viel mehr als das - alles wurde neu arrangiert, von den Tracks über die Reihenfolge bis hin zum anagrammatischen Titel (der zu Stuart Jones' atemberaubendem Spirograph-meets-Saul Bass-Artwork führte), und das Ergebnis ist im Grunde eine brandneue Platte. ,Es war eine Chance, einige wirklich einfallsreiche Leute zu finden, die die Tracks auf den Kopf stellen, und genau das ist passiert", erklärt Emma. ,Wir haben eine interessante Reihe von Künstlern ausgewählt und ihnen die Stems ohne Vorgaben gegeben, um zu sehen, was sie sich einfallen lassen würden. Das Ergebnis ist absolut brillant und eine Platte, die für sich allein steht, ohne dass man weiß, wie die Originale sind." Tracklisting: 1. Willow And Mallow (Daniel Hunt Mix) 2. The Presence (Concretism Mix) 3. Clusters (LoneLady Lost Minds Mix) 4. For A Moment (deary Dub Mix) 5. Xanthe (Witching Time Version) 6. Inter Light (MEMORIALS Mix) 7. Taste The Air (Julia Holter Mix) 8. Tonight Is Mine (Lorelle Meets The Obsolete 84-86 Mix) 9. Bend The Round (The Orielles Blend The Round Mix) 10. I Was Miles Away (Masal Spectral Mix)

Emma Anderson, Mitbegründerin von Lush und Sing-Sing, veröffentlicht Spiralée: Pearlies Rearranged. Es besteht aus neuen Versionen aller 10 Tracks ihres letztjährigen Solo-Debütalbums Pearlies, die von Julia Holter, LoneLady, The Orielles, deary, Daniel Hunt (Ladytron), Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, MEMORIALS, Concretism, Masal und dem Produzenten des Originalalbums, James Chapman alias Maps, neu interpretiert wurden. Wir nennen es nicht Remix-Album, denn es ist so viel mehr als das - alles wurde neu arrangiert, von den Tracks über die Reihenfolge bis hin zum anagrammatischen Titel (der zu Stuart Jones' atemberaubendem Spirograph-meets-Saul Bass-Artwork führte), und das Ergebnis ist im Grunde eine brandneue Platte. ,Es war eine Chance, einige wirklich einfallsreiche Leute zu finden, die die Tracks auf den Kopf stellen, und genau das ist passiert", erklärt Emma. ,Wir haben eine interessante Reihe von Künstlern ausgewählt und ihnen die Stems ohne Vorgaben gegeben, um zu sehen, was sie sich einfallen lassen würden. Das Ergebnis ist absolut brillant und eine Platte, die für sich allein steht, ohne dass man weiß, wie die Originale sind." Tracklisting: 1. Willow And Mallow (Daniel Hunt Mix) 2. The Presence (Concretism Mix) 3. Clusters (LoneLady Lost Minds Mix) 4. For A Moment (deary Dub Mix) 5. Xanthe (Witching Time Version) 6. Inter Light (MEMORIALS Mix) 7. Taste The Air (Julia Holter Mix) 8. Tonight Is Mine (Lorelle Meets The Obsolete 84-86 Mix) 9. Bend The Round (The Orielles Blend The Round Mix) 10. I Was Miles Away (Masal Spectral Mix)

Emma Anderson, Mitbegründerin von Lush und Sing-Sing, veröffentlicht Spiralée: Pearlies Rearranged. Es besteht aus neuen Versionen aller 10 Tracks ihres letztjährigen Solo-Debütalbums Pearlies, die von Julia Holter, LoneLady, The Orielles, deary, Daniel Hunt (Ladytron), Lorelle Meets The Obsolete, MEMORIALS, Concretism, Masal und dem Produzenten des Originalalbums, James Chapman alias Maps, neu interpretiert wurden. Wir nennen es nicht Remix-Album, denn es ist so viel mehr als das - alles wurde neu arrangiert, von den Tracks über die Reihenfolge bis hin zum anagrammatischen Titel (der zu Stuart Jones' atemberaubendem Spirograph-meets-Saul Bass-Artwork führte), und das Ergebnis ist im Grunde eine brandneue Platte. ,Es war eine Chance, einige wirklich einfallsreiche Leute zu finden, die die Tracks auf den Kopf stellen, und genau das ist passiert", erklärt Emma. ,Wir haben eine interessante Reihe von Künstlern ausgewählt und ihnen die Stems ohne Vorgaben gegeben, um zu sehen, was sie sich einfallen lassen würden. Das Ergebnis ist absolut brillant und eine Platte, die für sich allein steht, ohne dass man weiß, wie die Originale sind." Tracklisting: 1. Willow And Mallow (Daniel Hunt Mix) 2. The Presence (Concretism Mix) 3. Clusters (LoneLady Lost Minds Mix) 4. For A Moment (deary Dub Mix) 5. Xanthe (Witching Time Version) 6. Inter Light (MEMORIALS Mix) 7. Taste The Air (Julia Holter Mix) 8. Tonight Is Mine (Lorelle Meets The Obsolete 84-86 Mix) 9. Bend The Round (The Orielles Blend The Round Mix) 10. I Was Miles Away (Masal Spectral Mix) Limitierte Summer Wine LP Edition

‘What makes Sex Swing so powerful is that they transcend the limitations of rock music. Their sound is so full of possibilities, violence, sexuality, sacrifice, even religion. If there was a future to look forward to for heavy guitar music, this is it’ The Quietus The locals call it Sop Ruak – eighty thousand square miles of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine. “It really is an endless seam of activity,” Sex Swing frontman Dan Chandler explains of Golden Triangle – both the title of their new album and the region between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos that inspired it. To know this contradictory corner of the world is to understand fully why the cult-beloved noise-rock artisans turned to it when writing their hotly-anticipated third full-length. The real-life Golden Triangle is a groundswell of both natural wonder and drug production, and who combines beauty and narcotic brutality better than Sex Swing? For a decade now, this
collective of revered UK underground musicians, comprising members of Earth, Mugstar, The Keep and Jaaw, have been pulling audiences into drug- like slipstreams with their alchemy of pummelling rhythms, towering guitars, and unrelenting saxophone through which glimmers of light occasionally pierce through. No wonder their Golden Triangle is an album telling distortion-shrouded tales from one of the most storied, enigmatic places on the planet, with enough invention within to fill eighty thousand miles and more.
Where does this violent, hypnotic aural travelogue take you within the Sop Ruak? The seven tracks that make up The Golden Triangle see the band – completed by bassist Jason Stoll, drummer Stuart Bell, guitarist Jodie Cox, synthesist/guitarist Oli Knowles and saxophonist Colin Webster – adventure first to ‘The Confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers,’ full of shimmering orchestration and feather-light ambience. Then come stops in ‘Myawaddy’, named after a small town embroiled in bloodshed on the border of Myanmar
and Thailand, and ‘Boten, Route 13’ – sparked by stories of a seemingly endless stretch of road from Laos into China. Before long, listeners are plunged into ‘Hpakant’, one of the album’s most invigorating and singular moments, lyrically inspired by a jade mine in Myanmar, where the spoils of forced labour are exchanged for prostitution and methanphetamine. The result is a mesmerising slow-burn of sax, snaking rhythms and sinister spoken word courtesy of the Scottish-born Bruce McClure, who “took the theme and turned it into a sci-fi story of exploitation and vice,” explains the frontman. It’s a track that, like the rest of Golden Triangle, underlines the evolution Sex Swing have undertaken since forming in 2014. From the raw and primitive sounds of the self-titled debut full-length, followed up by the coruscatingType II in 2020. Sex Swing’s third effort retains those early primitive elements and adds layers of structure and complexity. Golden Triangle initial formation was that of programmed beats and bedroom recordings shared electronically in the height of the pandemic. Those ideas were then completed during intensive writing sessions at a secluded farm in Oxfordshire.
Album credits consist of recording by Stanley Gravett at Holy Mountain Studios in Hackney, mixing by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, mastering from James Plotkin, and the continued aesthetic collaboration with artist Alex Bunn. Golden Triangle bristles with a rawness familiar to fans of the British sonic punishers, but adds new elements indicative of a group never resting on their laurels or sitting in one place. Why would they, after all? There’s an entire world of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine out there to be explored. The Golden Triangle, it seems, is just the beginning.

‘What makes Sex Swing so powerful is that they transcend the limitations of rock music. Their sound is so full of possibilities, violence, sexuality, sacrifice, even religion. If there was a future to look forward to for heavy guitar music, this is it’ The Quietus The locals call it Sop Ruak – eighty thousand square miles of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine. “It really is an endless seam of activity,” Sex Swing frontman Dan Chandler explains of Golden Triangle – both the title of their new album and the region between Myanmar, Thailand and Laos that inspired it. To know this contradictory corner of the world is to understand fully why the cult-beloved noise-rock artisans turned to it when writing their hotly-anticipated third full-length. The real-life Golden Triangle is a groundswell of both natural wonder and drug production, and who combines beauty and narcotic brutality better than Sex Swing? For a decade now, this
collective of revered UK underground musicians, comprising members of Earth, Mugstar, The Keep and Jaaw, have been pulling audiences into drug- like slipstreams with their alchemy of pummelling rhythms, towering guitars, and unrelenting saxophone through which glimmers of light occasionally pierce through. No wonder their Golden Triangle is an album telling distortion-shrouded tales from one of the most storied, enigmatic places on the planet, with enough invention within to fill eighty thousand miles and more.
Where does this violent, hypnotic aural travelogue take you within the Sop Ruak? The seven tracks that make up The Golden Triangle see the band – completed by bassist Jason Stoll, drummer Stuart Bell, guitarist Jodie Cox, synthesist/guitarist Oli Knowles and saxophonist Colin Webster – adventure first to ‘The Confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers,’ full of shimmering orchestration and feather-light ambience. Then come stops in ‘Myawaddy’, named after a small town embroiled in bloodshed on the border of Myanmar
and Thailand, and ‘Boten, Route 13’ – sparked by stories of a seemingly endless stretch of road from Laos into China. Before long, listeners are plunged into ‘Hpakant’, one of the album’s most invigorating and singular moments, lyrically inspired by a jade mine in Myanmar, where the spoils of forced labour are exchanged for prostitution and methanphetamine. The result is a mesmerising slow-burn of sax, snaking rhythms and sinister spoken word courtesy of the Scottish-born Bruce McClure, who “took the theme and turned it into a sci-fi story of exploitation and vice,” explains the frontman. It’s a track that, like the rest of Golden Triangle, underlines the evolution Sex Swing have undertaken since forming in 2014. From the raw and primitive sounds of the self-titled debut full-length, followed up by the coruscatingType II in 2020. Sex Swing’s third effort retains those early primitive elements and adds layers of structure and complexity. Golden Triangle initial formation was that of programmed beats and bedroom recordings shared electronically in the height of the pandemic. Those ideas were then completed during intensive writing sessions at a secluded farm in Oxfordshire.
Album credits consist of recording by Stanley Gravett at Holy Mountain Studios in Hackney, mixing by Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse, mastering from James Plotkin, and the continued aesthetic collaboration with artist Alex Bunn. Golden Triangle bristles with a rawness familiar to fans of the British sonic punishers, but adds new elements indicative of a group never resting on their laurels or sitting in one place. Why would they, after all? There’s an entire world of mountains and mystery and unholy medicine out there to be explored. The Golden Triangle, it seems, is just the beginning.

Perpignan Burning: the Southern French capital of garage rock in search of the riff. Or as Lou Reed would put it: "You can"t beat two guitars, bass, and drums." Content: 27 previously unreleased tracks on the double LP and six digital-only bonus tracks. All tracks on this compilation were recorded in or around Perpignan, France, and go to the musical extremes of an extreme city. Whether garage punks or freakbeat mods, country punks or city rockers, whether pioneers or new to the scene: the only thing that counts is the riff. Pascal Comelade, infamous riff explorer since the 1970s, is the unlikely godfather of this bunch of punks and rockers. He opens the trip with his emblematic cover design and closes it with his own Riffifi orchestra to the ultimate riff of The Stooges" "I Wanna Be Your Dog".

DREAMLESS VEIL make their debut with the new album, Every Limb of the Flood. The band, featuring members of INTER ARMA, ARTIFICIAL BRAIN, and PSYCROPTIC manifest terrifying Blackened Extreme Metal and offer one of the year's most haunting releases. Every Limb of the Flood is a concept album. Through tracks such as "A Generation of Eyes", "Saturnism", and "Cyanide Mine" Vocalist Mike Paparo and co. task the listener to consider what it would be like for an individual to fully disappear. DREAMLESS VEIL delves into this murk through 8 tracks - dramatic swells, melodic crescendos, and abrasive blast-beat poundings make way to more introspective moments ultimately resulting in pure horror. Paparo explores the concept of corporeal disintegration with pained shrieks and disembodied bellows, resulting in one of the most unchained performances of his storied career. Lyrics for the record show, but don't tell. DREAMLESS VEIL's concept alludes to misery leading to grotesquery - The opener "Dim Golden Rave" throws the listener into an ambiguous time and place: "Grief, spiritless, collapses against the filth-ridden street". The second track, "A Generation of Eyes" follows this narrative by invoking Neil Young, quoting him to the extent of "rust never sleeps." What ensues is a grief so powerful it decomposes from within. The end result manifests in the album closer "Dreamless" - the body is now fully discarded, hinting at a possible enlightenment through a horrible, gruesome process. Sonically, Every Limb of the Flood is a caustic, corrosive journey. Critically acclaimed drummer David Haley flexes some of his most creative drum work to date, dragging the listener through wild tempo changes, breakneck speeds that come to sudden halts, while guitarist Dan Gargiulo (ARTIFICIAL BRAIN) interweaves disorienting guitar madness. Recorded by Brett Bamberger (REVOCATION) Every Limb of the Flood was mixed by Gargiulo and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice, and more.)

Amidst the celestial backdrop of a solar eclipse on April 8th, Allah-Las present a cosmic offering with the 10 Year Anniversary Edition of their Worship The Sun LP, now in a dazzling orange sunburst vinyl. This special pre-sale, commencin on Friday, not only commemorates a decade of musical exploration but also includes "No Werewolf,” the previously unreleased on LP cover song honoring The Frantics' garage rock legacy. Secure your slice of astral history, where cosmic events and sonic tributes align. Limited number of copies.

On their seventh long player The Breaks - their second for Joyful Noise Recordings - SUUNS are lost in limbo. For some artists, being caught in flux may result in songs that are either naive, out of touch or both, simply as a consequence of being cut off from human civilization. But for SUUNS, a band who have grown more than comfortable in the oblique and the intermediate, it actually had the opposite effect. The Breaks marks the Montreal experimental rock outfit's most emotionally resonant and tonally rich collection of music to date. The trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush and Liam O' Neill leans more zealously than ever into their pop instincts. Yet remarkably enough, with that same dauntless abandon, SUUNS have mined a more extreme sonic palette this time around, one that stretches far beyond their core fundamentals as a band. The Breaks finds Shemie, O'Neill and Yarmush gleefully experimenting with loops, synths, samples and MIDI-instruments like a post-millennial Tangerine Dream messing with downtempo triphop beats. O' Neill took point in the producer's chair for The Breaks, arranging, structuring and editing many of Shemie and Yarmush's ideas from sporadic rehearsal sessions into Pro Tools, reimagining the songs over and over during a two-year time frame. Forged between countless plane rides, road trips, van tours and text threads, The Breaks became a product of endurance and a lot of trial-and-error. It's a record forged in tight fissions of freedom, where spells of whispered intimacy - like on the stunning ballad "Doreen" - are allowed to branch out into the vast glacial dreamscapes of the album's majestic title track. It captures SUUNS at their most panoramic, curious and exuberant: a constant relay of being adrift and enlightened anew, geared up to eleven. And guess what: the wheels keep on spinning.

Following a string of releases on a who’s who of top labels such as Planet Euphorique, Salt Mines, Haws and Craigie Knowes, prog-trance pioneer Lisene drops a full-length LP on his On Rotation imprint. With 8 hyper-detailed tracks ranging from club-focused techno, progressive and electro to slo-mo downtempo, Lisene brings his A-game to an album sure to cement his place as one of the most exciting producers and DJs in the UK’s underground music scene.

Created over several years with a perfectionist’s attention to detail, “Science Friction” flits between moods and sonic environments with ease while retaining the cohesion of Lisene’s inimitable production style. Despite being an album, this is still very much a record for the DJs, featuring heads-down club tracks and bass-heavy electro crafted with precision and a cinematic sense of scale. For the home listeners, expansive slo-mo soundscapes and cerebral synth odysseys float high above the clouds, with widescreen details revealing themselves ever further with each re-play.

“This album has been 15 years in the making and represents a culmination of everything I’ve worked towards in defining my own sound and style without letting myself be pigeonholed. I’m immensely proud of each track - it really reflects where I was at musically while making this, while giving a glimpse into my future sound. This is a record that deserves to be played on the finest sound systems and hi-fis, and I couldn’t be more happy with how it’s turned out. Dive in and enjoy!”

Combining influences from across the spectrum of dance music with a cinematic sense of psychedelia and his own inimitable production skills, “Science Friction” is sure to see a lot of airtime across the festivals, after-parties and living rooms of the world this summer and beyond.

On Rotation is a Leeds based label, event & mix series run by Chris I’Anson, Lisene & Adam Pits. Artwork illustrated and designed by Patch D Keyes.

LINGUA IGNOTA, the solo project of multidisciplinary artist Kristin Hayter, takes a radical, unflinching approach to themes of violence and vengeance in ways that are moving, brutal, and harrowing. Her music is intentionally situated at specific and strange intersections, incorporating elements of power electronics, death industrial, and black metal alongside baroque classical, spiritual minimalism and folk. Relentless intensity and soaring dramatic arcs are informed by Hayter's background in classical music, and the major sonic locus of the project is her voice, a dynamic entity that rushes from unhinged screaming to lilting soprano to angular belting with an artistry and ferocity that has drawn comparisons to Diamanda Galas. She is notorious for confrontational live performances that can leave an audience breathless or in tears. Hayter began classical training at the age of ten with intent to pursue an operatic conservatory track. Instead she developed an interdisciplinary fine arts practice at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She continued with graduate work at Brown University, producing a controversial thesis titled BURN EVERYTHING TRUST NO ONE KILL YOURSELF. LINGUA IGNOTA was born out of this thesis which re-contextualized misogynist content as biblically vitriolic anthems for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. A survivor herself, Hayter seeks to give a singularly aggressive voice to the unheard, silenced, and dismissed.